ACCESS | Asia 's Newspaper on Electronic Information Product & Service

What to do with old library books?

Some libraries pulp them. Others have a book sale. Some push them into distant stacks and forget about them. But not libraries in Scotland. They sell their discarded books on the internet courtesy Amazon's Marketplace. And people buy the stuff! Get ready to dust those stacks baby... Here has more.

PPM/LAS celebrate golden jubilee

Fifty years together and apart, but still talking. Rather like a modern marriage. The two library associations of Malaysia and Singapore jointly celebrated their 50th birthdays. Prizes were awarded. Librarians honoured. Celebratory publications distributed. More here.

The world of science in you hand

Blackberries are for eating. But this Blackberry delivers chemistry literature and molecular structure from CAS databases to handheld devices, an industry first. Imagine there's an accident in your lab and the rescue services need to understand the chemicals better. Using CAS databases via handhelds, lives may be saved and cockroaches won't mutate into creatures the size of Aardvarks! Here tells you more about this Christmas stocking filler.

Italy in Australia

It's an exclusive little get together. Almost by invitation only. You can rub shoulders with assorted national library directors, gurus of library practice, geeks, and maybe even a Google personage or two. It's the Fiesole meeting which this year was held in Melbourne, that great Italian city on the G'day Riviera. Read an eyewitness account here.

It took a long time, but it's worth it

Filipinos can access information at their National Library from their homes, thanks to the recently launched Philippine eLib project. On offer are more than 800,000 bibliographic records, 29,000 journals and 15,000 theses. And if you can't connect from home, all you need is a prepaid card to feed the eKiosks at the National Library. This joyful news is here

Is it a traffic light?

RedLightGreen is the simple and powerful interface to the RLG Union Catalog that looks like Google, Yahoo or other familiar web search engines meaning it's immediately recognizable and loved by students and staff. It returns results based on relevance and how many libraries have the book. Merrilee Profitt compares RedLightGreen with Google. Here has the story.

China and Indonesia win UNESCO grants

It was like a competition: the best win grants from UNESCO for information literacy, preservation of information and other projects. China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka were each successful. Project details here.

Google: friend or enemy?

In reaction to Google's announcement that it will digitise millions of books, several national European libraries have announced a similar project. Many librarians are pleased with the Google project and see it as a milestone in publishing history. Others are concerned about the effect on their library: funds, staff, whether bosses will disband their collections "because it's all on the internet". Wade Roush takes a long look at what's in store for libraries and Google. The story starts here.

Open Access models can be confusing

Is it cheaper in an Open Access producer-pays model to take an institutional membership over paying per article published? We know that question has been on the tip of your tongue for ages. So ACCESS brings you the answer courtesy Davis and Stern. Answer here.

Darling, you're the best

Once they decide to do something, the Singapore Government delivers big time. Money is well spent. Schedules are honoured. Disruption is minimal. Icons are born. The latest is the new National Library of Singapore, a towering glass edifice that when it opens in a few months' time, will offer more than lending and listening. This library will almost be a cultural centre. Artist rendition and feature here.

Nasty pylons deliver your internet fix

We've heard about it already: electricity power supply lines being used for low cost high speed internet access. But now it looks like it will happen because the European Commission intends to boost competition by opening the market to new suppliers of broadband via the power grid. Could it happen here? More here.

Wonderful wonderful Wondir

It's a people to people reference service where you and I can ask questions and be connected to people who know the answer. It's like a village where you know somebody can help you. All you need is a push in the right direction by Wondir's search engine. Will it put Reference Librarians out of work? Here doesn't have the answer.

Meetings and Exhibitions more...

Blackwell boosts professional society publishing in Asia

Open Access spurs Blackwell to experiment with new publishing models

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading independent society publisher. In partnership with more than 600 academic and professional societies it publishes more than 750 journals, a growing number of them from Asia. ACCESS recently talked to Mark Robertson, the President of Blackwell Publishing Asia (Australia), who has been with Blackwell since 1982. He is a member of the editorial board of the ALPSP journal Learned Publishing and following his involvement in the STM/Publishers Association delegation to China in 2001, which lobbied successfully to cease the illegal reprinting of English language journals in China, was appointed to the Executive Board of STM in 2003. Conducted via email, the interview covers, Open Access, the affordability of journals and Blackwell's presence in Asia.

Blackwell Publishing had a record year attracting societies to publish their journals with you. If a society in Asia wanted to publish with you, what is the usual revenue model you adopt?

Every year our list grows, predominantly with societies wanting to work in partnership with us to benefit from our services, market reach and publishing knowledge. The situation is similar in Asia. In total we publish 90 journals with societies in Asia and Australasia, including over 30 for Japanese societies, over 40 for Australian and New Zealand societies, seven for Chinese societies and the remainder with pan Asian organizations. In 2005 more that 10 societies moved their journals to Blackwell Publishing in Asia.

The revenue models vary from journal to journal depending on the journal itself, the society's membership numbers and publishing requirements but we welcome any approaches. Publishers can reach me here .

Could you tell us about the China titles?

The societies and institutes with which we have partnerships are the Chinese Medical Association Shanghai Branch, the Chinese Gastroenterology Society, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong and within the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) the Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Institute of Botany and the Institute of Zoology. In line with our global mission we aim to become the publisher of the very best scholarly research China has to offer.

Society journals are already reasonably priced (some would say on the low side!). How does anybody make money when titles are so heavily discounted in bundling - for example, your Dermatology bundle)?

