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I N B R I E F
July/August 2011
SEALS: Semantic Evaluation at Large Scale
Contributed by:
Dr. Raúl Garc�a Castro
Ontology Engineering Group
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Madrid, Spain
rgarcia@fi.upm.es
The SEALS (Semantic Evaluation At Large Scale) project (http://www.seals-project.eu/), funded in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under the topic of e-Infrastructures, is coordinated by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and includes researchers from nine other European universities and research centres in Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Semantic technologies are a cornerstone in current computer science and support the construction of intelligent applications in different domains: business, education, e-government, tourism, healthcare, etc. These technologies support information search, integration and interchange by enhancing the meaning of such information. However, semantic technologies must be efficient and robust in order to support their current and future use in a continuously changing environment where the information available in the Web is exponentially growing.
Semantic technology evaluation services and evaluation campaigns
The goal of the SEALS project is to develop an infrastructure (the SEALS Platform) that provides services for the evaluation of semantic technologies that is available to anyone interested in evaluating semantic technologies or knowing about the results of current tools, namely, researchers, developers and end users.
In addition, the SEALS project is organising a set of international evaluation campaigns over different types of semantic technologies with the goal of providing a discussion forum about semantic technology evaluation and objective evaluation results for the most relevant existing technologies.
From experimentation-based research to technology selection and improvement
Because of the evaluation services provided by the SEALS Platform, researchers are able to ground their research on objective and replicable evaluation results, and to share and discuss their results with others.
Furthermore, the consolidated results of the different semantic technologies obtained in the evaluation campaigns will support the currently difficult tasks of selecting the appropriate semantic technologies for different uses and obtaining recommendations for improvement that would facilitate the use and development of such technologies.
SEALS: a project in the 7th Framework Programme
The SEALS project is part of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union. The project started in 2009 and will end in 2012. It is composed of two phases where different evaluations are defined, implemented in the SEALS Platform, and used in evaluation campaigns.
The SEALS project is currently entering its second phase, and the first evaluation campaigns over semantic technologies have been executed; a summary of the results of these campaigns in which 29 different tools were evaluated can be found in the first SEALS Whitepaper (http://www.seals-project.eu/whitepaper). The evaluation campaigns for the second phase are now underway (http://www.seals-project.eu/seals-evaluation-campaigns/2nd-seals-evaluation-campaigns), new evaluations have been defined and the project expects increased participation.
The long-term goal of the project is to have a research infrastructure sustained by a community around the evaluation of semantic technologies.
Professor Asunción Gómez Pérez from the Ontology Engineering Group coordinates the project. Other partners in SEALS include the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), Forschungszentrum Informatik Karlsruhe (Germany), the University of Innsbruck (Austria), INRIA (France), the University of Mannheim (Germany), the University of Zurich (Switzerland), STI International (Austria), Open University (United Kingdom), and Oxford University (United Kingdom).
Status Report on ORCID: the Open Researcher & Contributor ID Registry
Contributed by:
MacKenzie Smith
MIT Libraries
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
kenzie@mit.edu
Martin Fenner
Hannover Medical School
Hannover, Germany
fenner.martin@mh-hannover.de
The ORCID (Open Researcher & Contributor ID) initiative held a participants meeting on May 18th at Harvard University to update the more than two hundred participating organizations on progress towards a launch of the registry in 2012.
Name ambiguity and attribution are persistent, critical problems in the scholarly research ecosystem. ORCID is an ambitious initiative to give a unique identifier to all active researchers from around the world, allowing accurate credit for their scholarly works (articles, datasets, and potentially any other type of contribution to scholarship). ORCID's mission is to solve the researcher/contributor name ambiguity problem in scholarly communications by creating a central registry and an open linking mechanism between ORCID and other current author ID schemes. These identifiers, and the relationships among them, can be linked to the researcher's output to enhance the scientific discovery process and to improve the efficiency of research funding and collaboration within the research community.
ORCID represents a community effort to establish an open, independent registry that is adopted and embraced as the industry's de facto standard. It is being developed by a growing group of organizations and individuals, including scholarly publishers, research universities, funding agencies, software companies, and individual researchers.
The participants meeting provided updates on the legal status of the organization (now incorporated as a US non-profit with plans to file for tax-exempt status in the next year), fundraising efforts (last year's call for sponsorship successfully concluded, and the next call launching soon; business plan development well underway for implementation in the fall); and system development (the alpha system is online and initial work on phase one of the system will begin shortly). There were also presentations from a variety of ORCID supporters describing the benefit they anticipate in having the registry, and how they would implement it in their organizations (e.g. the California Digital Library, SSRN, Dryad). Presentations from the meeting are now online at http://www.orcid.org/presentations.
As awareness of ORCID grows and its scope and potential become clearer, we hope that more organizations involved in scholarly communication will get involved and participate! Creating a valuable, trusted, scalable, and sustainable global registry of this type is challenging, but the need for it is unquestionable and it is time for the scholarly community to make this happen.
