Archive for 2013

The Faculty Senate of Drake University endorsed an Open Access Policy at its regular meeting on 17 April 2013 (the amended text follows).  It is one of the first such campus-wide Open Access academic policies to be adopted in Iowa. The Faculty of Cowles Library had originally endorsed the policy, and they hope to leverage this endorsement to raise awareness of Open Access in general, and the Drake Institutional Repository (eScholarShare) in particular.

Drake University Open Access Policy Text (as amended)

 The Faculty of Drake University is committed to disseminating its research and scholarship as widely as possible. The Faculty recognize the public benefit of such dissemination, including that providing greater access to scholarship promotes social justice. This policy is also intended to serve faculty interests by promoting greater reach and impact for scholarly publications, assisting authors’ retention of distribution rights, and ensuring long-term preservation of the scholarly output of the University.

In keeping with these commitments, the Drake Faculty Senate recognizes that Cowles Library has created an Open Access repository of the scholarly output of faculty (eScholarShare). Each faculty member grants to Drake University permission to make electronically available his or her scholarly works that the author has chosen to distribute as Open Access. Drake University will permanently store and index those works for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, under this policy, Drake Faculty author(s) or copyright owner(s) grant to Drake University the non-exclusive, royalty-free right to reproduce, convert to an updated electronic format, publicly display/perform and/or distribute their submission (including the abstract) worldwide in any format or medium, including but not limited to print, photographic, electronic, audio and/or video. The Drake Faculty author(s) remain(s) the copyright owner unless that author chooses to transfer the copyright to a publisher.

Scholarly works authored or co-authored while anyone is a member of the Faculty would be eligible for deposit in the repository unless the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement, such as transferring all rights to a publisher. If the faculty member grants to Drake University permission to make electronically available his or her scholarly works, he or she may embargo scholarly articles from distribution for a specified period of time if a publishing agreement made by the Faculty member is incompatible with immediate distribution in eScholarShare.

The Faculty Senate calls upon the Cowles Library Faculty Council to work with the Provost’s Office, in collaboration with the Faculty Senate, to develop and monitor an implementation plan for this policy. The Library Faculty Council, in consultation with the Provost’s Office, will submit annual reports to Faculty Senate. The policy and service model will be reviewed as needed and a recommendation on revisions to the policy presented to the Faculty Senate.

Abstract: In recent months, “Openness” (in the form of MOOCs, OAI, the “Academic Spring”) has moved from the relatively obscure concern of a few librarians and internet geeks to the subject of New York Times articles, daily updates in the Chronicle, and the radar screens of University faculty and administrators. All of which begs the question: Just what is (and ISN’T) “Open”? How is it defined? For all the reams written on “Open” topics, there is a paucity of theoretical support for “Openness”; the “Open” is generally assumed not to need a definition and even less to need a justification. Professor Gilbert will argue that this is a role that the Humanities should assume, and that the philosophical vacuum in this area is doing damage not just to Openness, but the academy itself. He will tilt towards provocative points of view: That the various Open initiatives would benefit from a “Grand Unified Theory,” and that Openness is either a new Humanity, or a force that may well subsume the Humanities. Finally, drawing from sources ranging from literature to librarianship to social theory, he will offer some preliminary thoughts on defining The Open, and seek to engage his audience in refining these notions. Note that these remarks will not be technical in nature, and all with a general interest are encouraged to attend!

Brief bio:
Bruce Gilbert grew up on an Iowa dairy farm and was a railroad worker before garnering degrees in history, library science, and public administration from Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and Drake University, respectively.  He began his service at Drake in 1992 when he was hired as the institution’s first Systems Librarian, and is currently the Director of Library Instruction at Cowles Library; among his accomplishments is helping to establish eScholarShare, the University’s Institutional Repository for scholarly material.

Dr. Karl Schaefer (Professor of Librarianship, Cowles Library) is travelling to Washington, DC on 7 February to participate in a workshop for Fulbright Campus Representatives.  The purpose of the workshop is to introduce new programs and procedures to campus representatives so that they have the most up-to-date and most accurate information to convey to those of their faculties who might be interested in applying for the grants.  Dr. Schaefer is Drake’s Campus Representative for the Fulbright Scholar Program.