The Western Waters Digital Library Announces the Completion of a NEH Funded Project - July 6, 2010 [Authorized Press Release]   A partnership of five academic research libraries led by Colorado State University, and including Brigham Young University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Utah, and Washington State University, has just concluded a three-year project, The Foundations of Western Water Policy, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).   The purpose of the project was to add content to Western Waters Digital Library (WWDL), a website that provides free public access to information resources regarding water issues in the Western U.S.  “Water concerns have dominated the western states for over a century, and as populations increase and we face the uncertain outcomes of climate change, pressures on the West’s fragile water supply will only increase.  The WWDL provides data and information resources that can guide future planning and policy” said Kenning Arlitsch, Associate Director for Information Technology Services at the University of Utah, Marriott Library.   These resources, which cover a wide range of topics, and include items such as government reports, legal transcripts, personal papers, photographs, and audio/visual materials, are held by a geographically dispersed partnership of major western universities.   WWDL began as a collaborative regional partnership undertaken by twelve academic research libraries from eight western states under auspice of the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA).  Initial funding for WWDL was provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).    Since its inception in 2004, WWDL has expanded to include water-related materials for twenty-five archival holding institutions including: Arizona State University; Brigham Young University; California Institute of Technology; Claremont Colleges; Colorado State University; Humboldt State University; Iowa State University; Northern State University; Oregon Institute of Technology; Oregon State University; Texas A&M University; University of Arizona; University of California, Berkeley; University of Idaho; University of Hawai'i at Manoa; University of Nebraska – Lincoln; University of Nevada - Las Vegas; University of New Mexico; University of Oregon; University of the Pacific; University of Texas – Austin; University of Utah; Utah State University; University of Washington; and Washington State University.   For more information about WWDL, or to access its collections, go to: http://www.westernwaters.org.  Institutions interested in contributing water-related materials to WWDL should contact James Dildine, Digital Collections Program Officer for GWLA at jim@gwla.org.    (Acknowledgment of Support and Disclaimer: Unless advised to the contrary, all materials publicizing or resulting from award activities shall contain an acknowledgment of NEH support. The acknowledgment shall also include the following statement: "Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this (publication) (program) (exhibition) (website) do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.").

GWLA libraries are invited to participate in WorldCat Discovery Day, a special event organized by the Orbis Cascade Alliance for July 30, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.

Designed for staff of Orbis Cascade Alliance members (academic libraries in Oregon and Washington), WorldCat Discovery Day aims to further understanding of the WorldCat discovery platform. Discovery Day sessions will focus on the user interface and its impacts on reference and instruction.  The event will include a keynote address by Lorcan
Dempsey, Vice President and Chief Strategist, Office of Research, OCLC. The program can be viewed at http://www.orbiscascade.org/index/program


IMPORTANT: Orbis-Cascade is recording expressions of interest from colleagues at non-member libraries now and will process those requests as space allows, beginning on June 15.  Registration will be $55. To get on the list, please see: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AM9XJSNNH

Here's the url to the Archived version:

Name: Webinar on implementation and use of KIC (Knowledge Information Center-walk up scanner) - 06/02/2010 14:01

URL: http://uutahlive.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=GWLA_DCC_2010_0602_1401_29

His op-ed, titled You Deserve Access to Research, was published in the Southern Illinoisan on May 21, 2010.

http://www.thesouthern.com/news/opinion/article_c6f16ae2-6491-11df-ac79-001cc4c03286.html

The papers of the late Diane Blair will be opened to researchers on Tuesday, March 9, at the University of Arkansas Libraries in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The collection comprises 113.5 linear feet and includes biographical materials, correspondence, newspaper clippings, research materials, notes, primary and secondary source documents, manuscripts, memorabilia, photographs, VHS recorded programs, audio interviews, and electronic data and databases. The materials are divided into five series: personal and family materials, professional materials, Bill and Hillary Clinton materials, general political materials, and photographs and audio materials.

Diane Blair was born Oct. 25, 1938, in Washington, D.C., and received a Bachelor of Arts in government from Cornell University in 1959. Blair earned her Master of Arts in political science at the University of Arkansas in 1967 and became a part-time lecturer for the university the following year. Arkansas Gov. Dale Bumpers appointed her chair of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in 1971, and on Feb. 14, 1975, Blair debated the Equal Rights Amendment in the Arkansas General Assembly against nationally known conservative Phyllis Schlafly. In 1976, Gov. David Pryor appointed her to chair a Commission on Public Employee Rights.

