Citation
(2003), "New & noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 20 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2003.23920cab.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited
New & noteworthy
Science.GovWeb Site Is Unveiled
A total of 14 scientific and technical information organizations from ten major science agencies have collaborated to create science.gov (www.science.gov), the "FirstGov for Science" Web site. Science.gov is the gateway to reliable information about science and technology from across US Federal government organizations. Through this site, users can find over 1,000 government information resources about science, including: technical reports, journal citations, databases, Federal Web sites, and fact sheets. The information is free, and no registration is required.
Science.gov is for the educational and library communities, as well as business people, entrepreneurs, agency scientists, and anyone with an interest in science. Support for building the science.gov gateway came from "CENDI", an interagency committee of senior managers of Federal science and technology information programs.
The agencies participating in science.gov are the US Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Interior; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the National Science Foundation.
Additional information is available at www.science.gov/communications
TLCIntroduces the Online Selection Assistant
The Library Corporation (TLC) has created the Online Selection Assistant, a materials management and collection development service that changes how library professionals select and acquire materials. The company introduced the new product to the library market on January 25 during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.
The Online Selection Assistant is a vendor-neutral collection development and information management solution that automates the process of material selection, purchasing, and accounting to save libraries time, while giving them access to all the resources they need to quickly and successfully select and order materials. The Online Selection Assistant offers a centralized, definitive source of material information, recommendations, selections, orders, and order fulfillment.
Using this new product, collection development librarians can access updated comprehensive lists of forthcoming and published materials, while taking advantage of connections to information and suppliers world-wide. The Online Selection Assistant also offers an integrated search of the local database, existing on-order and in-process selection items, popular vendor databases, and bibliographic utilities. This enables librarians to determine if an item is already in their collection, on a list to be ordered, or ready to be added from their preferred vendor.
Users can access book and awards lists, featured articles and reviews, industry recommendations, and take advantage of features and capabilities such as: selection list management; fund management and accounting; electronic ordering and fulfillment; invoice approval; receiving; and more. Additionally, the Online Selection Assistant can be used with any library vendor's automation system.
www.onlineselectionassistant.com/ www.tlcdelivers.com/
NEW ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION LISTFor Acquisitions Automation Issues Launched
The Automated Acquisitions Discussion Group of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services of the American Library Association has announced the creation of AUTOACQ-L, a new electronic discussion list. The list is intended to provide a forum for discussion of ideas and issues related to automation of library acquisitions and related processes. The focus of the list is broad, based on two fundamental concepts: first, that "library acquisitions" not only encompasses traditional library ordering and receipt across all physical and intellectual formats, but also includes fiscal and budgetary issues, collection development/management, vendor performance monitoring and a broad spectrum of reporting issues; and second, that "automation" is understood to be platform- and ILS-independent. Of especial interest are discussions that will encourage a standards-based approach to automated support of library acquisitions functions.
Subscription and participation by all are welcomed. The list is expected to be of particular interest to library staff engaged in acquisitions, collection development/collection management and systems, as well as to library materials and systems vendors. To subscribe, send a message to:
Leave the subject line blank and do not include your signature file. In the message portion of your e-mail, type:
subscribe autoacq-I your name(Example: subscribe autoacq-I Fred Flintstone)
The list is unmoderated.
BOAICelebrates First Anniversary with Launch of BOAI Forum
On the first anniversary of its establishment in February 2002, The Budapest Open Archives Initiative (BOAI) has announced the launch of a new electronic mail list, the BOAI Forum. The intention of the BOAI Forum is to spread BOAI news and announcements quickly and efficiently, and for subscribers to use to share news, details, and tips about their own open-access projects in all fields of science and scholarship. Subscriptions to the Forum will be limited to those who sign the BOAI public statement in support of open access. Individuals or organizations can sign the initiative at www.soros.org/openaccess/sign.shtml To subscribe to the BOAI Forum, submit your e-mail address using the form at www.soros.org/openaccess/forum.shtml?f An archive of past postings, readable by non-subscribers, is planned.
Projects of the BOAI are supported by funding provided by The Open Society Institute (OSI). Established in 1993 by investor and philanthropist George Soros, OSI is a private operating and grant-making foundation that develops and implements a range of programs in civil society, education, media, public health, and human and women's rights, as well as social, legal, and economic reform. Some BOAI-related projects supported by the Open Society Institute over the first year of the initiative include:
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Development of open access business guides. The SPARC Consulting Group has developed a Guide to Business Planning for Converting a Subscription-based Journal to Open Access, and a Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal: www.soros.org/openaccess/oajguides/index.shtml For additional details, see the press release at: www.arl.org/sparc/core/index.asp?page=f67
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Directory of open access journals will be produced and maintained by the Lund University Library: www.lub.lu.se/lucep/activities/doaj/index.html
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Pilot project to support authors from the OSI region to publish articles in open access journals. A total of 40 open access journals are taking part in the pilot support scheme. The program will be continued in 2003: www.soros.org/openaccess/grants.shtml#journals
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Pilot project to support BioMed Central (BMC) Institutional Memberships, which will allow authors from institutions to publish articles in BMC free of charge. Institutions within the OSI region can apply to OSI for support. A total of 50 grants to institutions will be made through this program. A total of 12 institutions already received grants in 2002: www.soros.org/openaccess/grants.shtml#biomed
The Budapest Open Archives Initiative (BOAI): www.soros.org/openaccess/index.shtml
LUND UNIVERSITYEstablishes Directory of Open Access Journals
The Information Program of the Open Society Institute – Budapest, along with SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and Lund University Libraries, Sweden, has announced the establishment of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The project will create a directory of open access journals and will be completed in late spring 2003.
The DOAJ aims to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The Directory will comprehensively cover all open access scientific journals that use an appropriate quality control system, and it will not be limited to particular languages or subject areas.
The DOAJ will be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 will consist of the creation and maintenance of a directory system for Open Access Journals. The work in phase 1 can be divided into four main tasks that will run in parallel:
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Development and implementation of a collection development policy.
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Technical development and implementation.
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Discovery and input of resources.
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Dissemination.
The second phase involves developing a comprehensive search system for article-level content. The work in phase 2 is dependent on the work in phase 1 and will begin in late spring 2003.
To ensure the wide dissemination of the Directory, the OSI will work with the eIFL Network (http://www.eifl.net), an umbrella organisation for national library consortia in nearly 50 countries, to make the directory available to more than 3,000 libraries in the developing countries.
E-LISFacilitates Self-Archiving and Preservation of Scholarly Publications
Eprints for Library and Information Science (E-LIS) is an international open access archive for eprints related to librarianship, information science and technology, and related application activities, in keeping with the objectives of the EPrints movement and the Free Online Scholarship (FOS) movement. The purpose of E-LIS archive is to make the full text of the LIS documents visible, accessible, harvestable, searchable and usable by any potential user with access to the Internet. Furthermore this service aims to support individuals who wish to publish or otherwise make their papers available worldwide. Open access to LIS papers and their dissemination can also support the building of international LIS networks.
E-LIS has been established as a community service by RCLIS (Research in Computing, Library and Information Science) and DoIS (Documents in Information Science) to promote open access to papers on these fields. RCLIS is a project to build a database about current and past documents in computing, librarianship, and information science. Its aim is to extend and update DoIS, a service for finding and downloading articles and conference proceedings published in electronic format in the area of library and information science.
Access to E-LIS is totally free to any user. Users can freely browse, search and access the full-text without ever having to identify themselves to the server. Authors who wish to submit a work need to register. Librarians, libraries, institutes, organizations and individual researchers involved in LIS and related fields are encouraged to utilize and contribute to the E-LIS service.
TASIProvides Support for Digitization Projects in Academic Institutions in the UK
The Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) is a service that has been set up to provide advice and guidance to the Further and Higher Education community on the issues of creating, delivering and using digital images together with managing digitization projects.
The objectives of TASI are to:
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encourage the creation of high quality digital image collections;
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promote good practice in the creation, delivery and use of digital images and in the management of digitization projects;
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promote and support the use of standards within digitization projects;
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promote technical expertise within the FE/HE community by providing advice, guidance, support, training and consultation;
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encourage networking and the building of an imaging community within further and higher eduction.
To support the academic community, TASI provides a range of services:
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Information and advice:
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advice, helpdesk, and mailing list services provided through the TASI Web site;
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help with writing proposals.
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Activities:
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visiting and documenting projects;
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promoting and encouraging best practice.
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Training:
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training programme, including workshops on image capture, managing digitization projects, and using digital images;
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training workshops for individual projects.
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TASI has been funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and is hosted at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) at the University of Bristol.
AWARE'sImplementation of the JPEG2000 Standard Supports Creation of Digital Archives
At the 2003 Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association in Philadelphia, Aware, Inc. presented a demonstration of the advantages of JPEG2000 compression for digital libraries and preservation of digital archives. The JPEG2000 standard (ISO 15444-1) brings the advantages of advanced wavelet compression techniques to digital archiving without the barriers of proprietary solutions. Key features of JPEG2000 include:
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rich support for embedded metadata;
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an open standard for the "future-proofs" data and encourages collaboration;
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lossless compression and lossy decompression to support remote viewing and access of large losslessly compressed image files;
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progressive display by quality or resolution.
JPEG2000 allows creators of digital libraries to save a lossless digital archive, extract a highly compressed quality layer from the single master for transmission, and decode the JPEG2000 file in the Web browser. For librarians faced with balancing the needs of making digital collections accessible to the public and also preserving them for future generations, the ISO standard compliant nature of JPEG2000 and its embedded support for multiple types of metadata help ensure that the content outlives the systems that created it and facilitates collaboration between libraries.
www.aware.com/products/compression/jpeg2000_lgimg.html
NEW GUIDETo Practical Aspects of Implementing Institutional Repositories
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has produced and is freely distributing a new guide. The "SPARC Institutional Repository Check-list & Resource Guide" is a manual detailing the issues that institutions and consortia need to address in implementing an institutional repository.
The "SPARC Institutional Repository Check-list & Resource Guide" complements and expands on SPARC's recent position paper, "The case of institutional repositories" (available at www.arl.org/sparc/IR/ir.html), which addressed the strategic rationale for institutional repositories. The Guide provides practical background information that will help institutions define and establish digital collections that preserve the intellectual output of a university or group of universities.
The new Guide provides an introduction to issues in particular institutional contexts and directs readers to resources that provide additional details. The Guide includes sections on multiple policy and technical issues. The Guide's audience includes librarians, faculty, administrators, information technology and support staff, and others interested in the practical implications of an institutional repository.
The SPARC Institutional Repository Check-list & Resource Guide will be an evolving document that SPARC will update and enhance as useful information emerges from the institutional repository projects that are under way. SPARC lists further resources on institutional repositories at www.arl.org/sparc/home/index.asp?page=0
www.arl.org/sparc/IR/IR_Guide.html
CLIRIssues Report on Copyright Issues Relevant to the Creation of Digital Archives
The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has released a new report which describes copyright rights and exceptions and highlights issues potentially involved in the creation of a non-profit digital archive. The report is entitled: "Copyright Issues Relevant to the Creation of a Digital Archive: A Preliminary Assessment" and was written by June M. Besek. It was commissioned for and sponsored by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, Library of Congress. The paper is intended to provide basic information about the copyright law for developers of digital archives to assist them in planning. Copies of the report are freely available from CLIR's Web site in either PDF or full text html. Print copies can be ordered from CLIR.
PDF: www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub112/pub112.pdf
HTML: www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub112/contents.html
Abstract: www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub112abst.html
COUNTERCode of Practice Released
The first release of the COUNTER Code of Practice is available for download from the Web site at www.projectCounter.org The Code of Practice specifies in detail the requirements that vendors must meet to have their online usage reports designated COUNTER-compliant.
The use of online information resources is growing exponentially and it is widely agreed by both producers and buyers of information that the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they buy from a variety of sources is being used, and publishers want to know how the information products they disseminate are being used. The COUNTER Code of Practice meets these needs by setting international guidelines governing the recording and exchange of online usage data. This step towards producing vendor-generated usage statistics that are credible, compatible, and consistent has been achieved through co-operation between librarians, vendors, and intermediaries involved in the project.
The COUNTER Code of Practice specifies: the data elements to be measured; definitions of these data elements; usage report content, format, frequency and methods of delivery; protocols for combining usage reports from direct use and from use via intermediaries. The Code of Practice also provides guidelines for data processing by vendors and auditing protocols. There will be only one valid version of the Code of Practice at any given time, but different levels of compliance will be possible. Release 1 focuses on journals and databases, as these products not only are the most significant budget items for libraries, but also have been available online for some time and have a core of well-accepted definitions and content structures. The Code of Practice will be systematically extended to cover other categories of publications, such as e-books, over the next year.
COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) is a multi-agency project whose objective is to develop a single, internationally accepted, extensible Code of Practice that will allow the usage of online information products and services to be measured more consistently.
www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html www.projectcounter.org/index.html
DIGITAL LIBRARY RESERVEEnables Circulating eBook and Digital Magazine Collections
OverDrive (www.overdrive.com) has announced Digital Library Reserve, an application service for libraries to develop and manage a circulating collection of eBooks, eMagazines, eNewspapers, journals, audio books and other downloadable media for lending to patrons. OverDrive's Digital Library Reserve is a technology service that enables public, academic and private libraries to develop a circulating collection of eBook and other digital content from a variety of commercial publishers and other resources.
Digital Library Reserve combines Internet- and computer-based services that enable libraries to manage downloadable or streaming media in popular formats for circulation to patrons. A library can develop its collection both by purchasing titles from Content Reserve (www.contentreserve.com), which contains thousands of titles from leading publishing houses, and by depositing eBooks and digital content acquired from other sources.
Digital Library Reserve provides data services (including MARC record support) for integrating the eBook and other digital products collection into a library's existing catalog. Digital Library Reserve also provides a "Library Digital Kiosk" for patrons using the Internet to navigate, search and checkout titles from the library's eBook collection. A library does not need to purchase additional hardware or software to benefit from the services of Digital Library Reserve. Authorized library personnel can operate and manage their Digital Library Reserve collection, including setting and managing the lending periods and circulation of titles, via a PC operating a Web browser with an Internet connection.
Patrons can access the collection for offline use on their own PCs and PDA devices. When a patron selects a title, the library Web site will provide the availability of the product and requirements for the patron to access the title. At the time of download or "check-out", Digital Library Reserve applies the appropriate copyright protection technology or Digital Rights Management (DRM) services to the title. When the circulation period has expired or a patron "returns" a title, it becomes immediately available for other patrons to "checkout".
Digital Library Reserve will be deployed initially by Cleveland Public Library, with the Cleveland Public Library Digital Book service scheduled for public launch during March 2003. First-time services that will distinguish the Cleveland Public Library digital collection from earlier library eBook efforts include support for reading on Palm and Pocket PC PDA devices in addition to PCs, the ability for the library to add its own digitized titles to the collection, such as local newspapers or archived documents, and support for circulating copyrighted digital audio books and other multimedia.
Cleveland Public Library personnel will be able to develop their digital book collection from a variety of sources and a growing list of media file formats.
FRETWELL-DOWNINGComplies with Z-Interoperability Testbed Project
Improving Z39.50 semantic interoperability among libraries for information access and resource sharing is the goal behind the Z39.50 interoperability testbed project (Z-Interop). Fretwell-Downing has announced that it is the first vendor to successfully test its z-client against a set of structured Bath profile searching in order to comply with the testbed.
In order to comply with the testbed, FD carried out a set of 64 searches taken from Functional Area A Level 0 and Level 1. The results indicate that FD's Z39.50 client can issue the proper attribute combinations for the test searches. In addition, the results also indicated that the FD Z39.50 client could issue appropriately constructed simple Boolean searches using a single operator.
The Z-Interop Project is an applied research and demonstration project to establish and operate a Z39.50 interoperability testbed. It is funded by the US Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services through a National Leadership Grant. The testbed investigators are still refining their analysis and reporting mechanisms.