Against the Grain, September, 2024 V36-4 Full Issue
Student Success
This issue is Sponsored by AM
Edited by Holly Francis (Senior Marketing Manager, AM) Begins on Page 14
If Rumors Were Horses
Hello and happy fall, everyone! As I wrote in From Your Editor, we are enjoying a near miss from a storm and the beautiful blue skies and cooler weather that followed. I don’t know about you, but the transition to autumn always makes me a bit nostalgic. I love football, family gatherings, and all things pumpkin and apple and cinnamon spice! No time to lose, though, we have lots of news to cover so let’s get cracking!
People and Places
I’m still working away on the memoirs of the conference. I’m calling it “Doing the Charleston! My Personal History of Scholarly Communication.” I couldn’t do this alone! I’m grateful to Charles Watkinson from University of Michigan Library and Michigan Publishing for keeping me on deadline, as well as the amazingly organized Darrell Gunter for his contributions and for the editorial help from Liz Weiss and Christine Utz from Annual Reviews. It really does take a village! Thank you to each person who has shared their remembrances, stories, and contributed to the timeline. The goal is for the book to be available for pre-order at the Charleston Conference and it will officially launch at ACRL! Keep an eye out for more details coming soon!
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Against the Grain (ISSN: 1043-2094), Copyright 2023 by the name Against the Grain is published five times a year in February, April, June, September, and November by Against the Grain, LLC. Mailing Address: Annual Reviews, PO Box 10139, Palo Alto, CA 94303-0139. Subscribe online at https://www.charleston-hub.com/ membership-options/
Editor Emerita:
Katina Strauch (College of Charleston, Retired)
Editor:
Leah Hinds (Charleston Hub)
Manager:
Caroline Goldsmith (Charleston Hub)
Research Editor: Judy Luther (Informed Strategies)
International Editor:
Rossana Morriello (Politecnico di Torino)
Contributing Editors:
Glenda Alvin (Tennessee State University)
Rick Anderson (Brigham Young University)
Sever Bordeianu (U. of New Mexico)
Todd Carpenter (NISO)
Ashley Krenelka Chase (Stetson Univ. College of Law)
Eleanor Cook (East Carolina University)
Kyle K. Courtney (Harvard University)
Cris Ferguson (Murray State)
Michelle Flinchbaugh (U. of MD Baltimore County) Dr. Sven Fund (Fullstopp)
Tom Gilson (College of Charleston, Retired)
Michael Gruenberg (Gruenberg Consulting, LLC)
Bob Holley (Wayne State University, Retired)
Matthew Ismail (Charleston Briefings)
Donna Jacobs (MUSC, Retired)
Ramune Kubilius (Northwestern University)
Myer Kutz (Myer Kutz Associates, Inc.)
Tom Leonhardt (Retired)
Stacey Marien (American University)
Jack Montgomery (Retired)
Lesley Rice Montgomery (Tulane University)
Alayne Mundt (American University) Bob Nardini (Retired)
Jim O’Donnell (Arizona State University)
Ann Okerson (Center for Research Libraries)
David Parker (Lived Places Publishing)
Genevieve Robinson (IGI Global)
Steve Rosato (OverDrive Academic)
Jared Seay (College of Charleston)
Corey Seeman (University of Michigan)
Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus)
Lindsay Wertman (IGI Global)
Graphics:
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Publisher:
Annual Reviews, PO Box 10139 Palo Alto, CA 94303-0139
Production & Ad Sales: Toni Nix, Just Right Group, LLC., P.O. Box 412, Cottageville, SC 29435, phone: 843-835-8604
<justwrite@lowcountry.com>
Advertising Information: Toni Nix, phone: 843-835-8604
<justwrite@lowcountry.com>
Send correspondence, press releases, etc., to: Leah Hinds, Editor, Against the Grain <leah@charlestonlibraryconference.com>
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From Your (Hurricane, Hurricane, Go Away!) Editor Emerita:
It looked for a minute there like we were going to have another hurricane coming our way! We were under a tropical storm warning and Charleston County Schools were cancelled, but the storm puttered around and moved up to North Carolina. All we got (thankfully!) was some rain here. Whew!
We have an awesome issue for you on the important topic of Student Success. We’d like to thank AM for sponsoring this issue and making the featured articles available without a subscription! The issue kicks off with an introduction from Holly Francis at AM on using primary sources as a tool for delivering your student success goals. Nick Jackson, Senior Editor of AM Archives Direct, discusses using government documents in undergraduate teaching: a student success case study from the University of Dundee in the UK. Next up is a fascinating coverage titled “Archives Under Fire: Supporting the Next Generation of Professionals with AM Archival School for Ukraine.” The AM Archival School for Ukraine is a week-long summer school first piloted in 2023 by Andrew Chernevych, Head Archivist at the Galt Museum & Archives. Gosh! “Shaping Student Success and Lifelong
Learning with Digital Primary Sources” discusses the results of a comprehensive survey, undertaken by AM following the pandemic, explored the changing landscape of online learning to understand how students interact with digital primary sources and the specific challenges that educators face when teaching with source materials. Ashley Todd-Diaz, PhD (Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections and University Archives and Felicity Knox, Assistant University Archivist Librarian) tells us about student success at the heart of Towson University. And, last but not least for the featured articles, Laura Blomvall (Engagement Manager, AM) discusses exploring the history of Hawai’i and the role of the digitised archive in student success.
We also have a bam-zowie ATG Special Report by Jonathan H. Harwell (Associate Director for Collection & Resource Services, Georgia College & State University) and Erin Gallagher (Chair of Acquisitions & Collections Services, University of Florida) titled “Library Vendor Service Expectations: Are Libraries and Their Vendors on the Same Page?”
Plus lots of fabulous articles from our regular columnists. Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Letters to the Editor
Send letters to <editors@against-the-grain.com>, or you can also send a letter to the editor from the Charleston Hub at http://www. charleston-hub.com/contact-us/
As you know, we like to include letters from our readers that are sent to Katina or our editorial group. We love hearing from you so please send in your questions, comments, or whatever updates you’d like to share with the ATG community to editors@against-the-grain.com!
In the absence of letters for this issue we’ve decided to share some comments sent to Toni Nix regarding the upcoming Charleston Vendor Showcase event. If you plan to exhibit with us this year please register soon, we only have a few spaces remaining. Register here!
AGAINST THE GRAIN ADVERTISING DEADLINES
VOLUME 37 — 2025
Issue Ad Reservation Camera-Ready
February 2025 01/09/25 01/23/25
April 2025 02/20/25 03/13/25
June 2025 04/17/25 05/08/25
September 2025 06/12/25 07/10/25
November 2025 08/21/25 09/11/25
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Toni Nix <justwrite@lowcountry.com>
Phone: 843-835-8604
Dear Toni:
BioOne is having a momentous year with our 25th anniversary and our announced Subscribe to Open pilot, and there is no better place to sing about it all than Charleston! Looking forward to seeing everyone soon, Christine Orr, MLS (Director of Sales and Community Outreach, BioOne) <christine@bioone.org>
Dear Toni:
The Atlantic is very excited to be attending Charleston as an exhibitor. Thank you for assisting us and we look forward to seeing everyone in November!
Lara Longo (Executive Director, Consumer Strategy & Growth, The Atlantic) <llongo@theatlantic.com>
Dear Toni:
Happy to share these details with you — the following members will share the AU Presses booths: Bristol University Press, Columbia University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Liverpool University Press, and University of Virginia Press.
Do let me know if you need anything further from us on this!
Kate Kolendo (Community Development and Communications Manager, Association of University Presses) <kkolendo@aupresses.org>
continued on page 12
<https://www.charleston-hub.com/media/atg/>
Discover archival collections, learn how to use them, or create your own
Rumors continued from page 1
Congratulations to the awesome David Worlock for receiving the ALPSP Award for Contribution to Scholarly Publishing! Huzzah! This award recognizes an individual or organization who has made a major contribution to scholarly publishing. Jamie Humphrey, Chair of ALPSP and Head of Journals, Royal Society of Chemistry presented this year’s award on behalf of the ALPSP Board of Directors.
Speaking of ALPSP, Romy Beard of ChronosHub wrote a report on her experience there and shared it on LinkedIn. The event was held in Manchester from 11-13 September and brought together just under 300 delegates from across the academic publishing industry. Keep an eye out for another report from ALPSP, as well as several other fall conference industry events, coming in our November issue of ATG! We’ll have contributions from Heather Staines, Joanna Ball, Mary Beth Barilla, and more!
Don Hawkins, our conference blogger and reporter extraordinaire, wrote recently that he regrets he’s unable to report on the SSP New Directions seminar due to cataract surgery. But he’ll be back on duty for NISO Plus as usual if all goes well with his recovery. Don’s been attending the conference and writing it up since 2007! He wrote for the memoirs, “Pat and I liked the dates of the event because her birthday is November 4, and we always celebrated it during the conference at one of the nice restaurants nearby (often SNOB or Anson’s).”
Kyle K. Courtney, editor of our Copyright Q&A column and wearer of many more hats, wrote his thoughts on the 2nd Circuit’s ruling against the Internet Archive’s “Open Libraries” program. “While it benefits publishers, it also threatens to shift the library’s mission from serving the public good to aligning with commercial interests — sacrificing the library’s non-profit mission in favor of the publishers for-profit mission. By using licensing to limit library access and preservation, the ruling might jeopardize libraries’ ability to serve both present and future generations of patrons. Although this decision impacts only the Internet Archive’s specific program within the Second Circuit’s jurisdiction, I think it still leaves the door open for other unique Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) initiatives.” Read more at https://kylecourtney.com/cdl-decision-round-two-the-goodthe-bad-and-the-ugly-and-why-there-is-still-hope/
Annual Reviews President and Editor-in-Chief Richard Gallagher will be joining other publishing leaders for a panel geared towards Asia-Pacific libraries soon on September 26. The De Gruyter Brill hosted event will focus on how Subscribe to Open supports a sustainable transition to Open Access. Participants will share critical information about this innovative model and the role it plays in the future of scholarly publishing. Look for more information and registration details here
The amazing Tony Zanders has a new company announcement with the availability of SkillType for Individuals: “Thrilled to see Skilltype added to more people’s repertoire with individual subscriptions. While it remains more cost-effective for an organization to subscribe for everyone, our new model both broadens access for workers and maximizes exposure for training providers. Win/win for all involved.”
Heard recently from the energetic and loving-retirement Eleanor Cook! She plans to attend the conference this year and is looking forward to participating in the musical that will be organized by Heather Staines. The title is “Schmetadata the Musical: A mythical reappearing library reveals the secret of knowledge.” Intriguing! Can’t wait to hear more!
Job Updates
A huge congratulations go to Cliff Lynch who plans to retire as Executive Director of CNI in June 2025! In the announcement, Cliff says, “I have been the Executive Director of CNI since mid1997; this has genuinely been the role of a lifetime for me, a fantastic opportunity and honor. As a community, I think we can all be proud of what CNI has accomplished and what it has grown to be, and of the value it has brought to all of us. Working with the fantastic CNI staff, the leadership — past and present — of ARL and EDUCAUSE, the (sometimes very longserving) members of the CNI Steering Committee, and all of you who make up the broader CNI community has been an incredible experience. Thank you.” I remember when Cliff spoke as a keynote presenter at Charleston a few years back, and we’ve invited him to come back in 2025 (he’s unable to attend this year, alas!).
Speaking of Cliff, he was recently interviewed by Michael Upshall for the ATG Podcast! We’re happy to announce that Michael, who is Community and Outreach Manager for CORE at the Open University, will also be working with us as editor of the Charleston Briefings! Michael has several ideas in the works for the series and we’re excited to see what he has in store for us.
Charleston Conference News
It’s September, which means that the Charleston Conference preparations are going hot and heavy! The preliminary agenda was released last week and it’s chock full of great speakers and sessions.
Hot off the press! We were just notified that, unfortunately, Tonya Matthews, the President and CEO of the International African American History Museum here in Charleston, will be unable to join us as the keynote presenter on Thursday,
<https://www.charleston-hub.com/media/atg/>
Photo by Cecilia Preston.
Let’s meet in-person
Scan QR Code to start an appointment reservation email
There’s now one OverDrive contact for Kanopy and Libby. Discover more at Charleston about how we’re better together in serving your library’s digital needs.
Schedule a meeting today
November 14. The good news is that Malika Pryor, Chief Learning and Engagement Officer for IAAM, has agreed to speak in her place. We were also connected to Andrea CayetanoJefferson, a Gullah Sweetgrass Basket Artist, through Sharna Williams, our Conference Registrar. Andrea will do a short presentation on the cultural significance of the sweetgrass basket tradition in Charleston and she will have her nationally renowned artwork on display and for sale at the Gaillard Center. One of her baskets was bought by Vice President Kamala Harris at her recent rally in Savannah, GA! Wow!
Are you attending the Frankfurt Book Fair next month? The Charleston Conference will once again host a mini-conference event on Friday, October 18, from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm on the stage in Hall 4.0 as part of the Publishers Perspectives Forum The first panel, “Putting Theory to Practice: The Case of Artificial Intelligence in Scholarly Publishing,” will be moderated by Sven Fund, and will also include panelists that will be selected following a hackathon to be held at ALPSP. Panel two is titled “When more means less? The unanticipated consequences of Scholcomm trends on library resourcing,” and will be moderated by Jude Perera. See the full lineup of speakers at https://www. charleston-hub.com/the-charleston-conference/welcome/thecharleston-conference-at-the-frankfurt-book-fair/
Courtney McAllister, one of our amazing Charleston Conference Directors, came up with a fun new idea for the quiet,
bookish types in the crowd at the upcoming conference. It’s called a Silent Book Club! Courtney says the typical format is everyone brings their own book (physical or e) and reads in the shared space for an hour or so. Then the rest of the time, people can either chat with others about the books they’re reading, or just stay in the introvert zone. It’s kind of low-pressure socializing. And everyone can read whatever they want! Sounds like a great way to unwind from the conference and maybe make some new friends! Keep an eye on the conference agenda for more details on time and location.
Sad News
I learned recently that Anne Flanagan has died after a brief but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Anne worked for many years on design and graphics for The Charleston Advisor Her husband Pat says, “She loved art, literature, music and just having fun. I’m sure you were the recipient of many of her missives, and maybe just a bit of her ability to create beautiful prose peeked through those discussions of picas and em dashes. Thank you for all of your years of collaboration with Anne. She loved doing the work on The Charleston Advisor and the other publishing jobs you sent her way.” Her obituary can be viewed here: https://obits.postandcourier.com/us/obituaries/ aikenstandard/name/anne-flanagan-obituary?id=56317612
That’s it for this issue. Remember to send your updates, news, job changes, and any and all Rumors content to editors@ against-the-grain.com for inclusion in a future issue. Thanks and see y’all next time!
<https://www.charleston-hub.com/media/atg/>
Bet You Missed It — Press Clippings — In the News
Carefully Selected by Your Crack Staff of News Sleuths
Column Editor: Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) <bruce.strauch@gmail.com>
Calorie Trap
In 1909, Lulu Peters became that rare thing, a female MD. She started as a pathologist but became the public health voice for California women’s clubs. And then a dieting guru.
She championed the calorie, a then niche concept, as the key to losing weight. Ignoring nutrients and focusing on calories, she ended up steering America’s women to highly processed carbohydrates. This led to the obesity nightmare of today.
Everything came together. It was the Progressive age which fixated on science and quantification. Women’s fashion was moving to boyish slender. Food reformers were trying to make eating rational. The home bathroom scale was put on the market. WW I made food wasting immoral.
She had a best-seller book and a syndicated daily newspaper column. You were to eat by science and numbers, certainly not for pleasure.
Now we know so much more about hormones, metabolism, fat storage, gut bacteria. But that dreadful calorie counting is still with us.
See: Michelle Stacey, “The Calorie Countess,” Smithsonian, June, 2024, p.40.
Taco Wars
Mexico has tens of thousands of taco stands, and arguments about the best are intense. But now Taqueris El Califa de Leon, a tiny place with no seating jammed among sidewalk stalls, has a Michelin star.
Tacos as we know them didn’t appear until around 1900 to serve a more mobile working class population. This was about the time Michelin began awarding stars to encourage auto travel and sell its tires. The first guide for Mexico began this year handing out stars to 18 high-end restaurants. But it couldn’t ignore the emblematic Mexican dish.
Of course there’s plenty of jealous sniping from rivals and unimpressed customers. But the customer lines are hours long. And the tangy smell of lime and beef is delightful while you wait.
See: Robert P. Walker, “Mexico Gets One More Reason To Argue About the Best Taco,” The Wall Street Journal, June 15-16, 2024, p.A1.
Cardinal Volumes
The Richelieu Library is a 16th century branch of the Bib Nat. It’s had a 12-year renovation, holds 20,000 volumes plus 40 million objects — books, manuscripts, photos in an entire block of the 2nd arron.
See: Leena Kim and Isiah Magsino , “What’s Left to See?” Town & Country, Summer, 2024, p.47.
From Boredom to ZZZZ
Randy Smith, a former motivational speaker, has a tutorial on how to use Microsoft Word that the internet has pronounced “The most boring video ever made.” Strangers text to thank him for putting them to sleep.
White noise like ocean waves are popular soporofics, but many prefer the human drone.
And there is competition. The sleep-deprived in Britain enjoy five hour loops of the BBC shipping forecast. Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio will deliver full-length play-by-play of baseball games.
Others are happy with audio books. Arthur C. Clarke’s 1973 novel Rendezvous with Rama has been pronounced “audio ambien.”
See: Spencer Jakab, “Is This the Most Boring Man In the World?” The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2024, p.A1.
Obits of Note
Roger Corman (1926-2024) was the “King of B-Pictures,” producing 500 films ranging from trashy to schlocky with little money and even less time. Little Shop of Horrors became a cult classic.
And he mentored then unknowns like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, teaching them that film was a spectacle. He said, “Every film would be improved by removing 15 minutes and adding a helicopter explosion.”
See: “The B-movie king who trained A-list directors,” The Week, May 24, 2024, p.35.
Alice Munro (1931-2024) wanted to write since she was a child growing up on a Canadian fur farm where her parents raised foxes and minks. She married, had children, and wrote during their afternoon nap.
The 1968 Dance of the Happy Shades was her breakout winning the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s top literary prize. She had a long association with The New Yorker, won a Nobel Prize in 2013, and was called “our Chekhov” by writer Cynthia Ozaick.
Alice said she wanted to make the short story important art, “not something you play around with until you got a novel written.”
See: “The writer who found depth in the ordinary,” The Week, May 31, 2024, p.35.
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A Transformative Model for Open Access
• Unlimited Open Access publishing for all corresponding authors in ACM’s magazines, conference proceedings and journals
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Impact on the Research Community
• Articles receive 2-3x the number of full-text article downloads
• Articles receive up to 70% more citations
• Authors are immediately compliant with the vast majority of Public and Private Research Funder Open Access Mandates
• Authors retain the copyright of their published article
A More Cheerful Obit
Richard M. Sherman (1928-2024) was raised by an actress mother and a dad who worked in Tin Pan Alley. Richard and his brother Robert were taught by the father the tenets of “simple, singable, and sincere.”
The brothers began writing right after college and scored top10 hits. “You’re 16, You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine” caught the attention of Walt Disney. They wrote hundreds of songs for Disney in movies like Mary Poppins, The Aristocats, and The Jungle Book. “A Spoon Full of Sugar,” was typical in that it moved the plot along but also could stand on its own. Plus it preached a happy attitude to life.
See: “The songwriter who made the medicine go down,” The Week, June 7, 2024, p.35.
Manga Goes Kabuki
Everyone knows Kabuki, Japan’s 400-year-old theatrical art with its stylized poses, opulent costumes, and white-faced makeup. But its primary fan base, senior women, are dying off. And Kabuki is seeking a younger crowd.
Elderly women in kimonos are now confronted by a young audience waving neon light sticks, blaring pop music, and a computer-generated aqua-haired teen girl in a short skirt and thigh-high stockings.
See: Miho Inada, “Kabuki’s Glow-Up: The Shogun Must Be Turning in His Grave,” The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2024, p.A1.
What’s In a Name? Maybe College $$$
Few are aware of it, but there are many college scholarships that require the right last name. Derek Gatlin got a full scholarship to NC State, which living in California, he had barely heard of.
Harvard has a half-dozen “ancestry based” scholarships. The U. of Maine has 38. Loyola U. of Chicago offers one to good Catholics named Zolp. Yes these are going to students who trace their ancestry to the donor or just have the same last name.
For the donors to get a charitable tax deduction, they must have the lineage as merely a preference. This means the money is used by others if it goes unclaimed, and the donor avoids what the IRS calls “private benefit.”
See: Melissa Korn, “The College Scholarship Secret Hiding in Plain Sight,” The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2024, p.A1.
Guardian Woodwose
The Medieval Woodwose or Wildman was a great hairy beast with a big club found lurking in odd nooks of architecture, in tapestries, on cups, playing cards, coats of arms.
He is cousin to but not the same as the leafy Greenman. Kingsley Amis’ 1969 novel The Green Man mixes the two up.
Both presented the wild opposite nature to civilization. Untamed nature loosened the bonds of hierarchy and allowed folks to revel in arcadian therapy. Shakespeare’s As You Like It (1598) has court exiles doing just that in the Forest of Arden.
See: Susan Owens, “Call of the Wild,” Country Life, Jan. 31, 2024, p.54.
Letters to the Editor continued from page 6
Dear Toni:
Since it is our first time to participate at this conference, in addition to the exhibitor pack, is there anything I need to pay special attention to?
Are there marketing channels to # or @ the conference to your attendees so we can start promoting our presence and gaining more participation to the show?
Cecilia Liu (Sales Director, Notion Wave) <Cecilia.Liu@notionwave.com>
Hi Cecilia,
Yes, we’d be pleased to have you promote your presence in Charleston!
Our hashtag will be #ChsConf24 — some always add the “a” so #ChasConf24 will be our unofficial tag.
The Exhibitor Info PDF file does contain all the details you’ll need going forward but I’m happy to help if you have additional questions.
Thank you, Toni Nix (Coordinator for the Vendor Showcase) <justwrite@lowcountry.com>
<https://www.charleston-hub.com/media/atg/>
Primary Sources as a Tool for Delivering Your Student Success Goals
By Holly Francis (Senior Marketing Manager, AM) <Hollyf@amdigital.co.uk>
Student success is a common phrase across campus encompassing a broad range of factors from academic achievement and retention to personal development and career paths. Although it can mean different things in different institutional contexts, broadly speaking a focus on developing intellectual curiosity and a lifelong passion for learning in every student through their college experience sits at the heart of it.
A strategy of student success looks to ensure that not only do students graduate, but they do so with the skills, knowledge and experience to succeed beyond the walls of the college campus.
At AM, we believe that at the heart of education is the freedom to think critically. Harnessing the latest technologies, we support student success by reimagining primary sources to empower current and future generations to challenge, analyse and debate.
Introducing students across all disciplines to primary sources during their degree experience can help foster not only a deeper understanding of historical events but also increase student engagement with a variety of materials available through the library, and allow students to build those vital critical thinking skills. Having an understanding
and knowledge of primary source literacy provides the tools to locate, interpret, evaluate and analyse data and content incorporating many forms of literacy such as informational, statistical, visual, aural, and tactile.
In the articles gathered for this issue, we’ve looked at how primary sources have been used as a basis for support of student success at different institutions and with different approaches. How students are supported and guided in their approach to primary sources for research can transform their learning outcomes.
From technology supporting archival professionals in Ukraine, to teaching with records from the National Archives, UK, each article takes a different approach, yet all have the same goal: To enrich the learning experience of the student and equip them with the broader skills needed for a lifetime of success.
<https://www.charleston-hub.com/media/atg/>
Due to generous library support, Michigan Publishing continuously adds content (much of it Open Access) to various hosted and publisher collections. Explore some of the largest collections below.
Fund to Mission
The University of Michigan Press converts 75% of its frontlist titles within the ebook collection to open access through the Fund to Mission monograph model. Libraries that purchase the collection receive perpetual access to approximately 80 frontlist titles as well as term access to a growing backlist of over 1,900 titles.
ebc.press.umich.edu
The American Council of Learned Societies Humanities Ebook
Collection is a subscription-based collection of over 6,100 scholarly books from over 125 publishers. Members of ACLS learned societies nominate books for inclusion, and Michigan Publishing licenses them and pays royalties to contributing publishers.
humanitiesebook.org
These collections are fully accessible on Fulcrum, a leading open-source platform for digital scholarship developed by the University of Michigan Press. Fulcrum places a strong emphasis on durability, accessibility, flexibility, discoverability, and integrity.
Lever Press offers a collective solution to open access book publishing. With the participation of more than 50 academic institutions and publishing support from Michigan Publishing, Lever Press produces peer-reviewed, openaccess monographs at no cost to authors or their academic institutions.
leverpress.org
To learn more, visit the sites above or go to publishing umich edu to see all the ways your library can support humanities ebooks and open access through Michigan Publishing.
ACLS HEB
Lever Press
Using Government Documents in Undergraduate Teaching: A Student Success Case Study from the University of Dundee, UK
By Nick Jackson (Senior Editor, AM Archives Direct) <nickj@amdigital.co.uk>
Dr. Matt Graham uses the AM Archives Direct database Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1994 as the basis for an assignment in an undergraduate module at the University of Dundee. The purpose is to equip students for success with the skills and experience needed to get a taste of being real historians through the use of primary sources and their own research.
A significant appeal of using AM Archives Direct as a basis for this task is the equity of access it gives to documents held at the National Archives in London, with Dundee about six hours away. The digitisation of these materials through AM’s Apartheid South Africa resource provides a level of access to the documents that would not otherwise be readily available to these students.
As one student commented: “ The access to the online information was fantastic, because I’d not have been able to get hold of it otherwise. This set the basis for my dissertation project next semester.”
What is AM Archives Direct?
AM Archives Direct, which consists of exclusive sources from the UK government’s official archives, provides crucial insight into modern geopolitics from the perspective of the British state. Spanning 200 years of global history, the materials document the roots of major developments and conflicts that shape our world today and present essential primary source content for students of global politics, international relations and area studies.
The material largely consists of government correspondence between representatives of the British government at both diplomatic and administrative posts all over the world. There are also many reports and statistics, published booklets and other ephemera, formal dispatches and digests, newspaper cuttings and maps.
The Apartheid South Africa: 1948-1994 Database
The collection is one of the longest standing resources in AM’s Archives Direct series. It spans forty years of history, from the election of the National Party in 1948 through to the first free elections in 1994, a period in which South Africa faced increasing international resistance, boycotts, internal strikes and violent demonstrations.
In 2024, AM published a new module in this collection consisting of newly released documents from the National Archives spanning the years 1981 to 1988; documents from 1989 to 1994 are due for release in 2025.
Sophie Davis, Development Editor from AM, commented on the publication of the latest module: “One of the biggest highlights of this resource is that The National Archives have recently released documents, which is why we are now able to produce this project. So we are presenting a very exciting offering of files which many researchers will not have yet been able to access in the archive.”
Approaching Primary Sources in Class
With the aim of enhancing student success, course leader Matt Graham takes advantage of the Apartheid South Africa collection, pinpointing several pertinent documents to share in class. These materials are pivotal in guiding students through the contextualisation of the course themes and serve as catalysts for discussion and debate.
The introduction of Apartheid South Africa primary source material, drawn from the British state’s official archive, offers these students a robust framework for understanding the nature and purpose of archival materials. This exploration, under Matt’s guidance, prompts critical questions such as why these specific materials were preserved and what narratives they convey. Engaging with these questions, students learn to approach primary sources with an analytical and critical mindset, contemplating the existence and representation of the materials.
Although representative of the British perspective, the Apartheid South Africa collection is also used to highlight stories of resistance and reports on various anti-apartheid movements — a topic Matt wrote about in his essay found within the resource. This dimension enables students to work with broader themes from a compulsory module on historical methodologies, including decolonial practices such as reading against the grain, uncovering silences and discovering marginalised voices in the archival record. This method not only enhances their analytical skills but also deepens their understanding of historical narratives and the complexities of archival research.
Introducing the Database
Matt’s class, “Apartheid Liberation and Democracy,” is a final-year undergraduate degree module.
At the beginning of the semester, Matt demonstrates the Apartheid South Africa database to the whole class and provides basic training on
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the ways in which the collection can be used. The students are then given the opportunity to explore the resources themselves ahead of the assignment.
On the collection’s ease of use, Matt commented: “I just really wanted to reiterate how easy it is to use, which then makes the lives of educators, but also the students, much simpler too. Which I think everyone would agree is a good thing!”
The Assignment of “Becoming a Historian”
The students are asked to create an independent project in which they are tasked with looking at online databases through the lens of a concept or theme they want to research further.
The students must identify at least eight different primary sources, which could be anything from correspondence to minutes, maps to pictures. After identifying, analysing and collating these materials themselves, the students write a 2,500-word analysis of those materials in the context of the existing literature.
