Open Access Day

October 14, 2008 will be the world's first Open Access Day.

What is Open Access?

Open Access is a growing international movement that encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.

An important part of the Open Access movement is the effort to ensure that publications resulting from research funded by the public through agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF), should be made accessible at no cost to the public. This movement has growing support from research funding agencies and policy makers world-wide.

At 4 pm PST on October 14, 2008, you can learn more by tuning in to "Voices of Open Access," a forum webcast sponsored by SPARC, Public Library of Science (PLoS), and Students for Free Culture, and hosted by Harvard's Countway Medical Library. The webcast will feature a brief presentation by Sir Richard Roberts, Joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993, and Philip E. Bourne, founding Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Computational Biology.

More information can be found at the Open Access Program web page.

What does Open Access mean to me?

Open Access puts research instantly at your fingertips — there is no more worrying about whether or not you are on the campus network or if the library has a subscription. If you are online, you have access, period. Open Access adds a massive inventory of reliable, scholarly sources to the global online library — with quality assured by peer review. It increases the circulation of knowledge and ideas and that increases the impact of ideas as well as fostering the growth of science.

What is Kennedy Library Doing to Support Open Access?

At Cal Poly, the library has launched DigitalCommons@CalPoly, where faculty and graduate students can deposit online copies of their published work and data. The Kennedy Library will assist faculty in locating, digitizing and requesting copyright for their publications. The Library also has the ability to assist faculty in starting their own online publications. Perhaps most importantly, the Kennedy Library is committed to the long-term preservation of electronic materials entrusted to their care.

Kennedy Library also links to over 6,600 unique Open Access journal titles through nearly 40 publication databases.

Where can I learn more?

To learn more about Open Access and other issues facing scholarly communications, visit the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources web site.

To learn more about events surrounding Open Access Day, visit http://openaccessday.org/program/.