<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Hi all,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Since we don’t hear a lot about activities in Africa, I thought I’d share with you an initiative being led by the West and Central African Research and Education Network, with numerous other African and international collaborators (including COAR).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best, </div><div class="">Kathleen</div><div class=""><div><br class=""></div><div>Kathleen Shearer</div><div>Executive Director</div><div>Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)</div><div><a href="http://www.coar-repositories.org" class="">www.coar-repositories.org</a></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">----------------</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">LIBSENSE is building communities of practice and strengthening local and national services to support open science, open access and research in Africa.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">Open science is an international trend aimed at sharing the results of research widely. It is transforming the way research is done, and increasing the value and impact of research by accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and expanding the adoption of research outcomes for everyone. </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">Although global in nature, there are important local and regional aspects of how open science and open access are implemented. It is important that the policies and infrastructures created to support open science are designed and delivered to meet the needs and requirements of the research communities in different regions.</span></div><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:4pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">This is the aim of LIBSENSE. The LIBSENSE initiative was launched in 2016 to bring together the research and education networks (RENs) and academic library communities in order to strengthen open access and open science in Africa. LIBSENSE provides a venue through which different stakeholder communities can work together to define priority activities, share knowledge, and develop relevant services together.</span></h2><br class=""><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">LIBSENSE is led by the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) in collaboration with sister regional African RENs (ASREN and UbuntuNet Alliance). Other participating partners include several national RENs, libraries, library associations, universities and research communities in Africa, in conjunction with COAR, EIFL, University of Sheffield, National Institute of Informatics (Japan), GEANT, and OpenAIRE.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">From December 2018 - March 2019, LIBSENSE conducted workshops in each of the three major regions in Africa bringing the library and NREN communities together to define a shared agenda for progressing open science and open access in these regions. Each workshop, which contributed to priority setting in each region, also built upon the outcomes of preceding discussions. So far</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">, there have already been several concrete outcomes of the LIBSENSE initiative, including: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">Terms of Reference for NREN-Library collaboration in African countries, m</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">etadata guidelines for repositories,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""> p</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">lans for a regional repository hosting service, and n</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">ational and institutional policy templates.</span></div><br class=""><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">LIBSENSE will continue to assist countries and regions in Africa to undertake new activities and act as a forum for information exchange across the continent and amongst the different stakeholder communities.</span></div><br class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">For more information, visit the LIBSENSE website: </span><a href="https://spaces.wacren.net/display/LIBSENSE" style="text-decoration:none;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" class="">https://spaces.wacren.net/display/LIBSENSE</span></a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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