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University of Western Ontario Launches Scholarship@Western

The Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario have launched Scholarship@Western.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement by Adrian K. Ho, Scholarly Communications Librarian:

Scholarship@Western showcases publications and presentations from the university community by department. As this is a new initiative, not all academic departments are listed at present. A segment of Scholarship@Western, named Researcher Gallery, offers virtual space for Western's faculty, graduate students, librarians, and archivists to create their homepages and provide access to their publications, presentations, and other academic materials. In addition, Scholarship@Western can function as an online publishing platform for journals, conference proceedings, research reports, and working papers. An online journal, the Western Undergraduate Research Journal: Health and Natural Sciences, will be published to celebrate Western's academic excellence.

Scholarship@Western will feature a niche for the University's master's theses and PhD dissertations. Western Libraries already has some of the past theses and dissertations digitized and will upload them to Scholarship@Western for free public access. Meanwhile, we have been working with the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to develop a university-wide program that will publish, archive, and preserve future theses and dissertations on Scholarship@Western for widest possible access.

Read more about it at "Online Archive Opens Access to Research."

Litman on "Real Copyright Reform"

Jessica Litman, John F. Nickoll Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, has self-archived "Real Copyright Reform" at SSRN.

Here's the abstract:

A copyright system is designed to produce an ecology that nurtures the creation, dissemination and enjoyment of works of authorship. When it works well, it encourages creators to generate new works, assists intermediaries in disseminating them widely, and supports readers, listeners and viewers in enjoying them. If the system poses difficult entry barriers to creators, imposes demanding impediments on intermediaries, or inflicts burdensome conditions and hurdles on readers, then the system fails to achieve at least some of its purposes. The current U.S. copyright statute is flawed in all three respects. In this article, I explore how the current copyright system is failing its intended beneficiaries. The foundation of copyright law's legitimacy, I argue, derives from its evident benefits for creators and for readers. That foundation is badly cracked, in large part because of the perception that modern copyright law is not especially kind to either creators or to readers; instead, it concentrates power in the hands of the intermediaries who control the conduits between creators and their audience. Those intermediaries have recently used their influence and their copyright rights to obstruct one another's exploitation of copyrighted works. I argue that the concentration of copyright rights in the hands of intermediaries made more economic sense in earlier eras than it does today. The key to real copyright reform, I suggest, is to reallocate copyright's benefits to give more rights to creators, greater liberty to readers, and less control to copyright intermediaries.

Fiber to the Library: How Public Libraries Can Benefit from Using Fiber Optics for Their Broadband Internet Connection

The ALA Office for Information Technology Policy has released Fiber to the Library: How Public Libraries Can Benefit from Using Fiber Optics for Their Broadband Internet Connection .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The purpose of this paper is to assist libraries in understanding the benefits of fiber optic technology and to suggest strategies they can consider when exploring how to obtain fiber connectivity. This paper provides background information and arguments that may be useful in library community applications to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

University of California and Internet Archive Joint Mass Digitization Project Ends

The California Digital Library has announced that a joint mass digitization project by the University of California and the Internet Archive has ended.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In 2005, the UC Libraries entered into a ground-breaking partnership with the Internet Archive to digitize public domain book collections from the University of California Libraries. With the generous support of external partners such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, our collaboration grew to encompass two major on-site scanning centers at NRLF and SRLF and scores of dedicated staff at the UC Regional Library Facilities and elsewhere throughout UC, producing an impressive corpus of close to 200,000 public domain books that are now available worldwide to students, scholars, and the general public. Today, five years and over 64 million pages later, we announce the conclusion of this phase of our Internet Archive collaboration and celebrate the work we have accomplished together.

UC's book digitization partnership with Internet Archive began in 2005 as a founding member of the Open Content Alliance. In February 2006, the first on-site digitization center comprising ten Scribe scanning machines was installed at NRLF; a second 10-station scanning center was opened at SRLF later that year. In August 2008, UC's on-site Internet Archive digitization center at NRLF was de-commissioned and relocated to an Internet Archive facility in San Francisco, leaving the SRLF scanning center as our only remaining on-site facility. One year later in August 2009, the UC-hosted Internet Archive scanning center housed at SRLF was closed and relocated to a new off-site facility in the Los Angeles area, marking the conclusion of a digitization project that has made available to the world an unparalleled digital corpus of public domain books drawn from the renowned collections of the University of California Libraries. . . .

While this phase of our work with Internet Archive is coming to an end, we look forward to continuing our collaboration for many years to come as opportunity and resources permit.

"Preserving a Free and Open Internet: A Platform for Innovation, Opportunity, and Prosperity"

The FCC has released the text and a digital video of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's "Preserving a Free and Open Internet: A Platform for Innovation, Opportunity, and Prosperity" speech at the Brookings Institution.

Here's an excerpt:

The rise of serious challenges to the free and open Internet puts us at a crossroads. We could see the Internet’s doors shut to entrepreneurs, the spirit of innovation stifled, a full and free flow of information compromised. Or we could take steps to preserve Internet openness, helping ensure a future of opportunity, innovation, and a vibrant marketplace of ideas.

I understand the Internet is a dynamic network and that technology continues to grow and evolve. I recognize that if we were to create unduly detailed rules that attempted to address every possible assault on openness, such rules would become outdated quickly. But the fact that the Internet is evolving rapidly does not mean we can, or should, abandon the underlying values fostered by an open network, or the important goal of setting rules of the road to protect the free and open Internet.

Saying nothing—and doing nothing—would impose its own form of unacceptable cost. It would deprive innovators and investors of confidence that the free and open Internet we depend upon today will still be here tomorrow. It would deny the benefits of predictable rules of the road to all players in the Internet ecosystem. And it would be a dangerous retreat from the core principle of openness—the freedom to innovate without permission—that has been a hallmark of the Internet since its inception, and has made it so stunningly successful as a platform for innovation, opportunity, and prosperity.

In view of these challenges and opportunities, and because it is vital that the Internet continue to be an engine of innovation, economic growth, competition and democratic engagement, I believe the FCC must be a smart cop on the beat preserving a free and open Internet.

The FCC also launched a new website: Open Internet.Gov.

U.S. Department of Justice Files Objection to Google Book Search Settlement

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an objection to the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt:

Nonetheless, the breadth of the Proposed Settlement—especially the forward-looking business arrangements it seeks to create—raises significant legal concerns. As a threshold matter, the central difficulty that the Proposed Settlement seeks to overcome—the inaccessibility of many works due to the lack of clarity about copyright ownership and copyright status—is a matter of public, not merely private, concern. A global disposition of the rights to millions of copyrighted works is typically the kind of policy change implemented through legislation, not through a private judicial settlement. If such a significant (and potentially beneficial) policy change is to be made through the mechanism of a class action settlement (as opposed to legislation), the United States respectfully submits that this Court should undertake a particularly searching analysis to ensure that the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 ("Rule 23") are met and that the settlement is consistent with copyright law and antitrust law. As presently drafted, the Proposed Settlement does not meet the legal standards this Court must apply.

This Memorandum sets forth the concerns of the United States with respect to the current version of the Proposed Settlement; these concerns may be obviated by the parties' subsequent changes to the agreement. Commenters' objections to the Proposed Settlement fall into three basic categories: (1) claims that the Proposed Settlement fails to satisfy Rule 23; (2) claims that the Proposed Settlement would violate copyright law; and (3) claims that the Proposed Settlement would violate antitrust law. In the view of the United States, each category of objection is serious in isolation, and, taken together, raise cause for concern. . . .

This Court should reject the Proposed Settlement in its current form and encourage the parties to continue negotiations to modify it so as to comply with Rule 23 and the copyright and antitrust laws.

Digital Preservation: Life2 Final Project Report

JISC has released Life2 Final Project Report.

Here's an excerpt:

LIFE Model v2 outlines a fully-revised lifecycle model taking into account feedback from user groups, the Case Studies and the wider digital preservation community.

Generic Preservation Model (GPM) summarises the update to the preservation model with an accompanying spreadsheet. This model allows institutions to estimate potential digital preservation costs for their collections. The GPM fits into the updated LIFE Model.

An Economic Evaluation of LIFE was written by economist Bo-Christer Björk on the approach used for both the first and second phases of LIFE. This independent review validates the LIFE approach for lifecycle costing.

The SHERPA DP Case Study outlines the mapping of the repository services that CeRch provides to the LIFE Model. The SHERPA-LEAP Case Study maps three very different HE repositories to the LIFE Model. Goldsmiths University of London, Royal Holloway University of London and UCL (University College London) each provide exemplars of varying collections. Each institution’s repository is at a different stage of development.

