Scholarly Communication

A primary role of a research library is to offer their users the most efficient means of accessing to and preserving of the globally accumulated scholarly knowledge in their field of interest.

The present system of scholarly communication is far from ideal, and LIBER will support activities that harness the opportunities offered by modern technology to create improvement. During the period 2007-2010, LIBER will implement the following actions:

1. As an early supporter of the Open Access movement, and having signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in 2005, LIBER will continue to support this and future approaches to the improvement of access to scholarly literature.
2. Through reciprocal representation on the LIBER and SPARC-Europe Boards, LIBER will continue to work closely with SPARC Europe in helping to develop its agenda and activities in the pursuit of change in the scholarly communications market, the support of competition, and the encouragement of new publishing models (in particular, open access models) that better serve the international researcher community.
3. LIBER will continue actively to support the CERN Workshops on Innovations in Scholarly Communication held in Geneva and will play a major role in organising the next Workshop planned for 2009; and the Open Scholarship meetings, in which LIBER plays a major organising role, the second Workshop of which will be held in Southampton in 2008.
4. LIBER will work with the Frankfurt Group and EBLIDA and the European Commission to find a means of lowering the effects of the level of VAT on electronic publications.
5. LIBER will seek closer participation and the involvement of LIBER member institutions with European projects such as the DRIVER (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research) Project.
6. LIBER will seek to stimulate debate among its membership on issues to be resolved in the field of scholarly communications.

LIBER's Access Division works closely with a number of European partners to deliver Workshops which deal with emerging Open Access issues. The CERN Workshops on Innovations in Scholarly Communication are chaired by the Chair of the Access Division and provide a premier European focus for debate and dialogue with colleagues, including those from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library.

• OAI6 Workshop in 2009

The OAI5 Workshop in 2007 was the most successful of the series to date.

• Papers and Posters from the OAI5 Workshop, 18-20 April 2007

Open Scholarship is a companion series of Workshops, also chaired by the chair of the LIBER Access Division. These are based in the University of Glasgow and concentrate upon Open Access repositories. The first in the series was held on 18-20 October 2006 entitled Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories .

• Papers and Presentations from Open Scholarship 2006

In matters concerning Scholarly Communication, the LIBER Access Division works closely with SPARC Europe, and the Division has membership on the SPARC Europe Board. SPARC Europe is an alliance of European research libraries, library organizations, and research institutions advocating change in the Scholarly Communications process.

• SPARC Europe

E-science

STEERING COMMITTEE ON SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION (SCSC) 

Current members of the Working Group on e-Science are:

• Chair, Birte Christensen Dalsgaard, Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Secretary, Dafne Jansen, Utrecht University Library, The Netherlands

Should you be interested in becoming a member of this Working Group, please send an email to Bas Savenije at bas.savenije@kb.nl.

PRIORITIES FOR 2010-2012

E-science, primary data, innovative research work flows, 2010-2012

LIBER’s engagement in e-science will focus on educational and policy roles, and
on strategic partnerships. The Steering Committee will prepare a work programme for the 2010-2012 period that will be presented in a Workshop to be organised in the autumn this year. Moreover, this workshop should provide answers to the following questions:

• definition of e-science, e-research and other relevant concepts
• description and analysis of trends
• identification of opportunities for research libraries (new products and services): involvement in innovative scholarly communication workflows
• creation of discovery and management systems for digital (primary) data
• preservation of, permanent access to and sharing of digital (primary) data and the role for institutional repositories
• description of the skills needed for information professionals and how they can be part of distributed (virtual) research team
• impact on library infrastructures and resources
• impact on the nature of licensing agreements
• recommendations on strategies for research libraries

Open Access

STEERING COMMITTEE ON SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION (SCSC) 

Working Group on Open Access

PLEASE NOTE that the following agreement has been made with the SPARC Europe Board of Directors: 

"Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding, SPARC Europe will undertake all European activity on Open Access on behalf of both organizations and such activity will be badged jointly as work by SPARC Europe and LIBER. In recognition of this partnership, the Executive Director of SPARC Europe will be a member of the LIBER Steering Committee on Scholarly Communication. There is, therefore, no need for a LIBER Working Group on Open Access".

