Open Access Week

Open Access Week, October 19-23 During the third week of October, students, scholars, and librarians around the world will celebrate the First International Open Access Week to draw attention to open access to scholarly communication and research. One of the organizers of Open Access Week is Simmons' own Open Access Directory (OAD), hosted by GSLIS and cofounded by Associate Professor Robin Peek (GSLIS) and Peter Suber, who is a senior fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The OAD provides a list of events, instructional materials, podcasts, and webcasts of activities. Visit http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Main_Page.

The GSLIS student chapters have joined to celebrate Open Access Week. Their primary goal is to educate LIS students on their right to access research papers free of cost. In the last 20 years, subscription prices to scholarly journals have increased by 260%. As libraries' budgets shrink, so too will their journal numbers. This means students will lose access to valuable literature. Open Access promotes free, immediate access to peerreviewed publications; advances education; gives equal access opportunities to everyone; promotes scholarly communication; and increases scholars' visibility and impact factor.

On Wednesday, October 21, at 6 p.m., Professor Peek will highlight the newly established Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity involving Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley. Seats are limited. RSVP to Nancy Pontika at pontika@simmons.edu.

We will post other Open Access Week events as information becomes available. Visit gslis.simmons.edu/oaweek2009/ for more details. Come celebrate with us and promote increased open and less expensive access!

Article by Nancy Pontika