E-Lert # 306 / Cyberavis no. 306
Friday December 12, 2008 / le vendredi 12 décembre 2008
NEWS / NOUVELLES
Economic crisis still to register Canada's R&D performance
in doldrums with third lackluster year in a row
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 22, Number 19, December 12, 2008
Statistics Canada has released its final and most substantial collection
of R&D data of the year and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. It shows
that Canada's gross domestic expenditures on R&D (GERD) are projected
to be virtually stagnant for the third year in a row and are actually in
decline when measured in 2002 constant dollars. What's more, industrial
R&D spending — the focus of both federal and provincial S&T
policy for the past several years — is barely increasing, managing
just a 1% rise (before inflation) between 2007 and 2008.*
Consortium Releases New Guidelines for Web Accessibility
Scott Carlson
Chronicle of Higher Education, December 11, 2008
The World Wide Web Consortium, an organization devoted to improving the
interoperability of the Web, has released a new version of its Web-accessibility
guidelines. The guidelines are meant to help Web designers build sites that
can be read and understood by people with disabilities as diverse as blindness,
hearing impairments, physical impairments, and even cognitive disabilities
like short-term memory impairment or seizure disorders.*
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3512/consortium-releases-new-guidelines-for-web-accessibility-for-disabled?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
PEER announces upcoming calls for research tenders
December 10, 2008
Publishing and the Ecology of European Research (PEER)
is a collaboration between publishers, repositories and the research community,
by which at least 16,000 peer reviewed manuscripts destined to become journal
articles in ISI ranked journals will be made available for archiving every
year for three years. The project will investigate the effects of the large-scale
deposit (so called Green Open Access) on user access, author visibility,
and journal viability.*
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0812/msg00047.html
Library and Archives Canada Celebrates International Human Rights
Anniversary with Important New Collaboration
MarketWatch
December 10, 2008
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) acknowledged the 60th Anniversary of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the Canadian Museum for Human
Rights (CMHR) by jointly launching a new website with the CMHR. LAC's contribution
to CMHR's first virtual exhibition has been substantial. Notably, LAC has
identified archival records, offered interpretive captions for each document,
digitized all documents for the inaugural exhibit and provided advisory
services and support for copyright permission requests.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Library-Archives-Canada-Celebrates-International/story.aspx?guid={4917E748-7C75-4205-B491-4DA20E68F30A}
Researchers at Virginia Tech Create Synthetic American Population
on Supercomputer
David DeBolt
The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 9, 2008
On a supercomputer at Virginia Tech University a team of computer scientists
is building an artificial America filled with fake people who are given
real addresses and are based on actual demographics. According to IEEE
Spectrum Online, the researchers have re-created the lives
of 100 million Americans based on census data. Within six months, they hope
to simulate the day-to-day lives of the country’s 300 million residents.
Each fake person is given an age, education level, and job, which reflect
the demographics of the communities they populate.*
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3508&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Page through old magazines on Google Book Search
Jacqui Cheng
Ars Technica, December 9, 2008
Google
has partnered with a number of publishers to digitize their offerings and
link them in the book search. This includes selections from New
York magazine, which now has hundreds of issues online from
as far back as 1965, and Popular
Science. Unlike some of the book results, magazines found through
Google's book search are offered as full articles.*
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081209-page-through-old-magazines-on-google-book-search.html
IGF 2008: Content in local languages is as essential as connectivity
December 5, 2008
The power of the Internet is multiplied when people are able to access
and use content in their local languages, agreed a group of experts who
opened the 2008 Internet Governance Forum in a session on Reaching the Next
Billion: Multilingualism. The complex topic of achieving multilingualism
on the Internet has political and social dimensions beyond the technological
challenges of ensuring tools for access and translation.*
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27869&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Internet Governance must ensure freedom of expression and universal
access, UNESCO says
December 4, 2008
“The principles of freedom or expression and universal access must
be safeguarded on the Internet and, consequently, in Internet Governance
structures”, said Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General
for Communication and Information yesterday at the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF) in Hyderabad, India. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Forum,
Abdul Waheed Khan said that the Internet, as it is inherently democratic
and empowering, provides unparalleled opportunities to realize the dream
of a global free flow of ideas and universal access to information and knowledge.*
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27868&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Agreement supports sustainable digital preservation for future
generations of scientists
December 3, 2008
Springer Science+Business Media, publisher of one of the world’s
most comprehensive online collections of scientific, technological and medical
journals, books and reference works, announces a partnership with the community-governed
archive cooperative CLOCKSS to preserve Springer content in the CLOCKSS
global archive. Springer publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500
new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook collection worldwide.
Springer is a founding member of CLOCKSS.
http://www.clockss.org/clockss/Springer_helps_launch_CLOCKSS
[Springer announcement: HTML]
Report on the SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting
Bev Brown
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov. 17-18, 2008
Over 300 participants from North America, Europe and Japan attended the
SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting Nov. 17-18, 2008. The focus of
the event was particularly on institutional repositories and the status
of IRs in the academic community. Discussion focused on barriers to
IR growth and strategies to address them, the relationship between faculty
support and a healthy IR program, new services development, connections
with university publishing efforts, and marketing and promotional work.
Bev Brown, Manager, Partnership Development office, Canada Institute of
Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), has prepared a brief report
on the meeting, and would be pleased to provide fuller information on any
of the sessions if asked.* 
(
members
only / reservé aux membres)
ARTICLES
Bringing tenure into the digital age
Lisa Guernsey
The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 2008
New tools for analyzing information are arriving every day, but that doesn’t
mean scholars who use them well are being rewarded, says Christine L. Borgman,
a professor of information studies at the University of California at Los
Angeles. She contends that the new “scholarly information infrastructure”
must be shaped with collaborative, interdisciplinary research.*
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3511/bringing-tenure-into-the-digital-age?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Steering a Future through Scenarios: Into the Academic Library
of the Future
Steve O’Connor and Lai-chong Au
The Journal of Academic Librarianship,
The old realities of purpose and mission are jaded and tired. The old assurances of simple formulaic statements of purpose do not resonate in the present let alone the future. As the famous futurist Marshall McLuhan once said: “Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.” He also remarked, “Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and yesterday’s concepts”. Both of these insights lead us to an understanding at least of the difficulties that we face today in libraries generally, and academic libraries in particular.*
Fair Dealing
CAUT Intellectual Property Advisory, December 2008
Fair Dealing is the right, within limits, to reproduce a substantial amount
of a copyrighted work without permission from, or payment to, the copyright
owner. Its purpose is to facilitate creativity and free expression by ensuring
reasonable access to existing knowledge while at the same time protecting
the interests of copyright owners. It is important that academic staff know
their fair dealing rights and exercise them to the fullest extent. It is
equally important that universities and colleges codify robust fair dealing
practices in institutional policy.*
http://caut.ca/uploads/IP-Advisory3-en.pdf
[Français: http://caut.ca/uploads/IP-Advisory3-fr.pdf]
Google and the libraries
Alex Beam
International Herald Tribune, December 5, 2008
In 2004, Google signed a deal with five major research libraries to digitize
all the books in their collections. "Google's mission is to organize
the world's information, and we're excited to be working with libraries
to help make this mission a reality" proclaimed company cofounder Larry
Page. It looked like an encouraging first step toward a world in which all
knowledge was online, all the time. Not everyone was so enthralled
with this beatific vision of the Future According to Google.*
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/05/opinion/edbeam.php
Réponse de l’Inter association française Archives
Bibliothèques-Documentation (IABD)
au Livre vert « Le droit d’auteur dans l’économie
de la connaissance » proposé par la Commission européenne
novembre 2008
L’IABD affirme son attachement au mécanisme des exceptions
législatives aux droits d’auteur qui constitue un dispositif
irremplaçable pour assurer l’équilibre de la propriété
intellectuelle en Europe et garantir l’exercice de certaines pratiques
légitimes. Pour assurer l’existence de la « cinquième
liberté » (libre circulation de la connaissance dans l’Union,
en particulier sur Internet), il est indispensable que les exceptions prévues
en faveur des usages pédagogiques, des personnes handicapées,
des bibliothèques et services d’archives soient applicables
dans le cadre de la fourniture en ligne d’oeuvres et d’autres
objets protégés.*
http://www.iabd.fr/IMG/pdf/IABD-Reponse-Livre-vert.pdf
In Search Of A Standardized Model for Institutional Repository
Assessment or How Can We Compare Institutional Repositories?