The unofficially titled “becoming a historian” assignment comes at the end of the semester, when the students have all the previously taught module themes to consider. They will have attended tutorials throughout the year, discussed the historiography and thought about the debates in tutorials; that learning from across the semester is then put into practice with the assignment.
There is a vast array of topics that can be looked at through the materials in the Apartheid South Africa database. Some examples of students’ previous topics include:
Apartheid Legislation and the Creation of South Africa’s Urban Landscape
In an assignment looking at the creation of South Africa’s urban landscape, the student considered the physical apartheid infrastructure that segregated cites and urban spaces. The student identified South African government documents to demonstrate how officials had conceptualised the process and reimagined South Africa, and then triangulated these to other primary sources to investigate and explore the tensions surrounding the forced removal of people from cities to create white-only areas.
The Incoherence of “Grand Apartheid”
Another student focused on “grand apartheid,” the plan of the South African government to segregate all of South Africa into designated “homelands” for each ethnic group identified by the apartheid system. Using maps and official documentation in Apartheid South Africa, the student was able to chart the incoherence in the government’s own thinking. They demonstrated an innovative use of the materials, viewing how the strategy played out as well as the lasting impact and legacies of this policy.
Youth Protests and the Rise of Black Consciousness
Turning from the focus on the apartheid state more broadly in the examples above, other students looked at the impact of white-minority rule through other events, such as the youth protests that emerged in the late-sixties into the 1970s. Projects looked at the ways in which these developments were reported by British officials and newspapers and also by the South African state. The students were able to chart the role of key figures, such as Steve Biko, and how new forms of resistance were reported and reflected in official government documentation.
Resistance and Repression in the 1950s
The final example here is a focus on the 1950s, in the initial years after the National Party took power, when there was enormous resistance to the implementation of apartheid. Although white-minority rule had existed in South Africa for hundreds of years prior to this, in the 1950s, there began an outpouring of sustained resistance, for example, in the African National Congress’s Defiance Campaign. The student in question was able to use primary sources to identify these forms of resistance and document a resulting sense of panic within the apartheid government as well as the ways in which resistance was violently supressed.
Student Success
With any assignment, it is important for instructors to consider the pedagogical value and purpose and to assess what results from it for the students and whether those match the intended purpose of the assignment design.
The examples given above are just four final-year research projects for this module which have used a wealth of primary source document types across a variety of topics, all of which were only accessible to these students in digital form through AM Archives Direct.
Prioritising primary sources here allowed students to put into practice many of the skills they had developed across their degree course, from using the module context to generate a
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research question to understanding and reviewing the existing historical literature. By using databases to identify the primary source materials, students were able to effectively place their chosen topic within the broader academic ecosystem and to develop and hone the skills needed to write the assignment itself and present a coherent argument.
Through the digital access to this resource, the documents look and appear exactly as they would if a student was to view them physically at The National Archives in Kew. The students are also able to experience the well-known joys and frustrations of opening a file and not finding what they want or, alternatively, stumbling across a find which is totally unexpected.
The benefits of this assignment to the students are numerous.
Students gain practical experience of doing the work that historians do and are given the opportunity to take ownership of a project and direct their own research. In Matt’s experience, if students take ownership of a project, they are more likely to get better results out of it because they have chosen their topic themselves and so enjoy personal investment in it. They have the freedom to follow a route to pursue particular themes that stand out or resonate with them within the guiding framework of the module..
As one student reported in their feedback about the assignment: “I loved the freedom that this assignment gave me to research what I was most interested in rather than doing a set essay question or exam.”
The Student Experience
Dr. Matt Graham has been using AM’s Apartheid South Africa database in class for five years as the underpinning of this assignment. Initially, he assumed that students would have some knowledge of how to approach a database of this type. However, early student-experience feedback highlighted that students required more thorough guidance in using primary sources and navigating databases within the framework of the module. As a result, he has refined his approach over the years to introduce those previously assumed experiences and understandings early on.
The experience of the assignment and the skills students use in it sets them up for success while also providing a starting point for future dissertation research. Students are presented with an opportunity to develop wider transferable skills in research and digital literacy and, through using the Apartheid South Africa database in this assignment, they develop the practical skills required for this advanced level of study, including how digital collections are used and how to navigate them successfully.
Beyond this class, the experience of using digital databases assists not only with the skills needed for academic research, but also with the fundamentals of using search engines in novel and effective ways.
As one student summed up in their feedback: “It made me feel like a real historian.”
Teaching Experience
There is an array of benefits to the students through working on these assignments, but educators also gain through reading and reviewing interesting and insightful projects written by passionate and engaged historians-in-training.
The vast majority of those taking Matt’s class have very little existing knowledge of South African history, and the AM collection provides a good deal of contextual support. Prior to the course, students may have heard of Nelson Mandela or the term “apartheid,” but the use of databases such as Apartheid South Africa gets students immersed in the history to show them not only what was happening in South Africa but also how these events were regarded from an outside viewpoint too.
Ultimately, the quality of the work that the students are able to produce using this database and within the scope of this assignment is by and large excellent, with the topics selected representing a superb range and variety of approaches in and to South African history. The assignment has served as a way of providing feedback to Matt, as the course leader, on what students find interesting across the module, as well as providing a more holistic picture of student interest, engagement and successes.
The Archives Direct Series
AM Archives Direct provides an unparalleled view for both researchers and for teachers across the UK’s interactions and relations with foreign and colonial governments throughout Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.
As of September 2024, there are 14 AM Archives Direct collections with more in the pipeline, as well as plans to add new sections to existing resources as material becomes available. As far as possible, AM digitises complete runs of documents in full, with only occasional gaps where documents have either been closed and are not publicly available, or have been retained for use by the government department that has produced them.
AM Archives Direct collections have recently been migrated to AM’s in-house software platform, AM Quartex. The move adds enhanced functionality and smoother and more comprehensive user experience, as well as increased accessibility standards. To assist ease of use across each collection within the series, AM has also implemented a new federated AM Search tool, enabling browsing and searching across all AM Archives Direct collections to which a user has access.
AM continues to work with The National Archives, UK, to identify and publish valuable and insightful material to add to the AM Archives Direct series.
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Archives Under Fire: Supporting the Next Generation of Professionals with AM Archival School for Ukraine
By Holly Francis (Senior Marketing Manager, AM) <Hollyf@amdigital.co.uk>
In March 2024 AM , a global publisher of primary source collections and archival technology provider, announced a new partnership with the Galt Museum & Archives to fund and support a pioneering international initiative for cultural heritage preservation in Ukraine.
The AM Archival School for Ukraine, a week-long summer school first piloted in 2023 by Andrew Chernevych, Head Archivist at the Galt Museum & Archives, welcomed eight trainees currently employed in archives across Ukraine, including those heavily impacted by conflict, to collaborate and develop their archival knowledge with the support of professionals from a variety of institutions.
Why Partner with AM?
When searching for a partner, Chernevych discovered AM, “I first came across AM at a conference and was fascinated at how closely their mission aligned with my work at the Galt.” AM is a mission-driven organisation that actively seeks collaboration with the wider academic community to support archives, libraries and the continued study of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The AM mission — We believe that at the heart of education is the freedom to think critically. Harnessing the latest technologies, we reimagine primary sources to empower current and future generations to challenge, analyse and debate.
The AM Archival School for Ukraine
Hosted in June 2024 at the renowned international archival repository of the Blinken OSA Archivum in Budapest, Hungary, the trainees travelled from the following archives:
• State Archives of Khmelnytskyi Region, Khmelnytskyi
• State Archives of Kherson Region, Kherson
• Central State Archive of Public Associations and Ukrainians, Kyiv
• State Archives of Sumy Region, Sumy
• Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archives of Ukraine, Kyiv
• State Archive of Chernivtsi Region, Chernivtsi
• Central State Archive-Museum of Literature & Art of Ukraine, Kyiv
• State Archives of Poltava Region, Poltava
The AM Archival School for Ukraine’s mission was to upskill the trainees and provide access to tools to develop their current archive roles through knowledge sharing and hands-on workshops. A pivotal part of this mission, and a key impetus for AM’s support of the initiative, was the request to use AM Quartex, a digital platform for sharing archival materials.
Recognising that the platform would provide the trainees with vital tools and knowledge to return to Ukraine and join the national efforts to digitally preserve the country’s heritage, AM was keen to fully engage with the programme and provided free access to the platform as well as comprehensive in-person training and onboarding support.
Martin Drewe, Head of Customer Experience, AM, said of the support, “AM Quartex is a powerful tool and we recognised the value it could provide to archival professionals in Ukraine. By providing free access to our platform, as well as training and ongoing support, we’re living up to our mission and supporting a community of professionals working under tremendously difficult circumstances whilst also supporting their efforts to provide online access to vital material no longer available in person.”
A Programme for Trainee Success
The intensive programme was delivered by an international contingent including Maryna Chernyavska from the University of Alberta, technical specialists from AM, archivists from the Blinken OSA, and more. Across a week of sessions, the summer school covered various aspects of archival practices and international collaboration including discussions on common archival systems and best practice across European archives, explorations of reference service models, and discussions of the unique challenges currently faced by Ukrainian archives. A key component of the week was the exploration of digital tools and platforms that support the global cultural heritage sector, including emergency digitisation programmes and platforms including AM Quartex.
On the broad scope of the week-long programme, one trainee commented, “It was an interesting experience to get acquainted with the working methods of our colleagues from abroad. I saw many practices that I was not aware of before and that I would like to see implemented in the Ukrainian archival system.”
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The extended programme also included:
• An interactive presentation on the work of host archive, the Blinken OSA Archivum, with discussions on archival best practice and community engagement
• A trainee roundtable discussion sharing experiences working in archives under threat as well as processes for managing archival material and access in crisis situations
• A tour of the Central European University campus in Budapest
• A series of Quartex workshops introducing trainees to the fundamentals of a digital archive platform. Including hands-on learning providing the skills and knowledge to continue using the technology beyond the programme.
Many stories were shared between trainees and instructors, new skills were acquired, and some exciting plans made for continued learning and innovation.
As another trainee summed up, “I was very pleased to join this programme, because I got an unforgettable experience, new knowledge and new acquaintances. Personally, I discovered a lot of new and useful things. It was very interesting to study the work of foreign archives and see how the institution works in practice, talk with employees and compare the activities of archives of different countries. I also really enjoyed our hands-on work with the Quartex system, especially the process of creating our own virtual collections.”
Using AM Quartex
Alongside the key alignment of AM’s mission with that of the programme, the use of Quartex was fundamental to the continued impact of the partnership.
Developed by AM to present its own primary source collections, Quartex is a digital asset management (DAM) system that enables libraries and archives to powerfully showcase, share and celebrate their archival materials in intuitive and visually engaging ways. The platform is used by libraries, archives, museums and heritage organisations around the world to showcase digital content in an engaging and easy-to-use way. Against the backdrop of the ongoing war and the risk to physical material, digitising content to publish on AM Quartex could prove to be transformational for Ukraine’s heritage sector.
Quartex harnesses cutting-edge technologies and dynamic content to maximise discovery, accessibility and engagement with your digitised materials. A full day of the programme was dedicated to introducing the trainees to AM Quartex and providing them with necessary training and knowledge to return to their archives and upskill their own teams on its use.
Rebecca Lynd, who led the workshop on AM Quartex, commented, “As I led demos and hands-on workshops, I was inspired hearing the trainees discuss all the ways they could use the platform when they returned to their archives. Working with AM Quartex every day, I get to see the impact it has on communities around the world and I’m eagerly anticipating the work we’ll do together to support these Ukrainian archives publish and host content, for free, on the platform.”
What’s Next?
AM’s partnership with Chernevych and the Galt Museum & Archives will continue to support summer school trainees. One key aspect is the continued free trainee access to Quartex which will support a collaborative project dedicated to making vulnerable materials from each trainee’s institution publicly accessible online. Armed with the knowledge, experience and enthusiasm from the AM Archival Summer School for Ukraine, the ambition remains that the trainees will spearhead initiatives within their own institutions to curate and publish material over the coming months.
Martha Fogg, Managing Director at AM, underscored the company’s commitment to the archival community commenting, “The AM Archival School for Ukraine brings together everything that we value as an organisation and speaks deeply to our mission and values. We’ve witnessed the devastating impact the conflict in Ukraine has had on the cultural heritage of the country. Through close collaboration with Andrew, the Galt Museum & Archives, and the Blinken OSA, we hope to be able to do our part to provide tools to the archivists working so hard to preserve the heritage of Ukraine.”
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In the context of the ongoing Russian invasion and the EU integration, Ukraine is mobilising to protect its cultural heritage, while building a solid foundation for the future. The AM Archival School for Ukraine has been a stepping stone for better practices, professional growth, and international collaboration and the ongoing access to Quartex provided to the trainees will create innovative and important opportunities for digital preservation and access.
One trainee summed up the value of their experience in Budapest, “Participation in the archival summer school gave me new knowledge and an incentive to improve my professional skills and organize the work of my archive” and concluded, “I hope that in the future more people will be able to join this program, because the knowledge gained in these few days is extremely valuable and unique.”
This collaborative endeavour underscores AM’s continued commitment to supporting current and future generations of archivists, scholars and researchers and the Galt Museum & Archives’ unwavering commitment to global cultural heritage and its role as a catalyst for positive change and sustainability.
To find out more about the programme or how your institution could utilise AM Quartex, contact Holly Francis <hollyf@amdigital.co.uk>.
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Shaping Student Success and Lifelong Learning with Digital Primary Sources
By Chloe Hilton (Marketing Communications Manager, AM) <chloeh@amdigital.co.uk>
As the education sector continues its digital transformation, coupled with the lasting effects of a global pandemic, the role of digital primary sources in enriching higher education, research and student success has evolved.
Interaction with primary sources lays the foundation for rich, engaging, and dynamic educational experiences, setting students on the path of academic excellence and a deeper understanding of their fields of study. The shift to a hybrid, and sometimes remote, way of learning has revealed the crucial importance of accessible primary sources in a time where physical access to archives and libraries is not always possible. Ensuring access to primary sources has been essential in maintaining robust academic engagement and learning continuity, and student success.
A comprehensive survey, undertaken by AM following the pandemic, explored the changing landscape of online learning to understand how students interact with digital primary sources and the specific challenges that educators face when teaching with source materials. The survey illuminated some of the challenges universities face when integrating these materials into their teaching and learning frameworks and also highlighted how the pandemic reshaped methodologies with an increased reliance on digital resources through the library to ensure equitable access and student success.
The Value of Primary Sources
Students often start their interaction with primary sources from a place of unfamiliarity. Results from the survey showed that 46% of librarians and teaching staff felt that only some or very few students knew what a primary source was when starting their course. The term “primary sources” itself can be daunting and ambiguous for those new to academic research, leading to initial difficulties, confusion and reluctance to navigate these valuable materials.
However, the survey indicated positive trends; as students delve deeper into primary sources, their understanding and engagement improve significantly. This deeper engagement fosters the development of a range of invaluable academic skills that can be applied to a range of subjects and disciplines, including critical reasoning, adept evidence collection and evaluation, insight into original research methodologies, and the ability to analyse historical narratives and contexts critically. These essential skills form a basis for academic success across a range of disciplines beyond History and provide students with a solid foundation for their future research and professional endeavours.
The ability to use these valuable skills not only with their research but also outside of their academic studies are what makes the ability to interrogate and engage with primary sources so valuable. One participant commented that critical thinking was a vital life skill for students to learn from their research with primary sources as it involved them “being challenged” and encouraged to “adopt a different perspective.”
By nurturing these skills as they evolve, students are able to look at their subjects and their research in different ways, enabling them to “develop their own line of inquiry and conclusions.”
Enhancing Student Engagement and Experience
Effective teaching strategies are essential in facilitating successful student interactions with primary sources, whether physical or digital. The survey revealed that there is no one-sizefits-all method when it comes to engaging students effectively. Tailoring materials to align with the specific academic needs and interests of classes and curriculums has been shown to lead to more engaging and fruitful educational experiences, and using varied exercises within the classroom and in external assignments can encourage engagement in different and unexpected ways. This customisation is fundamental in creating a more dynamic and impactful student experience, ensuring that students remain motivated and invested in their studies. 71% of respondents felt that manuscripts, such as correspondence, diaries or other handwritten materials, were the primary sources most effective in engaging students, while others thought an object of material culture or audiovisual source was more impactful. Once digitised, this range of primary sources can seamlessly blend into classrooms, facilitating independent learning and enhancing academic achievement based on the unique requirements of the class or even the institution as a whole.
There are also various methodologies and approaches that can be explored when introducing students to primary source material. Discussions surrounding the broader context of a source and the significance of an object can lead to deeper analysis of the language and content contained within. While some lecturers ask interrogative questions, others prefer to allow the students to work together to “unravel the layers,” giving minimal context and discussion beforehand. It was generally agreed across responses that group analysis and collaboration promoted the best engagement outcomes.
Survey participants agreed that the joy of working with primary sources comes from allowing students to independently and proactively develop their own interpretations about historical research. By encouraging students to critically engage with sources and materials, present their own findings and contribute to discussions, educators believed this significantly enhanced the learning experience.
Student Learning with Primary Source Research
While primary source research can present initial challenges for students, with support and guidance, this methodology can quickly become a highly engaging and successful way of learning. Feedback shows that while the integration and analysis of primary source materials may confuse some at first, students gain confidence and enjoy embedding contextual research into their work. Cited as being more satisfying and enjoyable than working with secondary sources, these experiences contribute
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not only to their historical understanding but also enhance their analytical and scholarly skills, improving student success in the long term.
When asked what students enjoy most about working with primary sources, 85% of respondents noted it was the first-hand connection with the materials and their research. 75% also felt it was the ownership of this fresh research that inspired the most enjoyment, while other academics and librarians chose the increased sense of professionalism and improved critical thinking skills as key factors. Participants observed that students “love the freedom to make their own interpretation” and the ability to “engage with the past themselves.” When able to successfully include primary sources within their research, this is seen by students as a method of putting “all the skills they have learnt into producing a piece of work that is the closest they come to working like a professional historian.” When students develop these vital research skills and methods, they can achieve successful, independent academic outcomes.
Enhancing Digital Skills and Learning
Despite the numerous challenges that surfaced during the pandemic, such as technical difficulties and the lack of in-person interactions, the continuation of remote teaching and hybrid learning models since has presented unique opportunities to fundamentally enhance the learning experience. The transition to these models has evolved access to education, especially through the enhanced use of audiovisual materials and increased digital interaction. These advancements have enabled a more inclusive and diversified approach to teaching and learning, breaking down geographical and temporal barriers that previously limited access to education in some cases.
The continued and increased use of digital primary sources has also spurred advancements in educational technology and pedagogy. Institutions continue to invest in digital platforms and tools to facilitate the seamless integration of these resources into the curriculum. This investment has led to an evolution in the development and adoption of innovative teaching methods that leverage technology in a way that enhances student engagement and learning outcomes. These methods include interactive digital lectures, virtual reality experiences, and online collaborative projects, all of which provide immersive and experiential learning opportunities that traditional methods may not offer.
Integrating digital primary sources into these programmes also supports developing digital literacy skills among students. As they navigate online databases, digital archives, and other electronic resources, students acquire essential digital competencies that are increasingly important in the modern workplace. These skills include navigating digital platforms, conducting online research, and critically evaluating digital content. Enhancing these skills not only improves students’ academic performance but also prepares them for the demands of a digitally driven professional world. Survey participants stated it had “broadened their horizons and forced them to learn new research skills” with regards to student research.
The use of digital primary sources is increasingly promoting an interdisciplinary approach to learning and research with the availability of diverse types of primary sources, such as historical documents, audiovisual recordings, and digital artifacts, encouraging students to approach their studies from multiple subjects and perspectives. This interdisciplinary approach enriches the learning experience and fosters a deeper
understanding of complex topics. By engaging with varied sources from multiple different databases, students can draw connections across different fields of study, leading to more comprehensive and innovative research outcomes.
Equitable Access for Students and Researchers
In addition to enhancing the learning experience, the use of digital primary sources has significant implications for how research is conducted. Students and researchers benefit from the increased accessibility and availability of digital archives, which enables them to conduct more comprehensive and efficient research. One survey participant explained that their institutions investment in digital primary sources had meant there was “a huge wealth of materials available for students to work on dissertations.” The ability to access a wide range of primary sources from anywhere in the world accelerates the research process, increases the opportunity for shared research, and facilitates the discovery of new insights and perspectives. This increased accessibility can drive innovation and progress in various fields of study particularly when approaching from an interdisciplinary view.
Additionally, digital primary sources have proved invaluable in bridging gaps in educational resources, particularly when physical access to libraries, archives, and other resource centres cannot always be achieved. The ease of accessing these resources online has improved information access and made it more readily available to a broader audience, promoting a more equitable educational environment. This equitisation of resources is crucial in fostering a more inclusive academic community, where students can succeed regardless of their background, geographic location or institution type.
Despite the clear advantages of digital primary sources, it is essential to recognise and address that these resources are not without challenges. One of the primary challenges is the need for proper digital infrastructure and support across all access points. Educational institutions must ensure that both students and educators are supported with reliable access to internet connections, up-to-date devices, digital security and the necessary technical support for accessibility. Overcoming these challenges is crucial in maximising the benefits of digital primary sources, ensuring a seamless and effective learning experience regardless of access point or user.
Transformational Educational Experiences
The integration of digital primary sources into higher education and research represents a significant advancement in the academic landscape. This transition, accelerated by the global pandemic, has highlighted the crucial importance of accessible digital resources in maintaining educational continuity and promoting student success. The survey showed that by fostering critical academic skills, enhancing digital literacy, and promoting interdisciplinary research, digital primary sources have the potential to transform the educational experience and drive innovation in various fields of study.
By investing in digital infrastructure, offering comprehensive and diverse learning resources, and encouraging student engagement, institutions can create a more inclusive, dynamic, and effective learning environment. As the educational landscape continues to evolve, the role of digital primary sources will likely become increasingly central, shaping the future of education and research in profound and lasting ways.
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Student Success at the Heart of Towson University
By Ashley Todd-Diaz, PhD (Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections and University Archives, Towson University) <atodddiaz@towson.edu>
and Felicity Knox (Assistant University Archivist
Librarian,
Towson University) <fknox@towson.edu>
Towson University (TU) began as an institution for educating teachers for Maryland’s public school system in 1866. Because graduates of the school would go into the state workforce and impact generations of children, interest in ensuring students’ success within the academic setting has been of top interest to school administrators since its start.
The Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) department was founded in 1970 as TU’s institutional memory and among the records it holds are many that document student experiences, including student newspapers, class and committee records, photographs, and yearbooks. We use these collections to support student success by engaging in a range of high impact practices that offer students hands-on research opportunities with our collections, apply information and archival literacy skills, and ultimately understand that they belong here, and each are part of the rich history of the institution.
Understanding Why Archives Exist
Starting in 2016, SCUA began a concerted effort to engage more with current students by considering the personal relevance of archival records to our students. If we wanted current students to understand why archives exist, how they personally relate to students who have attended TU before them, and why their own records are valuable to our institution, we needed to encourage students to use the records we hold. To do this work, we placed an emphasis on partnerships both inside and outside of TU and developed several programs over the last eight years. These include classes embedded in the archives, a student research initiative that investigates the history of intersectional diversity at TU, an undergraduate/graduate level internship program offering the opportunity to learn archival skills, and a high school internship program that provides handson experience with primary source collections.
Since adopting AM Quartex as our digital collections asset management system and discovery platform in 2021, we have woven this technology into these programs. Due to AM Quartex’s flexibility and user-friendly interface, we have been able to use it as a way for students to more easily explore our digital collections, share their research in ways that we would not have been able to support in the past, and inspire other students to explore and contribute to the collections held in SCUA.
Empowering Discovery
One of the required courses for first-year students at TU is a seminar, called the TSEM, which is designed to give students important skills for conducting research and writing a formal paper. This course includes library instruction sessions that address information literacy and how to navigate library resources; however, very few TSEM courses ever visited SCUA for instruction. In 2017, the Chair of the history department approached SCUA with the idea to develop a seminar focused on
student experience in the 1960s and 70s that would introduce and encourage students to conduct research with a variety of primary and secondary sources. The course featured an embedded model that placed the students in SCUA’s classroom for one third of their class sessions to help them become comfortable with the resource. In the first few years of the course, not many archival records were digitized and those that were digitized were not easily accessed; so, most of the students’ research in the archives was paper based and slow-going. Following our migration to AM Quartex, students could access our digital holdings outside of our physical space, which was incredibly important considering that we were in the middle of a pandemic. Features like timestamped transcriptions, keyword searching, and faceted browsing allowed students to dive into the collections in ways they could navigate the paper records, making their searches more effective and their research experience more empowering.
Showcasing Engagement
In addition to working with first-year seminars, SCUA also engages in high impact practices through supporting community-based learning and internships. A focus for these partnerships is to ensure students have opportunities to create learning objects during their time with us that they can bring with them into their future endeavors.
SCUA began working with Friends School of Baltimore (FSB) in 2016. A small cohort of students in a history class elective was introduced to our World War II collections and helped us develop a workflow for transcribing the materials. The class focused on understanding a moment in time by working with primary sources, and we created sessions to help them understand how the collection fit in with the history of the school as well as the overall time period. Since this program first began, FSB students have transcribed hundreds of documents, and the class size has grown every year.
On the other end of the educational journey, SCUA also partners with graduate programs in Library and Information Studies (LIS) to offer internships. An important piece of these internships is to provide hands-on learning opportunities through which students can apply the theories and best practices they have learned about in the classroom. By weaving AM Quartex into their learning experiences, not only do they have another competency to add to their resumes, but the students can also develop a range of artifacts to showcase their work in different ways. For example, a student who recently worked with us to process a collection of historic international stamps used AM Quartex to create the digital assets and associated metadata, as well as develop two digital exhibitions that allowed them to dive deeper into the context and cultural significance of the stamps. By using multiple features of the software, this student breathed life into this collection and demonstrated the work they
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had done to better understand these unique representations of different countries and cultures that provides other researchers with additional entry points to the collection’s research value.
New Ways to Share Research
In recent years, SCUA has also sought partnerships inside and outside the university to support student research. Since research can take many forms, finding avenues to share the products of those endeavors is not always straightforward. One reason we had for migrating to a new digital collections platform was to open new avenues for sharing student research accomplishments.
The Unearthing Towson’s History Project is an initiative centered on student research and advocacy. This initiative was developed in recognition of and response to the fact that history has traditionally been written by the victors and those in power and, therefore, the records kept in archives have also traditionally followed this trend with many of the voices represented coming from places of power and privilege. Reflecting on its own collections, in 2017, SCUA began partnering with the campus’ Center for Student Diversity and the history department to identify the gaps in our records and begin welcoming new voices and perspectives into our collections through oral histories, digital content, and contextual research artifacts created by the students. The flexibility of AM Quartex’s options for presenting collections and individual assets allowed students to creatively consider how they would like to share the voices, stories, and broader trends they were investigating. Students can share the oral history records and transcriptions they have created but also develop associated resources within AM Quartex that situate those resources in a larger context. For example, one student studying the history of disability and accessibility on TU’s campus created a landing page that pulled together her oral histories with students and administrators, timelines and blog posts discussing disability and accessibility services offered on campus over time, digitized legislative documents that shaped these services, and a recommended bibliography compiled
through their research. Although this student knew nothing about web design, Quartex’s user-friendly interface empowered them to create a welcoming and informative resource that passes their in-depth research forward to other students and researchers.
In 2018, SCUA welcomed a summer intern from Notre Dame Preparatory high school (NDP). The students in this program spend about 20 hours total with us over the course of a week, so finding a discreet project for them was a bit of a challenge. With the introduction of the wiki on our website, we decided to invite the NDP students to research topics that interested them and then compose a wiki entry which also names the NDP student as author. We give them a worksheet which helps guide them through the research and composition process, including links to parts of our digital collections they wish to include. Ultimately, the finished product is something they can share with potential admissions committees, faculty members, or employers to show their experience working with primary materials.
Conclusion
Since 2017, Towson University’s Special Collections and University Archives department has established partnerships across campus and beyond to find ways to engage students more fully with the records we hold. In return, these relationships have helped us expand our digital collections, which gives researchers more access to our records, as well as demonstrating effective partnerships to our individual communities. This work has been more fruitful because of the unique features of AM Quartex which have allowed all of us to imagine new ways of sharing the results of our collaborations. Students can easily see themselves not only in the records we hold but also in the work we do to continue to preserve the history and memory of all the members of the Towson University community. For us, this is the hallmark of supporting students as they continue their educational and professional careers.
