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Darwin goes open access
by Subbiah Arunachalam 22 Oct '06

22 Oct '06

Friends: Here is a story from Guardian Unlimited that should warm the hearts of scientists and open access champions! The entire works of Charles darwin including pictures are now available open access. Arun ------------ Darwin's entire works go online Ian Sample, science correspondent Thursday October 19, 2006 The Guardian A missing notebook clutched by a Shropshire lad who circumnavigated the globe, returned to Britain, and demolished the Victorian hubris that humans stood alone as the pinnacle of creation is published for the first time today. The original notebook, which documents Charles Darwin's observations throughout his five-year voyage to the Amazon, Patagonia and the Pacific aboard HMS Beagle, is presumed stolen, but using a microfilm copy, Cambridge University scientists today make it available free online, along with the entire works of the scientist credited with the most important advance in science of the past 300 years. The collection brings Darwin's breathtaking range of writing together for the first time, with 50,000 pages of searchable text, and tens of thousands of images, many from previously unpublished manuscripts, together with notebooks, diaries and original publications such as The Origin of Species, The Voyage of the Beagle (the Journal of Researches) and The Descent of Man. Audio versions of key works will be free to download at the project website, darwin-online.org.uk. "Nowhere possesses this complete collection. It's a complete run of his papers which has never been assembled in any form anywhere," said John van Wyhe, director of The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online project. Randal Keynes, Darwin's great, great grandson, told the Guardian the project fulfilled the Darwin family's long-standing aim to have all of the scientist's work available for everyone. ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com

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Is India a threat to US domination in technology?
by Subbiah Arunachalam 21 Oct '06

21 Oct '06

Friends: Here is what a US expert thinks about China and India as threats to the US domination in technology. He says we have a poor government in India, our education system (barring a few exceptions) is no good and our infrastructure is crumbling. Should we not do something to improve? Regards. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] ---------------------- In his recent book, "Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East", Clyde Prestowitz quotes a Chinese friend: "We've had a couple of hundred bad years, but now we're back." Yet shrugging off the burden of history is not so easy, particularly when, as recently as 1966-76, the brightest and sparkiest people were dumped in labour camps. The Chinese have been able to turn their country into a manufacturing giant because of their willingness to work harder and longer; but turning it into a service giant, let alone an innovation hub, will require different qualities. China's biggest problem is a culture of deference--a culture that was refined by the mandarin tradition and then reinforced by the Communist Party. For many Chinese it is bad form to question superiors. So far, China has been much more adept at borrowing other people's ideas than producing its own, particularly when it comes to high-level innovation. But there are plenty of other problems, ranging from poor English-language skills to weak intellectual-property rights. Many Western companies are rightly nervous about developing new products in a country where ideas are routinely stolen. India's difficulties have more to do with another intractable problem: poor government. The country's infrastructure is crumbling and the education system is hugely uneven. The Indian Institutes of Technology are very good at producing a highly educated elite, but run-of-the-mill colleges are often of poor quality. The result is graduate unemployment of 17% at a time when the high-tech economy is booming. ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com

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Re: [LIS-Forum] Declining Reading Habits
by librarymahad 20 Oct '06

20 Oct '06

Dear all, In my past experience as a Librarian in GIDC Rofel Institute Of Management Studies I have seen that reading habit of the students is also markably declined. I have found the probable reasons also. 1) They were getting ready-made notes, data, projects, etc. which are available in the markets. It is also pretty clear that when students are getting their required in ready made form, they are not willing to read books and prepared notes from those. Which we used to do. Reading various types of books and getting the best of books for any answer to a question. 2) They are so burdened with lots of activities in the Study period that they were not willing to read books from where they can prepared notes. 3) Some are so lazy that at the time of examination they only want the READY MADE. The other thing we also think about the decline of reading habit is the TV programme. I have seen that the house wifves who used to read 5 or 6 novel in a week from a particular library are not at all visiting the library. I wanted to know the cause. The simple answer now we are not getting time because of TV Soaps. I partially agreed that the reading habit is declined for more use of internet information or e-book. But how many of general people is able to effort for that? We are really using that but in which way that is being used and useful? Who are the person using those? Those all have to be consider in your survey. Regards, Wish you all a very Happy Dipavali!!! Pradip Das ================================================= Pradip Das. Sr. Librarian & Training Co-ordinator, Pidilite Industries Limited, A/21, MIDC, Mahad, Maharashtra - 402309. India. Ph. : 02145- 31444(R), 02145 - 232043 to 46 (Off.) Extn. : 226 Fax. : 01245 - 232048 E-mail : librarymahad(a)pidilite.co.in or, pradipbhadreswardas(a)gmail.com Web : www.pidilite.com ================================================ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Parinita Samant" <parinitas(a)hexaware.com> Subject: [LIS-Forum] Declining Reading Habits Dear All, It is nice to see such a varied response for Declining Reading habits. What I, as a librarian want to do, is take a survey to find out the varied reading habits of various age groups and what attracts them to reading. Surely there is a motivation to read. What is it that triggers it in various people? I am sure of the fact that reading habits are NOT declining, they are only changing. Just because people do not come to the library to issue out books, does not mean reading habits are declining. Are we as librarians geared up for this change? We as librarians need to change accordingly to meet our reader's requirements. If e-books is what is preferred by say an age group 20-30 then we provide them with e-books and journals. If Just-in-Time information is needed, then so be it. Could we discuss this further? What are your experiences? Thanks & Regards Parinita Samant HexaVarsity Mumbai Library Hexaware Technologies Ltd 152, Millennium Business Park, Sect -IIIA Block, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400710 67919595 - Xt- 9707

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Programme on Information Literacy and Promotion of Reading Habits for Corporation School Students - reg
by Arunachalam Hariharan 20 Oct '06

20 Oct '06

Dear All, As you may aware that the Society for the Advancement of Library and Information Science (SALIS) is organizing many programmes for the Corporation School Children since 2003 through its various chapters to promote reading habits and also to motivate the students to use the Library. SALIS is organizing similar programmes in this year also as part of National Library Week Celebrations. The details of the programmes are given below: Objective of the Programmes: 1. To promote Information Literacy/Reading Habits of Corporation School Children Programme Type: Speech Competition Topics: 1. Role of Libraries in Nation Building (OR) 2. Role of Libraries in Career Development of Students Eligibility: Students of Corporation Schools studying IX, X, XI and XII standards. Fee: No Fee Venue: Connemara Public Library, Chennai Preliminary Round : 05.11.2006 â 09.30 A.M Time : 5 minutes No. students to be selected: 6 FINAL Round: Date: 12.11.2006 Time: 9.30 A. Time: 10 minutes No. students to be selected: 6 A panel of judges will select the winners based on the following criteria 1. Oratory Skill 2. Body Language 3. Contents Prizes: First prize : Books worth Rs.1000/- (minimum) Second prize: Books worth Rs.750/- Third prize : Books worth Rs.500/- The winners will receive the above prizes during the National Library Week Celebrations between 14th and 20th, November 2006 at Chennai The date & time of the function will be intimated to the winners to receive the prices. For further details of the programme and registration of names, kindly contact: Mr. P.Panneer Selvam Programme Co-ordinator SALIS Chennai Chapter B2- Solai Apartments (Opp to MGR garden) Mount-Poonamallee Road Chennai â 600 089 e-mail: salis_info(a)yahoo.com cell: 9841103912 All are cordially invited for the programme. Kindly inform the same to all the concerned. . Thank you. Wish you all a very HAPPY DEEPAVALI & RAMZAAN ---------------------------------------------------- A.Hariharan SALIS A.Hariharan Structural Engineering Research Centre CSIR Campus Taramani Chennai - 600 113 hariharan_ah(a)yahoo.com Cell: 9841601901 Off:044-22549133 -------------------------------------------------- SALIS B2-Solai Apatments Mount-Poonamallee Road (opp.to.MGR Garden) Chennai - 600 116 Tel: 044-22522448/42014772 www.autolib-india.net/salis __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Reading habit
by Mailing List Manager 20 Oct '06

20 Oct '06

Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:56:24 +0530 From: Rafiq <rafiq.ansari(a)timesgroup.com> Dear All, We are debating a very subjective issue. People not coming to Library and not borrowing books in no way indicate decline in reading habits. Reading today has shifted from print to electronic. Downloading e-books or taking print out of searched pages from the Internet is as good as physically borrowing books from the Library. In the present milieu (though it has always been so), the world is a university where learning is online. And no learning is possible without reading; I repeat reading - be it physical or online. The crux of the issue, nevertheless, is that "Reading is Living", and a person who does not read dies before time, he may be physically alive, though. So let's strive to promote "reading habit" per se rather than wasting efforts in finding results of surveys indicating that the reading habit is declining. Regards, Rafiq Ansari Senior Manager - Library Television Division The Times of India Group Mumbai Tel - (022) 24810633 rafiq.ansari(a)gmail.com -----Original Message----- Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:49 AM Subject: [LIS-Forum] Declining reading habits Dear All, Declining reading habits are one of the major concerns of nearly all libraries today. [truncated]

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Request for article
by Yashwant G Kanade 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Dear Moderator, Could you please arrange to send this information through LIS-FORUM? With Best Regards Dear Sir, Can you Please check if the following article can be made available. Its urgently required. I can arrange for funds to pay for it as well. Friend, A. D. and A. White (2000). "Evaluation and analysis of a dynamic terrestrial ecosystem model under preindustrial conditions at the global scale." Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 14(4): 1173-1190. Thanking you rajiv -- YASHWANT G KANADE Centre for Ecological Sciences Indian Institute of Science Bangalore - 560012, Karnataka, INDIA Tele Phone:91-080-23600985/ 22932506 Extn.-106,107 Fax: 91-080-23601428 E-Mail: kanade(a)ces.iisc.ernet.in; kanade_yg12(a)yahoo.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner @ces.iisc.ernet.in, and is believed to be clean.

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PubFocus - a tool for statistical analysis of Medline indexed articles.
by Sukhdev Singh 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Just came to know about a tool called PubFocus. This would be useful for those having interest in statistical analysis of published articles in Medline. http://www.pubfocus.org/ "Pubfocus performs statistical analysis of the MEDLINE/PubMed search queries enriched with the additional information gathered from journal impact factor database and forward referencing database. PubFocus outputs basic statistical information on publication trends, publishing journals and most prolific authors including separate analysis of the first authors (commonly most contributing scientists) and last authors (commonly principal investigators)." Just tried out, it takes lot of time. But since it is free without any alternative - it is worth it. --Sukhdev Singh, http://indmed.nic.in NIC. New Delhi.

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Declining Reading Habits
by Parinita Samant 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Dear All, It is nice to see such a varied response for Declining Reading habits. What I, as a librarian want to do, is take a survey to find out the varied reading habits of various age groups and what attracts them to reading. Surely there is a motivation to read. What is it that triggers it in various people? I am sure of the fact that reading habits are NOT declining, they are only changing. Just because people do not come to the library to issue out books, does not mean reading habits are declining. Are we as librarians geared up for this change? We as librarians need to change accordingly to meet our reader's requirements. If e-books is what is preferred by say an age group 20-30 then we provide them with e-books and journals. If Just-in-Time information is needed, then so be it. Could we discuss this further? What are your experiences? Thanks & Regards Parinita Samant HexaVarsity Mumbai Library Hexaware Technologies Ltd 152, Millennium Business Park, Sect -IIIA Block, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400710 67919595 - Xt- 9707 *************************************************************************************************************************** This e-mail communication and any attachments may be privileged and confidential to Hexaware and are intended only for the use of the recipients named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not review, disclose, disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail and attachments. If you have received this email in error, please delete the same alongwith all attachments thereto and notify us immediately at mailadmin(a)hexaware.com . *************************************************************************************************************************** Declining Reading Habits Dear All, It is nice to see such a varied response for Declining Reading habits. What I, as a librarian want to do, is take a survey to find out the varied reading habits of various age groups and what attracts them to reading. Surely there is a motivation to read . What is it that triggers it in various people? I am sure of the fact that reading habits are NOT declining, they are only changing. Just because people do not come to the library to issue out books, does not mean reading habits are declining . Are we as librarians geared up for this change? We as librarians need to change accordingly to meet our reader ’ s requirements. If e-books is what is preferred by say an age group 20-30 then we provide them with e-books and journals. If Just- in-Time information is needed, then so be it. Could we discuss this further? What are your experiences? [A] Thanks &� Regards � Parinita Samant HexaVarsity Mumbai Library Hexaware Technologies Ltd 152, Millennium Business Park, Sect -IIIA Block, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400710 67919595 - Xt- 9707 *************************************************************************************************************************** This e-mail communication and any attachments may be privileged and confidential to Hexaware and are intended only for the use of the recipients named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not review, disclose, disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail and attachments. If you have received this email in error, please delete the same alongwith all attachments thereto and notify us immediately at mailadmin(a)hexaware.com . ***************************************************************************************************************************

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OA and librarians!
by Mailing List Manager 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:58:38 +0100 (BST) From: Subbiah Arunachalam <subbiah_a(a)yahoo.com> >From Peter Suber's blog Providing OA to library literature Dorothea Salo, Open access to the library literature, Caveat Lector, October 17, 2006. Excerpt: Im shocked that nobody is calling me names. Instead, a productive discussion is starting about open access to the library literature.... [T]he costs and benefits of open access apply to us librarians too. We certainly have overpriced journals and trade publications. We certainly have journals that sold out and saw their prices soar. We certainly have journals and trade publications that ask us to sign ridiculous copyright-transfer agreements.... [T]heres more value for us, in the long run [in providing OA to library literature] --its called eating our own dog food. We cant reasonably go out and evangelize self-archiving to faculty when we arent doing it ourselves. We cant evangelize open-access journals when we dont publish in them.... I mean, our very own guidebooks militate against open access! I was reading the publication chapter in The Successful Academic Librarian last week (ambitious, thats me) when I ran smack into (paraphrased) There are open-access journals, but they arent well-known, so most librarians consider them dubious publication outlets at best. Oh, great; thanks ever so, O Molder of the Mind of the Young. That isnt even true, for $DEITYs sake! Find me a techie librarian who doesnt know about D-Lib and Ariadne. One. So what is a librarian who publishes in the library literature to do? At a minimum, I suggest the following: * Read all copyright transfer agreements. Its flat-out irresponsible not to. If you dont like what youre reading, ask if thats the only agreement available, and be prepared to detail your concerns. * For those agreements that do not appear to allow self-archiving or do not address self-archiving, ask the editor May I self-archive this paper? Editors and publishers need to hear that their authors want to do this; we mustnt let publishers hide behind but our authors dont care! Just asking the question is not going to kill your acceptance chances (especially if you ask this after your paper is accepted!). * Whenever possible, submit your work to an existing open-access journal. Gold-OA has a chicken-and-egg problem; authors wont submit to OA journals unless other authors do, and Molders of the Minds of the Young wont give credence to OA journals until they know people (good people!) who publish in them. We dont necessarily need to start more OA library journals. We need to utilize the ones we do have fully. (That said watch this space.) * Know OA resources in our field. Use them, and point other librarians to them. Im at DLIST all the time these days. Want to go a little further? There are ways.... [PS: Here cutting six good suggestions; see the whole post.]

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OA progressing well in Europe
by Mailing List Manager 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:43:41 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> More on DRIVER Tracey Caldwell, Europe starts to build an Open Access information network, Information World Review, October 17, 2006. Excerpt: The EU is to network research papers across Europe to create a free public information resource. The Driver project will use simple internet-based infrastructures to make accessible scientific and technical reports, research articles, experimental and observational data, rich media and other digital objects. The European Commission's research infrastructure unit will fund the 18-month project. During this time Driver (Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research) will prepare for the future expansion and upgrade of the infrastructure across Europe and aim to ensure the widest possible user involvement. Ten international partners are supporting the project. Driver will help countries to create networks of open access (OA) repositories. It will build on existing institutional repositories and networks from countries including the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and the UK.... Open access commentator Peter Suber welcomed the launch: "This is big. It should greatly increase the number of OA institutional repositories. Its testbed will demonstrate powerful new services, enticing universities to make their research output available to these services through local incentives to deposit. And it should make it much easier for public funding agencies in European countries to mandate OA archiving for all the research they fund." (From Peter Suber's blog)

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