Faculty Require Online Distribution of Student Work: Enter the Librarian

The chapter appears in the second volume of the series Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library, and addresses the legalities and practicalities of open access in academic libraries, including support for courses that require public distribution of student work. It begins by examining literature on scholarly communications, undergraduate students, and the role of libraries, and then shares the authors’ specific experience with a cross-section of courses: an engineering capstone where students are required to “publish” their final papers to the institutional repository, an archaeology course where students create and upload videos to YouTube, and an American Culture Studies seminar where students conduct oral history interviews that they must add to a Documenting Ferguson repository and to the University Archives. These courses demonstrate the issues academic libraries are now encountering as a result of the services they provide, and illustrate how cultivating expertise in a range of fields promotes the ability to continue providing meaningful support. Topics addressed include legal mechanisms, privacy rights, online identity, platform choice, and ethical questions related to mandating a digital presence.