Month: October 2012

IOP Publishing to Use CC-BY Licence for OA articles and Bibliographic Metadata

IOP Publishing will use the CC-BY licence for open access articles and bibliographic metadata.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

As a result of this move, the company will adopt a more liberal Creative Commons licence (CC-BY 3.0) for future articles published on a 'gold' open access basis. This licence allows others to distribute, remix, amend, and build upon a piece of work as long as they credit the original creation. The licences grant rights to the users of the content but do not replace the copyright, which remains with the copyright holder. . . .

In addition to the change in licence for open access articles, the basic metadata of the articles in IOP's own journals will also be available for use under a CC-BY licence. This is intended to increase the visibility of such data and to help clarify to third parties what they can and cannot do with metadata.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010: "SEP [Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography] is compiled with utter professionalism. It reminds me of the work of the best artisans who know not only every item that leaves their workshops, but each component used to create them—providing the ideal quality control." — Péter Jacsó ONLINE 27, no. 3 (2003): 73-76. | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Projects Manager at New Hampshire Historical Society

The New Hampshire Historical Society is recruiting a Digital Projects Manager.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The New Hampshire Historical Society seeks a full-time digital projects manager to help lead the evolution of the Society's digital collections and services and to take charge of a portfolio of digital initiatives, some under way and others ready to begin the planning stages. The position is planned to be in place for a period of three years, and may extend beyond that time.

The digital projects manager reports to the assistant executive director and will work closely with the collections stewardship, interpretation, and technology advisory teams to determine, plan, implement, and support the development of digital collections and web-based services.

| Digital Scholarship |

Ireland Adopts "National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement"

Sean Sherlock, Minister of State, has announced that the Irish government has adopted the "National Principles for Open Access Policy Statement."

Here's an excerpt:

1. Peer reviewed journal articles and other research outputs resulting in whole or in part from publicly-funded research should be deposited in an Open Access repository and made publicly discoverable, accessible and re-usable as soon as possible and on an on-going basis. . . .

2. Repositories shall release the metadata immediately upon deposit. Open access to the full text paper should be made immediately upon deposit or upon the publication date at the latest. . . .

3. Researchers are encouraged to publish in Open Access Journals but publishing through Open Access Journals is not necessary to comply with this Open Access policy. Payment of additional Open Access charges through the 'Gold' Open Access model is not necessary to comply with this policy. . . .

4. A repository is suitable for this purpose when it provides free public access to its contents, supports interoperability with other repositories and with other research information and reporting systems, is harvestable by national portal/s and international aggregators and takes steps toward long-term preservation.

5. Research data should be deposited whenever this is feasible, and linked to associated publications where this is appropriate.

Read more about it at "Ireland Sets Open-Access Mandate."

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

OAPEN-UK HSS Researcher Survey Results

The OAPEN-UK project has released the OAPEN-UK HSS Researcher Survey Results.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Only 50% of researchers are aware of OA and only 30% familiar with it.
  • Around 50% of researchers think it is ok to make a profit from OA publishing as long as that profit goes back into supporting the discipline or making more OA content available — 20% think you can make a profit and use it however you like and 20% think that you can make a profit but only to cover costs.
  • Almost 80% would prefer the most restrictive Creative Comms licence, but what is interesting is that the responses show that researchers are more concerned about protecting their work than it being used commercially.
  • 60% had read a monograph in the last couple of days â 39% had bought it and 33% had got it via the library
  • Early career academics are more willing to consider self-publishing than later career researchers.

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 10/23/12

| Digital Scholarship |

ALA Joins Owners’ Rights Initiative

ALA has joined the Owners' Rights Initiative.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Today, the American Library Association announced that it has joined—as a founding member—the Owners' Rights Initiative (ORI)—a coalition of retailers, libraries, educators, Internet companies and associations working to protect ownership rights in the United States.

The coalition was formed to champion "first-sale rights," or ownership rights, as the issue will be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Kirtsaeng vs. Wiley & Sons, Inc. on October 29, 2012. The Supreme Court's decision could have adverse consequences for libraries and call into question libraries' abilities to lend books and materials that were manufactured overseas.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

"Licensing Revisited: Open Access Clauses in Practice"

Birgit Schmidt and Kathleen Shearer have published "Licensing Revisited: Open Access Clauses in Practice" in the Future Issue section of LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

Open access increases the visibility and use of research outputs and promises to maximize the return on our public investment in research. However, only a minority of researchers will "spontaneously" deposit their articles into an open access repository. Even with the growing number of institutional and funding agency mandates requiring the deposit of papers into the university repository, deposit rates have remained stubbornly low. As a result, the responsibility for populating repositories often falls onto the shoulders of library staff and/or repository managers. Populating repositories in this way—which involves obtaining the articles, checking the rights, and depositing articles into the repository—is time consuming and resource intensive work.

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), a global association of repository initiatives and networks, is promoting a new strategy for addressing some of the barriers to populating repositories, involving the use of open access archiving clauses in publisher licenses. These types of clauses are being considered by consortia and licensing agencies around the world as a way of ensuring that all the papers published by a given publisher are cleared for deposit into the institutional repository. This paper presents some use cases of open access archiving clauses, discusses the major barriers to implementing archiving language into licenses, and describes some strategies that organizations can adopt in order to include such clauses into publisher licenses.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography: "This work gives an outstanding overview of scholarship relating to the growing Open Access movement." — George Machovec, The Charleston Advisor 12, no. 2 (2010): 3. | Digital Scholarship |

Applications Developer at Shippensburg University Computing Technologies Center

The Shippensburg University Computing Technologies Center is recruiting an Applications Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position is responsible for designing and maintaining web applications with emphasis on open-source projects, authentication systems, and federated identity applications. Duties include some scripting and web and application server configuration. Must manage multiple ongoing assignments coordinated in a team-centered environment. This position will support the Keystone Library Network, which is an ongoing project contingent upon annual funding. S

| Digital Scholarship |

Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Younger Americans' Reading and Library Habits.

Here's an excerpt:

Among the main findings:

  • 83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Some 75% read a print book, 19% read an e-book, and 11% listened to an audiobook.
  • Among Americans who read e-books, those under age 30 are more likely to read their e-books on a cell phone (41%) or computer (55%) than on an e-book reader such as a Kindle (23%) or tablet (16%).
  • Overall, 47% of younger Americans read long-form e-content such as books, magazines or newspapers. E-content readers under age 30 are more likely than older e-content readers to say that they are reading more these days due to the availability of e-content (40% vs. 28%).

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 10/22/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Open Access in Biomedical Research

The European Science Foundation has released Open Access in Biomedical Research.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The ESF-EMRC Science Policy Briefing entitled 'Open Access in Biomedical Research' was instigated to examine whether there are new opportunities for open access in biomedical research within Europe that will benefit European biomedical researchers and European society as a whole. The report provides three key recommendations for the adoption of open access policy:

  1. There is a moral imperative for open access
    Research papers should be made freely available to all to read, use and re-use, with appropriate acknowledgement, in order to maximise the value of biomedical research, build on the body of knowledge, accelerate the process of discovery and improve human health.
  2. Individual agencies must work together to raise awareness of the moral imperative for open access
    Agencies and organisations that fund and perform research, libraries, publishers and researchers must work collectively to raise awareness of the moral imperative for open access publishing. Enhanced efforts towards national, European and international partnerships are the basis for the successful achievement of open access to research outputs.
  3. All research stakeholders should work together in order to support the extension of Europe PubMed Central into a Europe-wide PubMed Central
    In order to facilitate discoveries and innovation in biomedical research, research stakeholders should collaborate to establish a Europe-wide repository in biomedicine as a partner site to the US equivalent PubMed Central. The recently rebranded Europe PubMed Central represents a valuable means to achieving this goal, provided that the diversity of European partner mandates and policies can be integrated.

| Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals: This is an excellent resource for its extensive background documentation of the open access arguments and issues. — Ann Jensen, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, no. 43 (2005) | Digital Scholarship |

"Anatomy Of Open Access Publishing: A Study of Longitudinal Development and Internal Structure"

Mikael Laakso and Bo-Christer Björk have published "Anatomy Of Open Access Publishing: A Study of Longitudinal Development and Internal Structure" in BMC Medicine.

Here's an excerpt:

The primary aim of this study was to measure the volume of scientific articles published in full immediate OA journals from 2000 to 2011, while observing longitudinal internal shifts in the structure of OA publishing concerning revenue models, publisher types and relative distribution among scientific disciplines. The secondary aim was to measure the share of OA articles of all journal articles, including articles made OA by publishers with a delay and individual author-paid OA articles in subscription journals (hybrid OA), as these subsets of OA publishing have mostly been ignored in previous studies.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography: "This bibliography is recommended for everyone interested in open access publishing." — M. Blobaum, Journal of the Medical Library Association 100, no. 1 (2012): 73. | Digital Scholarship |

"Issue Brief: Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries"

ARL has released "Issue Brief: Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries."

Here's an excerpt:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) raise significant legal and policy questions for research libraries, which are often asked to support the development of MOOC courses. These questions involve information policy concerns that are central to research libraries, including the proper application of fair use, the transition to open access as the default mode of scholarly publishing, and the provision of equal access to learning materials for students with and without disabilities. Where possible, research libraries should engage in conversations around MOOCs and promote their core values. By doing so, they will also promote the continuing vitality of libraries as partners in the educational mission.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

Research Environments Librarian at Virginia Tech Libraries

The Virginia Tech Libraries are recruiting a Research Environments Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Associate Dean for Research and Informatics, the Research Environments Librarian will participate in University Libraries efforts to integrate the library, its services and resources, to Virginia Tech’s research enterprise. Virginia Tech University Libraries is looking for a service oriented, energetic, motivated individual with an entrepreneurial spirit to work in a team-based environment to advance its strategic directions, goals, and objectives.

Virginia Tech's job system is down for an upgrade until 10/25/12.

| Digital Scholarship |

Research Data Librarian at Virginia Tech Libraries

The Virginia Tech Libraries are recruiting a Research Data Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Digital Repositories Librarian, the Research Data Librarian will participate in University Libraries efforts to map and integrate the library, its services and resources, to Virginia Tech's research enterprise. The incumbent will split time between supporting the library's digital services (e.g. virtual research communities, VTechWorks repository, data management) and applied research for externally funded research projects. Virginia Tech University Libraries is looking for a service oriented, energetic, motivated individual with an entrepreneurial spirit to work in a team-based environment to advance its strategic directions, goals, and objectives.

Virginia Tech's job system is down for an upgrade until 10/25/12.

| Digital Scholarship |

Open Access Now Launched

A new digital publication, Open Access Now, has been launched.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Open Access Now launched today, a resource for news and information about open access and scholarly publishing. The goal of OANow is to provide a centralized, regularly updated, curated news feed, accomplished through active monitoring of scholarly, popular and niche sources. Built on the PressForward platform, which aims to "produce vital, open publications scholarly communities can gather around," this project sees the current ramping up of open access initiatives around the globe as the opportunity to gather and re-present that knowledge to open access advocates.

With initial support from the Center for History and New Media, Open Access Now borrows the structure of Digital Humanities Now and the recently launched American History Now, utilizing a process of aggregation, curation, discovery and review to showcase the relevant and "need-to-know" items, while encouraging the progress of scholarship on the open web.

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

"Libraries, Scholars, and Publishers in Digital Journal and Monograph Publishing"

Rowland Lorimer has published "Libraries, Scholars, and Publishers in Digital Journal and Monograph Publishing" in the latest issue of Scholarly and Research Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

In the 1970s, research libraries developed data systems and expertise that, in the 1990s, led to new services such as institutional repositories and journal hosting and, in the 2000s, led to forays into monograph publishing. In contrast, also beginning in the 1970s, university presses found themselves being cast out of their traditional role as providers of research publishing services that created the public record of knowledge and into the marketplace. Continued development of information and communication technology (ICT) in library operations and in research activity stimulated entrepreneurship and scholar/library partnerships with scholar-controlled digital journal publishing. Again in contrast, the market orientation of university presses, combined with a lack of appreciation in the library community for the value added by professional publishers, hampered the extension of collaboration into three-way partnerships among scholars, libraries, and publishing professionals. Recognition of the roles of all parties holds the greatest promise for the evolution of digital scholarly publishing.

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

"Brief of Digital Humanities and Law Scholars as Amici Curiae in Authors Guild v. Google"

Matthew L. Jockers, Matthew Sag, and Jason Schultz have self-archived "Brief of Digital Humanities and Law Scholars as Amici Curiae in Authors Guild v. Google" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

The brief argues that, just as copyright law has long recognized the distinction between protection for an author's original expression (e.g., the narrative prose describing the plot) and the public's right to access the facts and ideas contained within that expression (e.g., a list of characters or the places they visit), the law must also recognize the distinction between copying books for expressive purposes (e.g., reading) and nonexpressive purposes, such as extracting metadata and conducting macroanalyses. We amici urge the court to follow established precedent with respect to Internet search engines, software reverse engineering, and plagiarism detection software and to hold that the digitization of books for text-mining purposes is a form of incidental or intermediate copying to be regarded as fair use as long as the end product is also nonexpressive or otherwise non-infringing.

| Google Books Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Services Librarian at Georgetown University Library

The Georgetown University Library is recruiting a Digital Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Digital Services Librarian participates in the planning, implementation, maintenance, expansion and communication of the digital library and institutional repository services, collections and content, including the design, deployment and maintenance of DigitalGeorgetown which includes but is not limited to digital repository and publishing services and collections (such as Digital Asset Management System, Archival Management System, Art Collections Management System and other digital library related services) and related tool sets, representations of digital content, digital conversion, interoperability of digital platforms, management and archiving of datasets, and integration of digital resources into learning management systems.

| Digital Scholarship |

"HowOpenIsIt?"

PLOS, SPARC and OASPA have released "HowOpenIsIt?"

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In preparation for Open Access Week (October 22-28), we are issuing the final version today so that people can download and print it for their use next week and beyond. This resource outlines the core components of open access (e.g., reader rights, reuse rights, copyrights, author posting rights, etc.) across the continuum from "open access" to "restricted access." Its aim is to help authors make informed decisions on where to publish based on journal policies. It also provides a resource for funders and other organizations to help establish criteria for the level of Open Access required for their policies and mandates. Ultimately, the conversation must shift from "Is It Open Access?" to "HowOpenIsIt?" The phrase "HowOpenIsIt?" will be used for a family of offerings to foster and promote open access in research communications. The Open Access Spectrum is our first program with more to come.

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

Head of Library Systems at University at Albany Libraries

The University at Albany Libraries are recruiting a Head of Library Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University at Albany Libraries seek a creative, knowledgeable, dynamic Head of Library Systems who is committed to service to academic library users and provides vision and direction for library IT operations including: the Libraries' ILS (Ex Libris ALEPH 500); design and technical aspects of the Libraries' Web site; an in-house server farm that hosts Web sites and related applications; computers and associated peripherals for public and staff; and computer-equipped classrooms.

| Digital Scholarship |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 10/18/12

| Digital Scholarship |

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) Launches Registry

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) has launched a researcher registry.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Understanding the "who" and "what" of research has been hampered by lack of data standards, and in particular a standard for identifying individuals. Universities and other research organizations, as well as membership organizations like the American Physical Society (APS) are working to integrate ORCID identifiers into their systems. "For scholars, ORCID provides a persistent identifier that unambiguously distinguishes you as the author or creator of your published works in systems that adopt ORCID. Through integration in workflows such as manuscript and grant submission as well as researcher profiles, ORCID promises to help scholars and institutions manage academic information and, ultimately, to provide both with more control over their own record of scholarship," said Amy Brand, Assistant Provost for Faculty Appointments and Information at Harvard University. Currently, Boston University, New York University Langone Medical Center, Cornell University, and the California Institute of Technology, and the research information system vendors Avedas, Symplectic, and Thomson Reuters are actively working on integration with the ORCID registry.

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

Fit for Purpose: Developing Business Cases for New Services in Research Libraries

The Council on Library and Information Resources has released Fit for Purpose: Developing Business Cases for New Services in Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Digital Library Federation (DLF) program, Fit for Purpose presents a set of recommendations that libraries can adopt when developing any new service. The report attends closely to entrepreneurial activities such as library-based publishing and data stewardship because of the uncertainty and complexity of those services. . . .

Fit for Purpose provides a decision-making toolbox created from elements of social entrepreneurship and project management that are consistent with research library environments and values. It addresses organizational readiness and risk tolerance, business case development, piloting new services, and monitoring sustainability through the business planning lifecycle. The team is also conducting several case studies to explore how libraries have conducted business planning to support their new ventures. These will be published at a future date, followed by a concluding report that reassesses the initial recommendations.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

Systems Administrator (MOBIUS Evergreen)

MOBIUS is recruiting a Systems Administrator.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This professional information technology position is responsible for supporting and maintaining the Missouri Evergreen Integrated Library System. Responsibilities including extracting and migrating data to the Missouri Evergreen system, maintaining a Xen based VM platform for the Evergreen software, developing new application features, and defining, designing and writing code for custom applications. A high degree of interaction with people is involved; therefore sound customer service principles must be applied while fulfilling the technical function. Work includes a wide range of responsibility in providing high-level support.

| Digital Scholarship |