Time

Programme

Speakers

08.00

Registration

08.30

Lightning Session 2

Building the Future: Addressing the Educational Gaps and supporting the development of a Professional Identity for Research Librarians – Lucy Roper & Charlotte Wein

Despite the global prevalence of research librarians, there is a notable absence of formal educational programs specifically designed for this profession in many countries. This deficiency poses significant challenges to the formation of our professional identity: The absence of shared theories, methods, and ethical standards hinders the development of a unified professional identity.

We will present some ongoing initiatives focusing on training and resource provision for early career research librarians and demonstrate how Lucy’s latest work, The Solo Librarian: A Practical Handbook, provides insights and practical guidance for librarians working alone or in small teams.

These Flipping Publishers…! Finding Our Way to OA – Beth Bayley

We can all get on board with Open Access in principle: Few would oppose all people having access to knowledge that improves lives. But the road to achieving it is bumpy. As a publisher with a genuine aim to move to OA, we’ve tried it all – flipping, Transformative Agreements, Transformative Journals, Subscribe to Open, Gold OA, and Diamond OA. This session charts the OA journey of one of the industry’s smaller, and independent, publishers, focusing on practical aspects. Can broader lessons be drawn from our experiences?

Open Research Spaces: How a library can foster an open environment – Leah Burns

The space of a library has undeniably changed and adapted to the trends of academia. This session will highlight how the physical and virtual space of a library can shift to foster an environment of Open Research, of mutual aid between academics, and welcome non-traditional knowledge sharing.

09.00

Plenary Session 2

Cyber Security and the Academic Library: What to Be Worried about and What to Do- Rick Anderson and team – Rick Anderson, Heather Lowrie, Susie Winters

Academic libraries are ripe targets for cyberattack, given both the high value of the content they licence and the sensitive data hosted in the campus networks to which they are a portal. Criminals use social engineering as well as brute force attacks to try to gain access to both campus information and campus systems – and too often, they are successful. In this presentation, a publisher, an academic library director, and a higher-education cybersecurity consultant will share experiences that illustrate these dangers and share strategies libraries can use to help safeguard their institutions’ networks.

How to respond to a cyber attack in the real world – TBC

I will share details about an incident response to a cyber attack, focusing on the human impact of managing a security breach. Highlighting how team members react differently to such a crisis and shares key takeaways including the importance of having a solid incident response plan, regular employee training, and crisis management to ensure business continuity and resilience.

10.30

Refreshments and exhibition viewing

11.00

Breakout Session – Group A

11.00

Workshop 2: Managing Innovation and Hype Cycles in Academic Libraries: From Reactive to Strategic

How can academic libraries navigate the complex landscape of emerging technologies while maintaining service excellence?
This interactive workshop will explore how to effectively evaluate and manage (technology) hype cycles within the constraints of academic library resources. It will introduce key frameworks such as Gartner’s hype cycle (Linden & Fenn, 2003) and Roger’s diffusion of innovation (2003) for understanding technology hype cycles and their impact on library services. This session posits that the emergence of critical, systematic analysis of emerging technologies will become a key skill within librarianship. Understanding these frameworks could be central to information literacy innovation and information management infrastructures.
Drawing on examples from artificial intelligence, decolonisation initiatives, and digital transformation, participants will explore how libraries have navigated recent changes, identifying successful strategies and common pitfalls. Participants will critically examine the lessons learned and discuss strategies for responding to future developments.
The workshop emphasises that hype cycles, while challenging, can drive positive innovation when managed strategically. Participants will examine how to recognise where trends sit within these cycles and develop frameworks for deciding when, how, and, crucially, whether to invest limited resources.

12.00

Lightning Session 3

The hidden REF, celebrating all research outputs – Lyndsey Ballantyne

Our 2021 and 2024 competitions highlight the diversity of contributions, from librarians and technicians to research software engineers and administrators — vital roles often overlooked in traditional assessments. In 2023, the Festival of Hidden REF gathered professionals and policymakers to discuss creating a more effective and equitable research environment.

The Hidden REF campaign recognises all research outputs and roles that make research possible.

I will share our initiatives, outcomes, and strategies for gaining recognition for these roles, inviting the UKSG community to collaborate and discuss strategies for gaining well-deserved recognition for these hidden roles.

