13 Feb 2023

Open to All? LAI Open Scholarship Group Webinar

 

Image from event listing on LAI website 

This is a guest post by Jane Burns, Director of Education and Public Engagement, Faculty of Engineering and Informatics at the Technological University of the Shannon. Jane holds Fellowship Membership with the Library Association of Ireland where she is a Member of the Executive Council. Jane is also a Steering Group Member of the National Open Research Steering Group. She is involved in Equality and Diversity at TUS and nationally as an Aurora Champion and was appointed to the National Aurora Advisory Group. Jane is currently a PhD candidate at Dublin City University where she is exploring the areas of Education, Graphicacy and Graphic Medicine. Find her on Twitter @JMBurns99 or on LinkedIn

As a librarian, educator and a researcher I am eternally curious about new ideas, and new approaches to connect with others inside and outside of areas that I know about. Over the course of the webinar there were three fantastic presentations, by Dr. Lisa Padden (UCD), Dr. Chrissi Nerantzi (University of Leeds) and Oisin Duffy (National Biodiversity Data Centre). While each of the presenters were engaging and informative I found that the presentation by Lisa Padden was the one that connected to me most, for my personal and professional role. I was recently appointed the Director of Education and Public Engagement at the Technological University of the Shannon.

I found the idea that ‘Open’ is more than just ‘Open Access’ - so open and beyond publications but inclusive of things like information, teaching, learning and research. Access needs to be more than just ‘accessible by’ to be inclusive.

Dr. Padden offered an example of an ordinary daily experience of automatic opening doors. This was something that never occurred to me as an ‘example of Open’ (no pun intended) but using that as a model for all other areas and applications of openness really was insightful. It is something that is so much a part of every day that allows openness for all - and we don’t even have to think about it - it just is. This is perhaps a way we need to think about openness - not as something special, or extra, but integral so we don’t think about it all - it is so engrained.

A demo of the Microsoft Accessibility Checker was engaging. I had never heard of it before and often struggle with the question of whether or not my communications are accessible enough – if am I being inclusive.

I found Dr. Padden’s approach to be engaging and understandable, sometimes I get so worried about making a mistake with accessibility that I choose not to publish, present or engage. After today I know that is not the best way to proceed, that there are tools, resources and colleagues to reach out to for help in developing this area of knowledge.

Thank so much to my Library colleagues, who continue to develop ideas and expertise and who bring us along with them to learn together. 



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