Benefits Worldwide of Nursing ETDs

In a recent article, "Electronic Theses and Dissertations: A Review of this Valuable Resource for Nurse Scholars Worldwide" in International Nursing Review L. M. Goodfellow makes a strong case that nurse scholars from both developing and developed countries could benefit from ETDs. In particular, "An international repository of ETDs benefits the community of nurse scholars in many ways. The ability to access recent graduate students' research electronically from anywhere in the world is advantageous. For scholars residing in developing countries, access to these ETDs may prove to be even more valuable."

Full text of article.

100+ Places for Free Books Online

Alan Cain has posted a very useful list of "100+ Places for Free Books Online".

Public Access Policies and ARL Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the results of a survey of ARL member libraries that provides information about how those libraries are helping their faculty meet open access mandates. An excerpt from the report's Executive Summary follows:

In many academic and research institutions, libraries
have taken the lead in developing resources
and services to support authors who are required to
comply with public access policies. This survey was
designed to explore the role libraries are playing in
supporting public access policies in their institutions.

The entire report is available.

Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing

Stuart M. Shieber, Director of the Office for Scholarly Communication at Harvard University, has authored a new article proposing changes to allow open-access journals to compete more effectively with traditional, subscription-based journals.

Shieber SM (2009) Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing. PLoS Biol 7(8): e1000165.

Scholars write articles to be read—the more access to their articles the better—so one might think that the open-access approach to publishing, in which articles are freely available online to all without interposition of an access fee, would be an attractive competitor to traditional subscription-based journal publishing.

But open-access journal publishing is currently at a systematic disadvantage relative to the traditional model.

I propose a simple, cost-effective remedy to this inequity that would put open-access publishing on a path to become a sustainable, efficient system, allowing the two journal publishing systems to compete on a more level playing field. The issue is important, first, because academic institutions shouldn't perpetuate barriers to an open-access business model on principle and, second, because the subscription-fee business model has manifested systemic dysfunctionalities in practice. After describing the problem with the subscription-fee model, I turn to the proposal for providing equity for open-access journal publishing—the open-access compact.

Full article. (Thanks to Syed Khan for bringing this to our attention.)

Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR) recently launched their Super-Enlightenment website. From Sarah Sussman's 13 April, 2009 overview of the site:

This collection assembles about three dozen rare works in French written between 1716 and 1835, covering mythology, alchemy, religion, free-masonry, science, and other topics. Rather than rejecting what we commonly think of as Enlightenment ideas and paradigms, these esoteric texts explore many of the same themes, representing what Dan Edelstein, assistant professor of Stanford's French and Italian department and faculty coordinator of this site, calls "the dark side of the Enlightenment" -- or "Super-Enlightenment." We hope that making these works available as a searchable corpus (after they have long been pushed to the margins) will open up new paths of research for scholars at Stanford and around the world. Historians, literary scholars, and art historians are some of the target audiences for this resource.

This text collection currently consists of 64 volumes, both held by SULAIR and gathered from other library collections, that are presented as searchable PDFs. Yet Super-E is not only a collection of primary sources, it also offers scholarly materials for the researcher and teacher. Nine bio-bibliographical essays by specialists in the field and Professor Edelstein's brief introduction offer historical and theoretical background to the project and to the works and authors that it showcases. Users can also sort the texts by author, date, and by the following thematic topics: Art and Architecture, Illuminism and Science, Masonry, Mythology, Orientalism, and Reform and Revolution

Open Access and Authors’ Rights Management: A Possibility for Theology?

Kevin L. Smith, Scholarly Communications Officer at Perkins Library, Duke University, has a new article in Theological Librarianship: An Online Journal of the American Theological Library Association that discusses the landscape of Open Access with respect to theological studies. The abstract of the article “Open Access and Authors’ Rights Management: A Possibility for Theology?” is below. The full-text of the article is accessible here.

Abstract

Several academic disciplines have begun to understand the benefits of open access to scholarship, both for scholars and for the general public. Scientific disciplines have led the way, partially due to the nature of scholarship in those areas and partially because they have felt the crisis in serials pricing more acutely than others. Theological studies, however, have largely been insulated from the push for open access; considering the reasons for that is the first task of this article. It is also the case, however, that the missionary impulse that stands behind much theological scholarship is a strong incentive to embrace the opportunities afforded by digital, online dissemination of research and writing. After discussing this imperative for global distribution, the bulk of the article focuses on how theological institutions, and especially their libraries, can encourage and support scholars in making their work freely accessible. Copyright issues, including the elements of a successful copyright management program, are discussed, as are some of the technological elements necessary for an efficient and discoverable open access repository. Options for licensing, both at ingestion of content and at dissemination to users are also considered. Finally, it is argued that the role of consortia and professional organizations in supporting these initiatives is especially important because of the relatively small size of so many theological institutions.

Campus Outreach to Scholarly Society Leaders, Editors, and Members

The Association of Research Libraries has just released a new guide: “Campus Outreach to Scholarly Society Leaders, Editors, and Members: Promoting positive change and a continuing role for scholarly societies”. The purpose of the guide is “to assist libraries in developing positive, supportive relationships with leaders, editors, and members of academic scholarly societies affiliated with their institutions. It will support development of faculty outreach programs at ARL member libraries by offering strategy and tactics for increasing the engagement with leaders at their institution.”

From the press release:

The guide seeks to increase library staff’s conscious connections with leaders of scholarly societies residing on their campus in order to:

--Build positive relationships between librarians and faculty members

--Create opportunities for education and dialog with key opinion leaders and decision-makers within disciplinary communities

--Identify opportunities for libraries to partner/collaborate with scholarly societies

--Enhance library leadership’s decision-making capability by building a better understanding of their faculty members’ and researchers’ ongoing needs for services from scholarly societies

Successful campus outreach should encourage and support society leaders to engage in positive change that advances the scholarly communication system, promotes new research modes, and offers a path forward in a time of paradigm shift.