[BOAI] Confederation of Open Access Repositories

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from CARL and DRIVER.  --Peter Suber.]


*Please excuse any cross-posting*

October 23, 2009

OTTAWA/GHENT, BELGIUM- On October 21, CARL became 
a founding member of the Confederation of Open 
Access Repositories (COAR). COAR is an 
international association of organizations that 
have a common strategic interest in open access 
to scholarly communication. COAR was formed out 
of a need to work together at the international 
level to promote greater visibility and 
application of research outputs through global 
networks of open access digital repositories.

Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) 
has played a leadership role in the development 
of open access repositories in Canada. Through 
the CARL Institutional Repositories Program, the 
Association has assisted its members in setting 
up repositories on their campuses; and worked 
with other research organizations in Canada and 
internationally in support of open access. 
Participation in COAR is a natural extension of 
these activities. "We are delighted to announce 
our membership in COAR," said Tom Hickerson, 
chair of the CARL Institutional Repositories 
Working Group and Vice-President/President-Elect 
of CARL. "COAR membership offers CARL and 
Canadian research libraries the opportunity to 
have a greater influence on the direction and 
expansion of open access world-wide".

COAR evolved out of a European project called the 
Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for 
European Research (DRIVER) in consultation with 
the international repository community. The 
Confederation aims to support the expansion of 
open access through developing international, 
interoperable standards; advocating for open 
access policies with research funders and 
institutions; and working to improve deposit 
rates at repositories. Other founding members of 
COAR are from Europe, Asia, and the United 
States. "The collections contained in open access 
repositories gain tremendous value when they are 
part of a larger, interconnected network," said 
Norbert Lossau, Scientific Coordinator of the 
DRIVER Project. "CARL's membership creates an 
important strategic link between Canada and the international community."

COAR was officially launched in Ghent, Belgium during Open Access Week.

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The Canadian Association of Research Libraries 
(CARL) counts as its members the 28 largest 
Canadian university libraries and the three major 
federal national libraries (Library and Archives 
Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and 
Technical Information [CISTI], and the Library of 
Parliament). CARL strives to enhance the capacity 
of Canada's research libraries to partner in 
research and higher education, seeking effective 
and sustainable scholarly communication and 
public policy encouraging of research and broad 
access to scholarly information.
www.carl-abrc.ca

DRIVER is a multi-phase effort whose vision and 
primary objective is to establish a cohesive, 
pan-European infrastructure of Digital 
Repositories, offering sophisticated 
functionality services to both researchers and 
the general public. Based on the establishment of 
a co-ordinated network of Digital Repositories, 
containing (textual) research and other scholarly 
publications, and on the development of an 
advanced-quality test-bed infrastructure, DRIVER 
will enable enhanced interoperability of data and 
service-providers while providing the required 
functionalities to the end users. Through its 
awareness and advocacy programme, it will foster 
the development of Digital Repositories in all 
European countries. With a number of studies on 
the current state of the Digital Repository 
landscape, it will also identify the most 
pressing issues for future developments.
www.driver-repository.eu

For more information, please contact:

Brent Roe
Executive Director
Canadian Association of Research Libraries
T +1(613)562.5800 x 3652
carl at uottawa.ca

Dr. Dale Peters
Scientific Technical Manager DRIVER II
State and University Library of Goettingen
T +49 551 39 5242
peters at sub.uni‐goettingen.de 
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