Author: Jerrel Horn

Librarian, Research & Instruction for Science & Engineering
Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Boca Raton, FL

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LISA 10 Conference: Research, Equity and Access in the Age of AI

We invite all those interested in Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) to mark their calendars to attend LISA 10 in Santiago de Chile. LISA 10, Research Equity and Access in the Age of AI, will take place the week of Mon, 03 Nov – Fri, 07 Nov 2025 and will provide participants the opportunity to engage with fellow librarians, archivists, data specialists, bibliographers, publishers, documentalists, experts on evolving technologies, and scientists. The LISA conference series aims to provide a platform to discuss the state-of-the-art for information maintenance, retrieval, metrics, preservation, scholarly publishing, and information systems.

The conference will be held in-person at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) premises in Santiago, Chile, with remote participation available via MS Teams. Registration and abstract submission will open in April.

Remote participants are equally encouraged to submit their abstracts for consideration. Both presentations and digital posters are welcome and will be organized around the following themes:

• Using AI/ML/LLMs Responsibly Topics on current or potential application of AI/LLMs/ML at your institution or in your information service community, including opportunities and challenges

• Research Equity, Inclusiveness & Access Ensuring equity with perspectives from around the globe

• Stewarding Astronomical Knowledge Best practices in traditional and data archives, documentation, and knowledge transfer and representation

• Assessing the Impact of Research Sharing insights into tools, platforms, documentation and the ?why? of bibliometrics. Presentations on researcher/staff, institutional, and observatory metrics are encouraged

• The Future of Multidisciplinary Research Current and future expansion of science disciplines and SciX; changes to where and how astronomy gets published; diversity of research communities and media beyond the traditional journal article

• Enabling Open Science Topics on data curation, data management and open software; ensuring reproducibility and access to others

• Navigating Open Access How changes in publishing models are impacting libraries and their customers; publishing challenges at your institution; topics on affordability and credibility of journals

•The Changing Roles of Astronomy Libraries Additional topics, such as:

o   changing role of special libraries, connecting users to resources and managing collections;

o   changing demands on libraries, such as research/data support;

o   role in organizing conferences or publishing conference proceedings;

o   navigating copyright law;

o   organizing training for research skills like proposal writing/Overleaf, etc.

General questions can be directed to LISA10@eso.org<mailto:LISA10@eso.org>

We look forward to receiving your abstracts soon and to seeing you in Santiago.

LISA 10 SOC & LOC

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STELLA 2024 Virtual Unconference December 13, 2024

The 2024 Stella Unconference is taking place VIRTUALLY on Friday, December 13, 2024. This free event welcomes current or aspiring science, technology, engineering and medical/health librarians and those interested in STEM librarianship. In the Unconference spirit, YOU will drive the agenda and determine what discussions and breakouts will take place. It’s a great chance to discuss and learn about current topics relevant to STEM librarianship.

IF you are interested in receiving updates about the Unconference, please follow the instructions on how you can subscribe to the STELLA Listserv at https://stellaunconference.com/about/ . (This is a relatively quiet list).

The latest information that was sent out is:

  • registration is open through Friday, November 15
  • voting is open for discussion sessions
  • a call is out for presenters, lightning talks and poster presentation
  • a second call is out for discussion session Facilitators (welcome presenters, run the Zoom room, ask submitted questions)

Please see the registration form to submit your information for the session vote, the call for presenters, and the call for session facilitators

STELLA Unconference Agenda – Schedule for Friday, December 13th (All times in Eastern Time):

11:00-11:30am Coffee Break & Welcome

11:30am-12:45pm Session 1

12:45-1:00pm Break

1:00-2:00pm Lightning Talks and Posters

2:00-2:15pm Break

2:15-3:30pm Session 2

3:30-4:00pm Close-Out

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the STELLA 2024 Organizing Committee at stellaunconference@gmail.com.

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Lots of Great Discussions Were Had at the SLA 2024 and the Summer Math Roundtables

SLA 2024 Math Roundtable

The Math Roundtable at the SLA 2024 conference was a plenary discussion. We covered a number of great topics, which are detailed below.

Accessible HTML for Math: We discussed what tools were available to convert mathematics papers to an HTML format that would be accessible for use with screen readers. The American Mathematical Society (AMS) noted they had developed some tools to make math documents accessible. They are hoping to make them more publicly available in the future.

ArXiv has their own LaTex to HTML converter, and they are hosting an online forum on accessibility soon. They will make an announcement on PAMnet when they have the details ready, so look out for that.

Artificial Intelligence and Math: We talked about AI training on math. A representative from ArXiv said there was evidence that AI models had been trained on ArXiv.

E-Books Versus Print Use of Math Materials: The AMS reported that 40% of their book sales are e-books. Also, 75% of their journal subscriptions are online only. The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) noted that their digital sales also outstrip print sales for books.

Author IDs Using ORCID: The discussion involved the use of ORCID by math researchers. Librarians at the University of Rochester said that they help populate their researchers’ ORCIDs for them. Various publishers reported that they have seen inconsistent use of ORCID from authors. Mathematical Reviews said that they focus more on using MRID instead of ORCID. SIAM doesn’t mandate that authors have an ORCID, but they encourage authors to get one. It was also noted that sometimes mathematicians use a new ORCID when they move to a new institution.

AMS versus EBSCOhost re: the MathSciNet Interface: The discussion revolved around teaching the two interfaces to students. Some librarians said that they teach undergraduate students about the EBSCOhost interface because the students are already used to using EBSCOhost for other databases.

Summer 2024 Math Roundtable

An online Math Roundtable was hosted over ZOOM late in the summer. The discussion was active and covered a number of topics.

A question was posed about relocating Lecture Notes in Mathematics to storage if they have not circulated in 10 years.

Next, the IMU Permissions report was discussed. The report may be viewed at https://www.mathunion.org/activities/ad-hoc-committee-permissions-cop .

After the report discussion, there was a proposal that the MathSciNet and the Mathematics Genealogy Project could link to Open Access theses & dissertations as well as ProQuest Dissertations. More and more schools are making their theses & dissertations freely available online, so being able to access the documents directly from the two databases would save time and effort. It was suggested that perhaps MathSciNet might be interested in doing a pilot with a select group of PAM people.

Another item brought up was an interest in learning LaTex and learning how to teach others to use it.

Tyler Kane, AMS, speaking about mathematics and accessibility, said, “I’d love to get Peter Krautzberger in a PAM session to discuss math and accessibility. We had him do a webinar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2y-4bGBwec on how this applies to one aspect of AMS publications, Mathviewer, but he is also a great source of information on development. The asterisk here is that he is pretty invested in projects that he has worked on, but he is very invested in this topic.”

Finally, a great article was brought up on the trending topic of Data Sharing: Making Mathematical Research Data FAIR: Pathways to Improved Data Sharing. (2024) Scientific Data, 11 (1), art. no. 676 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03480-0

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Members’ Corner: New Marketing Director for Science/AAAS

Sharice Collins is delighted to announce that she started a new position as the Marketing Director for Science/AAAS. In her new role, she is overseeing global sales and marketing activities for the Science family of journals, Science Careers, and Science Custom Publishing. 

Sharice said, “I am humbled to be a part of this prestigious organization whose mission and values so closely align with my own.  I am especially excited to continue to work with the library community, nurturing the essential librarian/publisher relationship.” 

A longtime PAM member, supporter, and 2015 PAM Achievement Award winner, Sharice is looking forward to maintaining her bonds with the PAMily and is grateful for the support and positivity she received from the library community as she made the professional transition to Science/AAAS.

Cheers and Celebrations from the PAMily for Sharice Collins!

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SLA 2024 Annual Conference: URI

Conference Session: Physics Roundtable

Collaboration and Research Between Faculty and Librarians

Monday, July 15 • 9:00am – 10:00am

The Physics Roundtable is the premier annual event for physics librarians at the SLA  Annual Conference. The Physics Roundtable is a moderated discussion of thought-provoking ideas about librarianship in physics, designed by and for anyone interested. Our session will focus on collaboration in the classroom and on research between faculty and librarians in the physical sciences. Come prepared with your questions and problems, and also to share your tips and tricks with your colleagues. This session is part of programming by the PAM community

Moderators: Sanday Avila; NuRee Lee

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Members Corner

PAM Friday Watercooler – BE THERE!

It’s halfway through the year and we’re sweltering under heat wave after heat wave. Cool off on Fridays with the PAM Watercooler Zoom call! What better excuse do you have to lock yourself in your COOL, AIR-CONDITIONED office or room and talk about all things STEM Library?? Even better, since this is a Watercooler session, raise a glass of your favorite COLD beverage to your PAMily while you enjoy the company!

Watercoolers are held from 3:30 – 4:30 EST on Fridays.

PAM Friday Watercooler Zoom

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Members Corner

Join the PAM Community at the New SLA Website

The new SLA website launched in April, and we are looking for all of the members of our PAMily to visit the website and register your accounts. You’ll be able to update your profile with photos and your professional information and you can join the PAM Community group. If you have any problems with logging in or registering your account, contact SLA Membership Director Joel Colon at jcolon@sla.org. He’s happy to help get you started! One item to note – double-check your profile information, as there has been instances of personal information being displayed in the directory.

You can easily replace your personal information in your profile, or click the locks next to fields that you want to hide. The PAM Membership Committee stated that they will be following up on this issue, to see if the default can be changed to display professional information and hide personal information.

Make sure to sign up and WELCOME to the PAMily!

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Members Corner Resources

Resources: Databases That Index PrePrints

A question was asked about which databases index preprints. After some back-and-forth, this was the final list that was generated, with much thanks to our PAMily for making this list possible!


If you need help with searching the various PrePrint repositories, here’s a tip sheet that was kindly put together by our colleagues at the University of Victoria in Canada and the University of Minnesota. Thanks to Zahra Premji and Amy Riegelman for your great work!

Scopus: arXiv, ChemRxiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, SSRN, TechRxiv, and Research Square

Web of Science Core Collection: ChemRxiv, arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv and preprints.org. New repositories are also being added.

Compendex: arXiv, SSRN, Research Square, TechRxiv

INSPEC: arXiv, and plans are in place to expand coverage in 2024 – 2025


SciFinder: arXiv, Beilstein Archives, bioRxiv, CERN Document Server, ChemRxiv, medRxiv, Research Square view in Publication Name

BioHackrXiv and Optica are stand-alone PrePrint servers

Europe PMC and Dimensions have links to many PrePrint servers. Check their lists to see which servers they have. Dimensions has over 50 PrePrint servers that they access, but you will need to create an account with Dimensions (it’s free!) to see their resources.

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Calls for Participants Scholarship

2024 November STEM Librarians Collaborative Call For Proposals

A call for proposals was sent out for the STEM Librarians Collaborative meeting taking place November 20 – 22, 2024. The conference is virtual, and they are looking for sessions on topics related to STEM librarianship.

Proposals may be for lightning talks, short presentations, first-hand experience accounts, problem and scenario advice, and interactive learning. They will also consider ideas for other types of presentations that would fit the virtual format. The deadline for submissions is July 17, 2024.


The website for the 2024 conference is not available yet, but the Collaborative has provided links for submitting your proposals and guidance on what they are looking for in a successful proposal.


Proposal Form with topics


Guidance on what the Collaborative is looking for (video presentation)

Proposal Evaluation Rubric


Questions? Email proposals@stemlib.co

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Members Corner

Wolbach Library of the Center for Astrophysics To Close

Katie Frey, the interim Head Librarian for the Wolbach Library, announced in January that the library would be closing in March 2024. In her announcement, she said,

“This is happening outside of the control of anyone in the library.  Wolbach Library has been honored to serve the astronomical community, and we truly appreciate our membership in the international astronomical community and collegial relationships.”

We are all deeply saddened to see the end of this valuable resource for the subjects of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The John G. Wolbach Library, which houses the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory collections, dates back to 1975 in its current incarnation, but the roots of the library go back to the 1800s.

Beginning in the 1800s, the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory developed a rich history of exchanging scholarly works. The Harvard College Observatory library was founded from this exchange. Later, in 1959, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory library was founded when selected astrophysical works were relocated from Washington, D.C. to Cambridge, MA. The two collections were merged in 1975 and the Wolbach Library was born. The latest addition to the library’s holdings, the Harvard College Observatory’s Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection, was added in 2022.

While you raise a glass to the end of this cherished institution, and perhaps listen to an appropriate soundtrack in the background (may we suggest Saying Goodbye from The Muppets or maybe Changes or Space Oddity by David Bowie), we ask if you could write down your memories and thoughts of the Wolbach Library. Once you’ve done that, you can send those memories to Jerrel and Emma by April 30th for inclusion in the Spring edition of the PAM Bulletin.