A new issue of Liber Quarterly is now available. See especially: Ricky Erway, Supply and Demand: Special Collections and Digitisation Paul Ayris, The European Digital Information Landscape: How Can LIBER Contribute?
The Research Information Network has commissioned a team to study the influence of research assessment on researchers' publication and dissemination practices.
Scientific American has posted a new edition of its Science Talk podcast, featuring (among other guests and topics) Nobel laureate Rich Roberts discussing OA. See also our past posts on Roberts.
David Bollier, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, The New Press, Fall 2008. A new book now available for ordering. From the blurb: PS: See our past posts on David Bollier.
Nature has launched an OA supplement on Quantitative genetics.
The Utrecht University Library is planning to launch an OA repository for Veterinary Sciences and Medicine. (Thanks to the Igitur Newsletter.) Update . Although the project uses the word "repository", it will not apparently accept deposits. It will harvest metadata from veterinary content on deposit in other repositories.
Mary Anne Kennan, Reassembling scholarly publishing: open access, institutional repositories and the process of change, a PhD dissertation recently approved by the University of New South Wales, 2008. (Thanks to Colin Steele and congratulations to Mary Anne.) Update (1/16/09). An article based on this dissertation is now OA as well.
In the Spotlight: Annemiek van der Kuil, SURF community manager, Igitur Newsletter , December 2008.
Deal streamlines article access for research assessors, Research Information , December 11, 2008. Excerpt: Comment . If it works, OK. But a simpler, cheaper, and more useful solution would be OA for each of the papers in question.
The December issue of BC ELN Connect is now online. (BC ELN = British Columbia Electronic Library Network.) Here are the OA-related stories: BC Digitization Symposium (a report on the meeting) CUFTS Free! Google Form by Gilbert Bede and Heather Morrison (a form to suggest additions to the CUFTS OA journal lists) News roundup (inc.
Margeaux Johnson and Nancy K. Roderer, ASIS&T Scholarly Communication Survey: Open Access Authors, ASIS&T Bulletin , October/November 2008.