VALA2022 CC4 Sideris

“Doing my own research”: access to expert opinion outside traditional academic publishing

VALA2022 CC4 TABLE 2
Wednesday 15 June 2022, 15.10-15.40 and 15.50-16.20

Laki Sideris
  • Head of Product, Manager
  • Informit

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a watershed moment where people are put into a position to ascertain the validity of expert opinion in order to make potential life and death decisions. While scepticism of authority is considered a positive trait and encouraged through education, it has also reduced trust in domain expertise, while social media networks encourage people to “do their own research”. On the other hand, academic research papers contain technical detail and assumed knowledge that can exclude the general reader or may even provide false evidence to a reader’s confirmation bias. Popular websites and commentators have in many instances provided factually wrong or misleading information and advice. In this environment, people may prefer to seek perspective from their social peers. To counter this there has been a proliferation of publications and experts working within research areas explaining their research and informed opinion in non-technical language for a general audience. Many of these publications go beyond the “TED talk” mode by providing accessible detail, promoting evidence over emotion.

In this Critical Conversation we will ask: Is there a role for libraries to play in helping people decipher the “noise” and raise the voice of considered expert opinion?

This discussion will help Informit frame the development of a new database to be released in 2022. We are in the early stages in aggregating content from a wide range of open publications containing expert academic opinion and current research news. They are written in accessible language that help frame community discourse. The database will also provide an archive of the published content that by its nature is ephemeral. By including this database into libraries’ collections, articles can be discovered alongside broader research and help library users obtain a broader contextualised understating of complex research and hot topics.

Biography

Laki Sideris has been in the electronic publishing industry more than twenty years. He is currently the Head of Product at Informit. Over the years he help bring to life many Informit databases such as APAFT, TVNews and EduTV. He has also lectured for many at RMIT University in their Information Managment department.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License.

VALA2000 Session 3 Mercieca

Persistent URL: http://www.vala.org.au/vala2000-proceedings/vala2000-session-3-mercieca

The Publisher and the library: converging professions or the start of the true hybrid library

VALA 2000 CONCURRENT SESSION 3: Electronic Publishing
Wednesday 16 February 2000, 11:20 – 11:50

Paul Mercieca

Publishing and Consultancy Manager, RMIT Publishing
http://www.informit.com.au


VALA Peer Reviewed Paper

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Abstract

Libraries have always been adopters of new technology and the integration of such technology has enhanced the range of services and resources that can be supplied from a single library. The traditional publisher may have been lagging behind in the adoption of new technologies and it is only in recent times that publishers are using digital delivery to enhance their print-based titles. However, as the publisher is the holder of copyright to a large body of information, they could enter into competition with libraries by providing direct access to this content. This paper explores whether, in the digital age, the publisher and library are competitors or whether the real need is for synergy and partnership to create a critical mass of Australian digital content.