Library in Transition

FULLTEXT SOURCES ONLINE (FSO) (ISSN 1040-8258) is a directory of publications that are accessible online in full text, from 29 major aggregator products. FSO lists 40,231 periodicals, newspapers, newsletters, newswires, and TV or radio transcripts. It covers topics in science, technology, medicine, law, finance, business, industry, the popular press and more. FSO also lists the URLs of publications with Internet archives, noting whether access to them is free or not.

While interesting, this article doesn't point toward the feasibility of an all digital library. This can be deleted.

Statistics

Lots of work on scientists' use of ejournals

Now, most of the attention on changes in scholarly publishing has been focused on e-journals. We wish to expand that circle of light so that it takes in the indexing of serials. The index, as every scholar knows, is critical to the quality of the research. The value of a library's serial collection is only as good as its indexing. What scholar has not wondered about the impact of overlapping, inconsistent, and incomplete indexing services on their work? When the weaknesses of the current indexing services are matched against the potential of open-access systems, we may have a tipping point in convincing scholars that the profession would be far better served by open-access publishing systems. We argue that a primary candidate for scholarly publishing's tipping point is the coherence, integration, and precision that these open-access systems can bring to the scholarly exchange and enhancement of knowledge, especially when compared to the current state of the serial index and the hit-and-miss of full-text Web searches.

There is a chart of costs of some electronic indexes, although it may be outdates (2000-01). This article examines the degree of overlap between different academic databases.

Lots of statistics on the print-to-digital transition, particularly the types of books being digitized (largely English language). This article looks at taking a "system wide view of library collections" to evaluate digital resources for collection development.

Some of the findings that have proved to be of greatest interest have focused on these topics: * Attitudes towards the possibility of a transition away from print format, both for scholarly journals and monographs * Perceptions of libraries and their value, including specific library functions, and how these perceptions are changing * Preferences in research practices, including disciplinary differences and changes over time * Attitudes towards archiving of both print and electronic resources * Preferences that lead authors to choose among scholarly journals in which to publish their articles, as well as attitudes towards digital repositories

Follow the link on this page to the "in depth white paper" which is entitled, "Ithaka's 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education" dated August 18, 2008. The Table of Contents lists: INTRODUCTION; RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LIBRARY AND THE FACULTY; DEPENDENCE ON ELECTRONIC RESOURCES; THE TRANSITION AWAY FROM PRINT FOR SCHOLARLY JOURNALS; FACULTY PUBLISHING PREFERENCES; E-BOOKS; DIGITAL REPOSITORIES; PRESERVATION OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS; RECOMMENDATIONS; CONCLUSION. I have tagged this article, but it has some great research and will merit a blog entry.

his research will evaluate the potential of a new generation of electronic document readers that present information across multiple displays - a design that anticipates the future availability of fast, bi-stable, display technology. Despite the fact that e-book readers have been available to the general public for several years, paper remains far more popular as a medium for reading and annotating documents. Although electronic devices for reading can provide unique affordances such as a large storage capacity, keyword search, indexing, and some interactivity, they remain unpopular probably because they fail to offer several core affordances of paper such as efficient page-to-page navigation, quick access to multiple documents, and efficient handling of annotations. Starting from an existing proof of concept, this project will design a fully functional prototype that addresses a large spectrum of reading activities that include: reading a book or magazine, lateral reading, and active reading. A set of deployable prototypes will be used to evaluate the potential of the design through a series of longitudinal studies. In producing prototypes of a next generation electronic document reader, this project will systematically study the design parameters that might enhance the reading experience on such devices in a wide variety of scenarios encompassing a diversity of reading activities. It is possible that digital displays will become the predominant technology for consuming text information. However, digital reading devices will be used only if they combine physical design, software infrastructure, and interface features that support a wide variety of reading patterns. Increasing amounts of reading material (both classic and modern) are available through digital distribution. By making it convenient and enjoyable to access this wealth of digital content, this project will spur new interest in reading both for work and pleasure.

A study to design and evaluate e-book readers. May not be relevant to our study.

Digital Books and the Impact on Libraries Peter Brantley, Editor

"Today, VitalSourceTM works with many of the largest and best known publishers in the world (as well as with some of the largest and best known computer manufacturers in the world) to establish successful digital curriculum implementations. These implementations can currently be found in K-12, Higher Ed, and Professional Education in countries around the globe."

"the main point of the conference was that electronic resources have become the most significant part of our work and our collections, but that we have yet to fully mainstream and normalize processes and procedures for these materials."

Inside Higher Ed offers free online news and job information for college and university faculty, adjuncts, graduate students, and administrators, higher education jobs, faculty jobs, college jobs and university jobs

Peter Brantley: "It could well be the case for most libraries that acquisition of print titles essentially ceases within 10 years, perhaps earlier (N.B. I had originally written 20 years; most independent commentators felt that was far too conservative; some think 5 years for ARL-class main libraries). More and more frontlist content is available digitally, and there is an inexorable transition toward the licensing of digital books - past, present, and future - along-side journals that are increasingly unavailable in print. On this battleground the skirmishes of the future will have more to do with licensing terms (could there be a SERU for Google Book Search?) and the timely acquisition of use data, rather than figuring out what to curate. Soon, the bulk of the world's published literature may be available online; libraries will just have to determine which content package they want, or can afford, to subscribe to."

Adobe Systems Inc. this week announced its second major move in the e-book market in the last five months as the multimedia software vendor looks to build a consortium to take on Amazon.com Inc. and its market-leading Kindle e-book reader. On Monday, Adobe released Adobe Reader Mobile 9, which improves the way smartphones and handheld devices display books and other documents that use the open PDF format created by Adobe.

ComputerWorld article on DRM

A futurist's perspective on libraries: "We have transitioned from a time where information was scarce and precious to today where information is vast and readily available, and in many cases, free. People who in the past visited libraries to find specific pieces of information are now able to find that information online. The vast majority of people with specific information needs no longer visit libraries. However, others who read for pleasure as example, still regularly patronize their local library."

How will scholars have access to print collections if libraries go digital? "This working group was convened in December 2007 to advance the work originally begun under the auspices of the North American Storage Trust, to develop a common understanding of the inter-institutional agreements necessary to promote cost-effective management of legacy print collections. The committee was charged with compiling and synthesizing policy documentation for shared print collections so that common requirements might be identified."

Summary of the 2009 Tools of Change conference

Cory Doctorow on the decline of books and other forms of media