Report on the 1st Workshop on Semantic Web Technologies for Libraries and Readers
Contributed by:
Alison Callahan
Ph.D. Student
Department of Biology, Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
acallaha@connect.carleton.ca
Jodi Schneider
Ph.D. Student
DERI, NUI Galway
Galway, Ireland
jschneider@pobox.com
The 1st workshop on Semantic Web Technologies for Libraries and Readers
(STLR 2011) was held June 16 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Collocated with the
ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, the half-day STLR 2011 workshop sought to apply Semantic Web technologies to
enhance books, other electronic media, and the reader/user experience. While
Semantic Web technologies are successfully being applied to library catalogs
and to digital libraries as a whole, the semantics of individual books,
scholarly objects, and media are only beginning to receive attention.
The workshop began with a keynote from Bernhard Haslhofer of Cornell
University, titled "Metadata is back!", which put the history of Linked
Data—from the Semantic Web stack to the recent announcement of
schema.org—into a digital libraries context. Research presentations
included "Annotation as Information Resource Coordination" presented by
Robert Allen of Drexel University, "FRBR Based Semantic Annotation for
Biodiversity: An Ontology Approach" presented by Ya-Ning Chen of National
Taiwan Normal University and "The Ontogenesis Knowledgeblog: Lightweight
publishing about semantics, with semantics" presented by Robert Stevens of
Manchester University. The workshop also included a poster and demonstration
session with posters titled "Annotation function categories: A semantic
extension to the OAC Alpha3 Data Model" presented by Simone Sacchi of the
University of Illinois and "The YUMA Universal Media Annotator" presented by
Rainer Simon of the Austrian Institute of Technology. Peter Sefton of the
University of Southern Queensland prepared an in-absentia demo on getting
linked data semantics into digital libraries while Texas A&M university's Andrew Webb and Andruid Kerne demoed their
system for "Deriving Metadata Semantics with Meta-Metadata in
combinFormation". The workshop closed with a keynote presentation by Cathy
Marshall titled "Reading and Collaboration in a Digital Age - or - How I
learned to stop worrying and love the screen". Cathy's keynote discussed
how reading is mobile, interactive, social, and material, drawing from her
work in studying and facilitating user annotation at Microsoft Research.
The workshop had 19 attendees and covered a wide range of topics, from
annotation theory to practical experience in building 'lightweight'
semantics into an online publishing and annotation environment. The next
iteration of the workshop will further explore the relationship between
digital libraries, their users and the potential offered by Semantic Web
technologies.
More information about STRL 2011, including details about workshop
proceedings can be found at http://stlr2011.weebly.com.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award 2012
Contributed by:
Steven Bergen
atla@gatesfoundation.org
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is currently accepting applications to its 2012 Access to Learning Award (ATLA), which recognizes the innovative efforts of public libraries and similar institutions outside the United States to connect people to information and opportunities through free access to computers and the Internet. The award is given by Global Libraries, an initiative of the foundation's Global Development Program. The recipient of the Access to Learning Award will receive $1 million (U.S.).
Applications for the 2012 Access to Learning Award must be submitted via an online submission process no later than September 30, 2011. The application form is available only in English and must be completed in English to be eligible for consideration. However, while applications must be submitted in English, the foundation does offer informational brochures in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. You may find these and additional information on eligibility requirements and the process of selection at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ATLA.
Background about the Access to Learning Award:
Computers and the Internet are powerful tools that provide opportunities for people to improve their social and economic well-being. Worldwide, just one person in six has access to the Internet. This means that more than five billion people miss out on chances to pursue education and employment, access government services, learn about valuable health information, conduct business online, and exchange information and ideas. The Access to Learning Award encourages new, innovative ways to provide computer and Internet services to people without access, and promotes greater development of public access technology programs around the world.
The Access to Learning Award honors innovative organizations that are opening a world of online information to people in need. The foundation's Global Libraries initiative invites applications from libraries and similar organizations outside the United States that have created new ways to offer these key services:
- Free public access to computers and the Internet.
- Public training to assist users in accessing online information that can help improve their lives.
- Technology training for library staff.
- Outreach to underserved communities.
Please note: No U.S. organizations are eligible to apply. That includes U.S. organizations that operate in locations outside of the U.S. If a U.S. organization works through a local organization outside of the U.S., the local organization would be encouraged to apply.
To be eligible, the applying institution must allow all members of the public to use computers and the Internet free of charge in a community space.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Administrator at [email protected].
Elsevier's 'Apps for Library Idea Challenge' Presents New Role for Librarians in Digital Age
Contributed by:
Dylan Parker
Elsevier
New York, New York, USA
Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, recently launched a competition calling upon librarians to submit ideas for applications that help the researchers they serve.
The SciVerse Applications Apps for Library Idea Challenge encourages librarians and information professionals, who best know the needs of each individual researcher, to develop ideas for innovative applications aimed at solving specific research workflow problems.
Librarians are enthusiastically invited to share their ideas around the unmet workflow needs of researchers and propose innovative, customized applications for the SciVerse suite. An international panel of judges will select up to 10 finalist app idea entries. Selected app concepts will be posted on the challenge website and open to commentary from peer librarians and the public, enabling dialogue within the community to identify research workflow problems and offer potential solutions.
On November 2011, two grand-prize winners will be selected to receive a cash prize of approximately $1,000 USD (€750). The winners' names and concepts will also be featured in the relevant Elsevier library and information science journals. Elsevier will explore development of the two winning app concepts for inclusion in SciVerse Applications.
In order to participate in the challenge, please submit your entry here before September 2nd: http://www.appsforlibrary.com/enter/.
In addition to the Apps for Library Idea Challenge, Elsevier recently launched the Apps for Science Challenge.
I N T H E N E W S
July/August 2011
Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries
With Support from Arcadia, the University Archives Launches an Online Exploration of the Early Documentary History of Harvard
July 6, 2011 — "Today, the Harvard University Archives launched an online guide to the 17th- and 18th-century records of the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries provides an online key to locating thousands of items – diaries, commonplace books, correspondence, legal documents, University records, drawings, maps, student notebooks, scientific observations, and lecture notes – that form the early documentary history of Harvard. Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries is now online at http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/h1718 thanks to generous support from the Arcadia Fund and from the Sidney Verba Fund...."
"...Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries features a series of 15 collection highlights that range from a deed belonging to the family of John Harvard – the oldest item in the Harvard University Archives – to records of 18th-century New England earthquakes to a guide to digitized papers of patriot and Harvard alumnus John Hancock."
"According to Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Librarian, 'Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries opens up one of Harvard Library's richest veins of material and makes it available to anyone who is curious about the origins of education in America and the origins of America itself. It gives glimpses of an aspect of history that has increasingly intrigued historians and that should fascinate everyone – the daily life of ordinary people, the way they dressed, the food they ate, the books they read, their rhythms of work and play, and the objects that surrounded them in their everyday activities. With the support of the Arcadia Fund, we are proud to offer this online preview of crucial materials from Harvard's 17th- and 18th-century collections.'"
For more information, please see the full press release.
Help Shape the Future of IMLS!
Provide your comments and ideas to help shape the future.
July 5, 2011 announcement from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) — "We need your input! The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is developing a strategic plan to guide our work and priorities over the next five years, and on July 15 we will be posting highlights of the draft plan for public feedback at http://www.imls.gov."
"The new plan will help IMLS to rigorously examine all of its grant programs, research, and leadership initiatives and to focus on results. The years ahead will be critical ones for the nation's libraries and museums and your help is needed to shape IMLS programs and services to most effectively meet public needs."
"Please share this message with your networks and check back with us on July 15 for more information."
The full announcement is online at the IMLS web site.
IMLS Extends Deadline for RFP for Cooperator to Host the
2012 and 2013 WebWise Conferences
NEW DEADLINE: July 22, 2011
June 29, 2011 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites proposals to develop and host the 2012, and prospectively 2013, WebWise Conferences on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World in cooperation with IMLS."
"The cooperative agreement will last for two years. The maximum award for the 2012 conference will be $75,000. If IMLS decides to proceed with a 2013 conference, another award of up to $75,000 will be made; funds for the 2013 conference will be released only upon successful completion of the 2012 conference, availability of federal funds, and approval of the IMLS Director."
"The WebWise conference brings together technology experts and representatives of museums, libraries, archives, systems science, education, and other fields to explore the many opportunities to serve their communities through the innovative application of new technologies and to encourage broad geographic participation and input. To achieve this goal, IMLS seeks to offer the 2012 conference in the Western US (Oregon, Washington, California, or Nevada). The 2013 conference is prospectively planned to take place in Washington, DC."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Myth vs. Fact: Who are Today's Library Computer Users?
June 27, 2011 — "Public access computers in U.S. public libraries continue to be in high demand according to Who's in the Queue: Public Access Computer Users, a new research brief by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The report dispels some myths that have lingered regarding the target service population for public access computers in U.S. public libraries. It also provides a demographic analysis of public access computer users and uses and demonstrates that public libraries are providing much more than basic technology access."
"The report examines trends in library computer use according to demographic characteristics. Eight major categories of activities were examined: social connections/communications, education, employment, health and wellness, government and legal, community engagement, managing finances, and entrepreneurship."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Announcement for CENDI-NFAIS-FLICC Workshop
June 27, 2011 announcement from Kathryn Simon, CENDI Secretariat — "Save the Date – November 30, 2011 – for the workshop Repositories in Science & Technology: Preserving Access to the Record of Science, a one-day workshop co-sponsored by CENDI and NFAIS and hosted by FLICC at the Library of Congress."
"The over-arching nature of this one-day workshop will appeal to a broad
array of communities, including librarians, scientists/researchers,
technologists, information professionals, both managerial and content
providers, publishers, and futurists – anyone who is concerned with ensuring
access to the record of science, both today and in the future!"
"Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked
Information, will open the day with a thoughtful and high-level perspective
of the current repository landscape – the various types that have emerged
and the different, yet synergistic missions served by libraries, archives
and repositories. Following his perspective will be a series of case
studies given by established repositories from around the globe. These
studies will provide real-life examples of how and why each repository was
developed, how they operate, and how they are handling the diverse issues
facing all repositories, whether they be institutional or national,
data-oriented or subject-oriented, public or private – issues such as
interoperability, standards, scope, user concerns, accessibility,
preservation, costs and sustainability, level of openness (access), and the
evolution of digital formats."
"A third session will take a look at two initiatives that directly support
the mission of repositories through the development of unique
identifiers. These
identifiers will play a major role in ensuring ease of access to the record
of science."
"The day will close with a summary wrap-up followed by a facilitated
discussion on such key challenges as interoperability, information sharing,
and collaboration across repositories. What action is required now to
build a secure foundation for the preservation and ease of access to the
growing mass of scientific output? Follow-up sessions may be scheduled
depending upon the outcome of the workshop. So plan on joining us and
add your voice in the development of the future role of repositories."
For more information, contact Kathryn R. Simon, CENDI Technical Support, at 865-298-1234 or [email protected].
New library study: demand up for technology, budget cuts limit access
June 21, 2011 — "A new national report shows that U.S. public libraries continue to expand as technology centers for communities, providing essential resources for job-seekers and support for critical e-government services. In addition, as the demand for e-books increases, libraries are the starting place for free downloads. However, budget cuts have forced libraries across the country to scale back drastically on operating hours and access to services, just when resources are most needed."
"The 2011 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study reports that virtually all public libraries (99 percent) provide public access to computers and the Internet. More than 87 percent of libraries provide technology training, and more than two-thirds (67 percent) of libraries offer access to e-books, up 12 percent from two years ago."
"Yet a pervasive 'new normal' of increased demand for library technology resources, paired with decreased funding at state and local levels, is impacting service to millions of Americans, according to the report released today by the American Library Association (ALA)."
"While 70 percent of libraries report increased use of public computers, and more than half of libraries report an increase in use of electronic resources, 55 percent of urban libraries report operating budget decreases during the current fiscal year, followed by suburban (36 percent) and rural (26 percent) libraries. At the same time, 16 percent of libraries report decreased operating hours, a jump from 4.5 percent just two years ago. For the third year, the greatest impact was experienced by those living in urban communities; nearly 32 percent of urban libraries report reduction of open hours, up from 23.7 percent last year."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Grant Awards Announcement: Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
June 21, 2011 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
announced today 24 awards totaling $11,227,761 matched with 25,398,758
of non-federal funds for Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
Grants. IMLS received 119 applications requesting $55,826,525 in funds."
"'We know that the most valuable asset of any library is its staff, and
we are happy to once again be able to invest in their development. The
Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program continues to provide education
and training that targets specific community needs,' said Susan
Hildreth, IMLS Director. 'This year's funding, for example, provides
scholarships to library staff working in some of the nation's most rural
libraries, develops professionals proficient in policy issues
surrounding electronic records, trains science librarians to manage the
ever-increasing amounts of research data, and helps working school
librarians get their master's degrees, just to name a few.'..."
"For more information about this funding opportunity including program
guidelines and contacts, please visit
http://www.imls.gov/applicants/grants/21centuryLibrarian.shtm"
For more information, please see the full press release.
CrossRef to preserve bibliographic and reference metadata with Portico
June 20, 2011 — "Portico is pleased to announce that CrossRef has entered into an agreement with Portico to preserve its bibliographic and reference metadata. The agreement, which was initially announced as an 'agreement in principle' in November 2010, will add bibliographic data with CrossRef Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for more than 46 million records from more than 3,400 publishers."
"CrossRef is a not-for-profit membership association of publishers. Since its founding in 1999, CrossRef has provided reference linking services for more than 46 million content items, including journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book chapters, reference entries, technical reports, standards, and data sets."
For more information, please see the full press release.
U.S. IMPACT Study Second Report
Opportunity for All: How Library Policies and Practices Impact Public Internet Access
June 17, 2011 — "Public libraries have become essential points of access to the Internet and computers in local communities, with nearly every library in the country offering public internet access. Yet, individual library practices can have significant affect on the quality and character of this public service. Opportunity for All: How Library Policies and Practices Impact Public Internet Access, offers an analysis of the service in four public library systems and makes recommendations for strategies that help to sustain and improve public access service. The report was funded through a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services and was produced by the University of Washington Information School."
"Libraries play a vital role in providing services that are necessary in everyday life. The recommendations from this study provide a foundation to discuss the wide range of internal and external policy issues that affect the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the types of library resources and environments most patrons encounter in U.S. public libraries."
