Open Password – Monday October 11, 2021
#984
Specialist information publishers – Nobel Prizes – Thieme – Chemistry – Benjamin List – David McMillan – SYNLETT – Catalysts – Organocatalysis
Special scientific libraries – Sebastian Nix – Digitization – Corona pandemic – Open Science – Content curation – Semantic knowledge network – Long-term availability – Max Planck Institute for Human Development – Library and scientific information – Interdisciplinary projects – Literature supply – Open access services – Literature research – Large amounts of data – Collaborative work – Strategy process – Institute for Library and Information Science at Humboldt University – Psychologists – Neuroscientists – Historians – Google Scholar – Wikipedia – OPAC – Financing, consulting, licensing – Maintenance of profiles – Library as a place – School of Design Thinking – Hasso Plattner Institute
China – Edtech Companies – Suzy Home – In-home Usage Testing Solution – Experian – United for Financial Health – Vulnerable Communities – COVID-19 – Springer Nature – protocols.io – Elsevier – Scopus – SSRN Preprints – ADR Data Cloud – Saxon Consortium University Libraries – Taylor & Francis – OA Books Deal – GigXR – HoloHuman 3D – Brave – Video Conferencing Tool – Illegal Websites – Bloomberg – BQuant Enterprises – Open Research Publishing Platform – Culture Amp – Employee Experience – Wolters Kluwer – Best Care Everwhere – Refinitiv – Wealth Practice 360 – Deutsche Börse – Post Trade Platform – Outsell
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Specialist information publishers: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021 for editors and authors of Thieme Chemistry
- Cover story
Special academic libraries: Where are we headed? – Workshop report on changes in a medium-sized special library – By Sebastian Nix
III. International News
Specialist information publishers
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021
for editors and authors of Thieme Chemistry
(Thieme) This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Benjamin List, Germany, and David MacMillan, USA, for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. In 2013, Benjamin List published a two-volume work on this topic with Thieme. As Editor-in-Chief of the journal SYNLETT of Thieme Chemistry, he has been largely responsible for its content since 2015. Furthermore, he has been an active member of the editorial board of the journal SYNFACTS since 2006. David MacMillan is the author of several chapters in Science of Synthesis , Thieme’s digital reference work for organic synthetic chemistry. For SYNLETT, he authored the paper “Strategies to Bypass the Taxol Problem.” In 2006, he received the Thieme IUPAC Prize.
Catalysts are substances that enable and accelerate chemical reactions but are not consumed in the reaction process itself. Therefore, catalysts are fundamental tools for chemists in research and industry. For a long time, only two types of catalysts were known: metal complexes and enzymes. In 2000, Benjamin List and David MacMillan independently developed a third possibility: The so-called asymmetric organocatalysis. For this achievement, both scientists have now been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021, which is endowed with a total of around 980,000 Euros.
Special scientific libraries
Where is the journey going?
Workshop report on changes
in a medium-sized special library [1]
By Sebastian Nix
[1] This article is based on a lecture by the author at the 38th ASpB conference on September 15, 2021.
Sebastian Nix
_____________________________________________________
Challenges caused by digital and institutional change
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It is now undisputed that digitalization is bringing about revolutionary changes in all areas of life. With a small smartphone we can now bank, make payments, turn the lights in our home on and off, navigate, read e-books, do shopping, watch videos, book trips and infinitely more from anywhere. Just a few years ago, all of these activities would have required time-consuming “analog activities”. Digitization processes have long since reached science: researchers today receive a lot of content digitally, research results are also available as digital data, scientific publishing itself is now a digital process, and collaboration is also organized via online platforms. The corona pandemic has accelerated this development again.
Against this background, special academic libraries must find a way to constantly adapt their service offerings to this change. The core of their centuries-old business model – the procurement, development, provision, and sometimes long-term archiving of analogue content – has lost importance in many disciplines or at least changed significantly. It remains to be seen what effect the trend towards “open science” will have. In the future, this could lead to the acquisition of paid content for scientific use becoming almost meaningless as a library activity.
That doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be completely different tasks that would have to be carried out in the future alongside the research process with technical expertise. For example, the development of techniques for content curation of scientific content in a semantic knowledge network whose elements are equally understandable for humans and machines; ensuring the long-term availability of digital data; the operation of platforms for the provision of scientific content; the professional management of means for the open provision of content on commercial platforms; etc.
Nevertheless, digital change poses major challenges, especially for smaller specialist libraries. Because they have to manage this change in a balancing act between the still important “traditional library business” and the new requirements that have just been outlined – and this usually with limited human and material resources. In addition, the new tasks also require employees to acquire new skills. This in turn takes up time that is not available for other things and sometimes requires overcoming internal and external resistance.
