Librarian Focus Group returns to Washington this February with new format

The Society of Scholarly Publishing (SSP) continues its Librarian Focus Group sessions with “Provoking thoughts: The End of Libraries and Publishers as We Know It”. This will be a panel session held in Washington, DC, on February 2, 2016 at the American Geophysical Union. The day-long event offers a chance to solicit and share information on the challenges facing librarians and publishers in a world quickly moving to beyond traditional models of publishing and information sharing

Registration for the event is open now, with a discounted early-bird registration rate available until January 15.  

Feedback from previous Focus Group events suggested that participants wanted more time to engage with panelists in smaller settings, and that they wanted newer things to engage the publisher audience. As a result, a new format has been introduced for the event and Moderators, panelists, and agent provocateurs will actively encourage interaction and discussion with a panel of experts from both the publishing and the library spaces.

The morning session, The End of Libraries, will start with opening, intentionally provocative remarks, from the panelists followed by and “Hot-Topic” Breakouts sessions intended to touch on five topic areas:

• Data management
• Metrics
• Repositories, government mandates, and open access
• The library’s relationship to administration
• Disruptive technologies.

Each table will feature one panelist, and each group will be moderated by an SSP member to facilitate discussion amongst the roundtable participants and the panelist. Roundtable members will drive the conversation and then report back on their major conclusions/arguments/discussions/recommendations with the broader group, closing the morning with a group discussion featuring all attendees and panelists.

Panelists include Stacy Konkiel of Indiana-Bloomington, ImpactStory, and Altmetric; Dr. Ellen Granberg, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Clemson University; Margaret Henderson, Director Research Data Management, Virginia Commonwealth University; and Rebecca Kennison, Co-Principal, K|N Consultants, former Director at Columbia University’s Center for Digital Research and Scholarly.

After a break for lunch, the “End of Publishers” afternoon session will expand upon the theme of disruptive technologies and services by offering a series of lightning talks that will encourage panelists Dr. Mark Hahnel, Founder of figShare, Dr. William Gunn, Head of Academic Outreach at Mendeley, and Rebecca Kennison, SHARE, to make the case that their product or service will mark the end of publishing as we know it.  This panel will be moderated by Sara Rouhi, Product Sales Manager, Altmetric LLP and member of the SSP Education Committee.

Register now for the event; those who cannot attend can follow the discussion as it happens online using the Twitter hashtag #SSPLFG15.

by Heather Flanagan