Friends: A commercial firm has entered the Open Access fray! ProQuest offers the necessary support through its new service called Digital Commons. Already half a dozen US universities/colleges use this technology. Will someone compare this service with the freely available eprints technology of the Southampton University? Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Poynder To: arun@mssrf.res.in Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 2:52 PM Subject: FW: Information for Open Access article (part II) re: ProQuest Digital Commons Arun, This is what ProQuest sent me a while back in case it is of interest. The University of Pennsylvania may be able to give you some insight into how much this is costing them. Richard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: McLean, Austin [mailto:Austin.McLean@il.proquest.com] Sent: 09 November 2004 15:47 To: richard.poynder@journalist.co.uk Subject: Information for Open Access article (part II) re: ProQuest Digital Commons Dear Mr. Poynder, I read with interest your article on Open Access in the latest issue of "Information Today." I noted that you are planning on providing the publisher's view and reaction to Open Access in the next issue. I want to be sure that you are aware of ProQuest's recent activities in the Open Access arena. At the ALA annual meeting ProQuest announced a new service offering, called Digital Commons, an OAI-compliant service powered by technology supplied by The Berkeley Electronic Press. This service allows an institution to create a robust institutional repository (IR) at a reasonable cost. In addition Digital Commons offers: a.. Immediate content - All of an academic library's dissertation and theses will be immediately uploaded by ProQuest. b.. Increases the visibility of scholars, research units, and the research itself c.. Creates new discovery paths via Google and OAI d.. Manages peer-reviewed series, working papers, monographs, and many other publication types e.. Incorporates non-static resources (sound and video files, data sets, executables) f.. Gives permanence to your intellectual heritage g.. Offers insights into readership levels with usage statistics h.. Provides customized email alerts i.. For a full list of features, click here. Digital Commons@ offers benefits to the entire scholarly community: a.. Institutions-a showcase for the full range of research conducted under university auspices b.. Departments, institutes, centers, etc.-a central repository for otherwise scattered research c.. Researchers-highly visible platforms for personal scholarship, plus statistics on readership d.. Readers-the institution's intellectual output in a single, easily navigable source, with customized daily alerts But don't just take my word for it - read why the University of Pennsylvania chose Digital Commons. We like to say that Digital Commons is the quickest, easiest way to launch an IR. There's no need for special technical skills or HTML training, no need to enlist local hardware, software, or systems experts. You get all this: a.. HTML templates, PDF conversion, XML exporting b.. Browsing and full-text searching c.. Institutional site branding, custom cover sheets d.. Data transfer to third-party indexing services and much more The following Digital Commons sites are active: a.. Trinity University DigitalCommons@Trinity b.. Stevens Institute of Technology DigitalCommons@Stevens c.. Boston College: iScholarship@Boston College d.. Dickinson College: DigitalCommons@Dickinson e.. University of New Brunswick: DigitalCommons@UNB f.. University of Pennsylvania: ScholarlyCommons@Penn g.. Carleton College Repository (Minnesota): DigitalCommons @CarletonCollege Other IRs that use the Bepress technology: a.. California Digital Library ( http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/ ) b.. Florida State: http://dscholarship.lib.fsu.edu/ c.. New England Law Library Repository, including University of Connecticut, Cornell and Yale http://lsr.nellco.org I'm happy to discuss Digital Commons further if it would assist you with your research. I'm looking forward to reading part II of your article next month. Best regards, Austin McLean Director, Scholarly Communication and Dissertations Publishing ProQuest Information and Learning 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Phone: 800-521-0600 x3270 Fax: 603-806-6109 email: austin.mclean@il.proquest.com @page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in .5in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin: .5in; mso-footer-margin: .5in; mso-paper-source: 0; } P.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } LI.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } DIV.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: ""; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } A:link { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } SPAN.MsoHyperlink { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } A:visited { COLOR: #606420; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { COLOR: #606420; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single } P.MsoPlainText { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Courier New"; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } LI.MsoPlainText { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Courier New"; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } DIV.MsoPlainText { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Courier New"; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman" } P { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; COLOR: black; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto } SPAN.EmailStyle19 { COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-style-type: personal-compose; mso-style-noshow: yes; mso-ansi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial } SPAN.SpellE { mso-style-name: ""; mso-spl-e: yes } SPAN.GramE { mso-style-name: ""; mso-gram-e: yes } DIV.Section1 { page: Section1 } OL { MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in } UL { MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in } Friends:   A commercial firm has entered the Open Access fray! ProQuest offers the necessary support through its new service called Digital Commons. Already half a dozen US universities/colleges use this technology. Will someone compare this service with the freely available eprints technology of the Southampton University? Best wishes.   Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]     ----- Original Message ----- From: mailto:aotg20@dsl.pipex.com Richard Poynder To: mailto:arun@mssrf.res.in arun@mssrf.res.in Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 2:52 PM Subject: FW: Information for Open Access article (part II) re: ProQuest Digital Commons Arun,   This is what ProQuest sent me a while back in case it is of interest. The University of Pennsylvania may be able to give you some insight into how much this is costing them.   Richard   From: McLean, Austin [mailto:Austin.McLean@il.proquest.com] Sent: 09 November 2004 15:47 To: mailto:richard.poynder@journalist.co.uk richard.poynder@journalist.co.uk Subject: Information for Open Access article (part II) re: ProQuest Digital Commons Dear Mr. Poynder,   I read with interest your article on Open Access in the latest issue of “Information Today.”   I noted that you are planning on providing the publisher’s view and reaction to Open Access in the next issue.   I want to be sure that you are aware of ProQuest’s recent activities in the Open Access arena.   At the ALA annual meeting ProQuest announced a new service offering, called Digital Commons, an OAI-compliant service powered by technology supplied by The Berkeley Electronic Press.   This service allows an institution to create a robust institutional repository (IR) at a reasonable cost.   In addition Digital Commons offers: Immediate content - All of an academic library's dissertation and theses will be immediately uploaded by ProQuest. Increases the visibility of scholars, research units, and the research itself Creates new discovery paths via Google and OAI Manages peer-reviewed series, working papers, monographs, and many other publication types Incorporates non-static resources (sound and video files, data sets, executables) Gives permanence to your intellectual heritage Offers insights into readership levels with usage statistics Provides customized email alerts For a full list of features, http://www.umi.com/umi/digitalcommons/features.shtml click here . Digital Commons@ offers benefits to the entire scholarly community: Institutions—a showcase for the full range of research conducted under university auspices Departments, institutes, centers, etc.—a central repository for otherwise scattered research Researchers—highly visible platforms for personal scholarship, plus statistics on readership Readers—the institution's intellectual output in a single, easily navigable source, with customized daily alerts But don't just take my word for it - http://repository.upenn.edu/whybepress.html read why the University of Pennsylvania chose Digital Commons . We like to say that Digital Commons is the quickest, easiest way to launch an IR.   There's no need for special technical skills or HTML training, no need to enlist local hardware, software, or systems experts. You get all this: HTML templates, PDF conversion, XML exporting Browsing and full-text searching Institutional site branding, custom cover sheets Data transfer to third-party indexing services and much more [A] The following Digital Commons sites are active: Trinity University http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/ DigitalCommons@Trinity Stevens Institute of Technology http://digitalcommons.stevens.edu/ DigitalCommons@Stevens Boston College : http://ischolarship.bc.edu iScholarship @Boston College Dickinson College : http://digitalcommons.dickinson.edu Digital Commons@Dickinson University of New Brunswick : http://digitalcommons.hil.unb.ca Digital Commons@UNB University of Pennsylvania : http://repository.upenn.edu Scholarly Commons@Penn Carleton College Repository ( Minnesota ): http://digitalcommons.carleton.edu DigitalCommons @CarletonCollege Other IRs that use the Bepress technology: California Digital Library ( http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/ http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/ ) Florida State : http://dscholarship.lib.fsu.edu/ http://dscholarship.lib.fsu.edu/ New England Law Library Repository, including University of Connecticut , Cornell and Yale http://lsr.nellco.org/ http://lsr.nellco.org I’m happy to discuss Digital Commons further if it would assist you with your research. I’m looking forward to reading part II of your article next month. Best regards, Austin McLean Director, Scholarly Communication and Dissertations Publishing ProQuest Information and Learning 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor , MI 48106-1346 Phone: 800-521-0600 x3270 Fax: 603-806-6109 email: austin.mclean@il.proquest.com