Open Access Week 2011 in Botswana

The Open Access (OA) Sub-Committee of the Botswana Library Consortium (BLC) is organizing a series of events during OA Week from 24-30 October 2011, that includes the following:

• October 24^th, 2011: Official launch of OA Week & OA Workshop at Maharaja Conference Centre;
• October 25^th – 28^th, 2011:
  • Panel Discussions and seminars on topical issues: Indigenous knowledge; Commercialization of research output vs. OA; OA and copyright issues; at the University of Botswana Library Auditorium with Department of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Botswana National Productivity Centre, Department of Research Science and Technology, Ministry of Infrastructure, Science & Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Botswana, and Centre for Educational Technology, University of Cape Town;
  • Launch of OA journals at the University of Botswana Library Auditorium;
  • OA repositories: Live demonstrations at the University of Botswana Library auditorium;
  • Research day presentations with emphasis placed on completed practical research addressing pertinent/relevant developmental issues and applicable policy for national development at the University of Botswana Library Auditorium.

Detailed agenda Day 1 [doc] and Days 2-5 [doc].

The events will take place within the EIFL-funded national open access advocacy campaign "Advocacy for Open Access to Researchers/Deans/Graduate Students/Editors/Policy Makers/Educators/Library Professionals" implemented by Botswana Library Consortium and University of Botswana. Learn more about the EIFL-OA Open Access advocacy campaign grants. 

Contacts:

• Dr Priti Jain, Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana, jainp@mopipi.ub.bw, Tel 355 55086
• Dr M. B. M. Sekhwela, Office of Research and Development, University of Botswana, sekhwela@mopipi.ub.bw, Tel 355 2929
• Mrs M. Kwapa, University of Botswana Library, kwapam@mopipi.ub.bw, Tel 355 2295
• Mrs Poloko Ntokwane, Secretary - OA Organising Committee, Botswana College of Agriculture, pntokwan@bca.bw ; pntokwan@yahoo.com, Tel 365 0100

Botswana Library Consortium (BLC) coordinates the OA Week celebrations countrywide to sensitize the target audience of researchers, policy makers, journal editors, educators, deans & directors, graduates students, media, and library professionals about OA concepts and best practices in increased access and dissemination of information.

About BLC 

Botswana Library Consortium (BLC) exists to bring together all types of libraries and information resource centres to provide sustainable easy access and dissemination of information to all people in Botswana through a strong cooperation among libraries, information providers, technologists, government ministries and other stakeholders and in this way contributes to Vision 2016.

About Open Access

OA Week is organized to raise awareness, celebrate the progress, share experiences about providing free online access to research results and their use by the public for socio-economic benefits. During this week different stakeholders will be expected to share information/knowledge and showcase different ways and means of disseminating research results and information to members of the public in line with Vision 2016 and poverty eradication programmes in Botswana.

OAs to research results mean

“its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited." (Budapest Open Access Initiative; Peter Suber, 2008)

Files / Images: 

open_access__week_final_program_-_day1_-_24_october_2011.doc

open_access__week_final_program_-_days2_-_5_-_25_to_28_october_2011.doc

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