Most Literate U.S. Cities: Denver is 4th...

This in from Yahoo News.

Most Literate U.S. Cities: Minneapolis and Seattle

Residents of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most bookish and well-read, according to results from a new survey released today of the most literate American cities.

The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.

Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:

1—Minneapolis, Minn.
2—Seattle, Wash.
3—St. Paul, Minn.
4—Denver, Colo.
5—Washington, D.C.
6—St. Louis, Mo.
7—San Francisco, Calif.
8—Atlanta, Ga.
9—Pittsburgh, Pa.
10—Boston, Mass.

Etc., etc., etc....

Norad tracks Santa

See http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm.

ARL Report -- Agenda for Developing E-Science in Research Libraries

Agenda for Developing E-Science in Research Libraries

http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/ARL_EScience_final.pdf

From the Executive Summary -- "E-science has the potential to be transformational within research libraries by impacting their operations, functions, and possibly even their mission. Recognizing this potential, the ARL Steering Committees for Scholarly Communication and for Research, Teaching, and Learning jointly appointed a task force in 2006 to address the emergent domain of e-science. The Joint Task Force on Library Support for E-Science focused its attention on the implications of trends in e-science for research libraries, exploring the dimensions that impact collections, services, research infrastructure, and professional development. Priorities of government funding agencies further shaped the task force’s work."

"Open Access & Science Publishing" report

Open Access & Science Publishing
Results of a Study on Researchers’ Acceptance and Use of Open Access Publishing
Thomas Hess / Rolf T. Wigand / Florian Mann / Benedikt von Walter

http://www.wim.bwl.uni-muenchen.de/download_free/sonstiges/mreport_2007_01.pdf
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - This Management Report summarizes the main descriptive results of a study on researcher’s acceptance of Open Access publishing. The study was conducted in 2006 by the Ludwig-Maximilans-University Munich, Germany, in cooperation with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The main focus is centered on the question if and why scientists decide or do not decide to publish their work according to the Open Access principle without access barriers and free of cost to readers. With the responses from 688 publishing scientists it could be demonstrated that the general attitude toward the Open Access principle is extremely positive. However, many seem to be rather reluctant to publish their own research work in Open Access outlets. Advantages like increased speed, reach and potentially higher citation rates of Open Access publications are seen alongside insufficient impact factors, lacking long-term availability and the inferior ability to reach the specific target audience of scientists within one’s own discipline. Moreover the low level of use among close colleagues seems to be a barrier towards Open Access publishing.

Two new articles/reports

Here are some new articles/reports from the Open Access Blog.

1) Future of Scholarly Communication: Building the Infrastructure for Cyberscholarship. ("Institutional repositories were the stated topic for a workshop convened in Phoenix, Arizona earlier this year (April 17-19, 2007) by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Kingdom's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). While in their report on the workshop, Bill Arms and Ron Larsen build out a larger landscape of concern, institutional repositories remain a crucial topic, which, without institutional cyberscholarship, will never approach their full potential.")

2) Mike Rossner, Heather Van Epps, and Emma Hill, Show me the data, Journal of Cell Biology, December 17, 2007. (Excerpt: The integrity of data, and transparency about their acquisition, are vital to science. The impact factor data that are gathered and sold by Thomson Scientific (formerly the Institute of Scientific Information, or ISI) have a strong influence on the scientific community, affecting decisions on where to publish, whom to promote or hire, the success of grant applications, and even salary bonuses. Yet...to our knowledge, no one has independently audited the underlying data to validate their reliability....)

New report from EDUCAUSE and the New Media Consortium

The Horizon Report provides a time line of future Web 2.0 technologies. There are many implications for academic libraries."The focus of the Horizon Project centers on the applications of emerging technologies to teaching, learning, and creative expression, and the format of the Horizon Report reflects that focus. Each topic includes an overview to familiarize readers with the concept or technology at hand, a discussion of the particular relevance of the topic to those activities, and examples of how the technology is being or could be applied."

More about SCOAP3

Here is some more info about SCOAP3 from Symmetry Magazine.

Free for all -- "Forget about paying for journal subscriptions. If a new proposal takes hold, particle physics journals would get their funding from labs, libraries, and agencies that sponsor research, and readers could peruse them for free." By Glennda Chui

Visit to the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library

After I was done with Ammi Hyde Interviews in Milwaukee, I went to the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library which is housed within the Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"Background -- The AGS Library is one of North America’s foremost geography and map collections. Formerly the library and map collection of the American Geographical Society (AGS) of New York, it was transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries in 1978 following a nationwide selection process by the Society. The Society was formed in the early 1850's to promote the collection and diffusion of geographical and statistical information and to establish and maintain a library with a collection of maps, charts and instruments. By 1870, this library was already recognized as the “largest and most valuable” of its type in the United States."
Neato library -- I am glad I was able to visit for a little while.