E-Lert # 361 / Cyberavis no. 361
Wednesday January 29, 2010 / le mercredi 29 janvier
2010
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NEWS / NOUVELLES
The PC Officially Died Today:But will the iPad replace it?
Nicholas Carr
The New Republic, January 27, 2010
The PC era ended when Steve Jobs stepped onto a San Francisco stage to
unveil the iPad, Apple’s version of a tablet computer. Our attitude
to the tablet form appears to have changed. With the iPad, Apple is hoping
to bridge all computing niches, delivering the killer device for the cloud
era, a machine that will define computing’s new age in the way that
the Windows PC defined the old age. But will it succeed? The iPad is by
no means a sure bet.*
http://www.tnr.com/article/the-pc-officially-died-today
Diagnosing the Tablet Fever in Higher Education
Jeff Young
The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 27, 2010
Tablet-style computers could be game-changers for colleges, bringing in
a new era of classroom collaboration and pushing the adoption of electronic
textbooks over a tipping point. Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet announcement
has education watchers predicting a wave of student purchases, major textbook
publishers rejoicing, and at least one college saying it’s considering
giving the new device to all incoming students. Not every campus technology
official is sold on the iPad in education, though.*
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Diagnosing-the-Tablet-Fever-in/20888/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
CANARIE provides $300K in resources to build a secure, dedicated
network for the Canadian Research Data Centre Network
January 26, 2010
Social scientists’ hands are often tied when it comes to analyzing
and sharing health and population statistics for two simple reasons. The
sheer amount of data collected by agencies such as Statistics Canada makes
it difficult to process the information; and the confidential nature of
the data, from health records to lifestyle choices, often makes the information
difficult to share. CANARIE, Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation
Network, has announced a ground-breaking partnership with the Canadian
Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) to help overcome both these challenges.
http://www.canarie.ca/templates/news/releases/26_01_10_E.pdf
Fronde contre un traité commercial
Radio Canada, 26 janvier 2010
« Un regroupement international d'associations de consommateurs
lance une offensive contre le traité commercial anti-contrefaçon
(l'ACTA). Les groupes canadiens reprochent à Ottawa de maintenir
le secret sur les négociations en cours. Ils craignent que le traité ne
porte atteinte à la vie privée et à la liberté d'expression
des individus. « Ils ne peuvent pas négocier comme ça,
en secret, un accord d'une telle importance et qui a des répercussions
si grandes sur nos libertés fondamentales » a dit Anthony
Hémond, avocat à l'Union des consommateurs. »
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Economie/2010/01/26/015-regroupement-acta.shtml
Harvard's Recommendations to President Obama on Public Access
Policy
Stevan Harnad
Open Access Archivangelism, January 26, 2010
Professor Steven Hyman, Provost of Harvard, the first US University to mandate Open
Access, has submitted a point for point response to
President Obama’s Request
for Information on Public Access Policy. If his advice is heeded, the
beneficiaries will not only be US research progress and the US tax-paying
public, but also research progress and its public benefits planet-wide,
as US policy is globally reciprocated.*
http://openaccess.eprints.org/
Google Teams With NOAA to Make Better Ocean Visualizations
Alexis Madrigal
Wired, January 26, 2010
Thanks to a new partnership announced by Google and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, data from the depths could soon get a lot
less murky. NOAA will provide data from its various ocean-science programs
and Google will design visualization tools. The deal extends a collaboration
that began when Google built NOAA’s underwater topography into Google
Earth. The partnership will also include porting more ocean depth, climate
and other scientific data into Google Earth, and provide online access
to zoning and regulatory information near the coasts.*
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/google-noaa-ocean-visualizations/
Google case's final chapter seeks ending
Vit Wagner
Toronto Star, January 23, 2010
The Google Book settlement sometimes seems a misnomer for an agreement
that has unsettled its many opponents and even left some of its advocates
feeling a tad queasy. More to the point, 14 months after a deal was struck
that would allow Google to freely share the contents of millions of books
it has digitized, the matter remains far from settled.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/article/754141--google-case-s-final-chapter-seeks-ending
Explorers find rare ancient books
Lin Shujuan
China Daily, January 23, 2010
Archaeologists hope the discovery of rare bamboo-strip books will reveal
the owner of an ancient tomb being excavated in Hubei province. Work to
uncover the tomb, begun on Jan 17 in Yancang, a village near Jingmen, likely
dates back to the Warring States Period (475 BC to 221 BC). Archaeologists
will have to wait until excavation of the tomb is completed, before they
can attempt to read the strips. "Sorting out those bamboo strips is
like sorting out well-cooked noodles, you have to be really careful so
as not to damage them" said Shen Haining, director of the provincial
cultural heritage bureau.*
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/23/content_9365954.htm
Key Author Estates, Formerly Resistant, Now Support Google Books
Elliot Van Buskirk
Wired, January 22, 2010
Members of the Authors Guild who vociferously opposed Google Books now
support the initiative. The estates of author John Steinbeck and songwriter
Woody Guthrie, having led a successful movement to postpone the opt-out
deadline to January 28, now say they are happy with the revised Google
Books plan in an e-mail the Authors Guild sent to its members.*
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/key-author-estates-formerly-resistant-now-support-google-books/comment-page-1/
ARTICLES
Charles Arthur
The Guardian, January 21, 2010
One question at Chequers from Gordon Brown to Sir Tim Berners-Lee set
in train a rapid journey towards the launch of data.gov.uk.
Brown, seeking a technological initiative and seeing just the sort of person
who might know what it should be, said to Berners-Lee: "What's the
most important technology right now? How should the UK make the best use
of the internet?" To which the invigorated Berners-Lee replied: "Just
put all the government's data on it." To his surprise, Brown simply
said "OK, let's do it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/21/how-official-data-freed
Copyright Intervention: The Price of Knowledge
CAUT Bulletin, Volume 57, Number 1, January 2010
CAUT has been granted leave to intervene in an important copyright case
that will have major implications for universities and colleges across
Canada. The case involves a judicial review application to the Federal
Court of Appeal by school boards and provincial ministers of education
against the Copyright Board of Canada decision to significantly increase
the fee primary and secondary schools pay for the right to copy material
for instruction-related purposes. The outcome of the review will play a
role in determining whether post-secondary institutions will also see a
major increase in copyright fees.
http://www.cautbulletin.ca/
Cyberinfrastructure and the Research Process in Canada
Stephen Quesnelle
Findings from Toronto Workshop December 17/18, 2009
On December 17/18 CANARIE, CUCCIO and Compute Canada invited a group of
subject matter experts and stakeholders in the research process to a workshop
in Toronto. The purpose of the session was to articulate, investigate and
document the current state and process by which Researchers identify and
obtain the cyberinfrastructure resources required to support research activities.
http://www.canarie.ca/templates/about/publications/docs/Cyberinfrastructure_Research_Process_Report.pdf
RESOURCES / RESSOURCES
Enabling Open Scholarship
EnablingOpenScholarship (EOS) is an organisation for universities
and research institutions worldwide. The organisation serves as both an
information service and a forum to raise and discuss issues around the
mission of modern universities and research institutions, particularly
with regard to the creation, dissemination and preservation of research
findings. Resources on this website include among other things, a series
of briefing papers – e.g. Briefing Paper on Open Access, Briefing
Paper on Institutional Repositories, Briefing Paper on Business Aspects
of Institutional Repositories.*
Home page: http://www.openscholarship.org/jcms/j_6/home
Briefing papers: http://www.openscholarship.org/jcms/c_6409/briefing-papers
KBART: Knowledge Bases And Related Tools working group
In early 2006, UKSG commissioned a
research report (Link
Resolvers and the Serials Supply Chain) that identified and described
a range of problems affecting the efficiency of OpenURL linking. The report
recommended the creation of a group that would determine and promote "best
practice" solutions for the overall community to improve the exchange
of metadata with knowledge bases. The KBART (Knowledge Bases And Related
Tools) working group has been established to carry out the recommendations
of the research report. The group is co-chaired by NISO and
is working to improve the supply of data to link resolvers and knowledge
bases. The working group has produced a set of guidelines (January 2010, PDF / HTML).
http://www.uksg.org/kbart
Les Learning centres : un modèle international de bibliothèque
intégrée à l’enseignement et à la recherche
Rapport à madame la ministre [Fr.] de l’Enseignement supérieur
et de la Recherche décembre 2009
« Le concept de Learning centre, mis en oeuvre dans des universités
américaines puis britanniques et néerlandaises depuis plusieurs
années (première réalisation marquante en Grande-Bretagne
en 1996 à l’Université de Sheffield Hallam), est lié à l’évolution
de l’enseignement supérieur et des bibliothèques universitaires
dans les années 90. Il allie un lieu architectural, souvent emblématique,
et l’intégration d’un ensemble de ressources et de services, également
accessibles à distance. Selon les situations, le centre constitue
une partie de la bibliothèque, ou bien il l’englobe, en associant
un ensemble de services pédagogiques et technologiques, avec un
accent mis sur l’assistance à l’usager. D’abord
lié à l’enseignement supérieur, le modèle
concerne aussi les bibliothèques publiques (Birmingham). Le terme
de Learning centre (mot à mot : centre d’apprentissage) n’a
pas d’équivalent en français. De plus cette notion
se démultiplie en learning resources centre, learning commons, information
commons, tous ces expressions mettant l’accent sur l’appropriation
communautaire des connaissances. »
http://media.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/file/2009/33/6/Rapport_Learning_Centers_7-12_RV_131336.pdf
EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS
Handheld Librarian 2010 – The Second Online conference about
Mobile Library Services
February 17-18, 2010
The phenomenal and rapid adoption and diffusion of mobile devices has
libraries and library-related organizations scrambling to redesign and
rethink content and information services to meet the needs and expectations
of mobile users. This program -- sponsored by Alliance Library System,
and LearningTimes -- will include a Keynote, featured speakers, and
a collection of available resources, discussions boards, and access to
the recording of all live events for one year after the conference.*
http://www.handheldlibrarian.org/
Information Seeking in Context (ISIC)
Faculty of Letters, University of Murcia,
Campus Universitario of La Merced. Santo Cristo 1, 30001-Murcia (SPAIN)
September 28 – October 2, 2010
ISIC: the Information Behaviour Conference takes an interdisciplinary approach through attracting papers from researchers in various areas. The unifying characteristic is the relationship between the needs of the information user, the means for the satisfaction of those needs and the uses to which those means are put in practice organizations or disciplines.* http://fcd1.inf.um.es/ocs/index.php/isic/2010
*Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source
