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Open Access Week is Here!

October 19, 2020

Open Access week is here! But, what is Open Access Week?

International Open Access Week 2020, October 19 – 25, is a global event promoting access to knowledge, highlighting Open activities, and promoting actions that will help make more scholarly and educational materials freely available to teachers, learners, researchers, and the public.

Beginning Monday, October 19th, the UW-Madison Libraries will have a number of opportunities to learn more and participate in Open Access week! We will also be sharing information on our social media pages on how YOU can take action for Open Access. A number of our fantastic librarians are going to be leading sessions on the power and importance of Open Access.

Open Access refers to:

  • scholarly work – articles, books, research data, multimedia, etc.
  • which is freely available online
  • which often has few or no restrictions on reuse

By removing financial and legal barriers, Open Access enables teachers, scholars, and learners to find academic information and to use that information to make new discoveries, create new works, and advance human knowledge.

The concepts of Open Educational Resources, Open Data, Open Source Software, and Open Research Practices share this core idea that Open means “free to use + permission to modify, share, or reuse,” and allows more people to benefit from more information than ever before.

Everyone is welcomed to participate in this year’s Open Access Week.

Celebrate Every Day!

Sessions:

Wednesday, October 21: Open Access Digital Pop-up

Noon – 1:00 pm

Open access can be a way to increase inclusion while helping researchers, students, and communities overcome structural barriers to valuable information. Join librarians Carrie Nelson, Cameron Cook, Maij Xyooj, Kristin Lansdown, Jesse Henderson, and Jennifer Patiño as they discuss open access resources and services available to you through the UW-Madison Libraries.

Link to Join Event

Sunday, October 25: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in Partnership with The Black Lunch Table

11:00 am – 1:00 pm

The Black Lunch Table is an organization with a 14 year history that “mobilizes the creation and improvement of a specific set of Wikipedia articles that pertain to the lives and works of Black artists” in addition to their oral-history archiving projects. The Black Lunch Table writes, “91% of Wikipedia editors identify as White and 77% identify as men. [Black artists’ history] continues to be omitted from broader art historical narratives and from vernacular arts studies.”

Wikipedia is one of the world’s foremost sites of open information and we will be working to ensure Black artists’ stories and work are accounted for.

Register for the edit-a-thon at https://go.wisc.edu/jw832u. All are invited, with no specialized knowledge of the subject or Wikipedia editing experience required. A brief overview of the basics of Wikipedia editing will be given at the start of the edit-a-thon. We will have library resources and a list of suggested artists, cultural creators, and institutions on hand.

MINDS@UW + Open Access a README Series Zine

Created by librarian Jennifer Patiño helps you learn about the benefits of open access and how MINDS@UW, our free institutional open access repository at UW-Madison, can help share your work worldwide!