Improving Open Access Discovery for Academic Library Users

Improving Open Access Discovery for Academic Library Users examines strategies for making scholarly, peer-reviewed open access (OA) publications more discoverable for your library community. 

OCLC Research partnered with two Dutch library consortia—Universiteitsbibliotheken en Nationale Bibliotheek (UKB) and Samenwerkingsverband Hogeschoolbibliotheken (SHB)—to investigate how academic libraries can connect users with OA content. Dutch academic libraries have been instrumental in the progress toward full open access to publications for all educational institutions and research domains in the Netherlands. This report bridges the gap between the availability and discoverability of OA publications.

The research findings shared in this report analyze the efforts made by library staff to make OA publications discoverable and explore user behaviors at seven institutions in the Netherlands. The findings can serve as a catalyst for academic libraries worldwide to engage in meaningful conversations about enhancing OA discoverability given local contexts and user needs.

Key Contributions of the Report:

1. Provides valuable insights into the measures taken by library staff in the Netherlands to facilitate the discoverability of OA publications.  
   
   
2. Highlights library staff's successful efforts to support user needs and explores opportunities to improve.  
   
   
3. Identifies key stakeholders in the OA landscape and provides actionable suggestions for them to maximize the impact of their contributions.

Read this report to learn from practices in the Netherlands that can initiate and support conversations about the best approaches for improving the discoverability of OA publications in academic libraries for local contexts and user needs.

Download US Letter .pdf

Download A4 .pdf

Supplemental Material

Dutch:   Download de Nederlandstalige A4 .pdf

English:    Download English US Letter .pdf  |  Download English A4 .pdf

French:     Télécharger le pdf en français au format US  |  Télécharger le pdf en français au format A4

Spanish:   Descargar en español Letter .pdf  |  Descargar en español A4 .pdf           

User Survey Data

User survey data from the Open Access Discovery project are available upon request. 

Request the data

Data License

The Open Access Discovery project data are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License located at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Quick Links

• Short URL: oc.lc/oa-discovery
• DOI (US letter): 10.25333/4xem-xr80
• DOI: (A4): 10.25333/37qc-5845

Related Pages & Projects

• Open Access Discovery project