FIRST OPEN ACCESS DAY TO BE HELD OCTOBER 14, 2008
For immediate release
August 28, 2008
For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
SPARC
(202) 296-2296
jennifer@arl.org
Washington, DC -- August 28, 2008 -- SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing
and
Academic Resources Coalition), the Public Library of Science (PLoS),
and
Students for FreeCulture have jointly announced the first international
Open Access Day. Building on the worldwide momentum toward Open Access
to publicly funded research, Open Access Day will create a key
opportunity for the higher education community and the general public
to
understand more clearly the opportunities of wider access and use of
content.
Open Access Day will invite researchers, educators, librarians,
students, and the public to participate in live, worldwide broadcasts
of
events. In North America, events will be held at 7:00 PM (Eastern) and
7:00 PM (Pacific) and feature appearances from:
Sir Richard Roberts, Ph.D., F.R.S.
Joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993 for
discovering split genes and RNA splicing, one of 26 Nobel Prize-winners
to sign the Open Letter to U.S. Congress in support of taxpayer access
to publicly funded research, and currently at New England Biolabs, USA.
7PM Eastern
Philip E. Bourne, Ph.D.
Philip E. Bourne is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Computational
Biology and the author of the popular PLoS Computational Biology Ten
Simple Rules Series. He is Professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy
and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Diego,
Associate Director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank, Senior Advisor to the
San Diego Supercomputer Center, an Adjunct Professor at the Burnham
Institute, and Co-Founder of SciVee. 7PM Pacific
Librarians and student organizers are invited to host meetings around
the broadcast. To see a list of participating campuses and to sign up,
visit the Open Access Day Web site at http://www.openaccessday.org.
Additional international events will be announced shortly.
The event will also mark the launch of the new "Voices of Open Access
Video Series." Key members of the research community, including a
teacher, librarian, researcher, student, patient advocate, and a
funder,
will speak on why they are committed to Open Access.
"The momentum behind Open Access to research has been accelerating for
some time now, even before the mandates at the U.S. National Institutes
of Health and Harvard University," said Heather Joseph, Executive
Director of SPARC. "Events beyond the U.S. especially underscore the
higher education community's commitment to having the access they need.
Open Access Day will provide a perfect way for folks to come together,
consider, and celebrate the ramifications of the global shift we're
experiencing."
"Open Access Day is a great opportunity to inform everyone on campus
about the nature and importance of Open Access," added Nelson Pavlosky,
Co-Founder of Students for FreeCulture. "It's really an issue that
impacts everyone in the university, whether they are professors who
publish, students who research, or librarians who purchase journal
subscriptions. Students for FreeCulture looks forward to working with
SPARC and PLoS to inform our peers, as well as faculty, staff and
administration, about how Open Access can help bring publishing into
the
21st Century."
"Making full use of the Internet to share and reuse content without
restriction is pushing scientific communication into the future," said
Peter Jerram, CEO of PLoS. "Open Access Day acknowledges the enormous
progress that's been made towards comprehensive access to research. We
are pleased to be partnering with the community on this special day. We
would ask our supporters to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the
commencement of our publishing activities in October by
participating."
Open Access Day was inspired by the National Day of Action on February
15, 2007, led by Students for FreeCulture with support from the
Alliance
for Taxpayer Access. This year, the same partners have joined forces
with PLoS, the Open Access scientific and medical Web publisher. Open
Access-supporting organizations are also invited to take part. For
details, contact the organizers.
For details and to participate, visit http://www.openaccessday.org.
#
SPARC
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with
SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more than
800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open
system
of scholarly communication. SPARC's advocacy, educational and publisher
partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research.
SPARC is a founder of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, representing
taxpayers, patients, physicians, researchers, and institutions that
support open public access to taxpayer-funded research. SPARC is on the
Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.
