CHAPEL HILL, NC – The University of North Carolina System is launching a new website, OpenUNC, to make it easier to access research and other educational resources.
The website, sponsored by the UNC University Library Advisory Council (ULAC), helps advance open research practices, open access publication methods, open dissemination of research outputs and open educational resources. It provides easy access to all open access journals published at UNC System institutions as well as open access monographs published by the UNC Press. OpenUNC also provides links to repositories and open publishing contacts at each university.
Faculty and students across the UNC System power innovation and economic development and their creativity enriches our culture and environment. Much of their work is publicly available but can be difficult to find.
“Universal access to knowledge in an environment of open scholarship and shared creativity supports UNC’s mission to discover, create, transmit, and apply knowledge to address the needs of individuals and society,” said Janice S. Lewis, director of Academic Library Services at East Carolina University and past ULAC chair. “We hope that OpenUNC will facilitate discovery and access to knowledge produced at our institutions and that it can promote the robust adoption of open research and publishing practices.”
Lewis helped envision and identify content for OpenUNC. It was designed by East Carolina University webmaster Michael Tucker and will be maintained by ULAC’s Scholarly Communication Working Group.
“ULAC is delighted to share all types of open creative endeavors from UNC System institutions with the world through the OpenUNC platform,” said Anne Cooper Moore, chair of ULAC and dean of UNC Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library. “We hope members of our communities will contribute their works so others can benefit from their expertise.”
Tim Bucknall, assistant dean of University Libraries at UNC Greensboro and an advocate for the creation of OpenUNC, added, “Each of our UNC System institutions is placing an increased focus on supporting and producing open scholarship in all its diverse forms. Now, for the first time, we have the OpenUNC platform to integrate these varied efforts and initiatives across our UNC campuses, and support freely available worldwide access to our world-class scholarship.”
For more information, visit OpenUNC.org.