E-Lert # 357 / Cyberavis no. 357

Wednesday December23, 2009 / le mercredi 23 décembre 2009

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NEWS / NOUVELLES

Data-sharing culture has changed
Simon Hodson
Research Information, December 2009/January 2010

“Scientists would rather share their toothbrush than their data!” Few academics today would agree with Carole Goble’s purposeful misquote from 2006 – especially as the internet, coupled with advanced computing facilities, has changed the speed and mediums through which research is conducted making collaboration and sharing easier. In fact, science has always been a gradual collaboration of knowledge over time: witness Newton’s “if I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Researchers themselves have been quick to realize the potential of collaboration, genomics being a good case in point.*
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=243

eScience Librarians
Glen Newton
Zzzoot, December 22, 2009

The School of Information Studies (iSchool) at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., has introduced a new program (in collaboration with Cornell University Library) called "Building an eScience Librarianship Curriculum for an eResearch Future". Its purpose is to provide librarians with a better understanding of eScience and the research process, as well as the new types of digital resources - in particular research data and their long term preservation and use - and how to manage them. The school has issued a call for applications for scholarships available for this new program. The lack of eScience and research data savvy librarians is one of the gaps identified by the Research Data Canada and is the focus of its capacity task group.*
http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/2009/12/escience-librarians.html

IIPC Access Working Group Launches Web Archive Registry
December 22, 2009

The International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) has launched a new registry of its members’ web archives. Preserving the web is not a task of any single institution. It is a mission common to all IIPC members, and many practices and lessons are transferable. The members' web archive registry showcases international collaboration for preserving internet content for future generations, and currently includes descriptions of twenty one archives from around the world. As additional archives are made available by IIPC members, the registry will be updated. *
http://netpreserve.org/press/pr20091222.php

2010 Horizon Report Preview

The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. Some of the technologies discussed in the 2010 preview: mobile computing; open content; electronic books; visual data analysis; and critical challenges around technology.*
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report-Preview.pdf

AUCC calls on Ottawa for $2.5-billion boost to university research and education
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 23, Number 20, December 21, 2009

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) says Canada will be ill-prepared to emerge from the recession as a globally competitive knowledge economy unless it substantially increases funding of key elements in the university system. In its pre-Budget submission to the Finance department, the AUCC is calling for more than $2.5 billion in new spending over five years, including more than $1 billion for the three granting councils to support the direct and indirect costs of research and launch an ambitious post-doctoral fellows program.*

Funding, direction questions crop up as CANARIE begins cyberinfrastructure work
Stefan Dubowski
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 23, Number 20, December 21, 2009

As CANARIE Inc begins the process of hammering out a new national cyberinfrastructure strategy for Canada's research community, those associated with the project say it could result in better tech services — provided the funding takes a new direction as well. More money might be part of the equation, but it's less important than how the funds flow, says Phil Baker, president and CEO of the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION). "Redirecting or setting new priorities in current funding programs related to advancing cyberinfrastructure awareness, training, use and tool development is necessary," says Baker. "But let's develop the vision and identify priorities first before talking about redirected or new funding priorities."*

French Consortium Is Out to Battle Google Over Book Scanning
The New York Times, December 20, 2009

Efforts to digitize French culture, from Marcel Proust’s manuscripts to the first films of the legendary Lumière brothers, have been bogged down by the country’s reluctance to rely on help from Google. But there may now be an alternative; a consortium of French technology companies and government-backed I.T. research labs says it can provide the required skills to European libraries, universities, publishers and others to scan, catalog and deliver to end-users the contents of their archives better than Google can.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/technology/21iht-books.html?_r=1&ref=technology

French publishers toast triumph over Google
Adam Sage
Times Online, December 19, 2009

