Month: August 2019

"In Open Access’s Long Shadow—A View from the Humanities"

Enrico Natale has published "In Open Access's Long Shadow—A View from the Humanities" in 027.7 Zeitschrift für Bibliothekskultur / Journal for Library Culture.

Here's an excerpt:

Historians have been in recent years among the most vocal critics against open access to scientific literature. Discussing the controversies they have triggered in Europe and in the USA, we argue that research on open access should be broadened chronologically and thematically. The first section recalls the very first debate on open access that took place among library professionals at the turn of the XXth century and points similarities with the present situation. The second section reviews the criticisms levelled by humanities disciplines against mandatory regulations on open access. The third section argues that the potential of open access for science democratization and knowledge dissemination may not be taken for granted and need further empirical assessment.

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Lead Engineer, EngX Team at MIT

MIT is recruiting a Lead Engineer, EngX Team.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Our EngX (Engineering + Experience) team is hiring a technical leader to coach and mentor a growing team of three. You have an opportunity to manage a team that is involved in collaborating with groups across the Libraries to solve information access and retrieval problems, and surface relationships between collections and objects at MIT and beyond. EngX is responsible for building, selecting, maintaining, and monitoring the APIs, tools, and services that make up our information platform, to facilitate discovery, use and reuse of MIT’s library collections.

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"Projekt Deal and Springer Nature Reach Understanding on World´s Largest Transformative Open Access Agreement"

The German Rectors' Conference (HRK) has released "Projekt Deal and Springer Nature Reach Understanding on World´s Largest Transformative Open Access Agreement."

Here's an excerpt:

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed today between MPDL Services, on behalf of Projekt DEAL, and Springer Nature sets the scene for the world’s most comprehensive open access (OA) agreement to be finalised later this year. . . .

The transformative two-part agreement will encompass a fully OA element and a Publish and Read (PAR) element. This will enable eligible authors to publish OA in both Springer Nature’s fully OA journals, the largest OA portfolio in the world with over 600 titles, and Springer Nature’s collection of 1,900 hybrid journals, which collectively already publish one in four of all OA articles. In addition, the model provides the academic community of the participating institutions with permanent reading access to content in Springer, Palgrave, Adis, and Macmillan academic journals published during the term of the contract.

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Digital Resources and Initiatives Manager at Pittsburg State University

Pittsburg State University is recruiting a Digital Resources and Initiatives Manager.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Dean of Library Services, the successful candidate will plan, implement, and direct digital projects and initiatives for Library Services. They will provide leadership for developing and expanding digital program, including repository services, scholarly publishing, and metadata curation. Additional primary responsibilities will involve working collaboratively with colleagues across the campus to develop, manage, and disseminate open educational resources and other digital resources that provide content for research and teaching efforts

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"Evolution of an Institutional Repository: A Case History from Nebraska"

Paul Royster has self-archived "Evolution of an Institutional Repository: A Case History from Nebraska."

Here's an excerpt:

The 13-year history of the institutional repository (IR) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is recounted with emphasis on local conditions, administrative support, recruitment practices, and management philosophy. Practices included offering new services, hosting materials outside the conventional tenure stream, using student employees, and providing user analytics on global dissemination. Acquiring trust of faculty depositors enhanced recruitment and extra-library support. Evolution of policies on open access, copyright, metadata, and third-party vendors are discussed, with statistics illustrating the growth, contents, and outreach of the repository over time. A final section discusses future directions for scholarly communications and IRs in particular.

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Sr. Digital Project Manager at Columbia University

Columbia University is recruiting a Sr. Digital Project Manager.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The incumbent oversees and supports several high visibility or complexity multi-stakeholder, digital projects produced in partnership with various library units. The Senior Digital Project Manager is responsible for creating project plans, timelines, and resource requirements. The Senior Digital Project Manager will manage the entire project lifecycle of high visibility projects, ensuring delivery of project objectives within the prescribed timeframe and budget. They will provide project management consultations to library staff working on complex self-managed digital projects. This position will aid in designing the evolution of the Digital Project Management unit and mentor the Digital Project Coordinator.

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"Providing Research Data Management (RDM) Services in Libraries: Preparedness, Roles, Challenges, and Training for RDM Practice"

Data and Information Management has released "Providing Research Data Management (RDM) Services in Libraries: Preparedness, Roles, Challenges, and Training for RDM Practice" by Rong Tang Zhan Hu.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper reports the results of an international survey on research data management (RDM) services in libraries. More than 240 practicing librarians responded to the survey and outlined their roles and levels of preparedness in providing RDM services, challenges their libraries face, and knowledge and skills that they deemed essential to advance the RDM practice. Findings of the study revealed not only a number of location and organizational differences in RDM services and tools provided but also the impact of the level of preparedness and degree of development in RDM roles on the types of RDM services provided.

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The Best Software for Creating Digital Art from Photographs, Version 8

Previously a separate product, Impression has just been merged with Topaz Studio 2, a powerful full-featured photo editor. It is a very powerful and highly customizable tool for transforming photos and other images into a wide variety of digital artworks, such as drawings and paintings. Topaz Studio 2 can be run as a stand-alone product or as a Photoshop plug-in. Topaz Studio 2 is resource intensive and it has minimum hardware and OpenGL requirements. Topaz Studio 2 is frequently updated, and the below description may not reflect the state of the product when you read this. It is important to download and test this program prior to purchase.

Impression has a number of presets (called looks), including chalk, charcoal, colored pencil, da Vinci drawing, Degas, Edward Hooper, Impressionist, palette knife, Pointillism, Renoir, pencil, sketch, van Gough, watercolor, and other effects. Studio 2 uses layers, and the selected Impression look name appears in the upper right. Below the name is the Impression layer where the look controls are.

Impression has a cornucopia of controls, and each control can be customized by applying the look, selecting the Impression layer, and then clicking on the down arrow. The real power of impression is not evident until you start using these controls. Here are some key adjustments:

  • Bush: There are currently 17 different bush options.
  • Number of strokes: High, medium, and low.
  • Brush size.
  • Paint volume: How thick does the paint look.
  • Paint opacity: How transparent is the paint.
  • Stroke rotation: If enabled, rotation variation can also be controlled.
  • Stroke color variation: Increasing this value makes strokes have a wider range of color.
  • Stroke width.
  • Stroke length.
  • Spill: Strokes "spill" out over their normal edges.
  • Smudge: Strokes are blurred and stylized, losing detail.
  • Coverage: How fully does the paint cover the canvas.
  • Color: Each major color can be varied by hue, saturation, and lightness. Where the color is present in the image can be previewed. Hue, saturation, and lightness of the entire image can also be controlled.
  • Lighting: Brightness, contrast, highlight, shadow, can be altered. Light position can be set.
  • Vignette: Vignette size, strength, transition, roundness, color, and center position can be determined.
  • Texture: Background material and background strength and solidity can be set.

You should experiment with modifying the looks. After tweaking your look settings, you can save them as a custom look.

Impression is especially useful for charcoal drawings, colored pencil drawings, da Vinci drawings, oil paintings, and pastel drawings.

Overall, Impression is a powerful, full-featured digital art tool, and Studio 2 has a very reasonable price.

Snap Art by Alien Skin Software

Snap Art is a full-featured Windows/Mac plug-in/standalone program that allows you to easily create charcoal drawings, color pencil drawings, comics, crayon drawings. impasto paintings, oil paintings, pastel drawings (including hard, oil, and soft pastel), pen and ink drawings, pencil sketches, Pointillism paintings, stylized illustrations, and watercolor paintings.

There are a variety of presets for each effect, and slider controls for background (e.g,, for oil paint: brush size, photorealism, coverage, stroke length, and color variation), detail masking (similar controls as background), colors (e.g., brightness, contrast, and saturation), lighting (e.g., angle, direction, and highlight characteristics as well as vignette effect), and canvas effects (e.g, pastel paper). You can create your own presets. The ability to close side-panel controls permits a large preview space.

This program is especially useful for oil paintings (try the detailed, dry brush, and thick paint settings). It has good canvas and paper texture effects.

FotoSketcher

FotoSketcher is a versatile standalone Windows program that allows you to create drawings, paintings, and a few other effects. It can transform photos into cartoons, oil paintings, oil pastel drawings, pen and ink drawings, pencil drawings, watercolor paintings. and other types of artworks. It is freeware.

Sliders and other controls for each effect allow you modify image rendition. For example, for the oil pastel sketch effect you can control minimum stroke size, maximum stroke size, number of iterations, edge intensity, and filter precision. You can also soften edges, add a frame, add texture, add text, and use a retouch brush. There is a small preview window in the floating control panel.

This program is especially useful for oil pastel drawings.

AKVIS Sketch

AKVIS Sketch is a Windows/Mac plug-in/standalone program that allows you to create drawings and watercolors. It offers a very wide variety of effects, such as charcoal, color pencil, lead pencil, pastel, and watercolor. The effects are organized into two groups: classic and artistic.

Sliders allow you to fine-tune these effects. For example, using the detailed sketch effect and the strokes panel, you can adjust pencil color and background color; alter stroke angle, thickness, and length; and control midtones hatching and intensity. Using the edges panel, you can alter sensitivity, edge width, and zone of influence. With the effects panel, you can adjust panel, shadows, noise, and contrast.

This program is especially useful for pencil drawings.

AKVIS OilPaint

AKVIS OilPaint is a Windows/Mac plug-in/standalone program that allows you to create oil paintings and oil pastel drawings You can alter simplicity, saturation, maximum stroke length, stroke thickness, stroke intensity, stroke curvature, wide background strokes, and random strokes. It offers a number of presets, including some unique ones (e.g., palette knife), and a number of different stroke types (e.g., flat and rounded). Additional controls allow you to control canvas, frame, and text effects.

If you like a fairly realistic painting style, try the high details or fine lines presets.

Dynamic Auto-Painter by MediaChance

Dynamic Auto-Painter, a Windows/Mac stand-alone program, allows you to paint in the style of famous painters, such as Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh. It allows you to create a wide variety of types of artworks.

There are a variety of controls for each preset, such as brush strokes, canvas, detail brushes, faithfulness, realism, palette, and quality. It supports advanced (e.g, color shift), retouch, outline, canvas, material, color, and layer adjustments. Artwork rendering occurs in stages, with further user fine-tuning possible during some stages. It is possible to change the color palate of the original image by having the program use a second image as a color source. Some presets significantly change image coloration.

While the presets can be used to easily create artworks, the real power of this program is not revealed until you start using the advanced controls and directing brush strokes during the creation process.

This program is especially useful for Aquarelle paintings and oil paintings.

JixiPix Programs

JixiPix offers a wide variety of low-cost Windows/Mac plug-in/standalone programs. They are categorized as professional software or hobbyists and enthusiasts apps. The professional software programs provide greater control over effects and can be used as Photoshop plug-ins. They can be purchased individually or as part of a bundle.

Especially useful JixiPix programs include:

Other Digital Art Software to Consider

Depending on your artistic requirements and style, the following software may also be of interest.

First-Line Recommendations by Type of Artwork

  • Aquarelle/Watercolor: AKVIS Watercolor, Aquarella, Dynamic Auto-Painter, and FotoSketcher
  • Cartoon: Arttoon, Topaz Clean, and ToonIt!
  • Charcoal Drawing: Impression and Snap Art
  • Colored Pencil Drawing: Impression and Snap Art
  • Gouache: AKVIS ArtWork
  • Oil Painting: AKVIS OilPaint, Dynamic Auto-Painter, FotoSketcher, Impression, and Snap Art
  • Oil Pastel Painting: FotoSketcher
  • Pastel Drawing: Impression
  • Pencil Drawing/Sketch: AKVIS Sketch and Snap Art
  • Woodcuts: ToonIt!

Useful Photo Editing Software

The following software is recommended for editing artistic works:

  • Alien Skin Exposure (very powerful full-featured photo editor with numerous useful presets; highly recommended)
  • Luminar and Luminar Flex (powerful full-featured photo editors, especially useful for light ray effects)
  • ON1 Photo RAW (powerful full-featured photo editor with numerous useful presets)
  • Topaz DeNoise AI (best way to remove noise from your photos; resource intensive)
  • Topaz ReStyle (a very powerful tool for changing image colors; highly recommended)
  • Topaz Sharpen AI (sharpens images without distorting them; resource intensive)

Purchase Advice

It is highly recommended that you download and test digital art software demos prior to purchase. Try all the presets. A software company's idea of what a good art effect is may not match your own, so experiment with changing the settings of unsatisfactory effects before concluding that the program cannot do what you want.

It is especially important to test the limits of a program and to determine what features can be disabled. For example, see how much detail you can get in a painting and check whether it is possible to turn off the texture effect (i.e, canvas).

In some cases, it is worth buying a program for one or two unique effects even though the rest may not be satisfactory or may duplicate effects you already have in other programs.

A detailed user manual—ideally in the PDF format—can be of great help in using advanced program features. Check to see if a manual is available. Looking at a product's video tutorials is also helpful in making a purchasing decision.

If possible, save older versions of software. New versions may drop or significantly change features you rely on.

Software Licensing and Sales Policies

Topaz Labs plug-in upgrades are currently free for life. Other software companies may charge you for upgrades, usually major version changes.

AKVIS has separate home, home deluxe, and business licenses. Only business licenses allow commercial use.

JixiPix licenses have this clause: "Output from SOFTWARE PRODUCT can be sold, shared, distributed, printed, etc. in any amounts without limitation as long as bulk of design is provided by you. This means you cannot take output from SOFTWARE PRODUCT that does not contain large portions of your image."

Companies typically offer one or more software bundles, which reduce the prices of included products.

Some companies, such as Alien Skin and Topaz Labs, offer their products at substantial discounts during sales, which typically occur during major US holidays. These are especially good times to buy software bundles.

Innovative Media Librarian at University of California, Riverside

University of California, Riverside is recruiting a Innovative Media Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Director of Research Services (RS) in the Research and Instructional Services Division, the Innovative Media Librarian will work collaboratively to support the scholarly and research activities of UCR faculty, researchers, and students by developing specialized research and instructional partnerships; building innovative media and maker services; and providing general research support and outreach.

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"Open Science and Modified Funding Lotteries Can Impede the Natural Selection of Bad Science"

Paul E. Smaldino et al. have published "Open Science and Modified Funding Lotteries Can Impede the Natural Selection of Bad Science" in Royal Society Open Science.

Here's an excerpt:

Assessing scientists using exploitable metrics can lead to the degradation of research methods even without any strategic behaviour on the part of individuals, via 'the natural selection of bad science.' Institutional incentives to maximize metrics like publication quantity and impact drive this dynamic. Removing these incentives is necessary, but institutional change is slow. However, recent developments suggest possible solutions with more rapid onsets. These include what we call open science improvements, which can reduce publication bias and improve the efficacy of peer review. In addition, there have been increasing calls for funders to move away from prestige- or innovation-based approaches in favour of lotteries. We investigated whether such changes are likely to improve the reproducibility of science even in the presence of persistent incentives for publication quantity through computational modelling. We found that modified lotteries, which allocate funding randomly among proposals that pass a threshold for methodological rigour, effectively reduce the rate of false discoveries, particularly when paired with open science improvements that increase the publication of negative results and improve the quality of peer review. In the absence of funding that targets rigour, open science improvements can still reduce false discoveries in the published literature but are less likely to improve the overall culture of research practices that underlie those publications.

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Collections Strategist for Repository Services at MIT

MIT is recruiting a Collections Strategist for Repository Services.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Repository Services Strategist works under the direction of the Head, Scholarly Communications and Collections Strategy, and closely and collaboratively with a wide range of library departments (including but not limited to Digital Library Services (DLS); Department of Distinctive Collections (DDC); Data and Specialized Services (DSS); and Library Instruction and Research Services (LIRS)), to develop and plan services and lead outreach related to digital repositories-based collections in order to: meet the needs of MIT researchers; leverage repository services to enable and support a robust, sustainable, equitable, and open scholarly communications ecosystem; and to advance computational modes of access to the Libraries’ repository-based collections.

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The Public-Access Computer Systems Review, an Open Access Journal, Was Launched 30 Years Ago This August

On 8/16/1989, the University of Houston Libraries launched The Public-Access Computer Systems Review (PACS Review). Its first issue was published in January 1990.

What were some of the distinguishing characteristics of this early digital journal?

  • It was a born-digital journal. Major journal publishers, such as Elsevier, would experiment with providing access to born-print journals in university settings starting in the mid-1990's.
  • It was peer reviewed by a distinguished international editorial board with members from Canada, the USA and the UK.
  • It was officially published by an research library.
  • It was a library and information science journal with librarians primarily acting as editors and editorial board members.
  • It allowed authors to retain copyright.
  • It had special copyright provisions for noncommercial use.
  • It was freely available.
  • It adopted an accelerated publication schedule to publish articles as quickly as possible.
  • It published articles by influential authors, such as Stevan Harnad, John Kunze, John Price Wilkin, Ann Okerson, Vicky Reich, and John Unsworth.
  • It allowed authors to publish updated versions of their articles.
  • It was issued an ISSN number in 1990.
  • It was indexed by three major index and abstracting services.

Below is a description of the journal. For information about other early digital publishing projects by libraries, see the Academic Library as Scholarly Publisher Bibliography.

History of the Journal

After being authorized by Robin N. Downes, the University of Houston Libraries' visionary Director, the journal was announced on the PACS-L discussion list on August 16, 1989. A call for papers was issued on October 16, 1989. The publication of the first issue was announced on January 3, 1990. The journal was cataloged on OCLC and assigned an ISSN number (1048-6542) by the Library of Congress National Serials Data Program on February 1, 1990.

Initially, the journal published scholarly papers (Communications section), columns, and reviews. Papers in the Communications section were selected by the Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editor, Communications. A private mailing list was utilized for communication with editorial staff and Editorial Board members. Most communication with authors was done via e-mail, including paper submission.

The PACS Review was published three times a year. New issue announcements were distributed as e-mail messages on the PACS-L discussion list, and users retrieved the ASCII article files from the University of Houston's LISTSERV via e-mail. (LISTSERV distribution was suspended in 1999.)

Authors retained the copyright to PACS Review articles, and they gave the University of Houston the nonexclusive right to publish the articles in the journal and in future publications. Authors could republish their articles elsewhere, but they agreed to mention prior publication of the articles in the PACS Review within these works. Copying of PACS Review articles was permitted for educational, noncommercial use by academic computer centers, individual scholars, and libraries.

On October 29, 1991, the journal adopted a more flexible publication schedule that reduced article publication time.

A Refereed Articles section of the journal was announced on November 11, 1991, and a call for papers was issued on February 6, 1992. The Refereed Articles section included papers that were peer reviewed by Editorial Board members using a double-blind review procedure, which was usually conducted via e-mail. The publication of the first refereed paper was announced on April 6, 1992.

Between 1992 and 1996, the first five volumes of The Public-Access Computer Systems Review were also published in book form by the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). Walt Crawford prepared the camera-ready copy for these volumes and Charles W. Bailey, Jr. provided editorial support.

