Information Technology Librarian at University of Maryland, Baltimore County Library

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County Library is recruiting an Information Technology Librarian. Degree: "ALA-accredited Master’s degree in library and/or information science." Minimum salary: $58,000.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Oversees the daily operations of the Library Information Technology and Systems Unit and is responsible for administering and maintaining library specific applications including but not limited to, ILLiad, GIST, CONTENTdm, Connexion, and Aleph. Works collaboratively with library staff to explore the use of new and/or existing technologies and offer innovative ideas for delivering technology based services and resources in an academic library environment. Works collaboratively with others in the library and on campus to develop and maintain the library web pages and the library’s web presence. Assists with the coordination and continued development of Library digitization projects. Responsibilities may include reviewing library hardware and software needs as well as providing programming support for library services and projects. Participates as the IT expert on library committees and working groups. Trains and supervises LITS staff and offers software training to general library staff. When necessary, documents and develops procedures.

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Funding for Sustainability: How Funders’ Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources

Ithaka S+R has released Funding for Sustainability: How Funders' Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources.

Here's an excerpt:

With support from the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, Ithaka S+R conducted a study to examine the ways that both public and private funding bodies in academic and cultural heritage sectors are defining sustainability and encouraging the digital resources they help to create to endure and continue to provide value well beyond the term of the grant. The project explored the funding practices of over 25 funders that support various forms of digital resources, and included over 100 interviews with more than 80 programme officers, foundation directors, project leaders and other experts. Our goal was to gain an understanding of how funders think about the long-term viability of the digital resources they support, and the policies and practices they have put in place to encourage successful outcomes.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Web Developer at University of Kansas Libraries

The University of Kansas Libraries are recruiting a Web Developer. Salary: $42,000-$62,000.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (position number: 00007883):

This web development position develops and integrates applications that improve the user experience in discovering, accessing, and using library resources and services across the entire KU Libraries environment. S/he assists in gathering requirements, writes code, maintains documentation, and supports applications use. The web developer explores and analyses emerging technologies to support the Libraries' expanding services in digital scholarship and scholarly communication.

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Current Issues in Research Communications: Open Access—The View from the Academy

The Research Communications Strategy project has released Current Issues in Research Communications: Open Access—The View from the Academy. Three prior reports are also available.

Here's an excerpt:

This is the fourth and final quarterly report to JISC from the Research Communications Strategy (RCS) project. In addition to a strategic overview of developments and issues in the sector, it contains a number of recommendations for further action. It includes:

  • initial results from the RCS?s recent opinion-gathering activities on attitudes to open access among researchers and senior managers in HEIs
  • comments on some ongoing issues relevant to the open access (OA) agenda
  • suggested approaches to future OA advocacy.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/13/11

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Web Services Librarian at Ithaca College Library

The Ithaca College Library is recruiting a Web Services Librarian. Degree: "Master's Degree in Library Science or Management Information Systems from an ALA-accredited school."

Here's an excerpt from the ad (vacancy ID: 003249):

Full-time position to provide leadership, direction, and expertise in design and development of an evolving library web presence to enhance the user experience. Coordinate ongoing activities related to web content development, implementation, and evaluation. Serve on library teams as appropriate. Collaborate with other campus units on projects, as assigned. Provide general reference assistance, as assigned.

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Georgia State University Motion for Directed Verdict Granted in Part in Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al. Case

U.S. District Court Judge Orinda D. Evans granted Georgia State University's motion for directed verdict in part in the Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al. case. A directed verdict for the contributory infringement claim was granted.

Here's an excerpt from "Publishers Lose Another Claim as GSU Trial Comes to a Close" by Brandon Butler:

And just like that, Judge Orinda Evans threw out the second of the publishers' three claims. Now indirect infringement is the only remaining claim against GSU. . . .

This claim is the hardest one for GSU to avoid because, in theory, the publishers just have to find one infringement by one professor to prove GSU is an 'indirect infringer.'

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/12/11

  • Unlocking HathiTrust: Inside the Librarians' Digital Library, http://bit.ly/lDgPEu
  • Open Repositories 2011 Report: Day 3 – Clifford Lynch Keynote on Open Questions for Repositories . . ., http://bit.ly/lec9Fi
  • Open Repositories 2011 Report: Day 2 with DSpace Plus Fedora and Lots of Lightning Talks, http://bit.ly/lXUi69
  • UK Politicians Puzzle over Peer Review in an Open Access Environment, http://bit.ly/inZDVC
  • Has the Revolution in Scholarly Communication Lived Up to Its Promise?, http://bit.ly/kLI8Mr

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Minnesota Digital Library Metadata Coordinator at University of Minnesota Libraries

The University of Minnesota Libraries are recruiting a Minnesota Digital Library Metadata Coordinator. Degree: "Master's degree in Library/Information Science or equivalent combination of advanced degree and relevant experience."

Here's an excerpt from the ad (requisition number: 172261):

The MDL Metadata Coordinator reports to the Director of Digital Library Services. This is a 100% appointment within the Information Technology division. This position leads, monitors, and facilitates multiple metadata projects for the Minnesota Digital Library as part of the DLS. Responsibilities include metadata entry, data enhancement, working with CONTENTdm, developing methods for the efficient transfer of data, and training of participants.

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OpenAccess.se’s Steering Committee Objects to Elsevier’s Self-Archiving Policy’s Position on OA Mandates

OpenAccess.se's Steering Committee has issued a statement that objects to Elsevier's self-archiving policy's position on open access mandates.

Here's an excerpt:

Elsevier now requires specific agreements with universities or research funders if there is an open access mandate to deposit and disseminate articles in a specific open archive. These agreements may involve long embargo periods and restrict availability of research results. . . .

We recommend that Swedish universities with open access mandates refrain from concluding separate agreements with Elsevier. Instead, this issue should be managed along with negotiations over national license agreements with Elsevier.

Previously, UKB, a consortium of the thirteen Dutch university libraries and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, issued a statement about the policy.

Here's an excerpt:

The [Elsevier] clause states that an author "has the right to post a revised personal version of the text of the final journal article (to reflect changes made in the peer review process) on your personal or institutional web site or server for scholarly purposes, incorporating the complete citation and with a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article (but not in subject-oriented or centralized repositories or institutional repositories with mandates for systematic postings unless there is a specific agreement with the publisher. . . .

UKB is deeply concerned about the fact that Elsevier has recently adapted its Open Access policy and has taken the initiative to negotiate directly with universities and research institutions about the conditions under which their authors may deposit manuscripts of their own articles in repositories. UKB aims to expand the digital availability of Dutch scientific output and is an advocate of publication in Open Access. UKB therefore deplores every action that results in the restriction of that accessibility, such as unacceptably long embargo periods. In addition, UKB is concerned about the consequences of this clause, namely that it will become even less clear for authors whether and according to which conditions they are allowed to post their article in a repository. This in turn will create an extra obstacle preventing authors from doing so. It is the view of UKB that an author should in principle have the right to deposit his own article, preferably in the version produced by the publisher but in any case in the final author’s version, a right which should not become dependent on (subsequent) agreements with publishers. UKB is particularly concerned about the fact that publishers may overrule agreements made between authors and funding bodies by means of this policy.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Project Manager, Digital Content Infrastructure at Yale University’s Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure

Yale University's Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure is recruiting a Project Manager, Digital Content Infrastructure. Degree: Bachelor's degree.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Yale's Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure (ODAI) is charged with developing a digital content management strategy for Yale and building digital content and technical infrastructure in a coordinated and collaborative manner across the entire campus. Programs include the development and deployment of large-scale digital asset management systems, long-term preservation repositories for Yale digital content in all formats, cross-collection search capabilities to enable discovery of collections hosted by numerous departments, and many other innovative initiatives.

Reporting to the Digital Information Architect, the Project Manager will manage the core projects comprising the ODAI infrastructure and related support services. This includes but is not limited to digital asset management systems, digital library systems, content management systems, knowledge management systems, web content management systems, media processing systems, storage systems, and related ancillary products and services. The Project Manager will coordinate activities within ODAI and across distributed work teams assembled from ODAI staff, faculty and staff from academic units, academic partners, Information Technology Services, university service providers, external solution providers, and consultants.

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Recent Commentary about the Georgia State E-Reserves Copyright Case (Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al.)

Below is some recent commentary about the Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al. case.

"A Nightmare Scenario for Higher Education" by Kevin Smith. Here's an excerpt:

First, if this injunction were adopted as proposed, it would enjoin everyone at Georgia State, including students, who would seem to largely lose their fair use rights by virtue of enrolling at GSU. It would apply to e-reserves, faculty web pages and any learning management systems in use or adopted in the future. It would make GSU responsible for every conceivable act of copying that took place on their campus. In short, administrators at Georgia State would have to look over the shoulders of each faculty member whenever they uploaded course material to an LMS or any other web page. . . .

Not only would GSU have to micromanage each faculty member’s choices about how to teach every class, they would also have to give the plaintiff publishers access to all of the computer systems on campus so that they too could examine each professor’s decisions.

"The Georgia State Filing—A Declaration of War on the Faculty?" by Paul Courant. Here's an excerpt:

Call me gullible, but even now I am not fully persuaded that academic publishers are the enemies of faculty and the university. However, I do think that something has gone horribly wrong when entities that were created to serve scholarship employ legal procedures that would hamstring scholars and students who engage in customary and effective behaviors in their teaching and learning. I hope that Judge Evans will recognize that the publishers’ proposal is a plain violation of copyright and would be destructive of vital public purposes.

"What's at Stake in the Georgia State Copyright Case." The Chronicle of Higher Education published comments from prominent experts in this article. Here's an excerpt from Dorothea Salo's contribution:

Should a ruling come down that adds so much complication, cost, or risk to provisions about electronic reserves that institutions and their libraries no longer feel safe offering them, faculty and librarians will unite at last in shared outrage on the far shore of the Rubicon.

"Georgia State, Copyright and the Future of Higher Education" by Tracy Mitrano. Here's an excerpt:

We need senior leadership in our institutions, guided by national associations, to pull that campus radical of the 1960's out of the suits and high heels we now don and get serious about a direction of change that preserves us.

"The Georgia State University Lawsuit Injunction: Back to the Future" by Peggy Hoon. Here's an excerpt:

However, this proposed injunction is so onerous, so intrusive, so far-reaching, and so incompatible with the reality of teaching and learning in the 21st century, that simply widely publicizing the existence of and contents of the proposed injunction may well achieve what the library community has been trying to do for the last twenty years.

**WAKE UP THE FACULTY AND MOBILIZE THEM TO RECLAIM CONTROL OF THEIR OWN WORKS OF AUTHORSHIP AND THEIR OWN SYSTEM OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION.**

This injunction is your fuel—now LIGHT that fire!

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

Digital Initiatives Librarian at Duke University’s J. Michael Goodson Law Library

The J. Michael Goodson Law Library at Duke University is recruiting a Digital Initiatives Librarian. Degree: MLS or equivalent degree from accredited U.S. institution, or non-U.S. equivalents.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

  1. Coordinate and develop the Law School Scholarship Repository. Responsibilities include: working with other DLSIS staff members in developing and implementing plans to enhance and increase the coverage of Duke Law’s Digital Commons repository to provide more comprehensive access to Duke Law’s intellectual and scholarly output in a variety of media formats. Working with law school members assure that repository content is available in all contexts where it can add value.
  2. Provide digital applications support for faculty scholarship and teaching. Responsibilities include: working with faculty to employ web applications for research projects; providing services to support digital scholarship and the production of digital content; assisting faculty in effectively employing Blackboard and (in 2012) Sakai course management systems; working with faculty to create multimedia learning interactions; consulting with faculty on the instructional application of multimedia technologies; developing training materials and workshops to assist faculty in learning about instructional media applications and products.
  3. Provide digital applications support for library service assessment, with tools such as Google Analytics and surveys, and library web projects (e.g., historical faculty project).
  4. Develop and manage digitization projects for the library and other law school departments. Responsibilities include working with other DLSIS staff in developing digitization projects to organize and make accessible unique materials from within the library holdings.

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JISC Managing Research Data Programme Issues Call for Grant Proposals

The JISC Managing Research Data Programme has issued a call for grant proposals.

Here's an excerpt from the notice:

A total of approximately £4.6M will be available, divided across three strands. The deadline for submissions will be 28 July 2011. . . .

The strands are as follows:

Strand A: Institutional Research Data Management Infrastructure: divided between A(1) Start-up projects to help institutions that are at an early stage of developing a research data management infrastructure; and A(2) Embedding projects to help institutions enhance and extend an existing pilot research data management infrastructure. . . .

Strand B: Research Data Management Planning: projects to design and implement research data management plans for specific projects/departments; including supporting systems and tools. . . .

Strand C: Projects to develop and implement institutional data management planning tools/workflows.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/9/11

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Text Creation Partnership Project Outreach Librarian at University of Michigan Library

The University of Michigan Library is recruiting a Text Creation Partnership Project Outreach Librarian. Degree: ALA-accredited Master's degree, or an equivalent combination of a relevant advanced degree. Three year term-limited appointment with possibilities for extension.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

he University of Michigan Library and Oxford University Library have collaborated for several years with three corporate partners, ProQuest Information and Learning, Readex-Newsbank and Gale Cengage Learning, in an international effort to create structurally marked-up full-text transcriptions of early English and American printed books, dating from 1475 to 1800, on behalf of a large and growing academic consortium, the Text Creation Partnership (TCP) www.lib.umich.edu/tcp/. About 48,000 texts have been produced so far, towards a goal of 80,000, representing a substantial portion of the nearly 300,000 books contained in the subscription databases from which they are transcribed: Early English Books Online (EEBO), Evans Early American Imprints, and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). ProQuest, Readex, and Gale supply the page images; Michigan and Oxford oversee the keying and SGML/XML tagging; and the partner libraries own the resulting corpus. This is arguably the largest and most significant full-text project of its kind undertaken to date, not least in that it is being done under terms that reflect the needs and values of libraries and scholars. Through 2014, the primary focus of the TCP is to produce around 44,000 texts for a second phase of the EEBO-TCP partnership (the first phase, which ended in 2009, produced around 25,000 texts).

The Text Creation Partnership Project Outreach Librarian will be appointed as a Librarian (or equivalent professional classification) at the University Library and will work under the supervision of the Associate University Librarian for Publishing. The Outreach Librarian will be housed in the MPublishing division at the University of Michigan Library and will interact with a wide range of staff throughout the Library system. The University of Michigan is a national leader in digital library development and the Project Outreach Librarian will be working with skilled digital library and electronic publishing specialists as well as leading collection, service, and processing librarians at Michigan, Oxford, ProQuest, and the libraries funding and supporting the project.

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eBooks and eReaders in Public and Academic Libraries

The Poudre River Public Library, the Front Range Community College Library, and the Colorado State University Libraries have released eBooks and eReaders in Public and Academic Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

A joint Poudre River Public, Front Range Community College, and Colorado State University libraries committee has released a report on the state of eBooks and eReaders. The purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of this rapidly-developing topic, and to make recommendations aimed at serving the customers of each library.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Senior Technology Architect at Texas Digital Library

The Texas Digital Library is recruiting a Senior Technology Architect. Salary: $7,500 per month, negotiable. Terminates on 08/31/2013.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (posting number: 11-06-07-01-9364):

Conceptualize, design, and lead the development of complex software systems deployed by the Texas Digital Library.

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"Evaluating Repository Annual Metrics for SCONUL"

Gareth James Johnson has self-archived "Evaluating Repository Annual Metrics for SCONUL" in the Leicester Research Archive.

Here's an excerpt:

This report is a summarisation of the responses to a recent survey of the UKCoRR membership concerning the use of full-text downloads as a repository performance metric within the SCONUL annual statistical survey. It hopes to present a representative snapshot of the current opinions in this area from repository managers.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Institutional Repository Bibliography |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/8/11

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Web Programmer/Jr Network Administrator at UC Davis University Library

The UC Davis University Library is recruiting a Web Programmer/Jr Network Administrator Salary: $3,316.00-$5,637.00/mo.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (requisition number: 03005527):

Under general supervision, reporting to the Unix Administrator, perform routine system and network administration tasks such as provisioning resources, monitoring availability, and troubleshooting access. Participate in special projects such as evaluating and designing solutions for systems projects and data migrations. Evaluate and implement open source programs and design advanced solutions to diverse problems. Provide support to other Systems Department projects by coding, debugging and testing programs, and updates existing programs to support software and hardware upgrades. Provide technical support for digital library initiatives. Function as an advanced web developer on the Web Services Team which is responsible for designing and influencing standards for coding and documenting of library web pages. Maintain current and accurate configuration tables for the Integrated Library System OPAC (Aleph), and link resolver (SFX).

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UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Implements Open Access Policy

The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is implementing an open access policy. The EPSRC is "the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, investing more than £850 million a year in a broad range of subjects—from mathematics to materials science, and from information technology to structural engineering."

Here's an excerpt from the policy:

EPSRC Council has agreed to mandate open access publication, with the proviso that academics should be able to choose the approach best suited to their field of research. This mandate is now being implemented: EPSRC requires authors to comply with this mandate and ensure that all published research articles arising from EPSRC-sponsored research, and which are submitted for publication on or after 1st September 2011, must become available on an Open Access basis through any appropriate route. As now, publication costs may be recovered either as 'directly incurred costs' (if incurred before the end date of the relevant research project) or as indirect costs (and hence factored into the fEC indirect cost rate for the relevant research organisation).

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Associate Applications Developer at Caltech Library Services

Caltech Library Services is recruiting an Associate Applications Developer. Degree: Bachelors degree.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

1. Develop software libraries and modules or modify existing libraries/modules for digital library projects; perform data conversions.
a. Design, write, and debug applications based on cross-department consultation
b. Write scripts to perform data conversions. Independently evaluate, select, and apply appropriate techniques to translate source formats to target formats
c. Adapt existing modules of open source document repository software for local implementation
d. Create new modules to extend functionality for repository software
e. Perform maintenance and modification of other library software systems

2. Perform coding and analysis to modify and improve web interfaces for library software systems
a. Use XHTML templates, CSS, JavaScript and Perl/PHP code as well as appropriate newer technologies to update and improve user interfaces for open source software systems
b. Contribute to usability analysis of library software systems by developing an understanding of user behavior via technical feedback mechanisms (server log analysis, statistical reports, etc.)
c. Assist library web team with maintenance of the library web site

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"’If It Is too Inconvenient I’m Not Going after It:’ Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-Seeking Behaviors"

A preprint of Lynn Sillipigni Connaway, Timothy J. Dickey, and Marie L. Radford's paper "'If It Is too Inconvenient I'm Not Going after It:' Convenience as a Critical Factor in Information-Seeking Behaviors" is available from OCLC Research.

Here's an excerpt:

In today's fast-paced world, anecdotal evidence suggests that information tends to inundate people, and users of information systems want to find information quickly and conveniently. Empirical evidence for convenience as a critical factor is explored in the data from two multi-year, user study projects funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The theoretical framework for this understanding is founded in the concepts of bounded rationality and rational choice theory, with Savolainen's (2006) concept of time as a context in information seeking, as well as gratification theory, informing the emphasis on the seekers' time horizons. Convenience is a situational criterion in peoples' choices and actions during all stages of the information-seeking process. The concept of convenience can include their choice of an information source, their satisfaction with the source and its ease of use, and their time horizon in information seeking. The centrality of convenience is especially prevalent among the younger subjects ("millennials") in both studies, but also holds across all demographic categories—age, gender, academic role, or user or non-user of virtual reference services. These two studies further indicate that convenience is a factor for making choices in a variety of situations, including both academic information seeking and everyday-life information seeking, although it plays different roles in different situations.

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Digital Integration Librarian at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga’s Lupton Library

The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga's Lupton Library is recruiting a Digital Integration Librarian. Degree: Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited program. Salary: $42,500 minimum.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Head of Materials Processing, the Digital Integration Librarian implements public facing digital tools and services that connect electronic and other library resources for patrons. The Digital Integration Librarian leads the development of new methods of resource delivery that connect the UTC community members to information resources.

Position responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Implement innovative services that ensure the discovery of library resources in all formats, with an emphasis on digital resources;
  • Promote and improve resource access by updating, customizing, and integrating interfaces for e-resource discovery, including vendor platforms for databases/e-journals/e-books, and other library resources;
  • Manage proxy access to library holdings and assist in managing workflows associated with access;
  • Gather, analyze, and report statistics on e-resources and services usage;
  • Work closely with the Library Information Technology Department on the development and implementation of electronic services;
  • Work closely with Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian to optimize content exposure;

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