“Widespread sharing of research and scholarship is fundamental for addressing many of today’s most important problems. Research libraries have been at the forefront of promoting open scholarship for many years. They play a pivotal role in the creation, management, discovery, and use of scholarship and have been expanding their financial contributions towards open scholarship over time. However, to date, their investments in “open” have not been well-documented, nor have they always been widely recognized by the broader community. In 2019, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) undertook a comprehensive survey of CARL member libraries’ investments in open scholarship in order to have a better understanding of what is being spent by Canadian academic libraries on open services, platforms, content, and infrastructures. The survey found that the total, aggregate spending on open for all 28 responding libraries was $23 million CAD, with an average spend per institution of $827,086 CAD. This represents an average of 3.09% of the total library budget spent on open, ranging from 0.88% to 7.23% across respondent libraries. By far, the largest category of investment is in local staff, with an average of 74% of the libraries’ open investments going toward salaries. On average, respondent libraries have about 7 FTEs working in open activities, scattered across a number of areas: digitized content, scholarly communications, open repositories, and research data management (including staff contributing to the national Portage project). The second largest category of spending on open were funds directed to publishers through several means: consortial licences via the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) or, in Ontario, the regional association Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) via Scholars Portal, institutional membership with open access publishers, and payment of article processing charges (APCs). This amounted to an average of 14% of total open spending, or approximately $3.2 million CAD in total, 80% of which was directed toward licences with open access publishers or platforms. The rest of the open investments, approximately 12%, were spent on a wide variety of other types of open services, platforms and infrastructures….”
Category Archives: oa.carl
CARL Member Libraries Quantify Their Investments in Open Scholarship – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has released a report detailing its academic member institutions’ financial contributions to the development and sustainability of the infrastructure and services that underlie open scholarship.
In recent years, CARL has been working towards a vision of an open, sustainable, and innovative scholarly communication system, governed and managed by the scholarly community. Having a clear understanding of current investments is crucial for advancing this vision, setting targets for future investments in open, and identifying opportunities for coordinated, collective action.
Investments in Open: Canadian Research Libraries’ Expenditures on Services, Staff, and Infrastructures in Support of Open Scholarship was written by Kathleen Shearer, the lead researcher on the underlying study. One of the survey’s main findings is that the total, aggregate spending on open by the 28 responding libraries during the 2018-2019 fiscal year was $23 million CAD, with an average spend per institution of $827,086. Individual libraries spent between 0.88% to 7.23% of their total budget on open scholarship (average of 3.09%). The report further breaks down these investments into categories, including salaries for local services, advocacy, article processing charges, publisher memberships, and investment in hosting services for open access journals, monographs and repositories….”
Collaborating to Support Greater Visibility and Discoverability of Open Scholarship – DSpace 5 & 6 Extension now Available to Support ORCID and New OpenAIRE Guidelines – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“he Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the availability of a plug-in to support new OpenAIRE guidelines in DSpace 5 & 6. The plug-in, developed by 4Science, a Certified Partner of DSpace, enables institutions using DSpace 5 & 6 to support OpenAIRE Guidelines for Literature Repositories, Version 4.
Comprehensive, interoperable metadata is an important aspect for discovery and to support other value added services for repositories. As such, several regional repository networks including Europe, Latin America and Canada have agreed to adopt OpenAIRE metadata guidelines in order to align the metadata across their networks and include ORCID for authors’ identification. The adoption of OpenAIRE metadata guidelines is also recommended for repositories that are complying with Plan S.
This development is part of an international collaboration between OpenAIRE, CARL and the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) to improve discovery and tracking of Canadian research outputs. The work on this plug-in was led by Queen’s University, and funded by several Canadian research libraries: Queen’s University, Université de Montréal, Université Laval, University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan, Vancouver Island University, and York University….”
CARL Institutional Open Access Policy Template and Toolkit – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“CARL has created this Institutional Open Access Policy Template and Toolkit to help prepare those wishing to engage in this activity on their campus.
The tools included in this toolkit are designed to support first efforts to create an institution-wide policy, but can also be helpful in developing faculty- or department-specific policies, or in expanding an institution’s existing policies….”
CARL Announces Release of its Institutional Open Access Policy Template and Accompanying Toolkit
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries is pleased to announce the release of its Institutional Open Access Policy Template for Canadian institutions, which is accompanied by a toolkit to help prepare those wishing to develop such a policy on their campus….”
Advancing Open: Views from Scholarly Communications Practitioners
“Discussion focused on five key themes that had been determined following preevent consultation with the open scholarship community: ? Open Policy (institutional, regional, national, and international policies) ? Open Workflow and Operations (e.g. day-to-day open scholarship work) ? Open Technology (software and/or infrastructure that supports open scholarship) ? The Human Element — Open People (diversity and inclusion, workload, and community support) ? Open Outreach (open scholarship advocacy)…
Areas of focus: 1. Explore a national approach to institutional repositories similar to what has been established for research data as exemplified by the Portage Network initiative. 2. Advocate for federal funding to support shared infrastructure, discoverability and interoperability of institutional repositories. Include small post-secondary institutions in this conversation to determine their capacity to be active participants in, and supporters of, developing this infrastructure. 3. Convene a group of interested and knowledgeable individuals to develop guidelines, toolkits, and workshops to inform scholarly communications practitioners on best practices to decolonize open scholarship and ensure that Traditional Knowledge is served appropriately. This work must be done collaboratively and driven by the expressed needs of Indigenous Peoples and communities and in constant, persistent consultation. 4. Bring together key stakeholders (libraries, scholarly communications practitioners, researchers, funders) to develop a Made in Canada plan for open scholarship in order to build a community-led, non-commercial scholarly communications ecosystem. 5. Convene a wide variety of low-cost and free training opportunities for library staff to help develop scholarly communications skills, with particular emphasis on advocacy and policy approaches to changing institutional culture toward open scholarship, as well as the development of technical skills. 6. Open a dialogue on the role and scope of scholarly communications work. Expand the conversation beyond scholarly communications practitioners to include library staff in resources, collections, liaison roles, copyright, archives, and IT specialties. 7. Devote institutional funds to collaborative open scholarship efforts (regional and national) and bring leaders and practitioners together in these efforts. Prioritize cross-institution resource, expertise and knowledge-sharing. 8. Invigorate the discussion on transitioning funding from supporting traditional collections development to supporting open scholarship — and open collections — at our academic institutions 9. Further nurture the scholarly communications community of practice to foster the exchange of ideas and professional development to support practitioners in the expanding range of open scholarship endeavors. 10. Ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion form the foundation of any future open scholarship initiatives, systems, and developments….”
Open Repositories Working Group – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“This working group, assembled by CARL’s Advancing Research Committee in January 2018, will work in collaboration with the Canadian repository community to define a strategic vision for repositories as well as helping to move the community forward around shared goals and objectives. To ensure the working group is effective, it is essential that this group include representation from both those managing repositories and communicating with researchers as well as library directors who guide and shape organizational priorities….”
Open Repositories Working Group – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“This working group, assembled by CARL’s Advancing Research Committee in January 2018, will work in collaboration with the Canadian repository community to define a strategic vision for repositories as well as helping to move the community forward around shared goals and objectives. To ensure the working group is effective, it is essential that this group include representation from both those managing repositories and communicating with researchers as well as library directors who guide and shape organizational priorities….”
New Report from ORWG: Advancing Open: Views from Scholarly Communications Practitioners – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the third report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG). This think piece presents a discussion of views expressed by participants during the Advancing Open workshop in May 2019.
Initiated by a group of repository managers and supported by CARL as part of its ongoing commitment to open scholarship in Canada, Advancing Open was envisioned as “a unique (and free) opportunity for the Canadian academic library scholarly communication practitioner community to convene and explore refreshed strategies to foster open scholarship (including open access, open data, and open education) in Canada.” …”
New Report from ORWG: Advancing Open: Views from Scholarly Communications Practitioners – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the third report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG). This think piece presents a discussion of views expressed by participants during the Advancing Open workshop in May 2019.
