Year: 2009

Wolters Kluwer 2009 First-Quarter Update

Wolters Kluwer released its "Wolters Kluwer 2009 First-Quarter Scheduled Trading Update."

Here's an excerpt:

The company continues to see resilience in its first-quarter profitability despite challenging economic conditions in North America and Europe which have impacted the buying decisions of our professional customers. Regardless of these challenges, the professionals we serve continued to demand new and innovative solutions to improve their productivity. We continued to address these needs and as a result revenues from online and software solutions exceeded 50% of total revenues in the quarter. Retention rates on subscription products were largely in line with the prior year, while new subscription sales and sales on transactional products were weak as anticipated at the beginning of the year and from delayed customer purchase decisions. Despite these conditions, the ordinary EBITA margin [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization margin] in the first quarter was in line with the prior year due to earlier cost containment actions, the continued migration of revenues from print to electronic products, the benefits of the Springboard operational excellence program and the contribution of higher margin acquisitions completed in the prior year. First-quarter cash flow was in line with expectations, and integration of prior year acquisitions is on track. The resilient portfolio and strong cash generation continue to support a solid financial position.

DigitalKoans

Library IT Jobs: Web Services Librarian at Tulane University

The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University is recruiting a Web Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Web Services Librarian is an innovative and service-oriented librarian who takes overall responsibility for the Library’s main website, including oversight of content and design; plans future redesigns and innovations to the site; engages in usability testing and other assessments of the website; and coordinates and facilitates the development of access to web content and services from library departments. The librarian works closely with a Web Steering Committee comprised of representatives from units around the library, and supervises a full-time web programmer. This librarian also coordinates digitization projects library-wide, setting standards for the creation of content and metadata, and represents the library to other groups around campus and the region engaged in the creation of digital collections. Reporting to the Director of Public Services, the librarian shares reference duties with other librarians and participates in the library’s instruction program. The librarian may also participate in collection development.

DigitalKoans

European Parliament Vote Requires Judicial Ruling Before Alleged Internet Copyright Violators Can Be Disconnected

The European Parliament has approved an amendment to its Telecoms Package that requires a judicial ruling before alleged Internet copyright violators can be disconnected from the network.

Here's the amendment:

No restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, save when public security is threatened in which case the ruling may be subsequent.

Read more about it at "Euro-MPs Stick to Their Guns on Three-Strikes Court Permission," "European Parliament Smacks Down France on Three Strikes Law," and "European Parliament Votes in Favour of Internet Freedom."

DigitalKoans

Library IT Jobs: Library Technology Management and Services Librarian at Texas Tech University

The Texas Tech University Libraries are recruiting a Library Technology Management and Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Exemplifies collaborative, productive, and results-oriented work performance, attitude, and ethics with minimal supervision in a team-oriented environment. Conducts library technology research, enabling interpretive development and evolution of library technology services, resources, and processes. Plans, collaborates, and otherwise participates in LTMS faculty outreach activities to develop beneficial technology partnerships. Collaborates with the Library Communications and Marketing Office and the LTMS Teams on Library technology marketing initiatives, programs, and associated activities. Serves as a member on (or as a technology resource to) library committees, teams, and task forces as appropriate. Supports, sustains, and interdependently fulfills the LTMS Research and Development (R&D) Team Charge. May provide up to 5% of working time in a tier 3 consulting role toward day-to-day support and maintenance of technology systems and services. May serve as a mentor, coach, trainer, or instructor within the University Library or the LTMS department. May serve, in a rotational manner, as the Lead of the R&D Team. Serves the University Library Mission, Vision, and Values in alignment with the Library Strategic Plan. Follows established University policies and procedures. Reports to the R&D Team Lead. Supports and sustains the Library’s administrative leadership.

DigitalKoans

Informed P2P User Act Hearing

On 3/5/2009, Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) introduced the Informed P2P User Act. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on the bill today.

Here's an excerpt from Marc Rotenberg's testimony (Rotenberg is the Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center):

In the consideration of this bill, it is important to understand that P2P programs are used for a wide variety of function from the sharing of music to Internet-based telephony as well as scientific research. Even the military makes use of P2P networks. The technique is also important in countries where Internet censorship is a threat.

In the most generic sense, a P2P network is a technical description, much like saying a telephone network or the Internet. It is no intrinsic application, other than architecture that allows nodes to exchange information equally with other nodes in the network. Some Internet scholars have observed that this architecture reflects the collaboration among individuals that has helped spur the growth of the Internet. Professor Yochai Benkler refers to this as "Commons Based Peer Production."

No doubt part of the bill aims to discourage the use of file sharing techniques that may infringe copyright as well as making users vulnerable to certain types of inadvertent file sharing. But there is some risk that the bill would also discourage the use of file sharing techniques that do not raise such concerns. More generally, it appears to be posting a warning sign on a very wide variety of applications that most likely have little to do with the sponsor’s concern.

Read more about it at "H.R. 1319 Wants You to Know When You're Sharing Files, but Will Drown You in Pop-Ups" and "P2P Bill Could Regulate Web Browsers, FTP Clients."

DigitalKoans

Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Draft for Review

A near-final draft of the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) has been made available for error-checking review.

Here's an excerpt:

This document is a technical Recommendation for use in developing a broader consensus on what is required for an archive to provide permanent, or indefinite long-term, preservation of digital information.

This Recommendation establishes a common framework of terms and concepts which comprise an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). It allows existing and future archives to be more meaningfully compared and contrasted. It provides a basis for further standardization within an archival context and it should promote greater vendor awareness of, and support of, archival requirements.

DigitalKoans

JISC Project: Lifespan Initiative for the Research and Data Archive Repository

JISC's Lifespan Initiative for the Research and Data Archive Repository project started on 4/1/09.

Here's an excerpt from the project Web page:

The Lifespan Collection (www.lifespancollection.org.uk) represents an existing and unique research data set, which includes around 3,400 hours of audio-taped interviews, scorings and quantitative computerised data, capturing the lifetime experience of over 500 individuals. The outcomes of this project will be presented in terms of both a report on the processes and best-practice solutions for preserving and digitalising the data, including the creation of processes of submission of, and accessibility to, current and future critical datasets that ensure compliance with data security, copyright legislation, licensing, and associated audit functions. One or more detailed case studies will be produced that will not only inform the future development of this project but will act as illustrative examples for use by other similar start-up projects. This will lay the ground work for an exemplar implementation of the tools and solutions already delivered by JISC and other institutions.

DigitalKoans

OAI-PMH: MOAI Server 1.0 Released

Infrae has released the MOAI Server 1.0, an open source OAI-PMH application.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

MOAI is an open access server platform for institutional repositories. The server aggregates content from disparate sources, transforms it, stores it in a database, and (re)publishes the content, in one or many OAI feeds. Each feed has its own configuration.

The server has a flexible system for combining records into sets and uses these sets in the feed configuration. MOAI also comes with a simple yet flexible authentication scheme that can easily be customized. Besides providing authentication for the feeds, the authentication also controls access to the assets.

MOAI is a standalone system that can be used in combination with any repository software that comes with an OAI feed such as Fedora Commons, EPrints or DSpace. It can also be used directly with an SQL database or just a folder of XML file. . . .

MOAI has the ability to:

  • Harvest data from different kinds of sources
  • Serve many OAI feeds from one MOAI Server, each with their own configuration
  • Turn metadata values into OAI sets on the fly, creating new collections
  • Use OAI sets to filter records shown in a feed, configurable for each feed
  • Work easily with relational data (e.g. if an author changes, the publication should also change)
  • Provide simple and robust authentication through integration with the Apache webserver
  • Serve assets through Apache while still using configurable authentication rules

DigitalKoans

University of Calgary Becomes Beta Development Partner for Summon Unified Discovery Service

The University of Calgary has become a beta development partner for Serials Solutions' Summon unified discovery service.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest, has added University of Calgary as a beta development partner for the Summon™ unified discovery service. A variety of new content providers, including BMJ, an international peer-reviewed medical journal and subsidiary of the British Medical Association have also signed onto the Summon™ service. BMJ joins nearly 100 content providers along with key partners ProQuest and Gale–aggregators representing more than 4,700 publishers.

The Summon™ service is a pioneer in creating Google-like searching of the full breadth of content found in library collections. In the case of University of Calgary, library archives and museum collections will be integrated too, enabling users to find books and videos, e-resources at the article level, as well as manuscripts and artifacts, all from a simple, obvious starting point.

"We are a unique cultural institution supporting research, a museum, a university press, along with archives and special collections," said Tom Hickerson, Vice Provost and University Librarian, Libraries and Cultural Resources, at University of Calgary. "We've been actively searching for ways to provide integrated access to the diversity of our resources, enhancing discovery of an entirely new spectrum of information. I'm optimistic that the Summon service is the mechanism that can do that."

The goal of the Summon™ service is to not only bring the user back to the library as the starting place for research, but to also provide a channel for greater return on the library's content investment. The role of the beta partners is to ensure the service is tracking against those goals, providing feedback from the field. University of Calgary librarians, archivists and curators will initially test and use the Summon™ service. Then, they will move it to an open beta in May, getting feedback from faculty and student users. Other partners who are already testing include Dartmouth College, Oklahoma State University, University of Sydney, University of Liverpool and Western Michigan University

DigitalKoans

Library of Congress Makes ID.LOC.GOV Authorities and Vocabularies Service Publicly Available

The Library of Congress has made its ID.LOC.GOV authorities and vocabularies service publicly available.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Library of Congress has opened its ID.LOC.GOV web service, Authorities and Vocabularies, with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) as the initial offering. The primary goal of this service is to enable machines to programmatically access data at the Library of Congress but the web interface also provides simple user access. We view this service as a step toward exposing and interconnecting vocabulary and thesaurus data via URLs. For LCSH, we are fortunate to have been able to link terms to a similar service provided in Europe for RAMEAU, a French subject heading vocabulary closely coordinated with LCSH.

DigitalKoans

Preprint: “Where There’s a Will There’s a Way?: Survey of Academic Librarian Attitudes about Open Access”

College & Research Libraries has made a preprint of "Where There’s a Will There’s a Way?: Survey of Academic Librarian Attitudes about Open Access" available. (C&RL preprints are only available prior to publication.)

Here's an excerpt:

Academic libraries are becoming increasingly involved in scholarly communication through work with institutional repositories and other open access models. While academic librarians are being encouraged to promote these new models, their opinions about open access have not been documented. This article reports on the results of a national survey conducted in the summer of 2006 of academic librarians' attitudes toward open access principles and related behaviors. While attitude responses were largely positive, there were differences in levels of support related to respondents' job descriptions and funding of open access activities. Surveyed librarians appear to be more comfortable with tasks that translate traditionally held responsibilities, such as educating others, to the open access environment. Most significant is the discrepancy between stated support of library involvement in open access initiatives and significantly lacking action toward this end. The results offer insight into how open access proponents may better focus their advocacy efforts.

DigitalKoans

Digital Videos from Columbia’s Scholarly Communication Program’s Research without Borders 2008-2009 Program

A complete set of digital videos from Columbia University's Scholarly Communication Program's "Research without Borders" 2008-2009 program is now available.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The inaugural year of Research without Borders featured speakers at the forefront of the open access movement as well as experts in scholarly publishing, information policy, and copyright law. Harvard Professor Stuart Shieber kicked off the series in the fall semester, tracing the development of Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Open Access Policy. The second panel, with Marian Hollingsworth from Thomson Reuters, Jevin West of Eigenfactor.org, and Johan Bollen of the MESUR project, debated the controversial Impact Factor, a metric of scholarly journals' prominence. Helen Tartar and Sanford Thatcher, leaders of Fordham and Penn State University Presses, respectively, joined Columbia Libraries' Ree DeDonato for the third event, which focused on the future of scholarly monographs.

The spring semester opened with a discussion on the benefits of open science with Bora Zivkovic of the Public Library of Science, Jean-Claude Bradley of Drexel University, and Barry Canton of OpenWetWare and Ginkgo BioWorks. In March, UCLA's Christine Borgman, author of Scholarship in the Digital Age (2007), spoke to a packed room on information infrastructure and policy. The final event explored the implications of copyright trends for research, featuring SPARC's Heather Joseph, Michael Carroll of Washington Law School at American University, and Kenneth Crews of the Columbia University Copyright Advisory Office.

The Research Without Borders series will continue in the 2009-10 academic year with six new events on topics including scholarly blogging, open data, and open-access business models. Stay connected to the Program by following ScholarlyComm at http://twitter.com/ScholarlyComm, by joining the Scholarly Communication Program Facebook group, and through the iTunesU page. For more information on the Program and the series, please email Kathryn Pope at kp2002@columbia.edu, or visit http://scholcomm.columbia.edu.

