Month: July 2015

Programmer/Analyst at New York University

New York University is recruiting a Programmer/Analyst.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Under the direction of the Senior Manager, Digital Library Infrastructure, the Programmer/Analyst will develop digital library infrastructure, including Web-based tools for content curation and display as well as discovery interfaces for a variety of metadata standards. The infrastructure that this individual will build will support researchers during the full research lifecycle, including data storage and preservation, publication preservation, and data discovery and dissemination.

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"What Cost and Usage Data Reveals About E-Book Acquisitions: Ramifications for Collection Development"

Steven B. Carrico et al. have published "What Cost and Usage Data Reveals About E-Book Acquisitions: Ramifications for Collection Development" in Library Resources & Technical Services.

Here's an excerpt:

To better determine how e-book acquisitions might affect future collection development decisions, a team of librarians from the University of Florida (UF) launched a project to assess cost and usage of e-books purchased using three different acquisitions methods: e-books acquired in large publisher packages; single-title e-books selected through firm orders; and e-books purchased through two patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) plans. . . . The authors compared the cost-usage data of e-books acquired by the acquisitions methods across the three subject areas and describe how the findings are affecting current and future acquisitions, traditional collection management, and budgeting at UF.

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"Small Steps Matter: FASTR Passes Senate Committee Hurdle"

SPARC has released Small Steps Matter: FASTR Passes Senate Committee Hurdle by Heather Joseph.

Here's an excerpt:

With its action today, the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) advanced the cause of public access to publicly funded research articles another crucial step. In a unanimous voice vote, the Committee approved S. 779, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act which now positions the legislation to be considered by the full Senate.

This marks the first time that a U.S. Senate Committee has acted on a government-wide policy ensuring public access to the results of publicly funded research and signals that there is deep support for the ideal that taxpayers have the right to access to the research that their tax dollars fund. This action continues the steady march towards enabling fast, barrier-free access to research articles that got its start with the establishment of a voluntary NIH policy in 2005, and slowly progressed with legislation shifting that policy to mandatory in 2008, again in 2010 with the America COMPETES Act and most recently with the 2013 White House OSTP Directive on public access. . . .

Today's progress on FASTR is another step in this long march. Under the leadership of Senator Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Wyden (D-OR), FASTR provides the statutory framework needed codify the White House OSTP Directive, which was issued with the goal of accelerating scientific discovery and fueling innovation. While 13 federal agencies and departments have released their initial plans, the reality is that the OSTP Directive is not law, and can be easily overturned by a subsequent Administration. Should FASTR continue on course and be passed by both chambers of Congress, free, fair public access to research articles will become the law of the land – and not just the preference a President.

See also: "Cornyn Bill To Improve Access To Taxpayer-Funded Research Passes Committee Unanimously."

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Digital Curation News (7/30/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdatamanagement #rdm

| New: Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 5 | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Director, Metadata and Digital Strategies at Hamilton College

Hamilton College is recruiting a Director, Metadata and Digital Strategies.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The director provides leadership for cataloging, metadata creation, library information systems, digitization, data curation and preservation and is a major partner in our support for digital scholarship. The director will help keep Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) future-focused in a rapidly changing information resources environment and represent Hamilton in local, regional and national settings.

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"15% of Americans Don’t Use The Internet. Who Are They?"

Monica Anderson and Andrew Perrin have published "15% of Americans Don't Use The Internet. Who Are They?" in Fact Tank.

Here's an excerpt:

The latest Pew Research analysis also shows that internet non-adoption is correlated to a number of demographic variables, including age, educational attainment, household income, race and ethnicity, and community type.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Digital Library Tech Analyst at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis is recruiting a Digital Library Tech Analyst.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This is a new position and will be a member of a high performing digital technology team. The analyst will provide technology support for complex projects and assignments for a wide variety of library activities. Additionally, the position will explore emerging technologies, develop administrative as well as user interfaces and workflows for digital scholarship tools (including text, image, data, and multimedia repositories, journal publishing systems, and websites) through use of open source or vendor based applications.

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"Research Data Management Practices: A Snapshot in Time"

Mary Anne Kennan and Lina Markauskaite have published "Research Data Management Practices: A Snapshot in Time" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

There is increasing pressure from funders, publishers, the public, universities and other research organisations for researchers to improve their data management and sharing practices. However, little is known about researchers' data management and sharing practices and concerns. The research reported in this paper seeks to address this by providing insight into the research data management and sharing practices of academics at ten universities in New South Wales, Australia. Empirical data was taken from a survey to which 760 academics responded, with 634 completing at least one section. Results showed that at the time of the survey there were a wide variety of research data in use, including analogue data, and that the challenges researchers faced in managing their data included finding safe and secure storage, particularly after project completion, but also during projects when data are used (and thus stored) on a wide variety of less-than-optimal temporary devices. Data sharing was not widely practiced and only a relatively small proportion of researchers had a research data management plan.

