August 26th Server Upgrades -- Very Limited Access to Databases and Peak

There will be no off-campus access to our databases on Tuesday, Aug. 26 because of server upgrades. Limited access to our databases may be available from on-campus via Database & Article Search. During this time, the Peak catalog will also be down. You may check the library’s holdings through Prospector. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Chemistry Journal Use at the University of Denver

The article that Rachel Hansen and I worked on was finally published today. The title of it is -- "Local Evaluation of Chemistry Journals."

This paper reports on the evaluation of local usage statistics of a specific set of chemistry journals at the University of Denver in Colorado, USA. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that commercial publishers in chemistry charge considerably more for their journals than those from the non-commercial sector. There are three variables that are considered in this research: institutional cost of the journal, cost per Thomson Scientific Impact Factor (IF), and cost per article downloaded. In the defined set of 65 journals, it is found that commercial publishers charge more for their journals by a ratio of 2.59. Commercial publishers cost more per impact factor by a ratio of 3.20 and significantly more per local article download by a ratio of 6.16. This research demonstrates that local usage statistics should be used as part of the journal evaluation process.

Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century

The Council on Library and Information Resources has released a new report.

It is
No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century

Abstract -- How should we be rethinking the research library in a swiftly changing information landscape? In February 2008, CLIR convened 25 leading librarians, publishers, faculty members, and information technology specialists to consider this question. Participants discussed the challenges and opportunities that libraries are likely to face in the next five to ten years, and how changes in scholarly communication will affect the future library. Essays by eight of the participants—Paul Courant, Andrew Dillon, Rick Luce, Stephen Nichols, Daphnée Rentfrow, Abby Smith, Kate Wittenberg, and Lee Zia—were circulated to participants in advance and provided background for the conversation. This report contains these background essays as well as a summary of the meeting.

Games in the Library

We will be getting some recreational board and video gaming systems for the library soon. What kind of recommendations do you have for game titles (board or video)? We do plan on getting either Rock Band or Guitar Hero. We will be getting a Wii, too! What would you like to play?