{"id":6278,"date":"2012-12-04T12:34:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T17:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/?p=6278"},"modified":"2012-12-04T12:34:42","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T17:34:42","slug":"digital-library-digest-december-4-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/2012\/12\/04\/digital-library-digest-december-4-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Library Digest: December 4, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dean of Technology at Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science reminds us we are leasing digital material, not buying it<\/strong><\/p>\n

“When it comes to digital, librarians can sometimes be perceived as awfully cranky\u2014just look at the current debate around e-books and lending rights. But it\u2019s easy to see why, as libraries face historic difficulties in the digital age. To take stock of the situation, PW recently caught up with Terry Plum, assistant dean of technology at the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science.<\/p>\n

“Publishers Weekly: With the digital transition in full force, let\u2019s start with a basic question: how do you see the shift to digital content and e-readers and other devices affecting or changing the traditional role of the library?<\/p>\n

“Terry Plum: To me, that question goes to the heart of what the library is. The library is a shared commons around information. You could look at the library as a community defined by the exchange of books, but it\u2019s more. It is a community defined by the exchange of information to create knowledge. Devices and platforms like the Kindle, however, are not shared. So in that world, you lose the shared commons. You lose the ability to exchange the material. Licensing abrogates the doctrine of first sale, and under the terms of many licenses you\u2019re not able to give the material to somebody else. You can\u2019t sell the book, or lend it, or give the book to the library, all of which not only made you feel good, but also tied you to the community. Look, for example, at library book sales. In small towns, library book sales are big events. Everybody gives away their old books and buys other people\u2019s books, and you have this whole exchange going on. But in the digital world, the user is increasingly isolated because of licensing strictures.<\/p>\n

“A recent false story about the actor Bruce Willis\u2019s supposed outrage over his inability to pass his digital music collection on to his children served to remind us again that we don\u2019t own the digital content we buy, we only lease it. Apparently, many consumers aren\u2019t aware that when they buy e-books or MP3s or movies online, they are only purchasing the license, not the actual content.<\/p>\n

“Well, I\u2019m not certain that consumers are unaware, but, yes, licensing trumps everything. It trumps copyright, it trumps fair use\u2014if you sign it away or, for consumers, click it away. The license is the agreement. That\u2019s why librarians read those license agreements very carefully. Now, the digital experience, such as being able to read an e-book on a high-resolution device, is value-added. But the restrictive digital rights management that comes with that is the price you pay.”<\/p>\n

From\u00a0Sasha Nyary’s article for<\/em> Publisher’s Weekly,\u00a0Standing Up for the Community: PW Talks with Terry Plum: ALA Preview 2012<\/a><\/p>\n

The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library) brings 3D views of sculptures and fragile manuscripts to the public through online cultural center<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Everyone should have access to Germany’s cultural heritage. That’s the goal of a new multimedia portal, the German Digital Library. It encompasses sources from 1,800 cultural and academic institutions.<\/p>\n

\n

“The website is still in the trial phase and there are a few rough edges to smooth out, but that will soon be resolved. The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB), or “German Digital Library,” is set to be an online collection of knowledge like no other.<\/p>\n

“The German Digital Library aims to be a network of culture and research, a unique archive of the cultural consciousness of Germany. And Europe, since the DBB constitutes another building block of the European online culture portal “Europeana,” a single access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitized throughout Europe.<\/p>\n

“Europeana has been online for a good four years now and is a model for how the DBB online portal should look. Links to museums and exhibitions are illustrated with pictures, and the range of topics is so diverse that visitors can quite happily lose all sense of time while browsing the site.<\/p>\n

“Real and virtual expeditions:<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>Three years ago, on December 2, 2009, the German government decided to add a German entry to Europeana, namely, the German Digital Library. In cooperation with libraries, museums, archives and cin\u00e9math\u00e8ques, German culture will be presented in multimedia format.<\/p>\n

“We want to make culture and scholarship accessible to all,” Hermann Parzinger said. He’s the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the DBB’s executive committee. “The cultural heritage of Germany belongs to everyone,” he added. “Because of that, we want to make all of this, as well as hidden treasures, accessible to everyone.”<\/p>\n

