SAN ANTONIO — Trinity University Librarian Diane Graves is featured in a series of videos released Tuesday, October 14, in observance of the world's first Open Access Day, a movement to broaden awareness and understanding of efforts to make a wider range of information available to the international higher education community and to the public.

The concept of Open Access, Ms. Graves says, is to allow greater access to scholarly resources to enhance research for all. In the video, she says, "Open Access could democratize scholarship worldwide in ways we can only imagine."

The video series presents six perspectives on the importance of Open Access to research across the higher education community and beyond. Sponsors include the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and the Public Library of Science (PLoS), along with Students for Free Culture. Featured in addition to Trinity's librarian are teachers, patient advocates, students, research funders, and physician scientists who are committed to Open Access.

According to the sponsors, Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society. In addition, Open Access embraces the principle that publicly funded research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication.

Open Access Day featured live broadcast events with supporters, including scientists and college campuses in 20 countries. For more information, visit www.openaccessday.org.