UMass Amherst Libraries and Partners Host

OPEN ACCESS WEEK OCTOBER 20-24

 AMHERST, Mass. – Open Access Week, a global event in its eighth year, will be held from Oct. 20-24, 2014, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The keynote speaker, Peter Suber, engages in a dialogue on open access on Thursday, Oct. 23, 3 – 4:30 p.m., in 160A Events Hall West, Commonwealth Honors College. For the full schedule, visit: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/oa/2014/.

The theme this year, “Generation Open,” highlights the importance of students and early career researchers as advocates for change. The theme also explores how changes in scholarly publishing affect scholars and researchers at different stages of their careers.

Keynote speaker Peter Suber, the author of Open Access, is the director of the Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard, director of the Harvard Open Access Project, faculty fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and senior researcher at Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). He holds a PhD in philosophy and a JD, both from Northwestern University.

As part of the 2014 Open Access Week, the UMass Amherst Libraries will host a series of events relevant to open access, copyright and fair use, data sharing, electronic theses and dissertations, sustainability, and will celebrate their publishing services for open access journals and conferences.  All events are free and open to the public.

 Monday, October 20

Wikipedia Training and Edit-a-Thon Workshop
12:00 – 4:00 p.m. Room 1320, Du Bois Library

Open Access, Copyright and Fair Use for Theses and Dissertations
12:30 p.m. Room 2601, Du Bois Library

Tuesday October 21

Boosting Your Course with Open Education Resources
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Room 2601, Du Bois Library

Wednesday October 22

Information Fair
3 – 5 p.m. Learning Commons, Du Bois Library

Thursday October 23

Keynote: A Conversation with Peter Suber on Open Access
3 – 4:30 p.m. 106A Events Hall West, Commonwealth Honors College

Open Access Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

“Open Access” to information, the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results needed,  has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.

Open Access (OA) has the potential to maximize research investments, increase the exposure and use of published research, facilitate the ability to conduct research across available literature, and enhance the overall advancement of scholarship. Research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public are supporting a move towards Open Access in increasing numbers every year. Open Access Week is a key opportunity for all members of the community to take action to keep this momentum moving forward.