Against the Grain - The Podcast

Against the Grain is your key to the latest news about libraries, publishers, book jobbers, and subscription agents. Our goal is to link publishers, vendors, and librarians by reporting on the issues, literature, and people that impact the world of books and journals.

ATGthePodcast 338 - A Conversation with Philip Ball, Freelance Science Writer 10/12/2026

ATGthePodcast 337 - A Conversation with Jonathan Grunert, Scholarly Publishing Librarian, University at Buffalo 10/05/2026

ATGthePodcast 336 - A Conversation with Harry Collins, Professor Emeritus, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University 09/28/2026

ATGthePodcast 336 - A Conversation with Harry Collins, Professor Emeritus, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University Description for Show Notes: Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Harry Collins, Professor Emeritus, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. Harry is one of the most distinguished academics involved in the sociology of science and has authored 25 books throughout his career. He earned his master’s in sociology from Essex University, went on to earn his PhD in the same field, and spent 45 years studying one group of physicists working to detect gravitational waves. In this conversation, he talks with Michael about the Bath School Approach, to deeply analyze how scientific facts are socially constructed. He also talks about a book he stumbled across by accident, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn, and how it gave science a sociological face and helped people to begin to think of science in a new way. Harry also talks about the shifting attitudes towards science since the 60’s and 70’s, and about his well-known book from 1993, The Golem: What Everyone Should Know About Science, in which he describes science as social, explains what this means, and tells how this book led to a conversation with the director of gravitational physics at the National Science Foundation about the new field. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keywords: #SociologyOfScience #SocialSciences #SocialConstruction #SciencePhilosophy #ScienceStudies #HistoryOfScience #ScienceAndSociety #InformationScience #HigherEd #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #AcademicInnovation #FutureOfLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #PublishingIssues #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/43051913

ATGthePodcast 335 - A Conversation with Daniel Dollar, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, Yale University 09/21/2026

ATGthePodcast 335 - A Conversation with Daniel Dollar, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, Yale University Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Daniel Dollar, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, Yale University. Daniel started out by studying politics in the early 90’s, going to Washington, D.C., bouncing around between jobs on Capitol Hill, and working for a senator from N.C. until a former staff director and a senior advisor to the Senate Rules Committee advised him to apply to the Library of Congress for a job in Congressional Research Service. Daniel says he was doing research and finding things in the collections of the Library of Congress for congressional offices where he learned more about how libraries operated, and that eventually led him to earn his master’s in library science at the University of Maryland. Daniel talks with Michael about his career progression after library school and how he came to Yale. Daniel has become known for the phrase “Collections of service.” He says libraries are research and learning organizations, and cultural heritage organizations, and that can be abstracted down to transformation and tradition. And so, the libraries, by their nature, are designed to help transform, to work with faculty, students, members of the public, to achieve their educational and learning needs and goals, to acquire the skills and get access to the information that's going to be able to meet their needs. Thus, what libraries acquire needs to change to support this as research advances and as research in medicine and in law, as well as research across the academy, becomes increasingly multidisciplinary. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keywords:#Yale #CollectionsOfService #TransformationAndTradition #LibraryScience #InformationScience #Research #ResearchSupport #HigherEd #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #AcademicInnovation #FutureOfLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #PublishingIssues #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/42976273

ATGthePodcast 334 - A Conversation with Ulrich Herb, Head, Publication and Research Support, Saarland University Library 09/15/2026

ATGthePodcast 333 - A Conversation with Elizabeth Gadd, Chair, INORMS Research Evaluation Group 08/31/2026

ATGthePodcast 333 - A Conversation with Elizabeth Gadd, Chair, INORMS Research Evaluation Group Full title: A Conversation with Elizabeth Gadd, Chair, INORMS Research Evaluation Group, and Head of Research Culture and Assessment, Loughborough University Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Elizabeth Gadd, Chair, INORMS Research Evaluation Group, and Head of Research Culture and Assessment, Loughborough University. Elizabeth says that she had an amazing English teacher in school, which led her to pursue an English degree, even though she had worked in a public library since she was 16 years old. She also worked in the academic library during college. Elizabeth felt as though there was no obvious next step upon her graduation with a degree in English; she says it was unlike when “you study chemistry, you become a chemist.” So, she put her library experience to good use and applied for the Standing Conference of National University Libraries graduate trainee scheme for UK University librarians (SCONNEL), and received a traineeship at University College London and then completed her masters at Loughborough University and has been there ever since. Elizabeth talks with Michael about where her interest in metrics came from, recently completing her PhD on copyright by publication, finding some injustices of the scholarly communication system and investigating issues of copyright ownership of scholarly information from many different perspectives, designing and working on Project Romeo, how her role at the University has changed over time, moving from librarianship to research management, and how she currently works to change research culture. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keywords:#INORMS #Research #ResearchCulture #ResearchManagement #HigherEd #InformationProfessionals #InformationScience #AcademicLibraries #FutureOfLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #PublishingIssues #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/42615125

ATGthePodcast 332 - A Conversation with Josh Cromwell, Scholarly Communications Manager, University of Southern Mississippi Libraries 08/24/2026

ATGthePodcast 331 - A Conversation with Georgios Papadopoulos, Chairman and Founder, Atypon 08/17/2026

ATGthePodcast 330 - A Conversation with Russell Michalak, Library Director, Goldey-Beacom College, and Founding Partner, Inclusive Knowledge Solutions 08/09/2026

ATGthePodcast 330 - A Conversation with Russell Michalak, Library Director, Goldey-Beacom College, and Founding Partner, Inclusive Knowledge Solutions Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Russell Michalak, Library Director, Goldey-Beacom College, and Founding Partner, Inclusive Knowledge Solutions. Russell has been immersed in libraries throughout his life. His mother was a librarian, and he kept coming back to librarianship despite an initial rebellion to pursue a library career. He has worked in libraries of all different sizes, budgets and resources over the last 20 years. He also has a background in history and says history is important to study as it is present now in everything we do and provides context for current events, government, and politics and also helps when working with people to have an understanding of where people come from and learning empathy for how people come to different places. In this conversation, Russell talks with Michael about a birthday gift he received at 10 years old that helped shape his career, the evolution of Goldey-Beacom College, and the challenges and innovations in library culture there. He also shares insights on how he sees the role of AI in libraries, the importance of building relationships between libraries and faculty, and the need for AI literacy among students. He says the democratization of access to AI tools and fostering a positive library culture are both very important. Social Media: The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keywords: #AILiteracy #AIInLibraries #Access #LibraryCulture #LibraryInnovation #GenAI #LibraryResources #ProblemSolvers #InformationProfessionals #InformationScience #AcademicLibraries #FutureOfLibraries #HistoryMatters #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #PublishingIssues #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/42374810

ATGthePodcast 329 - A Conversation with Orland Hoeber, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science, University of Regina; Founder, Dilex Search 08/03/2026

ATGthePodcast 329 - A Conversation with Orland Hoeber, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science, University of Regina; Founder, Dilex Search Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Orland Hoeber, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science, at University of Regina; Founder, Dilex Search. Orland says from an early age, he has always been interested in problem solving, trying to make sense of things and understand how things worked. He gravitated towards computing slowly, starting off in science-based disciplines and a degree in mathematics. He moved away from mathematics, which he says was strict and precise with structured rules, to computer science for an outlet to leverage his creativity, which opened the opportunity for doing creative problem solving, and he earned his graduate degrees in computer science. In this interview, Orland talks with Michael about searching, the library reference desk, and searching within GenAI. He has done research into human-computer interaction, specifically searching, and has recently launched a new search tool, Dilex, for saving searches between desktop and mobile devices. He says there is a gap between what a user needs and what is being provided, and for the last eight to ten years, he has been working in the realm of digital libraries helping people find information in libraries when their search tasks are complex in nature. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keywords: #DigitalLibraries #DigitalTransformation #KnowledgeManagement #ComputerScience #GenAI #LibraryResources #AcademicResearch #ProblemSolvers #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #PublishingIssues #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/42308020

ATGthePodcast 327 - A Conversation with Steve Smith, AI Gateway and MCP Pilot Advisory for Scholarly Publishers 07/27/2026

ATGthePodcast 327 - A Conversation with Ben Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Washington Information School 07/20/2026

ATGthePodcast 326 - A Conversation with Zakayo Kjellstrom, Investigator, Swedish Agency for the Media 07/13/2026

ATGthePodcast 325 - A Conversation with Jon Brassey, Founder, Trip Database 07/08/2026

ATGthePodcast 325 - A Conversation with Jon Brassey, Founder, Trip Database Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Jon Brassey, Founder, Trip Database. Jon says he doesn’t consider himself to be an entrepreneur, but a problem solver, who created the Trip Database, a medical question-and-answer service for practitioners that has been running for almost 30 years and contains over 125 million clinical articles, systematic reviews, and medical guidelines. In this conversation, Jon talks with Michael about his background in biology and how he began his career working in R&D in a cytogenetics lab in a hospital in Bristol. He eventually ended up working for the NHS and the Gwent Medical Audit Advisory Group working to transform the audit group to a clinical effectiveness group with a role of health support, to help General Practitioners to be more evidence-based or more clinically effective, and to teach GP’s searching skills and critical appraisal skills. He talks about his academic research into clinical question answering and seeing the need for a service to provide an outlet for these clinical questions, which led him to develop the Trip Database, an incredibly rich resource for high quality clinical research evidence for questions that are actually asked by practitioners about their patients, not just material taught in medical school, to help them make better decisions. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keyword #TripDatabase #CriticalThinking #ProblemSolver #Research #DeepResearch #ResearchTools #EvidenceBasedMedicine #ClinicalGuidelines #ClinicalQuestions #MedicalLibrarian #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalResearch #LearningResources #EdTechTools #LibraryResources #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/42004010

ATGthePodcast 324 - A Conversation with Gary Price, Editor, LJ’s InfoDOCKET and ARL Day in Review 06/29/2026

ATGthePodcast 324 - A Conversation with Gary Price, Editor, LJ’s InfoDOCKET and ARL Day in Review Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Gary Price, Editor, LJ’s InfoDOCKET and ARL Day in Review. Gary, a very well-known figure across the scholarly publishing industry, is a librarian, consultant, researcher and speaker who regularly provides important and timely news, updates and information. In this conversation, he talks with Michael about his background including spending a lot of time in the library as a child, and how his mother was the first person to advise him to become a librarian, which he says is still the best advice he’s ever received. Gary talks about how his career has paralleled the internet as a research tool, how he feels a major issue is that while people in general have a positive feeling about librarians, not many understand what libraries and librarians do, the resources they offer, or that their skills are still very valuable, especially the role of curation. He believes the library and the librarian have a huge role in bringing together quality, credible, and timely information, making it a seamless package for the end user, often at the time of need, allowing them to use that collection as needed. He also gives his views on the Internet Archive, AI tools, and explains which tools he finds useful in his work. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Keyword #LibraryInnovation #InformationLiteracy #CriticalThinking #Research #DeepResearch #ResearchTools #LearningResources #EdTechTools #AIInLibaries #AITools #GenAI #LibraryAnalysis #LibraryValue #LibraryResources #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41855775

ATGthePodcast 323 - A Conversation with Allison Belan, Director for Strategic Innovation, Duke University Press 06/22/2026

ATGthePodcast 323 - A Conversation with Allison Belan, Director for Strategic Innovation, Duke University Press Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Allison Belan, Director for Strategic Innovation, Duke University Press. Allison has a background in English and Philosophy. In this conversation, she talks with Michael about her start in type setting, working on school newspapers and school literary magazines and then a school journal in college. She talks about working as a project manager with a very small custom software consultancy that worked with a variety of corporations, like Wrangler Jeans and Blue Cross Blue Shield, to build their first Business to Consumer (B2C) websites during the early days of the World Wide Web. She appreciated the newly acquired technology and business skills of this job, but missed publishing. In 2004, She joined Duke University Press as assistant production manager for journals. She details the evolution of her roles over the years at Duke, to her current role as Director for Strategic Innovation and Services which includes managing the technology operations and business systems of the Press and, as Allison says, keeping an eye on what's going on in the broader industry and when something transformative about operations or business needs to happen, ringing the bell at the press with the need to get up to speed and work to begin adopting new initiatives, like AI and accessibility among other things, and supporting and aligning with strategy. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keyword #DukeUniversityPress #PublishingLeadership #PublishingInnovation #DigitalPublishing #DigitalScholarship #DigitalStrategy #TechAndPublishing #Accessibility #HigherEd #LibraryInnovation #InformationLiteracy #CriticalThinking #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #LearningResources #EdTechTools #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41720085

ATGthePodcast 322 - A Conversation with Helen Bischoff, Coordinator of Liaison Services, University of Kentucky Libraries 06/17/2026

ATGthePodcast 322 - A Conversation with Helen Bischoff, Coordinator of Liaison Services, University of Kentucky Libraries Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Helen Bischoff, Coordinator of Liaison Services, University of Kentucky Libraries. In this conversation, Helen talks about her early experiences of working as a High School English teacher in Kentucky. She reflects on how overcrowding in the school caused her to leave her classroom during her planning period to allow other teachers to share that space, and how she spent that time in the school library instead, getting to know the librarians and observing them teaching in a library classroom. These librarians encouraged her to go to library school. She first worked at a community college library and then several institutions before joining Kentucky University Libraries where she currently coordinates a team-based liaison model across the UK libraries, holding meetings, and providing resources and consultations across a variety of disciplines like teaching and learning, research services, scholarly communication work, and outreach and engagement with the community on campus and beyond. Helen also talks with Michael about how she engages with her students using a technique called active learning. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Keyword #LiaisonLibrarian #UKLibraries #LibraryScience #ActiveLearning #InstructionalDesign #DigitalScholarship #HigherEd #LibraryLeadership #LibraryInnovation #PracticalLibrarianship #Library Resources #InformationLiteracy #LibraryInstruction #LibraryCollaboration #CriticalThinking #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #LearningResources #EdTechTools #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41673925

ATGthePodcast 321 - A Conversation with Frances Pinter, Director, Academic Relations, Central European University Press, and Founder, SUPRR 06/08/2026

ATGthePodcast 321 - A Conversation with Frances Pinter, Director, Academic Relations, Central European University Press, and Founder, SUPRR The following interview is part of the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. In this series, we sit down with leaders and innovators who are making a real difference in scholarly publishing, libraries, and the broader information world. Each conversation is a chance to hear firsthand how these decision makers tackle new challenges, rethink traditional models, and collaborate across sectors. Today’s episode features the next conversation from the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. Heather Staines, Senior Consultant, Delta Think, and a Conference Director, talks with Frances Pinter, Director, Academic Relations, Central European University Press, and founder, SUPRR. Frances was born in Venezuela to Hungarian parents and lived on four continents by the time she was 20 years old, which she believes greatly influenced the international approach and outlook that she has held throughout her career. Frances has been a prolific figure, and a trail blazer, in Academic Publishing for over 50 years, working with companies of all different sizes and business cultures around the world. She is currently working to help Ukrainian publishers through SUPRR (Supporting Ukrainian Publishing Resilience and Recovery) which she founded. In this conversation, Frances talks with Heather about starting her own publishing company at a very young age while working on her PhD in international relations, and the importance of working with young authors and meeting people at a young age who challenged conventional wisdom, which stayed with her throughout her career. She also talks about her work in networking a computer system with Apple, why serving on industry committees is very important and the knowledge you can gain from being active in this capacity, and the story of how she won a contract against many big players to digitize the Winston Churchill archives. Frances also tells how she was influenced by an experience with a hands-on open access project in Africa that led to her founding of Knowledge Unlatched in 2012, which was acquired by Annual Reviews in 2025. Lastly, she talks with Heather about the role that librarians have played in her professional life. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keywords: #CharlestonConference #AgainstTheGrain #KatinaMagazine #AnnualReviews #LeadershipInLibraries #InnovationInLibraries #TeamWork #Team #ConferenceEvolution #LibraryCommunity #Librarianship #ProfessionalDevelopment #LibrarianJourney #LibraryEducation #InformationAccess #LibraryCommunity #libraries #librarians #libraryCareer #librarySchool #LibraryLove #academic #AcademicPublishing #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #learning #learnon #information #leaders #leadership #2024ChsConf ##career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41568300

ATGthePodcast 320 - A Conversation with John Unsworth, Library Dean, English Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia 06/01/2026

ATGthePodcast 320 - A Conversation with John Unsworth, Library Dean, English Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with John Unsworth, Library Dean, English Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia. John is a distinguished humanities scholar and professor, and retired last September as University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at University of Virginia. He earned his PhD in English from the University of Virginia in the 1980’s, with his doctorate being in contemporary literature. John talks with Michael about how he combined his interest in the humanities with a career in libraries, not becoming a library director until later in his career in 2012. He discusses how he sees the role of libraries today: essential for not only preserving print collections but providing access to complex digital collections. He also discusses the role of a humanities scholar, the shift in digital humanities and the challenges brought on by AI with the aggressive scrapping done by large language models and the disruption caused to digital humanities projects and libraries and the inability to solve digital copyright issues as he sees it. He also covers how the Google Books Initiative helped Libraries with the work of Hathi Trust. Lastly, he talks about the imminent challenges he sees currently for Universities in the U.S. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Keyword #DigitalHumanities #DigitalPreservation #DigitalCollections #LibraryScience #DataScience #MachineLearning #TextMining #DigitalScholarship #LibraryLeadership #LibraryInnovation #PracticalLibrarianship #Library Resources #InformationLiteracy #LibraryInstruction #LibraryCollaboration #CriticalThinking #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #LearningResources #EdTechTools #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41489025

ATGthePodcast 319 - A Conversation with Stacey Greenwell, Librarian, Author and Instructional Designer 05/18/2026

ATGthePodcast 319 - A Conversation with Stacey Greenwell, Librarian, Author and Instructional Designer Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Stacey Greenwell, Librarian, Author and Instructional Designer. Stacey has authored and co-authored several books on library practice, including Management Information for Professionals and Academic Librarianship, and she currently edits the open-access journal Practical Academic Librarianship. She coordinates educational services at the University of Kentucky libraries where she brings together all the instruction librarians at the University and those within their library system who have an interest in instruction to talk and learn from each other, develop courses together and discuss AI literacy tools. In this conversation, Stacey talks with Michael about her early love of libraries. Her first job was working in a public library during high school where she filed catalog cards and got early exposure to IT being part of an automation project. She also talks about why, after she had earned her MLIS, she made the decision to move away from public libraries to an academic library at the University of Kentucky, where she began teaching as a liaison librarian almost 25 years ago, teaching her colleagues how to use office productivity tools and various website building tools, and creating online tutorials. Stacey decided to go back to school and earned a PhD in instructional systems design. She provides hands-on learning tools, materials and guidance for students and faculty, helping them critically evaluate information to gain the skills they need to be successful. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keyword #LibraryScience #LibraryLeadership #LibraryInnovation #PracticalLibrarianship #Library Resources #InformationLiteracy #LibraryInstruction #LibraryCollaboration #CriticalThinking #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #LearningResources #EdTechTools #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41327395

ATGthePodcast 318 - A Conversation with Rachel Caldwell, Academic Engagement, University of Massachusetts, Amhurst; and Robin Sinn, Director of Collections and Open Strategy, Iowa State University Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Rachel Caldwell, Academic Engagement, University of Massachusetts, Amhurst, and Robin Sinn, Director of Collections and Open Strategy, Iowa State University. Rachel and Robin are two librarians who co-founded the Library Partnership Rating which is a “collaborative and library-developed framework for librarians who seek to quantify the alignment of publishers with themselves as they consider investing library resources.” It’s an open, rubric based system to evaluate journal publisher practices that now has a large advisory council of five library organizations along with publishers and university presses. In this conversation, Rachel and Robin talk with Michael about what their current job titles entail, how they came into librarianship, and why they felt the need to create the Library Partnership Rating and the problems they hoped this decision-making tool would solve. Robin says they aren’t taking on publishers but, instead, working to show publishers what libraries want and need while gathering information that libraries want and need and pulling together those data points for useful conversations and collaboration to forward academic publishing. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keyword #LibraryPartnershipRating #LibraryLeadership #LibraryInnovation #Library Resources #LibraryCollaboration #PublishingEthics #PublisherPractices #InformationProfessionals #AcademicLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41243420

ATGthePodcast 317 - A Conversation with Lorcan Dempsey, librarian, consultant, writer and advisor 05/04/2026

ATGthePodcast 317 - A Conversation with Lorcan Dempsey, librarian, consultant, writer and advisor The following interview is part of the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. In this series, we sit down with leaders and innovators who are making a real difference in scholarly publishing, libraries, and the broader information world. Each conversation is a chance to hear firsthand how these decision makers tackle new challenges, rethink traditional models, and collaborate across sectors. Today’s episode features the next conversation from the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. Heather Staines, Senior Consultant, Delta Think, and a Conference Director, talks with Lorcan Dempsey. Lorcan is a librarian, consultant, writer, advisor and keynote speaker at the 2025 Charleston Conference. Lorcan has had a long, distinguished career beginning over 30 years ago in public libraries in Ireland, to working at the Centre for Catalogue Research at the University of Bath to JISC and then to OCLC for over 21 years where he worked in research, served as chief strategist and Vice President. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Washington. In this conversation, Lorcan explains why he feels that library education should think about libraries as social organizations, and in that context, a set of skills that would be required to manage them as social organizations, very much embedded within the environments they serve. He also talks about the importance of the role of library directors as storytellers to explain the library’s value, the fragmented state of libraries, and how it hinders collective infrastructure, how the move to the cloud changed the relationship between libraries and vendors, the complexities of libraries sharing systems and data within those systems and managing the collective resource. Lastly, he talks about his teaching experience and the current trends he is seeing with recruitment within libraries. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keywords: #CharlestonConference #AgainstTheGrain #KatinaMagazine #AnnualReviews #LeadershipInLibraries #InnovationInLibraries #TeamWork #Team #ConferenceEvolution #LibraryCommunity #Librarianship #ProfessionalDevelopment #LibrarianJourney #LibraryEducation #InformationAccess #LibraryCommunity #libraries #librarians #libraryCareer #librarySchool #LibraryLove #academic #AcademicPublishing #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #learning #learnon #information #leaders #leadership #2024ChsConf ##career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41137695

ATGthePodcast 316 - A Conversation with Elizabeth Bik, Science Integrity Consultant and Microbiologist 04/28/2026

ATGthePodcast 316 - A Conversation with Elizabeth Bik, Science Integrity Consultant and Microbiologist The following interview is part of the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. In this series, we sit down with leaders and innovators who are making a real difference in scholarly publishing, libraries, and the broader information world. Each conversation is a chance to hear firsthand how these decision makers tackle new challenges, rethink traditional models, and collaborate across sectors. Today’s episode features the next conversation from the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. Heather Staines, Senior Consultant, Delta Think, and a Conference Director, talks with Elizabeth Bik, Science Integrity Consultant and Microbiologist. Elisabeth is a prominent microbiologist and renowned investigator into scientific misconduct, particularly the manipulation and falsification of research data. She has uncovered issues in over 7,000 scientific papers, resulting in more than 1,000 retractions. Her work has gained international attention, earning her the 2021 John Maddox Prize. In this conversation, Elizabeth shares with Heather about her early work in the field of microbiology with dolphins and discovering plagiarism of her own work using Google Scholar which began her drive to become a “scientific sleuth.” In 2014, she began searching for not only plagiarism but also for images that had been duplicated. In 2019, she quit her job to work full time as a consultant to investigate cases for scientific publishers. She talks about her frustrations over the slowness in correction or retraction, or complete lack thereof, and says that only about one-third of the papers she identified had been corrected or retracted after 5 years. She also talks about a human using their eyes to find duplications vs. AI tools designed to detect duplications or other problems within scientific papers. Elizabeth says there is often a battle between the tools to find misconduct versus tools to create or enable misconduct, create fraudulent data sets and fake AI photos that are very difficult to detect. Elizabeth says she will continue to work diligently to raise awareness of scientific misconduct in its many different forms. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keywords: #CharlestonConference #AgainstTheGrain #KatinaMagazine #AnnualReviews #LeadershipInLibraries #InnovationInLibraries #TeamWork #Team #ConferenceEvolution #LibraryCommunity #Librarianship #ProfessionalDevelopment #LibrarianJourney #LibraryEducation #InformationAccess #LibraryCommunity #libraries #librarians #libraryCareer #librarySchool #LibraryLove #academic #AcademicPublishing #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #learning #learnon #information #leaders #leadership #2024ChsConf ##career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/41043245

ATGthePodcast 315 - A Conversation with Xan Arch, Dean of Libraries, Portland State University 04/20/2026

ATGthePodcast 315 - A Conversation with Xan Arch, Dean of Libraries, Portland State University The following interview is part of the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. In this series, we sit down with leaders and innovators who are making a real difference in scholarly publishing, libraries, and the broader information world. Each conversation is a chance to hear firsthand how these decision makers tackle new challenges, rethink traditional models, and collaborate across sectors. Today’s episode features the next conversation from the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. Erin Gallagher, Chair, Acquisitions & Discovery Services at the University of Florida, and a Conference Director, talks with Xan Arch, Dean of Libraries, Portland State University. In this conversation, Xan shares with Erin her library origin story which began with her love of checking out books from the public library as a child and a temp job at the Duke Business Library that she took after college while doing temp work. She talks about switching institutions post pandemic and her move to Portland State University and working to understand that library’s experience during the pandemic. She talks about the plenary panel she was on at the 2025 Charleston Conference, “Leading in Times of Crises”, the colliding crises libraries are currently facing along with burnout from pandemic days. Xan recently posted a video called “Dean’s Decoded” shortly before completing her dissertation on equity in hiring practices in academia and earning her PhD. Lastly, Xan talks about serving her students and serving the public, to combine that personal and professional affection for Portland and, as she says, “to let knowledge serve the city.” The video of of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keywords: #CharlestonConference #AgainstTheGrain #AnnualReviews #LeadershipInLibraries #InnovationInLibraries #TeamWork #Team #ConferenceEvolution #LibraryCommunity #Librarianship #ProfessionalDevelopment #LibrarianJourney #LibraryEducation #InformationAccess #LibraryCommunity #libraries #librarians #libraryCareer #librarySchool #LibraryLove #academic #AcademicPublishing #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #learning #learnon #information #leaders #leadership #2024ChsConf ##career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/40932685

ATGthePodcast 314 - A Conversation with Lucy Santos Green, Director, Professor, School of Library and Information Science, University of Iowa 04/13/2026

ATGthePodcast 314 - A Conversation with Lucy Santos Green, Director, Professor, School of Library and Information Science, University of Iowa The following interview is part of the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. In this series, we sit down with leaders and innovators who are making a real difference in scholarly publishing, libraries, and the broader information world. Each conversation is a chance to hear firsthand how these decision makers tackle new challenges, rethink traditional models, and collaborate across sectors. Today’s episode features the next conversation from the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. Heather Staines, Senior Consultant, Delta Think, and a Conference Director, talks with Lucy Santos Green, Director, Professor, School of Library and Information Science, University of Iowa. In this conversation, Lucy shares with Heather the myriad of details of her current role, which she says involves working with faculty to develop and implement the SLIS (school of library and information science) strategic plan, leading innovation in the curriculum and making sure that it responds to current market needs, managing the school’s budget, all of the financial allocations, overseeing facilities, hiring, performance evaluations for staff, tenure and promotion for faculty, HR resources and awards associated with SLIS, promoting and fund raising, encouraging and advocating for faculty and students, establishing and maintaining strong external partnerships and making sure that everyone is living and experiencing a welcoming and fair work and educational environment. Lucy also shares what her middle school librarian did that made her want to be a librarian, her later career journey from being a choir teacher into librarianship, and the overlap between these two jobs. She went on to earn her MLIS at Texas Women’s University and later a doctorate at Texas Tech in Instructional Technology with a focus on technology enabled learning and online pedagogy and became a professor of instructional technology. Lucy also talks about the session in which she presented at the 2025 Charleston Conference. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Keywords: #CharlestonConference #AgainstTheGrain #AnnualReviews #LeadershipInLibraries #InnovationInLibraries #TeamWork #Team #ConferenceEvolution #LibraryCommunity #Librarianship #ProfessionalDevelopment #LibrarianJourney #LibraryEducation #InformationAccess #LibraryCommunity #libraries #librarians #libraryCareer #librarySchool #LibraryLove #academic #AcademicPublishing #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #learning #learnon #information #leaders #leadership #2024ChsConf ##career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/40823200

ATGthePodcast 313 - A Conversation with Ciaran Talbot, Director: AI and Ideas Adoption, The University of Manchester Library 03/30/2026

ATGthePodcast 312 - A Conversation with Thorsten Fröhlich, Professor of IT Management and Big Data at IU International University of Applied Sciences 03/23/2026

ATGthePodcast 312 - A Conversation with Thorsten Fröhlich, Professor of IT Management and Big Data at IU International University of Applied Sciences Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Thorsten Fröhlich, Professor of IT Management and Big Data at IU International University of Applied Sciences. Thorsten has over 35 years of experience in higher education, IT & digital transformation, and curriculum development and he holds a doctorate in chemistry. He is an entrepreneur, having founded several companies in scientific publishing and software development, including LUMITOS AG and Unchained Intellect Press, and he’s an author of textbooks and publications on academic writing and AI in creative fields. In this conversation, Thorsten shares his journey from a rural upbringing to becoming a prominent figure in chemistry, technology, and academia. He discusses his early interest in chemistry, the founding of his first startup, and his transition back to academia where he focuses on guiding students in thesis writing. Thorsten talks with Michael about the innovative use of AI in evaluating theses and the importance of self-reflection in the age of digital tools. He reflects on his artistic ventures and the role of public art in community engagement, highlighting his multifaceted career and the intersection of science, technology, and creativity. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Twitter: Keyword #EdTech #FutureOfEducation #FutureOfLibraries #InformationAge #TechLeadership #HigherEducation #AIInEducation #DigitalTransformation #AcademicWriting #BigData #InformationProfessional #AI #AIandLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/40581810

ATGthePodcast 311 - A Conversation with Phillip Bradley, Consultant on AI and the Internet 03/18/2026

ATGthePodcast 311 - A Conversation with Phillip Bradley, Consultant on AI and the Internet Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Phillip Bradley, Consultant on AI and the Internet. Phillip has titled his life story “From CD-Rom to AI”. He says he decided as a child that he wanted to be a librarian and obtained an Honours degree in librarianship from the Polytechnic of North London. Phillip then went to work for the British Council in the UK, where he became involved in training people from overseas offices that would come to the UK. He discovered that he really enjoyed teaching people about information work. He was running training courses on how to use reference books, and eventually how to put promotional videos together. He taught a Basics of Librarianship course in Lesotho, South Africa. He started to do more training for British Council offices and went around the world to different countries teaching aspects of librarianship. He took an interest in CD-Roms, which the British council was not interested in, so he left to join Silver Platter, which was the pioneer of CD-ROMs. He talks about his first experiences with the internet in the early 90’s, the training courses he created at the request of librarians on how the internet worked and how to be more effective with search engines, and his views on current developments with AI and the role of the information professional. Philip emphasizes the critical role of librarians in society, arguing that they are the most powerful and important information professionals. He expresses frustration over the lack of appreciation for librarians' contributions and seeks to redefine their identity as essential figures within organizations. The video of this interview can be found here: LinkedIn: Keyword #LibraryScience #Innovation #DigitalLibraries #FutureOfLibraries #InformationAge #DigitalTransformation #InformationProfessional #AI #SearchEngines #AIandLibraries #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/40521175

ATGthePodcast 310 - A Conversation with Brewster Kahle, Founder & Director, Internet Archive 03/10/2026

ATGthePodcast 309 - A Conversation with Rachel Miles, Research Impact Coordinator, Virginia Tech University Libraries 03/02/2026

ATGthePodcast 309 - A Conversation with Rachel Miles, Research Impact Coordinator, Virginia Tech University Libraries Today’s episode features guest host Michael Upshall (guest editor, Charleston Briefings) who talks with Rachel Miles, Research Impact Coordinator, Virginia Tech University Libraries. Rachel is “an expert in the applications and impacts of research in academia and the public sphere: how it's communicated, what makes it most visible to different audiences and why, what makes it "impactful" and how this impact is tracked, as well as how academics perceive impact when they publish, go up for promotion and tenure, and how they view it from a philosophical perspective throughout the different stages of their careers.” She is also a strong supporter of open access. In this conversation, Rachel talks with Michael about how her first degree was in psychology, but she became interested in librarianship while teaching English in South Korea. She wanted to help people with their research more directly. She didn't yet know how, but she wanted to be the service point where people could really get the insight that they need to understand the literature. Her interest in metrics began during her last semester in grad school while she was a graduate administrative assistant doing survey research on what LIS professionals do with research impact metrics. She was very interested in this because it's a behavioral field in many ways, but it's also a field that looks at policy, procedure and ethics. Rachel believes that having a diversity of backgrounds is good for libraries and, for her field, she feels that her psychology degree is useful because research impact, research evaluation, and bibliometrics tend to be deeply tied to human behavior as it relates to scientists. Rachel also talks with Michael about the rise of research impact and metrics, altmetrics and policy citations and the future of research evaluation. The video of this interview can be found here: Social Media: LinkedIn: Keyword #LibraryScience #LIS #InformationScience #Research #ResearchImpact #ResearchEvaluation #ImpactMetrics #ResearchAccessibility #Altmetrics #Bibliometrics #OpenAccess #PolicyCitations #KnowledgeEquity #KnowledgeForAll #Innovation #career #scholcomm #ScholarlyCommunication #libraries #librarianship #LibraryNeeds #LibraryLove #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicPublishing #publishing #LibrariesAndPublishers #podcasts /episode/index/show/atgthepodcast/id/40276685

Against the Grain - The Podcast

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