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Why is open access important for higher education?
by Subbiah Arunachalam 14 Dec '05

14 Dec '05

Here is an interview, reproduced from Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News". Arun --- Interview with Ray English on OA Michael Roy, Open Access to Scholarship: An Interview with Ray English, Academic Commons, December 11, 2005. Ray is the Library Director at Oberlin College. Excerpt: Why is open access important for higher education? Open access is one strategy - and actually the most successful strategy so far - for addressing dysfunctions in the system of scholarly communication. That system is in serious trouble. High rates of price increase for scholarly journals (particularly in scientific fields), stagnant library budgets, journal cancellations, declining library monograph acquisitions, university presses in serious economic trouble, and increasing corporate control of journal publishing by a small number of international conglomerates that have grown in size through repeated mergers and acquisitions - those are all symptoms of the problem. Scholars have lost control of a system that was meant to serve their needs; more importantly, they are also losing access to research. Open access has extraordinary potential for overcoming the fundamental problem of access to scholarship. It is a means of reasserting control by the academy over the scholarship that it produces and of making that scholarship openly available to everyone - at anytime and from virtually any place on the globe. Why does open access matter to liberal arts colleges in particular? It is especially important for liberal arts colleges because of the access issue. Liberal arts college libraries have smaller budgets, compared to the research universities. While even the major research libraries cannot afford all of the journals that they need, the lack of access is an even bigger problem in the liberal arts college realm. Faculty at many liberal arts colleges are expected to be active researchers and independent study is also a hallmark of a liberal arts college undergraduate education. So the lack of access to journal literature can be even more problematic in the liberal arts college framework than it is for the research universities.... What's the hottest current issue related to open access? I think it's the issue of taxpayer-funded research. Both in this country and abroad there is increasing interest in making publicly-funded scientific research openly accessible. We saw the beginnings of that with the National Institute of Health policy that was instituted last year and I think we will soon see a broad national debate about the advisability of this for all U.S. government agencies. The United Kingdom is moving toward a comprehensive policy of mandating open access to all government-funded research. What is your role in the open access movement? I have been a member of the steering committee of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) since its inception. SPARC, which is a coalition of academic and research libraries, has been a prominent advocate for open access. I have also played a leading role in the scholarly communications program of the Association of College & Research Libraries. I chaired a task force that recommended the ACRL scholarly communications initiative and I have been chair of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee since it was established. Being involved with both SPARC and ACRL has put me in the middle of a number of these issues for the past several years. Here is an interview, reproduced from Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News". Arun --- Interview with Ray English on OA Michael Roy, http://www.academiccommons.org/the-commons/interviews/Ray_English_Open_Acce… Open Access to Scholarship: An Interview with Ray English , Academic Commons , December 11, 2005. Ray is the Library Director at Oberlin College. Excerpt: Why is open access important for higher education? Open access is one strategy and actually the most successful strategy so far for addressing dysfunctions in the system of scholarly communication. That system is in serious trouble. High rates of price increase for scholarly journals (particularly in scientific fields), stagnant library budgets, journal cancellations, declining library monograph acquisitions, university presses in serious economic trouble, and increasing corporate control of journal publishing by a small number of international conglomerates that have grown in size through repeated mergers and acquisitions those are all symptoms of the problem. Scholars have lost control of a system that was meant to serve their needs; more importantly, they are also losing access to research. Open access has extraordinary potential for overcoming the fundamental problem of access to scholarship. It is a means of reasserting control by the academy over the scholarship that it produces and of making that scholarship openly available to everyone at anytime and from virtually any place on the globe. Why does open access matter to liberal arts colleges in particular? It is especially important for liberal arts colleges because of the access issue. Liberal arts college libraries have smaller budgets, compared to the research universities. While even the major research libraries cannot afford all of the journals that they need, the lack of access is an even bigger problem in the liberal arts college realm. Faculty at many liberal arts colleges are expected to be active researchers and independent study is also a hallmark of a liberal arts college undergraduate education. So the lack of access to journal literature can be even more problematic in the liberal arts college framework than it is for the research universities.... Whats the hottest current issue related to open access? I think its the issue of taxpayer-funded research. Both in this country and abroad there is increasing interest in making publicly-funded scientific research openly accessible. We saw the beginnings of that with the National Institute of Health policy that was instituted last year and I think we will soon see a broad national debate about the advisability of this for all U.S. government agencies. The United Kingdom is moving toward a comprehensive policy of mandating open access to all government-funded research. What is your role in the open access movement? I have been a member of the steering committee of http://www.arl.org/sparc SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) since its inception. SPARC, which is a coalition of academic and research libraries, has been a prominent advocate for open access. I have also played a leading role in the scholarly communications program of the Association of College & Research Libraries. I chaired a task force that recommended the ACRL scholarly communications initiative and I have been chair of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee since it was established. Being involved with both SPARC and ACRL has put me in the middle of a number of these issues for the past several years.

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Researchers Crack Biometric Security with Play-Doh
by rahul kumar 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Dear all A Professor at Clarkson University in New York has proved that biometric security systems can be easily "spoofed" with fake fingerprints. Read must at http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Biometrics-Cracked-with-Play-Doh/story.x… Regards Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping Dear all A Professor at Clarkson University in New York has proved that biometric security systems can be easily "spoofed" with fake fingerprints. Read must at http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Biometrics-Cracked-with-Play-Doh/story.x… http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Biometrics-Cracked-with-Play-Doh/story.x… Regards Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/footer/shopping/*http://shopping.yahoo.com/;… Yahoo! Shopping

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AOL Tests Remote Access Service
by rahul kumar 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Dear all America Online has begun testing a new service that lets users access their PC remotely from any computer that has a browser and is connected to the Internet. The new service, called LinktoPC, became available on Friday to AOL subscribers interested in trying it out, an AOL spokesperson said Monday. "We haven't offered this type of service before," he said. The technology behind LinktoPC comes from WebEx Communications, a company that specializes in online meetings and Web conferencing. get more at: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123911,00.asp Regards Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping Dear all America Online has begun testing a new service that lets users access their PC remotely from any computer that has a browser and is connected to the Internet. The new service, called LinktoPC, became available on Friday to AOL subscribers interested in trying it out, an AOL spokesperson said Monday. "We haven't offered this type of service before," he said. The technology behind LinktoPC comes from WebEx Communications, a company that specializes in online meetings and Web conferencing. get more at: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123911,00.asp http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123911,00.asp Regards Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/footer/shopping/*http://shopping.yahoo.com/;… Yahoo! Shopping

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Microsoft, MCI announce PC-to-phone calling partnership
by rahul kumar 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Dear all SEATTLE Microsoft and MCI said Monday they'll soon offer a service that lets customers place calls from their personal computers to regular phones. But the service will permit only outbound calls at first, even as rivals Yahoo and America Online allow instant messaging users to receive calls from conventional phones as well as to call out. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and MCI, the telecommunications provider being acquired by Verizon Communications, said they will begin a test run of the service in the United States this week. Broader availability is set for the first half of next year. Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping Dear all SEATTLE Microsoft and MCI said Monday they'll soon offer a service that lets customers place calls from their personal computers to regular phones. But the service will permit only outbound calls at first, even as rivals Yahoo and America Online allow instant messaging users to receive calls from conventional phones as well as to call out. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and MCI, the telecommunications provider being acquired by Verizon Communications, said they will begin a test run of the service in the United States this week. Broader availability is set for the first half of next year. Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/footer/shopping/*http://shopping.yahoo.com/;… Yahoo! Shopping

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Microsoft is expanding the reach of its mobile e-mail and IM services in India.
by rahul kumar 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Dear information Sc. and Library Patrons. The software giant's MSN division and messaging company Mobile 365 announced Tuesday that they've reached deals with five Indian mobile service providers. Under the deals, subscribers will be able to use text messaging on their cell phones to receive and reply to e-mail sent to their Hotmail accounts. They will also be able to use the MSN Messenger service from their phones. read in detail at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5993520.html Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping Dear information Sc. and Library Patrons. The software giant's MSN division and messaging company Mobile 365 announced Tuesday that they've reached deals with five Indian mobile service providers. Under the deals, subscribers will be able to use text messaging on their cell phones to receive and reply to e-mail sent to their Hotmail accounts. They will also be able to http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5992141.html?tag=nl use the MSN Messenger service from their phones. read in detail at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5993520.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5993520.html Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology(Deemed University) A-10 , Sec-62, Noida(UP) Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/footer/shopping/*http://shopping.yahoo.com/;… Yahoo! Shopping

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HarperCollins to create digital warehouse of books
by rahul kumar 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Dear all , NEW YORK U.S. publisher HarperCollins said Monday it plans to convert some 20,000 books in its catalogue into digital form in a bid to rein in potential copyright violations on the Internet. The move comes as the U.S. publishing industry is bringing lawsuits against Web search leader Google over its effort to scan copyrighted books in libraries a move the industry fears would set a dangerous copyright precedent. get the detail information from the link below http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-12-12-harpercollins-digital-books_x.… Regards Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology A-10, Sec-62, Noida(UP) --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping Dear all , NEW YORK U.S. publisher HarperCollins said Monday it plans to convert some 20,000 books in its catalogue into digital form in a bid to rein in potential copyright violations on the Internet. The move comes as the U.S. publishing industry is bringing lawsuits against Web search leader Google over its effort to scan copyrighted books in libraries a move the industry fears would set a dangerous copyright precedent. get the detail information from the link below http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-12-12-harpercollins-digital-books_x.… http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-12-12-harpercollins-digital-books_x.… Regards Rahul Kumar Learning Resource Centre Jaypee Institute of Information Technology A-10, Sec-62, Noida(UP) Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/footer/shopping/*http://shopping.yahoo.com/;… Yahoo! Shopping

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LIS policy at National level
by Saji S. Nair 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

Dear All, We have a plethora of policies in various disciplines and sub-disciplines at the national level. In our field, the National Policy on Library & Information System (NAPLIS) submitted in 1986 to the Government of India wasn't adopted. Eventhough an LIS policy is not a panacea, it could safeguard our professional interests to a large extent. In this era of Information & Communication Technologies, can we moot another one or restructure the NAPLIS? Bye Saji S. Nair Regional Cancer Centre Library Trivandrum Kerala _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

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Traditional Knowledge encyclopedia
by Saji S. Nair 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

Dear All, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) project of NISCAIR is planning for a free electronic encycopedia, as an effort to tackle 'biopiracy'. The encylopedia comprising of 30 million pages will be made available at the public domain next year. See the news at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4506382.stm India hits back in 'bio-piracy' battle Bye Saji S. Nair Regional Cancer Centre Library Trivandrum Kerala _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

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Life sciences in semantic web
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

>From Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News" More on NeuroCommons Paul Krill, Semantic Web eyed for life sciences data, InfoWorld, December 9, 2005. Excerpt: The Semantic Web is getting a boost in the life sciences arena. The Semantic Web involves a concept in which data from multiple sources and ontologies can be integrated into a single information space. Experiment design automation (XDA) software vendor Teranode, which focuses on software for life sciences, plans to collaborate with Science Commons to build a neurology repository for the Semantic Web. Called Neurocommons.org, the project will provide a free repository of neurology-related data, tools and pathway knowledge for use by public and private researchers. Science Commons is an effort launched to promote the free flow of scientific information....Science Commons will use the Teranode XDA infrastructure for Neurocommons.org. All content will be available in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) format, allowing for participating foundations to use a shared repository of research.

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OA in China - the debate has begun
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

OA to publicly-funded journals coming in China Jia Hepeng, China launches campaign to boost local journals, SciDev.Net, December 7, 2005. Excerpt: The Chinese government has launched a campaign to encourage Chinese researchers to publish their results in domestic rather than international journals, and to place their results in free archives. "We will gradually make scientists publish research that is funded by the government agencies in leading domestic journals," said Wu Bo'er, director of the Department of Facilities and Financial Support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, at a meeting last week (30 November). At the heart of the campaign is a new fund that will provide financial support to between 300 and 500 of the country's 5,000 scientific journals. The money, whose total amount has yet to be announced, is intended to help the journals improve their editorial and print quality. Some journals will be encouraged to publish in English....At present, papers published by Chinese researchers in journals quoted in the Science Citation Index can bring substantial rewards, such as professorships, research grants and even housing. This has encouraged Chinese scientists to publish their results in foreign journals. To reverse the trend, Wu told SciDev.Net that Chinese scientists may eventually be required to publish their work domestically....Yu Zailin of Peking University disagrees with a ban on publishing in international journals, saying it would impede academic progress. He suggests that instead, Chinese scientists could be asked to write a Chinese paper to be published simultaneously or shortly after their foreign publication....Wang Li, chief editor of Changchun-based Journal of Jilin University, raises another concern. While he accepts that the government's campaign may help to strengthen the country's leading journals, he warns that it could have a less beneficial impact on other scientific publications. "If all Chinese researchers are encouraged to submit their papers to the leading journals, the middle and small-level domestic ones could suffer," says Wang....The government will also fund an online database of the full text of all papers published in journals selected to receive financial support. Both researchers and the public will have access to the database. Comment. I applaud the Chinese plan to improve many of its journals and provide OA to publicly-funded research and publicly-funded journals. However, I also support the concerns of Yu Zailin. One solution is to let researchers publish in the journals of their choice but expect them to deposit copies of their work in OA repositories. This is the approach taken by the NIH, Wellcome Trust, and RCUK. Researchers will still have an incentive to publish in the improved Chinese journals because of their new quality and new access policies.

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