Research Libraries – Page 5

ACRL: "2022 Academic Library Trends and Statistics Data Now Available"

Key findings include:

Of the libraries that have sought to hire new employees in the past year, 56% report that the candidate pool is smaller than pre-Covid levels, while only 30% say it is the same size or larger.

60.7% of library employees have the option to work remotely in some capacity, whether it be full-time, hybrid, a compressed work week or flexible hours and locations.

Since 2017, the average number of digital/electronic book titles in library collections has changed from 315,213 to 619,805, an increase of 96.6%.

The average number of FTE libraries has remained steady in the last three years. In both 2020 and 2021 the average was 11, while the 2022 average is 12.

https://tinyurl.com/53a6pw6v

"Should Academic Libraries Worry about Futureproofing?"

The what and how are at the heart of a new question we introduced in the latest cycle of the 2022 Ithaka S+R Library Survey. Nestled among questions about value proposition and strategic prioritization, we asked library deans and directors to indicate their level of agreement with the statement that their "library has a clear vision for futureproofing that takes into account technological and socio-political trends."

Sixteen percent of respondents indicated a high level of agreement with this statement (ratings 8-10). Sixty-four percent neither strongly agreed or disagreed (ratings of 4-7), and 20 percent strongly disagreed (ratings of 1-3). Figures 1 and 2 below show that there aren’t any particularly stark differences across Carnegie class, or sector.

https://tinyurl.com/229wsnvs

"New UVM Press Breaks Down Barriers to Scholarly Publishing"

The University of Vermont has launched an open-access academic press aimed at removing the financial barrier between peer-reviewed research and audiences worldwide. Fully funded by the university and overseen by UVM Libraries, the UVM Press operates under a "diamond open access model"— meaning that authors pay no fees to publish with the press, and readers pay no fees to access the press’s published materials. . . .

Bryn Geffert, UVM’s dean of libraries, has experience with open-access publishing having launched the Amherst College Press in 2013. Geffert also led a consortium of libraries in establishing the open-access Lever Press in 2016. Geffert believes that the role of a library is to connect patrons to information, making UVM Libraries a logical partner for managing the UVM Press.

https://tinyurl.com/bdfa8msf

"Transformative Agreements and Their Practical Impact: A Librarian Perspective"

This case study aims at describing how transformative agreements (TAs) have affected our profession with new tasks and workflows at two university libraries in Sweden, namely Karolinska Institutet University Library and Södertörn University Library. TAs are one of the mechanisms by which scientific publications are made open access; they involve moving libraries’ contracts with publishers from payment to read toward payment to publish. We will summarize the status and progress of open access in Sweden, in particular the significant growth of TAs over a short time span. We will then focus on describing how TAs have affected our everyday work and what new tasks they have imposed. We will share our experiences and point out things we find challenging, for example, we will explore questions about eligibility, the verification process, publication types and title changes during the contract period. We will also give some recommendations on how we would prefer the workflows surrounding the TAs to be. Finally, we will share our conclusions and comments about the impact of TAs on the publishing landscape and speculate about what will happen next.

https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.612

Digital Scholarship Has Released the Academic Libraries and Research Data Management Bibliography

The Academic Libraries and Research Data Management Bibliography includes over 345 selected English-language articles and books that are useful in understanding how academic libraries plan for, implement, provide, evaluate, and conduct studies about research data management (RDM) services. Most sources have been published from 2012 through 2023. It includes full abstracts for works under certain Creative Commons Licenses. It is available as a website and a website PDF with live links.

Digital Scholarship’s other bibliographies about research data curation include the Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography (over 800 works), the Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography (over 225 works), and the Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography (over 200 works).

ARL and CARL: Observations on Research Libraries’ Alignment with Institutional STEM Priorities

This report synthesizes the two associations’ joint exploration of the need for, and nature of, alignment of research libraries with their universities’ STEM priorities. The report notes the challenges to be overcome, and provides examples of the ways libraries are already working to strengthen and support STEM at their institutions. The report includes a summary of common themes as well as observations of each institution visited.

https://bit.ly/3qaF9Qq

UC System: "Re: UCOLASC [University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication] Statement on Retention of Author Rights in License to Publish Agreements"

As discussed at our joint UCOLASC and Council of University Librarians (CoUL) meeting held on February 15, 2023, the Project Transform Negotiating Team (PTNT) and Project Transform Working Group (PTWG) have learned that many publishers are requiring University of California (UC) authors to sign "License to Publish" (LTP) agreements, which purport to grant exclusive rights to publishers and contravene the spirit of the open access (OA) policies and declarations strongly endorsed by UC faculty.We find this now-common practice to be unacceptable and therefore ask you to prioritize the issue of author rights and act on our behalf when you negotiate with publishers. . . .

UCOLASC urges the Project Transform Negotiating Team (PTNT) to negotiate transformative open access agreements with publishers stipulating that authors only grant "limited" or "nonexclusive" licenses to publishers. Liberal Creative Commons (CC) licenses (e.g., CC BY) should be applied as the default choice, and licenses that restrict commercial and derivative uses of the work (e.g., CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, and CC BY-NC-ND) should function as originally intended with authors always free to do whatever they want with their own works.

https://bit.ly/43uzuDd

WorldFAIR Project (D13.2) Cultural Heritage Image Sharing Recommendations Report

Deliverable 13.2 aims to build on our understanding of what it means to support FAIR in the sharing of image data derived from GLAM collections. This report looks at previous efforts by the sector towards FAIR alignment and presents 5 recommendations designed to be implemented and tested at the DRI that are also broadly applicable to the work of the GLAMs. The recommendations are ultimately a roadmap for the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) to follow in improving repository services, as well as a call for continued dialogue around "what is FAIR?" within the cultural heritage research data landscape.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7897243

"Research Libraries Advance Open Scholarship and Community Engagement"

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published brief profiles of the eight institutions that participated in the 2021–2022 pilot program Accelerating the Social Impact of Research (ASIR). The pilot engaged small teams from eight ARL member libraries who wanted to share strategies to accelerate the adoption and implementation of open-science principles for social-impact and community-engaged research and scholarship.

https://bit.ly/3pZKqtU

"Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Releases the National Advocacy Framework for Open Educational Resources (OER)"

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is proud to announce the release of a comprehensive document, A National Advocacy Framework for Open Educational Resources in Canada, aimed at advancing the adoption and support of open educational resources (OER) across the country.

This framework is the result of collaborative efforts involving diverse stakeholders, including national student groups, provincial open education organizations, scholars, advocates in open education, and representatives from higher education institutions. Its purpose is to help advance and inform advocacy efforts directed at the Federal government. The ultimate goal is to provide guidance to stakeholders in advocating for federal involvement in OER.

https://bit.ly/3OvhBzL

"Open Access at a Crossroads: Library Publishing and Bibliodiversity"

The open access movement has gained momentum since the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) first launched twenty years ago. Notably, there has been a drastic increase in the number of open access articles. Concerns have been raised about equality and diversity issues, however, for researchers without an affiliation (e.g. independent, unemployed and retired researchers) and researchers on the "scientific periphery" who are excluded from the gold open access model. This article argues that the gold open access model is destructive to the knowledge production ecosystem by addressing the importance of bibliodiversity and the ways in which library publishing can contribute to sustainable and equitable knowledge production.

https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.613

"Quick Poll Results: ARL Member Representatives on Generative AI in Libraries"

We conducted a quick poll of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member representatives in April 2023 to gather insights into their current perspectives on generative AI adoption, its potential implications, and the role of libraries in AI-driven environments. In this blog post, we summarize, synthesize, and provide recommendations based on the survey responses, aiming to offer valuable insights for senior library directors navigating the AI landscape.

https://bit.ly/3M9yVc2

"OA and the Academy: Evaluating an OA Fund with Authors’ Input"

