Working with the Society of Young Publishers and the New Librarians Professional Network, the UKSG innovation awards offer financial support to professionals to develop new ideas and proposals for the wider benefit of our sector. This activity has four main aims:
- To offer tangible support for new professionals in the scholarly communications sector
- To develop "start up" ideas and concepts which offer a range of benefits to the community
- To demonstrate UKSG's commitment to new professionals and innovation within our sector
- To increase and promote diversity
We are delighted to now announce the winners of those awards!
Publisher - General Award
Tony Xu - STEM Fellowship
http://rabbitholeofknowledge.com/
Promotion and dissemination of the "Rabbit Hole of Knowledge" tool to lower the barrier to entry into academic literature.
The Rabbit Hole of Knowledge is a starting point to finding original scholarly publications and consequently, encourage students to engage with libraries as active learning spacesin which they can develop their own enquiries and follow their own learning path. Initial work will start in Canada.
Publisher - Diversity Awards
Emily Bird - Taylor & Francis @emrbird
Development of a scheme whereby young people from traditionally underrepresented groups are invited to learn about the sector, inviting all academic publishers to participate. Publishers would sponsor and host groups for a day of education and discussion around academic publishing, showcasing the different roles available and the skills needed in the various entry level roles. The project was launched on the 8th June 2020 - details here
Sotiria Kal - UCL Publishing Graduate @Word_Alchemy
To develop a proposal to track and investigate the career trajectories of the BAME people entering BAME-only internship schemes, BAME-only writing prizes and the networks revolving around BAME in publishing which have been established. This will include a standardized feedback procedure that will help the participating publishers to improve their introductory BAME schemes and, at the same time, understand their effectiveness towards change.
Librarian - General Award
Hannah Boroudjou and Claire Delahunty - London School of Economics
Establishment of a career development-focused network for early career librarians in the London area and the South East. This network will be primarily focused on providing career development opportunities by facilitating meetings between peers, the exploration of ideas and career paths and engagement with senior members of the profession. The scheme launched late in 2019, and more details can be found here: https://www.earll.co.uk/
Librarian - Diversity Award
Jennifer Bayjoo - University of Salford & DILON (Diversity in Libraries of the North) @libdiverse
https://libdiverse.wordpress.com/
Development of an engagement plan with library schools to support a two-stage process of engagement, reaching out to emerging BAME library workers and seeking to educate the library student community.
DILON plans to create packs to send to the list of CILIP accredited courses, containing information about issues surrounding ethnic diversity in the profession and the resources available to them, including UKSG. DILON will also identify links with the library schools and local DILON members so that a BAME librarian can go in to a cohort and give a presentation, talk, or answer questions the students may have.