A couple weeks ago, the CUNY Faculty Senate voted to support the development of a CUNY-wide open access repository.  Faculty members will soon be able to deposit their scholarly articles in a way that that both protects their copyright and makes their research freely accessible.  This is great news, especially for libraries challenged by the ever-rising costs of journal subscriptions.  Details may be seen in Jill Cirasella’s post.  Kudos to Jill, Maura Smale, and Alycia Selles for spearheading this effort!

Several projects under way at the Commons build on this open access paradigm.  Here’s a sneak peak.

Enhancements to the Profile Page

We hope to make the profile page a hub for scholarship and creative work. Members will soon be able to create on-line, interactive CVs that link to their work and provide a social layer for scholarship.  Online discussion with like-minded scholars will be bolstered by openly accessible articles.

Online Journals on the Commons!

If you haven’t checked out the new photo-journal “Moment: Une Revue de Photo” on the Commons, please do.  It is the first in a series of open access, online journals that the Commons is hosting.  And stay tuned for the launch of the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, which will use OJS as its back-end, and the Commons as its front end.  See their blog for details.

Commons in a Box

See Matt Gold’s post for more details, but at a very high level, “Commons in a Box” opens up the possibility of having federated, Commons-like sites, interwoven with open source software, sharing and discussing open access content.

Finding Tools

The Commons Development team is investigating new ways to search for content across all areas of the Commons, whether it is in blog posts and pages, forums, group docs, or on Wiki.  And as the CUNY OA repository grows and tools are developed to expose its metadata, look for new interfaces that make the Commons a convenient research hub.