Month: June 2009

“Open Access Policy for University Of Kansas Scholarship”

The "Open Access Policy for University Of Kansas Scholarship" is now available.

Here's an excerpt :

Each faculty member grants to KU permission to make scholarly articles to which he or she made substantial intellectual contributions publicly available in the KU open access institutional repository, and to exercise the copyright in those articles. In legal terms, the permission granted by each faculty member is 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, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit. This license in no way interferes with the rights of the KU faculty author as the copyright holder of the work. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while a faculty member of KU. Faculty will be afforded an opt out opportunity. Faculty governance in consultation with the Provost's office will develop the details of the policy which will be submitted for approval by the Faculty Senate.

In "More on the U. Kansas OA Policy,"Gavin Bakerr comments:

A Web version of the text of the University of Kansas' new OA policy confirms what I'd suspected in my last post: that the policy as passed doesn't contain an OA mandate. It commits the university to OA, gives the university permission to provide OA to its faculty's research via the IR, and establishes a task force to work out the details—including the details of how the manuscripts will get into the IR.

“Beyond Institutional Repositories”

Laurent Romary and Chris Armbruster have self-archived "Beyond Institutional Repositories" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

The current system of so-called institutional repositories, even if it has been a sensible response at an earlier stage, may not answer the needs of the scholarly community, scientific communication and accompanied stakeholders in a sustainable way. However, having a robust repository infrastructure is essential to academic work. Yet, current institutional solutions, even when networked in a country or across Europe, have largely failed to deliver. Consequently, a new path for a more robust infrastructure and larger repositories is explored to create superior services that support the academy. A future organization of publication repositories is advocated that is based upon macroscopic academic settings providing a critical mass of interest as well as organizational coherence. Such a macro-unit may be geographical (a coherent national scheme), institutional (a large research organization or a consortium thereof) or thematic (a specific research field organizing itself in the domain of publication repositories).

The argument proceeds as follows: firstly, while institutional open access mandates have brought some content into open access, the important mandates are those of the funders and these are best supported by a single infrastructure and large repositories, which incidentally enhances the value of the collection (while a transfer to institutional repositories would diminish the value). Secondly, we compare and contrast a system based on central research publication repositories with the notion of a network of institutional repositories to illustrate that across central dimensions of any repository solution the institutional model is more cumbersome and less likely to achieve a high level of service. Next, three key functions of publication repositories are reconsidered, namely a) the fast and wide dissemination of results; b) the preservation of the record; and c) digital curation for dissemination and preservation. Fourth, repositories and their ecologies are explored with the overriding aim of enhancing content and enhancing usage. Fifth, a target scheme is sketched, including some examples. In closing, a look at the evolutionary road ahead is offered.

Digital Library Jobs: Web Developer at DuraSpace

DuraSpace is recruiting a Web Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Web developer will join the team designing, building, and supporting the DuraCloud durable storage service and related Web sites for the DSpace Foundation, Fedora Commons, and other open source projects. The developer will be responsible for all aspects of requirements gathering, technical analysis, and development, testing, and documenting customer-facing applications, working both alone and as a member of a team. The position, which reports to the Chief Technology Officer, requires a knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and self-motivated individual with extensive experience in user interface design on the Web and thorough grounding in HCI principles and practices.

Fedora Repository 3.2.1 Released

The Fedora Commons has released version 3.2.1 of Fedora Repository.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The current release of Fedora Repository is 3.2.1 is a minor upgrade that addresses a security issue discovered in Fedora 3.2. . . .

Included within is the long-awaited, web-based administrative client, initial integration with the emerging Akubra storage-abstraction layer, many useful bug fixes, and the experimental release of a Fedora decoupled from the familiar 'fedora' context path.

Digital Library Jobs: Digital Projects Developer at Duke University

The Duke University Libraries are recruiting a Digital Projects Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Under the direction of the Head of the Digital Projects Department, the developer will explore, adapt, and support library information technologies for digital projects, including the application of standards, metadata, and discovery interfaces appropriate to specific projects. The developer is responsible for helping Library staff design user interfaces that successfully navigate and integrate various resources specific to research libraries.

Open Access—What Are the Economic Benefits? A Comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark

The Knowledge Exchange has released Open Access—What Are the Economic Benefits? A Comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In June 2009 a study was completed that had been commissioned by Knowledge Exchange and written by Professor John Houghton, Victoria University, Australia. This report on the study was titled: "Open Access—What are the economic benefits? A comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark." This report was based on the findings of studies in which John Houghton had modelled the costs and benefits of Open Access in three countries. These studies had been undertaken in the UK by JISC, in the Netherlands by SURF and in Denmark by DEFF.

