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

Invitation
by Mailing List Manager 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 15:29:57 +0530 From: SRELS <srels(a)blr.vsnl.net.in> The Board of Trustees of the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS), Bangalore, cordially invite you to a Series of Presentations on: CONTENT ORGANISATION, INDEXING AND RETRIEVAL by Dr. T.B. Rajashekar ( on Ontologies) Dr. I.K. Ravichandra Rao (on Clustering) Prof. A. Neelameghan (on Self-organising Maps and a Systems Demo) on 9th August 2003 at 2.00 p. m. at SRELS premises 02, 'Upstairs', 42nd Cross, III Block, Rajajinagar, Bangalore 560010 RSVP: Ph:3305109 E-mail: srels(a)vsnl.com K.N.Prasad Executive Officer Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science 702, Upstairs, 42nd Cross, III Block, Rajajinagar BANGALORE 560 010

1 0

e-grnathalaya(library automation package)
by Mailing List Manager 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 15:48:45 +0530 (IST) From: Veena P Oak <veena(a)mail.kar.nic.in> Dear Colleagues/Friends/Users, We are happy to announce that web site for e-grnathalaya(library automation package ) is released and available at http://egranthalaya.kar.nic.in This is for your kind information.

1 0

Internet working groups explore science and tech to meet MDGs
by Mailing List Manager 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Friends: Here is something of interest to you. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UN-CSTD) is organizing four Internet Working Groups to provide input into a panel meeting in October 2003 on "Promoting the application of science and technology to meet the Millennium Development Goals". Government representatives, UN agencies, academics, private sector representatives and any other interested individuals or bodies are invited to contribute recommendations to one or more of the Working Groups from 15 June to 15 August. To join in, send an e-mail to stdev(a)unctad.org indicating with an X in the brackets [X] which Working Group(s) you wish to join. Approximately a week before your Working Group(s) begin(s), you will receive detailed information about the discussion. The four Groups are: [ ] cstd-newtech--Improving the policy environment for the application of S&T to development by identifying potential risks and benefits of new and emerging technologies; [ ] cstd-research--Strengthening basic and applied research in developing countries and international scientific networking; [ ] cstd-advisory-- Strengthening technology support institutions and science advisory mechanisms; building human capacity; identifying new technologies and applications; and encouraging international collaboration to support research in neglected fields; and [ ] cstd-universal--Promoting universal Internet access at affordable costs and building strategic partnerships in the field of science and technology for development and capacity building for competitiveness. CSTD is a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). More info: United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UN-CSTD) http://r0.unctad.org/stdev/index.html U.N. Millennium Development Goals http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

1 0

UNESCO has a free software portal which is promoted by Richard Stallman
by Mailing List Manager 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 08:19:35 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> "I'm grateful to UNESCO for recognizing that, in the domain of software, free software disseminates human knowledge in a way that non-free software cannot do" says Stallman. UNESCO and Free Software: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/index.shtml With its Free Software Portal, UNESCO intends to provide a single interactive access point to information for users who wish to understand and follow the Free Software movement, to learn why it is important and to apply the concept.

1 0

Circulation Module using CDS-ISIS or WINISIS
by Aloor Thomas Francis 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Dear Professionals, We are in search for a Circulation Module that works on CDS-ISIS or WINISIS. Many of the poor college / public libraries in and around Thrissur/Kerala require a free software for their automation. If any body has knowledge on the same, please let me know the details with practical experiences, if any. A.T. Francis Kerala Agricultural University Library and Information System (KAULIS) Main Campus, KAU Post Thrissur, Kerala, India Phone: 91-487-2372720 E-mail: francisaloor(a)yahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com

1 0

Open Access Archive
by afsar bukhari 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Dear Friends Reading the current debate on Open Access Archive and the views put forth by Mr. Arunachalam and Dr. Tapaswi I am also tempted to put forth my opinion worth few peanuts. I am also of strong opinion that research findings be made freely available to every one and everywhere for the benefit of science and society. There have been studies, which suggests that there is a strong correlation between the presence of an article in public domain and its high use. The present impact factor for journals has got its own limitations (the journals, which have high impact factors, may have very few core articles which are continuously cited increasing their impact factor. A journal may also receive high impact factor because it may be having highly controversial article cited by many just to refute its findings). It is also a fact that more people read article than cite them. So one can now calculate impact factors for each article, which in true sense would be giving the real worth of an article at two levels. Number of times it is downloaded (for being read) and number of citations it is receiving. Moreover publishing in Open Archive reduces the length of time between article submission and its publication. In addition a lot of valuable information in the form of thesis, dissertations, conference proceedings, seminars etc an also be made available. As far as what we (LIS Professionals) can do as well as others (like scientists, researchers, scholars, institutions) I suggest you seeing the following site. http://www.soros.org/openaccess/help.shtml One can also see presentation made by Prof Jean-Claude Guedon in urging librarians to through all their weight behind Open Archiving at the following site http://www.arl.org/scomm/guedonpr.shtml We are today in a transition period and in few years form now I believe every thing is going to be in open archive. It of course is going to have its own implications in terms of how we are going to handle such an information explosion. But since librarians are the ones who act as a bridge between information and researchers we have to take initiatives. It is ultimately we have to make the information available to them. One can see a series of debates started way back in 2001 and published in nature journal at the following site for having a good insight. http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access Happy reading Warm regards Syed Afsar Ali Bukhari Librarian Shantha Biotechnics Pvt Ltd Medchal Hyderabad E-mail:- bukhari_786(a)rediffmail.com quickinfo(a)rediffmail.com ___________________________________________________ Click below to experience Sooraj R Barjatya's latest offering 'Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon' starring Hrithik, Abhishek & Kareena http://www.mpkdh.com

