Category: Reports and White Papers

Digital Curation Preparation: A Survey of Contributors to International Professional, Educational, and Research Venues

The UNC at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science has released Digital Curation Preparation: A Survey of Contributors to International Professional, Educational, and Research Venues.

Here's an excerpt:

The article centers on the contexts of digital curation research as framed by the educational, professional, and research interests of a diverse group of national and international stakeholders. Flexible, holistic, and inherently interdisciplinary, digital curation initiatives depend upon a lifecycle approach. Thus the administered survey culled information about respondents' educational degrees and the academic disciplines in which they were earned, their employment options, job titles, professional association memberships, professional event attendance, and professional publications read. Finally, the paper discusses results, implications, and directions for future research.

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Perception Analysis of Scholarly E-Books in the Humanities at the Collegiate Level

ACLS Humanities E-Book has released Perception Analysis of Scholarly E-Books in the Humanities at the Collegiate Level.

Here's an excerpt:

At present, there is significant market confusion regarding e-book selections in the academic marketplace, particularly in the humanities. University acquisition librarians, unsure of what the offerings actually are, have found themselves unsure of where to allocate funds, which has resulted in the postponement of e-book purchases. This paper provides a current assessment of the status of e-book offerings in the humanities.

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Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2012

Ithaka S+R has released the Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2012.

Here's an excerpt:

Major topics covered by the survey include:

  • Research processes: The processes through which scholars perform their research, focusing principally on the use of research materials in secondary and primary research.
  • Teaching practices: The pedagogical methods that faculty members are adopting and the ways that they draw on content and support services in their teaching.
  • Scholarly communications:Formal and informal methods by which scholars communicate with each other, the ways in which the types of materials and information exchanged in these processes are evolving, and needs for various kinds of publishing support services.
  • The library: How faculty members perceive the roles and value of their institutional library, touching on the roles the library plays in supporting many of the above activities.
  • Scholarly societies:How faculty members perceive the roles and value of their primary scholarly society, including in supporting both formal and informal communications between scholars.

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The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley on Libraries

The Library Copyright Alliance has released The Impact of the Supreme Court's Decision in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley on Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper first provides background on this issue and an overview of the Kirtsaeng litigation. It then summarizes Justice Breyer's majority opinion, Justice Kagan's concurrence, and Justice Ginsburg's dissent, emphasizing the opinions' references to libraries. The paper next discusses the likely arguments of those who may seek to overturn the Court's decision and the shortcomings of those arguments. Finally, the paper concludes that the Supreme Court decision represents a complete victory for libraries, reaffirming the importance of libraries' engagement in policy debates.

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Ocean Data Publication Cookbook

UNESCO has released the Ocean Data Publication Cookbook.

Here's an excerpt:

This "Cookbook" has been written for data managers and librarians who are interested in assigning a permanent identifier to a dataset for the purposes of publishing that dataset online and for the citation of that dataset within the scientific literature. A formal publishing process adds value to the dataset for the data originators as well as for future users of the data. Value may be added by providing an indication of the scientific quality and importance of the dataset (as measured through a process of peer review), and by ensuring that the dataset is complete, frozen and has enough supporting metadata and other information to allow it to be used by others. Publishing a dataset also implies a commitment to persistence of the data and allows data producers to obtain academic credit for their work in creating the datasets. One form of persistent identifier is the Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

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ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2010-2011

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2010-2011 (print: $135; $65 for ARL members; online: $170).

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In 2010-2011, the reporting law libraries held a median of 370,485 volumes, spent a total of $216,677,517, and employed 1,987 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at approximately 46% for each of the two categories. Respondents reported spending a total of $25,469,277 for electronic materials, or a median of almost 28% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $22,185,942 for electronic serials.

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ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2010-2011

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2010-2011 (print: $135; $65 for ARL members; online: $170).

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In 2010–2011, the reporting health sciences libraries held a median of 217,811 volumes, spent a total of $240,675,218, and employed 1,977 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at approximately 52% and 38% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $101,124,356 for electronic materials, or a median of almost 89% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $97,504,002 for electronic serials.

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How to Develop Research Data Management Services—A Guide for HEIs

The Digital Curation Centre has released How to Develop Research Data Management Services—A Guide for HEIs.

Here's an excerpt:

The purpose of this guide is to help institutions understand the key aims and issues associated with planning and implementing research data management (RDM) services. It explains the components and processes of RDM services and describes the roles and responsibilities of those who will deliver and use them.

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Is the Future of Preservation Cloudy? (Dagstuhl Seminar 12472)

Weitere Beteiligte, Erik Elmroth, Michael Factor, Ethan Miller, and Margo Seltzer have self-archived Is the Future of Preservation Cloudy? (Dagstuhl Seminar 12472) in DROPS.

Here's an excerpt:

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 12472 "Is the Future of Preservation Cloudy?". Our seminar was composed of a series of panels structured as a series of brief presentations followed by an open discussion. The seminar started with a session introducing key concepts and definitions and illuminating the vast array of perspectives from which attendees were addressing issues of cloud and preservation. We them proceeded into a discussion of requirements from different types of communities and a subsequent discussion on how to protect the data and ensure its integrity and reliability. We next considered issues related to cloud infrastructure, in particular related to management of the bits and logical obsolescence. We also considered the economics of preservation and the ability to reuse knowledge. In addition to these pre-planned panels, we had three breakout sessions that were identified by the participants: automated appraisal, design for forgetting, and PaaS/SaaS for data preservation. After the executive summary, we present summaries of the panels and reports on the breakout sessions, followed by brief abstracts from a majority of the seminar participants describing the material they presented in the panels.

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Archives and Copyright: Risk and Reform

CREATe has released Archives and Copyright: Risk and Reform.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper considers the place of the archive sector within the copyright regime, and how copyright impacts upon the preservation, access to, and use of archival holdings. It will begin with a critical assessment of the current parameters of the UK copyright regime as it applies to the work of archivists, including recommendations for reform that have followed in the wake of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property (2006-2010), the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (2010-2011), the recent Consultation on Copyright (2011-12), as well as the government's response thereto: Modernising Copyright (2012). It considers the various problems the copyright regime presents for archives undertaking mass digitisation projects as well as recent European and UK initiatives in this domain.

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Sustainability of Open Access Services—Report Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources

SPARC has released Sustainability of Open Access Services—Report Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources.

Here's an excerpt:

This report is the third in a series which examines issues relating to the economic sustainability of critical infrastructure services that support the operation and growth of open-access dissemination of scholarly and scientific research. This report is intended to guide funders and project planners in constructing and coordinating collective funding models capable of supporting open-access infrastructure resources. The report:

  • reviews the fundamentals of robust sustainability modeling (Section 2);
  • outlines the economic and institutional issues that confront those seeking to sustain free infrastructure services and discusses the implications of free models for an initiative's ability to provide an optimal level of service (Section 3); and
  • identifies strategies for overcoming institutional free ridership in the design of funding models and describes practical mechanisms for coordinating the collective provision of infrastructure services (Section 4).

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Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy: Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment

The the Association of College & Research Libraries has released Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy: Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment.

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper, we identify three intersections between information literacy and scholarly communications that have developed as a result of the effects of the digital age on scholarly publishing and on teaching information research skills:

  1. ) economics of the distribution of scholarship (including access to scholarship, the changing nature of scholarly publishing, and the education of students to be knowledgeable content consumers and content creators);
  2. ) digital literacies (including teaching new technologies and rights issues, and the emergence of multiple types of non-textual content);
  3. ) our changing roles (including the imperative to contribute to the building of new infrastructures for scholarship, and deep involvement with creative approaches to teaching).

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Report on Research Libraries Readiness for Sustainable Digital Preservation

APARSEN has released the Business Preparedness Report.

Here's an excerpt:

This report presents the results of a European-wide online survey for assessing the preparedness of research libraries (as represented by the members of LIBER) in regard to economically-sustainable digital preservation. The survey investigated the preparedness in accordance to the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Task Force and the results have been mapped to these recommendations to identify Implementation Gaps. The further analyses of these Gaps will allow key stakeholders to intervene in a prioritized way and to facilitate progress of digital preservation to become an economically sustainable practice.

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Report on Cost Parameters for Digital Repositories

APARSEN has released the Report on Cost Parameters for Digital Repositories.

Here's an excerpt:

The purpose of this report is to present our analysis of published cost models. A review of cost parameters for the selected models focused on how cost parameters mapped to the International Standard for Trusted Repositories (ISO 16363) which enabled us to assess the areas of; Organisational Infrastructure, Digital Object Management and Infrastructure and Security Risk Management. The purpose was to assess whether cost models were measuring, through their parameters, the relevant activities for a trusted digital repository.

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Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data

The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. has released Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper analyses the behaviour of digital music consumers on the Internet. Using clickstream data on a panel of more than 16,000 European consumers, we estimate the effects of illegal downloading and legal streaming on the legal purchases of digital music. Our results suggest that Internet users do not view illegal downloading as a substitute for legal digital music. Although positive and significant, our estimated elasticities are essentially zero: a 10% increase in clicks on illegal downloading websites leads to a 0.2% increase in clicks on legal purchase websites. Online music streaming services are found to have a somewhat larger (but still small) effect on the purchases of digital sound recordings, suggesting complementarities between these two modes of music consumption. According to our results, a 10% increase in clicks on legal streaming websites leads to up to a 0.7% increase in clicks on legal digital purchase websites. We find important cross country differences in these effects.

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eBook Use and Acceptance in an Undergraduate Institution

Springer has released eBook Use and Acceptance in an Undergraduate Institution.

Here's an excerpt :

The survey finds high use of eBooks at Wellesley College, with 70% of the respondents indicating they have used eBooks. Other recent international surveys of eBook use have shown 52-64% of students or faculty responding that they have used eBooks (Figure 10). Within the general U.S. population 21% of adults reported having used eBooks in 2011. Some eBook use by Wellesley students and faculty may be non-academic, leisure reading, but half of Wellesley's eBook users report having used eBooks from the Wellesley College Library's collection.

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Appraising our Digital Investment: Sustainability of Digitized Special Collections in ARL Libraries

ARL and Ithaka S+R have released Appraising our Digital Investment: Sustainability of Digitized Special Collections in ARL Libraries .

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The research reveals that understanding the continuing costs for sustaining digital collections is a challenge across libraries. Responsibility is frequently dispersed among departments, and staff time and other costs are rarely allocated expressly to these activities or accounted for project-by-project. Almost universally, libraries are funding this activity out of their base budgets, suggesting that they will continue to need to shift funds from other things in order to support this as a priority.

While libraries are supporting these collections within their operations, the study's findings also reflect concern over sustainability, with librarians citing lack of funding and staff capacity as major challenges to sufficient investment in their digital collections. . . .

The three-part survey, designed with input from the ARL community, was sent to all ARL member libraries in the US and Canada and completed by 89 library directors, a response rate of 70%. In addition to the institutional perspective provided by library directors, library staff responded to other sections to offer insight into activities and costs for all of their institution's digitized collections, and questions about individual projects.

| Digital Scholarship's Digital/Print Books | Digital Scholarship |

The Preservation of Complex Objects: Volume 2, Software Art

Preservation of Complex Objects Symposia (POCOS) has released The Preservation of Complex Objects: Volume 2, Software Art.

Here's an excerpt from:

This volume considers the preservation of software art. At first inspection, preservation of software art may seem like an esoteric concern for ephemeral objects. But, as with all of POCOS, it challenges many of our expectations about collection management and preservation. There are complex technical challenges about the interdependencies of software, operating systems, hardware and users. It introduces the inter-subjectivity of meaning and the contexts of performance which defy simplistic approaches to documentation and representation. It crosses the boundaries of institutional genre and raises disconcerting questions about policy and competence. So there is a real sense that software art is a topic for the avant-garde of digital preservation: it pushes the boundaries not for its own sake but in order that all can progress,

| Digital Curation Resource Guide (XHTML website; over 200 resources) | Digital Scholarship |

The Thinkpiece "Libraries, eLending, and the Future of Public Access to Digital Content"

IFLA has released The Thinkpiece "Libraries, eLending, and the Future of Public Access to Digital Content".

Here's an excerpt:

In October 2012 IFLA therefore commissioned an independent consultant, Civic Agenda, to prepare a 'thinkpiece' to inform discussion at a meeting of experts from the library and publishing sector. This meeting took place over three days at IFLA Headquarters in The Hague in November 2012. The thinkpiece was the starting point for discussions on desirable characteristics for public access models for library digital content, library user expectations' regarding eBooks, and the relationship between libraries and publishers in the eBook age. During the meeting participants focused on the role of copyright, licensing and legislation in access to digital content like eBooks, as well as reviewing advocacy campaigns and the potential for IFLA as an advocate for library access to eBooks.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 ( paperback and PDF file; over 3,800 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

Removable Media and the use of Digital Forensics

Miriely Guerrero has self-archived Removable Media and the use of Digital Forensics in Deep Blue.

Here's an excerpt:

Overview of preservation threats facing removable media, both magnetic (such as 3.5 and 5.25 floppy disks) and optical (CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.). Includes a literature review of digital forensic techniques relevant to the ingest and accession of born-digital content on removable media.

| Digital Curation Bibliography: Preservation and Stewardship of Scholarly Works (EPUB file, PDF file, paperback, and XHTML website; over 650 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

The Demographics of Social Media Users—2012

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released The Demographics of Social Media Users—2012.

Here's an excerpt:

A late 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows that young adults are more likely than others to use major social media. At the same time, other groups are interested in different sites and services.

Internet users under 50 are particularly likely to use a social networking site of any kind, and those 18-29 are the most likely of any demographic cohort to do so (83%). Women are more likely than men to be on these sites. Those living in urban settings are also significantly more likely than rural internet users to use social networking.

| Digital Scholarship Overview | Digital Scholarship |

U.S. Public Libraries and BTOP [Broadband Technology Opportunities Program]

The American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy has released a draft of U.S. Public Libraries and BTOP. BTOP stands for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Here's an excerpt:

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded just over $4 billion to 233 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) projects. . . .

This pre-publication report from the American Library Association presents state-level library projects underway across the country, and provides a broad (but not yet comprehensive) look at the library improvements and community impacts that are resulting from BTOP funding.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

Research Data Management Survey: Report

Thomas Parsons, Shirley Grimshaw, and Laurian Williamson have self-archived Research Data Management Survey: Report in Nottingham ePrints.

Here's an excerpt:

The ADMIRe project is a JISC funded project designed to create a sustainable Research Data Management infrastructure at The University of Nottingham. . . .

As part of the requirements gathering phases, a survey was designed and disseminated to researchers across the University. This served multiple purposes:

  1. To baseline current RDM practices
  2. To gather the researcher's requirements for RDM
  3. Raise awareness for the prospective service and gauge interest levels for the proposed service.

| Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 2 (XHTML website; over 200 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content

Ithaka S+R has released Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This study involved interviews with more than 80 project leaders and university, library, and museum administrators across the United Kingdom. In the first phase, we interviewed 40 practitioners in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors throughout the United Kingdom to gain an understanding of the processes in place to support digital content post-grant. In the second phase, we closely examined the digital strategies in place at three institutions to better understand the digital content the institutions support, their processes for creating and supporting that content, and, more generally, the role that digital content plays in the strategy of their institutions.

| Digital Curation Bibliography: Preservation and Stewardship of Scholarly Works (EPUB file, PDF file, paperback, and XHTML website; over 650 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

What’s the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing?

Public Knowledge has released What's the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing?

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Today Public Knowledge is happy to announce a new whitepaper: What's the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing? This paper is something of a follow up to our previous 3D printing whitepaper It Will Be Awesome if They Don't Screw It Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology. Unlike It Will Be Awesome, which focused on the broad connection between intellectual property law and 3D printing, What's the Deal? takes a deeper dive into the relationship between copyright and 3D printing. . . .

Of course, the first step in understanding what is not protected by copyright is recognizing what is protected by copyright. What's the Deal? is designed to help mark those boundaries and draw focus to the hard — and easy — questions that the boundaries raise.

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