Transforming Scientific Communication for the 21st Century

Since its inception in the 17th century the research journal emerged as the formal communication method in the sciences. The last half of the 20th century has seen stresses develop on the journal system due to the explosion of scientific research, increasing subscription costs, and technological advances. New models, taking advantage of digital technology, have demonstrated that great improvements are possible if the scientific community is willing to embrace change. Two methods for significantly changing the model are suggested: adopting an e-print moderator model which decouples the dissemination of information from its review, and shifting the costs of publication from the reader to the author and sponsoring agencies and organizations

Social Network Centralization Dynamics in Print Production in the Low Countries, 1550-1750

The development of a professionalized, highly centralized printmaking industry in northern Europe during the mid-sixteenth century has been argued to be the inevitable result of prints' efficacy at reproducing images, and thus encouraging mass production. However, it is unclear whether such a centralized structure was truly inevitable, and if it persisted through the seventeenth century. This paper uses network analysis to infer these historical print production networks from two large databases of existing prints in order to characterize whether and how centralization of printmaking networks changed over the course of this period, and how these changes may have influenced individual printmakers

Spatial Fields of Knowledge: How Public Library Architecture Performs Under Public and Context

As newly constructed and renovated public libraries are designed to support a diverse interactive base, physical and digital information interfaces provide opportunities to explore their influence on increasingly responsive and transparent spaces. The internal, and to an extent, the external spaces of a library can be designed to respond to user needs while stimulating a combination of visual, intellectual, and social experiences. This paper presents a taxonomy on the present and possible futures of public library design through three lenses that focus on the library as a type of social environment, the visual and physical relationships between levels of public space, and the access to spatial fields of flexible interactivity. The libraries selected in this study represent distinctive responses to the planes in which they are constructed. This places interpretation of central or neighborhood library counterparts in terms of: (a) position in urban plexus and (b) engagement of public through the visualization of a social institution

Astrophysicists and physicists as creators of ArXiv-based commenting resources for their research communities. An initial survey

This paper conveys the outcomes of what results to be the first, though initial, overview of commenting platforms and related 2.0 resources born within and for the astrophysical community (from 2004 to 2016). Experiences were added, mainly in the physics domain, for a total of 22 major items, including four epijournals, and four supplementary resources, thus casting some light onto an unexpected richness and consonance of endeavours. These experiences rest almost entirely on the contents of the database ArXiv, which adds to its merits that of potentially setting the grounds for web 2.0 resources, and research behaviours, to be explored. Most of the experiences retrieved are UK and US based, but the resulting picture is international, as various European countries, China and Australia have been actively involved. Final remarks about creation patterns and outcome of these resources are outlined. The results integrate the previous studies according to which the web 2.0 is presently of limited use for communication in astrophysics and vouch for a role of researchers in the shaping of their own professional communication tools that is greater than expected. Collaterally, some aspects of ArXiv s recent pathway towards partial inclusion of web 2.0 features are touched upon. Further investigation is hoped for.Comment: Journal article 16 page

Institutional Repository based Open Access Scholarly Publishing System: A Conceptual Model

Although Institutional repositories have been used as a strategy to improve the access to traditional scholarly content (such as e-prints) very often, their role in scholarly publishing has been discussed for a long time. Present study investigates the role of institutional repository as a scholarly publishing platform, and intends to propose an open access scholarly publishing model based on institutional repositories. For that purpose, related literature is reviewed to identify the current trends in scholarly publishing, open access movement and institutional repositories. Moreover, features of selected institutional repositories are discussed along with features of widely used institutional repository software platforms. The proposed conceptual model is developed accordingly. This study concludes that, by serving as a scholarly publishing platform, institutional repositories enable the institutes to take control of their research output while promoting accessibility to the institutional research in an open-access environment

Virtual historical landscapes

Using 3D computer graphics technology, we are able to create virtual reconstructions of (almost completely) disappeared landscapes. The applications of these virtual historic landscapes range from landscape archaeology, edutainment to landscape planning. Although computer graphics technology matured and photo-realistic representations are achieved, the creation of realistic virtual reconstructions remains problematic. For a realistic user experience, we need to know which cues influence the user perception. However, poor-defined visualization requirements for 3D virtual historic landscapes leave us with the question ‘How good is good enough?’ This article discusses the search for a decisive variable to let users perceive the virtual historic landscape, focusing on image quality and contents of the virtual historic landscape. The virtual reconstruction of Palace Honselaarsdijck, a 17th century real-estate of stadtholder Frederick Henry (1584-1647), and its surrounding landscape is used as a case study. Using old maps, image processing and GIS software the historic terrain model was generated. By application of a 3D historic object library, the virtual landscape was decorated with wind mills, houses, churches and so forth. Finally, the virtual historic landscape was completed with atmospheres, water and vegetation. The result is a full-decorated and rendered virtual historic landscape. From a preliminary user test, the researchers learned that the contents of the virtual historic landscape are more important than the image quality. Future work will focus on what the identifying landscape features for a realistic user experience are, and how to communicate uncertainty inside the virtual landscape. The expectation is  that the work contributes to the realization of virtual historic landscape on a large-scale to communicate landscape information to the broad public

Washington University Record, March 30, 2000

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/record/1858/thumbnail.jp

A Partnership to Increase Access to Our Nation's Historical Records

The City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, in collaboration with the Free Library of Philadelphia has designed this collaborative project in an effort to link critical historical data collections from across the region, providing access to a broader scope of information to researchers, historians, genealogists, students, and other members of the public. To conduct this project, the partnership is seeking $108,882 over a two year period from this grant award (to be matched by$37,644 in City General Revenues). This project is designed to begin the process of collaboration between these two organizations with two of the library's most critical and historically significant digital collections--the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 Collection and the Historical Images of Philadelphia Collection. Through this project the partners will both integrate metadata and implement new user tools that will enhance end-user access