So that was Open Access Week...

...and I'm totally exhausted!

We ran a whole range of events this week, from drop-in sessions at all of our four campuses, to a lunchtime event on open access, to running a competition for the person who adds the most full text items to the repository in a week, to posting an interview a day on the UWE Research Repository blog.

It was hard work, and I'm glad it's over, but there were also some pretty positive outcomes so I think it was worthwhile.

We've had 85 deposits to the repository, 52 (approx. 60%) with full text attached - a significant amount more than in a normal week. My pessimistic side says this has something to do with academics being told to add their publications as part of a REF review that's happening over the next couple of months - but I'm going to choose to believe that some of it, at least, is down to our promotion!

As a result of the lunchtime event, we've been invited to go a couple of departmental meetings (which are rapidly becoming faculty-wide meetings) to give talks on open access, which is great news for us. Jackie Wickham from the Repositories Support Project came along to our event as a guest speaker, and she's written a great blog post summing up the key points, and providing a link to her slides.

Although the drop-in sessions weren't especially well attended, there was one very positive outcome - I've now been given a film to upload to the repository by a researcher in Creative Arts. It will be our first movie in the repository, so I'm keen to get it on there - but that's just one of the many jobs for next week...

For now, I'm off to not think about repositories or open access for (most of) the weekend!

23 Things for Professional Development: Thing #16

Hmm... advocacy - something I do much of? Just a bit... you try being a Repository Manager and not advocating your service! I do it every day, every hour, all the time. Every time I talk to somebody, every time somebody asks me what I do, every time I meet someone new - I tell them how great the repository is, why they should use it, how it could change the world for the better if everybody bought into the idea... and  I believe in it 100% (although on my off days I wish I didn't have to try quite so hard).

Of course, it's not just informally that I advocate what I do. The most current, obvious example of the more formal side of advocacy is probably the activities we're planning for Open Access Week at the end of October. I'll spend that week uploading interviews I've carried out with researchers who have really bought into the idea of open access, making my presence felt by appearing at drop-in sessions on all of our campuses, and running training sessions for researchers, amongst other things.

That's all on top of telling people how great libraries, and librarians, are more generally. I've not specifically got involved in any high profile library advocacy campaigns (sometimes the shouting I do about how great we are in my day-job feels like more than enough for one person), but I'm always willing to back up the claims those guys are making, because of course they're right!

One thing I haven't really engaged with is getting published. It's not so much that I find the prospect daunting (I love writing), but just that there doesn't really feel like there's enough time in the day to write something properly good. We are in the process of trying to put together a blog about the UWE Research Repository to let people know what we're doing, and that we're there if they need us - which I guess is a start! If that leads on to some more official writing, I'd be happy with that - but for now, I think it's one step at a time.