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

In Peter Suber's Blog - Migrating journals to Open Journal Systems (OJS)
by Sukhdev Singh 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Peter Suber has covered my presentation at National Workshop onJournal Publishing in India (Bangalore, February 10-11, 2006) in hisblog http://snipurl.com/mi70 "Sukhdev Singh, Indian biomedical journals at NIC - issues formigration to OJS, a slide presentation delivered at the NationalWorkshop on Journal Publishing in India (Bangalore, February 10-11,2006)." http://openmed.nic.in/1342/ ] --Sukhdev Singh, NIC.http://openmed.nic.in

1 0

Need some information - Reg.
by suruli nathi 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Dear experts, i can't attatch the question for the previous mail. sorry for it. Now, if you any reflection for this questions regarding. please send me. What is the relationship between the published literature and the knowledge organization of the literature? There have been many studies that examined the links between the quantum of literature published and the knowledge organization of the literature. Growth of literature; how to control or organize the explosion of published literature? What are the knowledge organization techniques used to structure the published resources Why we have to be concerned about organizing the knowledge of the published resources? Publication rate is growing at a faster rate where as the process of organizing the literature for use is limited. What is required? In the KBS, one could witness an explosion of knowledge and information in various fields of activities. The rate of growth is bewildering demanding a concerted effort to organize these growing knowledge for retrieval and use. What will happen if there is no proper organization of knowledge? thanks and regards, N.Amsaveni __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Dear experts, i can't attatch the question for the previous mail. sorry for it. Now, if you any reflection for this questions regarding. please send me. What is the relationship between the published literature and the knowledge organization of the literature? There have been many studies that examined the links between the quantum of literature published and the knowledge organization of the literature. Growth of literature; how to control or organize the explosion of published literature? What are the knowledge organization techniques used to structure the published resources Why we have to be concerned about organizing the knowledge of the published resources? Publication rate is growing at a faster rate where as the process of organizing the literature for use is limited. What is required? In the KBS, one could witness an explosion of knowledge and information in various fields of activities. The rate of growth is bewildering demanding a concerted effort to organize these growing knowledge for retrieval and use. What will happen if there is no proper organization of knowledge? thanks and regards, N.Amsaveni __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0

Email clients suitable for sending news letter
by vimal kumar 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Dear Professionals, Now Iam searching for an free/open source email client can working in Windows suitable for sending Library News Letter. Problem is that, users can see the email IDs of other subscribers from messages sent by existing email clients (Out Look Express, Thunderbird). Please help me if anybody have experience in using email clients for Newsletter delivery. Vimal Kumar Asian School of Business Technopark Trivandrum-695 581 vimal0212(a)yahoo.com --------------------------------- Brings words and photos together (easily) with PhotoMail - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail. Now Iam searching for an free/open source email client can working in Windows suitable for sending Library News Letter. Problem is that, users can see the email IDs of other subscribers from messages sent by existing email clients (Out Look Express, Thunderbird). Please help me if anybody have experience in using email clients for Newsletter delivery. Vimal Kumar Asian School of Business Technopark Trivandrum-695 581 vimal0212(a)yahoo.com Brings words and photos together (easily) with http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/PMall/*http://photomail.mail.yahoo.… PhotoMail - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail.

3 2

Soquel High librarian encourages students to research on Web - By Nancy Pasternack - sentinel staff writer - February 8, 2006
by Mailing List Manager 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:54:31 -0500 From: K.R.Mulla <krmulla(a)gmail.com> Soquel High librarian encourages students to research on Web - By Nancy Pasternack - sentinel staff writer - February 8, 2006 Hi [LIS-Forum]! Thought you might be interested in reading this story from the Santa Cruz Sentinel. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/February/08/local/stories/09l… http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/February/08/local/stories/09l… Regards K.R.Mulla February 8, 2006 SOQUEL Soquel High librarian encourages students to research on Web By Nancy Pasternack sentinel staff writer Soquel High School's Madeline Britton is part of an endangered and often misunderstood profession: the modern school librarian. Unlike librarians of yore who managed index files, taught the Dewey Decimal System and worked in rooms crowded with books, Britton teaches her students to mine the Web efficiently for the most reliable information, and to find creative solutions for stretching nearly extinct library budget dollars. She can't afford, she says, to spend the whopping $4,000 she has for 2006-07 all in one place. The $2,400 subscription bill for Ebsco Host, the primary database she has used in the past to teach her students research skills, is too steep. So that subscription, which allows access to magazine and academic journal articles, is out — and Santa Cruz Public Library cards are in. Britton's campaign to get all her students a public library card will have them using comprehensive databases like Ebsco Host, as well as many others the school cannot afford. They can access these resources from any Internet-linked computer, between the hours of 6 a.m. and midnight. And Britton can continue, she said, to teach students the necessities for adult life in today's real world. "This is the iPod generation," she said. "You have to teach them to use their brains in the ways they're wired." Her push has caught on in Santa Cruz City Schools' other high schools. Librarians from both Harbor High and Santa Cruz High have teamed up with public librarians to take students through the steps necessary to gain access to the public library's resources, and to take full advantage of those resources. "It's win-win," said Heidi Smith, the system's development librarian. "We have wonderful databases the students can now use." And because of the number of new cards the Santa Cruz Public Library system will issue, Smith can make a stronger case for continued funding. "If our databases don't get enough use," she said, "our governing board won't continue to fund it." Britton's school district is the only one in the county that still funds credentialed librarians. The ratio in California of professional media library teachers librarians to students is the lowest in the country: one media teacher/librarian for every 4,541 students. The average, nationwide, is one to 870. Because Soquel High's feeder schools — in the Live Oak and Soquel school districts — do not have professional librarians, Britton and many teachers must make an extra effort to get incoming students caught up with the online world. In order to do this, you first need access to reliable resources. "They need to learn library skills every year," O'Reilly said. "They need practice over and over again." Those skills increasingly consist of an ability to edit out sources that are either not going to be helpful, or that are not reliable. "They need to know what's a bogus Web site, and what isn't," O'Reilly said. Britton compares the Internet to an open fire hydrant. "You have to know how to swim through all that, just to take a sip of water," she said. She tells her students, "You guys have to be your own censors." "Your lives are packed," she tells them. "And you want to go to that party Friday night, right? Well, being good at this Internet research will save you time." Contact Nancy Pasternack at mailto:npasternack@santacruzsentinel.com?subject=Soquel High librarian encourages students to research on Web npasternack(a)santacruzsentinel.com .

1 0

Best Free Reference Web Sites
by Mailing List Manager 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 18:45:03 +0530 From: "Thapar, Amit" <amitt(a)niper.ac.in> Best Free Reference Web Sites Combined Index http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBES… "an index of the web sites included in the 1999-2004 annual lists issued by the Mars Best of Free Reference Web Sites Committee of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section(MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association(RUSA) ofALA to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web." Includes links to theoriginal reviews. Extreme Makeover, Library Edition http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/001/1.htm This article from OCLC's newsletter takes off from an OCLC report on perceptions of libraries <http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm> and discusses how libraries might "re-brand" themselves. FreeFullText.com http://www.freefulltext.com/ "provides direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by ANYONE with Internet access for free." Could be a handy place to check when somebody needs an article you don't own iimmediately. Wikinews http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page This little sister to the Wikipedia bills itself as "the free news source you can write!" -- preferably following its code of ethics and standards of fully referenced objective journalism (available at the About Wikinews page). amit@niper Cell: 9855701060 / 9417419457 e-mail: amit_thapar(a)yahoo.com URL: http://www.niper.gov.in/

