Open Access Resources Trends in Academic Libraries: Core Benefits and Current Roadblocks to OA

Sponsored by OverDrive Academic

Recorded on 06/07/2023
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 324

In this four-part series, we speak with Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis, and Jennifer Townes, Open Access Librarian at Emory University, about current and future open access resource trends. Our guests bring the librarian and publisher perspectives to the OA discussion, parsing through questions of how librarians and publishers can support open resources and the main challenges to OA funding and sustainability. Emily and Jenny also chat about the growing concern of research integrity—in particular, ChatGPT and paper mills—and important OA milestones in the future, such as new partnerships between libraries and publishers and developments in open monograph publishing models.

In this first episode, Jenny and Emily provide background on how their roles and responsibilities support open access. Next, they discuss the core benefits of OA, highlighting factors like the rapid dissemination of scholarly research and broader, more accessible access for scholars and the general public. Finally, they close with current roadblocks impacting OA adoption for all members of the scholarly ecosystem—researchers, publishers, librarians, readers—and where they see the opportunity for change.

About the guests:

Emily Farrell
Global Commercial Director for Open Research
Taylor & Francis

Emily Farrell is the Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis where she works to build partnerships that increase access to research. She has worked in both sales and editorial roles with De Gruyter and the MIT Press. She holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics from Macquarie University, Sydney.

Jenny Townes
Open Access Librarian
Emory University

Jennifer Townes is the Open Access Librarian at Emory University. In this capacity Jennifer leads open access outreach, advocacy, and educational services, specifically focused on all aspects of OEPs and two of the university’s open access repositories. She earned an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and spent ten years working at different academic libraries in the Research Triangle before coming to Georgia. Jennifer’s research interests are open access, institutional repositories, and open educational resources. In 2015 she co-edited the Handbook of Research on Disaster Management and Contingency Planning in Modern Libraries and she regularly presents at national library conferences. Outside of academia, Jennifer is an accomplished artist, television enthusiast, and feline wrangler.

Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:

• The Evolving Role of Librarians
• Addressing OA Funding and Sustainability
• Current OA Milestones and Wish List Items

Check out our previous series with OverDrive Academic:
– Redefining Space, Access, and Formats in Academic Libraries
– The Academic Library (Not Quite) Post-Pandemic
– Adjusting to Modern Library Needs
– Changes and Opportunities in an Evolving Collection Landscape

Missed an episode? We’ve got you covered:

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates!

Check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

Sponsored by:

Related Posts