Month: August 2010

Head of Library Technology and Systems at Coastal Carolina University

Coastal Carolina University's Kimbel Library is recruiting a Head of Library Technology and Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The successful candidate will have experience in the management of library systems that support the essential functions of the library, including the library's integrated system and resource sharing software and systems. Knowledge of emerging technologies and trends in the provision of library resources is essential as this person will lead a small team consisting of electronic resources and systems together with emerging technologies and web design in the development of new and exciting ways to meet the needs of the faculty, students, and staff of Coastal Carolina University. He/she will be responsible for design and development of a dynamic web presence for the library that integrates resources and technology to achieve a user-friendly environment and efficient access to the library's services and resources.

Access to Knowledge: A Guide for Everyone

Consumers International has released Access to Knowledge: A Guide for Everyone.

Here's an excerpt:

Access to knowledge (A2K) is the umbrella term for a movement that aims to create more equitable public access to the products of human culture and learning.

Fields of advocacy that it subsumes include most centrally copyright and patent law reform, open access, open data and open standards, but also access to public information, broader communications rights such as freedom of expression, and issues around ownership of and participation in public media.

Web Development Lead at Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center

The Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library is recruiting a Web Development Lead.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The HAM-TMC Library seeks an energetic, Web Development Lead (Librarian). This individual will be responsible for the development and management of the HAM-TMC Library’s websites both public/Intranet, and ensuring both sites meet accessibility standards. The Web Librarian will create and maintain mobile technologies for the website, chairs the Web Development Committee and conducts regular monthly meetings.

Duties:

  • Creates and maintains the Library's websites, including the Intranet
  • Develops mobile and mash up technologies for the Library's website in mobile formats
  • Updates all Library websites in accordance with new technologies
  • Chairs the Library's Web Development Committee
  • Conducts annual user satisfaction surveys of the public website
  • Works with the Collection Development and Information Technology Departments to ensure that access to electronic resources through the website are dependable
  • Maintains current awareness of competing library websites and online services
  • Shares new developments and trends with other library staff

The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age

The Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress have released The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age.

Here's an excerpt:

The publication of The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States is a landmark achievement in the history of the archival preservation of audiovisual materials. The authors, Rob Bamberger and Sam Brylawski, have produced a study outlining the web of interlocking issues that now threaten the long-term survival of our sound recording history. This study tells us that major areas of America’s recorded sound heritage have already been destroyed or remain inaccessible to the public. It suggests that the lack of conformity between federal and state laws may adversely affect the long-term survival of pre-1972-era sound recordings in particular. And, it warns that the continued lack of national coordination among interested parties in the public and private sectors, in addressing the challenges in preservation, professional education and public access, may not yet be arresting permanent loss of irreplaceable sound recordings in all genres.

Daily Tweets 2010-08-31

OPDS Catalog 1.0 Specification

The OPDS Catalog 1.0 specification has been released.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The open ebook community and the Internet Archive are pleased to announce the release of the first production version of the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) Catalog format for digital content. OPDS Catalogs are an open standard designed to enable the discovery of digital content from any location, on any device, and for any application. . . .

Based on the widely implemented Atom Syndication Format, OPDS Catalogs have been developed since 2009 by a group of ebook developers, publishers, librarians, and booksellers interested in providing a lightweight, simple, and easy to use format for developing catalogs of digital books, magazines, and other content.

Automation Librarian at Augusta State University

The Augusta State University Library is recruiting an Automation Librarian. Salary range: Mid to high $50,000.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Provide strategic leadership in developing effective access to and use of electronic information sources. Participate in the ongoing development of automated library information systems and helps maintain the efficient operation of existing automated processes. Maintain, coordinate, plan, and implement applicable library-wide computer systems, including automation systems, digital projects, Internet-based resources, mobile device access, and locally produced databases. Report to Library Director and/or Associate Library Director.

Opening the Door: How Faculty Authors Can Implement an Open Access Policy at Their Institutions

Science Commons has released Opening the Door: How Faculty Authors Can Implement an Open Access Policy at Their Institutions.

Here's an excerpt:

This White Paper is intended as a companion to the "Open Doors and Open Minds" SPARC/Science Commons White Paper of April 2008. The purpose of this companion paper is to provide the legal and statutory bases for implementation of an open access policy, as well as to explain best practices for implementation of that policy. It is intended to be used by faculty and administrators interested in implementing an open access policy at their own educational institutions.

See also: Open Doors and Open Minds: What Faculty Authors Can Do to Ensure Open Access to Their Work through Their Institution.

Daily Tweets 2010-08-30

Long-Term Preservation Services: A Description of LTP Services in a Digital Library Environment

The British Library, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and Nasjonalbiblioteket have released Long-Term Preservation Services: A Description of LTP Services in a Digital Library Environment.

Here's an excerpt:

The main focus of this document is long-term preservation, but considered as an integral part of the overall digital library capability within a library and the corresponding workflows. We therefore seek information about long-term preservation within this broader context. Principles and implementation may vary greatly, and we are open to alternative approaches.

The document starts with an overview of all the types of services involved in LTP, and shows how different institutions might draw the boundaries between the LTP and a wider digital library capability. We then take the three core functions of an LTP system (to ingest, retain, and provide access to digital content) and show how the services work together to fulfill each function. Finally, we give a detailed description of each type of service.

Older Adults and Social Media: Social Networking Use among Those Ages 50 and Older Nearly Doubled over the Past Year

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Older Adults and Social Media: Social Networking Use among Those Ages 50 and Older Nearly Doubled over the Past Year.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.

  • Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%—from 25% to 47%.
  • During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%—from 13% to 26%.
  • By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.

Which Topic in the Open Access Journals Bibliography Has the Most References?

Which topic in the Open Access Journals Bibliography has the most references? Interestingly enough, it's "Open Access Journal Research Studies."

Here's the bibliography's section list ranked by number of references.

  1. Open Access Journal Research Studies
  2. Open Access Journal Economic Issues
  3. Open Access Journal Case Studies
  4. Open Access Journal General Works
  5. Open Access Journal Publishers and Archives
  6. Open Access Journal Library Issues

Analyst Programmer Intermediate at Georgia State University

Georgia State University is recruiting an Analyst Programmer Intermediate. Salary: $42,707-$49,113.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (vacancy number: 0601522):

Reporting to the Web Services Librarian, the Analyst Programmer develops, maintains, and troubleshoots web based applications in support of University Library's goals. Responsibilities include scripting and programming for applications developed in-house, customization and enhancement of open-source and vendor applications, working with vendor or open-source Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and management of in-house databases. In addition, the Analyst Programmer develops end-user interfaces and dynamic forms for web applications using a variety of scripting languages and frameworks including PHP, JavaScript, CSS, XML/XSL, and RSS. This position works with project stakeholders as needed to further develop or enhance application designs or features. This position also works collaboratively with library Systems personnel to implement and configure web servers in support of web development activities, authentication technologies and server security.

NEH Awards New Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants

The NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program has made 28 new awards.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

American University — Washington, DC
The Map of Jazz Musicians: an online interactive tool for navigating jazz history's interpersonal network
Fernando Benadon, Project Director
Outright: $49,777
To support: The development of an online tool to map connections and collaborations among American jazz musicians.

Bank Street College of Education — New York, NY
Civil Rights Movement Remix (CRM-Remix)
Bernadette Anand, Project Director
Outright: $25,000
To support: A series of workshops to plan the development of location-based smartphone applications about the African-American Civil Rights Movement based around sites in Harlem, NY.

Boston University — Boston, MA
Evolutionary Subject Tagging in the Humanities
Jack Ammerman, Project Director
Outright: $13,767
To support: A two-day meeting of humanities scholars, librarians, and computational analysis experts to consider how to improve existing cataloging software that attempts to better classify interdisciplinary humanities research.

Brown University — Providence, RI
A Journal-Driven Bibliography of Digital Humanities
Julia Flanders, Project Director
Outright: $49,659
To support: Development of a project led by the staff of Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) to create, manage, export, and publish high quality bibliographical data across the digital humanities research domain.

Center for Civic Education — Calabasas, CA
Project Citizen CaseBase: Strengthening Youth Voices in an Open-Source Democracy
Kaavya Krishna, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Development of a free online multimedia "dashboard" and database to enable sharing community activities and civic engagement programs that promote education in democracy for young people in more than 65 countries.

Columbia University — New York, NY
Leveraging "The Wisdom of the Crowds" for Efficient Tagging and Retrieval of documents from the Historic Newspaper Archive
Haimonti Dutta, Project Director
Outright: $49,452
To support: A study of user-generated subject tagging to improve search capabilities for large-scale digital archives of humanities materials, using the historic newspaper collections of the New York Public Library.

Dartmouth College — Hanover, NH
Mapping the History of Knowledge: Text-Based Tools and Algorithms for Tracking the Development of Concepts
Mikhail Gronas, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Text analysis of 15 editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica employing natural language processing, network analysis, and information visualization in order test computational methods for tracing changes in formation and evolution of concepts and ideas across domains of knowledge over time.

George Mason University — Fairfax, VA
Scholar Press
Daniel Cohen, Project Director
Outright: $49,697
To support: The development of three tools that will aid in the dissemination of research and teaching materials for humanities scholars.

Illinois State University — Normal, IL
Building a Better Back-End: Editor, Author, & Reader Tools for Scholarly Multimedia
Cheryl Ball, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Development of an open source editorial management system and reader tools for online publication of scholarly multimedia and related forms of digital scholarship for use with Open Journal System (OJS), a widely used editorial management system.

Indiana University, Bloomington — Bloomington, IN
Optical Music Recognition on the International Music Score Library Project
Christopher Raphael, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Development of a prototype optical music recognition (OMR) software application and editorial platform to allow greater scholarly access to digitized music archives.

John Woodman Higgins Armory Museum, Inc. — Worcester, MA
Virtual Joust:  A Technological Interpretation of Medieval Jousting and Its Culture
Jeffery Forgeng, Project Director
Outright: $49,960
To support: The development of an interactive museum exhibition that uses game technology to engage visitors of the John Woodman Higgins Armory Museum in the history of medieval jousting.

Kent State University Main Campus — Kent, OH
The GeoHistorian Project
Mark van't Hooft, Project Director
Outright: $49,749
To support: Educating K-12 teachers and students in the creation of local history content linked to community locations by QR codes (2-dimensional bar codes).

Lewis and Clark College — Portland, OR
Intellectual Property and International Collaboration in the Digital Humanities: the Moroccan Jewish Community Archives
Oren Kosansky, Project Director
Outright: $49,950
To support: The development of a pilot website that provides interactive access to a translated, annotated, and searchable set of 50 to 75 documents of 19th and 20th century Moroccan Jewish materials. The project also will seek to create protocols and best practices for intellectual property issues for digital archival projects in developing countries.

Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York — New York, NY
The Lower Eastside Girls Club Girl/Hood Project
Dave Pentecost, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Develop and test software to create 3D virtual reality performance based on local history of the Lower Eastside neighborhood where the Lower Eastside Girls Club is now located. The project will serve as a model for how humanities projects can take advantage of increasingly popular "fulldome" theaters found in museums across the nation.

Montana Preservation Alliance — Helena, MT
The Touchstone Project: Saving and Sharing Montana's Community Heritage
Kathryn Hampton, Project Director
Outright: $49,146
To support: Development of the Touchstone Project, an interactive online archive of local history and cultural heritage that links local digital repositories to the online Montana Memory Project.

PublicVR — Jamaica Plain, MA
Egyptian Ceremony in the Virtual Temple- Avatars for Virtual Heritage
Jeffrey Jacobson, Project Director
Outright: $49,913
To support: Development of new virtual reality technology for an exhibition on ancient Egypt at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

St. Louis University — Saint Louis, MO
The T-PEN Tool: Sustainability and Quality Control in Encoding Handwritten Texts
James Ginther, Project Director
Outright: $49,708
To support: Creation of a generalized transcription tool coupled with automated mark-up techniques, based on a prototype developed for the Electronic Norman Anonymous Project (ENAP) and refined using data generated from the NEH-funded Carolingian Canon Law Project.

University of California, Riverside — Riverside, CA
The Early California Cultural Atlas
Steven Hackel, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Development of a digital atlas to integrate and manage historical resources and enable analysis of historical data related to the colonization and settlement of early California.

University of California, San Diego — La Jolla, CA
DRAMA IN THE DELTA: Digitally Reenacting Civil Rights Performances at Arkansas' Wartime Camps for Japanese Americans
Emily Roxworthy, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: A scholarly, historic simulation meant for public audiences exploring the racial dynamics of a wartime internment camp in the Arkansas Delta.

University of Chicago — Chicago, IL
Cinemetrics, a Digital Laboratory for Film Studies
Yuri Tsivian, Project Director
Outright: $45,711
To support: An online collection of tools that would allow film researchers to collect, store, and process scholarly data about film editing.

University of Georgia — Athens, GA
AI for Architectural Discourse
Stefaan Van Liefferinge, Project Director
Outright: $24,965
To support: The creation of an ontology for architectural history to support humanities research that takes advantage of artificial intelligence technologies.

University of Maryland, College Park — College Park, MD
Professionalization in Digital Humanities Centers
Tanya Clement, Project Director
Outright: $24,999
To support: A two-day workshop and online discussion resulting in recommendations for establishing professional standards for evaluating scholarship developed at digital humanities centers.

University of Maryland, College Park — College Park, MD
MITH API Workshop
David Lester, Project Director
Outright: $24,930
To support: A two-day workshop on the use of Application Programming Interfaces to explore approaches that allow for greater sharing of content among humanities resources such as scholarly editions, digitized newspapers, and dictionaries.

University of North Texas — Denton, TX
Mapping Historical Texts: Combining Text-mining & Geo-visualization to Unlock the Research Potential of Historical Newspapers
Andrew Torget, Project Director
Outright: $50,000
To support: Development of text-mining and visualization tools to study movement of information through time and space by analyzing digitized texts of historical newspapers from the NEH-funded Chronicling America archive.

University of Oregon, Eugene — Eugene, OR
Oregon Petrarch Open Book
Massimo Lollini, Project Director
Outright: $49,978
To support: Development of a more interactive database driven website for the Oregon Petrarch Open Book project.

University of Richmond — Richmond, VA
Landscapes of the American Past: Visualizing Emancipation
Edward Ayers, Project Director
Outright: $48,155
To support: The development of a digital atlas seeking to demonstrate how the spread of emancipation of enslaved people occurred during the US Civil War.

University of South Carolina Research Foundation — Columbia, SC
BRAILLESC.ORG
George Williams, Project Director
Outright: $24,987
To support: The collection of additional oral histories, the preparation of pedagogical materials, and further development of additional accessibility features to a humanities website to allow for enhanced visitor experiences for visually-impaired users.

University of Washington — Seattle, WA
Collecting Online Music Project
Ann Lally, Project Director
Outright: $18,881
To support: A planning meeting to discuss issues and possible solutions pertaining to the curation and preservation of born-digital music.

Daily Tweets 2010-08-27

Project Manager/Cataloger at San Diego History Center

The San Diego History Center is recruiting a Project Manager/Cataloger.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This is a professional position requiring a high level of skill and competency and the ability to work with limited supervision and make duty-related decisions. The Project Manager/Cataloger will perform a variety of duties in order to achieve the goals stated in an IMLS-funded project, namely, to digitize, catalog and make available over 7,000 images from the E.H. Davis Collection of American Indian images. The project Manager/Cataloger will be responsible for planning the project, ensuring that milestones are met, writing reports, doing research, and cataloging photographs and drawings from the E.H. Davis Collection in collaboration with members of the local American Indian Community as well as scholars. SDHC also plans to invite social tagging of the newly-created collection records via the web. The Project Manger/Cataloger will work on the social tagging dimension in coordination with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative. This will be a full-time position for a period of 18 months.

"The Pre-History of Fair Use"

Matthew Sag has self-archived "The Pre-History of Fair Use" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

This article reconsiders the history of copyright’s pivotal fair use doctrine. The history of fair use does not in fact begin with early American cases such as Folsom v. Marsh in 1841, as most accounts assume—the complete history of the fair use doctrine begins with over a century of copyright litigation in the English courts. Reviewing this "pre-history" of the American fair use doctrine leads to three significant conclusions. The first is that copyright and fair use evolved together. Virtually from its inception, statutory copyright went well beyond merely mechanical acts of reproduction and was defined by the concept of fair abridgment. The second insight gained by extending our historical view is that there is in fact substantial continuity between fair abridgment in the pre-modern era and fair use in the United States today. These findings have substantial implications for copyright law today, the principal one being that fair use is central to the formulation of copyright, and not a mere exception.

The third conclusion relates to the contribution of Folsom v. Marsh itself. The pre-modern cases illustrate a half-formed notion of the derivative right: unauthorized derivatives could be enjoined to defend the market of the original work, but they did not constitute a separate market unto themselves. Folsom departs from the earlier English cases in that it recognizes derivatives as inherently valuable, not just a thing to be enjoined to defend the original work against substitution. . . . It seems likely that as more and more derivatives were enjoined defensively, courts and copyright owners began to see these derivatives as part of the author’s inherent rights in relation to his creation. In other words, once copyright owners were allowed to preclude derivatives to prevent competition with their original works, they quickly grew bold enough to assert an exclusive right in derivative works for their own sake.

Digital Services Librarian at Manhattanville College

The Manhattanville College Library is recruiting a Digital Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Library seeks a dynamic, student oriented, Digital Services Librarian to provide leadership, vision, and expertise related to systems and technologies that increase and enhance access to digital resources. This position will focus on ensuring consistent and integrated access to electronic resources in a technologically intensive learning environment. S/he will have responsibility for the Library's website including helping to develop a new mobile website. S/he will participate in the planning, development, implementation and maintenance of the Library's core digital initiatives, and will identify, evaluate, implement, and teach the use of new technologies that facilitate information access and that contribute to the development of library-related learning materials; participate in reference, information literacy instruction, collection development, and library committees as well as campus and professional activities.

Daily Tweets 2010-08-26

"Publishing Practices of NIH-Funded Faculty at MIT"

Courtney Crummett et al. have published "Publishing Practices of NIH-Funded Faculty at MIT" in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

Faculty and researchers who receive substantial funding from NIH were interviewed about their publication practices. Qualitative data was collected from interviews of eleven faculty members and one researcher representing six academic departments who received NIH funding. Interview responses were analyzed to identify a representative publication workflow and common themes related to the publication process. The goals of this study were to inform librarians about faculty publication practices; to learn how faculty are affected by and responding to NIH publication policy changes; and to inform planning and discussion about new services to support NIH compliance in addition to general faculty publishing.

Major themes from the interviews included consistency in publishing workflows, but variety in authorship patterns and in data management practices. Significant points of pain for authors included difficulty finding quality reviewers, frustrating submission processes, and discomfort about the implications of publication agreements. Some authors found the NIH submission requirement to be burdensome, but most assumed their publishers were taking care of this process for them. Implications for library services are considered.

University of Michigan Press Begins Renting E-Books

The University of Michigan Press has started an e-book rental program for over 250 e-books.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Costs will range from 40% of list price for a 30-day rental to 75% of list price for a 180-day rental. For example, a paperback textbook might carry a list price of $22.95; it could be viewed as a rental for $10 for 30 days, or $18 for 180 days. Scholars who rent a book will have the option at the end of the rental period to buy it permanently at an additional charge. Purchased versions include additional interactive features.

IT Infrastructure Manager at Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library is recruiting an IT Infrastructure Manager.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (job ID: 339126):

The Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure Manager is responsible for leading the network and server teams, managing the network, server and telecommunications infrastructure, and providing technology architecture, IT security and high level network/security problem resolution expertise: to ensure a functioning and optimal computing infrastructure across the Boston Public Library's branch library locations, the central library and its departments, across both internal and public computing programs and services, and encompassing all online and onsite IT services.

The IT Infrastructure Manager directly manages the network and server staff. The IT Infrastructure Manager will act internally and externally for the IT department as the deputy CTO as needed and on tasks and projects as assigned. This role will work closely and collaboratively with the IT Operations, Web Services and Applications Managers in particular to ensure a well coordinated delivery of IT services to internal and external customers. This role is also responsible for the on-call schedule, team scheduling, oversees personnel, and participates in strategic and budgetary planning procedures, including BPL's participation in the Federal eRate program. This is both a hands-on technical and managerial position. The position is also expected to maintain currency in cutting edge network and security technology and service delivery models, and provide appropriate leadership to BPL's IT department in this area.

The IT Infrastructure Manager is responsible for maintaining the Data Center, Server, Storage and Network inventory; for procuring, supporting and delivering maintenance for included equipment and software licenses. They maintain vendor relationships with key service providers that support and provide technology and network services for the BPL infrastructure.

IBM and European Union Collaborate on IMPACT (IMProving Access to Text) Project

IBM and the European Union are collaborating on a mass digitization project called on IMPACT (IMProving Access to Text).

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

IBM and the EU have expanded their research collaboration, which now includes more than two-dozen national libraries, research institutes, universities, and companies across Europe to provide new technology that will enable highly-accurate digitization of rare and culturally significant historical texts on a massive scale. Unlike past digitization projects where the result has been static, online libraries of texts, this unique widescale effort, called IMPACT (IMProving Access to Text), will offer new tools and best practices to institutions across Europe that will enable them to efficiently and accurately continue to produce quality digital replicas of historically significant texts and make them widely available, editable and searchable online.

Funded by the EU, IMPACT's research combines the power of new innovative Web-enabled adaptive optical character recognition (OCR) software with "crowd computing" technology—a fast growing concept designed around individuals, or 'crowds,' enhancing a process or product by sharing their knowledge and expertise to dramatically improve its quality and efficiency. Combined, these technologies will allow institutions for the first time to adapt digitization to the idiosyncrasies of old fonts, anomalies and even vocabularies–while reducing error rates by 35% and substitution rates by 75%.

Daily Tweets 2010-08-25