Brown University Library News

Open Access is the principle that all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication, and it’s gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers throw their weight behind it. Open Access is defined by Peter Suber as “free, immediate, permanent, full-text, online access, for any user, web-wide, to digital scientific and scholarly material, primarily research articles published in peer-reviewed journals. OA means that any individual user, anywhere, who has access to the Internet, may link, read, download, store, print-off, use, and data-mine the digital content of that article. An OA article usually has limited copyright and licensing restrictions.” (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm) More information on what the Brown University Library is considering related to Open Access, specifically related to recent statements by Harvard University about author rights. > > >

The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
John Hay Library Reading Room
20 Prospect Street
Providence, R. I. 02912
An exhibition to commemorate the birth of Poe, January 19, 1809, the same year as Darwin and Lincoln, and to remember his death, October 7, 1849. Poe was an editor, reviewer, essayist, literary critic and theorist, but is perhaps best known as the author of poems, such as The Raven, and stories, such as The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered to be the first detective story. Works displayed feature his major publications in both genres, drawn primarily from the collections at the Hay and Rockefeller libraries. They also highlight his courtship of Providence’s Sarah Helen Whitman and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death.

In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, the Brown University Library, the Brown Department of Physics, and the Ladd Observatory have collaborated to present “Beyond the Moon: 400 Years of Astronomical Observation.” This exhibit displays texts and images dating from the early 17th century drawn from the Library’s incomparable history of science collections, historical records of the Ladd Observatory, and a range of astronomical instruments of the 18th century to the present day used for observation by Brown astronomers. Main Gallery and Lobby, John Hay Library; through October 2009.
All are welcome to attend a reception for the exhibit from 6-7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 9th in the main lobby of the John Hay Library at 20 Prospect Street in Providence. For more information please call the John Hay Library at (401) 863-3723.