DigitalKoans

African Journals Online Migrates to Open Journal Systems Platform

African Journals Online has migrated all of its journals to Open Journal Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

At 346 journals from 26 countries, AJOL is the world’s largest online collection of African journals, but until now, has included only tables of content, abstracts, and journal information on the website. As of the beginning of May, 60% of the 40,000 plus articles on AJOL will be available for immediate download. By the end of 2009, AJOL aims to have 100% of its growing collection fully full-text online.

The updated site and the new functionality are possible due to a close collaboration between AJOL and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), developers of Open Journal Systems (OJS)—the open source software which powers the AJOL service. AJOL is also supported by its donor partners, INASP and the Ford Foundation.

AJOL receives an average of 60,000 visits per month, 30% of which are from the African continent and over 15% from other parts of the developing world. The global researcher community and the authors and institutions whose work is published in the portal benefit from this increased access and visibility of African knowledge provided by AJOL. The new portal helps AJOL achieve its greater goal of shifting global flows of scholarly information, so that the importance of research published from the global south is more equitably represented.

AJOL allows for both Subscription-based and Open Access journals to be hosted for free on the site, with article downloads to toll journals being processed by AJOL and income sent on to the originating journals, less AJOL cost-recovery. In the future, AJOL will begin providing access to journal management functions of OJS to its partner Open Access journals, as a way to improve editorial quality and lower production costs.

DigitalKoans

ACRL, ALA, and ARL File Comments about Google Book Search Settlement

The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries have filed comments with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York regarding the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Representing over 139,000 libraries and 350,000 librarians, the associations filed the brief as members of the plaintiff class because they are both authors and publishers of books. The associations asserted that although the settlement has the potential to provide public access to millions of books, many of the features of the settlement, including the absence of competition for the new services, could compromise fundamental library values including equity of access to information, patron privacy, and intellectual freedom. The court can mitigate these possible negative effects by regulating the conduct of Google and the Book Rights Registry the settlement establishes.

"While this settlement agreement could provide unprecedented access to a digital library of millions of books, we are concerned that the cost of an institutional subscription may skyrocket, as academic journal subscriptions have over the past two decades," Erika Linke, President of ACRL, said. . . .

Jim Rettig, President of ALA, said the proposed settlement "offers no assurances that the privacy of what the public accessed will be protected, which is in stark contrast to the long-standing patron privacy rights libraries champion on behalf of the public."

DigitalKoans

Paperback Version: Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition

Digital Scholarship has published the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. as a paperback book. The paperback book is available from Lulu for $40. It is 231 pages long, 8.5" x 11", and has perfect binding. The book is under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

SEP [Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography] is compiled with utter professionalism. It reminds me of the work of the best artisans who know not only every item that leaves their workshops, but each component used to create them—providing the ideal quality control. . . . The selection of items is impeccable. I have yet to find journal articles irrelevant to the scope of the bibliography. SEP could be used as a benchmark in evaluating abstracting/indexing databases that proudly claim to have coverage of electronic publishing, but do not come close to SEP." Jacsó, Péter. "Peter's Picks & Pans." ONLINE 27, no. 3 (2003): 73-76. (Full review)

Digital Scholarship receives about $25 per copy from the sale of the book, which helps subsidize the continued publication of the freely available digital versions of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography and other Digital Scholarship publications. At present, Digital Scholarship does not carry external advertising or receive any other kind of external support. Between 4/20/05 and 4/30/09, Digital Scholarship received over 19 million file requests from over 3.9 million visitors from 220 countries.

book cover

DigitalKoans

Peter Suber Receives Joint Fellowship at Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the Harvard Law School Library

Congratulations to Peter Suber, who has received a Berkman Center for Internet & Society joint fellowship at the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the Harvard Law School Library. He will "be focusing on Open Access documentation efforts, as well as outreach around Open Access, across Harvard and beyond."

In his advocacy efforts for the open access movement, Suber has been a tireless speaker and a prolific author, noted for his exceptionally lucid, insightful, and well-reasoned commentary.

