E-Lert # 284 / Cyberavis no. 284
Friday July 4, 2008 / le vendredi 4 juillet 2008
CARL COMMUNIQUE / COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ABRC
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M. Gerald Beasley est le nouveau Bibliothécaire en chef à l’Université Concordia effectivement du 1er juillet 2008. Il succède à M Bill Curran, qui a contribué à l’Université de façon exceptionnelle pendant ses deux termes dans cette position. Gerald Beasley était Director of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library à Columbia University, un poste qu’il a eu depuis 2004.
NEWS / NOUVELLES
Science-publishing firm struggles to make ends meet with open-access
model
Declan Butler
Nature, Volume 454, Number 7200, July 3, 2008
Since its launch in 2002, PLoS has been kept afloat financially
by some US$17.3 million in philanthropic grants. An analysis by Nature of
the company's accounts shows that PLoS still relies heavily on charity funding,
and falls far short of its stated goal of quickly breaking even through
its business model of charging authors a fee to publish in its journals.
In the past financial year, ending 30 September 2007, its $6.68-million
spending outstripped its revenue of $2.86 million, according to the publicly
available accounts.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080702/full/454011a.html
Open Access Policy will give researchers worldwide immediate access
to OICR data
June 30, 2008
The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is taking
the lead in 2008 and making the research it funds available to the public
through an open access policy that takes effect July 1. OICR’s policy,
“Access to Research Outputs,” provides the guidelines for OICR’s
scientists when they publish their work and describes the institutional
repository where all publications from OICR scientists will be deposited
for public accessibility.
http://www.oicr.on.ca/portalnews/vol2_issue3/access.htm
In Lawsuit, University Asserts That Downloading Copyrighted Texts
Is Fair Use
Andrea L. Foster
The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27, 2008
In a closely watched copyright-infringement lawsuit, Georgia
State University fired back this week at its accusers, three academic publishers
that say the institution invites students to illegally download and print
readings from thousands of works. The university asserts that its online
distribution of course material is permitted under copyright law's fair-use
exemption.
http://chronicle.com/free/2008/06/3583n.htm
Readex partners with Center for Research Libraries to create Web-based
World Newspaper Archive
June 26, 2008
Readex, a division of NewsBank, and the Center for Research
Libraries (CRL) announced today that they will create the world's largest,
fully searchable digital archive of international newspapers. The World
Newspaper Archive will provide students, teachers and scholars unprecedented
access to historical newspapers published outside the United States, advancing
research and offering new insights across wide-ranging academic disciplines.
http://www.readex.com/readex/press.cfm?press=45
Stanford University School of Education Open Access Motion
June 25, 2008
In recognition of its responsibility to make its research
and scholarship as widely and publicly available as possible, the faculty
of the Stanford University School of Education is determined to take advantage
of new technologies to increase access to its work among scholars worldwide,
educators, policymakers, and the public. In support of greater openness
in scholarly and educational endeavors, the faculty of the School of Education
agree to the following policy: Faculty members grant to the Stanford University
permission to make publicly available their scholarly articles and to exercise
the copyright in those articles. They grant to Stanford University a nonexclusive,
irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright
relating to their scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others
to do the same, provided that the articles are properly attributed to the
authors not sold for a profit.
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/4450.html
Two of five candidates to move forward: Government tags AAFC and
NRCan labs for transfer to university sector
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 22, Number 10, June 20, 2008
The federal government will move forward on only two of the five federal laboratories identified by an Expert Panel as early candidates for collaboration with a range of academic, institutional and industry partners. The government response was announced with little explanation as to why the other three candidates were not being considered, although there is speculation that many of the government departments targeted for transfer opposed their inclusion since the proposals came from sources external to government.
Report urges NSERC to adopt Conference Model to review Discovery Grant applications
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 22, Number 10, June 20, 2008
A new report to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is recommending that the process for evaluating applicants to the Discovery Grants Program (DGP) be overhauled. The proposed changes would provide greater consistency across disciplines and an enhanced ability to properly handle research in emerging areas and areas that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. The report further urges the granting council to base its granting decisions on the cost of research and not the researchers need for funding.
ARTICLES
Digital Daze
Scott McLemee
Inside Higher Ed, July 2, 2008
The late Jean Baudrillard – postmodern theorist and,
in his day, major brand-name cash cow in the world of academic publishing
– used to speculate about how technological objects were enacting
their revenge upon us. But something else seemed to be happening at the
annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses, in Montreal
late last week.
http://insidehighered.com/views/2008/07/02/mclemee
Giving new life to out-of-print books: when publishers’ and
libraries’ interests meet
Françoise Vandooren and Cécile Gass
Learned Publishing, Volume 2 1, Number 3, JULY 2008
Universities have the great advantage that they bring together
all the different types of actors involved in the scholarly publication
process: authors, reviewers, publishers, libraries, readers. When they join
together and think about their common interests, this can lead to improvements
in access to publications for the whole scientific community. This is what
happened at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), when the library
and Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles (EUB), the University’s
publishing imprint, decided to collaborate to provide online access to recent
out-of-print books.
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00013837/01/Article-LearnedPublishing-Vandooren-Gass-POSTPRINT.pdf
Planning Through the Rear-View Mirror
Ron Freedman
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 22, Number 10, June 20, 2008
Imagine if Canada had to survive in the world of the future without a manufacturing industry or a natural resource industry. That is, if we had no manufactured goods or raw materials to trade with the rest of the world. How would we do that? With the continuing shrinkage of Canadian manufacturing and large elements of our natural resource sector under pressure (oil and agriculture being current exceptions) that might not be a far-fetched question in the years to come. Especially if oil trading at $135 a barrel stimulates the rapid introduction of alternative technologies, such as electric cars and synthetic fuels that in turn displace our high-cost oil sands production.
Electronic Serials Usage Patterns as Observed at a Medium-Size University:
Searches and Full-Text Downloads
Alain Raymond Lamothe
Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and
Research, Volume 3, Number 1 (2008)
As the number of electronic serials available to libraries
continues to increase while library budgets remain either stagnant or on
the decrease, it becomes necessary to evaluate the use of a library’s
electronic collection. In 2006, usage statistics were evaluated at Laurentian
University, Canada, to provide direction to collection development and identify
high-cost low-use electronic serials. Searches and full-text downloads were
studied.
http://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/416
Canadiana.org: One of Canada's oldest and newest digitization initiatives
Brian Bell
Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and
Research, Volume 3, Number 1 (2008)
Canadiana.org is a new independent, non-profit, alliance
of partners, including Library and Archives Canada, from all parts of Canada's
cultural, heritage, research, broadcasting and publishing communities, chartered
to raise funds, receive donations and grants and to act as the overall coordinator
and facilitator for digitization initiatives and related enduring access
services and preservation infrastructures.
http://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/465/829
RESOURCES / RESSOURCES
Science Dissemination using Open Access: A compendium of selected
literature on Open Access
E. Canessa and M. Zennaro
International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Science Dissemination Unit,
July 2008
This book aims to guide the scientific community on the
requirements of Open Access, and the plethora of low-cost solutions available.
A compendium of selected literature on Open Access is presented to increase
the awareness of the potential of open publishing in general. The book also
aims to encourage decision makers in academia and research centers to adopt
institutional and regional Open Access Journals and Archives to make their
own scientific results public and fully searchable on the Internet.
http://sdu.ictp.it/openaccess/book.html
Understanding Open Access in the Academic Environment: a Guide for
Authors
Kylie Pappalardo et al
Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project, June 2008
The guide provides authors with an overview of the concept
of and rationale for open access to research outputs and how they may be
involved in its implementation and with what effect. In doing so it considers
the central role of copyright law and publishing agreements in structuring
an open access framework as well as the increasing involvement of funders
and academic institutions. Importantly, the guide addresses how open access
goals can affect an author’s relationship with their commercial publisher
and provides guidance on how to negotiate a proper allocation of copyright
interests between an author and publisher. A Copyright Toolkit is provided
to further assist authors in managing their copyright.
http://www.oaklaw.qut.edu.au/
Open Access Opportunities and Challenges: a Handbook
European Commission, Directorate-General for Research, 2008
Researchers, interested lay people, inventors, patients,
teachers and journalists are all confronted with a tollbooth at the entrance
to the gardens of knowledge when seeking the latest state of knowledge for
private or professional reasons. For many users, this is a paradoxical situation:
never before has scholarship had at its disposal such a platform for knowledge
networking as is offered by the Internet, but at the same time the transfer
of the traditional publication system to cyberspace goes hand-in- hand with
exclusive rights of access. The issue of Open Access is no longer a matter
just for specialists, it is now firmly on the European political agenda.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society//document_library/pdf_06/open-access-handbook_en.pdf
Libraries in Canada Portal
Goethe Institute, June 2008
On the occasion of the IFLA Conference in Quebec City in
August 2008, the Goethe Institute in Canada offers an overview of the library
landscape in Canada. The articles provided, which for the most part come
from North American library journals, describe various types of libraries
and demonstrate innovative and successful work in Canadian libraries, such
as multicultural services, Web 2.0 services and digitization projects.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/ca/lp/prj/bik/enindex.htm
Core Functions of the Research Library in the 21st Century
Council on Library and Information Resources
February 27, 2008
The information landscape of early twenty-first century
higher education is characterized by ubiquitous, digitized, indexed online
access to content. Researchers and students begin and often end their quest
for information online. Results of research can be and increasingly are
published without publishers. Access to these results, and to the cultural
and scientific record that constitutes the primary resource base for research
and teaching, is narrowed by the increasingly exclusive use of licensing
in lieu of selling. What are the critical functions of the research library
in this changing landscape? To address this question, CLIR commissioned
8 essays as background for discussion at a meeting held in Washington DC.
http://www.clir.org/activities/registration/08r21.html
EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS
Implementing e-Learning 2.0 Technologies
The eLearning Guild
Online, September 18 & 19, 2008
New technologies are driving changes in the way we provide
learning to the learners, the way they interact with the content, and the
way they learn. This Online Forum looks at Learning 2.0 – using wikis,
Podcasting, blogs, virtual worlds, collaborative technologies, and other
emerging learning technologies, to provide learners with effective learning
tools. You will see examples, from all types of organizations, of how they
are selecting, implementing, and managing these new approaches to providing
learning.
http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.905
3rd Workshop on "Foundations of Digital Libraries"
Aarhus, Denmark, September 18, 2008
Since its conception, the Digital Library field has been
a very broad and heterogeneous research arena, attracting practitioners
and researchers from a large number of disciplines. Despite the plethora
of diversely motivated models, systems, and results that have been developed,
no agreement exists yet on the foundations characterizing and governing
Digital Libraries. Nowadays the community is well aware of the problems
generated by such lack of a universally accepted unifying framework; it
is urgent that the current situation is reversed so that progress in the
field can be accelerated.
http://www.delos.info/DLFoundations2008
