**Apologies for cross-posting** The event is booking up fast!

'In Practice, Good Practice: the Future of Open Archives' - The 4th Open
Archives Forum Workshop, 4-5 September 2003, Bath UK.

The 4th 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'.

The workshop is now taking registrations for this event. Registration
can be completed via a page at the
Open Archives Forum project site at:
<http://www.oaforum.org/workshops/bath_invitation.php>
http://www.oaforum.org/workshops/bath_invitation.php.
The programme of the workshop is available at:
 <http://www.oaforum.org/workshops/bath_programme.php>
http://www.oaforum.org/workshops/bath_programme.php

***

Details:

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
draw inferences about best practice. These include technical issues,
organisational issues and Intellectual Property Rights. A report on
organisational issues written by a OAForum working group will be
discussed 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 project dissemination, and
time and space for
 networking. Those wishing to submit a poster should contact Sara Hassen
( <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask])

There will be representatives 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.
There will be contribution from LIBER and SPARC on the current status of
Open Access.
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. More information can be found
on the Open Archives Forum website at: <http://www.oaforum.org/>
http://www.oaforum.org/

***

 *******************************************************
Philip Hunter, UKOLN Research Officer.
UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY
Tel: +44 (0) 1225 323 668 Fax: +44 (0) 1225 826838
Email: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] UKOLN:
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/> http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
OA-FORUM: <http://www.oaforum.org/> http://www.oaforum.org/
 *******************************************************