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 | Vaidhyanathan, IF:book Collaborate To Draft "Networked" Book Online
Librarians, get ready: the Institute for the Future of the Book (IF:book) has launched its latest "networked" book venture, and this one is just crying out for your participation. Siva Vaidhyanathan, author, professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, and an IF:book fellow will literally write his next book, The Googlization of Everything in public, on the web, via a blog that will serve "as a public journal and workshop space." Eventually, the posts will comprise the book. Vaidhyanathan, a well-known figure among librarians, explains that the book will be "a critical interpretation of the actions and intentions" behind Google.
The effort is the latest in a series of "networked book" experiments run by the IF:book, including Without Gods by Mitch Stephens, and Gamer Theory by Mackenzie Wark. IF:book fellow Ben Vershbow told the LJ Academic Newswire that Vaidhyanathan's project will more resemble Stephens' effort, IF:book's first "open book" experiment. "Mitch was using his blog as an open research platform where he could dialog with readers, a sort of thinking out loud space. That's pretty much what Siva's doing." On the Googlization of Everything blog, readers can interact with Vaidhyanathan and each other as the author posts and writes and hones his work.
It's the content of this effort, Vaidhyanathan's examination of all things Google, that has IF:book particularly excited. "I have a feeling that this will be a very important book, and the way that he's writing it—in the open, in conversation with informed readers, of which there are many on these issues around the web, very much supports his overarching argument: that the communication paradigms of the future ought to be transparent, communally oriented, and peer-to-peer," Vershbow explained. "Above all, Siva wants this book to kick off a new kind of discussion about Google. We're just saying let's start that discussion now and let it actually shape the book."
On the IF:book site, Vaidhyanathan said that as he thought about his subject, he couldn't really imagine the book being done any other way. "For a number of years now I have made my bones in the intellectual world trumpeting the virtues of openness and the values of connectivity," he explained. "And, more to the point, one of my key concerns with Google is that it is a black box: something that means so much to us reveals so little of itself. So I would be a hypocrite if I wrote this book any other way. This book will not be a black box."
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UC Faculty Survey Finds Gap Between Scholarly Communication Attitudes and Practice
A new University of California (UC) survey of its faculty suggests that while many are increasingly concerned and engaged with scholarly communication issues, changes in behavior are slow to come. "The survey results show a gap between attitude and behavior on the part of University of California ladder-rank faculty," the executive study notes. "UC faculty largely conform to conventional behavior regarding scholarly communication, such as publishing in traditional venues, but widely express a need for change in the current systems."
Among some of the survey's more notable conclusions: the current tenure and promotion system "impedes change" in faculty behavior; faculty see scholarly communication problems as affecting others, but not themselves; the "disconnect between attitude and behavior" is acute with regard to copyright; scholars are concerned that changes might undermine the quality of scholarship; and university policies that would mandate change in scholarly communication are likely to stir "intense debate." UC officials were also surprised to find that despite steady progress in its scholarly communication outreach efforts, faculty still appeared "under-informed on a range of issues and initiatives."
The survey was sent to 4,780 of UC's roughly 8000 "ladder-rank" faculty in November 2006 by UC's Office of Scholarly Communication with the help of Greenhouse Associates in an effort to help administrators "better understand trends in scholarly publishing." The survey was completed by 1,118 respondents, a very respectable 22.9 percent response rate.
Because faculty view publishing as "the critical currency of scholarship and academic success," the executive summary notes, they "overwhelmingly" still rely on traditional forms of publishing such as peer-reviewed journals and monographs. Those surveyed also strongly voiced their belief in the current system of measures, such as citations and impact factors and peer review. Meanwhile forays into alternative publishing are described as "limited but significant," with such ventures still largely seen as "supplementing rather than substituting for traditional forms of publication." Among those surveyed, 21 percent have published in open-access journals and 14 percent have posted peer-reviewed articles in institutional repositories.
When it comes to copyright, the survey found most faculty still readily cede their copyrights to scholarly societies and to commercial publishers; just seven percent of those surveyed said they've modified the copyright terms of a publication contract; and only four percent said they have ever rejected "the opportunity to publish in a significant journal" because of its copyright policy.
"Even on issues where faculty express substantial concern, such as copyright or the price of journals, faculty show little evidence of changing behavior," the study concludes. When asked about their "future behavior," roughly 75 percent said their publishing activities are likely to remain largely unchanged. "The lack of motivation to alter behavior appears to be connected on the one hand to the tradition-bound tenure and review process," the study noted, "and on the other hand to the need for explicit forms of assistance, such as in the management of copyright."
UC officials said they initiated the survey to contribute to "strategic planning and implementation of a range of publishing services, and to "redirect and fine tune" scholarly communication outreach and education. It has released the results of the study widely in the hope it will also help "inform the scholarly communication program planning of non-UC stakeholders."
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| IMLS Announces National Leadership Grants
This week the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced 43 recipients of its National Leadership Grants for 2007, among them libraries, universities, museums, and other cultural institutions. The total funding will be $18,661,716, leaving a match of some $24 million. The 43 grantees were chosen out of 213 applications. Several academic library projects made the list.
Among the largest projects awarded to academic libraries:
The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIU-C) will get $225,747 (match: $203,282) for "Demonstration of Portal Mechanisms for Enhanced Resource Integration in the Academic Information Environment." The aim is to better integrate multiple search and discovery tools. UIU-C also will get $975,903 (match: $358,508) for "Next Generation Digital Federations: Adding Value through Collection Evaluation, Metadata Relations, and Strategic Scaling," working with IMLS on a "systematic approach to developing useful, meaningful, and usable digital collections."
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, will get $964,887 (match: $542,043) for "Personalization of the Digital Library Experience." Researchers at the Rutgers University School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies aim to create an open source "personalization assistant" to help searchers use digital libraries.
Rice University's Fondren Library, Houston, will get $979,578 (match: $980,613) for "Our Americas Archive Partnership" (OAAP). This partnership with the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland aims to help users "search, browse, analyze, and share content from distributed online collections," including materials in Spanish.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will get $249,326 (match: $136,004) for the "Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Second Generation." The collaboration between the University Library and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures will migrate 450,000 legacy archival and access images and metadata from CDLI to UCLA's Digital Library Content System.
Texas A&M University, College Station, will get $403,737 (match: $420,949) for "The Texas ETD Repository: Promoting Our Scholarship and Preserving Our Legacy." Through the Texas Digital Library, which includes institutions of higher learning in Texas, researchers will develop a system to manage "the entire life cycle of electronic theses and dissertations."
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| Pro Bono, Anyone? Flawed UConn Law Library Will Cost $19 Million To Repair
Just over a decade after the 1996 opening of the beautiful, $24 million law library, University of Connecticut (UConn) officials this week approved a staggering $19 million renovation. The project has been plagued by potentially dangerous design flaws. In 2002, an architectural firm hired by the university discovered that the library's granite facade was "dangerously loose" and could be knocked off by a heavy wind.
The initial price tag for repairing the facade defect was put at as much as $7 million over two years. But the Hartford Courant reported this week that subsequent inspections over the last five years have revealed a host of other flaws that balloon the project to $19 million, nearly as much as the library itself cost. Flaws reportedly include unstable walls, poor flashing resulting in water flowing into the building through exterior walls, poorly installed windows, and rust in the steel frame of the building that has caused "mold infestation." The library was built by the state, but the Courant noted that the repairs will be covered by a UConn construction fund while the state Attorney General's office battles to recoup money from the original contractors.
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| Last call: Nominations for LJ Teaching Award
The LJ Teaching Award, sponsored by ProQuest, recognizes excellence in educating the next generation of librarians. This annual award, now in its first year, honors the winning LIS teacher with an article in Library Journal in the Nov. 15 issue of the magazine, a $5000 prize, and a cocktail reception at ALA-Midwinter. Learn more and submit your nominations here.
Postmark deadline: October 1, 2007
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Best Sellers in European History, February 2007–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
(13 digit ISBNs in brackets)
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Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America
Markovits, Andrei S.
Princeton University Press
2007. ISBN 0691122873 [9780691122878]. $24.95
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Infidel
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan
Free Press
2007. ISBN 0743289684 [9780743289689]. $26.00
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That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present
Ed. by Robert Tombs, Robert
Alfred A Knopf
2007. ISBN 1400040248 [9781400040247]. $40.00
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Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945
Friedlander, Saul
Harper Trade
2007. ISBN 0060190434 [9780060190439]. $39.95
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Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England
Alexander, Michael
Yale University Press
2007. ISBN 0300110618 [9780300110616]. $45.00
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Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation
Yekelchyk, Serhy
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0195305450 [9780195305456]. $99.00
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First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
Bell, David Avrom
Houghton Mifflin
2007. ISBN 0618349650 [9780618349654]. $27.00
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Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953
Roberts, Geoffrey
Yale University Press
2006. ISBN 0300112041 [9780300112047]. $35.00
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Britain's Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonization, 1918-1968
Hyam, Ronald
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521866499 [9780521866491]. $85.00
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Before the Deluge: Public Debt, Inequality, and the Intellectual Origins of the French Revolution
Sonenscher, Michael
Princeton University Press
2007. ISBN 069112499x [9780691124995]. $39.95
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Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France
Moore, Lucy
HarperCollins
2007. ISBN 006082526x [9780060825263]. $27.95
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English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair
Mandler, Peter
Yale University Press
2006. ISBN 0300120524 [9780300120523]. $35.00
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Egyptian Renaissance: The Afterlife of Ancient Egypt in Early Modern Italy
Curran, Brian A.
University of Chicago Press
2007. ISBN 0226128938 [9780226128931]. $45.00
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Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro
Roberts, Elizabeth
Cornell University
2007. ISBN 0801446015 [9780801446016]. $37.50
-
Fall of Mussolini: Italy, the Italians, and the Second World War
Morgan, Philip
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 019280247x [9780192802477]. $29.95
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Fleeing Hitler: France 1940
Diamond, Hanna
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0192806181 [9780192806185]. $29.95
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Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
Olson, Lynne
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2007. ISBN 0374179549 [9780374179540]. $27.50
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Origins of the Welfare State: Women, Work, and the French Revolution
DiCaprio, Lisa
University of Illinois Press
2007. ISBN 0252030214 [9780252030215]. $40.00
-
What Was History? The Art of History in Early Modern Europe
Grafton, Anthony
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521874351 [9780521874359]. $65.00
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Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941
Kershaw, Ian
Penguin Books
2007. ISBN 1594201234 [9781594201233]. $35.00
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