Against the Grain V34#3

To quote the age-old dad joke, “Is it hot enough for you out there?”  We’ve had a heat wave here in SC with temperature indexes over 100!  Whew!  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  Lots of news and updates so let’s dive in!

Legal Issues

OCLC has filed a lawsuit against Clarivate and its subsidiaries, Clarivate Analytics, Ex Libris, and ProQuest.  “Claims in the suit include tortious interference with contracts and prospective business relationships and conspiracy to interfere with contracts and business relationships.”  (https://librarytechnology.org/pr/27396)  Clarivate has issued a statement (https://clarivate.com/news/clarivate-statement-on-oclc-lawsuit/) and OCLC has filed for and been granted a temporary restraining order as of June 27 (https://www.infodocket.com/2022/06/15/oclc-files-lawsuit-against-clarivate-analytics-worldcat-metadoor-metadata/).  Do y’all remember the Supreme Court decision in Feist Publication Inc. versus Rural Telephone Service (1991)?  Food for study.  We will definitely be keeping our eye on this story for further developments and for the possibility of a session for the Charleston Conference or a future Charleston In Between!

Exciting News from The Charleston Advisor

The Charleston Advisor has been acquired by independent, non-profit publisher Annual Reviews as of June 1, 2022.  “We are pleased to welcome The Charleston Advisor to Annual Reviews,” said Richard Gallagher, Publisher, and Editor-In-Chief.  “It is a good fit with our mission to synthesize and integrate knowledge and expands our horizons by providing high quality reviews of products and services for library teams at academic and research institutions, a new group of readers for us.”  Founded in July 1999, The Charleston Advisor publishes detailed product reviews of proprietary and freely available web-based resources for the library market.  Reviewed product types include databases, pricing tools, scholarly journals, collections.  Over 800 searchable expert reviews, peer-reviewed by the library community, are currently available to help optimize library services. 

And an Update from The Charleston Report

The final issue of The Charleston Report, v.26, no.6, May/June 2022 was distributed on June 21, 2022.  “For history buffs, we are offering Open Access to the (almost) complete Charleston Report archives.  We are missing only one issue, v.1, no.3.  In the issues, interested parties will find a snapshot of our industry — libraries, publishers, agents, and technology — as all has changed over a 26-year period.  Fun reading for sure!” says Becky Lenzini, President of The Charleston Company.  Be sure to check out The Charleston Report Open Access Archive, now available for your historical reading at http://www.charleston-hub.com/media/the-charleston-report/. 

“The Hannay Way”

Many of you remember Bill Hannay fondly from his years of presenting in the Long Arm of the Law panel at the annual Charleston Conference.  He was a partner at Schiff Hardin LLP in Chicago, IL, who specialized in federal and state antitrust law, intellectual property law, and other trade regulation laws, and was the author or editor of nine books on antitrust and intellectual property law, including The Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Unfair Competition, published by Thomson Reuter’s West Publishing.  Bill presented on legal cases and topics affecting the world of libraries and publishing, and he did so with an ineffable sense of humor and verbal charm.  His signature move was to write hilarious original lyrics to a showtune or other familiar piece of music that tied in with his presentation topic, earning him the nickname “The Singing Lawyer” amongst conference attendees.  We tragically lost Bill in 2020, and the Charleston Conference would like to remember him with a smile, as he would have wanted.  We’ve created a playlist called “The Hannay Way” including each of his presentations from 2010-2019 on our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIGLt62pr1M7PFt8NkeqfVzckiZR27EdN.  Take a look, and we hope you enjoy this compilation in memorial to our friend Bill!

Personal and Professional Updates

Bob Schatz has left the building… Bob announced his retirement on LinkedIn in April:  “Some of you may have seen the announcement that went out from Knowledge Unlatched today, with my blessing, announcing my upcoming retirement.  My last day at KU will be Tuesday.  This is the result of a conversation I started with them nearly a year ago.”  Bob’s newest venture has been launching a blog called “Traversing the Muddle” (traversingthemuddle.com) and already has several posts and over 1,000 views under his belt.  Before working at Knowledge Unlatched, Bob had a long and varied career at Coutts, BioMed Central, and more. 

Ivy Anderson retired some time ago from the University of California’s California Digital Library and has been enjoying retirement with her husband and her gorgeous Collie named Sadie.  Ivy shared this video of her performance at a summer recital of the Adagio movement from Mozart’s last piano sonata in D major, K.576.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz7gSge3geo  Brava!  Beautiful!

Excited to hear that Charles Watkinson, Associate University Librarian at University of Michigan and Director of the Michigan University Press is stepping into a new role as President of the Association of University Presses.  He succeeded 2021-2022 President Lisa Bayer, director of the University of Georgia Press, at the ALA meeting in Washington, DC.  Congratulations Charles!

Christine Anderson, our Marketing and Communications Manager for the Charleston Hub and the current Administrative Coordinator at the Kimbel Library and Bryan Information Commons at Coastal Carolina University has been named Director of Archives at USC Lancaster’s Native American Studies Center!  Way to go Christy, and we are so glad to hear you’ll still be working with us here at the Hub!

Former professional baseball player turned motivational speaker and author Chris Singleton released his third book, Baseball Around the World: How the World Plays the Game, on June 17 to honor his mother.  On June 17, 2015, his mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, was murdered along with eight other victims by a white supremacist at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.  Singleton united his city and inspired the entire nation by forgiving the man who murdered his mother and stating, “love is stronger than hate.”

As part of his personal healing and to help others, Singleton has written two books: Different: A Story About Loving Your Neighbor, a tribute to Singleton’s late mother;  and Your Life Matters, a story about the empowerment of black children.  Different was a best seller in its category and has been featured by numerous outlets, including The Obama Foundation.  For more information about Singleton, please visit www.chrissingleton.com.  We also honor and remember Cynthia Graham Hurd, a librarian at the Charleston County Public Library and at the Addlestone Library at the College of Charleston, who was also killed in the Mother Emanuel shooting along with the other members of her prayer group.

Recent and Upcoming Meetings

In-person conference travel seems to be opening back up again, as we’ve seen from recent industry events.  Leah Hinds, our Executive Director, attended the SSP meeting and reports back that it had a great turnout with lots of energizing, informative sessions and opportunities for networking and spur of the moment meetings.  “It was great to attend and present at the SSP meeting!  Lisa Hinchliffe and I hosted an interactive Charleston Trendspotting Initiative session designed to identify trends and forecast their impacts on the information industry,” says Leah.  “I was able to meet up with friends and colleagues, make some new business connections, hear cool history of the city of Chicago from the keynote Dilla Thomas, and enjoy delicious Chicago eats.” 

We asked Courtney McAllister, Vice President/President Elect of NASIG (and a Charleston Conference Director!), for an update on their annual meeting:  “During NASIG’s 37th annual conference, in-person attendees assembled in Baltimore, MD, while remote participants viewed session recordings and chatted on Discord and social media.  The program encompassed a wide range of scholarly communication topics, such as Open Access, Open Educational Resources, bibliodiversity, Controlled Digital Lending, library discovery, and more.  The conference was bookended by two excellent Vision Sessions that candidly addressed pressing challenges facing library workers, vendors, publishers, and researchers.  During the opening Vision Session, Professor Sarah Lamdan outlined critical issues surrounding data privacy, vendor-library power dynamics, and the burgeoning analytics industry.  The conference concluded with a Vision Panel, entitled, Progress, Not Perfection: DEI Work within Information Organizations.  Panelists Dr. Kawana Bright, Sarah Dupont, and Maha Kumaran shared their experiences with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work in libraries.  Their perspectives and insights inspired lively, respectful discussion and left all attendees with possibilities and challenges to contemplate after the conference ended.”

ALA has reported a busy in-person return with over 14,000 attendees flocking to Washington, DC, for their first in-person gathering since COVID-19 sent everything to virtual.  Andrew Albanese reports in Publishers Weekly, “Publishers and vendors on the show floor were also encouraged, with many telling PW that traffic in the exhibit hall was steady, lines for books signings at publisher booths were long, and enthusiasm generally ran high…”

The 51st annual LIBER conference will be held in Odense, Denmark, from July 5-8.  This will also be their first in-person gathering since 2019, and the event is sold out.  Leah Hinds will be attending and plans to write a conference report to give us all the details!

Charleston Conference News

We have lots going on as we’re planning for the upcoming 2022 Charleston Conference.  Big news with two new vendors we’re excited to be working with!  Cadmore Media will be our new platform for the conference agenda and virtual conference.  Cadmore was one of the finalists for the Charleston Premiers last year.  They’re a great fit for us since they’re in the scholarly communications industry and have lots of experience with hybrid events and streaming video.  And we’ve upgraded our Call for Papers proposal form to the Ex Ordo platform!  This will streamline the review and communications process, as well as provide an easier way to create the conference schedule in a format that integrates with Cadmore.  We’re looking forward to working with both of these great groups of people!

We’re also taking a different approach to hybrid this year.  There will be two events — the in-person conference that will be held in Charleston from November 1-4, and the virtual conference that will be held online through the Cadmore platform from November 14-18.  This will allow us to focus on creating the best possible experience for our attendees, presenters, sponsors, and vendors for each unique event. 

Registration is now open at http://www.charleston-hub.com/the-charleston-conference/ for conference attendance, Vendor Showcase exhibit booths, the Charleston Premiers, and for sponsorships and advertising.  We can’t wait to see you in November!

That’s it for now.  Remember to check the Charleston Hub website for all the latest news and updates, and to sign up for our email newsletter to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.  Happy Summer!