UC San Diego Library

The University of California (UC) Libraries Advancing Open Monograph Opportunities at UC public report provides a comprehensive strategic framework for advancing open access (OA) monograph publishing across the University. It recognizes that UC, as a global research leader, is uniquely positioned to influence the future of open monograph publishing by fostering sustainable, equitable, and high-impact models that align with the University’s mission of research excellence, equity, and public service. This report, which was developed through a multi-track open monographs initiative launched by the UC Libraries in Spring 2025, builds on the foundation of the 2018 Pathways to Open Access toolkit. While that earlier work analyzed open models, frameworks and strategies broadly, this 2025 analysis addresses the distinct challenges and opportunities associated with OA monographs and supporting UC authors at scale.

This white paper presents the methodologies, findings, and recommendations for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant RE-254898-OLS-23, “Expanding the Impact of the Conference of Academic Library Management: Identifying Gaps and Opportunities in Professional Development Support for Managers.”

In 2009, the original Blueprint for the Digital University set the stage for UC San Diego’s many accomplishments in cyberinfrastructure over the following decade. Many contemporary services and infrastructure used across campus have their origins in this document and subsequent projects. But research evolves, new needs arise, and new requirements are placed on researchers. Thus, campus leadership recognized the need for a new, updated Blueprint, helping point the way to the next generation of support.

To compile this new Blueprint, the Research Computing and Data Services Governance Committee engaged in a multi-year process to obtain expert input into the future of research and research technology, including consulting a faculty advisory group, surveying campus faculty, engaging in in-depth interviews with UC San Diego administrators such as the Executive Vice Chancellor and Vice Chancellor for Research, and conducting faculty focus groups.

This document outlines the priorities and directions our University must take to maximize new discoveries, increase funding, facilitate science, comply with regulatory demands and propel us forward in the decade to come.

The themes described in this document come from trends in research processes and workflow, and are not specific to UC San Diego. This document is being shared publicly with the hope that it will be of assistance to other institutions facing similar generational evolution in both the conduct of research and in their research support infrastructure.

During Winter 2020 - Summer 2021, the UC San Diego Library participated in the Ithaka S+R multi-institutional research study “Supporting Big Data Research”. The purpose of this study was to learn more about how researchers on the UC San Diego campus work with big data in their research and provide a set of recommendations to enhance and develop resources and services that will directly support and benefit this research. While definitions of “big data” may vary by discipline, we use the term here to refer to datasets large enough to be challenging to analyze within a traditional spreadsheet, or on a single computer. 

In-depth interviews with twelve UC San Diego big data researchers of various academic ranks and departmental affiliations were conducted, with questions focusing on various aspects of collecting and analyzing big data, infrastructure needs, research communication and data sharing, and training and support needs. Based on these interviews, we identify three primary themes for big data researchers on the UC San Diego campus: Curation, Open Science, and Training. For each of these areas, we offer a set of recommendations for the campus to better support existing big data research at UC San Diego, as well as develop capacity to support future big data initiatives.

The University of California, San Diego is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), and was undergoing review to reaffirm accreditation during the library’s rubric project. Since the university’s previous review in 2010, WSCUC has introduced information literacy as a core competency to be included in “an integrated course of study of sufficient breadth and depth to prepare…[students] for work, citizenship, and life-long learning” (WSCUC, 2013). Additionally, “for each core competency, the institution may set a specific level of performance expected at graduation and gather evidence of the achievement of that level of performance (which can be based on sampling) using the assessment methods of its choice” (WSCUC, 2013). Information literacy instruction and assessment has long been at the core of academic library services, so it made sense for the library to partner with campus to help set the standard of performance expected of undergraduate students for information literacy.

Within the same 2010-2020 timeframe, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) replaced their long-standing Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) with the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016). However, the WSCUC’s 2013 handbook mentions the use of Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) VALUE rubrics, and the Information Literacy VALUE Rubric (n.d.) is based on the now-outdated ACRL Standards. Therefore, UC San Diego librarians needed to find a way to align the new accreditation core competencies with their new professional standards. To do so, a library task force combined the two documents by mapping the ACRL Framework onto the existing structure of the AAC&U rubric. However, there were several aspects of the ACRL Framework that did not directly relate to the AAC&U rubric, so the task force made two significant additions: 1) when the knowledge practices or dispositions described in the ACRL Framework were more basic or foundational than the “Benchmark” (i.e., scoring a 1) category on the rubric, the task force included the additional column of “Foundation” (i.e., scoring a 0) to indicate that without this fundamental knowledge, a learner would have difficulty reaching the “Benchmark,” and 2) when the knowledge practices or dispositions described in the ACRL Framework did not fit into the pre-existing rubric rows (i.e., labelled with the ACRL Standards), the task force found that adding the row “Understand How Information is Organized” would encapsulate the remaining, uncategorized knowledge practices and dispositions of the ACRL Framework.

The UC San Diego Library’s ultimate goal for this combined rubric is to provide the foundation for creating an in-house online database that instruction librarians can use to create appropriate information literacy learning outcomes for their workshops or courses, paving the way for designing deep learning and creating appropriate formative and summative assessments.

On October 16-17, 2018, University of California (UC) libraries hosted a working forum in Berkeley, California entitled “Choosing Pathways to Open Access” (“CP2OA”) (see https://cp2oa18.com/). Sponsored by the University of California’s Council of University Librarians (“CoUL”), the forum was designed to enable North American library or consortium leaders and key academic stakeholders to engage in action-focused deliberations about redirecting subscription and other funds toward sustainable open access (“OA”) publishing.

This report was prepared by members of the forum’s Planning Committee1 as a way to update CoUL on forum outcomes, and to synthesize these outcomes into recommendations for further collective (UC multi-institutional) action to advance OA. The recommendations reflect the opinions of the report drafters; they are not an official statement by CoUL, nor should publication of this report signify CoUL’s endorsement of our recommendations. We (the Planning Committee) instead hope that CoUL will consider the recommendations in due course, particularly as some of them reflect efforts already underway within various UC libraries.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary study designed to examine the feasibility of conducting research into the learning outcomes associated with research consultation between reference librarians and university students. The researcher studied the teaching taking place at an academic library reference desk and assessed the student’s ability to apply what was taught to a new information need. The results indicate that participant awareness of library resources increased and their skill in searching online databases improved. Although participants demonstrated greater skill in identifying and obtaining useful information, they were unable to demonstrate an increased ability to assess the quality of the information acquired. The paper demonstrated that it is both possible and useful to assess the learning taking place at academic library reference desks.