And They Were There — Reports of Meetings

And they Were there — reports of Meetings 2020 Charleston Conference

Column Editors: Ramune K. Kubilius (Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine) <r-kubilius@northwestern.edu>

and Sever Bordeianu (Head, Print Resources Section, University Libraries, MSC05 3020, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001; Phone: 505-277-2645; Fax: 505-277-9813) <sbordeia@unm.edu>

Column Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Charleston Conference attendees who agreed to write brief reports that highlight and spotlight their 2020 Charleston Conference experience. Out of necessity, the conference moved from on-site to virtual, and all registrants were given the opportunity to view recordings, to re-visit sessions they saw “live,” or to visit sessions they missed. Without a doubt, with 173 total choices, there were more Charleston Conference sessions than there were volunteer reporters for Against the Grain, so the coverage is just a snapshot. For the 2020 conference, reporters were invited to share what drew them to various themes and sessions, or what they learned, rather than report on individual sessions as they’ve done for “And They Were There” reports in past years when conferences were on-site.

There are many ways to learn more about the 2020 conference. Some presenters posted their slides and handouts in the online conference schedule. Please visit the conference site, https://www.charleston-hub.com/the-charleston-conference/, and link to selected videos, interviews, as well as to blog reports written by Charleston Conference blogger, Donald Hawkins, https://www.charleston-hub.com/category/blogs/chsconfnotes/. The 2020 Charleston Conference Proceedings will be published in 2021, in a new partnership with University of Michigan Press: https://www.press.umich.edu/. — RKK

KEYNOtEs AND NEAPOLitAN sEssiONs

things i learned at four 2020 virtual Charleston Conference plenary sessions and one Neapolitan reported by ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University

Feinberg school of Medicine) <r-kubilius@northwester.edu>

When on-site, Charleston Conference keynote sessions are scheduled in non-conflicting timeslots, so all conference registrants can attend. They offer opportunities for each person to listen, think, absorb, and have personalized take-aways, and perhaps even pose a question at the mike. The 2020 virtual conference also offered additional benefits of the “chat” function (very lively even during the presentations), and opportunities for registrants to view recordings later, so no one needed to miss out.

WEDNESDAY — Opening Keynote: Leading in a Age of

Chaos and Change: Building a Community of Grace

Without a doubt, the 2020 Charleston Conference was jump-started with the thought-provoking and timely plenary given by Earl Lewis. Attendees were invited to remember that in today’s world, each of us is asking how we can shape the world for the common good, and for that, we have to begin with an internal exam, but also — a “grace-filled community requires architects.” This session may have been the first time I heard the word “democrazy,” and it made perfect sense.

Schedule: https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/ meetings/virtual/QJhPmKK9PFp4nQPWG

A report by conference blogger, Don Hawkins: https://www. charleston-hub.com/2020/11/opening-keynote-leading-in-a-ageof-chaos-and-change-building-a-community-of-grace/

THURSDAY — Do Librarians Matter and What Might Matter to Librarians?

John Palfrey’s second morning keynote, among other things, complimented libraries and librarians, spotlighted a favorite decade old book, Henry Petroski’s “The Book on the Book Shelf,” and opined that the librarian’s role is not to guard data but to make discovery easier.

Schedule: https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/ meetings/virtual/RyMSEeK6iDwbJcg6d

A report by conference blogger, Don Hawkins: https:// www.charleston-hub.com/2020/11/day-2-keynote-do-librariansmatter-and-what-might-matter-to-librarians/

FRIDAY — Keynote Panel: The Long Arm of the Law

The “Long Arm of the Law” session, as always, was a learning experience where one could hear lawyers share their legal expertise, also bringing their academic, scholarly publishing, and/or librarian credentials to the table. The sessions summarize and analyze laws, orders, and rulings (also including the disclaimer about not dispensing legal advice). A reminder from moderator Ann Okerson was that the session’s focus is: “serious legal topics for information professionals,” and Nancy S. Kirkpatrick and Pamela Samuelson took over the 11th year baton in 2020. Kirkpatrick overviewed EO 13950 (Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping), characterizing it as challenging to current best practices with an added layer of complexity and confusion. Since coming out, it has been challenged by ALA and even the corporate sector. She ended by recapping a few other lawsuits re: academic pay-discrimination, COVID-19, the election, and good news, too. Samuelson tackled intellectual property law as it relates to controlled digital lending (covered not for the first time at the conference), reviewing what it is, providing Internet Archive as an example, spotlighting position statements, and overviewing the publisher’s lawsuit. The focus especially was on what has been pertinent to libraries in the remote access challenges of the pandemic era.

The session began and ended with bittersweet memorials to the session’s long-time “regular” legal expert, the entertaining Bill Hannay (who passed away Aug. 11, 2020), and Kenny Rogers (who passed away March 20, 2020), whose song originally inspired the session title.

