NZLIMJ Editorial, Vol 57, Issue 1. Anton Angelo 10.6084/m9.figshare.6959339.v3 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/NZLIMJ_Editorial_Vol_57_Issue_1_/6959339 <div>The articles in this edition of the NZ Library and Information Management Journal span across all our interests</div><div>– reading in the lives of those with Alzheimer’s, cataloging picture books, helping students with referencing supporting</div><div>those with dyslexia and copyright. We’re a small and diverse community (who encourage diversity) with</div><div>interests as wide as the world.</div><div>I’m buzzing after attending the research librarians SIG conference in Auckland last month (and I encourage all</div><div>of you who presented to submit something to us). It was very professionally run, with a sense of collegiality and</div><div>kindness. More values I expect from librarians.</div><div>The question of Open Access was the main point of a workshop at the conference, and all the topics I mentioned</div><div>above all relate to access. Access to information, accessibility to resources for different parts of the community,</div><div>and easing finding those resources. It’s what we do. Open Access is a technical term that relates to research, and</div><div>the standards that must be met to get the term. There are several formal declarations and definitions, but if it is</div><div>free to read and free to reuse – then its OA.</div><div>We’ve been working on making the NZLIMJ more open – adopting formal open Creative Commons licences, and</div><div>using finding aids like DOIs. We don’t charge for publication and the copyright of the articles remains with the</div><div>authors. We can do this because of the work done by LIANZA – this is one of the many things your registration</div><div>and association fees goes to, as do many societies around the globe. These are the technical parts of expressing</div><div>our values.</div><div>Some, like the recently retired provocateur Jeffrey Beall, claim that librarians “have poisoned scholarly communication,</div><div>using their often state-funded positions to ennoble themselves (and advance their careers) as combatants</div><div>fighting the good fight…” (Beall, 2018, pp. 2–3). Ignoring the fact that Beall has made a one-man industry</div><div>out of hyperbolic claims on the dangers of OA, the move to improving access to information has created some</div><div>real friction and change in business models around publishing research. Change is hard, uneven and results in</div><div>unexpected consequences.</div><div>The work we are doing in opening up the NZLIMJ is designed to create a more transparent, more findable and</div><div>more progressive space for us to measure how we can best improve appropriate access to information in our</div><div>patch. We are going to ask previous authors of papers published in the NZLIMJ if they would allow us to republish</div><div>their work with an Open Access licence (Creative Commons Attribution: cc-by). We’re not doing this to virtue signal</div><div>– as Beall might have us believe. We’re doing it to fulfil the calling we had when we got into this business, to make</div><div>the world’s knowledge freely and equitably accessible.</div><div>If you want to talk to us about articles you’ve published in t</div> 2018-12-06 02:41:57 Editorial Library and Information Studies