Thursday 18 September 2008

Elsevier Library Connect Newsletter: 6:3 August 2008

This Elsevier "Library Connect" issue theme is "e-Learning".

"If anyone knows eLearning, it’s Generation Y, right? We thought it only fitting to launch Library Connect’s new Next Gen section in this issue, since next-gen’ers can practically eLearn with their eyes closed."

* Spotlight
Hear from Next Gen librarians as they discuss their experiences with eLearning.
-
eLearning: Libraries increasingly help steer the ship, By Erika Bennett, Reference Librarian, Harold Abel School of Psychology, Capella University, USA
eLearning has traveled a long distance in a very short time. One can’t deny that, so far this Millennium, its impact has been enormous. In 2007, the Sloan Consortium reported that 3.5 million American college students (20%) were enrolled in an online course. The rise in online enrollments from 2005 to 2006 alone was 10%.

-
eLearning 2.0, By Guofu Qian, Systems Librarian, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Library, China.
What is eLearning 2.0? This term refers to ways of thinking about eLearning which have been inspired by the emergence of Web 2.0. In my opinion, eLearning 2.0 is an eLearning environment based on Web 2.0 technologies. The most important characteristic of eLearning 2.0 is collective intelligence, which is also a core characteristic of Web 2.0.In the world of eLearning 2.0, eLearners can share their knowledge and experience by creating blog, wiki, photo, video and audio content freely and easily. This function gives eLearners an opportunity to become eTeachers, and vice versa. The bottom line? Web 2.0 technology makes all sorts of eLearning platforms easy-to-use.

* Also in this issue
-
Tsinghua University Library case study: Developing a virtual learning environment By Lin Jia and Wang Yuan, Tsinghua University Library, China
" eLearning can help students become active learners, and libraries should play a greater role in this process of transformation."
- Dr. Bakary Diallo explains how the African Virtual University is furthering higher education through hybrid offerings, Interview by Risa Blumlein, Library Marketing Intern, Elsevier, USA
"Coupled with frequent power outages, digital illiteracy, poor connectivity in some areas, lack of computer and telephone access, high operational costs of telephones and unfavorable ICT policies, the AVU (African Virtual University) had to refocus its strategy as one that would take cognizance of the different levels of technological and educational development throughout the African continent."

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Current Awareness Articles

Selected links to various materials received by e-mail (Aug-17 Sep 2008) from D. Nicholson, WITS, Copyright Services Librarian ( see below her e-mail, if you would like to subscribe to her e-mail alert):
WWW/References/Resources/Search Engines/Directories/Google
The biggest World Wide Web university’s database
http://www.ullbe.com/
Google to bring internet to Africa
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-09-15-google-to-bring-internet-africa
WAN Communique on the Proposed Google-Yahoo Deal
http://www.wan-press.org/article17866.html
World Wide Web Reference (very good, list with useful links)
http://www.wwwreference.info/
Student Research Resources (very good, list with links)
http://www.studentresearch.info/
Quick Reference Research (very good)
http://www.refdesk.com/instant.html
Alltheweb.com (Search Engine)
www.alltheweb.com
CompletePlanet (Deep Web Directory)
http://aip.completeplanet.com/index.jsp
The ‘Deep Web’: Surfacing Hidden Value
http://www.brightplanet.com/resources/details/deepweb.html
Open Access/Open Source
- Institutional Repositories (IR)
Publishers allowing the depositing of their published version/PDF in Institutional Repositories
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/PDFandIR.html
Open Access repositories begin to reap benefits for South African Science as CSIR research goes global http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/gray-area/2008/07/29/csir-research-goes-global
How Open Repositories Enable Universities to Manage, Measure and Maximise their Research Assets http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/14990/
Seven Academic Open-Access Repositories Compared
http://www.icommons.org/articles/oa-academia-in-repose
Many publishers do allow authors to deposit their works in institutional repositories. See: Sherpa/Romeo - http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.html
Directory of Open Access Repositories
http://www.opendoar.org/
Directory of Open Access Journal growth rate nearly doubles in the past year
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2008/08/doaj-growth-rate-nearly-doubles-in-past.html
Open Access anxiety in the publish or perish world
http://www.plos.org/cms/node/397
Open, closed or ajar? Content access and interactions
http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=1147
Newfound Press Business Plan, 2008-2011 (Open Access publishing)
http://www.lib.utk.edu/newfoundpress/nfpbusinessplan.pdf
Open Access – FAQs
http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au:9080/vital/access/manager/Faqoamq
Open Access in South Africa
http://www.sivulile.org/
Open access and the last-mile problem for knowledge
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/07-02-08.htm#lastmile
Scholarly Publishing
Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/sepb/toc.htm
CreateChange – Digital Scholarship
http://www.createchange.org/
Researchers benefit from Sharing
http://www.createchange.org/modes/researchers.shtml
Bringing down the barriers (digital scholarship)
http://www.createchange.org/modes/bringing.shtml
Increasing Impact of Scholarly Journal Articles: Practical Strategies Librarians Can Share
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n01/mullen_l01.html
Peer reviewing: privilege and responsibility
http://www.textjournal.com.au/april08/johnston_krauth.htm
Library/Faculty
World Library & Information Congress (IFLA) – Quebec 2008 - Papers
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/Programme2008.htm
Law/ Intellectual Property/ Copyright
Laws for Using Photos You Take at Your Library ((USA)
http://www.infotoday.com/mls/sep08/Carson.shtml
Access To Knowledge Conference Begins Addressing New Challenges With New Ideas
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1214
(ACA2K) African Copyright and Access to Knowledge Project Blog
http://www.aca2k.org/index.php?option=com_idoblog&view=idoblog&Itemid=69
The impact of copyright on access to public information in African countries: a perspective from Uganda and South Africa
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/087-Nicholson_Kawooya-en.pdf
African Copyright and Access to Knowledge Alliance
www.aca2k.org (see Blog)
If you know of any persons who may benefit from this information, please ask them to email Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za with their name, name of institution/organization and contact details.

Open Access Day - October 14, 2008

Celebrate Open Access Day on 14 October 2008.
Visit Open Access Day web page on: http://openaccessday.org/

What Is Open Access?
Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. Encouraging the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, the Open Access movement is gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers put their weight behind it.

Why Does Open Access Matter?
"Open Access helps scientists make the discoveries we need to improve health, provides the opportunity for their work to be more easily read and cited, enables integration of research with other resources, helps funding bodies evaluate the research they have funded, and ensures that the digital record of medicine can be preserved." Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust London, UK

"Universities, who support and produce research, can’t keep up with inflating journal prices and are forced to cut subscriptions. With Open Access, instead of cutting off access to information to professors and students, we are able to provide that knowledge without increasing the college’s costs." Diane J. Graves, University Librarian Trinity University (Texas)

"The critical aspect of Open Access for me is that increased discoverability and browseability will lead to greater efficiency of conducting research. Any savings in efficiency translate quite directly into savings for taxpayers and time savings for researchers. That ultimately means more discoveries, sooner, for less money." André Brown, Ph.D. Student University of Pennsylvania
How UJ Library can acknowledge this day?
- During the week of 13th of October we can promote Open Access Journals, Books and Institutional Repositories portals;
- Make promotional brochures
- Use the library and subject web pages , blogs as platforms
- Have a lecturer on the importance of Open Access
Useful links:
- Creative Commons: Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."
- Directory of Open Access Repositories: OpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here. This in-depth approach does not rely on automated analysis and gives a quality-controlled list of repositories.
- Directory of Open Access Journals: Welcome to the Directory of Open Access Journals. This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. We aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 3651 journals in the directory.
- Open Students (very good)

SAOUG AGM & "Wireless Africa" talk: September 2008

On 10th of September 2008 in CSIR, Pretoria the South African Online User Group (SAOUG) had its AGM and talk "Wireless Africa: Towards Sustainable Development in Rural Villages" by Kobus Roux.
The presentation is available on:
The new chair for SAOUG is Madelein Van Heerden from CSIR. Congratulations!
Three new members were included in the committee.
Pavlinka Kovatcheva from University of Johannesburg Library was also re-elected.
End of the year workshop!!!!!
You are cordially invited to Southern African Online User Group (SAOUG) end of year meeting
Stress management Workshop and Lunch
Date: Tuesday 11 November 2008
Venue: 13 5th street, Foxwood House, Houghton
Time: 08:30-late afternoon
Cost: R100.00 for members; R750.00 for non-members
For additional information and booking contact Christa Fourie:
E-mail:
christaf@saonlineinfo.co.za
Visit SAOUG web page for more information: http://www.saoug.org.za/index.htm

GAELIC Newsletter: September 2008

The GAELIC September Newsletter is quite informative. These are the main topics:
* NEW STAFF MEMBER
Welcome to Carole Willis who joined FOTIM as the new GAELIC Programme Manager Contact details for Carole:carole@fotim.ac.za, 011 786 4185


* STRATEGIC PLANNING
The GAELIC Governing Board members have for some time been aware that the structure of GAELIC requires a facelift, and so after much discussion the new structure was accepted at their meeting in July. Although the goals of GAELIC will remain the same, the plan is to move away from a focus group structure and concentrate more on our strategic objectives.
INNOPAC Project group

Read the GAELIC STRATEGIC PLAN' IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FOR 2008 on:
View the Structure Diagram on:


* FOCUS GROUPS
In light of the new structure that has been decided by the Board, the Focus Group structure will no longer be in effect. The emphasis will change from these specialised group areas to the 3 major objective areas of the new strategic plan. Some of the groups will automatically fit into an objective area while others might find that their previous focus areas are now split over 2 objectives. Some groups will find that they have been "put on ice" for the time being as their focus is not currently relevant.
Read the September 2008 Focus Group update on:
* THE WAY FORWARD
In support of the new approach, 3 teams have been formed. They each comprise the following member structure:
- Members of Focus Groups who have expertise in that particular Objective
- Members of the GGB to champion the team;
- A Convener (at the level of Library Director) to guide each group.



* REPORTS BACK:
Strategic Objective 1: Innopac Project Workshop
Investigate and implement a joint integrated Millennium system This area is the most functional at the current time and the members of the Innopac Project Team have just finished presenting the results of the system survey that was conducted. Results of this survey will be sent to individual institutions for viewing in the near future.In July a very successful workshop was held to assess the results of this survey and to discuss the way forward. Some of the questions that were posed include…who is responsible for training? What is the role of the user group? How to ensure ownership of the processes? Read more on:
http://www.gaelic.ac.za/docs/innopacprojectreport_aug2008.pdf.
Strategic Objective 2: Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)
Build capacity through identification and provision of training needs and services for the optimal utilization of resources,Virtual Learning Environment:
- Is Higher education keeping up with the expectations of our students?
- Students are increasingly 'transliterate', communicating across a range of technologies. Can academics keep up?
Read more about this challenge in UK Higher Education: Grappling with the digital divide:
And where are the GAELIC libraries in this problem? Well if you support the VLE Survey that was sent out earlier in the year and is about to be sent out again with a slightly amended approach, we will be able to assess this situation within our member institutions.
P.S. Dr Anette van Vuren is Operational Manager in VLE group
Strategic Objective 3:
Improve cost efficiency through joint procurement and resources sharing
P.S. Hannie Sander is Convenor of this group

* NEWS AND VIEWS
- IUG-SA 2008, Theme: "Innovate or mummify"
Don't forget to diarise the 12th-14th November as these are the dates when the annual IUG-SA is happening on the NNMU North Campus in Port Elizabete. The theme of the conference is "Innovate or mummify" or how to maximize the Millennium products to make the most of the library system. Some of the subjects under consideration are Statistics, using Macro's and templates, Millennium ILL, Collection Development & reporting tools, Cataloguing challenges of FRBR, Copyright management and course packs, New releases and System enhancement requests to name just a few. Please note the cut off date for early bird registration has been extended until 30th September. For more details and registration go to:
- Don't forget the Directors Symposium happening on the 12th November.
Under discussion: What is expected of the library in the research environment? eResearch and the challenges facing libraries to deliver.
* NOTABLE:
- IFLA
Well IFLA has come and gone again and for those lucky people who went to Canada this year we hope you came back inspired and motivated and ready to share your new insights with the rest of us. Next year the event takes place in Milan, Italy and of note is that a proudly South African Librarian is to head IFLA next year. Ellen Tise of Stellenbosch University is the incoming president for 2009.Read about it in Library Journal: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6478649.html?rssid=220
Visit GAELIC website for more information: http://www.gaelic.ac.za/

Researchers' use of academic libraries and their services

Researchers' use of academic libraries and their services: UK experience
(
http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/libraries-report-2007.pdf
Appendixes:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/Appendix_0.pdf)

This study was designed to provide an up-to-date and forward-looking view of how researchers interact with academic libraries in the UK. Harnessing empirical data and qualitative insights from over 2250 researchers (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical sciences and Life Sciences) and 300 librarians, the RIN (Research Information network) and CURL (Consortium of Research Libraries) hope that the results will be useful in informing the debate about the future development of academic libraries and the services they provide to researchers.
Some of the results are:
The rise of e-research, interdisciplinary work, cross-institution collaborations, and the expectation of massive increases in the quantity of research output in digital form all pose new challenges. These challenges are about how libraries should serve the needs of researchers as users of information sources of many different kinds, but also about how to deal with the information outputs that researchers are creating.
* Pressure Points
- The majority of researchers in all disciplines have adapted readily to the widespread availability of digital content, accessible directly from their desktops.
- But while nearly all researchers think funding the library should be a high or top priority for their institution, librarians indicate that it is not always easy to secure top-level support.
- Limited funding emphasises the tension between competing demands for library resources: many researchers perceive that libraries give greater priority to support for teaching and learning rather than to research, something that many librarians acknowledge.
* A sense of Place
- There has been a sharp fall over the past five years in the number of researchers who visit their institution’s library regularly. This is most pronounced in the sciences, but in all disciplines there is clear evidence of declining attendance.
- Researchers are choosing to access digital information from their desktops, primarily from their office but also from their homes.
- Only in the arts and humanities do a significant majority of researchers put a high value on the services provided in library buildings.
- More must be done to facilitate the use of other libraries’ offerings and to promote the use of reciprocal access schemes for both printed and digital content.
* Researcher Behaviour
- Most researchers use digital finding aids to locate both digital and print-based resources.
- Print finding aids are used by very few researchers, and these are mainly in the arts and humanities.
- This highlights the need for libraries to ensure that they provide online high-quality meta data for their holdings, and that they address cataloguing backlogs.
* New ways of working
- As users of digital information, researchers place a very high value on electronic journals, but a much lower value as yet on libraries’ provision of other kinds of digital resources.
- There is an urgent need for librarians and the research community to work together to clarify the roles and responsibilities of key players – at national as well as institutional level - in managing these outputs.
* New ways of providing
- A significant part of the study focuses on the roles librarians play in support of the research process, and the related expectations of researchers. Both groups expect that libraries will have a key role as custodians and managers of digital resources.
- Multi-institutional developments such as Virtual Research Environments will continue to grow.
* Visibility, sharing, openness
- Feedback from researchers is very positive, but many information resources that could be useful to researchers remain under-used currently, mainly because they exist only in hard copy or are inadequately catalogued.
- Researchers’ awareness of new developments in scholarly communications, particularly issues to do with open access to research outputs, is low.
* Library-research community relations and the future promotion of library services
- For librarians, liaison with the research community presents a number of problems, arising from the transience of many of the individual relationships that can be formed, the increasing tendency for researchers to use library services remotely, and researcher independence.
- There are significant differences between researchers and librarians in attitudes, perceptions and awareness of key issues. Many believe that communication channels need to be improved but achieving this is not easy.
- There is a danger that the role of libraries may be diluted as researchers, particularly younger ones, turn to the social networking space to share research-based information.
- The successful research library of the future needs to forge a stronger brand identity within the institution.

For more information on RIN visit: http://www.rin.ac.uk/about

Friday 5 September 2008

Reference in Transition: a scenario for the future librarians

I found this article through iLibrarian blog. Stephen Abram has written an exciting piece on the fate of reference with Evolution to Revolution to Chaos? Reference in Transition in September issue of Searcher Magazine.
He talks about the biggest challenge the libraries need to face and provides a scenario for the future of the reference - the information commons, the learning commons, the embedded librarians, the remote librarians, etc. He says that "we have to change our own personal behaviors and styles to adapt and reach beyond merely adding websites, technologies, and content to our toolkits. For this change, we have to place ourselves in all of the spaces inhabited by our users. We have to introduce complementary in-person and virtual contact. We have to be everywhere they are, since that’s the user expectation, and adapt to the tools that match their needs — IM, texting, smartphones, social networks, and the rest. And we’re seeing strong resistance from many of our colleagues. Can we do it? Remember, the dinosaurs didn’t go extinct because the climate changed. They disappeared because they couldn’t adapt quickly enough to the changes happening around them!"
"Reference and research services, the front line of library service, are dealing with a far-less-predictable future. The asynchronous, asymmetrical threats facing us are very real hydra monsters challenging our roles in many ways, all having some truth. The fate of reference has come into clearer focus in Web 2.0/Library 2.0 discussions and debates. The emphasis has moved from understanding and learning the technology to understanding end-user behaviors in context. Policies have moved from serving library management needs and library workers’ preferences to where end-user needs trump librarian insights and personal search preferences. If this attitude hadn’t changed, we’d be in real trouble now — although, admittedly, you still occasionally encounter dinosaur tracks and hear the roar of distant mastodons. A plethora of new end-user research — from usability through personas and from hit analyses to ethnographic and behavioral studies — focus on workplace needs, scholarly behavior, learning styles, and entertainment and demonstrate a material shift in the library user firmament."

Google Chrome Browser now live

On 2nd of September 2008 Google has released a new product: Google Chrome Browser. So far there are mixed reviews and experiences. Google on Google Chrome - comic book step-by-step guide was released to help people learn more about the browser. In competition to Firefox & Explorer, this product is coming strong on the market. Use these links to learn more about this browser and what competitors and public has to say about it.
* Review: Google Chrome lacks polish under the hood
Read more on: CNET News - 3387 related articles »; InformationWeek - 125 related articles » & PC World - 40 related articles »