Don’s Conference Notes Column Editor: Donald T. Hawkins (Freelance Editor and Conference Blogger) <dthawkins@verizon.net> Column Editor’s Note: Because of space limitations, the full text of my conference notes will now be available online in the issues of Against the Grain on Charleston Hub at https://www. charleston-hub.com, and only brief summaries, with links to the full reports, will appear in Against the Grain print issues. — DTH
Forecasting Changes on the Horizon of Scholarly Communication: A Charleston Hub Trendspotting Seminar The Charleston Hub Trendspotting Initiative was started by Katina Strauch about five years ago. The current seminar, a pre-conference event of this year’s Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) annual conference, occurred on May 18, 2021. Leah Hinds, Executive Director of the Charleston Conference introduced it and welcomed the attendees. The seminar was directed by Lisa Hinchliffe, Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library. It attracted about 20 attendees. According to its announcement in the SSP conference program, “The Charleston Hub Trendspotting Initiative is a community-engaged process for collaboratively exploring social, policy, economic, technology, and educational trends and forecasting their impacts on scholarly communication, publishing, and academic libraries.” Jennifer Frederick and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, Survey Analysts at Ithaka S+R, presented some findings and factors for futures thinking from Ithaka’s 2020 US Library Survey. The vision, strategies, and challenges of over 600 leaders of academic libraries were surveyed. Specific questions included management of the COVID-19 pandemic and equity, diversity, and inclusion policies. The COVID pandemic has affected much of society. In libraries it accelerated the investment in digital resources and services. About 80% of the survey respondents anticipated that this trend will continue after the end of the pandemic. The transition back to in-person teaching is not likely have a large impact on library services. Most libraries have experienced budget cuts in the past year, and recovery from them is uncertain. Personnel cuts have mostly affected those who work in physical library spaces. Digital materials will continue to be purchased, and spending on streaming media is predicted to surpass that for printed books and journals.
cannot purchase a product at the same price as last year, they will drop it. What are publishers doing to respond to cuts? They are working on their relationships, especially with societies. More than ever, relationships will matter at renewal time. Budget cuts also impacted publishers. There is a lot of empathy and collaboration to work together. Without publisher tools to facilitate diversification of collections automatically and efficiently, most institutions will not make significant progress in this area. How have users been struggling and engaging with library materials? Most libraries are completely closed to the public. Some have a pickup service. There are many questions at the beginning and end of semesters. Many people have struggled with campus VPNs and using their library accounts. They have trouble using the Hathi Trust because the platform is complex and hard to use. They also do not understand copyright and its limitations. E-books are generally challenging because every platform is different. Many users do not like reading online and want to be able to download books. They still want print materials and appreciate the assistance of librarians. What is the social environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion? How do we care for the community? Examine the metadata are you collecting about people. Many subject access terms are harmful (“illegal aliens”, etc.). Caring for a community means working with them. How will you use your future position as a librarian? Diversity, equity, and inclusion are calls to reorient our work. Think critically about what you do in your work and what limits it. Library programs are becoming more critical, so the call for social justice will be growing. What are the issues around peer review, etc.? Publishers are heavily involved and have their own staff. Some of our language must change and be tailored to researchers. We are not a homogeneous community, and publishers are becoming awakened to this.
A panel discussion followed; panelists were Nancy Kirkpatrick, Executive Director and CEO, OhioNET; Lori Carlin, Chief Commercial Officer, Delta Think; Aaisha Haykal, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston; and Sarah Appedu, M.S. LIS Student, UIUC.
Lisa Hinchliffe concluded the seminar with a presentation entitled “Peering Into the Future to Make Decisions Today.” She noted that we cannot predict the future, but we must deal with it; today’s decisions create tomorrow’s futures. Futures thinking offers ways of helping to shape the future, stimulates strategic Lisa Hinchliffe dialog, and strengthens leadership. An ARL report (see https://www.arl. org/resources/the-arl-2030-scenarios-a-users-guide-for-researchlibraries/) issued in 2010 contains 26 scenarios of what the future might look like. For example:
Libraries are experiencing a lot of budget cuts. How are they interacting with publishers?
• The research enterprise could become more aggregated or more diffuse.
They are doing many things they have always done, but are looking at e-resources closely. Some are saying that if they
• We will struggle to balance the mission and value of our libraries with the research enterprise of our institution.
Many libraries are planning for a fall start to in-person classes. The next year will be very significant in determining how well virtual classes will continue to exist. As e-readers have become more widespread, the demand for printed materials has decreased.
Against the Grain / September 2021
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