Lessons Learned in the UK from Navigating the FAIR Open Research World: A Collaborative Approach to Transforming Library Workflows – Martin Jagerhorn

Lancaster University is a typical, mid-sized UK institution. With a small research support team, the library needs innovative technology and partners to meet the ever-increasing challenges of the rapidly evolving Open Research World. This presentation focuses on solutions to the cumbersome depositing of publications in institutional repositories (IR).
World-wide almost every university has an IR, and nearly everyone faces the challenges of lacking data quality and coverage, with faculty frustrated over the clunkiness and overwhelming manual workload of data entry. Furthermore, research outputs increasingly require a plethora of checks necessitating FAIR and evermore extensive meta-data. Is this article eligible for APC funding or covered by an agreement, and compliant with our and the funders OA policies?

At Lancaster, we use our Current Research Information System (CRIS) for fulltext deposits, but it is faced with the same challenges. With more and more OA routes and ballooning publishing charges, our presentation delves into a first-of-its-kind innovation and collaboration with technology partners and illustrates to what extent we can hit the sweet spot for effectively managing open research workflows through a combination of AI scanning of manuscripts, integrations and a simple user interface, while upholding the flag of FAIR data principles.

Jisc’s open policy finder – re-developing Sherpa and looking to the future – Karen Jackson

Jisc’s Open Policy Finder, formerly Sherpa Services, has undergone significant changes over the past year as part of our commitment to building a future-ready, streamlined, and efficient product to support open access workflows. These changes represent not just a fresh identity but also the foundation of a platform designed to adapt and scale for future use cases, ensuring continued relevance and impact in a rapidly evolving environment.

This lightning talk will showcase the key enhancements we’ve implemented, including the launch of our unified website and the rebranding of the service in November 2024. We will share our roadmap for further development, focusing on creating solutions that anticipate and respond to the changing demands of our users. 

We invite attendees to explore our accompanying poster and share feedback on the changes.

12.30

Lunch & exhibition viewing

14.00

Plenary Session 3:

Empowering Neurodivergent Staff, Learners and
Researchers: The Library as a Partner in Success

Neurodiversity is increasingly recognised as a natural variation in human cognition, encompassing conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. Neurodivergent individuals possess unique strengths and face distinct challenges in academic environments. As a librarian with ADHD, I have experienced at firsthand the barriers and frustrations that neurodivergent students and staff can encounter when navigating academic libraries. This presentation will draw upon those personal experiences and wider research to explore how libraries can create more inclusive and supportive environments for neurodivergent users by tailoring digital resources and training to their specific needs.

The panel discussion will begin by sharing personal experiences of being neurodivergent within the workplace, examining the challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals in academic libraries, such as information overload, sensory sensitivities, and difficulties navigating complex systems. It will then highlight the opportunities for libraries to provide targeted support through a range of digital resources and training initiatives. These could include curated collections of accessible tools and resources, online tutorials and guides with alternative formats, assistive technologies, and self-paced online courses. The presentation will also emphasise the importance of fostering a neurodiversity-affirming culture in libraries through staff training, inclusive design practices, and the development of peer-to-peer support networks, such as buddy schemes.

This presentation will support library staff in creating a more inclusive and supportive library environment for all users. It will also contribute to the ongoing conversation about neurodiversity and inclusivity in higher education, aligning with the UKSG conference’s commitment to diversity and the exchange of ideas on scholarly communication.

15.00

Breakout Session – Group B

15.00

Workshop 3: Towards a Barrier-Free Future: Integrating Open Research into Publishing Practices

For over 20 years, UK institutions, libraries, Jisc, funders, and publishers have collaborated to make open access publishing standard practice, but broader open research practices have lagged behind. Policy developments and no-additional-cost agreements have expanded open access and highlighted barriers in publishing. More recently, attention has shifted to open research, but barriers in research and publishing systems persist. As negotiations are underway for post-Plan S agreements, this workshop will examine how publishing can better support open research practices, address barriers, and anticipate unintended consequences. Participants will contribute to draft recommendations, with a focus on open research and publishing practices.

