Alma Swan and Leslie Chan officially launched OASIS (Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook) at ELPUB 2009 (Milan, June 10-12, 2009). The OASIS subtitle or motto is:
OASIS aims to provide an authoritative ‘sourcebook’ on Open Access, covering the concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieving it. The site highlights developments and initiatives from around the world, with links to diverse additional resources and case studies. As such, it is a community-building as much as a resource-building exercise. Users are encouraged to share and download the resources provided, and to modify and customize them for local use....
A brief [video] introduction to OASIS is available here.
Comments
OASIS should help every kind of OA outreach and educational effort find the most effective material and avoid reinventing the wheel. Use it as is, improve it, help it grow, and spread the word. Kudos to Alma and Leslie for bringing this useful idea from drawing board to launch. (Disclosure: I'm on the OASIS steering committee and co-founder with Robin Peek of one of the OASIS partner resources, the Open Access Directory.)
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.
