Highlights: 2010 Bloomsbury Conference on E-Publishing: Day Two

Digital Curation

From Penn State University, the co-directors of the office of digital scholarly publishing Mike Furlough the assistant dean for scholarly communications, and Patrick Alexanderpresented "Humanities Publishing & Data Curation: Eternal Life & Eternal Damnation." The talk dealt with Penn State's Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing (ODSP), a joint collaboration between the University libraries and University Press. Furlough and Alexander discussed the ODSP's mission, which includes the publishing, archiving, and hosting of journal content and digitization of primary sources, such as newspapers.   

Mike Furlough and Patrick Alexander - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation

In the same session Scott Brandt the associate dean for research in Purdue University Libraries, and Charles Watkinson the director of the university press presented "Conceptualizing Library Data Curation and Publishing Services at Purdue University." This presentation offered three lessons that Purdue University Press (PUP) has learned about e-publishing and the "data deluge" currently occurring in scholarship. These include the following:

1. “Researchers want to disseminate outputs, but ranges in scope, format, use." - Print books and subscription-based journals, PUP’s traditional focus, are not enough. PUP / Libraries need to offer a range of different channels to fit different needs. PUP / Libraries need a venue to experiment with hybrid or new model."
2. "Researchers willing to share data with others, but not without certain restrictions/benefits” - PUP provides a layer of editorial services for credentialing that can incentivize data sharing. PUP needs to make it easy to link to and cite data in publications (Datacite so important!). PUP / Libraries need to be nuanced in their Open Access messages (open access is not always right strategy).
3. “What is most easily/willingly shared is not always data that has the most re-use value” - Move away from producing data supplements for publications to producing supplementary publications to drive re-use of data.

An example of how Purdue Libraries/ University Press PUP provides an easy to use "layer of editorial services for credentialing that can incentivize data sharing" - part of "lesson learned" #.

Scott Brandt and Charles Watkinson - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation 

  

Disciplinary Practices and Different Content 

Dr. Claire Warwick, Director of the Digital Humanities Centre at University College London (who spoke in week one of the course) presented "Luddites or Critics? Designing Useful Digital Resources for Humanities Scholars." Her presentation was a critical look at what humanities scholars want and expect from digital research environments. Dr. Warwick was quick to point out that librarians often assume humanities scholars lack the technological knowledge to take full advantage of e-resources. Training, however rarely works, implying that this group will only use resources that "are designed for them - not for the convenience of publishers [and] not for the preferences of librarians (eg Librarians and publishers like advanced search, users almost never use it)." She suggested the solution is to continue to study these users, take their understanding of research environments seriously (physical and digital), and build systems tailored to their needs.

  
Dr. Claire Warwick - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation

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Thoughts on the Conference

This was my first professional conference in the Library Science field. Overall, I would say that the conference, in terms of its speakers, presentations, and organization was outstanding. I was a little surprised that there was little to no focus on "e-books," the theme of the Pratt/UCL course. The conference instead focused mainly of academic e-publishing, particularly data sets. While I wasn't exactly conversant in much of this (frankly, some of it was completely over my head), it was interesting and a necessary crash course into how data is published, utilized, and preserved in an academic library setting. I have no doubt the conference has provided a firm foundation as I move forth in my career.

Highlights: 2010 Bloomsbury Conference on E-Publishing: Day One

Welcome to the Conference!

The conference participants were welcomed in an introduction by Professor David Nicholasof CIBER/UCL,and then it was straight into the presentations and panel discussions.

Dr. Joyce Ray of the Institute of Museums and Library Studies presented on the the importance of digital preservation and curation. She introduced the  Data Lifecycle Model, "a graphical, high-level overview of the stages required for successful curation and preservation of data from initial conceptualisation or receipt."

The Digital Curation Lifecycle Model

Dr. Joyce Ray - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation

Professor David Baker, Deputy Chair of the Board of JISC, spoke about the "Environment and Discovery" of e-publishing and e-publications. This included an explanation of how e-publications are currently shared (see diagram below) and the the work that JISC and other organizations are doing (and need to do) to ease the flow of digital information.

Professor David Baker - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation


Framing the Discussion – Different Perspectives

Kevin Ashley, Director of the JISC Digital Curation Centre presented the facinating "Perspectives on Digital Curation, Data and Publishing: Why, How, Where?"He discussed the importance of data sets and citing and/or referencing data.

Ashley is of the belief that "data in support of publication should be as accessible as the publication itself," meaning that the research data sets used to produce a textual journal publication of findings should accompany the publication to enable as much transparency as possible. New digital environments make this possible (and easy). Making data accessible "increases citation rates" and is therefore better for authors and publishers.

Making data sets available, citable, and discoverable is also vital to supporting reseach accross disciplines. Ashley provided the example that a "data on rock types of Crete" that was created to support a publication in a geological journal could also be used to support an art history journal on a "theory about the sources of pigments used on Minoan pottery."

Kevin Ashley - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation



Wilma Mossink the legal adviser of the Netherlands based Surf Foundation, preseted "Access to Research Data: Action is Needed but What Action?" Continuing Kevin Ashley's discussion on the growing importance of data sets to the research environment, Mossink explored how Surf and other organizations are working to "provide permanent access to research data, enhanced publications & collaboratories." Unfortunately, there are few of these types of projects working to provide "heterogeneous data infrastructure which results in many different forms of data networking & management" and much work remains to be done.
Wilma Mossink - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation



Dr. Eefke Smit, Director of  Technology and Standards, International Association of Science Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) presented "Entering the Data Era; Digital Curation of Data-intensive Science…… and the Role Publishers Can Play." The lecture continued the discussion on data and focused how publishers can adjust to the new data-centric research environment.

Dr. Smit said that most publishers and the scientific community still do not view data as a "publication," a paradigm which, in her view, must end. Digital curation of data also remains a problem, with most research institutions giving little thought to the archival preservation of their data sets.

According to STM, 84% of scientific research institutions have plans to safely preserve their digital data sets, and only 4% have plans to curate them past 2015.

Dr. Smit laid-out ways in which publishers could commit and contribute to the research environment by ensuring digital preservation of data and making it more readily available and sharable:

Dr. Eefke Smit - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation



Research on Researchers

Next-up three leading information scientists shared their knowledge of the use of data by scholars. They included Professor Carol Tenopir of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; Professor Carole Palmer of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Dr. Michael Jubb the director of the Research Information.

The most common theme of these lectures involved the idea that most scholars, especially scientists, are interested in sharing data and that the library, archival, and publishing world must remain committed to developing new methods of providing data access to scholars.

Professor Carol Tenopir - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation
Professor Carole Palmer - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation
Dr. Michael Jubb - Click here to view the PowerPoint Presentation

Visit to The UK National Archives

Today's morning session involved preparation Thursday's conference and a discussion about the issues raised by the course

The afternoon session was held at the Office of Public Sector Information, a division of theNational Archives by Alan Pawsey, Head of Publishing. The Office is located at the heart of British government in Westminster at the Ministry of Justice building. It's job is the publication of all Crown and Parliamentary information that is publicly available. The theme of the lecture was on e-government publishing. Pawsey discussed the Office's responsibilities; how government copyright is handled (it is owned by the Queen and licensed thorough Creative Commons); and publishing techniques (via the internet and print-on-demand services).

Trip to Cambridge

Today was another travel day, which included a visit to the UK headquarters of ProQuest and a meeting with Pembroke College's head librarian and a tour of the library.

The morning session consisted of presentations by staff of ProQuest at their UK headquarters. The detailed program was arts and humanities focused, and included a look at some of  Proquest's digitization efforts, including Early European Books, John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, and soon to be unveiled Vogue magazine archive.

Next up, we traveled by minibus into the Cambridge historic center for lunch at the canal-side Granta pub.

The Granta pub, Cambridge

Next was a visit to Anthony's Aama mater, Pembroke College for a tour of historic college. We then met with head librarian Patricia Aske who spoke about her job managing an historic and functional academic library. Patricia also gave us a tour of library and showed us some of its archival treasures.

The upper floor of the Pembroke College library

Digital Environments, E-Books, and Scholarly Communication

Caren Milloy - JISC Collections

Week two was kicked off with a lecture by Caren Milloy,  Project Manager for JISC Collections. According to their website, JISC Collections is a "membership organization, established by the UK Higher and Further Education funding councils, to support the procurement of digital content for education and research in the UK." Services provided to member libraries include:

• "Expertise in negotiating and procurement, within the scholarly communications sector, to save librarians time and money."
• "High-quality e-resource collections selected for academic research, teaching and learning."
• "Best pricing and licensing, using our collective influence to obtain value for money."
• "Environmental scanning and research into innovative resources, licensing models and evaluation tools."
• "shared knowledge about e-resource acquisition and research."

Karen spoke with us about what JISC does, focusing primarily on e-books/publishing and libraries. She sees one of JISC's main roles as a "form of mediation between publishers and librarians," as the licensing handled by JISC is focused on getting the best price for e-resources, ranging from e-journals, databases, video and sound, and geospatial resources.

It was interesting to learn that pricing is based on a sliding scale, so a large library (such as Oxford) will pay a higher price than a smaller one (such as a local community college). 


Dr. Vanessa Lafaye  - Blackwell Compass

Dr. Vanessa Lafaye of the Blackwell Compass group of journals followed the JISC presentation, and explained how publishers in the humanities are helping scholarly communication by exploiting the possibilities of the digital environment. In her view, publishers are currently embroiled in an "arms race" to develop new technologies to disseminate content. She was quick to point out that nothing is more important than content. According to Dr. Lafaye, "the medium is not the message," as "nothing is more important than the content."

Academic Librarians as Publishers in the Humanities & Social Sciences

Anthony used the last session of today's class to discuss the growing role of libraries as content creators. He explained how academic and research libraries are acting more and more like publishers (interacting directly with authors, creating content, publishing content electronically) and the implications this has for university presses. Libraries have certain opportunities to act as publishers, including "expertise in managing digital data to data publishing" (the dissemination of data); the ability to "get more return from investment in digital platforms by making them into publishing platforms;" and the opportunity to "revitalize university presses" by bringing them back into the fold as central elements of the university world (Anthony maintains that UP are often run by print minded "tweedy-types" who have been on the fringes for decades).

New e-publishing models by private publishers, university presses, and libraries were also covered. He closed out the talk by recommending the following websites for an overview of innovations in e-publishing: 


PLOS - The Public Library of Science - The Library is a publisher of several journals. Originally, these were non-peer-reviewed materials based on the ideas that (1) citation and (2) "the wisdom of the crowds" in a Web 2.0 environment will  provide quality control. The Library has since moved to a traditional peer-review process. 

Bloomsbury Academic - This academic imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. describes itself as "an innovative and exciting new publishing model which will bring your work to the widest possible international audience." The imprint uses an open access model with pay print-on-demand.


Open Humanities Press - The OHP seeks to provide "peer-reviewed literature permanently available, free of charge and freely redistributable by taking advantage of the low cost and wide access of internet distribution." All materials are peer-reviewed.  

Tate Britain and Tate Modern

Today was "Cultural Day" in London led by Pratt SILS' Dean Tula Gianaini.

The day included trips to the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern.

Most of my time at Tate Britain was spent viewing the JMW Turner Collection. In keeping with the ideas presented by the course so far, mainly the notion of technology changing people's perceptions, behaviors, and exceptions about the delivery of information, I viewed Turner's paintings through this lens.

In an era before photography and cinema, Turner's massive canvases presented a medium for people to view mythology, historic and current events, and far away places - much the way cinema (or YouTube) is used today. His art was a visual storytelling/informative device.


In a way, Turner's work can be seen as an emerging technology, as he was pushing the envelope of color and light theory to produce new kinds of image-making. The interactive Color and Line: Turner's Experiments  exhibit demonstrates used scientific experiments to revolutionize watercolor and print making. 

Turner's The Field of Waterloo as exhibited 1818, three years after the battle.

I also viewed and exhibits  related to technology and expectations about its impact on the future - an idea the preoccupies the course.

The Tate describes Gerard Byrne's 1984 and Beyond as 

an installation comprising video, photography and a vinyl text. Across three monitors, the artist presents a re-enactment of a round-table discussion published in Playboy in 1963, in which twelve science-fiction writers - including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke - speculate about what the world might be like in 1984. This discussion is brought to life by Dutch amateur actors who follow the edited text to discuss technology, politics, sex, everyday life and the possibility of finding alien life, all of which appear naïve and anachronistic today.

