<div dir="ltr">[Forwarded message from <b class="gmail_sendername">Shawn Daugherty</b><span dir="ltr">]</span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div style="text-align:left"><b><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">For Immediate
Release</font></b></div><div style="text-align:left"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">February 3, 2015</font></div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">For more
information, contact:<br>Heather Joseph<br><a href="tel:%28202%29%20296-2296" value="+12022962296" target="_blank">(202) 296-2296</a> <br><span style="color:rgb(0,116,189);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none"><a href="mailto:andrea@arl.org" target="_blank">heather@arl.org</a></span></font></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><font color="#0074bd"><br></font>Washington, DC – A meeting of international student
medical associations in the spring of 2013 in Baltimore, MD would be unlike any
other conference Joe McArthur and David Carroll would attend. These activists
and friends would bond over the frustration they felt when they regularly hit
pay walls restricting access to articles, and become inspired to
develop a revolutionary open-access tool that would change the trajectories of both of their careers.<br></font><div><p style="margin:12pt 0in;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Their idea, which would soon be
known as the Open Access Button, is a simple one. When a user encounters an article they want to access that
charges a fee, an app (The Open Access Button) allows them to simply click a button on their browser, registering the incident. This information is then displayed on the Open Access Button website, providing,
for the first time, a sense of the scale of the problem of paywalls. The incidents are also displayed on a map of
the world, which provides an important visual representation of the scope of
the problem. </font></p></div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">“David and Joe epitomize what it
means to be a catalyst for action,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of
SPARC. “They spotted a problem that has vexed the community for years, and,
rather than complaining about, they jumped in with both feet to take action to
try and fix it.”<br></font><div><p style="margin:12pt 0in;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">For creating the Open Access Button,
SPARC is pleased to honor Joe McArthur and David Carroll with its first
Innovator Award of 2015. The February 2015 SPARC Innovator Profile on the Open Access Button is online at <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,116,189);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator</span></a>. </font></p></div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The SPARC
Innovator program recognizes advances in scholarly communication propelled by
an individual, institution, or group. Typically, these advances exemplify SPARC's principles by challenging the status quo in scholarly communication for the
benefit of researchers, libraries, universities, and the public. SPARC
Innovators are featured on th<font color="#000000">e SPARC website semi-annually and have included
Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), John Willinsky, <span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)</span>,
Mi</font>chael Nielsen, Health Research Alliance, The World Bank, R. Preston McAfee,
Harvard University FAS, Ted and Carl Bergstrom, Melissa Hagemann, among others.<br> <br>For further
information or a list of previous SPARC Innovators, please see the SPARC <span style="color:rgb(0,116,189);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none"><a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator/former" target="_blank">website</a></span>.</font></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div style="text-align:center;word-wrap:break-word"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">###</font></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><b><span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></span></b></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><b><span style="border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in">SPARC</span></b><span><br></span>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 on the web
at <a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,116,189);border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in;text-decoration:none">http://www.sparc.arl.org</span></a>.</font></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font></div></div></div></div>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000">Shawn M. Daugherty</font><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000">Assistant Director for Programs & Operations</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000">SPARC</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px">21 Dupont Circle, Suite 800<br>Washington, DC 20036</span><br></font></div><div><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000">p: <a href="tel:202.296.2296%20ext.%20121" value="+12022962296" target="_blank">202.296.2296 ext. 121</a></font></span></div><div><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000">m: <a href="tel:202.503.7688" value="+12025037688" target="_blank">202.503.7688</a></font></span></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" color="#000000"><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><a href="http://www.sparc.arl.org" target="_blank">www.sparc.arl.org</a></span> </font></div></div></div></div></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
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