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 | University of California Task Force Recommends "University-based" Publishing Efforts
In a wide-ranging, forward-thinking report, a University of California (UC) task force has recommended UC establish a university-based publishing program to blunt the effect of commercialization and to better serve scholars, especially in emerging disciplines. The report, Publishing Needs and Opportunities at the University of California
by Catherine Candee, director of publishing and strategic initiatives at the California Digital Library, and Lynne Withey, director of the UC Press, examines everything from the tenure process to peer review and the effect of market forces in evaluating the university's publishing practices, concluding that UC should "play a greater role in publishing scholarly work," although it is "not clear how it might most effectively do so."
The task force was chartered in May 2006, under the auspices of the UC Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC). Among its recommendations in the report:
- Establish a university publishing program to build upon the existing activities of the UC Press and eScholarship, as well as other campus-based programs.
- Create a system for publishing in alternative formats that would include the following components: selection criteria, editorial and technical development, criteria for determining if the project will be sold or made available on an open access basis, marketing and sales strategies, and maintenance and preservation.
- Work with campuses to establish local services to assist faculty with publishing options, especially technical advice on digital projects.
- Begin a systemwide discussion of criteria for evaluating work published in nontraditional formats for purposes of tenure and promotion.
- Analyze the economic issues associated with an expansion of university-based publishing.
The UC report represents yet another step by libraries and other institutional stakeholders to become more actively involved in disseminating the research and scholarly writings of faculty. It comes as Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to enjoin faculty members to deposit their scholarly output into a university repository, to be run out of the library. In addition, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) recently released a report that found libraries were increasingly involved with publishing activities.
In researching and writing the report, task force members surveyed attitudes among the system's vice chancellors for research, deans, librarians, and faculty during campus visits; conducted a significant amount of "web-based research"; investigated over "300 UC organizations with publications programs"; and tracked publications in the CDL's eScholarship Repository.
"On the whole, UC faculty members are pleased with their publishing options, as indicated in the recently released report Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Scholarly Communication," the authors note. "Yet we hear quite a different story on the campuses from Vice Chancellors for Research and Deans who are witnessing the gradual diminution of publishing options and opportunities for UC faculty, particularly in the arts and humanities. Junior faculty members are beginning to struggle to get the book contracts they need for tenure and promotion; faculty working in innovative fields or on non-traditional projects are constrained by a publishing model that cannot serve their needs; and campus resources are increasingly compromised by the commercial publishing culture."
The report cogently notes a "paradox" at the individual faculty level: "Attempts to improve scholarly communication by exciting individual faculty ire or inspiration have surfaced issues, stirred passions and illustrated boundless possibilities," the authors note, "but they have not and likely will not fundamentally change the way scholarly publishing works. UC faculty would like to see the university play a more active role in blunting the effect of the commercialization of academic publishing, but they will not and cannot risk their own academic lives to make it happen. The university must step in."
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EU Report: Search Engines Should Dump User Data After Six Months
A European Union (EU) privacy panel last week issued a report suggesting Internet search engines should not keep user data longer than six months. In its non-binding recommendations, the Article 29 Data Protection Working
Party report acknowledged the central role of search engines in the development of "the information society" but also "the increasing number of complaints received from individuals about potential breaches of their right to a private life."
The group concluded that users' personal data must "only be processed for legitimate purposes," and suggested the search engines serving the EU "delete or irreversibly anonymize personal data once they no longer serve the specified and legitimate purpose they were collected for, and be capable of justifying retention and the longevity of cookies deployed at all times." In addition, the group suggested that IP addresses also be considered personal information.
In response, Google officials this week expressed willingness to continue to engage users and governments over privacy issues, but were reticent to embrace the group's recommendations. "We believe that data retention requirements have to take into account the need to provide quality products and services for users," wrote Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, on his blog. "This perspective, the ways in which data is used to improve consumers' experience on the web, is unfortunately sometimes lacking in discussions about online privacy."
Currently, Google keeps user data for up to 18 months. Regarding the idea that IP addresses should merit privacy protections, Fleischer said the company's own analysis found that all it depends on how IP address data is being used. Fleischer noted the findings of the group were an "important step in an ongoing dialogue" about user privacy online, "a debate in which we hope our users will participate."
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| Seattle University Accelerates $55 Million Library and Learning Center
Thanks to stronger than anticipated support-and a generous matching gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, officials at Seattle University (SU), a Jesuit Catholic university serving some 7500 students, said today that its $55 million library project will now break ground in 2009, not 2010 as previously planned. At an event today, attended by approximately 500 alumni and friends, SU officials announced that donations for the new library have totaled $24 million, within $1.5 million of triggering a $10 million matching gift from the Gates Foundation-close enough for administrators to accelerate the project. By stepping up the schedule, SU is expected to reduce inflation costs for the project by $3 million. The new Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons is now expected to open in fall 2010.
The construction plan is expected to add 40,000 square feet to the existing 80,000-square-foot building, which dates back to 1966. The Learning Commons, campaign officials say, will serve as the "university's intellectual community square, and will feature collaborative space for students and instruction, as well as supporting both "traditional and modern forms of study and research." Anne Farrell, an SU trustee and co-chair of the university's $160 million capital campaign, which began in 2003, said support for the library has been incredible.
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| NCLIS Final Report Tackles History, Future Agenda
In anticipation of being incorporated into another government agency, the Institute of Museum and Libraries Services (IMLS), the U.S. National Commission on Library and Information Science (NCLIS) has released its final report. The report, Meeting the Information Needs of the American People: Past Actions and Future Initiatives documents NCLIS's history and accomplishments since its establishment in 1970, and presents "a compelling future agenda for information policy research and development."
In order to identify future research concerns, NCLIS contracted with an outside vendor to interview some 50 LIS leaders about information policies that should be addressed over the next 12 to 18 months. The results include a familiar litany of issues: the need for a public library usage model that addresses funding, services, access at various service levels, the impact of new media, rural library service levels, and "quantifiable measurements" of a public library's value. The respondents also addressed the need for further research into digital libraries and the role of librarians in an environment increasingly dominated by commercial interests. Other "topics for research" include digital preservation, building and sharing collections, disaster planning and relief efforts, copyright, library education, scholarly publishing, and school libraries.
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Best Sellers in Physiology, August 2007-present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
(13-digit ISBNs in brackets)
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Accidental Mind
Linden, David J.
Belknap Harvard
2007. ISBN 0674024788 [9780674024786]. $25.95
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Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief
Trimble, Michael R.
Johns Hopkins University
2007. ISBN 0801884810 [9780801884818]. $35.00
-
Social Neuroscience: Integrating Biological and Psychological Explanations of Social Behavior
Harmon-Jones, Eddie
Guilford
2007. ISBN 1593854048 [9781593854041]. $65.00
-
Evolving Brain: The Known and the Unknown
Steen, R. Grant
Prometheus
2007. ISBN 1591024803 [9781591024804]. $28.00
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Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
Doidge, Norman
Viking
2007. ISBN 067003830x [9780670038305]. $24.95
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Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being
Siegel, Daniel J.
W W Norton
2007. ISBN 039370470x [9780393704709]. $26.95
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Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain
Stein, Kathleen
John Wiley
2007. ISBN 0471262390 [9780471262398]. $27.95
-
Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours
Arikha, Noga
Echo
2007. ISBSN 0060731168 [9780060731168]. $27.95
-
Balance: In Search of the Lost Sense
McCredie, Scott
Little, Brown
2007. ISBN 0316011355 [9780316011358]. $24.99
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Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and Language
Maxwell, Bennett,.et al.
Columbia University Press
2007. ISBN 0231140444 [9780231140447]. $25.50
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Mind From Body: Experience From Neural Structure
Tucker, Don M.
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0195316983 [9780195316988]. $69.95
-
International Handbook of Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology
Uzzell, Barbara P.
Lawrence Erlbaum
2007. ISBN 0805835857 [9780805835854]. $110.00
-
Physiological Ecology: How Animals Process Energy, Nutrients, and Toxins
Karasov, William H.
Princeton University Press
2007. ISBN 0691074534 [9780691074535]. $65.00
-
Quest for Food: A Natural History of Eating
Brussow, Harald
Springer
2007. ISBN 0387303340 [9780387303345]. $119.00
-
Enzymatic Reaction Mechanisms
Frey, Perry A.
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0195122585 [9780195122589]. $195.00
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Introductory Biomechanics: From Cells to Organism
Ethier, C. Ross
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521841127 [9780521841122]. $80.00
-
Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory
Naoyuki, Osaka
Oxford University Press
2007. ISBN 0198570392 [9780198570394]. $89.50
-
Enzyme Kinetics and Mechanism
Edited by Paul F. Cook
Garland
2007. ISBN 0815341407 [9780815341406]. $70.00
-
Neural Basis of Semantic Memory
Hart, John
Cambridge University Press
2007. ISBN 0521848709 [9780521848701]. $110.00
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Biology of Human Longevity: Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Life Spans
Finch, Caleb Ellicot
Elsevier Academic Press
2007. ISBN 0123736579 [9780123736574]. $69.95
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