Retrospect: Workshop „Open Access and Open AIRE – Challenge and Opportunity for Latvian Scientific Progress”

The workshop was held within the international Open Access Week, initiated by eIFL.net (Electronic Information for Libraries). The main aim of the workshop was to attract the attention of the international academic community and to promote the idea of Open Access to electronic resources, as well as to increase public awareness of the importance of Open Access in scientific information dissemination. Open Access is a movement or initiative, which aims to promote and support open access (Open Access) electronic resources for education and academic environment. To support the Open Access movement in Latvia the Library of the University of Latvia participates in the European Commission 7th Framework Program project OpenAIRE. OpenAIRE promotes dissemination of Open Access initiatives and of the European Open Access guidelines. The Library of the University of Latvia works as the national Open Access Desk and the OpenAIRE Helpdesk. The workshop was lead by the director of the UL Department of Information and Library Studies and coordinator of OpenAIRE project Ruta Garklava. The University of Latvia, Riga Technical University, Riga Stradina University, as well as the representatives from other universities and libraries participated in the workshop.   In the opening part of the workshop the UL Science Pro-rector, Professor Indrikis Muiznieks emphasized that in scientific work great significance is attached to informational support and to access to scientific work results. In the first part of the workshop the floor was given to the coordinator of the National Contact Point for the European Commission (EC) 7th Framework Program Arnolds Ubelis, who spoke about support to Latvian projects, participation in EC 7th Framework Program and presented comparative analysis of science infrastructure and development in Latvia and Europe. The UL Senior researcher at Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science Dainis Zeps shared his experience about creating interdisciplinary SciRePrints repository of Science and Religion Dialogue group (UL Faculty of Theology), about the benefits of the repository and current problems in its maintenance – involvement of experts in evaluation of scientific articles, administration of repository and other issues. Next, the UL computer network administrator of Information Technology Department Aivars Liepa with his presentation „Establishment of DSpace at UL” introduced the participants with already accomplished and intended tasks in creating the UL institutional repository, by applying one of the most popular programs – DSpace. Aivars Liepa introduced the participants with DSpace software, its operation, structure and other examples of DSpace repository examples in other countries. (In case you would like to try UL DSpace demo version, please contact Aivars Liepa via e-mail: aivars.liepa@lu.lv). In the second part of the workshop the floor was given to the UL Library staff, OpenAIRE coordinators in Latvia, placing major emphasis on the opportunities and challenges of OpenAIRE project. During OpenAIRE presentation the UL Library director and Latvian Contact Point leader of OpenAIRE Iveta Gudakovska described the project, its aims, as well as justified the UL Library’s participation in the international project, emphasizing the UL Library’s support to Open Access activities. The UL Library staff and OpenAIRE project coordinators Sandra Ranka and Ruta Garklava spoke about the European Directives in Open Access issues, about the copyright issues and described the practical work of OpenAIRE both in Latvia and Europe. The participants were introduced with the main documents, which control deposition of scientific papers in an open access and other issues of Open Access in Europe – „The European Commission 7th Framework Program’s Open Access Directives” and “The European Research Council’s Open Access Guidelines”. The last presentation was dedicated to provision of information, information and support service and the deposition order of publications in open access repositories. For detailed information please visit the UL portal at OpenAIRE project internet site. The workshop was concluded with several questions and comments about the project OpenAIRE, EC 7th Framework Program and DSpace. There were discussions about the policy of creating repository, cooperation opportunities in Latvia and other issues. The workshop „Open Access and Open AIRE – Challenge and Opportunity for Latvian Scientific Progress” provided general information about the Open Access framework, practical experience about creating institutional repositaries at the University of Latvia, as well as successful participation of the UL Library in OpenAIRE project.

Translated by students of the professional study programme Translator of the University of Latvia.