News from the Field

David Free

Wayne State School of Information Sciences Launches Peer-Reviewed Student Journal

The Wayne State University School of Information Sciences (SIS) recently announced the publication of the inaugural issue of The Information Warrior Journal. This student-run, fully open access journal features work from SIS students and recent alumni, sharing insights with the global information sciences community. The journal is published on Wayne State’s Digital Commons, the university’s institutional repository and open access publishing platform. An editorial advisory board comprising SIS faculty and alumni assisted in selecting submissions for publication, and the journal site features preprints of submissions.

“The launch of The Information Warrior Journal is a significant achievement for the School of Information Sciences. It provides an excellent opportunity for students to showcase their work globally in an open access venue that reflects the values of the profession,” said Paul Bracke, dean of the Wayne State University Library System and School of Information Sciences. “We believe the inaugural issue is not just a publication; it’s a tangible representation of our students’ hard work and dedication to the field.”

Beyond showcasing the research and scholarship of SIS students and graduates, the journal and its peer-review process provides a practical space for them to refine their publishing skills in a welcoming and collegial environment. The inaugural issue spans several areas within the field of information sciences, including school libraries, public libraries, academic libraries, and archives. Learn more about the new journal at https://sis.wayne.edu/news/school-of-information-sciences-launches-peer-reviewed-student-journal-61545.

Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS) Initiative Releases Reports on Expenses of Making Data Publicly Accessible

In 2021, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and six academic institutions involved in the Data Curation Network (DCN) were awarded a US National Science Foundation (NSF) EAGER grant to conduct research, develop models, and collect costing information for public access to research data from funded researchers in five disciplinary areas: environmental science, materials science, psychology, biomedical sciences, and physics. The result of the project is the Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS) Initiative.

The RADS Initiative has now released two reports: “Making Research Data Publicly Accessible: Estimates of Institutional & Researcher Expenses,” and the supplemental report, “Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS) Initiative: Research Methodology 2022–2023 Surveys and Interviews.” “Making Research Data Publicly Accessible” presents data on the average yearly cost of DMS activities for institutional units, as well as direct DMS expenses incurred by researchers per funded research project. These expenses were then analyzed together, showing an average combined overall cost of $2,500,000 (with total institutional expenses ranging from approximately $800,000 to more than $6,000,000). The report is available at https://www.arl.org/resources/making-research-data-publicly-accessible-estimates-of-institutional-researcher-expenses/.

Project Outcome for Academic Libraries 2023 Report

ACRL has announced the publication of the fiscal year 2023 report for the Project Outcome for Academic Libraries toolkit. Data in this report includes all immediate and follow-up surveys and responses from institutions in the United States and covers the period of September 1, 2022, through August 31, 2023. Among the data points in the report, 155 institutions representing 40 states used Project Outcome in fiscal 2023, creating 1,765 surveys and collecting 35,544 responses. The full report, including usage by survey topic and more, is freely available for download on the Project Outcome website at https://acrl.projectoutcome.org/ckeditor_assets/attachments/641/2023fy_project_outcome_report.pdf.

IMLS to Launch National Museum Survey

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently announced that a successful pilot effort has secured the future of the National Museum Survey (NMS), set to launch in early 2025. In a summary report, IMLS highlights findings from the NMS pilot and next steps for the implementation of the first-ever annual federal survey to gather and share data about the essential work happening across the country in museums and cultural institutions.

The IMLS-sponsored NMS will create the first federal, free-of-charge, and publicly available database of credible statistics on museums and related institutions, allowing for new policy approaches to more efficiently invest in the infrastructure of the nation’s heritage. Data obtained through the NMS will inform policy decisions and further investment by bringing together key statistics from large, small, urban, and rural museums and related institutions to help bridge resource, technological, and distance gaps. Learn more and read the summary pilot report at https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/data-collection/national-museum-survey.

ACRL Releases Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library: Designing Spaces, Policies, and Services

ACRL announces the publication of Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library: Designing Spaces, Policies, and Services by Kelsey Keyes and Ellie Dworak, a guide to engaging with and aiding the student parents in your libraries and leading the charge in making your institutions more family friendly.

Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library is part toolkit, part treatise, and part call to action. In four parts:

• The Higher Education Landscape
• The Role of Academic Libraries
• Looking Outward to Community, For-Profit, and International Organizations
• Evaluating Needs and Measuring Success

It includes templates, sample policy language, budgets, survey instruments, and other immediately useful tools and examples. There are field notes from academic librarians from institutions of varying sizes and resources demonstrating different ways of supporting these students, and the voices of students themselves.

Student parents are a socioeconomically, racially, and financially diverse group. What they have in common is the drive to work hard to overcome steep barriers in obtaining a college education. Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library can help you make these students feel seen and set them up for success.

Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library: Designing Spaces, Policies, and Services is available for purchase in print and as an e-book through the ALA Online Store; in print through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

Direct to Open Reaches Annual Funding Goal

Direct to Open (D2O), an initiative of the MIT Press, has announced that it has reached its full funding goal in 2024 and will open access to its full list of 79 new monographs and edited book collections this year. What makes this year noteworthy is that this is the first year in which D2O has been fully funded by its November 30 deadline and will not require an extension through the end of the fiscal year.

Launched in 2021, D2O is an innovative sustainable framework for open access monographs that shifts publishing from a solely market-based purchase model where individuals and libraries buy single e-books, to a collaborative, library-supported open access model. The MIT Press will now turn its attention to its fourth funding cycle and invites libraries and library consortia to participate. For details, please visit https://mitpress.mit.edu/D2O.

Clarivate Launches Web of Science Grants Index

Clarivate recently launched the Web of Science Grants Index, a new solution designed to provide a more comprehensive, enriched view of the funding landscape, empowering researchers to make confident, informed decisions when they seek research funding. The Grants Index offers an enriched view of the global funding landscape with more than 5.2 million awarded grant records sourced from over 400 funders worldwide to help researchers better investigate previous successes in their field by funder. Researchers can easily identify and analyze previously funded projects, exploring grant details including principal and co-principal investigators, project description, and links to published outcomes, all in the Web of Science research discovery environment. In doing so, researchers can more effectively position their projects and increase their chances of a successful bid with a funding agency.

The integrated solution also opens new possibilities for researchers, enabling them to identify potential new sources of funding by offering easy access to past awards. It displays details of prior funding alongside scholarly research content, including journal articles, conference papers, dissertations, preprints, patents, and more, helping researchers build a more holistic view of the research landscape. Mutual subscribers of Pivot-RP and the Web of Science can access links to open grants. Learn more at https://clarivate.com/products/scientific-and-academic-research/research-discovery-and-workflow-solutions/webofscience-platform/grants-index/.

OCLC Launches Arabic Discovery Catalog

OCLC has introduced the Arabic Discovery Catalog, a new initiative that brings together bibliographic records from libraries located in Arab countries into one catalog to enhance the discoverability and visibility of these collections for international research. The Arabic Discovery Catalog currently includes records of more than 3.8 million Arabic resources and continues to grow, making it one of the most comprehensive bibliographic resources of Arabic culture. OCLC staff have indexed records in Arabic and taken steps to ensure that sorting and searching of results are accurately displayed to deliver an intuitive and seamless discovery experience using Arabic script. The Arabic Discovery Catalog is built on the WorldCat Discovery platform, the discovery solution developed by OCLC that makes it possible to easily find and get resources available in libraries worldwide through a single search. Learn more at https://connect.oclc.org/en/arabic-discovery-catalog.

Interactive Tutorials Added to LibWizard

Springshare has debuted Interactive Tutorials, now available in all LibWizard Full systems. With Interactive Tutorials, creators add content slides, then overlay interactive components to create an engaging learning experience for students and patrons. Interactive Tutorials allow libraries to guide their users through tutorial content, provide self-paced instruction, and assess patrons’ progress and understanding. Furthermore, creators can use the new interaction types to design virtual escape rooms, interactive puzzle slides, choose-your-own-adventure scenarios, and other creative applications. Tutorials are only available to LibWizard full subscribers, and complete details are at https://springshare.com/libwizard/.