Unreachable/ Unwritable Histories: Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe
First in a series on histories made difficult or impossible though war or climate disasters, this post features two historians of Russia and Eastern Europe.
Deep Storage: An Archive in a Salt Mine
Continuing our fascination with unique libraries, today we look at an archive in an active salt mine.
Guest Post – Cybersecurity and Academic Libraries: Findings from a Recent Survey
Susie Winter reviews recent data on cybersecurity for academic libraries, as well as a survey of awareness and attitudes toward best practices among librarians.
Retroactively Open: Elsevier Backflips for NERL Agreement
In a novel license agreement, Elsevier agrees to open backfile content from a consortium of elite private institutions. Will other libraries and publishers follow this model?
Returning to the Workplace
With the Omicron surge in the rearview mirror, our Chefs reflect on returning to the workplace.
Accelerating Open Research: A Multi-stakeholder Discussion
Robert Harington reports on the recent SSP Publisher-Funder Task Force closed forum of funders, publishers, librarians and academics, who met to discuss how collaboration among stakeholder groups may accelerate a transition to open research.
The Burden of Knowledge: A Historian Reviews Popular Period Movies
How infuriating is it to watch a movie about your area of expertise and realize just how wrong it is?
Libraries and the Contested Terrain of “Neutrality”
Are libraries “neutral”? That question is way too simplistic to serve as anything other than a political football.
IOP Publishing Strikes a Transformative Deal with CRKN: Some Questions for Julian Wilson
An interview with Julian Wilson about IOP Publishing’s new transformative agreement with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.
Revisiting — Additive, Substitutive, Subtractive: Strategic Scenarios for Publishers in an OA World
Revisiting a 2008 post noting that while it is often argued that open access will reduce the overall cost of scholarly communications, this article proposed that OA will be additive to the size of the current market.
Guest Post — Google, Atypon, NIH, and Information Discovery’s AI-Fueled Future: Notes from a BioASQ Panel
A report from the 9th annual BioASQ workshop discussing the ongoing development and future of AI-based tools.
That’s One Way to Get Your Book in the Library
My new favorite author strategy. Step 1) Write a compelling book. Step 2) Be sneaky.
Why I Keep Hosting Debates: A Personal Reflection
I realized recently that I’ve been organizing formal debates at conferences for some time now. This has led me to reflect on why I do that.
Opening The Book: SSP Charleston Pre-Conference Video Now Available
The SSP’s Charleston Pre-Conference Session looked at key issues and challenges in OA monograph publishing as well as how best to evaluate new OA book models and their potential ROI.
Life in a Liminal Space; Or, The Journey Shapes the Destination
A liminal space is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next’. It is a period of transition, uncertainty, and multiple paths forward. The first wave of an open access transition is upon us, driven by the APC model, moving us to favor quantity over quality, and resulting in massive consolidation in many areas of the market. What comes next?