Miami University libraries have new decorations to promote access to free scholarly journals for International Open Access Week. (LAUREN OLSON | THE MIAMI STUDENT)
International Open Access Week has put Miami University's King Library on lock down. Chains and giant red padlocks wrap around the pillars in the entrance to help bring awareness to the increasingly expensive toll scholarly journals are having on university libraries worldwide.
Unbeknownst to many Miami students, scholarly journals – which are needed for subjects ranging from English literature to particle physics – are not free. Judith Sessions, dean of Miami libraries, said scholarly journals cost Miami and other universities a great deal of money, which comes directly from library budgets.
"International Open Access Week is meant to bring a larger awareness to students and faculty alike," Sessions said. "We are trying to break the cycle of scholarly publishing and show that there exists another choice."
Jen Waller and Andy Revelle, two members from the Scholarly Communications Committee, explain more about the increasing price of journals and the purpose of International Open Access Week.
"This is the first year Miami has celebrated International Open Access Week and this year, it's all about bringing awareness," Waller said. "Students need to realize that if access is shrinking then research will become more limited. This ultimately affects everyone."
While library budgets have been dwindling, prices of academic journals have been inflating. Libraries around the world are beginning to suffer the consequences. According to Revelle, this causes a great problem for both the faculty who write the journals and the students who research them.
"Faculty members write journals to hopefully be cited in other scholarly journals," Revelle said. "That's how quality in the academic world is measured. If access is becoming even more restricted because of price, other scholars can't cite the journals."
Sophomore Elaina Ostrow agreed with International Open Access Week's message.
"The library should not have to pay for something that is needed to do our school work," Ostrow said.
Junior Stormy Leugers said she frequently uses library resources and believes the library should not have to pay exorbitant prices for them.
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"I am working on a paper right now and I just spent a few hours today searching the library for scholarly journals," Leugers said. "It is ridiculous that they would have to pay for them. The library is trying to offer us as many resources as they can so we can expand upon our knowledge and that should be priceless."
Revelle said students need to realize that this endless expanse of information is not available outside of the university.
"We teach you to use scholarly journals, but then you leave and you can't use them because they aren't open to the public," Revelle said.
To spread awareness of the need to open academic journals to the public, the library has created a splash page featured on the library website presenting a lock and the question "what if you had no access to the library?"
The library is also passing out flyers with QR codes compatible with most mobile devices, buttons and business cards all offering more information.
Waller and Revelle said they have been Tweeting nonstop about International Open Access Week and the members of the Scholarly Communications Committee have all posted blogs on the subject on the libraries News and Notes section of the website.
To learn more about open access to scholarly journals, students and faculty should visit openaccess.org or scholars.muohio.edu/openaccess.
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