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"Humanscape" journal closed down for publication...
by Puttaraj Choukimath 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

Dear friends, Greetings. This is for your kind attention and information: As you may be knowing our Library had been subscribing to the Journal - "Humanscape" published by Foundation for Humanisation, Mumbai. As the 'Letter from the Publisher' in the issue of the same for Oct 2005 (Vol.XII, No.X) decalares it is closing down for publication. Please visit: http://www.humanscape.org/Humanscape/2005/Oct/letter.php And, as we enquired with the publisher, we learnt that, the journal will be available once again as ONLINE/DIGITAL copy from January 2006 onwards. So, our subscription as well as its print copy availability closed down with this issue Oct 2005 (Vol.XII, No.X). Best regards, Puttaraj. Mr.Puttaraj, A. C. Asst. Librarian (Periodicals) SDTM Library, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, P.B. No.8313, Deonar, MUMBAI - 400 088 INDIA Tel: +91-22-2556 3290, Ext.285 (O) Fax: +91-22-2556 2912 Email: puttuc(a)yahoo.com, choukimath(a)tiss.edu URL: www.tiss.edu --------------------------------- Yahoo! Personals Single? There's someone we'd like you to meet. Lots of someones, actually. Try Yahoo! Personals Dear friends, Greetings. This is for your kind attention and information: As you may be knowing our Library had been subscribing to the Journal - "Humanscape" published by Foundation for Humanisation, Mumbai. As the 'Letter from the Publisher' in the issue of the same for Oct 2005 (Vol.XII, No.X) decalares it is closing down for publication. Please visit: http://www.humanscape.org/Humanscape/2005/Oct/letter.php http://www.humanscape.org/Humanscape/2005/Oct/letter.php And, as we enquired with the publisher, we learnt that, the journal will be available once again as ONLINE/DIGITAL copy from January 2006 onwards. So, our subscription as well as its print copy availability closed down with this issue Oct 2005 (Vol.XII, No.X). Best regards, Puttaraj. Mr.Puttaraj, A. C. Asst. Librarian (Periodicals) SDTM Library, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, P.B. No.8313, Deonar, MUMBAI - 400 088 INDIA Tel: +91-22-2556 3290, Ext.285 (O) Fax: +91-22-2556 2912 Email: mailto:puttuc@yahoo.com puttuc(a)yahoo.com , mailto:choukimath@tiss.edu choukimath(a)tiss.edu URL: http://www.tiss.edu www.tiss.edu Yahoo! Personals Single? There's someone we'd like you to meet. Lots of someones, actually. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=36108/*http://personals.yahoo.com Try Yahoo! Personals

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Khuda Baksh Library-Patna
by Aman Jha 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

Dear all Khuda Baksh Library is well known for its rare collection in India. Library has emerged as an outstanding research Library embracing a large number of rare manuscripts. Those interested to know more about it may visit website http://kblibrary.bih.nic.in/. Thanks and regards, Aman Jha Librarian Confederation of Indian Industry Plot No 249-F, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV Sector 18, Gurgaon 122015 (Haryana) Tel: 0124-5014060-67 aman.jha(a)ciionline.org http://www.ciionline.org

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OCLC Survey Report - Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources
by Sukhdev Singh 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

OCLC has come up with a 290 pages report on findings and responses from an online survey. "Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005)" http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm Contents of the Report are: * Introduction http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_intro.pdf * Part 1: Libraries and Information Sources--Use, Familiarity and Favorability http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_pt1.pdf * Part 2: Using the Library--In Person and Online http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_pt2.pdf * Part 3: The Library Brand http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_pt3.pdf * Part 4: Respondents' Advice to Libraries http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_pt4.pdf * Part 5: Libraries--A "Universal" Brand? http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/Percept_pt5.pdf * Conclusion http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/percept_concl.pdf * Appendix A: Supporting Data Tables http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/percept_appa.pdf * Appendix B: Sample Verbatim Comments http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/percept_appb.pdf * About OCLC http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/percept_about.pdf The findings indicate that information consumers view libraries as places to borrow print books, but they are unaware of the rich electronic content they can access through libraries. Even though information consumers make limited use of these resources, they continue to trust libraries as reliable sources of information. I hope, this report would be useful for librarians in better planning their services and activities. --Sukhdev Singh, NIC. http://openmed.nic.in

