NEWS
US states threaten to leave ALA
A HANDFUL of States in the US have, or are threatening, to leave the American Library Association after the ALA presi- dent said she was a Marxist lesbian. The state of Montana’s library com- mission was the first to vote to withdraw from the ALA, and Texas and Missouri are set to follow and nine other states are demanding similar action. Gregory Magarian, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis told Associated Press: “Replacing that type of control by librarians with greater control by politically motivated, polarised govern- ment officials, I think that’s really troubling for the prospects for free access to ideas.”
CILIP’s new digital conference
EARLYBIRD tickets are still available for Libraries Rewired, CILIP’s new conference dedicated to exploring digital transforma- tion in libraries, will take place on Friday 10 November in London. Designed to connect tech-curious colleagues, solutions providers and thought-leaders, it will explore data, AI, digital creativity, library technology, digital rights and the skills, leadership and more from fast-moving digital developments. Book by 30 September for and earlybird discount at
www.cilip.org.uk/LibrariesRewired23
UK opens digital library in Rwanda
THE UK’s Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, has opened the British Council’s digital library programme in Rwanda during a visit to the country. New Times newspaper reported the minister saying: “They provide access to information and to resources. What’s more, libraries are spaces for gathering, supporting varied educational and learn- ing outcomes, and preserving cultural heritage. In the modern digital world, it is only right that we also make use of library spaces online to further expand access to resources and reading material.”
MIT Press celebrates OA model success
MIT Press’ Direct to Open (D2O) pro- gramme, which encourages libraries to fund OA publication, rather than individual purchases, saw participa- tion increase by a third in its second year. D2O moves scholarly books from a solely market-based, purchase model, where individuals and libraries buy single eBooks, to a collaborative, library-sup- ported open access model. The number of libraries participating in the scheme hit 322 in 2023, a 33 per cent increase on its first year of operation. It means that instead of buying a single
title once for a single collection, librar- ies can now pay fees to “fund them one time for the world”. The change meant that in the first year of D2O, its titles were accessed over 320,000 times. In return for participation in D2O, librar- ies get other benefits including access to the corresponding monographs backfile of around 2,500 titles in the complete D2O collection, even if the model is not success- ful, and 25 per cent discounting on other eBook Collections on MIT Press Direct. The programme, which has been designed to use the collective power of libraries to support open and equitable access, was developed over two years
with support from the Arcadia Fund. This year, D20 will have opened access to another 82 titles bringing the total of new MIT Press scholarly monographs now open access, to more than 160 (For the full list visit
bit.ly/4893Jm2). “With the successful conclusion of our second year of Direct to Open, we are thrilled to make the press’s complete list of 2023 monographs openly available,” says Amy Brand, director and publish- er of the MIT Press. “This achievement comes at a pivotal time for open science, research, and publishing and would not be possible without the partnership and collaboration of D2O member libraries and consortia. Together, we are prov- ing open access scholarship is not only achievable, but sustainable and scalable.” This year new D2O participants included agreements with Big Ten Academic Alli- ance and the Konsortium der sächsischen Hochschulbibliotheken. There were also central licensing and invoicing agreements with Council of Australian University Librarians, Center for Research Librar- ies; Greater Western Library Alliance, MOBIUS, Northeast Research Libraries, Jisc, Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation, SCELC, and Lyrasis.
Nominations called for UKeiG awards THE UK e-information Group (UKeiG)
is calling for nominations for its three international awards in the fields of infor mation retrieval/search, library and information services and open science. Nominations for all three – The Tony Kent Strix Award, The Jason Farradane Award and the new UKeiG Open Science award – must reach UKeiG by 6 pm GMT on Friday 29 September 2023. Inaugurated in 1998, the Tony Kent Strix Award recognises outstanding prac- tical innovation or achievement in the field of information retrieval and search. Nominations must be for a major, sus- tained or influential achievement in one or more areas including advancement of the understanding of information
10 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
r etrieval methods through to leadership in education.
The Jason Farradane Award is calling for nominations for outstanding, creative and enterprising contributions to the wider library and information profession, and could be a specific project, a piece of research or the development of a service or resource, by an individual or a team. The UKeiG’s inaugural open science award recognises outstanding contri- bution in terms of digital and electronic information to one or more of the follow- ing areas of Open Science: Open Access, Open Data, Open Peer Review, Open Sci- ence Tools.
For a full list of awards, their criteria and how to nominate visit
bit.ly/3ReIAkx
September 2023
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