Peter Suber has been named as the winner of the 2011 L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award by ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy's Copyright Advisory Subcommittee.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The annual award recognizes contributions of an individual or group that pursues and supports the Constitutional purpose of the U.S. Copyright Law, fair use and the public domain. The award is named after L. Ray Patterson, a key legal figure who explained and justified the importance of the public domain and fair use. Fair use is a key exception of the copyright law that allows for the use of a copyright without prior authorization and helps to promote learning, new creativity, scholarship and criticism.

Professor Suber is being recognized for his work in the open access movement that began in academia in response to increasing costs of scholarly journals. His goal is to provide free, public access to scientific information for the public good as well as provide an alternative venue for scientific publishing, one outside of the price-inflated research journal marketplace. Suber is a professor of philosophy at Earlham College, a senior researcher at Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), and a Fellow at Harvard University Library’s Office for Scholarly Communication. He also is member of the Board of Enabling Open Scholarshipand serves as Open Access Project Director at Public Knowledge.

Among his colleagues in our nation's capital, Suber is regarded as a leader in the quest to protect open access.

"There is no greater champion for open access than Peter Suber," Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said."The open access concept — that the public should have access to research that is paid for with tax dollars — may seem to be common sense, but it is not widely accepted in Washington. Peter has led a multi-year crusade to implement the idea, often in the face of determined corporate opposition. The American Library Association chose well in selecting Peter for this splendid award."

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Joseph J. Branin, Editor of College & Research Libraries, has announced in the journal's current issue that C&RL will "lift its six-month embargo on recently published online articles and become a fully open access journal."

The announcement is an major step for the Association of College & Research Libraries, bringing its open access advocacy positions and its publication practices into alignment.

Librarians were pioneers in publishing scholarly "gold" open access journals. The first library open access journal was the The Public-Access Computer Systems Review, established in 1989 with the first issue published in 1990. It was soon followed by LIBRES (1991), Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship (1991), and MC Journal— Journal of Academic Librarianship (1993).

However, over twenty years later, most scholarly library journals still restrict access to their published PDF and/or HTML articles, although most permit self-archiving of author eprints (they may restrict where the eprints can be self-archived).

There are some fine exceptions: Ariadne, Code4Lib Journal, D-Lib Magazine, Information Research: An International Electronic Journal, the International Journal of Digital Curation, the Journal of Digital Information, the Journal of Electronic Publishing, the Journal of the Medical Library Association, Law Library Journal, and LIBER Quarterly come quickly to mind (117 open access library journals are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals). However, scholarly library journals from most major commercial publishers and library association publishers remain restricted access.

Consequently, ACRL's decision to go "gold open access" is an important and welcome one. Hopefully, it will encourage other divisions of the American Library Association to follow suit, providing open access to their journals without embargo periods or other access restrictions.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

On January 10, 2011, the ACRL Board of Directors unanimously passed the following resolution:

Whereas ACRL supports open scholarship and access to scholarly work;

Whereas ACRL publishes C&RL, the premier journal for academic librarians; Whereas ACRL has made successive changes to increase access to the research found in C&RL;

Whereas ACRL member groups support making C&RL an open access journal;

Be it resolved, that ACRL provide open access to the electronic version of College & Research Libraries journal as of April 2011; and,

Be it further resolved, that ACRL, through this action, continues to play a leading role in advocating for new models of scholarly communication in all of the disciplines.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Daniel J. Cohen, Director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, has won the 2011 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Dr. Cohen leads the development of the free, open-source Zotero (http://zotero.org) software for managing and sharing research sources. Zotero is currently implemented as a set of Web browser and word processor plug-ins that can synchronize citations and other information with a public server, which also serves as a social network and discovery platform for fellow researchers. Work is currently underway to develop a stand-alone implementation of Zotero for Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems as well as plug-ins for a broader range of Web browsers.

Cohen's scholarship includes the exploration of digital humanities and pursuing new ways to collect and preserve history on the Web. He has directed several archival projects, including the September 11 Digital Archive, ECHO: Exploring & Collecting History Online, and the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: Preserving the Stories of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Cohen is the author of four books and has delivered dozens of papers and featured presentations at venues of interest to library technologists.

The Kilgour award, which is jointly sponsored by LITA and OCLC, is given for research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work which shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect(s) of the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information, or the processes by which information and data are manipulated and managed.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

ALA has issued a urgent call to action about the reauthorization of the Museum and Library Services Act.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Please call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be transferred to your representative’s office. Tell their staffs that passing S. 3984, the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA), is imperative to ensuring libraries can continue providing critical resources to their constituents, particularly in this tough economy. Specifically highlighting programs or resources your library provides to the member’s constituents will make your message stronger.

MLSA will ensure that the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds are secured and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is equipped to lead America’s libraries. This bill received bipartisan support from both Senate Republicans and Democrats, especially Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), who is a longtime supporter of libraries in this country. Other Senate sponsors of this bill include Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Michael Enzi (R-WY), and Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jon Tester (D-MT). To access the full text of this bill, click here.

The U.S. Senate passed MLSA Reauthorization under unanimous consent late Tuesday night, bringing the bill one step closer to reauthorization before the end of the 111th Congress.

MLSA has moved to the U.S. House of Representatives where it must receive a vote before the end of the calendar year. Please call your representative and urge him or her to press House leadership for a vote on the Senate-passed version of MLSA and to support the bill.

| Digital Scholarship |

Fred von Lohmann has won ALA's L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) and its Copyright Advisory Subcommittee have named Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) specializing in intellectual property matters, this year’s winner of the L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award.

The annual award recognizes contributions of an individual or group that pursues and supports the Constitutional purpose of the U.S. Copyright Law, fair use and the public domain. The award is named after L. Ray Patterson, a key legal figure who explained and justified the importance of the public domain and fair use. Fair use is a key exception of the copyright law that allows for the use of a copyright without prior authorization and helps to promote learning, new creativity, scholarship and criticism.

In his role at EFF, von Lohmann has represented programmers, technology innovators, and individuals in a variety of copyright and trademark litigation, including MGM v. Grokster, decided by the Supreme Court in 2005. He is also involved in EFF’s efforts to educate policy-makers regarding the proper balance between intellectual property protection and the public interest in fair use, free expression, and innovation. . . .

An overview of von Lohmann’s work is available on EFF's Web site.

ALA and ACRL have submitted comments to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) calling for greater open access to federally funded research.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The ALA and ACRL have long believed that ensuring public access to the fruits of federally funded research is a logical, feasible, and widely beneficial goal. They provided information and evidence as the Executive Branch considers expanding public access policies, like that implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to other federal agencies. Specifically, the ALA and ACRL recommend: which agencies should be covered, that policies should be mandatory, that earlier access is better, version and format recommendations, how to keep implementation costs reasonable, and the importance of supporting emerging scholarly practice.

While greater access to publicly funded research has long been a high priority issue for academic libraries, ACRL President Lori Goetsch, Dean of Libraries at Kansas State University, emphasized that now is the time for public and school librarians to tell their stories.

"What would it mean for members of your community to have better access to scholarly, scientific, and technical articles—paid with their own tax dollars through grants from agencies like NASA or the EPA?" Goetsch said. "How would it help small business owners starting up green technology companies? How would it help enhance teaching and learning in high schools?"

In the past, the ALA and ACRL have supported NIH Public Access Policy and endorsed "The Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009" (S. 1373) noting the latter, "reflects ALA policy regarding access to Federal government information by providing for the long-term preservation of, and no-fee public access to, government-sponsored, tax-payer funded published research findings."

The ALA and ACRL encourage all members to consider making comments, no later than January 21, to OSTP as individuals or libraries. More information is available on the OSTP Public Access Policy blog at http://blog.ostp.gov/category/public-access-policy. Comments can also be posted on OSTP’s blog. Comments e-mailed to publicaccess@ostp.gov are also accepted, but may be posted to the blog by the moderator. General comments, addressing any part of the Request for Information, may be submitted. See the full notice Federal Register notice at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-30725.htm for details.

The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries have submitted a supplemental filing regarding the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

While the library associations' position has not changed since their initial filing, the groups believe that recent activity, such as an amended agreement reached between Google and the University of Michigan, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Google's recent public statement regarding privacy, and the library associations' communication with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) should be brought to the court's attention. In their supplemental filing, the library associations call upon the court to address concerns with pricing review, to direct Google to provide more detail on privacy issues, and to broaden representation on the Books Rights Registry.

ACRL has added materials from its Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics Workshop to its Scholarly Communication Toolkit.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is extending the reach of the "Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics" workshop by adding related materials to its popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit. The materials—including short videos, presentations templates and handouts—were developed for the half-day workshop offered at the ACRL 14th National Conference in Seattle and traveling to five locations around the country this summer (http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/april2009/acrlscroadshowhosts.cfm). Now librarians can make use of these tools to enhance their own knowledge or adapt them to offer related workshops on their own campuses. The Scholarly Communication Toolkit is available online at http://www.acrl.ala.org/scholcomm/.

Developing a basic understanding of scholarly communication issues should be a high priority for every librarian. Enhancing understanding of how scholars work along with the systems, tools and technology to support the evolving work of the creation, personal organization, aggregation, discovery, preservation, access and exchange of information in all formats is one of six strategic priorities for 2009-13 developed by the ACRL Board of Directors (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/whatisacrl/index.cfm). The newly developed tools support this strategic priority, with a focus on new methods of scholarly publishing and communication, copyright and intellectual property and economics along with open access and openness as a principle.

The Association of College and Research Libraries has released two data tables from its 2008-09 salary survey:

• Administrative Compensation Survey: Multi-Position Report
• Mid-Level Salary Survey: Multi-Position Report

The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries have filed comments with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York regarding the Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Representing over 139,000 libraries and 350,000 librarians, the associations filed the brief as members of the plaintiff class because they are both authors and publishers of books. The associations asserted that although the settlement has the potential to provide public access to millions of books, many of the features of the settlement, including the absence of competition for the new services, could compromise fundamental library values including equity of access to information, patron privacy, and intellectual freedom. The court can mitigate these possible negative effects by regulating the conduct of Google and the Book Rights Registry the settlement establishes.

"While this settlement agreement could provide unprecedented access to a digital library of millions of books, we are concerned that the cost of an institutional subscription may skyrocket, as academic journal subscriptions have over the past two decades," Erika Linke, President of ACRL, said. . . .

Jim Rettig, President of ALA, said the proposed settlement "offers no assurances that the privacy of what the public accessed will be protected, which is in stark contrast to the long-standing patron privacy rights libraries champion on behalf of the public."