Monday, December 20, 2010

Google's Ngram Viewer

I've been seeing many blurbs the past couple weeks about Google Books Ngram Viewer (way to mine text for word usage). I thought this blog entry provided some good links to the pros and cons of Ngram.

http://www.dancohen.org/2010/12/19/initial-thoughts-on-the-google-books-ngram-viewer-and-datasets/

From Google Labs (details):

See how often phrases have occurred in the world's books over the years. Google Books has scanned over 10% of all books ever published, and now you can graph the occurrence of phrases up to five words in length from 1400 through the present day right in your browser. We currently support the following languages:

  • Chinese
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Hebrew
  • Russian

Friday, December 17, 2010

Holiday tree - Librarian-style


Some librarians took National Union Catalog volumes and turned them into a Christmas tree.
Source: libraryland:softculture:anarchivist (17 Dec. 2010)

Also posted to http://booklover.tumblr.com/post/286319825/libraryland-softculture-anarchivist-some

[Click on the picture to learn to make your own.]

Real-time citation metrics

An article in Inside Higher Education that discusses various uses of web-based data of article use, including implications for what libraries are asked to pay and are willing to pay.

Steve Kolowich. New Measures of Scholarly Impact - Inside Higher Ed (17 Dec. 2010)
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/17/scholars_develop_new_metrics_for_journals_impact

In the article is mentioned Springer Realtime, a tool to visualize download activity.
"Springer is launching a new free analytics tool realtime.springer.com which provides multiple visualizations of the usage that is generated worldwide by Springer's online products, including journals, books, images and protocols.

Realtime.springer.com aggregates the raw data on downloads of Springer journal articles and book chapters in real time from all over the world, and displays them in a variety of interactive visualizations such as: a map showing where the downloads are coming from, a constantly updating keyword tag cloud, and a visualization of total downloads. In addition, a search feature shows a chart of the downloads and the 'Top Five Most Downloaded' list for every journal or book. Springer launches realtime.springer.com (7 Dec 2010)"

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

If Web Browsers Were Celebrities [Infographic]

This great inforgraphic was created by Shane Snow, a New York based artist and founder of Printing Choice
“If Web Browsers Were Celebrities” is brought to you by Wix.com. Use creative design to make a Flash website.

You are most welcome to share this infographic with your audience.

If Web Browsers Were Celebrities

Monday, December 6, 2010

Official Google Blog: Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices

Official Google Blog: Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices

Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore. You can browse and search through the largest ebooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale. The system is designed to be open, accessing ebooks via the new Google eBooks Web Reader from laptops and desktop computers, ebook readers, and smartphones. The reader can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud—using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited ebooks storage.

"You can discover and buy new ebooks from the Google eBookstore or get them from one of our independent bookseller partners: Powell’s, Alibris and participating members of the American Booksellers Association. You can choose where to buy your ebooks like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them."

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Research and Productivity Measurement Webcast - SLA D.C. Chapter - October 27, 2010

Impact and Productivity Measurements in a Changing Research Environment
Hosted by Elsevier in conjunction with SLA Washington D.C. Chapter
The Library of Congress, Mumford Room - October 27, 2010

"Research productivity had been measured through citation metrics in much the same way for many years now. But in recent years, SNIP, SJR and h-Index have joined Impact Factor as leading performance metric providing new insights into research at the forefront of discovery.

In today's rapidly changing, global and collaborative research environment, the research community is looking for new methodologies to assess research that better reflect the complexities of today's research. Today's research assessments need to encompass many performance metrics and consider measurements that do not easily lend themselves to analytics such as patents, products, business initiatives and awards.

"Impact and Productivity Measurements in a Changing Research Environment" furthers this dialog. Watch the presentations and Q&A from a day of learning and discussion with the leaders of research & productivity measurements in the scholarly community, held on October 27th, in Washington, DC, USA."

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Google Strikes Deal with French Publisher Hachette Livre to scan French titles

A New York Times story reports: “Google said Wednesday [November 17, 2010] that it had reached a deal with the publisher Hachette Livre, which has broken ranks with its French rivals and agreed to allow Google to scan thousands of out-of-print books for its digital library project.

Under the agreement, which follows a landmark settlement with U.S. publishers last year, Google will be allowed to sell the books it scans as e-books or in other electronic formats.

But there is one important difference between the U.S. settlement and the deal with Hachette, the largest publisher in France and the No.2 trade publisher by sales worldwide, after Pearson. Hachette, not Google, will determine which of the books covered by the deal — those that remain under copyright but are no longer commercially available — can be scanned.”

How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age - Report from University of Washington I-School

T ruth Be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age
BY ALISON J. HEAD, PH.D. AND MICHAEL B. EISENBERG, PH.D.
PROJECT INFORMATION LITERACY PROGRESS REPORT
NOVEMBER 1, 2010
THE INFORMATION SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
RESEARCH SPONSORED BY MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

A "Project Information Literacy" progress report. The project is based at the U of Washington I-School.

Here's one interesting finding:

"Evaluating information was often a collaborative process — almost two-thirds of the respondents (61%) reportedly turned to friends and/or family members when they needed help and advice with sorting through and evaluating information for personal use. Nearly half of the students in the sample (49%) frequently asked instructors for assistance with assessing the quality of sources for course work — far fewer asked librarians (11%) for assistance."

Full text at: http://bit.ly/chfOxe

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Los libros de acedrex dados e tablas: Historical, artistic and metaphysical dimensions of Alfonso X's "Book of Games"

Los libros de acedrex dados e tablas: Historical, artistic and metaphysical dimensions of Alfonso X's "Book of Games"

Musser Golladay, Sonja. The University of Arizona, 2007. United States -- Arizona: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Abstract
Combining three major facets of Alfonso's final and most personal work, this holistic study utilizes a philological approach involving codicology, hermeneutics, history of art, iconology, paleography, and philosophy. Like his Cantigas de Santa MarĂ­a, with its vast musical, poetic and artistic dimensions, the Book of Games is a largely unexplored multi-media treasure trove of knowledge about thirteenth-century games, art and symbolism as well as personal information about the Wise King himself. Chapter I explains the historical chess, dice, backgammon and mill games ands offers the first complete English translation of the Book. Descriptions and diagrams of all 144 games, including PowerPoint presentations of all 103 chess problems using a font specially designed to match the original manuscript exactly, are presented in an international format which brings these challenging and entertaining games to life. Chapter II surveys all 151 illuminations, exploring their cultural value and identifying portraits of Alfonso, his wife, his lover, his children, his friends and his sources. Alongside traditional medieval iconography, these may represent some of the earliest known likenesses in medieval portraiture and some of the first private, non-iconographic images of a Spanish king. Chapter III interprets the literal, allegorical, tropological and anagogical meanings of each game according to the Hermetic principle "As above, so below" as well as the numerological symbolism and didactic structure reflected in the book's Scholastic structure. Each game in the Libro de los juegos contains a clue " pora los entendudos e mayormientre pora aquellos que saben la Arte de Astronomia " (fol. 95r) for understanding the connection between astrology and human affairs. At the end of his ill-starred life Alfonso saw reflected in the microcosm of these games, the determinism inherent in the workings of the universe. By studying the patterns in these games, Alfonso hoped to discover how best to play the game of life using both his "seso," or skill, and his lucky number seven. The numerological and astrological significance of the numbers seven and twelve, present in the entire work's structure and especially the concluding games, relate the Book of Games to the Alfonsine legal, scientific and religious corpus.

Monday, November 15, 2010

SLA Chemistry Division (SLA-DCHE): Webcast Recording & Slides - Chem Info for the Non-Practitioner

SLA Chemistry Division (SLA-DCHE): Webcast Recording & Slides - Chem Info for the Non-Practitioner

Webcast Recording & Slides - Chem Info for the Non-Practitioner

The recording of the October 19 webcast "Chemical Information for the Non-Practitioner" is now available for viewing. Some slides were difficult to read on the recording, so this file has been available separately (PDF format).


Webcast Recording:
http://goodwincollege.na4.acrobat.com/p65777557/
Slides:
http://units.sla.org/division/dche/webcasts/Currano-SLA-Oct19Webcast.pdf


Many thanks to Judith Currano for an excellent presentation!

Please contact Ted Baldwin (Professional Development Chair, SLA Chemistry Division) with any questions: Ted.Baldwin@uc.edu. I welcome your ideas on future professional development offerings.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides

Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides
By Dan Pink | Wired Magazine Issue 15.09

"Let us now bullet-point our praise for Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, two Tokyo-based architects who have turned PowerPoint, that fixture of cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for "chatter"), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That's it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down. The result, in the hands of masters of the form, combines business meeting and poetry slam to transform corporate clich into surprisingly compelling beat-the-clock performance art."

Friday, September 10, 2010

Statement from the University of California and Nature Publishing Group

The University of California and Nature Publishing Group are issuing the following joint statement concerning the status of our licensing discussions:

25 August 2010

Representatives from the University of California and Nature Publishing Group met on August 17, 2010 to discuss our organizations' current licensing challenges and the larger issues of scholarly communication sustainability. The discussion was positive, with a full exchange of views and mutual recognition of the value that each of us contributes to the scholarly communication enterprise. Our two organizations have agreed to work together in the coming months to address our mutual short- and long-term challenges, including an exploration of potential new approaches and evolving publishing models. We look forward to a successful planning and experimentation process that results in mutual agreement that serves all stakeholder groups—NPG, the UC libraries, and the scholar community, thus avoiding the need for the boycott that had been discussed at an earlier stage.

We are aware that many in the library, publishing, and academic communities are interested in the outcome of these discussions, and we will provide further updates on our progress as appropriate.

For the University of California:
Laine Farley
Executive Director
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President

Ivy Anderson
Director of Collections
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President

Brian E. C. Schottlaender
The Audrey Geisel University Librarian
University of California – San Diego
Past Convener, University Librarians Council

Karen Butter
University Librarian and Assistant Vice Chancellor
University of California – San Francisco

Richard A. Schneider
Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
University of California – San Francisco
Chair, University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication

Keith R. Yamamoto, PhD
Executive Vice Dean, School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

For Nature Publishing Group:
Della Sar
Marketing and Sales Director
Nature Publishing Group

David Hoole
Director, Intellectual Property Policy and Licensing
Nature Publishing Group

See how a digital book is made - California Digital Library

Millions of books from the UC Libraries have been digitized, but how? Go behind the scenes to learn about the UC Libraries’ digitization process and see several ways you can use these newly digital books. “The Story of the Digital Book” explains how UC’s books make their way from the shelf to the screen, the possibilities they bring to users, and how they’re preserved for the long term.

The video was produced by CDL Mass Digitization Project Specialist Jason Colman and Amy Rogers, a San José State University School of Library Information Science (SLIS) student, for the CDL Mass Digitization group. Amy interned at CDL this summer and we are very grateful for her help.

The video is also available with captioning for the hearing impaired.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Librarians Save The Day! 11 Great Movies In Which They Star

Librarians Save The Day! 11 Great Movies In Which They Star
Posted 08-16-2010
Huffington Post
"While writers might seem more glamorous, librarians are the quiet heroes of the literary world. They stand up against censorship, they uncover ancient mysteries, they laugh in the face of computerization and stop the corporate world dead in its tracks. From Katharine Hepburn to Rachel Weisz, we've rounded up films that give librarians the center stage. Remember these?"

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Are we going to get that big table? Kids in the Hall - Brain Candy


"So how are we on that, Marv?"

"You mean that thing you just mentioned...just now?"

"Yeah."

(pause)

"Oh we're on top of that, Don!"

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996)
Directed by Kelly Makin
Writing credits:
Norm Hiscock, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson.

John W. Tukey quotations on Statistical Analysis

Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than the exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.
John Wilder Tukey. Ann. Math. Stat. 33 (1962)

If we need a short suggestion of what exploratory data analysis is, I would suggest that
  1. It is an attitude AND
  2. A flexibility AND
  3. Some graph paper (or transparencies, or both).
John Wilder Tukey. American Statistician 40 (1986)

In a world in which the price of calculation continues to decrease rapidly, but the price of theorem proving continues to hold steady or increase, elementary economics indicates that we ought to spend a larger and larger fraction of our time on calculation.
John Wilder Tukey. American Statistician 40 (1986)

The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
John Wilder Tukey. American Statistician 40 (1986)

John Wilder Tukey.
The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone's backyard.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Economic and Social Returns on Investment in Open Archiving Publicly Funded Research Outputs (SPARC)

Economic and Social Returns on Investment in Open Archiving Publicly Funded Research Outputs (SPARC)

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provided support for a feasibility study, to outline one possible approach to measuring the impacts of the proposed US Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) on returns to public investment in R&D. The aim is to define and scope the data collection requirements and further model developments necessary for a more robust estimate of the likely impacts of the proposed FRPAA open archiving mandate.

The study was authored by John Houghton with Bruce Rasmussen and Peter Sheehan of the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University.

The model and this report can be found at http://www.cfses.com/FRPAA/.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Green Evolution: Creating a Sustainable Future (May 2010 - October 2010)


Spring 2010 Exhibit

Green Evolution: Creating a Sustainable Future
Green Evolution The Libraries' spring exhibit, "Green Evolution: Creating a Sustainable Future," examines the changing conditions of our environment while showcasing a range of sustainability research and practice that is taking place at UCI and beyond. Topics covered include global warming and climate change, energy and alternative resources, water quality and management, and the latest practices for going green.
An array of materials will be on display to illustrate the evolution of environmental science and the scope of activity that has influenced progress in the field of energy alternatives. Local research and sustainability efforts such as advocacy and public policy, public health, environmental protection and transportation will be also be showcased. Julia Gelfand, Applied Sciences and Engineering Librarian and Mitchell Brown, Research Librarian for Chemistry and Earth System Science are the curators of the exhibit.

May 2010 - October 2010
presentation | checklist (pdf) | brochure (pdf) | event photos


qrcode

Sunday, June 20, 2010

National Science Foundation to Mandate Data Management Plans

Scientists Seeking NSF Funding Will Soon Be Required to Submit Data Management Plans
Government-wide emphasis on community access to data supports substantive push toward more open sharing of research data

May 10, 2010

During the May 5th meeting of the National Science Board, National Science Foundation (NSF) officials announced a change in the implementation of the existing policy on sharing research data. In particular, on or around October, 2010, NSF is planning to require that all proposals include a data management plan in the form of a two-page supplementary document. The research community will be informed of the specifics of the anticipated changes and the agency's expectations for the data management plans. [more]

The Future of NSF On Its 60th Anniversary

The Future of NSF On Its 60th Anniversary [Flash Player]
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsf_future

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) 60th anniversary was marked with a symposium that fortunately was captured on video and put on the NSF website. Past and present NSF Directors "reflected upon 25 years of experience and offered advice about the agency's future." Those videos can be found under "Select a Video: The Future of NSF". The videos of the discussions at the symposium can be found under "Select a Video: Discussions". The discussion videos are not always lengthy, and some are even comments from the audience
of science professionals. The video "The Role of Imagination in Science Learning" is one such video where a university science professor talks about the problem of her students' inability to imagine. She goes on to say that her experience with this prompted her to research the issue, which ultimately resulted in her university offering classes and exercises to teach students how to use their imaginations. Overall, it's an engaging
website and one that will be of general interest to a number of different groups. [KMG]

To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

Orginally posted at Scout Report

Thursday, June 17, 2010

BP Spills Coffee - UBComedy



UCBComedy June 09, 2010This is what happens when BP spills coffee.
More comedy videos: http://www.UCBComedy.com
Like UCB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCBcome...
Follow UCB: http://www.twitter.com/UCBcomedy

Director: Peter Schultz & Brandon Bassham; Writers: Gavin Speiller, Eric Scott, Erik Tanouye, & John Frusciante; Editor: Peter Schultz, Starring: Eric Scott, Nat Freedberg, Kevin Cragg, Gavin Speiller, Kate McKinnon, John Frusciante, Zhubin Parang, Devlyn Corrigan, Erik Tanouye, Rob Lathan; Producer: Todd Bieber

Category: Comedy
Tags:
BP coffee spills

Nature Publishing May Face Boycott - ACS Publications

Nature Publishing May Face Boycott
Publishing: University of California libraries decry journal price hikes
Sophie L. Rovner
Published: June 11, 2010
Article Location: http://pubs.acs.org/cen/email/html/8824notw3.html

"The University of California is threatening to boycott Nature Publishing Group (NPG) journals in hopes of quashing the publisher’s attempt to raise subscription prices. NPG counters that UC is distorting the facts."
[more]

From Chemical & Engineering News http://www.cen-online.org
A service of the American Chemical Society.

Are we meeting the needs of our users? - App building for libraries

Are we meeting the needs of our users?

This June 2010 ALA Policy Brief argues for the development of hand held services in libraries to "support the information needs of our users wherever they may be..."

There’s an App for That! Libraries and Mobile Technology: An Introduction
to Public Policy Considerations
ALA Policy Brief No. 3, June 2010

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oitp/publications/policybriefs/mobiledevices.pdf

As the information revolution continues to unfold, libraries will experiment with mobile devices and services to support the information needs of their users wherever they may be. The adoption of mobile technology alters the traditional relationships between libraries and their users and introduces novel challenges to reader privacy. At the same time, the proliferation of mobile devices and services raises issues of
access to information in the digital age, including content ownership and licensing, digital rights management, and accessibility. This policy brief explores some of these issues, and is intended to stimulate further community discussion and policy analysis.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research - CHE june 13, 2010

June 13, 2010
We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research

Michael Glenwood for The Chronicle

Michael Glenwood for The Chronicle
By Mark Bauerlein, Mohamed Gad-el-Hak, Wayne Grody, Bill McKelvey, and Stanley W. Trimble
Everybody agrees that scientific research is indispensable to the nation's health, prosperity, and security. In the many discussions of the value of research, however, one rarely hears any mention of how much publication of the results is best. Indeed, for all the regrets one hears in these hard times of research suffering from financing problems, we shouldn't forget the fact that the last few decades have seen astounding growth in the sheer output of research findings and conclusions. Just consider the raw increase in the number of journals. Using Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Michael Mabe shows that the number of "refereed academic/scholarly" publications grows at a rate of 3.26 percent per year (i.e., doubles about every 20 years). The main cause: the growth in the number of researchers.
Source: We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Support for UC-Nature ban - The Scientist

[Entry posted at 10th June 2010 03:36 PM GMT]
The Scientist
Read more: Support for UC-Nature ban - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences

University of California scientists are speaking out in favor of UC's threat to boycott Nature Publishing Group over a proposed 400 percent hike in licensing fees.

"Nature is making a very unfortunate move here," said Alex Bell, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. "Multiple-fold increases are unjustified. I think it's bordering on exploitation."

In a letter mass e-mailed to faculty earlier this week and posted on the UC Libraries website, the California Digital Library and the University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communications say the school is facing an "impending crisis," a proposed licensing price hike that would raise the cost for 67 Nature Publishing Group (NPG) journals by well over $1 million per year. The proposed new fees come at a time when UC libraries are in an economic pinch and worked all last year to reduce their electronic journal costs by $1 million per year.

Nature Publishing Group Defends Its Price Increase for University of California

Nature Publishing Group Defends Its Price Increase for U. of California
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Jennifer Howard
June 11, 2010

The Nature Publishing Group has responded publicly to the challenge issued on Tuesday by the University of California system over a proposed 400-percent rise in the cost of Nature and the group's other scientific journals. In a long, strongly worded statement http://www.nature.com/press_releases/cdl.html released to the news media on Wednesday, the publisher disputed assertions that it was unfairly increasing its prices in California's case. It accused the California Digital Library, which negotiates the UC system's subscription licenses, of sensationalism and spreading misinformation. And it said that the digital library's threat to cancel its subscriptions and organize a faculty boycott of the Nature group's journals had taken it by surprise.

Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Nature-Publishing-Group/65848/

University of California response to Nature statement [11:29 am PST]

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

UC threatens ‘systemwide boycott’ of Nature Publishing Group - June 09, 2010

nature nature.JPGThe University of California is mulling a boycott of Nature Publishing Group in response to what it claims is a proposed 400% increase in subscription fees to the group’s journals, a letter from the university’s libraries reveals.

Dated 4 June, the letter says that unless NPG keeps to the current subscription agreement, faculty will be asked to cease submitting papers and undertaking peer review for NPG journals, to resign from all NPG editorial and advisory boards, and to not advertise jobs in NPG journals. Staff would also be urged to encourage “sympathy actions” from researchers outside the UC system.

The letter describes the proposed price increase as “of unprecedented magnitude”.

“NPG has made their ultimatum with full knowledge that our libraries are under economic distress,” it says. “...Capitulating to NPG now would wipe out all of the recent cost-saving measures taken by CDL [California Digital Library] and our campus libraries to reduce expenditures for electronic journals.”

It further points out that UC authors have produced 5,300 articles in Nature journals over the past six years and claims that these have contributed “at least” $19 million to NPG in revenue.

Speaking to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Keith Yamamoto, the executive vice dean of the School of Medicine at UC-San Francisco, points out that publisher Elsevier was forced to backtrack on proposed price rises for Cell Press journals in 2003 by a similar boycott. “There’s a strong feeling that this is an irresponsible action on the part of NPG,” he says.

Nature News has asked NPG for a response to the letter. It will be posted here as soon as we have it.

University of California Tries Just Saying No to Rising Journal Costs

U of California Tries Just Saying No to Rising Journal Costs
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Jennifer Howard
June 10, 2010

The University of California system has said "enough" to the Nature Publishing Group, one of the leading commercial scientific publishers, over a big proposed jump in the cost of the group's journals.

On Tuesday, a letter http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/Nature_Faculty_Letter-June_2010.pdf
went out to all of the university's faculty members from the California Digital Library, which negotiates the system's deals with publishers, and the University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication. The letter said that Nature proposed to raise the cost of California's license for its journals by 400 percent next year. If the publisher won't negotiate, the letter said, the system may have to take "more drastic actions" with the help of the faculty. Those actions could include suspending subscriptions to all of the Nature Group journals the California system buys access to-67 in all, including Nature.

The pressure does not stop there. The letter said that faculty would also organize "a systemwide boycott" of Nature's journals if the publisher does not relent. The voluntary boycott would "strongly encourage" researchers not to contribute papers to those journals or review manuscripts for them. It would urge them to resign from Nature's editorial boards and to encourage similar "sympathy actions" among colleagues outside the University of California system.

See the complete article at http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-California-Tries-Just/65823/.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

CLIR Report: The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship]

The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship
Council on Library and Information Resources Publication 147 (June 2010)

Part two of the report, "On the Cost of Keeping a Book" by Paul Courant and Matthew "Buzzy" Nielsen. is particularly interesting. Table on page 91 shows the costs for keeping a book forever. Worth thinking about in terms of shared print, digitization, etc.

Famopily by Karen Hammer

Art meets boardgame.




Famopily | 1999 | $800 until January 1, 2011, thereafter $1200

Ready to play board game: pigment inkjet prints, binder’s board

18.75 x 18.75"

Edition of 20
Family scrapbook images on game board, game cards collected by moving about board contain recollections about growing up in the 1960s.

Also available:
Famopily (codex), Inkjet prints | 1999 | $40
7.5 x 15.75" open | 7.5 x 8" closed
Wire bound book with text from game cards and photos from Famopily game board.

Monday, May 24, 2010

UC Santa Cruz Students Protest Library Budget Cuts

UC Santa Cruz Students Protest Library Budget Cuts

Three-day study-in prompts mediation

April Boland -- Library Journal, 5/19/2010

  • Police called in when students remained in library until midnight
  • Library staff, caught in the middle, say protests create a “hardship"
  • Facilitated dialogue helps end student action

More than 100 University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) students protested ongoing and projected library budget cuts (totaling about 10%) with a three-day "study-in" last week at the Science and Engineering Library.

The protest began Monday, May 10, when students occupied the library until midnight in violation of the building’s 10:30 p.m. closing time. The library was forced to close early at 4:30 p.m. May 11, leading protesters to study right outside of the building.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Copyright for Librarians

Copyright for Librarians is a joint project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL), a consortium of libraries from 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. The goal of the project is to provide librarians in developing and transitional countries information concerning copyright law. More specifically, it aspires to inform librarians concerning:

  • copyright law in general
  • the aspects of copyright law that most affect libraries
  • how librarians in the future could most effectively participate in the processes by which copyright law is interpreted and shaped.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hurtling Toward the Finish Line: Should the Google Books Settlement Be Approved?: California Digital Library

Hurtling Toward the Finish Line: Should the Google Books Settlement Be Approved?
February 16, 2010

Ivy Anderson, Director of Collections
California Digital Library

"Late last week, Google and the plaintiffs filed their final briefs in defense of the Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA) that is before the New York Southern Federal District Court. As the rhetoric around the Settlement heats up to white-hot intensity in the final days before the Fairness Hearing on February 18th, I’d like to offer a few personal thoughts from my vantage point at the California Digital Library."