This is the second in a series of essays I’ve written on time. You can view a list of all of them on the first essay.
Once upon a time, people lived more by the natural rhythms of seasons, the movement of the sun, and their bodies. There weren’t clocks to tell them when
Open Access
Theme for Open Access Week 2024 Continues Call to Put “Community over Commercialization”
The many questions surfaced by the theme last year are even more pressing in 2024 given recent developments, such as the rush to integrate artificial intelligence into commercial academic systems without community consultation. Ongoing critical questions include: What are the consequences when a small number of corporations control knowledge production rather than researchers themselves? What…
Open Access as a Means to Equity: Progress, Challenges, and the Continued Role for the BOAI
“Open Access (OA) is not an end in itself, but a means to other ends, above all, to the equity, quality, usability, and sustainability of research. We must assess the growth of OA against the gains and losses for these further ends.” –BOAI 20 Recommendations
Since the launch of the BOAI, we…
Time: It doesn’t have to be this way
“What we think time is, how we think it is shaped, affects how we are able to move through it.”
-Jenny Odell Saving Time, p. 270
What I love about reading Jenny Odell’s work is that I often end up with a list of about a dozen other authors I want to look into after…
Ashley Gordon Joins SPARC Team as Programs and Operations Manager
SPARC welcomes Ashley Gordon as our new Programs and Operations Manager. She will assist with member programs and communications as well as manage key operational and business functions.
Ashley has experience with nonprofits in both direct service and administration. She was program operations manager for an organization that offered mentoring and summer learning opportunities to…
Public Domain Day Celebrates Creative Works from 1928
Hundreds of people from all over the world gathered together on January 25 to honor the thousands of movies, plays, books, poems and songs that recently entered the U.S. public domain.
Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney’s 1928 animated film featuring Mickey Mouse, had top billing at the virtual event. Literature now free from restriction for…
Slowness, disability, and the art of losing
A few weeks ago, I had what honestly felt like a perfect day. It was a bright sunny day in December that felt almost stolen from the jaws of our long, cold, gray Portland winters. I woke up with almost no joint pain for the first time in ages and tons of energy. I worked…
Faculty in Colorado and Wyoming Pass Resolutions to Strengthen Libraries in Negotiations with Publishers
Faculty members at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Wyoming in Laramie recently backed measures asserting their commitment to prioritize specific values in negotiations with major publishers—including author’s rights and open access, accessibility, affordability, preservation, privacy and security, scholarly sharing, and transparency.
The actions were intended to publicly align the values of…
Open Textbook Pilot Grantees Share Vision for Innovative Projects Across the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Education has named six new recipients of federal Open Textbook Pilot grants for FY23. Project leaders across the country are gearing up to use the nearly $12 million in awards to expand the use of Open Educational Resources (OER).
This latest investment brings the total investment in the pilot program (since…
US Repository Network launches pilot to enhance discoverability of Open Access content in repositories
An interoperable and well-functioning network of repositories is an essential component of US national research infrastructure and will play a crucial role in creating a more open and equitable global scholarly communications system. With the advent of the recent OSTP Memorandum requiring Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research, there is a…