E-Lert # 305 / Cyberavis no. 305
Friday December 5, 2008 / le vendredi 5 décembre 2008
CARL COMMUNIQUE / COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ABRC
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is organizing an Open Library Environment (OLE) Project workshop (http://oleproject.org/). This is a project funded by the Mellon Foundation to create a design document for an open source integrated library system, based on principles of service-oriented architecture. LAC is the Canadian partner in the project among numerous U.S. partners, primarily university libraries. Participants will be asked to describe the current business processes that are handled by way of their current ILS and then they will be asked what business processes they would like to see handled (or handled differently) in a better ILS. The information and opinions gathered from the various partner workshops will be pooled and used to develop a business process model for the new ILS that is to be developed through this project. The workshop is tentatively set for Monday-Tuesday, January 12-13, 2009, in Ottawa (precise agenda, venue, and times still to be finalized).There is no registration fee, though participants will need to cover travel and accommodation costs. Libraries that may be able to send participants to the workshop are asked to signal their interest directly to Jim Clark (jim.clark@lac-bac.gc.ca), Chief, Legal Deposit Internet Unit, Library and Archives Canada, by December 19, 2008.
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Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (BAC) organise un atelier sur le projet Open Library Environment (http://oleproject.org/). Ce projet, financé par la Fondation Mellon, vise à créer un document de conception pour un système intégré de gestion de bibliothèque (SIGB) à l’accès ouvert basé sur les principes de l'architecture axée sur le service. BAC est le partenaire canadien entre nombreux partenaires étatsuniens, qui sont pour la plupart, les bibliothèques universitaires. Pendant l’atelier, on demandera aux participants de décrire les processus d’affaires actuellement traités par leur SIGB, et d’énumérer ceux qu’ils voudraient qu’un meilleur SIGB traite (ou qui soient traités dans une manière différente). Les informations et opinions reçues de ces ateliers seront compilées ensemble et utilisées pour développer un modèle du processus d’affaires pour le SIBG qui sera développé pendant ce projet. L’atelier se tiendra provisoirement le lundi 12 janvier et le mardi 13 janvier 2009 à Ottawa (l’ordre du jour, l’endroit, et les heures précises ne sont pas encore réglés). Il n’y aura aucuns frais d’inscription, mais les participants sont responsables à leurs propres couts de voyage et de logement. Pour toutes bibliothèques qui pourraient envoyer des participants à l’atelier ; prière de contacter Jim Clark (jim.clark@lac-bac.gc.ca), Unité de dépôt légal – Internet, Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (BAC), avant le 19 décembre 2008.
NEWS / NOUVELLES
Digital Repository Federation (Japan) and DRIVER sign Memorandum
of Agreement
December 3, 2008
DRF (Japan) and DRIVER have agreed to work closely together on promoting
federated repository infrastructures, signing a Memorandum of Understanding
to take this collaboration forward. DRF and DRIVER share the vision that
the Open Access movement in Europe and in Japan contribute to better scholarly
communication in the world; and that each should contribute actively and
cooperatively to a global, interoperable, trusted and long-term data and
service infrastructure based on Open Access digital repositories.
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/4701.html
National Strategy puts information access on the agenda for people
with print disabilities
Library and Archives Canada, December 2, 2008
Representatives from the library community and the publishing sector met
with consumers and consumer groups in a unique forum to discuss the progress
of the Initiative for Equitable Library Access (IELA) in addressing
the present state of access to information and the future needs of people
with print disabilities. The event was organized by Library and Archives
Canada on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/whats-new/013-364-e.html
Obama urged to implement broadband plan
Peter Nowak
CBC News, December 2, 2008
Consumer advocates, technology companies and internet service providers
have joined forces in the United States to call for a national strategy
to bring affordable broadband connectivity to every American. The BB4US
coalition, which has 55 members including consumer groups Free Press and
the New America Foundation, technology companies such as Google Inc. and
Intel Corp., and internet service providers Verizon Communications Inc.
and AT&T Inc., seeks to make affordable broadband available to every
individual, business and organization.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/12/02/tech-broadband.html
Novanet and University of New Brunswick to use OCLC WorldCat Local
service
December 1, 2008
Novanet and the University of New Brunswick have signed agreements to
implement OCLC's WorldCat Local, the service that combines the cooperative
power of OCLC member libraries worldwide with the ability to use WorldCat.org
as a solution for local discovery and delivery services. "WorldCat
Local will provide a powerful discovery layer for our students and faculty
to access our collection and licensed resources from a single search," said
John Teskey, Director of Libraries at the University of New Brunswick.
http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200846.htm
Professor Turns His Online Course Into a Role-Playing Game
Jeffrey R. Young
The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 1, 2008
David Wiley says that teachers can learn a lot from online video games — the
kind where players pretend to be orcs and wizards and work together in
teams to slay dragons. So Mr. Wiley, an associate professor of instructional
psychology and technology at Brigham Young University, has decided to turn
an online course he’s
teaching next semester into an online role-playing game.
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3490&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Perimeter Institute lands Stephen Hawking
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 22, Number 18, November 30, 2008
The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) has launched a new Distinguished Research Chair program and landed Dr Stephen Hawking as the inaugural chairholder. Under the arrangement, Hawking will become a regular visitor to the Waterloo ON-based institute, with his first extended stay scheduled for the summer of 2009. Hawking is the latest coup for the PI, which earlier this year attracted Dr Neil Turok — a Hawking protege and colleague at Cambridge University — as its executive director. Turok says he plans to establish up to 40 visiting chairs at the PI and make the institute a "second research home" for some of the world's leading scientists
Cuts to R&D reduce federal S&T spending for the first
time in five years
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 22, Number 18, November 30, 2008
Federal spending on S&T will decline this year for the first time since FY02-03 despite a significant increase in overall government spending. The Statistics Canada report is based on data compiled well before the current financial crisis. It underlines the growing sense that the Harper administration's public pronouncements of support for S&T are beginning to ring hollow.
Literary treasure peeks into revolutionary era
Eric Volmers
Calgary Herald, November 30, 2008
It has survived wars, pestilence, religious reformation and the scribbled
notes of unknown priests. Yet, the five-century-old Breviarium Ratisponense
remains remarkably intact on the 12th floor of the University of Calgary's
MacKimmie Library. Printed in 1480 in Strasbourg, Germany, it contains
both 131 pages of text printed by movable type and 52 handwritten pages
of manuscript. It is one of only eight to have survived from the original
400 that were printed that year and the only one in Canada. But it's the
combination of movable type and handwriting that helps make the Breviarium
such a unique artifact, a symbol of changing times and the information
revolution spearheaded by the printing press.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/booksandthearts/story.html?id=de88bd67-088c-4947-881d-4cbe8c15db23
University of Calgary among
Hindawi’s first five institutional members
November 27, 2008
Hindawi Publishing Corporation is pleased to announce that it has signed
up the first five members of its recently launched Open Access Institutional
Membership program. Authors from the following institutes are now able
to submit their work to any of Hindawi's 150+ open access journals without
being directly subject to any open access publication charges: General
Technologies, Vseobecne Technologie (GTVT); Lund University; University
of Calgary; University of Malaysia, Perlis (UniMAP); Utrecht University.
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/4694.html
Plaidoyer pour un ministre du développement numérique
Yves Therrien
Le Soleil, 24 novembre 2008
Aucun parti dans la campagne électorale [Québec] actuelle
ne parle véritablement du monde du numérique, de commerce électronique,
de bande passante, de contenu numérique ou d'Internet en ayant une
vision globale. Au contraire, les gouvernements ont laissé le développement
s'organiser en silo, chaque ministère ayant sa vision sans intégration
au lieu d'avoir une vision globale de l'écosystème numérique.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-soleil/dossiers/elections-quebecoises/200811/23/01-803615-plaidoyer-pour-un-ministre-du-developpement-numerique.php
The Bourne Innovation: UC Researchers Launch a YouTube for Scientists
Bruce V. Bigelow
Xconomy, November 24, 2008
As an editor at a growing online resource called the Public
Library of Science, UC San Diego Professor Philip Bourne
is in an ideal position to see the disruptive changes that are remaking
the $11 billion scientific publishing industry. As it has with other
types of traditional publishing, the Internet is turning the staid-but-highly
lucrative business of academic publishing on its head. As Bourne explains
with SciVee video, “What
we’re really trying to do here is to further the dissemination
of science.”
http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2008/11/24/the-bourne-innovation-uc-researchers-launch-a-youtube-for-scientists/
L'USB 3.0 promet un taux de transfert de 5,0 Gbit/s
André Simard
Cyberpresse.ca, 20 novembre 2008
Cette version 3.0 du format USB, aussi connue sous le nom de «SuperSpeed USB», promet un taux de transfert de données de 10 fois supérieur à celui de l'USB 2.0. Ce nouveau taux de 5,0 Gbit/s se compare avantageusement à celui des générations précédentes. L'USB 2.0, lancé en avril 2000, offrait un taux de transfert de 480 Mbit/s, tandis que celui de l'USB 1.0 était de 1,5 Mbit/s en 1996. HTML
ARTICLES
Studies in Second Life
Christal Gardiola
University Affairs, January 2009
Originally, this virtual world became a spot for social networking and
business transactions. But, in 2004, Second Life launched the Campus:
Second Life program for educational institutions.
Universities including Harvard, Columbia and Duke, among hundreds of other
American schools, quickly signed up to conduct their classes online. Second
Life’s educational initiative soon spread around the world. Today,
more than 120 schools from such countries as Finland, Brazil, Korea and
the United Kingdom are part of the growing virtual community that uses
Second Life for distance education. Its growth in less than half a decade
raises the issue of whether 3-D online education will one day replace normal
classroom settings – real life versus Second Life.
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/2008/12/01/studies-in-second-life.aspx
Guardian supplement explores ‘profound transformation’ of
higher education by technology
December 2, 2008
A Guardian
supplement looks at the way technology has transformed
higher education over the last decade. Sponsored by JISC to launch
its ‘Student
experiences of technology’ campaign, the Digital
Student supplement explores the achievements of institutions in this
area and some of the future challenges as universities look to exploit
technology and place the student experience at the heart of learning
and teaching.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/digitalstudent
Learning by heart is 'pointless for Google generation'
Murray Wardrop
Telegraph, December 2, 2008
For generations of pupils, learning key historical dates, places, and
names off by heart has been the bastion of academic success. But for today's
youngsters, tedious rote learning is pointless because such basic facts
are only a mouse click away via Google, Wikipedia and online libraries,
according to writer and businessman Don Tapscott. Tapscott, author of the
best-selling book Wikinomics and a champion of the "net generation",
suggests a better approach would be to teach children to think creatively
so they could learn to interpret and apply the knowledge available online.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/3540852/Learning-by-heart-is-pointless-for-Google-generation.html
Google in the Research and Teaching of Instruction Librarians
Charlene Sorensen and Candice Dahl
The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 34, Issue 6, November 2008
This exploratory study assesses the differences and similarities between how instruction librarians in Western Canada use Google and how they instruct students to use it. Survey results indicate that these librarians do use Google but can be influenced by faculty to present Google negatively to students.
The Value of LIS Schools’ Research Topics to Library Authors’ Professional
Work
Gay Helen Perkins and Tuesdi L Helbig
The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 34, Issue 6, November 2008
Stoan’s distinction between library skills and research skills based on different philosophies of information seeking suggests the value of training in research methodology for the librarian. Such training could lead to more effective patron consultations, committee/administrative work, and personal research. Thus, a convenience sample of web-based syllabi for web-assisted research courses at 25/57 of the American Library Association-accredited programs were subjected to exploratory analysis, and 45 syllabi-based research topics were reviewed for usefulness to library authors’ professional work.
Digitizing and the Meaning of Knowledge
Jean-Claude Guédon
Academic Matters, October/November 2008
After decades of conquests, some silent, some less so, the digital context
is coming close to forming the new cultural environment within which we
must learn to live, create and think. Now that we are fully alerted to
the fact that mixing technology and knowledge can bring about unexpected
as well as unintended consequences, we should certainly try to spot some
of these. In other words, what are some of the changes bound to affect
academic life most in the next couple of decades?
http://www.academicmatters.ca/current_issue.article.gk?catalog_item_id=1228&category=/issues/OCT2008
A Year of Selective Web Archiving with the Web Curator at the
National Library of New Zealand
Gordon Paynter et al
D-Lib Magazine, Volume 14, Number 5/6, May/June 2008
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may08/paynter/05paynter.html
RESOURCES / RESSOURCES
Report of the Subject and Institutional Repositories Interactions StudyCatherine Jones et al
Science & Technology Facilities Council and JISC, November 2008
This report was commissioned by JISC to produce a set of practical recommendations
for steps that can be taken to improve the interactions between institutional
and subject repositories in the UK. For practical reasons, the report was concerned
exclusively with scholarly articles at their various stages of existence, although
many of the report’s recommendations are capable of a more general application.
http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/259/1/siris-report-nov-2008.pdf
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital
Youth Project
Mizuko Ito et al
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media
and Learning, November 2008
Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such
as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. They have so
permeated young lives that it is hard to believe that less than a decade ago
these technologies barely existed. Today’s youth may be coming of age
and struggling for autonomy and identity as did their predecessors, but they
are doing so amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression.
This white paper summarizes the results of a three-year ethnographic study,
funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examining young
people’s participation in the new media ecology.
http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePaper.pdf
Academic Library Building Renovation
Benchmarks
Primary Research Group, 2008
The report presents detailed data from 65 academic libraries about their completed,
current, or planned library renovation projects. The study includes detailed
data on capital spending, library redesign budgets, and spending on computer
labs & info commons, in-library classrooms, artwork, library furniture,
carpeting and other flooring, and other elements of academic library renovations
or new construction.
http://www.primaryresearch.com/
Fair Use in the U.S. Economy: Economic Contribution of Industries
Relying on Fair Use
Thomas Rogers et al
Computer & Communications Industry Association [U.S.], 2007
This study details the economics of fair use industries. It is an extensive
look at the value represented by balanced copyright. Balanced copyright law – the
sort envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution – was once the law
of the land. Unfortunately, the past decade has seen a slow erosion of this
balance. The authors argue that this erosion is not merely a philosophical
issue; it endangers economic growth and threatens millions of jobs. Information
policy must recognize the importance of the fair use economy and safeguard
it from the unintended consequences of perhaps well meaning but overbroad copyright
regulation.
http://www.ccianet.org/artmanager/uploads/1/FairUseStudy-Sep12.pdf
Two bits: the cultural significance of free software
Christopher M. Kelty
Duke University Press, 2008
In Two Bits, Christopher M. Kelty investigates the history and cultural significance
of Free Software, revealing the people and practices that have transformed
not only software, but also music, film, science, and education. Free Software
is a set of practices devoted to the collaborative creation of software source
code that is made openly and freely available through an unconventional use
of copyright law. Kelty shows how these specific practices have reoriented
the relations of power around the creation, dissemination, and authorization
of all kinds of knowledge after the arrival of the Internet.
http://twobits.net/read/
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
Brings together fascinating people and challenge them to give the "talk
of their lives" in 20 minutes or less. That is the purpose of the annual
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences, and the best of these
talks/artistic performances are posted on this Web site. More than 200
talks cover wide-ranging topics including motivation, faith, and technology.
http://www.ted.com/
EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS
SPARC-ACRL Forum: Working with the Facebook generation: Engaging student
views on access to scholarship
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 12, 2009
Appreciating, if not understanding, student perspectives on information sharing
and access to research will advance library outreach programs. Librarians and
students have the power to build valuable bridges of collaboration and guide
the larger academic community to reshape scholarly communication. Tech-savvy
students, who live and breathe information sharing, are critical to changing
the way scholarly communication is conducted. Not bound by traditional modes
of research exchange, students are using all the technologies at their disposal
to engage in scholarly discourse - including blogs, wikis and tagging tools.
http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/ala08mw/
SPARC-ACRL Forum to focus on Open Educational Resources
Denver, Colorado, January 24, 2009
The 18th SPARC-ACRL Forum, held during the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver,
will examine “The transformative potential of Open Educational Resources.” In
the academic community, there is growing interest in the concept of Open Educational
Resources (OER) and their potential to transform the way scholarship is conducted.
At the heart of the movement toward OER is the idea that the world’s
knowledge is a public good, and that technology provides an extraordinary opportunity
for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge.
www.arl.org/sparc/forum
ACRL 14 National Conference: Pushing the Edge: Explore, Engage, Extend
Seattle, Washington, March 12-15, 2009
ACRL 2009 will challenge you to push your boundaries and promises you the
opportunity to explore new ideas, engage in new learning, and extend our collective
vision of the future of academic and research libraries in the 21st century.
Registration and housing materials are now available. Register by the
January 16, 2009 early-bird deadline and save more than 20% on your conference
registration.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/seattle/seattle.cfm
Scholarly Communication Outreach: Alane Wilson to Lead Session on
Message Development
Seattle, Washington, March 11-12, 2009 [Register by January 1, 2009]
Do you want to develop a deeper understanding of how scholars' communication
practices are changing and how the landscape appears to them? Do you want to
present scholarly communication issues in ways that generate positive engagement
with faculty? If this describes your situation, you won't want to miss the
new ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication workshop "Scholarly
Communication Outreach: Crafting Messages that Grab Faculty Attention.”
http://www.arl.org/sc/institute/inst-events/0309workshop.shtml
Archiving 2009
Arlington, Virginia, May 4-7, 2009
Digital information is much easier to create than to preserve. But how will
we rely on digital information over time and technological change? The stakes
are high. Our cultures, societies, and economies depend on enduring access
to knowledge that is increasingly recorded in digital form, even though digital
technology is new and rapidly evolving. We must undertake digital archiving
and stewardship to prevent the loss of important information. This challenge
spans the life cycle of digital information, from creation to long-term preservation
and access.
http://www.imaging.org/conferences/archiving2009/
WILU 2009: Reflections
Montreal, Quebec, May 25-27, 2009
WILU 2009 will offer a spectrum of sessions to inspire and engage the information
literacy community. The idea of reflections connotes depth and thoughtful work,
as presented through either theoretical or applied research. The organizers
envision sessions that will require the active participation of conference
participants. The sessions of WILU 2009 will call on us to reconsider past
practices and advance new ideas and approaches into the future.
http://library.concordia.ca/wilu2009/index-en.php
