AKA the links from this month’s IRN that I find most intriguing:

• http://uk.current.com/
• http://elgg.org/
• http://www.freebase.com/signin.html
• http://programmableweb.com/
• http://www.rss4lib.com/
• http://www.allthingsweb2.com/

33 Reasons Why Libraries and Librarians are Still Extremely Important

I especially like this bit in the conclusion:

Instead of regarding libraries as obsolete, state and federal governments should increase funding for improved staffing and technology. Rather than lope blindly through the digital age, guided only by the corporate interests of web economics, society should foster a culture of guides and guideposts. Today, more than ever, libraries and librarians are extremely important for the preservation and improvement of our culture.

Exciting stuff.

A group of scholarly societies is uniting to create more direct access to their collective content. In June, thirteen of the world’s leading science and technology societies will launch scitopia.org, a free federated vertical search portal that will enable users to explore the research most cited in scholarly work and patents in a single click. Scitopia.org will aggregate the entire electronic libraries of the leading voices in major science and technology disciplines. More than three million documents, including peer-reviewed journal content and conference proceedings, spanning 150 years of science and technology will be searched through this dedicated gateway.

Read the official press release: (it’s a pdf)
Sci-Tech Societies Unite to Create Super Research Site

Check it out: Scitopia.org

I recently wrote a few pages about Open Access myself, for a take-home test in my Collection Development course.  Since I was writing at about five in the morning, it’s hard to remember if what I said made any sense (I tend not to look back over my assignments once I’ve handed them in).  I do remember that my tone was very much pro-OA, and that my title was “Open Access (or Close the Door)”.  If I did make sense, then I hope that my paper resembled somewhat the one recently written by Alma Swan for American Scientist Online.

Swan argues against the current way we disseminate research:

“But no one would say, “Hey, why don’t we only let some researchers see this stuff and see how science gets on?” Yet that is precisely where we are today, in a system where gateways limit access to research results, and as a consequence only a small fraction of the world’s research libraries subscribe to some journals. The gentleman’s club survives, if only as metaphor.”

Swan goes on to cite multiple ways in which an open access publishing model would improve scientific research.  I’m sure it makes a bit more sense than my paper did, but the sentiment is very much the same.

Open access, or close the door.

Read the article:
American Scientist Online - Open Access and the Progress of Science