Subject: Re: Committee on Public Access to Scholarly Materials
To: Peter Gilkey
From: "Dev P. Sinha"
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 15:07:29

Summary of first meeting of the Committee on Public Access to Scholarly Materials:

In attendance: Dev Sinha (Chair), Deb Carver (Dean of the Library, ex-officio), Dave Hubin (Liason with the President's office, ex-officio), Peter Gilkey (Senate President, ex-officio), J. Q. Johnson, Eric Priest, Gordon Sayre.

Committee members introduced themselves and then briefly shared their view of the merits of having a University policy on Public Access to Scholarly Materials, what such a policy might look like, and the process for formulating such a policy. The following points were made.

  • * There is demonstrable, clear evidence that promoting access will increase the visibility and thus impact of scholarly work.
  • * We can more easily formulate such a policy by working from policies developed at peer institutions such as Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and the University of Kansas.
  • * The nature and success of such efforts can vary widely depending on scholarly practices among disciplines.
  • * The intellectual property issues in this area are not generally well-understood and often incorrectly managed by institutions.
  • * The campus needs a broad discussion, clear on the limited scope we are proposing, in order for buy-in and compliance to be likely. Graduate students should be involved.
  • * We need to address not only policy but infrastructure supporting that policy.

    The committee discussed different processes and reached a tentative consensus that proceeding through departments rather than centrally would be more likely to get both wide participation in the process and higher levels of compliance once a policy is adopted. We thus plan to engage groups such as the Council of Deans, the Department Heads meeting within the CAS and the Graduate Council before formulating a campus-wide strategy.

    Respectfully submitted,
    Dev Sinha

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