Year: 2011

Digital Collections Coordinator at Missouri State Library

The Missouri State Library is recruiting a Digital Collections Coordinator. MLS or an equivalent degree. Salary: $3,051-$3,225/month.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Collections Coordinator (DCC) manages the CONTENTdm database of the Missouri Digital Heritage Initiative, and assists with content recruitment for the project. The DCC works with cultural heritage institutions to format and upload digital collections, trains users on the CONTENTdm image management software, helps develop the MDH website, and design the search interface and custom queries. The DCC works with State Library and State Archives staff, user groups, and stakeholders to update standards and best practices for digital scanning, metadata creation, and web delivery of Missouri's digital collections.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Open Access Deposit Issues: "Seeking Custody"

Peter Suber has published "Seeking Custody" in the latest issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter.

Here's an excerpt:

If we want to make a digital file OA, and we already have an OA repository, then we face just two hurdles. We need a copy of the file and we need permission. We can call these the custody and copyright conditions. "Custody" here doesn't mean ownership of the rights, just possession of a copy. If we have possession and permission, then we don't need ownership.

The OA movement has given far more attention to the copyright or permission problem than to the custody or possession problem. This may have the effect of sweeping a difficult problem under the rug. We often have permission when we lack custody, and often find that solving the permission problem is easier than solving the custody problem. Here are some examples of what could be called permission success and custody failure.

(1) You've published an article in a TA journal which allows green OA or self-archiving. But the journal only allows deposit of the final version of the author's peer-reviewed manuscript, not the published version. You're fine with that and eager to make the manuscript OA. But you can't put your hands on the version you're allowed to deposit. You think it's on your hard drive somewhere, or in your email archive. But you're not sure. You haven't had time to look, or you've looked and found six versions. You don't have time to figure out which one, if any, is the deposit-eligible, peer-reviewed manuscript, or you've taken the time and you're still unsure. Or you have the version you submitted to the journal, and all the correspondence with the editor, but you don't have time to reconstruct the version approved by peer review. Or you might have deleted the relevant version in a fit of spring cleaning, as a superseded version not worth saving, or you might have failed to copy it over from your last computer when you upgraded. With enough detective work you could find out, but you don't know how much time it would take and you're pretty sure it would take more than you have.

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/5/11

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Librarian, Digital Projects at University of British Columbia Library (3 Positions)

The University of British Columbia Library is recruiting three Librarian, Digital Projects positions. Degree: MLS.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

We are seeking three innovative, experienced and professional librarians to contribute fully to the Library's digital initiatives program. These newly created positions will act as project managers for digitization projects by assisting with the development and management of the Library's locally created digital collections.

These positions will report to the Digital Initiatives Coordinator and consult broadly with library staff in the planning of digitization projects while also assuming responsibility for the coordination and management of contracts, staff, services and additional projects as required.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Maria Pallante Named Register of Copyrights

Maria Pallante has been named Register of Copyrights.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed Maria A. Pallante as the 12th Register of Copyrights and director of the United States Copyright Office, effective today. Pallante served as the Acting Register for the past five months, following the retirement of Marybeth Peters on December 31, 2010. . . .

Pallante has had wide-ranging experience in copyright transactions, policy and litigation, in both the government and private sectors. In addition to Acting Register, she has held several key positions within the Copyright Office: Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs (2008-2010), Deputy General Counsel (2007-2008), and Policy Advisor (1996-1997). She spent much of her career in New York, working there from 1999-2007 as intellectual property counsel and director of the licensing group for the worldwide Guggenheim Museums, where she advised on programmatic and business initiatives related to publishing, product development and branding. She has led two national author organizations, working as Executive Director of the National Writers Union (1993-1995) and as Assistant Director of the Authors Guild (1991-1993), and was associate counsel at the Washington-based law firm and literary agency, Lichtman, Trister, Singer and Ross.

Pallante is a 1990 graduate of the George Washington University Law School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Misericordia University, where she was also awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters. She completed a clerkship in administrative law under the Hon. G. Marvin Bober, appellate division, U.S. Department of Labor. During her career, Pallante has been a frequent speaker on copyright law at events in the United States and abroad, and has testified before Congress several times, including on the Copyright Reform Act (1993); Orphan Works (2006) and Online Enforcement of Rogue Websites (2011). She was a member of the Librarian’s 1993 Advisory Committee on Copyright Registration and Deposit and is currently serving on the Department of Education's Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Post-Secondary Education for Students with Disabilities.

Read more about it at "Public Knowledge Statement on Maria Pallante's Appointment as Register of Copyrights."

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

CLIR/DLF Awarded Grant for Digital Public Library of America Prototype

The Council on Library and Information Resources and the Digital Library Federation have been awarded a Mellon grant to develop a Digital Public Library of America Prototype.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded CLIR/DLF a $46,000 planning grant to develop a prototype for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The prototype will be submitted to the DPLA “beta sprint,” which seeks “ideas, models, prototypes, technical tools, [or] user interfaces . . . that demonstrate how the DPLA might index and provide access to a wide range of broadly distributed content.”

Rachel Frick, director of the DLF program, will manage the project and serve as co-principal investigator with Carole Palmer, professor and director of the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Palmer will lead UIUC staff in developing the prototype, which will demonstrate how the IMLS Digital Collections and Content Registry (DCC) and its research and development activities can serve the DPLA as a critical mass of base content, as well as an aggregation model. A functional prototype will be produced in combination with a set of static wireframes and demonstrations, showing how DCC’s advances in content, metadata, user experience, and infrastructure can be leveraged for the DPLA.

Palmer and Frick will work closely with Geneva Henry, executive director of the Center for Digital Scholarship at Rice University, who will produce a report that reviews current literature pertaining to the technical aspects of large-scale collection aggregations and federations. The report will review and compare the system architectures, content types, and scale of content of the DCC, Europeana, the National Science Digital Library, and other aggregations to shed light on how and why large-scale aggregation projects succeed or fail. The report will also identify potential content providers for the DPLA, and will estimate the time, effort, and other costs required to ingest these resources into the prototype.

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/2/11

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Associate Director for Digital Library Programmes and Information Technologies at Bodleian Libraries

The Bodleian Libraries are recruiting an Associate Director for Digital Library Programmes and Information Technologies. Salary: £72,000-£80,000.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Bodleian Libraries seek an Associate Director for Digital Library Programmes and Information Technologies, to join its senior executive and to lead the work of the Digital Library Systems and Services and IT staff, a group of 44 who are responsible for the technical planning and implementation of a broad spectrum of innovative projects and infrastructure development.

The Associate Director will provide strategic vision and direction for the Bodleian Digital Systems and Services and will represent Oxford in national and international discussions and planning activities relating to digital library development, data curation, and the application of information technologies to further the mission of the Bodleian Libraries in support of teaching and research.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Columbia University Libraries Adopt Open Access Policy

The Columbia University Libraries have adopted an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Columbia University Libraries is joining a growing movement among universities and research institutions to make scholarly research free and available to the public online. The Libraries is among the first departments at the university to adopt an open access resolution, which calls for faculty and other researchers to post their journal articles in online repositories such as Columbia's Academic Commons. In January, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory became the first program at Columbia to adopt an open access resolution.

The resolution for the Libraries, which goes into effect on June 1, 2011, will require librarians and other professional staff members to deposit their published scholarly works into Academic Commons or another repository that makes the work publicly available. By posting articles in an open-access repository, authors are able to make their works freely accessible to anyone in the world with an Internet connection and discoverable via Google Scholar and other search tools, thus promoting a wider dissemination of research and information.

"The Libraries at Columbia have championed open access to research,” James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, said. "It is appropriate that its professional staff should model this policy and place their works in repositories for wide access and use."

The resolution covers only scholarly journal articles and is not retroactive. There is an opt-out feature built into the resolution, with respect to publishing an article in a journal that insists on exclusivity.  The resolution will also cover Health Sciences Library professional staff.

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

Analyst Programmer Intermediate at Georgia State University Library

The Georgia State University Library is recruiting an Analyst Programmer Intermediate. Degree: Bachelor's degree (computer science or a related field preferred). Salary: $46,000-$52,900.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (vacancy number: 0601741):

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.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

"Transforming Our Bibliographic Framework: A Statement from the Library of Congress (May 13, 2011)"

The Library of Congress has issued "Transforming Our Bibliographic Framework: A Statement from the Library of Congress (May 13, 2011)."

Here's an excerpt:

The Associate Librarian of Congress for Library Services, Deanna Marcum, is leading an initiative at the Library to analyze the present and future environment, identify the components of the framework to support our users, and plan for the evolution from our present framework to the future—not just for the Library of Congress, but for all institutions that depend on bibliographic data shared by the Library and its partners. The Library of Congress has invested considerable resources in the development of broadly implemented encoding standards such as MARC 21, as well as cataloging standards and vocabularies such as the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition (AACR2), RDA, and the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Spontaneous comments from participants in the US RDA Test show that a broad cross-section of the community feels budgetary pressures but nevertheless considers it necessary to replace MARC 21 in order to reap the full benefit of new and emerging content standards. The Library now seeks to evaluate how its resources for the creation and exchange of metadata are currently being used and how they should be directed in an era of diminishing budgets and heightened expectations in the broader library community. . . .

The Library of Congress's process will be fully collaborative. We will consult our partners and customers in the metadata community, standards experts in and out of libraries, and designers and builders of systems that make use of library metadata. We intend to host meetings during conferences of the American Library Association, specialized library associations, and international organizations, as well as special “town hall” meetings open to the metadata community, to gather input from all interested parties. We plan to establish an electronic discussion group for constant communication during the effort of reshaping our bibliographic framework, and we expect to host a series of invitational meetings of experts and stakeholders in 2012 and 2013.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 6/1/11

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Alliance Digital Repository Services Director

The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries is recruiting an Alliance Digital Repository Services Director. Degree: MLS.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The ADR Services Director oversees the administration, development and implementation of consortial digital repository services at the Alliance. This position plays a key role in the continuing development and operation of a shared Fedora Commons/Islandora installation which provides the foundation for Alliance members’ and affiliates’ institutional digital repository initiatives. This position directs budget and resource allocations, including oversight of hardware and infrastructure procurement, software development, recruitment and management of personnel, contractor and vendor relations, collaborative communications, and member support services. This position coordinates the investigation, adoption, and adherence to established and emerging digital repository, digital preservation, and data curation standards, best practices, and trends, including content and metadata development, distributed data storage and disaster recovery, and rights, usage, and general policy compliance by participating institutions.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Digital Book Publishing in the AAUP: Community Survey Report: Spring 2011

The Association of American University Presses has released Digital Book Publishing in the AAUP Community: Survey Report: Spring 2011.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Unsurprisingly, the 2011 results shows that every press is pursuing at least two digital publishing strategies, and almost all are expanding into many more. However, resource constraints continue to slow the development of healthy experimental models or delay the implementation of necessary digitization and workflow projects. Confirming the findings and recommendations of the recent AAUP report "Sustaining Scholarly Publishing," this digital pulse-taking indicates that finding new models to support scholarly publishing and strengthening the digital backbone of AAUP members are the top priorities in digital book publishing for the community.

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

"Owning the Right to Open Up Access to Scientific Publications"

Lucie Guibault has self-archived "Owning the Right to Open Up Access to Scientific Publications" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Whether the researchers themselves, rather than the institution they work for, are at all in a position to implement OA principles actually depends on the initial allocation of rights on their works. Whereas most European Union Member States have legislation that provides that the copyright owner is the natural person who created the work, the copyright laws of a number European countries, including those of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, establish a presumption, according to which the copyright of works made in the course of employment belongs initially to the employer, which in this case would be the university. In France, a similar presumption applies to works created by employees of the State. Even if researchers are in a position to exercise the rights on their works, they may, nevertheless, be required to transfer these to a publisher in order to get their article or book published. This paper, therefore, analyses the legal position of researchers, research institutions and publishers respectively, and considers what the consequences are for the promotion of OA publishing in light of the principles laid down in the Berlin Declaration and the use of Creative Commons licenses.

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

Systems & Technology Librarian at Dover Public Library

The Dover Public Library (Dover, NH) is recruiting a Systems & Technology Librarian. Degree: MLS.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

  1. Manage, plan and administer all aspects of the library’s ILS, providing technical expertise, support, and training for the successful operation and development of all automated modules.
  2. Plan and execute all system hardware and software upgrades, purchases, and replacements, and participate in the selection and installation of any new ILS system.
  3. Lead the library in exploring, evaluating, and adopting emergent technology products and solutions which can improve customers’ experience, and/or optimize use of library resources.
  4. Redesign, expand, and maintain the library’s website and content management systems.
  5. Manage and support the library’s population of desktop, handheld computing devices, and related technologies, including all staff and public computers and servers.
  6. Supervise the library’s Technical Services Office workflow (Acquisitions & Cataloging).

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 5/31/11

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Systems Programmer III at University of Louisville Libraries

The University of Louisville Libraries are recruiting a Systems Programmer III. Degree: “Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and three years of experience as a Systems Programmer or Computer Specialist. Additional experience may be used on a one-to-one basis to offset the educational requirements.”

