Washington, DC — Doctoral student Jen Liu and master’s student Jacob (Jake) Tompkins are the 2020 recipients of the Paul Evan Peters Fellowship for graduate study in library and information sciences. The fellowship was established to honor the memory of Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) founding Executive Director Paul Evan Peters; it recognizes outstanding scholarship and intellectual rigor, a commitment to civic responsibility and democratic values, and imagination.

Jen Liu is completing her second year in the PhD program in information science at Cornell University. She received a master's degree in tangible interaction design from Carnegie Mellon University and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. "The guiding tenet of my research," wrote Liu in her application essay, "is that a sustainable future is synonymous with an equitable future." She is using ethnographic fieldwork methods working with communities in the southeastern region of the U.S. along with co-design methodologies to engage with these communities to develop alternatives to "big" digital agriculture tools and technologies. Anticipated outcomes from her work will have direct implications for the design and development of future sustainable computing technologies by reframing how issues around social equity are fundamental to sustainability. "Jen Liu's research connects the fundamental role of the environment and an equitable and just future. Her creative and insightful approach engages communities that are often forgotten or marginalized in developing tools that address climate change in a meaningful and sustainable way," observed Krisellen Maloney, vice president for information services at Rutgers University, and a member of the fellowship selection committee. Steve Jackson, chair of Cornell's information science department, commented: "Jen is in the early stages of a research program that I believe will establish her as a major figure and leader in the information, computation and sustainability space.”

This year’s recipient of the master’s level fellowship, Jake Tompkins, is a student in the Master of Library and Information Science program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received a BS in actuarial science from Florida State University (FSU) and considers his formal training in mathematics and analysis important to his current interest, crisis informatics, in which information and communication technologies are used to respond to global emergencies. Tompkins is collaborating to develop a "rebel archive" that highlights the human rights contributions of incarcerated individuals and members of groups such as the Black Panthers and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. He is also documenting their unlawful treatment, including the threat of COVID-19 in prisons, by helping to build a data dashboard that maps the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in state and federal prisons across California as well as actions taken by prisoners (such as hunger strikes and other types of protests) in response to the lack of protection from the virus. In his application essay, Tompkins expressed the hope that this work will help elucidate "the historical and ongoing battle for human rights in the California prison system and demonstrate the lethal impacts this pandemic has had on vulnerable populations with limited agency to protect themselves." FSU Associate Dean Michael Meth wrote in his letter of recommendation that, "Jake is exactly the kind of person we ought to recruit into our profession and I expect great things from him in the future."

"These are superb choices from a very strong set of applicants; I continue to be deeply impressed by the wonderful range and diversity of their backgrounds, research and professional interests. I think that Paul would be both pleased and proud of these winners," affirmed CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch.

The Library of Congress Labs has just released a really excellent report on the prospects for machine learning in libraries prepared by Professor Ryan Cordell of Northeastern University. Here's a pointer to the LC Labs post announcing the report and providing some valuable context:

Machine Learning + Libraries: A Report on the State of the Field | The Signal

Digital collections in libraries are vast—and growing, as we continue to digitize cultural heritage materials and acquire new born digital collections.  At the same time, the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence has grown exponentially.  At LC Labs, we explore how technology can help fulfill the Library of Congress’s vision that “all Americans are …

Direct link to the report

https://labs.loc.gov/static/labs/work/reports/Cordell-LOC-ML-report.pdf

I just found out about a report that came out last month from the American Institute of Physics looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical sciences. This is another valuable data point in understanding what's happening to the research enterprise, and will perhaps also be new to others in the CNI community. The report is available at

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

During the Spring CNI Virtual Member meeting in April-May 2020, I was frequently struck by the numerous ways in which roughly thirty years of sustained, strategic investment by research libraries, and research universities more broadly (often in partnership with public and private funders) had enabled both teaching and learning and the research enterprise to continue (though imperfectly, to be sure) in the face of the sudden emergency of COVID-19. The most dramatic way to see this is to simply envision the pandemic emerging in 1990 rather than 2020.

Since then, I've worked with Mary Lee Kennedy at ARL to flesh out this observation a bit, with particular emphasis on research libraries and scholarly communication. Today we are making available a short document summarizing some of these investments. Note that we've not attempted to capture some of the other, closely related investments in areas such as high-performance computing and networking, or identity management where other organizational units have taken the lead. The document can be found at:

A Case for Continued Strategic Investments by Research Libraries to Advance Research and Learning — Association of Research Libraries

The internet emerged from the research and higher education community and changed the world. Research libraries were right there. Thirty years of strategic investment by research libraries, in partnership with the organizations that have led the internet’s development, has positioned higher education institutions to effectively (though, to be sure, imperfectly) sustain their instructional and research missions through the current pandemic, and to support a massive, unprecedented, international, ...

