Category Archives
February 01, 2009
Open-access textbooks: will Flat World Knowledge show the way?
Gavin Baker, the assistant editor over at Peter Suber's Open Access blog, just posted an entry announcing that Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free online and low-priced textbooks in other formats (print, audio, etc.), has gone public. His enthusiasm seems to stem from his belief that Flat World Knowledge has a sustainable model for the creation and dissemination of open-access textbooks. It also seems to come from the fact that Flat World Knowledge is not a bare-bones operation and will have materials written by "world-class authors" and books that will, like traditional publishers, have "beautiful looking printed books" if one opts to purchase one in that format. For an additional (and one assumes, low) fee, the textbooks will have available many of the options that traditional publishers offer alongside their textbooks, such as study guides and solutions manuals, but these will NOT be forced upon the students by being bundled together, as is common practice.
This sounds really wonderful, but the sustainability issue remains a thorny one and it remains to be seen how Flat World will make it work. One of the main problems of open access (outside of copyright clearance issues) is the conundrum of offering items for free that cost money to research, compile, produce, and disseminate. Or if not for free, at prices so low that they do not fully recoup the cost of producing them. Perhaps all those who contribute to the finished products (authors, editors, production workers, etc.) can be compensated at some other point along the path before it gets to Flat World, so that their costs will be extremely minimal? Or perhaps Flat World's model could be adopted to such an extent that it will become normal for colleges and universities to charge students a fee (along with all the other fees) to be able to access all the textbooks they need for the term. The operation could become sustainable this way in terms of having a bulk number of garuanteed purchasers who pay a small amount instead of trying to make as much money as possible off of every individual sale. In this way, universities would subsidize the open access publication of textbooks and related materials. (Is it just me, or are others faced with students who find it incomprehensible that the university library does not as a rule purchase copies of all standard textbooks in use on campus?) I wish Flat World much luck, as they are going to need it and higher education really needs a solution to the escalating costs of textbooks.
-Andrea Odom
Posted by colldev at 10:26 PM
SERU vs licenses: a real alternative for the acquisition of electronic resources?
In the December 2008 issue of College & Research Libaries News, there is a fascinating article on a document called SERU (Shared Electronic Resource Understanding) which was adopted by NISO (National Information Standards Organization) in early 2008 as an alternative framework for both publishers and libraries to use during the subscription process for e-resources. SERU assumes that since the early days of subscribing to e-resources, both publishers and libraries have attained a level of knowledge about these transactions and the realities of usage so that they should be able to agree on certain practices without explicitly addressing these issues in every purchasing situation. SERU references copyright law and regulations and certainly does not supercede any copyright law, but takes the approach that the two parties do not need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, when the time rolls around to purchase a new subcription by spelling out exactly what is allowed or disallowed.
SERU is statement of shared understandings that both parties must agree to use in place of time-consumming licensing negotiations, but it is strictly voluntary. If either party does not feel SERU serves their needs, they may turn back to more standard licensing negotiations. In reading the support documents for SERU at www.niso.org/workrooms/seru, it appears that SERU may be adopted by both parties in instances that both feel are suitable, but neither party can change any aspect of SERU because some aspect of it does not fit their needs. In that case, NISO recommends that SERU be set aside in favor of the traditional negotiations. The shifting landscape of e-resources could certainly use the solid ground provided by SERU, but only if both parties can move beyond the mistrust and fear of litigation and misuse that lurks in the background during licensing negotiations. SERU recognizes that the market for purchase of e-resources has matured and offers both parties the option of skipping a lot of the usual preliminaries and saving a great deal of time and effort.
-Andrea Odom
Posted by colldev at 08:46 PM
December 02, 2008
Virtual Words and Education
Bill Thompson's column at the BBC had an interesting article this past week about the uses of different virtual environments for educational purposes. Specifically, he compares the combat-centered World of Warcraft and the social Second Life. Surprisingly, a presenter at a conference he attended came to the conclusion that WOW produced a better sense of self-identification with the player-made character than did Second Life.
Of course, I can't imagine how WOW could be harnessed for educational means. Second Life is already being used by a variety of educational groups, including librarians. As social networking sites and software come into maturity, educational institutions need to give some serious thought into harnessing the power of Web 2.0. "Game," as Thompson notes, is a monumentally dismissive word for the varieties of virtual worlds that many young patrons are quite fluent at interacting with. There is no harm in aggressively marketing to patrons in locations, virtual or otherwise, they are likely to visit.
~Ross G.
Posted by colldev at 07:33 PM
Is Google Censoring?
As if information professionals needed another reason to question the validity of a Google search, the New York Times has a thought provoking article about Google's censorship policy. Google, being the multi-national company that it is, has to contend with a variety of international views and laws concerning censorship. Often, instead of supporting free speech, Google will simply remove the "offensive" links or videos (Google owns YouTube, after all) from their search returns.
Information professionals have often focused the energy of their struggles against patron over-reliance on Google and other internet search engines in the direction of the quality and validity of search returns. However, another important aspect of our professional lives involves standing up for free speech- so chalk up yet another reason to wean patrons from Google. Google, due to their dominance as a search provider, is setting themselves up as an international communications watchdog removed from any official oversight. In their defense, Google knows their present policies are unsustainable for the future. But will they do anything about it? Stay on your toes, librarians!
(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)
~Ross G.
Posted by colldev at 06:17 PM
November 30, 2008
Expanding the value of scholarly, open access e-journals
In the newest issue of Library & Inforamtion Science Research (v30#4, Dec. 2008), Matthew Elbeck and Jean Mandernach propose a solution to the challenge of identifying high-quality articles within open access publications. Their article, "Expanding the value of scholarly, open access e-journals," describes the traditional quality indicators used in scholarly publishing, explains how those indicators are inadequate for open access publications, then describes a method that could be used to identify e-article quality.
The traditional methods of assessing the quality of a published scholarly article - including journal reputation and citation analysis - do not fit the new model of open access publishing. To overcome the skepticism inherent in online publishing, new methods of identifying article quality must be adopted, argue Elbeck and Mandernach. The method they suggest involves the article's author, reviewers, and readers. The article should be peer-reviewed, just as its print counterpart; as part of the review, reviewers assign a value ranking to the article. In addition, after its publication online, readers would provide assessment and complete an article satisfaction score. Quality of the article would be determined by the relationship between the article's value and reader satisfaction. Although there are challenges to overcome by this proposed system - such as the potential for controversy regarding value and satisfaction scores - this system could improve perceptions of open access journal quality.
posted by Jerianne Thompson
Posted by colldev at 10:57 PM
There's More to The Design and Implementation of an Institutional Repository than Just Scholarship and Technology...
The current issue of JEP, The Journal of Electronic Publishing includes an article by Oya Y. Rieger, entitled Opening Up Repositories: Social Construction of Innovation in Scholarly Communication. Rieger's article draws on her experience with "digital repository development and assessment efforts at the Cornell University Library" as well as other experience. However, Rieger notes that much of the available research focuses on the technology aspects of IR design, and does not address the design and implementation of IRs from a socio-cultural perspective. Her current article attempts to place IR design into a more theoretical context by examining IR development from the "social construction of technology theory, actor-network theory, and the socio-technical interactions networks model" (Reiger 2008).
Oya Y. Rieger is the associate university librarian for information technologies at Cornell University Library. Rieger's article opens with a brief examination of the institutional repository eCommons@Cornell hosted at Cornell University Library. She notes that the eCommons@Cornell is built on DSpace, an open access digital repository system originally built through a joint development project between MIT and Hewlett-Packard. However, the article shifts from the technical aspects of the repository to a focus on the socio-cultural context of an institutional repository. The author further notes that libraries take on a new role as "active disseminators" of information through the advent of an institutional repository, shifting the library's role from that of "passive receivers of scholarly outputs" (Rieger 2008).
Rieger first examines the "social construction of technology" in the context of designing and implementing institutional repositories, noting that relevant social groups emerge in the academic environment that operate as "stakeholders" in the IR and influence the development process. Additionally, the discussion examines attitudes toward the IR environment in the academic setting and then explores the use of DSpace specifically as an open access tool for the implementation of the institutional repository. Rieger further notes how the agendas of the open access community in the context of both DSpace and the IR designers meet to satisfy the needs of the academic community.
The second portion of Rieger's examination focuses on "Actor-Network Theory" in the context of the creation of an institutional repository, highlighting the dynamic and complicated "web" of interrelated and interdependent elements in the implementation process. Here, the author discusses actor-network theory in its relation to the change from the traditional scholarly publishing model to the open access/institutional repository model.
The third section examines IRs from the socio-technical interactions networks model, discussing the dynamic cultural context in which the shift in scholarly publishing is occurring. Rieger's discussion addresses the "dialectic of control," and includes in the discussion current issues in scholarly communication including the current Modern Language Association examination of scholarly publication requirements and the recent mandate by the National Institute of Health for the deposit of articles resulting from NIH funding in PubMed Central.
Rieger's article gives an interesting examination of the development of scholarly communication technologies, particularly the move to open access publishing, providing a theoretical framework from which to observe the changes occurring in the scholarly communication environment. Since the article focuses on the theoretical aspects of the implementation of an IR instead of the technological aspects of the project, it provides an illuminating examination of the process. The article is certainly a must read for anyone gearing up for an IR development project.
