The Jisc Open Access Good Practice Workshop that too place on 17th June, at which HHuLOA presented (see earlier post for a link to the slides) was also the first meeting of the Jisc Open Access Implementation Community. The materials presented and generated at this workshop have now been shared via the OAIC blog. The day was split into two halves: a series of presentations from the Pathfinder projects and Jisc on recent open access work and developments; and an exercise working together on identifying core open access challenges and what solutions could be identified for these. It was a good introduction to both the Pathfinder programme and current Jisc planning in this field, and as such a valuable summary for those wishing to get up to speed.
Without repeating the content on the OAIC blog, my own takeaways from the day were as follows:
- The value and new ideas being brought to a couple of the projects by team members not previously involved in open access. For example, the Coventry project (O2OA) is led by a Business Development Manager. It will be good to get these different perspectives on board.
- The complementary role of the Jisc Monitor project that is kicking off in tandem with the Pathfinder projects and looking at how a managed service can support institutions in meeting the HEFCE OA policy. It will be useful to contrast how services can be best provided at campus and above campus level, and where the dividing line most effectively sits.
- Neil Jacobs presented a slide that sought to encapsulate all current Jisc OA activity and the workflow between them. This, not surprisingly perhaps given the breadth of activity, brought spaghetti to mind, but it was a very helpful snapshot of how the landscape is developing toward embedding and facilitating OA publishing as a routine activity.
- The realisation in the exercise section that we do know the problems, but need to approach these in different ways to arrive at solutions that work for all the parties concerned. The need for clarity all round is key, so we know precisely which problem and facet of this we are dealing with. Plenty for the Pathfinder projects to get their teeth into!
There will be other OAIC events as the Pathfinder progresses, aimed at both project members and anyone in the HE community involved in developing OA solutions. Watch this space.