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NEWS FROM THE FIELDC&RL News, April 2008Vol. 69, No. 4 by David Free NIH Public Access Policy compliance resources Several new resources are available for librarians looking for information about implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy and the impact of the policy on libraries. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) recently released a list of links to available resources on the policy. The list, which features important details from NIH as well as available SPARC programs and a discussion forum, is online at www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/nih. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has developed an additional Web-based guide to the policy. “The NIH Public Access Policy: Guide for Research Universities” focuses on the implications of the NIH policy for institutions as grantees, although some information for individual investigators is included and links to further details are provided. The guide is aimed at a range of campus constituencies that may be involved in implementing the new policy, including research administrators, legal counsel, and librarians. The guide is freely available online at www.arl.org/sc/implement/nih/guide/. Additionally, SPARC, ARL, and Science Commons have jointly released a white paper, “Complying with the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy: Copyright Considerations and Options,” that reviews the policy and its background, explains the legal context, and presents six alternative copyright management strategies that will help grantee institutions assure they reserve the necessary rights for articles to be made available in PubMed Central. The white paper was prepared by Michael W. Carroll, an attorney, copyright expert, and faculty member at Villanova University law school. Carroll has been involved for several years in copyright issues as a member of the Creative Commons Board and an advisor to Science Commons. “Complying with the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy: Copyright Considerations and Options” is available on the SPARC Web site at www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/nih/copyright.html.
Audubon’s birds released online The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) has digitized and mounted online its collection of John James Audubon’s Birds of America and his Ornithological Biography. The collection is available free to the public at digital.library.pitt.edu/a/Audubon. John James Audubon (1785–1851) set out to paint every known North American bird in the early-19th century. He eventually stopped at 435 paintings, after he exhausted his personal resources. Based upon the paintings, Audubon developed a series of hand-colored plates that are considered unique. He sold the engraved plates in a subscription series in England, Europe, and North America over a period between 1827 and 1838, at a cost totaling about $1,000. It is thought that no more than 120 complete sets exist today. Each set consists of 435 individual plates that are based upon the original paintings. Today, ornithologists, art historians, rare book librarians, and collectors consider Birds of America to be Audubon’s masterpiece and the greatest work on North American ornithology ever published. While Audubon was developing Birds of America, he was also working on a companion publication, Ornithological Biography. Originally published in Edinburgh in 1831, this five-volume set contains lively narratives that describe each bird and includes additional information, such as their habitat. Together these sets comprise a comprehensive online combination of Audubon’s best work. IMLS reports on Internet impact The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has released “InterConnections: A National Study of Users and Potential Users of Online Information.” This new report offers insight into the ways people search for information in the online age, and how this impacts the ways they interact with libraries and museums, both online and in person. “Museums and libraries are alive and well in the digital world,” IMLS Director Anne-Imelda Radice said. “The InterConnections report shows how people currently search for information and makes the case that the libraries and museums must provide service both online and in person.” IMLS sponsored this national study through a cooperative agreement with a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill research team led by José-Marie Griffiths and Donald W. King, recognized leaders in information research. Their findings are based on five surveys of 1,000 to 1,600 adults each that were conducted during 2006. The study found that: Libraries and museums are the most trusted sources of online information among adults of all ages, education levels, races, and ethnicities, ranking higher in trustworthiness than all other information sources, including government, commercial, and private Web sites. The explosive growth of information available in the “Information Age” actually whets Americans’ appetite for more information. People search for information in many places, and since the use of one source leads to others, museums, libraries, and the Internet complement each other in this information-rich environment. The Internet is not replacing in-person visits to libraries and museums and may actually increase onsite use of libraries and museums. There is a positive relationship between Internet use and in-person visits to museums and libraries. The report provides evidence that libraries and museums are thriving in the Internet Age as trusted providers of information to people of all ages. To view the report, visit interconnectionsreport.org. Free resources from EBSCO EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) recently released two free information resources to the public. First, EBSCO joined forces with Hasselt University Library, Belgium, and the IODE (International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange) program of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) to develop a global Open Science Directory. Available online at no charge, the Open Science Directory provides a comprehensive search tool for all open access and special program journal titles. The Open Science Directory offers access to approximately 13,000 scientific journal titles, with an objective of 20,000 titles midway through development. Among the main open access collections in the Open Science Directory are DOAJ, BioMed Central, HighWire Press, and PubMed Central, and special programs HINARI, AGORA, and OARE. INASP-PERI and eJDS will be added in the near future. The directory is available at www.opensciencedirectory.net. Secondly, in an effort to make it easier for others to “go green,” EBSCO recently introduced GreenFILE, a bibliographic database of information about environmental issues. The database includes information for individuals, such as installing solar panels and recycling; for corporations needing information on green agriculture, hybrid cars, or waste management; as well as, environmental laws, regulations, and studies. EBSCO aims for GreenFILE to be a practical tool for everyday information and a resource for academic study and classroom activities. GreenFILE covers content going back more than 35 years and contains backfiles to volume one, issue one for Bioscience, Journal of Environmental Planning & Management, Journal of Ecology, and Conservation Biology. The database also contains bibliographic information for key nonscholarly titles such as E -The Environmental Magazine, Natural Life, and Mother Earth News, along with nearly 300,000 records, full text for certain titles, and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles. GreenFILE is available through EBSCOhost as well as a free online resource at www.greeninfoonline.com.
Student project reveals rare research collection A history of two activist brothers from Cincinnati, housed in the Archives and Rare Books Library at the University of Cincinnati (UC), has evolved into one of the most researched labor collections in the United States. Now that history, along with images and a full inventory of the James B. and John J. McNamara Collection, can be found online at www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/arb /exhibits/mcnamara/. The online exhibit was researched and created by 22-year-old Eira Tansey of Clifton, Ohio. Tansey, a geography major who’s interested in pursuing a graduate degree in library science, is a student worker in the UC Archives and Rare Books Library. “I found that one of the challenges in designing the online exhibit was figuring out exactly what to include,” said Tansey. “This is such a vast collection. Also, I wanted to make sure the online exhibit objectively told their story.” Born in Cincinnati, the McNamara brothers became union activists for the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers at the beginning of the 20th century. John served as secretary-treasurer of the iron workers’ union. The brothers and their accomplices were accused of masterminding attacks on open-shop business, industries, and construction companies that had either resisted unionization or engaged in union-busting tactics. The group was also accused of setting up the dynamite in some of the attacks, which included targeting a series of bridges under construction in cities that included Cincinnati and Cleveland. However, it was the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, killing 21 people, which led to their arrests in December, 1911, with both brothers taking a plea bargain and avoiding trial, James pleaded guilty to first-degree murder after an accomplice named him in connection with the attack. John pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the dynamite bombing of the Llewellyn Iron Works. James received a life prison sentence, and John J. was sentenced to 15 years in prison (serving 10 after receiving parole). Both brothers died in 1941. The exhibit also features highlights of the McNamara archives collection, including correspondence (such as letters from the brothers and letters to James from writers Upton Sinclair and Irving Stone), legal documents, magazine and newspaper clippings, and photos taken by James while he was serving his sentence in San Quentin Prison. American Economic Association preserves with Portico Portico recently announced an agreement with the American Economic Association (AEA) to preserve its current online journals collection of three titles as well as four new titles planned for 2009. AEA was organized in 1885 for the encouragement of economic research, especially the historical and statistical study of the actual conditions of industrial life, the issue of publications on economic subjects, and the encouragement of perfect freedom of economic discussion. Through this agreement with Portico, AEA furthers its preservation strategy. Since 1996 AEA has worked with JSTOR to provide a trusted archive of its journals’ back issues, and through Portico, it provides for the ongoing preservation of its born-digital current issues. Working in collaboration, JSTOR, Portico, and AEA also intend to include the born-digital versions of AEA titles in JSTOR in accordance with the moving wall. Women’s history travel and research grants Penn State-Harrisburg has established a new grant program to support visiting scholars and graduate students who need to use materials held by Archives and Special Collections in the Penn State Harrisburg Library. The travel and research grant program encourages scholarly use of the repository’s premier collection, the Alice K. Marshall Women’s History Collection, considered to be one of the largest privately compiled research collections on women’s history in the United States. One or more grants will be awarded with stipends between $500 and $3,000 to cover travel, overnight accommodations, and other research-related expenses. Research topics are not limited to women’s history, but they must require significant use of the repository’s holdings. Deadline for the receipt of applications is May 1, 2008. Recipients will be notified by late May 2008. For more information and to access the grant guidelines and an application form, please visit www.hbg.psu.edu /library/speccoll/grant.html, or contact Heidi N. Abbey, humanities reference librarian and archivist, via e-mail at heidi.abbey@psu.edu, or by phone at (717) 948-6056. ACRL announces visiting program officer, accepts applications for legislative advocates To support the expansion of its grassroots legislative advocacy program, ACRL is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael McLane as visiting program officer. As McLane will be an integral part of carrying out the recommendations of the ACRL task force on national advocacy, and will work with ACRL members and staff to recruit new legislative advocates, plan training opportunities, and assess the program. McLane has served as a member of ACRL’s Government Relations Committee and has been involved in developing the ACRL Legislative Advocates program. ACRL is also seeking to expand its group of legislative advocates in an effort to supplement the existing ACRL Legislative Network and complement the good work of chapter networks and legislative coordinators. To learn more about the program from a current legislative advocate, listen to a podcast interview with Jonathan Miller at blogs.ala.org/acrlpodcast.php. A full description of the program complete with responsibilities, duties and application is available online at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/washingtonwatch /acrladvocates.htm.
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