GSLIS network down this a.m.

I found out a short while ago that the entire GSLIS network is down for maintenance this a.m.  I have been told to expect access to be restored around noon today, LEEP time.  If you can’t reach the LEEP webspace, don’t panic — this is the reason why.  I don’t understand why I (and at least two others in this class) did not receive advance notice of this work, but oh well.

Blogged with Flock

wikipedia

an interesting article on wikipedia
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact

Reminder re final synthesis paper [Updated]

As a reminder, an outline for your final synthesis paper was due Friday.  Several of you have not submitted the outline yet.  Also as a reminder, to quote from the assignment description:

The written paper must be 10-12 double-spaced pages in length. Depending on the chosen topic or scope, papers that are longer in length may be accepted. Pay careful attention to appropriate bibliographic citations. (This is required for all formal written course assignments.) An outline of the final synthesis paper is due no later than Friday, July 21. The final synthesis paper is due no later than Friday, August 4.

[Updated:  I just noticed that on the Course Calendar there is a strikethrough on the date for the due date for the final synthesis paper.  This will be corrected asap but it may very well have been the reason that some of you were unaware that the outline was due.  No penalties will be assessed for turning the outline in later than Friday; however, if you haven't submitted an outline yet, please do so asap, no later than Wednesday, 7/26/2006.]

Blogged with Flock

Print-on-Demand

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/technology/20basics.html

The above NYT article discusses the growing print-on-demand market, and points out that it is now being used by anyone who would like documents bound. Companies like Blurb.com and Picaboo focus on the individual user, but as this service grows, I wonder if it could be used as an economic way for libraries to bind serials or other documents.

I really like the questions this article raises. Web services like LibraryThing help us tag our own books and become our own catalogers. And now, web print-on-demand is helping us become our own published authors. Is this a sign of a truly selfish society, or self-reliant society? Is print-on-demand just an extension of blogging? Can it have real use for small libraries, or is it just like a Kinko’s?

Demystifying the final synthesis paper assignment

I’ve received many inquiries about the final synthesis paper.  The assignment presents a challenge for many of you in terms of figuring out what you want to write about.  Here is some information that I hope will help to demystify the assignment.

Well, first, to reiterate from the Syllabus, “The purpose of this assignment is to enable you to draw these disparate pieces [of the course] into a cohesive whole; to present a “big picture” view; to articulate your understanding of overarching issues and problems within this side of the profession; and to express your views and interpretations of what you’ve learned throughout the course.”

You might also take a look again at the Course Objectives (http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/summer06/LIS578LE/objectives.html) and derive some more ideas from some of the ones listed there.

It might be helpful or give you some further ideas if I list some previous students’ choices for a theme for the final synthesis paper.  These have included an examination of the impact of open access publishing on technical services, a discussion about ownership vs. access as it pertains to technical services, and a plan for collection improvements for a library with reasons why improvements need to be made (in other words, articulating bigger picture issues such as shift to e-resources from print).  Here are a few more:  ”Giving Them What They Want: Technical Services and Patron Access” or “Rethinking Technical Services for a Digital World: Academic libraries should consider new ways to integrate and streamline their organization and work processes for effective and efficient service to library patrons.”

Please feel free to contact me if you need more guidance with this assignment.  As a reminder, an outline of what you plan to write for the final synthesis paper is due tomorrow (Friday).

Blogged with Flock

Open Access Serials & Publishing

An article for this week, “SPARC: Encouraging New Models of Disseminating Knowledge” got me thinking about open access journals.  The SPARC movement is against commercial publishers that maximize prices, causing fewer libraries to subscribe, and therefore effecting the dissemination of scholarly information. 

The problem is serious, as the author Ken Frazier notes, “Many research institutions can no longer afford to buy the information resources that are created by their own scholars and scientists.”  The article, which was written in 2000, stated that SPARC hoped to change scholarly publishing because “the commercialized system is malfunctioning.” Meaning the system is too costly and slow for libraries and consumers. Additionally small publishers have been bought out by large publishers, and “large publishers have merged to form gigantic publishers… the consolidated market has resulted in less competition and increased subscription costs.” 

I went to the SPARC website to see if they were still around, and too see what alternative publishing models they were working on.   Open access journals is on area where SPARC is working.  They have a couple of nice PDF files up on Open Access and Creating Change <www.createchange.org>. 

These articles prompted me to search Google, where I came across the following links, among others:o        Open Access Journals in the Field of Education
http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/o        Directory of Open Access Journals
http://www.doaj.org/  

I then did a search in
Wilson’s Library Lit and found a bunch of good articles on open access publishing. See below: I will investigate what other libraries are doing to provide access to OA journals in an organized way – and perhaps get something up on the Harper Library site.  

1. Boettcher, J. Framing the Scholarly Communication Cycle. Online (
   Weston, Conn.) v. 30 no. 3 (May/June 2006) p. 24-6
2. Van Orsdel, L. C., et. al., Journals in the Time of Google [Periodicals price survey 2006]. Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 7 (April 15 2006) p. 39-44
3. Brynko, B. The Case of Open Access. Information Today v. 23 no. 2 (February 2006) p. 23
4. Albanese, A. Open Access May Heat Up in 2006. Library Journal (1976) v. 131 no. 2 (February 1 2006) p. 18-19

KIM

ArtStor and their License Agreement

I think in class  a few weeks ago we mentioned that it was hard to see sample license agreements (I think we were mainly talking about serials), but ArtStor has theirs posted on their website which you can download if anyone is interested.  It’s about 16 pages long.

www.artstor.org/info/participation_info/license_agreement.jsp

The Digital Dark Age

Here are a few links to follow up on the notion of a “Digital Dark Age” that I mentioned in lecture today. The phrase seems to have picked up steam in the academy in 2001-2003, but I have stumbled upon a few recent articles and columns. There’s no way I could be remembering things from 2003.

Newsweek International – June 26, 2006 – This article is most likely what planted it in my mind.

Sydney Morning Herald – Sept. 23, 2005

PC Magazine Online – Nov. 28, 2005 – from PC Magazine’s sometime blowhard John Dvorak

A famous near miss in this area was The Domesday Project in England. During the mid-1980s, in celebration of the 900th anniversary of the original book chronicling the Norman conquest of England, the BBC and several partners set out to produce a set of laser-discs that described life in the UK at that period. They intended these discs to serve in an archival or time-capsule sort of capacity, but by the late 1990s they were basically inaccessible. Only a special project by the University of Michigan and Leeds University saved the day (and the data).

Todd Heldt’s individual project

deleted on request

digital collections and northwestern’s preservation department

Northwestern’s Preservation’s department plays a big role in organizing some digital collections projects.

See some of their hard work:

http://staffweb.library.northwestern.edu/preservation/dunit.html<>