The CSCI Conversations are community calls, enabling Lyrasis members to engage directly with Lyrasis strategists in the Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives (CSCI) division on timely scholarly communication topics, building community and sharing information and ideas. The sessions created opportunities for organic and conversational discourse on pressing issues in higher education and libraries, helping Lyrasis staff to better understand the needs of the Lyrasis member community and how Lyrasis can work to better support its members in the future.

The second CSCI Conversations series took place in the summer of 2025, with three sessions from June to August. Topics covered a recent member survey on libraries’ financial health and priorities, the legal landscape of AI in higher education alongside negotiation strategies for librarians, and measuring value in open access programs. The sessions produced a combined total of more than 750 registrations and more than 300 live attendees. Sessions were not recorded to foster candid, engaged discussions. Below are reports from each session in the 2025 series.

If you have any questions about the CSCI Conversations series or have any suggestions for topics to cover in 2026, please reach out to christy.cortes@lyrasis.org.

CSCI Conversations Session 1: A Holistic Review of Lyrasis Check-In Survey Responses

Held on June 24, 2025, the first session in the Summer 2025 CSCI Conversations reviewed responses from the Lyrasis member community to the Spring 2025 Lyrasis Check-In survey and encouraged interactive discussion of the results. Forty-seven Lyrasis member staff attended live.

In Spring 2025, CSCI strategists surveyed members to learn how recent U.S. federal government decisions and developments are impacting Lyrasis members. The survey closed in mid-April 2025 after receiving 204 responses, comprising a representative set of Lyrasis members.

Key Survey Findings

  • At least 65% of respondents reported that they were likely to face budget cuts during the calendar year (2026) or fiscal year (2025-26).
  • The two most important collection management priorities for respondents were (1) low renewal increases and (2) decreasing subscription spend. Respondents also identified additional priorities of responding to staffing issues and budget cuts or flat budgets.
  • 92.6% of respondents reported that annual price increases from vendors must remain at 3% or below to be sustainable long-term.
  • In 2025’s uncertain financial climate, more than half of respondents indicated that their institution is unlikely to invest in new resources at this time. For institutions able to invest in new resources, respondents identified various priorities, including support for new degree programs, open access programs (including read and publish agreements), STEM resources, medical and health sciences resources, and one-time purchases of perpetual access rights.
  • Respondents identified new non-fiscal constraints such as curriculum changes; staffing shortages; attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion; and a climate of uncertainty.

Overall, survey responses identified vendor pricing and price increases as unsustainable in the current financial climate, as most institutions face flat or reduced budgets.

Lyrasis strategists shared ways in which they work to address these concerns, including negotiation and advocacy with vendors, education of vendors and other stakeholders on higher ed finances and library needs, and enhancements to member and community support services.

CSCI Conversations Session 2: Artificial Intelligence: The Legal Landscape, Licensing, and Negotiation Strategies

Held on July 17, 2025, the second session in the Summer 2025 CSCI Conversations examined strategies for negotiating and licensing generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in an uncertain legal landscape. More than 150 Lyrasis member staff attended the live session and participated in a lively discussion. Lyrasis strategists led an interactive discussion with attendees about these shared challenges and opportunities that we are all facing in the age of AI.

A Lyrasis strategist presented a brief review of AI and text and data mining (TDM) as well as the general legal landscape of AI and how AI may be used within copyright law. The discussion then turned to how AI can be licensed for the highest benefit of all stakeholders, how AI interacts with common license terms such as Creative Commons licenses, and how libraries can negotiate license terms that enable faculty and students to use AI tools legally and effectively.

In the discussion, Lyrasis strategists addressed common areas of concern in academic spaces by highlighting the following aspects of current AI trends, related law, and negotiation tactics:

  1. Copyright law is still very much in effect, offering the same protections for authors and creators that it has in the past. Evolutions in how the law is applied are occurring because we are applying existing laws to new technology. This occurs during every major technological advancement while legal rightsizing takes place. However, libraries should resist giving up user rights and liability protections while the law is clarified.
  2. It’s important to communicate the scope of a library’s ability to enforce restrictions on use often found in vendor licenses. In a negotiation, emphasizing the realities of your library and institution can go a long way toward softening restrictive contract language.
  3. Library staff should tap into their communities and other resources to help them keep up with, and keep track of, the rapidly evolving legal landscape of AI. Many people and organizations are working to help libraries understand their use rights in relation to AI.

CSCI Conversations Session 3: Goals and Metrics for Read & Publish Agreements

Held on August 4, 2025, the third session in the Summer 2025 CSCI Conversations examined goals and metrics for Read & Publish Agreements. Lyrasis strategists shared desired features and benefits of read and publish agreements, explored how libraries and consortia measure success, and reviewed challenges related to the administration and promotion of these agreements. In the discussions throughout the session, attendees contributed their own insights into these issues.

Attendees preferred agreements that offer uncapped OA publishing in both gold and hybrid OA journals, plus author rights retention, cost savings / cost avoidance for authors and institutions, straightforward author workflows that minimize libraries’ administrative burden, and sustainable list prices for article processing charges (APCs). In determining value on investment, attendees highlighted factors such as the number of OA articles published by their authors, cost savings to researchers, lowered interlibrary loan costs, higher readership, more citations, and alignment of journal lists with key areas of institutional research. In addition, attendees cited more aspirational goals such as ensuring more faculty see the library as a key partner in the publishing process, increasing the global impact and spread of knowledge, and advancing the public good.

Attendees urged publishers to provide better data to facilitate cost-benefit analysis by libraries (e.g., total global downloads to demonstrate impact of their researchers’ OA articles). Standard definitions of eligible author types and document types would facilitate more consistent author experiences and library messaging. Attendees appreciated cost-neutrality but warned against unsustainable annual fee increases. In short, attendees acknowledged the value of read and publish agreements and identified a range of motivations and metrics for them but concurred that these agreements still have a long way to go to become standardized and sustainable.