Month: August 2019

This is the last section editor announcement, and like the others, a very exciting one for a variety of reasons. Open Science and Infrastructure are super actively evolving spaces, and Micah Vandegrift is an ideal colleague to help us consider them and where they fit in the LIS scholarly communication landscape. Micah was the first scholarly communication librarian at Florida State University, where he built a phenomenal team and program, and mentored lots of folks who now work in scholcomm spaces (we call ourselves Vandeminions). Micah is a provocateur, challenging us to live up to our professed ideas. But he’s not reckless; he’s thoughtful and kind and supportive, which is evidenced in his post below. In mid-2018, Micah became the Open Knowledge Librarian at NCSU, and then promptly embarked on a five month tour of Europe imagining the future of open scholarship (which is to say: scholarship) and infrastructure. We’re really excited to have him engaged in the production of the open textbook of scholarly communication librarianship. Here’s Micah in his own words:

What is Open Science and Infrastructure, and What’s it Doing in Library School?

Friends, colleagues, folks, I am humbled and frankly pretty nervous to be an invited section editor for the forthcoming OER + ScholComm resource. I count my co-section-editors (Brianna, Lillian, & Amy) and Will, Josh, and Maria as inspirations and luminaries, and I am excited to play a small role in shaping the scholcomm minds of tomorrow.

The open umbrella is well on its way to becoming a big tent. Organizations like SPARC and communities like OpenCon have helped refine and define action areas in open data, open education, and open access. But, what does it mean when we simultaneously aim to open ALL OF science (read: wissenschaft), and the services, protocols, standards, software, and people (read: infrastructure) through which knowledge flows? Someone had a ludicrous idea to hire an “open knowledge” librarian, who tricked someone else into letting said librarian wander Europe asking these kinds of questions. And, so, here we are.

I’m cautiously treading into these topics, both because they are hyper-current (in 2019), and because they can be political, expensive, career-shaping, and organization/institution steering. Ever since my wee-Hack Library School days, I’ve been interested in poking holes in structures we assume as solid, and I intend to continue that impulse in the open science and infrastructure section of this text. My hope is that in compiling a primer on these interconnected topics, readers/learners/colleagues will gain a landscape perspective that will continue to advance what we have called “the library” deeper and broader into a more equitable, just, and open ecosystem for the circulation of knowledge.

So, I invite your suggestions – what is open science and infrastructure and what SHOULD it do in library school?

We’re thrilled to share the news that Lillian Hogendoorn is joining our forthcoming (2020) ACRL open book on scholarly communication librarianship as the Open Education Section Editor. Lillian is the Digital Access and OER Lead at eCampusOntario, where she supports open and technology-enabled learning at Ontario’s 45 colleges and universities. Prior to her current role, Lillian worked as a Research and Scholarly Communications Librarian at Western University Libraries, and as a cross-appointed Librarian/Fellow at North Carolina State University Libraries in the Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center and User Experience Department. Her research and practice centres on the intersection of Open with critical issues, such as privacy, information privilege, and accessibility.

Lillian is imminently qualified and we’re deeply grateful that she’s sharing her time and knowledge with us as the lead on the OER Section of the book. She generously agreed to the following post about her involvement in our collaboration. In the coming weeks, look for additional posts about our growing editorial team.

Hello, everyone! I am so excited to join some of my amazing colleagues to work on a forthcoming open textbook on Scholarly Communication librarianship. I will be joining as the editor of the open education section, and I can’t wait to get started.

This project will be a much-needed introductory text for anyone interested in learning about the many facets of scholarly communication librarianship.  When Maria, Will, and Josh reached out to me, I couldn’t help but think back on my time working in eReserves as a graduate student, feeling proud to save students money on course materials. I remembered hearing about open access in a six week workshop course, and wondering if there was anything like that for textbooks. I remembered feeling simultaneously excited by the amazing possibilities of OER and frustrated by the lack of opportunities to explore these possibilities in the classroom. So naturally, I jumped at the chance to be a part of this project.

Over the past month, I’ve been working closely with the OER + ScholComm team to understand the vision for this project, and starting to shape the open education section of the text. I’m looking to create a comprehensive overview of the Open Education landscape as well as a practical overview of what open education work looks like for librarians. Much like Brianna Marshall, open data section editor, I would love to hear your ideas on what to include in this section.

If you do OER work in libraries, what does OER work look like for you? What do you wish you had learned in graduate school?

If you are a student, or just learning about open education, what are your burning questions? What would make you feel more prepared to work in open education?

You can reach me on Twitter at @l_hogendoorn or by email at lillian.hogendoorn [at] gmail.com. I can’t wait to hear from you all!