How to survive the clash between e-resources and budgets

Summary of and reactions to "Coping with Economic Issues and a Paradign Shift in Collections" by Regina Koury, chapter two of "Managing Electronic Resources: a LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.

"Directory of Open Access Books" (DOAB) review

From the press release for the launch of DOAB, the "Directory of Open Access Books" or "DOAB" is:

a discovery service for peer reviewed books published under an Open Access license. DOAB provides a searchable index to the information about these books, with links to the full texts of the publications at the publisher’s website or repository. 

CONTENT

The site claims to contain "854 academic peer-reviewed books" as of April 26, 2012 but my check found only 841 (by counting the number of titles under each letter in the alphabetical browse by title list).  Perhaps I missed a number or two when adding?  Perhaps there are titles not listed in that browse by list?  Not sure.  Regardless, although this is a relatively small number for a useful collection of ebooks, the Open Access (OA) book 'industry' (if you can call it that) is still new and the resource was only launched two weeks ago so the low number is understandable.

Looking through the browse by publisher list, there are some recognizable publishers (e.g. Taylor & Francis) plus several university presses (e.g. University of Michigan Press).  And there's already a pretty wide subject coverage (pure and applied sciences, arts and humanities, social sciences, etc.).

NAVIGATION

As is common with new resources now, DOAB has a very simple navigation and interface.  The pages are very clean, being mostly white with really no clutter.  There's a Google-like single keyword-search box on the front page (which seems to search all fields except "pages").  This search does not auto-wildcard meaning that it will not find the text string entered as a part of the meta-data.  For example, it did not find a book with "Donation" in the title when searching "donati".  It also includes an advanced search which allow the combination of search boxes with a Boolean connector searching specific fields, plus date range specification.

Some search related odds and ends:

• Not all entries have subject headings which is odd.  The database does include cover images for the books, which is nice (and probably almost mandatory for today's users).
• Search results display include faceted search functionality on the right.
• Subjects (at least in the browse by subject list) are quite limited and rather high level.  This ok with only 800-900 titles but it will be increasingly painful as the directory grows.
• No author browse function.
• Not a target in the SFX Link Resolver yet.  (This is understandable.)

CONCLUSION

This is a good showing for such a new resource.  And it's certainly good for the OA book movement which needs more promotion and supporting resources.  This is made by the makers of the "Directory of Open Access Journals" (or DOAJ) which has done well so far.  Many libraries appreciate the DOAJ data and add the "collection" to their list of accessible ejournals.  Books are a different kettle of fish than journals but it's probably safe to assume a possible similar trajectory for DOAB.  IMHO, I would add this to a small-medium sized library's "collection" of eresources.

"Day Zero" is bland to do list tool

I heard about "Day Zero" through Lifehacker. It says that "If you've got a list of a few things in your head that you really want to get done 'someday', consider actually writing them down at Day Zero." It claims that this will somehow motivate you.

Now, I'm all for productivity tools, tools to record my goals and my efforts, tools that will help me get done what I want and need to get done. But I'm not sure how this "Day Zero" is supposed to help. Writing your goals down is pretty much all it does. I can do that anywhere. It does allow you to write them all down and gives you a handy list, with tagging and a nice countdown feature but I'm afraid that that won't cut it for me. I already have a tool that will do that and more (RTM). Hell, I could do that with Excel.

But maybe you'll have a different take. Go check it out. Tell me if you see anything more to it than I can.

About HathiTrust

Thanks, Library Journal...  Just read "Unlocking HathiTrust: Inside the Librarians' Digital Library" an interview with some of those knowledgeable about the HathiTrust which is something, as a Canadian electronic resources librarian, I've heard about many times but not had the chance to really learn much about directly.

The HathiTrust is primarily about preserving the "cultural record" digitally and providing access to it as much as is legally allowed.  Most is not accessible to everyone, or even almost anyone, but the point is that it is preserved and ready, format-wise, to be accessible given the correct environment and technology in the future.

I've only had a chance to browse the collection briefly but the navigation looks simple and the design is clean.

I am interested in understanding more about the scope of the collection:  every "about" statement seems to be rather general in terms of what they are looking to add to the collection.  This is a collaboration of U.S. institutions so I'm assuming there is a bit of an American bias.  Perhaps there is a Canadian effort that is similar.  I haven't heard of such a thing but I am not all-knowing.  lol

Check out HathiTrust.

"I don't dare laugh, down at the library."

This is Carol Burnett portraying a library worker (she doesn't claim to be a librarian in the video, although she does suggest reference work in addition to shelving) on The Lucy Show.

(Update 20110628: Video has been removed from Youtube and I have been unable to find a replacement. See comment from 20101031.)

[ Found this through an RSS feed entry from one of my favourite library related comic strips, Shelf Check. ]

Blogs for all...

libraries doing good things with blogs : Collection of blogs created by and/or for libraries. Interesting. I should suggest that we do something like that.

Crocodile smiles...

This is an interesting test to see if you can tell the difference between fake smiles and real ones. I got 12 out of 20 which is apparently ok. [Found this link while reading this entry from Life of Brian.]

What would you do...

Right versus right: Should public librarian turn police informant? : Excellent and thought provoking little article about library ethics in this age of information paranoia. These questions are more important now that institutions can manipulate, store, and even ask for information so seamlessly.

"Humane" Society...

Just when I thought that I was done finding funny sites... then this one found me.

Funny names...

OK... You've got to check this page out. Potty/chemistry humour at it's finest. And although it titles itself "Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names", the majority of them are not so much silly or unusual but just crude. Still funny though.

[ Check out "Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names" by Paul May from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry ]