Author: Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

"A Simple Proposal for the Publication of Journal Citation Distributions"

Vincent Lariviere et al. have self-archived "A Simple Proposal for the Publication of Journal Citation Distributions."

Here's an excerpt:

Although the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is widely acknowledged to be a poor indicator of the quality of individual papers, it is used routinely to evaluate research and researchers. Here, we present a simple method for generating the citation distributions that underlie JIFs. Application of this straightforward protocol reveals the full extent of the skew of distributions and variation in citations received by published papers that is characteristic of all scientific journals. Although there are differences among journals across the spectrum of JIFs, the citation distributions overlap extensively, demonstrating that the citation performance of individual papers cannot be inferred from the JIF. We propose that this methodology be adopted by all journals as a move to greater transparency, one that should help to refocus attention on individual pieces of work and counter the inappropriate usage of JIFs during the process of research assessment.

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Digital Preservation Specialist at University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is recruiting a Digital Preservation Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Preservation Specialist supports the development and implementation of several new digital preservation services to strengthen and expand our stewardship commitment to a range of content, including born-digital collections, licensed content, research data, and electronic publications. This is a two-year term appointment seeking a librarian or archivist committed to digital preservation.

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"Assessing the User Experience of E-Books in Academic Libraries"

College & Research Libraries has released an e-print of "Assessing the User Experience of E-Books in Academic Libraries" by Tao Zhang, Xi Niu and Marlen Proman.

Here's an excerpt:

We report findings from an assessment of e-book user experience (search and information seeking) from usage data and user tests. The usage data showed that most reading sessions were brief and focused on certain pages, suggesting that users mainly use e-books to find specific information. The user tests found that participants tended to use default keyword search and browse the search results. Experience levels with e-books and features of e-book platforms influenced users' information seeking in e-books. The assessment results have significant implications for designing e-book features to support users' reading strategies and help libraries create a consistent user experience.

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Digital Research Architect at Stanford University

Stanford University is recruiting a Digital Research Architect.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Digital Research Architect works at the intersection of the digital library and digital scholarship as a lead architect in the design and development of digital library services in response to the research needs of scholars. The Digital Research Architect will orchestrate the integration of new and existing digital library tools into the research practices of Stanford scholars; lead the design and development of scholarly tools for the interpretation, computation, and augmentation of library resources; develop strategic partnerships within the Stanford community and with other institutions; and stimulate the wide use of SUL's digital research services both at Stanford and with partner institutions.

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Emory University Receives Grant for Digital Publishing Services for Humanities Faculty

Emory University has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its Digital Publishing Services for Humanities Faculty project.

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Digital Projects Librarian at University of Alabama

The University of Alabama is recruiting a Digital Projects Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Head of Web Services, this position is primarily responsible for development, implementation, and project management of technology projects in a collaborative environment, as well as supporting the development and management of the UA Libraries various web interfaces. This position will also act as primary administrator for LibApps and similar cloud-based library application suites.

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"Rewarding Open Access Scholarship in Promotion And Tenure: Driving Institutional Change"

Jere Odell, Heather Coates, and Kristi Palmer have published "Rewarding Open Access Scholarship in Promotion And Tenure: Driving Institutional Change" in College & Research Libraries News.

Here's an excerpt:

Here we describe the efforts of one institution, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), to reward OA scholarship in the P&T process. With librarians as advocates, participants, and change agents, IUPUI has become one of the first to include OA as a value in its P&T guidelines.

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Web and Application Programmer at University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh is recruiting a Web and Application Programmer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Web and Application Programmer is a technical position which requires knowledge and skills in HTML, PHP, XML and MySQL. The ideal candidate would have exposure to a variety of platforms, operating systems and software solutions including content management systems such as Drupal and WordPress, information architecture principles and usability issues.

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"Measuring the Impact of Digitized Theses: A Case Study from the London School of Economics"

Linda Bennett and Dimity Flanagan have published "Measuring the Impact of Digitized Theses: A Case Study from the London School of Economics" in Insights: the UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

This study tests the assertion that the online dissemination of theses has a positive impact on the research profile of the institution and sets out to gain a greater understanding of how digital theses fit into the scholarly resources landscape. The year-long study combined primary and secondary research and was undertaken with the London School of Economics, based on its programme of theses digitization. The paper outlines the types of metrics an institution may use to measure the impact of its corpus of digitized dissertations and examines how these metrics may be generated. Findings included: a higher volume of theses attracts more traffic; Google's strong indexing capabilities make it the most frequently used tool for discovery of digital theses; primary conclusions are that there is little correlation between downloads and citations of digitized theses; having a digital thesis collection enhances the reputation of the institution; although they recognize that digital theses are a valuable research tool, postgraduates and academics widely believe that making them available affects future publication opportunities; building and maintaining a digital thesis collection makes considerable 'hidden' work for librarians in terms of training about copyright and permissions. Some conclusions: better statistics are needed, especially of citations; institutions need to promote digital thesis collections better; more work needs to be done on whether digitizing theses impairs authors' chances of traditional publication and on how digital theses affect and are affected by the open access movement.

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Digital Library Architect at Emory University

Emory University is recruiting a Digital Library Architect.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Director of Library Technology and Digital Strategies, and partnering with the Digital Library Program Coordinator and central IT resources, the Digital Library Architect will provide technical leadership for Emory University's Digital Library. This position will assist in product development of a digital preservation repository based on the Hydra framework, transition of the repository into an operationalized service, and once operationalized will assume responsibility for the daily operations of the Digital Library's applications and technical infrastructure.

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"Gathering the Needles: Evaluating the Impact of Gold Open Access Content with Traditional Subscription Journals"

Alison Bobal and Jill Emery have published "Gathering the Needles: Evaluating the Impact of Gold Open Access Content with Traditional Subscription Journals" in Insights: the UKSG Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Utilizing the Project COUNTER Release 4 JR1-GOA report, two librarians explore these data in comparison to journal package subscriptions represented via the JR1 reports. This paper outlines the methodology and study undertaken at the Portland State University Library and the University of Nebraska Medical Center Library using these reports for the first time. The initial outcomes of the study are provided in various Tables for 2014 and 2015. The intent of the study was to provide both institutions with a baseline from which to do further study. In addition, some ideas are given for how these reports can be used in vendor negotiations going forward.

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"Towards Narrowing the Curation Gap—Theoretical Considerations and Lessons Learned from Decades of Practice"

Ana Sesartić, Andreas Fischlin, and Matthias Töwe ave published "Towards Narrowing the Curation Gap-Theoretical Considerations and Lessons Learned from Decades of Practice" in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information.

Here's an excerpt:

Research as a digital enterprise has created new, often poorly addressed challenges for the management and curation of research to ensure continuity, transparency, and accountability. There is a common misunderstanding that curation can be considered at a later point in the research cycle or delegated or that it is too burdensome or too expensive due to a lack of efficient tools. This creates a curation gap between research practice and curation needs. We argue that this gap can be narrowed if curators provide attractive support that befits research needs and if researchers consistently manage their work according to generic concepts consistently from the beginning. A rather uniquely long-term case study demonstrates how such concepts have helped to pragmatically implement a research practice intentionally using only minimalist tools for sustained, self-contained archiving since 1989. The paper sketches the concepts underlying three core research activities. (i) handling of research data, (ii) reference management as part of scholarly publishing, and (iii) advancing theories through modelling and simulation. These concepts represent a universally transferable best research practice, while technical details are obviously prone to continuous change. We hope it stimulates researchers to manage research similarly and that curators gain a better understanding of the curation challenges research practice actually faces.

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Digital Curation News (6/23/2016) #digitalcuration #digitalpreservation #datamanagement #researchdata #rdm

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 6. Over 560 works. Over 200 works added. Live links. Selected abstracts. OA. CC-BY License. Covers topics such as research data creation, acquisition, metadata, repositories, provenance, management, policies, support services, funding agency requirements, peer review, publication, citation, sharing, reuse, and preservation.

Systems Librarian at Boston Architectural College

Boston Architectural College is recruiting a Systems Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The position of Systems Librarian is a full-time, exempt position of 40 hours per week providing technical support and oversight of library systems. The Systems Librarian manages all computer technology services, including the Voyager integrated library system.

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"Rethinking Authentication, Revamping the Business"

Roger C. Schonfeld has published "Rethinking Authentication, Revamping the Business" in The Scholarly Kitchen.

Here's an excerpt:

While I have heard these arguments on and off this year, the meeting hosted by CCC [Copyright Clearance Center] made abundantly clear that there is great dissatisfaction with IP-based authentication across the community. Publishers want to move away from it due to their piracy concerns, their desire to improve seamlessness for researchers, and their expectations about the value they can offer through greater personalization. . . . And at least some academic librarians want to move away from it because of the poor user experience, especially with off-site access. Taking aim at IP authentication and proxy servers has become all the rage. But what might supplant them?

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Manager, Library Systems at Brandeis University

Brandeis University is recruiting a Manager, Library Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Brandeis University seeks a Manager of Library Systems to lead and participate in the development, enhancement, and maintenance of the Brandeis University Library IT environment, including operational policies and procedures intended to ensure the availability and responsiveness of existing and emerging services. This person will lead and participate on projects for functionality, development and integration required in library systems and applications, and projects for interoperability between library systems and other campus systems.

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"The Academic Data Librarian Profession in Canada: History and Future Directions"

S. Vincent Gray and Elizabeth Hill have self-archived "The Academic Data Librarian Profession in Canada: History and Future Directions."

Here's an excerpt:

From the 1970s onward, Canadians have been active in developing services and establishing structures to support the dissemination of data. In recent years the academic data profession in Canada has largely developed around access to data from the national statistics agency, Statistics Canada, and around the services which have been developed to permit access to these data. This chapter will provide a historical background for these activities and explain how current and emerging trends continue to affect the profession.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 6. Over 560 works. Over 200 works added. Live links. Selected abstracts. OA. CC-BY License. Covers topics such as research data creation, acquisition, metadata, repositories, provenance, management, policies, support services, funding agency requirements, peer review, publication, citation, sharing, reuse, and preservation.

Head, Beinecke Library Digital Services Unit at Yale University

Yale University is recruiting a Head, Beinecke Library Digital Services Unit.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Under the direction of the Head of Technical Services and working in close collaboration with units across the Beinecke Library and the Yale University Library, the Head of the Digital Services Unit coordinates the Beinecke Library's digitization program. This includes, its digital projects, and its user experience initiatives to enhance access to and use of Beinecke Library and its collections, including Beinecke Digital Collections, collection web pages, and online exhibits. The Head leads the investigation, development, and implementation of metadata and digitization workflows and standards as well as user interfaces and tools that affect the user experience.

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"Scholarly Communication and Data"

Hailey Mooney has self-archived "Scholarly Communication and Data."

Here's an excerpt:

The purpose of this chapter is to provide foundational knowledge for the data librarian by developing an understanding of the place of data within the current paradigm of networked digital scholarly communication. This includes defining the nature of data and data publications, examining the open science movement and its effects on data sharing, and delving into the challenges inherent to the wider integration of data into the scholarly communication system and the academic library

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 6. Over 560 works. Over 200 works added. Live links. Selected abstracts. OA. CC-BY License. Covers topics such as research data creation, acquisition, metadata, repositories, provenance, management, policies, support services, funding agency requirements, peer review, publication, citation, sharing, reuse, and preservation.

Libraries as Publishers in the Early 1990s

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in interest in academic and other types libraries acting as publishers and considerable discussion about how this will transform them.

What is sometimes lost in the excitement over the library publishing movement is historical context: this trend started over a quarter century ago at the dawn of the Internet age. While most e-journals published in the early 1990s were produced by scholars acting as digital publishers, at least two academic libraries established formal digital publishing programs in this period: the University of Houston Libraries and the Virginia Tech Libraries.

In August 1989, the Director of the University of Houston Libraries, Robin N. Downes, authorized the establishment and announcement of The Public-Access Computer Systems Review (PACS Review), the first open access journal in the field of library and information science. The journal began publication in January 1990, became refereed in November 1991, and ceased publication in August 2000. Authors retained the copyright to PACS Review articles. Unrestricted copying of PACS Review articles was permitted for educational, noncommercial use by academic computer centers, individual scholars, and libraries.

Only partial use statistics are available for the journal. It was initially distributed using the LISTSERV software, and LISTSERV use statistics were not tallied. From 1994 through 1996, the journal received over 81,000 Gopher requests. From March 1995 through 2005, the journal received over 3.5 file requests via the Web.

In October 1996, Robin N. Downes authorized the establishment of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, an open access, updated electronic book that provided references to new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Between October 1996 and October 2006, 64 versions of the e-book were published by the University of Houston Libraries. There were over six million file requests for it during this period.

In the fall of 1989, Virginia Tech's Vice President for Information Systems, Dr. Robert Heterick, established the Scholarly Communications Project. The project was subsequently moved to the University Libraries, and it was directed by Lon Savage until December 1993, when Gail McMillan took over.

Since 1990, the Virginia Tech Libraries have published a number of e-journals, some of which were previously published by other entities prior to being migrated to the Libraries. Notably, the Scholarly Communications Project published the first issue of The Journal of the International Academy of Hospitality Research in November 1990. The journal was published in cooperation with Virginia Tech's Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. It ceased publication in 1998. It is described in "The Journal of the International Academy of Hospitality Research."

The Virginia Tech Libraries' Scholarly Communication department currently publishes e-journals, conference proceedings, and open educational resources.

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Archivist at National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art is recruiting an Archivist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The position is responsible for providing specialized reference services and in developing systems for preservation management of electronic images and objects. The incumbent is also responsible for providing records guidance, for appraising records, for identifying, preserving, and organizing historical records and advising on policies for archival management of digital images.

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"Open Access, Innovation, and Research Infrastructure"

Benedikt Fecher and Gert G. Wagner have published "Open Access, Innovation, and Research Infrastructure" in Publications.

Here's an excerpt:

In this article we argue that the current endeavors to achieve open access in scientific literature require a discussion about innovation in scholarly publishing and research infrastructure. Drawing on path dependence theory and addressing different open access (OA) models and recent political endeavors, we argue that academia is once again running the risk of outsourcing the organization of its content.

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Science Data Archivist at Raytheon Company

The Raytheon Company is recruiting a Science Data Archivist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The selected candidate will support multiple remote sensing research teams to preserve and document the science information and data sets they have developed over the life of the instrument.The successful candidate will interview each science team to identify and define the information and metadata needed to fully describe each data set.

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"Laying the Groundwork for a New Library Service: Scholar-Practitioner & Graduate Student Attitudes Toward Altmetrics and the Curation of Online Profiles"

Kathleen Reed, Dana McFarland, and Rosie Croft have published "Laying the Groundwork for a New Library Service: Scholar-Practitioner & Graduate Student Attitudes Toward Altmetrics and the Curation of Online Profiles" in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice.

Here's an excerpt:

While all participants had Googled themselves, few were strategic about their online scholarly identity. Participants affirmed the perception that altmetrics can be of value in helping to craft a story of the value of their research and its diverse outputs. When participants had prior knowledge of altmetrics tools, it tended to be very narrow and deep, and perhaps field-specific. Participants identified time as the major barrier to use of scholarly profile and altmetrics tools.

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