The Newspapers Case Study successfully maps both analogue and digital newspaper collections to the LIFE Model. This success means that LIFE could be developed into a fully-compatible predictive tool across both analogue and digital collections, allowing for comparison both throughout the lifecycles of a collection and across different types of collections.

Open Access in Portugal: A State of the Art Report

RCAAP has released Open Access in Portugal: A State of the Art Report

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This report describes the present situation in Portugal concerning Open Access (OA) in scientific publishing. It presents a comprehensive portrait of the Portuguese initiatives related to OA, such as the implementation of open access institutional repositories at various Portuguese universities or research institutes.

This document is commissioned within the RCAAP project and is a deliverable (D30) of the project. The study of the current situation of OA in Portugal is also related with SELL (Southern European Libraries Link) initiative, to assess the situation on southern countries, and will primarily function as a basis for discussion at a seminar which the final aim will be to establish a group of actions in the SELL countries (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey) for promoting Open Access to scientific information.

The report starts by providing some contextual background on Open Access and the Portuguese reality related with research and scientific publication. A brief history and evolution of Open Access initiatives in Portugal in the last six years, and the description of the current situation of Portuguese OA repositories and OA journals, constitute the main sections of this reports.

OCLC Outlines Its Future OAIster Strategy

OCLC has outlined its future OAIster strategy in an e-mail message to OAIster database contributors.

Here's an excerpt from the "Next Steps" part of the document:

OAIster users will have two ways to access the records you contribute to OAIster.

WorldCat.org search results will include OAIster records. WorldCat.org is a publicly available Web site searchable at no charge. When users search WorldCat.org, OAIster records will be included in search results. Each search will retrieve results from the WorldCat database along with OAIster and article-level content from sources that now include GPO Monthly Catalog, ArticleFirst, MEDLINE, ERIC, the British Library and Elsevier. Records from all sources are presented to users in integrated search results.

Authenticated users of libraries that subscribe to the FirstSearch Base Package may search OAIster as a separate database through WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and WorldCat Local "quick start." These users will be able to select OAIster for searching from the Advanced search screen.

At the University of Michigan OAIster site, there is an announcement that reads; "OCLC will be taking over operations of OAIster in October, loading August data into WorldCat.org and making harvesting fully operational at OCLC by January 2010."

What appears to be lost in this strategy is free access to OAIster as a separate database after OCLC assumes full control of OAIster in 2010.

"The York Digital Journals Project: Strategies for Institutional Open Journal Systems Implementations"

College & Research Libraries has released a preprint of "The York Digital Journals Project: Strategies for Institutional Open Journal Systems Implementations" by Andrea Kosavic.

Here's an excerpt:

Embarking on a university-wide journal hosting initiative can be a resource-intensive undertaking. Providing such a service, however, can be equally rewarding as it positions the library as both partner and colleague in the publishing process. This paper discusses ideas and strategies for institutional journal hosting gleaned over two years by the York Digital Journals Project. Suggestions for startup including policy considerations and service models are discussed. Ideas for advertising and networking are explored as well as the question of project sustainability.

SHERPA DP2: Developing Services for Archiving and Preservation in a Distributed Environment—Final Report

JISC has released SHERPA DP2: Developing Services for Archiving and Preservation in a Distributed Environment—Final Report.

Here's an excerpt:

The SHERPA DP2 project (2007-2009) was a two year project funded by the JISC under the Digital Preservation and Records Management Programme. The project was led by the Centre for e- Research at King's College London (formerly the Executive of the Arts and Humanities Data Service), which is working with several institutions to develop a preservation service that will cater for the requirements of a diverse range of digital resources and web-based resources. In summary, the project has the following objectives:

Extend and refine the OAIS-based Shared Services model created for the initial SHERPA DP project to accommodate the requirements of different Content Providers and varied collaborative methods.

Produce a set of services that will assist with the capture and return of research data stored in distributed locations, building upon existing software tools.

Expand upon the work processes and software tools developed for SHERPA DP(1) and SOAPI to cater for the curation and preservation of increasingly diverse resource types.

Institutional Repository Manager and Institutional Repository Administrator at University of the Arts London

The University of the Arts London is recruiting both an institutional repository manager and an institutional repository administrator.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

[Manager] Working with the University research community and other stakeholders, you will manage and develop the Institutional Repository (UAL Research Online) to meet the needs of the University, with particular reference to the University Research Strategy and HEFCE's Research Excellence Framework.

