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Federated searching of archives
by Subbiah Arunachalam 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Friends: I stumbled on this news item on open access to US archival information. With the Right to Information we in India should also have such access to government information. ---- National Archives and Records Administration Source: AP Archives Smooths Web Access to Records If you ever used the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) from the National Archives of the U.S. it was a pain in the rear. You had to search one database at a time. Well, that's changed. Yes, it's another example of meta or federated searching coming to life. From the AP article: "The revamped Access to Archival Databases site -- http://aad.archives.gov/aad/ -- allows the public to search for free through 85 million documents in 475 files amassed by more than 30 federal agencies." From the site itself, "...Feature global free- text searching across all series and files, in addition to our standard fielded search, and easier and faster ways to find the series and files you want!" Thanks to Randy H. for the news tip. I think the challenge now will being getting reaching these databases. I've been having trouble for the past hour. --- Subbiah Arunachalam

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Articles Indexing
by K A. Sardesai 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Dear All Lis-forum readers, I fully agree with the points open for discussion in case of articles inedxing.Saiful presently I have not yet started the same in my Library (RBI, DESACS Bandra)because of the issues raised by you ,I am facing practically in my profession.Articles indexing is no doubt one of the best service in our profession but then it takes your complete devotion and keen knowledge in the subject which requires heavy reading and awareness and up date knowledge in the respective field.The solo Librarian couldnot offer this service to the users due to lack of human resource to input the proper and concise text.It would be better to opt for the subscription of such databases Libraries or corporates like Informatics, Dialog etc.Manjunath has given a good suggestion to index such journals only which are not included in internationaly published databases. Also I came across with one of the well known organization working for Articles indexing in Libsys but if you ask for a particular back dated article it may not be available immediately may be due to lack of proper maintenance.In India I think there is a lot of manpower and work assimilated but who cares? is the mentality.But yes there are people who devote to the profession like information providers, librarians and Dear Saiful we are one of them . As it is aopen discussion I opined it personnaly and for Articles Indexing We should be selective as per requirement of the organizational needs. Articles Indexing in Libsys is sucessfully working in Reserve Bank of India, Department of Economic Analysis & Computer Services, Library, 6th floor,Mumbai 400001 under the Librarianship of Dr D Kamalavijayan Chief Librarian. kshipra sardesai Saiful we met at DRTC Digital Library workshop and IASLIC 2005 at Grand Haytt , Santacruz.

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article indexing
by Anuranjana Bharti 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Hello all, I would appreciate if you tell me about the scientific libraries using Libsys for journal article indexing. Thanks, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anuranjana Bharti Library Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology Deptt. of Atomic Energy Indore - 452 001 India ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: article indexing
by vaguloju venkateshwarlu 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

dear sir/madam! NRSA(National Remote Sensing Agency) Library in hyderabad using LIBYS for article indexing Venkateshwarlu,V Hyderabad dear sir/madam! NRSA(National Remote Sensing Agency) Library in hyderabad using LIBYS for article indexing Venkateshwarlu,V Hyderabad http://adworks.rediff.com/cgi-bin/AdWorks/sigclick.cgi/www.rediff.com/signa… http://adworks.rediff.com/cgi-bin/AdWorks/sigimpress.cgi/www.rediff.com/sig…

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Open Access : Science and Scholarship in India
by Smita Chandra 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Dear Colleagues, Please find below an invitation from the LIS Department, University of Mumbai, Kalina, for a talk on "Open Access". We request you to please find time for this very interesting talk by a renowned speaker on the subject. We also request you to kindly forward this mail/message to your scientific community, and others who might be interested or benefit Thank you, Smita-- Talk on "Open Access: What it can do for science and scholarship in India" by Dr.Alma Swan (Director, Key Perspectives, UK) at Conference Hall, Jawaharlal Nehru Library University of Mumbai, Kalina, Santacruz (E), Mumbai 400 096 from 03.30 PM to 05.30 PM (Free for those interested. Lecture followed by discussions) Contact : Mrs.Rajhans, LIS Department, University of Mumbai. Ph. 022-26526679 (989232042) (rajhansa(a)yahoo.com) Ms.Ravija Srivastava, LIS Department, University of Mumbai. Ph.:981932070 (ravija_srivastava(a)yahoo.com) Ms.Vasumati Sriganesh, Director, QMed Services Pvt.Ltd.,Mumbai. Ph.022-28229223 & 9867292230 (vasu(a)qmedin.com) Dr.D.K.Sahu, Director, Medknow Publications, Mumbai . Ph. 022-5649181 Summary of the Talk Open access to research findings is the most effective means to enhance the communication, discussion and use of the outputs of scholarly endeavor. Scholars' findings have traditionally been largely locked away from all but the lucky few whose libraries were able to purchase expensive journals. Now the World Wide Web has made it possible for scholars to share their results, ideas and inspirations on a truly worldwide basis, whilst still preserving the best of the traditional way of publishing their results - high-quality peer review and editing procedures. Open Access is the great equalizer when it comes to scholarly communication. Dr. Alma Swan shall describe the ways to achieve Open Access, what advantages it brings to scholars and scientists in all parts of the world and what it can do for India's own scholarship and science now and in the foreseeable future. About the Speaker Dr. Alma Swan obtained a first class honours degree in zoology in 1974 and a PhD in cell biology in 1978 from Southampton University. After research fellowships funded by the Cancer Research Campaign at Southampton General Hospital and St. George's Hospital Medical School (London), she took a position as Lecturer in Zoology at the University of Leicester. Her research was in medical cell biology and she taught a range of courses from vertebrate biology to the biology of cancer. In 1985, she moved into science publishing as managing editor of a Pergamon Press (later Elsevier Science) biomedical research indexing service, published both in print and online. In 1996 she jointly founded Key Perspectives. Though she has worked in the commercial sphere for 20 years, Alma retains links with academic life: for four years she was tutor and consultant for the Open University Business School's MBA programme and since 1991 has been tutor for two business strategy courses on Warwick Business School's MBA programme. She holds honorary roles as business mentor and teacher for the Institute for Entrepreneurship (part of the School of Management) at Southampton University. Alma has an MBA from Warwick Business School and is a Member of the Institute of Biology. She is currently an independent consultant on scholarly communication issues and has been working on projects concerned with Open Access to the research literature for several years now, carrying out original research, writing reports and articles and giving many presentation. All her publicly available work can be found in the Open Access Archive on her organization's website at www.keyperspectives.co.uk. --------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good - Make a difference this year. Dear Colleagues, Please find below an invitation from the LIS Department, University of Mumbai, Kalina, for a talk on "Open Access". We request you to please find time for this very interesting talk by a renowned speaker on the subject. We also request you to kindly forward this mail/message to your scientific community, and others who might be interested or benefit Thank you, Smita-- Talk on " Open Access: What it can do for science and scholarship in India " by Dr.Alma Swan ( Director, Key Perspectives, UK ) at Conference Hall, Jawaharlal Nehru Library University of Mumbai, Kalina, Santacruz (E), Mumbai 400 096 from 03.30 PM to 05.30 PM (Free for those interested. Lecture followed by discussions) Contact : Mrs.Rajhans, LIS Department, University of Mumbai. Ph. 022-26526679 (989232042) ( mailto:rajhansa@yahoo.com rajhansa(a)yahoo.com ) Ms.Ravija Srivastava, LIS Department, University of Mumbai. Ph.:981932070 ( mailto:ravija_srivastava@yahoo.com ravija_srivastava(a)yahoo.com ) Ms.Vasumati Sriganesh, Director, http://www.qmedin.com/ QMed Services Pvt.Ltd .,Mumbai. Ph.022-28229223 & 9867292230 ( mailto:vasu@qmedin.com vasu(a)qmedin.com ) Dr.D.K.Sahu, Director, http://www.medknow.com/ Medknow Publications , Mumbai . Ph. 022-5649181 Summary of the Talk Open access to research findings is the most effective means to enhance the communication, discussion and use of the outputs of scholarly endeavor. Scholars' findings have traditionally been largely locked away from all but the lucky few whose libraries were able to purchase expensive journals. Now the World Wide Web has made it possible for scholars to share their results, ideas and inspirations on a truly worldwide basis, whilst still preserving the best of the traditional way of publishing their results - high-quality peer review and editing procedures. Open Access is the great equalizer when it comes to scholarly communication. Dr. Alma Swan shall describe the ways to achieve Open Access, what advantages it brings to scholars and scientists in all parts of the world and what it can do for India's own scholarship and science now and in the foreseeable future. About the Speaker Dr. Alma Swan obtained a first class honours degree in zoology in 1974 and a PhD in cell biology in 1978 from Southampton University. After research fellowships funded by the Cancer Research Campaign at Southampton General Hospital and St. George's Hospital Medical School (London), she took a position as Lecturer in Zoology at the University of Leicester. Her research was in medical cell biology and she taught a range of courses from vertebrate biology to the biology of cancer. In 1985, she moved into science publishing as managing editor of a Pergamon Press (later Elsevier Science) biomedical research indexing service, published both in print and online. In 1996 she jointly founded Key Perspectives. Though she has worked in the commercial sphere for 20 years, Alma retains links with academic life: for four years she was tutor and consultant for the Open University Business School's MBA programme and since 1991 has been tutor for two business strategy courses on Warwick Business School's MBA programme . She holds honorary roles as business mentor and teacher for the Institute for Entrepreneurship (part of the School of Management) at Southampton University. Alma has an MBA from Warwick Business School and is a Member of the Institute of Biology. She is currently an independent consultant on scholarly communication issues and has been working on projects concerned with Open Access to the research literature for several years now, carrying out original research, writing reports and articles and giving many presentation. All her publicly available work can be found in the Open Access Archive on her organization's website at http://www.keyperspectives.co.uk/ www.keyperspectives.co.uk . Yahoo! for Good - http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/charity/*http://brand.yahoo.com/cyb… Make a difference this year.

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McGraw-Hill - Free Digital Dictionary
by ++ Mukesh Anand ++ 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Dear All Now you can download the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Engineering FREE! Derived from the world-renowned McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th Ed., this engineering reference software offers a wealth of essential information in a convenient, quick-find format. The Digital Edition brings you thousands of terms from all major engineering disciplines, from construction. to chemical engineering. to telecommunications. Click on the url below (or paste the url in your browser), register yourself and download in few minutes http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/getpage.php?page=engarch_dictionary_of_enginee… Best Wishes for the New Year 2006 ++ Mukesh ++ - - Mukesh Anand Director - Marketing MONITOR INFORMATION SERVICES - books + cd-rom's + e-books - Head Office: 203, Moghal Marc Ratan Complex Opp. Deepak Theatre, Narayanguda Hyderabad - 500 029 Telephone: 040-55787065 / 27552390 Facsimile: +91-40-27552390 Branches At : New Delhi & IIT- Kharagpur http://www.monitorinfo.com Library Suppliers of Science, Technology & Management Publications Dear All Now you can download the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Engineering FREE! Derived from the world-renowned McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th Ed. , this engineering reference software offers a wealth of essential information in a convenient, quick-find format. The Digital Edition brings you thousands of terms from all major engineering disciplines, from construction to chemical engineering to telecommunications. Click on the url below (or paste the url in your browser), register yourself and download in few minutes http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/getpage.php?page=engarch_dictionary_of_enginee… http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/getpage.php?page=engarch_dictionary_of_enginee… Best Wishes for the New Year 2006 ++ Mukesh ++ - - Mukesh Anand Director - Marketing MONITOR INFORMATION SERVICES - books + cd-rom's + e-books - Head Office: 203, Moghal Marc Ratan Complex Opp. Deepak Theatre, Narayanguda Hyderabad - 500 029 Telephone: 040-55787065 / 27552390 Facsimile: +91-40-27552390 Branches At : New Delhi & IIT- Kharagpur http://www.monitorinfo.com http://www.monitorinfo.com Library Suppliers of Science, Technology & Management Publications

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Koha Windows version
by Mailing List Manager 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 22:00:04 -0800 (PST) From: vimal kumar <vimal0212(a)yahoo.com> New Windows�s version of Koha ( V2.2.4) now available. Rob Weir developed Windows version of this popular open source ILMS. Koha installation in Windows is comparatively easier than in Linux environment. Z39.50 feature is not available in Windows and this is not a stable version. Installation manual is also available in the web site. For more information visit, http://www.koha.rwjr.com/ . Vimal kumar Asian School of Business Trivandrum vimal0212(a)yahoo.com

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Fw: Mission 2007 and 'Open Access' sessions at Science Congress, Hyderabad
by Subbiah Arunachalam 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Friends: Season's Greetings. MSSRF is organising, among other events, two half-day sessions at the forthcoming Science Congress at Hyderabad, one on Mission 2007 and another on Open Access (to scientific and scholarly literature). All are welcome. Best wishes. Subbiah Arunachalam Distinguished Fellow, MSSRF 29 December 2005 ----- 93rd Indian Science Congress, Hyderabad Session on Mission 2007: Every Village a knowledge Centre Date: 5 January 2006 Time: 14.30 - 17.30 Venue: APARD Chairman: Prof. M S Swaminathan, MSSRF Speakers: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM, Chennai Dr V Balaji, ICRISAT, Hyderabad Ms Namrata Bali, SEWA, Ahmedabad Dr B H Shadrach, OneWorld South Asia, New Delhi Prof. G Palanithurai, Gandhigram Mr R Chandrashekhar, Ministry of Information Technology, New Delhi Session coordinator: Subbiah Arunachalam --------------------- 93rd Indian Science Congress, Hyderabad Session on Open Access Date: 6 January 2006 Time: 10.00 - 12.45 Venue: MANAGE Chairman: Prof. N Balakrishnan, IISc, Bangalore Keynote: Dr Alma Swan, Key Perspectives, UK Speakers: Dr V Balaji, ICRISAT, Hyderabad Dr Abhijit Lahiri, DSIR, New Delhi Dr D K Sahu, MedKnow Publications, Bombay Ms Naina Pandita, NIC, New Delhi Dr A R D Prasad, DRTC, ISI, Bangalore Friends: Season's Greetings. MSSRF is organising, among other events, two half-day sessions at the forthcoming Science Congress at Hyderabad, one on Mission 2007 and another on Open Access (to scientific and scholarly literature). All are welcome. Best wishes. Subbiah Arunachalam Distinguished Fellow, MSSRF 29 December 2005 ----- 93 rd Indian Science Congress, Hyderabad Session on Mission 2007: Every Village a knowledge Centre Date: 5 January 2006 Time: 14.30 17.30 Venue: APARD Chairman: Prof. M S Swaminathan, MSSRF Speakers: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM, Chennai Dr V Balaji, ICRISAT, Hyderabad Ms Namrata Bali, SEWA, Ahmedabad Dr B H Shadrach, OneWorld South Asia, New Delhi Prof. G Palanithurai, Gandhigram Mr R Chandrashekhar, Ministry of Information Technology, New Delhi Session coordinator: Subbiah Arunachalam --------------------- 93 rd Indian Science Congress, Hyderabad Session on Open Access Date: 6 January 2006 Time: 10.00 12.45 Venue: MANAGE Chairman: Prof. N Balakrishnan, IISc, Bangalore Keynote: Dr Alma Swan, Key Perspectives, UK Speakers: Dr V Balaji, ICRISAT, Hyderabad Dr Abhijit Lahiri, DSIR, New Delhi Dr D K Sahu, MedKnow Publications, Bombay Ms Naina Pandita, NIC, New Delhi Dr A R D Prasad, DRTC, ISI, Bangalore

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Academic excellence and heads of universities
by Subbiah Arunachalam 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

Friends: Here is a brief article on heads of universities and their academic achievements as reflected by citations to their scholarly writings. In the West there is a good correlation. It will be interesting to see how many of our vice chancellors and directors of higher educational institutions (in India) have a good academic record. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] --- Citations make the president By Adam Marcus Amanda Goodall, a doctoral student in strategic management at Warwick Business School, UK, had a hunch, based on her experience working for college officials in both the United States and the United Kingdom: The world's elite research universities put a premium on naming elite researchers as their presidents. So she tallied all the citations amassed by presidents of the world's top 100 universities, as judged by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University "probably the most reliable league table available," according to Goodall. Since university heads come from different disciplines with inherently different levels of expected output economics papers can take years to come out, while a productive microbiologist can easily have her name on a dozen papers in a year or more Goodall assigned each president a "normalized" citation score. That meant the Nobelist David Baltimore, president of sixth-ranked Caltech, who garnered 28,000-odd citations, earned a "president score" of 32.48. Lawyer Lee Bollinger of Columbia nee the University of Michigan, with a relatively modest list of 398, got a bit of a boost to a president score of 3.4. Among the top 20 schools in Shanghai rankings, Harvard University was first, and president Lawrence Summers also had the highest president score (36.02) with 6,088 citations. After that, the president score didn't predict placement precisely: Second was Stanford University, where president John Hennessy, a computer scientist, had 1986 citations and a president score of 23.64, far behind Caltech's Baltimore, who had the second-best president score. And while the University of California, San Francisco, placed 17th in the rankings, its chancellor J. Michael Bishop had the third-highest president score of 24.1. Rounding out the top 20 is the University of Washington's Mark A. Emmert, a social scientist, with 92 citations, which gave him a president score of 0.78. The overall findings, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Documentation, showed a correlation between the number of citations racked up by university heads and the standing of the schools they lead but only in the United States. When the 51 US schools on the list of top 100 universities are excluded, "the correlation doesn't exist," says Goodall. Still, says Bruce Weinberg, a labor economist at Ohio State University, the finding is "unquestionably true." However, Weinberg says, "It is harder to show that the scholarly standing of the president affects the quality of the university." So if Harvard decided to hire a lightweight scholar, it's unlikely that the Crimson's reputation would bleed out. "Similarly, if an undistinguished university somehow hired a top researcher as a president, it probably would not immediately vault its way into the top ranks of universities," says Weinberg. Goodall acknowledges that her study doesn't say anything about why universities choose their leaders. They may pick top scientists as presidents as much as for their ability to separate big donors from their money as for their skill at splitting atoms. It's equally possible that great researchers are simply good at everything, including running a university, or that having papers with high impact is a proxy for crucial academic leadership skills. Then there's the matter of selection bias. Top-flight scholars probably avoid chiefships at schools they consider beneath them, says Charles Oppenheim, a professor of information sciences at the UK's Loughborough University, who has seen Goodall's research. And "as universities increasingly value business and entrepreneurial skills over research skills," Oppenheim adds, "This implies that in, say, 10 years' time, similar research would not produce as strong a correlation." For her part, Goodall doesn't believe being a heavily cited and therefore presumably skilled researcher is a proxy for being a strong leader; she's known too many lab heads who treated their underlings poorly. Hiring the former to head your institution, however, is a signal from the trustees to the faculty that research is the core concern, she says. "My extensive background in research contributes significantly both to my effectiveness as the president of a major research university and to my credibility as a leader in higher education," says Amy Guttmann (1388 citations, for a president score of 11.86), president of the University of Pennsylvania, which the Shanghai rankings had at number 15. "Having a scholar-teacher as president sends a signal that even fundraising is inseparable from academic content from knowing what the university actually doesand is not just about donor cultivation cultivation's for sake," she adds. Goodall is now looking at 55 UK schools and their leaders over a period of 15 to 20 years, focusing on institutions that have moved up or down in the rankings, and whether their heads have been strong or weak researchers. The point, she says, is to see whether "the research history of university presidents impacted the performance of the universities over time." She also plans to do a case study on the California university system. After learning so much about academic leadership, would Goodall ever want to take the reins of a school? Not a chance. "It's a pretty crappy job. I would not want to do it."

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Free math textbooks
by Subbiah Arunachalam 28 Dec '05

28 Dec '05

More on OA textbooks Heather Morrison, Open Access Textbooks, Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, December 27, 2005. Excerpt: There are many curious ironies about the open access movement, and indeed the shift from print to electronic in general. Not least of these is that while advocacy efforts focus on the peer-reviewed research article, progress towards open access is happening in areas where no advocacy efforts are directed at all, to my knowledge. One such area is open access textbooks. This came to my attention one day when searching for online math textbooks. I was not expecting to find free texts at all, on the assumption that textbooks were an area where the commercial sector would obviously prevail - after all, who would write an entire textbook without expectation of financial compensation? Imagine my surprise, then, to find the extensive list of Textbooks, Lecture Notes and Tutorials in Mathematics by Alexandre Stefanov. All resources are free, and are divided into topics such as general mathematics, number theory, algebra, algebraic geometry, topolisis, analysis, geometry, mathematical physics, probability theory, formatting documents (TEX, LATEX, etc.). Alexandre links to a number of other substantial lists, including the list of Online mathematics textbooks, including over 40 textbooks as of October 2005, maintained by George Cain, School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology.....The more I think about it, the more open textbooks make sense, particularly in mathematics. Printed textbooks are expensive - one cannot ask students to purchase more than one mathematics textbook. Yet it seems obvious that the student is much better off having access to the dozens of free textbooks that are already available. If a student is having difficulty understanding a concept explained one way, does it not make sense to provide an alternative explanation? (PS: There's a growing number of OA textbook sites, but as far as I know just one searchable portal that tries to be comprehensive: Jason Turgeon's Textbook Revolution. Check it out.)

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