October 20th–26th is International Open Access Week (OA Week)! OA Week is an annual awareness-raising campaign for individuals and organizations across the globe to encourage and reflect upon efforts to increase open access to information – free, immediate, online access to research and the right to use information as needed. This year’s theme of Who Owns Our Knowledge “asks a pointed question about the present moment and how, in a time of disruption, communities can reassert control over the knowledge they produce.” You can use the official social media hashtag #OAweek to keep up with news and share your own.

According to open access advocates, “emerging risks threaten to prioritize commercialization over community interests.” The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology development, massive changes in federal research grant funding and availability, and widespread digital surveillance practices are just a few of these risks. Information today is a commodity and a form of currency, and it remains deeply entwined with and impacted by commercial interests.

Commercial publishers control access to most scholarly information and require either an institutional affiliation or payment to be accessed. This creates disparity in who can benefit from information and has the potential to create bias in what information is published and made available in the first place. Commercial publishers are profit-driven, which can and does create bias in what research is deemed valuable and/or fit for wider consumption.

This OA Week, we, as members of the Colby community, can take some moments to pause and reflect upon our information-seeking behaviors, preferences, and values. As consumers, what type of publishers and vendors do we choose to support monetarily, and what does that say about our values? As creators, what types of information resources do we prioritize? Do we retain ownership over our copyrighted works? Do we choose to share our creations? If so, where and how?

This week on the Libraries’ blog, we’ll share a series of posts exploring open access topics of interest to Colby community members, including the recent publishing practice of Colby faculty and staff, Colby Libraries’ engagement with Read and Publish deals, currently existing OA books, and how we see OA efforts developing over the next few years. While we have a long way to go, the Libraries are committed to prioritizing community over commercialization in scholarly communications.