SCOOP: Staying Connected with Scholarly Communication While Staying Home

At the time of writing this month’s SCOOP, most of the United States remains under some variation of a “stay at home” or “shelter in place” order. For those interested, there are many ways that you can continue to learn and engage in scholarly communication in religion and theology while you are staying at and working from home.

Atla Open Press

Atla Open Press publishes journals and books on topics at the intersection of librarianship and the study and teaching of religion and theology. All works are available open access under a CC-BY-NC license in EPUB and PDF format. Additionally, several of our open books are available as print-on-demand.

Scholarly communication topics frequently appear in Atla Open Press publications. Readers can find articles, book chapters, and even papers presented at Atla Annual in our publications as well as writings on a variety of other topics. We encourage you to read and search out publications at the following web sites:

Books@Atla Open Press

Recent titles published include Introduction to Theological Libraries, Information Literacy and Theological Librarianship, and Teaching Religion in a Changing Public University. Later this year, watch for the publication of a volume commemorating Atla’s 75^th anniversary, as well as the first volume in a new series on women in religion. If you have ideas for a new book or edited collection, please email the editorial board at openbooks@myatla.org.

Theological Librarianship

Now in its twelfth year of publication, Theological Librarianship publishes peer-reviewed articles, special forum essays, and book reviews relevant to the profession of theological and religious studies librarianship. Be sure to check out the index published in October 2019 to find articles on relevant scholarly communication issues and other topics of interest. Submissions to the journal are accepted on a rolling basis at the journal’s site, and the editors welcome and encourage submissions on topics that fall in the areas of digital humanities, open access, and other scholarly communication issues.

Theology Cataloging Bulletin

A quarterly publication for catalogers and other technical services professionals, there is occasionally content of relevance to scholarly communication. For example, in the most recent issue, the editors compiled a bibliography on linked data, which can have an impact on researcher identification.

Summary of Proceedings

In recent years, keynote speakers and other presenters have covered a wide array of scholarly communications topics from copyright and fair use to wikidata. Papers on these topics have been collected and published in the annual Atla Summary of Proceedings, which can now be viewed online open access through 2011. Additional years will be added in the months ahead.

Open Education Resources

Atla recognizes the growing importance of open educational resources (OER) in the study and teaching of religion and theology, particularly at this time as more classes have had to shift online. The Scholarly Communication Committee conducted a survey in Fall 2019 to gauge member interests and needs and will continue to develop resources and programs to support those needs.

In the meantime, we encourage you to view this recent introductory webinar on OER. Further, the Atla LibGuide Websites on Religion directs users to many free and open resources on a wide variety of topics in religion and theology, which can be utilized as OER. The Atla Digital Library can also be used as a teaching and research tool to support OER. View this webinar on how to use the Digital Library for these purposes.

Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright and fair use have been an important topic in recent weeks as librarians have supported faculty and instructional designers in rapidly shifting their courses online and in responding to the increased demand for online content. Last month the SCOOP dug into the application of fair use, not only to online courses but during these exigent circumstances.

For more on copyright and fair use, including further guidance on the impact of copyright online teaching and finding legal sources for streaming video, see the Atla LibGuide on Copyright and Fair Use.

Additional Resources

Additional LibGuides will be coming soon on Digital Humanities, Big Data, and Open Access. Watch for announcements in the Atla blog or by bookmarking Atla LibGuides.

The SCOOP column regularly reports on scholarly communication topics of interest. You can view the entirety of posts here.

Interested in getting involved with the Atla Scholarly Communication Committee? We will have two vacancies on the committee starting July 1 for current Atla individual members. Contact us if you are interested in serving on this committee.

Atla Annual 2020 is being re-imagined as an online conference. Watch for announcements on the finalized schedule and look for online presentations relevant to scholarly communication.