September 2024 – Page 3

Head of Electronic Resources and Scholarly Communications at University of Alabama

This faculty position will oversee the direction, development, delivery, and assessment of the collections at University Libraries and proactively incorporate new and emerging techniques and technologies into the e-resource management and scholarly communications workflow. This person will oversee the day-to-day workflow of the Scholarly Communications Librarian, the Electronic Resources Librarian, the Collections Strategist, and multiple professional staff. The position will provide leadership and support for faculty and staff in the electronic resources and scholarly communications unit, responsible for optimal and accurate access to subscription electronic resources and development and management of the institutional repository. The position is responsible for procuring library materials in all formats and order types and will oversee outreach and awareness of the scholarly communications lifecycle.

https://tinyurl.com/5ajf7tv9

"Resistance and Collaboration Within the Panoptivarsity: Differing Views of ORCID in Ireland"

The results demonstrate a clear difference in perceptions concerning ORCID, with library staff being very positive and uncritical, even arguing for mandatory adoption. Although some academics were using ORCID IDs in a performative manner, most were suspicious of, or resigned to their use. Concerns about ORCID ranged across various issues including employer surveillance, a lack of institutional autonomy and its inappropriateness for the sector.

https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-07-2024-0184

Processing Archivist, Digital Collections at National WWII Museum

The Processing Archivist’s primary responsibilities include overseeing the cataloging of the Museum’s diverse collection materials such as photographs, archival collections, artifacts, non-accessioned digital archives, and time-based media. This role involves developing and optimizing workflows for digitization, managing the production of digital images, and ensuring high standards in record keeping, storage, maintenance, and retrieval. The Processing Archivist will lead and supervise the daily tasks of digitization staff, contractors, interns, and volunteers, providing guidance and support to the digitization work team.

https://tinyurl.com/42mwzmt7

"A Proposal for a FAIR Management of 3D Data in Cultural Heritage: The Aldrovandi Digital Twin Case"

n this article we analyse 3D models of cultural heritage with the aim of answering three main questions: what processes can be put in place to create a FAIR-by-design digital twin of a temporary exhibition? What are the main challenges in applying FAIR principles to 3D data in cultural heritage studies and how are they different from other types of data (e.g. images) from a data management perspective? We begin with a comprehensive literature review touching on: FAIR principles applied to cultural heritage data; representation models; both Object Provenance Information (OPI) and Metadata Record Provenance Information (MRPI), respectively meant as, on the one hand, the detailed history and origin of an object, and – on the other hand – the detailed history and origin of the metadata itself, which describes the primary object (whether physical or digital); 3D models as cultural heritage research data and their creation, selection, publication, archival and preservation. We then describe the process of creating the Aldrovandi Digital Twin, by collecting, storing and modelling data about cultural heritage objects and processes. We detail the many steps from the acquisition of the Digital Cultural Heritage Objects (DCHO), through to the upload of the optimised DCHO onto a web-based framework (ATON), with a focus on open technologies and standards for interoperability and preservation. Using the FAIR Principles for Heritage Library, Archive and Museum Collections as a framework, we look in detail at how the Digital Twin implements FAIR principles at the object and metadata level. We then describe the main challenges we encountered and we summarise what seem to be the peculiarities of 3D cultural heritage data and the possible directions for further research in this field.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02018

Getty Graduate Internship Program 2025-2026

The intern in Collection Platforms & Data (Getty Digital) will gain intensive experience preserving Getty’s unique collections and assets in digital format, which include archives of artists, galleries and art historians and audio/video artworks and documentation as well as websites, institutional born-digital records, and research data. The intern’s primary responsibilities will include troubleshooting and testing workflows for ingesting content of all types into a managed system, and developing creative ways to archive complex web experiences, with other projects assigned according to the intern’s particular skills and interests. Specific tasks may include developing preservation plans for file characterization, migration and normalization, performing quality assurance on web archives and troubleshooting technical issues that arise, assessing technical metadata for digital assets, and participating in the drafting of policies and procedures related to digital preservation.

https://tinyurl.com/yc2thz4u

"Digital Provenance"

