Category: Research Libraries

"Frustrations and Roadblocks in Data Reference Librarianship"

Alicia Kubas and Jenny McBurney have self-published "Frustrations and Roadblocks in Data Reference Librarianship in IASSIST Quarterly."

Here's an excerpt:

As data skills are incorporated into academic curriculum and data becomes more widely available and used in everyday life, many librarians find themselves serving as 'accidental' data librarians in their subject areas. Due to this evolving landscape and growing data need, it is increasingly important for librarians to be familiar with data resources and able to answer secondary data reference questions. To learn more about this area of librarianship, this study uses survey responses from librarians who answer data questions to explore the challenges and frustrations that arise from data reference questions and interactions. Our key findings reveal that frustrations are ever present in data reference regardless of how much experience a librarian has, and many frustrations arise due to factors such as patron expectations, subject-specific and data-related jargon, and data formats and accessibility.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"An Epic Journey in Sharing: The Story of a Young Researcher’s Journey to Share Her Data and the Information Professionals Who Tried to Help"

Sebastian Karcher and Sophia Lafferty-Hess have published "An Epic Journey in Sharing: The Story of a Young Researcher's Journey to Share Her Data and the Information Professionals Who Tried to Help" in IASSIST Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

Sharing data can be a journey with various characters, challenges along the way, and uncertain outcomes. These "epic journeys in sharing" teach information professionals about our patrons, our institutions, our community, and ourselves. In this paper, we tell a particularly dramatic data-sharing story, in effect a case study, in the form of a Greek Drama. It is the quest of—a young idealistic researcher collecting fascinating sensitive data and seeking to share it, encountering an institution doing its due diligence, helpful library folks, and an expert repository. Our story has moments of joy, such as when our researcher is solely motivated to share because she wants others to be able to reuse her unique data; dramatic plot twists involving IRBs; and a poignant ending. It explores major tropes and themes about how researchers’ motivations, data types, and data sensitivity can impact sharing; the importance of having clarity concerning institutional policies and procedures; and the role of professional communities and relationships. Just like the chorus in greek drama provides commentary on the action, a chorus of data elders in our drama points out larger lessons that the case study has for research data management and data sharing. Where actors in the greek chorus were wearing masks, our chorus carries different items, symbolizing their message, on every entry.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Oxford Open Access Project: "Learned Societies and the Transition to Open Access: Event Report"

Juliet Ralph has published "Learned Societies and the Transition to Open Access: Event Report" in Open Access Oxford.

Here's an excerpt:

As part of last month’s Open Access Oxford week, a distinguished panel of Oxford academics led discussions around learned societies and their transition to Open Access. The event was held in collaboration with Oxford University Press (OUP) and aimed to address issues raised by Plan S. . . .

Prof Freeman closed the event by drawing together the main themes discussed:

  1. Agreement that the move to OA is broadly a good thing, but challenges persist in how we go about it.
  2. The economics of OA remain a major issue, especially around very small societies and publishers. There are opportunities for action within the community of forming consortia to reduce costs and benefit from economies of scale. The matter of ‘not for profits’ making surpluses and where those surpluses are used is a topic for societies to consider. Open Access is not the same as ‘free.’
  3. The sociology, history and structure of disciplines differ, for example in the scale of their funding/grants

.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

EUA Big Deals Survey Report April 2018: The First Mapping of Major Scientific Publishing Contracts in Europe

The European University Association has released EUA Big Deals Survey Report April 2018: The First Mapping of Major Scientific Publishing Contracts in Europe.

Here's an excerpt:

The EUA Big Deals Survey Report: The first mapping of major scientific publishing contracts in Europe presents data from 28 negotiating consortia. The data, which was gathered between July 2016 and June 2017, was anonymous and aggregated, thus respecting the confidential nature of the information provided by respondents. The survey focused on the functions and working process of consortia, as well as on the conditions of contracts for big deals concerning scientific periodicals, databases and e-books. The results of the survey show that consortia broadly represent the interests of relevant stakeholders from the university and library sectors and are largely driven by researchers’ needs.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Brian Bannon Named The Merryl and James Tisch Director of The New York Public Library"

The New York Public Library has released "Brian Bannon Named The Merryl and James Tisch Director of The New York Public Library."

Here's an excerpt:

The New York Public Library has named Brian Bannon, current head of the Chicago Public Library system with extensive experience in both education and urban libraries, as its first-ever Merryl and James Tisch Director of The New York Public Library.

