The University of Arizona Libraries is committed to the value of open. We support open practices and initiatives – including open access, open data, open educational resources, and open source software. This enables a more equitable, collaborative, and sustainable global system of knowledge exchange. Openness reduces barriers to access, innovation, and sharing.
We develop our services and outreach, initiatives and programs, and policies and procedures to incorporate openness whenever and however possible. Leading by example, we strive to nurture a culture of openness throughout the University of Arizona campus and beyond.
In 2019, our faculty, staff, and administration drafted Default to Open, which documents and acknowledges our commitment to openness as a value. We provide examples of our past and present open practices and suggest possible future actions. Our Cabinet leadership approved Default to Open in January 2020.
Members of the Library Faculty Assembly (LFA) of the University of Arizona Libraries believe that open access to research and scholarship advances collective knowledge and accelerates innovation and discovery. Open access removes the financial barrier to research literature, thus fostering collaboration, sharing, and equitable access. As Arizona’s land grant university, we have an obligation to engage in activities that benefit the local, regional, and global community.
As members of the General Faculty of the University of Arizona, we will support and abide by the UA Open Access Policy (passed April 4, 2016) that specifies that “Each faculty member grants the University of Arizona permission to make their articles freely available in an Open Access repository.”
In addition, we will:
In December 2019, this statement was approved by the University of Arizona Library Faculty Assembly (LFA). This statement represents the LFA membership’s recognition of the importance of open access to research and scholarship and its commitment to sharing the membership’s research and scholarship as widely as possible.