It is with sadness that we announce the death of David Ball. He was the Chair of UKeiG for 7 years (and on the committee since 2012) and also on the committee of ILIG since 2018. David was hospitalised on 10 Feb and was treated for infective endocarditis which, ultimately, turned out to be unsuccessful. David died on 15 May in a local hospice with close family around him. His funeral will be held at a crematorium and woodland burial ground just outside Bournemouth on Wednesday 4th June.
David Ball was a consultant specialising in scholarly communication, e-books, virtual learning environments, design and management of academic libraries. As University Librarian and Head of Academic Development Services at Bournemouth University from 1994 to 2012, he created a vibrant library service, winning two major national awards. In 2012 became a consultant. Open Access clients include: Public Library of Science (PLoS), the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Public Health England, OAPEN, Enabling Open Scholarship (EOS).
David was the SPARC Europe Project Officer on two major European Open Science projects: PASTEUR4OA (which aimed to support the development and implementation of policies to ensure Open Access to all outputs from publicly funded research) and FOSTER (which aimed to support researchers to incorporate Open Science in their daily workflow). He has also worked on a number of SPARC Europe projects, including Open Data Champions. While spending a year in Uganda, he worked with the Coalition of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL), funded by EIFL, on Open Access policy development and implementation.
He led various CPD courses for UKeiG on Open Access and Open Data.
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Posted 28 May 2025