c/o Katina Strauch Post Office Box 799 Sullivan’s Island, SC 29482
MLA, SLA, BOOK EXPO issue TM
volume 30, number 2 APRIL 2018
ISSN: 1043-2094 “Linking Publishers, Vendors and Librarians” Vendor Library Partnerships by Maggie Farrell (Dean of Libraries, University of Nevada Las Vegas)
e are pleased to present the featured to provide tools and techniques to improve of depth in which it might be a casual, informal articles on vendor partnerships. This the relationship recognizing the shared goals, relationship to a deep, connected partnership. Wstory began many years ago when the motivational differences, and problem solving There are certain characteristics that are evident three of us, likely over drinks, mulled about the methods. Most recently, we have been interest- when the relationship moves from a purchaser sometimes contentious relationship between ed in transforming a vendor-client arrangement to a partnership. In this issue, we will explore vendors and librarians. The relationship can to form a more engaged relationship in which those characteristics as well as provide some be defined as “frenemies” in which librarians the vendor and librarian are acting as partners. ideas on how to form partnerships. Tips and tolerate working with vendors as a necessary Approaching a vendor as a partner, rather than a strategies will be presented that will facilitate evil in order to purchase services and content. supplier, may positively influence the librarian any relationship between a vendor and librari- We turned that conversation into a panel for a perspective in seeking solutions and applica- an. Regardless of the type of relationships one regional conference, then a national confer- tions that solve problems. A partnership has the has with a vendor, it is important to remember ence, and continued to follow the topic through potential to develop new applications, create that ultimately, librarianship is composed of various job and geographical changes becom- different processes, strengthen communication, a variety of organizations, individuals, com- ing true friends in the pro- and contribute to librar- panies, stakeholders, and policy makers who cess. Our goal has been ianship benefitting are working to provide access to the world’s to open the dialogues other libraries. But information in order to create new knowledge. between vendors and not all relationships The better we collaboratively work, the closer librarians to facilitate can be partnerships we are to achieving that vision. a more productive re- and partnerships can lationship. We want have varying degrees What To Look For In This Issue: Experimental Imagination...... 38 If Rumors Were Horses Alabama Story, ALA, and Intellectual Freedom: The Hidden Secret...... 45 t has been a challenging spring so far! We had a malware attack #DeleteFacebook [?]...... 48 on the Against the Grain website and I have learned more about this process than I needed to know! Whew! It all seems to Write It Down...... 50 I The Care and Feeding of Local Data be fixed now but please let us know if you encounter problems. in a ILS Migration...... 53 Speaking of which, a wonderful group has been and is work- ing on reconfiguring the against-the-grain.com website. John Surely, You Can’t Be Serious: When Lavender has been doing surveys of our subscribers, Pat Sab- Library Folk Go Game...... 58 osik has been drawing flowcharts and making great suggestions, Interviews Matt Branton, Tom Gilson and Leah Hinds have been making Gary Marchionini...... 35 comments and suggestions. Our webmaster, Joshua Dickard has rolled up his sleeves to combat the malware and is now working Profiles Encouraged on the site redo. We hope to roll a “beta” version out soon if the People, Library and Company malware stays away! Wasn’t print easier? (But not nearly as Profiles...... 74 much fun, I admit.) Plus more...... See inside Shown above is my name- I was so sad to miss the London Book Fair this year not that sake granddaughter Katina I have ever gone there and it’s difficult for me to get around these Walser. She’s very smart and days, BUT I wish I could have been there to see the awesome, bilingual. This picture was unbelievable, wonderful Sara Miller McCune receive The taken on her fifth birthday! continued on page 6 1043-2094(201804)30:2;1-N IGIGlobal Celebrating 30 Years of Scholarly
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® and Luxury Brands InfoSci-Journals ISBN: 978-1-5225-2697-1 © 2018; 460 pp. A Collection of 3,900+ innovative A collection of 175+ scholarly journals Print or E-Book: $210 $158** highly-indexed e-books containing containing 22,000+ articles with over Hardcover + E-Book: $250 $188** over 86,000 chapters. one million citations. Sustainable Health and One-Time Perpetual Purchase Long-Term Care Solutions Annual Subscription for an Aging Population for 2018 © (505 e-books): for New Customers: US$ 20,850* ISBN: 978-1-5225-2633-9 US$ 4,950* © 2018; 441 pp. Print or E-Book: $225 $169** Hardcover + E-Book: $270 $203** International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism (IJCWT) ISSN: 1947-3435 Subject & Discipline-Specifi c Databases Est. 2011; Vols. 8 Subject-speci c e-book and e-journal databases covering groundbreaking Institution Pricing Print or E-Journal: $800 $600** research in core subject areas such as Business & Management, Print + E-Journal: $970 $728** Computer Science & Information Technology, Education, Engineering, and Social Sciences & Humanities. International Journal of Mobile and Blended For Subscription and Perpetual Pricing Visit: Learning (IJMBL) www.igi-global.com/e-resources ISSN: 1941-8647 Est. 2009; Vols. 10 *InfoSci-Journals $4,950 annual subscription price and InfoSci-Books $20,850 perpetual purchase is only available to new customers and cannot be combined with most offers or multi-site use. Institution Pricing Print or E-Journal: $765 $574** Print + E-Journal: $920 $690**
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Sign up at www.igi-global.com/newsletters facebook.com/igiglobal twitter.com/igiglobal linkedin.com/company/IGIGlobal Against The Grain Against the Grain (ISSN: 1043-2094) (USPS: 012-618), TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright 2017 by the name Against the Grain, LLC is pub- lished six times a year in February, April, June, September, v.30 #2 April 2018 © Katina Strauch November, and December/January by Against the Grain, LLC. Business and Editorial Offices: PO Box 799, 1712 Thompson Ave., Sullivan’s Island, SC 29482. Accounting ISSUES, NEWS, & GOINGS ON and Circulation Offices: same. Call (843-509-2848) to subscribe. Periodicals postage is paid at Charleston, SC. Rumors...... 1 Letters to the Editor...... 6 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Against the From Your Editor...... 6 Deadlines...... 6 Grain, LLC, PO Box 799, Sullivan’s Island, SC 29482. Editor: Katina Strauch (College of Charleston) FEATURES Associate Editors: Vendor Library Partnerships Cris Ferguson (Murray State) Guest Editors, Maggie Farrell, Barbara Kawecki, and Rick Branham Tom Gilson (College of Charleston) John Riley (Consultant) Vendor Library Partnerships...... 1 Consortial Partnerships with Research Editors: by Maggie Farrell, Barbara Kawecki and Libraries and Vendors...... 26 Judy Luther (Informed Strategies) Rick Branham — The goal of these authors by George Machovec — Since the advent Assistants to the Editor: is to open the dialogues between vendors of ejournals, eBooks, and other e-resources Ileana Strauch and librarians to facilitate a more productive on the Web, library consortia have played an Toni Nix (Just Right Group, LLC) relationship. increasingly important role in aggregating Editor At Large: group deals and acting as an agent on behalf of Dennis Brunning (Arizona State University) Transforming Library Vendor Relations: Turning Relationships into libraries. This has introduced another player Contributing Editors: in the complex world of licensing with both Glenda Alvin (Tennessee State University) Partnerships...... 14 benefits and challenges. Rick Anderson (University of Utah) by Barbara Kawecki — The scholarly Sever Bordeianu (U. of New Mexico) Pajama Party: Using Technology for Todd Carpenter (NISO) communication/library/publishing ecosystem Eleanor Cook (East Carolina University) today, is one where we all depend upon each Remote Partner Collaboration...... 28 Anne Doherty (Choice) other for success. by Rick Branham — An excellent look at Ruth Fischer (SCS / OCLC) Library-Vendor Partnerships — three types of collaborative applications – Michelle Flinchbaugh (U. of MD Baltimore County) conferencing, document collaboration, and Joyce Dixon-Fyle (DePauw University) An Overview of Our Symbiotic prototyping. Laura Gasaway (Retired, UNC, Chapel Hill) Relationships...... 16 Regina Gong (Lansing Community College) Breaking up is Hard to Do — Ending Michael Gruenberg (Gruenberg Consulting, LLC) by J. Michael Thompson and Carol Seiler — Chuck Hamaker (UNC, Charlotte) Partnerships have grown from basic approval a Partnership...... 31 William M. Hannay (Schiff, Hardin & Waite) plans to online development communities in a by Maggie Farrell — A partnership may end Mark Herring (Winthrop University) relatively short period of time. due to a variety of reasons – the project is Bob Holley (Retired, Wayne State University) completed, personnel change within partner Donna Jacobs (MUSC) Converse-ations: Seeing the Ramune Kubilius (Northwestern University) organizations that may shift the priorities, or Myer Kutz (Myer Kutz Associates, Inc.) Relationship from the Flip Side...... 19 changes in needs occur requiring different Tom Leonhardt by Ashley Fast Bailey, Laurel Sammonds solutions or partners. Rick Lugg (SCS / OCLC) Crawford, Jeffrey Daniels, Claire Eichman, Op Ed...... 32 Jack Montgomery (Western Kentucky University) Allyson Rodriguez, and Patrick Roth — Bob Nardini (ProQuest) Recently, a group of librarians and vendors Epistemology — Vision, Values and Making Jim O’Donnell (Arizona State University) interviewed each other to get insights into what It Work by T. Scott Plutchak — Creating the Ann Okerson (Center for Research Libraries) changes we want to see requires dealing with Rita Ricketts (Blackwell’s) it’s like on the “flip side.” Jared Seay (College of Charleston) the realities of economics, the varying values Lindsay Wertman (IGI Global) The Myth of the Tough Negotiator.... 22 and incentives of a diverse set of participants, by Georgie Donovan — Georgie thinks it is ATG Proofreader: and a willingness to confront the messy chal- Rebecca Saunders (College of Charleston) hard to make the case that a tougher, more lenges of developing strategy. adversarial stance during negotiation leads Graphics: Back Talk...... 78 to a better outcome. Bowles & Carver, Old English Cuts & Illustrations. Can we Build the Offline Internet? by Ann Grafton, More Silhouettes. Ehmcke, Graphic Trade The Care and Feeding of Symbols By German Designers. Grafton, Ready-to-Use Okerson — For many of the people on the Old-Fashioned Illustrations. The Chap Book Style. Partnerships...... 24 planet, it’s a netless world. This is about the Production & Ad Sales: by Maggie Farrell — The relationship be- amazing initiatives that are being taken to Toni Nix, Just Right Group, LLC., P.O. Box 412, tween librarians and vendors is different from remedy the situation. Cottageville, SC 29435, phone: 843-835-8604 most customer relationships. fax: 843-835-5892
ere we are better late than never! We is with Gary Marchionini, Dean of the School into Biz of Digital and Being Earnest is have encountered all sorts of problems of Information and Library Science at the about attempts to improve access to electron- Hwith our computer — malware and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ic collections. Library Analytics is about all that. Sorry for the delay. But we have a We are seeing movement and contrast in curating data, and we have a new column spectacular issue guest edited by Maggie Far- the profession as people balance the traditional by the multi-focused Jared Seay on games rell, Barbara Kawecki, and Rick Branham. with the new and innovative. Our book review and gamification in libraries. Mark Herring It’s about Vendor Library Partnerships and section includes collecting to the core, books talks about Facebook, Myer Kutz fills us in includes articles about transforming about books and Nobel prize standouts. on the latest PROSE awards, and Don Haw- relationships, an overview of the Several of our book reviewers are kins reports on NFAIS’s 60th Anniversary relationship, seeing the relationship changing and we will have a new meeting and the Miles Conrad Memorial from “the flip side,” tough negoti- crop coming in June and September. Lecture. We aslo have more reports from ations, consortial partnerships and Bruce Strauch and Lolly Gasaway the 2017 Charleston Conference, and Leah much more. Our op ed is by Scott have done their usual legal columns. Hinds has provided some insights to the 2018 Plutchak (creating change that we Optimizing library services and Charleston Conference. want?) which also serves as the let’s get technical delineate real Well I just got an email from our webmaster first appearance of his new regular issues for practicing professionals, Joshua Dickard who says that the website is column titled “Epistemology,” Sven Fund is interested in aca- all fixed and ready to roll! Fitting for spring, back talk is by Ann Okerson (the demic content for Generation Y yes? offline Internet) and our interview (videos), Biz of Acq has morphed Happy Spring! Yr. Ed.
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NDAATGL1804 Against the Grain March Ad.indd 1 05/03/2018 10:20 2018 Charleston Conference — 38th Annual Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition Call For Papers, Ideas, Conference Themes, Panels, Debates, Diatribes, Speakers, Poster Sessions, Preconferences, etc. ... 2018 Theme — “Oh, Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” Preconferences — Monday & Tuesday, November 5-6, 2018 Vendor Showcase — Tuesday, November 6, 2018 Main Conference — Wednesday-Friday, November 7-9, 2018 Charleston Gaillard Center, Francis Marion Hotel, Courtyard Marriott Historic District, Embassy Suites Historic Downtown, Charleston, South Carolina
f you are interested in leading a discussion, acting as a moderator, coordinating a lively lunch, or would like to make sure we discuss a particular topic, please let us know. The Charleston Conference prides itself on creativity, innovation, flexibility, and informality. IIf there is something you are interested in doing, please try it out on us. We’ll probably love it... The Conference Directors for the 2018 Charleston Conference include — Beth Bernhardt, Principal Director (UNC-Greensboro)
Rumors Herman agreed and we have been friends ever his master of library and information science since! Herman is now chief executive of Brill degree at the University of South Carolina from page 6 in the Hague where he has been since 2004. and holds a master of music degree from the Another great Brill friend is Stephen Dane University of Georgia. sector. “A key component of the great Dutch who has been president of Brill USA in Boston Rittenhouse Book Distributors, Inc. tradition of scholarly publishing for well over for over ten years. I look forward to meeting has integrated the 2018 Edition of Doody’s three centuries, Brill have shown a tremen- Linda Empringham! What an industry! Core Titles (DCT) across Rittenhouse.com dous capacity for innovation in recent years, www.brill.com/ and R2Library.com. The essential collection launching interesting and perhaps unexpected development data is now available for free programs in Open Access publishing as well as University of Colorado at Boulder Pro- to Rittenhouse Partners. DCT is released developing significantly the digital possibilities vost Russell Moore has named the awesome annually ahead of the MLA annual meeting. of their traditional outputs. With annual rates Robert H. McDonald as dean of University of publication close to 1,400 new books and Libraries. McDonald, who currently serves Rittenhouse.com 284 journals and offices in three continents, as associate dean for research and technology The Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Brill are a significant force in global publish- strategies and librarian at Indiana University, Lodge Planning Committee is grieved to ing, and remind the wider scholarly publishing will assume the post on Aug. 1, 2018. “I want report that Scott Alan Smith passed away on community of the continued importance of the to welcome Robert to CU Boulder,” said March 12, 2018. The Institute is a unique and commercial sector in the dissemination of the Moore. “He will bring new ideas and sensibil- amazing conference and the venue is awesome! arts and social sciences — something all too ities to the vital work in research, information Scott was a great emcee! Scott was a long time often overlooked.” My Brill story happened storage, dissemination and archiving done by representative at various times for a number of back probably before many of you were born. our outstanding network of libraries. I look vendors, including Blackwell North America Dick Rowe, the President of Faxon (an early forward to his working with our exceptionally and Blackwell’s. He served for several years competitor to Ebsco, Readmore, Turner, talented University Libraries faculty and staff as director for the Langlois (Oregon) Public and many others) asked me to set up a Faxon in creating new ways for our campus commu- Library and later as a volunteer at public institute during ALA. He wanted Herman nity to succeed.” His research interests include libraries near his Columbia Gorge home in Pabbruwe to be the main speaker. I don’t technology management and integration of Mosier, Oregon. He was a founding member remember what Herman’s title was exactly lean and agile frameworks, data preservation, of the planning committees for the Feather when I called him on an antiquated telephone. learning ecosystems, data cyberinfrastructure River Institute and the Acquisitions Institute I was nervous but I forged on, and the charming and big data analytics. McDonald earned continued on page 10 8 Against the Grain / April 2018
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at Timberline Lodge and his work contributed significantly to advances in library acquisitions ke a closer look at.... and the development of our community of Ta practice. He was a masterful storyteller and a convivial and attentive host at the Institutes. He will be missed by family, friends, and colleagues. The Acquisitions Institute will continue into the future and the Planning The CHARLESTON REPORT Committee is developing a remembrance for Scott at this year’s institute. We hope Business Insights into the Library Market that friends and colleagues will share their memories of Scott on our website at http:// acquisitionsinstitute.org/2018/03/29/remem- You Need The Charleston Report... bering-scott-alan-smith/. if you are a publisher, vendor, product developer, merchandiser, Innovative Interfaces kicked off IUG consultant or wholesaler who is interested in improving 2018, the 26th Innovative Users Group (IUG) Conference held in Orlando, FL. For and/or expanding your position in the U.S. library market. four days, 650 library professionals from ten countries around the world will gather to par- 00 ticipate in more than 100 sessions presented Subscribe today at our discounted rate of only $75. by colleagues and Innovative staff. Mark Strang, IUG chair and manager, Library Infor- mation Technology Services for University Li- The Charleston Company braries, Bowling Green State University will 6180 East Warren Avenue, Denver, CO 80222 begin the conference with opening remarks. R. David Lankes, director of the University Phone: 303-282-9706 • Fax: 303-282-9743 of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science, will deliver the keynote continued on page 34 Bet You Missed It Press Clippings — In the News — Carefully Selected by Your Crack Staff of News Sleuths Column Editor: Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus)
Editor’s Note: Hey, are y’all reading this? If you know of an article that should be called to Against the Grain’s attention ... send an email to
URBANE JAY MCINERNEY ON A AESTHETICS OF BOOK SHELVING FAMOUS WINE BOOK by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) Book spines in or out? Who knew there was a clash of opinions? Small, independent publisher North Point Press didn’t last long, Some decorators like spines in as they have multiple colors and don’t but it championed literary cult writers James Salter, Beryl Markham, match the rest of the room’s décor. Plus you can create a sculptural and Evan S. Connell. And thirty years ago, it published wine importer effect by putting some vertical, some horizontal. Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route. Still wildly popular It does present a practical problem in selecting a book. And those with wine lovers, it is now published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. who like to peruse books in other people’s homes draw a big blank. Lynch was a Berkeley hippy writing for the Berkeley Barb when he Duke professor Henry Petroski says there is no right way. And took an interest in wine and opened a small shop. French imports were he’s written a book on the subject. limited to the Grandes Marques from Bordeaux when Lynch set out on a travelogue adventure through little celebrated regions. Before the 16th century, there were no printed titles on spines. And Medieval chained libraries had the pages out so He discovered unknown wines like Hermitage and the chains wouldn’t tangle — as one can see on Côte Rôtie and railed against homogenization of taste Game of Thrones. by corporate winemakers. Urging the French to respect their traditions, he calls Bordeaux “a land of façades.” If you’re picky about design, you can go to BooksbytheFoot.com and buy fifty feet of a color. He owns a house in the Bandol and continues to update his Baedeker. Piedmont: “In truffle season there is no Which in fact was the custom in wealthy home more delicious place. Look for old bottles of Barolo — libraries of the Gilded Age. the quality is quite high.” See — Khadeeja Safdar, “The Great Book- See — Jay McInerney, “Kermit’s Leap,” Town & shelf Debate,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 29, Country, March, 2018, p. 86. 2018, p.A1.
