Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Title
NASIG Proceedings
Publication Date
11-2023
Keywords
open access, information privilege, technical services, scholarly communication, information literacy
Abstract
Despite its capacity to reach readers irrespective of affiliation or geographic location, conversations about Open Access (OA) frequently center academic stakeholders in high-income countries. This presentation will examine opportunities for technical services librarians to explore with students some of the inequities of the scholarly communications landscape, including various approaches to and aspects of OA, and to consider the disparate levels of access available to individuals based on institutional affiliation. Because higher education settings afford students a high degree of information privilege, academic librarians face the challenge of teaching students to appreciate the value of information, acknowledge barriers to it, and identify and evaluate the freely available resources and content to which they will have access post-graduation. Although technical services and scholarly communication librarians tend to have fewer teaching responsibilities than those working in public services, our experiences with collection development, licensing, and resource description provide insights to share with students regarding information value and privilege. A case study on student projects which included the editing of Wikipedia entries highlights tensions between institutional privilege and open resources. Teaching students about the costs, processes, and value of information production empowers them to understand their privilege and responsibilities.
DOI
10.3998/nasig.4302
Recommended Citation
Harrington, Caitlin and Scott, Rachel E., "Intersections of Open Access and Information Privilege in Higher Education and Beyond" (2023). Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library. 193.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/fpml/193
Comments
First published in NASIG Proceedings, volume 83, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3998/nasig.4302.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.