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Open Course Ware & Indian universities
by Subbiah Arunachalam 26 Dec '05

26 Dec '05

Friends: Here is an excerpt from the MIT Open Course Ware website. There are many Chinese universities making their course ware availble at no cost to anyone who has an internet connection. Needless to say most of the courses are in Chinese. What it is important is that there is great awareness in China that such material should be made available free to whoever wants to use it. Higher educational institutions in other developing countries will do well to follow the Chinese (and MIT) example. Best wishes. Subbiah Arunachalam --------------------- Opencourseware Projects (around the world) The MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) project has always had a dual mission: * Provide free access to virtually all MIT course materials for educators and learners around the world. * Extend the reach and impact of MIT OCW and the opencourseware concept. The vision of the MIT faculty who first developed the opencourseware concept at MIT was that one day, there would exist a vast network of universities around the world offering open access to high-quality educational materials in a variety of different disciplines, in a variety of different languages, creating a global Web of knowledge that will improve education around the world. So MIT is very pleased to be joined by other institutions around the globe in openly sharing educational materials as it helps us fulfill the second part of the OCW mission -- to extend the OCW concept to other leading universities. The collective body of high-quality educational materials made available by these institutions provides a remarkable free and open network of resources for educators, students, and self-learners everywhere. The institutions listed below have publicly committed to the open publication of their materials in OCW initiatives, and are devoting resources to support these OCW projects. China Visit the portal page for 156 Chinese university OCW projects, featuring the following universities * Peking University * Tsinghua University * Zhejiang University * Xi'an Jiaotong University * Central South University * Beijing Jiaotong University * Sichuan University * Beijing Normal University * Dalian University of Technology * Central Radio and Television University * Shanghai Jiaotong University * Nanjing University * Jilin University * Northwest Polytechnic University * Southeast University * Sun Yat-Sen University * Fudan University * Huazhong University of Science and Technology * Renmin University of China * Huazhong Agricultural University France The engineering institutions (Grandes Ecoles) which form ParisTech have published the ParisTech OpenCourseWare project. The ParisTech institutions include: * École Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts (ENGREF) * École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) * École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) * École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris (ENSCP) * École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (ENSMP) * École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) * École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA) * École Polytechnique (EP) * École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI) * Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INA P-G) * École Nationale de Statistique et d'Administration Économique (ENSAE) (associate member) Japan Visit the portal page for the following Japanese university OCW projects: * Keio University * Kyoto University * Tokyo Institute of Technology * Osaka University * University of Tokyo * Waseda University United States * Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health * Tufts University * Utah State University Vietnam * Fulbright Economics Teaching Program OCW

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Henk Moed's article in Current Science
by Subbiah Arunachalam 26 Dec '05

26 Dec '05

Dear Gene: The 25 December 2005 issue of CURRENT SCIENCE (published by Current Science Association and the Indian Academy of Sciences) carries an article by Henk Moed on citation analysis of scientific journals and a review of his recent book by me. Please visit: <http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/dec252005/1990.pdf> and <http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/dec252005/2171.pdf>. Thanks and regards. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]

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India Reads - Best of 2005
by ++ Mukesh Anand ++ 26 Dec '05

26 Dec '05

Click on the link below to know which are the bestsellers in Non-Fiction Category during 2005 India Reads - Best of 2005 compiled by - - 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 : New Delhi & IIT- Kharagpur http://www.monitorinfo.com Library Suppliers of Science, Technology & Management Publications - - Mukesh Anand Director - Marketing MONITOR INFORMATION SERVICES Click on the link below to know which are the bestsellers in Non-Fiction Category during 2005 http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/RT0MB7KKGC0R2/104-99822… India Reads - Best of 2005 compiled by - - 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 : New Delhi & IIT- Kharagpur http://www.monitorinfo.com http://www.monitorinfo.com Library Suppliers of Science, Technology & Management Publications - - Mukesh Anand Director - Marketing MONITOR INFORMATION SERVICES

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Mandating OA for publicly funded research
by Subbiah Arunachalam 24 Dec '05

24 Dec '05

Friends: The Italians are forging ahead with a national open access repository. India, China and Brazil should follow suit and lead the way for the rest of the world! For a start, DST, DSIR, DBT and other government agencies funding research may insist that all papers resulting from public funding should be archived in an open access archive - either a central archive (e.g. OpenMED) or an institutional archive (e.g. IISc, NIT-Rourkela). The Ukrainian Parliament has recently mandated open archiving of all publicly funded research papers. Arun Profile of the PLEIADI Project Ugo Contino and three co-authors, PLEIADI, un portale per la letteratura scientifica "Open Access", Bollettino del Cilea, 99 (2005) pp. 11-16. Self-archived December 22, 2005. In Italian but with this English-language abstract: The PLEIADI Project (acronym for "Portale per la Letteratura scientifica Elettronica Italiana su Archivi aperti e Depositi Istituzionali", a portal for Italian scholarly e-literature in open archives and institutional repositories) originated from the collaboration between two major Italian university consortia, CASPUR and CILEA, within the framework of the AEPIC project. PLEIADI aims at building a national platform that offers centralized access to the scholarly literature archived in Italian repositories. Friends: The Italians are forging ahead with a national open access repository. India, China and Brazil should follow suit and lead the way for the rest of the world! For a start, DST, DSIR, DBT and other government agencies funding research may insist that all papers resulting from public funding should be archived in an open access archive - either a central archive (e.g. OpenMED) or an institutional archive (e.g. IISc, NIT-Rourkela). The Ukrainian Parliament has recently mandated open archiving of all publicly funded research papers. Arun Profile of the PLEIADI Project Ugo Contino and three co-authors, http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00005153/ PLEIADI, un portale per la letteratura scientifica "Open Access" , Bollettino del Cilea , 99 (2005) pp. 11-16. Self-archived December 22, 2005. In Italian but with this English-language abstract: The http://www.openarchives.it/pleiadi/ PLEIADI Project (acronym for "Portale per la Letteratura scientifica Elettronica Italiana su Archivi aperti e Depositi Istituzionali", a portal for Italian scholarly e-literature in open archives and institutional repositories) originated from the collaboration between two major Italian university consortia, CASPUR and CILEA, within the framework of the AEPIC project. PLEIADI aims at building a national platform that offers centralized access to the scholarly literature archived in Italian repositories.

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Connotea
by Subbiah Arunachalam 24 Dec '05

24 Dec '05

Friends: Please visit http://www.connotea.org/ to learn about how a new free software help you in organizing your literature. Please alert your scientist friends. Arun Friends: Please visit http://www.connotea.org/ http://www.connotea.org/ to learn about how a new free software help you in organizing your literature. Please alert your scientist friends. Arun

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Contact details of Smt Abburi Chaya Devi
by T.V. Prafulla Chandra 24 Dec '05

24 Dec '05

Dear All, The contact details of Smt Abburi Chaya Devi, formerly deputy librarian, JNU and winner of Sahitya Akademi Award 2005 are given below for your kind information: bhumikahyd(a)yahoo.com kondaveetis(a)yahoo.com Smt Chaya Devi doesn't have her own email ID. If the messages are sent to any of the above two IDs, they would reach her. Her postal address is: HIG, Block 4, Flat 4 Bagh Lingampally Hyderabad 500 044 Phone Residence: 91 40 27665661 Thank you Sincerely T.V. Prafulla Chandra Senior Editor --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NISC Export Services Pvt. Ltd. (an affiliate of NISC International, Inc. USA) S-1 Ballad Estates, St.Ann's School Road, Tarnaka, Hyderabad 500 017 Andhra Pradesh, India - Tel:+91 40 27001517 Tel/Fax:+91 40 27002538 WWW.NISC.COM A company in service to NISC worldwide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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OA and Intelligent design vs Darwin
by Subbiah Arunachalam 24 Dec '05

24 Dec '05

Friends: I have been posting to this list news stories from Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News". My apologies to those of you who are regular readers of Peter Suber's blog. And I urge all of you interested in following developments in the field of Open Access to visit Peter Suber's blog everyday. You will find it worth your time. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah arunachalam] ------------------------------------ OA science for lay readers will help fight ID Mike Eisen, Fight Intelligent Design - Publish in PLoS! Open Science Blog, December 22, 2005. Excerpt: Now that a federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that intelligent design has no place in the classroom, the scientists who rallied to defend evolution will return to academia happy that science has weathered yet another assault. But this battle will not be won in the courtroom. Antipathy toward evolution is the natural consequence of a growing gulf between the scientific community and the public. Until scientists close this gap, much of the public will continue to dismiss Darwin's theories, and we risk losing the broad public support on which science depends. Rather than blame public ignorance, scientists must accept responsibility for this distressing trend. We go about our business rarely thinking of the public as an audience for, or interested party in, our work....I propose a simple solution. We should give the public access to the peer-reviewed scientific journals in which we publish our ideas and discoveries. It is certainly the right thing to do - afterall, the public paid for most of this research, they should be able to see what their tax dollars have produced. But does the public want to read these papers? I believe they do. Many non-scientists whose interest is piqued by science stories in the popular press would love to learn more about the research directly from scientists who carried it out. People facing medical decisions would love to read the most accurate and up to date information about diseases and their treatments. When they do, they will find that much of the scientific literature is surprisingly comprehensible to a lay audience (and much more will be once authors know the public may read their work). And anyone who reads these papers will be left with a better understanding of how science works, and why we believe the things we do....[Open-access journals] invite the public in, and [the public has] responded - downloading, reading and even blogging about scientific articles like never before. Simply by choosing to publish in open access journals, scientists can honor the importance of public access and engage the public directly in their work....We must ensure that hiring, grant review and tenure committees give heavy weight to efforts (or lack thereof) to engage the public. But more importantly, we all must ask ourselves if that Science or Nature citation is worth furthering the dangerous divide between science and the public? Non-scientists can help scientists engage as well. Next time you read about some cool new scientific advance, find the paper on which this story is based. If you can't access it, email the authors and request a copy - and ask them why they didn't make it available to you in the first place. You'll be letting them know that the public is interested in what they do, and holding them accountable for their decisions. Maybe next time they will publish in a journal that reaches you. (PS: Mike Eisen is one of the co-founders of PLoS, and this essay marks the launch of his blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, Mike!) Friends: I have been posting to this list news stories from Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News". My apologies to those of you who are regular readers of Peter Suber's blog. And I urge all of you interested in following developments in the field of Open Access to visit Peter Suber's blog everyday. You will find it worth your time. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah arunachalam] ------------------------------------ OA science for lay readers will help fight ID Mike Eisen, http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/archives/2 Fight Intelligent Design - Publish in PLoS! Open Science Blog , December 22, 2005. Excerpt: Now that a federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that intelligent design has no place in the classroom, the scientists who rallied to defend evolution will return to academia happy that science has weathered yet another assault. But this battle will not be won in the courtroom. Antipathy toward evolution is the natural consequence of a growing gulf between the scientific community and the public. Until scientists close this gap, much of the public will continue to dismiss Darwins theories, and we risk losing the broad public support on which science depends. Rather than blame public ignorance, scientists must accept responsibility for this distressing trend. We go about our business rarely thinking of the public as an audience for, or interested party in, our work....I propose a simple solution. We should give the public access to the peer-reviewed scientific journals in which we publish our ideas and discoveries. It is certainly the right thing to do - afterall, the public paid for most of this research, they should be able to see what their tax dollars have produced. But does the public want to read these papers? I believe they do. Many non-scientists whose interest is piqued by science stories in the popular press would love to learn more about the research directly from scientists who carried it out. People facing medical decisions would love to read the most accurate and up to date information about diseases and their treatments. When they do, they will find that much of the scientific literature is surprisingly comprehensible to a lay audience (and much more will be once authors know the public may read their work). And anyone who reads these papers will be left with a better understanding of how science works, and why we believe the things we do....[Open-access journals] invite the public in, and [the public has] responded downloading, reading and even blogging about scientific articles like never before. Simply by choosing to publish in open access journals, scientists can honor the importance of public access and engage the public directly in their work....We must ensure that hiring, grant review and tenure committees give heavy weight to efforts (or lack thereof) to engage the public. But more importantly, we all must ask ourselves if that Science or Nature citation is worth furthering the dangerous divide between science and the public? Non-scientists can help scientists engage as well. Next time you read about some cool new scientific advance, find the paper on which this story is based. If you cant access it, email the authors and request a copy and ask them why they didnt make it available to you in the first place. Youll be letting them know that the public is interested in what they do, and holding them accountable for their decisions. Maybe next time they will publish in a journal that reaches you. (PS: Mike Eisen is one of the co-founders of http://www.plos.org/index.html PLoS , and this essay marks the launch of his blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, Mike!)

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Sahitya Akademi Award for LIS professional
by T.V. Prafulla Chandra 23 Dec '05

23 Dec '05

Dear All, We are pleased to inform you that a member of our profession, Smt Abburi Chayadevi, formerly Deputy Librarian, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi has been selected for Sahita Akademy Award for 2005 for Telugu. Her collection of short stories titled Tana Margam (My Way) has earned this award. Hearty congratulations to Smt Chayadevi garu! Thank you Sincerely T.V. Prafulla Chandra PS. Please find below The Hindu report dated Dec 23, 2006 on the above. Famous novelists G. Thilakavathi (Kalmaram in Tamil), Raghavendra Patil (Teru in Kannada), Yeshe Dorje Thongchi (Mouna Ounth Mukhar Hriday in Assamese) and Manohar Joshi (Kyap in Hindi) are amongst the 23 selected for the Sahitya Akademi awards for 2005. The awards recommended by the jury members representing 23 Indian languages were approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi, the apex literary body of the country, which met here on Thursday under the chairmanship of its president Gopi Chand Narang. Poets and short story writers dominated the 2005 awards. The Chairman said that while the award in English would be declared in due course, the award for Bengali would be declared after re- consideration. Mr. Narang said that for the first time awards to books in the newly recognised Bodo and Santhali languages had been given. Short stories Those who won awards for their collection of short stories included Abburi Chayadevi (Tana Margam - Telugu), G. V. Kakkanadan (Jappana Pukayila - Malayalam), N. Shivdas (Bhaangarsaall - Konkani), Krishnan Sharma (Dhaldi Dhuppe Da Sek - Dogri), M. Nabakishore Singh (Pangal Shonbi Eishe Adomgeeni - Manipuri), Ramchandra Behera (Gopapura - Oriya), Gurbachan Singh Bhull (Agni- Kalas - Punjabi) and Chetan Swami (Kisturi Mirag - Rajasthan). Famous poets Mangalsingh Hazowary (Jiuni Mwgthang Bisombi Arw Aroj - Bodo), Suresh Dalal (Akhand Zalar Vage - Gujarati), Hamidi Kashmiri (Yath Miani Joye - Kashmiri), Vivekanand Thakur (Chanan Ghan Gachchiya - Maithili), Swami Rambhadracharya (Sri Bhargava Raghaviyam (Epic) - Sanskrit), Jadumani Besra (Bhabna - Santhali), Dholan `Rahi' (Andhero Roshan Thiye - Sindhi) and late Arun Kolhatkar (Bhijaki Vahi - Marathi) are among those who have won the awards. Krishna Singh Moktan (Jeevan Goreto Ma - Nepali) was honoured for his collection of essays and Jabir Husain (Ret Per Khema - Urdu) was honoured for his book of memoirs. Selection procedure Mr. Narang said the books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of three members in the concerned languages in accordance with the procedure. The Executive Board declared the awards on the basis of unanimous selections made by the jurors or selection made on the basis of majority vote. The awards related to books first published during the three years immediately preceding the year of award. K. Sachidanandan, Secretary, said the award in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper- plaque and a cheque of Rs. 50,000 would be presented at a function to be held in New Delhi in February. Talking to presspersons after the Executive Board meeting, Mr. Sachidanandan said the Akademi, which had recognised 24 languages had ruled out recognition to any new languages in the immediate future. There was a lot of demand from various parts of the country in this regard, but the Akademi had decided that unless any language was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, it would not be recognised by the Akademi. Vishnu Prabhakar, veteran writer in Hindi, and Manoj Das, writer in Oriya and English, had been bestowed fellowship. "Net publishing" To meet the growing challenges from the Internet, the Akademi was studying the possibility of entering "net publishing" and putting its books on the Net. "We are thinking of opening websites of our periodical literary journals in English as well as in Hindi," Mr. Sachidanandan said. As for marketing of books, he said the cost aspect vis-a-vis competition was a big factor. Nevertheless, the Akademi was going all out to promote its books through institutions as well as by participation in book exhibitions domestically and internationally, he said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NISC Export Services Pvt. Ltd. (an affiliate of NISC International, Inc. USA) S-1 Ballad Estates, St.Ann's School Road, Tarnaka, Hyderabad 500 017 Andhra Pradesh, India - Tel:+91 40 27001517 Tel/Fax:+91 40 27002538 WWW.NISC.COM A company in service to NISC worldwide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Country Profiles
by Saiful Amin 23 Dec '05

23 Dec '05

Hi, I was pleasantly surprised to find Country Profiles in BBC, though not as comprehensive as EIU.com. But, it's free. Following is one sample for India: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1154019.stm Best regards, Saiful -- Saiful Amin Information Specialist Edutech India 8 Khader Nawaz Khan Road Chennai 600006, India Tel: +91 44 2833 0999 GSM: +91 98407 76214 Fax: +91 44 2833 1777 www.edutechindia.com "Enhancing knowledge and skills for success, lifelong." I was pleasantly surprised to find Country Profiles in BBC, though not as comprehensive as EIU.com. But, it's free. Following is one sample for India: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1154019.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1154019.stm Best regards, Saiful -- Saiful Amin Information Specialist Edutech India 8 Khader Nawaz Khan Road Chennai 600006, India Tel: +91 44 2833 0999 GSM: +91 98407 76214 Fax: +91 44 2833 1777 http://www.edutechindia.com www.edutechindia.com "Enhancing knowledge and skills for success, lifelong."

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OA and development intimately interconnected
by Subbiah Arunachalam 23 Dec '05

23 Dec '05

Friends: UNESCO is championing open access. Organizations such as ICSU, CODATA and IFLA are also supporting the spreading of the culture of open access. The Ukrainian parliament has adopted a resolution to mandate open access (of all publicly funded research). And yet many developing countries, including India, China and Brazil, have not adopted OA in a big way. Open Access is especially important for development. As Professor M S Swaminathan points out, for development to take place knowledge sharing is important at four levels, viz. lab-to-lab, lab-to-land, land-to-lab and land-to-land. Here lab stands for scientists, researchers and experts. And land stands for farmers, fishermen, and the common people in general. There should be knowledge flow among experts, among the common people and two-way flow between the two. Open Access (as promoted by people like Stevan Harnad, Peter Suber, Leslie Chan, Alma Swan, and others and institutions such as the Open Society Institute, CERN, Wellcome Trust, University of Southampton, etc.) facilitates lab-to-lab knowledge flows. And the knowledge centres set up by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (and to be set up all over rural India by Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre) facilitate the other three kinds of knowledge flows. If all four kinds of knowledge flows take place without a hitch, then it should be easy to achieve most development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals. It is for this reason, Prof. Bruce Alberts, former President of the US National Academy of Sciences, continues to be a great admirer of both the work of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in the area of ICT-enabled holistic development and the idea of using science to leverage overall development of the less developed countries, especially those in Africa. Science and laboratory research may appear to be far from poverty reduction and capacity building in rural areas. But visionaries like Swaminathan and Bruce Alberts have shown that they are intimately connected. They are two facets of a continuous spectrum. It is for this reason, I would urge enlightened development organizations such as the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and OneWorld, science academies of the world, and the many United Nations and other international agencies and governments of both developed and developing countries to pay attention to improving knowledge flows through a better understaning and support of open access, open source and open science. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] --------------------- Here is a news story from Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News" UNESCO endorses OA On September 22, UNESCO adopted Amendments to the Draft Programme and Budget for 2006-2007 that have the effect of endorsing OA. (Thanks to Heather Morrison.) Excerpt: [UNESCO] Requests the Member States (a) to foster through the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) dissemination of the principles of open access; (b) to foster dissemination of the principles of open access, particularly in universities; (c) to promote developing countries open access to archives for the sake of spreading scientific know-how; Invites the Director-General (a) to assess the feasibility of creating a database on existing open access initiatives worldwide and to report at the forthcoming sessions of the Executive Board and the General Conference on the progress of open access strategies throughout the world; (b) to promote a network of national working groups with a view to fostering open access in their universities, to cooperate internationally in initiatives and projects on the subject of open access, and to promote the training of experts for cooperation in the publication of and open access to texts free of charge.

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