Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Flipping An Academic Library Collection: A Path To A Global Open Scholarly Commons, Christine N. Turner, Marilyn S. Billings

University Libraries Publication Series

In late 2017, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries participated in the David Lewis and Michael Roy “2.5% Commitment and Open Data Collection Tool Project.” This exercise provided a benchmark of collection and infrastructure investments to date, and it brought into focus the opportunity to articulate the Libraries’ intentions for their collections going forward. The UMass Amherst Libraries provide a case study of an academic library collection that is pivoting from materials produced by proprietary publishers to a mix of investments in unique and special collections; open access publishing, content and infrastructure; and materials published through traditional channels.

Nirds Unite: Building A Community Of Institutional Repository Practitioners In The Northeast, Eleni Castro, Erin Jerome, Colin Lukens, Mikki Simon Macdonald, Lisa A. Palmer

University Libraries Publication Series

The idea for “Northeast Institutional Repository Day” (NIRD) was conceived by a group of five repository librarians in the northeast. The organizers sent out a pre-conference online survey to the IR community in November 2018 to see if fellow repository practitioners had an interest in attending and/or participating in such a day and the response was a resounding, “Yes!” The survey results suggested that building a stronger regional network of repository managers would foster meaningful discussions on the merits and effectiveness of IRs.

World Librarians: A Peer-To-Peer Commons For Closing The Global Digital Divide, Jeremy Smith, Charlie Schweik, Carl Meyer

University Libraries Publication Series

INTRODUCTION An estimated 53% of the world’s population do not have Internet access. As a consequence, they lack information capital that could be key to bettering their lives. In this practice article, we introduce a sociotechnical system called “World Librarians.” This system, facilitated by a knowledge commons, provides educators, librarians, students, and medical professionals in remote Internet-poor areas of Malawi with access to digital content that they request. OBJECTIVE We describe the social and technical methods by which a team of educators, librarians, students, and information technology specialists in information-privileged environments share educational content to information-disadvantaged communities. METHODS After briefly …

Scholarworks@Umassamherst: The First 10 Years, 2006-2017, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

No abstract provided.

A Dream Of Spring: Creation Of An Ir Managers Forum, Christy L. M. Shorey, Anna J. Dabrowski, Pamela Andrews, Erin Jerome

University Libraries Publication Series

Sometimes it’s hard to find answers for work‐related questions. This difficulty is compounded when one lacks the means to engage with a community of peers who face similar situations and problems. As institutional repository (IR) managers, we found ourselves with access to resources and listservs that didn’t quite fit our needs. Available discussion spaces were either too general in scope, drowning out repository‐specific concerns; or too narrowly focused on platform‐specific issues and technical details.

Lacking an appropriate forum, we decided to create a discussion space for IR managers. The IR Manager Forum (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/irmanagers) is designed to foster a community of …