LIBER reflects on the Global Summit on Diamond Open Access – LIBER Europe

“Research libraries are already involved in Diamond Open Access (Diamond OA) initiatives as an alternative to existing agreements with publishers. Many LIBER members provide standard and advanced publishing services. They raise awareness within the community for the Diamond OA Road and help journal editors establish valid and sustainable publishing venues. Libraries also provide support on publication ethics or increase the visibility of ethical issues. On a practical level, libraries also contribute financially to Diamond OA infrastructures. More and more members of the LIBER network are opting to support these infrastructures, instead of pushing resources to commercial enterprises. In a short internal report in February 2022, we saw that approximately 55% of the libraries contributing to the SCOSS calls from Europe were LIBER members. Furthermore, research libraries are often the main drivers in their institutions to implement OS policies and invest funds on membership schemes – such as Open Library for Humanities and SCOAP3 – to secure the viable operation of journals.

Such examples underline the existence of an important capital within libraries of knowledge, experience, and energy that is being channeled to Diamond OA. This energy already powers infrastructures that allow scholarly content in minority languages and communities to flourish, contributing to diversity and equity. We know that not all libraries are equal; not all can contribute in the same way. Yet, good examples are everywhere, and we are determined to unearth them.  

In our daily work with the research and academic staff of our communities, we work to co-develop a culture for community-led OA venues inside academia. This includes enhancing the visibility of Diamond OA journals and ensuring their inclusion in OA monitoring processes. We are dedicated to enabling high-standard, quality services, from support and production to preservation. Our goal is to establish these services as trustworthy and identifiable, and to streamline processes for financial support….”

Webinar “Harmonising Zero Embargo initiatives: challenges in Europe and beyond”, Nov 14, 2023 | LIBER Europe

LIBER, in the Knowledge Rights 21 Project (KR21) framework, will host an event on 14 November on efforts to harmonise Zero Embargo initiatives across Europe and beyond. In this webinar, a panel of experts will present the challenges in harmonising Secondary Publishing Rights legislation across Europe and the symbiosis with other instruments, such as the Rights Retention Strategy and the initiative in the US to implement a zero embargo campaign.  

About the event

The overall goal of the webinar is to explore initiatives and barriers to harmonise Secondary Publishing Rights (SPR) legislation. We will explore how legislation can go from a national to an international level so that publicly funded research output will be shared openly and without any embargo period. This webinar gives insight into how Secondary Publishing Rights can enable the immediate access to research findings, the course of needed action to get there, and identify which stakeholders must act.

Each speaker will make a short presentation about their perceived challenges before engaging in an in-depth panel discussion about the harmonisation of legislation for immediate access to scientific knowledge. This will be followed by a 40 minute panel discussion with the opportunity for the audience to engage, question, and share their experiences and perspectives.  

The session is closely related to the KR21 Research on Secondary Publishing Rights and acts as a follow-up event to the project’s webinar on May 4th – available to watch again here. 

Register here to attend.

[…]

 

Good practice with OER

“The LIBER Educational Resources working group wants to identify library discovery systems which make Open Educational Resources visible in an effective way. We are looking for examples of good practice and would like to hear your experiences.

 
In this survey we make a distinction between Open Access (OA) material and Open Educational Resources (OER). OER is defined by UNESCO as “learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open licence, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.” (UNESCO Recommendation on OER, 2019). Not all Open Access material can be modified, adapted and then redistributed. Unlike traditionally copyrighted material, OER are available for “open” use, which means users can edit, modify, customise, and

share them. For the purposes of this survey anything with a NoDerivatives (ND) licence is not OER….”

LIBER, UNESCO and LA Referencia Webinar Report – Open Science Monitoring in Europe – LIBER Europe

“On 3 October 2023 LIBER, UNESCO and LA Referencia joined forces for a webinar outlining the Open Science monitoring methods and tools currently developed in Europe. The event aimed to introduce several examples of inclusive monitoring of Open Science, in line with the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, to foster the uptake of monitoring frameworks that assess the outputs and impacts of Open Science practices….”

Open Science Monitoring in Europe

“LIBER has announced that they will hold a joint webinar together with UNESCO and LA Referencia on Tuesday 3rd October (16:00 CEST). The event – entitled Open Science Monitoring in Europe: A LIBER, UNESCO and LA Referencia Webinar – is aimed at providing a state-of-the art analysis of the Open Science monitoring methods and tools currently developed in Europe….

The webinar will take inspiration from the similarities between Latin American and European approaches to Open Access (see this study in English and in Spanish) Attendees will gain insights for developing Open Science monitoring methods, criteria, sources and tools.

The main benefits for attendees will be:

Awareness of Open Science monitoring implementation momentum.
Knowledge of the UNESCO vision of Open Science monitoring and the tools needed to follow the implementation and fulfilment of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.
An introduction to the state-of-the-art  monitoring methods and tools currently developed in Europe for measuring Open Science progress and actions (OpenAIRE monitoring vision, challenges, tools and methods; France and Finland’s experiences with monitoring national and institutional frameworks and tools.)
An international alignment of reproducible methods, measurement criteria, tools and practices for assessing and monitoring Open Science progress.
Opportunities to develop partnerships, collaborations and networking between regions and/or countries.
Opportunities to develop their personal, institutional, and national network(s)….”

Contribute to the PALOMERA Survey on Open Access Book Policies – LIBER Europe

“The PALOMERA Project (Policy Alignment of Open Access Monographs in the European Research Area) focuses on ensuring that academic books and monographs are not neglected in Open Science and Open Access (OA) policies. The project is conducting a survey on the needs, obstacles and challenges of policy-making for open access books. LIBER, as partners in the project, encourage library stakeholders and the wider research community to take part in the survey to help provide actionable recommendations for the development of open access book policies on the European, national and institutional level….”

Open Science Services by Research Libraries: Organisational Perspectives – A LIBER and ADBU Report | Zenodo

“Many research libraries in Europe deliver Open Science services in the field of RDM and OA. However, it is estimated that up to half of European research libraries deliver only limited services in these domains. LIBER and ADBU conducted a study to understand the organisational structures and competencies needed to create, and sustain, these services.

As part of the report, a Toolkit will be created (in both English and French languages) to encourage an acceleration of the adoption of RDM and OA services in research libraries throughout Europe.

LIBER and ADBU release joint report on Open Science Services within Research Libraries – LIBER Europe

“LIBER and ADBU (Association des directeurs et personnels de direction des bibliothèques universitaires et de la documentation) have released a joint report on FAIR Research Data Management (RDM) and Open Access (OA) support services within libraries. The report – entitled Open Science Services by Research Libraries: Organisational Perspectives – is the result of a study examining libraries with developed RDM and OA services, to understand the stages involved in their creation and the key competencies that are required. The study is part of an ongoing collaboration between LIBER and ADBU to improve Open Science services across Europe….”

Advancing a publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem based on the principles of open science

“Joint response by the European University Association (EUA), Science Europe, Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), Association of ERC Grantees (AERG), Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc), cOAlition S, OPERAS, and French National Research Agency (ANR). We welcome the adoption by the Council of the European Union (EU) of the conclusions on highquality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing. As key public research and innovation actors in Europe, we are committed to supporting the development of a publicly owned, not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem in collaboration with policymakers in Europe and beyond….”

LIBER Appoints Interim Executive Director

“Martine Pronk currently works as head of Academic Services and member of the senior management team at Utrecht University Library, The Netherlands. In this role, she has strategic responsibility for research and education support services, including in the field of Open Science….

In her current role, Martine represents the University and University Library in several national and international networks: the Dutch implementation network Digital Competence Centers, the LERU Information and Open Access Policy Group, and the European Open Science Cloud Association. At Utrecht University she is co-lead of Track Open Access for the Open Science Programme….”

SURVEY-A-THON Series – DIAMAS

DIAMAS is also organising a series of survey-a-thons to assist participants with completing the survey in different languages, you can see information about these events here: http://diamasproject.eu/survey-a-thon-series/. 
SPARC Europe and LIBER will host a joint one in English on 26 April 2023, 10 CEST. Please register here.

 

Job Opening – Executive Director of LIBER – LIBER Europe

“LIBER is Europe’s largest research library network. We help our university, national, and special libraries to support world-class research. Founded in 1971 and based in The Hague, LIBER is a partner in many European projects that address barriers on the path towards Open Science. LIBER is seeking an Executive Director to coordinate and implement our strategic actions, manage the LIBER Office, and advocate for our research library members at the European level….”

New Focus on Open Textbooks in LIBER Educational Resources Working Group – LIBER Europe

“Over the next two years, the LIBER Educational Resources Working Group will focus on promoting and advancing in the area of open textbooks. This is a call for new members.

Enhancing discoverability of open textbooks and collection curation,
Peer review and evaluation of open textbooks outside of publishing houses,
Measuring and assessing impact of open textbooks….”

Survey of Open Repositories in Europe

“The aim of this survey is to gain a better understanding of the repository landscape in Europe in order to develop a relevant and effective strategy to strengthen repositories in the region…. 

The survey is being undertaken by OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR as part of their Joint Strategy to Strengthen the European Repository Network. Results of the survey will be presented in a report in summer 2023. Aggregate, anonymised data will be deposited into the Zenodo repository. No personal information will be shared beyond the survey analysis team and contact information will be used for internal purposes only.

The survey is open to any open research / scholarly repository based in Europe and should be completed by a person who is responsible for managing the repository….”

OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe and COAR Launch Joint Strategy to Strengthen the European Repository Network – COAR

“Open science is ushering in a new paradigm for research; one in which all  researchers have unprecedented access to the full corpus of research for analysis, text and data mining, and other novel research methods. A prerequisite for achieving this vision is a strong and well-functioning network of repositories that provides human and machine access to the wide range of valuable research outputs. Repositories also support much needed bibliodiversity in the system as they collect a diverse range of content types, domains and languages, and are fundamental for achieving Europe’s desired changes to research evaluation, whereby “assessment of research, researchers and research organisations recognises the diverse outputs, practices and activities that maximise the quality and impact of research”.

Currently, Europe has one of the most well-developed networks globally with hundreds of repositories hosted by universities, research centres, government departments, and not-for-profit organisations. However, there are significant variations across the European repository landscape with differing levels of support and funding; and, while some countries have strong national coordination, others do not. In a practical sense, this means that some repositories have access to the resources they need to provide a well-functioning service, while others find it a challenge to maintain up-to-date software platforms and suitable staffing levels….

To that end, today OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR are launching a joint strategy aimed at strengthening the European repository network. Through this strategy we are committed to working together – and with other relevant organisations – to develop and execute an action plan that will reinforce and enhance repositories in Europe. As a first step, we will undertake a survey that will enable us to have a better understanding of the current repository landscape and identify priority areas of action. The survey will be available in February 2023.”