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FOREWORD

This report is the culmination of efforts from across the OCLC membership to answer the question raised at a Global Council (GC) meeting: “What is the status of open access and open content in libraries across the globe?” Once surfaced, open access (OA) became the GC annual theme in 2018, leading to a series of activities and engagements with GC and OCLC members worldwide. The OCLC Research staff focused the research questions, and a comprehensive survey instrument was developed and launched in November 2018. The distribution of the survey was supported and promoted by Global Council delegates to ensure feedback from libraries in as many countries as possible, and through this effort we succeeded in obtaining participation from 82 countries.

High-level survey findings were published in 2019.1 This report gives a fuller presentation and analysis of the survey findings; it communicates the results of the status of OA activities that are underway, the challenges that libraries are encountering trying to support OA initiatives, and in many cases, the aspirations of libraries to support OA. Ultimately, the report also shares ideas that OCLC members identified for OCLC to support libraries’ aspirations toward OA, which will further the conversations regarding the nature of open access and the roles libraries play to support OA in different contexts.

Debbie Schachter

OCLC Global Council Chair

University Librarian, Capilano University