Category: Reports and White Papers

Persistent Digital Archives and Library System: Final Project Report to the Library of Congress, April 19, 2012

The PeDALS project has released Persistent Digital Archives and Library System: Final Project Report to the Library of Congress, April 19, 2012 .

Here's an excerpt:

The Persistent Digital Archives and Library System (PeDALS) research project was funded by the Library of Congress' National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program as part of its Preserving State Government Information initiative. The project explored the development of a curatorial rationale to support an automated workflow to process collections of digital publications and records, specifically using Microsoft BizTalk Server middleware to manage the collections and rules-based processes for their ingest. PeDALS also examined the practicality of Stanford University's LOCKSS, or Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe, storage networks as an effective and inexpensive method of distributed preservation. In addition to those technical goals, PeDALS worked at building a community of shared practice among its partner states in the hopes that shared software development and best practices would foster a system that could be applied to a variety of repositories.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Benefits of Open Access to Scholarly Research for Voluntary and Charitable Sector Organisations

JISC has released Benefits of Open Access to Scholarly Research for Voluntary and Charitable Sector Organisations.

Here's an excerpt:

We have learned in this study that the voluntary and charitable sector has an appetite and need for scholarly research that it cannot currently satisfy. The organisations contributing to the study have described the importance of research to the voluntary and charitable sector's commitment to playing its very distinctive role in the most effective way it can. In scoping interviews, case studies and survey responses, VCOs have identified a consistent set of barriers to accessing research. They have shown too that they are creative and resourceful, finding ways to overcome these barriers some of which might place them on or over the border of copyright infringement. We do not think that VCOs should be put in the position of having to choose between what is legally permitted and what they feel is ethically required of them in order to fulfil their charitable objectives. We think too that if the VCS is being asked to expand its role and play an increasing part in delivering public services, then access to research is essential. In this final chapter, we provide some recommendations which, we hope, will go some way to widening the voluntary and charitable sector's access to scholarly research outputs.

| Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals: This is an excellent resource for its extensive background documentation of the open access arguments and issues. — Ann Jensen, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, no. 43 (2005) | Digital Scholarship |

Benefits of Open Access to Scholarly Research to the Public Sector

JISC has released Benefits of Open Access to Scholarly Research to the Public Sector.

Here's an excerpt:

The total cost to the public sector of accessing journal papers is around £135 million per annum. The savings that accrue from the availability of Open Access articles (using both Green and Gold routes) amount to £28.6 million (£26 million in access fees and £2.6 million in time savings).

Extending the number or articles available through Open Access further increases the potential for savings. Each extra 5% of journal papers accessed via Open Access would save the public sector £1.7 million, even if no subscription fees were to be saved. Increasing the number of journal papers accessed through Open Access to 25% would save the public sector an extra £29 million.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography: "This work gives an outstanding overview of scholarship relating to the growing Open Access movement." — George Machovec, The Charleston Advisor 12, no. 2 (2010): 3. | Digital Scholarship |

Report on Peer Review of Digital Repositories

The Alliance for Permanent Access to the Records of Science Network has released the Report on Peer Review of Digital Repositories.

Here's an excerpt:

This document reports on the work which has been undertaken in support of the European Framework for Audit and Certification of Digital Repositories which was initiated by the European Commission's unit which funds APARSEN. . . .

The main part of this report provides details of the test audits which were carried out, the problems encountered and the lessons learned. The European repositories were the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB), Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), UK Data Archive (UKDA), Centre Informatique National de l'Enseignement Supérieur: Département Archivage et Diffusion (CINES-DAD) and in addition, in the USA, the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) at the Center for Earth Science Information, the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA).

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Report on Peer Review of Research Data in Scholarly Communication

The Alliance for Permanent Access to the Records of Science Network has released the Report on Peer Review of Research Data in Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

This report documents ideas, attitudes, developments and discussion concerning quality assurance of research data. The focus is on action taken by scientists, e-infrastructure providers and scientific journals. Their measures are documented and categorized. Future fields of research are to be described based on this work.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010: "If you're looking for a reading list that will keep you busy from now until the end of time, this is your one-stop shop for all things digital preservation." — "Digital Preservation Reading List," Preservation Services at Dartmouth College weblog, February 21, 2012. | Digital Scholarship |

Know Your Limits: Considering the Role of Data Caps and Usage Based Billing in Internet Access Service

Public Knowledge has released Know Your Limits: Considering the Role of Data Caps and Usage Based Billing in Internet Access Service by Andrew Odlyzko, Bill St. Arnaud, Erik Stallman; and Michael Weinberg.

Here's an excerpt:

Regardless of the motivation driving its implementation, usage-based pricing has the potential to significantly impact how networks are designed and used. This, in turn, impacts the innovation that relies on those networks. Before deciding if and when usage-based pricing is desirable, it is critical to fully understand the history of usage-based pricing, how it impacts markets, and both the benefits and harms that such a model can bring.

This paper aims to explain the basic issues surrounding usage-based versus flat-rate pricing. Section I examines the trend towards usage-based pricing in both the wired and wireless markets. Section II then considers the benefits and justifications for using usage-based pricing. This is followed in Section III by a review of the history and economics of flat rate pricing. Since broadband access is central to so many national and societal goals, the penultimate section—Section IV—discusses the problems that might be caused by usage-based pricing. Finally, we end with a series of conclusions and recommendations for responsible implementation of usage-based pricing.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Part 3: Recommendations and Readings

OCLC Research has released Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Part 3: Recommendations and Readings.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In the first report, the 21-member Social Metadata Working Group reviewed 76 sites relevant to libraries, archives, and museums that supported such social media features as tagging, comments, reviews, images, videos, ratings, recommendations, lists, links to related articles, etc. The results from a survey of site managers conducted in October-November 2009 were included in the second report. Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums, Part 3: Recommendations and Readings provides recommendations on social metadata features most relevant to libraries, archives, and museums and an annotated reading list of the literature consulted during this research. Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums: Executive Summary provides a high-level overview of all three reports. The group's final recommendation is that it is riskier to do nothing and become irrelevant to our user communities than to start using social media features.

Also available: Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives and Museums: Executive Summary."

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

The 2012 State of America’s Libraries: A Report from the American Library Association

American Libraries has released the The 2012 State of America’s Libraries: A Report from the American Library Association.

Here's an excerpt:

Academic libraries find themselves embracing new roles in at least two key areas:

  • Publishing. More academic libraries are entering the world of scholarly publishing by creating or expanding services. About half the respondents in a recent survey had (or were developing) library publishing services in order to support change in scholarly publication. Three quarters of the respondents indicated they published journals, while half indicated they were publishing monographs and/or conference proceedings. . . .
  • Data curation. Funding agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) now have requirements that promote open access to the underlying data gathered during grant-funded research projects. . . . . Some academic libraries are already creating services that help campus researchers comply with the requirements to create the plans and to archive and share the data once it is gathered while many more are preparing to "embrace the role of data curator to remain relevant and vital to our scholars."

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010: "SEP [Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography] is compiled with utter professionalism. It reminds me of the work of the best artisans who know not only every item that leaves their workshops, but each component used to create them—providing the ideal quality control." — Péter Jacsó ONLINE 27, no. 3 (2003): 73-76. | Digital Scholarship |

Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Open Access

UNESCO has released Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Open Access by Alma Swan.

Here's an excerpt:

The Policy Guidelines can be used by individuals as a basic text on Open Access and related policies. While we recommend that beginners to the world of Open Access should read it from cover to cover, people having some understanding of OA may like to start reading from any of the sections. Decision-makers, administrators and research managers should focus on Sections 8 and 9 that capture all relevant issues of OA policy development. At the end of this document, you will find examples of different types of OA policies (Appendix 1), and three policy templates (Appendix 2) to choose and adopt.

| Works about Open Access by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. | Digital Scholarship |

Being Open About Data: Analysis of the UK Open Data Policies and Applicability of Open Data

The Finnish Institute has released Being Open About Data: Analysis of the UK Open Data Policies and Applicability of Open Data .

Here's an excerpt:

This paper presents an analysis of the recent UK open-data policies and draws an argument on how governments can sustainably promote the development and use of open data. Moreover, research contributes to the ongoing discussion on the normative values of openness by presenting a conceptual analysis of open data as an integral part of the freedom-of-information continuum.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Research Data Stewardship at UNC: Recommendations for Scholarly Practice and Leadership

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science has released Research Data Stewardship at UNC: Recommendations for Scholarly Practice and Leadership.

Here's an excerpt:

This working report emanates from efforts to identify policy options for digital research data stewardship at UNC. In January 2011, the UNC Provost charged a task force on the stewardship of digital research data to make recommendations about storage and maintenance of digital data produced in the course of UNC-based research (see Appendix 1 for the task force charge). During the 2011 calendar year, the task force conducted an environmental scan of research data stewardship policies and trends, discussed issues, collected data on campus using interviews and a survey, and developed a set of principles and associated courses of action for the campus to consider (see Appendix 2 for a list of task force meetings). We believe that the principles are in concert with the UNC mission and its academic plan and can serve as the basis for policies and implementations. We recognize, however, that scholarly data and processes are highly diverse and that the technologies and economics of stewardship are changing rapidly. We thus view the implementation alternatives and recommendations here as first steps in what should be an ongoing process that serves the research data stewardship needs of scholars, the campus, and humanity. We offer this document as a working report that we hope will serve as an adaptable framework for research data stewardship across disciplines at UNC and beyond.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010: "If you're looking for a reading list that will keep you busy from now until the end of time, this is your one-stop shop for all things digital preservation."— "Digital Preservation Reading List," Preservation Services at Dartmouth College weblog, February 21, 2012. | Digital Scholarship |

"The Dutch Research Repositories Monitor 2011" (Report Synopsis)

SURF has released an English synopsis of The Dutch Research Repositories Monitor 2011.

Here's an excerpt:

This study measures the effects of the two networks of repositories [DARE programme and SURFshare programme], charts the current situation, and explores possible scenarios for the future. It is in part a follow-up to the study Dutch Academic Repositories SURFshare Baseline Survey [Nederlandse Academische Repositories, SURFshare Nulmeting] of March 2010. That study was a baseline survey of the Dutch universities’ repositories carried out at the end of 2008 and with additional research in the first half of 2009. Important statistics in the study concern the 2007 calendar year. In other words, despite being published in 2010, the results were in fact a number of years old, namely from the start of the SURFshare programme.

Read more about it at "Open Access to Dutch Research Stagnating."

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

States of Sustainability: A Review of State Projects Funded by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)

The Library of Congress has released States of Sustainability: A Review of State Projects Funded by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) by Christopher A. Lee.

Here's an excerpt:

This report summarizes findings of a review of the NDIIPP state projects. The process has involved analysis of project deliverables and documentation, individual engagement with project participants at conferences and professional events, visits to the lead partner sites for all four projects, and monitoring of project activities and announcements.

Read more about it at the "States of Sustainability: The NDIIPP Preserving State Government Information Initiative" post.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010: "If you're looking for a reading list that will keep you busy from now until the end of time, this is your one-stop shop for all things digital preservation."— "Digital Preservation Reading List," Preservation Services at Dartmouth College weblog, February 21, 2012. | Digital Scholarship |

Library Publishing Services: Strategies for Success: Final Research Report

James L. Mullins et al. have self-archived the Library Publishing Services: Strategies for Success: Final Research Report in e-Pubs,. In 2011, a more detailed preliminary version of the report was released, and readers may want to consult that as well.

Here's an excerpt:

This report briefly presents the findings and recommendations of the "Library Publishing Services: Strategies for Success" project which investigated the extent to which publishing has now become a core activity of North American academic libraries and suggested ways in which further capacity could be built. The research described (consisting of a survey, some case studies, three workshops, and a set of further reading recommendations) was mainly conducted between October 1, 2010, and September 30, 2011. It was supported by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Libraries Studies, made to Purdue University Libraries in collaboration with the Libraries of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography| Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

The Value and Benefits of Text Mining

JIASC has released The Value and Benefits of Text Mining.

Here's an excerpt:

Vast amounts of new information and data are generated everyday through economic, academic and social activities. This sea of data, predicted to increase at a rate of 40% p.a., has significant potential economic and societal value. Techniques such as text and data mining and analytics are required to exploit this potential. . . .

To date there has been no systematic analysis of the value and benefits of text mining to UK further and higher education (UKFHE), nor of the additional value and benefits that might result from the exceptions to copyright proposed by Hargreaves. JISC thus commissioned this analysis of 'The Value and Benefits of Text Mining to UK Further and Higher Education'.

We have explored the costs, benefits, barriers and risks associated with text mining within UKFHE research using the approach to welfare economics laid out in the UK Treasury best practice guidelines for evaluation [2]. We gathered our evidence from consultations with key stakeholders and a set of case studies.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Search Engine Use 2012

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Search Engine Use 2012.

Here's an excerpt:

For more than a decade, Pew Internet data has consistently shown that search engine use is one of the most popular online activities, rivaled only by email as an internet pursuit. In January 2002, 52% of all Americans used search engines. In February 2012 that figure grew to 73% of all Americans. On any given day in early 2012, more than half of adults using the internet use a search engine (59%). That is double the 30% of internet users who were using search engines on a typical day in 2004. And people's frequency of using search engines has jumped dramatically.

| Google Books Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Review of Data Management Lifecycle Models

Alex Ball has self-archived Review of Data Management Lifecycle Models in the University of Bath institutional repository.

Here's an excerpt:

The importance of lifecycle models is that they provide a structure for considering the many operations that will need to be performed on a data record throughout its life. Many curatorial actions can be made considerably easier if they have been prepared for in advance – even at or before the point of record creation. For example, a repository can be more certain of the preservation actions it can perform if the rights and licensing status of the data has already been clarified, and researchers are more likely to be able to detail the methodologies and workflows they used if they record them at the time.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Google Digital Humanities Awards Recipient Interviews Report

Virgil E.Varvel, Jr. and Andrea Thomer have self-archived the Google Digital Humanities Awards Recipient Interviews Report in IDEALS.

Here's an excerpt:

As input into the development, design, and improvement of the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC), recipients of Google's Digital Humanities Grants were interviewed to identify issues encountered during their projects. This project was guided by the following goals:

  • Increase empirical understanding of how to identify materials for use by scholars.
  • Increase empirical understanding of how to provide better access to materials for use by scholars.
  • Identify meaningful characteristics of content that affect identification, retrieval, and other parameters.
  • Identify data preprocessing and transformation issues encountered by scholars.
  • Provide input to inform the architecture of the HTRC related to representation of collections, faceted browsing, identifiers, etc.

|Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Preserving Email

The Digital Preservation Coalition has released Preserving Email.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Gareth Knight of King's College London welcomed the report. 'Preserving Email provides an excellent overview of the topic, drawing together observations made in a number of research projects to provide a succinct overview of the legal, technical, and cultural issues that must be addressed to ensure that these digital assets can be curated and preserved in the long-term. Its conclusion, providing a set of pragmatic, easy-to-understand recommendations that individuals and institutions may apply to better manage their email archive, highlights the complexity of email preservation. It also sends a clear message that it is something that everyone can perform.'

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Users, Narcissism and Control—Tracking the Impact of Scholarly Publications in the 21st Century

The SURFfoundation has released Users, Narcissism and Control—Tracking the Impact of Scholarly Publications in the 21st Century.

Here's an excerpt:

This report explores the explosion of tracking tools that have accompanied the surge of web based information instruments. Is it possible to monitor 'real-time' how new research findings are being read, cited, used and transformed in practical results and applications? And what are the potential risks and disadvantages of the new tracking tools? This report aims to contribute to a better understanding of these developments by providing a detailed assessment of the currently available novel tools and methodologies. A total of 16 quite different tools are assessed.

The report concludes that web based academic publishing is producing a variety of novel information filters. These allow the researcher to make some sort of limited self-assessment with respect to the response to his/her work. However, this does not mean that these technologies and databases can also legitimately be used in research assessments. For this application, they need to adhere to a far stricter protocol of data quality and indicator reliability and validity. Most new tools do not (yet) comply with these more strict quality criteria.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

The Future of Taxpayer-Funded Research: Who Will Control Access to the Results?

The Committee for Economic Development has released The Future of Taxpayer-Funded Research: Who Will Control Access to the Results?.

Here's an excerpt:

This report builds upon that earlier work and delves deeper into the relationship between the traditional means of providing access to federally funded scientific research and the benefits that can be derived from providing greater public access to it. As with virtually any public policy, the benefits and costs of providing public access to federally funded research fall unevenly on different members of society. We find, however, that because public-access policies that make research more open result in accelerated progress in science and faster economic growth, the net societal benefits far outweigh their limited costs.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

Data-Intensive Research: Community Capability Model Framework (Consultation Draft)

The Community Capability Model for Data-Intensive Research project has released a consultation draft of the Community Capability Model Framework.

Here's an excerpt:

The Community Capability Model Framework is a tool developed by UKOLN, University of Bath, and Microsoft Research to assist institutions, research funders and researchers in growing the capability of their communities to perform data-­-intensive research by

  • profiling the current readiness or capability of the community,
  • indicating priority areas for change and investment, and
  • developing roadmaps for achieving a target state of readiness.

The Framework is comprised of eight capability factors representing human, technical and environmental issues. Within each factor are a series of community characteristics that are relevant for determining the capability or readiness of that community to perform data- intensive research.

| E-science and Academic Libraries Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Collaborative Yet Independent: Information Practices in the Physical Sciences

The Research Information Network, the Institute of Physics, Institute of Physics Publishing, and the Royal Astronomical Society have released Collaborative Yet Independent: Information Practices in the Physical Sciences.

Here's an excerpt:

In many ways, the physical sciences are at the forefront of using digital tools and methods to work with information and data. However, the fields and disciplines that make up the physical sciences are by no means uniform, and physical scientists find, use, and disseminate information in a variety of ways. This report examines information practices in the physical sciences across seven cases, and demonstrates the richly varied ways in which physical scientists work, collaborate, and share information and data.

| Digital Bibliographies | Digital Scholarship |

NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition

The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative have released the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition.

Here's an excerpt:

The internationally recognized NMC Horizon Report series and regional NMC Technology Outlooks are part of the NMC Horizon Project, a comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education around the globe. . . .

To create the report, an international body of experts in education, technology, and other fields was convened as an advisory board. The group engaged in discussions around a set of research questions intended to surface significant trends and challenges and to identify a wide array of potential technologies for the report. This dialog was enriched by a wide range of resources, current research, and practice that drew on the expertise of both the NMC community and the communities of the members of the advisory board. These interactions among the advisory board are the focus of the NMC Horizon Report research, and this report details the areas in which these experts were in strong agreement.

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

Access to Scholarly Content: Gaps and Barriers

The Research Information Network has released Access to Scholarly Content: Gaps and Barriers.

Here's an excerpt:

The overall aim of this study is to investigate and quantify the extent to which members of different communities in the UK can gain ready access to formally-published scholarly literature, in particular journal articles and conference proceedings. . . .

Much of the information presented here is based on an online survey of researchers and knowledge workers from UK universities and colleges, medical schools and health providers, industry and commerce, and research institutes. . . .

Other information in this report comes from a detailed analysis of the literature and secondary data analysis of the Labour Force Survey in an attempt to quantify the size of the UK professional knowledge worker sector.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |