PDF - CARL - ABRC

Information Repository to her departmental faculty and students; another faculty participant invited a
librarian to his Research Institute to talk to faculty about open access business models for journal
publication and the future of digital scholarship.
Lessons Learned:
Public Attendance:
The organizers were well aware that we needed to consider other avenues for advertising events to the
larger public. Due to a last minute decision to extend our event to the public, we were only able to
advertise minimally. Next year we will need to work with university alumni groups and others to
advertise our events to the public.
Appealing to Students:
Despite massive advertising to UBC student groups and faculties, as with our OA Awareness Day event
last year, we had difficulties appealing to non‐library school students. Next year we will have to think
more carefully about partnerships with other student groups on our campus.
CARL & SPARC Webcasts:
Although we welcomed and liked the approach for the CARL kick‐off event, notice of the event came too
late after mass advertising was already sent out. There may have been others on the UBC campus that
joined in the webcast that were not captured in our statistics. If CARL does a similar event in the future,
it would be good to have several months notice, if possible, so that we could build an event, such as a
discussion forum, around the webcast. Our experience with the SPARC webcasts this year and last year,
is that they are not well attended by non‐library folks. Even participants who attended sessions just
before the webcast opted to leave once the webcast came on. The ability for institutions to plan and
build a specific event around the webcast may improve attendance.
Faculty Attendance:
Similarly to last year, the faculty who tended to come to the events were those the Library had
previously built a relationship with (journal editors, individual faculty etc.) Next year, I would suggest we
co‐host events with other campus stakeholders or partner with faculty on some of the talks as a way of
improving faculty and student participation in our events.
Timing of the Event:
We also learned the timing of the event may have been a factor attendance‐wise. I heard from a
number of faculty members that they wanted to come to our events but they were either in the midst of
meeting deadlines for grant funding applications, preparing lectures and so forth. It is a tremendously
busy time on campus. When asked if there was a preference for time of year, most indicated end of
November or late March as a better timeframe. Perhaps next year we may consider taking advantage of
Open Access Week by hosting just a couple of sessions as a way of advertising our main event later in
the year. The timing would also help our organizers who had to navigate our summer vacation time in
order to plan events. Furthermore, we found it was difficult to commit keynote speakers from outside of
our organization to speak at our events. Often they were booked early on at their home institutions or
other institutions for OA Week events. Hosting the event at another time would be more helpful if we
wish to book external speakers.
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