December 2023 – DigitalKoans

DigitalKoans Posts Will Resume in Mid-January 2024

Happy holidays. DigitalKoans posts will resume in mid-January 2024.

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

"Applying Librarian Created Evaluation Tools to Determine Quality and Credibility of Open Access Library Science Journals"

The researchers investigate quality and credibility attributes of fortyeight peer-reviewed library science journals with open access components using two evaluative tools developed and published by librarians. . . . Overall, the results show that while library science journals do not fall prey to the same concerning characteristics that librarians use to caution other researchers, there are several areas in which publishers can improve the quality and credibility of their journals.

https://tinyurl.com/4yydkckw

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

Digital Archivist at International Atomic Energy Agency

Under the supervision of the Unit Head, the Digital Archivist contributes to the formulation and implementation of processes for the digital management of IAEA archives and records in the custody of MTGS/ARMS. This entails the identification of appropriate metadata standards for the description of physical and digital records, including photographic and audio-visual material; the definition of digital preservation and digitization workflows in accordance with international best practices; and the implementation of these processes through a combination of hands-on work, communication and training.

https://tinyurl.com/3et4esjc

"Self-Archiving Adoption in Legal Scholarly Communication: A Literature Review;"

This article explores the current Library and Information Science (LIS) literature on open access and self-archiving and related studies. . . It further investigates the open access and self-archiving practices in disciplinary . . . Finally, it examines self-archiving in law and concludes that the research gap and lack of literature on self-archiving in the discipline of law makes this study worthwhile.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13614576.2023.2279760

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

Research Data Librarian at Wesleyan University

Reporting to the Associate University Librarian for Academic Services, the Research Data Librarian will provide leadership in establishing campus-wide connections and delivering support to meet the research and course-related data needs of faculty and students. They will serve as a contact point and advocate for scholarly communications issues, such as sustainable publishing practices and open data. They will also serve as a liaison to assigned subject areas in STEM, for which they will provide leadership on collection development, research support, and information literacy.

https://careers.wesleyan.edu/postings/10219

"Artificial Intelligence and Music Discovery"

Our article seeks to contextualize this new technology within music discovery research by defining the historical underpinnings of artificial intelligence in computer music and music information retrieval. We also identify four areas in librarianship research and practice where applications of this technology should be explored; augmenting library interactions with conversational search, creating tools to assist with metadata clean up and creation, integrating music holdings into commercial discovery systems, and improving music discovery platforms.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10588167.2023.2287924

Digital Collections Specialist at Santa Clara University

Reporting to the Head of Archives & Special Collections, the Digital Collections Specialist increases online access and discoverability of original and unique materials held by Archives & Special Collections. This position has increasing responsibility for leading and managing all aspects of the daily operation of the unit’s digitization activities including the training and supervision of student assistants. To complete this work, the Digital Collections Coordinator will possess intermediate technical skills required to use specialized scanners and digital cameras to create digital images.

https://tinyurl.com/2p8a47e2

"The Nelson Memorandum: How Two HELIOS Members Are Responding"

The fall 2023 Texas Open Science Summit (TOSS)9 raised awareness about the importance of the Nelson Memorandum and continued UT’s discussions about open scholarship and public access compliance, incentives, and good practices. This forum offered a publicly visible opportunity for scholars and open access advocates in the region and state of Texas to learn more about the federal Year of Open Science and support structures at UT. . . .

Building on a long history of open access support, the CSU Libraries has since created the Advanced Research and Scholarship Support group,10 providing resources for data management planning and openly sharing research outputs. The working group hosted the Opentober Event, highlighting initiatives and support services for furthering open scholarship and public access compliance at CSU.

https://tinyurl.com/4dtdjfjw

"Introducing Wikifunctions: First Wikimedia Project to Launch in a Decade Creates New Forms of Knowledge"

Wikifunctions is the underlying technical infrastructure that will support a wider initiative by the Wikimedia Foundation to enable people to share more knowledge in more languages across Wikipedia. Through this initiative, users will be able to create and maintain content in their native language, which others can access in over 300 languages available on Wikimedia projects. The long-term aim of this effort is to create knowledge that is independent of language, and easier for Wikipedia editors to share, add, translate, and improve across languages on the online encyclopedia. . . .

Wikifunctions was approved by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees in 2020. The project went live as a read-only site earlier this year, and it is now available so that anyone, anywhere can use it.

https://tinyurl.com/ycky9u7j

Data Science Community Lead at University of California – Santa Barbara

The Data Science Education Lead will be responsible for organizing staff and volunteers who are presenting various extra-curricular data science workshops, including but not limited to version control with Git, the Unix Shell, statistical scripting with R and Python, and geospatial analysis with R. You will lead the growth of a volunteer Instructor and Helper community by performing outreach, organizing events, and mentoring new volunteers. You will ensure active participation and attendance in workshops by leading communication efforts towards Learners and other campus constituents. You will train the community to publish workshop websites and new data science curriculum materials using GitHub Pages and Markdown.

https://tinyurl.com/mrx2ppcx

Collections Digitization Archivist at Stanford University

The Archivist will participate in multiple components of collection-digitization activities, including collection-level assessments, the basic rehousing and stabilization of materials, capturing required metadata, and detailed processing and archival description, all with a focus on efficiently preparing materials for digitization. The Archivist will play a lead role in training and supporting additional processing staff in processing-for-digitization workflows, and engage in workflow evaluations, identifying and communicating proposed improvements over time.

https://tinyurl.com/bdzpt5a6

"Data Stewardship: Case Studies from North-American, Dutch, and Finnish Universities"

This work seeks to elaborate the picture of different data stewardship programs running in different institutional arrangements and research environments. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from autoethnography and case study methods, this study described three distinct data stewardship programs from Purdue University (United States), Delft Technical University (Netherlands) and Aalto University (Finland). In addition, this work investigated the institutional arrangements and national research environments of the programs. The focus was on initiatives led by academic libraries or similar services. Findings – This work demonstrates that data stewardship may be understood differently within different national and institutional contexts. The data stewardship programs differed in terms of roles, organization and funding structures. Moreover, the mesh of policies and legislation, organizational structures, and national infrastructures differed.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.04092

Application Developer (Backend) at Canadian Research Knowledge Network

Reporting to the Manager, Research Infrastructure & Development and working closely with members of the Infrastructure & Development and Heritage Services teams, the Application Developer designs, implements, tests, deploys and maintains tools and features for both internal staff and public end users. The Application Developer engages in a range of full-stack web development activities, with a particular focus on application logic, backend tools, database design and data architecture. The Application developer also designs and develops data structures, APIs and middleware for the administration, manipulation, discovery, and retrieval of CRKN’s digital content.

https://tinyurl.com/379kssmz

"New ALA Report Maps Increasingly Complex Digital Public Library Ecosystem"

According to the report, three key factors have contributed to confusion about the structure of and access to the digital public library ecosystem:

Essential terms like "reading," "library use," and "circulation" should be consistently and transparently defined.

The impact of current digital licensing terms on authors: midlist, bestselling, and self-published.

The role of Big Five publishers in setting licensing terms for public libraries.

How Amazon’s dominance in the audiobooks market influences audiobook library access, impacting audiobook authors, publishers, and narrators.

Gen Z and millennials borrow extensively from digital collections but are less aware that digital library lending apps are connected to their local library.

https://tinyurl.com/mrxbyv8w

Electronic Resources Librarian at University of Alabama

Reporting to the Coordinator of Acquisitions and Electronic Resources, the Electronic Resources Librarian ensures optimal and accurate access to subscription resources, including databases, electronic journals, and e-books.

https://tinyurl.com/4tf7uscp

"How Can Universities Create AI Tools for their Communities? An Interview with the Creators of UC San Diego’s TritonGPT"

Since then, the University of California San Diego has launched TritonGPT, currently available in beta by invitation only. TritonGPT, a language model with a ChatGPT-like interface, was trained to answer detailed questions about UC San Diego’s policies, procedures, and campus life. Though TritonGPT is designed to serve a purpose very similar to the platforms at Harvard, Michigan, and Knoxville, UC San Diego’s approach stands out because instead of relying on Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service, TritonGPT is hosted on local infrastructure and optimized for use in administrative operations.

https://tinyurl.com/5t3bwedm

Acquisitions & E-Resources Librarian at DePaul University

Reporting to the Head of Acquisitions and Collections, the Acquisitions & Electronic Resources Librarian provides expertise in the procurement of library resources and manages the daily workflow for processes related to the selection and acquisition of purchased and licensed content. They are responsible for the maintenance of electronic and continuing resources and work closely with Collections and Discovery Services staff on access and management issues and works with vendors to acquire, establish and maintain access to the electronic resources.

https://tinyurl.com/6wt53888

"Where Did the Open Access Movement Go Wrong?: An Interview with Richard Poynder"

Open access was intended to solve three problems that have long blighted scholarly communication — the problems of accessibility, affordability, and equity. 20+ years after the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) we can see that the movement has signally failed to solve the latter two problems. And with the geopolitical situation deteriorating solving the accessibility problem now also looks to be at risk. The OA dream of "universal open access" remains a dream and seems likely to remain one.

https://tinyurl.com/fcxj5ew2

How did the three foundational statements about open access (the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities) actually define it?

