What is RAWR?

Registry of Accessible Web Resources (RAWR) is a curated list of free resources for students and researchers to discover relevant open-access content. RAWR originated from a research paper that surveyed over 300 academic libraries in the Philippines, compiling a comprehensive list of open-access resources provided and promoted by higher education institution libraries. This helps library users in searching quality open access resources in different subject areas and fields.

The Browse search allows users to view resources individually while the List search enables the same searching but in table format so librarians can copy and paste a list of desired open access selection when preparing documents needed by users. The Search selects similar keywords from the "Title", "Content", "Subject", and "Publisher" of the resource. Searches can be further filtered by Categories or the subject fields such as 'Education', 'Language, Literature and Communication', 'Multidisciplinary' or etc. It could be further limited to Types, either 'Journals', 'Libraries', 'Government Documents', and many more. The 'Subject' is different from the 'Categories'. The categorization combines and groups similar subject fields while the 'subject' in this database refer to the specific topics which are found in the resource.

Open Access and Academic Libraries in the Philippines

Philippine academic libraries play a vital role in promoting open access (OA) initiatives. Many libraries offer free access to educational resources, supporting students and researchers. Organizations like the Philippine Association of Academic and Research Librarians (PAARL) and the Philippine Librarians Association, Inc. (PLAI) are key advocates for OA in the country.

Based on the findings of the research that brought this project to life, even the most common open access resources and databases (such as DOAJ, DOAB, and ROAD) were not promoted or disseminated by academic libraries in their website. Furthermore, academic libraries shared an average of 22 open access links. This calls for the need to enhance the quantity, and the quality of open access links shared and promoted by HEI libraries.

Continuous Development

The RAWR database is a work in progress, with ongoing improvements to its coverage and search functionalities. We encourage contributions from librarians and researchers to ensure it remains comprehensive and up-to-date.

Supporting open access fosters a culture of knowledge-sharing and academic collaboration, making valuable resources accessible to all.

The proponents of this database would like to ask for your voluntary participation in a short survey intended to measure website usability and quality. For other inquiries or feedback about RAWR, please email d.balbinjr@bsu.edu.ph