[eIFLoa] Fwd: [SPARC-ARFORUM] Resources and presentations from recent SPARC repositories meeting now online

[Iryna Kuchma]

Apologies for cross posting

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jennifer McLennan <jennifer at arl.org>
Date: 18 §Ô§â§å§Õ. 2008 22:03
Subject: [SPARC-ARFORUM]  Resources and presentations from recent SPARC
repositories meeting now online
To: SPARC-ARFORUM

For immediate release
December 18, 2008

For more information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
jennifer at arl.org

Services, marketing and creativity are key to digital repository success
Resources and presentations from recent SPARC repositories meeting now
online

Washington, DC ¨C December 18, 2008 ¨C Thought leaders and practitioners from
higher education and beyond called on participants at the SPARC Digital
Repositories Meeting in Baltimore on November 17-18 to continue their
digital repository development efforts and offered strategies for building
on experience gained to date.

In the opening keynote, John Wilbanks, who heads the Science Commons project
at Creative Commons, pointed to the unique qualities of digital
repositories, and the need to highlight their potential to serve the
academic community in ways that other resources simply cannot. He encouraged
universities to adopt open-access policies modeled after the one adopted by
Harvard University earlier this year rather than inventing their own.

He also acknowledged the challenge of getting academics to post materials in
a digital repository. "There seems to be a disconnect between the discussion
of people planning to share the information and the amount of information
being shared," said Wilbanks. He suggested that more repository managers
assist faculty in depositing their works and emphasize the prospect of
making their scholarly research more visible.

Bob Witeck, chief executive officer and founding partner of Witeck-Combs
Communications Inc., pointed to the importance of smart marketing in getting
digital repositories off the ground and valued by faculty. He encouraged
librarians and repository managers to use plain language and vivid stories
to communicate the impact of the open sharing of information. With the
interconnected global market and economy in turmoil, now is the time to move
the open access message with urgency, he said. These tight economic times,
when people are trying to get more information with less money, may present
the perfect storm of opportunity to make public research available for free
online, said Witeck.

By making digital repositories more visible and demonstrating their value to
the public, universities can win needed support from taxpayers and
communities, said David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs,
National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges
(NASULGC), in the closing keynote of the meeting.

The public is eager to have the fruits of the scholarship they funded
available because they know the right information at the right place can
change lives, he said. "The folks who pay our bills need to and want to know
how those investments in the university are benefiting them. Unlike most
other enterprises, universities do a lousy job of letting their investors
know what they are getting from their investment." A well-populated digital
repository should be promoted as a resource to citizens of state,
Shulenburger said. "It's time to let the light of universities shine and
allow digital repositories to entice additional funding," he concluded.
Shulenburger's proposed seven steps for the continued advancement of digital
repositories are now published on the meeting Web site.

A summary of each keynote and every panel discussion, along with available
podcasts, slides, and an invitation to online discussion, are now online
through the SPARC Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc/ir08.

The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008 meeting was made possible by the
generous support of: Microsoft (Conference Sponsor); Berkeley Electronic
Press, BioMed Central, DC Lab, and EPrints (breakfast and luncheon
Sponsors); and seventeen coffee break and supporting sponsors (listed at
http://www.arl.org/sparc/ir08).

#

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 more open systems of
scholarly communication. SPARC's advocacy, educational and publisher
partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is
on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.

The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting program was developed by the members
of the 2008 Program Committee: Jun Adachi (SPARC Japan), Raym Crow (SPARC),
Richard Fyffe (Grinnell College), Susan Gibbons (University of Rochester),
Melissa Hagemann (Open Society Institute), Karla Hahn (Association of
Research Libraries), Bill Hubbard (SHERPA), Rick Johnson (SPARC), Michelle
Kimpton (DSpace Foundation), Norbert Lossau (Goettingen State and University
Library and DRIVER), Joyce Ogburn (University of Utah), Terry Owen
(University of Maryland, College Park), Kathleen Shearer (Canadian
Association of Research Libraries), Alma Swan (Key Perspectives Ltd.), Sean
Thomas (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Susan Veldsman (eIFL), and
Charles Watkinson (The American School of Classical Studies at Athens).


-- 

________________________

Jennifer McLennan

Director of Communications

SPARC

(202) 296-2296 ext. 121

(202) 872-0884 Fax