Mutually Sustaining: Open Access Initiatives and the Graduate Student Library Assistant Experience

Abstract

Institutional Repositories (IRs), library Journal Publishing Systems (JPS), and Open Access (OA) environmental outreach campaigns all contribute to sustainability – and graduate students do too. This academic poster presents the unique role of Graduate Student Library Assistants (GSLAs), whose shorter-term roles sustain longer-term successes. Explored through the lens of GSLAs in the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office (SCCO) at the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL), this poster reflects on the experiences of supporting three concurrent open access initiatives. First, this poster frames successes in supporting the migration of the Institutional Repository (TSpace) to Scholaris infrastructure. Scholaris being a new national shared repository service facilitating open discovery, sharing, and preservation of Canadian scholarship. Second, it maps a maintenance project with the Journal Production Services. Supporting 90+ academic journals rebuilding or launching across the pandemic. Third, it scans participation in the Open Climate Campaign, “Paper Pledge for the Planet.” A campaign centering the making climate change research articles available in IRs. There are particular benefits to engaging in multiple projects simultaneously. The poster examines how the projects undertaken relate to both environmental sustainability and the sustaining of scholarly communication services supporting open access. It recognizes how graduate students integrate themselves to contribute to organizational sustainability. It reflects on how the variety in project topic and size sustains internal and student interests. Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify how IRs, OJS, and OA campaigns can contribute to both environmental and organizational sustainability. 2. Discover ways the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office at UTL champions open access initiatives. 3. Understand the role of graduate students in sustaining open access research projects. 4. Evaluate how engaging multiple open access projects successfully contributes to sustained interests and morale.