1 0

NACLIN 2002 Proceedings
by Sangeeta Kaul, Network Manager, DELNET 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION NETWORKING NACLIN 2002 Edited by H. K . Kaul and M. D. Baby Library and Information Networking (NACLIN 2002) includes 41 papers which were presented to the National Convention on Library and Information Networking at the Cochin University of Science & Technology, Cochin from October 21-24, 2002. These papers cover a wide range of issues such as Digital Divide - Problems and Solutions, Digital Divide and the Management of Information Resources, Role of Library Networks, Digital Resources and the Law, Information Infrastructure and National Policy, Redesigning and Re-engineering of Information Resources, E-Governance and Society, E-Business and Digital Economy, Communication Infrastructure in Rural India, Electronics Journals, Knowledge Engineering, Human Resource Management, E-Learning and other issues. Papers in this volume highlight the thinking on the Digital Divide with special reference to Library and Information Networking in India. Published by: DELNET, Developing Library Network Year: 2003 Price: Rs. 650/- Discount : 30% to Institutional Libraries : 50% to LIS Professionals Please send your orders to: The Secretary DELNET Developing Library Network 40, Lodhi Estate, Max Mueller Marg New Delhi - 110003 E-mail : orders(a)delnet.ren.nic.in _______________________________________________________________________________ Sangeeta Kaul Network Manager DELNET India International Centre 40 Lodi Estate New Delhi-110003 INDIA Tel.: 91-11-24610802, 24619328 FAX : 91-11-24619325 Web : www.delnet.nic.in ________________________________________________________________________________

1 0

RE: [LIS-Forum] Institutional Archives and Open Access journals
by Mailing List Manager 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 10:25:29 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> Friends: A number of Open Access journals (published by BioMedCentral) are already included in JCR and they have (decent) impact factors. Other Open Access journals like BMJ and Current Science are also indexed in JCR (for a very long time) and are given impact factor values every year. There are hundreds of Open Access journals. The 'Free Medical Journals' site lists close to a thousand titles. The Lund University has started compiling a list of open access journals. Just try a Google or Teoma search and you will find titles in many fields of S&T. In a previous intervention Dr Tapaswi had said that LIS professionals "can only remain silent spectators". I beg to differ. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL, USA) has a strong initiative called SPARC. Please visit the ARL website for more details. Major LIS discussion lists in the USA talk about these issues all the time. Indeed the Open Access movement got a fillip when these librarians started discussing the 'serials crisis' a few years ago. In our own country, people like Dr Rajashekar of NCSI and Prof. Shalini Urs of Mysore University are active in digital library and eprint initiatives. I suggest that organizations such as SIS, IASLIC, and IATLIS promote learning among their members about the pros and cons of Eprint archives (both self-archiving and institutional archiving), and Open Access Initiatives. At the risk of being called immodest, I refer to my paper "Information for research in developing countries: Information technology -- Friend or foe?" in Bulletin of ASIST, Vol. 29, N0. 5, June/July 2003, pp. 16-21. If anyone is interested, I can send electronic copies of this article as well as my presentation at the Volkswagen Foundation Millennium Debate, which also talks about the need for developing country researchers (and librarians) to use ICTs more efficiently. The point is up to the 1990s there was a reason for developing country institutions to keep complaining about the information gap between the rich and the poor countries. Fortunately the advent of the Internet has given us the potential to change the situation and overcome the information inequality. Look at the physicists. Thanks to Paul Ginsparg and friends, virtually every physicist in the world sends his paper to arXiv and often gets valuable feedback and comments from other physicists. No physicist waits for a paper to appear in print in Physical Review, PRL or Pramana. These journals merely serve the archival function. The question is why are the rest of the scientists follow the physicists and make their results openly and easily available to their colleagues everywhere. Why are not our librarians coming forward to set up such archives (as IISc has done)? Subbiah Arunachalam

