Open Access Week 2015

October 19th - 25th is Open Access Week!

Open Access literature is - in accordance with the author or copyright holder's consent - freely accessible on the Internet. Proponents of open access believe that unrestricted access to academic literature will lead to increased collaboration and scholarly output.

AURA (Antioch University Repository & Archive), AU's digital dissertations repository, is Open Access, meaning any researcher can find and download the materials posted there without having to pay a fee.

For more information on Open Access, see Peter Suber's brief introduction to the movement.

The University of Wisconsin Libraries also has a fine compilation of Open Access related websites.

Learn more about the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an international coalition of libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication.

PsycTESTS 30-day Trial

The library is running a 30-day trial of PsycTESTS on the EBSCO platform.

Description from EBSCO:

PsycTESTS®, produced by the American Psychological Association (APA), serves as a repository for a growing selection of psychological tests and measures, including thousands of actual test instruments and test items that are available for immediate download and use in research and teaching. International in scope, PsycTESTS® also provides access to an increasing number of tests that are available in languages other than English. PsycTESTS® is an authoritative source of structured information about tests of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work. While focused on contemporary instances of test use, coverage spans more than a century.

Use THIS LINK to try it out for yourselves and let us know what you think!

AUS Library welcomes Fall Quarter

The Quarterly Vue fall issue is available now. Check it out to see what's happening on the Seattle campus.

Thanks for reading!

~ Beverly Stuart

Google Books Court Ruling

On Friday October 16th the U.S. appeals ruled that Google's online library does not violate copyright law.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected infringement claims from the Authors Guild and several individual writers, and found that the project provides a public service without violating intellectual property law.

source: Reuters, Oct 16

The first suit filed was 10 years ago.

Will this have an impact on how libraries access and disseminate information to patrons?

Have you used Google Books before and do you see this ruling as a (good) step forward?

Further Reading:

Reuters
The Atlantic
Smithsonian.com
Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing

OCLC Connectivity Issues Reported

OCLC System Alert

Posted: 10/16/2015 10:49 AM EDT

Connectivity Performance Issues

Alert Status: Condition Reported

Affected Services Include:
ILLiad
EZproxy
WorldShare Management Services
WorldCat Discovery
WorldCat

Description:
OCLC has detected disruption to some services. Their global technology team is investigating. We will update as we know more.
OCLC system alerts are posted to http://www.oclc.org/support/systemalerts.en.html