The Group D sessions will run concurrently for 45 minutes on: Tuesday 31 March at 16:00 and Wednesday 1 April at 11:00
Group D
Shared experiences: challenges faced by those in the global south
Anne Powell, INASP
What are the common themes for research libraries around the world? What are the differences? What can we learn from each other? And how can publishers and libraries work together to ensure that researchers everywhere have access to the materials they need, and the skills to evaluate and use those materials? This session will be led by a librarian who has worked for many years in both African and international university contexts. She will share experiences of new developments and challenges through her career and current work helping African students develop their critical thinking skills.
Bernie Folan, Bernie Folan Research and Consulting
What publishers want librarians to know
Improving content discovery using AI and machine learning
David Leeming, 67 Bricks
AI and machine learning has been generating a lot of attention over the past couple of years, but they still raise a lot of questions for our industry. How should publishers, librarians and researchers engage with these technologies? Are these technologies a threat to the current scholarly ecosystem or an opportunity? Can these technologies really help us drive the discovery and dissemination of research? How have these technologies already become an essential part of the scholarly ecosystem? After a short introduction to the concepts of AI and machine learning we will address these questions by engaging the audience in a live interactive demonstration in which we work together to train a machine learning algorithm to work with scholarly content. We will share areas of opportunity we have uncovered from our experiences of working with these technologies within the industry and discuss how publishers, librarians and researchers might work with these technologies to further advance the future of scholarly communication.
What publishers can learn from caterers
Anne Kempen, Peter Lang AG
Imagine a buffet with hundreds of tasty dishes, and a big plate in your hand. Wouldn’t it be nice if publishing was as tempting and optional as that? We think that the transformation to Open Access requires more from a publisher than just making content freely available. It requires publishers to be just as service oriented and flexible in their offers as a catering service is to their customers. We all know that the requirements to realize a book project are diverse. Does the author want an intensified copyediting? Do they need support for researching images? What kind of promotional campaign would they like to see for their project? The idea is to offer a basic publishing menu that covers the essentials, such as light copyediting, typesetting, production of eBook and print formats. In addition, the author can then add services that they think are useful for their project. Additional services might include content related services such as research for additional images or the design of a graph, publishing related services such as special binding for the print book or promotional material, or even services related to their general career as a researcher, such as a video about their research field and interests. The costs for each service item are clearly defined beforehand and are completely transparent. The author only pays for what they choose. Of course, these publishing services are only offered after the project has been accepted for publishing by a positive peer-review as well as a thorough plagiarism check. Several questions remain: which are the most interesting services to authors? How much are these services valued? In a study conducted together with the German University HTWK Leipzig, 1300 authors have provided us with answers, ranging from “why don’t I publish my work in a repository?” to “how important is a book review to me?”. This session offers a summary of the year-long transformation from publisher to catering service.
Technological innovation as a engagement tool in academic libraries.
Maria Cotera Zubeldia, IE Library
Technological innovation is driving a profound cultural change and is an essential part of the current digital transformation in higher education. New technologies, new business models and new customers are challenging us to rethink, refocus and reinvent ourselves and the services we provide. Libraries are starting to anticipate the latest technological trends – including artificial intelligence, robotics, wearables, apps, virtual reality, etc.- and integrate them into the user experience to provide innovative, diverse and disruptive learning environments as a powerful engagement tool.
An artful deposit – When 3D becomes 2D: Supporting creative arts researchers through the REF and beyond
Sarah Beighton, Staffordshire University
Much of the onus currently focussed around outputs for REF 2021 is placed on ‘traditionally’ published research, but this raises the question, how will physical outputs, such as the work produced by creative arts researchers, be measured? The anticipation is that a range of outputs will be accepted, so it is important to facilitate the inclusion of creative arts research imaginatively and in a timely fashion. The presentation will be conducted in two parts: The first part will discuss the varied solutions we have come up with at Staffordshire University as well as some of the barriers encountered along the way. During the second part attendees will work in small groups to discuss existing practice, the challenges faced and potential solutions with respect to creative arts deposits. Ideas will be gathered from the workshop and collated into ‘best practice guidelines’ including a ‘top 5 tips’ to supporting researchers from this background. An informal network will be set up for those who want to stay in touch to share further ideas or to have any future questions answered. Attendees will leave the session with a better idea of how to support researchers from a creative arts background.