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

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 enabled stakeholders to explore next steps for the burgeoning open archiving movement.

Librarians, researchers, funders, administrators, government officials, publishers, and technologists from around the world shared their experiences and best practices in building and supporting institutional and disciplinary digital repositories. The focus was 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, delved into four key areas: The Policy Environment, New Horizons, Campus Publishing Strategies, and Value-Added Services. These tracks were supplemented with an Innovation Fair, where new technologies, strategies, and approaches will be highlighted, and a Practicum on marketing and advocacy.

A record of the meeting and invitation to further discussion are now online. Please see Meeting Outcomes for detail.

Conference Organizers

Conference Sponsor

Breakfast & Luncheon Sponsors

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 beginoftheskypehighlighting              (202) 296-2296      endoftheskypehighlighting).