The Future of the Universities starts from the Library

How many universities have realized that the future of their intellectual excellence is in their libraries.

For example, Harvard started from a library, and now it is renewing its world-leading research hub by its "digital-plus” -project. Provost, Steven E. Hyman, who chaired the Library Task Force said just recently that "Over time, a lack of coordination has led to a fragmented collection of collections that is not optimally positioned to respond to the 21st century information needs of faculty and students."

In similar vein, "Harvard West", Stanford realized the digital challenge already before the Milennium. Stanford Library started a project with the help of couple of computer science grad students. The project was so succesful that a company was later formed around its ideas. The name of the company is Google. Stanford's library and Google still cooperates.

See more about Harvard's Task Forces recommendations from its report.

Scientific Publishing: Breakthrough on "Open Access"

Five leading American universities have agreed to join their forces to embrace "open access" publishing. The institutions that issued the pledge for journals that are published online and free are: Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT, and the University of California at Berkeley. The universities involved are inviting others to join them.

Interestingly, for example Stanford, Princeton, and Yale are not participating the efforts yet. Furthermore, it would be important for the cause that also the leading European and Asian universities will join the initiative. Who will be the first to announce this, that's the question.

Of course, the reactions from the industry of scientific publishers would be good to hear too.

Sources: Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Library Journal.

EU Commission is for Digital Economy

Digital economy can lift Europe out of crisis, says Commission report.

The Future of Information Business: Google vs. Book Publishers

The Google Books Settlement and the Future of Information Access is discussed in a conference at Berkeley, California August 28, 2009. Interesting to hear the latest about the future of information business. Sadly, due to space limitations, the conference is by invitation only.

Anyway, see the conference schedule here.

Free Online Textbooks

Financially troubled California is among the firsts starting to use open source course material in schools instead of expensive textbooks, says the New York Times.

Instant Book Publishing - Extensions for the News

News is good for marketing 'instant' books about - the latest topics of the news, of course. This piece of The New York Times tells that one month, or only three weeks, is the time gap nowadays between finishing the manuscript and the printed book.

"For generations the publishing industry has worked on a fairly standard schedule, taking nine months to a year after an author delivered a manuscript to put finished books in stores. Now, enabled in part by e-book technology and fueled by a convergence of spectacularly dramatic news events, publishers are hitting the fast-forward button."