Professional Reading Shelf
National Archives--United Kingdom
Source: National Archives, UK The National Archives tackles digital compliance
"The National Archives have reached another milestone in digital preservation testing and compliance. In conjunction with the UK Data Archive, The National Archives have released a report comparing their preservation practices to the leading internationally recognised standard for digital archives. This provides a model for other organisations to test the compliance of their own systems." Direct to full text of report (PDF).
-- Academic Libraries
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education In Depth: Libraries
This is a special Chronicle supplement on libraries containing a package of stories, most of which are available to subscribers only:
+ Thoughtful Designs: "As they renovate old libraries and plan new ones, colleges consider the purpose of the buildings -- and how to make them popular."
+ Evolving Roles: "Today's reference librarians need IT and pedagogical skills. Institutions are adapting in various ways, says W. Lee Hisle."
+ The Beauty of Browsing: "Fred D. White doesn't want stacks closed and mechanized. He wants to hold books in his hand and see where they take him."
+ Should Librarians Get Tenure? Yes, It's Crucial to Their Jobs: "College librarians are crucial partners in teaching and research, and they should be eligible for tenure like their faculty colleagues, says Catherine Murray-Rust." (This one is available free to non-subscribers.)
+ Should Librarians Get Tenure? No, It Can Hamper Their Roles: "Librarians should be involved in college governance, but, writes Deborah A. Carver, they don't face the academic-freedom issues that professors do, and don't need tenure." (This one is available free to non-subscribers.)
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Library Catalogs
Source: Center for Research Libraries Center for Research Libraries Releases New Catalog
"The Center for Research Libraries has unveiled a new online catalog, allowing researchers additional functionality in searching and displaying the more than one million records in the catalog. The added functionality includes two new search types: a dedicated newspaper search and a combined author and title search. The newspaper search feature enables patrons to search all newspapers held by the Center by geographic area. Using a list provided in a drop-down box, patrons can search for foreign newspapers by country or for domestic newspapers by U.S. state."
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Scholarly Publishing
Source: The Economist The paperless library
"Free access to scientific results is changing research practices."
See Also: New Report: Governments should improve access to publicly funded research, finds OECD report
Direct to Full Text: OECD report on the scientific publishing industry (119 pages; PDF).
-- Librarians--Pregnancy
Source: Catherine Woodworth Wong (http://www.sciencelibrarian.org/) Pregnant @ the Reference Desk
"I have created this web site to serve as a resource to help pregnant librarians and adopting parents as I included some adoption resources as well. When I was pregnant, I was so busy working that I did not know about a lot of this stuff. I am trying to include things that you may not have found as opposed to the really popular web sites!" Covers librarian parenting e-mail lists, health issues, maternity clothing, librarian-recommended websites. (via librarian.net)
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