I hope your readers understand the great value of Blackwell Publishing journals as you do. Maybe the best answer is to quote from a 2003 report commissioned by the Wellcome Trust on the Economic Analysis of Scientific Research Publishing: "... Blackwell has a major stake in contract publishing and is reported to provide good customer care. It is able to retain most of its journals from one year to another because of the customer care which arises from its specialist interest in contract publishing and it is viewed by some as an honorary not-for-profit publisher."

How popular in eligible Asian countries are initiatives like HINARI, AGORA, and INASP? Isn't it true to say that publishers participate in them when they have nothing to lose, i.e. they get no income from eligible countries anyway? This would explain why India, which probably meets eligibility criteria on GDP and other economic indicators, is often excluded.

At the International Association of Science, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) spring conference in Washington DC in April, Barbara Aronson, the Project Manager for HINARI at the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the HINARI program which makes medical and scientific journal content available to the world's poorest countries, was probably one of the most successful initiatives WHO had ever undertaken. HINARI, AGORA and INASP have the support of the leading international publishers including Blackwell who additionally provides marketing support to HINARI.

The 'rules' of supply to specific countries are available on the various websites, but for example under the HINARI initiative, those countries with GNP per capita below USD1,000 (based on the World Bank figures for 2001) have access to our and other publisher's content at no charge; whilst countries with a GNP per capita between USD1,000-3,000 pay a fee of only USD1,000 per year. This fee is used by HINARI to cover some of its costs in developing the programme rather than being returned to the publishers.

Depending on one's definition of Asia, in the former group of countries those in Asia are: Bangladesh, East Timor, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In the latter group are Fiji and Vanuatu.

Some countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, even India, still find 'reasonably priced' bundles too expensive. Wouldn't it be better to drop the least important 20 percent of titles from bundles to make them more affordable and more relevant?

We are sensitive to the needs and circumstances of our markets which we must match to the interests of our society clients and their wish to reach as wide a readership as possible. Our sales staff and agents are in constant contact with our library clients and where your readers' issues are not being addressed they are free to make contact with me.

You're working with CALIS. Please tell us about it and how it is going.

Yes, we have been working with CALIS for a while in collaboration with iGroup. We have reached agreement with 30 CALIS member libraries in 2005 that are taking a range of Blackwell Publishing bundles online. Forty CAS sites take our STM package.

Blackwell is doing very well in South Korea. Why is it your best performing country in Asia?

Data from Thompson Scientific/ISI shows a sustained growth in scholarly output form Korea over time with an associated increase in quality. Sales of our content online into Korea have kept pace with this growth - I am not sure it is our best performing country in Asia, but like others it is doing well.

How important is Asia to Blackwell's revenue? Is it a growing market for example?

By any definition Asia is a growing market and of key importance to Blackwell Publishing.

Mark Robertson, President, Blackwell Publishing Asia

The Web allows publishers to market journals in different ways, e.g. page by page, or article by article, like ebrary. Yet most publishers still sell complete journals either individually or in bundles. Do you see this changing?

Blackwell offers libraries the option of print and online, online only at the individual title level and in various bundles of journals in broad subject areas. Individual articles can be bought direct from Blackwell Synergy or via document delivery services and third parties. I think we are some way away from an article based model but I do see the merit in smaller bundles of journals in more targeted subject clusters.

Is Open Access a good thing for Blackwell and its subscribers? What effect is it having on the company, for example, reduced income, new contracts with authors, copyright?

It is safe to say that the open access model will challenge the status quo, but it is too early to reach any other conclusions. The number of open access journals is small, the definition of what is an open access journal is not unanimously agreed, and Blackwell and other publishers are experimenting with new models, e.g. Online Open. In the January 2005 issue of Learned Publishing, there is an article by David Goodman of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science of Long Island University entitled Open Access: what comes next? in which he models the various effects open access could have on the journal publishing market. Your readers may be interested in accessing it (free) online.

Blackwell allows self archiving as noted in the company's Online Open statement. Why offer a USD2,500 alternative? Won't the self archived article contain the entire text, links, additions etc that the Blackwell version offers?

The article which will be used by authors for self archiving will be the final article, identical to the published article in the journal and on Blackwell Synergy. Prior to publication the manuscript will have been peer reviewed by the journal's academic editor and consequently improved and made acceptable for publication in the journal according to its editorial policy and standards. Thereafter Blackwell Publishing will have edited, formatted and improved the structure and presentation of the finished article and applied the necessary tagging for the article to be accessed online and to be interactive with other databases.

In the traditional subscription model for journals the cost of this work is covered by the subscriptions paid by the library and individual subscribers, supplemented by advertising and other income. In the Online Open model the charge per article, currently fixed at USD2,500 goes towards covering the cost of publication.

Is Blackwell working with Google? Do you view Google's recent announcements and products (Google Scholar, the book digitisation programme etc) as a good thing for libraries? Also, if Google (as it says it will) uses DOI as the primary means to link to an article, won't that exclude a lot of high quality scholarly literature from public visibility?

Yes, we are working with Google and it will be interesting to see how Google Scholar continues to change the practice of students and researchers accessing the literature. It is early days and your readers will have a better view on whether such developments will be good for libraries. ALPSP research data show that the prime reason scholars submit to and read particular journals is their perceived quality. Blackwell Publishing's journals through peer review, high publishing standards and association with recognized learned societies represents quality.

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek will be archiving for perpetuity all publications in Synergy. Under what circumstances will the archive be used? For example, in the LOCKSS project?

Yes, we are participating in LOCKSS and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek archiving initiative. At the site for the latter, I am told there is an explanation of the events under which the archive would be accessible. It is what I am told is called a "dark archive" and is a prudent contingency in the event that Blackwell is not able to make its content available to our customers.