Part-Time Policy Wonk

From The Eye:
Print publications have been the currency of academia since time immemorial, but the cheap, instant distribution network of the Internet has thrown the publishing world into turmoil. In an environment where research is done at an unprecedented rate, new models for publishing academic works are being explored.
In most traditional journals, the submitting author [...]

From Information World Review:
Walter de Gruyter, the independent academic publisher, has introduced “de Gruyter Open Library” publishing model for its journals and book series, signifying a shift from both its traditional model and conventional (not transparent) open access model in publishing.
The new golden hybrid offering for researchers is to meet the shifting interests of the [...]

From Open Access News:
Harvard University has released the March 2 letter it sent to its Congressional delegation, in support of the NIH policy and opposing the Conyers bill.

From the New York Times:
The dusty stacks of the nation’s great university and research libraries are full of orphans — books that the author and publisher have essentially abandoned. They are out of print, and while they remain under copyright, the rights holders are unknown or cannot be found.
Now millions of orphan books may get [...]

From the Open Content Alliance Blog:
Digitizing books still has some challenges, but I believe the economics of it are clear. Nonetheless, some misunderstandings persist. I’d like to review some of the most basic facts about book digitization that I’ve learned over the past seven or so years.
Most attention is paid to the cost of [...]

From Library Journal:
Another week, another new faculty open access mandate—this one coming from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT becomes the latest in what is becoming a steady stream of faculty approving open access mandates, following Harvard’s groundbreaking OA mandate last year. The policy was approved unanimously at an MIT faculty meeting on Wednesday, [...]

From Library Journal:
They say change starts at home. On March 13, the library faculty at Oregon State University (OSU) announced the school has adopted its own, Harvard-like Open Access (OA) mandate, the first in the nation for a library faculty.
Under the policy, library faculty members are now required to give an electronic copy of “the [...]

From the Wall Street Journal:
To get through the 385 pages of mind-numbing legalese of the Google settlement, it might be better to be Nino Scalia, Bob Bork or David Boies. Preferably all three at once. Absent brain enhancement surgery, understanding this monstrosity by May 5, 2009, is going to be rough.
That’s the date by which [...]

From the Google Book Search blog:
In 2004, Google began a partnership with Oxford University Library to scan mostly 19th century public domain books from its Bodleian library. Five years on, we’re delighted to announce the end of this phase of our scanning with Oxford, our first European partner. Together, we have digitized and made available [...]

From Information Today:
Scribd, Inc., the social publishing website, announced that it has partnered with major publishers to bring books and other professional works to its community of more than 50 million readers. Random House, Simon & Schuster, Workman Publishing Co., Berrett-Koehler, Thomas Nelson, and Manning Publications are among the companies uploading and sharing entire novels, [...]