August 2006 - LIS-Forum - ncsi.iisc.ernet.in

Return on research enhanced by OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Here is an interesting paper on the economic returns of OA (from Peter Suber's blog). Arun ------ More on the Houghton/Sheehan analysis Stevan Harnad, Maximising the Return on Resource Investment in Research, August 10, 2006. Excerpt: In a recent preprint, Houghton & Sheehan (2006), using estimates from economic modeling, have confirmed the substantial potential enhancement of the return on resource investment in research if the resulting articles are made Open Access:... Excerpts: "Whether applied across the board or to sector specific research findings (e.g. open access to publicly funded research) it seems that there may be substantial potential benefits to be gained from more open access. For example [GERD = Gross Expenditure on Research and Development]... - With Germany's GERD at USD 58.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 3 billion; - With Japan's GERD at USD 112.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 5.8 billion; - With the United Kingdom's GERD at USD 33.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 1.7 billion; and - With the United State's GERD at USD 312.5 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 16 billion. "While it is impossible to calculate the quantum of benefits with certainty, these simple estimates of the potential impacts of enhanced access on returns to R&D suggest that a move towards more open access may have substantial positive impacts... "Given substantial R&D expenditures and the scale of the potential impacts identified in this preliminary work, these issues represent fertile ground for further policy relevant inquiry." These estimates agree substantially with prior estimates that have been made (e.g., for the UK, Canada and Australia, see below). Research Funding Councils and Universities worldwide are at last beginning to realise that it is high time (indeed well overdue) to maximise the returns on their research investment by mandating Open Access self-archiving.... Here is an interesting paper on the economic returns of OA (from Peter Suber's blog). Arun ------ [A] [A] More on the Houghton/Sheehan analysis Stevan Harnad, http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/120-Maximising-the-Return… Maximising the Return on Resource Investment in Research , August 10, 2006. Excerpt: In a recent preprint, http://www.cfses.com/documents/wp23.pdf Houghton & Sheehan (2006) , using estimates from economic modeling, have confirmed the substantial potential enhancement of the return on resource investment in research if the resulting articles are made Open Access:... Excerpts: "Whether applied across the board or to sector specific research findings (e.g. open access to publicly funded research) it seems that there may be substantial potential benefits to be gained from more open access. For example [GERD = Gross Expenditure on Research and Development]... - With Germany's GERD at USD 58.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 3 billion; - With Japan's GERD at USD 112.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 5.8 billion; - With the United Kingdom's GERD at USD 33.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 1.7 billion; and - With the United State's GERD at USD 312.5 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency would have been worth USD 16 billion. "While it is impossible to calculate the quantum of benefits with certainty, these simple estimates of the potential impacts of enhanced access on returns to R&D suggest that a move towards more open access may have substantial positive impacts... "Given substantial R&D expenditures and the scale of the potential impacts identified in this preliminary work, these issues represent fertile ground for further policy relevant inquiry." These estimates agree substantially with prior estimates that have been made (e.g., for the http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/28-guid.html UK , http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11534/ Canada and http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/41-guid.html Australia , see below). http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/ Research Funding Councils and Universities worldwide are at last beginning to realise that it is high time (indeed http://211.81.31.9/dlib/www.dlib.org/dlib/december99/12harnad.html well overdue ) to maximise the returns on their research investment by http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/sign.php mandating Open Access self-archiving ....

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Of interest to physicists
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

From Peter Suber's blog myADS-arXiv as a "tailor-made, open access, virtual journal" E. Henneken, M.J. Kurz and six co-authors, myADS-arXiv - a Tailor-Made, Open Access, Virtual Journal, a preprint self-archived August 4, 2006. Abstract: The myADS-arXiv service provides the scientific community with a one stop shop for staying up-to-date with a researcher's field of interest. The service provides a powerful and unique filter on the enormous amount of bibliographic information added to the ADS on a daily basis. It also provides a complete view with the most relevant papers available in the subscriber's field of interest. With this service, the subscriber will get to know the lastest developments, popular trends and the most important papers. This makes the service not only unique from a technical point of view, but also from a content point of view. On this poster we will argue why myADS-arXiv is a tailor-made, open access, virtual journal and we will illustrate its unique character. Please spread the word among physicists. Thanks and best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] From Peter Suber's blog myADS-arXiv as a "tailor-made, open access, virtual journal" E. Henneken, M.J. Kurz and six co-authors, http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/cs/pdf/0608/0608027.pdf myADS-arXiv - a Tailor-Made, Open Access, Virtual Journal , a preprint self-archived August 4, 2006. Abstract: The http://myads.harvard.edu/arxiv_help.html myADS-arXiv service provides the scientific community with a one stop shop for staying up-to-date with a researchers field of interest. The service provides a powerful and unique filter on the enormous amount of bibliographic information added to the ADS on a daily basis. It also provides a complete view with the most relevant papers available in the subscribers field of interest. With this service, the subscriber will get to know the lastest developments, popular trends and the most important papers. This makes the service not only unique from a technical point of view, but also from a content point of view. On this poster we will argue why myADS-arXiv is a tailor-made, open access, virtual journal and we will illustrate its unique character. Please spread the word among physicists. Thanks and best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]

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Open data policy
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Friends: Should governments make data collected with taxpayers' money freely available to all on the Net? The Manitoba state government in Canada thinks so. Please see the news story appended below. What is the situation in India and other developing countries? Subbiah Arunachalam ---------------------------------- Praise for Manitoba's open data policy Michael Cross, Canada proves itself to be genuine land of the free, The Guardian, August 10, 2006. Excerpt: The government of Manitoba says it was the first in Canada to make all its publicly funded geospatial data freely available, without any licensing terms, to government, businesses and citizens. This is the policy that Technology Guardian's Free our Data campaign calls on the UK government to adopt. Officials say that the Manitoba Land Initiative, adopted in 2000, is based on sound business sense. "Frankly, it just did not make good economic sense to try and sell data that the taxpayers already paid for, and it was costing us much more to try to sell data and manage distribution then we were making in revenue," says Harvey Pokrant, director of the information technology services branch in the provincial capital Winnipeg.... This is a vivid contrast to the UK government approach, which encourages state bodies holding data to treat it as intellectual property and to charge for its use, even by other parts of government.... In theory, freeing data along the Manitoba model should make life easier for officials creating policies for environmental protection, managing natural resources and encouraging investment in the province. It should also encourage the private sector to create value-added products based on public data. Pokrant says there is evidence that this is happening.... Friends: Should governments make data collected with taxpayers' money freely available to all on the Net? The Manitoba state government in Canada thinks so. Please see the news story appended below. What is the situation in India and other developing countries? Subbiah Arunachalam ---------------------------------- Praise for Manitoba's open data policy Michael Cross, http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1840386,00.html Canada proves itself to be genuine land of the free , The Guardian , August 10, 2006. Excerpt: The government of Manitoba says it was the first in Canada to make all its publicly funded geospatial data freely available, without any licensing terms, to government, businesses and citizens. This is the policy that Technology Guardian's Free our Data campaign calls on the UK government to adopt. Officials say that the https://web2.gov.bb.ca/mli/ Manitoba Land Initiative , adopted in 2000, is based on sound business sense. "Frankly, it just did not make good economic sense to try and sell data that the taxpayers already paid for, and it was costing us much more to try to sell data and manage distribution then we were making in revenue," says Harvey Pokrant, director of the information technology services branch in the provincial capital Winnipeg.... This is a vivid contrast to the UK government approach, which encourages state bodies holding data to treat it as intellectual property and to charge for its use, even by other parts of government.... In theory, freeing data along the Manitoba model should make life easier for officials creating policies for environmental protection, managing natural resources and encouraging investment in the province. It should also encourage the private sector to create value-added products based on public data. Pokrant says there is evidence that this is happening....

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Dr. S.R. Ranganathan Memorial Lectures (14) (2006)
by SRELS 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Dear Sir : Kindly arrange to insert the following Dr. S.R. Ranganathan Memorial Lectures (14) (2006) by the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science for the benefit of lis-forum members. Yours sincerely, K.N. Prasad Executive Officer Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, 702, 42nd Cross, III Block, Rajajianagar, Bangalore 560 010 ************ The Board of Trustees of the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS), Bangalore in association with Canara Bank School of Management Studies, Bangalore University, Bangalore cordially invites you to the Dr. S.R. Ranganathan Memorial Lectures (14) (2006) Topic: INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION Speaker: Hon'ble Justice Gopal Sriram Judge, Court of Appeal, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Date: 23, 24 and 25 August 2006 at 6.00 p.m. each day Venue: Canara Bank School of Management Studies Seminar Hall, Central College Campus, Bangalore University, Bangalore 560 001 Prof. Dr. A. Jayagovind Vice-Chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore will inaugurate Prof. S. Parthasarathy Member, Board of Trustees, SRELS, Bangalore will preside RSVP: K.N. Prasad - Ph: (080)23305109 R. Adilakshmi - Ph: (080)22961975 E-mail: srels(a)vsnl.com E-mail: adilakshmi_cbsms(a)rediffmail.com Dear Sir : Kindly arrange to insert the following Dr. S.R. Ranganathan Memorial Lectures (14) (2006) by the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science for the benefit of lis-forum members. Yours sincerely, K.N. Prasad Executive Officer Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science, 702, 42 nd Cross, III Block, Rajajianagar, Bangalore 560 010 ************ The Board of Trustees of the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS), Bangalore in association with Canara Bank School of Management Studies, Bangalore University, Bangalore cordially invites you to the Dr. S.R. Ranganathan Memorial Lectures (14) (2006) Topic : INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION Speaker : Honble Justice Gopal Sriram Judge, Court of Appeal, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Date : 23, 24 and 25 August 2006 at 6.00 p.m. each day Venue : Canara Bank School of Management Studies Seminar Hall, Central College Campus, Bangalore University, Bangalore 560 001 Prof. Dr. A. Jayagovind Vice-Chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore will inaugurate Prof. S. Parthasarathy Member, Board of Trustees, SRELS, Bangalore will preside RSVP: K.N. Prasad - Ph: (080)23305109 R. Adilakshmi - Ph: (080)22961975 E-mail: srels(a)vsnl.com E-mail: adilakshmi_cbsms(a)rediffmail.com

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InfoVision2006-the Knowledge Summit, September 28-29, 2006, Bangalore
by Shalini Urs 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Dear Friends, Join us at InfoVision 2006 - for an intellectual feast of listening to and interacting with thought leaders across the Knowledge Spectrum. InfoVision 2006 - the Knowledge Summit is being organised during September 28 - 29, 2006 at Hotel Meridien, Bangalore. Come and listen to visionaries and leaders such as Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and Prof. Peter Lor, Secretary General, IFLA InfoVision brings to you the 2006 MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Company) Award Ceremony at the Gala Dinner on September 28, 2006 Come, participate in the interactive Panel Debates with the MAKE Award winners. For more details - www.infovision2006.org <http://www.infovision2006.org/> ---- Dr.Shalini R. Urs Executive Director International School of Information Management University of Mysore Manasagangotri Mysore - 570006 Tele : + 91 821 2514699 Fax : + 91 821 2519209 www.isim.ac.in www.vidyanidhi.org.in/shaliniurs.htm  Dear Friends, � Join us at InfoVision 2006 - for �an intellectual feast of listening to and interacting with thought leaders across the Knowledge Spectrum. � InfoVision 2006 – the Knowledge Summit is being organised during September 28 – 29, 2006 at Hotel Meridien, Bangalore . � Come and listen to visionaries and leaders such as Jimmy Wales, the founder of ��Wikipedia and Prof. Peter Lor, Secretary General, IFLA � InfoVision brings to you the 2006 MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Company) Award Ceremony at the Gala Dinner on September 28, 2006 � Come, participate in the interactive Panel Debates with the MAKE Award winners. � For more details – �� http://www.infovision2006.org/ www.infovision2006.org � ---- � Dr.Shalini R. Urs Executive Director International School of Information Management University of Mysore Manasagangotri Mysore - 570006 Tele : + 91 821 2514699 Fax� : + 91 821 2519209 www.isim.ac.in www.vidyanidhi.org.in/shaliniurs.htm �

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UK to launch PubMed Central in a few months
by Mailing List Manager 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 08:42:53 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> >From Peter Suber's blog More on UKPMC UK PubMed Central To Launch in January, Library Journal, August 9, 2006. Excerpt: The desire to make government funded research freely available to the public got another boost with the announced launch of UK PubMed Central (UKPMC), a repository based on the PubMed Central in the United States, operated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Like its American counterpart, UKPMC will provide free access to an online digital archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the medical and life sciences. Officials at the Wellcome Trust, strong advocates of open access, said the contract to run UKPMC was awarded to a partnership between the British Library, the University of Manchester and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI). Launch of the service is scheduled for January 2007....

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RE: [LIS-Forum] After retirement
by Mailing List Manager 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 06:37:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Mahesh G T <nisargamahesh(a)yahoo.co.in> Dear All, its a good topic to discuss,"After Retirement" ofcourse there is no retirement for any professional untill he feels it,, i personally feel that, retired professionals can form a association may be region wise or area wise, as they can actively participate/organize the programmes like Counselling, Mentoring and other developmental activities for the young upcoming professionals as well as Libraries.They can share their 25-30 years of realtime experience to the changing world by writing a book or sharing through the Forum like this, and also Conferences/Seminars/and Workshops can allow atleast 2-3 retired professionals to present their expierience, as their expierience could also be documented in an Conference/Seminar Proceedings. They can organize orientation clases for the young professionals by providing the professional Skillsets .... Still more active and effective channel would be publishing News Letter or so,,, but to make it happen in realtime situation i feel they should form an association or Forum(Retired Library Professionals,,) ,,with the support of our young professionals, I request all the young and expierienced professionals to come forward in this regard,,,, ========================================================== "Knowledge is of two kinds,We Know a subject ourselves, or,we know where to find information on it" ========================================================== Mahesh G T Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore-68 Off No - 080-26684369 Mob No - 9845727385

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Digitizing Indian language books
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Friends: Here is a news story from Xinhuanet. Google is digitizing books in major libraries in the USA and UK, so anyone anywhere (with an Internet connection) can read those books. Google is digitizing books in University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University and the New York Public Library and now the (one hundred or so) libraries of the University of California. Google is also negotiating with the US Library of Congress. Yahoo and Microsoft have joined the Internet Archive to form the Open Content Alliance and they are also digitizing books in major western libraries. What about the great treasures in non-western languages such as Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Sanskrit, etc.? Should we not organise such masssive digitization with appropriate search capabilities? Under the Millennium Digitization (?) programme, efforts are on to digitise books in India and China, but I am not sure how large the effort is and how comprehensive. As one who speaks Tamil, I will be interested to see all the great classics of Tamil literature as well as the works of contemporary writers such as Asokamitran, Jayakanthan and Sujatha (to name only a few) to be freely available for all the80 million or so Tamils living around the world. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] From Xinhuanet Google Inc. on Wednesday said the University of California has agreed to having books from its libraries' collections digitized and made searchable within the company's controversial library project. The UC system's 34 million books are spread across more than 100 libraries on 10 campuses, making it the largest academic research library in the world. The full text of books in the public domain will be available through Google Book Search, while only snippets of copyrighted books will be viewable, along with information about where they can be bought or borrowed. The UC system joins the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University and the New York Public Library in making book collections available to Google. The latter is making available only books in the public domain. The participants support of the project is in contrast to writers and publishers who are suing Google to prevent them from digitizing books without first getting their permission. The UC system believes Google's policy of providing only snippets of copyrighted works in search results is sufficient protection. Google announced its library project last year, prompting separate lawsuits by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. The organizations are arguing that Google should first seek the permission of copyright holders before digitizing books. Google is arguing that its actions are legal, since it only offers snippets of copyrighted material. The cases are pending. Google is working with the U.S. Library of Congress on a similar effort. For Google, the new momentum for its Book Search Project is the latest in a string of high-profile deals it has announced over the past week in which it signed a major search and advertising contract with News Corp., the owner of MySpace.com, and a video advertising and delivery deal with Viacom, owner of MTV. Friends: Here is a news story from Xinhuanet. Google is digitizing books in major libraries in the USA and UK, so anyone anywhere (with an Internet connection) can read those books. Google is digitizing books in University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University and the New York Public Library and now the (one hundred or so) libraries of the University of California. Google is also negotiating with the US Library of Congress. Yahoo and Microsoft have joined the Internet Archive to form the Open Content Alliance and they are also digitizing books in major western libraries. What about the great treasures in non-western languages such as Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Sanskrit, etc.? Should we not organise such masssive digitization with appropriate search capabilities? Under the Millennium Digitization (?) programme, efforts are on to digitise books in India and China, but I am not sure how large the effort is and how comprehensive. As one who speaks Tamil, I will be interested to see all the great classics of Tamil literature as well as the works of contemporary writers such as Asokamitran, Jayakanthan and Sujatha (to name only a few) to be freely available for all the80 million or so Tamils living around the world. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] From Xinhuanet Google Inc. on Wednesday said the University of California has agreed to having books from its libraries' collections digitized and made searchable within the company's controversial library project. The UC system's 34 million books are spread across more than 100 libraries on 10 campuses, making it the largest academic research library in the world. The full text of books in the public domain will be available through Google Book Search, while only snippets of copyrighted books will be viewable, along with information about where they can be bought or borrowed. The UC system joins the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University and the New York Public Library in making book collections available to Google. The latter is making available only books in the public domain. The participants support of the project is in contrast to writers and publishers who are suing Google to prevent them from digitizing books without first getting their permission. The UC system believes Google's policy of providing only snippets of copyrighted works in search results is sufficient protection. Google announced its library project last year, prompting separate lawsuits by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. The organizations are arguing that Google should first seek the permission of copyright holders before digitizing books. Google is arguing that its actions are legal, since it only offers snippets of copyrighted material. The cases are pending. Google is working with the U.S. Library of Congress on a similar effort. For Google, the new momentum for its Book Search Project is the latest in a string of high-profile deals it has announced over the past week in which it signed a major search and advertising contract with News Corp., the owner of MySpace.com, and a video advertising and delivery deal with Viacom, owner of MTV.

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Re: Library rules for CSIR Labs
by Subbiah Gunasekaran 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Dear Members: I will be grateful if anyone could mail me the library rules framed by the CSIR for its constituent labs? Thanks S.Gunasekaran Library CECRI, Karaikudi Dear Members: I will be grateful if anyone could mail me the library rules framed by the CSIR for its constituent labs? Thanks S.Gunasekaran Library CECRI, Karaikudi http://adworks.rediff.com/cgi-bin/AdWorks/sigclick.cgi/www.rediff.com/signa… http://adworks.rediff.com/cgi-bin/AdWorks/sigimpress.cgi/www.rediff.com/sig…

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Writing and Editing for the Library Website
by vimal kumar 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Dear Information Professional, Here is the link to a useful article about writing for library website appeared in current issue of Free Pint newsletter. http://www.freepint.com/issues/100806.htm#tips Best Wishes Vimal Kumar Asian School of Business Technopark Trivandrum-695 581 vimal0212(a)yahoo.com --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min. Here is the link to a useful article about writing for library website appeared in current issue of Free Pint newsletter. http://www.freepint.com/issues/100806.htm#tips Best Wishes Vimal Kumar Asian School of Business Technopark Trivandrum-695 581 vimal0212(a)yahoo.com Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman7/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/ev… Great rates starting at 1¢/min.

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