Open Access Week 2019
Please join the Library in recognizing International Open Access Week, a global event now entering its tenth year. Open Access Week is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of openness, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make open access research and scholarship sustainable.
Events:
Journal Editors Wine and Cheese Social
Wednesday October 23, 4-6pm
Instruction and Training Room 1312, Mountain Side
RSVP to sherri.barnes@ucsb.edu
The Journal Editors Wine and Cheese Social is intended to launch the new Journal Editors Initiative. As part of the Library’s suite of scholarly publishing and communication services, the Initiative is focused on understanding the unique perspectives of UCSB editors, giving editors a space to communicate and share experiences, and to generally support editors in navigating the complex and constantly changing scholarly publishing environment. Brief remarks will occur at 4:45.
Wikidata: An Introduction to Linked Open Data
Monday, October 21, 10am-12pm
Interdisciplinary Research Collaboratory,2nd Floor, Mountain Side
Presenters: Des Alaniz & Trang Le. RSVP to dalaniz@ucsb.edu
Wikidata, like its sister organization Wikipedia, is a linked data repository that’s free and open to the community at large to edit, copy, use and re-use. Unlike traditional repositories where the formulation of data is centralized under select institutions, Wikidata is the collective outcome of a decentralized, grassroots approach to data creation. As a cooperative platform, it engages and empowers members of the public, especially those from marginalized and underrepresented communities, to collaborate, create, and contribute culturally competent data in an open, multilingual, and globally accessible environment. Because of this equitable approach to data collection, Wikidata’s community of users has grown exponentially in recent years and its content is culturally rich, socially relevant, and less likely to be biased. This Wikidata workshop is designed to reflect this trend. Participants in this workshop will understand the nature of linked data and how Wikidata can improve discoverability and accessibility to resources, create and edit items in Wikidata, and identify ways to use them effectively with new projects. Participants can develop the skills needed to create socially just and relevant descriptions that can be used as effective alternatives to those currently stored in legacy systems. Given Wikidata’s burgeoning popularity and widespread adoption, knowing how to use this powerful platform can be beneficial for future projects relating to data creation and dissemination. All are welcome.
Des Alaniz: I am the Evolving Workforce Resident Librarian at UCSB Library. I work in the Teaching and Learning Department to develop Library instruction tools and curriculum, with a specific focus on critical information literacy and pedagogy. I have worked with archives and special collections as a researcher and as an archivist.
Trang Le: I work in the Library’s Content Management Services Department, where I create structured metadata for rare and unique materials for Special Research Collections. To help users find these valuable resources, I use subject headings from the Library Congress to describe their contents and encode their bibliographic records. However, this is not always effective since the Library of Congress’ legacy system contains biased and problematic descriptive metadata that can hinder discoverability. To better understand and address this issue, I attended a Wikidata workshop at the UC DLFx (Digital Library Forum) Conference in May 2019 where I learned to create linked data items that can greatly improve discoverability and accessibility. In co-facilitating this event with Des, I hope to share what I learned to help make scholarly resources more open and available to the public in order to advance research and learning.
Exhibitions:
Open Textbooks: The Price of Academic Success
Monday-Friday, October 21-25
Library Paseo
Designed and presented by UCSB CALPIRG students, “Open Textbooks: The Price of Academic Success” features information resources for students and faculty about rising textbook costs, and encourages the adoption of open textbooks for classroom learning. Through student testimonials, viewers will see how textbook affordability is an issue that impacts every university student. In addition, the exhibit provides facts about open textbooks. Open textbooks are available free online under Creative Commons (CC) licenses, meaning there are no copyright restrictions, and they can be edited to include any recent updates in the field of study, and they can be tailored to an instructor’s need. All work and revisions can be shared using the same CC License. Low cost print editions of open textbooks can be made available and online versions can be printed. We hope this exhibit encourages students and faculty at UCSB to take part in efforts to revolutionize classroom learning, and reduce barriers to student success.
ScholarLed: A Consortium of Not-for-Profit OA Book Publishers
Monday-Friday, October 21-25
Library Paseo
ScholarLed is a consortium of five scholar-led, not-for-profit, open access book publishers that was formed in 2018. Individually, they comprise Mattering Press, meson press, Open Book Publishers, Open Humanities Press, and punctum books. Collectively, the aim of ScholarLed is to foster a realignment of OA book publishing away from an array of competing commercial service providers to a more horizontal and cooperative knowledge sharing approach. This includes developing systems and practices that allow presses to provide each other with forms of mutual support, ranging from pooled expertise to share on and offline infrastructures. Members of the consortium each retain their distinct identity as publishers, with different audiences, processes, business models and stances towards Open Access. What they share, however, is a commitment to opening up scholarly research to diverse readerships, to resisting the marketization of academic knowledge production, and to working collaboratively rather than in competition. Print editions of the presses books will be on display.
