Year: 2009

Duke, NC State, and UNC Data Sharing Cloud Computing Project Launched

Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have launched a two-year project to share digital data.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

An initiative that will determine how Triangle area universities access, manage, and share ever-growing stores of digital data launched this fall with funding from the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies, Inc. (TUCASI).

The two-year TUCASI data-Infrastructure Project (TIP) will deploy a federated data cyberinfrastructure—or data cloud—that will manage and store digital data for Duke University, NC State University, UNC Chapel Hill, and the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and allow the campuses to more seamlessly share data with each other, with national research projects, and private sector partners in Research Triangle Park and beyond.

RENCI and the Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center at UNC Chapel Hill manage the $2.7 million TIP. The provosts, heads of libraries and chief information officers at the three campuses signed off on the project just before the start of the fall semester.

"The TIP focuses on federation, sharing and reuse of information across departments and campuses without having to worry about where the data is physically stored or what kind of computer hardware or software is used to access it," said Richard Marciano, TIP project director, and also professor at UNC's School of Information and Library Science (SILS), executive director of the DICE Center, and a chief scientist at RENCI. "Creating infrastructure to support future Triangle collaboratives will be very powerful."

The TIP includes three components—classroom capture, storage, and future data and policy, which will be implemented in three phases. In phase one, each campus and RENCI will upgrade their storage capabilities and a platform-independent system for capturing and sharing classroom lectures and activities will be developed. . . .

In phase two, the TIP team will develop policies and practices for short- and long-term data storage and access. Once developed, the policies and practices will guide the research team as it creates a flexible, sustainable digital archive, which will connect to national repositories and national data research efforts. Phase three will establish policies for adding new collections to the TIP data cloud and for securely sharing research data, a process that often requires various restrictions. "Implementation of a robust technical and policy infrastructure for data archiving and sharing will be key to maintaining the Triangle universities' position as leaders in data-intensive, collaborative research," said Kristin Antelman, lead researcher for the future data and policy working group and associate director for the Digital Library at NC State.

The tasks of the TIP research team will include designing a model for capturing, storing and accessing course content, determining best practices for search and retrieval, and developing mechanisms for sharing archived content among the TIP partners, across the Triangle area and with national research initiatives. Campus approved social media tools, such as YouTube and iTunesU, will be integrated into the system.

Stanford University Preparing Proposal for Text Mining Center Providing Access to 30 Million Digitized Books Plus Highwire Journals

In "Possible Text Mining Opportunity at Stanford," Matthew Jockers describes a research proposal being developed at Stanford University for a text mining center that would provide access to 30 million digitized books plus Highwire Journals.

Here's an excerpt:

As I'm sure many of you already know, Stanford has been closely involved with Google's book scanning project, and we (Stanford) are currently preparing a proposal for the creation of a text mining / analysis Center on campus. The core assets of the proposed Center would include all of the Google data (approx. 30 million books) plus all of our Highwire data and all of our licensed content. We see a wide range of research opportunities for this collection, and we are envisioning a Center that would offer various levels of interaction with scholars. In particular we envision a "tiered" service model that would, on one hand, allow technically challenged researchers to work with Center staff in formulating research questions and, on the other, an opportunity for more technically advanced scholars to write their own algorithms and run them on the corpus. We are imagining the Center as both a resource and as a physical place, a place that will offer support to both internal and external scholars and graduate students.

The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery

Microsoft Research has released The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery.

Of particular interest is the "Scholarly Communication" chapter.

Here are some selections from that chapter:

  • "Jim Gray’s Fourth Paradigm and the Construction of the Scientific Record," Clifford Lynch
  • "Text in a Data-Centric World," Paul Ginsparg
  • "All Aboard: Toward a Machine-Friendly Scholarly Communication System," Herbert Van de Sompel and Carl Lagoze
  • "I Have Seen the Paradigm Shift, and It Is Us," John Wilbanks

Papers from the European Research Area 2009 Conference

Papers from the European Research Area 2009 Conference are now available.

Here's a selection from the "Open Access and Preservation" session:

HathiTrust Will Release Search Engine Indexing 1.5 Billion Pages from Digitized Books and Other Materials

Next month, the HathiTrust will release a full-text search engine indexing 1.5 billion pages from digitized books and other materials from 25 member research libraries.

