Later this month members of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) will converge on Chicago for a second 2015 SSP Librarian Focus Group. Following a successful event this past February in Washington D.C. the Education Committee has expanded the program offering a second event hosted by the American College of Chest Physicians on August 31, allowing more SSP members to participate in an active discussion at the intersection of libraries and scholarly publishing.
The day-long meeting is focused on offering an interactive experience between attendees and panelists as topics cover how libraries fit into the scholarly communications landscape and the library’s role as assessor, scholarly communications educator, and collective bargainer and purchaser. Panelists will share their views and participate in an open discussion with the moderator, attendees and fellow speakers.
The panel is made up of a diverse group of speakers. The Librarian Focus Group panelists include Maria Bonn, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Michael Levine-Clark, Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collections Services at the University of Denver Libraries, Kristi Holmes, Director, Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University, Rick Burke, Executive Director, SCELC, and Joy Kirchner, University Librarian, York University.
The discussion is being moderated by event organizer Sara Rouhi, a Product Sales Manager at Altmetric LLP and a member of the SSP Education Committee. Rouhi revealed the motivations for holding a second Librarian Focus Group meeting this year and provides reasons to be excited about the upcoming event in an exchange captured below.
Registration remains open for the event and those who cannot attend can follow the discussion as it happens online using the Twitter hashtag #SSPLFG15.
This year’s Librarian Focus Group is being held in Chicago whereas previous meetings were held in Washington D.C. What led to the change in venue?
The thinking here was twofold. Our Washington D.C. meeting in February has so much interest and engagement that we wanted to see if a second event at another location would enable folks who couldn’t attend the DC meeting a chance to participate. In addition to bringing new attendees we also wanted to leverage the considerable librarian expertise in the Midwest and bring even more diversity to our panel.
We plan on keeping our February event for sure and will see if there’s continued interest in other Librarian Focus Group meetings rotating around the country.
What can attendees expect from this focus group?
This focus group is intended to provide multiple perspectives on topics of pressing interest to publishers. Topics range from “heady” reflections on the future of scholarly communication to a nuanced discussion around the nuts and bolts of librarian/vendor interactions including business models, pricing, licensing, acquisitions strategy, and challenges and opportunities for libraries.
More importantly than the content, however, is the interaction. We get repeated feedback from attendees and panelists that the open discussion amongst the panel and audience members is the most valuable part of the event. Attendees should come ready to ask questions and push discussion!
How were this year’s topics selected?
As moderator I work collaboratively with the panelists to cover topics relevant to their expertise and of interest to our audience. Our panelists all bring different sets of specialties and I try to give them all an opportunity to showcase that knowledge for our audience.
Tell us a little about this group of speakers. How were they selected?
This group of speakers is one of our most diverse − covering a range of buying institutions, position responsibilities, geographic locations, and on-campus roles. All of our speakers are active in the scholarly communications community doing peer-reviewed research, presenting at conferences, and spearheading innovative programs through the organizations they represent. At SSP we strive to bring thought leaders to our audiences and this panel very much achieves that goal. We’re excited!
by Michael Di Natale
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