Schedule: https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/ meetings/virtual/hRinL54ACgtfbJQhh

FRIDAY — Closing Session and Poll-a-Palooza

This fast-paced last day session continues to be an entertaining and thought-provoking conference re-cap, and, with Poll-A-Palooza that was added in 2014, offering live “real time” audience feedback to various questions. About 848 attendees participated “live” in the 2020 virtual session that was primarily moderated by Sandy Avila and Athena Hoeppner. Input and feedback was provided by conference executive director, Leah Hinds, and conference founder, Katina Strauch, as well as by audience members in chat. Topics this year ranged from light-hearted topics: food, animals, reading materials, to conference and professional work-related, scholarly publishing world, opinions on conference sessions, big deals, OA, OER, preprints, and buzzwords (illustrated in word clouds). Calls to action came forth in light of recent events (esp. the pandemic and “Black Lives Matter”). Among hope for active changes. That we: take time to talk, do our collection assessment, and get standard outdated, often offensive, subject headings (such as those found in LCSH) officially updated. The conference theme “Quo Vadis? Where do we go from here” was appropriate for this session, but unfortunately, the virtual session came to an abrupt end before the final questions and discussions (due to automatic technology timing).

Schedule: https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/ meetings/virtual/CcWujFdj6xSrK9vw5

A report by conference blogger, Don Hawkins: https:// www.charleston-hub.com/2020/11/closing-session-and-poll-apalooza-2/

NEAPOLITAN — Using the Unbundling Power of

Unsub Responsibly: Unveiling its Assumptions and Unpacking its Defaults

Next in size after “everyone can attend” plenary sessions, Neapolitan sessions are named after the tricolor ice cream. Onsite, conference attendees need to choose one of 3 concurrently running sessions in a Neapolitan timeslot. 2020 virtual attendees had the luxury of eventually viewing all 6 Neapolitans that ran in the 2 sessions. Attendees were no doubt intrigued with this Wednesday Neapolitan session’s title. Akin to how lawyers helped “unpack” a complex legal world on Friday, the intrepid data-oriented trio of Michael Levine-Clark, John McDonald, and Jason Price did an “under the hood” examination of the still evolving tool, Unsub. They reported on tests of its capabilities to help libraries with statistics and expenses, as well as potential savings, in the context of big deal journal packages. A comment Jason Priem of Unsub posted in the session’s chat gave their effort a thumbs-up: “We’re a new product, and continuing to improve every month; y’all’s feedback really helps us with that... And as a nonprofit, we are very keen to build something that is really powerful and valuable for this community.” Expect more sessions on this tool in 2021, by these presenters or others.

Schedule: https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/ meetings/virtual/yPdFBbdqc3oLiNToG

CONFErENCE sEssiONs

Five things i learned at the 2020 virtual Charleston Conference/My Five Big takeaways from the 2020 virtual Charleston Conference reported by Audra M. Deemer (DePaul University) <adeemer@depaul.edu>

We need to communicate our value. We must showcase our work because if our colleagues don’t understand or value

36 Against the Grain / June 2021

it, how can we get our external stakeholders to do so? We’ve added new e-resources, set up numerous trials or temporary access, and more since March. How do we present these things in a meaningful way and when do we have the time to do it? I don’t have those answers yet, but “Communicating the Value of Our Work: ‘Beastly Breakfast’ Roundtable Discussion” was a good place to start. https://2020charlestonconference.pathable. co/meetings/virtual/bQvgojDqojuSFtxsx

Big Deals probably aren’t that great of a deal for many. “Is it really a Big Deal? The importance of the local environment when evaluating large journal packages” was a useful session for anyone evaluating these large packages. Many of us are looking at the impact of these packages on our overall collection strategies and finding that they are less and less relevant now with our shrinking budgets and staff. They don’t allow for budget flexibility and thus they are becoming unsustainable. https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/ bXiEPwupQ7HgH9joc

Engagement with Controlled Digital Lending is important, not just during a pandemic. When the pandemic ends, many users will continue to be at least part-time digital users, while many have always relied on digital access for various reasons. During the “Keynote Panel: The Long Arm of the Law,” part of the discussion focused on Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) as fair use as this would allow libraries to lend digital copies of books from print versions in their collections. This session is a timely introduction to CDL and risk mitigation strategies. https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/ hRinL54ACgtfbJQhh

The financial impacts of this pandemic will endure. We have been forced to solve problems on the fly and we need to hold onto this creative mindset. Libraries are going to face reductions in the ability to license and purchase content. We should consider ways to participate in shared collection building, resource sharing, CDL, and whole ebook ILL. “Rebuilding the Plane Mid-Flight: Academic Libraries responding to crisis” provided a discussion on how several libraries developed strategies and are planning for the future. https://2020charlestonconference. pathable.co/meetings/virtual/AdN8khgnJsKqtsic6

Doing things remotely will continue. Work and conferences will eventually return to in-person, but some aspects will continue online. Online sessions (and recordings) allow for more people to attend. With our vendors, when you can meet in person, will you want to? Is it necessary? A session that considered these questions was “Are face-to-face sales interactions gone for good?” For some, the preference may be to keep these online unless there is a true need, helping to free up time for our many other concerns. https://2020charlestonconference.pathable.co/ meetings/virtual/fBfjcaDcoomcicrT6.

That’s all the reports we have room for in this issue. Watch for more reports from the 2020 Charleston Conference in upcoming print issues of Against the Grain. Presentation materials (PowerPoint slides, handouts, etc.) and recordings of most sessions are available to Conference Attendees on the Charleston Conference event site at https://2020charlestonconference. pathable.co/. Or visit the Charleston Hub at https://www. charleston-hub.com/the-charleston-conference/. — KS