Nancy Davenport will step down as president of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) at the end of her current term, on June 30. Before her appointment in 2004, Davenport served more than 25 years at the Library of Congress, ultimately as director of acquisitions. While at CLIR, she was a member of the council and executive board of the American Library Association, and she currently serves on the board of the National Information Standards Organization. The board has appointed an interim administrative subcommittee and has begun a search for a successor.
Stanislav Orlov will become Systems Librarian at Mount Saint Vincent University Library, Halifax, NS, effective July 31. He recently received his master's of information studies from the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto (UT) and worked part time at the Frost Library at York University, Ontario, and at several libraries at UT.
OCLC To Absorb RLG Products and Services
It's a blockbuster move, but not quite a merger. While the headline on the press release said "RLG to combine with OCLC," it sure sounds like an absorption into OCLC, since the latter's revenues of $189 million were more than 13 times RLG's recent revenues. The goal: an integrated product and service line, with RLIN, the RLG Union Catalog, migrated into the OCLC WorldCat database. If the merger recommendation by the RLG Board of Directors and OCLC Board of Trustees is approved by RLG member institutions, after July 1, RLG's online products and services will be integrated with OCLC products and services. The company name will remain OCLC, with RLG's program initiatives joining a new division of OCLC Programs and Research, continuing efforts in areas like resource sharing, digital preservation, and special collections.
RLG has as members more than 150 research libraries, archives, museums. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, the library world's nonprofit behemoth, provides a wide variety of services to 54,000 libraries in 109 countries. The merger would seem to move OCLC further along the road to eliminating redundancy, increasing interoperability, and moving quickly on the R&D front, goals that OCLC president Jay Jordan alluded to in a recent meeting with LJ. "The last few years have instilled in us all an urgent need to find innovative, cost-effective and compelling ways to bring research collections into the heart of the online environment and into the hands of those who can benefit from them," said James Neal, VP for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University, and chair of the RLG Board of Directors. "It is time that RLG and OCLC take united action if we are to realize our long-held and long-shared mutual goal of providing information to people when and where they need it." Commented Betsy Wilson, dean of University Libraries, University of Washington, and chair, OCLC Board of Trustees, "The OCLC Board of Trustees and OCLC management believe that it is in the best interests of the library and cultural heritage community in general, and the research library community in particular, for RLG and OCLC to create a united organization that leverages our respective strengths."
Looking at the OCLC-RLG Deal: Answers and Questions
An extensive FAQ answers many of the obvious questions regarding the absorption by OCLC of RLG, assuming approval by the RLG membership, yet some questions linger. What are the financial terms? The answer was vague: "The financial structure of the proposed combination is a purchase of assets and assumption of certain liabilities. Financial details of the proposed combination are not provided at this time but will be fully disclosed in the 2007 OCLC audited financial statements."
Are most of RLG's 156 members currently members of OCLC? Cathy De Rosa, OCLC's VP of Marketing and Library Services, said most library members of RLG are already in OCLC, while many of the nonlibrary institutions (archives, museums, and historical societies) are not members. Do they have to join OCLC to participate in RLG programs? No, she said.
What's in it for current OCLC members? The FAQ states, "As RLG members redirect their records and cataloging efforts from the RLG Union Catalog into WorldCat, WorldCat users will benefit from the addition of unique records not currently included in WorldCat. The RLG Union Catalog currently contains 48 million records, in 400 languages, from libraries, archives, museums and other institutions."
Would WorldCat cost more? No, except that if organizations currently using cataloging and ILL services increase their increase their usage of OCLC services, subscription rates might change.
What happens to James Michalko, who currently leads RLG? He'd serve as VP of RLG-Programs Development, working under the leadership of Lorcan Dempsey, VP of Research and OCLC Chief Strategist.
Would any of RLG's 80 jobs be cut? There's certainly a hint of that, as the FAQ states: "Staffing decisions will be made in the weeks leading up to the proposed transition."
Would RLG lose its office in Mountain View, CA? No, though the office in New York would close. There are two employees, and De Rosa said it wasn't clear whether they'd move to the home base.
Would RLG annual membership dues change? During the first year, the FAQ states, the partnership cost "will cost about the same as current RLG membership." In the future, however, the fees should go down—a signal of one potential benefit from the merger.
Fallout? ProQuest's Restated Earnings Sends Stock Price Reeling
Although officials at ProQuest insist that the discovery of accounting errors do not affect the company's "cash balances, amounts invoiced to customers, cash receipts from customers or disbursement to publishers and suppliers," the value of the company's stock plummeted, following a restatement of earnings. Within the company, meanwhile, the fallout also seems to have begun. On April 5, 40 to 50 Information and Learning division staffers were laid off, roughly five percent of its staff, with additional cutbacks possible, according to the Ann Arbor News. Days later, the company also shelved its Canadian operation, Micromedia ProQuest, cutting another 70 jobs with only a handful of sales posts remaining in Toronto. What remains of that business is relocating to Ann Arbor. ProQuest CEO Alan Aldworth hinted that more changes could be on the way. "Given ProQuest's current financial circumstances, we believe the sale of Business Solutions may be in the best interests of the company," he told reporters. Business Solutions is an automotive information unit based in Tennessee, while ProQuest is headquartered in Michigan.
In March, ProQuest officials said they had discovered accounting errors and would restate earnings. The magnitude of those restatements, however, seems to have shocked investors. Company officials reported that pretax earnings for the first three quarters of 2005 would plummet $35 million to $45 million, and by $45 million to $55 million for all of 2004. Some partial relief may be in sight. This week ProQuest said it had reached an agreement with its bank lenders and private placement note holders for "a waiver of the company's current defaults…the banks and note holders will not exercise remedies available to them resulting from ProQuest's defaults under its existing credit arrangements…through November 2006." As of now, it was business as usual for the Business and Learning operation familiar to librarians. The unit continues to release new products on a regular basis.
Growing Pain: Editors Voice Complaints About Open Access Pioneer BioMed Central
Is trouble brewing at open access pioneer BioMed Central (BMC)? This week the BMC-owned magazine The Scientist published a lengthy article suggesting that a number of editors at some of BMC's 93 independent journals are unhappy with the publisher's efforts—and several were said to be considering leaving the company altogether. BMC, a for-profit open access publisher founded in 2000, has been touted as an alternative to the commercial subscription model, which is plagued by rampant inflation. Now, as the company makes changes to its business, it is beginning to hear some familiar complaints, including over price inflation. According to The Scientist, BMC editors, who are not paid, are upset with recent increases in BMC's author processing charge (APC), and the granting of fewer APC waivers for papers whose authors cannot afford to pay the full APC. Also, last year the new BMC contract required editors to transfer journal ownership over to BMC. BMC publisher Matthew Cockerill defended the changes, including the swelling APC. In January 2002, the APC was $500. Today it is £750, about $1340. "Having published many thousands of articles since then, we now have a much better idea of what we need to charge to cover our costs and ensure financial sustainability," Cockerill told the LJ Academic Newswire. Cockerill replaced founding publisher Jan Velterop last year, after Velterop left BMC to pursue other open access-related projects. Velterop later joined Springer.
Cockerill noted that the new APC was still "well within the range regarded as reasonable by funders, and compares very favorably with the charges of other publishers offering open access." APC costs aside, editors' other major complaint, according The Scientist, appears to be with BMC management, described as "uncompromising" on a range of issues facing the company. Kuan-Teh Jeang, editor-in-chief of the BMC journal Retrovirology, echoed most editors in supporting open access, but questioned BMC's execution. "We all feel open access is where we want to donate our time, energy, and reputations," Jeang told The Scientist. "What we want from BMC is a sense that they value us as equal team members." Richard Feinman, co-editor-in-chief of Nutrition and Metabolism, was more blunt in his assessment, telling The Scientist that "open access is going to move forward and if the BMC management can meet this challenge, fine, if not, they should be replaced." Cockerill seemed unfazed by the criticism saying he valued the input of editors. "As with every challenging endeavor, there will occasionally be problems along the way," he told the LJ Academic Newswire. "The editors of new open access journals have taken on an important and challenging task. We are working hard with them, to make their journals a success." As for BMC's success? Cockerill said the company was "doing well." Although BMC is still not yet profitable, he said, "Support from authors for BioMed Central has never been stronger. Submissions are at record levels. Wider support for open access, too, continues to grow each day."
New Bill Would Mandate Access to More Federally Funded Research
A coalition of library groups this week applauded the introduction of the "Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006," introduced Tuesday by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT). If passed, the bill would require federal agencies with "extramural research portfolios over $100 million" to make the electronic versions of peer-reviewed articles publicly available via the Internet within six months of publication. The bill would be a significant expansion of the weakened and ineffective policy implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last year that merely requested NIH-funded researchers deposit their papers within a year after publication. In addition to the NIH, the Cornyn/Lieberman bill would involve other agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Transportation, as well as EPA, NASA, and NSF.
Unlike the NIH policy, which specified papers be deposited into PubMed Central, the Cornyn/Lieberman bill does not specify how the information would be made available online. While library groups applauded the effort, it is unlikely that any real action will happen on it this year. "The introduction of the legislation sends an important signal to these federal agencies that there is strong congressional interest in public access policies to federally funded research," Prue Adler, associate executive director of the Association of Research Libraries, told the LJ Academic Newswire. "There are strong voices of support in diverse constituencies that will be actively working on this legislation." Still, with mid-term elections only months away, Adler said it as impossible to predict the fate of any legislation introduced this session. Library groups are nevertheless lined up to push hard for the bill.
Best Sellers in Geology, June 2005-present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
After the Earth Quakes: Elastic Rebound on an Urban Planet
Hough, Susan Elizabeth
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195179137. $39.95
Volcanoes and the Environment
Ed. by Joan Marti
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521592542. $90.00
River Variability and Complexity
Schumm, Stanley Alfred
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521846714. $70.00
Biostratigraphy: Microfossils and Geological Time
McGowran, Brian
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521837502. $85.00
Microstructure of Dinosaur Bone: Deciphering Biology with Fine-Scale Techniques
Chinsamy-Turan, Anusuya
Johns Hopkins University Press
2005. ISBN 080188120X. $85.00
Carnivorous Dinosaurs
Ed. by Kenneth Carpenter
Indiana University Press
2005. ISBN 0253345391. $49.95
Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs
Ed. by Virginia Tidwell
Indiana University Press
2005. ISBN 0253345421. $59.95
Fundamentals of Structural Geology
Pollard, David D.
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521839270. $80.00
Proving Grounds: Project Plowshare and the Unrealized Dream of Nuclear Earthmoving
Kirsch, Scott
Rutgers University Press
2005. ISBN 0813536669. $39.95
Remote Sensing Of Snow and Ice
Rees, Gareth
Taylor & Francis
2006. 0415298318. $99.95
Modern Luminescence Spectroscopy of Minerals and Materials
Gaft, Michael
Springer
2005. ISBN 3540219188. $129.00
Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed
Ed. by Philip J. Currie
Indiana University Press
2005. ISBN 0253345952. $49.95
Thermodynamics of Natural Systems
Anderson, G. M.
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521847729. $80.00
Hydrogeophysics
Ed. by Yoram Rubin
Springer
2005. ISBN 1402031017. $99.00
Quaternary Dating Methods
Walker, M.J.C.
John Wiley
2005. ISBN 0470869267. $150.00
Thrustbelts: Structural Architecture, Thermal Regimes and Petroleum Systems
Nemcok, Michal
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521822947. $190.00
Virtual Reconstruction: A Primer in Computer-Assisted Paleontology and Biomedicine
Zollikofer, Christoph P. E.
John Wiley
2005. ISBN 0471205079. $94.95
Landforms and Geology of Granite Terrains
Twidale, C.R.
A.A. Balkema
2005. ISBN 0415364353. $129.95
Fractal Behaviour of the Earth System
Ed. by V.P. Dimri
Springer
2005. ISBN 3540265325. $129.00
Hydrology: An Introduction
Brutsaert, Wilfried
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521824796. $75.00
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