1 0

Science in India as seen from Web of Science
by Subbiah Arunachalam 13 Feb '06

13 Feb '06

Friends: Here is a table provided by Thomson Scientific - ISI, Philadelphia. Our share in new biology research [Molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, etc.] is rather low and below India's 2.3% share in science overall. What is more our work in these fields is cited less often on average than our work in physics, chemistry and materials science. India's share in agriculture, materials science and chemistry is well above India's share in science overall. Arun Science in India, 2000-04 India's world share of science and social-science papers over a recent five-year period, expressed as a percentage of papers in each of 21 fields in the Thomson Scientific database. Also, India's relative citation impact compared to the world average in each field, in percentage terms. 10-year country rankings for India, 1995-October 2005. Field Percentage of papers from India, 2000-04 Relative impact compared to world Agricultural Sciences 5.30 -65 Materials Science 4.79 -29 Chemistry 4.23 -38 Physics 3.45 -21 Plant & Animal Sciences 3.39 -70 Pharmacology 2.83 -57 Engineering 2.63 -35 Geosciences 2.53 -50 Space Science 2.43 -51 **<--- India's overall percent share, all fields: 2.39 --->** Ecology/Environmental 2.29 -58 Microbiology 1.88 -53 Biology & Biochemistry 1.85 -63 Mathematics 1.83 -44 Computer Science 1.46 -18 Clinical Medicine 1.02 -60 Molecular Biology 1.00 -68 Immunology 0.93 -68 Economics & Business 0.74 -48 Social Sciences 0.71 -60 Neurosciences 0.50 -49 Psychology/Psychiatry 0.30 -35 Between 2000 and 2004, Thomson Scientific indexed 89,976 papers that listed at least one author address in India. Of those papers, the highest percentage appeared in journals classified in the field of agricultural sciences. As the right-hand column shows, the relative impact of published research from India has yet to attain the world average in any of the fields shown. Nevertheless, there were areas of relatively strong performance--including physics, in which papers from India scored at 79% of the world average (2.89 citations per paper for India, versus the world figure of 3.64 cites), while India's research in computer science was just 18% below the world mark. Materials science, engineering, and chemistry were also areas of comparative strength. SOURCE: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 (containing listings of output and citation statistics for more than 170 countries; available in standard and deluxe versions from the Research Services Group. Friends: Here is a table provided by Thomson Scientific - ISI, Philadelphia. Our share in new biology research [Molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, etc.] is rather low and below India's 2.3% share in science overall. What is more our work in these fields is cited less often on average than our work in physics, chemistry and materials science. India's share in agriculture, materials science and chemistry is well above India's share in science overall. Arun Science in India, 2000-04 India's world share of science and social-science papers over a recent five-year period, expressed as a percentage of papers in each of 21 fields in the Thomson Scientific database. Also, India's relative citation impact compared to the world average in each field, in percentage terms. http://in-cites.com/images/quickscience-icon.gif 10-year country rankings for javascript:popUp5ColRank('january_23_2006-4.html') India , 1995-October 2005. Field Percentage of papers from India, 2000-04 Relative impact compared to world Agricultural Sciences 5.30 -65 Materials Science 4.79 -29 Chemistry 4.23 -38 Physics 3.45 -21 Plant & Animal Sciences 3.39 -70 Pharmacology 2.83 -57 Engineering 2.63 - 35 Geosciences 2.53 - 50 Space Science 2.43 - 51 **<--- India's overall percent share, all fields: 2.39 --->** Ecology/Environmental 2.29 -58 Microbiology 1.88 -53 Biology & Biochemistry 1.85 -63 Mathematics 1.83 - 44 Computer Science 1.46 - 18 Clinical Medicine 1.02 - 60 Molecular Biology 1.00 - 68 Immunology 0.93 - 68 Economics & Business 0.74 - 48 Social Sciences 0.71 -60 Neurosciences 0.50 -49 Psychology/Psychiatry 0.30 -35 Between 2000 and 2004, Thomson Scientific indexed 89,976 papers that listed at least one author address in India. Of those papers, the highest percentage appeared in journals classified in the field of agricultural sciences. As the right-hand column shows, the relative impact of published research from India has yet to attain the world average in any of the fields shown. Nevertheless, there were areas of relatively strong performance--including physics, in which papers from India scored at 79% of the world average (2.89 citations per paper for India, versus the world figure of 3.64 cites), while India's research in computer science was just 18% below the world mark. Materials science, engineering, and chemistry were also areas of comparative strength. SOURCE: http://www.in-cites.com/a-prod/nsi.html National Science Indicators , 1981-2004 (containing listings of output and citation statistics for more than 170 countries; available in standard and deluxe versions from the http://www.isinet.com/rsg.html Research Services Group . http://in-cites.com/images/aaa-spacer.gif

1 0

Chat: Teacher librarians and compulsory internships
by Saji S. Nair 11 Feb '06

11 Feb '06

Dear All, As part of the curriculum, the LIS students in India have to imbibe more theories than practical aspects. As we know, theoretical facets form the backbone, but exposure to real-life situations may not be ignored. Library schools could prepare a panel of librarians with sufficient knowledge/expertise/skills and deploy them at regular intervals to supplement their academic programs. Such an interactive teaching and learning process may essentially have some potential benefits. Compulsory internships to library professionals are also a neglected area. A neo-graduate/postgraduate without necessary training will find it difficult to cope with the situation, if he/she has been assigned professional duties. Why don�t we think about compulsory internships, as is practiced for years in various professions? This isn�t inoperable, since we have a number of libraries in the locality that demand more manpower investment. Bye for now Saji S. Nair Regional Cancer Centre Library Trivandrum Kerala _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

2 1

Public-Private Partnership for an OA database in genetics
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Feb '06

10 Feb '06

Friends: Please forward this to biomedical researchers and geneticists whom you know. Best wishes. Arun ------------------------------------- New OA database coming from the NIH The NIH will partner with Pfizer and other private corporations to launch an OA database of genetic data. See yesterday's press release from Pfizer: The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Pfizer Global Research & Development, New London, Conn., today announced the launch of a unique public-private medical research partnership -- the Genetic Association Information Network (GAIN) -- to unravel the genetic causes of common diseases over the next three years. The information derived from GAIN will be publicly available to researchers world-wide. GAIN brings new scientific and financial resources to the NIH's existing whole genome association programs, encouraging all partners -- across and beyond NIH -- to work together toward the common goal of understanding the genetic contributions to common diseases. Organizers of the GAIN partnership believe the model holds promise of achieving rapid, scientifically sound results that any single researcher or institution working alone would be hard-pressed to equal. GAIN is designed to help medical researchers quickly identify the many genetic contributions to common illnesses such as heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and stroke by comparing the genetic makeup of people with the disease to people who are healthy. Identifying genetic differences between these two groups will speed up the development of new methods to prevent, diagnose, treat and even cure common illnesses....The GAIN initiative proposes to raise $60 million in private funding for genetic studies of common diseases. The initiative does not require new expenditures of public funds nor will it be implemented at the expense of any existing or pending publicly funded biomedical research programs...."Virtually all diseases have a hereditary component, which is transmitted from parent to child through the three billion DNA letters that make up the human genome," said Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at NIH. "But progress in identifying the genetic factors that influence health or disease, or even the response to treatment, has been difficult. This initiative promises to identify rapidly the many genes in an individual that, taken together, contribute to an increased risk of illness -- or that increase the chances of a healthy life. As these genetic underpinnings become clear, researchers will be empowered to develop targeted treatments that either prevent illness from occurring or treat it effectively once it does." Also see Jeffrey Brainard, NIH Proposes New Project and Database to Study Genetic Causes of Disease, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9, 2006 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: The National Institutes of Health announced on Wednesday a new research effort and free, public database about the genetic causes of common illnesses. The project, to be financed jointly by the NIH and biotechnology companies, will be designed to protect the publishing priority of researchers who put data in the repository. The database, to be managed by the agency's National Library of Medicine, would contain genetic data from thousands of patients with particular diseases, with details that could identify the patients removed. The NIH will require users of the database to wait nine months before publishing papers based on data that they did not deposit themselves, Elias A. Zerhouni, the agency's director, said at a news conference. That policy is meant to prevent scientists who donate data from being scooped by competitors. The database will allow researchers to comb through the DNA of ill and healthy people to explore whether the sick individuals have genes in common. The NIH will also pay to study how genes and environmental causes, like pollutants, combine to cause disease....The new work will begin this year, financed with at least $20-million from Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical company, and additional contributions from Affymetrix Inc., a biotechnology company. The research will initially focus on seven illnesses and health conditions, to be determined based on a peer review of research proposals. However, the NIH cited as possible candidates arthritis, asthma, cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease. In his 2007 budget, released on Monday, President Bush proposed that the NIH spend an additional $68-million for work on other diseases. The project announced on Wednesday would be one of the NIH's few new efforts for 2007, when, under the president's proposal, the agency's overall budget would get no increase....The overall partnership between the NIH and the companies will be managed by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, an independent group that promotes similar alliances, and is to be called the Genetic Association Information Network [GAIN]....Pfizer, Affymetrix, and other contributors to the database will receive no special intellectual-property rights, according to Dr. Zerhouni. The data are considered "precompetitive," meaning that companies must perform further research on the publicly available data before they can reap commercially valuable discoveries. A similar model was followed by companies that contributed data to the HapMap project. Comment. One of the largest impediments I've seen to OA data is the fear of being scooped. Many researchers are only willing to share their data after they've published all they have to say about it themselves. I applaud the GAIN proposal as one way to solve this problem and make more data more sharable more quickly. It's likely that the benefits of sharing the data will outweigh the costs of the nine-month embargo on publishing new results based on the data --but it's not inevitable. I hope the NIH monitors the balance of these costs and benefits over time and shortens the embargo as much as it can without deterring submissions.

1 0

School library project-kerala
by Saji S. Nair 10 Feb '06

10 Feb '06

Dear all, School library modernisation project of the Government of Kerala is moving ahead with innovative ideas, with active support from students and the public. The project also plans for a Handbook on maintaining school libraries. But nothing heard about inducting qualified professionals. see the news at http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/10/stories/2006021014971000.htm "School library modernisation project to continue". regards Saji S. Nair Regional Cancer Centre Library Trivandrum Kerala _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

1 0

Health Info Platform for Europe
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Feb '06

10 Feb '06

Launch of the European Health Information Platform Brian Robinson, EU focuses on health education, Government Health IT, February 7, 2006. Excerpt: The European Union has launched the European Health Information Platform, a $1.7 million multimedia initiative to improve the quality of information its citizens receive about health issues. Also known as Health in Europe, the program will create a rights-free bank of health-related reports, documentaries, radio broadcasts and print and online articles for distribution throughout the EU. -------------- Dear Guna: Please forward this to all interested in health information in India. I am away from MSSRF and I do not have the email addresses with me right now. Thanks.

1 0

A Web Library of Research Output
by Library 09 Feb '06

09 Feb '06

EPW Commentary January 28, 2006 A Web Library of Research Output Data gathered and analysis carried out using public funds should be in the public domain, their dissemination is in the public interest. Here are some initial ideas about setting up a web library that ensures open access to publicly-funded social research output. V Srinivasan A large amount of social science research is carried out in the country, much of it with government, bilateral or multilateral funding, that is, public funding. Such research usually results in the production of reports, many of which contain useful data, analyses, ideas, and recommendations. But only a small portion of this output feeds into policy-making or public debate; the bulk of it is hardly circulated. Indeed, most of it is treated as virtually secret, inaccessible to the public in whose name it is carried out. Unfortunately, it is not an accepted view that data gathered and analysis carried out using public funds are a part of the public domain, and that their dis- semination is in the public interest. A scan of the websites of various government bodies illustrates this well. The ministry of social justice and empowerment and the ministry of rural development list some research reports on their sites but do not provide access to the listed reports or supporting studies. The reports of the National Sample Survey Organisation or the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, to name just two important bodies, are not available via the internet. The government has commissioned 20 studies or reports on child labour but only two or three are available on the internet. The result is that a great deal of research work is duplicated, since there is no access to previous research in the same area. Today, even if the authors of these reports wished to disseminate them widely, they lack an effective mechanism for doing so. To address this problem, the innovation centre of a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation, Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies (SOSVA), has proposed a strikingly simple solution: the creation of an internet library housing all economic, social and political studies and reports prepared with government, bilateral or multilateral aid. Such access to previous research would prevent duplication of research work in the same area and check plagiarism. The quality of research would be improved by public scrutiny. Discussion on the themes covered could also be advanced considerably. Finally, the disseminated work could feed into policy-making or public debate. SOSVA proposes that electronic copies of any study, report or document prepared using government or international funds be submitted to the web library. This proposal is along the lines of the practice followed in the US whereby a copy of any book published in the country must be deposited with the Library of Congress to receive a Library of Congress Control Number. Unless this is done, no public grant, foreign or Indian, would be deemed utilised; indeed, the comptroller and auditor general or other appropriate agency would report that the funds are deemed unutilised. Steps need to be taken to make this legally binding and administratively effective. These studies would then be posted on the web library, which would have a standard classification system and easy search tools. The advantages of such a library are the advantages of the internet: At no cost, a huge wealth of information would be available to the public. Moreover, users would not need to know of the existence of particular reports or other materials in advance; they could discover them while browsing through the library, as it were. Not only would duplication of labour be avoided, and the quality of research improved by subjecting it to public scrutiny, but the quality of debate on questions of public interest could be enhanced. That, in turn, ought to spur genuine development. The same library could also host many documents that are available today but only as hard copies, that is, in printed form, and therefore in effect accessible only to a few. The idea could be developed further and the web library need not be restricted to work undertaken by government and donor agencies. For example, the web library could include doctoral theses, documents of international non-governmental organisations, and so on. Linkages can be provided to other electronic libraries as well, to constitute a core bibliography to be available on the websites. This idea could be extended further. The web library need not be restricted to work undertaken by government and donor agencies. For example, the documents of international non-governmental organisations or agencies could be put up on this site. Links could be provided to other electronic libraries to constitute a core bibliography available on the internet. Certain technical and legal issues involved in setting up such a site may need examination. Some reports (or portions of them) may need to be withheld on grounds of "national security"; others because they reveal confidential or copyright materials. However, these questions appear fairly easy to resolve. The costs involved for setting up the web library, either as a fully owned portal facility co-hosted in a data centre or as portal hosted in a private hosting service provider, are negligible (a few lakhs of rupees) compared to the public funds spent on such research. The potential social benefits of such a web library are huge. In a sense, it could be argued that providing such access is a legitimate extension of the current efforts under the Freedom of Information Act. Although the thrust of the act is towards transparency in decision-making by government, the fundamental principle of the act, that government must throw its books open, applies as much as to information dissemination and development benefits as to decision-making. Email: sosva(a)hotmail.com http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2006&leaf=01&filename=9634&file… Sincerely B. Murugan Library Services M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation 3rd Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area Chennai - 600 113 Phone: 22541229 / 22542698; Extn: 208/209 EPW Commentary January 28, 2006 A Web Library of Research Output Data gathered and analysis carried out using public funds should be in the public domain, their dissemination is in the public interest. Here are some initial ideas about setting up a web library that ensures open access to publicly-funded social research output. V Srinivasan A large amount of social science research is carried out in the country, much of it with government, bilateral or multilateral funding, that is, public funding. Such research usually results in the production of reports, many of which contain useful data, analyses, ideas, and recommendations. But only a small portion of this output feeds into policy-making or public debate; the bulk of it is hardly circulated. Indeed, most of it is treated as virtually secret, inaccessible to the public in whose name it is carried out. Unfortunately, it is not an accepted view that data gathered and analysis carried out using public funds are a part of the public domain, and that their dis- semination is in the public interest. A scan of the websites of various government bodies illustrates this well. The ministry of social justice and empowerment and the ministry of rural development list some research reports on their sites but do not provide access to the listed reports or supporting studies. The reports of the National Sample Survey Organisation or the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, to name just two important bodies, are not available via the internet. The government has commissioned 20 studies or reports on child labour but only two or three are available on the internet. The result is that a great deal of research work is duplicated, since there is no access to previous research in the same area. Today, even if the authors of these reports wished to disseminate them widely, they lack an effective mechanism for doing so. To address this problem, the innovation centre of a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation, Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies (SOSVA), has proposed a strikingly simple solution: the creation of an internet library housing all economic, social and political studies and reports prepared with government, bilateral or multilateral aid. Such access to previous research would prevent duplication of research work in the same area and check plagiarism. The quality of research would be improved by public scrutiny. Discussion on the themes covered could also be advanced considerably. Finally, the disseminated work could feed into policy-making or public debate. SOSVA proposes that electronic copies of any study, report or document prepared using government or international funds be submitted to the web library. This proposal is along the lines of the practice followed in the US whereby a copy of any book published in the country must be deposited with the Library of Congress to receive a Library of Congress Control Number. Unless this is done, no public grant, foreign or Indian, would be deemed utilised; indeed, the comptroller and auditor general or other appropriate agency would report that the funds are deemed unutilised. Steps need to be taken to make this legally binding and administratively effective. These studies would then be posted on the web library, which would have a standard classification system and easy search tools. The advantages of such a library are the advantages of the internet: At no cost, a huge wealth of information would be available to the public. Moreover, users would not need to know of the existence of particular reports or other materials in advance; they could discover them while browsing through the library, as it were. Not only would duplication of labour be avoided, and the quality of research improved by subjecting it to public scrutiny, but the quality of debate on questions of public interest could be enhanced. That, in turn, ought to spur genuine development. The same library could also host many documents that are available today but only as hard copies, that is, in printed form, and therefore in effect accessible only to a few. The idea could be developed further and the web library need not be restricted to work undertaken by government and donor agencies. For example, the web library could include doctoral theses, documents of international non-governmental organisations, and so on. Linkages can be provided to other electronic libraries as well, to constitute a core bibliography to be available on the websites. This idea could be extended further. The web library need not be restricted to work undertaken by government and donor agencies. For example, the documents of international non-governmental organisations or agencies could be put up on this site. Links could be provided to other electronic libraries to constitute a core bibliography available on the internet. Certain technical and legal issues involved in setting up such a site may need examination. Some reports (or portions of them) may need to be withheld on grounds of “national security”; others because they reveal confidential or copyright materials. However, these questions appear fairly easy to resolve. The costs involved for setting up the web library, either as a fully owned portal facility co-hosted in a data centre or as portal hosted in a private hosting service provider, are negligible (a few lakhs of rupees) compared to the public funds spent on such research. The potential social benefits of such a web library are huge. In a sense, it could be argued that providing such access is a legitimate extension of the current efforts under the Freedom of Information Act. Although the thrust of the act is towards transparency in decision-making by government, the fundamental principle of the act, that government must throw its books open, applies as much as to information dissemination and development benefits as to decision-making. Email: mailto:sosva@hotmail.com sosva(a)hotmail.com http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2006&leaf=01&filename=9634&file… http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2006&leaf=01&filename=9634&file… Sincerely B. Murugan Library Services M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation 3rd Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area Chennai - 600 113 Phone: 22541229 / 22542698; Extn: 208/209

