Press Release:
A group of the nation’s largest research libraries are collaborating to create a repository of their vast digital collections, including millions of books, organizers announced today. These holdings will be archived and preserved in a single repository called the HathiTrust. Materials in the public domain will be available for reading online.
Launched jointly by the [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Open Access category.
Major Library Partners Launch HathiTrust Shared Digital Repository
Springer Acquires Open Access Publisher BioMed Central
From Library Journal:
In a major—if not unexpected—deal, Springer, the world’s second largest publisher of commercial STM (science, technology, and medicine) journals, has acquired pioneering for-profit open access (OA) publisher BioMed Central (BMC). Financial terms were not disclosed.
On the balance sheet, adding BioMed Central would seem to be a very minor deal for Springer; BioMed Central [...]
Leading research institutions to further develop free global online access to findings of UK life sciences
From the British Library:
Eight leading biomedical research funding organisations, including Government bodies, Research Councils and Charities, have approved funding to further develop the UK PubMed Central website (www.ukpmc.ac.uk) over the next three years.
The development will be carried out by the British Library, the University of Manchester and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute [...]
NIH Public Access Policy To Face Copyright Challenge in Congress?
From Library Journal:
In less than a week, on Thursday, September 11, the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property of the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on what sources tell LJ is a legislative attempt to redress publishers’ concerns that public access policies—namely the recently enacted policy at [...]
Organizations in Strong Support of NIH Public Access Policy
From SLA’s Public Policy Connections blog:
SLA and others sent letters to all members of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property and the Committee on Judiciary expressing long-standing and strong support for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and opposing any change to the current Policy that would undermine its [...]
Out in the open: Some scientists sharing results
From The Boston Globe:
Barry Canton, a 28-year-old biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has posted raw scientific data, his thesis proposal, and original research ideas on an online website for all to see.
To young people primed for openness by the confessional existence they live online, that may not seem like a big deal.
But [...]
Web Security Words Help Digitize Old Books
From All Things Considered:
People who use the Internet to talk to friends, set up free e-mail accounts or buy concert tickets are often unknowingly helping to digitize vast libraries of old books and newspapers.
That’s because more than 40,000 Web sites — including popular ones such as Ticketmaster, Facebook and Craigslist — are using a new [...]
NIH Expresses Appreciation of SLA Support
From SLA’s Public Policy Connections blog:
On 20 June 2008, SLA received a letter from Elias A. Zerhouni, Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH), expressing appreciation for SLA’s support of open and timely Internet access to NIH research articles.
SLA Provides Comments on NIH Public Access Policy
From the SLA Public Policy Connections blog:
SLA provided comments to Elias Zerhouni, M.D. at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) expressing general support of the NIH Public Access Policy. SLA recommended shortening the embargo period and producing a list of publishers whose author publishing agreements provide for deposit with PubMed Central in a manner that [...]
Harvard Law faculty votes for ‘open access’ to scholarly articles
From Harvard Law School:
In a move that will disseminate faculty research and scholarship as broadly as possible, the Harvard Law School faculty unanimously voted last week to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles available online for free, making HLS the first law school to commit to a mandatory open access policy.