Information: Collections &
Communications
In Academic Libraries
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Issues
• Access
▫ Formats (multiplicity)
 E-books, e-journals, e-etc.
 Digital libraries
▫ Availability
 Remote storage
 Local browsability
• Preservation
• Scholarly communication
▫ Rising costs of periodicals
▫ Role of monographs vs.
periodicals in meeting
information needs
▫ Open Access
▫ Use patterns
• Interlibrary cooperation
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What is “Information”
• Information-as-a-process: the process of
being informed
• Information-as-knowledge: That which is
imparted when someone becomes informed.
Being informed is a state of knowing something.
Knowledge is based on belief. A change of
knowledge is a change of belief. The information
imparted in information-as-a-process is a
change of knowledge—a change in belief
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What is “Information”
• Information-as-thing: physical objects (e.g.,
data or documents).
▫ How would we characterize collections,
information literacy, or teaching/learning process
within the three uses
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Information Life-cycle (traditional)
Planning
Security
Creation
Production
Preservation/
Archiving (of
What?
Retrieval, Access, Use
Storage
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Information Life-cycle (digital)
Creation
Production
Preservation/
Archiving (of
What?
Retrieval, Access, Use
Storage
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Information Life Cycle
• Creation and dissemination of knowledge
different in a digital environment
• Might bypass traditional publishing,
dissemination, and announcement steps
• In some cases, information is nearly inseparable
from the tools with which it is produced.
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Patterns of Information-Gathering
Teaching
Research
Consulting
Faculty
Graduate
Students
Undergraduate
Students
Class Assignments
Theses
Teaching
Other
Class Assignments
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Issues of Information Gathering
• Information overload- the digital information
universe is expanding at a rate of six-fold per
year. In 2007, for the first time data production
exceeded storage ability (IDC white paper)
• College students- regardless of information
need/purpose- rely on a small set of common
resources. Little variation in frequency or order
of use (PIL, 2009 report)
• Generally favor brevity, consensus, and currency
in sources (PIL, 2009 report)
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Issues of Preservation
• Digital formats offer new preservation
challenges- shorter shelf life, dependence on
ever-changing technology
• Preservation of content and/or preservation of
format- the “feel” of the information
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Scholarly Communication
• “is the system through which
research and other scholarly
writings are created, evaluated
for quality, disseminated to
the scholarly community, and
preserved for future use”
• “The system includes both
formal means of
communication, such as
publication in peer-reviewed
journals, and informal
channels, such as electronic
mailing lists.”
▫ C&RL News (Sept. 2003), p.
526
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Scholarly Communication
• Five core activities
1.
2.
3.
4.
Fund research and communication
Perform research and communicate the results
Publish scientific and scholarly works
Facilitate dissemination, retrieval, and
preservation
5. Study publications and apply the knowledge
 Economic implications of alternative publishing
models. Jan 2009 available from Educause
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Scholarly Communications: Outlets
• Subscription or toll access publishing
• Open access
• Self-archiving/Institutional repositories
• Cost benefit analysis suggests that benefit of OA
will outweigh costs, savings could pay for itself.
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Open Access
• It is “content that is available on the internet and
that can be accessed, read, printed, copied,
searched, downloaded, or forwarded free of
charge.”
• Those who do the work should own the literature
• Who bears the costs?
 CLIR Issues (Nov.-Dec. 2004), p. 1
 See Serials Review 30(4) (2004), which is a special
issue on open access
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Johns Hopkins University
Scholarly Communications Group
http://openaccess.jhmi.edu/
• Scholars and researchers both create and
consume scholarly information; scholars and
researchers add the true value to scholarly
communication
• Scholarly communication has become an
international, multi-billion dollar business
• Ongoing consolidation of the publishing
industry is squeezing out competition
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(Continued)
• Currently, 121 North American members of the
Association of Research Libraries spend a total of
$765M on journal subscriptions.
• During the period 1986-2006, the average journal
subscription price increased by more than 10%
annually. Over the past 15 years, the price of research
journals increased more than 200%.
• Due to rising prices, libraries can offer access to
increasingly smaller portions of published literature.
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SPARC
• A worldwide alliance of research institutions,
libraries, and organizations that encourages
competition in the scholarly communications
market. SPARC introduces new solutions to
scientific journal publishing,
▫ http://www.arl.org/sparc/home/index.asp?page=0
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SPARC’s Agenda
• Incubation of competitive alternatives to current
high-priced commercial journal and digital
aggregations.
• Implemented by publisher partnership
programs and advisory services that promote
competition for authors and buyers.
• Organic Letters (competitor to Tetrahedron
Letters)
▫ Published by American Chemical Society
▫ Published over 14,000 pages of original research
▫ In 2001 beat its competitor in impact factor
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SPARC’s Agenda
• Public advocacy of fundamental changes in the
system and the culture of scholarly
communication. This encompasses outreach
targeted to various stakeholder groups (e.g.,
librarians, faculty, and editorial boards), as well
as ongoing communications and public relations
activities that publicize key issues and initiatives.
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Others
• DSpace
▫ MIT’s digital repository to capture, distribute, and
preserve the intellectual output of MIT.
• arXiv
▫ Pre-print archive, esp. for publications of physics,
math, and nonlinear science, etc. Offers:
 Free access via the Internet;
 Minimal editorial oversight; comments from other
investigators, both supporting and opposing.
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Others
• Public Library of Science (PLoS): nonprofit
organization of scientists and physicians
• SHERPA: investigates issues in scholarly
communication and publishing. Initiating
development of openly accessible institutional
digital repositories of research output in a
number of research universities. 'e-print
archives' will contain papers by researchers from
the participating institutions.
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DLIST
• Digital Library for Information Science and
Technology, http://dlist.sir/arizona.edu
• It is an Open Access Archive, “a crossinstitutional, interdisciplinary repository for
information sciences, including Library and
Information Science.
Its goal “is to create change among LIS faculty
by encouraging self-deposit behaviors.”
• Should I deposit my “papers, presentations,
articles, and add links on your personal or
professional website to DLIST?” YES? NO?
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DLIST Update
• Crashed.
• Exploring options and alternative
• “The resources and metadata are fully recovered,
and we hope to put them back online in a new
repository soon.” 12/3/09
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Control over Scholarly
Communication
• Publishers
• Peer Review
• Universities (e.g., control over where faculty can
publish)
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Collection Development
Collection Planning
Including providing for distance
education
Collection Implementation (including selection)
What select (from universe of available
information)—by subject (structure of
literatures)
For permanent collection
Other
How acquire
Collection Evaluation
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Collection Development
• Plan (context of institutional mission,
information needs (scholarly
communication),and continuous improvement)
▫
▫
▫
▫
Selection
Acquisition
Evaluation
Retention, preservation
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(Continued)
• Collection development plan
▫ Subject based
▫ Interactive with academic programs and
departments
▫ Addresses scholarly communication
 A complex area is “interdisciplinary research”
 National Academy of Sciences (2004) says such
research requires new policies and ideologies as
disciplinary boundaries are dissolving
Collection Development
• Envision the circles as
representing the
print, digital, and
“archived”
environments. View
the “common
interaction” as a
library developing its
collection
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• Collection development is a decision-making
process that determines specific materials that
will be obtained in terms of subject content,
format, and other criteria.
• A collection development policy is a plan that
provides guidelines to the selectors as to the
appropriateness of various types of materials for
a particular collection. As such, it is a framework
by which all the various departments in the
library work toward common collection goals
and standards
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Finally
• “Libraries have always been valued for and
measured by their collections.” [1]
Is this
true today as libraries develop more services and
collections are not just those physically owned?
▫ Now collaboration, consortia, etc.
1
Schmidt (2004, p. 360), from Library Collections,
Acquisitions, & Technical Services
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Ethics
• Code of ethics (ALA)
▫ Examples: “We provide the highest level of service to
all library users through appropriate and usefully
organized resources; … equitable access; and accurate,
unbiased and courteous responses to all requests”
▫ “We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and
resist all efforts to censor library resources”
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• Diversification of collections—all (many
different) perspectives
• Protecting confidentiality
• Misconduct (falsified research, plagiarism)
represented in collections
▫ Office of Research Integrity
http://ori.hhs.gov/html/programs/instructresource.asp
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Relevant Information Policies
• Information Policy: Statements, directives, laws,
etc. that guide operations and set parameters
involve multiple constituencies and
stakeholders, with competing interests
and expectations
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Intellectual Property Rights
Copyright
• Copyright is rooted in the Constitution:
▫ Copyright assigns to the owner of a work control
or exclusive rights to prohibit others from using
that work in specific ways without permission and
to profit from the sale or performance of the work
for a fixed time period
▫ Based on a fundamental balancing of the interests
of copyright owners and copyright users
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Fair Use
• Copyright involves exclusive rights, which
constitute a monopoly and include reproduction,
distribution, adaptation, public performance,
and public display. However, these rights are
restricted to allow limited uses of the material,
particularly of the use offers societal benefits.
These exceptions or limitations collectively
comprise “fair use”
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Criteria for Determining Fair Use
• Purpose or character of use
• Nature of the work
• Amount of the material that is
used
• Impact on the market
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• Works may be copyrighted when they are fixed
in a tangible medium of expression. A test of
copyright protection is the requirement that the
work demonstrate a level of “originality,”
something more than a “merely trivial variation”
and more than the product of the “sweat of
brow”
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Public Domain
• Works not protected by
copyright
• Materials that have reached
the time limit of copyright
protection
• Publications of the U.S.
government
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Impact of Digital Technologies
• They are changing information creation,
distribution, use, and preservation
• They are redefining the “market,”ownership, and
sales. Example, Napster and CD/DVD burners
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Fundamental Questions
• How does copyright affect scholarly
communication presented in book and journal
article form?
• How does the fundamental interest of the library
community coincide with other groups?
• How do we forge coalitions that will influence
government policies?
▫ For other questions, see James G. Neal, “Copyright Is Dead …
Long Live Copyright,” American Libraries 33 (December 2002):
48-51
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World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO)
• Encouraging countries to work with the World Trade
Organization to establish new rules covering
international trade, including intellectual property
▫ Application to databases (licensing agreements)
▫ Impetus = digital communication and global economics
▫ Some Other rules/players: General Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs, European Union, and national governments. Sonny Bono
Copyright Term Extension Act added 20 years to copyright
protection, thereby inhibiting material entering the public
domain
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Antagonists
• Content owners
▫ Publishers
▫ Artists/authors
▫ Universities
• Society: Public
▫ Libraries
▫ Others
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Overview of Policy Issues
• Peter Hernon, Harold C. Relyea, Robert E. Dugan, and
Joan Cheverie, United States Government Information
(Libraries Unlimited, 2002)
▫ Chapter 12, “Intellectual Property”
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Key Resources
• Center for Intellectual Property and Copyright in
the Digital Environment,
www.umuc.edu/odell/cip/cip.html
• Electronic Freedom Foundation, www.eff.org
• Creative Commons, www.creativecommons.org
• Conference on the Public Domain,
www.law.duke.edu/pd/
• Progress and Freedom Foundation, www.pff.org
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Let’s Discuss
• Dillon, D. (2004, December 10). College
libraries: The long goodbye. The Chronicle of
Higher Education, B5.