October 2023 – DigitalKoans

Library Systems Administrator and Applications Developer at North Dakota University System

The Library Systems Administrator and Applications Developer is responsible for coordinating, developing, and maintaining the interoperability of external services and applications with ODIN supported technology solutions. The Library Systems Administrator and Applications Developer will collaborate with member libraries, ODIN staff, other CTS professionals, and external vendors to test and validate vendor software updates, support authentication options, create custom reports, load data from external sources and other similar activities. The Library Systems Administrator and Applications Developer will also design, develop, and integrate new web services and applications as well as maintain existing web applications ODIN supports.

https://cts.ndus.edu/about/careers/

"The Impacts of Changes in Journal Data Policies: A Cross-disciplinary Survey"

This discipline-specific survey of journal DSP and SMP highlighted the increasing adoption rates and rankings of DSP over time. Furthermore, the findings suggest that DSP adoption may have a notable impact on the increase in JIF. The adoption of DSP by journals may be associated with the increased attention and credibility of the articles.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.924

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Open Content and Affordable Learning Librarian at Ball State University

The professional in this role will provide consultative, instructional, and outreach services to promote faculty, student, and staff engagement with Open Educational Resources, Open Access scholarship, and course reserves services. This role provides a unique opportunity to work as a lead partner across campus and engage with university stakeholders to advance course material affordability initiatives that facilitate first-day access to low-/no-cost textbook alternatives.

https://bsu.peopleadmin.com/postings/39988

"Quantifying Consolidation in the Scholarly Journals Market"

Overall, the market has significantly consolidated since 2000 — when the top 5 publishers held 39% of the market of articles to 2022 where they control 61% of it. Looking at larger sets of publishers makes the consolidation even more extreme, as the top 10 largest publishers went from 47% of the market in 2000 to 75% in 2023, and the top 20 largest publishers from 54% to controlling 83% of the corpus.

https://tinyurl.com/4xmt5zeu

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Associate Chief Librarian for Scholarly, Research and Creative Activities at Toronto Metropolitan University

Working closely with the ACL for Teaching and Learning, branch and department heads, subject liaison librarians, and a diverse team of committed staff, the ACL for SRC will provide Library-wide leadership, oversight, and strategic development for key portfolio areas including:

the Libraries’ scholarly, research and creative activity initiatives, services and programming, including scholarly communication, research impact and assessment, research data management and open access initiatives;

collection and information resource management;

specialized research areas/collections including the Archives and Special Collections, GIS/Map and Data Centre, and the Library Collaboratory;

emerging disciplinary and trans/interdisciplinary research trends;

https://tinyurl.com/yf3uydzh

"NEH Announces New Research Initiative: Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence"

NEH’s Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence initiative will support numerous AI-related humanities projects through the following funding opportunities:

Universities or independent research organizations considering establishing a research center that focuses on humanistic AI research should consider NEH’s newest grant program, Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence. This funding opportunity offers up to $750,000 to support the creation of humanities research centers focusing on the ethical, legal, or societal implications of artificial intelligence.

Individual scholars or scholarly teams based at an institution (e.g., colleges and universities) may consider Dangers and Opportunities of Technology: Perspectives from the Humanities. Independent scholars or those affiliated with an institution may apply to Fellowships, Awards for Faculty at HBCUs, HSIs, and TCUs, Summer Stipends, or Public Scholars.

Collaborative teams interested in planning for an international AI research project or hosting a scholarly convening about AI should consider Collaborative Research.

Institutions interested in hosting professional development programs on the latest research related to humanistic AI should consider Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities.

https://tinyurl.com/c5sb7x26

| Artificial Intelligence and Libraries Bibliography |
Research Data Curation and Management Works | | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works |
| Open Access Works |
| Digital Scholarship |

Associate Cloud Engineer, Library Technology and Digital Service at Vanderbilt University

The Associate Cloud Engineer will work with others in Library Technology and Digital Services (LTDS), the Libraries, and campus partners to develop and maintain library systems to increase discoverability of digital collections. The Associate Cloud Engineer will assist with building application tools that automate workflows in the cloud, manage metadata, and integrate systems.

https://tinyurl.com/47nfhd67

Paywall: "Trends in Research Impact Librarianship: Developing a New Program and Services"

Research impact librarianship is an area within the profession that continues to grow out of need for dedicated expertise of bibliometrics and other various assessment measures.. . . The Libraries at the University of Houston is in the midst of creating a research visibility and impact program born out of an initiative to elevate the university’s level of prestige and impact by developing personnel, programs, and practices to support research visibility and impact across the institution. This article discusses the University of Houston Libraries’ process and progress toward formalizing research impact services.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2023.2262364

Digital Curation Archivist at Georgia Tech

The Georgia Tech Library seeks a collegial, innovative archivist (open rank to be determined) to lead and support Library initiatives to preserve and sustain long-term access to Georgia Tech special collections and university archives in digital form, furthering the Library’s mission to define excellence in the preservation, curation, and stewardship of the Institute’s unique digital assets. The position also oversees the retroTECH service, which provides hands-on learning opportunities related to digital archives and the histories and futures of technology. Positions reports to the Head of the Archives, Records Management, and Digital Curation Department.

https://tinyurl.com/2hudehj6

"Measured in a Context: Making Sense of Open Access Book Data"

Open access (OA) book platforms, such as JSTOR, OAPEN Library or Google Books, have been available for over a decade. Each platform shows usage data, but this results in confusion about how well an individual book is performing overall. Even within one platform, there are considerable usage differences between subjects and languages. Some context is therefore necessary to make sense of OA books usage data. A possible solution is a new metric — the Transparent Open Access Normalized Index (TOANI) score. It is designed to provide a simple answer to the question of how well an individual open access book or chapter is performing. The transparency is based on clear rules, and by making all of the data used visible. The data is normalized, using a common scale for the complete collection of an open access book platform and, to keep the level of complexity as low as possible, the score is based on a simple metric. As a proof of the concept, the usage of over 18,000 open access books and chapters in the OAPEN Library has been analysed, to determine whether each individual title has performed as well as can be expected compared to similar titles.

https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.627

Head, Licensing and Electronic Resources Unit at UC Berkeley

The Head, Licensing and Electronic Resources Unit (LERU) is a new position in the UC Berkeley Library. Situated in the Collection Services Division, which also includes Acquisitions, Metadata Services, and Preservation, the Head of LERU oversees and sets priorities for the licensing, activation, discovery, and troubleshooting of electronic resources of all kinds for the Library, and manages a small team (Lead E-Resource Specialist and two E-Resource Specialists). The Head of LERU reports directly to the Head of the Collection Services Division.

https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04126

"Results of the 2022 NDSA Web Archiving Survey Report Now Available"

The Web Archiving Survey Working Group is excited to announce the publication of the results of the 2022 Web Archiving Survey. The 2022 survey builds upon surveys previously conducted in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2011 — and though previous surveys were focused on the United States, the 2022 survey was open to international audiences as well. The 26-question survey was completed by 190 respondents over a 10-day period. This report details the outcomes of the web archiving survey that was distributed to various local, national, and international professional organizations and topical groups in October 2022. Topics discussed included archiving policies, tools and services, and access and discovery.

https://tinyurl.com/mpjjdfse

Systems Librarian at House of Commons

Line management and development of the Technical Services and Digitisation teams which includes direct line management of two members of staff

Managing, developing, and promoting the LMS (Koha) for the House of Commons Library to ensure the best possible user experience and search results for users

Managing, developing and promoting the discovery platform (Summon) for the House of Commons Library to ensure the best possible user experience and search results for users

Directing the work of digitisation staff in your team and playing a key role in the further development and implementation of the digitisation strategy

https://tinyurl.com/8ptvfxt4

"How Can Open Data Sharing Policies Be More Attentive to Qualitative Researchers?"

