Reports and White Papers – Page 21

Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research

JISC has released Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research.

Here's an excerpt:

The focus of the current study is not on assessing private sector demand, but on identifying, mapping and reviewing practical illustrations of benefits. In particular, the study was asked to look at:

Identifying and, where possible, quantifying tangible and attributable benefits in Open Access engagement to university research outputs.

Identifying success factors and recurrent enablers to realising these benefits.

Establishing illustrations of what and how benefits were realised, the timescale for realisation and transferability of that experience.

The study was also asked to review the quality of available evidence, how this might be addressed and to propose an evidence-based typology of Open Access engagement and benefit realisation over the short, medium and longer-term.

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

Negative and Slide Digitization: "Establishing Spatial Resolution Requirements for Digitizing Transmissive Content: A Use Case Approach"

Image Science Associates has released "Establishing Spatial Resolution Requirements for Digitizing Transmissive Content: A Use Case Approach." This study was conducted for the Still Image Working Group of the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative.

Here's an excerpt:

Guidelines for the digital conversion of transmissive content (negatives and positive slides) in the cultural heritage community have lagged behind those for print content. The primary reasons for this are twofold. Unlike print material, transmissive content is generally an intermediate format (as with negatives) or requires a viewing mechanism (such as a projector). In either case, there is no standard for the viewing of the object. The second challenge for digitization of transmissive content is, in large part, a result of the ambiguity of the visual output for slides or negatives.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability

The Strategic Content Alliance has released Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2009, the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance commissioned Ithaka S+R to investigate the sustainability strategies of twelve digital content projects in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors, located in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Egypt, to see how their leaders were developing cost-management and revenue strategies to foster longterm growth for ongoing digital projects

Two years and one economic crisis later, Ithaka S+R, with the generous support of the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, conducted a new round of research and interviews with the leaders of the twelve projects that were the focus of our original case studies. Our goal was to see how their sustainability models had held up, where weaknesses might be starting to show, and what new strategies project leaders were adopting in response. How had budget cuts and other factors affected the projects? What had project leaders learned about making their resources valuable to users? Where did the resources—financial or non-financial—come from to make continued growth and innovation possible? And how could these lessons be useful to others?

The research is documented in updates to the original twelve case studies. The final report, Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability, provides a summary and analysis of findings across all twelve projects profiled.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Part 1: Site Reviews

OCLC Research has released Social Metadata for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Part 1: Site Reviews.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Traditionally, staff at libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) create metadata for the content they manage. However, social metadata—content contributed by users—is evolving as a way to both augment and recontextualize the content and metadata created by LAMs. Many cultural heritage institutions are interested in gaining a better understanding of social metadata and also learning how to best utilize their users' expertise to enrich their descriptive metadata and improve their users' experiences.

In order to facilitate this, a 21-member RLG Partners 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. In addition, working group members surveyed site managers, analyzed the survey results and discussed the factors that contribute to successful—and not so successful—use of social metadata. They also considered issues related to assessment, content, policies, technology, and vocabularies.

This report includes an environmental scan of 76 social metadata sites and a detailed review of 24 representative sites.

| New: Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Changing the Conduct of Science in the Information Age

The National Science Foundation has released Changing the Conduct of Science in the Information Age.

Here's an excerpt:

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) held a workshop titled "Changing the Conduct of Science in the Information Age" on November 12, 2010, to promote international cooperation in such policy areas as the promotion of data access, the development of technical solutions for open data platforms, and attribution for research contributions. This report describes the discussions, findings, and suggestions generated by the distinguished group of international workshop participants. . . .

There was a strong consensus that this vision could be achieved with the help of a concerted, collaborative effort by international funding agencies to:

Establish a system of persistent identifiers for researchers and their outputs;

Develop national and international pilot projects that compare different technical solutions for establishing and maintaining open data platforms, fostering the replication of scientific research, and ensuring attribution for the intellectual contributions of researchers; and

Foster formal and informal training to develop scientists' skills in knowledge and data access, as well as data analysis.

| New: Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Data Centres: Their Use, Value and Impact

The Research Information Network has released Data Centres: Their Use, Value and Impact.

Here's an excerpt:

In recent years, the value of data as a primary research output has begun to be increasingly recognised. New technology has made it possible to create, store and reuse datasets, either for new analysis or for combination with other data in order to answer different questions. In the UK, academic researchers, funders and institutions have responded to these possibilities by supporting a number of data centres' organisations with responsibility for supplying research data to the academic community, and in some cases for collecting, storing and curating such data as well. . . .

This study sought to understand usage of UK data centres among researchers, and to examine the impact of such use upon their work. We undertook a series of initial interviews with research funders to understand the role and importance of data and data centres within various academic fields, followed by a survey of the users of five data centres. Finally, through the interviews and surveys, a set of case studies was identified where the data centre had benefited a researcher's work, and in some cases that work had gone on to have an impact in wider society.

| New: Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

An Open Access Future? Report from the Eurocancercoms Project

The European Association for Cancer Research has released An Open Access Future? Report from the Eurocancercoms Project.

Here's an excerpt:

A second survey picking up on the issue of Open Access publishing has now been completed. This paper shares the results of that survey, which was again conducted across the European membership of EACR, and cross references responses with selected data from the Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP) 2011 [2] which was undertaken across all academic disciplines. The SOAP data is freely accessible and can be mined for information by anyone who wishes to use it. A number of questions were included in the survey that mirrored those used by SOAP, allowing the direct comparison of results. In this article a comparison has been made between the responses provided by cancer researchers and the 7,433 respondents to the SOAP survey from the Biological Sciences. (Over 43,000 responses were received across all disciplines to the SOAP survey.)

| New: Google Books Bibliography, Version 7 | Digital Scholarship |

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education

The Pew Research Center has released The Digital Revolution and Higher Education.

Here's an excerpt:

The Future of Online Learning. College presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, and 50% predict that 10 years from now most of their students will take classes online.

Digital Textbooks. Nearly two-thirds of college presidents (62%) anticipate that 10 years from now, more than half of the textbooks used by their undergraduate students will be entirely digital. . . .

College Presidents and Technology. The leaders of the nation's colleges and universities are a tech-savvy group. Nearly nine-in-ten (87%) use a smartphone daily, 83% use a desktop computer and 65% use a laptop. And they are ahead of the curve on some of the newer digital technologies: Fully half (49%) use a tablet computer such as an iPad at least occasionally, and 42% use an e-reader such as a Kindle or Nook.

| New: Google Books Bibliography, Version 7 | Digital Scholarship |

65% of Online Adults Use Social Networking Sites

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released 65% of Online Adults Use Social Networking Sites.

Here's an excerpt:

Two-thirds of adult internet users (65%) now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. That's more than double the percentage that reported social networking site usage in 2008 (29%). And for the first time in Pew Internet surveys it means that half of all adults (50%) use social networking sites. The pace with which new users have flocked to social networking sites has been staggering; when we first asked about social networking sites in February of 2005, just 8% of internet users — or 5% of all adults — said they used them.

| New: Google Books Bibliography, Version 7 | Digital Scholarship |

"Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day": Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists

The Council on Library and Information Resources has released "Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day": Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The author provides a summative and recent overview of the use of digital technologies in classical studies, focusing on classical Greece, Rome, and the ancient Middle and Near East, and generally on the period up to about 600 AD. The report explores what projects exist and how they are used, examines the infrastructure that currently exists to support digital classics as a discipline, and investigates larger humanities cyberinfrastructure projects and existing tools or services that might be repurposed for the digital classics.

| Digital Scholarship |

Single Search: The Quest for the Holy Grail

OCLC Research has released Single Search: The Quest for the Holy Grail .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This report highlights successful strategies in providing a single point of access to library, archive and museum collections. . . .

To address this desire, OCLC Research facilitated a working group of nine single search implementers through discussions about the opportunities for, and obstacles to, integrating single search access across an institution. Members of this group told their stories, identified issues, and acknowledged similarities and differences in their approaches. This brief report summarizes those discussions and highlights the emerging practices in providing single search access to an institution's collections. The goal of the report is to foster successful single search implementations by sharing the experience of the working group with those who are just beginning to plan single search implementations

| Digital Scholarship |

Data Privacy Legislation: An Analysis of the Current Legislative Landscape and the Implications for Higher Education

EDUCAUSE has released Data Privacy Legislation: An Analysis of the Current Legislative Landscape and the Implications for Higher Education .

Here's an excerpt:

With the ubiquity of mobile devices and the increases in data breaches, Congress has responded with bipartisan support for comprehensive privacy legislation. As of August 2011, 18 bills have been introduced in the 112th Congress concerning data privacy. . . .

These privacy bills generally fall into three distinct areas: comprehensive online privacy protection, geolocation and mobile devices, and data security and breach notification. If enacted, many of the bills have implications for data collection, storage, and use that could affect higher education and campus IT operations and academic research.

| Digital Scholarship |

OCLC Releases Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference

OCLC has released Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference, from OCLC Research, in partnership with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and additionally funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), distills more than five years of VR research into a readable summary featuring memorable quotes that vividly illustrate very specific and actionable suggestions. Taken from a multiphase research project that included focus group interviews, online surveys, transcript analysis and phone interviews, with VR librarians, users and non-users, these findings are meant to help practitioners develop and sustain VR services and systems.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Institutional Repository Bibliography | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

"A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User"

The Online Publishers Association has released "A Portrait of Today's Tablet User".

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Key findings from "A Portrait of Today's Tablet User" include:

Today's tablet users represent 12% of the US internet population ages 8-64; that number is projected to grow to 23% by early 2012—a group that represents an estimated 54 million people

87% of tablet users are accessing content and information, the dominant activity for this device

93% of tablet users have downloaded apps; the average tablet user has downloaded 20 apps

79% of app downloaders have paid for apps in the last 12 months; 26% of all apps downloaded are paid

| Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

Fair Use in the U.S. Economy

The Computer & Communications Industry Association has released Fair Use in the U.S. Economy.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Using the latest publicly available data (2009), and adapting a methodology developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) this study finds the following about fair use industry growth and activity:

Revenue—In 2008 and 2009, fair use industries—those industries that depend upon fair use and related limitations to copyright—generated revenue averaging $4.6 trillion, a 35 percent increase over 2002 revenue of $3.4 billion. . . .

Employment—The fair use economy is vast, employing 17 million people—approximately one in eight U.S. workers—and generates a payroll averaging $1.2 trillion in 2008-2009, compared to $895 billion in 2002.

| Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Scholarly Communications

The Research Communications Strategy project has released Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Scholarly Communications.

Here's an excerpt:

In particular, the Centre was interested to determine to what extent social networking sites are usurping the role of Open Access repositories and to what extent they are likely to do so in the future. The study therefore naturally needed to consider the relationship between Open Access repositories and social networking sites, both now and in the future. Furthermore, the study needed to examine the behaviour patterns of researchers in using different web locations for research communications and to attempt to predict future trends.

Analysis of Chemists and Economists Survey on Open Access

The Research Communications Strategy project has released Analysis of Chemists and Economists Survey on Open Access.

Here's an excerpt:

The motivations for engaging with open access given by these academics tend to be internal, personal reasons, especially altruistic ones. Both chemists and economists see themselves as working for the wider public benefit. However, economists especially also give more selfish reasons, where OA is seen as conferring a personal benefit. External forces that attempt to push academics towards engagement with OA feature less prominently.

Setting Institutional Repositories on the Path to Digital Preservation: Final Project Report from the JISC KeepIt Project

JISC has released Setting Institutional Repositories on the Path to Digital Preservation: Final Project Report from the JISC KeepIt Project.

Here's an excerpt:

Digital preservation starts with detailed knowledge and awareness of your own content. The scope for content of institutional repositories has grown from research papers to presenting data supporting the research, also covering teaching materials, and artistic creativity. Four repositories representing each content type—the exemplars—joined the KeepIt project to investigate how effectively each could support the goals of a general repository: trustworthy storage, and preservation. This final report from the project reveals the results, outcomes and implications of the work.

Who’s in the Queue? A Demographic Analysis of Public Access Computer Users and Uses in U.S. Public Libraries

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has released Who's in the Queue? A Demographic Analysis of Public Access Computer Users and Uses in U.S. Public Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Public access computers in U.S. public libraries continue to be in high demand according to Who's in the Queue: Public Access Computer Users, a new research brief by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The report dispels some myths that have lingered regarding the target service population for public access computers in U.S. public libraries. It also provides a demographic analysis of public access computer users and uses and demonstrates that public libraries are providing much more than basic technology access. . . .

This newly released research brief relies on data compiled for U.S. Impact Study, which was conducted by the University of Washington in summer of 2009 and funded by IMLS and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The mixed method national survey was administered at the point-of-service in public libraries across the country via a web-based tool and as a national household survey. There were over 48,000 respondents to the study in the public data file. This data set provides information on the demographics of respondents and the nature of their public access computer use.

The brief also analyzed data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, persons not in the labor force, hours of work, earnings, and other demographic and labor force characteristics. The 2009 computer use data was collected through a supplement to the CPS. The survey has included questions on Internet use since 1997.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography | Google Books Bibliography | Institutional Repository Bibliography | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

UC Libraries Academic e-Book Usage Survey

The California Digital Library has released the UC Libraries Academic e-Book Usage Survey.

Here's an excerpt:

In 2008, the University of California Libraries initiated the Springer e-Book Pilot Project with the goal of developing appropriate systemwide processes for acquiring and managing licensed e-books, as well as informing future licensing activities. Evaluation of the UC academic community’s experience utilizing the Springer e-book collection began in 2010, and a UC systemwide survey was launched by the UC Libraries in October 2010 for the purpose of assessing the user experience. The primary objectives of the survey were to determine:

Respondents' general preference for print books as compared to e-books.

How respondents interact with e-books and barriers to e-book adoption and use.

How users of Springer e-books discover their availability.

Satisfaction level with Springer content and features, including the "MyCopy" service.

| New: Institutional Repository Bibliography, Version 4 | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

Research on Digital Preservation within Projects Co-Funded by the European Union in the ICT Programme

The European Commission has released Research on Digital Preservation within Projects Co-Funded by the European Union in the ICT Programme.

Here's an excerpt:

This report gives an overview about research on digital preservation throughout projects sponsored by the European Commission as part of the sixth and seventh framework programmes for research and technological development. It summarises the objectives, developments, similarities and differences as well as accomplishments and results of these projects. The report also considers research agendas in the field of digital preservation and identifies challenges for the future.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 |

Social Networking Sites and Our Lives

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Social Networking Sites and Our Lives.

Here's an excerpt:

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine SNS in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Funding for Sustainability: How Funders’ Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources

Ithaka S+R has released Funding for Sustainability: How Funders' Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources.

Here's an excerpt:

With support from the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, Ithaka S+R conducted a study to examine the ways that both public and private funding bodies in academic and cultural heritage sectors are defining sustainability and encouraging the digital resources they help to create to endure and continue to provide value well beyond the term of the grant. The project explored the funding practices of over 25 funders that support various forms of digital resources, and included over 100 interviews with more than 80 programme officers, foundation directors, project leaders and other experts. Our goal was to gain an understanding of how funders think about the long-term viability of the digital resources they support, and the policies and practices they have put in place to encourage successful outcomes.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Current Issues in Research Communications: Open Access—The View from the Academy

The Research Communications Strategy project has released Current Issues in Research Communications: Open Access—The View from the Academy. Three prior reports are also available.

Here's an excerpt:

This is the fourth and final quarterly report to JISC from the Research Communications Strategy (RCS) project. In addition to a strategic overview of developments and issues in the sector, it contains a number of recommendations for further action. It includes:

initial results from the RCS?s recent opinion-gathering activities on attitudes to open access among researchers and senior managers in HEIs

comments on some ongoing issues relevant to the open access (OA) agenda

suggested approaches to future OA advocacy.

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

ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2008-2009

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2008–2009.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2008–2009, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 62 medical libraries at ARL member institutions in the US and Canada.

In 2008–2009, the reporting health sciences libraries held a median of 230,011 volumes, spent a total of $235,821,026, and employed 2,131 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at approximately 50% and 41% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $83,986,222 for electronic materials, or an average of approximately 76% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $78,539,253 for electronic serials.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 |