Month: December 2016

"Does Evaluative Scientometrics Lose Its Main Focus on Scientific Quality by the New Orientation towards Societal Impact?"

Lutz Bornmann and Robin Haunschild have published "Does Evaluative Scientometrics Lose Its Main Focus on Scientific Quality by the New Orientation towards Societal Impact?" in Scientometrics.

Here's an excerpt:

In this Short Communication, we have outlined that the current revolution in scientometrics does not only imply a broadening of the impact perspective, but also the devaluation of quality considerations in evaluative contexts. Impact might no longer be seen as a proxy for quality, but in its original sense: the simple resonance in some sectors of society. This is an alarming development, because fraudulent research is definitely of low quality, but is expected to have great resonance if measured in terms of altmetrics.

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Digital Information Technologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory is recruiting a Digital Information Technologist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Research Library seeks an experienced Digital Information Technologist. The main responsibility of the position will be the design, development, usability, implementation and management of digital library services with an initial focus on the Research Library's institutional repository. The Digital Information Technologist is expected to maintain a keen awareness of trends in digital tools and services, and will pursue opportunities for enhancing digital services through the adoption of new technologies, linked data practices, projects to develop new digital services, collaborations and partnerships.

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"Scholarly Context Adrift: Three out of Four URI References Lead to Changed Content"

Shawn M. Jones et al. have published "Scholarly Context Adrift: Three out of Four URI References Lead to Changed Content" in PLOS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

Increasingly, scholarly articles contain URI references to "web at large" resources including project web sites, scholarly wikis, ontologies, online debates, presentations, blogs, and videos. Authors reference such resources to provide essential context for the research they report on. A reader who visits a web at large resource by following a URI reference in an article, some time after its publication, is led to believe that the resource's content is representative of what the author originally referenced. However, due to the dynamic nature of the web, that may very well not be the case. We reuse a dataset from a previous study in which several authors of this paper were involved, and investigate to what extent the textual content of web at large resources referenced in a vast collection of Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM) articles published between 1997 and 2012 has remained stable since the publication of the referencing article. We do so in a two-step approach that relies on various well-established similarity measures to compare textual content. In a first step, we use 19 web archives to find snapshots of referenced web at large resources that have textual content that is representative of the state of the resource around the time of publication of the referencing paper. We find that representative snapshots exist for about 30% of all URI references. In a second step, we compare the textual content of representative snapshots with that of their live web counterparts. We find that for over 75% of references the content has drifted away from what it was when referenced. These results raise significant concerns regarding the long term integrity of the web-based scholarly record and call for the deployment of techniques to combat these problems.

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Data Services Specialist for Outreach and Education at Ohio State University

Ohio State University is recruiting a Data Services Specialist for Outreach and Education (2 year term appointment).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Data Services Specialist for Outreach and Education will join the Data Management Librarian to develop instructional programming and documentation to assist faculty and students in managing the lifecycle of data resulting from research projects of all types. The successful candidate will work with colleagues, engage the campus in broader conversations around e-science and e-scholarship and will contribute to the Libraries' initiatives to adapt, design and develop tools and services for organizing, storing and sharing research data.

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A Cookbook of Methods for Using CONTENTdm APIs

Andrew Bullen has released A Cookbook of Methods for Using CONTENTdm APIs.

Here's an excerpt:

CONTENTdm has a number of useful APIs for directly accessing information contained in its indexes and files. This site is intended as a practical reference guide to using many—though not all—of these APIs.

See also: "Using CONTENTdm's APIs to Customize Your Site and Access Your Data."

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Digital Projects Librarian at College of Charleston

The College of Charleston is recruiting a Digital Projects Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Projects Librarian serves as Project Coordinator to both the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) and the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI), striving to expand these projects and promote the history of the region. They will work with librarians, faculty members, and LCDL and LDHI partners, scholars, and contributors to digitize collections and create digital exhibits that support research about the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and historically interconnected sites in the Atlantic World. This position will keep abreast of trends in the creation, maintenance, and migration of digital collections and exhibits, and will make recommendations to improve procedures and access.

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Modern Language Association Launches the Humanities Commons

The Modern Language Association has launched the Humanities Commons.

Here's an excerpt from the website:

Humanities Commons is a trusted, nonprofit network where humanities scholars can create a professional profile, discuss common interests, develop new publications, and share their work. The Humanities Commons network is open to anyone.

Humanities Commons is a project of the office of scholarly communication at the Modern Language Association. Its development was generously funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Humanities Commons is based on the open-source Commons-in-a-Box project of the City University of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center and is an expansion of the MLA's MLA Commons, which launched in January 2013.

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Data Services Librarian at University of Houston

The University of Houston is recruiting a Data Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Data Services Librarian will collaborate with subject liaison librarians across disciplines to provide expert support for faculty and students working with geospatial, numeric, statistical, and other data. Such support may include instruction in methodologies and tools, especially those related to Geographic Information Systems (GIS); analysis and visualization of data; and development and promotion of dataset collections.

