The Authority File

In the first episode of this four-part series, Nathan Rupp, Acquisitions & E-Resources Librarian at Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, provides an overview of the current landscape for digital collections. He chats about his role and the electronic-preferred environment at Purdue, then transitions into macrotrends in the marketplace. Surfacing key concerns like industry consolidation and rising vendor costs, Nathan highlights changes in content acquisition types that extend beyond journals, print or e-books, and databases. As Nathan explains, in addition to licensing data sets, Purdue has started to introduce artificial intelligence tools to campus.

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, Kait Pinder and Joel Deshaye, coeditors of The Contemporary Leonard Cohen: Response, Reappraisal, and Rediscovery, discuss Cohen’s legacy and future Cohen studies. First, Joel explains how the popularization of Cohen as a “secular saint” coincided with the degradation of religion in the 1960s by counterculture movements. Next, Kait chats about Cohen’s impact on modern music through the 2023 song “Leonard Cohen” by indie rock group boygenius. She also references Lana Del Rey’s 2018 track “Mariners Apartment Complex,” exploring how today’s artists reinterpret and allude to Cohen in their songwriting. Finally, Kait and Joel dig into the Cohen estate’s goal to collect Cohen’s archives into a centralized location. They highlight the importance of accessibility and flexible reproducibility of Cohen’s records to further scholarship and generate new listeners and readers of Cohen for generations to come.

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 explore the reappraisal of Cohen in their coedited volume The Contemporary Leonard Cohen: Response, Reappraisal, and Rediscovery. Kait Pinder (Acadia University) and Joel Deshaye (Memorial University) discuss the artist’s legacy in Canada, and how negative views of his homeland in works like Beautiful Losers complicate that relationship. They chat about Cohen as a postmodern literary figure, his place in the Canadian cultural canon, and his impact on Jewish communities in Montreal. Further, Kait and Joel zoom out to look at Cohen’s influence outside of Canada and why they wanted to include international perspectives in the book. To close, our guests explain the critical lens the volume applies to Cohen and the self-criticism Cohen imposed on himself and career.

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, coeditors of The Contemporary Leonard Cohen: Response, Reappraisal, and Rediscovery Kait Pinder and Joel Deshaye dig into their respective chapters. First, Kait provides an overview of Cohen’s controversial book of poetry Flowers for Hitler, published in 1964. She explains why the book is less well-known than his novel Beautiful Losers (1966), and how, in her chapter, she connects philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas on critical history to Cohen’s criticism of Canada’s appropriation of the world wars for nationalistic purposes.

Next, Joel explains the use of gossip and rumor in Cohen’s songwriting, highlighting the famous opening lines from “Hallelujah”: “Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord / That David played and it pleased the Lord / But you don’t really care for music, do ya?” Further, Joel links the discourse of gossip to the relationship between Cohen and renowned singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, exploring each artist’s use of gossip in their writing, and how rumor challenges the prevailing perception of Cohen as a singular genius—gossip, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration all play a role in the creative process.

Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

Following the 2016 US presidential election, Kate McKinnon, impersonating Hillary Clinton, performed a rendition of “Hallelujah” on Saturday Night Live (SNL). A week prior, the original singer and songwriter of “Hallelujah” Leonard Cohen had passed, leading to a cultural and political moment that acknowledged the election win for Donald Trump, loss for Clinton, and death of a beloved and politically relevant artist and public figure.

In this four-part series, coeditors of The Contemporary Leonard Cohen: Response, Reappraisal, and Rediscovery Kait Pinder (Acadia University) and Joel Deshaye (Memorial University) discuss this cultural juggernaut as an important building block for the title. Following a conference panel for the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures after Cohen’s death, the book explores Cohen not only as a musical artist and lyricist, but as a literary figure and visual artist, tracing his political and social impact in his homeland of Canada and abroad. Kait and Joel use the concept of “contemporaneity” to frame the text, while contributors employ philosophical, literary, and fan studies theory to Cohen’s works. Further, the text applies a holistic approach to Cohen, acknowledging the pricklier aspects of his personal and political lives and how his rebellious image faded into the 21st century.

In this first episode, Kait and Joel discuss the title’s development, highlighting the SNL skit, Cohen’s death, and how both connected to the cultural landscape of North America in 2016. They also dig into their skillsets and how those aided in researching Cohen as he applies to contemporary thinking. Last, they contemplate their lens of contemporaneity, surfacing Cohen’s visual art, his relation to postmodernism, and the exhibit on Cohen at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal.

