UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries will participate in the 16th annual global observance of Open Access Week with a virtual panel discussion at noon on Oct. 24. Panelists will discuss this year's theme, “Community Over Commercialization,” in the context of University Libraries initiatives that support research and teaching. The session is free and will be held virtually on Zoom; registration is required in order to attend.
The theme “encourages a candid conversation about which approaches to open scholarship prioritize the best interests of the public and the academic community — and which do not,” according to the website description.
The panelists are Libraries employees who work on open initiatives including open access, open publishing, open data, open metadata, open educational resources and open source software:
- Jeff Edmunds, digital access coordinator, Cataloging and Metadata Services
- Ana Enriquez, interim head, Scholarly Communications and Copyright
- Andrew Gearhart, applications developer, Libraries Strategic Technologies
- Ally Laird, open publishing program coordinator, Research Informatics and Publishing
- Elizabeth Nelson, reference and instruction librarian, Lehigh Valley Campus Library, Penn State Lehigh Valley
- Briana Wham, Data Learning Center manager/research data management librarian — STEM, Research Informatics and Publishing
According to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Open Access advocacy organization that established International Open Access Week, “this year’s theme provides an opportunity to join together, take action, and raise awareness around the importance of community control of knowledge sharing systems.”
The University Libraries aims to help advocate for openness in academic research and teaching in order to support equity and justice. Participants from all campuses and across the community are welcome to attend.