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Open Access Week Celebrated at Moon Library
For libraries, providing access to information for our users is one of our most important responsibilities. Typically libraries subscribe to expensive journal packages from publishers with little "wiggle room" in the prices. Journals are especially important (and expensive) in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields.
New models have been emerging over the past decade where authors and some publishers make journal article freely available to users. This model is calledopen access. There are many different pricing models for open access, because "open" does not mean "free."
International Open Access Week is the last week in October. This year from Oct. 21-27, ESF celebrated Open Access Week by highlighting some of the exemplary work its students and faculty do to promote open access. Students were invited to discuss their contributions to open access through editing Wikipedia pages that were in need of additional information and verification. They also mentioned useful open access resources such as the Directory of Open Access Journals.
The second event hosted at Moon Library was about faculty contributions to open access. ESF faculty Diane Kiernan is writing an open access textbook for her class. She talked about her personal reasons for wanting to help students afford college and make her work easily accessible. The textbook will be available through SUNY Open Textbooks. Dr. Sadie Ryan talked about the importance of publishing journal articles in open access journals such as PLoS (Public Library of Science). She mentioned that she can't always find a place for her work since it is so multi-disciplinary and also that she wants more people to be able to find and read her work.
The library wants to thank these people for helping us celebrate and start the conversation about the importance of open access on our campus.