In the context of the COAR General Assembly 2012, held in Uppsala (Sweden) on May 21st and 22nd, 2012, the Director of LA Referencia, Carmen Gloria Labbé (RedCLARA), was elected as Vice-President of COAR. Thus, Latin America properly became a member of the most relevant international association of open access repositories.

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) is a young association of repository initiatives launched in October 2009, uniting over 80 institutions in 24 countries from throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America. Its mission is to enhance greater visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of Open Access digital repositories.

LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)-led by RedCLARA and funded by the Regional Public Goods Funds of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and with the participation of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, aims to share and give visibility to the scientific production generated in institutions of higher education and scientific research.

The main purpose of LA Referencia is the creation of a common strategy and a framework of agreements for the construction and maintenance of a Federated Network of Institutional Repositories of Scientific Publications for storing, sharing, giving visibility and open access to scientific production in Latin America. In this context, the full incorporation into COAR is of utmost importance because it leads Latin America to a scenario of highest value for the regional scientific production.

The COAR Directory is integrated by Norbert Lossau, from the Göttingen University (Germany) as Chairman (re-elect), Carmen Gloria Labbé (RedCLARA, LA Referencia - Latin America), and Márta Virágos University and National Library of Debrecen, Hungary, as Treasurer.

For more information:

• LA Referencia: http://lareferencia.redclara.net/rfr/
• COAR (General Assembly 2012): http://www.coar-repositories.org/about-coar/meetings/general-assembly-2012/