Libfocus Link-out for April 2024

Welcome to the April edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

Images featured in this month's link-out articles

New report on the sustainability of Diamond OA in Europe.
A study from DIAMAS, which is led by SPARC Europe, looks at what financial sustainability means for institutional publishing in Europe.

An introduction to library linked data.
Following on from the recent OCLC announcement regarding efforts to bring linked data into cataloguing workflows, this Next article by Jeff Mixter explains what it means and why libraries should be interested.

Passive programming as a wellness strategy for the overworked outreach librarian.
On the Woc+lib blog Ginny Barnes looks at passive programmes as part of Outreach and their potential benefits to both librarians and their communities.

Intersectional Accessibility: Creating Inclusive Spaces, Examining Ebook Accessibility.
In this article from the Library Journal Sossity Chiricuzio and Matt Enis explore the challenges in creating inclusive accessible spaces. They examine how academic publishers are slowing progress towards ebook accessibility.

What Brings Gen Z to the Library?
What do Gen Zers, born between 1997 and 2012, want from their academic library? In this EdSurge article Jennifer Howard highlights the findings of various studies around the library use of the Generation Z cohort.

Here’s why AI search engines really can’t kill Google.
In this piece for The Verge David Pierce writes about AI search tools. He argues that though they are getting better they are not ready to replace Google in most searches any time soon.

Rational Simplicity: Celebrating Rudolph de Harak, an unsung hero of mid-century graphic design.
In this It's Nice That blog post Richard Poulin celebrates the trailblazing graphic designer Rudolph de Harak. His colourful, witty and warm designs appeared on over 350 book covers as well as on record sleeves and magazines. His modernist principles even transformed an office building in New York into 'an unforgettable visual experience.'

Women, academia and the unequal production of knowledge – An LSE Impact Blog review.
Michael Taster draws together articles that explore the gendered nature of research and scholarly communication. Read on to understand the inequalities at play in academia that disadvantage women.

7 AI Tools for internal Communicators.
Patty Rivas looks at how the role of internal communications (IC) has expanded far beyond message creation and distribution as technology advances and workplaces evolve. And AI is entering the field - how is it being used? And what are some tools that you could be using?

What Libraries Risk When They Go Digital.
In this Time: Made by History article, T.C.A. Achintya examines how libraries and archives across the world have worked to digitise their resources over the past few years. The United States, United Kingdom, and India, for instance, have all invested in expanding digital collections for their records. A recent ransomware attack on the British Library, and the many months-long disruption it has caused forces us to ask how safe these digital records are.

Predatory and Questionable Publishing Practices: How to Recognise and Avoid Them.
This guide, written by open access specialists at universities across the Netherlands, provides insight and practical advice for authors on how to avoid questionable and predatory journals.

Transitional Agreements Aren’t Working: What Comes Next?
Alison Mudditt's Scholarly Kitchen article looks at how ten years have passed since the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) in the UK launched its first “transitional agreement” (TA) with Springer Nature. Since then, Jisc has negotiated and/or renewed 75 TAs with 47 publishers. Based on the journal flipping rates observed between 2018 – 2022 it would take at least 70 years for the big five publishers to flip their TA titles to OA.

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Autism Month and library work: Some introspective and wide ranging thoughts

This article is written by Elaine Chapman, who is a library assistant in Technological University Dublin. 

Elaine Chapman

I am hoping to cover two things in this blog post:

• Some thoughts on current issues for autistic or otherwise disabled library workers.
• The history of World Autism Month, and the change that needs to happen.

I am an autistic library worker. I thought it might be nice to write up a blog for Libfocus on #WorldAutismMonth. I still wonder how accessible our profession, which actively promotes accessibility for its users, is for its own staff. I get the impression that it is quite hit and miss. Speaking to staff in multiple institutions and libraries, some staff, they get great support, whilst others within the same institutions do not. Some get managers who know about reasonable accommodations, others get managers who don’t know but are willing to listen to issues and resolve them, but others still get managers who are resistant to changing how they work with their staff. And staff can only get support if they are in a position to disclose their disability, which many still do not feel safe to do. Some mask incredibly heavily to try and fit into the societal expectation that adults must work full time. This often winds up with people getting heavily burned out and unable to work at all.

For some of us, it’s not possible to fit that narrative, especially with co-occurring conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, ADHD, dyspraxia and more. For some of us, we can only work part time, and within the current system, these people have a hard glass ceiling above their heads. How can they apply for jobs that just are not there? Even looking at the likes of job share for a full-time position; you often have to work the full time hours until a second person can be found. For many of us, not just disabled people, this is not an option. There needs to be better options across the profession. I am happy to see that some institutions and library systems are embracing part-time work, but this is done ad hoc. I feel like there needs to be an investigation done into what we, as colleagues, or perhaps the LAI, can do to embrace adequate career progression paths for all of our colleagues. By this, I mean, how do we ensure that all staff get training on things like reasonable accommodations, working with staff with disabilities, alongside considering how our systems may be restrictive and in need of change. 

Any change should of course be pursued and looked at through an intersectional lens as it’s not just disabled people that these issues impact, but also because our disabled staff may also face societal barriers from the likes of systemic racism, sexism, and much more. This refers to intersectionality, a term coined by the scholar and civil rights activist, Kimberlé Crenshaw. To take a quote from her first article on the subject, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics:

Imagine a basement which contains all people who are disadvantaged on the basis of race, sex, class, sexual preference, age and/or physical ability. These people are stacked-feet standing on shoulders-with those on the bottom being disadvantaged by the full array of factors, up to the very top, where the heads of all those disadvantaged by a singular factor brush up against the ceiling. Their ceiling is actually the floor above which only those who are not disadvantaged in any way reside. (1989, p. 151)

Fobazi Ettarh writes a very good article on intersectionality and why representation of differences is important in libraries, with particular focuses on gender and racism: Making a new table: Intersectional librarianship.

Now I get onto the second part of my blog: World Autism Month.

I’m not sure many outside of the neurodivergent and autistic communities realize this, but this month can be quite draining for a lot of us. The old Light It Up Blue campaign, for Autism Awareness Day, was created by a charity called Autism Speaks. This charity has numerous issues and a very negative history within our community. Some examples of why include:

• They actively promote a practice known as ABA, a form of therapy that recipients have decried as harmful. Here is an article detailing some of the impact of ABA: How much compliance is too much compliance: Is long-term ABA therapy abuse? 

• They have promoted the idea that autism is something to be feared. This is an old ad of theirs that they have since removed from their website: I Am Autism commercial by Autism Speaks. 

• They have worked with centres that use electro-shock therapy on autistic people. They have done their best to eradicate every trace of this link, so what remains is pleas from Advocates for them to renounce it, such as the open letter from Autistic Self Advocacy Network. They eventually renounced the treatment fully in 2021 after pressure from advocates. Here is their letter against a federal court overturning the ban on electro shock therapy.

As it is, this month often focuses on us educating others, including through free labour. What I would like to see is the community reclaiming the month to celebrate ourselves, and to fight for our needs. Focus less on educating others, but let them see who we are and the fact that is okay to be happy being autistic, no matter what part of the spectrum you are on. There are 11 other months of the year where people can be educated. If allies are willing to educate during this month, that is fine. But sometimes autistic people need a break from this. So let this be their month, to rest, recuperate and celebrate. Make time, this month, to ask your staff what they need from you for the month. And I say the same for other minorities for their months too - if they need compassion and understanding during their month, they should get that too.

What I’d like to see, during future autism months are things like wellbeing events for neurodivergent staff, sensory and physical access audits of your work environments, neurodivergent staff and external people being paid for their advice, the official recognition of systemic barriers to employment within our profession, and projects looking into the provision of better supports for neurodivergent staff.

And make sure to celebrate Autistic Pride on June 18th, and possibly contact the likes of Neuro Pride Ireland, AsIAm, and AUsome training. It’s worth noting that AUsome training have a conference occurring this month on mental health and supports for autistic people: AUsome Training: Minding Autistic Minds Conference 2024. There is also an international group for neurodivergent library staff: NLISN (Neurodivergent Library and Information Staff Network). 

To this end, and the end of supporting all staff from various minorities, I am working on setting up an EDI group within the LAI. If anyone is interested in learning more, please email mailto:laiedicommittee@gmail.com

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Hibernia College launches a new OER in Digital Literacy

This article is written by Ann Byrne who is the Digital Librarian in Hibernia College.

Hibernia College has recently released a short course in Digital Literacy as an open educational resource (OER). The course was developed by a small team within Hibernia College’s Digital Learning Department (DLD); Irene O’Dowd (DLD researcher), Ann Byrne (Digital Librarian), and Emberly Davey (library assistant), with support and assistance from the wider DLD team. Originally developed to support the Hibernia College community, the course is now available as an OER on Hibernia College’s institutional repository, IASC.

Screenshots from the three literacy course lessons and quizzes

 
In a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on digital technology, digital literacy skills are especially important and relevant to all. OER creation and dissemination supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and this digital literacy OER directly aligns to at least three of these: SDG 4, Quality Education, where digital literacy skills are explicitly addressed, SDG 3, good health and well-being and SDG 8, decent work and economic growth (UN, 2015). This digital literacy course also helps to promote digital citizenship. The Council of Europe (2023) defines digital citizens as “… individuals able to use digital tools to create, consume, communicate and engage positively and responsibly with others." The project team hopes that this course will help to nurture digital citizenship at Hibernia College and beyond.

When developing the course, one of the biggest challenges for the project team was deciding what to cover. Digital literacy is a vast area and the project team needed to consider what would be most useful for students, and relevant to a wider audience. The working group consulted several frameworks including DigComp 2.2. (2022), JISC’s Digital Capabilities Framework (2017) and the CAUL Digital Dexterity Framework (2020). The frameworks displayed significant crossover, each covering five or six key domains. The project team decided on three lessons to compose the Digital literacy course, reflecting three of the frameworks’ domains: Information literacy, digital communication and collaboration, and digital identity and well-being. These were created in Articulate Rise. The three lessons are accompanied by three Moodle quizzes and the course takes approximately one and a half to two hours to complete.

Ann Byrne presents the case study 'Digital literacy for all: Reflections on creating a digital literacy OER' at the A&SL Conference 2024 (co-presented with Emberly Davey). Picture credit: Susan Brodigan, March 2024. 

How to access the OER

The Digital Literacy OER is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. It is free to reuse and adapt with attribution. It is available for download from Hibernia College’s digital repository, IASC as a zipped folder which includes usage instructions. It can be accessed using the QR code below:

The resource is also available on OER Commons: https://oercommons.org/courses/digital-literacy-oer 

References

CAUL (2020) CAUL Digital dexterity framework. Available at: https://www.caul.edu.au/digital-dexterity-framework (Accessed: 11 March 2024).

Council of Europe (2023) The concept. Available at: https://www.coe.int/en/web/digital-citizenship-education/the-concept#:~:text=Digital%20citizens%20can%20be%20described,step%20with%20evolutions%20in%20society (Accessed: 11 March 2024).

JISC (2017) Building digital capabilities: The six elements defined. Available at: https://elnts.coventry.domains/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ELNCOV_Jisc-Digital-Capabilities-Frameworks.pdf (Accessed: 11 March 2024).

Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S. and Punie,Y. (2022) DigComp 2.2. The digital competence framework for citizens. Available at: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128415  (Accessed: 11 March 2024).  

United Nations (UN) (2015) Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf (Accessed: 11 March 2024).

 

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Libfocus Link-out for March 2024

Welcome to the March edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

Images featured in this month's link-out articles

What is data literacy and why are librarians the best people to support it?
Joanne Fitzpatrick from Lancaster University seeks to demystify the world of data and argues that this is definitely something librarians can engage in.

How Wikipedia can help to disseminate research: an innovative NIHR project.
This article by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) in the US explains how Wikipedia can be a highly effective dissemination tool, helping to make research findings widely accessible.

The World of AI: How libraries are integrating and navigating this powerful technology.
Emily Udell speaks to five technology experts, educators, and librarians who are pioneering the use of generative AI at their institutions.

UCD Digital Library's Ethical Cataloguing Guidelines.
UCD Digital Library launch their Ethical Cataloguing Guidelines, compiled by metadata librarian, Órna Roche, detailing their commitment to describing material accurately, respectfully, and in a way that will not cause distress or offense.

Why We Need Public Libraries Now More than Ever.
A great long read on why we need Public Libraries more than ever now.

Millions of research papers at risk of disappearing from the Internet.
An analysis of DOIs suggests that digital preservation is not keeping up with burgeoning scholarly knowledge.

World Book Day finds children are put off reading for pleasure.
In this Guardian article, journalist Ella Creamer highlights the literacy crisis identified by the National Literacy Trust in the UK. She examines how barriers to reading are contributing to low literacy levels in school children.

Irish novelist Sydney Morgan - blog post by Magdalene College Libraries.
Written to mark International Women’s Day 2024, this blog post showcases a letter written by the Irish novelist Lady Sydney Morgan in 1883. A prolific writer, her letter gives an insight into the author's lively social life, her literary and charitable works and into her irreverence.

What do we know about DOIs.
While DOI's are synonymous with linking to a specific document, what do we actually know about the current state of DOI's? Martin Eve digs deeper into the wider landscape and resolution rates.

GAI Product Tracker.
Generative AI in higher education -- a useful tool to keep track of emerging technology via Ithaka S+R.

The Latest “Crisis” — Is the Research Literature Overrun with ChatGPT- and LLM-generated Articles?
David Crotty of  'The Scholarly Kitchen' digs into recent incidents of AI-pollution in published scholarly journal literature. Elsevier has been under the spotlight for publishing a paper that contains a ChatGPT-written portion of its introduction. The first sentence of the paper’s Introduction reads, “Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic:…” To date, the article remains unchanged, and unretracted.

Curiosity and information-seeking behaviour: a review of psychological research and a comparison with the information science literature.
Thomas D. Wilson reviews the psychological literature on curiosity and its relationship to information-seeking behaviour, and compares this with the information science literature on the same subject.

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From Archive to Access webinar: Event review

This article is written by Maeve Kerins, a Library Assistant in the Technological University Dublin – City Center.

Image provided on UCD Library's eventbrite registration page

On Friday 8th of March 2024, I attended an online webinar event “From Archive to Access”, provided by the Library Association of Ireland’s Open Scholarship Group. This was a virtual event that included presentations from three leading figures in the field of preservation and digitization of unique materials, all of whom are based in Ireland. 

I am currently working as a Library Assistant for Technological University Dublin Library Services. I primarily work in the Client and Faculty Services team that deals with customer service and frontline service-related queries. However, one of my back-of-house duties and long-term projects is helping on an archival project, which will ultimately result in the digitization of materials onto our online repository, Arrow. 

For some context, TU Dublin Library Services are currently preparing to move into their new library space on Grangegorman’s main campus. Before 2020, TU Dublin had five separate libraries and the Central Services Unit, which have since moved into the temporary library facility in Park House on the North Circular Road. Along with the migration of the different library collections, we have also migrated many materials to be digitally scanned and preserved as part of our Archive collection. My current role in this project, as a non-specialist, concerns the initial set-up stages to help the incoming future archivist that goes ahead with this project's next stages.  

Given that my role is currently on the non-digital side, I hoped to gain insight into how other sites developed their archiving guidelines and procedures. Furthermore, I hoped to gain a further understanding of how TU Dublin’s project might develop and evolve once the next phase of the project begins.

Therefore, when I saw the advertisement for this event, I felt it was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn from those with more experience curating accessible content. 

My main expected learning outcome from this online seminar was to gain a greater understanding of how I can make sure, to the best of my ability, that the archive boxes that I am currently creating are easily accessed and the physical items within them are organized in a system that is easy to navigate.

From Archives to Access webinar agenda

Digital Repository of Ireland

Kicking off the webinar, with flourish, was Dr Maeve O’Brien, who currently serves as Membership Manager at the Digital Repository of Ireland. During Maeve’s presentation, I took several notes on the DRI’s emphasis on storage and the importance of multiple backup options. Maeve, spoke of how “non-specialists” should always use the “3-2-1 rule”: 3 copies of an item record, two media types and one offsite copy.  

TU Dublin Library has followed this example; however, it was good for me to learn the justifications around organizing metadata in this manner. I have created a version of this organizational rule in my work with TU Dublin. I have stored digital records of the archive materials on my personal PC, I have a personal digital file on my own work OneDrive, and there is a shared OneDrive with my colleague(s) that also worked on this project along the way. We have a physical and digital copy of each archived item. 

National Gallery of Ireland

The second presenter Leah Benson, who is currently based in the National Gallery of Ireland Archives, discussed the National Gallery’s “Source” which is the Irish Art Digital Archive & Library tool.

Source houses 16,000 records and 6,000 associated digital images from The Irish Art Archive, Yeats Archive and Source Stories

Chester Beatty

The final presenter Tim Keefe, Head of Digital, Chester Beatty Library, gave a fascinating preview of new software that has rendered objects within its collection to be manipulated and visited through their new online collection space. The hopes are that this will enhance user experience and research output to a larger landscape, given the global mobility of education resources in the last number of years.  

Q & A Panel 

To conclude the event a Q&A Panel gave attendees the opportunity to direct specific questions towards any or all of three speakers. I was keen to ask about a particular challenge that I had been facing within my current project with TU Dublin. 

My Question: 

“Are there any guides that you would recommend for what language / specific descriptors to use – so that the “public” can access materials easily? In particular materials such as group photographs that might not have easy identifiers?” 

All three speakers work with materials such as photographs and pictures that are not always easy to describe in a unique manner. I felt a question like this was best directed at them, for their advice and experience in creating metadata for both physical and digital materials.

It is important they are user-friendly and easily understood by all users, particularly colleagues within the Collection team that take over the project after me. The way in which I organize the metadata within our physical and digital collection records is crucial to ensuring an easy transition of workflow.

I was provided with several helpful resources that I have since bookmarked and will no doubt use as I move forward with the TU Dublin archive project. 

See the resources recommended below: 

• DRI Guide to archiving digital records for volunteer and community groups 

• Dublin Core and the Digital Repository of Ireland v.3 

• Dublin Core Metadata Basics

Tim and Leah in particular, in their presentations, highlighted that one of the main factors they were focusing on with their projects, was user experience.

Their respective collections are to be used as resources to enhance teaching and learning, increase engagement with the museum and reach the most amount of people possible. It is important for archive collections to be both a research resource and a public asset.

Concluding Remarks

I am thankful to have been afforded the opportunity to attend an event such as this and see what unique projects are being conducted in this area. As open scholarship and open access evolve to meet the growing demands of higher education and research interest, it is important that all of us working in libraries and information processing, professions, keep growing our skills and knowledge in all areas. 

Resources Mentioned:

• DRI Guide to archiving digital records for volunteer and community groups
   
• From Archive To Access Webinar – Eventbrite Link
  
  
• Library Association of Ireland’s, Open Scholarship Group 
  
  
• National Gallery of Ireland: Source: Irish Art Digital Archive & Library
  
  
• The Chester Beatty Online Collections 

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Presenting the 2024 UCC Library Annual Seminar:

Guest Post by Blazej Kaucz and Mona Power on behalf of the UCC Library CPPD Group.

“Libraries: Connecting Minds and Cultivating Wellness” 

Date: 11th of April 2024 

Venue: Creative Zone, UCC Library, University College Cork 

This year’s UCC Library Seminar explores the critical role that libraries play in promoting and supporting well-being and engagement. Libraries are not just repositories full of books but vibrant spaces that impact the lives of individuals and communities.  

The event will shed light on innovative library practices that enhance patrons’ quality of life, in both academic and non-academic settings. Our speakers will offer a range of perspectives, considering the viewpoints of libraries as well as the communities they serve.   

The seminar is open to library staff at any grade working in any type of library, students or recent graduates in information and library studies, or anyone who has an interest in libraries. 

The keynote speaker is Marta Bustillo, Digital Learning Librarian (University College Dublin). 

Programme: 

10:00 Registration and morning refreshments 

10:45 Welcome and introduction 

11:00 Keynote speaker - Marta Bustillo (University College Dublin) “Digital well-being: A necessity or a luxury?” 

11:45 Second speaker - Wiktor Owczarek (ABC EduLibrary) 

12:30 Lunch 

13:15 Third Speaker - Andrea Bickerdike (Munster Technological University) 

14:00 Fourth speaker - Hayley O'Connell Vaughan (University College Cork Students' Union) 

14:45 Panel Discussion (all speakers) 

15:30 Closing remarks 

We aim to make this conference a welcoming, inclusive event and as accessible as possible. 

Please contact us at librarycppd@ucc.ie if you have any questions or requests. 

To register, and for further information about location particulars, please visit UCC Annual Library Seminar 2024. 

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