“Essential Duties and Responsibilities
[…]
Plan, implement and evaluate sustainable services and policies that support open access, preservation and broad dissemination of University research and data.
Provide support for the Killam Library’s OER initiatives in collaboration with faculty, staff and campus stakeholders….”
“The University of Houston is a member of the Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA). The Coalition, comprising more than 40 institutions, has been negotiating journal subscriptions with academic publisher Elsevier for the past year. These negotiations cover journal subscriptions and access to journal content.
The cost of journal subscription packages has been unsustainable for some time. Annual price increases from Elsevier far outpace inflation and flat budgets mean we can’t keep up while maintaining our current collections. We are working together with Texas universities to find a solution.
The Coalition’s goal in negotiations with Elsevier is to reach a successful contract. Key issues in negotiations include:
Increased faculty control over their own scholarly publications
Pricing models that are sustainable for strained library budgets in higher education
Achieving a successful contract will include some change in journal access. This may mean UH Libraries purchases access to fewer journals and utilizes our existing interlibrary loan partners for access to some journals. Alternatively, the Coalition may delay signing a new contract, affecting access to new Elsevier content and some historical content. If access to our existing subscription content is lost, we are prepared with ways to get you access to articles you need. Resources such as Reaxys, Knovel, and Scopus are not part of this discussion….”
“The University of Texas System has joined the Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA) to rethink how university libraries collectively can improve access to faculty research and to push for changes to the costly subscription models offered by publishers of academic journals.
A total of 41 institutions in Texas have now joined the Coalition – including the 14 UT institutions – making it the largest and most diverse consortia of its kind and giving it significant negotiating power.
Beyond the high cost of subscriptions, which is becoming unsustainable for many academic institutions, the Coalition is advocating for increased author control of their own scholarship and for university libraries to increase the accessibility of scholarship produced by their own faculty members….”
“Thanks to a Texas State Library and Archives Commission TexTreasures grant funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), over 100 reels of microfilmed archives documenting women and underrepresented communities in Texas visual arts will be digitized and made accessible online.
The Texas Art Project is an extensive collection of visual arts history preserved at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) library. Between 1978 and 1985, MFAH contacted artists, galleries, and arts organizations across Texas to document unique manuscript papers and research materials on microfilm, as part of the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art (AAA). The project yielded nearly 700 reels, a subset of which featured materials from women artists, artists of color, and galleries that hosted them. This subset is the focus of the TexTreasures grant which allowed University of Houston Libraries Special Collections and MFAH to collaborate on the digitization of approximately 150,000 images, previously available only in a limited, localized capacity in microfilm at MFAH. Digitized images of materials such as correspondence, exhibition catalogs, reviews, and publications will become openly available online with multiple points of access, thereby facilitating scholarship and research using unique primary sources….”
“A new law requires Texas colleges and universities to share information with students about courses that use open educational resources (OER). Now students should be able to search for courses that use only OER when they are registering for courses. This toolkit is a living document that can help Texas institutions implement course marking solutions. If your state or institution is considering similar policies, this toolkit can help you, too….”
“Twenty-seven universities across Texas have joined forces as the Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA) to think creatively about access to faculty publications and the sustainability of journal subscriptions. TLCUA has organized to identify the best way to change current models and the relationships between academic institutions and publishers. The goals of the Coalition are ambitious – improved access to scholarship, greater control over faculty content, and pricing models that are sustainable for strained library budgets in higher education.
The sustainability of providing scholarly research at ever-increasing costs is putting these academic libraries in difficult positions as they work to offer access to scholars on their campuses….
The Coalition has begun its mission by entering into dialog with academic publisher Elsevier. They hope that through positive engagement and mutual understanding, an improved and sustainable model for the dissemination of scholarship can be achieved….”
“UT [University of Texas] Libraries seeks an innovative, collaborative, service-oriented, and highly motivated individual to serve as the Tocker Open Education Librarian. This position will build on existing work and relationships to lead the planning, implementation, and assessment of the UT Austin open education program. This position will coordinate the Libraries open education services, including collaborating with faculty, students, staff, and administrators across the university to promote the adoption and creation of open and affordable course content, and assisting faculty in identifying appropriate open educational resources (OER) and support materials. This position will also promote best practices for digital accessibility, archiving, assessment, attribution, and resource sharing of OER in collaboration with other Libraries units. The Tocker Open Education Librarian will actively contribute to the UT Libraries overall scholarly communications program which includes open access, repositories, research data services, copyright, and open education….”
