In 2008 Southern Cross University Library’s ePublications@SCU project team sought to take a more “academic-friendly” approach to repository development with the view that this would ultimately lead to improved deposit rates. Attempts were made to reduce any perceived complexities of the system that may be barriers to academic participation. Some of the strategies employed by Library staff included: producing promotional material that highlighted the personal and professional benefits for academics of the repository, creating Personal Researcher Pages for each academic in order to showcase their scholarly profiles, and taking responsibility for copyright checking and uploading of all papers into the repository.

This paper reports on the results of a study conducted at Southern Cross University in 2008.

Library 2.0 is the extension of Web 2.0 to library services, enhancing user services such as community participation and feedback and offering opportunities for online social networking. Some of these ideas are not new to libraries, but the technology is new, and it is enabling the reinvention of services in the library sphere. A few forward looking libraries started re-examining the function, design and usefulness of the online catalogue, rethinking search and discovery. Integrated library system (ILS) vendors also started to see the opportunities for extending Web 2.0 applications to the OPAC to transform the user experience and improve the catalogue’s usefulness and usability. OPAC 2.0 is the application of Web 2.0 technologies and ideas to online catalogues. These developments are referred to as next generation, third generation or 21st century catalogues.

The first steps were to establish a community base representing the Australian library environment. The National Licensing Reference Group was established at the 2nd National Licensing Forum in 2005, to shepherd the development of the Australian National Licensing Proposal. The Reference Group is made up of representatives from library consortia and associations across Australia. The current convenor of the Group is Julie Rae from the Gulliver consortium in Victoria. The NLP Reference Group reported back to the 3rd National Licensing Forum on 3 July 2006.

Six major library sectors have been identified: academic, public, school, TAFE, special and Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL). The National Licensing Reference Group established four sub-committees to examine governance, products, pricing, and communications.

When journals and serials were available only in print format, access was limited to a physical space, but in other ways it was more open. Researchers and clients could walk into a library, browse, locate, read, and copy articles. Online technology has enhanced access and offers many more possibilities, but in other ways it has become more restricted. Ironically, the technology that enables online publishing also makes usage of online content easier to track, monitor and control. Licensing requirements for electronic resources are more tightly controlled. Vendors and aggregators require libraries and institutions to define their clientele and determine their rights to access content online. We must be registered, authenticated and authorised to consult online journals. If you are not part of an organisation that subscribes to online journals, or cannot use the material in a public library, or your library cannot afford to subscribe to certain journals, you may be denied access to certain data.

Researchers who publish in commercial journals lose the copyright to their own research, and they and their institutions pay high prices to subscribe to, and access, the publications in which they publish. Motivated by the rising costs of accessing serials, the loss of copyright ownership, and the increasing barriers to research information, groups of researchers, academics, and research organisations have launched independent peer-reviewed journal publishing. These initiatives, primarily, but not limited to, the sciences, are committed to lowering the barriers to the sharing of information and research, and to crossing the information digital divide. Online publication and distribution costs are kept low and many publications are offered free, but there are costs. Some open publishing programs are levying the costs from contributing organisations and researchers, incorporating the costs of publication of research results into projects and grants. Other journals are funded with the help of philanthropic organisations. Many free research and peer-reviewed journals are published under the Open Access publishing model, and use the Creative Commons licensing options.