NOVANET Manager (Term)

Reporting to the Chair of Novanet and taking direction from the Novanet Board of Directors the Novanet Manager is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of Novanet Inc. The Novanet Manager oversees all aspects of the Novanet consortium operations in compliance with the direction, policies, and procedures established by the Novanet Board of Directors; ensuring efficient and transparent management of Novanet resources through an administrative contract with ISI.

https://tinyurl.com/mn88azrh

"Google Launches Gemini, the AI model It Hopes Will Take Down GPT-4"

Gemini is more than a single AI model. There’s a lighter version called Gemini Nano that is meant to be run natively and offline on Android devices. There’s a beefier version called Gemini Pro that will soon power lots of Google AI services and is the backbone of Bard starting today. And there’s an even more capable model called Gemini Ultra that is the most powerful LLM Google has yet created and seems to be mostly designed for data centers and enterprise applications.

https://tinyurl.com/5n8jp9n2

Digital Preservation Training Officer at University of Southampton

You will play a central role in the successful delivery of the Southampton Digital Preservation Advisory Unit (SDPAU), a new flagship enterprise project hosted and supported by Southampton Digital Humanities. The SDPAU will launch in 2024 with a plan to be income generating within 5 years. It will offer expert, hands-on, and targeted commercial training, advice, and support in navigating, interpreting, and implementing digital preservation best practice. Initial market research indicates a primary market for these services of galleries/gardens, libraries, archives, and museums and of community heritage groups, as well as a secondary market of corporate and civil institutions.

https://tinyurl.com/4x3w35y3

"Even If You Hate Both AI and Section 230, You Should Be Concerned about the Hawley/Blumenthal Bill to Remove 230 Protections from AI"

Considering that AI is currently being built into basically everything, this "exemption" [from Section 230] will basically eat the entire law, because increasingly all content produced online will involve "the use or provision" of generative AI, even if the content itself has nothing to do with the service provider.

In short, this bill doesn’t just strip 230 protections from AI output, in effect it strips 230 from any company that offers AI in its products. Which is basically a set of internet companies rapidly approaching "all of them."

https://tinyurl.com/ykjx8v4t

User Experience & Web Services Librarian at Pratt Institute

Plan, lead, and report on the Libraries’ user experience research efforts aimed at the continuous improvement and interoperability of websites and systems.

Collaborate with the Libraries’ Technology team in implementing solutions based on user experience research.

Develop and maintain internal style guides and UX resources for staff.

https://apply.interfolio.com/136079

"A Critical Survey of Open-Access Policies in US Land Grants"

Introduction: Land-grant universities in the United States and the international open-access (OA) movement both purport to advance public access to knowledge and assert a public benefit to doing so. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that land-grant universities would have a high rate of adoption of institutional OA policies. To date, no study has looked at OA approaches or policies across the land grants.

Methods: This study considers the critical literature on both land-grants and OA, surveys land-grant institutional OA policies, and analyzes relevant demographic and financial data.

Results: The study identified 15 mandates and 4 resolutions across the diverse institutional types and populations represented in the 112 land-grants. None of the 21 historically Black colleges and universities or 35 tribal colleges and universities among the land-grants have adopted OA policies.

Conclusion: Despite shared objectives, land-grant colleges and universities have not systematically embraced OA, and relatively few have adopted institutional OA policies. In the context of profound, institutionalized inequities among the land-grants, and attentive to the potential of OA to deepen existing inequities, this study considers the causes of and implications for low institutional OA policy adoption among land-grants.

https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.15605

"If Creators Suing AI Companies Over Copyright Win, It Will Further Entrench Big Tech"

The almost certain outcome [of copyright suits against AI companies](because it’s what happens every other time a similar situation arises) is that there will be one (possibly two) giant entities who will be designated as the "collection society" with whom AI companies will have to negotiate or to just purchase a "training license" and that entity will then collect a ton of money, much of which will go towards "administration," and actual artists will… get a tiny bit.. . .

But, given the enormity of the amount of content, and the structure of this kind of thing, the cost will be extremely high for the AI companies (a few pennies for every creator online can add up in aggregate), meaning that only the biggest of big tech will be able to afford it.

https://tinyurl.com/y4azzsdt