International Open Access Celebration week 2022

by Faith Magwaza

“Open for climate justice”

International Open Access Week is a global event organised by Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC

) in partnership with the Open Access Week Advisory Committee.  “SPARC is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports systems for research and education that are open by default and equitable by design”(.The University of KwaZulu-Natal Library services joined and became part of the global celebration of International Open Access (OA) week 2022 on the 1st -4th of November.  Apart from several presentations by renowned speakers, the library had activities across all five campuses. The theme for this year is “Open for climate justice”.  The focus of our event was not only on Open Access Advocacy but also on bringing up awareness on the impact of climate change and the dangers of inequitable access to the latest information on climate change.

 To commemorate International Open Access Week, the library events included Displays, Zoom webinars, and other marketing activities in each campus library.  

Open Access display at EGM library

Another activity was the Open Access quiz, participants had to answer the following questions :

1.       What comes to your mind when hearing the term Open Access?

Answer: Open access is a publishing model for scholarly communication that makes research information available at no cost to readers.

2.       What is the theme for the International Open Access week in the current year (2022)?

It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity. True or False

3.       Answer: false.

3. Open access can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape the impacts of climate change and our response to them.

Answer: True

Winners entered the competition by filling in the correct answers on question papers provided by the library. The correct answers were randomly selected by Librarians. There were three prices for grabs; 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd price.

Students were excited to participate and be part of the global Open Access celebration. Further to the competition was a generous offer by the library to every library user.  Each user was given a pen with an Open Access logo. It is hoped that the Library in collaboration with academics can mentor students and develop them further in the area of Open Access publishing.  For more information on International Open Access Week visit the following links: https://www.openaccessweek.org/events,   

 

References :

SPARC (2022) Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Available at https://sparcopen.org/news/2022/theme-for-open-access-week-2022-open-for-climate-justice/#:~:text=%E2%80%9COpen%20for%20Climate%20Justice%E2%80%9D%20is,(October%2024-30) (accessed 19 December).