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

Introducing The Source

Next Generation Connectivity: A review of broadband internet transitions and policy from around the world (Note: PDF)

From the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website

Fostering the development of a ubiquitously networked society, connected over high-capacity networks, is a widely shared goal among both developed and developing countries. High capacity networks are seen as strategic infrastructure, intended to contribute to high and sustainable economic growth and to core aspects of human development. In the pursuit of this goal, various countries have, over the past decade and a half, deployed different strategies, and enjoyed different results. This study reviews the current plans and practices pursued by other countries in the transition to the next generation of connectivity, as well as their past experience. By observing the experiences of a range of market-oriented democracies that pursued a similar goal over a similar time period, we hope to learn from the successes and failures of others about what practices and policies best promote that goal. By reviewing current plans or policy efforts, we hope to learn what others see as challenges in the next generation transition, and to learn about the range of possible solutions to these challenges.


NIST Definition of Cloud Computing

From the Computer Security Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology website

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) role in cloud computing is to promote the effective and secure use of the technology within government and industry by providing technical guidance and promoting standards. This website contains NIST's definition of cloud computing as well as related guidance. This definition will serve as a foundation for our upcoming publication on cloud models, architectures, and deployment strategies. Computer scientists at NIST developed this draft definition in collaboration with industry and government and we expect it to evolve over time as the cloud industry and cloud technology matures.


Copyright and Libraries - Cory Doctorow interview

From Cory Doctorow's website

‘Internet Librarian International’ took place recently in London and one of the keynote speakers was writer, blogger, “copyright activist,” and editor of Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow. Here’s an 11 minutes webcast where Doctorow chats with Jaap van de Geer about several topics including:

• Copyright in the age of the Internet
• What publishers are scared of
• The future of publishers and libraries
• E-Books
• The ownership of a book (vs, records and movies)
• Author recognition of copyright issues
• Librarians
  

Open Access – Harvard's success story (Note: Podcast)

From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website

In October 2008 Harvard University adopted an open access policy for all its research papers to be made available in their university repository, in an opt out basis. Twelve months on, since the policy was adopted, JISC's Rebecca O'Brien speaks with Professor Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard University Library and trustee of New York Public Library and the Oxford University Press (USA), about the cultural change that is taking place at Harvard and the background to why professors at the university decided to share their knowledge in this way.


The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery

From the Microsoft Research website

A new book, ‘The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery’, is available online (full text, free) and is a tribute to the work of the computer scientist, Jim Gray, who was lost at sea in 2007. The entire book is a collection of essays and can be downloaded as a single PDF or individual parts. The part of the book containing essays on the future of scholarly publishing contains an introduction along with six essays written by a who’s who in scholarly publishing and information retrieval.

• Introduction by Lee Dirks
• Jim Gray’s fourth paradigm and the construction of the scientific record by Clifford Lynch
• Text in a data-centric world by Paul Ginsparg
• All aboard: toward a machine-friendly scholarly communication system by Herbert Van de Sompel and Carl Lagoze
• The future of data policy by Anne Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald and Kylie Pappalardo
• I have seen the paradigm shift, and it is us by John Wilbanks
• From web 2.0 to the global database by Timo Hannay
  

DigitalNZ get-together, Sunday 22 November

The Digital New Zealand team is holding a Wellington get-together on Sunday 22 November, the day before the National Digital Forum conference.

From the DigitalNZ blog:

It will be a mix of info sharing and mini working sessions focused on how we might take DigitalNZ to the next level, with a bit of socialising thrown in afterward for good measure. The idea is that we want to really start ramping things up here at DigitalNZ, but we're only five people. We need your input, your ideas and your critique.

Let the team (Andy, Lewis, Dan, Virginia, Fiona and Jo) know that you're interested in going along by emailing info@digitalnz.org and they'll contact you closer to the day with more details.

If you want to check out what DigitalNZ's been up to lately, have a look at:

• The code samples from the Hackfests
• The apps built on the DigitalNZ API
• The Make it Digital site (with guides & advice and the Make it Digital Voting Tool)

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

Introducing The Source

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.

Redirecting moved URLs - surely it's not forever?

Our Find service has been up for four months now and we're about to start moving some of our other services into it. This means some of our old platforms (and their URLs) will be retired.

We want to make sure anyone can continue to use the old URLs for accessing the services, but we don't want to have to maintain URL redirects forever (we're an archival institution, when we say forever, we really mean it). We have thousands of pages covering each of our online collection items, so one-to-one URL redirects involve datasets and programming scripts, all of which need maintaining. We also want to do everything possible to make it easy for website managers to update any links they have made to our services.

So we're planning on using a three-phase approach.

Phase one - Full automatic redirection service

All page requests return an HTTP 301 (moved permanently) message pointing to the URL for the equivalent page in the new site - most browsers will automatically refresh to the new location indicated. However, as a fallback it will also deliver a web page indicating that the page has moved, what the new URL is (as a clickable link), and the page will automatically redirect after 10 seconds (using a 'meta' tag refresh).

Some information pages are being removed during the migration. If requests for these pages just redirected automatically to the new homepage, it could be confusing. Instead requests for those pages will return an HTTP 404 (page not found) page explaining that the site has changed and provide a link to the new homepage.

Phase two - Notification-only service

All page requests return an HTTP 404 (page not found) page. This page explains that the site has changed and the expiry date for the old URL; it also includes the URL for the equivalent page in the new site. There is no automated redirection (but the new URL can be clicked on).

This alerts website managers that they need to take action, but gives them the exact information they need and the deadline.

Phase three - Switch off the domain

Hopefully all bookmarks will have been updated to the new locations. At this point the domain name will be retired. Any attempts to access it will return 'DNS Host name resolution failed'.

An alternative is to keep the domain alive but not provide specialised redirects - any request for any page on the domain is automatically redirected (HTTP 301) to only the new homepage.

Timing

We are planning on running the redirects for 12 months - 6 months in phase 1, 6 months in phase 2, then the domain name will be retired.

Does this seem reasonable?

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

Introducing The Source

Adult digital media literacy needs (Note: PDF)

From the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) website

This qualitative research report focuses on non-use and limited use of internet and mobile phones by adult Australians. It provides an understanding of explaining factors such as lack of skills, motivation or economic circumstances, and how the digital media literacy of these groups might be increased.


Mythconceptions: A reality check on e-Books from the publisher’s POV

From the Smashwords website

This report, without denying that the time has definitely come for book publishers to take e-Books seriously, will debunk some of the more prevalent myths about e-Books under current market conditions and technological realities.


Digital quality of life: understanding the personal and social benefits of the information technology revolution (Note: PDF)

From the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) website

In the new global economy, information technology (IT) is the major driver of both economic growth and improved quality of life. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) in its 2007 report "Digital Prosperity: Understanding the Economic Benefits of the Information Technology Revolution" documented how IT, since the mid-1990s, has been the principal driver of increased economic growth not only in the United States but also in many other nations. However, IT is also at the core of dramatic improvements in the quality of life for individuals around the world. In our new report, we show how IT is the key enabler of many, if not most, of today’s key innovations and improvements in our lives and society - from better education and health care, to a cleaner and more energy-efficient environment, to safer and more secure communities and nations.


The Internet: empowering or censoring citizens? (Note: MP 3)

From the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) website

In the context of authoritarian states, the internet has always been viewed as an unambiguous force for good. It has, indeed, had a wide-reaching impact on many such regimes, allowing their citizens to mobilise around particular political and social issues and gain access to previously banned materials. However, many authoritarian governments are now also beginning to exploit cyberspace for their own purposes; some of them appear to be succeeding in subverting the internet's democratising potential. We may have overestimated the internet's ability to bring change and underestimated the role that political, social and cultural forces play in determining how new technologies are being adopted.
Could the internet actually inhibit rather than empower civil society? Join Evgeny Morozov, 2009-2010 Yahoo fellow at Georgetown University, as he outlines the dramatically different ways in which the internet's potential can be utilised by citizens and regimes.


Australian mobile phone lifestyle index (Note: PDF)

From the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association website

The findings of this report provide valuable insights into the background, usage behaviour and preferences of Australian mobile phone users. This information is intended to better inform mobile application developers, content and service aggregators, content and service owners, mobile telecommunication companies, handset manufacturers, analysts and other industry partners about the current Australian mobile content and services market and key longitudinal trends.

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

Introducing The Source

Presidential Libraries Reform Report (Note: PDF)

From the National Archives, USA website

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has recently submitted a report to Congress detailing alternative models to the current Presidential Library system.
The Presidential Historical Records Preservation Act of 2008 [PL 110-404] had tasked NARA with developing plans to reduce the financial burden of the libraries on the Federal Government, improve the preservation of Presidential records, and reduces delays in public access to Presidential records.


Legal delays have blown a hole in the UK's digital heritage

From the Guardian.co.uk website

If it is information on the health of medieval women or the battle of Trafalgar you require, then the British Library is a pretty good place to look. But those wanting to shed light on more recent events or discoveries recorded online could be in trouble.
Digital literature, online scientific research and internet journalism that should have been saved in the nation's main libraries over the past five years may have been lost because ministers have failed to give them the legal power to copy and archive websites.


Toward global measurement of the information society: a U.S.-China comparison of national government surveys

From the First Monday website

To be global, digital and inclusive, we need comparable measures of ICT use around the world. To contribute to this, this research note analyses what questions the Chinese and the U.S. governments ask in their large, long–running surveys on the topic of computer and Internet use. The process and content of these surveys point up agreements, differences, and silences. Based on this, we propose nine basic questions that can be standardised and used in all country surveys of ICT use to create a coherent global dataset.


System and Network Security Acronyms and Abbreviations (Note: PDF)

From the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) website

NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) hopes to bring some order to the sometimes inconsistent and often confusing world of IT (information technology) acronyms and abbreviations by publishing a glossary of commonly used terms. “System and Network Security Acronyms and Abbreviations,” runs the alphabetical gamut from A (address resource record type) to ZSK (zone signing key).
The capitalisation, spelling and definitions of acronyms and abbreviations frequently vary among publications,” the report states. Some abbreviations, such as WWW, have a universally recognized meaning, while others have multiple definitions. For instance, MAC can stand for mandatory access control, Media Access Control, Medium Access Control or message authentication code. Others might contain an internal logic but can be confusing at first glance. For instance, Triple DES (Data Encryption Standard) is often abbreviated as 3DES.


Global Research Report: India. Research and collaboration in the new geography of science (Note: PDF)

From the Thomson Reuters website

This report is part of a series launched by Thomson Reuters to inform policymakers about the changing landscape and dynamics of the global research base.
India is building on its vast resources and potential in becoming a lead economic power. Underpinning the realisation of that economic potential will be a significant expansion in its ability to generate and exploit its knowledge resources through research and the related skills of its workforce. The growth of knowledge and innovation capacity in the BRIC is already impacting on the global research system.


Using a Permanent Usability Team to advance user-centered design in libraries

From the Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship website

Usability, user studies, and evaluating user experiences have been a part of academic libraries for many years. In the last 20 years libraries have created ad hoc usability teams to do user studies. Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries started its ongoing team in 2006, resulting in an increased focus on user experience throughout the libraries. This article explores the team’s history from formation to the work it took on. The merits and challenges usability teams bring to an organisation are also discussed. To date the literature describes usability methods and shares findings from libraries’ usability studies but none discuss the benefits a standing usability team brings to a library organisation or the work it may do.

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

Introducing The Source

What to withdraw: Print collections management in the wake of digitization (Note: PDF)

From the Ithaka S+R website

As journals are increasingly accessed in digitised form, many libraries have grown interested in de-accessioning little-used print originals; but desires to re-purpose space often come into conflict with concerns about preservation. This paper analyses which types of journals can be withdrawn responsibly today and how that set of materials can be expanded to allow libraries the maximum possible flexibility and savings in the future.
This report is intended to allow libraries to redeploy the resources devoted to print collections management to special collections, digital collections, or new services.


Defining “Non-commercial”: A study of how the online population understands “Non-commercial Use” (Note: PDF)

From the Creative Commons website

In 2008-09, Creative Commons commissioned a study from a professional market research firm to explore understandings of the terms “commercial use” and “non-commercial use” among Internet users when used in the context of content found online. The study was comprised of two components – an empirical study of understandings of Internet users in the United States, and an informal study for comparison purposes of a broader, worldwide group of Internet users consisting of those generally more familiar with CC but not taking part in the empirical survey (dubbed “Creative Commons Friends and Family” or “CCFF”). The primary objectives of the study were two-fold:
1) to survey variations in the general online population’s understanding of the terms “commercial use” and “non-commercial use,” when used in the context of the wide variety of copyrighted works and content made available on the Internet
2) to provide information and analysis that would be useful to Creative Commons and to others in understanding the points of connection and potential disconnection between creators and users of works licensed under Creative Commons non-commercial, or “NC,” licenses or other public copyright licenses prohibiting commercial use.


JPEG 2000 as a Preservation and Access Format for the Wellcome Trust Digital Library

From the Wellcome Library website

JPEG2000 is a relatively new image file format, created by the JPEG Committee in 2000. JPEG2000, despite its name, is not a JPEG format, but utilises a clever compression technology that maximises quality while minimizing file sizes.
Seeking to determine exactly which JPEG2000 format to use to meet the aims of long-term storage and accessible delivery services, the Wellcome Library commissioned a report by Simon Tanner, Director of King's Consultancy Service (KDCS). The report was written in conjunction with Robert Buckley of Xerox Corporation, an expert in the technical specifications of the JPEG2000 format.


National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (Note: PDF)

From the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) website

The NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests are conducted in May each year for all students across Australia in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. All students in the same year level are assessed on the same test items in the assessment domains of Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy.
Each year, over one million students nationally sit the NAPLAN tests, providing students, parents, teachers, schools and school systems with important information about the literacy and numeracy achievements of students.


Libraries of the Future

From the Inside Higher Ed website

The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas. That's what Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning and programs at the University of California System, told a room full of university librarians at Baruch College of City University of New York, where the higher education technology group Ithaka held a meeting to discuss "sustainable scholarship."


Going Mobile: How publishers are preparing for the burgeoning digital market (Note: PDF)

From the Audit Bureau of Circulations website

The proliferation of mobile devices in our culture is hardly a surprise to anyone walking down city streets, drinking coffee at a corner café or observing the driver sitting next to you in traffic. The Audit Bureau of Circulations and its digital subsidiary, ABC Interactive, recently conducted an online survey of our print publisher members to learn more about current mobile initiatives and plans, and the impact of mobile on their business models. The survey results provide an early stage snapshot of the activities taking place in and around the mobile market as both publishers and buyers focus their attention on this burgeoning space.


Communicating knowledge: How and why UK researchers publish and disseminate their findings (Note: PDF)

From the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) website

This report, published by the Research Information Network (RIN) and JISC, shows how researchers are concerned by what they perceive as mixed messages about the channels they should use to communicate their research findings. The report highlights the need for more consistent and effective guidance from funders and higher educational institutions. If they wish to encourage researchers to disseminate their work through a variety of channels as well as in high-status journals, they must give stronger and more positive messages about how those channels will be valued when it comes to assessing researchers' performance they must give stronger and more positive messages about how those channels will be valued when it comes to assessing researchers' performance.