YouTube launches YouTube Edu

From the Wall Street Journal‘s Technology Blog, digits: YouTube Edu Launches

From the article:

YouTube Edu lets viewers sort clips by school or number of views, and the schools offer content ranging from complete courses to campus events to information for prospective students.

I love, love, love the idea of YouTube Edu! What a wonderful way for colleges and universities to not only market themselves, but create community. (Of course my favorite thing about it is the free lectures from faculty!) Currently, there are only so many schools on YouTube Edu… it will be interesting to watch it grow over time.

Try Grooveshark – any music you want, free!

GREAT find by Libraryman – read the post on his blog at Music You Want. Now. Free. (and not via the Library) + twitter video fun

Grooveshark.

Love music? Try it out.

I was listening to my Pandora music stations today at work and commented to myself how much I love Pandora. But this… this is pretty cool because if I want a certain song or want to listen to a certain artist, Grooveshark will give it to me (unlike Pandora, where it’s a surprise what’ll play next). I like the options to find new music similar to what I’ve chosen – Grooveshark provides recommendations. I’ve been trying it out and like what I’ve seen so far.

Photo credit: Musical notes from Wikimedia Commons

Meet the 2009 Shovers & Makers

I’m having a laugh (and an educational experience at the same time) by reading through the Library Society of the World‘s 2009 Shovers & Makers list. It’s a play off of the Library Journal‘s annual Movers & Shakers list that profiles the lucky few designated with the prestigious honor of “shaping the future of libraries.” For those folks who didn’t quite make the cut – but are just as valuable nonetheless (“you’re already a winner!”) – the Shovers & Makers receive their recognition as well.

I’ve enjoyed reading the (self-) nominations and learning about what other library folk are doing, no matter how small. The short postings remind me of the broad spectrum of responsibilities and accomplishments to be had in the profession.

More Open Access News: MIT adopts university-wide Open Access

Via Peter Suber & Gavin Baker‘s Open Access News: MIT adopts a university-wide OA mandate

Something must be in the water! Just after yesterday’s announcement that Oregon State University Librarians adopted an open access mandate, MIT has done the same thing — university-wide!

Barbara Fister from the ACRL blog writes some nice thoughts about this new development (see her post Open Access — Just When We Need It).

Oregon State Librarians adopt an Open Access mandate

Front Entrance of Valley Library at OSU

Go Beavs!

Oregon State University Librarians have adopted an open access mandate, requiring deposit of scholarly work by the University’s faculty librarians into ScholarsArchive@OSU.

From the mandate:

“The faculty members of the OSU Libraries support open access to our scholarship and knowledge. Consequently, we grant to the OSU Libraries permission to make our scholarly work publicly available and to exercise the copyright in those works. We grant the OSU Libraries a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to our scholarly work, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the works are properly attributed to the authors and not sold for a a profit…

…The policy will apply to all scholarly works authored or co-authored while a faculty member of the University Libraries, beginning with works created after March 2009…

…When a publisher is involved who will not agree to the terms of this policy as stated in the Science Commons Access-Reuse Addendum, the University Librarian or the University Librarian’s designate will waive application of the policy upon written request from faculty. When a waiver is granted, faculty are encouraged to deposit whatever version of the article the publisher allows (e.g. pre or post-print).”

Photo Credit: Front Entrance from flickr user Valley Library (Oregon State University).
The photo has a creative commons license attribution-noncommercial share alike 2.0 generic.

Libraries from around the world anyone can access

Today I stumbled upon CollegeDegree.com‘s posting of 100 Extensive University Libraries From Around the World that Anyone Can Access.

That’s exactly correct – anyone can access certain collections from these libraries – no affiliation needed! The 100 libraries fit within the following categories of interest:

- Digital Libraries
- International Digital Libraries
- Texts
- Medical Libraries
- Legal Libraries
- National Libraries of Europe
- Religious Studies
- Specialized Selections
- Academic Research
- American Universities
- International Universities

International Twittering Libraries

Hi! Thanks for stopping by!

I have moved this blog to a hosted domain.

If you are looking for my list of international twittering libraries, check out the updated page here:

http://lindybrown.com/blog/2009/03/international-twittering-libraries/

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me!

****

updated 9/28/2009

I have received quite a few comments from folks around the globe (which has been really GREAT, by the way!) Instead of incorporating them into the long, long list of Twittering Libraries, I decided to keep that list as U.S. only, for organizational sake. Hence below is a growing list of International Twittering Libraries.

If you have any recommendations and/or would like your library to be added to this list, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you!

• Bibliothèques de MTL (Montréal, Canada)
• Bibliothèque du Collège François-Xavier-Garneau (Québec,Canada)
• Bibliothèque Toulous (France)
• Bibliothèque_UGB (Saint-Louis, Senegal)
• Bracebridge Public Library (Ontario, Canada)
• Bradford Libraries (Bradford, UK)
• British Library – Business & IP Centre (London, England)
• British Library (London, England)
• Cambridge University Library (UK)
• Cheam Library (Cheam, Surrey)
• Deakin University Library (Australia)
• Delft University of Technology (Delft, Netherlands)
• Dixie Grammar School (Market Bosworth, UK)
• Dublin Business School Library (Dublin, Ireland)
• Dunedin Public Libraries (New Zealand)
• Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Public Library (Dublin, Ireland)
• Dungannon Library (Ireland)
• Edmonton Public Library (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
• Feminist Library (London, England, UK)
• Fleetwood Libraries (Lancashire, UK)
• Guille-Allès Library (Guernsey, England, UK)
• Idea Store (England)
• Imperial College Science Library (London, England)
• International Library of New Zealand
• Flinders University (Australia)
• Joe Fortes Library (Vancouver, Canada)
• John Rylands University Library (Manchester, England, UK)
• Kingston Frontenac Public Library (Ontario, Canada)
• Lancashire Libraries (Lancashire, England)
  
• Leicestershire Libraries (UK)
  
• McGill University Library (Montreal, Canada)
• McMaster University (Canada)
• Medicine Hat Public Library (Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada)
• Metropolitan University Leeds Met Library (UK)
• Newcastle University, UK arts and humanities liaison team
• Open University Library, Milton Keyens (UK)
• Pelham Library (Ontario, Canada)
• Plymouth Libraries (UK)
• Red Dear Public Library (Alberta, Canada)
• Sheffield Libraries
• Sprowston Library (Norwich, England)
• State Library of South Australia
• St. John’s Nottingham Library (UK)
• The Itinerant Poetry Library (traveling the world–”anywhere I can get to”)
• University College of Dublin (Dublin, Ireland)
• University College London Science Library
• University of Glamorgan (Wales, UK)
• University of London Birkbeck Library (UK)
• Universtities at Medway Drill Hall Library (UK)
• University of Notre Dame (London, UK)
• University of Oxford Bodleian Law Library (UK)
• University of Portsmouth Library (UK)
• University of  Stavanger (Stavanger, Norway)
• University of Sussex (Falmer, East Sussex, UK)
• University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica)
• Vienna University Library (Austria)
• Wellcome Library (London, England, UK)
• West D’tonshire Libraries (Dunbartonshire, Scotland)
• Westminister Library (Central London, UK)
• Yale College Bersham Road LRC (Wrexham, Wales, UK)

Libraries & YouTube: Allen County Public Library

Another example of a library using new media in a way to connect and inform its community is the Allen County Public Library. I found their YouTube channel by way of David Lee King’s blog post Allen County’s Newest Conversations Video.

King was recently part of their conversation series, which also includes other big-time library peeps  such as Michael Stephens, Helene Bowers, Stephen Abram, and ACPL’s director Jeff Kruhl (part 1, part 2). I love this conversation series because it allows lil’ folks like myself the opportunity to hear these great speakers talk about their experiences. I am a big believer in learning from others’ experiences, and these videos offer a brief opportunity to do that.

Beyond their conversation series, the ACPL reaches out to their constituents via other videos. These videos provide opportunities for connection and transparency with their community.

A few examples of other short videos offered by the ACPL:

• The state of the library – good to know in these tough economic times, especially with all the news and rumors about library closings, budget slashing, etc. In this video, the director addresses recent changes the library is facing due to a local property tax increase that has gone into effect.

• Why I love being a librarian – what a great way for the ACPL community to connect to their librarians by seeing why their librarians love their job!

• Geek Out – is a new series from ACPL of monthly training videos offered to ACPL staff. Its focus is technology in libraries.

• What’s Happening at the ACPL – weekly videos about what’s going on in the library (example is for March 16).

Twitoria: find out who hasn’t tweeted in awhile

If you’re looking for a quick way to find out which of your friends hasn’t tweeted in awhile, give Twitoria a try.

In my exuberance to learn as much as possible (as a rookie info professional would do), I have been following a lot of folks, especially libraries. I have been wanting to cut my twitter follower numbers down, so I gave Twitoria a try. I found over 35 folks that haven’t tweeted in over a month. I think I’ll be giving a few of those folks the boot…

Bill Would Ban Free Access to Publicly Funded Research

From Ohmygov (by way of LibraryStuff), Bill would ban free publication of taxpayer funded research

On February 3rd, Representative John R. Conyers (MI-14) introduced H.R. 801, a bill also known as the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act.

According to the Congressional Record summary of the bill (as of 2/3/09), The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act:

prohibits any federal agency from imposing any condition, in connection with a funding agreement, that requires the transfer or license to or for a federal agency, or requires the absence or abandonment, of specified exclusive rights of a copyright owner in an extrinsic work.

Prohibits any federal agency from: (1) imposing, as a condition of a funding agreement, the waiver of, or assent to, any such prohibition; or (2) asserting any rights in material developed under any funding agreement that restrain or limit the acquisition or exercise of copyright rights in an extrinsic work.

Defines “funding agreement” as any contract, grant, or other agreement entered into between a federal agency and any person under which funds are provided by a federal agency for the performance of experimental, developmental, or research activities.

Defines “extrinsic work” as any work, other than a work of the U.S. government, that is related to a funding agreement and is also funded in substantial part by, or results from a meaningful added value contributed by, one or more nonfederal entities that are not a party to the funding agreement.”

In sum, the bill would reverse the National Institute of Health (NIH) policy that allows government funded research to be easily available and accessible and copyright free. What is more disconcerting is that it would also extend to other governmental agencies from having similar open access policies. Theoretically if this were to pass, taxpayers who funded research in the first place would have to pay twice for the research: first to fund it and second to access it via a for-profit journal. Several associations, including the American Library Association, are against the bill.

For further reading, check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation‘s legislative analysis post “Open Access” Policies Threatened by Copyright Bill.

update 3/24/09

The Open Access News has been following this bill and providing viewpoints on it:
Novelist Richard Roberts slams the Conyers bill (3/23)
John Willinsky on the Conyers bill (3/23)