Month: April 2010

Last Week’s DigitalKoans Tweets 2010-04-27

Official ACTA Draft Text to Be Made Public on April 21st

The Office of the United States Trade Representative has announced that the draft text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will be made public on 4/21/10.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The 8th round of negotiations on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was held in Wellington, New Zealand from 12-16 April 2010, hosted by New Zealand. Participants were welcomed by New Zealand's Minister of Trade Hon Tim Groser at a function attended by a wide range of stakeholders with an interest in the ACTA negotiations.

Participants in the negotiations included Australia, Canada, the European Union, represented by the European Commission, the EU Presidency (Spain) and EU Member States, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States of America. . . .

Overall, therefore, there was a general sense from this session that negotiations have now advanced to a point where making a draft text available to the public will help the process of reaching a final agreement. For that reason, and based on the specific momentum coming out of this meeting, participants have reached unanimous agreement that the time is right for making available to the public the consolidated text coming out of these discussions, which will reflect the substantial progress made at this round.

It is intended to release this on Wednesday 21 April.

In agreeing to release publicly this draft text in the particular circumstances of this negotiation, participants reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of their respective positions in trade negotiations.

ACTA will not interfere with a signatory's ability to respect its citizens' fundamental rights and liberties, and will be consistent with the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and will respect the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.

There is no proposal to oblige ACTA participants to require border authorities to search travellers' baggage or their personal electronic devices for infringing materials. In addition, ACTA will not address the cross-border transit of legitimate generic medicines.

While the participants recognise the importance of responding effectively to the challenge of Internet piracy, they confirmed that no participant is proposing to require governments to mandate a "graduated response" or "three strikes" approach to copyright infringement on the Internet.

Digital Collections Coordinator at University of Texas at Austin

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin is recruiting a Digital Collections Coordinator. Salary: $4,583 per month, negotiable. (Ends 2015, with the possibility of extension.)

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The coordinator will develop best practices for the preservation and management of digital collections; collaborate with Ransom Center staff on the acquisition, preservation, description, access and exhibition of digital collections; and direct the development of a digital preservation program. . . .

Work with administrative staff to establish goals and priorities, identify objectives, and coordinate and monitor projects related to these assets; Develop and oversee maintenance of a digital assets management system (DAMS) as an integral part of the research, teaching, and learning mission of the Center Work with archivists to develop best practices to access, preserve, describe, and interpret digital materials; Work with staff library-wide to continue development of best practices for digitization, metadata creation, online access, digital repositories, and digital preservation; Participate in the development of online exhibitions and digital collections; Attend conferences and meetings devoted to emerging technologies; work with counterparts at the UT Libraries and other campus agencies and with library, archive and museum managers worldwide in developing best practices for the preservation and management of digital collections. Identify grant opportunities and work with development staff to create proposals in support of digital collections and continuing funding for the position;

Digital Video of “Skills for the Future: Educational Opportunities for Library and Museum” Session

A digital video of the “Skills for the Future: Educational Opportunities for Library and Museum” session of the Webwise 2010 conference is now available.

Panelists included Peter Botticelli, University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science; Phyllis Hecht, Johns Hopkins University Museum Studies Program; Helen Tibbo, University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science; and Bill Veillette, Northeast Document Conservation Center.

Project Manager, Digital Lab at Harvard

The Harvard Law Library is recruiting a Project Manager, Digital Lab.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Harvard Law Library is seeking an energetic and creative person to serve as Project Manager in our newly created Digital Lab. The Digital Lab is the Library's focal point for a wide range of activities including digitizing materials from the Library's collection, preserving born digital materials acquired by the Library or produced by the Law School, curating and exhibiting digital collections, and developing internet tools and new applications to promote and enhance access to legal and other information.

Reporting to the Associate Director for Collection Development and Digitization, the Project Manager, Digital Lab serves as chair of the Digital Stewardship team and chief curator for digital projects; coordinates the selection of materials for digitization projects; designs and coordinates production workflows for digitization and metadata application for both internal and external projects; serves as chief liaison to the Library's Historical and Special Collections unit to ensure proper care and curation of selected materials for digitization; advises on pre-digitization issues including arrangement, description, copyright assessment, and metadata strategies; oversees project timelines and budgets of all digitization projects; manages the operation of the Library's in-house digital production center; purchases, maintains and upgrades digitization hardware and software; oversees quality assurance of digital output; develops and implements policies and prodedures for the Library's digitization activities; develops and/or coordinates usability studies related to digital collections; coordinates strategies for publicity and dissemination of digital collections; identifies digital storage needs and recommends storage medium; provides written progress reports on digitization projects; maintains documentation of training, policies, procedures and guidelines.

Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010 (FRPAA) Introduced in House of Representatives

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and a bi-partisan host of co-sponsors (Rep. Rick Boucher, Rep. Gregg Harper, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Rep. Henry A. Waxman) have introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010 (H.R. 5037) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Here's an excerpt from the Alliance For Taxpayer Access press release:

The proposed bill would build on the success of the first U.S. mandate for public access to the published results of publicly funded research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and require federal agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from funded research no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. . . .

Like the Senate bill introduced in 2009 by Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Cornyn (R-TX), H.R. 5037 would unlock 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.

H.R. 5037 follows closely on the heels of a recent expression of interest in public access policies from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which issued a request for public comment on mechanisms that would leverage federal investments in scientific research and increase access to information that promises to stimulate scientific and technological innovation and competitiveness.

The Alliance For Taxpayer Access issued a call to action regarding the bill. Here's an excerpt:

Here's how you can help support this legislation:

  1. Send thanks to the Bill's sponsors, also through the ATA Action Center.
  2. Ask your representatives in Congress to co-sponsor H.R.5037 or S.1373. Act now through the ATA Legislative Action Center.
  3. Express your organization's support to Congress for public access to taxpayer-funded research and for this bill. Send a copy of your letter to sparc [at] arl [dot] org.
  4. 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.
  5. Share news about this bill with friends and colleagues.
  6. Post the "I support taxpayer access" banner on your Web site.
  7. See the ATA Web site at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa for more ways you can support public access to publicly funded research and this bill.

Last Week’s DigitalKoans Tweets 2010-04-18

"BioTorrents: A File Sharing Service for Scientific Data"

Morgan G. I. Langille and Jonathan A. Eisen have published "BioTorrents: A File Sharing Service for Scientific Data" in PLoS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

The transfer of scientific data has emerged as a significant challenge, as datasets continue to grow in size and demand for open access sharing increases. Current methods for file transfer do not scale well for large files and can cause long transfer times. In this study we present BioTorrents, a website that allows open access sharing of scientific data and uses the popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing technology. BioTorrents allows files to be transferred rapidly due to the sharing of bandwidth across multiple institutions and provides more reliable file transfers due to the built-in error checking of the file sharing technology. BioTorrents contains multiple features, including keyword searching, category browsing, RSS feeds, torrent comments, and a discussion forum. BioTorrents is available at http://www.biotorrents.net.

Lawrence Lessig: "Getting Our Values around Copyright Right"

Lawrence Lessig has published "Getting Our Values around Copyright Right" in the latest issue of EDUCAUSE Review.

Here's an excerpt:

The existing system of copyright cannot work in the digital age. Either we will force our kids to stop creating, or they will force on us a revolution. Both options, in my view, are not acceptable. There is a growing copyright abolitionist movement—people who believe that copyright was a good idea for a time long gone and that we need to eliminate it and move on in a world where there is no copyright. I am against abolitionism. I believe copyright is an essential part of the cultural industries and will be essential in the digital age—even though I also believe it needs to be radically changed in all sorts of important ways and doesn't apply the same in science and in education. Copyright is essential to a diverse and rich (in all senses of that word) culture.

Programmer/Analyst (Software Developer) at Penn State

Digital Library Technologies at the Pennsylvania State University is recruiting a Programmer/Analyst (Software Developer).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Digital Library Technologies, a unit of Information Technology Services at The Pennsylvania State University, has a vacancy for a software developer. The software developer will participate in the development and integration of software and web applications for an institutional content stewardship program, working collaboratively with content curators and fellow technologists. Successful candidates will be expected to: share advancements in standards, software development practices, and IT trends; constantly refine their skill set; and apply new knowledge and techniques. This is an opportunity to work with an innovative unit on building a sustainable, enterprise-level content stewardship program at a large, multi-campus institution recognized for its commitment to excellence.

Digital Services Library Associate at New York School of Interior Design

The New York School of Interior Design is recruiting a Digital Services Library Associate.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The New York School of Interior Design (NYSID), the only institution of higher learning in New York devoted exclusively to the design of the interior environment, seeks an individual to support the technology infrastructure of the library, liaise directly with IT and academic computing, and assist faculty with digital images for teaching, as well as other technology needs.

Duties:

  • Manage digital assets for the library, including images, archival collections, and electronic theses
  • Work directly with faculty to help them create, manage and use digital assets in teaching
  • Work closely with librarians to continuously update and keep library website design relevant and uniform in appearance across all platforms, including online resource subject guides and a library blog
  • Responsible for basic website development
  • Work with library staff to create and edit video tutorials for students and faculty
  • Manage electronic resources including indexes and full text databases to ensure off-campus access

"Seeking the New Normal: Periodicals Price Survey 2010"

Kittie S. Henderson & Stephen Bosch have published "Seeking the New Normal: Periodicals Price Survey 2010" in Library Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

A number of publishers upped prices for 2010. Springer announced a five percent increase. Elsevier price increases are also in the five percent range, with the notable exception of The Lancet. The 2010 price for The Lancet jumped nine percent over 2009 levels; that increase was still smaller than in previous years. In October, the library world reeled as Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announced a 640 percent price increase (from $39.95 in 2009 to $299 in 2010) for a print subscription to Scientific American. The cost for the digital site license also rose substantially, and a number of consortia, like the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) and the Oberlin Group, refused to renew. The announcement came only weeks after NPG bought the magazine.

Europeana Publishes Public Domain Charter

The Europeana Foundation, the governing body of the Europeana service, has published its Public Domain Charter. The Europeana beta currently links users to around 6 million digital objects. About 10 million digital objects are expected to be available this year, when version 1.0 becomes operational.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Today Europeana officially publishes the Public Domain Charter. It takes a strong position in support of the Public Domain, saying that:

Europeana belongs to the public and must represent the public interest. The Public Domain is the material from which society creates cultural understanding and knowledge. Having a thriving Public Domain is essential to economic and social well-being. Digitisation of Public Domain content does not create new rights over it. Works that are in the Public Domain in analogue form continue to be in the Public Domain once they have been digitised. . . .

The Charter is published by the Europeana Foundation, our governing body (now completing its name change from the EDL Foundation). The Charter is a policy statement, not a contract. It doesn't bind any of Europeana's content providers. It recognises the dilemma in which heritage institutions find themselves. Our partners' drive to digitise and make Public Domain content accessible is tempered by a recognition of the costs involved, and the need to arrive at the most appropriate agreements with those who are willing and able to fund digitisation programmes—including the private sector.

We are developing plans to label the rights associated with a digitised item very clearly so that they are understood by Europeana's users, who will be able to exclude content from their results that requires payment or doesn't comply with the Public Domain Charter. Rights labelling will become a requirement when submitting content to Europeana by the end of this year.

While Public-Private Partnerships are an important means of getting content digitised, the Charter recommends that deals are non-exclusive, for very limited time periods, and don't take material out of the Public Domain.

Digital Institutional Repository Archivist at California College of the Arts

The California College of the Arts is recruiting a Digital Institutional Repository Archivist. Salary: $40-50,000.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

he Archivist of CCA's Digital Institutional Repository is responsible for collecting and maintaining digital assets that document the creative and intellectual output of the college. The Archivist coordinates receipt of digital assets from academic departments, supervises processing of digital files, maintains organization of the files, performs or supervises assignment of metadata, and participates in the development of user access modalities. The Archivist will also assist with digitization of materials in the college archives.

Astrid van Wesenbeeck Named SPARC Europe Director

Astrid van Wesenbeeck has been named the Director of SPARC Europe.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Astrid van Wesenbeeck has been appointed and will initially start working with SPARC Europe part-time from 15th June and full-time from 12 July 2010. Astrid will take over from Dr David Prosser who was recently appointed Director of Research Libraries UK (RLUK).

The chair of SPARC Europe, Bas Savenije, says "It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of our new Director. We believe that Astrid has the necessary skills and background to continue SPARC Europe’s significant work for European research libraries, library organisations and research institutions. The SPARC Europe Board of Directors and I very much look forward to working with Astrid."

Astrid is currently Project manager and publishing consultant at IGITUR, Utrecht Publishing & Archiving Services at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She has broad experience in the publishing of Open Access journals, as well as in project management. Astrid will be based at the SPARC Europe Secretariat, which is kindly hosted by the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) in The Hague.

Information Technology Manager at Fort Vancouver Regional Library District

The Fort Vancouver Regional Library District is recruiting an Information Technology Manager. Salary: $4,873 per month.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Plans, coordinates, and manages the operations and activities of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District (FVRL) Information Technology department (IT). Coordinates technology projects and departmental activities with other internal departments. Supervises assigned personnel. Defines and implements departmental procedures, applying thorough knowledge of computer principles and practices with sound mid-management and administrative principles and techniques. Installs, repairs, configures, and maintain the FVRL network. This includes all technologies, both hardware and software, supporting the LAN, WAN and Windows AD based network. Works closely with the Technology Director in the planning of future technology direction and projects.

Library of Congress to Archive All Public Tweets Since March 2006

The Library of Congress has tweeted that it will to archive all public tweets made since March 2006.

Here's an excerpt from the blog announcement:

Have you ever sent out a "tweet" on the popular Twitter social media service? Congratulations: Your 140 characters or less will now be housed in the Library of Congress.

That’s right. Every public tweet, ever, since Twitter’s inception in March 2006, will be archived digitally at the Library of Congress. That’s a LOT of tweets, by the way: Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day, with the total numbering in the billions.

We thought it fitting to give the initial heads-up to the Twitter community itself via our own feed @librarycongress. (By the way, out of sheer coincidence, the announcement comes on the same day our own number of feed—followers has surpassed 50,000. I love serendipity!)

We will also be putting out a press release later with even more details and quotes. Expect to see an emphasis on the scholarly and research implications of the acquisition. I'm no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I'm certain we'll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive.

Aaron Ludwig Wins Sparky Awards Peoples' Choice prize

Aaron Ludwig, a sophomore animation student at Brigham Young University, has won the first Sparky Awards Peoples' Choice prize.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Aaron Ludwig, a sophomore animation student at Brigham Young University, has won the first-ever Sparky Awards Peoples’ Choice prize for his short film, "Clueless Discovery." The video was voted the best by students and others everywhere in an open online vote held earlier this Spring.

Organized by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and adopted by campuses everywhere, the Sparky Awards contest calls on entrants to creatively illustrate in a short video the value of openly sharing ideas. "Clueless Discovery" is a clear presentation of how failing to share information and "reinventing the wheel" not only hampers progress, but can be harmful. The clip is online at http://vimeo.com/6223728.

ALA: The State of America's Libraries, 2010

The American Library Association has released The State of America's Libraries, 2010.

Here's an excerpt:

Academic libraries are experiencing increased use, both physical and virtual. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that during a typical week in fiscal 2008, U.S. academic libraries had more than 20.3 million visits (1.5 million more than in fiscal 2006), answered more than 1.1 million reference questions, and made more than 498,000 presentations to groups. Seventy-two percent of academic libraries reported providing library reference service by e-mail or the Web.