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Fw: [DDN] ::> Registration now open - Doors to Diplomacy 2006Competition for Middle School and High School Students Worldwide
by Subbiah Arunachalam 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

----- Original Message ----- From: "Yvonne Marie Andres" <yvonne(a)gsn.org> To: "Digitaldivide" <digitaldivide(a)milhouse.edc.org> Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 12:29 AM Subject: [DDN] ::> Registration now open - Doors to Diplomacy 2006Competition for Middle School and High School Students Worldwide > *Please help us get the word out by sharing this announcement with your > friends and colleagues. > > State Department Announces "Doors to Diplomacy" 2006 Web Project > Competition > > for Middle School and High School Students Worldwide > > => Register NOW to receive important project updates > => Projects due March 17, 2006 > => Winners announced May 2006 > > Engage students in a performance-based collaborative, project-design > competition which: > > *Supports standards-based coursework > *Connects students to their local communities > *Increases students' global perspective > *Increases real world, transferable skills > *Involves students in the assessment > *Teaches students 21st century, information-age skills (research, > teamwork, > project-management, publishing, digital media, audio, video) > > The U.S. Department of State along with the Global SchoolNet Foundation is > pleased to announce the 2006 "Doors to Diplomacy" award competition. This > educational award program recognizes the student-created Global SchoolNet > Web projects that best teach others about the importance of international > affairs and diplomacy. Students work in small teams with teacher-coaches. > Projects must be completed by March 17, 2006. Winners will be announced in > May 2006. Every team that completes a final entry receives a special Doors > to Diplomacy certificate to recognize their achievement. Each student > member > of the team who wins the "Doors to Diplomacy" receives a $2,000 > scholarship, > and the winning coaches' schools each receive a $500 cash award. > > For a complete description and information about eligibility and judging > criteria, visit http://globalschoolhouse.org/doors/ > > For more information, contact: > > Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres, Global SchoolNet > Telephone: 760-635-0001 Email: diplomacy(a)globalschoolnet.org > > or Janice Clark, U.S. Department of State > Telephone: 703-875-5086 Email: clarkje4(a)state.gov > > .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: > > > Global SchoolNet: Linking Kids Around the World to Benefit Humanity > Communicate, Collaborate & Celebrate Learning! > > Global SchoolNet is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, member supported, > education > organization. Global SchoolNet combines smart teaching ideas with web > publishing, video conferencing and other online tools that bridge > geographic > gaps, allowing young people around the world to learn together. Global > SchoolNet is an international network of 90,000+ online educators, who > engage in online project-based learning activities. Global SchoolNet > reaches > more than a million students from 45,000 schools across 194 countries. > > For more information about the services and programs provided by Global > SchoolNet, please visit www.globalschoolnet.org > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE(a)mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request(a)mailman.edc.org > with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.

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Royal Society Fellows supporting OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

Friends: Here is a letter sent by many Fellows of the Royal Society who support open access to Lord Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society. More Fellows (FRS) are expected to sign. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] -------------------------------- Lord Martin Rees President Royal Society 6-9 Carlton Terrace London SW1Y 5AG 7th December 2005 Dear Lord Rees As Fellows of the Royal Society, we would like to express our disappointment with the Society's recent position statement1 on open access to published research. The society's statement, which takes a largely negative stance on open access, appears to be aimed at delaying implementation of the Research Councils UK's proposed policy2 on access to research outputs. As working scientists who support open access to published research, we believe that the Society should support RCUK's proposal, rather than oppose it. The proposed RCUK policy will ensure that the results of research funded by the Research Councils are made freely and rapidly available, maximizing their utility not only to the scholarly community in the United Kingdom and around the world, but also to practitioners (including doctors and nurses) and to the British public whose taxes largely support the research. The RCUK policy has strong backing from librarians and academics, and has received official support3 from Universities UK, the organization that represents UK university vice-chancellors and principals. In seeking to delay or even to block the proposed RCUK policy, the Royal Society appears to be putting the concerns of existing publishers (including the Society itself) ahead of the needs of science. The position statement ignores considerable evidence demonstrating the viability of open access, instead warning ominously of 'disastrous' consequences for science publishing. We believe that these concerns are mistaken. The move towards open access to research literature builds on the tradition of making research data openly available, a standard that is well established within the scientific community. For example, free availability of genetic data, such as the genome sequences of humans, mice, pathogens and plants, has greatly accelerated the pace of research in both academic and commercial settings In adopting a pro-open access policy, RCUK will be joining an increasing number of funding agencies striving for open access to research results. In the UK, the Wellcome Trust has already taken a lead by requiring that articles be placed in an openly accessible archive. In the US, funders such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health have adopted policies to increase access to research. And across Europe and the rest of the world funding agencies are recognizing that public access to the fruits of the research they fund will ensure that this work is effective in fostering the global sharing of knowledge and the creativity that is essential to scientific endeavour. As Fellows, we urge the Royal Society not to delay the proposed RCUK policy, but to support it so as to foster professional and public access to research information, and to enable British research to achieve its maximum potential. Sincerely, Professor Michael Ashburner FRS, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK Professor Jonathan Ashmore FRS, University College London, UK Professor Allan Bradley FRS, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK Professor Adrian Bird FRS, University of Edinburgh, UK Professor Martin Bobrow FRS, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Mark S Bretcher FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Professor Jeremy Brockes FRS, University College London, UK Professor Ian Butterworth FRS, Imperial College, London, UK Professor George Cross FRS, Rockefeller University, New York City, NY, USA Professor Kay E Davies FRS, MRC Functional Genetics Unit, Oxford, UK Dr Richard Durbin FRS, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK Professor Douglas T Fearon FRS, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Mike Gale FRS, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK Dr Michel Goedert FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Professor Peter Goodfellow FRS, UK Professor Michael B. Green FRS, University of Cambridge, UK *Professor Brian Greenwood FRS, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Professor Norman N Greenwood, FRS, University of Leeds, UK Professor Frank Grosveld FRS, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands *Professor Paul Harvey FRS, University of Oxford, UK Professor Nick Hastie FRS, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh, UK Professor Brigid Hogan FRS, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Professor Jonathan C Howard FRS, University of Cologne, Germany Professor Thomas Jessell FRS, Columbia University, New York, USA Professor Marc Kirschner ForMemRS, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA Professor Donald Knuth ForMemRS, Stanford University, CA, USA Professor Arthur Kornberg FRS and Nobel Laureate, Stanford University, CA, USA Dr Robin Lovell-Badge FRS, National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK Professor Andrew Lumsden FRS, Kings College, London, UK Professor Philippa Marrack FRS, National Jewish Medical and Research Centre, Denver, CO, USA Professor David Q Mayne FRS, Imperial College, London, UK *Professor Michael E McIntyre MAE FRS, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Hugh Pelham FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Professor Martin Raff FRS, University College, London, UK Professor Richard Roberts FRS and Nobel Laureate, New England Biolabs, USA *Dr Elizabeth Robertson FRS, University of Oxford, UK Professor Nancy Rothwell FRS, Univerity of Manchester, UK Professor Geoffrey Raisman FRS, University College, London, UK Professor Charles R. Scriver FRS, McGill University, Quebec, Canada Professor David J. Sherratt FRS, University of Oxford, UK *Professor Peter Somogyi, FRS, Director MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, Oxford, UK Dr John Sulston FRS and Nobel Laureate, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK Professor Janet Thornton FRS, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK Professor James Till FRS, University of Toronto, Canada Professor Harold Varmus ForMemRS and Nobel Laureate, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA Professor James D Watson ForMemRS and Nobel Laureate, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA * Asterisks denote signatories who have added their name to the letter since it was initially sent. Links 1.. Royal Society position statement on 'open access' http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=3882 2.. RCUK Position Statement on Access to Research Outputs, June 2005 http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/statement.pdf 3.. Universities UK supports calls for web access to research results http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/mediareleases/show.asp?MR=431 If you are a Fellow of the Royal Society and would like to add your name as a signatory to this letter, send an email to frsopenletter(a)googlemail.com Friends: Here is a letter sent by many Fellows of the Royal Society who support open access to Lord Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society. More Fellows (FRS) are expected to sign. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] -------------------------------- Lord Martin Rees President Royal Society 6-9 Carlton Terrace London SW1Y 5AG 7 th December 2005 Dear Lord Rees As Fellows of the Royal Society, we would like to express our disappointment with the Society's http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=3882 recent position statement 1 on open access to published research. The society's statement, which takes a largely negative stance on open access, appears to be aimed at delaying implementation of the Research Councils UK's http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/statement.pdf proposed policy 2 on access to research outputs. As working scientists who support open access to published research, we believe that the Society should support RCUK's proposal, rather than oppose it. The proposed RCUK policy will ensure that the results of research funded by the Research Councils are made freely and rapidly available, maximizing their utility not only to the scholarly community in the United Kingdom and around the world, but also to practitioners (including doctors and nurses) and to the British public whose taxes largely support the research. The RCUK policy has strong backing from librarians and academics, and has received http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/mediareleases/show.asp?MR=431 official support 3 from Universities UK, the organization that represents UK university vice-chancellors and principals. In seeking to delay or even to block the proposed RCUK policy, the Royal Society appears to be putting the concerns of existing publishers (including the Society itself) ahead of the needs of science. The position statement ignores considerable evidence demonstrating the viability of open access, instead warning ominously of 'disastrous' consequences for science publishing. We believe that these concerns are mistaken. The move towards open access to research literature builds on the tradition of making research data openly available, a standard that is well established within the scientific community. For example, free availability of genetic data, such as the genome sequences of humans, mice, pathogens and plants, has greatly accelerated the pace of research in both academic and commercial settings In adopting a pro-open access policy, RCUK will be joining an increasing number of funding agencies striving for open access to research results. In the UK, the Wellcome Trust has already taken a lead by requiring that articles be placed in an openly accessible archive. In the US, funders such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health have adopted policies to increase access to research. And across Europe and the rest of the world funding agencies are recognizing that public access to the fruits of the research they fund will ensure that this work is effective in fostering the global sharing of knowledge and the creativity that is essential to scientific endeavour. As Fellows, we urge the Royal Society not to delay the proposed RCUK policy, but to support it so as to foster professional and public access to research information, and to enable British research to achieve its maximum potential. Sincerely, Professor Michael Ashburner FRS, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK Professor Jonathan Ashmore FRS, University College London, UK Professor Allan Bradley FRS, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK Professor Adrian Bird FRS, University of Edinburgh, UK Professor Martin Bobrow FRS, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Mark S Bretcher FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Professor Jeremy Brockes FRS, University College London, UK Professor Ian Butterworth FRS, Imperial College, London, UK Professor George Cross FRS, Rockefeller University, New York City, NY, USA Professor Kay E Davies FRS, MRC Functional Genetics Unit, Oxford, UK Dr Richard Durbin FRS, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK Professor Douglas T Fearon FRS, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Mike Gale FRS, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK Dr Michel Goedert FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Professor Peter Goodfellow FRS, UK Professor Michael B. Green FRS, University of Cambridge, UK * Professor Brian Greenwood FRS, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Professor Norman N Greenwood, FRS, University of Leeds, UK Professor Frank Grosveld FRS, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands * Professor Paul Harvey FRS, University of Oxford, UK Professor Nick Hastie FRS, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh, UK Professor Brigid Hogan FRS, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA Professor Jonathan C Howard FRS, University of Cologne, Germany Professor Thomas Jessell FRS, Columbia University, New York, USA Professor Marc Kirschner ForMemRS, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA Professor Donald Knuth ForMemRS, Stanford University, CA, USA Professor Arthur Kornberg FRS and Nobel Laureate, Stanford University, CA, USA Dr Robin Lovell-Badge FRS, National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK Professor Andrew Lumsden FRS, Kings College, London, UK Professor Philippa Marrack FRS, National Jewish Medical and Research Centre, Denver, CO, USA Professor David Q Mayne FRS, Imperial College, London, UK * Professor Michael E McIntyre MAE FRS, University of Cambridge, UK Professor Hugh Pelham FRS, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK Professor Martin Raff FRS, University College, London, UK Professor Richard Roberts FRS and Nobel Laureate, New England Biolabs, USA * Dr Elizabeth Robertson FRS, University of Oxford, UK Professor Nancy Rothwell FRS, Univerity of Manchester, UK Professor Geoffrey Raisman FRS, University College, London, UK Professor Charles R. Scriver FRS, McGill University, Quebec, Canada Professor David J. Sherratt FRS, University of Oxford, UK * Professor Peter Somogyi, FRS, Director MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, Oxford, UK Dr John Sulston FRS and Nobel Laureate, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK Professor Janet Thornton FRS, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK Professor James Till FRS, University of Toronto, Canada Professor Harold Varmus ForMemRS and Nobel Laureate, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA Professor James D Watson ForMemRS and Nobel Laureate, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA * Asterisks denote signatories who have added their name to the letter since it was initially sent. Links Royal Society position statement on open access http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=3882 http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=3882 RCUK Position Statement on Access to Research Outputs, June 2005 http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/statement.pdf http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/access/statement.pdf Universities UK supports calls for web access to research results http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/mediareleases/show.asp?MR=431 http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/mediareleases/show.asp?MR=431 If you are a Fellow of the Royal Society and would like to add your name as a signatory to this letter, send an email to mailto:frsopenletter@googlemail.com frsopenletter(a)googlemail.co mailto:frsopenletter@googlemail.com m

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e-Library in Braille rolls on ......
by noufal palliparamban 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Dear friends, Visually challenged children can have the computer read out stories and listen to radio programmes when the mobile library comes to their doorstep. More: http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112218240200.htm Regards Noufal Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur --------------------------------- Enjoy this Diwali with Y! India Click here Dear friends, Visually challenged children can have the computer read out stories and listen to radio programmes when the mobile library comes to their doorstep. More: http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112218240200.htm http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/22/stories/2005112218240200.htm Regards Noufal Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Enjoy this Diwali with Y! India http://in.promos.yahoo.com/fabmall/index.html Click here

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World Book Fair - 2006
by Mailing List Manager 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 17:21:55 +0530 From: Manju manju <manjax4u(a)gmail.com> Dear All 17th NewDelhi Worldbook Fair to be organized 27th Jan'2006 to 4th Feb 2006 http://www.nbtindia.org.in/world_bookfair.shtml your Sincerely manjunatha p.s Mysore

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mailing address of a publisher
by Mailing List Manager 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 05:53:48 +0000 (GMT) From: suresh kumar <nsureshfcri(a)yahoo.co.in> Dear members, Please let me know the new mail address of the publishers of elektor india electronics magazine . thanking you, sureshkumar, librarian, FCRI-(DHI-Govt. of India) palakkad.678623

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Modern Tools to Unlock Ancient Texts
by Mailing List Manager 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 13:55:49 +0530 From: Rupak Chakravarty <rupak2811(a)gmail.com> Dear All, Tools for ancient texts have been successfully created that will open up rare texts and manuscripts locked away in museums, libraries and archives, and promote new kinds of scholarship while also preserving large swathes of history and culture for the future. *Brussels, Belgium & London, UK, December 3, 2005 -- *The CHLT project also unified several important digital library collections � such as Isaac Newton's manuscripts - and early modern scientific texts, as well as creating new digital library collections of Old Norse sagas. It's a vast achievement. Read More..................... : http://www.chlt.org/ -- Rupak Chakravarty Assistant Librarian Panjab University Library Chandigarh 160014 INDIA [attachment part deleted]

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OA and the Royal Society
by Subbiah Arunachalam 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Friends: Here is a thoughtful letter from Dr Barbara Kirsop of the Electronic Publishing Trust. Very well written and what she says makes sense. All of us should write to both the Royal Society and SciDevNet about the great need to adopt open access self-archiving. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] --------------------------------- http://www.scidev.net/editorletters/index.cfm?fuseaction=readeditorletter&i… Royal Society must embrace open archiving Author: Barbara Kirsop Affiliation: Electronic Publishing Trust for Development http://www.epublishingtrust.org Date: 25 November 2005 I am appalled at the recent statement made by the Royal Society regarding access to research publications (see Open access deemed 'dangerous' by Royal Society). Apart from misunderstanding the proposals made by the UK research councils, the Royal Society's statement indicates a total lack of understanding of the world's research needs. "A young post-doctoral researcher in mathematics at an Ethiopian university has different needs and different means compared with an established senior research fellow in pharmacology [at] a UK company's laboratory." Just what are these "different needs"? Researchers everywhere need access to the world's research information - those that are less privileged need it most. The advent of open access archiving policies, now widely accepted by visionary academics, solves the problem and greatly strengthens the international scientific community and its ability to solve global problems (think only of bird flu, HIV/AIDS, environmental disasters, climate change). Institutional repositories require the continuance of journals so that author's versions of published, refereed articles can be archived electronically. Indeed, 93 per cent of the 9,000 journals surveyed by the Joint Information Systems Committee (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/) have accepted this, including enlightened science and technology publishers such as Elsevier (see http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers.html) The aim of such repositories is not the demise of journals, but quite the contrary. It is shameful that one of the most senior scientific bodies misinterprets the present open access situation and dismisses the needs of poorer nations. Thankfully, this is not the case with organisations such as UNESCO, the International Council for Science (ICSU) and its Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), the International Federation of Library Associations, France's National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) and the French national institutes for health and medical research (INSERM), agricultural research (INRA) and computer science (INRIA), as well as all universities in the Netherlands and Scotland, and many in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States. All of these support the concept of institutional repositories for publicly-funded published research. The Royal Society should join with the international scientific community in embracing new technology, which has such huge potential for science and the economies of poorer countries. This is an edited version of comments made to the American Scientist Open Access Forum. Link to SciDev.Net's special feature 'Opening doors with open access' Related SciDev.Net articles: Open access deemed 'dangerous' by Royal Society Friends: Here is a thoughtful letter from Dr Barbara Kirsop of the Electronic Publishing Trust. Very well written and what she says makes sense. All of us should write to both the Royal Society and SciDevNet about the great need to adopt open access self-archiving. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] --------------------------------- http://www.scidev.net/editorletters/index.cfm?fuseaction=readeditorletter&i… http://www.scidev.net/editorletters/index.cfm?fuseaction=readeditorletter&i… Royal Society must embrace open archiving http://www.scidev.net/siteimages/spacer.gif Author: Barbara Kirsop Affiliation: Electronic Publishing Trust for Development http://www.epublishingtrust.org http://www.epublishingtrust.org Date: 25 November 2005 I am appalled at the recent statement made by the Royal Society regarding access to research publications (see http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=2498&langua… Open access deemed 'dangerous' by Royal Society ). Apart from misunderstanding the proposals made by the UK research councils, the Royal Society's statement indicates a total lack of understanding of the world's research needs. "A young post-doctoral researcher in mathematics at an Ethiopian university has different needs and different means compared with an established senior research fellow in pharmacology [at] a UK company's laboratory." Just what are these "different needs"? Researchers everywhere need access to the world's research information those that are less privileged need it most. The advent of open access archiving policies, now widely accepted by visionary academics, solves the problem and greatly strengthens the international scientific community and its ability to solve global problems (think only of bird flu, HIV/AIDS, environmental disasters, climate change). Institutional repositories require the continuance of journals so that author's versions of published, refereed articles can be archived electronically. Indeed, 93 per cent of the 9,000 journals surveyed by the Joint Information Systems Committee ( http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ ) have accepted this, including enlightened science and technology publishers such as Elsevier (see http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers.html http://romeo.eprints.org/publishers.html ). The aim of such repositories is not the demise of journals, but quite the contrary. It is shameful that one of the most senior scientific bodies misinterprets the present open access situation and dismisses the needs of poorer nations. Thankfully, this is not the case with organisations such as UNESCO, the International Council for Science (ICSU) and its Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), the International Federation of Library Associations, France's National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) and the French national institutes for health and medical research (INSERM), agricultural research (INRA) and computer science (INRIA), as well as all universities in the Netherlands and Scotland, and many in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States. All of these support the concept of institutional repositories for publicly-funded published research. The Royal Society should join with the international scientific community in embracing new technology, which has such huge potential for science and the economies of poorer countries. This is an edited version of comments made to the http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.… American Scientist Open Access Forum. Link to SciDev.Net's special feature http://www.scidev.net/ms/openaccess/ 'Opening doors with open access' Related SciDev.Net articles: http://www.scidev.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2498&language=1 Open access deemed 'dangerous' by Royal Society

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