1 0

UK to launch online life sciences archive
by Subbiah Arunachalam 08 Feb '06

08 Feb '06

More on the UK version of PMC James Watson, UK to launch online life sciences archive, VNUnet, February 9, 2006. Excerpt: UK scientists have started work on the creation of a free online digital archive of peer-reviewed medical research in the UK. The site, due to be launched at the beginning of next year, will hold more than 500,000 research articles. An estimated one million unique users are expected to visit the site every month, accessing about three million full-text medical articles. Led by the Wellcome Trust, with support from a group of major UK biomedical research funding bodies, the UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) project aims to mirror a similar repository in the US, while also accepting UK research material. The implementation of UKPMC represents the creation of a significant resource for the life sciences community, said Robert Terry, senior policy adviser at the Wellcome Trust. It is about a subject-based repository for life sciences that is freely available with the internet. It is part of a movement in research to improve access to peer-reviewed published literature. The process of finding a supplier to develop, host and manage the service started this month. The appointed contractor will host and manage three separate components, comprising a UK-hosted mirror of the USPMC, a local author manuscript submission and tracking system, and a system to provide authenticated login services for manuscript submission. We are making a standalone UK portal of the US version. It mirrors US material and takes UK material, said Terry....A contract is expected to be awarded in July. ---- This is a model other countries could follow. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]

1 0

Reminder:Invitation to the Inaugural Session of the Workshop
by Suvarsha Walters 08 Feb '06

08 Feb '06

You are cordially invited to attend the inaugural session of the National Workshop on Scientific Journal Publishing in India Venue: ===== Seminar Hall, National Centre for Science Information (NCSI), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore Date & Timings: ============== 10th February, 2006. 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Schedule: ======== 10.00 - 10.15 am - Inagural 10.15 - 11.00 am - 'Open Access Publishing in India' by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, MS Swaminathan Foundation 11.00 - 11.30 am - High Tea 11.30 - 12.15 pm - 'Medknow Publications - A Case Study' by Dr. D.K. Sahu, Medknow Publications Pvt. Ltd 12.15 - 1.00 pm - 'Indian biomedical Journals at NIC - Issues for migration to OJS' Sukhdev Singh, National Informatics Centre Please confirm your participation by email to the following email ID, so that we can make the necessary arrangements. sjpi(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in with regards, Suvarsha *********************************************************************** Suvarsha Walters, Project Assistant, National Centre for Science Information Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore - 560 012 INDIA Ph (Off): 080-23600271 / 22932511 E-mail: sjpi(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in ************************************************************************

1 0

US gearing up to producing more scientists
by Subbiah Arunachalam 08 Feb '06

08 Feb '06

Friends: The US is concerned about the brain power of Chinese and Indian scientists and technologists and is gearing up to producing more home-grown talent. Please read what Christian Science Monitor has to say on this issue. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] ---- Commentary > The Monitor's View from the February 08, 2006 edition Yes, it does take a rocket scientist The Monitor's View A bright spot in the Bush budget is more money to nurture more bright people - no, not just kids who can solve a Rubik's cube in 11 seconds, but the types who invented the Internet or can build the most high-tech widgets or teach the future Einsteins. The iPod nation needs an eyewash about its techno-future. While still the world leader in science and engineering, America has let its technological edge become dull. Federal aid for basic physical sciences has dipped, companies aren't investing as much in long-term research, and schools aren't producing enough students who are both competent and interested in science and math to match the competition from nations such as India and China. Among high school seniors in 21 top countries, the US ranks 16th in science. Its math ranking is 19th. News like that should create another Sputnik moment for the US. Up-and-coming poor countries with burgeoning brainpower are competing on more than wages. US-based companies often prefer the technical skills of Chinese workers and the innovation of Indian researchers, or they simply seek special US visas to import them. That is hollowing out US manufacturing and leaving too many lesser-skilled Americans losing out on factory jobs. Nudged into action by a few Democratic and Republican senators, as well as key high-tech leaders, the president has proposed a "competitiveness initiative," which he sees as a prime domestic cause for the rest of his presidency. He's smart to find an issue with bipartisan support to help dampen Washington's blue-red schism. President Bush has asked Congress to commit $136 billion to science and math education over the next 10 years. That would help train and hire 70,000 new science and math teachers for Advanced Placement courses in high schools. He also wants to allow 30,000 professionals in those fields to become math and science teachers, and to create incentives for students to sign up for those courses. One big incentive is a plan to add science to the accountability testing in public schools under the No Child Left Behind law. Bush also wants to make permanent a tax credit for R&D in industry and double funding for research in basic areas such as nanotechnology. Such steps aren't simply aimed at raising the number of scientists and engineers (many of whom have left some overpopulated fields) or producing more high-tech workers. They're also aimed at pushing people into new fields and keeping up US quality in creative discoveries, inventions, and innovations. The nation has to generate a lot of frogs to find an Edison prince. Unlike the post-Sputnik spurt in US science education and spending during the 1960s, the rapid pace of today's global competition compels the US to keep its investment in these fields permanently high. It's become a net importer of high-tech goods and lost its lead in patents - despite its current high R&D spending. Bush must work as closely with Democrats in passing these measures as he did to pass the No Child act. Politics isn't rocket science, but rocket scientists and their colleagues need politicians to keep the US aloft in science Friends: The US is concerned about the brain power of Chinese and Indian scientists and technologists and is gearing up to producing more home-grown talent. Please read what Christian Science Monitor has to say on this issue. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] ---- http://www.csmonitor.com/commentary/index.html Commentary > http://www.csmonitor.com/commentary/monitorView.html The Monitor's View from the February 08, 2006 edition Yes, it does take a rocket scientist The Monitor's View A bright spot in the Bush budget is more money to nurture more bright people - no, not just kids who can solve a Rubik's cube in 11 seconds, but the types who invented the Internet or can build the most high-tech widgets or teach the future Einsteins. The iPod nation needs an eyewash about its techno-future. While still the world leader in science and engineering, America has let its technological edge become dull. Federal aid for basic physical sciences has dipped, companies aren't investing as much in long-term research, and schools aren't producing enough students who are both competent and interested in science and math to match the competition from nations such as India and China. Among high school seniors in 21 top countries, the US ranks 16th in science. Its math ranking is 19th. News like that should create another Sputnik moment for the US. Up-and-coming poor countries with burgeoning brainpower are competing on more than wages. US-based companies often prefer the technical skills of Chinese workers and the innovation of Indian researchers, or they simply seek special US visas to import them. That is hollowing out US manufacturing and leaving too many lesser-skilled Americans losing out on factory jobs. Nudged into action by a few Democratic and Republican senators, as well as key high-tech leaders, the president has proposed a "competitiveness initiative," which he sees as a prime domestic cause for the rest of his presidency. He's smart to find an issue with bipartisan support to help dampen Washington's blue-red schism. President Bush has asked Congress to commit $136 billion to science and math education over the next 10 years. That would help train and hire 70,000 new science and math teachers for Advanced Placement courses in high schools. He also wants to allow 30,000 professionals in those fields to become math and science teachers, and to create incentives for students to sign up for those courses. One big incentive is a plan to add science to the accountability testing in public schools under the No Child Left Behind law. Bush also wants to make permanent a tax credit for R&D in industry and double funding for research in basic areas such as nanotechnology. Such steps aren't simply aimed at raising the number of scientists and engineers (many of whom have left some overpopulated fields) or producing more high-tech workers. They're also aimed at pushing people into new fields and keeping up US quality in creative discoveries, inventions, and innovations. The nation has to generate a lot of frogs to find an Edison prince. Unlike the post-Sputnik spurt in US science education and spending during the 1960s, the rapid pace of today's global competition compels the US to keep its investment in these fields permanently high. It's become a net importer of high-tech goods and lost its lead in patents - despite its current high R&D spending. Bush must work as closely with Democrats in passing these measures as he did to pass the No Child act. Politics isn't rocket science, but rocket scientists and their colleagues need politicians to keep the US aloft in science

1 0

Switzerland goes for open access
by Subbiah Arunachalam 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

Friends: Switzerland is embracing Open access. Read the press release from the Swiss national Science Foundation reprinted below. Subbiah Arunachalam Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Foerderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung 07.02.2006 Globalised knowledge market poses new challenges to science Joint signing of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities by Swiss scientific organisations The Rectors Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS), the Conference of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences (KFH), the Swiss Conference of Schools for Teacher Education (SKPH) as well as the Council of the Swiss Scientific Academies (CASS), together with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), have signed the so-called Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities which furthers open access to knowledge in the sciences and humanities. The joint signing of the Berlin Declaration by Rectors Conferences, Academies and National Foundation demonstrates the determined support for the Open Access philosophy, namely the most open access to scientific information for all interested parties, free of charge. The declaration is the response from the research system to the new opportunities for information offered by the Internet: opening up faster, more comprehensive and differentiated access to digital information for scientists and offering the corresponding services. The Conference of Swiss University Libraries (KUB) has already been canvassing for some time for widespread signing of the Berlin Declaration, in particular because Open Access systems will offer an alternative for the rapid increase in prices for subscriptions to commercial magazines from scientific publishers. Knowledge as a public asset for researchers and interested parties Scientific information is normally the result of the creation of knowledge subsidised by public funds. As public property it should be accessible to all interested parties without payment in return. Open Access simultaneously helps to break down barriers for accessing research knowledge. The objective of Returning Science to the Scientists is to provide maximum access to the results of research for scientific communities; after all, science as a public asset for researchers, both stimulates and generates new research ideas. 2.5 million articles published every year in 24,000 scientific magazines Open Access for publications is concentrated on the 2.5 million magazine articles which are published worldwide every year in the exclusive 24,000 scientific magazines categorised as peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific journals. This can be achieved in two different forms: first of all through the actual archiving of the proprietary publications already appearing in scientific journals, on its own Homepage, the university server or a platform for institutions (approx. 92% of the 24,000 journals already permit their authors to do this); secondly, through publication in Peer Reviewed Open Access Journals (around 10% of the 24,000 journals currently allow this). One example of this is currently the largest provider of Open Access journals, BioMed Central (BMC), a profit-orientated British publishing firm with a portfolio of over 170 journals, including 137 pure Open Access Journals; as well however as the non-profit organisation Public Library of Science (PLoS). Researchers are convinced: Open Access is crucial in promoting knowledge exchange In Switzerland there is no study that gives an insight into the change in the publications market which is the subject of keen discussion due to Open Access but provides virtually no data. However, a very recent survey by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on the attitude of scientists to publications and reception shows a German perspective : over 80% of the researchers questioned from the humanities/social sciences, natural/engineering sciences and life sciences, are convinced about the culture of Open Access: It is a decisive factor in promoting the exchange of scientific knowledge. In addition, the idea of personal archiving of scientific articles which have already been published in reputable specialized journals was considered very positively. Need to develop a technical infrastructure in Switzerland By signing the Berlin Declaration the Conferences of Rectors, the Academies and National Foundation, as an organisation promoting research, will in future pursue the following aims: researchers will be encouraged to make their (Peer Reviewed journals) publications openly available through way of Open Access personal archiving. The development of a technical infrastructure that permits fast and convenient access to scientific content, as well as the provision of help and services from the technical and organisational aspects, will provide these researchers with institutional support for their OA efforts. There also remains a series of legal and scientific-political questions to be clarified on the international cooperation side - what is important first of all however is to provide the joint, positive signal for the introduction of Open Access solutions into Switzerland.

1 0

Google Merges IM With Email
by noufal palliparamban 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

Friends, Google is integrating its popular e-mail service with its instant messaging (IM), allowing users to chat and send e-mails from the same web browser window. The new facility will be visible to existing subscribers from within Google's Gmail browser window. Full Details: http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=71207&cat_id=643 Regards Noufal.P.P IIT Kanpur --------------------------------- Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. Friends, Google is integrating its popular e-mail service with its instant messaging (IM), allowing users to chat and send e-mails from the same web browser window. The new facility will be visible to existing subscribers from within Google's Gmail browser window. Full Details: http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=71207&cat_id=643 http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=71207&cat_id=643 Regards Noufal.P.P IIT Kanpur Jiyo cricket on http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail/in/mailcricket/*http://in.sports.yahoo.com/cric… Yahoo! India cricket http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail/in/mailmobilemessenger/*http://in.mobile.yahoo.… Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time.

1 0

Vacancy: AL (ST)-TISS, Mumbai
by Puttaraj Choukimath 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

Dear All, fyi: http://www.tiss.edu/work.htm All the Best Puttartaj. Mr.Puttaraj, A. C. Asst. Librarian (Periodicals) SDTM Library, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, P.B. No.8313, Deonar, MUMBAI - 400 088 INDIA Tel: +91-22-2556 3290, Ext.285 (O) Fax: +91-22-2556 2912 Email: puttuc(a)yahoo.com, choukimath(a)tiss.edu URL: www.tiss.edu --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. Dear All, fyi: http://www.tiss.edu/work.htm http://www.tiss.edu/work.htm All the Best Puttartaj. Mr.Puttaraj, A. C. Asst. Librarian (Periodicals) SDTM Library, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, P.B. No.8313, Deonar, MUMBAI - 400 088 INDIA Tel: +91-22-2556 3290, Ext.285 (O) Fax: +91-22-2556 2912 Email: mailto:puttuc@yahoo.com puttuc(a)yahoo.com , mailto:choukimath@tiss.edu choukimath(a)tiss.edu URL: http://www.tiss.edu www.tiss.edu http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/virusmail/*http://mail.yahoo.com Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.

1 0

Libraries fear digital lockdown
by Farooque Shaheen 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

Libraries have warned that the rise of digital publishing may make it harder or even impossible to access items in their collections in the future. You can access full article on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4675280.stm Thanks & Regards, Farooque Shaheen, Caritor India Pvt Ltd. Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105 Libraries have warned that the rise of digital publishing may make it harder or even impossible to access items in their collections in the future. You can access full article on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4675280.stm Thanks & Regards, Farooque Shaheen, Caritor India Pvt Ltd. Tel. 080-26678388 # 4105

1 0

Fwd: OA Librarian
by Bhojaraju G 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hello everyone, You might be interested in OA Librarian, a new, cooperatively produced weblog, which combines a pathfinder function with news and commentary on open access and librarianship: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com OA Librarian highlights the work of librarians who advocate for open access, and draws attention to pertinent LIS research that is being deposited into LIS open access archives, such as dLIST. Recent deposits summarized in OAL include research by Michele Cloonan and Shelby Sanett on Digital Preservation: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/12/digital-preservation.html and Andrew Dillon and April Norris on the LIS education crisis: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/lis-education-crisis.html Apologies in advance for cross-posting, and happy reading! --Paul -------------- Paul F. Marty, Ph.D. (marty(a)fsu.edu) Assistant Professor, College of Information Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 32306-2100 http://info.fsu.edu/~pmarty Thanks and Regards Bhojaraju G Knowledge Management Practice *********************************************************************************************************** GCI Solutions (SEI CMM Level 4 Company), 31 Grape Garden, 17th H Main, Kormangala, 6th Block, Bangalore - 560 095. INDIA. Ph: 91 80 2552 2059 Ext. 421, Fax: 91 80 2553 8415, Cell: +91 944 836 9905 URL: www.g-c-i.com *********************************************************************************************************** KM Cyberary: http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html KM-Forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Forum/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=3319898 Hello everyone, You might be interested in OA Librarian, a new, cooperatively produced weblog, which combines a pathfinder function with news and commentary on open access and librarianship: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/ http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com OA Librarian highlights the work of librarians who advocate for open access, and draws attention to pertinent LIS research that is being deposited into LIS open access archives, such as dLIST. Recent deposits summarized in OAL include research by Michele Cloonan and Shelby Sanett on Digital Preservation: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/12/digital-preservation.html http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/12/digital-preservation.html and Andrew Dillon and April Norris on the LIS education crisis: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/lis-education-crisis.html http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/lis-education-crisis.html Apologies in advance for cross-posting, and happy reading! --Paul -------------- Paul F. Marty, Ph.D. ( mailto:marty@fsu.edu marty(a)fsu.edu ) Assistant Professor, College of Information Florida State University, Tallahassee FL 32306-2100 http://info.fsu.edu/~pmarty http://info.fsu.edu/~pmarty Thanks and Regards Bhojaraju G Knowledge Management Practice *********************************************************************************************************** GCI Solutions (SEI CMM Level 4 Company), 31 Grape Garden, 17th H Main, Kormangala, 6th Block, Bangalore - 560 095. INDIA. Ph: 91 80 2552 2059 Ext. 421, Fax: 91 80 2553 8415, Cell: +91 944 836 9905 URL: http://www.g-c-i.com www.g-c-i.com *********************************************************************************************************** KM Cyberary: http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html KM-Forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Forum/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Forum/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=3319898 https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=3319898

1 0

new stuff
by Thapar, Amit 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Libraries Using IM Reference http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference#Libraries_Using_… If you're thinking about using instant messenger for reference service, and want to ask librarians who are already doing it how it's working for them, start here. Library Grants Blog http://www.librarygrants.blogspot.com/ The authors of a new book, Grants for Libraries, update you here on funding opportunities. Not categorized by topic, but it is searchable. amit@niper Cell: 9855701060 / 9417419457 e-mail: amit_thapar(a)yahoo.com URL: http://www.niper.gov.in/ "Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive." "Reality is the only obstacle to happiness" "Life is just Fun, like a scoop of Ice Cream, - Enjoy it before it melts ! " Libraries Using IM Reference http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference#Libraries_Using_… http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference#Libraries_Using_… If you're thinking about using instant messenger for reference service, and want to ask librarians who are already doing it how it's working for them, start here. Library Grants Blog http://www.librarygrants.blogspot.com/ http://www.librarygrants.blogspot.com/ The authors of a new book, Grants for Libraries, update you here on funding opportunities. Not categorized by topic, but it is searchable. mailto:amit@niper amit@niper Cell: 9855701060 / 9417419457 e-mail: mailto:amit_thapar@yahoo.com amit_thapar(a)yahoo.com URL: http://www.niper.gov.in/ http://www.niper.gov.in/ "Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive." "Reality is the only obstacle to happiness" "Life is just Fun, like a scoop of Ice Cream, - Enjoy it before it melts ! "

1 0

Search Engine for Health Science
by Sreeharsha_Gopalakrishna＠i2.com 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Dear All, Here is one search engine in its Alpha Stage, developed by 2 Indians related to Health Science. Unlike Google this has many features... For ex: If you give a keyword you will get Basic information, Expert opinion, Blogs related to that concept, and organization working on it, etc... Here is the URL - http://www.kosmix.com/ Thanks ~Sreeharsha BG

1 0

Data mining in libraries
by Sukhdev Singh 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

How can data mining could be useful in the following? -Collaborative Collection Management-Collection views-Library decision-making-User behavior-Trend-spotting Read the following article. Making Data Work HarderBy Brian Lavoie, Lorcan Dempsey, and Lynn Silipigni Connaway — January 15, 2006http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6298444.html You would be interested knowing in how - "OCLC Research has been tackling data mining from two directions. Oneuses data to create enhanced user experiences. The OCLC WorldMap is ageographical representation of WorldCat title holdings by state,province, and country of publication. WorldMap can be used to identifygroups of collections visually for potential collaborative collectiondevelopment and management." --------------------------------Sukhdev Singh, NIChttp://openmed.nic.in

1 0

Fwd: "Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium"
by Bhojaraju G 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Pimentel <pimentel(a)syr.edu> Subject: Doctoral consortium: Call for Participation Please share with doctoral students at your institution. ******************** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Doctoral Consortium in Information Studies at Connections 2006 Syracuse University School of Information Studies Syracuse, NY May 19-21 http://connections2006.syr.edu/consortium.htm PhD students in information studies (including LIS, IS, MIS and information policy programs) are invited to submit applications for the Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium. The consortium offers an opportunity for Ph.D. students making progress on their dissertation research to share and discuss their research with peers and faculty mentors. It will include multiple concurrent small group sessions facilitated by experienced faculty members with expertise in the topic area or methodological approach. In addition, there will be opportunities to network with peers and faculty, learn about research and publishing strategies, and engage in discussions on research, teaching, jobs, and careers. As the purpose of the Doctoral Consortium is to share and get feedback on research, it is most useful for students who have defended a proposal (or are close to doing so). The consortium will be held on Friday 19 May 2006 as a pre-conference activity in conjunction with Connections 2006 (19-21 May 2006), at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, in Syracuse, NY. Accepted participants will be expected to arrive in Syracuse by 6 pm on Thursday 18 May 2006. A get-acquainted event will take place at 7 pm. Participants are also encouraged to attend and present their research at Connections 2006. APPLICATION PROCESS To apply, send an e-mail to Kevin Crowston <crowston(a)syr.edu> with Subject Line "Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium." Attach an abstract (not to exceed 5 double spaced pages including figures and tables but not references) describing the student's proposed dissertation. The submission should also include the expected timeline for completing the dissertation, including the date of the proposal defence. The DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS is 3 March 2006 and accepted participants will be notified by 17 March 2006. Faculty participants will be identified soon. CONTACT INFORMATION Please contact Dr. Kevin Crowston < crowston(a)syr.edu> with any questions. Also visit http://connections2006.syr.edu/consortium.htm for more information. Thanks and Regards Bhojaraju G Knowledge Management Practice *********************************************************************************************************** KM Cyberary: http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html KM-Forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Forum/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=3319898 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Pimentel < mailto:pimentel@syr.edu pimentel(a)syr.edu > Subject: Doctoral consortium: Call for Participation Please share with doctoral students at your institution. ******************** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Doctoral Consortium in Information Studies at Connections 2006 Syracuse University School of Information Studies Syracuse, NY May 19-21 http://connections2006.syr.edu/consortium.htm http://connections2006.syr.edu/consortium.htm PhD students in information studies (including LIS, IS, MIS and information policy programs) are invited to submit applications for the Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium. The consortium offers an opportunity for Ph.D. students making progress on their dissertation research to share and discuss their research with peers and faculty mentors. It will include multiple concurrent small group sessions facilitated by experienced faculty members with expertise in the topic area or methodological approach. In addition, there will be opportunities to network with peers and faculty, learn about research and publishing strategies, and engage in discussions on research, teaching, jobs, and careers. As the purpose of the Doctoral Consortium is to share and get feedback on research, it is most useful for students who have defended a proposal (or are close to doing so). The consortium will be held on Friday 19 May 2006 as a pre-conference activity in conjunction with Connections 2006 (19-21 May 2006), at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, in Syracuse, NY. Accepted participants will be expected to arrive in Syracuse by 6 pm on Thursday 18 May 2006. A get-acquainted event will take place at 7 pm. Participants are also encouraged to attend and present their research at Connections 2006. APPLICATION PROCESS To apply, send an e-mail to Kevin Crowston < mailto:crowston@syr.edu crowston(a)syr.edu > with Subject Line "Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium." Attach an abstract (not to exceed 5 double spaced pages including figures and tables but not references) describing the student's proposed dissertation. The submission should also include the expected timeline for completing the dissertation, including the date of the proposal defence. The DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS is 3 March 2006 and accepted participants will be notified by 17 March 2006. Faculty participants will be identified soon. CONTACT INFORMATION Please contact Dr. Kevin Crowston < mailto:crowston@syr.edu crowston(a)syr.edu > with any questions. Also visit http://connections2006.syr.edu/consortium.htm http://connections2006.syr.edu/consortium.htm for more information. Thanks and Regards Bhojaraju G Knowledge Management Practice *********************************************************************************************************** KM Cyberary: http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html KM-Forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Forum/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Forum/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=3319898 https://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=3319898

1 0

Next generation digital libraries
by Subbiah Arunachalam 05 Feb '06

05 Feb '06

Friends: Here is something academic and special librarians in particular will find interesting. [http://www.campus-technology.com/print.asp?ID=17887] Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] Digital Library Initiatives -- Next-Gen Libraries By Matt Villano As digital repositories continue to evolve, keep your eye on these projects. They may serve as the models for your own digitization initiatives. Read on! Next Gen Libraries Keeping a history of peace studies. Cataloging audio and video broadcasts important to the Northwest. Digitizing images and other documents older than the state of California. All of these efforts are important steps toward preserving the history of our nations development. And all of them are going on right now, thanks to various digital library efforts. Digital library initiatives are nothing new; the effort to digitize data for posterity has been alive and well now for the better part of two decades. (See Opening a Digital Library, Campus Technology, Sept. 2005.) Still, the world of digital libraries changes furiously every month, and it seems theres always something new to explore. Here are details on some of the newest stories, and predictions about the digital library movement in the months to come. Teaching Peace When it comes to modern-day religions, Quakerism isnt exactly the first faith that comes to mind. Still, in todays era of war and strife, the peace-loving Religious Society of Friends that was founded in England in 1660 is alive and well, its tenents taught mostly at three Indiana institutions: Goshen College, Earlham College, and Manchester College. In order to make their collections more accessible, the three schools banded together in 2003 to digitize local archives centered on peace studies. Today, the collection includes organizational records, diaries, and specialized periodicals. The effort has been dubbed the Plowshares Project. Plowshares began out of a drive for the colleges to more closely align their resources. Earlham is Quaker, Goshen is Mennonite, and Manchester is Brethren, and these three churches traditionally comprise the Historic Peace Churches. Indiana is the only state in the country that has colleges from all three denominations, so it seemed fitting that the three should join forces and pool materials. Tom Kirk, library director and coordinator of Information Systems at Earlham, explains that the schools had met first in 2004 to discuss ways in which they could collaborate. Months later, a $13.3 million grant from the philanthropic Lilly Endowment (www.lillyendowment.org) set the plan in motion. The projects focus was not on the digital library per se but on this larger institutional collaboration, of which one part was the library, says Kirk. Each of the three campuses is selecting materials from its own archives that reflect the history of the denominations work in the areas of peace and social justice. As Kirk explains, these materials comprise the very heart of the project itself. Over the course of eight months of image scanning in 2005, the schools added thousands of images, pages, and documents from just about every era since the peace movements began. By the time the project launched formally last month, it boasted 40,000 items, and has added even more since then. Much of the scanning has been performed by Orem, UT vendor Backstage Library Works (www.marclink.com) In addition, each school has farmed out certain scanning projects to full- and part-time staffers, including students who are paid by the hour. Were hoping we can communicate with just about any digital library in the world. Jim DeRoest, University of Washington Still, the project hasnt been without its challenges. At Goshen College, Library Director Lisa Guedea Carreno says the schools have been having some trouble ironing out copyright issues as they attempt to scan items for which rights have reverted to someone other than the original holder. Another big problem has been the quality and uniformity of the metadata, which she identifies as the information used to describe the items in the library itself (see Rethinking Metadata, left). As Carreno outlines the problems with the project so far, she is careful to note that ultimately, the benefits of Plowshares will far outweigh all of the struggling that participating schools have endured thus far. Rethinking Metadata A library is nothing without access. Even digital libraries need card catalogs of a sort to give users a sense of whats there and how to find it. For most digital libraries, virtual catalog cards exist in the form of metadata, or data about the content inside the library itself. As digital libraries have become increasingly sophisticated, however, creating worthwhile metadata has become a challenge. For starters, there is the issue of having accurate metadata. If a school errs in cataloging a particular image or document, that item could be lost forever in the digital ether until someone happens to stumble on it. Then there is the question of uniformity in metadata; if one school uses one set of metadata conventions and another school uses another, the two schools cannot combine libraries without a major programming initiative to reconcile the differences. Its Garbage in, garbage out, says Lisa Guedea Carreno, library director at Goshen College (IN). If you put in inconsistent things on the input side, the output side will be inconsistent, too. Fortunately, librarians nationwide are set to improve the metadata situation. Some have rallied around the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI; www.dublincore.org) an open forum that revolves around the extended Dublin Core model of informationauthor, title, publisher, and 12 other points of identifying information. Others have called this approach too vague, and are flocking to the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH; www.openarchives.org) new standards being pushed by the Digital Library Federation (DLF; www.diglib.org) in Washington, DC. According to Barrie Howard, program associate and principal investigator, the DLF approach consists of 21 identifiers, many of the same characteristics found in the Dublin Core. The difference is that the DLF approach also focuses on how information is written. An example: dates. Because schools now catalog the date an object was digitized in a variety of formats, DLF seeks to standardize that information. Solving such vagaries may end the metadata conundrum. Metadata enables resource discovery, but thats why its such a big deal, Howard says. Theres a lot of digital scholarship thats going on today, but if an item or piece of content cant be found, all the metadata in the world isnt worth a thing. These are distinctive collections, she says. No matter what we have to go through to get them online, its important theyre up there so everyone can use them down the road. Going to the Well While most digital repositories exist to store small, static files such as images and documents, a new project at the University of Washington has an entirely different purpose: storing big, bulky audio and video files. The DigitalWell project has been under development since 2000, when technologists set out to build a system to catalog audio broadcasts from the school-sponsored KEXP radio station, as well as video broadcasts from the UWTV television station and from campus research programs. Jim DeRoest, director of Streaming Media Technologies with the Video, TV, and Technologies group, has overseen it all. Today, to hear DeRoest describe D-Well is to listen to a proud father chatting about his child. He explains that after the school came up empty in a search to find an off-the-shelf program to manage its audio and video files, UW technologists got to work building their own. The result, unveiled publicly this past fall, represents a standard central computing model with clustered servers that scale as demand requires. Thanks to a proprietary underpinning system called the Storage Resource Broker (SRB) and a middleware system built by the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California at San Diego, D-Well is also interoperable with other digital library systems across academia. By using SRB as an underpinning, were really hoping that we can communicate with just about any digital library in the world, says DeRoest, who notes that with the help of this technology, UW already has been able to trade video content with the University of Queensland in Australia. What makes SRB so compatible is the language in which it is written. Because the original D-Well architect had come from Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) the project was built on the Windows Operating System using .NET technology. Since then, however, versions of the initial prototype have been developed in a variety of computing languages and forms. In September, ResearchChannel (www.researchchannel.org) a non-profit media and technology organization, and the Coalition for Networked Information (www.cni.org) have stepped in and released an open source version of the project to broaden the number of schools and other institutions that can take advantage of the technology. With this larger effort in full swing, DeRoest has redoubled his efforts to roll out D-Well on his home campus at UW. The universitys School of Music has been itching for a way to digitize its ethnomusicology collection, and D-Well would be a perfect fit. The astronomy department has some deep-space videos that theyre hoping to get into the system, as well. And the School of Nursing has expressed a desire to convert video coverage of lectures. Then, of course, theres the forestry department, which has inquired about collaborating with the University of São Paulo in Brazil, to digitize video content about old-growth forests and how forest fires start. So long as were preserving this stuff, well look at anything and everything, he says. If its a string of bits, thats about all that matters for us. The Real Enabler: Information Literacy The flourishing digital library scene boasts great potential for widespread resource sharing and increasingly sophisticated search, retrieval, and delivery mechanisms. But, as with most technology-enabled applications, the real promise lies in just how well the technologies are used by the communities they are intended to serve. True, educational programs can be put in place to bring individuals up to speed on how to search for and access digital materials. But there are broader issues to be addressed as well, as faculty, administrators, and librarians examine the overall effects of the digital age on their institutions. A few years ago, people spoke of computer literacy, which usually meant a basic familiarity and comfort level with a personal computer and mouse. Today, information literacy is a call to action that cuts across departmental and organizational lines and encompasses a range of issues, from access, to intellectual property, to professional roles. Students need to be taught how to discriminate among digital search results and be aware of copyright concerns. Faculty members and librarians must decide how to work together and examine whether their roles need to be redefined: Should the librarians and technologists work alongside the faculty in designing and teaching certain courses, in order to cover information literacy effectively and make good use of digital library resources? Are instructors taking advantage of pedagogies that incorporate digital materials? And there just may be a physical aspect to the digital library after all: Learning and study spaces in libraries and other common areas are beginning to be designed for highly connected and collaborative next-gen students, our digital natives. Finally, ask: How can you assess information literacy on your campus? Institutions are now seeing that they need well-thought-out information literacy programs. To help with the planning process, the Council of Independent Colleges (www.cic.org) runs a series of workshops on Transformation of the College Library. The series covers the questions and issues above and much more, and is a great place to start or keep plugging for information literacy on your campus (www.cic.org/conferences_events/index.asp) The Big Boys Just as the Historic Peace Churches and the University of Washington are blazing new trails for storing certain types of data, larger digital repository efforts at the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan are innovative in similar ways. At UVA, University Librarian Karin Wittenborg says her staff has worked to digitize dozens of special collections of old images and manuscripts to preserve them for generations to come. Highlights of the collection include photos from the American Civil War, documents from railroad history, and unique documents from the Appalachian heyday. These special collections are only one portion of UVAs digital library effort. The bulk of the library, including the schools famous, 1,700-item Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive, is comprised of e-texts, or scanned content in a variety of languages that is searchable by anything from topic to specific characters and words. According to Wittenborg, a key principle behind the e-text project was to build a user community as consumers rather than simply convert or acquire digital texts. Over time, the texts were tagged using Standard Generalized Markup Language (now eXtensible Markup Language, or XML) to make them easier to search. We were fast out of the gate, kept our concept for the electronic center simple, and focused on user-centered collections, Wittenborg says. We wanted to create digital communities and to involve faculty and departments from the outset. A similar effort is underway at the University of Michigan, home of the digital collection, Making of America. The collection, accumulated over the last five years, has been drawn from images, documents, and other 19th-century publications in the UM libraries. Another big draw is the schools digital archive of non-Euclidian mathematics monographs, also from the same period. The collection includes a variety of content types from the 1800s: science, business, and more. Perry Willett, director of the schools Digital Library Production Service, admits the collection is a hodgepodge, saying the school digitizes what it can, when it can, anyway it can. Because Willetts department has managed to digitize so much, it recently has capitalized on the software behind the effort, for use at other schools. The open source program, Digital Library eXtension Service (DLXS), is designed for schools to create digital collections of text and images and other kinds of structured data. Similar to the D-Space effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, DLXS is stand-alone content scanning and management software that can help schools without digital libraries set them up quickly. As Willett explains, the more digital libraries UM can facilitate down the road, the better. There isnt that much commercial software available for digital libraries, so we continue to develop our version, adding functionality and changing the architecture, he says. In our field, where things are always changing, you can never spend too much time or energy getting your resources online. Matt Villano is senior contributing editor of this publication. This article originally appeared in the 2/1/2006 Issue of Campus Technology

1 0

Fight hunger with a click, for free.
by vyasamoorthy＠gmail.com 04 Feb '06

04 Feb '06

PASS IT ON! Visit http://www.thehungersite.com to give food to the hungry with just a click -- every day and at no cost to you. HOW IT WORKS When you click the "Give Free Food" button (once a day per person) at http://www.thehungersite.com, this simple action gives over a cup of fortified food to a hungry person. It costs you nothing. Funding is paid by site sponsors and food is distributed by two leading nonprofit hunger relief organizations: Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest. The number of people who click each day determines the amount of food that goes to the hungry, so please forward this message along. WHY CLICK? There is enough food in the world for every man, woman and child. Yet an estimated one billion of the world's people live in poverty and face chronic hunger. 24,000 die daily. 75% of them are children under age five. A "click to give" costs nothing but a few seconds of your time, and gives help and hope to a person in desperate need. Click here to give free food: http://www.thehungersite.com --------------------------- A person identifying him/herself as the sender above has sent this email to you to inform you about The Hunger Site. This service is provided by The Hunger Site as a mechanism for visitors to tell other friends about our philanthropic-based sites, and should not be used for any other purposes.

1 0