Open Access

Introduction

Open Access has emerged during the last decade or so to coin a concept, a movement and a business model whose goal is to provide free access and re-use of scientific knowledge in the form of research articles, monographs, data and related materials.
Faster and wider sharing of knowledge fuels the advancement of science and, accordingly, the return of health, economic, and social benefits back to the public. Libraries and librarians have been amongst the most vocal advocates for open access. With the endorsement of an Open Access Taskforce IFLA will work together with other institutions and support the work already done by libraries and librarians.

In 2010 IFLA became a formal signatory to the Berlin Declarationon Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. At the same time, an IFLA Presidential Working Group was tasked with preparing an official IFLA statement on open access. Following a drafting process, the final version of the statement was formally endorsed by the IFLA Governing Board on April 18th 2011.

Mandate

Advocate for the adoption and promotion of open access policies as set out in IFLA’s Statement on Open Access:
- within the framework of the United Nations institutions (UN, UNESCO, WHO, FAO), and
- develop case studies and best practices to support advocacy for open access

Planning/Activities

1.  Advocate for the adoption and promotion of open access policies

  • The taskforce will engage in advocacy for the adoption and promotion of open access policies) within the framework of the United Nations institutions (UN, UNESCO, UNEP, WHO, FAO, WIPO, etc. – list to be completed).
  • The members of the taskforce will engage with and participate in events organized by relevant UN-level organizations.
  • Where appropriate the taskforce will seek to organize (participate in organizing) collaborative activities and projects in order to promote OA-activities with relevant organizations.

2.  Connecting to the various organizations working for Open Access

  • The taskforce will connect to open access-organizations in order to exploit possible partnerships and collaborate on initiatives and projects. One idea in relation to this is to prepare for a session to take place during the next IFLA conference in Helsinki 2012, where we invite appropriate organizations to take part.

3.  Provide draft responses on relevant consultations within the field

  • The taskforce will at its own discretion and based on suggestions from the IFLA secretariat produce draft responses to relevant public consultations for the Executive Committee to handle.

4.  Build Capacity within the IFLA member organizations

  • The taskforce will engage in building capacity within the IFLA membership associations and institutions to advocate the adoption of open access policies at the national level, through the development of case studies and best practices for open access promotion.
  • The focus for the OA taskforce will be to assist national library associations working for national OA policies by means of collecting good examples and best practice and to provide this information on dedicated IFLA webpages. In order not to duplicate effort the taskforce will connect to relevant OA-organizations that already have collected such information.  
  • The Taskforce will liaise with IFLA Section 40: Management of Library Associations in order to find the best possible way to distribute information and monitor progress.

5.  Working with divisions, groups and sections within IFLA.  

  • The taskforce will—after liaison with the IFLA secretariat—investigate how the OA-issues can be embedded widely within IFLAs divisions, groups and sections.
  • The Taskforce will—after advice from the IFLA secretariat—draft an outreach document for the Executive Committee to approve, and thereafter take agreed initiatives.

Taskforce Members

The members of the IFLA Open Access Taskforce are:

  • Lars Bjørnshauge (SPARC Acting Director, Chair)
  • Christoph Bruch (Max Planck Institute)
  • Leslie Chan (University of Toronto)
  • Jan Hagerlid (National Library of Sweden)
  • Iryna Kuchma (EIFL Open Access)
  • Professor Derek Law (University of Strathclyde)
  • Rick Luce (Emory University)
  • Felipe Martinez (UNAM)
  • Ann Okerson (Center for Research Libraries)
  • Dr Reggie Raju (Stellenbosch University)
  • Astrid van Wesenbeeck (National Library of the Netherlands)
  • Xuemao Wang (Emory University)
  • Qiang Zhu (Peking University Library )

Further Information

Last update: 29 November 2012