For immediate release
October 16, 2008

For information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(2020 296-2296 ext 121
jennifer@arl.org

CREATIVE CAST TO AUDITION IDEAS AT SPARC REPOSITORIES MEETING INNOVATION FAIR

Washington, DC – October 16, 2008 – Diatomscapes, personal repositories, depositor reluctance, Amazon.com, and theses are a few of the themes repository champions will introduce at the SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008 Innovation Fair. Twenty presenters from four countries will voice the creative and innovative tactics used to cement local support and bolster repository growth to more than 1,100 sites worldwide. The SPARC meeting will be held November 17 and 18th at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, USA.

Inspired by Open Repositories’ “Minute Madness,” the Innovation Fair invites participants to present, in no more than two minutes, unusual approaches to: use of repository content; discovery of research outputs; value-added services; and repository promotion. Presenters were identified through a rigorous selection process led by the meeting program committee.

Presenters at the 2008 fair are:

•    Aaron Birkland, National Science Digital Library - Using Fedora 3.0 CMA for the NSDL NCORE
•    Alex Wade, Microsoft Corporation - My Research: A cloud-based personal repository on every desktop
•    Allyson Mower, University of Utah - The University Scholarly Knowledge Inventory System
•    Alvin Hutchinson, Smithsonian Institution – Libraries’ Institutional Bibliography: Using Tools to Circumvent Depositor Reluctance
•    Bill Branan, Fedora Commons - Web 2.0 on Fedora
•    Brenda Burk, IUPUI University Library - Streamlining the submissions
•    Chris Wilper, Fedora Commons - Using Amazon S3 for Fedora Repository File Storage
•    Eddie Shin, Fedora Commons - APP, SWORD, and ORE with the Fedora Repository
•    Guy McGarva & Robin Rice, University of Edinburgh - Two standards-compliant ways to geo-reference objects in DSpace repositories
•    Sean Thomas, MIT - SIMILE Project's Citeline: A new tool for bibliography publishing on the Web
•    Marianne Buehler, Rochester Institute of Technology - Harvest a College’s Scholarship?
•    Marilyn Billings, University of Massachusetts, Amherst - Negotiating with Publishers for Author Rights
•    Catherine Mitchell, University of California - Keywords in Context
•    Mary Betts-Gray & John Harrington, Cranfield University - Show your True Colors Advocacy Campaign
•    Tomonari Kinto, University of Tsukuba - SCPJ project: Promoting Japanese scholarly societies’ understanding of open access
•    Plato Smith II, Florida State University - P 3 D: Publishing, Publicizing, & Preserving Diatomscapes
•    Rhonda Marker, Rutgers University - Repository Faculty Tools
•    Shane Beers, George Mason University - Electronic Theses and Dissertations: An interdepartmental approach
•    Sue Kunda, Oregon State University - Scanning for Success: Oregon State University Libraries’ Digitization Program

In addition to the live presentations on November 17, presenters have posted their projects to the meeting Crowdvine Web site at http://sparc08.crowdvine.com, inviting the wider community of repository advocates and challengers to comment, build, and expand on the ideas constructively through their own posts and graphics.

The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting is supported by a growing number of sponsors. The organizers are grateful for major contributions from Microsoft (Conference Sponsor); Berkeley Electronic Press, BioMed Central, DC Lab, and EPrints, (Breakfast & Luncheon Sponsors); and by additional contributions from sixteen coffee break and supporting sponsors.

Registration fees will increase to on-site rates on November 1. To register and for more details, visit the meeting Web site athttp://www.arl.org/sparc/ir08.

#

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication. SPARC’s advocacy, educational and publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc.

The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting program has been developed by the members of the 2008 Program Committee: Jun Adachi (SPARC Japan), Raym Crow (SPARC), Richard Fyffe (Grinnell College), Susan Gibbons (University of Rochester), Melissa Hagemann (Open Society Institute), Karla Hahn (Association of Research Libraries), Bill Hubbard (SHERPA), Rick Johnson (SPARC), Michelle Kimpton (DSpace Foundation), Norbert Lossau (Goettingen State and University Library and DRIVER), Joyce Ogburn (University of Utah), Terry Owen (University of Maryland, College Park), Kathleen Shearer (Canadian Association of Research Libraries), Alma Swan (Key Perspectives Ltd.), Sean Thomas (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Susan Veldsman (eIFL), and Charles Watkinson (The American School of Classical Studies at Athens).