An experimental version of the search engine is now available.

Read more about it at "HathiTrust Launching Full-Text Library of Books."

Presentations from Throwing Open the Doors: Strategies and Implications for Open Access

Presentations by Tracy Mitrano and Heather Joseph from "Throwing Open the Doors: Strategies and Implications for Open Access" are now available from EDUCAUSE.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

n the past decade, the proliferation of Web 2.0 tools for sharing and creating knowledge, coupled with the creation of open-access journals, databases, and archives across the web, has begun to redefine the concept of "openness" in higher education. Advocates of the open-access campaign argue that free, virtual access to scholarly works and research advance scientific discovery and lead to faster knowledge dissemination and richer research collaborations, throwing open the doors that once restricted knowledge sharing and exploration. Critics of the movement have doubted its economic sustainability and raised concerns about its impact on peer review. Regardless, open access requires a new examination of campus copyright and publishing policy.

Interim Head Librarian of Systems and Technical Services at St. Olaf College

The St. Olaf College Libraries are recruiting an Interim Head Librarian of Systems and Technical Services (full-time through December 31, 2010 with the possibility of an extension through May 31, 2011).

Here's an excerpt from the ad (position #0100299):

The Interim Head Librarian of Systems and Technical Services (a) plans, organizes, and oversees the libraries' acquisition, organization, and distribution of information (including books, serials, and electronic resources), and (b) serves as the point person for technology and digital initiatives in the libraries.

This position oversees the technical services department, including acquisitions, cataloging, serials, and digital initiatives. Serves with other departmental heads on the libraries' administrative council. Actively contributes to library-wide planning, policy-making, goal-setting and the development of new services and initiatives. Works with counterparts at Carleton College to manage and improve the shared library system. Supports the College Librarian in vetting new ideas, initiatives, and strategic plans.

Boston University Launches Digital Common Institutional Repository

Boston University has launched its Digital Common institutional repository. In February, the BU University Council approved a Scholarship, Libraries, and Open Access Archiving Initiative.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Boston University now has a Digital Common—a place where research and other academic materials can be stored, shared, and discovered.

The Digital Common is an example of an institutional repository, and it is yours to use. The launch comes just in time to help celebrate Open Access Week. It already contains about a thousand scholarly works, and library staff are currently working with others, such as the Philosophy Department and the School of Public Health, to add more

.

University of Michigan to Distribute Over 500,000 Digitized Books Using HP BookPrep POD Service

The University of Michigan Library will distribute over 500,000 rare and hard-to-find digitized books using HP BookPrep POD service.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

HP BookPrep — a cloud computing service that enables on-demand printing of books — brings new life to the traditional publishing model, making it possible to bring any book ever published back into print through an economical and sustainable service model.

As part of a growing movement to preserve and digitize historic content, major libraries are partnering with technology leaders to scan previously hard-to-find works using high-resolution photography. HP's process transforms these scans prior to printing by cleaning up some of the wear and tear that often is present in the originals.

HP BookPrep significantly drives down the cost of republishing books by eliminating the manual cleanup work that would otherwise be required. Based on imaging and printing technology from HP Labs, the company's central research arm, HP BookPrep automates the creation of high-quality, print-ready books from these raw book scans by sharpening text and images, improving alignment and coloration, and generating and adding covers.

People can now purchase high-quality print versions of public-domain, out-of-print books from the University of Michigan Library through HP BookPrep channels, including traditional and online retailers such as Amazon.com.

"People around the world still value reading books in print," said Andrew Bolwell, director, New Business Initiatives, HP. "HP BookPrep technology allows publishers to extend the life cycle of their books, removes the cost and waste burdens of maintaining inventory, and uses a full spectrum of technologies to deliver convenient access to consumers."

For publishers and content owners, HP BookPrep offers an opportunity to offer their full catalog of titles online, irrespective of demand. Because HP BookPrep is a web service that processes books as they are ordered, there is little upfront investment or risk as books are printed only after they are purchased, no matter the volume, eliminating the need for high carrying costs.

Consistently ranked as one of the top 10 academic research libraries in North America, the University of Michigan Library is a true repository for the human record. The print collection contains more than 7 million volumes, covering thousands of years of civilization. HP is collaborating with the university to eliminate barriers and increase access to content as part of an ongoing effort to make the concept of "out of print" a thing of the past.

"Our partnership with HP is a testament to the University of Michigan Library's commitment to increase public access to our library's collections and our continued innovative use of digitization," said Paul N. Courant, librarian and dean of libraries, University of Michigan. "We are excited that HP BookPrep can offer print distribution of the public domain works in our collection and help to provide broad access to works that have previously been hard to find outside the walls of our library."

The collaboration also builds upon HP's existing relationship with Applewood Books, a publisher of historical, Americana books. The company, which has been using HP BookPrep for the last year to republish hundreds of titles, also will distribute HP BookPrep's best-selling titles from the University of Michigan Library.

Podcast: Open Access—Harvard's Success Story with Robert Darnton

JISC has released a podcast: Open Access—Harvard's Success Story with Robert Darnton.

Here's the announcement:

In October 2008 Harvard University in the US adopted an open access policy for all its research papers to be made available in their university repository, in an opt out basis. 12 months on, since the policy was adopted, JISC's Rebecca O'Brien speaks with Professor Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard University Library and trustee of New York Public Library and the Oxford University Press (USA), about the cultural change that is taking place at Harvard and the background to why professors at the university decided to share their knowledge in this way.

Publisher Self-Archiving Policies: Major SHERPA RoMEO Upgrade

SHERPA has released a major upgrade of its RoMEO service, which lists publishers' self-archiving policies.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

A major upgrade to RoMEO has been released today, giving:

  • Extra Category for the self-archiving of the Publisher's Version/ PDF
  • Expanded Journal Coverage
  • Extra Search Options for Journal Abbreviations and Electronic ISSNs
  • New Tabular Browse View for Publishers
  • Selective Display of Publishers' Compliance with Funding Agencys' Mandates . . . .

Previous versions of RoMEO have concentrated on highlighting information on the use of the pre-print and post-print. There has been great support from the community for also providing clearly labelled information on the use of the publisher's version/PDF as a separate item. This feature has now been included and sits alongside information on self-archiving rights for Pre-prints and Authors' Post-prints. The information is available in both individual publisher entries and in the new Tabular Browse View.

RoMEO now provides expanded journal coverage, enabling users to draw from both the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Entrez journal list for the Life Sciences, along with the existing resource of the British Library's Zetoc service.

In addition to searching for journals by Print ISSN, users are now able to search by Electronic ISSN. They can also search for journals using title abbreviations.

The new Tabular Browse View enables users to display comparative charts of publishers, to quickly determine and compare what different Publishers allow them to deposit, and if the Publisher has a Paid OA Option.

If you or your authors receive funding from any of the 50 plus agencies listed in JULIET, you will now be able to restrict your search results to display Publishers' compliance with any of the funding agencies' policies listed in JULIET.

PALNI Systems Analyst at INCOLSA

INCOLSA is recruiting a PALNI Systems Analyst.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

As a member of INCOLSA's Information Technology Department, the PALNI Systems Analyst will be responsible for system implementation, technical support, and user training/support for various library systems for the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) . Specific responsibilities may include project planning and management, systems design and implementation, development of detailed technical and user documentation, user training and support, library applications design and development, and Internet server administration.. The PALNI Systems Analyst will help to support existing computer-based library applications for PALNI, including an Ex Libris Aleph integrated library system, a MetaLib/SFX portal and OpenURL resolver system, a ContentDM Digital Library system, and various open-source and custom-developed applications. When assigned, the PALNI Systems Analyst will work with PALNI member libraries and other members of the Project Team to develop, implement, and provide on-going support for new library applications, systems, and services.

DiSCmap: Digitisation in Special Collections: Mapping, Assessment, Prioritisation. Final Report.

JISC has released DiSCmap: Digitisation in Special Collections: Mapping, Assessment, Prioritisation. Final Report..

Here's an excerpt:

In its widest sense the project contributes towards preliminary evidence on user-driven priorities which could help in the process of allocation of funding for digitisation projects. It also can help to define the purpose, value and impact of digitisation not on institutional basis but on UK HE scale. By development of a framework of user-driven prioritisation criteria, DiSCmap contributes towards the longer-term goal of developing a quantifiable and adjustable system of metrics in the digitisation life cycle especially addressing the selection phase.

The amount of collections nominated to the long list [of 945 collections nominated for digitisation] reached beyond the expectations of the project team. This list itself is a valuable outcome which should be enriched further in order to provide a broad and trustworthy basis for the future digitisation decisions. DiSCmap surveyed over 1000 intermediaries and end users; this report presents in a very condensed form only a small proportion of the total evidence on user demand gathered by the project team. Yet in analysing and representing fully the range of end user priorities, DiSCmap has made a considerable advance in identifying the actual digitisation needs of end users. It has done so with the aim of removing the element of guesswork and assumption hitherto inherent in our understanding of user requirements in this area. The combination of intermediary' and end user' studies provides a richness of view points which highlight the many important different aspects related to the user dimension in digitisation.

Canadian Association of Research Libraries and JISC Join Confederation of Open Access Repositories

Both the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and JISC have joined the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) as founding members.

Here's an excerpt from the CARL press release:

On October 21, CARL became a founding member of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR). COAR is an international association of organizations that have a common strategic interest in open access to scholarly communication. COAR was formed out of a need to work together at the international level to promote greater visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of open access digital repositories.

Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has played a leadership role in the development of open access repositories in Canada. Through the CARL Institutional Repositories Program, the Association has assisted its members in setting up repositories on their campuses; and worked with other research organizations in Canada and internationally in support of open access. Participation in COAR is a natural extension of these activities. "We are delighted to announce our membership in COAR," said Tom Hickerson, chair of the CARL Institutional Repositories Working Group and Vice-President/President-Elect of CARL. "COAR membership offers CARL and Canadian research libraries the opportunity to have a greater influence on the direction and expansion of open access world-wide"

Here's an excerpt from the JISC press release:

Taking inspiration from the European DRIVER repositories project, which helps to enhance repository development, COAR takes this vision to an international scale; founding members of the Confederation include members from North America, China and Japan, as well as Europe. . . .

Neil Jacobs JISC's programme manager for digital repositories says, "JISC's work over the past few years in encouraging the growth of institutional repositories means that the UK now has a virtually unparalleled network of repositories that covers almost all of the research-base of UK higher education."

"Joining COAR at the early stage of its development means members will be able to contribute to shaping the organisation's objectives which will look at interoperability, raising awareness and promoting Open Access repositories, supporting the repository community and working with partners in closely related fields such as research management and publishing."

Trinity University in San Antonio Adopts Open Access Policy

Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas has adopted an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Trinity University's faculty members today endorsed a measure to allow them to bypass some publication restrictions while sharing their scholarly research with the broader academic community.

Trinity becomes the first small, primarily undergraduate liberal arts institution to pass such a measure, known as Open Access. To date, the only U.S. universities to implement such policies are Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Kansas. Diane Graves, Trinity University Librarian, professor, and chair of the Faculty Senate, said she hoped the Trinity model would be emulated by others in higher education.

"Members of Trinity's faculty have been studying imbalances in the scholarly communication system for several years now," Professor Graves said. "I am proud that the faculty as a whole came together to support change toward a more sustainable and equitable model for access to their scholarly output. My hope is that other institutions will see the broad range of universities that have taken this action – from Harvard, to the University of Kansas, to Trinity – and choose to join us." . . .

The new Open Access policy also would enable Trinity professors to post the author's version of the article in a freely-accessible digital repository. Such a repository already exists as part of the Liberal Arts Scholarly Repository, a collaboration among Trinity and other private liberal arts colleges, including Carleton College, Bucknell University, Grinnell College, University of Richmond, St. Lawrence University, and Whitman College. . . .

Trinity's Faculty Senate approved the proposal in late September. The vote by the full faculty on Friday, Oct. 23 was taken at an assembly during International Open Access Week.

Duke University School of Law Launches Duke Law Scholarship Repository

The Duke University School of Law has launched the Duke Law Scholarship Repository.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Duke Law Scholarship Repository, launching online this week in partnership with BePress' Digital Commons, provides free, full-text access to more than 3,000 scholarly articles written by Duke Law faculty or published in Duke Law journals.

The repository offers a fresh presentation of Duke Law scholarship, but the idea of freely accessible legal scholarship and a commitment to open access to information has deep roots in both practice and theory at Duke Law School.

Under the leadership of Richard Danner, Duke Law's senior associate dean for information services and Archibald C. and Frances Fulk Rufty Research Professor of Law, the Law School became the first in the country to make all the articles published in its law journals — including back issues — freely accessible online in 1998. In addition, unlike most other law reviews, Duke's journals explicitly allow authors to post articles published in the journals without restriction on freely-accessible third party web sites, as well as on Internet sites under their own control.

By making scholarship as easily and widely accessible as possible, Duke does a service to the authors who publish in its journals, says James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law. "Imagine spending a year writing an article and discovering after you finished it that only someone with a sophisticated library or an expensive subscription could read it," he says. Duke's commitment to open access increases readership for authors, which include faculty from other schools as well as student scholars, and can contribute to higher citations for Duke-published work. "It's a huge benefit to both our students and to faculty authors," Boyle says.

In 2005, Duke Law furthered its commitment to open access by establishing an online archive of faculty scholarship, providing free access to the majority of articles published by Duke Law faculty. The contents of that archive are now the foundation of the Duke Law Scholarship Repository, which ultimately will include the text of lectures delivered at Duke Law, webcasts from scholarly presentations and conferences, publications of Duke Law's research centers, Duke Law student works, and more.

Digital Library Manager at Northeastern University

Here's an excerpt from the ad (position #04010165):

Reporting to the Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources, the Digital Library Manager will build a digital library program, providing vision and leadership in the creation and delivery of digital content. The Manager will work closely and collaboratively with senior administrators, Archives and Special Collections, technical services and systems staff, and others to ensure fast-paced development of digital library initiatives which respond to the needs of the University community and align with collections and preservation priorities. These include the digitization of special collections and other library materials in text, image, and video formats, the further development of digital repository systems to preserve and make accessible the intellectual output of the University, and the implementation of discovery tools related to these initiatives.

NIH Awards $12.2 Million Grant for VIVOweb, Social Networking Software for Scientists

The National Institutes of Health have awarded the University of Florida a $12.2 million grant to develop VIVOweb. The Cornell University Library and Indiana University are grant partners.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

By fostering alliances, it is hoped that biomedical research and discovery will move faster. The project will rest on VIVO, a technology developed at Cornell since 2003. It built a comprehensive network of scientists that identified existing projects and initiated new cooperation.

"Before VIVO, the Cornell librarians heard a lot of frustration from faculty members who couldn't find collaborators from different disciplines across campus,” Medha Devare, Cornell librarian for bioinformatics and life sciences. "The idea of VIVO was to transcend administrative divisions and create a single point of access for scholarly interaction. Now that VIVO is expanding across institutions, the biomedical community will be able to benefit from that bird's eye perspective of their research."

Money for the new grant, awarded through NIH's National Center for Research Resources, originated from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. This has already opened eight positions at Cornell and more jobs at the other partners.

Cornell will spearhead the development of the multi-institutional functionality of the VIVO technology; the University of Florida will focus on developing technology for keeping each site's data current; and Indiana University Bloomington will develop social networking tools to enable researchers to find others with similar interests. Four other institutions — Scripps Research Institute, Juniper, Fla.; Ponce School of Medicine, Ponce, P.R.; Washington University of St. Louis; and the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City—will serve as implementation sites.

Jon Corson-Rikert, head of Information Technology Services at Cornell's Mann Library, initially developed VIVO in 2003. As researchers and administrators embraced the newly created network, a team of programmers, designers and librarians expanded the project to all other disciplines at Cornell.

Other universities began to explore the open-source, free software. VIVO has been adopted for local networks at other universities and institutions in the United States, Australia and China. This new project will follow VIVO's original model and build a multi-institutional platform for the biomedical community.

The Cornell effort to develop VIVOweb will be led by Dean Krafft, the Library's chief technology strategist, Corson-Rikert and Devare. VIVOweb's open Semantic Web/Linked Data approach will empower researchers to extend their research communities—not just via prior knowledge or serendipity, but through recommendation or suggestion networks based on common traits described in the VIVOweb researcher profiles.