This blog posting refers to the online edition of the following article:
Rieger, Oya Y. Opening Up Institutional Repositories: Social Construction of Innovation in Scholarly Communication. The Journal of Electronic Publishing 11, no. 3 (Fall 2008).
Online full text of the article is available through The journal of Electronic Publishing and can be found here.
Entry posted by Burr Osoinach--Collection Development IS 560, Fall 2008.
Posted by colldev at 07:15 PM
Seven Steps to a Brighter Digital Repository Future
In the November 20 online edition of Library Journal, Andrew Albanese sums up the closing keynote address from the 2008 SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting in Baltimore, MD. David Shulenberger, VP of academic affairs at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, presented seven steps that would aid university libraries in taking their digital repositories to the next level.
These steps are (as reported by Albanese):
1. Make sure that there is a digital repository available for your university's faculty.
2. Work with administrators to acknowledge the benefits of broadening distribution, and that your university will reap those benefits by using the repository.
3. Initiate discussions involving administration and faculty about current practices and intellectual property policies--in other words, "emulate Harvard."
4. Support efforts to spread public access policies like those of NIH to all federal funding agencies and foundations.
5. Work with e campus units, (such as university presses), to support, not oppose, the best interests of their faculty.
6. Work with departments and faculty to develop habits of depositing in the repository.
7. Work with PR units so that the public, donors, and legislators know to look to your institutional repository to find reliable information.
According to Albanese, Shulenberger admits that following these steps will not be easy and that there are many obstacles in the way. He also used this keynote address to publicly speak out against the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) and the America Chemical Society for their support of the Fair Use Copyright in Research Works Act, which Shulenberger claims will "make building digital repositories far more difficult." Schulenberger emphasized the need for all organizations, including university presses and libraries, to work together for everyone's common benefit. Shulenberger points out that digital repositories can reshape the face of university publishing and provide "real access" to information.
Click here to read the complete article.
Albanese, Andrew. "At SPARC Digital Repository Meeting, Shulenberger Calls Out AAUP, ACS." Library Journal Academic Newswire (November 20, 2008).
-posted by Melissa Powers, IS 560 Collection Development
Posted by colldev at 12:45 PM
November 29, 2008
Google Image Search Adds Photos from LIFE
On November 18, Google announced on its blog that it is adding millions of pictures to its image search. Google is digitizing the LIFE Magazine photo archive, including millions of never-before-seen pictures. The collection dates back to 1750, and at present about twenty percent is online.
LIFE estimates that ninety-seven percent of the collection has never been published or released. Over the next several months, Google and LIFE will be working together to make the whole collection available to the public--some ten million photos.
This is a tremendous boon to the open access community as well as to historical scholars. Having these photographs accessible, photos that chronicle our past, preserve our present, and point us toward our future, is truly amazing. I look forward to perusing the collection when its entirety is online.
--Amelia Evans
Posted by colldev at 12:13 PM
November 28, 2008
Models of Digital Scholarly Communication
In the November 21, 2008 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jennifer Howard highlights the recent report "Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication" in her article "A New Field Study Identifies Eight Major Types of Digital Scholarship." The Association of Research Libraries and the Ithaka group conducted the report, which was released on November 10, 2008. The report is based on interviews of researchers conducted by librarians. In this article, Howard notes the highlights of the report, including some unique observations on the process of digital scholarship and publishing. As Howard points out, digital publishing continues to operate on the "rules of traditional scholarly culture" despite the recent innovation.
The report identifies either main types of digital scholarly resources. These include e-journals, reviews of scholarly works, preprints and working papers, encyclopedias and annotated content, data resources (mainly in scientific communities), discussion forums, and professional and scholarly hubs such as Web portals maintained by scholarly societies. Howard reports that e-journals were the most popular resources among researchers. The report credits the similarity of e-journals to their traditional print counterparts as the basis for their popularity and credibility. The report also mentions that not only do scholars tend to prefer the traditional style of communication offered by e-journals, they also enjoy the quick and easy access to new work.
In her article, Howard also highlights some new types of electronic communication that surfaced in the report. These include journal "issues in progress" where new articles are posted as soon as they are written, and are not constrained by a publication date. Another popular genre in the digital realm is reviews of scholarly works. Scholars are no longer controlled by the time constraints of printing, thus increasing the turn around time for scholarly peer reviews. The report also mentions blogs, which interestingly, scholars view as communication tools developing scholarly thought, but not as final products. Another interesting find is the differences among disciplines. The report discovered that humanists prefer e-mail lists and discussion forums while social scientists rely on professional and scholarly hubs. Researchers in science, technology and medicine are most concerned with speed, and prefer resources that provide the fastest access to the most up-to-date information.
For more information on the report, including examples of popular digital resources, see Jennifer Howard's article which is currently available for free online at or through the UT Library's e-journal collection. The "Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication" complete report is available at the Association of Research Libraries website.
Howard, Jennifer. "A New Field Study Identifies Eight Major Types of Digital Scholarship." The Chronicle of Higher Education 55, no. 13 (November 21, 2008): 11.
-posted by Melissa Powers, IS 560 Collection Development
Posted by colldev at 12:45 PM
November 26, 2008
WorldCat's 20-year-old Use Policy revised
OCLC has a long history of encouraging bibliographic ease and unity via its WorldCat database. According to an open letter to OCLC members from the Board "WorldCat grew by an astonishing 22.2 million records and 150 million location listings" in 2008 alone yet its use policy hadn't been revised since 1987. As of an effective date of mid-February 2009, the WorldCat Record Use Policy will finally enter the 21st Century.
Users will notice these major differences:
"the updated Policy...
-Provides access for museums and archives to WorldCat records
-Clarifies the rights and conditions for non-commercial use and transfer
-Clarifies the rights and conditions for commercial use and transfer
-Suggests optional methods for attribution of WorldCat as the source of derived records
-Provides a convenient method for proposals not covered by the Policy (WorldCat Record Use Form)" (FAQ, 2008)
One other major change is in the language of calling it a "policy" not "guidelines." This gives it the appearance of a legal document and works "to be successful negotiating and working with prospective partners, many of which are in the private sector" (FAQ, 2008). The language, and even icon imagery, is much like the Creative Commons licensing conditions.
The answer to the big question "How will this change how my library already interacts with WorldCat?" seems to be "not much." Current library practices appear to remain largely unaffected. If anything this policy opens up some new possibilities for records use and transfer. The policy is also not promoting itself as completely open access but rather was "updated to bridge the gap between open and closed models" which it states is specifically accomplished "by permitting Use and Transfer of WorldCat records by OCLC Members and Non-Members for Non-Commercial, Reasonable Use" (FAQ, 2008).
In a constantly evolving information landscape it's refreshing to see a behemoth like OCLC thoughtfully consider its own responsibility in such an evolution. Personally, I'm just excited about being able to download WorldCat records into my EndNotes. :)
Find the policy here and an extremely helpful FAQ here.
~bryn samuels
Posted by colldev at 10:30 AM
November 25, 2008
Settlement Reached in Google's Book Search Project
From the Google Blog:
"This agreement is truly groundbreaking in three ways. First, it will give readers digital access to millions of in-copyright books; second, it will create a new market for authors and publishers to sell their works; and third, it will further the efforts of our library partners to preserve and maintain their collections while making books more accessible to students, readers and academic researchers."
A judge has approved a preliminary settlement of two lawsuits between Google and book authors and publishers that may put up to 20 million out-of-print texts online. The lawsuits disputed Google's claim that it had a right to digitize books (as well as offer excerpts and share digital copies with libraries) against possible copyright violations. The Associated Press reported that New York District Judge John Sprizzo has granted preliminary approval to the deal and has scheduled a hearing for June 11, 2009. The lawsuits exposed what appeared to be gray areas of copyright law in the digital age, and the settlement didn't determine whether Google is allowed to scan books without authorization under existing copyright law but has already scanned about 7 million books and may end up digitizing up to 20 million. The settlement was announced by Google and the publishing industry in October, but final court approval is still needed.
The settlement calls for Google to pay $125 million to resolve the claims by authors and publishers. The money would also set up a Book Rights Registry to locate rights holders, determine whether they want to allow their works to be put online, and also to make payments as necessary. It will also maintain a database of books (out of print and copyright protected books) which will continue to be scanned. Since all of these books would be scanned, publishers will have the option of activating a button for readers to download a copy of the book, however, Google will get a sizable chunk of revenues from subscriptions and ad revenues, 37 percent of this future revenue and publishers and authors would share the rest.
Publishers and authors will get new revenue streams for books that didn't have a market because they were already out of print. They will likely have less reason to fundamentally oppose the project since payment will be available for the materials used, but by creating this market, Google has provided a bonus for the rights holders, whose out-of-print works were not likely to get back into "print," with the establishment of a new non-profit Book Rights Registry to manage royalties.
Had the judge ruled against Google, the company could have faced considerable penalties ( $700 to as much as $150,000 per book), but, (according to Chris Snyder of Wired.com ) it would have had an unsettling effect on a program whose "purpose is not to make any money per se but to preserve the knowledge in libraries the world over, and make it more widely available." It is an ambitious program to create a global digital library where universities and institutions can buy a subscription service for unlimited viewing of the entire collection. The catalog will also be available via terminals at U.S public libraries for students and researchers to view for free. Rob Hof of BusinessWeek explains the benefits of the Book Search Program as a bonus for readers and other people who are interested in works that are not easily to obtain. "As a book lover, what I find the coolest thing about the deal is that eventually, I'll be able to visit most any library and, using at least one terminal that will be set up at each library, view digital versions of these books for free (though I'll have to pay to print out pages). It's nice that all the sides managed to agree on something that is demonstrably a good thing for all of us."
--laura
Posted by colldev at 01:51 PM
November 23, 2008
Navigating the rough (and ambiguous) seas of scholarly open access publishing
Jennifer Howard's November 21, 2008 article, "For Advice on Publishing in the Digital World, Scholars Turn to Campus Libraries" in The Chronicle of Higher Education addresses several of the major issues and dangers in the current forum of scholarly open access publishing. Howard notes that in the often ambiguous and confusing arena of open access publishing, scholars are turning to their institutions' libraries and librarians for guidance. She states that "institutions are creating or beefing up offices and programs in scholarly communication or hiring librarians with expertise in copyright and intellectual property" (Howard A8). Howard cites Karla Hahn of the Office of Scholarly communication for the Association of Research Libraries, who indicates that ARL has noted several major themes emerge in these programs in scholarly communication such as faculty outreach and help with copyright issues, help with institutional repositories and help with publishing services (Howard A8).
In addition to offering an overview of increased activity in scholarly communication programs, Howard presents several examples of individuals in these scholarly programs and the roles that they play. Her first example, Kevin L. Smith the "Copyright Czar," is a scholarly communications officer at Duke University. Howard notes that Smith maintains the Scholarly Communication@Duke blog at Duke University, which provides an additional source for information on current topics in scholarly communication.
The second example Howard provides is the Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard, run by Stuart M. Shieber, professor of computer science, and "in the domain" of Robert Darnton, director of Harvard University Library. The article refers to the new mandate for Harvard University faculty to publish open access in Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard, or DASH, Harvard's new digital repository. However, as DASH is currently in Beta testing, it is only available to users with Harvard IP addresses.
Howard's final example is David Stern, associate university librarian for scholarly resources at Brown University, who in addition to collection development, now is responsible for scholarly communication issues including campus awareness, NIH public access compliance, and open access publishing options for scholars. Brown University Library also hosts a Scholarly Communications Information page as a resource for the Brown University community.
Howard's article offers a good overview of the types of roles that librarians can find themselves in due to the current move toward open access publishing and the use of institutional repositories. Her profiles of the services provided by Smith, Shieber, and Stern certainly serve to help modern librarians navigate the uncertain waters of open access scholarly publishing. The article is a must read for those concerned about issues in current scholarly communication (and for those new--or not so new--librarians interested in a potential career as a scholarly communications officer).
This blog posting refers to the online edition of the following article:
Howard, Jennifer. "For Advice on Publishing in the Digital World, Scholars Turn to Campus Libraries." The Chronicle of Higher Education 55, no. 13 (November 21, 2008): A8.
Online full text of the article is available through subscription at The Chronicle of Higher Education or through the University of Tennessee E-Journal link with appropriate login authorization.
Entry posted by Burr Osoinach--Collection Development IS 560, Fall 2008
Posted by colldev at 10:03 PM
November 12, 2008
New Bill Would Forbid Copyright Transfer as a Condition for Federal Funding
The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act (HR 6845) has now been officially introduced. While it awaits passage, the bill would "bar agencies of the federal government from requiring the transfer of copyright, whole or in part, as a condition for receiving public funding." With interested parties from both sides, it is important to watch this short copyright bill and follow its path. Taking this issue from a library point of view, the passing of this bill may inhibit the collection of works for the formation of either an institutional repository or an open access collection.
Basically, this would be a direct contradiction to the NIH public access policy and also to growing open access collections who offer funding. The NIH public access policy requires creators to deposit their final papers in the PubMed Central repository if they accepted taxpayer funds. The NIH policy also requires the creator to give the agency a non-exclusive right to offer free access within the year allowing members of the public to access information that their tax dollar help fund. However, it also is logical to assume that there may be no change in work on OA projects, because while there is a restriction on requiring access, it's not restricting the creator's ability to offer their research in an open access repository (unless other restrictions are made by the holder of the copyright). According to this bill, creators are not required to offer free access within a year (even when their work is publically funded). Martin Frank from the American Physiological Society explained the appeal of the bill (and criticism of the NIH policy) as "The NIH has become a publisher," adding that the NIH is now taking advantage of publishers' value-added efforts of editing and peer-review.
In reference to the hearing, the LibraryJournal.com wrote, "not only was the legislation motivating the hearing barely discussed, the testimony and the questions asked by committee members looked far more to the economic future of science publishing than to public access to taxpayer funded research." There seems to be more of an interest in keeping up the status quo of the publishing industry, and according to NIH director Elias Zerhouni, it is being done at the expense of the public. He explained that the policy is "to maximize the return on investment for the public, which funds the research, and for the scientific community."
--Laura
Posted by colldev at 08:30 PM
November 07, 2008
Ireland University Gets Institutional Repository
Dublin City University announced the unveiling of its new institutional repository, DORAS on Tuesday, November 4th.
Dublin City University announced the unveiling of its new institutional repository, DORAS (DCU Online Research Access Service), on Tuesday, November 4th, according to a news release on the DCU website. DORAS is the first step in the HEA's (Higher Education Authority) plan for every university in Ireland to have institutional repositories. The final project will result in a national portal to bring together all university-sponsored scholarly output in the nation.
Since DORAS opened in September, there have been nearly 6,000 full-text downloads. In the month of October alone, DORAS averaged over 80 downloads per day. To locate information in DORAS, one can browse by faculties and centres [sic], subject, author, year, or publication type.
--Amelia Evans
Posted by colldev at 10:11 AM
October 28, 2008
Announcement from Google
News on Google Book Search.
Google has come to an agreement today, October 28, 2008, with the The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, regarding the future of Google Book Search, which had been under litigation since 2005.
Google will make payments to establish the Book Rights Registry, "to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees" (See Announcement Link above).
Google claims this will expand institutional access to millions of online books via subscriptions.
--Susan Wood
Posted by colldev at 05:50 PM
September 22, 2008
Institutional Repositories: Faculty Deposits, Marketing, and Reform of Scholarly communication
Jantz, Ronald C and Wilson, Myoung C. May 2008. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 34, Number 3, pages 186-195.
The abstract is available with the following link:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W50-4SF9C8S-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=8dde194a80432def93d960cb2b1033d5
Full-text can be accessed from UTK e-journal.
Institutional Repositories: Faculty Deposits, Marketing, and Reform of Scholarly communication
"Academic Libraries are today at the intersection of three momentous changes in the world of scholarly communication."
The rise in the number of journals available online which led to the re-evaluation of the scholarly communication process. The article points out the increase in the journal costs and almost monopoly of intellectual rights with some commercial vendors.
"Democratization of knowledge" or open access brought easy and free access not only to the academic community, but anyone who is interested in research. Academic libraries continue to do their traditional role as to collect, organize and preserve, started collecting resources which could be accessed digitally by the academic community. The result is the Institutional repositories!
Institutional repositories, according to the article has contributed to some development on the research front; possible sharing of the faculty research literature. The reference to Antelman's article suggests that there is an increase in citation trend for the online article. ( that the online articles are cited 4.5 times more than the off line articles)
The article further discusses the deposit of the contents and evaluation of the contents in the IR.
The qualitative analysis found out that the institutional repositories are not linked to their library website. They are scattered through out with navigation from digital projects, scholarly communication page, faculty pages and collections and resources pages.
As for the quantitative analysis, the article points out that the libraries "do not see a connection between institutional repositories and scholarly communication or if they do they are not using the library website to explain and market the benefits if IR."
As a conclusion the article discusses, the faculty participation and their lack of interest, lack of communication for the value of institutional repositories. The article ends with a powerful statement, "There is an institutional vacuum here that the libraries should consider filling, namely the articulation and marketing of IR services and how IR can advance scholarship."
It is almost impossible to do a thorough review on the blog, but I think these are some key issues addressed.
~Anu
Posted by colldev at 10:26 PM
September 21, 2008
Government Weighs Open Access Against Publisher Interests
September saw the introduction of HR 6845, a piece of legislation known as the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act. This legislation seeks to reverse federal public-access policies, such as the requirement that manuscripts resulting from research funded by the National Intitutes of Health must be deposited into PubMed Central; the articles are made freely available to the public within 1 year of publication.
A hearing was held on September 11 by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. Library Journal reports that the committee meeting "focused almost entirely on the current NIH public access mandate" and that the discussion "looked far more to the economic future of science publishing than to public access to taxpayer funded research." According to another Library Journal report, the legislation is on hold until at least next year and that the bill's sponsor (Rep. John Conyers) seems to be more focused on a political "turf war" regarding the issue. Several blogs have addressed the topic in recent weeks, including Techdirt, Chemical & Engineering News, and ars technica, which provides a solid discussion of the issues at stake and views from both sides of the debate.
