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For immediate release<br>
November 29, 2011<br>
<br>
For more information, contact:<br>
Jennifer McLennan<br>
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org<br>
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121<br>
<br>
<b>SPARC announces key themes for March event<br>
</b>Program to examine current Open Access practices and policies<br>
<br>
Washington, DC – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition) has announced the program theme for its next
meeting, to be held in Kansas City, March 11 through 13, 2012. With
a focus on “Collaborative strategies for advancing scholarship,” the
program will examine recent developments and track key trends in the
growth of open-access practices and policies in the scholarly
and scientific research arenas.<br>
<br>
The SPARC meeting expands on the popular SPARC Digital Repositories
meetings, hosted biennially since 2004, and will provide a
North American-based complement to the popular “Innovations in
Scholarly Communication (OAI)” workshop held in Geneva in
alternating years. The SPARC Open Access meeting will be a regular
forum for a full discussion of Open Access as an emerging norm in
research and scholarship, and will emphasize collaborative actions
that stakeholders can take to effect positive change.<br>
<br>
The program, developed by librarians, publishers, analysts,
scholars, and technologists from five countries, will
consider developments across four topic areas:<br>
<br>
· Open-access publishing – the explosion of gold OA publishing
and how libraries are working to support it.<br>
<br>
· Digital repositories – building a worldwide
infrastructure alongside trust for authors and users.<br>
<br>
· Author rights – key developments and the demand for new
tools and practices to maximize the potential for sharing through
re-use.<br>
<br>
· National and institutional policy adoption – the impact on
faculty workflows and the role of the library.<br>
<br>
“SPARC’s focus continues to be on encouraging positive action
through collaboration,” said Heather Joseph, executive
director. “Our next meeting will be a valuable chance for everyone
with a stake in scholarly communication –
funders, researchers, policy makers, publishers, librarians, and
others – to participate in a substantive discussion on how we can
raise the collective level of understanding around Open Access and
identify opportunities to work together to move forward.”<br>
<br>
Speakers are being identified and invited by the program committee.
A call for proposals to the 2012 Innovation Fair will be issued next
month.<br>
<br>
The main SPARC meeting program will take place March 12 & 13,
with pre-conference events on March 11. Further information on
pre-conferences will be posted this winter. All events will be held
at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kansas City.<br>
<br>
Registration is open. Early bird rates start at $265 for SPARC
members. Hotel reservations are available for the conference rate of
$139 per night. For more information, visit the meeting Web site at <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12">http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12</a>.<br>
<br>
Sponsorships are available.
Visit <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12/oa12-sponsor/index.shtml">http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12/oa12-sponsor/index.shtml</a> for
details.<br>
<br>
###<br>
<br>
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is
a library membership organization that promotes expanded sharing of
scholarship. SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs
of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the
advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research
investments. SPARC is supported by a membership of over 800 academic
and research libraries worldwide. SPARC is on the Web
at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.arl.org/sparc">http://www.arl.org/sparc</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>-------------------------------------<br>
Jennifer McLennan<br>
Director of Programs & Operations<br>
SPARC<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jennifer@arl.org">jennifer@arl.org</a><br>
(202) 296-2296 x121<br>
Fax: (202) 872-0884<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermclennan">http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermclennan</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.arl.org/sparc">http://www.arl.org/sparc</a><br>
--------------------------------------<br>
Open Access Week 2011<br>
October 24 - 30<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.openaccessweek.org">http://www.openaccessweek.org</a><br>
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The SPARC Open Access Meeting<br>
March 11 - 13, 2012<br>
Kansas City<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/11-0726.shtml">http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/11-0726.shtml</a><br>
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