“UT [University of Texas] Libraries seeks an innovative, collaborative, service-oriented, and highly motivated individual to serve as the Tocker Open Education Librarian. This position will build on existing work and relationships to lead the planning, implementation, and assessment of the UT Austin open education program. This position will coordinate the Libraries open education services, including collaborating with faculty, students, staff, and administrators across the university to promote the adoption and creation of open and affordable course content, and assisting faculty in identifying appropriate open educational resources (OER) and support materials. This position will also promote best practices for digital accessibility, archiving, assessment, attribution, and resource sharing of OER in collaboration with other Libraries units. The Tocker Open Education Librarian will actively contribute to the UT Libraries overall scholarly communications program which includes open access, repositories, research data services, copyright, and open education….”
“Demonstrated knowledge of institutional repositories.
Serve as a resource on issues and trends relevant to copyright/fair use and scholarly communication.
Review license agreements for information resources and maintain licenses for record keeping purposes.
Develop strategic relationships with campus community members to inform, support, and advance the scholarly communication program’s goals.
Support the Libraries’ institutional repository.
Engage and partner with subject librarians to design and deliver educational programs to faculty and campus units about copyright and scholarly communication. Develop relevant trainings, guides and tools for library and campus constituencies.
Establish and support mechanisms to assist faculty with publishing choices, publishing agreements, management of copyright and intellectual property, and compliance with funder requirements.
Set goals for scholarly communication initiatives.
Lead and participate in committees, task forces, and strategic projects.
Monitor national scholarly communication trends and issues, and inform library and university constituents to ensure full benefits of the dynamic scholarly communication system….”
“Under the direction of the Manager for Electronic Resources and Scholarly Communications, the Scholarly Communication Librarian (Librarian I) performs professional tasks to grow and maintain scholarly communication services available through the Library….”
From West Texas A&M University: “Cornette Library’s OER and Scholarly Communications Librarian, under the supervision of the Head of Outreach and Instruction, will address current faculty needs in the areas of research and scholarly/creative output including but not limited to: open access publishing specifically OER (Open Educational Resources), creating digital collections and maintaining a digital repository, copyright, bibliometrics, data analytics tools and assessment, and assistance with data management plans. This position promotes the use of the library’s digital repository to other campus entities and develops and leads an OER initiatives on campus, including co-chairing the university’s OER Working Group. Creates, manages, and maintains a libguide highlighting faculty resources and library’s scholarly communications web presence. Position works scheduled hours at the 1st floor service desk and as part of library outreach and instruction team, participates in delivery of library instruction as needed….”
“The Scholarly Communications Librarian works to develop and promote the Neumann Library’s scholarly communications services. This includes services available through the Texas Digital Library (the institutional repository, the data repository, and Vireo), and related topics such as copyright, open access, and scholarly metrics. Engages in scholarly collections analysis and develops and promotes research services specializing in assistance with digital tools for data analysis, management, visualization, and sharing. Collaborates with faculty and library staff to foster awareness of new technologies directly related to digital scholarship….”
“Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi invites applications for the position of Scholarly Communication Librarian. The Scholarly Communication Librarian provides leadership and support in the growth and maintenance of scholarly communication services at Bell Library. …”
“The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, houses an encyclopedic collection of more than 65,000 works of art created throughout the world, from antiquity to the present. Explore the Museum’s art collections through this searchable database, which is continually being updated. Browse to discover art across time periods, cultures, classifications, and more. Then visit the Museum to experience your favorites in person….”
“The Harvey Memories Project [about the 2017 Hurrican Harvey] will launch and maintain a state-of-the-art, open-access digital repository to collect, preserve and publish community-contributed memories of the storm in multiple formats, such as photos documenting storm preparations, audio and video recordings of the storm in progress and survivors’ narratives….”