Posted by Jerianne Thompson
Posted by colldev at 09:40 PM
September 19, 2008
Open Access and K-12 School Libraries
A quick search for articles on open access and scholarly communication in the K-12 school library world reveals very few articles and even fewer full-text links. Either the conversation is not happening or I just can't get to it.
Rick Kopak in his abstract to his article Open Access and the Open Journal Systems: Making Sense All Over states,
At a time when students are increasingly turning to the Web as their primary source of information it is well worth continuing to consider ways and means of taking advantage of this trend, and to perhaps relocate attention to traditional information sources presented in new ways. This paper makes the case that Open Access to electronic scholarly journals creates an opportunity for schools and school libraries to benefit from use of these journals.
The source, a biannual journal School Libraries Worldwide, is only available online at a membership fee. Neither UTK nor my more local Vanderbilt library had this journal in their database. Is this UTK's or Vandy's responsibility to purchase yet another e-journal? Is it the journal's to find a way to make itself accessible, especially after publishing an article that makes a case for open access?
Editor-in-Chief of School Library Journal, Brian Kenney, wrote an editorial on September 1, 2008 bemoaning "the lack of online availability of professional literature published by the American Library Association (ALA). He notes that while librarians advocate for open access to journal content, their professional association has failed to make its own content freely accessible." September 2, 2008 8:00am American Libraries Editor-in-Chief, Leonard Kniffel, posted this comment to Kenney's editorial,
The ALA Membership, Publishing, and American Libraries Advisory Committees all discussed this issue at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. A proposal to open up all the content of American Libraries, as well as subscriptions to American Libraries Direct, received virtually unanimous support, and we will be doing so this fall, after the launch of the new ALA website.
It's just fascinating to me that this new knowledge - this post, this comment - is out there for me, an ordinary web searcher, to find because the source chose to make it free and online and accessible. They enabled the conversation to continue.
It seems scholarly communication concepts are crawling into to K-12 conversations. Hopefully they are successful and next lead to best practices.
UPDATE (25 September 2008):
Since posting last week I've been engaged in a wonderful email discussion with Gavin Baker of Open Access News. What began as a simple, generous offer of where I could find the article I said I couldn't find evolved into an interesting (for me!) examination of my assumptions about OA.
Whereas, like Mr. Baker mentioned, conventional wisdom observes students google first and then "resort" to databases second, I began and restricted my search in my university's databases. Here was my first assumption (or perhaps misconception) - OA should resemble institutional repositories. If the information/article is somewhere in the bowels of the university - library catalog, department website - it, in its full-text form, should be available. Clearly a library's paid database subscriptions believe differently, which is most likely the reason for my second assumption - the responsibility of making information accessible is the publisher's. When I was unsuccessful in accessing the full-text in the databases I googled the publication hoping to find it on their site.
The article wasn't available at my university, so I went to the publisher. It wasn't available (for free) from the publisher, so I stopped my search. I stopped my search at the "golden road," where journals are the ones responsible for providing OA to the articles they publish (Harnad, 2004). What I didn't consider were the other two roads - "green" where authors provide the OA or [insert-favorite-color-here] where a third party provides the OA nor necessarily with the author's not the publishing journal's permission. It is because of this third road that a simple Google search of my elusive article's title returned at least a few avenues for me to follow, complete with full-text.
The most fascinating part of this examination happened this morning as I retraced my steps. School Libraries Worldwide, where I stopped my search because I had to pay to receive full-text access, hosts three blogs - one that is exclusive to Volume 14, Number 2, July 2008 themed New Learners, New Literacies, New Libraries. Here guest editors Marlene Asselini and Ray Doiron have included "the abstracts and links to all the articles in this special issue of School Libraries Worldwide." They have also created a wiki (linked from the blog) for this important discussion. It is through this wiki that one is able to download a .pdf of the Kopak article.
So. Turns out the publisher does provide open access to this article. Kind of. One must leave the publisher's main site to travel to the blog, and then access the article via the wiki. But this is the only issue with its own blog, still leaving all other articles published by School Library Worldwide unavailable via their site. Should it be so convoluted? Yes, one Google search will get me the article, but for the sake of quality control, I guess I remain convinced that the golden road should be more...golden? As well as perhaps being encouraged to assist those trudging along the green road.
Thanks to Gavin Baker for the discussion and thanks to open access for my name and this humble post popping up on a Google search more times than I ever thought possible.
~bryn samuels
Posted by colldev at 12:21 PM
September 15, 2008
Fair Use and Copyrighted Texts- What is Our Role?
The June 27, 2008 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education had an article about fair use as it pertains to copyrighted texts. The article discusses the lawsuit between Georgia State University and academic publishers (Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Sage Publications). The concern is over the ambiguously large amounts of scholarly material made available to students through online course reserves and Blackboard/WebCT types of systems.
Basically, the University believes it is well within fair use guidelines to make these materials available to students, while the publishers believe that the amount of materials and the systematic, widespread practice pushes the University out of the scope of fair use. This has made me consider the role that librarians might play in understanding the scope of fair use and educating university faculty about the amount of content that may be distributed in this manner. Is it the role of a university's legal department to determine and monitor an amount of scholarly material that could be distributed, or should it be the duty of campus librarians to educate individual faculty about these practices?
Perhaps the outcome of Georgia's lawsuit will affect practices nationwide. I see this as an issue with many implications in regards to scholarly communication, as it relates to the ever-increasing cost of materials (both online databases and physical textbooks), the question of fair use, and the role of librarians. If the cost of accessing the most appropriate scholarly communication prohibits its use, will course instructors be forced to use inferior course materials? How will this influence the way that faculty view their publishing options as they produce research? Legal issues such as Georgia State's lawsuit may make institutional repositories even more appealing to publishing faculty as academic publishers are continually vilified.
-Posted by Anna Galyon
Posted by colldev at 09:24 AM
September 11, 2008
Maybe Piracy Isn't So Bad After All?
Monika Ermert wrote an article, "Symposium Calls for an End of Binary Discussion of Righsholders Versus Pirates," for Intellectual Property Watch. In it, she discusses the sometimes unintended benefits of piracy on the entertainment industry.
One example is the tecnobrega industry in Brazil. (See a recent CNN article on this topic). Musicians and studios have "skipped normal distribution lines" used by big labels such as Sony, and instead, made deals with street vendors (a.k.a. pirates) to sell their material. This doesn't make much money for the musicians, but the publicity that it stirs is enough to make up for it because musicians benefit from concert ticket sales, higher-quality CD sales, and other income derived from sold out shows.
Similarly, Nigerian video film producers have benefited from pirated videos because they created a demand for DVD and VCR players. These profits allowed the electronics dealers to be able to reinvest that money into more film production.
Ermert's point is definitely taken: Many economies have benefited from the loosened (or ignored) restrictions. But this isn't the answer to the problem of "pirates that steal everything" versus "rightsholders that want to protect everything". People who produce artwork deserve to be compensated directly for their work. They shouldn't have to depend on the possibility that their work will provide them with indirect benefits sometime in the future.
Ermert's discussion sheds light on the debate of intellectual property, copyright, and the indirect benefits of pirating, but it doesn't give a voice to the individual people (the artists) who lose in the exchange. Sure, society and industry as a whole may benefit from these activities, but if we lose the artists in the process, the industry may collapse on itself.
--posted by Maggie Anderson
Posted by colldev at 12:01 PM
September 09, 2008
Future of Scholarly Communication: Digital tipping point
Phil, Pachoda. 2008. Future of Scholarly communication: On the Other side of digital tipping point, Choice Journal, Volume 45, Issue 9, University of Michigan Press, Pages 1486-1488.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;rgn=main;view=text;idno=3336451.0011.202
Future of Scholarly Communication: Digital tipping point
This article seems to open up the topic of innovative publishing (mainly scholarly publishing) further. The project focuses on a model which will explore the open access scholarly publishing while maintaining the standards. The project suggests that the reading behavior and preferences vary among different scholarly community and further proposes to reduce the communication gap. The project addresses the future of the scholarly communication.
The author discusses six main points that he thinks are considered important for the future of the scholarly communication.
~Digital collaborations among the university presses have resulted in "locating, recruiting, assessing, and editing the scholarly resources."
This not only has resulted in collaborations within the country but around the world.
~The Open access has bypassed the more traditional forms of communication. This may bring out the digital scholarly communication.
Example I find is that the scholars in India who had to use the British Library or American Embassy library for scholarly articles are now able to access materials through their universities.
~The rise in digital publication and decline in the print models will create a paradigm shift in the scholarly communication. This is the trend in the scholarly communication within and outside the academic community.
~Each university will reevaluate their distribution and design of the publishing community.
~University presses must continue to play their customary role of locating authors and texts. This may be an important aspect in maintaining authority.
~"Networked book to become the gold standard for the scholarly publishing of the future" (Institute for the Future of the Book, IFB). Can network books concept replace books? A blog-like feature to replace books? What happens to authority? What happens to the scholarly communication? Will the scholarly community accept and incorporate the comments from scholars and other readers?
~Anu
Accessed Sep 5,08 http://www.futureofthebook.org/
Posted by colldev at 09:53 PM
September 04, 2008
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
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.
