Thoughts on Open Access : An Interview with Diane Graves

Published in Serials Review, 2010, Vol 36, pp 112-115. Megan Dazey interviews Diane Graves, University Library, professor, and chair of the faculty senate at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Trinity has recently adopted an open access policy. This article talks about why they did this and what it means for the faculty at Trinity.

Publishing in Open Access Education Journals : The Authors' Perspective

Published in Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 2010, Vol 29, pp118-132, by Bryna Coonan and Leigh Younce.
Most open access publication to date has been in the sciences, with less in the social sciences. This article reports the results of a survey of 309 authors from recent issues of open access journals in education to find out why they chose to publish in such journals.
Also discusses the role of liaison librarians in educating their users to publish in open access journals.

7 Things you should know about Google Apps

This 7 Things describes Google's collection of web based programmes and file storage that run in a web browser. Users don't have to buy and install software; instead they just log on to get to their files and the applications needed to manipulate them.
There are apps for communication (gmail, Google Talk and Google Calendar), productivity tools (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and surveys) and more. The base version is free or users can pay to get extra features.
Google Apps are popular with students and some tertiary institutions are now using gmail for students while maintaining inhouse systems for staff. There is concern amongst staff about keeping their files on someone else's server with resulting security breaches and loss of control.
It's possible for a group of users to share files so they can, eg, work collaboratively on a document rather than distributing copies to each user so they can work on them separately.
The big plus for Google Apps (and similar products from other providers) is that they foster a collaborative teaching and learning environment.

Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2008

"Technologies and trends at or approaching the Hype Cycle peak include green IT, cloud computing and social networking platforms. Corporate use of virtual worlds and Web 2.0 are slipping into the Trough of Disillusionment, while SOA begins its ascent of the Slope of Enlightenment."

Media work and media practice

This program was originally broadcast on ABC Radio National on 10 April 2008, and was re-broadcast on 15 January 2009. Three prominent thinkers on contemporary media issues discussed issues to do with user-generated content.
Henry Jenkins focussed on YouTube. He feels it's not as inclusive and democratic as it might be - not everyone feels that it's the right place for their own content, and censorship and/or self-censorship may exclude some content. Furthermore, it's not just about the individual - he feels that a lot of content is generated by groups and communities.
Mark Deuze has researched media workplaces. He discusses the impermanence of audiences (here one day, somewhere else the next), and the impermanence of the workplace for those employed in it. The media organisations are relying more and more on user-generated content and those users are impermanent too - they might spend a lot of time on FaceBook now, but in six months' time they'll be somewhere else.
John Hartley "questions why a medium like TV that is so pervasive and can be so influential has long been treated with distrust". People have been quick to blame bad social problems on the influence of TV. However, now, with the audience generating content too, who controls and who has the power to control?

Author's Rights, Tout de Suite

This 2008 paper by Charles W Bailey Jr is the most lucid explanation I've read of an author's rights, publisher agreements, self-archiving, open access, and associated copyright issues.
The paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

And another paper on ebooks

Titled Ex Libris' Response to the E-Book Focus Group Report: Recommendations and Requirements for E-Book Functionality, it was published by Ex Libris in June 2008.
It offers an interesting discussion of possible enhancements to ebook functionality to render ebooks more findable and usable.
The appendices cover ancillary topics including definition of an ebook, where ebooks fit into institutional strategies, findings from the University College, London, Superbook Project (using deep log analysis to see how users actually behave when using ebooks), future roles for university publishing, providing students with digitised core course readings, and the impact of open access.

The role of online books in supporting academic researcher productivity

Yet another paper on ebooks. This one is a white paper published by Elsevier.
In 2007 a number of academics from universities and research institutes in countries around the world was interviewed to find out how ebooks impact on the way they work.
They used a range of book types - reference works, handbooks, book series, monographs and textbooks.
Ebooks are seen as important for basic knowledge, well-established work and reference information, and they provide overviews of specific subject areas. The respondents' primary uses were reading up on new subject areas and preparing course materials. The pluses of ebooks are that they are more accessible and this increases productivity, and integration of ebooks with journals (where this is available) provides a broader perspective, especially when starting a new research project.

Using leisure-based communication tools in an educational setting

This paper, written by Juliet Eve and Tara Brabazon, and published in the Journal of Literacy and Technology, volume 9, number 1. April 2008, pp. 36-61, hypothesises that, "when using platforms most frequently positioned in leisure-based environments, such as the iPod, text messaging, and discussion fora, there are institutional and ideological blockages to creating a successful learning experience and scholarly environment."
It was written after an incident in which a group of first year media and communications students attended a lecture and were shown a short video. Issues for discussion were given. The students then logged into their 'Virtual Classroom' (Blackboard, included an online chat room and discussion board) to discuss issues arising from the video.
Unfortunately some students hijacked the issues-related discussions between some other students using inappropriate language, despite the lecturer being online as well. Their language, and what they talked about, might have been acceptable in a peer-to-peer exchange about leisure activities, but it wasn't right for the learning and educational context.
The authors have provided an indepth review of previous writings on the impact of computer mediated communication on education, and a discussion on changes in the culture of education.
However, I couldn't help but wonder if the experience could have been turned around by making it an opportunity to raise awareness of communication styles being appropriate for any given context. Perhaps, too, some lessons on manners would not have gone astray!

Preservation of ejournals - how far have we come?

Earlier this year (2008) Portico and Ithaka, with encouragement from the Portico Advisory Committee, surveyed library directors to fnd out their opinions on digital preservation of ejournals and to gauge their feelings on progress to date.
The resulting report, titled Digital preservation of e-journals in 2008: Urgent Action revisited, found that library directors believe that ejournal preservation is important. However, thinking it's important, and taking action to ensure it happens are two different things. Libraries were not involved in a preservation program for a range of reasons - wide range of opinions on how urgent the need is, wanting to wait, e-preservation is seen as complicated, who should do it, and competing priorities meaning that preservation has not become a strategic budgeting priority.
In conclusion, some questions were asked:
- who is responsible?
- when will the responsibility for such preservation be spread more widely than amongst the "trailblazers"?
- if libraries wait too long, will they run out of options?
- what can we do to simplify the preservation landscape?
- where does preservation sit in the priority scale?

More on ebooks - they still have a way to go?

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has published a report on ebooks titled E-Books in Research Libraries: Issues of Access and Use.
After a brief history of ebooks (definitions, ebook readers,who invented ebooks, growing importance), the report discusses the themes drawn from a literature review. These include:

• confusion and instability in the ebook market - vendors, technologies and business models are evolving;
• issues of access and management - licensing models can be grouped into broad categories including print, database, and open access;
• rights, values and strategies for management - libraries and vendors have differing values;
• differences between access and use of print books and ebooks and the impact on scholarship;
• use for interlibrary loan (or not);
• jurisdictional conflicts (as with journal licenses);
• how different licenses deal with reserves, multiple copies and persistent URLs;
• digital rights management (DRM) - a major difference between ebooks and ejournals; and
  
• impact on scholarship - the 'literature does show that ease of access and ease of use will determine the success of e-books in the academic environment'.

The report concludes with recommendations for future action for the CARL Copyright Committee and expresses concerns about reductions in user rights.

Cloud Computing

Background Briefing, on ABC Radio National on 14 September 2008, looked at cloud computing - the good, the not so good, and the ugly.
Stan Correy describes cloud computing as "taking the information off your laptop, off your desktop computer, out of your office, out of your home or apartment and putting it into giant data centres owned by Google and others."
So what's good about it? Well, it means that using the internet will be much simpler, as the applications and other programmes that you use do do whatever you do will be hosted somewhere out there and you won't have to worry about set up - just click and go. Furthermore, in theory big companies can get rid of their IT departments as all the work is done somewhere out there.
The ugly side is loss of privacy.
The bad is that the end user has no control over whether or not an application that's vital to what they do will continue to be available (see Kerry Webb's item about the disappearing Google Page Creator in the October 2008 issue of InCite.
The issue of cloud computing has come to the fore recently with the launch of Google's browser, Chrome, designed to make online life simpler and faster.

eBooks – The End User Perspective

This report discusses the findings of a survey by Springer of end users at five institutions to ascertain how they use ebooks and what they think of them.
The majority of users were aware of them (52-84%) and had used them at least once (58-80%). Users didn't always get to these ebooks via their library catalogue - many found them somewhere on the Internet, eg by using Google Book Search. They accessed these ebooks with 50-100% of the frequency with which they accessed online journals.
Most users accessed ebooks on a weekly or monthly basis, primarily for research or study rather than for leisure or teaching.
Age of an ebook's content appears to have little impact on usage levels.
Users liked the ease of finding and accessing an ebook (compared to print). They also liked being able to do keyword searches of ebooks for relevant content. The portability of ebooks was also an advantage.
Having to read on the screen was seen as a disadvantage, especially if reading cover to cover. However, when searching for specific information ebooks did have the edge.
Ebooks complement print books - both have a place, depending on needs, and print won't disappear soon.

Blogging - opening up non-Western cultures?

An article by Antony Loewenstein in the Weekend Australian Review sectoin (23-24 August, pages 6-7) suggests that bloggers in non-Western societies are providing a more balanced view of their cultures than we in the West are used to hearing.
He found that, 'blogs offered a window into mainly middle-class segments of societies rarely examined by the West.' They helped to elucidate such issues as what does a Saudi Arabian male thinks about his country's adherence to Wahhabism, how the average China user copes with multi-national-assisted filtering, and what is Cuba's likely future after Fidel Castro.
He also found that most people in these countries didn't want revolution, they wanted gradual change (reform), and they were actually quite happy with the way their countries were heading.
Loewenstein has written a book, 'The Blogging Revolution', about to be published by Melbourne University Press.

Blogs - taking their place in the mainstream?

A recent article in the Australian Financial Review (Review section, pages 9-10, 29 August 08, 'Attention grabber with legal byte', by Andrew Keen) suggests that blogs are definitely taking their place in the mainstream world of journalism.
Keen discusses Ariana Huffington, a Greek-born American who in May 2005 launched the Huffington Post (HuffPost), a 'progressive news blog'. Contributors include Huffington's 'hand-picked network of celebrities and experts'. Most 'content is produced by unpaid contributors', many of them celebrities who gain by the exposure, so costs are low - there is a small number of paid staff, but nothing like the number employed by traditional news media. And these contributors' work is rarely edited - which saves on costs as well. Visits to the site are increasing, in comparison to traditional news media that aren't doing so well in the online world. But is it quality journalism?

Learning Online

Fast learners, an article by Beverley Head in the June/July 2008 issue of Information Age (pp26-29) describes how companies and tertiary institutions are moving their teaching and learning environments online.
Wikis are being used as information radiators - academics in universities use them to radiate information out to students. Cochlear has been using wikis for project management.
e-learning can be done informally 'on the go', eg by participating in email listserv communities. TSA Telco Group uses e-learning systems to keep its staff up to date on OHS and EEO issues.
Online universities are starting to compete with physical uni campuses. MIT's Open Courseware (OCW) initiative makes online courses provided by traditional universities freely available. The courses are published under a Creative Commons licence agreement so the content may be reused and mixed (with approriate attribution) to construct education mashups. Wikipedia is establishing an online campus, Wikiversity.
Virtual worlds, of which Second Life is probably the best known, are being used more and more frequently for training by organisations, particularly where the cost of bringing trainers and employees together in the one physical location is expensive and environmentally unfriendly.

