Member News & Announcements, March IO 2022

Supporting DEIA

USMAI Issues Statement on Recent Bomb Threats against Historically Black Colleges and Universities
USMAI Library Consortium, L.S.A. Consortia Member, Blog Post, February 10, 2022

The member libraries of the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium strongly condemn the recent bomb threats against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including three of our own members—Bowie State University, Coppin State University, and Morgan State University. Such crimes are intended to intimidate, instill fear, and inspire chaos and have no place in a just, moral, and democratic society. They also highlight the importance of working towards racial justice and healing.  

As Jay Perman, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, stated, “If the intent of these threats was to restrict access to our historically Black institutions—to restrict access to higher education itself—it will fail.  If it was meant to sow division, it will fail.  If it was meant to terrorize students and communities of color, it will fail. Because we will work even harder to make sure our HBCUs, and everyone they serve, feel the full weight of our protection and support.”

AUPresses Joins Condemnation of Presidential Records Act Violations
Association of University Presses, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 10, 2022

The Association of University Presses joins the American Historical Association and other organizations in condemning Donald J. Trump’s reported extensive and repeated violations of the 1978 Presidential Records Act.

Journalists depend on these records to inform the public; future administrations rely on accurate and complete documentation of government and democratic processes; and, key to the work of university presses, presidential records are primary sources for research in scholarly fields from history to political science to military and defense studies. The former president’s noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act demonstrates contempt not only for the rule of law and the bedrock of our nation’s democracy, but also for the foundation of scholarly inquiry, which the Association’s global community of mission-driven publishers upholds.

ALA, ACRL issue joint statement in support of HBCUs after recent bomb threats
American Library Association, Voting Member, Press Release, February 9, 2022

The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of ALA, have issued the following joint statement in response to incidents of bomb threats against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs):

"The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) stand in solidarity with the faculty, students, and staff of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and in particular we voice our support for those whose campuses have recently received bomb threats.

ARL Statement on Violent Threats against HBCUs
Association of Research Libraries, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 3, 2022

The Association of Research Libraries strongly condemns all forms of racially intended violence. The recent targeting of historically Black colleges and universities with bomb threats meant to silence their voices calls on all of us to speak out against racially motivated hate crimes. By spreading fear, intimidation, and misinformation, these acts threaten the very essence of research and learning in a democratic society. As stewards of humanity’s knowledge from the past, present, and future, we will always seek the truth represented in the multitude of contributions, achievements, and lived experiences. We do this by our advocacy for the US Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation; in our coalition work to establish an archive for truth and cultural healing; in our Association work on structural equity and inclusion; and in every aspect of our programs and services. We act and demand that others stand for a more just society. Acts centered in hate such as these can never be acceptable.

Open Access, Open Science

EBSCO Introduces EBSCO Essentials™ a New Starting Point for Users to Search EBSCO Content and Connect to their Libraries
EBSCO Information Services, Voting Member, Press Release, February 16, 2022

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has created a way for any user to search EBSCO content even before they authenticate to their libraries and institutions. EBSCO Essentials™ is a way to reach more users –– users who typically begin their research on the open web. The site also introduces EBSCO resources to searchers who may not realize the depth and breadth of content available from the libraries and other institutions with which they are affiliated.

EBSCO Essentials is similar to traditional library guest access and allows users to search EBSCO resources and gain access to full-text materials available via Open Access (OA), while also being able to create personal accounts to save searches. The site is designed to help users who are conducting research online find better results by making it easier for those users to affiliate with and authenticate into libraries and institutions. Once users find EBSCO results, they will be able to affiliate with their institutions and authenticate. Once authenticated, users will be able to access additional full-text content provided by their libraries –– showcasing the value of libraries and prompting an increase in library usage. With new features and functionality to better assist users in finding and affiliating with their library, EBSCO Essentials is a streamlined way for end users to more easily discover and utilize the tremendous resources available through their libraries.

Wiley and Royal Danish Library announce OA Agreement
John Wiley & Sons, Voting Member, Press Release, February 2, 2022

Global research and education leader Wiley today announced a new four-year agreement with the Royal Danish Library (RDL) which will enable more open access research to be published by Danish researchers while allowing authors to retain copyright of their articles without embargo. Through this arrangement, scholars will have immediate and open use of published research, serving to accelerate academic discovery.

This agreement will provide 34 member institutions with access to Wiley’s complete journal portfolio and enable more than 1,100 open access articles to be published each year of the agreement

Libraries, Collections and Archives

UC Davis Library and California Digital Library launch project to explore expanded lending of digitized books
California Digital Library (CDL), L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, February 14, 2022

Digitized books have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for university libraries and scholars, the first 18 months of the pandemic threw their value into sharp relief. As campuses across the country closed, many libraries began offering expanded access to digital versions of the print books in their collections as an emergency measure, driving ebook use to new heights and unexpectedly launching a large-scale experiment in online scholarship.

Libraries have long provided digital access to older books in the public domain and those published more recently with open access. But programs established during the pandemic, such as the HathiTrust Digital Library’s Emergency Temporary Access Service, opened a new frontier by offering temporary access to digitized versions of in-copyright materials, as well.

Copyright Historical Record Books Collection Available Online
Library of Congress, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 8, 2022

​​The first 500 record books in the digitized Copyright Historical Record Books Collection are now available online. This collection is a preview of digitized historical record books that the Copyright Office plans to add to its Copyright Public Record System. This first release is part of a multi-year digitization project and includes applications for books registered with the Office from 1969 to 1977. The collection is being digitized in reverse chronological order.

The entire Historical Record Books Collection includes 26,278 bound volumes (over 26 million pages) of registration, renewal, assignment, notice of use of musical compositions, and patent records from 1870 to 1977. The Office is prioritizing digitizing records for works that are still under copyright protection. This project is part of a larger initiative within the Copyright Office to digitize and provide access to these public records not previously available online. Through digitization, the Office is also preserving these important historical and cultural records for future research. To find a specific registration record in the online collection, users will need to find the record book volume with the corresponding class and year. If the user knows, for example, the registration number they are seeking, the range of numbers located in each volume can be found in the collection item title. The documents within the historical record books are also indexed in the Copyright Card Catalog and available online in Virtual Card Catalog, and limited groups are listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries. In the future, the Office plans to develop metadata to allow users to search by fields, such as registration number, title, and claimant via the Copyright Public Records System.

Nuclear Freeze documents digitized
Cornell University Library, L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, February 2, 2022

“We will not quietly stand by and watch our world go up in flames and radiation,” the late scholar-activist Randall Forsberg once roused a crowd of more than 700,000 protestors in New York’s Central Park, calling for an end to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Recently, Cornell University Library has launched an online selection of recorded and written speeches, testimonies, and correspondence by Forsberg, who was a leader of the international Nuclear Freeze movement and the founder and director of the Boston-based Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS)

Research Initiatives

$38M NSF data infrastructure initiative will improve access to social and behavioral research
University of Michigan, L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, February 4, 2022

The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research will oversee a $38 million investment from the National Science Foundation to create a new data platform that will help researchers across the gamut of scientific disciplines access, collect, store and secure vital information.

Data-intensive scientific research on human behavior and society can help improve community resilience to natural disasters, avoid supply chain disruptions and accurately predict infectious disease outbreaks, and more. However, researchers in many disciplines have faced obstacles like incompatible data standards, missing or error-filled information and technical difficulties in managing large data sets.

Partnerships & Collaborations

PLOS announces new publishing agreement with the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries
Public Library of Science (PLOS), Voting Member, Blog Post, February 23, 2022

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries (CSAL) today announced a three-year Open Access agreement that allows researchers to publish in PLOS’ suite of journals[1] without incurring Article Processing Charges (APCs). This partnership brings together two organizations that believe researchers should be able to access content freely and make their work available publicly, regardless of their access to grant funds.

“We are excited about our first deal of this kind with a gold OA publisher which allows the participating institutions to contain their costs without limiting the publishing opportunities for their researchers,” said Susanne Aerni, Head Consortial Services, Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries.