March 2023 – DigitalKoans

"Congress Introduces Bill to Tackle College Textbook Costs"

SPARC, a non-profit advocacy organization working to make education and research open and equitable, today applauded the reintroduction of the Affordable College Textbook Act in the U.S. Congress. The bill would address a key but often overlooked factor in the cost of higher education—the cost of textbooks—by establishing a grant program for the creation and use of free, openly licensed textbooks, while also strengthening federal price disclosure requirements for textbook publishers and institutions. If passed, the program would build on the success of the Open Textbook Pilot which is already projected to save students an estimated $250 million since its creation in 2018.

http://bit.ly/40sNVX2

"Controlled Digital Lending Takes a Blow in Court"

The implications of this ruling are potentially profound, and, given the strong lean in the publisher’s favor, they are potentially troubling for libraries and the rights of those who seek to engage with content in our evermore digital and digitized world if the decision stands through the forthcoming appeals. For the significant amount of content that exists in print form and for which there is no publisher-sanctioned digital version available, that content has become effectively walled off from the digital world until it passes into the public domain—essentially for longer than anyone reading this blog is alive. Those who live in close proximity to and have access to world-class institutions with sizable print collections can get access to much of this content. For the vast majority of library users, this will not be the case. Their access will be significantly curtailed, but to paraphrase the ruling, this public interest is secondary to the interests of publishers in exercising their monopoly.

http://bit.ly/40GaNC4

Copyright, Licensing and Research Librarian at York St John University (Trainee)

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic, pro-active individual to act as a trainee Copyright, Licensing and Research Librarian. Working with others in the Scholarly Communications, Content and Discovery team, your focus will be to develop the skills necessary for providing and developing copyright advice and training, providing guidance on open research and publishing to academic colleagues, students and the university’s Research Office. As you develop your knowledge of licensing you will also contribute to collection development of the library’s electronic resources for programmes and new portfolio areas.

http://bit.ly/3Zs0eBC

Metadata Analyst at Yale University

1. Creates and implements appropriate metadata strategies for digital projects, including analyzing metadata needs and developing workflows. 2. Performs analysis, remediation, and normalization of metadata in the library’s online catalogs and discovery layer. 3. Reviews, converts, and remediates metadata for digitized legacy collections. Provides consultation on metadata standards and applications to collection owners, faculty and staff. 4. Participates in the planning and implementation of library-wide digital initiatives and projects. 5. Manages metadata projects and ensures their timely progress and completion. Provides training and creates documentation as needed. 6. Applies programming and scripting skills in support of the technical requirements and production needs for metadata creation, conversion, enhancement, and maintenance. Develops and/or customizes applications and tools for automation and innovation. 7. Participates in the development of the infrastructure and workflows of the Library’s digital repositories. Coordinates metadata activities and advises on metadata function improvement, enhancement, and troubleshooting in support of those repositories.

http://bit.ly/3KiFTuj

Data Management Consultant at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries seeks a Data Management Consultant to join our high-performing team of data management, data visualization, and geospatial data/GIS specialists in the Data Services Department. Our mission is to provide tools, training, and resources for working with data to Johns Hopkins’s world-renowned researchers, with the overarching goal of improving the availability and reusability of research data generated by researchers across the University and from various disciplines. The data management specialists provide faculty, students, and staff with consultative support and training on data management and sharing. They prepare and lead workshops, give presentations, and provide one-on-one consultation to faculty, staff, and students. Data management specialists are also responsible for curating and depositing data into the Johns Hopkins Research Data Repository. . . . This is a fully remote work position. Some travel is required.

http://bit.ly/42Pc0sR

"Fast-Growing Open-Access Journals Stripped of Coveted Impact Factors"

Nearly two dozen journals from two of the fastest growing open-access publishers, including one of the world’s largest journals by volume, will no longer receive a key scholarly imprimatur. On 20 March, the Web of Science database said it delisted the journals along with dozens of others, stripping them of an impact factor, the citation-based measure of quality that, although controversial, carries weight with authors and institutions. . . . Clarivate initially did not name any of the delisted journals or provide specific reasons. But it confirmed to Science the identities of 19 Hindawi journals and two MDPI titles after reports circulated about their removals.

https://bit.ly/3Kjx1ET

Electronic Resources Librarian at University of Alabama

This is an excellent opportunity for early career librarians or recent graduates to gain valuable experience managing all aspects of electronic resources management working under knowledgeable faculty librarians, while gaining experience at a flagship R1 institution. The University of Alabama Libraries is engaged as a beta partner on the FOLIO project. The Electronic Resources Librarian will work as part of the FOLIO project management cycle as modules are developed and tested. University Libraries currently is a Voyager site and uses EBSCO Discovery Service as its discovery layer.

https://facultyjobs.ua.edu/postings/51762

"AUPresses Receives NEH Grant to Study Impact of Open Access on Print Sales"

The project seeks to understand empirically whether the availability of OA editions of scholarly books has a quantifiable effect on the sales performance of print editions. While many university presses have pursued experiments with OA publishing, sustainable financing of high-quality, rigorous scholarly publishing operations is a significant concern. The study will look at both OA and traditionally published titles across multiple disciplines from many presses. Findings from the study will be shared publicly in support of scholarly publishers, peer institutions, and associations devoted to humanities scholarship.

IT Analyst/Programmer 2 at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Systems Administrator position assists in facilitating architectural design, implementation, administration, automation, and maintenance activities for University Libraries IT infrastructure and various technologies deployed to support this infrastructure in a highly collaborative and cross-team culture. Responsibilities also include project leadership and consultation across technical platforms and departmental boundaries, and systems maintenance and performance management. . . . Additionally, work may include the creation, installation, and modification of software and hardware, testing, documentation, and administration of Linux and Windows operating systems.

https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/252549

"Interoperable Infrastructure for Software and Data Publishing"

Achieving scalable, high-quality, interoperable data and software publishing is possible. There are already builders, some represented by the authorship of this article, that are on the right path, building tools that effectively meet the needs of researchers in an open and pluggable way. One example is InvenioRDM, a flexible and turn-key next-generation research data management repository built by CERN and more than 25 multi-disciplinary partners world-wide; InvenioRDM leverages community standards and supports FAIR practices out of the box. Another example of agnostic, pluggable tooling, in this case for software submission, are the submission workflow tools currently developed in the HERMES project. These allow researchers to automate the publication of software artifacts together with rich metadata, to create software publications following the FAIR Principles for Research Software.

http://bit.ly/42Lc5Oe

Systems and Data Services Librarian at Davidson College

Working in collaboration across library teams, you will provide robust support and help shape strategic directions for library systems and services including Davidson’s library services platform (currently Ex Libris’ Alma), discovery system (currently Primo), and digital asset management system (currently Alma Digital). Using your expertise in systems and metadata management, you will play a key role in facilitating discovery and delivery of the library’s collection, and in enhancing and improving library workflows.

https://bit.ly/3ZlESG0

"GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models"

We investigate the potential implications of large language models (LLMs), such as Generative Pretrained Transformers (GPTs), on the U.S. labor market, focusing on the increased capabilities arising from LLM-powered software compared to LLMs on their own. . . .Our findings reveal that around 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of LLMs, while approximately 19% of workers may see at least 50% of their tasks impacted. . . . Our analysis suggests that, with access to an LLM, about 15% of all worker tasks in the US could be completed significantly faster at the same level of quality. When incorporating software and tooling built on top of LLMs, this share increases to between 47 and 56% of all tasks. . . .We conclude that LLMs such as GPTs exhibit traits of general-purpose technologies, indicating that they could have considerable economic, social, and policy implications

https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130

Visiting Faculty Digital Initiatives Librarian at Texas Wesleyan University

The Digital Initiatives Librarian will coordinate the vision, planning, implementation, and maintenance of the library’s digital programs, including digital collections, digitization, digital preservation, digital scholarship as well as Open Educational Resources implementation and support on campus. This position will also coordinate and support the development, maintenance, and management of the repositories needed to deliver the library’s digital platform. This librarian will perform outreach and instruction to the campus community regarding the library’s digital initiatives and programs, oversee the TXWES Maker Lab, and serve as library liaison to faculty. The library’s digital repository is housed on the Quartex digital platform and Special Collection resources use Archives Space.

https://txwes.peopleadmin.com/postings/5099

"ChatGPT Gets ‘Eyes and Ears’ with Plugins That Can Interface AI with the World"

Basically, if a developer wants to give ChatGPT the ability to access any network service (for example: "looking up current stock prices") or perform any task controlled by a network service (for example: "ordering pizza through the Internet"), it is now possible, provided it doesn’t go against OpenAI’s rules.

http://bit.ly/3ZlESG0

"Who Owns Bibliographic Metadata Created by Libraries?"

The ownership of MARC bibliographic data has been an issue between OCLC and other companies in the marketplace. Two lawsuits are discussed between OCLC and Clarivate and SkyRiver.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2023.2177928

Systems Librarian at Chicago State University

Supervised by the Chair of Library and Instruction Services and under the administrative direction of the Dean of Library and Instruction Services, this position will be responsible for managing and supporting Library systems and applications. Additionally, the Systems Librarian will assist with back-end functions for Library applications managed by other librarians and contribute to Library services and projects.

https://chicagostate.peopleadmin.com/postings/14336

Head of Digital and Technical Services at Marshall University

Supervise a department of ten full-time faculty/staff in the following information support areas within Digital and Technical Services (D&TS); possess direct working knowledge of each of these areas to aid with the administration of the systems, workflow, and software utilized:

Collections and Resource Management

Cataloging, Metadata, and Serials

Scholarly Communications (Includes open educational resources (OER), Open Access, and the university’s Institutional Repository, Marshall Digital Scholar (MDS))

Library Website Management

Electronic Resource Management (ERM)

https://marshall.peopleadmin.com/postings/21959

"Hybrid Gold Open Access Citation Advantage in Clinical Medicine: Analysis of Hybrid Journals in the Web of Science"

Biomedical fields have seen a remarkable increase in hybrid Gold open access articles. However, it is uncertain whether the hybrid Gold open access option contributes to a citation advantage, an increase in the citations of articles made immediately available as open access regardless of the article’s quality or whether it involves a trending topic of discussion. This study aimed to compare the citation counts of hybrid Gold open access articles to subscription articles published in hybrid journals. The study aimed to ascertain if hybrid Gold open access publications yield an advantage in terms of citations. This cross-sectional study included the list of hybrid journals under 59 categories in the "Clinical Medicine" group from Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR) during 2018–2021. The number of citable items with ‘Gold Open Access’ and ‘Subscription and Free to Read’ in each journal, as well as the number of citations of those citable items, were extracted from JCR. A hybrid Gold open access citation advantage was computed by dividing the number of citations per citable item with hybrid Gold open access by the number of citations per citable item with a subscription. A total of 498, 636, 1009, and 1328 hybrid journals in the 2018 JCR, 2019 JCR, 2020 JCR, and 2021 JCR, respectively, were included in this study. The citation advantage of hybrid Gold open access articles over subscription articles in 2018 was 1.45 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.24–1.65); in 2019, it was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.20–1.41); in 2020, it was 1.30 (95% CI, 1.20–1.39); and in 2021, it was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.20–1.42). In the ‘Clinical Medicine’ discipline, the articles published in the hybrid journal as hybrid Gold open access had a greater number of citations when compared to those published as a subscription, self-archived, or otherwise openly accessible option.

https://doi.org/10.3390/publications11020021

Senior Digital Librarian at University College Birmingham

This role will suit a candidate with strong digital skills, who is passionate about the important role libraries play in the contemporary educational environment. It is well-suited for somebody eager to expand their range of experience across multiple areas of librarianship as well as providing an exposure to higher level management and decision making.

http://bit.ly/42Ie9Gv

Imagining Futures Digital Repository Associate/Fellow at University of Exeter (Term. Overseas appointments may also be considered.)

