University Press Hears Libraries' Pleas and Freezes Journal Prices

From the Chronicle of HE
10/04/2009

Responding to the squeeze placed on library budgets by the economic slump, one university press has decided to freeze its 2010 journal subscription rates at 2009 levels.

[user name: rulibrary password: ru2007]
http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/04/15570n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_med
ium=en

Atlas of Early Printing

"This site depicts the spread of printing through Europe in the fifty
years following the European refinement of the tools and process to make
impressions from movable type cast in metal." View a map of Europe by year
(1450-1500) to see locations of the spread of printing, universities,
paper mills, fairs, and trade routes. Also includes material about
15th-century printing and an animated model of a printing press. From the
University of Iowa Libraries.
URL: http://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/

ARCHIVING WRITERS' WORK IN THE AGE OF E-MAIL

user name: rulibrary
password:ru2007
(PLEASE KEEP THESE CONFIDENTIAL)
ARCHIVING WRITERS' WORK IN THE AGE OF E-MAIL: As more
authors
work in digital media, literary archivists are having to learn how
to preserve and display much more than paper. Think floppy disks,
laptops, and Facebook content, for starters. One advantage:
Scholars can learn more about authors' creative process than ever
before.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i31/31a00102.htm?utm_source=at&utm_
medium=en

HUMANITIES JOURNALS CONFRONT IDENTITY CRISIS

HUMANITIES JOURNALS CONFRONT IDENTITY CRISIS: Humanities
journal editors say they face a host of challenges from
technology and the changing habits of readers and
contributors.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i29/29a00102.htm?utm_source=at&utm_
medium=en

user name = rulibrary
passwrod = ru2007

Project Information Literacy

Project Information Literacy
Website for "a national study about early adults and their
information-seeking behaviors, competencies, and the challenges they face
when conducting research in the digital age. ... [It] investigates how
early adults on different college campuses conduct research for course
work and how they conduct 'everyday research' for use in their daily
lives." Features a February 2009 progress report, articles, video clips,
and related material. From the University of Washington's (UW) Information
School (iSchool).
URL: http://www.projectinfolit.org/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27963

MyCopy print-on-demand books from Springer

MyCopy allows a library’s registered patrons to order soft cover copies, for their personal use, of those Springer eBooks that the library has previously purchased. Initially, 16 selected libraries and research institutions in the USA and Canada take part in the pilot project with more test partners set to join in early 2009.

The MyCopy Pilot is progressing splendidly in the US and Canada. Currently, there are 16 Development Partners enrolled in the program, and 13 additional Development Partners will join the Pilot in January 2009, spanning academic, government, and corporate institutions. MyCopy now boasts close to 11,500 eBooks that can be ordered Print-On-Demand. The market response has been very positive, as can be seen from the testimonial below. Provided that the great success of the Pilot continues, MyCopy will most likely be launched in the US in the 2nd quarter of 2009.

“This project represents a very innovative way in which to look at both publisher and library services for electronic content in the future, and MyCopy is a great value-add to our site license for these eBooks.” ~Wendy Allen Shelburne, Assistant professor, Acquisitions (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

See Frequently Asked Questions about MyCopy, for more information.

Renting Keys to Walled Gardens

http://acrlog.org/2008/12/14/renting-keys-to-walled-gardens/
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just issued its third annual forecast of “The Future of the Internet.” It’s well worth a read. Among predictions:
–The mobile phone (or its descendant) will be the primary access point to the Internet by 2020.–Social networking won’t increase tolerance. It might even polarize people into less tolerant camps.–The original architecture of the Internet will not be replaced, but will be enhanced by research.–Attempts to control access to content will continue to be challenged in an ongoing battle between intellectual property owners and users.

Faculty Involvement Makes All The Difference

http://acrlog.org/2009/02/24/faculty-involvement-makes-all-the-difference/

From the ACRLog(blog for research and academic librarians)


"In a previous post I expressed my vision for the future of information literacy - and in that vision it’s not the librarians teaching students the skills needed to be wise consumers of information - it’s the faculty. That’s why this Wired Campus post caught my attention. It’s about two faculty members who wrote a research guide for students, and who integrate some elements of information literacy (evaluating content) into their courses."......

Google & the Future of Books

Interesting article in the New York Review of Books

"How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright. For the last four years, Google has been digitizing millions of books, including many covered by copyright, from the collections of major research libraries, and making the texts searchable online. The authors and publishers objected that digitizing constituted a violation of their copyrights. After lengthy negotiations, the plaintiffs and Google agreed on a settlement, which will have a profound effect on the way books reach readers for the foreseeable future. What will that future be?".........

Open-access publishing brings cost savings

"Research institutions could make surprisingly big savings if their researchers paid to publish their articles with an open-access model rather than using the traditional subscription model. And the savings could be even bigger if they simply self-archived their work in an institutional repository.These conclusions come from a new study into scholarly publishing in the UK led by John Houghton from the Centre of Strategic Economic Studies at Melbourne’s Victoria University, Australia and Charles Oppenheim at Loughborough University, UK. In addition to looking at the costs and savings of different models, the study also examined the additional cost-benefits that might arise from enhanced access to research findings...."

Read more

Last UK research council mandates open access

The Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has decided to mandate open-access publication of the research that it funds. However, it says that academics should be able to choose whether they use the so-called green option (ie, self-archiving in an on-line repository) or to use the gold option (ie, pay-to-publish in an open access journal).
This decision, which was made at the EPSRC council's December meeting, follows a consultation by Research Councils UK, in collaboration with the Research Information Network and the Department of Trade and Industry.
ESPRC was the only one of the seven Research Councils UK, which hadn't already adopted an open-access mandate; the others having announced theirs back in 2006. ESPRC will publish further details of its policy later in the spring.
(from Research Information)

Confucius Institute display

For those who missed this recent display - this is what it looked like. The guy in the pic is the new Professor of Mandarin in the Institute at the School of Languages, Prof Ma Yue.

Chinese Leader Gives 200,000 E-Books to U. of Cambridge

Chinese Leader Gives 200,000 E-Books to U. of Cambridge
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/?id=3629&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Fee-Based Journals Get Better Results

Fee-Based Journals Get Better Results, Study in Fee-Based
Journal Reports
http://chronicle.com/news/article/?id=6026&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The Hollywood Librarian

The Media Education Foundation has acquired the rights to The Hollywood
Librarian: A Look at Librarians through Film, and is bringing out the film
on DVD.
They are now taking orders from both US and international customers
through their web site at
http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=actionkey=138
The Hollywood LibrarianA Look at Librarians Through FilmAn Overdue Productions FilmThey have more cardholders than VISA, more customers than Amazon, and more outlets than McDonald's. Meet America's librarians. The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject of librarians. A vivid blend of factual documentary, feature film and storytelling, it reveals the history and realities of librarianship in an entertaining and appealing context of American movies. Interviews with actual librarians, intercut with film clips of cinematic librarians, examine such issues as literature, books and reading, censorship, library funding, citizenship and democracy. For the first time, we see and understand the real lives and real work of American librarians who for decades have been a cultural force hiding in plain sight.This film's subject is librarians: who they are, what they do, why they do it, and the impact of their work in people's lives. The underlying meaning is how we express our own humanity, how we listen to ourselves and one another in the realm of the written and read word -- a uniquely human privilege.Audiences will be surprised and delighted by the fascinating librarians in this entertaining and enlightening film, and will emerge with a greater appreciation for the range of literature and materials available to them thanks to our nation's librarians.

Web 2.0 use by librarians

(Interesting article which include questionnaires which we could perhaps use at RUL???)
Web 2.0 use by librarians / Noa Aharony
Library & Information Science Research Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 29-37
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2008.06.004
Abstract
The current research explores whether librarians, whose main work focuses on information, are familiar with new technological changes and innovations, and whether they make use of different Web 2.0 applications. The research examines whether personality characteristics (resistance to change, cognitive appraisal, empowerment and extroversion or introversion), as well as computer expertise, motivation, importance and capacity towards studying and integrating different applications of Web 2.0 in future, influence librarians' use of Web 2.0. Different questionnaires were distributed to 168 randomly Israeli librarians throughout the country. The research revealed that personality characteristics as well as computer expertise, motivation, importance and capacity towards studying and integrating different applications of Web 2.0 in the future, influence librarians' use of Web 2.0. These findings have theoretical as well as practical implications.

In Search of a Better Search Engine By Steve Kolowich

As college sites grow to millions of documents and balloon in complexity, officials turn to Google and other vendors for help

Read the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i24/24a01501.htm?utm_source=at&utm_me

E-books: the digital future

AT PUBLISHERS' CONFERENCE, THE DIGITAL FUTURE IS (ALMOST)
NOW:
Scholarly publishers who met in Washington last week learned
that interest in electronic monographs has surged and that
they should prepare to have their books read on smartphones.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/02/11057n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_med
ium=en (user name: rulibrary password: ru2007)

"The people who gathered here last week for the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division's annual conference did not waste a lot of time worrying whether print is going the way of the dodo. As Matthew Nauman, director of publisher relations at Blackwell’s, put it, “A book sale is a book sale, and we don’t care what the format is.”"...

More RUL Subject Guides

2 more guides have been completed and added to the growing list: Pharm and Journ (developed by Thandiwe and Caroline respectively)

Do have a look and give us some feedback/comments/suggestions/criticisms???

http://oldwww.ru.ac.za/library/electronic_resources/dept/

New FirstSearch Database documentation available (booklet code: PRM2857)

The latest edition of OCLC FirstSearch Service Databases is now available, in online and printed formats. This 20-page booklet contains all the essential information you need to make full use of the 78 available FirstSearch databases.

The online version of the booklet can be accessed at the FirstSearch Documentation page at: http://www.oclc.org/us/en/support/documentation/firstsearch/default.htm

Scroll down to the Databases section, and click on the area of information that best meets your needs.

The online documentation is updated continuously whereas the printed booklet is updated in January and June every year.