"Report recommendations highlight the need to:
- Integrate Technology Services with Other Public Library Services
- Incorporate Activity-Based Budgeting to Help Account for the Cost of Public Access Services
- Provide Ongoing Technical Training for Library Staff
- Formalize Relationships with Community-Based Organizations
- Establish a Set of Common Indicators for Public Library Technology Services
- Use Data and Stories to Communicate the Value of Public Access Technology
- Leverage Library Technology Resources to Enhance Broadband Adoption and Support"
For more information, please see the full press release.
IMLS Releases Grant Guidelines for
Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums
June 17, 2011 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
announces the availability of application guidelines for the 'Learning
Labs in Libraries and Museums' project, funded jointly by IMLS and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This funding initiative is part of President
Obama's 'Educate to Innovate' campaign, a nationwide effort to bring
American students to the forefront in science and math, to provide the
workers of tomorrow with the skills they need today, and to re-envision
learning in the 21st century."
"The program, in partnership with the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) and
the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), will support the
planning and design of up to 30 Learning Labs in libraries and museums,
based on current research on how young people learn through new media,
and building a community of practice around digital learning for youth
in out-of-school time settings that are based on current research on how
young people learn through new media. The program will also build a
community of practice among the grantee institutions."
"This partnership underscores the critical role the nation's libraries
and museums play in helping citizens build and develop skills in areas
such as information, communications and technology literacy, critical
thinking, problem solving, creativity, civic literacy, and global
awareness."
"The program announcement is available on the IMLS Web site at
www.imls.gov/about/macarthur.shtm and through www.grants.gov, Funding Opportunity Number LLP-FY11. Proposals
must be submitted through www.grants.gov no
later than August 15, 2011."
For more information, please see the full press release.
IMLS Releases Preview of Framework for Digitally-Inclusive Communities
June 17, 2011 — "Libraries, businesses, hospitals, schools, cultural
institutions, community technology centers and local governments face
difficult decisions about how to create and sustain access to broadband
technologies. To help community leaders make strategic decisions about
technology investments, the Institute of Museum and Library Services
released, Building Digitally Inclusive Communities: A guide to the
proposed framework. The release is an initial step in IMLS's response to
the National Broadband Plan, which recommended that the agency develop
guidelines for public access technology to encourage use of broadband
technologies."
"In early 2009, Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to develop a National Broadband Plan (NBP) to ensure that every
American has "access to broadband capability." The NBP noted the
significant individual and societal costs of "digital exclusion" and
warned that absent action, these costs would grow."
"The Institute recognized that an important step toward promoting digital
inclusion is to provide tools to help communities assess their current
capabilities, work across institutional boundaries and create plans,
using a common set of principles, that would help business, anchor
institutions (schools, hospitals, libraries), public safety and cultural
institutions work together to fully and effectively realize the value of
a digitally inclusive community."
"The guide identifies goals and action steps associated with four
foundational principles:
- availability and affordability;
- public access;
- accessibility for people with disabilities and
- adoption and digital literacy
"and six targeted principles:
- consumer education and protection;
- education; economic and workforce development;
- civic engagement;
- public safety and emergency services;
- healthcare and
- quality of life"
"It encourages engagement across all sectors of the community to develop
a shared understanding of digital inclusion and to create, implement and
continually revise and evaluate a plan to achieve a vision in which 'all
people, businesses, and institutions have access to digital content and
technologies that enable them to create and support healthy, prosperous,
and cohesive 21st century communities.'"
For more information, including links to the guide, please see the full press release.
Building up COAR Latin America – CLARA, COLABORA and COAR join forces to develop collaboration of Open Access repositories
June 16, 2011 — "The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), an international association of repository initiatives, is reaching out to develop its activities in Latin America. As a first step, at the BIREDIAL conference in Bogot�, Colombia on May 9-11, 2011, representatives of COAR, the Latin American organization RedCLARA and the network of CoLaBoRa signed a Memorandum of Understanding committed to work towards the establishment of a regional branch of COAR. Within the worldwide structure of COAR, this regional approach will build upon existing Open Access activities in Latin America and encourage and support the development of new initiatives. At the same time, the new distributed network structure would recognize the national and regional legal, organizational, cultural, language and communication challenges."
"This regional initiative will be coordinated by CoLaBoRa through its network of national contacts and in close collaboration with RedCLARA and the COAR office."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Scientific Reports publishes first articles
June 14, 2011 — "New open access title Scientific Reports launches today with the publication of its first articles. The fifteen articles published today range in scope from graphene to coral disease to viral nanoparticles. More articles will be published in the coming days, under Scientific Reports' rapid continuous publication schedule. An online-only, open access, multidisciplinary publication from Nature Publishing Group (NPG), Scientific Reports covers all areas of the biological, chemical, physical and earth sciences."
"Scientific Reports is led by a team of 17 Editorial Advisory Panel members, who are supported by more than 330 Editorial Board members. A streamlined peer-review system ensures papers are rapidly and fairly peer-reviewed: the current average time from submission to first decision is under 30 days. An internal publishing team works with the board and authors to ensure manuscripts are processed for publication as quickly as possible...."
"...With the launch of Scientific Reports, NPG adds to its growing portfolio of open access options."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Director of Pitt's University Library System Wins Distinguished Service Award
June 13, 2011 — "The Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) has named Rush G. Miller, director of Pitt's University Library System (ULS) and Hillman University Librarian, the recipient of the 2011 CALA Distinguished Service Award, the association's highest recognition."
"Miller, a longtime advocate of programs that reach out to Chinese libraries and librarians, is being recognized for his leadership, vision, and achievements in librarianship at the national and international levels. He developed the ULS-China Librarians Training and Exchange Program, which allows Chinese librarians to spend six months to a year at Pitt, to visit and learn from libraries in the United States; ULS librarians do the same in China. To date, the program has benefitted 41 Chinese and 14 Pitt librarians."
"Miller also implemented the East Asian Gateway Service (EAGS), a groundbreaking transcontinental resource-sharing service that provides document delivery between key academic libraries in East Asia and scholars in the West. EAGS has expanded to 17 academic libraries in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan and one research library in Korea. Western users are from 40 U.S. states and from other nations worldwide."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Oxford University Press acquires Journal of Legal Analysis
June 9, 2011 — "Oxford University Press (OUP) is pleased to announce its acquisition of Journal of Legal Analysis (JLA).
The Journal of Legal Analysis, founded in 2009 and based at the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard Law School, is a peer-reviewed, fully open access publication encompassing the best in all aspects of legal studies. OUP will begin publishing articles immediately and continuously, complete with the title's full archive. The first issue published by OUP will be Volume 3 Issue 2."
"Mark Ramseyer, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Legal Analysis, said: 'The JLA editorial team is delighted to be moving to Oxford University Press. Oxford brings to the JLA not only a long tradition of publishing excellence, but also its expertise in open access (OA) publishing. The editorial team remains committed to the basic principles under which the JLA was established: peer review and the publication of scholarship from all legal fields.'"
For more information, please see the full press release.
A First in Combining Science Discovery Technologies:
Federated Search and Speech-Indexed Multimedia
June 8, 2011 — "The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) announced today a new tool in scientific discovery technology. Now citizens and researchers alike can search for both written and spoken words in a whole range of media using OSTI's new, speech-indexed multimedia within large scientific search portals. To this point, online searches for scientific information have been limited to text, such as within scientific papers. The new development uses unique speech-recognition search technology in combination with OSTI's two federated search portals, ScienceAcceleator.gov and WorldWideScience.org, which search a wide range of DOE and worldwide databases, respectively. This vastly extends the reach of federated searching and could lead to new connections and new breakthroughs...."
"...OSTI has pioneered the use of federated searching to enable the science community to search and access large, decentralized collections of scientific and technical information. Major federated search products include ScienceAccelerator.gov, Science.gov, and WorldWideScience.org. ScienceAccelerator.gov was developed by OSTI to search databases covering DOE research and research of interest to DOE. Science.gov, operated by OSTI on behalf of the Science.gov Alliance, searches the science databases and websites of fourteen U.S. federal agencies, while WorldWideScience.org - operated by OSTI on behalf of the WorldWideScience Alliance - searches scientific collections of the U.S. and over 70 other nations."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Fairfield University's DiMenna-Nyselius Library project a hit with freshman
June 3, 2011 — "The staff of Fairfield University's DiMenna-Nyselius Library has been singled out for creating an interactive game helping to orient first semester freshman to the library. Inspired by the popular DVD game, 'Scene It,' Fairfield's animated game is viewed by the librarians as the perfect tool for teaching young people in the 21st Century."
"The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) selected 'Library Scene: Fairfield Edition' for the organizations' PRIMO project, also known as 'ACRL Instruction Section's Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online.' The popular resource for academic libraries nationwide showcases exemplary instructional materials, such as Fairfield's 'Library Scene.' The game instructs patrons about DiMenna-Nyselius Library services by incorporating multimedia elements as well as traditional game play techniques, complete with animated scenes set in the library."
"Jessica McCullough, senior reference librarian and instruction coordinator, said librarians have been 'thrilled' with student response to 'Library Scene,' which was incorporated into library instruction classes required for freshmen. 'Preliminary data in the form of electronic evaluations given to students at the end of the instruction classes were extremely positive,' she said. 'One of the questions asks students how the game contributed to their awareness of library services and resources, to which 95 percent of students answered yes.'"
CLIR/DLF Receives Mellon Foundation Funding
for Digital Public Library of America Prototype
June 2, 2011 — "The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) a $46,000 planning grant to develop a prototype for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The prototype will be submitted to the DPLA "beta sprint," which seeks 'ideas, models, prototypes, technical tools, [or] user interfaces...that demonstrate how the DPLA might index and provide access to a wide range of broadly distributed content.'"
"Rachel Frick, director of CLIR's Digital Library Federation (DLF) program, will manage the project and serve as co-principal investigator with Carole Palmer, professor and director of the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)."
"Palmer will lead UIUC staff in developing the prototype, which will demonstrate how the IMLS Digital Collections and Content Registry (DCC) and its research and development activities can serve the DPLA as a critical mass of base content, as well as an aggregation model. A functional prototype will be produced in combination with a set of static wireframes and demonstrations, showing how DCC's advances in content, metadata, user experience, and infrastructure can be leveraged for the DPLA."
"Palmer and Frick will work closely with Geneva Henry, executive director of the Center for Digital Scholarship at Rice University, who will produce a report that reviews current literature pertaining to the technical aspects of large-scale collection aggregations and federations. The report will review and compare the system architectures, content types, and scale of content of the DCC, Europeana, the National Science Digital Library, and other aggregations to shed light on how and why large-scale aggregation projects succeed or fail. The report will also identify potential content providers for the DPLA, and will estimate the time, effort, and other costs required to ingest these resources into the prototype."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Nature Communications celebrates first anniversary with 300th paper
May 31, 2011 — "Nature Communications recently celebrated its first successful year, publishing its 300th research paper in the natural sciences. Launched in April 2010, nearly half of the papers published in Nature Communications to date are open access."
"The high quality, online-only multidisciplinary journal has grown substantially and added new functionality since launch. Nature Communications has already published as many papers in the first five months of 2011 as it did in the nine months of publication in 2010. To date in 2011 Nature Communications has published 177 papers and is now on track to publish more than 400 papers this year...."
"...Nature Communications authors can opt to make their published article open access, through payment of an article processing charge (APC). Almost half of the papers published in the journal to date are open access, published under Creative Commons licenses. To Nature Publishing Group's knowledge this is the highest uptake of an open access option on a hybrid journal. These papers will be freely accessible in perpetuity. Site license and licensed pay per view are available for institutions to access subscription content."
For more information, please see the full press release.
ARL Affirms International Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Practices
May 27, 2011 — "At the spring 2011 meeting of the Association of Research Libraries, the ARL Board of Directors affirmed that it is the right of North American research libraries to participate in international interlibrary loan (ILL) and document delivery activities."
"Over the past year, questions have been raised concerning the current ILL practices of some US research libraries. In particular, the focus is on the delivery of resources from US libraries to non-US libraries. US copyright law supports the ability of domestic libraries to participate in ILL arrangements and to send copies of copyrighted works to foreign libraries provided the libraries meet the requirements of the law."
"The ARL Task Force Report on International Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Practices is available in the June issue of Research Library Issues (RLI)."
For more information, please see the full press release.
CERN Multimedia Now Playing at DOE's ScienceCinema
May 25, 2011 — "The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has long had a productive relationship with CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Today, that partnership reached a new level of scientific collaboration, thanks to CERN's opening of its scientific multimedia collections to searches by ScienceCinema."
"ScienceCinema was developed by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) to allow the spoken words of video recordings to be searched in precise and time-saving fashion. It uses the Microsoft Research Audio Video Indexing System (MAVIS), a speech recognition technology developed by partner Microsoft Research. And it makes some of the DOE's – and now CERN's – most exciting research more visible to researchers and the public...."
"...OSTI, within the Office of Science, launched ScienceCinema in February 2011 with approximately 1,000 hours of scientific videos produced by DOE national laboratories and research facilities. CERN then volunteered its multimedia material, and a partnership was formed with OSTI to apply the speech indexing technology to CERN files and to make them searchable through ScienceCinema. The first installment of CERN multimedia content has now been added to ScienceCinema, and additional content will be added on an ongoing basis. CERN's growing collection of scientific multimedia includes over 5,000 video and audio files."
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For more information, please see the full press release.
What impact are your resources making?
May 20, 2011 — "Measuring the impact of a resource you've put online can be difficult – but a newly updated JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) toolkit will help content creators, publishers and other information professionals understand the reach of their digital assets."
"They can use the kit to help guide them through different aspects of measuring impact, both qualitative, such as focus groups, and quantitative, such as web metrics."
"Users of the toolkit are also encouraged to contribute to updating the hands-on advice by adding their own advice on topics like how to conduct an interview, using Google Analytics, writing a suitable survey and setting up log file analysis, all designed by the Oxford Internet Institute...."
"...A number of JISC projects have already used the toolkit to evaluate their digitised resources, ranging from lectures podcasts on iTunes to multimedia dance resources and historical material."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Library Copyright Alliance Releases Statement on Copyright Reform
May 16, 2011 — "The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) today released a statement describing the key features copyright reform proposals should include in order to constitute significant improvement over current law for libraries and their users."
"Interested parties are discussing with renewed vigor the issues of orphan works, mass digitization, and even modernization of Section 108 of the US Copyright Act in the wake of the Google Books settlement rejection by Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York. The LCA statement, which represents the needs of library stakeholders in these debates, provides helpful guideposts for these discussions."
"Libraries have always advocated for reasonable copyright policy – in the courts as well as in the US Congress. Library activities already benefit from broad, flexible protection under the fair use doctrine and related provisions in current law. The LCA's statement describes the status quo for libraries as well as the policies that would constitute substantial legislative improvement to existing copyright law."
For more information, please see the full press release.
Transforming our Bibliographic Framework: A Statement from the Library of Congress
May 13, 2011 — "The Library of Congress is sharing this statement, by Deanna B. Marcum, LC's Associate Librarian for Library Services for the benefit of its external constituents. Dr. Marcum will be leading the initiative that will drive this transformation process. The Library is mounting the statement now for early review. Following the June 2011 Annual Conference of the American Library Association, where discussions about the statement will occur, the Library will make further announcements."
"The recent publication of Resource Description & Access (RDA), and the US National Test of RDA that is now being analyzed, have come at a time when technological and environmental changes are once again causing the library community to rethink the future of bibliographic control, including the MARC 21 communication formats. The content and packaging of RDA itself attempt to address this question and in so doing have raised further issues. Quite apart from a decision about implementing RDA, we must evaluate the wider bibliographic framework...."
"...The Associate Librarian of Congress for Library Services, Deanna Marcum, is leading an initiative at the Library to analyze the present and future environment, identify the components of the framework to support our users, and plan for the evolution from our present framework to the future – not just for the Library of Congress, but for all institutions that depend on bibliographic data shared by the Library and its partners. The Library of Congress has invested considerable resources in the development of broadly implemented encoding standards such as MARC 21, as well as cataloging standards and vocabularies such as the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd Edition (AACR2), RDA, and the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Spontaneous comments from participants in the US RDA Test show that a broad cross-section of the community feels budgetary pressures but nevertheless considers it necessary to replace MARC 21 in order to reap the full benefit of new and emerging content standards. The Library now seeks to evaluate how its resources for the creation and exchange of metadata are currently being used and how they should be directed in an era of diminishing budgets and heightened expectations in the broader library community...."
"...The Library of Congress's process will be fully collaborative. We will consult our partners and customers in the metadata community, standards experts in and out of libraries, and designers and builders of systems that make use of library metadata. We intend to host meetings during conferences of the American Library Association, specialized library associations, and international organizations, as well as special "town hall" meetings open to the metadata community, to gather input from all interested parties. We plan to establish an electronic discussion group for constant communication during the effort of reshaping our bibliographic framework, and we expect to host a series of invitational meetings of experts and stakeholders in 2012 and 2013."
For more information, please see the full press release.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Announces Digital Literacy Initiative
Locke visits Recovery Act-funded public computer center, unveils new website to help increase computer and Internet skills in America
May 13, 2011 — "At a public computing center in Baltimore today, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced a digital literacy initiative that works to expand economic and educational opportunities in America. Locke joined U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) and Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) in unveiling www.DigitalLiteracy.gov, a new website that provides libraries, community colleges, schools and workforce training centers a variety of resources and tools for teaching computer and Internet skills, which are increasingly necessary for success in today's economy. Prior to the unveiling, Locke and the senators toured a computer lab and witnessed first-hand how the people in the community are utilizing this website, which can allow any person to find free training on a range of digital literacy topics, at different skill levels, including searching and applying for jobs online...."
"...In partnership with nine federal agencies, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), created http://www.DigitalLiteracy.gov to provide librarians, teachers, workforce trainers, and others a central location to share digital literacy content and best practices. These trusted groups can, in turn, better reach out to their communities in providing them the skills today's employers need. NTIA is also partnering with the American Library Association and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to promote the use of the portal by the nation's more than 16,600 public libraries where, in 2009, over 30 million job-seekers used computers to search and apply for jobs. In launching www.DigitalLiteracy.gov, NTIA is building on knowledge gained from managing its broadband grants program in order to provide digital literacy resources to all Americans."
For more information, please see the full press release.
NISO Launches E-book Special Interest Group
New group will foster collaborative work, incubate new initiatives, and provide education
May 4, 2011 — "The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and its Architecture Committee are pleased to announce the creation of a Special Interest Group focused on E-books (the NISO E-book SIG). Simultaneous with the formation of the group, NISO is issuing a call for participation in the E-book SIG and its associated monitoring group. The E-book SIG will explore a range of industry best practices and standards related to the creation, distribution, discovery, delivery, and preservation of digital book content. The primary responsibilities of the group will be to continuously monitor and review the state of the industry for e-books and to suggest areas for new initiatives within NISO or areas where NISO can engage with other communities on e-book work underway outside of NISO. The group will also host thought leader meetings and commission relevant research to advance the state of the industry."
"While NISO is best known for shepherding groups focused on a specific problem through the creation and implementation of recommended practices and standards, NISO's new strategic initiatives seek to widen its outreach within the information industry. Specifically, the NISO Board and Architecture Committee seek to emphasize NISO's role as a facilitator within the industry, one that can foster cross-community dialogue in a given topical area and provide a place for the incubation of ideas even if no formal standards process within NISO is ever initiated as a result."
For more information, please see the full press release.
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