Senior Lecturer Maria Bonn and colleagues in Kansas and North Carolina have received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS LG-72-17-0132-17) to fund their project exploring the need for and components of an open educational resource (OER) for teaching library students and professionals about scholarly communication. Co-principal investigators on the project include Will Cross, director of the Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center at North Carolina State University Libraries, and Josh Bolick, scholarly communications librarian at the University of Kansas Libraries.
While scholarly communication is recognized as a core competency for librarianship, educational resources for training and continuing education are currently lacking in this area. In the IMLS-funded project, Bonn's research team will design and conduct a nationwide survey and workshop to engage with two central stakeholder groups: library school instructors and scholarly communication experts. Through these activities, the researchers will discover whether an OER is needed, how it might work, possible obstacles to its adoption, and partnerships and promotions that could help in its success.
"Anyone who keeps an eye on job openings in academic libraries will have noticed the growing demand for library support for scholarly communication, the communication that is at the very core of the scholarly purpose,” Bonn said. “Professional education for librarians is only starting to catch up with the interest in the field. Our project is designed to inform and accelerate the attention devoted to scholarly communication in both LIS and continuing professional education."
Bonn's research interests include publishing, scholarly communication, networked communication, and the economics of information. At the iSchool, she teaches courses on the role of libraries in scholarly communication and publishing. Prior to her teaching appointment, Bonn served as the associate university librarian for publishing at the University of Michigan Library, with responsibility for publishing and scholarly communications initiatives, including the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office. Bonn also has been an assistant professor of English at institutions both in the United States and abroad. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester, master's and doctoral degrees in American Literature from SUNY Buffalo, and a master's in information and library science from the University of Michigan.