The Accessibility of Open Access Materials in Libraries :
« Librarians often champion open access (OA) as a sustainable alternative to the current scholarly communications system, which is widely accepted as being in a state of crisis. However, there has been little insight into how far libraries are making this support tangible by providing access to OA publications in their OPACs and other library pathways. This study conducted a large-scale survey of US library holdings to determine the extent that records of journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals are held by WorldCat-affiliated Academic libraries. It then followed up with a questionnaire inquiring into the attitudes and practices of librarians from 100 libraries that were ranked highest out of the total population in terms of their holdings of DOAJ journals. The main objective of the study was to develop a better understanding of the factors influencing the incorporation of OA materials into a university library’s holdings, where and by what means they typically appear on library websites, and how librarians feel about having these materials in their collections. Our findings suggest that the majority (54%) of WorldCat-affiliated US academic libraries have at least one record for a DOAJ journal in their holdings. It additionally suggests that librarians from institutions holding high numbers of DOAJ records generally have very positive attitudes towards OA, even though most of the respondents from these institutions were largely unaware that their holdings were more heavily weighted towards DOAJ records than at comparable institutions. Regarding library selection of OA titles, a journal’s subject matter was highlighted as a more important consideration than its access model. Additional findings suggest that large publishers of OA journals tend to have a higher representation in library holdings than smaller independent publishers. »
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/18766/
FUSE : « Partial list of the English-lan…
FUSE :
« Partial list of the English-language business journals, made searchable at article-level via FUSE »
URL : http://www.jurn.org/fuse/fuse-titles.html
The Semantic Web, Linked and Open Data :…
The Semantic Web, Linked and Open Data :
« The development of the Semantic Web has been a long running project championed by the inventor of the
web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. It is built around his concept of the ‘Web of data’ which means moving on from
the existing document centric view of the Web to a data centric one. In this vision of the Web, data and the relationships between data are key. Coupled with these ongoing Semantic Web developments there has also been growing interest in the related areas of linked and open data.
Between 2009 and 2010 both the UK and US governments launched high profile projects to release a wide range of publicly funded government information as open data sets. There is considerable potential for the education sector to use and contribute to these data sets as they become available. There are also potential benefits for institutions in using the principles of open and linked data in a number
of key areas such as institutional administration, teaching, learning and research. However, there is still a degree of confusion regarding the key concepts of the Semantic Web and linked and open data, as well as a range of views on approaches to implementation. This briefing paper will provide a high level overview of key concepts relating to the Semantic Web, semantic technologies, linked and open data; along with references to relevant examples and standards.
The briefing is intended to provide a starting point for those within the teaching and learning community who may have come across the concept of semantic technologies and the Semantic Web but who do not regard themselves as experts and wish to learn more. The examples and links are intended as starting points for further exploration. »
URL : http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/1/1a/The_Semantic_Web.pdf
BRIEF AMICI CURIAE OF THE AMERICAN LIBRA…
BRIEF AMICI CURIAE OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, THE ASSOCIATION
OF COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES, AND THE ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER : http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/lca-costco-amicus.pdf
Report on the implementation of open con…
Report on the implementation of open content licenses in developing and transition countries :
« The survey attempted to gather information from a broad spectrum of research institutions in developing and transition countries in order to get a better understanding of the current state of the implementation of open content licenses. Open content licenses or some explicit statement attached to the article when it is published in an open access journal or deposited in an open access repository help to refer to a specific type of libre open access. These licenses / statements make it clear to the reusers what they are permitted to do with published and deposited articles (including data). An organization’s or journal’s licensing policy (including policy on re-use and redistribution) shall be clearly stated and visible on the web site. We looked at the web sites of 2,041 open access journals and 218 open access repositories from eIFL network countries. And this report highlights the best practices in using open content licenses by open access journals and open access repositories in developing and transition countries. The report was produced in the framework of the EIFL-OA advocacy programme supported by Open Society Institute and the Wellcome Trust. »
URL : http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/docs/report-on-implementation/downloadFile/file/Report_on_open_content_licenses_June.pdf?nocache=1278496158.76
Towards an Ergonomics of Knowledge Syste…
Towards an Ergonomics of Knowledge Systems: Improving the Design of Technology Enhanced Learning :
« As Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) systems become more essential to education there is an increasing need for their creators to reduce risk and to design for success. We argue that by taking an ergonomic perspective it is possible to better understand why TEL systems succeed or fail, as it becomes possible to analyze how well they are aligned with their users and environment. We present three TEL case studies that demonstrate these ideas, and show how an ergonomic analysis can help frame the problems faced in a useful way. In particular we propose using a variant of ergonomics that emphasizes the expression, communication and use of knowledge within the system; we call this approach Knowledge System Ergonomics. »
URL : http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21354/
SWORD v2.0: Deposit Lifecycle : SWORD is…
SWORD v2.0: Deposit Lifecycle :
SWORD is a hugely successful JISC project which has kindled repository interoperability and built a community around the software and the problem space. It explicitly deals only with creating new repository resources by package deposit a simple case which is at the root of its success but also its key limitation. This next version of SWORD will push the standard towards supporting full repository deposit lifecycles by using update, retrieve and delete extensions to the specification. This will enable the repository to be integrated into a broader range of systems in the scholarly environment, by supporting an increased range of behaviours and use cases.
URL : http://sword2depositlifecycle.jiscpress.org/files/2010/07/SWORDv2.pdf