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 | Bill Containing NIH Policy Ready for Conference; Implementation Looms
After nearly three years working the legislative process in favor of a public access policy for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), officials at SPARC know that anything can happen when it comes to the legislative process. Nevertheless, with Senate passage last week of a bill requiring NIH-funded researchers to deposit their final manuscripts in PubMed Central, to be publicly accessible within a year, House and Senate bills are now scheduled to be reconciled in conference next week, SPARC executive director Heather Joseph, told the LJ Academic Newswire. Acknowledging that there is always the potential for surprise, the first order of business, she noted, is to "stay the course until [the legislative] process is complete in the next week or so."
Nonetheless, supporters of the policy are starting to think about the next challenge: implementation. Should the policy, as expected, survive its fantastic voyage through the legislative process, encouraging compliance and monitoring the policy's impact will come next. "We'll definitely be watching compliance rates with great interest," Joseph said, with "full expectations" that under a mandate to deposit articles compliance rates will sharply rise from the dismal five percent deposit rate under the voluntary policy implemented in 2005, though not, of course, overnight.
"I expect it will take a little time," Joseph noted. "The NIH will need time to communicate the shift to a mandatory policy, but once they do, I think we'll see grantees respond." SPARC's member libraries, meanwhile, are "ready and willing to help grantees on their campuses work with the policy," she added. "After all, it's all about the good stuff that can happen once these articles are available." Publishers opposing the policy, meanwhile, will also surely be watching the numbers once the policy is implemented. If the compliance rate lags out of the gate, or if the policy meets with confusion or unexpected resistance from NIH grantees, it could bolster efforts to repeal or amend the policy. In addition, publishers will pay close attention to how, if at all, the policy affects web traffic for their journal web sites.
In the meantime, as shown with the last second amendments to gut the policy introduced by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and the rather unusual attention of the White House, publishers' strong lobbying effort against the bill may not be over. Though the policy represents just a miniscule portion of the more than $940 billion appropriation bill, when it comes to conferencing, and possibly negotiations following a looming presidential veto, experts concede the policy could become fodder for horse trading in getting the bill done. Heavy bipartisan support, however, would seem to make that unlikely. If there's been one lesson from the last three-plus years, however, it is that the public access battle goes on.
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LC: Draft Report on Bibliographic Control To Be Released Nov. 13
For a year, the library world has been watching to see what the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, convened by the Library of Congress (LC), will say about the future of bibliographic description given the increasing reliance on web-based searching and electronic information resources. The wait is nearly over. LC officials said today that a draft report will be presented to LC managers and staff at 1:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 13, along with a live webcast. A comment period will follow and last until Dec. 15.
Even before the announcement, however, American Library Association (ALA) President-elect Jim Rettig, in testimony Oct. 24 before Congress, expressed concern that LC not move too precipitously. Rettig, university librarian of the Boatwright Memorial Library, University of Richmond, VA, told the Committee on House Administration, that ALA "strongly recommends that the Library of Congress return to its former practice of broad and meaningful consultation prior to making significant changes to cataloging policy." Rettig said he hoped LC fully "understands the impact" that its decisions have on other libraries, noting that LC bibliographic records "are accepted without editing by thousands of libraries of all types and sizes throughout the world to facilitate an individual's access to library resources."
He added, "Inevitably, on the Internet, with its huge and ever-increasing amount of digital information, general search engines must be relied upon. And, in years to come, there may be far more sophisticated search engines. But we are certainly not there now. The consumers of the Library's cataloging products must continue to rely on the traditional cataloging services in order to meet the needs of their users…. Further, unilateral and sudden changes to cataloging practice initiated by the Library of Congress and others severely and negatively affect citizens' ability to find answers in libraries and elsewhere."
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| The New Standard? Hachette Adopts IDPF Standard for Ebooks
At the 2007 International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) this spring in New York, IDPF president Steve Potash suggested that a "reading revolution" was within reach if publishers could, like the movie industry did with the DVD, agree on a single format. This week, the Hachette group, which includes the former Warner Books, officially embraced Potash's vision, announcing they will use the IDPF's ".epub" file format standard for ebooks. It is the first major trade publisher to adopt the standard. Hachette officials said they will introduce the ".epub" standard, a file extension of an XML format for digital books and publications, with their December 2007 list.
The standard allows publishers to produce and send "a single digital publication file through distribution," allowing for "reflowable" digital books. This is as opposed to, for example, a pdf file which does not "reflow" pages to suit different devices. IDPF hopes adoption of the single format will lead to wider ebook acceptance, making them easily viewable and portable from device to device, including computer screens, cell phones, and other handheld devices. Moving to the ".epub" format will also save publishers money, IDPF officials noted, as publishers producing ebooks currently have to release versions for many formats.
Nonetheless, adopting the standard is only a step, however laudable, toward wider ebook use, wrote David Rothman in LJ sister publication Publishers Weekly. "The catch is that Hachette made its announcement without saying whether its distributors would then use .epub or other formats with Digital Rights Management (DRM)" Rothman noted. If Hachette chooses to use DRM, he explains, that could mean that even if made fully .epub capable some devices would still not be able to cut through proprietary DRM. "For software to display an e-book," Rothman explained, "both the basic format (.epub in this case) and the DRM must be compatible. So you get a double whammy when both the basic format and the DRM are proprietary." Rothman suggested IDPF work with members to "ditch DRM—unlikely for now," or to come up with a plan for DRM interoperability.
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| Call for Nominations: LJ's Movers & Shakers 2008
The editors of Library Journal need your help in identifying the emerging leaders in the library world. Our seventh annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile 50-plus up-and-coming individuals from across the United States and Canada who are innovative, creative, and making a difference. From librarians to vendors to others who work in the library field, Movers & Shakers 2008 will celebrate the new professionals who are moving our libraries ahead. Movers & Shakers 2008 will be distributed with the March 15 issue of Library Journal.
Deadline for submissions is extended to November 15, 2007! You can nominate someone here (scroll down the page).
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