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Across the Great Divide: Findings and Possibilities for Action from the 2016 Summit Meeting of Academic Libraries and University Presses with Administrative Relationships (P2L)

ARL has released Across the Great Divide: Findings and Possibilities for Action from the 2016 Summit Meeting of Academic Libraries and University Presses with Administrative Relationships (P2L).

Here's an excerpt:

P2L explored how these separate components of the scholarly communications ecosystem (e.g., libraries and publishers) might move beyond relationships often established for administrative convenience and think together, leveraging the skills and strengths of their distinctive enterprises to move toward a unified system of publication, dissemination, access, and preservation that better serves both the host institution and the wider world of scholarship. P2L was an important first step toward a shared action agenda for university presses and academic libraries that supports and updates traditional approaches to scholarly publishing, broader scholarly communication through established and emerging channels and practices, and digital scholarship services for faculty and students. This shared action agenda also must seek to adapt to the new challenges of the digital environment in commitments such as the preservation of the scholarly record.

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Digital Collections Librarian at Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr College is recruiting a Digital Collections Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Collections Librarian is responsible for coordinating the creation, presentation and preservation of the College's digital collections; for evaluating and implementing new digital collections systems; and for playing a leading role in establishing standards and best practices for digitization and metadata. S/he will be part of the Special Collections Department, and will report to the Associate Chief Information Officer/Director of Special Collections. S/he will also work closely on digital collections with colleagues in the Special Collections Department; within Library and Information Technology Services (LITS), particularly colleagues working in digital scholarship and pedagogy; and with colleagues across the Tri-College Libraries.

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"Blockchain Technology as a Regulatory Technology: From Code Is Law to Law Is Code"

Primavera De Filippi and Samer Hassan have published "Blockchain Technology as a Regulatory Technology: From Code Is Law to Law Is Code" in First Monday.

Here's an excerpt:

To illustrate the extent to which blockchain code can assume the function of law, let us take the example of a hypothetical blockchain-based DRM system. Copyright law introduces "artificial scarcity" in the realm of information, by prohibiting (or constraining) the reproduction of creative works without the consent of the corresponding right holders. Yet, given the ease with which one can produce an identical copy of a digital work, copyright infringement has become widespread in the digital world. Since many years already, content providers have been relying on technological means (such as DRM systems, or other technological measures of protection) to restrain the way in which content can be accessed, used or reused by introducing a new set of technical rules, as a complement to the legal provisions of copyright law. Yet, most of these systems are limited by the fact that it is impossible to distinguish one digital file from another. By leveraging on the transparency and immutability of blockchain technologies, it is possible to restore the unicity and transferability of digital works, by linking every digital copy to a particular token on the blockchain. Authors can then associate these tokens with a particular set of rights to their digital works and trade them in the same way as they would trade digital tokens. Blockchain technology can thus be used to implement "artificial scarcity" at the level of each individual file—thus potentially allowing for the reintroduction of the first sale doctrine [11] in the digital realm, without the need to rely on any contractual or legal means.

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iPRES 2016: 13th International Conference on Digital Preservation Proceedings

The iPRES 2016: 13th International Conference on Digital Preservation Proceedings is available as a 169-page PDF.

Here's an excerpt:

In keeping with previous years, the iPRES 2016 programme is organised into research and practice streams. This format ensures visibility and promotion of both academic research work and the projects and initiatives of institutions involved in digital preservation practices. Furthermore, work- shops and tutorials provide opportunities for participants to share information, knowledge and best practices, and explore opportunities for collaboration on new approaches.

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"Assessing Safe Spaces for Digital Scholarship in the Library"

Rachel Wexelbaum has published "Assessing Safe Spaces for Digital Scholarship in the Library " in LIBRES.

Here's an excerpt:

Academic libraries, and the students and faculty that they serve, have different definitions of safe space. The attempts of both parties to construct a safe space for digital scholarship in the library can clash based on these divergent perspectives. While the number of academic libraries providing some form of digital scholarship support is increasing, the library definition of safe space, as well as the working culture of the library, has the potential to render libraries unsafe spaces for innovation and digital scholarship.

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Head, Library Technology Services at University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is recruiting a Head, Library Technology Services.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The incumbent will be responsible for providing vision and leadership for infrastructure and support services for the Library's technology ecosystem; digital library development; enterprise systems; web infrastructure; teaching and learning technologies; administrative applications and platforms; and archive and preservation systems. Additionally, manage the design and implementation of processes, standards and procedures to ensure uninterrupted access to digital resources, system security, disaster recovery, and service management targets.

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"Current Status of Scientific Data Curation Research and Practices in Mainland China"

Shiyan Ou and Yu Zhou have published "Current Status of Scientific Data Curation Research and Practices in Mainland China" in LIBRES.

Here's an excerpt:

With the rapid growth in the body of scientific data, scientific research depends more and more on finding theories and knowledge from the data, and thus data-intensive scientific discovery has become the fourth paradigm of scientific research. Therefore, it is urgent to develop and adopt methods to support the collection, collation, preservation and utilization of scientific data. This paper provides an overview of scientific data curation research and practices in mainland China. Firstly, it reviews Chinese research articles on data curation and outlines the research status and progress in this area. Secondly, it surveys existing scientific data repositories or platforms in mainland China, and analyzes the gaps between China's and other countries' data curation practices.

