Curated Content from ER&L Sponsors
ER&L sponsors present content that is specifically for our niche audience. Whether the session explores case studies to learn how other libraries use similar tools or products or reveals new directions and products on the horizon, you’ll be glad you took the time to attend. Feedback from past sessions includes that it was great to “learn what other libraries are doing more with the products I’ve already purchased” and that the time enabled “a good opportunity to ask questions about new offerings and strategy in a group.”
Responding to Evolving Research and Reading Journeys in the Age of AI
📅 MON MAR 2 | 🕛 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM | 📍 ROOM 202 | Session Info
Understanding how students and researchers engage with scholarly content is more critical than ever. This session presents original research conducted by Oxford University Press (OUP) from 2024 to 2026 exploring evolving user journeys, reading and study habits, and attitudes toward artificial intelligence in academic contexts. Drawing on insights from students, researchers, and librarians across disciplines and countries, the session will illuminate how research behaviors and attitudes have changed in the wake of AI search tools and the continued expansion of digital resources.
We will also share features and capabilities OUP has been working on to meet the evolving needs of users and maximize the value of customers’ subscriptions, including improved discovery within OUP’s products, strategies for managing bot traffic, and ensuring visibility of entitlements in institutions’ preferred Enterprise AI solutions.
We look forward to a lively discussion with ER&L attendees to hear how our findings reflect the experiences, challenges, and opportunities you are finding in the age of AI.
Presented by:
- Patricia Hudson, Head of Library Marketing, Oxford University Press
- Tanya Laplante, Director of Product Platforms, Oxford University Press
Students and researchers increasingly use AI tools in place of library & institutional systems. They move fast and expect instant answers, but often miss the credibility, depth and breadth of library collections and expertise.
This raises a critical question: how can libraries remain central to trusted scholarship – and stay visible – when user journeys begin outside library systems?
This session introduces the Nexus academic assistant, a solution that embeds library services directly into the AI ecosystem. Join us to learn how Nexus extends your library’s reach by delivering entitlement-aware access to full text, recommendations, and insights, meeting users where they work.
Presented by:
- Katy Aronoff, Senior Director – Solution Consulting, Clarivate
Redefining Research with LeapSpace: Elsevier’s Next-Generation AI Solution
📅 MON MAR 2 | 🕛 4:00 – 4:50 PM | 📍 ROOM 202 | Session Info
While 84% of researchers say they have used AI tools in their work, only 22% trust existing tools*. Designed in collaboration with the scientific research community, LeapSpace™ blends responsible AI with transparency, human oversight, and a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed, publisher-neutral full text and abstracts. LeapSpace is a research-grade AI-assisted workspace that lets researchers work faster, think deeper, and achieve more – all in one secure environment.
For academic librarians, LeapSpace offers a trusted platform to enhance research services, ensure students’ research readiness, and support the productivity and teaching capabilities of researchers and faculty.
Learn how this solution offers the ability to streamline literature synthesis, identify funding opportunities, uncover knowledge gaps, and find collaborators, all while ensuring transparency and trust through features like Trust Cards and publisher-neutral algorithms. With access to certified, peer-reviewed content and the ability to integrate institutional resources, you can provide tailored, secure, and reliable support to your users with confidence.
We look forward to engaging with you on this exciting endeavor!
*Elsevier Researcher of the Future report – 2025
Presented by:
- Emily Singley, Vice President, Library Relations, Elsevier
Transform 18th-Century Studies with ECCO, Part III
📅 TUE MAR 3 | 🕛 9:00-9:50 AM | 📍 ROOM 202 | Session Info
For more than two decades, Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) has been the backbone of digital scholarship on the eighteenth century. In March 2026, Gale will launch ECCO Part III, an ambitious expansion that adds approximately 25,000 newly digitized titles in full color. The new materials include works that had circulated outside major metropolitan centers or existed only in dispersed holdings, making them difficult to consolidate until now. This session will provide a sneak peek into ECCO III and demonstrate how the new materials, together with enhancements in the product platform, support new trends in humanities research and education.
Presented by:
- Sara Tarpley, Director – Academic Engagement, Gale
All joined up. How Connected Research Infrastructure Supports Discovery and Demonstrates Value
📅 TUE MAR 3 | 🕛11:30 AM – 12:20 PM | 📍 ROOM 202 | Session Info
The research support landscape is fragmenting at precisely the moment when institutions require coherence. Budgets face increasing uncertainty, federal programs are being curtailed, and administrators seek demonstrable evidence of impact. Yet the tools employed to track research outputs, measure attention, and communicate institutional value frequently operate in isolation. Sophisticated systems have been developed for individual functions—publication databases, repositories, altmetrics platforms—but the connections between them remain manual, fragile, and dependent upon staff capacity that is increasingly constrained.
This fragmentation represents a strategic vulnerability. When research outputs exist in silos, they become invisible to the discovery systems that users actually employ. When publication data cannot be connected to attention data, the narrative thread explaining why research matters beyond citation counts is lost. When repositories function primarily as compliance mechanisms rather than discovery engines, institutions address yesterday’s challenges while forgoing tomorrow’s opportunities.
This session proposes an alternative approach: research infrastructure that is connected by design, enabling outputs to flow seamlessly from creation to deposit to discovery to impact measurement. We will examine what this looks like in practice using Dimensions, Altmetric, and Figshare—three platforms engineered to function as an integrated system—though the underlying principles extend beyond any single vendor. The institutions that will succeed in the coming decade will be those that approach their research infrastructure as a coherent ecosystem rather than an assemblage of discrete solutions.
The session will address practical scenarios: How can institutions conduct rigorous publication analysis without excessive dependence on incumbent databases? How can research be made discoverable within the search environments users actually inhabit? How can impact narratives be constructed that resonate with senior leadership, funders, and the broader public? And how can these objectives be achieved without expanding staff or placing unsustainable demands on existing teams?
Attendees will leave with both a strategic framework for conceptualising connected research infrastructure and practical examples that can be adapted to their own institutional contexts.
Presented by:
- Mark Hahnel, VP Open Research, Digital Science
Transforming Collection Analytics into Competitive Advantages
📅 TUE MAR 3 | 🕛 1:40 – 2:30 PM | 📍 ROOM 202 | Session Info
‼️ This session is by invitation only.
Libraries must leverage data to drive decisions and demonstrate impact as traditional methods fall short. We’re exploring ways to provide libraries with the analytics and insights they need to transform collections into strategic assets and make strategic decisions with confidence. OCLC is inviting a select cohort of library professionals who make decisions about electronic serials to help shape the next generation of collection intelligence tools. This is about more than measuring what you have, it’s about leveraging data to develop strategies, influence budget decisions, and establish your library as a vital partner to your institution.
Note: This session is by invitation only.
Presented by:
- Jen Noel, Senior Product Manager Analyst, OCLC
- Sean Duffy, Product Manager, OCLC
