Schedule for ARL Fall Forum 2015

This year ARL founded an annual keynote lecture at the Fall Forum in memory of long-time ARL staff member Julia C. Blixrud. The Fall Forum embodies Julia’s passion for ideas, breadth of expertise, and collegiality. Each year, the lecture awardee will be an individual who is innovative and active in areas of interest to the ARL community.

The dramatically shifting landcape of scholarly communication and the increasing financial pressure on academic publishing in the humanities have prompted two Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded studies to explore the viability of a subvention funding system at three major research universities. Indiana University and the University of Michigan—both with university presses—and Emory University evaluated the implications of an emerging model for humanities publishing in which funds are given by universities and colleges directly to faculty authors to “shop” their academic books among participating non-profit publishers. In this presentation, panelists will discuss what is at stake, the research conducted at each institution, and the recommendations drawn from each study.

Originally an outgrowth of scientific and engineering research, the cyberinfrastrucure of networks, data, repositories, and tools has increasingly been used to pursue digital scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. Humanities computing began decades ago, while more recent work using databases, photo analysis, digital imagery, and GIS visualizations is promoting exciting new research in the social sciense. This panel will discuss such efforts in the light of changing the form of the scholarly record and scholarly communication, in particular new forms of collaboration on campus and between institutions. Speakers will talk about scientific projects involving spatial analysis and visualization, the creation of tools as part of the digital scholarship process and as an intellectual endeavor in its own right, and as part of collaborative workshops and teaching. This panel will also discuss the ways that digital scholarship in the social sciences requires the library as a partner and the need to build a network across campus, as well as part of programs that are international in scope and require partners beyond research institutions.

The Trans-Atlantic Platform is a collaboration among major research funders in Europe and the Americas supporting transatlantic research collaborations in the social sciences and humanities. Brent Herbert-Copley will discuss the origins of the initiative and its goals for facilitating international conversations. Brett Bobley, using the Digging into Data program as a model, will share examples of projects that have been funded and future research partnership opportunities.

Geoffrey Boulton, expounding on his role with the Royal Society in building global partnerships among research scholars, will provide his perspective on creating these partnerships through broader access to data and publications. He will establish a context for this framework based on the presentations heard throughout the day.