Open Access: OA Week

Since 2012, Virginia Tech's University Libraries have explored open access with talks, panel discussions, and workshops to help faculty and students understand open access and the support for it that the library provides.  Please join us!

Open Access Forum 2019: Connecting the Opens: Open Access, Open Educational Resources, and Open Data

Monday October 21, 6:00pm - 7:30pm  |  Torgersen 1100 or Zoom https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/764971076

The Open Access Week kickoff event will feature a brief introduction to open access and its benefits and controversies, followed by a discussion with diverse panelists and the audience.  Panelists:

• Karen DePauw, Dean, Graduate School
• Cayelan Carey, Biological Sciences
• Derek Mueller, English

Meet & Greet with Brandon Butler

Wednesday October 23, 1:00-2:30pm  |  Newman Library 427

Open Access Week Keynote: What's the Big Deal?  How and Why Institutions Around the World are Rethinking Their Biggest Journal Bundles

Wednesday October 23, 4:15pm-5:30pm  |  Library Multipurpose Room (101) or Zoom https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/9207402330  |  Light refreshments

Brandon Butler, University of Virginia

For the last two decades, research institutions have been buying research the same way consumers have been buying television: in big bundles. And like big cable packages, these bundles have become bloated with content nobody wants, and their prices have exploded at rates only a monopolist could love. Come learn why the global research community is increasingly serious about cutting the cord, and how open access is both the foundation for this move, and the next step in the process.  

Brandon Butler is the first Director of Information Policy at the University of Virginia Library. He provides guidance and education to the Library and its user community on intellectual property and related issues, and advocates on the Library’s behalf for provisions in law and policy at the federal, state, local, and campus level that enable broad access to information in support of education and research. Butler is the author or co-author of a range of articles, book chapters, guides, presentations, and infographics about copyright, with a focus on libraries and the fair use doctrine.

Before joining the UVA Library, Brandon was the Practitioner-in-Residence at the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C., where he supervised clinic student attorneys who represented clients in a variety of IP matters. He also taught traditional law courses, including Copyright and Fair Use in Practice.

Before teaching at the law school, Butler was the Director of Public Policy Initiatives at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), an association of 125 academic and research libraries in North America. After graduating from law school, Butler was an associate in the Media and Information Technologies practice group at the Washington, D.C., law firm Dow Lohnes PLLC (now Cooley LLP). He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law where he was an editor at the Journal of Law and Politics, obtained an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Texas, and did his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia.

$140,000 Available to Publish Journal Articles

Thursday October 24, 3:00pm-4:00pm | Newman Library 427 | Register

Virginia Tech Libraries has made available $140,000 for FY 2019 to support articles published in scholarly Open Access (OA) journals. Revised upward limits now support up to $2000 per article if the article is accepted for publication in an OA journal that requires payment of APCs—article processing charges.  The OASF is available to everyone In the VT community—faculty, staff, and students.

In this session we will review the revised OASF award guidelines, identify databases that help determine if your publisher meets the funding criteria, and locate OA journals in your field. Bring your laptop and practice or create an OASF request with the fund manager at hand.

At the conclusion of the session you will be in a good position to have your next article funded, which you can link to your CV, FAR, or dossier for promotion and tenure.

If there’s time you may also learn about the Libraries’ publishing services, including open textbooks, book subvention opportunities, and VT’s draft open access policy.