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University Libraries seeks an energetic, creative individual to work as a System Programmer III in the Office of Libraries' Technology. The key responsibilities include: Manage departmental network and servers including server configurations, administration, maintenance, and disaster recovery preparedness. Manage the unit Active Directory accounts. Partner with Information Technology (IT) regarding implementation, testing and user acceptance, and security for enterprise applications. Assist with computer hardware and software installations, upgrades and resolution of computing-related problems. Candidate must have work experience with configuring and managing Microsoft Windows servers on Active Directory. The desired candidate must have strong background experience in Microsoft Web server and SQL server administration as well as operating system servers.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

"The Application of File Identification, Validation, and Characterization Tools in Digital Curation"

Kevin M. Ford has self-archived his M.S. theses, "The Application of File Identification, Validation, and Characterization Tools in Digital Curation," in IDEALS.

Here's an excerpt:

File format identification, characterization, and validation are considered essential processes for digital preservation and, by extension, long-term data curation. These actions are performed on data objects by humans or computers, in an attempt to identify the type of a given file, derive characterizing information that is specific to the file, and validate that the given file conforms to its type specification. The present research reviews the literature surrounding these digital preservation activities, including their theoretical basis and the publications that accompanied the formal release of tools and services designed in response to their theoretical foundation. It also reports the results from extensive tests designed to evaluate the coverage of some of the software tools developed to perform file format identification, characterization, and validation actions. Tests of these tools demonstrate that more work is needed – particularly in terms of scalable solutions – to address the expanse of digital data to be preserved and curated. The breadth of file types these tools are anticipated to handle is so great as to call into question whether a scalable solution is feasible, and, more broadly, whether such efforts will offer a meaningful return on investment. Also, these tools, which serve to provide a type of baseline reading of a file in a repository, can be easily tricked. It is possible to generate files with nothing more than a proper file extension and correct magic number and have the tools "positively" identify the file. This is not the same as a file that conforms to its specification, and one that could be considered valid. The ability to manipulate the results returned by these tools raises issues of identity, trust, security and risk.

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

Web Services Librarian at Des Plaines Public Library

The Des Plaines Public Library (Des Plaines, IL) is recruiting a Web Services Librarian. Degree: MLS.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Under the general supervision of the Assistant Director, this person is responsible for the technologies that will enhance the library Web site and that will provide easy 24/7 access to the library's electronic resources and services. This person will identify and evaluate emerging social software that encourage patron participation and interaction with the collection and services and that connect people and technology. This person will assist the Management Team in strategic planning to integrate new technologies with the library's goals and objectives. This person will develop and implement services that will increase points of access to information and to the collection. This person deals responsibly with patron problems and emergencies to maintain a safe and pleasant environment.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

S.978 Would Make Unauthorized Streaming a Felony with 5 Year Maximum Sentence

Senator Amy Klobuchar and two cosponsors have introduced S.978, which would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted works a felony.

Here's an excerpt:

‘(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if–

‘(A) the offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works; and

‘(B)(i) the total retail value of the performances, or the total economic value of such public performances to the infringer or to the copyright owner, would exceed $2,500; or

‘(ii) the total fair market value of licenses to offer performances of those works would exceed $5,000;’

Read more about it at "New Bill Upgrades Unauthorized Internet Streaming to a Felony" and “U.S. Bill To Criminalize Illicit Movie/Music Streaming.”

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 5/30/11

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Digital Projects/Web Services Librarian at Carroll College

Carroll College is recruiting a Digital Projects/Web Services Librarian (10 month/year position). Degree: MLS.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Responsibilities include developing and implementing projects related to digitization and web services; promoting awareness and use of electronic resources, providing reference service and instruction to student and faculty; developing the library collection.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

U.S. Department of Education Issues FAQ on E-Book Accessibility Requirements

The U.S. Department of Education has issued "Frequently Asked Questions about the June 29, 2010, Dear Colleague Letter." The FAQ is "a 'significant guidance document' under the Office of Management and Budget's Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices."

Here's an excerpt:

Specifically, some postsecondary institutions were using electronic book readers that are inaccessible to students who are blind or have low vision. As explained by the DCL, application of our long-standing nondiscrimination requirements means that schools must provide an electronic book reader (i.e., the technology that the school uses to provide educational benefits, services, or opportunities) that is fully accessible to students who are blind or have low vision; otherwise schools must provide accommodations or modifications to ensure that the benefits of their educational program are provided to these students in an equally effective and equally integrated manner.

Read more about it at "Joint 'Dear Colleague' Letter: Electronic Book Readers."

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (May 29, 2011)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |