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 # 335 / Cyberavis no. 335


Friday July 24, 2009 / le vendredi 24 juillet 2009

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CARL COMMUNIQUÉ/ COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ABRC

Karen Adams representing CARL at copyright roundtable

The Government of Canada is hosting a nationwide consultation on copyright modernization that includes a series of round table and town hall meetings from July 20 to September 13, 2009. Karen Adams (University of Manitoba) will speak on behalf of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) at a roundtable in Winnipeg on August 5.

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Karen Adams représentera l’ABRC à une table ronde sur le droit d’auteur

Le gouvernement du Canada mène des consultations à l’échelle nationale sur la modernisation du droit d’auteur avec une série de tables rondes et d’assemblées publiques du 20 juillet au 13 septembre 2009. Karen Adams (University of Manitoba) prendra la parole pour l’Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada (ABRC) à une table ronde sur la réforme du droit d’auteur à Winnipeg le 5 août.

 

NEWS / NOUVELLES

WIPO Launches On-line Tool to Facilitate Access to Targeted Scientific Information
July23, 2009

At WIPO’s headquarters, a new public-private partnership to provide industrial property offices, universities and research institutes in under developed countries with free access and industrial property offices in certain developing countries with low cost access to selected online scientific and technical journals was launched. The Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi) program was rolled out in partnership with various prominent science and technology publishers. The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) provided advice and expertise gained from their similar programmes offering access to journals in their respective fields of activity.*
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2009/article_0025.html

 

California Digital Library Offers Web Archiving Service
Erica Hendry
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 23, 2009

The California Digital Library’s Web Archiving Service enables faculty, students, researchers, and librarians to create archived collections of Web sites that could otherwise be removed or deleted. The library's Web archiving service manager, Tracy Seneca, says the frequency with which Web pages disappear is an "inherent vulnerability" for faculty and students presenting papers and research. It's difficult to validate online sources because cited links die, on average, three or four years after they were created.*
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/California-Digital-Library/7438/

 

Fissures Evident in Panel on Google Settlement
Norman Oder
Library Journal, July 23, 2009

Fissures in the library community regarding the proposed Google Book Search settlement were evident on July 11 when the ALA Washington Office hosted a Breakout Session at the ALA annual conference in Chicago. (Video is available on the Washington Office's District Dispatch blog.) Nancy Kranich, chair of the ALA Committee on Legislation Copyright Subcommittee, said “the settlement has great potential; we all agree that’s a good thing,” However, she also said that ALA is concerned with the absence of competition and the potential to compromise fundamental library values such as equity of access, patron privacy, and intellectual freedom.*
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6672661.html?nid=2673&source=link&rid=490036441

 

University of Calgary 'moving to the next level' with new digital library
Nick Lewis
Calgary Herald, July 22, 2009

When it opens in fall 2010, the University of Calgary's new Taylor Family Digital Library will be on the cutting edge of research library collections, facilities and services in Canada bringing together traditional resources such as printed books and periodicals with modern media, including digital video, e-books and touch-screen information kiosks. On a tour of the unfinished site, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement marveled at it and all it will offer the next generation of university students. "Clearly, the University of Calgary is moving to the next level and is ready for the 21st century, not only for its students, but for the brain gain of our country," Clement said.*
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/moving+next+level+with+digital+library/1815353/story.html
[Press release on U. of Calgary Website]

 

CRTC takes steps to improve access to communications services for Canadians
July 21, 2009

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced new requirements to facilitate access to telecommunications and broadcasting services. Building on existing initiatives, the requirements consist of concrete measures for the more than four million Canadians living with disabilities. Certain measures will be implemented immediately, and others will gradually be put into practice given the current economic climate.*
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2009/r090721.htm
[Français: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/fra/news/releases/2009/r090721.htm]

 

Government of Canada Launches National Consultations on Copyright Modernization
July 20, 2009

The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, launched a series of nationwide consultations to solicit Canadians' opinions on the important issue of copyright reform. The consultations will run until September 13, 2009, and will include a number of different avenues for Canadians to participate, including an online discussion forum and a submission centre for posting detailed submissions.*
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Government-Of-Canada-1019288.html

 

Key Messages from the AUCC on Copyright Reform / Messages clés de la AUCC au sujet de la réforme du droit d’auteur
July 20, 2009 / 20 juillet 2009

Following the announcement by the Honourable Tony Clement , Minister of Industry,  and the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, on nationwide copyright consultations, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) has issued a set of key messages on copyright reform.* PDF
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Suite à l’annonce de l’honorable Tony Clement, ministre de l’Industrie, et l’honorable James Moore, ministre du Patrimoine canadien et des Langues officielles, au sujet des consultations nationales du droit d’auteur, l’Association des universités et collèges du Canada a préparé une série des messages clés concernant la question de réforme du droit d’auteur.* PDF

 

IT industry hopes to become carbon-neutral

Chelsea Murray
Telegraph Journal, July 20, 2009

The global IT industry emits three per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - an amount equal to that of the airline industry, and the planet's one billion computers together emit one billion tons of carbon waste annually. These numbers double every four years. "Computers don't emit CO2 directly - they don't have a tailpipe," says Bill St. Arnaud, chief of research for non-profit networking corporation Canarie Inc., "but the power they consume is enormous." Many countries, including the United States, still use dirty coal-fired plants to deliver that power.*
http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/733861

 

Elsevier Announces the “Article of the Future”
July 20, 2009

Elsevier announced the ‘Article of the Future’ project, an ongoing collaboration with the scientific community to redefine how a scientific article is presented taking full advantage of online capabilities, providing readers individualized entry points and routes through content while benefiting from the latest advances in visualization techniques. Editorial, production and IT teams at Cell Press in collaboration with Elsevier’s User Centered Design group have produced the prototypes using content from two previously published Cell articles. Elsevier and Cell Press are inviting feedback from the scientific community on the concepts and implementations.*
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authored_newsitem.cws_home/companynews05_01279

 

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle
Brad Stone
The New York Times, July 17, 2009

In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.” Amazon recently dropped “1984” and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” down the memory hole. The online retail giant  remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had downloaded them.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html
[see also “Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others” HTML; “Kindle Swindle?” HTML]

 

University Presses Stepping Up e-Book Efforts
Calvin Reid
Publishers Weekly, July 17, 2009

A coalition of presses from New York University, Rutgers, Temple and the University of Pennsylvania, are using a planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to hire a technical consultant for a six-month study into the feasibility of a collaborative scholarly e-book publishing program. According to the details of the grant, the new program would target the library market,  and then supply e-books to students. The project will consider at variety of payment/delivery models—from purchase/subscription to rental models, bundling and print-on-demand.*
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6671767.html?nid=2673&source=title&rid=490036441

 

Accès aux archives notariales du XXe siècle 
14 juillet 2009

« La Chambre des notaires du Québec et BAnQ ont conclu un accord qui permet à cette dernière de mettre une quantité impressionnante d'archives notariales du XXe siècle à la disposition du public. Il s'agit d'une nouvelle d'importance pour tous ceux qui attendaient avec impatience la possibilité de consulter cette source documentaire d'une richesse exceptionnelle pour la recherche historique et généalogique. Les chercheurs avaient déjà accès sans aucune restriction aux archives notariales des XVIIe, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles conservées par BAnQ. »
http://www.asted.org/_uploadedcontent/pdf/1303-02-cms.pdf

 

Library of Congress test drives cloud storage
Dave Rosenberg
CNet News, July 14, 2009

The Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and DuraSpace are launching a one-year pilot program to test the feasibility of cloud technologies as enablers of perpetual access to digital content. The pilot will use a service called DuraCloud, that replicates and distributes content across multiple cloud providers and allows organizations to share, access, and preserve the content.*
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10286280-62.html  



