The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

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Harvard, National Library of China embark on digitisation project

From the Harvard College Library website

One of the most extensive collections of rare Chinese books outside of China will be digitised and made freely available to scholars worldwide as part of a six-year cooperative project between Harvard College Library (HCL) and the National Library of China (NLC).
Nancy Cline, the Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College, and Dr. Furui Zhan, Director of the National Library, formally signed an agreement detailing the project on Friday, October 9. “We are pleased to engage in this important collaboration with our colleagues from the National Library of China,” said Nancy Cline. “Dr. Zhan’s commitment to ensuring that these rare materials become an important part of the digital future will have a significant impact on scholarship.”


Does the Brain Like E-Books?

From the Room for Debate blog on the News York Times website

Writing and reading — from newspapers to novels, academic reports to gossip magazines — are migrating ever faster to digital screens, like laptops, Kindles and cellphones. Traditional book publishers are putting out “vooks,” which place videos in electronic text that can be read online or on an iPhone. Others are republishing old books in electronic form. And libraries, responding to demand, are offering more e-books for download.
Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper? Does the reading experience change, from retention to comprehension, depending on the medium?
The five experts responding to the questions are:

• Alan Liu, English professor
• Sandra Aamodt, author, “Welcome to Your Brain”
• Maryanne Wolf, professor of child development
• David Gelernter, computer scientist
• Gloria Mark, professor of informatics

Informing communities: sustaining democracy in the digital age (Note: PDF)

From the Knight Foundation website

The US based Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy focuses not on the media, but on communities, in the places where people live and work. The Commission was given a deceptively simple charge:

• Articulate the information needs of a community in a democracy
• Describe the state of things in the United States
• Propose public policy directions that would help lead us from where we are today to where we ought to be

This report focuses on the information people actually need, and works back from there, suggesting ways that the flow of information and its uses may be enhanced. That is a fundamentally different approach from traditional media policy that sought to promote or regulate existing media. Since the current pace of information technology change is rapid to the point of defying regularisation or regulation, the Commission’s approach is to steer to the true north of what is constant, the need for the free flow of information in a democracy.
Nothing in this report is meant to be prescriptive, rather, is meant to propose and encourage debate.


Scholarly Book Publishing Practice Survey

From the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) website

This summary of some first findings from the first ALPSP survey undertaken to establish scholarly book and eBook publishing practices is provided to highlight the information that will be contained in the ALPSP Research report to be published later this year, but also to draw attention and provide data on:

• the size and extent of the forthcoming survey
• the types of academic publishing currently being undertaken
• the reported effect on sales of the ‘Look Inside’ function provided by Amazon
• the number of publishers so far signed up to the Google Book Settlement
• the proportion of eBooks published by commercial as against non-profit publishers
  

During summer 2009, a survey was conducted of 400 publishers, consisting of ALPSP, SSP, AAUP, STM and AAP-PSP members and others known to be active in the scholarly publishing market. The sample included the majority of principal academic and scholarly book publishers. 243 responses were received, representing a 60.75% response rate. 72 responses were discounted from the analysis as their books were published by other publishers, they no longer had a books programme, only completed a few questions with no usable data, or declined, for various reasons to complete the questionnaire. The balance was 171 publishers, or 42.75%. The results of the Scholarly Book Publishing Survey are expected to be published by ALPSP in November 2009.