Next week marks Open Access Week 2018 with the theme “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge.” According to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), open access is the “free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open access ensures that anyone can access and use these results – to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives.”

Open Access Week 2018

University of Houston Libraries will host three events to promote open access and to highlight University initiatives related to open access.

• October 23: Alternative Textbook Incentive Program Reception
  University of Houston faculty are invited to the Alternative Textbook Incentive Program (ATIP) reception in the Digital Research Commons to celebrate the first winner cohort of the program and to learn more about open educational resources (OER).
• October 24: #TextbookBroke
  How much did you spend on textbooks this semester? What was your most expensive textbook? Are you #textbookbroke? Stop by to share your answers to these questions and learn about UH’s textbook affordability initiatives: the SGA Textbook Exchange and the Alternative Textbook Incentive Program.
• October 25: Digital Research Commons Lecture
  UH Honors College faculty member Dan Price will give a lecture, “SAM (Houston on a First Name Basis) Achieving Granularity With Open Access Data,” open to students, faculty, and staff.