Dr. Joan K. Lippincott, CNI’s long-time associate executive director, has informed me that she will be retiring effective January 1, 2020. It’s impossible for me to readily summarize her achievements and contributions in over 30 years of dedicated service to the library community. Joan joined CNI in the fall of 1990, soon after the organization's inception under the leadership of founding director Paul Evan Peters, and she has played a critical role in shaping CNI's trajectory since the earliest days. When I joined CNI as director in 1997, we immediately formed what I believe was an extraordinarily effective leadership team, and our partnership over the past two decades has been one of the great pleasures and most rewarding experiences of my career.

In addition to providing brilliant stewardship of CNI's operations, during her time at CNI, Joan has provided critical intellectual leadership for programs in teaching and learning, learning spaces, digital scholarship, and assessment. The author of countless articles, chapters, and reports, Joan was one of the founders of the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century conference, which is now going into its eight year. She is valued as an admired colleague, compassionate mentor, and trusted friend by so many throughout the CNI community and beyond.

I personally want to thank Joan for her contributions to CNI and to the community; we have all benefited – I most of all – from her insights, leadership and wise counsel. We will recognize her years of service during the CNI Fall 2019 Membership Meeting in Washington, DC, this December. But for now, please join me in thanking Joan, celebrating her accomplishments and legacy, and in wishing her all the best in retirement as she transitions to become associate director emerita. I expect that she will continue to be engaged in some of our ongoing programmatic work at CNI; more on this in future.

Diane Goldenberg-Hart, who currently serves as CNI's communications coordinator, has added the role of assistant director designate to her portfolio, and will assume operational responsibilities as CNI's assistant executive director at the start of 2020. Diane is well known to the CNI community; she’s been part of our organization for over 15 years, coming to us after various roles in the Yale University Libraries. Please join me in welcoming Diane to her new role at CNI.

For those who missed earlier announcements over the summer, here is your opportunity to register for the Designing Libraries Conference. We have a great roster of speakers and two valuable pre-conferences. Program information and links to the conference site are below. —Joan Lippincott, CNI

Registration nearly full for Designing Libraries VIII

Few spaces still open for early October conference at Georgia Tech

Proposals are now being accepted for project briefings to be presented at CNI’s Fall 2019 Membership Meeting on Dec. 9-10 in Washington, DC, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Anyone may propose a project briefing, including groups/individuals from non-member institutions and organizations.

Project briefings are typically 30-minute or one-hour sessions that focus on a discussion of a hot topic, or on a specific institutional/organizational project related to digital information; 30-minute sessions WILL BE PAIRED. A limited number of project briefings are accepted.

NEW THIS YEAR - “Short Updates” pilot: 1-hour session(s) comprised of a series of brief updates (approx. 8 minutes each, limited to 1 presenter per update) on new or ongoing projects, programs, or organizations that may have reported at CNI in the past. Contact Joan Lippincott, joan@cni.org, for questions about brief updates.

Proposals may be submitted via online form: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2019/project-briefing-proposals-f19 Deadline for submissions is Monday, October 7.

As many of you are aware, CNI has worked closely with the Learning Spaces Collaboratory over the years. This national colloquium promises to be stimulating and rewarding for those involved in planning all types of learning spaces. Registration information is linked below. —Joan Lippincott, CNI

Join us November 1 – 3, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri for the LSC National Colloquium that will be focusing on spaces for learning. If your campus is:

The ARL-CNI Fall Forum provides an opportunity to participate in a stimulating program and interact with colleagues on key issues. Please see below for information on registering and note the Tuesday, September 3 deadline. —Joan Lippincott, CNI

ARL-CNI Fall Forum: September 26, 2019 We encourage you to attend the Fall Forum on Thursday, September 26. This year’s ARL-CNI Fall Forum is designed to be a stimulating day of learning and engagement focused on the theme of Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux. The goal of the forum is to help us understand what research libraries are doing as catalytic leaders now and to discuss and recommend what more we need to do to contribute to our institutions, the research and learning ecosystem, and society. The opening keynote speaker will be the futurist Jaron Lanier , whose latest book is entitled Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now . We hope you will find new knowledge to take back with you to your institution. The program schedule is now available on the Fall Forum website and will be updated regularly as details are confirmed. September 3, 2019, is the deadline to register online for the Fall Forum. The registration fee is $300 for staff from ARL and CNI member institutions. Register for the Fall Forum Other Important Information ARL has a guest room block at the Washington Marriott Georgetown, located at 1221 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC. The rate is $309 per night plus taxes and fees. The deadline for room reservation is September 3, 2019. As the block can fill up before that date, making a reservation as soon as possible is advised. Please make your hotel reservations by using the Marriott’s online portal . Reserve Your Room If you have any questions about arrangements for either of these meetings, please contact Amy Bulgrien, assistant director of program coordination, amyb@arl.org amyb@arl.org?subject=re%3a%20invitation%20to%20the%202019%20fall%20association%20meeting%20and%202019%20arl-cni%20fall%20forum. If you have any questions about the programs, please contact Sue Baughman, deputy executive director, sue@arl.org sue@arl.org?subject=re%3a%20invitation%20to%20the%202019%20fall%20association%20meeting%20and%202019%20arl-cni%20fall%20forum.

About the Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in Canada and the US whose mission is to advance research, learning, and scholarly communication. The Association fosters the open exchange of ideas and expertise, promotes equity and diversity, and pursues advocacy and public policy efforts that reflect the values of the library, scholarly, and higher education communities. ARL forges partnerships and catalyzes the collective efforts of research libraries to enable knowledge creation and to achieve enduring and barrier-free access to information. ARL is on the web at ARL.org . Follow Us

This July, I was fortunate to be able to participate in the milestone 10th Assembly convened by Sage Bionetworks. This entire event was recorded, and the videos are now available linked to an excellent blog posting summarizing the goals of Sage and what took place at the meeting here

Sage Bionetworks

Sage Bionetworks is a trusted leader in data sharing and reuse, enabling a rapid acceleration in biomedical discoveries and the transformation of medicine.

I was part of the first panel, "Open Science Matters".

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

The National Academies are hosting a one-day workshop on Implementing FAIR Data for People and Machines on Wednesday, September 11 in Washington DC. They have a genuinely outstanding set of speakers and this should be a superb event. Full details at

Note that there is a modest registration fee.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

I was greatly saddened to hear of the death of former National Library of Medicine Director Dr. Donald Lindberg. Don was a genuine visionary and superb strategic leader who was responsible for enabling many of the key advances in both bio-informatics and public access to biomedical and health information as we know them today.

The announcement from the National Library of Medicine is here

Mourning the loss of former NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.

He was also a great friend to and supporter of CNI. In 2014 it was my privilege to be able to present Dr. Lindberg with the Paul Evan Peters award at our Spring meeting.

I'm pleased to be able to share this announcement about a new initiative that CNI has embarked upon jointly with our partners at the Association of Research Libraries and EDUCAUSE; I've spent a good deal of time planning this effort with my colleagues in those organizations over the past month and it's wonderful to see it launched! I think that the first phase -- identifying key landscape-changing technologies -- will be of great interest to the CNI community and I hope to be able to update progress on that via this list, and at our December 2019 and Spring 2020 Member meetings. Below is the full announcement about the initiative and its objectives.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and EDUCAUSE are working together to better understand how research libraries, as collaborative partners in the research and learning enterprise, can best advance research and learning during these times of significant changes in the production, dissemination, and reuse of digital content. The three partner organizations are focused on understanding how such technologies and emerging disciplines as data science, artificial intelligence, mobility and ubiquitous networking, cloud and ambient computing, augmented/virtual reality, and the internet of things are— and are not—fundamentally transforming the way research and learning occur. More specifically, the partners will focus on understanding the role research libraries are playing and need to play in this dynamic context. This project is organized in three phases over 18 months. It will engage experts, leaders and community members from research libraries, information technology, higher education, the research enterprise, and the three organizations. The project will develop a set of recommendations and possible actions for key stakeholders, the broader community, and the partner organizations to consider in response to findings related to the following questions: • Based on technologies considered most critical in research and learning, what knowledge and competencies do research library leaders and staff need? • What can research libraries do now to advance their knowledge and practice in these technologies given their current and potential impact on research and learning? What support is needed to do so? • How should research libraries remain strategically aligned with and capable of adopting digital innovations as collaborative partners in advancing research and learning? As a result of the recommendations, we will seek to create pathways that position research libraries to positively impact the research enterprise under dynamic digital conditions that continue to dramatically change our world.

I’m pleased to announce the availability of this new addition to the ELI 7 Things series. As Malcolm Brown states, it was a broad, complex, and challenging topic, and I enjoyed working with colleagues on producing this issue. —Joan Lippincott, CNI

A new ELI 7 Things publication “hit the stands” (at least the virtual ones) recently, and the topic is digital literacies. Interest in this topic has surged over the past several years, as measured by the ELI Key Issues survey : the topic was 13th in 2016 but ranks 4th in 2019.

This issue presented an interesting challenge: compress a complex topic like digital literacies into the 7 Things framework. As we state in the issue itself, digital literacy “..encompasses a range of skills and knowledge necessary to evaluate, use, and create digital in-formation in various forms. Digital literacies include data literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, and metaliteracy, as well as related capacities for assessing social and ethical issues in our digital world.”

There's a really useful report surveying all of the numerous efforts that are underway in open-source publishing platforms and how they fit together that's been released by MIT Press as part of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The report is called "Mind the Gap: A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms" and it's available at

The report announcement is at

The Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group has announced the date and location for its next meeting. I've been to a number of these over the years, and they are always very valuable.

The announcement is below.

Clifford Lynch Director, CNI

CNI is pleased to co-sponsor this compelling program along with the Association of Research Libraries. Registration is now open. Details are below.

ARL-CNI Fall Forum to Explore Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux

Registration is open for the 2019 Fall Forum to be hosted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) on Thursday, September 26, in Washington, DC. The theme of this year’s ARL-CNI Fall Forum is “Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux.” The 2019 forum’s goal is to help us understand what research libraries are doing as catalytic leaders now and to discuss and recommend what more we need to do to contribute to our institutions, the research and learning ecosystem, and society.

Those of you attending recent CNI meetings and Designing Libraries conferences may be aware of the impressive work undertaken at the library of the University of Calgary, under the auspices of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to work with researchers on interdisciplinary studies (for example, see the video linked from https://www.cni.org/topics/assessment/what-is-the-future-of-libraries-in-academic-research ) The December, 2019 symposium will build on that work, with contributions from additional institutions, to encourage other universities to adopt similar models. You can find more information from the links below. While registration is not yet open, those interested may wish to save this date and look for an announcement here when registration is available (or sign up for notification).

—Joan Lippincott, CNI

Save the Date: December 11, 2019 Critical Roles for Libraries in Today’s Research Enterprise A Symposium being held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. Research has changed: have libraries? Today many academic libraries are seeking ways to better align with current research practice and to engage as vital partners in campus research. The issues are critical, necessary changes are fundamental, and libraries are developing new means and partnerships to sustain relevance.

Held following the CNI Fall Membership Meeting, Critical Roles for Libraries in Today’s Research Enterprise is a one-day symposium created for librarians, research administrators, and technology professionals to identify responses to this challenge.

Clifford Lynch, CNI Executive Director, is pleased to share this announcement along with Jisc Chief Executive Paul Feldman:

Save the date for the Jisc and CNI conference

The Jisc and CNI conference brings together leading experts and influencers who support and collaborate with researchers employing, sharing and communicating digital research practices and outcomes from the UK, US and Europe.

The next Jisc and CNI conference will take place on 14-15 July 2020 in Bristol, UK.

Many institutions are concerned about the accessibility of content, and this report will provide an overview of how libraries are addressing this issue. Posting on behalf of LYRASIS. —Joan Lippincott, CNI

LYRASIS announces the release of a new study, Understanding the Landscape of Library Accessibility for Online Materials. The study was undertaken in an effort to map the landscape of accessibility policies and practices for online resources as managed by libraries and archives across the United States. The study can be accessed on the LYRASIS website at https://www.lyrasis.org/technology/Pages/Accessibility-Survey-Report.aspx .

