Libfocus Link-out for August, 2023

Welcome to the August 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 libfocus linkout articles

Peer Review Week 2023 to Focus on Peer Review and the Future of Publishing
This blog post by Roohi Ghosh and Lindsay Morton announces Peer Review Week (September 25-29, 2023) and summarises high-level changes in the academic publishing sector in recent years such as increasing collaborations, open science and big data. What are implications of these changes on peer review, for example how can two reviewers comment with specialist knowledge comment on complex, inter-disciplinary publications?

Record year for library references in Voluntary National Reviews of SDG implementation by IFLA
Read about how libraries around the world are working to achieve the UN's 2023 sustainable development goals (SDGs). The examples shared in this  IFLA report show how libraries are making a positive impact on society.

Explore our libraries with a virtual tour by Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council have shared 3D videos showcasing select libraries with sensory services and facilities in Ballyfermot, Cabra Library, Coolock, Pearse Street and Walkinstown. The video tours aim to make the spaces more inclusive and accessible, especially for neurodivergent and autistic visitors and visitors with mobility issues.

The narrative website: from signposting to storytelling
As we move from a collections-based to a relational library, storytelling becomes very important. One trend is the emergence of a stronger narrative or storytelling emphasis on websites, which helps position the library, promote its services, and address specific interests.

The Library is the place: Information, Recreation, Inspiration (Irish Public Library Strategy 2023 - 2027)
The Irish government recently released it's new National Public Library Strategy 2023-2027 - The Library Is the Place: Information, Recreation, Inspiration.

Artificial Intelligence and Librarianship: Notes for Teaching
A recently published Open Access book authored by Prof. Martin Frické, School of Information at the University of Arizona. Focuses on the basics of machine learning and how librarians can integrate AI into teaching practices.

Big Ten Open Books project
A joint collaboration between university presses and libraries in the United States to establish a model for unified, open-access publishing of scholarly monographs. Launched in August 2023, the first collection looks at Gender and Sexuality Studies.

The Future of the Monograph in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: Publisher Perspectives
on a Transitioning Format
A web-based survey of academic publishers undertaken in 2021 at Oxford International Centre for Publishing into the state of monograph publication in the arts, humanities, and social sciences found that respondents expect to be publishing monographs in ten years’ time, but that they anticipate the format and/or the model will be different, with open access expected to play a key part in the future, perhaps in the context of a mixed economy of OA and ‘toll access’ publication.

News & Views: Transformative Journals – An Experiment in OA Acceleration
In its recent annual update about Transformative Journals (TJs), cOAlition S noted that many journals had not met their targets, for the second year in a row, and were being removed from the list of approved TJs. Since most journals consistently missed the annual targets, we wondered if the originally included journals, at their demonstrated rates of growing OA content, could have eventually met the goal of 75% open access. Was this a timely move by cOAlition S to cut journals or was it premature?