Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2017 15:55:02 +0000

Another idea for creating metadata might be to check in with the library schools and see about offering internships to MLS students.  I know a lot of students going through the programs are looking for ways to get some real world experience they can put on their resumes.  And possibly even some working librarians who have a job not necessarily in technical services who are looking for opportunities to broaden their skillsets.  A lot of early-in-career librarians are looking for ways to expand their horizons.

You'd need someone to coordinate the efforts and someone who could validate the metadata, but you might even be able to find volunteers for that as well.

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-----Original Message-----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2017 19:54:38 +0000

Of course, this is just the tip of an iceberg.

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting to the Head of Communications at Chatham House, another UK-based NGO. He was telling me that they publish a fair number of reports a year, but simply post them on their website. He was totally puzzled when I wondered how they would be discovered in academic institutions; he had no idea that reaching students and academics might require doing more than simply relying on Google and posting free PDFs on their website. When I mentioned things like persistent identifiers, long-term archiving, and citation tools, I might as well have been speaking Martian - he had no idea what I was going on about. So, yes, NGO publications do, I think, have limited reach and are an under-discovered and an under-valued resource - amazing when one considers how cheap they are!

So, what to do? It costs money to capture content and wrap it with the metadata needed to insert it into both mainstream and specialist discovery channels, to ensure it is available in a persistent and reliable manner. A challenge when NGOs have little or no funds for marketing. A challenge for any aggregator who would struggle to earn a return on their investment since they would be competing against free versions hosted on the parent website - assuming of course, they got permission from the copyright owner to aggregate the content in the first place.

But what if, like with arXiv, librarians 'crowd-funded' an effort that would harvest this content from willing NGOs, large and small, do the necessary to enrich it with industry-standard metadata (DOIs and the like), and then feed the relevant discovery and delivery channels.
Larger NGOs like Oxfam can hire professionals like Emily to direct their publishing programmes, but I bet smaller ones, like Chatham House, lack in-house publishing expertise. Maybe the 'crowd-funded'
effort could also fund best-practice advice and training to improve NGOs' ability to publish in a manner that is in tune with the demands of the industry (like XML).

Would anyone be interested in exploring this idea?

Toby

(And due thanks to Ann Okerson for her advice in preparing this reply).

Toby Green
Public Affairs and Communications Directorate OECD Winner The Academic and Professional Publisher Award 2017