What stories will we tell about library collections in the future? As digitization takes over libraries, margin notes and scribbles are still part of the research process.
For now, it’s going to be trickier for the University of California community to access some academic journals.
Michelle/Flickr
The UC libraries let their Elsevier journal subscriptions lapse and now the publisher has cut their online access. It’s a painful milestone in the fight UC hopes may transform how journals get paid.
China’s five-storey Tianjin Binhai Library occupies an area of 33,700 square metres with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves which can contain up to 1.2 million books.
Roman Pilipey
In our world of pervasive consumerism, libraries continue to be founded on humanism. Their core purpose as accessible places is vital – yet they are also now popular tourist destinations.
Libraries subscribe digitally to academic journals – and are left with nothing in the stacks when the contract expires.
Eric Chan/Flickr
Digital publishing hasn’t resulted in the free and open access to information many envisioned. Universities are increasingly fed up with a system they see as charging them for their own scholars’ labor.
South Africa seeks to amend its outdated copyright legislation.
Shutterstock
South Africa’s copyright law must not continue ignoring the principles of fair use.
The much heralded ‘death of the book’ has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It is about a radical transformation in reading practices.
Marcella Cheng/NY-CC-BD
Essays On Air: Why libraries can and must change
The Conversation, CC BY23.3 MB(download)
The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It's about a radical transformation in reading practices, as explained in this episode of Essays On Air.
Locking articles away behind a paywall stifles access.
Elizabeth
In our institutions of higher education and our research labs, scholars first produce, then buy back, their own content. With the costs rising and access restricted, something’s got to give.
How can students think critically about information in today’s age?
UBC Library Communications/flickr
Since the 19th century academic librarians have helped students navigate the complex world of information. In today’s unpredictable information environment, how might they rethink their role?
Should the public pay to read research?
Barry Silver
The public pays for academic research and then again to read the published results of that research. A new initiative proposes a radical Open Access model. Can it work?