Travelling with Web 3.0?

Virtual journey, by Kendall Hill, outlines how 'intuitive and intelligent search engines' will enhance the would-be traveller's ability to plan the perfect trip online.
The article, published in June 2008's Financial Review Boss magazine, tells us that 'travel is the world's largest industry, accounting for 8% of global employment, 9% of capital investment, and 10% of GDP.' Moreover, 2007 was the first year in which more than half of all travel was booked online, in the US at least.
Web travel began with companies such as Flight Centre setting up shop online. Then user-generated sites such as Lonely Planet's forum Thorn Tree, with travellers' reviews, photos and recommendations, allowed prospective travellers to make their own decisions rather than having to rely on travel agents.
The next big thing, Hill says, will be Web 3.0's intelligent search engines that understand what you want and only deliver sites that fit your criteria. For example, a search for somewhere to ski in March would suggest only resorts that actually have snow in March and have space available. To put it another way, the websites will understand the context of a user's query, rather than just matching on keywords.
Also emerging are sites that try to tailor suggestions to your interests. Triporati, a website that asks you to indicate your interests and preferred activities, will make recommendations based on what you've said about yourself.
Also becoming more common are mobile travel appliances. The mobile phone is such an appliance - you can now have weather and flight time updates sent to your phone by SMS, and GPS software can help you find the nearest hotel.

Wikepedia in the schools

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Stephen Hutcheon on 26 May tells us that NSW HSC students will be able to take a course in studying Wikipedia.
HSC students to get Wikipedia course says that Wikipedia has been listed by the NSW Board of Studies as a prescribed text for an elective course in the English syllabus for 2009-12. Wikipedia will be one of the texts that students choose to study to examine how the world's communities interact and communicate. The elective is called The Global Village. The course is intended to teach students the analytical skillls to be more discerning about web content.

Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is better for business?

Preston Gralla and Jake Widman's article in Computer World describes 6 business scenarios and compares the use of the social networking sites, Facebook and LinkedIn, to solve them. These are:

1. Look for a job without your boss knowing. The answer? It's a tie - LinkedIn seems to have better job search services but it's much easier to use Facebook anonymously for this sort of task.
2. Find information about a job you're being interviewed for. The answer? LinkedIn - both sites are good for networking but LinkedIn provides more chances of finding and communicating with the right contacts.
3. Find a contract worker for a 3-month Web project. Facebook comes out ahead here - its networking abilities are better and cheaper.
4. Solicit ideas and discussion from team members. Facebook wins here too - it's set up to allow communication within groups of people while LinkedIn is focussed more on the individual.
5. Get feedback on a nasty IT problem from peers outside the company. LinkedIn is superior here - it has an Answers area where you can post a question to your network, categorise it eg by subject and see what others say about it.
6. Keep track of former associates. Another tie here - networking is what both these sites do.

All A-twitter

This short article by Rhea Kelly, published in Campus Technology on 1 March 2008 has some positive things to report about Twitter. (I was struggling to find much of a use for it, too!) She starts by lamenting the trend towards no longer reading books now that it's so much easier and quicker to read online sources such as blogs and so on.
She describes the experience of Dave Parry, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. After using Twitter with his students he suggested that what it IS good for is - "getting a sense of the world (what people around the globe are paying attention to at any moment); tracking language trends (how a word is used from post to post, or how the 140-character limit can affect spelling, grammar and communication); and utilizing a "public notepad"(gaining inspiration from the creativity of others)."
Parry feels that Twitter "can enhance a sense of classroom community". Twittering students came to see their fellow students as real people and not just fellow students they saw for a short time each week. They were more likely to speak up in and out of class and, even when not in class, to continue to discuss isssues raised in class. This, Parry said, reinforced and connected the issues and the real world.
In conclusion, Kelly says she'll be twittering some book recommendations as a way of encouraging people to read, or read more.