Charles W. Bailey, Jr. – Page 7

"CDL Decision Round Two: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Why There is Still Hope OR The Reports of CDL’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated"

Let me be unequivocal: libraries do not need a license to loan books, whether physical or digital. Lending legally acquired books is not illegal. Libraries are entitled to share these works, with no obligation to enter into licensing agreements or contracts beforehand. Furthermore, libraries—and their patrons—are legally permitted to make various uses of these works, including interlibrary loan, reserves, preservation, and fair use, all without needing permission from rightsholders.

This is because various exceptions in the law, including Section 108 for Libraries and Archives, ad Section 109 known as the first sale doctrine. We know that Section 109 preserves the balance between rightsholders and libraries. When a library purchases a book, it has the right to loan that work freely, without requiring additional permissions or payments to the copyright holder. A digitized version of a legally acquired book simply replaces the physical copy, not an unpurchased one in the marketplace. Any “market harm” is already factored into the initial sale, for which both the authors and publishers have been compensated.

https://tinyurl.com/3exh96bu

"U.S. Wireless Data Use Skyrockets, Passing 100T Megabyte Milestone, CTIA Annual Survey Finds"

Wireless networks are supporting unprecedented growth in data traffic, hosting an extraordinary 100.1 trillion megabytes in 2023, marking the biggest year-over-year increase in history and an 89% increase since 2021, according to CTIA’s 2024 Annual Wireless Industry Survey. . . .

The survey found that next generation 5G networks are continuing to have a significant and growing impact. As of year-end 2023, 40% of wireless connections are 5G, and more than 330 million Americans are covered by one or more 5G networks. These 5G networks are providing a platform for other services and industries, including competitive and affordable 5G home broadband, which accounted for 95% of all new broadband subscriptions over the past two years. In addition, one out of five net 5G home adds were entirely new home broadband subscribers, underscoring 5G’s role in helping to close the digital divide.

https://tinyurl.com/4fs3f8f9

Repository Service Manager at Stanford University

The Repository Service Manager has a primary role in the promotion, delivery and continual improvement of Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) services for the Stanford community. They will join a team of digital library service managers, product owners, systems analysts, data scientists, and project managers in DLSS, the department within Stanford Libraries responsible for developing and delivering library technology in support of teaching and research at Stanford.

The SDR is a large-scale digital repository designed, developed, and operated by Stanford Libraries. In production for nearly two decades, the SDR currently holds over 5 million objects of all content types, preserved for long term scholarly access.

https://tinyurl.com/4ftruj85

Research Data Alliance: Recommendations on Data Versioning

We often say that “A is a version of B” but do not explain what we mean by “version”. We imply that B was somehow derived from A or that they share a common ancestor. But how is B related to A? How do they differ? Do they differ in content or format? What is the significance of this difference? While this sounds like a question about the provenance of a dataset, it goes beyond that and asks questions about the identity of a digital object and the intellectual and creative work it embodies.

The Research Data Alliance Data Versioning Working Group (https://www.rd-alliance.org/groups/data-versioning-ig/) collected over forty use cases of versioning practices for data and software and published a set of principles distilled from the group’s analysis of them. These Principles define terminology that helps us differentiate different types of versioning and thus allow us to address the use cases more precisely. In follow-up discussions, we learned that the Principles are too abstract to apply to the operation of data repositories or to guide the citation of digital resources. Therefore, this document aims to translate the Principles into actionable recommendations for data versioning.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13743876

Digital Preservation Manager at Victoria and Albert Museum

The Digital Preservation Manager will be responsible for progressing the V&A’s overall digital preservation strategy and working closely with those who contribute to its delivery. Within the Collections Care and Access Division you will create and manage preservation workflows, co-design the integration of collections data with other business systems, deliver training and develop documentation, work with Collections Management colleagues to support curatorial and acquisition activities, collaborate with digitisation and conservation teams, and proactively engage with colleagues across the organisation

https://tinyurl.com/mrxdv22c

"Academic Writing in the Age of AI: Comparing the Reliability of ChatGPT and Bard with Scopus and Web of Science"

ChatGPT and Bard (now known as Gemini) are becoming indispensable resources for researchers, academicians and diverse stakeholders within the academic landscape. At the same time, traditional digital tools such as scholarly databases continue to be widely used. Web of Science and Scopus are the most extensive academic databases and are generally regarded as consistently reliable scholarly research resources. With the increasing acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic writing, this study focuses on understanding the reliability of the new AI models compared to Scopus and Web of Science. The study includes a bibliometric analysis of green, sustainable and ecological buying behaviour, covering the period from 1 January 2011 to 21 May 2023. These results are used to compare the results from the AI and the traditional scholarly databases on several parameters. Overall, the findings suggest that AI models like ChatGPT and Bard are not yet reliable for academic writing tasks. It appears to be too early to depend on AI for such tasks.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2024.100563

Institutional Repository Librarian at Georgia Institute of Technology

Manages the Institutional Repository Service;

Implements best practices for digital preservation, metadata standards, and open access principles for preserving, describing, and delivering Institute scholarship and research outputs in digital form, based on professional good practice and collaboration with colleagues;

Co-leads the Georgia Tech Digital Repository (institutional repository) with Digital Curation Archivist, works with vendors, and local IT to manage, maintain, and enhance repository services;

Assists with the identification and recruitment of content for curated scholarly collections, soliciting materials to enhance the scholarly record of the Institute;

Serves as Product Owner for key digital curation systems and tools (DSpace, OSF for Institutions, ORCID, and DataCite) supporting the Institutional Repository Service;

https://tinyurl.com/hwvcxhrp

"Open Access Is Shaping Scientific Communication"

It seems likely that OA and traditional reader-pay journals will coexist in the immediate future, and probably should in the long run. In this context, the OSTP OA mandate will neither undermine the gatekeeping role of scientific journals nor much perturb the future evolution of scientific communication. The widespread adoption of TAs was already underway; if anything, the mandate reinforces that path. In an environment where both readers pay and OA journals operate alongside preprint platforms, it is natural to ask whether preprints might constrain subscription prices and APCs. If preprints and their peer-reviewed counterparts were close substitutes, then APCs for most OA journals would decline considerably.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp8882

Archivist (Digital Collections) at American Institute of Physics

The Archivist will have experience with born digital and digitized materials, web archiving, and will be responsible for accessioning, describing, and enabling use of archival items and collections, including institutional records, personal papers, and ephemeral items with a particular focus on the stewardship of our digital collections. The Archivist will create and maintain descriptive resources to best make archival collections available to researchers, assist with maintenance of NBLA web resources and outreach initiatives, and provide general reference service to NBLA patrons.

https://tinyurl.com/zr9reacw

"The Living Library: A Process-Based Tool for Open Literature Review, Probing the Boundaries of Open Science"

In this paper, we present a new tool for open science research, the Living Library. The Living Library provides an online platform and methodological framework for open, continuous literature reviewing. As a research medium, it explores what openness means in light of the human dimension and interpretive nature of engaging with societal questions. As a tool, the Living Library allows researchers to collectively sort, dynamically interpret and openly discuss the evolving literature on a topic of interest. The interface is built around a timeline along which articles can be filtered, themes with which articles are coded, and an open researcher logbook that documents the development of the library. The first rendition of a Living Library can be found via this link: https://eduvision-living-library.web.app/, and the code to develop your own Living Library can be found via this link: https://github.com/Simon-Dirks/living-library.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00964-z

Electronic Resources Liaison Librarian at University of Pittsburgh

The Electronic Resources Liaison Librarian reports to the Head of Electronic Resources and is responsible for managing the lifecycle of electronic resources, including databases, eBooks, serials, streaming media, and the like. The incumbent is responsible for developing and overseeing assessment strategies and conducting ongoing assessments of electronic resource acquisitions and transformative agreements; working with vendors and library subject liaisons to demonstrate and trial new resources; reviewing license agreements to ensure they have appropriate terms; and with library liaisons to publicize agreements and license terms, including OA publishing agreements.

https://tinyurl.com/b7eah74v

"Software Management Plans – Current Concepts, Tools, and Application"

The present article is a review of the state of the art about software management plans (SMPs). It provides a selection of questionnaires, tools and application cases for SMPs from a European (German) point of view, and discusses the possible connections of SMPs to other aspects of software sustainability, such as metadata, FAIR4RS principles or machine-actionable SMPs. The aim of our publication is to provide basic knowledge to start diving into the subject and a handout for infrastructure providers who are about to establish/develop a SMP service in one’s own institution.

https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2024-043

Data Science Librarian (2 Positions) at NC State University

The Data Science Librarian provides expert consultative support for students, faculty, and researchers in data science and visualization. The position serves as a member of the DVS Consulting Program Team, including supervising graduate student Data Science Research Consultants. They contribute to supporting the specialized spaces overseen by DVS to ensure access to needed hardware and software. They design, develop, and deliver instruction on data science topics, both as part of an open workshop series offered to the university community and through course-integrated instruction in collaboration with other faculty. They conduct outreach to and engage with faculty, campus groups, and external partners to support the university’s data and visualization needs. The position collaborates with colleagues and other university faculty on data-related initiatives and projects, and they contribute to departmental projects and initiatives.

https://tinyurl.com/yc4nakv9

6 Major Academic Publishes Sued: "Academic Journal Publishers Antitrust Litigation"

On September 12, 2024, Lieff Cabraser and co-counsel at Justice Catalyst Law filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against six commercial publishers of academic journals, including Elsevier B.V., John Wiley & Sons, Wolters Kluwer NV, and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), on behalf of a putative class of scientists and scholars who allege that these six world’s-largest for-profit publishers of peer-reviewed scholarly journals conspired to unlawfully appropriate billions of dollars that would otherwise have funded scientific research.

https://tinyurl.com/mv5r5nba

Filed Complaint

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein

User Experience Librarian at Illinois Institute of Technology

The User Experience Librarian collaborates closely with librarians and technical staff to promote new models for web development and design and implement best practices for digital content and services. As a liaison to academic units on campus, he/she also provides research and instructional services to a diverse community of faculty, staff, and student users of the Paul V. Galvin Library.

https://tinyurl.com/bp88t6ws

"Introducing OpenAI o1-preview: A New Series of Reasoning Models for Solving Hard Problems"

In our tests, the next model update performs similarly to PhD students on challenging benchmark tasks in physics, chemistry, and biology. We also found that it excels in math and coding. In a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO), GPT-4o [the last model] correctly solved only 13% of problems, while the [new]reasoning model scored 83%. Their coding abilities were evaluated in contests and reached the 89th percentile in Codeforces competitions. . . .

As an early model, it doesn’t yet have many of the features that make ChatGPT useful, like browsing the web for information and uploading files and images. For many common cases GPT-4o will be more capable in the near term.

https://tinyurl.com/5ap6p996

eCollections Access and Licensing Librarian at Clemson University

The Libraries’ materials budget is currently $9.5 million with over 80% spent on electronic resources. Electronic resources managed by the eResources team include e-books, e-journals, databases, streaming media, and data sets. This position plays an integral role in ensuring our collections are discoverable and accessible through eresources work, including licensing, negotiations, troubleshooting access issues, and the trialing and marketing of new resources.

https://apply.interfolio.com/153392

"Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats: A Comprehensive SWOT Analysis of AI and Human Expertise in Peer Review"

Instead of casting blame [about peer review failures], we must ask ourselves the critical questions: Are we equipping our peer reviewers with the right tools to succeed in an increasingly complex landscape? How can AI be harnessed not as a burden, but as a true ally in maintaining the integrity of research? Are we prepared to re-think the roles within peer review? Can we stop viewing AI as a threat or as a problem and instead embrace it as a partner—one that enhances human judgment rather than complicates it?

https://tinyurl.com/4p5pr6k6

Dean of the University Libraries at University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland Libraries comprise eight distinct libraries holding more than 3.5 million volumes and representing a diverse array of special collections, digital collections, and electronic resources: McKeldin Library (general collections), and separate branch libraries for architecture, performing arts, arts, special collections and archives, library media services, chemistry, engineering/physical sciences, and the Shady Grove branch. The Dean occupies a critical place in the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) consortium of libraries, which shares services among sixteen institutions. The Libraries is an active member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), Center for Research Libraries (CRL), the HathiTrust, OCLC, and the Northeast Research Libraries Consortium, as well as state, regional and national consortia and organizations.

https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/122588

Paywall: "Ephemeral Geodata: An Impending Digital Dark Age"

Despite the unprecedented rate of geospatial data (“geodata”) generation, we are paradoxically creating a potential “dark age” in geospatial knowledge due to a failure to archive it. In the twentieth century, map libraries systematically collected and preserved government-issued maps. However, many have not expanded to include digital formats, which have replaced paper maps in most domains. Compounding this issue is the prevailing practice among government data providers to continuously update public data without adequately preserving previous iterations, thus overwriting the historical record.

https://doi.org/10.1080/15420353.2024.2398542

Senior Applications Developer at The Ohio State University

The Senior Applications Developer serves on the cross-functional Application Development & Operations team in the University Libraries IT Division. The Senior Applications Developer is responsible for the end-to-end development and delivery of specialized library and administrative systems that enable the libraries to share knowledge and culture with the people of Ohio, the nation, and the world. The Senior Applications Developer collaborates with product owners, project managers, and team members on the specification of business and technical requirements and proposes and implements solutions that adhere to standards for data security, code quality, test coverage, digital accessibility, and architecture. Duties also include providing technical support; maintaining existing open-source and custom applications; collaborating in the investigation of problems, conducting root-cause analyses, and recommending fixes; and participating in weekly maintenance windows.

https://tinyurl.com/ym22uacy

"Creating a Fully Open Environment for Research Code and Data"

Quantitative research in the social and natural sciences is increasingly dependent on new datasets and forms of code. Making these resources open and accessible is a key aspect of open research and underpins efforts to maintain research integrity. Erika Pastrana explains how Springer Nature developed Nature Computational Science to be fully compliant with open research and data principles.

https://tinyurl.com/7uwdxrrz

Digital Program Manager at Rockefeller Archive Center

The Rockefeller Archive Center seeks a highly organized and detail-oriented individual to join its Access team as a Digitization Program Manager. In this newly created position, you will guide the RAC’s efforts to make its collections more broadly accessible to its user communities by building and sustaining the organization’s capacity for digitizing archival records.

https://tinyurl.com/3h9ac2w4

Paywall: "The FAIRification Process for Data Stewardship: A Comprehensive Discourse on the Implementation of the Fair Principles for Data Visibility, Interoperability and Management"

Using a systematic literature review, the study focuses on the implementation of these [FAIR] principles in research data management and their applicability in data repositories and data centres. It highlights the importance of implementing these principles systematically, allowing stakeholders to choose the minimum requirements and provide a vision for implementing them in data repositories and data centres. The article also highlights the steps in the FAIRification process, which can enhance data interoperability, discovery and reusability.

https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352241270692

Director of Copyright & Scholarly Communication Services at University of Virginia

The University of Virginia Library is seeking a dynamic leader in copyright and scholarly communication services to shape future outreach efforts. This new position will transform the Library’s copyright and scholarly communication services to faculty and students in support of innovation in scholarly production, open access initiatives, and rights and risk assessment of digital content. The Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communication Services will build crucial partnerships both within the library and across grounds with faculty and students. Strengthening these relationships will enhance services, engage with the UVA scholarly community, and encourage compliance with federal open policies.

https://tinyurl.com/6yd69ck9