Opening Plenary Session with Keynote by Rina Pantalony
Monday, July 21st
9:00am – 10:30am Pacific (UTC-7)
We welcome all attendees to FSCI with this opening plenary, beginning with introductions, acknowledgements, and some key information about the coming week’s activities.
After this first 30 minutes, we will have a keynote presentation from Rina Elster Pantalony, a copyright lawyer working with cultural heritage institutions in Canada and the US. She served as Copyright Director to the Canadian Heritage Information Network, and then legal counsel to the Library and Archives of Canada on matters concerning the digital reproduction and distribution of collections. For over ten years, she was faculty in the Moving Image Archive Preservation Program of the Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Rina is the former Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the International Council of Museums and now chairs the Advisory Board for a new online copyright education initiative for professionals working in libraries, archives and museums. Rina is the author of the WIPO Guide to Managing Intellectual Property for Museums and a co-author of the WIPO Toolkit on Preservation. Rina served as Director, Copyright Advisory Services, Columbia University Libraries from 2014 until 2025 after which she was appointed to her current position as Senior Advisor, Library Policy and Legal Affairs at UCLA Library. Her keynote is titled:
Researcher Needs in the Development of AI Tools: What Do We Really Mean by “Open”?
As AI continues to evolve, AI researcher needs are becoming increasingly complex. AI researchers are employing all sorts of content, both licensed and unlicensed, published, unpublished, open, subject to terms of use, or identified as highly private or proprietary. They are expected to understand the nuances, terms and conditions, limitations and exceptions, integrity and origin of the content they employ. The content can include text, data, images, moving images, software applications and virtually any sort of content that can be identified and imagined. In addition, the use of content in AI development is becoming layered. Until recently, from a publisher perspective, and certainly from a layperson’s perspective, the focus has been on what content has been used to train an AI tool. In fact, the analysis requires far more complexity. It may require an assessment of not just a comparison between input and output to ascertain the risk in use, but of the degree of “interconnectedness” of the multiple types of content, the terms that may limit such interconnectedness, the degree of integrity and ultimately, the tool’s usefulness.
The purpose of the opening plenary talk will be to examine in detail the needs of AI research, based on actual experience, looking through the lens of intellectual property, open access, expectations and market. The talk is based on experience working with AI researchers on a project that is well underway at Columbia University that includes both published and unpublished materials, images of artwork, data, metadata, software applications, thesauri and cultural heritage information standards. The presentation will illustrate the degree of complexity in AI research and ultimately, it raises the question about what constitutes “open” in this context.
Overview of FORCE11 Working Groups
Mon Jul 21, 2025
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Facilitator: Martin Brennan
FORCE11 has initiated 10 new working groups in the last year. In this session, we will present the scope and agenda of each group, and discuss the goals of each. Come hear about this exciting work and help make them better with your input. You may wish to join one of these groups – or be inspired to form your own!
Evaluating AI Tools Session
Wed Jul 23, 2025
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Facilitator: Jonathan Grunert
This interactive session is welcome to all attendees! AI research tools have a variety of applications and value, depending a great deal on how researchers use them. This session introduces an interactive space for FSCI attendees to review many of the tools developed to support research in different ways. The space will be open for the remainder of the week, and FSCI attendees can contribute multiple times! There will be a brief follow-up discussion of the results at the closing plenary.
Closing Plenary A: Wrap-up & Keynote by Heather Sardis
Fri Jul 25, 2025
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
This session wraps up the curriculum of FSCI 2025. After some brief remarks to close up the event, we will get a keynote address from Heather Sardis, Associate Director for Technology and Strategic Planning at the MIT Libraries. She previously led the library at the California Academy of Sciences, and her cross-sector work in the nonprofit, humanitarian, and technical fields has focused on the intersection of computing, ethics, and the future of information. Her talk will incorporate reflections on FSCI as a whole, with the title of:
A Human-Centered Future for Scholarly Communication: AI, Values, and the Work Ahead
As we close out this year’s FSCI, this plenary session will explore the connective threads that link the week’s key themes of open infrastructure, ethical AI, values-driven research, and the future of scholarly communication. It will situate the current moment within a broader historical trajectory: one in which scholars, technologists, and stewards of knowledge have continually shaped and reshaped the development of computing and artificial intelligence.
Drawing on her recent work with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Heather Sardis will present a human-centered AI action plan, designed to provide scholarly institutions and knowledge workers with a roadmap for navigating emerging AI technologies while remaining grounded in the shared values of transparency, equity, sustainability, and intellectual freedom. Finally, the session will explore how scholarly communities can shape ethical AI practices, ensuring that technological innovation aligns with the public good, drawing inspiration from community discussions throughout the week as well as the 2025 FSCI courses.
Closing Plenary B: Panel Discussion – AI and the Integrity of Scholarly Work
Fri Jul 25, 2025
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Moderator: Martin Brennan
Our closing Plenary panel discussion will explore the theme “AI and the Integrity of Scholarly Work”. Our panel includes:
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- Dr. Robin White, Associate Professor of Ruminant Nutrition & Sustainable Agriculture, Virginia Tech, Virginia, USA, and author of the paper “Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools in Journal Article Preparation: A Preliminary Catalog of Ethical Considerations, Opportunities, and Pitfalls”
- Mr. George Currie, Content Manager at the publisher eLife Sciences, and coauthor of the article “The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Research Integrity in Scholarly Publishing”
- Dr. Bishnu Bahadur Khatri, Associate Professor and Head of Department in the Central Department of Rural Development, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, and coauthor of the paper “Artificial intelligence (AI) in Higher Education: Growing Academic Integrity and Ethical Concerns”
This panel will describe the promises and risks of using AI in scholarship, share interesting case reports, and discuss guidelines for responsibly adopting these technologies. An audience Q & A will follow the panel discussion.
