Why Open Access Matters: Part 1

Leading up to Open Access Week we are sharing examples from “100 Stories: The Impact of Open Access,” a 2016 research project that examines the variety of ways open access works impact institutions, researchers, and readers. Join us next Wednesday for brand new examples of impact in our webinar “100 Stories of Impact: One Year Later.

Today’s examples focus on the impact of open access on institutions looking to demonstrate their achievements.

Garnering Funding: After Years of Unsuccessful Attempts, Professor Wins Grant Funding
The Four Valleys Archive helped archeologists at Kenyon College create a model that they could show to funders to obtain support for latter stages of their project. As IR Admin Jenna Nolt put it, the IR “gave us the technology to get grant funding for something the faculty on this project had been trying to do for years.”

Building Reputation: Increasing Scholarly Impact is Key to Library Director’s Promotion
A recent announcement about the promotion of Fordham Law Library Director Todd Melnick points to his work on building the library’s institutional repository: the repository has “significantly increased Fordham Law’s scholarly impact: FLASH contains over 9,600 documents that have been downloaded over 7.4 million times by readers in more than 170 countries.”

Aiding Accreditation and Review: Association OA Accreditation Requirement Met
SLIS Connecting, an open access library journal, helped The University of Southern Mississippi meet an American Library Association accreditation requirement for “maintaining contact and communication with students and alumni.”

Demonstrating Learning Outcomes: Creative Atlas Project Draws National Attention
Students at the University of Wyoming worked with renowned essayist Rebecca Solnit and cartography professors to develop a unique multimedia project mapping atlas of Laramie and the region. The unique partnership led to a feature story in a regional paper, exhibits in Wyoming and San Francisco, and over 2700 downloads over time.