Month: December 2009

Catalyzing Collaboration: Seven New York City Libraries

OCLC Research has released Catalyzing Collaboration: Seven New York City Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This report provides a record of the collaboration discussions between seven institutions and includes the resulting interactions, methodology, content and recommendations.

The discussions were facilitated by OCLC Research Program Officers Günter Waibel and Dennis Massie. Participants in this effort agreed that the record of these interactions might be useful to other libraries that are striving to collaborate. Participating libraries, all RLG Partnership institutions, included Brooklyn Museum Library, Columbia University Libraries, Frick Art Reference Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J. Watson Library, Museum of Modern Art Library, New York Public Library and New York University Libraries.

Digitization Project Coordinator at University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries are recruiting a Digitization Project Coordinator.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries is currently engaged in three major digitization projects these include the Daily Pennsylvanian (1885 to the present), AMAR (Ancient Mesopotamian Archaeological Reports) and KDOD (Kirtas Digitize on Demand ) project. Of the three the Daily Pennsylvanian is the largest and most complex of the three. Each of these projects is based in the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image which is organizationally part of the Library's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. In the case of the AMAR project, the Digital Project Coordinator (DPC) will manage the scanning of 500 archaeological reports for which SCETI is under contract with Stony Brook University and represents holdings in multiple institutions including the University of Pennsylvania's Museum Library, the University of Chicago and the Oriental Institute (Chicago). Reporting to the Director, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, the DPC will be responsible for the daily oversight, management and operations of the three projects. Utilizing a small team of scanning technicians and related library staff, the DPC will manage workflow and assure that content is digitized according to project specifications and in a timely fashion. The DPC will also be responsible for preparing monthly reports and working with coordinating libraries or institutions. This is one year full time position with the possibility of extension. The DPC will work in close collaboration with the SCETI Project Coordinator and Scanning Supervisor.

Paul Ginsparg Gets $882,610 Grant for arXiv Enhancement

Paul Ginsparg, professor of physics and information science at Cornell University, has been awarded a $882,610 grant by the NSF for the Tools for Open Access Cyberinfrastructure project, which will enhance the popular arXiv repository. The grant was funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the grant award :

This project proposes to investigate and implement a variety of tools for enhancing the very widely used and popular Arxiv.org infrastructure, based on information filters for assisted service discovery and selection, text-mining, information genealogy, automated classification and identification of composite resources, data-mining, usage analyses, matching and ranking heuristics, support for next-generation document formats, and semantic markup.

Read more about it at "Stimulus Grant to Enhance arXiv E-Preprints for Scientists."

JISC National E-Books Observatory Project: Key Findings and Recommendations

JISC has released JISC National E-Books Observatory Project: Key Findings and Recommendations. Final Report, November 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The results of the two year project exploring the behaviours of e-book users and the impact of course text e-books on print sales are now available. The final report summarises the key findings of the project and the recommendations for future action. . . .

The final report summarises the findings and data captured through deep log analysis, focus groups, user surveys and print sales analysis. I recommend that if you wish to see more detail that you read the relevant reports and look at the original data that is also available. Please see the reports page for further information and for the individual reports.