In a positive (perhaps pivotal) development report for Open Access, Harvard University is the first academic institution in the US requiring its scholars to make their research available in the institution’s open access repository. While it includes an opt-out provision, this is no doubt a bold and progressive move by Harvard University in support of access to knowledge.

Below are today’s blog posts, both before and after the vote:

Open Access News
Michael Geist’s blog
Joho the blog
ACRLog

-PC-

Thanks to a colleage at Culture Libre for letting me know about a free conference in Montréal by Brazil’s culture minister, and musician, Gilberto Gil. The conference, entitled Digital Culture: Re-inventing America’s New World Dream, will:
explore innovative policies and practices at the cutting edge of issues like copyright, digital culture and Internet rights. (…) Gil recently hosted the United Nations Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro (November 2007) where he called for the establishment of an international Internet Bill of Rights. ‘As a creator of music, he is widely known as a central player in the search for more flexible forms of distributing artistic works, Internet rights, free and open source software, and digital culture,’ (…) .

Friday, 15 February, at 6 p.m. at the Hotel Omni Mt-Royal (map).

- DD

U.S News and World Report just released its annual list of 31 careers with bright futures (i.e. that offer strong outlooks and high job satisfaction.) Librarians are listed as being part of that group. According to the description:

It’s an underrated career. Most librarians love helping patrons dig up information and, in the process, learning new things. Librarians may also go on shopping sprees, deciding which books and online resources to buy. They even get to put on performances, like children’s puppet shows, and run other programs, like book discussion groups for elders..

Librarians are actually on the list twice, as one of the other good jobs included on the list is Usability/User experience specialists (one of the training backgrounds they suggest for this job is library science).

- DD

A colleague has informed me that Robert McChesney’s new book “Communication Revolution - Critical Junctures and the Future of Media” has been reviewed in Countercurrents. On Net Neutrality, the reviewer states:

Central to [media reform] is an emerging “classic struggle” very much in play but with no certain outcome over the most important issue of all - the future of the Internet and battle for Net Neutrality. That fight must be won, doing it is daunting, and the opposition is powerful media and other monied interests with friends in high places matched against others supporting the public. McChesney calls Net Neutrality “a defining issue for this critical juncture (and) the First Amendment for the Internet.” Media reform activists have drawn a line in the sand. This corporate-free and open space must be defended at all costs. The stakes are that high.

- DD

As PC blogged about last month, the Canadian Health Network (CHN) is going to be shut down. An advocacy group (Friends of the CHN) has been created and they are asking people to sign their petition. They want 5000 signatures before sending it to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health on February 14th.

- DD

Thanks to a colleague who sent me this post from TechCrunch “Google To Become Open Source Science Repository“:

Google is said to be preparing to launch a massive repository of science data at research.google.com. The project, known internally as “Palimpsest” will become a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets (…). [T]he storage will be free to all scientists, access to the data will be free for all (…). Two planned datasets are 120 terabytes of data from the Hubble Space Telescope and images from the Archimedes Palimpsest.

Some of the comments on this post are interesting, including some that question just how much information Google knows and owns. How much is too much? In the field of publicly funded research, shouldn’t libraries and government be providing these types of data repositories to make sure that they stay free of advertisements or other private interests? More comments at Digging Digitally.

- DD

The latest issue of Canadian Dimensions is out, with a nice story on Net Neutrality.

Saturday May 17th, come check out Montreal’s Anarchist Bookfair with over 100 vendors (book sellers and independent presses) that promote “values of mutual aid, direct democracy, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity.” If you feel like setting up a workshop, presentation or panel discussion, send in your proposal by March 3rd.

- DD

Newsfactor.com reports that the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to Comcast regarding complaints about Internet Filtering. The complaints came about in the Fall of 2007 when the Associated Press reported that

Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online [ex. by using BitTorrent technology], a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

Proof of interference was divulged in a report published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

More information about Net Neutrality:
Save the Internet Coalition
What is net neutrality.ca

- DD

After a series of controversial library closures (see this history at SLA website), a new bill has been approved in Washington that will allocate $1 million to restore EPA’s network of libraries.

The amended bill includes $1,000,000 above the request to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration. (…) The Agency is directed to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding actions it will take to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region within 90 days of enactment of this Act. (more info)

This is great news for the EPA, but north of the border, Environment Canada is still struggling to get appropriate funding, both for its libraries and its research activities. I wrote an article about it last year, and an article and video by the CBC was posted last Fall. It would be great if CASLIS or the SLA (its Canadian Chapters), could drum up an advocacy campaign, the likes of which happened in the US over the EPA library closures.

- DD