Dear serials/electronic resource community,      Thanks very much to all
of you who responded to my question last week about open access
policies.    We are interested in this topic in regard to collection
development, cataloging, and alternate discovery tools.

            My question (shown below) was sent to NASIG-L, SERIALST, and
ERIL-L, and I received 29 responses from the collective recipients.   (A
friend of mine wrote extensively back and forth several times, but for
this purpose I'll count her only once!)    Several people wanted me to
share the results, so I'll make some comments about the answers, without
identifying individuals or institutions (as requested).    Of these 29
recipients:

            Only three said that they did not catalog open access or
other freely available electronic publications.

            Only one said a short bibliographic record was included in
the catalog for these publications.

            Most of these institutions used either Serials Solutions or
SFX to create a local A-Z listing linked to their web site.

            Only one said explicitly that no A-Z list is maintained.

            Two have formal policies for open access, appearing on their
web sites.   Criteria for selection are similar to those for paid
publications.

            Three stated they have no policy about selecting and
documenting open-access, but in practice, freely available e-journals
and integrating resources are included.

            Ongoing maintenance of links was not commented upon much at
all.

The general impression from this quick scan is that of those having time
to respond to my message, most routinely select and catalog open-access
publications alongside their expensive counterparts, in the same
work-flow process.     With such a small sample, perhaps those who took
the time to answer have been actively involved in open-access issues...
or at least represent institutions with adequate staffing levels to deal
with policies on this topic.

            Thanks again for your help.    I enjoyed hearing from you,
and appreciate your time.           Best wishes,   Susanna Powers,
Tulane University

From: Powers, Susanna S
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 2:53 PM
To: 'NASIG-L@nasig.org'; 'SERIALST@list.uvm.edu';
'ERIL-L@listserv.binghamton.edu'
Subject: Open access policies

Apologies for cross-posting.

Dear serials community,    Does your library have a policy for including
open access publications in the local catalog or other web-based
discovery sources?    If so, we would appreciate hearing to what formal
extent you treat these titles to support your users' needs, and how
selective you are in representing them in alongside the traditional
(paid) electronic resources.     Thanks very much for your comments,

Susanna S. Powers
Serials and Electronic Resources Librarian
Tulane University
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
7001 Freret St.
New Orleans, LA 70118-5682
voice 504.247.1819
fax 504.862.8556
http://library.tulane.edu <http://library.tulane.edu>