Universal Access
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!
All of our events this year will be hosted via Zoom. Some are also available in person. Please find registration information for each event below.
Monday October 20, 6:00pm - 8:00pm | Newman Library 207A and Zoom | Register
Join the University Libraries and invited guests for a discussion for future professors regarding open access, open educational resources, and open data. University Libraries’ faculty will provide brief overviews of open publishing, open educational resources, and open data to provide some general information on the topics. Presenters will discuss how aspects of open have impacted their career development as well as how they have incorporated open practices into their research and scholarship, and the audience will be invited to participate in the robust conversation. All are welcome!
Tuesday October 21, 11am - 12:15am | Zoom only | Register
The landscape around copyright and large language models is rapidly evolving. This session will present an overview of key themes of AI and copyright of interest to authors
Tuesday October 21, 2:00pm - 3:00pm | Zoom only | Register
Since March 2021, all Virginia Tech researchers can provide immediate open access to the accepted version of scholarly articles through the university’s repository, VTechWorks, regardless of their copyright transfer agreement. This session helps researchers understand and use the policy, including version preparation, ways to deposit, and article discovery. Open access to peer reviewed research is vital to scholars and citizens globally, and authors benefit through greater readership, downloads, and citations. This session is open to all faculty, staff, and students.
Wednesday October 22, 12:20pm - 1:10pm | Zoom only | Register
The Virginia Course Material Survey is a project of VIVA, Virginia’s academic library consortium, which surveyed college students across Virginia. This research included over 1,200 Virginia Tech student responses and covers topics of student purchasing habits, perceived value of course materials, implications of cost-based decision making, food insecurity and levels of worry regarding finances, and more. Survey findings may be helpful for informing course-material selectors and authors.
Wednesday October 22, 2:00pm - 3:15pm | Torg 3310 and Zoom | Register
Join us for a session exploring the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in scholarly publishing. We'll
begin by unpacking what we mean by "AI" and then dive into how it's being used across the publishing
landscape—from authoring and peer review to licensing and open access.The session will conclude
with an open discussion and Q&A to engage with your questions and perspectives.
Friday, October 24, 10:30am - 11:30am | Torg 3310 and Zoom | Register
Are you interested in learning more about Wikibase, linked data, or open crowdsourced data? Join us for
a stress-free introduction to the Wikibase platform! Participants will learn the fundamentals of linked open
data, make a Wikibase account, begin editing public domain data on Wikibase, and structure queries to
engage with the data already available. Feel free to bring some fun facts from your academic interest area
to add to this global knowledge repository!
Friday, October 24, 11:00am - 12:15pm | Zoom only | Register
Open textbooks are full, real textbooks, created and used by faculty across the country. They are licensed
to be freely used, customized, and distributed. Faculty attending this session are invited to complete a brief written review of an open textbook relevant to their course after the workshop and receive $200 from
VIVA (Virginia’s Academic Library Consortium).
For other international 2025 Open Access Week events, see http://www.openaccessweek.org
If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please email library-event-accessibility-g@vt.edu at least 10 business days prior to the event.