The medical field is once again joining the wiki world by introducing a new medical encylopedia that hopes to "set itself apart from existing medical websites." MedPedia is the brainchild of James Currier, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and is backed by prestigious medical institutions such as the Harvard Medical School and the Stanford School of Medicine. Edited by qualifed professionals in the medical field, MedPedia will contain pages for more than 30,000 known medical conditions and thousands of prescription medicines. The National Institutes of Health and the American College of Physicians have also contributed content to the project. Each page will contain all the information available on a subject as well as links between topics, updates on the latest advances, and translation tools that will make the information available in other countries. Once the site goes live, this vast amount of medical information will be available to the public. This site could be another valuable resource on medical information for medical professionals, the in depth researcher, or the casual user.
The article states that if the MedPedia project complies with the Medical Librarian's Association's quality standards for health-information websites, then the Association will recommend it to the public.
Since one has to subscribe to the Chronicle to access their articles, here are two other links to information about MedPedia. MedPedia's own website www.medpedia.com and an article in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/23/AR2008072300256.html
--Posted by Peggy Dillard
Posted by colldev at 02:13 PM
December 06, 2007
Conventionalism and Scholarly Communication
What part do conventional acedemic values play when considering the advantages and disadvantages of online journals versus print? I came across this article entitled, "The Influence of Academic Values on Scholarly Publication and Communication Practices."
According to this article peer review still figures in highly with regards to the values of acedemic institutions. Some faculty may equate the lower cost of online journals with lower quality. Quality is still very important and quality control has become questionable. Some question if there is a compromise in quality when peer review moves outside of the institution. High profile print journals continue to have an important role in the acedemic community. Online only journals are in some cases not accepted simply because they are new and have not yet established a highly regarded reputation as in the case of print.
A study of the University of California-Berkeley faculty on this subject was conducted in the 2005-2006 acedemic year.
I highly recommend this article to anybody in the Library Sciences. The study was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Link to the full article at http://http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;view=text;rgn=main;idno=3336451.0010.204
Posted by Donna Stallings
Posted by colldev at 11:22 PM
Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Scholarly Communications
Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Scholarly Communication: Survey Findings from the University of California
http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/responses/activities.html
There are options to download the full report (124pp!) or the executive summary and summary of findings. There is also a copy of the survey itself.
I found this study very interesting as this issue figured prominently in our institutional repository assignment. This study surveyed 1118 faculty members in the University of California system to discover faculty knowledge and opinions on issues in scholarly communications.
The overall results of the survey, generally speaking, were that faculty felt there are lots of problems in scholarly communications which don't apply to them personally. Many felt that other disciplines were affected more than their own. They also said that in spite of the cost of journals and questions of copyright retention, they were unlikely to discontinue publishing in peer reviewed journals. The most significant reason for this reluctance was skepticism that tenure and promotion processes would adjust to the open access system.
Apparently, university administrations need to weigh in on the question of tenure and promotion through open access publishing to encourage faculty to make the leap. Then this decision must be communicated to faculty clearly and repeatedly, as survey results indicated that administration outreach has thus far been ineffective in educating faculty.
ETA posted by Julie Wyatt
Posted by colldev at 11:19 AM
December 05, 2007
Get Involved!: New Librarians and Scholarly Communication
Donovan, Georgie, and Karen Estlund. "New Librarians and Scholarly Communication: Get Involved." College and Research Libraries News 68, no. 3 {March 2007}. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/
backissues2007/march07/newlibrarians.cfm (accessed December 4, 2007).
How can new librarians become advocates for change within the scholarly community to ensure that scholarly information is as accessible as possible?
In this article, two early-career academic librarians, Georgie Donovan and Karen Estlund, discuss this issue and their own experiences with the inequality of access to information both in the United States and in other countries. Donovan and Estlund describe what they have done at their own institutions to bridge the "knowledge divide" and provide examples of other early-career librarians who are active in the movement. In addition, some tips are provided on the steps that new librarians can take to become involved at their own institutions and within the scholarly community.
In 2001, Georgie Donovan taught English language and literature at the University of Atacama in Copiapo, Chile. The students could not afford to purchase many textbooks; therefore, Donovan tried to utilize sources available on the Internet. However, there were very limited scholarly writings available for free at that time on the Internet. Donovan believes that if more open-access journals had been available as they are today, she would have been able to better teach her students utilizing scholarly writings. Since coming back to the United States and receiving her library degree, Donovan has become an advocate for the open-access movement.
Karen Estlund believes that new models of scholarly communication are essential for bringing about change and providing access to information and quality education for as many people as possible. Estlund has responsibility over the University of Utah's institutional repository with the medical and law libraries and is on a scholarly communications committee at the university.
Other examples of early-career librarians who are active in scholarly communication initiatives:
* Cat McDowell (M. Archival Science 2001) has been compiling data on institutional repositories in the United States. She has researched and analyzed data about how they function and their role within various institutions and has presented her findings at several library and information science conferences.
* KT Vaughan (MSLS 2001) and Stefanie Warlick (MSLS 2006) have been conducting surveys with the health science faculty at UNC and Duke University to reveal why certain professors choose to publish in open-access journals. Their project should reveal the factors that influence scholars. This research can be used to promote publication in open-access journals.
Suggestions for new librarians (& experienced librarians) who want to get involved:
* Write letters to legislators or meet with them to request that they pass legislation supporting scholarly communication initiatives.
* Start up a discussion group or brown bag series at your institution to discuss important issues relating to scholarly communication.
* Discuss the issues with your colleagues and form a network of partnership for those interested in more equitable access to scholarly communication.
* Start or assist with an institutional repository.
* Join in the efforts already underway at your institution.
--Posted by Andrea Gales
Posted by colldev at 04:47 PM
The Coming Revolution in Scholarly Communications
The August issue of CT Watch Quarterly was entirely devoted to issues in scholarly communications. A pdf of the issue can be downloaded here.
I found the article titled "Reinventing Scholarly Communication for the Electronic Age" particularly interesting. It discusses new tools which are making it possible to link to actual data within the body of an electronic publication.
-posted by Julie Wyatt
Posted by colldev at 06:56 AM
December 04, 2007
What's the Use?: A New Look at the Impact of Scholarly Communication
Coleman, Anita Sundaram and Cheryl Knott Malone. "Scholarly Communication and the Matter of Use." Journal
of Education for Library and Information Science 47, no. 1 {Winter 2006}: 1-3. http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.
com.proxy.lib.utk.edu:90/hww/shared/shared_main.jhtml?_requestid=51495 {accessed December 3, 2007}.
The prevalent view among academics is that the citation of their scholarly writings by other scholars is the only type of use that really counts or has an impact. The primary reason for this is that citation is very important for tenure and promotion at most major universities. Anita Coleman, an assistant professor in the School of Information Resources and Library Science at The University of Arizona, argued in her presentation at the 2006 conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education that this narrow view of the impact of scholarly communication is missing out on other types of uses that really matter, such as how many times an article is read or viewed online or the impact that an article available in an open-access database has on research in developing countries.
For her research, Dr. Coleman examined the usage statistics of several articles originally published in the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science and later digitized and made available through dLIST, an open-access repository. In the first year of open access, the abstracts were viewed 5,008 times and the articles were downloaded 1,035 times. One article from 1996 was viewed 527 times and downloaded 111 times in its first year on the Internet. Its abstract has been viewed at least once in every one of the thirty-one countries that dList is available in and the full text of the article has been viewed in many of these countries, including Brazil and Indonesia. An added benefit of placing the articles in an open-access database for those concerned about being cited is that after becoming openly accessible, two of the articles were cited in scholarly journals.
Several conclusions can be drawn from Dr. Coleman's presentation. The first one is that a multidimensional model for evaluating scholarly articles and the journals that publish these articles needs to be developed that focuses more on usage statistics and other important factors. Coleman notes that some progress has been made in this area. Usage statistics have recently started to play a significant role in evaluating journals for collection development purposes in libraries. The second conclusion is that academics need to become more open to publishing their scholarly writings in open-access journals so that these articles can be available to many more people, especially those in developing countries who cannot pay for access but would benefit from it. Coleman also stated in her presentation that an additional benefit of open-access journals for scholars is that many more people have access to them and having people read their work is always gratifying to any author!
Article available at the UTK Libraries via Education Full Text (Wilson Web).
--Posted by Andrea Gales
Posted by colldev at 05:19 PM
Review: "Who's Selecting Now?"
The Phoenix Library System turns its material selection over to its vendors...
Hoffert, Barbara. "Who's Selecting Now." Library Journal. September 1, 2007, vol. 132, number 14, p. 40-43.
This article discusses the Phoenix Public Library System's decision to completely turn the selection of new materials over to its vendors. There are risks and benefits to making such a move, but the Phoenix system decided that ultimately, when staff time and tasks were considered, it was best if selection was left to the vendors, with staff having the final options to accept or deny individual items. A similar policy had previously been considered in Hawaii, but had ultimately been rejected because librarians felt that while such a move virtually guarantees the selection of best-sellers, specialized (and quite often very needed) items are often left off of vendor lists.
While the policy shocked some library patrons, the author explains that the Phoenix system spent over six years researching its selection processes and trends before reaching its decision. Today, though the process is constantly changing, the general plan seems to be running smoothly for the branch. Some problems have arisen and have been dealt with (for example, the librarians felt that the vendors were making the selection lists too branch-specific at first), but in general, the library staff is satisfied because allowing the vendors to have selection control has freed the staff's time for other projects, including collection analysis. By having more time to analyze the current collection, the librarians can me more helpful and informed when reviewing the vendor-supplied selection list.
