JSTOR makes early content free
“JSTOR, an online system for archiving academic journals, has announced it is making journal content published prior to 1923 in the United States, and prior to 1870 elsewhere, freely available to the public for reading and downloading. This includes nearly 500,000 articles from more than 200 journals, representing approximately 6% of the total content on JSTOR. Making this content freely available is a first step in a larger effort to provide more access options to independent scholars and others without access to an institutional subscription….” (JSTOR, Sept. 6 ) [text via American Libraries Direct]
Brilliant step, JSTOR. I knew you were one of my favorite databases for a reason.
Hacker Activist Steals Millions of Papers From MIT Archives
This happened a little while ago, and I’d meant to post it back when I first heard about it. Aaron Swartz, 24, is an internet hacker and activist, with the firm belief that information should be free. He was caught with over 4 million scientific and research articles that he had hacked from MIT, and had intended to release them all to the public. He could face as long as 35 years in prison and at least a million dollars in fines. His court date is September 9th.
Further reading:
New York Times article, article #2 (this one has a lot more background information)
Raw Thought - his weblog apparently.
UK Libraries Reject "Raw" Deal on Journals
Major research libraries have told the two largest journal publishers that they will not renew their “big deals” with them if they do not make significant real-terms price reductions.
Research Libraries UK, which includes the Russell Group university libraries, as well as the UK’s national libraries and Trinity College Library Dublin, have told Elsevier and Wiley-Blackwell that they will not renew their current deals when they expire at the end of this year unless the concession is made.
Good! Publishers expect far too much for journal subscriptions, so much that many libraries have had to cut down on the amount of journals they subscribe to. It’s completely ridiculous and disgusting. Information should not be expensive.
Marcel Proust’s notebook, n.d. (source)
Apparently there is a whole section of wooden book imposters here.
A friend of mine posted these, and I thought I’d reblog it along with my response to him since a lot of people don’t know what these are - I actually only learned about them this year when I started working at an academic library.
For the most part, I think these are usually used in academic libraries and this is why: they are called dummies and they are usually shelved with the journals. Journals change their names a lot. So, the dummies have the older journal names written on them so that you know you’re looking at the right one. People get confused or they only know an older name of a journal. For example, the Journal of the American Medical Association has changed its name often. It goes by JAMA now. So if you’re looking for that journal but don’t know that, you’re going to find a dummy marked “Journal of the American Medical Association” shelved with the JAMA journals.
They are also used for books and documents which may be published online or available in some other form.