[Administrator; 17.5 hours per week. one-year fixed-term contract] You will be assisting in the management, customisation, promotion and exploitation of the University Institutional Repository (UAL Research Online). You will also assist in the depositing of electronic theses, including participation in the EThOS service and you will provide support and training to users of UAL Research Online.

Communicating Knowledge: How and Why UK Researchers Publish and Disseminate Their Findings

JISC and the Research Information Network have released Communicating Knowledge: How and Why UK Researchers Publish and Disseminate Their Findings.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Researchers are driven by a desire to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the world we inhabit, and to communicate their findings to others. But both governments and other funders are increasingly interested in demonstrating the social and economic returns from their investments in research, and in assessing research performance.

The many different criteria for success, and the lack of any consensus on how success should be assessed or measured, however, mean that researchers often find themselves in receipt of confused or conflicting messages. And they are pulled in different directions in deciding which channels of communication they should adopt.

This report is complimented by four supporting papers which provide detailed descriptions of the methods used, a full analysis of the data, and further details of the findings.

A related podcast is also available.

Google Signs Agreement with Maker of Espresso Book Machine Giving it Access to over Two Million E-Books

Google has signed an agreement with On Demand Books, maker of the print-on-demand Espresso Book Machine, giving it access to over two million public domain e-books.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This unprecedented number of reading options is in addition to the current 1.6 million titles already available directly to consumers via the Espresso Book Machine®. The Espresso Book Machine® is a small, patented high-speed automated book- making machine. In a few minutes it can print, bind and trim a single-copy library- quality paperback book complete with a full-color paperback cover. "ODB, in effect an ATM for books, will radically decentralize direct-to-consumer distribution," says Jason Epstein, Chairman and co-founder of ODB."With the Google inventory the EBM will make it possible for readers everywhere to have access to millions of digital titles in multiple languages, including rare and out of print public domain titles."

"This is a revolutionary product," says Dane Neller, CEO and co founder of ODB."Instead of the traditional Gutenberg model of centrally producing, shipping and selling we sell first, then produce. In a matter of minutes you can get a paperback book identical to one you can get in a store at point of sale. In addition to readers, On Demand Books will bring substantial benefits to authors, retailers and publishers. It has the potential to change the publishing industry."

The Espresso Book Machine® is powered by EspressNet, a proprietary and copyrighted software system that connects EBM to a vast network of permissioned content. Using industry-standard encryption methods EspressNet assures the security of publishers' titles, tracks all jobs, and provides for payments to publishers. Content owners retain full ownership and control of their digital files. . . .

Espresso Book Machines® already are up and running in bookstores, libraries and trade and campus bookstores such as the University of Michigan Shapiro Library Building in Ann Arbor, MI, the Blackwell Bookshop in London, UK, the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, VT, the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton, Canada and Angus & Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, Australia. The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA and the University of Melbourne Library in Melbourne, Australia soon will carry their own EBM.

NPR Interview: "Who Should Control The Virtual Library?"

NPR has released a digital audio recording and transcript of an interview with Daphne Keller (Google), Fred Von Lohmann (EFF), and Jessica Vascellaro (Wall Street Journal) about the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt:

[Von Lohmann] Unlike a bookstore or even a library, because these books will live online on Google's computers, where you will be accessing them, Google will have the ability to watch every page you read, how long you spend on any particular page, what page you read a minute ago and what page you're going to read a week from now. It really is as though every book comes with a surveillance camera that comes home with you. So we think it's really critical that this arrangement builds in real strong privacy protections because our nation's bookstores and libraries have fought hard for that, and we think we should accept no less online.

Systems Librarian at the University of Louisville

The University of Louisville Libraries are recruiting a Systems Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Reporting to the Director of Office of Libraries Technology, the Systems Librarian will be responsible for managing the Libraries' integrated library system, Voyager, including the online catalog, bibliographic utility software and related systems. The librarian investigates and exploits Voyager's capabilities to its fullest. The librarian serves as the contact person with the vendor, Ex Libris, and the various module users within the University Libraries. In addition, the Systems Librarian serves as a liaison to other Kentucky libraries, since UofL maintains one of two hub-sites in Kentucky as part of a statewide Voyager consortium.

University of Michigan Press Opts in to Google Settlement

The University of Michigan Press has opted in to the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

University of Michigan Press has decided to opt in to the terms of the Settlement and is beginning the process of claiming books digitized by Google under its Book Search program. We will claim all titles under copyright on behalf of our authors.

