The Dr. John Archer Library and Archives continues to work towards making information freely available.

Open access publishing refers to making scholarly journal articles available to everyone, rather than just those who have access through expensive subscriptions. Our librarians continue to advocate for the importance of open access publishing and to educate our campus community about open publishing options. We support our researchers as they learn to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications, and offer a mediated deposit service to help them widely share their scholarly work in oURspace, the University of Regina’s institutional repository. Library faculty took a leading role in writing the Council Committee on Research’s discussion paper Open Access Publishing at the University of Regina and are deeply committed to implementing its recommendations so that local, national and international communities can read and benefit from the work of our researchers.

Open educational resources (including open textbooks) are learning resources that are available at no-cost to students. Library staff recognize the burden that textbook costs pose for students and advocate for the creation, adaptation, and/or adoption of high-quality free online textbooks and other resources. A librarian serves on the Open Textbook Advisory Committee, and we regularly advise faculty on low and no-cost textbook options. Aside from cost savings, open textbooks are helping our students in the distributed learning environment necessitated by COVID-19.