Category — Open Access Year

If you can answer yes to any or all of the questions below then you could enter the Digital Repository Contest sponsored by Duraspace, SPARC and Open Access Week.

• Have you been a part of establishing or maintaining a unique digital repository that provides open access to a collection that was previously not used or under-used?
• Do you enjoy showcasing your repository’s content and the cool tools that encourage use of the materials?
• Do you have anecdotes about how access to resources from your repository changed someone’s life, or their thinking on an issue, or contributed to a breakthrough idea?

Please consider sharing your passion and knowledge of collecting, curating managing and sharing digital repository resources from every corner of the globe by entering the DuraSpace SPARC Open Access Week Contest and telling your story.

The winners will receive a $50 Amazon Gift certificate and be invited to tell their stories during the “All About Repositories” Web Seminar on Oct. 14, 2009.

Entries will be accepted through September 28, 2009. DuraSpace SPARC Open Access Week Contest winners will be announced on October 1, 2009 so watch this blog for more information.

This post was written by The Alliance of German Science Organisations’ Open Access Working Group. The guest authors were:  Sünje Dallmeier-Tiessen, Heinz Pampel and Rubina Vock.

The Alliance of German Science Organisations’ Open Access Working Group and the project partners of the information platform open-access.net support the broad participation of German science institutions in international Open Access Week.

The coordinating committee with representatives of the working group and open-access.net encourages scientific and scholarly organisations in Germany to take part in Open Access Week to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access among scholars and scientists. It is the aim of this group to support scientific and scholarly organisations with planning educational materials and events at their institutions within the framework of international Open Access Week in Germany.

The German Library Congress 2009 (the largest librarians meeting in Germany) offered us the chance to approach and inform over 3000 participants about Open Access Week. This meeting was instrumental in providing us with an opportunity to meet key players and allowed us to present the international Open Access Week and (possible) German contributions.

Our exhibit booth, located at a prominent corner of the fair hall, had been set up nicely with customized posters from Open Access Week. We displayed customized slides on Open Access Week, a poster from the information platform open-access.net and provided informational materials on different German open access projects.

Photo courtesy of Rubina Vock.

One highlight that also attracted many random visitors were the Open Access buttons (or perhaps it was the fresh and juicy strawberries that we also offered!).

Photo courtesy of Heinz Pampel.

It was impressive to see how more and more participants of the congress wore a button! Many participants of the congress got in contact with the representatives of the coordinating committee - questions varied from the general principles of open access publishing to support requests as well as requests for materials.

The whole activity was considered a great success not only because of the overwhelming response by the congress participants, but also by the many institutions willing to support and participate in Open Access Week.

Downloadable customized German and international materials - will be made available on the information platform open access.net. Moreover, all German institutions are invited to enhance their public visibility and publicise their activities and events at Open Access Week by registering with the information platform open-access.net.

The Dutch higher education sector has declared 2009 to be ‘Open Access Year’. The aim is to boost Open Access to the results of scientific/scholarly and practice-based research in the Netherlands.  Efforts will be made throughout the year to formulate and implement an Open Access policy, develop and improve the knowledge infrastructure, establish a clear legal framework, and create awareness with all stakeholders.

With this in mind, we would like to bring your attention to a short film (Dutch language version without subtitles also available) that they commissioned from University Administrators and Professors in the Netherlands, that highight views on Open Access, including:

• Dr Sijbolt Noorda,  Chairman of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU)
• Paul Doop ,Vice president of The Board University of Amsterdam and University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam
• Huib de Jong,  Member of The Board, University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht
• Martin Bossenbroek, Director, National Library of the Netherlands

You can also view the film right here: