In late October academic libraries around the world will celebrate Open Access Week. This annual event is a great opportunity to publicize and educate faculty, students and staff about ongoing scholarly communication issues and initiatives, and to highlight IR services that help promote open access and sustainable scholarly communication.
Look no further than these Digital Commons subscribers for some great ideas about how to celebrate open access at your library:
Getting creative, Janelle Wertzberger of Gettysburg College is making OA logo cookies with a cookie cutter that they printed on their 3D printer, thanks to Chip Wolfe at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who made an STL file for them! The University at Albany, State University of New York, will be having a launch event for their new IR, Scholars Archive, during Open Access week, and having Jim DelRosso from Cornell ILR come give a talk. The University of Kentucky is having a “a panel discussion about research and scholarship in an environment that is trending toward openness.” Boise State Scholarworks will be using OA Week to celebrate their millionth download (congrats!). CSU Ohio is having a joint conference with Wright State. UMass Medical School eScholarship@UMMS is celebrating OA Week and they will be highlighting their data services. As part of OA Week the University of Tennessee Knoxville library is having a 5th Anniversary Celebration of Trace, Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange.
If you need ideas for presentations and messaging, Isaac Gilman’s Open Access in 15 Minutes (or less) is a great place to start. OA advocate Peter Suber’s introductory page also provides an excellent overview. Many items in the collaboratory, such as this brochure for Johnson & Wales University’s ScholarsArchive@JWU, do a great job of framing the repository within the global Open Access campaign. In addition, the bepress outreach department (outreach@bepress.com) is always happy to discuss marketing and messaging if you’d like more information.
Many universities also host open access week materials in their IRs. This is a great way to both advertise upcoming events and provide access to materials for those unable to attend. Here are just a few of the colleges and universities hosting OA week material in their IRs:
If you’re already thinking ahead to next year, consider following Crystal Goldman and the librarians over at San Jose State University’s lead. In celebration of Open Access Week SJSU hosted a one-day conference on open access, open resources, and open education. “Open Access Un/Conference: Promote, Impact, Assess” offers both a formal conference proceeding and an opportunity for informal discussion.
We’re excited to see our Digital Commons community planning such fun, innovative activities! If you are planning OA Week activities on your campus that you’d like to share, we’d love to hear about them—e-mail us at outreach@bepress.com.
