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Open Access Week Defined

open access logoThis week we celebrate Open Access Week, which is now in its sixth year. What is open access: that free Facebook page you created or that summer blockbuster movie you want to download? According to openaccessweek.org, open access is “the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need.” It is typically used in academic circles. Furthermore, the goal of open access week is to “host faculty votes on campus open-access policies, to issue reports on the societal and economic benefits of Open Access, to commit new funds in support of open-access publication, and more.”

At Falvey we strive to follow the open access standard concerning our own policies, software and procedures. David Uspal, Falvey’s senior web specialist for library services and scholarly applications, discussed the many open access projects with which the Library is involved. Upsal explains that almost all of the software the Library uses, from VUDL to VuFind, is open source. For the future, the Library intends to establish an open source integrated library system, or ILS, called Kuali OLE. In addition, the Library publishes open access journals, and Upsal is working to add even more journals to Falvey’s open access publications.

Today, October 21st,  Villanova will discuss possibilities of moving further into open access. This faculty forum, the second out of three such forums, will be “devoted to a discussion of the high cost of journal publication and the emergence of open access journals as a potential vehicle for scholarly publication.” This forum will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the Connelly Center cinema and will feature brief talks by faculty and library staff.

Raamaan McBride is a writer for the Communication & Service Promotion Team and an Access Services Specialist on the Access Services Team.

 


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Last Modified: October 21, 2013

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