Category Archives: oa.librarians

UMass’ World Librarians provide open access education for students in Malawi and Kenya

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Members of the University of Massachusetts World Librarians team are working to promote open access information and get their RSO up and running this semester. Professor of environmental conservation Charles Schweik and students involved with the World Librarian team discussed sharing education information with schools in Malawi and Kenya.

Seven years ago, Schweik attended a talk on campus given by Peter Suber, a philosopher and director of the Harvard Open Access Project.

Suber’s talk was on the concept of “open access,” or transmitting information via satellite to other parts of the world. Schweik went up to Suber and asked if he knew who was deciding what information was going into the signal. Suber said that it was the “Outernet people,” a group based in the United States.

The Pitch: Hire Research Data Management Librarians ASAP | Arthur J. Boston

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“If you have any budgetary power at your university, you need to contact whoever is in charge of overseeing the compliance of federally-funded research. If you are that person in the office of sponsored programs, you need to contact your libraries to identify who is involved in research data management (RDM). And finally, if you are a head librarian who supervises anyone involved in RDM, ask them to write up a full memo detailing the staffing and support necessary to run a full shop and not be shy about it. University leadership, offices of sponsored programs, and libraries need to hire research data management librarians and specialists, and soon. Move a mountain and make it happen. 

By order of the recent White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo, by the end of 2025, faculty conducting federally-funded research will need to deposit their underlying research data, immediately and without embargo. Even the data that doesn’t lead to publication. While data deposit was part of the previous OSTP guidance from 2013, it only applied to federal agencies with more than $100M in R&D expenditures. The more recent 2022 Nelson Memo extends to all agencies, agencies who are now working with “OSTP to update their public access and data sharing plans by mid-2023.” 

It’s unclear how intensely federal agencies have scrutinized their researcher’s compliance with regard to data deposit since 2013, but given that the 2022 Memo mentions the word data 50 times compared to the 31 mentions in 2013, there seems to be a renewed emphasis on its importance….”

Finding your way in academic librarianship: Introducing the Scholarly Communication Notebook | Cross | College & Research Libraries News

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“Unfortunately, while scholcomm is something we all need to understand, it’s not taught in many LIS programs. Only a handful of programs offer dedicated courses, and only 12% of respondents from a recent survey indicated that scholarly communication was addressed in other courses.1

As three people working across diverse roles in the field, we’re excited to share a resource that we hope can help academic librarians understand this work, skill up in areas that are relevant to their own practice, and share their own projects with others in the field: the Scholarly Communication Notebook (SCN)….

The SCN (https://www.oercommons.org/hubs/SCN) is an extension of an earlier, related, effort to create an open textbook about scholarly communication librarianship. That book, Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge, is forthcoming from ACRL in 2023. It features the contributions of more than 80 of our peers, and we’re excited and a bit relieved to see that facet of our work wrapping up, at least for now. While developing that work, and in conversation with contributors and peers, we became increasingly aware that a book alone is insufficient to increase scholcomm knowledge and instruction in the way that we hope to enact. The book format is linear, constrained by space limitations, and the number of contributors is finite. We have done our best to include a wide set of perspectives and experiences but still recognize these limitations. Even if openly licensed, a book remains a relatively static resource. Scholarly communication is not static at all. Far from it, as many will attest and recognize through hard-won experience. Our contribution is the SCN, an online collection of contributed, modular, open content scoped to scholarly communication topics, which might complement the book or find use independent of it. With the generous support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), we set about building the SCN in 2019.

The SCN is a community hub, a space for sharing ideas and models, and a space to demonstrate the many ways scholarly communication work can and is being done. Setting up as an ISKME OER Commons Hub enables us to benefit from OER Commons’ existing visibility, structure, support, and ease of use. The SCN consists of seven collections: Open Access, Copyright, Scholarly Sharing, Open Education, Data, Impact Measurement, and What/Why Scholarly Communication, the last capturing content that is broader than the subareas. While we are interested in existing content, with funding support from IMLS, we commissioned new content through three calls for proposals in 2020 and 2021.2, 3 In each of these calls, we selected approximately ten projects and provided $2,500 to each as incentive and compensation. As a result, 34 projects were sponsored, with more than 60 authors representing institutions ranging from community colleges to regional teaching institutions to research intensive universities. Projects included games, slides, tutorials, exercises, videos, and readings. Next, a team of curators set about identifying existing openly licensed content for inclusion. As of time of writing, there are more than 100 items, with more added regularly….”

OpenCon Librarian Community Call | November 08, 2022 | Daniel Goodman

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“…On Tuesday, November 8th, Daniel Goodman, one of several authors of the “Open letter to the WHOSTP and Subcommittee on Open Science” join the OpenCon Librarian Community call to discuss the motivations, goals, and experiences of the Open letter. He will also share his future vision for academic publishing through the recently launched Neuromatch Open Publishing initiative. Neuromatch proposes an open publishing platform owned by the community on which work would be free to read and publish, and all data would be made freely and openly available for third parties to build additional services on….”

Lessons for Librarians in Open Science Principles and Methods 2022 | University of California, Los Angeles | Oct 2022

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“The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library received an award from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program this August 2022. With this award, UCLA Library Data Science Center is pleased to announce the call for proposals on lesson creation about open sciences principles and methods. This call seeks to support continued skills development for librarians in open science to provide instruction to new researchers and effectively collaborate with faculty and researchers in science projects using transparent and reproducible practices. The goal is to fund projects with high potential to influence the open science community via impactful library instruction. We invite proposals based on diverse intellectual approaches and personal backgrounds to achieve these ends. We call on the CNI community to help promote our program and reach out to broader communities. https://www.imls.gov/grants/awarded/re-252335-ols-22”

slides: https://www.cni.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022-10-05b-Tim-Dennis-Yao-Lessons-Librarians-Open-Science-Oct22-1.pdf

University Librarian and Vice Provost of Digital Scholarship MacKenzie Smith to Retire in June 2023 – UC Davis Library

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“MacKenzie has led our library during a period of transformative change in how scholars create, access and share research,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan. “She has made substantial contributions to the campus’s research enterprise at every level, from data science and informatics to the establishment of an undergraduate library research prize. MacKenzie has also elevated our library’s leadership role, within UC and far beyond, in advancing free and open access to research. We will miss her leadership and collaboration, but wish her all the best in her retirement.”

University Librarian and Vice Provost of Digital Scholarship MacKenzie Smith to Retire in June 2023 – UC Davis Library

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“MacKenzie has led our library during a period of transformative change in how scholars create, access and share research,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan. “She has made substantial contributions to the campus’s research enterprise at every level, from data science and informatics to the establishment of an undergraduate library research prize. MacKenzie has also elevated our library’s leadership role, within UC and far beyond, in advancing free and open access to research. We will miss her leadership and collaboration, but wish her all the best in her retirement.”

Publisher reinstates blocked ebooks, but librarians unsatisfied

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“Wiley, a publisher that scrambled fall courses at many institutions with its late-August withdrawal of approximately 1,380 digital books from a large subscription collection used by many libraries, has reversed course and now says it will restore access to the ebooks “as soon as possible.”

Once the books are reinstated to ProQuest Academic Complete, the multidisciplinary subscription collection, they will remain there through June 2023, according to a statement on the company’s website from Matt Leavy, executive vice president and general manager at Wiley….

Librarians, however, are unconvinced that the publisher is committed to offering students affordable textbook access options….”

Open Access, Publics, and the Plunder of the Commons | ACRL 2023 Conference, March 17 | Pittsburgh, US

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Abstract: “Are transformative agreements really transformative? Is open access (OA) more than a PR tool for commercial publishers, an ornament on an otherwise impenetrable firewall, an air freshener in the landfill of corporate profiteering and shrinking library budgets? Is OA actually open, is it accessible? Where is “the public” in this? Where also is the “public” in “public library”? We pose these questions as the occasion for a critical analysis of the political economy of OA, as well as an opening to a more radical practice. Our panel presents the perspectives of librarians involved in scholarly-communication advocacy and library publishing, alongside that of a scholar-led OA publisher….”

Participants: EIleen Joy, punctum books; Dolsy Smith, The George Washington University

The Scholarly Communication Notebook | OER Commons

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“The Scholarly Communication Notebook (SCN) is an active, inclusive, empowered community of practice for teaching scholarly communications to emerging librarians….

Welcome to the Scholarly Communication Notebook (SCN), an in-development repository of community-designed and curated open resources for teaching about scholarly communication and for doing scholarly communication work in libraries. We intend the SCN to be the locus of an active, inclusive, empowered community of practice for teaching scholarly communications to emerging librarians, where practitioners, LIS educators, and library students work together to increase knowledge and skills on topics of growing importance in librarianship and beyond; topics such as copyright, open access, open education, and library publishing (see Collections below for more topic areas). We hope these resources will be regularly refreshed by librarians and allies as well as by LIS faculty and by students completing coursework on these topics, and that mutually beneficial relationships and bridges are built between users. The SCN, and the resources collected here, complement an open book that is in production, Introduction to Scholarly Communication Librarianship: Law, Economics, and Culture.

 

The SCN is explicitly intended to support, educate and represent a diversifying workforce of LIS professionals. It intends to extend social justice values to all participants by intentionally and thoughtfully reflecting the broad range of people, institution types, and service models engaged in scholarly communication work. For more background see the OER + Scholarly Communication project site. We’re also reachable via email and on Twitter….”

