Factors influencing subject librarians’ promotion of open access scholarly resources

Abstract

Open access promotes the dissemination of, and access to, academic research in the context of rising subscription costs and constrained academic library budgets. Despite its advantages, much ambiguity and misunderstanding surrounds librarians’ understandings of open access. My research, which explores the factors influencing New Zealand liaison librarian decisions to promote open access scholarly resources to library clients found a broad support for open access alongside evidence of caution and under-confidence around the promotion of it. With client engagement as a focus, this research demonstrates a significant need for academic librarians to undertake formal open access training.