PRIORITIES FOR 2010-2011

• develop and promote models (best practice) for an OA policy for HE institutions and funding agencies (article for LIBER Quarterly in preparation)
• promote and develop international co-operation for repositories and their infrastructure together with COAR
• collect and distribute best practice for repository tools together with SPARC Europe
• promote the awareness and use of OA-friendly licenses, such as the licence to publish and licence to deposit developed by SURF together with SPARC Europe
• continue taking a leading role in the CERN Workshops on Innovations in Scholarly Communication in Geneva
• continue to develop the DART-Europe portal as a principal gateway to European OA research theses
• organize a workshop together with Knowledge Exchange about economic implications of Open Access

Digitisation Workshop Series

Issues related to the digitisation of content in Europe’s research libraries was previously supported by the LIBER Accession Division. The first workshop within the Digitisation Series was held in Copenhagen in October 2007. 95 delegates from 23 countries participated.

For photos, presentations, podcasts and reports of the 2007 Digitisation Workshop, please click here.

In the course of discussions following the workshop, it became clear that the European library community had recommendations that they wished to make to the European Commission in order to help direct the future course of European digitisation activity. LIBER and EBLIDA made a submission to Commissioner Viviane Redding concerning these recommendations on 8 January 2008.

NUMERIC

• Developing a statistical framework for measuring the progress made in the digitisation of cultural materials and content, Study deliverable №8: Study Report: Study findings and proposals for sustaining the framework, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), No 1 Croydon, CR0 0XT, United Kingdom, May 2009 (Main Text | Appendices)
  

LIBER cooperates with the Digital Library Federation (DLF) and OCLC in order to help coordinate the production of a global register of digital masters. Libraries who create digital masters can upload their metadata records to EROMM, the European Register Of digital and Microfom Masters. Once uploaded in EROMM, records will also be loaded into the global Register of Digital Masters (RDM).

Working Group on Digitisation and Preservation

STEERING COMMITTEE ON DIGITISATION AND RESOURCE DISCOVERY (SCDRD) 

Working Group on Digitisation and Preservation

Current members of the Working Group on Digitisation and Preservation are:

• Alojz Androvic, University Library in Bratislava
• Adam Sofronijevic, University library ''Svetozar Markovic'', Serbia
• Andres Kollist, Academic Library of Tallinn, Estonia
• Christina Friström, Lund University Library, Sweden
• Christy Henshaw, Wellcome-UCC Library, UK
• David Coppoolse, Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek Antwerpen, Belgium
• Dr Jutta Weber, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Germany
• Dr Markus Brantl, Bavarian State Library, Germany
• Eva Fønss-Jørgensen, Århus Statsbiblioteket, Denmak
• Frédéric Blin, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg, France
• Frédérique Flamerie, Bibliothèque universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie, France
• Frode Bakken, Telemark University College, Norway
• Gass Cécile, Bibliothèques & Archives, Université de Bruxelles, Belgium
• Ianko López, Consorcio Madroño, Spain
• Jeannette Frey, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire Lausanne, Switzerland
• John Tuck, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
• Krister Östlund, Uppsala University Library, Sweden
• Liliane Regamey, Swiss National Library, Switzerland
• Lone Gyldendal Stefansen, The Royal Library, Denmark
• Magdalena Getler, BBC Information & Archives, UK
• Majlis Bremer-Laamanen, National Library of Finland, Finland
• Martin Moyle, UCL (University College London), UK
• Milan Ojstersek, University of Maribor
• Mats Danielsson, Umeå university Library, Sweden
• Mike Mertens, RLUK, Research Libraries UK
• Paolo Sirito, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
• Patricia Methven, King's College London, UK
• Petr Žabička, Moravian Library in Brno, Czech Republic
• Robert Zepf, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Germany
• Silvia Gstrein, University and Regional Library of Tyrol, Austria
• Tiina Ison, National Library of Finland, Finland
• Márta Virágos, Debrecen University and National Library, Hungary

Working Group on Europeana

STEERING COMMITTEE ON DIGITISATION AND RESOURCE DISCOVERY (SCDRD)

Working Group on Europeana

Current members of the Working Group on Europeana are:

• Markus Brantl, Bavarian State Library, Germany
• Eva Fønss-Jørgensen, Århus Statsbiblioteket, Denmark
• Frédéric Blin, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg, France
• Frédérique Flamerie, Bibliothèque universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie, France
• Gass Cécile, Bibliothèques & Archives de l'ULB, France
• Gunilla Wiberg, Lund University Library, Sweden
• Ianko López, Consorcio Madroño, Spain
• Jeannette Frey, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire Lausanne, Switzerland
• John Tuck, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
• Krister Östlund, Uppsala University Library, Sweden
• Lone Gyldendal Stefansen, The Royal Library, Denmark
• Magdalena Getler, BBC Information & Archives, UK
• Martin Moyle, UCL (University College London), UK
• Mike Mertens, Research Libraries UK (RLUK), UK
• Milan Ojstersek, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Mats Danielsson, Umeå university Library, Sweden
• Patricia Methven, King's College London, UK
• Petr Žabička, Moravian Library in Brno, Czech Republic
• Robert Zepf, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Germany
• Silvia Gstrein, University and Regional Library of Tyrol, Austria
• Tiina Ison, National Library of Finland, Finland

Working Group on Heritage Collections

STEERING COMMITTEE ON HERITAGE COLLECTIONS AND PRESERVATION (SCHCP) 

Working Group on Heritage Collections (Joint Working Group with CERL)

Current members of the Working Group on Digitisation and Preservation are:

• Chair, Chris Banks, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
• Secretary, Jutta Weber, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Germany
• Members
  • André Bouwman, Curator of Western Manuscripts, Special Collections Division,
    Leiden
  • Richard Ovenden, Keeper of Special Collections and Associate Director, Oxford
  • Zdenek Uhlír, National Library of the Czech Republic
  • Monique Hulvey, Database manager Rare Books and Special Collections, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, France
  • Björn Dal, Head of Cultural Heritage Collections, Lund University Library, Sweden
  • Joan Gómez Escofet, Univesitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
  • Hélène Richard, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Departement des Cartes et
    Plans, France

Working Group on Preservation and Digital Curation

STEERING COMMITTEE ON HERITAGE COLLECTIONS AND PRESERVATION (SCHCP) 

Working Group on Preservation and Digital Curation

Current members of the Working Group on Preservation and Digital Curation are:

• Chair, Dennis Schouten, Acting Head Special Collections, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
• Secretary, Eva Wuyts, Coördinator Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek, Belgium
• Members
  • Christiane Baryla, Director IFLA-PAC, BnF Paris, France
  • Frédéric Blin, Head of Heritage Collections and Preservation, Digitisation Coordinator, National and University Library of Strasburg, France
  • Majlis (Majken) Bremer-Laamanen, Director of the National Centre for Preservation and Digitisation, National Library of Finland, Finland
  • Els van Eijck van Heslinga, Program Manager International e-Depot, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
  • Caroline Peach, Head of Preservation Advisory Centre, British Library, UK
  • Mari Siiner, Head of Preservation and Conservation Department, National Library of Estonia, Estonia
  • Stefan Strathmann, Head Research and Development Department (RDD), SUB Göttingen, Germany
  • Giuseppina Vullo, Preservation Research Fellow (DL.org), HATII, University of Glasgow, UK
• Advisory, Ingeborg Verheul, Communications and Services Director IFLA

LIBER Groupe des Cartothécaires | Map Expert Group

Under the Association, each Professional Division was entitled to establish Expert Committees to assist with its work.

The LIBER Groupe de Cartothécaires was set up under the LIBER Collection Development Division.

The LIBER Groupe des Cartothécaires 2008-2010 is composed of:

Ms Helène Richard (Chairman)

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Departement des Cartes et Plans, 58 Rue Richelieu, Paris CEDEX 02, F-75084 France, T: +33 153 798 369, F: +33 153 798 361, E: helene.richard@bnf.fr

Mr John N Moore (Secretary)

Physical Sciences and Map Librarian, Glasgow University Library, Hillhead Street, Glasgow, G12 8QE Scotland, United Kingdom, T: +44 1413 306 749, E: J.Moore@lib.gla.ac.uk

MEMBERS

• Ms Renata Solar, Kartograska in Slikovna Zbirka, Narodna in Univerzitetna Knjiznica, Turjaska 1, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia, T: +38 612 001 159, F: +38 614 257 293, E: renata.solar@nuk.uni-lj.si
• Ms Lucyna Szaniawska, Zaklad Zbiorow Kartograficznych, Biblioteka Narodowa, al. Niepodleglosci 213, Warszawa, PL 00 973, Poland, T: +48 226 082 714, E: lucyna-szaniawska@wp.pl
• Mr Wouter Bracke, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van Belgie, Afdeling Kaarten en plans, Keizerslaan 4, Bruxelles, 1000 Belgium, T: +32 2 519 5743, F: +32 2 519 5742, E: wouter.bracke@kbr.be

This year, the LIBER Groupe des Cartothécaires will hold its annual conference from 15 to 19 June 2010 in Tallinn, Estonia. For further information visit http://www.nlib.ee/gdc or the Group's URL at http://liber-maps.kb.nl/intro.htm.

LIBER Manuscript Librarians Expert Group

Under the Association, each Professional Division was entitled to establish Expert Committees to assist with its work.

The LIBER Manuscript Librarians Group was set up under the LIBER Collection Development Division. It is composed of:

Dr André T Bouwman (Chairman)

Curator of Western Manuscripts, Special Collections Division, Leiden University Library, 27 Witte Singel, PO Box 9501, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands, T: +31 71 5272 853, F: +31 71 527 2836, E: a.t.bouwman@library.leidenuniv.nl

Dr Jutta Weber (Secretary)

Stellvertr. Leiterin der Handschriftenabteilung, Leiterin des Referats Nachldsse und Autographen, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Potsdamer Str. 33, D - 10785 Berlin, Germany, T: +49 30 266 2844, Fax: +49 30 266 2842, E: jutta.weber@sbb.spk-berlin.de

MEMBERS

• Ms Michèle Sacquin, Conservateur en chef au Département des manuscrits, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris, France, T: +33 01 53 798 927, E: michele.sacquin@bnf.fr
• Elissaveta Moussakova, Head of the Manuscripts and Old Printed Books Department, St Cyril and St Methodius National Library, Sofia, 88 Vasil Levski Blvd., 1037 Sofia, Bulgaria, T: +359 2 988 2811, F: +359 2 843 5495, E: musakova@nationallibrary.bg
• Dr Francesca Niutta, Responsabile Fondi manoscritti e rari, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Viale Castro Pretorio 105, I - 00185 Roma, Italy, T: +39 06 498 9476, F: +39 06 445 7635, E: relint@bnc.roma.sbn.it
• Mr Ad Leerintveld, Keeper of Modern Manuscripts, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, PO Box 90407, NL-2509 LK The Hague, The Netherlands, T: +31 70 314 03 20, E: Ad.Leerintveld@kb.nl
• Ms Valentina Longo, Responsabile Collezioni Orientali, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Viale Castro Pretorio 105, I-00185 Roma, Italy, T: +39 06 498 9295, F: +39 06 445 7635, E: est@bnc.roma.sbn.it

The Fourth LIBER Manuscripts Librarians Group Conference will be held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Rome, in May 2010. For further details as they are published, please visit the Group's URL at http://liber-manuscripts.kb.nl/.

Leadership Development

STEERING COMMITTEE ON ORGANISATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES (SCOHR) 

The current members of the Working Group on Leadership Development are:

• Chair, Julien Roche, Bibliotheque universitaire - SCC, Universite Lille 1, France
• Secretary
• Committee Members
  • Raymond Bérard, ABES - Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur, France
  • Hans Geleijnse, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
  • Ellis Sada, Biblioteca Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
  • Deborah Shorley, Imperial College London, UK
  • Paul Soetaert, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek, The Netherlands
  • Michael von Cotta Schonberg,University of Copenhagen, Denmark

  PRIORITIES FOR 2010-2012

  Changes in the organization, development, and service portfolio of libraries have to be underpinned by staff development and leadership development activities accordingly. It would be advantageous if LIBER could be a node in international professional exchange,
  internship, organization of staff exchanges, international mentorship and professional
  education in general.

  We would like to take the following approach (International Leadership Development Programme):

  • Make a scan of professional development programmes for librarians in European countries;
  • Get a clear view on ideas and experiences of various professional colleagues on this matter based on the various local and national leadership development programmes that are currently running. What can we learn from these experiences?

  Based on these discussions a pilot project could be set up. A start could be made at the LIBER, Barcelona conference in 2011 with a mini seminar or pilot workshop for high potentials could be organized for 15–20 people, possibly in cooperation with the International Ticer school and some national library schools.

  This pilot should be evaluated and a more comprehensive programme could be developed.

Organisation and Skills

STEERING COMMITTEE ON ORGANISATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES (SCOHR) 

Current members of the Working Group on Organisation and Skills are:

• Chair, David Aymonin, EPFL-SISB, Switzerland
• Secretary,
  • Raymond Bérard, ABES - Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur, France
  • Deborah Shorley, Imperial College London, UK
  • Paolo Sirito, Biblioteca Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy

  PRIORITIES FOR 2010-2012

  Keeping track of organizational changes in libraries and changes in skills and competences. Based on research and professional discussions on these topics, the working group will aim at producing recommendations for research libraries in Europe. Topics to be covered are:

  • What new skills are required to perform the tasks of today and tomorrow?
  • How do libraries in different parts of Europe deal with this need?
  • How do we recruit staff and can we learn from each other?
  • Is it possible to identify a set of basic criteria for the recruitment of library directors which could be used locally in discussions with University management?
  • How are organizations developing in view of the new tasks and skills required?
  • Do these changes affect organizational structures?