Initiated by a group of repository managers and supported by CARL as part of its ongoing commitment to open scholarship in Canada, Advancing Open was envisioned as “a unique (and free) opportunity for the Canadian academic library scholarly communication practitioner community to convene and explore refreshed strategies to foster open scholarship (including open access, open data, and open education) in Canada.” …”
CARL Releases Report on Preservation Functionality in Repositories – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the second report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG) – this report focuses on preservation functionality in repositories.
Digital Preservation Functionality in Canadian Repositories was written by Tomasz Neugebauer (Concordia University), Pierre Lasou (Université Laval), Andrea Kosavic (York University), and Tim Walsh (Concordia University), on behalf of the CARL ORWG’s Task Group on Next Generation Repositories.
Inspired by the inclusion of digital preservation functionality as one of the recommendations in the Behaviours and Technical Recommendations of the COAR Next Generation Repositories Working Group (2017), this task group set out to make progress on the building of a common understanding of basic digital preservation requirements and functionality necessary to achieve this vision of a sustainable digital preservation network (a suggestion within the Portage Network’s 2018 white paper Research Data Preservation in Canada). This report focuses on technical functional requirements, and as such, it is intended for scholarly communication librarians and repository administrators assessing or looking to enhance the digital preservation support in their repositories. …”
CARL Releases Report on Preservation Functionality in Repositories – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the second report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG) – this report focuses on preservation functionality in repositories.
Digital Preservation Functionality in Canadian Repositories was written by Tomasz Neugebauer (Concordia University), Pierre Lasou (Université Laval), Andrea Kosavic (York University), and Tim Walsh (Concordia University), on behalf of the CARL ORWG’s Task Group on Next Generation Repositories.
Inspired by the inclusion of digital preservation functionality as one of the recommendations in the Behaviours and Technical Recommendations of the COAR Next Generation Repositories Working Group (2017), this task group set out to make progress on the building of a common understanding of basic digital preservation requirements and functionality necessary to achieve this vision of a sustainable digital preservation network (a suggestion within the Portage Network’s 2018 white paper Research Data Preservation in Canada). This report focuses on technical functional requirements, and as such, it is intended for scholarly communication librarians and repository administrators assessing or looking to enhance the digital preservation support in their repositories. …”
CARL Releases Report on Institutional Repository Statistics Tracking – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the first report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG) – this first report focuses on approaches to institutional repository (IR) statistics tracking.
Institutional Repository Statistics: Reliable, Consistent Approaches for Canada was written by Will Roy (Queen’s University), Brian Cameron (Ryerson University), and Tim Ribaric (Brock University), on behalf of the CARL ORWG’s Task Group for Standards for IR Usage Data.
This task group undertook an information-gathering exercise to better understand both the existing practices of Canadian repositories and the emerging tools and processes available for repositories to track and monitor usage more effectively. This report also presents recommendations on how to collectively achieve reliable and comparable statistics across all Canadian repositories….”
CARL Releases Report on Institutional Repository Statistics Tracking – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the first report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG) – this first report focuses on approaches to institutional repository (IR) statistics tracking.
Institutional Repository Statistics: Reliable, Consistent Approaches for Canada was written by Will Roy (Queen’s University), Brian Cameron (Ryerson University), and Tim Ribaric (Brock University), on behalf of the CARL ORWG’s Task Group for Standards for IR Usage Data.
This task group undertook an information-gathering exercise to better understand both the existing practices of Canadian repositories and the emerging tools and processes available for repositories to track and monitor usage more effectively. This report also presents recommendations on how to collectively achieve reliable and comparable statistics across all Canadian repositories….”
CARL Members Release Journal Subscription Cost Data for 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 – Canadian Association of Research Libraries
“Following up on a first release last year, university library members of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) have released their expenditure data for journal and database subscriptions licensed through the Canadian Research Knowledge Network consortium. This release covers subscription costs for 2017-2018 and 2018-2019….
Click to access 2017-2018 data set
Click to access 2018-2019 data set…”