Myrin Library Celebrates Open Access Week 2018

“Established by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and partners in the student community in 2008, International Open Access Week is an opportunity to take action in making openness the default for research—to raise the visibility of scholarship, accelerate research, and turn breakthroughs into better lives. This year’s Open Access Week will be held from October 22nd through the 28^th.”  - From openaccessweek.org

A display in the Myrin Library lobby highlights some of the ways Ursinus College participates in the movement towards eliminating barriers to information.  Our institutional repository, Digital Commons @ Ursinus, continues to build open archival and special collections while providing access to academic research and open educational resources.  The display also shows examples of faculty publishing in open access journals and presses.

For students, staff and faculty who have ever encountered a “paywall” when doing their research, a new film released this month may be of interest.  “Paywall: The Business of Scholarship,” a 65-minute documentary by Jason Schmitt of Clarkson University, examines the history of journal publishing, the tenure process, and the modern-day commercial publishing business in an effort to explain how things got to where we find ourselves today.  The movie drives home the point that what we can access, who can access it, and when, can make a huge difference in all of our lives.  Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons, sums up the point nicely when he asks the question “Do we want innovation or do we not want innovation?”  The documentary is, of course, available to download or stream online at no charge.