Information Professionals in the Open Access Era: the competencies, challenges and new roles

Abstract

The push for open access is to encourage new avenues of disseminating information quickly and broadly to advance knowledge. Self-archiving in open access repositories, metadata harvesting, electronic resource management, interoperability in searching, etc. are presenting a whole new dimension of the information landscape. Information professionals working in libraries have been facing tremendous challenges in disseminating scholarly material and learning objects emanating from their institutions. Librarians serving in universities and academic institutions can launch a program to help faculty pay for publishing in open access journals, introduced the concept and secured the funding through various means. A pro-active approach in information handling and collaboration with IT staff and academics are essential for open access to be sustained. The skills and competencies for information professionals are outlined, along with challenges they may face in developing sustainable models for open access repositories. The paper elaborates the different roles that information professionals have been playing in the development and promotion of digital resources in this open access era and offers recommendations for further improvement.