"Global Scholarship: The Role of Subject Repositories in Advancing Research from the Developing World"

Julia Kelly and Linda Eells have published "Global Scholarship: The Role of Subject Repositories in Advancing Research from the Developing World" in College & Research Libraries News.

Here's an excerpt:

While subject repositories successfully fill a scholarly communication niche in particular disciplines, they have not been recognized for the important role they play in promoting global scholarship. Repositories such as AgEcon Search make valuable and unique contributions by increasing publishing options for researchers and thus exposing and distributing research produced in the developing world.

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Digital Curation News (4/4/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdata

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Scholarly Communications Librarian at Memorial University of Newfoundland

The Memorial University of Newfoundland is recruiting a Scholarly Communications Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Memorial University is seeking an energetic and resourceful librarian to provide leadership in developing, managing and promoting the Libraries' scholarly communications and copyright initiatives.

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Elsevier: "Unleashing the Power of Academic Sharing"

Elsevier has released "Unleashing the Power of Academic Sharing."

Here's an excerpt:

Elsevier's updated sharing and hosting policies explain how articles published with Elsevier may be shared and made available. These provide a more clear and consistent framework that is aligned with the rest of the publishing industry, and which is based on feedback from our authors and institutional partners. While we know the policy changes will not go as far as some would like, we believe they strike an appropriate balance between the rights and responsibilities of sharing.

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University Systems Librarian, Digital Initiatives at CUNY

CUNY is recruiting a University Systems Librarian, Digital Initiatives.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Office seeks a University Systems Librarian specializing in Digital Initiatives to provide technical expertise and guidance for CUNY's cloud-based Institutional Repository, digital collections and shared responsibility for CUNY's discovery service.

Reporting to the University Director of Library Systems, the Digital Initiatives Librarian will focus on data, platform, and workflow integration and interoperability, metadata extraction, transformation, and reuse, analytics and reporting, search strategies and services, and problem diagnosis and resolution.

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Ann D. Thornton Named as Columbia University’s University Librarian and Vice Provost

Ann D. Thornton has been named as Columbia University's University Librarian and Vice Provost.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

"Columbia's library system is a dynamic academic resource that is at the very core of our teaching and research missions," [Columbia University President Lee] Bollinger said. "Ann's broad experience is ideally suited to the task of harnessing both digital technology and intellectual vision to expand our collections and enhance their long-term value not only to our university, but also to our society."

Thornton has held a series of senior leadership positions at the New York Public Libraries, spanning the sciences, business, the humanities and social sciences. She has been responsible for collecting, preserving and presenting the institution's vast collections. She has also helped lead in the areas of electronic resources, reference and research services and public training. Before coming to New York, she was a systems librarian with the University of Houston Libraries. . . .

After earning her bachelor's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Thornton received her master's degree in information studies from Florida State University. She has published and spoken widely on the nexus of research, teaching, learning and leadership.

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Librarian 1 (Digital Production) at Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University is recruiting a Librarian 1 (Digital Production).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Production Librarian (a Librarian 1 position) supports the primary mission of the Norwick Center for Digital Services—the digitizing, annotating and presentation via the web of items from CUL special collections. Working with the Digital Collections developer as well as staff, student workers, curators, stakeholders, and partners, the Digital Production Librarian will play a prominent role in metadata creation, digitization, digital collections management, and digital archiving so that digital projects are completed in a timely manner.

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Director of Copyright Services at Cornell University

Cornell University is recruiting a Director of Copyright Services.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

We are seeking a Director of Copyright Services who will lead a program of assistance,consultancy, training, and advocacy to promote effective sharing and use of scholarly resources, including issues such as fair use, open access, author's rights, and Creative Commons licensing. The target audience for this program is the broad Cornell community, including faculty, staff, and students. The position will be reporting to the Associate University Librarian for collections, digital scholarship, and preservation services. The incumbent will collaborate with a range of constituencies, including liaison librarians, selectors, and acquisition staff in understanding service and policy development needs in the program area and serve as liaison to the Office of University Counsel on legal-related issues. This position is expected to be 50% to 75% of full-time equivalent.

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USTR Releases 2015 Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property Rights

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released its 2015 Special 301 Report.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The "Special 301" Report is an annual review of the global state of IPR protection and enforcement. USTR conducts this review pursuant to Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.

USTR reviewed seventy-two (72) trading partners for this year's Special 301 Report, and placed thirty-seven (37) of them on the Priority Watch List or Watch List.

In this year's Report, trading partners on the Priority Watch List present the most significant concerns this year regarding insufficient IPR protection or enforcement or actions that otherwise limited market access for persons relying on intellectual property protection. Thirteen countries—Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Venezuela—are on the Priority Watch List. These countries will be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year.

