Month: July 2010

Last Week’s DigitalKoans Tweets 2010-07-25

Technology Services Head at Mugar Memorial Library

Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library is recruiting a Technology Services Head.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Guide assessment of existing and emerging library and information technologies. Lead project and implementation planning for library technologies. Provide coordination and programmatic guidance for the library technology services group (LTS), a multi-unit team, comprised of members from the University Libraries and Information Services & Technology. The LTS plans, deploys and supports a wide range of digital systems and services, including an integrated library system, WorldCat Local, link resolver, federated search software, institutional repository, search and discovery services, library web development, interlibrary loan system, proxy server, and staff desktop support. Collaborate with administrators, department heads and managers throughout all the University libraries and Information Services and Technology to adapt library services to the changing needs of faculty, researchers, and graduate students of Boston University and work with senior managers on the Library's other two teams, the Graduate & Research Services and Undergraduate & Distance Services to implement initiatives consistent with the Libraries’ strategic plan.

Presentations from the OAPEN Seminar

Presentations from the OAPEN seminar held on June 10, 2010 in Amsterdam are now available.

Here's an excerpt from the About OAPEN—Open Access Publishing in European Networks page:

OAPEN consists of a number of European university presses and universities, and is open to new partners. The publishing partners are all scholarly presses predominantly active in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) and book publishing. Jointly the members have digital publishing programmes, conduct experiments with OA, make use of digital repositories, publish in different European languages, have a worldwide distribution network (including the USA), and cooperate closely with university libraries.

Institutional Repository Librarian at Boston University

Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library is recruiting an Institutional Repository Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Manage the Boston University Digital Common, Boston University’s institutional repository, including oversight of the repository, coordination with the Information Services and Technology (IS&T) staff that provides primary systems support for the hardware and software, outreach to faculty, content recruitment, documentation, publicity materials, training and supervision of support staff, and developing assessment measures for the repository's impact. Work with the Institutional Repository Steering Committee and with other staff to define and implement repository policies, workflows, and capabilities and with the AUL and IS&T staff to develop effective digital preservation policies and procedures. Responsible for ensuring that the Digital Common programs align with the needs of the BU community and that BU faculty, students, and staff are aware of and know how to utilize BU Digital Common services. Collaborate with the other department heads and managers on the Digital Initiatives & Open Access Team and with senior managers on the Library’s other two teams, the Graduate & Research Services and Undergraduate & Distance Services, to implement initiatives consistent with the Library's strategic plan.

OpenURL Link Resolver: SFX 4.0 Released

The Ex Libris Group has released SFX 4.0.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Ex Libris® Group . . . is pleased to announce the general release of version 4.0 of its SFX® OpenURL link resolver, already deployed at over 1800 institutions in 53 countries. With the updated and enhanced administrative interface and the redesigned structure of the SFX KnowledgeBase, librarians benefit from streamlined workflows, new functionality, and more frequent KnowledgeBase updates for both hosted and local SFX installations.

New administrative functions—many of which are the direct result of feedback from the customer community—further emphasize the importance that libraries attribute to maintaining full control over the way in which they expose their e-collection to their users and brand the library’s scholarly services. And what’s more, SFX has been keeping up with the times. As the scholarly environment has evolved, configurations have been added to SFX to accommodate changes in library services and the development of new ones, such as the bX article recommender service.

VuFind 1.0 Released

VuFind 1.0 has been released. VuFind is an open source resource discovery system.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

VuFind's long beta period is now over. Today, VuFind 1.0 has been released. In addition to improved stability, the new release includes several features missing from the previous release candidate: flexible support for non-MARC metadata formats, a mobile interface, Dewey Decimal support, integration with Serials Solutions' Summon, and more!

Web Services Librarian at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Library is recruiting a Web Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University Library seeks a creative and innovative Web Services Librarian to provide leadership in the vision, design and implementation of the Library’s Web site. This position works both independently and collaboratively in managing the Library’s web site, explores web and technology trends, and identifies what is suitable for our library and its users to advance to the next level in its virtual presence. This librarian also takes an active role in the library’s instruction program, reference services, and collection development, and participates fully in scholarship and service as a tenure track library faculty member. The Web Services Librarian works collaboratively with library faculty to meet the mission and goals of the University Library.

ALA, ARL, and EDUCAUSE File Comments Supporting FCC’s "Third Way" Net Neutrality Proposal

The American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and EDUCAUSE have filed comments with the FCC supporting the FCC's "Third Way" proposal.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The American Library Association (ALA) filed comments(pdf) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the commission’s Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on the Framework for Broadband Internet Service, commonly referred to as the "Third Way." The ALA has a strong track record of advocating for an open, or neutral, Internet. The ALA sees the Third Way as the most appropriate level of oversight as it provides the flexibility needed by the Internet community and also provides key protections to guarantee the public has equal access to the wide variety of online content readily available today.

The NOI proposes the FCC use a set of six provisions from Title II, two of which are particularly important to the library community. The ALA comments bring attention to the significance of Section 202, nondiscrimination, and Section 254, universal service. Including these sections is paramount to ensuring that libraries can continue to provide quintessential services to their patrons.

The ALA has long supported the concept of nondiscrimination which treats all Internet content equally. Libraries across the country provide the public with access to high quality educational and recreational online content – at no fee to the patron. In fact, 75 percent of libraries offer access to online databases that include business journals, full-text news articles, and job certification exams. Libraries provide patrons with downloadable and streaming audio and video content, as well as E-books. The ALA cautions that without Section 202 on nondiscrimination, this educational and other content could be relegated to the Internet slow lane by service providers in favor of content from the private sector.

Virtual Library R&D Librarian at Texas Tech University (2 Positions)

The Texas Tech University Libraries are recruiting two Virtual Library R&D Librarians.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position reports to the Lead of the Library Technology Management and Services Research and Development Team. The position ensures maximum interoperability of applied virtual library systems, solutions, data, metadata, etc., while engaging in innovative virtual library research efforts, including relevant assessment activities, and may coordinate virtual library development efforts. The position also engages in strategic partnering and collaborations across traditional and non-traditional boundaries, and engages in relevant scholarly pursuit and other professional activities and service in accordance with Texas Tech Library’s standards for promotion and tenure.

Preserving Digital Public Television: Final Report

The NDIIPP-funded Preserving Digital Public Television project has released Preserving Digital Public Television: Final Report.

Here's an excerpt:

The goals of the PDPTV project were to:

  • Design and build a prototype preservation repository for born-digital public television content;
  • Develop a set of standards for metadata, file and encoding formats, and production workflow practices;
  • Recommend selection criteria for long-term retention;
  • Examine issues of long-term content accessibility and methods for sustaining digital preservation of public television materials, including IP concerns.
  • Introduce the importance of digital preservation to the public broadcasting community.

Last Week’s DigitalKoans Tweets 2010-07-18

MELIBEA: Directory and Validator of Open Access Policies

AccesoAbierto has made MELIBEA, a directory and validator of open access policies, available.

Here's an excerpt from the About page:

MELIBEA is a directory and validator of institutional open-access (OA) policies regarding scientific and academic work. As a directory, it describes the existing policies. As a validator, it subjects them to qualitative and quantitative analysis based on fulfilment of a set of indicators that reflect the bases of an institutional policy.

Based on the values assigned to a set of indicators, weighted according to their importance, the validator indicates a score and a percentage of fulfilment for each policy analyzed. The sum of weighted values of each indicator is converted to a percentage scale to give what we have called the "validated open-access percentage," calculated as explained in the Methodology section.

Web Services Developer at University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland Libraries are recruiting a Web Services Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (posting number: 0000470):

The incumbent serves as the resident expert on Web design and Web interface matters and is charged with consulting services pertaining to existing and emerging Web technologies with library staff. The Application Interface Designer is responsible for creating and maintaining Web design style guidelines for the Web site. As part of the Information Technology Division, the incumbent assists in the coordination of Web services for the University System of Maryland libraries.

GPO Hires Its First Preservation Librarian

The U.S. Government Printing Office has hired its first preservation librarian, David Walls.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is continuing its commitment to preserving the documents of our democracy by establishing the agency’s first preservation librarian position. GPO’s preservation librarian will be tasked with updating the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) collection management plan for the preservation of federal government documents. David Walls will serve as GPO’s first preservation librarian; he is a member of the American Library Association (ALA) and comes to the agency from Yale University where he worked as a preservation librarian for 12 years. While at Yale, Walls established practices for the digital conversion of library and special collection materials.

Digital preservation is an ongoing initiative for GPO. In 2009, the agency launched GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), a content management system, preservation repository and advanced search engine that provides the public with permanent public access to federal government information. GPO is also a member of LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), a worldwide digital preservation alliance that collaborates with libraries and organizations on preservation initiatives.

Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies at Dartmouth College

The Dartmouth College Library is recruiting a Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (position number: 0031700):

Provides leadership for the administration, planning, implementation, and assessment of the Library's information technology and media services. . . .

  • Provides leadership and strategic direction to the Jones Media Center.
  • Provides leadership and strategic direction to the Digital Library Technologies Group who is responsible for the development, installation, operation, and maintenance of the technologies supporting the Digital Library. . . .
  • Oversees the Library's integrated Library system.

Google Makes 12 Digital Humanities Research Awards

Google has funded 12 grants in its Digital Humanities Research Awards program.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement :

We've given awards to 12 projects led by 23 researchers at 15 universities:

  • Steven Abney and Terry Szymanski, University of Michigan. Automatic Identification and Extraction of Structured Linguistic Passages in Texts.
  • Elton Barker, The Open University, Eric C. Kansa, University of California-Berkeley, Leif Isaksen, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Google Ancient Places (GAP): Discovering historic geographical entities in the Google Books corpus.
  • Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs, George Mason University. Reframing the Victorians.
  • Gregory R. Crane, Tufts University. Classics in Google Books.
  • Miles Efron, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois. Meeting the Challenge of Language Change in Text Retrieval with Machine Translation Techniques.
  • Brian Geiger, University of California-Riverside, Benjamin Pauley, Eastern Connecticut State University. Early Modern Books Metadata in Google Books.
  • David Mimno and David Blei, Princeton University. The Open Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.
  • Alfonso Moreno, Magdalen College, University of Oxford. Bibliotheca Academica Translationum: link to Google Books.
  • Todd Presner, David Shepard, Chris Johanson, James Lee, University of California-Los Angeles. Hypercities Geo-Scribe.
  • Amelia del Rosario Sanz-Cabrerizo and José Luis Sierra-Rodríguez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Collaborative Annotation of Digitalized Literary Texts.
  • Andrew Stauffer, University of Virginia. JUXTA Collation Tool for the Web.
  • Timothy R. Tangherlini, University of California-Los Angeles, Peter Leonard, University of Washington. Northern Insights: Tools & Techniques for Automated Literary Analysis, Based on the Scandinavian Corpus in Google Books.

Digital Preservation: PARSE.Insight Presentations and Report

PARSE.Insight (Permanent Access to the Records of Science in Europe) has released several presentations and reports.

Coordinator II at University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries are recruiting a Coordinator II (two-year appointment).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Grant Manager will coordinate the Tennessee Digital Newspaper Program, and NEH grant-funded program which will digitize newspapers published in Tennessee between 1836 and 1922. The Libraries, the College of Communication and Information and Tennessee State Libraries and Archives are working together on this project. The Grant Manager administers the two year grant working closely with information professionals across the State of Tennessee. The Grant Manager will develop time lines for project completion and coordinate projects activities.

Research Data Management: Incremental Project Releases Scoping Study And Implementation Plan

The Incremental Project has released the Scoping Study And Implementation Plan. The Cambridge University Library and Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow jointly run the project.

Here's a brief description of the project from its home page:

The project is a first step in improving and facilitating the day-to-day and long-term management of research data in higher education institutions (HEI's). We aim to increase researchers’ capacity and motivation for managing their digital research data, using existing tools and resources where possible and working to identify and fill gaps where additional tailored support and guidance is required. We aim to take a bottom-up approach, consulting a diverse set of researchers in each stage of the project.

Read more about it at "Scoping Study and Implementation Plan Released."

Associate Director, SULAIR Enterprise Systems & Programming at Stanford University

The Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources are recruiting an Associate Director, SULAIR Enterprise Systems & Programming.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The person in this position provides management and oversight of the SULAIR enterprise systems, and provides process leadership in quality assurance and software/systems development and implementation in collaboration with Digital Library Systems and Services (DLSS) and Academic Computing Services (ACS). He/she will work within SULAIR and with other organizations within and outside of the University to ensure compliance with internal and external protocols, maximize efficiencies and synergies in software development, and integrate content, software and functionalities between systems within and outside of our domain.

The position directly manages a course management system (CourseWork, based on Sakai, an open source application), and an integrated library management system (Sirsi’s Symphony). As systems under development mature into enterprise services, it is anticipated that additional components may be added to the scope of this position. Such actions would be taken on a case-by-case basis after consultation with involved parties.

Duties include coordination with other units in SULAIR, with other organizations at Stanford, and with vendors as necessary. Primary engagement will involve work with DLSS on quality assurance and software/systems development involving digital library and digital archive initiatives. The Associate Director will participate in these developments as a QA and software development process lead and, where appropriate, help manage the transition of programs from a development environment to a production environment.

Mobile Access 2010

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Mobile Access 2010

Here's an excerpt:

Six in ten American adults are now wireless internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year.

As of May 2010, 59% of all adult Americans go online wirelessly. Our definition of a wireless internet user includes the following activities:

  • Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card. Roughly half of all adults (47%) go online in this way, up from the 39% who did so at a similar point in 2009.
  • Use the internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Two in five adults (40%) do at least one of these using a mobile device, an increase from the 32% of adults who did so in 2009.

Taken together, 59% of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51% of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009.

H.R. 5704 Would Extend Copyright Protection to Works of Faculty at Department of Defense Service Academies and Schools of Professional Military Education

Rep. Todd Platts has introduced H.R. 5704 in the House, which would "allow faculty members at Department of Defense service academies and schools of professional military education to secure copyrights for certain scholarly works that they produce as part of their official duties in order to submit such works for publication, and for other purposes." Such works are currently in the public domain.

Read more about it at "Bill Would Curb Access to Government Works."

Information Technology Specialist (OS) at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress Office of Strategic Initiatives is recruiting an Information Technology Specialist (OS). Salary: $105,211-$136,771.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Performs work involved with the planning, installation, configuration, testing, implementation, and management of the systems environment in support of the organization's IT architecture and business needs. Installs, maintains, and modifies computer programs, often provided by the manufacturer, that are necessary to process applications programs and for the operation of the computer and its peripheral devices. Such systems programs include assemblers, compilers, multi-programming routines, files management routines, and other types of operating system software.

Analyzes computers and related equipment (hardware) in terms of feasibility, compatibility, and cost-effectiveness for purchase and use within the agency.

Performs systems development activities; integrates existing and new systems and applications, assuring compatibility, connectivity, and overall reliability of systems and software; designs and implements networks and firewalls, ensuring network security and efficiency. Ensures the resulting system meets the needs of the user(s). Advises and provides technical consultation and guidance to information technology management personnel. Advice involves matters related to optimization of software utilization, program development, subsystem design, and new developments and techniques.

Develops specifications for IT contracts and programs involving hardware, software, components, systems, subsystems, and/or services. Prepares Statements of Work, RFIs, RFOs, and RFPs. Assists other technical staff in preparing statements of work. Evaluates computer requirements. Develops evaluation plans. Participates on proposal evaluation teams. Evaluates vendor proposals for adequacy in terms of vendor ability to perform desired actions and produce proper results. Serves as Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) in monitoring vendor/contractor performance.