10 Against the Grain / April 2018
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Built on the Johns Hopkins University campus LONDON’S MOST BOOKISH QUARTER FAMOUS COMICS by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) A tour of the sights in Bloomsbury, London leads to Persephone Michael Tisserand, Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and Books, founded in 1998, specializing in “lost” or out-of-print books, White (2016) (African-American artist launched by William Randolph primarily by female interwar writers. 59 Lamb’s Conduit St., perse- Hearst. Oddly high-brow, attracting attention from lit crits, his language phonebooks.co.uk. compared to Joyce.); (2) Brian Walker, The Comics: The Complete See — Kate Maxwell, “Bloomsbury, Revisited,” The Wall Street Collection (2011) (Son of Mort Walker, creator of “Hi and Lois” and Journal, Dec. 30-31, 2017, p. D5. “Beetle Bailey.”); (3) David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts (2007) (The highly personal comic by a man often melancholy.); (4) Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993) (The theory of comics written and drawn as a comic strip.); (5) Lucien Musset, The Bayeux Tapestry (2002) (Yes, it’s the Bayeux Tapestry. But it relates Hastings as in a LET’S READ ABOUT GARDENS IN FICTION comic strip. Hal Foster of “Prince Valiant” cited it as a forerunner of by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) the comics of today.) Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853); (2) Giles Waterfield, The Long See — Cullen Murphy, “Five Best,” The Wall Street Journal, Afternoon (2000); (3) L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953); (4) Gi- Feb. 10-11, 2018, p.C10. (Murphy is the author of Cartoon County: orgio Bassani, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1962) (a celebrated My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe. It’s movie in the ’70s. Wealthy Italian Jews isolated from the world by both about his youth in Greenwich, Connecticut when every comic artist in fascists and middle-class Jews who resent their land ownership); (5) America lived there. Truly fascinating. No faxes, so they had to travel Elizabeth Bowen, Look At All Those Roses (1941). to NYC to show their work to The New Yorker et al. And Murphy drew “Prince Valiant” for 25 years.) See — Lucy Hughes-Hallett, “Five Best,” The Wall Street Jour- nal, Jan. 6-7, 2018, p.C10. (Hughes-Hallett is the author of the novel Peculiar Ground.) DOLL WARS by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) Ruth Handler and her husband founded Mattel in 1945. While AH, THE BRITISH UPPER CRUST. traveling Europe with her children Barbie and Ken (YES! Those were SETTLE IN FOR THE READ. their names), Ruth spotted a racy German doll Lilli. With Lilli as a by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) model, in 1959 she created “Barbie, Teen Age Fashion Model.” Mary S. Lovell, The Riviera Set (2017) (Yes, the old “sunny place The doll was actually designed by Jack Ryan, “world’s greatest for shady people” featuring the ones who passed through the Château swinger.” Ryan was married five times. Zsa Zsa Gabor divorced de l’Horizon.); (2) Ed. by Miles Jebb, The Diaries of Cynthia Gladwyn him saying she was unable to bear the fur-lined sex dungeon in his (1995) (wife of diplomat Gladwyn Jeb); (3) Ed. by Michael Block, Bel-Air mansion. Wallis and Edward: Letters 1931-1937 (1986) (“[S]ometimes excruci- Lilli sued Mattel; Mattel settled. Ryan sued Mattel; Mattel ating” intimate letters of David and Wallis as preserved by her French settled. Ryan had a stroke and then shot himself in the head. lawyer Suzanne Blum.); (4) Robert Harris, Selling Hitler (1986) (The Hitler diary hoax that made a fool of historian Hugh Trevor-Roper.); By the 1990s, Mattel was making a billion dollars annually from (5) Ed. by Duff Hart-Davis, King’s Counsellor: The Diaries of Sir Alan Barbie. Then came MGA’s Bratz dolls and their sales rapidly hit a Lascelles (2006) (Yes, you saw him in “The Crown” desperately striving billion a year as Barbie plummeted. to retain tradition. Who knew he kept waspish diaries?) See the current “Cases of Note” for the Mattel v. MGA litigation. See — Andrew Morton, “Five Best,” The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker has an exhaustive article on Barbie, intellectual March 24-25, 2018, p.C10. property law and the sociology of how Barbie, icon of post-war decades came to be derided as pornography and harmful to girls. Alex Kozinski, the presiding judge in Mattel v. MGA strongly be- lieved few things are actually original. Everyone builds on someone else’s work. Which is to say he didn’t think so many works should be BRIT MYSTERY CLASSICS tied up in copyright protection because it stifles competition. by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel, Emeritus) In 2004 Kozinski was rated No. 1 male Superhottie of the federal No one does it better. Settle in for the read. judiciary by legal-gossip blog Underneath Their Robes. He had a Josephine Tey, Miss Pym Disposes (1946) (Set in an elite girls’ website with porn on it, most notably some nude women on all fours physical education college.); (2) Margery Allingham, The Fashion painted as cows. in Shrouds (1938) (High-born detective Albert Campion’s sister in the The Washington Post reported allegations of sexual harassment by couture biz.); (3) Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase (1932) (Book 2 at least fifteen women. Kozinski resigned from the bench. in the trilogy of Lord Peter Wimsey courting Harriet Vane.); (4) Agatha See — Jill Lepore, “Valley of the Dolls,” The New Yorker, Jan. Christie, The Hollow (1946) (Hercule Poirot); (5) P. D. James, Devices 22, 2018, p.64. and Desires (1989) (Serial killer who whistles hymns. The church is a theme that runs through her books.). Future Dates for Charleston Conferences See — Laura Thompson, “Five Best,” The Wall Street Journal, March 2018 Conference 21-Apr. 1, 2018, p.C10. (Thompson Preconferences Nov. 5-6 — Vendor Showcase Nov. 6 — Main Conference Nov. 7-10 has a new book, Agatha Christie: A 2019 Conference Mysterious Life.) Preconferences Nov. 4-5 — Vendor Showcase Nov. 5 — Main Conference Nov. 6-9 2020 Conference Preconferences Nov. 2-3 — Vendor Showcase Nov. 3 — Main Conference Nov. 4-7
12 Against the Grain / April 2018
Transforming Library Vendor Relations: Turning Relationships into Partnerships by Barbara Kawecki (Director of Customer Retention, Western U.S. GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO)
Why Partnerships and “Partnering” Matter Secondly, while Yankee Book Peddler’s founder John Secor always upheld the you might be an vision that “partnering” was a critical strategy for success in our rapidly expert on your li- changing environment. What that meant was that, as a company, we brary, vendors have had to take moving beyond the traditional “arm’s length” library-vendor a much broader view of trends and directions in our market. As an relationship pretty seriously. Collaboration with both our library cus- example, in the normal course of the year, a vendor representative tomers and with our publishers and later with our aggregator partners may get to visit all shapes and sizes of academic libraries in a large, was key to our survival. In a 1998 Against the Grain article, Secor multi-state territory. You might say it gives them a 35,000 foot view envisioned our library/vendor supply chain as a circle: given how often they may be on a plane, but what this also provides for that representative is an opportunity to have their finger on the In the middle are libraries. Around the edges are those orga- pulse of what is happening with library budgets, workflows and new nizations that develop, produce, and deliver the products and directions in that region. Vendors can be a great source of information services that libraries buy; publishers; book and periodical on what might be happening in terms of initiatives, jobs, consortia ac- vendors; bibliographic utilities; system providers; etc. The tivities, and various cutting-edge projects. Your vendor representative library is closest to its customers and sees the services being may be able to put you in touch with or network you into exactly the used. It also has a sense of the evolving customer expectations. person you need to talk to about a project or problem that you may The organizations around the edges are closer to the horizon and be trying to solve. clearly see innovative ways to deliver information. And while we will always, I think, be more independent than interdependent, Partnerships with libraries, publishers and other vendors like OCLC we must learn to collaborate. (Secor, p. 72.) or eBook aggregators in our sector are more important than ever before. As a vendor tries to bring a new product or service to market, not under- The scholarly communication/library/publishing ecosystem today, is standing the needs of your customers can be both costly and sometimes one where we all depend upon each other for success. As Carlson states fatal so input along the way is critical to the success of that process. “it is vital that libraries and vendors recognize our mutual dependency” Partnering with libraries for customer-driven development allows us (Carlson, p.8.). This mutual dependency provides many opportunities to help you better meet your patrons’ needs and ultimately makes us a for libraries and for library vendors to partner together to design products better supplier, and partner to our libraries. and services that enrich our market, take advantage of new advances in technology and to provide industry-wide acquisition practices that Elements of Effective Partnerships ultimately meet our patrons’ or the end user’s needs. Sometimes a library approaches us as a vendor with an idea for For vendors to provide the most valuable products and services to a project and sometimes we approach them based on what we know libraries, they must have a thorough understanding of the issues and about their interests and workflows. At the end of the day, it is critical problems that libraries face today. While direct communication is crit- that there be a shared vision and common goals in working together. ical, vendors also need to employ staff who have been on the front lines We may be developing a product or service and need confirmation (or in the back rooms) in libraries, whether that be at the Reference desk, that we are moving in the right direction, so we may ask libraries as a Collection Development or Acquisitions or as a Systems Librarian. to be part of an ad hoc focus group or to participate in a conference Having experienced librarians on staff, who are able to engage in the call to discuss the pain points of a certain workflow. One of my col- complex conversations required today, allows a vendor critical insight leagues calls these “pop-up groups” where we might gather a group of into the very market that we are trying to serve. librarians together to look at a particular project. Longer term, many Between EBSCO Information Services and GOBI Library Solu- vendors use advisory boards to drive and shape the direction of their tions from EBSCO (formerly YBP Library Services/Yankee Book development. These tend to be much longer-term commitments for Peddler) we currently employ over 225 librarians in a variety of roles librarians and since these boards are privy to information that may from sales to product management to collection development to train- not be public yet, the advisory board members may be asked to sign a ing. Employing librarians gives vendors an edge as they have inside non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prior to accepting the appointment. knowledge and understanding of the current initiatives, challenges and Partnering with a vendor is also an opportunity to be on the cutting environment that libraries operate in today. This allows a vendor to be a edge of new products and services and sometimes there are financial much more valuable partner to our libraries because of this background incentives for being a development partner or beta library. It is also and expertise. In essence, vendors that employ librarians can talk the an opportunity to shape a product or service in a way that really fits or talk because they have been on both sides of the table. enhances your library’s workflow. When entering into these partner- ships, it is important to understand that vendors are for-profit entities. Why Partnering Makes Sense for They need to make money to be able to maintain and reinvest in their Libraries and for Vendors business and in order to fund new development for future library prod- Why would partnering with a vendor make sense for a library? One ucts and services. reason is economies of scale…vendors can develop software, products and services faster, cheaper and more efficiently than a library could Benefits of Collaboration on its own. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Integrated Li- A successful partnership provides mutual benefits for both the library brary System (ILS) or Library Services Platform (LSP) sector of our and the vendor. The library benefits from the expertise, resources and industry. When I began my career as a librarian, there were lots of economies of scale that a vendor can offer, while the vendor benefits from libraries, primarily large ARLs or consortia who had developed their the perspective and workflow knowledge that the library can provide. own home-grown ILS systems, highly customized and built just for As with any collaboration, library/vendor partnerships certainly their workflow. Those systems are almost unheard of today. What benefit from having things in writing. This allows both parties to iden- many of these libraries discovered was that the staff to support and tify common goals, clarify roles within the partnership and to outline maintain these systems was too expensive and it was ultimately more responsibilities and expectations. In the case of projects, it may also cost effective to purchase a turn-key system than to try and build and allow an outline of deadlines, implementation dates and benchmarks. maintain one on your own. continued on page 15 14 Against the Grain / April 2018
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Transforming Library Vendor ... from page 14 Author Bio Barbara Kawecki, Director of Customer Retention, is responsible for the man- One of the benefits of collaboration for agement and growth of GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO business throughout a library is the agility with which vendors the western U.S. Barbara has more than 25 years of experience selling information can move. Generally, once something is products and services into the academic library market. She has served at GOBI Li- on a vendor’s development schedule, they brary Solutions as Senior Digital Content Sales Manager in the Western U.S. from can move forward pretty quickly, building 2010 to 2013 and prior to that worked as a Senior Collection Development Manager in functionality that meets the needs of their the same territory from 2006 to 2010. She also had a previous position with Yankee development partners. Book Peddler, serving as a Territory Sales Manager from 1990 to 1992 and in between Building a Partnership she spent 13 years working as an Academic Sales Representative and Account Services Manager at EBSCO. Barbara’s professional experience includes working as the Law Once a library and a vendor have committed Librarian at the El Paso County Law Library in Colorado Springs and as both an to building a partnership, it is critical to docu- Acquisitions/Collection Development Librarian and Reference/Circulation Librarian at ment the scope of the relationship or project. Colorado College, also in Colorado Springs. Barbara earned her B.A. in history from As an academic bookseller, one of the best Alfred University in New York, and her M.L.I.S. from the University of Denver. examples of this kind of documentation is the GOBI Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which is, in essence, a profiling document that we develop with a library to outline all of the various components of an approval or working closely with their faculty. The devel- Ending a Partnership notification plan. “At its core, the approval opment of the profile is a collaboration between Why do partnerships end? Sometimes a plan is also a man-made process rooted in the library and the vendor that requires much project is completed or just reaches its log- communication between vendors and librarians initial communication and should be updated ical conclusion, but other times both parties on the one end and faculty and librarians on the as collecting strategies evolve. realize that problems are insurmountable and other end, and everyone is expected to deliver Documentation also allows both the library they need to part ways. Again, it is critical their expertise in this process so that the right and the vendor to clarify roles and expectations to understand that we operate in a very small books end up in the right libraries” (Roncevic, within the scope of the project, with implemen- ecosystem. Don’t burn bridges. Ending a p.7.). The result is a complex and precise set of tation timelines and benchmarks built into the partnership should be as professional and instructions that tell the story of that library’s process. Frank and honest communication only graceful as possible. Documenting the con- collection development goals. The profile itself serve to make the project more successful for clusion of a partnership is just as important becomes a living, breathing documentation of both parties. This documentation can be shared so that all stakeholders can learn from the the collection development strategy of each with all stakeholders and can be reviewed and process. Keep the door open for future con- library and of each selector, who in turn are revised as circumstances dictate. continued on page 16
Against the Grain / April 2018
he history of libraries and vendors estab- As electronic resources became the pre- To develop and adjust services like patron lishing mutually beneficial partnerships ferred method of content delivery, approv- driven acquisitions, it is very advantageous for Tlikely extends to the beginning of printed al-style plans evolved into patron driven libraries and vendors to find ways to develop word. Over the centuries, libraries have pri- acquisitions models in which patron usage partnerships that allow for communication in marily relied on booksellers to provide printed determines purchases. Under these models, li- an open and honest, yet confidential, manner. content to expand their collections. Vendors braries pay for titles when a patron “triggers” a One such well-established and highly success- and libraries still have this collection building purchase by accessing the content. The result is ful informational partnership configuration is relationship, but the digital age has allowed a that libraries can provide just-in-time access to the library advisory board. An advisory board proliferation of partnership avenues that were useful content instead of building just-in-case is a group of librarians recruited by the vendor not available in the past. Typically, viable part- collections that might never see any circulation. to provide reviews and recommendations on nerships are those that provide mutual benefits Again, some librarians had concerns that li- the company’s current and future products that are likely to exceed costs incurred and brary collections would suffer and costs would and services. Members of the boards agree risks taken. This article will touch on various spiral out of control. In some instances, librar- to refrain from outside discussion of the items partnerships that have formed between libraries ies did end up very quickly running through all discussed. Advisory boards can be formed and vendors and the benefits that result. the money budgeted for the plan. As a result, around specific products or online platforms, Arguably, the modern era of library/vendor libraries and vendors worked together to tweak or they can be more generally applied to the partnerships was ushered in by the advent of the plans in ways that decreased the likelihood overall business of the vendor. Obviously, the approval plan in the early 1960s. Using of over spending. They increased the threshold the benefit to the vendor is obtaining valuable approval plans, vendors could identify and for purchase triggers, more closely selected ideas and feedback from their customers. The ship desirable books as they were published the titles available through the plan, allowed participating librarians have the advantage of by matching the content of the book with libraries to review titles before purchasing, directly influencing the products and services computer-based subject profiles that had and introduced short-term loans for a prede- that will be offered in the future. been previously established with the library. termined number of initial triggering events. Beta testing relationships go beyond the Approval plans seem passé compared to the These measures were very successful at advisory board’s informational model by patron driven, just-in-time access arrange- cutting cost, maybe too successful. Publishers having libraries collaboratively involved in ments that many libraries employ today, but and vendors felt that the rates being assessed the development of new vendor products and the introduction of this type of partnership was for short-term loans were cutting into revenues services. These arrangements are typically radical for its time. Many librarians posited more than was healthy for their finances. As a initiated by a vendor who is developing a that the approval plans would negatively im- result, many participating publishers decided product, for instance a new online platform. pact library collections and ultimately harm to raise the loan rates, institute embargos on The vendor will provide the library with in- the profession. new titles (typically 12-18 months before formation and access to the product for “real Fortunately, library collections and librar- available for short-term loan), or completely world” testing. The library spends time using ianship fared well with the acceptance and disallow short-term loans. With these changes the nascent product and providing feedback expansion of approval plans. The benefits to some librarians felt that they had been duped regarding which aspects are working and de- libraries of this arrangement included increased by publishers, while publishers felt that they sirable, and which features should be altered, delivery speed and decreased operating costs. were making necessary adjustments to stay in revamped, or scrapped entirely. Libraries can The plans also benefited book suppliers who business. There are still some hard feelings also provide enhancement suggestions for received a more predictable income stream on both sides of this issue, but the larger point missing functionality that could add to the based upon the somewhat static profiles. In is that vendors were willing to work with li- usability of the product. this case, the benefits outweighed the costs. brarians on new purchasing models that, like The process of beta testing requires time Once the model was proven, anxiety regard- the book approval plans that proceeded them, and effort on the part of both parties, but ing the health of both the collections and the changed the method and means of collection the end-results can be products and services profession abated. development going forward. that are more useful upon release. Because product development in a competitive envi- ronment involves issues of financial outlay and intellectual property, it is customary that Routledge. Co-published as (2006) Journal a formal contractual agreement is created for Transforming Library Vendor ... of Library Administration 44 (3/4). the protection and direction of both parties. from page 15 Secor, John R. (1998). “Inside Pandora’s With the amount of time invested and money Box — Partnering: A Powerful “What to Do” at stake, it is always advisable to delineate versations and engagements. We all under- Management Tool or Just Another Fad?” the exact roles and responsibilities for all stand that our evolving market includes the Against the Grain 10 (1), Article 28. DOI: participants. No one wants to invest a large introduction of new and innovative business https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.3307 amount of time and effort only to experience models and we are all actively evaluating Roncevic, M. (2017). “The Approval Plan: later disappointment stemming from differing trends for viability and new opportunities. A Sorting Hat That Discovers the Right Books expectations. In addition to the benefits of an We are all in this together. for the Right Libraries.” No Shelf Required. improved vendor product, the agreement will April 12, 2017. http://www.noshelfrequired. often stipulate the financial benefits (i.e., price References com/the-approval-plan-a-sorting-hat-that- breaks upon product release) realized by the Carlson, D. and Brooks, S. (2006). Li- discovers-the-right-books-for-the-right-li- library as a result of their efforts. brary/Vendor Relationships. New York: braries/ continued on page 18
16 Against the Grain / April 2018
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LEARN MORE spiedl.org Library-Vendor Partnerships ... from page 16 Author Bio J. Michael (Mike) Thompson, Assistant Director for Library Collections Services While advisory boards and beta testing at Baylor University, has served as an academic librarian for the last 18 years. After relationships are initiated by a vendor to help graduating with an MLS from the University of Texas, he began his professional career guide their product range, user groups are as the Copy Cataloging Manager at the University of Houston (UH) in 2000. In 2005, formed by librarians themselves around a he moved from Cataloging to Acquisitions at UH and was appointed to head the depart- specific provider’s products. Two well-known ment in September 2006. He began his current position at Baylor during the Spring user groups have formed around the library sys- Term of 2017. Mike has presented at the national, state, and local levels throughout tems provided by Innovative Interfaces (the his career. He has served on numerous state and national committees, interest groups, Innovative Users Group) and Ex Libris (Ex etc. He is currently serving as chair of TLA E-SMART and as a member of the LITA Libris Users of North America). Like advisory 2018 Program Planning Committee. boards, the members of user groups can influ- ence the enhancement of existing products and the development of new offerings. However, advisory boards have a much narrower focus means to automate email list administration. These systems were developed by partnered than user groups. Later generations of the program were utilized libraries who paid developers to create the User groups strive to form a community widely during the heyday of the electronic systems based upon their specifications. Once focused on serving the users of a product. As mailing list.) created, the code of the system was released a community, the group will foster communi- Currently, using crowdsourcing to bring to the open web. An important expectation cation between members, serve as a clearing- people together has gained wide popularity of utilizing these systems is to share new house for information about the product, and across society, including among librarians and developments with the community of users serve as a mouthpiece to bring issues before vendors wanting to address library issues and and developers. the company itself. It is not unusual for sub- initiatives. In many cases, these partnerships In another instance, a group of academic groups to be formed to address specific items are informal and inclusive to any who wish to and resource libraries interested in the de- of interest regarding the product. Although participate. For instance, mashups and hack- velopment of open source tools for libraries much of the work typically happens online, athons have provided an outlet for partnerships decided to band together to form the Open user groups often have an annual meeting that to develop. These short-term groupings aid in Library Environment (OLE). In 2008, this draws members together to share information, fulfilling specific needs. Librarians and others group began working on an open source library formulate proposals, and similar activities set aside a period of time to work together system called Kuali OLE which was released in related to the product. to resolve issues or develop new products/ 2014. In 2016, the OLE group decided to shift Although the user group is formed and processes. Often, these groups disband after their efforts toward working with the FOLIO populated by librarians, a mutually beneficial achieving their agreed upon goal or project. Community to create a new open source library relationship exists as the group is used as an Vendors are also utilizing online forums to services platform. information conduit between the library and crowdsource product develop and information The FOLIO initiative builds upon the the vendor. Again, vendors will benefit from distribution. For instance, Ex Libris hosts direction championed by the OLE group. the input provided by the group regarding an online Developer Network which serves However, FOLIO is differentiated from earlier their products and services. The librarians can as a center for customers (i.e., librarians) and open source efforts because it was launched collectively suggest improvement to current internal developers to submit and retrieve code with the aid of corporate support through a products and advocate for future services. The that enhances API functionality. The network multimillion-dollar contribution from EBSCO librarians also benefit from the knowledge and is also used to exchange information and advice Information Services. Although EBSCO is experience of fellow members. about Ex Libris products. Allowing libraries providing significant funding support for the The utilization of crowdsourced solutions is to directly interact with data in the system project, their ultimate goal is not a proprietary another form of partnerships. Crowdsourcing through customizable API functionality and system that they own and control. Rather, the involves a community of creators and users share the solutions with others is tremendously goal of FOLIO is similar to that of OLE, to joining together to develop new solutions beneficial to the entire community. partner with libraries and developers to create and/or improve existing ones. An early form While the Developer Network is an ef- an open source, multi-tenant library system of crowdsourcing occurred with the advent of fective example of crowdsourcing, it does that permits the introduction of externally-de- electronic mailing and distribution lists, often not represent a shared responsibility for the veloped modules and applications to enhance referred to as listservs. Listservs gained in pop- development of the overall system. There are and customize functionality via APIs. ularity with the spread of email communication other groups that are striving to create entire EBSCO is not the only commercial in the 1990s. Subscribers to the listserv could systems through crowdsourcing in an open vendor supporting this venture. Companies submit messages and other subscribers would environment. Integrated library systems such such as Index Data, ByWater BiblioLabs, reply with solutions, advice, etc. (LISTSERV as Koha and Evergreen were created original- and SirsiDynix are working with the other is actually the name of a specific product that ly by specific groups and are intended to be members of FOLIO by providing seed code, was originally conceived in the mid-1980s as maintained and enhanced via crowdsourcing. hosting services, product development, and other forms of project support. With the backing of these vendors and various library and development partners, totaling over 20 Author Bio organizations globally, FOLIO is developing Carol Seiler, MLS, has been with EBSCO as an Account Services Manager for over quickly with a beta release scheduled for 11 years total. Carol has worked within or for libraries for many years with experience mid-2018. in public, medical, and academic libraries. Most recently she was the Technical Ser- With the impending release of the beta vices trainer at the Amigos consortia (creating and providing training as well as online version, the community is now making efforts conferences) and prior to that was Associate Director for Baylor College of Dentistry/ to develop an online hub, currently dubbed the Baylor Health Care System (a split between a hospital system and a dental school). FOLIO Marketplace, for the exchange of best She is a certified Serials Holdings trainer with SCCTP (Serials Cataloging Cooperative practices, development ideas, and software Training Program) as well as CHIS (Certified Health Information Specialist) withMLA applications (both commercially-produced and (Medical Library Association). free of charge). As with the other aspects of continued on page 19
18 Against the Grain / April 2018
FOLIO, the success of the Marketplace will Relationship from the Flip Side depend upon the support of the participants. Though not all of the wider library community by Ashley Fast Bailey (MLIS, Director Collection Development and Workflow has been convinced of FOLIO’s viability, if ul- Solutions, Midwestern and Southeastern U.S., GOBI Library Solutions) timately successful, the FOLIO initiative could
Against the Grain / April 2018
20 Against the Grain / April 2018
The Myth of the Tough Negotiator by Georgie Donovan (Associate Dean for Collections and Content Services, William & Mary Libraries)
ecently, I have seen more and more of have better deals than others have, but know relationships with librarians are positive and a new attitude in library literature: that less about all of the factors why. Pricing is friendly. Not being nice enough does not seem Rlibrarians must strive to be tougher often determined by Carnegie class, full-time to be our problem. However, this does not negotiators, willing to be more adversarial equivalent student count (FTE), materials automatically mean that we are being overly and push harder at the negotiating table. My budget, and past spend. Other strategies can nice and therefore getting cheated. colleagues and I in the state of Virginia have help improve prices, such as the bundling of My next question asked what qualities they been looking harder at our big deals, as seems resources (buy several things from a vendor especially appreciate in their customers. I often to be the case in the entire country based on the in a single year, and the discount increases for strive to be honest to the point of bluntness remarkable number of webinars and articles in each product), the timing of purchases, and about the budget situation of the libraries the past year on the same topic. We must be making collective purchases when multiple and our need for specific resources. I try to tougher and stronger and willing to cancel and institutions buy at the same time. be curious and ask lots of willing to assume a winner-takes-all approach Yet the role of negotiation and questions. I try to praise to our negotiation with what is now described relationship building also plays the product and our need for more openly as the enemy: commercial pub- a significant part. It is difficult it, rather than denigrating it. lishers. One recent article I read described to ascertain to what mea- Playfulness is a helpful tool the necessary tone we should aspire to in ne- sure this negotiation affects to both learn what is possible gotiating with such gendered terms that by the terms and pricing. We and to ask for what seems end of the paper I was sure the author would already know that, when impossible. Many books and recommend testosterone shots as the proposed negotiating license terms articles have informed my solution. The gist of the argument was that our with a vendor, sometimes negotiation style, includ- only power was in being more adversarial and simply requesting specif- ing Getting More: How to willing to walk away entirely from content ic provisions or striking Negotiate to Achieve Your when the provider does not meet our demands, through problematic lan- Goals in the Real World; or perhaps regardless of demands, since the guage with a fuller explanation Getting to Yes: Negotiating current conception of the big deal is so negative of why helps warrant better terms in the final an Agreement Without Giving In; and Crucial that it is seen as a great failure when a school contract. Why would that type of clarity, Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes returns to a big deal after having lost the moxie honesty, explanation, and communication not Are High. Somewhere in the mix are lessons they summoned to cancel it in the first place. warrant better pricing as well? learned from watching my dad who never pays This well-meaning advice for us to be The belief in our field is that a “hard ne- full price for anything and Julia Sugarbaker stronger and tougher in negotiating often rubs gotiating stance” is what leads to better deals. on Designing Women whose southern style was me the wrong way. Sometimes, I bristle at the Roger Schonfeld (2017), in his Red Light, funny and honest concurrently. notion that heads of collections in particular Green Light issue brief, states, “The strongest These qualities were not always exactly are not already smart, prepared, and effective negotiating position arises from being fully what most of my sales colleagues cited as negotiators. Having worked in several state prepared to walk away from the negotiating their favorite foundational attributes among and regional consortia, I know many of my table” (pg. 4). One of the most illuminating their customers. Though everyone was quick colleagues in the collections world and know studies of cost disparities in journal bundles to point out that they enjoy working with all what informed, clear negotiators they are and across state-funded universities was conduct- types of people, I prodded them to learn what how knowledgeably they employ strategies ed by Bergstrom, Courant, McAfee, and they most appreciate. for maximizing the content they get for every Williams (2014). They were able to delve • Honesty came up time and time dollar spent. The current state of immeasurable into the actual prices paid for journal bun- again. If the library has no intention resources and unsustainable inflation cannot dles by issuing Freedom of Information Act of purchasing a service or resource, be blamed on the weakness of our collections (FOIA) requests across the country. Their being forthcoming is always best. librarians. A great deal of knowledge about us- research showed significantly different terms “I don’t want someone to pretend to age habits, the needs of the faculty and student and pricing across schools for which FTE or be interested in something because community, the cataloging and technological other quantitative factors could not account. they don’t want to hurt my feelings” interoperability of different products, and the The authors conclude that the “likely key to stated one rep. Equally important is wide variety of pricing, licensing, and platform this success was a hard bargaining stance ac- telling the vendor when something is models informs the negotiation conducted by companied by a credible contingency plan of great — even if that great service is collections librarians. I have yet to meet a action in case big deals were not achieved” (pg. from a different vendor. One of my weak or milquetoast collections negotiator, and 9429). Though I readily trust their data, I be- vendor friends was surprised during when buttressed by experience and wisdom lieve it is an unproven assumption that “hard” a recent merger that many of her about the publishing world, a lack of strength and “strong” are the most helpful approaches, contacts and clients had been using a is not the reason we have high prices in the nor do I believe that a visible readiness to end competitor’s services so extensively; e-resources world. negotiations if terms are not met is the most why had the customer split their pur- However, more than the critique of negoti- useful tool librarians have. chasing over similar vendors when ating style, I simply disagree with the advice. I I recently emailed three questions to over they could have advocated for better think it is hard to make the case that a tougher, a dozen vendor representatives whom I know or different services from one or the more adversarial stance during negotiation or have worked alongside previously. I asked other? One tenet I have found true leads to a better outcome. In fact, I believe them first whether I was relatively easy to is that the more information that the that creativity, flexibility, listening, and trying work with as a customer/client. I wanted to representative has about my budget to understand the vendor’s goals helps lead not make sure that I was appropriately confident situation, deadlines, interest, and only to a positive long-term relationship, but about my own professional relationships be- needs, the more armed they are to to better pricing and terms. fore giving anyone advice about negotiation. go to bat for me with their vice pres- This premise would be difficult to prove. Evidently, I am easy enough to work with, but idents and directors of sales. The We are aware of the fact that some libraries everyone was quick to say that most of their continued on page 23
22 Against the Grain / April 2018
Against the Grain / April 2018
artnerships, like any relationship, require an existing relationship and connect a librarian level as the library in that it is not expected care and attention to ensure that there is a to other individuals or facets of an organization. that the vendor always pays. It is also good Pproductive relationship. Often it is not the Thomas notes there are a variety of ways that for a librarian to communicate what they can funding nor technology that breaks a relation- librarians can demonstrate commitment to a or prefer to the vendor. A librarian who feels ship but the human interactions that can fail and vendor including working on product develop- uncomfortable meeting a vendor over dinner ruin the partnerships. Stamison, et al., note that ment, participating in user groups, providing might state her/his personal belief and suggest the vendor market is a “relationship market” references to potential customers, and serving that they meet at another time. Vendors will and care needs to be given for interpersonal on advisory boards (2013, p. 4). Of course, respect the personal preferences or organiza- relationships (2009, p. 144). Brooks notes that librarians should only serve in this capacity as tional guidelines but they may need to be aware the relationship between librarians and vendors their organization permits or within the comfort so that vendors do not push or get offended if is different from most customer relationships zone of the librarian. a librarian constantly declines. because “the staff of the library is most often Often with public organizations, there Regardless of who pays, librarians need not the end-user” and the working relationship are considerations regarding vendor gifts or to remember that social visits or meals are between vendors and librarians can positively donations. Librarians need to follow state still work and should conduct themselves ac- impact the patron services (2006, p.1). This or organizational guidelines such as restric- cordingly. If a librarian is consuming alcohol, special relationship depends on strategies to tions on gift size or reporting. There may be moderation is key if nothing else, avoiding ensure effective communication and results. additional library or personal guidelines for agreement to a high price! Seriously, this is As the parameters of a partnership are a librarian such as a restriction on meals or a working meal or event and professionalism determined, the participating organizations acceptance of gifts including is still to be maintained. There should determine who would be best to lead tickets to an event. Such should not be an expectation or facilitate the partnership. These individuals considerations are the that the vendor pays and ap- should be supportive of the partnership and foundation for inter- preciation for the event or committed to the goals of the project. One acting with vendors meal should be expressed. might assume that project participants are in social situations. Ensuring that the host is supportive but sometimes partnerships struggle Within the business thanked is common when participants are unsure of a project or do world, vendors are ex- courtesy including not agree with the initiative. Gagnon considers pected to host clients thanking the host at the the relationship between vendors and librarians as a way to facilitate event and a follow-up an important investment that “involves building a relationship. This is thank you email or a relationship between the key library staff and quite different from the public sector so deter- note depending on the situation would be the key people within the vendor’s organization mining what works well for an individual or appreciated by the vendor. Before accepting a to foster understanding, improve service, and a library might require some discussions and gift or attending a social event, librarians need identify areas of mutual concern and benefit agreements. to be aware of their organizational guidelines, (2006, p. 96). The success of the collaboration Many librarians have personal standards local practices, and personal comfort level in depends on having individuals who share the for vendor social functions and gifts that range addition to showing appreciation to the vendor. goals of the relationship. In addition to having from no gifts and meals to eat everything that is Every relationship experiences problems buy-in, the right positions should be considered on the table! Typically librarians are thoughtful and while the communication plan should help so that a technology project includes techno- about what is acceptable for them personally resolve issues that does not always happen. logical experts or a data management initiative which can guide their decisions. The goal is Ideally, problems should be identified, report- includes librarians with experience in managing to ensure that the librarian is not influenced by ed, discussed, and resolved at the time that they datasets. Additionally, management, leader- the acceptance of a gift or meal. Particularly occur. Solving the problem as close to the time ship, and interpersonal skills may be required for meals, the conversation during the meal that it occurred helps in the specificity of the so that there is expertise in budget oversight, can be instrumental to building the relationship details with the individuals who were involved. facilitation techniques, or conflict management and resolving issues. Social situations may Documenting the problem including the details depending on the needs of the group. Typically enable librarians to know company individu- and individuals involved will help should the successful partnerships are based on a mix of als or to network within the hierarchy of the problem continue or repeat. The details will skills and abilities that facilitate a project so care organization such as the CEO who otherwise also be useful should one of the partners need should be taken in the selection of individuals might be difficult to meet. Referring to “big- to escalate the issue in order to seek a resolu- who can advance the goals. wigs,” Gagnon identifies vendor receptions as tion. “Sometimes library staff seem to expect In undertaking a partnership, the commu- golden opportunities to speak with company vendors to be psychic and understand needs nication patterns should be established such as representatives about general concerns that and frustrations that actually have not been the frequency, regular meetings, how to report otherwise might not receive attention (2006, communicated. This is unfair and not useful… problems, negotiate conflicts, and who should p.100). Finding the balance between being service cannot improve without constructive be included in meetings and communication. purely social and purely work enables vendors feedback” (Stamison, et al., 2009, p. 143). Establishing the patterns in the beginning and librarians to foster the relationship that may Many vendors have a problem reporting tool forms expectations by the participants and lead to addressing issues and strengthening the or customer service issues. Unless the com- serves as the basis for resolving miscommu- collaboration. munication plan guides otherwise, the problem nications. The communication agreement There are additional options between ac- reporting protocol not only ensures that the should be periodically reviewed as well as cepting and not accepting a meal. A librarian issue is reported but it is a documentation of updated when there are personnel changes. A might attend a meal but pay for her/his own the issues. When reporting, be specific as to the communication plan helps the flow of infor- meal. A librarian might host the meal paying details of the issue and note possible impacts mation among partners and should be used for the vendor. A common practice in my or- on library services. The reporting should also for reporting issues and resolving problems. ganization is that the library hosts the vendor provide the urgency or non-urgency of the As a partner, librarians are often asked to when they are visiting such as paying for the problem. This gives specific details to help contribute to vendor work in ways that are dinner or providing a lunch for the meeting. determine the priority of the problem. meaningful for the vendor. This may enhance The result is that the vendor is on the same continued on page 26
24 Against the Grain / April 2018
The Care and Feeding ... Consortial Partnerships with from page 24
Partners should have frequent and pro- Libraries and Vendors ductive communications but sometimes part- nerships run into problems when one partner by George Machovec (Executive Director, Colorado Alliance of Research fails to regularly communicate or ignores Libraries)
26 Against the Grain / April 2018
hen I got started in this industry a the 1850s at the amazing telegraph technology video-conferencing, screen sharing, and few decades ago (I often joke that it and how messages could zip around the world participant chat. But of the ones I’ve used, Wwas in a child labor camp, but alas, — no longer requiring the weeks or months only Adobe Connect doesn’t offer desirable it was my first job as a college freshman doing for delivery of letters via horse and/or boat. features such as calendar integration and video retrospective conversion or “recon”), online I’m confident that technology will im- recording. WebEx is the app most of us use collaboration tools were just emerging: email, prove our current tools — perhaps telepor- for everyday conferencing and demos, while the web, and fax machines were considered tation, holographs, internet-enabled “smart GoToMeeting is our choice for webinars and new and cutting-edge technologies. And like contacts” will make our current technology web events with a larger audience. GoTo- any new technology, the early iterations were seem primitive. But I do believe we live in Meeting is full-featured, but seems to be a bit clunky. I remember firing up my email and an age where participants in a project can be more complex for simple sessions with a few getting a cup of coffee while I waited for the truly unbound by physical location and even participants. That’s why our marketing team program to open. language boundaries to cooperate effectively has webinar hosts that control the software, As I moved up the ladder from a lowly on a desired outcome. while the participants do what they’re told: data entry technician (transcribing library I want to discuss three types of collabo- “click this button to unmute your mic and this cards into MARC) to a project manager, ration applications: conferencing, document button to share your screen.” my responsibilities required a significant collaboration, and prototyping. I will draw on WebEx, on the other hand, is quite accessi- amount of interaction with customers. For my own experiences in each area, but I have ble. It is easy to schedule a meeting in advance large projects, such as the recon of the Yale also done my homework, and I’ll point you to or to start an impromptu meeting, generating Beinecke rare book collection, multi-day some good resources for evaluating tools that a link that can be emailed to participants. It’s onsite meetings were imperative. The scope may work best for you. also easy for participants to join — not so for of work included taxing specifications such as Let’s start with conferencing. While video other apps I’ve used, which required desktop detailed instructions for handling hand-writ- conferencing is all the rage in many industries, downloads and confusing configuration options ten provenance notes on the backs of library I don’t believe it’s necessary or even desirable in order to join. Adobe Connect — when we cards. These notes involved abbreviations for every discussion. I think it’s helpful in used it a few years ago — was such a program. and shorthand that were often specific to the early stages of a partnership — although In many instances, participants simply could particular curators — different curators would an onsite meeting is usually the best option if not get the software to work, so I had to use use different abbreviations for the same thing. at all possible. But once trust and rapport is a shared WebEx account (we held onto an ac- Once the project began, I would communicate established, video calls are nice if the meeting count as a security blanket, even after Adobe several times per week with my project liaison is simply a discussion. But if you’re viewing Connect was mandated). at the library, often by faxing photocopies of slides or a demo, a video call only takes of WebEx also has easy-to-use features that card images with notes in question circled valuable screen space, in my opinion. Besides, allow you to pass “control” to any participant and annotated. We would have regular calls one of the wonderful benefits of remote con- for screen sharing. A host can also give other to discuss the faxes, and the whole process ferencing is that you can do it in your pajamas participants “mouse control” if you want to would sometimes take several days or weeks and you don’t have to comb your hair. allow a user to try something “hands-on.” for resolution. My company (SirsiDynix1) Session recording is simple: a link to the I think back to these early has used many conferencing recording is generated and emailed to the host days of my career, and I can’t tools over the years: Adobe after the session ends. image how I would cope with 2 3 Connect, WebEx, join. Join.me, in my opinion, is an effective and today’s job demands without 4 5 me, GoToMeeting, and very easy-to-use conferencing app. However, the high-tech tools that are 6 Skype are just a few. at the time my company used the app, there now available for project Currently, WebEx and were no telephone audio options included — it collaboration. I’m sure ev- GoToMeeting are our required voice-over IP (VOIP). This was a bit ery generation thinks the preferred apps. All of of a deal-breaker for us, as many of our presen- same thing: my ances- them offer the now-stan- tations and project meetings include multiple tors likely marveled in dard features: tele- and staff gathered around a star phone or some other speakerphone. Join.me has a free option that is quite full-featured and easy to use if you don’t have another conferencing account. I use it now and then for personal video conferences can sometimes be the most productive for with friends and family. Consortial Partnerships ... all parties. from page 27 Take a look at the Aug 2017 review from References PC Magazine for their ranking of conferenc- Conclusion Dean, Robin. “Shutting Down a Consor- ing applications.7 The article’s editors named Virtually all academic libraries belong to tial Digital Repository Service.” Journal of ClickMeeting with the Editor’s Choice award, one or more consortia which have become a Library Administration 56.1 (2016): 91-99. but I have no experience with this application. fundamental part of the library ecosystem. Frazier, Kenneth. “The Librarians’ Di- It’s worth checking out their review, which includes a good overview of the functionality Before launching a new project or licensing lemma: Contemplating the Costs of the ‘Big 8 a new product or service, most libraries Deal’.” D-Lib magazine 7, no. 3 (2001): 1-9. and several screenshots. should pause to consider whether collabo- doi: 10.1300/J123v48n01_06 Document collaboration applications are ration through the consortium would make Gatten, Jeffrey N., and Tom Sanville. not nearly as interactive or as compelling as sense or add value. Adding the consortium “An orderly retreat from the Big Deal.” D-Lib conferencing, but it is invaluable for effective between the library and vendor does add a Magazine 10, no. 10 (2004): 1082-9873. doi: project collaboration. Emailing documents layer of complexity, but these partnerships 10.1045/october2004-gatten continued on page 30
28 Against the Grain / April 2018
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AgainstTheGrain_Ad_080917.indd 1 8/9/17 10:58 AM Pajama Party ... from page 28 Author Bio Rick Branham, Vice President, Academic Library Initiatives back and forth and version control on those & Pre-Sales Solutions has almost three decades of experience documents are almost as passé and primitive with SirsiDynix including data migration, product management, as the fax machine. Using modern file sharing business development, marketing, and sales. He currently drives software, users can create and edit documents SirsiDynix’s vision and strategy for Academic libraries, and collaboratively — in real time — and can mark leads the Pre-sales Solutions group. Pre-Sales uses SirsiDynix up the documents with comments, references, software and its robust extensibility (through REST web services links, etc. and JavaScript, primarily) to create solutions for new customers. In my experience, Google’s G Suite9 (Docs, “There is no other industry I’d rather work in. I love the challenge of connecting cut- Sheets, and Slides) with Dropbox10 for cloud ting-edge technology with the needs of our passionate and intelligent customers.” storage has emerged as my favorite collabo- ration combo. To start off, let’s discuss cloud storage. As a global road warrior, I am con- stantly in different locations around the world bells and whistles. A recent review of these full of seemingly random buttons and menus, using different devices: laptop, tablet, smart top applications can be found in this January which varied from developer to developer. phone, customer’s desktop, hotel’s desktop 2018 review from PC Magazine.13 Another side benefit of prototyping soft- — you name it. Having all of my 300GB of The final category of collaborative tools ware like InVision is that it provides an early documents available to me from almost any lo- that are crucial to effective library-vendor view of forthcoming software that can be cation and any device is crucial. Furthermore, partnerships is Prototyping software. In my used to train staff: trainers, project managers, I’ve dealt with my share of hardware failures career, I have been involved in many partner- customer support, library partners, etc. This (I’ve been through 8 Microsoft Surfaces since ships with libraries that range from product allows for all relevant players to properly its release), and I would be dead in the water enhancements and feature development for an prepare for the eventual rollout of the soft- if I had to perform disk-to-disk transfers of existing application to new application devel- ware — no more last-minute scrambling to everything each time a machine failed me. By opment. My company has long used the Agile implement new features or apps. having all of my documents (including work 14 Development method, which is an iterative A good review of prototyping software documents, software downloads, pictures, and process in which a small subset of features is music) stored in Dropbox, changing devices is available from a popular UX blog called released on a recurring cycle — often monthly Prototypr.16 Make sure you don’t miss the is a nonevent. And if I show up at the office or bimonthly. With such a process, the ability without my laptop (as I’ve been known to do table towards the end with a comparison of to show the software to partners, even before key features among the top products. a few times), I can still access all of my files the code is actually written — is crucial to from my iPhone or iPad. If you made it to the end of this article — creating intuitive user interfaces. Back in the congratulations. I hope my experiences and The best part of using Dropbox for cloud stone age when I first started my career, our sometimes-rambling anecdotes will be useful storage is that I don’t have to attach anything product managers would hand draw “wire- to you as you collaborate with your vendor or to emails or texts. I can simply send the recip- frames” of the proposed user interface, which library partners. ients a Dropbox link: I’m not taking up mail would then be faxed to the team. Thankfully, server space and transmittal time, and I’m technology has made huge strides and now sending a link to the live document. If I make offers software for easy creation of clickable changes to the document, the link will take prototypes with the ability to comment on Endnotes the recipient to the latest, up-to-date version. each element on the screen. 1. http://www.sirsidynix.com/ 2. https://www.adobe.com/products/adobe File sharing and cloud storage are essential My company has used various prototyp- connect.html for document collaboration. While Dropbox 15 ing products, but has settled on InVision. 3. https://www.webex.com/ has decent tools for making comments on This web-based application allows our User 11 4. https://www.join.me/ existing MS Office documents, it has only Experience (UX) Engineers an easy tool for 12 5. https://www.gotomeeting.com/ (fairly) recently launched Paper, which al- creating each screen: buttons, drop-down lows for document collaboration. Meanwhile, menus, images, data wells — every element 6. https://www.skype.com/en/ I have become enamored with the Google G on a screen. The wireframes are interactive 7. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0, Suite of collaboration tools. The G Suite’s — designers create “actions” for each click 2817,2388678,00.asp applications, Docs, Sheets, and Slides are that advance to the next wireframe, thus 8. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0, 2817,2487371,00.asp an alternative to the MS Office suite: Word, emulating how the real software will look Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively. But and behave. Our UX team creates these 9. https://gsuite.google.com/ Google’s products have done a really good job detailed prototypes in conjunction with 10. https://www.dropbox.com/home of offering web-based editing and real-time the software Product Managers, based on 11. https://www.microsoft.com/office collaboration of documents, even those that the detailed functional specifications. The 12. https://paper.dropbox.com/ were “born” within Office. “working” prototypes are then reviewed 13. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0, In preparing for the Charleston Con- extensively with our library partners and 2817,2489110,00.asp ference presentation that spawned this other key stakeholders within the company. 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_ guest editing gig for Against the Grain, my The prototypes are repeatedly refined until software_development fellow collaborators and I used Docs and coding is ready to begin. 15. https://www.invisionapp.com/ Sheets to edit our presentation, and to chat I cannot overemphasize how this process 16. https://blog.prototypr.io/the-7-best- online (shown on the right-hand column prototyping-tools-for-ui-and-ux-designers- has streamlined the development process to in-2016-701263ae65e8 of the screen) as we edited. And we used produce software that is not only intuitive our marked-up presentation outline for our and easy to use, but that has customer buy- ATG podcast, complete with real-time chat in even before it’s released. The old days messages for encouragement and occasional of waterfall development entailed handing snarky comments. developers a huge stack of functional specifi- Since my colleagues and I have begun us- cations and leaving them to not only code the ing the G Suite, many new apps for document software but decide the best way to organize collaboration have emerged that are full of the screens. The end result was often a screen
30 Against the Grain / April 2018
any partnerships have a conclusion companies selling content, access, delivery, partnerships as to the relationship as the project is and management of information. The industry circumstances Machieved but some relationships has collapsed to such a degree that librarians may shift. En- have long term agreements. While we have are working with individuals who previously suring that estab- focused these articles on partnerships, a dis- worked at other companies. And librarians lished agreements are cussion regarding ending relationships can often switch libraries so while a librarian adhered to is a good foundation for effective apply to different types of relationships within might have a very close relationship with one relationships. Documentation throughout a librarianship. A partnership may end due to a company, in a few years, that librarian might partnership helps to guide the ongoing rela- variety of reasons — the project is completed, be working closely with a different company tionship as well as to document the conclusion. personnel change within partner organizations due to a professional change. It is a small in- Throughout a project or collaboration, that may shift the priorities, or changes in needs dustry and it behooves librarians and vendors partners need to approach the relationship in a occur requiring different solutions or partners. to not burn bridges as they end a relationship. professional manner which seems obvious but If the partnership has been effective for devel- In addition, a librarian who is successful with surprisingly, the vendor-library relationship oping a solution, the partnership may continue a partnership may either bring that relationship can be very negative in which librarians are but at a different level. The relationship may to a new position or start a similar project at suspicious of vendors and vendors are dis- also evolve from one of deep engagement to a another library. It makes sense that partners respectful of librarians. Understanding that typical vendor-customer relationship. Some understand that due to the size of the industry, close nature of the library industry and that partnerships just naturally cease so endings keeping the relationship on a professional level librarians and vendors are dependent on each are not always a negative parting but an evo- will serve all parties well in the future. other should guide the relationship. “All librar- lution of the relationship. In some cases, a If the relationship is ending due to difficulties ians have inherited various relationships with partnership fails and is no longer effective. The or disagreements, the partners hopefully have vendors, and their successors will inherit their failure may occur for a variety of reasons such documented the issues. This will aid the partners relationships. Because of this fact, librarians as unexpected costs, unrealistic expectations, in why the relationship is ending but may also be must take the long view…these relationships poor planning, non-delivery of services, lack of necessary if there are legal requirements. Even themselves should be considered an important communication, over expenditures of resources, with informal relationships, such documentation investment” (Thomas, 2013, p.4). While some etc. Regardless of why a relationship ceases, is helpful to brief others in the future as to the librarians are suspicious of the profit motive of there are some steps to take to end a partnership. cause of the dissolution. This may serve as a vendors and some vendors may not respect li- Hopefully when a partnership is not working lesson for future partnerships or provide mate- brarianship, respecting the roles of each partner well, steps to resolve problems have been taken. rials to prepare for a new partnership should the and valuing the expertise that each contributes These steps include working through situations project be restarted or a similar one considered. to an initiative will set a professional tone for as outlined in previous articles in this issue. If a Hopefully at the start of the relationship, the relationship that will serve the current relationship is on rocky ground, then attention details regarding ending a project or partner- collaboration and future endeavors. to resolving the situation is required. This ship are clearly stated. Details may include The ending of a negative relationship or a should be a professional approach document- notification of ceasing a partnership with a time failed project is discouraging for partners. But ing the problem, attempting with good faith frame such as six months or sixty days. The not all endings need to be disheartening — it to resolve differences, working through the details may also outline the specifics such as takes courage to try new endeavors and failures communication protocol to report and resolve notification to whom and how that notification can be learning experiences. The project may the situation. But if the partnership is no longer is to be provided. If there are assets, the division have been ahead of its time, the right people working or is no longer viable, then the partners of resources, payment, or other financial details may not have been involved, or it just did not should seek ways to effectively end the partner- should be outlined in the original agreement. If work. But learning from failure has its benefits. ship — just as the beginning is documented, the original agreement does not provide guide- What is more critical is the professional atti- the ending should also be a thoughtful process. lines for ceasing a relationship or if the project tude that guides all relationships. Focusing on Within librarianship, the vendor and library did not include a formal agreement, then care our future with partners who share our vision circle is quite small. The industry is small should be taken to consider the investment and will shape our services and together we will enough that it seems vendors and librarians any possible dispersal of assets. The details advance librarianship. know each other quite well. For partnerships should be documented and clearly communi- Within our industry, relationships are criti- and any type of relationships, the library cated so that all partners are informed — and cal to the success of our libraries. Vendors and industry is very familiar and becoming more hopefully in agreement. In unusual cases, legal librarians have shared interests in furthering so as the market sees further consolidation. action may be necessary. In such situations, access and use of information that contributes Instead of working with many integrated li- there usually is a legal office for libraries to to community dialogue and new knowledge. brary systems (ILS), librarians have just a few consult such as a city attorney or university le- The relationship between librarians and ven- options for managing internal operations. In gal counsel. Should one of the partners choose dors is vital to our mutual success. These addition some publishers are combining with legal action, then previous documentation is es- relationships depend on clearly articulated software companies and other services further sential. Understanding that need throughout the goals, agreements, strong communication, consolidating the marketplace with larger project is good stewardship even for successful and attention. When a relationship concludes, either by choice or circumstance, it is just as critical to conclude the relationship on the Author Bio same professional level as when it started. In Maggie Farrell is the Dean of Libraries at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA, so doing, librarians and vendors are modeling serving over 30,000 students in a diverse and energetic community. Previously, Maggie the very values of respect and professionalism was the Dean of Libraries at Clemson University and the University of Wyoming. Mag- that librarianship honors. gie also worked at Montana State University, the U.S. Government Printing Office, References Arizona State University, and Dalhousie University, Canada. Maggie earned an MPA Thomas, W. J. (2013). “A Beginner’s from Arizona State University and MLS from the University of Arizona. This varied Guide to Working with Vendors.” NASIG experience contributes to Maggie’s interest in library leadership and management. Newsletter: 28: 6, Article 5. https://tigerprints. clemson.edu/nasig/vol28/iss6/5
Against the Grain / April 2018
librarians and their academic colleagues. by managed and owned infrastructures source open collaborative, being into will and communication scholarly of tools the take to seeks that idealism quixotic a by linked are initiatives The open, but non-profit too.” be just shouldn’t cations communi “Scholarly ey, article by an references also he But now. for separately tions contribu- those tabulating infrastructure. He settles for open that building to organizations sible positive contributions of for-profit categorically refuse to consider the pos- to willing quite not he’s credit, his To conundrum. non-profit / for-profit contracts that reflect their values. on insist and providers” aligned “value with partner should librarians that gues ar and misalignment necessary no is there that maintains She on. head this disaffected for-profit company eager to partner with sye BowleyofU that their services “align with library with “align services their that insure them help to order in May last board advisory library a launched uity much moreintertwined. and resources of the various participants interests the and murkier is landscape But it obscures the reality that the actual satisfying. emotionally is that terrain the of view Manichean this to clarity a There’s open. of soul the for battle do ready,to the preparing at lances furled, un- banners other, the on particular) in projects funded Mellon Foundation out singles (he non-profits the and side for-profits gathering their forces on one the with battleground a as landscape communication scholarly the describes quite articulates why it should be so. He never he although determination, and legitimate pursuitofprofit.) distinction between rent-seeking and the “rent-seeking.” Economists make a clear pejorative the with making profit all that telling is (It ress.” prog- cooperative and edge-sharing, knowl- inquiry, unfettered like ideals corrodes rent-seeking restless market’s The life. academic of values core the with fundamentally, misaligned, is motive profit “the that belief his on rests and articulate case, which lengthy a makes Pooley In his essay, his In At the recent the At Pooley makes this claim with passion Jefferson Pool- customers) tackled customers) bepress meeting, ALA addresses the addresses Lewis (a (a Pressbiquity Pooley - 4
equates 5 Cheal- Ubiq- -
Without more resources, more Without wanted. customers his what of more doing keep to order in funding for tions that he went looking numerous public presenta- been at pains to express in has director, managing may have been have may bepress rapaciously Elsevier continued onpage 34 , the , Ubiquity bepress bepress bep-
way they want the world to be, but they don’t Op Ed — Epistemology have a strategy for getting from here to there. Endnotes from page 32 The vision is the right one, the way it ought to 1. Lewis, David W. “The 2.5% Commit- be. So it must come to pass. ment.” September 11, 2017. http://doi. One can be firmly committed to the princi- Because the Penn librarians don’t want org/10.7912/C2JD29 ples of open access and still comfortable with to engage with the commercial interests they 2. Toward A Scholarly Commons. https:// the notion of a publisher generating profits for despise, they are at risk of implementing a scholarlycommons.net/ making it happen. There’s no necessary con- solution that is not the best one for the mem- 3. Operation beprexit: Documenting Penn tradiction. So the values being expressed by libraries’ journey toward open source repos- bers of their community. They would argue, itory solutions. https://beprexit.wordpress. those who want to drive commercial companies I presume, that the greater interest of building out of scholarly communication altogether com/ a non-profit ecosystem outweighs any com- 4. Pooley, Jefferson. “Scholarly communi- are more complex than a simple commitment promises in efficiency and effectiveness of to open and equitable access to information. cations shouldn’t just be open, but non-profit the solution they eventually turn to. But if the too.” LSE Impact Blog. August 15, 2017. Presumably the librarians who have agreed moral superiority of the non-profit system is http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialscienc- to participate in the bepress and Ubiquity illusory, then they’ve made those compromises es/2017/08/15/scholarly-communications- advisory boards are fully committed to the one for nothing. shouldnt-just-be-open-but-non-profit-too/ without being put off by the other. The Scholarly Commons project attempts to 5. Bowley, Chealsye. “Community aligned The value proposition for the Scholarly service providers.” 2018 ACRL/SPARC identify library funding that is directed towards Forum. February 10, 2018. https://osf.io/ Commons folks adds another dimension. Lew- building open infrastructure, but they have no preprints/lissa/8wn5p is et. al. point out that the other item motivating plan to address the reality of the collective ac- 6. Lewis, David W., Lori Goetsch, Diane them (aside from the bepress acquisition) was tion problem. Once they’ve tabulated the mon- Graves, Mike Roy. “Funding community an article by John Wenzler “that suggested ey and categorized the expenses, what then? controlled open infrastructure for scholarly that academic libraries faced a collective action They hope that focused attention and raising communication.” College & Research Li- problem, and that as a result they would never awareness will lead to behavioral changes. But braries News. Vol 79, No 3 (2018). be able to create the open scholarly commons they’re still no closer to creating the organiza- 7. Wenzler, John. “Scholarly Communica- 6 7 they aspired to.” Wenzler’s article is well tional structure that will be required to sustain tion and the Dilemma of Collective Action: worth reading and Lewis acknowledges the and implement those changes. Why Academic Journals Cost Too Much,” College & Research Libraries 78, no. 2 strength of the arguments. His solution? “We It’s important to make decisions that don’t believe that with some focused attention on (February 2017):183-200. doi: https://doi. conflict with our values and I can appreciate org/10.5860/crl.78.2.16581 the problem and by raising awareness of the the satisfaction that neatly dividing the world consequences of inaction, we can change our into right and wrong can bring. But values are behavior and create incentives for ever larger complicated and sometimes conflict. Creating contributions to the common good.” In other the changes we want to see requires dealing words, they’ll will the problem away. with the realities of economics, the varying The Scholarly Commons folks and the values and incentives of a diverse set of partic- Penn librarians share a kind of blindness that ipants, and a willingness to confront the messy afflicts many in libraryland (as well as many of challenges of developing strategy. the OA partisans) — they have a vision of the
Rumors from page 10 Correction! The Library Analytics column in the February print ATG did not include all the presentation. A passionate advocate for librar- authors who wrote the column. Apologies! Oops! Here is the complete column title ians, Lankes will discuss the essential role that and information for all of the authors. The online version is accurate! “Library libraries play through facilitating knowledge Analytics: Shaping the Future — Applying Data Analysis: Demonstrate Value, Shape creation in the community. Services, and Broaden Information Literacy” by Rachael Cohen (Discovery User www.innovativeusers.org Experience Librarian, Indiana University Bloomington)
34 Against the Grain / April 2018
ATG: Gary, you’ve had a very successful puter science, which in turn changes course career in library education. What would you offerings and styles of research and teaching. say have been the top three highlights of your Core courses have evolved in several ways: career so far? What future accomplishments Collection development now includes database would you like to add to that list? licensing strategies, research data repository GM: Working with doctoral student policies, and a variety of scholarly publishing colleagues and master’s students who have changes; Reference has moved from source gone on to become leaders in the information focused (e.g., disciplinary literatures) to patron field. Being recognized by my peers with the education and needs assessment; and Catalog- ASIST Award of Merit. Being recognized ing has shifted from AACR2 rules for original by students and colleagues with the UNC cataloging to incorporate metadata assigned Graduate Mentoring Award and the SILS by crowds or non-experts, and interoperation Teaching Award. across different vocabularies and indexing systems. I suppose a future accomplishment I aspire to is to lead SILS as a top information school In sum, these changes challenge us to be to expand its impact in the first half of the more expansive in our curricula, give more at- 21st century. tention to social and economic trends, and help students develop problem solving perspectives ATG: Back tracking a bit, why did you for managing change with static or shrinking choose library education as a career? resources. It is more important than ever that GM: It was a circuitous and somewhat LIS students are educated as prepared profes- serendipitous route. I began professional life sionals who are adaptable, and use creativity as a math teacher and got involved in com- to define services that exceed what is freely and skill to serve the information needs of puter-based education in the 1970s. When available on the web. It has also challenged diverse and growing user communities. I finished my dissertation in 1983 I began the nature of expertise in general and forced li- ATG: Some people think that the MLS looking to move my young family to the east brarians to articulate and demonstrate advanced focuses too much on library processes and coast and a job at University of Maryland information skills and perspectives. on the library as place and not enough on College of Library and Information Services An important side effect of the Internet the services librarians need to provide. Your (now named College of Information Studies) has been the development of digital libraries response? caught my attention. I was math and English that incorporate much more diverse kinds of double major and the interdisciplinary nature of GM: I agree. We are information schools “born digital” or digitized content. Many of and attend to broad visions of information LIS made it an easy transition from educating these digital libraries are new entities but all teachers to educating service-oriented students work, which continue to evolve rapidly. The libraries have been actively developing digital skills, perspectives, and ethics we teach apply who wanted to leverage technology to make collections to expand or augment existing col- information more accessible. It was also a to information services in homes, schools, lections. These digital libraries have typically corporations, and governments, as well as smooth research transition from IT applied to been done as “add ons” without new resources learning to investigation of information seek- in libraries. Consider the variety in libraries and libraries are forced to manage digital and alone — classic distinctions between public, ing (search) as a learning activity. This led to analog collections with mainly static budgets more than 30 years of work at the intersection academic, school, and the host of ‘special’ and with older personnel who were educated libraries have long existed and they are aug- of information retrieval and human-computer pre Internet days. interaction. mented today by the need for information Another major change in LIS education professionals (aka librarians) who manage ATG: You have witnessed a number of over the past 40 years has been strong attention information ranging from gene arrays to cloud changes in library education. From your to the psychological and sociological charac- transactions in enterprises that range from perspective, which changes have been the teristics of library patrons and the public at corporate and government entities to new most significant? large. Although work in collection building infrastructures such as the Internet Archive GM: The first great change was the first and management remain very strong, human or Wikipedia. The best services are driven retrospective conversion — getting the catalog factors have become much more important by community needs and cultures and much online and barcoding items that linked those for building and delivering library and other of these specifics will need to be learned on items to the online catalog. This caused IT to information services. Thus, courses in user the job. LIS graduates will bring the skills of become more crucial to LIS education (this is needs assessment, community engagement, building bridges between people and systems why I was hired at UMD). LIS programs began human-information interaction (or human and creating community-based services. There offering many kinds of IT courses ranging from information behavior) have become central to is no template for library work. database management and networking to online LIS curricula. ATG: Others contend that the MLS is no searching and computer-assisted indexing. A number of other changes have strongly longer essential to perform the tasks required The second great change was the Internet, influenced LIS education. There has been of the 21st century librarian. Do they have a which has driven a second retrospective con- strong growth of archive education courses point? Does the MLS curriculum provide the version in which full items (full text, videos, and programs to augment or supplement LIS necessary skill set to be a successful librarian music, photos) are put online and available with more attention to preservation. The IT in today’s digital environment? Has it kept through public and private services. This has emphasis in libraries has led to schools hiring up with current needs? democratized collections and caused libraries faculty from allied disciplines such as com- continued on page 36 Against the Grain / April 2018
the 19th centuries. “The Na- Speaking of which, just saw this Rumors tional Archives is honored to article in FCW which “provides from page 34 be celebrating the important federal technology executives historical ties between our with the information, ideas, and and first lady Brigitte to the Library of countries by sharing our strategies necessary to success- Congress. Librarian of Congress Carla unique French-American fully navigate the complex Hayden and Laurence Engel, president of the documents in this exciting world of federal business.” Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), an- international venture,” said See “Library of Congress nounced a collaboration between the Library Archivist of the United to collect every e-book,” by of Congress and the BnF to provide digital States David S. Ferriero. Chase Gunter. “In a notice content for a new online space for collections As a key part of this col- of proposed rulemaking to relating to shared French-American history. laboration, Bibliothèque be published April 16, the The initiative will also be supported by other nationale de France will create and host the Library of Congress will begin including U.S. organizations, including the National Ar- website, which is part of its collection “Shared published e-books under its mandatory deposit chives. Through direct digital access to com- Heritage,” while the Library of Congress will rule, but only on a by-request basis.” plete books, maps, prints and other documents select and make available high-quality digital https://fcw.com/articles/2018/04/13/loc-digi- from the collections of the partner libraries, the scans of relevant materials from its collections. tal-ebooks.aspx?m= new bilingual website will focus on the cultural copyright.gov and historical connections between France Moving right along, Oxford Brookes and Northern America and, more specifically, gallica.bnf.fr University, one of the UK’s leading universi- the United States during the 16th through www.archives.gov continued on page 43 36 Against the Grain / April 2018
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oxwood is defined as the hard, tough, and would most definitely fall into the realistic bination which reaped such rich rewards was fine-grained wood of the box shrub or experimental category for me. as follows: 6,14,16,20,26,30, all even numbers, Btree that is often used by woodcarvers My orange post-it notes identifying poten- which goes against the law of nature, the state for carved blocks, games, musical instruments, tial passages to illustrate this experiment litter of nature, the inertia and even nostalgia of or tool handles. The word is referenced over 20 the book from the very first page, as the book nature…” times in Camilo José Cela’s 211-page novel opens with: “Celso Tembura, the sacristan, And yet: entitled Boxwood. The references include: 1) whose friends call him Barnacle while others “I insist on telling you, I’m growing tired the hope of building a house with boxwood have dubbed him Winkle and he doesn’t take beams (most of the references), 2) bird’s wings of drawing it to your attention that this is very it amiss, guts scad and broils little birds better muddled and confusing.” containing nerves of boxwood, 3) pyres built than anyone….he has flat feet, bushy eyebrows from boxwood, 4) a box carved from boxwood, and a fitful mind, well, he stutters you see, “No, it is not even sort of muddled or sort 5) a boxwood violin, 6) the poisonous nature of Celso also sings Portuguese fados and Oporto of confusing, it is going its own way in orderly boxwood, 7) boxwood would be a “more noble tangos tunefully and will cook a slap-up feast fashion, please understand that it is not my fault and luxurious” wood for a witch’s broomstick, to order, the harder the wind blows over the that it is beyond you.” 8) boxwood built boats, 9) boiling boxwood sea the better for everyone…” and off you go. “All right, I won’t gainsay anyone for it splinters as a remedy, and 10) a boxwood Interspersed in this stream of consciousness are isn’t worth the trouble.” handled axe. short exchanges between what presumably is The winding narrative leads us to: All of these references are randomly insert- the reader and narrator. Three pages in, one of “...Maria, who wrote poetry and could cook ed into the text of this work, described on the the first of these sets the tone: a decent meal, when I was awarded the Nobel book cover’s front flap as a “non-novel.” Are “Isn’t this getting a little jumbled?” Prize they made an unforgettable stew for me you intrigued? “Just a shade jumbled.” and I’ve kept a bone from it as a memento, the Imagine you are in the presence of a sto- smell of food lingered on the bone for perhaps “Like life itself?” ryteller, who is long in memory, disregards six or seven years, Celia was the first woman in validity, loves folklore and superstition, and “Yes, though I try not to say so.” Spain to acquire a heavy goods vehicle license, has plenty of stamina to tell the story. This But we continue: “….it is improper for she got it on April 19, 1932, her father rebuilt might give you a glimpse into what to an- widows to drink too much coffee, some elderly a truck...” onto the description of birds, a feast ticipate from Cela in this piece divided into seafarers say that mermaids were the first lace and of a “ceramic plaque which states: in this four sections: “Marco Polo Sheep (When We makers in Camariñas, that they copied the house on Langosteira beach in Finisterre, the Give Up Rugby For Good)”; “Annelie and patterns from seaweed and starfish and the writer Camilo José Cela spent the summers the Hunchback (When We Give Up Tennis For transparency of waters where cormorants have from 1984 until 1989…” a diversion of busts, Good)”; “Left-Handed Doña Onofre (When just dived, there are scarcely any mermaids sculptors, open air art leads to “…Finis Terrae We Give Up Fishing With Forbidden Skills left these days and Camariñas folk have lost is the final smirk of the chaos of man facing into For Good)”; and “The Keys of Cibola (When their fondness for wooing them...” this leads the infinite, which is all very fine, my cousin We Give Up Cricket For Good).” The reader into a discussion about a Irene, a committed poet, learns of shipwrecks, cargo lost, the antics of “revolutionary, republican helped me to compose it, as the local residents (the story is set in Galicia bunch and didn’t give a well as an inscription which Spain, Cela’s homeland), the mermaids who toss about the sermon, they reads: on Monday, eighth of take care of the fishermen, the folk remedies challenged everything, upset June nineteen eighty-eight, that quite frankly can make one nauseous to the whole applecart and, of Feast of St. Sallustian, Don read the ingredients and preparation, gos- course, wound up with their Ernesto Insua Olveira, Mayor sipy village tidbits, the whales, the octopus souls in damnation…at times of Finisterre, unveiled this recipes, the many lives lost at sea, religion, you can watch them loafing monument in honor of Camilo saints, ghosts, and superstition all strung about with the Holy Company José Cela, the first Galician together in a stream of minimally punctuated of souls along the banks of to be awarded the Novel [sic] words — the last fourteen pages of the book the river Maroñas, which are Prize, in memory of his lengthy contains one phenomenal sentence. But we shady and overgrown, eerie sojourns at this end of the never quite learn why the four activities are and lonesome, when James earth….” and onto more detail given up for good. E. Allen gave up rugby be- about Doña Onofre. Camilo José Cela was awarded the 1989 cause he was getting on in Finally as this non-novel Nobel Prize in Literature “for a rich and years, his Norwegian uncle draws to the period…. “Knut intensive prose, which with restrained com- Knut Skien, who was also Skein took my cousin James passion forms a challenging vision of man’s my uncle, took him off to hunt Marco Polo E. Allen off to hunt Marco Polo sheep, life vulnerability.” He was born in 1916 in the sheep…” — maybe a hint of explanation for has no plot, when we believe that we are parish of Iria Flavia, Padrón, Galicia, Spain. the section title? going to one place to perform certain heroic He initially pursued a law degree before But not before we learn that “….the sailing deeds the compass wavers wildly and carries writing professionally became his career ship Bella Edelmira sank with her cargo of us helter-skelter wherever it wishes: to the choice. His writing style is described as being cookies on the Fusisaca rock which the tides schoolyard, the brothel, the clink, or directly influenced by Spanish realism and English/ cover and show north of Roncudo point, three to the graveyard, also death begins to weave French contemporary writers, but moves sailors perished, not by drowning but when its disorienting, bewildering dance, the bagpipe increasingly toward the experimental as time the foremast split and struck their heads, the drones with a hoarse sound, why in my family progressed. His 1988 novel Christ versus Sedes sorceror cures cataracts by beseeching have we not been able to build a house with Arizona is a story of a duel told in a single assistance from St. Peter and St. Rufina, Hail boxwood beams?...” sentence that runs for over a hundred pages. Mary full of grace conceived without sin…” Boxwood contains many long sentences of and that “last year Vincent won 286,414,866 seemingly randomly connected information pesetas in the lottery, a real fortune, the com-
