EBSCO online sessions in January 2026

Registrations for the training cycle organized by EBSCO designed for librarians, researchers, teachers and students, who would like to learn more about EBSCO.

What’s New on the EBSCO Platform: Citations, Abstracts, Author Profiles, Recommendations, and More
Date: 20^th January 2026 | Time: 1:30 PM EET (40 minutes) | Registration

During the training, new features available on the EBSCO platform will be discussed, including the citation count indicator, an AI-powered publication summary generator, natural language search mode, author profiles, recommendations of similar publications, and reference lists for publications.

New! GeoRef with Full Text
Date: 22^nd January 2026 | Time: 1:30 PM EET (45 minutes) | Registration

Join the session to learn about a new addition to the EBSCO offering – GeoRef with Full Text. The database combines the American Geosciences Institute’s specialized indexing of geological literature with high-quality full texts of journals and magazines essential for geological research, providing simple and intuitive searching. It includes the authoritative GeoRef index, a specialized thesaurus, and full texts from over 400 journals.

Micro Session | How to Promote Access to EBSCO Resources?
Date: 29^th January 2026 | Time: 10:30 AM EET (20 minutes) | Registration

During this session, an EBSCO trainer will present the websites and services where additional instructional materials related to the EBSCO platform and resources can be found. These sources can be used to promote databases and user training. We will present the available materials, including tutorial videos, posters, leaflets, and the EBSCO Connect support site.

To stay up-to-date with upcoming training sessions, we recommend that you bookmark this site and visit it regularly to sign up for any new trainings

The Library is decorated for Christmas!

Subscription to the Financial Times

The university community has a subscription to Financial Times, one of the most influential and popular publications covering business, politics, economics, and finance.

Financial Times content:

World news, analysis, and insights;
Audio and video content(visual and data journalism, podcasts, video);
„FT Digital Edition“– includes text to audio and translation functions for FT content;
„Business School Cases“– case studies that can be integrated into lectures;
„Free Lunch“– a twice-weekly newsletter on global economic policy discussions;
„Markets Data“– information about market trends and changes;
„AskFT“– an artificial intelligence program that helps search for content, summarize, and create case studies for lectures.

Registration is required: when registering, please provide your VMU email address.

Staff

Students

The archive of the historic American Lithuanian newspaper “Draugas” will be preserved at the VMU Library

“Draugas” – the oldest Lithuanian newspaper, published without interruption outside the borders of the Republic of Lithuania since 1909.

Historians consider this archive to be one of the most important sources recording the life of Lithuanians in the United States, and its role was particularly significant during the Soviet occupation, when “Draugas” contributed to the dissemination of the ideas of Lithuanian independence. Although large part of the publications is digitized, the preservation of the physical archive has great symbolic and moral value.

To preserve the extremely important historical heritage of the Lithuanian diaspora, “Draugas” Council, in cooperation with the Institute of Lithuanian Diaspora of VMU, proposed to donate the archive to VMU library. The transferred archive consists of 157 volumes, covering the period from 1958 to 2017.

The newspaper was founded and published by the “Unity of Lithuanian Roman Catholic Priests of America”, its first editors were priests Vincas Vizgirda and Kazimieras Urbonavičius. The newspaper was published as a weekly in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, until 1916, and in 1912 its publication was moved to Chicago. From 1919, the newspaper was published by the Marijonai Order, and in 1941 the Lithuanian Catholic Press Society took over the publishing. Among the most famous editors of the newspaper who contributed to its formation were Petras Tumasonis (who edited it in 1916–1940) and V. J. Bagdanavičius (1951–1958).

Since its inception, “Draugas” has become important issue to the Lithuanian American community. The newspaper not only informed about Catholic attitudes and the activities of the diaspora, but also actively contributed to the preservation of national identity and culture. In cooperation with the most prominent authors, scientists and artists of the diaspora, the cultural supplement “Science, Art, Literature” has been published since 1949. It has become one of the most important platforms for the dissemination of Lithuanian culture and science in the diaspora. The supplement extensively describes the cultural activities of the Lithuanian diaspora in America and elsewhere, publishes works of fiction, and works by prominent Lithuanian and diaspora scientists.

Trial access to Britannica Academic

The rich combination of the Encyclopedia Britannica plus Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, journals and periodicals, and many other research tools provides the variety of reliable sources that users need to consult when conducting thorough research – all from one resource. Updated daily.

New feature – the ability to search using the artificial intelligence tool „Ask Britannica“ (video).

The database is available to University users until 1 January, 2026.

Log in: VMU computer network. For remote access passwords please ask librarians or write db@bibl.vdu.lt (please write from University e-mail system).

EBSCO online sessions in November 2025

Registrations for the training cycle organized by EBSCO designed for librarians, researchers, teachers and students, who would like to learn more about EBSCO.

Central & Eastern European Academic Source Database – Support for Researchers of Scientific Literature in the Region
13^thNovember 2025, 1:00 PM (45 minutes) | Registration

Explore the Central & Eastern European Academic Source Database, which contains numerous journals from Central and Eastern Europe. Learn basic and advanced search techniques (keywords, filters, languages, countries) and work with results, including full-text access and exporting options. This training is intended for researchers, students, and librarians working with literature from the region.

EBSCOhost in a PhD Student’s Research Work – A Tool Worth Knowing
20^thNovember 2025, 11:00 AM (60 minutes) | Registration

This session will help doctoral students efficiently and confidently use the EBSCOhost platform—from basic functions to advanced search strategies and research data management. Learn to formulate research queries, manage bibliographies, export results, use Boolean operators, filters, and delimiters (year, document type, language). Tips will also be provided for finding popular journals, identifying recent articles, tracking citations, and building a theoretical foundation for your doctoral dissertation.

Inspec with Full Text in Practice – How to Effectively Search for Literature in Science and Technology
26^thNovember 2025, 1:00 PM (50 minutes) | Registration

Join this session to learn how to effectively use Inspec with Full Text, an advanced research database providing access to full-text journals in physics, engineering, computer science, and related disciplines. Participants will discover how to search efficiently, use subject classifications, and take advantage of indexing tools to support academic research and teaching.

To stay up-to-date with upcoming training sessions, we recommend that you bookmark this site and visit it regularly to sign up for any new trainings.

Library recommendations for Open Access Week

This week, we invite you to dive into the history, ideas, and practices of open access. Below are resources that will help you quickly understand this year’s Open Access Week theme, “Who owns our knowledge?”

Watch:
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. (2024). kn/own/able project: A new approach to understanding knowledge and ownership. (13 min.) – A new look at knowledge ownership, open access, and intellectual property.
Schmitt, J. (2018). Paywall: The business of scholarship. The movie. (1 hr. 5 min.) – A documentary film about the behind-the-scenes world of academic publishing and the open access movement.

Read:

Moore, S. A. (2025). Publishing beyond the market: Open access, care, and the commons. University of Michigan Press. – Community knowledge management as an alternative to commercial open access.

Schäfer, D., Mamidipudi, A., & Buning, M. (Eds.). (2023). Ownership of knowledge: beyond intellectual property. MIT Press. – The book proposes a new system of thinking about knowledge ownership that challenges the mechanisms of inequality in contemporary society.

Diamond open access: when open articles cost nothing to the author or the reader

Diamond open access is an open access publishing model in which scientific articles are free to readers and authors do not pay article processing charges (APCs). Publishing is funded by institutions, consortia, libraries, or research communities. In this way, the dissemination of knowledge does not depend on the budgets of individual authors or readers, but on community solidarity and long-term infrastructure support.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with diamond open access journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (almost 14,000 journals). You can view the list of diamond open access journals published by Vytautas Magnus University here.

Why is this important?

Fairness and inclusion. Authors from smaller institutions or countries can publish on an equal footing.
Control of knowledge for the community. Publishing decisions and infrastructure are more often managed by the academic community (associations, universities, libraries).
Transparency. Clear costs and open accountability reduce the pressure to commercialize.

How does this work in practice?

Journals and platforms (mostly managed by scientific societies, universities, or libraries) review, edit, and distribute publications without any additional fees.
Open standards: Creative Commons licenses (e.g., CC BY) and open metadata are used.

Diamond open access is one of the clearest answers to this year’s Open Access Week question, “Who owns knowledge?” as knowledge belongs to the community, and the infrastructure for its dissemination is managed and supported by the academic community itself.

How to take advantage of article processing charge (APC) discounts

On the occasion of Open Access Week, we would like to remind you that VDU authors can take advantage of article processing charge discounts.

What is an article processing charge (APC)?

APC (Article Processing Charge) is a fee paid to the publisher so that the publication becomes immediately available online to everyone. It can be paid by the author, institution, or funders. Discounts depend on publisher agreements and the institutional affiliation of the corresponding author.

Where you can publish for free (if the corresponding author is from VMU)?

Cambridge University Press (CUP) – free publication in journals from the list.
Cogitatio Press – free publication in all open access journals.
De Gruyter – free publication in English and German journals from the list.
Emerald – free publication in journals from the list. The agreement provides for a limited number of free articles. Lithuanian authors can publish 15 articles per year free of charge. You can check how many free publication opportunities are left here.
Microbiology Society – free publication in journals from the list.
Oxford University Press (OUP) – free publication in journals from the list. The agreement provides for a limited number of free articles. Lithuanian authors can publish 14 articles per year free of charge. You can monitor how many free publication opportunities remain here.
SAGE – free publication in hybrid journals.

Where discounts are applied

Brill – 60% discount when publishing in journals from the list.
Edward Elgar – £500 discount when publishing in journals from the list.
MDPI – 10% discount when publishing in open access journals.
SAGE – 20% discount when publishing in gold open access journals.
Taylor & Francis – 50% discount when publishing in journals from the list.
World Scientific – 50% discount when publishing in journals from the list.

How to make use of it (5 steps)

Check the list of agreements with VMU: whether your journal/publisher is included and what conditions apply.
When submitting your manuscript, indicate your VMU affiliation and use @vdu.lt email address – this will identify whether you are eligible for a discount.
Follow the instructions in the publisher’s system (Rightslink, SciPris, SAGE Choice, T&F Submission Portal, etc.) and select the discount if requested.
Select a Creative Commons license (CC BY is recommended).
If the discount is not applied, contact the publisher or the VMU library.

What to note

Discounts are determined based on the institutional affiliation of the corresponding author.
Journal type:
- Gold Open Access – all journal articles are open access, APC fees are paid by the author/institution/funding agency.
- Hybrid journals – closed journals, accessible only to subscribers. Only paid articles are open access.
When annual limits apply (Oxford University Press and Emerald), the option to print for free is given on a first-come, first-served basis (apply as early as possible).
Technical details are important: carefully indicate your institutional affiliation, use @vdu.lt; if necessary, indicate that a discount should be applied and manually add a note.
Lithuanian research Council project funds do not usually cover publishing in hybrid journals.

Who owns our knowledge? Open Access Week

October 20–26, 2025, is the Open Access Week, an annual global initiative promoting open access to scientific results. This year’s theme is “Who owns our knowledge?” It invites the scientific community to rethink who has access to scientific and academic results, how knowledge is created and shared, and who owns the knowledge itself. It also encourages people to identify which open science ecosystem solutions best serve the interests of society and the academic community.

In recent years, community-driven knowledge-sharing models, such as diamond open access, have grown worldwide; more editorial boards are reclaiming ownership of journals, and institutions are striving to reduce their dependence on commercial databases and metrics.

At the same time, new risks emerge: the use of academic knowledge to train artificial intelligence models without proper consultation or author consent. The counterbalance to this is non-commercial models supported by the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and the Toluca-Cape Town Declaration.

During the week, the VMU library invites you to:

Online seminars on open access, research data management, and copyright issues

- A Practical Guide to Open Research

2025-10-22 12:30–15:30 Registration

- Who “owns” research data?

2025-10-23 13:00–13:30 No registration required. Event link (Zoom)

- Open Data in the Humanities: Balancing Legal Constraints, FAIR Principles and AI

2025-10-23 15:00–15:30 More information

Publish your work in open access journals for free or at a discount.
Choose a non-commercial open access model – publish in “diamond” open access journals: journals published by VMU, journals indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Learn more about the open access movement at the University.

More information about Open Access Week.