“Virtual museum tours and 3-D views of sculptures and memorials will all be available on the site. “It will never be able to replace physically going to a museum,” Parzinger said, “but we want to make it possible to prepare for and reflect on a trip to a museum.”<\/p>\n

“Aside from that, the DBB makes objects that aren’t normally on display available to the wider public. Fragile manuscripts and books, items which are highly sensitive to climate conditions, can now be viewed digitally and, with the aid of a virtual magnifying glass, examined up close like never before.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From\u00a0Silke W\u00fcnsch’s article for<\/em> DW, Digital Life:\u00a0Germany’s cultural heritage goes digital<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists\u00a0now gauge reliability of articles through online generated comments and citations, not just prestige of a printed journal\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The Open Access movement continued gaining steam in 2012. A third iteration of the Research Works Act was\u00a0quashed<\/a>, the number of\u00a0universities<\/a>\u00a0adopting official open access policies continued to grow, dozens of new open access journals were launched, and a\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0calling for public access to all federally funded research gathered enough signatures to get the attention of the White House.<\/p>\n

“But Open Access is only one part of a larger shift taking place in the academic world\u2014particularly the sciences\u2014says\u00a0Richard Price<\/a>, founder and CEO of\u00a0academia.edu<\/a>. Price argues that academia is moving toward a system where the credibility of research, publications, and ultimately researchers themselves, is gauged not by the prestige of the journal in which works are published, but by the usage, citations, and professional feedback that the works generate online.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s the theory behind academia.edu, a social media-inspired platform that allows research scientists and other academic professionals to critique and collaborate on research. Since its founding in the fall of 2008, the site has attracted almost 2 million members (including a growing community of librarians), 1.7 million papers, and 3.9 million unique visitors per month.”<\/p>\n

From Matt Enis’s article for<\/em> The Digital Shift,\u00a0Scientists Seek New Credibility Outside of Established Journals<\/a><\/p>\n

Maryland Public Libraries trying to create “maker spaces” for kids<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Calling all geeks \u2014 our libraries need\u00a0you.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Skip Auld, executive director of Anne Arundel County Library System, said creating \u201cmaker spaces\u201d for do-it-yourself enthusiasts, tech geeks and other tinkerers could be good for county libraries as they try to rise from the bottom of a ranking recently issued by the\u00a0Library Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“He was among more than 100 librarians, educators and others at the West County Regional Library in Odenton on Wednesday for a Maker Meetup. Sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education, the event was a discussion of creating work spaces and other resources for hobbyists.<\/p>\n

“Those attending got a firsthand look at Matt Barinholtz\u2019s Crownsville-based FutureMakers, a mobile, hands-on \u201ctinkering\u201d program that takes the art of handcrafting to schools, libraries and the homes of home-schooled students.<\/p>\n

“One example of how maker space in public libraries could benefit communities is the relationship between South River High School and the library system\u2019s Edgewater Branch. The high school is one of two in the county which has a special program focusing on science, technology, engineering and math.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis stuff gets kids off the street and away from the game console and it prepares them for a good-paying job,\u201d said Gary Mauler, an engineering fellow at Northrop Grumman in Linthicum.”<\/p>\n

From Jake Linger’s article for the<\/em> Crofton-West County Gazette,\u00a0Libraries hope ‘maker spaces’ make a difference<\/a><\/p>\n

MIT Library survey finds that patrons strongly want access to resources via mobile devices<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From the<\/em>\u00a0MIT Libraries\u00a0news blog<\/em>,\u00a0Survey snapshot: Library research using mobile devices<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s digest looks at licensing vs. copyright, the new German Digital Library, how scientists are shifting the way they judge the reliability of journals with social media comments, public libraries in Maryland looking to create maker spaces for kids, and a survey that shows a strong desire from patrons who want to be able to access digital library resources on their mobile devices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5324,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43884],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-library-digest"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6278"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6292,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6278\/revisions\/6292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dplaalpha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}