1) BioMed Central launches repository service for institutions: An
interesting new development in the Institutional Repository space, with
PubMed offering to set up DSPACE for an institution, convert content,
and even host the Institutional Repository service.
2) Blue Ribbon Panel Takes on Future of NISO. Distinguished Leaders of
Information Industry Focus on Standardization for Tomorrow: news of a
major strategic planning endeavor undertaken by NISO (with whom DLF
works closely, most recently on the implementation and development of
the Electronic Resource Management Initiative work).
David
**********************************************************
From: Grace Baynes [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 September 2004 11:15
PRESS RELEASE: 13 September 2004
BioMed Central launches repository service for institutions
BioMed Central, the Open Access Publisher, today launched a repository
service for universities and research institutions. Open Repository has
been conceived in direct response to demand in the market.
The UK House of Commons Science & Technology Committee report
'Scientific
Publications: Free for all?*' and The U.S. House Appropriations
Committee
draft report, concerning NIH-funded research, are two of the strongest
calls for mandating Open Access to the published results of publicly
funded research. Around the world there are increasing moves towards
Open
Access by government and funding bodies, meaning that institutional
repositories are fast becoming a necessity.
Open Repository offers professional help to institutions to quickly and
easily build, launch, maintain, and populate their institutional
repositories. The service has been designed to be flexible and
cost-effective. The Open Repository service makes it possible for
institutions that could not otherwise afford to, or lack the
infrastructure or technical capacity in-house, to set up repositories.
Jan Velterop, Publisher and Director of BioMed Central explains why Open
Repository is being launched,
"Institutional repositories have great potential for opening up the
scientific literature. Their potential, however, will only be fully
realised if those repositories are set up well and in such a way that
their content is truly freely accessible, which involves adherence to
established formatting and metadata standards as well as linking to, and
embedding in, the worldwide network of science literature. We already do
this for our own journals."
Open Repository offers a number of different levels of service, to fit
with a university or institution's requirements. For a one-off set-up
fee,
BioMed Central will build the repository with open source software
D-Space, with complete customization to the customer's requirements.
Repositories built under the scheme will be able to accept a wide
variety
of publication types. It is then up to the institution whether they wish
BioMed Central to host and run the repository or to transfer operation
and
maintenance to themselves. The institution remains the owner of the
repository.
For an annual fee, BioMed Central offers to maintain the repository and
guarantee ongoing customer support. BioMed Central's Open Repository
service will include converting articles to PDF and XML. Advanced search
functionality will be a part of the service, as will links to and from
databases, for example PubMed, and via CrossRef to the body of
scientific
literature.
Velterop continues,
"BioMed Central is uniquely placed to offer this service, given the
company's extensive experience and expertise in successfully building
and
running its Open Access publishing platform, which is in effect a highly
complex implementation of a repository. At BioMed Central we see Open
Repository as complementary to our fast-growing stable of Open Access
journals, currently 110 titles, in accelerating the widespread
availability of Open Access to research results."
About BioMed Central
BioMed Central (www.biomedcentral.com/) is an independent online
publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge
to
the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This
commitment is based on the view that open access to research is
essential
to the rapid and efficient communication of science. In addition to
open-access original research, BioMed Central also publishes reviews and
other subscription-based content.
*The Science and Technology Committee, Tenth Report of Session 2003-04,
Scientific Publications: Free for all? (HC 399-I).
Extract from the report:
The UK House of Commons Report recommended that "the requirement for
universities to disseminate their research as widely as possible be
written into their charters. In addition, SHERPA should be funded by
DfES
to allow it to make grants available to all research institutions for
the
establishment and maintenance of repositories." (Recommendation 43)
Further, the Committee said "We recommend that the Research Councils and
other Government funders mandate their funded researchers to deposit a
copy of all their articles in their institution's repository within one
month of publication or a reasonable period to be agreed following
publication, as a condition of their research grant." (Recommendation
44)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/
3991
4.htm
Grace Baynes
Marketing Communications Manager
BioMed Central
Middlesex House
34-42 Cleveland Street
London W1T 4LB
T: +44 (0)20 7631 9988
F: +44 (0)20 7580 1938
http://www.biomedcentral.com/
*****************************************************************
2) Blue Ribbon Panel Takes on Future of NISO. Distinguished Leaders of
Information Industry Focus on Standardization for Tomorrow.
Bethesda, MD - September 7, 2004 - With a charter to evaluate the
progress, challenges, and opportunities of the National Information
Standards Organization (NISO), eleven experts from industry, academia,
and the library community have accepted seats on NISO's Blue Ribbon
Panel. The Panel will play a central role in the yearlong strategic
planning exercise, which NISO's Board of Directors launched in May 2004.
The Mellon Foundation has provided funding in support of the Panel. The
Panel's formal report will be open for public review and comment later
this year.
"We are extremely pleased that Clifford Lynch has agreed to chair the
Blue Ribbon Panel of respected community leaders who will provide
objective advice and guidance to the Board," noted Jan Peterson, NISO
Board Chair and Vice President, Content Development, of Infotrieve, Inc.
"The commitment of these highly regarded individuals is further
confirmation of the importance of standards in the distribution of
information, as well as NISO's role in developing those standards."
Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information,
has earned recognition in the information community for his
contributions to awareness and understanding of issues facing digital
libraries, such as digital rights management and digital preservation.
In accepting the role of Panel Chair, he stated, "The landscape for
making and using standards has changed drastically in the last few
years, raising new issues and choices for NISO. A key goal of this panel
is to take a dispassionate, external, and multi-dimensional look at this
landscape to offer guidance and frame possible futures for the NISO
board, and I am sure I speak for everyone on the panel in saying that we
are glad to be of help to NISO at this important juncture in its
organizational evolution."
In addition to Lynch, NISO's Blue Ribbon Panel includes (in alphabetical
order) Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President of Research, OCLC, Inc.; Karen
Hunter, Senior Vice President, Elsevier Science, New York, NY; Ron
Larsen, Dean, School of Information Services, University of Pittsburgh;
Sarah Ann Long, Director of the North Suburban Library System, Wheeling,
Illinois; Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services,
Library of Congress; Eric Miller, Semantic Web Activity Lead, World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C); Kent Smith, Retired, former Deputy Director,
National Library of Medicine; Diana Oblinger, Vice President for
EDUCAUSE; Jenny Walker, Vice President Marketing and Business
Development, Information Services Division, Ex Libris (USA), Newton, MA;
and Ann Wolpert, Director of Libraries, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
About NISO
NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and
publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and
ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and
new technologies to the full range of information-related needs,
including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation.
NISO Standards, information about NISO's activities and membership are
featured on the NISO website http://www.niso.org.
|