In the three national studies the costs and benefits of scholarly communication were compared based on three different publication models. The modelling revealed that the greatest advantage would be offered by the Open Access model, which means that the research institution or the party financing the research pays for publication and the article is then freely accessible.

Adopting this model could lead to annual savings of around EUR 70 million in Denmark, EUR 133 million in The Netherlands and EUR 480 in the UK. The report concludes that the advantages would not just be in the long term; in the transitional phase too, more open access to research results would have positive effects. In this case the benefits would also outweigh the costs.

Elsevier Launches SciVal Spotlight

Elsevier has launched SciVal Spotlight.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

SciVal Spotlight uses an innovative visualization technique to produce customized maps that provide graphical views of an institution's performance over time and across scientific fields, focusing on specific topical areas. By pinpointing a university's topical strengths and identifying leading researchers and institutions in each area, the tool is designed to help academic decision-makers optimize funding allocations and enhance hiring and collaboration decisions.

Quantifying the overall size of each topical area, the tool allows institutions to understand the significance of their article and market shares and how they rank compared to competitors in those areas. It also assesses article and market growth or decline over the last five years, offering an average rate for each using a two year sliding scale. Additionally, it determines if an institution's work is building upon the most recent discoveries; providing a "state of the art quotient" by analyzing how recent the citations are within its published output.

"We recognized a need to change the way research is currently being measured, and designed the tool to provide a more holistic and integrated view of performance," explained Jay Katzen, Managing Director, Academic and Government Products. "By capturing the unique research fingerprint of each institution, we can help academic executives better understand their core strengths and potential weaknesses so they can develop and implement successful long-term research strategies."

Moving beyond the traditional method of measuring research output by journal count, SciVal Spotlight is based on a more detailed model of the current structure of science. The model, covering virtually all of the research being published across the globe, was developed using co-citation analysis of a comprehensive database that includes 6.1 million separate papers published between 2004 and 2008, and another two million of the highly-cited references from these papers.

Leveraging this new model of science, SciVal Spotlight identifies and focuses on the inter-related work being done within an institution which represents the unique topical areas or "distinctive competencies" in which it is a leader. It also offers an opportunity to better understand which institutions are true competitors by revealing those that compete within the same research competencies.

"The square peg, round hole nature of evaluating research performance based on the broad classifications of journals no longer captures the reality of today's multidisciplinary scientific landscape," explains Kevin Boyack, a senior development advisor for Elsevier. "SciVal Spotlight provides academic decision-makers with a more accurate picture of research productivity. It allows them to evaluate performance based on the breakthroughs they are trying to achieve, rather than the classification of the journals in which their researchers are publishing articles."

Alliance for Taxpayer Access Call to Action about Federal Research Public Access Act

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access has issued a call to action about the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 (S 1373).

Here's an excerpt:

On June 25, Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (S.1373), a bill that would ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by eleven U.S. federal agencies. S.1373 would require those agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from such funding no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The bill gives individual agencies flexibility in choosing the location of the digital repository to house this content, as long as the repositories meet conditions for interoperability and public accessibility, and have provisions for long-term archiving.

The bill specifically covers unclassified research funded by agencies including: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

S. 1373 reflects the growing trend among funding agencies—and college and university campuses—to leverage their investment in the conduct of research by maximizing the dissemination of results. It follows the successful path forged by the NIH’s Public Access Policy, as well as by private funders like the Wellcome Trust, and universities such as Harvard and MIT.

Detailed information about the Federal Research Public Access Act is available at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa.

All supporters of public access—universities and colleges, researchers, libraries, campus administrators, patient advocates, publishers, consumers, individuals, and others—are asked to ACT NOW to support this bill. Here’s how:

  • Contact Congress now to express your organization's support for public access to taxpayer-funded research and for this bill. Act now through the ATA Legislative Action Center.
  • Contact Congress now to express your individual support for public access to taxpayer-funded research and for this bill.
  • Send thanks to the Bill's sponsors—Senators Lieberman and Cornyn.
  • Issue a public statement of support from your organization and share it widely with members, colleagues, and the media. Send a copy to sparc [at] arl [dot] org to be featured on the FRPAA Web site.
  • Share news about this bill with friends and colleagues.
  • Post the "I support taxpayer access" banner on your Web site.

Blog Reports about the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program Partners Meeting

Several blog reports are available about the recent National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program partners meeting.

Open Access: Text of Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009

The text of the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 (S 1373) is now available.

Here's an excerpt:

SEC. 4. FEDERAL RESEARCH PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY.

(a) In General- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, each Federal agency with extramural research expenditures of over $100,000,000 shall develop a Federal research public access policy that is consistent with and advances purposes of the Federal agency.
(b) Content- Each Federal research public access policy shall provide for—
(1) submission to the Federal agency of an electronic version of the author's final manuscript of original research papers that have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and result from research supported, in whole or in part, from funding by the Federal Government;
(2) the incorporation of all changes resulting from the peer review publication process in the manuscript described under paragraph (1);
(3) the replacement of the final manuscript with the final published version if—
(A) the publisher consents to the replacement; and
(B) the goals of the Federal agency for functionality and interoperability are retained;
(4) free online public access to such final peer-reviewed manuscripts or published versions as soon as practicable, but not later than 6 months after publication in peer-reviewed journals;
(5) production of an online bibliography of all research papers that are publicly accessible under the policy, with each entry linking to the corresponding free online full text; and
(6) long-term preservation of, and free public access to, published research findings—
(A) in a stable digital repository maintained by the Federal agency; or
(B) if consistent with the purposes of the Federal agency, in any repository meeting conditions determined favorable by the Federal agency, including free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation.
(c) Application of Policy- Each Federal research public access policy shall—
(1) apply to—
(A) researchers employed by the Federal agency whose works remain in the public domain; and
(B) researchers funded by the Federal agency;
(2) provide that works described under paragraph (1)(A) shall be—
(A) marked as being public domain material when published; and
(B) made immediately available under subsection (b)(4); and
(3) make effective use of any law or guidance relating to the creation and reservation of a Government license that provides for the reproduction, publication, release, or other uses of a final manuscript for Federal purposes.
(d) Exclusions- Each Federal research public access policy shall not apply to—
(1) research progress reports presented at professional meetings or conferences;
(2) laboratory notes, preliminary data analyses, notes of the author, phone logs, or other information used to produce final manuscripts;
(3) classified research, research resulting in works that generate revenue or royalties for authors (such as books) or patentable discoveries, to the extent necessary to protect a copyright or patent; or
(4) authors who do not submit their work to a journal or works that are rejected by journals.
(e) Patent or Copyright Law- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect any right under the provisions of title 17 or 35, United States Code.
(f) Report-
(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than October 1, of each year, the head of each Federal agency shall submit a report on the Federal research public access policy of that agency to—
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate;
(B) the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives;
(C) the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives;
(D) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate;
(E) the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and
(F) any other committee of Congress of appropriate jurisdiction.
(2) CONTENT- Each report under this subsection shall include—
(A) a statement of the effectiveness of the Federal research public access policy in providing the public with free online access to papers on research funded by the Federal agency;
(B) a list of papers published in peer-reviewed journals that report on research funded by the Federal agency;
(C) a corresponding list of papers made available by the Federal agency as a result of the Federal research public access policy; and
(D) a summary of the periods of time between public availability of each paper in a journal and in the online repository of the Federal agency.
(3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY- The Federal agency shall make the statement under paragraph (2)(A) and the lists of papers under subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (2) available to the public by posting such statement and lists on the website of the Federal agency.

Library of Congress Releases Bagit: Transferring Content for Digital Preservation Video

The Library of Congress has released a digital video, Bagit: Transferring Content for Digital Preservation.

Here's the description:

The Library of Congress's steadily growing digital collections arrive primarily over the network rather than on hardware media. But that data transfer can be difficult because different organizations have different policies and technologies.

The Library—with the California Digital Library and Stanford University – has developed guidelines for creating and moving standardized digital containers, called "bags." A bag functions like a physical envelope that is used to send content through the mail but with bags, a user sends content from one computer to another.

Bags have a sparse, uncomplicated structure that transcends differences in institutional data, data architecture, formats and practices. A bag's minimal but essential metadata is machine readable, which makes it easy to automate ingest of the data. Bags can be sent over computer networks or physically moved using portable storage devices.

Bags have built-in inventory checking, to help ensure that content transferred intact. Bags are flexible and can work in many different settings, including situations where the content is located in more than one place. This video describes the preparation and transfer of data over the network in bags.

“Repurposing ProQuest Metadata for Batch Ingesting ETDs into an Institutional Repository”

Shawn Averkamp and Joanna Lee have published "Repurposing ProQuest Metadata for Batch Ingesting ETDs into an Institutional Repository" in the latest issue of the Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

This article describes the workflow used by the University of Iowa Libraries to populate their institutional repository and their catalog with the data collected by ProQuest UMI Dissertation Publishing during the submission of students' theses and dissertations. Re-purposing the metadata from ProQuest allowed the University of Iowa Libraries to streamline the process for ingesting theses and dissertations into their institutional repository The article includes a discussion of the benefits and limitations of the workflow described.

Open Monograph Press to Launch During Second International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference, July 8-10

According to "Library Releasing New Publishing Tool," the Public Knowledge Project will launch its new Open Monograph Press during the Second International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference on July 8-10.

Here's an excerpt from the Open Monograph Press home page:

Open Monograph Press, a new open source publishing product under development by the Public Knowledge Project, will establish an online workspace for publishing monographs, edited volumes, and scholarly editions, while keeping an archival record of the process (compatible with the Fedora repository). . . .

The plans for OMP also include the potential for users to set up a Social Networking Incubator and Workspace system, which would enable editors to create a workspace for authors who appear to have a potential monograph project in hand, giving the author a chance to develop ideas within an invited or more open community, before moving into a formal book proposal and submission process.

This will provide author and editor with a series of tools and spaces that will allow them to see if there is a book residing within the author's article-length work, by bringing together authors and collecting pieces for engagement and response by select communities of interest or potentially by anyone interested, at the author and editor's discretion (Access Scheduler).

Google Book Search Bibliography, Version 4

Version 4 of the Google Book Search Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship.

This bibliography presents selected English-language articles and other works that are useful in understanding Google Book Search. It primarily focuses on the evolution of Google Book Search and the legal, library, and social issues associated with it. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical.

Library IT Jobs: Systems Librarian at Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital's Treadwell Library is recruiting a Systems Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (use job ID 2190657 in advanced search):

Under the general direction of the Library Director, the Systems Librarian is responsible for the overall management and support of the library's Innovative Library System and for the technical aspects of electronic resources management. In collaboration with the library's Webmaster/ System Technologist, the incumbent contributes to ongoing development and enhancement of library's web presence. The incumbent also provides Research and Reference services to library users (physicians, nurses, researchers, medical students, patients and their family members, and non-medical MGH staff) and to hospital committees or special interest groups within the wider MGH community. The incumbent serves as a member of the Treadwell Library Teaching Team.

Papers and Presentations from EPUB 2009—Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies

Papers and presentations from EPUB 2009—Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies are now available.

Here's a quick selection of papers:

Interoperable Repositories Infrastructure Project

Alma Swan has announced that, as a result of a DRIVER/JISC/SURF March workshop, plans for improving interoperability between repositories are being developed by the Interoperable Repositories Infrastructure Project in four areas: citation services, interoperable identification systems, repository handshaking (interoperable deposit systems), and repository organization (supporting repositories around the world).

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Since the workshop, teams have taken the discussions forward and are developing action plans and project proposals for each topic. Here is an update:

  1. The CITATION SERVICES team now have a draft project proposal available for community review. Please take a look at it give your comments. It is on the project wiki here: http://repinf.pbworks.com/Citation-Services-draft-project-proposal
  2. The wiki also provides an update on all four plans: the team leaders made short presentations on developments at the OAI6 conference last week and their Powerpoint files are on the wiki, along with an Update document summarising the progress and future timelines. Here are the links: Update: http://repinf.pbworks.com/Update-June-09 Powerpoints: links from the front page: http://repinf.pbworks.com/
  3. Finally, the wiki provides extensive background information on repositories in the form of Briefing Materials under a number of headings. These are presented in both text and map form on the wiki, accessible from the links on the wiki front page here: http://repinf.pbworks.com/.

University of Kansas Becomes First U.S. Public University to Pass University-Wide Open Access Policy

The University of Kansas has become the first U.S. public university to pass a university-wide open access policy. (Thanks to Open Access News.)

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Under the new faculty-initiated policy approved by Chancellor Robert Hemenway, digital copies of all articles produced by the university’s professors will be housed in KU ScholarWorks, an existing digital repository for scholarly work created by KU faculty and staff in 2005. KU ScholarWorks houses more than 4,400 articles submitted in digital formats that assure their long-term preservation.

Professors will be allowed to seek a waiver but otherwise will be asked to provide electronic forms of all articles to the repository. KU’s Faculty Senate overwhelmingly endorsed the policy at a meeting earlier this year, but additional policy details, including the waiver process, will be developed by a senate task force in the coming academic year, said Faculty Senate President Lisa Wolf-Wendel, professor of education leadership and policy studies. The task force will be led by Ada Emmett, associate librarian for scholarly communications.

"Academic publishing has become increasingly commercial and unavailable to other scholars, or to the general public, in recent years," said A. Townsend Peterson, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at KU. " This new policy offers a voluntary means of opening doors to much of KU's journal-based scholarship. This policy represents a first step towards a new means of scholarly communication, in which the entire global academic community has access to the totality of scholarship. We all can participate in the scholarly exchange that leads to new knowledge creation."

Peterson said open access policies such as KU's will bring greater visibility to the authors' work and will showcase the breadth and depth of the faculty's contributions to academic research and to the university's mission.

"Granting the university the right to deposit a copy of scholarly journal articles in an open digital repository extends the reach of the scholarship, providing the widest possible audience and increasing its possible impact," said Lorraine J. Haricombe, dean of libraries.

U.S. Dept. of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences Has Adopted Open Access Policy

In "Institute of Education Sciences Has an Open Access Policy," Stuart Shieber reports that the U.S Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences has an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from a recent EIES grant announcement, which was listed in the Federal Register on March 23, 2009:

Recipients of awards are expected to publish or otherwise make publicly available the results of the work supported through this program. Institute-funded investigators should submit final, peer-reviewed manuscripts resulting from research supported in whole or in part by the Institute to the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC, http://eric.ed.gov) upon acceptance for publication. An author's final manuscript is defined as the final version accepted for journal publication, and includes all graphics and supplemental materials that are associated with the article. The Institute will make the manuscript available to the public through ERIC no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring that any publishing or copyright agreements concerning submitted articles fully comply with this requirement.

Open Access Bill: Senators Cornyn and Lieberman Re-Introduce Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA)

U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) re-introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) today. (Thanks to Open Access News.)

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Their legislation, the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), would require every federal department and agency with an annual extramural research budget of $100 million or more to make their research available to the public within six months of publication.

"Our legislation would give the American people greater access to the important scientific research they help fund, which will accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, while also making sure that funding is being spent appropriately to ensure taxpayers are receiving a return on their research investments and they are not having to pay twice for the same research – once to conduct it, and a second time to read it. I will continue to advocate for greater transparency measures across all of our governmental departments and agencies, and I urge our Senate colleagues to support this legislation," said Sen. Cornyn.

"The United States has some of the best and brightest researchers," said Lieberman. "I continue to be impressed by their ideas and feel strongly that the American public should have access to what they discover. The internet makes it possible to provide public access to federally funded research and I am pleased to lead the effort to make this information more accessible."

Background:

Sens. Cornyn and Lieberman first introduced this legislation in the 109th Congress. In 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented their public access policy. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 papers are published each year from NIH funds.

  • Require every researcher with an annual extramural research budget of $100 million or more, whether funded totally or partially by a government department or agency, to submit an electronic copy of the final manuscript that has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
  • Ensure that the manuscript is preserved in a stable digital repository maintained by that agency or in another suitable repository that permits free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation.
  • Require that each taxpayer-funded manuscript be made available to the public online and without cost, no later than six months after the article has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

See also "Taxpayer Alliance Applauds Bill to Broaden Access to Federal Research Results."

Planning and Managing the Digitization of Library and Archive Materials: A Multi-Model Approach Presentation

John Weaver et al. have made their "Planning and Managing the Digitization of Library and Archive Materials: A Multi-Model Approach" presentation available on SlideShare.

Here's an excerpt from the transcript:

This workshop will enable you to:

  • Identify different models and methods for digitizing library and archival materials
  • Identify the relative advantages and disadvantages of these models
  • Define and evaluate a potential digitization project at your library
  • Identify key considerations in planning and funding a digitization project
  • Identify and develop management and production processes for different types of digitization projects
  • Discover additional, relevant resources for planning and managing digitization projects

Library IT Jobs: Information Technology Director at Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library is recruiting an Information Technology Director.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Information Technology Director reports to the City Librarian and plays a lead role in developing and maintaining a leading-edge technology infrastructure to ensure the success of the Library's vision and strategies. The Information Technology Director leads and participates in short-term and long-range strategic planning with the Library Leadership Team to address current and emerging service needs and develops, recommends and implements effective technological responses to those needs. The Information Technology Director directs, supervises and evaluates the activities and performance of Information Technology Division staff and vendor, project or consultant staff assigned to information technology projects or activities.