Blog Juice for Educational Technology

The Georgia Tech Library is running the following notice

Because of recent problems with systematic downloading of IEEE and ASCE journal articles that resulted in the suspension of our access, the Library has implemented downloading limits. We will continue to monitor this situation. Please note that downloading entire collections of data or entire issues of a journal or conference is a violation of copyright law and a violation of Georgia Tech’s licenses with publishers.

Yet another reason why we need open content. Subscription prices are rising at a rapid pace. Every university I’ve been at has sent out “surveys” to find out which journals we “really” need because costs are outstripping budgets. Now we get “downloading limits” with no specifics about those limits. What if I’m interested in an entire special issue? Do these “downloading limits” mean I can only see one article per day? Per week? Per month? Soon to come, printing limits, time limits on how long one can read an article–already in use via NetLibrary, and perhaps even citation limits. Digital collections are great, but not when they come with high prices and restrictions. It appears the Georgia Tech Library is only borrowing the journals.

The Georgia Tech Library is running the following notice

Because of recent problems with systematic downloading of IEEE and ASCE journal articles that resulted in the suspension of our access, the Library has implemented downloading limits. We will continue to monitor this situation. Please note that downloading entire collections of data or entire issues of a journal or conference is a violation of copyright law and a violation of Georgia Tech’s licenses with publishers.

Yet another reason why we need open content. Subscription prices are rising at a rapid pace. Every university I’ve been at has sent out “surveys” to find out which journals we “really” need because costs are outstripping budgets. Now we get “downloading limits” with no specifics about those limits. What if I’m interested in an entire special issue? Do these “downloading limits” mean I can only see one article per day? Per week? Per month? Soon to come, printing limits, time limits on how long one can read an article–already in use via NetLibrary, and perhaps even citation limits. Digital collections are great, but not when they come with high prices and restrictions. It appears the Georgia Tech Library is only borrowing the journals.

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Access has published excerpts from a dicussion of the future of the ebook. Chuck Hamaker and Toby Green discuss how books should be indexed and accessible by chapter along the line of article-based distribution (such as with ejournals–one can access the individual article without having to access the entire text). Both agree that Google Print can play an important role in this.

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan has issued an official statement in support of Goggle Print:

The Google library project will transform the way we do research and scholarship. For the first time, everyone will be able to search the written record of human knowledge. It also allows libraries to create a digital archive that preserves this material for all time. Only libraries are tasked by the public with the responsibility of archiving all the world’s written works. No other entity can take on this responsibility.

Can anyone think of any reason why an academic should not be behind Google Print’s library project?

Hi everyone. I’m happy to announce the grand re-opening of CCC Online. I’ve posted a longer, semi-formal announcement and description of the site over at my blog, but thought I’d post a quick announcement here as well.

What we’ve done is to turn CCCO into a site for the management of that journal’s metadata. The content itself (i.e., articles) is still password-protected over at NCTE, but CCCO provides abstracts, keywords, bibliographies, et al. We’re using Movable Type and del.icio.us to make as much of the journal accessible to searches, bookmarking, tagging, and research as possible, and we’re pretty pleased with the results. It’s only one journal, and we’ve still got a ways to go in terms of adding back issues, but there’s enough up there now for you to see some of the potential of the site.

Please feel free to take the site for a spin, and to let us know what you think, either through blog comments or over email. Thanks!

cgb

Adrian K. Ho and Charles W. Bailey, Jr. have made available online a pre-print of their article“Open Access Webliography” (Reference Services Review 33.3 (2005): 346-364).

From the abstract:

The paper aims to present a wide range of useful freely available internet resources (e.g. directories, e-journals, FAQs, mailing lists, and weblogs) that allow the reader to investigate the major aspects of the important open access (OA) movement. Design/methodology/approach - The internet resources included in this webliography were identified during the course of one of the authors writing the Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-prints and Open Access Journals. The authors evaluated, selected, categorized, and annotated these resources to construct this webliography, which complements the bibliography. Findings - The most useful resources have been annotated and organized into webliography sections. For example, the “Starting Points”, “Debates”, and “General Information” sections list resources that orient the reader to OA and the issues involved. The different “Directories (and Guides)” sections alert the reader to useful finding aids on relevant subjects. Originality/value - This webliography provides easy access to the most relevant internet resources for understanding and practicing OA. It affirms the significance of OA in scholarly communication, and it identifies the key parties involved in and/or contributing to the OA movement.

Maybe it’s been mentioned here before, but it’s news to me: The people behind the Writing Centers Research Project are making the full-text archives of The Writing Center Journal available to the public. Nice!