From August 29 to 31, 2022, the third Open Access Staff Week took place as part of the open-access.network project. The exchange and networking event was organized in cooperation with the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) and the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTW).
For three days, 13 employees from different libraries met in Dresden to learn about good practices in the implementation of open access and to discuss them with representatives of SLUB, HTW and open-access.network. The face-to-face event offered participants from 8 different German states and Switzerland the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences.
Combination of different institution sizes
The program, organized by SLUB and HTW, showed the extensive facets of Open Access activities. Katrin Stump ( General Director of the SLUB), Petra-Sibylle Stenzel (Head of the Library of the HTW) and Dr. Karolin Bove (Head of the Department of Collection Development, SLUB) welcomed the guests of the Staff Week with motivating words. In addition, the SLUB colleagues gave an insight into their self-publishing practice and the Qucosa document server as well as into their comprehensive funding and monitoring activities for Open Access journals and books. The self-confident and at the same time reflective as well as future-oriented handling of Open Access at SLUB became clear. Together with the participants, requirements for Diamond Open Access without publication fees were also collected.
Indeed, HTW showed that Open Access can be successfully implemented not only by large institutions, but is also relevant for institutions with fewer resources. In addition to a tour of the HTW's impressive library building, the event featured a panel discussion with HTW researchers. Professors Gunther Göbel, Dietrich Kammer, and Jürgen Anke described their experiences and perspectives and answered questions from the OA professionals.
The third day of Staff Week focused on a workshop on open access strategies. In an interactive interplay of input and group work, all participants worked together to develop the basic framework of a targeted open access strategy. The first step was an analysis of the open access market environment from the perspective of various stakeholders. Then, visions and goals were defined and basic directions for open access work were given. After that, concrete measures were collected that would pay off on these previously considered goals. All of these considerations can serve as a basis for setting up one's own open access strategy, thus providing group members a helpful starting point for their own activities.
Focus on presence
The Open Access Staff Week in Dresden was the third Staff Week of the open-access.network project, which was organized by the Communication, Information, Media Center (KIM) of the University of Konstanz. Nevertheless, it was the first one that took place in presence. The physical space interaction had a very positive effect on the group dynamics and aimed at strengthening the collaboration between the institutions. Thus, both the speed dating on the first day and the evening program on the first and second evenings, which took us to Dresden's Old and New Towns, were highly appreciated and gladly accepted.
"I now know who I could turn to with my questions, now I know the people to do so". Positive feedback like this, but also for improvement, will be gladly taken into account in the planning of our next Staff Week (hopefully to be held in presence again), which will be hosted by the KIM of the University of Konstanz in November. If you have any questions about the next Staff Week or about this format in general, we would be happy to receive an email at open-access.network(at)uni-konstanz.de.