Open Access News

FreeCulture has declared February 15 a "National Day of Action" for students to support OA and FRPAA.  From yesterday's announcement:

Freeculture.org, the international student movement for free culture, in collaboration with the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA), today announced that February 15, 2007 will be a "National Day of Action" for students that support open sharing of scientific and scholarly research findings on the Internet. Events nationwide will highlight the importance of taxpayer access to publicly funded research and rally support for Congressional passage of the Federal Research Public Access Act. The day also marks the fifth anniversary of the landmark Budapest Open Access Initiative, when the worldwide open access movement first took form, and will be supported by the launch of a new Web resource and petition for public access, produced jointly by freeculture.org and the ATA....

Freeculture.org and its 36 chapters nationwide [in the US] joins 72 other members of the ATA, 132 university and college presidents and provosts, and thousands of taxpayers, patients, researchers, and librarians that have voiced support for the legislation.

"Students are researchers, and were among the first groups to recognize the vast benefits of open access," said Gavin Baker, director of freeculture.org's Open Access project and author of a University of Florida student senate resolution in support of the Cornyn-Lieberman public access bill. "Since many of their professors, advisors, and colleagues have conducted their work with the benefit of federal grants, it makes sense that this work should be freely circulated and built upon. Students have coordinated their efforts on a national level to formalize their strong belief that public access to research is the way to move forward."

"Improving access to government-funded research results is critical to advancing science," said David Minh, a University of California San Diego graduate student who serves on the coordinating committee for Universities Allied for Essential Medicines....

"Students adding their considerable energy and significant weight to the momentum behind the issue is yet another sign of the strength and breadth of support for public access to research results," said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, founder of the ATA)....

Campuses nationwide will be announcing individual events and support for the National Day of Action in the coming weeks. For more information, please visit the freeculture.org-Alliance for Taxpayer Access student resource.

PS:  If your campus doesn't already have a chapter of FreeCulture, please find a way to spread the word about this initiative to your students.