Free Downloads #1

Welcome to the May 2009 free download area of the website providing access to a variety of content from experts, practitioners and suppliers including Guru Questionnaires, Conference Papers from the Online Information Conference, Opinion pieces and Podcasts from industry practitioners and a monthly poll

This month we're taking a look at some of the challenges facing academic libraries and ebooks.   

Academic Libraries & eBooks

In the first of our monthly downloads we're taking a look at some of the challenges facing academic libraries and issues around ebooks.   We've invited a range of views on these subjects and hope you find the contributions an interesting read. 

Online Information Conference Papers

Paula Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of lllinois at Urbana - Champaign.
Paula describes a method she developed for showing the return on investment on the university's investment in its library. See for your self its applicability in your own settings.

Download the research paper here Paula Kaufman

 

What about ebook use in academic libraries? Lorraine Estelle, CEO, JISC Collections describes The National eBooks Observatory Project.
The take up of ejournals and The Google Book Project are reinventing the way in which information is consumed. JISC have undertaken a comprehensive ebooks action research project looking into the ways in which UK higher education institutions are consuming ebooks. 

Download Lorraine's paper here Lorraine Estelle

Opinion Piece

Peter Godwin, Academic Liasion Librarian, University of Bedfordshire.
Peter shares his thoughts on some of the challenges facing academic librarians and what academic librarians need to do to ensure a future for their library.

Listen to Peter as he introduces his opinion piece (audio insight)

Download his opinion piece here (word) Peter Godwin

 

Paul Williams, UK & Ireland MD, Swets
Paul shares his views on how libraries can make informed decisions about subscription renewal. The academic and research environment has been transformed by the increase in digital access to content but this raises issues about journal spend.

Download his opinion piece here (word) Paul Williams

 

Listen to podcasts from industry experts

 

PODCAST 1: Cultural Agoraphobia and The Future of The Library,  Professor James Boyle, Duke University

 

Presented at University of Cambridge, by the University Library's Arcadia Programme on Thursday 12 March 2009.
http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/  

 

Overview of the podcast 
In his new book 'The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind' James Boyle argues that we have a bias that makes us unduly skeptical of open networks, systems and methods of production. The success of non proprietary systems -- ranging from open source software to Wikipedia and the open Internet itself -- fills us with surprise. He calls this bias "cultural agoraphobia." In a world where all texts were tangible, the institution of the library stood for the proposition that a certain degree of openness was good; that a place that allowed free access to knowledge by every citizen was one of the defining institutions of a liberal society and culture. How will that principle change or evolve in the digital world? Will it survive at all? What is the future of the library in a world grappling with cultural agoraphobia?

Click here to download the podcast

Read Professor Boyle's biography
James Boyle is William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke Law School and founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Professor Boyle is also the Chairman of the Board of Creative Commons, and the co-founder of Science Commons. He serves on the board of the Public Library of Science and on the advisory board of Public Knowledge. In 2003 Professor Boyle won the World Technology Network Award for Law for his work on the public domain and the "second enclosure movement" that threatens it. He is the author of 'Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society', and the editor of 'Critical Legal Studies, Collected Papers on the Public Domain and Cultural Environmentalism @ 10' (with Larry Lessig.) His more recent books include 'Bound By Law', a co-authored "graphic novel" about the effects of intellectual property on documentary film, 'The Shakespeare Chronicles', a novel, and 'The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind' which was published in 2008 by Yale University Press. He writes a regular online column for the Financial Times's New Economy Policy Forum.

 

Guru Questionnaire & Poll

GURU QUESTIONNAIRE

This month's Jenny Levine, Strategy Guide, American Library Association; The Shifted Librarian is under the spotlight.

The questionnaire takes a light hearted view of information-industry related issues.  Read it here (word) Guru questionnaire

 

ONLINE POLL - WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Are you a fan of the Amazon Kindle or perhaps you're devoted to the Sony Reader?  Take part in our quick poll here