NEWS AND NOTES / NOUVELLES ET NOTES

Compiled by Teresa Lee

<table><tr><td>Canadian Library Association (CLA) moves open access</td><td>137</td></tr><tr><td>Congressional panel favors access to publicly funded research</td><td>137</td></tr><tr><td>Google scan plan expands, gaining 12 Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) libraries</td><td>137</td></tr><tr><td>Balancing author and publisher rights</td><td>138</td></tr><tr><td>Microsoft adds copyrighted books to online library</td><td>138</td></tr><tr><td>Elsevier ditches arms trade</td><td>138</td></tr><tr><td>Bush administration pushes for stronger copyright protection, enforcement</td><td>139</td></tr><tr><td>Response of the presidents of Canada's three granting agencies to the Government of Canada's announcement on the new science and technology strategy</td><td>139</td></tr><tr><td>UN Common Database now free of charge</td><td>139</td></tr><tr><td>New metric available for evaluating scholarly journal value: The Eigenfactor</td><td>140</td></tr><tr><td>New open-access medical journal, offshoot of CMAJ firing fight, is launched</td><td>140</td></tr><tr><td>Launch of new Journal Info tool by Lund University</td><td>140</td></tr><tr><td>New World Health Organization (WHO) online tool to improve clinical trial transparency</td><td>141</td></tr><tr><td>CAM in UME Digital Resource Repository launched</td><td>141</td></tr><tr><td>New and improved PubMed/Entrez and new URL</td><td>141</td></tr><tr><td>PNC/MLA 2007 Annual Conference</td><td>142</td></tr><tr><td>World Congress on the Internet in Medicine</td><td>142</td></tr><tr><td>EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference</td><td>142</td></tr><tr><td>AMIA 2007 Symposium</td><td>142</td></tr><tr><td>LibQUAL Workshop co-sponsored by CARL</td><td>143</td></tr><tr><td>Special Libraries Association – Click U Live!</td><td>143</td></tr><tr><td>FIS Professional Learning Centre – Copyright: Understanding and applying the rules</td><td>143</td></tr><tr><td>FIS Professional Learning Centre: Designing Information Products and Services</td><td>143</td></tr></table>
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NEWS AND NOTES / NOUVELLES ET NOTES

Canadian Library Association (CLA) moves open access

CLA Digest, 29 June 2007

http://cla.informz.net/cla/archives/archive_155065.html

CLA Executive Council has approved some recommendations from the Open Access Task Force that move CLA towards providing virtually all of its intellectual property free of charge, in digital form, online, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. CLA will provide for full and immediate open access for all CLA publications, with the exception of *Feliciter* and monographs.

Congressional panel favors access to publicly funded research

Washington, D.C., 28 June 2007

http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/media/release07-0628.html

Public access to research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) took a major step forward this week with the Senate Appropriations Committee agreement to direct the NIH to require that its funded research be made publicly available on the Internet.

Google scan plan expands, gaining 12 Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) libraries

Albanese A. *Library Journal*, 6 June 2007

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6449789.html

Google and the 12 universities in the CIC have announced that they have entered into an agreement to digitize up to 10 million bound volumes. In one swoop, the deal represents a two-thirds jump in the number of libraries and universities participating worldwide in the Google Books Library Project, up from 15 to 25. Under the agreement, Google will digitize "significant portions from CIC library general collections", with each university to contribute "collection areas of particular strength and distinction".
Balancing author and publisher rights

Suber P. SPARC Open Access Newsletter, 2 June 2007, Issue 110

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/06-02-07.htm

There were two developments in May that could affect the balance between author and publisher rights. First, a group of universities adopted an “author addendum” to modify standard publisher copyright contracts and a pair of nonprofits enhanced their own author addenda. Second, a group of publishers adopted a position statement on where the balance lies. Not surprisingly, the two groups strike the balance in different places. The author examines both developments.

Microsoft adds copyrighted books to online library

*The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 June 2007*

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Microsoft-adds-copyrighted-books-to-online-library/

2007/06/02/1180205552974.html

On 1 June 2007, Microsoft added copyrighted books to its online library, saying it has permission to offer the works to searchers on the Internet. By making deals with authors and publishing houses to include their works in the Live Search Books index, Microsoft sidesteps a controversy triggered by Google's plan to offer the world's written works online. Listed among the publishers adding their books to Microsoft's virtual shelves are Cambridge University Press, McGraw-Hill Companies, Rodale, and Simon and Schuster.

Elsevier ditches arms trade

Grant B. *The Scientist*, 4 June 2007

http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53266/

Reed Elsevier intends to stop organizing weapons exhibitions by the end of 2007. The decision comes after years of mounting pressure from scientists and members of the medical community. “We have listened closely to these concerns and this has led us to conclude that the defence shows are no longer compatible with Reed Elsevier’s position as a leading publisher of scientific, medical, legal and business content,” CEO Sir Crispin Davis said in a statement posted on the company’s Web site (June 1).
## Bush administration pushes for stronger copyright protection, enforcement

Standeford D. *Intellectual Property Watch*, 22 May 2007

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=629&res=1152&print=0

The United States government and US creative industries last week signalled a new crackdown on intellectual property (IP) infringement at home and abroad. In a flurry of activity, the Bush administration proposed unprecedented changes to copyright enforcement laws, key entertainment industry groups and companies partnered to fight for stronger IP rights, and a bipartisan congressional panel named and shamed five countries, including Canada, for uncontrolled piracy.

## Response of the presidents of Canada's three granting agencies to the Government of Canada's announcement on the new science and technology strategy

Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 23 May 2007

http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/34220.html

The presidents of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) have issued a response to the new science and technology strategy, Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage, stating that "our three Agencies will continue to work closely with the research community, governments, and industry to look at new and better ways of delivering on the promise of research and the policy commitments in the new S&T Strategy."

## UN Common Database now free of charge

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cdb/cdb_help/cdb__quick_start.asp

Use of the UN Common Database is now free of charge. Subscriptions are no longer necessary, and all users can access the full range of data, metadata, and various search tools without restriction. A new system, UN data, will be launched in the summer of 2007 and will provide improved access and searchability for United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) databases.
# New metric available for evaluating scholarly journal value: The Eigenfactor

http://www.eigenfactor.org/

The Bergstrom Lab in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington has created a Web site that utilizes a new technique, the Eigenfactor, to calculate measures of the influence of scholarly journals. The Eigenfactor accounts for variations in citation patterns between disciplines to more easily enable comparisons between journals in different fields or inter-disciplinary titles. In addition to Eigenfactor values, the Web site provides several other metrics including impact factors, an article influence factor, and price and cost indices.

# New open-access medical journal, offshoot of CMAJ firing fight, is launched

Branswell H. Canadian Press, 17 April 2007

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/070417/x041719A.html

*Open Medicine*, a new Canadian open-access medical journal launched 18 April 2007, was conceived in the bitter aftermath of the February 2006 firing of the editor and deputy editor of the *Canadian Medical Association Journal* (CMAJ). Although the reason for the firings was never made public, it was widely known that Dr. John Hoey and his team had a series of run-ins with the holding company that published the journal for the Canadian Medical Association. A former editorial board member, who is now on the board of *Open Medicine*, said the history of interference at the CMAJ is one of the reasons why Canada needs another medical journal.

# Launch of new Journal Info tool by Lund University

2 July 2007

http://jinfo.lub.lu.se

Lund University Libraries has, with financial support from the National Library of Sweden, put together a new tool to support researchers in their choice of journal for publication. The service, called Journal Info, gives fast and simple access to journal information through a Web interface. The journal information is divided into general information, accessibility, cost, and quality, and each area is supported by a number of relevant points. You can, for example, find in which databases a journal is indexed, how much it costs for the library to subscribe, and which alternative open access journals exist. A total of 18 000 journals are currently supported in the database.
# New World Health Organization (WHO) online tool to improve clinical trial transparency

Geneva, 4 May 2007

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2007/np22/en/index.html

WHO launched a new Web site that will enable researchers, health practitioners, consumers, journal editors, and reporters to search more easily and quickly for information on clinical trials. The site works as an entry point or portal into multiple, high-quality clinical trial registers with a global search function.

# CAM in UME Digital Resource Repository launched

23 May 2007

http://www.caminume.ca/drr

The core working group of a nationally based Canadian initiative focused on facilitating quality teaching of issues related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in undergraduate medical education (UME) is pleased to announce the launch of the CAM in UME Digital Resource Repository.

# New and improved PubMed/Entrez and new URL

23 May 2007

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj07/mj07_pubmed_url.html

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is changing to a new version of the Entrez system in a phased implementation beginning in May 2007. The new system offers more flexibility and will serve as the foundation for creating the next generation of features and capabilities for Entrez databases. Users had a preview of the new system recently when a beta version was made available. Changes to the beta version include the following:

* (i) Web page titles display at the top of your browser's window. NCBI has made these more descriptive. Whereas the title for all pages within PubMed used to be "Entrez PubMed", the titles for various pages are now more specific (e.g., "PubMed Home", "PubMed Limits", and "PubMed History").

* (ii) The Send to Printer feature no longer uses a pop-up window. Also, the "Close this window" button on the printer-friendly page has been replaced by "Go back".

* (iii) If you select Related Articles from the PubMed display menu without selecting specific citations, PubMed will retrieve the related articles for (up to) the first 500 items in the retrieval. In the past, if no citations were selected, Related Articles was based on the items shown on the page.
# Meetings, conferences, and workshops

## PNC/MLA 2007 Annual Conference

The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MLA) will hold its annual conference in Billings, Montana, from 28 September to 2 October 2007. For further details, check the conference Web site at http://www.bahsiclibraries.org/PNC/2007_pncmla_annual_conference.htm.

## World Congress on the Internet in Medicine

The 12th World Congress on the Internet in Medicine will take place 7–10 October 2007 in Leipzig, Germany. MEDNET is a scientific conference organized under the auspices of the Society for the Internet in Medicine (SIM). For details, check the conference Web site at http://mednet2007.com/content/.

## EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference

EDUCAUSE will hold its annual conference from October 23 to 26 in Seattle, Washington. For details, check the conference Web site at http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=223&bhcp=1.

## AMIA 2007 Symposium

The 2007 symposium of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) will be held on 10–14 November in Chicago, Illinois. For details, check the conference Web site at http://www.amia.org/meetings/f07/.
# Professional development

## LibQUAL Workshop co-sponsored by CARL

24–25 October 2007

Ottawa, Ontario

LibQUAL+® & Beyond: Applying Your Survey Results & Other Performance Measures in Library Practice is a LibQUAL+ Canada Workshop co-sponsored by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries. For more information, see http://library.queensu.ca/webir/canlibqual/carl-workshop-2007.htm.

## Special Libraries Association – Click U Live!

### Project Profile: The Hub of Clear Project Communication

23 October 2007, 2:00–3:30 p.m. EST

$99 (SLA members)

Live seminar

Presenter: Bernice L. Rocque, PMP, Three Houses Consulting LLC

This Click U Live! seminar will examine the Project Profile, an indispensable tool for enabling better project definition while involving those who have a key stake. A Project Profile defines key aspects of the project in brief terms. Preparing a Project Profile is an important step in good project front-end loading (FEL), an approach statistically correlated with project success that is gaining wider use. For more information, see http://sla.learn.com/learncenter.asp?page=168.

## FIS Professional Learning Centre – Copyright: Understanding and applying the rules

28 September 2007

1 day (6 h), 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Instructor: Jean Dryden

Fee: $199.00 (US$173.00)

Led by an expert in Canadian copyright, this practical course uses a combination of lecture, cases, and discussion to guide you through the key provisions of the Canadian *Copyright Act* and provide tools to analyze and deal with copyright issues and problems.

## FIS Professional Learning Centre: Designing Information Products and Services

22–23 November 2007

2 days (12 h), 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Instructor: Stephen Abram

Fee: $425.00 (US$369.00)

The conceptualization, design, and development of products and services have become critical skills for today's information managers. The importance of these skills is evidenced by the virtualization of library and information operations, the emergence of portals and intranets, as well as the design of ancillary services such as research operations and training programs. The successful managers will be those who can define, develop, introduce, and improve their services and products. On completion of this course participants will have a clearer grasp of the complexities of product and service design, with particular emphasis on electronic products and services; an understanding of the product and service design process with illustrations from case studies; the right questions to ask as their projects proceed; and the confidence needed to adapt to these new challenges.