Association of Research Libraries

Guides Promote Summer Staff Discussion Series

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Office of Scholarly Communication is offering a free series of guides on current scholarly communication issues to facilitate summer discussion programs among library staff.

The scholarly communication system is changing rapidly. An increasing number of librarians across job categories are being asked to engage in outreach to campus faculty and other stakeholders in these issues. A brown-bag lunch series of informal discussions is a good way for staff to deepen their knowledge of key topics, learn from one another, and track changing perspectives.

ARL’s discussion series was developed by Karla Hahn, Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication, and covers six topics:

• Starting discussions of scholarly communication
• Talking with faculty
• Access to publicly funded research
• Author rights
• Scholarly society roles
• Peer review

The six guides identify important issues that can be used to organize a summer program. Each guide offers prework and discussion questions for a meeting, along with resources that provide further background for the discussion leader of an hour-long session. The guides can serve as a starting point for a single discussion or for a series of six conversations.

Using the discussion guides, library leaders can launch a program quickly without requiring special expertise on the topics. A brown-bag series could be initiated by a library director, a group of staff, or by any staff person with an interest in the scholarly communication system. The only requirements are the willingness to organize the gatherings and facilitate each meeting’s discussion.

Electronic copies of the guides are freely available at http://www.arl.org/sc/brownbag/.

For more information contact:
Lee Anne George
Publications Program Officer
Association of Research Libraries
leeanne@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 ext. 130