An adventure in Open Access

In early September this year I had the pleasure of opening a parcel containing a slim volume: a newly published book I had written under the title “Supporting research in area studies: a guide for academic libraries”. It was an attempt to capture some of what I had learned over many years at UCL SSEES Library, and before that at Chatham House Library. I hoped it would both fill a gap in the professional literature of librarianship in relation to area studies, and encourage librarians to think more internationally about collections, systems and services. I did a little publicity, there was a flurry of interest and congratulation, and then all went quiet. Slowly it started to appear in academic library collections, and in due course I hoped there would be a few kind reviews in professional journals, but I knew I had to be patient and put it out of my mind. But this is a tale of the unexpected pleasures of open access, and I had a surprise coming.

Two months after that parcel arrived, in early November, I was sitting in the audience of an international academic conference on area studies organised as part of the SSEES centenary. One session was of particular interest to me as it was dedicated to new methods in research, but the very last thing I was expecting for a slide to come up on the screen dedicated to a section of my book. When I had recovered from my surprise I asked the speaker how he had come across it. The answer, of course, was that he had found the pdf of my manuscript in UCL Discovery when he was searching for something on digital humanities in area studies. One chapter included material on precisely that subject. As a long time believer in open access I had negotiated the right to place my manuscript in an institutional repository, and this was the result. Making the text open access had opened up the content to an audience who would never have seen it otherwise. As I see the download figures from all over the world it is clear that the print and the open access versions are not in competition, but together are expanding the potential readership well beyond what I could have hoped for otherwise.

Lesley Pitman, Librarian & Director of Information Services, SSEES Library