(Nov 2020) The world’s most prosperous economies are also among the most innovative and that innovation is driven first and foremost by research. This year’s G20 summit is one of the world’s few forums for international co-operation taking place and the expectations are rightly high that the expertise and resources of its members should play a…
(11 Nov 2020) From Aaron Tay’s Musings about librarianship: “In terms of cross disciplinary citation indexes that are used for discovery, everyone knows of the two incumbents — Web of Science and Scopus(2004). Joined by the large web scale Google Scholar (2004), these three reigned as the “Big 3” of citation indexes for roughly a decade more or less…
(16 Nov 2020) Clarivate Plc, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has released their joint report ‘Research Fronts 2020’ to identify the hottest and emerging areas in scientific research. The seventh annual collaborative report between Clarivate and CAS was launched at…
(14 November 2020) Australia’s peak national library bodies want to see the federal government adopt a policy and strategy for combating misinformation and disinformation among individuals of all ages. The Australian Libraries and Information Association (ALIA), National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) and National Archives of Australia all spoke of the looming threat of…
(7 Nov 2020) News from Japan: The Agency for Cultural Affairs is considering Copyright Law revisions to allow libraries to send digital versions of books directly to readers’ computers or smartphones, triggering fears among publishing houses of copyright infringement and a flood of pirated works. One proposal is to weaken the control copyright…
(14 Nov 2020) More than 2,500 UK university staff have called for an investigation into the “scandal” of excessive pricing of academic e-books. “Price rises are common, sudden and appear arbitrary” with some digital books increasing by 200%, they say in a letter to Education Committee MPs. Organiser Johanna Anderson said some e-texts can…
(13 Nov 2020) “Fun Facts on Numbers” is a new column at ACCESS@librarylearningspace, which is published along with our bi-weekly newsletter. A question is raised, and the answer is presented in numbers. Questions are selected from frequently asked questions by librarians and researchers regarding scientific communication. This week the question is “How many research…
(10 Nov 2020) This open-access article has recently been published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, by Franciszek Krawczyk and Emanuel Kulczycki. Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate how predatory journals are characterized by authors who write about such journals. We emphasize the ways in which predatory journals have been conflated…
(20 Oct 2020) For a book lover, stepping into a bookstore is always exciting, but a new bookstore in China makes the experience absolutely spellbinding. Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, located in Chengdu, was designed by Shanghai-based architecture firm X+Living, which has created several locations for Zhongshuge. The two-story space appears cathedral-like, thanks to the mirrored ceilings and…
(11 Nov 2020) Rachel Esson has been appointed as New Zealand’s National Librarian Te Pouhuaki. Rachel takes up the role from within the National Library, where she currently serves as Director for Content Services. Te Tari Taiwhenua| Internal Affairs Deputy Chief Executive Information and Knowledge Services Peter Murray says this appointment panel was looking…