This presentation was aimed at those staff working in document supply and interlending who want to know more about the practical steps they can take to find free open access quality versions of works scattered in the repositories around the world. This presentation was presented June 28th 2011 at the Interlend 2011 conference, Durham UK, for members of the Forum for Interlending.

1. Beyond the Pay Wall!
Repositories as sources of supply
Gareth J Johnson
Document Supply & Repository Manager
David Wilson Library
University of Leicester
28 June 2011
www.le.ac.uk
Slides: www.slideshare.net/GazJJohnson/

2. Overview
1. OA primer
2. Why should we use open access
materials?
3. Searching for open access
materials
4. Questions and comments

3. Open Access 101
• Ungated online access to scholarly publications
– Not restricted by publisher paywalls
• Comes in Green & Gold flavours
– Post-publication archiving or open publication
• A mainstream publication activity
– Major funders and institutions require it
• Unlocks vast tracts of materials
– Especially hard to locate grey literature
– But not everything is available due for various reasons

4. Why Use OA Materials?
• Immediacy and freeness of availability will help
satisfy patrons and management alike
– Savings of time and money
• Ease (relative) of finding them once you know
the tools
• Access to material you might otherwise be
unable to source or obtain
• The question should be: Why aren’t you using
OA materials already?

5. Understanding the Terminology
• Repositories – subject, institutional, education,
data etc
• OA versions of text are normally functionally
equivalent to published versions
• But there is often a variance in the versions
available
• Important to be able to differentiate for
patrons
• More critical for some (e.g. Medics) than others

7. • Fully readable document(s) • Effectively catalogue record
• May include additional files • No full-text available
• Downloadable & printable • Usually includes link to
• Usually includes link to published (paywall)
published (paywall) version
version

8. Search Tools
• Google Scholar
• OpenDOAR
• BASE
• Institutional Repository Search
• Index to Theses
• Ethos
• DOAJ

9. Google Scholar
• A subset of the mighty Google search engine
– Drawbacks:
• Only a Google Specified range of repositories
• Includes paywall journal sites
– Advantages:
• As easy to use as Google
• Restricts search to “Scholarly” sources
• Can specify date range, journal title etc
• Can specify subject area of search
• Also searches Google Books

12. OpenDOAR Search
• Queries quality assured list of repository targets
– Drawbacks:
• Very simple search interface with no options
• Returns multiple routes to the same item in one
repository
• Can return high levels of irrelevant results
– Advantages:
• Simple to search using title keywords
• Can use Google command line language
• Related tool for searching for repository sites

15. BASE
• Bielefeld Academic Search Engine – more
sophisticated searching
– Drawbacks:
• Seems to prioritise paywall version of items in
results
• Open access version link hard to spot
– Advantages:
• Offers Basic and Advanced search options
• Sophisticated range of limits and search options
• Continues to be developed
• Available in German and English

17. Links to publisher (paywall) version
Actual link to full-text
Links to Repository home page
open access version

18. Institutional Repository Search
• A project demonstrator searching UK repositories
• Drawbacks
– Only searches across UK based repositories
– No longer being developed & can be a bit flakey at
times
• Advantages
– Simple interface but some advanced functionality
– Can limit to specific repository, types or status
– Can opt to search for non-peer-reviewed material only
– Indicates a closeness of match for each result

21. Index to Theses
• An index of theses, including links to full-text
– Drawbacks
• Not all theses available in full text
• Delay between OA versions being available and
indexed
– Advantages
• Freely available and easy to search
• Offers four different searching options
• Indexes Ethos and local repository copies

24. Search Tools: Ethos
• The British Library national eThesis service
– Drawbacks
• Downloading requires registration
• Non-digitised theses can be requested but there
may be a charge
• Not all potential theses are listed
– Advantages
• Can limit search to items available for download
• All theses already digitised freely available
• Basic and advanced search function

27. Open Access Journals
• Fully open journals (e.g. PLoS One)
– All articles full-open access
– Author’s pay publication fee to retain rights
• Publishers options
– E.g. Springer Open Choice – selected articles open
access
– Authors chose on submission
– Often demarked with an icon e.g.
• Directory of Open Access Journals
– Can search for OA journals or articles in them

30. Key Points
• Open access materials can be used to satisfy
patron requests swiftly and without cost
• There are a variety of search tools for open
access materials
• Best ones to use can be a matter of personal
choice
• Understanding the type of record and item
version is important

31. Contact
• Gareth J Johnson
– DS&R Manager, University of Leicester
– Chair FIL, Chair UKCoRR, CILIP Councillor, HEA Fellow
– Email: gjj6@le.ac.uk
– Tel: 0116-252-2039
– Web 2/Twitter: llordllama
– Slides: www.slideshare.net/GazJJohnson/
• Questions and Comments?

32. References and Links
• BASE: www.base-search.net/
• DOAJ: www.doaj.org
• Ethos: ethos.bl.uk
• Google Scholar: scholar.google.co.uk/
• Index to theses: www.theses.com
• Institutional Repository Search: irs.mimas.ac.uk/demonstrator/
• OpenDOAR: www.opendoar.org
• OpenDOAR Repository Contents Search:
www.opendoar.org/search.php
• Springer Open Choice:
www.springer.com/open+access/open+choice?SGWID=0-40359-0-0-0
• Wiley Open Choice:
www.wileyopenaccess.com/SpringboardWebApp/userfiles/woai/file/
WOAI-Press-Release-final.pdf

33. Additional References
• NDLTD - Networked Digital Library of Theses and
Dissertations (USA) www.ndltd.org
• Australasian Digital Theses Program
adt.caul.edu.au