Embracing the value of research data: introducing the JCHLA/JABSC Data Sharing Policy | Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal de l’Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada

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Abstract:  As health sciences researchers have been asked to share their data more frequently due to funder policies, journal requirements, or interest from their peers, health sciences librarians (HSLs) have simultaneously begun to provide support to researchers in this space through training, participating in RDM efforts on research grants, and developing comprehensive data services programs. If supporting researchers’ data sharing efforts is a worthwhile investment for HSLs, it is crucial that we practice data sharing in our own research endeavours. sharing data is a positive step in the right direction, as it can increase the transparency, reliability, and reusability of HSL-related research outputs. Furthermore, having the ability to identify and connect with researchers in relation to the challenges associated with data sharing can help HSLs empathize with their communities and gain new perspectives on improving support in this area. To that end, the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal de l’Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada (JCHLA / JABSC) has developed a Data Sharing Policy to improve the transparency and reusability of research data underlying the results of its publications. This paper will describe the approach taken to inform and develop this policy. 

 

Call for Proposals: College & Research Libraries Topical Issue on Open and Equitable Scholarship | deadline: October 3, 2022 | Association of College and Research Libraries, US

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“ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee is planning a topical issue of College & Research Libraries (C&RL) around new research on how the academic and research library workforce has accelerated change in the scholarly communications environment. We are particularly interested in articles on recent research that advances the three priority areas established in ACRL’s 2019 report Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future (available for download or purchase): people, content, and systems. In that report, the first section on people addresses embracing diversity and inclusion, improving the working lives of people engaged in scholarly communications, and increasing awareness concerning creators’ rights. The second section, content, acknowledges the opportunity for greater inclusion and openness by rethinking what scholarship “counts” and creating more representative and open collections. The third section on systems identifies several avenues to explore: supporting sustainable technological infrastructure, creating systems that permit more access to more people, building mission-aligned organizational and financial systems, and advancing innovation in academic libraries. To learn more about the report, view a recorded webinar from when it was first released. For this C&RL topical issue, the research may use any investigative methods appropriate to addressing the research question(s). These include but are not limited to: standard quantitative and qualitative approaches, as well as critical evaluations, case studies, reflective essays, and (auto)ethnography. Articles resulting from collaborative research involving librarians and other higher education stakeholders, such as institutional researchers, faculty, administration, students, or community partners are particularly welcome. Given the focus of Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications on valuing different ways of knowing, the committee particularly welcomes adventurous scholarship, and we encourage work on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion as they relate to academic libraries and scholarly communication. Proposals Proposals should be a maximum of 750 words. They should clearly outline the methodology and findings of the research, as well as its relevance to this topical issue, specifically its connection to the ACRL report Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future, as described above. Prospective authors should submit a proposal by 5 p.m. Central on Monday, October 3, 2022, for open peer review. Submit via C&RL’s submission system (login required) and please note in your cover page that your submission is a proposal for the Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications topical issue….”

August OpenCon Library Community Call on Using the OpenAlex API | August 9th, 2022

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“Inspired by the ancient Library of Alexandria, OpenAlex indexes the world of scholarly research, including works, citations, authors, journals, and institutions. OpenAlex data is completely free and open to all via a web interface, API, and database snapshot. Join us to learn how to use the OpenAlex API for your scholcomm research needs. OpenAlex was created by OurResearch, a nonprofit that makes open scholarly infrastructure including Unpaywall (an index of the world’s Open Access research literature) and Unsub (a tool to help librarians eliminate toll-access journal subscriptions). …”

Wikidata for Scholarly Communication Librarianship – Simple Book Publishing

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“Wikidata for Scholarly Communication Librarianship was developed for anyone working in an academic library (or interested in working in an academic library) who may have a small or large role in supporting scholarly communication related services. The first two chapters, however, could serve as a basic introduction to Wikidata for anyone in academic librarianship. The remaining three chapters focus on a few topics that may be of more interest to those who work on open metadata, research metrics, and researcher profile projects….”

 

IFLA Guidelines for Professional Library and Information Science (LIS) Education Programmes

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“LIS education builds, holistically, the capacity of professionals with ingrained ethics and humanistic values. Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) are essential to LIS professionalism, service-orientation, social responsibility, sustainability, education, and lifelong learning. Access to information, including open access (OA), as a public good; intellectual freedom; responsible stewardship of data, information and knowledge; and the technologies and intelligence driving them, are central to the profession….

Research proficiency includes problem-oriented research which analyses the basis of issues encountered in LIS and attempts to provide possible solutions and understanding for professional practice in diverse information settings. It also includes the ability to identify, collate, catalogue, retrieve, evaluate, and disseminate research produced by others for scholarship advancement across disciplines as well as for general societal impact and innovative policy development for the betterment of communities. Such scholarly communication includes open access which ensures unrestricted access to research for further knowledge generation….”