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Navigating Open Access and Transformative Agreements: A Case Study of the University of Maryland
No full text“What should we be doing as a public institution when it comes to open access and transformative publishing agreements?” Most large US research institutions are facing this question, including the University of Maryland, College Park. This article explores this issue by looking at the University's publishing landscape from a high level. It then dives deeper into three recent transformative agreements the University library has entered, investigating pricing, usage, and publishing data for a nonprofit society publisher, a for-profit commercial publisher, and, finally, a university press. The goal is to better understand how these agreements intersect with university-sponsored scholarship, library budgets, and the implications for the academic publishing landscape
A Cohort Model Approach to Addressing Library Accessibility in a Large, Devolved Library System
No full textWhen the State University of New York (SUNY) system mandated that all sixty of its institutions develop accessibility plans in 2019, library accessibility was one of several key elements. Accordingly, SUNY librarians created a community of practice—modeled in part after the approaches adopted by several other large library systems—to identify system-wide accessibility best practices and to develop expertise that was dispersed across multiple campuses. SUNY’s Library Accessibility Cohort provided a conducive environment for discussion and the coordination of training and accessibility reviews. The initiative successfully undertook the evaluation of a large number of subscription databases and created documentation to support those at other SUNY campuses and beyond who undertake this work in the future. Cohort members encountered a number of obstacles throughout this accessibility work, many of which were made more complex due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite these challenges, the cohort’s experience validated the potential benefits of a collaborative approach to this work. It is hoped that the cohort’s insights and best practices toolkit will assist other libraries and provide the groundwork for future initiatives
Partners in Progress: Publishers and Librarians Support Open Access Publishing
No full textThere is a tendency to discuss open access (OA) publishing as though it is monolithic. Those of us engaged in the work of researching, preparing, and negotiating, however, know OA agreements are as unique as the community they serve. Open access agreements are created based on local needs, with the input of a variety of stakeholders, and require flexibility on the part of the publisher and institutional client. Open access agreements represent a partnership, and ideally one that furthers the goals of both parties. This discussion between Joseph Lerro, Open Research Business Development Manager with Taylor Francis, and Rachel Scott, Associate Dean for Information Assets at Illinois State University (ISU) and Editor of Library Resources Technical Services, explores one such partnership that led to an innovative, social-sciences focused OA agreement. By sharing our experiences as publisher and librarian, our hope is to add complexity to discourse that has pigeonholed transformative agreements. The following prompts and our responses to them frame the considerations we brought into the partnership, reiterate our shared goals, and highlight some takeaways that we hope will be of interest to those newer to negotiating OA agreements
Amplify Your Impact: Sharing Stories of the Library Marketing Mix
No full textHello RUSQ readers! As the new marketing column editor, I wanted to take this time to introduce myself and provide insight into the kinds of submissions we will be looking for to offer our readership. I have been a professional librarian and information specialist for more than 20 years now, with experience in public, academic, and special libraries—including the Library of Congress. I currently serve as the business librarian and copyright specialist at the University of North Texas, and in May I graduated with my master’s in business administration. With my recent degree and knowledge in hand, I hope to bring new and exciting work happening in libraries across the nation within the realm of marketing. Often, we think of marketing as only promotion, but there’s much more to it than just that
Keepin’ it Inclusive: Inclusive Cataloging Scholarship of the 1990s
No full textInclusive cataloging has gained more attention within the discipline of library and information science (LIS) within recent years. While the term coined for this concept is newer, the underlying ideas are not new and have been part of the professional and scholarly conversation within cataloging for decades. To trace these ideas, the authors conducted a literature review of scholarship on cataloging, diversity, and vocabulary written in the 1990s to discuss the evolution of inclusive cataloging. The review of the literature from this decade shows the intellectual progression of this topic and how it lays the groundwork for current scholarship
Are Transformative Agreements Worth It? An Analysis of Open Access Publication Data at the University of Kentucky
No full textOpen access publishing is continuing to grow as funders such as cOAlition S, National Institutes of Health, and the White House implement mandates and requirements that publicly funded research be made immediately available for public consumption. Publishers have adopted open access as a business model through transformative agreements that combine subscription and publishing fees. However, it is unclear whether these agreements are beneficial for libraries. This article discusses a project by the University of Kentucky Libraries to gather and analyze open access publication data to aid in the evaluation of transformative agreement proposals. This article also discusses how the University of Kentucky compares to peer institutions in the Southeastern Conference and other benchmark institutions regarding open access publishing output. Additionally, this article discusses downsides of transformative agreements and highlights promising alternatives
Increasing the Discoverability of LGBTQ+ Materials: A Case Study of the Homosaurus and Vendor Automation
No full textFollowing decades of critiques of subject heading terminology, recent years have seen several experimental approaches to updating subject headings in library catalogs. Most of these projects have raised significant questions about scalability, however, as they are both time and labor-intensive. This paper presents a collaborative project between Emory Libraries and Backstage Library Works to add Homosaurus terms to the Emory Libraries catalog through an automated process. Though the experiment produced useful results, it ultimately failed to substantively alter most bibliographic descriptions. The results of this project underscore the need for caution and human oversight of automated processes, as well as more substantive support for cataloging initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion
Research Roundup: Using the Science of Reading (SoR) to Support Beginning Readers
No full textEvery Child Ready to Read (ECRR) was designed to help libraries and caregivers become partners in early literacy development. The initiative was informed by scientific research on the critical skills underlying early reading and writing along with best practices for supporting their development. ECRR was introduced in 2004, revised in 2011, and subsequently evaluated and revised in 2017.Research regarding reading continues to advance, especially as it pertains to beginning and fluent readers and the role context and culture play in learning. Since children’s librarians are continually encouraged to focus their efforts on getting children ready to read, learning about the science of reading helps us see the bigger picture
Passionate for Poetry: Its Importance in a Post-Pandemic World
No full textAs National Poetry Month approaches in April, you won’t find two better advocates for the genre than Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, the duo behind Pomelo Books and both poets in their own right. They are the editors of the new collection called What Is Hope? (Pomelo Books, 2023).Here they graciously share why poetry is their collective passion
Rewriting the American Library Association Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated or Detained
No full textLibraries can be a lifeline for people who are incarcerated or detained, their families and communities, yet library and information provision in American carceral settings varies wildly from state to state, and institution type to institution type. In this Commentary piece we describe how the ALA (with support from the Mellon Foundation) supported the work of writing a new standard for carceral library provision in the United States that better meets the needs of a justice-impaceted people and their families. The new Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated or Detained provides concise recommendations and longer “Where it Worked” (WIW) narratives, showcasing how carceral librarians can partner with a broad range of stakeholders to meet the literacy, learning, legal, and recreational needs of individuals held in jails, prisons, detention facilities, juvenile facilities, immigration facilities, or prison work camps, whether public or private, military or civilian, in the United States and its territories. The new Standards explicitly address the needs of women, LGBTQIA+ people, the aged, people with dementia, people with a range of disabilities, and people who speak primary languages other than English. Library funding is often at the discretion of administrators who are not trained librarians, and who may not be aware of the extensive literature and evidence that demonstrates the importance of privacy of information access for incarcerated people (Austin 2021; Finlay and Bates 2019; Vogel 1995). The effects of restricted access to libraries and information have life-long implications for people who are incarcerated or detained, both inside carceral facilities and after release