UC Berkeley Library

Seismica, a new Diamond Open Access journal in Seismology and Earthquake Science, launched in July 2022. One year into production, we have received 90 submissions, published 25 articles and have over 50 works in the pipeline. Seismica is an independent journal, designed and built by a global community of researchers with the aim of making scientific research freely available, with no publication or subscription fees.

Beyond traditional research articles, Seismica publishes an innovative set of peer-reviewed reports including fast reports, null results/failed experiments, software reports, and instrument deployment/field campaign reports. Seismica accepts papers within the very broad scope of fault slip and earthquake source phenomena, earthquake records, imaging the Earth, theoretical and computational seismology, beyond Earth-tectonic applications, techniques and instrumentation, earthquake engineering and engineering seismology, and earthquake education, community engagement, and other social science methods.

The new journal's philosophy was developed through continuous communication among broader community members and strives to be accessible, transparent, respectful, credible, and progressive. In the past year, Seismica has evolved both as a journal and a community dedicated to transparency in science, and supporting not not only open access articles, but also a fully open research process. Seismica addresses community needs by publishing public reviews along with the paper, promoting a fair and unbiased reviewing process while providing an insider look into reviewing that benefits early-career researchers; valuing time and expertise by crediting all contributors to a publication; encouraging preprint sharing; allowing authors to keep the copyright to their work; and helping authors share and promote their research once published.

The need for a Diamond Open Access journal and the necessity to share seismology research for broader community benefits is evident. The successful launch and growth of Seismica in the past year demonstrates that this model is responsive, inclusive and sustainable.

Seismica, a pioneering diamond open access journal in Seismology and Earthquake Science, launched in July 2022. Seismica is an independent journal supported by McGill University, designed and built by a global community of researchers with the aim of making scientific research freely available. Our international team of over 40 people includes disciplinary experts as well as specialists in open science and data; equity, diversity and inclusion; outreach and communication; and digital media and branding. Volunteers cover traditional editorial roles as well as the journal’s full-time management and operation (including technical support, copy editing, branding and communications). 

Now in its second year of publication, Seismica has evolved as both a journal and a community dedicated to transparency in science, and supporting not only open access articles, but also a fully open publication process. Beyond traditional research articles, Seismica publishes an innovative set of peer-reviewed reports including fast reports, null results/failed experiments, software reports, and instrument deployment/field campaign reports; we also require the sharing of related data and code. This initial year of growth has included the development of of our own reproducible workflows on the backend, the publication of a special issue in response to the Turkiye earthquakes of February 2023, and much work behind the scenes fostering community, mentoring new editors, opening peer review, investigating future funding and planning for sustainable succession. This presentation will demonstrate how Seismica contributors have responded to community needs and changing expectations in the field while gaining invaluable professional experience along the way.

This presentation was supported by a Presentation Grant from the Librarians Association of the University of California (LAUC).

The Research Organization Registry (ROR), a recent initiative by California Digital Library (CDL), Crossref, and DataCite, attempts to address the issue of institutional disambiguation through the development of a non-commercial, open, and interoperable system of unique persistent identifiers for research organizations.

The benefits of data sharing have been powerfully demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic: shared data made possible the rapid development of public health policies, treatment guidelines, therapies, and vaccines. And with the issuance of the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy and the OSTP memo on public access to research, funders are mandating that research data should be well-described and, whenever possible, readily discoverable to enable re-use.

FAIRsharing.org is a curated, searchable registry of metadata standards; databases and repositories; and funder and journal policies that are relevant to specific domains or types of data.

Throughout her long life, Portuguese visual artist/poet/scholar/filmmaker Ana Hatherly (1929-2015) reflected creatively and profoundly across diverse media. While her drawings and paintings have been deposited in museums such as the Gulbenkian Museum and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon, UC Berkeley is where she earned her PhD and where her published works have been archived. This precious collection, now mostly housed at The Bancroft Library is not large and does not include her personal papers nor very much manuscript  material, but it is the most complete of its kind on this side of the Atlantic. The collection of mostly short-run books published by independent presses serves as a textual archive  to one of the most prolific visual poets of the latter 20th century.

This lightning talk raises questions about the evolving importance of micro-collections and necessity for custodial acquisitions during an unprecedented age of austerity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Where would our archives and special collections be if we didn’t have the foresight to begin collecting and preserving potentially valuable materials outside of our institution’s collecting parameters when we did? The discussion also affirms the importance of intentional redundancy between circulating and non-circulating collections, and critically interrogates  privileged notions of  “special” and “rare” which have historically kept outsiders like Ana Hatherly out, and others in. 

