Back to basics: what is the e-journal?

As we move further into the first decade of a new century, it seems a good point to reflect on where the e-journal has come from, the position it is at now, and where it might be going in the immediate and long-term future. My concern within this article is to look backwards and forwards and consider this revolution in serials publishing, and the impact it has had on different user groups from the traditional academic audience to the general internet-savvy population. This article will therefore be structured in the following way: first, I will be looking at the birth of the e-journal, and the development of technologies through the last twenty years which influenced it; then move on to consider popular models of electronic serial publishing; to consider whether ‘born digital’ content is really in the long-term an advantage; to discuss the impact of new publishing models; and finally to look at where the e-journal fits as a source for support, and an outlet, for scholarly research. In conclusion I will present some thoughts on future development for this form of information sharing

LIFE: bibliography

The following bibliography came out of the research which formed the first phase of the joint British Library-UCL LIFE (Lifecycle Information for E-Literature) project. The references are not an exhaustive review of digital preservation activities, they are a reflection of the aims of the LIFE project. Any suggestions for additions or comments can be emailed to [email protected]

Long-Term Preservation of Digital Records, Part I: A Theoretical Basis

The Information Revolution is making preservation of digital records an urgent issue. Archivists have grappled with the question of how to achieve this for about 15 years. We focus on limitations to preservation, identifying precisely what can be preserved and what cannot. Our answer comes from the philosophical theory of knowledge, especially its discussion about the limits of what can be communicated. Philosophers have taught that answers to critical questions have been obscured by "failure to understand the logic of our language". We can clarify difficulties by paying extremely close attention to the meaning of words such as 'knowledge', 'information', 'the original', and 'dynamic'. What is valuable in transmitted and stored messages, and what should be preserved, is an abstraction, the pattern inherent in each transmitted and stored digital record. This answer has, in fact, been lurking just below the surface of archival literature. To make progress, archivists must collaborate with software engineers. Understanding perspectives across disciplinary boundaries will be needed.

The Durham Statement on Open Access One Year Later: Preservation and Access to Legal Scholarship

The Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship calls for US law schools to stop publishing their journals in print format and to rely instead on electronic publication with a commitment to keep the electronic versions available in “stable, open, digital formats.” The Statement asks for two things: 1) open access publication of law school-published journals; and 2) an end to print publication of law journals. This paper was written as background for a July 2010 American Association of Law Libraries conference program on the preservation implications of the call to end print publication

Critique of Architectures for Long-Term Digital Preservation

Evolving technology and fading human memory threaten the long-term intelligibility of many kinds of documents. Furthermore, some records are susceptible to improper alterations that make them untrustworthy. Trusted Digital Repositories (TDRs) and Trustworthy Digital Objects (TDOs) seem to be the only broadly applicable digital preservation methodologies proposed. We argue that the TDR approach has shortfalls as a method for long-term digital preservation of sensitive information. Comparison of TDR and TDO methodologies suggests differentiating near-term preservation measures from what is needed for the long term. TDO methodology addresses these needs, providing for making digital documents durably intelligible. It uses EDP standards for a few file formats and XML structures for text documents. For other information formats, intelligibility is assured by using a virtual computer. To protect sensitive information—content whose inappropriate alteration might mislead its readers, the integrity and authenticity of each TDO is made testable by embedded public-key cryptographic message digests and signatures. Key authenticity is protected recursively in a social hierarchy. The proper focus for long-term preservation technology is signed packages that each combine a record collection with its metadata and that also bind context—Trustworthy Digital Objects.

The Durham Statement Two Years Later: Open Access in the Law School Journal Environment

The Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship, drafted by a group of academic law library directors, was promulgated in February 2009. It calls for two things: (1) open access publication of law school–published journals; and (2) an end to print publication of law journals, coupled with a commitment to keeping the electronic versions available in “stable, open, digital formats.” The two years since the Statement was issued have seen increased publication of law journals in openly available electronic formats, but little movement toward all-electronic publication. This article discusses the issues raised by the Durham Statement, the current state of law journal publishing, and directions forward

The Virtual Library : changing roles and ethical challenges for librarians

In this age of Information Technology, there have been so many opportunities for the Librarians for involvement in an information-based society including electronic and multimedia publishing, Internet based-information services, global networking, web based digital resources etc. The base of recorded information is growing at an accelerating rate, in increasing varieties of formats (texts, numeric, graphic, video, audio, image, electronic, etc.). Virtual Library can be defined as the Internet based Digital Library. The concept of “Virtual Library” is that any person who has a computer by which he can make connection to the library networks can access not only the resources of the library but also access variety of information that is available nationally and internationally through networks, like Internet, Intranet without being physically present in library. This article explains what is meant by a Virtual Library and to build a virtual library in what way the Librarians have to change their roles to face the challenges of modern Information Technologies in the changing environment. Also this article, discusses about the changing role of librarians, the skills needed to build a virtual library and how the virtual information should be collected, managed, preserved and disseminated to the millennium users

Open access scholarly publishing and the problem of networks and intermediaries in the academic commons

Der Vortrag wurde am 5th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium gehalten (22-23 Oktober 2005)

Extending the institutional repository to include undergraduate research

While a primary strategy of scholarly communication initiatives has been to encourage faculty participation in institutional repositories (IRs), with some process and workflow customization, IR participation can be successfully extended to undergraduate students, with benefits to both the student and institution. Drawing observations from the University of New Hampshire Library\u27s work collecting undergraduate honors theses and other student research, this article discusses customization strategies for creating an effective workflow for student self-deposit using an iterative, feedback-based approach, and the benefits, challenges,and potential concerns of encouraging undergraduate participation in institutional repositories

The Deconstructed (or Distributed) Journal - an emerging model?

Reviews the development of the Deconstructed Journal academic publishing model. The model was first proposed in something like its present form in 1997 and further developed in 1999. Although not actively promoted elements of the model appear to be emerging spontaneously from the general developments in online academic publishing