The expected and prescriptive ways of preparing data are a key part of the problem. These are governed largely by quantitative data management strategies. Qualitative data is the outcome of personal interactions between researchers and participants. Yet, data sharing guidance is seldom attentive to the co-constructed nature of qualitative material. "The identities of researchers and what they reflexively reveal of themselves, how they interact with participants, their techniques and approaches and the messiness of qualitative work are laid bare within the artefacts of qualitative data" (Weller 2023: 9). This can make researchers especially vulnerable to personal and professional scrutiny in a way that survey and other quantitative researchers are not.

https://tinyurl.com/2fpr82vr

Digital Library Developer at University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky Libraries seeks applications for a Digital Library Developer. As a member of Web Technologies and Development, a unit of Digital Strategies and Technology, this position directly supports applications and services relating to the discovery, delivery, storage, and preservation of the University’s digital collections. Development duties relate to the creation, implementation, and support of software applications comprising the Libraries’ web applications, including software to assist in internal workflow and operations.

https://ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/495295

Octopus Publishing Platform: A Snapshot of the Academic Research Culture in 2023 and How It Might Be Improved

Our evaluation revealed a wide variety of barriers to more open sharing of research. While some are related to perceived or experienced biases based on personal characteristics such as gender or inequitable access to support, most result from a research culture that primarily assesses achievement and quality through traditional, peer-reviewed papers. This focus, and the resulting competition, encourages researchers to hide their work at least until a traditional journal paper is published. In some situations, these pressures lead to questionable research practices, such as data manipulation to achieve an "interesting" or statistically significant result more likely to appeal to a journal with higher impact metrics or perceived "impact". In general, open research practices are viewed as not beneficial, or even detrimental, to job security and career advancement. This is especially true given competing demands and the need for academics to prioritise their time on outputs that count in assessments that they are subject to.

https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.8165703

Web Developer at George Mason University

Provides management of the library’ web and digital services area. Contributes to IT projects in the library and provides other services as required. The Web Developer also consults and works collaboratively with library faculty and staff, instructional faculty, researchers and students on a variety of digital projects.

https://tinyurl.com/3v4bb88s

"UC Berkeley Library to Copyright Office: Protect Fair Uses in AI Training for Research and Education"

If the Copyright Office were to enable rightsholders to opt-out of training AI for research and teaching fair uses, then academic institutions and scholars would face even greater hurdles in licensing content for research purposes. It would be operationally difficult for academic publishers and content aggregators to amass and license the "leftover" body of copyrighted works that remain eligible for AI training. Costs associated with publishers’ efforts in compiling "AI-training-eligible" content would be passed along as additional fees charged to academic libraries, who are already financially constrained to preserve TDM and other fair uses for scholars. In addition, rightsholders might opt out of allowing their work to be used for AI training fair uses, and then turn around and charge AI usage fees to scholars (or libraries)—essentially licensing back fair uses for research. These scenarios would impede scholarship by or for research teams who lack grant or institutional funds to cover these additional expenses; penalize research in or about underfunded disciplines or geographical regions; and result in bias as to the topics and regions studied.

https://tinyurl.com/5cd2vc85

Systems & Discovery Librarian at Mount Holyoke College

As a member of the Discovery Services department within Discovery & Access (DnA), this person works to maximize best possible cross-system functionality, partnering with colleagues to optimize all aspects regarding the discovery of and access to electronic and physical resources. In close collaboration with others in LITS and across the Five Colleges, the Systems and Discovery Librarian guides and directs the management and integration of the Library’s suite of discovery and digital access platforms with remote access & authentication systems.

https://tinyurl.com/3zzw99c3

$2,500 Fee: "COAR’s response to the American Chemical Society’s New Fee or Repository Deposit"

COAR strongly objects to this charge for the following reasons:

Authors own their manuscripts and should retain their rights. Authors typically hold the copyright to their research, but too often transfer those rights to publishers when publishing their manuscript. When authors retain the copyright to their manuscript, they have the right to disseminate and use their own manuscript as they choose. If authors’ rights are retained, publishers do not own an article accepted manuscript (AAM) and researchers should not be duped into paying a fee to exercise a right they already have.

This fee is in direct contravention with the ethos of open science and scholarship and equity. . .

ACS is charging $2,500 while providing no added value. There is not a fee for an extra service offered. It requires no extra work on the side of the publisher, but rather is an attempt to develop a new revenue stream, while at the same time they will be receiving funds from subscriptions and pay-to-access for this same article.

ACS is creating a false impression about compliance with funder policies. . . . A fee is only required if you want to publish in an ACS journal and sign over your rights.

See ACS’ "Open Access Pricing for Authors: The Power of Choice" for more fee details.

https://tinyurl.com/4u4dfxsk

Head of Library Research Services at University of Bath

The Head of Library Research Services has a highly strategic role and takes responsibility for directing, enhancing and implementing the Library’s services in the following areas: the Research Publications Repository and Research Data Management; the University’s research output and archive collections; funder requirements and the Open Access agenda; metrics to support strategic decision-making; quality support for researchers, academic staff and administrators for the areas outlined above.

https://tinyurl.com/ptbapz72

"On the Culture of Open Access: The Sci-Hub Paradox"

Based on a large randomized sample, this study first shows that OA publications, including those in fully OA journals, receive more citations than their subscription-based counterparts. However, the OACA has slightly decreased over the seven last years. The introduction of a distinction between those accessible or not via the Sci-hub platform among subscription-based suggest that the generalization of its use cancels the positive effect of OA publishing. The results show that publications in fully OA journals are victims of the success of Sci-hub. Thus, paradoxically, although Sci-hub may seem to facilitate access to scientific knowledge, it negatively affects the OA movement as a whole, by reducing the comparative advantage of OA publications in terms of visibility for researchers

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04792-5

Web Content Lead at Yale University

The Web Content Lead facilitates and ensures the delivery of web content that is engaging, accurate, and easy to use by coordinating web projects, building strong relationships with colleagues, and maintaining web content. As a key member of the library’s Web Team, the incumbent will work closely with colleagues on the team to advance the library web presence by partnering to define goals, outcomes, and technical requirements. Reporting to the Associate University Librarian for Administration and IT, the Web Content Lead will work with the Web Team to contextualize web content within the library’s web strategy.

https://tinyurl.com/3f455sh2

Delta Think Open Access Journals Report: "Market Sizing Update 2023"

2022’s OA market grew by a little over 24% from 2021. This is around two thirds of the growth we saw in 2021. . . .

Given the exceptionally high growth in 2020 and 2021, a correction in 2022 was expected. . . .

Growth in hybrid revenues was a major factor driving growth in OA, although all types of OA saw improved revenues per article, which helped to drive growth.

Currency effects contributed to reduced growth. Many publishers operate in non-USD currencies, which lost value against the US dollar in 2022. . . .

Just over 49% of all scholarly articles were published as paid-for open access in 2022, accounting for just under 20% of the total journal publishing market value.

We anticipate a 2022-2025 CAGR (average growth each year) of 13% in OA output and 13% in OA market value.

https://tinyurl.com/5n7m6n5k

Library System Migration Technology Librarian at Yale University (Term)

In direct support of its migration to a new library services platform (LSP), Yale University Library invites applicants for a 3-year, full-time Library System Migration Technology Librarian. This position is designed to give the successful candidate the opportunity to play key roles in the implementation of an LSP in a leading research library, with an emphasis on the configuration and successful implementation of the Primo VE discovery service.

https://tinyurl.com/2rdkk8jx