Data sharing and its implications for academic libraries…

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Data sharing and its implications for academic libraries :

Purpose : As an important aspect of the scientific process, research data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research publicly available for use by other researchers. This paper seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the data-sharing challenges and opportunities posed by the data deluge in academics. An attempt is made to discuss implications for the changing role and functioning of academic libraries.

Design/methodology/approach : An extensive review of literature on current trends and the impact of data sharing are performed.

Findings : The context in which the increasing demands for data sharing have arisen is presented. Some of the practices, trends, and issues central to data sharing among academics are presented. Emerging implications for academic libraries that are expected to provide a data service are discussed.

Originality/value : An insightful review and synthesis of context, issues, and trends in data sharing will help academic libraries to plan and develop programs and policies for their data services.”

URL : http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0307-4803&volume=114&issue=11&articleid=17097171&show=abstract

Open Access Publishing in Canada Current and Future…

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Open Access Publishing in Canada: Current and Future Library and University Press Supports :

“Canadian university libraries, Canadian university presses, and non-university scholarly presses at Canadian universities were surveyed in the first part of 2010 as to the level of their support of Open Access (OA) journal publishing. Respondents were asked about journal hosting services in their organization as well as their thoughts on internal and external support for open access publishing. Results showed that most of the organizations are hosting OA journals, largely between one and five in number, and many supply journal hosting services, including some technical support. Personnel resources are a notable factor in the ability to host journals. Most respondents engage in some sort of internal support for open access publishing and are open to options that they are presently not utilizing. They are particularly amenable to OA publishing support from outside of their organizations, especially assistance at a consortial level.”

URL : http://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/1/1/27

Economics of scholarly communication in transition Academic…

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Economics of scholarly communication in transition :

“Academic library budgets are the primary source of revenue for scholarly journal publishing. There is more than enough money in the budgets of academic libraries to fund a fully open access scholarly journal publishing system. Seeking efficiencies, such as a reasonable average cost per article, will be key to a successful transition. This article presents macro level economic data and analysis illustrating the key factors and potential for cost savings.”

URL : http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4370

The Role of the Library in the Research Enterprise

Libraries have provided services to researchers for many years. Changes in technology and new publishing models provide opportunities for libraries to be more involved in the research enterprise.

Within this article, the author reviews traditional library services, briefly describes the eScience and publishing landscape as it relates to libraries, and explores possible library programs in support of research. Many of the new opportunities require new partnerships, both within the institution and externally.

URL : http://dx.doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2013.1043

Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2012 Key…

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Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2012 :

“Key Findings :
••The role of internet search engines in facilitating discovery of scholarly resources has continued to increase. The perceived decline in the role of the library catalog noted in previous cycles of this survey has been arrested and even modestly reversed, driven perhaps to some degree by significant strategic shifts in library discovery tools and services.
•• Respondents are generally satisfied with their ability to access the scholarly literature, not least because freely available materials have come to play a significant role in meeting their needs.
•• While respondents continued to trend overall towards greater acceptance of a print to electronic transition for scholarly journals, they grew modestly less comfortable with replacing print subscriptions with electronic access. Monographs, although widely used in electronic form, present a mixed picture for any possible format transition. While some monograph use cases are quite strong for electronic versions, others – especially long-form reading – are seen to favor print by a decisive share. Even so, a growing share of respondents expects substantial change in library collecting practices for monographs in the next five years.
•• Respondents’ personal interests are the primary factor in selecting research topics, but junior faculty members report that tenure considerations play an important role, as well. Collaboration models vary significantly across scholarly fields. While humanists are less likely than scientists or social scientists
to conduct quantitative analyses, nevertheless some 25% of humanists report gathering their own data for this purpose.
•• Small but non-trivial shares of respondents use technology in their undergraduate teaching. But while most recognize the availability of resources to help them do so, many respondents do not draw upon resources beyond their own ideas or feel strongly motivated to seek out opportunities to use more technology in their teaching.
•• Respondents tend to value established scholarly dissemination methods, prioritizing audiences in their sub-discipline and discipline, and those of lay professionals, more so than undergraduates or the general public. Similarly, they continue to select journals in which to publish based on characteristics such as topical coverage, readership, and impact factor. Finally, respondents tend to value existing publisher services, such as peer review, branding, copy-editing, while expressing less widespread agreement about the value of newer dissemination support services offered by libraries that are intended to maximize access and impact.
•• Respondents perceive less value from many functions of the academic library than they did in the last cycle of this survey. One notable exception is the gateway function, which experienced a modest resurgence in perceived value. A minority of respondents sees the library as primarily responsible for teaching research skills to undergraduates. And, though still a clear minority, the share of respondents who wish to see substantial change to library staff and buildings has increased. There are large differences in perceptions between disciplinary groups: for example, a smaller share of scientists views many
library roles as very important.
•• Conferences remain at the heart of respondents’ perceptions of the role and value of the scholarly societies in which they participate. Conferences are valued for both the formal function of discovering new scholarship and informal role of connecting scholars with peers.”

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Academic Libraries as Data Quality Hubs

Academic libraries have a critical role to play as data quality hubs on campus. There is an increased need to ensure data quality within ‘e-science’. Given academic libraries’ curation and preservation expertise, libraries are well suited to support the data quality process.

Data quality measurements are discussed, including the fundamental elements of trust, authenticity, understandability, usability and integrity, and are applied to the Digital Curation Lifecycle model to demonstrate how these measures can be used to understand and evaluate data quality within the curatorial process. Opportunities for improvement and challenges are identified as areas that are fruitful for future research and exploration.

URL : http://jlsc-pub.org/jlsc/vol1/iss3/5/

L’implication des bibliothèques universitaires francophones dans l’évaluation de…

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L’implication des bibliothèques universitaires francophones dans l’évaluation de la recherche au travers du traitement des publications scientifiques: Belgique – France – Suisse – Canada :

“Depuis de nombreuses années la révolution numérique touche directement les professionnels de l’information et de la documentation. Plus récemment de nouvelles pressions pèsent sur les bibliothèques. Les contingences économiques, institutionnelles et scientifiques poussent le secteur à se remettre en question jusque dans ses fondements. A travers une enquête adressée au personnel des bibliothèques universitaires francophones de Belgique, France, Suisse et Canada, ce mémoire tente d’évaluer dans quelle mesure le personnel des BU perçoit les mutations en cours dans son environnement professionnel en général, et en particulier concernant l’évaluation de la recherche et le traitement des publications scientifiques. Les résultats font apparaître des disparités nationales et déterminent des observations globales. Généralement le personnel est favorable aux changements en matière de traitement des publications scientifiques et à l’évaluation de la recherche. Mais globalement, il n’est ni impliqué, ni préparé à une plus grande intégration de ses activités dans le contexte de la recherche au sein de son institution.”

URL : http://memsic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/mem_00741049