1. SPARC News
 
The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting begins MONDAY

Librarians, researchers, funders, administrators, government officials, publishers, and technologists from around the world will come together this Monday and Tuesday and share their experiences and best practices in building and supporting institutional and disciplinary digital repositories.

• The full program is now online
• The meeting features a Monday-afternoon Innovation Fair and Tuesday-afternoon Marketing Practicum

On-site registrations are welcome. Watch the conference Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc/ir08 for podcasts, videos, and online discussions after the event.

More SPARC news:

• Reminder: Sparky Awards submission deadline is November 30. For complete details, including 2008 judges and sponsorship by Campus MovieFest, visit www.sparkyawards.org.
• Open Access Day - after the whirlwind. Event recordings are now online.

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You can help create a more equitable system for scholarly communication. Join SPARC!
Here are three things SPARC member libraries focused on in 2008:

• Ensuring public access to publicly funded research
• Raising libraries' profile in campus policy
• Expanding the coalition for Open Access to research
• Read how...

Is your library a SPARC member?
 
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2. Partner News

Please see the SPARC Web site for a complete list of news from SPARC partners.

• Interview with a PLoS ONE Academic Editor
• New OA journal of genomic medicine from BMC
• OSA launches repository for article-related datasets
• BioMed Central acquired by Springer Science+Business Media
• OJS now used by 2000 journals

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Newly Available in SPARC Podcasts & Media:
 
The Voices of Open Access Video Series

"Voices of Open Access" -- a  series of one-minute videos -- captures why teachers, librarians, students, research funders, scientists and others are committed to Open Access.
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3. Industry Roundup
  
Please see the Open Access News Blog for more on these and other industry developments from the past month.

• Autism Speaks becomes first U.S. Advocacy Group to adopt OA mandate 
• Google and publishers announce proposed settlement
• Cover story  explores rise of  Open Access - Genome Technology, November 2008
• Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication: Final Report from Ithaka Study
• SURF video on author rights
• Great expectations for an Obama administration
• OAD list of author addenda
• The Japanese National Institute of Informatics has launched JAIRO (Japanese Institutional Repositories Online)
• BMJ converted to OA on Open Access Day
• CLA Welcomes New Open Access Interest Group

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4. SPARC Resources for Authors

• Sure, you'd rather focus on science than on debates about open access. But the decisions made today about publishing models are relevant not only to your work, but also to the future of biomedical research. So pay attention.

• The November issue of Genome Technology focuses entirely on Open Access.

More SPARC Resources for Authors.
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5. SPARC Resources for Publishers

• Coming soon
  SPARC'S University-based Publishing Partnerships: A Guide to Critical Issues

 More SPARC Resources for Publishers. 
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6. SPARC Resources for Students

• The student union at the University of Uppsala has drafted a statement calling for OA to publicly-funded research and OA to the university's research
• Join the Open Access leaders squad!
• CALL FOR ENTRIES: 2008 SPARKY AWARDS - Competition showcases student productions, offers instructors a fun and thought-provoking class assignment .

Read more on the SPARC-sponsored, Baker-authored Open Students Blog.
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7. Upcoming events
 
SAVE THE DATE:
The SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008
November 17 and 18, 2008,  Baltimore, MD
 
November 20, 2008
National Communications Association meeting

These and other important events can be found on the SPARC Activities Calendar.
 
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8.  Articles of Interest

• "Sure, you'd rather focus on science than on debates about open access. But the decisions made today about publishing models are relevant not only to your work, but also to the future of biomedical research. So pay attention." The November issue of Genome Technology focuses entirely on Open Access.

• Revolutionary Minds: The Game Changers [including John Wilbanks, Carl Bergstrom, and Ilaria Capua]. Seed Magazine

• Heather Joseph: Getting the message across. JCB 183:3. November 3, 2008

• Peter Suber, An open letter to the next President of the United States, SPARC Open Access Newsletter, November edition.

• Jeffrey R. Young, Is Google Earth Becoming a Platform for Academic Scholarship?, Wired Campus, October 30, 2008.

• Barbara Quint, The Google Book Search Settlement: 'The Devil's in the Details', Information Today NewsBreaks, November 3, 2008.

• Andrew Albanese, On Track to Approval, Google Settlement Faces Legal Hurdles, Library Journal, November 4, 2008

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You can help open access to research.
 
SPARC membership is open to North American and international academic and research institutions that share an interest in creating a more open and diverse marketplace for scholarly communication. Visit the SPARC Web site to learn how.