This week’s guest post is written by Emilija Kucinskaite who currently holds the Information Manager position at Scientific Information and Data Devision of Vilnius University Library in Lithuania. Emilija’s role includes developing and coordinating communication campaigns in the field of scholarly communication, organising and implementing activities related to Open Science, providing consultations for the academic community. We were thrilled to hear that Emilija and her colleagues wanted to translate and adapt the Publishing Trap for use in Lithuania and the game (including the board, cards and playbook) is now available to download from Google Drive. Emilija tells us more about their experiences of playing the game with staff and the issues that the game raises:
The world is suffering from information overload. Everybody is screaming for attention, but very few get it. The academic world is no exception. It is getting more and more difficult to have your voice heard, which is why Vilnius University Library often tests new ways and methods trying to capture the academic community’s attention. In an attempt to highlight the issues associated with Open Science and effectively gather all the community around the table, a Lithuanian Version of the educational board game “The Publishing Trap” was introduced at Vilnius University Library. There was a space designated especially for the game during Open Access Week in 2018. Students, researchers, publishers, science administrators and librarians were invited to gather around a table and test out the game.
How often can you freely share your knowledge? If you wish, the Publishing Trap gives you that choice. Participants of the game need to decide to spread their knowledge around and gain influence or not, to assign their copyrights or not, to spend their money or not. Fortunately, Lithuanians seem to be very generous! They willingly pay APCs, choose open licences for their research results, opt to work for a charity instead of working with commercially funded organisations and more surprisingly they don’t go bankrupt while playing this educational board game! These are just some of the players’ comments:
“I am happy that my team was incredibly united. I realized that to be visible on the Internet is important nowadays. ”
“It was a very interesting game which comprised useful information and it was a lot of fun.”
“Others can help us to set up our own ways, but success is also an important factor, albeit not fateful.”
“During the game, I understood the value of Open Access; that it is important to share research results.”
The Publishing Trap was translated into the Lithuanian language by Gediminas Auškalnis, Vilnius University Library, the graphic design was adapted by Lina Dumbravaitė, Vilnius University Library. The Lithuanian version of the game is now available for all visitors at Vilnius University Library. Moreover, Vilnius University Library is planning to offer an event at Vilnius Book Fair 2019 where the public will also be invited to play the game.
Copyright Literacy 