Every year, libraries around the world advocate for change by taking part in International Open Access Week, a global event established by SPARC in 2008 which calls for open access (OA) as the new norm in scholarship and research.

The theme this year, which is the 8th International OA Week, is ‘Open for Collaboration’.

The theme highlights the ways in which collaboration inspires and advances the OA movement — from the partnerships behind launching initiatives such as Public Library of Science (PLOS) and  ImpactStory, to the working relationships the community has established with policy makers that have delivered OA policies around the world.

At a broader level, the theme provides an opportunity for OA supporters to consider working with those in similar, allied movements for Open Data and Open Education to advance common goals more quickly.

Universities, colleges, research institutes, funding agencies, libraries, and think tanks use OA Week as a platform to host faculty votes on campus OA policies, to present on the social and economic benefits of OA, to commit new funds in support of OA publication, and more.

EIFL’s involvement

Open Science — benefits for researchers in the 21st century, Riga, Latvia

On 20 October, EIFL Open Access Programme Manager Iryna Kuchma will give a presentation on OA policy developments and will lead a working group for policy and decision-makers at Open Science — benefits for researchers in the 21st century FOSTER co-funded training event at the National Library of Latvia in Riga, Latvia.

Global Open Knowledge Hub, Brighton, the UK

On 23 October, Iryna Kuchma will participate in the ids.ac.uk/project/global-open-knowledge-hub Global Open Knowledge Hub partners meeting hosted by the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton, United Kingdom.

OA theses and dissertations in Armenia

Our partner in Armenia, Electronic Library Consortium of Armenia (ELCA), with the support of EIFL, will host the ‘OA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)’ workshop on 22 October in the National Library of Armenia, Yerevan. Maja Maricevic from the British Library (UK) and Atom Mkhitaryan, Supreme Certifying Commission of the Republic of Armenia, will be among the guest speakers at the workshop. More information about this project is here.

Highlights of OA week in EIFL partner countries

Below are some highlights of the OA Week events that will take place in EIFL partner countries:

• Cameroon: OA and social innovation organized by COCUREL and IT KOLA; and OA Week 2015 in Cameroon organized by EIFL-Open Access Cameroon and Goethe-Institut Yaounde;
• China: MDPI: 20 years of OA Publishing - Beijing organized by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (Beijing);
• Estonia: a FOSTER co-funded ‘world café’ seminar on OA policy development in Estonia hosted by University of Tartu,  together with the Estonian Research Council and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research;
• Ghana: OA: facilitating knowledge creation and access at Ashesi University College;
• Kenya: The University of Nairobi hosts OA Week events in 3 campuses - Kenya Science Campus, Main Campus and College of Physical and Biological Sciences Campus; OA Week at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton; OA/ Open Data Week organized by World Agroforestry Centre's Research Methods Group; and OA workshop organized by Technical University of Mombasa; 
• Lithuania: OA Alia's Party at Lunch and Openly about OA: funding and publications;
• Moldova: OA Week 2015 in the Republic of Moldova: The National campaign to promote OA "Open for Collaboration" in Free International University of Moldova, "Alecu Russo" State University of Balti, Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, "Ion Creangă" State Pedagogical University, State Agrarian University of Moldova, Moldova State University and State University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Nicolae Testemitanu";
• Nigeria: OA Week at Elizade University;
• Poland: 22 OA Week events in Poland (language: Polish);
• Senegal: OA Day / La journée du libre accès à l’Université Cheikh anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD)
• Tanzania: Open Generational Access Workshop;
• Ukraine: Seminar ‘Scientists of National Technical University Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute support OA movement’ and a series of events at the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" (language: Ukrainian);
• Zimbabwe: OA Week at Bindura University of Science Education; OA Awareness Campaign at Harare City Library; and ZULC OA Capacity Building and Advocacy Workshop for Government Officials and Librarians in Government Libraries: Towards a national mandate for OA.

SPARC & Wikipedia Library Announce the Wikipedia OA Week Edit-a-thon

SPARC and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Wikipedia Library are co-hosting a global, virtual edit-a-thon for Open Access-related content on Wikipedia.

The edit-a-thon aims to improve existing OA-related pages, to create new content, and to translate OA-related pages into languages where they do not yet exist.

A homepage for the Open Access Week Edit-a-thon has been setup on the Wikimedia website at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/OA_week.