The Librarian Times celebrates Open Access Week 2018 by conducting a live panel discussion with OA experts and knowledge seekers

Prodip Roy, Editor-in-Chief, The Librarian Times

Melbourne, 3 November 2018

The theme for the 2018 International Open Access Week, is “designing equitable foundations for open knowledge.” As part of international Open Access week activities, The Librarian Times celebrated Open Access Week 2018 on Sunday 28 October 2018 with a panel discussion.

The panellists included Nazim Uddin, PhD, Senior Manager, Library and Information Services Section, I,CDDRB; Dilara Begum, Associate Professor and Chairperson, Department of Information Studies and Library Management, East West University; Anwarul Islam, PhD Librarian Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University; Susmita Das, PhD, Senior Documentation Officer, Agricultural Information Center &Joint Convener, Open Access Bangladesh; Kanok Monirul Islam, Member, Editorial Board, Open Access Bangladesh Bulletin & Founder and Convenor Open Access Bangladesh Team; Ms Annie Cruze, Grant winner OpenCon 2018.

The discussion, moderated by Prodip Roy, Library Officer, RMIT University and Editor-in-Chief, The Librarian Times.

The discussion covered a variety of central topic related to Open Access, Open Research Data and Open Educational Recourses. Dr Nazim Uddin focused on different Open Access Publishing Model including why is Open Access needed? Open Access Publishing (Gold OA) Open Access Self-Archiving (Green OA) Hybrid Open Access Journals, Delayed Open Access Journals, etc.

Dr Anwarul Islam started his discussion with a background of open repository systems and open source software in Bangladesh. Later on, he focussed on the challenges of the Library Association Bangladesh (LAB) in involving OA movement. He urged the panellists to assist to the LAB and work collaboratively for the greater library community in the country.  

Dr Dilara Begum focused on Open Educational Recourses (OER) from the global level perspective. Her presentation on ‘free flow of knowledge and catalyst for innovation’ brought a specific attention to the panellists where she focussed on a variety of OER included the back history OER, how and where we can find OER in considering university education level i.e. undergraduate, master and PhD degree? How it impacts on the higher study? How to find a suitable open access textbook, journals and other open educational resources? In the end, she also discussed OER initiatives taken by Bangladesh Government and given emphasis on our library professional’s role in this initiative.

Dr Susmita Das presented and focused mainly on Open Research Data. Her discussion covered including why ORD is important, initiatives taken by Bangladesh Government on ORD and National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), what is the impact on users and how it helps to the researches?

Kanok Monirul Islam presented on OAB chapter project mission and goals. His key focus was on what OAB chapter’s main objective, what are the challenges they have been facing to promote the movement in the country and how the challenges could be overcome? Mr Kanok also discussed on their future plans (i.e. organising a big event with the collaboration of other institutions and professionals) and shared some success stories within the team members of the OAB chapter.

Ms Annie Cruze participated in the discussion as one of the panellists but unfortunately, she was not able to stay up to the end due to an unavoidable circumstance.

There is a lack of awareness about OA, OER and Open Research Data over the world. And therefore the library professionals can play a significant role to promote the OA movement and create awareness activities. The host and panellists concluded the discussion with thanks, offering assistance to each other, practising collaboration about OA, OER and Open Research Data and policy development in the country.

The Librarian Times (TLT) is the first ever and only weekly professional news bulletin in Bangladesh for the library and information profession. The main objective of this initiative is to spread knowledge and information to everyone. The Librarian Times was founded on 2nd February 2017, which is focusing on increasing collaboration with Library Association Bangladesh (LAB), Bangladesh Association of Librarians, Information Scientists and Documentalists (BALID), LIS institutes, Government and international LIS organisations to break the professional barriers in Bangladesh.