Almost 95 percent of students use their academic library's website at least once a week, according to a study on students and technology by the Educause Center for Applied Research, and the proportion of students who reported using the library's website daily increased from 7.1 percent in 2006 to 16.9 percent in 2009. Project Information Literacy found that nine out of 10 college students surveyed turned to libraries "for online scholarly research databases . . . for conducting course-related research, valuing the resources for credible content, in-depth information, and the ability to meet instructors' expectations."

Not surprisingly, more and more academic-library resources now start with an 'e-'. Although in 2008 academic libraries added 24 million books, serial back files, and other paper materials including government documents, 3.4 million current serial subscriptions, and 3.4 million audiovisual materials units, the shift to e-resources continues to accelerate. Academic libraries added 20 million e-books in 2008, bringing the total to about 102.5 million—a breathtaking two-year increase of 59.4 percent from the 64.3 million held in fiscal 2006, according to the NCES. Electronic reference sources and aggregation services also rose sharply . . . as did expenses: Academic libraries' expenditures for electronic serial subscriptions increased to $1 billion in fiscal 2008 from $691.6 million in 2006, according to the ALA Office of Research and Statistics.

U.S. Book Sales Fell 1.8% in 2009

The Association of American Publishers reports that U.S. book sales fell 1.8% in 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has today released its annual estimate of total book sales in the United States. The report, which uses data from the Bureau of the Census as well as sales data from eighty-six publishers inclusive of all major book publishing media market holders, estimates that U.S. publishers had net sales of $23.9 billion in 2009, down from $24.3 billion in 2008, representing a 1.8% decrease. In the last seven years the industry had a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.1%.

Trade sales of adult and juvenile books were steady at $8.1 billion in 2009, CAGR fell to 1.8 percent. Adult Hardbound books showed healthy growth of 6.9%, $2.6 billion in 2009, however paperbound books for adult fell 5.2% to $2.2 billion. Hardbound books in the children and young adult category fell 5.0% to $1.7 billion while their paperbound equivalent grew 2.2% to $1.5 billion. . . .

Mass Market paperbacks decreased 4.0% and brought the category CAGR to -2.2%. Total sales were $1.0 billion in 2009. . . .

Educational sales in the Elementary and High School (El-Hi) category, those books produced for K-12 education, fell 13.8% to $5.2 billion in 2009, and CAGR for this category was -1.4%. The Higher Education category, which includes sales of college textbooks reached $4.3 billion this year up 12.9% on 2008. This brought the CAGR for college textbooks to 5.0%.

Virtual Services Manager at Richland County Public Library

Richland County Public Library is recruiting a Virtual Services Manager. Salary: $2,234.25 biweekly (may be negotiable, depending upon qualifications and experience).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

  • Management, supervision, and administration of the Virtual Services Department, the Virtual Branch, and the Library website.
  • Coordination with the Technology Department and others, for the overall delivery of the RCPL digital customer experience within the Library website, online catalog, intranet, and external web applications.
  • Leadership of Virtual Services Department team in effective management of operations. Liaison and coordination with all other departments as needed, especially including but not limited to the Technology Department, to address strategic and operational details.

Integrated Digital Services Librarian at University of Baltimore

The University of Baltimore's Langsdale Library is recruiting an Integrated Digital Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Integrated Digital Services Librarian will be responsible for Langsdale's integrated library system (ILS) and related services and will serve as the library webmaster. He or she will lead the collaborative design and development of the library's web-based services and technology planning, including the implementation of the next-generation ILS (a University System of Maryland consortial system). He/she will support technology applications in all library departments, including interlibrary loan, course reserves and digital collections. He/she will maintain an in-depth understanding of technological trends and developments affecting academic libraries through a commitment to ongoing professional development. He/she will work collaboratively and creatively with librarians from Langsdale and the UB Law Library, IT staff, and the University Webmaster.