This document looks back over the past decades and takes the story up to the present time. I'm interested in the CNI communities views on where we should go from here, particularly in light of what we've learned in recent months. To this end, we are making available a short form for those who want to share their thinking on areas that still demand sustained strategic investment, areas where we have under-invested, or areas where large-scale strategic investment is no longer needed. This can be found at

Here's a very useful blog post that offers some survey data on how the COVID-19 shutdowns impacted faculty, based on work that Ithaka S+R did in May-June, following on some of the questions we examined in CNI's April Executive Roundtables on Research Continuity. It also briefly discusses their plans to revise these surveys in the Fall 2020 Semester.

See

What about Research? Scholarship and COVID-19 - Ithaka S+R

While there have been a number of research initiatives centered on supporting faculty in shifting to virtual instruction in light of the COVID-19

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

I’m very pleased to share this call for nominations for the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) 2020 Innovation Awards - more information about the program is available at https://ndsa.org/groups/innovation-awards/ .

CNI is an NDSA strategic partner.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

— Colleagues: Nominations are now being accepted for the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA ) 2020 Innovation Awards! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2020-ndsa-innovation-awards The NDSA award program was established in 2012 to recognize and encourage innovative achievement in the field of digital preservation stewardship. The awards highlight and commend creative individuals, projects, organizations, future stewards, and educators demonstrating originality and excellence in their contributions to the field of digital preservation. Awards are offered in the following categories: Individuals making a significant, innovative contribution to the digital preservation community. Projects whose goals or outcomes represent an inventive, meaningful addition to the understanding or processes required for successful, sustainable digital preservation stewardship. Organizations taking an innovative approach to providing support, guidance, advocacy, or leadership for the digital preservation community. Future stewards, especially students and early-career professionals, taking a creative approach to advancing knowledge and practice of digital preservation issues and concerns. Educators, including trainers and curricular endeavors, promoting innovative approaches and access to digital preservation through academic programs, partnerships, professional development opportunities, and curriculum development. As a diverse international membership organization with a shared commitment to digital preservation, the NDSA understands the importance of innovation and risk-taking in developing and supporting a broad range of successful digital preservation activities. Acknowledging that innovative digital stewardship can take many forms, eligibility for these awards has been left purposely broad. Anyone or any project or institution acting in the context of the above categories can be nominated for an award. Nominees do not have to be NDSA member institutions or individuals or project staff affiliated with member institutions, but must evidence innovative engagement with the theory and practice of long-term digital preservation stewardship at a level of national or international importance. Nominators similarly do not need to be affiliated with NDSA member institutions. Self-nomination is accepted and encouraged, as are submissions reflecting the needs and accomplishments of historically marginalized and underrepresented communities. Nominations will be accepted until Friday, September 4, 2019. In past years, prizes have been presented during the NDSA’s annual Digital Preservation conference. Given the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s event will take place in virtual form. Details about the conference, including the specific date of the award ceremony, have not yet been determined but will be announced as soon as possible. In these troubled times, it is especially important to take the time to recognize and laud exemplary activity. We encourage all members of the international digital preservation community to help us highlight and reward novel, risk-taking, and inventive approaches to the challenges of digital preservation by submitting nominations for worthy candidates at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2020-ndsa-innovation-awards . For more information on the details on awards from previous years, please visit https://ndsa.org/groups/innovation-awards/ . Please feel free to pass along this announcement to colleagues. NDSA Innovation Awards Working Group: Samantha Abrams, Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation Stephen Abrams, Harvard University (co-chair) Lauren Goodley, Texas State University Grete Graf, Yale University Kari May, University of Pittsburgh Krista Oldham, Clemson University (co-chair)

Recently I had the opportunity to catch up with colleagues from Protocols.io. I have followed the wonderful work that they have been doing for the last few years in providing a mechanism to document, share and manage experimental protocols, and I am sure many readers of this list are also familiar with this work. I was very interested to learn that their platform is now being used in a similar role for safety protocols, which are essential as we work to re-open research on campuses. You can see those here: https://www.protocols.io/groups/reentering-labs-post-covid19-shutdown

Protocols.io is putting on a very interesting free webinar July 15 at 9am PDT looking broadly as issues related to returning to campus labs:

University Panel: Post COVID-19 Procedures for Safely Returning to the Lab

Has your lab opened up or are you in the process of planning to open up? Are you looking for guidance, advice, and experience on reentering the lab under c...

They will also make a recording of the webinar available, as I understand it.

A few weeks ago, I shared information about the availability of the report "Life Cycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs, produced by a National Academies Committee that I had the pleasure of participating in. Members of the committee will be offering a briefing on this on July 20. There is no charge, but you'll need to register at

Forecasting Data Costs for Researchers, Funders, and Storage Providers Tickets, Thursday, August 13-Thursday, August 27, 2020  •  4 PM-5 PM UTC | Eventbrite

Join the National Academies for a webinar series on how to plan for life cycle data costs for researchers, funders, and storage providers.

For more about the work of the committee, see

Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data

This study will develop and demonstrate a framework for forecasting long-term costs for preserving, archiving, and accessing various types of biomedical data and estimating potential future benefits to research.

Videos are now available of Clifford Lynch’s webinar presentations discussing the Executive Roundtables from CNI’s Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting: What Happens to the Continuity and Future of the Research Enterprise? and New Strategies for Acquiring Learning Materials:

New Strategies for Acquiring Learning Materials: What We Heard at the Spring 2020 Executive Roundtable Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/427647915 YouTube: https://youtu.be/coU_p2v2i5o (written report is here: https://www.cni.org/go/new-strategies-for-acquiring-learning-materials)

What Happens to the Continuity and Future of the Research Enterprise: What We Heard at the Spring 2020 Executive Roundtable Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/426161269 YouTube: https://youtu.be/7SfuRzpAldc (written report is here: https://www.cni.org/go/what-happens-to-continuity-and-future-of-research)

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

Over the past year or so I have been fortunate to serve on the National Academies Committee on Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data. You can find more details about this work here

Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data

This study will develop and demonstrate a framework for forecasting long-term costs for preserving, archiving, and accessing various types of biomedical data and estimating potential future benefits to research.

Yesterday, the final report of the committee, "Lifecycle Decisions for Biomedical Data: The Challenge of Forecasting Costs" was released.While I may of course be biased, I think that it offers a valuable and somewhat novel view of data lifecycles, costs and management in biomedicine. I invite you to have a look at the executive summary, at a minimum. There will likely be some kind of online event summarizing the findings of the report in the coming weeks, and if so I'll share the information here.

Note that while the PDF is available for free download now, the final printed version of the report (and an updated final PDF) will be some time in preparation. Typically these are just minor editorial and formatting changes, however: the findings of the report are final.

I wanted to be sure the CNI community was aware of this important action; in the current emergency even more that ever, universal high quality broadband access is essential for many, many reasons. Our students rely on it.

This is an extract from a message from John O'Brien, the President of EDUCAUSE; note that the Association of Research Libraries was one of the organizations that signed onto the letter. The letter can be found at

"Last Friday, twenty-nine (29) higher education associations and organizations joined an EDUCAUSE letter to Congress  on student broadband access and research and education (R&E) broadband infrastructure. We want to ensure that policymakers understand these vital issues and address them in national decisions on emergency needs and the long-term digital divide that has contributed to them.

On March 30-31, 2020 as part of the CNI Spring virtual Member Meeting, we held two convening of an Executive Roundtable on strategies for acquiring instructional materials; this included both open educational resources and "inclusive access" type arrangements. It also discussed experiences in providing instructional materials support for the sudden transition to remote instruction that took place throughout higher education in March 2020 in response to COVID-19. The report from this Roundtable is now available at

I hope you find it helpful.

On Tuesday, June 9th, 2-3:00 ETD, I will be speaking about our findings from the Roundtables in a Zoom webinar "New Strategies for Acquiring Learning Materials: What We Heard at the Spring 2020 Executive Roundtable.” This session will allow a good deal of time for questions and discussion. All CNI member representatives, as well as all Spring 2020 meeting registrants, are invited to attend the live event; registration details were sent in mid-May. If you would like to attend but have not yet registered, please contact Beth Secrist (beth@cni.org). Please note that while my presentation will be recorded and made publicly available shortly after the session, Q&A and discussion will not be recorded.

The final videos from CNI’s Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting are available, including some short updates.

To see all videos produced by CNI, including all that have been released so far from the CNI Spring 2020 Virtual Membership Meeting, visit our video channels on YouTube (www.youtube.com/cnivideo ) and Vimeo (vimeo.com/channels/cni ).

Close of Virtual Meeting (Plenary) (Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/424665110 YouTube: https://youtu.be/P_rg9d7LFrk

Navigating Communal Rights for Digital Preservation and Open Access (Rachel Deblinger, Sharon Farb and Todd Grappone, University of California, Los Angeles) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/423491663 YouTube: https://youtu.be/5AhAneT0rpQ

New videos from CNI’s ongoing Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting are available. We’re in our final week with only a few more videos to follow.