You will work with IF international project partners and Lab leaders to determine and implement a tailored strategy for data ingestion and upload to a digital repository. You will seek out, propose, set up, develop and manage the most appropriate platform package for the IF digital repository and all aspects of digital asset ingest and publication, ensuring best practice, which includes managing rights and ethics, and developing new functions and activities in relation to the repository. The role will include building on previous scoping research and working with the Project Leader to deliver an online training programme in the curation and reliable transfer of project data, adhering to and developing best practises in digital humanities.

https://bit.ly/3Zo74bf

Systems Librarian at National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Library of Congress

The Systems Librarian coordinates and facilitates activities through implementation of projects involving the library’s audiovisual collections management and workflow systems, library services platform, other enterprise systems, and web enabled applications. Individually, and in collaboration with information technology specialists in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), vendors and user organization experts, the incumbent develops and coordinates major program components that include information technology support for acquisitions, loans, preservation services, cataloging and resource discovery, inventory and collection management. . . . The incumbent plans, coordinates, and manages a wide variety of complex projects and activities related to current and new releases of the various Library systems.

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/714320000

"The Continued Problem of URL Decay: An Updated Analysis of Health Care Management Journal Citations"

Objective: This study updates a 2009 study which examined uniform resource locator (URL) decay in health care management journals and seeks to determine whether continued URL availability relates to publication date, resource type, or top-level domain. The authors also provide an analysis of differences in findings between the two study periods.

Methods: The authors collected the URLs of web-based resources cited in articles published in five health care management source journals from 2016 to 2018. The URLs were checked to see if they were still active and then analyzed to determine if continued availability was related to publication date, resource type, or top-level domain.

Results: There were statistically significant differences in URL availability across publication date, resource type, and top-level domain. Domains with the highest rate of decay were .com and .net and the lowest rate were .edu and .gov. As expected, the older the citation, the higher the rate of decay. The overall rate of URL decay decreased from 49.3% to 36.1% between studies.

Conclusion: URL decay in health care management journals has decreased in the last 15 years. Still, URL decay does continue to be a problem. Interestingly, health services policy research journals had a lower rate of decay than practitioner-oriented journals (34.8% vs. 51.7%). Authors, publishers, and librarians should continue to promote the use of digital object identifiers and web archiving and perhaps study and replicate efforts used by health services policy research journals to increase continued URL availability rates.

https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1456

Scholarly Engagement Librarian at Austin Peay State University

Provides training and support to faculty, students, and staff on intellectual property, copyright, fair use, open access, open education, and scholarly publishing. Advances and promotes the use of ASPIRE, APSU’s institutional repository, as well as other scholarly interdisciplinary communication tools provided by the library. Monitors the scholarly communication landscape, including funding and publishing trends, to keep colleagues informed. Collaboratively develops and supports curricular and co-curricular programming in the area of research and creative activities.

https://apsu.peopleadmin.com/postings/15366

"Society and University Journal Publishers Gradually Progressing Towards New OA Models"

Overall, there’s no question that society and university publishers are progressing in the race to OA. It appears they’re just doing so at a slow and steady pace, likely to avoid stumbling over ongoing sustainability challenges, as revealed in Part 1 of "The OA Diamond Journals Study" from cOAlition S, based on a survey of 1,619 fully-OA journals. Respondents to that survey reported mixed degrees of OA publishing program sustainability, with a little over 40% breaking even and 25% operating at a loss.

http://bit.ly/42UFeqr

Digital Publishing and Repository Librarian at Northwestern University

Digital publishing services include project management, production, metadata, design, hosting, and archiving for digital publications, including Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Access (OA) journals, and OA monographs in collaboration with Northwestern faculty, students, and other scholars and campus partners. Current digital publishing projects include the peer-reviewed journal Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, monographs and websites for Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, and OER created through the Affordable Instructional Resources (AIR) Faculty Grant Program. As the service manager for Arch, Northwestern’s institutional repository the Digital Publishing and Repository Librarian promotes faculty deposits to Arch and collaborates with other library departments to report user feedback to improve overall experiences.

http://bit.ly/42Inj5T