The video is set in two Dutch locations, Gerrit Rietveld's Sonsbeek sculpture pavilion (which now houses sculptures by Barbara Hepworth) in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and Hugh Maaskant’s Provinciehuis in Den Bosch.

In contrast to the progressiveness and idealism that characterise the dialogue and setting, the video is surrounded by twenty black and white photographs taken in 2005. Shot at different locations across the United States, they depict ordinary scenes that could have been encountered either in the 1960s or today. This interplay between past, present and future creates a paradox, simultaneously evoking past preoccupations and anxieties and speculating about a future that would never come.

Further reading on the exhibit can be found in the Guardian's recent article on the artist. 

1960s Sci-Fi writers discuss their expectations for the future in Gerard Byrne's video instillation

 

Will e-books and new technology really change the world as dramatically as we are predicting, or will we appear "naïve and anachronistic" forty years from now? 

Trip to Oxford (and Oxford UP!)

Today was our first trip out of London to the ancient University at Oxford, where we would get perspectives on how some of the worlds oldest academic institutions is continuing to transition into the digital age.

Oxford University Press

Our first stop was to Oxford University Press, where staff members spoke with us about publishing major print works online.

"Putting Scholarship Online" 
Robert Faber, Editorial Director, Scholarly and General Reference

Mr. Faber largely presented his perspective on e-publishing by talking about the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). He gave us a history of the storied dictionary from its 19th century inception through its digitization (and currently in-progress Third Edition overhaul). Interestingly, digitization was first done in the 1980s as a way of editing and revising the dictionary, "prior to any ideas online futures." The text was first made available on CD-ROM in 1988 and online (via subscription) in 2000.He described the Third Edition as a "modern research project," which will completely rewrite the dictionary.

Faber also spoke about OUP's business models for digital publishing. They are largely pay-per-access subscription based (such as the OED). In web 2.0 environment, Faber said the publisher's role is that of an infomediary, which "creates a place of discussion for and mediates different groups. He said brand awareness is essential, and that the Press must constantly challenge misconceptions about its being archaic and not on the cutting edge of digital technology. 

"Helping Librarians Meet Their Purchases"
Annabel Coles, Marketing Manager, Online Products

Ms. Coles explained how important it is to follow-up and maintain a regular relationship with librarians after the sale of subscriptions to OUP digital products. By continuing to work with libraries, the publisher ensures that the products are being used to their fullest potential (and ensuring that librarians know how to use them and promote them to patrons). From a business perspective, this helps maintain momentum and steadiness of use, which is important as subscription renewals are directly used to usage. 

For public libraries, the Press holds panel days for librarians across the UK in order to aid in training. The publisher sees training as a way to "build a confident staff" who are comfortable teaching OUP online products to patrons. They build a sense of community. Academic librarians are marketed to directly, constantly educating them about new features and capabilities of digital products. In addition to focusing on what the products "can do," the Press openly listens to what the librarians feel the products "should do."

Coles sees discoverability, pulling together searches across library holdings and subscriptions, as the main objective of future advances. What this will look like is open to debate - Is a singe search box possible? Will it resemble an OPAC? Will it resemble Google, or even be developed by Google?

Anthony Watkinson and classmates outside Oxford University Press

Following the presentations, archivist Martin Maw, guided us through the history of OUP on a tour of the Press' museum. It was interesting (and relevent to the course) to view the development of publishing technology from Gutenberg's printing press, to 17th century Fell Types, to the CD-ROM. Martin also gave us further background into the massive undertaking on publishing the First Edition on the OED and spoke about some of the Press' most notable publications such as Alice in Wonderland. 

The museum includes displays on OUP buildings, the 17th century Fell Types, the Oxford Almanacks, and Alice in Wonderland and The Oxford English Dictionary, as well as a 19th century printing press (right) and access to OUP's latest publications online. 

An original copper printing plate from Alice in Wonderland found in the OUP Museum's collection

Next up was lunch at the fabled Eagle and Child pub (also known as the "Bird and Baby"), meeting place of Tolkein, Lewis and other Inklings. 

Eagle and Child pub

Following Lunch, we were taken on a tour of the Bodleian Library led by Mr. Bill Clennell. The Bodleian is the University's main research library. It was founded in 1602, and remains one of Europe's oldest libraries. 

Bodleian Library

Mr. Bill Clennell led the tour of the  Bodleian Library

A virtual tour of the Bodleian Library


After the Bodleian, Anthony led the group on a tour of New College, one of  the University's oldest colleges, having originally been founded in 1379. 

Anthony leads the group through Oxford

New College, Oxford

We closed out the day in Oxford with a trip to the recently refirbished Ashmolean Museum.

The Ashmolean Museum

E-Books & Sage Visit

Are E-Books the Future?

 Today's lectures included two publishers' perspectives on e-publishing.

Ruth Jones - Ingram Digital

According to Anthony, Ingram Digital  has "probably the biggest footprint of any company in the e-book space particularly as an aggregator." Ruth Jones, Director Publisher Business Development spoke with us about Ingram, her job, and the development of the e-book market from the publisher's perspective.

Ruth explained that the e-book trade is a "changing marketplace." There is a new focus on the direct consumer, as opposed to retail or distribution partners (with whom publishers traditionally do their business). Web 2.0 presents new ways to drive content discovery and sales online. Consumers have new expectations, such as relaxation of digital rights management (DRM), content available in multiple formats, and the expectation of content that is "always be available." Green marketing is now a huge factor.

An Apple iBook and its digital bookstore displayed on an iPhone.

Publishers have reacted to these trends by relaxing DRM, simultaneous publication of multiple formats (while also committing to move towards a standardization of formats), and a firm commitment to digitization. Ruth sees mobile devices, such as iPad and e-readers as the future - a place where consumers can "buy anywhere and read anywhere." E-book stores, such as  iBooks, will redefine how people acquire and read books in much the same way iTunes and the iPod redefined how people purchased (or didn't purchase) and listened to music. The unavailing of Google Editions, Google's soon to be opened e-content store, will be a "major game changer" in the market.  

Alison Jones - Palgrave Macmillan 

After a lecture focused to the consumer, Alison Jones, Director of Digital Development atPalgrave Macmillan (a major humanities and social sciences publisher) spoke with us about e-publishing and textbooks and scholarly communication.

Alison broke down Palgrave's e-products into the following categories and explained the business model and common formats for each: journals, monographs, business and professional publications, trade publications, and textbooks.  Other products include e-learning systems (such as their Skills4Study website), mobile apps, virtual learning environments (such as systems that allow for distance learning).  She also briefly introduced Digital Object Identifier system (DOI), which would be discussed throughout the course and conference. 

She discussed the differences between the perspectives of librarians and publishers - mainly the issue of revenue. According to Alison, librarians, who are traditionally concerned with the open flow of information must remember that publishers are for-profit institutions. Her main point - "publishers must make money" in order to keep producing content and maintaining the flow of information.

One of the most interesting aspects of the lecture was the discussion of e-textbooks, and how they represent a shift in the role academic libraries function and how the textbook (and the "book" itself) are being re-conceptualized. While it has traditionally been the financial burden of college students to buy their own print textbooks, there is a growing expectation that academic libraries provide e-textbooks (and related resources) to students. Some publishers, such as Palgrave Macmillan, are also now offering e-textbooks piecemeal - selling individual chapters. This has major implications for how textbook publishers and authors information present information and how it is received by students. It implies that the traditional long form, carefully planned out textual course of learning is being supplanted by fragmentary sources, assembled at will by instructors. 

Visit to Sage Publications

After lunch, Anthony led the by tube from Bloomsbury to the East London offices of SAGE Publications Ltd. 
Our host was Martha Sedgewick, Sr. Manager, Online Product Development, who spoke to us about e-resources in the social sciences, and SAGE's e-content portal Research Methods Online. 

Huw Alexander, Rights and Digital Sales Manager, also spoke to us about the difficulty in defining and conceptualizing "what e-books are."   He took us through the "Why? Where? Who? and What?" of what e-books are - the main points being that they are searchable, discoverable, space saving, and represent "freedom to learn anywhere" and "spontaneity of purchase." Hwe said that e-books and "what they are" and how people will use them will change and continue to redefine the concept of the book. He left us with a quote from Alan Kay - "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."