News from the Field

David Free

ACRL 2025 Conference Registration Opens

ACRL announces the opening of registration for the ACRL 2025 Conference, to be held April 2–5, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and online. Themed “Democratizing Knowledge, Access, and Opportunities,” ACRL 2025 will be a platform to engage in critical conversations and explore solutions-centered approaches to the challenges facing the profession. The conference will focus on themes like embedded bias, inclusive excellence, and the role of technology. Together, we can build a future where knowledge is accessible to all.

Whether you join us in-person or remotely, we welcome you to be a part of this important conversation. ACRL 2025 will include opportunities to be inspired by keynote speakers Ruha Benjamin and Saeed Jones, participate in concurrent programs, and connect with colleagues. ACRL 2025 features more than 500 live educational programs including keynote and invited presentations, panel sessions, contributed papers, workshops, lightning talks, community chats, roundtable discussions, and poster sessions offering insights and inspiration to enhance your library’s programs and services.

Virtual registration includes live streams of the opening and closing keynotes; live stream programs, including webinars and programs with live chat; virtual-only presentations; and networking opportunities. All registrants also receive free virtual conference access for six months following the end of the conference. Register by the February 7, 2025, early bird deadline and save. Group discounts are also available. Complete details on ACRL 2025, including registration information, are available on the conference website at https://web.cvent.com/event/98632c12-9bee-4ab5-bb05-5fcf69f453a4/summary.

Harford Community College Library Named Federal Depository Library of the Year

The US Government Publishing Office (GPO) names Harford Community College Library as the 2024 Federal Depository Library of the Year. The Bel Air, Maryland, library was selected for its excellent promotion of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and FDLP digital and physical resources. In addition, Harford Community College has been actively engaged with the transition to a digital FDLP. Harford Community College Library promotes the FDLP through engaging campus activities and library displays. It works to generate awareness and usage of FDLP resources through events for National Library Week, Constitution Day, and much more. The library boasts a well-curated collection of Federal depository resources to meet the needs of its campus. Its staff is known for being well-trained with processing government documents.

Native American Library Services: Basic Grants Applications

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is now accepting applications for The Native American Basic Grants (NAB) program through February 4, 2025. The NAB program assists Native American Tribes in establishing, sustaining, and improving library services and operations with their communities. As information needs change, Tribal libraries must be able to serve as knowledge and resource centers to benefit their users and the wellness of their communities. The NAB program supports Tribes across the country to address their individual information needs and priorities. NAB grants are noncompetitive one-year grants of $6,000 to $10,000. The grants are available to Federally recognized Native American Tribes and Alaska Native villages, corporations, and regional corporations. Learn more at https://www.imls.gov/grants/available/native-american-library-services-basic-grants.

New from ACRL—Supporting Diversity through Collection Evaluation, Development, and Weeding: CLIPP #48

ACRL announces the publication of Supporting Diversity through Collection Evaluation, Development, and Weeding: CLIPP #48, compiled and authored by Erika Barber, Julia Bauder, Micki Behounek, Chris Jones, Kayla Reed, and Elizabeth Rodrigues. The book offers information on, and examples for, incorporating diversity concerns and policies into collection management practices.

The College Library Information on Policy and Practice (CLIPP) book series from ACRL provides college and small university libraries analysis and examples of library practices and procedures. Supporting Diversity through Collection Evaluation, Development, and Weeding contains a thorough literature review and bibliography, analysis and discussion of survey results, and sample library collection development policies; diversity, equity, and justice statements; and a harmful content policy.

There are emerging practices for evaluating collection diversity and for diversifying collections via acquisitions, but the question of how to weed in a way that protects and enhances collection diversity has not been thoroughly explored. CLIPP #48 provides a comprehensive survey of how diversity-enhancing collection management practices have filtered into the day-to-day work of average small and medium-sized academic libraries and offers replicable models for library workers.

Supporting Diversity through Collection Evaluation, Development, and Weeding: CLIPP #48 is available for purchase in print and as an ebook through the ALA Online Store; in print through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the US or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing Launches Stroke Clinician Journal

The Penn State University Libraries’ Open Publishing program has partnered with the Association of Neurovascular Clinicians (ANVC) to launch a new open access clinical journal, Stroke Clinician. The interdisciplinary publication provides clinically relevant articles for health care professionals caring for patients who are at risk for or have suffered a stroke. Stroke Clinician is exclusively publishing clinically relevant papers that cover all aspects of neurovascular disease practice and are of interest primarily to practicing interdisciplinary clinicians and stroke administrators. The journal will publish all issues open access and without any article processing charges. The first quarterly issue launched in February 2024 and the journal is available at https://journals.psu.edu/strokeclinician.

Charleston Hub Debuts Podcast Parade

A new regular column, Podcast Parade, featuring library podcast reviews by digital publishing platform Exact Editions, has been launched by the Charleston Hub. Each instalment includes key information and analysis, serving as an essential guide to librarians who want to deepen their industry knowledge through an audio medium. The column starts with basic information such as number of episodes and their length, as well as a summary. More detailed analysis follows, including a breakdown of the format, the hosts and guests, and highlights both “a nice touch” and “an area for improvement” before giving an overall opinion. Podcast Parade posts are available as part of the Charleston Hub blog at https://www.charleston-hub.com/category/blogs/.

New from ACRL—Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies

ACRL announces the publication of Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies, edited by Lisa Kallman Hopkins and Bridgit McCafferty, providing the tools you need to make your workplace a good one for your employees.

Good workplaces require both autonomy—giving employees a sense of ownership over how and where they work—and collaboration in pursuit of common goals. They see employees for who they are and support them, pay them enough money to live comfortably, and provide the resources, training, and support they need to be successful. In two parts, Innovative Library Workplaces collects strategies for establishing a good workplace.

• Human Resources in Libraries
  • Recruiting and Hiring
  • Onboarding and Training
  • Salary Studies and Unions
• Work Culture and Organization
  • Employee Morale
  • Flexible Work Arrangements
  • Strategic Planning and Reorganizing

Though this book took root during the pandemic, it is not of the pandemic: The changes wrought are permanent. Innovative Library Workplaces proposes a way forward after this monumental disruption, recognizing that neither the pandemic nor the work culture prior to it is a good model for what comes next.

Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies is available for purchase in print and as an ebook through the ALA Online Store; in print through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the US or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

Taylor & Francis Announces Open Access Collective Funding Pilot

A new Taylor & Francis pilot aims to support open access (OA) publishing using a combination of existing funding sources, enabling authors of every article type to choose OA at no cost. Collective Pathway to Open Publishing (CPOP) has been designed as an OA solution for humanities and social sciences (HSS) journals, especially those focused on regions with a high uptake of OA agreements.

CPOP builds on the success of Taylor & Francis’ OA (Read & Publish) agreements, which now help researchers at more than 1,000 institutions to publish OA. Some HSS journals with author communities in regions where agreements are common now publish most of their articles OA. However, meeting the criteria for conversion to a full OA journal under an Article Publishing Charge (APC) model remains a challenge due to limited OA funding in HSS fields for articles not covered by an agreement. CPOP aims to solve this challenge by combining funding from OA agreements with “read” income from subscriptions and other reading access fees. Through CPOP these funding sources can be used collectively to support the journal’s conversion to OA, one volume at a time, without any APCs. Complete details are available at https://librarianresources.taylorandfrancis.com/open-research/choose-open-access/collective-pathway-to-open-publishing/.

Springshare Acquires CareerShift

Springshare recently announced the acquisition of CareerShift, the software platform that helps students with job search, career, and company research. Springshare acquired CareerShift from Student Playbook LLC who, after this divestiture, will focus on serving the alumni associations market. CareerShift will operate as an independent brand under Springshare’s corporate umbrella. Springshare will provide investment, resources, and assistance to grow the CareerShift software platform to realize its full potential as a must-have job and career-seeking resource for students and library patrons. More details Springshare are available at https://springshare.com/careershift-faq.html.