Open Access week is here, and one of the major events taking place is the important Berlin 9 conference, to be held this year in Washington DC. See http://www.berlin9.org/program/index.shtml for the programme.

Of particular interest is a pre-conference workshop on OA policy on the afternoon of Tuesday 8 November, from 2-4 pm.

The purpose of the session is to describe the different policy approaches that have been taken and how effectively they can be made to work in practice.

There are four speakers, as below, and the session has been organised by the OA expert, Alma Swan of Key Perspectives Ltd.:

1. Welcome and introduction (10 minutes):  Alma Swan
2. Mandatory policy with rights retention [Harvard, Kansas SU]: Stuart Shieber, Jeff Vitter]
3. Mandatory policy without rights retention (but inked to assessment processes [Liege]: Bernard Rentier
4. Mandatory policy with intense library advocacy [Glasgow]: William Nixon
5. Q and A / discussion

IFLA establishes OA Task Force

The International Federation of Libraries Association (IFLA) has endorsed open access and established (Bordeaux, October 11^th 2011) an OA Task Force to take this forward. The Task Force will work on the following issues:

-          Advocate for the adoption and promotion of OA policies within the framework of the UN institutions;

-          Build capacity within the IFLA Memebership to advocate for OA at the national level, through the development of case studies and best practices for OA promotion;

-          Connect to various organisations working for OA – such as SPARC, COAR, OASPA, EIFL, Bioline International & DOAJ, among others.

The first step is to produce a road map for the work to be presented to IFLA Governing Board in December 2011, and to begin collecting case studies and best practice as to how the library associations can promote national policies and programmes to foster the progress of OA.

Dedicated web pages will be created in cooperation with IFLA Head Quarters.

The Task Force has the following members (two of which are Trustees of the EPT):

- Lars Bjornshauge,1st Vice President Swedish Library Association  (contact, see below)

- Christoph Bruch, Member Ellen Tise´ Presidential working group on OA

- Leslie Chan, Associate Director Bioline International, Trustee EPT, University of Toronto,    Scarborough, Canada;
 - Jan Hegerlid, Programme Coordinator of OA se, National Library of Sweden

- Iryna Kuchma, EIFL Net, OA Manager, Rome, Italy

      - Derek Law, Professor University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom, Chair EPT

- Rick Luce, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries, Emory University, USA

- Felipe Martinez, Director, University Center for Library Science Research, Autonomous University of Mexico

- Reggie Raju, Member Ellen Tise´ Presidential working group on OA

- Bas Savenijie, Diector, National Library of Netherlands

- Xuamao Wang, Associate Vice-Provost, Emory University Libraries, Emory University, USA

- Qiang Zhu, Director, Peking University Library, Beijing, China

From announcement sent by:

Lars Bjornshauge

Independent Libraries & Scholarly Communications Professional

1st Vicce President Swedish Library Association

mobile phone +45 53510603

Skype id: lbj-lub0603

e-mail elbjoern0603@gmail.com

EPT Award for indviduals in developing countries working for OA

THE 2011 EPT AWARD FOR INDIVIDUALS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WORKING FOR OA

Open Access Week arrives again this October, and is a time to celebrate all that has been achieved in the previous twelve months. The Electronic Publishing Trust is a long standing advocate of OA and the difference it can make. As our contribution to this year’s OA Week, we are launching an annual international award to recognise the impact that individuals can make. It is to be hoped that such international recognition will acknowledge the very real efforts being made by many individuals throughout the world, and will accelerate the development of models for achieving the open and free transfer of essential information for the progress of research.

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ANNOUNCEMENT : The Electronic Publishing Trust* is pleased to announce that it is launching an annual award for individuals in developing and transition countries** who have made significant advances to the cause of open access and the free exchange of research findings. 

 Nominations are sought for the first such award. Individuals or organisations may nominate themselves or others, sending a statement using the attached form to the chair of the EPT Board, (d.law@strath.ac.uk) outlining the achievements of the individual. Please find the nominations form below.

 Nominations should be received by 30th November 2011. Selection of a winner will be made by a panel of three EPT Board Members which will be chaired by Dr Alma Swan (http://bit.ly/aQXNEy) a well-known figure in Open Access advocacy.

 The result will be announced in January 2012 and it is intended that a presentation will be made at a location convenient to the winner. The prizewinner will be publicly recognised through the presentation of a certificate and an engraved award. It is also hoped to have a “fringe” event at future OA meetings to celebrate the work of the winner.

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*The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development (EPT) was established in 1996 to facilitate open access to the world's scholarly literature and to support the electronic publication of reviewed bioscience journals from countries experiencing difficulties with traditional publication.

**As defined by the UN at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm#transition

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EPT Award submission form for nominations

1. Nominations may be made by individuals or organisations.

2. The EPT Award is for individuals who have made an impact on the progress of open access to research findings.

3. Please supply the following information:

Name of nominee:

Affiliation of nominee:

Position or role of nominee:

Contact address and email of nominee:

Contact address and email of proposer:

Please provide a brief statement to describe the ACTIVITIES of the nominee in support of Open Access (no more than 250 words):

Please describe the RESULTS of these activities (no more than 200 words):

Please describe the SIGNIFICANCE of these activities and results for Open Access (no more than 200 words):

Please send your proposal by 30/11/2011 to: EPT Chair, Derek Law, at derek.law@strath.ac.uk

 October 1st 2011

An important OA meeting in Brussels

This is just to inform you of an important open access meeting in Brussels, on September 28th 2011. Here is the link to the programme: