Fondren Fellows Project Proposal

Name: Shannon Kipphut-Smith

Department: Digital Scholarship Services

Email:hone: 713-348-3989

Project Title: Know Your [Author] Rights!

When would project work take place: in the summer of 2016, fall of 2016, or either? Either

  1. Please provide a brief (up to 500 word) summary of the proposed project, explaining why it is suitable for the Fondren Fellows program.

Please see attached.

  1. Outline the key tasks that the Fondren Fellow would work on.
  • Usability study of existing library author rights resources (related—observe where Rice authors look for information about author rights/copyright, if not through the library).
  • Research (online resources and scholarly publications) author rights services and resources at other institutions.
  • Based on the research and usability study, make recommendations for the development of author rights services and programming at Fondren.
  1. What qualifications would you expect from students working on this project?
  • Comfortable working alone and in collaboration with diverse group of library staff and Rice authors.
  • Willingness to learn software related to usability testing.
  • Comfortable writing report.
  • Comfortable conducting online research.
  • Not required, but helpful: experience/interest in designing websites, promotional material, etc.
  1. What would students learn through their participation in this project?
  • Diverse roles of library staff.
  • Importance of usability testing of online resources; skill set specific to this.
  • Development and analysis of online resources.
  • Issues related to copyright and author rights.
  • Project management

Summary of Proposed Project

Rice researchers generate a large number of publications—possibly thousands of journal articles each year. U.S. copyright law automatically grants authors exclusive copyright. However, as a part of the scholarly publishing process, authors are often asked to transfer some or all of these rights to the publisher, resulting in limited reuse (even by the creator) and public accessibility. In response, many academic libraries have taken the lead in encouraging authors to retain their rights.

Fondren’s existing author rights resources are limited—a research guide page and a section of the Rice Open Access Policy website.Unfortunately, they are not widely promoted and arefull of library jargon that is not always easily understood by users. There is a need for the library’s author rights resources to a) meet users at their point of need and b) present information in an accessible way.

The purpose of this project is to increase awareness (on the Rice campus) of issues related to copyright and author rights and provide usable, accessible information about this topic. This will be done in two ways:

  1. Evaluation of Fondren’s existing author rights resources. In collaboration with Fondren’s UX Office (Amanda Thomas has been consulted on this project’s proposal), the student(s) will develop a short “guerilla” usability study of existing library resources. The student(s) will also use the study as a way to better understand what sort of information Rice authors look for and where they look for it. Based on these observations, student(s) will offer recommendations for revising existing resources and/or developing new resources. As time allows, student(s) will collaborate with DSS staff to develop resources.
  2. Research author rights resources at other institutions. A number of academic libraries support author rights through online resources and programming. In addition, a number of scholarly publications outline library projects, which provide additional insight into what works and what doesn’t in institutions of all sizes. Student(s) will conduct a review of online resources and scholarship and make recommendations specific to Fondren. As time allows, student(s) will collaborate with DSS staff to develop resources and programming.

By the end of this project, student(s) will better understand the information seeking needs of Rice authors (in relation to author rights), trends in author rights resources and programming, and the usability of existing Fondren resources, and will be able to make recommendations to the library regarding the development of future author rights projects (as a part of the project, student(s) will work with DSS staff to develop a written report; if time allows, a presentation to library staff may also occur).

This project is suitable for the Fondren Fellows Program because it can be completed over the summer or in one semester and will help Fondren to better meet the needs of Rice authors.