FW: [SPARC-FRIENDS] SPARC-ACRL FORUM TO EXPLORE OPEN DATA

["Olga Francois" <OFrancois@xxxxxxxx>]

FYI...
For Immediate Release
May 11, 2006
Contact:
Jennifer Heffelfinger
jennifer@xxxxxxx
(202) 296-2296 x121

SPARC-ACRL FORUM TO EXPLORE OPEN DATA

Washington, DC and Chicago, IL - May 11, 2006 - The upcoming SPARC-ACRL
forum on emerging issues in scholarly communication, to be held during
the American Library Association's annual meeting in New Orleans, will
explore questions related to the field of Open Data.  The forum will
feature experts who are familiar with the issues associated with Open
Data and known for their analysis of the evolving scholarly
communication scene.

During the past several years, Open Data has become a field of urgent
interest to researchers, scholars, and librarians.  With the amount of
scientific data doubling every year, issues surrounding the access, use,
and curation of data sets are increasing in importance. The data-rich,
researcher-driven environment that is evolving poses new challenges and
provides new opportunities in the sharing, review, and publication of
research results.  Ensuring open access to the data behind the
literature will play a key role in seeing that the scholarly
communication system evolves in a way that supports the needs of
scholars and the academic enterprise as a whole.

As Open Data moves to the forefront of scholarly communication,
librarians, administrators, and researchers will be responsible for
considering new access policies for data and data curation issues.  This
SPARC-ACRL forum will introduce Open Data as an emerging focus, explore
the challenges of managing the data deluge, and aid participants in
crafting their own digital data preservation and curation policies.

Speakers will include:

*	Christopher Greer, Cyberinfrastructure Advisor, Office of the
Assistant Director for Biological Sciences, National Science Foundation
*	Robert Hanisch, Project Manager, Space Telescope Science
Institute
*	Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked
Information

The SPARC-ACRL forum will be held on Saturday, June 24th from 4:00 -
5:30PM in the Morial Convention Center, Room 356 - 357. Reservations are
not required.

The forum is followed by the ACRL Scholarly Communication Discussion
Group, an opportunity to exchange views with speakers from the forum and
take the discussion to a deeper level. The Discussion Group convenes on
Sunday, June 25th, from 4:00 - 5:30PM in Evangeline Suite of the Royal
Sonesta Hotel.

For more information, visit the SPARC Web site at
<http://www.arl.org/sparc/> and the SPARC Open Data email discussion
list at <http://www.arl.org/sparc/opendata/>.

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and SPARC
Europe are an international alliance of more than 300 academic and
research libraries working to correct imbalances in the scholarly
publishing system.  SPARC's advocacy, educational, and publisher
partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC
is located on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc; SPARC Europe is at
http://www.sparceurope.org.

ACRL
ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA),
representing more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and
interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership
organization in North America that develops programs, products and
services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians.
Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the
role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research
environments.

-------------------------------------
Jennifer Heffelfinger
Communications Manager
SPARC
jennifer@xxxxxxx
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
www.arl.org/sparc