Keynote Speech: Chris Bourg 

Keynote Speaker - Chris Bourg 

Thursday 6th July, 09:00 AM – 09:45 AM  

Chair: Giannis Tsakonas, LIBER Vice President 

Speaker: Chris Bourg, Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States 

Title: Role of Research Libraries in Open Research: A view from MIT 

Abstract: 

In the two decades since the Budapest Open Access Initiative declared the possibility and the promise of “the world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it”, progress towards the goal of open access has been uneven and sometimes painfully slow. Despite – and sometimes because of – the best efforts of research institutions and their libraries, open access has also too often been co-opted by for-profit publishers, resulting in costly and opaque pay to publish models of open access. A recent shift towards a more holistic approach to open research that incorporates data, code, and other research outputs, combined with an uptick in funder policies requiring open sharing of funded research, call for a careful analysis and reimagining of the role of research libraries in advancing open research.  

At MIT Libraries, one of our core strategic principles is that “We are relentless in our pursuit of a more open and equitable scholarly landscape that prioritizes inclusion and reduces the marginalization of scholars and scholarship from disadvantaged communities.” We are engaged in, often in close collaboration with other stakeholders, a range of activities to enact this principle – values-based negotiations with publishers, education and advocacy, direct support of open publishing efforts, research on equitable and open scholarship, and collective action to create the cultural change necessary for achieve a fully open and equitable scholarly communications landscape. In this talk, I will share a view from MIT on the role of research libraries in advancing a more inclusive, open, equitable and trusted system of scholarly communication. 

54th LIBER Annual Conference