Forum

April 8, 2021

Invited Plenary: No More Apologies: LIS Publishing Reimagined

Day/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 12:00 PM to 1 PM

Speaker list

• Megdi Abebe (she/her)
• Joyce Gabiola (they/m)
• Sofia Leung (she/her)
• Kristina Santiago (she/her/ella)

Description

Reflecting on their own experiences with publishing and the production of knowledge within academic spaces, the editors of up//root reimagined a publishing experience that intentionally centers the research, meditations and creative works by, for, and of BIPOC, as well as a publishing environment that prioritizes well-being. up//root, a We Here publication, encourages disruption and experimentation.

April 8, 2021

Invited Plenary: Interweaving the golden threads into a publishing service

Day/Time: Wednesday, May 12, 12:00 PM to 1 PM

Moderator: Reggie Raju, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Panelists

• Jill Claassen, University of Cape Town – talk about rationale
• Omo Oaiya, West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) – Nigeria – challenges of hosting the platform
• Caroline Ncube, University of Cape Town – researcher speaking on copyright negotiation
• Anna Leonard – University of Namibia

Description

University of Cape Town (UCT) Libraries, in rolling-out a library publishing service, adopted the underpinning philosophy of LIBSENSE (the Libraries Support for Embedding NRENs Services and e-Infrastructure). The LIBSENSE initiative brings together the research and education networks (RENs, that is, the information technology experts), the researchers and academic library communities to collaboratively build sustainable and relevant approaches for open access in Africa.

UCT Library, a late comer to the OA movement, began its publishing programme in 2016. The expertise gained over a short period gave the Library the confidence to expand its service and  developed the continental platform. The expansion of the service was in alignment with the Library’s commitment to advancing a social justice agenda. The IT experts developed the tenant model for the continental platform. This model supports participating institutions retain their individual identity. Having developed the infrastructure, the next step was to solicit content to populate the platform. Researchers were trained on editorial processes to conceptualise and create a journal, completing the circle.

This plenary session will be a conversation among relevant stakeholders who share their experiences with regard to the continental platform. UCT Libraries will share the rationale for the creation of the platform: the drivers behind the concept. Researchers have responded to the COVID pandemic by flocking in to publish their books, textbooks and journals. A researcher will share a significant break-through by publishing a book with a commercial publisher but negotiated with the publisher to have the book published on the platform via open access – this is a major breakthrough for South Africa’s copyright legislation. One of the early adopters of the platform was the University of Namibia, a university in a neighbouring country. There is a great deal of optimism to have this pan African platform hosted by one of the major NRENs (WACREN). The challenges associated with hosting this platform will be shared by the NREN.

The success of the growth of the continental platform is dependent on weaving the three golden threads into the service. This conversation will tease out the strong collaborative relation between these three critical stakeholders with the hoped domino effect of accelerating the research growth of the continent.

April 2, 2021

Keynote: Opening minds to open infrastructure

Day/Time: Friday, May 14, 12:00 PM to 1 PM

Keynote Speaker: Kaitlin Thaney

Bio: Kaitlin Thaney is the Executive Director of Invest in Open Infrastructure, a non-profit initiative dedicated to improving funding and resourcing for the open technologies and systems that research relies on.

She previously served as the Endowment Director for the Wikimedia Foundation, where she led development of a fund to sustain the future of Wikipedia and free knowledge. Prior to joining Wikimedia, Thaney directed the program portfolio for the Mozilla Foundation, following her time building the Mozilla Science Lab, a program to serve the open research community. She was on the founding team for Digital Science, where she helped launch and advise programs to serve researchers worldwide, building on her time at Creative Commons, where she crafted legal, technical, and social infrastructure for sharing data on the web.

Description: This past year has shown us the increased need and demand for investments in openness across all areas of research and scholarship—from content and data to the underlying systems that make those discoveries available and accessible to the world. Invest in Open Infrastructure is an initiative dedicated to improving the funding and resourcing for those underlying technologies and systems. This talk will speak to some of the critical issues and questions surrounding the infrastructure underpinning open knowledge, and discuss the work that lies ahead as a community.

April 2, 2021

Keynote: Inequity in scholarly communication: Engaging societies and their researchers in a new sustainable future

Day/Time: Monday, May 10, 12:00 PM to 1 PM

Keynote Speaker: Elaine Westbrooks

Bio: Since August 2017, Elaine L. Westbrooks has been the Vice Provost of University Libraries and University Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She is responsible for the leadership and general administration of the University Libraries which includes 9 libraries with approximately 300 librarians, archivists, and staff.

Westbrooks is a member of the Association of Research Libraries Scholars and Scholarship Committee, the Executive Committee of Triangle Research Libraries Network, the Digital Public Library of America Board of Directors, and the HathiTrust Board of Governors.  She co-edited Academic Library Management: Case Studies with Tammy Nickelson Dearie and Michael Meth in 2017. Because of Westbrooks expertise and leadership in scholarly communications and the crisis of academic publishing, she has been interviewed by numerous media outlets, including Vox, Inside Higher Education, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.  Westbrooks has also emerged as a leading thinker on issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in academic Libraries.  She has presented her research at the Digital Library Federation, Coalition for Networked Information, and the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Description: An unsustainable system of scholarly publishing—one marked by cost escalation, opaque licensing, and inadequate infrastructure—means that academic libraries are can no longer access or acquire the extensive journal subscriptions that researchers want. A recent trend to break big deals has focused on the Big publishers. However, little attention has been paid to the role that societies have played in sustaining this system. Westbrooks will talk about how librarians and researchers might work together to disrupt a system that no longer serves any of us. She will also outline the steps needed for libraries and societies to realize a new business model and engagement plan.

March 19, 2021

Panel Fr4b

Day/Time: Friday, May 14, 4:00 PM to 5 PM

An Update from the DOAJ and the LPC Community Relationship

Presenters:

• David Scherer, Carnegie Mellon University
• Emma Molls, University of Minnesota
• Judith Barnsby, DOAJ

Description:

In 2017/2018 the LPC convened a task force of members to work on community relationships and training to support journal indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Recently, former members of the LPC DOAJ task force have continued to serve as community liaisons as editors and associate editors of the DOAJ. In late 2020, the DOAJ also transitioned to a new website, as well as an updated web application form for editors to submit their journals for DOAJ indexing.

Since the end of the work of the DOAJ LPC Task Force in 2018, the DOAJ now includes more than twice the number of LPC member journals as it did prior to the Task Force’s work. But are there still barriers? And how can we continue to help members to overcome these? How can LPC member institutions and their journals learn more about the DOAJ application process? What resources are available for LPC members to learn how to prepare their journals for the DOAJ’s application process? How can the LPC leverage its relationship with the DOAJ through its members who serve as editors and associate editors?

This session will provide an overview of key changes to the DOAJ application form and what this means for library publishers and journal editors. Attendees will hear directly from representatives of the DOAJ as well as LPC members who actively volunteer as editors and associate editors from their perspectives as both DOAJ editors and library publishers.

Developing a library-press partnership through team teaching a course in journal publishing

Presenters:

• Jeanne Pavy, Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of New Orleans Library
• Abram Himelstein, Editor-in-Chief, University of New Orleans Press

Description:

In spring of 2019 the University of New Orleans campus administration decided to move the university press into the library, both physically and administratively.  This “arranged marriage” was approached by the affected parties with excitement and goodwill but also with some anxiety about how, exactly, the marriage would work.

We propose to share our initial steps toward collaboration and mutual understanding as a kind of case study in library-press partnership development.  We will relate how we identified areas of shared interest and complementary expertise, and decided to launch our first real shared project: developing and delivering a team-taught course on journal publishing for the Spring 2021 semester. We will be wrapping up the first iteration of the course and sharing successes, pitfalls and products from this experience, including drafts of final products and student responses.

As part of a smaller-sized regional research university, with minimal staff on both sides, the human capacity of both parties is our most precious commodity.  We believe that our story will be especially relevant to scholarly communications librarians and university press staff at under-resourced institutions who are seeking to strengthen their respective publishing services through mutually beneficial partnerships, even without a formal structural arrangement.

Case Study: Publishing Multilingual Open Access International Peer Reviewed Journals

Presenter:

• Jill Krefft, Florida International University

Description:

Florida International University (FIU) is an urban, multi-campus public research university uniquely positioned to support its mission of “collaborative engagement with our local and global communities”. Located in Miami, FL, also known as the Gateway to the Americas, FIU is the top institution in the U.S. in enrolling and graduating Hispanic students with bachelor’s degrees and is a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

FIU Libraries works closely with faculty and Latin American partners to support and publish several multilingual journals in support of our institutional mission. This presentation will share case studies from two open access peer reviewed journals hosted by FIU Libraries: Leer, Escribir Y Describrir, a publication of Comité Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo de la Lectura y Escritura: and the forthcoming American Journal of Non-Communicable Diseases a publication of America’s Network for Chronic Disease Surveillance. This presentation will share the complexities, challenges and lessons learned working with multilingual editorial boards and authors distributed throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

March 19, 2021

Panel Fr4a

Day/Time: Friday, May 14, 4:00 PM to 5 PM

(Re)defining a library’s journal hosting service: higher expectations, improved support

Presenters:

• Mariya Maistrovskaya, University of Toronto Libraries
• Priscilla Carmini, University of Toronto Libraries

Description:

In 2019, the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) set out to examine its eligibility and support criteria for hosted journals and align them with the library’s Open Access Support criteria and with best practices in scholarly publishing. While the revised requirements intended to improve access and quality of hosted journals, we questioned whether we were providing enough support for our journals to implement best practices in their workflows. In order to better understand the needs of our journals, we launched a survey in August 2020. The survey aimed to understand how we could improve our existing services and to solicit feedback for new possible services and resources. In this presentation we will go over the cross-campus process of aligning the journal hosting service with the UTL goals for improving open access support and best practices in scholarly publishing. We will also discuss the results of our journal survey and the changes we implemented to support our journals in adhering to best practices and surviving through the turbulent times.

Enhancing Services to Preserve New Forms of Scholarship

Presenters:

• Jonathan Greenberg, NYU Libraries
• Karen Hanson, Portico

Description:

Scholars are making extensive use of new digital technologies to express their research. Publishers, in turn, are working to support increasingly complex publications that are not easily represented in print. Examples include publications with embedded visualizations, multimedia, data, complex interactive features, maps, annotations, or that depend on third-party platforms or APIs, such as YouTube or Google Maps. These publications present formidable challenges for long-term preservation.

To study this challenge, a group of digital preservation institutions, libraries, and university presses worked together on an Andrew W. Mellon funded project led by New York University Libraries. With a focus on open access ebooks, the goals of the project were to:

1. examine a variety of works to identify which enhanced features can be preserved at scale using tools currently available
2. combine the findings with the knowledge and research of experts in preservation, publishing, and copyright to produce a set of guidelines and best practices. The guidelines aim to provide advice to publishers and authors for creating ebooks that are more likely to be preservable, or at least ensure that the implications of adding certain features are clear so that alternative paths can be taken when possible.

The first phase of the project focused on EPUB3 ebooks that include a variety of multimedia and supplementary material. The second phase looked at a number of web-based publisher platforms that support enhanced features such as annotations, embedded multimedia and visualizations, and other supplemental material. The final phase featured much more complex dynamic works that depend on large datasets or whose platform and presentation are an integral feature of the work.

The presentation will showcase some examples of these works and discuss the corresponding guidelines and best practices for improving their preservability.

Growing a sustainable publishing technology service for libraries

Presenters:

• Bart Kawula, Scholars Portal
• Kaitlin Newson, Scholars Portal

Description:

Scholars Portal hosts publishing software for 12 academic library publishers across Ontario. As our service has grown, we’ve faced a number of challenges around scaling the service across multiple institutions, managing code customizations, coordinating upgrades, and ensuring that libraries get the most value from the service while maintaining a manageable workload for our team. In this session we’ll provide an overview of our hosting services, talk about our processes for managing updates, and discuss lessons we’ve learned as the service has grown. Ways in which we are working to improve upgrade processes and support other technical aspects of library publishing, such as preservation, DOIs, analytics, and privacy, will also be discussed. Attendees will learn about the technical aspects of library publishing, ways to expand and improve publishing infrastructure, and some practical ways to contribute back to community-owned infrastructure regardless of your level of technical expertise.

March 19, 2021

Panel Fr2

Day/Time: Friday, May 14, 2:45 PM to 3:45 PM

Measuring Impact: Reflecting on University of Michigan Press’ COVID-19 Response

Presenter:

• Emma DiPasquale, Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library

Description:

In response to the request of the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) for “creative solutions that allows critical access to publisher content for the research and public health communities,” the University of Michigan Press, a division of the University of Michigan Library, made all 1,150+ titles in the University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection (UMP EBC) free-to-read from March 20 – August 31, 2020. Immediately after making the collection free-to-read, we designed several surveys in Qualtrics and implemented them to obtain qualitative feedback from libraries, authors, and readers as part of a strategy to gather as many different kinds of impact and engagement information as possible. We were able to gauge engagement through various other metrics, such as our readership map, Google Analytics reports, Altmetrics and Dimension reports, COUNTER reports, and an IP registry analysis. Through these metrics, it was made clear that UMP content was more widely used since free-to-read access began. As free-to-read and fully open access models are a growing norm for the Press, this information helped us shape our plans in terms of implementing different access models in such a way that reflects the feedback of our community of libraries and authors. This presentation serves as a reflection of UMP’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, the tools we used to measure impact and engagement, what UMP learned from conversations with our library community, and how this information is helping to shape UMP’s strategy going forward.

Changing a Library Publishing Program: How the USF Library was able to affectively scale-down library publishing services in the wake of COVID-19

Presenter:

• Jason Boczar, University of South Florida

Description:

The University of South Florida (USF) Libraries publishes over 20 open access journals. The library began publishing journals in 2008. In that time, there have been various agreements made with journal editors regarding the support the library would offer, such as: journal layouts, technical support, DOI registration, etc. Every journal has a separate requirement as defined in their respective MOUs. Over time this has created a complex web of services that the library has to deliver for these open access journals.

With the challenges of COVID in 2020, the USF Libraries made a decision to move some staffing from the scholarly publishing area into other departments in the library. In doing so, a new streamlining of services offered by the library was necessary. By looking at the various services offered, the library made distinctions on services the library must offer and what services would now be the responsibility of the journal editors.

This presentation will discuss how the journal publishing unit in the library worked with editors to ensure a smooth transition. It will also discuss how decisions were made on what services would be offered by the library. Potential impacts will be discussed as well as the long-term goals of the publishing unit in the USF Libraries.

Learnings from Our First Virtual Book Launch

Presenters:

• Laurie Taylor, Senior Director for Library Technology & Digital Strategies, University of Florida
• Perry Collins, Copyright & OER Librarian, University of Florida
• Chelsea Johnston, Scholarly Publishing & Repository Librarian, University of Florida
• Tracy MacKay-Ratliff, LibraryPress@UF Designer and Coordinator, University of Florida

Description:

In March 2020, the LibraryPress@UF published the story of a global disease: My Scrapbook of My Illness with Polio. The book tells the story of polio, an infectious disease caused by a virus, which became epidemic in the United States in the early to mid-20th century. Recounted in the form of a journal, this book makes the story of polio come alive, showing how Americans in the 1940s understood and treated polio.

The LibraryPress@UF acquired this book because of its interesting form and relevance to medical humanities, Florida history, and ability to tell a story of why vaccines and science are so important in addressing diseases and epidemics. We had started promotion in early March, and because of the book’s particularly close ties to communities in Florida, we knew it was ideal for an in-person launch party. When we had to change plans to virtual, we drew on our community connections to support outreach for a successful event, including a process for mailing a printed, signed bookplate in lieu of in-person book signing.

In this presentation, we will:

• Discuss our standard promotional elements and considerations for books (e.g., posters in the libraries, bookmarks, social media, and other activities like textual or video Q&A with the author or creator/s).
• Discuss specifics for this book, including our first virtual book launch, complete with support for a signed, printed bookplate to complement print-on-demand book copies.
• Share templates for bookplates, and invite participants to discuss methods for signed copies in remote and virtual environments.
• We share how we acted as whole workers and activated our personal community connections to promote the virtual book launch, resulting in front-page coverage on a local newspaper. We conclude by explaining how this work informs our overall best practices for promotion and outreach, including for cross-collaborations.

March 19, 2021

Panel Fr1

Day/Time: Friday, May 14, 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM

How to cooperate with Sci-Hub and Libgen (if at all) ?

Presenter:

• Mikael Böök, IFLA (personal affiliate)

Description:

The Sci-Hub service and the Libgen repository are two widely used ‘shadow libraries’ (Karaganis  2018) that provide open access to millions of research articles and books. As the epithet ‘shadow libraries’ suggests, they are controversial. Most articles and books are pirated and re-published online in violation of applicable copyright. This has led to a high-profile lawsuit and even to suspicions of theft of state secrets (Washington Post, Dec 20, 2019). However, their continuing existence and growth alongside the officially sanctioned  OA-movement is a fact, and many (most?) scholars and researchers evidently need  them (Bohannon 2016) Hence the librarians find themselves caught between pirates and publishers (The Chronicle, Feb 18, 2016).

This talk wants to start a thought experiment. Suppose that the libraries and the ‘shadow libraries’ are both acting under the Mertonian institutional imperatives of science (Merton 1942, 1967) and working towards the same goal,  a universal research library and scientific commons. Should they not then both understand that ‘if you can’t beat them, join them?’ The aim of this presentation is to list problems and solutions that may follow if this view is adopted.

“Transformative Agreements” & Library Publishing: A Short Examination

Presenter:

• Dave S. Ghamandi, University of Virginia

Description:

Library publishing is continually shaped by the goals of their parent institutions as well as outside organizations, namely the commercial publishing oligopoly. The emergence of “transformative agreements” (“TAs”) represents a new relationship between universities and commercial journal publishers. However, the motivations behind these agreements and the effects they may have on library publishing remain largely unexplored. In this presentation, I will critically examine “TAs” from the perspective of a library publisher and share three major analytical takeaways. First, I will compare how “TAs” and library publishers treat the means of production. Who owns and controls the publishing infrastructure and what effects does that have? Secondly, how do “TAs” and library publishing represent different categories of reform? Lastly, I will discuss how the differences between “TAs” and library publishing highlight and heighten the contradictions within research universities. Hopefully, participants will be able to use this analysis to advocate for library publishing in compelling ways within and across our respective institutions.

March 19, 2021

Panel Th2

Day/Time: Thursday, May 13, 2:45 PM to 3:45 PM

Beyond the “new normal”: a speculative reconsideration of undergraduate publishing

Presenter:

• Dana Ospina, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Description:

Amidst the isolation and uncertainty of COVID-19, many of us fortunate enough to continue to be employed have perceived an expectation, stated or not, to maintain established levels and models of productivity, despite the fact that we and our communities are often struggling to determine how to move forward and continue to adapt to shifting psychic and physical circumstances. While platforms like Zoom provide a way to continue performing many of the procedural aspects of our work, less quantifiable aspects of productivity have receded. I, a solo practitioner developing and managing an emerging, modest library publishing program focused primarily on undergraduate publication, have, like many others, experienced disruptions to processes and productivity. But within these delays and obstacles—and in fact because of them—I have found myself motivated to contemplate a future in which the program I oversee assumes an unorthodox disposition, both in mission and practice, allowing it to extend its reach beyond the boundaries of traditional academic publishing paradigms.

This presentation does not presume to provide answers, but rather begins the work of exploring and sharing possibilities for such a program through the depiction of several speculative scenarios. Employing strategies and models of speculation borrowed from other disciplines (design, fiction, architecture), I propose a notional re-conception of my program which, while continuing support for traditional publication styles and processes, additionally prioritizes incorporating an expanded set of practices. If a speculative mindset offers a means to train one’s perspective away from established norms and expectations and toward the consideration of imaginative ideas and potentialities, I suggest it is a worthwhile exercise to envision a library publishing program that is responsive not only to institutional and academic protocols and expectations, but also to the shifting desires, circumstances, and needs of the community it serves and who sustain its relevance.

Developing Open Access Journals using OJS: Best practices maintaining, promoting, and growing your portfolio of student-run academic journals

Presenter:

• Gabe Feldstein, Boston College

Description:

Since the beginning of the COVID lockdown BC libraries has seen an increased interest in Open Access E-Journals on OJS. Three new journals have joined the platform since the beginning of the lockdown as physical printer and publication workflows have become more uncertain. While many young editorial teams can struggle to establish a journal, focusing on indexation, setting up DOIs, and international growth have helped guide our student journals towards consistently relevant publication in their disciplines.

Additionally, analyzing the usage of the Open Access Publishing Funds available at BC has shown increasing interest in publishing open access in Nursing, Physics, and other hard sciences which are generally less represented by our portfolio. Recently, we have welcomed BC’s Medical Humanities Journal to the electronic platform – further expanding the disciplinary scope of the ejournals hosted by the library. As of now, our 20 journals have been downloaded in over 208 countries, which is a statistic itself that inspires our editorial teams to think very broadly about audiences for their journal not only outside of the BC community but as a part of the international community.

Featuring our student journals in a biannual newsletter has also been a great way to highlight the best practices used by some of our most advanced student journals. This also will preserve these practices across editorial teams transition over the years through graduations. By providing resources and being direct and straightforward about some aspects of what it means for the journal to make progress, we have been able to encourage continued interest in publishing open access.

Adapting Podcasts to a Digital Humanities Practice

Presenters:

• Corinne Guimont, Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Virginia Tech
• Joe Forte, Digital Humanities Specialist, Virginia Tech

Description:

In early 2019, a group of Digital Humanities (DH) librarians at Virginia Tech (VT) created a DH Status Report that examined existing services and departments supporting DH in the Libraries, and made recommendations for growth to fit faculty and student needs. Among others, it identified media production as a potential growth area, specifically the production of audio recordings for podcasts, oral histories, and other multimedia projects.

A key stakeholder in the Libraries’ support for DH at VT is the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS), who partners with the Libraries and Virginia Tech Publishing (VTP) in the administration of the Athenaeum, an adaptable suite designed to support digital scholarship and pedagogy in the Library, which includes a small recording studio. Concurrent with the DH Status Report, VTP was hiring an Athenaeum Coordinator. Given the recommendations of the DH report and the needs of CLAHS faculty and students, VTP chose to fill this position with the intention to expand media production capabilities and support.

Beginning in December 2019, the new coordinator prioritized the creation of a podcasting initiative. This meant outfitting the studio with furniture and technology sufficient to address the production needs of the several podcasting teams he was simultaneously guiding thorough development. The idea was to build a community of creators orbiting a physical production space and knowledge base of development resources. However, just as everything was in place and starting to ramp up, we were sent home.

In this presentation, we will detail a case study of the podcasting initiative, including its inception, early achievements, and challenges presented by an unexpected and prolonged period of remote operation. Additionally, we will show how adapting to those circumstances evolved and strengthened the reach and merit of the initiative, as well as providing opportunity to deepen partner relationships.