Well yet another fantastic conference took place at IFLA 2010 with the theme being ‘Open access to knowledge: promoting sustainable progress’. Open Repository just had to attend and of course, Gothenburg is a beautiful city to host the event as well!
The theme for the event was centered on the following:
- Free access to knowledge, as important as freedom of speech
- Accessibility for all, including the visually impaired and others with reading difficulties
- Open and inclusive, no matter who you are or where you come from
- Public domain, a place on the net or in a physical space, where people contribute and socially share content produced and owned as a public service
- Open for ideas with user driven innovation, where the user might as well be the producer
- Open access publishing for further knowledge building and a better balance between copyright laws and freedom of information
It was great to hear that The Swedish Library Association is advocating, together with Swedish libraries of all kinds, the value of open access to knowledge throughout lifelong learning. Libraries are essential parts of an institute for promoting sustainable progress in a society and in this global world. With many self-archiving mandates and policies now in place, from a funder to an institutional level, there is a growing necessity for open access repositories to be implemented. This allows the researchers to showcase their work, and the intellectual output of the institute as a whole, enabling compliance.
I had the pleasure of meeting with many librarians from all continents and all types of organizations to discuss their views and requirements for hosted repositories and how we can work in partnership with them to fulfill their needs.
For further information on how we can help organizations with their hosted repository needs, please refer to our website or contact me.
Claire Bundy
Open Repository Specialist
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