Airing dirty laundry for Open Access Week

I sat down in front of my work PC to post something about Open Access Week, and now all I can think about is the vulgar state of my desktop.
Exhibit A
I’m a librarian so…what do I have to say for myself? In my defense, it’s been a really busy semester! I got a little carried away and started cutting corners. Screen-casting images to the desktop here. Downloading files, and saving to the desktop there. At least 30 percent of these files are duplicate saves, and many are destined for the recycle bin, but I can’t be exactly sure. What I am certain of is this is no way to store and organize digital things! (FYI, my personal desktop is in less of a state.)

So what does this disaster heap of icons obscuring the relaxing vacay pic that was my desktop background have to do with Open Access?
Well, in honor of Open Access Week, I decided to post something I’d been meaning to post for a while to our institutional repository, CUNY Academic Works. And right after I submitted it, I breathed a sigh of relief that a) this particular cycle of procrastination had ceased and I could now cross one task off my list, and b) it is now within my means to forever “Google” this work at the drop of a hat and retrieve it without scratching my head over which “venue” I’d chosen to store it in. Like many, I work collaboratively, and with various open and closed platforms, so document versioning and storage can become quite tedious. When I want to get something, I want to get it SIMPLY! And for that pretty selfish reason, I’m so glad I have an institutional repository for my scholarly and instructional materials in a way that promotes access to everyone – including myself! – and preserves my work so that in the unlikely event that I lose something, I have a backup!
Try it yourself, and check out the syllabus I posted! It was developed to guide faculty through an open educational resources professional development program at City Tech.  I think it makes sense to have it out there for anyone who’s interested – in the spirit of collaboration and building on collective knowledge. Yay Open Access Week!