Archive for the ‘Open Access’ Category

Today I’ll be giving a half-day workshop at METRO, the Metropolitan Library Council here in NYC, these are my presentations for anyone who is interested in “open” topics. The main topics I’ll be covering include Open Source Software, Open Access, and Open Education and how they are relevant to libraries. I’ll also be discussing open licenses, open conferences and camps, open textbooks, and new open Web initiatives.

I will be giving a talk on libraries and the mobile Web at the NEASIS&T Mobile Mania event in Boston next week, and just in time the ALA has been kind enough to let me self-archive the pre-print of my Library Technology Report: On the Move with the Mobile Web: Libraries and Mobile Technologies. I’ve deposited it in E-LIS, a disciplinary repository for the LIS field, so anyone who may be interested in this topic can access it without restrictions there.

Educause has published a free e-book titled The Tower and The Cloud which looks at the impact of information technology on higher education in an age of cloud computing. The book is comprised of chapters written by well-known authors such as Clifford A. Lynch. The 295 page book is available for free online.

via Open Education News

Last month I posted about the interview I had with Jimmy Wales for my Open & Libraries class I’m teaching this semester. This month I was fortunate enough to speak with Peter Suber just in time for Open Access Day earlier this week, and again I thought I’d post it here for those of you who may be interested in Open Access issues. Other interviews I’ve had recently include a chat with Dorothea Salo about institutional repositories, and an interview with Stephen Francoeur about organizing unconferences.

Here are the questions I asked Peter Suber and here’s the link to the audio:

1. You are a Senior Researcher at SPARC, can you start by telling us a bit about SPARC and what exactly you do in your position there?
2. You are one of the drafters of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, how is it that you first became interested in Open Access?
3. Do you have any current or future projects related to Open Access that you can tell us about?
4. Earlier this year the faculty of the Arts and Sciences at Harvard University adopted a landmark Open Access mandate and other universities and organizations are poised to follow suit, why do you think this is happening now?
5. In a recent article on prestige and OA, you talk about the fact that most researchers will choose prestige over OA without ever realizing that they probably don’t need to choose; that many toll-access journals are compatible with OA archiving. What do you think needs to happen in order to significantly raise awareness about this?
6. SPARC is a founding partner in the first Open Access Day coming up on October 14th, can you tell us a bit about that?
7. Why do you think it’s important for libraries and librarians to promote Open Access?
8. Have you anything else you’d like to tack on about OA, your own experiences, or anything else I may not have asked you, etc?

In the spirit of Tuesday’s Open Access Day, the American Library Association has made its flagship publication, American Libraries, openly available to the public. Previously only accessible online to members, AL issues dating back to 2003 can now be read through ebrary and HTML versions of the issues are slated for January 2009. Non-ALA members can also now subscribe to the related AL Direct newsletter. See the press release here for more details as well as the new American Libraries blog - AL Inside Scoop.

Over 100 organizations in 20 different countries have signed up and committed to participate in the first ever Open Access Day which will take place next week on Tuesday, October 14. Founded by SPARC, Students for FreeCulture and PLoS, Open Access Day will help broaden awareness of Open Access issues “including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public.”

via Open Education News

The Shapiro Library at the University of Michigan has become the first university library to install an Espresso Book Machine, also known as “the ATM of books”, which prints public domain books in a matter of 5-7 minutes. The service is available to researchers, students and the public at a cost of $10 per book. According to their recent press release:

“The printing process begins with a reader selecting a digitized book from U-M’s pre-1923 collection or from another online source, such as the Open Content Alliance. Most books printed prior to the early 1920s can be reprinted without seeking the permission from whomever holds the copyright. Then the file is downloaded to the Espresso Book Machine, where it is formatted, printed and perfect bound with a four-color cover.”

via Open Access News

If anyone is interested in open licenses, I interviewed Jimmy Wales this morning on that topic. He was kind enough to agree to speak with me as a part of the course I’m teaching at San Jose State University on the Open Movement and Libraries. And since I am making all of my course materials openly available under a Creative Commons license I thought it would be useful to share this for those interested. I have also interviewed Stephen Downes of the National Research Council in Canada, and Nicole Engard of LibLime, and I have interviews lined up with more incredibly smart people so stay tuned.

Here are the questions I asked Jimmy Wales and here’s the link to the (10 minute) interview:

1. You are a member of the board at Creative Commons which is a worldwide project which straddles the gap between full copyright and the public domain, offering new choices for creators, can you start off by telling us a bit about more about that?
2. How is it that you first became interested in Open licenses?
3. Many people, including the authors of the Open Source Definition, the Free Software Definition and the PLOS’ Open Access Definition insist that commercial uses must be permissible in order for content to be considered free, how do you think this reconciles with Creative Commons’ non-commercial clause?
4. Wikipedia uses copyleft (GFDL) and you are also on the board of Creative Commons, both of which have licenses which demand that derivative works be licensed with the same original license, do you often find incompatibility issues?
5. The Wikia community is also using Open licensing of content, can you tell us a bit about that?
6. Can you tell us a bit about your latest project Wikia Search and how you are using open licensing there?
7. It seems as though you’ve headed initiatives which have contributed or incorporated nearly all of the topics we are covering in our course - open-source software, open access, open education, and open licensing; Why do you think it’s important to promote Open licensing and Open in general?

The Chronicle of Higher Ed put out a couple of articles yesterday about the recent trend toward pirated textbooks with Students Flock to Web Sites Offering Pirated Textbooks and Textbook Sales Drop, and University Presses Search for Reasons Why. In July I posted about this issue, and the movement toward open source books and free educational materials with (legal) initiatives such as the Textbook Revolution and others if you’d like to read more on the topic.

One of the best new resources I’ve discovered for getting to know about Open Access issues is the set of articles which Walt Crawford has created on the PALINET Leadership Network. He compiles information and content from leaders in the OA field and adds to it his own impressions and article excerpts. I have made these required reading for my Open and Libraries course this fall:

• Open access basics
• Open access overview
• Open access: why it matters
• Open access issues
• Open access resources
• Open access myths
• Open access controversies
• Thinking about libraries and access