The UMass Amherst Libraries will celebrate International Open Access Week and the 2022 theme “Open for Climate Justice” with a series of events to highlight the benefits of open scholarship to advance common knowledge and shared well-being, particularly in the face of our current climate crisis.
Micah Vandegrift, Senior User Experience (UX) Strategist for the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, will lead off with a keynote address on Monday, October 24th at 4 p.m.. Vandegrift’s virtual talk, “Open to Change: Possibilities and Probabilities,” addresses current opportunities at the intersection of climate change, open science, and community engagement, in light of the updated policy to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost. Vandegrift will outline a possible case study informed by his experience and recent research, provide a foundation and a forecast, and answer questions following his talk. Registration is required for the event.
Three UMass Amherst scholars will join a panel discussion, “Open for Climate Justice” on Thursday, October 27th from noon to 1:45 at the Science and Engineering Libraries’ Learning Studio. Kiran Asher, Professor and Chair of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Craig Nicolson, Lecturer in Environmental Conservation, and Justin Richardson, Assistant Professor in Geosciences each address how using and sharing open works (articles, books, data, software, etc.) in their research and teaching can benefit communities who have borne the worst effects of climate change. No registration is required but space is limited. Refreshments will be served.
The Libraries are co-sponsors of the Department of Sociology author talk on Janice Irvine’s book “Marginal People in Deviant Places: Ethnography, Difference and the Challenge to Scientific Racism” on Wednesday, October 26th from 11:15 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at the Old Chapel. Christina Hanhardt, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, will lead the discussion. Irvine’s book is published open access by the University of Michigan Press with partial funding provided by the Libraries’ SOAR Fund.
The following two workshops will be offered during Open Access Week:
- “Tools for Managing Your Scholarly Identity: Building and Managing Your ORCiD Profile” on Tuesday, October 25th, noon to 1:00 p.m. with in person and virtual options.
- “Open Access, Peer Review and Predatory Publishing: Can You Have the First Two Without the Third?” on Wednesday, October 26th, 3:00-4:00 p.m. in the Calipari Room of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.