NEWS FROM OTHER JOURNALS
SEPTEMBER 2007 ISSUE
Editorial note:
This section contains items culled from various Internet news services, discussion lists and other announcements. Unless specifically noted, I have not visited the sites, used any of the software, reviewed the literature, or written the news items. I present this digest to you in good faith but cannot vouch for the accuracy of its content.
Kerry Smith
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Issue 51
Public-Access
Computer Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Richard
Waller [r.waller@UKOLN.AC.UK]
Thu
17/05/2007 4:30 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU Re: Spring Issue of Ariadne now
available
Issue 51 of Ariadne contains
the following articles:
Main Articles
*The W3C Technical
Architecture Group
- Henry S. Thompson
introduces the W3C Technical Architecture Group and its work.
*Supporting Creativity in
Networked Environments: The COINE Project
- Geoff Butters, Amanda
Hulme and Peter Brophy describe an approach to enabling a wide range of users
to create and share their own stories, thus contributing to the development of
cultural heritage at the local level.
*ARROW, DART and ARCHER: A
Quiver Full of Research Repository and Related Projects
- Andrew Treloar and David
Groenewegen describe three inter-related projects to support scholarly outputs
and the e-research life cycle which have been funded by the Australian
Commonwealth Government.
*Developing a Virtual
Research Environment in a Portal Framework:
The EVIE Project
- Tracey Stanley provides an
overview of the EVIE Project at the
*Using Blogs for Formative
Assessment and Interactive Teaching
- Lisa Foggo provides a
case-study of using a blog for formative assessment. Its interactivity engaged
participants and permitted measurement of student expectations and satisfaction
with library sessions.
*Search Engines: Why Ask Me,
and Does 'X' Mark the Spot?
- Phil Bradley takes a look
at different versions of Ask to see how it is developing and looks at how it is
emerging from its servant roots.
*Citeulike: A Researcher's
Social Bookmarking Service
- Kevin Emamy and Richard
Cameron describe a tool which assists researchers gather, collect and share
papers.
*Get Tooled Up: Towards
Virtualisation: A New Approach in
Server Management
- Eddie Young provides an
account of trials and implementations carried out here after Matt Thrower gives
us the background and benefits of employing virtualisation.
*Get Tooled Up: Hold It,
Hold It ... Start Again: The Perils of Project Video Production
- It's not like writing a
paper. Film production, when the camera points at you, can challenge all sorts
of sensitivities. Steve Hitchcock survived the ordeal to tell the story of the
Preserv Project video.
*OpenID: Decentralised
Single Sign-on for the Web
- Andy Powell and David
Recordon take a brief look at OpenID and ask what relevance it has to
e-learning.
At the Event
*The JISC Annual Conference
2007
- Philip Pothen and
colleagues provide an overview of the proceedings of this Spring's JISC Annual
Conference.
*What Is an Open Repository?
- Julie Allinson, Jessie
Hey, Chris Awre and Mahendra Mahey report on the Open Repositories 2007
conference, held in
*KIM Project Conference:
Knowledge and Information Management Through Life
- Alex Ball provides an
overview of the March 2007 KIM Project Conference.
Ariadne Reviews
*E-learning and Disability
in Higher Education
- Simon Ball reviews a
comprehensive discussion of e-learning and accessibility that gives support and
guidance to effect good practice from individual to institutional level.
*Teaching Web Search Skills
- Verity Brack takes a look
at this book for Web trainers, teachers and instructors.
*Digital Literacies for
Learning
- Peter Cliff reviews a work
that challenges traditional notions of literacy and how suggests that new
literacies need to be developed to empower both learners and teachers in the
digital age.
*Information Architecture
for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-scale Web Sites
- Keith Doyle reviews the
3rd edition of the primary reference book for practising in-house staff and
consultants responsible for the development of institutional information
architecture.
*Blogging and RSS: A
Librarian's Guide
- Kara Jones reviews a
practical guide to blogs and RSS written for librarians, packed with
library-specific examples.
See: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/
Plus News and Events from
the Ariadne Newsline
Contributions to Ariadne
issue 52 are being arranged and prepared; please send proposals for articles to
me at our regular contact point:
ariadne@ukoln.ac.uk
Kindly send books and ideas
for review to the Editor's address (below).
Best regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Public-Access Computer Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Richard Waller [lisrw@UKOLN.AC.UK]
Fri 24/08/2007
10:56 PM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Issue 52 of Ariadne contains
the following articles:
Main Articles
*DRIVER: Seven Items on a
European Agenda for Digital Repositories
- Maurits van der Graaf
provides results and conclusions from the DRIVER inventory study.
*ARROW and the RQF: Meeting
the Needs of the Research Quality Framework Using an Institutional Research
Repository
- David Groenewegen and
Andrew Treloar describe the role of repositories in the forthcoming Australian
Research Quality Framework (RQF) and the responses of the ARROW Project to the
needs of the RQF.
*Access to Scientific
Knowledge for Sustainable Development:
Options for Developing
Countries
- Barbara Kirsop, Leslie
Chan and Subbiah Arunachalam consider the impact of donor access and open
access to research publications on the sustainable development of science in
developing countries.
*The SPP Alerting Portlet:
Delivering Personalised Updates
- Virginia Knight describes
the open-source alerting portlet which has been developed as part of the SPP
Subject Portals Project (SPP) and the results of user feedback.
*Repository Thrills and
Spills
- Sue Manuel and Charles Oppenheim take a look at recent
developments in the digital repositories field and present a light-hearted
project narrative.
*Institutional Repositories
and Their 'Other' Users:
Usability Beyond Authors
- Dana McKay summarises the
literature on the usability of institutional repositories, and points to
directions for future work.
*24 Hour Museum: From Past
to Future
- As 24
*Web Archiving at the
British Library:
Trials with the Web Curator
Tool
- Jackson Pope and Philip
Beresford report on progress at The British Library in installing and
performance testing the Web Curator Tool.
*EThOSnet: Building a
- Jill Russell outlines
progress towards an e-theses service for the
*
- Iain Wallace, Graeme West
and David Donald give an account of the origins, nature and establishment of
Spoken Word Services at
At the Event
*IWMW 2007: Next Steps for
the Web Management Community
- Shirley Keane reports on
the wide range of presentations given at this year's Institutional Web
Management Workshop.
*Repositories Support
Project Summer School
- Jackie Knowles reports on
the RSP Summer School, a 48-hour intensive learning programme for new institutional
repository administrators, organised by the Repositories Support Project Team.
*JASIG June 2007 Conference
- Ian Dolphin and Robert
Sherratt report on the JASIG Conference, which took place in
*ALPSP Conference
- Kara Jones reports on the
ALPSP 'Publishing and the Library of the Future' one-day seminar held at St
Anthony's College,
*Digital Repositories:
Dealing with the Digital Deluge
- Pete Cliff gives an
overall view of the multi-stranded JISC conference held in
*Blogging from the Backroom
Ann Chapman reports on a
seminar on blogging, designed for those working in the traditional 'backroom'
professions such as cataloguing and indexing, held by the CILIP Cataloguing and
Indexing Group in
*Eduserv Foundation
Symposium 2007:
Virtual Worlds, Real
Learning?
- Paul Walk reports on the
Eduserv Foundation Symposium which took as its theme 'Virtual Worlds, Real
Learning?' and which was primarily concerned with educational uses for Second
Life.
Ariadne Reviews
*The
- John MacColl reviews the
first two volumes of this very substantial three-part work, covering the
periods to 1640 and 1640-1850.
*Change Management in
Information Services
- Ian Lovecy examines change
theories and strategies, and their application to creating a change culture in
an information service.
*Managing Technical People
- Lina Coelho expected a
book that would challenge her technical knowledge and understanding but found a
readable and useful guide for the time-pressed manager.
See: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/
Plus News and Events from
the Ariadne Newsline
Contributions to Ariadne
issue 53 are being arranged and prepared; please send proposals for articles to
me at our regular contact point:
ariadne@ukoln.ac.uk
Kindly send books and ideas
for review to the Editor's address (below).
Best regards,
--
Richard Waller
Editor Ariadne
UKOLN
The Library
Bath BA2 7AY
tel +44 (0) 1225 383570
fax +44 (0) 1225 386838
email ariadne@ukoln.ac.uk
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The Australian Library Journal
Special Issue on INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR -
call for papers
isef-bounces@listserv.csu.edu.au; on behalf of; Professor Amanda Spink [ah.spink@qut.edu.au] Fri 10/08/2007 11:12 AM
[Isef] CFP: Australian Library Journal - Information Behaviour
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Australian Library
Journal - Special Issue on INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR
Guest Editor:
Amanda Spink
Professor of Information Technology
Email: ah.spink@qut.edu.au
IMPORTANT DATES:
Full papers due: December 1
2007
Authors receive reviews:
December 15 2007 Final papers due: February 1 2008 Anticipated publication:
First quarter 2008
The Australian Library
Journal has been published since 1951. Published quarterly, it contains a wide
coverage of Australian library issues, including research. It is the
acknowledged flagship publication of the Australian Library and Information
Association (ALIA). The journal is available through subscription.
ISSUE FOCUS
This special issue is
seeking theoretical or empirical papers on any aspect of information behaviour.
Information behaviour is a
basic element of human kind. Humans have sought, organized and used information
for millennia as they evolved and learned patterns of information behaviour to
help resolve their human problems and survive. The field of library and
information science is a leading discipline in conducting research that seeks to
understand human information related behaviours. Various interdisciplinary
perspectives to information behaviour are emerging, including an information
foraging approach, sense-making approach, information seeking approach, an
everyday life information seeking approach and a more holistic approach
integrating various approaches with information use and organisation.
Theoretical and empirical papers discussing any aspect of information behaviour
are encouraged.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submissions of 3-5000 words
should be emailed in Word format to the special issue editor, Amanda Spink at
ah.spink@qut.edu.au.
The AGPS Style Manual is
used. For further information see - http://alia.org.au/publishing/alj/
***************************************
Amanda Spink
Tel: 61-7-3138-9583 Fax:
61-7-3864-2703
Email: ah.spink@qut.edu.au
Homepage: http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~spinkah/
_______________________________________________
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Bulletin of the
American Society for Information Science and Technology
June July 07
asis-l-bounces@asis.org; on behalf of; Richard Hill [rhill@asis.org] Mon 11/06/2007 10:12 PM asis-l@asis.org; sigia-l@asis.org [Asis-l] June July 07 Bulletin
This first, electronic-only
issue of the Bulletin, is in an exciting new interactive pdf format. Please tell us what you think!
At http://www.asis.org/bulletin.html
there are links to download PDFs of the entire issue or individual articles, as
well as the interactive PDF of the issue.
SPECIAL SECTION
Information Architecture
Getting Richer
by Stacy Merrill Surla
IA Research: The Future State of the Art
by D. Grant Campbell
Face Tag: Integrating Bottom-up and
Top-down Classification in a Social Tagging System
by Emanuele Quintarelli, Andrea Resmini and
Luca Rosati
Evolutionary Psychology as a Basis for
Ethical Design: Virtual Status and Ubiquitous Altruism
by Olly Wright
Data-Driven Design: Using Web Analytics to
validate Heuristics
by Andrea Wiggins
IA and RIAs - You Know More than you Think
You Do
by Adam Polansky
Information Commons: Service to the
Community Starts with Solid IA
by Josh Knauer
FEATURES
Reflections on the Development of the Model
of the Information search Process (ISP): Excerpts from the Lazerow Lecture,
by carol Collier Kuhlthau
Desa Informasi: The Role of Digital
Libraries in the Preservation and Dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge
by Liauw Toong Tjieka (Aditya Nugraha)
DEPARTMENTS
President's Page |
Editor's Desktop |
Inside ASIST |
_____
Richard B. Hill
Executive Director
American Society for
Information Science and Technology 1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510 Silver Spring,
MD 20910
Fax: (301) 495-0810
Voice: (301) 495-0900
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asis-l-bounces@asis.org; on behalf of; Richard Hill [rhill@asis.org] Tue 28/08/2007 9:36 PM asis-l@asis.org [Asis-l] August / September Bulletin
Bulletin of the American
Society for Information Science and Technology -
August/September 2007 Volume 33, Number 7 ISSN: 1550-8366
C O N T E N T S
[2] Editor's Desktop http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/editor.html
[3] Inside ASIS&T http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/inside.html
SPECIAL SECTION
Functional Requirements for
Bibliographic Records 6] Introduction by Yin Zhang http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/zhang.html
7] Introducing the
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records and Related IFLA Developments
by Pat Riva http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/riva.html
12] Understanding FRBR as a
Conceptual Model: FRBR and the Bibliographic Universe by Allyson Carlyle and Lisa
M. Fusco http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/carlyle_fusco.html
17] From a Conceptual Model
to Application and System Development by Athena Salaba and Yin Zhang http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/salaba_zhang.html
24] Understanding Support of
FRBR's Four User Tasks in MARC-Encoded Bibliographic Records by Shawne D. Miksa
http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/miksa.html
27] FRBR: The End of the
Road or a New Beginning?
by Maja Zumer http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/zumer.html
30] Critical Issues and
Challenges Facing FRBR Research and Practice by Yin Zhang and Athena Salaba http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/zhang_salaba.html
32} Standards in Electronic
Resource Management Report compiled by Rafal Kasprowski http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/kasprowski.html
[38] Student Column: Second
Life, Serious Leisure and LIS by Richard Urban http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/urban.html
[41] IA Column: An
Information Architecture Approach to Building a Much Better Digital Library by
Stacy Merrill Surla http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-07/surla.html
-------
ASIS&T 2007
Big Names Tapped for
ASIS&T 2007 Keynote Addresses Anthea Stratigos and Clifford Lynch
2007 ASIS&T Annual
Meeting: Joining Research and Practice: Social Computing and Information
Science October 19-24, in
_____
Richard B. Hill
Executive Director
American Society for
Information Science and Technology 1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510 Silver Spring,
MD 20910
Fax: (301) 495-0810
Voice: (301) 495-0900
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March 2007
Public-Access Computer Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Roy Tennant [roy.tennant@UCOP.EDU]
Sat 31/03/2007 1:30 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU Current Cites, March 2007
March 2007
Edited by [2]Roy
Tennant
http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.3.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr.,
[4]Leo Robert Klein, [5]
Tennant
_____________________________________________________
Baish, Mary Alice. "[6]Librarians as
Change Agents: How You Can Help
Influence Public Policy in the 110th
Congress" [7]Searcher
15(3)(2007)(http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar07/Baish.shtml). -
Although it's easy to lose sight of it in
the press of day-to-day
concerns, this is a very important juncture
for
to to the sweeping changes that digital
technology has wrought in the
copyright and media/publishing arenas. This
article introduces you to
the new leadership in the House and the
Senate, and it overviews
selected legislative issues that are on the
table in the 110th
Congress. Those issues include
circumvention, fair use, net neutrality,
open access to government sponsored
research, and orphan works (among
others). - [8]CB
Davis, Philip M, and Matthew J. L Connolly. "[9]Institutional
Repositories : Evaluating the Reasons for
Non-use of Cornell
University's Installation of
DSpace" [10]D-Lib Magazine 13
(3/4)(March/April
2007)(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march07/davis/03davis.html). -
Interesting look at faculty participation,
or lack thereof, in the
Institutional Repository 'DSpace' at
Cornell. Basically the incentives
aren't there for faculty to contribute their
works. The lure of print
publication or other modes of distribution
based on discipline are far
too strong and alternatives, such as posting
a copy on one's own
personal web page seem adequate. Where there
is steady growth, it's
"largely supported by active policies
or guidelines that dictate that
items will be deposited into DSpace, such as
the case of theses and
dissertations". This last might
indicate the benefit of a more
energetic approach on the part of
departments and the institution as a
whole. Ease-of-use issues and better
integration across systems also
needs to be addressed. - [11]LRK
Elings, Mary W., and G?nter Waibel. "[12]Metadata for All:
Descriptive
Standards and Metadata Sharing across
Libraries, Archives, and
Museums" [13]First Monday 12(3)(March
2007)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_3/elings/). - This
informative article begins by describing a
conceptual model that
precisely identifies and describes the key
components of any metadata
standard: data fields and structure, data
content and values, data
format, and data exchange. Using these
concepts, the authors then
construct a grid for appropriate metadata
standards from the museum,
library, and archival communities in each of
these areas. By
classifying standards from these communities
using their conceptual
model, they hope to make the soup of acronyms
more understandable. The
grid also serves to demonstrate how related
these different communities
are in their needs for the same types of
metadata standards. The piece
also provides a brief history of metadata
standards in each community
and
takes a look at recent trends. The authors end with an assertion
that the three areas would be more
productively depicted as "cultural
materials, bibliographic, and archival"
to indicate that museums, for
example, may find use for bibliographic
metadata standards and vice
versa. - [14]RT
Goans, Doug, Pam Hackbart-Dean, and Lauren Kata. "On Your Mark, Get
Set, Go! Overview of a Digital Project from
Start to Finish"
[15]Computers in Libraries 27(3)(March 2007): 16-23. - There are a
number of good, practical articles about
library digitization projects
in this month's issue of - - . This article looks at the effort of
spanning a hundred years and comprising over
70k pages. The authors
briefly go over various considerations
common to such a project:
out-sourcing the actually scanning, quality
control, file formats to
choose, content-management systems, etc. How
they went about this can
then be compared with the examples from
other articles in the same
issue. - [16]LRK
Houghton-Jan, Sarah. "[17]Technology
Competencies and Training for
Libraries" [18]Library Technology Reports 43(2)(March/April
2007)(https://publications.techsource.ala.org/bookstore/displayItem.pl?
itemID=2595). - Experienced technologist and
trainer Houghton-Jan (of
the "Librarian in Black" blog) has
produced a thorough guide to
developing and implementing a
competencies-based library technology
training program. Beginning by addressing
the question whether you
should even develop such a program,
Houghton-Jan follows with chapters
titled "Build a Foundation for the List
of Competencies," "Staff
Participation and Buy-In,"
"Writing the Competency Descriptions,"
"Formatting the Competencies
List," "Implementing the Competencies,"
"Assessing Staff on Competencies,"
"Planning for Technology Training,"
"Creating Technology Training and
Materials," "Conducting Technology
Training," and "Reassessment and
Revision". A bibliography and lists of
helpful web sites are included. This is an
excellent resource for any
library seeking to develop a technically
competent staff. Which, come
to think of it, should be all libraries. -
[19]RT
Roper, Alan R. "[20]How Students
Develop Online Learning Skills"
[21]EDUCAUSE Quarterly
30(1)(2007)(http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm07/eqm07110.asp). - As a
signification portion of instruction moves
over to an online
environment, articles on best practices like
this one are worth their
weight in (digital) gold. This is
particularly true when the
perspective is from the students themselves.
In this article, the
author surveyed students who had done
particularly well at taking an
online course. Among their priorities was
maintaining motivation and
discipline. Also important was how the
instructor managed online
communication, in particular threaded
discussions (e.g. forums). One
student states succinctly: "Instructors
who establish clear
expectations as to how threaded discussions
are used or who ask
specific questions in response to student
postings can expect to
encourage richer online dialogue." In
other words, initiative, clear
goals and follow-up on the part of the
instructor can have positive
results. - [22]LRK
Suber, Peter. "[23]The Ides of February
in
Commission Plan for Open Access" [24]SPARC Open Access Newsletter,
(107)(2007)(http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/03-02-07.htm#
ec). - The Ides of February turned out much
better for the open access
movement in the European Union than the Ides
of March did for Caesar,
but, while it made significant gains, it did
not get an OA mandate from
the European Commission. Rather, the
European Commission said that it
will: "issue specific guidelines on the
publication of articles in open
repositories after an embargo period."
As you may have noticed,
publishers of late have become increasingly
vocal in their opposition
to OA mandates, and different publisher
groups have issued a spate of
declarations to that effect (e.g., the
"[25]Brussels Declaration on STM
Publishing"). On the OA side of the
equation, a [26]petition supporting
an EU OA mandate now has over 24,000
signatures (more still welcome).
Suber notes: "The two EC Directorates
General most involved in OA
policy-making -- Information Society and
Media, headed by Vivian
Reding, and Research, headed by Janez
Potocnik -- are trying to find a
diplomatic trail through a minefield. They
are eager to show support
for the concerns on each side and postpone
the day when they will have
to alienate one of them." Still, the
European Commission made some
important commitments to OA, including
allocating about 50 million
Euros for OA digital repository support and
making contributions
towards the payment of OA journal
publication fees. - [27]CB
__________________________________________________________________
References
1. http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/
3. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/bailey.htm
6. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar07/Baish.shtml
7. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/default.asp
8. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/bailey.htm
9. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march07/davis/03davis.html
12. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_3/elings/
13. http://www.firstmonday.org/
15. http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag
17.
https://publications.techsource.ala.org/bookstore/displayItem.pl?itemID=2595
18. http://techsource.ala.org/
20. http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm07/eqm07110.asp
21. http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/
23. http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/03-02-07.htm#ec
24. http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/archive.htm
25. http://www.stm-assoc.org/brussels-declaration/
26. http://www.ec-petition.eu/
27. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/bailey.htm
28. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer
29. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer
31. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
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Public-Access Computer Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Roy Tennant [roy.tennant@UCOP.EDU]
Sun 29/04/2007 6:37 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU [CurrentCites] Current Cites, April 2007
Current Cites
April 2007
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.4.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr.,
Keri Cascio, [4]Frank Cervone,
[5]Susan Gibbons, [6]Leo Robert Klein, Jim
Ronningen, Brian Rosenblum,
[7]Karen G. Schneider, [8]Roy Tennant
_____________________________________________________
Editor's note: With this issue we welcome
five new contributors to the
Currrent Cites team: Keri Cascio, Frank
Cervone, Susan Gibbons, Brian
Rosenblum, and Karen Schneider. We are
delighted to be joined by such a
distinguished and talented group, and after
reading this issue I think
you will agree that they have a lot to
offer. Welcome!
Arfeuille, Erik. "New Technologies in
Libraries - The End" [9]New
Technologies in Libraries (5 April 2007) - Anyone interested in
digital libraries over the past 10 years is
sure to recognize the name
of Erik Arfeuille. His regular compendium of
articles on
library-related topics, New Technologies in
Libraries, was a welcome
source of current awareness. It certainly
gave me pointers on what to
read (and recommend). Alas in a farewell
message dated 4/5/07, he
announces that his "workload" no
longer allows him to produce the
lists. While this is a shame, the nature of
his contribution for so
many years is appreciated. - [10]LRK
Carlson, Scott. "[11]Are Reference
Desks Dying Out?" [12]The Chronicle
of Higher Education 53(33)(20 April 2007): A37+.
(http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i33/33a03701.htm).
- Despite the
overblown title, this article explore some
interesting issues regarding
modern library reference service. The
article begins with the example
of a UC Merced librarian answering
text-message reference questions
from students via cellphone while thousands
of miles away at a
conference. "Doing things the way I'm
doing them now," Carlson quotes
the librarian, Ms. Michelle Jacobs, as
saying, "I have reached almost
twice as many students as when I sat on a
reference desk." That isn't
the whole story, though, and Carlson goes on
to give those advocating
face-to-face reference services airtime as
well. The article does not
come down on either side with any force, but
rather leaves the reader
thinking about options. This reader thinks
that the real answer is not
one or the other, but both, implemented in
ways that maximize the
benefits of each while minimizing the
staffing impact. - [13]RT
Chau, Michael, Xiao Fang, and Olivia R. Liu Sheng. "What Are People
Searching on Government Web
Sites?" [14]Communications of the
ACM
50(4)(April 2007): 87-92. - Quantification
from search log analysis
meets some big questions of political
philosophy: we don't get final
answers here but are introduced to an avenue
of exploration, and that's
a start. The authors analyzed a log of over
a million search queries at
the Utah.gov website. Their first conclusion
gets the "at last we have
the numbers to support the obvious"
prize: the top categories of what
people search for are different at a government
website than at an
all-purpose search site such as Alta Vista.
(Of course, queries for sex
on
subculture for state government porn, but
I'd rather not imagine what
that could look like.) We hit the big
questions when the focus turns to
search terms of potential interest to
terrorists, and the issues around
open government come into play. Is someone
searching for "water system"
interested in poisoning it, or looking for
good news about irrigation?
"Small pox" - spreading it or
avoiding it? The authors can't even get
close to a solution to the problem of which
information might be too
sensitive to remain freely available, not
that we'd expect them to pass
judgement on issues more appropriate for the
state Supreme Court. Their
effort is commendable in that it makes a
good case that ignorance
certainly isn't bliss and data gathering and
analysis may eventually
inform some very difficult debates. - JR
Fichter, Darlene. "The Age of Darwinian
Design (Intranet Librarian)"
[15]Online
31(2)(March/April 2007): 52-54. - Insightful article by
Darlene Fichter on the joys of "Rapid
Iterative Design". This is a
method, traditionally used in the
development phase of designing a
website, where you go through prototypes,
testing them on users,
refining them when problems arise and then
testing the results until
you have a complete solution. Fichter
extends this procedure to
websites even after they've been launched
arguing that it makes no
sense to wait for the next iteration of the
site for improvements to be
made. In this way, she points out, library
websites can mirror the
"permanent beta" of successful
commercial sites. - [16]LRK
Fitzgerald, Brian F., Jessica M. Coates, and Suzanne M. Lewis,
eds. [17]Open Content Licensing: Cultivating
the Creative Commons
2007.(http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00006677/). - This freely
available e-book presents papers from the
2005 Open Content Licensing:
Cultivating the Creative Commons conference
in
includes two papers by Lawrence Lessig:
"Does Copyright Have Limits?
Eldred v. Ashcroft and Its Aftermath"
and "The Vision for the Creative
Commons: What Are We and Where Are We
Headed? Free Culture." While much
of the book has an Australian slant, the
underlying issues raised about
open content licenses, such as Creative
Commons licenses, in areas such
as computer games, creative industries, and
government resonate
worldwide. - [18]CB
Gorman, G.E. "Google Print and the
Principle of Functionality "
[19]Online Information Review 31(2)(2007): 113-11. - G.E. Gorman
obviously hasn't gotten his copy of 'The
Long Tail'. In this piece, he
warns against the "spurious,
economically unsound views" of Google
Print in their intention to digitize
"everything [they] can lay their
hands on". He recommends using
"professional judgment" as a selection
method instead. All I can say is beware of
what you wish for! There
already was a selection method in place that
produced the original
collections. None represent the universe of
all publications.
Furthermore, past use on the shelf is no
indicator of future use once
in digital form. Digitalization of low-use
material surely promises
more than simply "clutter[ing] the
web" as Gorman argues. Also
thankfully, Google Print isn't the only game
in town. Its academic
partners are free to pursue their own
digitization schemes using
methods hopefully more to Gorman's liking. -
[20]LRK
Grogg, Jill E., and Beth Ashmore. "[21]Google Book Search
Libraries
and Their Digital Copies" [22]Searcher
15(4)(April
2007)(http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr07/Grogg_Ashmore.shtml).
-
Entire articles have been written about the
Google Book Search Library
Project--how Google's doing it, why
libraries are joining in, and the
issue of copyright--but not much has been
said about what those
libraries plan to do with their copies of
the digitized materials once
they've been scanned. Grogg and Ashmore
survey the field and study how
the project fits into existing and future
digital libraries at various
institutions. Plans include open access to
all, inclusion in OPACs and
digital repositories, and archiving and
preservation. Many of the
libraries are still developing the
infrastructure and delivery system
to handle the sheer volume of materials they
are receiving. Of the
twelve institutions reviewed for the
article, seven are sticking with
scanning materials in the public domain, and
five are scanning all
materials regardless of copyright (at least
until any court decisions
have been made). Grogg and Ashmore answer
the question of motivation to
join when they write, "Google can offer
digitization on a grand scale
at a price libraries can afford." It's
a bargain that's hard to turn
down, even with the threat of pending
litigation. - KC
McGovern,
Are We Going in Digital
Preservation?" [24]RLG
DigiNews 11(1)(April
15,
2007)(http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=21033#article3). -
Nancy McGovern provides a remarkably clear
assessment of developments
in the digital preservation community over
the past ten years, and
provides a look at what is needed as we move
forward. One of the most
important recognitions here is that a
digital preservation program
built upon a "three-legged stool"
(organization, technology, resources)
is more sturdy and sustainable than "a
technology pogo stick."
Organizationally, in the last decade we have
seen the emergence of the
concept of the trusted digital repository
(TDR), the creation of
numerous policy statements, and the
acknowledgment of the need for
evidence-based audit and certification.
Still needed is the ability to
move such polices and theories into action,
and the development of
better digital preservation skills. On the
technology leg, developments
include the OAIS Reference Model, the
development of numerous
repository and digital library applications,
and the development of
various other tools to perform digital
preservation tasks such as
identifying file formats, normalizing data,
and generating metadata. In
the coming years the community will need to
enhance and integrate these
tools and software to help create modular,
automated and scalable
workflows. The resources leg--developing an
understanding of and
commitment to the costs of maintaining a
digital preservation program
over time--is perhaps the least developed of
the three legs, and there
is no general community model. (TDR and OAIS
provide this function for
the technology and organization legs).
Various resource models have
been proposed, but we need more responses to
these contributions from
the community, and more transparency in
reporting resource usage, in
order to move from "just-in-time"
funding to more programmatic,
sustained support for digital preservation.
The article helpfully
includes numerous links to many of the
resources and documents
discussed. - BR
National Science Foundation, .
[25]Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st
Century Discovery
21,
2007.(http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/nsf0728.pdf). - Often
libraries are overlooked when issues related
to cyberinfrastructure are
discussed, but this is not the case in the
latest in this series of
reports on cyberinfrastructure development.
In five chapters, this
report looks at the major issues to be
addressed in the next several
years including high performance computing;
data analysis and
visualization; virtual organizations and distributed
communities; as
well as learning and workforce development.
Throughout the document,
but particularly in the chapter on data
analysis and visualization, the
critical role of libraries in developing the
cyberinfrastructure is
made clear. Not surprisingly, many of the
issues discussed in the
report will be familiar to those in the
information professions.
Perhaps the biggest (unaddressed) question
in the report is how we in
the information professions will take up the
challenge to lead in the
further development of the
cyberinfrastructure lest it be left to
others. - [26]FC
Come and What Still Needs to be
Done?" [28]RLG DigiNews 11(1)(15
April
2007)(http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=21033#article2). -
Few are as qualified as Steve Puglia to pen
this history of library-
and archive-based digitization efforts.
Having long labored in that
particular orchard for the [29]National Archives
and Records
Administration, as well as served on the
faculty of the highly regarded
[30]School for Scanning,
this is by no means simply a history of
wide net over all the major players and the
documents and procedures
they promulgated over the years. The table
of "Imaging Specifications
and Guidelines" that identifies many of
these is an impressive
statement to the body of work produced by
those active in the field.
This and the other article cited in this
issue of Current Cites are a
fitting end and tribute to this part of RLG
DigiNews history. - [31]RT
Read, Eleanor J. "Data Services in
Academic Libraries: Assessing Needs
and Promoting Services" [32]Reference & User Services Quarterly
46(3)(Spring 2007): 61-75. - Back when data
services meant a place for
running mag tapes on mainframes, it was a
contained specialization
without wider ramifications for information
providers generally.
However, the explosion of networked
numerical data deliverable to
desktops has created challenges for
technologists and public service
people. Read's article can help both groups
see through the haze of
this data cloud to identify sources, skill
sets and support networks.
It springs from a data services awareness
survey conducted at the
disciplines using social sciences data. One
paradox is that the wider
availability of datasets has not been
accompanied by a greater
awareness of their availability; one
conclusion is that today's data
service providers have outreach and
instruction as major job
components. - JR
Spoerri, Anselm. "[33]What is Popular
on Wikipedia and Why?" [34]First
Monday
(April
2007)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/spoerri2/). -
"Google
giveth, Google taketh": this paper
about Wikipedia's popularity is even
more pointedly an impact analysis of
Google's secret sauce. Spoerr's
discussion of "which pages and topics
are the most popular on Wikipedia
and why" uses data generated from
Wikicharts to swiftly move through a
discussion about what's popular on Wikipedia
(which despite Wikipedia's
reputation as an "encyclopedia"
turns out to be entertainment and
sexuality). Spoerr then steps beyond these
observations to the larger
question of "what precisely drives
Wikipedia's traffic and growing
popularity," which is apparently a
back-scratching relationship with
large search engines, particularly Google.
Though we can't crack open
Google's black box to find out how it works,
Spoerr's analysis strongly
suggests that Google, recognizing
Wikipedia's popularity and high trust
with users, gives precedence to Wikipedia's
entries so that results are
likely to show up within the
highly-desirable top three results. Spoerr
points out that Wikipedia's favored
placement only increases the
ferocity of competition among other websites
to make the top three, or
at least top ten, search results. An
unspoken question underlying this
article is where library-based Web resources
fit into the competition
for Web turf--then again, maybe we don't
want to know the answer. -
[35]KGS
Stacey, Paul. "[36]Open Educational
Resources in a Global Context"
[37]First Monday 12(4)(April
2007)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/stacey/). - This
article provides a useful overview of the
state of development of open
educational resource (OER) initiatives and
some of the questions
regarding their use and effectiveness in
improving global access to
education. Based on an online discussion
that took place in a
UNESCO-sponsored forum in November/December
2005, the author provides
examples of different models of OER
initiatives (MIT's OpenCourseWare,
Initiative), explores various business
models, and suggests next steps
that can help OER initiatives realize their
full potential. Especially
interesting are the discussions on global
issues such as language, the
digital divide, and international cultural
considerations. The author
also discusses some technical issues from a
user's perspective, looks
at the possibility of social and
community-based authoring, and points
to some convergences with other
"open" initiatives, such as open-source
software and open access to research and
scholarship. - BR
Staley, Laura, Rachel Van Noord, and Betha Gutsche, et. al.
[38]Blended Learning Guide
2007.(http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=13893). - This
38-page guide is an excellent overview of
the present mix of learning
technologies being used by a number of organizations
to provide
e-learning courses. Their definition of
blended learning is "a
combination -- or blend -- of different
online learning modes, or of
online and in-person learning." Summary
sheets on each of these modes
(e.g., Discussion Boards, Instant
Messaging/Chat, Podcasting, etc.) are
followed by a set of case histories about
how various libraries have
used blended learning techniques. Highly
recommended for any individual
or organization to gain a better
understanding of current learning
technologies and how they can be used
effectively in a blended mode.
Full disclosure: I was on the WebJunction
Advisory Board and soon will
be employed by OCLC. - [39]RT
Van Orsdel, Lee C., and Kathleen Born. "[40]Serial Wars" [41]Library
Journal
(15 April
2007)(http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6431958.html). - Library
Journal has published its annual review of
serials prices. The bottom
line: "In 2007, academic libraries saw
overall journal price increases
just under eight percent for the second year
in a row.
nine percent on average; non-U.S., 7.3
percent." STM journals continued
to be quite expensive, with average 2007
prices for the top three
disciplines being: $3,429 for Chemistry,
$2,865 for Physics, and $2,071
for Engineering. The country with the
highest average price per title
($3,362) was the
access issues in this article, and Peter
Suber has [42]commented: "This
is an excellent picture of where OA stands
today. If you have
colleagues who want to know what's been
happening and only have time
for one article, give them this URL." -
[43]CB
Wilber, Dana J. "[44]MyLiteracies:
Understanding the Net Generation
through LiveJournals and Literacy
Practices" [45]Innovate: Journal of
Online Education 3(4)(April/May
2007)(http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=384).
-
This month's issue of Innovate: Journal of
Online Education focuses on
the Net Generation student and how educators
and the educational
systems could or should response to the
challenges these student
impose. While there are a number of good
articles, Wilber's deserves
particular note, which is a summary of an
ethnographic case study she
conducted in Fall 2005. During the course of
the semester, Wilber
studied the literacy and technology
practices of college student,
focusing specifically on her use of the
social networking and the
blogging site LiveJournal. She discovered an
emerging set of new
literacy practices that challenge the once
clear delineation between
author and reader. - [46]SG
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9. http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.4.html
11. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i33/33a03701.htm
14. http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/www.acm.org/cacm/
15. http://www.infotoday.com/online/
17. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00006677/
18. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/bailey.htm
19. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/oir/oir.jsp
21. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr07/Grogg_Ashmore.shtml
22. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/default.asp
23. http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=21033#article3
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28. http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=12081
30. http://nedcc.org/education/conferences/sfs2007/description.php
32. http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/www.rusq.org
33. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/spoerri2/
34. http://www.firstmonday.org/
35. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
36. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/stacey/
37. http://www.firstmonday.org/
38. http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=13893
40. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6431958.html
41. http://www.libraryjournal.com/
42.
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_04_15_fosblogarchive.html#4652331280
812550701
43. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/bailey.htm
44. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=384
45. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php
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Public-Access Computer Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Tennant,Roy [tennantr@OCLC.ORG]
Tue 29/05/2007 6:18 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU [CurrentCites] Current Cites, May 2005
Current Cites
May 2007
Edited by [2]Roy
Tennant
http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.5.html
<http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.5.html>
Contributors: Keri Cascio, [3]Susan Gibbons,
[4]Leo Robert Klein, Jim
Ronningen, Brian Rosenblum
_____________________________________________________
"[5]DigCCurr2007, an International
Symposium on Digital Curation"
(April 18-20,
2007)(http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/program.html).
- Last month's DigCCurr conference (it's
pronounced "Dig Seeker" and
stands for Digital Curation Curriculum) in
digital curators do and what they need to
know." The conference is part
of an initiative to prepare students to work
in the field of digital
preservation, but the discussions will be
just as useful for cultural
heritage organizations trying to develop
expertise and skills among
their
own staff. Several points were made repeatedly: digital curation
is a collaborative endeavor; the range of
skills required goes far
beyond the technical; terminology matters
because it helps define what
we do (Cliff Lynch called the term digital
curation "truly
frightening"); and when the future is
unclear, a return to the
foundations of our professions can help
illuminate the way forward.
There are many good papers and presentations
are on the conference
website, including Adrian Cunningham's
forceful discussion on the
experience of the National Archives Austria,
in which he [6]"draws a
line in the sand" and calls on us to
remember the differences between
archives and libraries, and Ken Thibodeau's
bird's-eye view of the
[7]"critical competencies for digital
curation." At a more
nuts-and-bolts level, Liz Madden describes
some "data-wrangling"
approaches to moving data from one stage of
the digital life cycle to
the next. Hers is [8]wise advice based on
experience in the trenches,
and not to be ignored. - BR
Gibson, Craig, and Dorothy C Lockaby. "The
35(2)(2007): 322-330. - Can a library center
built in 1995 already be
obsolete? The construction of any library is
naturally a reflection of
the technology and perceived needs at the
time. If both these change,
the role of the library might have to be
reconsidered. That at least is
the challenge confronting the Johnson Center
Library at George Mason.
The authors make clear through an
interesting discussion that the
developers got some things right and some
things wrong. The question
now is how to build on the positive while
making optimal use of the
space. - [10]LRK
Hendrix, Dean. "[11]Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
Knowledge, Use, and Attitudes of
Academic Librarians" [12]portal: Libraries and the Academy 7(2)(April
2007): 191-212.
(http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v007/7.2
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v007/7.2>
hendrix.html). - Discussions about P2P
networks on academic campuses
usually focus on various dangers--security
holes, bandwidth usage, and
legal threats from ambitious music industry
lawyers. But P2P
technologies are also driving new library
activities and initiatives,
such as instant messaging reference
services, and Stanford's LOCKSS
program for preservation of e-journals. This
article analyzes the use
and knowledge of P2P technologies among
librarians in the U.S, taking
into account variables such as age, gender,
year of MLS, and library
job description. The general conclusion:
academic librarians are behind
the curve. Nearly 45% of the total questions
on all the returned
surveys were answered with: "not
sure." One shortcoming of the study
(acknowledged by the author) is that it asks
only about file sharing
applications, and doesn't include instant
messaging. Still, the general
conclusions of the article remain valid: as
a group, we do not
extensively use P2P technologies, and thus
we don't have a great
understanding of the relevant technical,
social and legal issues,
haven't thought a lot about how we might use
P2P to help advance our
missions, and don't have a strong voice in
larger, campus-wide
discussions about P2P. - BR
Huang, Phil. "How You Can Protect
Public Access Computers and Their
Users"
[13]Computers in Libraries
27(5)(May 2007): 16-20. - When I
worked in a public library, we were always
on the lookout for strange
goings-on at the public computer terminals.
It's amazing how many
patrons could get around our security
software, and how many users
didn't think to safeguard their personal
information while surfing the
Web or creating a resume. Phil Huang gives
libraries tips on both sides
of this issue--how to protect public access
computers from unwanted
security breaches and how to protect your
users from unwittingly giving
away their personal data. If you're looking
for a framework to create a
workshop on computer and Internet safety for
your users (and maybe even
for your staff), this article is a great
starting point. - KC
Lally, Ann M., and Carolyn E. Dunford. "[14]Using Wikipedia to Extend
Digital Collections" [15]D-Lib Magazine 13(5/6)(May/June
2007)(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html). - An example
of a library "getting in the
flow," this article documents the
collections where their users will see
them--in Wikipedia. The result
was so successful in driving more users to
their collections that they
"now consider Wikipedia an essential
tool for getting our digital
collections out to our users at the point of
their information need."
It's a nice way to strengthen Wikipedia too.
The article also contains
some useful tips on creating articles and
cross-references within
Wikipedia, monitoring for changes and
vandalism, and communicating with
other Wikipedia users. - BR
Marcus, Cecily, Lucinda Covert-Vail, and Carol A. Mandel. [16]NYU
21st Century Library Project: Designing a
Research Library of the
Future for
Graduate Student Needs for Research and
Teaching (January
2007)(http://library.nyu.edu/about/KPLReport.pdf). - Over the 2005-06
academic year the New York University
Libraries undertook a study to
determine how to "improve its physical
spaces and services to best
address the current needs of scholars, as
well as to create an
environment that could be adapted to the
needs of the future of
scholarly research." The synthesized
results of interviews and focus
groups with 65 NYU faculty and graduate
students make up the bulk of
this 57-page report. The interplay of the
library's physical and
virtual spaces, the continued reliance on
serendipitous discovery, and
the growing importance of interdisciplinary
and collaborative research
represent just three of the many themes that
emerged from the
interviews. An easy, yet very
thought-provoking read. - [17]SG
Moggridge, Bill. [18]Designing
Interactions
Press, 2007.(http://www.designinginteractions.com/).
- "Designers of
digital technology products no longer regard
their job as designing a
physical object - beautiful or utilitarian -
but as designing our
interactions with it." [Publisher's
blurb.] Moggridge, a founder of
design firm IDEO, has compiled the design
stories of digital artifacts
which have, without exaggeration, changed
the world: screen interfaces,
input devices, handheld communicators,
games, search systems.
them is not only informative but inspiring
in that it encourages
creative thinking about possibilities (and I
suppose the corollary is
disappointment with the junk you're stuck
with). The book itself is
beautifully designed, tempting to browse and
suprisingly affordable
($40) for a 766-page tome liberally
illustrated in rich color. It
includes a DVD of interviews with the
designers, intercut with film of
their products in development and use, and
adds an expressiveness (of
people and things both) which makes so much
sense as another way to
appreciate their process. The website is
very generous with clips from
the interviews, chapter descriptions and a
downloadable chapter of the
week. Book, DVD and website can be a
refreshing mental vacation for
those of us who, in our working lives, are
encrusted with the minutiae
of digital information. - JR
Surowiecki, James. "[19]Feature
Presentation" [20]New Yorker
83(14)(28 May
2007)(http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2007/05/28/070528ta_talk_
surowiecki). - The message of this article
is that the customer is the
problem. Not because they're the unwilling
victims of impossible-to-use
devices but because they actively seek out
such devices and only
realize the error of their ways once they're
back at home trying to
make the things work. Twenty-minutes is
about all the time they're
willing to fiddle with something before
throwing up their hands and
taking it back. One suggested remedy to this
quandary is to make the
device feature-rich yet easy to operate. As
to striking the right
balance, the author ends on a (perhaps
overly) pessimistic note
pointing out "that even when you give
consumers what they want they can
still end up hating you for it." -
[21]LRK
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4. http://leoklein.com/
<http://leoklein.com/>
5. http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/program.html
<http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/program.html>
6. http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/cunningham_paper_7.pdf
<http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/cunningham_paper_7.pdf>
7. http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/thibodeau_paper_7.pdf
<http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/thibodeau_paper_7.pdf>
8. http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/slides/madden_slides_6-2.pdf
<http://www.ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/slides/madden_slides_6-2.pdf>
9. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0090-7324.htm
<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0090-7324.htm>
10. http://leoklein.com/
<http://leoklein.com/>
11. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v007/7.2hendrix.html
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v007/7.2hendrix.html>
12. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pla/
<http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pla/>
13. http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/
<http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/>
14. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html
<http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html>
15. http://www.dlib.org/
<http://www.dlib.org/>
16. http://library.nyu.edu/about/KPLReport.pdf
<http://library.nyu.edu/about/KPLReport.pdf>
17. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1
<http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1>
18. http://www.designinginteractions.com/
<http://www.designinginteractions.com/>
19. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2007/05/28/070528ta_talk_surowiecki
<http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2007/05/28/070528ta_talk_surowiecki>
20. http://www.newyorker.com/
<http://www.newyorker.com/>
21. http://leoklein.com/
<http://leoklein.com/>
22. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer
<http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer>
23. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer
<http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer>
24. http://webjunction.org/
<http://webjunction.org/>
25. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/>
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Sat 30/06/2007 5:27 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU [CurrentCites] Current Cites, June 2007
Current Cites
June 2007
Edited by [2]Roy
Tennant
http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.6.html
<http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.6.html>
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr.,
Keri Cascio, [4]Frank Cervone,
[5]Susan Gibbons, [6]Leo Robert Klein, Jim
Ronningen, Brian Rosenblum,
[7]Karen G. Schneider, [8]Roy Tennant
_____________________________________________________
"[9]Britannica Blog: Web 2.0
Forum"
( http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/category/web-20-forum/
<http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/category/web-20-forum/>
). - The
contributions to this series of blog posts
by various pundits (with the
lead essay from Michael Gorman, former
library dean of CSU Fresno)
range from fabulous to fatuous (even
contributors who agree in general
with Gorman's contention that the world is
going to hell in a digital
handbasket question his rhetoric), but the
collection as a whole is lit
up by thoughtful posts by Matthew Battle,
danah boyd, Roger Kimball,
Clay Shirky, and Gregory McNamee. Gender
bias mars the overall
discussion (Britannica could only find one
woman with a brain?) and
there is far too much space given over to
what one librarian bard has
described in song as the
"anti-digitalists," but if you can't find an
idea to engage with or object to in this
collection, you're not trying.
- [10]KGS
"[11]Who Needs Google?
[12]Library Journal Academic Newswire (7 June 2007)
( http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6450053.html#news2
<http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6450053.html#news2>
). - First the
[13]Million Book Project, then the
[14]Google Books Library Project,
then the [15]Open Content
Kirtas Technologies, and BookSurge
partnership. Mass digitization has
become the name of the game, and Emory's
Woodruff Library has come up
with a new spin: digitize books in
conjunction with Kirtas, partially
funding the effort by selling low-cost
print-on-demand copies via
BookSurge (see the [16]Emory and
[17]BookSurge press releases for
additional details). Hard on the heels of
the Emory announcement, the
Public Library [18]announced that they would
follow Emory's lead. If
Emory's detailed [19]2008-2012 strategic
plan is any guide, expect more
bold moves in the future under the
leadership of Vice Provost and
Director of Libraries Richard E. Luce. -
[20]CB
Australasian Digital Theses Program.
[21]Australasian Digital Theses
Program: Membership Survey 2006
2007.(http://www.caul.edu.au/surveys/adt2006.doc). - This report
presents the results of a 2006 survey of
Council of Australian
University Librarians and Council of
member libraries about their digital theses
archiving activities. It
contains a number of interesting findings,
especially regarding
submission rates. It found that when digital
theses submission was
voluntary, only 17% of theses were deposited;
however, when it was
mandatory, the rate rose to 95%. Twenty-two
universities had a
mandatory submission policy in place when
the survey was conducted,
with another five planning to do so in 2007,
which means that 59% of
respondents will have a mandate in 2007.
More that 90% of respondents
offer mediated deposit, with 63% offering
mediated deposit only, 7%
offering self-deposit only, and 30% offering
both options. Three key
reasons for the high level of mediated
deposit support were conversion,
copyright, and software issues. Half of the
respondents have completely
or partially digitized their print theses,
and slightly over half have
an institutional repository, with only four
of IRs not being used for
digital theses support. - [22]CB
Ayre, Lori Bowen. "[23]Library Delivery
2.0: Delivering Library
Materials in the Age of Netflix" [24]Library Philosophy and Practice
(June 2007) (http://libr.unl.edu:2000/LPP/ayre.htm).
- Ayre makes a
case for learning from the Netflix model to
deliver library items
directly to patrons. Some principles Ayre
cites for making our ILL work
better include: make it easy, make it
personal, and make it fast and
convenient. There will of course be much
work required to make this
possible, but this brief, engaging piece at
least makes the case that
we should try. Anyone involved with
interlibrary loan -- or even simply
in managing library services -- sit up and take
note. - [25]RT
Coyle, Karen. [26]Rights in the PREMIS Data
Model: A Report for the
Library of Congress
2006.(http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/Rights-in-the-PREMIS-Data-Mod
el.pdf). - Although this report has been out
for awhile, it remains a
less discovered gem among the many recent
reports related to metadata
issues. While the primary focus of the
report is to discuss the
required enhancements to incorporate digital
object rights information
into the PREMIS data model, a particular
value of this report is its
comprehensive overview of the PREMIS
metadata scheme. For those
unfamiliar with PREMIS, this report is a
good introduction to the
metadata scheme and its role in establishing
preservation information
for digital objects. - [27]FC
Del Bosque, Darcy, and Kimberly Chapman. "Your Place or Mine?
Face-to-Face Reference Services Across
Campus" [28]New Library World
108(5/6) (2007): 247-262. - The future of
reference is both more remote
and more direct. More remote in that our
users can communicate with us
through email, IM, etc.; And more direct in
that we can communicate
with them face-to-face wherever they choose
to congregate whether
inside the library or somewhere else on
Campus. The librarians in this
article discuss an innovative program at the
Antonio (UTSA) called "Direct-2-U
Reference" which began in Fall 2005
and saw librarians setting up operations in
five different locations on
campus including study areas and dorms.
While the initial impact was
modest, the librarians felt nonetheless that
it built bridges to the
outside academic community. It'd be
interesting to see what traffic
would be like on campuses with more
centralized student areas. -
[29]LRK
Heid, Susan. "[30]Culture Morph
" [31]Campus Technology 20(10) (June
2007): 42-48. (http://campustechnology.com/articles/48247/
). - Much has
been written in the past on library and IT
collaboration (or the lack
thereof), but with the increase in
development of digital library
projects, interest in this issue is
resurging. However, unlike some
articles in the past that were primarily
obsessed with how different
libraries and IT are from each other, this
article focuses instead on
how colleges have taken varying approaches
to developing digital
library services collaboratively between the
two units. Using a variety
of different approaches and not just relying
on an administrative
combination of the two units into a single
organization, these colleges
have been able to move forward with projects
that have increased the
use of library resources, enhanced ease of
access, and allowed them to
focus on making improvements based on
students' expectations. - [32]FC
Henry, Charles. "[33]Rice University
Press: Fons et origo" [34]The
Journal of Electronic Publishing 10(2) (Spring 2007)
(http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0010.205
). - Cash-strapped
university presses have been seemingly slow
to explore new models of
electronic publishing that could help
revitalize and sustain their
operations. One reason for this is the
"cost of migration"--how to move
to a digital publishing model while
continuing to incur standard
production and inventory costs. In this
respect, the newly revived Rice
University Press is viewing it's original
failure (it was shut down in
1996 for financial reasons) as a blessing in
disguise, enabling it to
redefine itself from scratch as "the
first fully digital academic press
in the
rationale and business models behind the new
Press, their decision to
focus on art history and other areas that
are particularly constrained
by the print-based model, and their vision
of the Press as a platform
for new models of digital scholarship and a
spur for changes in the
academic culture of research (especially in
the humanities). Currently
the [35]Rice University Press website lists
just two publications, but
it will be interesting to see how this
initiative develops in the
coming months and years. - BR
Houghton-Jan, Sarah. "[36]Imagine No
Restrictions: Digital Rights
Management" [37]School Libary Journal (6) (1 June 2007)
(http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6448189.html).
- I've
presented a lot in the last year about
digital audio options for
libraries, and these discussions have always
included the controversy
surrounding Digital Rights Management (DRM).
School librarians are
particularly interested in adopting digital
audio resources, so I was
pleased to see an article in School Library
Journal by Sarah
Houghton-Jan that lays out the issues for
all libraries. Houghton-Jan
gives us three reasons to care about DRM:
device compatibility,
roadblocks to fair use and accessibility,
and long-term archival and
playback issues. She calls for librarians to
talk to vendors about DRM,
and to support the vendors that are offering
DRM-free content. A
sidebar to the article helps you explain DRM
to your users when they
come up with the tough questions (i.e. why
can't I use my iPod?). - KC
Lynch, Beverly P., Catherine Murray-Rust, and Susan E. Parker, et.
al."Attitudes of Presidents and
Provosts on the University Library"
[38]College & Research Libraries 68(3) (May 2007): 213-227. - In 2004,
the authors replicated a 1992-93 study to
investigate how the attitudes
of university presidents and provosts
towards their academic libraries
have changed in the intervening years.
Through an analysis of their
interviews of presidents and provosts at six
universities, the authors
found that the symbolic role of libraries as
the "heart of the
university" no longer carried as much
weight as the libraries'
practical roles on campus. The article also
contains evidence that
campus visibility, outside funding, and
technological innovation are
new indicators by which university
administrators judge the library's
relevancy. This study confirms the sense
that I believe many librarians
share, which is the growing need to better
articulate to campus
administrators the connections between the
activities of the library
with the university's academic mission. - [39]SG
Villano, Matt.
"[40]Collaborate" [41]Campus
Technology (June 2007)
(http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=48239).
- How library
information can be introduced into
collaborative software for higher
education is not the issue here, and the
absence of that issue is the
reason to read the article. The omission
doesn't appear intended to
send a pointed message, but as sources for
wikis etc are described with
the focus on bringing students and
instructors together in virtual
learning spaces, it's telling that documents
and other information
sources are usually described as simply
coming from a web search. It
seems likely that in many cases campus IT
planning will have a blank
spot where the library should be. Read these
implementation tales,
review the products and learn to talk the
talk before demanding a seat
at this table. - JR
Weinberger, David. [42]Everything is
Company,
2007.(http://www.librarything.com/work/2275491 ). - This juicy
read from David Weinberger (of the Cluetrain
Manifesto and Small
Pieces, Loosely Joined) challenges us by
arguing that librarian-style
predictive order is passe and digital
dishabille is a virtue. The meat
of this book, and its primary momentum and
entertainment value, come
from Weinberger's lengthy discussions of the
"third order," which
grounds itself in the digital world, where
all the old rules are blown
out of the water. Those of us managing
"second order" databases--such
as library catalogs--are momentarily off the
hook, but that doesn't
make this any less of a must-read for all
librarians. Weinberger's
fluid, engaging style masks the refreshing
rigor of this highly
readable contribution to public
intellectualism. - [43]KGS
__________________________________________________________________
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References
Visible links
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7. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
9. http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/category/web-20-forum/
10. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
11. http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6450053.html#news2
12. http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6280981.html
13. http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/MBP_FAQ.html
14. http://books.google.com/googlebooks/library.html
15. http://www.opencontentalliance.org/
16. http://news.emory.edu/Releases/KirtasPartnership1181162558.html
17. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-21-2007/0004612663&EDATE=
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19. http://web.library.emory.edu/about/publications/StrategicPlan%20FINAL%2012_06.pdf
<http://web.library.emory.edu/about/publications/StrategicPlan%20FINAL%2012_06.pdf>
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<http://www.caul.edu.au/surveys/adt2006.doc>
22. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/bailey.htm
23. http://libr.unl.edu:2000/LPP/ayre.htm
24. http://libr.unl.edu:2000/LPP/
26. http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/Rights-in-the-PREMIS-Data-Model.pdf
<http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/Rights-in-the-PREMIS-Data-Model.pdf>
28. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0307-4803.htm
30. http://campustechnology.com/articles/48247/
31. http://campustechnology.com/
<http://campustechnology.com/>
33. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0010.205
34. http://journalofelectronicpublishing.org/
35. http://ricepress.rice.edu/
36. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6448189.html
<http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6448189.html>
37. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
38. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crljournal/backissues2007a/crlmay07/crlmay7.htm
<http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crljournal/backissues2007a/crlmay07/crlmay7.htm>
39. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1
40. http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=48239
41. http://campustechnology.com/mcv/inprint/currentissue/
42. http://www.librarything.com/work/2275491
43. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
44. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer
<http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer>
45. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer
47. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Public-Access Computer
Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Roy Tennant
[roytennant@GMAIL.COM]
Wed 1/08/2007 3:14 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU [CurrentCites] Current Cites, July 2007
Current Cites
July 2007
Edited by [2]Roy
Tennant
http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.7.html
<http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.7.html>
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr.,
Keri Cascio, [4]Frank Cervone,
[5]Susan Gibbons, [6]Leo Robert Klein, Brian
Rosenblum, [7]Karen G.
Schneider, [8]Roy Tennant
_____________________________________________________
Abbott, Andrew. [9]The University
Library
2006.( http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/Papers/libreport.pdf
<http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/Papers/libreport.pdf>
). - Agree
with this report or not, it offers an
invaluable outside-in perspective
on current hot-button issues in academic
librarianship. Respected
scholar Andrew Abbott (author of The System
of Professions) produced
this "a serious theoretical analysis of
library research" for a task
force appointed by the provost of the
Abbott teaches. Abbott offers fresh and
often trenchant observations,
many backed quite refreshingly by real data,
about issues such as use
of the university library by undergraduates
and faculty, off-site
storage, research study rooms, and even the
current vogue for building
faculty-graduate research centers, which he
refers to as "Potemkin
Villages" that "exist more as
targets for external funding than as
physical realities." - [10]KGS
Anderson, Nate. "[11]Deep Packet
Inspection Meets 'Net neutrality,
CALEA"
[12]Ars Technica (25 July
2007)( http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/deep-packet-inspection-me
<http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/deep-packet-inspection-me>
ets-net-neutrality.ars). - Information
travels the Net through
'packets'. Whether we're sending email,
watching video or talking to
friends using VoIP, it all consists of
packets. So, what if there were
a technology that could identify each packet
as to where it's going and
what it consists of? This is precisely what
'Deep Packet Inspection' or
'DPI' does and Nate Anderson of Ars Technica
does a splendid job
explaining the implications. Short synopsis:
Bad news for Net
Neutrality (and privacy). - [13]LRK
Blyberg, John. "[14]Always Pushing
Information" [15]netConnect (15
July
2007)(http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6453423.html). -
Blyberg writes about, and expands upon, his
"ILS customer bill of
rights" that he first [16]blogged about
in November 2005. His list
includes: 1) Open, read-only, direct access
to the database, 2) A
full-blown, W3C standards-based API
(application programming interface)
to all read-write functions, 3) The option
to run the ILS on hardware
of our choosing, on servers we administer,
and 4) High security
standards. I'm certain that at least some
vendors would take exception
to these points, either from the perspective
that they already have
them implemented (my guess is that most
vendors believe they already
have high security standards), or that they
wouldn't be supportable
(e.g., to run on any hardware of your
choosing, which would greatly
multiply their support headaches).
Nonetheless, these are important
points well worth discussing and advocating
with your vendor. - [17]RT
Bonnie, McCune. "10 Tips for Getting
Grants to Keep Your Library
Afloat"
[18]Computers in Libraries
27(7)(July/August 2007): 10-14. -
You spend many precious hours working on a
grant proposal, only to find
out that your project wasn't chosen. What
went wrong? Funding insider
Bonnie McCune, the library community
programs consultant for the
Colorado State Library, shares ten tips for
getting your grant
proposals accepted. Suggestions include
tailoring your request for
smaller foundations, making key contacts in
funding organizations,
planning for evaluation, and honing your
message. Her best advice is
not to get discouraged. When you take the
time to learn from your past
rejections, you improve your chances for
success in the future. - KC
Brown, Laura, Rebecca Griffiths, and Matthew Rascoff, et.
al.[19]University Publishing in a Digital
Age
2007.(http://www.ithaka.org/strategic-services/university-publishing).
- While the journal publishing activities of
university presses are
important, the key role that they have
played in the scholarly
publishing ecology has been book publishing.
Scholarly books often have
very limited sales, but they are critical to
faculty in some
disciplines, especially those in the
humanities. These disciplines
value books highly, and without publishing
one or more scholarly books
faculty in them cannot get tenure.
Unfortunately, the long-term trend
has been for universities to require that
university presses be
increasingly self-sustaining, and this,
combined with the very
corrosive effect of the serials crisis on
academic libraries' monograph
budgets, has resulted in presses seeking more
profitable sources of
income than obscure monographs. By
publishing more popular books, they
can subsidize the continued publication of
scholarly monographs, but
not at a level that scholars in book-heavy
disciplines would desire,
creating a scholarly monograph crisis. Of
late, university presses have
increasingly been put under the
administrative control of academic
libraries, new digital/print-on-demand
university presses have begun to
be established, and there has been increased
interest in reexamining
the role of traditional university presses.
The 69-page Ithaka report
is one of the most detailed investigations
of how university publishing
could evolve. It advocates a stronger role
for universities in
scholarly publishing; a strategic evaluation
of what local scholarly
publishing activities should be; a cohesive
university-wide approach to
publishing activities; the development of
scalable, collaborative,
cross-institutional publishing
infrastructure; the full utilization of
online publishing capabilities; strategic
capital investment; and
vigorous leadership by university
administrators, libraries, and
presses. It's a provocative, important
report that deserves to be
widely read; however, while it advocates
using a range of economic
publishing models tailored to local needs,
most discussion is focused
on traditional fee-based approaches. -
[20]CB
Carr, Leslie, and Tim Brody. "[21]Size Isn't Everything:
Sustainable
Repositories as Evidenced by Sustainable
Deposit Profiles " [22]D-Lib
Magazine
13(7/8)(July/August
2007)(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july07/carr/07carr.html ). - How can we
measure the success of a digital repository?
Simply looking at the
number of deposited items is problematic for
many reasons. A better
method, the authors argue, is to measure
"community engagement," which
should be evident in deposit patterns. For
example, a repository built
through a few large batch deposits may have
less community engagement
than smaller repositories with daily
deposits across a broad range of
subject categories. This article attempts to
develop a "metrics of
community take-up" by analyzing the
deposit profiles of repositories in
the [23]Registry of Open Access Repositories
(ROAR), looking in
particular at the number of items deposited
per day over the course of
a year, and the deposit patterns across
subjects or communities in a
given repository. According to this data, 12
of 20 largest repositories
(in size) would not make the list of 20 most
active. While the metrics
presented here are quite general, they
provide a useful way forward for
institutions thinking about how to measure
the use of their
repositories. In addition, much of this data
is [24]tracked, kept
up-to-date and made available in the 900+
repository profiles on the
ROAR website, allowing institutions to see
their own deposit patterns
and compare with others. - BR
Haya, Glenn, Else Nygren, and Wilhelm Widmark. "Metalib and Google
Scholar: a User Study" [25]Online Information Review
31(3)(2007): 365-375. - Interesting
interface shootout between Metalib
and Google Scholar. The guinea pigs in this
study were 32
"intermediate" undergrads from
option swept students off their feet but the
response to Google Scholar
was "more positive". This had to
do with the familiarity of the
interface plus ease of use. Interestingly
enough, success rates
increased considerably for both tools if the
students went through a
short training session prior to beginning
their search. The main lesson
to draw from studies like this is the
importance of testing
"meta-search" products in order to
gauge their effectiveness. Simply
making them available isn't enough. -
[26]LRK
Lamb, Brian. "[27]Dr. Mashup or, Why
Educators Should Learn to Stop
Worrying and Love the Remix" [28]EDUCAUSE Review 42(4)(July/August
2007): 13-24. (http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0740.pdf).
-
As Lamb explains, the term
"mashup" is used to describe the "reuse, or
remixing, of works of art, of content,
and/or of data for the purposes
that were not intended or even imagined by
the original creators."
HousingMaps
([29]http://www.housingmaps.com), which brings together
housing vacancies on craigslist with Google
Maps, is an excellent
example. Although mashups are fraught with
difficult questions for
educators and policy-makers, such as whether
a mashup is a derivative
or original work, Lamb encourages the higher
education community to be
more "open" to the possibilities.
Specifically, Lamb would like to see
educators using open and discoverable
resources (e.g . not locked inside
course management systems), open and
transparent licensing (e.g.
Creative Commons), and open and remixable
formats in order to encourage
the reuse of their content. A well-written
piece that should cause
librarians to consider the appropriate types
of content/data that we
could be offering up to the mashup sandbox.
- [30]SG
Mary E. Piorun, , Lisa A. Palmer, and Jim Comes. "Challenges and
Lessons Learned: Moving from Image Database
to Institutional
Repository" [31]OCLC Systems & Services 23(2)(2007): 148-157. - The
path to an Institutional Repository is not
always a straight line as
this narrative from the Medical School
Library at UMass makes clear.
Along the way at least in their case, were
academic departments with
conflicting objectives, budgets duly
proposed and rejected, hardware
and software issues. An epiphany of sorts
came when they finally got
the chance to choose their own software.
"It was critical," they
determined, "that the product be
robust, require little special
programming, and be implemented and
maintained with current library
staff." Finishing off this tale of joy
and sorrow is a list of elements
they felt either helped or hindered their
success. - [32]LRK
Swan, Alma. "[33]What a Difference a
Publisher Makes"
[34]OptimalScholarship (7 July
2007)(http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-difference-pu
blisher-makes.html ). - In this posting to
her new
[35]OptimalScholarship weblog, scholarly
communication consultant
[36]Alma Swan examines the copy editing of
journal articles. Does it
add value, subtract value, or both? What are
the typical differences
between the author's final draft and the
copy-edited paper? Are these
differences significant? As digital
repositories containing e-prints
multiply, these issues are increasingly
important. Swan discusses
pertinent research studies that address
these issues, and she discusses
the
[37]VALREC project, which is developing a tool to alert readers to
the differences between article versions. -
[38]CB
Vaas, Lisa. "[39]Is It OK For Google To
Own Us?" [40]eWeek (July 9,
2007)(http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2155596,00.asp). - Google
has been a lightning rod for many issues in
libraryland, but this piece
demonstrates that it's not just librarians
that are concerned about
what Google is up to. In this brief article,
Vaas provides an overview
of the issues in the current dispute between
Google and Privacy
International. The basic dispute stems from
a recent report from
Privacy International (available at
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-553961
), in which Privacy International labeled
Google "hostile to privacy"
for its lack of controls in protecting the
personally identifiable
information (PII) of its users. Although
some of the findings in the
Privacy International report have been
disputed, both by Google and
external parties, this article and the
Privacy International report are
reminders of the myriad ways seemingly
innocuous information is being
collected on a regular basis without any
substantive regulations or
guidelines on how that information can or
should be used in the long
term. - [41]FC
Vondracek, Ruth. "Comfort and
Convenience? Why Students Choose
Alternatives to the Library" [42]Portal: Libraries in the Academy
7(3)(July 2007): 277-293. - Library surveys
often go over what users
like and dislike about the library. This
survey is unique in that it
specifically asked non-users what they liked
about their non-library
locations when doing research or study.
Non-users or infrequent users
were asked where they studied most when on
their own or in a group.
They were also asked about the
characteristics of their preferred
locations (e.g. quiet, convenience). The
thinking behind these
questions was to see if characteristics
could be identified that could
then be applied to the library. Results
included making it easier to
reserve group-study rooms and making
individual study areas more quiet.
- [43]LRK
__________________________________________________________________
(c) Copyright 2007 by Roy Tennant
[47]Creative Commons License
References
Visible links
1. http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/
3. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/
5. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1
7. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
9. http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/Papers/libreport.pdf
<http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/Papers/libreport.pdf>
10. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
11. http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/deep-packet-inspection-meets-net-neutrality.ars
<http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/deep-packet-inspection-meets-net-neutrality.ars>
14. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6453423.html
15. http://www.libraryjournal.com/toc-archive/2007/20070715.html
16. http://www.blyberg.net/2005/11/20/ils-customer-bill-of-rights
18. http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/
19. http://www.ithaka.org/strategic-services/university-publishing
20. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/
21. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july07/carr/07carr.html
24. http://trac.eprints.org/projects/iar/wiki/Activity
25. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/oir.htm
27. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0740.pdf
<http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0740.pdf>
28. http://www.educause.edu/er/
29. http://www.housingmaps.com/
30. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1
31. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/oclc.htm
33. http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-difference-publisher-makes.html
34. http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/
35. http://optimalscholarship.blogspot.com/
36. http://www.keyperspectives.co.uk/aboutus/aswan.html
<http://www.keyperspectives.co.uk/aboutus/aswan.html>
37. http://valrec.eprints.org/
38. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/
39. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2155596,00.asp
41. http://www.cervone.com/
<http://www.cervone.com/>
42. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pla/
44. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer
<http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer>
45. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer
47. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Public-Access Computer
Systems Publications [PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]; on behalf of; Roy Tennant
[tennantr@OCLC.ORG]
Wed 5/09/2007 5:07 AM PACS-P@LISTSERV.UH.EDU [CurrentCites]
Current Cites, August 2007
Current Cites
August 2007
Edited by [2]Roy
Tennant
http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/2007/cc07.18.8.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr.,
Keri Cascio, [4]Susan Gibbons,
[5]Leo Robert Klein, Brian Rosenblum,
[6]Karen G. Schneider, [7]
Tennant
_____________________________________________________
Albanese, Andrew Richard. "[8]Scan This
Book!" [9]Library Journal (15
August
2007)(http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA6466634.html). - This
piece is mostly an interview with Brewster
Kahle of the Open Content
digitization, and this interview explores
that well. Kahle sees himself
as a crusader, and someone following on the
tradition of libraries in
this country while bringing their content to
the web. "I see the
library system in this country as a $12
billion industry dedicated to
preservation and access of materials that
are not mediated through a
corporate experience," Kahle says,
"The alternative is that the
materials people learn from are forever
mediated by a relatively small
number of commercial companies in terms of
selection and presentation."
- [10]RT
Cervone, Frank. "ILS Migration in the
21st Century: Some New Things to
Think About This Time Around" [11]Computers in Libraries
27(7)(July/August 2007): 6-8; 60-62. -
Cervone pens a timely and useful
article on making the tough transition from
one integrated library
system to another. Given the current
upheaval (some forced, some
voluntary) in the ILS market, his advice is
timely indeed, and those
who are not immediately facing such a
migration would nonetheless be
wise to pin it to their bulletin board for
future use. To rephrase an
old quote, there are only two kinds of
librarians -- those who have
weathered a system migration and those who
will. In addition to listing
the basic steps of a migration, Cervone
includes a summary list of
typical tasks and some links to open source
web application testing
tools. Highly recommended for anyone with an
ILS and a future. - [12]RT
Duguid, Paul. "[13]Inheritance and
Loss? A Brief Survey of Google
Books"
[14]First Monday 12(8)(6 August
2007)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/duguid/).
- Paul
Duguid takes us step-by-step through Google
Book Search looking for
online editions of Tristram Shandy and
points out some problematic
results: the scans are unreadable, the
metadata is non-existent, and
the editions appearing at the top of the
search results are inferior
editions that the contributing libraries
tucked away in remote storage
long ago. Duguid concludes that Google
doesn't really appreciate "the
bookish character of books." They don't
lend themselves to automated
digitization processes, and Google's
powerful search tools cannot make
up for a lack of metadata. Duguid argues
that this visible lack of
quality threatens the reputation not just of
Google, but also those of
the contributing libraries -- he calls this
a kind of "patricide" in
which the new digital form is not only
inadequate itself, but destroys
the original resources it hopes to inherit.
Invoking Nicholson Baker,
Duguid worries about Google Book Search
becoming a kind of digital
"double fold" -- a high-tech, low
quality project libraries find
themselves locked into. These arguments are
weakened by a selective and
incomplete methodology and some narrow
assumptions about the typical or
potential uses of Google Book Search--nevertheless,
a thought-provoking
articulation of some of the concerns
surrounding this project. - BR
Feather, Celeste. "Electronic Resources
Communications Management: A
Strategy for Success" [15]Library Resources & Technical
Services
51(3)(July 2007): 204-211, 228. - In her
article "Electronic Resources
Communications Management," Celeste
Feather discusses how e-resources
staff can better handle their lines of
communication. She writes, "As
libraries face the question of how to provide
more services with fewer
resources, administrators often expect
e-resources acquisitions units
to mange more resources with fewer staff
than their peer print
acquisitions units." We can easily
apply this situation to other
departments in our libraries -- it seems
that we're all trying to do
more with less. If you find yourself in a
communications black hole,
Feather's article addresses the literature
of the organization of
communications, provides analysis of the
types of communication the
department is receiving, and makes
recommendations on how communication
can be improved. She admits that her
findings are specific to her
library's needs, but many of her suggestions
can be applied at any
library. It's no surprise that a movement to
increase face-to-face
communication helped to relieve what Feather
calls "information
fatigue." - KC
Head, Alison. "[16]Beyond Google: How
do Students Conduct Academic
Research?" [17]First Monday 12(8)(August
2007)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/head/).
- This
article, based on research conducted by
noted professor and usability
specialist Dr. Alison Head, challenges
assumptions about student
research behavior. Far from turning to
Google and confidently flipping
out a paper, students rely more on
authoritative sources vetted and
provided by instructors and librarians, and
are more hesitant,
diffident, and confused by the research process
than is often assumed.
The paper concludes by recommending we pay
more attention to research
instruction and information literacy, but
implicit in its suggestions
is a ringing endorsement of classic
librarian tasks in higher
education. - [18]KGS
Lynch, Clifford. "[19]The Shape of the
Scientific Article in The
Developing Cyberinfrastructure" [20]CTWatch Quarterly 3(3)(August
2007)(http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/articles/2007/08/the-shape-of-th
e-scientific-article-in-the-developing-cyberinfrastructure/).
-
Clifford Lynch elucidates how the scientific
article is likely to
evolve in response to changes in the way
scholarly work is carried out.
Much of the focus is on articles and their
relationship to data. For
example, to what extent should articles
incorporate data versus simply
reference data, and how well does our the
current data repository
infrastructure support data preservation.
Along with the need to make
data available comes the need for more meaningful,
interactive ways to
visually present data. Finally, the
literature itself will be computed
upon on a large scale, not just read one
article at a time. Lynch
addresses these topics, provides some
assessment for how well
technology is meeting these needs today, and
identifies some areas
where more development is needed. This is
just one article in the
current issue of CTWatch Quarterly, which is
worth checking out in it's
entirety. The issue is devoted to
[21]"The Coming Revolution in
Scholarly Communications &
Cyberinfrastructure" and contains articles
by Paul Ginsparg, Peter Suber, and many
others. - BR
McKay, Dana. "[22]Institutional
Repositories and Their 'Other' Users:
Usability Beyond Authors" [23]Ariadne
52(July
2007)(http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue52/mckay/). - A lot has been
written on institutional repositories-- so
much so that it can be hard
for someone new to the topic to know where
to begin. Through focusing
on the various repository user and usability
issues, McKay has created
a very useful review of the institutional
repository literature. Her
conclusion is that while authors have been
well studied, there are two
other important users of institutional
repositories that require more
attention, namely information seekers
("end-users") and repository
managers. She recommends observational
studies, formal usability
testing, and usage log analyses as three
fruitful methods to improve
our understanding of repository users. -
[24]SG
Yaffa, Joshua. "[25]The Road to
Clarity" [26]New York Times (August
12 2007): 36.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html). - Fonts
matter. On the road signs of our highways
they can literally mean the
difference between life and death. This
article is a history of how a
new font, Clearview, was developed for road
signs in the
the first time, the author states that
'anyone attempted to apply
systematically the principles of graphic
design to the American
highway.' The process was careful and took
the better part of two
decades. The author describes what happened
with wonderful detail using
it as a vehicle to discuss broader issues of
design and typography. If
anyone wants an introduction to the subject,
this is a great way to
start. - [27]LRK
van der Graaf, Maurits. "[28]DRIVER:
Seven Items on a European Agenda
for Digital Repositories" [29]Ariadne
(52)(2007)(http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue52/vandergraf/). - During the
last few years, there have been growing
number of surveys about digital
repositories that have helped to clarify the
activities of these
important new systems ([30]ARL, [31]CNI,
[32]CNI/SURF, [33]DSpace, and
[34]MIRACLE Project). Now, the [35]DRIVER
Project has added to that
knowledgebase with a survey of repository
activity in 27 European Union
countries. In 15 countries, a "sizeable
proportion" of research
universities have a repository, in 5 "a
few institutions" have
repositories, and in 7 there is no known
repository activity. The
average repository has about 9,000 records.
Ninety percent of these
records are for textual materials, and 61%
are metadata-only records.
GNU Eprints is the most commonly used
software, followed by DSpace.
Check out the article for more details. -
[36]CB
__________________________________________________________________
Current Cites - ISSN: 1060-2356 is hosted by
the community at
WebJunction.org.
(c) Copyright 2007 by Roy Tennant
[40]Creative Commons License
References
1. http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/
3. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/
4. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1
6. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
8. http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA6466634.html
11. http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/default.shtml
13. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/duguid/
14. http://www.firstmonday.org/
15.
http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/alctspubs/librestechsvc/libraryresources.htm
16. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/head/
17. http://www.firstmonday.org/
18. http://freerangelibrarian.com/
19.
http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/articles/2007/08/the-shape-of-the-scientifi
c-article-in-the-developing-cyberinfrastructure/
20. http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/
21. http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/archives/august-2007
22. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue52/mckay/
24. http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=750&ID=115655&bhcp=1
25. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.html
28. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue52/vandergraf/
30. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/cwb/arlir.htm
31. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/lynch/09lynch.html
32. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/westrienen/09westrienen.html
33. http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/PreReviewSurvey
34. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub140abst.html
35. http://www.driver-repository.eu/
36. http://www.digital-scholarship.org/
37. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer
38. http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer
40. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
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