News from the Field

David Free

ARL, CNI, EDUCAUSE release report on research libraries’ use of emerging technologies

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and EDUCAUSE have released “Crest or Trough? How Research Libraries Used Emerging Technologies to Survive the Pandemic, So Far” by Scout Calvert, an ARL visiting program officer and data librarian at Michigan State University.

The report is the final deliverable of the ARL, CNI, and EDUCAUSE joint initiative to advance research libraries’ impact in a world shaped by emerging technologies.

The report returns to 11 participants in interviews conducted for the initiative to find out how their perspectives have changed in the year and a half since the initiative began, given the disruption to research and learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In these new conversations, the interviewees retain optimism for the same transformative technologies discussed in earlier interviews, but they observe that the intense activity of the pandemic months has been largely related to adoption and refinement of existing technologies rather than innovating truly novel technological solutions to research and learning challenges.

The report is organized in three parts: first, reflections by the interviewees on how their libraries and universities have fared in the pandemic so far and to what factors they attribute their successes. Six socio-technological thematic areas emerged from the conversations about changed expectations for the futures of technologies—these form the second section of the report. Finally, the report shares some factors to consider in technological adoption going forward.

Download the report at www.arl.org/resources/crest-or-trough-how-research-libraries-used-emerging-technologies-to-survive-the-pandemic-so-far/.

LYRASIS to expand Open Access Community Investment Program

LYRASIS has announced the expansion of the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP). Following a successful pilot program, LYRASIS is opening a new round of funding opportunities to support Open Access (OA) publishing by scholarly journals. The journals seeking investments in OACIP’s second phase include Algebraic Combinatorics, History of Media Studies, and Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.

OACIP is a community-driven framework that enables multiple stakeholders—including libraries of all types, academic departments, and funding agencies—to strategically evaluate and collectively fund OA content initiatives through an efficient process. OACIP brings together investment opportunities in one place and also provides important and consistent information about those opportunities to support informed and principled investment decisions.

LYRASIS and Transitioning Society Publications to Open Access launched OACIP in 2020, piloting the program with two journals: Environmental Humanities and Combinatorial Theory. Both journals met their fundraising goals to publish OA content in a sustainable model for the next five years.

Those interested in funding the next round of OACIP journals can learn more and commit funds by visiting the LYRASIS Open Access Community Investment Program website at www.lyrasis.org/content/Pages/oacip.aspx.

CLIR invites applications for digitizing at-risk audio, audiovisual materials

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is now accepting applications from collecting organizations for the digital reformatting of audio and audiovisual materials through the Recordings at Risk grant program. Generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Recordings at Risk is focused on digitizing “at-risk” recorded content of high importance to researchers and the general public.

Awards will cover direct costs of preservation reformatting for aging audio and/or visual time-based media by eligible organizations working with experienced service providers. To make their determinations, CLIR’s independent review panel will assess the potential scholarly or public impact of proposed projects, the urgency of undertaking those projects, the viability of applicants’ plans for long-term preservation, and the appropriateness of the planned approach to creating access.

CLIR will award grants of between $10,000 and $50,000 for digital reformatting projects that will take place between May 1, 2022, and April 30, 2023. The application deadline is December 15, 2021. Awards will be announced in April 2022. More information is available at www.clir.org/recordings-at-risk/.

GPO, Law Library of Congress digitize United States Congressional Serial Set

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), in collaboration with the Law Library of Congress, has digitized and made available volumes of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set on GPO’s govinfo, the one-stop shop to information published by the federal government.

The release comes as part of a large decade-long partnership to digitize more than 15,000 volumes and more than 9.4 million pages of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817. GPO and the Law Library began this digitization effort two years ago. This first public release contains selected volumes from the 69th Congress (1925–27), the 82nd Congress (1951–53), and several 19th-century Congresses.

The public can access these volumes of the Serial Set on govinfo at www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/serialset.

Springshare launches LibConnect

Springshare recently unveiled LibConnect, a platform marrying its existing LibCRM product’s functionality with fully featured email marketing and engagement capabilities. Key highlights of LibConnect’s email marketing capabilities include ILS importer to create LibConnect profiles and easily identify email audiences to form email distribution lists based on user preferences, prebuilt and custom templates for sending beautiful and engaging email campaigns, a drag-and- drop email editor to add any type of content to outgoing emails, and more.

These email features build on existing CRM functionality of operational email sending, custom profile fields and interaction types, LibCal and LibAnswers integration for a 360-degree view of patron interactions, project and task management for subject experts and liaisons, and more.

For more on LibConnect, visit https://blog.springshare.com/2021/08/25/reintroducing-libconnect-patron-engagement-email-marketing/.

Bloomsbury acquires Artfilms assets

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of certain assets of Artfilms, the video streaming service of Contemporary Arts Media. Artfilms offers more than 2,000 films from top artists and independent filmmakers, mainly aimed at arts education and arts practitioners.

The unique collection, which showcases the global diversity and breadth of the arts, is truly international, with content that originates from Australia, the U.K., the United States, Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary, Canada, Switzerland, Pakistan, Indonesia, Africa, and Japan and covers such subject areas as Visual & Applied Arts, Film Studies, Media Studies, Music & Dance, History, Philosophy, and more.

Artfilms includes masterclasses, documentaries, and interviews—content that entertains, educates, and informs.

This acquisition aligns with the overall mission of Bloomsbury Digital Resources to serve a global community of students, scholars, instructors, and librarians by providing creative online research and learning environments that deliver excellence and originality.

Project MUSE to host MHRA titles

Project MUSE has announced that, beginning in 2022, five subscription journals from the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) will be hosted on the MUSE platform. The association’s titles in language, literature, and area studies will join more than 35 additional titles that have signed on to Project MUSE’s expanded journal hosting program this year.

Journals in the MUSE hosting program are not included in the MUSE journal collections, but libraries may take up individual subscriptions to access the titles on the platform. The journal titles, along with the volume year for which coverage on the MUSE platform will begin, are Austrian Studies (Vol. 11, 2003), Modern Language Review (Vol. 96, 2001), Portuguese Studies (Vol. 17, 2001), Slavonic and East European Review (Vol. 79, 2001), and The Yearbook of English Studies (Vol. 31, 2001).

EBSCO releases 2022 Serials Price Projection Report

The 2022 Serials Price Projection Report from EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is now available. The report projects that the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and academic medical libraries are expected to be (before any currency impact) in the range of three to five percent for individual titles and one to three percent for e-journal packages.

EBSCO releases the Serials Price Projections based on surveys of a wide range of publishers and reviews of historical serials pricing data to assist information professionals as they make budgeting decisions for the renewals season. The Serials Price Projection Report looks at market dynamics highlighting many topics and trends that impact the scholarly information marketplace, including how economic factors influence publisher pricing, library budget challenges, e-journal packages, open access, and the non-renewal of print subscriptions.

To read the 2022 Serials Price Projection Report in its entirety and view the Five-Year Journal Price Increase History, visit www.ebsco.com/sites/g/files/nabnos191/files/acquiadam-assets/EBSCO-Five-Year-Journal-Price-Increase-History-2017-2021.pdf.