Chuck Thomas and Robert H. McDonald
Proceedings of the ARL 2008 Assessment Conference
Assessing universities and faculty is a continuous struggle. Academic administrators
must labor year after year to gather meaningful statistics for assessment
exercises such as periodic institutional accreditations, program reviews,
and annual funding requests. It is hard to overstate the difficulty and
complexity of compiling such data. The professional literature of higher
education administration contains frequent calls over the past several decades,
for better ways to measure performance in colleges and universities. Developing
a standardized way to assess a university's output with digital repository
metrics is one such method to assess and compare separate institutions.
This paper looks at several models that could be of use in this process.*
http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7539&context=postprints
A Study of Institutional Repository Holdings by Academic Discipline
Peter A. Zuber
D-Lib Magazine, Volume 14, Number 11 / 12, November / December 2008
If an academic library is considering providing support and resources for
an Institutional Repository (IR), it faces significant challenges, among
them the ability to persuade faculty to contribute important research representing
large investments of time. If a preference for traditional publication workflows
and practices vary for each academic discipline, it is reasonable to assume
that motivations and concerns vary as well. The purpose of this study was
to determine nationally [U.S.] which academic disciplines demonstrate a
greater tendency to publish in academic institutional repositories.*
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november08/zuber/11zuber.html
RESOURCES / RESSOURCES
Google Book Search Bibliography
Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
Version 3: 12/9/2008
This bibliography presents selected English-language articles and other
works that help understand Google
Book Search. Works included generally focus on the evolution
of Google Book Search and the legal, library, and social issues associated
with it. Where possible, links are provided to material that is freely available
on the Internet.
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/gbsb/gbsb.htm
Why Copyright: Canadian Voices on Copyright Law
Michael Geist and Dan Albahary, December 2008
In June 2008, the Canadian government introduced Bill C-61, new copyright
legislation that closely followed the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright
Act. The public response to the bill was both immediate and angry leading
to town hall meetings, negative press coverage, and the growing realization
that copyright was fast becoming a mainstream political and policy issue.
This film, produced by Michael Geist and Daniel Albahary, asks Canadians
from across the country and from a wide range of sectors the question -
"why copyright?” *
http://blip.tv/file/1513205/
Research Infrastructure and the Economy: An exploratory study on
the link between CFI investments and Canadian university spin-off company
growth
Meg Barker and Denys Cooper
Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), December 2008
A topic of interest for the CFI is the role of research infrastructure
investments in contributing
to institutional-societal linkages and knowledge translation in Canada.
The CFI recognizes that
it is one of many investors in higher education institutions and research
hospitals, and
additionally, the challenge of measuring knowledge translation and commercialization
is a
steep one. However, where there are concrete data, and reasonably accepted
indicators,
some measurement can take place.*
http://www.innovation.ca/docs/accountability/2008/2008_spinoffs_e.pdf
[Français: http://www.innovation.ca/docs/accountability/2008/2008_spinoffs_f.pdf]
Sluggish Productivity Growth in Canada: Could the Urbanization
Process Be a Factor?
Alan Arcand et al
Conference Board of Canada, December 2008
The purpose of this report is to determine whether urbanization, in and of itself, plays a role in Canada’s productivity performance. The authors created a basic econometric model. The results of the study suggest that among developed countries, the change in the capital-to-labour ratio, the level of education, and the geographic size of the country are the most important factors determining productivity growth. That is not to say that these two factors have no effect at all on productivity—but it is clear that in the developed world, neither urbanization nor urban concentration can be considered leading factors in determining productivity growth.* HTML
The geography of inventive activities in OECD regions
Stefano Usai
STI (Statistical Analysis of Science, Technology and Industry) Working Paper
2008/3
Geography matters for the spatial distribution of intellectual assets and
innovation activities in particular, as knowledge flows and specific skills
often require proximity to be fully exploited. Some of the questions this
report attempts to answer: What is the regional profile of inventive activities?
What are the factors that make regions inventive or not – R&D,
human capital, influence of neighbouring regions, country-level factors?
The answers are based on a preliminary analysis, both descriptive and econometric,
of a new OECD database in which inventors and owners of patents are coded
to regions within the 30 OECD countries.*
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2008doc.nsf/ENGDATCORPLOOK/NT0000787A/$FILE/JT03256586.PDF
Internet Governance Forum (IGF) the first two years
Avri Doria and Wolfgang Kleinwächter (eds)
Internet Governance Forum, 2008
The Internet has become the backbone of our globalized world. It is a powerful
tool that can assist us in our efforts to promote peace and security, as
well as development and human rights. Given the tremendous potential of
the Internet to change our lives, it is no wonder that people take an interest
in how it is being run and managed. What has become known as ‘Internet
governance’ has thus become a new issue on the agenda of international
cooperation. The Internet is a new technology and its governance is as innovative
as its underlying codes and protocols. In essence, Internet governance is
based on collaboration between all stakeholders.
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/hydera/IGFBook_the_first_two_years.pdf
LEGISinfo: 40th Parliament - 1st Session
Nov. 18, 2008-Dec. 4, 2008
LEGISinfo is an essential research tool for finding information on legislation
currently before Parliament. This tool provides electronic access
to a wide range of information about individual bills, such as the text
of the bill at various stages; government press releases and backgrounders
(for government bills); legislative summaries from the Parliamentary Information
and Research Service, etc. LEGISinfo is a collaborative effort of the Parliamentary
Information and Research Service and the Information and Document Resource
Service of the Library of Parliament.*
http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=e
[Français: http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=F]
Gifts for the collections: guidelines for libraries
Kay Ann Cassell et al
IFLA Professional Reports, Number 112, December 2008
Gifts represent an important component of the collection-building activities
of libraries.
These Guidelines focus exclusively on gifts and donations to library collections,
whether
pro-actively or passively acquired. The authors recommend that libraries
develop clear
processes for handling and evaluating gift offers in accord with the library’s
gift policies.
This provides clarity to library staff and to donors, reduces exposure to
risk and
potential liabilities and ensures that future opportunities associated with
items accepted
into the library’s collections can be fully exploited. *
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s14/nd1/Profrep112.pdf
EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS
Introduction to Copyright Management Principles & Issues
Click University, January 6-16, 2009
At the end of this course, participants will understand the role of the
librarian vis-à-vis copyright management issues, and apply this information
to your specific role in your own enterprise. The participant will
be able to assess the need for copyright management in their enterprise,
understand basic copyright law principles, “flag” a copyright
issue and understand the relevancy and importance of being copyright compliant.
Participants will be able to distinguish between copyright myths and realities,
comprehend that copyright law has many ambiguities, and how a librarian
can successfully manage copyright management issues without a law degree.*
http://sla.learn.com/learncenter.asp?page=255
Open Library Environment (OLE) Regional Design Workshop
Ottawa, Ontario, January 14-15, 2009
The Open Library Environment (OLE) Project invites you to a 2-day Design Workshop at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum for representatives of Canadian research libraries to analyze our current business processes and discuss ideas on what core functionality a future system should provide. Participation is open to any members of the research library community who work with the Integrated Library System either on a day to day basis or from a higher level. OLE will be developed as an open source library environment that meets the needs of research libraries. Registration will close on Friday, December 23. There is no cost for attendance other than travel related expenses.* http://oleproject.org/category/documents/bpm-project-meeting/
* Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source