Here's an excerpt from Stevan Harnad's "Peter Suber Appointed Berkman Fellow at Harvard" post:

A brilliant choice, and eminently well-deserved. Peter—whose historic contributions to the growth of OA have been spectacularly successful—will continue his invaluable OA work, but this Fellowship will also make it possible for him to begin writing the books on OA and related matters that are welling up in him, and that the world scholarly and scientific research community (as well as the historians of knowledge) are eagerly waiting to read, digest and learn from for years to come.

DigitalKoans

NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium Releases Budget Crisis Letter to Publishers

The NorthEast Research Libraries consortium has released a letter to publishers about the current collection development budget crisis its members face.

Here's an excerpt from the letter:

Financial officers in NERL institutions have been given–and shared with NERL–quite specific targets for budget discipline for the next 2 or more years. For example, in NERL's home institution, Yale University, reductions in our collections budget for FY 2009-2010 will be on the order of 10%, with a likely additional 5% already mandated for 2010-2011. Similar stories are told on many sides, with some of the heaviest impacts on the institutions among us that are the largest and have been the beneficiaries of important university endowments. Average actual dollar cuts across the NERL consortium are in the range of (minus) 4-5%, which we currently estimate as impacting overall buying power against normal increases on the order of (minus) 8-10%. . . .

Our goal with you and other information providers similarly placed is to find ways to achieve net price reductions in both next year and the year after. We hope to do this strategically and in partnership with you, in a way that allows us to stabilize a new working relationship on which to build in the years to follow. With some imagination and creativity, we hope we can strike new pricing models, or perhaps a menu of such models, which will enable institutions to do best by their faculty and students.

I hope and expect that we can do this thoughtfully, collegially, and in a spirit of mutual understanding and respect, realizing that the structural adjustments of these coming two years will impact and reduce permanently our ability to purchase content at pre-2008-09 levels.

DigitalKoans

Digital Library Jobs: Digital Projects Specialist at University of California at Irvine

The University of California at Irvine Libraries are recruiting a Digital Projects Specialist (one-year appointment).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The UCI Libraries seek an experienced professional in the field of digital project management to support the Libraries' digital services. This is a temporary one-year appointment. The incumbent will explore, adapt, and support library information technologies for digital projects, including the application of standards, metadata, discovery interfaces, workflow design, production coordination, and quality controls appropriate to specific projects. Reporting to the Head of Information Technology, the successful candidate will work collaboratively with a variety of Libraries' staff involved in digital preservation, management, and scholarship.

DigitalKoans

OCLC Releases Networking Names Report

OCLC has released the Networking Names report.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This report identifies the necessary components of a "Cooperative Identities Hub" that would address the problem space in the research community and have the most impact across different target audiences.

The fifteen members of the RLG Partnership Networking Names Advisory Group developed fourteen use case scenarios around academic libraries and scholars, archivists and archival users, and institutional repositories that provide the context in which different communities would benefit from aggregating information about persons and organizations, corporate and government bodies, and families, and making it available on a network level.

The report summarizes the group's recommendations on the functions and attributes needed to support the use case scenarios.

DigitalKoans

Library IT Jobs: Lead Information Technology Specialist at Library Of Congress

The Library Of Congress is recruiting a Lead Information Technology Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Lead IT Specialist (Application Development and Infrastructure) is responsible for application design and configuration, testing, writing documentation of application and functions and making recommendations for purchases of specialized hardware and associated software as needed, as related to web site content that conforms to W3C and Section 508 accessibility standards. Additional responsibilities include troubleshooting and development of new code and the maintenance of existing web site content.

DigitalKoans

Digital Video: Know Your Rights: Who Really Owns Your Scholarly Works?

The Scholarly Communication Program at Columbia University Libraries/Information Services has released Know Your Rights: Who Really Owns Your Scholarly Works? (Thanks to Digital & Scholarly.)

Here's the announcement:

In this panel discussion, experts on copyright law and scholarly publishing discuss how scholars and researchers can take full advantage of opportunities afforded by digital technology in today's legal environment, and suggest ways to advocate for positive change. The panelists are Heather Joseph, who has been Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC); Michael Carroll, Visiting Professor of Law at American University's Washington College of Law and a founding member of the Board of Directors of Creative Commons; and Director of the Columbia University Copyright Advisory Office Kenneth Crews, whose research focuses on copyright issues, particularly as they relate to the needs of scholarship at the university.

DigitalKoans