This article introduces, defines and analyzes the concept of digital provenance. I begin by comparing provenance, data provenance and digital provenance, focusing on research literature in archival studies, digital preservation and media archeology. The remainder of the article is divided into two parts, first examining three dimensions of digital provenance and then considering how digital provenance might be of use in the four main archival functions.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-024-09462-w

AI Librarian at San Jose State University

The AI Librarian leads the integration and development of AI technologies at SJSU Library to improve teaching and learning activities, research support, information access, and scholarly communications. This role involves creating AI literacy programs, advocating for the ethical use of AI, and supporting various AI-related initiatives. The AI Librarian collaborates across campus, the CSU system and with LIS colleagues on projects involving transformative technologies, ensuring the library stays at the forefront of emerging trends and innovations.

https://tinyurl.com/mr339uev

"CDL Decision Round Two: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Why There is Still Hope OR The Reports of CDL’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated"

Let me be unequivocal: libraries do not need a license to loan books, whether physical or digital. Lending legally acquired books is not illegal. Libraries are entitled to share these works, with no obligation to enter into licensing agreements or contracts beforehand. Furthermore, libraries—and their patrons—are legally permitted to make various uses of these works, including interlibrary loan, reserves, preservation, and fair use, all without needing permission from rightsholders.

This is because various exceptions in the law, including Section 108 for Libraries and Archives, ad Section 109 known as the first sale doctrine. We know that Section 109 preserves the balance between rightsholders and libraries. When a library purchases a book, it has the right to loan that work freely, without requiring additional permissions or payments to the copyright holder. A digitized version of a legally acquired book simply replaces the physical copy, not an unpurchased one in the marketplace. Any “market harm” is already factored into the initial sale, for which both the authors and publishers have been compensated.

https://tinyurl.com/3exh96bu

"U.S. Wireless Data Use Skyrockets, Passing 100T Megabyte Milestone, CTIA Annual Survey Finds"

Wireless networks are supporting unprecedented growth in data traffic, hosting an extraordinary 100.1 trillion megabytes in 2023, marking the biggest year-over-year increase in history and an 89% increase since 2021, according to CTIA’s 2024 Annual Wireless Industry Survey. . . .

The survey found that next generation 5G networks are continuing to have a significant and growing impact. As of year-end 2023, 40% of wireless connections are 5G, and more than 330 million Americans are covered by one or more 5G networks. These 5G networks are providing a platform for other services and industries, including competitive and affordable 5G home broadband, which accounted for 95% of all new broadband subscriptions over the past two years. In addition, one out of five net 5G home adds were entirely new home broadband subscribers, underscoring 5G’s role in helping to close the digital divide.

https://tinyurl.com/4fs3f8f9

Repository Service Manager at Stanford University

The Repository Service Manager has a primary role in the promotion, delivery and continual improvement of Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) services for the Stanford community. They will join a team of digital library service managers, product owners, systems analysts, data scientists, and project managers in DLSS, the department within Stanford Libraries responsible for developing and delivering library technology in support of teaching and research at Stanford.

The SDR is a large-scale digital repository designed, developed, and operated by Stanford Libraries. In production for nearly two decades, the SDR currently holds over 5 million objects of all content types, preserved for long term scholarly access.

https://tinyurl.com/4ftruj85

Research Data Alliance: Recommendations on Data Versioning

We often say that “A is a version of B” but do not explain what we mean by “version”. We imply that B was somehow derived from A or that they share a common ancestor. But how is B related to A? How do they differ? Do they differ in content or format? What is the significance of this difference? While this sounds like a question about the provenance of a dataset, it goes beyond that and asks questions about the identity of a digital object and the intellectual and creative work it embodies.

The Research Data Alliance Data Versioning Working Group (https://www.rd-alliance.org/groups/data-versioning-ig/) collected over forty use cases of versioning practices for data and software and published a set of principles distilled from the group’s analysis of them. These Principles define terminology that helps us differentiate different types of versioning and thus allow us to address the use cases more precisely. In follow-up discussions, we learned that the Principles are too abstract to apply to the operation of data repositories or to guide the citation of digital resources. Therefore, this document aims to translate the Principles into actionable recommendations for data versioning.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13743876

Digital Preservation Manager at Victoria and Albert Museum

The Digital Preservation Manager will be responsible for progressing the V&A’s overall digital preservation strategy and working closely with those who contribute to its delivery. Within the Collections Care and Access Division you will create and manage preservation workflows, co-design the integration of collections data with other business systems, deliver training and develop documentation, work with Collections Management colleagues to support curatorial and acquisition activities, collaborate with digitisation and conservation teams, and proactively engage with colleagues across the organisation

https://tinyurl.com/mrxdv22c

"Academic Writing in the Age of AI: Comparing the Reliability of ChatGPT and Bard with Scopus and Web of Science"

ChatGPT and Bard (now known as Gemini) are becoming indispensable resources for researchers, academicians and diverse stakeholders within the academic landscape. At the same time, traditional digital tools such as scholarly databases continue to be widely used. Web of Science and Scopus are the most extensive academic databases and are generally regarded as consistently reliable scholarly research resources. With the increasing acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic writing, this study focuses on understanding the reliability of the new AI models compared to Scopus and Web of Science. The study includes a bibliometric analysis of green, sustainable and ecological buying behaviour, covering the period from 1 January 2011 to 21 May 2023. These results are used to compare the results from the AI and the traditional scholarly databases on several parameters. Overall, the findings suggest that AI models like ChatGPT and Bard are not yet reliable for academic writing tasks. It appears to be too early to depend on AI for such tasks.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2024.100563

Institutional Repository Librarian at Georgia Institute of Technology

Manages the Institutional Repository Service;

Implements best practices for digital preservation, metadata standards, and open access principles for preserving, describing, and delivering Institute scholarship and research outputs in digital form, based on professional good practice and collaboration with colleagues;

Co-leads the Georgia Tech Digital Repository (institutional repository) with Digital Curation Archivist, works with vendors, and local IT to manage, maintain, and enhance repository services;

Assists with the identification and recruitment of content for curated scholarly collections, soliciting materials to enhance the scholarly record of the Institute;

Serves as Product Owner for key digital curation systems and tools (DSpace, OSF for Institutions, ORCID, and DataCite) supporting the Institutional Repository Service;

https://tinyurl.com/hwvcxhrp

"Open Access Is Shaping Scientific Communication"

It seems likely that OA and traditional reader-pay journals will coexist in the immediate future, and probably should in the long run. In this context, the OSTP OA mandate will neither undermine the gatekeeping role of scientific journals nor much perturb the future evolution of scientific communication. The widespread adoption of TAs was already underway; if anything, the mandate reinforces that path. In an environment where both readers pay and OA journals operate alongside preprint platforms, it is natural to ask whether preprints might constrain subscription prices and APCs. If preprints and their peer-reviewed counterparts were close substitutes, then APCs for most OA journals would decline considerably.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp8882

Archivist (Digital Collections) at American Institute of Physics

The Archivist will have experience with born digital and digitized materials, web archiving, and will be responsible for accessioning, describing, and enabling use of archival items and collections, including institutional records, personal papers, and ephemeral items with a particular focus on the stewardship of our digital collections. The Archivist will create and maintain descriptive resources to best make archival collections available to researchers, assist with maintenance of NBLA web resources and outreach initiatives, and provide general reference service to NBLA patrons.

https://tinyurl.com/zr9reacw

"The Living Library: A Process-Based Tool for Open Literature Review, Probing the Boundaries of Open Science"

In this paper, we present a new tool for open science research, the Living Library. The Living Library provides an online platform and methodological framework for open, continuous literature reviewing. As a research medium, it explores what openness means in light of the human dimension and interpretive nature of engaging with societal questions. As a tool, the Living Library allows researchers to collectively sort, dynamically interpret and openly discuss the evolving literature on a topic of interest. The interface is built around a timeline along which articles can be filtered, themes with which articles are coded, and an open researcher logbook that documents the development of the library. The first rendition of a Living Library can be found via this link: https://eduvision-living-library.web.app/, and the code to develop your own Living Library can be found via this link: https://github.com/Simon-Dirks/living-library.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00964-z

