Publishing frontiers: The library reboot : Nature News & Comment
abernard102@gmail.com 2013-03-29
Summary:
'As we create more and more digital content, there's a question of how do you get people to even realize we have it and then interact with it in new ways,' says Choudhury, who thinks that the wall is starting to catch on. One chemical engineer wants to use it to visualize and manipulate molecules, and astronomers hope that it could help to train students in categorizing galaxies. By providing alternative ways to explore and share data, says Choudhury, the wall 'is a new form of publishing'. Around the world, university libraries are racing to reinvent themselves to keep up with rapid transformations in twenty-first-century scholarship. They still do a brisk business in purchasing books, licensing access to academic journals and providing study spaces and research training for students. And libraries are increasingly helping teachers to develop courses and adopt new technologies. But for working scientists, who can now browse scientific literature online without leaving their desks, much of this activity goes unseen. For many, libraries seem to be relics that no longer serve their needs. That could soon change. At Johns Hopkins and many other top universities, libraries are aiming to become more active partners in the research enterprise — altering the way scientists conduct and publish their work. Libraries are looking to assist with all stages of research, by offering guidance and tools for collecting, exploring, visualizing, labelling and sharing data. 'I see us moving up the food chain and being co-contributors to the creation of new knowledge,' says Sarah Thomas, the head of libraries at the University of Oxford, UK ..."