Gallic publishers hailed an historic victory over Google after a Paris court ruled that the internet giant breached copyright by making hundreds of book extracts available online. It was ordered to pay €300,000 (£266,000) in damages. The judgment came in the latest clash between the French Establishment and the Californian search engine, which has been denounced in Paris as a danger to the nation’s culture.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6962221.ece

Baidu search engine set to face copyright lawsuit
Xie Yu
China Daily, December 19, 2009

Baidu, China's biggest search engine, faces a lawsuit for allegedly pirating from the country's leading online literature website, Shanda Literature Limited (SDL). The search engine is the latest to be entangled in high-profile legal action after Google was sued by Chinese novelist Mian Mian for alleged copyright infringement.*
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/19/content_9203046.htm

Library Groups Ask Justice Department To Supervise Institutional Pricing for Google Book Database
Norman Oder
Library Journal, December 17, 2009

In a letter (PDF) to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries, say “active supervision of the settlement by the court and the United States will protect the public interest far more than any additional restructuring of the settlement.” The group also asks for representation of academic authors on the Book Rights Registry, and they remind the DOJ that libraries would be primary consumers of institutional subscriptions and thus deserved to have their voices heard. A fairness hearing is scheduled for February 18, 2010.*
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6712243.html

CANARIE Partners With NORDUnet and NSF To Build IceLink
Mary Allen
IT Canada, December 7, 2009

The IceLink Project, a new communications initiative, demonstrates what can be achieved through international cooperation to draw northern regions more closely into the global community. IceLink, which will establish a high-capacity circuit through the polar regions of Iceland and Greenland to link the US, Canada and five Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland) is the brainchild of a partnership between NORDUnet (a joint collaboration by the five Nordic National Research and Education Networks), CANARIE (Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network) and the NSF GLORIAD Project. Each of these institutions maintain high-speed networks for use by research and academic communities: CANARIE, for example, provides an ultra fast network that is “hundreds of times faster than the internet” for the rapid transfer of scientific data which is used by close to 40,000 researchers in 200 Canadian universities, and which links to many international networks.
http://www.itincanada.ca/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=11373&category_id=219&vmcchk=1

ARTICLES

Perspectives in science policy: How to Recognize a Minister for the Future
Paul Dufour
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 23, Number 20, December 21, 2009

Dufour says he has yet to meet someone with a business card that says Minister for the Future — at least not yet. Some would say it is almost an oxymoron. But in the late 1960s, a great deal of foment and open public debate was underway in capitals around the globe to re-assess where governments stood on planning and investing for the future and more specifically, what research and the sciences could contribute to mid- and long-term national economic and social goals.*

Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU - Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks
Michael Geist, December 16, 2009

Canada's participation in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations has generated enormous public concern as leaked documents indicate that ACTA would have a dramatic impact on Canadian copyright law. The U.S. has proposed provisions that would mandate a DMCA-style implementation for the WIPO Internet treaties and encourage the adoption of a three-strikes and you're out policy to cut off access where there are repeated allegations of infringement. Yet it would appear that ACTA is only part of the story. Canada is also currently negotiating a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union. The negotiations have been largely off the radar screen (and similarly secretive) with the first round of talks concluding in October in Ottawa. *
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4627/125/

A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing
John Markoff
The New York Times, December 14, 2009

In a speech given just a few weeks before he was lost at sea off the California coast in January 2007, Jim Gray, a database software pioneer and a Microsoft researcher, sketched out an argument that computing was fundamentally transforming the practice of science. Dr. Gray called the shift a “fourth paradigm.” The first three paradigms were experimental, theoretical and, more recently, computational science. He explained this paradigm as an evolving era in which an “exaflood” of observational data was threatening to overwhelm scientists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15books.html?_r=3&hpw

Academic Library Data from the United States: An Examination of Trends
John M. Budd
LIBRES, Volume 19, Issue 2, September 2009

The literature in librarianship offers opinions and forecasts on a number of trends in services, resources, and personnel within libraries. Writings outside of librarianship also offer ideas about libraries and scholarship. The trends can be examined in the context of data reported by libraries. Since the analysis can take into account changes over time, an integrated and holistic examination can be conducted which suggests a complex dynamic that illuminates a variety of paths the profession can follow. More people come into libraries now than they did a few years ago. More resources are available at all sizes and types of institutions. The amount and complexity of the resources available does not necessarily result in simple access to precisely what is needed and wanted by end-users. Guidance, direction, assistance—in short, instruction and teaching—in wading through that complexity is more needed than ever.*
http://www.libraryworks.com/LW_White%20Papers/pdfs/Academic_Library_Trends.pdf

Fields of dreams
Karen Mazurkewich
Financial Post Magazine, December 1, 2009

Economic shifts and recession have brought innovation cluster theory to the forefront in Canada. Will it deliver? Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and governments think so.*
http://www.financialpost.com/magazine/story.html?id=2287746

RESOURCES / RESSOURCES

E-Science Survey Resource Page

During the late summer of 2009, ARL surveyed its members to gather data about the state of e-science support offered by the library and the broader institution. Early findings were reported at a briefing session at the October 2009 ARL Membership Meeting. Collected here are the rich variety of resources provided as part of the survey responses.
http://www.arl.org/rtl/eresearch/escien/esciensurvey/surveyresearch.shtml

Insight into digital preservation of research output in Europe
Tom Kuipers et al
PARSE.Insight and Seventh Framework Programme, December 9, 2009

PARSE.Insight is a two-year project co-funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), Research Infrastructures. It is concerned with the preservation of digital information in research, from primary data through analysis to the final publications result-ing from this research. Ultimately, the PARSE.Insight project will develop a roadmap for an e-Science infrastructure, intended to guide the European Commission's strategy about research infra-structures.
http://www.parse-insight.eu/downloads/PARSE-Insight_D3-4_SurveyReport_final_hq.pdf

The legal status of raw data: a guide for research practice
SURFdirect and the Centre for Intellectual Property Law, July 2009

The legal protection of raw research data is relevant for a number of reasons. Raw research data is primarily relevant to other researchers, who can use it for new research and new publications. It is therefore important to know what the legal status is of the data concerned, because under certain circumstances research data is protected by copyright. This legal guide is not written with a view to specific types of data. It can therefore basically be used by researchers in all disciplines. It does, however, present a number of criteria for determining the legally relevant application of a system of protection. It thus provides pointers for deciding, on a case-by-case basis, whether research data comes under a certain system of protection.
http://www.surffoundation.nl/SiteCollectionDocuments/SURFdirect_De%20juridische%20status%20van%20ruwe%20data_wegwijzer_ENG.pdf [See also: A brief guide to determining what consent is necessary to reuse someone else’s research data: HTML]

© the way ahead: A strategy for copyright in the digital age
Intellectual Property Office [U.K.] and Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), 2009

The aim of copyright is to encourage authors’ creativity and make their works widely available. It is a global system that provides incentives for authors and investors, while allowing access to works for educators, researchers, cultural institutions and users of all sorts, both in business and in the home. This work considers how copyright can tackle the challenges of the digital age, drawing on previous work including Digital Britain and the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, on international perspectives including the European Commission’s and on numerous stakeholders’ submissions.*
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-types/pro-copy/c-policy/c-strategy.htm

EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS

2010 Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians (WISLL)
Edmonton, Alberta, February 17-19, 2010

Librarians work with more statistical information than ever before because of the electronic dissemination of statistics over the Internet. Library users increasingly demand more access and services around statistical data. Greater availability to statistics online, however, has not made this information necessarily easier to find or to retrieve. This Institute provides librarians and information professionals training in the strategies and tools for finding statistics and providing them in formats directly useful to users. This Institute is valuable and relevant to professionals working in academic, public and special libraries.*
http://datalib.library.ualberta.ca/wisll/index.html

*Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source