Open Knowledge : A teaching and learning perspective
I work for the University of Manchester Library, an organisation which maintains a very active voice in debates surrounding the relationship between open knowledge and higher education (OKHE). However, my own day-day role has (up-to-now) provided limited opportunity to engage with issues such as the merits of green vs gold open access (OA) publishing or the implications of copyright legislation.
I work as a Teaching and Learning librarian, a role which is primarily focused on supporting the university’s goal of creating an outstanding learning and student experience. I design and deliver teaching and training which aims to help students develop key skills needed to succeed at university (such as information literacy or academic writing). I also have regular contact with students (and familiarity with the typical issues they face) through my work as part of our enquiry services team. Prior to taking the course, issues relating to OKHE would not be ones I naturally saw as holding much interest (or use) to the typical Manchester undergraduate or postgraduate taught student. However, having researched OKHE further, I now realise that this view is somewhat short-sighted and needs to be challenged.
Recent pieces in the New York Times, and Guardian provide ample evidence that debates around “openness” (in particular how the results of publically funded scholarly research should be published) are shifting into the mainstream arena. However the teaching I provide (whether it be lecture or workshop based) currently pays little regard to these issues. Much of the focus is on helping students learn how to access and incorporate scholarly research into their coursework. This by necessity often highlights the hugely expensive journal packages subscribed to by the library. Whilst this instruction does succeed (I hope!) in improving research habits (and by extension assignment marks) it misses an obvious opportunity to improve “awareness of social, political and environmental issues” — a key purpose of the Manchester undergraduate education. I have come to realise that focusing purely on the functional benefits of tools such as Science Direct is leaving a massive elephant in the room — the societal aspect. Is it not also my duty to point out to students that they will only have access to these tools as long as they are paid up members of the university? Should I not be making them more aware they are likely in the most “information-rich” period of their lives? Should I not be giving over some time to explain why this is, and what efforts are ongoing to make scholarly research more accessible for all?
Fortunately other members of my profession have been thinking about this on my behalf! An American study from 2012 surveyed 129 librarians (working in scholarly communications) about their attitudes towards educating students about publishing models. Standout highlights from the questionnaire responses include:
1. “Seventy percent think it is the role of academic librarians to educate students about OA”
2. “The most frequently mentioned forum for educating students was as part of an information literacy session”
3. Many respondents (up to 29%) had reservations about the “impracticality of promoting OA journals to students”.
I find myself in agreement with points 1 and 2. A primary function of any good university library is to provide its users with access to scholarly material, and also with the necessary instruction in how to maximise their use of this material. By extension, it now seems logical (as the call for openness grows) that the instruction also highlights how public access to this material is limited, and encourages participants to think about the moral implications this raises. However, the 3rd point hints at potential challenges in this regard. One of the responses highlights this in a memorable fashion bluntly stating that “…undergraduate students ‘could give a rat’s ass’ about OA” (fig 3). I would agree that in an era where more students are (understandably so given the premium fees) concerned with the voactional benefits of their study drawing attention onto the inconsistencies of the academic publishing world will require some new ideas and creative thinking.
The good news is I do not see this challenge as insurmountable. OKHE provides us with a number of fascinating case studies. These should, at the very least, have the potential to pique a student’s interest within a library focused lecture or workshop. The case of “The internet’s own boy” Aaron Swartz, can certainly provide students with a salutary introduction to issues of ownership and openness (Indeed there is an argument to be made that Swartz himself could have benefitted from more institutional direction).
More recently we have the example of the young Kazak researcher Alexandra Elbakyan. She proudly defends her creation SciHub (an illegal online repository of over 51,000,000 academic papers and articles) from litigation by multi-national publishers by confidently invoking the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Here we have another highly emotive topic, which has great potential to resonate with the student psyche. How librarians choose to view SciHub is likely to be a continued topic for debate. However we cannot deny that it exists, or that people based in Manchester are using it. I would also argue that it provides a great first discussion point to begin educating future generations of tax-payers about the realities (and moral implications) of the business models adopted by some of the major academic publishers.
Char Booth (Associate Dean of the Library at California State University) goes a step further and has used the concept of information privilege as a driving force behind the pedagogical design of her information literacy classes. Having first made students aware of their current status as members of the “information-privileged”, Booth then challenges them to use that privilege to benefit society as a whole. This is done by having the students work on Wikipedia entries. They use their institutional access to scholarly research to improve the authority of the references within the publically available pages. This simple (yet brilliant) activity is a great example of how to integrate the teaching of information skills, whilst simultaneously creating an appreciation of the wider issues of openness and accessibility. It also provides a shining example for the rest of my profession to try and follow…
