Month: March 2009

Digital Library Jobs: Assistant Director for Discovery Systems at Davidson College

The Davidson College Library is recruiting an Assistant Director for Discovery Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Create a new department! Bring together areas of library systems, cataloging and metadata, and digitization of special collections! Unleash their synergies to energize users’ experience!

Sound intriguing? The Davidson College Library seeks a creative, visionary leader to join our management team. The successful candidate will develop a department of Discovery Systems, leading four librarians working in systems, cataloging, and archives. Responding to current needs and anticipating future possibilities, s/he will ensure that ¬the work of the department fosters student learning and faculty productivity. With the director and three other assistant directors, s/he will set direction for the library and measure achievement.

Virginia Tech Journal Cut: Almost $900,000

The Virginia Tech University Libraries will reduce journal subscriptions by almost $900,000 in the 2009-2010 budget year.

Here's an excerpt from "Library to Cut Nearly $1 Million":

Hitchingham [Dean of University Libraries] said that the university must cancel $500,000 worth of subscriptions to accommodate library budget cuts. They must also cover $400,000 worth of cuts to meet inflationary cost increases.

Transcript of Reed Elsevier Group’s 2008 Earnings Call

Seeking Alpha has published a transcript of the Reed Elsevier Group's 2008 earnings call.

Here's an excerpt:

[Sir Crispin Davis] Turning now to the individual businesses, Elsevier had a good year, good overall results and the internals I think are genuinely encouraging. Renewals went up again to 98%, and if you think about this, this is extraordinary, that among our 6000 customers across over 150 countries in the word that we can get 98% renewal rate in these times.

Usage rose up again well about to 20% in terms of actual downloads, average subscription contract more that 3 years, and the present round of renewals is going very well. For example, one of our more challenging clients, California Digital Library, we signed a five-year contract with them recently. . . .

Again, underlying this is a lot of encouraging data in terms of the quality of our content and publications. The last two years we've seen citation rates rise up. We've seen impact factors rise up. For example, Sale this year for the first time overtook Nature and Science in terms of impact factors. Article submissions were up 4% to 5%, usage up over 20%, renewals running at a very high rate. So, as well as the sort of financial performance numbers, I think the underlying performance metrics in Elsevier both on science and health look strong.

“‘Publishers Did Not Take the Bait’: A Forgotten Precursor to the NIH Public Access Policy”

Jonathan Miller has published "'Publishers Did Not Take the Bait': A Forgotten Precursor to the NIH Public Access Policy" in the latest issue of College & Research Libraries (access is restricted under the journal's embargo policy).

Here's an excerpt:

This article compares the recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy (2005-07) with the United States Office of Education policy on copyright in funded research (1965-70). The two policies and the differing technological and political contexts of the periods are compared and contrasted. The author concludes that a more nuanced approach to copyright, the digital information environment, and the support of an energized user community auger well for the success of the NIH policy, but that it is still too soon to tell.

Digital Library Jobs: Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of New Mexico Libraries

The University of New Mexico Libraries are recruiting a Digital Initiatives Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

We are seeking an enthusiastic and innovative Librarian to play a leadership role in planning, implementing and supporting digital collections and services. This librarian will work closely with the CSWR curatorial staff, UL subject liaisons, members of the Cataloging and Discovery Services division and IT staff in initiating projects to enhance the university's scholarly communications and publications programs. This librarian will take the lead in developing policies and procedures for the production and management of digital content, metadata, workflow, and intellectual property issues. This librarian will also develop and provide training, and perform outreach to inform the campus community about the UL's digital initiatives.

Primary Duties

  • Provide leadership in the continued development and management of the UNM digital repository system.
  • Provide technical expertise to continue development and enhancements for the Rocky Mountain Online Archives.
  • Provide expertise and leadership for current and future UNM escholarship projects such as electronic journal publishing and data curation.
  • Initiate and promote scholarly communication/publishing initiatives.
  • Provide expertise on intellectual property issues.
  • Maintain awareness and develop in-depth knowledge of new technology, relevant national standards and best practices related to digitization and scholarship.
  • Coordinate training for digitization and associated standards.

Oregon State University Libraries Adopt Library Faculty Open Access Policy

The Oregon State University Libraries faculty have adopted a Library Faculty Open Access Policy. (Thanks to Circulation: Just Another Librarian Blog.)