Quality Assessment and Benchmarking

STEERING COMMITTEE ON ORGANISATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES AND STEERING COMMITTEE ON LIBER SERVICES  

The current members of the Joint Working Group on Quality Assessment and Benchmarking are:

• Chair, Ronald Schmidt, Hochschulbibliothekszentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen, Cologne, Germany
• Secretary
• Committee Members
  • David Aymonin, EPFL-SISB, Switzerland
  • Marc Martinez, Bibliothèque INRP/Diderot, France

• Benchmarking
• Statistics
• LibQual+
• Other tools

Senior managers in universities are taking a greater interest in libraries and their performance than ever before but the information is not always correct and the view of the library is not really up-to-date. Although the situation will differ from country to country, libraries would do a good job if they would be able to communicate better about their performances and added value both to their users and to the senior management of the university.

In the past few years, LIBER has put a lot of emphasis on LibQual+ and stimulated the translation of this programme developed for ARL libraries into other languages. It is important to get a clear picture on the use of LibQual+. How has it developed in Europe in the last few years? Where is it used? How many libraries are involved? The aim will be to identify key indicators, identify existing resources for data from library statistics and develop a crosswalk to make these existing data comparable between countries where there are libraries in LIBER.

Carry out a survey of organizational changes in European research libraries. The aim would be for LIBER to offer a framework on how these statistical data can be compared and offer libraries tools to compare themselves with other LIBER libraries. This could provide important input for a SWOT analysis of the library and moreover for the communication with the senior
management of the organisation.

The experience of the BIX model that is being used in German Library Statistics can be taken into account. Moreover, it is key to connect this work on quality measurement for libraries with the process of creating indicators in Europe for universities. It would be very important that the input of LIBER as the association of European research libraries in this area would be taken into account.

A workshop on these issues should be organized in due course. A plan of action has to be defined.

LIBER Architecture Expert Group

STEERING COMMITTEE ON LIBER SERVICES (SCLS)

Chair, Ulrich Niederer, ZHB Luzern, Switzerland

Current members of the LIBER Architecture Expert Group are:

• Alessandro Bertoni, Universita Ca’Foscari di Venezia, Italy
• Marie-Francoise Bisbrouck, SCD Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris V), France
• Graham Bulpitt, Kingston University London, UK
• Inken Feldsien-Sudhaus, Universitätsbibliothek, Technische Universität Hamburg, Germany
• Martin Hallik, University of Tartu Library, Estonia
• Ewa Kobierska-Maciuszko, University of Warsaw Library, Poland
• Steen Bille Larsen, The Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Lisbeth Mantel, TU Delft Library, The Netherlands
• Philippe Marcerou, Bibliotheque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne, France
• Elmar Mittler, CERL
• Sylvia van Peteghem, Ghent University, Belgium
• Marta Virágos, University and National Library, University of Debrecen, Hungary
• Araceli Sanchez-Piñol de Anta, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Spain

LIBER Security Network

STEERING COMMITTEE ON LIBER SERVICES (SCLS) 

The Steering Committee invites colleagues from LIBER Libraries to join the LIBER Services Working Groups. Should you be interested in becoming a member, please send an email to Marta Virágos at: marta@lib.unideb.hu.

Library Passport

STEERING COMMITTEE ON LIBER SERVICES (SCLS) 

Quality Assessment and Benchmarking

STEERING COMMITTEE ON LIBER SERVICES AND STEERING COMMITTEE ON ORGANISATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES

The current members of the Joint Working Group on Quality Assessment and Benchmarking are:

DART-Europe E-Theses portal

The LIBER Access Division developed a one-stop portal to the full-text of European research theses, to give greater visibility to this important output from European universities and to aid researchers gain access to this material.

• DART-Europe portal
• DART Europe partnership

LIBER and DRIVER have agreed to collaborate to investigate the delivery of the full-text of research theses from European universities via the emerging European repository network (see the Memorandum of Understanding between LIBER and DRIVER).