The Open Data Handbook

The Open Knowledge Foundation has released The Open Data Handbook.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

From a basic introduction of the "what and why" of open data, the Handbook goes on to discuss the practicalities of making data open – the "how". It gives advice on everything from choosing a file format and applying a license, to motivating the community and telling the world. Clear explanations, illustrative examples and technical recommendations make the Handbook suitable for people with all levels of experience, from the absolute beginner to the seasoned open data professional.

The Handbook is divided into short chapters which cover individual aspects of open data. It can be read in a single sitting, or dipped into as a reference work.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 2/21/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Coordinator of Digital Programs at Marquette University’s Raynor Memorial Libraries

Marquette University's Raynor Memorial Libraries are recruiting a Coordinator of Digital Programs.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources and Collections, the Coordinator of Digital Programs provides leadership and coordination for the creation, maintenance, and stewardship of the Libraries' digital collections and repositories. This position is responsible for the management, education and promotion of Marquette's institutional repository, e-Publications@Marquette (http://epublications.marquette.edu/) and, in collaboration with the Department of Special Collections and Archives, the coordination and development of the Libraries' digital collections (http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/earchives.shtml).

| Institutional Repository Bibliography | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

SURF’s EJME Project Releases Data File Plug-ins for Open Journal Systems

SURF's EJME (Enhanced Journals…Made Easy!) Project has released data file plug-ins for Open Journal Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Internet makes it possible to present publications in combination with related research data, as Enhanced Publications. The Enhanced Journals…Made Easy project (EJME), which is funded by SURF, has designed a practical work process for publishers of Open Access journals so as to enhance academic journals with the associated data files. The project involved the development of two plug-ins for Open Journal Systems, a system for managing and publishing journals. Open Journal Systems (OJS) is the most frequently used open source package worldwide for academic journals.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Discovery Services Librarian at East Carolina University’s J.Y. Joyner Library

East Carolina University's J.Y. Joyner Library is recruiting a Discovery Services Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Assistant Director for Library Technology, the Discovery Services Librarian will:

  • Provide leadership and vision in the management, support, integration, and administration of the Library's suite of information management and discovery systems
  • Work collaboratively with ECU Libraries' faculty and staff to evaluate the Libraries' online resource discovery environment and to develop and implement strategies and innovative solutions to improve external and internal user experience and maximize system functionality
  • Chair or co-chair library discovery committees
  • Serve as head of the Discovery Services department and supervise two to three staff whose responsibilities include administering the integrated library system
  • Monitor trends and best practices in library discovery; recommend and facilitate improvements to existing systems and services

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Version 80 | 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 |

Library Web Developer at Michigan Technological University’s Van Pelt and Opie Library

Michigan Technological University's Van Pelt and Opie Library is recruiting a Library Web Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Michigan Technological University's Van Pelt and Opie Library seeks an energetic, user-focused and collegial Web developer that enjoys working on a variety of projects with library and IT staff, faculty, and students that support library services, instruction and research. The position requires commitment to the completion of reliable and innovative products and is responsible for developing, maintaining and customizing dynamic and complex web pages, and integrating a number of web services and data sources into new and existing interfaces and applications. The position will work collaboratively with the university’s IT Support Services to design new or modify existing back-end databases that support web applications and services.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Version 80 | 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 |

Digital Humanities Developer at Stanford University Libraries

The Stanford University Libraries are recruiting a Digital Humanities Developer.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (job ID: 46583):

Under supervision of the Head of the Digital Initiatives Group (DIG), the Digital Humanities Developer is responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining a variety of digital library projects and products for the humanities and social sciences. She or he will work closely with the entire DIG team (which includes librarians and specialists in assessment, digital publication, social science data, user services technology, and digital humanities) to select projects and set priorities collaboratively.

The Developer will also consult with fellow librarians outside of DIG on new library projects, will integrate and develop applications and tools that support both immediate project goals and longer-term library goals. The Developer will also help in the maintenance and improvement of existing technologies in the areas of digital humanities, the social sciences, and the digital library.

| Digital Bibliographies | Digital Scholarship |

Journal of eScience Librarianship Launched

The Lamar Soutter Library has launched the Journal of eScience Librarianship.

The first issue's "full-length papers" are:

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 2/19/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Pamela Samuelson et al. Send Letter to US District Court Judge Denny Chin about Authors Guild v. Google Case

Pamela Samuelson, Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law and Information at the UC Berkeley School of Law, and other scholars have sent a letter ("Academic Author Objections to Plaintiff's Motion for Class Certification") to US District Court Judge Denny Chin about class certification issues in the Authors Guild v. Google Case.

Here's an excerpt:

We believe that our works of scholarship are more typical of the contents of research library collections than works of the three named plaintiffs in this case. Betty Miles is the author of numerous children's books. Jim Bouton is a former baseball pitcher who has written both fiction and nonfiction books based on his experiences as a baseball player. Joseph Goulden is a professional writer who has written a number of nonfiction books on a variety of subjects, including a book about "superlawyers." None of these three are academic authors. Their books are aimed at a popular, rather than an academic, audience. As professional writers, their motivations and interests in having their books published would understandably be different, and likely more commercial, than those of academic scholars. Hence, our concern is that these three do not share the academic interests that are typical of authors of books in research library collections. As we explain further below, the clearest indication that the named plaintiffs do not share the same priorities typical of academic authors is their insistence on pursuing this litigation.

| Google Books Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

NEH Office of Digital Humanities Releases Videos of 2011 Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant Project Directors’ Presentations

The NEH's Office of Digital Humanities has released short videos of project directors of 2011 Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants discussing their projects.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

We're happy to say that we now have videos from the annual Office of Digital Humanities Project Directors Meeting, held September 27, 2011 at the Old Post Office in Washington, DC. This meeting brought together top researchers in the digital humanities from across the United States.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Metadata Specialist at Purdue University Libraries

The Purdue University Libraries are recruiting a Metadata Specialist.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The position will specify the application of appropriate descriptive, administrative, and technical metadata schemas for digitized and born-digital content managed by the Libraries. This will include a leadership role in non-MARC metadata projects. This position will develop strategies for metadata interoperability to facilitate effective access and preservation. This includes strategies for integrating heterogeneous metadata from highly distributed collections within local services, as well as exposing locally generated metadata to external services. The position will play an active role in national and international discussions about the emerging and dynamic role of metadata in providing access to information resources.

| Digital Bibliographies | 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 |

Current News: Twitter Updates for 2/16/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Research Data Librarian at University of Maryland Libraries

The University of Maryland Libraries are recruiting a Research Data Librarian (post-Master's program, two-year term).

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Manager, Digital Stewardship, the Research Data Librarian: actively participates in university-wide initiatives to develop and design policies, sustainable services, and infrastructure to enable faculty and students to preserve and make available their research data; partners with internal units (such as GIS and DRUM — Digital Repository of University of Maryland) and external units (such as Vice President for Research, Office of Information Technology (OIT) Enterprise Technical Infrastructure and Learning Technologies and Environments, and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities) to develop a data-publishing model that leverages library services in support of data management and preservation; assists faculty with development of data management plans for grant applications; serves as an active member of the Information Technology Division, contributing to divisional initiatives and leading specific projects; incorporates support for data management and preservation into library services; and maintains close engagement with issues relating to scholarly communications such as copyright, open access, and data management and preservation.

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

Ithaka S+R Research Support Services for Scholars: History Project. Interim Report: Interviews with Research Support Professionals

Ithaka S+R has released the Ithaka S+R Research Support Services for Scholars: History Project. Interim Report: Interviews with Research Support Professionals.

Here's an excerpt:

Funded by the NEH, Ithaka S+R’s History Project, part of the Research Support Services for Scholars Program, will explore the information support needs and changing research practices of academic historians in the United States. The evolution of technology and its impact on scholarship in the humanities has sparked and sustained the wide-spread Digital Humanities movement. Historians in particular have engaged new technologies, and the subsequently enabled research methodologies and publication platforms are transforming the field. Consequently, many support service providers would like to better understand the evolving practices of historians and adapt their services to facilitate these new processes.

For the first phase of the Research Support Services for Scholars History Project, Ithaka S+R interviewed professionals who work in support of the scholarly life cycle of historians. Before interviewing faculty directly, it was important to establish an understanding of the breadth of support available to history faculty on campus, as well as the environment and institutions that support their research from concept to publication. The goal for this set of interviews was to explore the different types of service models currently engaged for supporting history research on campus and the challenges that research support professionals are facing in today’s rapidly evolving research environment.

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

Digital Archivist at Florida State University Libraries

The Florida State University Libraries are recruiting a Digital Archivist.

Here's an excerpt ad:

The Florida State University Libraries seeks a Digital Archivist to develop, implement, and provide leadership for digital initiatives involving Special Collections materials and services. The Digital Archivist will be creative, dynamic, and articulate and be skilled in digitization, metadata, project and website management, and digital preservation. The Digital Archivist will report to the Associate Dean for Special Collections and Archives.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Open Definition Licenses Service Launched

The Open Knowledge Foundation has launched the Open Definition Licenses Service.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The service is ultra simple in purpose and function. It provides:

  • Information on licenses for open data, open content, and open-source software in machine readable form (JSON)
  • A simple web API that allows you retrieve this information over the web — including using javascript in a browser via JSONP

In addition to the service there’s also:

  • A licenses git repo and project on github
  • An Open Licenses dataset on the DataHub. . . .

There's data on more than 100 open (and a few closed) licenses including all OSI-approved open source licenses and all Open Definition conformant open data and content licenses. Also included are a few closed licenses as well as "generics" — licensed representing a category (useful where a user does not know the exact license but knows, for example, that the material only requires attribution).

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

Current News: Twitter Updates for 2/15/12

| Digital Scholarship |

Digital Technologies/Systems Librarian at Boston University’s Pappas Law Library

Boston University's Pappas Law Library is recruiting a Digital Technologies/Systems Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Provide technology and systems expertise to ensure that the Law Library optimally utilizes all existing digital technologies as well as investigates new technologies that enhance the discovery and delivery of legal information to faculty and students. Working collaboratively with managers and librarians from all units in the Library, as well as librarians at other Boston University libraries, the Digital Technologies & Systems Librarian continually implements new library technologies and online systems to improve workflow and services.

| Institutional Repository Bibliography | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |

Journal of Digital Humanities to Launch in March

The Journal of Digital Humanities will launch this March.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Digital Humanities Now is pleased to announce the Journal of Digital Humanities (ISSN 2165-6673), forthcoming in March 2012. In this comprehensive, peer-reviewed journal we will feature the best scholarship, projects, and tools produced by the digital humanities community in the previous quarter.

The Journal of Digital Humanities will offer expanded coverage of the digital humanities in three ways. First, we publish scholarly work beyond the traditional research article. Second, we select content from open and public discussions in the field. Third, we encourage continued discussion through peer-to-peer review.

The journal will be comprised of individual works that were selected as Editors' Choice in Digital Humanities Now. These works range from written texts, to visual arguments, to audio-visual presentations. In order to promote the peer review of non-traditional scholarship, each issue will include solicited reviews of digital tools. When the community focuses extensively on a particular topic, a special section of the issue will feature the broader conversation. In our inaugural issue, Natalia Cecire, a postdoctoral fellow at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University, will introduce and guest edit a special section about theory and the digital humanities.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Version 80 | Digital Scholarship |

Associate University Librarian—Collections and Library Information Systems at University of California, Santa Cruz Library

The University of California, Santa Cruz Library is recruiting an Associate University Librarian—Collections and Library Information Systems.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Assistant/Associate University Librarian Collections and Library Information Systems (AUL/CLIS) is a member of the Library's senior management team and has overall responsibility for Library collections, including collection development, the collection budget; acquisitions, cataloging, metadata creation, and serials management; digitization projects, preservation, and scholarly communication; and information systems. In addition, this position provides leadership for the Digital Library Program (DLP) which is dedicated to the production, maintenance, delivery, and preservation of a wide range of high-quality networked resources for scholars and students.

| Digital Bibliographies | Digital Scholarship |

"A Study of Open Access Journals Using Article Processing Charges"

David J. Solomon and Bo-Christer Björk have self-archived "A Study of Open Access Journals Using Article Processing Charges".

Here's an excerpt:

Article Processing Charges (APCs) are a central mechanism for funding Open Access (OA) scholarly publishing. We studied the APCs charged and article volumes of journals that were listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals as charging APCs. These included 1,370 journals that published 100,697 articles in 2010. The average APC was 906 US Dollars (USD) calculated over journals and 904 US Dollars USD calculated over articles. The price range varied between 8 and 3,900 USD, with the lowest prices charged by journals published in developing countries and the highest by journals with high impact factors from major international publishers. Journals in Biomedicine represent 59% of the sample and 58% of the total article volume. They also had the highest APCs of any discipline. Professionally published journals, both for profit and nonprofit had substantially higher APCs than society, university or scholar/researcher published journals. These price estimates are lower than some previous studies of OA publishing and much lower than is generally charged by subscription publishers making individual articles open access in what are termed hybrid journals.

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