DigitalKoans

In 2007, Houston's high school dropout rate (22.1%) ranked third among Texas' largest school districts, just behind San Antonio (26%) and Dallas (25.8%). By contrast, Austin's drop out rate was 11.5%.

Read more about it at "New Grading Policies Roil Dallas Parents, Teachers."

The Association of Research Libraries has published Social Software in Libraries, SPEC Kit 304. The table of contents and executive summary are freely available.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This survey was distributed to the 123 ARL member libraries in February 2008. Sixty-four libraries completed the survey by the March 14 deadline for a response rate of 52%. All but three of the responding libraries report that their library staff uses social software (95%) and one of those three plans to begin using social software in the future.

Survey results indicate that the most broadly adopted social software—chat or instant messaging—was also the earliest implemented social software. While one respondent was using instant messaging for reference and another was using chat for internal communication as early as 1998, the earliest use of this type of social software dates back to 1993.

While chat and instant messaging have been in use for several years, use of other types of social software in libraries is very recent. Beyond isolated cases, a steadily increasing number of ARL member libraries began implementing social software in 2005, with the largest rate of adoption being in 2007.

The Council on Library and Information Resources has published No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century.

Here's an excerpt:

What are the critical functions of the research library in this changing landscape? How should we be rethinking the research library in a dynamic, swiftly changing landscape dominated by digital technology? To explore this question, CLIR convened a meeting of librarians, publishers, faculty members, and information technology specialists on February 27, 2008, in Washington, D.C. To prepare for the discussion, CLIR invited eight of the participants to share their perspectives on the future library in brief essays. The essays were circulated before the meeting and are presented in part II of this volume.

Hindawi Publishing Corporation, which publishes more than 125 open access journals, has launched an Open Access Institutional Membership program that allows institutions to subsidize Hindawi's article processing charges for their authors.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Hindawi's membership program is based on a flat rate payment that covers all accepted articles that are submitted by an author from a member institute during the period of the membership. The cost of the membership depends on the level of research output of the institute and their historical publishing pattern in Hindawi journals. . . .

In addition to the 125+ open access journals that Hindawi currently publishes, this membership will include any journal that is added to Hindawi's collection during the term of the membership.

The Repositories Support Project has launched the RSP Blog Directory.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

It provides a list of recommended and informative blogs regarding the repository scene from around the globe. Listed blogs include personal creations from those with first hand experience of repository management and/or technical development of repository software; blogs for specific repositories, projects and software developers; as well as blogs for groups and societies with an interest in the open access movement and digital curation.

Adrian K. Ho has been named the Scholarly Communication Librarian at the Western Libraries of the University of Western Ontario.

Ho is the lead author of the "Open Access Webliography." An e-print of this article, which was published in Reference Services Review, has been retrieved from Digital Scholarship over 63,000 times. Ho's latest project is an investigation of collaborations between research libraries and university presses, which he conducted as part of the Association of Research Libraries' 2007/08 Leadership and Career Development Program. He is a member of the Association of College and Research Libraries' Scholarly Communication Committee. He is also the current Chair of the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services' Collection Development and Electronic Resources Committee.

Ho was formerly the Collections Coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries, where he authored the Transforming Scholarly Communication Weblog. He holds an MA in Communications Studies, an MLIS, and a BA in Humanities.

With grant support from the Open Society Institute, Intelligent Television and BioMed Central are engaged in the Open Access Documentary Project, which is producing videos about the benefits of open access. The first video clips from the project are now available. They are interviews with John Wilbanks, Vice President of Science at the Creative Commons, and Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC.

The University of Tennessee Libraries' "Newfound Press Business Plan, 2008-2011" is available.

Here's an excerpt:

The University of Tennessee Libraries launched its digital imprint, Newfound Press (www.newfoundpress.utk.edu), in 2005 to develop a framework for making peer-reviewed scholarly and specialized works available worldwide. Building on local digitization investments, Newfound Press has published two monographs, with two more in production and a third in the referee process. The Press currently hosts one born-digital journal and is considering a proposal for a second. To experiment with digital multimedia publication, the Press has compiled text, recordings, and ephemera from two scholarly conferences for public access. Through Newfound Press, the University of Tennessee demonstrates an open access publishing model that explores issues such as creating a process for peer review “on the fly,” exploring new channels for the discovery of research results, and establishing credibility as a viable scholarly publications venue.