|
 |
Publishers Fight Hard to Strike NIH Policy, but Congress Holding Firm
Although the bill's official language has not yet been released, sources tell the Library Journal Academic Newswire that the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) policy proposal that mandates deposit of NIH-funded research papers into PubMed Central has survived the House Committee on Appropriations, which approved the FY 2008 appropriations bill deliberations yesterday. If not modified at the 11th hour, the NIH policy is further down the path to becoming law, but still would have to be passed by Congress as a whole and signed by the president.
Although the battle has not been waged in the headlines as fiercely as it was in 2005, publisher opposition to the NIH policy is said to be stronger and more organized than ever. Indeed, after consulting public relations consultant Eric Dezenhall last year, publishers have pressed a new case to lawmakers: that the mandatory deposit policy might violate U.S. copyright law and/or international copyright treaties, an argument has apparently gained some traction with lawmakers.
In a letter obtained by the Library Journal Academic Newswire, Reps. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Howard Coble (R-NC), ranking members of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property urged Reps. David Obey (D-WI) and James Walsh (R-NY), ranking members on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations, to kill the NIH language. "In light of the importance and complexity of the intellectual property and peer review issues impacted by this proposal, we respectfully urge your Committee to take no action to alter the current NIH policy until the Judiciary Committee has examined its implications for the copyright protections of these important works," they wrote.
Although Berman and Coble said they "understand and share the goal of widely disseminating the results of publicly funded research," they suggested that there "are concerns the provision may, through blanket application, ultimately undermine incentives for publishers." Berman and Coble suggested that the NIH policy proposal was in fact a "major change," and required further, deeper consideration by Congress, and pledged to hold hearings on the issue, should the policy be delayed to illuminate the issues.
The Association of American Publishers' (AAP) Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division, meanwhile, spearheaded a mailing to members of Congress in late June, detailing their opposition to the policy. In addition to reiterating previous arguments that the policy would "undermine the existing system of peer review and scholarly publication," the AAP asserted that the policy could violate copyright law.
|
|
Nixon Goes Public: Presidential Library Comes Under Auspices of the National Archives
After years of controversy as the sole presidential library beyond the oversight of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and criticism from historians for its tenuous relationship to legitimate scholarship, the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace has become the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, made the announcement yesterday at the 17-year-old library, located in Nixon's hometown of Yorba Linda, CA.
After an expansion of the grounds, the center will eventually bring together the complete Nixon archives for the first time. The private library had long held only Nixon's pre- and post-presidential papers, while 46 million presidential papers (as well as thousands of video and audio recordings) have been in the National Archives. Other materials were tied up in litigation between Nixon and the government for years, including 78,000 documents on Nixon's life and political activities and more than 11 hours of recordings made in 1972 during his reelection campaign that have now been released by the Nixon Foundation, making them available to the public for the first time.
Congress approved bringing the private library into the federal presidential system in 2004. But historians urged the National Archives not to hand over the presidential archives until the library stopped presenting a distorted view of history, particularly of the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation, according to the Los Angeles Times. One gallery presented the view that Watergate was a frame job orchestrated by corrupt Democrats and exposed by journalists (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) who bribed their way into print. That gallery is now gone, demolished in March during a renovation overseen by the library's new director, historian Timothy Naftali, the former director of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. In its place is a gallery that Naftali says presents a more "neutral" version of events, he told the LA Times. "I can't run a shrine."
|
|
Keio University Becomes First Japanese Library to Join Google's Scan Plan
Google announced last week that it has added another library partner to its book scanning program: Keio University in Japan. Keio is Google's 26th partner and the first library in Japan to join Google Books Library Project. Google officials said they will work with the Keio University Library to digitize about 120,000 public domain books from the library's collections of more than two million printed works.
As public domain books, the digitized volume will be available for free download through Google Book Search. Keio University has five major campuses in Japan, along with a number of affiliated academic institutions, including a high school in New York. Joining Google is another first for Keio, which in 2002 became the first East Asian institution to formally become a member of RLG (Research Libraries Group).
|
|
ALA Legislative Counsel Leaving for UNESCO
The bad news is that the American Library Association (ALA) is losing Miriam Nisbet, ALA legislative counsel since August 1999. The good news is that UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is getting her. Nisbet said this week she is leaving ALA to become director of the Information Society Division at UNESCO, based in Paris.
In her new role, Nisbet said, she will continue to deal with many of the issues she dealt with at ALA, including access to information and digital libraries. She officially begins September 3. "My expectation is that I'll continue to work with many in the library community with whom I've had such a happy collaboration for the past eight years," Nisbet told the LJ Academic Newswire. Before coming to ALA, Nisbet worked from 1994 to 1999 as special counsel for information policy, National Archives and Records and has also served as deputy director of the Office of Information and Privacy, U.S. Department of Justice.
|
Best Sellers in Geography, December 2006–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
(13-digit ISBNs included in brackets)
- Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe
W.W. Norton
2006. ISBN 0393062597 [9780393062595]. $27.95
- Hakluyt's Promise: An Elizabethan's Obsession for an English America
Mancall, Peter C.
Yale University Press
2007. ISBN 0300110545 [9780300110548]. $38.00
- Oxford Atlas of the World
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195313216 [9780195313215]. $80.00
- Scott of the Antarctic: A Life of Courage and Tragedy
Crane, David
Alfred A. Knopf
2006. ISBN 0375415270 [9780375415272]. $30.00
- Atlas of Global Development
World Bank
2007. ISBN 0821368567 [9780821368565]. $19.95
- Toxic Tourism: Rhetorics of Pollution, Travel, and Environmental Justice
Pezzullo, Phaedra C.
University of Alabama Press
2007. ISBN 0817315500 [9780817315504]. $47.50
- Local Models for Spatial Analysis
Lloyd, Christopher D.
Taylor & Francis
2007. ISBN 0415316812 [9780415316811]. $69.95
- Atlas of Religion
O'Brien, Joanne
University of California Press
2007. ISBN 0520249178 [9780520249172]. $19.95
- Turizm: The Russian and East European Tourist under Capitalism and Socialism
Anne E. Gorsuch
Cornell University Press
2006. ISBN 0801473284 [9780801473289]. $24.95
- Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing
Lisle, Debbie
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521867800 [9780521867801]. $85.00
- Ledyard: In Search of the First American Explorer
Gifford, Bill
Harcourt Trade
2007. ISBN 0151012180 [9780151012183]. $25.00
- Journals: Captain Scott's Last Expedition
Scott, Robert Falcon
Ed. by Max Jones
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0199297525 [9780199297528]. $16.95
- To the Ends of the Earth: 100 Maps That Changed the World
Harwood, Jeremy
F&W Publications, Inc.
2006. ISBN 1582974640 [9781582974644]. $35.00
- Millennial Landscape Change in Jordan: Geoarchaeology and Cultural Ecology
Cordova, Carlos E.
University of Arizona Press
2007. ISBN 0816525544 [9780816525546]. $55.00
- Tourism Consumption and Representation: Narratives of Place and Self
Kevin Meethan
CABI Publishing
2006. ISBN 0851996787 [9780851996783]. $100.00
- Beyond Mapping: Meeting National Needs Through Enhanced Geographic Information Science
National Academies Press
2006. ISBN 030910226x [9780309102261]. $27.25
- Hereford World Map: Medieval World Maps and Their Context
P.D.A. Harvey
British Library
2006. ISBN 0712347607 [9780712347600]. $90.00
- Road to Jerusalem: Pilgrimage and Travel in the Age of Discovery
Noonan, F. Thomas
University Of Pennsylvania Press
2007. ISBN 0812239946 [9780812239942]. $55.00
- Tourism, Ethnic Diversity and the City
Rath, Jan
Routledge
2007. ISBN 0415333903 [9780415333900]. $135.00
- Tourism in the New Europe: The Challenges and Opportunities of EU Enlargement
Derek Hall
CABI Publishing
2006. ISBN 1845931173 [9781845931179]. $70.00
Library Journal Academic Newswire
Contributing Editor: Andrew R. Albanese
Phone: 646-746-6852 E-mail: aalbanese@reedbusiness.com
Editor: Francine Fialkoff
Phone: 646-746-6807 E-mail: fialkoff@reedbusiness.com
News Editor: Norman Oder
Phone: 646-746-6829 E-mail: noder@reedbusiness.com
TO UNSUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe send an e-mail to Unsub_Academic_Newswire@email.libraryjournal.com
TO SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to Academic Newswire or our other newsletters
Subscribe to Library Journal magazine
ARCHIVE
Read past issues
PRINT
You must change your print settings from portrait to landscape to print this page.
VIEW OUR PRIVACY POLICY
Click here
ADVERTISING
Contact your LJ Sales rep for advertising information
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
MediaSupport@reedbusiness.com?Subject=LJ-"AN"
© 2007 Library Journal. All rights reserved.
"Library Journal" is a registered trademark. "Library Journal Academic Newswire" is a trademark.
|
