*** Apologies for cross posting ******

The Fourth Open Archives Forum will take place at UKOLN, University of
Bath, UK, on the 4th and 5th of September. The title of the workshop is:
'In Practice, Good Practice'. This workshop is our first to be held in the
UK.

The event will focus on good practice in the implementation of open
archives. A particular theme of the workshop will be the use of the Open
Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting [OAI-PMH] in the area
of Cultural Heritage. The workshop will also be looking at the use of the
OAI protocol as a way of publishing information about university theses,
and how that might contribute to developing useful content for 
institutional (as opposed to subject-based) eprint archives.

The workshop will build on issues discussed during the whole project, and
facilitate exchange of information about best practice. The workshop will
consider European experience of open archives regarding technical issues,
organisational issues and Intellectual Property Rights. A report on
organisational issues written by an OAForum working group will be
presented at the workshop. Breakout sessions will offer the opportunity to
discuss issues of practice with others working at the sharp end of
implementation.

There also will be an introduction to one of the project's key
deliverables: an online tutorial which will give guidance to those wishing
to implement a project using the OAI-PMH. This tutorial will be based on
the experience of the successful pre-workshop tutorials held in Lisbon
(2002) and Berlin (2003).

There will be a poster session to allow you to disseminate information
about your project, and to allow time and space (and coffee) for
all-important networking.

Our keynote speaker will be Mogens Sandfaer. We hope to have at least one
representative of the Open Archives Initiative present at the workshop, as
we have had at earlier workshops, and there will be other important
figures in the open archives world present. A panel session closing the
second day of the workshop will offer the opportunity to exchange views
about the future direction of open archives, and about our experience of
the open archives approach so far.

The Open Archives Forum is a EU funded project, whose purpose is to
explore the possibilities of the open archives idea in the European
context, and to facilitate access to relevant information. Further
information and a draft programme will appear in the near future on the
Open Archives Forum website : http://www.oaforum.org/

If you are interested in attending this event and would like to receive further 
information when we have it, please email Sara Hassen with your details.

Sara Hassen
Events and Marketing Manager
UKOLN
University of Bath
BA2 7AY
+ 44 (0) 1225 38 6256
+ 44 (0) 1225 38 5105
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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