To celebrate Open Access Week, we have created a book and information display on Level 5 of the Northampton Square Library. You will be able to browse the display until mid-November, so don’t worry if this week you are not on campus.
The books cover topics such as general open access (OA), copyright and research. Here are some of our recommendations:
If this is the first time you have heard about OA, you can start by reading “Open Access” by Peter Suber. The author explores what is OA and what makes it possible. He explains the difference between creative people who live by royalties, and academic scholars, analysing why OA will benefit the latter.
OA is a broad and evolving subject, that attracts both support and opposition. While some scholars support it vehemently, others think that it may lead to a world where anyone can publish what they want. If you would like to know more, you can read “Scholarly communication in library and information services : the impacts of open access journals and e-journals on a changing scenario” by Bhaskar Mukherjee. 
Finally, you may be interested in Aaron Swartz’s collection of writings, “The boy who could change the world”. A computer genius, Aaron worked with the Creative Commons and was trying to fight the injustice of what he considered an “unfree” culture. In his mind, an article can be shared by anyone with anyone in the world, without making anyone else poorer: so why stopping people from accessing information? This book collects his blog posts throughout the years.
We have more books on the topic, many of which are also available online. You can search for them using CityLibrary Search, or have a look at the selection below:
Still looking for more books? Explore OA on Project Muse – they offer open access books, journals, and digital humanities works from several distinguished university presses, scholarly societies, and independent not-for-profit academic publishers, freely available to libraries and users around the world. Project MUSE also gives access to humanities and social science resources, if you want to explore a different subject.