Mohammad AlHamad, the new E-Resources Strategist for the Missouri State University Libraries, was in Charleston, South Carolina last week attending an important conference. The Charleston Conference was hybrid this year, for the first time, with both in-person and virtual attendance. Overall, the event was successful. All the sessions were presented in parallel for the virtual and in-person attendees.

Mohammad attended several sessions that were very good and discussed new issues that we are facing in libraries and the publishing industry. This conference was unique in that it offered an equal presence for the libraries as well as the publishers and vendors. So, not only are libraries attending to share their experiences and discuss new trends. But also, publishers shared their experiences trying to find solutions to some of their challenges.

Some of the sessions Mohammad attended included:

Library services

– ILL and Acquisitions: Working Together to Get Users What They Need When They Need It.

In this presentation librarians from the University of Alabama Libraries presented a new plan that they are working on to expedite content delivery and how to balance between ILL and Acquisitions. They are rethinking the traditional workflow. Cost, space, usage, format, and collection strategy are all important factors to consider when deciding whether to borrow or buy submitted requests.

Collections

– Evaluating and Investing in Open Access Monograph Models

Mohammad attended different sessions on open access monograph models. However, he found this session to be excellent. Librarians from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota Libraries shared their insights into how they select and evaluate different open access monograph programs. Furthermore, a representative from LYRASIS talked about emerging open access initiatives and provided suggestions on how to evaluate this rapidly changing environment.

Scholarly communication

– Managing open research: challenges and opportunities for the research library

In this session panelists shared their real-world experiences and outcomes on a new topic. So, in this panel discussion, three librarians from three different institutions with moderate-to-extensive research activity talked about their experiences in tracking open-access publications and research data.

 

Mohammad also attended a unique keynote presentation by Joy Connolly, president of the American Council of Learned Societies. She spoke about some ways people are thinking differently and how libraries can contribute to advancing scholarly evolution. Including rethinking the tenure and promotion criteria and publishing research results in non-academic publications.

Another remarkable keynote session was named “The Long Arm of the Law”. In this presentation Lila Bailey, the Policy Counsel at the Internet Archive, provided insights about the AAP member-publishers copyright infringement suit against the Internet Archive. Bailey emphasized the fact that the Internet Archive’s major argument was on finding an information ecosystem, between publisher, author, libraries, and readers.

In addition to the rich conference program, AlHamad found Charleston conference to be a great venue to network with other librarians from different institutions, share some of our experiences, challenges, and projects that we are working on, as well as navigating collaboration opportunities.