We’re delighted to be facilitating a teach-in on open access scholarly publishing at the Free University of NYC. Guiding questions may include:

- What is open access publishing?
- Why is it important?
- How can it help students, researchers, libraries, and the public?
- Why are academics boycotting publishing giant Elsevier?
- What are open access mandates and pledges?
- Where can you find open access materials?
- How can you make your own work openly-available?

We’ll be at the South Fountain in Madison Square Park at 10am tomorrow. Look for our sign, and come on out and join us!

–Jill, Alycia, and Maura

This is an open meeting–we have plenty we could discuss: May Day plans, things the group could work on, OA topics at large–but we welcome items for discussion!

*Room C196.05 on the concourse level (the room is located at the back of the computer lab on the lower level of the library–folks should remember to bring CUNY ID and enter on the 1st floor, then go down a level and back into the corner of the floor).

We plan to talk about open access textbooks, and we would love to have more students, staff members, faculty and interested members of the CUNY community join the conversation–please help us spread the word and invite your colleagues!

*Room C196.05 on the concourse level (the room is located at the back of the computer lab on the lower level of the library–folks should remember to bring CUNY ID and enter on the 1st floor, then go down a level and back into the corner of the floor).

(The slideshow didn’t entirely survive the migration to Slideshare.  To see everything properly formatted and to watch the xtranormal video on slide 3, go to the original Google Docs presentation at http://tinyurl.com/oapn-cuny.  Also, in the “Actions” menu, you can choose to create a copy of the slides or download the slides as a PPT or PDF file.)

As we spread the word about open access, we have to talk to a lot of people. Let’s not reinvent the wheel each time. If you have or know of any good materials for promoting open access, please post them in the comments!

Join us!
Friday, February 17
*2:30-4pm
@ the Mina Rees Library at the CUNY Graduate Center
Room C196.05 on the concourse level (the room is located at the back of the computer lab on the lower level of the library–folks should remember to bring CUNY ID and enter on the 1st floor, then go down a level and back into the corner of the floor).

We’re going to try to make each meeting be a) one part skillshare/information sharing/presentation, and b) one part discussion. On the docket for February is to a) have an introductory, large themes of Open Access OA crash-course presentation and b) to talk about what goals we share for Open Access–overall and at CUNY. Please join us if you have any interest in learning more about these topics or sharing what you know about open access, free culture, and scholarly communication!

*We’re hoping to meet once a month on average. Contact us if you have suggestions/preferences for other dates/times or meeting sites.

Wednesday, January 18
3pm
@ the Mina Rees Library at the CUNY Graduate Center
Room C196.05 on the concourse level (the room is located at the back of the computer lab on the lower level of the library–folks should remember to bring CUNY ID and enter on the 1st floor, then go down a level and back into the corner of the floor).

Jill and I then talked a bit about licensing your own work outside the parameters of standard copyright. My presentation, “You Don’t Need My Permission: Freeing Scholarship by Hacking Copyright,” which can be seen here, ran through some of the basics of free licenses and why you might consider using one for your work. Jill’s presentation, “Going Open Doesn’t Mean Going It Alone: Tools to Help Make Your Content Open,” which can be viewed here, showcased a number of tools that can help navigate the waters of Open Access publishing.

We would love if these materials could reach a wider audience than just those who were able to make it to our talk, and the conference!

You might wonder, “Are researchers allowed to make their scholarly journal articles freely available online?” Very often, the answer is YES.  A majority of journal publishers allow self-archiving of this kind; to check the policy of a specific publisher or journal, go to http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/.  (Even if a journal doesn’t automatically allow it, authors can negotiate their rights with the SPARC Author Addendum.)

To clarify, the UFS resolution of support is not an open access policy along the lines of those passed at Harvard, MIT, Princeton, etc., in which faculty automatically grant their university a nonexclusive right to distribute their articles (with the ability to opt out, if necessary or desired).  It is my ardent hope that CUNY will pass such a policy in the not-too-distant future, but a vote in favor of an institutional repository is a huge step in the right direction.  Next step, actually create the institutional repository!

The full text of the UFS resolution is below:

WHEREAS there is a need for open-access models to assist libraries and institutions in dealing with the budgetary challenges presented by the ever-increasing costs charged by journal publishers; and

WHEREAS open-access institutional repositories do not replace traditional publishing but rather serve as an additional venue for maximizing access to the fruits of faculty research; and

WHEREAS numerous universities have created open-access institutional repositories and associated policies, and many more universities are currently working toward such repositories and policies; and

WHEREAS the City University of New York is committed to educating the public and making knowledge accessible and affordable; therefore let it be

RESOLVED that the University Faculty Senate supports the development of an open-access institutional repository for the City University of New York, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in accordance with best practices, guidelines for depositing materials into the CUNY repository should be created by faculty appointed by the UFS working with the Office of Library Services and should include recommendations to faculty to deposit finished journal articles, preprints, chapters, etc. The guidelines should encourage but not require faculty to contribute to the repository, and ensure that depositing a work into the repository will not affect the author’s copyright.