See also “Error: Copyright Balance Not Found in United States’ Special 301 Report” from the EFF.

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"Fast and Made to Last: Academic Blogs Look to Ensure Long-Term Accessibility and Stability of Content"

Christof Schöch has published "Fast and Made to Last: Academic Blogs Look to Ensure Long-Term Accessibility and Stability of Content" in Impact of Social Sciences.

Here's an excerpt:

The advantage of blogs compared with such talks is that here, discussions can happen across geographical and temporal borders, and that they stay visible online in comments or companion posts. But aren't blog posts, ultimately, almost as fleeting as a talk at a workshop? Who makes sure the content stays online not just today and tomorrow, but in the long term? Who guarantees that the link to the post remains the same? Who ensures that the text will not be modified later on? These are issues that need to be resolved if blogs are to be reliable, trusted, citeable resources and receive academic recognition even in the absence of traditional pre-publication peer-review. . . . The research blogging platform hypotheses.org has understood this early on. This fact is undoubtedly a factor in the success of the platform, which is run by the French initiative OpenEdition and currently hosts 1006 (and counting) research blogs in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and English coming from the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Digital Curation News (4/30/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdata

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Senior Software Engineer at Harvard University

Harvard University is recruiting a Senior Software Engineer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This is a fully benefited, full-time Harvard University position that has been funded through June 2016. There is the possibility of renewal, contingent on funding, university priorities and satisfactory job performance. . . .

LTS is seeking a creative java software engineer to enhance our digital repository to support new content types, such as vector drawings, word processing files, 3D objects and raw camera image formats. In close collaboration with Harvard Library digital preservation staff and as part of an agile development team, the software engineer will design, implement, test, and deploy software enabling content deposit, preservation, management and presentation, opening Harvard's diverse collections to researchers, teachers and learners now and in the future.

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"Aaron’s Law Reintroduced: CFAA Didn’t Fix Itself"

The EFF has released Aaron's Law Reintroduced: CFAA Didn't Fix Itself by Cindy Cohn.

Here's an excerpt:

Aaron's law, the proposed law named in honor of Internet hero Aaron Swartz was reintroduced last week by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Senator Wyden (D-Ore.), with new co-sponsor Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.). This bill is the same as the one introduced in 2013 and we call upon Congress to move it forward.

The CFAA is one of the laws that is misused by prosecutors, piling on potential jail time to relatively minor charges in order to ratchet up pressure on defendants and get them to plead guilty rather than risk trial. In the time since Aaron's tragic death, EFF has continued to see misuses of the CFAA in prosecutions across the country. While this bill wouldn't fix everything that is wrong with the law, it would ensure that people won't face criminal liability for violating a terms of service agreement or other solely contractual agreements. It would also rein in some of the potential for prosecutorial discretion by limiting penalties and stop some of the game playing with duplicate charges that we continue to see. More specifics on our website, along with links to EFF's ongoing work in the courts can be found on our CFAA Issue page.

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"Four Facets of Privacy and Intellectual Freedom in Licensing Contracts for Electronic Journals"

Alan Rubel and Mei Zhang have published "Four Facets of Privacy and Intellectual Freedom in Licensing Contracts for Electronic Journals" in College & Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

This is a study of the treatment of library patron privacy in licenses for electronic journals in academic libraries. We begin by distinguishing four facets of privacy and intellectual freedom based on the LIS and philosophical literature. Next, we perform a content analysis of 42 license agreements for electronic journals, focusing on terms for enforcing authorized use and collection and sharing of user data. We compare our findings to model licenses, to recommendations proposed in a recent treatise on licenses, and to our account of the four facets of intellectual freedom. We find important conflicts with each.

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Digital Curation News (4/29/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdata

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Head, Health Information Technology Initiatives at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is recruiting a Head, Health Information Technology Initiatives.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library (HSL) is seeking a dynamic and innovative leader to be Head of Health Information Technology Initiatives. The individual in this position will lead the Health Sciences Library's information technology initiatives that support and improve the research, teaching, and clinical services of the university's Health Affairs schools and UNC Health Care.

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"ARL Joins New Re:Create Coalition to Promote Balanced Copyright"

ARL has released "ARL Joins New Re:Create Coalition to Promote Balanced Copyright."

Here's an excerpt:

Today, April 28, 2015, ARL joined US technology companies, trade associations, and civil society organizations in the launch of Re:Create, a coalition that promotes balanced copyright policy. A balanced copyright system depends on limitations and exceptions, such as fair use. As technology advances, it is imperative that the copyright law is responsive to these changes, balancing the interests of creators of copyrighted information and products with the interests of users of those products.

Re:Create promotes and defends the important balance of copyright. ARL's member institutions, as well as the general public, depend on balanced copyright that includes robust limitations and exceptions. A balanced system ensures that copyright does not limit or impede new and valuable technologies and uses.

