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Yesterday, as some of you doubtless know, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released a new open access policy that may have a drastic effect on scholarly publishing (unless, of course, it changes nothing). Discussion on Twitter with the hashtags #publicaccess and #openaccess was lively, and I thought we could spend some time talking in person about the policy generally, and specifically how it might affect libraries. One question I have, for instance, is whether projects that IMLS funds will come under this policy; another is how libraries can help with the increased requirements for data management mentioned in the policy.

Here’s some key links:

• White House announcement – www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public-access-results-federally-funded-research
• White House directive – www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_memo_2013.pdf (PDF)
• Jen Howard, “White House Delivers New Open-Access Policy that has Activists Cheering” – chronicle.com/article/White-House-Delivers-New/137549/
• Peter Suber, “Second shoe drops: new White House Directive mandates OA” – plus.google.com/109377556796183035206/posts/8hzviMJeVHJ
• Carl Franzen, “White House says government-funded research should be more public, but critics want more” – www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4019058/white-house-opens-federally-funded-research-critics-unimpressed

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Like it or not, the typical “outreach session” for any GLAM institution is a single, one-shot, sixty minute workshop. I’ll set aside our desires to be better integrated into the semester curriculum, or museum summer series, or after school high school programs, and have more time. Instead, I’d like to focus on how to make the one-shot as meaningful as possible. (I’m taking on faith that we can can make it meaningful.)

I’d like to in particular talk about creating meaningful one-shot sessions focused on digital cultural heritage objects. In academic libraries, this might be a research session on primary sources. In state archives, an outreach session on genealogy databases. In museums, a digital art workshop for high schoolers.

However, the content is less important to me than the format — how do GLAMs create a short but powerful learning experience that will encourage participants to come back and see us again? How can online tools extend connections with our patrons, and create new spaces for public arts and humanities? I have a few thoughts:

• Give participants a task before the session. (Something as simple as saying “Before attending this museum session, pick your favorite painting to re-mix.”)
• Minimize lecture, maximize hands-on creation. (E.g., “Use digital art tools to create a new painting based on your favorite.”)
• What participants create, they take home as a reminder. (E.g. a nice printout of their artwork, plus a permanent online home for their artwork.)
• Give participants a platform for discussion after the session. (E.g. online commenting and easy Twitter/Facebook/other sharing of their artwork.)

However, I have a feeling that public institutions, archives, and museums are far out ahead of me and my fellow academic librarians! So I’d love to hear about what you’re doing and develop a set of recommendations to bring back for my own teaching and outreach efforts.

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I’d like to have a conversation with like-minded folks who support classroom pedagogy about the library/ed tech role in teaching DH to undergraduates. I suspect there are more of us at smaller liberal arts colleges than at larger institutions, but I welcome and hope for surprise. Some initial question:

• How are DH competencies taught to students at our institutions, and what is (or should be) the library’s role in that?
• How does this role mirror or diverge from our more traditional involvement in teaching and pedagogy? How should it?
•  How best do we teach undergraduate students to think in the terms of DH methodologies? Is embedment a better model than single-sessions? Do we collaborate with faculty beyond (or in lieu of) class sessions? How?
• Where’s the line between library support and educational technology support for DH pedagogy? Where should it be?

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Digital information becomes separated from its traditional “containers.” To a novice user a journal article, for example, can resemble a book chapter or a conference report.  Even experienced users can find the genre lines blurry in an electronic environment.

• How can we best foster genre awareness in this context?
• Why does genre matter?
• How do we deal with blurred, hybrid, or emerging genres?

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Many libraries and archives exhibit material on their websites or on blogs and social media platforms. They range from full-on interactive experiences to duplications of existing physical exhibits to “object of the month” style photo blogs. While there are decades of theory behind physical exhibit design, for the most part, institutions are on their own in deciding how they should present their materials online, how much they should present, and what content and functionality their users actually want. In this session we would discuss our experiences with creating online exhibit material, the methods and tools used in creating such exhibits, and perhaps ask some larger questions: What do users want/need out of online exhibits? Should institutions try to duplicate the physical exhibit experience as much as possible? Is there something more that can be done with online exhibits than what we are already doing?

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Sure, the fun part is actually doing the project – digging into the data, creating cool models and maps, driving the discussion and exploration of a chosen topic. But what happens after the project concludes? How are the products created during the project managed? What about the documentation and systems used? The responsibility for a digital project humanities project does not end when the final product is created and shared. Libraries are uniquely placed to provide support not only during a project, but afterward as well. I’d like this session to explore ways that libraries can create and market the services needed to support digital humanities projects when they’ve reached their end. At what point should libraries become involved in the project? Should DH projects consider the limitations of library information systems when being planned, or should libraries be flexible to handle a wide range of data and products?

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The changing world of ebooks

Given: Patrons will increasingly use ebooks in the coming years.

What can librarians do to:

• Provide the titles they need (purchase outright, purchase-on-demand, provide changing content in the form of vendor packages such as ebrary)
• Ascertain what titles they need (solicit patron input, offer purchase-on-demand)
• Make ebooks easily accessible (for reading online or downloading, simplifying digital rights management, providing mobile apps)
• Provide hardware (loan equipment such as PCs, ebook readers, tablets; and perhaps provide pre-loaded content on these devices)
• Help them find the digital content already in the library’s collection (web-scale discovery layer, one-on-one or classroom instruction, pushing instructional content to patrons by electronic means such as email, social network locations, Twitter, RSS feeds)
• Promoting electronic publishing; publishing titles sponsored by libraries themselves; working with university publishers

Please bring your suggestions—what is your library doing, what should we be doing, what is in the works—for improving our service to patrons in this changing environment.