ARTICLES

Les bibliothécaires, combien de divisions ? Rencontre sur les lieux d'échange et de débat de la profession
Yves Alix et Gaël Revelin
Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France, Tome 54, Numéro 4, 2009

« Issu d'une rencontre entre le rédacteur en chef du BBF, revue institutionnelle, et un jeune blogueur, cet article propose une synthèse de leurs échanges portant sur la profession de bibliothécaire, ses associations, ses outils d'information, ses lieux et ses temporalités de débat... Il met en évidence des points de convergence manifestes, mais aussi une rupture générationnelle réelle, dans les pratiques, entre le monde du papier et celui d'internet, par lequel devra passer la revivification nécessaire de l'information et des débats professionnels. »
http://bbf.enssib.fr/consulter/bbf-2009-04-0017-002.pdf

 

Journals and repositories: an evolving relationship?
Stephen Pinfield
Learned Publishing, Volume 22, Number 3, July 2009

Analyzing three dissemination models, arXiv, PubMed Central, and the RIOJA project, Pinfield discusses the potential for repositories and journals to work on a complementary basis and to form a coherent, Open Access scholarly communication system. The key issues associated with the widespread adoption of these models include repository infrastructure development; changing ideas of the 'journal', 'article', and 'publication'; version management; quality assurance; business and funding models; developing value-added features; content preservation; policy frameworks; and changing roles and cultures within the research community.*
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alpsp/lp/2009/00000022/00000003/art00002

 

College 2.0: When computers leave the classroom so does boredom
Jeffrey R. Young
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 24, 2009

College leaders usually brag about their tech-filled "smart" classrooms, but a dean at Southern Methodist University is proudly removing computers from lecture halls. José A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, challenges his colleagues to teach without machines. Particularly, Mr. Bowen aims to discourage professors from using PowerPoint, as it is frequently used as a crutch rather than a creative tool. He's not the only one raising questions about PowerPoint; a study published in the April issue of British Educational Research Journal suggests that 59 percent of students in a new survey reported that at least half of their lectures were boring. PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw. Although computers have undoubtedly led to improvements in teaching, some skeptics argue that technology has not revolutionized the classroom experience for the majority of college students, despite millions of dollars in investment and early predictions that going digital would prompt professors to rethink their lectures and herald a pedagogical renaissance.*
http://chronicle.com/article/Teach-Naked-Effort-Strips/47398/

 

Taking a Different View of Libraries in Transition: the Mobile Web
Michael Ridley
Access, Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 2009

We have learned how to use the web browser as a window for library resources and services, and likewise we have to learn to use the smartphone as the primary device for interacting with our users and for presenting the information they seek. Accessing the library through the mobile web, however, isn’t simply a matter of shrinking the screen; effective use of the mobile environment requires us to rethink how we connect with our users.*

 

Giving Away Academic Books Online Can Actually Help Print Sales
David Wiley
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 21, 2009

In an economy where sales of everything are down, an increasing number of authors and publishers, especially in academic fields, are distributing their books free on the Internet. While this might seem to contradict common sense, current research suggests that this is not a bad idea. National Academies Press, for example, makes its publications freely available online. Michael Jensen, director of publishing technologies, says this has increased reader’s ability to find the books, and in turn has increased sales. Other academic publishers are also finding that twinning free digital versions of their monographs with print on demand versions also offers the potential to expand their reach and impact.*
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/David-Wiley-Giving-Away/7278/

 

Governance and recordkeeping around the world
Volume 3, Number 2, July 2009

The July Issue is available on the Library and Archives Canada website. Some of the stories covered this month: Court Ruling: Government [Ontario] can't use technology as excuse to deny information; Australia's online history “facing extinction”; [UK] Data Centres almost at full capacity; Government [UK] seeks advice on data archiving.*
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/007001/f2/007001-090700-e.pdf



Lost in the cloud

Jonathan Zittrain
The New York Times, July 19, 2009

Earlier this month Google announced a new operating system called Chrome. This is part of a larger trend moving users further away from running code and storing their information on PCs toward doing everything online with whatever device is at hand. The cloud, however, comes with major challenges. There are dangers in entrusting one’s data to others, and data stored online has less privacy protection both in practice and under the law. The most difficult challenge — both to grasp and to solve — of the cloud is its effect on our freedom to innovate. This freedom is at risk in the cloud, according to Zittrain,  where a platform vendor has much more control over whether and how to let others write new software.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/opinion/20zittrain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

 

Gary Fung: “I’m doing this for the future.”
Robert Thompson
Financial Post Magazine, July 13, 2009

As a teenage undergraduate from Richmond, B.C., studying engineering at the University of British Columbia in the late 1990s, Gary Fung was fascinated by the possibilities peer-to-peer software offers - particularly Napster, the notorious music file-sharing service that was sued out of existence in 2001. Fung maintains his fascination with peer-to-peer technology. The record industry remains in panic mode. But other things are different. The movie and television industries, for instance, have joined the music business in fear of wanton file sharing. Fung, no longer watching from the sidelines, has jumped into the fray, and in the eyes of the entertainment industry poses one of its biggest threats.*
http://www.financialpost.com/magazine/story.html?id=1764340

 

The E-Reader Market of the Future
Kinley Levack
EContent, July 10, 2009

With the buzz about the e-reader market it is easy to forget that these “new” devices have been in the works for decades. Although it’s probably the best-known device, the Kindle is “not the only game in town.” The competition currently includes Sony Reader Digital Books, STAReBOOK, Bookeen Cybook Gen3, Fujitsu FLEPia, Readius, and Onyx Boox, among others. Plastic Logic, Ltd. will be introducing its version of an e-reader to the market by January 2010, and  Hearst Communications, Inc. is reportedly working on its own e-reader, via a startup called FirstPaper.*
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/The-E-Reader-Market-of-the-Future-54521.htm

 

Americans favor science, but less than before
The Christian Science Monitor, July 9, 2009

The share of Americans who view science as the nation’s greatest achievement has dropped sharply, even as the public continues to hold scientists in high regard. A new Pew Research Center poll indicates that 27 percent of Americans consider the nation’s greatest achievements to be in science, medicine and technology, more than any category other than “don’t know.” That’s down from 47 percent in a similar study a decade ago, the center reported. The decline comes even as technology spreads out connecting people worldwide via the Internet.*
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/07/09/americans-favor-science-but-less-than-before/

 


RESOURCES / RESSOURCES

Students’ Use of Research Content in Teaching and Learning: a Report for the Joint Information Systems Council (JISC)
Stuart Hampton-Reeves et al, 2009

The environment in which research is disseminated and used has changed radically. The task of modern higher learning institutions is to better understand this transformation and support new ways of accessing content. It is now beyond doubt that the internet has revolutionized the way that research content is discovered, accessed and used. Content which once needed specialist skills to find is now widely available and searches which once took days of painstaking work can now be done in a matter of seconds. A recurring theme of the study was the emphasis that users place on accessibility of research content over its academic authority. The research also looked at the obstacles users face in using research: obstacles could be technological, epistemological and/or institutional.*
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/aboutus/workinggroups/studentsuseresearchcontent.pdf



Guide pratique pour l’élaboraion : d’un thésaurus documentaire

Michèle Hudon
Les Éditions ASTED, 2009

« Dans un environnement dominé par le Web et les technologies de l’information, la nécessité de travailler avec des langages documentaires structurés et efficaces demeure présente. On continue d’utiliser des thésaurus spécialisés pour la gestion de documents et de collections traditionnelles ou numériques. Le développement et la mise à disposition de thésaurus originaux décrivant des champs de recherche et d’activités pointus ou en expansion permettent une organisation plus efficace et un repérage de meilleure qualité dans les collections de documents qui portent sur des sujets nouveaux ou qui offrent de nouvelles perspectives sur des thèmes connus. »
http://www.asted.org/_uploadedcontent/medias/content_1292_1213.pdf

 

Higher Education Empirical Research Database
The Open University

The Higher Education Empirical Research Database is sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (and formerly the Higher Education Academy, Universities UK and GuildHE (until 2009). Some of the themes currently included in the HEER database are: access and widening participation; business, community and regional issues; course design and structures; the graduate labour market; research, staffing, and students - characteristics, experiences, expectations. Relevant published research is identified through the regular scanning of: key higher education journals; official reports from UK and international policy bodies; statistical sources (e.g. HESA, OECD); society for Research into Higher Education Abstracts; and websites of relevant higher education organizations.*
http://heerd.open.ac.uk/

 

The Transformative Potential of Open Educational Resources (OER)

Four Open Educational Resources community pioneers offered their insights into the transformative potential of OERs at the SPARC-ACRL Forum that took place during the 2009 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Denver, CO. Comprising journals, full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques that are critical in the learning environment, OERs are a logical extension of what the library community supports in the Open Access movement. The webcasts featured on this page highlight examples of how different constituencies are advancing OERs on campuses, and offered suggestions for library support.*
http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/ala09mw/

 

EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS

Webinar Next Week on the Google Library Project Settlement
July 29, 2 pm ET

"The leaders involved with the crafting of the Google Library Project Settlement will share with the publishing industry the benefits of the agreement for publishers and authors. If approved by the Court in October, the agreement will create one of the most far-reaching intellectual, cultural, and commercial platforms for access to digital books for the reading public, while granting publishers unprecedented opportunities and protections.” The webinar is presented in collaboration with Google, The Association of American Publishers, and Publishers Weekly. HTML

Engaging faculty and students through the Sparky Awards; Creative partnerships at Penn State
SPARC, August 5, 2009, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET

This year, Penn State is syndicating the Sparky Awards specifically to motivate students to get engaged on issues related to the value of information sharing – including copyright and new media – and has created an unparalleled team of partners to spearhead the effort. Learn how new and creative campus collaborations can help you to engage more faculty and students and broaden the conversation on the topic of access to information – a crucial one in this economic climate.*
http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/09-0722.shtml

 

Reaching Out to Leaders of Scholarly Societies at Research Institutions - Web Conference
Association of Research Libraries, August 6,  1:00  - 2:00 p.m. ET

The 60-minute webcast will complement the recently released guide on outreach to  administrators, editors, and members of academic scholarly societies.  Successful campus outreach encourages society leaders to engage in positive change that advances the scholarly communication system, promotes new research modes, and offers a path forward in a time of paradigm shift. The Web conference is free, but advance registration is required.*
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/coi-announce-july20-final.pdf

 

Defining Web-Scale Discovery: The Promise of a Unified Search Index for Libraries
Presented by Serials Solutions, August 18, 2009, 12:00 p.m. ET

“Why can’t I search the library the way Google searches the Web?” Librarians have been fielding this question for over a decade as popular general search engines have set new expectations for service, searching and responsiveness. The complexity of multiple formats and the sheer scale of library collections present formidable barriers to simple, speedy, single search box interfaces. However, a new unified search index technology - the core of the groundbreaker Summon web-scale discovery service - offers the promise of answering that question with “You can.” HTML

 

Investir le monde numérique; Premier Congrès des milieux documentaires du Québec
Montréal, Québec, 11 au 14 novembre, 2009

« Les quatre journées d’échanges et de réflexions du Congrès seront consacrées au thème Investir le monde numérique. Alors que le web fêtera bientôt ses 20 ans, les milieux documentaires ont dépassé l’étape de la compréhension et de l’adaptation à la culture numérique. Tant par la disponibilité des contenus que par la relative stabilité des outils et des infrastructures du numérique, les acteurs des milieux documentaires ont la responsabilité d’intégrer ces nouvelles formes de représentation des savoirs dans leur pratique et dans leurs services. Il s’agit d’un changement de paradigme très important qui sollicite l’audace de tous les professionnels et techniciens des milieux documentaires. »
http://congres2009.asted.org/home.php?lid=2

 

*Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source


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