Agents of Change in Scholarly Communication
In the article "Institutional Repositories: Faculty Deposits, Marketing, and the Reform of Scholarly Communication" (The Journal of Academic Librarianship, v.34, no.3, May 2008) Ronald C. Jantz and Myoung C. Wilson discuss their study investigating the current and potential roles of the academic library (and librarian) in the success of the institutional repository. The three objectives of Jantz and Wilson's study were to note the current faculty input into institutional repositories - divided according to academic department, to assess the ways in which institutional repositories are presented and marketed on library homepages and finally to explore the library's role as a "change agent" in scholarly communication. The study finds the actual use of institutional repositories by faculty appears to be pretty dismal, thereby limiting its value as an alternative to traditional scholarly communication. However Jantz and Wilson offer reasonable ideas for increasing the use of institutional repositories, with academic libraries and librarians playing influential roles in facilitating that change. Posted by: Deborah Job
Posted by colldev at 04:58 PM in
Who's doing what, and with who?
Published by Library Journal (May 2008) Information With A Twist provides us with a comprehensive snapshot of the going-ons in the world of scholarly communication.
Continue reading "Who's doing what, and with who?"
Posted by colldev at 09:18 AM in
A YouTube For Scholarship
The August 2008 issue of the ACRL's Choice magazine features an essay by Susan Ariew titled "YouTube Culture and the Academic Library: A Guide to Online Open Access Educational Videos". Much of the article focuses on using online video to reach computer-savvy students with library and information literacy messages. However, the article also pointed me to the website ResearchChannel, a glimpse at a possible future direction for scholarly communications.
Continue reading "A YouTube For Scholarship"
Posted by colldev at 10:45 PM in Online Video
Even Librarians Suffer from the Digital Divide.
In the May 2008 issue of Library Journal, Shannon Bohle contributed an article entitled, "The New Digital Awareness". Bohle writes about how every library or information organization falls on a continuum related to how much (or little) the organization shares digital information with other organizations and people.
There are three paradigms put forth by Bohle: the competitive isolationists, the exclusionary collaborateurs, and the free mashups & crossovers. Each group has varying levels of collaboration with other institutions. Bohle says that this level of sharing mainly focuses on metadata. Competitive isolationists often create their own metadata structures and do not share it with anyone else to maintain their competitive advantage. Exclusionary collaborateurs team up with specific institutions and forge formal ties as a basis for sharing. These teams are often determined by geography or linguistics. The free mashups & crossover organizations focus on overcoming boundaries to establishing open access to materials. Bohle discusses the pros and cons of each attitude and points out that the digital divide can even affect libraries and librarians, not just end-users. She suggests that the use of social networking sites is an excellent way to promote and achieve open access.
Shannon Bohle is the founder of Archivopedia and a Reference Librarian at Lima Public Library in Ohio.
--posted by Maggie Anderson
Posted by colldev at 03:27 PM in Collection Development Class
New Medical Wiki Promises Content
The September 5, 2008 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/infotech contains an article about a new online medical encyclopedia that will go live by the end of the year. MedPedia will be written and edited by contributors holding an M.D. or PhD in the biomedical field.
Continue reading "New Medical Wiki Promises Content"
Posted by colldev at 02:13 PM in Collection Development Class
Podcasting and Intellectual Capital
As a member of the Special Libraries Association, I receive their monthly magazine, "Information Outlook." The August edition had a great article on Podcasting. If you're a member of SLA, you can log in and read the article here. Although the article is aimed at using podcasting for "knowledge capture" in organizations, the academic implications would be similar. The article discusses benefits of podcasting, tips for creating podcasts, other uses for podcasts, and the future of podcasting. In my opinion, a podcast might not fully capture experiences in scholarly communication. However, as a support tool, or a supplement to work that is available elsewhere, podcasts could add a new dimension to knowledge sharing. I think it's an avenue worth exploring. Incidentally, the "Information Outlook" magazine is a great resource for hot topics in Information Science- I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out sometime.
-Posted by Anna Galyon
Posted by colldev at 10:29 PM in Scholarly Publishing
