The Norwegian Research Council has adopted an OA mandate.  (Thanks to Jan Erik Frantsvåg.)  The full text of the policy has not yet been released, but OpenAccess.no has a two-sentence summary.  Here's the summary in Google's English: Comments Kudos to all involved.

John Gill, Analysis backs open-access path for scholarly publishing, Times Higher Education Supplement , February 5, 2009.  Excerpt: PS:  See our post on the latest Houghton study and all our past posts on his research on the economic impact of OA.

BMJ just added this paragraph to its page on BMJ Journals Unlocked, its hybrid OA option:

Kevin Davies, Bioalma Launches Novoseek PubMed Search Tool, Bio-IT World, February 3, 2009.

The Bielefeld University Library has updated BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine). From the February 3 announcement: See also our past posts on BASE.

Jurn is a new OA tool for searching more than 900 OA journals in the arts and humanities. See the February 3 announcement or the Jurn blog. (Thanks to Catherine Grant.) Update. P.S. The tool is a Google Custom Search Engine.

ARL Digital Repositories Task Force Releases Final Report, press release, February 3, 2009.

Primary Prevention Insights is a new OA journal published by Libertas Academica. See today's announcement or the inaugural editorial. The article-processing charge is $1395, subject to discount or waiver. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Christian Zimmermann, RePEc in January 2009, The RePEc Blog, February 3, 2009.

Harold Varmus, chairman of the Public Library of Science board and and co-chair of Barack Obama's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, has published his memoir, The Art and Politics of Science.

Sparky Award Winners Announced, press release, February 3, 2009.