Book Review: Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge

Abstract

Bonn, Bolick, and Cross’s work, Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge, presents the macro and micro of scholarly communication (“scholcomm”), the “what” and the even more important “why” and “how” of scholcomm work in libraries, and thoroughly examines openness in its many different forms: open access (OA), open data, open educational resources (OER), and open science. While its length qualifies it as a textbook, the way it’s written makes it an enjoyable, information-packed read for both library workers with minimal scholcomm knowledge, as well as those with deeper knowledge and expertise. Where other texts appear to break down scholcomm and openness into key concepts like policy and infrastructure—separate from the implementation of open access in academic libraries1—Bonn, Bolick, and Cross’s textbook lays it all out for readers in an organized manner.