Guest Post: College Closures and the Implications for Libraries and Vendors
College closures are increasing across the U.S, and the impacts on libraries, publishers, vendors, and library consortia are intensifying.
Oxford Administrators Want OA Policy Removed from REF 2029. I Have an Even Better Idea.
Three Oxford administrators want to lower the cost of mandatory open access by shifting the responsibility for enforcement to funding agencies. But that doesn’t lower costs at all; it only shifts them. To truly lower costs, stop trying to make open access mandatory.
Guest Post: Navigating a New Virtual Experience at the 2024 SSP Annual Meeting
The SSP Annual Meeting Planning Committee has put together a unique and strong program for virtual attendees to the SSP 2024 Annual Meeting.
Guest Post — Speak Finance: Gain University Support for Open Scholarship
The federal government is mandating that the knowledge and data produced from federal grants be widely available for our collective good. Libraries remain under-resourced to make this happen. Let’s add some new metrics and language to this narrative to help articulate the value of libraries.
Library Licensing Strategies
Libraries are accelerating engagement with transformative and pure publish agreements, balancing contract-based publishing support with an APC fund, and investing in the scholarly communications ecosystem.
Humanities and Jobs Data: What’s the Real Story?
Escalating attacks on the humanities often cite the problem of employment for humanities majors; a new report shows otherwise.
The Open Access Fund at Edinburgh University Press: An Interview with Nicola Ramsey
An interview with Nicola Ramsey of Edinburgh University Press about the Press’s new Open Access Fund.
From a “Ghost Library” to a “Window on the Big World”: The Story of Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui, Wellington Central Library
What do you do when the building standards governing the safety of your workplace are deemed inadequate?
Is the Library Responsible for Open Access Compliance?
In this moment of success for open access advocacy, Roger C. Schonfeld proposes that the academic library not take responsibility for implementing open access mandates. The first of several scenarios we will consider.
Chefs de Cuisine: Perspectives from Publishing’s Top Table — Ziyad Marar
Robert Harington talks to Ziyad Marar, President of Global Publishing at SAGE, and author of “Happiness Paradox” and “Intimacy”, and most recently “Judged: The Value of Being Misunderstood”
Guest Post — Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA) and Elsevier Conclude Negotiations for Access to ScienceDirect Journals
Ginger Williams and Posie Aagaard offer a look at the Texas Library Coalition and its new deal with Elsevier.
Speculation on the Most Likely OSTP Nelson Memo Implementation Scenario and the Resulting Publisher Strategies
What is the most likely scenario for implementation of the OSTP’s Nelson Memo? And what strategies will that offer for publishers?
Revisiting — Return of the Big Brands: How Legacy Publishers Will Coopt Open Access
Revisiting a 2015 post that predicted the dominance of the cascade model of journal portfolio publishing and the increased dominance of the larger existing publishers in an open access market.
What Universities — and Libraries, Researchers, and Publishers? — Owe Democracy
Universities need democracy, and vice versa. An important book shows the 20th century history of that relationship in the United States, and offers a prescription for what we do now that both are imperiled.
The Quest for Home: Transforming from Grant-funded Project to Sustainable Operation
Grant-funded initiatives eventually need a permanent home; here are some lessons learned from Educopia’s Katherine Skinner and Christina Drummond.