Students for Free Culture (SFC)
Students for FreeCulture is a diverse, non-partisan group of students
and young people who are working to get their peers involved in the
free
culture movement. Launched in April 2004 at Swarthmore College, it has
helped establish student groups at colleges and universities across the
United States. Today, chapters exist at over 30 colleges, from Maine to
California, with many more getting started around the world. Students
for FreeCulture was founded by two Swarthmore students after they sued
voting-machine manufacturer Diebold for abusing copyright law in 2003.
Named after the book Free Culture by Stanford University law professor
Lawrence Lessig, it is part of a growing movement, with roots in the
free software/open source community, media activists, creative artists
and writers, and civil libertarians. Groups with which it has
collaborated include Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, Public Knowledge, and Downhill Battle. Students for Free
Culture is on the Web at http://www.freeculture.org.
PLoS
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of
scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific
and
medical literature a freely available public resource. PLoS publishes
open access, peer-reviewed journals available online to anyone. PLoS
celebrates their fifth anniversary on October 13, 2008. PLoS is on the
Web at www.plos.org.
--
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Communications
SPARC
(The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition)
http://www.arl.org/sparc
**************************
Save the date: The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008
November 17 18, 2008 | Baltimore, MD
**************************
(202) 296-2296 ext 121
jennifer@arl.org
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
Library Associations
International Publishers and Librarians Agree On Access to Orphan Works
Geneva/The Hague, 27 June 2007
A joint steering group of the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Publishers'
Association (IPA) has agreed on key principles of access to orphan works
The position paper is a contribution to the international debate on
so-called "orphan works": "Orphan Works" are works in copyright whose
owner cannot be identified and located by someone who wishes to make use
of the work in a manner that requires the rights owner's permission. In
a joint statement the international umbrella organisations of librarians
and book and journal publishers have set out principles aimed at
facilitating the use of orphan works.
The joint statement on orphan works was agreed by the Joint Steering
Group, a working group established by the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International
Publishers Association (IPA) to discuss issue of mutual interest.
The statement sets out five principles to be followed by users of
orphaned works:
- A reasonably diligent search should be undertaken to find the
copyright owner.
- The user of an orphan work must provide a clear and adequate
attribution to the copyright owner.
- If the copyright owner reappears, the owner should be
reasonably remunerated or appropriate restitution should be made.
- If injunctive relief is available against the use of a
previously orphaned work, the injunctive relief should take into account
the creative efforts and investment made in good faith by the user of
the work.
- The use of orphan works in non-exclusive.
Claudia Lux (IFLA), co-Chair of the IFLA/IPA Steering Group declared:
"Orphan works are bad news for all concerned: for information users,
librarians, publishers and authors. Creativity and progress are stifled
when so many works are consigned to a legal limbo because their
copyright owners cannot be traced. The principles which IFLA has agreed
with the IPA are an important step forward because they set out clearly
what bona fide users of orphan works must do to avoid being held liable
for copyright infringement, and what should be done if a missing
copyright owner is found after the work has been used. If applied, the
principles would ensure that the rights of copyright owners are
respected without exposing users of orphan works to an intimidating
level of risk."
Herman P. Spruijt (IPA), co-Chair of the Steering Group declared:
"Copyright is crucially important to publishers. We must ensure that it
supports access to knowledge and takes into account the interests of all
those contributing to the knowledge economy, including publishers. As
part of their business publishers seek authorisation to use previously
published works, including orphan works. Publishers will therefore
benefit from a pragmatic, common sense approach that balances the
legitimate interests of all sides. Our principles will help to achieve
this."
Notes for editors:
The full statement can be found at:
http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/pdf/IndustryPolicy/IFLAIPA/PRs/27_07_07.pdf
IFLA is the global voice of the library and information profession.
Established in 1927, IFLA currently has some 1500 members in 50
countries. Together, IFLA's association and institutional members
represent over 500.000 librarians and library workers serving almost two
billion registered library users worldwide. IFLA is an accredited
Non-Governmental Organisation enjoying consultative status to the United
Nations. For more on IFLA, see: www.ifla.org
The International Publishers Association (IPA) is the global
non-governmental organisation representing all aspects of book and
journal publishing worldwide. Established in 1896, IPA's mission is to
promote and protect publishing and to raise awareness for publishing as
a force for cultural and political advancement worldwide. IPA is an
industry association with a human rights mandate. IPA currently has 65
member associations in 53 countries.
