Recent Headlines
Library Receives I2NY Library as Publisher Innovator Grant
The F. Franklin Moon Library at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) was awarded a I2NY Library as Publisher Innovator grant by NY 3Rs Association, Inc.
The $5,000 grant was awarded for the "Library as Publisher of Graduate Student Data" Project at the library. The program addresses a relatively new area of library publishing. Knowing that graduate students at master and doctoral levels generate many datasets that are all too often forgotten once the student leaves the institution, librarians at the Moon Library will work with students and the lab groups to curate the data and publish it on the institutional repository Digital Commons @ ESF, making it accessible to current and future researchers.
"Data publishing is one of the most promising and challenging areas for library publishing initiatives. It is still an emerging area and one that is poorly addressed by other publishers, making it an ideal subfield for library publishers," said Sarah Lippincott of Educopia's Library Publishing Coalition in reviewing the project. "The checklist and procedures developed in this project could be used in other settings and could provide pathways for effectively collaborating with faculty and students in this critical area."
Said Stephen Weiter, director of college libraries at ESF: "We are excited to be able to provide a platform for publishing graduate student research and highlighting their contributions to the scholarship of the academic community."
Project leader and Senior Assistant Librarian Jessica Clemons agreed. "We want the library to be involved in data management and work with graduate students … The results of this grant will demonstrate to our faculty and the larger community that the library is an essential part of the entire research process."
The I2NY Work Group on Libraries as Publishers developed the grant process to highlight how libraries are no longer just content providers — they are publishers and content creators — as well. ESF was one of two libraries statewide to be awarded a grant. The Fulton Library also received a grant for its Fulton Memoir Project.