This article raises several very interesting issues that we face as library professionals. Although it remains highly controversial, allowing vendors control over selection makes sense for some library systems. Several factors must be taken into consideration, including additional cost, objectivity of recommendations, and the argument that librarians are more familiar with the collection and customer needs if they select the items themselves. Ultimately, if a library system decides to allow vendors any say in the selection process, contracts are essential, as they outline exactly what is expected of each party.
-Sarah Beth White
Posted by colldev at 04:08 PM
December 03, 2007
What Can We Do To Improve Scholarly Communications?
Those involved with scholarly communications today are faculty, authors, editors, reviewers, and students. But what about the user? How can the user, which may include all of the above, effectively play a role in this transformation from print to online journals and articles? After all, isn't it ithe user who will ultimately determine how all this eventually plays out in the information community? We as students are some of the primary users of this "new format" for exchanging learned information. We can play a significant role in this debate. Blogs such as these are one way.....
Here are a few more ideas from the University of Washington Libraries :
As Users of UW Libraries, You Can ...
1. Support UW Libraries' cancellation of expensive low-use titles and encourage colleagues to do the same.
2. Invite library participation in faculty departmental meetings and graduate seminars to discuss scholarly communication issues.
3. Include librarians when meeting with publishers' representatives.
4. Familiarize yourselves with studies of journal costs, such as these:
http://o UAmerican Mathematical Society, 2004 (mathematics)
University of Wisconsin Libraries Journal Value Project, 2004 (sciences and social sciences)
LISU Journals Pricing Analysis, 2004 (12 publishers)
More information on this topic can be found at:
http://www.lib.washington.edu/scholcomm/todo.html#users
Happy blogging!
posted by Donna Stallings
Posted by colldev at 01:04 PM
November 25, 2007
Students and Scholarly Communications
Gavin Baker, scholarly communications consultant with Baker Open Strategies, LLC, outlines several ways that students make use of the scholarly communications system, primarily through journal use. He also discusses the growing involvement of students in the serials crisis and how librarians can more effectively involve this group in open access and scholarly communications issues.
Since 2003, students have been taking a more active role in the scholarly communications issues. There has been a growing involvement of student government organizations in the serials crisis. At least one group has made an official statement supporting open access.
Although student organizations have less influence than faculty members in this area, it is important for librarians to recognize this group when seeking out allies for open access support. It is also important that librarians present open access to students when introducing library services and not solely focus on library-purchased materials such as electronic journal articles.
SPARC as an organization is also enhancing its outreach to this group. They are promoting open access through campaigns and video contests intended to target students.
For more information, please see the full article, Baker, Gavin. "Student Activism: How Students Use the Scholarly Communications System." C&RL News, Vol. 68, No. 10, November 2007.
-posted by Annie Powell
Posted by colldev at 12:08 PM
November 20, 2007
Law journals are going to the comics...
Apparently law education journals aren't spiffy enough for law students anymore.
The September 28, 2007, Chronicle of Higher Education edition includes an article entitled "Bam! Pow! Footnote!" that mentions a new direction in law journal communications.
Two California Western School of Law professors decided to use the comic book format for their essay in the Journal of Legal Education. In fact, the article itself was about branching out of the somewhat stiff and dry legal essay writing style that has prevailed for over a hundred years--the essay is called "The Orthodoxy of Format: Some Sketches on Legal Scholarship."
The illustrations depict two professors walking and talking about the "scholarly merits of illustrated essays." (Oddly enough, the art was drawn by two Chileans, which makes me wonder how the authors got in touch with them.)
Is this the future of legal journal communications? I don't think so, nor do I think the authors are really advocating it. They are exploring how to get more law students actually reading the scholarly communication. Many of the complex concepts in law would be difficult to explain in this format, but it's definitely a fun side trip and experiment along the way.
Before considering the format for other journals, I'd like to know how many law students are interested in comic books or manga and whether or not generational differences come into play. It'd also be interesting to know how many people actually read the essay and what were their responses. However, a comic book style does stand out from the long paragraphs of normal legal essays, so this might be the perfect format to catch a lot of readers' attention. Journals in other fields may want to branch out and try this format, especially with simpler concepts than the law.
I personally am not a fan of comic books or manga, but if I were living the daily grind of a law student, this essay might be a nice change of pace.
-- Marla Ballou
Article available via LexisNexis Academic at the UTK Libraries.
Posted by colldev at 09:31 PM
Scholarpedia vs. Wikipedia
For years, teachers and professors for all grades have complained about the perceived but unproven authority of Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org), which is perpetuated by their students, who use the contributor-derived entries as sources for projects and papers. Now, professional knowledge workers and their peers have an alternative for publication and research- Scholarpedia (http://scholarpedia.org/).
But wait there's more...
According to their main page, Scholarpedia works on the same technology as its popular counterpart amateur encyclopedia, allowing writers to modify and add articles to the collection with a few simple steps. Unlike Wikipedia though, each article is contributed by a field expert, who is either invited or elected by a public poll, and then anonymously peer reviewed for accuracy and authentication. All modifications to an article must be approved by the author, who acts as a curator for the article and is held primarily responsible for its content.
This offers not only an opportunity for grand variety in individualized and scholarly reviewed information sharing, like in Institutional Repositories, but also makes way for current and timely updates via the open source network of experts working together. One must ask the question, though, why reinvent the wheel?
Wikipedia is readily available for scholars and experts and their vast expanse of knowledge. If they adopted this popular venue, they would reach a greater audience and the dissemination of information would spread to amateur and inspiring scholars who may bring a different perspective on studies and research than the traditional and academic.
There could be two reasons why Scholarpedia has opened its own venue rather than adding to the large compendium readily available. Firstly, the authors could be focused on preserving peer review as a means of professional advancement in an open source environment than traditional expensive scholarly publications. While Institutional Repositories could provide one such venue, Scholarpedia is more global, touching experts from all over the world.
Alternately, Scholarpedia could be seen as a branch off of the Wikipedia trunk, which hosts four particular subcollections- Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience, Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems, Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence and Encyclopedia of Astrophysics. On its homepage, it claims to not be a rival of Wikipedia, but rather a complementary source.
Whether it can be seen as the experts' answer to the open source authority question or simply a special collection within the larger scheme of the on-line "encyclopedia", Scholarpedia offers academics and educators an opportunity to authorize information published electronically. Perhaps one day, the Internet will be considered a mostly trustworthy source with Scholarpedia leading the trend.
- posted by Christi Underdown IS 560
Posted by colldev at 04:56 PM
November 07, 2007
Helpful Hints for Librarians
"Scholarly Communication: Science Librarians as Advocates for Change" by Elizabeth C. Turtle and Martin P. Courtois published in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship Summer 2007 (http://www.istl.org/07-summer/article2.html).
Turtle and Courtois wrote this article for science librarians. However, the principles within this article can be used for all librarians who are concerned about the future of scholarly communication. What started out as subscription price increases ended up encompassing "a complex set of issues that includes legislation, public policy, authors rights, institutional repositories, access to scholarship, and new publishing models." This article provides helpful hints for librarians who wish to become advocates for scholarly communication. Tips include staying informed and educating library users (including faculty) about open access, authors rights, copyright, institutional repositories, etc.
This article mentions many of the concepts we have covered in class.
--posted by Beth Stanley
Posted by colldev at 09:19 PM
November 04, 2007
This Business of Information Science
"Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising!", exclaims one of Mel Brooks' characters from the 1987 film, "Spaceballs". Library and Information Science has produced its own merchandising subculture ripe with quirky sayings, both encouraging and discouraging stereotypes and, of course, fantastic graphics. These days, to truly know one's library patrons and colleagues means to not only provide access and preservation, but also t-shirts, bookbags, and baseball caps, as well.
In my own closet, I have two shirts announcing loyalty to both Simmons and University of Tennessee's Schools of Information Science, as well as a t-shirt proclaiming, "She Blinded Me with Library Science", which features a mousy, but coy, bespectacled, book-laden librarian.
Cafepress, an on-line middleman, provides an generalized venue for all individual and capitalist adventures, which are born from such random catchphrases and ideas. Using its format, Library Avengers was founded by Erica Olsen to fund her own IS Master's Degree in 2001. Olsen writes "Librarians: more powerful than a Google search, friendlier than AskJeeves, and the best natural language processor on the market." For profit and propaganda, she has the cook's aprons, panel prints, and hooded sweatshirts to advertise her point.
Mild-mannered LIS schlock can produce controversy, as well as profit. To promote user patronage, Wyoming Libraries are using podcasts as well as clever bumper stickers, some of which feature the traditionally Mac truck limited image of "Mud Flap Girl". Accroutrements depiction of the sensible shoe-wearing, bun-bedecked librarian action figure, based on the real-life information professional Nancy Pearl, complete with Sshing action, has caused both highly defensive and good-natured humorous reactions.
