Invisible Paywalls: Recognizing Information Privilege in Academia

Abstract

Academic libraries work hard to make access to online journals as seamless as possible for their campus communities. So much so that students (and some faculty) are typically unaware that paywalls to this content exist for those outside of academia – and those at less wealthy institutions. Open Access to the scholarly literature has the potential to democratize access to information, and include marginalized groups in the conversation. But first we need to recognize our information privilege.