There are some really interesting findings in a new study conducted and reported by Nature (particularly in light of the beating Wikipedia is taking over the prank pulled on the Kennedy assassination entry).
However, an expert-led investigation carried out by Nature — the first to use peer review to compare Wikipedia and Britannica’s […]

Posted in Scholarly Communication, Social Software, Wikis 1 Comment »

Totally interesting. And a good lesson on labels.
Google Book Search: “we’ve been thinking lately that Google Print should really be called Google Book Search.
Why the change? Well, one factor was all the comments we got about how excited people were that Google Print would help them print out their documents, or web pages they visit […]

Posted in Digital Life, Scholarly Communication No Comments »

Google Print gets its start today with a live index of works already in the public domain. Current legal undertakings of course put a bit of a damper on the launch, but nevertheless, I suspect its not a fight that Google plans to give up on easily. It was interesting to read that Google will […]

Posted in Digital Life, Libraries, Scholarly Communication No Comments »

A colleague pointed out journalprices.com to me today, and I see now that Resource Shelf is also pointing to the site.
The Journal Cost-Effectiveness page goes alongside An Open Letter to All University Presidents and Provosts Concerning Increasingly
Expensive Journals (as drafted by Theodore Bergstrom and R. Preston McAfee). Their call to action is twofold: […]

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A lot of Wikipedia critics point to hypothetical situations when giving reasons for not valuing the site. Wikipedia even has a ‘Replies to common objections’ article set up to field these. I’d rather look at some real examples of applying the same level of scrutiny to materials often held up as the Platonic ideal of […]

Posted in Libraries, Scholarly Communication, Social Software, Wikis No Comments »

I’m the last to blog it, but yes, young Randy and I did just have a peer-reviewed article published. A pdf preprint version of the article,”Weblogs: Their Use and Application In Science and Technology Libraries” has been posted to STLQ.
:: Other *very good news* this week - I am now a University of Alberta librarian […]

Posted in Blogosphere, Life, Scholarly Communication 4 Comments »

I spent a few minutes (37 to be exact) listening to a BBC news documentary on scholarly publishing, electronic publishing, and the open access movements. Publish or Be Damned is quite a well done presentation hitting moany of the highs and lows of the current state of publishing and the financial challenges that libraries and […]

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I better blog the following before I lose track of it: Main Articles: ‘Filling Institutional Repositories: Practical strategies from the DAEDALUS Project’, Ariadne Issue 39.
:: I sat through an interesting library training session this morning on GIS and spatial data. One of the requests expressed this morning came from the Department of Biological Sciences, […]

Posted in Knowledge Management, Scholarly Communication 1 Comment »

As posted to STS-L:
A new Web site commissioned by ARL and the Information Access Alliance documents mergers and acquisitions in academic publishing. “The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition” was developed by Mary H. Munroe, Associate Dean, Collections and Technical Services at Northern Illinois University. Ms. Munroe, formerly a business librarian, has […]

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New issue: SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #70February 2, 2004 is available now. Of note: an interesting report back on PLoS’s first month of publication.

Posted in Access to Information, Libraries, Scholarly Communication No Comments »