Archives

Saturday, November 29, 2003

New Services

The Digital Librarian: New Services for Digital Libraries

Great ideas!!

Library Links — laura


Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Cornell axes Elsevier

Cornell axes Elsevier journals as prices rise

Knight, Nature 426, 217 (20 November 2003); doi:10.1038/426217a

A top US research university is set to cancel its subscriptions to several hundred scientific journals published by Elsevier in January, in response to spiralling subscription costs….

Netherlands-based Elsevier, which owns a quarter of the global market in scientific and technical journals, played down the importance of the move…

Profit-wise, it likely isn’t a big deal for them

Cornell’s deal with Elsevier, now priced at $1.7 million, consumes a fifth of the university’s total periodical budget. When the library tried to cancel individual Elsevier titles, university officials say, the prices of the remaining titles increased significantly, offsetting any savings. “To save a little, you have to cancel a lot,” says Cornell’s associate collections librarian, Ross Atkinson. Cornell will now return to a title-by-title plan with a vastly reduced number of journals, he says…

Cancellations by other universities are also likely, says Duane Webster, director of the Association of Research Libraries in Washington DC. “Cornell is just the first,” he says.

Among those still negotiating is Harvard University, which is unlikely to renew its deal with Elsevier, according to library director Sidney Verba. He says that the price rises will probably result in a large reduction in Elsevier subscriptions…

The pleas of librarians about increasing journal prices has fallen on deaf ears for some time. The publishers, such as Elsevier have long had the “upper hand” in negotiations because of the libraries’ need to provide material for their patrons. However, the breaking point was bound to come and it looks like it’s almost here.

Open Access — laura


CAN-SPAM

US House overwhelmingly passes antispam bill

Some think it’s for the best, some don’t but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

Computing News — laura


Monday, November 24, 2003

Rapid Navigation

Rapid Navigation in Online Documents make electronically delivered documents far easier and more practical and faster to work with, by expanding beyond the “help topics” design paradigm. This site covers information structuring; rapid navigation; and designing Help, Web pages, and documents.

Website Design — laura


Friday, November 21, 2003

Presentation Architecture

A Presentation Architecture for Individualized Content is a little dry but it’s a fascinating look into using the power of XML for individualized computer courses.

Computing News — laura


Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Librarian Blogs

If you’re looking for more librarian blogs, libraristic links will keep you busy for quite a while.

Blogging — laura


Monday, November 17, 2003

Pro-Active Librarianship

Library Journal has a slew of articles worth reading this month.

No more resting on our laurels, librarians in all sectors need to become more active in shaping our own world and the outside one as well.

Library Links — laura


Tuesday, November 4, 2003

IA link list

Web Design References: Information Architecture has everything you might need to get started on IA.

Website Design — laura


e-voting problems

TechnoBiblio: Free Speech Under Attack… Again

Diebold, another company more concerned with controlling the rest of the world than with fixing their product. Joy.

Computing News — laura


Downloads beat CDs

MacMegasite - US downloads beat CD sales

Legitimate download sites, such as Apple’s iTunes, the newly relaunched Napster and Musicmatch, are the most popular. They are trying to tempt fans from unauthorised free download services like Kazaa and Morpheus, which have been blamed by the music industry for falling CD sales.

This proves my theory that the music industry is suffering from their own arrogance and lack of compelling products rather than widespread piracy. Given the chance, people will download music legally if the price is right rather than stealing music. People aren’t going to go to a music store and pay almost $20 for a CD with one good song on it. Before legal downloads were widespread, people were stealing music because there was no other legal alternative.

Just think what they could do if they gave access to a broader and deeper range of music without digital rights management built in. Trusting your customers, amamzing concept.

Copyright — laura


IM

Recent Articles

The Accessibility Checklist I Vowed I’d Never Write
Neil Gaiman: giving away ebooks sold my print boo
Simply Audiobooks webstore to carry DRM-free Random House Audio downloads
Audiobook downloads with no DRM or watermarks from Naxos
Blackstone Audio phases out audiobook DRM

Join Library Links