Lars Bjørnshauge Appointed Interim Director, SPARC Europe
Jennifer McLennan
http://www.arl.org/sparc
SPARC Europe
http://www.sparceurope.org
For immediate release
October 24, 2010
For information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296 ext 121
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
Lars Bjørnshauge Appointed Interim Director, SPARC Europe
(Washington, DC and The Hague) Lars Bjørnshauge has been appointed to the role of Interim Director for SPARC Europe, Bas Savenije, Chair of the SPARC Europe Board, announced today. Bjørnshauge, formerly Director of Libraries at Lund University in Sweden and a long-standing member of the SPARC Europe Board, assumed overall management of the 93-member library organization, effective October 19, 2011.
“SPARC Europe is very fortunate to have someone of Bjørnshauge’s caliber step into this leadership role,” Savenije said. He added, “Lars has the unique experience and expertise required to help the organization navigate the challenges facing libraries in the fast-moving scholarly communications realm.”
Bjørnshauge has over twenty years’ experience in the library community. Prior to his decade-long service as Director of Lund Libraries, he held management positions at the Technical Knowledge Center & Library of Denmark (DTV) in Lyngby, as well as serving as head of department at the Royal Danish School of Librarianship in Copenhagen.
Well known for championing innovative programs, particularly in the Open Access arena, Lars founded the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and led the team behind it until recently.
“Bjørnshauge's experience in directing large, international projects will serve him well in his new role with SPARC Europe,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC in North America. “His creativity and ability to innovate will be true assets to the organization.”
Bjørnshauge succeeds Drs. Astrid Van Wesenbeeck, who is taking on a new role as project manager with the National Library of the Netherlands. One of Astrid’s activities will be working as the first-ever Open Access Officer at the Dutch National Library (KB) in The Hague.
According to Heather Joseph, the coalition is currently completing a strategic review of its international efforts. Further news on SPARC global programs is expected in the coming weeks.
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SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a library membership organization that promotes expanded sharing of scholarship. SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research investments. SPARC is supported by a membership of over 800 academic and research libraries worldwide. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc
SPARC Europe is an alliance of European research libraries, library organizations and research institutions. We provide a voice for the community and the support and tools it needs in order to being about positive change to the system of scholarly communications. Our members represent over 100 of Europe’s leading academic and research institutions. Membership is open to national and academic libraries, library organizations and research institutions in the region. SPARC Europe is on the Web at http://www.sparceurope.org.
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Jennifer McLennan
Director of Programs & Operations
SPARC
jenn...@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermclennan
http://www.arl.org/sparc
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Open Access Week 2011
October 24 - 30
http://www.openaccessweek.org
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The SPARC Open Access Meeting
March 11 - 13, 2012
Kansas City
http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/11-0726.shtml