LJAN Resources

Welcome to LJAN Resources, our monthly academic content roundup. We’ll be curating standout InfoDocket posts and nonfiction LJ book reviews once every month for quick access to news and reviews you can use. 

Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) Awarded $4 Million Grant From Arcadia For Notify Project

University of South Carolina and the University of Virginia to Be Partners for “On the Books: Jim Crow and Algorithms of Resistance”
From UNC University Libraries: The University of South Carolina and the University of Virginia are to be partners for “On the Books: Jim Crow and Algorithms of Resistance.” On the Books uses text mining and machine learning to identify racist language in North Carolina legal documents during the Jim Crow era (1866–1967). Libraries at the partner institutions will work with the project team at UNC–Chapel Hill to compile machine-readable versions of their states’ laws and identify Jim Crow language in them.

Report: Digitization, Open Access and the Internet Aid UCLA’s Return of Books Looted by Nazis
From the UCLA Newsroom: It began with internet sleuthing 6,000 miles east of Westwood, and the spotting of a telltale purple ownership stamp. It was the unmistakable ink mark of the Jewish Community Library in Prague, Czech Republic, hiding in plain sight on the title page of Hebrew-language religious books that had been digitized by the UCLA Library for the benefit of scholars worldwide.  

 

For two decades the Jewish Museum in Prague, or JMP, has undertaken a global search for lost publications from the city’s Jewish Community Library, which was looted and shuttered by Nazi occupiers during World War II. With the recent emphasis on digitization of collections by academic libraries, including UCLA’s, the museum’s work has become a lot easier and more fruitful. The JMP’s efforts to repatriate these stolen items have increased in intensity as anyone capable of using an online search tool can access these vast online repositories. 

Report: “Rushing to Document and Save: The War in Ukraine 2022 Web Archive”
From a Post on the Archive-It Blog by Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian for East European, Central European, Central Asian, and Armenian Studies Collections, UC Berkeley: Leveraging my recent experience curating the At-Risk Afghanistan Web Archiving Project (ARAWA): 2021 and Belarus Crisis 2020–2021, I decided early to begin archiving Ukrainian websites, with a specific goal of creating a sustainable topical and discrete archive that documents Russian invasion of Ukraine. UC Berkeley Library’s Library Information Technology department contributed their Archive-It account to the effort, which now includes approximately 345 GB of data from 59 websites.   

 

This was a good and necessary way to get started quickly, but a more extensive and sustainable archive required much wider collaboration. Parallel collecting efforts have since taken shape, led by Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute and the multi-institutional Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) project.

LYRASIS Appoints Erin Tripp as Interim CEO
From a LYRASIS Announcement: Following the announcement of the CEO transition in February, LYRASIS is pleased to share that Erin Tripp has been appointed Interim CEO. Robert Miller, who served as LYRASIS CEO since June 2015, will step down effective May 13 to pursue other opportunities.  

 

Erin Tripp, who was formerly Executive Director of DuraSpace prior to the organization’s merger with LYRASIS in 2019 and is currently the Senior Director of Research and Innovation at LYRASIS, will step into the Interim CEO role. Since she joined LYRASIS, Tripp created the Research and Innovation Division, which fosters new and emerging initiatives for both the organization and for the benefit of the wider field of libraries, archives, research, and cultural heritage. 

Peter Berkery and Mary Lee Kennedy on “What Do Library-Publisher Relations Look Like in 2022?”
From The Scholarly Kitchen: In order to gain greater insight into the state of library-publisher relations today, we asked Executive Director of AUPresses, Peter Berkery, and Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries, Mary Lee Kennedy, to share their thoughts about how relations between the two communities have changed. Their answers ultimately reveal more similarities than differences. They note current sites of collaborations (particularly around open access) and common areas of tension (around financial sustainability). While there has been a refiguring of what publishing means, both groups have a heightened dedication to a just and equitable scholarly environment. We hope these interviews can continue the dialogue that librarians and publishers are having across and within our communities. 

SPONSORED BY EX LIBRIS, PART OF CLARIVATE

Initiatives for Student Success: The Key Role of the Library

Academic libraries are investing many efforts in supporting student success. Nevertheless, when higher-ed institutions embark on formal student success programs, the library is often on the outside looking in. To become a partner, libraries should consider new services and tools to extend, evaluate, and demonstrate their contribution to student success.

Read More›››

POLITICAL SCIENCE 
Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath
By Bill Browder 
Highly recommended fast paced, quality drama exposing the realities of official Russian criminality. 

PREMIUM
Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us
By Daniel Laurison 
For readers wanting a glimpse into the closed club of political campaign consultants. 

PREMIUM
Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States
By Reece Jones 
Jones summons readers concerned about abuse of authority, accountability, human rights, and establishing justice to demand rethinking and revising the USBP’s expansive reach, with its legalized racial profiling and carved out exceptions to constitutional protections, along with the implications of an unchecked, heavily militarized police force operating throughout the U.S.

BIOGRAPHY 
PREMIUM
My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration from the Front Lines
By Efrén C. Olivares 
Readers will appreciate this memoir as a moving firsthand account but also as a call to action to ensure that human rights prevail at America’s borders. 

PREMIUM
More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories
By Jen Maxfield 
Reading these excellent stories is like watching the author report in real time.

PREMIUM
Asylum: A Memoir & Manifesto
By Edafe Okporo
Okporo’s personal journey is touching, and his skillful explanation of the corrupt immigration processes and policies that continue to reject and exclude the very people they are meant to aid is a timely plea for reform and empathy.

HISTORY
PREMIUM
France: An Adventure History
By Graham Robb 
In this refreshing history, Robb will challenge U.S. readers’ assumptions about France by interjecting new discoveries, more diversity, and an aptitude for strong storytelling. 

PREMIUM
Danger Close! A Vietnam Memoir
By Phil Gioia 
This Vietnam War memoir balances a first-hand account of the horrors of war with a historical perspective on the military leadership of the time.

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