Open Access Overtaking Academic Library Leadership: Staying Ahead of the Organisational Dynamics an Increasingly Open Future May Bring

Abstract

With the fairly recent introduction of Transformative Agreements as an acquisitions and OA publishing mechanism in the context of US academic libraries, smaller institutions from Carnegie Classification R2 on down are grappling with questions of adaptation, mission response, and value proposition in a shifting environment. As Open Access continues to expand with increasing proliferation of OA content, smaller libraries are searching for answers as flat and declining budgets will eventually coincide with rising OA availability. This editorial reviews these challenges as expressed by a unique Community of Practice the authors assembled and guided through a series of conversations. Leadership-focussed solutions are offered as a way of aligning academic library management with broader trends in Higher Education.