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Metadata Architect at Duke University

Duke University is recruiting a Metadata Architect.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Metadata Architect provides leadership and support for metadata services for the Duke University Libraries' (DUL) digital projects and repository. She/he conceptualizes, plans, and implements descriptive framework and practices for the Libraries' digital collections program and other initiatives. The Metadata Architect serves as the leader in the library for adopting technologies related to creation and use of metadata, and for standardizing descriptive metadata practice across formats, projects, and programs, to facilitate digital preservation, and the interoperability of discovery environments both within and outside of DUL.

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Disrupting the Subscription Journals’ Business Model for the Necessary Large-Scale Transformation to Open Access

The Max Planck Digital Library has released Disrupting the Subscription Journals' Business Model for the Necessary Large-Scale Transformation to Open Access .

Here's an excerpt:

This paper makes the strong, fact-based case for a large-scale transformation of the current corpus of scientific subscription journals to an open access business model. The existing journals, with their well-tested functionalities, should be retained and developed to meet the demands of 21st century research, while the underlying payment streams undergo a major restructuring. There is sufficient momentum for this decisive push towards open access publishing. The diverse existing initiatives must be coordinated so as to converge on this clear goal. The international nature of research implies that this transformation will be achieved on a truly global scale only through a consensus of the world's most eminent research organizations. All the indications are that the money already invested in the research publishing system is sufficient to enable a transformation that will be sustainable for the future. There needs to be a shared understanding that the money currently locked in the journal subscription system must be withdrawn and re-purposed for open access publishing services. The current library acquisition budgets are the ultimate reservoir for enabling the transformation without financial or other risks. The goal is to preserve the established service levels provided by publishers that are still requested b y researchers, while redefining and reorganizing the necessary payment streams. By disrupting the underlying business model, the viability of journal publishing can be preserved and put on a solid footing for the scholarly developments of the future.

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Digital Curation News (4/28/2015) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #researchdatamanagement

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Digital Publishing Services Manager at SUNY Geneseo

SUNY Geneseo is recruiting a Digital Publishing Services Manager.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

SUNY Geneseo seeks a service-oriented, versatile, and dynamic professional to develop and implement a strategy for digital scholarship and publishing services at Milne Library. As part of the Milne Library's Technical Services Unit, this position will work closely with the Digital Archivist and the Digital Curriculum Librarian as a fellow team member in support of the Library's strategic goal to advance digital scholarship, publishing and learning initiatives, and establish the library's role in the research and publication lifecycle of scholarship at Geneseo.

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"Steps toward a New GSU Ruling"

Kevin Smith has published "Steps toward a New GSU Ruling" in Scholarly Communication @ Duke University.

Here's an excerpt:

It appears that once again the publishers have failed in an effort to broaden the scope of the case beyond the item-by-item fair use analysis that has already been done and to possibly reintroduce some of the broad principles that they really want, which have so far been rejected at every stage. Now Judge Evans has explicitly told them, in her scheduling order, that what is required is "consideration and reevaluation of each of the individual claims" in order to redetermine "in each instance… whether defendants' use was a fair use under 17 U.S.C. section 107." Her schedule for the briefs is tight, with an end of the briefing now scheduled just two and a half months from now. Presumably we would still have a long wait while Judge Evans applies revised reasoning about fair use to each of the individual excerpts, but it looks a bit more like that is what is going to happen.

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Audiovisual Archivist at University of North Carolina

The University of North Carolina is recruiting a Audiovisual Archivist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Audiovisual Archivist will participate in the development of an integrated management system for sound and moving-image materials from accessioning through digitization for preservation and access. Reporting to the Head of Archival Technical Services and working closely with the SFC Curator, Audiovisual Conservator, and the Applications Analyst, the Audiovisual Archivist will process and catalog incoming and previously held SFC collections. The position will include: accessioning collections; appraisal; collection or item-level arrangement and description for archival collections; updating descriptions in legacy finding aids following digitization; and linking digital access copies to the finding aid. The Audiovisual Archivist will also participate in the writing of reports to the granting agency, as required.

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"A Network Approach to Scholarly Communication Infrastructure"

Rebecca Kennison and Lisa Norberg have published "A Network Approach to Scholarly Communication Infrastructure" in EDUCAUSE Review.

Here's an excerpt:

The open-access movement, fueled by the digital revolution, is transforming the business of scholarly communication, affecting the entire value chain. Rapidly emerging technologies have been crucial enablers of this transformation, blurring traditional roles and attracting new participants. The infrastructure and the economic framework established to support a centuries-old model of scholarly publishing are no longer adequate to the task. We believe that a radically different approach is required-one that is open, flexible, collaborative, and networked.

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