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Digital Archivist at Emerson College

Emerson College is recruiting a Digital Archivist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Archivist works with the Head of Archives and Special Collections and Digital Initiatives Librarian to plan and execute workflows for the digitization of analog records. Core responsibilities will include acquisition, appraisal, description, and preservation of both digitized and born-digital records. The Digital Archivist will also monitor the activities of interns and work study students.

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"Omeka Curator Dashboard"

Jess Waggoner has published "Omeka Curator Dashboard" in the Omeka blog.

Here's an excerpt:

The Omeka Curator Dashboard (or "the OCD" as we endearingly refer to it) is a suite of fifteen plugins (though a bonus sixteenth will be coming soon!) designed to facilitate object import and export, manage metadata, and curate collections. Several of our plugins are already available on the official list of Omeka plugins. The others are still undergoing testing, but can be downloaded from the UCSC Library GitHub in the meanwhile. We are actively soliciting feedback on these plugins from the Omeka user community so we can continue to improve their features and interfaces.

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Digital Preservation Librarian at University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is recruiting a Digital Preservation Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position is responsible for creating, maintaining, and ensuring access to policies, procedures, workflows, and strategies related to digital preservation projects and practices. The employee in this position is expected to be current with the community of practice for digital preservation, as well as be a leader within the broader fields of preservation and digital libraries.

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Take Action: Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act Being Marked Up

The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act is being marked up.

Here's an excerpt from the SPARC announcement:

After a month of intense conversations and negotiations, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) will bring the "Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act" up for mark-up on Wednesday, July 29th. The language that will be considered is an amended version of FASTR, officially known as the 'Johnson-Carper Substitute Amendment,' which was officially filed by the HSGAC leadership late on Friday afternoon, per committee rules.

There are two major changes from the original bill language to be particularly aware of. Specifically, the amendment

  • Replaces the six month embargo period with "no later than 12 months, but preferably sooner," as anticipated; and
  • Provides a mechanism for stakeholders to petition federal agencies to 'adjust' the embargo period if the 12 months does not serve "the public, industries, and the scientific community."

To support the bill and communicate your concerns, see: "Help Move FASTR" "Secure Open Access to Taxpayer-Funded Research"

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Digital Curation News (7/28/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdatamanagement #rdm

| New: Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 5 | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Software Engineer for Digital Content Management at University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is recruiting a Software Engineer for Digital Content Management.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of Virginia Library collects, curates and facilitates access to a wide variety of rare and unique materials, chiefly in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. The Library acquires born-digital materials and digitizes many rare and unique materials for the purpose of preservation and dissemination to support the University's research and scholarly objectives. The employee in this position supports that mission by collaborating with archivists, curators and digitization specialists to understand their technology needs and as part of a team to procure or design and develop software solutions.

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"’Total Cost of Ownership’ of Scholarly Communication: Managing Subscription and APC Payments Together"

Stuart Lawson has self-archived "'Total Cost of Ownership' of Scholarly Communication: Managing Subscription and APC Payments Together."

Here's an excerpt:

Managing subscription journals and open access charges together has created challenges which may in part be dealt with by offsetting the two revenue streams against each other. In order to do this, it is necessary to have reliable financial data about the extent of the two interacting markets. Jisc Collections has been undertaking data collection regarding universities' article publication charge (APC) expenditure. This process is difficult without a standardized way of recording data, so Jisc Collections has developed a standard data collection template and is helping institutions to release data openly. If available data become more comprehensive and transparent, then all parties (libraries, publishers, research funders, and intermediaries) will have better knowledge of the APC market and can more accurately predict the effects of offsetting.

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Academic Preservation Trust System Administrator/Developer at University of Virginia Library

The University of Virginia Library is recruiting an Academic Preservation Trust System Administrator/Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Systems Administrator/Developer of the Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust.org) consortium performs system administration and programming related to the Trust's digital-preservation repository environment and other technical environments associated with the Trust. . . .

The person in this role performs system administration, operational support, and programming/development for the APTrust systems, and related systems such as the Digital Preservation Network (DPN.org).

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"TPP Undermines User Control and That’s Disastrous for Accessibility"

Maira Sutton has published "TPP Undermines User Control and That's Disastrous for Accessibility" in Deeplinks.

Here's an excerpt:

The passage of the Marrakesh Treaty led to a change in the TPP's Limitations and Exceptions section of the Intellectual Property chapter, expanding the definition of a legitimate use as one that is "facilitating access to works for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled" (some of this wording is still contested, but on the whole is included in the most recent leak of the agreement). This was of course a welcome change to see in the TPP.

