DigitalKoans – Page 53 – What Is the Sound of One E-Print Downloading?

"AI Is about to Turn Book Publishing Upside-down"

The latest generation of AI is a game changer. Not incremental change—something gentle, something gradual: this AI changes everything, fast. Scary fast.

I believe that every function in trade book publishing today can be automated with the help of generative AI. And, if this is true, then the trade book publishing industry as we know it will soon be obsolete. We will need to move on.

https://tinyurl.com/2p9z6pr6

Digital Archivist and Librarian at St. Olaf College

Design and manage digital collections by establishing the metadata schema and controlled vocabularies, and by exercising quality control of the software, equipment and metadata records.

Create policies and procedures for managing born-digital materials for ingest, storage, preservation, organization, description, and access in accordance with accepted standards and practices to ensure the long-term preservation of collections. . .

Lead the efforts in computer expertise in digitization, including hardware/software for digital preservation, web archiving, cataloging, public delivery, and preservation.

https://bit.ly/3MKo1IS

"Reference Rot in the Digital Humanities Literature: An Analysis of Citations Containing Website Links in DHQ"

Link rot is likely most familiar in the form of "404 Not Found" error messages, but there are other less prominent obstacles to accessing web content. Our study examines instances of link rot in Digital Humanities Quarterly articles and its impact on the ability to access the online content referenced in these articles after their publication. . . .

Our data shows that a significant number of works cited no longer exist, are inaccessible, or have additional barriers to access. Instances of link rot increase with time. Additionally, there is a higher frequency and higher proportion of links contained in DHQ articles, showing that internet resources are a critical part of the DH literature. Taken together, the combined result is a persistent and cumulative threat to the integrity and stability of the DH literature, and one that is even more alarming when compared to other disciplines.

https://bit.ly/42iZq3t

Research Data Manager at Edge Hill University

In this post you will lead on advising researchers on the most appropriate ways to manage and disseminate their datasets. . . .You will also establish, develop, and maintain a research data service, providing leadership which will inform university policies and determine internal workflows. This will involve imparting current knowledge and leading the University research community as we commit to open research.

https://bit.ly/42hCDoO

"Integrating Preservation into Librarian Workflows"

The core mission of libraries is to ensure perpetual access to the record of knowledge. As a review of the NASIG webinar (formerly North American Serials Interest Group), "Integrating Preservation into Librarian Workflows," by Jill Emery and Sunshine Carter, this article examines working models constructed to sustain perpetual access for their institutional communities. In reflecting on these data-intensive practices, both presenters now recognize that previously impactful collection development business decisions were being made in the dark. Reviewing the webinar also reveals that this issue of preservation access has two critically distinct aspects, which should not be conflated as interchangeable. One is concerned with long-term preservation and the other addresses a library’s ability to provide post-cancellation access to its user community, given budgetary or physical space constraints. The following is an analysis of how effective the processes explored in the webinar are in addressing both post-cancellation access and long-term perpetual access goals. Based on a 2018 NASIG survey, results indicated that many organizations in scholarly communications lacked preservation policies. In June 2022, as a result of the survey, NASIG released the model digital preservation policy as a template to guide consequential and explicit decision-making by addressing issues including scope, roles, responsibilities, tools and techniques. These policy issues are important for librarians to understand before negotiating content licenses, in sustaining long-term discovery and access, and when developing collaborative access frameworks to address collection development and maintenance challenges.

https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.614

Associate Dean for Collections and Open Initiatives at University of Arkansas

The Associate Dean for Collections and Open Initiatives leads the University of Arkansas Libraries’ people and programs supporting creation, evaluation, acquisition, description, digitization, and preservation of content and collections.. . . Collection development efforts are shared between Collections and Open Initiatives; Research and Learning; and Special Collections divisions. The portfolio of responsibilities includes oversight for collection development, acquisitions, metadata, digital services, scholarly communication, data services, open education services, and preservation.

https://bit.ly/3OR2b9d

"Beyond BPCs: Reimagining and Re-infrastructuring the Funding of Open Access Books"

A major issue is that the sheer cost of BPCs [Book Processing Charges] makes them an extremely expensive way of funding Open Access books. For large commercial publishers, BPCs of £11,000 and more for a conventional academic book are typical. Given very few academics would themselves have the capacity to easily cover these kinds of costs, BPCs are usually paid by universities or funders — sometimes from a specific fund set aside to cover the costs of Open Access publishing, sometimes from a general unallocated part of a university/department budget, sometimes from the budget of a research grant.

As Open Book Collective colleagues have argued again and again, in line with the aims and mission of the COPIM project, as well as arguments made by other project colleagues, a BPC-based Open Access publishing model is fundamentally unsustainable and unscalable. Any requirement for the higher education sector to pay BPCs on a broadscale basis would require an unparalleled national and global injection of funding. . . .

The Open Book Collective’s online presence " its "platform" serves many functions, including providing information about our aims, governance, model and values, as well resources about Open Access. However, a key part of the platform is the area where publishers and publishing "service providers," as we call them (the organisations that provide the crucial infrastructures for Open Access book publishing) make available ‘Offers’ that universities and other organisations can potentially subscribe to. . . .

In the Open Book Collective model, we give publisher/service provider members substantial — but not total — control over how their individual Offers are priced. Each initiative proposes a "tiered" costing Offer to us (tiered pricing involves varying subscription prices by university’s size and/or national context), which we assess to determine whether it is fair and reasonable. If so, and our Membership Committee agrees that the initiative meets our broader membership criteria, then it is eligible to become a member of the Open Book Collective, with its Offer potentially hosted on our platform.

https://bit.ly/45yZsXQ

Digital Archivist at Mercer University

This position contributes to the success of the Tarver Library by providing digital access to primary research materials and other items in the archives, assisting the University Archivist in project management, and working with colleagues from Mercer and the broader community. Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives preserves and makes available a vast collection of historical materials on the history of Mercer University and Georgia Baptists.

https://bit.ly/3MM8mJb

Paywall: "Interoperability of Open Science Metadata: What About the Reality?"

This paper leads to identify complementary ways to improve dataset interoperability: (1) to adapt mapping algorithms to the issues raised by metadata schema matching; (2) to adapt metadata schemata, for instance by sharing a core vocabulary and/or reusing existing standards; (3) to combine various trends in a more complex interoperability approach that would also make available and operational the (RDA) crosswalks between schemata and that would promote good practices in metadata labeling and documentation.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33080-3_28

Research Information Management Librarian at Seton Hall University

Reporting to the Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Collection Services, the Research Information Management Librarian performs a variety of work with library faculty and staff, faculty departments, and campus partners to develop and implement research information management software, assist with the institutional repository and faculty metrics.

https://bit.ly/3WFF5Ev”>https://bit.ly/3CbjZUN

A Guide for Social Science Journal Editors on Easing into Open Science (FULL GUIDE)

Journal editors have a large amount of power to advance open science in their respective fields by incentivising and mandating open policies and practices at their journals. The Data PASS Journal Editors Discussion Interface (JEDI, an online community for social science journal editors: www.dpjedi.org) has collated several resources on open science in journal editing (www.dpjedi.org/resources). However, it can be overwhelming as a new editor to know where to start. For this reason, we have created a guide for journal editors on how to get started with open science. The guide outlines steps that editors can take to implement open policies and practices at their journal, and goes through the what, why, how, and worries of each policy/practice.

https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/hstcx

Open Education Librarian at University of Arkansas

As a member of the Open Education, Data, and Publishing Services unit, the Open Education Librarian will spearhead library-wide efforts to lower student costs by advancing the adoption, adaptation, and creation of Open Educational Resources (OERs) by the University of Arkansas faculty. The Open Education Librarian will guide faculty in the discovery, identification, adoption, creation, dissemination, and assessment of high quality open and affordable course content which also supports inclusivity and accessibility. They will develop methods, metrics, and documentation for assessing institutional OER use and knowledge and the value of open content.

https://bit.ly/45EgbJm

"Wiley Inks 22 Open Access Agreements across North America"

These agreements, which all begin in 2023, span individual universities, research labs, and academic consortia across 18 U.S. states and Mexico. They allow participating institutions access to all of Wiley’s hybrid and subscription journals and grant researchers the ability to publish accepted articles open access across Wiley’s extensive publishing portfolio. . . .

A full list of participating partners includes:

Individual Institutions: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Colorado State University, Montana State University, Princeton University, Southern Methodist University, Syracuse University, UMass Lowell, West Virginia University, Texas Tech University Health Services Center, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Portland State University, Northeastern University, Texas A&M University, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (CINVESTAV), University of North Texas Health Science Center, Washington State University, and Texas Christian University.

Consortia: The Carolina Consortium, and the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC).

https://bit.ly/3ORnyqT

Digital Scholarship Librarian at Fairfield University

Provides leadership in the development, implementation, promotion, and assessment of digital scholarly initiatives. Participates in the Library’s Faculty Partnership program. Participates in the Library’s instruction program. Provides research support.

https://cutt.ly/XwqCGCcP

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a License"

This column describes how one library seeks to mitigate harms or to optimize protections and advantages resulting from journal licenses. Progress toward improved licensing outcomes is described with examples or with qualitative data, from a comprehensive overview of one library’s journal licenses. Discussion includes so-called transformative agreements, a variety of rights, non-disclosure and data privacy clauses, term and termination, and transfer obligations.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102737

Program Manager, Data Services and Emerging Technologies at University of Maryland

The Program Manager will assist the library team in serving students, faculty and staff. The Program Manager will educate students regarding data analysis, data visualization, virtual reality, and the advantages of using these as well as other emerging software and technology. Additionally, the Program Manager will identify trends and introduce workshops to enhance data literacy.

https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/107519

"Giant in Isolation: Online Journal Publishing in Nigeria"