Not to forget that special libraries always have to keep an eye on changes in the subject area, especially if they have to serve a specific institutional clientele with their services.
_____________________________________________________
The context of our special library work:
The Max Planck Institute for Human Development
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The library and scientific information team at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB) is also faced with this double challenge – coping with the effects of digital change in general and the changed scientific and institutional environment in particular. This research institute, founded in 1963, has been dealing with processes of human education and development for over five decades, but has experienced many a “disciplinary skinning” in the process: While in the initial phase the focus was on very specific approaches to improving teaching models, the perspective soon broadened social framework conditions of the education system. Later, questions about the interplay between the environment and cognitive development processes over the human lifespan also came into focus, accompanied by an interest in emotional regimes, codes and lexicons of different societies. Today the institute also deals with the interaction between humans and machines or, more generally, with the social challenges of digitalization.
The disciplines and methods used to study these topics scientifically were and are correspondingly diverse. Today, around a hundred scientists from several disciplines – such as psychology, sociology, history, computer and information science and economics – work together in interdisciplinary projects at the MPIB. For example, they examine what role social and cognitive factors play in decision-making and learning, how feelings have changed in a historical context and continue to shape history to the present day, how people stay mentally fit for as long as possible, and what effects the environment has on the brain and behavior and mental health or what social challenges digitalization brings with it. The spectrum of methods ranges from historical source research to social science methods such as quantitative surveys and systematic behavioral observations in real and virtual environments to the use of imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging.
_____________________________________________________
The library and scientific information at the MPIB
in the area of tension between past, present and future
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The needs that the Library and Scientific Information Center, with its currently 15 employees (including student/research assistants who are not employed purely on a project basis) – the majority of whom work part-time – as a central infrastructure unit for the provision of information-based, research-supporting services from the MPIB onwards are correspondingly diverse and challenging has satisfy.
The spectrum begins with the “classic” supply of printed literature. This is still a very important topic for the historians at the MPIB, which is reflected, among other things, in an annual increase of around 1,000 printed media units, mostly purchased at the request of users, as well as 1,500 to 2,000 interlibrary loans and document deliveries. The spectrum then extends from a wide variety of open access services and thematic literature research to the systematic management of the large amounts of data that arise as part of the diverse empirical research.
The further development of the library as a place for collaborative work is also a major challenge. The concept of a library with a closed stack and a generously sized catalog room and magazine reading room, which still worked in the 1970s – the main building of the institute was built between 1971 and 1973 – has long since become outdated and requires a fundamental revision in order to make the library independent as a place to keep the media stocks available or usable there attractive.
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Strategy development for the library and scientific information –
The strategy process
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In order to set meaningful priorities, identify important areas of action and make optimal use of material and human resources in the medium term, the library and scientific information team set out in 2018 to define its work priorities based on the expectations of users and the foreseeable future to strategically plan structural changes more systematically for the period up to 2023.
A significant component of this process was a quantitative user survey (master’s thesis) that was carried out in the summer of 2018 in cooperation with the Institute for Library and Information Science at the Humboldt University in Berlin. With regard to the researchers, this survey produced the following key results:
- Psychologists and neuroscientists are particularly interested in e-resources (especially journals), while historians are most likely to be users of books and “book-related” services (e.g. interlibrary loans, purchase suggestions), but without having full access to the book collection to be satisfied.
- The preferred search tools used are Google (Scholar) and Wikipedia, but also the OPAC.
- Certain service offerings (e.g. bibliometric services) are little known.
- There is great interdisciplinary interest in services such as the financing of open access publications (in particular: open access books), advice on legal issues relating to publishing, and external licensing, which were not yet offered or were only offered in a rudimentary manner at the time of the survey Research data sets, evidence of research data generated in-house, support in maintaining profiles in scientific social networks and also the enhancement of the library as a place for a wide variety of work scenarios (silent work, workstations for guests, team work).
In addition to the survey, the team visited various information institutions in Berlin and Potsdam to find out about their services, for example on open access publishing, research data management and digital publishing. In addition, researchers from several research units provided insight into their research process and research methods.
In order to be able to better assess the needs of the users with a view to a structural redesign of the library – which is also likely to be costly – to fulfill new functions, a design think project was launched at the end of 2018/2019 in cooperation with the School of Design Thinking carried out by the Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam.
The findings from all of these activities, accompanied by external coaching, were then condensed into a strategic action program for the years 2019 to 2023 in a two-day, team-internal strategy workshop at the end of February 2019. This was also formally approved by the management of the MPIB at the beginning of October 2019.