What's worrying however, is that in order to pass a new international exception for other kinds of disabilities, such as for the deaf, it will require another agonizing, years-long process. While Marrakesh was intended to set a lower limit on the number of potential exceptions for accessibility, the wording of trade agreements like the TPP could turn the same language into an upper limit. This is due to its approach to copyright exceptions, exemplified by its "three-step test" provision. It's a set of criteria that governments must follow in order to pass any new exception (like say, allowing works to be used for educational or even accessibility purposes). In practice, the three-step test can embolden restrictions against using copyrighted works, rather than being more permissive like fair use.

So instead of providing only a narrow right to people with visual impairments, the TPP could include an exception that would help anyone who has difficulty accessing work due to a disability. But unlike at Marrakesh there are no representatives of the disabled to make that argument in the closed negotiating rooms of the TPP.

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Digital Production Librarian at Boston College

Boston College is recruiting a Digital Production Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Production Librarian supports the mission of the Digital Library program at BC by managing all aspects of digital capture and ingest, including overseeing operations and output, establishing and documenting projects and processes, and supervising staff. Working closely with the Head of the Digital Library Program and in concert with team members, this professional will ensure effective and efficient capture and ingest of an increasing amount of digital content by applying professional skills in project management and digital collections, and applied technical abilities in metadata manipulation and repository ingest.

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"Journal Subscription Expenditure of UK Higher Education Institutions, Version 3″

Stuart Lawson and Ben Meghreblian have published "Journal Subscription Expenditure of UK Higher Education Institutions, Version 3." in F1000Research.

Here's an excerpt:

The academic libraries of higher education institutions (HEIs) pay significant amounts of money each year for access to academic journals. The amounts paid are often not transparent especially when it comes to knowing how much is paid to specific publishers. Therefore data on journal subscription expenditure were obtained for UK HEIs using a series of Freedom of Information requests. Data were obtained for 153 HEIs' expenditure with ten publishers over a five-year period. The majority of institutions have provided figures but some are still outstanding. The data will be of interest to those who wish to understand the economics of scholarly communication and see the scale of payments flowing within the system. Further research could replicate the data collection in other jurisdictions.

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Digital Collections and Preservation Librarian at Boston College

Boston College is recruiting a Digital Collections and Preservation Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Collections & Preservation Librarian supports the mission of the Digital Library program at BC by guiding data management, digital preservation and digital archiving activities for an increasing amount of born-digital and digitised content. Working closely with the Head of the Digital Library Program and in concert with team members, this professional will consider all stages of the life cycle, from the point of capture through to repository ingest. S/he will establish and document policies; contribute to planning for projects and ongoing production; advise on equipment, metadata, standards and formats; and communicate broadly with collaborators and stakeholders within the library and externally.

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"SHARE Community Stakeholders Convene Working Meeting in Washington, DC"

SHARE has released "SHARE Community Stakeholders Convene Working Meeting in Washington, DC."

Here's an excerpt:

Accomplishments since the first SHARE Community Meeting in October 2014 include the DuraSpace webinar series, launch of the share-research.org website and the SHARE Notify beta, and surpassing the milestone of one million research release events included in SHARE Notify. Currently in the works are partnerships with IRIS [http://iris.isr.umich.edu/] and ORCID and a pending grant proposal to fund Phase II of SHARE.

See also: "SHARE Community Meeting, Summer 2015."

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Digital Curation News (7/24/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdatamanagement #rdm

| New: Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 5 | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Research Data Services Librarian at University of British Columbia Library

The University of British Columbia Library is recruiting a Research Data Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Research Data Services Librarian designs and guides the implementation of research data management and curation services at UBC Library and is responsible for managing, preserving, and providing access to research data created by UBC researchers according to national best practices and policies. The role also promotes awareness of resources and services among faculty and students through outreach and liaison activities and works closely with the metadata specialists to ensure that acquired data resources are described to facilitate discoverability.

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"A Library in the Palm of Your Hand: Mobile Services in Top 100 University Libraries"

Yan Quan Liu and Sarah Briggs have published "A Library in the Palm of Your Hand: Mobile Services in Top 100 University Libraries" in Information Technology and Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

What is the current state of mobile services among academic libraries of the country's top 100 universities, and what are the best practices for librarians implementing mobile services at the university level? Through in-depth website visits and survey questionnaires, the authors studied each of the top 100 universities' libraries' experiences with mobile services. Results showed that all of these libraries offered at least one mobile service, and the majority offered multiple services. The most common mobile services offered were mobile sites, text messaging services, e-books, and mobile access to databases and the catalog. In addition, chat/IM services, social media accounts and apps were very popular. Survey responses also indicated a trend towards responsive design for websites so that patrons can access the library's full site on any mobile device. Respondents recommend that libraries considering offering mobile services begin as soon as possible as patron demand for these services is expected to increase.

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