Friends of the UNCG Libraries

 (click image to enlarge) We invite you to attend the upcoming Faculty Senate Scholarly Communications Forum, which will address to the topic: "Solving the Textbook Cost Crisis with Open Educational Resources." October 23rd 3:30 - 5:00 EUC Kirkland Introduction by UNCG Provost and Vice Chancellor Dana Dunn Speaker - Nicole Allen - Director of Open Education for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Panel discussion to follow.

2014 Faculty Senate Scholarly Communications Forum October 23rd 3:30 – 5:00 EUC Kirkland Introduction by UNCG Provost and Vice Chancellor Dana Dunn Speaker – Nicole Allen - Director of Open Education for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Panel discussion to follow Nicole Allen The cost of college textbooks has grown to a point that virtually every campus is now seeking solutions. While many colleges and universities like UNCG have successfully reduced costs through stop-gap measures such as rental programs and textbook reserves, the greatest potential for permanently solving the problem lies in Open Educational Resources (OERs), which are academic materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, adapt, and share.  Institutions across the country have begun to leverage OERs to reduce textbook costs, expand access to information, and enable faculty to better tailor materials to their courses. This talk will provide an overview of...

We are very pleased to report that we have awarded two new grants from the Open Access Publishing Support Fund, co-sponsored by the University Libraries and the Office of Research and Economic Development. Professor Edward Hellen in the Department of Physics & Astronomy has been awarded a grant of $1,000 for the following publication: Article Title: Electronic Implementation of a Repressilator with Quorum Sensing Feedback Journal Title: PLOS ONE Date Article was Accepted: 4/1/2013 Estimated Date of Publication: 5/1/2013 Professor Lauren Haldeman in the Department of Nutrition has been awarded a grant of $1,000 for the following publication:  Article Title: Are Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs associated with obesity among Low Income Hispanic and African American Women Caretakers? Journal Title: Journal of Obesity (Hindawi Publishing) Date Article was Accepted: April 3, 2013 Estimated Date of Publication: April-May 2013

The University Libraries have accepted an invitation to join COAPI ((the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions) in recognition of our leadership role in the field and in recognition of the passage of the open access policy recently adopted by the University Libraries faculty. The Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) brings together representatives from North American universities with established faculty open access policies and those in the process of developing such policies. It was formed to share information and experiences and to illuminate opportunities for moving faculty-led open access forward at member institutions and advocating for open access nationally and internationally.  COAPI will offer a collection of best and evolving practices to act as a road map for inspiring, promoting and implementing open access polices at institutions without existing or effective open access policies. For more information, see: http://www.arl.org/sparc/about/COA...

On March 5, 2013, the library faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro voted unanimously to adopt an open access policy that commits them to archive their journal articles in NC DOCKS, UNCG’s institutional repository: http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/ The full text of the policy follows Whereas the Library Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) recognize the vital importance of open-access archiving for the enrichment and expansion of scholarly communication in the Age of the Internet, we adopt the following policy in order to ensure that our research and scholarly works are freely available in perpetuity to the widest possible audience.We, the Library Faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, resolve the following: • We encourage all library faculty to publish in journals that are open access or allow open access archiving. • Before we sign a publisher’s copyright agreement for a journal article, we will verify our right to ar...

When the talk turns to saving money, as it often does, the University Libraries at UNCG have a story to tell.   And so do their colleagues in other libraries in the area. In 2005 the University Libraries at UNCG conceived and established the Carolina Consortium to leverage the buying power of the state’s libraries to acquire access to electronic journals and databases.   Less than ten years later, the Consortium now covers North and South Carolina and includes more than 140 libraries.   “Total cost avoidance savings for the UNC system libraries alone amounted to more than $100 million last year and more than $500 million since the group was formed,” says Tim Bucknall, Convener of the Consortium and Assistant Director of the University Libraries at UNCG.   “As a result of the Consortium’s deals, the libraries in the region have better access to electronic information resources at a cost far below what it would cost each of them to acquire the resources alone.”...

A grant from the Open Access Publishing Support Fund was recently awarded in the amount of $400 to Ethan Zell, Professor of Psychology, for his article, Zell E, Balcetis E (2012)  The Influence of Social Comparison on Visual Representation of One's Face. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36742. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0036742. The University Libraries and the Office of Research & Economic Development created the Open Access Publishing Support Fund in order  to support faculty, EPA employees, and graduate students who are becoming increasingly involved in open access publishing.The Open Access Publishing Support Fund is a pilot project, and the primary guidelines for the fund are: the author/applicant must be a member of the full-time faculty, a full-time EPA employee, or an enrolled graduate student; the article must be published in a peer-reviewed open-access journal; the article processing fee must have been paid no more than three months prior to submission of the a...

In early February 2012, the University Libraries and the Office of Research & Economic Development created an Open Access Publishing Support Fund in order to support faculty, EPA employees, and graduate students who are becoming increasingly involved in open access publishing. The first grant of $1,000 from this fund was recently awarded to Robert Hans Stavn, Professor of Biology, for his article, “Mass-specific scattering cross sections of suspended sediments and aggregates: theoretical limits and applications,” Optics Express 20 (1): 201-219 . The Open Access Publishing Support Fund is a pilot project that is funded at $11,500, and the primary guidelines for the fund are that the author/applicant must be a member of the full-time faculty, a full-time EPA employee, or an enrolled graduate student; the article must be published in a peer-reviewed open-access journal; the article processing fee must have been paid no more than three months prior to submission of the application;...