Should federally funded research be made freely accessible to the public after it's published? The House Subcommitte on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property heard testimony pro and con last week at a hearing on H.R. 6845, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, which would, among other things, threaten the NIH's current public-access policy. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) »
Writing
“Textbook Sales Drop, and University Presses Search for Reasons Why”
“Continental Drift”
Tim Butcher, a journalist for the Telegraph, set out to retrace Stanley's 1874-1877 journey across the Congo. Was it a brave or stupid thing to do, and what did he find? How far have we come since the days of the Scramble for Africa"? I reviewed Butcher's account of the trip, Blood River, for the Sept./Oct./Nov. issue of Bookforum, which is now online." Read More at Bookforum »
“Scholars’ View of Libraries Shows a Marked Decline”
A report just released by the Ithaka group shows "a mismatch of perception" between librarians and faculty members when it comes tthe importance of libraries' traditional role as a gateway to scholarly information. Ithaka used data from surveys conducted in 2006, so this report is slightly out of date, but the trends it picked up on only appear to be accelerating. Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) »
“Firing of Arden Editor Causes Tempest in Shakespeare Studies”
The publisher of the Arden Shakespeare has cancelled the contract of a senior scholar charged with producing a new edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the well-regarded series. Patricia Parker, who has a high reputation among Shakespearians, had been working on her edition of MND for more than a decade. Did Arden's publisher, Cengage, terminate her because of missed deadlines? Or was something else--commercialism versus scholarship, or scholar versus scholar--behind the dismissal? Read More at The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) »