Authored by Hannah Rosen, LYRASIS Scholarly Communication Specialist and Digitization Program Coordinator, and Jill Grogg, Strategist for the Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives team, the study is based on a survey conducted in early 2019 as a mechanism to better understand how (primarily academic) libraries within the United States are handling accessibility for their online content, and more specifically, where they stand in terms of policy and implementation.

For those of you with expertise in instructional technology, learning spaces, assessment, digital literacy, learning analytics, and other topics related to teaching and learning, EDUCAUSE is looking for proposal reviewers for its 2020 ELI annual meeting. I’ve found that this type of service is an interesting way to get a window into current projects and programs. Please see the link below to offer providing your services as a reviewer. —Joan Lippincott, CNI ———————————————

Greetings, The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) is seeking session proposal reviewers for its 2020 annual meeting. The dates for the reviewing period this year are from Sept 18 to Oct 2nd. Each reviewer will be asked to review 12-15 proposals. In addition to substantially contributing to the quality of the annual meeting sessions, reviewing proposals has two additional benefits:

Learning about leading work in the field; Learning what makes a proposal effective and persuasive and what does not, which is useful the next time you compose a conference proposal

Being a reviewer does NOT preclude your submitting your own proposals for the annual meeting.

I am truly delighted to announce that registration for Designing Libraries for the 21st Century VIII, hosted by Georgia Tech in Atlanta on October 6-8, 2019, is now open - see details below. We have an excellent line-up of speakers and topics for this conference, and a choice of pre-conferences: one includes tours of 3 Atlanta-area sites and the other uses a design workshop format to focus on making the case for a library space renovation.

The planning group of Tom Hickerson, U. Calgary, Catherine Murray-Rust and Ameet Doshi, Georgia Tech, Greg Raschke, NC State U., and myself, have worked hard to put together a program that we believe will highlight exemplars and trends in the field.

There is a cap on registration and the conference usually fills quickly, so I urge you to register soon if you would like to attend.

—Joan Lippincott, CNI

Dear cni-announce subscribers:

I know some of your institutions may be using Islandora and others may be looking into it. Posting this information on behalf of the Islandoracon organizers. —Joan Lippincott, CNI ——————————————— Registration is underway for Islandoracon, taking place October 7 - 11 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The discounted Early Bird rate has been extended from July 1st to July 6th.

For more information about the event, or to register, please visit our website: https://islandora.ca/camps/islandoracon2019

This year will mark the third time that the Islandora community has come together for a full conference, and the first time we're holding a conference after the release of Islandora 8. This week-long event consists of a day of in-depth "pre-conference" workshops, two days of regular main conference sessions, a day of multi-track 90-minute workshops, and a closing hackfest-style event where we can work together on projects to improve our shared open-source platform. The full schedule is available here: https://islandora.ca/camps/islandoracon2019/schedule

Many of you will be interested in this project and you have the opportunity for input at the ALA Conference in Washington, DC.

—Joan Lippincott, CNI ————— All – I am working on a Mellon Foundation funded grant to map digital scholarly communication infrastructure. This is a follow on the 2.5% Commitment. As part of this work we are looking for academic library deans/directors and/or AULs to participate in a number of focus groups to get their perspectives on the current state of this infrastructure and their willingness to invest in it. Information on the project can be found at: https://scholarlycommons.net/map/ and information on the focus groups can be found at:https://scholarlycommons.net/focus-groups/

We are currently looking to fill out to focus groups at ALA. They will be held on Monday June 24th at 8:30 AM and at 4 PM. To participate in the ALA groups sign up athttps://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080a49a9af2ca4f85-focus .

If you cannot be at ALA, there are other options for participation at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSenfYuecKolsWhC5hofPi5_RPWE-37t0DR40WAOlMRv_2Xtyg/viewform I would ask that you consider participating. And if you could forward this message to others who might be interest.