The Office for eScholarship presented a proposal that will help transition UNM Libraries from print to digital materials at Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
The proposed “eScholar Innovation Center” (eSIC) would offer applications and resources that will allow for electronic publishing, online research collaboration, shared data sets and an open-access scholarship, the proposal said.
“We want this to be a point of leverage for the support of the libraries, museum, UNM press and scholarly communication at the university,” UNM Libraries spokesperson Holly Shipp Buchanan said.
The Office of eScholarship is tasked with preserving rights to and facilitating the production of published works that come out of UNM.
The eSIC will provide consultation on authorship rights and the production of digital media, and Buchanan said it will promote dialogue by offering discussion groups and classes in online publishing. The Scholar’s Communication Committee worked on eSIC for three years and intends it to be a one-stop eScholarship support service, she said.
Support services range from a self-service eScholarship workstation, which offers online assistance in article and manuscript preparation with available graphic designers, data presentation specialists and editors for an online submission depository.
The eSIC will also offer credit courses in research methods, foundations in informatics, digital research and data management, Buchanan said.
Buchanan said the committee plans to use Starbucks’ sales to fund printing on demand.
Faculty Senate President Richard Wood said the program will succeed when funds become available.
“This is the kind of thing that is so important right now when money flow is miserable — to be thinking creatively about what we can do to really lay the groundwork for … actually having a plan to go forth,” he said.
Buchanan said the proposal will move toward gaining endorsement from the provost and University officials.
“Stay tuned as it evolves,” she said. “It looks promising.”
Other Faculty Senate items:
The Senate entered executive session to discuss and vote on awarding three candidates honorary degrees.
Changes to the Faculty Disciplinary policy were discussed, but not voted on. Parts of the policy date to the Vietnam War era and do not include standard provisions for handling faculty misbehavior, senators said.
Steven Graves, associate director for the Center of Biomedical Engineering, proposed creating a master’s of science in biomedical engineering.
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