Friday, April 30, 2010

Who will preserve open access news?

Peter Suber just posted the last post to Open Access News. Closure of the blog is partly for technical reasons (the choice was either to close or migrate), and partly because the real news nowadays is posted at the Open Access Tracking Project.

Open Access News will remain as it is and where it is, for now, thanks to Google. But what about the long term? Shouldn't someone be preserving this monumental resource, and, my fellow librarians, shouldn't this someone be one of us?

Many thanks to Peter Suber and to sponsors Open Society Institute, SPARC, and the Wellcome Trust.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010

David Wiley's letter of support for FRPAA

David Wiley has posted his own letter of support to his representative for FRPAA. An excellent example if people are looking for ideas on how to participate effectively.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Campus open access publishing funds: SPARC resources and webcast

SPARC has issued a set of resources on Campus Open Access Publishing Funds, and is hosting a free webinar on May 5th with SPARC Consultant Greg Tannenbaum. Note that OA Library Andrew Waller is among the experts listed!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine tutorial on blip TV

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) tutorial now available on blip TV, thanks to OA Librarian Richard Baer.

Congress takes another stride toward public access to research -- Federal Research Public Access Act introduced in the House of Representatives

ALLIANCE FOR TAXPAYER ACCESS
www.taxpayeraccess.org

For immediate release
April 15, 2010

For more information, contact
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org

Congress takes another stride toward public access to research
Federal Research Public Access Act introduced in the House of Representatives

Washington, DC – Fueling the growing momentum toward openness, transparency, and accessibility to publicly funded information, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010 (FRPAA) has been introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and a bi-partisan host of co-sponsors. The proposed bill would build on the success of the first U.S. mandate for public access to the published results of publicly funded research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and require federal agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from funded research no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

“Free and open access to scientific literature and data are the underpinnings of discovery in the digital age,” said Stephen Friend MD PhD, President and Co-Founder of Sage Bionetworks. “Full collaboration among researchers is essential, and we have the power now to communicate, collaborate, and innovate in ways that were previously unimaginable. I applaud the sponsors of the Federal Research Public Access Act for their commitment to ensuring the kind of access scientists need to make progress on improved disease treatments and diagnostics in the digital world.”

Like the Senate bill introduced in 2009 by Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Cornyn (R-TX), H.R. 5037 would unlock unclassified research funded by agencies including: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

H.R. 5037 follows closely on the heels of a recent expression of interest in public access policies from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which issued a request for public comment on mechanisms that would leverage federal investments in scientific research and increase access to information that promises to stimulate scientific and technological innovation and competitiveness.

“This bill recognizes the urgent need – and opportunity – to use digital technology to increase the pace of innovation,” added Elliot Schwartz, Vice President for Economic Studies at the Committee for Economic Development. “The bill is a crucial, welcome move toward advancing research through openness and avoiding making the taxpayer pay twice for taxpayer-funded research… it is good public policy.”
The introduction of H.R. 5037 was also welcomed by leaders in the higher education community, who recognize this legislation helps to ensure the United States is positioned to continue to fuel education and innovation.

"Conducting critical research that enriches and improves lives has always been a key mission of universities in this country, including Ohio State," said E. Gordon Gee, president of The Ohio State University. "Disseminating the knowledge gained from that research is an equally important part of our institutions' public purpose. The Federal Research Public Access Act will further spread new knowledge, and it has my full support."

“Advancing research is at the core of the mission of higher education, and broadening access to the scholarly record is a critical step in helping research to advance to its fullest potential,” added Karen Hanson, Provost and Executive Vice President, Indiana University. “The current system for exchanging the results of research is deeply flawed, and major changes – like this bill – are required. I welcome the introduction of the Federal Research Public Access Act.”

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access thanks and congratulates Representative Doyle and all of the bill’s co-sponsors for championing this pivotal legislation, and calls on organizations and individuals to write in support of the bill through the Web site at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

For more information about the Federal Research Public Access Act and the broad coalition that supports its passage, visit http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

###

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing organizations that supports open public access to the results of federally funded research. The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. Details on the ATA may be found at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

WorldCat rights and responsibilities for the OCLC cooperative

OCLC has released the next draft of their WorldCat rights and responsibilities for the OCLC cooperative.

My comments can be found on The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics. In brief, my suggestion is that the OCLC Record Use Policy Council should scrap this draft, and begin fresh with a vision of how library bibliographic records should be shared for a world with an internet as free and open as it can be. Library catalogue records should be freely accessible and part of a robust and growing public domain. OCLC should refrain from using OCLC or WorldCat branding on records which are, if anything, someone else's creative work. If anyone should sign a catalogue record, it should be the cataloguer - not OCLC.

Please read the draft policy and contribute your own comments.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Open Access Week: join!

Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) 2nd annual conference: registration now open

OA journals and TOC RSS feeds

Here's an interesting blog post from the other day, dealing with OA journals and table of contents feeds:

http://tinyurl.com/yahf7ra

Friday, April 02, 2010

April 2010 SPARC Open Access Newsletter

Peter Suber just released the April 2010 SPARC Open Access Newsletter. Highlighted this month: a brief poetic thought for spring on the winter coat and OA; results of Peter's quest for a verb to describe making something OA; and the monthly roundup.