Open Access Week Coda: Hampshire’s Chris Tinson in Radical Teacher

Today, the first open-access issue of the journal Radical Teacher went online. It’s a special issue on Hip Hop and Critical Pedagogy. Its status as an open access publication means that you can access all of the articles from the issue for free, online, right now. Your library doesn’t need to have a subscription to the journal (though we do, because we support its work, and it’s a great fit for the Hampshire community). You don’t have to go through a database. You don’t have to wait 6 or 12 or 18 months for a publisher’s embargo to be lifted so the PDFs will be available. These are the usual passage points to gaining access to privately-published information, and open access removes those barriers.

In the library, we’re especially excited because we can read Hampshire faculty member Chris Tinson’s co-authored introduction to the issue, “Hip Hop, Critical Pedagogy, and Radical Education in a Time of Crisis.” Congratulations to Prof. Tinson on being the co-editor of this special issue, and for being part of this exciting transition!

We also appreciate that librarians helped to make this happen. Emily Drabinski, a librarian member of Radical Teacher‘s editorial board, collaborated with staff at the University of Pittsburgh’s University Library System to produce the journal through its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program. Generally, librarians love open access. Hampshire librarians are fans, too. Have questions about open access? Ask us! We’re happy to chat about the logistics, to share examples of other open access projects, and to consider the politics of information access with you.