Open Access: Meaning(s) and Goal(s)
Are we all talking about the same thing when we say “open access” — and do we all mean the same thing when we talk about an “open access future”? Short answers: “yes (kind of)” and “no way.”
Building a 21st Century Library
Another look at the fascinating evolution of the library.
Additive, Substitutive, Subtractive
It is often argued that open access will reduce the overall cost of scholarly communications, but this article proposes that OA will be additive to the size of the current market.
Researching Amazon and Libraries
Announcing a research project to study how many academic books Amazon sells to libraries.
Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3
There are many reasons to be cheerful in the world of scholarly publishing. Taking a cue from Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and his song, Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3., this post describes an example of good things afoot in the library community. It is up to you to provide parts 1. and 2.
The Size of the Open Access Market
A report from Simba Information tallies the total value of the open access marketplace, putting OA at 2.3% of the total market for STM journals. It documents as well, without comment, that more and more OA activity is the business of for-profit companies.
Feeding the Goose: Thoughts on Fair Use and the GSU Decision
With the appellate court’s rejection of the district court’s decision in the Georgia State University fair-use case, we have yet another twist in this six-year-long saga of copyright litigation. It’s clearly a setback for GSU–but what about for fair use?
Finding Stuff: Discovery and Data Quality
Three different items recently published discuss the current state of thinking about discovery tools for purposes of research. Which one captures the right mindset? What should content providers be doing to support discovery?
Tour the Toronto Reference Library, By Drone
A drone’s eye view of Toronto’s spectacular new library.
Trust, Privacy, Big Data, and e-Book Readers
At the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, a pre-meeting session was held called CONTEC. This follow-up to the much beloved, but now defunct, O’Reilly Tools of Change conference brought together an interesting mix of leadership from traditional […]
Guest Post: Phill Jones on The Changing Role of the Postdoc and Why Publishers Should Care
Guest Chef Phill Jones takes a look at an often under-recognized population of researchers and suggests why publishers should give them more attention.
Peak Subscription
Since the late 1990s there have been two drivers of growth in STM and scholarly publishing: site licensing and global expansion. As successful as these activities have been, however, we appear to be nearing, if not a peak, at least a plateau. Institutional library budgets have not kept pace with the growth in global research output. At the same time, institutional market penetration is nearing saturation for many publishers.
So the question is, where is the growth going to come from?
Quality and Relevance: A Matrix Model for Thinking about Scholarly Books and Libraries
Libraries do not have the luxury (or the mission) of selecting books solely based on their intrinsic quality. In order to do their work, the students and scholars served by the library need access to books that are highly relevant to their interests. How do the variables of quality and relevance interact with each other when it comes to library book purchasing?
Guest Post: Elisabeth Jones on Monograph Costs and Urban Legends–What's Wrong with This Picture?
Guest Chef Elisabeth Jones offers a critical analysis of a widely-distributed statistical chart that seems to show a doubling in the unit cost of monographs since 1985.
Stick To Your Ribs: Library Budgets, Journals and Blood From A Stone
A look back at some of Rick Anderson’s insightful pieces on the economic realities of journal prices and library budgets.