Colleagues,

If you’re heading to ALA, please consider attending the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Scholarly Communications Interest Group program. See below for details.

ALCTS Scholarly Communication Interest Group Panel Session

Day: Saturday, June 22nd

Time: 1-2pm local time

Location: Marriott Marquis, Archives (located across the street from Walter E. Washington Convention Center)

Title: Imagine a World Where All Content is Open: Implications for E-Resource Management and Discovery

Abstract: As the open access movement progresses, and more content becomes openly available, libraries grapple with questions of whether to curate open content, which content to collect, and then how to integrate it into their discovery layers, e-resource management tools, and workflows. From a user and researcher perspective, open content is only useful if it can be discovered, so there are serious implications that must be explored by those managing the acquisition and ongoing maintenance of electronic content. Most discovery and e-resource management systems are developed on a framework of commercial content. Providers of open content are not necessarily equipped or staffed to supply the metadata and e-resource management tools that we all rely on paid content providers to generate. In a customer-vendor relationship, there are clear expectations of services provided beyond the actual content. This allows librarians to leverage their subscription fees to expect accurate and properly formatted metadata. The provision or lack of this has significant staffing implications. In the case of some open content, these services may not be available, thus potentially deterring libraries from collecting open access materials. These are challenges that can be overcome, but bear some exploration in order to move toward a more open world sustainably.

Panelists:

• Sunshine Carter, Interim Collection Development Officer & Electronic Resources Librarian, University of Minnesota
• Jeffrey Daniels, Associate Dean of Curation, Preservation, and Publishing Services, Grand Valley State University
• Wendy Robertson, Institutional Repository Librarian, University of Iowa 

Questions for panelists:

• What was your first memorable OA e-resource experience?
• What is today's biggest challenge in OA content discovery?
• What is today’s biggest opportunity in OA content discovery?
• What would more OA content mean for users?
• What would your job look like if all subscription content was openly accessible?
• What would a university library look like if all subscription content was openly accessible?

Format:

Emma Molls, panel moderator, will walk through each question, giving panelists the opportunity to respond. With the remaining time, panelists will have the opportunity to engage in a more informal response to each other’s answers and/or audience questions. Panelists are welcome to think outside the box, present unheard of ideas, and approach the questions with a mix of theory and practice.

Emma Molls

Publishing Services Librarian

University of Minnesota

Sarah Beaubien

Pronouns: she/her

Associate Dean of Curriculum, Research, & User Services

Grand Valley State University Libraries

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616-331-2631