Libfocus Link-out for May 2024

Welcome to the May 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

2024 Library Systems Report.
This Library Systems Report documents ongoing investments of libraries in strategic technology products during 2023.

Research Libraries Guiding Principles for AI.
A set of principles outlined by ACRL provide a framework for the ethical and transparent use of AI in research libraries.

The ARL/CNI 2035 Scenarios: AI-Influenced Futures in the Research Environment.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) have chosen to apply scenario planning to imagine a future influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) and to explore the range of uncertainty associated with AI in the research and knowledge ecosystem. The strategic focus and critical uncertainties highlighted in the scenarios were identified through extensive stakeholder engagement with the ARL and CNI membership during the winter of 2023 and spring of 2024 and involved over 300 people. Input was provided through focus groups, workshops, and one-on-one interviews.

The Cover-Up: Under Pressure, Some School Librarians Alter Illustrations to Avoid Book Challenges.
Andrew Bauld interviews librarians who have taken to altering illustrations to avoid book challenges. But by redacting images are they taking part in censorship themselves as a result? From breastfeeding to nudity, Bauld looks at some of the images being covered and why.

Arrests over cross-Europe thefts of rare library books.
Europol announce nine arrests of suspected book thieves that allegedly posed as academics to gain access to the books in order to make counterfeits of “outstanding quality” and later return to swap the copies.

Author’s ‘poisonous’ books removed from Paris library.
A collection by a Limerick author is among a number of – quite literally – poison pen volumes put in quarantine by France’s national library. The library this week removed two volumes of The Ballads of Ireland by Edward Hayes, published in 1855, along with two other 19th Century books, from its shelves on account of their emerald green covers likely being laced with highly poisonous arsenic.

Report Finds No Correlation Between Social Media Engagement and Content Readership.
Some important reading contained in this report if you manage your library's social media.

Discover Irish Children’s Books.
Children’s author Sarah Webb, recent winner of the LAI’s President’s medal is a passionate advocate of literacy, children’s books and Irish libraries. She is leading the Discover Irish Children’s Books Campaign, which highlights and celebrates Irish children’s books. Read more about the campaign and find out how you can become an Irish Children’s Books Champion.

In a Portland Library, Activists Fortify for a Standoff.
In the New York Times Kimberly Cortez and Mike Baker report on the occupation of Portland State University Library. It has been taken over by pro-Palestinian activists who include a mix of students, staff, faculty and community members.

Elisabeth Bik, expert in scientific integrity: ‘We need to slow down scientific publishing’.
The Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant on why we need to publish less frequently.

Libraries struggle to afford the demand for e-books, seek new state laws in fight with publishers.
A telling example from the US of how ebooks' pricing and licensing impact on public library budgets.

Implementing a Library Services Platform Using an Organizational Framework.
The Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC), a statewide library consortium serving 40 public colleges and universities in Florida, implemented a new integrated library system for all libraries in 2020–2021. The scope and scale of the project were highly complex, requiring robust communication strategies and mechanisms for success. FLVC worked with its member libraries and other stakeholders to create an organizational framework for the project. After the completion of the project, FLVC surveyed project participants to assess the effectiveness of the organizational framework. Overall results were strongly positive, while some areas for improvement were identified.

 

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Academic & Special Libraries Conference 2024 ‘Fair for all: creating Equitable and Universal Access to Information’

Guest post by Mona Power, Library Assistant at UCC Library

Early on the morning of the 21st of March, I was surrounded by sleepy commuters on the train to Dublin, some already starting their workdays on laptops and tablets. I was struck anew by the Doctorow quote about technological advances, which had caught my eye on the A&SL website several weeks prior:

Universal access to human knowledge is in our grasp, for the first time in the history of the world. This is not a bad thing.

My own journey to being an LIS professional was made entirely possible by the advances Doctorow refers to. I undertook the MLIS at UCD's iSchool during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was able to attend lectures, access library materials, connect with fellow students, and even make lifelong friends - all entirely online.

Yet the access to information that I enjoyed during this time is not strictly universal. And it is not free. This injustice is damaging to global society on many levels, and something I’d not thought about very deeply until I began the MLIS. Becoming a qualified librarian has opened my eyes to the power and importance of universal information access. If we cannot collectively draw from it and contribute back to it, the global pool of knowledge is diminished. Knowledge is not a finite resource. By sharing it, we do not deplete it. By making knowledge access universal, we create the circumstances under which it can be built upon and furthered.

These thoughts carried me to the Ashling Hotel, the venue for this year’s Academic and Special Libraries Conference. I’d been eagerly anticipating the conference since the bursary winners were announced, and even felt a little nervous as I found my way to the conference room. This would be my first experience of an in-person conference, and all week my colleagues at UCC Library had been offering sage advice (chat to people from outside your own library, take some time to look at the posters, take lots of pictures).

The first keynote speaker of the day was Marilyn Clarke, who opened her talk, ‘Libraries as Liberatory Spaces: knowledge justice, sites of memory, and acts of resistance’ with a poem by Ferdinand Levy, Jamaican poet who had lived in Dublin in the 1930s. Marilyn used Levy’s poem, and the fact that he is not well known as a figure of literary history in Ireland, as a jumping off point for her talk. She focused on the question of who is and is not remembered – and who we do, and do not, study in the classroom. Marilyn’s talk was expansive and inspiring, and even as I took notes, I knew that I would have a challenging time doing it justice in this review. Four words that I underlined several times in my notebook are: Recognition, Reparation, Restitution, Representation. These are words, Marilyn says, that she comes back to whenever she needs to think about what she is doing, and in answer to the question “what does social justice mean to you?” Listening to Marilyn speak, it became clear to me that knowing your “why” - the reason or purpose behind your actions - is a deeply valuable compass for life.

The first of the morning’s three case studies, ‘Inclusive Technology is everywhere: Why is it then so hard to find?’ was presented by Trevor Boland, who, according toinformation gathered by the A&SL Committee, can crochet a pair of slippers in three hours. Trevor’s presentation took us on a whistle-stop tour of some incredibly useful Assistive Technology (AT) – from the glasses many of us wear on our faces each day, to document conversion systems like SensusAccess, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology that can read text within a digital image.

Dean Watters and Dr Ruth O' Hara delivered the second case study of the morning, ‘Diversifying Dewey: Changing the DDC23 to better represent Irish Travellers’. This uplifting presentation was a brilliant real-life example of librarians challenging established systems and making positive changes. The presenters stressed the importance of doing this work not just because it is vital, but because it is work that inspires others and that people will build on in the future.

Eilís O' Neill concluded the morning’s presentations with her case study ‘Let’s take it outside (the classroom): Implementing UDL practices in non-teaching roles’. Eilís provided a compelling argument for undertaking a universal design for learning (UDL) course, and applying UDL principles to library work. She emphasised the importance of simplifying language and letting go of jargon.

The second keynote speaker of the day was David Hughes, who gave a rousing presentation entitled ‘Why Do We Need "Open", Anyway?’ David approached an answer to this question by introducing what he termed the “four horsemen of the library apocalypse”: Hyper-capitalism, academic publishing, artificial intelligence, and the fact that John Deere tractors now come with a remote kill-switch. David then launched into compelling arguments for each of his horsemen, citing Cory Doctorow’s "Entshitification" model, and the importance of true open access (OA) publishing. Some of David’s slides drew audible gasps from the audience, in particular his screenshots of blatantly AI-generated text that had made its way past the peer review process and into academic journals. For David, “open” is not just about publishing, but a philosophy and a rallying call. He urged librarians to lead by example and promote open educational resources and diamond OA.

The second round of case study sessions started with a presentation by Laura Rooney Ferris, entitled ‘Building a culture of Open Research for Health and SocialCare Practitioners’. Laura described the significant barriers to open publication for health practitioner researchers. A particularly powerful point that she made was that, in her own words, “medical research conducted on the public should be accessible to them.”

Jane Buggle and Marie O' Neill followed with their case study, ‘Diamond Open Access Publishing: Navigating the Impact of a Single Library Published Journal’. Jane and Marie made a passionate case for diamond OA, citing the destructive influence of the gold OA publishing model, and echoing David Hughes’ point that the truth is paywalled while lies are free. "We're not going away", said Marie, “this is only going to get better.”

Paola Corti’s case study, ‘Librarians as agents of change - SPARC Europe's Strategy to advance Open Education in Europe’, introduced us to the work of The European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL), a network of academics advocating for open education in Europe. Paola praised the generosity of librarians for sharing their knowledge and encouraged anyone wishing to get involved with ENOEL’s work to become a member.

The final case study of the day, presented by Ann Byrne and Emberly Davey, was titled ‘Digital literacy for all: reflections on creating a Digital literacy OER’. Ann and Emberly described their journey of developing an open educational resource to improve digital literacy. Modelling the precise generosity Paola Corti had cited in her presentation, Ann and Emberly have made their course open to all.

The day's talks emphasised the vital role of libraries in promoting knowledge equity, in particular at the intersection of technology and social justice. These speakers demonstrate that the future of librarianship will be shaped by a commitment to inclusivity, openness, and dismantling barriers to information access.

For my part, I feel privileged to have attended the A&SL conference. The passion and generosity of these librarians is inspiring. It is a wonderful thing to attend a conference and feel that you are among “your people” - I am grateful to the A&SL Committee for awarding me this Bursary.

Image by A&SL Committee

This is the one of two posts written by the winners of the A&SL Bursary 2024 The other can be Read here.

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LAI CILIP joint conference overview 2024

Guest post by Amy Bond, Assistant Librarian and Information Specialist, Bord Bia Library

This blog post will give an overview of the LAI/CILIP joint annual conference in Newry. The theme of the conference was Building for the Future, and presentations focused on how libraries could work to maintain their relevance and usefulness into the future. Talks looked at how this could be achieved through innovative service offerings, and the leveraging of new technology. It would be impossible to cover the wealth and breadth of information shared within a blog, but I will outline some of the key insights that resonated with my own work, and hopefully these nuggets might be relevant to others too.

In his keynote talk on the role of AI, Dr Andrew Cox made clear that AI will play a key role in how librarians work in the future. We will have a part to play in developing AI literacy within our user groups, but it may also have potential for better collection management, better access to digital collections, and more insight into the data we are gathering. However, this will only be possible with access to proper resources.

While much of the conference focused on the importance of new technologies, and innovative service offerings, Sue Williamson, president of CILIP, emphasised in her talk that libraries are still about books, and shouldn’t lose focus on this traditional role of promoting books and reading. She noted that “if you read for pleasure, reading for purpose becomes effortless.”

Anthony Hopkins talked about his work as part of a working group in the UK looking to improve how eBooks are offered through public libraries. Rather than trying to go down the route of legislative change they are currently trying to work with publishers, and have found them open to discussion. Their focus now is a research project to build an evidence base so they can have strong conversations, based on robust data.

There were perhaps some surprising results from Dr Claire McGuinness and Dr Stefanie Halveka’s research into student perceptions of ChatGPT. Only 11% of students were using these tools quite often, and 55% were using them rarely or never. Students most see the benefits in help with research, with 34% of those using it saying it is for research, while 33% would be motivated to use it for help with research. This clearly shows a need for librarians to understand and work with this technology. Reassuringly, the majority see taking results directly from these tools as the same as copying from a website.

Jane Peden discussed the redesign of library spaces within Ulster University. This work was done with emphasis on enhancing student experience. There have been a number of shifts in how the library space is viewed; from collecting to connecting, and to seeing it now as a relational collaborative space. This has also been reflected in a shift in how staff engage with students; from service and support, to partnership and expertise.

Leona Burgess, of Louth public libraries, and Ruth O’Rourke, executive librarian in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, discussed how they came together to create a project encouraging parents to read to their babies within the neonatal unit within the hospital. The success of the project showed the impact that can come from collaborating across library sectors, with minimal financial investment.

Ben Lee led an interactive workshop which brought to life the toolkit from CILIP’s Come Rain or Shine report. He explained the concept of future literacies, before taking us through how to work with different future scenarios for future planning.

Dr Maeve O’Brien from the Digital Repository of Ireland, gave an overview of the service, its value, and their collections. She noted that when ingesting collections from other organisations, they provided technical support, but ultimately left control over how collections are organised to their owners as they would have a much better understanding of their content.

When looking at how libraries can leverage machine learning, Daniel Van Strien noted the limits of using models not designed specifically for library use, but saw more potential in librarians coming together to build on open-source models to design tools built with libraries in mind.

Overall, the key takeaway from the conference was that librarians need to plan for the future, to maintain strong meaningful services. Time needs to be spent considering what the future might look like for your library. Consider different future scenarios, and how these might impact your work. How might your users change, and will this impact what they want from your service? How might technological shifts impact how you work, and the services you deliver? Do you need to upskill in any particular areas to prepare for these potential changes? We might not be able to predict the future, but we can prepare for it.

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

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