Open Sesame/ Open Access

I've been reading articles on Open Access which have largely been academic. And dry. And BORING. I really wanted information that would be the opposite of the aforementioned. 

Just as I was about to give up, I serendipitously came across this online gem in the form of a podcast which features a talk by one, Gavin Yamey MD, Senior Editor of PLoS Medicine and Consulting Editor of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

PLoS is an acronym for the Public Library of Science, an international non-profit grassroots movement of scientists and physicians, who work to change the status quo by campaigning to make biomedical literature freely available for the global public good. PLoS not only talks the talk, but walks the walk by publishing7 Open Access journals. They also advocate for other traditional biomedical publishers to adopt more socially responsive practices.

Currently, there is no 'Open Sesame' to Open Access, but there are people like Gavin Yamey and others of his ilk who are doing their darndest to create an alternative. Click on the link below and listen. I promise you won't be bored.
 
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/03/17/opening-up-to-open-access-part-one-2/

 

Emo about Ebooks

Or the librarian in black's emotive ebook rant. Read at www.librarianinblack.net/

I thought I'd pen the following to her. It'll go something like this.

Dear Sarah

A while ago, Sandy (that's our lecturer for LBS) set us the task of writing short essays. The lot of ebooks fell to yours truly. And, in retrospect, I'm so glad it did.

Because it led me to your blog. And your, well, colourful (some would say profane) rant about the perils of ebooks in libraries. Well, wasn't it an eye-opener for a behind-the-times-as always South African librarian. From now on I'm not going to bemoan the fact that  this literary phenomenon
will only be commonplace in our libraries light years hence. By that time you guys will have all those nasty little niggles like greedy aggregators, crap choices, licences and suchlike sorted. Then we'll import and just piggyback on your new improved system.

Or maybe Open Access will be universally declared. Who knows? In the meantime, don't stress so much, take calm deep breaths, it helps you know.



Ps. I was shocked at your language. I thought I was the only librarian who swore. In my head of course - my superiors would hang, draw and quarter me if I blogged like that.

The teeny-tiny url...

.....which links to my blog.


http://goo.gl/FgZCG





....&  the qr code which links to my library, Hanover Park's, facebook page.





Smug Chesire cat grin. Enough said.

The podcast and the plodder

Podcasts. Wherefore art thou? And how the dickens do you embed one in your blog without having a doctorate in ICT?

I'm pretty sure that's LIASA's RSS feed at the bottom of my blog - but why is this so complicated? Des writes that she'll try, try and try again. Make that times a googleplex for me.

And on I soldier. And 'stumbled upon' (geddit?) this:

http://libwww.freelibrary.org/podcast/



And this:

Retro & cool. I like.

Rss feeding at the communal library trough

When something newsworthy or plain idiosynchratic grabs my attention online -  I google, then choose which story/article I'll read. And no, I'm not fooled by Google's top searches' lists. Companies/persons can pay Google to advertise and voila,  their website tops the list of your searches. Rather, I find myself returning to those websites which are well written, current and succinct.

I now learn that I don't need to do all of the above. I can have daily updates of news,literary or otherwise, via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or a Webfeed. Apparently all I need to do is download a RSS reader from the internet, then subscribe to my favourite sites and the latter will be neatly packaged and delivered to my virtual doorstep.

And whadda -ya- know? It was.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/westerncapeliasa/