Scholarly Communication 101 Road Show hosts selected by ACRL

CHICAGO – The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Scholarly Communications Committee has selected five sites from 12 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 2011 road shows are the Academic Library Association of Ohio in Columbus; City University of New York; University of Hawaii at Manoa Library in Honolulu; University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.; and the Washington Research Library Consortium in Upper Marlboro, Md. In its third year, when the 2011 workshops are complete, the road show will have visited 13 different states and one territory.

“The follow-up surveys from previous road shows indicate that people who participated in this program increased their engagement in scholarly communication issues, so we appreciate ACRL’s continuing support of this valuable program,” said Jeffrey Belliston, vice-chair of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee.

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 and organizations in their area to extend the reach to as diverse an audience as possible. They also develop interactive follow-up programming for the second half of the day, to encourage the development of a community of practice in the geographic area. 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 12 applications came from 10 states and the District of Columbia, representing more than 93 colleges and universities, three consortia (and their members), and one ACRL Chapter. The total number of applications dropped from 2010 when 40 applications representing 80 colleges and universities were received. However, it is significant that in 2011 each application represented an average of almost eight institutions rather than the average of two represented per application last year.

“The scholarly communication road shows have had a positive impact beyond the on-site participants, because the materials are being made available for reuse on the ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit,” noted Barbara DeFelice, chair of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee.

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://scholcomm.acrl.ala.org/). 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 (ALA), representing more than 12,000 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. ACRL is on the Web at http://www.acrl.org, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.