Elsevier Acquires bepress
In a move entirely consistent with its strategy to pivot beyond content licensing, Elsevier has acquired bepress, the institutional repository provider.
Missing the Target: The UK Scholarly Communications License
The UK Scholarly Communications License repeats many of the stumbles of the original monolithic and mandatory OA policies. We urge its proponents to slow down and learn from them instead.
Revisiting Two Perspectives on Library-based University Presses
Point: Counterpoint — today we revisit a pair of posts from Joe Esposito and Rick Anderson looking at partnerships and collaborations between university libraries and university presses.
Tracking the Evolution of Reference Resources
A new study from Oxford University Press further documents the decline of reference resources, a category of scholarly material more than ready for an innovative era in its evolution.
Failure to Deliver: Reaching Users in an Increasingly Mobile World
Judy Luther and Todd Carpenter look at the technological challenges of providing access to content in an increasingly dispersed and mobile world.
Ask The Librarians: What Did You Learn At This Year’s SSP Annual Meeting?
In what is becoming our annual tradition, we asked the Chefs, then the Fellows, and now the Librarians: What Did You Learn At This Year’s SSP Annual Meeting? Come see what they said!
The World’s Largest Library
A quick tour of the Library of Congress’ collection of over 160 million items.
Open Access & Scholarly Communication: Defining Success
Is our objective for open access and scholarly communication to maximize public access to research outputs or to bend the cost curve for licensed e-resources? Definitions of success matter.
When the Wolf Finally Arrives: Big Deal Cancellations in North American Libraries
For years, we in libraries have been predicting the imminent demise of the manifestly-unsustainable Big Deal — and yet it has persisted. Now that may be changing.
The Woman Behind the World’s Oldest Library, and the Woman Who Led the Effort to Restore It
The world’s oldest library has been reopened, and this video explores the connection between its founder and the architect who restored it.
Four Ways of Rationalizing Infringement: or, How to Defend a Pirate
It may seem as if it would be difficult to defend or justify a blatant piracy operation like Sci-Hub. But it can be done, if you’re willing to overlook certain facts and advance certain tenuous moral arguments.
The Strategic Direction of Research Library Leaders: Findings from the Latest Ithaka S+R Survey
Yesterday, Ithaka S+R published findings from our triennial survey of library deans and directors at academic institutions in the United States. The report examines the strategic directions of academic libraries as well as their staffing and spending plans for the coming years. The pivot towards new research, teaching, and learning services, and towards distinctive collections, is continuing, although it is encountering some headwinds.
Publishing in a Time of Information Warfare — A Wakeup Call
The information war requires changes — new research priorities, new personal and professional boundaries, higher editorial hurdles, and a hardened infrastructure.
The Art of the Beall
After deleting his predatory publishing list, librarian Jeffrey Beall reemerges into the spotlight with a self-published book about art forgeries.
Sound Savings: The Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden walks us through this year’s entrants into the National Recording Registry.