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Traditional Knowledge encyclopedia
by Saji S. Nair 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

Dear All, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) project of NISCAIR is planning for a free electronic encycopedia, as an effort to tackle 'biopiracy'. The encylopedia comprising of 30 million pages will be made available at the public domain next year. See the news at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4506382.stm India hits back in 'bio-piracy' battle Bye Saji S. Nair Regional Cancer Centre Library Trivandrum Kerala _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

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Life sciences in semantic web
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

>From Peter Suber's blog "Open Access News" More on NeuroCommons Paul Krill, Semantic Web eyed for life sciences data, InfoWorld, December 9, 2005. Excerpt: The Semantic Web is getting a boost in the life sciences arena. The Semantic Web involves a concept in which data from multiple sources and ontologies can be integrated into a single information space. Experiment design automation (XDA) software vendor Teranode, which focuses on software for life sciences, plans to collaborate with Science Commons to build a neurology repository for the Semantic Web. Called Neurocommons.org, the project will provide a free repository of neurology-related data, tools and pathway knowledge for use by public and private researchers. Science Commons is an effort launched to promote the free flow of scientific information....Science Commons will use the Teranode XDA infrastructure for Neurocommons.org. All content will be available in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) format, allowing for participating foundations to use a shared repository of research.

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OA in China - the debate has begun
by Subbiah Arunachalam 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

OA to publicly-funded journals coming in China Jia Hepeng, China launches campaign to boost local journals, SciDev.Net, December 7, 2005. Excerpt: The Chinese government has launched a campaign to encourage Chinese researchers to publish their results in domestic rather than international journals, and to place their results in free archives. "We will gradually make scientists publish research that is funded by the government agencies in leading domestic journals," said Wu Bo'er, director of the Department of Facilities and Financial Support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, at a meeting last week (30 November). At the heart of the campaign is a new fund that will provide financial support to between 300 and 500 of the country's 5,000 scientific journals. The money, whose total amount has yet to be announced, is intended to help the journals improve their editorial and print quality. Some journals will be encouraged to publish in English....At present, papers published by Chinese researchers in journals quoted in the Science Citation Index can bring substantial rewards, such as professorships, research grants and even housing. This has encouraged Chinese scientists to publish their results in foreign journals. To reverse the trend, Wu told SciDev.Net that Chinese scientists may eventually be required to publish their work domestically....Yu Zailin of Peking University disagrees with a ban on publishing in international journals, saying it would impede academic progress. He suggests that instead, Chinese scientists could be asked to write a Chinese paper to be published simultaneously or shortly after their foreign publication....Wang Li, chief editor of Changchun-based Journal of Jilin University, raises another concern. While he accepts that the government's campaign may help to strengthen the country's leading journals, he warns that it could have a less beneficial impact on other scientific publications. "If all Chinese researchers are encouraged to submit their papers to the leading journals, the middle and small-level domestic ones could suffer," says Wang....The government will also fund an online database of the full text of all papers published in journals selected to receive financial support. Both researchers and the public will have access to the database. Comment. I applaud the Chinese plan to improve many of its journals and provide OA to publicly-funded research and publicly-funded journals. However, I also support the concerns of Yu Zailin. One solution is to let researchers publish in the journals of their choice but expect them to deposit copies of their work in OA repositories. This is the approach taken by the NIH, Wellcome Trust, and RCUK. Researchers will still have an incentive to publish in the improved Chinese journals because of their new quality and new access policies.

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NewGednLib Version 2 - comments requested
by Jai Haravu 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

ends I am happy to announce the Beta testing of version 2.0 of NewGenLib. Both the librarian's Applet interface and the OPAC are under test and I welcome the comments and suggestions from professionals. I have provided two URLs which can be used in order to explore the version 2.0 OPAC. New features in The Applet Interface It will now be possible to import authority file records from the Library of Congress Authorities site. Authority records thus imported will become part of the local authority file and during cataloguing data entry the authority records can be seen. It is hoped that this will improve consistency and accuracy of catalogue records. Version 2.0 will allow a library to build an open archive of an Institution's pre-prints, post-prints, internal reports, slides, etc. This feature has become possible because version 2.0 supports the OAI-PMH protocol. Resources which are to be open-archived are identified specifically in the interface and only these records will be able to be harvested by others. The new version has also built functionality to connect to existing open archives compliant with OAI-PMH. The librarian can then selectively harvest records from the site. All such records then become an integral part of the local database and hence become searchable apart from the fact that they will point to the digital content attached to the harvested metadata record. Based on requests that we received from existing customers we have added a Simple template for cataloguing data entry. This template has the most widely used fields and will be adequate for most monograph records. Records created with this template will still be stored as MARC-21 records. For more complete cataloguing one would still need to use the General and/or MARC-21 templates. It will now be possible for a library to configure to receive news feeds from one or more Remote Site Summary (RSS) feeds. The news feeds can be viewed from the OPAC. The new version will allow a degree of customization of patron records. New features in the OPAC Two new search options have been provided: A Google-like search option using the Lucene search engine. names, single terms, or phrases can be entered in this and all fields of the metadata database are searched; and An Expert search interface that will allow a librarian/information specialist to enter complex search queries using the most important features of the Common Query Language (CQL). The possibility to choose between tabular and citation displays in the search output. The possibility to sort search output by different keys. The possibility for the search output to be exported (in addition to text and MARC-21 and MARC-XML) to the more recent MODS metadata standard and also to the AGRIS-Application Profile format in XML. The possibility for a user to define his/her SDI profile and constraints (time and type) and save it to the server. Once this is done, the software automatically pushes content to the user's email at intervals defined by the user. The possibility for viewing news feeds from one or more RSS sites already configured by the library. The viewing of statistics including OPAC usage. Kindly see the following OPACs and give us your comments/suggestions. ICRISAT, Patancheru OPAC at http://220.227.242.217:8080/newgenlibctxt/jsp/aportal/cataloguing/index1.jsp http://220.227.242.217:8080/newgenlibctxt/jsp/aportal/cataloguing/index1.jsp and An experimental digital library OPAC for the visually impaired at London at http://217.34.8.235:8080/newgenlibctxt/jsp/aportal/cataloguing/index1.jsp http://217.34.8.235:8080/newgenlibctxt/jsp/aportal/cataloguing/index1.jsp . The second OPAC has only a few records and is primarily to demonstrate how large font full text, audio and video can be accessed by visually impaired users. To test out this site please enter % in the opening page's text box and click Begin Search. You will see all the records in the database. Each of these has a digital attachment which can then be viewed by clicking the E-Resources icon and entering 1 and abc in the user id and password dialogue. I welcome comments and suggestions from professionals. L J Haravu Trustee Kesavan Institute of Information and Knowledge Management Dear friends I am happy to announce the Beta testing of version 2.0 of NewGenLib. Both the librarian's Applet interface and the OPAC are under test and I welcome the comments and suggestions from professionals. I have provided two URLs which can be used in order to explore the version 2.0 OPAC. New features in The Applet Interface It will now be possible to import authority file records from the Library of Congress Authorities site. Authority records thus imported will become part of the local authority file and during cataloguing data entry the authority records can be seen. It is hoped that this will improve consistency and accuracy of catalogue records. Version 2.0 will allow a library to build an open archive of an Institution's pre-prints, post-prints, internal reports, slides, etc. This feature has become possible because version 2.0 supports the OAI-PMH protocol. Resources which are to be open-archived are identified specifically in the interface and only these records will be able to be harvested by others. The new version has also built functionality to connect to existing open archives compliant with OAI-PMH. The librarian can then selectively harvest records from the site. All such records then become an integral part of the local database and hence become searchable apart from the fact that they will point to the digital content attached to the harvested metadata record. Based on requests that we received from existing customers we have added a Simple template for cataloguing data entry. This template has the most widely used fields and will be adequate for most monograph records. Records created with this template will still be stored as MARC-21 records. For more complete cataloguing one would still need to use the General and/or MARC-21 templates. It will now be possible for a library to configure to receive news feeds from one or more Remote Site Summary (RSS) feeds. The news feeds can be viewed from the OPAC. The new version will allow a degree of customization of patron records. New features in the OPAC Two new search options have been provided: A Google-like search option using the Lucene search engine. names, single terms, or phrases can be entered in this and all fields of the metadata database are searched; and An Expert search interface that will allow a librarian/information specialist to enter complex search queries using the most important features of the Common Query Language (CQL). The possibility to choose between tabular and citation displays in the search output. The possibility to sort search output by different keys. The possibility for the search output to be exported (in addition to text and MARC-21 and MARC-XML) to the more recent MODS metadata standard and also to the AGRIS-Application Profile format in XML. The possibility for a user to define his/her SDI profile and constraints (time and type) and save it to the server. Once this is done, the software automatically pushes content to the user's email at intervals defined by the user. The possibility for viewing news feeds from one or more RSS sites already configured by the library. The viewing of statistics including OPAC usage. Kindly see the following OPACs and give us your comments/suggestions. ICRISAT, Patancheru OPAC at http://220.227.242.217:8080/newgenlibctxt/jsp/aportal/cataloguing/index1.jsp and An experimental digital library OPAC for the visually impaired at London at http://217.34.8.235:8080/newgenlibctxt/jsp/aportal/cataloguing/index1.jsp. The second OPAC has only a few records and is primarily to demonstrate how large font full text, audio and video can be accessed by visually impaired users. To test out this site please enter % in the opening page's text box and click Begin Search. You will see all the records in the database. Each of these has a digital attachment which can then be viewed by clicking the E-Resources icon and entering 1 and abc in the user id and password dialogue. I welcome comments and suggestions from professionals. L J Haravu Trustee Kesavan Institute of Information and Knowledge Management

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International Library & Information Science Associations ( manjax4u )
by Manju manju 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

Dear All National & International Library & Information Science Associations http://my.execpc.com/~himmel/natassoc.html Your sincerely MANJUNATHA P.S SDM - IMD LIBRARY MYSORE

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OA policy of RCUK
by Subbiah Arunachalam 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Friends: Please visit <http://open-access.web.cern.ch/Open-Access/docs/20051207_LEMASURIER.pdf> to know about the stand taken by RCUK on OA. Regards. Arun

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US agencies may mandate OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Mandated OA for publicly-funded medical research in the US Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate yesterday that would mandate OA to publicly-funded medical research within four months of its publication. Officially titled the American Center for Cures Act of 2005, the bill is informally known as the CURES Act. It would create a new agency within the NIH, the American Center for Cures (ACC), whose primary mission would be to translate fundamental research into therapies. The bill is very large and covers a lot of territory, but for our purposes the critical part is Section 499H. Like the existing NIH policy, the CURES Act would apply only to the author's final peer-reviewed manuscript, although copyright holders would have the option to replace it with the final published text. Public access would be provided by PubMed Central. The bill goes beyond the NIH policy in several important ways. It requires free online access and does not merely request it. It shortens the permissible delay to four months. It extends the OA policy beyond the NIH to research funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Healthcare Research. Finally, it explicitly says that non-compliance may be a ground for the funding agency to refuse future funding. The bill is co-sponsored by Thad Cochran (R-MS). See the summary of the bill (discussing all its important provisions except the OA mandate), the section-by-section breakdown (the OA mandate is in Section 499H), and some quotations from supporters. (PS: This is a major step. It would effectively mandate OA to all medical research funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, making it more effective and wider in scope than the NIH public-access policy. More later, I promise.) Update. First a correction. The bill was introduced December 7, not December 8. Now some more links: * Press release from Senator Lieberman's office * Press release from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access. Excerpt: The Cures Bill is exactly the medicine thats needed, said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and a leader of the ATA. It goes right to the heart of the case for unfettered access to publicly funded research. Senators Lieberman and Cochran took a close look at how best to speed development of treatments for diseases. Among their conclusions is that its time we ensure the research were already conducting is available to all potential users. Pat Furlong, executive director of Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and an ATA member, was also pleased with the bill. It recognizes how important the sharing of information is to speeding research and translating new knowledge into cures, said Furlong. In the age of the Internet, it makes no sense for the results of taxpayer-funded research to be hidden away.

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Indian Science Academies support OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

What do the Indian science academies know that the Royal Society doesn't know? Subbiah Arunachalam, Indian science academies support open access, SciDev.net, December 8, 2005. A letter to the editor. Excerpt: I read Barbara Kirsop's letter...on the appalling stand taken by the UK Royal Society on open access. Thankfully, the science academies in India are supporting open access. In fact, all the journals published by the Indian National Science Academy, currently presided over by a fellow of the UK Royal Society, are open access journals and one can search and download articles from volume 1, number 1. All 11 journals published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, also presided over by a fellow of the UK Royal Society, are also open access journals, and there are currently efforts underway to make all previous volumes open access. What is more, unlike the Public Library of Science and BioMed Central, these two academies do not charge authors (or their institutions) a fee for publishing their papers. They do charge for subscriptions to the print versions as opposed to online versions of their journals.

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Free report on pollutants
by Subbiah Arunachalam 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Don't cut back on OA info about toxic pollutants The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently sends out annual OA reports on toxic pollutants as part of its Toxic Release Inventory program. It is proposing to cut back the reports to every other year. I urge US citizens to submit a comment before January 13 asking the EPA to continue the annual reports. The easiest way is to submit a comment is to use the action alert from OMB Watch, which will send copies of your message to Congress as well as the EPA.

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[LIS-Forum] Version 60, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Version 60 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available. This selective bibliography presents over 2,560 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.pdf The Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals, by the same author, provides much more in-depth coverage of the open access movement and related topics (e.g., disciplinary archives, e-prints, institutional repositories, open access journals, and the Open Archives Initiative) than SEPB does. http://www.escholarlypub.com/oab/oab.htm The Open Access Webliography (with Ho) complements the OAB, providing access to a number of Websites related to open access topics. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/oaw.htm Changes in This Version The bibliography has the following sections (revised sections are marked with an asterisk): Table of Contents 1 Economic Issues 2 Electronic Books and Texts 2.1 Case Studies and History* 2.2 General Works 2.3 Library Issues* 3 Electronic Serials 3.1 Case Studies and History* 3.2 Critiques 3.3 Electronic Distribution of Printed Journals* 3.4 General Works* 3.5 Library Issues* 3.6 Research* 4 General Works* 5 Legal Issues 5.1 Intellectual Property Rights* 5.2 License Agreements* 5.3 Other Legal Issues 6 Library Issues 6.1 Cataloging, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata* 6.2 Digital Libraries* 6.3 General Works* 6.4 Information Integrity and Preservation* 7 New Publishing Models* 8 Publisher Issues* 8.1 Digital Rights Management 9 Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI* Appendix A. Related Bibliographies* Appendix B. About the Author* Appendix C. SEPB Use Statistics Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources includes the following sections: Cataloging, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata* Digital Libraries* Electronic Books and Texts* Electronic Serials* General Electronic Publishing* Images Legal* Preservation* Publishers Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI* SGML and Related Standards Further Information about SEPB The HTML version of SEPB is designed for interactive use. Each major section is a separate file. There are links to sources that are freely available on the Internet. It can be can be searched using Boolean operators. The HTML document includes three sections not found in the Acrobat file: (1) Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (biweekly list of new resources; also available by mailing list--see second URL--and RSS Feed--see third URL) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepwlist.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScholarlyElectronicPublishingWeblogrss (2) Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources (directory of over 270 related Web sites) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepr.htm (3) Archive (prior versions of the bibliography) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/archive/sepa.htm The Acrobat file is designed for printing. The printed bibliography is over 210 pages long. The Acrobat file is over 560 KB. Related Article An article about the bibliography has been published in The Journal of Electronic Publishing: http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/07-02/bailey.html -- Best Regards, Charles Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Assistant Dean for Digital Library Planning and Development, University of Houston Libraries Home: http://www.escholarlypub.com/ DigitalKoans: http://www.escholarlypub.com/digitalkoans/ Open Access Bibliography: http://www.escholarlypub.com/oab/oab.htm Open Access Webliography: http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/oaw.htm Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm

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