Blog Reports about the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program Partners Meeting

Several blog reports are available about the recent National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program partners meeting.

Open Access: Text of Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009

The text of the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 (S 1373) is now available.

Here's an excerpt:

SEC. 4. FEDERAL RESEARCH PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY.

(a) In General- Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, each Federal agency with extramural research expenditures of over $100,000,000 shall develop a Federal research public access policy that is consistent with and advances purposes of the Federal agency.
(b) Content- Each Federal research public access policy shall provide for—
(1) submission to the Federal agency of an electronic version of the author's final manuscript of original research papers that have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and result from research supported, in whole or in part, from funding by the Federal Government;
(2) the incorporation of all changes resulting from the peer review publication process in the manuscript described under paragraph (1);
(3) the replacement of the final manuscript with the final published version if—
(A) the publisher consents to the replacement; and
(B) the goals of the Federal agency for functionality and interoperability are retained;
(4) free online public access to such final peer-reviewed manuscripts or published versions as soon as practicable, but not later than 6 months after publication in peer-reviewed journals;
(5) production of an online bibliography of all research papers that are publicly accessible under the policy, with each entry linking to the corresponding free online full text; and
(6) long-term preservation of, and free public access to, published research findings—
(A) in a stable digital repository maintained by the Federal agency; or
(B) if consistent with the purposes of the Federal agency, in any repository meeting conditions determined favorable by the Federal agency, including free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation.
(c) Application of Policy- Each Federal research public access policy shall—
(1) apply to—
(A) researchers employed by the Federal agency whose works remain in the public domain; and
(B) researchers funded by the Federal agency;
(2) provide that works described under paragraph (1)(A) shall be—
(A) marked as being public domain material when published; and
(B) made immediately available under subsection (b)(4); and
(3) make effective use of any law or guidance relating to the creation and reservation of a Government license that provides for the reproduction, publication, release, or other uses of a final manuscript for Federal purposes.
(d) Exclusions- Each Federal research public access policy shall not apply to—
(1) research progress reports presented at professional meetings or conferences;
(2) laboratory notes, preliminary data analyses, notes of the author, phone logs, or other information used to produce final manuscripts;
(3) classified research, research resulting in works that generate revenue or royalties for authors (such as books) or patentable discoveries, to the extent necessary to protect a copyright or patent; or
(4) authors who do not submit their work to a journal or works that are rejected by journals.
(e) Patent or Copyright Law- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect any right under the provisions of title 17 or 35, United States Code.
(f) Report-
(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than October 1, of each year, the head of each Federal agency shall submit a report on the Federal research public access policy of that agency to—
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate;
(B) the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives;
(C) the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives;
(D) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate;
(E) the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and
(F) any other committee of Congress of appropriate jurisdiction.
(2) CONTENT- Each report under this subsection shall include—
(A) a statement of the effectiveness of the Federal research public access policy in providing the public with free online access to papers on research funded by the Federal agency;
(B) a list of papers published in peer-reviewed journals that report on research funded by the Federal agency;
(C) a corresponding list of papers made available by the Federal agency as a result of the Federal research public access policy; and
(D) a summary of the periods of time between public availability of each paper in a journal and in the online repository of the Federal agency.
(3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY- The Federal agency shall make the statement under paragraph (2)(A) and the lists of papers under subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (2) available to the public by posting such statement and lists on the website of the Federal agency.

Library of Congress Releases Bagit: Transferring Content for Digital Preservation Video

The Library of Congress has released a digital video, Bagit: Transferring Content for Digital Preservation.

Here's the description:

The Library of Congress's steadily growing digital collections arrive primarily over the network rather than on hardware media. But that data transfer can be difficult because different organizations have different policies and technologies.

The Library—with the California Digital Library and Stanford University – has developed guidelines for creating and moving standardized digital containers, called "bags." A bag functions like a physical envelope that is used to send content through the mail but with bags, a user sends content from one computer to another.

Bags have a sparse, uncomplicated structure that transcends differences in institutional data, data architecture, formats and practices. A bag's minimal but essential metadata is machine readable, which makes it easy to automate ingest of the data. Bags can be sent over computer networks or physically moved using portable storage devices.

Bags have built-in inventory checking, to help ensure that content transferred intact. Bags are flexible and can work in many different settings, including situations where the content is located in more than one place. This video describes the preparation and transfer of data over the network in bags.

Open Monograph Press to Launch During Second International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference, July 8-10

According to "Library Releasing New Publishing Tool," the Public Knowledge Project will launch its new Open Monograph Press during the Second International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference on July 8-10.

Here's an excerpt from the Open Monograph Press home page:

Open Monograph Press, a new open source publishing product under development by the Public Knowledge Project, will establish an online workspace for publishing monographs, edited volumes, and scholarly editions, while keeping an archival record of the process (compatible with the Fedora repository). . . .

The plans for OMP also include the potential for users to set up a Social Networking Incubator and Workspace system, which would enable editors to create a workspace for authors who appear to have a potential monograph project in hand, giving the author a chance to develop ideas within an invited or more open community, before moving into a formal book proposal and submission process.

This will provide author and editor with a series of tools and spaces that will allow them to see if there is a book residing within the author's article-length work, by bringing together authors and collecting pieces for engagement and response by select communities of interest or potentially by anyone interested, at the author and editor's discretion (Access Scheduler).

Google Book Search Bibliography, Version 4

Version 4 of the Google Book Search Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship.

This bibliography presents selected English-language articles and other works that are useful in understanding Google Book Search. It primarily focuses on the evolution of Google Book Search and the legal, library, and social issues associated with it. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical.

Library IT Jobs: Systems Librarian at Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital's Treadwell Library is recruiting a Systems Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (use job ID 2190657 in advanced search):

Under the general direction of the Library Director, the Systems Librarian is responsible for the overall management and support of the library's Innovative Library System and for the technical aspects of electronic resources management. In collaboration with the library's Webmaster/ System Technologist, the incumbent contributes to ongoing development and enhancement of library's web presence. The incumbent also provides Research and Reference services to library users (physicians, nurses, researchers, medical students, patients and their family members, and non-medical MGH staff) and to hospital committees or special interest groups within the wider MGH community. The incumbent serves as a member of the Treadwell Library Teaching Team.

Papers and Presentations from EPUB 2009—Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies

Papers and presentations from EPUB 2009—Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies are now available.

Here's a quick selection of papers:

Interoperable Repositories Infrastructure Project

Alma Swan has announced that, as a result of a DRIVER/JISC/SURF March workshop, plans for improving interoperability between repositories are being developed by the Interoperable Repositories Infrastructure Project in four areas: citation services, interoperable identification systems, repository handshaking (interoperable deposit systems), and repository organization (supporting repositories around the world).

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Since the workshop, teams have taken the discussions forward and are developing action plans and project proposals for each topic. Here is an update:

  1. The CITATION SERVICES team now have a draft project proposal available for community review. Please take a look at it give your comments. It is on the project wiki here: http://repinf.pbworks.com/Citation-Services-draft-project-proposal
  2. The wiki also provides an update on all four plans: the team leaders made short presentations on developments at the OAI6 conference last week and their Powerpoint files are on the wiki, along with an Update document summarising the progress and future timelines. Here are the links: Update: http://repinf.pbworks.com/Update-June-09 Powerpoints: links from the front page: http://repinf.pbworks.com/
  3. Finally, the wiki provides extensive background information on repositories in the form of Briefing Materials under a number of headings. These are presented in both text and map form on the wiki, accessible from the links on the wiki front page here: http://repinf.pbworks.com/.

University of Kansas Becomes First U.S. Public University to Pass University-Wide Open Access Policy

The University of Kansas has become the first U.S. public university to pass a university-wide open access policy. (Thanks to Open Access News.)

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Under the new faculty-initiated policy approved by Chancellor Robert Hemenway, digital copies of all articles produced by the university’s professors will be housed in KU ScholarWorks, an existing digital repository for scholarly work created by KU faculty and staff in 2005. KU ScholarWorks houses more than 4,400 articles submitted in digital formats that assure their long-term preservation.

Professors will be allowed to seek a waiver but otherwise will be asked to provide electronic forms of all articles to the repository. KU’s Faculty Senate overwhelmingly endorsed the policy at a meeting earlier this year, but additional policy details, including the waiver process, will be developed by a senate task force in the coming academic year, said Faculty Senate President Lisa Wolf-Wendel, professor of education leadership and policy studies. The task force will be led by Ada Emmett, associate librarian for scholarly communications.

"Academic publishing has become increasingly commercial and unavailable to other scholars, or to the general public, in recent years," said A. Townsend Peterson, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at KU. " This new policy offers a voluntary means of opening doors to much of KU's journal-based scholarship. This policy represents a first step towards a new means of scholarly communication, in which the entire global academic community has access to the totality of scholarship. We all can participate in the scholarly exchange that leads to new knowledge creation."

Peterson said open access policies such as KU's will bring greater visibility to the authors' work and will showcase the breadth and depth of the faculty's contributions to academic research and to the university's mission.

"Granting the university the right to deposit a copy of scholarly journal articles in an open digital repository extends the reach of the scholarship, providing the widest possible audience and increasing its possible impact," said Lorraine J. Haricombe, dean of libraries.

U.S. Dept. of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences Has Adopted Open Access Policy

In "Institute of Education Sciences Has an Open Access Policy," Stuart Shieber reports that the U.S Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences has an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from a recent EIES grant announcement, which was listed in the Federal Register on March 23, 2009:

Recipients of awards are expected to publish or otherwise make publicly available the results of the work supported through this program. Institute-funded investigators should submit final, peer-reviewed manuscripts resulting from research supported in whole or in part by the Institute to the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC, http://eric.ed.gov) upon acceptance for publication. An author's final manuscript is defined as the final version accepted for journal publication, and includes all graphics and supplemental materials that are associated with the article. The Institute will make the manuscript available to the public through ERIC no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring that any publishing or copyright agreements concerning submitted articles fully comply with this requirement.

Open Access Bill: Senators Cornyn and Lieberman Re-Introduce Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA)

U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) re-introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) today. (Thanks to Open Access News.)

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Their legislation, the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), would require every federal department and agency with an annual extramural research budget of $100 million or more to make their research available to the public within six months of publication.

"Our legislation would give the American people greater access to the important scientific research they help fund, which will accelerate scientific discovery and innovation, while also making sure that funding is being spent appropriately to ensure taxpayers are receiving a return on their research investments and they are not having to pay twice for the same research – once to conduct it, and a second time to read it. I will continue to advocate for greater transparency measures across all of our governmental departments and agencies, and I urge our Senate colleagues to support this legislation," said Sen. Cornyn.

"The United States has some of the best and brightest researchers," said Lieberman. "I continue to be impressed by their ideas and feel strongly that the American public should have access to what they discover. The internet makes it possible to provide public access to federally funded research and I am pleased to lead the effort to make this information more accessible."

Background:

Sens. Cornyn and Lieberman first introduced this legislation in the 109th Congress. In 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented their public access policy. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 papers are published each year from NIH funds.

  • Require every researcher with an annual extramural research budget of $100 million or more, whether funded totally or partially by a government department or agency, to submit an electronic copy of the final manuscript that has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
  • Ensure that the manuscript is preserved in a stable digital repository maintained by that agency or in another suitable repository that permits free public access, interoperability, and long-term preservation.
  • Require that each taxpayer-funded manuscript be made available to the public online and without cost, no later than six months after the article has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

See also "Taxpayer Alliance Applauds Bill to Broaden Access to Federal Research Results."

Planning and Managing the Digitization of Library and Archive Materials: A Multi-Model Approach Presentation

John Weaver et al. have made their "Planning and Managing the Digitization of Library and Archive Materials: A Multi-Model Approach" presentation available on SlideShare.

Here's an excerpt from the transcript:

This workshop will enable you to:

  • Identify different models and methods for digitizing library and archival materials
  • Identify the relative advantages and disadvantages of these models
  • Define and evaluate a potential digitization project at your library
  • Identify key considerations in planning and funding a digitization project
  • Identify and develop management and production processes for different types of digitization projects
  • Discover additional, relevant resources for planning and managing digitization projects

Library IT Jobs: Information Technology Director at Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library is recruiting an Information Technology Director.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Information Technology Director reports to the City Librarian and plays a lead role in developing and maintaining a leading-edge technology infrastructure to ensure the success of the Library's vision and strategies. The Information Technology Director leads and participates in short-term and long-range strategic planning with the Library Leadership Team to address current and emerging service needs and develops, recommends and implements effective technological responses to those needs. The Information Technology Director directs, supervises and evaluates the activities and performance of Information Technology Division staff and vendor, project or consultant staff assigned to information technology projects or activities.

Australian National Data Service Launches Two Research Data Services

The Australian National Data Service has launched two research data services: Identify My Data and Register My Data.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Register My Data services allow you to register descriptions of your research data. These descriptions are then published in a number of discovery environments. The first of these is the Research Data Australia gateway (to be launched by ANDS in July) which aspires to include any Australian publicly funded data relevant to research and enable innovative cross-disciplinary re-use. Data descriptions registered with ANDS are also fed into other data discovery portals in Australia and internationally, including the big search engines such as Google. The Identify My Data services allocate persistent identifiers to data. These identifiers enable continuity of access even when the location of the data on the internet changes.

The Internet in Britain 2009

The Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford has released The Internet in Britain 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

One of the main challenges in creating a Digital Britain will be to change the perceptions of the third of the British population who choose not to use the internet, according to the latest in a series of Oxford University Surveys.

The Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) 2009, published on 22 June 2009, shows that while most British internet users (84%) are extremely confident about using new technology and see the Internet as central to many activities, over half of non-users of the internet (57%) now distrust new technology more than they did before.

The survey, conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute, questioned 2000 people in 2009 and found that cost, a lack of access and a lack of interest were the main reasons that led to people deciding to stop using the Internet. OxIS 2009 provides a detailed breakdown of where the digital divide lies: twice as many people from higher than lower socio-economic groups use the Internet. Age too has a dramatic impact on digital choices with the proportion of Internet users between 25-54 increasing considerably since 2003, but not changing significantly for other age groups. The proportion of retired people going online has inched forward from 30% in 2005 to 34% in 2009. However, the gap between male and female users has nearly closed with 71% of men and 68% women now using the Internet; gaps in self-confidence between men and women, however, remain. 100% of students and 88% of households with children said they had access to the Internet.

OxIS 2009 concludes that the Internet is a valuable resource for people to find information, communicate with others, and find entertainment 'in ways that could well give advantages to them over those who choose not to use the Internet'. The 'Digital Britain Report' (published by the UK Government on 16 June 2009) contains pledges to provide universal access to a broadband connection, but according to OxIS Principal Investigator, Professor William Dutton, the heart of the matter is about persuading those who choose to exclude themselves. . . .

While users opt for the Internet as their most trusted medium, non-users or people who have stopped said they trusted television and radio the most. Non-users were most concerned about the negative aspects of online communication, with 86% agreeing that people can find personal information too easily online, as compared with only half of users. Over two-thirds (68%) of non-users said that there was too much immoral material online and nearly three quarters (71%) of non-users wanted greater government regulation of the Internet, as compared with 57% of users.

See also "Digital Britain: The Final Report."

Omeka Image Annotation Plugin 1.0 Beta

The Center for History and New Media, George Mason University has released the Image Annotation Plugin 1.0 beta for Omeka.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Have you ever wanted to annotate your images on Omeka like you can on Flickr?

Now you can with the beta release of Omeka's Image Annotation plugin! Using an adaptation of Chris Woods' jQuery plugin, jquery-image-annotate, Omeka's new Image Annotation plugin allows users to add textual annotations to images. To add an image annotation, users select a region of the image and then attach a textual description.

Arizona’s SIRLS Gets $900,000+ IMLS Grant for Online Digital Information Management Graduate Certificate Program

The University of Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science has received a grant of over $900,000 from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services for its Digital Information Management (DigIn) online graduate certificate program. The grant will primarily be used to fund scholarships.

Here's the press release:

The DigIn curriculum combines intensive, hands-on technology learning with a thorough grounding in the theoretical principles needed to manage large and complex digital collections.

The program takes a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to managing digital information and is designed to support a wide range of career paths, especially involving libraries, museums, archives, and records management.

Graduate certificates are increasingly being recognized as a means for professionals with advanced degrees to update their knowledge and skills. DigIn also offers a path for those with undergraduate degrees who are interested in digital collections but who may not yet be ready to commit to a full degree program.

The grant will also greatly boost DigIn's mission to foster disciplinary, institutional, geographic, and cultural diversity in the management of digital collections and services.

Thus, DigIn strongly encourages scholarship applicants representing historically underserved institutions, regions, and communities, as well as students expressing interest in working with digital collections in culturally diverse settings.

DigIn is now accepting applications for admission and financial aid for the Fall 2009 semester. The application deadline has just been extended to July 10.

Late applications will be accepted, though Fall admission cannot be guaranteed once the July 10 deadline has passed. Late applicants will also be considered for admission in the Spring 2010 semester.

The program is delivered entirely online and does not require students to reside in or travel to Tucson. Students generally complete the certificate in 4-6 semesters (15-27 months).

DigIn was founded in 2007 with major funding from Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary source of federal support for the nation?s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.

Our current partners also include the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Sedona Conference.

Additional details on the program including course descriptions, admissions requirements and application forms may be found on the program website:

digin.arizona.edu

Prospective applicants are also welcome to contact the DigIn staff at:

digin@email.arizona.edu

Read more about it at "SIRLS Earns Federal Grant to Train More Tech Savvy Librarians ."

SWORD PHP Library Version 0.7

Stuart Lewis has released the SWORD PHP Library Version 0.7.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This latest version adds two new features:

  • When performing a deposit, the client now sets the 'Content-Disposition:filename' header so that the SWORD server knows what to name the file. . . .
  • When performing a deposit, the optional X-No-Op (pretend to perform the deposit) and X-Verbose (provide a verbose response) headers can now be sent (as per http://www.swordapp.org/docs/sword-profile-1.3.html#b.9.2)

Leslie Carr Identifies “Hard Working” UK and U.S. Digital Repositories

Leslie Carr has identified the top 10 "hard working" UK and U.S. digital repositories based on "the number of days deposit activity that they achieved in the last year according to ROAR."

The number one U.S. repository was the RIT Digital Media Library and the number one UK repository was the University of Kent.

Read more about it at "Hard Working Repositories" and "Hardworking Repositories: Comparing UK & US."