Web Cast Invitation: Institutional Open Access Policies: The Harvard Example

The Library and the Library Committee invite you to join us this Thursday, February 5 for a one-hour Webcast and conference call for Oberlin Library Group members, featuring Stuart Schieber, Professor of Computer Science at Harvard, architect of Harvard’s Open Access policy, and head of Harvard’s new Office for Scholarly Communication. The Webcast has been scheduled in response to growing interest in institutional open access policies and the Harvard policy in particular.

On February 12, 2008 the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences became the first in the U.S. to embrace an Open Access directive and the first to grant permission to the university to make their articles openly available. The policy, drafted by a 10-member provost’s committee, was ratified by a unanimous faculty vote. The Harvard FAS vote and Open Access policy emerged at a time when there is growing concern among faculty that traditional publishing processes are not ensuring maximum access to their research. According to Professor Shieber, "The FAS vote confirms that broadening access to their collective output is of fundamental importance to our faculty, and that they are willing to take strong and decisive action to ensure the accessibility of their works."

We invite you to this important Webcast and discussion to consider how an institutional open-access policy, like Harvard’s, may advance research, teaching, and learning at Bowdoin.

The Webcast is sponsored by SPARC, the Scholarly Publications & Academic Resources Coalition and will be moderated by Heather Joseph, SPARC Executive Director. A thirty-minute presentation by Dr. Shieber will be followed by a discussion period. The program will last one hour. Backgound documents are linked at the end of this message.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
4:00 – 5:00 pm EST
Nixon Lounge, 3rd floor, H-L Library

We encourage you to attend.

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