The Authority File

This month we welcome Paul db Watkins, Professor of English at Vancouver Island University and author of Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship. His book looks at how Black Canadian poets are influenced by Black musical artists and song, and what this creative intersection reveals about multiculturalism and citizenship. In the next four episodes we discuss Paul’s research and writing process and the influence his work as a DJ had on his approach to the book. Further, we delve into the meaning of “sonic citizenship,” incorporating playlists and liner notes in an academic text, and the importance of decentering himself to write about Black literature, art, and culture. In the first episode of this four-part series, Paul introduces us to the themes of Soundin’ Canaan. He first outlines the distinctive features of the aesthetic and rhetorical functions of poetry and music and how they intertwine and enhance one another. Next, he shares the background behind the book’s title, explaining the meaning of the term “Canaan” and how it connects to Black liberation and migration to Canada. Last, he reflects on the complexities of establishing a Black Canadian literary canon. While Paul acknowledges the value and significance of recognizing Black Canadian literary figures, he also resists the rigidity of canon formation, instead aiming “to draw attention to the power of Black voice and song in Canada.” Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the final episode of this four-part series, Harmen van Paradijs, Vice President STM Books Publishing & Books Business Optimization at Springer Nature, discusses future impacts of AI on academic publishing. To start, he chats about whether AI adoption has influenced submission and publication volumes at the publisher. Next, he forecasts how AI tools will shape the competitive landscape in scholarly publishing, noting that publishers’ ability and willingness to build robust AI policies will most influence the environment. Last, Harmen considers the balance between publishers implementing standardized AI policies and staying agile in the market and how AI might shape content agreements between publishers and libraries. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the third episode of this four-part series, Harmen van Paradijs, Vice President STM Books Publishing & Books Business Optimization at Springer Nature, addresses research integrity in the implementation of AI in STM book publishing. First, he outlines concerns he’s hearing from libraries on collecting and dispersing quality research in this environment. Underscoring the importance of human-in-the-loop AI strategies and tools, he emphasizes that clear communication on AI use benefits libraries, authors, and publishers. Next, Harmen explains AI research integrity and ethical issues specific to STM subjects, such as protecting patient privacy when handling medical data. To close, Harmen chats about Springer’s AI detection tools currently in use. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the second episode of this four-part series, Harmen van Paradijs, Vice President STM Books Publishing & Books Business Optimization at Springer Nature, discusses communicating with authors on current AI innovations. He details both anecdotal author experiences collected by editors, in addition to researcher workshops hosted by Springer to hear academics to share new ways of working. Next, Harmen explains the current AI trends he’s observed in authors and how Springer responds to and even encourages these changes. For example, the publisher offers AI-generated English language translation for manuscripts to aid authors whose native language isn’t English. Harmen also chats about tools developed by Springer that support the editing process, including a reference checker and an AI detection tool, Geppetto, which Springer donated to the STM Association this year for wider use. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

This past June we looked at innovation in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) publishing. This month, we turn our attention to advancements in book publishing in the Sciences. Joining us for the next four episodes is Harmen van Paradijs, Vice President STM Books Publishing & Books Business Optimization at Springer Nature, who shares Springer’s publishing strategies in the evolving landscape. Examining AI’s impact on scholarly communication workflows, Harmen reflects on authors’ adoption of AI tools, potential standardization of AI policies, and concerns from libraries on research integrity and AI. In this first episode, Harmen provides a broad look at Springer’s approach to innovative publishing in the Sciences, including examples of the publisher updating its manuscript submission process and procedure for alt text creation to better meet author needs. In addition, Harmen talks open access, advocating for frequent communication with authors on available OA pathways and funding opportunities. Last, Harmen chats about digital book publishing in STEM; although Springer makes all books available as an ebook and in print no matter the discipline, he acknowledges that STEM authors tend to be more comfortable working in digital formats. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the final episode of this series, our guests reflect on why today’s political, economic, and social context necessitates the need for libraries to effectively communicate their value on campus. First, Hilary Craiglow, Library Consulting Practice Lead at Attain Partners, Emily McElroy, Vice President of Academic Relations at Taylor & Francis, and Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska System, highlight what libraries are currently up against and what they can do to demonstrate their contributions to an institution’s mission, instructional aims, and research enterprise. Next, Emily shares her experience leading library workers, underscoring why all staff need to be able to explain the library’s strengths and solutions. Last, Hilary and Jeff expand on this point, exploring the benefits of strong narratives attached to metrics and a campus culture aligned by shared values and goals. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the third episode of this four-part series, our guests dig into the task of communicating the library’s value across campus. First, Hilary Craiglow, Library Consulting Practice Lead at Attain Partners, and Emily McElroy, Vice President of Academic Relations at Taylor & Francis, chat about the need to “lift the curtain” on library work; rather than making invisible the time, effort, and coordination required to secure resources and provide services, librarians should demonstrate how detailed and essential their work truly is. Further, Emily, Hilary, and Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska System, continue on that thread by sharing why librarians must know how to tell their library’s story, signaling their position as a strategic partner and leader at the institution. Finally, Emily and Jeff explore the importance of library donors. Discussing how to maintain these crucial relationships, Emily and Jeff highlight tips for engagement and campus initiatives made possible through philanthropy. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the second episode of this four-part series, our guests discuss aligning the library’s mission with the university. First, Hilary Craiglow, Library Consulting Practice Lead at Attain Partners, and Emily McElroy, Vice President of Academic Relations at Taylor & Francis, emphasize the importance of strong partnerships between the library and other departments on campus. By building shared metrics and communicating each other’s needs, these collaborations showcase the library as a key player in university life and contribute to creating a community of support. Next, Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska System, explains the quantifiable metrics he looks for from the system’s libraries and how they connect to the University’s foundational pillars and strategic plan. Last, Emily and Hilary underscore that the relationship between academic libraries and university leadership varies widely from institution to institution—though a close partnership tends to work in the library’s favor. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

Librarians know the library plays an essential role on campus. Intersecting with research, technology, student success, and more, the library bolsters key areas of student and faculty life—but is the library as adept at explaining its services as it is at providing them? In this four-part series, we dig into why libraries must demonstrate their value to university administrators to secure funding needs and establish their place as an instrumental sector of campus life and university success. We’ll investigate how the library can align its mission with the university’s, why libraries need to “lift the curtain” on the behind-the-scenes work they do to provide resources, and the importance of adding context to library metrics to better tell your library’s story. Discussion also includes connecting to library donors and the challenges of demonstrating value in today’s political environment. In this first episode, we meet our guests: Jeffrey Gold, President of the University of Nebraska System, Hilary Craiglow, Library Consulting Practice Lead at Attain Partners, and Emily McElroy, Vice President of Academic Relations at Taylor & Francis. First, they jump into the urgency of this work, highlighting the importance of libraries connecting their own metrics to the university’s data-driven decision-making. In addition, Jeff, Hilary, and Emily elucidate why libraries may struggle to illustrate their fundamental services, underlining issues like campus culture and a lack of training in strategic planning. Further, our guests share how communication tactics between the library and campus leadership have shifted—while libraries need a seat at the table with leadership, they also need to be able to communicate within the terms of a business model and justifying sustainable investments. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the final episode of this four-part series, Candida Rifkind and Dominic Davies, authors of Graphic Refuge, look at current and future trends of refugee comics. First, our guests underscore the interdisciplinary nature of refugee comics by highlighting both humanities and social sciences subjects they applied when writing the title, in addition to their aim to move away from a focus on trauma studies. Next, Candida and Dom chat about Wilfrid Laurier University Press’s On Comics and Grief by Dale Jacobs, and how Dale’s intention to foster a more fluid comics studies discipline aligns with the goals of their book. Last, Candida and Dom discuss the ongoing genocide in Gaza in relation to Joe Sacco’s Palestine, published more than 20 years ago. Spotlighting several artists documenting Palestinian life and the aftermath of Israeli bombings, they reflect on the influx of comics published on social media platforms since 2023 and their role in raising political consciousness and action around the world. Further, they explore refugee comics’ ability to build solidarity and the need to apply a critical eye to comics that perpetuate tropes of suffering and ignore holistic refugee experiences. Listen to our series with On Comics and Grief author Dale Jacobs. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the third episode of this four-part series with Candida Rifkind and Dominic Davies, authors of Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics, we discuss refugee comics as political tools. First, our guests outline the characteristics of comics journalism, highlighting its conventions, convergence with new journalism, and influential authors like Joe Sacco. Next, Candida and Dom examine how refugee comics can effect political change. Though it may be difficult to draw direct lines from comics to legislation, they share how refugee comics have been used by lawmakers and have raised awareness of refugee issues and experiences. Reflecting on the importance of critical refugee studies when writing their book, Candida and Dom define the term “refugeeness” and explain the limitations of refugee as a label. Finally, Candida provides several examples of comics’ ability to visualize the spatial characteristics of refugee camps and how they “show us that the line between refugee camps and the rest of the world is really porous.” Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the second episode of this four-part series, Candida Rifkind and Dominic Davies dive into their writing process and the ethics of artist-refugee relationships examined in their coauthored book, Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics. Rather than collaborating throughout, Candida and Dom chose to write individual chapters and coauthor the introduction and epilogue. As they explain, this technique led to a natural dialogue between their sections in the book and a productive partnership amidst Covid lockdowns and life events. Next, our guests summarize the artists featured in the title, which includes those with lived experiences as refugees, second generation refugees, and artists/writers commissioned by humanitarian organizations to communicate refugees’ stories. Candida and Dom then expand on the ethics between the artist and the refugee, exploring the empowerment of “refugee refusal” and spotlighting several examples of these ethical dynamics at play in Sarah Glidden’s Rolling Blackouts and Olivier Kugler’s Escaping Wars and Waves. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

This month’s series welcomes the authors of Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics, Candida Rifkind, Professor of English at the University of Winnipeg, and Dominic Davies, Reader in English at City St George’s, University of London. In the next four episodes, we chat with Candida and Dom about the origins and unique writing process of their book, refugee comics within the comics studies discipline, and how the genre can function as a tool for political change. Further, we dig into the rise of comics journalism and the ethical relationship between a refugee and the artist depicting their experiences. In the first episode of this series, Candida and Dom introduce us to refugee comics, defining the genre, its history, and readership. As our guests explain, comics have long chronicled the stories of outsiders—Superman as a refugee from Krypton, for example—and depicting or drawing the experiences of displacement has existed as long as displacement itself. Next, Candida and Dom contemplate the nebulous term “refugee” and how they interpreted it for their book, in addition to the importance of the reader to refugee comics’ tone and impact. As our guests point out, the main audience of refugee comics are those who have citizenship, thereby revealing a complex relationship between reader and author; as Candida underscores, “the very idea of a refugee can only exist if there is an idea of a citizen, and vice versa.” Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the final episode of our four-part series with Springer Nature’s VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects Anil Chandy, we zoom out for a big-picture look at the intersection of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), libraries, and AI. First, Anil shares how AI tools have created opportunities to “stress test” the scholarly communication lifecycle, revealing pain points and opportunities for transformation. Next, Anil connects ethical AI use with academic libraries’ mission of equitable information access. As libraries themselves begin to incorporate AI tools into collection development strategies and information services, they can lead universities in responsible AI academic practices. Finally, Anil reflects on how HSS disciplines like political science, international relations, and law can interweave and forecast long-term AI regulation policies and solutions. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the third episode of this four-part series, Anil Chandy, VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects at Springer Nature, shares the advantages of implementing AI into publishing processes. Highlighting opportunities like language translation and plain language summaries, he outlines Springer Nature’s three models of AI use—text generation, text conversion, and text interrogation—and the human oversight required to ensure they meet publication standards. Next, Anil walks through Springer Nature’s first machine-generated title published in 2019. Developed to experiment with the available AI technology, the book underscored the limitations of AI content generation and signaled the publisher’s shift to “human-in-the-loop” solutions for generative AI. Last, our guest digs into the potential of AI translated texts and the applications of AI in peer review. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the second episode of this four-part series, we look at regulation strategies for AI technology with our guest Anil Chandy, VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects at Springer Nature. First, Anil provides an overview of how publishers are building AI guidelines and what nonprofit organizations or government agencies they’re looking to for guidance. As he points out, balancing directives from national leadership, local universities, and fellow publishers requires connecting with multiple stakeholders and staying abreast of recent developments from organizations like STM and COPE. Next, Anil underscores the need for those creating regulation to listen to all sectors of the scholarly communication lifecycle. Looking particularly at the vantage point of librarians, Anil highlights their unique outlook on user behavior, student privacy, and AI literacy. To close, Anil reflects on how HSS disciplines offer valuable perspectives on the societal implications of AI, including on bias and ethical use. Access the episode transcript. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

This month, Anil Chandy, VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects at Springer Nature, joins The Authority File to apply a Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) lens to artificial intelligence. Sharing his publisher perspective, Anil reflects on how HSS disciplines regarded AI before and after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Further, he chats about current AI guidelines produced by publishers and how they’re influenced by initiatives put forth by governing bodies or technological organizations. Highlighting both areas for concern and the potential benefits of AI in the publishing lifecycle, Anil underscores the need for HSS approaches to this technology—both in studying the creative uses of large language models and scrutinizing its ethical and social implications. In the first episode of this four-part series, Anil explains how his role at Springer Nature intersects with AI technology and provides a broad overview of HSS coverage of AI. In addition, he charts HSS discussions of AI pre- and post the launch of large language models for public use as theoretical ideas steadily became a reality. Finally, Anil explores the tension between supporting the democratization of knowledge—a key tenet of HSS studies—and ensuring copyright protections from AI scraping. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the final episode of this four-part series on documentary collections, we bring our guests together to discuss the sustainability of documentary films in today’s political environment. First, UC Berkeley’s Film and Media Services Librarian Gisèle Tanasse underscores the responsibility of the library to supply instructors with documentaries—both new films and older selections essential to the canon—through licensing and purchasing options. Next, Sarah Feinbloom, filmmaker and founder of GOOD DOCS, and filmmaker Set Hernandez outline the current challenges facing documentary filmmakers. As Sarah and Set point out, despite repressive regimes and attacks on funding, documentary storytellers have a long, global history of finding innovative ways to create and share their work. Last, Sage’s Senior Director of Library Editorial Michael Carmichael explores how vendors like Sage can support the dissemination of documentaries, while Virginia Espino, Continuing Lecturer, César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA, shares some key advice for documentary makers—organize! Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the third episode of this four-part series, we turn to faculty and librarian perspectives on documentary film collection development and use in curricula. First, Virginia Espino, Continuing Lecturer in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA, outlines how she measures learning outcomes when using documentaries as learning tools, including peer discussion and handwritten reflections to test student understanding. Next, Gisèle Tanasse, UC Berkeley’s Film and Media Services Librarian, shares how the library can partner with faculty to develop multimodal learning experiences that build media literacy skills. Last, both guests reflect on what makes access to and representation in documentary films key components of student education. They touch on librarians acting as “custodians of cultural history” and the incredible historical moments and lived experiences captured in documentaries that create a comprehensive and visceral archive for viewers and researchers to explore. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

In the second episode of this four-part series, our guests provide tips for developing a comprehensive documentary film collection. First, filmmaker and GOOD DOCS founder Sarah Feinbloom shares background on the origin and goals of GOOD DOCS. Sarah also explains how documentaries can uplift young filmmakers and perspectives, in addition to underscoring the importance of spotlighting human diversity on screen. Next, Sarah and UC Berkeley’s Film and Media Services Librarian Gisèle Tanasse discuss collection development strategies. Gisele covers the value of flexible distribution models and explores how librarians can help filmmakers navigate the academic marketplace. Finally, Michael Carmichael, Senior Director of Library Editorial at Sage, details how GOOD DOCS’ and Sage’s shared values inspired their recent partnership. Michael also addresses Sage’s approach to librarians’ affordability and access needs. Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!