I’ve always believed in library magic: the sort of serendipity that seems to attach itself to library spaces and the people within. An unexpected connection made, a useful book unearthed – either on the shelf or online, being nudged in the right direction, bumping into a supportive person, the sense of community and everyone working side by side or together on various projects. I love the way that each floor of the Sir Duncan Rice Library has its own personality and atmosphere. When I was a student, no matter what I was working on, I found my university library was the place to tackle challenging tasks and ideas. Within that space, I’d somehow manage to find a way through.
Randomness, happenstance, peculiarity, connectivity, serendipity – whatever you want to call it, it’s about being Open.
Back then, I only thought of library magic in my immediate world of stacks, subject librarians and study carrels. I didn’t realise there was a whole other world in libraries that involved research support. I couldn’t have foreseen the move towards Open Access (the ongoing transformation of research enabling all to access information freely), nor the increasing role of libraries in academic publishing. I suppose though, that’s because I had a place in the system as a student, with easy access to knowledge. For those outside the system, my magical palace of knowledge was more like a fortified castle watched over by an intemperate dragon.
When Rt Hon David Willetts was researching his book The Pinch, he said, in a key speech on Open Access in Berlin in 2013: ‘It was very frustrating to track down an article drawing on publicly funded research and then find it hidden behind a pay wall. That meant it was freely accessible to a professional in an academic institution, but not to me as an independent writer. That creates a barrier between the academic community, the insiders, and the rest of us, which is deeply unhealthy. We want to get past that polarised world.’
The drive towards Open Access is a worldwide effort to accelerate the open sharing of knowledge to transform that ‘polarised world’. This week, from 21-27 October, we celebrate International Open Access week with its theme of ‘Community over commercialisation’
Today I’m part of that community with my library colleagues in the Open Research Team. We try to be the wizards behind the curtain, helping researchers share their knowledge so easily it feels like magic.
Our magic pops up in all sorts of places. Part of our remit is Aberdeen University Press where we help researchers publish their work without charge and enable readers to access our publications for free.
First meetings between AUP staff and academics are an opportunity to shape a project – ideas are tossed around, suggestions made. Sometimes a research project transforms into an Open Access book. Other times, a book idea becomes a research project/PhD studentship first, before potentially winding its way back to the press.
Drawing on the collective wisdom and vision of academics and library professionals in our UoA community and beyond, the Open Research Team contributes to Library enchantment with its own special wizardry. Intemperate dragon taming a speciality…
Sandra Hynes
Open Research Team
