I was really surprised to learn that Microsoft have decided to cease their Live Search Books and to discontinue their digitization project.
Through Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, Microsoft digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles. They had, you will recall, won a good deal of kudos and respect from the publishing community for taking an approach to book digitization that respected copyright; they started the Live Search Books project by digitizing out of copyright books and had included in-copyright material with the agreement of publishers through their 'Publisher Program'.
The full announcement is currently on the Windows Live Search Book Publisher Program page.
We understand that representatives of the Live Search Books program will be visiting the UK week commencing 2 June 2008 to discuss the cessation of the initiative in person with their Publisher Program Partners.
The ALPSP Blog has now moved to our main website. This page remains up as an archive of all of our previous posts.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Joe Esposito on 'Provostial Publishing'
I am grateful to Joe Esposito for alerting me to his recent post on the Publishing Frontier blog titled Provostial Publishing.
Joe's interesting post speaks to a topic that's a hobby-horse subject for me; that of provenance and authority of academic content on the Internet. Joe contrasts the [quite literally] free-for-all that is User Generated Content with "editorial publishing" based on the role of publishers and editors in selection. Then he articulates - in a way I had not personally seen before - the argument that university provosts are acting as gatekeepers to content in Institutional Repositories by selecting faculty and thus fulfilling a selection function for the institution's repository.
I can't improve on the words that Joe uses to explain the differences between these three types of publishing:
"[the provost] chooses the authors but does not choose the works. Traditional editorial publishing is where an editor chooses the work. In UGC the choice of the author is made by the author him or herself–but this is not much of a choice, as we all believe our own thoughts are worth something."
It really is worth a read...
Joe's interesting post speaks to a topic that's a hobby-horse subject for me; that of provenance and authority of academic content on the Internet. Joe contrasts the [quite literally] free-for-all that is User Generated Content with "editorial publishing" based on the role of publishers and editors in selection. Then he articulates - in a way I had not personally seen before - the argument that university provosts are acting as gatekeepers to content in Institutional Repositories by selecting faculty and thus fulfilling a selection function for the institution's repository.
I can't improve on the words that Joe uses to explain the differences between these three types of publishing:
"[the provost] chooses the authors but does not choose the works. Traditional editorial publishing is where an editor chooses the work. In UGC the choice of the author is made by the author him or herself–but this is not much of a choice, as we all believe our own thoughts are worth something."
It really is worth a read...
Friday, 2 May 2008
CASPER the friendly [JISC] ghost
From Alicia Wise of the Publishers Licensing Society
JISC is funding CASPER which standards for Copyright Advice and Support Project for e-Learning Resources. The CASPER project in turn supports 19 further JISC-funded projects aimed at encouraging the ‘repurposing and reuse of digital content and assessments” in UK universities. These 19 projects are required to use ‘internal’ content from their own universities; ‘external’ content largely sourced from other universities but also potentially sourced from published books and journals, and; content from the JISC’s e-learning repository. The project website is at http://jisc-casper.org/ and will evolve as the project progresses. Publishers may be approached by project staff for permissions. This is really helpful as the need for permissions is not necessarily well understood. It may mean that a little humour and patience is required – especially as publishers are likely to be approached in the first instance to provide free permissions for reuse of published works for open distribution on the web. If successful this approach will also be taken with schools through partnership working by JISC and Becta.
JISC is funding CASPER which standards for Copyright Advice and Support Project for e-Learning Resources. The CASPER project in turn supports 19 further JISC-funded projects aimed at encouraging the ‘repurposing and reuse of digital content and assessments” in UK universities. These 19 projects are required to use ‘internal’ content from their own universities; ‘external’ content largely sourced from other universities but also potentially sourced from published books and journals, and; content from the JISC’s e-learning repository. The project website is at http://jisc-casper.org/ and will evolve as the project progresses. Publishers may be approached by project staff for permissions. This is really helpful as the need for permissions is not necessarily well understood. It may mean that a little humour and patience is required – especially as publishers are likely to be approached in the first instance to provide free permissions for reuse of published works for open distribution on the web. If successful this approach will also be taken with schools through partnership working by JISC and Becta.
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Space up for grabs at the Beijing International Bookfair and Frankfurt
Beijing International Book Fair: 1 to 4 September 2008
ALPSP members have the opportunity to participate in the Beijing International Book Fair by hiring display space on the ALPSP Stand.
Display space - Shelf hire is for display of publisher materials only.
Cost: GBP sterling £195 (plus VAT) per shelf plus consolidation costs for shipping. Each shelf is 1 metre in length.
Important:
* Only one copy of each publication is allowed to be sent, and only enough publications to accommodate the space hired.
* Publications will NOT be returned after the show. They will be donated to relevant Chinese organisations.
If you would like to book display space, or require further information for the Beijing International Book Fair please contact Diane French by 30 May 2008. Please note that all display materials will have to be received by Diane by 15 June 2008 – these deadlines have to be adhered to. Display space is booked on a first come basis.
Please note: ALPSP will NOT be making meeting space available at the Beijing International Book Fair.
Frankfurt Book Fair: 15 to 19 October 2008
ALPSP are giving their members the opportunity to participate in the Frankfurt Book Fair by offering combined meeting and display space on the ALPSP Stand.
Combined meeting and display facilities: Members will be able to pre-book and pay for a specific ‘half day’ session to use an exclusive members’ table (with 4 chairs) on the ALPSP stand. The meeting space fee includes the use of one shelf for the display of publication material for the duration of the Book Fair.
Cost: £250 (plus VAT) per half day session. Sessions are 0900-1330 or 1330-1800 from Wednesday 15 to Saturday 18 October (no sessions to be booked on Sunday 19 October). Sessions will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
Meeting space last year was much sought after, so if you would like to book a meeting space or have any other questions please contact Diane French by Friday June 30 to ensure you get the half day session you prefer.
Please note that ALPSP is NOT hiring display space as a ‘stand alone’ item this year.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Socially and environmentally responsible procurement
Social and environmental responsibility is becoming of greater and greater interest to the publishing industry. It will be the subject of one of the plenary sessions at this year's ALPSP International Conference.
Professor Andrew Millington (University of Bath) is leading a major international project on socially and environmentally friendly procurement and is looking for publishers to take part.
The project, which incurs no costs to organizations, is being run in cooperation with the University of Cattolica, Milan and Loyola College, Chenai and will examine social and environmental procurement in the UK, Italy, China and India.
It is an important issue and the only commitment is to fill in a brief online questionnaire and to participate in a one hour interview. Full confidentially is assured.
To participate please e-mail Professor Millington.
Professor Andrew Millington (University of Bath) is leading a major international project on socially and environmentally friendly procurement and is looking for publishers to take part.
The project, which incurs no costs to organizations, is being run in cooperation with the University of Cattolica, Milan and Loyola College, Chenai and will examine social and environmental procurement in the UK, Italy, China and India.
It is an important issue and the only commitment is to fill in a brief online questionnaire and to participate in a one hour interview. Full confidentially is assured.
To participate please e-mail Professor Millington.
Bob Campbell's getting on his bike for BUF!
Bob Campbell (Wiley-Blackwell) is doing a mad cycle ride around Sicily for the British Urological Foundation (BUF). He's raised nearly £4200 in sponsorship at the time of writing. It's a great charity and Bob's a great bloke (and has been training exceptionally hard!) so let's try and get him over the £5000! http://www.justgiving.com/robertcampbell1
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
NIH mandate
I was rudely awakened by a smoke alarm this morning.
Fortunately it was a malfunction rather than a fire but it meant that I spent dawn today checking some facts online for a document that I am writing on the open access mandate that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented on 7 April.
I was delighted to see that the top ranked result when I Googled 'NIH mandate' (from the UK at least*) was not the open access policy pages of the NIH, nor even comments by Stevan Harnad but was in fact Priscilla Markwood's thought provoking Editorial 'The NIH mandate - we're not in Kansas any more' in the April 2008 issue of Learned Publishing. Credit and kudos to both the author and the search engine optimization talents of our colleagues at IngentaConnect!
Priscilla's Editorial - which outlines the threats to smaller society publishers and postulates that the Open Access movement may actually help to strengthen commercial publishers - is well worth a read.
* Of course, Google's mystical algorithm means that you get different results from google.com depending on where you are located....
Fortunately it was a malfunction rather than a fire but it meant that I spent dawn today checking some facts online for a document that I am writing on the open access mandate that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented on 7 April.
I was delighted to see that the top ranked result when I Googled 'NIH mandate' (from the UK at least*) was not the open access policy pages of the NIH, nor even comments by Stevan Harnad but was in fact Priscilla Markwood's thought provoking Editorial 'The NIH mandate - we're not in Kansas any more' in the April 2008 issue of Learned Publishing. Credit and kudos to both the author and the search engine optimization talents of our colleagues at IngentaConnect!
Priscilla's Editorial - which outlines the threats to smaller society publishers and postulates that the Open Access movement may actually help to strengthen commercial publishers - is well worth a read.
* Of course, Google's mystical algorithm means that you get different results from google.com depending on where you are located....
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