October 27, 2018, by Rob Ounsworth

University’s one million Open Access downloads

Coinciding with International Open Access Week (22 – 26 October), downloads from the University’s repositories of research papers, theses and datasets have just passed one million since the start of 2018.  This has never happened in any previous calendar year.

Guest blog by Tony Simmonds, Senior Research Librarian
 
This milestone underlines the commitment of the University to share the fruits of new knowledge freely and equitably, and demonstrates the enthusiasm of authors, working in partnership with library staff, to make this a reality.

A mass of conversations arose from Open Access Week at Nottingham, thanks to an extensive programme of events arranged by University of Nottingham Libraries.  At pop-up stands, via Twitter, from speakers that included the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shearer West, and Michael Parker of the Conversation, the online channel where a worldwide community of 74,600 academics share insights into topical issues, and from a daily diet of blog posts, researchers learned the benefits of open publishing, shared their experiences and reflected on future directions.

Open Access at the University of Nottingham: key facts and find out more

A notable success was a workshop to engage local teachers and public library staff in thinking about the potential of open access to enrich their professional practice.  As the University places a growing priority on civic engagement, it was gratifying to see these educators of our future students discover that paywalls no longer bar their access to new scholarship.

Head teachers in the audience volunteered that they could immediately see how to link school improvement planning to the research publications they’d learned how to find.

 

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