Report to Senates 2023, Towards Open.

I am very pleased to present this year’s UNB Libraries Report to Senates.

We have titled this year’s Report Towards Open, with a specific focus on the evolving scholarly communications landscape. UNB faculty and student researchers experience a publishing landscape that is dramatically different from even a few years ago. Universities across the country, and indeed across the world, are working both collaboratively and within their institutions to develop strategic approaches to the “open science” landscape. Within UNB Libraries we share the goals of our Canadian Association of Research Libraries colleagues to foster timely, equitable, and enduring global access to, and dissemination of, knowledge. We are committed to strengthening UNB’s research contributions to the advancement of science, scholarship, and the betterment of society.

While significant developments are emerging across the world for stronger “open science” policies, and gains continue to be made to ensure that the results of publicly funded research are made openly available (when appropriate), investment in these initiatives is required. As our Report explains, UNB Libraries actively supports our researchers in meeting their own publishing objectives, and in meeting open access requirements. We contribute to the national commitment to sharing and preserving the outputs of Canadian research, and to containing the costs of subscribed access.

With our Report to Senates we are seeking a commitment from UNB at an institutional level for an Open Access Policy, aligned with the role that UNB Libraries plays in contributing our expertise, our services, and support locally for UNB researchers and the necessary regional, national, and international open infrastructures and services. I invite you to read our Report.

You will find a draft version of a UNB Open Access Policy as Appendix A, for which your support is requested.

Lesley Balcom,
Dean of Libraries