SPARC has appointed Caitlin Carter to its team as a visiting program officer. Carter, Scholarly Communication and Open Access Policy Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University Welch Medical Library Baltimore, Maryland, will spend about a quarter of her time in the newly established role.
Carter will work with SPARC members and Director of Programs & Engagement Nick Shockey and Senior Consultant Greg Tannebaum to create materials to help libraries with Big Deal negotiation strategies and lay the groundwork to establish a negotiation community of practice.
In her VPO position, Carter will focus on supporting the SPARC membership as libraries re-evaluate their negotiating position in light of the growing momentum behind Open Access. She will lead the creation of a negotiation community of practice within SPARC to facilitate knowledge sharing among member libraries. There is a growing need as many rethink desired outcomes for negotiations, strategies for getting there, and how to reinvest in open, community-aligned infrastructure.
Complementing this work, Carter will also help to conduct a survey of libraries that have cancelled Big Deals to identify key point people involved, ramifications, alternative content fulfillment experience, net savings, and faculty reaction. Based on feedback from the community, Carter will look for opportunities to build on SPARC’s current suite of resources in this area. This includes SPARC’s Big Deal Tracker and newly released Big Deal Knowledge Database that make it easy for libraries to see who has cancelled bundles and how much libraries are paying for subscriptions.
Carter’s appointment began in late August and will continue for one year. SPARC launched the VPO program this year to provide opportunities for staff in SPARC member libraries to contribute to special projects and programs, either in whole or in part, to advance the open agenda. The program provides highly visible professional development opportunities for outstanding staff members and serves the SPARC membership extending SPARC’s capacity to undertake additional activities.
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