Investing in Open Access: Identifying, Evaluating, and Supporting Open Access Resources

The Ohio University Libraries are committed to supporting the creation, access, and use of scholarly open access resources. In order to strengthen the commitment to open access materials, the library formed the Investing in Open Access Task Force to identify, evaluate, and recommend open access resources for financial support. Using a comparative rubric, the task force identified several evaluation criteria including mission, funding model, subject coverage, format, ease of use, faculty benefit, significance to teaching and learning, credibility, and whether the resource was emerging or established. After evaluation, the task force recommended to recommit to three open access resources already being supported by Ohio University Libraries in addition to three new resources. The library contributed financially to the selected resources to help support their development and sustained availability. The library will provide access to the resources through its online catalog and website. This paper outlines the task force approach to evaluating open access resources.