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Ms. Melissa Gustafson is the Electronic Resources and Copyright Librarian of Indiana State University.

IGI Global Announces the Winner of the 2018 Academic Librarian Sponsorship Award

By Sharlene Oong on Nov 19, 2018

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Recently, IGI Global awarded the winner of the Academic Librarian Sponsorship, Ms. Melissa Gustafson, an Electronic Resources and Copyright Librarian at Indiana State University. As a part of this award, Ms. Gustafson received the $500 stipend from IGI Global for the 2018 Annual Charleston Conference, based on her contributions to library information and science. At the conference, IGI Global had the opportunity to meet Ms. Gustafson, and reached out to her for feedback on the current trends in librarianship and e-resources.

What can academic librarians do to better prepare for what is most likely an uncertain future?

We need to diversify the services we are already trained to offer. There is already a movement, in that direction, among frontline librarians in areas such as scholarly communication; however, libraries can do better to elevate and market the unique qualifications we hold. We are information professionals who know how to identify, evaluate, and utilize information broadly across disciplines and platforms. This is a valuable skillset and much needed, in an era of fake news, information literacy or fluency needs, as well as information overload. Also, we can continue to champion open access and open education, as well as author’s rights during conversations with information providers and vendors, to address the needs of our users, and translate our subscription choices into lifelong learning, as well as democratized access to information.

As an Electronic Resources librarian, what qualities do you find most useful and valuable about IGI Global E-Resources and products?

I appreciate IGI Global's efforts to index content across database aggregators to provide greater discoverability for users. In addition, I am appreciative of the availability of COUNTER 4 statistics, no DRM, and the variety of acquisitions models (perpetual, current-year purchase, and annual subscription). I am encouraged to see that IGI Global is open to testing new pricing models for OA article processing charges (APCs) in conjunction with their InfoSci^®-Journals collection, and what that direction might mean for other information providers.

What are some ways librarians can be a neutral point between users and publishers, to help engage knowledge creators in the resource design process, and help publishers better understand the needs of creators?

Librarians understand the platforms and organization of information on a broad level, and are able to identify efficiencies in the creation and support of information systems for users. This happens most frequently during the reference interview, when they help users to identify their search syntax, or during the author's rights discussions, when librarians work with faculty to identify and understand favorable licensing terms for their work. Because users are at the heart of our work, librarians are bridges between information providers and users, in defining and identifying the design, and functionality needs for users in platform or interface construction.

Furthermore, librarians champion user needs in the licensing discussion with information providers, because we know the many different ways of users to access information resources. Librarians understand the need for interoperability between systems and providers, and can act as a neutral point here, as well as interacting with the information providers building systems. We can translate the needs of the users to the vendors, as well as the ways in which vendors populate the information ecosystem to users.

We would like to thank Ms. Gustafson for taking the time to speak with IGI Global, and once again congratulate her for being awarded the Academic Librarian Sponsorship for the 2018 Charleston Conference. We look forward to continuing to provide opportunities to libraries around the globe with the content and resources they need, as well as professional development opportunities needed to grow librarianship. For more information, on IGI Global’s Charleston Conference attendance, please click here.

Additionally, during the conference, IGI Global hosted a Neapolitan Panel Session, titled “Sustainable Open Access Approached: Benefits for Researchers, Librarians, and Publishers,” which covered IGI Global’s new InfoSci-Journals Open Access Fee Waiver (Offset Model) Program. For any library that invests in InfoSci-Journals, a database of over 24,000 peer-reviewed articles with over one million reference citations sourced from 185+ scholarly journals. Spanning 11 core subjects, this database is offered as low as ~~US$ 5,100~~ US$ 4,080*, IGI Global will match the library’s investment with a fund of equal value to go toward subsidizing the OA article processing charge (APC) for their faculty and staff when their work is submitted and accepted under OA into an IGI Global journal.** View the full session recording here, and learn more about InfoSci-Journals here.

About Ms. Melissa Gustafson

Ms. Melissa Gustafson is the electronic resources and copyright librarian, at Indiana State University, with over 15 years of experience in academic and special libraries. Previously, Ms. Gustafson was the electronic resources contact for the Battelle Library, and provided content support for the Library SharePoint portal. Ms. Gustafson has search experience in a variety of online bibliographic databases and citation management software, primarily in the fields of public health, social sciences, and transportation. In addition, Ms. Gustafson has supported multidisciplinary research by providing literature searches, database development, document delivery, and copyright clearance assistance. Ms. Gustafson received her MLIS from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of IGI Global.

Newsroom Contact
Caroline Campbell
Marketing Manager
ccampbell@igi-global.com
(717) 533-8845, ext. 144
www.igi-global.com/

*InfoSci-Journals $4,080 annual subscription price is only available for new InfoSci-Journals subscriptions and cannot be combined with most offers or multi-site use.

**The Open Access (OA) article processing charge will be waived after the student, faculty, or staff’s paper has been vetted and accepted into an IGI Global journal.

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