I N   B R I E F

January/February 2011

RAPTOR: Understanding your users' use of e-resources

Contributed by:
Dr. Rhys Smith
Engineering Consultant: Identity & Access Management
Information Services, Cardiff University
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
smith@cardiff.ac.uk

Understanding e-resource usage in as great a level of detail as possible is increasingly important to academic institutions; not least because of the current economic climate and consequent likelihood of tightening funding. This understanding allows an institution to decide which resources they need to keep subscribing to, and which they may wish to unsubscribe from – potentially resulting in real-world cost savings.

However, the recent trend of moving from centralised access management systems and IP authentication towards federated access – enabling a more user friendly, personalisable user experience – means that many existing tools to calculate usage statistics are no longer relevant.

The JISC-funded RAPTOR (Reporting, Analysis, and Presentation Toolkit for usage of Online Resources) project is building a software toolkit for reporting e-resource usage statistics by analysing log files from relevant software systems. Initially, supported software will be the Shibboleth Identity Provider, EZProxy, and OpenAthens LA, but the RAPTOR software is easily extensible so should be able to work with any such system (e.g., simplesamlphp, FreeRADIUS) with a minimum of fuss. It can also be extended to be able to interface with local identity information (e.g., through LDAP) to pull in additional information for enhanced reporting – for example, to see e-resource usage by department.

The RAPTOR software is designed from the ground up to be easy for system administrators to install and configure, and its web interface easy to use for both technical and non-technical staff alike. Statistical usage information can be displayed directly in the web interface and exported to Excel/CSV formats.

Beyond institutional needs, many SAML federation operators have a need for highly aggregated statistics – e.g., how many logins did the federation facilitate per day – to show value for money for the federation funders. To help provide this, the RAPTOR software enables aggregation of usage statistics, controlled by policy, upwards to higher levels.

The RAPTOR project is due to complete and release its first full release in April 2011. For more information on RAPTOR, visit http://iam.cf.ac.uk/RAPTOR.

Science.gov Sports a New Image Search!

Contributed by:
Valerie Allen
Science.gov Product Manager
Sr. Technical Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Science.gov (www.science.gov) made its first foray into non-textual search and retrieval on its 8^th Anniversary in December with a new image search. As in the basic and advanced searches, a federated search tool is applied to search and display returns in real-time, bringing an up-to-the-minute relevancy to the results that is not found in indexed searches.

Initially, three image databases are being searched, with more to follow. The current federated search includes:

• The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Library of Images from the Environment (LIFE), a collection of high-quality photographs, illustrations, and graphics covering a wide range of topics, including images of plants, animals, fungi, microorganisms, habitats, wildlife management, environmental topics, and biological study/fieldwork. The NBII Program is managed by the U.S. Department of Interior U.S. Geological Survey.
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Image eXchange (NIX), NASA multimedia collections, including images of space flight, wind tunnel, solar system, aircraft, and education initiatives.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Photo Library, a collection spanning centuries of time and much of the natural world from the center of the earth to the surface of the sun.

In the image search, the most relevant images are pulled and displayed from each source. By selecting the title, you will be taken to the original source of the image for further viewing or additional information.

Along with the image search, other features became available with the recent update:

• The Federal Register (2010) and the Code of Federal Regulations (2009-2010) are now searched in both the basic and advanced search.
• A Science.gov widget is available for downloading to your own website or customized pages.
• Author clusters are now displayed in both the basic and advanced search results.
• Additional citation management download options are available.
• Management of free Alerts subscriptions is easier.
• Software performance is enhanced.

Science.gov is the USA.gov for Science portal and is celebrating 8 years of collaboration between major federal science agencies including: the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, and Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Government Printing Office; the Library of Congress; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the National Archives and Records Administration; and the National Science Foundation. The Science.gov Alliance, with representatives from each of these agencies, guides the direction of Science.gov and is the decision-making body for features and content available on the site. Currently there are 45 authoritative databases and over 2000 scientific websites searched on Science.gov, providing access to 200 million pages of science information.

Science.gov is supported by CENDI, the interagency working group of senior scientific and technical information (STI) managers chartered in 1985.

Anianet and Springer Announce Cooperation to Promote Scholarly Collaboration

Contributed by:
Greg Tananbaum
Founder and CEO
Anianet: Connecting Scholars Worldwide
greg@anianet.com

On November 16, 2010, Springer, the leading global scientific publisher and Anianet, the professional network for Chinese scholars and scientists, announced a joint initiative to stimulate Chinese participation in the international scholarly community. As part of their efforts to promote the highest quality research from China, Springer will promote their journals within the Anianet network, home to thousands of esteemed Chinese scholars in disciplines ranging from aerospace engineering to zoology.

As part of the collaboration, Springer will promote Anianet among their Chinese authors, editors, and reviewers. Springer shares Anianet's vision of shrinking the world by making it easier for Chinese scholars to connect with their western peers.

I N   T H E   N E W S

January/February 2011

American Psychological Association Seeks Applicants for 5th Annual APA Excellence in Librarianship Award

January 7, 2011 — "The American Psychological Association is seeking nominations for the 2011 APA Excellence in Librarianship Award, to be presented at the Educational & Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Research Forum at the June 2011 American Library Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA."

"This Award was created to recognize an outstanding contribution to psychology and behavioral sciences librarianship within the past 5 years, and consists of a $2,500 check and an inscribed plaque...."

"...The APA Excellence in Librarianship Award is open to both librarians and allied professionals with at least 5 years of professional experience. It recognizes a contribution to psychology and behavioral sciences librarianship including instructions, project development, publications, research, or service."

"The application deadline is April 11, 2011. All materials should be submitted by e-mail."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Dominican University and Chicago Public Library Offer Workshop on 21st Century Skills

January 7, 2011 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is pleased to announce that Dominican University and the Chicago Public Library will present a workshop on '21st Century Skills: How Does Your Organization Stack Up?' The workshop will explore concepts introduced in the IMLS report 'Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills.'"

"The Chicago event, to be held on February 4, 2011, was inspired by IMLS's national campaign, Making the Learning Connection, which is intended to assist communities as they build their capacity for helping individuals of all ages acquire essential 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Announcing Scientific Reports, a new open access publication

January 6, 2011 — "Nature Publishing Group (NPG) today announces the 2011 launch of Scientific Reports. An online, open access, peer-reviewed publication, Scientific Reports will publish research covering the natural sciences – biology, chemistry, earth sciences and physics. Scientific Reports is accepting submissions from today, and will publish its first articles in June 2011. More information is available on the Scientific Reports website (www.nature.com/scientificreports)."

"All articles published in Scientific Reports will be open access and subject to an article-processing charge (APC). The 2011 APC rate will be US$1350/GB£890/€1046 per accepted manuscript. Authors will have a choice of two non-commercial Creative Commons (CC) licenses. NPG will make an annual donation to Creative Commons equivalent to $20 per APC paid for publication in Scientific Reports. Authors of the research paper concerned will be eligible for complimentary membership in the Creative Commons network, an international online community of people who support open access and open educational resources...."

"...Scientific Reports will publish original research papers of interest to specialists within a given field in the natural sciences. It will not set a threshold of perceived importance for the papers that it publishes; rather, Scientific Reports will publish all papers that are judged to be technically valid and original. To enable the community to evaluate the importance of papers post-peer review, the Scientific Reports website will include most-downloaded, most-emailed, and most-blogged lists. All research papers will benefit from rapid peer review and publication, and will be deposited in PubMed Central."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Call for Nominations: 2011 National Medal for Museum and Library Service

Nomination Deadline: February 15, 2011

January 5, 2011 — "Supporters of outstanding museums and libraries are encouraged to nominate these institutions for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation's highest honor for exemplary museum and library community service. The National Medal honors museums and libraries that make extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental, and social contributions. Medal winners receive a $10,000 award and are honored at a National Medal award ceremony held in Washington, D.C."

"Any individual, including a museum or library employee, may nominate a museum or library in the United States and its territories for the National Medal. Public or private nonprofit museums, including zoos, art, history, science and technology, children's, and natural history museums; historic houses, nature centers, and botanical gardens; and all types of nonprofit libraries, including public, school, academic, research, and archival, are eligible to receive this honor."

"For more information and to access the nomination form, please go to: www.imls.gov/about/medals. A complete application will include a five-page, single-spaced narrative; financial statements for the past two fiscal years; and up to three letters of support. These nominating materials are reviewed by members of the National Museum and Library Services Board, a presidentially appointed policy advisory board of IMLS. Based on their recommendations, the IMLS Director selects the final winners."

Click here to see full press release.

Innovative Online Game Teaches Scholarly Research Skills to Undergraduates

January 4, 2011 — "Most undergraduates enter college with limited experience in scholarly research. Academic libraries may be unfamiliar to them and library databases unknown territory. Although 95% of 18-29 year olds use the Internet (Pew Internet survey, May 2010), their knowledge of information resources often doesn't extend much beyond Google and Wikipedia."

"A team of researchers headed by Professor Karen Markey and Associate Professor Victor Rosenberg at the University of Michigan's School of Information set out to address this issue by developing an online game that teaches university-level scholarly research skills. Bibliobouts is an online, social activity that teaches players the skills they need to research academic papers. The game is generating broad enthusiasm among both students and educators and in 2010 won its developers the University of Michigan Provost's Innovation in Teaching Award."

"The latest version of the game has just been released for classroom use for Winter 2011 and Fall 2011. The creators are inviting instructors and librarians to try the game in classes where research/writing projects could be improved with greater information literacy. a demo is available at www.bibliobouts.org. (To play, enter 'demo@bibliobouts.org' for email ID and 'demo' for password.)"

For more information, please see the full press release.

President Obama Signs Museum and Library Services Act of 2010

December 23, 2010 — "The President signed into law the Museum and Library Services Act of 2010 (S. 3984) on December 22, 2010."

"The new law reauthorizes the existing programs of the Institute of Museum and Library Services with some important changes. The updated language calls on IMLS to take an active role in research and data collection and to advise the President and Congress on museum, library, and information services. This Act also clearly recognizes how libraries and museums contribute to a competitive workforce and engaged citizenry. New language focuses on the development of essential 21st century skills."

"The legislation advances the roles of libraries and museums in education, lifelong learning, preservation and workforce development. IMLS has been particularly active in providing leadership to align the activities of libraries and museums around our national priority for an educated workforce, a priority of the Obama Administration and essential for a 21st century global economy. Many of the statutory changes update current language to recognize the vitality and utility of the nation's libraries and museums."

"The expanded authority facilitates IMLS's evolving role as a partner with other federal agencies. The ubiquity of the nation's 122,000 libraries and 18,500 museums, the trust invested in them by their communities, and their focus on learning and community engagement make them outstanding partners in furthering our nation's policy goals in a whole host of areas including health, education, cultural preservation, the environment, and global awareness."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Senate Confirms President's Nomination of New IMLS Director

Susan H. Hildreth Becomes New Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services

December 23, 2010 — "On December 22, 2010 Susan Hildreth's nomination to be director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was confirmed by unanimous consent by the United States Senate. The Institute, an independent United States government agency, is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums."

"Hildreth was previously appointed as California's state librarian by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Prior to her position as California state librarian, Hildreth was at the San Francisco Public Library, where she served as deputy director and then city librarian. Her background also includes five years as deputy library director at the Sacramento Public Library, several years as Placer County's head librarian and four years as library director for the Benicia Public Library, all in California. She began her career as a branch librarian at the Edison Township Library in New Jersey."

"Hildreth will serve a four-year term as the Director of the Institute. The directorship of the Institute alternates between individuals from the museum and library communities. She succeeds Marsha L. Semmel, who served as IMLS Acting Director since March 14, following the departure of IMLS Director Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D., at the conclusion of her four-year term. Semmel is currently the deputy director for museums and director for strategic partnerships."

For more information, please see the full press release.

FCC's net neutrality order protects libraries as "consumers," lacks strong protections

December 21, 2011 — "The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE say the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) passage of its network (net) neutrality order today is a first step toward restoring an open Internet but does not go far enough to ensure community anchor institutions' content and services can be equally accessed by the public."

"While the groups say the FCC's clarification of the word 'consumer' guarantees the rule will apply to libraries and other educational interests, additional provisions sought by the associations are needed to achieve 'true' net neutrality. The order does not hold wireless to the same non-discriminatory standards as wireline access, despite the growing number of libraries, higher education institutions and users that utilize wireless technology to access content and information. Additionally, the practice of paid-prioritization must be banned to protect libraries and educational interests from being charged more to provide the public with the same quality of access to their educational and non-profit content."

"The Internet has become a cornerstone of the educational, research and computer services that libraries and other anchor institutions offer to students, teachers and the general public. These institutions rely upon the widespread public availability of an open, affordable Internet to provide equitable access to content and services, including distance learning classes, e-government services, licensed databases, job-training videos, medical and scientific research and many other essential services."

For more information, please see the full press release.

CrossRef Reaches 1000 Member Milestone

December 15, 2010 — "CrossRef, the not-for-profit association of scholarly publishers that provides collaborative business and infrastructure services, has signed its 1000th voting member, St. Plum-Blossom Press of Melbourne, Australia. Voting members represent over 3200 publishers and societies that participate in CrossRef''s Digital Object Identifier (DOI) reference linking system."

"'CrossRef's membership is increasingly diverse,' notes CrossRef Executive Director Edward Pentz. 'Well over half of our participating publishers are not-for-profit. Most of our membership growth comes from small publishers all over the globe. In fact, our members now come from more than 50 countries. They employ all business models, from subscription access, to open access, to hybrid models.'"

"CrossRef is working to expand its network of sponsoring organizations around the world as a way of improving services to smaller international publishers. A recent agreement with the Organization of Open Access Publishers (OASPA), and long-standing arrangements with respected organizations in the developing world and in Asia allow publishers served by these organizations to take advantage of CrossRef services at a lower cost and with local support. CrossRef is working to expand such relationships in other regions to provide better service."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Open access options on 15 more Nature Publishing Group journals

December 14, 2010 — "Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is pleased to announce open access options for fifteen further journals. Forty-one journals published by NPG now offer authors an open access option or are wholly open access, including 80% (40) of its 50 academic and society journals. In total, NPG currently publishes 83 journals, of which 49% offer an open access option to authors."

"Authors publishing in these journals can choose to make their article open access on payment of an article processing charge (APC). APCs vary, depending on the selectivity of the journal, the amount it publishes and associated rejection rate. Full details are available on each journal's website. Authors who opt to pay the APC will benefit from: a choice of licenses, including one that allows derivative works; immediate and permanent access for all to the final published version of their paper on nature.com and in PubMed Central; the rights to self-archive the final published version of their paper for public access immediately on publication...."

"...NPG's self-archiving policy ensures that authors of original research papers can comply with funder mandates for public access, regardless of which NPG journal they publish in. In addition, NPG offers a free Manuscript Deposition Service into PubMed Central and UK PubMed Central on 43 of its titles."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Qatar Foundation launches scientific journals platform QScience.com

December 14, 2010 — "A major reflection of Qatar's investment in and commitment to research took concrete form when QScience.com, the digital publishing portal for research journals, was launched at the Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum 2010. Developed by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ), the scholarly publishing partnership between Qatar Foundation and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, QScience.com publishes peer-reviewed research papers using open access which makes the material freely available to all."

"QScience.com initially hosts six scholarly journals covering the subject areas Cardiology, Information & Librarian Studies, Engineering, Education, Healthcare and Islamic Studies:"

• Aswan Heart Centre Science and Practice Series
• Perspectives in International Librarianship
• Sustainable Technologies Systems and Policies
• Near and Middle Eastern Journal of Research in Education
• Avicenna
• Contemporary Islamic Studies

"Other journals will be added in 2011. QScience.com's advanced technology makes research findings readily accessible and searchable using multimedia functionalities to support text, data, audio and video formats. It is also the first scholarly research platform to make journal abstracts available in both English and Arabic."

For more information, please see the full press release.

National Archives Contributes to Improved Digital Records Preservation and Access System

December 6, 2010 — "The National Archives has contributed to the update of a groundbreaking system – made available online today – that supports long-term preservation of and access to electronic records. The 'new and improved' version of this 'PRONOM' system was developed in partnership with the National Archives of the United Kingdom and the Georgia Tech Research Institute."

"PRONOM is a web-based public technical registry of more than 750 different digital file formats that enables digital archivists, records managers and the public to precisely identify and confirm digital file formats. This identification is the first step to ensuring long-term electronic file preservation by enabling the identification of those file formats that are in danger of becoming obsolete."

"First developed by the National Archives of the United Kingdom in 2002, PRONOM was launched to the public as a free online service in 2004. Shortly after this launch, the US National Archives joined with the British Archives on this project and shared promising new developments from research conducted for the National Archives Electronic Records Archives – now known as the National Archives Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST)."

For more information, please see the full press release.

2011 National Leadership Grant Guidelines Now Available

Deadline for applications: February 1, 2011

December 2, 2010 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is accepting grant applications for the agency's 2011 National Leadership Grant (NLG) program. Applications, guidelines, and examples of successful proposals can be found on the agency's Web site http://www.imls.gov/applicants/grants/nationalLeadership.shtm."

"For the past 13 years, the National Leadership Grants program has been the capstone program for IMLS, providing the agency's highest level of support for innovative projects that generate transformative research, new tools, models, services, professional practice, and alliances that advance the awarded institution as well as the field. "

"National Leadership Grants also allow eligible institutions and their partners to address field-wide challenges and initiatives such as those described in: Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills, Museums and Libraries Engaging America's Youth, Advancing Research and Practice in Digital Curation and Publishing, and the Future of Museums and Libraries."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Ex Libris Delivers the Second Partner Release of Its Unified Resource Management Solution to Development Partners

December 1, 2010 — "Ex Libris® Group, a leading provider of library automation solutions, is pleased to announce that the second installment of its next-generation framework for library services, the Unified Resource Management (URM) solution, is now available to development partners. Representing a major milestone in the development of URM, the latest partner release focuses on:

• Unified acquisition processes for electronic and physical resources
• Cross format search capabilities including faceted results
• Advanced web based metadata editing workbench for catalogers
• Streamlined workflows for fulfilling requests for physical resources
• End to end electronic resource management – from acquisition to activation"

"The URM development partners are Boston College; Princeton University Library; Purdue University Library; and K.U.Leuven, which includes the LIBIS library network of 30 independent member organizations (universities, colleges, parliaments, specialized libraries) and a network of public libraries. The development partners will work intensively with the URM team over the next four months and provide in-depth feedback to Ex Libris on the solution's impact on improving and streamlining the full spectrum of their library processes."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Memento wins major international award for digital preservation

December 1, 2010 — "The Institute for Conservation and the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) are delighted to announce that the Memento Project led by Herbert Van De Sompel and colleagues of Los Alamos National Laboratory and Michael Nelson and colleagues of Old Dominion University, USA, has won the Digital Preservation Award 2010."

"'Memento offers an elegant and easily deployed method that reunites web archives with their home on the live web,' explained Richard Ovenden, chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition. 'It opens web archives to tens of millions of new users and signals a dramatic change in the way we use and perceive digital archives.'"

"'The ability to change and update pages is one of the web's greatest advantages but it introduces a sort of structured instability which makes it hard to depend on web pages in the long term. For more than a decade services like the UK Web Archive and the Internet Archive have provided a stable but partial memory of a fragment of the web – but users had no way of linking between current content and earlier versions held by web archives.'"

"'The Memento project resolves this by letting users set a time preference in their browser. The underlying technology then deploys basic, under-used features of the HTTP protocol to direct users to whichever archived copy of a website most closely matches their request.'"

For more information, please see the full press release.

National Archives And Records Administration And National Technical Information Service Sign Major Agreement To Preserve Digital Scientific Records

November 30, 2010 — "The National Archives and Records Administration and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) have entered into an agreement ensuring long-term preservation and access to the NTIS collection of authenticated and secured digital scientific, technical, and engineering information (STEI). The results of this agreement will have a positive impact on the public, academia, corporations and federal, state, and local government agencies."

"The Director of NTIS, Bruce Borzino, states: 'This new relationship with the National Archives strengthens the benefit of federal agency compliance with The American Technology Preeminence Act when transferring their agency STEI content to NTIS for dissemination to the private sector, academia, state and local governments, and federal agencies. Under this new agreement with the National Archives, agency transfers of digital STEI to NTIS will be regarded the same as if the agency transferred its permanent digital STEI records to the National Archives.'..."

"....The National Archives will work in partnership with NTIS to encourage and promote agency transfers of digital STEI materials to NTIS as successful fulfillment of an agency obligation to transfer permanently valuable digital STEI records to NARA. Currently, the NTIS collection consists of more than two terabytes of scientific, technical, and engineering information. Access to STEI records will be provided by NTIS. The National Archives will maintain a 'dark archives' back up copy of all the STEI records, and assume legal custody of the records when they become 40 years old."

For more information, please see the full press release.

University of Pittsburgh Library System Offers Free E-Journal Publishing Service

November 22, 2010 — "Pitt's University Library System (ULS) is now offering free e-journal publishing services to help academic journals make their content available to a global audience while eliminating the cost of print production."

"The E-journal Publishing Program – part of ULS' D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program, which partners with the University of Pittsburgh Press – 'is in keeping with the ULS' commitment to free and immediate access to scholarly information and its mission to support researchers in the production and sharing of knowledge in a rapidly changing publishing industry,' said Rush G. Miller, Hillman University Librarian and director of the ULS."

"The ULS trains a journal's editorial staff in the use of Open Journal Systems (OJS) software, which channels the flow of scholarly content from initial author submissions through peer review and final online publication and indexing. OJS provides the tools necessary for the layout, design, copy editing, proofreading, and archiving of journal articles. The platform provides a vast set of reading tools to extend the use of scholarly content through RSS feeds and postings to Facebook and Twitter. E-journal articles can be discovered via blogs, databases, search engines, library collections, and other means."

For more information, please see the full press release.

MLIS Scholarships for American Indians and Alaska Natives - Apply Now for Circle of Learning

November 22, 2010 announcement from the San Jose State University Library — "A scholarship opportunity is available to American Indians and Alaska Natives who want to earn a fully online ALA-accredited Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree. The Circle of Learning program is offered through a partnership between the San Jose School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) and the American Indian Library Association (AILA), and is made possible by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services."

"Current SLIS students as well as prospective students who plan to apply for admission to the School's MLIS program for the Fall 2011 semester are eligible for Circle of Learning scholarships. Please note that Circle of Learning students need to be admitted to the School's MLIS program before being considered for scholarship funding. Applications are being accepted now through March 31, 2011 for admission to San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science for Fall 201l."

"Fall classes begin August 24, 2011. For more information about how to apply to the School's fully online MLIS program, please visit: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/admissions/mlis_application.htm. Students interested in applying for Circle of Learning scholarships should take note of upcoming scholarship application deadlines. The Fall 2011 deadline to apply for Circle of Learning scholarships is March 25, 2011."

"Details regarding eligibility and application materials are available on the project website at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/circleoflearning/. Or you may contact Heather Devine, the Circle of Learning Project Manager, at hhdevine@gmail.com. Heather would be happy to talk with you and answer any questions you may have regarding this scholarship opportunity. To learn more about the American Indian Library Association and its initiatives to improve library and information services for American Indians, visit http://www.ailanet.org/."

Oxford University Press announces major online project: Oxford Scholarly Editions Online

November 20, 2010 — "Oxford University Press is proud to announce a major new digital publishing initiative: an online collection of OUP's scholarly editions in the humanities which will go live in spring 2012."

"Oxford's line-up of scholarly editions is unrivalled in its breadth and quality. They comprise authoritative texts of poetry, drama, and fiction, from all periods of English literature, and of other important writing from across the humanities. Such editions are the bedrock of humanities scholarship – the primary sources upon which scholars rely for research and teaching."

"Demand for such primary sources to be made accurately and reliably available online has been growing as more and more research and study is done outside the physical confines of libraries, and with Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) OUP is able to respond to this demand."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Five Museums and Five Libraries to Receive Nation's Highest Honor

November 16, 2010 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS) has selected five museums and five libraries to receive the 2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The National Medal is the nation's highest honor for museums and libraries that make extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental, and social contributions."

"As the primary source of federal funding for the nation's museums and libraries, the Institute has a unique perspective on the vital role these institutions play in American society. The National Medal for Museum and Library Service was created to underscore that role. The winners are as diverse as the nation's cultural landscape: small and large, urban and rural. They have one thing in common: they have developed innovative ways to serve their communities. Winners of the 2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service are:

1. Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, Fishers, IN
2. Explora, Albuquerque, NM
3. Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA
4. Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
5. Nashville Public Library, Nashville, TN
6. The New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
7. Patchogue-Medford Library, Patchogue, NY
8. Peter White Public Library, Marquette, MI
9. Rangeview Library District and Anythink Libraries, Adams County, CO
10. West Bloomfield Township Public Library, West Bloomfield Township, MI"

"The winners of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service are selected each year by the Director of IMLS, following an open nomination process and based on the recommendations of the National Museum and Library Services Board."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Portico to Preserve CrossRef Metadata

November 16, 2010 — "CrossRef and Portico announced today an agreement in principle under which Portico will preserve CrossRef's bibliographic and reference metadata in the Portico archive. This agreement would act as an extra level of insurance to the scholarly community, which relies on reference linking services from CrossRef."

"Ed Pentz, CrossRef's Executive Director, noted, 'This agreement with Portico represents the most recent in a series of steps CrossRef has taken to implement our plan for long-term sustainability. For CrossRef DOIs to be persistent links CrossRef itself must be persistent as an organization. We updated our membership terms to encourage member publishers to enter into archiving agreements for their own content and to ensure CrossRef can keep the bibliographic metadata even if publishers stop assigning DOIs or cease operations. We have implemented multiple resolution of CrossRef DOIs to enable links to several archive locations for "triggered" content that is no longer available from the publisher. And now, we will be able to take advantage of Portico's quality digital preservation services to archive our own data in the unlikely event that CrossRef itself should cease to function without a successory organization in place.'"

"Portico is a community-supported digital preservation service provided by ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. Portico preserves 12,000 e-journals, 66,000 e-book titles, and 39 digitized historical collections from 118 publishers on behalf of over 2,000 societies and associations, and with the support of 710 libraries worldwide. The agreement with CrossRef would add bibliographic data with CrossRef Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for more than 44 million records from more than 3200 publishers."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Copyright © 2011 Corporation for National Research Initiatives