Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the American Physical Society Agree on Open Access Arrangements

The Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the American Physical Society have come to an agreement about how to implement Harvard's open access policies for articles published by Harvard authors.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

As a result of the new agreement, APS recognizes Harvard's open access license and will not require copyright agreement addenda or waivers, in exchange for Harvard's clarification of its intended use of the license. In general terms, in exercising its license under the open access policies, Harvard will not use a facsimile of the published version without permission of the publisher, will not charge for the display or distribution of those articles, and will provide an online link to the publisher's definitive version of the articles where possible. The agreement does not restrict fair use of the articles in any way.

According to Professor Bertrand I. Halperin, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the Harvard Physics Department and Chair of the 2008 Publications Oversight Committee of the American Physical Society, "Harvard’s open access legislation was always consistent in spirit with the aims of the APS publication policies, but there were differences in detail that would have required faculty members to request a waiver for every article published in an APS journal. It is a credit both to Harvard and to APS that these differences have been worked out. Since APS journals include, arguably, the most important journals in the field of physics, the fact that faculty will now be able to continue publishing in APS journals without seeking a waiver from Harvard’s policies will strengthen both Harvard and the goal of promoting open access to scholarly publications worldwide."

Library IT Jobs: Library Technology Services Leader at North Carolina State

The North Carolina State University Libraries are recruiting a Library Technology Services Leader.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Library Technology Services Leader provides direction for the library's technology service program, including customer service, technology planning, and resource administration. She or he supervises five IT staff members and manages a program supporting a full range of library IT services including cross-platform desktop hardware and software, network services, multimedia technologies, IT training, and small- to medium-scale application development of library technologies. The incumbent develops and implements customer service agreements with library departments. She or he works closely with the staff of the Learning Commons and the campus Office of Information Technology on development and management of patron computing services throughout the Libraries. Position responsibilities include researching leading edge technologies and service innovations and integrating them into the library environment. The incumbent participates in library planning and serves on library-wide committees, task forces, and teams. NCSU librarians are expected to be active professionally and to contribute to developments in the field. Reports to the Head of Information Technology.

Digital Library Jobs: Scholarly Communication Librarian at Wake Forest

Wake Forest University's Z. Smith Reynolds Library is recruiting a Scholarly Communication Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad (choose "Click here to browse staff employment opportunities," "Search Postings," select "Librarian, Scholarly Communication" under "Job Title"):

Leads the Z. Smith Reynolds Library's Scholarly Communication initiative including outreach to faculty, administration of the University institutional repository, and oversight of issues relating to intellectual property rights and academic publishing. Provides user instruction for students, faculty, and University community. Serves as the library liaison and subject specialist for departments as needed. This is a twelve month position, with Library Faculty status and rank, reporting to the Head, Research, Instruction and Technology Services.

R&DTV: BBC Offers Digital Video Program Under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License

The BBC is offering a new digital video program called R&DTV under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 Generic license

Here's an excerpt from the post:

We expect most people will just enjoy watching the videos, but if you want to explore or see footage which didn't make it into the cut for what ever reason, the asset bundle is your friend. The clips are mostly uncut & straight from our cameras and although this may be too much for most people, it makes great footage for those who want to remix and mashup our interviews with their own or others.

Read more about it at "BBC Airs, Releases Program under Creative Commons License."

Abby Smith Named Director of Virginia’s Scholarly Communication Institute

Abby Smith has been named the Director of the University of Virginia Library’s Scholarly Communication Institute

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, and Diane Parr Walker, Deputy University Librarian at the University of Virginia Library and Co-Principal Investigators of the Scholarly Communication Institute (SCI), announced today that Richard E. Lucier will step down as director of SCI, and that Abby Smith, currently senior advisor to SCI, will become Director, effective April 10, 2009. Bethany Nowviskie, currently SCI program associate, will become Associate Director.

Richard Lucier founded the Institute in 2003, together with Deanna Marcum, and under his leadership, SCI has worked to advance scholarly communication through annual summer Institutes and working with and advising Institute participants throughout the year. Lucier has actively advised SCI participants in the development of EthicShare, the Architecture Visual Resources Network (recently launched as SAHARA), and the Online Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. . . .

Abby Smith is a historian and consulting analyst with special interest in the creation, preservation, and use of the cultural record in a variety of media; the impact of digital information technologies on cultural heritage institutions; and the evolving role of information as a public good. Formerly director of programs at the Council on Library and Information Resources, she has been with the Institute since its inception, and served as senior advisor since 2006: "I look forward to leading the Scholarly Communication Institute at this promising juncture in the evolution of the humanities, when scholars are embracing new technologies in imaginative ways to advance research and share it more broadly. Richard has set a clear course for SCI, focused on collaborative actions that serve scholarship broadly and change not just the work we do, but, just as importantly, the way that we work."

In addition to her role as associate director of SCI, Bethany Nowviskie is Director of Digital Research & Scholarship at the University of Virginia Library. She holds a doctoral degree in English from the University of Virginia and has taught courses in literature, bibliography, and new media aesthetics and design. Nowviskie has been active in the digital humanities since 1995.

National Academies Makes Over 9,000 Reports Freely Available on Google Book Search

The National Academies have made over 9,000 Reports freely available on Google Book Search.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The National Academies today announced the completion of the first phase of a partnership with Google to digitize the library's collection of reports from 1863 to 1997, making them available—free, searchable, and in full text—through Google Book Search. The Academies plan to have their entire collection of nearly 11,000 reports digitized by 2011. . . .

Prior to this project, the Academies digitized more than 4,000 books and made them available online through the National Academies Press; most of those can also be found in Google Book Search. However, researchers who needed to gain access to hard copies of older reports, part of a legacy collection in the library, could not always find what they wanted. Many of these reports exist as single copies, and the library feared potential damage or loss of this important collection. These older reports have been digitized and are now accessible through Google. In addition, the "digitizing of these materials will add another dimension to the preservation of our reports," said Harriston. The Academies hope that wider availability of its reports will be of use to scientists in developing countries, who often rely on the Internet to gather information.

Library IT Jobs: Director of Resource Services/Information Technology at Boston Public

Boston Public Library is recruiting a Director of Resource Services/Information Technology.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The Director reports to the Library President and is a member of the Library's Administrative Council. This position provides direction, oversight and management of the IT Division. A total of 14 FTE library staff work in the Division. The Director is responsible for the effective and efficient delivery of library services to the residents of Boston consistent with the Library's mission, goals, and services priorities. The Director will direct and oversee the implementation of the Library's technology plan and will participate in the development of the Library's long-term strategic planning initiative. The Director will foster a public service environment where the Central Library and branch libraries are true partners in delivery of online services to library users, as well as harness technology and staff creativity to deliver information services when and where the customer wants them. Other responsibilities include establishing performance benchmarks for projects and staff with a focus on employee engagement, fostering a positive work environment and developing operational efficiencies.

OCLC Research Releases Data Exchange Software for Museums

With support from a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, OCLC Research has released data exchange software for museums.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

COBOAT software is now available under a fee-free license for the purpose of publishing a CDWA Lite repository of collections information. It is a metadata publishing tool developed by Cognitive Applications Inc. (Cogapp) that transfers information between databases (such as collections management systems) and different formats. As configured for this project, COBOAT allows museums to extract standards-based records in the Categories for the Descriptions of Works of Art (CDWA) Lite XML data format out of Gallery Systems TMS, a leading collection management system in the museum industry. Configuration files allow COBOAT to be adjusted for extraction from different vendor-based or homegrown database systems, or locally divergent implementations of the same collections management systems.

OAICat Museum 1.0, an Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) data content provider supporting CDWA Lite XML, is also available. It allows museums to share the data extracted with COBOAT using OAI-PMH.

“Self-Archiving Journal Articles: A Case Study of Faculty Practice and Missed Opportunity”

Denise Troll Covey has published "Self-Archiving Journal Articles: A Case Study of Faculty Practice and Missed Opportunity" in the latest issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy (restricted access journal).

Here's the abstract:

Carnegie Mellon faculty Web pages and publisher policies were examined to understand self-archiving practice. The breadth of adoption and depth of commitment are not directly correlated within the disciplines. Determining when self-archiving has become a habit is difficult. The opportunity to self-archive far exceeds the practice, and much of what is self-archived is not aligned with publisher policy. Policy appears to influence neither the decision to self-archive nor the article version that is self-archived. Because of the potential legal ramifications, faculty must be convinced that copyright law and publisher policy are important and persuaded to act on that conviction.

Covey previously self-archived "Faculty Self-Archiving Practices: A Case Study" in Carnegie Mellon's Research Showcase.

Here's the abstract:

Faculty web pages were examined to learn about self-archiving practice at Carnegie Mellon. More faculty are self-archiving their work and more work is being self-archived than expected. However, the distribution of self-archiving activity across the disciplines is not as expected. More faculty self-archive journal articles than other publications, but more conference papers are self-archived than journal articles. Many faculty who self-archive have self-archived fewer than ten publications. A small number of faculty has self-archived most of the work that is available open access from faculty web pages. Significant differences in faculty behavior within departments cannot be explained by disciplinary culture.

“Copyright’s Hidden Assumption: A Critical Analysis of the Foundations of Descendible Copyright”

Deven R. Desai of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law has made "Copyright's Hidden Assumption: A Critical Analysis of the Foundations of Descendible Copyright" available on SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Copyright operates under a hidden, erroneous assumption: heirs matter in copyright. This Article examines the possible historical and theoretical bases for the heirs assumption and finds that neither supports it. In short, the assumption is a myth that harms copyright policy and ignores a less obvious, but quite important, heir: society in general. An examination of the historical debates shows that the idea of providing for heirs through copyright has played a minor role in U.S. copyright history. Instead, heirs have been props to advance an agenda of furthering term extensions, advancing rent-seeking opportunities, and allowing authors to exert power against publishers. In addition, although copyright policy makers point to Europe and the Berne Convention as a key source for the heirs assumption, European debates that serve as the basis for the Berne Convention offer surprising and almost prescient sensitivity to ideas that are found today in the access to knowledge movement. One figure in particular, Victor Hugo, made an impassioned speech arguing that literary property protection must be operate as a way to found the public domain and asserting that when choosing between authors' rights and the public domain, the public domain must win.

“Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform”

Pamela Samuelson and Tara Wheatland, both of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, have made "Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform" available on SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work. This provision gives scant guidance about where in that range awards should be made, other than to say that the award should be in amount the court "considers just," and that the upper end of the spectrum, from $30,000 to $150,000 per infringed work, is reserved for awards against "willful" infringers. Courts have largely failed to develop a jurisprudence to guide decision-making about compensatory statutory damage awards in ordinary infringement cases or about strong deterrent or punitive damage awards in willful infringement cases. As a result, awards of statutory damages are frequently arbitrary, inconsistent, unprincipled, and sometimes grossly excessive.

This Article argues that such awards are not only inconsistent with Congressional intent in establishing the statutory damage regime, but also with principles of due process articulated in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on punitive damage awards. Drawing upon some cases in which statutory damage awards have been consistent with Congressional intent and with the due process jurisprudence, this Article articulates principles upon which a sound jurisprudence for copyright statutory damage awards could be built. Nevertheless, legislative reform of the U.S. statutory damage rules may be desirable.

Digital Video on Northwestern’s Mounting Books Project

The Northwestern University Library has made a digital video available about their Mounting Books Project.

Here's an excerpt from the abstract of a presentation on the project that will be given at Open Repositories 2009:

The Northwestern University Library undertook a software development project to create an automated workflow to enable files from its Kirtas book scanner to be both linked to the OPAC with a page viewer application, and ingested into its Fedora repository as archivally sustainable and reusable digital objects. The web-based Book Workflow Interface (BWI) software utilizes jBPM for management and web services for key creation components. It also features an AJAX interface to support drag-and-drop creation and editing of METS-based book structures. The BWI system ingests locally scanned texts as well as texts digitized by external partners or vendors.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (4/8/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available, which 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: "Case Study in Data Curation at Johns Hopkins University"; "E-Print Depositing Behavior of Physicists and Astronomers: An Intradisciplinary Study"; "A Field Guide to Misunderstandings about Open Access"; "Innkeeper at the Roach Motel"; "'The Law Is the True Embodiment of Everything That's Excellent': Mandates—A View from the United States: Based on a Presentation Given at the UKSG Seminar 'Mandating and the Scholarly Journal Article: Attracting Interest on Deposits?', London, 29 October 2008"; "Learned Societies and Open Access: Key Results from Surveys of Bioscience Societies and Researchers"; "Leveraging Short-Term Opportunities to Address Long-Term Obligations: A Perspective on Institutional Repositories and Digital Preservation Programs"; "Library Access to Scholarship: The Death of Journals (Film at 11)"; "Perceptions and Experiences of Staff in the Planning and Implementation of Institutional Repositories"; "Scholarly Journal Information-Seeking and Reading Patterns of Faculty at Five US Universities"; "Scientific Journal Publishing: Yearly Volume and Open Access Availability"; and "Signs of Epistemic Disruption: Transformations in the Knowledge System of the Academic Journal."

France’s “Three-Strikes” Copyright Bill Strikes Out

The French National Assembly has rejected a copyright bill aimed at curbing illegal file sharing on the Internet. Violators would have received two warning letters, then be subject to Internet disconnection for up to a year. The fight is not over: a revised bill is anticipated in a few weeks.

Read more about it at: "France Rejects 3 Strikes Anti-Piracy Law," "France Rejects Plan to Curb Internet Piracy," and "French Lawmakers Reject Internet Piracy Bill."

Center for Research Libraries to Assess and Certify Portico and HathiTrust

The Center for Research Libraries will conduct detailed assessments of Portico and HathiTrust with the objective of certifying them as trustworthy digital repositories.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Portico has agreed to cooperate with the CRL audit, with the goal of certification as a trustworthy digital repository. HathiTrust has asked CRL to assess its digital repository, which includes not only Google Books digitization content but a considerable amount of non-Google content as well.

Concurrently CRL is working with LOCKSS to assess the capabilities of the LOCKSS system for harvesting and archiving digitized primary source materials and related metadata. CRL is also gathering information about regional efforts to host licensed digital content locally. . . .

The general metrics to be used in the assessments will be the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification checklist (TRAC).  CRL has formed a panel of advisors who represent the various sectors of its membership, to further inform the assessment process.  The Certification Advisory Panel will ensure that the certification process addresses the interests of the entire CRL community, and will include leaders in collection development, preservation, and information technology.

Open Publication Distribution System Draft Released

Bill McCoy, General Manager of ePublishing Business at Adobe Systems, has announced the release of a draft version of the Open Publication Distribution System.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Stanza, the leading iPhone eBook software, includes an excellent online catalog system that enables users to seamlessly acquire free and commercial content from within the application. The Lexcycle team built this system in an open, extensible manner using Atom. Adobe and Lexcycle have been working together on Adobe PDF and EPUB eBook support, and now we are deepening that collaboration in working together, along with the Internet Archive and others, to establish an open architecture enabling widespread discovery, description, and access of book and other published material on the open web. The Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) is a generalization of the Atom approach used by Stanza's online catalog. I'm grateful to the Lexcycle team as well as my friend and colleague Peter Brantley for their efforts on behalf of open access and interoperability.

Read more about it at “Adobe Teams Up With Stanza to Create Open EBook Catalog Standard.”

“Aligning METS with the OAI-ORE Data Model”

Jerome P. McDonough has made "Aligning METS with the OAI-ORE Data Model" available in IDEALS.

Here's an excerpt:

(OAI-ORE) specifications provide a flexible set of mechanisms for transferring complex data objects between different systems. In order to serve as an exchange syntax, OAI-ORE must be able to support the import of information from localized data structures serving various communities of practice. In this paper, we examine the Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS) and the issues that arise when trying to map from a localized structural metadata schema into the OAI-ORE data model and serialization syntaxes.

Columbia’s Center for Digital Research and Scholarship Launches Harm Reduction Journal Companion Site for Supplemental Materials

The Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia University Libraries/Information Services has launched a companion site for the Harm Reduction Journal, an open access published by BioMed Central.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Professor Drucker partnered with CDRS to build a site that would allow HRJ authors, editors, and readers to share supplemental materials—such as datasets, commentaries, and translations—and respond to newer articles published on the journal's dot com home. The new dot org site accomplishes this by transforming every article published on HRJ dot com into its own blog. HRJ dot org also provides a forum for announcements, links, and discussion on harm reduction trends and efforts. "This approach enables HRJ to take full advantage of the rapid publication, secure and authoritative archiving, and the powerful dissemination and reach inherent in the medium of open access publishing, while simultaneously creating an open space for 'the long tail' of post-publication possibilities that make internet publications living documents," explained Professor Drucker.

BioMed Central's Director of Journal Publishing, Sarah Cooney, elaborated, "The open-access platform ensures the swift and unrestricted communication of scientific information to researchers. This new companion site will prove hugely significant for encouraging future advances and lead to an increased level of data sharing within the scientific community." CDRS Director Rebecca Kennison noted, "This new site demonstrates in very practical terms the possibilities inherent in open-access publications, which in addition to free access also allow for creative reuse of articles, such as we actively encourage on this companion site."

Forthcoming: Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry

Oxford University Press will publish Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry, a noted copyright expert and Senior Copyright Counsel at Google.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

The way we have come to talk about copyright—metaphoric language demonizing everyone involved—has led to bad business and bad policy decisions. Unless we recognize that the debates over copyright are debates over business models, we will never be able to make the correct business and policy decisions

Reading Rights Coalition Protests Kindle Read Aloud Limits at Authors Guild

The Reading Rights Coalition has staged a protest demonstration at the Authors Guild's headquarters about Amazon giving author's and publishers the ability to restrict the Kindle's read aloud function for their works.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader on February 9, 2009, the company announced that the device would be able to read e-books aloud using text-to-speech technology. Under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The blind and print-disabled have for years utilized text-to-speech technology to read and access information. As technology advances and more books move from hard-copy print to electronic formats, people with print disabilities have for the first time in history the opportunity to enjoy access to books on an equal basis with those who can read print. Authors and publishers who elect to disable text-to-speech for their e-books on the Kindle 2 prevent people who are blind or have other print disabilities from reading these e-books. This is blatant discrimination and we will not tolerate it." . . .

Andrew Imparato, President and Chief Executive Officer for the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), said: "It is outrageous when a technology device shuts out people with all kinds of disabilities. AAPD works to remove barriers to accessibility and usability in technology, and we don’t expect to see people with disabilities singled out by having to pay more for access. New technologies, such as electronic books, should be available to everyone regardless of disability." . . .

The coalition includes: American Association of People with Disabilities, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, Association on Higher Education and Disability, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Burton Blatt Institute, Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), IDEAL Group, Inc., International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, International Dyslexia Association, International Dyslexia Association––New York Branch, Knowledge Ecology International, Learning Disabilities Association of America, National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Disability Rights Network, National Federation of the Blind, NISH, and the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. In addition to the April 7 New York City protest, the coalition will participate in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 25-26.

Read more about it at "Disabled Group Protests Removal of Kindle's Text-to-Speech."