This is a hybrid event- please join us in-person at Wells Library (registration limited, as lunch will be served) or online (no registration required)!

Our traditional journal vendors are transitioning from being publishers to being data analytics companies. A few of them, including RELX (Reed Elsevier + LexisNexis) have even become data brokers that sell dossiers of personal information to ICE. In this discussion, we’ll look at how companies’ research platforms are now part of larger data analytics systems, and what that means for our privacy and intellectual freedom. We’ll also think about open access projects and other efforts that could help ensure that people who use our libraries can do their research without being subjected to surveillance. 

Speaker Bio: Sarah Lamdan is a Professor of Law at the CUNY School of Law and a leading expert on the evolution of library vendors into surveillance and data brokering activities. She is also a Senior Fellow with SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). She's writing a book called Data Cartels that describes the access and privacy issues information vendors are causing as they transition to data analytics companies that will come out next year.