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On “How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative,” by Dorothea Salo

On “How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative,” by Dorothea Salo

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In “How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative,” Dorothea Salo offers a tongue-in-cheek accounting of the various ways one could systematically destroy a scholarly communication initiative–especially an OA scholarly communication initiative. She writes from the library perspective, but her comments resonate across those who are involved with scholarly communication in any role. Salo’s satire is poignant because it is so relatable; among her suggestions for destroying a schol comm initiative are: not investing in an initiative in the longterm, but…

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On “From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication,” by Nicky Agate, Gail Clement, Danny Kingsley, Sam Searle, Leah Vanderjagt, and Jen Waller

On “From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication,” by Nicky Agate, Gail Clement, Danny Kingsley, Sam Searle, Leah Vanderjagt, and Jen Waller

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“From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication” draws together the perspectives of six Editorial Board members from the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication. The contributors were asked to consider the following prompts: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in scholarly communication today? What are we doing that’s important? What aren’t we doing that we should be? Who should we be working with? What mountains should we try to…

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On “‘By the People, For the People’: Assessing the Value of Crowdsourced, User-Generated Metadata,” by Christina Manzo et al.

On “‘By the People, For the People’: Assessing the Value of Crowdsourced, User-Generated Metadata,” by Christina Manzo et al.

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In “‘By the People, For the People’: Assessing the Value of Crowdsourced, User-Generated Metadata,” Christina Manzo, Geoff Kaufman, Sukdith Punjashitkul, and Mary Flanagan focus on the classification of digital objects in libraries. They immerse themselves in the debate over which model of classification is superior: a folksonomic model, where users generate metadata as they encounter cultural material, or an institution-imposed classification system. Manzo et al. argue that, in fact, a blended system is best. By bringing together user-generated content with…

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On “Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access,” by Margaret Heller and Franny Gaede

On “Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access,” by Margaret Heller and Franny Gaede

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In “Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access,” Margaret Heller and Franny Gaede consider open access repositories in the context of social justice. This is not, perhaps, what it might seem at first glance: Heller and Gaede move beyond the standard argument that open access is a public good, and de facto social issue (although they do use this argument as a theoretical foundation). Rather, Heller and Gaede run an experiment to determine the…

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On “North American Campus-Based Open Access Funds: A Five-Year Progress Report,” by Greg Tananbaum

On “North American Campus-Based Open Access Funds: A Five-Year Progress Report,” by Greg Tananbaum

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In “North American Campus-Based Open Access Funds: A Five-Year Progress Report,” Greg Tananbaum reviews and provides a status update on the SPARC Campus-based Open Access Funds initiative. This initiative provides seed funding to libraries that authors can access as need be in order to publish open access. Tananbaum provides impressive statistics on the relative uptake of the initiative, including papers (3863) and unique authors (3121) funded to date. But he also outlines challenges that have arisen: namely, enticing and sustaining…

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On “Will Open Access Change the Game?” by Sven Fund

On “Will Open Access Change the Game?” by Sven Fund

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In “Will Open Access Change the Game?: Hypotheses on the Future Cooperation of Libraries, Researchers, and Publishers,” Sven Fund considers open access publishing as analogous to the disruptive technologies that have become trademarks of digital technology. He argues that open access will “most likely lead to wanted and unwanted developments and consequences for different actors” (206). Fund rightly suggests that the long term impacts of open access have not been sufficiently considered; he does not, however, answer such a need…

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On “Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria,” by James Somers

On “Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria,” by James Somers

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In this article for The Atlantic, James Somers explores why the original dream behind Google Books — and perhaps even behind Google itself, Somers suggests — has been quashed. Somers traces the trajectory of Google Books, from the centuries-long pipe dream of creating the world’s largest library in “one place” to its current manifestation: alive, but with utopic vision unrealized. Somers provides a compelling account of the class action lawsuit between Google and a coalition of authors and publishers, as…

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On “My Old Sweethearts: On Digitization and the Future of the Print Record,” by Andrew Stauffer

On “My Old Sweethearts: On Digitization and the Future of the Print Record,” by Andrew Stauffer

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In “My Old Sweethearts: On Digitization and the Future of the Print Record,” Andrew Stauffer hits on a key tension in universities: the digitization of print volumes. In many ways, digitization has been a boon to university libraries, as it has freed up precious real estate in the stacks and has created electronic versions of print holdings that can be accessed from anywhere. With the amount of off-campus (and even affiliated but out of country) academic work that occurs, digitization…

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On “Interoperability and Retrieval” (UNESCO Curriculum)

On “Interoperability and Retrieval” (UNESCO Curriculum)

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The Open Access for Library Schools curriculum was developed under UNESCO’s Open Access Program. On their website UNESCO writes, “The carefully designed and developed sets of OA curricula for researchers and library and information professionals are based on two needs assessment surveys, and several rounds of face-to-face and online consultations with relevant stakeholders” (n.p.). Here, I’ve scanned through the “Interoperability and Retrieval” module. This module is a rather specialized look at interoperability and retrieval needs and standards for open access…

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On “OA Statement of Commitment for Librarians, Archivists, and PEA”

On “OA Statement of Commitment for Librarians, Archivists, and PEA”

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The University of Victoria’s 2012 “OA Statement of Commitment for Librarians, Archivists, and PEA” is the closest that UVic gets to an official, documented position on open access (OA). Of course, a “statement of commitment” is not a policy nor a mandate. Rather, it is an articulation of goodwill and a recognition of the importance of open access to research and cultural material. It is interesting to note that this statement of commitment — the only of its kind from…

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