Why Open Access Matters for the Arts

Alex Watkins

Art & Architecture Librarian

CU Boulder Libraries

“By ‘open access’ to this [scholarly] literature, we

mean its free availability on the public internet,

permitting any users to read, download, copy,

distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of

these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as

data to software, or use them for any other lawful

purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers

other than those inseparable from gaining access to

the internet itself.”

Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002)

Open Access Definition

Open Access is usually associated

with the sciences

Journal

Prices

If there’s no journal crisis, do we need

open access?

Taxpayer funding of research has been key in Open

Access

Does Art scholarship have the same ethical

imperative to be open as medical literature?

Do the Arts need Open

Access?

Pay-walls create a divide between

Western scholars and the rest of

the world

Universities around the

world can’t afford

access to arts journals

In many places,

open access is the only access

“Today, Northern scholars writing

on African countries do not need to

worry about what their African

colleagues think or say, especially

if the latter are based on the

continent, because they are

unlikely to review their work”

(Zeleza, 2008).

We have to question what is adequate

dissemination of scholarship

Lack of indexing disadvantages open

access publishing

Open Access can help change the colonial

nature of scholarship

Pay Walls create a divide between

Academia and the Public

Scholarship can give the public a deeper

understanding of the arts

Librarians can help tear down

pay-walls

Librarians can ensure open access

resources are visible and accessible

Librarians

can create

and

promote

Institutional

Repositories

“Everyone has the right…to seek,

receive and impart information and

ideas through any media and

regardless of frontiers.”

Article 19, The Universal

Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Photo Credits • Barber, Matt. Great Wall of China, October 21, 2009.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt512/4065627169/.

• Gao, Jialiang. The old Campus of the National University of San Antonio Abad at Cusco, Peru, January, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Universidad_Nacional_de_San_Antonio_Abad_del_Cusco_Peru.jpg

• Hough, Josh. Bethlehem Checkpoint, December 13, 2006. http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshhough/321999050/.

• Ammon. Berlin Wall, January 1, 1990. http://www.flickr.com/photos/authenticfoto/3545761886/.

• Thiémard, Raphaël. Berlin 1989, Fall Der Mauer, Chute Du Mur, November 1, 1989. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivaopictures/3403855791/.

• Warman, Lara. Wall Adam Goldsworthy, November 13, 2011. http://www.flickr.com/photos/war_man/6344808703/.

• Archives, SDASM. Crumbling Wall, May 23, 2012. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/7304576046/.

• Poggi, Jacqueline. Hadrian’s Wall, September 8, 2008. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacqueline_poggi/6987537325/.

• SMU Central University Libraries. Sinclair Refining Laboratory... at Corpus Christi, January 1, 1944. http://www.flickr.com/photos/smu_cul_digitalcollections/8409510090/.

Bibliography • Association of Research Libraries (ARL). (2010). Tempe Principles for Emerging Systems of

Scholarly Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/tempe/index.shtml

• Budhapest Open Access Inititive (BOAI). (2010). Budapest Open Access Initiative. Retrieved from www.soros.org/openaccess/

• Bailey, C. W. (2008). Author's Rights, Tout de Suite. Retrieved from from http://www.digitalscholarship.org/ts/authorrights.pdf

• Elkins, J. (2007a). Is Art History Global? London: Routledge.

• Elkins, J. (2007b). Canon and Globalization in Art History. In Bryzski, A (Ed.), Partisan Canons. Durham: Duke University Press.

• Evans, S., Thompson, H., & Watkins, A. (2011). Discovering open access art history: a comparative study of the indexing of open access art journals. The Serials Librarian, 61(2), 168–188.

• McGill, L. (2006, September 22). The State of Scholarly Publishing in the History of Art and

• Architecture. Retrieved from the Connexions Web site http://cnx.org/content/col10377/1.2/

• Science Commons. (2010). Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine. Retrieved from http://scholars.sciencecommons.org/

• Suber, P. (2004). Promoting Open Access in the Humanities. Retrieved from http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/apa.htm

• Van Orsdel, L. C., Born, K. (2009 April 15). Reality bites: Periodicals price survey 2009. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6651248.html

• Willinsky, J. (2006). The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

• Zeleza, P. (2008). Challenges in the Production and Globalization of African Knowledges. Retrieved from http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/african-affairs/challenges-productionand-globalization-african-knowledges-0