Dean Corner has been selected as director of reader and information services at the Maine State Library, Augusta. He most recently was assistant director/reference librarian at the Patten Free Library, Bath, ME.
Jeffrey Trzeciak will join McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, as university librarian on July 1. He currently is associate dean at Wayne State University, Detroit. Trzeciak replaces Graham Hill, who retired last summer.
Page Ackerman former university librarian at UCLA, has died at the age of 93. She joined the UCLA library staff in 1949 from the Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, VA, where she had been assistant librarian. In 1954, she was appointed assistant university librarian and, in 1965, became associate university librarian. She was named university librarian in 1973 and retired in 1977. Ackerman was acknowledged for innovative administrative efforts, including a university-wide catalog, coordinated selection strategies, and regional storage facilities.
With NIH Access Policy Faltering, Is a New Policy in the Offing? Congressional legislators praised the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for implementing its public access policy, but raised one major question: is it working? Not really, was the answer, submitted to Congress by NIH executive director Elias Zerhouni. In Zerhouni's 10 page report, the NIH executive director suggested that so far the policy has been largely ineffective. The good news, according to NIH statistics, is that from May through December 2005, the policy led to the addition of 1,636 new articles to PubMed Central. The bad news is that total represents less than four percent of the 43,000 articles that could have been submitted during that period. Why the lag in compliance? The report cites the outreach done by the NIH, and suggests that lack of awareness is not the issue. Many, however, seem to have reservations over the purpose and the overall clarity of the policy.
According to the report, nine of 11 working group members expressed concern that the NIH "could not achieve its goals unless deposit of manuscripts was mandatory." Ten of 11 also felt that the final edited article as published in the journal should be deposited. And eight of 11 felt access should occur within six months. The NIH policy only requests deposit of the author's final version of the article within a suggested 12-month period. In light of the report, a Washington Post article last week suggested that "political momentum is growing for a change in federal policy that would require government-funded health researchers to make the results of their work freely available on the Internet." The article bluntly called the NIH policy "a flop" and cited the introduction of the CURES Act, which would require public access to publicly funded research across a range of agencies as a sign that Congress is getting ready to turn up the political pressure in favor of public access to federally funded research.
For Better Public Access, Will NIH Work More Closely With Society Publishers? When the NIH's embattled public access policy was first being formulated, a number of society publishers offered a critique along this line: right goal, wrong approach. With the NIH's policy now showing poor results, will the agency choose to work more closely with scientific societies, a coalition of nearly 60 of which offered the DC Principles for Free Access in 2004? In what may hint at a breakthrough, Martin Frank, executive director of the American Physiological Association, told the LJ Academic Newswire that "a core group" of society publishers met recently with NIH executive director Elias Zerhouni and that Zerhouni was "receptive" to the publishers' overtures to help fulfill the NIH's public access goals. Although Frank could not share details, he sounded cautiously optimistic, and said a meeting has been scheduled to further discuss a potential public/private partnership for public access. In late 2005, the DC Principles Coalition reiterated its commitment to working with the NIH toward public access and suggested a model based on linking to journal web sites rather than mandatory deposit in a PubMed Central, a centralized database.
"We have been good citizens in the past, serving as the place to publish about 40 percent of the NIH funded content," Frank explained of society publishers. "We have also been making content available for free within 12 months since about 2000, well before NIH and Congress began telling us we should do so." In Frank's estimation, the NIH's final, weakened access policy simply did not resonate with NIH grantees. While Frank acknowledged that NIH-funded investigators "have some awareness" of the policy, the NIH did not market the plan aggressively enough and also likely "failed to convince the investigator community, especially those who publish in society journals, that the plan was necessary to provide public access since the journals they publish in already make content available within 12 months." Working closely with publishers on a public access plan, Frank suggested, could prove effective. "When assessing the success of the NIH plan, it is important to recognize that NIH sought to interact with their grantees, since they only have a relationship with them. They do not have a relationship to the publisher," he noted. However, he added, NIH now seems willing to try and find a solution "that meets the needs of both NIH and the society publishers."
How's My Archiving? In Latest Challenge, Weinstein Quick to Respond to Classification Actions Despite the flap over his appointment process, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein pledged to be an advocate for access, and thus far in his short tenure, he's shown that commitment. After a report in the New York Times said that since 1999 more than 55,000 declassified documents have been removed from the National Archives public access areas by government intelligence and security agencies, Weinstein responded. He has imposed a "moratorium" on removal of any declassified records until an audit currently underway by the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) is completed. Further, Weinstein will also convene a summit of the agencies involved in document withdrawals "to ensure the proper balance" of agency authority and archival obligations. He has also called upon the agencies to "restore quickly as many documents as possible" while protecting sensitive material.
According to reports, the reclassification came to light only after intelligence historian Matthew Aid noticed that documents he had once accessed had been withdrawn. That led to a torrent of protest from historians. Under existing guidelines, government documents are declassified after 25 years unless there is a particular reason to keep them secret. Weinstein has also called for a review of the National Archives classification and declassification processes, "to ensure that the National Archives is a catalyst for timely access." He likewise directed the ISOO to develop, in conjunction with affected agencies, "a standardized guidance" for withdrawal of records, to be implemented before any further records are removed.
Mellon To Continue Support of NYU's Moving Image Preservation Project The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $639,000 grant to NYU's Division of Libraries, in partnership with the Tisch School of the Arts, to support Libraries' Preservation Department and the Tisch School's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. NYU said the grant will help preservationists learn how to better manage moving image and sound materials in the context of large research library collections and how to direct preservation efforts to rescue them. Time is of the essence, noted NYU librarians. With moving images and sound, magnetic media deteriorates quickly, and old formats also rapidly become obsolete in the digital age. Under the program, NYU is developing a preservation strategy for its collections, and will use the grant to develop a programmatic approach to determine workflow and handling protocols, selection criteria, equipment needs, staffing requirements, and program costs. "The result will establish a much-needed protocol that will serve as a model for collection-holding institutions," said NYU dean of libraries Carol Mandel. The Mellon Foundation initially supported NYU's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Master's degree program within the Tisch School.
Google Notes: Google to Sell Book Content; Judge Will Compel Google to Share Search Info In what's been an interesting week in the land of Google, the leading search firm announced it would offer its Google Book Search partners—that is, those publishers that have entered into agreements to participate in the program—to set terms for selling their book content. Meanwhile, in a high-profile court case, U.S. District Judge James Ware told Google lawyers that he would compel the company to share some information with the government about searches conducted by users. Google has resisted a Department of Justice subpoena, saying such a fishing expedition would erode confidence in privacy protections for users. Lawyers for the Justice Department argued, however, that they were requesting no personal information among a random selection of web addresses and search requests. The government hopes to study the prevalence of pornography on the Internet and will use the information to argue that the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) should be upheld.
Meanwhile, as publishers and authors press separate lawsuits to squash Google's ambitious library scan plan, Google announced its long-anticipated sales function for those publishers that have signed up for the Google Book Search program. The company will enable publishers to sell book content, according to terms set by the publishers. Once a publisher has set its price, users who discover the book through Google Book Search "will be able to pay for access to its full contents." Google officials say the book will only be available to users once they've signed in with their personal account. And users will not be able to save copies of the book on their computers. "It's a way for publishers to experiment with a new method of earning money from their books in addition to those that already exist," reads a Google statement, calling the plan "a way to reach more users by offering a new version of your book with a different reading experience."
Jay Datema Joins LJ as Technology Editor Jay Datema has joined Library Journal (LJ) as technology editor, assuming responsibility for the magazine's quarterly technology supplement netConnect as well as LJ's technology features and columns (Online Databases, Digital Libraries). He also will oversee the LJ Tech Blog. He replaces Brian Kenney, who recently took the reins at School Library Journal. One of Datema's first special projects will be developing a webcast on RFID, which will run in late April. Datema received an MLIS from Dominican University, River Forest, IL, in 1998 and expects to receive his MBA from Binghamton University, NY, this spring. He has also served as a reference librarian and coordinator of public access computing at Cornell University's Mann Library, Ithaca, NY, before moving on to Ovid Technologies, where, as project manager, he oversaw several new software feature additions to the Ovid Gateway product, including Pay-Per-View and the Administrative Interface. Most recently, Datema founded Bookism, a consulting service to scientific and research libraries.
Best Sellers in Asian History, June 2005-present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
Changing Face of China: From Mao to Market
Gittings, John
Oxford University Press
2005. ISBN 0192806122. $30.00
Mao: The Unknown Story
Chang, Jung
Alfred A. Knopf
2005. ISBN 0679422714. $35.00
From Comrade to Citizen: The Struggle for Political Rights in China
Goldman, Merle
Harvard University Press
2005. ISBN 0674018907. $39.95
Japonisme: Cultural Crossings Between Japan and the West
Lambourne, Lionel
Phaidon
2005. ISBN 0714841056. $69.95
Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor
Nevins, Joseph
Cornell University Press
2005. ISBN 0801443067. $49.95
Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective
Ed. by Sarah Allan
Kwang-Chih, Chang
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300093829. $65.00
History of Modern Indonesia
Vickers, Adrian
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521834937. $70.00
Cinderella's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding
Ko, Dorothy
University of California Press
2005. ISBN 0520218841. $29.95
Mirroring the Past: The Writing and Use of History in Imperial China
Ng, On-Cho
University of Hawai'i Press
2005. ISBN 0824829131. $50.00
Arts of Asia: Materials, Techniques, Styles
McArthur, Meher
Thames & Hudson
2005. ISBN 0500238235. $50.00
Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West
Zhang Longxi
Cornell University Press
2005. ISBN 0801443695. $39.95
Governing China's Population: From Leninist to Neoliberal Biopolitics
Greenhalgh, Susan
Stanford University Press
2005. ISBN 0804748799. $65.00
Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal
Levine, Sarah
Harvard University Press
2005. ISBN 0674019083. $45.00
Odyssey of China's Imperial Art Treasures
Elliott, Jeannette Shambaugh
University of Washington Press
2005. ISBN 0295985224. $24.95
Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space
Wu Hung
University of Chicago Press
2005. ISBN 0226360784. $80.00
House Home Family: Living and Being Chinese
Ed. by Ronald G. Knapp
University of Hawai'i Press
2005. ISBN 0824828585. $65.00
Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers
Berry, Michael
Columbia University Press
2005. ISBN 0231133308. $64.50
Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China
Atwill, David G.
Stanford University Press
2006. ISBN 0804751595. $60.00
Looking Through Taiwan: American Anthropologists' Collusion with Ethnic Domination
Hong, Keelung
University of Nebraska Press
2005. ISBN 0803224354. $55.00
Social Life of Opium in China
Yangwen, Zheng
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521846080. $70.00
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact our
Online Support Team
Reed Business Information
2000 Clearwater Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523
eletters@reedbusiness.com