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Data Visualization Specialist at Ohio State University

Ohio State University is recruiting a Data Visualization Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Data Visualization Specialist will help researchers and project teams understand and use data visualization techniques to support their work; support the research agendas of faculty and students, enhance curricula, and encourage research innovation across the University relating to data visualization and visual thinking; provide consulting services to faculty and students and collaborate with other campus units already providing visualization and design services; work closely with the Data Management Services Librarian, the Digital Humanities Librarian, the GIS Specialist, the Head of Digital Initiatives, and others in both the Research Commons and elsewhere in University Libraries to increase understanding of visual data issues…

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"SHARE: Infrastructure for Open Scholarship"

Judy Ruttenberg has published "SHARE: Infrastructure for Open Scholarship" in College & Research Libraries News.

Here's an excerpt:

SHARE is a technology platform that aggregates free, open metadata about scholarship across the research life cycle (including proposals, registrations, data, publications, and more) from more than 125 sources, and is steadily adding more metadata providers. SHARE is discipline-agnostic in schema and in type of metadata source. With an application programming interface (API) and open metadata, SHARE can power or feed discovery services for new and emerging forms of scholarly expression in support of their exposure, recognition, and reuse.

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Digital Archivist for Records Management at MIT

MIT is recruiting a Digital Archivist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Digital Archivist and Program Head for Born -digital Archives, the Digital Archivist for Records Management will acquire and process historically and institutionally significant digital collections for the IASC. As part of the Archives Collections team, the Archivist will provide advice and training regarding digital records management and transfer, appraise hybrid and born-digital collections, use digital forensics tools and techniques to triage digital material, and preparation of digital objects for preservation. The Digital Archivist for Records Management will implement and manage the Web archiving program for the MIT Libraries, which is based in the IASC and focused on Institute -created material. They will also be the lead resource for digital records management issues and solutions.

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"Building Tools to Facilitate Data Reuse"

Stefanie Kethers, Andrew Treloar, and Mingfang Wu have published "Building Tools to Facilitate Data Reuse" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

The Australian National Data Service (ANDS) has been funded by the Australian Government since 2009, with a goal to increase the value of data to researchers, research institutions and the nation. To achieve this goal, ANDS has funded more than 200 projects under seven programs. This paper provides an overview of one of these programs, the Applications Program, which focused on funding software infrastructure to enable data reuse to demonstrate the value of making data available to researchers. The paper also presents some representative projects, a summary of what the program has achieved, and lessons learned.

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Developer 2 at Minitex

Minitex is recruiting a Developer 2.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

This position will build features and enhancements into the open source SimplyE mobile application. The employee in this position provides mobile application development and support; has deep experience and knowledge in iOS and Android development; works with Xcode, Objective-C, Swift, CocoaPods, Android Studio, Java, Maven, Android NDK, XML, JSON, OPDS; uses Git collaboratively with other team members. This is a one-year grant funded position.

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"Altmetrics and Grey Literature: Perspectives and Challenges"

Joachim Schöpfel and Hêlêne Prost have self-archived "Altmetrics and Grey Literature: Perspectives and Challenges."

Here's an excerpt:

The topic of our paper is the connection between altmetrics and grey literature. Do altmetrics offer new opportunities for the development and impact of grey literature? In particular, the paper explores how altmetrics could add value to grey literature, in particular how reference managers, repositories, academic search engines and social networks can produce altmetrics of dissertations, reports, conference papers etc. We explore, too, how new altmetric tools incorporate grey literature as source for impact assessment, and if they do. The discussion analyses the potential but also the limits of the actual application of altmetrics to grey literatures and highlights the importance of unique identifiers, above all the DOI.

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Technical Information Specialist at National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health is recruiting a Technical Information Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

  • Responsible for the application administration and configuration of the library's digital library applications (library catalog, link resolver, proxy server, document delivery ticketing, support ticketing, resource database, and website content management system administration); . . . .
  • Participate in digital library development, automation, and maintenance projects, collaborating with stakeholders to determine project goals, optimal design strategy, information architecture, business cases, accessibility plan, organizational impact, cost estimates, implementation schedules, milestones, and reporting requirements;

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Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy Recommendations

The Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group has released the Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy Recommendations.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The emergence of IoT presents opportunities for significant innovation, from smart homes to smart cities. In many cases, straightforward changes to device development, distribution, and maintenance processes can prevent the distribution of IoT devices that suffer from significant security and privacy issues. BITAG believes that following the guidelines outlined in this report may dramatically improve the security and privacy of IoT devices and minimize the costs associated with the collateral damage that would otherwise affect both end users and ISPs.

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Systems and Technical Processes Librarian at University of Alabama

The University of Alabama is recruiting a Systems and Technical Processes Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The University of Alabama seeks a faculty member to coordinate and lead the administration of the integrated library system and collaborate across departments that handle cataloging, metadata, and discovery.

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