E-Lert # 338 / Cyberavis no. 338

Friday August 14, 2009 / le vendredi 14 août 2009

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CARL COMMUNIQUÉ / COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ABRC

CARL’s Pre-Budget Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance with Respect to the 2010 Federal Budget PDF

Soumission de Pré-Budget de l’ABRC, en ce qui concerne le budget 2010 fédéral, au Comité des finances de la Chambre des communes PDF (En anglais, la version en français sera disponible sous peu.)

CARL represented by Karen Adams at copyright roundtable

Karen Adams (University of Manitoba) spoke on behalf of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) at a roundtable on copyright reform in Winnipeg on August 5.
Audio http://copyright.econsultation.ca/audio/Aug05Eng.mp3
Transcript http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/008.nsf/eng/00770.html
Speaking notes PDF
[Not all points in the speaking notes were raised at the roundtable.]

L’ABRC représentée par Karen Adams à une table ronde sur le droit d’auteur

Karen Adams (University of Manitoba) a prit 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.
Audio http://droitdauteur.econsultation.ca/audio/Aug05Fr.mp3
Transcription http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/008.nsf/fra/00770.html
Notes d’allocution PDF (en anglais)
[Certains points des notes d’allocution ont été exclus de la discussion à la table ronde.]

NEWS / NOUVELLES

Canadian online archive helps British regiment use sketchy historical details to finally pinpoint the site of battle on Halloween, 1914
Susan Krashinsky
Globe and Mail, August 13, 2009

As hundreds of troops lay dying on a ridge in Flanders almost a century ago, the last thing many of them saw was a quixotic windmill, slowly disintegrating in flames. For decades, the British regiment whose soldiers fought in that battle on the Messines Ridge, nine kilometres south of Ypres, didn't know where that landmark had stood. They had little to go on: a date, a village name and a painting. Archivists at McMaster University recently helped them unravel a 95-year-old mystery.*
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-unknown-tomb-of-the-soldier-found-at-last/article1247577/
[See also: article from the April 9, 2009, Hamilton Spectator]

Bringing the power of Creative Commons to Google Books
Xian Ke
Inside Google Books, August 13, 2009

Google launched an initiative to help authors and publishers discover new audiences for books they've made available for free under Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Rights holders who want to distribute their CC-licensed books more widely can opt to allow readers around the world to download, use, and share their work through Google Books.*
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/08/bringing-power-of-creative-commons-to.html

University of California Press and JSTOR Announce New Platform for Scholarship
August 13, 2009

The Current Scholarship Program is a new effort to make current and historical scholarly content available on a single, integrated platform, to provide a single point of purchase and access for librarians and end users around the world, and to ensure its long-term preservation. Starting in 2011, current content from all University of California Press published journals, including those from scholarly societies, will be hosted on a re-designed JSTOR platform.*
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/programs/currentScholarship.jsp?cookieSet=1

Your College Gets a Supercomputer! And Yours, and Yours!
Jeffrey R. Young
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 10, 2009

Originally used in a few fields, like astrophysics, or for sensitive military research, supercomputers cost millions of dollars each and only in elite universities and government labs could afford them about ten years ago. Today supercomputers run simulations that enable researchers to better understand weather , outer space, oceans, economies, human biology, and much more. And they can be assembled on the cheap.*
http://chronicle.com/article/Your-College-Gets-a/47957/

In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History
Tamar Lewin
The New York Times, August 8, 2009

At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use school-provided computers to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers’ science lectures. Cienega High School students who own laptops can register for “digital sections” of several English, history and science classes. Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators believe it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or even supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html?_r=2&ref=technology

New Open-Access Monograph Series Is Announced
Jennifer Howard
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 7, 2009

Open Humanities Press (OHP) in partnership with the University of Michigan Library's Scholary Publishing Office (SPO) will produce five new open-access monograph series that focus on critical and cultural theory. "All of the books will be freely available in full-text, digital editions and as reasonably priced paperbacks," according to a statement , and they will be subject to "the highest standards of editorial vetting and peer review." The series include New Metaphysics, Critial Climate Change, Global Conversations, Unidentified Theoretical Objects, and Liquid Books. Readers will be invited "to annotate, tag, edit, add to, remix, reformat, reversion, reinvent, and reuse" the material.*
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/New-Open-Access-Monograph/7613/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Maasai To Digitally Record Heritage
August 6, 2009

The Maasai people of Laikipia in Kenya received digital recording equipment, marking a milestone in a United Nations-backed pilot-project to help indigenous communities document and preserve their cultural heritage. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) provided a digital camera, sound recording equipment and a laptop computer to Chief Kisio and other elders of the Maasai community at a formal ceremony attended by some 200 its members in late July.*
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0908/S00107.htm

