And They Were There — Reports of Meetings 2024 Charleston Conference

Column Editor: Caroline Goldsmith (Associate Director, The Charleston Hub)

Column Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Charleston Conference attendees, both those who attended in person and those who attended virtually, who agreed to write brief reports highlighting their 2024 Charleston Conference experience. Our in-person event was held November 11-15, 2024 in historic downtown Charleston, with the virtual event following on December 9-13, 2024. The virtual event included recorded presentations from the in-person event followed by live Q&A sessions with speakers as well as exclusive “virtual only” content. There were more Charleston Conference sessions than there were volunteer reporters for Against the Grain, so the coverage is just a snapshot.

There are many ways to learn more about the 2024 conference. Please visit the Charleston Conference YouTube site, https://www. youtube.com/user/CharlestonConference/videos?app=desktop, for selected interviews and videos, and the conference site, https://www.charleston-hub.com/the-charleston-conference/ for links to conference information and blog reports written by Charleston Conference blogger, Donald Hawkins, https://www. charleston-hub.com/category/blogs/chsconfnotes/. The 2024 Charleston Conference Proceedings will be published in 2025, in partnership with University of Michigan Press.

In this issue, we have the first installment of Conference reports, including some key takeaways from the 2024 Charleston Conference, some lessons learned at the vendor showcase, and some summaries of the 20 minute vendor information sessions (also held on vendor day). Thank you again to all of our volunteer reporters! — CG

Top Three Things I Learned at the 2024 Charleston Conference

Reported by Alice Nguyen, EM-MSIPP (Library Graduate Fellow, Savannah River National Laboratory)

As a first-year attendee and an early career librarian, I felt like there was almost too much to learn in just a few days. However, there were some points that stood out and still make me think months after the conference.

1) There were multiple sessions on retractions with intriguing discussions about how to treat retracted articles, publisher perspectives and processes on retractions, and the future handling of retractions by libraries and librarians. This conference’s unique offering of both librarian and publisher perspectives allowed for nuanced discussion on a topic that I had questions that sometimes librarianship did not have the answer for. The different kinds of librarians represented at the conference also gave me a chance to see how a Business Librarian versus a University Librarian might approach the same issue based on the priorities of their job and users.

2) Other topics also included the inclusion of AI in the current research and publishing landscape and how librarians and publishers can constructively include AI technology into existing practices. AI is already upon us, and it was fascinating to see how librarians have warily embraced the technology.

3) I was particularly drawn to the presentation and discussion on standards that affect librarian work and scholarly publishing. Especially presentations about establishing and updating existing standards to make retractions an easier process for authors, researchers, librarians, and publishers. I always considered standards as things that were like dry manuals that dictated how things should be done. However, seeing that librarians like myself were able to have a hand in shaping and changing these standards empowered me to reevaluate what standards could be, and positive change can be enacted.

Top Three Things I Learned at the 2024 Charleston Conference

Reported by Jordan Claire (Assistant Acquisitions Librarian, Arizona State University)

Attending the virtual 2024 Charleston Conference was easily one of the professional highlights of my year as a new acquisitions librarian. I am so glad that this was my first conference I attended as a librarian because I learned so much! Previous to the conference, I had decided to become a conference volunteer. From this, I learned that volunteering at the Charleston Conference ensured that I gained new knowledge about a broad range of topics. I will likely volunteer again in the future because it was a great learning opportunity. Another noteworthy memory from the Charleston Conference for me was attending the Acquisitions Bootcamp. In attending this interactive session, I was able to hear from others who are currently involved in acquisitions processes in the field. In this session, I heard about the similarities and differences between my workflow as an acquisitions librarian and the workflows of others. Further, I came to an understanding of how interactive conference sessions can become networking opportunities within the field of information science and librarianship. Being able to interact with others in a session like the Acquisitions Bootcamp, along with seeing other conference presentations, was a valuable experience. The presentations that I attended contributed to the growth of my knowledge and my understanding of what peers in the field are discussing and writing in the literature. Being able to see these presentations allows me to understand where my own future contributions to the field as an acquisitions librarian will fit into discussions.

Top Three Lessons Learned from the Vendor Showcase

Reported by Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)

Spending time in the vendor showcase prior to the start of the Charleston Conference is always a high energy undertaking, necessitating stopping for refreshments during breaks (thanks to sponsors!). In 2024, some vendors’ tables were located in “established” spots, others moved to new locations and, in at least one case, a company had two nearby tables (because of a recent merger / acquisition). A suggestion to showcase organizers would be to bring back the tradition of somehow visually / physically marking (with ribbons or other) the “first timer” showcase participants so that their representatives could be welcomed and “chatted up” by attendees. Unlike last year, it was not as “easy” to guess which vendors and products might receive audience votes later in the conference’s “Charleston Premiers” session, as most innovative, etc. (It should be noted that Charleston Premiers is a curated and selected group of presenters…)

Conference director, Beth Bernhardt, was seen touring the vendor showcase, filming a tour (with some good vendor “elevator pitches”) for virtual conference attendees. Conference founder, Katina Strauch, stopped at the Annual Reviews booth to pick up a t-shirt designed to celebrate the launch during conference week of the new publication, Katina, named in her honor.

Lessons learned are mostly reinforcements:

1) It can be worthwhile to chat to the vendors. Reps can often tell you if another unit at your institution already may be a customer, or someone at your institution has enquired about or is involved in some capacity with one of their products. You can learn something even if initially it may not appear to be a good fit for your institution or library.

2) In this global era, it may turn out that a product or site or group of journals from an internationally based vendor may actually have potential relevance to a North American audience (e.g., with substantive English language or otherwise relevant content). The publisher or vendor may be seeking new audiences.

3) Sometimes a rep will provide a teaser (without details or specifics) of new features coming to one of their/ your products soon... This experience has challenging aspects.

You can view the Charleston Conference blog photo montage of the vendor showcase by Don Hawkins at https://www. charleston-hub.com/2024/11/the-vendor-showcase-7/.

20 MINUTE VENDOR INFORMATION SESSIONS (TUESDAY, VENDOR DAY)

Scopus AI – Leading the next 20 years of Innovation Elsevier Vendor Information Session

Reported by Alice Nguyen, EM-MSIPP (Library Graduate Fellow, Savannah River National Laboratory)

This session was focused on the debut of Scopus AI and its application to research for students, early career researchers, and multidisciplinary scholars. Key takeaways about the product are that it is trained on only Scopus’ data, it has a feature to help identify new and emerging topics in research, it is transparent and describes the process it uses to find information, and it is capable of finding “underserved” themes from the last 24 months of published research. All these features are meant to help start the research process and save researchers up to 50% of research time. However, the target audience of this tool seems to be researchers without a clear research idea or theme, or those looking to collaborate with others outside of their specific field of research. This tool may or may not be as useful or timesaving to experienced researchers with expertise in their fields already.

How Much of Your Paid Content Is Open Access? Hint: It’s a Lot More than You Think SirsiDynix-CloudSource Vendor Information Session

Reported by Jeffery Wagner (Collection Development Librarian, Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State University - College of Medicine)

This session focused on CloudSource OA by SirsiDynix, a discovery platform that connects customers and their users to over 60 million open access scholarly resources. The presenters provided a concise overview of CloudSource OA, highlighting significant statistics, including the fact that since 2017, 61% of all scholarly articles published have been open access. Additionally, over 65% of scholarly articles published in 2023 were licensed under open access. Following this session, I felt motivated, as effective utilization of this product could lead to more strategic spending of collection funds, assuring that users have access to freely available, peer-reviewed, scholarly works. Furthermore, librarians can take advantage of SirsiDynix’s offer of a complimentary Collection Analysis, which delivers detailed insights into the proportion of open access content within a library’s collection, aiding in decisions regarding resource subscriptions.

This concludes the first installment of reports from the 2024 Charleston Conference. Make sure to check out the next batch of reports in the April, 2025 issue! You can view recordings of conference sessions, podcast interviews and our new Charleston Conference leadership interview series on our YouTube channel. Thank you again to our volunteer reporters!