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Exploring the History of Hawai’i: The Role of the Digitised Archive in Student Success
By Laura Blomvall (Engagement Manager, AM) <laurab@amdigital.co.uk>
In July 2024, eight students accompanied by faculty and alumni mentors from the Alpha Beta Epsilon chapter of the U.S. national Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa travelled from Hawaiʻi to United Kingdom to conduct mini-research projects into Hawaiian material culture held in museums in the UK. The aim was to enhance the students’ historical and archival research skills — they had chosen research topics from sandalwood trade, featherwork, and Samoan siapo (barkcloth) to inclusive metadata and educational metadata — and to understand the kind of public impact this research can have, inspired by work done by faculty advisers which had resulted in the podcast “Stories Around a Feather Cloak.”
Carissa Chew, a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the president of the Alpha Beta Epsilon chapter, who also works as a professional speaker and Inclusive Metadata Consultant in the UK heritage sector, contacted AM to tell us of the group’s research trip. AM in turn offered to organise a lunch and learn session at one of the museums they were visiting to support student use of digitized materials in their research.
Online collections are invaluable in complementing the research students conduct in physical archives. One student’s thesis was entirely based on digitized archives. A second student mentioned work and personal commitments at home, as well as cost of travel, as factors that made research in physical archives challenging. Multiple students said they would use digitized archives first, before visiting archives in person. “ I always search online first,” one student said. “Once I find some useful information, I will go to the archive or museum to see the items that I would like to study.”
In preparing the lunch and learn on digitized archives, Carissa informed AM of the group’s aims. They had already seen a video shared by the AM Engagement team on how to search for material from Hawai’i and the Pacific in online collections, so learning how to locate material was a lower priority this time. Instead, what the group was interested in was the work that went into making an online primary source collection. “We’d be interested to learn more about what goes on behind-the-scenes when it comes to digitizing source materials,” Carissa said, ahead of the session. “We’re really interested in Hawaiian, Pacific, and Indigenous histories, so information about how you put together and publish those particular collections would be of interest. A couple of students have been working on inclusive metadata and educational metadata projects, too, so there will be some interest in the cataloguing side of things also.”
Dr. Clare Kellar, who works for the AM Engagement Team, travelled to the museum and presented to the students on what happens behind-the-scenes in the process of publishing primary sources that represent histories of diverse communities around the world. This was also one of the most rewarding aspects for Clare; she spoke of digitization and its challenges, creating effective metadata, language in the archives representing different communities, as well as the impact of new technologies on metadata, and indexing as a tool for uncovering hidden narratives in colonial documents. “I enjoyed the opportunity to share with the students some of the behind-the-scenes processes that go into creating AM databases, ” Clare reflected afterwards. “ It was a chance to highlight the amazing work of our different teams, and to try to convey some of the challenges of digitizing unique, irreplaceable historical records.” It was also fascinating to students engaged in questions of representation and provenance to consider the role publishers play in making available, but inevitably also mediating historical evidence. The workshop contrasted the challenges and responsibilities that arise from publishing primary sources produced by Indigenous communities, like ‘Ōlelo Hawai’I (Hawaiian language) newspapers digitized in AM’s Indigenous Newspapers in North America database, to primary sources originating from colonizer perspectives, such as the archival material digitised in the Africa and New Imperialism database, which traces European colonisation of the African continent.
However, the focus of this session was not for the students to learn from AM only about publishing archival material online; it was as much, if not more, about AM learning from the students, and using this as an opportunity to hear their fresh perspectives into the materials AM works with. During the session, there were rich debates on collection titling, in particular. “One of my main learnings from today’s session,” one student said in follow-up, emphasising how the theme of language had stuck with them, “was thinking more about the role vocabulary (and language) play in the digitization of documents. For example, how to best navigate finding terms that everyone is satisfied with.”
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In her turn, Clare, too, emphasised what she learnt from the students: “I definitely learned a lot from this group of researchers, about what they have chosen to study and about what matters to them in their work.” It was instructive to her particularly in highlighting the importance of openness and listening in publishing: “It reinforced for me the importance of collaboration with those whose histories are digitized in our databases,” she added, “and of always being open to hearing the views of people represented in these records .” The lunch and learn was not so much a presentation, as a dialogue, about the past of the archives, challenges and opportunities of archives right now as they increasingly exist in the digital space, and what the future of archives might look like as technologies improve and access widens.
Before, archives sometimes gave the impression of a past that’s presented to visitors in an already contained, preframed, way. In the opening pages of Possession, published in 1990 — the same year AM was founded and started publishing microfilm, before becoming a digital publisher in the early 2000s — A.S. Byatt described this feeling of the sealed nature of hidden away archives: “[The book] had been exhumed from Locked Safe No.5…It was immediately clear that the book had been undisturbed for a very long time, perhaps even since it had been laid to rest. The librarian fetched a checked duster, and wiped away the dust.” Primary sources are sealed in boxes, tagged and classified, locked in temperature and light-controlled rooms. They gather dust. But working with students today, as they access records both in physical archives and at home on their computers, these sources are exactly the opposite: they are alive, mobile, dynamic. Language changes, categories change, the terms of the debate change — and students are active participants in this conversation, this re-imagining of primary sources.
Student success is often measured in inputs — student selectivity and faculty-student ratio, for example — and outcomes: number of courses completed, rates of retention, final grades, average starting salary after graduation. But as Melissa Blankstein and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg have argued in the context of community colleges, students themselves, when surveyed, measured success differently. For the undergraduate and graduate members of this History Honor Society, a student-centered approach to learning aims to create opportunities that will enhance academic success (broadly conceived) and employability. Importantly, the broad learning goals of the society are aligned with principles of the Native Hawaiian Place of Learning Advancement Office (NHPOL), which favour a holistic and community-centered view of education, in keeping with the cultural practices and values of Hawai’i. For students involved in this project, which invites them to learn more about the relationship between museums and the history of Hawai’i, the ability to design their own two-year program removes the pressures of taking classes or receiving grades and allows time for meaningful and reflective engagement with historical materials.
While the focus of the project maps directly onto the research areas of some students and can be incorporated directly into their graduate program of study, it has allowed others to engage with Hawai’i’s rich history and culture for the first time. In terms of what the students were themselves hoping to achieve, Carissa said, “several students specified that they wanted to learn about the role of historical narratives and cultural contexts in interpreting material culture as well as the ethics of conservation and decolonization of museum practices.”
The Honor Society has effectively combined traditional pedagogical elements with wider opportunities outside the classroom to include archival research and museum visits as well as conversations with curators and other related industries, such as the conversations with AM. In this way, the student experience of academic study can be enriched by looking outwards to collaborate with both public and private organisations adjacent to the educational sector, in the creative industries of arts, heritage and publishing.
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ATG Special Report — Library Vendor Service
Expectations: Are Libraries and Their Vendors on the Same Page?
By Jonathan H. Harwell (Associate Director for Collection & Resource Services, Georgia College & State University) <jonathan.harwell@gcsu.edu>
and Erin Gallagher (Chair of Acquisitions & Collections Services, University of Florida) <gallaghere@ufl.edu>
Abstract
This article conveys the results of a global, cross-sector survey of vendor service expectations (with 414 validated responses) that illuminates overall expectations by library workers about vendor services, as well as how vendors perceive these expectations. The study explores areas of alignment and disconnection among library workers and vendors, highlighting the values and services prioritized by library workers, and the corresponding perceptions by vendors about library workers’ priorities. It seeks to achieve several goals: test assumptions around library/vendor collaboration; investigate areas of disconnection and alignment; spark curiosity and further research; and create a foundation for stronger partnerships through shared understanding.
The survey was designed with separate tracks for library workers and vendors, collecting quantitative ratings and qualitative comments. Key findings include alignment on prioritizing practical needs like remote access functionality. Disconnects appear in areas such as public libraries prioritizing vendor product knowledge over remote access. The results reveal that library workers and vendors are largely aligned on priorities, contrary to perceived narratives of opposition. While tensions persist in library/vendor dynamics, understanding each other’s values presents opportunities to reframe relationships through pragmatic convergence around user-driven needs.
Introduction
Library collections in all formats rely on vendor and consortium partners to supply content in the forms of books, journals, audiovisuals, databases, and other resources. Vendors, consortia, and library workers coexist in the same information industry and are dependent on each other for success. They ultimately share the same goal — for libraries to succeed — but the buyer/seller power dynamic, combined with perceived misalignment of priorities, often position them at odds with each other in achieving this goal. This study explores areas of alignment and disconnection among library workers and vendors, and highlights the values and services prioritized by library workers, as well as the corresponding perceptions by vendors about library workers’ priorities.
Traditionally, libraries license and purchase content that vendors sell in order to provide access to the resources their user communities need. Though many libraries create and provide access to their own content, often in the form of digitized collections, it is necessary to purchase the majority of content from outside providers. Ginanni, et al., address the buyer/seller relationship effectively in an informal “living room style” discussion. When asked about libraries doing business
with for-profit vendors, Ginanni shares, “You must negotiate the best deal and find a way to live with the devil if it is content that you need.”1
Ostergaard and Rossmann also explore library/vendor dynamics through the results of their 2017 survey: “An inherent tension exists with libraries serving in a service model and as a customer to vendors, while vendors have expectations from the corporate environment, which may be foreign to the academic library world.”2 These statements summarize tensions inherent in any buyer/seller relationship. The nature of this relationship has the potential to create a dynamic in which vendors control all terms of the sale and libraries have little power to influence such terms. Such forces impact communication, interactions, and relationship development between library workers and vendors and ultimately shape the larger narratives around how these two groups work together.
This article presents the findings of a global survey of library vendor service expectations that gathered perceptions of both library workers and vendors. The study achieves several goals: fill a gap in the scholarly corpus; test assumptions around library/vendor dynamics; investigate areas of disconnection and alignment; spark curiosity and further research; and enrich library worker and vendor partnerships through shared understanding.
Rather than focusing on specific projects, products, or systems, this global, cross-sector survey illuminates overall expectations by library workers about vendor services, as well as how vendors perceive these expectations. Do vendors understand libraries’ shifting priorities? What services do library workers genuinely value, and which are less important?
Both authors are academic library leaders specializing in collection management, each with a background in both smaller and larger libraries. One previously worked for a library vendor. Both are in roles that require constant and intensive vendor/ library collaboration, individually and through consortia. Prior to distributing the survey for this study, several colleagues tested and reviewed it upon request. This group intentionally included representatives from public libraries, academic libraries, and library vendors. They provided valuable feedback, including a comment that a question about deposit accounts seemed irrelevant, and indeed a new concept, to the public librarians in the group.
In the survey and in this article, the term “vendor” refers to those employed by content providers and publishers in any role. The term “library worker” refers to those employed in libraries in any role. “Consortia” or “consortium workers” refers to those employed by consortia who provide centralized, shared services in support of libraries.
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Literature Review
A review of the literature on librarian and vendor service expectations reveals a number of articles and blog posts addressing this topic. In an essay on library-vendor communications, Walther describes several positive and negative archetypes on both sides.3 Some publications, like Collaborative Librarianship and Against the Grain, encourage submissions that highlight collaboration across industries. A special issue of Journal of Library Administration, also published as a book entitled Library/Vendor Relationships, includes articles from academic, government, public library, and publisher perspectives, among others.4 The existing literature mostly covers this topic from a project-based approach or through the lens of working better together overall. Michael Gruenberg’s “Both Sides Now” column in Against the Grain highlights a different topic with each post, including the negotiation process and vendor presence at conferences.5 Gruenberg’s column sometimes serves to provide guidance to vendors based on his experience.6 Josh Nicholson’s blog post in the Charleston Hub is a prime example of the “working better together” category, using co-marketing of services as the basis of his post.7 Sarah Forzetting provides a set of practical tips for libraries hosting vendor meetings.8
Other authors have focused on analyzing business practices through an ethical or moral lens.9 Still others have examined library worker and vendor relationships in the context of specific projects such as evaluating library software vendors10 or analyzing vendor privacy policies. 11 Few authors have centered their gaze on library worker and vendor relations as a whole, without the springboard of a specific project. In 2009, GawneMark and Nichols published an article on “fostering mutually-beneficial librarian-vendor partnerships.” Drawing from their expertise in the vendor sector, their article reads as a “how-to manual” of sorts in working together to cultivate longterm relationships.12 In 2018, Gallagher built on this literature and drew on her experience both as a vendor representative and an academic librarian to challenge assumptions and provide guidance on collaborating beyond the traditional sales relationship.13
There is a precedent in the literature for surveying library workers and vendors regarding their relationships. Ostergaard and Rossmann published results from two surveys — one for vendors and one for academic library workers. Through the survey responses, they sought to evaluate library-vendor relationships to address their local challenges and provide profession-wide benefit. Akin to the study presented in this article, Ostergaard and Rossman designed two survey tracks to differentiate responses between library workers and vendors. However, they chose a more targeted scope for their analysis, reporting results from vendors and from academic library workers in the United States only. Their results center around the organization and nature of library-vendor relations, communication, and meetings. The focus on preferences, recommendations, and best practices results in practical takeaways for both vendors and library workers.14
As Flowers explains, libraries and vendors “share a symbiotic relationship. The fundamental qualities that lead to this ideal relationship include good communication, joint interests, mutual benefit, understanding of one another’s needs and constraints, trust, and flexibility.” However, two complicating factors are fluctuating funding sources on the library side, and mergers and acquisitions on the vendor side (and, we should note, mergers
within academia as well).15 Rick Anderson and Jane F. White address a number of libraries’ obligations to vendors, including preparing for meetings, and being assertive while reasonable.16
A 2009 panel of library and vendor representatives discussed perspectives from both sides, including “that many librarians’ viewpoints on vendor relations defaulted to that of an adversary rather than a potential partner.”17 As part of a special issue of Against the Grain focusing on “Vendor Library Partnerships,” Maggie Farrell adds additional advice from a library dean’s perspective, including how to handle gifts and social events.18 In the same year, a panel at the Charleston Library Conference featured library and vendor perspectives addressing myths, product development, negotiation, and communication.19
More recently, library projects for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have included assessment of services, content, and policies. The University of North Texas Health Science Center has been in touch with vendors, sharing documentation about using DEI as a factor in purchasing policy, and setting out clear expectations for vendor services. These included providing diverse materials and quarterly meetings, as well as including DEI evaluations in all contract negotiations; and vendors responded in “overwhelmingly positive” ways.20 These results were presented at the same conference as a panel session featuring three professionals who shared vendor and library backgrounds, discussing “adaptive negotiation, managing and prioritizing tasks, optimizing the library/vendor partnership, coping with unique stressors, understanding how to frame your own career, clear communication and expectation setting, recognizing patterns and adapting, and empathy.”21
Method
The Qualtrics survey for this study was designed with two tracks: one for library workers and one for vendors. Both tracks sought to collect the experiences, priorities, and thoughts of those active in the library profession or vendor field, in any country, since 2010. The survey consisted of a blend of quantitative, demographic questions, and qualitative, openended questions inviting comments. Both vendors and library workers were asked to rate their agreement with a series of statements using a 4-point Likert scale format. They were also given the opportunity to elaborate on their responses with freetext comments. Several colleagues of the authors, representing public and academic library worker and vendor backgrounds, tested and reviewed the survey prior to distribution. The survey distribution was in English and was aimed at local and global audiences representing academic and public libraries, and library information vendors. Notices with the survey link were sent between October 15-November 22, 2021, with reminders sent to each group on February 1-2, 2022; the survey was open for responses from October 15, 2021 through February 28, 2022. Distribution was sent via the authors’ Twitter and Facebook pages and the Against the Grain (ATG) Media Discussion Group and the Library Think Tank group on Facebook; and via listservs for Florida Virtual Campus (All, E-Resources, and Collections Advisory lists), Alma-L, Charleston Up & Comers cohort list, ASERL Collections Interest Group list, Oberlin Group Tech Services and Collection Development lists, Florida ACRL list, LIBLICENSE-L, Orbis Cascade, ERIL-L, PUBLIB-L, AcqNet, CollAssess-L, ULS-L, IFLA-L, Lis-e-resources, ALIA-L, ALIA-RD, LIBER Insider, ALA CORE’s Women, Non-Binary, and Trans Administrators Interest Group, the Women, Non-Binary, and Trans Workers in Library Technology Interest Group, Collection Management in Public Libraries Interest Group, Library Leaders
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and Managers Interest Group, ACRL Technical Services Interest Group, Collection Development Issues for the Practitioner Interest Group, CORE Metadata & Collections Section, Dialogue with Directors Interest Group, Electronic Resources Interest Group, Public Libraries Technical Services Interest Group, Publisher-Vendor-Library Relations Interest Group, Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, REFORMA, and the Against the Grain distribution list.
Each of 22 library vendor service topics was rated as not a priority, low priority, medium priority, or high priority/deal breaker. The vendors, in a version of the survey customized for them, were asked to provide individual perceptions, not those of their employers, and to base their responses on how they thought library workers would rate them, rather than on their own values. While there was no survey branch for consortial representatives, a small number of responses were received from this sector, and are reported here separately.
Survey responses were kept confidential, and free-text responses were compiled for analysis by the authors. As the primary focus of the study was aimed at comparing perceptions of priorities across library and vendor sectors, the free-text responses were not analyzed via descriptive statistics or coding. The authors selected representative, insightful comments across sectors, to include as examples for the presentations and the article.
The survey form accounted for the possibility that some respondents might have cross-sector experience, and might thus have insights from differing perspectives. Guidance on the form was as follows: “Please select the role that best fits your most recent 10 years of work experience. If you have served as both a library worker and a library vendor worker within that time frame, you are welcome to complete the survey twice in order to share your experiences within each role.” Customized survey links were provided in three iterations: current/former academic library worker; current/former public library worker; and current/former library vendor worker.
Responses were validated for authenticity. As the form explained, “Identities of respondents are confidential. Limited contact information (name and email address) is collected as a validation measure; this information is also confidential and will not be shared with any third parties.” As explained in Findings below, some responses could not be validated and were not included in the analysis.
The study was exempt from IRB review. The prior employer of both authors (one author was still employed there at the time of the survey) has supplied documentation stating that the data collection process was conducted in a manner consistent with IRB guidelines for exempt research.
Preliminary results, based on responses through January 31, 2022, were presented in a virtual session at the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference on March 15, 2022. Completed results were presented at the Charleston Conference on Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition on November 15, 2022, with two invited representatives from a library vendor and a consortium joining the panel discussion. These were Shannon Spurlock, Sales Director for Kanopy, a library streaming video platform; and Amy Pham, Assistant Director for Strategic Library Services & Communications for the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC). These invited representatives and their views on the topic were not already known to the researchers. They were chosen in order to represent the growing
centrality of streaming video content in libraries, as well as to gain further insight from a consortial perspective. This article provides findings from the survey responses, as well as selected representative comments from the panel presentation transcript. See Appendix A for the full survey.
Findings
This study analyzes library workers’ perceptions and values of vendor services, as well as vendor worker’s assumptions of what library workers value in their vendor relationships. The authors emphasize key areas of alignment and disconnection; namely, the values and services rated “high priority/dealbreakers” and “not a priority.” The survey respondents’ identities were kept confidential and were verified for authentic responses. The unvalidated total response count was 461. Ultimately, 414 responses were validated and are reported in this article. 10% (n=47) of the total responses were omitted because the respondent’s email, name, or experience could not be verified (2%; n=11) or were confirmed as duplicate responses from single individuals (8%; n=36).
Demographics
Survey respondents were asked to respond to demographic questions based on the past 10 years of their professional experience. Of the validated respondents, 11% (n=47) are vendor workers, 3% (n=12) consortium workers, 74% (n=309) academic library workers, 11% (n=46) public library workers, and 1% (n=3) hybrid or mixed-use academic/public library workers. While the majority reported working primarily in the U.S., 25% (n=102) of respondents work primarily outside the United States, representing countries in the United Kingdom as well as Australia, Brazil, and South Africa. While the study was intentionally distributed to a variety of international and cross-sector groups, and responses include global, public library, and vendor perspectives, the majority of responses, and thus the perspectives represented, are from academic library workers in the U.S.
Among library workers, the highest percentage of respondents have worked in libraries for more than 20 years (38%; n=134), with the highest percentage (30%; n=105) working in positions that directly interact with vendors for 11-20 years. Among vendors, the highest percentage of respondents (36%; n=17) reported 11-20 years working for a library vendor. Interestingly, 21 library worker respondents (6%) reported also having worked for a vendor, and 21 (44%) of vendor respondents reported also having worked for a library. Further details are presented below in the “Cross-Sector Experience” section.
Of library worker respondents, 64 (18%) have served on a library vendor advisory council or in a consulting role to library vendors. Vendor respondents overwhelmingly work for organizations that utilize advisory councils or employ library workers in advisory roles (77%; n=36). When asked whether they had ever received a formal feedback/satisfaction survey from a library vendor (not technical support/help desk interactions), 52% (n=186) of library workers responded in the affirmative. Among vendor workers, 29 respondents (62%) reported working for an organization that provides formal feedback/satisfaction surveys to library customers.
Cross-Sector Experience
As mentioned previously, some respondents, like one of the authors, share both vendor and library service experience. There were few surprises among respondents who reported working
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across these two spheres. Among vendors who have worked in libraries, the top high priority/dealbreakers were methods for remote access to resources (e.g., EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.) and that vendors must be trustworthy. This mirrors the top high priority/dealbreakers across all respondent groups. The top “not a priority” for vendor respondents, that vendors must host meals during conferences, also aligns with other respondent groups. However, vendors who have worked in libraries also reported “a library vendor must employ librarians” as another top “not a priority”; this statement was not among the top “not a priority” for other respondent groups. For library workers who have worked for a vendor, the top high priority/ dealbreakers were vendors having strong working knowledge of their products and services and the methods for remote access to resources (EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.), both of which were the top high priority/dealbreakers across all four respondent groups. The top “not a priority” responses for this group were vendors hosting meals at conferences and providing the option of deposit accounts (aka prepayment accounts). Both statements were among the top “not a priority” selections for all respondent groups. While straddling both the library and vendor professions comes with unique perspectives, this was not reflected in the nature of the survey responses.
High Priority/Dealbreakers
Most academic library workers (93%; n=284), consortia workers (100%; n=12), and vendors (85%; n=40) rated the statement “a library vendor must provide a method for remote access to resources (e.g., EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.)” as their top high priority/dealbreaker, making this statement a key area of alignment.
Public library workers (98%; n=45), however, rated “a library vendor representative must have a strong working knowledge of their products and services” as their top high priority/ dealbreaker statement. Just 57% (n=26) of public library workers rated the remote access statement as their highest priority/ dealbreaker, revealing an element of disconnection among public library workers and other library workers.
In addition, all four respondent groups rated “a library vendor must be trustworthy” among their top five high priority/ dealbreaker statements. There were no other statements that were in the top five across all four respondent groups in this category, though statements regarding willingness to negotiate pricing and licensing terms, providing products with userfriendly interfaces, and providing prompt responses to inquiries were rated among the top high priorities/dealbreakers across two or more groups.
It is valuable to supplement raw figures with qualitative comments. As previously mentioned, respondents were provided the opportunity to expand on their responses with free-text comments. The top high priorities/dealbreakers emphasize practicality over characteristics or traits. Academic library workers, consortia workers, and vendors all prioritized remote access functionality over trustworthiness. One library worker commented:
While I scored trustworthiness as a high priority/deal breaker because we always want to work with trustworthy vendors, I also know that libraries must deal with vendors we do not trust to serve our best interests, and that libraries need to be diligent about the deals we make with some vendors. Often libraries MUST strike deals we are uneasy about because that vendor has the content we need.
Another library worker commented, “How high a priority some of these are depends on how badly we need their content. Normally, EZprozy access is a deal-breaker, but if something is ‘must have’ by a particular dept/program, we’ll license it anyway.” These comments further illuminate the buyer/seller power dynamic. They are also revealing in another way: if library workers are uneasy about the deals they are entering into, it is evident that at least some values and priorities are not in alignment with those of their vendors. See Table 1 page 34.
Not a Priority
The results revealed more alignment groupings for the top “not a priority” statements. Most academic library workers (71%; n=216), public library workers (74%; n=34), and vendor workers (45%; n=21) rated the statement “a library vendor must host small or large group meals for customers during library conferences” as their top “not a priority.” Consortia workers also rated this highly (58%; n=7), but rated “a library vendor must provide the option of deposit accounts (aka prepayment accounts)” as their top “not a priority” statement. One reason the meal hosting statement was ranked “not a priority” was shared in this comment from a public library worker: “providing meals is problematic due to our guidelines regarding acceptance of gifts.” A vendor respondent commented, “I think that libraries value good customer service, quality products at a reasonable price, and a responsive/respectful vendor over perks and vendor parties and shows,” further strengthening the alignment in agreement with the meal hosting statement.
All four respondent groups rated the deposit account statement among their top five “not a priority” options. Rounding out the top five “not a priority” selections shared among all respondent groups are statements regarding customer satisfaction inquiries and surveys. All four groups find customer satisfaction surveys and interaction inquiries to be low priorities, illustrated well by this comment from a library worker: “I expect to be able to report dissatisfaction with customer service if an issue comes up, and have it addressed, but I don’t need to be surveyed every time I interact with a vendor rep.” See Table 2 page 35.
Free-Text Comments
Additional comments from free-text responses include the following:
• “Meetings, dinners, conference attendance, phone calls, and F2F [face-to-face] interactions are not a priority for me at all and I do not ever use those types of interactions to do my work. What I care about: the availability of textual, accurate, and thorough asynchronous (email or website) information about their products/services. Accurate and timely invoicing. Thorough and accurate answers to questions. Quick assistance when something goes wrong. Accessible and usable products. Transparent and accurate description of product contents. Flexible acquisitions models and flexibility in pricing.”
• “I am more concerned that their products are accessible. I couldn’t care less about them giving me free things so long as the product reliably functions, so as to meet the needs of our patrons.”
• “In an academic setting, very few issues are dealbreakers because ultimately we must fulfill faculty needs.”
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CONSORTIA
ACADEMIC LIBRARY PUBLIC LIBRARY VENDOR
100% (12)
83.33% (10)
A library vendor must provide a method for remote access to resources (e.g. EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.).
A library vendor must be willing to negotiate pricing and licensing terms.
92.81% (284)
75.00% (9)
A library vendor representative must have a strong working knowledge of their products & services.
82.03% (251)
A library vendor must provide a method for remote access to resources (e.g. EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.).
A library vendor representative must have a strong working knowledge of their products & services.
97.83% (45)
66.67% (8)
A library vendor must be trustworthy.
74.84% (229)
A library vendor must be trustworthy.
86.96% (40)
A library vendor representative must have a strong working knowledge of their products & services.
85.11% (40)
A library vendor must provide a method for remote access to resources (e.g. EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.).
A library vendor must be trustworthy.
85.11% (40) A library vendor must be trustworthy.
86.96% (40)
A library vendor must provide high-quality products with user-friendly interfaces at reasonable prices.
68.09% (32)
A library vendor representative must respect a customer's time and provide prompt, thorough responses to inquiries.
68.63% (210)
A library vendor must provide high-quality products with user-friendly interfaces at reasonable prices.
76.09% (35)
A library vendor representative must respect my time and provide prompt, thorough responses to inquiries.
65.96% (31)
A library vendor representative must have a strong working knowledge of their products & services.
66.67% (8)
A library vendor representative must respect my time and provide prompt, thorough responses to inquiries.
60.78% (186)
A library vendor must be willing to negotiate pricing and licensing terms.
• “Due to the uniqueness of content and service offerings from library vendors, the threshold for reaching ‘dealbreaker’ remains quite high. This often means working for a best case in terms of priorities, rather than an ideal case.”
• “I think the ‘deal-breaker’ categorization is difficult, because in my time as a librarian working with vendors, I’ve rarely been in the position where I could stop working with a vendor because they weren’t
56.52% (26)
A library vendor must provide a method for remote access to resources (e.g. EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.).
61.70% (29)
A library vendor must provide highquality products with user-friendly interfaces at reasonable prices.
meeting my expectations. When faculty want us to get something, we have to work it out, no matter how difficult the vendor is to work with. So while we may have priorities for vendors, it’s difficult to hold them accountable.”
Discussion
The overall results are enlightening, while perhaps unsurprising to many in the profession. The study reveals that
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CONSORTIA
ACADEMIC LIBRARY
66.67% (8)
58.33% (7)
A library vendor must provide the option of deposit accounts (aka prepayment accounts).
A library vendor must host small or large group meals for customers during library conferences.
70.59% (216)
34.64% (106)
A library vendor must host small or large group meals for customers during library conferences.
A library vendor must provide the option of deposit accounts (aka prepayment accounts).
73.91% (34)
LIBRARY VENDOR
A library vendor must host small or large group meals for customers during library conferences.
36.96% (17)
A library vendor must provide the option of deposit accounts (aka prepayment accounts).
44.68% (21)
25.53% (12)
A library vendor must host small or large group meals for customers during library conferences.
A library vendor must provide a customer satisfaction inquiry on every help/support desk interaction.
