UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three leading experts on the subject of open access will share their perspectives during a public online panel discussion, “We Are Enough: Practical Open Access for Everyone,” hosted by Penn State University Libraries on Oct. 23 during International Open Access Week.
Samuel Moore, Sarah Lamdan and Peter Suber will share their expertise and views on open access during the event. Moore, scholarly communication specialist at Cambridge University Library, is one of the organizers of the Radical Open Access Collective and author of the forthcoming University of Michigan Press book “Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care and the Commons.” Lamdan, deputy director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, authored the widely acclaimed book “Data Cartels.” Suber, author of the seminal monograph “Open Access,” is a leading theorist of the open access movement.
The panel discussion’s theme, “We Are Enough: Practical Open Access for Everyone,” was selected to appeal to a wide University audience, ranging from faculty members and researchers to independent scholars, students, faculty librarians and library workers, and professionals working in the publishing industry.
“Our Open Access Week panel is a rare and exceptional opportunity to hear from three global giants in the field of open access in a single conversation,” said Faye A. Chadwell, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications. “We have been honored to hear from Sarah Lamdan and Peter Suber individually in prior years and are thrilled they are rejoining us along with Samuel Moore, whose upcoming book speaks to this year’s International Open Access Week theme of knowledge ownership. I’m looking forward to a rich and insightful discussion not to be missed.”
Open access principles and practices provide and advocate for barrier-free reading of peer-reviewed, published online academic articles, journals and longer-form publications. Open access has been a growing, worldwide concern for decades, accelerated when scholarly publications’ production shifted to for-profit publishers and distribution moved primarily online, further exacerbated by paywall restrictions and significantly rising content-licensing charges. These factors have made these research discoveries more challenging to access, especially as scholarly researchers and library institutions face funding issues.
Penn State University Libraries’ faculty librarians have led Penn State’s pursuit of open access for a decade, beginning in 2015, furthered by University Faculty Senate support in 2019 and enacted into University’s policy AC02, Open Access to Scholarly Articles, on Jan. 1, 2020.
The free public webinar “We Are Enough: Practical Open Access for Everyone” is hosted by the University Libraries and will be held online via Zoom from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Oct. 23. Registration is required.
International Open Access Week 2025 will be commemorated worldwide Oct. 20-26 with “Who Owns Our Knowledge?” as its overall theme.
More information about open access at Penn State is available at openaccess.psu.edu.