Vision for a Globally Competitive European Research Area
July 13, 2009

European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) and the European Science foundation (ESF) have published their “Vision on a Globally Competitive ERA and their Road Map for Actions”. The road map outlines the goals to be reached in the next five to ten years to build a European Research Area (ERA) of excellence as well as actions which should be taken by EUROHORCS and ESF member organizations to help build a globally competitive ERA.E. *
http://www.eurohorcs.org/E/news/Pages/_xc_news_090713_RoadMap.aspx

ARTICLES

Inside OCULA
Ontario College and University Library Association, Fall 2009

Some of the items covered in the fall issue: New Librarian Residency Award - The intention of the residency program, a three-year pilot project, is to enhance recruitment of new librarians and provide entry-level professionals opportunities in academic and research library settings; Pinning Down a Cloud: Articulating Liaison - Liaison librarianship deliberately moves the spotlight away from ‘us’ as librarians to ‘them’ as users. “It moves the focus of attention away from our expertise in reference or subject areas to the research and teaching needs of our users.”; Save the Date…..October 29th at the University of Guelph - OCULA and ABO-Franco 2009 Fall Workshop: Leadership throughout the Library. Speakers: Ken Roberts and Marc Ryan.*
http://www.accessola.com/data/2/rec_docs/602_InsideOCULAFall09.pdf

Sustainability Challenge for Academic Libraries: Planning for the Future College and Research Libraries
Maria Anna Jankowska and James W. Marcum
College & Research Libraries pre-print, August 2009

A variety of factors challenge the sustainability of academic libraries: from developing and preserving print and digital collections, supplying and supporting rapidly changing technological and networking infrastructure, providing free services, to maintaining growing costs of library buildings and lowering libraries‘ ecological footprint. Jankowska and Marcum discuss the multi-dimensional sustainability issues in academic libraries and identify approaches to designing an integrated framework for sustainable strategies in academic libraries.*
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crljournal/preprints/Jankowska.pdf

More Video Wanted - If They Can Get It
Jennifer Howard
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 12, 2009

Professors and students are hungrier than ever to use video in the classroom and in their research, but they still have trouble obtaining the materials they need according to a just-released white paper "Video Use and Higher Education: Options for the Future." The paper reports the findings of the Video and Higher Education Project. While certain technological problems persist, the biggest problem now is probably licensing. "Video is so locked up because of the concerns of the video-content production industry that it's just really hard to get at material," says Carol Mandel, dean of the NYU Libraries. "We need a much better fair-use and licensing environment for video." *
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/More-Video-Wanted-If-They/7651/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

What in the world are we waiting for?
Tom Jenkins et al
Globe and Mail, August 11, 2009

Canada must take action to create a digital economy built on a strong, high-tech foundation. As the world economy goes digital Canada cannot afford to be left behind in a 3.0 world. Recent forums held to strategize and share opinions on digital media highlighted the opportunity Canada has to lead in the digital economy, and identified gaps that need to be swiftly addressed.*
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/what-in-the-world-are-we-waiting-for/article1246586/

The Audacity of the Google Book Search Settlement
Pamela Samuelson
The Huffington Post, August 10, 2009

“The Google Book Search settlement will be, if approved, the most significant book industry development in the modern era. Exploiting an opportunity made possible by lawsuits brought by a small number of plaintiffs on one narrow issue, Google has negotiated a settlement agreement designed to give it a compulsory license to all books in copyright throughout the world forever. This settlement will transform the future of the book industry and of public access to the cultural heritage of mankind embodied in books.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-samuelson/the-audacity-of-the-googl_b_255490.html

Smartening up: Presidents of seven smaller universities take aim at the big five
Maclean’s, August 10, 2009

When the presidents of Canada’s “big five” universities shared their ideas on improving the Canadian post-secondary system, leaders at the roughly 95 other schools in the country were bound to make their counterpoints. Maclean’s spoke with the presidents of seven small and medium-sized institutions. Most agreed that each university should fulfill its own unique mission and strive for excellence in particular disciplines. They don’t think that the big five—or any five universities—should become more research-intense at the expense of other schools. The big five—the universities of Montreal, Toronto, Alberta, British Columbia and McGill—say they want to focus on doing more world-class research as well as graduate education while other schools, they suggest, could concentrate on teaching undergrad students. The former believe it’s time for Canadian institutions to abandon the “one-size-fits-all” mentality.*
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/08/10/smartening-up/
[Part 1, Can higher ed reach higher? http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/22/can-higher-ed-reach-higher/2/; Part 2, Our universities can be smarter http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/28/our-universities-can-be-smarter/]

Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter
August 2009

Some items in the August LC Digital Preservation Newsletter: Digital Content Transfer Tools - The Library of Congress has developed new tools to transfer large quantities of digital content; High School Students Explore Digital Preservation - LC staff from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program in close collaboration with staff from the Educational Outreach Division spoke to the students about why digital preservation matters; CDL Public Web Archive Service Collections Launched - The California Digital Library opened its Web Archiving Service collections. Topics in the collection range from California government agencies to middle-eastern politics to natural disasters.*
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/newsletter/200908.pdf

IFLA Presidential Newsletter No. 6 June/July 2009
Claudia Lux, August 7, 2009

The Letter of the President provides an overview of current activities of the IFLA President, President Elect, the Governing Board and the Headquarters. Links are provided for further information on the various event and initiatives reported in the newsletter. Some of the stories contained in the June/July issue: Annual German libraries conference - The IFLA President's working group invited a politician to speak about successful advocacy. Her message was clear: be louder and more forceful when advocating; The Humboldt-Forum - an experiment with an ethnological museum and a collection from a university's scientific experiments utilizing a new space next to an old library building.*
http://www.ifla.org/en/news/ifla-presidential-newsletter-no-6-junejuly-2009

The Value of Innovation: New Criteria for Library Scholarship, Part One
Eric Schnell
Library Journal, August 6, 2009

Academic librarians are increasingly breaking away from the traditional academic mold— they use social networks to create and extend existing service, blog to share information and knowledge, and deploy a variety of emerging technologies to supplement their instructional activities. Unfortunately, when these efforts don't fit neatly into the tripartite model of faculty activity - teaching, scholarship, and service - promotion and tenure review committees commonly relegate them to the catch-all category of service. Schnell argues for the creation of rewards systems based on the unique attributes of librarianship as well as individual departmental goals and needs, and which are flexible enough to adapt to future changes.*
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6675050.html?nid=2673&source=link&rid=490036441

For digital books, the story's just starting
Victor Keegan
Guardian, August 5, 2009

Gutenberg's development of movable type in the 15th century was probably the most influential European invention of the second millennium. It paved the way for mass production, and the revolution continues in the digital age. The publishing industry, however, has handled the digital revolution almost as poorly as the music industry did.*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/05/ebooks-google-amazon

Peering behind the curtain of peer review
Peggy Berkowitz
University Affairs, August 4, 2009

Academic Michèle Lamont shares insights on the peer review process in her new book, How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment (Harvard, 2009). Dr. Lamont studied 12 multidisciplinary panels in five national funding competitions in the United States over a two-year period, and she was given rare access to observe three of the panels at work. *
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/peering-behind-the-curtain-of-peer-review.aspx

La recherche bâillonnée?
Assia Kettani
Affaires universitaires, 4 août 2009

« La contribution du chercheur est l’une des conditions de la démocratie », affirmait Pierre Noreau, directeur de l’Acfas, lors du colloque « La recherche bâillonnée? » qui s’est déroulé au mois de juin à Montréal. Alors que la censure est le propre des états totalitaires, elle s’exerce néanmoins de manière détournée dans un pays démocratique comme le Canada, a-t-il souligné. Récemment, plusieurs exemples de recherche « censurée » ont dévoilé la fragilité de la liberté d’expression des chercheurs.*
http://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/la-recherche-baillonnee.aspx

Now’s the Time to take Science Seriously
David Suzuki
Bio Business, June/July 2009

Considering the enormous changes the world has seen over the past century, it’s clear the most powerful force shaping society is science when applied to business, the pharmaceutical and medical industries, and the military. Antibiotics, nuclear weapons, computers, cars, and television are among the long list innovations and technological advancements that come to mind. And what lies ahead? Human cloning, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and space weapons—to say nothing of critical environmental issues such as climate change, deforestation, and toxic pollution. These are all issues society will be hard-pressed to make important decisions about without being scientifically literate and informed.*
http://biobusiness.dgtlpub.com/2009/2009-07-31/pdf/biobusiness_june_july_2009.pdf
[Note: scroll down to page 35.]

