A look at global browser market share data will show that Google’s Chrome browser commands more than half of the browser market (61.2% for April 2017, to be specific). The market share might be even higher among librarians (who have a choice at work). If you’re not a Google Chrome user, these additional six browser extensions might make you switch.
If you’ve never considered browser extensions, they are plugins or small applications that add functionality to your browser. Sometimes they work in the background (like Unpaywall, below) but usually they work when you click on a small icon that gets added to the browser’s toolbar.
Google has a huge Chrome Web Store for browser extensions, most of them are free. They offer help to install and manage extensions but for the most part, a single click will install an extension. Sometimes additional configuration options are available.
Here are six more Chrome browser extensions every librarian needs.
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a set of specifications for making structured open repository metadata accessible to other service providers issuing requests.
Why learn about OAI-PMH?
Taking advantage of repositories (data providers) and services (service providers) that offer metadata using OAI-PMH will allow your resources better visibility and access. For example, many discovery services (the “harvester”) use OAI-PMH metadata for indexing open access institutional repository articles.
The Basics
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) specifies how metadata is structured and presented for ingestion by external services, usually on the Internet. OAI-PMH metadata is encoded in extensible markup language (XML) format. OAI-PMH records are harvested using HTTP requests.
While open access repositories and journals are free for end users, they do cost money to set up and maintain. Forward-thinking libraries are beginning to allocate funds to support open access resources.
Here are some open access resources you should consider supporting.
BioMed Central
BioMed Central contains over 290 peer-reviewed journals in Biology, Clinical Medicine, and Health. Your library can get an institutional membership to manage Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Knowledge Unlatched
Knowledge Unlatched creates packages of scholarly books in the humanities and social studies which are “unlatched” to become open access ebooks through membership contributions. The first two rounds allowed the release of over 100 titles, made available for free via the HathiTrust Digital Library and OAPEN. The pledging period for the next collection, KU Select 2016, runs through January 31, 2017.
Open Library
Open Library is an initiative of the Internet Archive with “one web page for every book” ever published. Users can read public domain “classic books” for free or borrow up to five titles for two weeks each. Users can contribute by adding books or editing records. Sign up for a personal account or register your library to provide in-library loans for users on your library network.
Open Library of Humanities
The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is a UK-based open access publishing platform for scholarly peer-reviewed articles. The OLH charges no author fees, but is “funded by an international consortium of libraries” along with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Annual fees range from $534 to $1,600 based on institution size. US libraries can join through LYRASIS at lyrasis.openlibhums.org.
PLOS
Add PLOS ONE (and other PLOS publications) to your library’s databases list and activate PLOS ONE in your discovery service. There are several ways you can get involved. You and your institution’s faculty can publish in PLOS. Your library can become an institutional member to handle Article Processing Charges (APCs) for your faculty. Or you can simply donate to PLOS. See www.plos.org/get-involved.
International Open Access Week starts today and runs from October 24–30, 2016. For all of the details, visit www.openaccessweek.org.
This year’s theme is “open in action” with an emphasis on how you can take practical steps to implement open access in your library or support its growth.
Ways to Participate
Many organizations which embrace and promote open access are sponsoring events to encourage participation in open access resources. Here are just a few of them.
Open Access Week Commitment
The Open Access Week organization is asking librarians to sign up and take “concrete steps to open up research and scholarship and encourag[e] others to do the same”. Sign up at www.action.openaccessweek.org.
Do you have an ORCID iD? ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID and is a unique 16-digit number which distinguishes you from other researchers in online resources. Register for an ORCID iD at orcid.org/register.
Join COAPI
The Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) exists to allow member libraries to help develop and share open access policies. Sponsored by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), COAPI offers best practices and advocacy for open access. To become a member library, see sparcopen.org/become-a-member.
Support Open Access Resources
While open access repositories and journals are free for end users, they do cost money to set up and maintain. Forward-thinking libraries are beginning to allocate funds to support open access resources (and to support faculty who want to contribute articles to them). Here’s how you can support open access resources.
Join the FOLIO Project
FOLIO stands for the Future of Libraries is Open, an open source library services platform. Learn more about it by reading our recent FOLIO: An Open Library Services Platform article. Work has progressed swiftly since its introduction in June 2016. Join the FOLIO Project Discussion site to get involved.
Bake Some Cookies
Think open access only applies to online resources? You can bake your very own cookies in the shape of the open access logo with a cookie cutter printed from your 3D printer using some open access cookie cutter printer files. The scalable files are in .stl and .dae format and were created by Chip Wolfe from Hunt Library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Download the open access cookie cutter files.
Back in April you might remember the news that EBSCO was giving $1 million (or more) to help fund the development of a new open library services platform (LSP). American Libraries wrote about this on their blog post EBSCO Supports New Open Source Project. EBSCO has a Vice President of Open Source Platforms & Communities, Christopher Spalding, who is taking an active role in the project. At the time of EBSCO’s announcement the name of the project had not been announced.
FOLIO stands for the Future of Libraries is Open. It is currently a software platform to be used as a starting point to build library services. Consider FOLIO as a “cloud-based operating system” for applications.
The project is being led by the Denmark-based company Index Data headed by Sebastian Hammer (a panelist at the ALA 2016 Annual Conference) and the Open Library Environment (OLE) directed by Michael Winkler. The main source of funding comes from EBSCO. The Open Library Foundation, a nonprofit oversight organization, was set up to direct the project.
Index Data will be responsible for building the core platform which will be released as open source software under an Apache version 2.0 license. The FOLIO platform software can be downloaded and installed locally or hosted on cloud-based servers from library vendors such as EBSCO, SirsiDynix, and ByWater Solutions. Index Data intends to make the platform “as little as possible” and not create obstacles to development.
On top of the FOLIO platform, developers from library vendors, organizations, and member institutions will build modules, applications, and services. Apps will include traditional ILS service modules such as Acquisitions, Cataloging, and Circulation. We should eventually see LMS functionality including electronic resource management, OPAC, data conversion, and resource sharing. Native Linked Data output is not in the works but it is expected that this model will be supported.
Developers of existing library services can choose to port their applications to FOLIO or simply build integration points to their current systems. The FOLIO platform should make software with open APIs even more attractive to users.
In August, Index Data will release prototype code on GitHub. Developers can then turn their attention to building microservices. Note that although the FOLIO platform itself is open source and free, some of the premium apps built to run on it might be created and sold by library vendors.
FOLIO can also be thought of as a community of institutions and vendors working together. There are many ways to interact and get involved with the FOLIO community:
A look at global browser market share data will show that Google’s Chrome browser commands more than half of the browser market (61.2% for April 2017, to be specific). The market share might be even higher among librarians (who have a choice at work). If you’re not a Google Chrome user, these additional six browser extensions might make you switch.
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) specifies how metadata is structured and presented for ingestion by external services, usually on the Internet. OAI-PMH metadata is encoded in extensible markup language (XML) format. OAI-PMH records are harvested using HTTP requests.
We continue our celebration of 
The 
Add 
Follow on Social Media
The Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) exists to allow member libraries to help develop and share open access policies. Sponsored by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), COAPI offers best practices and advocacy for open access. To become a member library, see 
FOLIO stands for the Future of Libraries is Open, an open source library services platform. Learn more about it by reading our recent 
