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The Time for Open Access is Now: Open Access Week 2020

Open access materials are academic materials that are legally accessible and distributed online, free of cost. The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of openly accessible research, as researchers publicly share their work on the coronavirus.Open access is now a necessity. With open access, COVID-19 researchers are sharing their work more quickly to help speed up innovation and discovery.

Open Access Week is a global event held annually in October to raise awareness of the benefits of Open Access in the academic community. This year’s theme is Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion – a prompt for the academic community to consider the benefits of open access through the lens of creating systems and infrastructure to support all researchers. 

Ryerson Library is hosting two events during Open Access Week:  Oct. 19-25. 

We encourage faculty and graduate students to attend open access events and learn more about how open access can improve the knowledge mobilization of Ryerson research.

The Role of Open Access and Social Media in Knowledge Mobilization and Discovery. 

Talk with Open Access Library Wall of Fame 2020 Award Winner: Anatoliy Grudz.

Date: Oct 19, 2020
Time: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m

Ideas that seem obvious today, at one point were obscure facts known only to a select few. The health benefits of washing hands, wearing a seatbelt while in a car – none of these ideas and practices were accepted immediately. In addition to needing time to incubate, new ideas also need to be accessible so that they can be tested, debated, and built upon. This presentation, which is based on my previous research and personal experiences, will highlight the importance and connection between open access publishing and the role of social media in promotion and dissemination of scholarly research. 

Speaker Information: 

Anatoliy Gruzd is a Canada Research Chair in Privacy-Preserving Digital Technologies, an Associate Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management and the Director of Research at the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, a co-editor of a multidisciplinary journal on Big Data and Society, and a founding co-chair of the International Conference on Social Media and Society. As a computational social scientist, Dr. Gruzd’s research broadly explores how social media platforms are changing the ways in which people and organizations communicate, collaborate, disseminate information and misinformation, conduct business and form communities online, and how these changes impact society.

Mountains to Climb: Open Access and academic libraries in 2020 and Beyond

Talk with Jon E. Cawthorne, Ph.D. is Dean of the Wayne State University Library

Date: Oct. 22, 2020
Time: 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Description:

Dean Cawthorne is pathologically positive!  The talk will build on themes within the article Mountains to climb: Leadership for sustainable change in scholarly communication.  This remarkable moment requires rethinking large ideas/systems related to organizational culture, social justice and scholarship.  The talk will suggest how our noble profession may navigate the complex individual and organizational values we hold dear, while exploring how our collective leadership for higher education must meet the moment. The presentation will be enriched by interaction during the Q&A session, so please bring your questions and come prepared to engage with the speaker.

Speaker information: 

Jon E. Cawthorne, Ph.D. is Dean of the Wayne State University Library System which includes the University’s School of Information Sciences.  He has a Ph.D. in managerial leadership in the information professions from Simmons University and is passionate about changing organizational cultures, increasing Black, Indigenous People of Color into leadership positions in the information and publishing industry. Dean Cawthorne is the current President of the Association of College and Research Libraries and remains positive about the future.  Prior to joining WSULS, Cawthorne served as  dean of libraries at West Virginia University.  While in Morgantown, Cawthorne led an effort to remove WVU from their Big Deal in 2016.