« After reference books and scientific journals, electronic books represent the next level of evolution in the digital revolution. Their presence in libraries and their level of knowledge on the part of users is still low. But the development of specific collections by the publishers, the development of increasingly refined online distribution systems and the improvements in portable reading devices (e-book readers) are causing a change in this situation, along with a turnaround on the production and consumption of such documents. In Spain, recent experiences by publishing houses are related to this new market, and they will change the current publishing scene in no time. This article discusses some of them and gives an outlook of future developments in the sector. »
OERs in Context – Case Study of Innovation…
OERs in Context – Case Study of Innovation and Sustainability of Educational Practices at the University of Mauritius :
« Over the recent years, there has been a growing interest in Open Educational Resources (OER). A similar trend was observed about a decade ago in the concept of Learning Objects, which inevitably faded without really making an impact in real-world educational contexts. A number of repositories were created that contain thousands of learning objects. However, on the consumption side, very little is known in terms of their implementations and impacts on teaching and learning. The same phenomenon is observed with Open Education Educational resources which are by definition learning objects but they are freely available resources available for educators and practitioners to use, reuse, remix and re-contextualise in local contexts. While the use of OER is widespread among educators (similarly to learning objects), however they often happen in discretion, isolation and not really in well-established frameworks (pedagogical, economical and institutional). This paper presents a case study of how OERs have been included in a sustainable and innovative teaching and learning model in three online courses at Diploma, Bachelor and Masters Level. It shows how the inclusion of OERs helped maintain a good quality level, sustain a viable economic model with reduction of tuition fees for learners, increase access and achieve the intended learning outcomes without any negative impact on the learners’ experience. »
URL : http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&article=419
Back to the future: authors, publishers and ideas in a copy-friendly environment
How could scholars survive in a copy-friendly environment jeopardizing the established system of scholarly publishing in which scientific publishers seemed to be authors’ best friends? A backward itinerary across three German Enlightenment thinkers who took part to the debate on (unauthorized) reprinting shows us ways – usual and unusual – in which culture can flourish in a copy-friendly environment.
While Fichte endorsed an intellectual property theory, took the function of publishers for granted and neglected the interests of the public, Kant saw authors as speakers and justified publishers’ rights only as long as they work as spokespersons helping writers to reach the public. Eventually Lessing’s project was designed to foster authors’ autonomy by means of a subscription system that could have worked only on the basis of a free information flow and of direct relationships with and within the public itself.
Such a condition can be compared with the situation of ancient auctores, with one difference: while the ancient communities of knowledge were educated minorities, because of the limitations of orality and manuscript media system, we have now the opportunity to take Enlightenment seriously.
Weblog publishing behaviour of librarianship and information science…
Weblog publishing behaviour of librarianship and information science students: a case study :
« Introduction. The ‘blogosphere’ is a space with digital information in which social networks form that offer countless application possibilities. In this technology-mediated context, it is feasible to study the performance and approaches of production, diffusion, relationship and use of information from different perspectives.
Method. Quantitative data were obtained through the regular examination of the blogs maintained by students and qualitative data were obtained from reports by the students and self-assessment questionnaires.
Analysis. Simple counts of quantitative data were obtained, without further statistical analysis. The qualitative data were reviewed for insights into the motivations of students. Results. Given a free choice, most students adopted the Blogger platform for their blogs. Most blogs consisted of content reported from elsewhere and were not continued by the students following the end of the exercise.
Conclusions. Students adopted an instrumental approach to the exercise, doing enough to complete the course requirements but not being sufficiently engaged to continue their blogs. Preliminary work based on basic competences is necessary in both collaboration processes and Web 2.0 technology to obtain satisfactory results in the use of Weblogs as teaching and learning tools. »
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/handle/10760/15433
Innovative Web 2.0 technologies for integrating the learning…
Innovative Web 2.0 technologies for integrating the learning process :
« The innovative technologies of Web 2.0 have created a lot of opportunities for learning in the present web environment. Although these are largely experimental, some of them are very popular and useful. Some popular tools of Web2.0 are wikis, blogs, video sharing, podcasting, RSS, social bookmarking, and many more. Web2.0 is more than a set of ‘tools’, new technologies and services. The general internet users as well as the teachers and learners have been well adapting to these emerging technologies to integrate the learning process. The paper introduces major Web 2.0 tools and discusses their applications in learning. »
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/handle/10760/15432
Towards Transparent and Scalable OpenURL Quality Metrics …
Towards Transparent and Scalable OpenURL Quality Metrics :
« The development of link resolvers and the OpenURL framework over a decade ago paved the way for open-ended, context-sensitive linkage from databases, indexes, and abstracting services to the appropriate resources and services to meet library users’ needs. Library patrons can now retrieve more comprehensively linked scholarly information than ever before. However, even with today’s link resolver technology and the OpenURLs on which the link resolvers depend, following a reference link all the way to full-text can still frustrate library users all too often. In this article, the authors present research on why OpenURLs fail so frequently. They also describe a model for measuring the quality of OpenURL metadata, using a log processor and reporting software. The results of this study demonstrate the potential applicability of such a system as a scalable, stand-alone service for all libraries, OpenURL and full-text content providers, and link resolver vendors to evaluate and improve the completeness and consistency of their links. »
URL : http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march11/chandler/03chandler.html
Discovering the Information Needs of Humanists When Planning…
Discovering the Information Needs of Humanists When Planning an Institutional Repository :
« Through in-person interviews with humanities faculty members, this study examines what information needs are expressed by humanities scholars that an institutional repository (IR) can address. It also asks what concerns humanists have about IRs, and whether there is a repository model other than an institutional one that better suits how they work. Humanists make relatively low use of existing IRs, but this research indicates that an institutional repository can offer services to humanities faculty that are desired by them, especially the digitization, online storage, curation, and sharing of their research materials and publications. If presented in terms that make sense to humanities faculty, and designed consciously with their needs and concerns in mind, an IR can be of real benefit to their teaching, scholarship, collaborations, and publishing. »
URL : http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march11/seaman/03seaman.html