"Systems for Managing Digital Media Collections"

JISC Digital Media has released "Systems for Managing Digital Media Collections."

Here's an excerpt :

Everyone's collection and context is unique, so your choice of a system (or systems) for managing your media will require a careful assessment of your needs and resources and an evaluation of the available options. This paper provides an overview of a number of different approaches to digital media management: from some very cheap and 'low-tech' approaches to much more complex and specialised solutions. Another paper in this series discusses some of the commonly available functionality in more detail and raises some key questions to consider when choosing a system . . .

We have given more than thirty examples of systems below, with links to further descriptions on JISC Digital Media's website or to external sites. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive or to imply any sort of endorsement or criticism: they are offered for information purposes only. This is a competitive and fast-changing environment, in which new versions are pushed out, new systems emerge, and last year's cutting-edge features become standard issue.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (9/16/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Especially interesting are: “Beyond Theory: Preparing Dublin Core Metadata for OAI-PMH Harvesting”; “Contributions of Open Access to Higher Education in Europe and Vice Versa”; Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars; “Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing”; “Musings on Fair Use”; “OA Network: An Integrative Open Access Infrastructure for Germany”; “Online Digital Thesis Collections and National Information Policy: ANTAEUS”; “Purple Cows and Fringy Propositions: The Edinburgh Repository Fringe Festival 2009”; “Reinventing Academic Publishing Online. Part II: A Socio-Technical Vision”; and “Report on OAI 6: CERN Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication, Geneva 17-19 June 2009.”

Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars

Noted copyright expert William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google and former copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, has published Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars with Oxford University Press. Patry is also blogging on this topic at Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. (His well-regarded previous blog was The Patry Copyright Blog.)

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In Moral Panics And The Copyright Wars, Patry details the path that we have taken to get to our current misunderstanding of copyright laws. The most prolific scholar of copyright in history and the author of an eight-volume treatise on copyright and a separate treatise on the fair use doctrine, Patry argues that the cause of these copyright wars throughout history can be largely attributed to words—specifically, metaphors. Patry describes different kinds of metaphors, using them to further illustrate the ways that copyright laws have come to be unnecessarily expanded and misunderstood. For example, nowadays the term "pirate" is used in many instances to describe a type of copyright violation. Patry writes that it is the repetition of the pirate metaphor that makes the term stick, although the metaphor may be used incorrectly or may even be entirely false. This repetition of such metaphors causes whatever company or individual that has come to be associated with the word "pirate" to always be attached to the negative traits associated with a "pirate." This is just one of the ways that Patry shows the influence that words have had in negatively expanding copyright laws as well as causing the public, those who the laws are meant to help, to misunderstand them.

Patry contends that it has been this metaphoric language that has led to poor business decisions and obscured copyright law's true, public purpose. He concludes that calls for strong copyright laws, just like calls for weak copyright laws, miss the point entirely: the only laws we need are effective laws, laws that further the purpose of encouraging the creation of new works and learning—and that bring respect back to our copyright process.

Digital Preservation: Media Vault Program Interim Report

The Media Vault Program has released Media Vault Program Interim Report.

Here's an excerpt:

All major studies and reports on the sustainability of digital resources point to a multitude of barriers that can be clustered into four factors:

Economic: Who owns the problem, and who benefits from the solutions? Who pays for the services, long-term preservation, development, and curation? . . . .

Technical: Simple services are needed, but they are not simple to build, implement and support in our complex environment. Successful structures that can support digital scholarship must account for user needs, emerging technologies/file formats, adverse working contexts (fieldwork, offline, multi-platform), and should be supported at the enterprise scale. . . .

Political/Organizational: . . . . there are good reasons for the various service provider organizations to innovate on their own, but there is much to gain from working together on common goals and milestones. In fact, where communities have succeeded in softening the boundaries between content producers and consumers, supporters and beneficiaries, significant successes have been achieved. . . .

Social: We live in interesting times . . . and the prevalence of cheap/stolen media has produced an expectation that things should be always available, conveniently packaged, and free. Where some organizations, such as the Long Now Foundation, are hoping to "provide counterpoint to today's "Faster/cheaper" mind set and promote 'slower/better' thinking," it may be up to those of us who care deeply about the persistence of research data to step up as the seas continue to change.

Faculty Director for Libraries Information Technology at University of Colorado

The University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries are recruiting a Faculty Director for Libraries Information Technology.

Here's an excerpt from ad:

The Head of the Libraries Information Technology Department has the title Faculty Director of Libraries Information Technology (LIT) and reports to the Associate Director for Administrative Services. The LIT department provides primary information technology services in support of the University Libraries’ mission and strategic plan. These technologies and services currently include the Libraries’ integrated library system, web servers, other servers, digital library initiatives, and more than 700 computers and associated peripherals in multiple campus locations. The faculty director, along with library and campus colleagues, will play a key role in developing strategies and future organizational structures to support next generation library services and resources. The successful candidate will have a strong theoretical understanding of the role of libraries in higher education. This position supervises a department of one FTE faculty, eight FTE technical staff, and student assistants and therefore must effectively plan and evaluate performance and provide mentoring so that employees can achieve personal and professional goals.

Defining "Noncommercial": A Study of How the Online Population Understands "Noncommercial Use"

The Creative Commons has released Defining "Noncommercial": A Study of How the Online Population Understands "Noncommercial Use".

Here's an excerpt:

In 2008-09, Creative Commons commissioned a study from a professional market research firm to explore understandings of the terms"commercial us" and "noncommercial use" among Internet users when used in the context of content found online.

The empirical findings suggest that creators and users approach the question of noncommercial use similarly and that overall, online U.S. creators and users are more alike than different in their understanding of noncommercial use. Both creators and users generally consider uses that earn users money or involve online advertising to be commercial, while uses by organizations, by individuals, or for charitable purposes are less commercial but not decidedly noncommercial. Similarly, uses by for-profit companies are typically considered more commercial. Perceptions of the many use cases studied suggest that with the exception of uses that earn users money or involve advertising—at least until specific case scenarios are presented that disrupt those generalized views of commerciality—there is more uncertainty than clarity around whether specific uses of online content are commercial or noncommercial.

Uses that are more difficult to classify as either commercial or noncommercial also show greater (and often statistically significant) differences between creators and users. As a general rule, creators consider the uses studied to be more noncommercial (less commercial) than users. For example, uses by a not-for-profit organization are generally thought less commercial than uses by a for-profit organization, and even less so by creators than users. The one exception to this pattern is in relation to uses by individuals that are personal or private in nature. Here, it is users (not creators) who believe such uses are less commercial.

The most notable differences among subgroups within each sample of creators and users are between creators who make money from their works, and those who do not, and between users who make money from their uses of others' works, and those who do not. In both cases, those who make money generally rate the uses studied less commercial than those who do not make money. The one exception is, again, with respect to personal or private uses by individuals: users who make money consider these uses more commercial than those who do not make money.

Institutional Identifiers in Repositories: A Survey Report for the NISO I2 Workgroup

The National Information Standards Organization has released Institutional Identifiers in Repositories: A Survey Report for the NISO I2 Workgroup.

Here's an excerpt:

The survey showed that standardized institutional identifiers are seen as important and it was agreed there is a need for them in the repository community. The need for identifiers is underscored by the ways in which repository content is shared. A clear majority of repositories include identifiers for the repository itself and many include institutional identifiers. Those that include the latter generally also include identifiers for subordinate units within the identified institution. Most of these identifiers are not used in other usage contexts—e.g., Inter-Library Loan, electronic resource management systems, etc.—but there is some agreement that it would be important for a single identifier to be used for all organizational purposes. The majority of respondents would be willing to participate in a registry of institutional identifiers provided that participation is voluntary and cost-free.

Institutional identifiers already in usage are largely based upon the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) standard, whether they take the form of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) URIs, Uniform Resource Names (URNs), CNRI Handles, or OCLC PURLs. An overwhelming majority of respondents consider resolvability of institutional identifiers important.

"Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization"

Paul Ohm, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, has self-archived "Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization" at SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Computer scientists have recently undermined our faith in the privacy-protecting power of anonymization, the name for techniques for protecting the privacy of individuals in large databases by deleting information like names and social security numbers. These scientists have demonstrated they can often 'reidentify' or 'deanonymize' individuals hidden in anonymized data with astonishing ease. By understanding this research, we will realize we have made a mistake, labored beneath a fundamental misunderstanding, which has assured us much less privacy than we have assumed. This mistake pervades nearly every information privacy law, regulation, and debate, yet regulators and legal scholars have paid it scant attention. We must respond to the surprising failure of anonymization, and this Article provides the tools to do so.

Read more about it at "What Information Is 'Personally Identifiable'?"