E-Lert # 364 / Cyberavis no. 364
Friday February 19, 2010 / le vendredi 19 février
2010
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NEWS / NOUVELLES
Action needed to recognize the value of intellectual property for
Canada
February 10, 2010
According to a new report from The Conference Board of Canada, Intellectual
Property in the 21st Century, Canadian businesses and governments both undervalue
the potential of intellectual property (IP) to contribute to Canada's economic
prosperity. The report notes that much of the debate around intellectual
property has been diminished by an exaggerated dichotomy of the rights of
creators at odds with the rights of users. A more effective approach is
to find a policy balance between incentives to create (including protection
rights) and incentives to disseminate content (including fair dealing exemptions
to monopoly rights). The pursuit of effective rights is more likely to achieve
consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders.*
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/press/newsrelease/10-74.aspx
iiNet: The whys and what nows
Stilgherrian
ZDNet Australia, February 10, 2010
The Federal Court [Australia] ruled
that internet service providers are not responsible for copyright violation
by their customers. This is an important decision not just for iiNet, which
spent around $4 million defending the case, but for all ISPs in Australia
and, indeed, globally. HTML
Google book scanning: Cultural theft or freedom of information?
CNN, February 8, 2010
A proposed partnership between the French government and Google is stoking
fears in France that the country's literary treasures will fall under commercial
control of Google Inc. Frederic Mitterand, the French minister of
culture, has said that Google came to France with "the attitude of
a conqueror" signing "unacceptable" and "one-sided"
deals. Some, however, are puzzled over Mitterand's reaction - including
one of the libraries concerned in the partnership. Believing that easier
access to their archives will promote French culture, the city of Lyon's
library has signed an agreement with Google, hoping to scan as many as 500,000
books in 10 years.*
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/08/google.livres.france/
Health research advocates push for balanced approach to future
funding
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 24, Number 1, January 25, 2010
Research Canada, an advocacy group for the creation of a health research
strategy, says a funding imbalance facing health research in Canada
could be rectified with the development and implementation of a sectoral
framework and roadmap. It warns that without an integrative approach to
funding health research, investments in research infrastructure and skills
attraction and retention will ultimately be squandered.*
CKRN signs new three-year deals for scholarly content
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 24, Number 1, January 25, 2010
The Canadian Knowledge Research Network (CKRN) has completed a series of
three-year licence renewals with 14 scholarly publishers in deals worth
$140 million. The agreements provide continued access to world-class resources
for more than 850,000 researchers and students at 73 universities across
Canada. The agreements cover a diverse range of content ranging from science/technology/medical
to humanities and social sciences in formats such as e-journals, databases,
primary sources, newspapers and historical archives.
From the RE$EARCH MONEY archives: S&T progress made over last
decade of S&T reveals major challenges on horizon
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 24, Number 1, January 25, 2010
Since the beginning of the new millennium, science and technology in Canada
has experienced both the exhilaration of increased investment in research
capacity and the frustration of interrupted strategies and an apparent decline
in priority at the federal level. As Canada's primary outlet for news and
analysis of R&D, RE$EARCH MONEY has reported on the key trends and events
shaping the national innovation system. Between 2000 and 2009, the image
of Canada as a potent source of research and technological innovation was
significantly enhanced, only to have that hard-won reputation threatened
by more aggressive nations and the inability of the federal government to
formulate and implement a robust S&T strategy. Emphasis on the knowledge
economy has given way to leveraging Canada's dominant traditional strengths
in natural resources. RE$EARCH MONEY has combed through its archives to
identify the high and low points of the Canadian S&T enterprise.
ARTICLES
Leading Change in the System of Scholarly
Communication: A Case Study of Engaging Liaison Librarians for Outreach to
Faculty
Kara J. Malenfant
College and Research Libraries, Volume 71, Number 1, January 2010
In this narrative, single-case study Malenfant examines how liaison librarians at the University of Minnesota (UMN) came to include advocating for reform of the scholarly communication system among their core responsibilities. Other libraries may hire a coordinator or rely on a committee to undertake outreach programs, but UMN has defined baseline expertise in scholarly communication for all librarians who serve as liaisons to disciplinary faculty members. By “mainstreaming” scholarly communication duties, UMN is declaring these issues central to the profession. This intrinsic study uses evidence gathered from open-ended interviews with three participants, supplemented by documentation. The article explores the context of these changes, systems thinking, and new mental models.*
When Scholars Weigh Publication Options, Tradition Counts
Jennifer Howard
The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 31, 2010
Growing numbers of scholars are interested in trying out new technologies
as a way to share and publish their research, but the traditional cultures
of their disciplines and the high regard accorded to peer review still tend
to have the strongest influence on them, according to a substantial new
report on scholarly communication
from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California
at Berkeley. While the various fields surveyed have very different cultures,
which are explored at length in the 733-page report, the executive summary
points to the persistence of doing scholarly business as usual.*
http://chronicle.com/article/When-Scholars-Weigh/63826/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The Google Books Project: Will it Make Libraries Obsolete?
William C. Dougherty
The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2010
Much has been written in both the popular, trade and academic press with respects to the Google Books settlement with authors and publishers, but there remains a lack of clarity regarding how this project will affect libraries in the long term. While the successful completion of the project will “create the world's largest library online,” Dougherty considers the question of the Google Books project possibly rendering libraries, as we currently know them, obsolete. *
Digital Copying and Libraries: Copyright and Licensing Considerations
Barry Sookman & Dan Glover
Feliciter, Volume 56, Number 1, 2010
Digital technologies change how libraries provide the public with access to e-books, articles and other works. While not downplaying the high demand for this service and the many benefits to both libraries and the communities they serve, Sookman and Glover maintain that librarians need to be aware that the uses of digital media raise legal issues that do not arise in the case of traditional printed media. The authors discuss these issues as they fall in two main categories – copyright and contracts – with an eye to answering the question: “What should the library community think about acquiring digital copies of books or making them available to the public?”
Manning: an unlikely ally for universities?
Daniel Mccabe
University Affairs, February 2010
Recently, relations between the federal government and Canada’s university-based
scientists have been strained. Researchers sharply criticized small cuts
to the country’s major granting agencies, while the Conservative government
complains it doesn’t get proper credit for the billions of dollars
it directed towards university science in the last federal budget. A potential
bridge builder between the two sides has emerged on the scene, albeit one
who some might regard as having an unlikely pedigree for the job: Preston
Manning, founder of the now-defunct Reform Party and a longtime leading
figure in conservative political circles.
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/manning-an-unlikely-ally-for-universities.aspx
Virtual strangers: e-research and the Humanities
Paul Longley Arthur
Australian Cultural History, Volume 27, Number 1, April 2009
This paper gives an overview of the ways that humanities research is embracing
new digital resources and formats and suggests that the e-research revolution
that is well advanced in the sciences is at an early stage in the humanities.
Many of its potential benefits, and challenges, are different from those
in the sciences and are just beginning to be understood. Researchers in
the sciences have been accustomed to working collaboratively, but this is
less common in the humanities. Digital technologies seem to more naturally
enhance and support existing methodologies and patterns of work in the sciences,
whereas in the humanities they require more of a shift, a change in the
traditional research culture. Arthur examines these issues with reference
to examples of leading humanities projects.*
IFLA Presidential Newsletter No. 1 January 2010
Ellen Tise, IFLA President 2009-2011
http://www.ifla.org/en/news/ifla-presidential-newsletter-no-1-january-2010
SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #142
Peter Suber, February 2, 2010
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/02-02-10.htm
Dialogue
SSHRC quarterly newsletter, Winter / Hiver 2010
http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/newsletter/2010winter-hiver.asp
RESOURCES / RESSOURCES
Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication:
An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines
Diane Harley et al
UC Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education, January 2010
The report describes the results of research conducted between 2007 and
2010 to develop a deeper understanding of how and why scholars do what they
do in their work to advance their careers, and their fields. The methodology
focused on analyses of faculty values and behaviors throughout the scholarly
communication lifecycle, including career advancement, sharing, collaborating,
informal and formal publishing, resource generation, and engaging with the
public. The report is based on the responses of 160 interviewees from 45,
mostly elite, research institutions in seven selected academic fields: archaeology,
astrophysics, biology, economics, history, music, and political science.
The authors of the study concentrated on assessing scholars’ attitudes
and needs as both producers and users of research results. The report is
divided into eight chapters, which include a document synthesizing the research
results plus seven detailed disciplinary case studies. The executive summary
also includes overviews for each of the disciplinary case studies. *
http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc
CALIS Sud :L'accès libre comme tremplin pour la culture
de l'information en Afrique francophone
Joëlle Angeloz et Carole Bessero
Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France, Tome 55, Numéro 1, 2010
« À l’heure de la société de l’information,
le savoir peut s’acquérir partout à tout moment et les
enjeux des compétences informationnelles deviennent prépondérants.
CALIS (Computer-Assisted
Learning for Information Searching) est une formation documentaire à
la recherche et à l’utilisation de l’information scientifique
dans un cadre universitaire. Dispensé sous forme d’un didacticiel
en ligne, CALIS peut être adapté à toute discipline
et intégré à une plateforme d’enseignement à
distance. Le mouvement de l’accès libre ainsi que l’avènement
des archives ouvertes constituent des initiatives intéressantes pour
les pays du Sud. L’identification et la localisation de ces sources
d’information restent toutefois problématiques. L’adaptation
du didacticiel CALIS au contexte africain vise tout à la fois l’acquisition
de compétences informationnelles pour les universitaires et la valorisation
de ces contenus. CALIS peut alors être considéré comme
un véritable passeport pour la culture de l’information. »
http://bbf.enssib.fr/consulter/bbf-2010-01-0063-001
EThOS: Free Downloads Of UK Dissertations/Theses From The British Library
The main goal of EThOS is to offer a single point of access where researchers
the world over can access all theses produced by UK Higher Education. To
achieve this, EThOS offers a coherent and consistent interface by implementing
a central 'hub' comprising an e-store and a digitization suite at The British
Library. The hub automatically harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories
and digitizes paper theses from participating institutions.
http://ethos.bl.uk/About.do
EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS
The Future of the Web for Collaborative Science
April 26 2010, held in conjunction with WWW2010, April 26-30, 2010
Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC, USA
The Web was originally invented with the physics community in mind, but rapidly
expanded to include other scientific disciplines, in particular the health
care and life sciences. By the mid 1990s the Web was already being used to
share data by biomedical professionals and bioinformaticians. Researchers
are now looking to share extremely large data sets on the Web, extract insights
from vast numbers of papers cross sub-disciplines, and use social networking
tools to identify potential collaborators, aggregate data and engage in scientific
discussion. This workshop will present how scientists currently use the Web,
and discuss the functionality that is required to make the Web an ideal platform
for both cutting edge scientific collaboration and for managing health care
and life science related data.
http://esw.w3.org/topic/HCLS/WWW2010/Workshop
Internet, Politics, Policy 2010: An Impact Assessment
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, September 16 -17, 2010
The Internet is now the most important international medium of communication
and information exchange, involving citizens, firms, governments, political
parties and NGOs. It brings new practices, norms and structures. In short,
the Internet drives social change, requiring a policy response - and policy
organizations of all kinds use the Internet to formulate and implement that
response. Analysis of these two trends requires taking advantage of the
new evidence generated by the Internet and the development of methods from
a range of disciplinary perspectives.
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/?id=338
*Text adapted from source / Texte adapté de la source