To see all videos produced by CNI, including all that have been released so far from the CNI Spring 2020 Virtual Membership Meeting, visit our video channels on YouTube (www.youtube.com/cnivideo ) and Vimeo (vimeo.com/channels/cni ).

Web-Based Digital Maps and the Challenge of Sustainability (Jeremiah Trinidad-Christensen, Columbia University; Nancy Maron, BlueSky to BluePrint, LLC) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/423490617 YouTube: https://youtu.be/fJ8OtO9dNeU

When we made the decision to move the CNI Spring 2020 Member Meeting virtual, we were able to incorporate an additional Executive Roundtable on research continuity and COVID-19 (in addition to retaining the originally scheduled Roundtable, "New Strategies for Acquiring Learning Materials” - we are working on the report from that Roundtable now).

Research continuity is a critical and poorly explored issue that was somewhat overshadowed by the demands of the sudden pivot to remote instruction at many institutions. The demand to participate was unprecedented: we repeated the Roundtable four times between April 15 and April 24, with a wide range of institutional teams participating in the events.

The report summarizing what we heard at the Roundtable "What Happens to the Continuity and Future of the Research Enterprise?" and some of our analysis is now available online:

https://www.cni.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CNI-Research-Continuity-ER-Report-s20-Public-FINAL.pdf

A reminder that applications for PEP fellowships are due May 24:

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites applicants for the

2020 Paul Evan Peters Fellowship https://www.cni.org/go/pep-fellowship Applications due no later than May 24, 2020

Two fellowships will be awarded in 2020:

New videos from CNI’s ongoing Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting are available. To see all videos produced by CNI, including all that have been released so far from the CNI Spring 2020 Virtual Membership Meeting (https://www.cni.org/mm/spring-2020 ), visit our video channels on YouTube (www.youtube.com/cnivideo ) and Vimeo (vimeo.com/channels/cni ).

Crowd-Sourced Unlatching of Curricular Books (Mark G. Bilby, University of California, Fullerton) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/417526105 YouTube: https://youtu.be/ju0cEZVauQQ

Print to Petabyte: Creating Knowledge from Collection Information (Fenella G. France, Library of Congress) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/416514570 YouTube: https://youtu.be/gU1yR3mLR2A

Statistical Consulting in the Library (Jonathan Cain, University of Oregon) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/415795635 YouTube: https://youtu.be/EtDgNaTtvck

CNI is pleased to be a cooperating organization for the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) again this year.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the JCDL 2020 Organizing Committee has decided to bring together members of diverse digital library communities in an all-virtual conference with online sessions and discussions: JCDL 2020 will be held virtually, August 1-5, 2020.

Registration is now open: http://2020.jcdl.org/Registration.html

Early Bird registration ends July 1st.

New videos from CNI’s ongoing Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting are available. To see all videos produced by CNI, including all that have been released so far from the CNI Spring 2020 Virtual Membership Meeting (https://www.cni.org/mm/spring-2020 ), visit our video channels on YouTube (www.youtube.com/cnivideo ) and Vimeo (vimeo.com/channels/cni ).

Building Data Science Support Capacity through Graduate Fellowship Programs (Jeffrey C. Oliver, University of Arizona) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/414967145 YouTube: https://youtu.be/c-YJ_WgZuHs

Catalyzing Student Success: How to Center Digital Literacy, Access to Technology, and Interdisciplinary Communities of Practice in Innovative Library Spaces (Jennifer Nichols, University of Arizona) Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/414645011 YouTube: https://youtu.be/L21PoG-lDX0

Academic Library Response to Covid-19: Designing and Managing Real-Time Data Collection and Dissemination (Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, UIUC; Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, Ithaka S&R Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/414644543 YouTube: https://youtu.be/1i4_mUXCjlo

Many new videos from CNI’s ongoing Spring 2020 Virtual Meeting are now available:

COVID-19 Related: Technology Planning for Operational Continuity (Dhanushka Samarakoon, University of Miami) YouTube: https://youtu.be/H2B7pKoHcTE Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/412611311

Fostering a UX Culture across Campus (Rebecca Blakiston, University of Arizona) YouTube: https://youtu.be/zxzwJQHuewk Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/413469369

Empowering Data-Driven Research through an Open, Accessible Data Infrastructure (Jamie V. Wittenberg, Indiana University) YouTube: https://youtu.be/svf0zD438n0 Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/412231983