RESOURCES / RESSOURCES

SPEC Kit 311: Public Access Policies
Cathy Sarli et al
Association of Research Libraries, August 2009

The concept of a public access policy for research results is based on the premise that government-funded research results should be freely accessible without barriers to taxpayers who provide the funding. Much attention has been devoted to public access policies with the enactment of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Policy on Access to Research Outputs. This survey explores the role libraries play in support of public access policies at their institutions.*
http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec-311-web.pdf

SPARC Calls on Campuses to Coordinate Open Access Policy Efforts
August 5, 2009

The University of Kansas recently became the first public university in the U.S. to adopt a policy to ensure free and open access to the results of the institution’s research outputs. As a growing number of colleges and universities work towards institutional open-access policies, SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) invites libraries to take advantage of a new Web resource designed to utilize the experience gained in establishing such policies to date. The toolkit covers crucial topics such as copyright, journal sustainability, disciplinary differences, and author rights.*
http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/09-0805.shtml

Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age
National Academy [US] of Sciences, July 22, 2009

As digital technologies expand the power and reach of research, they also raise complex issues: from complications in ensuring the validity of research data; standards that do not keep pace with the high rate of innovation; restrictions on data sharing that reduce the ability of researchers to verify results and build on previous research; to huge increases in the amount of data being generated, creating severe challenges in preserving that data for long-term use. The report recommends that all researchers receive appropriate training in research data management, and calls on researchers to make all research data, methods, and other information underlying results publicly accessible in a timely manner.*
http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12615

Thriving in the 21st century: Learning Literacies for the Digital Age (LLiDA project)
Helen Beetham et al
Joint Information Systems Committee, 2009

Due to a lack of clear ownership at institutional levels, learning and digital literacies are rarely the basis of an integrated institutional strategy. Effective integration can be achieved where the learning and teaching strategy addresses learning in the digital age directly, prioritizes innovation in programme design, and establishes clear lines of action/responsibility to other strategies such as ICT, quality, employability, e-Learning, learning resources and devolved faculty/department and service-level strategies. An institutional Literacies champion should be able to initiate action in both the digital and the academic/learning development area of institutional provision, and to work across curriculum teams/central services boundaries.*
http://www.caledonianacademy.net/spaces/LLiDA/uploads/Main/LLiDAreportJune09.pdf

Evaluation of the Publishing and Depository Services Program, Final Report
Public Works and Government Services Canada, May 2, 2008

This report presents the findings from the evaluation of the Publishing and Depository Services Program (PDS). The evaluation assessed the PDS Program’s relevance and cost-effectiveness, and also the extent to which it successfully meets its objectives within a changing information environment. A primary objective of PDS is to ensure Canadians benefit from continuing access to centralized federal government publications.*
http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/bve-oae/rapports-reports/2007-602/index-eng.html#r602
[PDF Anglais / Français]

EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS

E-Resources Licensing: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, A Two-Part NISO Webinar
Part One, September 9, 2009, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. ET
Part Two, September 16, 2009, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. ET

Not every librarian is a lawyer, but many need an in-depth understanding of legal issues to succeed in their jobs. Licensing, contract and copyright law all significantly affect the profession and the communities we serve. This seminar will provide an overview of the parts of copyright law with which librarians have historically been concerned. License agreements place the library/publisher relationship more deeply into the realm of contract law. Participants will learn about basic legal terminology common to most licenses, and about some distinctions and exceptions directly tied to the licensing of content.*
http://www.niso.org/news/events/2009/eresources09

Digital Preservation - The Planets way
Sofia, Bulgaria, September 16-18, 2009

The volume of digital content that organizations intend to store is expected to rise twenty-fold in ten years; is your institution prepared for this? At ‘Digital Preservation – The Planets Way’, leading researchers will demonstrate the sustainable framework and technology which will enable archives, libraries and other large collection holders to take on digital preservation. Delegates will have an opportunity to experiment with the suite of Planets tools and services before they are made available to the public.*
http://www.planets-project.eu/events/sofia-2009/

Focusing on Photographs: Identification and Preservation
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 22-23, 2009

Historical records of people and places, art photography, family snapshots, and corresponding negative printing plates and films are in the collections of many museums, libraries and archives. The omnipresence of photographic media belies the complexity and variety of techniques used to create these images. The variety of photographic processes, supports, and housings require collections managers to possess a unique set of knowledge and skills for proper identification and care. Photographs are accessed by researchers, duplicated for publication, and placed on exhibition, creating additional preservation challenges. This two-day program will focus on the fundamentals of identifying and caring for photographic collections.*
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=8ce68ab3-6dac-4cb4-ad3b-ec8110133946

Revved Up for Reference: Virtual Reference In New York State
Ithaca, New York, September 24 & 25, 2009

More and more libraries provide virtual reference services. This conference offers librarians an opportunity to explore options for providing virtual reference, such as chat, text messaging, and more. Learn what librarians in New York state and the surrounding areas are doing with VR.*
http://www.askus247.org/revvedup.html

IADIS International Conference: WWW/Internet 2009
Rome, Italy, November 19 – 22, 2009

The IADIS WWW/Internet 2009 conference will address the main issues relating to the World Wide Web and the Internet which have undergone huge development in recent years. Aspects of concern are no longer just technical. This conference covers both technological as well as non-technological issues related to these developments. *
http://www.internet-conf.org/cfp.asp

*Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source