Mark Martinez: “Academic Libraries Have Much to Gain from Citizen Science”

From September 28 to 30, the annual conference of the Association of University Libraries and Documentation Managers and Managers (ADBU) Evaluation of the progress of open science in universities and university libraries. Assembly President Mark Martinezreturns to the sites it invokes.

What did you learn from these exchanges about open science?

You have evaluated the efforts that still need to be made moving forward. Sociologist Christine Muslin has replaced librarians in a system of powers, checks and balances in universities, which is the symbol of their management (between the general department of services, the presidency, department heads, etc.). Librarians’ efforts and convictions are not enough.

Physicist Jean-Sebastian Coe of the University of Amsterdam called for more activity.

The activity of librarians is essential for the advancement of open science in all its dimensions on a daily basis and in the field: openness of publications and data, plans for managing research data, etc.

As for combat researchers, it is good and necessary. Even researchers who are able to invest in the university’s power structures are even better. They must be accompanied by people who are able to inject their ideas into decision-making bodies and understand the complexity of national systems, which we can moreover envy.

Can we be proud, as we heard at the conference, of France’s centralized open science policy?

We are envious and we are right in that as long as we see it from afar. It allows for national cohesion, unlike, for example, the German model, which is fragmented and complex, because political decisions in this area are made mainly at the state level. But we can usefully imitate our German partners in terms of the intensity of the long-term investments that politicians make in research and open science…

How are the resources of French BUs changing?

Our BUs are significantly behind in terms of sustainable resources compared to their European counterparts, and this lag is increasing year by year. This is a brake on developing the service offer for French students and research communities, and it is a brake on student success as well as research excellence, two of the country’s strategic imperatives. Therefore ADBU members will work on the BU 2030 plan which will establish the diagnosis and propose a multi-year catch-up plan for financial and strategic upgrade.

Gold, diamond, gray, green models… Shall we pick just one?

There is room for all models. Physicists, lawyers, physicians, and mathematicians do not have the same research practices, so the answer cannot be uniform. We cannot decide from Paris on a national policy for a single instrument, but rather agree on common and interoperable instruments, such as the reference platform halo. The principle advocated by ADBU is the diversity of books, with space for all those involved in scholarly publishing. We are convinced that it would not be possible – and would not be healthy – to impose a single model.

Do BUs play a leading role in so-called “participatory” science, that is, science to which non-scientists can contribute?

Learning with and for society is a goal that universities have begun to seize. They are still not found in university libraries but are an almost natural extension of the open science policies that they implement within their institutions and at the national level. I am convinced that they have much to contribute and to gain from this in terms of working without isolation with other university services, by reaching a wider audience than the ones they normally serve.