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From Partition to Direct Rule: 50 Years of Northern Ireland Parliamentary Debates Online
Alastair Dunning A new resource has been released that will be a crucial reference for anyone studying the history of Northern Ireland. The Stormont Papers website (http://stormont-papers.ahds.ac.uk) presents the Debates of the first period of the Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont, from the partition of Ireland in 1921 until the end of Home Rule in 1972. The resource is freely available. Before digitisation, access to the full complete sets had been limited, and their usefulness was reduced by the lack of a comprehensive search index. These issues have now been addressed by the online version, consisting of approximately 74m words and over 92,000 digitised pages. A combined subject index has been created and users can search through index terms, or browse list of bills, topics, or people. Full-text search is also possible. In either case, users are presented with digitised images of the debates alongside the textual transcriptions. The texts can also be downloaded for analysis offline. The resource is accompanied by biographies of the main figures involved. Flashpoints in Northern Ireland's history (such as the aftermath of Bloody Sunday and contributions from figures such as the Rev. Dr. I.R.K. Paisley or John Hume provide an obvious focal point for users. But the scope of debates is much wider than this; there are debates on universities, health insurance and even the cost of ice cream. The resource reveals that Northern Ireland's history is far more multi-dimensional than common perceptions suggest. The project was a joint project between the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis (http://www.qub.ac.uk/cdda/) at Queen's University Belfast and the Arts and Humanities Data Service Executive (http://ahds.ac.uk/) at King's College London. The former were responsible for digitising the texts and images; the latter brought all the digital material together, and created the combined index, website and its search mechanisms. The AHDS is also responsible for the website's ongoing maintenance. The Repository for the Laboratory (R4L) Project
Contributed by: It is crucial to the scientific dissemination process to be able to make explicit links between experimental data and the article built upon that data. This objective is perfectly possible if the process is initiated in the laboratory and carried all the way through to the final article. The Repository for the Laboratory (R4L) project (http://r4l.eprints.org) is concerned with applying repository technology to experimental data capture, analysis and reporting processes in the Chemistry domain to enable linking between datasets and articles, and also between related datasets. R4L has developed an exemplar system demonstrating the impact of an Institutional Data Repository on the capture, preservation, analysis and dissemination of experimental scientific data in a subject that is crucially reliant on such procedures. The project is now engaging commercial stakeholders from opposite ends of the scientific experimental process (i.e., equipment manufacturers and learned society publishers) to tailor the development of these pilot services. Additionally R4L is investigating numerous different analytical instruments in order to address the issues of heterogeneity of data formats, software types and experimental procedures in order to aid the development of a (semi) automatic repository ingest process. Aside from the raw data acquisition that is the main focus of the experiment, in the case of the 'smart lab' subsidiary, related data, such as instrument components performance and laboratory environment information by means of sensors etc., is captured at source, and this subsidiary information may assist in the interpretation of the raw data. Taking a repository-based approach provides numerous benefits to all the researcher roles involved in the research data lifecycle defined by R4L, as shown and outlined below:
#1 Data capture - A simple, if not entirely automatic, OAIS ingest process integrated into the researchers' workflow provides a seamless and comprehensive approach to recording provenance and capturing data that is properly indexed according to a prescribed metadata schema. The Repository for the Laboratory is an implementation of the widely known EPrints software. The project is due to complete its work and report its findings in June 2007. R4L is a collaboration between the School of Chemistry and School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, with the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers and a number of scientific instrument manufacturers as partners. In the NewsExcerpts from Recent Press Releases and AnnouncementsTheses unbound: towards a national e-theses service for the UKTwo-year project will lead to open access to the more than 14,000 theses published in the UK each yearMarch 8, 2007 - "A fully integrated national electronic theses service moved a step closer with the announcement today that a two-year project – EThOSnet – is to be funded to establish a live service run by the British Library in two years' time. " "JISC and CURL (Consortium of Research Libraries), with the support of participating libraries, are funding the project to widen access to what is a rich and vast but up to now almost invisible and untapped resource for researchers. By contrast EThOS, the service that will be established by the project, will make UK theses openly available for global use, providing an international showcase for some of the best of UK research." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/03/news_ethosnet.aspx>. UC San Diego's Chief Librarian Earns 2007 Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement AwardMarch 5, 2007 - "Brian E. C. Schottlaender, University Librarian at the University of California, San Diego, has been awarded the 2007 Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The award was announced in ALA's online journal last week." "The Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award honors the memory of Ross Atkinson, a distinguished library leader, author, and scholar whose extraordinary service to ALCTS and the library community at-large serves as a model for those in the field." "'Schottlaender's contributions to the profession and to ALCTS consist of a wide variety of leadership roles including president of ALCTS and the Association of Research Libraries,' said Charles Wilt, the association's executive director. 'He led both organizations through a strategic planning process that positioned them for a stronger future. He has contributed to the advancement of cataloging through his role in the formation of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging and through his dedication and leadership; he has played a critical role in moving the cataloging code into the 21st century. His contributions have been recognized by the Margaret Mann Citation and the Best of Cataloging & Classification award.'" For more information about Dr. Schottlaender's achievements and contributions to the library community, please see the full press release at <http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/awards/03-07LibraryBECS.asp>. The Digital Curation Center and DigitalPreservationEurope Release DRAMBORA Toolkit and Supporting TutorialsMarch 5, 2007 - "The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) are delighted to announce the release of the Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA) toolkit and supporting tutorials. This toolkit facilitates internal audit by providing repository administrators with a means to assess their capabilities, identify their weaknesses, and recognise their strengths. It complements other emerging work on attributes and criteria for Trustworthy Digital Repositories. DRAMBORA can be utilised by a broad range of digital repositories, including the majority of current instances whose mandates do not yet include responsibility for long-term digital preservation." "The development of this toolkit follows a concentrated period of repository pilot audits undertaken by the DCC, conducted at a diverse range of organisations including national libraries, scientific data centres and cultural and heritage data archives. We recognise that digital repositories are still in their infancy and, accordingly, this model will respond to meet the changing needs caused by the rapidly developing landscape." "This self-assessment toolkit was developed collaboratively by the DCC (funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Core e-Science Programme run by EPSRC on behalf of all the Research Councils in the UK) and DPE (co-funded by the European Commission). These two initiatives will continue to work together to test and refine the toolkit, to manage the online tool [external], and to foster its widest possible take-up within the United Kingdom, Europe and broader international contexts." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.dcc.ac.uk/news/?pr=1173171600>. National Library of New Zealand partners with OCLCMarch 5, 2007 - "The National Library of New Zealand will add some 8 million records and the holdings of 275 libraries to WorldCat, the world's richest database and resource for discovery of materials held in libraries around the globe. As a result, records of items held in New Zealand libraries will be visible to Web searchers worldwide through the OCLC WorldCat.org service, or through popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo!..." "...The unique role of the National Library of New Zealand is to collect and maintain literature and information resources that relate to New Zealand and the Pacific, make this information readily available and preserve New Zealand's documentary heritage for generations to come. The National Library holds rich and varied collections of research material and includes the Alexander Turnbull Library--a storehouse of words, pictures and sounds that tell us about the activities of people in New Zealand and the Pacific." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200653.htm>. UC Berkeley Awarded A.W. Mellon Grant to Assess the Future Landscape of Scholarly CommunicationMarch 2, 2007 - "The Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) of the University of California, Berkeley has been recently awarded a grant of more than $400,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue its research into the changing nature of scholarly communication and publication practices in the networked age. The new project, Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An In-depth Study of Faculty Needs and Ways of Meeting Them, under the direction of principal investigators Jud King and Diane Harley will extend and complement CSHE's first phase of research, which considered the importance of faculty values and the vital role of peer review in faculty attitudes about their publishing behavior, especially as it relates to the viability of new electronic and open access publication models. Capabilities afforded by new technologies, pressures associated with the purchasing power of library budgets, challenges to economic viability for university presses, and the pricing structures of the publishing industry make this research especially timely for the academic and publication communities at large." "Many of those involved in supporting new publishing and communication ventures see "the lack of willingness of the faculty to change" as a key barrier to moving to more cost-effective publishing models in an environment of escalating costs and constrained resources. However, the planning study confirmed that, in order to be attracted to newer forms of communication, faculty need to view them as useful to their own careers-both in making a name for themselves within their field and in gaining advancement at their university. Although faculty values and reward systems will still figure prominently, the new project will expand investigations to capture additional factors that affect faculty choice, in particular, what faculty members find to be most useful." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://cshe.berkeley.edu/news/index.php?id=26>. JISC and publishers to collaborate on 'e-books observatory'Two-year project will give £600k boost to HE sector's use of e-books March 2, 2007 - "JISC is calling on the publishers of e-books to help develop an 'e-book observatory' which for the first time will gather much-needed evidence on the use of a greatly under-used but potentially enormously important resource." "A recent report on e-books in the HE community found that the use of e-books has been 'slow to develop' in the UK but that there was 'considerable enthusiasm' for e-books in higher education. It also found that a major national initiative was needed in order to stimulate the take-up of e-books by students and stimulate the national e-books market." "The report, written by The Higher Education Consultancy Group and published in October of last year, also found that one of the major barriers to the take-up of e-books was the lack of knowledge on the part of publishers, librarians and academics of the precise ways in which e-books can be used by students." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/03/news_ebooks.aspx>. Support growing for open access to scientific publicationsMarch 1, 2007, (From SURF) - "Efforts to ensure open access to scientific publications are gaining support. The latest breakthrough is that all the universities in the Netherlands have now signed the Berlin Declaration. In the declaration (an initiative of the Max Planck Society), a large number of universities throughout Europe and beyond declare to make all their scholarly and scientific articles available in open access archives. The results of publicly funded research will then be available to all, free of charge, via online databases. At the moment, access to such articles is impeded by the high subscription fees for scientific periodicals. The European Commission intends experimenting with open access in the coming years. SURF was one of the first signatories of the Berlin Declaration." "According to the European Commission, the results of research financed by the European Union should be accessible to all, free of charge, after a certain period of time. Scientists submitting research proposals to the Commission are therefore invited to apply for a grant to publish the results of their research in an open access database. The Commission nevertheless favours an embargo period on free access in order to avoid antagonising publishers." "In response, SURF initiated an Internet petition in early February calling on the Commission to restrict the embargo period for research articles to six months following publication. After that six-month period, articles should be available via open access databases. Researchers may still add their names to the Internet petition, which can be found at <http://www.ec-petition.eu>. The signatures will be presented to the European Parliament in the spring." For more information, please contact: Stichting SURF, Leo Waaijers <waaijers@surf.nl>. Special Libraries Association in Conjunction with the Library Copyright Alliance Strongly Supports H.R. 1201, The FAIR USE ActMarch 1, 2007 - "Special Libraries Association (SLA) today announced its strong support of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) and the Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (FAIR USE) Act of 2007, H.R. 1201. The FAIR USE Act is co-sponsored by Congressmen Rick Boucher (D-VA), Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Congressman John Doolittle (R-CA)." "At the end of 2006, Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, approved six exemptions from the prohibition on circumvention of technological measures contained in section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). These exemptions will sunset in three years. The FAIR USE Act makes these six exemptions permanent." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/pressroom/pressrelease/07pr/pr2709.cfm>. Springer: more than 29,000 titles now live in Google Book SearchSpringer credits increased sales to GoogleMarch 1, 2007 - "Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com), the world's largest science, technology and medicine book publisher, has announced that more than 29,000 Springer titles are now live in Google Book Search, allowing users to easily discover and purchase these titles from local booksellers, online retailers and Springer itself. Springer also reported increasing interest in its older titles. The publisher attributes this growth, in part, to its involvement with the Google Book Search program." "'At first we were afraid about putting excerpts of our books on Book Search. We thought people might read and then leave,' said Paul Manning, Vice President, Book Sales at Springer. 'Instead, Google has proven to be a powerful marketing tool. Last year, for example, Springer experienced increased sales of our backlist, after we started making our titles available through Google.'" "Springer titles have been viewed as many as one million times in a one-month period through the Google program....In addition, 26 percent of users who click on 'buy this book' select the link to Springer's own website, driving additional traffic to the publisher's own online platform." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.springer.com/east/home/e-content?SGWID=5-113-6-442110-0& Nature Publishing Group launches networking website for scientistsFebruary 28, 2007 - "Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announces the launch of Nature Network (http://network.nature.com), a new free online networking website for scientists worldwide. This Web 2.0 toolkit will help scientists everywhere to meet like-minded researchers, hold online discussions, showcase their work via personal homepages, share information with groups (open or private) and tag content. Participation is free to all, requiring little more than nature.com registration. User-driven upgrades will roll out regularly from now on." "'I'm delighted that we can further our commitment to stimulating and facilitating scientific communication and collaboration in such an innovative, accessible and democratic way,' says Timo Hannay, NPG's Web Publishing Director." For more information, please contact Sara Abdulla. Phone: + 44 (0)20 7843 4587. WorldCat Registry offers management of organizational dataFebruary 26, 2007 - "OCLC has launched the WorldCat Registry, a comprehensive directory for libraries and consortia, and the services they provide. The WorldCat Registry will help libraries and consortia manage and share data that define their organizations – such as institution type, location, URLs for electronic services, circulation statistics, and population served – through a single, authoritative Web platform." "Profile data in the WorldCat Registry can include details such as branch library locations that can be used as part of WorldCat.org, the Web service that allows free access to the world's richest resource for finding materials held in libraries, enabling searchers to find what they need at the nearest library...." "...Any institution or consortium – OCLC members and non-members alike – can use the WorldCat Registry to share their profile with other libraries, technology vendors, e-content providers, funding agencies, and other parties that could benefit from access. A WorldCat Registry profile is shared via a special Web link that provides instant, read-only access to the most current data." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200652.htm>. IMLS Requests Proposals to Study Impact of Free Access to Computers and the Internet in Public LibrariesFebruary 21, 2007 - "he Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites proposals to study the impact of free access to computers, the Internet, and related services at public libraries. IMLS will conduct this study with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." "'I am very pleased to partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on this important study,' noted Dr. Anne-Imelda Radice, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 'The federal government, the foundation, and many others have invested significant resources in providing free access to computers in public libraries. The study will examine the social, economic and educational impact of computers in public libraries.'..." "...The Request for Proposals can be found at: <http://www.fbo.gov/spg/IMLS/IMLS/IMLS/RFP-07-1/Attachments.html>. The deadline for submissions is March 26, 2007." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.imls.gov/news/2007/022107.shtm>. Towards a European approach to licensing e-resourcesEuropean partners call on publishers to help develop new ways of releasing online content February 21, 2007 - "International licensing agreements moved a step nearer today with the announcement that Knowledge Exchange – an umbrella organisation of four national ICT bodies – has begun a multinational tender process to explore with publishers the possibility of cross-border licensing arrangements." "With national licensing agreements for online resources well established in the four countries – the UK, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands – the aim of the initiative is to explore whether further economies of scale can be secured and new and innovative business models developed through an international approach." "The proposal was published under European Union competition rules as a 'Request for Information' which invites publishers to submit initial proposals concerning possible business models. Following this stage, representatives of the four organisations – JISC, Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the SURF Foundation in the Netherlands – will meet with chosen publishers to develop proposals further." For more information, please see <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/02/news_licensing.aspx>. European Commission discusses future of scientific publishingFebruary 19, 2007 - "More than 500 delegates from nearly 50 countries attended a major European Commission conference last week to discuss the future of scientific publishing in the European Research Area. Held in Brussels, the conference attracted researchers, publishers, policy makers, research funders, librarians and administrators drawn to debate the issues of open access of research outputs, dissemination of research and preservation in the digital age." "Opening the two day conference, the EU Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potocnik stressed the importance of raising the profile and standing of European research and of having a European science infrastructure to drive forward innovation and competitiveness." "Earlier the Commissioner had received a petition, sponsored by JISC and European partners, which was signed by more than 20,000 individuals and nearly 750 organisations, indicating the level of public support for the principle of open access (see last week's news item1). " "Among the questions discussed over the two days were the policies of research funding bodies, including the European Commission, new opportunities for the research community in widening access to their research outputs, and a debate on the scientific publication market." For more information, please see <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/02/news_ecconf.aspx>. Science.gov 4.0 LaunchedFebruary 16, 2007 - "The latest version of Science.gov, launched today, deploys "DeepRank" which allows search and relevancy ranking across full text of documents, when full text is available. In addition, Science.gov 4.0 adds a "refine results" option to narrow returns within a search, as well as an "e-mail results" feature so that individuals may email important science information to themselves, friends and family, or colleagues. Version 4.0 offers more ways to view search results: by title, author or date, as well as by relevancy rank or source, as in earlier versions. [Download fact sheet]" "'Once again, Science.gov has brought new features and new technology to the forefront for those who need science information quickly,' said Eleanor Frierson, Deputy Director, National Agricultural Library and co-chair of the Science.gov Alliance. 'You get a lot of search with just one query, and your results are more relevant than ever.'" "At Science.gov, a single query can be launched across more than 50 million pages of science information and research results. Science.gov allows users to search the surface Web as well as the deep Web, where traditional search engines typically cannot go. The information is free and no registration is required." "Hosted by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), Science.gov is the gateway to reliable science and technology information from 16 organizations within 12 federal science agencies." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.osti.gov/news/2007/feb/sciencegov4.0launched>. CrossRef Surpasses 25 Million DOI MarkFebruary 13, 2007 - "CrossRef, the citation linking service, announced today that over 25 million content items had been registered in the CrossRef system since its inception in early 2000. Although the majority of these Digital Object Identifiers® (DOIs)® are assigned to online journal articles, there are over 2 million DOI strings assigned to conference proceedings, components and books, at the chapter as well as title level. CrossRef has also been supporting assignment of DOIs to technical reports, working papers, dissertations, standards, and data elements." "CrossRef hit the 10 million DOI mark back in January of 2004, after roughly four years in operation. Since then, the rate of growth in DOI creation across the scholarly publishing community has accelerated considerably, with the next 10 million DOIs being created and registered in just over two years. Last April CrossRef registered the 20 millionth DOI string and less than a year later there are over 25 million DOIs in the CrossRef system." "CrossRef is an independent membership association founded and directed by publishers. Its mission is to improve access to published scholarship through collaborative technologies. CrossRef operates a cross-publisher citation linking system, and is the official DOI registration agency for scholarly and professional content." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.crossref.org/01company/pr/press021307.htm>. ALA President Leslie Burger speaks of EPA Libraries' importance, public's "right to know" before Senate Environment and Public Works CommitteeFebruary 6, 2007 - "Today, ALA President Leslie Burger spoke of the importance of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) libraries and librarians at an oversight hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee." "'As one recently retired EPA librarian described it,' Burger said in her testimony, 'the EPA libraries have been functioning like a virtual National Library on the Environment. Now that some of these regional libraries and the pesticide library are closed, key links have been removed from the chain, thus weakening the whole system.'" "Burger's full testimony is available at <http://www.ala.org/epalibraries>. " For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/february2007/epatestimonyfeb072.htm>. Public Health and Safety Imperiled by Slashing of EPA Library Services, Information Professionals Association Warns U.S. Senate CommitteeSpecial Libraries Association Seeks "Environmental Impact Study" By EPA on Dramatic Library Cutbacks February 6, 2007 - "Warning that plans to slash services at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) network of 27 libraries could threaten public health and safety by hindering environmental research, the Special Libraries Association (SLA) today urged the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to review EPA's intentions carefully and to encourage the Agency to develop a realistic plan and budget to provide continued public access to EPA data." "According to SLA, a global organization for innovative information professionals, EPA began dramatically reducing services at its regional library network in 2006 without a workable plan or budget guaranteeing uninterrupted public access to important environmental data." "In a letter to the Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Barbara Boxer, (D-CA), on the eve of a hearing by the Committee on the proposed service cutbacks, and in some cases closures, Janice R. Lachance, SLA Chief Executive Officer, wrote, 'We are particularly concerned about the effects the proposed closures will have, and are having, on the ability to access data and information necessary to scientists, policy makers and corporate entities to operate in the public good.'" For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/pressroom/pressrelease/07pr/pr2704.cfm>. UM Study: Hackers Attack Computers Every 39 SecondsClark School's Cukier Stresses Strong Passwords as Defense Against Harm February 6, 2007 - "Are hackers trying to get into your computer right now? And what are they up to? A study by the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering is one of the first to quantify the near-constant rate of hacker attacks of computers with Internet access – every 39 seconds on average – and the non-secure usernames and passwords we use that give attackers more chance of success." "The study, conducted by Michel Cukier, Clark School assistant professor of mechanical engineering and affiliate of the Clark School's Center for Risk and Reliability and Institute for Systems Research, profiled the behavior of "brute force" hackers, who use simple software-aided techniques to randomly attack large numbers of computers. The researchers discovered which usernames and passwords are tried most often, and what hackers do when they gain access to a computer...." "...This study provides solid statistical evidence that supports widely held beliefs about username/password vulnerability and post-compromise attacking behavior. Computer users should avoid all of the usernames and passwords identified in the research and choose longer, more difficult and less obvious passwords with combinations of upper and lowercase letters and numbers that are not open to brute-force dictionary attacks." "A summary of the study and a list of the top 1,000 usernames tried by hackers' dictionary scripts is available from the authors upon request." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.eng.umd.edu/media/pressreleases/pr020607_hacker.html>. NCLIS Restates Position on Federal Libraries and Access to Public InformationFebruary 5, 2007 - "Beth Fitzsimmons, Chairman of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science NCLIS), has announced that the Commission discussed Federal libraries and access to public information held in Federal libraries at its last meeting. At the meeting, held December 11-12, 2006 in Washington, DC, the Commission addressed the issue of the closing of libraries at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and library closures and library service reductions at other Federal agencies. " "At the NCLIS meeting, Vice-Chairman Bridget Lamont informed the Commission that this situation had been addressed by NCLIS before, and that in 2001 an important NCLIS report was published on the subject. In the report, A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination, the Commission took a very strong position on the role of the Federal government in assuring access to Federal government information." "'The statutory role of the Commission is to provide policy advice to the President and Congress about matters pertaining to library and information science,' said Dr. Fitzsimmons. In her presentation to the Commission at the meeting, Vice-Chairman Lamont reminded us of our debt to previous Commissioners, and this report is an excellent case in point. This important document addresses many of the issues currently of concern in the scientific community and, particularly, in the library and information science profession. We have informed the President and Congress that this document should be re-visited, and it is the Commission's hope that the report will provide insight and help to governing authorities as this important issue is addressed." For more information, including links to the Executive Summary and full report referenced in this excerpt, please see the full press release at <http://www.nclis.gov/news/pressrelease/pr2007/ Betsy Wilson named ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the YearFebruary 2, 2007 - "Lizabeth (Betsy) A. Wilson, Dean of University Libraries at the University of Washington, is the 2007 Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. The award, sponsored by YBP Library Services, recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic/research librarianship and library development." "Wilson will receive a $5,000 award on Thursday, March 29, 2007, 4 - 5:45 p.m., at the opening keynote during the ACRL 13th National Conference in Baltimore, Md." "Wilson has a distinguished record of service to the profession. She served as ACRL president in 2000-2001, helped establish the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy, and chaired the ACRL Instruction Section. She also served as a Member-at-Large on the ALA Council from 1991-1995. Wilson currently chairs the ACRL 14th National Conference Committee, which is planning the next conference to be held March 12-15, 2009, in Seattle, Washington. She recently finished a term on the Association of Research Libraries Board and currently serves on the Digital Library Federation Executive Committee." For more information about Betsy Wilson's achievements and contributions to the library community, please see the full press release at <http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm OAIster Reaches 10 Million Records.January 25, 2007 - "We live in an information-driven world – one in which access to good information defines success. OAIster's growth to 10 million records takes us one step closer to that goal. " "Developed at the University of Michigan's Library, OAIster is a collection of digital scholarly resources. OAIster is also a service that continually gathers these digital resources to remain complete and fresh. As global digital repositories grow, so do OAIster's holdings." "Popular search engines don't have the holdings OAIster does. They crawl web pages and index the words on those pages. It's an outstanding technique for fast, broad information from public websites. But scholarly information, the kind researchers use to enrich their work, is generally hidden from these search engines. " "OAIster retrieves these otherwise elusive resources by tapping directly into the collections of a variety of institutions using harvesting technology based on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. These can be images, academic papers, movies and audio files, technical reports, books, as well as preprints (unpublished works that have not yet been peer reviewed). By aggregating these resources, OAIster makes it possible to search across all of them and return the results of a thorough investigation of complete, up-to-date resources." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/docs/press_release.pdf>. The Royal Society Digital Archive Now Registered in CrossRefJanuary 22, 2007 - "CrossRef, the reference-linking service for scholarly and professional literature, is pleased to announce that The Royal Society has registered all of its historical back-file content with CrossRef. The Oldenburg Epistle Dedicatory, dating from 1665 and published in the first volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, is now the earliest publication linkable via CrossRef DOI." "In registering DOIs for its complete journal archive, the Royal Society joins several CrossRef member publishers who have recently completed, or are in the midst of, vast retro-digitization initiatives, including Elsevier, Springer, Sage, Kluwer, Wiley, Blackwell, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among others. JSTOR, another CrossRef member, deposited over a million and a half DOIs in 2006. 'As more and more historical scholarly content is digitized and cross-referenced, the online web of scholarship will continue to fill in and grow backwards in time. This creates truly exciting opportunities for historically oriented researchers,' according to Amy Brand, CrossRef's Director of Business and Product Development." "The Royal Society is the independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth dedicated to promoting excellence in science. The Society plays an influential role in national and international science policy and supports developments in science engineering and technology in a wide range of ways." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.crossref.org/01company/pr/press012207.htm>. Global Science Gateway Agreement Signed in LondonDOE Partners With British Library on "Science.world" Initiative January 22, 2007 - "Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Under Secretary for Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), yesterday signed an agreement with Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, the British Library, to partner on the development of a global science gateway. The gateway would eventually make science information resources of many nations accessible via a single Internet portal." "'It is timely to make the science offerings of all nations searchable through one global gateway,' Dr. Orbach said. 'Science is international, and centralizing access will enhance the rate of scientific discovery. It is a privilege to be associated with such a venture.' The agreement notes that international collaboration is essential to revolutionary advances in science. " "...Dubbed 'Science.world,' the planned resource would be available to scientists in all nations and to anyone interested in science. The approach will capitalize on existing technology to search vast collections of science information distributed around the globe, enabling much-needed access to smaller, less well-known sources of highly valuable science. Following the model of Science.gov, the U.S. interagency science portal that relies on content published by each participating agency, 'Science.world' will rely on scientific resources published by each participating nation. Other countries have been invited to participate in this international effort...." For more information, please see the full press release at <http://www.doe.gov/news/4619.htm>. OJAX federated search service now in BetaJanuary 18, 2007. Announced by Judith Wusterman, University College Dublin. "OJAX federated search service software is now in Beta release and available for download. Version 0.7 has improved performance, stability and user feedback, as well as additional features such as RSS/Atom feed support. (Atom feeds of stored searches alert users when new content matching their interests is harvested.)" "OJAX illustrates how federated search services can respond to new user expectations generated by Web 2.0:"
"Features of OJAX:"
"Further information, demo and download: http://ojax.sourceforge.net/" Copyright 2007 © Corporation for National Research InitiativesTop |
Contents doi:10.1045/march2007-inbrief |
