Meeting Roadmap

A Guide to the Fall 2024

Coalition for Networked Information Membership Meeting

The Fall 2024 CNI Membership Meeting, to be held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC on Dec. 9-10, offers a wide range of presentations that advance and report on CNI's programs, showcase projects underway at member institutions, and highlight important national and international developments. Here is the "roadmap" to the meeting, which includes both plenary events and an extensive series of breakout sessions focusing on current issues in digital information and technologies. I want to be sure to note that our start times on the first day will be slightly earlier than usual to provide time for an update and discussion of the CNI leadership transition that is underway; this will take place during an extended opening plenary.

 

As always, we have strived to present sessions that reflect late-breaking developments and also take advantage of our venue in the Washington, DC area to provide opportunities to interact with policymakers and funders, including the popular regular fall session Update from Funders: Priorities and Trends, which features panelists from several funding organizations. 

 

It is always wonderful to see so many new faces (as well as familiar ones!) at our meetings. On behalf of the entire organization, I extend a warm welcome to all those attending CNI for the first time and I hope that long-time attendees will help to make them welcome. On Monday, Dec. 9, the CNI meeting proper will be preceded by an optional, first-time-attendee introduction and information session at 11:00 am. Light refreshments will be available for all beginning at 11:45 am; the opening plenary is at 12:30 pm and will be followed by three rounds of parallel breakout sessions. The day’s presentations will end with a stand-alone, lightning round session, immediately preceding our signature evening reception which will run until 7:30 pm, where we encourage you to follow up with lightning round presenters and connect with old and new colleagues. After the reception, participants can enjoy a wide range of nearby dining options in Washington, DC.

 

Tuesday, Dec. 10 begins with a range of optional topical discussion tables over breakfast, most (if not all) of which will be lightly-facilitated; we are still experimenting with this program and welcome your feedback. At this year's fall meeting, we're planning about 15 or so of these tables, most with different topics and several designed as follow-ons or supplements to breakout sessions. The breakfast discussion tables are intended to give attendees an opportunity to engage with each other on issues for which there is strong community interest and/or to learn more about initiatives we believe to be of value. We expect breakfast discussion tables to be relatively unstructured and the role of facilitator to be fairly casual; participants are free to come and go. Rest assured there will still be ample space in the breakfast area for those who prefer unstructured dining and social opportunities. The meeting agenda contains some of the discussion topics and names of facilitators but more may be added; tables will be designated by topic in the breakfast dining area.

 

After breakfast, the main meeting resumes with three additional rounds of parallel breakout sessions, a sit-down lunch (provided), two more parallel breakout rounds, and the closing plenary, concluding around 3:30 pm. We include generous break time for informal networking with colleagues.

 

The schedule includes leisurely pacing, a modest number of parallel sessions, and professional recording of all sessions (unless otherwise requested by presenters) for subsequent public availability. Please continue to keep in mind that many of the project briefings that would have been part of the meeting pre-pandemic are now offered as part of our quarterly edition of video project briefings; see https://www.cni.org/resources/pbvs for the most recent edition.

 

Project briefing rounds will be 30, 45, or 60 minutes in duration. The lightning round will be comprised of brief presentations on new or ongoing projects or programs. Our goal is to provide you with more opportunities to learn about work that impacts the community (and potentially connect to projects of interest) while maintaining a comfortable meeting pace and structure. 

 

The CNI meeting program is subject to last-minute changes—as it’s winter, weather may be unpredictable and impact travel conditions, and also don’t rule out a late-breaking addition to the line-up! You can find the most current information, including schedule details, on the event Sched (https://cnifall24mtg.sched.com/) or on the CNI website (cni.org); any last-minute changes will also be posted to a physical message board near registration at the meeting.

 

Opening and Closing Sessions

The opening plenary session will be extended to about 90 minutes. This session is scheduled to start at 12:30 pm on Monday, Dec. 9. After my welcome, Association of Research Libraries Executive Director Andrew Pace will provide an update and discussion of the CNI leadership transition, followed by my customary survey of key developments and trends in the networked information and research landscapes. During my survey, which I expect will be my last as executive director, I want to look at not only recent developments and near-term prospects, but also to take a longer-term (quarter century) perspective on the evolution of key areas and share some speculations on key developments and issues for the next decade. There’s so much to talk about. The opening plenary will include time for questions and discussion, and I am eager to hear your comments.

 

For the closing plenary, we’ll hear from Tony Hey, this year’s Paul Evan Peters Award recipient (https://www.cni.org/go/pep-award), upon being presented with the award. Tony has done amazing things during his career. His talk, “The Fourth Paradigm, Open Science and Artificial Intelligence,” will serve as the Paul Evan Peters Memorial Lecture and promises to be thought-provoking. You can find his abstract and bio on the meeting website (https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024/plenary-sessions-f24).

 

Highlighted Breakout Sessions

 

We offer a great abundance and diversity of material, and I want to provide some additional context that may be helpful. We’ve requested that presenters share their slide decks with us, to put on our website following the meeting, and we expect to make recordings of the sessions publicly available on our YouTube and Vimeo channels after the meeting. We hope you will share these resources widely with your communities.

 

Inaugural CNI Senior Scholar Donald Waters will overview and invite discussion on his draft report exploring the information infrastructure that universities need to best address climate change as a grand challenge. The report suggests how research libraries, campus computing organizations, and other information experts could help accelerate research to address the growing climate emergency. Many of his insights are also relevant to other complex, multi-disciplinary challenges with similarly profound societal implications. The draft report is available at https://www.cni.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/DJW-CNI-Report-v2.0.pdf.

 

Discovery and collections access themes will be explored in a number of sessions:

• Representatives from a diverse set of institutions will discuss what principles should guide libraries as they consider allowing or limiting access to their collections for AI training in “Library Collections and Academic Publications as Artificial Intelligence Training Data.”
• “Reimagining Discovery: Transforming Access to Collections with Artificial Intelligence-Driven Exploration” recounts Harvard Library’s quest to find new ways to surface and enable discovery of the University’s special collections.
• The Big Ten Academic Alliance will report on its efforts to unite individual collections into a jointly managed, fully integrated single collection in “The BIG Collection and Operationalizing a New Paradigm: Insights and Learnings on Tooling the Shift Toward an Interdependent, Fully Networked, Distributed Future.”
• A panel will explore how to enhance discoverability of open access publications and some collaborative efforts currently underway in “Improving Open Access Discovery for Academic Library Users: A Conversation with Library Leaders.” A breakfast discussion table will also be held on this topic, with some of the panelists serving as facilitators.
• At many institutions, the curation of locally produced research data tends to dominate discussions of library roles in managing research data. However, as has been underscored by experience during the pandemic, research libraries also have an essential and crucial role in trying to manage and facilitate discovery of purchased and licensed data for research, teaching, and learning, the subject of “Discover and Analyze: Building Licensed Data Collections at University of California, Berkeley with Dataverse.”

 

Several briefings will explore how generative AI might impact organizational practices and interests on a broad scale:

• A panel will discuss Yale University’s recent commitment to AI in “Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Yale: Updates on Institutional and Library Generative AI Initiatives.” The talk will include an overview of the systems and governance structures that the university has implemented and also the library's role in the initiative.
• In “Artificial Intelligence in Libraries: Opportunities and Challenges,” panelists from several institutions will discuss strategic approaches for implementing AI, focusing on the role of campus-wide collaborations, AI and data literacy, and aligning initiatives with institutional values. A few breakfast discussion tables will be designated for this topic, with some of the session panelists serving as facilitators.
• “Open Forum for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI)” will include an overview of a new partnership initiative for human-centered AI, led by Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Much in the world of generative AI has changed in the past year and “Artificial Intelligence and Information Retrieval: The Year in Review” will highlight some of those developments, as well as look ahead to what may be coming. Other presentations will also focus on services and tools surrounding emerging technologies. “Generative Artificial Intelligence Innovation for Libraries and Learning” provides examples of several tools organizations are building using generative AI for research and access. Supporting the work of campus constituents is at the heart of “Artificial Intelligence Modeling & Inference as a Service,” which will describe a new unit within Stanford Libraries devoted to supporting researchers in their use of AI. 

 

The central theme of digital scholarship will be explored in an update on the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Fostering and Sustaining Diverse Digital Scholarship, whose progress we’ve tracked closely over the last few years and is now preparing to release its final report, including some discussion of ways in which the CNI community might help to advance some of the recommendations of this report. “Born-Digital Poetry: Planning for the Future of Literary Archives” discusses the unique challenges of stewarding literary archives in a fully digital age through a case study of the acquisition, preservation, discoverability, and use of born-digital poetry archives. 

 

Engaging the public in gathering and analyzing data will be key themes in a couple of sessions. In “’Each Row is a Person:’ Preserving History and Humanity in Archival Data,” presenters from the Library of Virginia will discuss how it is expanding its crowdsourcing program to help recognize the humanity of the marginalized people represented by the data. We’ll hear how citizen science has emerged as a bridge between universities and society in “Research Libraries as Hubs for Citizen Science,” in which speakers from Scistarter.org (a research affiliate of Arizona State University and North Carolina State University) and the Citizen Science Knowledge Center (based in the library at the University of Southern Denmark) will discuss the role of mediator between researchers and the public.

 

“Navigating the Future of Online Learning: Strategic Insights for Libraries” will cover what’s been happening recently in the rapidly changing landscape of online learning in higher education and explore how libraries are engaging with and supporting online learners. Speaker Glenda Morgan will also facilitate a breakfast discussion table on this topic.

 

“Three Levels of Academic Open Source Support Structures” will discuss issues related to open research and supporting services and infrastructures, especially in light of funder policies, focussing particularly on the roles and contributions of open source program offices.

 

Intellectual property issues will be discussed in “Supporting Computational Research (and More!) Through Licensing: An A-Z Licensing Guidebook for Libraries”; the presenters (who are also the guidebook editors) will also convene a breakfast chat on the topic. What lies ahead for an important community resource for tools to manage intellectual property rights after its current governance structure disbanded will be discussed in “The Future of RightsStatements.org: An Update and Community Discussion.”

 

“Personal and Collaborative Knowledge Management Systems: Infrastructure for Idea Management and Research Development” will provide a novel look at how important effective knowledge management has become to the success of increasingly interdisciplinary research teams, and it will include a look at some systems that could be helpful.

 

Finally, we expect the lightning round will include these talks:

• “Testing and Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Driven Search and AI-Assisted Description at the National Archives” (Jill Reilly, National Archives and Records Administration)
• “University-Based Publishing Futures” (Peter Berkery, Association of University Presses)
• “Connecting the Dots to Overcome Access Using Open Publication Distribution System” (James English, Lyrasis)
• “Advancing the Open Ebook Ecosystem” (Robert Cartolano, Columbia)
• “An Update from Project Lend: Unlocking the Potential for Digital Books in Higher Education” (Rice Majors, UC, Davis)
• “A Tool for Assessing the Preservability of Complex Digital Publications” (Jonathan Greenberg, NYU)
• “Preserving Preprints for the Long Term: Scope and Challenges” (Thib Guicherd-Callin, Stanford)
• “A Vision for an Artificial Intelligence-Savvy Library Community” (Vessela Ensberg, UC Davis)
• “The American Institute of Physics Research Strategy: Cultivating Positive Change in the Physical Sciences” (Trevor Owens, American Institute of Physics)

 

I invite you to browse the complete list of breakout sessions and their full abstracts on the CNI website: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2024. In many cases, you will find pointers to reference material that you may find useful to explore prior to the session, and after the meeting, we will add material from the actual presentations, including video recordings.

 

On behalf of the CNI team, I look forward to welcoming you to Washington, DC for what promises to be another extremely worthwhile meeting. Please contact me (cliff@cni.org) or Assistant Executive Director Diane Goldenberg-Hart (diane@cni.org) if we can provide you with any additional information on the meeting.

 

Clifford Lynch

Executive Director

Coalition for Networked Information