“Ray English is an influential librarian,” said award committee chair Les Canterbury. “He is a leader in various organizations on state and national levels including the Oberlin Group of Liberal Arts Colleges, OhioLINK, ACRL, and other units of the American Library Association. Under his direction, Oberlin College has led a Mellon Foundation initiative involving six academic libraries that's designed to attract a more diverse population to the library profession through undergraduate internships.
“English's greatest impact as a librarian, perhaps, and the area of his work that stands out to the selection committee, is his advocacy for open access to the results of scholarly research. The breadth and depth of his knowledge of issues related to dissemination of scholarly output, and his commitment to access to information, led to his leadership role in information policy-setting arenas. He has been a primary leader of the ACRL scholarly communications program, has been active in the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), and has fostered close cooperation on scholarly communications issues among ACRL, SPARC, and the Association of Research Libraries. In addition, and on a larger stage, he has influenced, as an expert contributor, national policy on public access to federally-funded research, including the recent National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy.”
PS: Ray is also one of the most active and effective members of the Open Access Working Group. Congratulations, Ray!
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
