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Yesterday, as some of you doubtless know, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a new open access policy that may have a drastic effect on scholarly publishing (unless, of course, it changes nothing). Discussion on Twitter with the hashtags #publicaccess and #openaccess was lively, and I thought we could spend some time talking in person about the policy generally, and specifically how it might affect libraries. One question I have, for instance, is whether projects that IMLS funds will come under this policy; another is how libraries can help with the increased requirements for data management mentioned in the policy.

Here’s some key links:

• White House announcement – www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public-access-results-federally-funded-research
• White House directive – www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf (PDF)
• Jen Howard, “White House Delivers New Open-Access Policy that has Activists Cheering” – chronicle.com/article/White-House-Delivers-New/137549/
• Peter Suber, “Second shoe drops: new White House Directive mandates OA” – plus.google.com/109377556796183035206/posts/8hzviMJeVHJ
• Carl Franzen, “White House says government-funded research should be more public, but critics want more” – www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4019058/white-house-opens-federally-funded-research-critics-unimpressed

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The changing world of ebooks

Given: Patrons will increasingly use ebooks in the coming years.

What can librarians do to:

• Provide the titles they need (purchase outright, purchase-on-demand, provide changing content in the form of vendor packages such as ebrary)
• Ascertain what titles they need (solicit patron input, offer purchase-on-demand)
• Make ebooks easily accessible (for reading online or downloading, simplifying digital rights management, providing mobile apps)
• Provide hardware (loan equipment such as PCs, ebook readers, tablets; and perhaps provide pre-loaded content on these devices)
• Help them find the digital content already in the library’s collection (web-scale discovery layer, one-on-one or classroom instruction, pushing instructional content to patrons by electronic means such as email, social network locations, Twitter, RSS feeds)
• Promoting electronic publishing; publishing titles sponsored by libraries themselves; working with university publishers

Please bring your suggestions—what is your library doing, what should we be doing, what is in the works—for improving our service to patrons in this changing environment.