Speaking of getting a few laughs, who would have suspected two "guybrarians" to have gleaned a daily on-line and print readership for their comic strip about the workings of a public library in the small fictional town of Mallville. 22,197 people receive "Unshelved" via e-mail subscription, RSS feed or LiveJournal every day. In addition, Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum produce not only original characters, but sell book collections, prints, and jackets.
To explore more creative products of the LIS world, pull out your credit card and click here:
Librarian Avengers Store: http://www.cafepress.com/librarian
Wyoming Public Library System: http://www.cafepress.com/wyominglibrary/3537232
Archie McPhee (for Librarian tattoos and more): http://www.mcphee.com/cgi-bin/mcphee/archie-search.cgi
Cafepress- with the search word "librarian". Themes include "Library Worship", "Baby's Got Book",
"This is My Librarian Costume", etc.:
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/librarian/-/cfpt2_/copt_/cfpt_/source_searchBox/x_0/y_0
Unshelved: http://www.unshelved.com/store.aspx
Christi Underdown
IS 560
3 November 2007
Posted by colldev at 12:49 PM
October 25, 2007
Technology, Libraries, and Scholarly Communication
On October 3, 2007, John Dupuis' blog Confessions of a Science Librarian featured an interview with Richard Akerman, Technology Architect at the Canada Institue for Scientific and Technical Information. Among the many topics discussed were the role of technology in academic libraries and the changing nature of scholarly communication.
Akerman discussed his past experience in libraries and his current role in the technology world. When asked about the future role of librarians, Akerman responds, "I think there was a big, big intermediation role that libraries just have to let go of. It isn't coming back." When quizzed about the future of scholarly publishing and the peer review process, Akerman presents an interesting future. "I think in the short term, journals become much more semantically-rich online documents, with linkages out to data and analysis tools, as well as to other articles and relevant content."
In addition to the interview with Richard Akerman you may also be interested in visiting Akerman's blog, which focuses on the use of technology for science libraries and publishers.
Posted by Lisa Burley
Posted by colldev at 11:57 AM
October 23, 2007
Social Science Research Network provides site for Humanists to share ongoing research
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) has created a way for Humanists (i.e. philosophers, classicists, and literary scholars) to share ongoing research online.
SSRN's new endeavor, the Humanities Research Network (HRN), allows authors to upload abstracts and working papers and review similar uploads from other authors. In the past research was shared among humanists through emails and mailing lists.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education on October 22, 2007, Lesley Dean-Jones, a professor of classics at the University of Texas - Austin and director of the Classics Research Network (a part of the HRN) said that the HRN promises to be like "a huge ongoing conference, where you never miss the presentation of the paper you want to go to."
The HRN hopes to fill a hole in the world of scholarly humanities research by allowing scholars to share their papers and research in a timely, free, and open way. For more details on this development see the Chronicle article here (password required): http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/10/430n.htm. And visit the HRN at SSRN's sites for English and American Literature (http://www.ssrn.com/lit/index.html), philosophy (http://www.ssrn.com/prn-/index.html), and classics (http://www.ssrn.com/crn/index.html).
-posted by Tom Lamb
Posted by colldev at 09:33 PM
October 16, 2007
New 2006 Study of Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Scholarly Communications
The University of California Office of Scholarly Communications has released a new study of UC faculty and their perseption and barriers relating to scholarly communications issues.
The University of California Office of Scholarly Communications has recently released a new study of UC faculty and their perseption and barriers related to scholarly communication issues. This study analyzes their current practices and barriers (such as promotion and tenure processes at UC) that hinder them from making needed changes to the scholarly communications process.
In general, interest is strong in scholarly communications issues. Approximately 1,100 scholary communication surveys were returned, which is approximately 23% of solicited faculty and 13% of overall OC faculty. However, knowledge and awareness about current scholarly communications issues are more limited. The majority of faculty do not feel that scholarly communications issues affect them directly and most are unwilling to change their habits and activities from what is normally and currently done.
Awareness of alternatives in scholarly publishing is low, but those that have an interest in alternatives to traditional scholarly publishing have a strong base at UC. Approximately 21% of respondents have published in open access journals and about 14% have posted their peer-reviewed work to an institutional repository.
The study concluded that senior faculty and faculty in the Arts and Humanities were more willing to change their behaviors related to scholarly communications. The university will use the data gathered from this study to inform discussions throughout the university about challenges and opportunities related to scholarly publishing and providing insight into the University e-scholarship publishing review.
An abstract of the study can be found at http://www.arl.org/news/enews/enews-augsep07.shtml#5 and the full study, an executive summary, and the text of the survey can be found at http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/responses/activities.html
posted by Annie Powell
Posted by colldev at 09:39 PM
The Economics of Ecology Journals
"The Economics of Ecology Journals" was published nearly a year ago, but it is still timely and relevant to the scholarly publishing discussion. The article may also be somewhat noteworthy because it was NOT written by librarians.
The authors are scientists who present detailed results from their research into how much prices for on-line access to scholarly publications have risen over the last decade.
"Why is monopoly pricing sustainable? Why are new entrants, charging lower subscription prices, not more readily able to attract authors and subscribers away from overpriced incumbents? Why do authors persist in submitting their papers to high-priced journals?"
These are some of the questions the authors attempt to answer. They discuss the feasibility of a coordinated effort on the part of scholars to seek to publish their works in lower-priced, non-profit journals. They also point out that scholars benefit from wide distribution of their work. Since more libraries can afford to subscribe to the lower-priced, non-profit journals, publishing in these journals would increase exposure.
A full-text version of the article is available (without charge) at http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publications/BergstromAndBergstrom06.pdf
---Posted by Kay Mann
Posted by colldev at 09:22 PM
October 14, 2007
NetLibrary Gains Content; Yale University Press Spreads Knowledge
The Book Standard (www.thebookstandard.com) reported on Friday that Yale University and NetLibrary/OCLC have partnered to digitize the press' works and make them available through OCLC.
The article quotes the Director of Yale University Press as saying "It's fitting that as we enter into our second century, we begin to establish partnerships that will help us fulfill our founding mission--to aid in the discovery and dissemination of knowledge--well into the future." It is a nice reminder of the basic role of libraries and presses - to disseminate knowledge.
While many people continue to fret about the role of libraries in the new digital era and the imminent diappearance of the "book," we should remember that books and libraries are truly only containers for knowledge - that knowledge is not disappearing it is simply being reformatted. It is an exciting time when access to works from prestiguous presses are available instantly, whenever and wherever they are needed.
Tom Lamb
Posted by colldev at 05:02 PM
Oxford Open to Reduce 2008 Prices for Eight Online-Only Journals
As announced in the August-September issue of E-News for ARL Directors, under the title "Oxford University Press's Hybrid Journal Program Yields Returns for Subscribers," Oxford Open is reducing prices for eight online-only journal subscriptions for the 2008 publishing year.
This price adjustment and the implications it carries could have important repercussions on the larger scholarly communications community due to the massive scope of influence across the world and across disciplines for which Oxford University Press is known. If OUP can make online access to journals (even if for just a handful of titles) not just hold steady in price but decrease, then making access to big-name journals affordable seems in reach.
While newly created journals are being built to better withstand the current environment of escalating expense by incorporating structural elements that promote sustainability and wide (or at least wide enough) access, established journals that are particularly important to the fields of study for which they report must also be a part of the scholarly communication strategic evolution if the scientific record is to be supported in fullness and depth. For this reason, Oxford Open's efforts to find ways to carry existing OUP journals through the scholarly communications crisis intact and possibly even in a more robust state than before is an important element of the overall range of revolutionary efforts being made to preserve and promote scholarly journals now and in the future.
Of the four initiative foci given on the Oxford Open web page, the first is to "[e]xplore the viability of Open Access as a long-term publishing model that is financially sustainable (for publishers, institutions, and authors)." That language aligns well with the SPARC imperative to "[stimulate] creation of better, faster, and more economically sustainable systems for distributing new knowledge" to the advantage of four stakeholder groups, identified by SPARC as researchers, publisher partners, libraries, and society.
The inclusion in SPARC's statement of society as a stakeholder reflects the broader commitment that SPARC has to scholarly research from the cradle to the grave, so to speak; from the intertwined processes of absorption and creation (as researchers read others' work and allow that existing knowledge to shape new inquiries) to the wider effects of publicized research as it permeates into society in general, beyond boutique educational and research communities, through popular literature and emerging products and processes.
If reducing the cost of a journal directly or indirectly increases access to the material in that journal, then Oxford Open's success in the pricing arena could benefit not only the three groups Oxford considers as its stakeholders but also the larger set of users, in the broadest sense of the word, that SPARC supports.
posted by Maria Sochor
Posted by colldev at 04:17 PM
October 07, 2007
Seed Money for Open Access Publication Fees
Many well known open-access publications require a publication fee to offset publication costs. An example of this is the Public Library of Science whose publication fees and FAQs about them can be found here. These fees can be a deterrent to prospective authors who do not have the funds to pay them.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Office of Scholarly Communication and Publication is promoting the use of library seed money to support open-access publication fees and digital publishing for its faculty and staff. This money can be used to pay publication fees and to provide matching funds/seed money for the publication of open-access books, conference proceedings, and new electronic journals. Guidelines for publishing open-access items that receive this support as well as examples of library funded projects can be found on the library's website under the heading "Seed Money for Open Access." It will be interesting to see if these funds will overcome author deterrents and to see if other institutions follow in the University of Wisconsin's footsteps.
