Month: August 2009

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (8/12/09)

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 Antaeus Column: Does the 'Open Access' Advantage Exist? A Librarian's Perspective"; "Copyright Issues in the Selection of Archival Material for Internet Access"; Creating Digital Collections: A Practical Guide; "Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing"; "If You Build It, They Will Scan: Oxford University's Exploration of Community Collections"; "Measuring Mass Text Digitization Quality and Usefulness: Lessons Learned from Assessing the OCR Accuracy of the British Library's 19th Century Online Newspaper Archive"; "Overlay Journals and Data Publishing in the Meteorological Sciences"; "PLoS ONE: New Approaches and Initiatives in the Evolution of the Academic Journal"; "Research Data Preservation and Access: The Views of Researchers"; "The Return of FRPAA"; and "Scholarly Communication: ARL as a Catalyst for Change."

Office of Scholarly Communication Program Manager at Harvard

The Harvard Office of Scholarly Communication is recruiting an Office of Scholarly Communication Program Manager ("three year funded term appointment, currently in year two, with continuation subject to an annual review").

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the faculty director and working closely with HUL administration and programs, the Scholarly Communication Program Manager is responsible for aspects of program development and implementation of new initiatives relevant to open access and to the broader set of issues related to scholarly communication. The OSC Program Manager will also be responsible for conforming with HUL and University administrative policies incl. finance, human resources, and publications. S/he provides leadership in development of the Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC):

  • Works closely with the Faculty Director in the development and coordination of a program dedicated to open access for Harvard's scholarly output. At the outset, the primary focus will be on communications, consultations, and problem-solving in an effort to solicit faculty deposits of journal articles, conference proceedings and other published and unpublished research.
  • Develops effective working relationships with individuals, as designated by the faculty head, involved in the program including: FAS and HCL, Deans of the Faculties, the Office of General Counsel.
  • Monitors experience with the program to refine procedures and also the nature and frequency of consultations on policy and legal matters.
  • Coordinates, staffs, and facilitates the work of the libraries' Scholarly Communication Faculty Advisory Committee.
  • Works closely with the faculty director on policy issues.
  • Works with OIS on all aspects of the design, implementation, and maintenance of the open access repository.
  • Develops a high level of knowledge of legal and policy issues with potential to affect Harvard's program; works with colleagues in other Harvard schools regarding their programs; monitors developments in other research universities; tracks legislative developments relevant to the program.
  • Gathers and analyzes data to identify trends, problem areas, opportunities for growth; prepares periodic reports on the program; develops a plan for sustainability after the initial start-up phase of the program.
  • Supports fundraising/development efforts.
  • Act as a resource and educator to promote scholarly communication across the University:
    • Works collaboratively as directed with representatives of the faculties through their Academic Affairs Offices to increase awareness of issues relating to scholarly communication and to ensure that these deans are kept informed of the program's directions.
    • Organizes forums on open access, copyright, and scholarly communication for the Harvard community. Provide guidance to library staff regarding scholarly communication through coordinating with liaison librarians, bibliographers, and other library specialists to broaden the understanding of the program's goals. Advises faculty on procedures and options as they work with specific publishers; communicates with publishers and others regarding Harvard policies.

Plugins to Import E-Print Metadata from arXiv into an EPrints Repository

The IncReASe (Increasing Repository Content through Automation and Services) project has released four plugins to facilitate importing e-print metadata from arXiv into an EPrints repository.

Here's an excerpt from the plugins' Web page:

Potentially, content in arXiv could provide a "quick win" for repository population. No arXiv depositor we have talked to date has objected to our importing their work into WRRO [White Rose Research Online]. From discussions with arXiv users, we are assuming that local deposit in WRRO with a "push" of data to arXiv may be difficult to achieve—we'd need to demonstrate some clear benefit to the depositor. arXiv serves its community well. A more likely model may be that arXiv users continue to deposit as now but IRs "harvest" data from arXiv (or perhaps arXiv will develop a facility to push material into local IRs).

ILS and Discovery Systems Specialist at New York University

The New York University Libraries are recruiting an ILS and Discovery Systems Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The NYU's Division of Libraries seeks the ideal candidate for the ILS and Discovery Systems Specialist position. This position will play a lead role in implementing new technologies for both inventory control and discovery systems. The selected candidate will collaborate with the Metadata Services Librarian, Web Development team and Database Administrator to develop workflow and criteria for importing and exporting data and metadata to/from various systems including the Integrated Library System (ILS), web-based discovery system, federated search tool and open URL resolver. This newly created position plays an integral role in supporting both virtual and physical access to the Libraries collections, irrespective of format or location. This position reports to the Metadata Services Librarian Initially, the position will be focused on stabilizing and optimizing the ILS environment. The successful candidate will perform data analysis on metadata record structures in various applications, databases and external formats, including ExLibris and III catalogs, federated search tools, DSpace, Luna, ARTstor, SOLR, flat files (.txt, .xml, .csv), spreadsheets, Archivists Toolkit, etc. as well as design and implement routines, scripts and methods for record extraction and transformation into various output formats (MARC, XML, .txt, etc.).

