I N   B R I E F

March/April 2012
Table of Contents

New File Naming Tutorial Targets a Broad Audience

Contributed by:
Lisa Gregory
Digital Projects Liaison
Government and Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Contact: digital.info@ncdcr.gov

The State Library of North Carolina, part of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, has released a four-part video tutorial on file naming. This tutorial targets users who are not familiar with digital preservation or who may be uncomfortable with or uninterested in more advanced computing. Part of a new "Inform U" series (short for Information University), the tutorial discusses why file naming is important, how to rename a file, and best practices for file naming. Each segment is only a few minutes long, and features simple graphics and straightforward instruction. Tutorials can be found on the State Library's YouTube channel.

The purpose of Inform U is to educate users who are far outside of the information professions. It introduces simple steps these users can take during their everyday activities to preserve their digital content without getting into a broader and more intimidating conversation about things like authenticity, checksums, or the OAIS reference model. The series will periodically feature tutorials in that vein, trying to fill in a gap for digital preservation education that doesn't require heavy intervention on the part of an information professional.

The work done on these tutorials is supported by an LSTA-funded Access to State Government Information Initiative grant, administered by the Digital Information Management Program at the State Library of North Carolina.

iConference 2012 Shines in Toronto

Contributed by:
Clark Heideger
iConference Coordinator
iCaucus
Seattle, Washington, USA
iclark@uw.edu

Big turnout for first international iConference demonstrates increasing reach of the iSchools movement

More than 485 library and information professionals flocked to Toronto, Canada, for iConference 2012, which took place February 7-10, 2012. Presented by the iCaucus, and hosted by the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, the four-day event marked the first time in its seven-year history that the iConference has been held outside the U.S. The high turnout was seen as indicative of the increasing reach of the iSchools movement.

The official iConference 2012 program consisted of 53 papers, 95 posters, 12 workshops, and 20 alternative events, such as panels and roundtables. These were selected from a record 360 submissions, the most ever received for an iConference, which contributed to the overall strength of the program. All papers and poster abstracts have been published in the ACM Digital Library.

iConference 2012 commenced with a welcome address from newly installed iCaucus Chair Elizabeth Liddy, Dean of the Syracuse School of Information Studies. Liddy takes over from Harry Bruce, Dean of the University of Washington iSchool, whose two-year term ended in January. Liddy used her address to trace the history of the iSchools organization, from its informal origins to today's status of 36 institutions in 11 countries.

In his opening keynote address, Toronto Professor Ron Deibert examined how the rise of social networks, cloud computing, and mobile technologies is creating new challenges to privacy and security. In a second keynote, Professor Geoffrey Nunberg of the University of California, Berkeley, examined the evolving nature of "information", as both word and concept, in the context of libraries and iSchools.

Best papers and posters were recognized at the Thursday night awards gala. Best Papers included the following:

• Studying the Values of Hard-to-Reach Populations: Content Analysis of Tweets by the 21st Century Homeless (Jes A. Koepfler, University of Maryland, College Park; Kenneth R. Fleischmann, University of Maryland, College Park)
• Rural Anchor Institution Broadband Connectivity: Enablers and Barriers to Adoption (Lauren H. Mandel, The Florida State University; Nicole D. Alemanne, The Florida State University; Charles R. McClure, The Florida State University)
• Networked Cultural Heritage and Socio-Digital Inequalities: A Case Study in an African-American Community (Noah Lenstra, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Abdul Alkalimat, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• Managing fixity and fluidity in data repositories (Morgan Daniels, University of Michigan; Ixchel Faniel, OCLC; Kathleen Fear, University of Michigan; Elizabeth Yakel, University of Michigan)
• Private Sector Video Surveillance in Toronto: Not Privacy Compliant! (Andrew Clement, University of Toronto; Joseph Ferenbok, University of Toronto; Roxanna Dehghan, University of Toronto; Laura Kaminker, University of Toronto; Simeon Kanev, University of Toronto)

Best Posters included:

• Does the Use of Place Affect Learner Engagement? The Case of GeoStoryteller on the Streets of New York (Anthony Cocciolo, Pratt Institute; Debbie Rabina, Pratt Institute)
• We Are Visible: Technology-Mediated Social Participation in a Twitter Network for the Homeless (Jes A. Koepfler, University of Maryland, College Park; Derek L. Hansen, University of Maryland, College Park)
• Facets of Access: a Typology of Information Dissemination Systems (Elisabeth A. Jones, University of Washington; Joseph T. Tennis, University of Washington)
• From Data to Knowledge: Developing Effective Visualizations for Finding Inefficiency in Healthcare (Conrad Ng, Dalhousie University; Anatoliy Gruzd, Dalhousie University; Calvino Cheng, Capital District Health Authority, Canada)
• Green Washing the Digital Playground: How Virtual Worlds Support Ecological Intelligence...or Do They? (Eric Meyers, University of British Columbia; Bittner Robert, University of British Columbia)

The Presenting Sponsor of iConference 2012 was Microsoft Research. Additional support was provided by Branchfire, Emerald Group Publishing, and Morgan & Claypool Publishers. The iConference doctoral colloquium was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Next year's event, iConference 2013, will be hosted by the University of North Texas College of Information. This eighth annual iConference is slated for February 12-15, 2013, in Fort Worth, Texas. Learn more at www.ischools.org.

Steps Toward International Alignment in Digital Preservation: Report on an iPRES 2011 Workshop

Contributed by:
Christopher A. Lee
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

"Steps Toward International Alignment in Digital Preservation" was an interactive half-day workshop held on November 4, 2011 in Singapore in conjunction with iPRES 2011. The workshop facilitated discussion and aimed to advance collective action for digital preservation across national boundaries.

An earlier event, Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation (ANADP) was held in Tallinn, Estonia on May 23-25, 2011. It allowed individuals from many different national contexts to share information and perspectives toward building strategic international collaborations to support digital preservation.

The iPRES 2011 workshop aimed to (1) open up the discussion to people and institutions who were not at the ANADP conference and (2) facilitate focused discussions on how to develop concrete steps for aligning activities across countries.

The workshop featured 14 speakers and discussion facilitators from 10 different countries. In attendance were 38 individuals from 14 countries: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

After an introduction that provided background and motivation by Inge Angevaare and Cal Lee (the event's lead organizer), there was a series of talks related to various "opportunities for alignment" in the following areas:

• Research and education - Özgür Külcü (University of Hacettepe), Laura Molloy (University of Glasgow), and Andi Rauber (Vienna University of Technology)
• Technical Infrastructure - Raju Buddharaju (National Library Board Singapore), Steve Knight (National Library of New Zealand), and Bram Van DerWerf (Open Planets Foundation)
• Providing professional guidance - Masaki Shibata (National Diet Library of Japan) and Daisy Selematsela (National Research Foundation, South Africa)

The talks were following by breakout discussions related to:

• Access alignment - led by Jon Crabtree (Odum Institute)
• Economic alignment - led by Neil Grindley (Joint Information Systems Committee)
• Policy and advancing the public good - led by Seamus Ross (University of Toronto)

The event concluded with a discussion of possible next steps.

Interested individuals can find more information about the workshop and can join the Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation group to discuss further initiatives, ideas and activities by visiting the following page: http://digitalcurationexchange.org/international-alignment.

Report on the PROMISE Winter School: Information Retrieval and Information Visualization

Contributed by:
Henning Müller
University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland
Switzerland
henning.mueller@hevs.ch

The PROMISE winter school took place from January 23-27, 2012 in Zinal, Switzerland. Supported by the PROMISE, Khresmoi, Cultura, and ELIAS projects, and by the CUSO and the HES-SO, the school brought together 17 lecturers and 65 participants from over 25 countries, to focus on the topics of information retrieval and information visualization.

Eight hours of courses each day were complemented by four hours of free time in the afternoons, allowing participants to continue discussions, go skiing or take walks in the snow.

Besides the lectures, the school stimulated many discussions among participants, and between participants and lecturers. The two topics of information visualization and information retrieval shared a strong synergy, and many of the participants realized how important one can be for the other. Several presentations covered similar topics but from different points of view.

The feedback from the participants was very positive, and there was a constructive atmosphere during the entire winter school.

I N   T H E   N E W S

March/April 2012

Harvard Library to Deposit Additional Volumes in HathiTrust

Follows Initial Deposit of 53,000 Volumes

March 6, 2012 — "The Harvard Library will deposit approximately 200,000 public domain volumes in HathiTrust, a shared digital repository for published materials. This follows Harvard's first deposit of approximately 53,000 volumes in HathiTrust in 2011."

"'The Harvard Library is committed to collaboration and easing access to its materials. Partnerships like this create significant opportunities for research libraries to lead during a period of rapid changes in higher education and scholarship in the digital age, and for researchers to benefit from their initiative' said Mary Lee Kennedy, Harvard's senior associate provost for the Library."

"'The inclusion of these volumes from Harvard Library's extraordinary and diverse collection will certainly enrich our public domain holdings,' says John Wilkin, executive director of HathiTrust. 'And this benefits our partner communities as well as scholars everywhere, as anyone with an Internet connection will be able to read these works.'"

For more information, please see the full press release.

Future of Information Alliance Identifies Priorities

February 28, 2012 — "We live in a sea of information as never before, but how can we find what we need when we need it, and how do we know it's accurate? How do we keep our private information private while reducing barriers to information about the affairs of government? And how can we develop and use new information tools to improve the lives of people everywhere?"

"These are among the most pressing questions emerging from the launch of the Future of Information Alliance (FIA) at the University of Maryland. Created to help identify challenges and opportunities arising from the evolving role of information in our lives – and then to serve as a catalyst for research, innovation and action – the FIA, through a series of programs, meetings and online discussions, has generated a list of 10 'Priorities for the Future of Information,' posted online at http://www.fia.umd.edu/priorities."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Individual researchers benefit from online impact assessment

February 27, 2012 — "Individual researchers are very interested in evidence of the impact of their publications. Research institutes and independent organisations assessing research have a special interest when comparing groups and organisations for research assessment. Thanks to the possibilities of web based publishing it is now possible to gauge the impact of some publications under certain conditions. New information filters and tools are helping researchers to assess their own progress and to find responses of others to their publications."

"The report Users, Narcissism and Control, which was commissioned by SURF, offers a comprehensive overview of the current tracking tools of online publications. The report shows to what extent it is possible to follow in real-time how research results are being downloaded, read, cited, and applied."

"The fact that researchers can use these tools does not necessarily mean that this technology is also a legitimate source of information for research assessment. For this application, they need to adhere to a far stricter protocol of data quality and indicator reliability and validity (for example; what does a download imply on the use of the research results). Most new tools do not yet comply with these stricter quality criteria required for them to be used in research assessments."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Ammons Scientific Ltd Uses iThenticate and CrossCheck to Check all Articles for Originality Prior to Peer Review

February 24, 2012 — "Turnitin, creators of iThenticate and the leader in plagiarism prevention, is helping AmmonsScientific (AmSci), a leading publisher of psychology journals, ensure research is original before publication. The majority of manuscripts submIThenticate logoitted to AmSci are from authors and researchers in countries where English is not the primary language. Cultural differences in writing methodologies often collide with those of peer-reviewed publication. Using iThenticate, AmSci is able to verify the originality of all work and have a way to educate individuals on permissible writing practices in the field of scholarly research."

"'Around 60 percent of the articles submitted to us are coming from individuals for whom English is a second language. In some cases, there is a tendency to want to say something the way someone else said it and, in some cultures, it is considered respectful to copy someone else's work,' said Dr. Stephanie A. Isbell, managing editor at Ammons Scientific LTD. 'iThenticate has helped us develop our service to ensure quality and intervene with writers as needed to ensure that their work is original and robust.'"

"The pressure to publish, combined with the growing population of scholarly researchers, has made it increasingly difficult for publishers and institutions to prevent cases of plagiarism and self-plagiarism. AmSci has united with more than 280 top-tier publishers in an initiative called CrossCheck, which is a partnership between CrossRef and iThenticate that provides scholarly publishers with iThenticate's anti-plagiarism services in order to prevent duplication and other academic misconduct issues. CrossCheck compares millions of documents annually against iThenticate's database of more than 116 million scholarly content items, including 30 million articles, books and conference proceedings from over 70,000 publications, and 20 billion web pages."

For more information, please see the full press release.

abb wins 2012 Patterson Copyright Award

February 23, 2012 — "Winston Tabb, dean of libraries and museums at Johns Hopkins University, is the 2012 recipient of the American Library Association's L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award: In Support of Users' Rights. Tabb was appointed to the National Board of the Institute of Library and Museum Services (IMLS) by President Obama in 2010. He serves as the chair of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institution's (IFLA) Standing Committee on Copyright and Legal Matters (CLM) and advocates for library users across the world at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva."

"A worthy recipient of the Patterson Award, his decades long support for balanced copyright law, advancement of library and user copyright exceptions worldwide and commitment to an international copyright law to support the information needs of people with print disabilities are no less than remarkable. Janice Pilch, copyright and licensing librarian at Rutgers University, agreed that 'in seeking to influence the direction of copyright law he has made a profound impact on the views of policy makers and has earned the respect of members of all stakeholder groups in the intellectual property system.'"

For more information, please see the full press release.

What is Linked Open Data?
Europeana releases an animation to explain - and a pilot dataset

February 16, 2012 — "Linked Open Data is gaining traction in the information world right now. Europeana has just launched an animation to explain what it is and why it's a good thing, both for users and for data providers."

"Europeana is facilitating developments in Linked Open Data by publishing data for 2.4 million objects for the first time under an open metadata licence - CC0, the Creative Commons' Public Domain Dedication."

"Europeana is making data openly available to the public and private sectors alike so they can use it to develop of innovative applications for smartphones and tablets and to create new web services and portals. This support for commercial enterprise in the digital sector is central to Europeana's business strategy...."

"...Support for Open Data innovation is at the root of Europeana's new Data Exchange Agreement, the contract that libraries, museums, and archives agree to when their metadata goes into Europeana."

For more information, please see the full press release.

comScore Releases the '2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus' Report

February 9, 2012 — "comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report. This annual report examines how the prevailing trends in social media, search, online video, digital advertising, mobile and e-commerce are defining the current marketplace and what these trends mean for the year ahead."

"'2012 promises to be an exciting year for the digital media industry as the explosion of available content and proliferation of web-enabled devices drive the evolution of the digital consumer, creating new opportunities and challenges for the entire digital ecosystem,' said Linda Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of Global Product Development. 'In order to be successful in this new paradigm, digital marketers must understand the key trends shaping the current marketplace and what that means for the future of their businesses.'"

For more information and to download a copy of the report, please see the full press release.

California Digital Library Joins PKP as Major Development Partner in Open Access Scholarly Publishing

February 7, 2012 — "As the scholarly publishing landscape heats up with more talk of boycotts and Open Access mandates, research libraries increasingly find themselves at a crossroads between publishers and faculty – and eagerly working to provide new solutions to entrenched problems. The California Digital Library's (CDL) latest foray into this space, on behalf of the University of California system, focuses on supporting open source publishing infrastructure through a major development partnership with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)."

"As a result of this agreement, the CDL will assist with PKP's ongoing development and support of its open source software suite – Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Conference Systems (OCS), and Open Harvester System (OHS), with Open Monograph Press (OMP) due for release in the coming year."

For more information, please see the full press release.

OpenStax College plans free textbooks for popular college courses

February 7, 2012 — "The Rice University-based open-education platform Connexions today unveiled a bold plan to shake up the $4 billion college textbook industry by providing free online publisher-quality textbooks for five of the country's most-attended college courses."

"The OpenStax College textbook initiative, which is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the 20 Million Minds Foundation and the Maxfield Foundation, will publish its first two books – College Physics and Introduction to Sociology – in March. Three more books are in production and slated to go online this fall."

"'If we capture just 10 percent of the market with these first five textbooks, an estimated 1 million college students in the United States could save $90 million over the next five years,' said Rice's Richard Baraniuk, the founder and director of Connexions."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Maximizing the visibility of research outputs: COAR call for action

February 6, 2012 — "'With this letter', says Norbert Lossau, Chair of COAR Executive Board, 'The Confederation of Open Access Repositories is joining in the growing protest against Elsevier's practices opposing open access. We strongly believe that open access will greatly improve the impact and use of scholarly publications, and maximize our collective global investment in research.'"

"...One easy way of achieving open access is through the deposit of articles into online open access repositories. COAR strongly opposes the changes made by Elsevier to its article posting policies. These policies prohibit authors affiliated with institutions or agencies that have open access mandates to deposit copies of their articles into an open access repository unless their institution signs a very restrictive agreement with Elsevier. Despite their public commitment to 'universal access', Elsevier's policies are greatly limiting access to scholarly literature...."

"...COAR urges Elsevier to reconsider its prohibitive approach to open access and revise its policies to allow the deposit of research articles with minimum delay. We encourage publishers to work closely with the library and repository communities to develop effective and sustainable methods for article deposit that serve the needs of researchers, their institutions, and society as a whole. In addition, COAR welcomes like-minded organizations – such as licensing agencies, library consortia, etc. – to join us in developing and adopting best practice for policies and procedures regarding article deposit into open access repositories."

"The Confederation of Open Access Repositories is a not-for-profit association of repository initiatives that aims to enhance visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of Open Access digital repositories. COAR represents over 80 institutions from 24 countries from throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America."

To see the full letter, see the COAR press release.

State Library Agencies Continue to Provide Valuable Services Despite Severe Cuts in Funding and Staff

February 6, 2012 — "The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has released its report on the State Library Survey for fiscal year 2010. The data collected in this annual survey show that state library agencies' revenues fell by 24.1 percent in the previous decade and that reduction in staff has been one of the largest impacts of this shortfall. The agencies continue to provide essential services to libraries."

"State libraries are instrumental in helping local libraries meet growing public demand for content and services. They provide leadership by establishing statewide plans for library services, investing in technology and content that can be used by libraries throughout the state, and providing support for local programming."

"This report, which contains data on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, marks the fifth release of library statistics data from IMLS. The data were collected through the State Library Agencies (StLA) Survey, the product of a cooperative effort between the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), IMLS, and the U.S. Census Bureau. The FY2010 survey is the 17th in the StLA series."

For more information, please see the full press release.

SLA to Honor 5 New Fellows at 2012 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO

February 1, 2012 — "Scott Brown, Ann Cullen, Ruth Kneale, Chris Olson, and Roberto Sarmiento have been named Fellows of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). The five information professionals will be honored on 15 July at SLA's 2012 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in Chicago [http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2012/index.cfm]."

"SLA recognizes Fellows for leadership within the information profession and the association. The title is bestowed on mid-career professionals in recognition of past service and in anticipation of valuable contributions and leadership well into the future."

For more information, please see the full press release.

NPG launches interactive global science calendar

January 30, 2012 — "Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has launched an expanded online calendar of global scientific events. The calendar provides users with a new way to search for science events, which can also be personalized and synced to a personal online or mobile calendar. The calendar is hosted on nature.com."

"The calendar provides users with an innovative way to find important dates in science, as well as events that have been specifically selected by Nature editors. Content includes:

• Conferences
• Training courses
• Careers events
• Journal publication dates
• International observances
• Congress
• Historical anniversaries
• Astronomical events
• Webinars/virtual events"

"Users can synchronize their personal calendar automatically with the events calendar using the iCal feed. Feeds can be tailored by a number of preferences including subject area, location and type of event, to match their interests. The iCal feed is supported by Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Apple iCal."

For more information, please see the full press release.

ASERL Endorses TRLN's Intellectual Property Strategy

Further strengthening bonds between two regional library consortia

January 20, 2012 — "The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) has formally endorsed the 'Intellectual Property Strategy for Digitization of Modern Manuscript Collections and Archival Record Groups' developed by the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN). This is the second partnership between ASERL and TRLN in as many months...."

"...'Many libraries are seeking ways to get their special collections materials – most of which have never been seen outside the library – available online, so researchers and the general public can find them and use them,' commented John Burger, ASERL's Executive Director. 'By providing an explicit strategy that allows for these rare materials to be digitized en masse, libraries' best collections can be available to the world.'"

For more information, please see the full press release.

ebrary's 2011 Global Student E-book Survey Now Freely Available

January 20, 2012 — "ebrary®, a ProQuest business and leading provider of e-books and research technology, today announced that the results of its 2011 Global Student E-book Survey, which was created and distributed by librarians, is now publicly available along with a paper by Dr. Allen McKiel, Dean of Library Services at Western Oregon University. Anyone may access the new report online or offline on the ebrary platform along with previous e-book surveys sponsored by ebrary at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/surveys."

"McKiel's paper compares the results of the 2011 survey, which garnered over 6,300 student participants worldwide, with a similar survey that ebrary sponsored in 2008."

For more information, please see the full press release.

Feds Will Team up on Digital Curation Residency Program

January 18, 2012 (IMLS blog posting by Kevin Cherry, IMLS, and Esra Oden, Library of Congress) — "The exponential growth of digital content has created a demand for library and information professionals with new skills. To meet this demand, IMLS, working in partnership with the Library of Congress, Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI), is developing a national residency program in digital curation. (For the purposes of this program, 'digital curation' means the act of collecting, selecting, managing, making accessible, and preserving digital assets over long periods of time.) The 'IMLS/Library of Congress Residency Program in Digital Curation' will do the following:

• Foster the creation of a cadre of experts versed in digital curation
• Encourage current library and information science ('LIS') schools to include more experiential learning as part of their standard curriculum
• Define the core components of a digital curation field experience, setting the stage for a national model for field experiences in digital curation"

"The program will be designed to enhance LIS curricula by complementing the classroom experience with hands-on field experiences at leading Washington, DC institutions."

For more information, please see the full blog posting.

Copyright © 2012 Corporation for National Research Initiatives