Month: March 2012

Mark Phillips Named as One of Library Journal’s 2012 Movers & Shakers

Mark Phillips, Assistant Dean for Digital Libraries at the University of North Texas Libraries, has been named as one of Library Journal's 2012 Movers & Shakers.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

An accomplished systems architect, Phillips redesigned and rebuilt the university's digital library (digital.library.unt.edu). It's now a vast repository of collections from various UNT libraries, schools, and departments, and the sprawling Portal to Texas History (texashistory.unt.edu) is also based on this system. In 2011, Phillips worked on upgrades and explored avenues for discovery and use of the materials now housed online.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Library Software Developer at Purdue University Libraries

The Purdue University Libraries are recruiting a Digital Library Software Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (job number: 1200273):

The Digital Library Software Developer will be responsible for implementing and developing software to build out a long-term preservation environment for research data allowing the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) to sustain published materials. This position will also collaborate with Purdue colleagues, and with both national and international partners, to develop and implement software in support of policies and practices that enable long-term digital data management and preservation. This is an 18 month position with the possibility of continued funding.

| Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

G. Sayeed Choudhury Given 2012 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library Technology

G. Sayeed Choudhury has been given the 2012 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library Technology.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Mr. Choudhury was selected by the award jury for his leadership in the field of data curation through the National Science Foundation-supported Data Conservancy project, which expands the capabilities of research libraries in serving researchers and the institutions of which they are a part, and for his ongoing impact on the field of librarianship in applying the principles of librarianship to the curation and preservation of digital data. He is the Associate Dean for Research Data Management and Hodson Director of the Digital Research and Curation Center at the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins University. He is also the Director of Operations for the Institute of Data Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES) based at Johns Hopkins. In addition, he is a member of the National Academies Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI), the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Council, the DuraSpace Board and a Senior Presidential Fellow with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Senior Software Developer at Northwestern University Library

The Northwestern University Library is recruiting a Senior Software Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position will work in a highly collaborative environment with Library colleagues and external partners on the analysis, design, coding and testing of software in order to explore, adapt, and implement emerging digital repository technologies particularly in the areas of digital preservation, metadata, collections, discovery, and repository services.

| Digital Bibliographies | Digital Scholarship |

"The Informatics Transform: Re-engineering Libraries for the Data Decade"

Liz Lyon has published "The Informatics Transform: Re-engineering Libraries for the Data Decade" in the latest issue of the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper, Liz Lyon explores how libraries can re-shape to better reflect the requirements and challenges of today's data-centric research landscape. The Informatics Transform presents five assertions as potential pathways to change, which will help libraries to re-position, re-profile, and re-structure to better address research data management challenges. The paper deconstructs the institutional research lifecycle and describes a portfolio of ten data support services which libraries can deliver to support the research lifecycle phases. Institutional roles and responsibilities for research data management are also unpacked, building on the framework from the earlier Dealing with Data Report. Finally, the paper examines critical capacity and capability challenges and proposes some innovative steps to addressing the significant skills gaps.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

"Teaching with Google Books: Research, Copyright, and Data Mining"

Nathan Rinne has self-archived "Teaching with Google Books: Research, Copyright, and Data Mining" in E-LIS.

Here's an excerpt:

Google's Google Books site is a rich resource that is probably underutilized by most educators. It has all kinds of potential for a) getting students into the research process in a way that they will enjoy (for example, they can see how a famous quote has been used/quoted, find out which books cite the journal article they are interested in, or check to see if a specific book covers a topic that they want to explore, etc.); b) teaching them about the deeper civic purpose and the evolving state of copyright law; and, c) exploring, with the help of Google Book's Ngram viewer, the promise and ethics surrounding the issue of data-mining and "non-consumptive" research, or research that is accomplished by "mining" books for data, as opposed to reading them.

| Google Books Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Web Developer at MIT Libraries

The MIT Libraries are recruiting a Web Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Head of Software Development and Analysis, the Web Developer will be responsible for technical planning, development, and implementation of Web-based applications and interfaces. S/he will work collaboratively with members of the User Experience and Enterprise Systems departments to implement enhancements to the MIT Libraries website presence and electronic resources discovery and access systems. The Web Developer will maintain up-to-date system documentation and manage code in a version-control system. S/he will also work with both technical and non-technical library staff to provide general web development guidance and expertise. As a member of the Software Development and Analysis Department, the Web Developer will work with other software engineers in supporting the ongoing development of the MIT Libraries software infrastructure, including, but not limited to, institutional repositories (DSpace, and others), digital library collection management systems, digital archiving systems, GIS web applications, and other digital library systems. S/he will collaborate with other technology partners both on and off-campus.

| E-science and Academic Libraries Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Curator at Texas Woman’s University Libraries

The Texas Woman's University Libraries are recruiting a Digital Curator.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Provides highly responsible data curation and management of digital resources, to include preservation and curation research and development activities and initiatives. Creates digital collections, enables discovery and retrieval, and promotes and preserves. Works with products of mass digitization, items from special collections such as the Woman's Collection and supports electronic research and online exhibits. Responsible for assisting visitors to the special collections with research services, assists students with primary resources, and provides high level research services to scholars, educators and journalists.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"Orphan Works: Mapping the Possible Solution Spaces"

David Robert Hansen has self-archived "Orphan Works: Mapping the Possible Solution Spaces" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper surveys a range of proposed orphan works solutions. The goal is to acquaint the reader with the wide variety of solution types, and to identify the positive and negative aspects of each. The paper discusses four general categories of proposed solutions to the orphan works problem: Remedy-limitation approaches, such as the one advocated in the 2006 U.S. Copyright office proposal, that are predicated on a user's good-faith, reasonable search for rights holders; administrative systems, such as the one adopted in Canada, that allow users to petition a centralized copyright board to license specific reuses of orphan works; access and reuse solutions that are tailored to rely upon the existing doctrine of fair use; and extended collective licensing schemes, which permit collective management organizations ('CMOs') to license the use of works that are not necessarily owned by CMO members, but that are representative of the CMO members' works.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Version 80 | Digital Scholarship |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 3/11/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Metadata & Emerging Technologies Librarian at Yale University Library

The Yale University Library is recruiting a Metadata & Emerging Technologies Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (STARS requisition number: 15763BR):

Reporting to the Leader of the Metadata and Catalog Management team, provides expertise and training to support the analysis, selection, and implementation of metadata schemas needed for the development of digital content projects and services at Yale. Responsibilities include Metadata production, consultation, and database queries and SQL skill development.

| E-science and Academic Libraries Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"Digital Curation and the Cloud"

Brian Aitken, Patrick McCann, Andrew McHugh, Kerry Miller have self-archived "Digital Curation and the Cloud" in Enlighten.

Here's an excerpt:

Digital curation involves a wide range of activities, many of which could benefit from cloud deployment to a greater or lesser extent. These range from infrequent, resource-intensive tasks which benefit from the ability to rapidly provision resources to day-to-day collaborative activities which can be facilitated by networked cloud services. Associated benefits are offset by risks such as loss of data or service level, legal and governance incompatibilities and transfer bottlenecks. There is considerable variability across both risks and benefits according to the service and deployment models being adopted and the context in which activities are performed. Some risks, such as legal liabilities, are mitigated by the use of alternative, e.g., private cloud models, but this is typically at the expense of benefits such as resource elasticity and economies of scale. Infrastructure as a Service model may provide a basis on which more specialised software services may be provided.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Unit Head, Digital Services at Robert W. Woodruff Library Atlanta University Center

The Robert W. Woodruff Library Atlanta University Center is recruiting a Unit Head, Digital Services.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The library invites applications for the position of Unit Head, Digital Services. This newly created position and unit is a part of the recently restructured and refocused Content and Collection Management department. This position will be responsible for the scope of services for this new unit. The Unit Head, Digital Services manages the daily operations of the library's digital services unit, grant funded projects, and staff. S/he works collaboratively with library staff and faculties at academic institutions to deliver digital services and content in support of teaching, learning and research. They will lend dedicated focus to the library's Archive Research Center. The Unit Head, Digital Services Librarian is responsible for researching, recommending, and implementing emerging technologies that exploit creation and management of and discovery and access to digital collections. S/he develops best practices, policies and procedures for digital asset creation and management. The Unit Head, Digital Services Librarian, reports to the Head of Content & Collection Management.

| Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Search Engine Use 2012

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Search Engine Use 2012.

Here's an excerpt:

For more than a decade, Pew Internet data has consistently shown that search engine use is one of the most popular online activities, rivaled only by email as an internet pursuit. In January 2002, 52% of all Americans used search engines. In February 2012 that figure grew to 73% of all Americans. On any given day in early 2012, more than half of adults using the internet use a search engine (59%). That is double the 30% of internet users who were using search engines on a typical day in 2004. And people's frequency of using search engines has jumped dramatically.

| Google Books Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 3/8/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Digital Conversion Specialist at Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is recruiting a Digital Conversion Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position is located in the World Digital Library, Office of the Librarian and reports to the Supervisory Information Technology Specialist within WDL. The incumbent serves as a digital conversion specialist and facilitates the development and expansion of the WDL through participation in digital library activities, such as preparation of physical materials for WDL conversion, and quality control of digital assets (digital objects and metadata) received from WDL partners for inclusion in the WDL programs. This position involves constant contact with overseas partners and working with materials in the English language and languages other than English.

| Digital Scholarship's Digital/Print Books | Digital Scholarship |

Manager, Infrastructure and Applications Support at California Digital Library

The California Digital Library is recruiting a Manager, Infrastructure and Applications Support.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (requisition number: 20120087):

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Manager of Infrastructure and Applications Support is responsible for technical design, implementation, maintenance, and operations of the common technology enterprise services that support all program and service areas. The Manager is responsible for the Computing and Storage Resource Center comprising a distributed network of CDL-owned resources at two physical locations and for managing the overall integration architecture for computing systems, database management systems, storage systems and network infrastructure. The Manager also provides support to application developers in the CDL's program areas for the development, staging and production environments, partnership support for desktop computing services provided by UCOP's TechDesk,and for collaboration tools supporting the work of CDL and its partners.

| Institutional Repository Bibliography | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

SAS Open Journals: Final Report

Peter Webster has self-archived SAS Open Journals: Final Report in SAS-Space

Here's an excerpt:

The culture of open access journal publishing is not yet well established amongst the smaller arts and humanities journals which we intend to engage in this project in the longer term. However, as the business model for this type of small self-published journal comes under increasing pressure, SAS Open Journals now offers a lowcost solution. . . .

The project developed a re-usable overlay journal interface, using Amicus Curiae as the exemplar, thus completing the transition of that journal from print to web. This system is now available, at minimal cost, to journals produced within the School, and to publications by cognate learned societies. The system will greatly increase open access publishing capacity in the humanities and social sciences, and further fulfil the School's RPF mission. To date, two further journals have committed themselves to using SAS Open Journals.

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

Fresh from Research Works Act Defeat, Association of American Publishers and Other Publishers Oppose Federal Research Public Access Act

Eighty-one publishers have sent a letter to Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Senator Susan M. Collins, and other legislators opposing the Federal Research Public Access Act.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The 81 signatories' main points of opposition to FRPAA are:

  • It requires that final manuscripts of researchers' journal articles that explain, interpret and extensively report the results of federally-funded research—manuscripts which have undergone publishers' validation, digital enhancement, production, interoperability and distribution processes—be publicly available online, worldwide, no more than six months after publication.
  • The one-size-fits-all six-month deadline for every federal agency that funds research ignores well-known significant differences in how each research discipline discovers and uses individual articles, periods that can last several years before costs are recovered.
  • It limits where government-funded researchers may publish their work.
  • It undermines publishers' investments in new business models that currently provide unprecedented access for the public to such works for free or at modest cost.
  • At a time when Congress is looking to cut unnecessary expenses in federal government and focus budgets on priorities, FRPAA imposes additional costs on all federal agencies by requiring them to divert critical research funding to the creation and management of new databases, archives and infrastructure to handle dissemination of these articles—functions already being performed by private-sector publishers.

The signatories are:

  • AACC International
  • Acoustical Society of America
  • American Association for Cancer Research
  • American Association for Clinical Chemistry
  • American Association of Anatomists
  • American Association of Immunologists
  • American Association of Physicists in Medicine
  • American Association of Physics Teachers
  • American Astronomical Society
  • The American Ceramic Society
  • American Chemical Society
  • American College of Chest Physicians
  • American College of Physicians
  • American Dental Association
  • American Fisheries Society
  • American Geophysical Union
  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • American Institute of Biological Sciences
  • American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
  • American Institute of Physics Publishing
  • American Mathematical Society
  • American Meteorological Society
  • American Physiological Society
  • American Phytopathological Society
  • American Psychiatric Publishing
  • American Psychological Association
  • American Public Health Association
  • American Roentgen Ray Society
  • American Society for Investigative Pathology
  • American Society for Nutrition
  • American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
  • American Society of Agronomy
  • American Society of Animal Science
  • American Society of Clinical Oncology
  • American Society of Hematology
  • American Society of Plant Biologists
  • APMI International
  • ARVO—Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
  • ASQ—American Society for Quality
  • Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)
  • AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing
  • Biophysical Society
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Crop Science Society of America
  • Ecological Society of America
  • Elsevier
  • The Endocrine Society
  • Entomological Society of America
  • F.A. Davis Company
  • GeoScienceWorld
  • Gival Press LLC
  • The Histochemical Society
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • IEEE
  • Institute of Food Technologists
  • International and American Associations for Dental Research
  • International Association for the Study of Pain
  • John Wiley & Sons
  • Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
  • The McGraw-Hill Companies
  • Mycological Society of America
  • National Ground Water Association
  • The Optical Society
  • The Ornithological Council
  • The Physiological Society
  • Poultry Science Association
  • The Professional Animal Scientist
  • The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
  • SAE International
  • Seismological Society of America
  • SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology
  • Silverchair Science+Communications, Inc.
  • Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
  • Society for the Study of Reproduction
  • Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.
  • Soil Science Society of America
  • Springer Publishing Company
  • Taylor & Francis
  • Thieme Publishers
  • University of the Basque Country Press
  • Walters Kluwer

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

Collection Development Librarian at University of North Texas Libraries (Born-Digital/OA Materials)

The University of North Texas Libraries are recruiting a Collection Development Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of North Texas Libraries Collection Management Division is looking for a collection development librarian to frame, conceptualize, create, and maintain a collection of born-digital and other open-access electronic materials that support the institution's scholarly pursuits.

The Collection Development Librarian, with an emphasis in open-access and born-digital materials, is responsible for the identification, acquisitions, classification, and accessibility of these resources. This librarian will also work with stakeholders to pinpoint online resource needs, and formulate the scope of various born-digital collections.

| Institutional Repository Bibliography | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

"Scholarly Communication Strategies in Latin America’s Research-Intensive Universities"

Juan Pablo Alperin, Gustavo E. Fischman, and John Willinsky have self-archived "Scholarly Communication Strategies in Latin America's Research-Intensive Universities" in the SUSE Open Archive.

Here's an excerpt:

Open Access—scholarship that is "digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions" (Suber, 2011)—has dramatically changed the research landscape in universities worldwide in the twenty-first century. In Latin America, regional Open Access initiatives (if not officially labeled "open access") have permeated most research-intensive universities and national science evaluation systems and have begun to alter the way that local research is perceived. Furthermore, the prominence of Open Access, regionally and globally, has become a significant force in transforming previous traditions and systems used by universities in Latin America in the production and access to scientific knowledge, having a profound influence on its position within what might be thought of as the global knowledge exchange.

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

Digital Scholarship Coordinator at Columbia University Libraries

The Columbia University Libraries are recruiting a Digital Scholarship Coordinator.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (requisition number: 0002842):

The Columbia University Libraries invites nominations and applications for the position of Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Humanities and History Libraries division. The Digital Scholarship Coordinator will provide leadership in incorporating technologies and new research methodologies into the scholarly activities of the humanities community at Columbia University. The Digital Scholarship Coordinator will work with colleagues from across the University to develop outreach strategies and partnerships with faculty and students supporting digital research projects in the humanities. The Digital Scholarship Coordinator will engage technologies emerging as critical to research and teaching in the humanities to meet the evolving needs of faculty, students, and staff. The Digital Scholarship Coordinator will assist in planning for the programmatic and physical expansion of the Digital Humanities Center, http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/dhc.html, within Butler Library, including the creation of a graduate student fellows program focusing on the digital humanities. The Digital Scholarship Coordinator will also assist in the identification of funding opportunities and preparation of grants supporting the programmatic needs of the Digital Humanities Center. The Digital Scholarship Coordinator will work closely with colleagues from the Humanities and History Libraries, the Digital Humanities Librarian, and the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu, and the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, http://cdrs.columbia.edu. The position will report to the Director of the Humanities & History Libraries division.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Version 80 | Digital Scholarship |

Harvard Library to Deposit about 200,000 Public Domain Volumes in HathiTrust

The Harvard Library will deposit about 200,000 public domain volumes in HathiTrust.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Harvard Library will deposit approximately 200,000 public domain volumes in HathiTrust, a shared digital repository for published materials. This follows Harvard's first deposit of approximately 53,000 volumes in HathiTrust in 2011.

"The Harvard Library is committed to collaboration and easing access to its materials. Partnerships like this create significant opportunities for research libraries to lead during a period of rapid changes in higher education and scholarship in the digital age, and for researchers to benefit from their initiative" said Mary Lee Kennedy, Harvard's senior associate provost for the Library.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

LITA Publishes First Open Access Issue of Information Technology and Libraries

The Library Information Technology Association has published the first open access issue of Information Technology and Libraries under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Here's an excerpt from the "Editor's Comments":

Welcome to the first issue of Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) as an open-access, e-only publication. As announced to LITA members in early January, this change in publishing model will help ensure the long-term viability of ITAL by making it more accessible, more current, more relevant, and more environmentally friendly. ITAL will continue to feature high-quality articles that have undergone a rigorous peer-review process, but it will also begin expanding content to include more case studies, commentary, and information about topics and trends of interest to the LITA community and beyond. Look for a new scope statement for ITAL shortly.

Of special interest to DigitalKoans readers is Abigail J. McDermott's "Copyright: Regulation Out of Line with Our Digital Reality?" article.

| Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals | Digital Scholarship |

Data Management Specialist at Oregon State University Libraries

The Oregon State University Libraries are recruiting a Data Management Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

OSU Libraries seeks a self-motivated individual to establish a robust research data and data set curation and management program at Oregon State University. Reporting to the Head of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Services, the Data Management Specialist plays a central role in developing services and data management plans to support the data generated by the OSU research enterprise. The position collaborates with faculty, graduate students, academic units and research center personnel to identify, manage, describe, preserve and make research data available and accessible to appropriate audiences. The Data Management Specialist assists faculty and graduate students with writing data management plans required by funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation. The position identifies and recommends appropriate methods for data storage and retrieval and instructs researchers in contributing to and using digital repository systems including ScholarsArchive@OSU.

| E-science and Academic Libraries Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |