“Outreach by Stealth” and Other Strategies of Effective Open Access Outreach Services to Researchers

Many major funders around the world are now mandating that grant recipients make the products of their research publicly available through Open Access (OA) outlets; and many academic libraries now offer support services to assist researchers on their campuses in complying with these funder policies. This presentation will discuss the preliminary results of a sabbatical research project that investigated good practices of successful OA support services offered by academic librarians, and other professionals, at research-intensive institutions in the U.K. The focus of the project was on outreach efforts implemented to help raise the awareness of researchers about OA, their funders' policies, and the services available to support them in making their research products OA. This study is especially important and timely considering that the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications was recently implemented in Canada. Currently, Canadian academic librarians are considering how to bolster their services in response to the growing needs of researchers in this area