Celebrating Open Access

~ by Lisa Carter, Vice Provost for Libraries and University Librarian

This week we celebrate Open Access Week 2020. Thanks to Cameron Cook (Digital Curation Coordinator), Jesse Henderson (Digital Library Services Planning & Production Manager), Kristin Lansdown (Open Educational Resources Librarian), Carrie Nelson (Director of Scholarly Communication), Jennifer Patiño (Data & Digital Scholarship Librarian), and Maij Xyooj (Resident Librarian for South Asian Studies), a robust array of activities and resources are being offered.

Join us on Wednesday, October 21, at noon, for an Open Access Digital Pop-up, where Libraries staff will discuss the open access resources and services available through the Libraries. You are also invited to participate in a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, in partnership with The Black Lunch Table. No Wikipedia editing experience is required!

Jennifer Patiño created an online zine for the occasion about our institutional repository: MINDS@UW + Open Access a README Series Zine. It outlines the benefits of open access and discusses MINDS@UW.

Open Access remains an important conversation for the Libraries to lead on campus as we work to advance equitable access to information and resources. We continue to engage in this conversation in the context of broader activity and innovation in our field. Here are a few examples of these ongoing efforts as summarized by ARL. We are fortunate to have colleagues both here at the Libraries and across campus who share their OA expertise to help remove the financial and legal barriers many learners, scholars, and teachers face accessing academic information.   

 You will find a list of Open Access initiatives and resources that help support OA offered through UW-Madison here. They include the Libraries’ Open Educational Resources program, campus’ Research Data Services, and the Libraries’ copyright support service, among others.

I encourage you to explore some of these resources and attend an OA activity this week!