The members of the IFLA/IPA Steering Group are:
For IFLA:
Claudia Lux, IFLA President-elect (Co-Chair)
Vinyet Panyella, IFLA Governing Board member
Winston Tabb, Chair of the IFLA Committee on Copyright and other Legal
Matters
Peter Lor, IFLA Secretary General
For IPA:
Herman P. Spruijt (Co-Chair), IPA Vice President, Brill Academic, NL
Marc Brodsky, American Institute of Physics, USA
Michael Mabe, Chief Executive Officer, STM
Jens Bammel, IPA Secretary General
From today's CLA Digest:
http://cla.informz.net/cla/archives/archive_155065.html
CLA Moves Open Access
CLA Executive Council has approved some recommendations from the Open
Access Task Force that move CLA towards providing virtually all of
its intellectual property free of charge, in digital form, online and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. The revised policy
has four parts:
CLA will provide for full and immediate open access for all CLA
publications, with the exception of Feliciter and monographs The
embargo period for Feliciter is one issue, and the embargo policy
itself will be reviewed after one year. Monographs will be considered
for open access publishing on a case-by-case basis.
CLA actively encourages its members to self-archive in institutional
and/or disciplinary repositories and will investigate a partnership
with E-LIS, the Open Archive for Library and Information Studies.
CLA will generally provide for the author's retention of copyright by
employing Creative Commons licensing or publisher-author agreements
that promote open access.
CLA will continue its long-standing policy of accessibility to
virtually all CLA information except for narrowly defined
confidential matters (e.g. certain personnel or legal matters).
The Task Force's Report is available at:
http://www.cla.ca/about/committees/Open%20Access%20Report.pdf
OpenDoc Society
ISOC Netherlands and ISOC Belgium participate in the launch of OpenDoc
Society
A new member-based organisation, OpenDoc Society, will try to bring a
global community of users, technologists, and decision makers together
around Open Document Format (ODF). The OpenDoc Society will be trying
to build a community around the Open Document Format (ISO 26300:2006)
and related document standards as key technologies for our society and
the Internet in a pre-competitive way.
Open Document Format (ODF) is an OASIS/ISO-standardized, vendor neutral
file format that enables cross-platform collaboration between people and
many different types of applications - from Office suites to server
software. Having such a standard will re-establish full ownership of
documents to users, guaranteeing unhindered access to content now and in
the future. At the same time, it will contribute to interoperability and
innovation across platforms and applications. This will help people work
more efficiently and take away the dependency on specific software
companies and versions of software for having access to one's own
content. It is not about converting people to use specific software. It
promotes all ODF-based technology alike: may the best offering in any
given situation win. This pragmatic and positive approach is what makes
the OpenDoc Society unique. A growing number of governments, including
the Dutch, Belgian, South-African and Danish governments, is moving away
from the proprietary formats such as .doc, .wpd and .xls and converting
to ODF.
On 23 October 2007, the new initiative was launched with a large event
in the Royal Library in the Hague, with speakers from several
governments, the European Commission, and the OASIS TC that produces
ODF. Around forty organizations, representing government, industry,
civil society, cultural institutions, organizations for people with
visual impairments, and open source projects support the initiative
already. ISOC Netherlands and ISOC Belgium actively contributed to the
establishment of the new organization.
The founding board of OpenDoc Society will consist of Bert Bakker
(director of Center for Media and Communication, and former member of
the Netherlands parliament - chair), Michiel Leenaars (director ISOC.nl,
manager at NLnet foundation - secretary) and Bob Goudriaan (financial
specialist and informal investor - treasurer). As new local branches
around the world are added, an international board will be set up.
