FSU observes Open Access Week 2020 and celebrates a year of action

Happy Open Access Week! Open Access Week (Oct. 19 -25, 2020) is a time to celebrate open access, raise awareness and observe the work done to support OA year-round. The core principle of open access is that all published scholarship and research should be accessible to the general public. Those new to open access can learn more in this video from PhD Comics:  https://youtu.be/L5rVH1KGBCY.

The Open Access Week theme for 2020 is Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion. 

Universities around the world are supporting this principle in different ways. The Libraries’ Office of Digital Research and Scholarship created an anti-racism action plan, conducted research on the experiences of marginalized scholars and students interacting with open, and added cultural competency in teaching modules to the Canvas course for Alternative Textbook Grant recipients. Of course, this is only a start to building structural equity and inclusion into local open infrastructure at FSU.

This past year, Florida State has shown commitment to the principle of open access through several actions:

1. Reinstating the Alternative Textbook Grant Program to support open and affordable materials, especially as students and instructors contend with remote courses and financial uncertainty.
2. Continuing the Open Access Fund and developing the ‘Open Scholars Project’ to support an informal yet active community of practice around open access at FSU. Coming this spring!
3. Hosting the Fall 2020 Road Scholars virtual event Friday, November 13, in partnership with the Road Scholars Committee, Faculty Senate, and the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement:

The annual FSU Road Scholars speaker series welcomes distinguished scholars from institutions within the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to FSU during weeks that coincide with ACC athletic events. The Fall 2020 virtual event Friday, November 13 from 3:00pm – 4:30pm EST will feature Micah Vandegrift, Open Knowledge Librarian at North Carolina State University. He will be speaking about his project as a Fulbright-Schuman Research Fellow, titled “Open Scholarship Policies and Technologies: The European Research Library as a Model for Advancing Global Scholarly Communication”. The event will include an hour lecture and additional time for questions. Register here: https://fla.st/3nNEkat