the university’s Vice-President (Research) has been supportive of our OA efforts over time and continued this support during OA Week, including her introduction of Leslie Chan, from Bioline International, who was the keynote speaker. Our Students’ Union (SU) also supported OA Week by co-sponsoring Chan’s presentation. Activities We carried out many activities during OA Week 2009. Some of the key activities included: We employed the visual element. The OA Week colors and graphics are striking and people seem to really like them. We incorporated the OA Week images wherever we placed a display or a banner or posters. We had an OA Week element in every library location. Every branch had something OA–related for the entire week, ranging from a small static display to a large, staffed desk. We worked with the media. We communicated with the media both on and off campus to promote OA and OA Week issues. We gave away stuff. People like free stuff (especially orange T–shirts). Giving away OA tchotchkes opens the door to conversations about open access and related issues. Some Results Anecdotally, our OA Week 2009 activities brought about more knowledge of OA and OA issues at the University of Calgary. The week’s events included strong promotion of the OA projects we have at the university, all of which have continued to attract increasing interest since last October for instance, our Open Access Authors Fund has funded over 60 articles since OA Week and our institutional repository is the second largest university repository in Canada. Not long after OA Week 2009, the legislative assembly of the University of Calgary Students’ Union passed a resolution in support of open access. They are one of the few undergraduate student bodies to have taken such a step. Lastly, OA Week 2009 gave us good momentum for OA Week 2010. RLI 270 25 Open Access Week: Library Strategies for Advancing Change ( C O N T I N U E D ) JUNE 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC
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