Wednesday, November 28, 2007

ARL Report Examines University Publishing and New Library Roles

ARL Report Examines University Publishing and New Library Roles (excerpt)

Washington DC A special double issue of the ARL Bimonthly Report, no. 252/253, focuses on the state of university publishing and the evolving role for research libraries in the delivery of publishing services.

The Ithaka report “University Publishing in a Digital Age,” is the focus of three articles in this special issue: a summary of the Ithaka report by its original authors, an assessment by NASULGC's David Shulenburger of the report’s recommendation that research institutions should have “publishing strategies,” and a description of the University of Michigan Library's hosting of social commentary on the Ithaka report using CommentPress.

Three additional articles look at new publishing initiatives involving libraries: the joint project of the California Digital Library and the University of California Press, the publishing services developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Canadian collaborative project, Synergies a national multi-institutional project to create a publishing infrastructure to support society publishing in the humanities and social sciences as well as other scholarly publishing. An overview of the changing environment of university publishing is provided by ARL's Karla Hahn.

Print copies of the issue have been shipped to ARL member libraries & subscribers. To order additional print copies, contact ARL Publications pubs@arl.org.

This issue is also freely available in PDF format on the Web at http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br252-253.shtml.

The table of contents is provided below.


Table of Contents

The Changing Environment of University Publishing
by Karla Hahn, Director, ARL Office of Scholarly Communication

University Publishing in a Digital Age: Highlights of the Ithaka Report
by Laura Brown, former President of Oxford University Press USA
Rebecca Griffiths, Director of Strategic Services, Ithaka
Matthew Rascoff, Strategic Services Analyst, Ithaka

Encouraging Public Commentary on the Ithaka Report
by Maria Bonn, Director, Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library

University Research Publishing or Distribution Strategies?
by David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC)

The University of California as Publisher
by Catherine H. Candee, Director, eScholarship Publishing Service, California Digital Library, and Lynne Withey, Director, University of California Press

Publishing Journals@UIC
by Mary M. Case, University Librarian, and Nancy R. John, Digital Publishing Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

Synergies: Building National Infrastructure for Canadian Scholarly Publishing
by Rea Devakos, Coordinator, Scholarly Communication Initiatives, and Karen Turko, Director of Special Projects, University of Toronto Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is located on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.

From the SPARC Open Access Forum.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

SAGE and Hindawi announce landmark open access agreement

Apologies for cross-posting (FROM SSP-list) (excerpt)

SAGE AND HINDAWI ANNOUNCE LANDMARK OPEN ACCESS AGREEMENT

November 20, 2007 - SAGE and the Hindawi Publishing Corporation have
today entered into an agreement to jointly launch and publish a suite of
fully Open Access (OA) journals.

This is a bold strategic partnership that places SAGE as the largest
academic publisher to develop a collection of Gold Open Access journals,
marking the company's continued investment in widening access to
important scholarly research. SAGE is the world's fifth largest journal
publisher, with over 485 journals in the humanities, social sciences,
science, technology, and medicine.

The initiative further strengthens Hindawi's leadership in developing a
strong portfolio of Open Access journals. Hindawi currently publishes
more than 100 Open Access journals covering a wide range of subjects in
science, technology, and medicine.

The partnership will see equal ownership between the two organizations.
SAGE will have sole responsibility for the editorial development,
marketing, and promotion of the new journals while Hindawi will provide
the technology and expertise needed to run the publication process from
the point of submission, through the peer-review process, to the point
of final publication. Under the model, all SAGE-Hindawi journal articles
will be made freely available online via the Hindawi platform, funded by
author charges.

"SAGE is committed to maintaining innovative publishing models for the
benefit of the academic community, in keeping with our vision to be the
natural home for authors, editors and societies," commented Blaise
Simqu, CEO, SAGE. He continued, "SAGE is in a unique position as a
growing STM publisher, allowing us to explore and actively experiment
without posing a threat to our existing business models.

"Our position as a leading independent publisher enables us to respond
to the changing needs of our authors, editors and societies, helping
them to reach broader communities, and maximise the impact of their
work. Hindawi is an ideal partner for SAGE, being able to offer a highly
effective publishing system that will allow us to focus on our
longstanding reputation for high quality marketing and editorial
expertise, while offering a viable option for disseminating open,
unrestricted access to research."

"We are delighted to be working with SAGE on this joint initiative,"
said Ahmed Hindawi, CEO of Hindawi Publishing Corporation. "Hindawi
currently has a very successful Open Access journal collection, which is
quite solid both academically and financially, and SAGE's strong market
presence and expertise will enable us to further expand our Open Access
offerings to the scientific communities we serve."

Friday, November 02, 2007

DOAJ at 2900

I just looked at the main page for the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) at http://www.doaj.org/. There are now 2900 journals in the database. Perhaps 2900 is not the auspicious figure that, say, 3000 is but it's a nice, round number and one that I think is worth recognizing. Congrats to the DOAJ and the 2900 journals it includes!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

LibriVox reaches 1,000 free public domain audiobooks!

LibriVox has just announced the cataloguing of their 1,000th free, public domain audiobook!.

According to the LibriVox website:
LibriVox has become the most prolific audiobook publisher in the world - we are now putting out 60-70 books a month, we have a catalog of 1,000 works, which represents a little over 6 months of *continuous* audio; we have some 1,500 volunteers who have contributed audio to the project; and a catalog that includes Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” “Moby Dick,” Darwin’s “Origin of the Species,” “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Einstein’s “Relativity: The Special and General Theory,” Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason,” and other less well-known gems such as “Romance of Rubber” edited by John Martin. We have recordings in 21 languages, and about half of our recordings are solo efforts by one reader, while the other half are collaborations among many readers.


Congratulations, LibriVox - and thanks!

Hat tip to Michael Geist.