Writing

The buzzing of smartphones, the clacking of computer keys, the chatter of study groups: Academic libraries aren't the quiet temples to scholarship they used to be....Library quiet is making a comeback, though, in part because students themselves are asking for it. "Students crave quiet as much as they crave conversation," says Karen G. Schneider, director for library services at Holy Names University, in Oakland, Calif., and proprietor of the Free Range Librarian blog. I talked to some librarians to find out what patrons are asking for and how libraries are responding. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) »

Building off recent momentum behind their cause, a group of public-access advocates has started a petition asking the Obama administration to require that work supported by taxpayer money be accessible online. Read More at Wired Campus (CHE) »

The university says it will phase out the operations of its press, which has been getting a $400,000 annual subsidy. Read More at http://chronicle.com/article/Planned-Shutdown-of-U-of/132026/ »

Archivists have plenty of material to deal with. What they haven't had is a universal standard for how to index and document it. A group of archivists and other interested parties got together at the National Archives to talk about what a National Archival Authorities Cooperative would look like, and how to get there from here. Read More at Wired Campus (CHE) »

A federal judge handed down a ruling in a closely watched case that pitted three scholarly publishers against Georgia State University. The plaintiffs argued that the university went too far in allowing professors to post unlicensed copyrighted material online for students; GSU defended its policy as fair use in an educational setting. The judge mostly agreed with the university. Library and fair-use advocates worried, though, that her ruling draws a too-bright line on fair use. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education »