Research Guides: Conducting Archival Research During a Pandemic: Finding Open Access Collections

Open Access and Open Archives

Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs and materials are distributed online, free of cost or other access barriers. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of OA both for the scientific community and the research community more broadly.

The pandemic has drawn attention to the need for open archives. One librarian has noted, "The greatest asset of any academic library’s collection is its special collections and archives. Ironically, these distinctive materials are often hidden in vaults, only available for in-person access. Archivists have been challenged to provide research materials and services online during the COVID-19 closure. Look for an increase in archives digitization efforts in the coming years, transitioning digitized content from being a method of preservation or preview, to being the primary access point for the collection." "From Changed, Changed Utterly," Inside Higher Ed

You can also find these collections by seeking out libguides and curated lists. Here are several examples

Open Educational Database: 250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives
Reference and User Services Association: Primary Source Libguides

Open Access Digital Collections

The Digital Public Library of America DP.LA
The Digital Public Library of America works with "partners to accelerate innovative tools and ideas that empower and equip libraries to make information more accessible."
Europeana
"Europe's culture - collected for you. Explore tens of millions of items from a range of Europe’s leading galleries, libraries, archives and museums."
HathiTrust
"Access a large digital library of materials from sources including Google Books, the Internet Archive, libraries at HathiTrust partner institutions, and other commercial digitization projects. You may need to Click the "Log In" button and choose "Emory University" from the drop-down menu. Select "continue" and then enter your EID and password when prompted. The mobile version of HathiTrust allows online reading and download of public domain books from mobile devices. The HathiTrust is a partnership of more than 80 major academic and research libraries."
The Internet Archive
"Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more."
JSTOR Open Community Collections
"JSTOR’s continuously expanding Open Community Collections feature freely accessible primary source materials in a wide variety of subjects contributed by libraries, museums, and archives."

Videos

The Digital Public Library of America: An Introduction
"The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America's heritage, to the efforts and data of science. Since launching in April 2013, it has aggregated millions of items from thousands of institutions."
HathiTrust Digital Library: Search & Collection Builder - A to Z
"his session provides an in-depth look at Search and Advanced Search to discover materials in the 17.4 million item collection. Learn how to use Collection Builder to collate titles and refer to them later."
How The Internet Archive Is Preserving Our Online World, One Webpage at a Time
The Internet Archive provides "a small glimpse at what the Archive does to preserve the internet, and what it can tell us about preserving our own personal histories."
How to use the Internet Archive
"This introduction video provides a quick introduction to the major collections in the library and provides pointers on how to find books, movies, music, images, and software more efficiently."
JSTOR's Freely Available Primary Sources
This video provides an overview of JSTOR"s Open Community Collections.