Here's the policy:

The faculty members of the OSU Libraries support open access to our scholarship and knowledge. Consequently, we grant to the OSU Libraries permission to make our scholarly work publicly available and to exercise the copyright in those works. We grant the OSU Libraries a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to our scholarly work, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the works are properly attributed to the authors and not sold for a profit.

The policy will apply to all scholarly works authored or co-authored while a faculty member of the University Libraries, beginning with works created after March 2009. Works include the following:

  • articles
  • internal reports of interest to a broader audience
  • presentations if substantial
  • conference papers and proceedings if more than an abstract

When a publisher is involved who will not agree to the terms of this policy as stated in the Science Commons Access-Reuse Addendum, the University Librarian or the University Librarian’s designate will waive application of the policy upon written request from faculty. When a waiver is granted, faculty are encouraged to deposit whatever version of the article the publisher allows (e.g. pre or post-print). No later than the date of publication or distribution, faculty members will deposit an electronic copy of the final published version of the work, in an appropriate format (such as PDF), at no charge to ScholarsArchive@OSU. Alternatively, faculty members may provide an electronic copy of the final published version to the appropriate representative of the Digital Access Services Department, who will make the work available to the public in ScholarsArchive@OSU.

The policy will be reviewed after three years and a report presented to the Library Faculty.

Digital Video: Open Science: Good For Research, Good For Researchers? at Columbia

A digital video of the panel presentation: "Open Science: Good for Research, Good for Researchers?" at Columbia University is now available.

Here's the description from the Web page:

Open science refers to information-sharing among researchers and encompasses a number of initiatives to remove access barriers to data and published papers, and to use digital technology to more efficiently disseminate research results. Advocates for this approach argue that openly sharing information among researchers is fundamental to good science, speeds the progress of research, and increases recognition of researchers. Panelists: Jean-Claude Bradley, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Coordinator of E-Learning for the School of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University; Barry Canton, founder of Gingko BioWorks and the OpenWetWare wiki, an online community of life science researchers committed to open science that has over 5,300 users; Bora Zivkovic, Online Discussion Expert for the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and author of "A Blog Around the Clock."

Sony’s eBook Store to Offer Over a Half-Million Public Domain Books from Google

Sony's eBook store will offer over a half-million public domain e-books from Google.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

At Sony’s eBook store (ebookstore.sony.com), a button on the front page leads to the books from Google, which people can transfer to their PRS-505 or PRS-700 Reader at no cost. The process is seamless for Reader owners who have an account at the store. Those new to the store will need to set up an account and download Sony’s free eBook Library software. To start, people can access more than a half-million public domain books from Google, boosting the available titles from the eBook Store to more than 600,000. . . .

Books from Google will feature an extensive list of traditional favorites, including "The Awakening," "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court," and "Black Beauty," as well as a number of items that can be more difficult for people to access. For example, literature lovers can find and read The Letters of Jane Austen in addition to "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma." Also included are a number of titles in French, German, Italian, Spanish and other languages. People can search the full text of the collection, or they can browse by subject, author, or featured titles.

MIT Open Access Policy Approved

The MIT Faculty Open-Access Policy was approved unanimously by the faculty today. It is effective immediately.

Here's an excerpt:

The Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nonexclusive permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles for the purpose of open dissemination. In legal terms, each Faculty member grants to MIT a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit, and to authorize others to do the same. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles written while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Provost or Provost's designate will waive application of the policy for a particular article upon written notification by the author, who informs MIT of the reason.

To assist the Institute in distributing the scholarly articles, as of the date of publication, each Faculty member will make available an electronic copy of his or her final version of the article at no charge to a designated representative of the Provost's Office in appropriate formats (such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office.

The Provost's Office will make the scholarly article available to the public in an open- access repository. The Office of the Provost, in consultation with the Faculty Committee on the Library System will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the Faculty.

Read more about it at "MIT Adopts a University-wide OA Mandate."

CLASM: Copyright Licensing Application with SWORD for Moodle

Richard M. Davis has announced that JISC has funded the CLASM (Copyright Licensing Application with SWORD for Moodle) project. (Moodle is an open source course management system.)

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This will be a six-month project with a double-edged purpose: to develop a SWORD plugin for Moodle, so that it can interact, platform independently, with common repository applications like EPrints and DSpace; and to explore and demonstrate the use of that plugin for managing Copyright Licensed materials in Moodle courses.

Sun Microsystems Releases Open APIs for the Sun Open Cloud Platform

Sun Microsystems has released Open API's for its Open Cloud Platform.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Today at its CommunityOne developer event, Sun Microsystems, Inc. . . . showcased the Sun Open Cloud Platform, the company's open cloud computing infrastructure, powered by industry-leading software technologies from Sun, including Java, MySQL, OpenSolaris and Open Storage. Signaling a massive opportunity to open the world's nascent cloud market, Sun also outlined that a core element of its strategy is to offer public clouds and previewed plans to launch the Sun Cloud, its first public cloud service targeted at developers, student and startups. . . .

As part of the company's commitment to building communities, Sun also announced the release of a core set of Open APIs, unveiled broad partner support for its cloud platform and demonstrated innovative features of the Sun Cloud. Sun is opening its cloud APIs for public review and comment, so that others building public and private clouds can easily design them for compatibility with the Sun Cloud. Sun's Cloud API specifications are published under the Creative Commons license, which essentially allows anyone to use them in any way. Developers will be able to deploy applications to the Sun Cloud immediately, by leveraging pre-packaged VMIs (virtual machine images) of Sun's open source software, eliminating the need to download, install and configure infrastructure software. To participate in the discussion and development of Sun's Cloud APIs, go to sun.com/cloud.

In related news, according to the Wall Street Journal, IBM is negotiating to acquire Sun Microsystems.

Herbert Van de Sompel et al. on “Adding eScience Assets to the Data Web”

Herbert Van de Sompel et al.'s paper on "Adding eScience Assets to the Data Web" is now available on the Linked Data on the Web (LDOW2009) Web site.

Here's an excerpt:

Aggregations of Web resources are increasingly important in scholarship as it adopts new methods that are data-centric, collaborative, and networked-based. The same notion of aggregations of resources is common to the mashed-up, socially networked information environment of Web 2.0. We present a mechanism to identify and describe aggregations of Web resources that has resulted from the Open Archives Initiative-Object Reuse and Exchange (OAI-ORE) project. The OAI-ORE specifications are based on the principles of the Architecture of the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web, and the Linked Data effort. Therefore, their incorporation into the cyberinfrastructure that supports eScholarship will ensure the integration of the products of scholarly research into the Data Web.

Two Million Plus Downloads: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institutional Repository

As of today, the DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln repository contains over 31,000 documents, has had 2,132,581 full-text downloads to date, and 1,307,822 downloads in the past year (see the bottom of the repository's home page). It is also used to publish RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences, a gratis open access journal. It uses the Digital Commons software from the Berkeley Electronic Press.

Humanities Book Publishing Crisis: Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own

The American Enterprise Institute has released Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own by Mark Bauerlein.

Here's an excerpt:

Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University and former director of the Office of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, examines the pressure on humanities professors to "publish publish publish" and explains why the abundance of research offers diminishing returns. He laments the consequences for undergraduate education and student engagement and suggests that students, faculty, and the broader society would be well-served if we revisited this aged and problematic compact. . . .

Read more about it at "Unread Monographs, Uninspired Undergrads."

March 18th: It’s a Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities

Today, digital humanists will document their activities as part of a Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities .

Here's an excerpt from the wiki:

A Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities (Day of DH) is a community publication project that will bring together digital humanists from around the world to document what they do on one day, March 18th. The goal of the project is to create a web site that weaves together the journals of the participants into a picture that answers the question, "Just what do computing humanists really do?" Participants will document their day through photographs and commentary in a blog-like journal. The collection of these journals with links, tags, and comments will make up the final work which will be published online.

Peter Brantley on Orphan Works and the Google Book Search Settlement

In "The Orphan Monopoly," Peter Brantley, Executive Director for the Digital Library Federation, examines issues related to orphan works and the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement.

Here's an excerpt:

There is a lot to ponder: This is arguably a massive re-writing of copyright for books without any legislative input; Marybeth Peters (MBP), the U.S. Registrar of Copyrights, observed that the settlement essentially proposes a private agreement for compulsory licensing between a large class of IP holders and world’s largest search engine. The potential scope and policy ramifications are significant. MBP mentioned that there might be treaty implications under international conventions. And despite that, one of the most shocking of her statements was that the Copyright Office has not received a single inquiry from any of the 535 elected representatives of the people of the United States. Not. One.

Library IT Jobs: Library Systems Administrator at University of the Incarnate Word

The J.E. & L.E. Mabee Library of the University of the Incarnate Word is recruiting a Library Systems Administrator.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Administrative/Lecturer position in the UIW library. Responsible for all aspects of ExLibris Voyager system. Works with library staff to initiate and develop innovative access to electronic resources employing both Z39.5 and other access technologies. Provides leadership in the area of information technology infrastructure in support of library services, including planning, implementing and evaluating new technologies.

CAUL Australian Institutional Repository Support Service Commences

The CAUL Australian Institutional Repository Support Service has begun operation.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

CAUL has appointed the University of Southern Queensland, through the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI) within the Division of Academic Information Services (DAIS) to undertake its new institutional repository support service. The service will commence officially on March 16, 2009.

The service is being funded for two years, with the approval of Department of Innovation (DIISR), with monies remaining from the successful ARROW (Australian Research Repositories Online to the World) project, supplemented by CAUL member subscriptions.

The aim of the service is fully described in the Invitation to Offer released in October, 2008. It will, inter alia:

  • provide a forum to represent the collective interests of repository managers around Australia; support emerging areas of activity;
  • support and develop toolkits for copyright and institutional repositories;
  • provide best practice and policy advice for areas such as data migration, metadata, standards compliance, import and export, harvesting, ingest of new forms of digital material;
  • assist with the integration of repositories with the requirements of the ERA and the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) exercises;
  • assist the understanding of managing copyright issues in the repository environment;
  • provide a watching brief on trends and developments in repositories.

Project Manager and institutional repository specialist is Katy Watson, currently Research Information Systems Coordinator at the University of the Sunshine Coast, one of the two full-time staff in CAIRSS. She will be supported by a small team from the University of Southern Queensland. The copyright element of the service will be provided by Swinburne University. The key personnel are Tim McCallum, Technical Officer; Luke Padgett, Copyright Officer; Dr Peter Sefton, Senior Advisor and Professor Alan Smith, USQ delegate.

Harvard Kennedy School of Government Adopts Open Access Policy

The Harvard Kennedy School of Government has adopted an open access policy. Previously, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Harvard Law School have adopted open access policies. (Thanks to Stevan Harnad.)

Here's an excerpt:

The Faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. More specifically, each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Dean or the Dean's designate will waive application of the license for a particular article upon express direction by a Faculty member.

Each Faculty member will provide an electronic copy of the author's final version of each article at no charge to the appropriate representative of the Provost's Office in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the Provost's Office no later than the date of its publication. The Provost's Office may make the article available to the public in an open-access repository.

“Scientific Journal Publishing: Yearly Volume and Open Access Availability”

Bo-Christer Björk, Annikki Roos and Mari Lauri have published "Scientific Journal Publishing: Yearly Volume and Open Access Availability" in the latest issue of Information Research.

Here's an excerpt from the abstract:

Results. We estimate that in 2006 the total number of articles published was approximately 1,350,000. Of this number 4.6% became immediately openly available and an additional 3.5% after an embargo period of, typically, one year. Furthermore, usable copies of 11.3% could be found in subject-specific or institutional repositories or on the home pages of the authors.

Library IT Jobs: Web Librarian at the College of Staten Island

The Department of the Library of the College of Staten Island is recruiting a Web Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

As a member of the Library's Technology Team and Reference Services, responsibilities include developing web-based resources that support and promote academic programs and services (i.e. curricular materials, informational materials, guides, tutorials, workshops), coordinating and promoting the use of course management systems (Blackboard); supporting the Library's programs for information technology and research by developing web-based instructional materials; participating in the activities of the Center for Excellence in Learning Technology (CELT) that supports faculty courses and programs. Instructional design abilities preferred. Reports to the Chief Librarian.

JISC Digitisation Programme: An Overview of Projects

JISC has released JISC Digitisation Programme: An Overview of Projects.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The JISC Digitisation Programme was launched in 2004, with funding of £10m divided between six projects. This was followed by a second phase, worth £12m, for 16 projects running from 2007 to 2009.

The collections capture a wide variety of aspects of UK life, from cabinet papers to first world war poetry, radio news to East End music hall, political cartoons to British borders, and in a diverse range of media, including sound, film, images, journals, newspapers, maps, theses, pamphlets and cartoons. . . .

For those involved in learning and teaching, these collections provide high-quality, rights-cleared material to download and adapt in lecture hall, seminar room, library or hall of residence. Again, placing the collections together allows new avenues to be opened up. Students exploring the visual arts can study the drawings, sketches and paintings from the Pre-Raphaelite Resource Site and then listen to artists' own opinions on their work and lives via interviews in the Archival Sound Recordings.