The wider a research result is communicated the higher its impact and benefits. Online journals are today the most effective means of communicating research result. However, majority of the Nigerian journals are still in print. Thus, this paper collected data from the Nigerian universities as the leading journal publishers in the country in order to bring out the situation of online journal publishing in the country. A semi-structured questionnaire was sent to all the universities; 28 responses were found to be valid for the analysis. In addition, the researcher analysed the content of Ajol and Doaj to discover the evidences for online journal publishing from Nigeria. And finally search for literature on the use of OJS in Nigeria was conducted. Consequently, it is discovered that majority of the university-based journals in Nigeria are in print only. The journals don’t leverage on the supporting services from Ajol programme. Thus, it is recommended that individual researchers, universities, journal publishers and research funders in Nigeria should recognise the importance and make use of online journal publishing platforms. It is also recommended that major commercial publishers should devise means of penetrating the journal publishing market in Nigeria.

https://doi.org/10.3998/jep.2640

Research Data Management Librarian at University of Oregon

Reporting to the Associate Vice Provost for Research, Instruction, and Access Services, the Research Data Management Librarian partners with colleagues to offer RDM consultations, data repository development, outreach, and archiving support/deposit consultations. This position is responsible for forming relationships with the appropriate campus, state, and national data and reproducibility organizations.

https://cutt.ly/BwqCFHrP

"Eleven Strategies for Making Reproducible Research and Open Science Training the Norm at Research Institutions "

Across disciplines, researchers increasingly recognize that open science and reproducible research practices may accelerate scientific progress by allowing others to reuse research outputs and by promoting rigorous research that is more likely to yield trustworthy results. While initiatives, training programs, and funder policies encourage researchers to adopt reproducible research and open science practices, these practices are uncommon in many fields. Researchers need training to integrate these practices into their daily work. We organized a virtual brainstorming event, in collaboration with the German Reproducibility Network, to discuss strategies for making reproducible research and open science training the norm at research institutions. Here, we outline eleven strategies, concentrated in three areas: (1) offering training, (2) adapting research assessment criteria and program requirements, and (3) building communities. We provide a brief overview of each strategy, offer tips for implementation, and provide links to resources. Our goal is to encourage members of the research community to think creatively about the many ways they can contribute and collaborate to build communities, and make reproducible research and open science training the norm. Researchers may act in their roles as scientists, supervisors, mentors, instructors, and members of curriculum, hiring or evaluation committees. Institutional leadership and research administration and support staff can accelerate progress by implementing change across their institutions.

https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/kcvra

"An Effort to Ban Faculty Tenure in Public Universities Has Failed in the Texas Legislature"

On Saturday, in a surprise move, senators backed off their position and accepted the House’s counterproposal, which solidifies tenure in state law and places more power to make future changes to tenure in the hands of state lawmakers rather that individual university system boards.

https://cutt.ly/TwqKXVNj

Programmer/Analyst A at Columbia University

Reporting to the Head of Development, Infrastructure, and Applications, the Programmer Analyst-A develops, maintains, and integrates computing systems and software in support of Columbia’s Digital Library and Scholarly Technologies Program. This includes working as necessary in all of the Development, Infrastructure & Application Group’s principal languages, tools and platforms. In addition to application development, the position is responsible for supporting data conversions and migrations directly, via tool development, and with process automation. The position is responsible for researching and evaluating new software solutions.

https://bit.ly/43eqjqy

"Top AI Researchers and CEOs Warn against ‘Risk of Extinction’ in 22-Word Statement"

The 22-word statement, trimmed short to make it as broadly acceptable as possible, reads as follows: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."

https://cutt.ly/EwqXnHn9

Applications Developer at UC Berkeley

This position will support the development and maintenance of new and existing applications, services, and integrations using a variety of platforms and languages as part of a team in Library IT Application Development department in Library IT division.. The Library IT Applications department has responsibility for writing, maintaining, and supporting all library applications, including digital project workflows, the library’s internal and external web services, including integrations with library discovery platforms,and the digital collections management system(s), and integrations with campus technology services and platforms.

https://bit.ly/427h8a8

Walt Crawford: "Gold Open Access 8 Is Now Available"

Gold Open Access 2017-2022: Articles in Journals (GOA8) is now available in print book, PDF ebook, and dataset forms. The print book–a 6×9 trade paperback with color graphs–is $11.50 (or the nearest equivalent in other currencies supported by Lulu), of which I receive a stunning $0.24. The PDF ebook and dataset are both free, and all versions are CC-BY.

https://cutt.ly/WwqKXwVM

Project Manager at Columbia University

The Columbia University Libraries seek a creative, critical-thinking, and collaborative Project Manager to join the Libraries’ Digital Project Management Unit. Reporting to the Associate Director of Digital Project Management, the incumbent will lead the entire project lifecycle of digital projects produced in partnership with various stakeholders and library units. They will also help foster the application of project management principles and best practices throughout the libraries. Subject to business needs, we may support flexible and hybrid/work arrangements. Options will be discussed during the interview process.

https://bit.ly/3MGKS85