Tag Archives: Cause
Elsevier should not provide free open access to retracted papers
In a recent interview published by Retraction Watch, Judit Bar-Ilan of Bar-Ilan University and Gali Halevi at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report that many scholarly articles continue to be cited after retraction: “despite all the awareness efforts around this topic, retracted articles continue to be read and cited positively.” That’s the disturbing result of their research. “We should […]
Lost libraries of the Silk Road
Post Magazine features British artist Abigail Reynolds. Her 2017 sculptural exhibit, “The Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the Silk Road” was inspired by a five-month-long voyage across half the globe to visit the sites of sixteen libraries ruined by natural disaster, war, or dismantled by political forces over 2,000 years. “I’m a big fan of […]
Fair Use / Fair Dealing Week 2017
In recognition of Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week 2017 programs, coordinated by the US & Canadian based Association of Research Libraries, ARL has released a helpful infographic on Fair Use Myths and Facts. Fair use and fair dealing are vitally important rights for everybody, everywhere—students, faculty, librarians, journalists, and all users of copyrighted material. These doctrines provide balance to […]
ASA asks for your support of the NEH
The US African Studies Association in partnership with the National Humanities Alliance is organizing support for the many important programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities. As the linked site above states, in light of the fact that the Trump Administration will be shaping its budget request over the coming months with broad input…we […]
Librarians of Timbuktu
Joshua Hammer’s The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts (2016 Simon & Schuster) is reviewed by Tom Glenn in the Washington Independent Review of Books: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu provides irrefutable evidence that culture and learning in Africa were far more advanced than in Europe by the 16th century when Timbuktu flourished as […]
Petition to support academics in Turkey
Academics: We will not be a Party to This Crime 1,128 academics from 89 universities in Turkey, and over 355 academics and researchers from abroad have signed a text calling on state of Turkey to end state violence and prepare negotiation conditions. Beyza Kural İstanbul – BIA News Desk 11 January 2016, Monday 15:18 President of […]
Heal Uganda’s oldest Library
Update: The Indiegogo campaign to “Heal Uganda’s oldest Library” raised $1,665 USD by 37 backers in 2 months and closed in December 2015. A second campaign is active now, with just over 3 weeks left at this point, again via Indiegogo to preserve the rare and unique book collections at the Uganda Society library. Organizers plan to install an air conditioner, […]
Scholarly societies hold key to open access
Banks, Marcus. 2015. “Open Access Publishing: What it is and how to sustain it.” American Libraries 46(9/10):59-61. The article is a brief summary of the current (probably unsustainable) academic author/journal publisher/scholarly society/university library ecosystem or economy. My favorite quote from the article comes from Cameron Neylon, formerly of PLOS: “Scholarly societies hold the key to the […]
June Edit-a-thon to improve ‘African Literature’ page in Wikipedia
Africa in Words author Stephanie Santana writes: On June 4 at the upcoming African Literature Association (ALA) conference at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, Africa in Words will be hosting a ‘Wikithon’ to improve the ‘African Literature’ Wikipedia page. During a Wikithon (also often called an ‘Edit-a-thon‘), people come together to edit a particular Wikipedia page […]
Elsevier further restricts author rights
From the Duke University Libraries blog on scholarly communications: Stepping back from sharing MAY 4, 2015 KEVIN SMITH, J.D. The announcement from Elsevier about its new policies regarding author rights was a masterpiece of doublespeak, proclaiming that the company was “unleashing the power of sharing” while in fact tying up sharing in as many leashes as […]
African Studies library 