Rowland Institute Library Blog

In the Montreal Gazette, Stevan Harnad gives a general explanation of what open access means for researchers using the literature and a call to univeristy departments to extend the proverbial “publish or perish” requirement to “provide-open-access-to-your publication” (Source: Open Access News)

An Information Today article reports that Elsevier is shutting down its online portals/communities BioMedNet and ChemWeb. Both services offered a wealth of free content, particularly the latter’s Chemistry Preprint Server, the fate of which has not yet been determined. Both were launched by independent companies and then sold to Elsevier, who gradually raised prices on some of the online articles accessible therein. On the other hand, nobody is stepping in to absorb the products; the chief of BioMedCentral is quoted saying that their service already offers a huge resource.

A good summary of developments in anti-spam legislation, the file-sharing wars, pop-up blocking, internet taxation and other issues in technology and the law can be found in this news.com.com article. (Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly)

In “the long road to longhorn.” Salon’s Scott Rosenberg details the thinking behind Microsoft’s projected new operating system, not due for a couple of years, how the “bloggers in Redmond” will provide updates, and what the prospects are for this system and “the evil empire.” (Free after you watch a commercial.)

Discover lists its choice of top science news stories for 2003, including Columbia, SARS, age of the cosmos and others. A subscription is required to read the full articles. (Source: Moreover)

“Offloading your memories,” a New York Times magazine article, documents several ongoing research projects (such as MyLifeBits) aimed at creating a digital system for every bit of data in your life. (source: SciTechDaily Review)

More university libraries attempt to get out from under Elsevier’s big deal (requires subscription.) (Source: Open Access News)

Steve Cohen reported in Library Stuff that Consumers’ Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, now have a feed for their news updates.

A Harvard Crimson sums up recent experiments in slowing, stopping and manipulating light. Recently published results by the Lukin group are discussed, with earlier work by Hau and Walsworth mentioned.