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Against The Grain Journal

Charleston Library Conference 

May 15, 2017

Let’s Get Technical with Stacey Marien and Alayne Mundt

On today’s episode we cover a number of topics. First off is Katina Strauch with her weekly Rumors segment. Then we hear from Katina’s husband Bruce Strauch as he tells us a fascinating “Case of Note” story involving reality TV, violent street gangs and the anti-SLAPP statute.

We then hear three articles from ATG Column Editors Stacey Marien (Acquisitions Librarian, American University Library) and Alayne Mundt (Resource Description Librarian, American University Library) focusing on practical problems and solutions in Technical Services departments. This is the first of a series of articles that Stacey and Alayne will be presenting on the podcast.

This week’s Katina’s Rumors:

There are many people who help us to keep the Charleston Conference and ATG running! One of our main technical advisers is Matt Branton. Matt has worked at the College of Charleston for most of his young lifetime! He has two darling girls – Lockie and Tallulah and a wonderful wife Leighton. The family has recently welcomed a brother. Benjamin Luke Branton was born April 22 and is hard at work getting bigger! Matt helps us with every eventuality quickly and efficiently whenever we need him! Thank you, Matt and congratulations to the Branton family!

We met many years ago in Fiesole, Italy, when she as working for Casalini Libri and later at Ithaka. And the vivacious Çolleen Campbell has a new position as Partner Development in the Open Access 2020 Initiative at the Max Planck Society’s Max Planck Digital Library. The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) in Munich is a central unit of the Max Planck Society that supports scientists from all Max Planck Institutes with a broad portfolio of services in the fields of information provision, publication support and research data management. In the era of digital information, big data, the World Wide Web and web-based collaboration, MPDL makes a substantial contribution to the Max Planck Society's competitiveness in the international science community. The MPDL and its predecessors have featured as one of Europe's largest purchasers of scientific information for more than 10 years now. The MPDL arranges for access to a wide range of scientific journals, eBooks, specialist databases and extensive open access publication services. Together with the libraries at the Max Planck Institutes, it takes care of an excellent supply of scientific information and opportunities for publication. Teams from the MPDL have been playing an active role in preparing and supplying research data and research results from the 80 Max Planck Institutes since 2007. The MPDL has been working for many years with both Max Planck Society born data collections and commercial resources, developing cyber-infrastructures and specialist applications for research data. It regularly combines data flows from more than a hundred different sources and performs ongoing analyses of usage statistics and constantly growing, complex data pools with entry volumes in the order of 1011 or more.

https://www.mpg.de/mpdl-en

https://www.mpdl.mpg.de/en/about-us/mission.html

Kevin Davies has joined Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers as Executive Vice President, Strategic Development. In this new role, Davies will oversee strategy development for the company’s life science franchise, including GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News) and Clinical OMICS, as well as spearhead innovative new content initiatives for Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Davies’s career as an editor, author, and publisher has spanned more than 25 years. He has held a number of prominent editorial and publishing positions, including founding editor of Nature Genetics, Editor-in-Chief of Cell Press, launch editor for Bio-IT World, and vice president of the American Chemical Society, where he served as publisher of Chemical & Engineering News. Davies is the author of three successful science books exploring the medical and societal impact of advances in DNA sequencing and analysis — Breakthrough: The Race to Find the Breast Cancer Gene; Cracking the Genome: The Race to Unlock Human DNA; and The $1,000 Genome: The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine — as well as co-author with Nobel laureate Jim Watson of an updated edition of DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution. In April of this year, Davies won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for science writing. “I am delighted to be joining the Mary Ann Liebert team,” said Davies. “I have long admired the company’s penchant for identifying emerging areas of science and medicine, and sought to emulate the longstanding success of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. I hope my ideas and experience in launching new journals and managing various science and technology publications will help the Liebert organization grow and flourish in the years ahead.”

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=175170&CultureCode=en

Listen Online: “Libraries in The 21st Century” was Discussed on Florida Matters Public Radio Program. This was posted by Gary Price on InfoDocket. The program guests include Todd Chavez, Dean of Libraries, Univ of South Florida, Ava Edhe, Services Manager, Manatee County Public Library and regular ATG columnist Mark Y. Herring Dean of Library Services, Winthrop University

http://www.infodocket.com/2017/05/02/listen-online-libraries-in-the-21st-century-discussed-on-florida-matters-public-radio-program/

And to finish out Rumors this time, learn about a debate in British Parliament at Westminster. They are concerned over what to print legislation on. Since Medieval times, Parliament has recorded its acts on sheep and goat skins made into parchment, and since 1849 only on vellum which costs Parliament $45 on an A4-size sheet versus 16 pence for archival paper. There’s much discussion and passion about the merits of paper versus vellum. Traditionalists say that the Magna Carta was printed on vellum. Britain’s House of Lords switched to paper in 1999. Laws and resolutions of the US government were printed on parchment until 1920. It appears that paper has won the battle so far but anything could happen still as we all know.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/britains-next-pressing-question-paper-or-parchment-1494179108