I will continue to have an office in Burrill Hall although the location and specific office hours are still to be determined. For now, call me at 3-0281 or email me at dcschmid@illinois.edu if you have any questions. I am available to answer questions, do in-class training sessions, and more.

For new students and faculty, we have prepared guides for new faculty, grad students, and undergraduates. Check them out at http://www.library.illinois.edu/bix/resources/guides/orientation.html.

Diane Schmidt
Biology Librarian

It's always a good idea to use the library's link rather than going directly to a publisher's web site. To do this, go to the Online Research Resources page at http://www.library.illinois.edu/orr/ and search for your journal.

Please let me know if you continue to have problems with JoVE or any other journal.

Diane Schmidt

A Compact for Open-Access Publication, press release, September 14, 2009.

Five of the nation's premier institutions of higher learning—Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technoology, and the University of California, Berkeley—today announced their joint commitment to a compact for open-access publication. ...

Since open-access journals do not charge subscription or other access fees, they must cover their operating expenses through other sources, including subventions, in-kind support, or, in a sizable minority of cases, processing fees paid by or on behalf of authors for submission to or publication in the journal. While academic research institutions support traditional journals by paying their subscription fees, no analogous means of support has existed to underwrite the growing roster of fee-based open-access journals.

Stuart Shieber, Harvard's James O. Welch, Jr. and Virginia B. Welch Professor of Computer Science and Director of the University's Office for Scholarly Communication, is the author of the five-member compact. According to Shieber, "Universities and funding agencies ought to provide equitable support for open-access publishing by subsidizing the processing fees that faculty incur when contributing to open-access publications. Right now, these fees are relatively rare. But if the research community supports open-access publishing and it gains in importance as we believe that it will, those fees could aggregate substantially over time. The Compact ensures that support is available to eliminate these processing fees as a disincentive to open-access publishing."

The Compact supports equity of the business models by committing each university to the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication fees for open-access journal articles written by its faculty for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.

Additional universities are encouraged to visit the compact web site and sign on. ...

,,, the Compact's FAQ establishes a loophole for grant-funded research: "a compact institution may reasonably expect that ... the funding agency should be responsible for payment of the publication charge, and the article would not be eligible for underwriting by the institution whether or not the funding agency actually covers the particular charge."

-----
Addendum: At the time this compact was signed, only Berkeley already had established an OA fund. But subsequently both Cornell and Harvard have also established OA funds to support the OA publishing of their faculty (follow links for additional information). It is expected that MIT and Dartmouth will announce OA funds eventually, too.

Currently the U of Illinois is a supporting member of BioMed Central, so our members get a discount on the publication fees when they publish in BMC journals. And we have a membership in Oxford's Nucleic Acids Research, which also provides our authors with a discount when publishing in NAR. If you have comments on whether the U of Illinois should join the Compact and set up an OA fund, please contact Paula Kaufman, the University Librarian.

Melody Allison
Assistant Biology Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Administration
Biology Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
101 Burrill Hall, 407 South Goodwin
Urbana, IL 61801
mmalliso@illinois.edu
(217) 333-7461; 3654

The bill specifically covers unclassified research funded by agencies including:
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Education
Department of Energy
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Transportation
Environmental Protection Agency
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Science Foundation

S. 1373 reflects the growing trend among funding agencies and college and university campuses to leverage their investment in the conduct of research by maximizing the dissemination of results. It follows the successful path forged by the NIH Public Access Policy, as well as by private funders like the Wellcome Trust, and universities such as Harvard and MIT.

The Library has requested that our Washington government relations liaison contact our representatives in support of this bill.

If you would like to voice your opinion on this bill to our representatives, an easy way to do so has been provided at the Alliance for Taxpayer Access website:
http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=sparc
You may use one of their pre-written forms, or compose your own.

Detailed information about the Federal Research Public Access Act is available at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/media/Release09-0625.html.

Or read the text of the bill, online.

This memo was clipped from a longer message received from:

Heather Joseph
Spokesperson for the Alliance for Taxpayer Access and Executive Director of SPARC
Telephone: (202) 296-2296
Email: heather [at] arl [dot] org

Speaker: John Wilbanks, VP for Science, Creative Commons
(creativecommons.org; sciencecommons.org; neurocommons.org)

Title: The Digital Commons: Infrastructure for The Data Web

Where: NCSA Auditorium (Room 1122 NCSA Bldg)

When: 3 - 4 PM, Monday, July 13th

Please read the accompanying flyer for a descriptive abstract of the talk.

Local Contact: "Beth McKown" bmckown@ncsa.uiuc.edu, 244-0078

~ Katie
--<- @ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@
Prof. Katie Newman
Biotechnology Librarian

Office: 2130 IGB (Inst. for Genomic Biology)
Email: florador@illinois.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386
FAX: (217)-244-1800

Biotechnology Information Center (BIC) website:
http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/
BIC News: http://www.library.illinois.edu/blog/bicnews/
--<-@ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@

The Library Catalog is being upgraded to provide a more user-friendly search interface for you!

The upgrade will start early Sunday morning and is expected to be finished by Tuesday or Wednesday, next week.

During the Upgrade:

* You may continue to search the catalog during the upgrade period, but you will be searching a "frozen" database ... the frozen data was captured June 7th.
* You will not be able to request or renew books online for a few days.
* If you need to check a book out or renew it, you will have to go to a library.
* If you returned a book sometime after June 7th, the Catalog will not reflect that until next Tuesday or Wednesday.
* Down time will be Sunday & Monday, but could extend into Tuesday & Wednesday.
* The ORR, journal databases, and access to electronic journals will continue to work as usual.

If you have any questions / concerns about this process, please let me know!

Katie

~ Katie
--<- @ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@ --<-@
Prof. Katie Newman
Biotechnology Librarian

Office: 2130 IGB (Inst. for Genomic Biology)
Email: florador@illinois.edu
Phone: (217) 265-5386
FAX: (217)-244-1800

Biotechnology Information Center (BIC) website:
http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/
BIC News: http://www.library.illinois.edu/blog/bicnews/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Melody Allison
Assistant Biology Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Administration
Biology Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
101 Burrill Hall, 407 South Goodwin
Urbana, IL 61801
mmalliso@illinois.edu
(217) 333-7461; 3654

Four libraries participated in the collection theme “Impact of the Environment in Health & Wellness:” Chicago State University Library, Columbia College Library, Northern Illinois U. Founders Memorial Library, and University of Illinois Biology Library.

Enjoy!

Melody Allison
Assistant Biology Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Administration
Biology Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
101 Burrill Hall, 407 South Goodwin
Urbana, IL 61801
mmalliso@illinois.edu
(217) 333-7461; 3654

From the NAS Press Release:
"President Barack Obama announced new initiatives and investments in scientific research, innovation, and education, declaring once again to restore science to its rightful place. "The days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over," he said.

Calling science "more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, and our environment than it has ever been," Obama said he is going to make major investments -- 3 percent of the gross domestic product -- in research and innovation. This exceeds the amount invested in 1964 at the height of the space race. He emphasized the importance of using funds to encourage high-risk, high-return research and to support researchers at the beginning of their careers."

,,,

"The president committed to doubling the budgets of three key science agencies -- the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He also announced the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a new Department of Energy organization modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. And Obama said he would triple the number of NSF graduate research fellowships."

Video:
http://edg1.vcall.com/video/nas/launch.asp
Audio only:
http://nationalacademies.org/podcast/20090427.mp3
Still photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalacademyofsciences/sets/72157617300994183/
Text:
http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=65
Press Release from the NAS:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=20090427

As a reminder, on p. 4 of that report, it is recommended that the Biology
Library merge with the ACES library in the spring of 2010.

If you can't make it to the meeting, please send your comments to Paula
Kaufman, ptk@illinois.edu, and/or Scott Walter, swalter@illinois.edu. They
will be revising the report and sending it to the Provost very quickly, so
the sooner you respond the more likely they'll be able to consider your
issues.

The meeting will be from 10-11AM, Friday, April 24 in Room 66 of the Mail
Library. That's down in the basement if you haven't been there before. I
hope to see you there.

Diane Schmidt
Biology Librarian

*The Biology Open House is an event for middle school and high school participants of the Science Olympiad**, their parents, and middle/high school teachers to find out more about biology and what the programs at U of I have to offer. The Open House is being hosted by two student groups: Ligase MCB Club and the Illinois Biological Society .

**The Science Olympiad is a national organization that encourages science competitions between middle/high school students. Competitions include everything from being quizzed on science knowledge to building rockets, planes, catapults and robots.

Posted for
Kamil Stelmach
Illinois Biology Society Secretary
Illinois Biological Society (IBS) Biology Open House Poster Competition Chairman

*****************************
Melody Allison
Assistant Biology Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Administration
Biology Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
101 Burrill Hall, 407 South Goodwin
Urbana, IL 61801
mmalliso@illinois.edu
(217) 333-7461; 3654

Here is the latest "New Service Model" proposal from the University
Library. As you'll see in the proposal, they still plan on closing the
Biology Library, merging it with the agriculture library. According to the
proposal as written, the Biology Library would close May 2010, although
our books and journals might not be moved to ACES until as late as
December 2010. The timing and details of the proposal are subject to
change, but the major actions are probably going to take place.

There will be another open session for comments held Friday, April 24th,
from 10:00 - 11:00 am in Room 66 in the basement of the Main Library.
Please plan on attending if you possibly can, and if not send your
comments by then to Paula Kaufman, ptk@illinois.edu, and Scott Walter,
swalter@illinois.edu.

Diane Schmidt
Biology Librarian

As you may remember, back in January the University Library was asked by
Provost Katehi to accelerate its movement towards departmental library
consolidations as part of the “New Services Models” program. In late
January I sent out a message to the department chairs and school heads
informing them of the proposal included in the Provost’s letter to close
the Biology Library and merge its collections and services into the Funk
ACES Library. After lengthy discussions between the librarians who serve
other life sciences libraries we agreed that if the Biology Library was to
be closed, then consolidating it with the Funk ACES library and creating a
life sciences library containing all or parts of the collections and
services pertaining to the Applied Health Sciences, ACES, and Biology
libraries, as well as Veterinary Medicine at a later date, was the best
solution. Under this model, the Biology Library collection would need to
shrink to no more than half its current size. As you will see in the
attached proposal from the University Library administration, this
proposal was not accepted. Instead, they propose that the Biology Library
materials and services would be split between the Chemistry Library, the
Funk ACES Library, and perhaps the Library of the Health Sciences.

I do not support the proposal to split the Biology Library collections and
services. There is no bright line between the collections and services
used by the two schools, but in this proposed split it would roughly be
MCB going to the Chemistry and Health Sciences libraries and IB going to
the ACES library. The Chemistry Library has room for only about 6,000
volumes, which amounts to half of the Biology Library books that have
circulated recently and only a very few journal volumes.

As a separate but related issue, Melody Allison, the Assistant Biology
Librarian, will be moving this summer to the ACES library as Assistant
ACES Librarian due to staffing cuts at the ACES Library. This will leave
only one librarian serving SIB and SMCB.

A final report will be sent to the Provost at the end of April. I
encourage you to provide your input on the proposed library mergers and
consolidations before then.

Diane Schmidt
Biology Librarian

"Open Source Biology”: Delivering redistributive justice for a creative biological commons?
Bronwyn Parry
Queen Mary University of London

LISB is located at 501 E. Daniel, Champaign

Lecture abstract:
Biological information, whether rendered in actual or virtual forms (as embodied DNA or as databased sequences) can be understood not only as a foundational resource but also as an ‘enabling technology’ that provides the basis of many prospective biotechnological inventions. Drawing on the principles of ‘open-source’ access pioneered in other realms of the digital informational economy, recent global initiatives have attempted to support the generation of a creative biological commons by realizing the concept of ‘open source biology’. Focusing on the distinction between DNA as ‘a tool of innovation’ and an ‘end-product’ these initiatives are designed to make widely available in the scientific community, bio-informational technologies and sequences that would otherwise be the subject of restrictive intellectual property rights regimes. Building on her earlier work on the political economy of the collection, use and regulation of bioinformation (Parry, 2004, 2008, this presentation turns to an analysis of the desirability and viability of this uniquely informational mechanism for delivering redistributive justice to the brave new world of 21st century biotechnology.

Speaker biography:
Bronwyn Parry is an economic and cultural geographer whose primary interests lie in investigating the way human-environment relations are being re-cast by technological, economic and regulatory changes. Her special interests include the rise and operation of the life sciences industry, informationalism, the commodification of life forms, posthumanism, bioethics and systems for knowing, disciplining and governing nature. Her book Trading the Genome was published to wide acclaim by Columbia University Press in 2004. She is currently completing a large Wellcome Trust funded project that investigates how human body parts and derivatives are understood and used as occasional commodities within the contemporary life sciences industry. She has published widely on the ethical social and legal implications of developments in the life sciences, and is a member of the UK’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics where she has undertaken research into the ethical implications of the forensic use of bio-information and the recent crisis in public health in the UK. She has also undertaken comparative work on the role of international regulatory regimes and indigenous knowledge systems in resource management and use in a consultative capacity for both the UN and the UK government.

Before her lecture, please join Dr. Parry for a lunch discussion from 12-1 pm. Contact Linda Smith (lcsmith@illinois.edu) if you have questions or to let her know you will attend lunch. Lunch will be provided for the first 10 participants. Dr. Parry will also be available to meet during an office hour from 1:30-2:30 pm. The lecture will be recorded and linked from the GSLIS Guest Lectures pages at http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/news/lectures.html
_______________________________________________
InfoSoc_Speakers mailing list
InfoSoc_Speakers@lists.lis.illinois.edu
https://mail.lis.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/infosoc_speakers