E-Lert # 470 / Cyberavis numéro 470
Friday May 4, 2012 / vendredi 4 mai 2012
E-lert / Cyberavis is a weekly alerting service commissioned for CARL Directors. Coverage is principally: research, innovation, scholarly publishing, scholarly communication, scholarly journals, electronic journals, copyright and access to published government information.
E-lert / Cyberavis est un service de signalement hebdomadaire à l’intention des membres de l’ABRC. Il porte principalement sur les domaines suivants : recherche, innovation, édition savante, communication savante, périodiques savants, périodiques électroniques, droit d’auteur et accès aux informations gouvernementales rendues publiques.
TOP STORIES IN THIS ISSUE / ARTICLES PRINCIPAUX DANS CE NUMÉRO
Federal libraries, archives shutting down
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/05/02/ottawa-libraries-archives-closing-budget-cuts.html
Conservative cuts put half of Statscan jobs at risk
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservative-cuts-put-half-of-statscan-jobs-at-risk/article2418557/
Britain Announces Plan to Make Publicly Financed Research Freely Available
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/britain-announces-plan-to-make-publicly-financed-research-freely-available/36256
Wikipedia founder to help in government's research scheme
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/01/wikipedia-research-jimmy-wales-online
The Library of Utopia
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/40210/
Who's Paying the Data Bill?
http://chronicle.com/article/Whos-Paying-the-Data-Bill-/131670/
NEWS/ NOUVELLES
Federal libraries, archives shutting down
CBC News, May 2, 2012
The federal government is eliminating a series of libraries and archives throughout different departments as part of the latest budget cuts. Researchers will lose important research tools for their work.*
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/05/02/ottawa-libraries-archives-closing-budget-cuts.html
[ Of related interest: Federal job cuts: tracking the rollout - Where the jobs now aren't in the aftermath of the March 29 federal budget, CBC News, May 1, 2012 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/12/pol-federal-job-cuts-tracker.html ]
CLA dismayed by impact of budget cuts on federal libraries
May 2, 2012
The Canadian Library Association is seriously concerned about the negative impact of government budget cuts on libraries in federal departments and at Library and Archives
Canada. While not all details are known at this time, indications are that libraries are being hit hard by budget reductions. CLA has also received reports that many libraries in federal government departments will be losing staff; some will be shuttering their libraries altogether. Not only does this result in less support for departmental staff and researchers to access relevant information; but as many of these libraries also provide direct services to the public, Canadians will be prevented from having access to that information.*
http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=12902
Britain Announces Plan to Make Publicly Financed Research Freely Available
Jennifer Howard
The Chronicle of Higher Education May 2, 2012
Throwing its weight behind open access, the British government has declared it wants to make all research paid for with public money freely available online. If it succeeds, the move is likely to have significant consequences for publishers, and will boost the international momentum of the open-access movement. But the government won’t share details about how it will make the plan a reality.*
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/britain-announces-plan-to-make-publicly-financed-research-freely-available/36256
Visiting Library and Archives in Ottawa? Not without an appointment
Bill Curry
Globe and Mail, May 1, 2012
Library and Archives Canada will no longer have staff on hand to answer the public’s questions without an appointment as it sheds 20 per cent of its workforce. A spokesman for Library and Archives Canada confirmed to The Globe and Mail that the current workforce of 1,065 will be reduced to 850 people over the next three years, as a result of the 2012 federal budget cuts.*
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/visiting-library-and-archives-in-ottawa-not-without-an-appointment/article2418960/
Conservative cuts put half of Statscan jobs at risk
Bill Curry and Tavia Grant
Globe and Mail, May 1, 2012
Nearly half of the roughly 5,000 people working at Statistics Canada are being warned that their jobs are at risk, suggesting deep cuts are in store for one of the country’s most trusted sources of information. The notices to staff that their employment could be affected by cuts are the second major blow to the organization in recent years, after the Conservative government’s 2010 decision to replace the mandatory long-form census with a voluntary one.*
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservative-cuts-put-half-of-statscan-jobs-at-risk/article2418557/
Wikipedia founder to help in government's research scheme
Alok Jha
Guardian, May 1, 2012
The government has drafted in the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to help make all taxpayer-funded academic research in Britain available online to anyone who wants to read or use it. The initiative will be announced by the universities and science minister, David Willetts, in a speech to the Publishers Association.*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/01/wikipedia-research-jimmy-wales-online
Granting councils target NCE program for bulk of Budget-mandated spending reductions
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 26, Number 7, May 1, 2012
The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCEs), mid-career researchers, equipment grants and support for post-doctoral fellows are shaping up as the main casualties as the granting councils cut back on spending while attempting to preserve funding for basic research. The news was delivered to the research community at an April 13th meeting between university VPs research and the presidents of the granting councils and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.*
The world is losing its ability to reconstruct history. Better regulation could fix that
The Economist, April 28, 2012
Picture yourself as a historian in 2035, trying to make sense of this year’s American election campaign. Many of the websites and blogs now abuzz with news and comment will have long since perished. Data stored electronically decays. Many floppy disks from the early digital age are already unreadable. If you are lucky, copies of campaign material, and of e-mails and other materials (including declassified official documents), will be available in public libraries. But will you be able to read them? Already, NASA has lost data from some of its earliest missions to the moon because the machines used to read the tapes were scrapped and cannot be rebuilt.*
http://www.economist.com/node/21553445
L’Université Laval est toujours réticente au réseau sans fil public
Isabelle Porter
Le Devoir, 27 avril 2012
L’Université Laval n’a toujours pas l’intention d’offrir au public l’accès gratuit à son réseau sans fil. Selon la direction, cela menacerait la sécurité de son réseau. ZAP Québec milite pour l’accès public aux réseaux sans fil. Plusieurs institutions et entreprises y sont associées, comme l’Université du Québec, le Festival d’été ou encore les plaines d’Abraham. La Ville de Québec a pour sa part son propre réseau de bornes sans fil dans les centres communautaires et les bibliothèques.*
http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/science-et-technologie/348591/l-universite-laval-est-toujours-reticente-au-reseau-sans-fil-public
Publishers Starting to Reject e-Book DRM
Joe Brockmeier
ReadWriteWeb, April 26, 2012
One publisher does not a trend make, but Macmillan imprint and science-fiction house Tor/Forge's decision to abandon DRM this July may be a sign of things to come. Tor/Forge is dropping DRM because its customers, and authors, have been asking for DRM-free titles. The game isn't won yet, but it's a safe bet that Tor/Forge won't be the first to abandon Digital Rights Management for e-books and other publications. *
http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/04/publishers-starting-to-reject-e-book-drm.php
Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices
Ian Sample
Guardian, April 24, 2012
Exasperated by rising subscription costs charged by academic publishers,Harvard University has encouraged its faculty members to make their research freely available through open access journals and to resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls. A memo from Harvard Library to the university's 2,100 teaching and research staff called for action after warning it could no longer afford the price hikes imposed by many large journal publishers, which bill the library around $3.5m a year.*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices
ARTICLES
The Library of Utopia
Nicholas Carr
Technology Review, May/June 2012
Google's ambitious book-scanning program is foundering in the courts. Now a Harvard-led group is launching its own sweeping effort to put our literary heritage online. Will the Ivy League succeed where Silicon Valley failed?*
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/40210/
A universal digital library is within reach
Pamela Samuelson
Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2012
Since 2002, at first in secret and later with great fanfare, Google has been working to create a digital collection of the entire world's books - a library that it hopes will last forever and make knowledge far more universally accessible. Ideally, a digital library would provide access not only to books free from copyright constraints (those published before 1923), but also to the tens of millions of books that are still in copyright but no longer in print. But from the beginning, there has been an obstacle even more daunting than the project's many technical challenges: copyright law.*
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-samuelson-google-books-and-copyright-20120501,0,2442760.story
Who's Paying the Data Bill?
Francine Berman
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2012
Recent federal initiatives have highlighted the importance of managing and preserving digital data. They also raise key questions about the economics of digital preservation and, most specifically, about who will pay. Answering those questions is critical to current and future data-driven discovery and innovation.*
http://chronicle.com/article/Whos-Paying-the-Data-Bill-/131670/
The Virtues of Blogging as Scholarly Activity
Martin Weller
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2012
Weller writes: “In terms of intellectual fulfillment, creativity, networking, impact, productivity, and overall benefit to my scholarly life, blogging wins hands down. I have written books, produced online courses, led research efforts, and directed a number of university projects. While these have all been fulfilling, blogging tops the list because of its room for experimentation and potential to connect to timely intelligent debate. That keeps blogging at the top of the heap.”*
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Virtues-of-Blogging-as/131666/
Introducing “Community Practices in the Fair Use of Video in Libraries”
Carrie Russell
District Dispatch, April 27, 2012
Librarians at schools, colleges and universities play an important role helping their users understand and apply copyright law. This makes sense because educational institutions are sites for learning, and the advancement of learning is the purpose of the copyright. Congress recognized the unique status of non-profit educational institutions, libraries and archives under copyright law and developed allowances – copyright exceptions – especially for them. But some of these exceptions are notoriously complicated and open to varying interpretations. Even keeping track of this legal patch work can be difficult.*
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/04/introducing-community-practices-in-the-fair-use-of-video-in-libraries/
Why are Canadian students still paying through the nose for textbooks?
Jesse Brown
Maclean’s, April 25, 2012
You don’t hear much about the cost of post-secondary education dropping, but here’s one area where students should be spending less money than ever: texts. The costly hardcover textbook’s day is all but done. Ditto the cumbersome photocopied course pack. A slew of cheap and free options are available to a professor assembling a syllabus. There’s Open Access, a growing international movement to forego the price-gouging of the academic publishers and publish peer-reviewed scholarly works as freely available material. There’s the ever-expanding public domain. There are millions of high quality essays and articles freely and legitimately posted online. There are affordable subscription-based databases and collections. There’s Google Scholar to sort through it all. And there are fair dealing exceptions to Copyright, which will be extended to educational uses as soon as this summer. Add it up, and students should be enjoying some much needed relief when it comes to the cost of study materials. But instead, they’ll likely be paying more than ever.*
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/04/25/why-are-canadian-students-still-paying-through-the-nose-for-textbooks/
Public libraries in the digital age
Mary Madden and Kathryn Zickuhr
Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 25, 2012
Mary Madden and Kathryn Zickuhr presented "Public libraries in the digital age" to the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies at their spring meeting. They presented findings on the rise of e-reading, including reading-device ownership and the general reading habits/preferences of Americans.*
http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2012/Apr/Public-libraries-in-the-digital-age.aspx
Government science bears disproportionate brunt of Budget's austerity-related cuts
RE$EARCH MONEY, Volume 26, Number 6, April 17, 2012
Federal science-based programs are seeing a 10% cut to their funding, far greater than the 6.9% average across government outlined in the recent federal Budget. While details of the impact of Ottawa's austerity measures continue to trickle out, several examples are of particular concern to researchers, scientists and technicians working in key portfolios.
Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin
Ian Katz
Guardian, April 15, 2012
The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of "restrictive" walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-threat-google-brin
[ See additional coverage in the Globe and Mail. ]
RESOURCES / RESSOURCES
Towards a National Strategy for Data: After the Summit – A Call to Action
On September 14 and 15, 2011, the Research Data Strategy Working Group (RDSWG) hosted the, Mapping the Data Landscape: The 2011 Canadian Research Data Summit. The Summit brought together 150 senior researchers, high-level policy makers, university administrators, and members of the private sector. Together, participants worked on formulating a shared strategy for addressing the challenges and opportunities for maximizing the benefits of our national investment in research data. World-class speakers set the stage for an engaging and productive day.*
http://rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/docs/data_summit-sommet_donnees/Research_Data_Summary.pdf
/
Vers une stratégie nationale pour les données : l’après-sommet – appel à l’action
Les 14 et 15 septembre derniers, le Groupe de travail sur la stratégie des données de recherche (GTSDR) a tenu l’évènement Portrait de la situation des données : Sommet 2011 sur les données de recherche canadiennes. Dans le cadre de cet évènement, quelque 150 chercheurs émérites, décideurs de haut niveau, administrateurs d’université et membres du secteur privé se sont réunis pour travailler à l’élaboration d’une stratégie commune visant à prendre en compte les défis et les occasions liés à l’optimisation des avantages de notre investissement collectif sur le plan des données de recherche. Des conférenciers prestigieux ont donné le ton à une journée bien remplie et productive.*
http://rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/docs/data_summit-sommet_donnees/Resume_Donnees_Recherches.pdf
Search Engine (with Jesse Brown)
The podcast that predicts the present. Host Jesse Brown and guests explore the Internet's impact on politics and culture. Jesse is a humorist working in print, radio, television and film. His satirical column "The Experiment" ran for two years in Saturday Night Magazine and won a National Magazine Award for Humor.*
http://searchengine.tvo.org/about
No Shelf Required 2: Use and Management of Electronic Books
Sue Polanka (Ed.)
ALA Editions, 2012
With their explosive sales and widespread availability over the past few years, e-books have definitively proven that they’re here to stay. In this sequel to her best-selling book of the same title, expert Polanka dives even deeper into the world of digital distribution. Contributors from across the e-book world offer their perspectives on what’s happening now and what to expect in the coming months and years.*
http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3525&zbrandid=4634&zidType=CH&zid=11384224&zsubscriberId=1026817258&zbdom=http://ala-publishing.informz.net
The Transformed Library: E-books, Expertise, and Evolution
Jeannette Woodward
ALA Editions, 2012
This wide-ranging survey takes stock of our institutions' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, analyzing how libraries and the very concept of librarianship have been comprehensively transformed over the past few decades. A respected veteran of libraries who has witnessed first-hand the many changes in the library world, Woodward provides a balanced, realistic assessment of the situation that confronts both libraries and information professionals.*
http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3725&zbrandid=4634&zidType=CH&zid=11384230&zsubscriberId=1026817258&zbdom=http://ala-publishing.informz.net
EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS
How to Enhance Library Instruction with Mobile Devices with Meredith Farkas
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
2:30 - 4:00 PM Eastern |1:30 - 3:00 PM Central
12:30 - 2:00 PM Mountain |11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific
In this workshop, Meredith Farkas will show you how you can use devices like smartphones and tablets as tools for a new, dynamic type of library instruction. With the advent of mobile devices, you can take library instruction directly to library users, no matter where they are. Meredith Farkas is Head of Instructional Services at the Portland State University Library in Oregon and an adjunct faculty member at San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science.*
http://ala-publishing.informz.net/ala-publishing/archives/archive_2325866.html
Congrès des milieux documentaires du Québec
Palais des congrès de Montréal, 31 octobre au 2 novembre 2012
À l'automne 2008, sept associations du milieu documentaire du Québec ont décidé d'unir leurs forces pour offrir à leur communauté un congrès reflétant la richesse et la diversité du monde de la documentation. 2012 est un appel à contribuer à la réflexion sur les conditions et les actions à mettre en oeuvre pour "Créer, partager, transmettre les savoir-faire". L’économie du savoir a généré des théories et des pratiques diverses visant à gérer la masse inépuisable d’informations disponibles pour les individus et les communautés avides de nourrir leur «capital de savoirs». La gestion des connaissances, les communautés de pratiques, l’E-Learning, le web sémantique sont issus d’un même constat : la nécessité de transférer les informations utiles aux bonnes personnes, au bon moment, afin de répondre à des objectifs précis. Au-delà de l’acquisition de connaissances, on vise aussi le développement de compétences applicables à des situations concrètes. *
https://milieuxdoc.ca/2012/ / English: https://milieuxdoc.ca/2012/?id=13392&lang=en
*Excerpted or adapted from the original source. / *Extrait tirée ou adaptée de la source originale.