Feasibility, Sustainability, and the Subscribe-to-Open Model
Like all OA funding models, subscribe-to-open solves some problems while creating others. Some of the downsides are pretty fundamental.
Guest Post — Library Vendor Platforms Need a Strategic Reboot to Meet Librarian Curriculum Development Needs
David Parker looks at platform strategy for supporting learning and curriculum development.
How Has COVID-19 Affected Research Funding, Publishing and Library Budgets? Or, Finding the Truth in the Gap Between Perception and Reality
Publication of the final report of a major global study of the effects of COVID-19 on research funding, publishing, and library budgets – and the truth that emerged in the gap between perception and reality.
Guest Post — Lessons Learned: A Year with GetFTR
Ralph Youngen and Todd Toler look back on what’s been learned over the course of the first year of implementing GetFTR, a solution to enable faster access for researchers to the published journal articles.
Revisiting Nicholson Baker and Retention of Print
Scholars are anxious about what materials will be preserved and made accessible. Whose priorities come first?
Watch Out for the Silent Librarian: An Interview with Crane Hassold
Silent Librarian is an international phishing organization that “angles” for university network credentials on behalf of the Iranian government. Crane Hassold gives us the lowdown on this dangerous scam.
Truth and Lies
How to address lies in the political life of a democracy? Education, information literacy, gatekeeping, and dialogue are not enough. Lisa Hinchliffe and Roger Schonfeld examine the issue.
The Senior Research Officer and the Academic Research Enterprise
The latest from Ithaka S+R on the academic research enterprise — how it is managed by universities, their strategic priorities for it, and the pandemic’s disruptions to it. A video of a CNI presentation by Jane Radecki, Oya Y. Rieger, and Roger C. Schonfeld.
Guest Post — Why Federated Access Matters: One Library’s Pandemic Story
Emily Singley discusses how Boston College adapted to federated access technologies to better support campus users during the pandemic, and why this matters going forward.
Gaps in Academic Communication
Tao Tao looks at some surprising communication gaps in scholarly communication that hamper progress but also provide market opportunities.
Syndication Success: A Report from the Springer Nature and ResearchGate Pilot
Results of this partnership signal we should expect future expansion of content syndication.
What Do Libraries Keep When They Cancel the Big Deal?
How do libraries decide which titles to keep when they cancel the Big Deal? What do the results look like? A look at seven libraries that walked away by @lisalibrarian.
Guest Post — Bringing Diverse Perspectives into Scholarly Marketing and Communications: Calls to Action towards Global Outreach for Global Change Part 1
COVID-19 and the anti-racist movement are driving publishers to respond to and engage with readers in new and innovative ways but will these continue? This two-part guest post by Kasia Repeta features calls to action from across the publishing community.
Taking a Big Bite Out of the Big Deal
Unsub is the game-changing data analysis service that is helping librarians forecast, explore, and optimize their alternatives to the Big Deal. Librarians breaking away from the Big Deal often credit Unsub as a critical component of their strategy.
Guest Post – Seamless Remote Access During a Global Pandemic: An Indispensable Necessity
Ralph Youngen from the American Chemical Society discusses their efforts to provide remote access to researchers during the current pandemic and how new technologies and standards like RA21 and SeamlessAccess are helpful.