SPARC, in partnership with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan/National Institute of Informatics, announces the SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008, to be held November 17-18, 2008 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.

• Register (early bird ends September 15)
• Book your hotel (before November 1)

Coming on the heels of two groundbreaking U.S. developments—a recent vote by Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences enabling the university to offer access to their articles in an institutional repository and implementation of a new National Institutes of Health public access policy—as well as unprecedented advancement in the international sphere over the past year, the meeting will enable stakeholders to explore next steps for the burgeoning open archiving movement.

Librarians, researchers, funders, administrators, government officials, publishers, and technologists from around the world will share their experiences and best practices in building and supporting institutional and disciplinary digital repositories. The focus will be on effective engagement with scholars and scientists to expand the sharing of research outputs via open repositories.

The program, developed by a diverse and expert program committee, will delve into four key areas: The Policy Environment, New Horizons, Campus Publishing Strategies, and Value-Added Services. These tracks will be supplemented with an Innovation Fair, where new technologies, strategies, and approaches will be highlighted, and a Practicum on marketing and advocacy.

This is the first North American SPARC digital repositories conference since the organization’s popular 2004 meeting, which drew hundreds of participants from around the globe and set the stage for some of the key developments of the past four years.

• Fun Facts About Baltimore
• Top 10 reasons to meet in Baltimore [PDF]
• Baltimore FAQ [PDF]

Conference Organizers

Conference Sponsor

Coffee Break Sponsors

Supporting Organizations

There are a limited number of sponsorship opportunities for this meeting, so please contact Jennifer McLennan of SPARC with your interest as soon as possible (jennifer [at] arl [dot] org or (202) 296-2296).