Advocacy for the first African Open access mandate @ the University of Pretoria Elsabé Olivier EIFL-OA online workshop 30 May 2011.

Advocacy for the first African Open access mandate

@ the University of Pretoria

Elsabé OlivierEIFL-OA online workshop

30 May 2011

What is advocacy?

“Advocacy is a planned, deliberate, sustained effort to raise awareness of an

issue. It’s an ongoing process in which support and understanding are built

incrementally over an extended period of time and using a wide variety of marketing

and public relations tools.” Canadian Association of Public Libraries

Common issues regarding advocacy

• Advocacy and marketing are closely linked together

• Planning and writing advocacy plans is the easy part

• It is more difficult to put those plans into action• Advocacy requires time, commitment, and

cooperation of other librarians and the community (Helieisar 2008)

Pre-adoption of the mandate

• UPSpace was implemented in 2006• The collection of research papers is called openUP• Open Scholarship Office formalized in 2007• openUP follows a mediated approach of

submission• Advocacy is difficult with an empty repository• Mandate was drafted in 2009• Road show to all the faculties & approved by

Senate

“We build the road by walking it”

First Open Access mandate policy

• Staff & students are required to– submit the peer-reviewed post-prints of their

articles and published conference papers to UPSpace, the University’s institutional repository

– Give the university permission to• Make the content freely available• Take necessary steps to preserve the files in

perpetuity

Current openUP status

Advocacy roll-out

Management advocacy : mandate acceptance

Library advocacy : submission training

Advocacy partner : Department of Research

& Innovation Linking of articles to annual Research report

Departmental advocacy : presentations

Departmental advocacy - linking of articles to UP

web site

Departmental advocacy : Recruit submitters

“UPSpace is the ideal platform to provide access to the latest research emerging from the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria. Research published in peer-reviewed journals is now legally accessible globally, allowing other scientists to build on research topics addressed.”

James Mehl. PhD studentForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)

Departmental advocacy : Identify champions

• Support from Prof Brenda Wingfield, deputy dean of the Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences:

• “In order to facilitate as many of our publications being available on UPSpace as possible I have been having additional discussions with Elsabe Olivier who has been driving this initiative on campus.  One of my objectives has been to make this process as painless and time effective as possible AND to increase our international visibility.”

Departmental advocacy : Target researchers

“I think that it is very good news that the University of Pretoria is taking a lead in making more freely accessible the published work of its scholars. It has always bothered me that research that is largely paid for by public funds is made accessible to the wide body of the research public only through expensive journal subscriptions. We need to move more rapidly toward open publishing, and the Open Scholarship Programme of the Library is an important first step to change our views on the way in which our research is disseminated. This programme makes it possible for us to know about the research work produced by our colleagues at the University of Pretoria, and it should be encouraged to grow.”

Prof. Nithaya ChettyDepartment of Physics

Individual advocacy : Campus News reminders

Individual advocacy : E-mail campaign

Individual support : Submission guide

Individual support : Scholarship web

http://www.library.up.ac.za/openup/index.htm

Individual support : Open Access journal list

Accredited Open Access Journal List http://www.library.up.ac.za/aoajsa.htm

Individual support : openUP postbox

Open Access day advocacy : Posters, bookmarks & buttons

Open Access day advocacy : T-shirts, speaker, competition & partners

Open Access day advocacy : Competition

Student advocacy : Sparky video contest 2011

Student advocacy : Student wall

Conclusion

• Librarians can play a leading role in developing an Open Access culture at their academic institutions

• Advocacy is an ongoing process• Involves time, commitment and cooperation

from stakeholders

References

• Canadian Library Association http://www.cla.ca/Content/NavigationMenu/CLAatWork/Divisions/CAPL/AdvocacyResources/LibraryAdvocacyNow/default.htm

• Ghosh, M 2011 Advocacy for open access : a selected review of the literature and resource list. Library Hi Tech News, no. 2, pp. 19-23.

• Helieisar, A. (2008), “Library advocacy in Micronesia”, paper presented at 74TH IFLA General Conference and Council, World Library and Information Congress, 10-14 August, Que´bec, available at: http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/093-Helieisar-en.pdf

Thank you!Questions?

Elsabé Olivier [email protected]

The presentation is licensed with CreativeCommons Attribution 3.0 License