38 Against the Grain / April 2018
Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity by George a proclamation, but they read text just as we W. Houston. (ISBN: 978-1-4696-1781-7, University of North Carolina Press 2014, $29.00) do. Scrolls were gradually replaced by the codex, which is what we call our current form of a book. The codex arose from the note his is a highly specialized look at an- used and rare scrolls. The life span of a papyrus taking tablets the Romans used at school or cient Roman libraries, their contents, roll could run to three hundred years, so there at lectures. Their codex was a wooden board Tphysical arrangement, and day to day was ample time for used copies to make their covered with wax which they marked up management. In spite of its technical bent, the way to market. The best bookstores were in with a wooden stylus. The Romans tied up book is a treasure trove of more general literary Athens, Alexandria and Rome. Librarians and the boards with cord so that they could have and library history. It is of particular interest collectors often visited these cities multiple pages. They gradu- to librarians, but also to anyone interested in to grow their collections. Others ally realized that this was a the history of the book. The author employs would send scribes to copy the better way to access texts. the works of Varro, Cicero, Galen and other best texts from the best li- They then re-purposed ancient authors to demonstrate the use of per- braries of which Alexandria their scrolls and our sonal libraries. He also makes use of book lists stood out above all others. modern book was born. that have survived from antiquity to show the It had a collection of Scrolls might be holdings of these libraries. Architectural plans hundreds of thousands read using wooden based on the surviving ruins of ancient librar- of texts, while most dowels inserted in ies, such as those at Ephesus and Pergamum, libraries, public or pri- the hollow ends of are employed to show their layout and day to vate, contained in the the roll. The wood- day functions. hundreds or thousands en dowels would The main focus of the book is on the con- at most. be removed when tinuing discoveries at ancient Roman sites in There were gen- the scrolls were re- Herculaneum and at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. erally three parts to a shelved. For trav- These sites hold actual scrolls that allow us to Roman library: the eling, readers had see more clearly how ancient libraries were or- armaria where the scrolls were stored, then wooden or leather buckets for carrying their ganized and managed. These two sites contain an area where copying could take place, and scrolls and lids kept the scrolls protected from the only papyrus remains of ancient libraries finally a repair area. Those who wanted copies the elements. still extant. In this book the author gives us a brought their own papyrus and ink. The library When the Villa of the Papyri was first thorough accounting of the literary and scien- was well appointed with stools and foot stools. discovered and explored in the 1700s many tific collections found so far at the Villa of the This book goes into great detail about how burnt and charred scrolls were thrown away or Papyri in Herculaneum and at Oxyrhynchus. scrolls were stored and arranged in libraries. burnt again, as workers mistook them for burnt Both sites are active archeological digs with Papyrus scrolls were placed in “armaria” or branches! The scrolls that survive from Oxy- the Villa being possibly the richest source of what we would call wooden cupboards. The rhynchus owe their longevity to the incredibly undiscovered texts from antiquity. The focus decorated armaria surrounded an airy, well lit, dry climate of inland Egypt. Papyrus scrolls of exploration there has turned incredibly high and finely appointed reading space. Libraries have survived in the paper dumps there for over tech and the latest technology being brought to were built with the goal of providing optimum fifteen hundred years. One of the most valuable use is an X-ray cyclotron in Switzerland that is light for daytime reading, but lamp stands caches from that find belonged to a woman and able to scan deep into the charred remains of helped out on darker days. Scrolls did not we even know her name: Aurelia Ptolemais. the surviving scrolls. Archeologists and other contain much bibliographic information and Roman libraries were usually divided into scholars have already learned much from the were identified simply with tags attached to the Greek and Roman sections, which were two remains at these sites and these new develop- scroll itself. These tags were called sillybon. separate libraries that were conjoined. Be- ments promise a real breakthrough. The arrangement of the scrolls in a library was cause of its more ancient history, the Greek From literary evidence we discover that often written on a papyrus list, but the list was portion contained many more works than its most ancient books were not written by their sparse in its bibliographic information, usually Latin counterpart. Roman libraries differed authors, but were rather dictated to scribes, only containing the title and author and often markedly from libraries in Greece where scrolls usually slaves. Authors might employ notes, the lists were simply chronological accession were stored away in cramped quarters. To many of which have been found in archeo- records. In these libraries the librarian was the Romans, art and sculpture were necessary logical sites, but the actual writing was done considered the catalog of last resort. Books parts of a library. There were usually statues of by professional scribes. From studying the were requested from the librarian who then famous authors or even contemporary authors, surviving papyrus rolls papyrologists have brought the scrolls to the patron. A list of the depending on the scope of the collection. Some noted the varying quality of transcription that librarians at the Imperial Library of Rome also displayed statues of the current emperor depended on the education and preparation of is included in this book. Some of the other (nude or not). the scribes. Readers often sought out better library personnel included “glutinatores” who Anyone interested in ancient history and copies of books by going to wealthier collectors were tasked with repairing worn and damaged especially ancient Roman history would and having their own copies made. papyrus rolls. Damage might come from sim- enjoy this book. For more information It is very contemporary to note that book- ple wear and tear, dampness, or from worms about the exciting developments at the Villa stores flourished near libraries where they that savored the tasty papyrus. of the Papyri you can read from the latest offered up copies of books for sale. Oddly Scrolls were generally only written on news here: https://www.cbsnews.com/ enough, most libraries, even public libraries, one side of the roll, but many were re-used news/herculaneum-scrolls-can-technology- did not lend out books. Books were meant to be to create new works. These were called unravel-the-secrets-sealed-by-mt-vesuvius- read in the library and if you wanted a copy of a opistographs. Scrolls were written and read 2000-years-ago/ book you either bought one or had a copy made perpendicularly to the scroll itself, presaging just for yourself. Some bookstores specialized our own printing style. We usually envision in “deluxe” editions of texts and others carried ancients reading from a scroll as if reading
Against the Grain / April 2018
Column Editor’s Note: The “Collecting throughout Great Plains literature of the early freedom, and rootedness, all of which are un- to the Core” column highlights monographic twentieth century. This essay identifies literary derscored by the land. It is Alexandra, not her works that are essential to the academic li- works and scholarship that help undergraduates brothers, whose shrewd insights transform the brary within a particular discipline, inspired appreciate the import of place for this diverse vast, unbreakable prairie into livable farmland, by the Resources for College Libraries bib- literary region. although she attributes the settling of the prairie liography (online at http://www.rclweb.net). O.E. Rølvaag captures the mythology to the land itself: “The land did it. It had its In each essay, subject specialists introduce of the Great Plains in his epic Giants in the little joke. It pretended to be poor because and explain the classic titles and topics that Earth: A Saga of the Prairie.3 Originally nobody knew how to work it right; and then, continue to remain relevant to the undergrad- published in Norwegian as two volumes all at once, it worked itself. It woke up out of uate curriculum and library collection. Dis- in 1924 and 1925, Giants in the Earth was its sleep and stretched itself, and it was so big, so rich, that we suddenly found we were rich, ciplinary trends may shift, but some classics translated into English in 1927 and found 6 never go out of style. — AD immediate success. A chronicle of Norwegian just from sitting still.” The land is a living, Americans’ experiences in helping settle Da- acting agent, but in her commitment to seeing kota Territory in the 1870s, the novel depicts the prairie and her family prosper, Alexandra There are only two or three human pioneers’ struggles to break the land that is at finds herself bound to the land and her depen- stories, and they go on repeating them- once breaking them. As Charles R. Walker dent family. selves fiercely as if they had never noted in his review, “The book records the My Ántonia, published five years later in happened before; like the larks in this partial conquest of the American prairie by 1918, similarly paints Ántonia, an immigrant country, that have been singing the same 1 the pioneer, and the partial conquest of the from Bohemia, as tied to and representative five notes over for thousands of years. pioneer’s heart and mind by the prairie.”4 of the land. Told through the perspective of — Willa Cather, O Pioneers! The essence of Rølvaag’s novel is a conflict Jim Burden, the novel traces the interwoven An oft-repeated story is that of humankind’s over faith and culture: what stories of Jim’s and Ántonia’s civilizing efforts and struggles to break a land could be gained and what lives. For Jim, Ántonia typifies without being broken. This story is central might be lost on a human “the country, the conditions, the to early twentieth-century reflections on late scale in the quest to settle whole adventure of our child- nineteenth-century pioneer experiences and an untamable land? Main hood.”7 She symbolizes the resounds throughout the literature of place characters Per Hansa and very land she inhabits, and from the northern Great Plains. The novels of his wife Beret exemplify both she and the land create authors such as O.E. (Ole Edvart) Rølvaag, the tension between hope a sense of homecoming and Willa Cather, and Laura Ingalls Wilder and despair. Across the belonging throughout the tease out the mythology of a discovered land, endless expanse of prairie novel. Cather also em- which serves both as a setting and, at times, an grass, unbroken by trees, ploys Jim’s recollections of antagonist to the pioneers. While the emphasis landforms, or manmade Ántonia and their coming on land is not unique to regional literature, it edifices, Per Hansa’s eyes of age on the Nebraska prai- plays a crucial role in rooting readers in a par- are fixed west, seeing only rie to explore the enormity ticular space or place. In her lecture “Place in the promise of possibility and permanence of the land Fiction,” Eudora Welty asserts that place — in and a prosperous future. together with the insignifi- comparison to other “angels” such as character, Facing that same landscape, cance and impermanence of plot, symbolism, and feeling — “is one of the Beret withers into herself, the settlers. Like the image lesser angels that watch over the racing hand overwhelmed by the emp- of the plow set against the of fiction.”2 In the literature of the northern tiness and afraid of how sunset — at first magnified Great Plains, place rises above its typical lowly it might strip her family and “heroic in size, a picture state to command a leading role along with the of faith and civilization. Their writing on the sun” and soon protagonists. struggle illustrates dueling mythologies that forgotten, “sunk back to its own littleness If we follow Welty’s argument that place posit the Plains as being both a blank canvas somewhere on the prairie” — the land encap- 8 is a lesser angel of fiction, perhaps regional on which to write a bolder, brighter future sulates the human drama of My Ántonia. literature of the Plains is also a lesser angel and alternately an empty wasteland that can- Often relegated to the children’s literature of American literature, particularly when not possibly sustain society. Ultimately, the shelves, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobi- compared to the literature of the East or the Plains are part of their undoing. ographical Little House on the Prairie series South. Existing at the country’s geographic If Per Hansa exemplifies the pioneer spirit has received renewed interest by scholars midsection, the expansive Great Plains defy in both bravado and folly, the protagonists of in recent decades.9 Originally published easy categorization. Defined by contradictions, Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! and My Ántonia between 1932 and 1943, the nine-book se- the plains are both urban and rural, agricultural present an alternative but no less stalwart vision ries follows the Ingalls family from their and industrial, traditional and progressive. of the pioneer experience. In Cather’s novels, home in Wisconsin (Little House in the Big They extend as far south as west Texas and immigrants Alexandra Bergson and Ántonia Woods) to the Kansas prairie (Little House as far north as the heart of Canada, pushing Shimerda envision a cultivated land and dis- on the Prairie) and then from Walnut Grove, against the bounds of the Midwest and the play great steadfastness in settling the Nebraska Minnesota (On the Banks of Plum Creek) to Mountain States. It is the region that is not prairie. Written in 1913, O Pioneers! follows De Smet, South Dakota (By the Shores of one. The greatest unifying factor is perhaps Alexandra Bergson as she leads her family to Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the land itself, which shapes both the region’s break in the land following her father’s death.5 the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and culture and its literature. The land emanates The novel wrestles with themes of civilization, continued on page 41 40 Against the Grain / April 2018
Against the Grain / April 2018
Section Editors: Bruce Strauch (The Citadel)
MATTEL, INC. V. MGA ENTERTAIN- Pool, Bratz Babyz Ponyz Buggy Blitz, Ninth said ‘twas inequitable to transfer a MENT, INC. UNITED STATES COURT OF etc.), video games (“Bratz: Girlz Really billion dollar brand because Bryant had an APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, Rock,” “Bratz: Forever Diamondz,” idea in the last weeks of his job. 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 26937. “Bratz: Rock Angelz,” etc.) AND Bratz So Now What? This opinion was written by Chief Judge the movie. Well, you’re back with copyright viola- Alex Kozinski who was considered one of the The Appeal great brains of copyright. See “Bet You Missed tions. It” in this issue for a brief description of how A constructive trust transfers wrongfully The jury had been quite astute, sending the he was driven off the bench. held property to its rightful owner. Communist judge a note asking if it could find that only the Party of U.S. v. 522 Valencia, Inc., 35 Cal. first generation of Bratz dolls were infringing. Carter Bryant worked in the Mattel App. 4th 980 (1995). “Barbie Collectibles” department designing And he said they could. And they found dam- fashion and hair styles for high-end collector That case name should grab your attention. ages of $10 million, a mere bagatelle. dolls. In a lightbulb moment, he conceived of It’s a fight over ownership of real estate. What? The judge didn’t care for this and made Bratz dolls — urban, multiethnic and with a I thought commies believed in sharing! his own finding of infringement leading to the … well … bratty attitude. Bryant’s Mattel contract had him assign- constructive trust. He pitched his idea to MGA Entertain- ing all “inventions” to the company and stated The Ninth Cir. held that Mattel only owned ment, a Mattel competitor. They loved it. He the term “includes, but is not limited to, all copyright in the original sketches and the gave two weeks notice to Mattel. discoveries, improvements, processes, devel- sculpt with bratty expression — not the idea opments, designs, know-how, data computer In no time, the “anti-Barbie” began to crush of a bratty doll. Mattel could not own the programs and formulae, whether patentable its rival. By 2005, the Bratz line had revenues idea of young, hip, female fashion dolls with or unpatentable.” of $800 million while Mattel steadily descend- exaggerated features. ed to $445. That will tend to get the attention The Ninth Circuit chewed over whether The district court needed to take another of the suits in the top floor suites. And the “ideas” were in the list, but decided it was a look and determine if each doll (“Bratz Wild attack-dog lawyers are just a phone call away. jury question for remand. Wild West Fianna,” “Bratz Funk ‘N’ Glow And you can already see what’s coming. It did, however, find the constructive trust Jade” et al.) is like (substantially similar) or You know darn well Bryant was under a con- was way too broad. The value Mattel would different from the original sketches. It could tract where every thought he had belonged to be getting had been made much, not have found that the vast Mattel. But he just couldn’t quite see leaving much greater than Bryant’s majority of the dolls were at until his bases were covered. little sculpt and the name all like the sketches unless it relied on the similarity of And of course MGA knew Bryant had “Bratz.” As you can see from the list of ideas — big-headed, attitu- been under contract to Mattel, and did its dinous mall rats. best to conceal his employment. Besides, he products, there was claimed he designed Bratz when he was on all that designing, See: Cases of Note, a hiatus from Mattel and, by golly, his mom investment and mar- Vol. 30-1, p.52 for a would testify to it. keting. discussion of the whole Should I defraud substantial similarity But the Bratz line “The Girls With a Passion thingy. for Fashion” was a juggernaut and a badly you of stock that ris- frightened Mattel did some snooping. es in market value, I The retrial did not can’t complain that you go well for Mattel. “Wasn’t what’s-his-name in accessory de- get that benefit when you take it back. But MGA had gotten in claims of trade secret sign one of ours? Where did he go exactly?” “[w]hen the defendant profits from the wrong, theft by Mattel. The jury decided Mattel had The truth came out, and Mattel sued. it is necessary to identify the profits and to re- not proven copyright violations but instead In the final two weeks ofBryant’s Mattel capture them without capturing the fruits of the had stolen trade secrets and awarded MGA employment, he had done a “sculpt” — a defendant’s own labors or legitimate efforts.” $88.5 mil which the judge bumped up to $310 mannequin-like plastic doll body and coined Dan B. Dobbs, Dobbs Law of Remedies: Dam- million. the name “Bratz.” ages-Equity-Restitution § 6.6(3) (2d ed. 1993). MGA claimed Mattel had an 11-page The trial court really slammed MGA, grant- Gosh-a-rootie. Dobbs was my Torts prof “How to Steal” manual and lied its way into ing Mattel a constructive trust over everything way back in the UNC Law days of yore. And private showings for retailers to get advance with Bratz in it. That included — ready? —: a fabulous prof he was. knowledge of MGA’s toys. www.giftsanddec. Bratz dolls (Bratz, Bratz Boyz, Lil’ Bryant was only a minor cog in a machine com/.../485187-mga-entertainment-sues-mat- Bratz, Bratz Lil’ Angelz, Bratz Petz, that took the “Bratz” name and idea and ran tel-over-trade-secrets. Bratz Babyz, Itsy Bitsy Bratz, etc.), doll with it. First generation (Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha See also: tsi.brooklaw.edu/cases/mga-en- accessories (Bratz World House, Bratz and Jade), second (Ciara, Dana, Diona, Felicia, tertainment-inc-v-mattel-inc-et-al Fianna etc.). Cowgirlz Stable, Bratz Spring Break continued on page 43 42 Against the Grain / April 2018
Against the Grain / April 2018
QUESTION: A public librarian in Mon- that a copyright owner would object to such Professor Townsend Gard for her outstanding tana asks about the recent dispute involving recording in the classroom if the book were work and to the Internet Archive! the use of a photograph in a political cam- not available in audio format. QUESTION: A science teacher asks paign without permission. QUESTION: A publisher asks whether whether tables are copyrightable. ANSWER: Photographer, Erika Peter- ECG tracings are copyrightable. If not, does ANSWER: Typically, tables are not copy- man, sued the Republican National Com- this mean than they may be used by anyone? rightable. Tables that simply present data in a mittee claiming unauthorized use of one of her ANSWER: The short answer is no. Facts straightforward grid are not copyrightable. If photographs in a political mailing attacking the are not copyrightable. If the presentation of the table uses words rather than Arabic num- Democratic candidate for Congress. One of her facts has some creativity, there may be thin bers, there may be some originality/creativity clients is the Montana Democratic Party and copyright protection, but that is all. It appears in the text that may create a thin copyright. she contracted to take photographs at a dinner that for ECG tracings, the machine itself always That smidgen of creativity may create a copy- in Helena. She registered the copyright in presents the data in the same format, thus rightable work, but this does not mean that the photographic portrait of the candidate in eliminating any originality/creativity. Further, someone else could not present the data with May 2017 and gave limited use rights to the the 2017 Compendium of U. S. Copyright Of- new text or in a different format and that table Democratic Party. Peterman then learned fice Practices, chapter 300, states that works would also be copyrightable. that the RNC had distributed an attack ad in a produced by a machine or mere mechanical QUESTION: A corporate librarian asks mailing that used the photos of the candidate process are not copyrightable if there is no about books published before 1950 that con- without her permission. creative input or intervention by a human tain no notice of copyright. If a publisher The photographer filed suit in the U.S. author. The Compendium then uses as an ex- later republishes the work, may the library District Court in Missoula. The RNC filed a ample medical imaging produced by X-rays, digitize that first edition? motion to dismiss the suit; the court denied the ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imaging or ANSWER: If a work was published before motion in March 2018, holding that there were other diagnostic equipment. 1978 without notice, that work is in the public still factual issues to be determined. Examining The uncopyrightable images may be used domain. This means that anyone is free to the use of the photograph by the RNC, the court by anyone as long as any personally identifiable republish, reproduce or display the work in applied the four-factor fair use test found in information is removed to preserve patient any format. Therefore, as long as the library section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Under privacy, which is required under HIPAA. digitizes the first edition and does not use any the first factor, the court held that the purpose QUESTION: An academic librarian notes additional material that was included in the and character of the use did not favor the RNC, the recent announcement of the Sonny Bono republished version, the library may digitize and the use was only minimally transformative Memorial Collection and asks what makes the work and use the digital version however despite the few lines of text added to the photo. the digitization and distribution of these of it wants. A separate purpose is not the same thing as these work possible. transformation, which is the critical inquiry. QUESTION: An academic librarian asks Transformative use remains a disputed fact at ANSWER: Section 108(h) of the Copy- about the copyright status of the song “We this stage in the case. right Act was added to ameliorate the effects Shall Overcome.” of extending the term of copyright with the ANSWER: The iconic song was made The second factor, nature of the copyright- Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of famous during the Civil Rights movement. ed work, focuses on the fact that the work 1998 that changed the term of copyright from Lyrically it is described as being descended is an artistic portrait. This weighs against life plus 50 years to life plus 70. The change from a 1900 hymn published by Charles a finding of fair use. The RNC copied the to the library and archives section of the Act Albert Tindley. The modern song was said entire work under amount and substantiality provided that a library or nonprofit educational to have first been sung in used, the third factor. In addition to copying institution could, during the last 20 years of 1945 in a strike by tobacco the entire work, the qualitative aspects of the a work’s term of copyright, repro- workers in Charleston, portrait were maintained in the RNC use. duce, distribute, display South Carolina. It was There are no facts regarding the fourth factor, or perform the work published in 1947 in market effect. The use may have prejudiced in facsimile or digital the People’s Songs future derivative use of the photograph, but form if the work is no Bulletin by an orga- the pleadings present no such evidence. It is longer available and the purpose of the use is nization directed by Pete Seeger. For years, premature to rule on this factor. The court for preservation, scholarship or research. anyone who wanted to use the melody and thus held that there are disputed issues of lyrics had to pay royalties to Ludlow Music. material fact remaining to determine whether Professor Elizabeth Townsend Gard the RNC’s use was a fair use. Therefore, the at Tulane University Law School and her The publisher has now declared that the matter will go to trial. student interns have created the Sonny Bono lyrics and melody of “We Shall Overcome” are Memorial Collection and scanned some works now in the public domain. This was because of QUESTION: An elementary school teach- that have long been out of print but are still litigation and claims of fraud after a court held er asks whether he can read and record a book in this last 20 years of copyright protection. that the key verse of the song lacked originality. to use as a learning station in the classroom. Moreover, Professor Townsend Gard has The producers of Lee Daniels’ The Butler was ANSWER: Under section 110(1) of the encouraged libraries to scan their works that told it would have to pay $100,000 in royalties Copyright Act, a teacher is allowed to read an fall into the same time span and are no longer for a license fee in order to use the song. Since entire literary work to a class in a nonprofit available on the market. The Internet Archive the 1960s, royalties from the song have been educational institution as part of instruction. has made these works available for download. donated to the nonprofit Highland Research Reading to one individual student or to individ- The Internet Archive has also promised to and Education Center that provides scholar- uals sequentially would also be covered under host works in the last 20 years of copyright ships within African American communities. section 110(1). Recording is not mentioned protection that libraries have identified as no Now all may use it freely. in that section, however. It seems unlikely longer being available. Congratulations to
44 Against the Grain / April 2018
Alabama Story, a play by Kenneth Jones, of Utah campus, with performances from Jan- 9, 2016 at the at Marlene Boll Theatre in tells the story of Emily Wheelock Reed, the uary 9–24, 2015. The play was enthusiastically downtown Detroit. The author, Kenneth State Librarian of Alabama, who resisted at- reviewed by Barbara M. Bannon, Salt Lake Jones, was pleased to recount in his publicity tempts in 1959 by an Alabama Senator to cen- Tribune. An extended 50-minute interview release that he had “roots in the metro Detroit sor the children’s book, The Rabbits’ Wedding, with Jones, the director, and the actors is area, where he was raised in Southfield and by Garth Williams. Because of its strong available here: http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/ Beverly Hills and later lived as a free-lance intellectual freedom focus, the American Li- alabama-story. Diaz wrote her favorable writer in Grosse Pointe before moving to brary Association (ALA) publicized this play blog post based on this production since she New York City” and that Reed “worked for on August 31, 2016, in the Intellectual Freedom reports that: the Detroit Public Library in the 1940s Blog with a post by Ellie Diaz, a program “In honor of its 45th anniversary, Free- after graduating from The University of officer in the Office for Intellectual Freedom dom to Read Foundation members Michigan” (http://www.bykennethjones.com/ (OIF). (http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=7181) traveled to Salt Lake City’s Pioneer michigan-premiere-alabama-story-launch- On September 2, 2016, American Libraries Theatre Company in January 2015 to es-sept-22-detroit-tickets-sale/). On Septem- Direct provided a quote from the blog post witness something others seldom saw in ber 22, 2016, Steve Henderson interviewed and a link to the entry. (aldirect.ala.org/sites/ a play: a librarian, center stage, battling Jones on “Detroit Today” on WDET, the local default/al_direct/2016/september/090216-2. segregationists and legislators to defend public radio station. The interview focused htm) The blog post has a laudatory tone and a children’s book in the late 1950s.” on the importance of intellectual freedom and gives the dates and venues for the play’s per- on Reed’s heroic efforts to keep The Rabbit’s formance by eleven theatre companies. What The play received additional critical ac- Wedding from being banned (https://wdet.org/ Diaz leaves out is that the play paints a negative claim by being named a finalist in the 2014 posts/2016/09/22/83912-new-play-tells-story- portrait of the American Library Association National Playwrights Conference of the Eu- of-librarian-who-worked-to-save-banned- as will be seen below. gene O’Neill Theatre Center and was a 2016 childrens-book/). nominee for the Steinberg/American Theatre The University of Detroit Mercy offered To provide context, I’ll give background Critics Association New Play Award. on the book, the librarian, and the play. Garth free tickets on opening night to all librarians Williams wrote and illustrated The Rabbit’s The play deals with the conflict between in libraries belonging to the Southeastern Wedding that was published on April 30, 1958 Emily Reed and Alabama state senator, Ed- Michigan League of Libraries. My librar- by Harper Collins. Amazon indicates that ward Oswell Eddins, called E. W. Higgins ian spouse and I took advantage of this gift the book is still in print and has a suggested in the play to avoid any legal complications, and attended the premiere on September 22. age range of 4-8. I owned the book and read over the book, The Rabbits’ Wedding, as well While I thought the production was excellent, its story of a black rabbit and white rabbit who as other materials. Reed purchased the item I left the theater pondering the “hidden secret” spend a happy day together and decide to get from an ALA list of recommended books and that the play presented the American Library married. As of today, January 31, 2018, the forwarded copies of the list to other Alabama Association in a negative light. According to book has an excellent sales ranking of 75,978 libraries. Higgins demands that this book be the play, ALA had not supported Emily Reed on Amazon and an average reader review of removed from the library and suggests that it in her efforts to avoid having the book banned 4.5 stars out of 5. be burned. Reed resists though she reached out removing the book but In librarian Reed’s obituary in the New York to ALA on several agrees to put in on Times, May 29, 2000, Douglas Martin writes: occasions. While the shelf of contro- I did not have ac- “Harpers issued a statement from Mr. versial books that cess to the script, Williams saying the book had ‘no polit- anyone may request. I believe that I’m ical significance.’ ‘I was completely un- She also refuses to correct in remem- aware that animals with white fur, such give her person- bering that she as white polar bears and white dogs and al views on racial called ALA twice white rabbits, were considered blood integration since and received no relations of white human beings,’ Mr. this has nothing to answer. On the Williams said. He added that his tale do with her pro- third try, a man at of rabbits ‘was not written for adults, fessional duties. ALA told her that who will not understand it because it is Higgins then tries he didn’t have time only about a soft, furry love and has no to change the law to help her because hidden messages of hate.’’’ so that Reed is no longer eligible to keep her he had more important matters to attend to. I quite bluntly don’t believe William’s position but gives up when he realizes that I was especially surprised at this plot denial of an implicit attack on laws against any new law would not apply to her. In an development because the posting by Diaz in interracial marriage, especially since the state- epilogue, we learn that Reed left Alabama the Intellectual Freedom Blog did not mention ment was released by his publisher. In 1959, the next year for a position with the District this negative portrayal of ALA. The next day, admitting this hidden meaning would have of Columbia Library System and moved to I started my research by sending an email most likely led to the book being removed from the Enoch Pratt Library in 1966 where she to Jamie LaRue, OIF director, and Karen bookstores and banned from libraries wherever remained until she retired in 1977. She was Muller, ALA Librarian. Jamie reported that Jim Crow laws applied. He and his publisher added to the Freedom to Read Foundation’s “the events took place in 1959 that was long had important financial reasons for denying a Roll of Honor in 2000 but died two weeks before the Office for Intellectual Freedom very obvious message. before receiving the award. was created” though the Intellectual Freedom The play, Alabama Story, had its world The University of Detroit Mercy The- Committee did exist. He wasn’t able to find premiere in Salt Lake City by the Utah Pioneer atre Company gave twelve performances of any evidence in ALA files about this event. Theatre Company, located on the University Alabama Story from September 22-October continued on page 46
Against the Grain / April 2018
continuing success of our program.” Students programs.” To learn more about Wiley’s Rumors and instructors have also been very pleased inclusive access program, visit https://www. from page 43 with Wiley Inclusive Access as evidenced by wiley.com/college/inclusive-access/. the instructor participation doubling in the last Returning to LC, the Library of Congress discounts on WileyPLUS and Wiley eTexts year and student participation rate growing to has launched three new online interactive to their students. Wiley’s partnership with 90%. Dr. Mike Hale, Vice President of Edu- applications that highlight creative ways to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s cation, VitalSource comments “We are proud facilitate the accessibility of thousands of VolShop, powered by VitalSource, has helped to collaborate with Wiley and the University collections, using the Geographic Informa- grow their inclusive access program and ex- of Tennessee at Knoxville’s VolShop to power tion Systems (GIS)-based tool Story Maps. tend the benefits of the program to more and Inclusive Access.” Another key partner for Presenting the information in a curated format, more students and faculty each term. Shirley Wiley is Red Shelf, which currently serves Story Maps allows users to combine text, Streeter, Assistant Director of the University over 600 campuses in the United States. Tom images and multimedia content in an online of Tennessee at Knoxville’s campus store, Scotty, Chief Operating Officer of RedShelf application that tells stories through data and Volshop, reported, “Wiley has proven to commented, “RedShelf greatly values its deep the capabilities of GIS technology, within a be a valuable partner in the growth of our partnership with Wiley, and we’ve been excit- software platform created by ESRI. From inclusive access program. Their leadership, ed to drive improved affordability and access the first female photographers who traveled representatives and products are essential in the for students together through inclusive access continued on page 57
46 Against the Grain / April 2018
he RR Hawkins Award is the top prize at have been Macmillan, Scribner’s, Mosby, Gardner Museum-type heist, the library’s exact the PROSE Awards competition, which McGraw-Hill, Elsevier, and Bloomsbury, in physical location isn’t discoverable, nor is the Tis run by the Professional Scholarly Di- business only since 1986, this year’s winner. family’s name, at least not by me.) vision (PSP) of the Association of American (More about that award in a moment.) There Beginning in the 1980s, the library was Publishers (AAP), in conjunction with AAP has been one for-profit / not-for-profit tie — in established to show the historic influences of Communications director Susanna Hinds and 2005 — between Mosby’s Atlas of Clinical the Levant upon Europe. The books come other AAP staff. The award is named after Gross Anatomy and the Oxford History of West- from a very wide geographical area and were Reginald Robert Hawkins, who was chief of ern Music. Single-author, gray monographs collected originally over a 500-year period. the New York Public Library’s Science and have won the Hawkins, as have single-volume Some of them come from nineteenth and twen- Technology Division from 1942 to 1957. The works filled with color illustrations. (See, for tieth century British collections (country-house PROSE Awards Web page tells us that Haw- example, the 2010 winner, Atlas of the Trans- and travelers’ libraries), while others come kins was a member of the National Research atlantic Slave Trade, by David Eltis and David from continental Europe, including German Council, the American Library Association, Brion Davis, from Yale University Press. ) monastic libraries. Bibliophiles located in the New York Library Association and the Encyclopedias used to win, but not lately. I Germany, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Scan- American Association for the Advancement can remember the 1987 win for Encyclope- dinavia, Italy and Spain, both men and women, of Science. He hosted an exhibit on Technical dia of Religion by the late collected these books. So did Books and the War in 1943, edited the library’s Charlie Smith, who ran the royalty, courtiers, church- monthly review publication, New Technical encyclopedia department at men, warriors, politicians, Books, and authored the bibliography, Scien- Macmillan. Charlie gave a and merchants — anyone tific, Medical, and Technical Books Published rollicking acceptance speech apparently who could afford in the U.S. 1930-1944, which was published in in which he recounted the to indulge a deep interest 1946 with the support of the U.S. Department Macmillan accountants’ in Western observations of, of State and an advisory committee of major often expressed dismay at and cogitations about, the publishers, who probably got to know him then. the charges he racked up Levant. This information The bibliography contributed to European li- before he deigned to release can be found in a survey, The braries’ rehabilitation following World War II the 16-volume encyclopedia Arcadian Library: Western and to the acceptance of American science and in toto. Appreciation of Arab and scholarship in Europe, which must have further Few medical books and Islamic Civilization (2011), endeared him to American publishers who were only one architecture book which tells us, for example, seeking to augment their international out- have ever won the Hawkins. that many of the books come reach. (Hawkins also co-authored numerous No technology book won until 2011, with from the private library of Şefik E. Atabey, a books about home mechanics covering topics McGraw-Hill’s The Diffusion Handbook: merchant from Istanbul who collected mainly from arbors and trellises to outdoor fireplaces Applied Solutions for Engineers, a stupendous, while living in Paris and London. (He also and swimming pools. He called his intended useful work by a Schlumberger engineer had one of the largest libraries on the Ottoman audience “capable and fortunate — the home (Schlumberger is the world’s largest oilfield Empire. Sotheby’s auctioned off 49 lots of mechanics — who build things for the fun of services and equipment company), R.K. Mi- Atabey’s sumptuously illustrated travel books it, and (sometimes) because their bank accounts chael Thambynayagam, a lovely man, who five years ago. As of this writing, you can still will not stand the burden of having them built came to the awards luncheon with his striking findSotheby’s three-volume catalogue on both by professionals.”) daughter, a performance artist, and without Amazon and Ebay. It can be pricey.) The Hawkins Award dates back to 1976, his son, a professional poker player. Another There’s a picture of a library on Blooms- when the winner was Cleft Craft. The Evo- meaningful technology book, Alan Turing: His bury’s website. The library appears to be lution of its Surgery, vol. 1: The Unilateral Work and Impact, edited by S. Barry Cooper located in a large townhouse or a stately private Deformity, published by Lippincott Williams and Jan van Leeuwen, from Elsevier, won home. Whether it’s the real Arcadian Library and Wilkins (the publisher wins the Hawkins; just two years later. No journal has ever won is anyone’s guess. I haven’t asked Blooms- recently authors and editors have received cash the Hawkins. bury to confirm whether it is or isn’t. No awards), and written by a well-known facial The Hawkins Award, as well as the many matter. Bloomsbury describes the Library’s plastic surgeon named D. Ralph Millard, who discipline-specific awards and awards for jour- contents as “book after book full of travelers’ died in 2011 at the age of 92. I’ve tried in the nals and electronic products, are announced observations and artists’ images, scientists’ past to compile a list of Hawkins winners, at a luncheon that takes place during the PSP and physicians’ knowledge, literary, scholarly and while the list is complete from 1990 to the Annual Conference, held in early February. and historical influences. This written heritage present, some information from 1977 to 1989 This year, Nigel Fletcher-Jones, head of the reminds us how our different yet dependent has eluded me. (Lists on the Internet go back American University at Cairo Press, who cultures have met, related and learnt from no further than 1991.) This lack of information now co-chairs the PROSE Awards, presided each other for hundreds of years. In addition is testament to PSP’s not adequately publiciz- over a ceremony that differed in one key aspect to rare printed books, the Arcadian Library ing Hawkins winners in the distant past — a from all preceding awards ceremonies: for the also possesses manuscript and documentary situation that PSP has been working to correct. first time, a publication other than a print-on- material of very great importance and rarity.” University presses, including Harvard, paper book or multi-volume reference work At the PROSE Awards luncheon, Nigel Chicago, Oxford, Princeton, Yale, Johns (albeit accompanied in recent years by an Fletcher-Jones praised Arcadian Library On- Hopkins, and California — the first five of online component) won the Hawkins. The line as “superbly designed to fulfill the deeply them multiple times — have dominated Haw- winner was Arcadian Library Online, which worthy and opportune mission of the library.” kins Awards through the years, mostly with makes available to institutions worldwide PROSE co-chair Steven Heffner, VP of prod- humanities titles (some large university presses perpetual access to the 10,000 or so volumes in uct strategy, Wolters Kluwer Health, said he also submit STM titles). For-profit winners, a private family library located somewhere in was impressed with Bloomsbury’s ability to besides Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Europe, possibly in London. (Perhaps fearing a continued on page 48 Against the Grain / April 2018
ike Neanderthals discovering fire, sud- may not have made of Cambridge Analytica Sheryl Sandberg has waxed as elegant as a denly everyone is concerned about Face- data, Facebook’s data use in campaigns is not harp, and as earnest as a nun over how much Lbook and its manhandling of our privacy. news. The Obama campaign made use of it, our privacy means to her and how she and FB The #deleteFacebook movement is now a and about one million Facebook users gave the do not take it lightly. Did anyone seriously thing, or, in the more common vernacular, campaign access. Furthermore, FB and Google believe this? Even if they did mean it (and it trending. As the kids might say, “Seriously?” sought out Obama’s campaign, essentially is possible they did), how could they keep that Where have all these people been for the last asking to be mined for his benefit. There was promise when everything … everything can be twenty years? Suddenly everyone who is any- not then, and hasn’t been since, any hue and hacked and exposed? one is now all atwitter since they discovered that cry. While Obamites are claiming purity in this We have always told our patrons that the Facebook (FB) sold data to Cambridge Ana- matter, it’s a distinction without a difference. web, whatever its manifestations or modality, lytica — let me rephrase that more accurately Obama valorized the use of social media and is like a postcard sent through the mail. The — since Cambridge Analytica “acquired” data most politicians after him have followed suit. only difference is that they are sending it on 90 million Facebook users. Now famous Politics notwithstanding, the point is, as through a global post office for all the world people everywhere, like Elon Musk, are storm- Scott McNealy famously (or infamously) said to see. I have been writing about the web’s ing the barricades as if only now their privacy in 1999, consumer privacy is a “red herring” privacy problems since the early 2000s and has been shorn and left in tatters. and that “you have no privacy anyway. claim, as others have, that social media’s Musk is so unhappy that he immediately Get over it.” Although Zuckerberg privacy controls are like Swiss cheese. deleted all Tesla and SpaceX Facebook pages. was mute on the issue for days, he FB and all the rest only magnified Although we have been repeatedly reminded finally came forward with his mea those problems. how smart and on the edge Musk is, I find it a culpa: “We have a responsibility I know I’m preaching to the bit disingenuous that he’s shocked — shocked, to protect your data, and if we choir here. I doubt anyone in I tell you — that Facebook would monetize its can’t, then we don’t deserve our profession is unaware data on you and me and the other billion or so to serve you.” There’s an of these problems. But users. Did they think that data was never going understatement if ever there #deletefacebook strikes me to be mined by anyone? was one. The fact remains as a hilarious response (as- that if FB had done what suming, of course, that the Musk is not alone. Brian Acton, once it promised, and the FCC movement isn’t really more owner of WhatsApp that Facebook bought for had done what it is legally angst over the Trump pres- a mere $16 BILLION, has told all his users to supposed to do, none of idency and an overweening delete their FB accounts, ostensibly laughing this would have happened. desire to find a way to deny all the way to the bank. The list goes on and But FB has always required this presidency). The deci- on: Sonos took a more temporary stand, taking an opt-out clause for anything that involves sion to be on FB or any social media is to make down its accounts for one week (a more weak- your real privacy. Ditto that for every other a decision you have your work, your friends, kneed approach?) Cher, Jim Carrey, Mozilla, social media online. Now, Zuckerberg faces your whole self, exposed and monetized for the and many others are all in high dungeon over testifying before Congress why this happened. benefit of that social media. While it may not FB’s cavalier use of their data. Wait. How did It should be obvious. be a dollar for data exchange, it is certainly a this happen? Wasn’t Facebook an altruistic data quid pro quo of some kind. company from the beginning? If I had a nickel every time an online per- sonality said that it “values your privacy and So, let’s dispense with the #deletefacebook Riii-ghhhh-tttt. it’s very important to us,” I would almost be and admit that we all should have known better. Apart from many anti-Trump folks who are as rich as Zuckerberg. FB, Twitter, Google, It’s not as if we weren’t forewarned. angry over the use the Trump campaign may or and so on, have all made such protestations.
astronomy chemistry, natural sciences, and In his Hawkins acceptance speech, Blooms- The Scholarly Publishing Scene medicine. That knowledge entered Europe bury Publishing CEO Nigel Newton said, “I from page 47 over centuries and through various routes, but am pleased for both our Content Services di- nowhere more so than through multi-cultural vision, who digitized the Arcadian Library’s balance “digital function and convenience” and to a point religiously-tolerant Umayyad collection and launched this award-winning with “some sense of the physical interaction Spain which became the center of dialogue. digital archive platform, and our new Digital with the artifacts.” These comments are es- Resources division, who have taken Arcadian pecially noteworthy inasmuch as scholars are “Arcadian Library Online presents clear Library Online to academic and scholarly unable to examine the Arcadian Library’s evidence for this transmission, and for the libraries and institutions worldwide and are holdings in person. subsequent cross-pollination of ideas between bringing its riches to new generations at a time the Middle East and Europe, through the manu- In a note to me later, Nigel, a publish- when the need for inter-cultural understanding scripts and books within the library’s collection ing veteran, who holds a PhD in biological has never been more acute.” which are reproduced here in high-resolution anthropology, expanded on his comments: detail, and in a readily searchable form in As a long-time and still active PROSE “Arcadian Library Online sheds a timely English and Arabic, including marginalia and judge, I’m pleased that the professional and light on the oft-forgotten transmission of expert commentaries. scholarly publishing industry has honored scientific and medical knowledge from the such a wonderful project, which is particularly Arab and Persian world to Europe, and does “The platform is superbly designed to important at these fraught times. In addition, so magnificently. The Islamic world inherited fulfill the deeply worthy and opportune I’m proud that my fellow judges were able and translated much of the surviving wisdom mission of the library to explain part of the to recognize that an online publication was of ancient Greece, but also added greatly to intellectual debt that the West owes to the worthy of the Hawkins award. that knowledge in areas such as mathematics. Islamic world.”
48 Against the Grain / April 2018
Follow us on Twitter: @BerghahnBooks berghahn NEW YORK . OXFORD www.berghahnbooks.com Stop, Look, Listen — Academic Content for Generation Y: Videos in Scholarly Publishing Column Editor: Dr. Sven Fund (Managing Director, fullstopp GmbH, Wartburgstraße 25A, 10825 Berlin; Phone: +49 (0) 172 511 4899)
ideos as an innovative form of academ- In some fields of research communication, growing, as one of the unintended and rather ic communication are gaining impor- videos already have a certain tradition. The negative implications of digitization. Vtance. They fully use the potential of great collections of historical or media-related A new and very innovative approach is pres- digitality, and they do so to a much greater ex- “publishers” like Alexander Street Press, ently being tested by a startup from Hamburg, tent than older and more established media for- Bloomsbury or Gale are by now present in Germany. Latest Thinking (www.lt.org), as it mats developed in the process of digitization, many libraries around the world. A comparable is called, has set out to explore the boundaries like for instance ebooks or ejournals. And they trend can be observed in some fields of the of research focused around a specific research particularly address new audiences that have natural sciences or engineering, especially in question, and it does so for many different been raised in a different media environment clinical medicine or dentistry. disciplines. The ambition: Latest Thinking and that now enter into the research process. JoVE (www.jove.com), the Journal of Vi- research and also rather discursive questions Academic publishing is not at all short of sual Experiments, has built upon this already and debates are being discussed by top ex- digital innovation. Digital content models as about ten years ago, and in the meantime it has perts in the respective fields. All in English well as its business models are for quite some grown beyond its traditional core. Comparable language, Latest Thinking covers a broad time already the only growth drivers in the to the Journal of Medical Insight (www.jomi. field of topics, from stem cell research and its industry, even if print constitutes still in many com), experts lead their audience through sur- ethical implications to medical complications niches and geographical markets the dominant geries or experiments in the lab and explain from air pollution. The videos, mostly 10 to source of revenue for many publishing houses. either introductory or highly sophisticated pro- 15 minutes long, are structured in chapters to Despite all the innovation in the industry cedures to students and their fellow research- allow for easy navigation through the content, and the proliferation of digital material, eb- ers. Videos in the communication of research from research question to methodology, results ooks and digital journals only exploit a small results are hence much more than the playful and overall relevance of the presentation. fraction of the actual potential of available art to waste time, they very practically help to What is of special interest to users as well as technologies. Relatively young companies shorten time spent in understanding complex researchers that present their results is the fact have followed a promising past to change this issues. At the same time, they help to reduce that Latest Thinking makes all of its content — they use video material to better commu- barriers to research results — an important available in Open Access. The institutions nicate and explain complex issues in science advantage in a time where the attention span of that employ the researchers cover the costs of and research. the average audience is rather decreasing than continued on page 50 Against the Grain / April 2018
aving been a sales executive with my assets distributed as I intended in the case Most information industry global responsibilities for many years, of my untimely demise. companies send out renewal HI spent a considerable amount of time My Constitutional Law professor in col- notices 90-120 prior to expi- travelling on planes. Anyone who has ever had lege told the class that “verbal contracts are ration of the subscription. It the pleasure (or not) of lengthy stays aboard a not worth the paper that they are written on.” is within this time period that plane travelling at 30,000 feet in the air has Apparently that was a remark made many years the two parties need to get inevitably picked up the airline magazine to prior to my college days by movie maker and together and hammer out a new agreement. In read. I have never been a fan of those maga- Hollywood legend, Sam Goldwyn. No matter the case of a renewal, these days prior to the zines, but given the boredom of flying, a quick the source, the sentiment is totally correct. Just subscription expiration date give the library perusal of the usually mediocre topics covered like the person who shockingly complains that incredible leverage in the negotiation process. in those magazines will certainly help pass the their “unlocked” car was broken into and their After all, for the aggregator the renewal rep- time if one cares to take the time to look at the wallet was stolen off the front seat, a verbal resents cash flow and continuation of services. articles or has nothing better to do. contract is a disaster in the making. All it Interfering in the timely receipt of any library On one particular flight, after finishing the takes is to lock your car which will deter most renewal will cause a bit of pain for the aggre- crossword puzzle in the airline magazine I thieves. Similarly, if the sales rep and librarian gator. To avoid that pain, the vendor is usually came upon an article that talked about being write down all the provisions of the impending willing to agree to terms more favorable to the able to speak with authority from the grave. contract, then the chance for dissatisfaction library. Why should the library give up that “What fun!” I thought and therefore took the greatly diminishes. edge to the vendor by agreeing to an evergreen clause in the contract? Makes no sense to do so. chance to examine the article. In vendor/librarian negotiation, both par- The writer was talking about the preparation ties need to make it abundantly clear to one For the sales rep, those 90-120 days represent of last wills & testament so as to being able to another the terms and conditions of what each a golden opportunity to not only renew current direct the dispersion of one’s assets after death. party’s responsibilities are. What is everyone’s subscriptions, but interest the library in the com- In essence, the author said, you can literally do expectations and what happens in the unlikely pany’s new offerings. Selling more products to anything you want with your assets as long as event of something going wrong? Whether existing customers is much easier than selling your directions are clearly written down in a le- it’s an order for a new database product, a products to prospects who are not customers. gal document. We laugh when we hear stories new technology or even a simple renewal, the People who have a history of doing business about people leaving their house, possessions parties need to review the contractual details. with the company are more likely to entertain and bank accounts to the family dog after they In the library information world, renewals are the notion of adding additional services due to die, but in actuality they have every right to do an integral part of the relationship between the their comfort level of past satisfactory dealings. so as long as their wishes are clearly spelled vendor and the librarian. Some vendors include And of course, this is the time to “write it down!” out on a legal document. an evergreen provision in the contract with the The great Canadian song writer and per- Many a sister, brother, uncle, aunt, niece, library that allows for an automatic renewal. former, Gordon Lightfoot wrote, “If You nephew or spouse have been, in their estima- By having this provision in the contract, the Could Read My Mind.” The lyrics go “If I tion, blindsided by a deceased, wealthy relative library and the salesperson basically do nothing could read your mind, love, what a tale your who in their will, thought more of Fido, the dog at renewal time and magically, the customer is thoughts could tell…” In the art of negotia- than Irving, the nephew. In this case, Fido will guaranteed another year of that database being tions, since we cannot read each other’s minds, have all the money and Irving will not. available to the patrons of the library. In the writing down the terms and conditions will case of an evergreen provision, the onus is eliminate misinformation and distrust and After reading the article, I realized that I on the library to say what they want to do in will ultimately produce a mutually beneficial needed to construct a will so that my daughter the new subscription year. Say nothing and it relationship between the two parties that should and family would be properly taken care of and automatically renews. last for many years. An evergreen provision is the ultimate shortcut for the sales rep and the informa- Mike is currently the Managing Partner tion professional. And in these times where everyone is busy, one less renewal to worry of Gruenberg Consulting, LLC, a firm he Stop, Look, Listen about may seem to be of interest to both founded in January 2012 after a successful career as a senior sales executive in the from page 49 parties. After all, the evergreen stipulates the percentage of price increase and the terms and information industry. His firm is devoted to producing the videos, allowing them to reach conditions remain the same, as well. But in the provide clients with sales staff analysis, market the widest possible audience. ever-changing world of database technology research, executive coaching, trade show in the information industry, it seems that a preparedness, product placement and best The development of the innovative is en- shortcut may prove to be not the wisest choice practices advice for improving negotiation couraging — Latest Thinking reports strong for either party. Has the technology improved skills for librarians and salespeople. His increases in users accessing their platform over last year and if so, how is that addressed book, “Buying and Selling Information: A every month. in the new contract year? Is the designated Guide for Information Professionals and Videos are, not least because of the easy price increase over last year justified in light of Salespeople to Build Mutual Success” has digital distribution, are increasingly becom- some of the difficulties encountered during the become the definitive book on negotiation ing a serious channel for the communication past subscription year? What remedies is the skills and is available on Amazon, Information of research results. Especially members of customer entitled to if the system is non-oper- Today in print and eBook, Amazon Kindle, generation Y, who have inhaled audio-visual ational for a prolonged period of time? It’s in B&N Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks, OverDrive, media from their infancy, are attracted by the everyone’s best interest to examine and review 3M Cloud Library, Gale (GVRL), MyiLibrary, medium. before a decision is made to renew by writing ebrary, EBSCO, Blio, and Chegg. www. an agreement amenable to both parties. gruenbergconsulting.com 50 Against the Grain / April 2018
Column Editors’ Note: This study In- gest a rise in immigration trends will impact language (ESL) programs when completing a ternational Students and Academic Librar- the demographic composition of academic library assignment. To this end, DiMartino ies: Identifying Themes in the Literature institutions, especially in the U.S. and Zoe (2000) urged librarians to understand From 2001 to the Present, is featured in the learning styles, cognitive habits, and cul- the recently released IGI Global book pub- International Students’ tural background of international students to lication, Promoting Ethnic Diversity and Adjustment to Academia support their use of the library. Multiculturalism in Higher Education, Research has identified a variety of factors Ethnic diversity, and especially the ap- edited by Dr. Barbara Blummer (Center that impact international students’ adjust- pearance of international students on college for Computing Sciences, USA), Dr. Jeffrey ment to academic life including: language campuses, exposes students to new perspec- M. Kenton (Towson University, USA), and difficulties, technological barriers, different tives, research opportunities, and pedagogy Dr. Michael Wiatrowski (Independent Re- instructional methods, financial problems, practices. Still, language and cultural barriers searcher, USA) (Copyright Year: 2018; ISBN: discrimination as well as loneliness (Banjong can hinder the academic endeavors of mi- 9781522540977; Pages: 309). — CC & LW & Olson, 2016; Faleel, Tam, Lee, Har, & Foo; norities. It remains especially important that Zhou, Jindal-Snape, Topping, & Todman, administrators, faculty, and librarians devise 2008). Moreover, Koenigstein (2012), Peters strategies to support international students’ Introduction (2010) and Sarkodie-Mensah (2000) believed research and learning activities. Librarians’ According to the Institute of International international students in the U.S. experienced and faculty’s support to international students Education’s Open Doors Report on Interna- cultural shock that produced anxiety and stress. can be aided by understanding how cultural tional Education Exchange, the number of Recent studies support these findings highlight- differences impact their information seeking. international students studying in the United ing the linguistic, cultural, and instructional States (U.S.) is increasing as well as the challenges facing international students (Han Literature Review Method number of U.S. students enrolled in academic & Hall, 2012; Lin & Scherz, 2014). The methodology centered on a literature institutions abroad. In addition, the numbers of Foremost, differences between the libraries review of international students and academic Hispanic, Asian, and nonresident alien students and librarians in students’ native countries libraries from 2001 to the present. To identify attending U.S. academic institutions increased and their host institutions affect international relevant articles on this topic, the authors from 2010 to 2014 (National Center for Edu- students’ utilization of library services and searched the library literature with various cational Statistics, 2016). Other countries are resources (Nataowitz, 1995; Peters, 2010). combinations of the following keywords: reporting a rise in foreign students enrolled in Studies suggested international students visited international, students, library, academic, their universities, as well. Still, studies suggest the library for studying, but not research and university, college, and higher education. The that international students experience difficul- these individuals were less apt to contact a authors truncated terms and limited the results ties in adapting to academia, in part, due to librarian for assistance (Duan, 2016; Haley & to material published after 2000, to reflect the cultural differences. Librarians’ understanding Clough, 2017). Additional barriers to interna- availability of commercial technologies in of international students’ library use patterns tional students’ use of library resources include libraries. The reference lists of relevant papers can foster the development of appropriate difficulty with language, especially English, were also reviewed. informational literacy instruction and outreach as well as a lack of understanding of library Research Analysis & Findings to these individuals and facilitate their use of facilities, resources, and services (Duan, 2016; library resources and services. The authors reviewed 99 papers that re- Varga-Atkins & Ashcroft, 2004). Moreover, ported on international students and academic Background research found international students were libraries. These papers consisted of studies often confused about plagiarism and library A recent United Nations Educational, that examined data from surveys, interviews, jargon (Han & Hall, 2012; Mundava & Gray, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNES- focus groups, and reference interactions with 2008; Ramachandran, 2014/2015). Surveys CO) report illustrated the number of students international students as well as their search and focus groups with international students studying in higher education institutions abroad diaries and artifacts. The majority of the papers pointed to the role of language as a barrier to is increasing (United Nations, 2016). The re- did not differentiate among individuals’ ethnic these individuals’ information literacy devel- port identified the most popular countries for status, but 14 out of 99, or 14 percent focused opment as well as the importance of outreach, these students as the U.S., the United Kington, on Asian international students. There was specialized instruction, and campus collabora- Australia, France, Germany, and Russia respec- also research that centered on international tions to improve their research skills (Ishimura, tively. On the other hand, the report pointed to students from Saudi Arabia and developing Howard, & Moukdad, 2007; Jackson, 2005; China, India, Germany, Korea, France, Saudi countries use of the library at Robert Morris Mehra & Bilal, 2007; Safahieh & Singh, 2007; Arabia, and the U.S. as claiming the most University and the University of Delaware Wang, 2008). mobile students. Yi (2007) suggested the respectively (Ibraheem & Devine, 2016; U.S. remained especially attractive to foreign Authors noted international students expe- Iheanacho, 2008). Likewise, more than half students due to the extent of technological rienced anxiety when using the library (Lu & of the studies considered undergraduate and and scientific development in the country. In Adkins, 2012). Battle (2004) found informa- graduate international students, 59 out of 99. addition to an increasing rate of international tion literacy instruction reduced library anxiety However, some research focused on graduate students in the U.S. and abroad, studies sug- for international students in English as a second continued on page 52 Against the Grain / April 2018
52 Against the Grain / April 2018
Natowitz, A. (1995). International student Care and Feeding of Local in US academic libraries: Recent concerns and trends. Research Strategies, 13(1), 4-16. Data in a ILS Migration Peters, D. E. (2010). International Stu- dents and Academic Libraries: A Survey of Column Editors: Stacey Marien (Acquisitions Librarian, Issues and Annotated Bibliography. Lanham: American University Library)
Against the Grain / April 2018
Biz of Acq / The Biz of Digital — Gone with the Old, In with the New The Disappearance of Library Acquisitions and the Emergence of the E- and the Digital Column Editor: Michelle Flinchbaugh (Acquisitions and Digital Scholarship Services Librarian, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250; Phone: 410-455-6754; Fax: 410-455-1598)
Column Editor’s Note: This is the last “Biz of Acq” column librarians, and there are simply far fewer working acquisitions librarians and the first “Biz of Digital” column. It’s sad to be wrapping up the than there once were. With the switch to e-resources well on its way long-running “Biz of Acq,” but exciting to moving into new territory. to completion, positions for acquisitions librarians are morphing into Libraries have changed massively since the “Biz of Acq” column positions for electronic resource managers. With the popularity of eBook began, and dedicated acquisitions librarians, the authors of the col- packages and PDA or DDA (patron driven acquisition or demand driven umn and a large portion of the target audience, are disappearing as acquisitions), even the title-by-title purchase of monographs is being libraries shift resources to e-resources and e-resource management, whittled down to nothing, leaving small units that don’t need dedicated discovery services, digital special collections, and digital scholarship managers. LSPs (Library Service Platforms — the next generation ILSs) (services). The new column will cover the wide array of facilities, allow for flexible workflows joining acquisitions and cataloging into equipment, systems, and services that support digital collections one unified function so that the person doing acquisitions is no longer and digital scholarship. Following the tone set by “Biz of Acq,” as needed. Combining acquisitions with other units such as interlibrary a “Biz” column, the goal will be to provide digital collections and loan and collection management streamlines workflows, making it digital scholarship librarians, and the vendors of systems, equipment, increasingly popular for acquisitions to be consumed by a greater or and services to support them, with current information on events in the larger concept. Acquisitions Librarians retire or move on and their field, and practical insights into techniques and process by working positions are re-purposed, or they pick up new work and expertise, and librarians. My hope is that it will eventually be joined by a sister the position that they’re in is re-repurposed to new area they’ve been working in. Mandatory moves to different positions or downsizing are column or two covering the “Biz” of e-resource management and also possible, although I haven’t heard of an acquisitions librarian being discovery services. — MF downsized or being forced to move to a new position. My medium sized library once had two professional librarians ded- The Disappearance of Library Acquisitions icated to acquisitions — a serials librarian and an acquisitions librarian The “Biz of Acq” column is a longstanding feature in Against the managing monographic acquisitions. With the retirement of the serials Grain, but it has become increasing difficult to find authors willing to librarian, our professional e-resources cataloger and discovery services write for the column. The authors for “Biz of Acq” are generally working continued on page 55
54 Against the Grain / April 2018
Against the Grain / April 2018
Column Editor’s Notes: In this issue of a higher level and scope of decision making consult with other areas within the library to see Being Earnest with Collections, the focus than the clerical staff level, who primarily work what insight they can share with us about the turns to making use of new staffing by im- according to well-established guidelines with e-resource user experience. Since the ERA unit proving services and increasing collaboration limited decision-making authority. In 2015 we typically works behind the scenes, it is benefi- with other library units. I recently spoke with were able to promote one of the unit’s clerical cial to establish consistent communication with Lori Duggan and learned of her successful support staff members to the professional staff those areas that regularly interface directly with efforts to increase staffing within the Elec- level in a newly created Procurement Manager students and researchers. In particular, we were tronic Resources Acquisitions Unit at Indiana position, resulting in the unit being staffed with able to collaborate with the Interlibrary Loan University. I was impressed with her team’s one librarian, two professional staff, and one department, and this relationship provided us efforts to make better use of ILL data and to clerical support staff member (4 FTE). The with some very useful information. improve the user experience. In this article, professional level staff possess a higher level of ILL request data is a valuable source of the ERA team provides a number of practical technical skill, with a broad level of scope and information for those interested in examin- applications that may help other ER units decision making capabilities. This enhanced ing how patrons are interacting with library with requests for new staffing. By improving level of staffing has enabled the unit to engage resources. From an electronic resources outcomes for end user, their team contributed in higher-level projects with increased impact management perspective, ILL data can help to return on investment and reduced various on the Libraries, and has aligned the unit for us pinpoint where access issues are cropping success in the current electronic resources linking errors. — MA up. The interlibrary loan ILLiad management management environment. software interfaces directly with our discovery Implementation of a system and makes request data available to here is no question that approaches to ILL staff. The data gives us detailed infor- managing library electronic resources Ticketing System mation regarding what database records (if have continually evolved over the past One of the first projects tackled with the any) from which the patrons are generating T creation of the Access Manager position was the ILL request. several years. Since before the turn of the millennium, these resources have undergone the implementation of a ticketing system We were particularly interested in review- a steady increase in importance, content, and to track access interruption reports. After ing cancelled requests, specifically requests scope, and comprise a growing percentage of considering the various options, we chose to cancelled because the library has electronic library collection development budgets. Given use Jira, an issue and project tracking system access to the requested material. By analyzing the expansion and increasing impact of these that other departments and units within the IU those requests, we can attempt to determine resources, it stands to reason that staffing lev- Libraries also used. whether the patron encountered any errors that els in units working with electronic resources Prior to the implementation of Jira, the had led them to conclude (incorrectly) that the must evolve to meet the multiple challenges unit utilized a spreadsheet to track and docu- library did not have full text access to the re- presented in managing the electronic resources ment access interruptions. While this worked quested book, article, etc. The data allows us to life-cycle. The Electronic Resources Acqui- well-enough, it did not link easily to the email replicate searches and requests with accuracy, sitions (ERA) unit at Indiana University correspondence received and staff occasionally so in many cases we can view the search as Libraries is no exception. failed to record access problems since the pro- the patron viewed it. The head of Document By 2008, the ERA unit, which manages cess was manual. With Jira, the first response Delivery Services is able to generate monthly the licensing and acquisition of databases, to any inquiry creates a ticket in the system, spreadsheets of cancelled full text request data e-resource collections, streaming video, and and follow-up correspondence attaches easily via ILLiad, and she has begun dispatching these more, was staffed at a level of 1.5 librarians to the ticket. This reduces the likelihood that reports to us on a monthly basis. and 1 clerical support staff member (2.5 FTE). a reported interruption will go unrecorded. Using this data, we were able to identify As the quantity and complexity of electronic Additionally, we use reporting functionality and correct some minor and major access is- resources increased over the years, it became within the system to look at trends in our access sues. On the minor side, we have been able to clear that staffing would need to be adjusted as interruption reports to determine which areas discover individual incidents of incompatible well. In 2010 the unit added an additional cler- to address not only reactively but also proac- metadata communication between systems. ical support staff member in order to address tively via projects and changes to our resource Where possible we have reported these incon- the increasing workload of the unit. The ERA management procedures. Such projects have sistencies to vendors and publishers. We were unit is also tasked with access management included systematic reviews of knowledgebase able to initiate a larger fix for one reoccurring for all licensed electronic resources at Indiana selections for e-resources access, workflow instance of conflicting metadata by including a University Libraries. Over the years it was changes to e-resource activation processes, and “check dissertations holdings” link among the evident that access management for the ex- the implementation of an annual review of our openURL search results regardless of whether pansive collection of electronic resources the A to Z databases list. the metadata indicates the format is disserta- Libraries had procured had become a critical Using Interlibrary Loan Data to tion. We identified a number of requests for area of need. In 2013, the unit added a newly dissertations to which we had full text access, created position of Access Manager at an in- Improve Access to Collections but when we replicated the patron’s search, creased professional, non-academic staff level. We do not rely on ticketing data alone to we saw there was no option to search our This professional staff rank is able to work at determine areas of improvement. We also continued on page 57
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books, manuscripts and other objects. “This html to access these and other Story Maps Rumors innovative technology allows curators at the collections from the Library of Congress. The from page 46 Library of Congress to connect collections LC expects to launch additional applications online like never before,” said Paulette Hasier, in the coming year. through the South to newspapers that were chief of the Geography and Map Division at The vivacious Charlie Rapple had an produced in Japanese-American internment the Library and pioneer of this new initiative. interesting essay in The Scholarly Kitchen camps during World War II, the featured “Story Maps showcases LC treasures while April 27, “Can Handwriting Be Copyrighted.” applications showcase striking images from serving as a roadmap for the public on the I was talking by email to Lolly Gasaway after the Library’s collections and use data to map infinite and engaging ways they can use our I saw this post! Lolly is retired but she still the attributes and history behind some of the data.” Go to loc.gov/rr/geogmap/storymaps. continued on page 59
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Just Try Not to Die and also a great many bars and pubs who have their own library of board The looming timer on the wall confirms what the disembodied voice games. For those non-bartenders and non-public librarians out there just told you. You have less than 10 minutes left. You and your associates who may think that the game of Monopoly defines board games, you have spent the better part of the last hour working your way through a may be forgiven (just this once) for wondering surely how the whole series of puzzles scattered across the room and numerous cryptic num- phenomenon of games and gamification has — and is — transforming bers and words scrawled on the walls. You have frantically ransacked libraries and the world, and when did games became so...well...serious. the room looking for clues to the key that will release you from this room I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley. before — before — something terrible happens.... (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) If you have not already treated yourself (and a group of curious Back in olden times, (before the 1980s) when games were thought friends) to the escape room phenomenon, you are missing a mind 1 to be mere trifling pastimes, perhaps a librarian named Shirley (or a stretching / nail biting experience. Market Watch calls this multiplayer librarian who knew someone named Shirley) was the first to host a endeavor in which players solve a series of puzzles and riddles using game night at her public library — in the children’s section of course. clues, hints and strategy “part game, part theater, part team-building ex- 2 Because, sure, playtime in the library was okay some of the time, but ercise.” Geek and Sundry says “the most literal definition of anescape only in public libraries in the children’s section. Surely, Shirley had no room is a game which requires players to escape from imprisonment by idea what a spectacular precedent she had set. But, born that night was exploiting their surroundings.” The kicker is that these objectives are probably the biggest library outreach concept since the bookmobile. in a room into which you and your hapless friends have been “locked/ trapped.” Fail to solve the puzzles, riddles, and mysteries within the Games in the library — at least in public libraries — are now as ubiq- allotted time limit (usually 60) minutes, and you are all “murdered” or uitous as computer stations and story time. What could be more normal “blown up” or “suffocated” or “ripped apart by zombies” or “sucked than a game night in a public library? The sight of tweens and teens out of an airlock.” Sometimes you are merely playing for the fate of gathered around screens of Mario Kart, or Dance Dance Revolution or humanity or a small subset thereof (who will subsequently die of disease, Guitar Hero in a public library game night is now common as is those or irradiated, or eaten by zombies if you fail). More amazing still is same young people (and even older folks) huddled around board game that you actually pay someone money to be locked into a room with tables playing Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, or Pandemic. In fact a ticking time bomb (it’s even a lucrative increased group participation in video games and business).2 How cool is that? the new renaissance in board games has dramatically fueled the idea of libraries Now think about this: Players use as community spaces. knowledge and/or skill with knowledge Games themselves are serious (possibly retrieved from a primary or business. Video games alone gener- secondary source) to find clues to find ated over $108 billion in revenues in more knowledge to solve problems? 2017.8 Sales in board games in the Does this not have “library” written U.S grew by 28% between spring of all over it? 2016 and spring of 2017 and global Type in “escape rooms” and “libraries” into Google and sit back. sales was $9.6 billion in 2016.9 Indeed, the new resurgence in board Now that is cool. Libraries have been keen to creatively apply the games has been labeled a board game renaissance. Some of the games puzzle solving and information gathering attributes of the escape room themselves have become serious as learning and training tools in all concept to comparable skills needed to use library resources. So, it is areas of business and industry. Basically a “serious game” is a game no mystery why escape rooms in public and academic libraries are the “designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.” It has latest hot library outreach, promotion and instruction thing. To coin a allowed trainers and educators to embrace the potential for games to phrase they are HUGE. The February issue of College and Research engage and simulate risk and reality, without the risk of reality. It is Libraries News3 has a story on how librarians and a faculty member at “play” for a productive purpose. As a section of the site for the MIT the University of Albany, SUNY have designed and implemented an Game Lab10 puts it, “Modern games have brought the power of play to escape room immersive game platform in an information literacy class. many endeavors — from entertainment to education, art to activism, Many other library publications (Library Quarterly,4 American Librar- science to socialization, and more.” 5 6 ies, School Library Journal ) have all recently featured articles on the This revolution is not seen just in the proliferation of games them- library application of escape rooms, and there are countless blogs and selves (both digital and analog). Gamification — the process of adding websites on how to bring the concept to your library (See library lady 7 games or game-like elements to something (such as a task) so as to nicole blog manual on the subject). Your only problems will be how encourage participation — has immersed the planet in a ubiquitous to fit this into your normal “game night” schedule and how to store all social “game think.” So, to some extent gamification is the concept those props among your game collections. of adding “a spoonful of sugar” to help the medicine go down. But, Just as surely as there is a gamified world, libraries have become the terms “engagement” and “participation” are critical. Far from just places transformed by games and a place for gaming the transformation making a task more palatable, gamification incorporates an entire system (see what I did there?). This should not be surprising, considering the of elements and principles that both encourages and compels a user. recent history of libraries and games — particularly board games. Ok, Behavior manipulation sounds a bit harsh. So, let’s just refer to it as while no one is looking I challenge you to type the following terms into user centered instruction engagement. It is an engagement application Google: board, game, and public library. My last such search retrieved that libraries are particularly placed to absorb and use to their advantage. almost three million results. That is just board games and public librar- In fact libraries seem to have benefited particularly from this alluring ies. These hits mostly include circulating board game collections, board game revolution that has swept society. game outreach programs, ALA roundtables on board (tabletop) games, continued on page 59
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Bloomsbury has announced the news of the acquisition of I.B. Rumors Tauris Publishers. This acquisition comes as Bloomsbury’s Academic from page 57 division kicks off a year of celebrations for their 10th anniversary this May, and will strengthen Bloomsbury’s commitment to serve the loves doing her Q & A column for Against the Grain. Hooray! Lolly scholarly community with original, cutting-edge content. loves questions! Leah Hinds is crafting a form so you can send your www.bloomsbury.com questions directly to us at Against the Grain! Stay tuned. President-elect of SSP 2018-19 is Angela Cochran the associate Scott the bam zowie Plutchak has started a new column in Against publisher and director of journals for the American Society of Civil the Grain! He is an Epistemologist, the one in this issue (also serving Engineers in Reston, Virginia USA. ASCE publishes 36 technical as our Op Ed, see p.32) is awesome. Scott is not scared to buck the journals across all areas of civil engineering. Prior to becoming journals system. Whoa, Scott! director, Angela was the production director at ASCE overseeing all Another new columnist is Corey Seeman who has started a business production aspects of journals, a monthly member magazine, and book slant column. His column in the last issue was about the necessity of snow- products. She is past-president of the Council of Science Editors and plows in a place like Charleston which almost never has snow. Like my a regular contributor and associate editor of The Scholarly Kitchen. father an econ professor used to tell me — “You can’t have guns and butter.” SSP new Members-at-Large include: 1) Alison Mudditt, the recent- Welcome Corey! And Corey was just in Charleston visiting his mother! ly-appointed CEO of PLOS. Her current focus is on defining the next Another new columnist — Jared Seay. Remember his earlier col- innovative frontier for PLOS. She is also a contributor to The Scholarly umns “You Gotta Go to School for that?” Well he has now started a Kitchen blog and serves on the board of directors of ALPSP and the column about games and libraries. What a guy! (p.58) Advisory Board for the Authors’ Alliance. Before joining PLOS, she served as director of the University of California Press and Executive Reading Social Media (ATG NewsChannel) by Nancy K. Herther Vice President at SAGE. Her 30-year publishing career also includes brought back memories of my very first IBM selectric typewriter with leadership roles at Blackwell and Taylor & Francis. 2) Laura Ricci, the self-correcting feature. There was only one such IBM typewriter in senior product manager for partnerships in the EBSCO eBooks division, the library and I got it when the old owner left for a new job. Hooray! where she has had multiple roles since joining the company in 2013. 3) What an ancient memory! Elizabeth R. Lorbeer began her role as the library director for West- The hard-working Steve Oberg just keynoted a library conference ern Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine in Cleveland, and he has made his slides available at http://librarylink. (WMed) in 2013. Additionally, she is a board member of the Medical wheaton.edu/notsl2018. Check them out! continued on page 77 Against the Grain / April 2018
Column Editor’s Note: Thank you to all of the Charleston Con- conference format. The presenters each gave a 90 second introduction ference attendees who agreed to write short reports that highlight to their perspectives of eBook acquisition and management. After their sessions they attended at the 2017 Charleston Conference. All at- very brief introductions, we were provided with the guidelines for each tempts were made to provide a broad coverage of sessions, and notes “Dating Round.” One of the guidelines included taking a notecard that are included in the reports to reflect changes that were not printed in had candy attached, on the front it read, “I Like Your Ideas, I Want to the conference’s final program (though some may be reflected in the Connect with You.” There were spaces for writing our names, Linke- online schedule, where links can also be found to presentations’ Pow- dIn, Facebook, and email to help us form connections with others in erPoint slides and handouts). Please visit the conference site http:// our groups. www.charlestonlibraryconference.com/ to link to selected videos as The rounds lasted 15 minutes each. Speed Dating Round 1 dealt well as interviews, and to blog reports, written by Charleston Con- with Acquisitions Pros and Cons. In my group we spent time answering ference blogger, Donald Hawkins. The 2017 Charleston Conference questions from a publisher about what models we are considering. We Proceedings will be published in 2018, in partnership with Purdue also discussed how we can best work with publishers to assure that University Press. our patrons are getting the resources they need. The second round In this issue of ATG you will find the second installment of 2017 was focused on dealing with platforms. We discussed what prefer- conference reports. The first installment can be found inATG v.30#1, ences we have and the role of DRM. The third round was referred February 2018. We will continue to publish all of the reports received to as the Second Date and we discussed collection strategies. In my group we were focused on eBooks as textbooks and issues that may in upcoming print issues throughout the year. — RKK add to our collection development strategies. At the end, the small group monitors, the presenters, shared the overall responses from the WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017 groups. I enjoyed this session because it allowed me to learn from LIVELY LUNCH DISCUSSIONS others in our small groups and also engage with a wide variety of librarians and publishers. Choose Your Own Adventure: A Thrilling Journey of Collab- orative Collection Assessment — Presented by Jamie Hazlitt From Numbers to Narratives: Putting the Human Face on (Loyola Marymount University); Jeremy Whitt (Pepperdine Metrics — Presented by Karen Gutzman (Moderator, Galter University); Madelynn Dickerson (Claremont Colleges Li- Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University); brary); Caroline Muglia (University of Southern California) Aaron Sorensen (Digital Science Consultancy); Mike Taylor (Digital Science); Anne Stone (TBI Communications); Reported by Colleen Lougen (SUNY New Paltz) Michael Habib (Clarivate Analytics)
Pirates or Robin Hoods? Copyright and the Public Good — Pre- Altmetrics for Everyone: How to get Open, Easy, Free Metrics sented by Rick Anderson (University of Utah); Ann Okerson of Online Impact — Presented by Robin Sinn (Sheridan (Center for Research Libraries); William Hannay (Schiff Hardin Libraries, Johns Hopkins University); James MacGregor LLP); Robert Boissy (Springer Nature) (Public Knowledge Project, SFU Library); Heather Piwowar (Impactstory); Jason Priem (Impactstory) Reported by Lauren Kuhn (Springer Nature)
Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Currently, there is a good deal of disagreement about how strictly Galter Health Sciences Library)
Reported by Susannah Benedetti (University of North Carolina Demystifying the Buzz Words: Linked Data, Artificial Intelli- Wilmington)
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greatest percentage viewed. What resources have been have been cited, Reported by Jeanne Cross (University of North Carolina shared or embedded? Examining playlists, watch lists, comments and Wilmington)
62 Against the Grain / April 2018
Reported by Ramune Kubilius (Northwestern University, Galter Sustainable Digital Preservation: An Innovative Partnership in Health Sciences Library)
Textbook Collections: Required of our Students, Unwelcome NOTE: The last presenter, Elizabeth Caley, in our Academic Library? — Presented by Leanne joined the panel via Skype. Olson (Western University) Reported by David Myers (DMedia Associates, Inc.) Reported by Robin Sabo (Central Michigan University)
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Reported by Alicia Willson-Metzger (Christopher Newport University)
The Beatles tune, “With a Little Help from My Friends” could easily Reported by Nancy Hampton (Xavier University of Louisiana) have been the theme for this panel discussion describing Washington
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difficult. There remains plenty of fodder for further exploration. NOTE: Carol Tenopir and Regina Mays were not in attendance and did not present at this session. Joining the panel were: Kristina Clement (Student Representative from UX-A Cohort); The OA Effect: How does Open Access affect Usage of Brianne Dosch (Student Representative from UX-A Cohort); Scholarly Books? — Presented by Sarah Beaubien (Grand Jordan Kaufman (Student Representative from UX-A Cohort) Valley State University); Ros Pyne (Springer Nature)
Reported by Alicia Willson-Metzger (Christopher Newport Reported by Lauren Kuhn (Springer Nature) University)
This session described The University of Tennessee School of This panel brought together a librarian and a publisher to discuss Information Sciences’ “Experience Assessment (UX-A),” Master’s the state of open access books, and how making books open access program, funded by an IMLS grant. The school recognized a need for impacts their usage. Springer Nature’s Pyne presented the results of functional specialists and a community of practice for library assess- a study on the benefits of publishing academic books via immediate ment. Presenters conducted a survey of academic librarians in 2015-16 gold open access, which suggested that open access books are down- to discover, in part, how respondents learned to conduct assessment. loaded seven times more, cited 50% more, and mentioned online ten Respondents indicated that most often, they learned not through MLIS times more than non-open access titles. On the library side, Beaubien courses but by reading professional literature, conferences/workshops, pointed out that libraries need to address open access books; however, and consulting with colleagues. Given these results, the SIS constructed while open access books are free to readers, they aren’t free to the a program with curricular offerings in assessment, statistics, research libraries that need to spend time developing and maintaining their methods, higher education administration and organizational commu- nication, and included mentorship by assessment professionals and collections, especially when discoverability can be a challenge. As a hands-on experience in assessment. Students participated in practical result, Beaubien suggested publishers continue to be proactive about assessment projects such as library spaces assessment and a web us- informing libraries about their open access titles, as well as developing ability study. Presenters recommended developing best practices and and sharing metrics. competencies more functional specialists, centralized repositories of Read also the session report by Charleston Conference blogger, training materials, the mentoring of students and new professionals, and Donald Hawkins: http://www.against-the-grain.com/2017/11/the-oa- the recognition that functional specialists have very specific training/ effect-how-does-open-access-affect-the-usage-of-scholarly-books/. professional development needs that differ from generalists’ training. This session presented an interesting and detailed look at the issues involved in assessment training. That’s all the reports we have room for in this issue. Watch for more reports from the 2017 Charleston Conference in upcoming issues of Against the Grain. Presentation material (PowerPoint The ‘Other Stuff’: Examining Librarians’ Decision Making slides, handouts) and taped session links from many of the 2017 Processes in Assessing Big Deal Journal Cancellations — sessions are available online. Visit the Conference Website at Presented by Samuel Cassady (Western University); Catherine www.charlestonlibraryconference.com. — KS Johnson (Western University)
Reported by Cynthia McClellan (Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences)
Faced with a mandate to drastically cut journal subscription costs at their large, research-intensive university (based in Ontario, Canada),
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n nearly 12 years of working at SAGE Pub- customers always needs to show the value of sented with praise by Dave Tyckoson, Subject lishing, I am struck by how infinitely more their investments, so they are so pleased to get Librarian from CSU Fresno. It was mentioned Icomplex the conversations around data have this report and want to share it with their group. that the report gives librarians information they become. Some time ago, electronic resources They love that it’s visual and helps them show might not otherwise have access to, that they were just taking center stage and the ability to the value of what they spend with SAGE,” said can use to liaise with faculty. Kimberley Ro- see how many downloads a journal article got Anne Fulton, SAGE Library Sales Manager. bles-Smith, Collection Development Director was enough. Now, librarians are expected to Our aim in creating the CVR is to help at CSU Fresno, said she chose to showcase make purchasing decisions based on cost per reveal, for our librarian customers, the way the SAGE CVR for its visually pleasing and use, use quantitative measures to show levels their campus is engaging with our content. In comprehensive representation of their data, of student success, and compile data from hun- connecting with more than 800 libraries glob- and its useful faculty information. She also dreds of disparate publisher reports to deduce ally over the course of three years, based on sees value in the faculty contributors to SAGE trends. The challenges abound for centralizing their feedback, we believe we have achieved journals and books that were provided, as she data, equalizing reports, and creating clean and the right balance of information that is useful to thought it would be useful for those on campus impactful visualizations; and librarians aren’t them. We also hope that this helps them to be who are trying to mentor students. “Some the only ones stretched to keep up. Publishers informed when considering where they might grad students, especially in the sciences, are must meet these expectations as well. invest in more resources. We are transparent being encouraged to get published before they One way SAGE is responding to the in- in what we provide in these reports, including graduate and it’s good for them to see their creased need for data evidence is by dedicating usage data accessible to librarian account professor’s publications,” she said. a team to curating and presenting meaningful administrators for download and comparison. For the SAGE CVR creation, we have a data in a visual report called the Customer The value of the SAGE CVR is in the data small staff in marketing that focuses on gath- Value Report (CVR). The SAGE CVR is being collected and analyzed without any ering, curating, and providing this data mostly hand-crafted and customized by institution heavy-lifting on the part of the librarian. It’s for review with our Library Sales staff during and features multiple metrics including usage, in the data trends provided in feature boxes, campus meetings. Systems reporting provided turnaways, faculty reactions, and more, in a the faculty product feedback gathered by by our Circulation department delivers the graphic, distributable report. “Our Librarian SAGE, and essentially the hard to reach and various data metrics we need to accomplish review data that is being this. By going through this in-depth review of required of the librarian customer accounts, it helps us better understand to find and distribute. their specific resource needs. The challenge Many librarians have in doing this on a larger scale is achieving the shared that it saves them personalization required for us to deliver a time in conveying prod- quality CVR, which is why, for now, we focus uct interest to colleagues on providing these in-depth visual reports to a and other decision mak- core and scalable group of libraries in the U.S., ers when they are able EMEA, and APAC. However, upon customer to circulate this compre- request, we are happy to deliver extensive raw hensive report. “I wish data files, including what is offered in the CVR. all my vendors would In addition to what we deliver directly to do this — it would make customers, SAGE has several departments that my job a lot easier since are vigorously looking at data to help determine I do this type of analysis business directives. Analytics form an integral and reporting for all the part of our product development cycle, by resources we have in the helping to shape our overall goals and objec- library” — Librarian Re- tives for our platforms and how we prioritize becca Frenandez, Head enhancements. In the current digital landscape of Electronic Resources we believe making informed, data-driven deci- and Collection Devel- sions is critical to ensuring our platforms truly opment at the Univer- meet the needs of our customers, publishing sity of Texas at Tyler. partners and end users as they evolve over time. The SAGE CVR also For example, in 2014, we discovered that helps them see where to there was a huge amount of usage on a small encourage higher usage number of videos being accessed via our SAGE of resources among stu- Research Methods product which was one of dents and faculty. the determining factors in SAGE’s decision to During a 2017 start producing our SAGE Video collections. Charleston Conference More recently, usage has also played a role in session I attended called our decisions to add updated video content to “Use what you’ve got,” already launched video collections. Based on the SAGE CVR was pre- continued on page 67
66 Against the Grain / April 2018
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leave digital data traces behind us as we move organized statistical data. It is used across ac- Library Analytics ... through our daily lives and this data provides ademic and public libraries and in government from page 66 rich insights and support decision making like and commercial markets and further enables us never before, but also raise ethical questions to deliver statistical solutions to students and high usage of particular videos in our SAGE about use of personal data. For librarians, researchers in an evolving data world. Education Video Collection, it only made sense publishers and academic researchers, the data Working on key reporting and data visu- for us to go back to those SAGE exclusively around us is changing the way we work. alization to deliver to our library partners is a produced videos and update them with even In this vein, in addition to providing li- rewarding, and at times challenging, endeavor more content. brarians with the SAGE CVR, and using data for me; one I learn from every day. Thankfully We use a continuous, iterative enhancement analytics in product development, SAGE is I have been partnering with librarians who are cycle for our platforms, and in prioritizing fully immersed in the world of data (big and advocates of what we are doing at SAGE, to particular features/functionality for enhance- small) through new tools and resources that we help in this age of data requirements. They ment, we review the data in depth to identify publish for students, researchers and instruc- have shared with me the demands put on li- pain points. For example, we are currently tors. We recently launched a new initiative brary staff to analyze large amounts of data, looking to ensure the article page layout for our to look specifically at how big data and new created compelling visuals, and found time journals platform is optimized by conducting technology is changing the way social science in their already busy schedules to do all of an in-depth review of how users are currently research is being conducted, SAGE Ocean that. At SAGE, we hope to help provide the interacting with the different page elements and (ocean.sagepub.com). SAGE Ocean will pro- solutions needed for librarians to accomplish combining this with qualitative data from user vide new types of resources for social scientists these important goals. workshops and extensive testing. We’re also to promote methodological innovations, as well piloting data analysis on text and citations in as practical tools and products for a new era of journals. Preliminary results are encouraging. social science research. A challenge we face with our platforms is The first product from SAGE Ocean is updating them as much and as quickly as we’d SAGE Campus, a series of online data courses like. Following our analyses, our focus on to equip social researchers with the skills they data and user feedback helps us prioritize and need to conduct big data research. Course ultimately ensures the areas of focus always topics include Python, Data Visualization, and represent the most-needed improvement from Qualitative Text Analysis, among others. our users. SAGE also recently announced the pur- There truly has never been more data chase of Data-Planet, a multidisciplinary generated in the world than there is today. We data repository with the largest collection of
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2018 Call for Papers 2018 Vendor Showcase Registration The Call for Papers form is now open on the conference website We’re also happy to announce that the Charleston Vendor Show- at http://www.charlestonlibraryconference.com/call-for-papers/ as of case booth cost will remain the same as last year. Charleston Vendor April 16. The conference planning committee is looking forward to Showcase registration will open on Monday, June 4, and booths are receiving all of your proposals for concurrent sessions, lively panel $2,300 each. Show date and time is Tuesday, November 6, 2018 from discussions, innovation sessions, posters, and more. The submission 10:30 am to 6:00 p.m. The Charleston Vendor Showcase will be held deadline is Friday, July 13. Please contact me or any one of our Con- in the Gaillard Center’s Grand Ballroom (95 Calhoun Street) for the ference Directors if you have questions. second time this year following a wildly successful move to that location in Confirmed Keynote Speakers 2017. This will allow all of our We currently have two confirmed keynote speakers: Annette vendors to be on the same floor and Thomas, Clarivate Analytics, and Ruth Okediji, Harvard Uni- in the same location and will allow versity. Both have spoken in Charleston before and we look forward more vendors to participate. to welcoming them back Don’t miss this opportunity to again! Check the confer- connect 145 publishers and ven- ence website for updates on dors with almost 2,000 collection development, acquisitions, and additional speakers as they electronic resources professionals from around the country and are confirmed. internationally. This is a one day only showcase! Publishers and Annette Thomas was vendors: this is your chance to show your latest electronic products appointed the Chief Execu- and services to a target audience of library decision makers and buy- tive Officer of the Scientific ers. Librarians: browse the latest products and services, talk with & Academic Research busi- reps, see demos, and snag cool freebies. We’ll have brunch food at ness of Clarivate Analytics the opening starting at 10:30 am, a lunch buffet from 12:00-2:00 pm, in September 2017; having and the conference opening reception will be held inside the exhibit served on its board since floor from 4:00-6:00 pm with beer, wine, and appetizers. March 2017. Her career spans nearly 25 years in The Charleston Conference Blog scientific and educational Don Hawkins will once again be covering all the action at the Annette Thomas, Clarivate Analytics publishing — most recent- conference and reporting on the conference blog at https://against- ly, she held the post of the-grain.com/category/chsconfblog/. Don is an information industry Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature. She began her career freelance writer based in Pennsylvania. In addition to blogging and as a cell biology editor for Nature, before being appointed managing writing about conferences for Against the Grain, he blogs the Com- director of Nature Publishing Group, followed by chief executive puters in Libraries and Internet Librarian conferences for Information of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, and then Chief Executive Officer of Today, Inc. (ITI) and maintains the Conference Calendar on the ITI Macmillan Science and website (http://www.infotoday.com/calendar.asp). We’re very excited Education. to have him back for another year in Charleston! His lovely wife Pat Ruth L. Okediji is the will also be helping out at the Information Desk in the Francis Marion Jeremiah Smith. Jr, Profes- Hotel, so be sure to stop by and say hello. sor of Law at Harvard Law School and Co-Director of Charleston Conference Webcast Support Opportunities the Berkman Klein Cen- As I reported in this column in the last issue of ATG, the ter. A renowned scholar Charleston Conference is now offering a series of webcasts on in international intellectual topics such as marketing in the library, misinformation, end of year property (IP) law and a spending, and more. Registration is free, and they are consistently foremost authority on the well attended and received very positive attendee feedback. Videos role of intellectual proper- of previously recorded webcasts are available at http://www. ty in social and economic charlestonlibraryconference.com/video/webinars/. development, Professor Through this series, we’re excited to offer our friends in the industry Okediji has advised in- a new, year-round opportunity to engage the audience and community ter-governmental organi- Ruth Okediji, Harvard University surrounding the annual conference event. Learn more about past zations, regional economic session metrics and how you can participate in future events at http:// communities, and national governments on a range of matters related www.charlestonlibraryconference.com/video/webinars/webcast- to technology, innovation policy, and development. support-opportunities/. 2018 Registration Rates and Dates Stay tuned for more information on the conference website at www. We’re happy to announce that the 2018 conference registration charlestonlibraryconference.com, or join our email list at http://bit. rates will remain the same as last year. Early bird registration is $465, ly/chs-email-list to receive periodic updates. and it will be open from Monday, June 11, through Friday, September 14. Regular registration is $600, from September 15 through October 12. Late registration is $800 after October 12. See http://www. charlestonlibraryconference.com/registration-info/ for more details.
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Georgie Donovan Tom Gilson Associate Dean for Collections & Content Services Associate Editor William & Mary Libraries Against the Grain PO Box 8795 163 Broad Street, Charleston, SC Williamsburg, VA 23185 Phone: (843) 452-6053 Phone: (757) 221-1561 • Fax: (757) 221-1561
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University of North Primary areas of research: Data management and curation; Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries of the 21st century; human-information interaction; health infor- School of Information matics. and Library Science Available Internships/residencies: Carolina Library Associ- 100 Manning Hall ates (CALA); Carolina Technology Associations (CATA); EPA Library In- Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360 terns. Phone: (919) 962-8366 Partnerships with other professional programs: See https://sils.unc.edu/ dual programs above; also CHIP partners SILS with Schools of Medicine, Background/history of the school: Founded 1931 – see Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and computer science de- https://sils.unc.edu/about/history. partment. Number of faculty: 30 What do you think your information/library school Curriculum tracks; key courses: Bachelor of Science in In- will be like in five years? More diverse in content and people; formation Science; Master of Science in Information Science; Master of more technical prereqs; more international; 20-50% larger (students, fac- Science in Library Science; Professional Science Master’s Degree in Dig- ulty, and staff). ital Management and Curation; School Media Coordinator Program; PhD What excites or concerns you about the next five Degree. years? Many opportunities for informed excellence and leadership as we cope with information overload; data analytics misapplication; and dig- Unique programs: Dual Master’s Degrees with Art History, Business Administration, Government, Health Policy, Law, Nursing, and Public Histo- ital literacy requirements. ry; Dual BS-MS degree with Ecology and Environmental Studies; Graduate Is there anything else you think our readers should Certificate Programs in Bioinformatics, Clinical Information Science, Digital know? Come visit us! Curation, Digital Humanities, Interdisciplinary Health Communication, In- ternational Development, Nonprofit Leadership, Public Health Informatics, Diversity Advocate; Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP).
76 Against the Grain / April 2018
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Back Talk Rumors from page 78 from page 59 situations, right at the margins of what is now possible, right where Library Association, a representative to the Council of Faculty and it is badly needed. Academic Societies, and principal investigator to an NIH/NNLM Join us! For more information: [email protected] Express Library Digitization Award grant. She regularly consults for publishers and vendors. In her role as associate professor, she teaches “What is a man, a woman, a child, once safe, food and shelter scholarly communications within the medical education program at provided, if they cannot read, write, draw or communicate, and WMed. These new board members will begin their terms at the end thus take back their place in the human community, to envision their future and start fresh?” — Patrick Weil, President of Li- of the SSP 40th Annual Meeting in Chicago, in June. braries Without Borders. The American Psychological Association (APA) has announced a new partnership with the peer review platform Publons. APA will pilot Publons’ Reviewer Recognition Service across 30 of their core journals. Publons’ Reviewer Recognition Service integrates with all peer review submission systems, providing peer reviewers instant recognition for their contributions, in full compliance with journal review policies. During the pilot, experts who peer review for APA’s participating journals can instantly add records of their reviews to Publons with the click of a button. This lets APA reviewers effort- lessly maintain a verified record of their peer review contributions for promotion and funding applications. Academics interested in reviewing for participating APA journals will be able to connect with an editorial member through the click of a button on the journal’s profile page. For more details on the partnership and to see a list of participating journals, visit: https://publons.com/in/apa/. Whew! Glad that spring has sprung at long last!
Participants in the Tempe summit, February 1, 2018.
Against the Grain / April 2018
ow did we ever live without the In- Two other projects that inspired the event think about how to make the connections ternet? I ask myself that when I look were: between content providers, civil society Haround at how much of what we do • SolarSPELL (http://solarspell.org/), organizations, and the wizards represented every day is either on the net or work or play an Arizona State University-based in the summit, in order to allow faster and or everyday householding that couldn’t be the project, led by Professor Laura more effective progress. way it is without our networked lives. Hosman, takes a solar-powered For two days a happy, energized room of But for all the three billion network users device to the ends of the earth. The 25 people or so had the pleasure of discover- in the world (according to the International device becomes a portable hotspot ing like-minded new friends and colleagues. Telecommunication Union), for most of the and delivers content from its own Everyone had the refreshing sense that they people on the planet it’s still a netless world. memory card to whoever is within were not so alone in what they were doing It shouldn’t be. reach with a minimal ability to make and that, in their collaboration, more would The obvious way to increase net usage a Wi-Fi connection. Hosman has be possible than they had imagined. Work is to increase net accessibility: broadband worked, for example, with Peace on coordinating and collaborating efforts everywhere, that sort of thing. But there are Corps volunteers on remote Pacific has begun already in the three weeks (as I also a lot of people beyond the reach of the islands. write this) since the summit ended and more net. They live in remote and impoverished • Libraries Without Borders — Bib- will follow — perhaps a next semi-summit locations, or they suffer under post-conflict liothèques sans Frontières (https:// at the IFLA meetings in Kuala Lumpur this or post-disaster conditions, or perhaps they www.librarieswithoutborders.org/) summer. live in the Bronx and can’t afford data plans from France, founded in 2007 and The Summit agreed to the publication of on their phones. Can we act now to bring the led by Executive Director Jérémy The Tempe Declaration posted on its “Offline benefits of networked information to such Lachal, brings its IdeasBox to hu- Internet” website (http://www.offline-internet. populations? manitarian crises — they began this org). Fundamental to the sense of the meeting Many people and organizations are making work in Haiti in 2010. was the highest principle, as espoused by exactly that effort, with entrepreneurship, With the support of IFLA (International IFLA and all: that “access to the information creativity, and passionate commitment. Two Federation of Library Associations and commons should be recognized as a funda- of those organizations, in collaboration with Institutions), ASU’s Library, led by Jim mental human right.” Key further principles IFLA (http://www.ifla.org), came together this O’Donnell and his AUL colleague Lorrie enunciated in the statement include: winter to host a summit meeting for people McAllister, hosted the summit at the end of • We share the belief that common working on such projects, with a plan to build January, bringing together representatives development of standards and a consortium that will leverage the energy of twenty organizations from as far away as practices for software and content and talent of all. In a way, the inspiration Colombia, Switzerland, and Malaysia. There acquisition can help all interested for the gathering — the realization that there was expertise from the hardware, software, parties to achieve their goals more were many unconnected players humanitarian, and library communi- easily and effectively. at work in this space — came ties — though not as many librarians • We judge that open source and open in an IFLA presentation in as there should be! Some projects access tools and content best meet Wrocław last summer by represented were quite small and the interests of the communities we Japri Masli of the Sar- locally focused, but seek to support. awak State Library. both INASP (http:// His paper about the www.inasp.info/ • We expect to work in the space of wonderful project “Pus- en/) and Research- not-for-profit and non-governmen- taka in a Box” can be 4Life (http://www. tal organizations, while welcoming found in the IFLA Li- research4life.org/) conversations with, on the one hand, brary — http://library. had keen observers governmental entities and, on the ifla.org/ — and is worth on hand to offer en- other, commercial enterprises that reading. couragement and to can focus attention and resources on this work in ways compatible with our fundamental commitments. The challenges are many and obvious, but ADVERTISERS’ INDEX the possibilities for the consortium are real. As a librarian, I am particularly interested in the work that will go into building modular 21 accessible Archives 10 the Charleston Report 15 Modern Language Association repositories of content, targeted to different 9 adam Matthew Digital 13 cold Spring Harbor Lab Press 11 Project MUSE audiences and situations, on which many 79 american Chemical Society 43 emery-Pratt 25 readex, A Division of NewsBank different kinds of users can draw in different situations. That will require a lot of work 29 asME 3 goBI Library Solutions 17 sPIE Digital Library (and support for that work): work on stan- 5 atg 2 igi Global 7 taylor & Francis Group dards, work on content selection, work on 49 Berghahn Books 33 inforMS 55 wt Cox Information Services negotiating access to licensed content, work on creating and drawing together open access 67 Brepos Publishers 80 Midwest Library Service content, and work on the curation and oper- 77 the Charleston Advisor 37 the MIT Press ation of those repositories. But if that work gets done, it can offer tools for improving For Advertising Information Contact: Toni Nix, Ads Manager, human development in many countries and
78 Against the Grain / April 2018