Read the final episode: The service developments since 2018 – conditions for success for the change process and “lessons learned”
International News
Chinese Edtech Companies Trim Headcount and Develop New Business Verticals After Intense Clampdown
Now that edtech companies and after-school tutoring services must operate on a not-for-profit basis, and be registered as nonprofit entities if they host classes that cover the nation’s core curriculum, edtech providers are opting to offer extracurricular courses, professional training, and classes for university students.
Suzy Launches Suzy Home for In-Home Usage Testing
Suzy announced the launch of Suzy Home, an in-home usage testing solution that enables consumers to physically test products and provide feedback to brands. Enterprise companies will now be able to leverage Suzy’s proprietary audience and its qualitative and quantitative analysis capabilities to deliver insights from consumers’ hands-on experiences.
Experian has launched United for Financial Health to help drive financial inclusion for the most vulnerable communities impacted by COVID-19 in Asia Pacific. This global corporate social responsibility initiative will see Experian working with non-profit organizations worldwide to provide tools and resources to educate and uplift consumers, while protecting them from fraud and identity theft.
Springer Nature and protocols.io Partner to Better Understand Open Research Practices
Springer Nature is launching a pilot with protocols.io to better understand how protocols are used by researchers in the lab. The pilot will explore how improving the discoverability of protocols and how they are used and reused in experiments, will help to better support researchers and advance open science and research.
Elsevier’s Scopus Expands to Include SSRN Preprints
Elsevier announces that preprints from SSRN, its early stage research and preprint platform, are now available through Scopus, Elsevier’s abstract and citation database. This follows preprints from arXiv, ChemRxiv, bioRxiv and medRxiv being indexed in Scopus earlier this year.
As companies continue to increase their focus on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, there is a social and business imperative to affect meaningful change through impactful DEI programs. ADP will introduce DEI Benchmarks to its people analytics solution, ADP DataCloud.
Consortium of Saxon University Libraries and Taylor & Francis Group Sign OA Books Deal
Consortium of Saxon University Libraries has signed an open access books agreement with Taylor & Francis Group for twelve months. This OA books agreement will cover a broad range of titles across all covered subjects by Routledge, CRC Press and our other imprints in the humanities, social sciences and behavioral sciences.
GigXR and Elsevier Unveil Remote Features for HoloHuman 3D Immersive Anatomy App
GigXR, a global provider of extended reality solutions for instructor-led teaching and training, and Elsevier announced expanded immersive learning capabilities for HoloHuman, the reality anatomy application that empowers instructors in providing students with ultra-realistic holographic learning environments.
Brave’s Non-Tracking, Browser-Based Video Conferencing Tool Is Out of Beta
Brave has launched a non-tracking video conferencing add-on out of beta — letting all users make and receive video calls straight from their browser. The tool, called Brave Talk, has been in beta testing since May last year. Now it’s been made open access — with Brave making a pitch to internet users of “privacy-focused” video conferencing.
Macmillan Learning, Cengage Group, Elsevier, McGraw Hill and Pearson, have obtained a preliminary injunction from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against 60 websites that sell illegal, unlicensed copies of eBooks.
Bloomberg introduced BQuant Enterprise, a public/private-cloud-based analytics platform for quantitative analysts and data scientists in the financial markets. This solution accelerates financial services firms’ ability to compete more aggressively by incorporating quantitative approaches to all aspects of their investment processes.
Taylor & Francis Launches Its First Open Research Publishing Platform with F1000
Taylor & Francis will launch its first Open Research Publishing platform for the Materials Science community, utilizing the publishing model, technology and knowledge pioneered by their open research publishing partner F1000, which they acquired in 2020.
Culture Amp is launching new capabilities to help organizations retain their best employees by reimagining their employee experience through increased transparency and additional coaching opportunities.
Wolters Kluwer Targets Health Equity with Best Care Everywhere
Wolters Kluwer, Health announced the launch of Best Care Everywhere, a mission-driven movement to build and strengthen health equity globally. Wolters Kluwer is committed to the belief that all people—everywhere—should receive the best care possible.
Refinitiv announces the launch of Wealth Practice 360, a solution designed to provide an efficient workflow and better insights on demand for wealth advisors. Wealth Practice 360 uses a set of services that aggregate client information from multiple sources to deliver a 360 view of an advisor’s book of business.
Deutsche Börse Launches Next-Generation Digital Post-Trade Platform
Deutsche Börse plans to launch a regulatory compliant, fully digital post-trade platform called D7, anchored in the recently introduced German digital securities law framework. The new cloud-backed and DLT-ready D7 platform will enable market participants to digitize their financial products.
Source: Outsell
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