W&M Big Deal Bundles Virtual Forum
October 21, 2020
W&M Libraries hosted a virtual forum to discuss how our university libraries are approaching bundled journal packages, including concerns with cost, equity, and sustainability of these packages. Program included remarks by Provost Peggy Agouris, Dean of University Libraries Carrie Cooper, professors Carrie Dolan and Larry Leemis, and Dean of University Libraries for Florida State University Gale Estchmaier.
Virginia Research Library Sustainable Scholarship Virtual Forum
October 2, 2020
Representatives from seven Virginia universities will soon be in contract negotiations with Elsevier, the largest science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) scholarly publisher. Working as a group, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, George Mason University, Old Dominion University, William and Mary, and James Madison University discussed the unsustainable cost of accessing Elsevier’s academic journals and options to make their public universities’ research more accessible to the public that paid for it. On Oct. 2 at 9:30 a.m., the group hosted a Sustainable Scholarship Virtual Forum to share information about the group’s collective priorities concerning equity, accessibility, and costs of bundled scholarly journal packages. Forum moderator Brandon Butler, the University of Virginia Library’s director of information policy, posed questions to the panel for discussion. Registration was open to all interested faculty, staff, students, and community members. Attendees could submit questions or discussion topics surrounding negotiation priorities and sustainable scholarship in advance through the forum’s registration site.
Panelists included:
- Carrie Cooper, Dean of University Libraries, William and Mary
- Stuart Frazer, Interim University Librarian, Old Dominion University
- Teresa L. Knott, Interim Dean of Libraries and University Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Bethany Nowviskie, Dean of Libraries, James Madison University
- John Unsworth, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian, University of Virginia
- Tyler Walters, Dean of University Libraries, Virginia Tech
- John Zenelis, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian, George Mason University