Starting on April 6, 1992, PACS Review issue publication announcements were also distributed on the PACS-P list.

On January 29, 1994, the distribution of the journal via University of Houston Libraries' Gopher server was announced. (Gopher distribution was suspended in 1998.) The journal ceased publishing reviews in 1994.

On March 9, 1995, the distribution of the journal via University of Houston Libraries' Web server was announced.

Starting with the first issue of volume six (March 21, 1995), the PACS Review: (1) published articles in both ASCII and HTML formats, (2) offered HTML articles with both internal and external links, and (3) gave authors the option of updating the HTML version of their articles. The first updated article was "Network-Based Electronic Publishing of Scholarly Works: A Selective Bibliography" by Charles W. Bailey, Jr., which was updated 25 times.

At the end of 1996, Mr. Bailey stepped down as Editor-in-Chief.

Pat Ensor and Thomas C. Wilson became Editors-in-Chief in January 1997. They edited volumes eight (1997) and nine (1998). Publication of the last issue was announced on June 18, 1998. Papers were under consideration for publication until August 2000, when the journal ceased operation.

During its nine years of publication, the PACS Review published 42 issues that included 112 articles, columns, reviews, and editorials.

The PACS Review was indexed in Current Index to Journals in Education, Information Science Abstracts, and Library Literature.

The journal is archived on the Internet Archive and the Texas Digital Library.

Editorial Staff

Editors-in-Chief

  • Charles W. Bailey, Jr., 1989-1996
  • Pat Ensor, 1997-2000
  • Thomas C. Wilson, 1997-2000

Associate and Copy Editors

  • Leslie Dillon, Associate Editor (1990) and Associate Editor, Columns (1991-1997)
  • Elizabeth A. Dupuis, Associate Editor, Columns (1997-2000)
  • John E. Fadell, Copy Editor (1998-2000)
  • Andrea Bean Hough, Associate Editor, Communications (1997-2000)
  • Mike Ridley, Associate Editor (1989-1990) and Associate Editor, Reviews (1991)
  • Dana Rooks, Associate Editor, Communications (1991-1997)
  • Robert Spragg, Associate Editor, Technical Support (1996-2000)
  • Roy Tennant, Associate Editor, Reviews (1992-1993)
  • Ann Thornton, Associate Editor, Production (1995-2000)

Editorial Board Members

  • Ralph Alberico (1992-2000)
  • George H. Brett II (1992-2000)
  • Priscilla Caplan (1994-2000)
  • Steve Cisler (1992-2000)
  • Walt Crawford (1989-2000)
  • Lorcan Dempsey (1992-2000)
  • Pat Ensor (1994-1996)
  • Nancy Evans (1989-2000)
  • Stephen Harter (1997-2000)
  • Charles Hildreth (1992-2000)
  • Ronald Larsen (1992-2000)
  • Clifford Lynch (1992-2000)
  • David R. McDonald (1989-2000)
  • R. Bruce Miller (1989-2000)
  • Ann Okerson (1997-2000)
  • Paul Evan Peters (1989-1996)
  • Mike Ridley (1992-2000)
  • Peggy Seiden (1995-2000)
  • Peter Stone (1989-2000)
  • John E. Ulmschneider (1992-2000)

Columnists

  • Priscilla Caplan (1992-1998)
  • Walt Crawford (1989-1995)
  • Martin Halbert (1990-1993)

Use Statistics

Only partial use statistics are available for the journal. LISTSERV use statistics were not tallied. From 1994 through 1996, the journal received over 81,000 Gopher requests. From March 1995 through 2006, the journal received over 4.2 million Web file requests.

Articles About the Journal

Speech about the Journal

Reviews of the Journal

A Look Back at 30 Years as an Open Access Publisher | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

Digital Curation News (8/19/2019) #datalibs #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #datamanagement #researchdata #rdm

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