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The emerging debate over whether print or online publishing is better for the environment is complicated by the fact that there is not yet a measurement system that publishers, readers, librarians and other interested parties can go by. Both mediums have their pros and cons. Paper is made from a renewable resource, but the supply chain involved in getting a book from printer to reader is extremely inefficient, both economically and in terms of climate impact. E-books and databases have a considerable environmental impact due to the way they are stored as well as the necessary electronics needed to access them, but professionals as well as the public often assume e-publications are better for the environment. The industry needs ways to quantify its ecological footprint before it can make informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

June 2012 saw publication of the Finch report into expanding access to published research findings, the UK Government's response to the report and the issuing of a revised policy on open access publication of research papers by the UK Research Councils. All appear to be driving the UK towards the world's most rigorous adoption of open access publication of publicly funded research outputs. This article looks at the potentially profound consequences of these steps for publishers, librarians and researchers in the UK, and for scholarly communications in general, not least for the centuries-old model of peer review. It concludes that the success of the policy will depend to a considerable extent on the availability of funding and mechanisms to support it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG) seminar held at the British Library of Political and Economic Science in London, England, on July 7, 2004. The papers presented gave practical examples of how different sectors of the library community deal with electronic journals and the workshops gave the opportunity for librarians, publishers and subscription agents to come together to share experiences. The day started with a welcome and introduction by Jill Taylor-Roe, a UKSG representative and Chair for the day. Andrew Booth, director of information resources at the School of Health and Related Research of the University of Sheffield, was the first speaker. His paper looked at the issues surrounding open access and the benefits for the academic community. Whatever the future is for open access publishing this was a thought-provoking session for librarians, subscription agents and publishers alike. The next speaker, Carole Woods, information manager at GlaxoSmithKline, gave us an insight into a day in the life of an electronic journal librarian. Woods started by giving the background and history of her role. As with many of us, Woods was initially responsible for print journals but gradually her role has evolved until she is now responsible for over 4,000 electronic journal titles and approximately 81 global licenses.

In the United States '20/20' means normal vision, being clear sighted. In the digital book community,'2020' now has a different meaning -- the British Library's prescient understanding of 'the book' 15 years from now, in the year 2020. It is based on first-rate research, the best that we have. But it is a partial view. This paper suggests where we have come from, where we are now, and where -- perhaps -- we might be going. It highlights the importance to publishers of product life cycle management and all that entails, and explains the concept of the publisher-producer. The short history of the e-book has embraced both vision and the visionary but we need to be sceptical of technology's wilder promises for the period up to 2020. Yet the future prospect is positive: there should be every confidence that the new generation joining the industry will rise to the publishing challenges outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the various opportunities that might be available to promote the e-resources held within an institution. In the current decade an ever increasing percentage of tightly stretched library budgets is spent on e-resources (databases, back-file packages, current e-journals, textbooks, image databanks and reference works). As these are part of a virtual library they are not always noticed or fully exploited by their target audience. This paper looks at some possibilities to publicize e-resources, making these important collections more visible, and considers how these resources, in particular electronic journals, can be made accessible, useful, relevant and obvious to the library customer. Topics discussed include information literacy sessions, library branding, 'spreading the word', ensuring value for money and 'making it fun'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a letter from the editor of "Serials" concerning the July 2008 issue. The issue features articles from Muir Gray of the NHS National Knowledge Service, who discusses issues regarding peer review and editing standards in medical literature, and Kevin Guthrie of Ithaka, who looks at the future of scholarly communication and compares it to newspaper publishing. There is also a paper that describes the state of scholarly publishing in Japan and a paper examining why libraries lose access to electronic journals.

The debate over scholarly communications and the future of publishing continues to simmer. Open access (OA) is seen to be a Good Thing in principle, but how does it work, how much does it cost and who pays for it? A pilot study in supporting 'gold' and 'green' open access at the University of Birmingham is examining the costs to the institution and the requirements of the funders, researchers, research administrators and the Library. Information from the pilot will be used to recommend a practical way forward that meets the needs of different research disciplines and cultures, in the context of the University's research strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of electronic journals (e-journals) in Western Europe and North America has been widely reported. The rapid development of e-journal publishing in China is less well known. This paper provides a brief introduction to the development of e-journals in China before examining their impact on libraries,particularly academic libraries. Several factors that may have affected the growth of e-journals are noted, including the nature of government initiatives and pedagogical methods. As well as pointing to and reviewing some of the limited literature on the development of the publishing industry, the researchers also conducted some interviews in China. To provide an initial understanding of the impact on libraries, a small survey of academic libraries was undertaken. In addition, a study of the perspectives of the academic and library staff of Shandong University, one of China's largest universities, identified specific effects on user behaviour, the library staff and the budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological changes are providing opportunities for easier access to publicly-funded research. While these opportunities for easier access have been growing, concerns have been expressed that current business models are preventing their realization. Even well-funded university libraries are unable to purchase all the books and journals required by researchers and learners. A survey conducted by JISC, CURL and SCONUL looked at six situations of access in one UK university to the research papers and books written by researchers in another comparable UK university. The survey indicates that UK researchers and learners may not have access to around one-third of publications by researchers in other UK universities. The shortfall in access varies from university to university and relates to all types of content but particularly to books and journals from smaller publishers. Targeted additional funding and support for new access models are suggested to improve access for UK researchers to UK research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For students with print impairments, e-books offer great potential to remove barriers to information. However, for various reasons, not all e-books are fully accessible. Significant variability exists between different platforms and titles. To benchmark e-book accessibility, a group of library and disability professionals across the UK higher education sector organized a crowdsourced e-book accessibility audit, using simple criteria to capture end-user experiences. The audit can act as a framework for librarians and e-book providers to discuss accessibility and effect improvements. This audit was of 275 e-books from 65 publishers across 44 platforms, resulting in an interactive spreadsheet on the project website and individual feedback reports for each platform. Most of the volunteer auditors had little accessibility expertise so a byproduct of the process was training to introduce key accessibility concepts and support for those using the audit tool. This paper explores the process, including key findings from a follow-up questionnaire for testers. The results indicate increased awareness of e-book accessibility and empathy for disabled learners and an appetite for further training, in particular using e-books with screen reading and text-to-speech software. The study suggests crowdsourced research can be highly effective on multiple levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HHuLOA (Hull, Huddersfield, Lincoln Open Access) project is a two-year Jisc-funded project, which seeks to identify how open access (OA) support mechanisms can be used to assist with the development of research. One such area is policy landscape, which has shifted dramatically in the past two years. Many academic staff have been left confused, frustrated and stressed by new obligations placed upon long-established publishing practices and by the way in which these changes have been communicated. This paper describes the project's initial work undertaken in this area, with the aim of enabling academic audiences to better navigate the policy environment they find themselves in to comply and better understand the rights they have when using OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the humanities-based scholarly journal is in jeopardy, plagued by financial difficulties and low subscription numbers. These factors can hinder publication and keep valuable research from reaching the reading public - which is often specialized and small - in a timely manner. With the advent of the computer age and new electronic publishers flooding the market, publishing online is not only more economically feasible for existing publishers but is also a solution that benefits libraries who are seeking to free themselves from the restrictions of print. This paper illustrates how arts and humanities publications must move forward and embrace new technologies if they are to survive and prosper in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is viewed as a consumer of the world's knowledge production. A significant factor influencing this status is the low research output, with the main contributor to this status being minimum access to scholarly content to support research. Stellenbosch University, a leading research institution on the African continent, is committed to contributing to changing this status quo through the distribution of its own research output utilizing open sources. Given the challenges that have plagued Africa in developing processes for the distribution of their research, Stellenbosch University has developed the African Open Access Repository Initiative (AOARI) which uses open source software for two platforms that support the 'green' and 'gold' route to sharing scholarly literature: Ubuntu is used as the operating system, DSpace is used for its repository and Open Journal Systems for its publication platform. It is anticipated that AOARI will be the bridge that facilitates the sharing of research output and nurtures a culture of research production in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As they re-engineer workflows and rewrite the laws of publishing in the transition to online, scholarly publishers face great opportunities but also significant challenges, not least because users' expectations are formed by their experience of the internet giants with whom they interact daily. Publishers need to focus on both the discoverability and the delivery of their content to meet these expectations successfully; by leveraging human and machine networks they can enrich both their content and their users' experience of it through serendipitous connections. This paper focuses on Palgrave Macmillan's Palgrave Connect e-book platform, launched in 2009, as an example of such innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the initial findings of a pilot project between the University of York Library and Springer, which was instigated in order to evaluate the potential of a user-driven purchasing model for Springer e-book collections. Springer granted the University of York Library free access to its 2005-2009 e-book collections for a three-month period. In return, York has analyzed the usage and assessed which collections and copyright years have been used the most. The purchasing model has potential but careful consideration needs to be given to the pricing that would underpin it. At a time when many libraries are finding it difficult to invest in new products such as e-book collections, libraries and publishers need to work together to develop and evaluate flexible purchasing and pricing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an analysis of COUNTER e-book usage reports for SpringerLink e-book collections purchased since July 2008 at the University of Liverpool. The usage reports were augmented with contextual title-level information drawn from Springer's eBooks Title List. The combined data was used to study how usage of e-books is influenced by factors such as the subject area, the year of publication and the length of time since the collection was acquired. Analysis was performed to simulate the effects of user-driven purchasing to determine whether this model could apply to this type of content. The study concludes that this 'big deal' approach has worked well: all but one of the subject areas have been well used, the number of unused titles continues to diminish each year, older titles continue to attract significant usage, and the cost-per-use is relatively low. The challenge remains to find pricing models that allow more libraries to acquire e-book collections when budgets may be largely committed to journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publishing community expresses ambivalence about the journal impact factor (JIF), yet its use continues to proliferate. New proposals to amend, replace, or supplement it abound, but it is unclear whether any of the alternatives offer significant improvement. In spite of new approaches from Thomson Scientific and other innovators, the importance of the JIF persists. This continued importance should cause us to step back and reconsider our views about citation metrics in the context of the underlying trends shaping the evolution of the scholarly research community. A better understanding of the decisions that citation metrics support can provide us with a stronger foundation for future use and development of relevant indicators and measures of research value. This analysis must be based on a firm grasp of the real needs faced by the key stakeholders and the place of citation metrics in their work and careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to study the electronic publishing (e-publishing) trends in India, to compare the results with another study conducted in Singapore, and to identify the challenges, opportunities and problem areas faced by the publishing industry in Asia. Findings of the survey show that about one-third (35%) of the Indian and about three-quarters (74%) of the Singaporean publishers are engaged in e-publishing, with a further 20% of Indian publishers likely to start e-publishing in the next three years. A slightly higher percentage of Singaporean respondents over Indian feel that e-publishing has a bright future, but with marketing problems in the region being cited as a barrier to entering into the business. The main reasons for not introducing e-publishing in the Indian publishing houses have been lack of awareness about the new technology on the part of publishers and poor acceptability of e-publications among users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-books are not new but they are part of a sea-change in academic delivery that is altering both publishing and the way that teaching and learning are carried out. Publishers appear alarmed by this and have tended to cling to print as if producing publications in one format were their main purpose. This paper argues strongly that it is not. E-resources have migrated from being on the fringe of academia to establishing themselves as mainstream, and publishers seem barely aware of the resulting shift in resource requirements. If they do not become more alert to this, they are in grave danger of being by-passed. At the same time, librarians and academics should acknowledge that there is a very important role for publishers to play, that academia would be much the poorer without their services, and that, inevitably, there is a fair price to be attached to these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic journals have come to dominate the field of academic literature, and it is of great importance to the international scientific community that this electronic intellectual output is preserved well and that it remains accessible in perpetuity. The traditional principles for the archiving of printed academic literature no longer suffice in the digital world. These are based on national frontiers: each national deposit library preserves its own national academic heritage. Regarding electronic publications, however, the geographical criterion is not very useful and the geographical provenance of material is irrelevant, since electronic data can exist independently of a geographic location. Most current journals of multinational publishers no longer have a fatherland that can be easily identified. New ways of co-operation in the field of long-term digital archiving of electronic publications and its metadata will emerge. This paper looks at the policy and ambitions of the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) regarding digital archiving of electronic publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The domain of e-journals well exemplifies 'competition for power and leadership between competing interests or stakeholder groups'. As a stakeholder with multiple perspectives: library manager, academic, author, peer reviewer and researcher and editorial board member, the author considers the conflicting arguments regarding the desirability of the open access model. Recent reports are challenging the received wisdom that the open access model is unsustainable. While allies and opponents are lining up on opposing sides of the battle lines there is hope of reconciliation in the vision of a mixed economy proffered by Delamothe and Smith. The resulting consumer choice is likely to be between the relentless pursuit of ever-changing open access publishing fashions or the predictable security offered by a long-term relationship with a traditional publisher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the 2nd Latin American workshop on resources and possibilities for electronic publication (ICSEP 2) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso from January 14-15, 2004. The aim of the workshop was to strengthen editors' and scientists' capabilities in electronic publishing, particularly in the areas of biology and medicine. It dealt with introductory issues for improving the present system in science communication and covered the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare articles, making use of the advantages offered by the electronic format. It included case studies and group exercises in which participants were able to apply those concepts and techniques most relevant to their own experience. Scientific publications have traditionally used the paper journal which presents major restrictions in the presentation of results. The electronic format allows some of the barriers of the paper edition to be broken down, such as by the publication of tri-dimensional and dynamic images, which enhance its interpretation and discussion--a key issue in the generation of new knowledge. One of the objectives of the workshop is to improve present systems in science communication.

This article deals with journal access programs for developing countries. Open access has not yet made a high proportion of journal articles available free of charge, and so a number of programs have come into being to try to make the paid-for literature available to developing countries at more affordable rates. The programs of the United Nations are intended to improve access to research, enhance teaching, provide advice to decision makers, reduce the publication gap, and help locally published journals to connect third world researchers to the wider scholarly community. Some individual first world institutions have negotiated with publishers to permit them to add individual external users in the Third World to the list of staff entitled to access journals on the first world institutions' subscriptions.

Introduces a series of articles on electronic publishing .

The academic publishing industry is set to celebrate 350 years of peer-reviewed scientific journals. However, there are significant shifts in the practice of scholarship, as scholars and citizens alike participate in an increasingly digital world. Is the scholarly article still fit for its purpose in this data-driven world, with new interdisciplinary methodologies and increasing automation? How might it be enhanced or replaced with new kinds of digital research objects , so as not to restrict innovation but rather create a flourishing sense-making network of humans and machines? The emerging paradigm of social machines provides a lens onto future developments in scholarship and scholarly collaboration, as we live and study in a hybrid physical-digital sociotechnical system of enormous and growing scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Glasgow has led the way in open access developments since 2001. This article charts the progress of open access at Glasgow through the development of the DAEDALUS Project in 2002 to the launch of the University's repository, Enlighten. Key factors leading to the recent announcement of a mandate for the deposit of research publications are discussed, including the impact of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and the need for a central publications database at Glasgow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) journal activities, lead by the JISC Journals Working Group (JWG) from 2003 to 2004.These activities include the launch of the NESLi2 scheme for central journal negotiations on behalf of the UK academic community. NESLi2 builds on the best practice established in previous schemes, but incorporates new features including defined negotiating criteria and a transparent process for reporting to university libraries. Other areas of JISC journal activity include developing cost-effective content acquisition, which takes account of the dynamic nature of the journals marketplace. To this end the JISC JWG has provided pump-priming funding for open access publishing. The group has also commissioned a report on the use of electronic journals across the UK academic community and an evaluation of the benefits and disadvantages of the established and emerging business models used by scholarly publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents news briefs related to the United Kingdom Serials Group (UKSG) as of November 2004. The finishing touches are being made to the speaker line-up and programs at the UKSG 2005 Conference and Exhibition at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland from April 11 to 13. Booking forms will be mailed out to all and sundry before Christmas. Details regarding exhibiting will be available in early January 2005. The Scientific Publications: Free for All? seminar is taking place on November 23 at the Geological Society in London, England. The aim of the event is to help busy professionals in the serials world digest and interpret the conclusions and recommendations from the British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report on scientific publications so that they can understand the implications for their own spheres of operation. A report of the event and a selection of the papers will featured in the March 2005 issue of Serials. The brainchild of Christine Fyfe, the e-journal technical update courses were introduced this year and have been universally well received, all the better for having such a genial and knowledgeable presenter as Simon Inger from Scholarly Information Strategies to demystify the subject.

The article presents a professional profile of Dan Tonkery, an expert in the field of library technical service automation. Tonkery has a background in biomedical communications and worked for ten years at the National Library of Medicine where he automated their technical services. He set up his own CD-ROM development company in the early 1980's and then moved to the field of electronic publishing, working as Vice President of Business Development for EBSCO Industries. Tonkery has worked with the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) for 24 years and the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP).

There has been tremendous growth in the amount of digital content created by libraries, publishers, cultural institutions and the general public. While there are great benefits to having content available in digital form, digital objects can be extremely short-lived unless proper attention is paid to preservation. Reflecting on our experience with the digital preservation service Portico, we provide background on Portico's history and evolving practice of sustainable preservation of the digital artifacts of scholarly communications. We also provide an overview of the digital preservation landscape as we see it now, with some thoughts on current requirements for preservation, and thoughts on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apps are now a dominant content medium: in the US people spend more time on apps than they do watching TV. Non-fiction content is being avidly consumed on mobile devices, but in a completely different way to the book model. This article explores three strands of potential that the app medium holds for nonfiction content, putting forward the case that apps have the power to further weave non-fiction into the fabric of society and life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly communication change and open access (OA) initiatives in Australia have followed an Odyssean path in the last decade. The stop-start nature of early initiatives demonstrates that institutional leadership is essential for the successful deposit of academic content in an institutional repository. Similarly, OA policies from the two Australian Research Councils were delayed for nearly a decade, partly due to publisher pressure and bureaucratic conservatism. More successful has been the development of full, or hybrid, open access university e-presses. These presses, usually embedded in the scholarly infrastructure of the university, provide monographic models for wider global consideration. Australian universities are now reflecting, partly through recent Research Council edicts and monitoring global OA developments, greater awareness of the need for action in scholarly communication change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the proliferation of electronic publishing, libraries are increasingly relying on publisher-supplied metadata to meet user needs for discovery in library systems. However, many publisher/content provider staff creating metadata are unaware of the end-user environment and how libraries use their metadata. This article provides an overview of the three primary discovery systems that are used by academic libraries, with examples illustrating how publisher-supplied metadata directly feeds into these systems and is used to support end-user discovery and access. Commonly seen metadata problems are discussed, with recommendations suggested. Based on a series of presentations given in Autumn 2012 to the staff of a large publisher, this article uses the University of Washington Libraries systems and services as illustrative examples. Judging by the feedback received from these presentations, publishers (specifically staff not familiar with the big picture of metadata standards work) would benefit from a better understanding of the systems and services libraries provide using the data that is created and managed by publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The web is destined to become humankind's cognitive commons, where digital knowledge is jointly created and freely shared. The UK has been a leader in the global movement toward open access (OA) to research but recently its leadership has been derailed by the joint influence of the publishing industry lobby from without and well-intentioned but premature and unhelpful over-reaching from within the OA movement itself. The result has been the extremely counterproductive 'Finch Report' followed by a new draft of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) OA mandate, downgrading the role of cost-free OA self-archiving of research publications ('green OA') in favor of paying subscription publishers over and above subscriptions, out of scarce research funds, in exchange for making single articles OA ('hybrid gold OA'). The motivation of the new policy is to reform publication and to gain certain re-use rights (CC-BY), but the likely effect would be researcher resistance, very little OA and a waste of research funds. There is still time to fix the RCUK mandate and restore the UK's leadership by taking a few very specific steps to clarify and strengthen the green component by adding a mechanism for monitoring and verifying compliance, with consequences for non-compliance, along lines also being adopted in the EC and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

You have probably heard about them: the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) 1 , Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) 2 and now, Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) 3 . The abbreviations pop up on familiar list-discussions and blogs. The services are mentioned at conferences, referred to in articles about scholarly publishing, and their data is used in research about open access (OA). You might ask yourself what all this fuss is about? Are these directories contributing to scholarly communication? If so, how exactly? This article argues for the value of the directories, mainly focusing on two of them: DOAJ and DOAB. It provides an introduction to the services, containing a brief history and status report, and addresses the differences between OA journal publishing and OA monograph publishing. It also highlights the value of these services and discusses whether the financial models behind them are sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles Kate Wittenberg, managing director of digital preservation service Portico. Topics discussed include her career at Columbi University Press, her role in the foundation of the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC), and her work in publishing. Also mentioned are her thoughts on possible future directions for digital scholarship.

The article presents information about text mining, copyright, and barriers to innovation in the electronic publishing industry as of July 212. The discussion topics include the value and cost of copyright research and text mining and also two studies in Great Britain concerning intellectual property and the text mining market. Also noted is the Wellcome Trusts' survey of periodicals' open access articles.

The state of inter-library lending (ILL) in the world today is placed in the context of the still developing electronic publishing environment: in particular the impact of the big deals, open access and retrospective conversion of serial back-files which have contributed to the dramatic decline in ILL over the last ten years. The factors that influence developments in ILL are identified and analysed. The robust state of ILL and document supply in the US, or American 'exceptionalism', will be considered briefly. The continued importance of the inter-lending and document supply service is stressed, given the background of reduced library budgets, increasing serial prices and increasing demands from more researchers for material not held locally. Reference is made to developments in various countries, especially the UK, Denmark, the US and The Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether you look at multiplatform publishing from the perspective of publishers, content creators or technology providers, it becomes abundantly clear that the shifting patterns of media consumption are not a challenge to be taken lightly. Based on a survey of librarians, research administrators and researchers across the globe, we found interesting insights regarding the adoption and usage of mobile devices. The input from these survey respondents was used to build applications that fulfill research workflow needs and solve challenges encountered in the search for information. What can a mobile platform offer that fits search and discovery habits on the go? This article discusses a number of options available such as push notifications, task-specific apps and other tools that take advantage of mobile technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, it has become widely recognized that in the case of monographs, the traditional business model for books is losing its sustainability. Academic publishers have been forced to become more selective in the books they publish; authors, in particular young researchers and first-time authors, have found it harder to find a press willing to publish their work. In response to the economic restraints of printed monographs, many publishers and academic institutes, in particular research libraries, have started to experiment with digital and open access (OA) publication of monographs. OAPEN is the first international project to develop an open access model for publishers and stakeholders in scholarly communication. OAPEN stands for Open Access Publishing in European Networks1. It is a 30- month project co-funded by the European Union2, to develop and implement an OA publication model for peer-reviewed academic books in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Independent publishing in sub-Saharan Africa is underdeveloped in most countries, yet such development is integral to development and cultural autonomy. National, regional and continent-wide distribution is weak. This industry weakness impacts negatively both on publishing houses and their concomitant parts. Through African Books Collective (ABC), 124 autonomous African publishers from 20 countries collectively market and distribute their titles internationally, enabling them to maximize overseas sales income. Print on demand (POD) is a major resource for production and international distribution, a tool for digital marketing to the wholesale channels, and a means to maintain publisher control over content. There is untapped potential for POD to contribute to intra-African book trade. The Espresso Book Machine offers an opportunity to tap this potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly growing market in e-books and the options for library acquisition of these materials lead to questions regarding access. Because MARC records increase use of e-books, and some vendors provide MARC records along with e-book purchases, many libraries use their library catalogues as a conduit to e-books. This article explores the challenges associated with these records. Consideration is given to the quality of information provided by vendors, user expectations and experiences, and cataloguing workload in today's libraries. The authors seek to educate librarians about the issues associated with e-book MARC records, to empower them with questions to ask of vendors regarding this data, and to encourage them to weigh the costs and benefits associated with using this free information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the outcomes of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) just published, Ed Hughes, RAE Manager for the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) and Alicia Wise, the Chief Executive of the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) take a timely look behind the scenes describing the important contribution publishers made to simplify access to articles submitted for the exercise. An innovative partnership approach enabled free access to over 190,000 electronic journal articles for the 2008 RAE. Key project partners included HEFCE, the PLS, CrossRef, Eduserv, and a wide array of publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosciences Federation surveys in 2008 found that member societies contributed twice as much financially to UK HEIs as they received from them. None of the societies currently offers full open access (OA), but all provide delayed free access, commonly after 12 months. Some offer optional OA for a fee, but report very low take-up so far. Considerable confusion exists amongst scientists about what OA journals are. Almost half the OA journals they said they read, and a third of those they said they published in, were not OA journals at all. Around 15% of survey respondents had tried to access OA funds from their institutions or funders, and more than half of these had found this difficult. While three-quarters of the respondents said they supported open access, only one third thought self archiving was a good idea. Again, respondents were confused about what was or was not a repository of self-archived material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case is presented for moving on from monitoring activity in the virtual scholarly space to studying the virtual information seeking of users and then relating that to diversity, satisfaction and scholarly outcomes. The article shows that, thanks to new methodological techniques that enable us to obtain deep and robust insights of what goes on in the virtual environment, it is now possible to obtain such data. These methods, using deep log analysis, are outlined and results illustrated in regard to CIBER's Virtual Scholar Research Programme and their use in three major, national research studies - the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded 'National E-books Observatory Project', The JISC/British Library (BL)-funded Google Generation study and the Research Information Network (RIN)-funded 'Evaluating the Usage and Impact of E-journals in the UK'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initial attempts by academic librarians to build e-book collections may be seen to have certain parallels with the traditional Grail quest. Like the knights of old, we know what it is we seek, but there are many challenges to be overcome before we can achieve our goal. Changes in teaching and learning methods, expanding student numbers, and the growth of CPD are amongst a number of key factors which are driving librarians' pursuit of e-textbooks. The success of e-journals means that many users now expect 24/7 access to a much wider range of library resources. Thus far, the market has been comparatively slow to respond. We need better dialogue with publishers to identify the e-book content which libraries and their users want, together with further work on licensing models and usage data. Only then may our quest be fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a study undertaken at CERN Library. After a short introduction to the open access movement, an analysis of some CERN Library open access journals from a number of publishers is presented. Open access publishing models are then applied to some of the most important journal titles in particle physics. The results give a picture of the possible implications and the cost of open access in the current environment. Publishers' open access offerings, CERN authors' reactions to open access and the probable impact for CERN as a research institution are then examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses business models for electronic journals. It has been clear for some time that there are significant concerns in university libraries about current models for the purchase of electronic journals and the ability of libraries to meet the needs of their user communities in the provision of journals. The fundamental concern for libraries is obviously to facilitate the widest access to the most appropriate resources for their user community, both for research and for teaching and learning, within budgetary and staffing/space constraints. E-journals are very popular with users, especially when they can be accessed in locations away from the library, unconstrained by its opening hours. A key point of difference between publishers and libraries was in attribution of the demand to continue with printed journals.

This section focuses on several articles related to serial publications presented on briefing sessions and workshops held at the 28th UKSG Annual Conference, including Licensing Electronic Journals Across Multiple Sites/Countries by Michael H. Christensen.

Oxford Journals are conducting experiments with partial open access publishing (Journal of Experimental Botany), full open access publishing (Nucleic Acids Research), institutional repositories (SHERPA) and subject repositories (PubMed Central). Initial results regarding open access have been encouraging, in that usage appears to have increased, but it is unclear whether open access publishing can be viable without support from institutional subscriptions. Early evidence suggests that free availability of articles through repositories also leads to increased usage but may have a detrimental impact on subscription revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]