OCLC is currently experiencing system issues that affect a variety of our services, including WorldCat Local and ILL, which they are working to correct. We apologize for this interruption to our patrons and hope for a speedy resolution.
The libraries of the Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST) have reached a milestone in building a lasting shared print library collection, successfully archiving 500,000 volumes.
The Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST) is a distributed shared print journal repository program in the western region of the United States. Along with libraries from the University of California system, more than 70 research and academic libraries currently participate in WEST, including libraries from Stanford University, the University of Washington, Arizona State University, the University of Oregon, and Rice University among many others.
Through distributed retention commitments and archive-building activities, WEST safeguards the scholarly record while also creating opportunities to reallocate library space for new collections and innovative user spaces. Print journal volumes are consolidated and retained at high-density library storage facilities and more than thirty-five libraries. New titles are chosen each year for inclusion based on risk-management principles. WEST archives and retention commitments are visible internationally, through the Center for Research Libraries’ Print Archives Preservation Registry (PAPR) and OCLC WorldCat.
“The deeper you look, the more you’ll discover.” Today, the motto of Calisphere is particularly appropriate given the growth of the collection to over half a million items!
Calisphere’s new metadata infrastructure has made it possible to provide access to more digital content than ever. The site has grown exponentially since its re-release this past fall, and the growth is set to continue, as more institutions sign up to add their collections the site.
Recent additions include the Gold Rush Life collection from the University of the Pacific, containing correspondence, diaries, and other primary source materials on the lives of individuals during the California Gold Rush; photographs, news clippings, postcards, and programs from the 1910 Los Angeles International Aviation Meet, contributed by CSU Dominguez Hills; and over 3,000 audio and video recordings digitized as part of the California Audiovisual Preservation Project.
On June 10 from 11pm until June 11 at 3am PDT, OCLC will be performing systems maintenance which may result in intermittent interruptions of online catalog services. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope these interruptions will create minimal disruption to our users’ research.
The Authors Guild’s decade long lawsuit against Google came to an end April 18th when the Supreme Court declined to hear the Authors Guild’s Appeal of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision from October 2015. By declining, the Supreme Court affirmed the Circuit Court’s ruling that Google’s digitization of library collections, the creation of search functionality, and display of snippets are all non-infringing fair uses. If one takes into account the fair use findings in other similar cases, there are now four argued rulings which affirm that the work undertaken by participants in the Google Library Project to convert library collections to digital form constitute fair use as defined by U.S. Copyright law, a victory for fair use, libraries, scholars, researchers, and the public alike.
The University of California has been in partnership with the Google Library Project since 2006. As result, close to 3.8 million volumes from UC Library collections have been converted to digital form and are in HathiTrust and Google Books. These digitized volumes (the majority of which are long out of print), can be discovered, searched, and located by anyone using traditional metadata or search terms. Half a million of these volumes are in the public domain and are open access, which means the full text is available for reading.
Why is research data management important and what is the impact of good data management practices? An introductory video released by the UC Libraries addresses these questions by incorporating the voices and testimonials of UC faculty.
The video is the first of a proposed series developed by the UC Libraries Data Curation Common Knowledge Group. It features UC Merced Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Marjorie Zatz and was produced by the UC Merced Communications video production team.
Viewership and feedback will be used to assess and inform future development of the series. Questions or feedback can be submitted directly to the project leads, Head, Digital Assets, Emily Lin (elin@ucmerced.edu) and UC Riverside Engineering Librarian, Kat Koziar (katherine.koziar@ucr.edu).
If you are a principal investigator preparing a grant proposal or developing your research project and would like help with data management planning, contact curation@ucmerced.edu. The Library would be happy to provide consultation for your needs.
California Digital Library and University of California Press are pleased to announce their partnership with Collaborative Knowledge Foundation to develop Editoria, a new open source, digital-first book production platform.
Through the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CDL and UCP have launched a project to create an open source platform for content and workflow management of book-length works. The goal of the project is to build a shared resource for presses and library publishers to automate book production in multiple formats using an adaptable, web-based production workflow system.
CKF, UCP and CDL are taking a cooperative approach to product design and development and will be setting up a site to make this methodology available to the public in the coming weeks. The Editoria project will continue through 2016 with a launch in early 2017.
UC Merced Library’s Deputy University Librarian, Donald Barclay, follows the upwards and download trends associated with libraries and reveals how they have reinvented themselves to meet users’ needs. See “Has the library outlived is usefulness in the age of Internet? You’d be surprised” in The Conversation.
HathiTrust Digital Library print disability access has been significantly updated to allow access to all copyrighted material in HathiTrust for students, staff and faculty with visual impairments or print disabilities.
The HathiTrust Digital Library is a partnership of research and academic institutions, and contains over 14 million digitized volumes. Previously, HathiTrust print disabilities access was restricted to materials that matched print books in the UCM library.
For items not available through HathiTrust, in-print items owned by UC Merced can be digitized. Please contact the Office of Disability Services at 209-228-6996 to obtain a referral for HathiTrust access and digitization requests.
Visit http://library.ucmerced.edu/use/borrowing/accessibility to learn about Library services offered for users with disabilities. For additional information, please contact Elizabeth Salmon, Access Services Librarian, esalmon@ucmerced.edu, 209-631-6954.
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