ALA Midwinter 2005: SPARC/ACRL Forum

In the Public Interest: Open Access and Public Policy
Boston, Mass.
Saturday, January 15th,
4:00-5:30 pm

Over 300 ALA MidWinter attendees attended the SPARC-ACRL forum to hear stakeholders talk about the proposed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy, endorsed by both houses of the U.S. Congress.

Columbia University Librarian James Neal, who serves as chairman of the SPARC steering committee, presented a panel of three speakers. The first speaker, representing NIH's National Library of Medicine, discussed the motivations that led NIH to propose giving taxpayers enhanced access to results from federally funded biomedical research via the NLM's online resource, PubMed Central. The rest of the panel represented scientists and patients, some of whom formed alliances to support the NIH initiative. The speakers considered the array of economic, social, and scientific benefits this breakthrough policy will help establish in biomedical research and more broadly throughout our healthcare system.

The presentations:

NIH Public Access
Jane Griffith
NLM Assistant Director for Policy and Legislative Development
National Institutes of Health

Who am I and why am I here?
Gary Ward
Associate Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
University of Vermont

In the Public Interest Open Access
Sharon Terry
President and CEO
Genetic Alliance

A report on the meeting prepared by Kate Thomes of the University of Pittsburgh for delivery to the Engineering Library Division of the ASEE. [PDF]