16.00

Refreshments and exhibition viewing

16.30

Breakout Session – Group D

TBC

Gala Evening

Sponsored by

Time

Programme

Speakers

08.00

Registration and refreshments

09.00

Plenary 4

Challenges and Opportunities: Building an Equitable Research Culture for Marginalised Researchers – Emily Ennis

This talk provides an overview of some of the sector-specific challenges facing marginalised researchers in the UK and highlights the work universities and funders are doing to begin tackling these obstacles. Approaching the issue from a research culture perspective, this session focuses on data collected from staff surveys, HR records, and funding databases at University of Leeds to outline the challenges facing marginalised researchers. While these data do not provide an exhaustive list of challenges, they provide early insights into the deep-rooted systemic inequities in the research sector as well as opportunities for making a more inclusive, supportive, and equitable research culture.

Metrics that Matter: Identifying and Testing Scalable Metrics for a Gender Equitable Research Culture – Francesca Soldati

Research metrics are widely used in recruitment and promotion decisions but reliance on these metrics has led to unintended consequences, including gender disparities within the academic landscape. It is well documented that women in research, particularly those in early to mid-career stages, often face challenges such as lower publication rates and fewer citations than their male counterparts, while remaining underrepresented in senior positions. However, the underlying causes of these discrepancies remain unclear; this project proposes an investigation into the relationship between research culture, gender, and career outcomes, aiming to identify scalable metrics that can better support gender equity in research.

10.00

Breakout Session – Group C

11.00

Refreshments and exhibition viewing

11.30

Breakout Session – Group D

12.30

Plenary 5

Stopping Short of the Goal: Is Open Access Really Fulfilling Its Promise to the Public?   

The panel discussion, titled “Stopping Short of the Goal: Is Open Access Really Fulfilling Its Promise to the Public?” will delve into whether Open Access truly serves the public interest as it often said to be aiming to.

While Open Access is often described as making taxpayer-funded research freely accessible, the conversation will explore if access is sufficient, or if the concept falls short by not addressing the accessibility of information in a way that the general public can understand and apply in their lives. And if it is insufficient, what should be done to support this part of the mission of OA. Is the purpose of Open Access solely to facilitate academic exchange, or should it be evolving to bridge the gap between researchers and the public, increasing public engagement and understanding of scientific findings? This panel will tackle these complex questions and discuss if there’s a need to differentiate between Open Access and science communication, assessing the distinct but complementary roles both play in disseminating trusted, comprehensible information.

13.15

Summary and Close

Time/Group

Programme

Speakers

GROUP A

Group A

Doing DORA: A small-scale project to upscale research culture and research integrity

Inspired by colleagues’ work to embed the principles of DORA but frustrated by the snail-like pace at our own institution, we embarked on a plan of small workshops to Do DORAif/where we could.  What developed over the next 12 months was in the spirit of our original plan but far beyond what we had envisaged.  This breakout will discuss the ways in which circumstance actually embedded, promoted and advocated for DORA with a shoestring budget and time where available.  We will discuss practical promotion, guerrilla good-practice, unexpected outcomes and embracing flexible opportunities when it comes to Doing DORA. 

Group A

The Library CEO: Managing Politics, Technology and Talent as the New Paradigm

Managing an academic research library in the 21st century has no blueprint. Since the introduction of electronic resources, fundamental changes to the work of the library have been underway. Leading a modern library that is subject to perpetual shifts in its priorities, mandate, and budget, requires a set of skills and competencies not taught in library or information science programs. A unique assortment of mentorship, executive coaching, business and/or legal training, and hard won experiences are required to be successful in this new environment. Contrary to popular belief, library directors have more in common with Chief Executive Officers than they realize. But far too often the transition to library leadership is sabotaged when the expectation to manage a collection is confronted with the reality of managing an organization. This conversation among library leaders will introduce the concept of the Library CEO, offering a practical framework for both current and aspiring leaders to become proactive in managing a high performance workplace.

Group A

From Cataloguing to Discovery: a journey of innovation and resilience

We will talk about the development of the Metadata Team at the University of Leeds. Over the last seven years the team has evolved from a traditional, book-in-hand Cataloguing Team to a forward thinking, dynamic Metadata & Discovery Team. We are now involved in myriad projects ranging from internal Special Collections cataloguing to the development of international linked data and BIBFRAME partnerships.

We will cover five key areas that have contributed to this development. We will share techniques, approaches and examples from the last few years that illustrate the value and importance of a people-centric approach to metadata and discovery.

Group A

Bridge Over Troubled Water: Supporting Society
Publishers in Turbulent Times

Just as independent bookshops survive through online partnerships and customer loyalty, could learned society publishing thrive through similar collaborative approaches? This session presents new global evidence from Research Consulting and CCC on how society publishers are navigating industry transformation. We’ll examine changing publication patterns, revenue trends, and how libraries, vendors and partners can help societies maintain their independence while accessing world-class publishing capabilities. Learn how embracing “irrational” choices in scholarly communications could help preserve the diversity of academic publishing.

Group A

Raising the grade and closing the gap? Exploring the link between inclusive library collections and student success

How do we evidence the impact of inclusive library collections on the university community? How do we convince university leadership that the value-added potential of the library is worth the investment?

At King’s, multiple initiatives are underway to assess the impact of library collections on student attainment. These projects, rooted in inclusive education principles, aim to support student success, promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and strengthen the student experience. This presentation will offer a summary of these initiatives, how they connect, and how taken together they progress towards evidencing the real-world impact of collections on student attainment and academic success.

Group A

Supporting postgraduate research students in scholarly communications and open research

PGRs are some of the most excited and driven researchers, eager to engage with open access and open research. However, they are also incredibly influenced by the environment in which they find themselves, particularly by their research supervisor’s own behaviours and opinions around open research. Their status as students often limits their access to tools and support available to employed researchers. Equally, their status as researchers can lead to the assumption that they already understand the research and publishing landscape.

What can libraries do to support PGRs in becoming ethical and open researchers? Are the one-shot training courses, often voluntary, enough? This talk will discuss barriers and strategies around support for PGRs as they embark on their research careers.

Group A

OU Library support to help students study online

With a high percentage of students with a declared disability the Open University has been working with publishers and academic teams to produce accessible course content since 2008. This has been advanced through accessibility testing, enhancements in pedagogy and the use of assistive technologies and content conversions.

The OU library recently concluded an internal research project on the student experience of library converted materials. The research sheds light on the accessibility preferences of students with a declared disability.

In this workshop we aim to guide attendees through the research findings contextualised by an overview of the various accessibility processes at the OU. With the aim of facilitating a group discussing around the following questions:

How best do we ensure the student voice is kept central to discussions about accessibility?

How best can we empower students to reach accessible content? What does accessibility best practice look like from publishers? What format should be prioritised?

Group A

Shared responsibility (or failure)? Who should bear the burden of maintaining the integrity of the
scientific record? A panel discussion

The current crisis in research integrity in scientific publishing is characterized by several interrelated issues that undermine the credibility and reliability of scientific research. Key aspects include the reproducibility crisis, peer-review failures, publication bias, data fabrication/falsification, plagiarism, predatory journals, pressure to publish, and differing cross-cultural norms around what constitutes best practice in research dissemination.

These issues collectively threaten the foundation of scientific knowledge, making it imperative for the scientific community to address and mitigate these challenges to restore trust and integrity in research. While this is a complex systems problem that implicates/touches all major stakeholders in the scientific community researchers, institutions, funders, publishers, and service providers the scholarly communication ecosystem seems to have shifted the majority of the burden for managing these recent crises to publishers.

Is this fair? Does it make sense? How realistic/sustainable is it for publishers to bear this burden/cost and what is the role for other stakeholders to ensure the credibility of the scientific record? This panel discussion – no presentations! – will feature publishers, librarians, and funders tackling the difficult question of who bears the responsibility for research integrity. Its costs are high. Are we ready to shoulder them together?

GROUP B

Group B

COUNTER-intuitive: up close and personal with usage metrics

In this highly interactive, practical session, we’ll introduce the COUNTER Code of Practice for usage for usage reporting and guide you through the ins and outs of obtaining and working with your reports. You’ll come away understanding the value of normalised metrics for comparing across publishers and over time, which metrics to use and when, and of course best practice for harvesting your data using automated tools.

Group B

Stronger Together: creating a new regional consortium for collective licensing of e-resources

At a time when libraries across the country are looking closely at the affordability of their online subscriptions, a group of London universities is investigating whether pooling resources and sharing procurement could offer a sustainable solution. Senate House Library, Royal Holloway University of London, Central School of Speech & Drama, and King’s College London have come together, with help from Jisc, to trial joint licensing of a selection of e-resources.

We didn’t know if this would be successful but adopted a “learning by doing” approach: try it and find out. We’re tackling issues such as access and authentication, monitoring usage and negotiating fair pricing with suppliers. At time of writing we have launched three new resources, obtaining greater access, better terms and lower pricing than any institution would individually. Negotiations on a fourth resource is underway.

The project remains a small but practical example of creating a new shared service. The project could grow to include more of Senate House’s federal members institutions, acquiring access to more of the resources they want.

Phil and Nick will explore what has worked, what hasn’t, and what we have learnt through working together.

Group B

End-to-end accessibility: joining the dots
between publisher practice and user experience

Providers of digital platforms and eBooks invest significant resources in improving accessibility and ensuring compliance with standards, but this is only part of the picture of successful resource provision for end-users. The benefits of these investments can be undermined if the users – and those in libraries and universities who support them – are unaware of how to translate technical improvements into user satisfaction.

Users have to navigate multiple layers to get at the content: discovery services, VLEs, reading list systems, publisher and aggregator platforms, varieties of file formats, university-provided software and software on their own computers and mobile devices. And even when all these layers are optimised for accessibility, users may not be aware of the features available to them.

This panel draws on a triple perspective – the content provider, accessibility consultant and accessibility librarian – and will answer questions such as:

• What should librarians expect from their content suppliers?
• How do their accessibility statements help you?
• What does an accessible library service look like?
• How are students supported in developing their digital skills?
• What workarounds exist when accessibility barriers are found?
• How does a university reduce their own accessibility risks under the accessibility regulations?

Group B

What about Open Science?

This breakout session will cover how the game “What about Open Science?”, was created with our UKSG Innovation Award, and the speakers approach to game development and education on Open Science. This competitive Open Educational Resource ‘game’ was designed to create discussion around common open science concepts and ideas that everyone should understand but do not always fully grasp. The game has been tested by OSCAIL in Dublin, Ireland; by SURF in The Netherlands; and at the 19^th Munin Conference in Tromsø, Norway. The game will be published online as an OER during UKSG 2025. 

The breakout session will include a presentation on game development – from inception to fruition. We will discuss highs and lows, the many pivots, and our experience with Open Peer Review of the game. In addition, we will discuss some of the game ‘remixes’ and key feedback from the launch. There will be time for questions and answers with the speakers. 

Group B

The status of Discovery: present and future of a story that will never end

Discovery, a complex network ecosystem that encompasses offerings from libraries, content and technology providers, is a crucial part of the knowledge-acquiring process. Its effectiveness is dependent on collaboration between all these stakeholders: users, librarians, content providers, and technology companies.

This presentation will delve into the current state of digital content discovery and explore the potential role of AI in this process. We will address pressing questions such as the persistence of metadata issues and the future readiness of our workflows. How will libraries, content providers, and discovery technology providers rise to the challenge of supporting effective digital content discovery pathways?

Group B

AI Tools in Academic Research: empowering AI literacy in the research community with an evaluative framework

This breakout session will explore how Libraries and Learning Resources at the University of Birmingham is supporting the research community’s use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) following the emergence of Narrow and Generative AI technologies. It will explore how a collaboration between the Research Skills Team and Copyright and Licensing Team developed an evaluative framework to empower researchers to self-evaluate an AI Tool, and how this framework became central to a new training session for the 23/24 academic year. We will also discuss the influence this has had on broader institutional activity guiding the use of AI in research.

Group B

Open Access for Books: The
Role of Libraries in a Changing Policy Landscape

Books have long lived in the shade of journal articles when it comes to institutional strategies and funder policies for open access. However, books are essential scholarly formats across many disciplines, so there is a demand to develop institutional strategies. Libraries are at the heart of such developments. But where should librarians begin, how should they advance, and what should they consider if they want to develop such strategies?

Libraries worldwide are updating their collection development policies to evaluate and invest in open access programs. They are also leading campus conversations to help faculty book authors realise the advantages of open access dissemination and align with any national or private funder mandates. This session brings together perspectives from institutions, libraries, and research funders on open access policies for books to share their observations and experiences. The emphasis is on practical recommendations to ensure that books don’t get “left behind” in a global move towards open research.

The session will particularly highlight the evidence-based work of the PALOMERA project (https://operas-eu.org/projects/palomera/), which has researched policies and strategies for open access books in 39 countries in the European Research Area. Based on an extensive open data collection and deep systematic analysis of the data, the project has developed actionable recommendations for eight stakeholder groups, including libraries and research funders.

Group B

This house believes journals are no longer the only publishing option

Our goal is to discuss how a form of publishing which emerged in the analogue C20th is now being challenged by the digital C21st. Journals are no longer the only platform for trusted research. Preprint servers, reports on open websites, blogposts, podcasts and videos are all options for today’s researcher. Yet many funders and most universities still rely on game-able journals and their indexes for funding awards and career advancement. Covid showed that journals are too slow and too rigid for a digital-first environment, something that research institutions outside the academy, like IGOs, NGOs and think tanks, have understood. Today, they self-publish their research findings, rapidly, cheaply and openly on their websites without the need for journals and in so doing capture valuable reputational kudos – so why not universities too? Yet there are downsides to these C21st, informal, publication choices: poor metadata and unstable websites makes this content hard to discover and preserve. In this session, you’re invited to join our expert panellists in discussing the pros and cons of different publishing options in today’s digital-first environment.

GROUP C

Group C

Beyond the Stacks: A Sneak Peek into Library Staff Engagement with Job Shadowing

Do your Library teams struggle to stay in touch with each other? Do your staff sometimes not know the function of other teams within your Libraries, and who to turn to with a problem?

The University of Nottingham Libraries Training and Development team saw just that, and wanted an engaging way to combat it. Thus our Libraries Job Shadowing scheme was born.

Job Shadowing is a way for staff to spend time with another team, learning what they do and providing the lightbulb moments when the pieces of the Library jigsaw fall into place. The scheme upskills staff and improves staff engagement, but also promotes cross team collaboration

Group C

Evaluating Rights Retention, almost two years on

In May 2023, University of Aberdeen became one of the first institutions in the UK to institute a Rights Retention policy for research articles. As we, the Open Research Team, now look to expand the policy to longform publications, we need to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy and our outreach activities about it. It soon became clear that there was no one source of data that could tell us how well Rights Retention was working. In this presentation, we will look at a variety of data sources, (Pure reporting, OpenAlex, web and service analytics, and internal feedback) and consider their usefulness in evaluating new policies.

Group C

Adopting strategic approaches to increase scholarly publishing and digital literacy in African academic and research institutions

This paper emphasises the need for strategic approaches to boost scholarly publishing and literacy in African academic institutions. Despite the potential of scholarly publishing to enhance scholarly communication, African content remains underrepresented due to factors like low digital literacy, inadequate training, limited internet access, and high subscription costs. The paper proposes several strategies, including developing digital infrastructure, fostering global collaborations, enhancing training programmes, and advocating for policy changes. By implementing these strategies, African scholars can improve digital content creation and visibility, ultimately benefiting teaching, research, and the global digital economy.

Group C

It’s Nice, but is it sustainable? Rethinking sustainability for Diamond open access infrastructures and funding models

Those involved in running community-led infrastructures and funding models that support Diamond open access will be familiar with questions being repeatedly raised about the sustainability of their work. In this breakout session, we will hear short talks from five initiatives that are engaging directly with this question, in relation to both open access books and journals, even as they sometimes push back against its often unspoken assumptions. Each contributor will unpack what “achieving sustainability” means for them, including reporting on their concrete progress in support of this work, in their own terms, as well as potentially highlighting the limits of understanding sustainability as merely financial. Panellists will also reflect on developments in the broader scholarly system that potentially both are a challenge for their work and present opportunities. This will be followed by questions from the audience.

Scaling Sustainability: Open Book Collective and Community-led Open Access – Joe Deville, Open Book Collective / Lancaster University

From the Back of the Sofa to the Budget Line: Sustainability at Opening the Future – Kira Hopkins, Copim Opening the Future / Birkbeck, University of London

Why we need a Big Deal for Diamond Open Access Journals – Caroline Edwards, Open Library of Humanities / Birkbeck, University of London

Sustaining open metadata as a public good: benefits and challenges – Rupert Gatti, Thoth Open Metadata and Open Book Publishers

Sustainable Principles: POSI in Practice – Niels Stern, Directory of Open Access Books & OAPEN

Group C

Advancing Open Science in Africa: Lessons from the AfLIA Open Data Management Foundational Course for African Librarians

Open Science is gaining momentum in Africa as a movement to make scientific research more accessible, transparent and inclusive. However, the practice of open science within the region is at different stages of development requiring Librarians to play an active role in the advocacy for open science and open data management best practices. This paper reviews the state of Open Science in Africa and examine lessons learnt from the AfLIA Open Data Management Foundational Course for African Librarians.

Group C

Using data to analyse Read and Publish deals and a look to how we adapt our processes in a post TA future/world

In light of the Jisc Review of TA agreements, financial pressures faced by HE sector (UK) and uncertainty of block grant support, the sector is as a turning point. Without knowing what comes next we must continue working to analyse the deals to determine what we want and do not want from any future iterations. This session will discuss how we analyse these deals including the use of Unsub and EZProxy. We have begun to adapt our processes and will provide an overview of how we have established our data requirements and created a framework for assessing deals.

Group C

Not just JUSP. Beyond the silos, making datasets sing to each other

With frozen budgets and more financial pressure than ever before we need to show value for money on every purchase. Evidence-based decision making for resource acquisition has always been high strategic priority for the library this paper seeks to illustrate how linking disparate datasets can illustrate and enhance value for money purchasing. We will present four mini-case studies using datasets from JUSP, Reading lists, Alma and OpenAthens. We will explore some data modelling and various ways to visualise the stories emerging from the data and how these feed library conversations both internally and with the wider university.

GROUP D

Group D

Realising a New Vision for Academic Publishing: How
Open Institutional Publishers and Libraries are Working Together to Bring About Change in Scholarly Communications

Libraries are increasing becoming involved in publishing in ways that have the potential to bring about change in scholarly communications. From setting up new presses, to providing financial support as well as advocating for open research within institutions, librarians are key to realising a new future for academic publishing.

But much of this work is happening in siloes, split across roles or taking place across different professional departments. There is a lack of a coherent vision for a credible alternative to the status quo and no clear division of labour or allocation of responsibility.  This panel explores the way forward to effect positive change.

Group D

One Nation One Subscription (ONOS): The Path to Transformative Knowledge Agreements in India

This session will explore the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative of Government of India which aims to provide countrywide access to national and international scientific and academic content. The ONOS intends to sign national licenses with most of the prominent STEM publishers and database producers of the world whose contents are already being subscribed by various institutions of higher education and research organizations either directly or through Government-funded consortia. This initiative is expected to benefit access to e-resources from 70 publishers to all research and educational institutions including universities, colleges, research organizations as well as every citizen of the country.

Group D

The art of the possible: Mid-tech and low-cost ways to upgrade your skill set and harness free data
sources to enhance your bibliographic metadata

Without the resource to purchase new records or employ trained cataloguing staff to create bespoke metadata and enhance existing records, how can library collections teams ensure that their catalogue records are of sufficient quality to drive discovery and enable collective collections comparison work to be as accurate as possible?

Our session we will give example workflows, highlight useful resources and helpful community members. We’ll demonstrate the impact and added value technical services teams have on improving end user experience, as well as discussing how improving accuracy and detail in MARC records can positively affect the results of collective collections work.

Group D

Growing and diversifying our future profession: How HE libraries develop and evaluate their Students as Partner roles

The role of student staff in academic libraries has changed. Libraries are increasingly working in partnership with students to Co-create and co-develop services, projects and initiatives (Salisbuy et al. 2021), but what is the impact of these schemes and how can we evaluate them effectively? This breakout session will explore how HE libraries are developing and evaluating students as partner roles. It will communicate the results of a large scale research project exploring the approaches of SCONUL institutions to student roles within their Libraries and if (either intentionally or not) these roles have had an impact on progression into the Library and Scholarly Communications sector or onto LIS programmes.

The breakout session will also discuss two case studies of libraries developing student as partner roles at Manchester Metropolitan University and Lancaster University, including how the impact of these roles has been evaluated. Attendees will benefit from learning more about the current approaches of other institutions to developing student as partner roles and the impact this has had on diversifying the workforce of the sector, as well as receiving practical tips on implementing and evaluating student as partner schemes at their own institutions.

Group D

The first year of Controlled Digital Lending at LSE

This session will briefly explain the general principles of CDL, and address it in the context of UK legislation. We will review the first year of the CDL programme at LSE – discussing the initial approach, consultation with the leadership and institutional legal teams, the selection of titles for the collection, risk management, and how it works in practice with the digital representations and their presence on different library platforms.

Group D

Open Educational Resources and sources: Initiatives from Government of India and Higher Educational Institutions

He will present availability Digital Open Access Resources or e-learning platform initiated by the Government India and other educational institutes in India used by the students, faculty and researchers. Digital resources and e-learning have become significantly important in education systems across the world. These open educational Resources includes course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, software, and other tools, materials or techniques, used to support and provide access to knowledge and educational resources. The Ministry of Education, Govt. of India undertakes a large number of projects for providing on-line content and resources for all-round development of students. Some of these are NPTEL, Virtual labs, Talk to Teacher, Spoken Tutorial, e-PG Pathshala, SWAYAM, MOOCS Project, Sakshet, etc. There are also NDLI, National Science digital Library, Shodhganga, E-Pathshala, Gian, E-PG Pathshala, Moocs, SWAYAM, SWAYAMpraba, Virual Labs etc. It will also explain what the benefit is and who can be beneficial of these e-learning portals. It will also discuss thee valuable Government information Sources used for research and educational purposes like, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation including National Statistical Office, Central Statistical Office, National Sample Survey, the Registrar General of India, the Reserve Bank of India, NITI Aayog, The Labour Bureau, Census of India, and resources like the Indian Statistical Abstract, the Report of Currency and Finance, and the Combined Finance and Revenue Accounts of the Union and States.

Group D

Catching Up with NISO’s CREC: Tools for Preventing the Spread of Retracted Research

Retracted research is published work that is withdrawn, removed, or otherwise invalidated from the scholarly record can be inadvertently propagated within the digital scholarly record through citations. This is more likely to happen when the process for effectively communicating retraction at all publication lifecycle stages is unclear. In June 2024, the NISO CREC (Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern) Working Group published its Recommended Practice, a solution that aims to ensure that retraction metadata is shared across the publishing and discovery ecosystem. This session aims to educate potential adopters about the benefits of integrating this Recommended Practice into their workflows.

Group D

Academy-owned: Supporting scholars who are taking a stand for nonprofit, equitable, inclusive,
and open alternatives to high-profit journals

In recent years, numerous editors and editorial boards of leading journals have stepped down in protest against publisher practices that they believe are harmful to research and academia. Subsequently, several have established successful new journals in collaboration with nonprofit organizations, often overcoming competition from the very publications they left behind.

Join us for a lively discussion of how libraries, library publishers, and nonprofit presses can effectively support researchers aiming to create high-quality, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and open alternatives to expensive, high-profit journals. We will hear from two scientists who established such alternative journals, including someone who was part of a high-profile editorial resignation, and learn more about the kinds of support they and their colleagues seek from libraries and academic publishers. We will also explore some of the benefits and challenges of moving an editorial operation from a large, commercial publisher to a smaller nonprofit and share strategies for campus partners interested in supporting research communities that are starting new journals or growing existing ones.

Group D

Can Gold OA survive a shift to Green?

It’s been over 20 years since the Budapest Declaration on Open Access and while the OA movement has made significant headway, the future end-state is becoming increasingly less clear. In the wake of Plan S, a future fully Gold Open Access state seemed, for the first time, a possibility and then – to the concern of many stakeholders – a potential inevitability. Global market conditions in the interim, however, have made it increasingly difficult for publishers and libraries to negotiate OA agreements supporting a full transition to Gold OA. Instead, recent policy mandates have focused on immediate OA without the provision of financial support for Gold OA, effectively preferentially promoting Green OA. Concurrently, we’re seeing broader interest/adoption of the Rights Retention Strategy and a move away from paying APCs – and for the first time, we’re seeing a decline in the growth of Gold OA relative to pay-walled content. We’re also starting to see agreements suggesting financial support for zero embargo Green OA. This session seeks to examine the complex interplay and potential consequences of a shift in global policy mandates from Gold to Green and what it could mean for stakeholders across the industry, including researchers. Speakers will examine existential questions such as ‘What do we really want from OA?’, ‘What does a shift to green OA mean for subscriptions, TAs and the transition of the industry to fully OA?’, ‘How can Green OA routes be developed to better support researchers’ etc.