The Distant Librarian

Techsmith: Wanted: Usability Test Participants for Amazon Gift Cards!

Techsmith is seeking volunteers to "participate in usability tests of Screencast.com. The tests are one-on-one sessions that would take an hour of your time. You can participate in them from your own home or office, with a phone line, PC computer, and broadband internet connection."  They're throwing in a $25 Amazon.com gift card for participating - full details on the screencast.com site.

The Annoyed Librarian goes for World Domination

I don’t follow the Annoyed Librarian, and I didn’t pay much attention when it was announced that Library Journal was paying him/her to move his/her blog over there.  But holy cow, now the AL has shown up as the author of every article in a “special issue” of the Journal of Access Services! (volume 5, issue 4).  I’m on the  editorial board for this journal and this was news to me; it just showed up in my mail Friday afternoon.  I’ll skim through the articles to see how funny they are, but even if we’re having trouble scaring up contributors, I’m pretty sure this isn’t the path we want to go down with our peer-reviewed journals!

CFP: 2nd International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference

The Public Knowledge Project is pleased to announce that registration is now open for the second international PKP conference, July 8 – 10, 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Session proposals will be accepted until January 15, 2009.

Preconference Workshops on July 8 include:
Networkshop - Editors/Publishers: John Willinsky, Rowly Lorimer
Networkshop - Software Developers/Technical Experts: PKP Team Developers
Networkshop - Librarians/Information Specialists: Brian Owen, Kevin Stranack
OJS in an Afternoon: Kevin Stranack, James MacGregor
L8X in an Afternoon: MJ Suhonos
PKP Software Plug-in Workshop: Alec Smecher
CLA Open Access Interest Group: Lynn Copeland, Heather Morrison, Leah Vanderjagt, Andrew Waller

Postconference Workshop July 11:
Workshop on Creating Open Access Journals: David Solomon, Caroline Sutton

The first PKP conference was an overwhelming success with presentations and participants from around the world. A selected set of conference papers was subsequently published in the October 2007 issue of First Monday.

The conference will appeal not just to members of the PKP community, but to anyone interested in trends and developments for scholarly publishing and communication. There will be a wide range of topical sessions on new reading and publishing technologies; open access initiatives; alternative publishing and funding models; national and international collaborative projects; new roles and partnerships for libraries, scholarly publishers and others; and sustainability for open access publishing and open source software. Prospective and first time users of OJS and other PKP software will be able to learn more about the systems and establish contacts with the PKP community. Experienced implementers, developers, and system administrators will have an opportunity to participate in technical sessions and exchange information.

The conference will commence with an opening keynote session on the evening of July 8 convened by John Willinsky, the founder of the Public Knowledge Project. There will be several pre-conference workshops on July 8, and the main conference program will present a combination of concurrent and single track sessions during on July 9 and 10. The conference will conclude with three special symposia on community and network building intended for each of the core PKP constituents: journal editors and publishers; librarians; and software developers.

The conference will be hosted at Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus and will be adjacent to a wide range of accommodations, restaurants, and other popular tourist destinations. Please mark the July 8 – 10 dates on your 2009 calendars. The PKP partners look forward to welcoming you to the second PKP conference.

For more information, please visit the conference web site: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/pkp/index.php/pkp2009

The Public Knowledge Project is a federally funded research initiative at Simon Fraser University, Stanford University, and the University of British Columbia. It seeks to improve the scholarly and public quality of academic research through the development of innovative online environments. PKP has developed free, open source software for the management, publishing, and indexing of journals and current conferences. The PKP software suite is comprised of three modules in production: Open Archives Harvester, Open Journal Systems, and Open Conference Systems, and two in development: Lemon8-XML and Open Monograph Press.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Public Knowledge Project is pleased to announce that the second international PKP conference will be held from July 8 – 10, 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The first PKP conference was an overwhelming success with presentations and participants from around the world. A selected set of conference papers was subsequently published in the October 2007 issue of First Monday.

The conference will consist of a mixture of plenary talks and parallel conference streams intended for the following groups:

•  journal editors and publishers
•  researchers in scholarly publishing
•  librarians and information specialists
•  open source software developers and system administrators

Papers and presentation proposals that address one or more of the following topics are especially encouraged:

• New reading and publishing technologies, e.g. integration of Web 2.0 features;
• Open access initiatives;
• Alternative publishing and funding models;
• National and international collaborative projects;
• New roles and partnerships for libraries, scholarly publishers, and others;
• Sustainability for open access publishing and open source software.

Parallel sessions will each be up to 1 hour in length. They may consist of a workshop, a case study, a research report, a set of 3 presentations on a single theme, a panel discussion as well as other options.

Proposals for papers or presentations should be submitted by January 15, 2009, using the submission guidelines and form available at http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/pkp/index.php/pkp2009/

The Public Knowledge Project is a federally funded research initiative at Simon Fraser University, Stanford University, and the University of British Columbia. The partnership brings together faculty members, librarians, and graduate students dedicated to exploring whether and how
new technologies can be used to improve the professional and public value of scholarly research. Its research program is investigating the social, economic, and technical issues entailed in the use of online infrastructure and knowledge management strategies to improve both the
scholarly quality and public accessibility and coherence of this body of knowledge in a sustainable and globally accessible form. It seeks to improve the scholarly and public quality of academic research through the development of innovative online environments. It continues to be an
active player in the open access movement, as it provides the leading open source software for journal and conference management and publishing. The research and publishing activities of the project have been reviewed and cited in Inside Higher Ed, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Science, The Scientist and others.

Camtasia Studio 6 released

Oh man, now I'm two versions behind since I'm still on Win2K here at the office (system requirements) :-(  Techsmith has  released Camtasia Studio 6, their most excellent screencasting tool (still only for Windows).  Lots of new features detailed on their site. 

The most useful one for me would be the independent audio & video editing:  "When recording audio and video at the same time, it's hard to be perfect. So we've made it easier to fix mistakes. Simply decouple the audio and video tracks to edit them independently. And move audio clips between (and along) tracks to line everything up perfectly. Bottom line: fewer retakes and less time spent on editing."

As always, you can download a free 30-day trial of the product.  Educational pricing is also available.

Update: Lon Naylor at Screencastprofits.com has a good review of the pros and cons of this new version.

CFP: Journal of Library and Information Services for Distance Learning

The Journal of Library and Information Services for Distance Learning would like to welcome the new Editor-in-Chief, Jodi Poe.

Ms. Poe comes to the Journal with more than 17 years of service in an academic library, and eight years of service in distance education.  She is currently the Head of Technical Services at the Houston Cole Library at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. Prior to accepting the department head position in October, Jodi served as the distance education librarian at the Houston Cole Library for eight years.

During her tenure as a distance librarian, Poe has written numerous journal articles on distance learning and librarianship, which appeared in popular journals like The Journal of Access Services and the Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Electronic Reserves. Additionally, Jodi co-authored a chapter in the book Going the Distance: Library Instruction for Off-Campus Students.

CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS

The Journal of Library and Information Service for Distance Learning, a peer- reviewed journal published by Routledge/The Haworth Press, welcomes the submission of manuscripts.

The journal is devoted to the issues and concerns of librarians and information specialists involved with distance education and delivering library resources and services to this growing community of students.

Topics can include but are not limited to:

• Faculty/librarian
• cooperation and collaboration
• Information literacy
• Instructional service techniques
• Information delivery
• Reference services
• Document delivery
• Developing collections

If you are interested in submitting an article, send the manuscript directly to the Editor, Jodi Poe at jpoe@jsu.edu by December 1, 2008.  Inquiries and questions are welcome.

Instructions for authors are available at http://www.haworthpress.com or can be emailed to you directly.

ACRL invites Cyber Zed Shed proposals

Are you a tech savvy librarian using new technologies in innovative ways? Adapting existing technologies to reach user needs? Here is an opportunity to share your innovations with your colleagues, library administrators, and others at ACRL 14th National Conference, March 12-15, 2009, in Seattle! Grab your 20 minutes of fame and educate others – submit a proposal for a Cyber Zed Shed presentation. 

The ACRL 14th National Conference Innovations Committee is looking for proposals that document technology-related innovations in every area of the library. Whether you are teaching in a classroom, answering questions from patrons; acquiring, cataloging, processing or preserving materials; or providing other services, we're interested! We invite you to submit your most innovative proposal to help us make Seattle the site of a truly groundbreaking conference! 

FORMAT
Cyber Zed Shed presentations are 20 minutes in length, with fifteen minutes to present a demonstration, and five additional minutes for audience Q&A. Presentations should document technology-related innovations in academic and research libraries. A computer, data projector, screen, and microphone will be provided in the Cyber Zed Shed theater. You will be responsible for bringing all other equipment required for your demonstration, except as agreed to in advance.

Cyber Zed Shed presentations will be held from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14 in the Cyber Zed Shed theater, adjacent to the exhibit floor in Seattle.

HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
Proposals must be submitted via the online proposal form at https://marvin.foresightint.com/surveys/Tier1Survey/ACRL/284. Please have the following information ready at the time you submit your proposal:

• Contact information
• How does this technology make you and/or your library more effective, efficient, or productive? (200 word limit)
• Describe your innovative application of technology as it applies to libraries. (200 word limit)
• What technology will you require for your presentation? Please list all equipment, software, and connections you will need/bring for your demonstration.
• Time slot preference (Friday morning, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon).

DEADLINE
Proposals must be submitted by Friday, December 12, 2008 (midnight CST).

NOTIFICATIONS
Applicants will be notified via e-mail in January 2009.

Visit http://www.acrl.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/seattle/program/cyberzedshed.cfm for complete details. Questions should be directed to Margot Conahan at mconahan@ala.org, or call 312-280-2522.