UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries will participate in the 19th annual celebration of International Open Access Week by hosting an online panel discussion featuring Penn State faculty Oct. 22 titled “Visibility Matters: Exploring the Cost of Closed Knowledge.”
University faculty panelists Christopher Dancy, Laura Weyrich and Alia Levar Wegner will discuss how open access shapes what can be seen, whose knowledge is recognized, who controls data and cultural records, and what responsibilities institutions have to make knowledge accessible and sustainable.
The panel, to be held on Zoom at noon on Thursday, Oct. 22, is open for public attendance. Registration is required to attend.
About the session
The theme of this year’s Open Access Week and this panel session, “The Cost of Knowledge,” recognizes that knowledge becomes powerful when people can access, interpret, preserve and participate in it. But when knowledge is commercialized, poorly preserved, hidden or built through exclusionary systems, the consequences can extend beyond inconvenience: communities, histories, environments and forms of expertise can become invisible. The theme encourages participants to consider why the costs of accessing knowledge continue to increase, and who is harmed when that content is not available to everyone.
The panelists are:
- Dancy is the Harold and Inge Marcus Industrial and Manufacturing Career Development Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, of Computer Science and Engineering, and of African American Studies and director of THiCC Lab, in the College of Engineering and in College of the Liberal Arts. His work examines how computational systems and artificial intelligence (AI) reflect and reproduce racialized social structures; considers how bias, anti-Blackness and unequal design can make knowledge less accessible; and works toward building more transparent, accountable and socially responsible systems.
- Weyrich, associate professor of anthropology and bioethics in the College of the Liberal Arts, uses ancient DNA and microbiome research to explore the importance of transparent, reproducible and responsibly shared scientific data. Her work also considers how open access can advance discovery while respecting context, community interests and ethical responsibilities.
- Wegner, associate librarian and head of the University Libraries’ Preservation, Conservation and Digitization team, frames digital collections as public digital assets and considers the financial, labor and environmental costs of preserving access to public history. She also brings a focus on community-led approaches to digital stewardship that can help libraries rethink their role and better serve the public interest.
International Open Access Week was founded in 2008 by SPARC, a nonprofit that supports open systems for research and education, and partners in the student community and is organized in partnership with the Open Access Week Advisory Committee. As a SPARC member, Penn State celebrates Open Access Week annually, and recordings of past years’ events are available to view. Penn State’s event is one of many events organized worldwide in recognition of Open Access Week this year.
Ahead of this year's event, SPARC published an article summarizing two reports on scholarly research investments and where those returns on that labor go. SPARC also has launched a calculator tool designed to help researchers better understand their own role in the ecosystem.
Penn State researchers interested in learning more can reach out to openaccess@psu.edu regarding rights retention and depositing in open repositories, and to openpublishing@psu.edu regarding open access community-owned publications. For more information about all of Penn State’s open initiatives, visit Open at Penn State.