C&RL News July/August 2019 370 N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l dDavid Free Syracuse University Libraries, Department of Chemistry collaborate to identify chemical composition of plastics artifacts collection Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Col- lection Research Center (SCRC) and the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences have collaborated on a first-of-its-kind project. Courtney Asztalos, the libraries’ plastics pioneers curator of plastics and historical artifacts, partnered with chemistry professor Timothy Korter to investigate the chemical composition of objects from the Plastics Artifacts Collection. Korter, chemistry instructor Mary Boyden, and chemistry PhD candidate Elyse Kleist created the Syracuse Chemistry of Artifacts Project (SCOAP) to use Raman spectroscopy to analyze plastic items from the Plastics Artifacts Collection. Raman spectroscopy is a nondestructive technique using a laser beam to enhance knowledge of the chemi- cal composition of plastics. This information is critical to the Plastics Artifacts Collection’s conservation, preservation, and curation. The initiative was made possible through financial support from Invest Syracuse and the Department of Chemistry for the pur- chase of a portable Raman spectrometer, microscope, computer, and supplies, as well as Syracuse University Libraries for project space and the purchase of modern polymer reference samples that were used to create a plastics reference library. Members of the Plastics Pioneers Association also donated ref- erence samples to SCOAP’s plastics reference library. For additional information, visit the SCRC website at https://library.syr.edu/scrc. 2019 ACRL Environmental Scan released Every two years, the ACRL Research Plan- ning and Review Committee releases an environmental scan of higher education, including developments with the potential for continuing impact on academic librar- ies. The 2019 Environmental Scan provides a broad review of the current higher edu- cation landscape, with special focus on the state of academic and research libraries. The document builds on earlier ACRL reports, in- cluding the Top Trends in Academic Librar- ies, published in June 2018 issue of C&RL News. The 2019 Environmental Scan is freely available on the ACRL website at https://bit. ly/2KeRY52. UNC-Charlotte names 2019 Atkins Fellows The J. Murrey Atkins Library has named five fellows in the fifth year of the Atkins Fellows summer program at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. This program offers paid, full-time work experience for MLIS students at the midpoint in their library, archives, or information science degree programs, and graduates who completed their programs in the last year. An additional stipend was added to the program this year to help fel- lows with housing and transportation costs. Each Atkins Fellow works on a project throughout the summer; participates in workshops, tours, and panel discussions; and engages in department and library committee meetings. The purpose of the program is to prepare MLIS students and recent graduates to work in academic libraries, archives, and other institutions, while supporting Atkins Library’s mission, goals, and initiatives. The 2019 Atkins Fellows are Xena Becker (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Jenny Carlos (University of North Carolina- Greensboro), Eileen López (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Jude Wasser- man (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Georgia Westbrook (Syracuse University). Projects include augmented reality and user experience, Charlotte LGBTQ+ digital humanities, innovative collection spaces, scholarly communications and digital pub- lishing, and transfer student success. To learn more about the current fellows, fellows https://library.syr.edu/scrc https://bit.ly/2KeRY52 https://bit.ly/2KeRY52 July/August 2019 371 C&RL News Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future ACRL is pleased announce the release of “Open and Equitable Scholarly Communi- cations: Creating a More Inclusive Future,” prepared for ACRL by Nancy Maron and Rebecca Kennison with Paul Bracke, Nathan Hall, Isaac Gilman, Kara Malenfant, Charlotte Roh, and Yasmeen Shorish. Developed over the course of a year with leadership from the Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC) and with a high degree of community involve- ment, this powerful new action-oriented re- search agenda encour- ages the community to make the scholarly communication system more open, inclusive, and equitable by outlin- ing trends, encouraging practical actions, and clearly identifying the most strategic research questions to pursue. This repor t is an important contribution to ACRL’s core com- mitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, which includes valuing different ways of knowing and identifying and working to eliminate barriers to equitable services, spaces, resources, and scholarship. “This report has a broader scope than past ACRL research agendas on scholarly communication, as we wanted think holisti- cally about all the factors that contribute to the research and scholarly environment. To that end, we specifically sought out perspec- tives from communities with a variety of ways of knowing and making meaning. We invited participation from frontline library workers, individuals with disabilities, people working at smaller institutions, and those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups,” noted ReSEC chair Yasmeen Shorish of James Madison University. This new report, Shorish continued, “en- courages all academic library practitioners, no matter their role or the size of their institution, to work to enact change in the scholarly com- munications system, whether by implementing the report’s practical actions or investigating new research ques- tions.” “ACRL is grateful to the team of devoted ReSEC members who volunteered countless hours as well as the consultants and staff who worked together to bring this project to fruition,” ACRL Execu- tive Director Mary Ellen K. Davis added. “This research agenda is an important milestone in furthering ACRL’s strategic goal that the academic and research library workforce ac- celerates the transition to more open and equitable systems of scholarship.” “Open and Equitable Scholarly Communi- cations” is organized into three major priority areas—people, content, and systems—and each of these areas delineates several specific effective practices being used now and re- search topics that can help further the work in the future. The agenda also includes extensive appendices, including an essay on issues of social justice in scholarly communication, find- ings from the online survey, and an annotated list of recommended readings. “Open and Equitable Scholarly Communi- cations: Creating a More Inclusive Future” is freely available on the ACRL website and will be available for purchase in print in the ALA Online Store. C&RL News July/August 2019 372 agreement to transfer the QuestionPoint 24/7 Reference Cooperative and all active QuestionPoint subscriptions to Spring- share. QuestionPoint provides coopera- tive virtual reference services, including 24/7 reference backup coverage from its team of experienced reference librarians. Through this acquisition, Springshare will extend its LibAnswers virtual refer- ence software to include the Question- Point library reference cooperative with 24/7 coverage. QuestionPoint’s team of reference librarians will become part of Springshare and will continue to work from their current locations around the world. Current QuestionPoint subscribers will maintain uninterrupted use of Question- Point while Springshare completes software upgrades to its LibAnswers platform to inte- grate the 24/7 library reference cooperative. Once the changes are completed, all cur- rent QuestionPoint subscribers will move to LibAnswers. At any point, QuestionPoint subscrib- ers can attend free and unlimited training as well as request a LibAnswers Platform alumni, and the program and projects, visit http://library.uncc.edu/atkinsfellows. AALL presents 2019 Emerging Leader Award The American Association of Law Librar- ies (AALL) has announced its 2019 Emerging Leader Award honorees, who include Kristina J. Alayan, law library director and assistant profes- sor of law at the Howard University School of Law, Washington, D.C.; Michelle Hook Dewey, legal research services manager, BakerHostetler, Atlanta, Georgia; and Anna C. B. Russell, An- chorage branch librarian, United States Courts Ninth Circuit Library, Anchorage, Alaska. The Emerging Leader Award recognizes newer AALL members who have made signifi- cant contributions to the association and/or law librarianship and who have demonstrated potential for leadership and continuing ser- vice. For more information about the Emerg- ing Leader Award, visit bit.ly/AALL-emerging. OCLC transfers QuestionPoint 24/7 Reference Cooperative, subscriptions to Springshare OCLC and Springshare have signed an New ACRL Immersion Program facilitators ACRL is pleased to announce the selection of Veronica Arellano Douglas, Ashleigh Coren, Carlos Duarte, Michelle Gohr, Sofia Leung, Jessie Loyer, and Rachel McCaskill as the newest facilitators for the four-and-a- half-day Immersion Program. They join the current program facilitator team in shaping the curriculum and facilitating the program. Douglas is instruction coordinator at the University of Houston; Coren is special col- lections librarian for teaching and learning at the University of Maryland-College Park; Duarte is outreach and intergeneration librarian at the University of Colorado-Col- orado Springs; Gohr is first year experience librarian at Arizona State University; Leung is teaching and learning program manager and librarian for Comparative Media Studies/ Writing at MIT Libraries; Loyer is librarian at Mount Royal University; and McCaskill is instruction and academic engagement librar- ian at St. Norbert College. Now in its 20th year, the Immersion Pro- gram is designed for those who contribute to the educational role of libraries in higher education. Through a critical examination of information literacy, teaching and learning, and influence and leadership, the Immersion Program curriculum aims to develop critically reflective practitioners who go on to enact change in their practice, projects, or personal and professional goals. Complete details are available on the ACRL website at www.ala. org/acrl/conferences/immersion. http://library.uncc.edu/atkinsfellows http://bit.ly/AALL-emerging http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/immersion http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/immersion July/August 2019 373 C&RL News Tech Bits . . . Brought to you by the ACRL ULS Technology in University Libraries Committee Axe is a free web accessibility check- ing tool developed by Deque Systems. It can be installed as an add-on to Google Chrome and Firefox browsers. Not only will it report the number of accessibility violations, but also the Highlight feature even navigates you directly to the specific visual element on a webpage that is in question. To- gether with the source code available on the same panel, it saves effort by allowing you to focus more on fixing the problem. Even though it may not be guaranteed to capture all possible violations, the tool is definitely a great starting point for web accessibility newbies. —Minhao Jiang Wayne State University . . . Axe https://www.deque.com/axe/ system install to learn and explore the system prior to service migration. Spring- share will contact subscribers directly about timing and process for their transitions to LibAnswers. EBSCO, The Carrol Center for the Blind partner for accessibility EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) and The Carroll Center for the Blind have an- nounced a partnership in which the two organizations will work together to im- prove and enhance the experience across EBSCO products for users with a varying array of disabilities. The Carroll Center for the Blind, based in Newton, Massa- chusetts, offers a wide range of compre- hensive services for the blind and visually impaired at all ages and all stages of vi- sion loss. The Carroll Center will work with EBSCO to support the company’s existing design and user research processes, while facilitating user testing and providing sup- port for best practices in accessibility. The Carroll Center’s accessibility services team offers technical and human resources, which support a wide array of vision im- pairment ranging from low vision to com- plete blindness. EBSCO’s accessibility team focuses on ensuring that all products are accessible, maintaining a positive experi- ence for all users. For more information about EBSCO’s commitment to accessibility, visit www. ebsco.com/technology/accessibility. For more information on The Carroll Center for the Blind, visit www.carroll.org. Revised ACRL open access policy statement, new Guidelines for Standardized Holding Counts approved The ACRL Board of Directors approved a revision of the ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians at its April 2019 virtual meeting. Written by ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee, the revision ad- dresses the sense of the “across the life- cycle” nature of scholarly communication interest in open access. The Board also approved new Guide- lines for Standardized Holdings Counts and Measures for Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries at the April meeting. Developed by the SAA-ACRL/ RBMS Joint Task Force on the Development of Standardized Holdings Counts and Mea- sures for Archival Repositories and Special Collections Libraries, the guidelines were developed to help archival repositories and special collections libraries quantify and communicate information about holdings. Approval of the new guidelines by the SAA Council is pending. ACRL standards, guidelines, and frame- works are available at www.ala.org/acrl /standards. https://www.deque.com/axe/ http://www.ebsco.com/technology/accessibility http://www.ebsco.com/technology/accessibility http://www.carroll.org http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards