The University of North Carolina Library and School of Information and Library Science have joined the Open Content Alliance. See the UNC press release (February 9):
Two members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill family have joined efforts to build a permanent archive of digitized text and multimedia materials on the World Wide Web. The University Library and the School of Information and Library Science recently joined the Open Content Alliance, a group of organizations from around the world that are constructing the archive. The school is the first from a university to join the alliance; the library is the first library to contribute manuscript materials. Collections included in the archive are freely available for access and re-use by all, provided they respect the rights of content owners and contributors. The library initially will focus on a potential project to digitize manuscripts from its Southern Historical Collection....Besides documents, the library will contribute expertise acquired through its "Documenting the American South" Web site and related projects, [Sarah] Michalak [university librarian and associate provost for University Libraries] said. "Since we launched DocSouth in 1996, we have committed ourselves to free and open access," she said. "The e-mails of thanks we receive from all over the world make it clear why libraries need to share their treasures this way and make it easy for people everywhere to use them."
The School of Information and Library Science has been researching, developing and providing open source, open digital content through projects including: [1] ibiblio, one of the world’s largest freely available collections on the Internet, originally established as SunSite – one of the first Internet servers ever created, soon after development of the Web; [2] the Interaction Design Lab, which facilitates research and development in electronic information environments such as digital libraries and electronic publications; [3] the Metadata Research Center, which researches means for enhancing access to preserving and managing digital content; and [4] the Open Video Project, a shared digital video collection that includes the entire NASA collection. Video of Alan Shepherd golfing on the moon, educational videos about the space shuttle and NASA’s Kids Science News Network are among items in NASA’s collection....[Quoting José-Marie Griffiths, professor and dean of the school,] "The Open Content Alliance is based on the fundamental principles of openness. We are delighted to participate in an effort that will expand the availability of and access to open content."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/10/2006 08:26:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
