Registration now open: Berlin 9 Open Access Conference

    Registration is now open for the Berlin 9 Open Access Conference, to be held November 9 & 10, 2011 at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Case, MD. Registration is also open for pre-conference sessions scheduled for November 8 in downtown Washington, DC.

    This ninth installment in the Berlin Open Access conference series, which convenes leaders in the science, humanities, research, funding, and policy communities around The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, will focus on the impact of Open Access in research and scholarship. The event will explore how open, online access has the potential to transform the process of discovery and the translation of knowledge into benefits to society, as well as to enhance public engagement and create new opportunities for scholarship and business.

    For program details, including speakers confirmed to date, visit http://www.berlin9.org/program.

    Berlin 9 is being organized by representatives from the science, humanities, research, funding and policy communities, including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Marine Biological Laboratory, the Max Planck Society, Association of Research Libraries, and SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition).

    The organizers are grateful for the generous financial support of The Institute of Museum and Library Services, InTech, dozens of North American academic and research libraries (including Arizona State University, Queen’s University, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, University of California-San Diego, University of Ottawa, University of Wyoming, University of Florida), and ProQuest.

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    For more information, contact:

    — Jennifer McLennan, SPARC, (202) 296-2296 ext. 121, jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
    — Christoph Bruch, Max Planck Society, +49 (30) 84 13 37 27, bruch [at] mpdl [dot] mpg [dot] de
    — Avice Meehan, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (301) 215-8646, meehana [at] hhmi [dot] org
    — Prudence S. Adler, Association of Research Libraries, (202) 296-2296, prue [at] arl [dot] org
    — Andrea Early, Marine Biological Laboratory, (508) 289-7652, aearly [at] mbl [dot] edu

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    The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, issued in 2003 by international research, scientific, and cultural institutions, promotes the Internet as a medium for disseminating global knowledge. It has been signed by the leaders of over 300 research institutions, libraries, archives, museums, funding agencies, and governments from around the world. Signatories include the Max Planck Society (co-initiator and custodian of the declaration), CERN, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, Harvard University, and the International Federation of Library Associations.

    The Berlin Open Access Conference Series supports the continued adoption and realization of the principles of the declaration and has been hosted in Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, France, and – most recently – China. Berlin 9 will mark the first such meeting to take place in North America. The program will feature concrete steps taken by a variety of stakeholders to support Open Access and invite participants to consider added actions that might be taken – including encouraging signatures to the Berlin Declaration.

    For more information about the conference and the Berlin Declaration, visit www.berlin9.org.