Bannon, a known innovator and award-winning leader who has transformed the Chicago Public Library since his appointment as commissioner and chief executive officer in 2012, will be responsible for the operation and direction of The New York Public Library’s 88 neighborhood branches, as well as the Library’s educational strategy.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"New Penn State Open Access Policy to Expand Reach of University Research"

Pennsylvania State University has released "New Penn State Open Access Policy to Expand Reach of University Research."

Here's an excerpt:

A new open access policy at Penn State, recently endorsed by the University Faculty Senate, will greatly increase public availability of original, peer-reviewed Penn State scholarly research in support of the University’s land-grant mission. . . .

Under the policy—expected to be implemented by Penn State President Eric Barron in the fall 2019 semester—Penn State researchers will remain free to submit their work to scholarly journals of their choice. The policy also will not transfer copyright ownership of scholarly works to Penn State. In addition, a waiver option in the policy guarantees that researchers are able to opt out of open access for each one of their publications on an individual-article basis; these waivers would be automatically approved.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

University of Kentucky: "Doug Way Named Next Dean of UK Libraries"

The University of Kentucky has released "Doug Way Named Next Dean of UK Libraries."

Here's an excerpt:

For five years, Way has served as associate university librarian for Collections and Research Services at UW-Madison, where he provides leadership for the library’s collection development and management, resource sharing and scholarly communications programs. During his tenure, he supervised a direct staff of 75 full-time employees and an overall budget of $12 million for the university's general libraries system of 14 libraries that supports more than 4 million visitors per year. . .

Before arriving at UW-Madison, Way served as head of collections and scholarly communications at Grand Valley State University. While at Grand Valley State, he also spearheaded a statewide distributed shared print program that resulted in nine state-funded institutions in Michigan working collectively to manage widely held low-use collections.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"BC Digitized Collections: Towards a Microservices-based Solution to an Intractable Repository Problem"

Chris Mayo et al. have published "BC Digitized Collections: Towards a Microservices-based Solution to an Intractable Repository Problem" in the Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Our Digital Repository Services department faced a crisis point in late 2017. Our vendor discontinued support for our digital repository software, and an intensive, multi-department, six-month field survey had not turned up any potential replacements that fully met our needs. We began to experiment with a model that, rather than migrating to a new monolithic system, would more closely integrate multiple systems that we had already implemented—ArchivesSpace, Alma, Primo, and MetaArchive—and introduce only one new component, namely Mirador. We determined that this was the quickest way to meet our needs, and began a full migration in spring of 2018. The primary benefit of a microservices-based solution for our collections was the potential for customization; we therefore present our experiences in building and migrating to this system not as a blueprint but as a case study with lessons learned. Our hope is that in sharing our experience, we can help institutions in similar situations determine 1) whether a microservices-based solution is a feasible approach to their problem, 2) which services could and should be integrated and how, and 3) whether the trade-offs inherent in this architectural approach are worth the flexibility it offers.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Research Library Issues, no. 297 (2019): The Current Privacy Landscape

ARL has released Research Library Issues, no. 297 (2019): The Current Privacy Landscape.

Here's an excerpt from the "Introduction" by Mary Lee Kennedy:

In this first issue of Research Library Issues (RLI) in 2019, the authors explore privacy from a legal, digital, and applied perspective, with a focus on the implications and opportunities for research libraries. The current privacy landscape highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of the complicated nature of privacy today. Research libraries need to collaborate with other privacy-related constituents within institutions and in the public policy and legislative arenas, and act as trusted institutions within a democratic society.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Jisc and Springer Nature Renew Transformational Deal Securing Open Access for UK Higher Education"

Springer Nature has released "Jisc and Springer Nature Renew Transformational Deal Securing Open Access for UK Higher Education ."

Here's an excerpt:

Jisc and academic publisher Springer Nature have agreed a further 'read and publish' agreement that meets the aims of Plan S and offers researchers a funder compliant route to publishing in hybrid journals. Plan S requires that, from 2020, scientific publications funded by public grants must be published in Open Access journals or platforms.

Building on a previous arrangement, this transformational agreement limits the costs of publishing all UK articles open access (OA) while maintaining access to all of Springer's subscription articles. The deal converts the previous subscription agreement to one based on OA.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 9 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap