Author: Kevin Gunn

Digital Scholar Bytes: The Cost of Knowledge: A Librarian’s Perspective on Open Access

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

You find an article that looks perfect for your research. The abstract addresses precisely the question you are exploring. You click to read more—and encounter a payment request. Before you can assess whether the article is useful, you have another problem to solve: getting access.

As a research librarian and digital scholarship librarian, I think about access across the research process: finding sources, developing projects, and sharing the results. A paywall can interrupt any of those activities. It also raises a larger question: who gets to participate in the creation and exchange of knowledge?

That question is central to International Open Access Week, October 19–25, 2026. This year’s theme, “The Cost of Knowledge,” invites us to examine the financial, human, and environmental costs of producing, sharing, and sustaining research.

Access is part of the research process

My work involves helping students and faculty find information and make informed decisions about using it. Open access supports that work by making scholarship freely available online. Open licenses can also provide permission to share and reuse it under specified conditions.

The benefits extend beyond campus. A teacher preparing a lesson, a community organization researching a local issue, or a graduate continuing an intellectual interest may all need scholarly information. Their questions matter, even when they lack university subscriptions.

From my perspective, helping someone locate an article is one part of a broader responsibility: helping research reach the people who can learn from it and use it.

Free to read still requires support

Making scholarship openly available requires resources. Publishing platforms, editorial work, accessibility, and preservation all need sustained support. Library subscriptions cover some of these expenses in traditional publishing. Students and faculty may encounter no payment screen when accessing an article through the library, but that access still carries an institutional cost.

think, check, submit logo
Think, Check, Submit logo

Some open access journals use article processing charges, paid by authors, institutions, or funders. Other journals charge neither readers nor authors, relying on support from institutions, scholarly organizations, or other sources. Through membership in NERL (NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium), CUA Libraries support open access publishing in Cambridge University Press journals under a transformative agreement. Eligible authors can apply to have their article processing charges (APCs) covered through the agreement, making their articles freely available to readers. These differences matter when discussing publishing options with researchers. Removing a reader’s paywall is valuable, but an author needs to consider cost alongside audience, quality, licensing, and author rights. Websites like Think, Check, Submit can help with the process.

Digital scholarship broadens the conversation

A digital scholarship perspective goes beyond the journal article. A project might produce a dataset, digital exhibit, text collection, or interactive website. Making those materials available can create opportunities for teaching, collaboration, and further research.

Yet putting a project online is only a beginning. Can people with disabilities use it? Is its documentation understandable? Are permissions clear? Who will maintain it when a grant ends or its creator moves on? Openness requires planning across a project’s life. It also requires judgment: privacy, consent, copyright, and community expectations may shape what should be shared and under what conditions. Responsible access means considering both the people who might use a project and those whose lives, words, or cultural materials it represents.

The costs we may overlook

The cost of knowledge also includes time. Searching for an accessible article, navigating an unfamiliar platform, or determining reuse permissions can take time away from research itself. Under deadline pressure, those obstacles may influence which sources someone ultimately uses. There is labor behind accessible scholarship, too: reviewing submissions, preparing files, describing materials, maintaining platforms, and preserving content. Digital infrastructure also requires equipment and energy.

Three ways to navigate your research process

Open Access – Roads to Open Access

Finding an article, sharing your work, and choosing where to publish all involve decisions about access to knowledge. These three steps can help you navigate those decisions, with support from the library along the way.

Ask for help finding an article. If you encounter a paywall and are unsure what to do next, contact the library. We can suggest other access options, including repository copies (preprint, postprint, or published versions) and interlibrary loan.

Plan how to share your work. Consider an institutional or disciplinary repository. Check your publishing agreement and the journal’s sharing policy to determine which version (preprint, postprint, or published) you may deposit and whether conditions apply. A librarian can help interpret those requirements. See the CUA Institutional Repository.

Explore publishing options early. Examine a journal’s audience, editorial practices, fees, licensing, and author rights. The ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit: Evaluating Journals offers a starting point.

Open Access Week is an opportunity to connect these everyday research decisions with a larger purpose. As a research librarian and digital scholarship librarian, I want to help people find knowledge, contribute to it, and share it thoughtfully. Knowledge takes resources to produce and our choices about supporting it should help more people participate.

See the variety of events being offered around the world and online during Open Access Week. #OAWeek.

 

Kevin Gunn is the Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries.

 

CUA Libraries Research Guides

Open Educational Resources.

Scholarly Communication: Open Access Scholarship.

 

References

Open Access Network. 2026. Green, Gold, and Diamond Open Access. October 8th.  https://open-access.network/en/information/open-access-primers/green-and-gold

Research Thread. 2026. Journal Publication Cost: A Complete Breakdown for Researchers. July 13th. https://researchthread.com/blog/journal-publication-cost

Research Thread, 2026. Understanding Article Processing Charges for Academic Publication. July 3rd. https://researchthread.com/blog/en/article-processing-charges

SPARC, OA Week 2026 Planning Committee. 2026. Theme for Open Access Week is: “The Cost of Knowledge.” May 4th. International Open Access Week 2026. https://sparcopen.org/news/2026/theme-for-open-access-week-2026-is-the-cost-of-knowledge/

Not Sure What to Read Next? Try our Reader’s Service

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

Leisure reading can sometimes feel at odds with academic life, but reading for pleasure offers benefits that extend well beyond entertainment. It can encourage creativity, strengthen empathy, support well-being, and provide a welcome opportunity to relax and recharge amid the demands of studying, teaching, and research. Academic libraries have a long tradition of supporting leisure reading, recognizing that reading beyond the classroom can be an important part of intellectual life and personal well-being.

Now in its second year, Catholic University Libraries’ Reader’s Service makes finding your next book a little easier. Complete a brief online form telling us about books you have enjoyed—or disliked—along with your favorite genres, interests, and what you are looking for in your next reading experience. Based on your responses, we will provide four or five personalized book recommendations selected with your preferences in mind. Whether you want to discover a new author, explore a different genre, or simply find an enjoyable book, let us help take some of the guesswork out of choosing what to read next. Submit your request through our Reader’s Service submission form.

Peer Review Week 2026: Why Peer Review Matters to Students

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

Peer Review WeekYou have probably heard an instructor say, “Make sure you use peer-reviewed sources.” But what exactly does that mean and why should you care?

Peer Review Week 2026, held September 14–18, offers a good opportunity to answer that question. This year’s theme, “Peer Review Capacity: Volume, Speed, and Quality,” focuses on a growing challenge in academic publishing: researchers are producing more scholarship, there is pressure to publish it faster, and journals still need to make sure that the research they publish meets appropriate standards.

For students, this debate matters because peer review affects the sources you find, read, cite, and rely upon in your own research.

What Happens During Peer Review?

Before many scholarly articles are published, they are evaluated by other researchers who have expertise in the subject. These reviewers examine the research and provide feedback to the journal’s editor and often to the author. They might ask: Does the evidence support the author’s conclusions? Are the research methods appropriate? Has the author overlooked important scholarship? Are there problems that need to be corrected?

Based on these questions, the editor will decide if the article should be accepted, rejected, or returned to the author for revisions. Peer review does not guarantee that an article is correct. Reviewers can miss problems, researchers can disagree, and published research can later be challenged or corrected. Instead, think of peer review as an important quality-control process that helps improve scholarship before publication.

More Research, Faster Decisions

The 2026 Peer Review Week theme highlights a difficult problem. Scholarly publishing has to balance three competing demands: volume, speed, and quality.

More research means more articles requiring review. Researchers also want decisions quickly. Waiting months for an article to be reviewed can delay publication, graduation, job applications, grant projects, or the communication of important findings. But reviewing an article carefully takes time. Reviewers need to examine arguments, evidence, research methods, citations, and conclusions. If the system focuses too heavily on speed, the quality of reviews could suffer. That creates an important question: How do we make scholarly communication faster without making it less trustworthy?

What About AI?

Artificial intelligence adds another dimension to the conversation. AI tools may help journals with tasks such as screening manuscripts, identifying possible reviewers, checking references, or handling administrative work. But using AI in peer review also raises questions. Should confidential manuscripts be entered into AI systems? Could an AI system introduce bias? Should authors know when AI has been used to evaluate their work? And who is responsible when an AI-assisted review gets something wrong? These questions are still evolving, making AI literacy increasingly important to understanding scholarly communication.

What Does This Mean for Your Research?

The next time you are told to “find three peer-reviewed articles,” think beyond simply checking a box on an assignment. Ask questions about the sources you find. Who wrote this? Where was it published? What evidence does the author provide? How recent is it? Has other research supported or challenged its conclusions?

Peer review is valuable, but it should be the beginning of your evaluation of a source, not the end. This point is the most useful lesson of Peer Review Week 2026. Good research is not simply about finding information. It is about understanding how knowledge is created, evaluated, challenged, improved, and ultimately trusted.

Peer Review Week Events

You can view the complete list of webinars and blogs here. I have added a few titles below to help you get started with understanding the peer review process:

Live Demo: From Submission to Decision – A Live Peer Review Walkthrough September 15, 9:00AM EST

What is it really like to review a manuscript? Step into the role of a peer reviewer and experience the process firsthand. Through a live review walkthrough, you’ll explore how reviewers evaluate a manuscript’s quality, originality, methodology, clarity, and overall contribution.

Live Panel Discussion: Reviewer Fatigue, Invisible Labor, and the Sustainability Problem September 16, 11:00AM EST

Peer review keeps scholarly publishing moving but how long can the system continue to rely on the goodwill of volunteer reviewers? As reviewer fatigue and increasing workloads put pressure on the process, it may be time to rethink who carries the burden. Should publishers ask less of reviewers? Should universities recognize reviewing as a meaningful scholarly contribution? Should authors take on a greater share of the responsibility? Join experts for a timely discussion about the pressures facing peer review, how responsibilities might be shared more fairly, and what needs to change to create a sustainable peer review system for the future.

Can Reviewers Realistically Avoid the Use of AI in Peer Review? September 16, 10:00AM EST

Many major academic publishers and organizations currently restrict or prohibit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in peer review. At the same time, researchers are increasingly using AI tools throughout the research and writing process, potentially accelerating manuscript production and increasing submission volumes. Instead of asking whether AI should simply be kept out of peer review, this session explores a more challenging question: What would responsible AI-assisted peer review actually look like? If current restrictions were relaxed, what uses of AI should be considered acceptable and where should the boundaries be drawn?

Behind the Peer Review: What Editors Actually Look For September 28, 2:00PM EST (later date)

What makes a manuscript stand out from the crowd? What sends it back for another round of revisions? And what turns a promising paper into one that’s ready for publication? Take a look behind the scenes of academic publishing and discover what editors are really looking for. From significance and originality to methodological rigor, clarity, and fit, learn the key factors editors consider when deciding whether a manuscript moves forward—or needs more work.

Share perspectives and experiences on social media using #PeerReviewWeek and #PRW2026.

 

Kevin Gunn is the Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries and the former editor-in-chief of College & Undergraduate Libraries (peer reviewed journal from Francis & Taylor). 

References

Maryam Sayab, Roohi Ghosh, Maria Machado, Gareth Dyke, Mingfang Lu. Can Peer Review Keep Up? Announcing the Theme for Peer Review Week 2026. The Scholarly Kitchen. April 20, 2026.

 

Digital Scholar Bytes: Love Data Week: “Where’s the Data?”

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

International Love Data Week is the celebration of data from February 9-13, 2026. This year’s theme, “Where’s the Data?” invites participants to think more carefully about the full life cycle of data—from the moment it is created or collected, through its analysis and active use, to its long-term storage, sharing, and preservation. Rather than treating data as something that simply “exists” on a computer or in the cloud, the theme encourages researchers, students, and professionals to ask practical and ethical questions about where their data resides, who controls access to it, how securely it is managed, and how long it will remain usable. It highlights the often-invisible infrastructure that supports research, including servers, repositories, metadata standards, and preservation systems, while also drawing attention to risks such as data loss, obsolescence, privacy breaches, and inequitable access. Responsible data stewardship is not an afterthought but a central part of credible, transparent, and sustainable scholarship. To learn more about Love Data Week check out the official website International Love Data Week 2026. The yearly event is sponsored by the ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research).

 

Adopt a Dataset (classroom edition)

One annual activity of Love Data Week is to have individuals adopt a dataset. Instructors can create a classroom exercise designed to help students engage closely with a single study from the ICPSR data catalog. The activity is especially well suited for courses that have already introduced core research concepts such as sampling, data collection methods, and the formulation of hypotheses and variables. By guiding students through a structured exploration of an existing dataset, the exercise encourages them to think critically about how data are produced, documented, and interpreted. The questions in the activity reflect the kinds of considerations researchers must address when preparing data for secondary analysis, helping students build practical skills in evaluating the strengths, limitations, and appropriate uses of real-world research data.

 

ICPSR Events

View all Love Data Week events and activities happening locally and virtually around the world. Here is a selection:

Love Data Week is a global community initiative about the role data plays in our lives. You can develop practical knowledge and skills while becoming part of a community that recognizes the social, cultural, and scholarly power of data. Whether you attend a webinar, explore and adopt a dataset, or join conversations, you are contributing to a broader movement that values, reflects on, and celebrates data in all its forms. Follow Love Data Week on Instagram and Bluesky all year long, use @LoveDataWeek in your posts, and continue the #LoveData26 conversation anytime.

 

The Catholic University of America Libraries

If you are interested in learning more, see our Digital Scholarship guide.

Kevin Gunn is the Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries

 

Resources

Google Dataset Search

ICPSR Data Fair @Love Data Week

Love Data Week Resource Kit

The Open Data Handbook

U.S. Government (data.gov)

 

Digital Scholar Bytes: Data Privacy Week 2026: Take Control of Your Data

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

Data Privacy Week 2026 runs January 26–30, and it’s a timely reminder that privacy is a set of choices, habits, and (sometimes) rights you can exercise. The National Cybersecurity Alliance frames this week as an international effort to help individuals and organizations respect privacy, safeguard data, and enable trust, with this year’s theme: “Take Control of Your Data.” (Stay Safe Online)

That theme matters because your online activity creates a trail of information (e.g.s. interests, purchases, location signals, and behavior patterns) that are collected by websites, apps, devices, and services. Some of it can even be tied to your physical life, like health or movement data. You can’t control every data point that gets generated, but you can control more than you think through repeatable behaviors and informed decisions.

What “Take Control of Your Data” means in everyday life

Start with a mindset shift: treat personal data like currency. Many “free” services are paid for with information about you—your attention, your clicks, your location, your contact list, your browsing history. Data Privacy Week’s own guidance puts it plainly: weigh the tradeoff between privacy and convenience and ask whether the access you’re granting is relevant to the service (the classic example: why would a simple game need your contacts?).

Then turn that mindset into a routine:

  • Audit permissions: On your phone and laptop, review which apps can access your location, microphone, camera, photos, contacts, and Bluetooth. Keep what’s necessary; remove what isn’t.
  • Trim the “data attic”: If you haven’t used an app or service in months, consider deleting the account (not just the app). Dormant accounts can still be data sources.
  • Adjust settings, one platform per week: You don’t have to do everything today. Make it a habit—pick one service (email, social media, shopping, streaming) and tighten settings gradually.

A practical helper: the National Cybersecurity Alliance provides a “Manage Your Privacy Settings” resource with direct links to privacy settings pages across many common platforms.

How businesses and services collect (and infer) personal data

“Collection” isn’t only the information you type into a form. It’s also what can be inferred from patterns: device identifiers, browsing behavior, location history, purchase history, and engagement signals. Personal data can be stored for long periods and used to infer demographic or socioeconomic attributes and preferences—even from seemingly harmless details. (Stay Safe Online)

For faculty and students, this matters in a very campus-shaped way: learning platforms, publisher tools, citation managers, and proctoring/assessment tools can generate metadata about how we read, write, and research. Libraries sit right at this intersection, which makes privacy literacy part of research literacy: knowing what a tool collects is increasingly as important as knowing what it does.

AI and algorithmic data collection: what’s new (and what’s not)

AI didn’t invent surveillance, but it can make data more valuable by extracting meaning at scale. The National Cybersecurity Alliance’s Data Privacy Week programming explicitly calls out AI chatbots and algorithmic systems as today’s “high-attention” privacy zones. (Business Insider)

  1. Your prompts can be data. When you use an AI chatbot, you may share personal, sensitive, or proprietary information without realizing it (drafting emails, summarizing notes, uploading text, describing scenarios).
  2. Personalization can become price discrimination. Data Privacy Week includes a webinar on dynamic pricing—when algorithms set prices—raising the question of whether browsing history, location, or past purchases influence what you’re shown and what you pay. (Stay Safe Online Webinars)

A campus-friendly best practice: treat AI tools like public spaces unless your institution has a vetted, contract-backed, privacy-reviewed environment for them. When in doubt, don’t paste student records, health info, grades, or unpublished research into consumer tools.

Law and rights: a quick reality check

Data privacy rights vary widely by jurisdiction, and the legal landscape keeps evolving. Data Privacy Week’s “Privacy Law Made Simple” webinar outlines what options exist for access, consent, deletion, and enforcement.

It also helps to remember the bigger historical arc: the international “Privacy Day” tradition connects to the Council of Europe’s Convention 108, often described as the first legally binding international treaty focused on data protection (Data Protection Day). Canada has its own Data Privacy Week as well. Its theme this year is “Prioritize Privacy by Design.”

What you can do this week: a practical mini-checklist

Pick three actions you can do in 30 minutes:

  1. Turn on MFA (multi-factor authentication) for your primary email and campus-related accounts.
  2. Use a password manager and create long, unique passwords (12+ characters).
  3. Tighten privacy settings on one platform using the National Cybersecurity Alliance’s settings hub. (Take Control of Your Data)

You may find resources, webinars, and toolkits on the National Cybersecurity Alliance website.

Webinars this week:

Tuesday 1/27: Children’s Privacy in a Digital World
Wednesday 1/28: Privacy Law Made Simple
Thursday 1/29: Dynamic Pricing: When Algorithms Set the Cost
Friday 1/30: The Right to Be Forgotten: Deleting Your Online Data
Friday 1/30: Level Up Your Privacy Game!

Why this belongs in the library

Libraries have long treated privacy as a core value because intellectual freedom depends on the ability to read, explore, and research without being profiled. In 2026, privacy literacy is also a practical skill: it shapes how we choose tools, how we collaborate, how we protect research participants, and how we safeguard student information.

Helpful Resources (National Cybersecurity Alliance)

International Resources

 

Kevin Gunn is Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries.

Philosophers We Love: Documentaries in Kanopy

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

Philosophers tend to reach us first through their ideas, stripped of the contingencies of daily life. We encounter arguments, concepts, and texts, often detached from the human circumstances that shaped them: the friendships and rivalries, the political pressures, the moments of doubt, exile, illness, or quiet perseverance. Documentary film offers a different entry point. By combining biography, historical context, and visual storytelling, these films restore philosophers to time and place, reminding us that philosophy is not produced in abstraction but created within lived experience.

The documentaries featured here, available through Kanopy, invite viewers to see philosophy as both an intellectual practice and a human one.

 

Edith Stein: Echt and the Truth: The Story of a German Philosopher and Nun

In 1998 Edith Stein (1891-1942) was canonised by Pope John Paul II. A German philosopher of Jewish descent, Stein converted to Catholicism in 1922 and lived as nun in the Carmelite Convent of Echt in the south of the Netherlands. During World War II, she was deported and died in Auschwitz. Director Frederieke Jochems worked for nine years to bring Edith Stein’s story to life and to illuminate the controversy surrounding the canonisation. – Kanopy

Edith Stein’s philosophical development was driven by three enduring commitments: fidelity to the phenomenological method taught by her professor Edmund Husserl, a strong ethical responsibility to others in matters of belief, and an increasing recognition of the limits of human reason without divine assistance.

 

 

Merton: A Film Biography: The Legacy of a Religious Philosopher

In his lifetime, Thomas Merton was hailed as a prophet and censured for his outspoken social criticism. For nearly 27 years he was a monk of the austere Trappist order, where he became an eloquent spiritual writer and mystic as well as an anti-war advocate and witness to peace.

Merton: A Film Biography provides the first comprehensive look at this remarkable 20th century religious philosopher who wrote, in addition to his immensely popular autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, over 60 books on some of the most pressing social issues of our time.

This acclaimed film examines Merton’s life and work through insightful interviews with those who knew him, including the Dalai Lama, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, publisher Robert Giroux, musician Joan Baez, monks he lived with and friends with whom he shared his deepest emotions.

Interwoven with the interviews are passages from Merton’s writing and scenes from significant places of his life, such as his birthplace in Prades, France; the Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky; and his final journey to the East, including Bangkok, Thailand, where he died. Merton offers an engaging profile of a man whose presence in the world touched millions of people and whose words and thoughts continue to have profound impact and relevance today. 2 episodes. – Kanopy

This two-part biography weaves together interviews with friends, fellow monks, and scholars, interspersed with passages from Merton’s own writings. His work ranged widely—from Christian apologetics and engagements with Eastern mysticism to reflections on contemporary issues such as the anti-war movement. A monk who both explored and challenged the social norms of his time, Merton was also the first Trappist to live alone. The first episode covers his life while the second presents a series of anecdotes from those who knew him personally.

 

An Encounter with Simone Weil

The film tells the story of French philosopher, activist, and mystic, Simone Weil (1909-1943)– a woman Albert Camus described as “the only great spirit of our time.” On her quest to understand Simone Weil, filmmaker Julia Haslett confronts profound questions of moral responsibility both within her own family and the larger world. From the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War to anti-war protests in Washington DC, from intimate exchanges between the filmmaker and her older brother who struggles with depression to captivating interviews with people who knew Simone Weil, the film takes us on an unforgettable journey into the heart of what it means to be a compassionate human being.

The film’s dramatic story is revealed through contemporary footage in France of places Weil lived and worked, exclusive interviews with key people in Weil’s life and legacy, and vérité footage of the filmmaker’s family in the United States. Intercut with this material is 1930s archival footage, previously unseen photos of Weil, and excerpts of her writings. Weil asked us this question: How do we respond to human suffering? The filmmaker, in turn, wants to know: How do we remain engaged without ultimately destroying ourselves as Weil did when she died from self-starvation at age 34? Still not satisfied with the answers she’s getting, the filmmaker experiments with finding an actress to quite literally conjure Weil up. Drawing on current news and observational footage, Haslett’s narration draws provocative comparisons between Weil’s insight and the world today. The result is a deeply moving film that not only challenges us to think and to feel, but encourages us to initiate important political, psychological, and interfaith dialogue. – Kanopy

This documentary offers a distinctive approach to the genre. Alongside an overview of Weil’s life, including interviews with those who knew her, Haslett weaves elements of her own personal story into the narrative, drawing parallels to her own experiences and engaging the same philosophical questions that shaped Weil’s thought.

 

 

Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt

This thought provoking and spirited documentary, with its abundance of archival materials, offers an intimate portrait of the whole of Hannah Arendt’s life.

Arendt was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, and VITA ACTIVA brings us to the places where she lived, worked, loved, and was betrayed, as she wrote about the open wounds of modern times. – Kanopy

The title of the documentary, ‘Vita Activa,’ refers to the section in The Human Condition that focuses on the central condition of human life, namely, the tripartite division of labor, work, and action. Her intellectual work did not advance a single, systematic philosophy but instead centered on such subjects as totalitarianism, revolution, the nature of freedom, and the human capacities for thought and judgment.

Kevin Gunn is Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries.

Digital Scholar Bytes: Digital Scholarship Fundamentals Workshops Spring Schedule

Posted on by Kevin Gunn
Surreal landscape – ChatGPT

The Catholic University of America Libraries and Department of Information Sciences provide Digital Scholarship Workshops designed to equip students, faculty, and staff with the essential skills for modern research. This semester, workshop topics cover mapping with Tableau, responsible AI use in research, evaluating AI-generated claims, text analysis, legal and ethical issues with AI and TDM, and an introduction to using QGIS.

Register through the Events page at the Nest (CU members only) or by contacting Kevin Gunn (gunn@cua.edu). All workshops will take place on Zoom, recorded, and made available on the Catholic University Libraries’ YouTube Channel. Can’t make it? Register for the workshop and we will send you the link after.

Instructors: Charles Gallagher, Research and Instruction Librarian; Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship.

Text Analysis using AntConc (Friday, January 30, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
Computational analysis of textual data can aid in reading and interpreting large corpora. Furthermore, exploring many texts can uncover linguistic patterns for future exploratory analysis. We will analyze textual data using AntConc (http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/). AntConc has several features including searching Word and PDF documents, exporting table rows, managing a corpus, and using ChatAI tool. No coding experience necessary. Instructor: Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship

Critical Appraisal: Evaluating AI-Generated Claims (Friday, February 20, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
An important component of research is the ability to assess and evaluate sources of information. AI tools especially require effective methods for evaluating generated results. This workshop will cover practical ways users can assess information provided by AI tools. Participants will develop skills to assess results from AI tools. Instructor: Charles Gallagher, Research and Instruction Librarian

Before You Analyze: Using AI to Clean Research Data (Friday, February 27, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
Messy spreadsheets undermine research before analysis even begins. This webinar introduces AI-assisted approaches to cleaning and preparing tabular data in the humanities and social sciences. Participants will see how tools such as ChatGPT and OpenRefine can identify inconsistencies, support informed cleaning decisions, and improve transparency, reproducibility, and research confidence. Instructor: Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship

Legal and Ethical Issues in AI and TDM (Thursday, March 5, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
There are a number of issues, problems, encumbrances, and obstacles in working on AI and text data mining (TDM) projects. Before embarking on a project, know what your options and limitations will be. We will explore best practices in copyright, fair use, licensing agreements and terms of use, privacy and ethical issues, digital rights management, and other issues involving non-consumptive use of text for research. Instructor: Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship

Ethical, Transparent, and Responsible AI Use in Academic Research (Friday, March 20, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
AI research tools or generative AI in general occupy an interesting place in the library research environment. They are powerful tools that enable an improved searching experience. Conversely, there are serious ethical and moral issues related to their development and continued use. This workshop will explore complex issues such as biases and filters in the AI tools, environmental concerns, and privacy issues. Instructor: Charles Gallagher, Research and Instruction Librarian

Mapping with Tableau (Monday, March 30, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
This workshop will introduce the most basic functions of mapping using Tableau Public. We will cover how to connect to and join geographic data; format that data in Tableau; create location hierarchies; build and present a basic map view; and apply key mapping features. Download it here (https://www.tableau.com/products/public). Instructor: Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship

Introduction to QGIS (Friday, April 17, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
Are you curious to learn GIS but don’t know where to start? This event will provide hands on experience with the open-source GIS program QGIS and allow you to learn the basics of map creation/geospatial data visualization. Instructors: Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship; Charles Gallagher, Research and Instruction Librarian

 

Digital Scholar Bytes: Expanding the Digital Horizon: A Year in Review of Digital Scholarship at Catholic University Libraries

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

Over the 2024-2025 academic year, the Catholic University Libraries’ Digital Scholarship team has continued to support and inspire a vibrant research culture by offering practical instruction, writing on critical scholarly issues, and engaging with our community through outreach and collaboration. As the digital landscape evolves, so too has our programming, especially in areas like generative AI, data visualization, and scholarly communication.

This post reflects on our activities from May 2024 to April 2025—highlighting the services, resources, and professional development that help shape the future of research at The Catholic University of America.

Empowering Researchers through Skill-Based Workshops

The 11 digital scholarship workshops offered this year were not merely instructional sessions—they were selected to target the most pressing methodological and technological gaps observed in faculty consultations, classroom interactions, and student questions. The suite of introductory sessions on Tableau, OpenRefine, Gephi, Zotero, and AntConc was structured to meet the needs of budding researchers and established scholars who need a foundation for building particular skills.

For example, Tableau was offered in response to a growing campus-wide demand for visually clear, data representation. The strong attendance and high viewership reinforced the need for accessible data-visualization training. OpenRefine—both introductory and advanced workshops—was intentionally emphasized because data cleaning remains one of the most persistent bottlenecks in faculty and student project workflows. AntConc and Gephi workshops extended our support into digital humanities and social network analysis, fields where the demand for non–coding-based tools continues to rise. Citation management sessions on Zotero and RefWorks served basic needs that cut across all disciplines.

workshop attendance

We conducted 11 digital scholarship workshops with 51 registered participants, covering a wide range of tools and methods. These sessions were led by Kevin Gunn, Charles Gallagher, and Ben Cushing, and were recorded and made available on YouTube—collectively garnering hundreds of views.

Notable offerings included:

  • “Working with Tableau” – 13 participants and 235 views, making it our most-watched session.
  • “Using OpenRefine for Cleaning Data” – A consistently popular workshop with 110 views.
  • “Text Analysis Using AntConc” – Introduced basic regular expressions and concordance features for linguistic and literary research.

We also introduced four new workshops this past year:

  • Citation Management with Zotero (58 views)
  • Citation Management with RefWorks (65 views)
  • Advanced OpenRefine (78 views)
  • Visualizing Network Data using Gephi (34 views)

These hands-on workshops provided researchers with concrete digital methods that enhance both individual and collaborative scholarship.

 

 

Harnessing AISpecial Feature: Exploring AI Research Platforms

In February, we hosted two well-received workshops titled “Harnessing AI for Research: Explore, Experiment, and Engage”, coordinated by Charles Gallagher and Kevin Gunn. These sessions attracted 19 participants from across campus, including 5 MLIS students, and introduced attendees to AI-powered platforms that assist with literature review, synthesis, and data analysis. The workshops served as a “sandbox” where researchers could test emerging tools without the pressure of adoption. The positive feedback affirmed the importance of continuing AI literacy initiatives within the library setting.

Additionally, we shared our approach to integrating AI into library services during a presentation to fellow librarians at the WRLC Annual Meeting in May 2024.

Writing and Advocacy: Sharing Knowledge through Blog Posts

The Digital Scholarship team published 17 blog posts under the Digital Scholar Bytes blog this year. Post were written by Kevin Gunn, Joan Stahl, Melissa Foge, Ben Cushing, Charles Gallagher, and Marla Koenigsknecht. Topics spanned a rich spectrum of scholarly issues:

  • Legal & Ethical: fair use, copyright, data ownership, public domain
  • Research Tools & Practices: open science, citation management, GIS
  • Emerging Trends: generative AI, equitable publishing, disruptive collection models
  • Pedagogical Themes: student well-being, literacy, peer review practices

These posts not only document our expertise but also serve as a bridge between scholarly communication and practitioner needs.

Engaging the Campus Community

We extended our impact beyond the library through collaborative outreach:

  • Kevin Gunn participated in the Center for Teaching Excellence’s faculty book club, which read Teaching Effectively with ChatGPT. This initiative brought together instructors experimenting with AI in the classroom.
  • Charles Gallagher joined a faculty social event—“Discuss AI Innovation Over Appetizers”—to engage with administrators and researchers on the future of AI in higher ed.
  • In March, 2025, Stephen Connaghan (University Librarian), Joan Stahl (Director of Research and Instruction) and Kevin Gunn (Coordinator of Digital Scholarship), met with the American Library Association (ALA) accreditation committee as liaison librarians for the Department of Information Sciences. The accreditation committee was interested in our work in digital scholarship—the AI workshops were a key focus of the discussion.
  • In collaboration with Marla Koenigsknecht (Library and Information Science graduate student at Wayne State University), we updated the Copyright and Scholarly Communication LibGuides to ensure compliance, accessibility, and instructional clarity.

Staying Current: Professional Development and Learning

Keeping pace with developments in digital scholarship requires continual learning. The team’s professional development activities were deliberately structured around needs in teaching, research support, and scholarly communication. Participation in intensive, multi-day programs focused on text analysis, large language model-based classification, retrieval-augmented generation, predatory publishing, and AI literacy directly informed both public-facing workshops and internal staff training. Some of the workshops, webinars, and conferences included:

Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Multi-day Programs

  • Ithaka Constellate’s Text Analysis Pedagogy Institute
  • Automated Text Classification using LLMs
  • Introduction to Retrieval Augmented Generation

Webinars on Scholarly Communication & Research

  • Profiling Predatory Publishers
  • Transformative Agreements in Libraries
  • Best Practices for Managing Data in Research

Generative AI and Libraries

  • Generative AI in Libraries (GAIL) Virtual Conference
  • AI Literacy for Librarians
  • Build an AI Chatbot in 30 Minutes
  • Copyright and AI: Legal Implications and Future Trends

Through this engagement, we have refined our understanding of emerging tools and brought this insight back to our programming and outreach.

Looking Ahead: Priorities for the Coming Year

As digital research tools and expectations evolve, we remain committed to:

  • Expanding AI literacy initiatives for students and faculty;
  • Offering hands-on workshops in digital methods and platforms;
  • Supporting inclusive, ethical, and sustainable scholarly communication;
  • And partnering across campus to integrate digital scholarship into the research life cycle.

Whether you are a student just beginning to explore digital methods or a seasoned scholar needing to learn a new tool, we invite you to take part in our upcoming workshops, read our blog, and contact us for a one-on-one consultation. For more information or to view our past workshops, visit our Digital Scholarship Services page or contact Kevin Gunn, Coordinator of Digital Scholarship.

Kevin Gunn is the Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries.

 

 

Honoring the 11th Hour: Veterans Day Films that Inspire and Remember

Posted on by Kevin Gunn
Soldier in a poppy field – ChatGPT

November 11 is observed as Veterans Day in the United States, a national holiday dedicated to honoring the bravery, sacrifice, and service of all men and women who have served in the U.S. armed forces. It is a day to reflect on the courage of those who defended the nation in times of war and peace, acknowledging their enduring contributions to the country’s security and freedom. Originally known as Armistice Day, the observance was first established to mark the end of World War I, but later expanded to include all American veterans, both living and deceased.

In many Commonwealth nations (the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and others), the same date is commemorated as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. These observances pay tribute to those who lost their lives in military service, particularly during World War I, which officially ended when the armistice between the Allies and Germany took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Around the world, red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance, inspired by the war poem In Flanders Fields, serving as a reminder of the human cost of conflict and the importance of peace.

We have a number of documentaries and films in our Kanopy and Swank Motion Pictures collections that we think deserve a larger audience. These titles explore the human stories behind military service. These stories of courage, loss, resilience, and reflection illuminate not only the experiences of those who fought on the front lines but also the enduring effects of war on families, communities, and nations. These works can help you connect personally to the meaning of Veterans Day and Remembrance Day and the sacrifices made for freedom.

 

Documentaries

World War I – The War in Europe

soldiers marching
Scene from World War I – The War in Europe

World War I was sparked by nationalism and a complex web of political and military alliances. Soldiers in Europe fought the first modern war as industrial-age ingenuity sparked terror in the guise of warplanes, flamethrowers and chemical weapons. On the U.S. home front, women assumed new roles, the suffrage movement gained steam, and African Americans migrated to fill jobs in the North. Other changes were less positive, as racial tensions and the erosion of civil liberties threatened the country. – Kanopy

Topics include the European military alliances that ignited the war; industrial age technological advances such as the U-boat, machine guns, air combat and chemical weapons; United States involvement including the participation of women and African Americans; U.S. economic policies and public support for the war effort.

 

World War I and the Birth of Free Speech

Congress
Scene from World War I and the Birth of Free Speech

Today, we think of the First Amendment as offering nearly unlimited free speech, but when you step back 100 years, you see surprising restrictions on speech. Here, go back to World War I and explore the Supreme Court’s most important early decisions on freedom of speech. – Kanopy

An overview of the concept of free speech through U.S. history and how World War I evolved our protections for criticizing the federal govenment without recrimination. As the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the government sought to maintain national unity and suppress dissent that might undermine the war effort. Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a crime to criticize the government, the military, or the war itself. The resulting court cases forced the Supreme Court to define the limits of free speech for the first time. In Schenck v. United States (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes introduced the “clear and present danger” test, arguing that speech could be restricted if it posed an immediate threat to national security—famously comparing it to “shouting fire in a crowded theater.” Though this decision upheld the government’s actions, it sparked a national debate about civil liberties and the tension between security and freedom. Holmes later changed his position.

 

World War I: Destruction and Rebirth

Scene from World War I: Destruction and Rebirth

Examine the First World War from the very different vantage of Eastern Europe. Whereas the West’s view of the Great War is one of indecision and stalemate, the war in the East was one of movement—and perhaps even a cause for celebration as the old empires were destroyed, giving room for the creation of new states such as an independent Poland, among others. – Kanopy

This documentary gives a different perspective of the war in the East, specifically, the Serbian effort against the Austria-Hungarian empire. The eastern front was a a stalemate like in the West, but involved movement and migration of peoples and armies.  Whole empires and societies were destroyed. While the West viewed the war as a senseless, the East saw the war as a tragedy giving rebirth to new independent countries from the four empires that were destroyed.

 

Films

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All Quiet on the Western Front – poster

 

This Best Picture is set during World War I, when battle-hungry young German soldiers with visions of glory quickly become disillusioned with combat, which has turned into a hellish fight for survival. Lewis Milestone won a Best Director Oscar for his adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic antiwar novel. – Swank

The 1930 film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone, is widely regarded as one of the most powerful anti-war films ever made. Produced by Universal Pictures, it closely follows Remarque’s novel, depicting the journey of Paul Bäumer and his classmates from eager recruits to broken soldiers scarred by the relentless brutality of trench warfare. The film’s stark realism of chaotic battle sequences, haunting silences, and focus on the psychological toll of war, still resonates all these years later.

 

 

 

1917 (2019)

1917 Poster

 

Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of Skyfall, Spectre and American Beauty, brings his singular vision to his World War I epic, 1917. At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield (Captain Fantastic’s George MacKay) and Blake (Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman) are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s own brother among them. – Swank

1917 is similar to All Quiet on the Western Front in that it follows the story of the men who experienced it.  In this case, two corporals, like the rest of their company, have been lulled into a false sense of security by an apparent German retreat, and the rush against time to warn other troops about it.  An interesting take is the ‘one-shot’ approach in filming the scenes, giving the viewer an ‘immersive’ experience.

 

 

Kevin Gunn is Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries.

 

Digital Scholar Bytes: Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era

Posted on by Kevin Gunn

Peer Review WeekEach September, the global scholarly community pauses to reflect on the practice of peer review during Peer Review Week (PRW), an international, community-led event that celebrates the role of peer review in ensuring research integrity. This year, from September 15–19, 2025, the theme is especially timely: “Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era.”

Why Peer Review Matters

Peer review is widely regarded as the cornerstone of scholarly communication. It provides quality control for academic publishing, ensures methodological rigor, and builds trust in the research record. At its best, peer review is a collaborative exchange that strengthens scholarship while maintaining accountability to disciplinary standards.

But peer review is also under strain. Reviewers are overburdened, processes can be opaque, and biases (whether conscious or systemic) continue to affect outcomes. The arrival of artificial intelligence has intensified these debates and forced us to ask fundamental questions about what peer review should look like in the decades ahead (Van Noorden, 2023).

AI Presence in Scholarly Publishing

AI tools are already woven into many aspects of scholarly publishing. Algorithms are increasingly being used in peer review to match manuscripts with suitable reviewers, improving the efficiency of reviewer identification. Artificial intelligence also supports content checks by detecting issues such as plagiarism, image manipulation, or data anomalies before publication (Naddaf, 2025). In addition, workflow processes benefit from automated tools that generate summaries and provide language polishing, offering assistance to both editors and authors. Finally, machine learning models contribute by flagging potential statistical or ethical concerns, serving as important quality indicators in the evaluation of scholarly work. Although these applications promise greater efficiency, they also raise important concerns: How trustworthy are the algorithms, who is responsible for overseeing their use, and to what extent might we risk delegating too much intellectual judgment to machines?

Evolving Questions in Peer Review

The choice of this year’s theme signals a growing recognition that AI is not a peripheral tool but a central force reshaping the scholarly landscape. Several urgent questions stand out:

  • Human vs. machine judgment: Which aspects of peer review must remain distinctly human (e.g.s. contextual interpretation, ethical reasoning, and disciplinary expertise)?
  • Ethics and transparency: How should journals and reviewers disclose the use of AI? Should there be standardized guidelines?
  • Bias and equity: AI can reduce workload, but it can also replicate or amplify biases embedded in training data. What safeguards are needed?
  • Training and literacy: How can reviewers and editors develop AI literacy so they can use these tools responsibly?
  • New models of peer review: Could AI enable more open, structured, or reproducibility-focused peer review models that move beyond the traditional “gatekeeping” function?

Peer Review Week Events

This week’s events cover such issues as: How can AI be used to enhance, rather than undermine, reviewer integrity and transparency? What ethical guidelines should shape its application in this context? In addition, how can reviewers be trained and supported to use AI tools responsibly? And perhaps most importantly, what elements of peer review should remain distinctly human, preserving the critical judgment and ethical reasoning that machines cannot replicate?

A sample of events and recordings include:

AI in Peer Review: A Game Changer or a Governance Challenge? September 15th (7:00am EST)
A panel discussion organized by the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE) exploring the growing role of AI in peer review—from efficiency gains to governance concerns—and balancing innovation with responsibility.

Editor-in-Chief Editorial Gatekeeping in the Age of Generative AI September 17th (7:00am EST)
A panel discussion organized by the Asian Council of Science Editors offering an editor-in-chief’s perspective on maintaining high standards and integrity in peer review amid generative AI’s rise.

Superpowers You Can Learn From Peer Review September 17th (8:00am EST)
A webinar by Sci-Train that reframes peer review as a source of transferable skills—whether it’s critical thinking, ethical discernment, or strategic feedback.

Which Peer Review Tool Is Best For You? September 19th (8:00am EST)
A webinar by Sci-Train providing a comparative overview of different peer review tools—aiming to match technology to reviewer or editor needs effectively.

You can follow PRW conversation on social media using #PeerReviewWeek and #PRW2025.

 

Kevin Gunn is the Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries and the former editor-in-chief of College & Undergraduate Libraries. 

 

References

Lee Konstantinou. “Peer Review Paranoia.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. September 2, 2025.

Maryam Sayab, Roohi Ghosh, Gareth Dyke, Maria Machado. Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era: Announcing the Theme for Peer Review Week 2025. The Scholarly Kitchen. June 10, 2025.

MDPI. Peer Review Week 2025: “Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era.” MDPI. September 10, 2025.

Miryam Naddaf. “AI tool detects LLM-generated text in research papers and peer reviews.” Nature. September 11, 2025.

R. Ye, et al. “Are we there yet? Revealing the risks of utilizing large language models in scholarly peer review.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.01708, 2024.

Richard Van Noorden. “More than 10,000 Research Papers Were Retracted in 2023—A New Record.” Nature, December 12, 2023.

Shelley Stall, Guido Cervone, Caroline Coward, et al. Ethical and Responsible Use of AI/ML in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences. Authorea. April 12, 2023.