Pamela Samuelson on "The Audacity of the Google Book Search Settlement"

In "The Audacity of the Google Book Search Settlement," noted copyright expert Pamela Samuelson examines the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt:

However, much larger questions call into question whether the settlement should be approved. One is whether the Authors Guild and AAP fairly represented the interests of all authors and publishers of in-copyright books during the negotiations that led up to the settlement agreement. A second is whether going forward, they and the newly created Registry to which they will give birth will fairly represent the interests of those on whose behalf the Registry will be receiving revenues from Google.

Digital Preservation: Repository of Authentic Digital Objects Source Code Released

The National Archive Institute of Portugal has released the Repository of Authentic Digital Objects source code.

RODA works in conjunction with the Fedora (Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture) software.

Read more about it at "RODA—A Service-Oriented Repository to Preserve Authentic Digital Objects" and "Source Code Available from RODA 'Repository of Authentic Digital Objects'" (includes a QuickTime video about RODA).

Now Available from Amazon.com: Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition is now available from Amazon.com as a 372-page, 6" by 9" paperback book on white paper (ISBN: 1448624908, EAN: 139781448624904).

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.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition

The bibliography is also available from CreateSpace (identical to the Amazon.com edition) and Lulu (same page length and size, but it is printed on cream paper and it does not have an ISBN or EAN.)

Associate Dean of Libraries for Technical & Automated Services at Adelphi University

The Adelphi University are recruiting an Associate Dean of Libraries for Technical & Automated Services.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Dean of Libraries, the Associate Dean for Technical and Automated Services provides leadership and administrative responsibility for Acquisitions, Cataloging, Serials, Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery, and Systems operations including digital initiatives. As a member of the Libraries’ senior administrative team, the incumbent participates in a wide range of administrative activities and works closely with the Associate Dean for Public and Administrative Services in budgeting, personnel, and other administrative areas. Supervises approximately 20 full and part-time library faculty and staff in a collaborative environment.

Blog Report on Beyond the Fringe: Repository Fringe 2009

The DataShare blog has been posting summaries of the Beyond the Fringe: Repository Fringe 2009 sessions.

Systems Integration Librarian at the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources is recruiting a Systems Integration Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The State Library of North Carolina seeks an enthusiastic, innovative, & outgoing Systems Integration Librarian to serve as an integral member of the Digital Information Management Program (DIMP) team. The DIMP works to ensure preservation & permanent public access to digital information produced by N.C. state government. The position explores, adapts, & implements emerging technologies in support of the Library s digital collections & preservation initiatives. Using a combination of XML, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, & PHP (or additional programming languages), will manage the Library s hosted instance of CONTENTdm & affiliated websites, & will investigate, develop, & incorporate Web 2. 0 applications, such as RSS feeds & improved search mechanisms to support specialized digitization & digital preservation projects; responsible for file & directory management on a hosted server system, including data loads to and from local servers; Manages web statistics & related data analysis tools & metadata ingest & sharing (including Dublin Core, METS, OAI, & MARC-based XML).

ACRL, ALA, ARL Submit Letter to Justice's Antitrust Division about Google Book Search Settlement

ACRL, ALA, ARL have submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division about the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the press release :

The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) sent a letter to William Cavanaugh, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division yesterday, requesting the Division to advise the court presiding over the Google Book Settlement to supervise the implementation of the settlement closely, particularly the pricing of institutional subscriptions and the selection of the Book Rights Registry board members.

The letter, which was sent following a meeting the library groups had with the Antitrust Division, also recommended that the Division itself actively monitor the parties' compliance with the settlement's provisions.

In particular, the library groups urged the Division to ask the court to review pricing of institutional subscriptions whenever the Division concludes that the prices do not meet the economic objectives set forth in the settlement. In order to evaluate the price of an institutional subscription, the groups believe the Division should have access to all relevant price information from Google and the Registry.

The library associations assert that the Division should ask the court to review any refusal by the Registry to license copyrights in books on the same terms available to Google and to also review the selection process for the Registry Board to ensure the interests of all rightsholders are considered.

Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009

Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) have introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"The Internet is a success today because it was open to everyone with an idea," said Rep. Markey. "That openness and freedom has been at risk since the Supreme Court decision in Brand X. This bill will protect consumers and content providers because it will restore the guarantee that one does not have to ask permission to innovate."

"The Internet has thrived and revolutionized business and the economy precisely because it started as an open technology," Rep. Eshoo said. "This bill will ensure that the non-discriminatory framework that allows the Internet to thrive and competition on the Web to flourish is preserved at a time when our economy needs it the most."

H.R. 3458, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, is designed to assess and promote Internet freedom for consumers and content providers. The bill will also require the FCC to examine whether carriers are blocking access to lawful content, applications, or services. The legislation calls for the FCC to conduct eight public broadband summits around the country no less than a year after the bill is enacted. These summits will be used to gather input from consumers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders on Internet freedom and U.S. broadband policies affecting consumer protection, competition, and consumer choice.

Here's an excerpt from the "Public Knowledge Hails Internet Freedom Preservation Act":

[Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge] "The requirements in the bill are very straightforward. In essence, the bill would return non-discrimination to communications law, preventing Internet service providers (ISPs), such as telephone and cable companies, from interfering in that end-to-end relationship. The requirements would curb the ability of ISPs from using the claim of network management to impose their own priorities on data traffic, based on financial arrangements or other considerations."