25.00% (3)
A library vendor must perform a customer satisfaction survey (not feedback on a help/support desk interaction) on a regular basis.
31.70% (97)
A library vendor must provide a customer satisfaction inquiry on every help/support desk interaction.
30.43% (14)
A library vendor must provide a customer satisfaction inquiry on every help/support desk interaction.
21.28% (10)
A library vendor must provide the option of deposit accounts (aka prepayment accounts).
25.00% (3)
A library vendor must exhibit at library conferences and make an effort to sponsor library conference events.
26.80% (82)
A library vendor must exhibit at library conferences and make an effort to sponsor library conference events.
17.39% (8)
A library vendor must perform a customer satisfaction survey (not feedback on a help/support desk interaction) on a regular basis.
21.28% (10)
A library vendor must employ librarians in order to provide better customer service and support.
16.67% (2)
A library vendor must provide a customer satisfaction inquiry on every help/support desk interaction.
24.51% (75)
A library vendor must perform a customer satisfaction survey (not feedback on a help/support desk interaction) on a regular basis.
library workers and vendors are largely in alignment regarding the issues and priorities in our working relationships. Even the relative disconnections, on further inspection, do not present wide gaps. The overall number of responses in each category (e.g., “not a priority,” “high priority/deal breaker”)
15.22% (7)
A library vendor must exhibit at library conferences and make an effort to sponsor library conference events.
17.02% (8)
A library vendor must perform a customer satisfaction survey (not feedback on a help/support desk interaction) on a regular basis.
is largely similar across respondent groups. Between 8-11% of statements were rated as “not a priority” by each sector, 16-18% as “low priority,” 32-38% as “medium priority,” and between 36-40% were deemed “high priority/deal breaker” across sectors.
The purpose of this study was not to determine why alignments or disconnections exist, but rather to collect and present data that tell a realistic story of library priorities among vendor services, and how those are perceived by their vendor partners. Even so, the overwhelming harmony between what library workers value and what vendors think they value could be attributed to a variety of factors. It is not unusual for library workers and vendors to work in both spheres throughout the course of their careers. It is difficult to work across these two sectors and not develop empathy and understanding for both. Also, at their core, the vendor, consortium, and library worlds strive for the same thing: to provide a useful service and remain relevant in the face of constant change.
One of the authors of this study previously explored library and vendor collaborations and shared assumptions and recommendations based on the experience of working in both spheres (Gallagher, 2018). Both library and vendor workers make assumptions about each other to fill in the gaps in their knowledge; when they rely on these assumptions as the basis for working relationships, they can feel that their goals are at odds, even if most interactions are generally positive. As with any buyer-seller relationship, there are valid points of tension and inevitable bad actors on both sides. But the perceived misalignment of priorities does not always hold up to the lived experience of library and vendor workers, and this is further illustrated by the lack of significant disconnects appearing in survey responses in this study.
It is also impossible to discuss the outcomes of this study outside the context of global upheaval. We, as vendors, library workers, and consortial representatives, all lived and worked through the societal and professional challenges and changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are still experiencing the effects of the “great resignation,” with resulting staffing shortages across sectors that in turn continue to exacerbate the same phenomenon due to increasing demands on those remaining. Everyone is expected to do more with less, while continuing to innovate and build on prior successes. These effects, along with ongoing changes in funding, working, staffing, and traveling patterns, could result in further insecurity within the library information industry.
In some cases, we see differing views that highlight pragmatism versus idealism. We also reiterate that the survey is designed to measure individual views, rather than institutional or organizational priorities on behalf of vendors or libraries. Thus, we see results that might reflect personal service philosophies.
As noted in Findings, the top high priority/dealbreaker statements across all respondent groups were “a library vendor must provide a method for remote access to resources (e.g., EZproxy, OpenAthens, etc.)” and “a library vendor representative must have a strong working knowledge of their products & services.” These statements were rated higher than others relating to vendor employment and communication practices, conference dinners and sponsorships, and characteristics such as trustworthiness and promptness. They were also rated higher than other operational statements regarding access, pricing, usage statistics, and invoicing. This is not surprising when considered from an entirely practical standpoint. Other aspects of the library/vendor relationship diminish in importance, relative to the need for products to function as expected. Library workers, vendor workers, and consortial workers are in alignment in valuing the operational practicalities that allow them to do their jobs and provide a reliable service to their user
bases. As one respondent states, “I would honestly question the ethics of respondents who feel that vendors should set some medium to high level of priority of exhibiting at professional conferences/sponsoring conference events/treating existing or potential clients to meals, as important criteria when comparing competitive vendors. Someone is paying for all of those conference-related activities.” Free-text comments also illustrate the reality many library workers face in compromising their own values or wants over the needs of their user base. Personal values rarely have the luxury of taking precedence over professional necessity.
Though the survey was not designed for or marketed to consortia, we received an unanticipated yet valuable set of responses from consortia workers. Some individuals reached out before answering the survey. They were encouraged to do so and to note that they represent consortia. Due to the nature of the mediating role of consortia, these responses reflect a blend, or perhaps a middle road, of the perspectives of library and vendor workers. However, the sample size from this sector is so small that it is difficult to draw generalizations. The authors considered whether to include these responses in the analysis and chose to do so, because of the importance of consortial perspectives on the topic at hand. In consideration of the low sample size, which may be attributed to the survey not being purposefully designed to include consortia, we were intentional in inviting a consortial representative to join a panel discussion at the 2022 Charleston Conference to help address this gap in the results.
Presentations at both the 2022 Charleston Conference and the preceding 2022 Electronic Resources & Libraries conference enabled us to extend the study by sharing lively insight from vendor and consortial representatives. Amy Pham, Assistant Director for Strategic Library Services & Communications at SCELC joined the panel presentation. When asked why she believes the narrative that library workers and vendors do not share the same priorities persists, she shared an anecdote about working through challenges with an established vendor, “As people, we were all able to put aside preconceptions and approach this new working relationship with an open mind. That was a great reminder, oftentimes that we forget we’re really working with other people, not just a company.” Shannon Spurlock, Sales Director for Kanopy, also joined the panel. When asked the same, she states, “There’s always this idea that vendors are trying to make as much money as possible while libraries are trying to provide as many resources as possible but for the lowest dollar amount, and I don’t believe either of those are true, because if we do collaborate with each other and break down the barriers … there are typically solutions that meet both needs.”22
The current study yields insights that build on the previous research by Ostergaard & Rossmann and others. Free-text comments allowed respondents the space to share personal opinions at a more granular level, but overall, those working in the library information industry should take heart in knowing that we share many of the same priorities. Assessing values, opinions, and perceptions across sectors in the library information industry, and being transparent about wishes and needs, can only strengthen relationships and partnerships. Results can perhaps best be summarized by the following comment from a vendor respondent:
There has always been a disconnect between what librarians expect from library vendors and what is realistic. There are many more librarians than vendors in the world, and it is impossible to cover all the needs of all librarians. At the same time, many librarians don’t
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know or understand the publishing business and the challenges publishers — especially smaller academic publishers — face. I hope this survey will shed some light on the chasm.
Suggestions for Further Research and Concluding Thoughts
In the form of free-text comments, respondents provided valuable feedback on the survey design that will prove useful for future iterations and further research around the topic. Most notably, the survey did not include questions about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; user data confidentiality; or interface accessibility. As previously mentioned, there was no customized survey track for consortial representatives; consortial workers provide an indispensable perspective, and this warrants further study. A number of respondents stated that they would have preferred a 5-point scale that could distinguish high priorities from dealbreakers. Considering the nature of free-text comments around the separation of these two rating levels, future survey results could reveal more nuanced thought in choosing the dealbreaker response.
This study will potentially be replicated in five years with enhancements that incorporate these suggestions. The initial survey can be restructured easily to capture the perceptions of additional aspects of industry partnerships. Future studies could measure how the library information industry changes in the intervening years, as funding, working, staffing, and traveling patterns continue to evolve in each sector. We also recognize that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and the ensuing ethical considerations for libraries, publishers, and vendors, would be a valuable item to assess in future studies.
Library and vendor workers are no strangers to change. We operate in a profession rife with upheaval due to constant disruption and evolution in publishing, technology, and user expectations. Seismic shifts in our profession brought about
in the midst and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic will be more fully realized in the coming years. We already see these changes manifest in library worker and vendor dynamics. The inability to travel and engage with others face-to-face has greatly affected how we communicate and in which modes. In-person visits and conference attendance will continue to be re-evaluated, considering the success of virtual options. Both vendors and library workers will reckon with budgetary realities as the economic shockwaves of the pandemic affect funding and user needs. At the core of these shifts is the user — student, community member, researcher, book lover — whose behaviors and needs drive our services.
In many ways, the forced isolation and pragmatism brought by the pandemic laid bare the basic values and priorities shared across our profession. And, as revealed in this study, those values and priorities stand to connect us, not separate us. Tensions are inevitable in long-term buyer-seller relationships, but through deeper understanding of what library workers value in these relationships, we can be even more intentional in reframing narratives of opposition.
Data Availability
Permission was not granted by respondents for their data to be shared. In the interest of protecting confidentiality, sharing full responses would compromise this commitment.
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to Julie C. Harwell for ideas, survey design, and project management.
Appendix A
The Library Vendor Service Expectations Survey is available at https://www.charleston-hub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ Survey-Appendix-A.pdf.
endnotes on page 38
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Endnotes
1. Katy Ginanni, Anne E. McKee, Jenni Wilson, and Linda A. Brown, “Yer Doin’ it Wrong: How NOT to Interact with Vendors, Publishers, or Librarians,” The Serials Librarian 68, no. 1-4) (2015): 255-261, https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2015.1023131
2. Kirsten, Ostergaard, and Doralyn Rossmann, “There’s Work to be Done: Exploring Library-Vendor Relations,” Technical Services Quarterly 34, no. 1 (2017): 13-33, https://doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2017.1238196.
3. James H. Walther, “Assessing Library Vendor Relations: A Focus on Evaluation and Communication,” The Bottom Line 11, no. 4 (1998), https://doi.org/10.1108/08880459810242380.
4. Journal of Library Administration 44, no. 3/4 (2006), https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wjla20/44/3-4. Also published as: Sam Brooks and David H. Carlson, eds., Library/Vendor Relationships (2006), Routledge.
5. Michael Gruenberg, “Both Sides Now: Vendors and Librarians column,” Charleston Hub, September 30, 2022, accessed May 2, 2024, https://www.charleston-hub.com/2022/09/both-sides-now-vendors-and-librarians-association-trade-shows-what-theyshould-be-can-be-and-must-be/
6. Michael Gruenberg, “Both Sides Now: Vendors and Librarians–It’s the Relationship,” Against the Grain 31, no. 6 (2019): 60-62, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg/vol31/iss6/32/.
7. Josh Nicholson, “Working Together: How Libraries and Vendors can Better Help Patrons through Co-Marketing,” Charleston Hub, February 2, 2022, accessed May 2, 2024, https://www.charleston-hub.com/2022/02/working-together-how-libraries-and-vendorscan-better-help-patrons-through-co-marketing/.
8. Sarah Forzetting, “Do’s and Don’ts of Hosting Content and Service Providers at Your Library: A Few Tips for Your Next Meeting,” Against the Grain 27, no. 6 (2015): 18, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7223&context=atg
9. Katy DiVittorio and Lorelle Gianelli, “Ethical Financial Stewardship: One Library’s Examination of Vendors’ Business Practices,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, March 31, 2021, accessed May 2, 2024, https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2021/ ethical-financial-stewardship/
10. Ray Laura Henry, “Library Software Vendors: Improving Relationships,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 42, no. 5 (2016): 620-621, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2016.07.004
11. Dawn McKinnon and Clara Turp, “Are Library Vendors Doing Enough to Protect Users? A Content Analysis of Major ILS Privacy Policies,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 48, no. 2 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102505.
12. Devin GawneMark and Sarah Nichols, “Happy Together: How to Foster Mutually-Beneficial Librarian-Vendor Partnerships,” AALL Spectrum 13, no. 4, 24-27 (2009), https://www.aallnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/pub_sp0902.pdf
13. Erin Gallagher, “What Collaboration Means to Me: Perspectives on Library/Vendor Collaboration,” Collaborative Librarianship 10, no. 1 (2018), https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol10/iss1/3
14. Ostergaard, “There’s Work to be Done.”
15. Janet L. Flowers, “Negotiations with Library Materials Vendors: Preparation and Tips,” The Bottom Line 16, no. 3 (2003), https:// doi.org/10.1108/08880450310488012
16. Rick Anderson and Jane F. White, “How to Be a Good Customer: Building and Maintaining Productive Relationships with Vendors,” The Serials Librarian 48, no. 3/4 (2005): 321-326, https://doi.org/10.1300/J123v48n03_15. Also published in Patricia Sheldahl French and Margaret Mering, eds., Growth, Creativity, and Collaboration: Great Visions on a Great Lake (2005), Haworth Press: 321-326.
17. Christine Stamison, Bob Persing, Chris Beckett, and Chris Brady, “What They Never Told You About Vendors in Library School,” The Serials Librarian 56, no. 1-4 (2009): 139-145, https://doi.org/10.1080/03615260802665555
18. Maggie Farrell, “The Care and Feeding of Partnerships,” Against the Grain, 30, no. 2 (2018): 24, 26, https://www.charleston-hub. com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ATG_v30-2-1.pdf.
19. Michael Rodriguez, Jason Chabak, Lindsay Cronk, Allen Jones, and Christine M. Stamison, “Managing Vendor Relationships,” Proceedings of the Charleston Library Conference (2018): 276-280, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/charleston/2018/management/6/.
20. Elizabeth Speer, “Diversity Evaluation and Vendor Communication: The Effect on a Collection and Vendor Relationships,” NASIG Proceedings 37 (2022), https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/nasig/article/id/4307/
21. Courtney McAllister, Erin Gallagher, Kate Hill, and Daniel Brown, “Tales from the Other Side: Librarians and Vendors Get Real,” NASIG Proceedings 37 (2022), https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/nasig/article/id/4022/
22. Erin Gallagher, Jonathan Harwell, Amy Pham, and Shannon Spurlock, “Co-pilots or Backseat Drivers? Perspectives of Vendors & Library Workers on Vendor Services,” Conference Presentation, Charleston Conference, Charleston, SC, United States, 2022, accessed May 2, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y4GZ99rzoo.
Column Editor: Corey Seeman (Director, Kresge Library Services, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan) <cseeman@umich.edu> Visit him at https://www.squirreldude.com/
Column Editor’s Note: As I write this, it still is just over 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 Celsius for most of the planet. I wish I could say that this is noon, but the time is closer to 9pm and the heat has basically kept me indoors. Sure, I was active first thing in the morning, but when the sun is overhead, it is time to seek the refuge of air conditioning. And I am not convinced about the whole dry heat thing. Hot is hot is hot.
Now, if this were Michigan, it would be national news. But I find myself at the National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention (NBDCC) in Palm Springs, California. If you are keeping score at home, librarians and doll collectors get the absolute hottest locations for their summer conventions. The advantage goes to doll conventions that are typically in one venue, so dragging yourself from one hotel to the next in a hot and muggy D.C. day is a problem only for librarians.
My beloved Pam is a doll artist and a few times a year, I drop the persona of a library director and become a logistics expert and business manager for her work. So that is why I spend each summer hanging with the coolest Barbie collectors on earth, in some of the hottest places I can think of. I suppose Death Valley was considered, but the hotel was not big enough.
I do have a fair bit of free time to pursue bird and squirrel watching when I am not needed. Maybe a baseball game, a visit to the museum, or just about anything that I can photograph and document … what can I say. This year, I chose a day to visit the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve for a bird walk (something that takes place every Wednesday). I appreciate being able to follow people who know what they are doing as I enjoy seeing birds I have not had a chance to see before. After that great program, I realized that I was around a half an hour from Joshua Tree National Park. I was going to pass, but it was too close now to skip. So off I went.
While the view was fantastic, I was disturbed by one thing and enticed by another. Bees. There are lots of bees there over the summer. And at Keys View, there actually is a sign warning you about the bees. That is, to put it bluntly, not a good sign. But at that stop, I did see this wonderful white-tailed antelope squirrel. This is a small ground squirrel fairly common at Joshua Tree. I was able to get a few pictures, but off it ran. Against my better judgement, with the heat beating down on me and the bees coming up from the ground, hanging out looking for squirrels was not really the best thing to do … but I did.
What can you discover when you listen to people who know things? Maybe it is a White-Tailed Antelope Squirrel. Taken during Visit to Joshua Tree National Park (California) - July 31, 2024.
These are marvelous little squirrels and it was so fun to see them (and get a few pictures). I likely would not have seen this had I not followed the advice of the experts that I met along the way. And that is an excellent segue to discuss the reviews that are in this column. All four works are reference books that seemingly provide an expert voice to help your library patrons learn about issues that might not be so cut and dry. These include topics about workers rights, crises and the literature that may be influenced by these events, Autism Spectrum Disorder (a subject near and dear to my heart) and careers in archeology that are not quite Indiana Jones. Giving our patrons useful and credible information helps them accomplish their goals. These might be getting a job, helping a child or finding out where the birds and squirrels may be found.
When I entered the park, I talked with a ranger and asked what would be the best way to get a taste of the park without killing myself in the summer heat. The great ranger suggested a path and I followed it. I was so glad I did. For the second time that day, I was listening to experts who could help me accomplish my goals and desires in a way not typical of a novice. The ranger suggested that I go to Keys View where I can see the Coachella Valley from the highest point at the Joshua Tree National Park.
Additionally, we have three expert reviewers who have a great understanding of the types of works that are needed in libraries. Special thanks to my reviewers for this issues: Christopher Edwards (University of Texas at Dallas), Julie Huskey (Tennessee State University) and two reviews from Jennifer Matthews (Rowan University). As always, I want to thank them for bringing this column together.
If you would like to be a reviewer for Against the Grain, please write me at <cseeman@umich.edu>. If you are a publisher and have a book you would like to see reviewed in a future column, please also write me directly. You can also find out more about the Reader’s Roundup here — https://www.squirreldude.com/ atg-readers-roundup.
Happy reading and be nutty! — Corey
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The Autism Spectrum: Handbook & Resource Guide. Amenia, NY: Grey House Publishing, 2022. 9781637001585. $165.00
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be one of the more challenging diagnoses for families today as, according to The Autism Spectrum, no test yet exists to confirm its diagnosis. However, children as early as age two can receive a diagnosis by a trained professional through examination of their development and behaviors (p. xii). It is, therefore, vitally important that families have access to reliable information regarding Autism so that they may make informed decisions, learn more about the condition, and become aware of the variety of community resources available to them following diagnosis.
The Autism Spectrum: Handbook & Resources Guide provides a standard definition of the condition, current research, fact sheets, checklists, growth charts, and studies from reliable entities such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), among many others. Since this diagnosis is often accompanied by many related conditions, these studies may help families understand what their loved one is experiencing. Additionally, there is a section that contains 15 of the most common conditions that occur with ASD. This section includes a glossary of terms that includes a geographical index by state that individuals will find useful. The definitions, reports, and studies provided are also in layman’s terms rather than clinically written, making them approachable to the general public. The reports also include many images to break up the text and highlight various aspects within. Call out boxes are also used as additional ways to highlight information in what could otherwise be dense text to help users find information quickly.
Guide to the ATG Reviewer Ratings
The ATG Reviewer Rating is being included for each book reviewed. Corey came up with this rating to reflect our collaborative collections and resource sharing means and thinks it will help to classify the importance of these books.
• I need this book on my nightstand. (This book is so good, that I want a copy close at hand when I am in bed.)
• I need this on my desk. (This book is so valuable, that I want my own copy at my desk that I will share with no one.)
• I need this in my library. (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)
• I need this available somewhere in my shared network. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.)
• I’ll use my money elsewhere. (Just not sure this is a useful book for my library or my network.)
Finally, beyond the definitions, statistics, and reports, the inclusion of available resources may be the most vital part of this reference book. Sometimes, just knowing that one is not alone and where to turn to after receiving a diagnosis for any condition is a necessary comfort. This section includes major agencies and associations but also support groups, hotlines, digital resources, research centers, and libraries.
For families managing an ASD diagnosis, the availability of this item on the library’s reference shelf may confirm that there is hope. This work would allow them to follow up on some of the aspects mentioned by the physician for themselves to better understand what faces their family in the future.
ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this available somewhere in my shared network. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.)
Careers in Archaeology & Museum Services. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2023. 9781637004142. $125.00
Reviewed by Jennifer Matthews (Head, Collection Services, Rowan University) <matthewsj@rowan.edu>
Students considering a career in either archaeology or museums might be thinking of the Hollywood version of Indiana Jones, the archaeologist/professor from any of that series of films, or Evelyn Carnahan, the librarian from The Mummy (1999). Instead, various careers are available for students interested in these fields. With that in mind, this reference volume was created to provide an overview of many different and varied possibilities that one can undertake, focusing on high school and undergraduate students trying to decide on a career path. Careers range from advertising to jeweler to the titular archaeologist and librarian to demonstrate the possibilities for students interested in these fields.
Careers in Archaeology & Museum Services highlights 30 occupations with a snapshot that includes features such as median pay, typical education, job prospects, working conditions, and recommended areas of interest for that field. Additionally, entries include a general overview with information about similar occupations. One of the key features of each entry is an interview with an individual currently in that occupation to provide a firsthand glance at what each professional does in their role, how they got there, essential skills for the role, what they wish they knew before their role, what the job prospects are like in their field, and where they see their profession going in the next five years.
This reference book also uses the Holland code, created by John Holland, and has a guide to use in an appendix for the classification of each career. The Holland code has six categories for classification: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Applying these categories to each profession allows for a systematic rating of each occupation and provides a way for individuals to understand better how different fields might compare. Additionally, there is a list of organizations and resources in an appendix that readers can utilize for further information about any of the careers in the book.
As with previous books in this series, the careers highlighted in this volume are meant to focus on high school and undergraduate students. Additionally, this item is worth considering for inclusion in collections that assist with career development, as the editors designed the book to align with secondary and high school curriculums.
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ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this available somewhere in my shared network. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.)
Evans, Robert C. (Editor). Critical Insights: Literature in Times of Crisis. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2021. 9781642657548, 304 pages.
Reviewed by Christopher Edwards (Head of Research Services, Eugene McDermott Library, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson) <chris.edwards@utdallas.edu>
This is a very timely and topical book for literature studies in the wake of a global pandemic and other great concerns across our globe. I selected this one to review as it butts up against my PhD topic of literature in society. Editor Robert C. Evans has assembled a robust collection of essays from literary scholars that address the overlap of fiction and drama with the real-life challenges that surround their creation. It is a safe bet that COVID-19 will play at least a supporting role in a great deal of novels, plays, and movies in the near future. (Indeed, I have to share that I have read two novels in the last three months that include the pandemic shutdowns as plot points.) It is therefore enlightening to look back at a broadly defined spectrum of crises through the lenses of works classical through contemporary.
Literature in Times of Crisis begins with a contextual comparison of 16th and 17th century plague literature with the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. A leading scholar in the field, Rebecca Totaro, breaks down the characteristic themes of the historical literary voices and draws comparisons with contemporary experience. Then, Evans invites historical and literary scholars to examine, through essay, the contexts of disease and war in literature ranging from Greek tragedy to contemporary American fiction. These first two sections alone demonstrate the interest and validity of critical readings that take a dive into crises.
In the remaining sections, readers are treated to a selection of essays examining specific readings of great literature with an eye for the influence of crisis on the work. These are arranged in roughly chronological order from the Iliad through contemporary works as late as 2018. In light of what would unfold later in 2020 and 2021, this book has the sense as being an opening number for forthcoming scholarship that will pick up this theme. Literature in Times of Crisis is an excellent edition to the Critical Insights series which would be a worthwhile edition to any literary studies library.
Robert C. Evans, PhD, is a Professor of English and Philosophy at Auburn University at Montgomery, as well as author and editor of approximately 50 books covering topics from Early modern women writers, Shakespeare studies, and twentieth century American Authors. He has been named a distinguished professor and has received multiple fellowships supporting his research in these topics. (From back cover).
ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this in my library. (I want to be able to get up from my desk and grab this book off the shelf, if it’s not checked out.)
Opinions Throughout History: Workers’ Rights & Wages. By Micah L. Issitt. Amenia, New York: Grey House, 2022. 9781637001387. $244.00.
Reviewed by Julie Huskey (Head of Cataloging, Tennessee State University, Brown-Daniel Library, Nashville) <jhuskey@tnstate.edu>
Workers’ Rights & Wages is the seventeenth volume in the Opinions Throughout History series, and one of several by St. Louisbased independent scholar and reference book author Micah L. Issitt.
Approaching the subject from the viewpoint that the United States was founded to make profits, and that a significant part of American history is owners and managers taking advantage of cheap labor, Issitt chronicles the struggles of American workers for better pay and working conditions.
The format is consistent with the earlier volumes: it opens with a nine-page timeline of events specific to the topic: here, the events range from the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 to the increase in federal government workers’ minimum wage in 2022. A much longer and more general (but still U.S.-centric) historical timeline, running from only 1880 to 2022, concludes the volume.
The main text consists of an introduction discussing how work is defined, followed by twenty-eight chapters, arranged in overlapping chronological order, covering anywhere from less than a decade to a century or more. Issitt covers a mostly expected set of topics: colonial workers, slavery, the Great Depression, laws such as The Sherman Antitrust Act, and labor unions. One might have liked more coverage of the effect of World War Two on the workplace.
Each chapter features a “State of Labor” blurb about the earning and/or purchasing power of American workers at the time. A source document (usually, but not always, a primary source) is reprinted and discussed, but sometimes they seem too lengthy for the intended audience, and the expositions, while well-integrated into the text, are too brief.
Chapters end with approximately four discussion questions, such as “Why did employers want to prohibit unionization in America?” The glossary has approximately 150 entries.
The author relies almost entirely on readily-available Internet sources, such as newspapers in the Library of Congress’s “Chronicling America” collection, documents from the National Archives and the Digital Public Library of America, and websites like The Conversation and the Pew Research Center. Students for whom citation-hopping is a major component of research may be disappointed that more print resources are not listed. The illustrations (some of which are in color) are taken entirely from Wikipedia, yet they are appropriate, and they at least do not detract from the text.
Workers’ Rights & Wages is a solid, but not indispensable, volume; its intended audience is unclear, and it does not quite escape the impression that it was cobbled together from online sources. It may be helpful to secondary and lower-division undergraduate students searching for research ideas, or for teachers planning a lesson on American labor history. It is, therefore, an optional, and rather expensive, purchase, best for for secondary, undergraduate, and public libraries.
ATG Reviewer Rating: I need this available somewhere in my shared network. (I probably do not need this book, but it would be nice to get it within three to five days via my network catalog.)
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Booklover — Calculus
Column Editor: Donna Jacobs (Retired, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425)
<donna.jacobs55@gmail.com>
When an author combines abstract mathematics with intriguing wordplay, I’m hooked. Ten pages into Harold Pinter’s only novel The Dwarfs, the character Len, one of the four who interact in this story, says to Mark: “There’s nothing like a bit of calculus to cheer you up.” How intriguing. Mark, an actor by trade, is not quite convinced by Len, who works at the train station but spends his time working on partial differential equations and other calculus endeavors. The Dwarfs is a provocative little offering with a long history. The “Author’s Notes” at the beginning inform the reader that Pinter penned the narrative before he began writing plays in the early 1950s. Later in 1960, he formulated the work into a short play. In 1989, he revisited his piece and decided to transform it into a novel. He ends his notes with the comment: “Despite this reshaping, the text is fundamentally that written over the period 1952-1956.”
Get ready to solve this equation.
Harold Pinter was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature as one “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.” Playwright was not his only career path. In addition to his Nobel accolade his biography lists screenwriter (27 screenplays and film scripts), actor (spanning over 50 years), theater director (approximately 50 productions), poet, left-wing political activist and cricket enthusiast as other activities he dabbled in with some acclaim. There have even been a few Harold Pinter Festivals celebrating his work.
Pinter initially delivered The Dwarfs via a play for radio comprised of the three male characters but excluding the female character of Virginia written into the original narrative. The concept of male bonding or a “Boys Club” was established early in Pinter’s psyche. Michael Billington in his 1997 biography The Life and Work of Harold Pinter notes: “If the notion of male loyalty, competitive rivalry and fear of betrayal forms a constant thread in Pinter’s work from The Dwarfs onwards, its origins can be found in his teenage Hackney years. Pinter adores women, enjoys flirting with them, and worships their resilience and strength. But, in his early work especially, they are often seen as disruptive influences on some pure and Platonic ideal of male friendship: one of the most crucial of all Pinter’s lost Edens.”
“Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.” — Harold Pinter
However, Pinter recognized that he “omitted the essential character of Virginia” and reintroduced her for his published novel.
Knowing that Pinter found the female character “essential” to restore into the narrative, consider his method of explaining the “essentialness” in the following two excerpts from The Dwarfs:
“There is the table. That is a table. There is the chair. There is the table. That is a bowl of fruit. There is the tablecloth. There are the curtains. There is no wind. There is the coalscuttle. There is no woman in the room. This is a room. There is the wallpaper, on the walls. There are six walls. Eight walls. An octagon. This room is an octagon, with no woman and one cat.”
“Virginia lay crouched on the sofa. The room was still. A shaft of sunlight fell across the carpet. There was no sound. She stood up. The posture of the room changed. The sunlight jolted. The room settled. The sunlight reformed. But, she thought, I stand upright and the balance is disturbed. I have thrown a spanner in the works. I have done violence to normally imperturbable forces. I have inflicted a reverse.”
But most captivating is this exchange between Len and Mark: “– Well, Mark said, there’s only one thing I’ve got to say.
– What’s that?
– When you’re in you’re in.
– What? Len said. What did you say? When you’re in you’re in?
– Sure.
– You’re right. I can’t deny it. You’ve never said a truer word. When you’re in, he repeated, walking around the table, you’re in. That’s it. You can knock me down with a feather. I must remember that. What made you say a thing like that?
– It just struck me. When you’re in you’re in.
– Well, said Len, I’ll have to grant you that. You can’t get away from it. It stands to reason. And you’re not in you’re out. Or, more accurately, when you’re out you’re not in.
– Yes, that’s more like it.
– When you’re in, Len muttered, you’re in, eh? Well, I’ll have to store that one up for a hard winter. Bring on the partial differential equations.
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LEGAL ISSUES
Section Editors: Bruce Strauch (Retired, The Citadel) <bruce.strauch@gmail.com> Jack Montgomery (Georgia Southern University) <jmontgomery@georgiasouthern.edu>
Questions & Answers — Copyright Column
Column Editor: Kyle K. Courtney (Director of Copyright & Information Policy, Harvard Library) <kyle_courtney@harvard.edu>
FROM AN ARCHIVIST: We have many dissertations in our collections in many formats — digital, print, microfiche, and more. And we do have a modern understanding of our current dissertations and copyright. However, many of our older dissertations were written before the current copyright law, and we are exploring options to digitize them. Are the pre78 dissertations a special case for digitization? What factors might we need to assess for making a case for increasing access to the dissertations?
This is a very common question and one worth a longer answer to the Q&A column this issue.
Picture this: it’s the mid-20th century, and aspiring academics are furiously typing away to complete their dissertations. These scholarly tomes, filled with groundbreaking research, are the keys to their PhDs. But what happens to these dissertations once they’re completed: Are they locked away in archive vaults, or do they embark on a journey into the world of copyright and publication? In order to answer that, we have to examine the intriguing tale of pre-1978 dissertations and their excursion through the legal labyrinth of copyright law.
The Great Divide: Copyright Laws Then and Now
Understanding the copyright status of pre-1978 dissertations requires a grasp of the historical framework of U.S. copyright law. The 1909 Copyright Act, in effect until it was superseded by the 1976 Act (which came into effect on January 1, 1978), provided differential treatment for works based on their publication status. Published works could secure federal copyright protection by adhering to specific formalities, including the publication of the work, the affixation of a copyright notice, and the deposit of two copies with the U.S. Copyright Office. Conversely, unpublished works were protected under common law copyright, which offered indefinite protection until the work was published, a sort of legal cocoon that lasted until the work saw the light of day.
Here’s the kicker: under the 1909 Act, if a copyrighted work was published without the proper copyright notice, it could tumble into the public domain, free for anyone to access and use. On the other hand, those unpublished works remained protected forever until their eventual publication.
Quick reminder: the public domain consists of creative works that are not protected by copyright, either because the copyright protections have expired or because they never applied. Works in the public domain can be freely used, shared, and built upon
without permission. This promotes creativity, education, and cultural exchange.
Determining whether a work is in the public domain can be complex due to variations in copyright laws across time, changing legislation, and the difficulty of tracking the age and authorship of a work. Specific challenges include the change in formalities for copyright protection, different lengths of copyright protection, and other challenges. As copyright laws evolve, and changes can retroactively affect the status of works. For instance, the extension of copyright terms might have moved works out of the public domain back into protected status. Accurate information on the date of creation, publication, and the death of the author can be hard to find, especially for older works.
However, with dissertations, we have a few less challenges in these areas. The confusion with digitization of dissertations is a question of “when.”
The Dissertation Dilemma: Published or Not?
Fast forward to the mid-20th century, and the academic world is buzzing with dissertations and things get a little murky. A crucial question for the academic community and copyright scholars alike is whether dissertations deposited in university libraries or disseminated via microfilm constituted publication for copyright purposes. This distinction is vital because it determines whether these works fell into the public domain OR retained some form of copyright protection.
Enter Gail Clement and Melissa Levine, copyright experts and intrepid researchers, who embarked on a mission to decipher this mystery. Clement and Levine conducted a content analysis of historical documents and communications from the academic community of the pre-1978 era. (The work is Gail Clement and Melissa Levine. “Copyright and Publication Status of Pre-1978 Dissertations: A Content Analysis Approach,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, vol. 11 no. 3, 2011, p. 813-829. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2011.0031.)
However, before we delve into their research, let’s take a step back to the pre-1978 era. Universities required doctoral candidates to make their dissertations publicly accessible, but this didn’t always mean publishing them in books or journals. Instead, many dissertations ended up as typescript copies in
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university libraries or on microfilm, a technology that gained popularity in the 1950s.
Microfilm, one of the great technological new formats of its time, was a game-changer, endorsed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in 1952. Microfilm technology allowed for the widespread dissemination of dissertations without the financial and logistical burdens associated with traditional publishing. University Microfilms International (UMI), a key player in this field, facilitated the reproduction and distribution of dissertations, often including an abstract in the Dissertation Abstracts journal. This process was widely recognized as a form of publication and it allowed dissertations to be reproduced and disseminated widely without the hefty costs of traditional publishing.
But did this make them “published” in the copyright sense?
To answer this conundrum, Clement and Levine’s content analysis involved a thorough review of historical records from various academic and professional organizations, including the ARL and the Association of American Universities (AAU). They examined meeting minutes, official communications, and published articles to discern the legal interpretations and practices of the time.
Their findings indicated a strong consensus that depositing a dissertation in a library or disseminating it through microfilm constituted “general publication.” For instance, a 1956 legal briefing from the University of Michigan Law School, printed in the minutes of both the ARL and AAU, unequivocally stated that library deposit and microfilm dissemination were considered “publication” for copyright purposes.
So, depositing a dissertation in a library was typically viewed as an act of publication, especially if there were no restrictions on access. Similarly, microfilming and distributing dissertations through services like UMI were also seen as publication.
This perspective is crucial for today’s libraries, as it suggested that many of these older dissertations might be in the public domain, making them ripe for digitization and free public access. How?
Well, if the consensus among the pre-1978 academic community was clear — that both library deposit and microfilm dissemination constituted general publication for copyright purposes - this meant that dissertations distributed this way were eligible for federal copyright protection, provided they included the necessary copyright notice. If they didn’t, they slipped into the public domain!
While the general consensus favored the view that library deposit and microfilm dissemination constituted publication, there were nuances and minority opinions worth noting. As noted above, some institutions imposed access restrictions on deposited dissertations, which some academics believed preserved their status as unpublished works. For example, the American Library Association’s 1970 Interlibrary Loan Procedure Manual suggested that access restrictions could safeguard a dissertation’s common law copyright.
However, this view was not universally accepted. Many argued that such restrictions were legally ineffective, especially once lifted or if not rigorously enforced. Prominent legal scholars
and academic administrators of the time, such as Ralph Shaw, contended that the only sure way to protect a dissertation’s copyright was through proper statutory compliance, including affixing a copyright notice.
The significance of these findings cannot be overstated. For today’s libraries, understanding the publication status of pre1978 dissertations is crucial for digitization projects. If these dissertations are indeed considered “published works,” many of them may now reside in the public domain, especially those lacking the requisite copyright notice. This realization can greatly facilitate the process of making these works available online, bypassing the need for permissions and reducing administrative burdens.
Moreover, Clement and Levine’s research underscores the importance of examining the title pages and versos of these dissertations for copyright notices. This practice can help librarians determine the copyright status of each work, paving the way for informed decisions regarding digitization and public access.
So, what does this mean for today’s libraries and digital archivists? The findings by Clement and Levine provide a roadmap for navigating the copyright status of pre-1978 dissertations. Libraries can examine these works for copyright notice and determine whether they’re in the public domain or still protected. This clarity can pave the way for digitizing these valuable resources, making them accessible to scholars worldwide.
Imagine the wealth of knowledge that could be unlocked by digitizing these dissertations. Scholars across disciplines could delve into decades-old research, building on the foundations laid by previous generations. It’s a scholarly treasure trove waiting to be explored.
The meticulous research conducted by Gail Clement and Melissa Levine provides a valuable historical perspective on the publication status of pre-1978 dissertations. Their findings offer a framework for modern libraries to navigate the complexities of digitizing these works. By clarifying that many of these dissertations were considered published and therefore potentially in the public domain, Clement and Levine’s work supports efforts to enhance the accessibility of historical academic research.
The saga of pre-1978 dissertations is a fascinating journey through the annals of academic history and copyright law. Thanks to the meticulous research of Clement and Levine, we have a clearer picture of how these works were viewed in their time and how they can be accessed today.
As libraries continue to embrace the digital age, the legacy of these dissertations lives on. They remind us that even in the world of academia, the past holds the keys to unlocking future discoveries. So, here’s to the scholars of yesteryear and the digital archivists of today, working hand in hand to preserve and share the wealth of knowledge that makes our world a richer, more enlightened place.
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And They Were There — Reports of Meetings 2023 Charleston Conference
Column Editor: Sara F. Hess (Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian, 309 Paterno Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802) <sfh5542@psu.edu>
Column Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Charleston Conference attendees, both those who attended on-site and virtually, who agreed to write brief reports highlighting their 2023 Charleston Conference experience. In 2023, the conference moved to an asynchronous format: the in-person conference (November 6-10) was followed two weeks later by a virtual week (November 27-December 1) that included online-only sessions and presentations as well. Conference registrants had the opportunity to view recordings and see slides (if available), to re-visit sessions they saw “live,” or to visit sessions they missed. Without a doubt, there were more Charleston Conference sessions than there were volunteer reporters for Against the Grain, so the coverage is just a snapshot. In 2023, reporters were invited to either provide general impressions on what caught their attention, or to select individual sessions on which they would report.
There are many ways to learn more about the 2023 conference. Please visit the Charleston Conference YouTube site, https://www.youtube.com/user/CharlestonConference/ videos?app=desktop, for selected interviews and videos, and the conference site, http://www.charleston-hub.com/thecharleston-conference/ for links to conference information and blog reports written by Charleston Conference blogger, Donald Hawkins, http://www.charleston-hub.com/category/blogs/ chsconfnotes/. The 2023 Charleston Conference Proceedings will be published in 2024, in partnership with University of Michigan Press.
In this issue we have the third and final installment of reports from the 2023 Charleston Conference. The first group in the April 2024 issue included “Top 5” lists and reflections from first time attendees. The second portion of reports in the June 2024 issue included Neapolitan sessions as well as Stopwatch and Innovation sessions. This final group of reports includes concurrent sessions and lively discussions. Again we’d like to say thank you to all of our report contributors for giving us a peak into the conference sessions they attended. — SFH
WEDNESDAY CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Library Skills: A Moving Target
Reported by Andrew Adler (Western Kentucky University)
Presented by Matthew Hayes (Technology from Sage), Christine Quirion (Skilltype), Karim Boughida (Stony Brook University), and Paul Bracke (Wayne State University) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/t1OzF5Ce4tI?si=87Ea96sbofy6sAt
The four presenters offered a report on Part III of the Librarian Futures report focusing on the skills landscape for librarians. Partnering with Skilltype, Technology from Sage examined current librarian skills and explored what is needed in the future. Endorsing a focus on student success and a disconnect between what library administrators want and what librarians
do, the panelists discussed a need for librarians to move beyond technical skills to those that are more general and transferable. With the growth in interest in artificial intelligence from academia, the presenters encouraged librarians to work with the tools and encouraged leaders to repurpose positions to lead the discussion about AI and other developments. All agreed that librarians and their administrators need to extend the range of reskilling to build new capacities and seek partnerships with outside groups to enhance the library’s role on campus and beyond.
Choose Your Fighter: Automation vs. Manual Processes in the ILS
Reported by Amanda Elzey (UNC Charlotte)
Presented by Sara Duff (University of Central Florida), Tina Buck (University of Central Florida), and Natalie HenriBennett (Auburn University). Not present: Faye Mazzia (formerly University of Central Florida) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/pJlf6MKc7s4?si=PAh1Sdr3wAfRv4n5
Within the first minute of this session, presenter Tina Buck offered a vibe that prepared us for the flexibility required for utilizing automated processes: “We’re gonna go…out of order. I hope y’all can cope.” Threaded throughout the presentations on four “fighters” that can assist library staff in their work — vendor-supplied records in Alma; KBART automation; Rialto integrated ordering; and batch-loading records with EBSCO Discovery Service — was the idea that automation in these cases can increase efficiency with relatively few drawbacks, many of which can be remedied by further automated processes such as reports. I related with all three presenters’ experiences, from highlights to gripes, but particularly with the suggestions for improvement in each of these “fighters,” which could become so much more with improved features and responsiveness to library staff needs. This sensible demonstration of the pros, cons, and librarian dreams for automation concluded with a recommendation from Buck and Sara Duff to pressure vendors continually into improving automated processes, to ensure that these services remain at their most useful, as there is no un-ringing the bell that is computer-driven data management.
Will New Approaches to Resource Sharing Kill Off Big Deals?
Findings from the UK N8+ consortium
Reported by Linnea Shieh (Stanford University)
Presented by Phil Sykes (University of Liverpool) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ XLkgY1NHSaA?si=N7iaCyChtzVgoXf-
In this entertaining and quippy presentation, Phil Sykes told the story of the N8+ collective’s preparatory efforts to
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cancel their Elsevier Big Deal. Over the lifetime of the deal, Liverpool’s Elsevier spending had ballooned from 1/16 to 1/2 of their annual budget. Their consortium JISC, in an attempt to reset that figure during renewal, made an offer to Elsevier asking for a 15% price cut and free APCs. With talks ongoing, a group of 8 universities (eventually growing to 31) explored the what-if scenario of cancellation. The meat of the presentation shows the results of that exploration, focusing on turnaround times for articles requested from canceled journals. In summary, those turnaround times were fast. Faculty were on board and the collective was ready to cancel. But in a somewhat anticlimactic conclusion, no one ended up canceling — Elsevier accepted the initial JISC offer. While we won’t get to see whether a post-cancellation reality aligned with the what-if analysis, the renewal was considered a victory for UK universities and a potential source of inspiration for other institutions currently evaluating their Big Deals.
Working with COUNTER Reports — A Practical Session
Reported
by Becky Imamoto (University of California Irvine)
Presented by Tasha Mellins-Cohen (COUNTER Metrics) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ wh9kzFt4Rs4?si=DtzEP7UWO7q2wv0N
This concurrent session lived up to its title by being extremely practical. Ms. Mellins-Cohen demonstrated easy ways to work with COUNTER usage reports in Excel. She covered five topics: 1) What you’ll find in different COUNTER Reports, 2) Essential metrics for books, journals, and databases, 3) How to use filters to approximate a standard view, 4) Pivot tables, and 5) How to use Google Sheets. It was useful to see sample reports that are part of Release 5.1, which was published in May 2023, and will become the current Code of Practice and the requirement for COUNTER compliance effective January 2025. All sample reports reviewed are available in Appendix G of the Code of Practice. Further videos and guides are available on the COUNTER Media Library website. One takeaway that was repeatedly stressed is Standard Views of COUNTER Reports are pre-set summaries and do not include every metric.
A practical guide to using evidence-based acquisition, title matching, and other tools to streamline collection development
Reported by Erika Boardman (UNC Charlotte)
Presented by Sara Duff (University of Central Florida), Matt Gallagher (Binghamtom University Libraries), Jeremy Brown (Florida Gulf Coast University), and Meredith Griggs (Clarivate) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ brK2YsfJ1Ts?si=wQ8oJaoDUVt7NEdM
Whether you manage a print collection or work strictly with electronic resources, this session gave a concise overview on ProQuest’s Title Matching Fast (TMF) service and Ex Libris Rialto. I had never heard of TMF reports and it was interesting to learn about a service that takes a list of ISBNs and runs it against your print holdings (or electronic holdings if you’re an Alma customer) to see what electronic options are available through ProQuest. Matthew Gallagher discussed several use cases for this service that many librarians would find beneficial. Sara Duff then gave a hands-on introduction to Rialto and discussed the
many features available to support EBA programs. Although EBA management is only available for eBook Central and Taylor & Francis, other vendors may eventually integrate with Rialto and that’s definitely something to look forward to. Finally, Jeremy Brown gave a rundown on his experience with DDA and firm orders in Rialto, with insight on the overall financial and usage impact. My biggest takeaway was hearing more about the benefits of implementing Rialto, and this session is definitely worth watching if you’re looking to learn more about how Rialto can support your library’s collection workflows.
Transforming Academic Librarianship
Reported by Andrew Adler (Western Kentucky University)
Presented by Leo S. Lo (New Mexico University) and Lis Pankl (Mississippi State University) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/CAgoQZeclgs?si=P5p3bjPlbfOI0L7o
Presented by two Deans of Libraries, this session focused on incorporation of tools into work flows to improve efficiency in the face of reduced budgets and help innovation. Lo discussed his GPT-4 Exploration Project that implemented GPT into workflows, building efficiency. With 10 people working on projects, they built familiarity and AI literacy, leading to an AI empowerment initiative across campus. He encouraged librarians to be leaders in this effort as it is moving faster than the Internet, and we can do so because no one really knows how to do it. Pankl shared insights on integrating two new tools, CloudSource OA and Article Galaxy Scholar, into workflow to innovate after a budget cut. Using these tools to augment discovery and interlibrary loan services, she shared lessons on how to build support for new tools, showing how even in times of loss, the library can still work to provide resources. Additionally, she encouraged all present to communicate with the broader constituencies early on to ensure success.
Consortial
Futures: Where Will Library Consortia Go Next?
Reported by Chris Vidas (Clemson University)
Presented by Kirsten Leonard (PALNI), John Wilkin (Lyrasis), Maurice York (Big Ten Academic Alliance), and Jill Grogg (Lyrasis) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ jIG60YoUo-o?si=IYGj42gdlVgSOBFi
This panel discussion included representation from three large and distinct consortia with questions moderated by Jill Grogg, a Senior Strategist for Lyrasis. The event began with introductions from each of the panel members. During that segment, Maurice York shared details about the unique model adopted by the Big Ten Academic Alliance in which all the geographically separated members share a single collection. The other representatives also shared details about their consortial models.
The initial question addressed by the panelists related to pressures that consortia are currently facing. One common theme in the responses centered on fiscal concerns and declining budgets. This hard reality demands creative solutions, collective action, and highlighting the cost-savings enjoyed by members. Another concern was inadequate or shrinking staffing. Like many participating institutions, the consortia are also being asked to do more with less, and publishers or providers are not always sympathetic to these difficulties. Kirsten Leonard
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proposed that there is a need to rethink our partnerships to enhance efficiencies on all fronts.
Throughout the remainder of the session, other interesting and trending observations were shared. Maurice York offered that no single model works everywhere. That was especially enlightening considering the creative approach adopted by the Big Ten Academic Alliance, and clearly the other consortia have their own unique arrangements. John Wilkin emphasized the role consortia play in managing the growth of open access, and that is likely a universal truth that applies to all consortia.
While there was limited time for questions, the session concluded with an observation that perhaps the system is broken as we continue to see rising costs and potentially lower use of the valuable content brokered through the consortia.
Are You Ready for a Low Cookie Diet? What Browser Privacy Enhancements Mean for Libraries and Authentication
Reported by Shannon Tennant (Elon University)
Presented by Amanda Ferrante (EBSCO), Athena Hoeppner (University of Central Florida), and Jason Griffey (NISO) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ Egz56MQeaBw?si=txD9tYE4A_F4qqr5
New regulations limit how web browsers can track users and will allow users to opt in or out of security features. These browser changes will have implications for library tools that work through single sign on (SSO) or federated logins. Security features that were formerly optional, like “Hide my IP,” may now be the default and affect many users’ experiences with library e-resources. Griffey explained the basics of how browsers track users. He also shared timelines, if known, about when specific browsers might implement changes. The next two presenters gave a vendor and a library perspective on the issue. Ferrante reported that EBSCO products do rely on some of the affected functionalities. They anticipate browser changes will affect many libraries using IP authentication. EBSCO has convened a working group and will be communicating with customers. Hoeppner confirmed that her library’s IP authentication will be impacted. Hoeppner then addressed other commonly used library authentication services. Ezproxy should not be affected but they will continue monitoring OCLC’s announcements. OpenAthens, and Shibboleth are under “no immediate threat” per the OpenAthens blog. Hoeppner urged libraries to be proactive in setting up a response team, identifying potential impacts, and communicating with vendors and patrons.
Let the Videos Stream!
Reported by Erika Boardman (UNC Charlotte)
Presented by Rick Davis (Towson University), Robyn Reed (Union College Schaffer Library), and Mark Sandford (Colgate University) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ PF2I5ZyN-WQ?si=935FM7zyLRfpbbaY
Presenting from multiple perspectives, this lively discussion session touched on the experiences of three different librarians who handle faculty requests for streaming videos. The
presenters posed a variety of questions centered on acquisition models, copyright concerns, balancing access and financial sustainability, etc. Many audience members shared their own experiences with streaming media budgets, managing requests with cost constraints, and record-keeping for film renewals. There were specific mentions of Kanopy’s Smart PDA model, with some audience members sharing that the PDA program saved them money and others indicating the cost not justifying usage. The conversation moved forward touching on educational equity, streaming services, and film access. The vast majority of the audience agreed that there is a growing concern on the inability to license films due to major platforms, such as Netflix or Prime, being unwilling to work with vendors, libraries, and academic institutions. It was both disheartening and refreshing to be in a room full of people who shared this same woeful sentiment. This session could have lasted for hours, and I wish it could have. It truly was a great opportunity to share ideas and concerns on the current and future state of streaming videos.
THURSDAY LIVELY DISCUSSION
The Fun is Just Beginning: Juggling Values-Based Practice in a High-Stakes World (23rd Health Sciences Lively Lunchtime Discussion)
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center)
Presented by Andrea McLellan (McMaster University), Elizabeth Speer (University of North Texas Health Science Center), Elias Tzoc (Clemson University), and Chris Cox (Clemson University) — Session recording is available at https:// youtu.be/l8Zzmff2rC8?si=xiOZyIZ_8JygXoUk
On behalf of co-moderator Kim Steinle (Health Affairs), moderator McLellan greeted attendees, introducing Ramune Kubilius (Northwestern University) to spotlight the annual “Developments” update compilation. A word cloud and links to news items illustrated trends (since last year): career milestones, product anniversaries and launches, joint and new OA ventures. In “Value-Based Budgeting: Equity Practice in Collection Budget Processes” McLellan shared concepts gleaned from general accounting literature, worth considering in all institutions’ libraries. Speer (in a pre-recording) addressed “Focused Approach to Community Representation & Global Equity Audits in Collections and How Institutional Values Shape Publisher Negotiations & OA.” Institutions’ values-based expectations need to be communicated to vendors and publishers. Tzoc and Cox addressed “AI in Healthcare: Challenges & Opportunities.” Concerns included: privacy, ethics, and bias, while roles for libraries included: AI, literacy, and assessment. Not much time was left for lively discussion, but on-site and online, there was expressed interest in the future of AI, a value-driven way to view accounting practices, and the possible ripple effect of legislation and mandates on work libraries conduct in diversity areas, including collections. Tracking trends (AI), adapting practices (budgeting), and terminology adjustments (to address directives) are some directions.
The slide deck and handouts from this session can be found in part in the schedule and deposited in: https://doi. org/10.18131/20j6k-96h75
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It’s
THURSDAY CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Not Just the APC: Researchers’ Structural, Political, and Social Barriers to OA Publishing
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center)
Presented by Rachel Fleming-May (University of TennesseeKnoxville School of Information Sciences), Brianne Dosch (University of Tennessee-Knoxville Libraries), and Jill Grogg (Lyriasis) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ pWmiEBleWFM?si=q1F6_7DVMddqZguY
Fleming-May introduced the OA publishing-focused (specifically APCs) session. Panelists in rounds shared library, researcher, consortia perspectives. Grogg addressed the 2023 OA publishing landscape, later Lyriasis Principles-based Open Program Support. Understanding common language (gold, hybrid, etc.) and economic models is important. “Transformative” should probably be commonly known as “transitional,” and “moving into the cracks” is needed to move the needle. Prepare talking points for trustees or others who don’t understand OA. Virtual speaker Dosch addressed library OA support, often through a “scholarly publishing librarian,” including outreach and education. By-in is by federal mandates and university priorities, reflected in bibliometrics. Library budgets challenges need a shift to “investment in OA.” Demonstrating OA includes OA funding solutions, and futureproofing collection development policies to support OA. “Next steps”: become more knowledgeable, expand outreach and education. Fleming-May: Impediments for researchers involve calculations- mandates, incentives, venues, levels of perceived vulnerability, disciplinary differences, and publishing support. To researcher authors, each (sub)discipline has 5-10 “acceptable” (aspirational) publications in the robust DOAJ lists. Preliminary survey findings (of 300+ social sciences and humanities liaisons) show mixed involvement, so recommendations for librariansbe (more) proactive with faculty, remediate with them about mechanics and costs of publishing. Start conversations earlier in scholars’ publication processes.
The Future of Print: Two Case Studies in Modernizing Print Collections
Reported by Amanda Elzey (UNC Charlotte)
Presented by Eva Jurczyk (University of Toronto), Monica Ward (University of Ottawa), and Meg Ecclestone (University of Guelph) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ btW19XYaqW4?si=BXWa-jC-v8sMTk-T
Any conference session with “print” in the title will always grab my attention, and the discussion about long-term plans for print resources (and particularly in this case, selecting and storing this media) is a timely one as the future trends electronic. Meg Ecclestone shared how a university can prioritize maintaining collections of record that reflect the community’s heritage, in order to remove some of the grief that can come with weeding other, less-relevant, parts of the collection. Eva Jurczyk described Downsview, a collaborative storage facility shared amongst multiple institutions to ensure that print access is preserved for all parties, and the photographs of this facility
were awe-inspiring in terms of scale. Monica Ward’s experience balancing the cost, use, and accessibility of print items was especially apt, since many institutions struggle not only with budgetary restraints but also with simply maintaining sufficient physical space for all collections. Throughout, the presenters emphasized the actionable development of print collections policies by which relevant print content is maintained as efficiently as possible to meet patrons’ needs.
FRIDAY- CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Using the Open Web as a Collection Development Resource
Reported by Linnea Shieh (Stanford University)
Presented by Gary Price (infoDOCKET.com), Meg McCroskey Blum (Lyrasis), and Stephen Rhind-Tutt (Coherent Digital) — Session recording available at https://youtu. be/8I1vdnjtMbY?si=22RWcdmGqu1TqMiV
“Mostly a pep talk” was how one of the presenters described her talk, and that description adequately sums up the tone throughout. We learned the difference between “wild” and “tame” content. Tame content has PIDs — our A&I databases focus on tame content even when we don’t have access to all of it. Wild content is gray, primary, global, and diverse — it is openly available but in need of library-style curation. The presenters walked through many of their favorite wild sources (one list is at bit.ly/GaryCHS2023) which were fun, exciting, and often not well known. But we weren’t treated to many concrete ideas for how curation might happen. It was merely noted multiple times that “LibGuides are always outdated.” The presenters emphasize that librarians should use their existing relationships and community status to show the value of wild resources and create easier onramps for patrons.
The Vital Role of Community-Building in Open Access Initiatives
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center)
Presented by Sara McKee (American Council of Learning Societies), John Lenahan (JSTOR-ITHAKA), Kate McCready (Big Ten Academic Alliance), and Charles Watkinson (University of Michigan Press) — Session recording available at https://youtu. be/GFIQgggTtps?si=NWiSF906mvaXKLfk
McKee introduced the robust (admittedly U.S. centric) OA monograph themed session. Lenahan introduced and later reflected on the 3-year Path to Open model pilot (rolling embargoed OA, starting in 2026), the importance of community building, success metrics. The pilot offers libraries an equity solution: cost effectiveness, sustainability; for publishers (30 now, 5-10 titles each) — scaling for ROI, guaranteed payment, no questions about funding; for authors — information on impact, readership, usage data from start through OA. McCready reflected on library perspectives, the layers of complexity (university press scholarly monographs are expensive to produce and purchase). OA is a value proposition but requires shifting focus on aligned values framework — investment: best price, content for lowest cost (libraries); high quality, financial sustainability (presses); broad reach of materials (scholars). Watkinson mentioned challenges for 100 U.S. university presses, their different ways of finding common ground (community)
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— community building is essential to long-term sustainability. JSTOR is the “biggest gorilla in the nonprofit academy space”, per Watkinson, and projects he mentioned included: Big Ten Open Books, Lever Press, U-M Press Fund to Mission initiative. McKee spotlighted the now concluded TOMES project- successes, lessons learned and best practices to build on, moving forward, and summarized the Path to Open involvement of ACLS, JSTOR, and Educopia, the diverse communities involved, and timelines.
Under Construction: Library Renovation Case Studies
Reported by Shannon Tennant (Elon University)
Presented by Terry Brandsma (University of North CarolinaGreensboro), Emera Bridger Wilson (Norther Michigan University), and Patrick Stanley (University of Georgia) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/89CGcRR6UF0?si=nDtUT1JGS3kdc1t
Brandsma’s library renovation requires the removal of over 300,000 volumes. Their print retention agreement with other libraries helped determine discards but also limits what can be weeded. They discarded print journals, older editions, dissertations, duplicate copies, and bibliographies, but they still need to discard more. Many discarded volumes were donated to Internet Archive. During Wilson’s library renovation, the library will be housed in the former health center. The building has space to convert to student study rooms, but is located on the edge of campus. Faculty are anxious about the loss of physical collections and staff are anxious about providing services. Librarians plan to teach in classrooms and invest in eBook collections. Wilson stressed that communication is key: the library building may be closed but the library (the services, the people) is still available. Stanley presented about a renovation to the science library. To decrease the collection, they discarded duplicates and journals, leaned into shared print agreements, and shelved more densely in closed-stack spaces. The project was an opportunity to improve user experience and correct cataloging errors. Going forward, they will focus on the collection’s currency, circulation, and browsability, and hopefully eliminate the need for shifting projects.
ONLINE WEEK: ONLINE ONLY SESSIONS
All Together Now: Collaborating with Faculty to Unleash Your Library’s Potential
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center)
Presented by Michelle Guittar (Northwestern University), Rachel Crookes (moderator, Sage), Sarah Morris (Consultant), and Melissa Johnson (Nova Southwestern University) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/7u2X_ oOk1kQ?si=kO3f640iMgYWZfD5
Crookes introduced the session with publishers’ perspectives, but the primary focus was on librarian panelists’ insights regarding navigating priorities, expectations, challenges, especially with emerging AI technology demands. Challenges? (1st of 4 questions); get on the same page about library instruction (Morris); scale and scaffold for instruction “jazz hands” (Johnson); communication is key (Guittar). Positives (successes)? Aligned assignments with resources (Johnson);
long-scale relationships take time (and patience) — one postpandemic ROI success: a faculty practicum resulted in more instruction session requests (Guittar); recognized that the long game and timescale differ by department, and website design hubs for faculty help strategize (Morris). Generative AI higher education landscape impact? Faculty feel impact, newer generation of “ways of knowing” tools abound; libraries can demonstrate AI and teach critical analysis (Guittar); in shifting landscape, libraries should be woven into instruction and initiatives (Morris); AI will come into libraries’ territory; people are not aware of what is being generated and how (Johnson); transparency is important (Crookes). Reimagined library relationships? To be seen as collaborators, welcoming place, support for teaching and learning (Guittar); students’ positive view of resources and library (Johnson); library as valuable and critical partner in educational mission (Morris); library integrated at every level (Crookes).
Going Beyond Content — What Today’s Researchers Need From Libraries
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center)
Presented by Emily Singley (moderator, Elsevier), Emily McElroy (University of Florida), Lori Ostapowicz-Criz (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), and Borui Zhang (University of Florida Libraries) — Session recording available at https://youtu.be/ aZifOCd8sGQ?si=Nd1gLXczsKy5EGPo
Singley moderated the panel that focused “beyond collections,” on innovative services and staff put in place to meet evolving needs — in education, AI, impact reporting. McElroy described her institution’s ARCS (Academic Research Consulting & Services). More “commonly found” services (in libraries) include: publishing, archiving, research metrics, impact, systematic reviews; evolving, less traditionally offered (in libraries) include: artificial intelligence, data science, research integrity, and reproducibility. Some team members have dual degrees — subject degrees, doctorates, not necessarily library credentials or experience, since “a mix of backgrounds helps with the entire university’s mission.” Zhang (a PhD on McElroy’s team), described a five-year AI initiative: survey to resulting workshop series — what is AI, AI ethics, etc. Zhang teaches a credit course; consultations lead to meaningful discussions on how data is encoded, and technology framework is shared in domains (urban design or natural history natural language processing). In “Research Impact Services at WPI,” Ostapowicz-Critz spotlighted work at her institution that supports 600 faculty in a project-based learning curriculum. Helping them tell their stories, traditional citation analysis is expanded to social media data and direct data mining with APIs. Use of tools (such as the Elsevier Data Fetcher API query) can save hours of time.
Well, this wraps up all the reports we received from the 2023 Charleston Conference. Thanks to everyone who provided reports from the sessions they attended. Be sure to visit the Charleston Conference YouTube site for selected interviews and videos, and the Charleston Conference site for links to conference information and blog reports written by Charleston Conference blogger Donald Hawkins.
See you at the 2024 Charleston Conference!
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Seeing the Whole Board — Impact Literacy and the Importance of a Meaningful Impact Culture
by Steve Lodge (Vice-President, Services, Emerald Publishing) <slodge@emerald.com>
The importance, and indeed even the definition, of research impact has been a mainstay of discourse and debate over recent years, particularly as it has started to become a factor in broader research evaluation. Where some countries have incorporated research impact directly into institutional assessment, like the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the UK, others still base assessment criteria on more traditional academic performance metrics and bibliometrics.
As we recognize the importance of using academic research to address societal challenges, we must also recognize the need to help researchers, librarians, administrators and others within the wider research landscape, identify, plan, action and articulate impact. I spoke with Dr. Julie Bayley, Director of Research Impact and Development at the University of Lincoln (UK), and Dr. David Phipps, Assistant Vice President Research Strategy and Impact at York University (Canada) about why this is so important and steps that stakeholders in research institutions can take to help foster impact literacy.
What do impact and impact literacy mean to you?
Steve Lodge
only generate impact from our research, but ensure our research aligns with what matters to people outside of academia.
Who would you suggest is responsible for impact in a research institution?
David: I always try to exercise caution here because if we start assigning specific and unique responsibility for impact that means, by default, there are some people who are not responsible for impact. To assign responsibility risks putting enormous pressure on individuals to “do impact” and reinforces the idea of impact being something extra or unusual. Impact needs to be weaved into the business of research institutions, harnessing the collective skills of staff and supported institutionally.
Julie: Impact is defined most simply as the “provable effects (or benefits) of research in the “real world.” It is change in society — be that in health, the economy, culture, the environment or any other sphere of life — brought about in some way by research. While, of course, academic pursuits are in themselves extremely valuable, I use “real world” as a blunt reminder that for impact, the change needs to be felt outside the academic walls. As such, impact cannot be measured by citations or other bibliometrics — which show academic attention — but rather by evidence of change from the world around us.
David: We still find many researchers struggling with impact, often because they are required to “do” impact before having had chance to learn about it. We developed the concept of Impact Literacy to help the research sector not only understand impact but be able to plan, articulate and make decisions which help meaningfully connect research with society.
Impact literacy breaks impact down into four interconnected sections — why is impact needed, who benefits and/or needs to be involved, how research and society can be best connected (often called “knowledge mobilization”), and what changes. By unpacking each of these, in partnership with society, we can not
Julie: Absolutely. The reality is that impact is a “team sport,” rather than something that should ever happen in a bubble or a vacuum. There are many people (including librarians) now with impact in their job title, which is a wonderful reflection of how impact is being embedded into sector practice and the growth of specialist skills. We also have increasingly visible leadership in impact. These are signals of really positive sector change, but we still need to ensure impact is a shared endeavor rather than the responsibility of one person.
How would you describe healthy and unhealthy practices of impact across a university?
“As we recognize the importance of using academic research to
address societal challenges,
we
must also recognize the need to help researchers, librarians, administrators and others within the wider research landscape, identify, plan, action and articulate impact.”
Julie: Healthy institutional practices are supportive, with impact embedded into practice, and with staff clear on what impact is. They help build a culture of impact and help make impact much more likely. In contrast, unhealthy practices leave staff unsupported, unclear about impact, and working in isolation to make impact happen. It’s sadly not uncommon for staff to be expected to deliver impact, yet given little (or no) time, skills development or resources. This can leave them adding impact onto an already full schedule and undermining rather than enabling impact to happen. Even when we’re resource limited, we need to recognize that impact needs both a mindset shift — including pushing beyond bibliometrics — and structural support.
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Dr. Julie Bayley
Dr. David Phipps
David: We’ve seen both healthy and unhealthy practices across the sector and developed a “5 C’s of Institutional Health” workbook to help institutions embed better practices. For impact, research institutions need to demonstrate Commitment (through, for example, strategy), Connectivity (aligning the work of staff and teams in pursuit of impact), Coproduction (connecting meaningfully with partners outside of academia), Competencies (building impact related skills) and Clarity (ensuring people are clear on their contribution, and clear on what impact is). We’ve been delighted to see so many institutions use this work to build strategies.
What role do you feel that impact plays in research evaluation?
Julie: Evaluation is commonplace in academia and, for many of us, impact is a part of the way we’re assessed. In the UK, for instance, our “Research Excellence Framework” process includes a 25% impact component and determines how much government funding we receive. While other countries may not have, or not have as financially weighted, assessment of impact, impact is increasingly featured in research evaluations and funding allocation models.
However, as with all evaluations, there is a risk of counting what can be counted, rather than what matters. I think it’s important that we strive for and demonstrate the value of impact within research — which evaluations do stretch us to do — but we still haven’t quite balanced recognizing with the burden of administration and fair expectation.
David: This is where impact literacy is so vital. We need to ensure everyone involved in research, particularly those driving evaluation, understand how impact really works, and resist applying existing and often metricized approaches to something which is far more iterative and societally engaged. Impact comes in all shapes and sizes and cannot be reduced to simple numbers or standardized measures. Any directives towards responsible evaluation should take this firmly into account.
Without a standardized metric for impact evaluation, how do you feel impact should be measured?
David: It is impossible to have a standardized metric for impact. Impact is the benefit of research in the “real world,” and as such, measurement must reflect the nature of change and the context in which it happens. While some types of impact may be representable by numbers (for example, business profits), many can only be measured by understanding — in words — the difference the research has made for someone. I don’t actually measure impact. To measure implies something quantitative requiring a measuring tape.
Julie: We also need to avoid treating impact as “the endpoint,” as this sets up an expectation of being able to count something only at the end of a linear path. Impacts happen at different times, in different ways, for different groups and at different points along the research lifecycle. Our most effective way to measure impact is to understand this, and then look for any means by which we can see change outside of academia.
What advice would you give institutions in beginning to instill a culture of impact?
Julie: There is a tendency, particularly where research forms part of evaluation or institutional reputation, to focus only on “big and shiny impacts.” I call these Impact Unicorns, as institutions can get distracted hunting these amazing, fantastical beasts rather than looking at the meaningful change they can make around them.
Any institution embarking on impact needs to not only establish healthy conditions but be inclusive of people and research generating impact of any size. It also needs to preserve the space for blue sky (or similar) research, rather than force an unreasonable expectation of impact on all research. Impact can happen swiftly or take many years to be felt, and so I’d also urge institutions to avoid short-termism which can slice and dice progress in an unhelpful way.
David: Not only is it vital to ensure that any approach is inclusive, but institutions need to ensure the structures are in place to support impact activities. It is very difficult to be an impact literate individual in an environment that prioritizes traditional measures of scholarly attention (e.g., bibliometrics) and/or derides societal engagement. This is also where the wider sector needs to build a culture of impact. For example, publishing is a core activity within academic life, but if outputs aren’t communicated to those who can benefit, we’re shouting into an echo chamber.
If everyone in the research ecosystem could understand, and extend their role in supporting impact, we would be able to build impact in better, and reach further. Institutions beginning to instill an impact culture need to first decide they value impact, and then work with those inside and beyond the university walls to make a difference that matters.
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Libraries, Leadership, and Synergies — An AI-Assisted Grouping of Job Duties and Skill Requirements to Inform Workflow Planning and Job Design
Column Editor: Antje Mays (Collection Analysis Librarian, University of Kentucky Libraries) <antjemays@uky.edu>
Column Editor’s Note: Building on the June ATG article’s findings from fifteen recent collections, analysis, and acquisitions job postings, this article illustrates an artificial intelligence (AI) experiment toward gaining deeper workflow insights through AI-assisted conceptual grouping of job duties and skill requirements. — AM
Introduction
The last article investigated 15 recent library collections job ads1 to identify trends. Corpus2 and word-cloud3 analyses parsed library functional areas, job duties, and skill requirements. Corpus4 and word-cloud5 analyses examined job types combined, as well as within specific job subgroupings of acquisitions, collections, analysis, strategy, and electronic resources and licensing. Findings pointed to strong similarities of need across all these job categories, regardless of each job posting’s stated focus. The repeated detection of the same major job and skill components across all job categories prompted this article’s experiment in AI-assisted clustering of these components to promote clearer delineations between the job postings’ areas of responsibility and related skill requirements. AI-assisted mapping of major task families both within and across all job categories to related skill requirements offers a blueprint for further development of job design and training plans.
The Intertwined Nature of Job Duties and Skill Needs
Untangling and meta-grouping: Job design and training strategies benefit from a big-picture overview of collectionsrelated tasks, some of which are trend-driven while others continue as timeless core duties. As collections-related portfolios continue to grow, job designers and training planners face blurred lines of demarcation, scope creep within and across positions, and competing priorities. Recent articles discuss position incumbents’ growing workloads, 6 vocational awe pressures,7 and analytical endeavors to systematize rebalancing of workloads.8
Roles and task realms: While many of the 15 analyzed job ads’ major themes are spread across most of these ads’ job types, several themes naturally align with major job types. Collection development / strategy draws on strategy, foresight, planning, physical collection management, weighing the balance of physical and digital content, digital preservation for long-term content stability, subject-based needs, as well as collaborations with consortia and other internal and external stakeholders. Collection analysis includes assessment, data, and analysis across collections characteristics, disciplines, and research metrics for actionable insights and informed decision-
making. Electronic resources and licensing overlap in several areas across collections, licensing, authentication, and system interoperability. Acquisitions core tasks include financial monitoring and budget management, procurement, vendor negotiation, license negotiation, consortial collaborations and cooperative purchasing, and processing of incoming physical materials.
Specific job types provide the strongest natural associations with matching categories of task realms — for example, data analysis and collections assessment are closely related to collections analysis jobs. However, numerous task realms were found across multiple job types in the postings examined for this study. These include vendor and license negotiation, licensing, intellectual property, consortial collaborations, format considerations, digital content continuity and preservation, resource discoverability, system interoperability, technology and platform exploration, and quantitative and qualitative analysis. Trends addressed in the advertised positions include emerging formats, digital preservation, evolving business and access models, navigating market gaps and resource constraints, consortial collaborations and cooperative agreements, technological advancements, emerging platforms and analytical capabilities, Open Access frameworks, open infrastructures, textbook affordability crisis and affordable course content, and licensing complexities around intellectual property and geographic jurisdictions. Consequently, skill needs are shared across multiple functional areas including business, leadership, management, partnership skills, negotiation, intellectual property, inventory management, technology, data, analysis, and qualitative analysis and needs assessment.
Meaningful insights are impeded by the intertwined nature of these roles, duties, and skill needs. Toward informing systematic solutions, the following experiment exemplifies structured sense-making through AI-assisted thematic grouping and concept mapping of job functions and skill requirements — within each job type and also across all job types.
Methodology
Copilot for AI-assisted analysis: To streamline conceptual groupings, this experiment drew upon generative artificial intelligence through Microsoft Copilot.9 Copilot offers three levels of detail and focus for its AI outputs. Output options are labeled as “conversation style,” with options of “more creative,” “more balanced,” and “more precise.” This analysis opted for the “more precise” setting to maximize topic focus and to minimize hallucinated10 and fabricated11 outputs. As this screenshot shows, Copilot alludes to generative AI outputs’ error-proneness: Copilot’s brief notice mentions AI use and highlights the need for human verification of outputs for accuracy relevant to the knowledge base. Input options include
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direct text entry into the chat box, image upload or image URL, on-the-fly screenshot, file upload, and spoken-word entry via microphone. The author’s previously written summaries of the job duties and skill requirements served as the text bodies entered directly into the chat box. To preserve privacy, the job and skill components were anonymized before Copilot entry for AI analysis.
Prompt formulation for optimized groupings and concept mappings: Comprehensive analysis and logical taskrealm groupings were needed to gain an overview of tasks and related skill requirements — a time-consuming task for nakedeye human readers’ interpretation. AI-generated summaries and concept groupings helped speed up the conceptual groupings. To gain multiple perspectives, three prompts were entered into the chat box:
Prompt (1): The first prompt asked Copilot for a textual concept map of duties and skill requirements within job types. To facilitate the intended mapping, the author’s summaries of job duties and skill requirements under the headings of specific job types were entered into Copilot. Job duties and skill requirements were both grouped by acquisitions, combination of acquisitions and collections, collections (including associate dean roles), collections analysis, and collections strategy. These job-type groups were derived from the original job titles of the postings. Although the jobs also included electronic resource
and licensing postings, those postings’ duties and skills were broad and thus subsumed under “collections” for prompt creation.
Prompt (2): The second prompt asked Copilot for thematic groupings of all job duties. This prompt aimed to group all job duties holistically, agnostic of job types. This aim was achieved by entering the author’s previously written job duties’ summaries after removing the job types originally associated with them in the postings.
Prompt (3): The third prompt asked Copilot for thematic groupings of all skill requirements. This prompt aimed to group all skill requirements holistically, agnostic of job types. This aim was achieved by entering the author’s previously written summaries of needed qualifications after removing the job types originally associated with them in the postings.
Findings From AI-assisted Mapping of Roles and Skill Needs
Prompt (1) — Concept groupings within specific job categories: The first prompt asked Copilot to conceptually link the job groupings’ duties to skill requirements. The main purpose of this analysis was to illustrate the clustering of duties and skill requirements within the job types for which they originally appeared in the postings analyzed for this study. For brevity, the AI-generated job duties and conceptually linked skill requirements were summarized by the author.
Acquisitions: Job duties enumerated in the job postings cover (a) Resource procurement, processing, (b) budgeting, fund management, analysis, (c) reporting, coordination, collaboration with stakeholders, (d) management, staff oversight, coaching, and (e) strategies for acquiring needed resources. Skill requirements described in the job postings cover (a) acquisitions, licenses, electronic resources, management, assessment, (b) communication, collaboration, (c) authentication technologies, systems, proxy tools, (d) reference, instruction, leadership, comfort with ambiguity, and (e) and national professional service.
Acquisitions and Collections: Posted job duties cover (a) collections, acquisitions, analysis, reporting, (b) licensing, resource access, staff management, and (c) reference, instruction. Skill requirements mirror qualifications enumerated for acquisitions and collections, comprising (a) communication, (b) collaboration with internal and external stakeholders and consortia, (c) planning and strategy, (d) negotiation, and (e) data analysis.
Collections: Posted job duties comprise (a) leadership, negotiation, workflow strategies, (b) data analysis, assessment, reporting, (c) collections strategy, budgeting, resource sharing, discoverability, and (d) institutional repository management. Skill requirements comprise (a) leadership, strategic thinking, administration, organizational skills, supervision, coaching, mentoring, interpersonal skills, leading DEI efforts, (b) collections management, planning, development, evaluation, policy, partnerships, consortial collaboration, knowledge of collections ecosystems and trends, copyright, knowledge of affordable course content, (c) vendor negotiations, budgeting, (d) educational technologies, systems and analytics modules, data analysis, (e) instruction, as well as (f) professional service and scholarship.
(d) data analysis, visualization, report design, reporting and (e) research support. Skill requirements comprise (a) knowledge of collections development, management, assessment, scholarly trends, (b) acquisitions, electronic resources, licensing, (c) technologies, library platforms, harvesting, data analysis, data visualization, (d) subject/language background, (e) reference, instruction, (f) communication and organizational skills, and (g) professional service and scholarship.
Collections Analysis: Posted job duties comprise (a) coordination of data collection, analysis, and assessment for decision support across the collections realm, (b) automationassisted workflow optimization, and (c) collaboration with consortium peers. Skill requirements comprise (a) data proficiency, relational database design and programming, SQL, (b) coursework in quantitative analysis, visualization, applied statistics, analytics, software (R, SPSS, SAS, Tableau, Power Pilot), (c) organizational and interpersonal skills, and (d) knowledge of collection management standards and library reporting tools.
This summary of job duties and skill requirements within each job-type grouping reveals repetition of many duties and qualifications across multiple job-type postings. Not only does this duplication illustrate the intertwined nature of these posted jobs, but their interrelatedness presents libraries with difficulties in designing job parameters, workflows, and training plans. The following second and third prompts aided with gleaning holistic, job-type-agnostic clustering of job duties, skill needs, and conceptual linking between job duties and skill requirements across all position types.
Prompt (2) — Concept groupings for duties across all job types: The second prompt asked Copilot for thematic, job-type-agnostic groupings of all job duties for all job types combined. The AI output clustered the summarized duties into major task families. For clarity, the author subsequently deduplicated, rearranged, and rephrased some of the duties, as follows: Resource Management and Procurement including (a) collections and acquisitions, (b) collection strategies for long-horizon directions, (c) strategies for acquiring needed resources already identified, (d) collection assessment and weeding, (e) electronic resources lifecycle, (f) resource procurement, (g) receiving and processing, (h) collections budgeting: allocations, budgeting, expenditures, fund management and analysis; Reporting and Analysis including (a) coordination of data collection, analysis, and assessment for decision support across the collections realm, (b) data analysis and visualization for decision support, (c) library system analytics reports for data-informed decision-making, (d) statistics, (e) reporting statistics and analytics-derived insights to internal and external constituencies; Collaboration and Coordination including (a) coordination and collaboration across library and university departments, (b) collaboration with consortium peers, (c) hosting vendor visits and informational sessions; Staff and Leadership Management including (a) staff management, oversight and coaching, (b) leadership, (c) strategic direction-setting across all disciplines and formats; Institutional Repository Management; Vendor and Licensing Management including (a) licensing, (b) price and license negotiation, (c) resource evaluation, assessment; Resource Accessibility and Discoverability including (a) resource sharing, (b) resource discoverability and access, (c) embedding learning resources in instructional support platforms; Instruction and Research Support including (a) reference and instruction, (b) subject-based instruction and research support, (c) public-facing collection exhibits; Workflow Optimization
and Automation including (a) workflow strategies, (b) automation-assisted workflow optimization; Trend Analysis and Strategic Planning including (a) reviewing campus needs, (b) staying informed on broader trends across the collections and scholarly communication ecosystem.
Prompt (3) — Concept groupings for skill requirements across all job types: The third prompt asked Copilot for thematic groupings of all skill requirements. The AI output clustered the summarized skill requirements into major qualification groupings. For clarity, the author subsequently deduplicated, rephrased, and rearranged some of the skill components, as follows: Resource Management and Procurement including experience with (a) acquisitions, (b) licenses, (c) electronic resources, (d) management, (e) collection development and management, (f) collections in all formats; Analysis and Assessment including (a) data proficiency, (b) coursework in quantitative analysis, visualization, applied statistics, analytics, (c) standards and analytical tools, (d) Assessment, (e) data tracking, analysis, visualization, (f) data harvesting for library collections, (g) knowledge base metadata analysis; Technical Skills and Knowledge including (a) knowledge and experience with authentication technologies, (b) specific systems and proxy server tools, (c) experience with library systems analytics and configurations, (d) relational database design and programming, (e) SQL, (f) software such as R, SPSS, SAS, Tableau, Microsoft Power Pilot, (g) knowledge of collection management standards and library systems’ reporting tools; Communication and Collaboration proficiencies including (a) communication, (b) collaboration and consortial partnering, (c) organizational skills, (d) interpersonal skills conducive to positive work environments; Instruction and Reference skills including (a) reference, (b) in-person and hybrid instruction, (c) knowledge of technologies prevalent in the disciplines served; Leadership including (a) comfort with ambiguity, (b) mature leadership and insight, (c) strategic thinking, planning, partnerships, (d) copyright leadership; Administration and Supervision including (a) administration, (b) management, supervision and skill development, (c) coaching and mentoring, (d) budgeting, (e) experience and demonstrated skills in vendor negotiations; Diversity and Inclusion including (a) inclusive practices, (b) commitment to diversity, (c) experience with leading diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; Professional Service and Development including (a) active professional service at the national level, (b) sustained record of professional service and scholarship; Education and Subject Knowledge including (a) master’s degree in library and information science, (b) knowledge of collection trends and affordable course content, (c) subject and language background, and (d) liaison experience in a quantitative subject.
Conclusions and Implications for Further Research
While the vacancy postings examined for this study are an expression of immediate organizational needs, several of the postings reflect needs dispersed across multiple areas of library operations and services. Immediate staffing pressures edge out strategic and sweeping approaches to workflow planning and job design. This experiment with targeted AI deployment shows how machine-sorting the job and skill components into conceptual groupings can speed up discernment of at-a-glance operational insights to inform workflow planning and job design.
To achieve deeper insights for practical implementations of workflow planning, job design, training plans, and operational reorganization, feeding the AI tool anonymized versions of comprehensive job duties and skill needs is recommended.
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Endnotes
1. Anonymized jobs used for text analysis and visualizations (xlsx). Compiled from Chronicle and ARL Jobs by author. https://works. bepress.com/antjemays/54/
2. Voyant Tools. https://voyant-tools.org/
3. Word clouds: https://www.wordclouds.com/
4. Voyant text analysis of 15 recent job ads (pdf), produced by author. https://works.bepress.com/antjemays/53/
5. Word cloud visualization of 15 recent job ads’ duties, required qualifications, and preferred qualifications (pdf), produced by author. https://works.bepress.com/antjemays/52/
6. Alejandro Marquez. 2023. “Hope for the Future: Academic Libraries in the 21st Century.” Library Leadership & Management 37 (1): 1–9. doi:10.5860/llm.v37i1.7550.
7. Fobazi Ettarh. 2018. “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies we Tell Ourselves.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, January 10, 2018. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/
8. John Buschman, Lisa DeLuca, Michael Murphy, and David Frank. 2023. “Cutting the Gordian (Workload) Knot? Adding Data Services to Academic Library Public Services.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 49 (6): N.PAG. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102801. Buschman and co-authors examine workloads in the context of data services, but the analytical approaches to quantifying tasks and workload by degrees of complexity offer universal application to workflow planning and job design.
9. Microsoft Copilot. Company product webpage. 2024. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot
10. Shelby Hiter. 2023. “What Are AI Hallucinations and How Do They Work?” EWeek, December 20, 2023. https://www.eweek.com/ artificial-intelligence/ai-hallucinations/
11. Will Douglas Heaven. 2024. “Why Does AI Hallucinate?” MIT Technology Review 127 (4): 20–21.
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Wandering the Web — Online Muses, Part II: Amazing and Free Virtual Museums
Asense of inspiration and creativity often is in short supply for many people who are engaged in artistic activities. In this second of a two-part Wandering the Web column series “Online Muses,” I will be presenting numerous amazing museums that you can visit virtually on your home desktop, laptop or other computers for free. No one can replace the thrill of visiting brick-and-mortar museums in person and having the opportunity to look at famous artwork or historical artifacts up close, but virtual museum tours are especially valuable for visitors who might not live in major metropolitan areas or who have other access issues, such as mobility constraints. Virtual museums customarily will be tailored to appeal to a wide variety of online patrons and cover topics and collections you might not have heard of, such as The Mütter Museum’s displays of anatomical and pathological specimens at The College of Physicians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Museum of Bad Art’s online gallery in the Boston, Massachusetts area; the Salvador Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain that highlights the eccentric but incredibly talented artist’s work; and believe it or not, the Museum of Broken Relationships that has online and physical locations in Zagreb, Croatia! (As I review the various museums, I will add the full citation for each website to the References at the end of this article.)
Upon initially investigating this topic, I was assuming I would find only a few dozen museum tours. I was wrong. My first foray on Google using the simple search string “free virtual museum tours 2024” brought up seventy-five distinct and relevant sites, many of which provide lengthy lists, often assigning the various museums to categories. I have browsed through and picked out several unique sites for your viewing pleasure, including the ones mentioned above. I hope you will find a website or two that piques your interest. Enjoy your virtual field trip!