The University Libraries at Virginia Tech established an Open Access Subvention Fund (OASF) in August 2012. Although it began as a two-year pilot project, the Fund has continued to the present. Anyone at Virginia Tech is eligible to apply for funding to offset the cost of an article processing charge to publish in an open access journal. To learn more about user perceptions of the OASF and open access in general, we surveyed everyone who had requested support. The survey, conducted during the fall of 2019, provided a means to gauge the needs of our users, seek feedback on the request and award process, and gather input on the fund guidelines. In this article, we review our findings in the hope that the lessons learned will be useful to other libraries in assessing similar open access subvention funds.

https://bit.ly/3nxjUHs

"For Thousands of Texas Professors Seeking Tenure, a Bill Banning the Benefit Could Be a Turning Point in Their Careers"

Republican lawmakers, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have pledged this legislative session to end in Texas the nearly century-old practice used by universities across the country to give faculty an additional safeguard to pursue long-term, independent research — which, in turn, helps schools attract and retain sought-after talent. . . .

Under a bill that the Texas Senate already sent to the House, if a university system’s board of regents has not approved a professor for tenure by Jan. 1, 2024, they would no longer be able to earn that position in Texas. The move would not only make it hard for schools to recruit new faculty, it would throw the careers of nearly 5,000 Texas professors who are seeking the benefit into chaos, abruptly eliminating a benefit they have been working for years to earn and were hired with the understanding they could obtain.

https://bit.ly/3LXegb9

"LSU Libraries Announces New Government Publications and Open Scholarship Department"

In the latter half of 2022, the Government Documents and Open Scholarship & Affordable Learning departments combined into a new LSU Libraries department named Open Scholarship & Government Publications. This new department aims to combine the uncopyrighted materials in Government Publications with openly licensed resources available via Open Scholarship to provide students and faculty with free access to research materials.

Open Scholarship & amp;Affordable Learning saved students and their families more than $4.1 million in the 2022 fiscal year through LSU Libraries’ e-Textbook Initiative, which provides free access to library-licensed eBooks that are used in courses. Since its inception in 2014, it has saved more than $11.6 million.

https://bit.ly/3nrhLwZ

Elizabeth Kiscaden: "Dean and University Librarian Named to Lead University of Cincinnati Libraries"

Elizabeth Kiscaden, MLIS, AHIP, has been named dean and university librarian of the University of Cincinnati Libraries, effective Aug. 14, pending approval by the UC Board of Trustees.

Kiscaden currently serves as university librarian and assistant vice provost of library services at Creighton University. While at Creighton, she has worked to modernize legacy library systems and infrastructure to support an anytime, anywhere, any device philosophy and is overseeing the development of a single library enterprise, bringing together campus and health sciences libraries.

https://bit.ly/3oMzD5B

"Strategies for Digital Library Migration"

A migration of the datastore and data model for Stanford Digital Repository’s digital object metadata was recently completed. This paper describes the motivations for this work and some of the strategies used to accomplish the migration. Strategies include: adopting a validatable data model, abstracting the datastore behind an API, separating concerns, testing metadata mappings against real digital objects, using reports to understand the data, templating unit tests, performing a rolling migration, and incorporating the migration into ongoing project work. These strategies may be useful to other repository or digital library application migrations.

https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/17290

"Building a Large-Scale Digital Library Search Interface Using the Libraries Online Catalog"

The Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program (KDNP) was born out of the University of Kentucky Libraries’ (UKL) work in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) that began in 2005. In early 2021, a team of specialists at UKL from library systems, digital archives, and metadata management was formed to explore a new approach to searching this content by leveraging the power of the library services platform (Alma) and discovery system (Primo VE) licensed from Ex Libris. The result was the creation of a dedicated Primo VE search interface that would include KDNP content as well as all Kentucky newspapers held on microfilm in the UKL system. This article will describe the journey from the question of whether we could harness the power of Alma and Primo VE to display KDNP content, to the methodology used in creating a new dedicated search interface that can be replicated to create custom search interfaces of your own.

https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/17257

"Is the Library Responsible for Open Access Compliance?"

In this scenario, the research office would be responsible for complying with the new open access mandates — just as it is for all other research funder obligations. Perhaps the research office would arrange Green deposits. Perhaps it would ensure that grant submissions to federal agencies include funds to cover APCs. Perhaps it would negotiate publishing services agreements with preferred vendors. Perhaps it would take a lax approach, assuming that there are few likely consequences to uneven compliance with this mandate.

https://bit.ly/3KMZ92e

Paywall: "When the Big Deal Gets Smaller: Use of ScienceDirect after Cancellations "

This study investigates how article downloads from ScienceDirect changed after Temple University Libraries downsized its all-inclusive Elsevier big deal bundle to a selective custom package. After the libraries lost current-year access to nearly half of Elsevier’s active journals, the total downloads from Elsevier journals declined by 16.2 percent over three years. Combined use of still-subscribed and open access journals fell 10.6 percent in the same three years. . . . Reliance on open access appears to have increased.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/887660

Paywall: "Going for Gold, Deep in the Red"

Having survived the budget uncertainties following the Great Recession and during the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries are no strangers to the hard work, patience, and luck needed when it comes to budget planning and pushing publishers toward OA. But will libraries ever achieve the ultimate feat of bagging gold OA for all titles in all disciplines? Open access comes at a price; a gold sweep may not be possible as many institutions continue to struggle financially with the after-effects of the pandemic and lower enrollment figures.

http://bit.ly/3MHU5yy

"University of California Agreement with Wiley Expands to All 10 UC Campuses: New Agreement Quadruples the Number of UC Articles Eligible for Free and Open Access in Wiley Journals"

The University of California, which generates nearly 10 percent of U.S. research output, and Wiley, one of the world’s largest publishers, announced today an expansion of their open access agreement. Researchers at all 10 UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) will now receive funding support to publish open access, making significantly more UC research freely available to people around the world.

http://bit.ly/3GYDW4n

"The Politics of Rights Retention"

This article presents a commentary on the recent resurgence of interest in the practice of rights retention in scholarly publishing. Led in part by the evolving European policy landscape, rights retention seeks to ensure immediate access to accepted manuscripts uploaded to repositories. The article identifies a trajectory in the development of rights retention from something that publishers could previously ignore to a practice they are now forced to confront. Despite being couched in the neoliberal logic of market-centric policymaking, I argue that rights retention represents a more combative approach to publisher power by institutions and funders that could yield significant benefits for a more equitable system of open access publishing.

https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:52287

"Digital Information Security Management Policy in Academic Libraries: A Systematic Review (2010–2022)"

Digital information security management (DISM) is considered an important tool to ensure the privacy and protection of data and resources in an electronic environment. The purpose of this research is to look into the applications of DISM policies in terms of practices and implementation in academic libraries. It also identifies the challenges faced by academic libraries in applying these DISM practices regarding policy. A systematic literature review was conducted to achieve the objectives of the study. . . . A few libraries have developed a mechanism to protect and secure users’ sensitive data from hackers, viruses, malware and social engineering. Findings indicated that both organisations and users trust libraries due to their strict privacy and data security policies. However, some academic libraries did not adopt and implement DISM policies in their organisations, even though they had written DISM policies.

https://doi.org/10.1177/01655515231160026

"The Engagement of Academic Libraries in Open Science: A Systematic Review"

Using a systematic review and meta-synthesis approach, this study analyses 65 literature related to the engagement of academic libraries in open science. The results show that the existing research mainly focuses on four aspects of open science: open access, research data management, open educational resources, and citizen science. Based on these themes, academic libraries have implemented a range of practical activities, playing the roles of open science service providers, advocates or educators, policy makers, publishers or knowledge producers, etc. At the same time, however, academic libraries are facing a number of challenges caused by inadequate security of internal resources and insufficient support from the external environment.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102711