MIT Open Access Articles Collection Launched in DSpace@MIT

MIT has launched a new collection of authors' final submitted manuscripts in DSpace@MIT, the MIT Open Access Articles Collection.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The launch of the "MIT Open Access Articles" collection coincides with International Open Access Week to reflect the spirit of an MIT faculty policy established in March 2009.

The policy affirms the faculty's commitment "to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible."

The collection consists of the authors' final submitted manuscripts. Published versions may also appear where the publisher's policy allows for such posting. Both versions are identified for readers.

MIT authors are encouraged to send their papers to oapolicysubmissions@mit.edu or use a web form for inclusion in the collection.

The MIT Libraries are administering the policy under the guidance of the Faculty Committee on the Library System, and are maintaining a list of publishers who are fully cooperating with the policy.

Concordia University Launches Spectrum: Concordia University Research Repository

Concordia University has launched Spectrum: Concordia University Research Repository.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement

Concordia University Libraries is proud to mark international Open Access Week (October 19-23) with the launch of Spectrum: Concordia University Research Repository. Spectrum is a new digital resource which, in keeping with the university's strategic plan to develop community engagement and social responsibility, can make Concordia scholarship freely accessible to everyone via the internet.

Spectrum currently contains the full text of over 6000 theses and dissertations produced at the university from 1967 to 2003. It also offers Concordia faculty and researchers an additional venue for sharing their research using a simple process of self-submission. The name Spectrum reflects the variety of original research and creative activity that characterizes the scholarly output of Concordia University. The database, in development since 2007, is an initiative of the Concordia University Libraries supported by the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Graduate Studies.

"I am delighted to see the launch of this significant new resource," said Louise Dandurand, Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies. "The creation of a Research Repository speaks to Concordia's commitment to increase its contribution to world knowledge and promote public access to the results of publicly funded research."

"Research deposited in Spectrum is highly visible, because the site will be searchable using popular search engines such as Google and Google Scholar," added Jocelyn Godolphin, Associate University Librarian for Collection Services. "Concordia University now joins some 1200 other repositories round the world in providing a university-wide open access repository which will increase accessibility and preserve the scholarship produced by Concordia University researchers."

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition Kindle Edition

The Kindle edition of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition is now available from Amazon.com.

The bibliography presents over 3,350 English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet (see the table of contents for details). Most sources have been published between 1990 and 2008; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories.

The bibliography is also available from Amazon.com as a 372-page, 6" by 9" paperback book on white paper (ISBN: 1448624908, EAN: 139781448624904), from CreateSpace (identical to the Amazon.com edition), and from Lulu (same page length and size, but it is printed on cream paper and it does not have an ISBN or EAN.)

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (10/21/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Especially interesting are: "The 'Author Pays' Model of Open Access and UK-Wide Information Strategy"; "The Current Scenario of Open Access Journal Initiatives in India"; "Lending Kindle E-Book Readers: First Results from the Texas A&M University Project"; "If SWORD Is the Answer, What Is the Question?: Use of the Simple Web-Service Offering Repository Deposit Protocol"; "Institutional Repositories in Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions: User Interface Features and Knowledge Organization Systems"; "OA and IP: Open Access, Digital Copyright and Marketplace Competition"; "Publishing and the Digital Library: Adding Value to Scholarship and Innovation to Business"; "Rethinking Copyrights for the Library through Creative Commons Licensing"; "Ten Challenges for Open-Access Journals"; and "What Qualifications and Skills Are Important for Digital Librarian Positions in Academic Libraries? A Job Advertisement Analysis."

University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources Join ARL

The University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources have joined the Association of Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

"It’s a great accomplishment for our young university to have built a great library in 43 years," said Tom Hickerson, vice-provost (libraries and cultural resources) and university librarian. . . .

The ARL membership was the result of an 18-month campaign spearheaded by Hickerson. He believed that the U of C was a worthy candidate because of its ranking by the Libraries Investment Index of University Research Libraries. The index is an aggregate measure of a university’s investment in its library, including materials expenditures and professional and support staff.

"Based on available statistical comparisons, the University of Calgary would rank among the top 50 university research libraries in North America and sixth in Canada," said Hickerson.