Electronic Resources Liaison Librarian at University of Pittsburgh

The Electronic Resources Liaison Librarian reports to the Head of Electronic Resources and is responsible for managing the lifecycle of electronic resources, including databases, eBooks, serials, streaming media, and the like. The incumbent is responsible for developing and overseeing assessment strategies and conducting ongoing assessments of electronic resource acquisitions and transformative agreements; working with vendors and library subject liaisons to demonstrate and trial new resources; reviewing license agreements to ensure they have appropriate terms; and with library liaisons to publicize agreements and license terms, including OA publishing agreements.

https://tinyurl.com/b7eah74v

"Software Management Plans – Current Concepts, Tools, and Application"

The present article is a review of the state of the art about software management plans (SMPs). It provides a selection of questionnaires, tools and application cases for SMPs from a European (German) point of view, and discusses the possible connections of SMPs to other aspects of software sustainability, such as metadata, FAIR4RS principles or machine-actionable SMPs. The aim of our publication is to provide basic knowledge to start diving into the subject and a handout for infrastructure providers who are about to establish/develop a SMP service in one’s own institution.

https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2024-043

Data Science Librarian (2 Positions) at NC State University

The Data Science Librarian provides expert consultative support for students, faculty, and researchers in data science and visualization. The position serves as a member of the DVS Consulting Program Team, including supervising graduate student Data Science Research Consultants. They contribute to supporting the specialized spaces overseen by DVS to ensure access to needed hardware and software. They design, develop, and deliver instruction on data science topics, both as part of an open workshop series offered to the university community and through course-integrated instruction in collaboration with other faculty. They conduct outreach to and engage with faculty, campus groups, and external partners to support the university’s data and visualization needs. The position collaborates with colleagues and other university faculty on data-related initiatives and projects, and they contribute to departmental projects and initiatives.

https://tinyurl.com/yc4nakv9

6 Major Academic Publishes Sued: "Academic Journal Publishers Antitrust Litigation"

On September 12, 2024, Lieff Cabraser and co-counsel at Justice Catalyst Law filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against six commercial publishers of academic journals, including Elsevier B.V., John Wiley & Sons, Wolters Kluwer NV, and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), on behalf of a putative class of scientists and scholars who allege that these six world’s-largest for-profit publishers of peer-reviewed scholarly journals conspired to unlawfully appropriate billions of dollars that would otherwise have funded scientific research.

https://tinyurl.com/mv5r5nba

Filed Complaint

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein

User Experience Librarian at Illinois Institute of Technology

The User Experience Librarian collaborates closely with librarians and technical staff to promote new models for web development and design and implement best practices for digital content and services. As a liaison to academic units on campus, he/she also provides research and instructional services to a diverse community of faculty, staff, and student users of the Paul V. Galvin Library.

https://tinyurl.com/bp88t6ws

"Introducing OpenAI o1-preview: A New Series of Reasoning Models for Solving Hard Problems"

In our tests, the next model update performs similarly to PhD students on challenging benchmark tasks in physics, chemistry, and biology. We also found that it excels in math and coding. In a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO), GPT-4o [the last model] correctly solved only 13% of problems, while the [new]reasoning model scored 83%. Their coding abilities were evaluated in contests and reached the 89th percentile in Codeforces competitions. . . .

As an early model, it doesn’t yet have many of the features that make ChatGPT useful, like browsing the web for information and uploading files and images. For many common cases GPT-4o will be more capable in the near term.

https://tinyurl.com/5ap6p996

eCollections Access and Licensing Librarian at Clemson University

The Libraries’ materials budget is currently $9.5 million with over 80% spent on electronic resources. Electronic resources managed by the eResources team include e-books, e-journals, databases, streaming media, and data sets. This position plays an integral role in ensuring our collections are discoverable and accessible through eresources work, including licensing, negotiations, troubleshooting access issues, and the trialing and marketing of new resources.

https://apply.interfolio.com/153392

"Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats: A Comprehensive SWOT Analysis of AI and Human Expertise in Peer Review"

Instead of casting blame [about peer review failures], we must ask ourselves the critical questions: Are we equipping our peer reviewers with the right tools to succeed in an increasingly complex landscape? How can AI be harnessed not as a burden, but as a true ally in maintaining the integrity of research? Are we prepared to re-think the roles within peer review? Can we stop viewing AI as a threat or as a problem and instead embrace it as a partner—one that enhances human judgment rather than complicates it?

https://tinyurl.com/4p5pr6k6