For more information about Ana Hather's publications at UC Berkeley, please see: See also: https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/ana-hatherly

This presentation was given at RBMS 2022. The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) is a section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

Academic library workers often make use of systemic, bureaucratic, political, collegial, and symbolic dimensions of organizational behavior to achieve their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, but many are also doing the crucial work of pushing back at the structures surrounding them in ways small and large. Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion captures emerging practices that academic libraries and librarians can use to create more equitable and representative institutions. 19 chapters are divided into 6 sections:

Recruitment, Retention and PromotionProfessional DevelopmentLeveraging Collegial NetworksReinforcing the MessageOrganizational ChangeAssessment

Chapters cover topics including active diversity recruitment strategies; inclusive hiring; gendered ageism; librarians with disabilities; diversity and inclusion with student workers; residencies and retention; creating and implementing a diversity strategic plan; cultural competency training; libraries’ responses to Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action; and accountability and assessment. Authors provide practical guiding principles, effective practices, and sample programs and training.  Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion explores how academic libraries have leveraged and deployed their institutions’ resources to effect DEI improvements while working toward implementing systemic solutions. It provides means and inspiration for continuing to try to hire, retain, and promote the change we want to see in the world regardless of existing structures and systems, and ways to improve those structures and systems for the future.

Academic library workers often make use of systemic, bureaucratic, political, collegial, and symbolic dimensions of organizational behavior to achieve their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, but many are also doing the crucial work of pushing back at the structures surrounding them in ways small and large. Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion captures emerging practices that academic libraries and librarians can use to create more equitable and representative institutions. 19 chapters are divided into 6 sections:

Recruitment, Retention and PromotionProfessional DevelopmentLeveraging Collegial NetworksReinforcing the MessageOrganizational ChangeAssessment

Chapters cover topics including active diversity recruitment strategies; inclusive hiring; gendered ageism; librarians with disabilities; diversity and inclusion with student workers; residencies and retention; creating and implementing a diversity strategic plan; cultural competency training; libraries’ responses to Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action; and accountability and assessment. Authors provide practical guiding principles, effective practices, and sample programs and training.  Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion explores how academic libraries have leveraged and deployed their institutions’ resources to effect DEI improvements while working toward implementing systemic solutions. It provides means and inspiration for continuing to try to hire, retain, and promote the change we want to see in the world regardless of existing structures and systems, and ways to improve those structures and systems for the future.

Academic library workers often make use of systemic, bureaucratic, political, collegial, and symbolic dimensions of organizational behavior to achieve their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, but many are also doing the crucial work of pushing back at the structures surrounding them in ways small and large. Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion captures emerging practices that academic libraries and librarians can use to create more equitable and representative institutions. 19 chapters are divided into 6 sections:

Recruitment, Retention and PromotionProfessional DevelopmentLeveraging Collegial NetworksReinforcing the MessageOrganizational ChangeAssessment

Chapters cover topics including active diversity recruitment strategies; inclusive hiring; gendered ageism; librarians with disabilities; diversity and inclusion with student workers; residencies and retention; creating and implementing a diversity strategic plan; cultural competency training; libraries’ responses to Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action; and accountability and assessment. Authors provide practical guiding principles, effective practices, and sample programs and training.  Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion explores how academic libraries have leveraged and deployed their institutions’ resources to effect DEI improvements while working toward implementing systemic solutions. It provides means and inspiration for continuing to try to hire, retain, and promote the change we want to see in the world regardless of existing structures and systems, and ways to improve those structures and systems for the future.

Based on interviews with big data researchers at UC Berkeley as part of an Ithaka S+R project, this local report provides insights on researcher practices and challenges in six thematic areas: data collection & processing; analysis: methods, tools, infrastructure; research outputs; collaboration; training; and balancing domain vs data science expertise. The report makes several recommendations based on these findings. A summary post with the recommendations is available at https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/2021/10/04/big-data-as-a-way-of-life/.

How can we best train student employees for public service roles? At UC Berkeley, as in many academic libraries, a student employee is the first person that a user will see when entering the library; they are the “face of the library.” A positive interaction will set a positive tone for the user’s library experience, while a negative interaction may discourage the user from ever visiting the library again. As such, it is critical to prepare student staff with the competencies to engage positively with library users and feel confident in their roles. This paper shares a case study of a public services training piloted for Access Services student employees at UC Berkeley.