China pushing the envelope on science, and sometimes ethics
(washingtonpost.com): A decade ago, no one considered China a scientific competitor. Its best and brightest agreed and fled China in a massive brain drain to university research labs at Harvard, Stanford and MIT. But over the past five years, Western-educated scientists and gutsy entrepreneurs have conducted a rearguard action, battling… Read More
A Future for our Digital Memory: Strategic Agenda 2010-2013 for Long-Term Access to Digital Resources
(ncdd.nl): Printed documents can be locked away in some closet for tens or even hundreds of years without their usefulness being in any way affected. Digital information is another matter altogether. Digital media (cd’s, dvd’s) have limited life spans, hardware and software become obsolescent in a matter of years, internet… Read More
Preservation and conservation of UB property vital
(gazettebw.com): Is the conservation and preservation of materials in the University of Botswana (UB) today necessary? Basically the answer is yes, affirmative action is a fundamental need in the university community, writes THATAYAONE SEGAETSHO. Read More
We still need libraries in the digital age
(guardian.co.uk): With the government axing public services, librarians are being forced to defend their existence against accusations of irrelevance in modern society. As one adviser on Newsnight put it during the BBC's recent "mini-consultation" on the proposed cuts, why do we need libraries when everyone has broadband and can access… Read More
Semantically Enhancing Collections of Library and Non-Library Content
(dlib.org): Many digital libraries have not made the transition to semantic digital libraries, and often with good reason. Librarians and information technologists may not yet grasp the value of semantic mappings of bibliographic metadata, they may not have the resources to make the transition and, even if they do, semantic… Read More
Google Metaweb Deal: Is Google’s Internal R&D Not Delivering?
(newsbreaks.infotoday.com): Google's recent purchase of semantic database start-up Metaweb may suggest a broken research program. Google bought a company with a large open source term list known as Freebase and technology to identify people, places, and things. Google invested in next generation content processing with its hiring of high profile… Read More
Millions of Americans use Twitter, just don’t ask them to pay for it
(digitaljournal.com): According to a new study by the University of Southern California's School for Communication and Journalism, half of all Americans have used a Web application such as Twitter, but none of them would be willing to pay to use them. The study called "Surveying the Digital Future" found that… Read More
Using a Core Scientific Metadata Model in Large-Scale Facilities
(ijdc.net): In this paper, the authors present the Core Scientific Metadata Model (CSMD), a model for the representation of scientific study metadata developed within the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to represent the data generated from scientific facilities. The model has been developed to allow management of and access… Read More
Are e-books killing
(kxly.com): Something new comes along and replaces something old. Cell phones killed the landline, email eliminates the need to send a letter, grunge music killed the hair bands of the 1980's. Is the same thing happening to books? Are we'all going to be reading books on a screen from now… Read More
Microsoft says streaming digital content will kill Blu-ray
(ibtimes.com): Microsoft, the supporter of the erstwhile HD DVD format, says digital streaming of content will cause Blue-ray's demise. In an interview with Xbox360Achievements Microsoft's, UK Xbox chief remarked: "Actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and… Read More