The organization wants to expand internationally and hopes it can play a
strategic role in creating awareness and building a community to further
the growth of ODF. More information can be found at:
There is already interest from a number of ISOC chapters to set up local
branches. If you want to start a chapter of OpenDoc Society in your
region, contact: expand@opendocsociety.org or alternatively contact one
of the people below:
Michiel Leenaars
ISOC Netherlands, NLnet foundation
Kruislaan 419
1098 VA Amsterdam
Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)20 8884251
Cell phone: +31 (0)6 27050947
SIP: michiel @t isoc.nl
Machtelt Garrels
ISOC Belgium
machtelt.garrels @t isoc.be
M: +32 (0)473 94 68 78
DIG-LIb
The September/October 2007 issue of D-Lib Magazine
(http://www.dlib.org/) is now available.
This issue contains five articles, a two-part commentary, six conference
and workshop reports, the 'In Brief' column, excerpts from recent press
releases, and news of upcoming conferences and other items of interest
in 'Clips and Pointers'. This month, D-Lib features the "University of
Washington Libraries Digital Collections" contributed by Ann Lally,
University of Washington.
The two-part commentary is:
Cyberinfrastructure, Data, and Libraries, Part 1: A Cyberinfrastructure
Primer for Librarians
Anna Gold, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cyberinfrastructure, Data, and Libraries, Part 2: Libraries and the Data
Challenge: Roles and Actions for Libraries
Anna Gold, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The articles include:
Overview - Repositories by the Numbers
Chuck Thomas, Florida Center for Library Automation; Robert H. McDonald,
San Diego Supercomputer Center; and Cat S. McDowell, University of North
Carolina, Greensboro
Measuring and Comparing Participation Patterns in Digital Repositories:
Repositories by the Numbers, Part 1
Chuck Thomas, Florida Center for Library Automation, and Robert H.
McDonald, San Diego Supercomputer Center
Evaluating Institutional Repository Deployment in American Academe Since
Early 2005: Repositories by the Numbers, Part 2
Cat S. McDowell, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
The Data Curation Continuum: Managing Data Objects in Institutional
Repositories
Andrew Treloar, David Groenewegen, and Cathrine Harboe-Ree, Monash
University
Developing Handle System(R) Web Services at Cornell University
Adam J. Smith, Cornell University
The conference reports include:
Report on the Seventh ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries
(JCDL 2007) - Building and Sustaining the Digital Environment: June
18-23, 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Lillian Cassel, Villanova University; and Jose Borbinha, Instituto
Superior Tecnico (IST)
Series of Workshops on Digital Library Foundations
Donatella Castelli, ISTI-CNR; and Edward A. Fox, Virginia Tech
The 3rd Annual Digital Libraries Workshop at the JCDL 2007 Conferences
Javed Mostafa, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Report on the 7th International Workshop on Web Archiving (IWAW 2007)
Andreas Rauber, Vienna Technical University
Contextualized Attention Metadata: Personalized Access to Digital Resources
Jehad Najjar, Martin Wolpers and Erik Duval, Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Belgium
Global Access to Science- Scientific Publishing for the Future: A Report
of IATUL 2007 Conference Held at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology,
Sweden, June 11 - 14, 2007
D-Lib Magazine has mirror sites at the following locations:
UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, England
http://mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/lis-journals/dlib/
The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
http://dlib.anu.edu.au/
State Library of Lower Saxony and the University Library of Goettingen,
Goettingen,
Germany
http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/d-lib/
Universidad de Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://www.dlib.org.ar
Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
http://dlib.ejournal.ascc.net/
BN - National Library of Portugal, Portugal
http://purl.pt/302/1
(If the mirror site closest to you is not displaying the July/August
2007 issue of D-Lib Magazine at this time, please check back later.
There is a delay between the time the magazine is released in the United
States and the time when the mirroring process has been completed.)
Bonnie Wilson
Editor
D-Lib Magazine
Africa and Digitisation
Innovation, journal of appropriate librarianship and information work
in Southern Africa.
No. 34 (June) 2007
The Politics of Digital Initiatives Concerning Africa
Contents
Summary of issues and decisions – David Easterbrook
Overview and observations: Workshop on the Politics of Digital
Initiatives Concerning Africa, August 4-5, 2007 – Al Kagan
Content selection issues in digitising material on South Africa’s
Freedom Struggle -- Christopher Saunders
The Politics of digital “reform and revolution”: towards mainstreaming
and African control of African digitisation -- Peter Limb
The Virtual stampede for Africa: digitisation, postcoloniality and
archives of the Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa -- Premesh Lalu
Delivering the goods: how Internet-centric projects can stress African
universities -- Cliff Missen
Digital content licenses, a barrier to digital content?: a South
African survey -- Charles Masango,
Workshop Program and Panels
Workshop Invitees List
Archives-Libraries Committee Resolution on Migrated Archives (1977)
Guidelines of the African Studies Association for Members’ Ethical
Conduct in Research and Other Professional Undertakings in Africa
(2005)
Innovation is an accredited journal; articles are indexed in Index to
South African periodicals and abstracted in Library and Information
Science abstracts. Articles are available from African Journals Online
and the British Library for Development Studies Document Delivery
Service.
See also http://www.innovation.ukzn.ac.za/innovationbase.htm for a
selection of online articles.
South Africa
The Electronic Communication Act No. 36 of 2005 recently came into
effect. It provides for discounted rates for public schools and public
further education and training institutions. It, however, does not
extend to universities or libraries.
See Clause 73 below :-
E-rate
73. (1) Internet services, provided to all public schools as defined in the South African
Schools Act, 1996 (Act No. 84 of 1996), and all public further education and training
institutions as defined in the Further Education and Training Act, 1998 (Act No. 98 of
1998), must be provided at a minimum discounted rate of 50% off the total charge levied
by the licensee providing Internet services to such institutions.
(2) The discount is applicable of the total charge levied by the licensee which includes
but is not limited to the following:
(a) Any connectivity charges for access to the Internet;
(b) charges for any equipment used for or in association with connectivity to the
Internet; and
(c) all calls made to an Internet Service Provider.
(3) Where the licensee, who provides Internet services to the
institutions as contemplated in subsection (1), obtains its electronic communications
facilities for the provision of Internet services from a electronic communications network
service licensee, the licensee is entitled to a minimum of 50% off the retail
rate charged to it by the electronic communications network service licensee for the
facilities in question.
(4) The implementation of this section must be in the manner
prescribed.
(5) The Minister may, in consultation with the Minister responsible for
Education,declare categories of independent schools or private further education
and training institutions to be entitled to the discount mentioned in subsection
(1).
The implementation of the section will probably only take place during
2007.
Empowering libraries through Open Source solutions: launch of eIFL OSS program
PRESS RELEASE
November 7, 2006
eIFL Open Source Software kick-off meeting Cupramontana, Italy, 29-30 October 2006
On 29-30 October 2006, eIFL.net hosted an international gathering of software developers, information access advocates and library representatives at the picturesque
monastery of Eremo delle Grotte dei Frati Bianchi in the eastern Italian province of Ancona. Welcomed by the Mayor of Cupramontana to "create a new beginning in a place of quiet reflection", the purpose was to launch a new eIFL.net program to foster the use of Open Source Software (OSS) solutions for libraries.
"Open Source is all about empowerment", said Art Rhyno, a Systems Librarian at the University of Windsor and author of a book on OSS and a report for eIFL in 2005. "This is not about dropping packaged solutions into resource poor regions, this is about giving people the tools and training to create their own solutions at the local level", continued Rhyno. An immediate area of focus is the Integrated Library System (ILS), typically the biggest technology expense in a library budget and identified by eIFL members as a priority for new solutions. "The ILS is a huge drain on a library's
resources", said Tigran Zargaryan, eIFL country representative for Armenia and Head of the Automation Department at Yerevan State University Library. "More flexible options for ILS will go a long way towards enabling libraries in eIFL countries to offer more services and make a greater impact on the communities they serve".
Erik Hatcher, author and a leading developer on Lucene, one of the world's premier search engine technologies, attended the Cupramontana meeting. "OSS represents the
state-of-the-art in Information Retrieval(IR) systems", said Hatcher. "Libraries can put together systems in ways that were not possible before and the use of Open Source by libraries represents a perfect partnership of software and organisations that serve the common good", he continued. Marek Tuszynski, co-founder and partner of Tactical Technical Collective (TTC), best captured the spirit of the eIFL initiative in describing how TTC distribute Open Source Software in packaged CD collections and organise regional training workshops for non-profits in developing and transition countries. It is envisaged that eIFL will model its OSS activities on the innovative and successful approaches developed by TTC.
The first step is to finalise membership of an eIFL OSS Advisory Board. This will be taken forward by Tigran Zargaryan and Bess Sadler, a librarian and software developer for the University of Virginia library, who will prepare revised Terms of Reference and will work with eIFL to identify potential partners. Sadler, who has worked as an international observer and has experience developing software and technical solutions for indigenous groups in Canada and Latin America, points to the historical role of libraries as a source of knowledge and empowerment. "Access to information is vital for any kind of positive change in society. Libraries do a good job of ensuring this access. Our role is to support libraries in eIFL member countries, so that a lack of financial resources need not mean a lack of available knowledge."
Further information:
Rima Kupryte, Director
Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL) c/o ADN Kronos,
Piazza Mastai 9
00153 Rome, Italy
Tel: +(39)(06)5807216/17
E-mail: rima.kupryte@eifl.net
html: www.eifl.net
eIFL
eIFL.net is an international foundation which supports national library consortia in fifty transition and developing countries to negotiate and advocate for the wide availability of electronic resources to education, research and professional communities as well as governmental organisations and civil society. This global network embraces
millions of users in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.
--
Read about eIFL in wikipedia!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Electronic_Information_for_Libraries
Internet Coalition to Promote Access to Knowledge and Online Free Speech
Civil Society, Govt, Business, & Academia Join Together to Form "A2K@IGF"
IP Justice Media Release
1 November 2006
(Athens) A broad range of companies, civil society organizations,
governments, and academics have joined together to form a "dynamic
coalition" to promote online freedom of expression and access to knowledge
at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum IGF
in Athens.
One of the main "deliverables" of the IGF meeting is the creation of dynamic
coalitions, or multi-stakeholder groups working together over a multi-year
process to provide recommendations for "best practices" on particular issues
that deal with online activity.
On Wednesday, November 1st at IGF in Athens, a number of the organizers of
the IGF workshop on freedom of expression and access to knowledge held a
press conference to announce the creation of a dynamic coalition.
The coalition will work towards promoting the Internet as a tool of
development, education and freedom, and will focus on the proper balance for
intellectual property rights in a digital world.
Among others, founding members of the IGF dynamic coalition include IP
Justice, Google, Council of Europe, CPTech, Sun Microsystems, Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, Yale Law School Information Society Project, Free Software
Foundation Europe, Franklin Pierce Law School, Electronic Information for
Libraries (eIFL), Electronic Frontier Foundation, Computer Professionals for
Social Responsibility (CPSR) and the IP Academy of Singapore. The coalition
will report back at the 2007 IGF in Rio de Janeiro on its progress.
Details on the workshop and press conference speakers are below.
IGF Workshop on Free Expression and A2k:
"Harnessing the Power of the Internet to Provide Access to Knowledge & Free
Flow of Information": A workshop to explore significant opportunities and
barriers to harnessing the power of the Internet to provide access to
knowledge and encourage freedom of expression and the free flow of
information. In particular, the workshop will focus on the appropriate
balance for intellectual property rights on the Internet and their impact on
free speech and access to knowledge.
Workshop Speakers:
- Susan Struble from IT Standardization and Strategy at Sun Microsystems
will address challenges to technical interoperability and the free flow of
information on the Internet from software patents.
- Dr. Magdy Nagi from Egypt's Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca
Alexandrina) will discuss the needs of online libraries to provide access to
information and encourage development.
- Dirk Voorhoof a Professor at Ghent University and Copenhagen University,
member of Legal Human Academy and expert of the Council of Europe will
discuss international human rights conventions and their relationship to
intellectual property law, access to knowledge, and freedom of expression.
- Mary Wong, a Professor of Law at Franklin Pierce Law Center and the IP
Academy of Singapore will address special online challenges to freedom of
expression and access to knowledge from "digital locks".
- Cristiano Berbert from the government of Brazil will discuss efforts in
the developing countries to provide access to knowledge and promote free
expression.
- Andrew McLaughlin, Head of Global Public Policy at Google will address the
barriers Google faces in providing access to knowledge from unbalanced
copyright law.
- Robin Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice will Chair the session.
Webpage for workshop:
http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/internet-governance/igf/382/
Workshop Sponsors:
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Computer Professionals for
Social Responsibility - Peru Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) Egypt's
Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina) Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL) Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE) Google International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA) IP Justice (IPJ) South Centre
Innovation, Access to Knowledge and Intellectual Property Programme (IAIPP)
Sun Microsystems Third World Network (TWN)
DEVELOPING WORLD TO RECEIVE ACCESS TO CRITICAL GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
For Immediate Release: October 30, 2006 (9:00 AM) UNEP-YALE
"Online Access to Research in the Environment" (OARE)
NEW YORK CITY/NAIROBI, - In an effort to help reduce great
disparities in scientific capital between developed and
developing nations, the United Nations Environment Programme
UNEP), Yale University, and leading science and technology
ublishers launched today a new collaborative initiative to
make global scientific research in the environmental sciences
available online to tens of thousands of environmental
scientists, researchers, and policy makers in the developing
world for free or at nominal cost.
Through Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE),
more than 200 prestigious publishers, societies and
associations will offer one of the world's largest
collections of scholarly, peer-reviewed environmental science
journals to over 1200 public and non-profit environmental
institutions in more than 100 developing nations of Africa,
Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and
Eastern Europe. Each and every institution enrolled in OARE
will receive resources with an annual retail subscription
value in the many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Over 1000 scholarly scientific and technical journal titles
in such fields as biotechnology, botany, climate change,
ecology, energy, environmental chemistry, environmental
economics, environmental engineering and planning,
environmental law and policy, environmental toxicology and
pollution, geography, geology, hydrology, meteorology,
oceanography, urban planning, and zoology will be provided
through a portal presented in English, Spanish and French.
OARE will also provide important Abstract and Index Research
Databases (A&I Databases) -- intellectual tools the
scientific and professional community use to search for
information within thousands of scholarly publications, and
other scholarly resources.
"OARE is a new and inspiring example of international
cooperation that can contribute to the reduction of the
North-South scientific gap and digital divide, objectives
that are both at the top of the UN agenda and the UN
Millennium Development Goals", said Achim Steiner, United
Nations Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director.
"Thanks to advances in information and communication
technologies and the great generosity of many leading
scientific publishers, we have an unprecedented opportunity
to provide environmental institutions in developing countries
with intellectual resources we in the developed world so
often take for granted", said James Gustave Speth, dean of
Yale's Environment School.
"Scientific publishers welcome this opportunity to provide
access to the latest published research in environmental and
related sciences to researchers and other professionals in
106 developing countries, in the expectation that, in turn,
higher quality research will emerge from those countries, to
the benefit of all of us", said Michael Mabe, CEO of the
International Association of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers (STM).
"The Hewlett Foundation is committed to providing high
quality educational materials to students and scholars in the
developing world. We are extremely pleased to join with Yale,
UNEP and the many participating publishers, societies and
associations to make scientific resources available in
developing countries, where the need is so great.", stated
Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
OARE aims to contribute to the development of expert
professional and academ
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.