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Open Access Resources

Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.

OA removes price barriers (subscriptions, licensing fees, pay-per-view fees) and permission barriers (most copyright and licensing restrictions). The PLoS shorthand definition — "frees availability and unrestricted use"— succinctly captures both elements.

Open Access is free availability and unlimited use and access to online, digital scholarly communication over the internet. Proponents of OA resources understand that OA removes price barriers; for instance subscriptions, licensing fees and viewing fees and permission barriers such as copyright and licensing restrictions.

ZimLA support OA and we are happy to provide you with library and information science resources available on OA platforms. You can read more about OA by Peter Suber and from SPARC. A good article is also available here.

Open Access Journals

The Researching Librarian was created for librarians--new or experienced--who find themselves needing to perform research for purposes of publication, promotion, tenure, or other reasons. To access OA LIS journals click here.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) also has valuable OA LIS journals. According to DOAJ, "The aim of the Directory of Open Access Journals is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals thereby promoting their increased usage and impact."

Open Access Journals Search Engine (OAJSE) service covers free, full text, quality controlled journals. We aim to cover journals in all subjects that are published in English language. There are now 4,775 journals in the directory. All are searchable at article level. Library and information science journals can be accessed here.

Open Access Journals in Library & Information Science also provide a valuable list of LIS journal. You can access them here.

Library of Congress also has a good Library and information science guide to Online Resources. This can be accessed here.

DMOZ is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. They also constructed a valuable LIS resources page.

LIS Repositories

E-LIS is an open access archive for scientific or technical documents, published or unpublished, on librarianship, information science and technology, and related areas. More than 16,000 documents are currently available.

Here is a comprehensive list of LIS resources compiled by Steve Perry a Librarian.