[BOAI] Open Access Week declared for 2009

[Iryna Kuchma]

[Forwarding from  Jennifer McLennan,  SPARC Open Access Forum]


For immediate release
 March 5, 2009

For more information, contact:

Jennifer McLennan, SPARC
 (202) 296-2296 ext 157
 jennifer [at] arl [dot] org

Open Access Week declared for 2009
 Popular global event extended over one week, October 19 – 23

Washington, DC – March 5, 2009 – To accommodate widespread global
interest in the movement toward Open Access to scholarly research
results, October 19 – 23, 2009 will mark the first international Open
Access Week. The now-annual event, expanded from one day to a full
week, presents an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding
of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types
of research funders, within the international higher education
community and the general public.

Open Access Week builds on the momentum generated by the 120 campuses
in 27 countries that celebrated Open Access Day in 2008. Event
organizers SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources
Coalition), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for
FreeCulture welcome key new contributors, who will help to enhance and
expand the global reach of this popular event in 2009: eIFL.net
(Electronic Information for Libraries), OASIS (the Open Access
Scholarly Information Sourcebook); and the Open Access Directory
(OAD).

“I’m participating in Open Access Week again this year because I want
to shed light on the tremendous potential of Open Access,” said
Allyson Mower, Scholarly Communications & Copyright Librarian for the
University of Utah’s Marriott Library. “People searching for
information usually consume whatever is readily available. Open Access
ensures that quality information is at people’s fingertips.”

“eIFL.net works to make intellectual outputs of developing and
transitional countries more visible and more easily accessible,” added
Rima Kupryte, Director of eIFL.net. “We believe that Open Access
contributes to improved education, teaching, and research, and
accelerates innovations and economical developments in these
countries.  Open Access Week is a great opportunity to promote Open
Access globally.”

This year’s program will highlight educational resources on Open
Access that local hosts can use to customize their own programs to
suit local audiences and time zones. OASIS will serve as the
centerpiece of the 2009 program, delivering resources for every
constituency and every awareness level. The Open Access Directory will
again provide an index of participants on five continents, as well as
their growing clearinghouse for all OA resources. Through the
collaborative functionality of the two initiatives, OA videos,
briefing papers, podcasts, slideshows, posters and other informative
tools will be drawn from all over the Web to be highlighted during
Open Access Week.

The organizers will also work with registrants to develop a variety of
sample program tracks, such as “Administrators’ introduction to campus
open-access policies and funds,” “OA 101,” and “Complying with the NIH
public access policy” that take full advantage of available tools.
Participants are invited to adapt these resources for local use, and
to mark Open Access Week by hosting an event, distributing literature,
blogging -- or even just wearing an Open Access t-shirt.

“After the success of last year’s Open Access Day, we’re delighted to
be co-organizing the first ever Open Access Week with our fellow
collaborators, again in conjunction with the anniversary of one of our
flagship journals,” said Peter Jerram, CEO for the Public Library of
Science. “We ask our supporters to celebrate the fifth anniversary of
PLoS Medicine by spreading the word about Open Access and getting
involved in the week.”

“There’s no more certain sign of the momentum behind Open Access to
research than an annual, global celebration of this scale,” added
Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC. “Occasions like this are
the best possible way to attract attention from busy faculty members
and administrators, and to demonstrate the widespread appeal of Open
Access. It’s SPARC’s pleasure to be working with our partners to
realize the event once again this year.”

For more information about Open Access Week and to register, visit
http://www.openaccessweek.org.

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SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with
SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more
than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open
system of scholarly communication. SPARC’s advocacy, educational and
publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of
research.  SPARC is a founder of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access,
representing taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and
institutions that support open public access to taxpayer-funded
research. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.