Stephen Dew has been appointed collections and scholarly resources coordinator at the University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He comes from the University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, where he was coordinator of library services for distance education.
James G. Neal has been elected vice chair of the Board of Directors of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), effective July 2007. Neal is vice president for information services and university librarian at Columbia University, New York, and has previously served as dean of university libraries at Indiana University, Bloomington, and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.
For Oxford University Press, Online Venture Breathes New Life into the Monograph
Officials at Oxford University Press (OUP) say their Oxford Scholarship Online program (OSO), a digital database of the press's monographs, will expand by September to include nearly all of its monograph titles. OUP vice president and publisher Niko Pfund said that the successful program, will add new "modules" in math, physics, biology, psychology, business/management, history, literature, classics, and linguistics, adding nine new disciplines in all to the original four "modules" (economics, politics, religion, and philosophy). "This will in effect double the number of new titles we're putting into OSO to approximately 400-450 new books a year," he told the LJ Academic Newswire.
Pfund said the bold effort to launch OSO has taken "thousands" of hours of effort between publishers and authors and "lots" of money, though he declined to estimate the tab. OSO launched in 2003 as a subscription database before switching to a "perpetual access" model in 2005. The press' massive effort, Pfund says, is paying off, with usage up over 450 percent. Pfund said OUP may even add more of its mainstream books to OSO, titles not necessarily considered monographs. "One of the challenges of academic publishing is the different way in which scholars, librarians, and publishers define the term 'monograph,'" he conceded. "But one of the animating principles behind OSO is to maximize exposure for our books. So, if we think that inclusion of a specific academic trade or trade title in OSO would make for a good fit in the site, we'd include it."
Of course, inclusion in OSO depends on a host of other factors as well, including the wishes of authors, some of whom may fear that an online offering will diminish book sales. In an age when Google is roiling the marketplace with its scan plan, prompting lawsuits and forcing many presses and authors into sometimes uncomfortable choices, OSO represents a significant strategic commitment of resources by OUP. And so far, authors have enthusiastically embraced the venture. "I'd say 90-95 percent of authors are initially positive, with about 20-25 percent having substantive questions that involve a few rounds of conversation," Pfund said. Only "a very few" authors have declined inclusion. "In fact," he added, "it's been inspirational to see how many are willing to put in extra work on drafting abstracts and keyword lists to ensure their work is not only included in OSO but well-represented."
It's difficult to judge whether OSO has had an effect on book sales, Pfund said, noting that overall monograph sales have not decreased since OSO launched and some titles may appear to have benefited from increased exposure. But focusing on book sales, he suggests, is simply too narrow a measure in today's "fragmented," increasingly digital world. "We're not seeing the end of the book, we're seeing the galloping diversification of how its message can be conveyed," he explains, describing the press' philosophy as "format agnosticism," that is to deliver content in whatever format is desired. "If dissemination and influence is our primary currency, then having books available via OSO, or netlibrary, in print perpetuity via print-on-demand, or in Google Book Search and Amazon's Search Inside the Book means that more people can access your work in more ways from more places than ever before. That does translate to dollars."
PR Nightmare? Science Publishers' Consultation with PR "Pit Bull" Raises Questions
Apparently feeling pressure from proposals demanding free public access to federally-funded research, a group of science publishers have consulted with a high profile public relations consultant. According to a report in the journal Nature "employees from Elsevier, Wiley and the American Chemical Society," attended a meeting arranged last year by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) at which Eric Dezenhall, described as a PR "pit bull," attempted to help publishers craft a campaign to fight calls for public access.
Citing emails, Nature reported that Dezenhall advised publishers to focus on "simple" and sometimes misleading messages, such as "public access equals government censorship" and suggested publishers join forces with "groups that may be ideologically opposed to government-mandated projects." But the foray into a possible PR effort now appears to be generating negative publicity. The publishers were blistered by critics in a range of articles including Scientific American, the Washington Post, and Salon, where Andrew Leonard blogged, under the headline "Science Publishers Get Stupid," that "any publisher of scientific research who even begins to entertain the notion that free access to scientific information can or should be equated with government censorship should be mocked mercilessly...for their disingenuous mendacity."
Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC, one of the earliest and biggest supporters of public access initiatives, said the consultation with Dezenhall is "a sure sign" that the public access movement is gaining momentum. "I think [the PR consultation] has already has backfired," Joseph said of publishers' meeting with Dezenhall. "The research community as a whole is certainly abuzz over this. We've seen a couple of dozen stories and blog postings highlighting the distaste that individuals have for this kind of behavior. Once these tactics are exposed, it's extremely difficult to regain credibility." Joseph predicted that the Federal Research Public Access Act, legislation that would mandate public access to federally funded research across the spectrum of government agencies, will almost certainly be re-introduced and that when that happens advocates will be sure to remind legislators of this episode. "I can't imagine that Congress and Congressional staff members will look too kindly on these kinds of disinformation tactics," she added.
The Nature report also generated a heated response among those on Yale University' s Liblicense-L electronic discussion list, including responses from publishers who offered a significantly more measured and reasoned argument than Dezenhall. "The real issue is whether governments should create unfunded mandates that force business models such as six or 12 month limits on those who have a different publishing model," wrote Marc Brodsky, executive director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics. "Let the market not the government decide what authors and readers want and need."
ACRL Announces Excellence in Academic Libraries Winners
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has announced the recipients of the 2007 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. This year's recipients are: the Hostos Community College/CUNY Library, Bronx, NY (community college); Elizabeth Huth Coates Library at Trinity University, San Antonio (college library); and the Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center, Atlanta (university library). Each winning library will receive $3000 and a plaque, to be presented at an award ceremony held on each recipient's campus.
The winners also will receive special recognition at the ACRL President's Program during the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The award, sponsored by ACRL and Blackwell's Book Services, recognizes college, university, and community college library staffs for programs "that deliver exemplary services and resources." "I cannot think of a better gift for our students and our community than to receive this national recognition of excellence for their library," said Lucinda Zoe, professor and chief librarian of the Hostos Community College/CUNY, winner in the community college category. "It is a powerful message to send to our community." The LJ Academic Newswire will profile each of the winning libraries in the weeks leading up the 13th ACRL National Conference scheduled for March 29-April 1 in Baltimore, MD.
It's Official: Buffalo DLIS on Track
The American Library Association Committee on Accreditation (COA) has notified the University of Buffalo's (UB) Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) that it has officially accepted its "Plan for Removal of Conditional Accreditation." The news comes after representatives from UB DLIS met with members of the COA in Seattle on January 20, as scheduled, to answer questions about the plan. In 2006, DLIS submitted a 23-page "Plan for Removal of Conditional Accreditation Status," a big step in the process of gaining full accreditation. According to an email from Judith Robinson, Professor and Department Chair, DLIS, an update is expected by March 15 about which school will host the department. After the dissolution of the department's former home in the School of Informatics, DLIS administrators are in the process of choosing between the College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Education.
British Library, U.S. DOE Partner on Science Portal
The British Library (BL) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have announced a collaborative effort to develop a global science gateway, to be named Science.world. The free online resource will eventually make accessible science information resources from many countries via a single Internet portal. Following the model of Science.gov, offered by a group of U.S. federal agencies, the Science.world effort will rely on scientific resources published by each participating nation. "Our goal is to speed up the sharing of knowledge on a global scale. As a result, we believe that science itself will speed up," said Raymond Orbach, DOE undersecretary for science.
For the DOE, the project marks a return of sorts. On November 4, 2002, the lights went out on PubSCIENCE, the DOE's effort to offer a free multi-disciplinary database in the physical sciences. PubSCIENCE allowed users to search across abstracts and citations of multiple publishers at no cost. The effort quickly became the target of an intense lobbying campaign, spearheaded by the Washington-based Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), which claimed that PubSCIENCE competed with its members' services. It was not immediately clear what resources the new portal would provide, although a British Library news release said the project's aim was "direct, free searching of open source collections and portals" that would "complement existing information collections and systems."
Best Sellers in Botany/Zoology, June 2006–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness
Dugatkin, Lee Alan
Princeton University Press
2006. ISBN 0691125902. $24.95
Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales
Bonner, John Tyler
Princeton University Press
2006. ISBN 0691128502. $16.95
Other Insect Societies
Costa, James T.
Belknap/Harvard
2006. ISBN 0674021630. $59.95
Ecology of Phytoplankton
Reynolds, C.S.
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521844134. $160.00
Female Infidelity and Paternal Uncertainty: Evolutionary Perspectives on Male Anti-Cuckoldry Tactics
Ed. by Steven M. Platek
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521845386. $120.00
Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur
Safina, Carl
Henry Holt
2006. ISBN 0805078916. $27.50
Homosexual Behaviour in Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective
Ed. by Volker Sommer
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521864461. $125.00
Biology of Peatlands
Rydin, Hakan
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 019852871x. $109.50
Biology of the Ubiquitous House Sparrow: From Genes to Populations
Anderson, Ted R.
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 019530411x. $89.50
Measuring Plant Diversity: Lessons from the Field
Stohlgren, Thomas J.
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0195172337. $64.50
Otters: Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation
Kruuk, H.
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0198565879. $49.95
Migrating Raptors of the World: Their Ecology & Conservation
Bildstein, Keith L.
Comstock/Cornell
2006. ISBN 080144179x. $35.00
Comparative Cognition: Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence
Ed. by Edward Wasserman
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195167651. $120.00
Birds of the World
Beletsky, Les
Johns Hopkins University Press
2006. ISBN 0801884292. $50.00
Turtles of the World
Bonin, Franck
Trans. by Peter C.H. Pritchard
Johns Hopkins University Press
2006. ISBN 0801884969. $50.00
Primate Perspectives on Behavior and Cognition
Ed. by David A. Washburn
American Psychological Association
2007. ISBN 1591474221. $79.95
Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter
Tudge, Colin
Crown
2006. ISBN 1400050367. $27.95
Marsupials
Ed. by Patricia J. Armati
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521650747. $120.00
Extinction & Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds
Steadman, David W.
University of Chicago Press
2006. ISBN 0226771415. $110.00
Bobcat: Master of Survival
Hansen, Kevin
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0195183037. $29.95
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