Author: jbolick

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New to the SCN: Peer Review: A Critical Primer and Practical Course

This is the latest post in a series announcing resources created for the Scholarly Communication Notebook, or SCN. The SCN is a hub of open teaching and learning content on scholcomm topics that is both a complement to an open book-level introduction to scholarly communication librarianship and a disciplinary and course community for inclusively sharing models and practices. IMLS funded the SCN in 2019, permitting us to pay creators for their labor while building a solid initial collection. These works are the result of one of three calls for proposals (our first CFP was issued in fall 2020; the second in late spring ‘21, and the third in late fall 2021).

Today we’re excited to share “Peer Review: A Critical Primer and Practical Course” (available in the SCN OER Commons Hub and via Pressbooks), contributed by Emily Ford. Despite its obvious importance to scholarly publishing, peer review is often opaque and frequently poorly understood as a practice. Emily has created this open course to explain and interrogate it. Here she is to introduce Peer Review: A Critical Primer and Practical Course:

Peer Review: A Critical Primer and Practical Course is a self-paced, open access training in peer review. In eight modules it asks readers to engage in a variety of activities to learn the who, what, why, and how of peer review. It is geared toward library professionals, library school students, or other academic professionals who must understand and/or engage with the peer-review process. The modules are:

  1. What is Peer Review?
  2. Opportunities and Challenges in Peer Review
  3. Bias and Power Structures in Peer Review
  4. Critically Examining Established Peer-Review Practices
  5. Innovations in Peer Review
  6. Librarians and Peer Review
  7. Developing Peer Review Norms, Guidelines, and Expectations for LIS (or your discipline)
  8. Developing Your Peer Review Practice

My interest in peer-review processes began with my career in librarianship. At the time I was a co-founder of In the Library with the Lead Pipe, where we “invented” an open peer-review process. From then on my research, scholarship, and advocacy has been around building capacity in our profession to engage in peer review, to understand it, to improve it, and to implement open peer-review processes in more of our publications in LIS.

One of the most notable things to me about peer review and librarianship was that we have had no basis upon which to be practicing it. How had we been trained to engage in it? Instruction librarians must often teach students to identify peer-reviewed articles for their research assignments, library workers at reference desks show students how to use limiters and filters to find peer-reviewed content, and instructors continue to try and elevate peer-reviewed scholarship as the most authoritative and the best research. Yet the first time we receive a review request many of us are baffled by the task – we ask colleagues what we are supposed to do. We try to make sense of the minimal instructions sent us by an automated journal management system, we try to have helpful comments, and we fit this work in amongst our busy work and personal lives. We simply learn it by doing.

On top of these issues, and like so many other systems in higher education, peer-review processes and systems can reinforce white supremacy and other forms of oppression. As such it is pertinent that any peer-review practice be mindfully executed to eliminate as much of this oppression as we can. This course attempts to offer folks the opportunity to learn about peer review and to critically question it so that we may, over time, develop peer-review practices, norms, guidelines, and systems for LIS that dismantle its role in systemic oppression. My sincere hope is that the materials offered in this course are used, reused, modified, and become part of a larger conversation and effort to educate scholarly communication and other librarians in peer-review practices.

About the Author

Emily Ford is Associate Professor and Urban & Public Affairs Librarian at Portland State University. Her research uses narrative inquiry methods to understand peer review and she is an advocate for open peer review. In 2021, her book Stories of Open: Opening Peer Review through Narrative Inquiry was published by ACRL Press. In her spare time she is the proud human guardian of two cats and three fancy rats, volunteers at a local no-kill cat shelter, and runs tree-lined trails through forests near her home.

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New to the SCN: Teaching with Copyright Chat

This is the latest post in a series announcing resources created for the Scholarly Communication Notebook, or SCN. The SCN is a hub of open teaching and learning content on scholcomm topics that is both a complement to an open book-level introduction to scholarly communication librarianship and a disciplinary and course community for inclusively sharing models and practices. IMLS funded the SCN in 2019, permitting us to pay creators for their labor while building a solid initial collection. These works are the result of one of three calls for proposals (our first CFP was issued in fall 2020; the second in late spring ‘21, and the third in late fall 2021).

Today we’re excited to share “Lessons from Practice: Teaching with Copyright Chat” (available in the SCN OER Commons Hub as well as its own project site), contributed by Sara Benson, who is also curating the SCN Copyright Collection. Sara has been hosting the Copyright Chat podcast since 2017, in which she interviews experts about issues in copyright. These recordings are rich with pedagogic potential, which Sara has developed for us. Here she is to introduce Teaching with Copyright Chat:

I started the podcast titled Copyright Chat to engage with the broader public (outside of my home institution in Illinois) including librarians, students and professors of information science, and the general public about copyright issues relevant to libraries. I work at a land grant institution and part of our mission is to bring our educational efforts to the rest of the state, the country, and, ultimately, the world. In my daily work as a Copyright Librarian, I quickly became aware that copyright is an area of the law that is not well understood–mostly because it is not discussed with enough frequency to become common knowledge with members of the campus community. The most exciting part of hosting Copyright Chat is that I get to learn new things about copyright law by talking to different copyright experts and professionals, too. Copyright law is an exciting area of the law because it changes often through new case-law and legislative and administrative developments–so the podcast is an ever-evolving project.

The podcast archives some evergreen topics such as discussions about author’s rights, copyright myths, and fair use. Although copyright law never gets dull because new cases and laws continue to arise, there are some topics that are key to being a successful information professional. For that reason, select episodes of the podcast were chosen to provide educational context for students studying information science to learn about copyright issues.

Screen capture of Teaching with Copyright Chat Podcast, featuring the logo and header image of the site, basic navigation, and title: Lessons from Practice: Teaching with Copyright Chat"
Screen capture from Lessons from Practice: Teaching with Copyright Chat

These modules are meant to be very flexible so that instructors can use them in their courses as they see fit. They are organized into three categories: Basics Lessons, Fair Use Lessons, and Rights Statements Lessons. Each module explains the lesson objectives and is centered on an episode of the ©hat (Copyright Chat) Podcast. Some modules incorporate recommended readings as well. Each module has some “homework” for students to do outside of class as well as in-class exercises and discussion topics. The lessons are organized into modules because an instructor may only wish to engage with a particular topic, such as fair use or copyright myths, or might be more ambitious and have time to devote to all eight lessons. In any event, each module can stand alone or be used with other modules to create a course unit. The CC-BY license attached to the modules sets the sky as the limit in terms of remixing, reusing, and revising modules and I hope instructors will make these lessons their own. I’m excited to see how these modules will help students learn more about copyright.

About the Author

Sara R. Benson is the copyright librarian and an assistant professor at the Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also teaches courses at the iSchool at the University of Illinois. She holds a JD from the University of Houston Law Center, an LLM from Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley, and an MSLIS from the School of Information Science at the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the library, Sara was a lecturer at the University of Illinois College of Law for ten years. Sara is the host of the  ©hat (“Copyright Chat”) Podcast, available on iTunes.

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New to the SCN: EDI in Scholarly Communications Outreach

This is the latest post in a series announcing resources created for the Scholarly Communication Notebook, or SCN. The SCN is a hub of open teaching and learning content on scholcomm topics that is both a complement to an open book-level introduction to scholarly communication librarianship and a disciplinary and course community for inclusively sharing models and practices. IMLS funded the SCN in 2019, permitting us to pay creators for their labor while building a solid initial collection. These works are the result of one of three calls for proposals (our first CFP was issued in fall 2020; the second in late spring ‘21, and the third in late fall 2021)

Today we’re excited to share “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications Outreach” (available in the SCN OER Commons Hub as well as in Google Drive), contributed by Camille Thomas, who is also a contributor to our related open book project. Camille builds on a qualitative study (Perceptions of Open Access Publishing among Black, Indigenous, and people of color Faculty, forthcoming in College & Research Libraries News), offering instructional materials to help elucidate conclusions of that research. Here’s Camille to introduce the project:

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications Outreach contribution to the SCN is intended to fill a gap in the way we talk about scholarly communication work, particularly outreach. I am a co-PI on the in-progress study, Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color Faculty Perceptions of Open Access, with Tatiana Bryant at University of California Irvine. Though there are existing studies examining faculty perceptions of open access and BIPOC faculty experiences, there is not much on the intersection of the two. It is important not to treat researchers, faculty or otherwise, as a monolith when it comes to the experiences, communities, and values behind their publishing decisions. Our study illuminates how their perceptions motivate or diminish their own interest in and adoption of open access as well as their level of advocacy for open access in their field, campus, and department. It seemed like a natural contribution to the SCN.

Tatiana and I decided to provide separate contributions based on our own ideas. We discussed what might be most impactful for students based on preliminary analysis from the study and our own experiences as library school students, then professionals. We did a kind of internal review of each other’s work before submitting to the SCN team. Tatiana’s related contribution to the SCN is discussed in this News post. My contribution features readings, discussion questions, sample scenarios, and assignments that prompt reflection and learning on BIPOC perceptions of OA.

The most time consuming part of creating this contribution was getting clear on the scope and  approaching this subject matter in a practical, impactful and considerate way. I thought a lot about the audience for which the resource is primarily intended. I wanted to be careful to have students exercise empathy and procedures for scholars’ diverse values when it comes to supporting new models for scholarly work. This work is intended to create deeper engagement and understanding of one’s position in true partnership — as neither savior nor servile. I wanted library professionals and scholars alike to empower themselves and others to become aware of where their agency lies in interdependence (i.e., “power with”, “power to” and “power within”) — with neither awe nor inadequacy. After that, drafting was smooth sailing.

My work with EDI in scholarly communication builds on work by Charlotte Roh, April Hathcock, Leslie Chan, Harrison Inefuku, Jessica Dai and many others. Their work often speaks to the impact of systematic marginalization of certain scholars and scholarship in traditional and open publishing. I tend to examine how we might integrate considerations for equity, diversity and inclusion in our workflows as open advocates and scholarly communication librarians. The  expectations and labor in this area are complex, unwieldy and in many ways different from other types of librarianship. In my opinion, the message, the medium and the messenger matters.

Of course, we are all learning and unlearning the ways we perpetuate exclusion and inequity in our culture and by extension in research and higher education (and even further extension in our materials). There is no one lesson plan or assignment that will solve systemic inequities or capture what for most is deep, personal, and lifelong work. The purpose of my contribution is simply to get students and new professionals (and maybe some seasoned professionals) thinking about building equitable open infrastructure and an inclusive culture when discussing open access at institutions. It is also to get them thinking about what will have the most impact in advancing open and addressing barriers in the context of their organization. I want them to think strategically rather than replicate common practice alone.

Most of the provided sample scenarios are real experiences I have encountered in my career as a scholarly communication librarian. I actually edited the contribution quite a bit when thinking from a student perspective. I am a bit of an exception, in that I knew very early on in library school that I wanted to be a scholarly communication librarian. I planned my courses accordingly, cobbling and connecting relevant courses (Information Policy, Digital Libraries, etc.) together. There was definitely no open textbook on scholarly communication at that time and few if any Intro to Scholarly Communications courses.

One of the courses that prepared me the most and still impacts my approach today is Strategic Marketing. So, I based the Needs Assessment and Engagement Plan on templates I used in that class, which I continue to use. A lot of scholarly communication work and outreach benefits from strategic planning. It can help manage expectations and boundaries around the labor required as well as carve out diversity and inclusion work as a priority. It can also be a space to examine our power, privilege and consciousness when it comes to talking to diverse audiences.

About the Author

Camille Thomas is the Scholarly Communication Librarian at Florida State University Libraries and a former SPARC Open Education Fellow. Her professional interests include labor, leadership and equity in open access, open education and digital scholarship. She has an MLIS from Florida State University and a BA in English from the University of Central Florida. She’s on Twitter as @afrofuturistlib.

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Open Peer Review: Part 2.3 Open Education

Late last year, we announced that we would be releasing portions of our forthcoming book, Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Culture: Law, Economics, and Publishing, for open review as they were ready. Work on this project has progressed slower than we’d like due to the pandemic and the different pressures it has placed on everyone’s lives, but we’re steadily moving forward, extending grace and understanding to all involved (and trying to extend the same to ourselves; which is easier said than done). Today, we’re happy to invite comments on drafts of the Open Education Section. Reviewers will benefit from taking a look at information about Part 1 and other sections of Part 2 to understand how this section relates to the others, and the whole.

The Open Education Section is edited by Lillian Hogendoorn, Curator of Digital Experience Librarian at the University of Toronto. Previously, Lillian was the Manager of Digital Access and Open Educational Resources at eCampusOntario. She also teaches the Library Juice Academy Introduction to Open Educational Resources course. Her extensive experience and knowledge places her in an excellent position to lead this section, and we’re very proud to work with her. She’s also brought on some rock star contributors that we’re excited to have. We hope you’ll consider reading their drafts and providing your feedback to help us get the most accurate snapshot possible of this dynamic area of work. Lillian introduces the section and guiding questions below, along with links to the drafts and info for reviewers. The big guidance we want to reinforce is to be the reviewer you wish you had by providing thoughtful critical feedback without berating or belittling. These drafts will be available for comments for a period of six weeks ending on January 21, EXTENDED TO FEB  4, 2022. – Josh, Maria, and Will

Here’s Lillian:

While Open Education is not new to scholarly communications work, it’s starting to take centre stage in the role of many ScholComm librarians and departments. There are a vast number of learning opportunities to get foundational knowledge about Open Education and OER, from conferences to courses, from Twitter threads to journal articles. There are certification opportunities and mentorship programs abound. There are even fully open textbooks on open education.

So why, in a world where there are so many avenues to learn about open education, would we compile this section? I asked myself this many times over the course of the last two years. What makes this work unique, and how does it help folks learn about Open Education in a way that adds value to the ever-expanding Open Ed space?

This section is largely written by early career librarians for aspiring librarians. It is for those ready to dip their toes in the Open Ed waters. With so much heart and thoughtfulness, each author included has tried to pass down what they wish they had known, what they could tell their former selves on the cusp of their journey in open education work in libraries.  And now we are all inviting critique in service of care in hopes that even one future reader feels excited and inspired to not simply dip their toes in, but elegantly swan dive into the depths of open education work.

As you make your way through this section, I invite you to consider these questions for yourself:

  • Would this have appealed to you as a library school student? Would it appeal to you now if you were an instructor?
  • Are there things that have been overlooked? How might we include them?
  • Is the section too sparse, too detailed, or just right?

I have no doubt that Open Education work in libraries will continue to evolve and change. Foundational texts have yet to be published, and large waves have yet to hit the shore. This text is meant to lay the foundation for future practitioners to make those waves, and I am so happy to be a small part of that.

  1. Introduction to Open Education, featuring:
    1. Defining Open Education and Open Educational Resources by Lillian Hogendoorn
    2. A Short History of OER by Emily Carlisle-Johnston
    3. Benefits, Barriers, and Myths by Camille Thomas, Ariana Santiago, and Laura Miller
  2. Libraries and OER, featuring:
    1. Why Libraries? Why Librarians? by Regina Gong
    2. How Libraries Support OER by Abbey K. Elder
    3. Day to Day OER Work by Amanda C. Larson
  3. Open Pedagogy, featuring:
    1. Defining Open and OER-Enabled Pedagogy adapted from Robin DeRosa and Rajiv Jhangiani
    2. Critical Information Literacy and Open Pedagogy by Will Engle and Erin Fields
  4. Current Issues by Margaret McLaughlin, Ali Versluis, and Sarah Hare

*links deactivated after review period closed on 2/4/22

Instructions for Reviewers

We’re using Google Docs, set to allow comments via the links above. When you open the documents, you may see comments in the drafts that indicate areas where the authors would like particular feedback, or noting that they will be making future additions. Some formatting and citation adjustments still need to be made, along with the addition of discussion questions and other supporting materials; however, these drafts represent a close-to-final version of the content as we envision it being published. The book will receive professional copyediting from ACRL, so your time may be better spent focusing on content and substantive feedback rather than grammar and punctuation (but if that’s your thing, knock yourself out).

Anonymous review is permitted (log yourself out of Google!). Reviewers who wish to have their review acknowledged should sign their review with their preferred spelling. Critical feedback is welcome and appreciated; abusive or combative comments will be deleted and/or ignored. Be the reviewer you wish you had; help make this work the best it can be. For more information, please see this process overview and conduct expectations doc.

Thank you in advance to everyone who will take the time to share constructive ideas with us. We appreciate it!

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SCN at CNI

We’re grateful for the opportunity to participate in the virtual portion of the CNI conference next week. Our session, Taking a Page from the Scholarly Communication Notebook to Transform LIS Education, was pre-recorded, and provides a brief (~16 minutes) introduction to the SCN; how we got here, the current state of affairs, and where we’re heading. We’re always interested in feedback and suggestions, so reach out any time. Enjoy!