Further Development of COAR in Latin America

“Representatives from a small group of government ministries, library organisations, and projects from Latin America met on May 3-4, 2012 to continue to discuss plans for a regional infrastructure for COAR to support the growing Open Access movement, repositories, and initiatives throughout the region. The outcome of the meeting was a firm plan to establish a provisional regional group for COAR as part of COAR’s overall commitment to increasing support for and involvement of Latin American members. The regional group will be hosted by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Productive Innovation of Argentina (MINCYT), a current member of COAR. Furthermore, representatives from the LA REFERENCIA project will be integrated into the regional group of COAR. LA REFERENCIA is a regional initiative designed to create a federated network of institutional repositories of scientific publications to support scientific production in Latin America. The LA REFERENCIA project includes representatives from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, and Ecuador. The ultimate goal is to further the participation of Latin American members in COAR’s global organisation. As one of COAR’s goals is to promote policies and tools for developing a global Open Access infrastructure, it is critical that Latin America’s regional needs are supported and is well-represented throughout all levels of COAR.,,”