The Book of Trogool
Archives for June, 2010
Assessing libraries and open access
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 29, 2010 Much is murky in open access, but this at least is clear: academic libraries have committed different amounts of money and staff toward an open-access future, from a flat zero up to hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth. It’s the zeroes and near-zeroes that concern me (why, hello there, Yale, and hello again, Yale), though…
Introducing co-bloggers!
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 24, 2010 I am bursting with pride to introduce Sarah Shreeves and Elizabeth Brown as co-bloggers here on Book of Trogool! (You’ll have to excuse me if I go over my exclamation-point quota. I’m just so excited about this!) I will let them tell you about themselves; I’ll just say that Sarah works for the University of…
Who knew there could be so many Tidbits, 21 June 2010
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 21, 2010 There is, in fact, more to life than the California vs. NPG battle royale. I know, I’m surprised too. It’s funny because it’s true! Daily Life in an Ivory Basement offers the NSF a data-management plan. Along those same lines, coping with data ranks high in worry factor in this OCLC report on research-related info…
“It’s quiet—too quiet;” with a digression into online social media
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 15, 2010 Other people are doing NPG vs. CDL link roundups better than I am, so I’ll limit myself to a few links: Think this is a one-off moment of insanity on NPG’s part? Bernd-Christoph Kaemper demonstrates the pattern. Steve Lawson of Colorado College shares text of an email he sent to faculty at his institution. He…
It’s Friday
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 11, 2010 Having inflicted at least one truly Bulwer-Lytton-contest-worthy metaphor on FriendFeed today (“The NPG/CDL thing isn’t about open access; open access is just lurking there, kinda like a knife-wielding maniac in a horror movie”), I feel I must raise the stakes by linking to this Derangement and Description comic. This is the first time anyone has…
Gauntlet volleying
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 10, 2010 This morning, when Nature Publishing Group responded to the University of California library’s broadside, I contemplated taking the response apart piece by piece in a bit of “… translated into English” satire. I’m glad I didn’t have the chance. I’m much, much happier for people to read the University of California library’s response. (By the…
Musings on worms turning
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 9, 2010 So I’m turning over the California/NPG situation in my head, because I?okay, because I’m obsessive, are you happy now? (Just don’t ask how late I was sending email last night.) The very cynical portion of my brain notes that it’s almost certainly easier to persuade faculty to inaction than action. California didn’t try to use…
California throws the gauntlet in NPG’s face
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 8, 2010 This is the sort of event I can never, ever manage to predict. Like the Harvard OA mandate. Or the PRISM Coalition. In brief, Nature Publishing Group tried the usual big-publisher contract-renewal tactics: jack the price a lot, because although librarians squeal, faculty never listen, so eventually the librarians knuckle under and sign the big…
Journal publishing’s future
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 8, 2010 I’m not a business analyst with my eye on the scholarly publishing industry, but if I were, I’d sound an awful lot like Claudio Aspesi being interviewed by Richard Poynder. I can’t speak to Elsevier’s internal organizational issues, but the rest of Aspesi’s words ring true to me. Libraries have kicked the serials can as…
Serious apologies, and a proposition
Posted by Dorothea Salo on June 4, 2010 Another reason it’s been quiet around here is that comments haven’t been appearing. This was my fault (though I am innocent of any ill intent), and I apologize with all my heart. What happened was this: I was getting quite a bit of the particularly obnoxious kind of spam that copies other comments to appear…