IFLA Conference in San Juan, (Puerto Rico) USA

I have attended the "World Library and Information Congress and 77th General Conference and Assembly" of International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) at San Juan, Puerti Rico (USA) during 12-18 August 2011. You can read the proceedings and papers from program site.

I have been elected to the Standing committee of IFLA Acquisition Colection Development Section and attended its two important meetings. See a group photo here. I am standing 4th from left, with other members of this committee comes from around the world. (Click on the photo for a better view). I have been involved with IFLA since 2002, when I received IFLA-OCLC fellowship. I was previously a Standing Committee member for IFLA Academic research Libraries Section (2004-2009).

ACD Watch

I will be contributing regular column called "ACD Watch" to the IFLA Acquisition Collection Development Section newsletter. Here is the abstract of that post.

Please read all issues from here

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ACD Watch: Latest in Acquisition and Collection Development

–by J.K. Vijayakumar

1. TERMS: Techniques for electronic resource management

Jill Emery, Collection Development Librarian at Portland State University, and Graham Stone, Information Resources Manager at the University of Huddersfield, through their blog called TERMS: Techniques for ER Management are trying to research around workflow management at the various stages in the life cycle of electronic resources. They will add a new TERM every 2 weeks for interested people to review and comment on each of them. They also encourage any suggestions and tips from your workplace experiences. In this way they hope to crowd source TERMS through open peer commentary with a view to providing a first definitive draft in early 2012. Their plan to keep the TERMS blog live after this date so that TERMS will become a reference point to those who are new to e-resource management and for those who may want to implement its recommendations of best practice.

Source: UKSG Mailing List message sent on 09/14/2011 by Graham Stone from G.Stone@hud.ac.uk URL: http://6terms.tumblr.com/

2. eBook subscription services – are libraries screwed?

Sue Polanka collected several news reports and worrying that, library lending services might be in trouble after the new style of eBooks subscription services, announced by famous Amazon and Macmillan’s new entrant Afictionado etc. Blogger says “I worry about the library perspective because many people who can afford an eBook reader can probably afford a $79 annual subscription for Amazon Prime as well” (and forget libraries!).

Source: No Shelf Required blog entry dated 09/14/2011 by spolanka URL: http://www.libraries.wright.edu/noshelfrequired/2011/09/14/ebook-subscription-services-are-libraries-screwed/

3. OCLC and OhioLINK report on book usage patterns in academic libraries

This report is based on a joint study to better understand the usage patterns of books in academic libraries and support further research in these areas. Study incorporated usage data from 2007-2008, was limited to books and manuscripts because these materials typically circulate, and circulation is a significant element in evaluating collections. Our long espoused belief that 80 percent of a library’s circulation is driven by approximately 20 percent of the collection (80/20 rule) is contradicts in this study where it is found that, 80 percent of the circulation is driven by just 6 percent of the collection.

Source: OhioLINK Collection Building Task Force, Julia Gammon and Edward T. O’Neill. 2011. OhioLINK OCLC Collection and Circulation Analysis Project 2011. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research. URL: http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2011/2011-06r.htm

4. Patron Driven Acquisitions (Demand-Driven Acquisition)

In her blog entry, Amrita Mckinney from Qatar University includes few articles, some blog posts on the subject, and links to vendors (that I know of) providing PDA models.

Source: Qatar Libraries Special Interest Group Blog URL: http://qlibtech.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/patron-driven-acquisitions/

5. Academic E-books – The Shifting Landscape

Leslie Lees, the VP of Content Development for ebrary discussed changes that are occurring with e-books and implications for libraries and their users in InfoViews blog, in 5 series of entries. He says “E-books have brought a sea of new challenges to the fore, but there is also an opportunity for libraries, publishers, and the academy to enhance research capabilities and experiences by using data to enrich selection choices, business models and publication strategies for the benefit of all”.

Source: InfoViews blog entry on 09/22/2011 URL: http://mhdiaz.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/series-wrap-up-academic-e-books-the-shifting-landscape/

6. Propositions about the future of academic collections

John M. Jackson in his blog, describes the current and future state of collection development as a paradigm shift: from ownership to access, individual use to social use, content management to knowledge management. This 3 part blog entry ends with Ranganathan’s fifth law “library is a growing organism” and like any organism, it adapts to its environment or it risks extinction.

Source: Ink and Vellum Blog entry on 09/11/2011 URL: http://inkandvellum.com/blog/2011/09/propositions-about-the-future-of-academic-collections-part-3/

Dr. J. K. Vijayakumar is a member of IFLA Acquisition and Collection Development Standing Committee (2011-15). He is Science and Technology Specialist Librarian at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology in Saudi Arabia.

Please read all issues from here

Two More conferences

e-Society-2012 will be held in Berlin (Germany) during 10-13 March 2012.



WWW/Internet 2011 will be held in Rio de Janeiro, (Brazil) during 5 - 8 November 2011.

Two New Conference

DEXA-2010 will be held in SPAIN (30 Aug-3 Sept 2010)

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IADIS e-Society-2010 will be held in Portugal (18-21 March 2010)

Congrats to IFLA-OCLC Fellows Class - 2010

As an IFLA-OCLC Fellow of 2002 Class, let me congratulate the following Fellows of 2010 Class.

Miss Sasekea Harris, Librarian, University of the West Indies, St. Andrew, Jamaica
Mr. Mahmoud Khalifa, Cataloger Librarian, Library of Congress, Cairo Office, Cairo, Egypt
Mr. Elchin Mammadov, Senior Information Specialist, Baku American Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
Ms. Catherine Muriuki, University Librarian, Pan Africa Christian University, Nairobi, Kenya
Miss Sidra Shan, Assistant Librarian, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Miss Shao Yan, Group Leader, National Library of China, Beijing, China

Applications are invited for 2011 Fellowship....Apply here

Here is the Photo of IFLA-OCLC Fellows Class -2002

International Conference on Academic Libraries (ICAL-2009)

The International Conference on Academic Libraries (ICAL-2009) is being organized by Delhi University Library System from 5th to 8th October, 2009. The scope of the conference will be: knowledge sharing, ICT management, digital repository management, e-teaching, e-tutorials, stronger library-faculty relationships, and user centric services. The conference will provide an opportunities to identify the strengths and gaps in the academic library system, and to suggest new management models, mechanisms, policies, and national and international programmes for reshaping academic libraries into next generation libraries for the higher education. More details

‡biblios.net (Open Access in Cataloguing - OPAC 2.0)

LibLime [the leader in Open Source Library Solutions] announced the launch of ‡biblios.net–a free browser-based cataloging service with a data store containing over thirty-million records. Records are licensed under the Open Data Commons, making the service the world’s largest repository of freely-licensed library records.

‡biblios.net (pronounced ‘biblios dot net’) features an intuitive metadata editor complete with templates, macros, authority auto-completion and embedded context-sensitive help. The central record repository contains 25-million bibliographic records and just under eight-million authority records. The data is maintained by ‡biblios.net users similar to the model used by Wikipedia. Catalogers can use and contribute to the database without restrictions because records in ‡biblios.net are freely-licensed under the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (https://biblios.net/open-data-commons-license).

‡biblios.net also includes a built-in federated search system allowing catalogers to find records from any Z39.50 target. A central Search Target Registry, seeded with over 2,000 Z39.50 servers, makes it easy for catalogers to find, create and share Z39.50 targets.

Read the press release and liste to the Podcast of Josh Ferraro (the CEO of LibLime)

So, time arrived for "Open Access Cataloguing"? Would the arrival of this Open Data Movement be a real challenge to WorldCat and GoogleBookSearch?

Ranking Web of World Repositories

Ranking Web of World Repositories just published the latest ranking of January 2009. Check the top 300 World repositories and top 300 Institutional repositories

Among World repositories, IISc from India stands 39th and ISI stands 105th. The leading International Repository in Library and Information Science and Technology called "E-LIS" 19th in the ranking.

Among Institutional repositories from India, IISc repository stands 28th and ISI repository stands 89th.

Methodology:

Using as basis the data from the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) and The Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpendOAR) the list of repositories is compuled accroding to certain conditions. See more details here about the methodilogy used.

International Journal of Web Applications

International Journal of Web Applications, a peer reviewed journal from DIRF is expected to launch its first issue on March 2009.

The journals website syas;

In the last few years there is a growing demand for different web applications. As the demand for applications increase, research is now focused on many directions, to leverage new architectures, improve scalability, developing new frameworks, introducing new development platforms, building multi-tier applications, enhance scripting languages, improving filters, introducing security platforms and so on.

In the web applications we experience many generations. While the first level generation was primitive with little scope and features, the subsequent generations look at improving technology, functions and features in the web world.

Realizing the need to document the current research in the Web applications, this international journal has been initiated. The “International Journal of Web Applications” (IJWA) intents to be a high quality referred journal. The IJWA invites original contributions in the areas listed below. The IJWA publishes research papers, technical reports, book reviews and notifications. Each submission undergoes extensive review.

Visit International Journal of Web Applications

GreyNet Goes Green !

GreyNet's Archive migrates to OpenSIGLE Repository

For the past 15 years, GreyNet has sought to serve researchers and authors in the field of grey literature. To further this end, GreyNet has signed on to the OpenSIGLE Repository and in so doing seeks to preserve and make openly available research results originating in the International Conference Series on Grey Literature. GreyNet together with colleagues at INIST-CNRS have designed the format for a metadata record, which encompasses standardized PDF attachments of the full-text conference preprints, PowerPoint presentations, abstracts and biographical notes. More details here