She was named University of Arkansas Outstanding Faculty Member by students in 1976 and 1978 and was promoted to assistant professor in 1979. She received the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Master Teacher Award in 1982. Blair published two books: Silent Hattie Speaks: The Personal Journal of Senator Hattie Caraway (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), about an Arkansan and the first woman to be elected U.S. Senator, and Arkansas Politics and Government: Do the People Rule? (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988, reprinted 2005), for which she earned the Virginia Ledbetter Award in 1991, given for the best book published about Arkansas history or culture. She authored or co-authored 12 essays appearing in books, 21 professional journal articles, and many book reviews.

After Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham moved to Fayetteville in 1974, Blair became their close friend and active promoter. Gov. Clinton appointed Blair to the Commission for the Arkansas Educational Television Network in 1980, a position she held until 1993. Taking leaves from the university, Blair served as senior researcher in the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign and as senior adviser in the 1996 re-election campaign. During the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, Blair gathered audio interviews of staff members involved in the campaign. Sixty-five of the interviews, for which the Libraries have obtained ownership, are included in the Blair Papers. As president, Clinton appointed her twice, in 1993 and 1997, to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, on which she served as chair from 1996-2000. In 2003, the board named its new boardroom in her honor.

Blair was guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington in 1993. Blair was awarded the honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Arkansas in 2000. She died on June 26, 2000.

CHICAGO—The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is announcing that Olivia Marie A. Madison, dean of the library, Iowa State University, is the recipient of the 2010 Margaret Mann Citation presented by its Cataloging and Classification Section (CCS).

The award will be presented on Sunday, June 27, at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2010 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.  The Mann Citation, recognizing outstanding professional achievement in cataloging or classification, includes a $2,000 scholarship donated in the recipient’s honor by OCLC, Inc. to the library school of the winner’s choice. Ms. Madison has chosen the University of Missouri School of Information Science & Learning Technologies, Library Science Graduate Program to be the recipient of this year’s scholarship award.

Madison is recognized for having exercised decisive leadership in the development and management of cataloging throughout a long and distinguished career. She has served as both secretary and chair of the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA), where she played a key role in the ongoing development of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. As a long-standing member of IFLA’s Standing Committee of the Section on Cataloguing, Olivia served two two-year terms as chair of the Study Group on Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. (These terms were interrupted by a two-year term as chair of the Standing Committee of the Section of Cataloging.) The work of this group has been broadly influential in shaping the development of several international cataloging codes including Resource Description and Access (RDA). More recently, Ms. Madison served as co-chair of the Library of Congress’s Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. The conclusions of this diversely constituted group are likely to have widespread effects on the future of cataloging at the Library of Congress, nationally and internationally. The Margaret Mann Citation Jury is pleased to honor Ms. Madison for her dedication, persistence and exemplary cataloging expertise that has helped direct high-level groups with difficult charges toward extremely productive outcomes.

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services, such as acquisitions, cataloging, collection development, preservation and continuing resources in digital and print formats.

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/march2010/mann_alcts.cfm

Emeryville, CA—SkyRiver announced on 1/5/2010 that it is extending an offer to the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) to offer SkyRiver services to its member community. Joni Blake, Executive Director of GWLA, states, “We are very pleased to offer our members the opportunity to save thousands of dollars in cataloging costs through SkyRiver..”

Leslie Straus, President of SkyRiver notes, “GWLA's membership includes many research libraries in the western U.S. and we're particularly pleased with the prospect of offering our services to this community known for strong library leadership.”

SkyRiver services include an easy-to-use cataloging client for searching, editing, and adding records to the library's local catalog. Features include a powerful search engine with facets and tags, automatic record request notification, one-click downloading of bibliographic and authority file records, and shelf-ready support. SkyRiver is right for all types of libraries and integrates with any local library system. SkyRiver's services are now fully operational in selected libraries with a market-wide launch planned for January, 2010.

About Greater Western Library Alliance

The Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) (www.gwla.org) is a consortium of 32 research libraries located across 17 Midwestern & Western states with common interests in programs related to scholarly communication, interlibrary loan, shared electronic resources, cooperative collection development, digital libraries, staff development and continuing education. Twenty-five GWLA libraries are also members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The staff offices of the consortium are located in Kansas City, Missouri; Phoenix, Arizona; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

About SkyRiver
SkyRiver (www.theskyriver.com) announced its new bibliographic utility service on October 6, 2009. SkyRiver is dedicated to the development and deployment of efficient, economical cataloging services for libraries.

Streaming video presentations from the GWLA Deans' Program on March 30, 2009 are now available.

The 90-minute streaming video of Dr. Bill Michener's presentation on DataONE (formerly DataNetONE) is available here.

Our second speaker, Mr. John Helmer, spoke about Orbis Cascade's partnership with OCLC to develop WorldCat Navigator.  His presentation, which is part of the same video stream, begins at 2:07 into the broadcast.  Above the University of Houston's Cougar, click on the tab called "Text Slide List" and scroll to Slide 136 to begin the stream.  His PowerPoint slides are available here.

DataONE (Observation Network for Earth) Project at UNM Receives $20 Million Award

The DataONE office, based within both the Office of the Vice President of Research and University Libraries at the University of New Mexico, has been awarded $20 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support its scientific research activities for the next five years. The project is under the direction of William Michener, professor and director of e-science initiatives at University Libraries.

Researchers at UNM have partnered with dozens of other universities and agencies to create DataONE, a global data access and preservation network for earth and environmental scientists that will support breakthroughs in environmental research.

DataONE is designed to provide universal access to data about life on Earth and the environment that sustains it. The underlying technologies will provide open, persistent, robust, and secure access to well-described and easily discovered Earth observational data.

Expected users include scientists, educators, librarians, resource managers, and the public. By providing easy and open access to a broad range of science data, as well as tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing data, DataONE will be transformative in the speed with which researchers will be able to assemble and analyze data sets and in the types of problems they will be able to address.

Dr. Michener spoke at the Spring 2009 GWLA Membership Meeting in Houston, TX.

For further information, please go to: http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/004536.html

The GWLA program on "Reinventing Reference" is now available for viewing at http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/media/gwla.htm. We thank our excellent panel of speakers and Jim Cogswell and the team at MU Libraries who made the webcast possible.

Ten library and research organizations banded together in support of Senate Bill 1373, the "Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009" The organizations believe this bill will provide an
important mechanism to ensure that manuscripts of peer-reviewed scientific articles resulting from research funded by the U.S. government can be freely accessed and used by American
taxpayers – including researchers, teachers, and students.

Birmingham, Ala., – Sept. 18, 2009 –EBSCO and a number of library consortia are working together to help consortia members reduce the cost and burden of processing e-journal package renewals by using EBSCO’s  RapidRenewal® service, available via EBSCONET®. As libraries face the most dramatic budget conditions in history, they are often losing staff necessary to handle administrative tasks. EBSCO's RapidRenewal, an online tool for managing the renewal of licensed e-journal collections, is designed to ease the administrative burdens associated with renewing e-journal packages. By partnering with consortia, EBSCO is able to provide an e-package renewal tool to more customers for managing contract data at a consortial level.

Library consortia have been able to negotiate large content deals successfully with major publishers and offer membership terms and conditions that are unique to their respective consortium. RapidRenewal, developed in cooperation with many of the major STM publishers, enables libraries to process these licensed deals in a more efficient manner by incorporating consortial contract terms and limitations, title detail and custom pricing into a single online interface. “Our members are extremely busy and are always looking for ways to streamline the serials renewal process," said Ed McBride, chief of member engagement at Lyrasis. "We are happy to provide them with a tool like EBSCO’s RapidRenewal that can help them do just that.”

Executive Director of SCELC Rick Burke said: “Many of our libraries are EBSCO subscription service clients. Consequently, we chose to promote to our member libraries the option to utilize EBSCO’s RapidRenewal services. Our offer bundles discount options that reduce our members’ operating cost for processing and maintaining their e-journal packages.”

The RapidRenewal interface provides a single portal for processing the renewal of multiple packages while eliminating the cumbersome exchange of spreadsheets, e-mail and other communication. The library can modify and approve package title lists as the system enforces the terms of the consortial contract and ensures that renewals are handled correctly each year. Authority levels allow renewals to be approved at the consortial or library level, depending on the preferred process of the consortium or publisher.

As a result of using RapidRenewal, libraries within a consortium can take advantage of the negotiated terms and conditions, easily renew their collections according to their contract terms, and have the title-by-title analysis that is often needed in today’s shrinking budget environment. "Attempting to identify creative ways in reducing technical services administrative costs while also trying to reduce workloads can be a difficult task, said Anne E. McKee, MLS, program officer for resource sharing at GWLA. "EBSCO’s Rapid Renewal system is a well-designed solution that will help meet both of those needs in e-journal renewal processing.  GWLA is pleased to work with EBSCO in this effort.”

“We are looking forward to working with consortia in providing their EBSCO members with a tool that reduces the time spent processing package renewals from weeks to a few hours in many cases," said Rebecca Day, manager of e-resources development at EBSCO.  "Our libraries that are using RapidRenewal have indicated the tool allows them to have better control and more efficient renewals of e-packages. We are delighted to be able to offer a tool that has been proven to reduce the library’s workload, particularly given current staffing and budget situations in many libraries.”

About EBSCO:

EBSCO is the world’s premier full-service provider of information, offering a portfolio of services that spans the realm of print and electronic subscription access and management, research databases and more. The company’s e-resource renewal and management tools help librarians accomplish in hours what once took weeks. For more information, please visit www.ebsco.com.

From Elsevier's Engineering Village Newsletter:  "Maliaca Oxnam has been a science-engineering librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries (UAL) since 2000.  Her time there has included involvement in several strategic projects for UAL, including leading the Strategic Long Range Planning Team for the Libraries, the development of the Geotechnical Rock & Water Resources Digital Library (GROW), and more. Ei recently talked with Maliaca about her work on the Technical Report Archive & Image Library project (TRAIL). Focused on further helping researchers get their hands on hard to find historical government research reports, the TRAIL project involves collaboration between UAL and more than 50 other academic, government, and commercial institutions." 

Link to Podcast of Interview

Link to Interview Summary (Opens Word Document)

On June 25th,  Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (S.1373), a bill that would ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by eleven U.S. federal agencies. S.1373 would require those agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from such funding no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.  The bill gives individual agencies flexibility in choosing the location of the digital repository to house this content, as long as the repositories meet conditions for interoperability and public accessibility, and have provisions for long-term archiving.

The bill specifically covers unclassified research funded by agencies including: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

S. 1373 reflects the growing trend among funding agencies – and college and university campuses – to leverage their investment in the conduct of research by maximizing the dissemination of results.  It follows the successful path forged by the NIH’s Public Access Policy, as well as by private funders like the Wellcome Trust, and universities such as Harvard and MIT.

Detailed information about the Federal Research Public Access Act is available at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa.

All supporters of public access – universities and colleges, researchers, libraries, campus administrators, patient advocates, publishers, consumers, individuals, and others – are asked to ACT NOW to support this bill. Here’s how:

•       Contact Congress now to express your organization’s support for public access to taxpayer-funded research and for this bill. Act now through the ATA Legislative Action Center at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa.

•       Contact Congress now to express your individual support for public access to taxpayer-funded research and for this bill (http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa).

•       Send thanks to the Bill’s sponsors – Senators Lieberman and Cornyn – also through the ATA Action Center at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa.

•       Issue a public statement of support from your organization and share it widely with members, colleagues, and the media. Send a copy to sparc [at] arl [dot] org to be featured on the FRPAA Web site.

•       Share news about this bill with friends and colleagues.

•       Post the “I support taxpayer access” banner on your Web site.

See the ATA Web site at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa for more ways you can support public access to publicly funded research and this bill.

As always, thank you for your support and continued persistence in supporting public access to publicly funded research in the United States. Constituent voices make an unparalleled difference on Capitol Hill.

Contact for more information:

Heather Joseph
Spokesperson for the Alliance and Executive Director of SPARC
Telephone: (202) 296-2296
Email: heather [at] arl [dot] org

Brigham Young University, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, Texas A&M, Washington University in St. Louis, and Arizona State University have all submitted expressions of interest in support of the SCOAP3 project in the last month.

In addition to the SCOAP3 website and FAQ, our friends at SPARC and ACRL have developed their own FAQ aimed at answering questions specific to U.S. universities.  To date, 25 GWLA members have signed on, listed below.

• Washington University, St. Louis
• Arizona State University
• Texas A&M University
• University of Washington
• University of Arizona
  
• Brigham Young University
• Oregon State University
• Baylor University
• Colorado State University
• Iowa State University
• Kansas State University
  
• Rice University
• University of Arkansas
• University of Colorado-Boulder
• University of Houston
• University of Missouri
• University of New Mexico
• University of Oklahoma
• University of Southern California
  
• University of Utah
• Washington State University
• University of Kansas
• University of Hawaii
• University of Oregon

First issued May 11, 2009, updated periodically with additional endorsements

The “OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records” has been widely commented on since its release on November 4, 2008.  Both the content of the policy and the process by which it was formulated have been challenged.  As a result OCLC has delayed implementation and initiated a Review Board to “Recommend principles of shared data creation and changes in the proposed Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records that will preserve the community around WorldCat infrastructure and services, and strengthen libraries…The Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship will present its findings and recommendations to the President of Members Council, the Chair of the Board of Trustees and to the OCLC President and CEO.” (see http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/board/default.htm)

