The Authority File

In the final episode of this four-part series, Dr. Rebecca “Bek” Cooney, Chief Editor of Nature Mental Health, discusses the current publishing landscape and future of mental health research. She explores the balance between open access and subscription models through an equity lens, highlighting the importance of author-first and choice-driven perspectives. She also explains how the librarian’s role may shift in an increasingly open environment through heightened curation and direction for researchers. Last, Bek underscores mental health’s position as a “last frontier” by unpacking the obstacles that stigma creates, and how a more nuanced and widespread understanding of mental health can help overcome these barriers.

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In the third episode of this four-part series on personal libraries, Jason Camlot and Jeffrey Weingarten, coeditors of Unpacking the Personal Library: The Public and Private Life of Books, examine what’s lost when libraries discard volume duplicates or rely solely on digital copies. Highlighting the traces left from marginalia, publisher blurbs, and differing publication years, our guests discuss what these intricacies can reveal about the cultural moment. In addition, Jason and Jeffrey define the many forms academic libraries can take and the malleability of collections by adapting to a space—an academic library, museum, archival storage—and its intrinsic values and demands.

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The forthcoming Nature Mental Health aims to build DEI principles into its editorial approach, thereby underpinning mental health as a human right. However, bringing these goals to fruition requires intentionality through inclusive initiatives and equitable publication practices—such as, global partnerships, lived experience advisory boards, and community-based recognition.

In the third episode of this four-part series, Chief Editor Dr. Rebecca “Bek” Cooney lays out how to put anti-racist and inclusive publishing ideals into practice. She highlights pledges as a solid jumping-off point, inviting transparency and accountability from readership. She also explains how publishers can ease the burden on contributors or reviewers through flexible deadlines and uncovering key pain points. Last, Bek discusses the shifting role of librarians as publishers face changes in data aggregation, content bundling, and open access policies.

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A library collection is more than its contents. The setting, purpose, or owner all influence a library’s definition and relationship with a reader. The various contexts surrounding a collection—whether political, social, or personal—transform how it is used, categorized, and preserved. As Jeffrey Weingarten, coeditor of Unpacking the Personal Library: The Public and Private Life of Books, puts it, “the meaning of the library is fluid; it’s ever-changing.”

In this second episode, Jason Camlot and Jeffrey, coeditors of Unpacking the Personal Library, outline the types of library collections covered in the title, highlighting unconventional offerings like embassy collections and protest libraries. They also dig into the knowledge and intricacies that physical objects carry, and how that value conflicts with the increasing push toward digitization. Last, Jason draws connections to his work on Spoken Web, a global partnership that aims to digitize and preserve literary sound recordings in Canada.

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While outlining the forthcoming journal Nature Mental Health, the editorial team wanted to build equity, awareness, and transparency into its framework. As Chief Editor Dr. Rebecca “Bek” Cooney notes, the journal’s scope underpins mental health as a human right in order to spotlight the lack of understanding and structural support for mental health issues. How can a journal intentionally establish itself as an advocate for mental health and social change?

In this second episode of the four-part series, Bek digs into equity in mental health. She highlights the difference between equity and equality in mental health programs—an “equal” approach doesn’t account for the racial, economic, and social discrepancies that impact care. In addition, Bek discusses the journal’s goal of including those with lived experiences and its positive effects on research quality. Further, she closes with strategies on how to go beyond goodwill gestures by encouraging dialogue among readership and ensuring transparency in editorial decisions around language and self-corrections.

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Whether it’s a dog-eared stack of The Boxcar Children, an annotated collection of Sylvia Plath poetry, or an encyclopedic array of Guinness World Records, a personal library can reflect a holder’s academic interests, personal values, or position in a community. But more often than not, after a scholar’s death or retirement, their personal libraries face a crossroads. Does it fit in an archive, academic library, or a museum? Do duplicates of books get thrown out or preserved? What about items like grocery lists, office supplies, or personal memorabilia? How are objects designated as worth cataloguing and keeping? How does an object’s value shift through time or the transition from a private collection to public?

Jason Camlot, professor of English and Research Chair in Literature and Sound Studies at Concordia University, and Jeffrey Weingarten, professor in the School of Language and Liberal Studies at Fanshawe College, asked themselves those same questions when given the chance to study the private libraries of Canadian authors F.R. Scott and Mordecai Richler. For Jason, Richler’s collection prompted inquiry into where and how private libraries should be housed; for Jeffrey, Scott’s collection demonstrated how curation and marginalia provide insight into an author’s political views. Due to similar areas of research and intersecting academic paths, Jason and Jeffrey came together as co-editors for Unpacking the Personal Library: The Public and Private Life of Books, a collection of essays that explore how private collections fit into the public sphere.

In this four-part series, our guests provide an overview of the title and discuss the difficulty of defining a library as the objects, holders, and contexts shift. They also unpack the value of physical objects and “wandering the stacks” in an era of increasing digitization and e-collections. In this first episode, Jason and Jeffrey map out the catalyst for their title, including serendipitous moments of discovery and inquisition while researching Scott’s and Richler’s collections. They also provide background on their areas of study and how their parallel interests led to Unpacking the Personal Library.

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The language surrounding “mental health” is often clouded with vague lifestyle tips (get plenty of sleep! Light a candle!) or out-of-touch direction pointing toward a healthcare system that cannot support the barrage of people seeking care. Even further, our mental health systems often don’t account for the disparities in support across social, racial, and economic lines, leading to inequitable care and heightened stigma for marginalized groups—and this was before a global pandemic.

Nature Mental Health, a forthcoming January 2023 journal, hopes to take a different approach. As Chief Editor Dr. Rebecca “Bek” Cooney describes, the journal will combine research in general science and public health, creating a holistic perspective toward mental illness and well-being that will appeal to both academics and a general audience. In this four-part series, Bek explains how she plans to put these ideas into practice. By utilizing Nature’s expansive global network and creating partnerships across disciplines, Bek aims for the journal to shape public health policy, benefit lay readers, and reframe mental health as a human right. She also chats about the publishing environment at large, advocating for author choice and highlighting how the role of librarians continues to shift along with new open publishing mandates.

In this first episode, Bek walks through her own editorial background and research interests in psychology. She explains what attracted her to the Chief Editor position and her hopes for the journal to expand upon traditional research in the field. Further, she provides an overview of Nature Mental Health’s inclusive editorial approach and the current prep work to prepare for the January launch.

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In the final episode of this series, our guests dig into how faculty and student perspectives allow librarians to remain flexible and adjust services to better suit undergraduate needs. Ian Snowley, Dean of Student Learning Development & University Librarian at the University of Lincoln, Jamie Wood, professor of History and Education at the University of Lincoln, and Samantha Sharman, a student at the University of Lincoln, chat about lowering barriers to entry for student engagement—reducing the number of content platforms, fixing broken resource links—and teaching faculty’s general awareness of these issues. In addition, Ian discusses how the librarian’s involvement in student and faculty workflows differs from traditional services, and Matt Hayes, Managing Director at Technology from SAGE, considers how technology fits in, highlighting the obstacles today’s students face in finding materials and how digital tools can aid in narrowing their search.

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In this third episode on the undergraduate workflow, Ian Snowley, Dean of Student Learning Development & University Librarian at the University of Lincoln, Jamie Wood, professor of History and Education at the University of Lincoln, Samantha Sharman, a student at the University of Lincoln, and Matt Hayes, Managing Director at Technology from SAGE, discuss how faculty and librarians can partner for heightened student engagement. In particular, Ian underscores the significance of librarians embedding themselves into the curriculum to support every step of a student’s academic journey. In addition, Jamie shares why faculty should aid traditionally librarian-centered areas of study like information or digital literacy. Last, our guests chat about the evolution of the library’s services, the development of new teaching strategies, and how administration can bolster support for these partnerships instead of relying on bottom-up implementation.

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The student perspective is a key factor when building a workflow that functions for faculty, librarians, and, yes, students. Thanks to a recent research project on the undergraduate workflow, our four guests gleaned valuable guidance from students on building reading lists. Takeaways included pointing to a particular chapter instead of an entire book, and providing narrower materials to start, then opening up to broader and more complex sources to match the student’s pace. In fact, as our librarian speaker noted, these insights go beyond students to aid the library by helping dictate spending habits and strategize collection spending.

In this second episode, our guests—Ian Snowley, Dean of Student Learning Development & University Librarian at the University of Lincoln, Jamie Wood, professor of History and Education at the University of Lincoln, Samantha Sharman, a student at the University of Lincoln, and Matt Hayes, Managing Director at Technology from SAGE—dig into why the student perspective on the undergraduate workflow is so valuable. In addition, our guests delve into a reading list’s purpose, and the particular pain points that arise from differing generational views and attitudes toward student research. The guests also highlight how student needs have shifted in the last few years and the lack of preparation prior education provides incoming undergraduates.

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