1 0

Scholar-Based Innovations in Publishing
by Mailing List Manager 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 08:26:11 -0500 From: Gerry Mckiernan <gerrymck(a)iastate.edu> I am pleased to announce the availability of a most 'exciting' [:-)] PowerPoint presentation prepared for the ALCTS Scholarly Communications Discussion Group meeting at ALA Toronto on Monday, June 23, 2003 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. The revised presentation is available at: [ http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/ScholarBased.ppt ] ***NOTE: This a large file 6+ MB with 100+ slides!*** In recent years, a number of innovations have emerged that seek to provide sustainable alternatives to the predominant publishing paradigm. In this presentation, a variety of initiatives that exploit the inherent potential of the Web and other digital environments to offer open and enhanced access to the personal and collective scholarship of individuals, organizations, and nations will be profiled. In its concluding section, the presentation focuses on the two major discipline-based repositories for library and information science scholarship,_ DLIST Archive: Digital Library of Information Science and Technology_ (http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/) and _E-LIS_ (http://eprints.rclis.org/ ), "an electronic open access archive for scientific or technical documents, published or unpublished, in Librarianship, Information Science and Technology, and related application activities." To expedite the adoption and further development of scholar-based innovations in publishing, librarians and other information specialists are encouraged to 'Lead By Example' by depositing their own scholarship within either or both these repositories. The 'References' section of the presentation includes four of my publications that served as the basis for this presentation, the first three of which are linked to their respective full-text: "Scholar-based Innovations in Publishing. Part I: Individual and Institutional Initiatives," _Library Hi Tech News_ 20 no. 2 (March 2003): 19-26. Initiatives," _Library Hi Tech News_ 20 no. 3 (April 2003): 19-27. [ http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/ScholarBased-II.pdf ] "Scholar-based Innovations in Publishing. Part III: Organizational and National Initiatives," _Library Hi Tech News_ 20 no. 5 (June 2003): 15-23. [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/ScholarBased-III.pdf ] "Open Access and Retrieval: Liberating the Scholarly Literature," in E-_Serials Management: Transitions, Trends, and Technicalities_, ed. David Fowler (Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Fall 2003). [Of course, I wll deposit these full-text items, as well as other scholarship, including this ALCTS presentation {:-), in _DLIST_ and _E-LIS_]. Enjoy! BTW: Don't forget to explore the embedded (and non-embedded)hyperlinks! {:-> /Gerry Gerry McKiernan Circumstantial Librarian Iowa State University Ames IA 50011 gerrymck(a)iastate.edu

1 0

ICT Stories Competition 2003: Now open to enter you story!
by Mailing List Manager 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 09:50:42 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> Have you been working on a project that uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a tool for achieving development? Then this is an opportunity for you to share your experiences with the world! Please visit our website for more information and the submit form. Good luck in the competition! ICT Stories More information: http://www.iicd.org/stories/ Email: stories(a)iicd.org

1 0

New Technologies in Libraries - Citations
by Shyam Prasad pujar 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Dear Members, New Technologies in Libraries provides bibliographic details of articles appeared in good number of LIS journals. The coverage in most cases is from 1998. Till recently, it used to be available as an e-mail newsletter. Now it has been made available on the net at the following URL address. At present the search form/engine is available only in Dutch. http://pc40.libis.kuleuven.ac.be/LitAtt/zoek.cfm The article details can be accessed by TITLE or a word in a title (titelwoord), AUTHOR (auteur) OR JOURNAL (tijdschrift). This has been developed by Erik Arfeuille, who can be contacted at: Erik.Arfeuille(a)bib.kuleuven.ac.be Regards, S.M. Pujar ********************************************************************** Shamprasad M. Pujar Assistant Librarian Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Gen. Vaidya Marg, Film City Road Goregaon (East) MUMBAI-400 065 India %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% * Phone: (022) 28400919-21 Extn: 514 * * Fax: (022) 28402752 * * E-mail: pujar(a)igidr.ac.in * * URL: http://www.igidr.ac.in * %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

1 0

RE: [LIS-Forum] Institutional Archives and Open Access journals
by Mailing List Manager 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:13:47 +0530 From: Dr Murari P Tapaswi <murari(a)darya.nio.org> In set-up like CSIR, as I know, the scientific contributions of the individuals are judged based on Impact Factor of the journal in which (s)he publishes. In such a situation the idea of publishing in Open Acces journals (without impact factor) would never be digested. This needs to be done at very high level to see that the policies are changed at the first instance. -Tapaswi -----Original Message----- From: lis-forum-bounces(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in [mailto:lis-forum-bounces@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in]On Behalf Of Mailing List Manager Sent: 30 June 2003 10:24 To: lis-forum(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Subject: [LIS-Forum] Institutional Archives and Open Access journals Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 15:51:06 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> How can the LIS professionals in our country help promote the Open Access and Self Archiving movements? How do we convince our scientists and doctoral students that it is in their own interest to set up institutional archives and to publish in open access journals? How can we make our LIS colleagues more proactive and mount a crusade as it were? Arun _______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum(a)ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum

1 0

Accessioning CDs: Thanks for response
by Dr Murari P Tapaswi 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Dear Colleagues, Thanks are due to the respondents: Savitha (Novell Software), Manjunath (IGIDR), Charumathy (Texas Instrum), Atanu (Univ Calcutta) and Gayathri Sen (PESIT) for sharing their experiences with us. With warm regards, Murari P Tapaswi National Information Centre for Marine Sciences (NICMAS) National Institute of Oceanography Dona Paula 403 004 Goa, India e-mail: murari(a)darya.nio.org Phone: 91-(0)832-2456700 ext. 2475 Fax: 91-(0)832-2456702

1 0

Open access law introduced in USA
by Mailing List Manager 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2003 10:23:53 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> Open access law introduced US congressman joins push to promote public access to publicly funded research | By Catherine Zandonella <mailto:catzan@nasw.org> The debate over open access to scientific literature intensified this week with the introduction of federal legislation designed to curb publishers' control over scientific publishing. The bill, introduced in the US House of Representatives yesterday (June 26) by Rep. Martin Sabo <http://www.house.gov/sabo/> (D-Minn.), is one part of a larger campaign, launched by the open-access Public Library of Science <http://www.plos.org> (PLoS), to raise a national debate on the issue of access to scientific literature. As part of the campaign, the PLoS this week began running a 30-second television ad <http://www.plos.org/support/playvideo.html> designed to introduce the topic to the lay public. The ads will run during popular prime-time shows, such as "The Simpsons." Rep. Sabo drafted and introduced the bill after the PLoS approached him and explained that while federal tax dollars support research, access to the results is limited to scientists whose libraries can afford high subscription fees and to those lay people lucky enough to live near a public institutional library. "Most people are shocked when they find out they cannot access the results of studies that their tax dollars paid for," said Sabo's legislative assistant Lisa Tomlinson, who was involved in writing the bill. The proposed legislation, called the Public Access to Science Act, would prohibit copyright protection for any works stemming from substantially federally funded research. If enacted into law, the bill could radically change how scientific journals do business <http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030616/03/>, since most journals currently require authors to transfer copyright to the journal as a condition of publication. The bill would amend an existing passage in copyright law to add federal grantees to a provision that bars federal employees from copyright on their publications. The bill does not state what percentage of the research must be supported by federal dollars to trigger the no-copyright rule. "We wanted to leave that to the discretion of the federal agencies," said Tomlinson. Without copyright, journals would still be able to publish articles much as they do now, but they would not be able to control the distribution or republishing of the articles. Publishers say they need copyright in order to control a publication's quality. "Errors creep in as a paper is repeatedly copied and circulated," said Peter Farnham, public affairs officer for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology <http://www.asbmb.org>, which publishes the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The JBC's content already is freely available, he noted. Advocates of open access say that publishers should not own the copyright because the amount of work that the journal does-procuring peer review, editing, and laying out the article on the page-does not justify ownership. "Their [the publisher's] contribution to the finished product pales in comparison to contributions from scientists and the general public," said Michael Eisen <http://rana.lbl.gov/>, cofounder of PLoS and a geneticist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley. Bringing the public into the open-access debate is a natural next step for PLoS, Eisen said. PLoS plans to launch <http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20021220/06/> its first open-access, peer-reviewed journal this October, and each paper will be accompanied by a plain-English summary. The television ads, which began running on June 23 in San Francisco, Washington, and Boston, show a man who flies to work, rather than drives. The voice-over implies that the open access to journals made the technology possible. http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030627/04

2 1

Re: [LIS-Forum] accessioning CDs
by Mailing List Manager 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Dear friend, Ours is an engineering college library in Bangalore. As you said we get CD^s in different ways. With monographs, with journals and independently. We treat this as separate entities so that it can be borrowed by the users if required for special installations in different labs. The CD^s which come with the technical magazines or journals gives all the information that is printed on the CD^s by the publisher. This is shown in the Abstract section or note section of the online catalogue and is indexed. So when a users gives a search for any tutorials, or any topic in the OPAC all the related CD^s are retrived within a minit and we can easily trace them because all these CD^s are arranged number wise in a CD cabinet. Our students are making maximum use of these CD^s and this system is working fine in our college. Regards, Gayathri Sen, PESIT

1 0

Re: [LIS-Forum] accessioning CDs
by Mailing List Manager 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 07:50:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Atanu Garai <atanu_garai2000(a)yahoo.com> Dear Sir, The management of CDs depends on various factors.I have seen many libraries having a completely different management system for optical discs.Usually these are stored in seprate protective cases. Intially these CDs are catalogued on simple computer produced print catalogues as their numbers are limited. Still many libraries which have introduced optical disc based services ie reference,document delivery etc and have CD acquiring program have not been implementing any complete document management system for the acquired CDs. Ususally automated bibliogarphic management systems should have the capabilities of capturing the metadata elements unique for CDs.But mnay such systems has not been developed with approprite searching conditions typical for CDs. In situations such as this, computer printed catalogue is usually chosen as effective if the number of CDs available in the library is limited. This is effective because if the number of CDs are within 500! , the total page of the print cataloge is limited enough to be easily xeroxed and circulated to the individual clientle. It is the common practice of our libraies to tear off the accompanying maaterials from the original documents and supply the clients when demand for the same arises. In such cases appropriate instructions should be provided to the users on the availability of such materials and the ordering instruction of the same. But it is recommended that such optical discs(and even magnetic discs such floppies) should be detached off and preserved in separate location for their appropriate maintenance. Various standards are avialbale for thier rightful maintenance as brought out by national and international organizations including ISO,BIS,IFLA,ICA,UNESCO to name a few.To maintain thier recommendartions it is important to shelve them in different storage conditions than print media.This also arises the problems of the management of the same. In any case, it can be suggested for accessioning CDs, a note on the availability of such materials shall be noted in the appropriate register and if possible, a separate register should be maintained. Hope this helps. Regards. Atanu Garai Atanu Garai MLIS Student 2001-03 Department of Library and Information Science University of Calcutta College St.Campus Kolkata 700 073 India Ph(O)+91(0)33 2241 0071/74 (R)+91(0)33 2543 6870 Fax(O)+91(0)33 2241 3222 Email:atanu_garai@hotmail.com OR atanu_garai(a)indiatimes.com http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/atanu_garai

1 0

Institutional Archives and Open Access journals
by Mailing List Manager 30 Jun '03

30 Jun '03

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 15:51:06 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> How can the LIS professionals in our country help promote the Open Access and Self Archiving movements? How do we convince our scientists and doctoral students that it is in their own interest to set up institutional archives and to publish in open access journals? How can we make our LIS colleagues more proactive and mount a crusade as it were? Arun

1 0

accessioning CDs
by Dr Murari P Tapaswi 27 Jun '03

27 Jun '03

Dear Collegaues, I would like to know the ways the libraries are accessioning CDs arriving in their collection. To my knowledge, there are following types: 1. Documents purchased as CDs 2. CDs as part of the monograph 3. CDs as part of a magazine/journal 4. CDs arrived as free distribution With warm regards, Murari P Tapaswi National Information Centre for Marine Sciences (NICMAS) National Institute of Oceanography Dona Paula 403 004 Goa, India e-mail: murari(a)darya.nio.org Phone: 91-(0)832-2456700 ext. 2475 Fax: 91-(0)832-2456702

1 0

YTimes.com Article: Measure Calls for Wider Access to Federally Financed Research
by Mailing List Manager 27 Jun '03

27 Jun '03

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 09:04:44 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> Friends: We in India and other developing countries should work towards such a legislation. We should congratulate the Indian Academy of Sciences for making electronic versions of all its journals available free on the Internet. The Academy also held two three-day workshops in March 2002 for editors (and publishers) of Indian S&T journals on electronic journals and open access. We should persuade other Indian journal editors to make their electronic versions freely accessible on the Net. Also, we should encourage our universities and research laboratories to self-archive their research publications, as IISc is trying to do now. Studies have shown that papers that are freely available on the Net are cited three times more often than those published in subscription journals. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] arun(a)mssrf.res.in ------ Measure Calls for Wider Access to Federally Financed Research June 26, 2003 By WARREN E. LEARY WASHINGTON, June 25 - A group challenging the power of established scientific journals says legislation will be introduced to make the results of all federally financed research available to the public. The group, the Public Library of Science, which includes scientists, doctors, researchers and their public supporters, plans to announce legislation on Thursday that would give taxpayers greater access to scientific data. The group's objective is an open system of scientific publishing that would bypass the current system, which centers on journals that charge, through their subscriptions, for access to results. The measure places results of research financed primarily by the government into the public domain so access cannot be prohibited by copyright, said Dr. Michael B. Eisen, a co-founder of the library, and a biologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The bill also calls on federal agencies to improve access to their research results. Representative Martin Olav Sabo, Democrat of Minnesota, is to introduce the measure, called the Public Access to Science Act. A spokesman said that Mr. Sabo was concerned about patients' access to the latest medical research and that he would seek co-sponsors for the bill. American taxpayers invest about $45 billion a year in scientific and medical research, and the results should be readily available to them, Mr. Sabo said. The measure places results of research financed primarily by the government into the public domain so access cannot be prohibited by copyright, said Dr. Michael B. Eisen, a co-founder of the library, and a biologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The bill also calls on federal agencies to improve access to their research results. Representative Martin Olav Sabo, Democrat of Minnesota, is to introduce the measure, called the Public Access to Science Act. A spokesman said that Mr. Sabo was concerned about patients' access to the latest medical research and that he would seek co-sponsors for the bill. American taxpayers invest about $45 billion a year in scientific and medical research, and the results should be readily available to them, Mr. Sabo said. "It defies logic to collectively pay for our medical research, only to privatize its profitability and availability," he said in a statement. Dr. Harold E. Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and chairman of the Public Library of Science, said the legislation would help get out the message that scientific results should be more easily available to more people. "Privately owned journals can't tie up scientific information, and people should begin discussing this issue," Dr. Varmus said. The Public Library of Science, with the help of a $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, will begin publishing an online, peer-reviewed journal on biology in October, followed by a medical science journal early next year. Access to the journals is to be free, and the operating expenses are to be financed by $1,500 fees charged to researchers whose papers appear. Most research grants are large enough to include payments for publishing results, proponents say. Traditional journals like Nature and Science publish papers at no charge to researchers but recoup costs and sometimes make profits with advertising and paid subscriptions, on paper and online. Dr. Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal Science, said everyone concerned with scientific publishing was looking for the best way to improve assess to information on the Internet and elsewhere. "We are all looking for the best model to assure access to quality scientific information," Dr. Leshner said, "We're experimenting with different methods to do the same thing." Science magazine, for instance, is giving free online access to institutions in developing countries and providing site licenses to hundreds of universities so that everyone on those campuses has free access. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/26/politics/26LIBR.html?ex=1057682372&ei=1&e… f3f99c0da5843 ---------------------------------

1 0

"copyleft" licensing
by Benny MD 26 Jun '03

26 Jun '03

Dear professionals As information/knowledge managers it become our duty to allow free flow of information. Any barrier to this will delay or even prevent the birth of new information, and probably result in the misuse of the existing one. In this context it is apt to think about adopting the "copyleft" rules and apply the same in the "context" of printed documents. I encourage you all to comment on this and express your views on "intellectual property right" What is copyleft? "Copyleft," in the popular usage of the term, means "a copyright notice that permits unrestricted redistribution and modification, provided that all copies and derivatives retain the same permissions." The idea of copyleft originated with uber-hacker Richard Stallman in 1983 when he started the GNU Project. In brief, his goal was "to develop a complete free Unix-like operating system." As part of that goal, he invented and wrote the GNU General Public License, a legal construct that included a copyright notice but added to it (or, technically, removed certain restrictions), so its terms allowed for the freedoms of reuse, modification and reproduction of a work or its derivatives to be kept for all. The idea is to have a free society where any license or copyright is unnecessary, and where anyone could share all published works for the common good with no sovereign-nation laws dictating who can say or use what in their expression or communication. For more information please visit Reference http://www.dsl.org/copyleft/ http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/nonsoftware-copyleft.html http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html ___________________________________________________________________________ ******************************************************* * BENNY M.D. * * LIBRARIAN * * DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS * * INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE * * BANGALORE-12., KARNATAKA, INDIA. * * PH:2932265 (EXTN.317) * * EMAIL: benny(a)math.iisc.ernet.in * * mdliles72(a)yahoo.com * *******************************************************

1 0

Professor designation to university librarian-parity with the teachers- implications
by Prof. N. Laxman Rao. 25 Jun '03

25 Jun '03

dear friends, Recently, Govt of Andhra Pradesh had issued GO Ms. No 35 dated 16-06-2003. sub: Universities- Uniform designation of Librarians, Deputy Librarians, assistant Librarians and Documentation Officers working in all Universities. The Govt had isssued GO and the crux of the GO is "After careful examination of the proposal of the Secretary, AP Stae Council of Higher Education, Govt have decided to adopt the uniform o designations by re-designating the posts of the University Library Professionals, who are drqwing UGC Scales. i.e. University Librarian, deputy Librarain, assistant Librarian and Documentation Officer to that of Professor in LIS, Associate Professor in LIS and Assistant Professor in LIS respectively" subject to there is no financial commitment on the part of the Governement and also the following conditions. 1. Asst Librarians working in the Universities possess the same qualifications like the Librarains earlier working in Govt Degree Colleges and later designated as Lecturers in Library Science vide GOMas No. 91. 2. The Asst Librarians have the duties separately identified and as and when necessary they may be asked to teach classes and they are not regular teaching staff of the Dept of LIS. 3. The Asst Librarains are non-vacation academic staff charged with the responsibility of offering academic services to various depts. in the Universities. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE GO : 1. Till now the library staff were retiring by the age 58, now it gives a clear guidance TO THE Universities for retiring them at 60 (in AP the teachers retire at 60). This is advantage to the libraraians. Thanks to the Govt of AP. 2. Recently, the UGC had given a clarification that the Deputy Librarains are not eligible for CAS to enable them to be promoted as Librarians (Professor scale). Now the implication of this GO is Deputy Librarians are eligible under CAS and can get the Professor or Librarians scale.- thanks. 3. There was a contradiction in UGC norms for CAS to Asst Librarians. They were to be governed by OLD NORMS for CAS, and several universities were giving the promotion after 16 years (with out Ph.D. But this GO's implication is they also need to be considered selection grade after 11 years (with out Ph.D.). 4.The third condition of the GO is the Asst Librarians are non-vacation staff. It implies that others that is both Deputy Librarians and Librarians could be considered as vacation staff. 5. The ASST Librarians possess the same qualifications mentioned in GO no 91. That means, the present UGC qualifications are not necessary. Old qualifications stand good? 6. Unfortunately, the GO specifies, that only Asst Librarians are to be associated with teaching as and when asked to teach classes. How about seniors, (both Deputy Librarians and Librarians)? They should have also been considered for the same status. The professionals and Professiona Associations thank the Government of AP for considering favourably the problems of University Library Staff. The present GO has solved problems of University library staff of the State. LAXMAN RAO ===== Prof.N.LAXMAN RAO, Dept.of Library & Information Science, Osmania University, HYDERABAD- 500 007 (INDIA) President, Indian Association of Teachers in Library and Information Science (IATLIS) AND President, Academy of Library Science & Documentation, Hyderabad. Ph:+91-40-27171565 (res): +91-40- 27682290 (off) e:mail-- naglaxman(a)yahoo.com OR naglaxman(a)indiatimes.com ________________________________________________________________________ Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/

1 0

Library Manager 6.5
by Shyam Prasad pujar 25 Jun '03

25 Jun '03

Dear Member, 'Library Manager' is a library automation software suitable for small libraries. Through this one can undertake works of acquisition, circulation, search for books, etc. Reports on various aspects can be generated using this software. Backup, Restoration of backup and generation of Barcode label facilities are also available. This software is still in its nascent stage, suggestions may be forwarded to the developer of this software Mr Sawan Gupta. He is an Engineering student studying at Jaipur. It is a FREE-WARE available for download at the following URL address. It works on most of the versions of MS-Windows. http://sawansoft.cjb.net Regards, S.M. Pujar ********************************************************************** Shamprasad M. Pujar Assistant Librarian Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Gen. Vaidya Marg, Film City Road Goregaon (East) MUMBAI-400 065 India %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% * Phone: (022) 28400919-21 Extn: 514 * * Fax: (022) 28402752 * * E-mail: pujar(a)igidr.ac.in * * URL: http://www.igidr.ac.in * %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

1 0

Software to make you a better writer!!
by Benny MD 24 Jun '03

24 Jun '03

Dear professionals Hope some of you will find this information useful. StyleWriter software helps anyone learn the secrets of editing, by cutting words and simplifying your style. Usually, StyleWriter helps you cut a quarter of the words from your draft and this lets your reader concentrate on your information. StyleWriter helps you write in plain language by highlighting your poor writing habits and helping you change them. It also measures and questions your use of long sentences and passive verbs and makes you think about every word you write. For more information, online demo and a trial version pls visit http://www.editorsoftware.com/stylewriter-software/ -- ___________________________________________________________________________ ******************************************************* * BENNY M.D. * * LIBRARIAN * * DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS * * INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE * * BANGALORE-12., KARNATAKA, INDIA. * * PH:2932265 (EXTN.317) * * EMAIL: benny(a)math.iisc.ernet.in * * mdliles72(a)yahoo.com * *******************************************************

1 0

NLM Proposes New Journal Standards
by Mailing List Manager 24 Jun '03

24 Jun '03

Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 10:10:48 +0530 From: Madhuresh <madhuresh_s(a)aurigene.com> Dear All, The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has announced a new set of standards for publishing online journal articles. The Journal Archiving and Interchange Document Type Definition (JAIDTD) is freely available for public use and creates a standard that, if broadly adopted, could signal a significant sea change in the future of scholarly journals. The new DTD and the Tagset are in XML and they are in the public domain. Complete information and documentation can be found at http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov. The detail can be found at http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb030623-1.shtml. I am also attaching the whole news item. NLM Proposes New Journal Standards by Robin Peek June 23, 2003 — The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has announced a new set of standards for publishing online journal articles. The Journal Archiving and Interchange Document Type Definition (JAIDTD) is freely available for public use and creates a standard that, if broadly adopted, could signal a significant sea change in the future of scholarly journals. Since the mid-1990s, scholarly journals have been striving to make their content available on the Web for greater distribution, ease of searching and retrieval, or just to have a Web presence. “These electronic files are created to meet the needs of the Internet—usually without much thought given to long-term archiving of the content,” says Dr. David Lipman, director of the Library's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). “Today we release two Document Type Definitions (DTDs) that will simplify journal publishing and increase the accuracy of the archiving and exchange of scholarly journal articles.” To put this in context, the JAIDTD could be to journals what HTML was to the Web. The Journal Archiving and Interchange DTD Suite provides a set of XML modules that define elements and attributes for describing the textual and graphical content of journal articles, as well as some non-article material, such as letters, editorials, and book and product reviews. “We didn't start out to create a standardized archiving format for articles,” says NCBI’s Jeff Beck. “We were starting a major revision to our DTD at the same time that a company—Inera, Inc., of Newton, Mass.—was working on the 'E-Journal Archival DTD Feasibility Study' for the Harvard University E-Journal Archiving Project. That study concluded that a common format for archiving was possible, but that it hadn't been defined yet. We shared our revised DTD with Inera, and it seemed like we almost had it.” The new DTD and the Tagset are in XML and they are in the public domain. Complete information and documentation can be found at http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov. Of course no one knows how readily the publishing community will accept the JAIDTD. The NLM will naturally be encouraging journals that submit to PubMed Central (http://www.pubmed.org) to use the JAIDTD. But while the JAIDTD has been created for PubMed Central, and NCBI will manage the updates, adherence to the JAIDTD is not mandatory, as journals may have already established their own XML models. In the proverbial best case scenario, the journals not yet committed to an XML standard will embrace JAIDTD and its promise of a brand new (and better day) of publishing, transferring, and archiving journals. Sister disciplines will see the advantages of JAIDTD for their journals and proceed to adopt it themselves. This, in turn, will cause a snowball effect, and journals throughout the lands and the disciplines will take up the standard. For this to happen, there must be a considerable effort to promote JAIDTD so that journals do not become too deeply entrenched in their own ways of doing things. To date, no other organization has offered up an XML standard for journals and one hopes that there are not a multitude of such standards under development. In theory, at least, such a standard for journals would not really have a vast range of differences from journal to journal. But commercial publishers have a long history of creating their own ways of doing things with the notion of “sharing” perhaps not first and foremost on their agendas. But, of course, there is the possibility of a less positive outcome. Like PubMed Central, JAIDTD could be a really good idea that doesn’t get much traction. While not exactly fallow, with just over 100 journals in PubMed Central, this represents only a small fraction of the thousands of journal titles in the biomedical sciences. Hopefully other standard setting organizations will take a good long look at this new proposed standard and will elect to partner with NLM to make it a standard that matters. Robin Peek is associate professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. Her e-mail address is robin.peek(a)simmons.edu. Regards. Madhuresh Singhal Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, Electronic City, phase II, Hosur Road, Bangalore 562 158 India Phone 8521314-16 Ext.- 422 Mobile 98861 82822

1 0

RE: [LIS-Forum] National level S&T information service providers
by Francis Jayakanth 23 Jun '03

23 Jun '03

Dear Member: I'm thankful to Dr. Vyasamoorthy of VIC, Mr. Sukhdev Singh of NIC, Dr Murari P Tapaswi of NIO, Mr. G Mahesh of NISCAIR, Ms. Chaya Devi of Dr. BRAOU, and Mr. Kishor Satpathy, NIT, Silchar for responding to my query on the above subject dated 12 June 03. The table below summarizes these responses. with regards, - Francis NCSI, IISc. Bangalore - 12 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization Services Provided Areas Contact Details ------------ ----------------- ----- --------------- VIC of ICICI Document Delivery, Chemistry, Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy Knowledge Park Translation, Biotechnology, Vyasamoorthy(a)icicikp.com H'bad Online & CDROM drugs & www.vic-ikp.info Databases searches, Pharmaceuticals www.iciciknowledgepark.com Customized News Bulletins on competition NIC, NEw Delhi CD-ROM Database Biological medinfo(a)hub.nic.in services Sciences, Agriculture, indmed.nic.in Forestry, Clinical Information, Population, Psychology NISCAIR, Bibliometric S&T, Engineering Mrs. Aruna Karanjai New Delhi Services, Industry etc aruna(a)niscair.res.in Literature Search Service, www.niscair.res.in Translation Service, Contents, Abstracts & Photocopy Service NICMA, NIO Contents Page Marine Science Murari P Tapaswi Goa Service, DDS murari(a)darya.nio.org Literature Search Service, IndOcean - A database of Abstracts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0