A growing number of libraries are unbundling their subscriptions to the full suite of publishers’ journals, opting for limited titles to save on costs.

The author analyzed a range of case studies that provide useful insights into the nature and effectiveness of collaborative activities, and innovative approaches in academic libraries.

A broad task force worked on an Ethical Framework for Library Publishing, which was released to LPC members and Forum attendees in draft form in May 2018 during the Library Publishing Forum. The working session provided attendees the opportunity to give feedback on the current draft and contribute ideas for the next iteration of the framework.

Moreover, a series of reflections by community members on the recent Library Publishing Forum has been released.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is likely to have a significant impact on the way libraries  manage personal data. To help libraries consider what they need to do in response to the GDPR, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published an issue brief on the topic. The ARL will continue to monitor developments on GDPR and will publish a follow-up piece focusing on implementation.

A set of guidelines and best practices is proposed to heritage institutions in order to facilitate the process of making heritage collections reusable. These guidelines are based on the FAIR Principles for scholarly output (FAIR data principles 2014), completed with additional initiatives for making data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. The resulting FAIR Principles for Heritage Library, Archive and Museum Collections focus on three levels: objects, metadata and metadata records. Clarifications and examples of these proposed principles are presented, as well as recommendations for the assessment of current situations and implementations of the principles.

At the 2015 Open Science Conference organised by Couperin, the French academic network managing deals with publishers, the French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs and Innovation presented the law for a Digital Republic. Three years after this important event, the 7th COUPERIN Open Science Conference was held in Paris in January 2018. The speakers focused on the new sustainable ways for Open Access publishing giving papers about OA2020, the German DEAL project, public-funded publishing, support for bibliodiversity, the evolution of the assessment of scholarly output, etc.

The videos and presentations are online.

The OCLC FY18 Global Council meeting was held in Dublin, Ohio, USA. Global Council is comprised of 48 member-elected delegates, each representing one of three regions (the Americas; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and the Asia Pacific Region). In addition to electing new members to the Board, the Global Council  also wrapped up a year of council activity around the theme for the year: The Smarter Library. Selected outputs from all three meetings are now available online.

One of the tasks the Digital Preservation Task Force is charged with is raising awareness about digital preservation initiatives. To that end, the Task Force has created three reference guides: Digital Preservation 101, Talking Points and Questions to Ask Publishers about Digital Preservation, and the Guide to the Keepers Registry. The latter provides insight into how you may begin evaluating the preservation status of the digital scholarship in your collection. The Guides are intended to be a jumping off point for further research and discovery about digital preservation.

Six distinguished leaders in research and scholarship from across Canada and the United States will examine the progress of the initiative Academic Research and University Libraries: Creating a New Model for Collaboration, led by the Vice Provost of the University of Calgary. This investigation, supported by a $1-million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has provided funding for Calgary researchers in social and environmental sciences and the humanities during the past academic year. The reviewers’ comments will focus on the envisioned impact of the research at the University of Calgary on their own institutions.

Many librarians evaluate local Interlibrary Loan (ILL) statistics as part of collection development decisions concerning new subscriptions. In this study, the authors examine whether the number of ILL article requests over one academic year can predict the use of those same journal titles once they are added as library resources. An additional study, examining the sources from which patrons made ILL requests, shows that database search results dominate. These results call into question the need for libraries to subscribe to individual journal titles rather than providing access to a broad array of articles.