2019 ACRL Environmental Scan Released – ACRL Insider

By: SC@S

From Mary Jane Petrowski in ACRL Insider: Preview: Every two years, the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee releases an environmental scan of higher education, including developments with the potential for continuing impact on academic libraries. The 2019 Environmental Scan (PDF) provides a broad review of the current higher education landscape, with special focus on…

Open Educational Resource (OER) Adoption in Higher Education: Examining Institutional Perspectives| FDLA Journal

By: SC@S

From Rebekah E. Wright and Jennifer L. Reeves in FDLA Journal: Abstract: The costs associated with education, including tuition and learning resources, continue to rise causing affordability issues for learners. It has been reported that the cost of traditional textbooks and materials has risen by as much as 103% over the past decade (U.S. Bureau…

UNESCO OER Recommendation: One Step Closer to Adoption - Creative Commons

By: SC@S

From Cable Green in the Creative Commons Blog: Preview: The global open education community works collectively to create a world in which everyone has universal access to effective open education resources (OER) and meaningful learning opportunities as defined by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #4 (SDG4): Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote…

Preparing for Plan S: Answers to the top 10 journal publisher FAQs we've heard…

By: SC@S

From the Scholastica blog: Preview: For publishers, ready or not, Plan S is coming (which is fitting given that the S really stands for “shock,” as well as “science,” “speed,” and “solution”). If you still have questions about what Plan S is exactly and how it will affect the journals you publish or work with,…

Rethinking impact factors: better ways to judge a journal | Nature.com

By: SC@S

From Paul Wouters et al. in Nature.com: Preview: Global efforts are afoot to create a constructive role for journal metrics in scholarly publishing and to displace the dominance of impact factors in the assessment of research. To this end, a group of bibliometric and evaluation specialists, scientists, publishers, scientific societies and research-analytics providers are working…

LSU ends Elsevier bundled journal subscription | Inside Higher Ed

By: SC@S

From Lindsay McKenzie in Inside Higher Ed: Preview: LSU is just the latest of several U.S. institutions, including the University of California system, Temple University and Florida State University, to announce its intentions to end its business relationship with Elsevier in the last two years. “For decades, LSU has subscribed to a package of some…

Join us for a Twitter chat! | Creative Commons USA

By: SC@S

From Creative Commons USA: Preview: Next month [Wednesday, June 5, 2019 2-3pm], Creative Commons USA is hosting a Twitter chat in partnership with the Open Textbook Network, Rebus Community, Collaborative Knowledge Foundation, and Library Publishing Coalition around open licensing, CC, copyright, and other intellectual property issues. We’re inviting practitioners from across the spectrum to join…

Open-Access Monographs: New Tools, More Access | EDUCAUSE

By: SC@S

From Monica McCormick in Educause Review: Preview: We are in an era of significant change in the United States and Canada for publishing open-access (OA) scholarly monographs. Since most monographs are published by university presses, and most copies are purchased by research libraries, this article focuses on that community. The bulk of OA titles are…

Guest Post: Evaluating Open Access in a Consortial Context - The Scholarly Kitchen

By: Scholarly Kitchen

From Gwen Evans in The Scholarly Kitchen: Preview: As several recent announcements and initiatives have shown, Open Access (OA) negotiations between libraries and publishers are complex, in a constant state of flux, and provide little predictability — and OA models and negotiations within library consortia contain complexities all their own. One of the key questions…

Understanding the Impact of OER: Achievements and Challenges – UNESCO IITE

By: SC@S

From UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education: Preview: The publication “Understanding the Impact of OER: Achievements and Challenges” is the result of partnership between the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and OER Africa, an initiative established by Saide. It critically reviews the growth of open educational resources (OER) and its…