Kennedy School Library Blog

The Africa Portal, an initiative of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), is an open access digital resource that contains an online library collection of over 5,000 policy-related journal articles and publications relating to African policy issues. A directory of scholars and practitioners, a discussion blog, an opinion section features shorter-form commentary on policy issues in Africa and a calendar of international events is also included on the site.

The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAR) site is an award- winning web site that provides a searchable index for full-text Open Access academic monographs.  The DOAB site provides access  to peer-reviewed monographs and edited volumes published under an Open Access business model, with links to the full texts of the publications on the publisher’s website or repository. Produced by the OAPEN Foundation (Open Access Publishing in European Networks), the site is keyword searchable or can be browsed by title, subject or publisher. Over two hundred books are retrieved in full-text if you browse by the subject “Law and political science.” A significant number of books retrieved through the site are published in foreign languages including Dutch, German and Italian.

Please join the Harvard Law School for their final Open Access Week event. Three speakers will discuss the significance of open access to research from a variety of perspectives.

The Significance of Open Access to Research

• Carolina Rossini, Berkman Center
• John Wilbanks, Science Commons
• Stefan Gruber, HLS Visiting Researcher

Friday, October 23rd, noon-1:30pm
Harvard Law School, Pound 108
RSVP requested, but not required: http://tinyurl.com/yzp956o

Four schools at Harvard University have adopted open access policies for their scholarly articles. In celebration of Open Access Week (http://www.openaccessweek.org/), Stuart Shieber (Faculty Director of Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication), Peter Suber (Berkman Fellow and leader in the open access movement) and representatives from the schools with open access policies will be hosting a forum to answer questions you might have about Harvard’s current activities in implementing these policies and issues about open access generally.

Monday, October 19th, 11:00am-12:30pm
Harvard Law School
Ropes Gray Room (Pound Hall)
RSVP required at http://bit.ly/2AbAfL or e-mail to mpearse@law.harvard.edu (As part of the RSVP form, we encourage you to submit questions before the event.)

Watch live or follow the conversation tied to the workshop at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement.

Watch live: http://www.law.harvard.edu/media/2009_07_31_berkman.mov

Information about the workshop: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/googlebooks/Main_Page

Follow the discussion on Twitter: http://bit.ly/8O1PI

Topics up for discussion: missed opportunities related to the Google Book Search settlement, open standards, open access, infrastructure and framework,  the Human Knowledge Project.