MANAGING FULL AND OPEN ACCESS
Michael Breaks
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Libraries presently fill a central role in providing access to scholarly information and, while this role is changing, libraries are likely to remain a key player in scholarly communication for the foreseeable future. The continuing management of access to collections of electronic information resources by libraries raises a whole new set of issues, but like traditional print resources, electronic information resources still need to be selected, acquired, catalogued, made available and, very importantly, preserved for future generations.

As background to my presentation and before addressing the issues of managing full and open access, it is worth looking at the ways in which higher education libraries are changing and the pressures that they are responding to. Many libraries are changing their names to `Learning Resource Centres' to reflect the wider role that they are playing in their institutions and the wider range of media that they are acquiring. Many institutions have seen a merger of the library with the computing services, as the issues of integrated information support are addressed. There is also a move from formal teaching to independent learning, often based in the library, and this has increased the need for strong support to users of the library. Higher education institutions in the UK have seen a growth in the number of students entering higher education, and there has been a particular growth in the numbers of non-traditional students who require increased support. At the same time, resources have also to be devoted to supporting research as academic staff are under constant pressure to increase their research output. With the growth in electronic information resources, libraries have also to take on the role of brokering deals with suppliers and mediating access on behalf of their users to these new types of information resources, and they are often cast in the role of `agents of change' on their campuses.

Within institutions, libraries are dealing with a wide range of issues, many of which impact on their ability to provide managed access to electronic resources. Budgets are at best stable, but often are declining especially in the face of continuing journal price inflation and currency weaknesses. The ability of the library to make strategic decisions on behalf of the institution is sometimes weakened as budgets are devolved to cost centres and at the same time previously central funds for the investment in a coherent IT infrastructure are often dispersed. As the complexity of information resources grows the support overhead grows, and often this support has to be delivered of off-campus users. Users of licensed networked resources have to be authorised and authenticated.

Print is still the predominant medium and few libraries spend more than 10% of their non-staff budget on electronic resources. Pressures for the move from print to electronic are not strong because there are many obstacles to their take-up, including lack of skills; lack of subject exemplars; often a lack of both local and national visions; a lack of resources in key subject areas; complicated pricing and Licencing arrangements; different access methods and a patch IT infrastructure.

What then do libraries and by implication users need to stimulate the move from print to electronic.  Libraries want to provide services that allow their users to move seamlessly from reference to abstract to full text of the article; they want to be able to provide a permanent archive of electronic resources along side the permanent archive of print resources; they want pricing models which are sustainable; in most cases they want subject not publisher aggregation of journals; they want standard interfaces and access methods and they want to preserve fair use in the electronic environment.. Libraries want standard consortia deals; they want standard Licensing terms; the removal of non-cancellation clauses; walk-in access arrangements for companies who might be located within the campus on a Science or Research Park; they want to provide institution-wide access (however institution is defined); they need a critical mass of electronic resources so that their users will invest time and effort in learning new information skills and above all they want to see the electronic environment adding value to scholarship for all the players.