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PRESS RELEASE August 26, 2008 Maura Marx Named First Executive Director of the Open Content Alliance The Internet Archive and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today the appointment of Maura Marx as the first Executive Director of the Open Content Alliance (OCA). A search committee representing OCA member institutions made the appointment after an intensive search process. Ms. Marx will move to the OCA from the Boston Public Library, where she most recently founded the Digital Library Program and was instrumental in evolving the Library¹s philosophy toward Open Content principles. The Open Content Alliance is an international alliance of leading academic and cultural heritage institutions working to build joint digital collections for free public access. Ms. Marx has been appointed to the new position of Executive Director in order to expand its activities as the preeminent center in the world for promoting the creation and open sharing of digital content. ³Maura's background in working both inside and outside the library system will help her communicate with a broad public audience the shape of the new public library services in this digital age." said Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. ³Her dynamic style, deep-seated commitment to open principles, and demonstrated success at implementing partnerships and initiatives in the digital space will be a powerful combination in taking the OCA to the next level.² ³We are delighted that Maura will take on this leadership role at such an important juncture for the organization. The Open Content Alliance represents the largest group of libraries, universities and cultural heritage institutions in the world supporting a universal digital library that is truly open, non-profit, and non-exclusive² said Doron Weber, Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "Maura will help to turn the OCA into a stand-alone membership organization that will play a leadership role on the national and global stage. ³ "Over the past three years members of the OCA have made incredibly important strides toward building a truly open digital information commons and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead the organization to new levels of growth and collaboration.³ Marx said. Among Ms. Marx¹s first actions will be incorporation of the OCA in the State of Massachusetts and creation of a Board of Directors. She will focus on building collaborations across institutional boundaries, expanding the OCA community and becoming involved in public policy advocacy efforts. Ms. Marx began her career in Europe in development for the arts with organizations including the Guggenheim Museum (Salzburg) and Warner Brothers. She then worked as an executive in the U.S. technology sector before coming to the library world. Her accomplishments have included strategic planning, fundraising, technology planning and public relations for organizations at varying stages of growth. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Digital Commonwealth, the Massachusetts statewide digital library, and holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Middlebury College and Simmons College. She an be reached at [log in to unmask] About the Open Content Alliance The Open Content Alliance is an association of approximately 100 cultural and academic institutions, working to engage in activities that support the open sharing of information, including building joint online collections. It was founded by Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive in 2005 with 12 initial member institutions, and has grown to over 100 today. The OCA and has collectively provided over 400,000 books for digitization and contributed them to the Internet Archive¹s shared public collections. Information on member institutions and open content principles can be found on the OCA web site at http://www.opencontentalliance.org/. About the Internet Archive The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. The Archive is a partner to many large institutions, including the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, NASA, Bibliotheque Nationale de France and UK National Archives, as well as many state and local institutions. Some of its well-known projects include OpenLibrary.org, nasaimages.org and the many searchable collections at www.archive.org. The Archive operates 12 scanning centers around the United States and internationally, and operates a data repository in San Francisco. About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a New York-based non-profit philanthropy founded in 1934, makes grants for research and education in science, technology, economic performance and the quality of American life. In addition to the Open Content Alliance and the Internet Archive, the Foundation has supported the Library of Congress, PALINET, SOLINET, the Boston Library Consortium, the New Orleans Public Library, the Espresso Book Machine and Wikipedia, among others, as part of its program in Universal Access to Recorded Knowledge. Information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation may be found on the Foundation¹s web site at http://www.sloan.org/.