CORVALLIS, Ore. - Faculty at Oregon State University Libraries are
granting open access to their scholarship and knowledge.

On March 6, library faculty adopted a policy that requires deposit of
final published versions of scholarly works in the libraries'
institutional repository, ScholarsArchive@OSU http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/index.jsp .
This is the first open
access mandate adopted by a library faculty in the United States,
according to Michael Boock, head of digital access services for OSU
Libraries.

Since 2004, OSU Libraries has worked to collect the university's
scholarship in digital form to ensure greater accessibility and
long-term preservation of the scholarship. ScholarsArchive@OSU, which
recently ranked fourth among U.S. digital repositories, contains
dissertations, theses, a wide variety of university technical reports,
working papers and series and increasingly, published articles, papers
and presentations. The current contributions come from across campus,
and are contributed on a voluntary basis.

The new policy means that the 42 library faculty will automatically
contribute all of their scholarship to the archive, which will not be
the case for faculty in other departments, who can continue to
contribute on a voluntary basis.

No later than the date of publication or distribution, library faculty
members will deposit an electronic copy of the final published version
of their works in an appropriate format (such as PDF) to
ScholarsArchive@OSU. The policy applies to articles, conference papers
and proceedings, substantial presentations and internal reports of
interest to a broader audience that are authored or co-authored by
library faculty members.

"As faculty members at Oregon's land grant university the library
faculty believes they have a responsibility to share their expertise and
research with the public," Boock said. "As librarians, they believe in
the widest possible access to information and its long-term
preservation. The policy they've adopted supports these goals."