The Elephant Roundup (June 2023)

A monthly newsletter from Feeding the Elephant: A Forum for Scholarly Communications.

Scholarly Research and Publishing News

Sara Weissman, “Binghamton and HBCUs Launch Research Alliance,” Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2023.

• Faculty members and students across the institutions will participate in joint research initiatives on a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, biomedical engineering, health care and agriculture.

Scott Jaschik, “U of Vermont Launches Open-Access Press,” Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2023.

• Fully funded by the university and overseen by UVM Libraries, the UVM Press operates under a “diamond open-access model”—meaning that authors pay no fees to publish with the press, and readers pay no fees to access the press’s published materials.

Alice Meadows, The ORCID US Consortium at Five: What’s Worked, What Hasn’t, and Why?, Scholarly Kitchen, June 21, 2023.

• ORCid has become an important part of scholarly communications. Looking back at the last 5 years, what has worked and what hasn’t?

Peter Barr, Guest Post — Why Are UK Libraries Signing a Springer-Nature Deal They Don’t Seem to Like?, Scholarly Kitchen, June 22, 2023.

• While UK universities agreed to an open read and publish plan, many are unhappy about it. Why do such agreements continue to come to fruition? 

Sophia Stewardt, The 'Nation' Revives 'Bookforum', Publishers Weekly, June 22, 2023.

• Bookforum magazine will resume publication under the stewardship of the Nation. The first issue of the relaunched quarterly, which ceased publication in December 2022, will appear in August 2023

DEIA

Raymond Pun, Sai Deng, and Guoying Liu, Guest Post: Pushing for Equity and Diversity in Scholarship through Open Access: Lessons Learned and Perspective from the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), Scholarly Kitchen, May 26, 2023.

• CALA, which has Chinese diasporic community of library workers since 1973, shares their goals, obstacles, and achievements for others to use as a model for DEIA.

Susan Spilka, Guest Post — Workplace Equity 2023 Versus 2018: Reckoning or Retrenchment? Scholarly Kitchen, May 30, 2023.

• In 2018, a survey found a need for more inclusion in scholarly publishing. What progress, if any, has been made?

Helen Huiskes, This University Is Eliminating Its Diversity Office. Now What? Chronicle of Higher Education, June 15, 2023.

• Although the Arkansas legislature voted down a bill to ban diversity offices, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is closing its own diversity office and opting instead to make a large number of units responsible for creating and supporting a diverse and inclusive campus.

Zachary Schermele, Florida’s Governor Escalates a Yearslong Fight With College Accreditors, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 22, 2023.

• The State of Florida filed legislation, arguing that the federal government has given too much power to accreditation groups. These groups have begun to look favorably at DEIA initiatives, something Gov. Ron DeSantis has fought in Florida higher education. 

Jacquelyn Elias and  Nick Perez, How Enrollment Changed in States That Banned Race-Conscious Admissions, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 22, 2023.

• Since the 1990s, 10 states have banned race-conscious college admissions. On the eve of a forthcoming US Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, Elias and Perez examine whether college admissions of underrepresented minorities in those states kept pace with population growth.

Amy Harmon, How It Feels to Have Your Life Changed By Affirmative Action, New York Times, June 21, 2022.

• With the US Supreme Court expected to rule on affirmative action, Harmon speaks to several generations of students of color who pursued higher education during the era of race-conscious admissions.

Niels Stern and Ronald Snijder, Guest Post — Towards Global Equity for Open Access Books, Scholarly Kitchen, June 6, 2023.

• The Directory of Open Access Books is turning 10 and growing more quickly than open access journals. Stern and Snijder explain why and how OA books move from the author, to DOAB, to readers.

Libraries in the News

Harriet Sherwood, Libraries should be ‘ringfenced and protected’, Malorie Blackman says,”The Guardian, June 4, 2023.

• Former children’s laureate tells Hay festival audience that her local library was essential to her career as a writer.

Gov. Pritzker Signs Bill Making Illinois First State in the Nation to Outlaw Book Bans, Illinois.gov, June 12, 2023

• This nation-leading legislation comes in the wake of a nationwide rise in extremists targeting literature, libraries, and books in an effort to censor the material students need to thrive in the classroom.

Jacey Fortin, In Utah, Scriptures (and Satire) Enter Debates Over Book Bans, New York Times, June 4, 2023.

• As the school year ends, petitions to ban books in school libraries pour in, including calls to restrict access to the Bible and The Book of Mormon, citing assault and violence.

AI

Hong Zhou and Sylvia Izzo Hunter, Guest Post — Accessibility Powered by AI: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Universalize Access to Digital Content, Scholarly Kitchen, June 5, 2023.

• “Digital transformation can revolutionize the world, turning it into an inclusive place for people with and without disabilities, with accessibility powered by artificial intelligence,” write Zhou and Hunter. Read on to learn more about how AI can help provide solutions to accessing visual and audio content.

Roy Kaufman, The Supreme Court Case of Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith: What, if Anything, Does it Mean to Artificial Intelligence? Scholarly Kitchen, June 6, 2023.

• US copyright law often permitted use of someone else’s work, especially artwork, if it was transformed in some way, but a recent court decision has undermined that. Kaufman argues this may make AI less appealing for generating or transforming work.

ICYMI on the Elephant

Dawn Durante, AUPresses 2023 Annual Meeting: Professional Development Panels and Initiatives, June 14, 2023.

Bethany Wasik, AUPresses 2023 Recap and General Themes: Accessibility, Bibliodiversity, and Community, June 21, 2023.

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