The member consortia endorsing this ICOLC statement add our recommendation to others in the library community calling for OCLC to withdraw the proposed policy and start anew to formulate a record use policy.  Most notably we add our support to the January 30, 2009 Final Report to the ARL Board by the Ad Hoc Task Force to Review the Proposed OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records  ( http://www.arl.org/news/pr/oclc-policy-20feb09.shtml ).  It includes an extended review of the policy and six recommendations.  We concur with the ARL report that OCLC develop a new policy based on widespread member library participation with a clear set of goals and explanations as to how the policy will achieve these goals and how member libraries will be affected operationally and legally.

We urge the OCLC Review Board to consider the issues raised in the ARL report and by others in the community.  The concerns are substantial and broad and individual ICOLC member consortia will find different concerns most compelling.  Underpinning these concerns are several broad issues that we ask the Review Board to consider.

1.  The proposed policy appears to freeze OCLC’s role in the library community based on historical and current relationships.  We share the concern, voiced by many, that the policy hinders rather than encourages innovation, and we urge the Review Board to carefully examine this issue.  It is unclear that the policy has been constructed with a focus on an evolving role of OCLC in enhancing the missions of an international library community with diverse and complex interests.

2.  The scope of the proposed policy goes well beyond any concerns about inappropriate commercial exploitation of WorldCat records.  It applies as well to non-commercial uses.  ICOLC member consortia are member-created, member-driven innovation agents.  Our initiatives are generally non-commercial and undertaken with member approval based on member needs.  Any OCLC record use policy should account for the rich and diverse innovation that takes place through many consortia.

3. The proposed policy is legally murky. There is no mechanism for negotiation of terms and conditions nor is it clear what constitutes acceptance by member libraries. A new policy must address these problems. 

The ICOLC community is mindful of the complex set of relationships and operations that are necessary for libraries to be successful in today’s content rich and technology driven world.  There is no single way all the resources necessary for success will be utilized by each library or library consortium.  OCLC is one vital component among many that libraries will use.

The ICOLC community encourages OCLC to build on its values as an international membership organization dedicated to helping libraries and consortia provide increased access and control costs.  To that end we ask the Review Board to recommend that OCLC reconsider the proposed record use policy and undertake an open, transparent process to determine how best to support libraries around the world.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS STATEMENT, PLEASE CONTACT:

Randy Dykhuis, Michigan Library Consortium, Phone: 800-530-9019 x119, Fax: 517-492-3879, E-mail: dykhuisr@mlcnet.org

Michele Newberry, Florida Center for Library Automation, Assistant Director for Library Services, Phone: 352-392-9020, Fax: 352-392-9185, Email: fclmin@ufl.edu

John Helmer, Orbis Cascade Alliance, Executive Director, Phone: 541.346.1835, Fax: 541.346.1968, Email: jhelmer@uoregon.edu

Adopters of This Statement

This statement is adopted in principle by member representatives of consortia of the "International Coalition of Library Consortia" (ICOLC) that are listed below.

As of May 11, 2009 (this statement with updates to this list will be posted periodically to http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia ) 

 

About the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC)

The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has been in existence since 1996.  The Coalition is an international, informal group currently comprising approximately 200 library consortia in North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa.  The member consortia serve all types and sizes of libraries.  ICOLC facilitates discussion among consortia on issues of common interest, and conducts one meeting per year in North America and one meeting per year in Europe.  The organization is dedicated to keeping its members informed about electronic information resources, pricing practices of electronic publishers and vendors, and other issues of importance to consortium directors and governing boards.  The Coalition also meets with the information provider community to discuss product offerings and issues of mutual concern.

More information about ICOLC can be found at http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia or contact Tom Sanville, Executive Director, OhioLINK, Suite 300, 2455 North Star Road, Columbus, OH 43221, Phone: 614-728-3600, ext. 322; tom@ohiolink.edu

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Faculty at Oregon State University Libraries are
granting open access to their scholarship and knowledge.

On March 6, library faculty adopted a policy that requires deposit of
final published versions of scholarly works in the libraries'
institutional repository, ScholarsArchive@OSU http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/index.jsp .
This is the first open
access mandate adopted by a library faculty in the United States,
according to Michael Boock, head of digital access services for OSU
Libraries.

Since 2004, OSU Libraries has worked to collect the university's
scholarship in digital form to ensure greater accessibility and
long-term preservation of the scholarship. ScholarsArchive@OSU, which
recently ranked fourth among U.S. digital repositories, contains
dissertations, theses, a wide variety of university technical reports,
working papers and series and increasingly, published articles, papers
and presentations. The current contributions come from across campus,
and are contributed on a voluntary basis.

The new policy means that the 42 library faculty will automatically
contribute all of their scholarship to the archive, which will not be
the case for faculty in other departments, who can continue to
contribute on a voluntary basis.

No later than the date of publication or distribution, library faculty
members will deposit an electronic copy of the final published version
of their works in an appropriate format (such as PDF) to
ScholarsArchive@OSU. The policy applies to articles, conference papers
and proceedings, substantial presentations and internal reports of
interest to a broader audience that are authored or co-authored by
library faculty members.

"As faculty members at Oregon's land grant university the library
faculty believes they have a responsibility to share their expertise and
research with the public," Boock said. "As librarians, they believe in
the widest possible access to information and its long-term
preservation. The policy they've adopted supports these goals."

From our friends at SPARC and ATA:

2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act ensures NIH public access policy will persist

Washington, D.C. – March 12, 2009 – President Obama yesterday signed into law the 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes a provision making the National Institutes’ of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy permanent.  The NIH Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access requires eligible NIH-funded researchers to deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine’s online archive, PubMed Central (PMC). Full texts of the articles are made publicly available and searchable online in PMC no later than 12 months after publication in a journal.

The NIH policy was previously implemented with a provision that was subject to annual renewal. Since the implementation of the revised policy the percentage of eligible manuscripts deposited into PMC has increased significantly, with over 3,000 new manuscripts being deposited each month. The PubMed Central database is a part of a valuable set of public database resources at the NIH, which are accessed by more than 2 million users each day. 

The new provision reads in full:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

 “This is a significant moment for all of us in the health community, and for efforts in health reform.  With free access to health research, individuals are empowered with the knowledge necessary to understand the health threats they and their families face,” said Sharon Terry, President and CEO of Genetic Alliance.   “Congress recognizes the incredible power of technology and innovation in enabling new solutions for the proactive management of health, consumer-driven healthcare, and novel partnerships and collaborations in research.  Congratulations to us all.”

The NIH Public Access Policy addresses the public’s growing need for high-quality health information and promotes accelerated scientific advancement in the biomedical sciences.

"Public access to publicly funded research contributes directly to the mission of higher education,” said David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs at NASULGC (the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges). “Improved access will enable universities to maximize their own investment in research, and widen the potential for discovery as the results are more readily available for others to build upon.”

Heather Joseph, spokesperson for the Alliance for Taxpayer Access noted, “Thanks to the work of a wide coalition of patients, libraries, researchers, publishers, students, and taxpayers, the results of NIH-funded research can be accessed – and used  - in ways never before possible. The successful implementation of this policy will unlock the potential of this research to benefit the public as a whole. ”

For more information, and a timeline detailing the evolution of the NIH Public Access Policy beginning May 2004, visit the ATA Web site at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

 

###

 

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing organizations that supports open public access to the results of federally funded research. The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. Details on the ATA may be found at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org. 

Updates from GWLA include Opportunity Fund grant recipients and a profile of our newest member, UNLV.

GWLA formally endorsed SERU (a NISO recommended practice) on October 15th, 2008.  GWLA joins 50+ libraries, 4 consortia and 23 publishers in recognizing the value of SERU.
Clint Chamberlain, Coordinator of Electronic Resources at The University of Texas Libraries served on the NISO SERU Working Group in crafting this standard.

SERU ( Shared Electronic Resource Understanding) "offers publishers and libraries the opportunity to save both the time and the costs associated with a negotiated and signed license agreement by agreeing to operate within a framework of shared understanding and good faith. The statements provide a set of common understandings for publishers and libraries to reference as an alternative to a formal license when conducting business.  Neither the statements of understanding nor the SERU document constitute a license agreement. Because SERU is not a license, legal terms (such as jurisdiction, warranties, and liabilities) are not used. Rather, the statements describe a set of commonly agreed-upon expectations for using and providing electronic resources. While licenses are appropriate in many situations, SERU offers an alternative when both the librarian and the publisher are satisfied with this approach."
[NISO RP-7-2008, copyright of 2008]

For further information, please contact:
Anne E. McKee, Program Officer for Resource Sharing
Anne@GWLA.org