--posted by Lauren Seney
Posted by colldev at 08:15 PM
September 24, 2007
Publishing Trends of Top Economic Scholars
I came across this entry in Dani Rodrik's blog that discusses an NBER White Paper by Glenn Ellison. Ellison takes a look at the publishing trends of Harvard economists and recounts his findings on their increasing use of the Internet to publish research findings versus the use of peer reviewed journals. The comments on the blog are interesting and discuss the necessity of publishing to achieve a tenured rank, the "problem" of revisions, and the value of peer review.
To access the actual white paper, please access the UT Library Database page for Business and Economics and scroll down to NBER Working Papers. The Ellison paper was published during July 9-16, 2007 and is entitled Is Peer Review In Decline?
--posted by Robbi De Peri
Posted by colldev at 11:10 PM
September 18, 2007
Wikis and Professional Knowledge Sharing
In an article written in Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Journal of Web Librarianship Anne-Marie Deitering and Rachel Bridgewater present the Library Instruction Wiki. Their goal with this wiki was to capture the curiosity and knowledge that librarians' today share.
Anne-Marie Deitering and Rachel Bridgewater set up the Librarian Instruction Wiki for the Oregon Library Association's Library Instruction Round Table (OLA/LIRT) and used this article, titled "Stop reinventing the Wheel: Using Wikis for Professional Knowledge Sharing," to chronicle their process. They chose a wiki in an effort to eliminate the gatekeeper effect that can occur in other forms of knowledge sharing and chose to limit the number of barriers for those contributing (i.e. they did not make it a members only site). Their feelings were that they were dealing with a group of people who may never meet or interact with each other, but who still had an abundant amount of information to share and this technology provided the best opportunity for these geographically disperse group to share their knowledge. They use this article to weigh out the pros and cons of several wiki engines; ultimately choosing MediaWiki partially because it is the engine used by Wikipedia. The information they put out there regarding their selection criteria will be useful for anyone wishing to attempt a similar project in the future. Also of use are their implementation techniques, which were heavily dependent on feedback from their future user group, and the ultimate outcome of the project. The wiki was officially launched in the summer of 2005 and had immediate positive feedback and was written up in several journals and websites. However, since it's unveiling, use of the wiki has flagged. This could be blamed on the lack of publicity since its initial launch, but the schedules of those contributing the wiki and what the feel will be gained from it are also important factors to take into consideration. The authors are re-evaluating the use of the wiki and hopefully will see a rise in use of it with an increase of publicity in the future.
You can click here to take a look at the Library Instruction Wiki.
-- posted by Lauren Seney
Posted by colldev at 10:30 PM
Sink or swim: Are academic libraries ready to head upstream?
Would we face rough waters if we work our way upstream or would the current carry us along? The latest issue of D-Lib Magazine includes two articles by Anna Gold of MIT that explore the cyberinfrastructure of scientific research and data dissemination. An especially provocative suggestion made by Gold is that while the historical role of academic libraries in the support of scientific progress was to provide access to published scientific materials (downstream in the publication cycle), there is also an opportunity for libraries to manage and provide access to prepublished scientific data (upstream in the publication cycle). Bonita Wilson's editorial in that same D-Lib issue points to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education that those among us who want to learn more about the ways in which scientific research has changed since World War II and the subsequent impact on uses of research data will want to read in addition to the Gold articles. (UT's login and password for the online Chronicle are available through the e-journals section of the UT library website.)
The main product of upstream scientific work is data; with or without metadata, large-scale or small, raw or in context. Upstream involvement would require libraries to develop the staff, the digital storage solutions, the policies and procedural guidelines, and the carefully articulated role needed to successfully incorporate such prepublication research data into existing collections. Because there are known issues with format of data in this context (including preservation tribulations and interoperability concerns to say the least), positioning academic libraries as data repositories in addition to storehouses of finished research reports in the form of journal articles in a time when the future of libraries' role in the present scholarly communication model is already dangerously uncertain is a bold suggestion.
As Gold suggests, libraries might be the best institutions for such an undertaking due to the skills and information-processing framework that libraries already possess. This could be just the opportunity that academic libraries need to secure their place in tomorrow's scholarly communication cycle, and if they were successful the result could be a more deeply rooted, systemic, and stable role than the one held today. Libraries with close ties to the researchers whose work they help organize, promote, and preserve might be in a position to contribute to the blossoming of scientific learning to an even greater extent than libraries in the current publication-based collection model.
Gold identifies some specific liabilities that libraries have as possible custodians of upstream data. Are libraries really prepared to staff and fund such an ambitious undertaking? Do they have a talent pool of individuals with training in both information science and the various scientific fields in which research is taking place, or the ability to develop such a labor force in time? Is there funding for planning and development to allow for a well-designed upstream transition? Is there funding available for the sustenance of an upstream initiative once it is in place? The benefits of providing access to research data through the familiar portal of academic libraries may be significant, but for institutions that are fighting for the funding to maintain their current collections, the bottom line is the bottom line. The money just might not be available.
What will it really take for libraries to manage collections of prepublication data, including raw data and massive datasets? What place would scholarly associations and commercial publishers have if libraries received such prepublication data directly from researchers? Is the possibility of holding research data really not that different from routine library materials processing if each dataset is considered as an archive of sorts for each individual research project? There are more questions than answers at this point, but that's precisely why libraries have such an opportunity to determine their fate.
posted by Maria Sochor
Posted by colldev at 10:10 PM
September 06, 2007
Clarification by Definition
I love dictionaries and was thrilled to be introduced to ODLIS - Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science through Dr. Allard in IS 530. I turn to definitions for the comforting peace of knowing what specifically a term means, especially when it pertains to a school assignment.
-- posted by Gypsy Moody
scholarly communication
The means by which individuals engaged in academic research and creative endeavor inform their peers, formally or informally, of the work they are engaged in or have accomplished. Following a tradition that began with the Academy in ancient Athens, scholars communicate by writing monographs and journal articles for publication, presenting conference papers that may subsequently be published in proceedings and transactions, submitting reports in fulfillment of grant requirements, creating and maintaining Web sites for the academic community, and corresponding with peers via e-mail and electronic mailing lists. Broadly defined, the process includes not only the creation and dissemination of scholarly works but also evaluation of quality (peer review) and preservation for future use. One of the goals of academic libraries is to facilitate scholarly communication in all its forms. Click here to read the statement of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) on Principles and Strategies for the Reform of Scholarly Communication (C&RL News, September 2003). See also: Information Access Alliance and SPARC.
With this definition in hand I go investigating...
-- posted by Gypsy Moody
Posted by colldev at 04:55 PM
August 31, 2007
Google Library Project Hit by Copyright Challenge from University Presses
Some might say it had to happen. Extending the Google Print program to the digitization of five of the world's largest university research libraries, including copyrighted as well as non-copyrighted material, would inevitably seem to lead to a challenge of copyright violation. Oddly enough, the challenge has come from the less commercial publishers--the nonprofit university presses. On May 20, Peter Givler, executive director of the Association of American University Presses (AAUP; http://www.aaupnet.org), an organization with 125 member publishers, sent a letter to Alexander Macgillivray, Google's house counsel for intellectual property. The letter challenged Google to defend its position on what would appear on the surface as a massive copyright violation and infringement on publishers' rights and revenues. However, in researching this story, the issue of author copyrights has emerged as a possible major factor.
In this article Barbara Quint presents another side of the argument against the Google digitization project. Not only are authors and publishers concerned, university presses are also against this massive initiative.
Read the full article:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=16195#top
--posted by Deborah Lyon
Posted by colldev at 05:57 PM
August 27, 2007
An Interview with the Designer of Google Scholar
Since its inception, Google Scholar has made deep inroads within the academic community within a very short period of time and is often the first search tool used by researchers and students. While many of the traditional databases charge significant fees for their availability to the academic community, Google Scholar offers their services for free and continues to update and improve their services and the content that they make available. New features that Google Scholar has recently announced include the Google Scholar digitization project, a "key author" feature, expansion into non-English content, and the indexing of Elsevier's Science Direct collection.
Barbara Quint, of Information Today uncovers these developments in her interview with Anurag Acharya, the designer behind Google Scholar.
The complete interview can be located here.
--Posted by Robbi De Peri
Posted by colldev at 01:56 PM
August 18, 2007
"University Publishing in a Digital Age" Noted by Chronicle of Higher Education
A new study by Ithaka, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of information technology in higher education, University Publishing in a Digital Age, was noted by Jennifer Howard in the August 3, 2007 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (p. A14). Howard quotes from the study: "In American colleges and universities, access to the Internet and World Wide Web is ubiquitous. Consequently, nearly all intellectual effort results in some form of "publishing.'"
Scholarly publishing may now appear on the Web, in an institutional repository, as well as in a traditional peer-reviewed journal or monograph. While some scholars have been quick to adapt to this rapid transformation, administrators are giving little attention to the changing environment. The report suggests that the scholarly publishing industry may be out of step with the values of the academy.
See the complete report at: http://www.ithaka.org/publications/UniversityPublishingInADigitalAge.
--posted by Linda Phillips
Posted by colldev at 02:58 PM
