<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">For immediate release<br>November 29, 2011<br><br>For more information, contact:<br>Jennifer McLennan<br>jennifer [at] arl [dot] org<br>(202) 296-2296 ext. 121<br><br><b>SPARC announces key themes for March event<br></b>Program to examine current Open Access practices and policies<br><br>Washington, DC – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has announced the program theme for its next meeting, to be held in Kansas City, March 11 through 13, 2012. With a focus on “Collaborative strategies for advancing scholarship,” the program will examine recent developments and track key trends in the growth of open-access practices and policies in the scholarly and scientific research arenas.<br><br>The SPARC meeting expands on the popular SPARC Digital Repositories meetings, hosted biennially since 2004, and will provide a North American-based complement to the popular “Innovations in Scholarly Communication (OAI)” workshop held in Geneva in alternating years. The SPARC Open Access meeting will be a regular forum for a full discussion of Open Access as an emerging norm in research and scholarship, and will emphasize collaborative actions that stakeholders can take to effect positive change.<br><br>The program, developed by librarians, publishers, analysts, scholars, and technologists from five countries, will consider developments across four topic areas:<br><br>· Open-access publishing – the explosion of gold OA publishing and how libraries are working to support it.<br><br>· Digital repositories – building a worldwide infrastructure alongside trust for authors and users.<br><br>· Author rights – key developments and the demand for new tools and practices to maximize the potential for sharing through re-use.<br><br>· National and institutional policy adoption – the impact on faculty workflows and the role of the library.<br><br>“SPARC’s focus continues to be on encouraging positive action through collaboration,” said Heather Joseph, executive director. “Our next meeting will be a valuable chance for everyone with a stake in scholarly communication – funders, researchers, policy makers, publishers, librarians, and others – to participate in a substantive discussion on how we can raise the collective level of understanding around Open Access and identify opportunities to work together to move forward.”<br><br>Speakers are being identified and invited by the program committee. A call for proposals to the 2012 Innovation Fair will be issued next month.<br><br>The main SPARC meeting program will take place March 12 & 13, with pre-conference events on March 11. Further information on pre-conferences will be posted this winter. All events will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kansas City.<br><br>Registration is open. Early bird rates start at $265 for SPARC members. Hotel reservations are available for the conference rate of $139 per night. For more information, visit the meeting Web site at <a href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12">http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12</a>.<br><br>Sponsorships are available. Visit http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12/oa12-sponsor/index.shtml for details.<br><br>###<br><br>SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a library membership organization that promotes expanded sharing of scholarship. SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research investments. SPARC is supported by a membership of over 800 academic and research libraries worldwide. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc<br><br> <br><br><div>-------------------------------------<br>Jennifer McLennan<br>Director of Programs & Operations<br>SPARC<br>jennifer@arl.org<br>(202) 296-2296 x121<br>Fax: (202) 872-0884<br>http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermclennan<br>http://www.arl.org/sparc<br>--------------------------------------<br>Open Access Week 2011<br>October 24 - 30<br>http://www.openaccessweek.org<br>--------------------------------------<br>The SPARC Open Access Meeting<br>March 11 - 13, 2012<br>Kansas City<br>http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/11-0726.shtml<br></div><br></body></html>