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Let’s jump right into the heart of the matter to determine what constitutes an online museum. Wikipedia defines a virtual museum as being “…a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience” (https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Virtual_museum). The goal of online museums is not to replace or to compete with brick-and-mortar museums, but rather to offer a personalized, interactive experience which hopefully will lead to a deeper understanding of the collections, whether they are fine art pieces or physical artifacts. And speaking of hearts, you might be interested in visiting The Mütter Museum’s vast public collections database that furnishes information about over 35,000 specimens and objects held by The College of Physicians in Philadelphia (https:// tcpp-emuweb.axiellhosting.com/museum/). However, due to current cultural norms, the human biological remains’ images are not available. You still can view some incredible and often chilling tools, equipment and other medical curiosities by using the search features. The online catalog includes a standard Keyword Search, Advanced Search with choices such as Object Type, Medical Specialty, Collection, and Object Name/Title, as
well as a click box to indicate if the item is on display in the physical Philadelphia museum. Best results are retrieved by choosing one of eleven Collections — George B. Wood Model Collection, American Board of Plastic Surgery, Kitchen Collection, etc. — where images will be displayed. Each museum item is meticulously documented. The pharmaceutical sample set in the Kitchen Collection describes the contents of fourteen glass vials in the full-color photograph, the function and use of the pharmaceutical contents, and measurements of this set of objects that were manufactured between 1905 and 1927. As with most of the items held by The Mütter Museum, a note explains that the museum’s records “…may include historic language that is inaccurate, offensive, or inappropriate.” Human specimens represented by plaster masks or wood models are on view. For example, a wax model of a human heart with acute fibrinous pericarditis can be seen as photographs from six different angles. This famous museum affiliated with The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is well worth visiting even if you do not have a medical background, as it provides a valuable history lesson about past health and wellness practices.
Regarding metaphorical affairs of the heart, the Museum of Broken Relationships’ online collection based in the museum building in Zagreb, Croatia is quite fun to visit at https:// brokenships.com/explore . The museum bills itself as “…a physical and virtual public space created with the sole purpose of treasuring and sharing your heartbreak stories and symbolic possessions. It is a museum about you, about us, about the ways we love and lose.” Who could resist browsing through the forty plus carefully photographed and documented artifacts like the decade-old belly button lint from an ex-boyfriend whose stomach was covered in a peculiar arrangement of body hair that caused his navel to collect lint, which he would randomly stick on his girlfriend after amorous activities? Or maybe not Perhaps you would prefer to review the more sophisticated three volumes of Proust that were owned by a long-divorced London couple who used to read these battered, sand-covered volumes to each other when they were on holiday in the 1980s. The objects are amazingly varied, from the handcuffs cushioned in fluffy pink fabric to “the toaster of vindication,” all with detailed stories of how these relate to the donors’ heartbreaks, and all described with an air of whimsy and sarcasm.
“Art too Bad to be Ignored”
The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is located in Boston on Massachusetts Avenue, inside the Dorchester Brewery. You can view the artwork advertised as “art too bad to be ignored” if you visit MOBA’s website at https://museumofbadart.org/ Curators of the community-based, not-for-profit institution state this is “…the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and celebration of art that would not be welcomed to any traditional art museum.” The free museum’s collection hangs on the brewery’s taproom walls, inside the game room and stairwell, and on the outside of the elevator
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shaft. The curators who founded the gallery in 1993 have produced a six-minute-long YouTube video explaining what constitutes bad art and exploring their large collection of thrift store finds and dumpster diving treasures at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=HB6UhGbyXfE. Various facets of the online collection include Poor Traits, which are portraits of people lovingly described in standard language used by serious art critics. Examples like “Pink Woman Ascending” portrays a monochromatic pink female’s upper torso and head rising from a field of wheat and irises under a starry sky that was poorly copied from Van Gogh’s masterpiece. Unlikely Landscapes, Cityscapes, and Still Lifes includes “Easter Island,” a panoramic fanciful rendition of tree- and snow-covered slopes imagined by the anonymous artist. One mountaintop is surmounted by a female stone figure with pendulous bosoms which looks nothing like the original monolithic Mo’ai human figures of the actual Easter Island. You won’t be able to unsee this particular image once you view it, and you will be equally shocked and awed by other similarly unusual MOBA art pieces that grace the walls and hallways of the Boston brewery.
You just have to See this Art, dalíng…
Another unique but truly stunning museum that offers a wellconstructed virtual experience is the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain at https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/museums/ dali-theatre-museum-in-figueres/. I was very impressed with the professional appearance when I first found this site. Useful drop-down menus starting at the top of the home page allow visitors to view the website in five different languages, there are links to the history of the museum, to activities, to Dalí’s somewhat lesser-known jewel creations, and information about his house, as well as images of artifacts from the castle where Gala, his wife, resided. This site offers so much for art lovers. If you are interested in haute couture, you can see images from a current collection “The Awakening of the Myth: Gala Dalí” — on display from March 18, 2024, through May 31, 2025. Gala’s key pieces from her personal collection feature designs by Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, among other famous fashion designers. This part of the Dalí Theatre-Museum can be reached at https://exhibitions.salvador-dali.org/en/theawakening-of-the-myth-gala-dali/
So much Art to View and so Little Time…
There is a plethora of collections that have been painstakingly assembled and uploaded to the Internet, many with useful reviews and descriptions of the individual museums. Here is a small sample of websites worth perusing:
The 75 Best Virtual Museum Tours Around the World [Art, History, Science, and Technology] at https://upgradedpoints. com/travel/best-virtual-museum-tours/ provides online access to seventy-five world-class museums that offer virtual tours. This site that is a collaborative effort with Google Arts and Culture is attractive, streamlined and very easy to negotiate. The four sections cover art, natural history, science and technology, and history museums; the site showcases highresolution images and videos of works of art and cultural artifacts from over 2,000 museums throughout the world; and the platform is available in eighteen languages. Examples include a large photo of the museum in question, state the year it opened, add a succinct introductory paragraph, and, of course, add a live internal link to view the online exhibits. To whet your appetite, I would advise visiting the Art Institute of Chicago’s current exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe’s “My New
Yorks” — on display from June 2 through September 22, 2024. Georgia O’Keeffe’s lesser-known paintings of New York City buildings cover the five-year period that this famous landscape artist spent documenting and experimenting across media with form, subject matter and perspective. You can view the art pieces at https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/best-virtualmuseum-tours/.
No doubt born out of the pandemic, the site Unexpected Virtual Tours & Training offers Virtual Museum Tours for Corporate Teams in 2023. The premise is that corporate teams and remote groups would benefit from exploring “…art and culture, history, anthropology, zoology…” as you connect with your colleagues from the workplace. The website at https:// unexpectedvirtualtours.com/resources/virtual-museum-tours/ links you to video tours, curator chat sessions, art classes and other immersive experiences at world-famous museums. The author does an excellent job of describing renowned museums like the National Gallery in Singapore, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at various locations in the U.S., and the Panda Cam at the Zoo Atlanta in Georgia. Be sure to check out the drop-down menu at the top of Unexpected Virtual Tours & Training, which features a wide array of other virtual team building activities, government training and consulting, and free resources.
We’ll finish our whirlwind global field trip with Quickdraw Art’s colorful and well-curated 20 incredible virtual art museum tours to see in 2024 at https://quickdrawart.com/blogs/blogarticles/virtual-art-museum-tours, which places itself above some other sites by clearly delineating best practices for smoothly navigating the online museum tour experience. The museum links are largely repetitive compared to other sites, but the practical tips include a readable chart listing the museum name, the type of collection — classical art, world cultures, modern art, etc. — and numerous notable features. As a few examples, The British Museum in London has 360-degree views of the art and artifacts; the Guggenheim in New York features an interactive spiral walk-through; The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has a personal letters exhibit; and the Tate Britain in London displays chronologies of the art pieces. The section More Helpful Information posts Q&A’s answering several queries like, “What should I expect from a virtual museum tour?” and “Is the tour accessible to people with disabilities?” As a final feature, you might be interested to take a look at The Quickdraw Blog, which has a “…treasure chest of arts and crafts tips… and fun creative activities for children and teens” at https:// quickdrawart.com/blogs/blog-articles
References
Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” [Exhibition]. (2024). Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. https://www.artic.edu/ exhibitions/9539/georgia-o-keeffe-my-new-yorks Karellas, H. (2024). Virtual Museum Tours for Corporate Teams in 2023. Unexpected Virtual Tours & Training. https:// unexpectedvirtualtours.com/resources/virtual-museum-tours/ Museum of Bad Art. (2024). Boston, MA. https:// museumofbadart.org/ Museum of Broken Relationships. (2024). Zagreb, Croatia. https://brokenships.com/explore
Quickdraw Art. (2024, April 6). 20 incredible virtual art museum tours to see in 2024. Quickdrawart.com. https://quickdrawart. com/blogs/blog-articles/virtual-art-museum-tours
continued on page 59
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Biz of Digital — Developing Digital Scholarship Services, Part 1
By Column Editor: Michelle Flinchbaugh (Digital Scholarship Services Librarian, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250; Phone: 410-455-3544) <flinchba@umbc.edu>
Introduction
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a medium sized top-ranked national university with 14,000 students and an inclusive culture that connects innovative teaching and learning, research across disciplines, and civic engagement. Established in 1966, UMBC is a fast-growing R1 university committed to public research for the public good.
As the Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) Librarian at UMBC, a position created in 2018, I’ve been slowly working toward expanding services to support UMBC’s focus on public research for public good and emphasis on undergraduate research and teaching. In a series of articles, I’ll share what we’ve done since implementing our institutional repository (IR) which I wrote about extensively in the past, and what our future goals are. This article will focus on the slow growth and development of DSS at UMBC — most of this falls within the area of library work most frequently referred to as scholarly communication.
Most of DSS’ work has been on our institutional repository (IR) which launched in 2018. In the six years since then, we’ve added nearly 13,000 items to it and developed a backlog of work that extended back two and half years. During much of the past six years, staffing for the IR consisted of one student assistant working 20 hours per week. My job description also involves providing services and expertise in copyright education and open access (OA).
Digital Scholarship Services was always intended as being a unit that would do more than run the IR. However, the large backlog of work developed alongside a crunch in student staffing caused by a substantive increase in the Maryland minimum wage without an increase in the budget that funds student workers, plus there was the pandemic and economic downturn that resulted in my Library losing positions. Altogether, these things resulted in progress toward expanding our services stagnating for a few years. All the same, we did some significant work during those years, including a grant funded project, implementing ORCID, developing a Guide to Research Data, and working toward an institutional open access policy.
Managing the IR Backlog
As the time extended from when we received work and when we were able to get to it, we began prioritizing new works and “parking” older works to do in the future when staffing improved. We have four distinct workflows, two of which are entirely new works: one is processing items authored by people affiliated with UMBC newly indexed by Google Scholar using Google Scholar Alerts, and the second is processing the new works of faculty whose works we’ve previously added to the repository, and we started prioritizing those workflows. Our third workflow are requests from faculty to go through all of their works, using their CV, Google Scholar Profile, or another website. We started doing enough of each faculty members’ new works to be able to add a few of their newer works, and “parking” everything older. Older
parked works are our 4th and lowest priority workflow. After a few months, nearly all new works were being added within a month of when we received the work, and we’ve continued to do that. Older parked works languish until all new work is completed.
RoadMap to The Future of Promotion and Tenure Grant
In 2019, my supervisor and I collaborated with Librarians at five other Maryland Universities to apply for an ACRL Scholarly Communications Research Grant. Our proposal, titled “Roadmap to the Future of Promotion and Tenure” received $5,000 in funding. Our project extended from 2019-2021.
The goal of the project was to identify changes — and a roadmap to implement those changes — that could be made to Promotion & Tenure (P&T) guidelines to enhance recognition of scholarly works that promote and support openness, equity, diversity, and inclusion. During our project, we conducted a literature review, surveyed faculty at Maryland higher education institutions, and conducted discussions of diverse Maryland faculty on the P&T process. Our work was disrupted by the COVID pandemic, and we had to move discussions from inperson to virtual, and had to reschedule one to accommodate the time faculty needed to move their courses from online to in-person. Despite the challenges that the pandemic posted, we were successfully able to engage faculty from multiple universities.
Our most significant finding was that 60% of survey respondents think that unconscious bias plays a role in P & T. From our survey, we also found that faculty believe that openness is undervalued in P & T, and that they believe some formats of work, such as technical reports, websites, and social media are also undervalued in P & T. Project documentation is here: http://hdl.handle.net/11603/20545.
ORCID Implementation
In 2020, my Library collaborated with UMBC’s Division of Information Technology (DoIt) and Office of Research and Creative Achievement (ORCA) to become an ORCID member. ORCID is a type of author identifier that provides a way to connect researchers’ names reliably and unambiguously with their works throughout their career. It also provides excellent tools that allow researchers to pull in citations from many different possible sources such as Google Scholar and an array of other bibliographic databases. Once a researcher’s ORCID is populated, they can then pull their information from ORCID into SciENcv, a system that researchers applying for National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation grants are required to use to provide researcher profiles with their grant applications. The functionality that potentially allows researchers to save a lot of time was a major factor in why UMBC became an ORCID member.
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My supervisor worked with DoIt and ORCA to implement the system and integrate it Single Sign On, and with Faculty Success, our campus faculty reporting system. I worked with the MD-SOAR Governance Group, which makes decisions related to our consortial implementation of D-Space, to integrate ORCID into our IR, and I revised our repository procedures to use the preferred form of author names given in ORCID. Additionally, I developed a LibGuide on ORCID, providing detailed steps on how build an ORCID profile, pull citations to works into it, and how to use ORCID to populate Faculty Success, SciENcv, etc. That Libguide is here: https:// lib.guides.umbc.edu/c.php?g=1047837&p=7604167. I continue to serve as the campus primary contact with ORCID and to provide support for ORCID.
Research Data
My Library has long seen a need to support research data and some time ago, we’d tried to hire a research data reference librarian, but that search failed. In 2019 and 2020, I took a couple of courses on library services to support research data with the idea that I would eventually expand my unit in that area. In 2021, I developed a Guide to Research Data that provides both general and campus specific information on data, such as resources for discovering data, data management plans, and UMBC’s data analysis and visualization tool subscriptions and where to find documentation on those subscriptions. This led to additional collaboration with ORCA to link the Guide to Research Data to their resources and link their resources to the Guide to Research Data. That LibGuide is here: https://lib.guides.umbc.edu/c. php?g=1078066
Research Impact Management
In 2021, several Librarians were asked to meet with administrators from the Provost’s Office and the Office of Research about a decline in UMBC’s international rankings negatively impacting international enrollments. On investigation, they’d found this was caused by a decline in citations. Further investigation found a problem with Scopus erroneously affiliating UMBC authors with the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the University of Maryland, College Park and the Library was asked to help with fixing the problem. This put research impact management on the radar as something we’d need to work on in the future.
Open Access Policy
In 2021, I also began working toward a UMBC open access (OA) policy. First, I researched and read articles on OA policies looking for information on how other libraries had successfully gotten polices passed at their institution and for information on what kind objections faculty had to OA Policies. With the concern about UMBC’s citation counts, it seemed like increasing citations could be a big selling point for an OA policy, so I also read research on open access increasing citations. Then I set up meetings with Librarians who’d passed policies at their institutions and interviewed them about their process and what kind of issues had come up. I developed a presentation, gave it at a few departmental meetings, and found it was falling flat, and decided that I needed to re-think my approach.
A Plan for the Future
By 2023, the budget for student employees improved and my student hours doubled. Additionally, after several failed searches for a new Head of IT and Digital Initiatives, our administration decided to leave that position vacant, freeing funds. Our acting supervisor decided to re-direct funds to hire contingent staff for both DSS and IT with the intent of eventually making all the contingent positions into permanent positions. To justify hiring a full-time contingent staff person, my supervisor asked me to prepare a justification and take it to our Library Executive Council. In 2023, I took a five-year plan for Digital Scholarship Services to our Library Executive Councial, proposing four activities, which I could only do if we hired a contingent staff person for DSS:
1. Develop infrastructure and support for open access and research impact management. Decrease the size of the IR backlog.
2. Develop infrastructure and support for data management.
3. Develop infrastructure and support for open pedagogy.
4. Develop infrastructure and support for open science/ replicability of research.
That proposal was approved, and I hired a staff person, and UMBC’s Digital Scholarship Services could finally expand beyond the IR. In my next article, I’ll write about what we’ve done since then.
Wandering the Web continued from page 57
Quickdraw Art. (2024, July 25). The Quickdraw Blog [Blog]. Quickdrawart.com. https://quickdrawart.com/blogs/blogarticles
Rhode Island PBS. (2024). An inside look at how the Museum of Bad Art is made | ART Inc. [Video]. YouTube. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=HB6UhGbyXfE
Salvador Dalí Theatre-Museum. (2024). Figueres, Spain. https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/museums/dali-theatremuseum-in-figueres/
The Awakening of the Myth: Gala Dalí [Exhibition]. (20242025). Salvador Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres, Spain. https:// exhibitions.salvador-dali.org/en/the-awakening-of-the-mythgala-dali/
the Grain / September 2024
The Mütter Museum. (2024). The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, PA. https://muttermuseum.org/collections Virtual museum. (2024, May 17). In Wikipedia. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_museum
West, J. (2024, February 8). The 75 Best Virtual Museum Tours Around the World [Art, History, Science, and Technology] Upgradedpoints.com. https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/bestvirtual-museum-tours/
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The Digital Toolbox — The Essential Role of Libraries in this Election Year: 9 Ways to Help Students Combat Disinformation
Column Editor: Steve Rosato (Director of Digital Book Services for Academic Libraries, OverDrive, Cleveland,
<srosato@overdrive.com>
Media literacy is a foundational skill in understanding today’s news and information landscape, and the upcoming U.S. presidential election presents an excellent opportunity to leverage and rethink resource usage to combat dis- or misinformation. It’s an urgent problem because, today, a large percentage of young people learn about current events through sources that are prone to disinformation because they don’t enforce journalistic standards. Indeed, 26% of users 18 and older surveyed by Pew Research reported getting their news on YouTube, and 16% and 14% of users get their news on Instagram and TikTok, respectively.
Students may not always be aware of how to properly access, analyze, and evaluate news from emerging and traditional news outlets while creating and disseminating their own media. And as we’ve seen in previous election cycles, dis- and misinformation easily morphs and can spread rapidly through social platforms, gaming console chat conversations, and traditional websites.
Libraries, as we know, offer troves of credible resources and fact-checked information of current events and the histories behind them. It may not be immediately obvious to students, however, that digital resources like journals, streaming video, e-books, audiobooks, and databases can help them navigate the complex information landscape. Librarians can lead the way by re-examining what media literacy means in the upcoming school year and as the presidential election approaches:
1. Communicate — Even Overcommunicate — Available Credible Sources
Librarians already curate collections of credible sources like authoritative websites and peer-reviewed journals as reliable starting points for student research. Platforms like Kanopy and Libby offer foundational and recent knowledge with engaging ways to connect with what may be the upcoming issues this fall. LibGuides have become almost a gold standard for revealing these reliable and credible sources. But a recent CUNY Academic Works survey showed that only 35% of undergraduates knew what LibGuides were, and most did not know how to find them. Sharing, deploying, and disseminating the hard work put into guides is a crucial and necessary step in seeing their increased usage.
2. Host Workshops and Webinars Outside of Welcome & Orientation Weeks
Organizing events focused on media literacy can engage students directly and can encourage participation and valuable feedback from students. Consider hosting workshops that blend “real world” values with traditional information literacy, focusing on students’ daily experiences.
One librarian we spoke with, Olivia Hobbs, Research and Engagement Librarian at Case Western Reserve University, held a
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workshop on “Misinformation on Social Media” last fall and had high student engagement because they recognized its relevance. Workshops on recognizing AI-generated imagery and video, evaluating media claims, or researching political candidates could be similarly popular and effectively use library resources.
“The most common request I got from students after a oneshot session was how to evaluate sources,” explained Hobbs. “There was an overwhelming sense of anxiety about what qualified as a “good” source and what evaluation process to follow. After hearing about fake news and that you can’t trust mainstream media, students felt distrustful of authority, but they didn’t have any specific reasons why. When I began introducing evaluation methods (such as SIFT and Lateral Reading) for popular sources and social media posts, students became much more comfortable with the process. Once they felt comfortable using information literacy skills in these formats, they could adapt more easily to scholarly sources.”
Additionally, involve student ambassadors in brainstorming. They are more attuned to the student body’s needs and frequently asked questions, making them valuable resources for identifying relevant workshop topics.
3. Re-examine Interactive Online Tutorials
Creating up-to-date online tutorials and guides on media literacy topics can offer students self-paced learning opportunities for understanding trustworthy news. Interactive elements like quizzes and exercises to reinforce learning can be hosted on the library’s website or integrated into course management systems. Again, awareness and other marketing efforts across your university’s communications channels are crucial to spreading the word.
4. Collaborate with Faculty and Department Heads
Collaborating with faculty and department heads to integrate media literacy into the curriculum early on this fall semester is a timely and crucial effort as November approaches. By working with professors and department chairs across disciplines, librarians can ensure that media literacy is emphasized early in courses, from political science to communication studies. Collaborate with co-teaching sessions or by sharing tailored resources, and developing assignments that require critical evaluation of media sources will apply practical experience to prepare students.
Addressing Election-specific Misinformation in Fall 2024
With the fall elections approaching, the prevalence of election-related misinformation will likely increase in unique ways this year. Columbia University and the Aspen Institute recently hosted a full session on AI’s potentially exponential
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impact on news cycles and social platforms—a first for a U.S. presidential election now that the technology has become mainstream. This is also the first election where manipulated images and video can easily scale and provide new risks to reliable information, but librarians can take specific steps to address this issue:
5. Election Guides with consideration of AI
Create balanced, comprehensive guides that mention AI’s potential effect on the election process, candidate information, and key issues. Include links to official sources and nonpartisan organizations.
6. Myth-busting campaigns
Run campaigns with a regular series of touchpoints to debunk common myths and misinformation about the elections. University and library social handles, digital signage, the library website and “vintage” printed flyers accessible in classrooms can effectively disseminate accurate information.
Engaging with the Student Community by Building Bridges in the Upcoming School Year
A library’s efforts in combatting misinformation and promoting media literacy will be successful only if the students can engage with and connect with the literacy tools provided. Students come with prior research experience and have a routine set of actions when they need information. Connecting these daily habits to academic processes can make them more effective researchers.
Hobbs, at Case Western Reserve University, also adds insightful ways to bridge the generational divide, particularly with new platforms. “Like most of Gen Z, I spend a lot of time on social media platforms, but as a librarian, I’m probably more aware of the way (mis)information is spread online. People are not going to stop getting their information from online spaces, so to me the obvious solution is to teach them how to think more critically about that information. For college students, this has been a useful bridge to connect their already formed research habits with academic research. Even if you feel out of your depth with social media, that can also create a connection in
“Like most of Gen Z I spend a lot of time on social media platforms, but as a librarian I’m probably more aware of the way (mis)information is spread online.”
the classroom by allowing students to be experts in the genre and you as the expert in the tools to navigate them!”
Here are some other ways to drive the message home with students:
7. Social Media Outreach
Reach students where they are and use library, university, and student organization social media handles to share tips, resources, and news about the university’s media literacy policy and the events that support it. Ask students to share these resources within the Greek system and through other organizations’ GroupMe, WeChat, What’sApp, Telegram, and other messaging groups. Intriguing interactive content like polls and engaging Q&A sessions can increase student involvement.
8. Student Ambassadors
Recruit student ambassadors to help spread the word about media literacy initiatives. Empowering peer ambassadors to reach their classmates, friends, and colleagues can be much more powerful than official platforms students use and may help land the message and connect them with their fellow students’ frequent concerns.
9. Real-Time Feedback Mechanisms
Implement responsive and regularly monitored feedback mechanisms to understand students’ needs for materials and preferences for communication. Online surveys and suggestion boxes are simple but effective methods for receiving valuable insights into how media literacy programs can be improved.
As experts with a long history of information literacy instruction, librarians have long been uniquely qualified to foster news literacy. The public overwhelmingly has faith in the profession, as 78% of US residents still find librarians trustworthy, even as the public grows weary of new and evermultiplying information sources.
By leveraging digital library resources in addition to the inlibrary, physical resources and implementing comprehensive media literacy programs, librarians can equip students with the skills they need to navigate the information landscape critically and responsibly. The 2024 US Presidential elections and ongoing current events provide a timely backdrop for these efforts. They underscore that media literacy’s importance has only increased in maintaining an informed and engaged student citizenry.
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Optimizing Library Services — Where the Crossroads of Political and Social Science Meet in the Library
By Mr. James Kapoun, MLS (Librarian, IGI Global) <jkapoun@igi-global.com>
Column Editor: Mr. Will Hartley (eCollections Manager, IGI Global) <wharltey@igi-global.com>
Column Editors’ Note: As information has become more readily available over the past several decades, the global political environment has become extremely polarizing. This has led individuals from all walks of life to engage in various levels of discourse in an effort to improve the world as it currently exists. IGI Global fully understands its responsibility to provide pivotal information and research to its stakeholders to enhance their understanding and perspective on the world around them. Only by fostering these important conversations through educated dialogue can society improve to support both current and future generations.
At the recommendation of our internal librarians, IGI Global has made this topic a focal point within our offerings. As such, IGI Global has compiled over 285+ titles of high quality, peer reviewed research within the areas of political and social sciences. With IGI Global’s quick and comprehensive publishing process, this collection provides professionals with the latest growing trends and developments within this ever-evolving political and social landscape. To ensure that your library’s holdings contain the latest in political and social science research, including titles such as Creating and Sustaining an Information Governance Program (979-8-3693-0472-3), Emerging Developments and Technologies in Digital Government (979-83693-2363-2), and Impact of Gun Violence in School Systems (9798-3693-1706-8), visit https://www.igi-global.com/e-resources/ topic-e-collection/political-and-social-science/237 for more information on IGI Global’s Political and Social Science eBook Collection. — WH
Introduction
A long-standing philosophy about collection development is that library resources should be provided for the interest, information, research, and enlightenment of all people of the academic community. Also believing that content should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
While content is traditionally part of the development for political science, every four years during a presidential election, there is a heightened interest in political information both in the past and present. A political science collection should contain diverse content about people, political viewpoints, and cultures to authentically reflect ideas, information, stories, political theories, and experiences.
Collection Development
When developing a political science collection, especially in a politically charged election year, it is crucial for collection development to assert that materials are not excluded
solely because of the opinion that the content or its creator may be considered offensive or controversial. Refusing to select resources due to potential controversy is considered censorship, as well as the withdrawal of resources for that reason. Academic libraries have a responsibility to defend against challenges that limit a collection’s diversity of content. These challenges commonly include content that is viewed as inappropriate, offensive, or controversial, which may include but is not limited to prejudicial language and ideas, political content, economic theory, social philosophies, religious beliefs, scientific research, sexual content, and the representation of diverse sexual orientations, expressions, and gender identities. A well-balanced collection does not require a one-to-one equivalence of each viewpoint but should strive for equity in content and ideas that take politically structured inequalities and the availability of timely, accurate information into account.
Public, academic, and private special libraries face pressures of censorship when community activism fueled by media outlets increases during a presidential election year. Intellectual freedom, defined as the essence of equitable library content development, provides free access to varying expressions of ideas through which a question, cause, or movement may be explored. Librarians have a professional and ethical responsibility to be fair and just in defending the library user’s right to read, view, or listen to content protected by the First Amendment, regardless of the creator’s viewpoint or personal history. Librarians must not let their personal biases, opinions, or preferences influence content development decisions for their libraries.
Presidential election years are times of heightened civic engagement and political discourse in communities across the United States and have become a major topic of interest in various classrooms nationwide. From the basic research papers to opinions expressed in classroom discussions, presidential election years spark interest in political issues, past elections, and political platforms. By providing authoritative information, resources, and programs, academic libraries can play a pivotal role in promoting civic literacy, encouraging voter participation, and fostering thoughtful dialogue and research around election issues for their students.
Libraries must wade through the scourge of election misinformation that could threaten voters and their faith in the democratic process. Presidential campaigns often deepen political divisions and inflame partisan tensions on campuses across America. The key is for academic libraries to facilitate these divisions with a balanced content approach, providing academic communities with research content that offers much-needed opportunities for connection and understanding across differences.
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Student Exposure
Many academic libraries sponsor open dialogues on election issues through carefully designed programs and campus academic partnerships. By doing so, libraries can foster respectful conversations and mutual understanding in a polarized political climate. Libraries large and small can hold in person or virtual workshops on evaluating information sources, identifying misinformation, and fact-checking suspicious claims. By empowering students and campus communities with these efforts, libraries can create a more discerning and less easily misled electorate. One model of this workshop is the “Future Search” developed by the Libraries Transforming Communities initiative. These forums join diverse residents, community organizations, and local officials to identify shared visions for tackling election-related challenges (American Library Association, 2018). During this meeting, trained facilitators guide discussions toward common-ground solutions.
These workshops also allow librarians to promote and expose students and academic communities to the vast print and electronic resources available to them. Subject topics can range
from general political processes to the wide variety of social, economic, political, and international issues being discussed by presidential candidates. This is also a time when students can be introduced to historical information on past elections that are available in print and electronic platforms.
Conclusion
An academic library can be a strong, objective voice for democracy by developing election information with well researched content in many formats. These formats include promoting resources in the classroom and engaging in civic dialogue workshops across political divisions. Libraries also have a unique opportunity to serve as neutral spaces. By facilitating open yet guided dialogues, libraries can help campus communities engage in respectful conversations and build mutual understandings across divides.
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Looking Over the Edge — Open and Affordable Educational Resources: From Promise to Adoption
By Tom Mosterd (Managing Director, Education, Sylla) <tom.mosterd@sylla.io>
and Phil Brabban (Chief Librarian and Group Director of Learning
Resources at Coventry University) <p.brabban@coventry.ac.uk>
Column Editor: Dr. Sven Fund (Managing Director, Fullstopp GmbH, Berlin, Germany; Phone: +49 (0) 172 511 4899) <sven.fund@fullstopp.com> www.fullstopp.com
Introduction
The landscape of higher education is on the brink of transformation as two well-known industry drivers come together at the center stage: technological advancement in the form of “AI” and rising economic pressures. While these ingredients are not all new, the particular flavor of the former comes with high expectations — for university administrators, faculties, publishers and students alike.
This all takes place at a time where we are already witnessing two shifts that are well underway, both in the research as well as the teaching and learning spheres: On the research side, the shift to open access publishing — with over 50 million free scholarly articles being available via open databases such as Unpaywall1 today. On the teaching and learning side, the growing call for “affordable learning” in the form of Open Educational Resources (OER), library resources and free online resources — in an effort to halt rising costs associated with education.
The body of open and affordable resources continues to grow, with large repositories such as OERCommons holding over 50,000 resources2 and over 1,500 open textbooks being available in the OpenTextbookLibrary today. Per ITHAKA’s latest S+R U.S. Library Survey,3 nearly half of the libraries indicated support for instructors and students with OER as a high priority. Despite the increasing availability of high-quality free and open educational materials, their integration into higher education curricula has not kept pace with their production. Data from the Open Syllabus Project4 reveals that OER textbooks are assigned to about 1 in 80 for all of the U.S. syllabi it holds for 2023. Moreover, uptake can differ strongly from institution to institution depending on their profile, commitment to open and affordable learning, available staff support and other factors.
This paradox raises important questions about the barriers to wider adoption and how these can be overcome. Where course adoption, for all learning resources, comes with its challenges and barriers, open and affordable learning resources typically face certain unique challenges of their own. The ability to overcome these seems all the more important today, to ensure sustainable savings and lasting impact. Educators face a number of obstacles such as time-constraints, local adaptability challenges and quality concerns, to name a few.
As a result, libraries and instructional designers increasingly find themselves at the forefront of this, tasked with navigating this complex terrain to support both educators and learners. While spirits and potential are high, time constraints and ambiguity around OER quality and the many options out there remain a reality. With new technology advancements such as AI, the road from promise to mass adoption is now in sight.
Together with several universities and their faculties in Europe, we have explored these challenges and developed Sylla — a technology solution that teams up with universities and faculties to adopt open and affordable resources, tailored to their syllabus, within minutes. Let’s have a look at the “adoption challenge,” results from real-world pilots, and touch upon the road ahead to ensure we can move from promise to adoption.
Adoption Challenges for Open and Affordable Resources
At many institutions, librarians, instructional designers and faculty are in search of cost-effective solutions to support teaching and learning. Adopting open and library-licensed materials has been presented as a promising area for reducing expenses without compromising educational quality. The Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) movement as well as Inclusive Access (IA) deals with publishers are new models that aim to lower course material spend per student. Where ZTC focuses on leveraging open and library-licensed resources to avoid any student courseware purchases, the IA model has enabled library and consortia to centrally negotiate more competitive textbook prices for their students. The IA model has, however, also received criticism for limiting student choice, imposing financial burdens, and impacting the role of academic libraries adversely5 — and time will tell whether it will be opt-in, opt-out or something different all together.
Still, it is clear that both the institution and faculty intend to make this transition work. This is also reflected in an increasing level of awareness of faculty when it comes to open materials and the topic of affordability.6 However, the road to widespread adoption of cost-effective resources holds a number of challenges, particularly from the faculty perspective.
In our conversations over the last year with library staff, industry experts and faculty, we saw strong support and a shared commitment in using more open and library-licensed materials — both from the institutional staff as well as educators. As we zoomed in on what was holding back larger success, a number of issues came up repeatedly. Understanding these hurdles is crucial for institutions and policymakers seeking to promote adoption of open and library-licensed resources:
Time Constraint, Competing Priorities and Limited Discoverability
The main barrier to adoption raised by faculty lies with the substantial time and effort required to change a course. This applies to any switch in learning material, either a new commercial textbook, OER or library-licensed resource.
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Adopting new materials for one’s course demands a significant investment, often competing with educators’ already packed schedules of teaching, research, and administrative duties.
With open and library-licensed resources scattered across various repositories and platforms, faculty often struggle to find high-quality materials that match their specific course needs. The sheer volume can make the evaluation and selection process overwhelming, discouraging faculty from even starting a search in the first place.
OER Quality Concerns
Quality concerns also loom large in the minds of many teaching faculty for OERs in particular. Unlike traditional textbooks produced by commercial textbook publishers, the quality of OER can be inconsistent and vary widely. Consequently, faculty members must invest additional time in carefully evaluating OER before adoption, a process that can be both time-consuming and challenging as mentioned above.
Limited Supply of Materials
The availability of suitable OER presents another significant hurdle, particularly in specialized or advanced fields. While introductory courses often have a large number of open resources available, the same cannot be said for upper-level or niche subjects. Fields that require frequent updates or highly specialized content, such as law or medicine, face even greater challenges in finding appropriate OER. This scarcity often forces faculty to either create their own materials from scratch or continue relying on traditional textbooks.
Lack of Ancillary Courseware and Classroom Fit
Traditional textbooks often come bundled with instructor resources, test banks, and supplementary materials that faculty rely on to streamline their course preparation and delivery. Many OER and library-licensed materials lack these ancillary resources, placing an additional burden on faculty to create them from scratch. In fact, many library-licensed materials may hold relevant information but are not geared towards the classroom, thereby uniquely troubling their integration into a learning context.
Lack of Institutional Support and Recognition
The absence of policies, incentives, or support structures for adoption can discourage faculty from exploring any adoptions at all. Given the many tasks, the lack of institutional incentives significantly impact faculty enthusiasm for course reform. The level of training on-campus and ongoing support tools vary across institutions, which results in different levels of open and cost-effective resource adoptions.
OER Sustainability and Updates
Faculty using traditional textbooks for their teaching are used to receiving periodic updates to keep their classes current. They tend to stick with their textbook of choice as a reliable source for their ongoing teaching duties. On the contrary, the long-term maintenance of OER, platforms and the continued availability of adopted resources are not always guaranteed. Exceptions exist, such as OpenStax, which has proven itself and established a significant community to support new editions. Yet, keeping OER content current, especially in rapidly evolving fields, can be challenging without dedicated funding or community support structures in place.
Case Study: Implementing Open and Affordable Resources
Amidst the challenges mentioned above, some institutions have made remarkable strides in realizing affordable learning adoptions and reducing costs while preserving quality. In the United Kingdom, one of these is Coventry University. Coventry University centrally supports their undergraduate students by providing all course essentials7 from day one at no additional cost to the student. Thanks to this scheme, students have benefited from day one access to high quality digital materials, resulting in increases in academic performance as well as student outcomes. 8 We should note a key differentiating factor here compared to how other schemes frequently used by peer-institutions work. In this particular case, the institution centrally pays for the essential course resources, whereas in many other cases students still carry the cost for these resources at the end of the day.
While a central payment model has its benefits, costs for educational resources can differ from provider to provider and year to year. In an effort to better align expenditure on educational resources with perceived value, Coventry made a remarkable transition in the 2022/2023 fiscal year. During a one-year period, they managed to transition approximately 50% of their courses to more affordable learning alternatives. This result was achieved thanks to a top down and coordinated approach led by University leadership, and supported by library, staff and key decision-makers. This campaign resulted in annual savings of approximately 25% per student per text — while ensuring students continued to receive access to high quality learning resources at no additional costs. Beyond financial success, the campaign demonstrated that, with the right approach, faculty members can be mobilized and an institutionwide adoption strategy can work.
From there, we worked on how we could repeat such success — yet, now including OER and a sustainable practice that could remain in place over time — as this initial effort involved significant manual work, staff time and other challenges that could possibly be improved upon. By incorporating OER, t he potential for cost savings increased significantly, while again ensuring that students continued to receive access to high quality learning resources at no additional costs. Besides cost-savings, this shift involves a broader and shared vision to move towards a future where we avoid commoditization and create more flexibility around course-creation and how content in various shapes and sizes may serve the needs of the educator.
This, coupled with the pedagogical benefits of open and adaptable materials, made for an attractive prospect for the University — and potentially other budget-conscious institutions in future.
Designing a Framework for Adoption
To design a (replicable) framework for adoption, we collaborated closely with library staff, senior leadership, as well as faculty members from day one and throughout the entire process. This way, we could quickly learn what had worked well in the past (transforming 50% of the courses within 12 months) and which pains and challenges existed for repeating such an exercise now involving OER.
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From these conversations, we drew up the following pilot scope and principles:
Pilot Scope:
• Test a technology solution that can support the adoption process for open and affordable resources.
• Provide recommendations for 16 high-enrollment courses in the undergraduate domain of the Faculty of Business.
• Test and deliver custom features that support a seamless adoption process for library and academic staff.
• Scope the requirements for a scaled-up solution to roll out institution-wide.
Principles:
• University in Control: The University handpicked a particular school within the institution with highenrollment courses, and open to experimentation around OER.
• The desire to “swap” one particular paid-forresource for one open resource: While there is potential for the mixing of resources, there was a desire to keep things as simple and frictionless as feasible to start with.
• Ensuring a quality experience, while respecting time limitations: As both library and academic staff time is scarcely available.
• Technology as augmentation: Any technology should be easy to work with and usable for both library and academic staff, to ensure the University and staff can preserve their autonomy.
From Theory to Practice: Testing the Technology Solution on the Ground
Based on the pilot scope and principles, we came up with the first version of the technology solution (Sylla) which emphasized a more streamlined and effective OER discovery and adoption process. This approach leverages cutting-edge technologies to create a personalized discovery experience for faculty members, tailored to their specific syllabi and learning objectives.
Key features and elements included:
• Syllabus-based recommendations: The system analyzes course syllabi to suggest relevant OER materials, ensuring a close alignment with course content and learning outcomes.
• Limited, high-quality results: Rather than overwhelming users with extensive lists, the system presents a curated selection of the most relevant resources from a controlled set of trusted OER databases — displaying five recommendations initially.
• Contextual elaboration: For each recommended resource, the system provides detailed explanations of its relevance to the syllabus and potential contributions to learning outcomes — from a resource to a chapter level.
• Gap analysis: The system identifies potential areas where OER materials may not fully cover course requirements, allowing faculty to make informed decisions about supplementary resources.
• User-friendly interface: The solution is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, minimizing the time and effort required from faculty members.
Results
From Spring until Summer 2024 onwards, over a six month period, we jointly implemented and tested this solution at Coventry’s School of Business and Law. Thanks to strong support from the Associate Dean during this period, we received syllabi for 16 courses, and 16 faculty members tested the solution.
• 16 faculty members accessed the solution.
• 10 faculty members committed to using OER in their upcoming term as their core course resource.
• This resulted in significant savings for these highenrollment courses.
• Thousands of students now benefiting from these OERenabled courses.
• This switch resulted in savings of approximately 95,000 GBP compared to last year’s spent on commercial eBooks for these 10 courses.
For a holistic cost picture, we should note that related expenditures still exist, of course, and should be considered for an accurate comparison. These expenditures, mainly related to technology (hosting services, providing EPub 3 across the board, Sylla services) remain in place to ensure a consistent and high quality faculty and student experience. When we deduct these fees of 34,000 GBP, total savings net 61,000 GBP — a saving of approximately 64%.
The Associate Dean and faculty members welcomed the solution and appreciated the personalized experience. By taking their existing syllabi as the starting point, the discovery and adoption process felt intuitive — as it was tailored around their programme already. Providing a granular breakdown of how the recommended resources could match with their learning objectives and teaching topics saved significant time and effort, when it comes to searching and identifying possible resources. Additionally, the “less is more” approach, simple steps and direct URLs to inspecting and assessing the options (as they are openly available) made for a smooth journey.
While overall positive, certain areas of improvements and interesting feedback came back. Firstly, there was a preference and a wish for more locally authored open textbooks or options (UK-authored in this case) which did not always exist. Secondly, in some cases, there were what we called “geographical constraints” for courses. For instance, for one of the courses in question (UK Contract Law), open textbooks exist, though not tailored and specific for UK-based contract law. This meant that, for some courses, we were not able to meet the required quality standards and thus this resulted in an unsuccessful adoption. Still, this information (of cases where no suitable options exist) was deemed very interesting as a potentially “demand-driven” approach for creating new OER to fill these gaps in future.
Promising Results — Moving to an Institutional-wide Approach
We jointly concluded the Coventry pilot to be a success, while not all courses were transformed, a large number of them were — and we have been able to further realize real cost savings for the institution while demonstrating the potential of targeted, user-friendly discovery tools in promoting OER adoption.
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Next to the Coventry pilot, we worked in parallel on a second small-scale pilot at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. This way, we could learn from a different institution, in a different country and context, whether our solution might also work outside of the Coventry & UK context — for wider audiences. At Utrecht University, following a similar adoption framework and working with six courses from across departments and teaching levels (under and postgraduate teaching), we managed to reach a similar verdict.
Where both institutions are distinct and each have their unique vision on open and affordable learning, they were aligned in their wishes for the next step for Sylla:
Now that we demonstrated that we can effectively realize adoptions for open and affordable resources — how can we broaden success and impact across the institution?
Next Steps for Implementing Open and Affordable Resources
To broaden success and move towards institution-wide success, we feel that a critical ingredient to support quality teaching and learning lies in having seamless access to a wide array of educational materials. As institutions start to implement more cost-effective teaching models and solutions, we are convinced that the availability of a bespoke solution for collating such resources is crucial. Challenges towards adoptions have been discussed, and we believe that with today’s tools and awareness, the time is right to make the leap.
Saving Time with Personalized Discovery
In order to tackle the main issue of limited time, any campuswide implementation needs to be focussed on personalisation and efficiency. At Sylla, we are focused on analyzing teaching profiles, as well as course syllabi and learning objectives, so that we can offer relevant resource recommendations. Many solutions today are focused on a traditional keyword search, returning a vast amount of results to skim and filter through. Instead, we observed that by presenting faculty with a limited set of contextually relevant recommendations yields higher engagement. We believe that this can promote the chances of deeper discovery and thus ultimately result in a more effective approach for realizing adoption.
Strategic Institutional Support and Quality Control
A recurring theme when discussing open and affordable adoptions is the central question of “what is affordable” and “what is qualitative content”? We envision that, today and in the future, institutions can control which databases and collections to activate, so that these interpretations are within institutional control. This enables autonomy and the delivery of a trusted resource pool by institutional experts to faculty and ultimately their students. This collaborative effort between librarians, instructional designers and faculty is critical and probably ever more relevant in a world involving AI.
Addressing Supply by Enriching Library-Licensed Content and Filling OER Gaps
As mentioned, another challenge toward wider adoption of open materials is the lack of supply and fit with the classroom. We strongly believe that this can be overcome by a combination of identifying and addressing OER gaps together with better leveraging existing resources. For existing resources, by focusing on recontextualizing existing resources such as monographs,
videos and articles, they can become more suitable for teaching needs. Or to quote a recent blog on the Scholarly Kitchen by Lisa Hincliffe9:
“By transforming information objects into learning objects, these tools unlock the contents of articles and books and expand their reach beyond experts who can already relatively easily make sense of what they are reading.”
Similarly, the leading repository for Open Access monographs OAPEN10 also identified this opportunity, and stated that: “Content from open access monographs and articles may be incorporated into OER, but is usually recontextualised for pedagogic purposes”
Enriching such open and library-licensed resources will support a more diverse pool of resources available for adoption. Especially for upper-level and specialized courses that rely on academic articles or book chapters, this holds true. As a result, a large number of affordable resources can be unlocked and drive adoptions to grow their reach and impact.
Achieving Interoperability with Institutional Infrastructure
Finally, to ensure a seamless experience for faculty, the adoption system needs to integrate well with existing institutional infrastructure. This includes ensuring that selected resources can be readily integrated into the institution’s student delivery system — crucial for widespread adoption. Also, making sure faculty can access library-licensed materials requires a deeper integration as well as partnerships with such publisher and database providers. Ensuring compliance with licensing requirements and transparently flagging risks for selected resources to faculty.
Conclusions
As we look to the future and address increasing scrutiny on the cost of education, it is important to embrace recent technologies and leverage existing quality resources already made available. Together with institutions and their faculty members, we have explored the question of growing adoption for open and affordable resources. This effort evolved into Sylla, through which we are determined to elevate the resource adoption experience for faculty members, so that more faculty members can deliver an affordable and qualitative learning experience to their students. As we are working towards this and keep a close eye on rapidly changing technologies, we have some early remarks which we believe can support this transition:
Next-Generation Discovery Platforms
The development of sophisticated, AI-driven discovery platforms holds the promise of changing how faculty prepare for their semester teaching. These platforms should:
• Analyze existing information such as course syllabi and learning objectives to provide tailored recommendations
• Seamlessly integrate and enrich open and librarylicensed content
• Offer intelligent gap analysis and suggestions for (supplementary) materials
• Provide tools for easy customization and adaptation of resources
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Empowering Faculty Creativity and Shifting to More Personalization
By leveraging open and library-licensed content and making it easier to work with these, faculty can be empowered to create truly personalized teaching experiences:
• Support diverse teaching and learning styles
• Enable easy collaboration and sharing of customized materials amongst faculty
• Allows for more responsive and adaptable curricula
• Facilitate the creation of adaptive learning pathways
Balancing Openness with Sustainability
While pursuing greater openness and affordability for educational resources, it’s crucial to maintain a balanced ecosystem. We see a need for ensuring sustainable support for the creators of open and affordable resources as well as support for key infrastructures and service providers. With particular areas of attention being:
• The exploration of sustainable funding models for OER creation and maintenance
• Developing of fair compensation mechanisms for authors and publishers of high-quality educational content
• Fostering collaborations between institutions, libraries, faculty and content providers to ensure a rich and diverse educational resource landscape
• The development of infrastructure and service providers to enable long-term success
While the road ahead is long, it feels attainable, and we envision the key to success lies in creating an ecosystem that seamlessly blends open resources and library-licensed material We believe the future of education is one of personalization and accessibility — where there is more to choose from, for more people A world where high-quality, affordable educational materials are readily available to all teachers and learners, supporting a more accessible and dynamic educational experience for all.
The annual Charleston Library Conference is the can’tmiss event where industry leaders, professionals, and innovators come together to explore the latest trends, share insights, and shape the future of our field.
Registration gets you two weeks of in-person and virtual conference sessions As always, our in-person gathering will be in gorgeous downtown historic Charleston at the Gaillard Center.
WHAT TO EXPECT WITH YOUR REGISTRATION:
Full access to all conference sessions and the Vendor Showcase in Charleston
Complete access to our virtual conference platform
Morning and afternoon refreshment breaks
Tuesday Welcome Reception
Conference Reception at the South Carolina
Aquarium
Daily Friday continental breakfasts
Optional Dine Arounds
Conference materials including tote bag, notepad, pen, t-shirt, water bottle, and more
On-demand access to session recordings for three months following the event
Complimentary one-year subscription to Against the Grain journal
In-person and virtual networking opportunities
Virtual vendor landing pages and meeting opportunities
Virtual tours and chance to win prizes
AT A GLANCE DATES
In Person: November 11-15
Vendor Showcase: November 12
Online: December 9-13
Student Rate: $95 (no deadline) See website for more RATES
Early Bird: $510 (July 13 - Sept 27)
VENDOR SHOWCASE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12
We have a small number of spaces still available. Register now!
ATG PROFILES ENCOURAGED
Jonathan H. Harwell
Associate Director for Collection & Resource Services
Ina Dillard Russell Library, Georgia College & State University Campus Box 043, Milledgeville, GA 31061
Phone: (478) 445-0983 <jonathan.harwell@gcsu.edu>
BORN AND LIVED: Born in Jackson, Alabama, and have lived around the U.S. South and in Albania.
EARLY LIFE: Before I became a librarian, I was a teacher in Albania for two years. I have a BA in English (Spanish minor) from the University of Southern Mississippi, MLIS from The University of Alabama, and MA in Social Science from Georgia Southern University.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER AND ACTIVITIES: I’ve previously been a librarian at Berry College, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Georgia Southern University, and Rollins College. I recently completed a graduate certificate in diversity from the University of North Georgia, and have now begun an EdD in Educational Leadership from Georgia Southern University. I publish in library and information studies, as well as at the intersection of theology, religion, and pop culture. I’ve co-edited scholarly volumes on Theology & Prince and Theology & Protest Music (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic). I also research the cultural history of Quakers in the U.S. South.
IN MY SPARE TIME: Outside of work, I enjoy collecting music, radio DJing, hiking, swimming, working out, traveling, and exploring international cuisines.
FAVORITE BOOKS: My favorite recent books are Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez and Saved by a Song by Mary Gauthier.
PET PEEVES: People who make others’ lives more difficult.
PHILOSOPHY: “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” — Rev. Fred “Mister” Rogers
MOST MEMORABLE CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: In 2019, I co-led a group of eleven faculty and staff from Rollins College in a semester of interdisciplinary study of Albanian cultural history, followed by two weeks of intensive travel through Albania, bringing my career full circle.
GOAL I HOPE TO ACHIEVE FIVE YEARS FROM NOW: Draft of my doctoral dissertation.
HOW/WHERE DO I SEE THE INDUSTRY IN FIVE YEARS: Publishers will need clear policies regarding the use of authored works for AI, as well as the use of AI for authored works. Many films and TV series will continue to effectively disappear by not being available for libraries to purchase on physical formats or to license for streaming, or even in the individual streaming market (some vanishing after appearing in the festival circuit). Meanwhile, nearly all published books will be available to libraries as eBooks via demand-driven acquisition at the title level through aggregators, including from publishers who currently only sell ebook package subscriptions, as well as art publishers who currently only publish in print.
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The conference enjoyed generous sponsorship that defrayed costs and supported invited keynote speakers from the library vendor community, particularly Bloomsbury, Clarivate, Digital Science, DOAJ, Ebsco, Elsevier, JSTOR, Library Consulting (Ireland), OCLC, PKP, and Wiley. The meeting was made possible through their generosity and intellectual contributions.
The opening keynote was delivered by the distinguished Turkish library leader, Dr. Yaşar Tonta, who also provided summative remarks at the end, while Professor Saray Córdoba González from Costa Rica and Glenn Hampson from the US (virtually) offered keynotes describing the progress and challenges for open access around the world. Dr. Gracian Chimwaza, the dynamic founding director of ITOCA (Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa), offered the final keynote.
Presentations described in interesting, indeed often fascinating, detail the open access publishing and practices of Croatia, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Ukraine, and the U.S. The Turkish landscape was well and carefully described through analysis of activities of the ANKOS consortium, the Tubitak Ulakbim (Turkish Academic Network and Information Center), and the universities who work with those organizations. There were also important, highly relevant presentations covering many critical international infrastructural projects addressing aspects of openness (DIAMAS, DOAJ, OAPEN and DOAB, ORCID, and the Open Book Collective), as well as institutional updates from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Ohio
State University, Koç University, Kastamonu University, and the Izmir Institute of Technology, among others.
Istanbul has been a crossroads and a market for the world — our limited time at the Grand Bazaar was ample reminder of that! — and our conversations reminded delegates of the delicate balances that keep global systems of anything — including publishing — moving forward while stable at the same time. Some of the participants had attended a Fiesole Collections Retreat in Cape Town a few weeks earlier and saw resonances with presentations about that region. In Istanbul, participants talked about ways that regions differ in their needs and opportunities, and we found ourselves thinking that Latin America, Central and South Asia, and Southeast Asia are all regions with unique challenges and opportunities. One “open” size does not fit all.
IFLA’s global reach is a vitally important convening function that is being used to good effect to advance conversations on these topics in some of those other regions as well. Without our delegates, our sponsors, our active IFLA sections, and our friends at Koç and MEF, none of this would have been possible. It takes a village, and the beauty of IFLA is the great multiculturalism of those villages.
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Istanbul Midterm – Group Photo of (many of the) participants
Organizers Ertuğrul Çimen, Ann Okerson, Tuba Akbaytürk
Back Talk — The View from the Bosphorus
Column Editor: Ann Okerson (Director, Offline Internet Consortium) <aokerson@gmail.com>
Istanbul, not Constantinople, lying on multiple cultural borderlines, was the setting. It’s the very spot of land first called “Europe” that now can’t get admitted to the European community! In a year when IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations) has cancelled its annual World Library and Information Congress, this was the place where several of IFLA’s subgroups chose to come together to look to cross geographical horizons and the prospects of international scientific and scholarly communication. “Global Openness” was the theme and title of the IFLA Division D Midterm meeting held at Koç University from 5-7 June 2024. Participants from 16 countries joined the meeting and participated in lively and productive discussions touching on all dimensions of open science, open education, and open publishing.
Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque with the Bosphorus behind them, the Golden Horn in front (seen from the conference center).
We organized the event to review the status and look forward to the future of the global shift towards “open.” We chose Istanbul to let us focus on the impact and opportunity for such work in and beyond the MENA (Middle East North Africa)
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region and throughout what is conventionally spoken of as the “global south.” While much of the power and decision-making that affects the global community is situated in Europe and North America, the impact of decisions and actions taken there is spread across the globe and affects those with economic and political challenges. We met in Istanbul to draw a wide range of participation and find and learn from a more global perspective.
Accordingly, we were joined by numerous colleagues from Turkey, as well as from Algeria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Indonesia (virtually), Kenya, Montenegro, Pakistan, South Africa, Syria, and Ukraine (plus Europe and North America). From the iconic Anamed building dedicated to the study of Anatolian civilization where we met, we had a view of the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn, and the spires of Byzantium. We could see the water traffic passing to and from the Black Sea and Mediterranean and view the
Cats of Istanbul (2) Surveying the Street Scene
Asian shore. The meeting venue was on Independence Avenue (Istiklal Caddesi), the thronged pedestrian street at the heart of the city, well and carefully managed by the famous cats of Istanbul, who were very much in evidence and doing quite a good job keeping order, surveying the crowds, and (in one case) helping the owners of a shawarma shop test their merchandise! Another worked as lobby manager in our hotel.
The Midterm meeting ran across three days and included four keynotes and 20 presentations selected from submissions around the world. The lead organizers of the conference came from IFLA Division D (myself, Ann Okerson, Chair of the Division) and from Turkish colleagues (Hosts Tuba Akbaytürk Çanak, Director of the Koç University Library and Chair of IFLA’s Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Section; plus Ertuğrul Çimen, Director of the MEF University Library in Istanbul and Chair of IFLA’s Europe Regional Division). The Program Planning committee for the event was drawn from volunteers representing four IFLA professional units: the Academic and Research Libraries Section (ARL), Acquisition and Collection Development Section (ACD), Science and Technology Section (SCITECH), and the Special Interest Group on Library Publishing (LIBPUB).
continued on page 71
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Cats of Istanbul (1) Hotel Manager at Work
The final issue of The Charleston Advisor was published in July 2024. At the 2024 Charleston Conference, the Charleston Hub will unveil Katina, a new digital publication that uniquely addresses the value of librarians to society and elevates their role as trusted stewards of knowledge. Named after Katina Strauch, the visionary founder of the Charleston Conference, it is written by and for the international community of librarians, and will also be of special interest to publishers and vendors. During the inaugural year (2025), this engaging content will be available to all without restriction.
Find out how you can become a launch partner: cgoldsmith@annualreviews.org
Against the Grain has gone digital!
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About Against the Grain
Against the Grain (ISSN: 1043-2094) is your key to the latest news about libraries, publishers, book jobbers, and subscription agents. Our goal is to link publishers, vendors, and librarians by reporting on the issues, literature, and people that impact the world of books and journals. ATG eJournal will be published five times a year (February, April, June, September, and November) and will be distributed to ATG subscribers, Charleston Library Conference attendees, and registered members on the Charleston Hub.
Find ATG on the Charleston Hub at www.charleston-hub.com
