Open Access is Not Enough: Improving Research Accessibility in Equity-Deserving Communities

How can academic librarians begin to repair the legacy of extractive research perpetuated by their institutions? In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a diverse neighbourhood in the historic heart of the city, hundreds of researchers have conducted studies on housing, substance use policy, and many other critical topics. Yet its equity-deserving community members are often unable to find, access, or otherwise benefit from the substantial research built on their knowledge and lived experience. The Making Research Accessible initiative (or MRAi) was formed in 2015 as a collaborative effort to address this community-identified priority: to secure more meaningful access to this research. Since then, the MRAi has launched a public research repository called the Downtown Eastside Research Access Portal, piloted new genres of accessible research derivatives, and worked with community to facilitate improved access to research relevant to their lives and work. Touching on themes including Open Access, knowledge exchange, and information privilege, embedded community engagement librarian Nick Ubels will share his firsthand experience and reflections on where the MRAi has been, where it needs to go next, and invite conversation about how our profession can collectively advocate for more equitable access to scholarly publications.