The motivation for this paper is the need of the German National Library to massively increase its web archiving activities as the 12,000 snapshots collected per year are considered not to be enough to reflect the German web appropriately. As collecting everything which could be defined as the German web is impossible, the concept of selecting an “exemplary diversity” is introduced and substantiated by the guiding principles of relevance and diversity. The long-term goal is to find methods to (semi-)automatise the selection process and the prerequisite for this are well-defined selection criteria and sources of relevant as well as diverse topics that can be exploited. First steps to operationalise the guiding principles are outlined and supplemented by technological challenges and requirements to support the selection process as well as in the light of the advancement of web technology. Finally, the paper proposes a mix of curational and automatised measures and sources of information that should be taken into consideration to cater for a good coverage of relevance and diversity, supplemented by technological aspects regarding alternative representations of web content in web archives to be discussed to bring the content of web archives closer to the original user experience.
This article examines the evolving role of research libraries in supporting the recognition of datasets as legitimate academic outputs through data publishing. Although the academic community increasingly acknowledges the value of treating research data as standalone contributions, there remains a lack of comprehensive frameworks and services to support this shift. Research libraries are well-positioned to lead in data curation and publication by collaborating with researchers, institutions, and other stakeholders. Using a qualitative, multi-method approach—including a literature review, an exploratory survey of university libraries in the Nordic and Baltic countries, and professional experience—we investigate current practices, challenges, and institutional perspectives on data publishing. Our findings highlight inconsistent terminology in data policies and evolving services for data appraisal and visibility. We differentiate data publishing from general data sharing, emphasizing critical aspects such as data citability, quality control, and ethical reuse. The article discusses various publishing pathways—such as data journals, repositories, and article supplements—and their respective implications. We identify key service gaps in libraries, particularly in data evaluation and discoverability, and propose strategies for libraries to promote data journals and domain-specific repositories. Ultimately, we advocate for libraries to expand their role by developing integrated services for data appraisal, curation, and preservation, and by strengthening staff competencies in data management. Such efforts are essential for increasing the visibility, credibility, and scholarly impact of research data. This paper is a continuation to a presentation provided in Liber Conference 2022. The presentation paper was acknowledged with the Innovation Award.
Research data management policies are ubiquitous in UK Higher Education Institutions, and are often written and managed by, or with, the library team. RDM policies attempt to balance the requirements of keeping data safe and secure when necessary and opening up data to allow reuse and to support research integrity. This article uses a framework analysis approach on 134 policies to investigate whether the UK RDM policies have become more open over time in terms of policy points and language. The investigation shows that recent policies have shown an increased likelihood of being more open in several areas: how long data should be archived for, sharing of software, and the mandatory inclusion of data availability statements in journal articles. Language around FAIR data terms have increased, as has using research integrity as a key reason to manage data according to best practices.
Monographs have long remained at the margins of the digital and open access (OA) transformation, particularly in Poland and across much of Europe. Unlike journal publishing, the open dissemination of scholarly books has been hindered by factors such as the additional costs of producing professional digital formats (e.g., EPUB) and the enduring perception of printed monographs as more prestigious. This has led many publishers to delay OA release until after embargo periods, limiting accessibility. The implications are particularly significant for the humanities, where monographs are often the primary research output. As a result, humanistic scholarship remains underrepresented in digital databases, reaches narrower audiences, and demonstrates lower impact as measured by dominant bibliometric indicators from major academic platforms. To address these disparities, sustainable OA publishing models tailored to monographs must be developed. This paper presents findings from a mix-method, participatory study of the Polish publishing landscape, identifying key needs, challenges, and opportunities. The study contributes to ongoing debates on open access policies and practices for monograph publishing by offering in-depth insights from one of Europe’s largest academic markets. Its design-driven and scalable research workflow represents an additional contribution, providing a methodological model that can be adapted to similar research contexts.
In the broader context of the role of strategic communication in enhancing an organisation's purpose and identity, this paper examines the benefits for research libraries of publishing a strategic vision. In today's rapidly changing world, it is critical for libraries to define their 'signature', reaffirm their identity, uphold clear values and foster a culture of purpose. This paper outlines the benefits of publishing a formal strategy for libraries to shape the future of their organisation, attract partners with similar goals, and regularly assess and reaffirm the library's objectives. The publication of a strategy document that has been developed collaboratively and that reflects the library's collective ambitions, values and identity can facilitate the translation of the strategy into concrete and meaningful actions. This paper is a call to action for research libraries to better communicate the potential of their services to academics, partners and the community, but also to give collective and lasting meaning to their work and missions by publishing a medium or long-term vision.
Many academic libraries use the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system to organise their collections, but few academic library users are familiar with the LCC system or, in libraries with open stacks, able to use it to aid wayfinding and locate known items or discover areas for strategic browsing. This is especially true for students, and despite librarians’ efforts, the problem persists. In order to increase accessibility at Weber State University’s Stewart Library in Ogden, Utah, and to help users navigate the library to locate and discover resources, faculty librarians, graphic designers, a circulation specialist, and technical services personnel collaborated to design and test symbols and signs for a visual signage system founded on highly respected principles of accessibility and universal design. A set of symbols to represent the major LCC headings and other library collections was created and tested with users via surveys and focus groups. The revised symbols were then colour coded to physical areas of the library and incorporated into a variety of identification, directional, and navigational signs together with verbal subject headings or captions to enable wayfinding. User testing of the signage and student feedback in a questionnaire during a needs assessment demonstrated the overall efficacy of the system which, with the symbols, can be adapted to other open-stack libraries and classification systems.
The FAIR principles have had a transformative effect on research data management. Based on this, there is a growing need to increase awareness, understanding and adoption of this topic in higher education at all levels and to provide guidance on how to teach it in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programmes. This article discusses a collaborative, co-creative approach to construct a body of knowledge and a set of tools addressing this gap, that have been summarised in a teaching and training handbook. We outline how the handbook was written using a large community of volunteers working together remotely. We then discuss the overall content of the handbook, including lesson plans, guidance on how to develop appropriate lessons, a detailed overview of FAIR-related competencies and learning outcomes, and guidelines on how to implement FAIR within an institution. Finally, we discuss the uptake of the handbook, and examples of how the handbook has or could be used in a variety of different training settings.
Repositories are one of the key infrastructure components in achieving the goals of open science. In response to legal obligations, emerging trends, and challenges in open science, several Croatian institutions jointly established a national digital repository infrastructure in 2015 - the DABAR system (Digital Academic Archives and Repositories). Its purpose is to provide a unified space for storing, preserving, and ensuring open access to the scholarly output of scientists and institutions within the Croatian science and higher education system. After nearly a decade of operation, it is crucial to assess the role of this infrastructure today and evaluate whether it has successfully embodied the core principles of open science - openness, transparency, and visibility of scientific and Croatian scholarly output. This paper presents the Croatian national repository infrastructure as a case study, offering insights for comparison with similar national infrastructures. The study employs a quantitative research approach, divided into two parts to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state and future development of repositories in Croatia. The first part analyses quantitative data and repository statistics. The DABAR infrastructure currently comprises 182 repositories and hosts over 249,000 digital objects, yet only slightly more than 50% of them are openly accessible. To investigate the reasons behind the high percentage of restricted or closed-access objects, a survey was conducted among institutions that primarily deposit such items. The findings of this research contribute to a broader discussion on open science practices and repository management at both European and international levels. The results will serve as a foundation for further improvements to the infrastructure, the promotion of open science principles, and the development of systematic support mechanisms to encourage greater accessibility and transparency in scholarly communication.
Reaching researchers in terms of Open Science-related matters is a big challenge for Open Science professionals. To encourage peer exchange among researchers working at universities of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA), we launched the ERUA Open Science Ambassador Programme. In this programme, four researchers working at different universities of the alliance took on the role as Open Science ambassadors. This paper illuminates the programme’s aims and discusses the risks we faced. It outlines how we got the programme going, explaining how we recruited our ambassadors, how we connected them, what knowledge and materials we equipped them with and how we communicated the programme within the alliance. Furthermore, the paper delineates the ambassadors’ activities, giving recommendations based on the challenges we encountered and the experiences we made. The paper is a valuable source of information for institutions that consider setting up similar Open Science ambassador programmes.
This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of publishing Open Access (OA) books within the European Research Area (ERA), drawing on data collected through the PALOMERA project. Despite the growing interest in OA books, the landscape remains fragmented due to a lack of clear policies. National policies are often sparse, with institutional and funder mandates typically focused on journal articles rather than monographs. An issue also highlighted is the marginalisation of non-English language works, which receive significantly less visibility than English-language publications. Additionally, the perceived prestige of OA monographs remains a concern, with some scholars viewing them as less reputable than traditionally published works. This paper synthesises findings from 42 in-depth interviews to offer an overview of the current state of OA book publishing in Europe. It identifies areas for policy improvement to foster a more inclusive and sustainable OA landscape.
The Open Science Community reaches beyond national borders, which entails the necessity of international exchange to learn from each other and to develop measures jointly. But how to implement formats of exchange? In this report, Maximilian Heber and Dr. Goran Sekulovski share their experiences planning and performing the ERUA Open Science Live Meet-Ups, a low-threshold format of exchange implemented whitin the European Reform Universities Alliance (ERUA), an alliance of the European Universities Initiative (EUI). Doing so, they reflect critically on this format, hoping that this paper may be a resource of inspiration for others who may be interested in setting up similar initiatives.
The German National Library (DNB) began developing solutions for automatic subject cataloguing 15 years ago. The main reason for this was the huge and ever-growing number of digital media works that needed to be indexed. Today, the DNB uses open source algorithms and frameworks to assign various types of thematic meta information in this way. This practice paper provides a deeper insight into automatic subject cataloguing at the DNB. We look at the data and vocabularies used as well as at the different methods and approaches. The vocabulary for classification is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). For verbal subject indexing we use the German Integrated Authority File (GND). The use case of automatic classification is divided into the assignment of DDC Subject Categories and DDC Short Numbers. Due to the large size of the GND vocabulary, the use case of automatic indexing is an extreme multi-label classification (XMLC) problem. A brief report is given about the construction and the performance of our models. Based on these use cases, we present some implementation aspects of our “subject cataloguing machine” EMa, the environment for automatic subject cataloguing in productive use. We point out the basic feature set and provide a high-level introduction of the productive EMa system. The modular design of the EMa software architecture with the open source software Annif as a central toolkit is described. The development of EMa is an ongoing task at the DNB. It requires continuous development and maintenance, technological and human resources. Applied research activities in the DNB's AI project are closely related to the EMa ensuring that relevant scientific findings get integrated into its development.
This paper presents a case study of how researchers can be engaged with the topic of Research Data Management in a playful and interesting way. The case in point is the Data Horror Escape Room, developed in 2020, a successful tool for facilitating discussion about research data management during educational, social, and peer-to-peer events. Escape rooms are games that are completed by solving a collection of puzzles and have been shown to be useful tools for game-based learning. The paper reflects on the steps that led to creation of the game, including its technical implementation using Google Sites and gives an overview of how the game was used and feedback it received. Readers are welcome to use the paper as guidance for reusing the escape room for their own events or as inspiration for building a similar escape room for their own purpose. The Data Horror Escape Room is openly available to access through a URL, and is archived as a dataset in Zenodo.
The University of Southern Denmark has set out its Vision and Strategy and the Library has become an eminent partner in supporting the University in achieving its sustainability ambitions. This editorial highlights how research libraries support sustainable development and why they are crucial for the achievement of sustainability across the university. It calls attention to national and local projects that the University Library of Southern Denmark works on to promote sustainability in its innovation and day-to-day operations and services.
This study explores the significance of librarian education on implementing citizen science initiatives in their own operations. The first part of the study is dedicated to reviewing global practices in certified librarian education on citizen science, highlighting the growing recognition of its importance within library education and practice. Drawing on examples from various countries, it emphasizes the importance of continuous education and training for librarians to effectively support citizen science initiatives within their communities. The second and central part of the study explores the experiences and insights gathered from a certified webinar titled Citizen Science in Libraries, organized by the Training Centre for Continuing Education of Librarians in Croatia (CSSU) from the National and University Library in Zagreb (NUL). A research study was conducted among the webinar participants to investigate their opinions regarding the content and effectiveness of the webinar and their attitudes towards the implementation of citizen science in libraries. A survey was conducted using an online questionnaire with the participation of 332 webinar attendees, which represents 69.31% of the total number of participants. The main conclusions highlight the positive attitudes of librarians towards the webinar and potential strategies for enhancing library participation in citizen science. The importance of continuous education and collaboration is emphasized to maximize the potential of libraries in promoting citizen science and raising awareness of its importance in the community. The findings can serve as an incentive for other libraries to implement similar educational programs and encourage librarians to participate in such initiatives. Additionally, the proposed research model can be valuable for libraries already conducting educational activities, as they can translate and incorporate it as an integral part of their program.
This article is concerned with the issue of how Research Performing Organizations can balance the market and non-market values of the research data they hold. To address this issue, we adopt the lenses of the Resource Based View and Open Science and explore the interplay between them. In doing so, this article addresses the question of whether it is possible to achieve a balance between research data as a public good and as a private asset and if so, how. Of particular interest are Research Performing Organizations in the institute sector that operate under both market and non-market logics, which have implications for how they govern their research data. From the discussions undertaken in the article, one of the main conclusions is that Research Performing Organizations may benefit from adopting a research data governance model that captures both the economic and societal values of research data. They could do so, for instance, by developing an integrative institutional policy and by actively using data management plans to evaluate the value of the data produced in research projects.
University libraries live and change through interaction with the scientific community or without essential interaction they fail to evolve and grow. This article studies the effects of collaboration between professors and librarians on the strategic development of libraries, especially during times of crisis. This study was conducted at the University of Helsinki (established in 1640). It is based mostly on historical sources, such as the annual reports of the university and faculties, and documents outlining plans and decisions. The first crisis phase took place in the 1820s, when a fire destroyed academic collections and facilities and the university was relocated from Turku to Helsinki. A conflict arose between the contemporary needs of the scientific community and the need for a main library to replace the collections. Another upheaval was caused by the growing need for services for the post-war baby boomer generation. Nationwide library planning aimed for the creation of a separate national library and for merging faculty libraries with the main library. The third crisis phase involved the Finnish economic crisis of the 1990s and the digital revolution that continued into the 2000s. Solutions were sought through cooperation between the academic leadership, library management and personnel. The crisis led to the organisation of library services into two large entities. The success of extensive changes in academic libraries is one of the key questions in management. The crisis periods under examination show that significant reforms are only possible through close partnerships between the library, the research community and academic decision-makers.
This article explores the financial dynamics of open access (OA) publication in Catalan universities by combining four data sources: publication data coupled with article processing charge (APC) estimates; information on journal subscriptions, transformative agreements and APC payments made by universities; acknowledgements of APC funding sources in OA scholarly outputs; and a survey of authors. The findings reveal a consistent increase in OA publication across Catalan universities, with 60% of the articles indexed in the Web of Science being published in either gold or hybrid OA in 2022. In parallel, investment in the research publishing system shows an upward trend. Resources allocated to journal subscription licenses have been redirected towards transformative agreements, leading to a rise in hybrid OA publications. Additional budget allocations have been made to accommodate APCs for gold OA journals. Authors employ varied funding sources for gold and hybrid OA, with university funding programmes and research grants commonly facilitating gold OA, while transformative agreements often support hybrid OA. Authors associated with Catalan universities frequently benefit from funding schemes and transformative agreements that are accessible to their coauthors. However, survey responses underscore the multifaceted nature of researchers’ financial support, including personal assets and waivers. Authors express frustration with the evolving OA landscape, particularly concerning the exorbitant publication fees. Nevertheless, the allure of high-impact journals and expedited peer review processes continues to incentivize authors towards gold OA. Researchers voice concerns regarding the lack of equitable funding programmes and potential conflicts of interest within gold OA models, which signals the risk of compromising peer review integrity to prioritize profits. This study underscores the need for further research to deepen our understanding of scholarly publishing expenditure and inform strategies for fostering a sustainable, equitable OA ecosystem.
The current article brings to the fore key results of the implementation of citizen science (CS) practices at universities and their libraries by focusing on five Baltic universities. It observes the improvement of skills and knowledge in the participating organisations. It examines the need and readiness for the institutional change necessary for implementing CS practices in the Baltics and the ways the participating organisations have improved in the field of CS during the LibOCS project (University libraries strengthening the academia-society connection through citizen science in the Baltics, 2022–2024). The study aims to determine to what extent the framework of the current project and the implementation of the BESPOC model (Broad Engagement in Science, Point of Contact) included in the project could act as a blueprint for other organisations wanting to implement institutional and policy changes to advance in the field of CS. These kinds of hubs or knowledge centres have already been established in some Central and Western European countries and it is necessary to create that kind of support system in the Baltic universities. The article is based on the interviews, surveys, and workshops held on the topics of CS advocacy and implementation of the BESPOC model at Baltic universities led by five university libraries (referred to here as LibOCS HEIs): Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), University of Tartu (UT), University of Latvia (UL), Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The article introduces the core aspects of the LibOCS project, describes the starting point of the participating organisations, and librarians, their level of knowledge about CS and its practices, and proceeds with the changes that took place during the five major project stages and their outputs. The article presents the knowledge growth of the participants, the tools and training materials created for librarians, the practical consultations and workshops that led to the implementation process of the BESPOC model. The more knowledgeable the librarians are, the easier it is to implement CS-related services and establish a central hub. As a result of the project, a positive shift towards the openness to CS activities and its support systems has been identified within participating libraries, and some elements of a single point of contact model are already in development. However, to fully adopt that approach, universities have to include CS in their strategies and allocate resources, entrusting the leader of the process with the work of creating a CS hub.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will drastically influence and change the working methods of scholars and researchers. This paper presents findings from a broad, national survey and a workshop focusing on the challenges and opportunities the advancement of AI poses for PhD candidates, seen from the perspective of library staff working with research support in a number of research libraries in Norway. The paper looks into how research libraries could adapt to the development, addresses the roles of various stakeholders and proposes measures regarding the support of PhD candidates in the responsible use of AI-based tools. Based on insights from the survey and the workshop, the paper also shows what is lacking in the libraries' research support services concerning the understanding and utilisation of AI-based tools. The study reveals a degree of uncertainty among librarians about their role in the AI academic nexus. For the development of competences of teaching staff in academic libraries, the paper recommends to integrate AI-related topics into existing educational resources and to create arenas for sharing experiences and knowledge with relevant partners both within and outside the university.
