Monthly Archives: February 2013

Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research

Great news out of Washington, DC today:

“The Obama Administration is committed to the proposition that citizens deserve easy access to the results of scientific research their tax dollars have paid for. That’s why, in a policy memorandum released today, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director John Holdren has directed Federal agencies with more than $100M in R&D expenditures to develop plans to make the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication and requiring researchers to better account for and manage the digital data resulting from federally funded scientific research.”

The new policy comes after two rounds of requests for information from the White House, as well as a petition on “We The People,” which garnered over 60,000 signatures in support of public access to federally funded research.  Dr. Holdren, in his response to the petition, stated:

“The logic behind enhanced public access is plain. We know that scientific research supported by the Federal Government spurs scientific breakthroughs and economic advances when research results are made available to innovators. Policies that mobilize these intellectual assets for re-use through broader access can accelerate scientific breakthroughs, increase innovation, and promote economic growth.”

You can read the memo from Dr. Holdren online, and visit the OSTP website for more information about the new policy.

Closer to home, two Illinois State Senators, Senator Bliss (D) and Senator Althoff (R), have introduced SB1900, which would create the “Open Access to Research Articles Act,” requiring public higher education institutions to develop an open access policy for research articles.  For more information, please visit the Illinois State Senate website.

New access to old sources

internetarchive      READ ALL ABOUT IT! Books on IWU history are now available online!

Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act

open access logoThe FASTR Act was introduced into both the House of Representatives and the Senate last week, sponsored by a bipartisan group of legislators: Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Representatives Mike Doyle (D-PA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Kevin Yoder (R-KS).

FASTR will require federal agencies that spend at least $100 million/year to fund extramural research to make the products of their funding, specifically peer reviewed, scholarly research articles, open access within six months of publication.

FASTR will provide near-immediate access to taxpayer-funded research, and will impact major federal agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information about FASTR, please see the FAQ developed by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition or the Alliance for Taxpayer Access website.

L’Annee Philologique – online resource trial begins

L’Annee Philologique is now available for trial through March 5. Users can find it on the A-Z list; the direct url is: http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.iwu.edu/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=lnp

L’Année philologique, published by the Société Internationale de Bibliographie Classique,is a valuable research tool in the area of classical studies. The database covers a variety of subject matter pertaining to Greek and Roman civilization including: Greek and Latin literature and linguistics, early Christian texts and patristics, Greek and Roman history, art, archaeology, philosophy, religion, mythology, music, science, and scholarly subspecialties such as numismatics, papyrology and epigraphy.

More than 810,000 records are included in L’Année philologique, with more than 15,000 new records added every year. Abstracts of journal articles are in English, German, Spanish, French or Italian. Books entries often include tables of contents and book review information.

Feedback on this resource is due March 5 – please contact Karen Schmidt (kschmidt@iwu.edu; ext 3834) about L’Annee Philologique.

Peep Into Poetry Diorama Contest

Celebrate World Poetry Day (March 21) by entering the Peeps Diorama Contest. Sponsored by the IWU Classics Club and Eta Sigma Pi, the contest features handmade dioramas to depict a scene from Greek or Roman myth or poetry, using Peeps. For more information, and to register, check out the link below. To get you started, a box of 5 Peeps can be picked up in 201 Library. Great prizes, good fun – and if you don’t win, you can eat your evidence!

http://iwuclassics.wufoo.com/forms/peep-into-poetry-diorama-contest/

Peep Into Poetry Inspiration - Power to the Peeple!

Peep Into Poetry Inspiration – Power to the Peeple!