Community Alignment & Equity: Core Priorities for Emerging Scholarly Infrastructure

As we transition more fully into an open system for communicating the results of scholarship, the decisions that libraries make individually and collectively about what and whom to support—and under what terms—will determine whether we meaningfully address inequities created by legacy academic publishing systems or simply recreate them in new ways. These decisions will shape libraries’ role in the scholarly enterprise, now and for the future.

This one-hour panel discussion will explore emerging models for supporting scholarly infrastructure that put alignment with community values and considerations of equity at their core. The conversation will include both the perspective of people who are actively working to build open, community-aligned infrastructure and research funders who are committed to supporting an open system for scholarship that prioritizes equity and the needs of researchers. Moderated by Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, this session will contextualize these models within the broader market for scholarly infrastructure and highlight the role of libraries in creating a future where values are prioritized over vendors.

Panelists include:

• Leslie Chan: Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough
• Ashley Farley: Associate Officer, Knowledge & Research Services at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Kristen Ratan: Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation
• Moderator: Heather Joseph: Executive Director of SPARC