Libraries and Graduate School Host Open Access Day October 14
NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: 10/01/08
CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATION ASST., (413) 545-0162
UMASS AMHERST LIBRARIES AND THE GRADUATE SCHOOL HOST
OPEN ACCESS DAY OCTOBER 14
Amherst, MA – The UMass Amherst Libraries and the Graduate School will participate in the first International Open Access Day on October 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Learning Commons, Lower Level, Du Bois Library. The event will include an international webcast, speakers, and a discussion session. Researchers, educators, librarians, students, and the public are invited to attend. UMass Amherst Libraries is one of more than 65 libraries around the world participating in Open Access Day. Refreshments will be served.
Open Access is the principle that research should be made freely available via the Internet, especially in the case of publicly funded research. Open Access literature is digital, online, free of charge, and often free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
The international webcast will highlight important open access issues and provide a call to action. The webcast will feature Sir Richard Roberts, joint winner of the Nobel Prize 1993, one of 26 Nobel Prize Winners to sign the Open Letter to Congress in support of taxpayer access to publicly funded research, and Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs; and Philip E. Bourne, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Diego, Associate Director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank, and Senior Advisor to the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Both speakers will discuss how Open Access impacts research and will answer questions on this topic from participating campuses.
UMass Amherst will feature speakers Chris Boulton, PhD candidate in Communications, and Charles Schweik, Associate Professor of Natural Resources Conservation and open-culture advocate. A question and answer discussion period will address issues of Open Access on campus, in Massachusetts, the U.S., and internationally.
The goal of Open Access Day is to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access, including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public. The founding partners are Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for FreeCulture.
“Open Access Day is a great opportunity to inform everyone on campus about the nature and importance of Open Access,” said Nelson Pavlosky, Co-Founder of Students for FreeCulture. “It’s really an issue that impacts everyone in the university, whether they are professors who publish, students who research, or librarians who purchase journal subscriptions.”
“Making full use of the Internet to share and reuse content without restriction is pushing scientific communication into the future,” said Peter Jerram, CEO of PLoS. “Open Access Day acknowledges the enormous progress that’s been made towards comprehensive access to research. We are pleased to be partnering with the community on this special day.”
RSVPs are requested to scholarworks@library.umass.edu by Monday, Oct. 13th. For more information, contact Marilyn Billings at (413) 545-6891 or mbillings@library.umas.edu, or Open Access Day: http://openaccessday.org.
Last Edited: 2 January 2009
