Cc-au mailing list

[Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au>]

Dear all

As some of you may already have seen on our blog, I am please to announce 
that Creative Commons Australia's sister research project, Opening 
Australia’s Archives, has released a first version of its Open Access 
Principles for Australian Collecting Institutions.  

For those who haven't come across the Opening Australia's Archives project, 
it was initiated in 2009 to explore opportunities to increase the public’s 
ability to access and reuse our national collections through coordinated 
sector-policy, implementation and advocacy. Its first major activity was to 
run a series of meetings around Australia in late 2009 aimed at facilitating 
discussion between representatives of the cultural sector on the issue of 
open access collections. 

One of the main pieces of feedback from these forums was the need  for a set 
of simple principles or guidelines that set out what open access is and how 
it may be instituted by a collecting body. The Principles are a response to 
this feedback. They aim to assist institutions exploring digital strategies 
by describing basic open access policies and strategies that may be of use to 
them. They also provide case studies of successful open access initiatives in 
the sector both in Australia and worldwide.

You can find more information the Principles, as well as rich text, pdf and 
wiki versions, at http://creativecommons.org.au/research/openarchives and 
http://www.ip.qut.edu.au/opening_access_to_australian_archives. 

In line with the commitment during the Creative Archive meetings, we intend 
these Principles to be a growing and collaborative project that draws on 
expertise across the sector. Thus the version released this week is merely 
Version 1. This version draws on discussion at the meetings and subsequent 
feedback from interested members of the Australian collecting sector. 
However, we would like to invite and encourage feedback on this version, to 
further align it with the needs and expectations of the sector.

Please feel free to provide feedback on the Principles in any form you like – 
as comments, as tracked changes, as a written email, or through the wiki. Any 
feedback we receive will be used to update and improve the Principles for 
future versions.

Sorry for any cross-postings.

Jessica Coates
Alumni
Creative Commons Australia and ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative 
Industries and Innovation
email: jessica.m.coates AT gmail.com.au