CARL - ABRC

Phone: 613.562.5385
Facsimile: 613.562.5297
Email: carladm@uottawa.ca
www.carl-abrc.ca

Canadian Association of Research Libraries
Morisset Hall
65 University Street Suite 239
Ottawa Ontario Canada
K1N 9A5

E-Lert # 313 / Cyberavis no. 313


Friday February 13, 2009 / le vendredi 13 février 2009

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CARL COMMUNIQUÉ / COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ABRC

This week, Leslie Weir, CARL President, and Brent Roe, CARL Executive Director, met with two Bloc Québécois Members of Parliament: Mme Diane Bourgeois, Terrebonne – Blainville, Public Works and Government Services critic (February 12, 2009) and M. Robert Vincent, Shefford, Science and Technology critic (February 13, 2009). The main topics of discussion were copyright legislation, open access to publicly funded research, and support for research.

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Cette semaine, Leslie Weir, présidente de l’ABRC, et Brent Roe, directeur général de l’ABRC, se sont rencontrés avec deux députés fédéraux du Bloc Québécois : Mme Diane Bourgeois, Terrebonne – Blainville, porte-parole en matière de Travaux publics et services gouvernementaux (12 février 2009) et M. Robert Vincent, Shefford, porte-parole en matière de Science et technologie (13 février 2009). Les matières principales des discussions étaient la législation sur le droit d’auteur, le libre accès aux résultats de la recherche subventionnée par l’état, et l’appui à la recherche.

 

The CARL Board of Directors held a meeting on February 5th, 2009, in Ottawa. Board minutes from the October 7, 2008 and November 6, 2008 meetings are on the CARL website (members only). 

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Le Conseil administratif des Directeurs de l’ABRC a tenu une réunion le 5 février 2009 à Ottawa. Les procès-verbaux des réunions du Conseil administratif tenues le 7 octobre 2008 et le 6 novembre 2008 sont maintenant disponibles sur le site web de l’ABRC (réservé aux membres).

 

NEWS / NOUVELLES 

Four leading [U.S.] associations serving research universities issue call to action
February 12, 2009

The statement is an outcome of a roundtable hosted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). The organizers engaged provosts, chief research officers, chief information officers, senior faculty, and library and university press directors. The University’s Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship — A Call to Action identifies actions that the university community can take to expand the dissemination of the full range of products of its research and scholarship.*
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/disseminating-research-feb09.pdf

 

Google Book Search Settlement Discussed at Meeting Hosted by ALA, ARL, ACRL
February 12, 2009

The American Library Association (ALA) Washington Office, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) hosted a meeting to discuss the implications of the Google Book Search settlement in a meeting hosted on February 9, 2009, in Washington DC. This is a private settlement, but the result has very real implications for public policy and the way libraries of all types will operate. Because of the complexity of the agreement, its potential long-term impact on libraries, thus user interests, and the enormity of the book collection involved, many librarians raised questions about the settlement’s effect in terms of access, privacy, intellectual freedom, equitable treatment, and terms of use for Google Book Search content. *
http://www.arl.org/news/pr/google-12feb09.shtml

 

RoMEO has reached 500 publishers
February 12, 2009

SHERPA (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access) announced that its service RoMEO now lists over 500 publisher policies on self-archiving. Some publishers prohibit authors from using their own articles in this way, others allow it, but only under certain conditions, and many publishers permit authors to archive their final peer-reviewed manuscripts in online repositories. Authors can be left confused; RoMEO helps to clarify the situation.*
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/news/romeo500.htm

 

Welcome to the everything emulator
Bobbie Johnson
The Guardian, February 12, 2009

How do we make sure we can recover our digital lives at an unspecified point in the future? Researchers in Portsmouth believe they have come up with an answer - an emulator to end all emulators. This is part of a €4m EU project that seeks to preserve digital life for future generations - a sort of “digi-cultural archaeology” that is likely to become more important over time.*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/feb/12/software-internet

 

ARL Executive Director Charles B. Lowry Proposes Digitization of Cultural Collections to Spur Economy
February 10, 2009

In a recent opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Executive Director Charles B. Lowry urged President Obama and Congress to finance a large-scale project to digitize the nation’s library and other cultural collections and put them on the Web. Lowry stated, “Investing in an open, universal digital commons will help ease the current economic crisis by creating jobs, equipping workers with 21st-century skills, and laying a foundation for innovation and national competitiveness in business and research.”*
http://www.arl.org/news/pr/lowry-10feb09.shtml

 

A Digital Window on the Medieval World
Jennifer Howard
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 10, 2009

Libraries around the world have digitized thousands of medieval manuscripts, but they are not always easy to find. Assistant professor of English at the University of California at Los Angeles, Matthew Fisher, created a solution - the Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts, a centralized online archive of holdings around the world.*
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3606/a-digital-window-on-the-medieval-world?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

 

Digital Archivists, Now in Demand
Conrad de Aenlle
The New York Times, February 7, 2009

As the world entered the digital age, a vast majority of historical records did not immediately make the trip. Literature, film, scientific journals, newspapers, court records, corporate documents and other material, accumulated over centuries, needed to be adapted for computer databases. Those entrusted with finding a place for this wealth of information are called digital asset managers, or sometimes digital archivists and digital preservation officers. Demand for them is expanding.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/jobs/08starts.html?_r=2

 

Government Documents Move to Improved Federal Digital System
Norman Oder
Library Journal, February 6, 2009

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has launched its new Federal Digital System (FDsys), and it is already getting high marks from libraries. GPO calls it a “one-stop site” for “authentic, published government information” in a repository that offers permanent, public access. FDsys will replace GPOAccess by mid-2009. The latter has been the central online storage, preservation, and retrieval point for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) since the mid-1990s.*
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6635418.html?q=fdsys

 

Springer launches AuthorMapper.com
February 2, 2009

Springer Science+Business Media has launched www.AuthorMapper.com, a free analytical online tool that discerns trends, patterns and subject experts within various fields of scientific research. AuthorMapper.com searches over three million journal articles to deliver a variety of useful information.  Searchable content is currently from all Springer journals; the website, however, will include metadata from other STM publishers in the near future.* HTML

 

ARTICLES

Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter
February 2009

Jerry McDonough, Assis­tant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discusses approaches and challenges to preserving virtual worlds and games. Also: summary of the American Library Association Digital Preservation Interest Group’s activities at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado, and the Living Web Archives (LiWA) has published its first newsletter LiWA News.*
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/newsletter/200902.pdf

 

Uh-oh Canada: Obama pledge could win back researchers
John Gill
Times Higher Education, February 12, 2009

The mood among US scientists is buoyant after Barack Obama emphasized his commitment to research, during his inaugural presidential address, promising to rectify years of neglect under the George W. Bush Administration. In neighbouring Canada, however, the future looks less certain, as President Obama's arrival coincides with the stalling of public investment in research. Some see this as an ominous concurrence that threatens to reverse the recent brain drain that has seen scientists flee the US for greener pastures north of the border.*
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=405330&c=1

 

Academics warn against policy of 'picking winners' to fund
Zoë Corbyn
Times Higher Education, February 12, 2009

Science Minister Lord Drayson's proposals to steer the UK's basic research effort towards areas deemed most likely to boost the economy have met with resistance from academics. A number of organizations cautioned against "picking winners" to fund arguing that such a policy could put the UK at a disadvantage in the future by leaving it ill prepared to develop new innovations and respond to future challenges.*
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=405351&c=1

 

Tories fail science test
James Turk
The Regina Leader Post, February 5, 2009

The federal budget promised billions for university and college infrastructure and for organizations that fund research infrastructure. However, it provided no new funding for Canada's granting councils that fund university research. The fallout? Canada may see many of its best academics leaving for the US where their research can be properly funded.*
http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/Tories+fail+science+test/1255150/story.html

 

Genome Canada's omission from Budget triggers torrent of negative publicity
RE$SEARCH MONEY, Volume 23, Number 2, February 9, 2009

The absence of sustainable funding for Genome Canada's new competitions and international collaborations has cast the Conservative government's S&T policies in the worst possible light and offered up a dangerous lightning rod for criticism of its innovation strategy. At a time when competing nations are ramping up their S&T spending, many members of the scientific community in Canada see the government's decision to deny the agency's reported $370-million, five-year request for new funding as a lack of vision and a signal that Canada is not willing to participate at innovation's leading edge.*

 

Réunir les deux solitudes du Canada grâce à la recherche
David Kaufman et Louise Sauvé
Affaires universitaires, mars 2009

Le secret le mieux gardé de la recherche en sciences humaines au Canada concerne les chercheurs francophones du Québec, qui produisent certains des meilleurs travaux dans le domaine au pays. Le nombre de citations internationales ainsi que les niveaux de financement de la recherche l’illustrent amplement.  Mais la plupart des Canadiens, y compris la majorité des spécialistes des sciences humaines anglophones, n’ont pas conscience des recherches importantes et déterminantes que les auteurs francophones mènent dans de nombreux domaines. Selon Kaufman et Sauvé, cette situation est déplorable et se traduit par une grande perte qui ne peut que nuire à l’ensemble de travaux au Canada : « Imaginez ce que pourraient être nos résultats de recherche en sciences humaines si nos deux solitudes étaient capables de collaborer et de profiter des travaux l’une de l’autre. »* HTML

 

RESOURCES / RESSOURCES

Higher Education Interlibrary Loan Management Benchmarks
Primary Research Group, 2009

This report examines management and productivity practices of more than 85 U.S. and Canadian academic libraries. Detailed data on loan volume, copyright concerns, data reporting, shipping fees, departmental organization, staffing, lines of authority, use of software, methods of determining productivity levels, provisions for the loan of unique or highly specialized materials, budgets and fees, methods of determining end user preference, licensing agreements and much more are presented in the study.
http://www.primaryresearch.com/200902047-Libraries--Information-Science.html

 

Transformational Times: an Environmental Scan Prepared for the ARL Strategic Plan Review Task Force
February 2009

ARL has initiated an environmental scanning exercise to identify trends that are likely to affect research libraries and the work of the Association. The report considers challenges and opportunities that will help the Association set priorities and organize its activities for the next several years, a time that is expected to present unprecedented challenges and concomitant opportunities to research libraries. The document includes the attachment Selected Public Policy Trends in Canada Affecting Research Libraries prepared by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)*
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/transformational-times.pdf

 

Scholarly electronic publishing bibliography: 2008 annual edition
Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
Digital Scholarship, 2009

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography (SEPB) presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources about scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published from1990 through 2008; a number of key sources published before 1990 are also included. Links are provided to freely available works on the Internet.*
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/sepb/annual/sepb2008.pdf

 

OECD Work on Innovation - a Stocktaking of Existing Work
Sarah Box
STI Working Paper, February 2009

OECD Ministers mandated the preparation of an OECD Innovation Strategy In May 2007. The
Strategy has two broad aims: first, addressing countries’ needs for a more comprehensive, coherent and timely understanding of how to promote, measure and assess innovation and its underlying dynamics of change; and, second, shedding light on appropriate multi-sector and government-wide approaches to innovation as a driver of tools for sustainable growth, productivity and development to address global challenges. This paper forms part of the first phase of work on the Innovation Strategy, and draws on OECD work from the last ten years to provide a broad-brush overview of what we know about good policy practices for innovation.*
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/32/42095821.pdf

 

Bilan 2008 des initiatives de gouvernement en ligne
Gouvernement du Québec, janvier 2009

Au cours de l’année 2008, les différentes administrations publiques à travers le monde ont rivalisé d’ingéniosité pour intégrer les nouvelles technologies et les dernières tendances tout en améliorant les services offerts aux citoyens. Divers thèmes ont été abordés par l’équipe du e-Veille en 2008, dont certains ont fait l’objet de bulletins spéciaux. Parmi ceux-ci, la gestion de l’information, les Administrations vertes, le développement des régions par les TI, la participation active des citoyens et l’inclusion des jeunes et des aînés par les administrations publiques reflètent les principales préoccupations du secteur public.*
http://www.msg.gouv.qc.ca/fr/publications/enligne/connaissance/bilans/0708.pdf
 


EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS

NISO Webinar: Data Movement & Management
March 18, 2009, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (EST)

This Webinar will explore a number of ongoing data transfer and transformation consensus projects. Whether it is collections or holdings information distributed via ONIX, pricing data via CORE, or usage data via SUSHI, the library community is developing strategies and structures for smooth and easy transition of data from one system to another. Each of these initiatives explored during the session contribute to saving librarians time and eventually money in managing their operations.*
http://www.niso.org/news/events/2009/datawebinar09/

 

Digital Humanities Summer Institute
Victoria, British Columbia, June 8-12, 2009

The institute is a week of intensive coursework, seminar participation, and lectures. It is for faculty, staff, and graduate student theorists, experimentalists, technologists, and administrators from different areas of the Arts, Humanities, Library and Archives communities and beyond. Participants will share ideas and methods to develop expertise in applying advanced technologies to teaching, research, dissemination and preservation activities.*
http://www.dhsi.org/home/index

                  

 *Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source


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