The fourth annual Open Access Week, a global event to raise awareness of the movement toward free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, has just come to a close.
According to an online letter from the Scholarly Publishing and Resources Coalition (SPARC), this year’s Open Access Week saw participation from almost 900 libraries and universities in 94 countries. Among them was our own Hekman Library.
Compared to other institutions involved in Open Access Week, the Hekman Library’s efforts left something to be desired.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, many institutions hosted a variety of events during Open Access Week, “including workshops for graduate students and faculty members interested in open-access publishing models.”
At Hekman Library, there were no such events.
According to Barb Eysenbach, a student employee at the library, last week was indistinguishable from any other. In fact, Eysenbach had never heard of Open Access Week.
Sarah Kolk, the instruction librarian at Hekman Library, stated that a notice about Open Access Week was listed on the Hekman Library website to raise awareness of the event.
Aside from that notice, Hekman Library did nothing to sponsor the event.
Kathy DeMey, Hekman’s research librarian, wasn’t aware of Open Access Week at all.
After learning what Open Access Week was, DeMey admitted, “We didn’t do much with it.”
The library’s efforts to raise awareness of Open Access Week didn’t even reach as far as its own staff.
Despite Open Access Week’s growing popularity (the online letter from SPARC noted that “this year’s event was no less than three times larger than it was just a year ago”) Hekman Library has not made an effort to support a movement that, according to openaccessweek.org, hopes to become “a new norm in scholarship and research.”
Perhaps next year will be a different story.
According to an online letter from the Scholarly Publishing and Resources Coalition (SPARC), this year’s Open Access Week saw participation from almost 900 libraries and universities in 94 countries. Among them was our own Hekman Library.
Compared to other institutions involved in Open Access Week, the Hekman Library’s efforts left something to be desired.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, many institutions hosted a variety of events during Open Access Week, “including workshops for graduate students and faculty members interested in open-access publishing models.”
At Hekman Library, there were no such events.
According to Barb Eysenbach, a student employee at the library, last week was indistinguishable from any other. In fact, Eysenbach had never heard of Open Access Week.
Sarah Kolk, the instruction librarian at Hekman Library, stated that a notice about Open Access Week was listed on the Hekman Library website to raise awareness of the event.
Aside from that notice, Hekman Library did nothing to sponsor the event.
Kathy DeMey, Hekman’s research librarian, wasn’t aware of Open Access Week at all.
After learning what Open Access Week was, DeMey admitted, “We didn’t do much with it.”
The library’s efforts to raise awareness of Open Access Week didn’t even reach as far as its own staff.
Despite Open Access Week’s growing popularity (the online letter from SPARC noted that “this year’s event was no less than three times larger than it was just a year ago”) Hekman Library has not made an effort to support a movement that, according to openaccessweek.org, hopes to become “a new norm in scholarship and research.”
Perhaps next year will be a different story.
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