Carol Cruzan Morton, New Open-access Policy Under Discussion, Focus Online (News from the Harvard Medical, Dental, and Public Health Schools), March 6, 2009.  Excerpt: Comment. We already knew that Harvard Medical School was developing an OA mandate.  But a couple of the details here are new and important.

The University of Edinburgh has adopted an OA mandate.

Stevan Harnad, More OA Somnambulism: Conflating the Journal Affordability and Research Accessibility Problems, Again, Open Access Archivangelism , March 5, 2009. Update (3/9/09). Also see Stevan's March 9 follow-up.

Mike Linksvayer interviewed David Bollier at the Creative Commons blog , March 5, 2009.  Excerpt: PS:  Also see our past posts (1, 2) on Viral Spiral and our posts on Bollier.

Thank goodness the buzz in support of the NIH policy and opposing the Conyers bill is on the rise.  Most of the buzz I've seen is based on good understanding.  However, two objections to the bill miss the target: It's not true that the bill would prohibit OA to NIH-funded research.  It would prohibit federal agencies, including the NIH, from requiring OA to the research they fund.

Here are some more comments from the press and blogosphere on the re-introduction of the Conyers bill (a.k.a. Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, HR 801), which would overturn the OA policy at the NIH.

Bradford Scholars is new IR for the University of Bradford.

The March 2009 issue of Serials is now available. Only abstracts are OA, at least so far.

Hamid R. Jamali, What is not available online is not worth reading?, Webology, December 2008.

SPARC, Open Access Week declared for 2009, press release, March 5, 2009.

The latest episode (March 3, 2009) of Radio Berkman is an interview by David Weinberger with Peter Suber on OA. (Thanks to Open Education News.)