1. Use of Open Access Resources by the Engineering Students of Punjab: A case study Harmanpreet Singh Sandhu* "spikersandhu@gmail.com" "spikersandhu@gmail.com" and Navita Sharma** “navitasharma71@gmail.com“navitasharma71@gmail.com” “navitasharma71@gmail.com *HOD Knowledge Centre DAVIET,Jalandhar(Pb). **Librarian,Rayat Bahra Institute of Management,Sahauran (Mohali-Pb)

2. Introduction Introduction Much attention has been focused on the rising costs of Much attention has been focused on the rising costs of journals in academic libraries as subscription prices of journals in academic libraries as subscription prices of Academic serials have increased manifold. University Academic serials have increased manifold. University libraries often cannot afford to purchase subscriptions libraries often cannot afford to purchase subscriptions to renowned journals and these can even force libraries to renowned journals and these can even force libraries to cancel existing subscriptions. The increasing price to cancel existing subscriptions. The increasing price of scholarly information, combined with new technologies of scholarly information, combined with new technologies that permit widespread access to electronic information, that permit widespread access to electronic information, has led to an effort to allow researchers to access scholarly has led to an effort to allow researchers to access scholarly information online for free. information online for free.

3. available through open access journals because an increase in the amount of open access literature increases the scholarly material that is available to all academic researchers. Because open access journals are relatively new, many authors Academic researchers can be profoundly impacted by the increasing amount of information are not familiar with them. In “The Role of Reference Librarians in Institutional Repositories,” Charles Bailey examines recent open access innovations and concludes that “contemporary digital publishing, which is fueled by constant technical innovation, is slippery as a bucket full of eels” (261). Thus, this study seeks to address the following research question: available through open access journals because an increase in the amount of open access literature increases the scholarly material that is available to all academic researchers. Because open access journals are relatively new, many authors Academic researchers can be profoundly impacted by the increasing amount of information are not familiar with them. In “The Role of Reference Librarians in Institutional Repositories,” Charles Bailey examines recent open access innovations and concludes that “contemporary digital publishing, which is fueled by constant technical innovation, is slippery as a bucket full of eels” (261). Thus, this study seeks to address the following research question: “What are Engineering student’s attitudes towards use of open access resources?”

4. What is Open Access? The BOAI defines open access to scholarly literature as its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. It is often difficult to discuss the effects of open access publishing because there is not a clear consensus on its definition. It is often difficult to discuss the effects of open access publishing because there is not a clear consensus on its definition.

5. This definition of open access focuses on three main characteristics of open access information: it is available on the internet, there are no financial or legal barriers to accessing it, and authors use copyright only to maintain the integrity of their work and retain the right of attribution. In addition to offering a definition of open access, the Budapest Open Access Initiative describes two methods of achieving open access: self-archiving and open access journals. Self-archiving includes both institutional repositories (IRs) and personal web archives. Self- archived materials may also be stored in a departmental or discipline-specific online repository. Some self-archived materials (e.g. working papers) may restrict viewers to a certain group (e.g. colleagues in a department), while others are freely available on the web. Open access journals are scholarly journals that are freely available online. Many are peer reviewed, but some are not. Some are online-only publications, while others are duplicates of print journals.

6. Familiarity with Open Access Resources Respondents were asked about the extent to which they agreed with a number of statements about open access. Some statements related to characteristics of open access resources, while other statements related to what open access publishing will lead to in the future.

10. Conclusion The open access movement has created a new body of scholarly literature that is available to users for free. Open access journals are available on the open web, and institutional repositories allow authors to self archive their work in a stable online environment. While the future of this model and the exact ways it will affect the existing publishing model are uncertain, it is clear that new resources are now available to authors who want to publish their work. Many researchers have examined authors’ attitudes toward these new open access sources. These studies have led researchers to the conclusion that many authors are unaware of their open access publishing options. Many authors do not publish in open access journals and institutional repositories because they do not know about those options. Many authors have misconceptions about the characteristics of open access sources, and those misconceptions prevent them from venturing outside the traditional model.

11. The purpose of this study was to assess academic reference librarians’ familiarity with, attitudes toward, and use of open access resources. A survey was designed with a combination of closed ended and open ended questions. The first section of the survey asked participants about their professional environment, the second section addressed participants’ attitudes toward open access publishing in general, and the last section of the survey assessed participants’ professional use of open access resources, including open access journals, institutional repositories, and self-archived materials on personal websites. The results of this study indicate that academic reference librarians are generally familiar with open access resources but have not yet taken on the role of teaching authors about publishing in those resources. Even among those respondents who were familiar with open access sources, relatively few academic reference librarians had provided authors with information about publishing in those resources. However, most survey respondents’ familiarity with open access journals, institutional repositories, and self-archived materials on the web indicate that academic reference librarians may be well suited to take on the instructional role. Respondents’ generally positive attitudes toward open access indicate that many academic reference librarians support open access materials and might therefore be more likely to encourage authors’ publication in them. Many survey respondents cited the support or lack of support from their institution as a contributing factor in their professional use of open access resources, especially regarding teaching authors about publishing in such resources. Research about institutional support of open access publishing might shed more light on the question of what factors influence reference librarians’ professional use of open access resources. Further research in this area could explore the ways in which institutions can encourage academic reference librarians to take on the role of teaching authors about open access publishing opportunities.

12. References Bailey, Charles W. Jr. “The Role of Reference Librarians in Institutional Repositories.” Reference Services Review 33 (2005): 259-267. Bell, Suzanne, Nancy Fried Foster, and Susan Gibbons. “Reference Librarians and the Success of Institutional Repositories.” Reference Services Review 33 (2005): 283-290. Budapest Open Access Initiative. 22 Sept. 2007. Budapest Open Access Initiative, FAQ. 22 Sept. 2007. Jenkins, Barbara, Elizabeth Breakstone, and Carol Hixson. “Content In, Content Out: The Dual Roles of the Reference Librarian in Institutional Repositories.” Reference Services Review 33 (2005): 312-324. Johnson, Richard. K. “Open Access: Unlocking the Value of Scientific Research.” Journal of Library Administration 42.2 (2005): 107-124. Nicholas, David, Paul Huntington, and Ian Rowlands. “Open Access Journal Publishing: The Views of Some of the World's Senior Authors.” Journal of Documentation 61.4 (2005): 497-519. 55 Park, Ji-Hong and Jian Qin. “Exploring the Willingness of Scholars to Accept Open Access: A Grounded Theory Approach.” Journal of Scholarly Publishing 38.2 (2007): 55-84. Swan, Alma and Sheridan Brown. “Open Access Self-Archiving: An Author Study.” Key Perspectives, Ltd. 2005. Thomas, Sarah E. “Publishing Solutions for Contemporary Scholars: The Library as Innovator and Partner.” Library Hi Tech 24 (2006): 563-573. Willinsky J. “The Nine Flavours of Open Access Scholarly Publishing.” J Postgrad Med 49 (2003): 263-267.

13. THANKS