Patting Ourselves on the Back(s)

Sometimes it’s good to take a breath, look around, and give one’s self a big (collective) pat on the back. Because this is Spring Break on my campus (a great time to catch up, assess, and organize the remainder of the semester), I’m going to do just that.

COAPI and its members have received some great press lately, and it’s time to highlight it. First, The Chronicle of Higher Education specifically called out COAPI in their article, The Real Digital Change Agent:

If you haven’t heard of it, the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions, which now comprises more than 40, began in 2011 as a way for colleges to coordinate and advocate for open-access policies, which typically require that all faculty journal publications be made available freely online, whether on a personal Web site, institutional repository, or discipline-specific public archive…

and

Odds are that you haven’t read much about Coapi as a revolutionary, democratizing force within higher education, especially compared with its high-profile contemporary, MOOCs (massive open online courses)…

Next up is an article that ran in several publications in Kansas (Wichita Business Journal and Lawrence Journal-World, among others): Open Access to Research, Long a Focus at KU, Now Grabbing National Headlines. The article features the work that Lorraine Haricombe and others at KU have done, and it highlight’s Lorraine’s commitment in particular.

Oregon State University also received great publicity in the article Library Staff Advocate for Open Access Policies Nationwide. The article features quotes from COAPI member Michael Boock and ends with this teaser:

An institution-wide open access policy is the next logical step in OSU’s support for meeting its land grant mission to make the fruits of research available to anyone in the world,” Boock said, “thereby increasing its impact and visibility.

We eagerly anticipate hearing news of successful institution-wide open access policies from OSU and others!