Why should university undergraduates care about open access?

Open Access Week will be happening 22 - 28 October. At the university where I work librarians are planning a variety of events.

We want to do something for undergraduates, to tell them about open access, what it is, how it works, why it's important, what it means to them ... but in previous OA Week chats with undergrads their main concern was whether it would mean they could have free textbooks. Which in a way it does, but not in a way that's going to help them this year or next.

Why should undergraduates care about open access? Why should a second-year student who's busy with classes, has some expensive textbooks, and has a part-time job and some debt, care about OA? I am curious to know what methods people have found that speak well to this audience about open access.

wdenton

academic-libraries
open-access

Comments

Joe: Are you looking for reasons why they should care they exist, or reasons why one might choose to publish in an OA journal vs. a traditional journal, or are you trying to get them to otherwise support the OA journals (eg, helping to peer review?).
wdenton: Why they should care they exist, and why they might care about them for possible future academic work. Undergraduates won't be publishing or reviewing for them.

Answer by Nancy

Here's one I've found pretty compelling for students who are actually into their studies, and/or who expect to work in fields where access to research matters:

When you graduate, you will no longer have access to the online subscription journals. Open access research will be available to you no matter what!

Comments

Answer by dsalo

An indirect answer: Check Right to Research for swag and arguments aimed specifically at undergraduates.

Comments

wdenton: This is new to me ... thanks.
Ashley Nunn: Any chance you could summarize some of the arguments here? Link only answers risk link rot, and also it makes it easier for the OP to see answers here without having to sift through information elsewhere.