Scholarly Communication 101 Road Show hosts selected by ACRL
Contact: Kara Malenfant
ACRL Scholarly Communications and
Government Relations Specialist
(312) 280-2510
kmalenfant@ala.org
NEWS
For Immediate Release
March 9, 2010
CHICAGO – The Scholarly Communications Committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has selected five sites from 40 applications to host the Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics workshop this spring and summer. Recognizing that scholarly communication issues are central to the work of all academic librarians and all types of institutions, ACRL is underwriting the costs of delivering this proven content by sending expert presenters on the road.
The institutions selected to host the 2010 road shows are Florida State University in Tallahassee; Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges in Bethlehem, Pa.; Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn.; Kansas State University in Manhattan and Texas Tech University in Lubbock
“As the economic downturn continues in higher education and across the nation, ACRL is providing this valuable educational experience at locations all across the country. It is vital to the work of all academic librarians that they understand the basics of the evolving scholarly communication system,” said Richard Fyffe, ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee co-chair and Rosenthal Librarian of the College at Grinnell College. “We want to be sure that the momentum for encouraging positive change in scholarly publishing not be lost.”
Led by two expert presenters, this structured interactive overview of the scholarly communication system supports individual or institutional strategic planning and action. The workshop focuses on new methods of scholarly publishing and communication, open access and openness as a principle, copyright and intellectual property and economics, providing a foundational understanding for attendees.
Host sites are partnering with other institutions in their area to extend the reach to as diverse an audience as possible. Library staff, including liaison librarians, catalogers, access services and senior management from two-year, liberal arts, master’s, comprehensive and doctoral institutions will attend the workshops.
The 40 applications came from 23 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, representing more than 80 colleges and universities, 16 consortia and their members and nine ACRL Chapters.
“The amount of interest in this program really underscores its importance,” noted Kimberly Douglas, ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee co-chair and university librarian at the California Institute of Technology. “All of the applications were well-crafted and presented great arguments for their sites; this certainly provided for a very competitive selection process. Given the strong demand, a third round of road shows in 2011 is likely. We also encourage libraries to organize and host their own workshops on campus.”
Toward that end, the committee has extended the reach of the Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics workshop by adding related materials to the popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit (http://www.acrl.ala.org/scholcomm/). The materials include short videos, presentation templates and handouts. All of the materials are available with a Creative Commons share-alike license. Librarians are free to make use of these tools to enhance their own knowledge or adapt them to offer related workshops on campus.
Learn more about ACRL’s scholarly communication initiatives at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/scholcomm/scholarlycommun….
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ACRL is a division of the American Library Association, representing more than 12,500 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.
