October 2004 - LIS-Forum - ncsi.iisc.ernet.in

Google Access to Books
by B Sreeharsha 07 Oct '04

07 Oct '04

Sorry for cross-posting, if any Hello all, Here is a new development from major search engine - Google. The Company made an important announcement yesterday about tying up with publishers in making information available on books, manuals, reports online and searchable. It is something like this: Google will negotiate with publishers to scan the content pages of books and make online. If a book contains the info about the keyword given by the user the book as well as the link will be displayed. And the user will find the content page of the book. If they find worth buying they can purchase them online. This is the same business Amazon started some time ago. And this time Google is trying. Ultimately we are the beneficials :-) Thanks Sreeharsha BG Novell Software Development India Pvt. Ltd AM Industrial Area #49/1 & 49/3, 7th Mile, Hosur Road, Garvebhavi paly Road, Bangalore - 560 068 INDIA Phone: 91-80-25731856 E 2000 Visit us @ www.novell.com =================================================================== Google Print Expands Access to Books with Digitization Offer to All Publishers by Barbara QuintWondering how Google planned to spend all those lovely new IPO dollars? Well, some of them will apparently go straight into expanding content initiatives that have already begun. Late last December we covered the launch of the Google Print program ("Google Beta Tests Book Search Service," http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb031222-2.shtml). Today, Oct. 6, Google has announced a major expansion of the program. Instead of limiting the program to digitally formatted extracts and descriptive material contributed by selected publishers, the expanded Google Print program now offers to digitize any and all books contributed by any and all book publishers. The company regards this as "an important step in [its] ongoing efforts to make offline information such as books and other printed matter materials searchable online." Most important for publishers and prospective readers alike, the presentation of bookish search results will appear at the top of result displays, accompanied by links to major online booksellers. Participating publishers will even get a share of the ad revenue Google expects to garner from ads attached to book result displays. The scanning of print books and addition to Google's search index will cost publishers nothing. Clearly Google will retain ownership of the scanned version of the texts. A representative indicated that the company has no plans at present to share the digitized copies with publishers or any Google partners or affiliates. Publishers and Google users can find more information on the program at http://print.google.com; publishers can sign up online at http://print.google.com/publisher. Any publisher with an ISBN identification is eligible. Additional information (e.g., tax identification number, payment routes, etc.) may be needed to set up the revenue flow from Google's AdWords program, which attaches contextually relevant and relatively unobtrusive ads to the displays of book content. A current restriction to English-language content should be dropped in 2005 as Google Print expands to foreign language content. The new expanded Google Print program has dramatically changed the presentation of results. The old program merged retrieved book information into the general, overall display of results. Unless searchers designed search strategies to use the particular syntax to limit retrieval to book information (e.g., "searchterm site:print.google.com inurl:isbn"), the results might not rise to a practical visibility level. Now, whenever a book contains content that matches search terms, Google will display a special box linking to book results. Users can click on the book title to go to a content page that highlights search terms in the text and displays other information about the book. Browsing at that point may include back and forth to a few nearby pages as well as additional topics. Publishers' interests have been protected, according to Susan Wojcicki, director of product management at Google. The display of digitized results will not allow copying or printing of a page. "It's not like a Word document. It's an image, not text. The goal is to let users see if they would like to read the book and buy it." While Google does not publish a complete list of publishers participating in the program, it already has agreements in place with Penguin, Wiley, Hyperion, Pearson, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge, Chicago, Oxford, Princeton, Scholastic, Springer, Houghton Mifflin, Thomson Delmar, Blackwell, Perseus, and others. According to Wojcicki, publishers may designate how many and which books from their inventories they want digitized. A clickable link called "Buy the Book" will connect users to four or five options: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Booksense.com (the American Booksellers Association's program linking to the inventories of independent bookstores in America), Froogle (Google's shopping-for-anything service), and an optional link to publishers that sell direct. Wojcicki told us that publishers may not designate their favorite outlets, only direct ordering. However, Google also offers to include a link to publisher Web sites on each book display. Publishers will receive special reports and have a Web location for managing their Google Print accounts, e.g., tracking ad earnings and viewing usage information. Google has just begun to integrate a limited number of books into its database. They have not set the final syntax for reaching books. At press time, I was told "book about Shakespeare" should work to reach a sample book result, but, according to Wojcicki, the syntax could change to "book on." For the immediate future, according to Wojcicki, the expanded Google Print program is focused on digitizing printed books. However, she indicated that it may expand to digital formats of full-text books too. For example, she said Google might like to work with netLibrary's collection of e-books*"anything that would give publishers an opportunity to sell more books and connect our readers and users with books." One connection with books that could help readers might be to connect them to books stored in nearby library collections. Google already has an ongoing relationship with OCLC's Open WorldCat database of library holdings for popular books. Expanding the online links in book results to all of WorldCat seems a logical route for the company that "does no evil." When I suggested it, Wojcicki said it was something they might consider if users seem interested. Google Print might hold particular interest for one party*Amazon. The "Search Inside the Book" program at Amazon reportedly includes some 120,000 books. However, Google's willingness to accept any and all contributions from any and all publishers could challenge Amazon's collection in time, particularly as Amazon has dropped many smaller publishers from its operations. On the other hand, Amazon's privileged position as one of the few "Buy the Book" options connected to the new program might placate competitive fears. Or, could Amazon hope to share the digitized data flow in time? At this point, a Google representative indicated the company had no plans in place to license the data to partners, although he did indicate that they usually will work with partners in time, after they have first tested new services on their own properties. Clearly only time will tell how successful the program will be. As Gary Price of ResourceShelf and Searcher magazine's Webmastery column said, "Maybe I'm getting cynical with the reduction of hair on the top of my head, but, as with all things Google and all things Yahoo!, one has to give 6 to 7 months to see if it succeeds. Nevertheless, this is useful material. I'm particularly watching to see how long it takes to get books from small publishers into the program." =================================================================== Sorry for cross-posting, if any Hello all, Here is a new development from major search engine - Google. The Company made an important announcement yesterday about tying up with publishers in making information available on books, manuals, reports online and searchable. It is something like this: Google will negotiate with publishers to scan the content pages of books and make online. If a book contains the info about the keyword given by the user the book as well as the link will be displayed. And the user will find the content page of the book. If they find worth buying they can purchase them online. This is the same business Amazon started some time ago. And this time Google is trying. Ultimately we are the beneficials :-) Thanks Sreeharsha BG Novell Software Development India Pvt. Ltd AM Industrial Area #49/1 & 49/3, 7th Mile, Hosur Road, Garvebhavi paly Road, Bangalore - 560 068 INDIA Phone: 91-80-25731856 E 2000 Visit us @ http://www.novell.com/ www.novell.com =================================================================== Google Print Expands Access to Books with Digitization Offer to All Publishers by Barbara Quint Wondering how Google planned to spend all those lovely new IPO dollars? Well, some of them will apparently go straight into expanding content initiatives that have already begun. Late last December we covered the launch of the Google Print program (Google Beta Tests Book Search Service, http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb031222-2.shtml http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb031222-2.shtml ). Today, Oct. 6, Google has announced a major expansion of the program. Instead of limiting the program to digitally formatted extracts and descriptive material contributed by selected publishers, the expanded Google Print program now offers to digitize any and all books contributed by any and all book publishers. The company regards this as an important step in [its] ongoing efforts to make offline information such as books and other printed matter materials searchable online. Most important for publishers and prospective readers alike, the presentation of bookish search results will appear at the top of result displays, accompanied by links to major online booksellers. Participating publishers will even get a share of the ad revenue Google expects to garner from ads attached to book result displays. The scanning of print books and addition to Googles search index will cost publishers nothing. Clearly Google will retain ownership of the scanned version of the texts. A representative indicated that the company has no plans at present to share the digitized copies with publishers or any Google partners or affiliates. Publishers and Google users can find more information on the program at http://print.google.com/ http://print.google.com ; publishers can sign up online at http://print.google.com/publisher http://print.google.com/publisher . Any publisher with an ISBN identification is eligible. Additional information (e.g., tax identification number, payment routes, etc.) may be needed to set up the revenue flow from Googles AdWords program, which attaches contextually relevant and relatively unobtrusive ads to the displays of book content. A current restriction to English-language content should be dropped in 2005 as Google Print expands to foreign language content. The new expanded Google Print program has dramatically changed the presentation of results. The old program merged retrieved book information into the general, overall display of results. Unless searchers designed search strategies to use the particular syntax to limit retrieval to book information (e.g., searchterm site:print.google.com inurl:isbn), the results might not rise to a practical visibility level. Now, whenever a book contains content that matches search terms, Google will display a special box linking to book results. Users can click on the book title to go to a content page that highlights search terms in the text and displays other information about the book. Browsing at that point may include back and forth to a few nearby pages as well as additional topics. Publishers interests have been protected, according to Susan Wojcicki, director of product management at Google. The display of digitized results will not allow copying or printing of a page. Its not like a Word document. Its an image, not text. The goal is to let users see if they would like to read the book and buy it. While Google does not publish a complete list of publishers participating in the program, it already has agreements in place with Penguin, Wiley, Hyperion, Pearson, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge, Chicago, Oxford, Princeton, Scholastic, Springer, Houghton Mifflin, Thomson Delmar, Blackwell, Perseus, and others. According to Wojcicki, publishers may designate how many and which books from their inventories they want digitized. A clickable link called Buy the Book will connect users to four or five options: Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Booksense.com (the American Booksellers Associations program linking to the inventories of independent bookstores in America), Froogle (Googles shopping-for-anything service), and an optional link to publishers that sell direct. Wojcicki told us that publishers may not designate their favorite outlets, only direct ordering. However, Google also offers to include a link to publisher Web sites on each book display. Publishers will receive special reports and have a Web location for managing their Google Print accounts, e.g., tracking ad earnings and viewing usage information. Google has just begun to integrate a limited number of books into its database. They have not set the final syntax for reaching books. At press time, I was told book about Shakespeare should work to reach a sample book result, but, according to Wojcicki, the syntax could change to book on. For the immediate future, according to Wojcicki, the expanded Google Print program is focused on digitizing printed books. However, she indicated that it may expand to digital formats of full-text books too. For example, she said Google might like to work with netLibrarys collection of e-booksanything that would give publishers an opportunity to sell more books and connect our readers and users with books. One connection with books that could help readers might be to connect them to books stored in nearby library collections. Google already has an ongoing relationship with OCLCs Open WorldCat database of library holdings for popular books. Expanding the online links in book results to all of WorldCat seems a logical route for the company that does no evil. When I suggested it, Wojcicki said it was something they might consider if users seem interested. Google Print might hold particular interest for one partyAmazon. The Search Inside the Book program at Amazon reportedly includes some 120,000 books. However, Googles willingness to accept any and all contributions from any and all publishers could challenge Amazons collection in time, particularly as Amazon has dropped many smaller publishers from its operations. On the other hand, Amazons privileged position as one of the few Buy the Book options connected to the new program might placate competitive fears. Or, could Amazon hope to share the digitized data flow in time? At this point, a Google representative indicated the company had no plans in place to license the data to partners, although he did indicate that they usually will work with partners in time, after they have first tested new services on their own properties. Clearly only time will tell how successful the program will be. As Gary Price of ResourceShelf and Searcher magazines Webmastery column said, Maybe Im getting cynical with the reduction of hair on the top of my head, but, as with all things Google and all things Yahoo!, one has to give 6 to 7 months to see if it succeeds. Nevertheless, this is useful material. Im particularly watching to see how long it takes to get books from small publishers into the program. ===================================================================

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InfoWatch September 2004
by M.R Lalitha 07 Oct '04

07 Oct '04

Dear LIS-Forum member, The September 2004 issue of InfoWatch is now online, bringing you details of new Internet sites related to Science and Engineering. You can access the complete issue on the NCSI Web server at the URL : http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/infowatch/iw.php You will also find earlier issues of InfoWatch here. For your convenience, the table of contents is given below. If you wish to be on the mailing list of InfoWatch to receive the complete issue by e-mail, let us know. Also mention your format preference - html or text. Regards -Lalitha M.R lalitha(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in ------------------------------------------------------------------------ InfoWatch Tracking Networked Scientific Information Sources and Services (An electronic update service brought to you by NCSI) Sep 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In This Issue: 1. AQUASTAT [FAO's global information system of water and agriculture] 2. Code project - Free source codes and tutorials 3. Connexions - Sharing knowledge and building communities 4. ECDYBASE [A free online database of ecdysteroids] 5. Electronic notebook [Software for electronic equivalent of a paper research notebook] 6. EMF resources and information [An information source for electromagnetic fields] 7. EServer TC library - A cooperative library for tech communicators [Technical communications and technical writing library] 8. Exposure assessment tools and models 9. JOELib - A Java based computational chemistry (cheminformatics) library 10. Laboratory control system for cold atom experiments - Hardware and software 11. LabVelocity.com [Web-based software and information service the life sciences community] 12. Nikon microscopyU [An exciting world of optics and microscopy] 13. Organic syntheses website [A website for experimental methods for the synthesis of organic compounds] 14. Perspectives on plasmas - The fourth state of matter 15. Principal metals glossary 16. ProNIT - Database of protein-nucleic acid interactions 17. RF avenue - RF and microwave resources directory 18. SGI - MLC++ [A library of C++ classes for machine learning] 19. T-Coffee - A web server for mixing sequences and structures into multiple sequence alignments 20. The Surface mount device code book ------------------------------------------------------------------------ About InfoWatch : InfoWatch is a monthly electronic newsletter, brought out by the National Centre for Science Information (NCSI) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore - 560 012, INDIA. Information in the newsletter is collected and verified by NCSI staff. The newsletter aims to raise awareness of new sources of information on the Internet, particularly those which are relevant for higher education and research. Some items may be of relevance only to the IISc community.Resources reported here have been taken from various discussion lists and other network tools and no special claims are made for accuracy or originality. Most of the sources cited in the newsletter were checked at the time of publication, however it is possible that some of the resources are no longer available. We welcome comments about the newsletter and suggestions for resources to be featured. Please e-mail your comments to InfoWatch editors: Ms. K. Thulasi (thulasi(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in) & Ms. M. R. Lalitha (lalitha(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in) ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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vacany in our Information Center
by Mailing List Manager 07 Oct '04

07 Oct '04

From: Vijayakumar T [mailto:TVIJAYAKUMAR@novell.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 10:21 AM Hi I have a vacany in our Information Center. The post is on contract basis. Salary is dependent on Qualification and Experience. I expect the person to know usage of Libsys and Web Publishing thoroughly. Apart from this person should be familiar with MS Office, Powerpoint, Web Based searches etc. If you have any candidate pl req him/her to forward the resume to me at my email id. Person is expected to join by 22 Oct 04 Thanks Vijay

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i need information about all mba colleges in india
by shashi kumar 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Dear sir, Iam the student of MLISc in Dept. of Library and Information Science,University of Mysore,Manasagangothri,Mysore.Iam doing my academic project about creation of database of all MBA colleges in india.So I need information about a list of MBA colleges in india.Already anybady created a database on this topic or if you have any information or references relating to this topic please give me. Thanking you, yours shashi Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline. Dear sir, Iam the student of MLISc in Dept. of Library and Information Science,University of Mysore,Manasagangothri,Mysore.Iam doing my academic project about creation of database of all MBA colleges in india.S o I need information about a list of MBA colleges in india.Already anybady created a database on this topic or if you have any information or references relating to this topic please give me. Thanking you, yours shashi http://in.rd.yahoo.com/specials/mailtg/*http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matri… Yahoo! India Matrimony : Find your life partner http://in.rd.yahoo.com/specials/mailtg2/*http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matr… online .

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New Search Engine Tools From Yahoo
by Farooque Shaheen 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Yahoo Inc. is adding new search engine tools that will enable users to create personal folders and share their favorite links with others. http://next.yahoo.com. With the new tools, Yahoo's search engine users will be able to sort and save their search results into distinct categories. Visitors also will be able to record personal notes about the saved sites. Thanks & Regards, Farooque Shaheen, Sr. Executive- Information Services Caritor (India) Pvt Ltd. Bangalore, Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105 Mobile-080-34007449

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Subject: E-Books for Metals & Metallurgy
by Mailing List Manager 06 Oct '04

06 Oct '04

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 03:13:45 +0100 (BST) From: Prof. N. Laxman Rao. <naglaxman(a)yahoo.com> This is an announcement from Knovel Corporation regarding 'Free trial access to Knovel Metals & Metallurgy E-Books and Databases for the Metals Industry. As someone with an interest in metals and metallurgy, we would like to introduce you to an online interactive library of leading reference books and databases on metals from publishers including Wiley, Springer, McGraw- Hill, NACE, ASME, and Elsevier. What distinguishes Knovel's collection of dependable and authoritative content are the analytical tools that are integrated with the content. Our interactive tables, graphs, charts and more allow for easy and accurate material comparison and selection, evaluation of multipoint properties, analysis of phase diagrams, and much more. Through the end of October, we are offering free access to our entire Metals & Metallurgy collection. To learn more about our Metals & Metallurgy collection and to request a month of free access, visit: www.info.knovel.com/metals. Sincerely, Knovel Corporation 30 Main Street, Ste. 402 Danbury, CT 06810 Toll Free (U.S.): 1-866-303-3336 Tel: 1-203-748-6066 sales(a)knovel.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS). Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) 9246547599 (Mobile) e:mail-- naglaxman(a)yahoo.com OR naglaxman(a)indiatimes.com

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management of digital sources- one day seminar report
by Prof. N. Laxman Rao. 05 Oct '04

05 Oct '04

dear friends Osmania univerrsity in colooboration with ICSSR AND USEFI had organised a one day seminar on MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL SOURCES on 30 sept 2004. the report of the seminar is given below thanks laxman rao ------------------------------------- One-day Seminar on Management of Digital Resource organized by Department of Library and Information Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad in collaboration with USEFI and ICSSR Southern Regional Centre on 30th September 2004 A Report The Inaugural function started at 10.30 am . Dr J Yadagiri Reddy (Head, Dept of Library Science) invited the chief guest, Sri Girish Sanghi (M.P., Rajya Sabha & Managing Editor, Vaartha group), president Dr Mutha Reddy (Registrar, Osmania University) and Dr David F. Kohl (Senior Fulbright specialist, University of Cincinnati, United States). Prof. N. Laxman Rao, Seminar Director, while introducing the theme of the Seminar observed that technology has brought the information sources and the users closer. On other hand the role of the library has reduced in getting information. Since the information is available in different forms and formats, there is an urgent need to understand the digital resources and their management and the seminar is intended to focus in this direction. Dr V.Vishwa Mohan (Associate Professor, DLIS, Osmania University) introduced the guests. Dr. Kohl and Sri Sanghi addressed the gathering. Sri Sanghi observed that the Government has initiated action on an ambitious project to provide broadband connectivity to village level with 100,000 crores of rupees. We have no dearth of knowledge and expertise. The country had glorious history and culture. We have given to the world a lot of things including languages, arithmetic, vedic arithmetic, and many more things. Creative and thought provoking Indians spread from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. However, due to foreign rule there was a break. He argued need for the specialists from the developed countries like USA. These experts will be able to share their experiences. Further he also said that we have to revive our research activity on indigenous systems. On the technology side there has been a sea change in our communication systems. The satellite technology has been increased the capac! ity of our transponders four-fold from analogous to digital. Prof. David Kohl, Fullbrigt Scholarin his address explained the digital information sources and their impact on the libraries. He also said that we need to study various issues relating to management of the Digital sources in the libraries. The digital sources also provide wonderful opportunities to provide quality service. He also stressed the need for sharing the experiences among the LIS professionals on management of the digital sources. Dr Mutha Reddy, in his presidential address remarked that the information and the resources are vast and the searching them on Internet is too tedious and time consuming many times. Therefore, there is a need to take up serious research to focus on information searching and retrieval. The Inaugural function ended with presentation of mementos to the dignitaries and vote of thanks by Dr. S. Sudarshan Rao (Associate Professor, DLIS). Technical Sessions The session started with a power point presentation by Dr. David F Kohl on Management of Digital Resources: Tasks Remaining, Tasks Ahead. He observed that talking about all the issues of digital information is an impossible task and it is like overloading the horse cart. There are two issues that are particularly important one is an old issue that we are in danger of giving up on archiving; and the other is a new issue that we are in danger of ignoring non-text data. Archiving digital information is an increasingly welcome problem. But mounting financial pressures are encouraging libraries to leap without looking. Libraries are offered 10% reduction in subscription costs if the print is cancelled. Libraries are bound to acquire digital collections, which they do not physically house them. Dr Kohl observed that there are three dimensions of possible loss of digital resources and there is a need to protect them against catastrophic failure, legal failure and operational failure. Though electronic information is available everywhere, anytime, however, it may be available nowhere, forever due to destruction of a publisher or vendor site due to catastrophies like lightening strike, power surge, computer virus, human mistakes, etc. There are two solutions to this: maintaining Dark Archives and LOCKSS (Lots of copies keeps stuff safe). Tackling Licensing failure requires librarys initiatives, while operational failure could be through proper service contracts and their renewal. Besides problems, the digital world has provided wonderful opportunities with audio and visuals. Access to images in digital form could be an important instructional and research tool. Images of political meetings, adventures, mythological themes, city plans, building architectures, laboratory sessions, etc. in digital formats pose a problem of their distribution to their users. They require sophisticated and technical infrastructures. It could be tackled, if the university libraries are provided infrastructure and the government provided the data. Now the librarys mission is not only preserving the past, but also exploring the future. After the Lunch break, the Technical Session-2 started with the power point presentation by Dr Devika (DRTC, Bangalore), who is also a fullbright scholar on Dspace An introduction. She argued that there is a need for supporting the open source movement and in this direction the DRTC is encouraging the use of digital object management systems like Greenstone, Eprints, Fedora and Dspace. The Dspace Digital Library System is a joint project of MIT Libraries and HP Labs. It helps create, index and retrieve various forms of digital content. Using Dspace DRTC has created a Digital Library. It is Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). The DRTC LDL is an institutional as well as community repository for library and information science community. DRTC Digital Library Repository consists of three main communities of collections: 1) Digital Library of Library and Information Science, which includes the DRTC Seminar volumes, articles by LIS professionals, theses/dissertations, ppt , etc., 2) DL in Indian Languages demo site of multilingual documents and Down the Memory lane a collection of Prof. Ranganathans photographs. DRTC LDL is available at https://drtc.isibang.ac.in. The Post-Tea session was a Panel Discussion. The Panel consisting of Dr. David F Kohl, Mr.P.Divakar, Dr.Devika and Prof.N. Laxman Rao. Prof. Laxman Rao started the discussion by enumerating the current developments in digital resources - data mining tools, social publishing, internet, email usage, exploitation of publishers for document delivery services, cellular communication, etc. Mr Divakar traced the evolution from print medium to digital resources and observed that the role of librarian as intermediary is fading in the digital era. Librarians are forced to develop skills of bargaining and negotiation in order to acquire digital resources and manage consortia. Dr Kohl observed that there is too much of information in the hands users and users have to validate information and evaluate its sources before making use of it. Dr. Devika reiterated the need for evaluating the information sources. From the participants side Mr D Madhusudhana Rao raised the problems of organizin! g the web resources, especially downloaded articles. About 110 participated in this program. This program was covered by Doordarshn and other newspapers. This program was also shown on Sunday and Monday 3 & 4 October 2004. Dr. Sudarshan Rao, Associate Professor proposed formal vote of thanks. He said that but for USEFI support this program would not have been possible. The USEFI had given a wonderful opportunity to organize such a program, because of which the professionals could get an opportunity to gain the knowledge. He also proposed thanks to ICSSR and all others who gave their support in making this program a success. Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS). Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) 9246547599 (Mobile) e:mail-- naglaxman(a)yahoo.com OR naglaxman(a)indiatimes.com --------------------------------- ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! dear friends Osmania univerrsity in colooboration with ICSSR AND USEFI had organised a one day seminar on MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL SOURCES on 30 sept 2004. the report of the seminar is given below thanks laxman rao ------------------------------------- One-day Seminar on Management of Digital Resource organized by Department of Library and Information Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad in collaboration with USEFI and ICSSR Southern Regional Centre on 30 th September 2004 A Report The Inaugural function started at 10.30 am . Dr J Yadagiri Reddy (Head, Dept of Library Science) invited the chief guest, Sri Girish Sanghi (M.P., Rajya Sabha & Managing Editor, Vaartha group), president Dr Mutha Reddy (Registrar, Osmania University ) and Dr David F. Kohl (Senior Fulbright specialist, University of Cincinnati , United States ). Prof. N. Laxman Rao, Seminar Director, while introducing the theme of the Seminar observed that technology has brought the information sources and the users closer. On other hand the role of the library has reduced in getting information. Since the information is available in different forms and formats, there is an urgent need to understand the digital resources and their management and the seminar is intended to focus in this direction. Dr V.Vishwa Mohan (Associate Professor, DLIS, Osmania University ) introduced the guests. Dr. Kohl and Sri Sanghi addressed the gathering. Sri Sanghi observed that the Government has initiated action on an ambitious project to provide broadband connectivity to village level with 100,000 crores of rupees. We have no dearth of knowledge and expertise. The country had glorious history and culture. We have given to the world a lot of things including languages, arithmetic, vedic arithmetic, and many more things. Creative and thought provoking Indians spread from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. However, due to foreign rule there was a break. He argued need for the specialists from the developed co! untries like USA . These experts will be able to share their experiences. Further he also said that we have to revive our research activity on indigenous systems. On the technology side there has been a sea change in our communication systems. The satellite technology has been increased the capacity of our transponders four-fold from analogous to digital. Prof. David Kohl, Fullbrigt Scholarin his address explained the digital information sources and their impact on the libraries. He also said that we need to study various issues relating to management of the Digital sources in the libraries. The digital sources also provide wonderful opportunities to provide quality service. He also stressed the need for sharing the experiences among the LIS professionals on management of the digital sources. Dr Mutha Reddy, in his presidential address remarked that the information and the resources are vast and the searching them on Internet is too tedious and time consuming many times. Therefore, there is a need to take up serious research to focus on information searching and retrieval. The Inaugural function ended with presentation of mementos to the dignitaries and vote of thanks by Dr. S. Sudarshan Rao (Associate Professor, DLIS). Technical Sessions The session started with a power point presentation by Dr. David F Kohl on Management of Digital Resources: Tasks Remaining, Tasks Ahead. He observed that talking about all the issues of digital information is an impossible task and it is like overloading the horse cart. There are two issues that are particularly important one is an old issue that we are in danger of giving up on archiving; and the other is a new issue that we are in danger of ignoring non-text data. Archiving digital information is an increasingly welcome problem. But mounting financial pressures are encouraging libraries to leap without looking. Libraries are offered 10% reduction in subscription costs if the print is cancelled. Libraries are bound to acquire digital collections, which they do not physically! house them. Dr Kohl observed that there are three dimensions of possible loss of digital resources and there is a need to protect them against catastrophic failure, legal failure and operational failure. Though electronic information is available everywhere, anytime, however, it may be available nowhere, forever due to destruction of a publisher or vendor site due to catastrophies like lightening strike, power surge, computer virus, human mistakes, etc. There are two solutions to this: maintaining Dark Archives and LOCKSS (Lots of copies keeps stuff safe). Tackling Licensing failure requires librarys initiatives, while operational failure could be through proper service contracts and their renewal. Besides problems, the digital world has provided wonderful opportunities with audio and visuals. Access to images in digital form could be an important instructional and research tool. Images of political meetings, adventures, mythological themes, city plans, building architectures, laboratory sessions, etc. in digital formats pose a problem of their distribution to their users. They require sophisticated and technical infrastructures. It could be tackled, if the university libraries are provided infrastructure and the government provided the data. Now the librarys mission is not only preserving the past, but also exploring the future. After the Lunch break, the Technical Session-2 started with the power point presentation by Dr Devika (DRTC, Bangalore ), who is also a fullbright scholar on Dspace An introduction . She argued that there is a need for supporting the open source movement and in this direction the DRTC is encouraging the use of digital object management systems like Greenstone, Eprints, Fedora and Dspace. The Dspace Digital Library System is a joint project of MIT Libraries and HP Labs. It helps create, index and retrieve various forms of digital content. Using Dspace DRTC has created a Digital Library. It is Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). The DRTC LDL is an institutional as well as community repository for library and information science community. DRTC Digital Library Repository consists of three main communities of collections: 1) Digital Library of Library and Information Science, which includes the DRTC Seminar volumes, articles by LIS professionals, theses/dissertations, ppt , etc., 2) DL in Indian Languages demo site of multilingual documents and Down the Memory lane a collection of Prof. Ranganathans photographs. DRTC LDL is available at https://drtc.isibang.ac.in. The Post-Tea session was a Panel Discussion. The Panel consisting of Dr. David F Kohl, Mr.P.Divakar, Dr.Devika and Prof.N. Laxman Rao. Prof. Laxman Rao started the discussion by enumerating the current developments in digital resources - data mining tools, social publishing, internet, email usage, exploitation of publishers for document delivery services, cellular communication, etc. Mr Divakar traced the evolution from print medium to digital resources and observed that the role of librarian as intermediary is fading in the digital era. Librarians are forced to develop skills of bargaining and negotiation in order to acquire digital resources and manage consortia. Dr Kohl observed that there is too much of information in the hands users and users have to validate information and evaluate its sources before making use of it. Dr. Devika reiterated the need for evaluating the information sources. From the participants side Mr D Madhusudhana Rao raised the problems of organizing the web resources, especially downloaded articles. About 110 participated in this program. This program was covered by Doordarshn and other newspapers. This program was also shown on Sunday and Monday 3 & 4 October 2004. Dr. Sudarshan Rao, Associate Professor proposed formal vote of thanks. He said that but for USEFI support this program would not have been possible. The USEFI had given a wonderful opportunity to organize such a program, because of which the professionals could get an opportunity to gain the knowledge. He also proposed thanks to ICSSR and all others who gave their support in making this program a success. Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS). Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) 9246547599 (Mobile) e:mail-- naglaxman(a)yahoo.com OR naglaxman(a)indiatimes.com http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=21626/*http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!

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DLIS-IATLIS ANNUAL LECTURE ON 29 SEPT 2004
by Prof. N. Laxman Rao. 05 Oct '04

05 Oct '04

DEAR FRIENDS PLEASE FIND THE REPORT OF THE DLIS-IATLIS ANNUAL LECTURE DELIVRED BY PRO.DAVID KOHL, UNIV OF CINCINNATI ON 29 SEPT 2004 AT OSMANIA UNIVERSITY, HYDERABAD LAXMAN RAO --------------------------------------------------- Report on the DLIS-IATLIS Annual Lecture (2004) The 2004 Annual Lecture of the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS), Osmania University and the Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science (IATLIS) was organised on the 29th September 2004 at the New Seminar Hall, University College of Arts and Social Sciences, Osmania University, Hyderabad. The formal function started with welcome remarks by Dr J.Yadagiri Reddy, Head, DLIS. He invited the dignitaries to the dais, welcomed the participants and requested Prof N. Laxman Rao to preside over and conduct the proceedings. The Chief Guest, Dr C.S.Rao (Advisor, Information Technology, Government of Andhra Pradesh) and the Speaker of the Day Dr David Kohl (Dean & University Librarian Emeritus, University of Cincinnati, USA) were offered flower bouquets by the Research Students of the Department. Prof Laxman Rao explained the significance of the Annual Lecture and how it was instituted. Dr S.Sudarshan Rao (Reader, DLIS) introduced Dr C.S.Rao and Dr David Kohl by reading our their career particulars and significant achievements. Dr C.S Rao in his address stressed the importance of Consortia for a developing country like India. He mentioned the proliferation of Engineering Colleges in South India and the need for resource sharing and formation of a consortium of Engineering College Libraries. He suggested that Union Catalogues be developed in machine-readable format for effective sharing of the resources. He was of the opinion that e-serials are necessary for fostering research and development culture in the engineering colleges. He gave an overview of the ambitious Andhra Pradesh Broadband network. Under the plan, 10 GBPS connectivity will be established between Hyderabad and all the district headquarters, 1 GBPS connectivity to all mandal headquarters and 1 MBPS connectivity to each village in the state. Dr Rao mentioned the contribution of the state of Andhra Pradesh to the Universal Digital Library project of the CMU, USA. So far 40,000 books have been digitized in A.P. while the figure for the! whole country stood at 60,000. The audience applauded this achievement. Dr David Kohl in his Power point presentation traced the history of the consortia development in north America. He mentioned the Farmington Plan, PL 480 and the initiatives of ARL and narrated the success stories of OCLC and Ohio-Link. He presented statistics on financial advantages, and the increased utilization of the resources. In spite of the advent of the digital media, paper based resources continue to flood the libraries in America and the issues of compact storage was discussed. Dr Kohl has presented visuals on the way less-used books and journals are stored in the Yale Depository. He also stressed the importance of theses in academic libraries and the work of the National Digital Library of Dissertations at Virginia Tech. He talked about the digitization of rare and special collections and shown some very interesting pictures of the Wright Brothers with their newly fabricated airplane, Mayan temple of birds, Slave pen etc. He concluded his lecture with the message ! teamwork solves problems and consortia are the librarys teams. Dr David Kohl was felicitated as per the Indian tradition with a shawl, flower garland and memento. The function ended with vote of thanks by Dr V.Vishwa Mohan, Reader DLIS. The support of the United States Educational Foundation in India was gratefully acknowledged in organizing this program. The initiatives of Dr Devika Madalli and Dr A.R.D.Prasad of DRTC, Bangalore in getting Dr David Kohl to Hyderabad was specially mentioned and appreciated. USEFI fellows also attended the program. The event, attended by 125 senior library professionals, teachers, and students from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad ended with high tea. This program was covered by the local TV and vernacular papers. Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS). Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) 9246547599 (Mobile) e:mail-- naglaxman(a)yahoo.com OR naglaxman(a)indiatimes.com --------------------------------- ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! DEAR FRIENDS PLEASE FIND THE REPORT OF THE DLIS-IATLIS ANNUAL LECTURE DELIVRED BY PRO.DAVID KOHL, UNIV OF CINCINNATI ON 29 SEPT 2004 AT OSMANIA UNIVERSITY, HYDERABAD LAXMAN RAO --------------------------------------------------- Report on the DLIS-IATLIS Annual Lecture (2004) The 2004 Annual Lecture of the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS), Osmania University and the Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science (IATLIS) was organised on the 29 th September 2004 at the New Seminar Hall, University College of Arts and Social Sciences, Osmania University , Hyderabad . The formal function started with welcome remarks by Dr J.Yadagiri Reddy, Head, DLIS. He invited the dignitaries to the dais, welcomed the participants and requested Prof N. Laxman Rao to preside over and conduct the proceedings. The Chief Guest, Dr C.S.Rao (Advisor, Information Technology, Government of Andhra Pradesh) and the Speaker of the Day Dr David Kohl (Dean & University Librarian Emeritus, University of Cincinnati , USA ) were offered flower bouquets by the Research Students of the Department. Prof Laxman Rao explained the significance of the Annual Lecture and how it was instituted. Dr S.Sudarshan Rao (Reader, DLIS) introdu! ced Dr C.S.Rao and Dr David Kohl by reading our their career particulars and significant achievements. Dr C.S Rao in his address stressed the importance of Consortia for a developing country like India . He mentioned the proliferation of Engineering Colleges in South India and the need for resource sharing and formation of a consortium of Engineering College Libraries. He suggested that Union Catalogues be developed in machine-readable format for effective sharing of the resources. He was of the opinion that e-serials are necessary for fostering research and development culture in the engineering colleges. He gave an overview of the ambitious Andhra Pradesh Broadband network. Under the plan, 10 GBPS connectivity will be established between Hyderabad and all the district headquarters, 1 GBPS connectivity to all mandal headquarters and 1 MBPS connectivity to each village in the state. Dr Rao mentioned the contribution of the state of Andhra Pradesh to the Universal Digital Library project of the CMU, USA . So far 40,000 books have been digitized in A.P. while the figure for the whole country stood at 60,000. The audience applauded this achievement. Dr David Kohl in his Power point presentation traced the history of the consortia development in north America . He mentioned the Farmington Plan, PL 480 and the initiatives of ARL and narrated the success stories of OCLC and Ohio-Link. He presented statistics on financial advantages, and the increased utilization of the resources. In spite of the advent of the digital media, paper based resources continue to flood the libraries in America and the issues of compact storage was discussed. Dr Kohl has presented visuals on the way less-used books and journals are stored in the Yale Depository. He also stressed the importance of theses in academic libraries and the work of the Nati! onal Digital Library of Dissertations at Virginia Tech. He talked about the digitization of rare and special collections and shown some very interesting pictures of the Wright Brothers with their newly fabricated airplane, Mayan temple of birds, Slave pen etc. He concluded his lecture with the message teamwork solves problems and consortia are the librarys teams. Dr David Kohl was felicitated as per the Indian tradition with a shawl, flower garland and memento. The function ended with vote of thanks by Dr V.Vishwa Mohan, Reader DLIS. The support of the United States Educational Foundation in India was gratefully acknowledged in organizing this program. The initiatives of Dr Devika Madalli and Dr A.R.D.Prasad of DRTC, Bangalore in getting Dr David Kohl to Hyderabad was specially mentioned and appreciated. USEFI fellows also attended the program. The event, attended by 125 senior library professionals, teachers, and students from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad ended with high tea. This program was covered by the local TV and vernacular papers. Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS). Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) 9246547599 (Mobile) e:mail-- naglaxman(a)yahoo.com OR naglaxman(a)indiatimes.com http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=21626/*http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!

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Canadian research librarians are going ahead with open archives
by Subbiah Arunachalam 05 Oct '04

05 Oct '04

My friend Heather Morrison says: "The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is aiming to develop institutional repositories at ALL Canadian university libraries. Different universities are at various stages of this development; some have repositories up and running, while others are still at the developmental stage. Details can be found at: http://www.carl-abrc.ca/frames_index.htm As an example of why this just plain makes sense for the university: at the Simon Fraser University Library (where BC Electronic Library Network is housed, and where I work), the Institutional Repository is still in project stage. Of the 4 first articles placed in the repository in the Library Community, two were articles published in journals that SFU does not subscribe to. These are not expensive journals, and the publishers are actually not against OA - they do allow self-archiving after all - it's just that no university can afford to subscribe to all the journals. By providing a copy to our institutional repository, then, we are making our work available to our own employer. In some cases, making our work openly accessible makes it more usable for the author as well. For example, now that one of my articles in in our institutional repository, I can send someone the URL to read my article without worrying about whether or not they have a subscription." ---- The Indian LIS professionals and library associations such as IASLIC, SIS, etc. will do well to follow the example of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and develop institutional repositories (or open access archives) in all higher educational and resaerch institutions. The Indian Institute of Science has an Eprints archive. All IITs, major universities, IIMs, NITs, government laboratories (under DAE, CSIR, DBT, ICAR, ICMR, Dept of Space, DRDO, etc.) should follow the example of IISc. The investments needed is minimal; most institutions have the necessary hardware and Internet connection; the entire software is free; training, if needed, can be arranged within India (there are experts like T B Rajashekar, A R D Prasad, and now D K sahu and M G Sree Kumar and several others); the most important thng is a willingness to go ahead and just do it. Please forward it to other lists of interest to Indian LIS professionals. Best wishes. Subbiah Arunachalam Canadian research librarians are going ahead with open archives My friend Heather Morrison says: "The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is aiming to develop institutional repositories at ALL Canadian university libraries. Different universities are at various stages of this development; some have repositories up and running, while others are still at the developmental stage. Details can be found at: http://www.carl-abrc.ca/frames_index.htm http://www.carl-abrc.ca/frames_index.htm As an example of why this just plain makes sense for the university: at the Simon Fraser University Library (where BC Electronic Library Network is housed, and where I work), the Institutional Repository is still in project stage. Of the 4 first articles placed in the repository in the Library Community, two were articles published in journals that SFU does not subscribe to. These are not expensive journals, and the publishers are actually not against OA - they do allow self-archiving after all - it's just that no university can afford to subscribe to all the journals. By providing a copy to our institutional repository, then, we are making our work available to our own employer. In some cases, making our work openly accessible makes it more usable for the author as well. For example, now that one of my articles in in our institutional repository, I can send someone the URL to read my article without worrying about whether or not they have a subscription." ---- The Indian LIS professionals and library associations such as IASLIC, SIS, etc. will do well to follow the example of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and develop institutional repositories (or open access archives) in all higher educational and resaerch institutions. The Indian Institute of Science has an Eprints archive. All IITs, major universities, IIMs, NITs, government laboratories (under DAE, CSIR, DBT, ICAR, ICMR, Dept of Space, DRDO, etc.) should follow the example of IISc. The investments needed is minimal; most institutions have the necessary hardware and Internet connection; the entire software is free; training, if needed, can be arranged within India (there are experts like T B Rajashekar, A R D Prasad, and now D K sahu and M G Sree Kumar and several others); the most important thng is a willingness to go ahead and just do it. Please forward it to other lists of interest to Indian LIS professionals. Best wishes. Subbiah Arunachalam

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FW: [BOAI] Re: Central versus institutional self-archiving (fwd)
by Subbiah Arunachalam 05 Oct '04

05 Oct '04

Here is a brief note from a discussion list explaining why institutional archiving is the best option and why funders and institutions should mandate such archiving. Hope you find this interesting and useful in the Indian context. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] Subject: Re: Central versus institutional self-archiving On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, [identity deleted] wrote: > While OAI compliance is a sine qua non condition of some measure of > inter-operability, it does not (yet?) ensure the kind of ease of > retrieval that other forms of archiving can provide, including some > form of central archiving. Ease-of-retrieval advantages are no more inherent in centralised archives than in any other type of open archive. Ease of retrieval is dependent upon the quality of article metadata, upon the functionality of the search engine used, and upon the retrieval skills of the inquirer (especially if fulltext is searched), and all of these are irrespective of where articles are archived. Our recent study, carried out in partnership with the Universities of Loughborough and Cranfield on behalf of JISC, produced a recommended model for the delivery, management and access of eprints (both pre- and post-prints)in UK further and higher education communities. We deliberated on the relative merits of central versus institutional archiving and came down firmly on the side of the latter. The reasons for this were several - both technical and cultural - and are set out in detail in our full report, which will be published by JISC within the few days [Swan,A., Needham, P., Probets, S., Muir, A., O'Brien, A., Oppenheim, C., Hardy, R., and Rowland, F (2004) Delivery, Management and Access Model for E-prints and Open Access Journals within Further and Higher Education]. (www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/E-prints_delivery_model.pdf) Here is a quote from the executive summary of our report: "This study identified three models for open access provision in the UK .... In considering the relative merits of these models, we addressed not only technical concerns but also how e-print provision (by authors) can be achieved, since without this content provision there can be no effective e-print delivery service (for users). For technical and cultural reasons, this study recommends that the centralised model should not be adopted for the proposed UK service. This would have been the costliest option and it would have omitted the growing body of content in distributed institutional, subject-based, and open-access journal archives. Moreover, the central archiving approach is the 'wrong way round' with respect to e-print provision since for reasons of academic and institutional culture and so long as effective measures are implemented, individual institution-based e-print archives are far more likely to fill (and fill quickly) than centralised archives, because institutions and researchers share a vested interested in the impact of their research output, and because institutions are in a position to mandate and monitor compliance, a position not enjoyed by centralised archives." One of the critical aspects of our decision was that any model for delivering eprints must operate in, and help to create, the arena most likely to provide the maximum amount of eprint material to deliver. Two things (only) have a bearing on this - archives being available for authors to use, and authors actually archiving their articles. >From the evidence we looked at - existing archives - it was clear to us that even when archives are available there is still precious little peer-reviewed material being deposited, ergo it is author behaviour that is at the very root of the matter. How may authors be 'encouraged' to self-archive? The evidence shows that whilst a carrot approach produces some success, 'encouragement' would best take the form of a stick - by someone, somewhere, mandating self-archiving. Why authors need such a mandate can be debated at length by those with the inclination for such things. The fact is that when there is a mandate by some authority that has clout, authors will comply. There are few examples of such mandates in operation as yet (though where they exist, they are working), but plenty of promise for those to come. KPL's recent, separate, study on open access publishing (also commissioned by JISC) produced clear evidence that authors have, in general and in principle, no objection to self-archiving and will comply with a mandate to do so from their employer or research funder. Our findings were that 77% of authors would comply with such a mandate. Only 3% said they would NOT comply. [Swan, A and Brown, S (2004) Report of the JISC/OSI journal authors survey. pp 1-76. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISCOAreport1.pdf; Swan, A and Brown, S (2004) Authors and open access publishing. Learned Publishing, 17 (3), 219-224. www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/Authors_and_open_access_publishi ng.pdf The recent government-level recommendations in the US and the UK on mandating self-archiving are therefore perfectly on target to address the issue most critical to open access provision. Scholars will self-archive if told to do so. Employers and research funders have the authority to do the telling, but they tell authors to do what, and which authors? Funders can only tell their grantees, but have the choice of telling them to deposit their articles in the funder's own archive if there is one, in some other centralised archive, or in the researcher's own institutional archive, or all of these. Employers can do all these too, but since they not only have shared goals with their researchers in respect of dissemination of research findings, but also see additional value in, and uses for, the content of an institutional archive, they are very likely to be eager to see it maximally populated and will insist on authors depositing there, at the very least. Moreover, they can mandate self-archiving across the board, including researchers who are not supported by external funding (a large number in many subject areas), and in EVERY scholarly discipline. This is a far more effective a route to comprehensive eprint provision than relying on funder mandates alone, and is much more likely to provide eprints in ALL disciplines relatively quickly than relying on the eventual establishment of centralised archives in all subject areas. Our conclusion was, then, that this scenario is the one most likely to provide the maximum level of archived content, a major plank of any model for the provision of eprints nationwide in the UK. Our model was devised accordingly and would be equally appropriate anywhere else in the world. Alma Swan FW: [BOAI] Re: Central versus institutional self-archiving (fwd) Here is a brief note from a discussion list explaining why institutional archiving is the best option and why funders and institutions should mandate such archiving. Hope you find this interesting and useful in the Indian context. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] Subject: Re: Central versus institutional self-archiving On Fri, 1 Oct 2004, [identity deleted] wrote: > While OAI compliance is a sine qua non condition of some measure of > inter-operability, it does not (yet?) ensure the kind of ease of > retrieval that other forms of archiving can provide, including some > form of central archiving. Ease-of-retrieval advantages are no more inherent in centralised archives than in any other type of open archive. Ease of retrieval is dependent upon the quality of article metadata, upon the functionality of the search engine used, and upon the retrieval skills of the inquirer (especially if fulltext is searched), and all of these are irrespective of where articles are archived. Our recent study, carried out in partnership with the Universities of Loughborough and Cranfield on behalf of JISC, produced a recommended model for the delivery, management and access of eprints (both pre- and post-prints)in UK further and higher education communities. We deliberated on the relative merits of central versus institutional archiving and came down firmly on the side of the latter. The reasons for this were several - both technical and cultural - and are set out in detail in our full report, which will be published by JISC within the few days [Swan,A., Needham, P., Probets, S., Muir, A., O'Brien, A., Oppenheim, C., Hardy, R., and Rowland, F (2004) Delivery, Management and Access Model for E-prints and Open Access Journals within Further and Higher Education]. (www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/E-prints_delivery_model.pdf) Here is a quote from the executive summary of our report: "This study identified three models for open access provision in the UK .... In considering the relative merits of these models, we addressed not only technical concerns but also how e-print provision (by authors) can be achieved, since without this content provision there can be no effective e-print delivery service (for users). For technical and cultural reasons, this study recommends that the centralised model should not be adopted for the proposed UK service. This would have been the costliest option and it would have omitted the growing body of content in distributed institutional, subject-based, and open-access journal archives. Moreover, the central archiving approach is the 'wrong way round' with respect to e-print provision since for reasons of academic and institutional culture and so long as effective measures are implemented, individual institution-based e-print archives are far more likely to fill (and fill quickly) than centralised archives, because institutions and researchers share a vested interested in the impact of their research output, and because institutions are in a position to mandate and monitor compliance, a position not enjoyed by centralised archives." One of the critical aspects of our decision was that any model for delivering eprints must operate in, and help to create, the arena most likely to provide the maximum amount of eprint material to deliver. Two things (only) have a bearing on this - archives being available for authors to use, and authors actually archiving their articles. >From the evidence we looked at - existing archives - it was clear to us that even when archives are available there is still precious little peer-reviewed material being deposited, ergo it is author behaviour that is at the very root of the matter. How may authors be 'encouraged' to self-archive? The evidence shows that whilst a carrot approach produces some success, 'encouragement' would best take the form of a stick - by someone, somewhere, mandating self-archiving. Why authors need such a mandate can be debated at length by those with the inclination for such things. The fact is that when there is a mandate by some authority that has clout, authors will comply. There are few examples of such mandates in operation as yet (though where they exist, they are working), but plenty of promise for those to come. KPL's recent, separate, study on open access publishing (also commissioned by JISC) produced clear evidence that authors have, in general and in principle, no objection to self-archiving and will comply with a mandate to do so from their employer or research funder. Our findings were that 77% of authors would comply with such a mandate. Only 3% said they would NOT comply. [Swan, A and Brown, S (2004) Report of the JISC/OSI journal authors survey. pp 1-76. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISCOAreport1.pdf; http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISCOAreport1.pdf; Swan, A and Brown, S (2004) Authors and open access publishing. Learned Publishing, 17 (3), 219-224. www.keyperspectives.co.uk/OpenAccessArchive/Authors_and_open_access_publishi ng.pdf The recent government-level recommendations in the US and the UK on mandating self-archiving are therefore perfectly on target to address the issue most critical to open access provision. Scholars will self-archive if told to do so. Employers and research funders have the authority to do the telling, but they tell authors to do what, and which authors? Funders can only tell their grantees, but have the choice of telling them to deposit their articles in the funder's own archive if there is one, in some other centralised archive, or in the researcher's own institutional archive, or all of these. Employers can do all these too, but since they not only have shared goals with their researchers in respect of dissemination of research findings, but also see additional value in, and uses for, the content of an institutional archive, they are very likely to be eager to see it maximally populated and will insist on authors depositing there, at the very least. Moreover, they can mandate self-archiving across the board, including researchers who are not supported by external funding (a large number in many subject areas), and in EVERY scholarly discipline. This is a far more effective a route to comprehensive eprint provision than relying on funder mandates alone, and is much more likely to provide eprints in ALL disciplines relatively quickly than relying on the eventual establishment of centralised archives in all subject areas. Our conclusion was, then, that this scenario is the one most likely to provide the maximum level of archived content, a major plank of any model for the provision of eprints nationwide in the UK. Our model was devised accordingly and would be equally appropriate anywhere else in the world. Alma Swan

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