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 last episode of this four-part series, Dr. Leo Lo of the University of New Mexico, Katie Metzler of Sage Publishing, and author and tech philosopher Dr. Tom Chatfield look at current strategies for implementing AI policies. Leo shares the benefits of forming a working group of experts to experiment, share knowledge, and raise awareness of AI’s applications in higher education. In addition, Katie digs into the responsibility of publishers to investigate the possibilities of artificial intelligence tools. Highlighting the importance of transparency when using generative AI, she also discusses how customers and authors are responding to the uptick in GenAI usage in scholarly communication. Last, Tom and Leo chat about the international differences in developing governance around AI and underscore the fast-changing environment of AI policymaking.

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, Dr. Leo Lo of the University of New Mexico, Katie Metzler of Sage Publishing, and author and tech philosopher Dr. Tom Chatfield dig into the ethics and institutional policies for generative AI tools. Surfacing the lack of widespread AI governance, the guests highlight the need for institutions to provide guidance to educators and students. In fact, they underscore the benefits of viewing AI training as a collaborative experience between undergraduates and faculty, aided by support from administration, the library, and publishers. Further, our guests speak to key ethical questions surrounding the use of GenAI in the classroom. Leo spotlights issues around the digital divide, while Tom warns of the dangers in using AI tools as a one-size-fits-all solution to the holistic needs of today’s students. Finally, Leo, Tom, and Katie discuss the bias and discrimination present in AI training data, the importance of reducing “noise” in datasets, and examples of what biases can generate in large language models.

Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

Have we moved past the point of educators flat-out banning AI use in the classroom? Not quite. In the second episode of this four-part series, Dr. Leo Lo of the University of New Mexico, Katie Metzler of Sage Publishing, and author and tech philosopher Dr. Tom Chatfield look at current perspectives on AI in academia and effective tactics for implementing AI tools. First, our guests underscore the importance of offering students, faculty, and librarians opportunities for hands-on experiences with generative AI to understand its possible applications. Further, they emphasize that critical thinking can develop in tandem with AI skills; the technology places the onus on users to evaluate their own approaches to research, creativity, and learning to best optimize the software. Last, the guests chat about how institutions can support librarians and instructors in finding and implementing AI tools through strategies like AI training, trial access to new platforms, and consulting technology experts.

Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!

Since ChatGPT’s launch last November, artificial intelligence has transformed from the stuff of science fiction to an everyday occurrence in higher education and scholarly communication. In this four-part series, Dr. Leo Lo, Dean and Professor of the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico, Katie Metzler, Vice President for Books & Social Science Innovation at Sage Publishing, and author and tech philosopher Dr. Tom Chatfield, explore the intersection of critical thinking skills and AI. Parsing through both helpful use-cases and cautionary tales, they review current governance and policy on AI, institutional practices moving forward, and the development of working groups to better understand and unlock AI’s potential applications. Tom, Leo, and Katie bring their unique perspectives to generative AI’s impact on the scholarly environment in the past year and how teaching and learning institutions are responding to these changes.

In the first episode of this four-part series, our guests dive into the crux of the issue: the benefits and pitfalls of critical thinking and generative AI. They discuss the collaborative element of critical thinking, and how that characteristic can guide users’ approach to AI by building thoughtful prompts and checking (seemingly) authoritative sources. Further, Leo chats about the significant flaws in current generative AI, such as data privacy, bias, copyright issues, and overall obfuscation of how these tools are created. Last, the guests reflect on the lack of consensus over whether AI helps or hinders critical thinking. Surfacing the emotional aspect of using AI, they highlight the excitement, wonder, and fear that these tools inspire in both students and faculty.

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, Antje Kristin Watermann, Associate Marketing Officer at UN Publications, discusses the publisher’s global partnerships and reach. She provides an overview of the implementation and impact of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how the SDG Publishers Compact encourages publishers, booksellers, and librarians to disseminate research and books related to the SDGs and to make publishing practices more sustainable. She also describes how the SDGs affect instruction and research in higher education, detailing UN Publications’s work at academic conferences, the tagging of UN research related to the SDGs, and the applications of UN platforms like iLibrary at universities. Highlighting projects like the SDG Book Club, Antje chats about how the publisher aims to encourage thinking about sustainability for all ages around the globe. Last, she shares how libraries can support this work by hosting events, curating SDG-related content, and joining the SDG Publishers Compact.

Missed an episode? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Choice Podcast Updates, and check out the Authority File Round-Up on our blog, Open Stacks!