Open Access World - New Blog

I have started a new blog ''Open Access World'' to share views , news and important sources related to open access. Hope this will be useful to all. Comments / Suggestions are most welcome related to the subject of new blog.

Open data

Like open access journals, open data is another type of open access resource.

According to definition given by open data hand book Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.

Like institutional repositories, open data repositories are also getting popular.

The Harvard Dataverse (https://dataverse.harvard.edu/) is one such data repository which is open to all scientific data from all disciplines worldwide.  It has different categories of data such as Research Project, Researcher, Organization or Institution, Journal, Research Group,Teaching Course and Laboratory. Various file formats such as  Stata, SPSS, R, Excel (xlsx) and CSV files etc can be uploaded. Tabular data files can be further explored and manipulated with TwoRavens - a statistical data exploration application integrated with Dataverse.

There are different types of software available for hosting open data repositories such as open source, commercial and self hosting. 

Many experts have predicted that managing data will be one of the main job of librarians in near future. Hence it is important that librarians should be aware about the latest developments taking place in this area and get required skill sets also for managing such data and providing related services.

Due to vast benefits associated with making data available online, worldwide Governments in many countries have already adopted open access policies. In India also, Government has published National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), March 2012 through which the Government of India has mandated opening up data by all publicly funded institutes and organizations.  

Accordingly data is made available at https://data.gov.in/ at national level. Similarly such data is also made available at state (e.g. for Maharashtra state https://mahasdb.maharashtra.gov.in/home.do) and local i.e. district level (For e.g. Pune http://www.punecorporation.org/en/open-data) for transparency purpose.

Open data Search engines:

There are search engines specifically for searching open data. Few of them are:

• http://www.re3data.org/
• https://www.opendatanetwork.com/
• https://dev.socrata.com/data/

There are other search engines also including some paid services with specialized data search.

Reading habits in kids

Today's kids are smarter in using various gadgets and are aware about all the latest technologies available in the market.. Thanks to the Ads which are bombarded on TV, Papers etc.all the time. My 6 year kid is no exception as he was giving me advice (!!) last week while I was just roaming around in mall looking for various laptops and their configuration.

Education through technology is having its plus points no doubt as children can learn the new things may be at faster rate and as a result they can recollect it easily than just reading the books.

But using various gadgets for video games, play station, internet surfing etc. are no no for me. It does not give any creative satisfaction if compared to activities like drawing or painting or any other physical activity also which is required for overall growth of child.

Today children can sit ideal in front of TV, Computer for many hours but reading a book may be difficult for them... Its parents responsibility to inculcate reading habits in child at an early stage by helping them reading story books, identifying pictures, giving books as gifts instead of giving costly gadgets / games.

Being a librarian I make a point to gift books when ever possible not only to kids but also to my friends and relatives also. I hope that these small steps can help to bring joy again by reading good books for all.

So keep reading!!!!!!!!!!!

Now free online textbooks!!

Updating the blog was on my priority list for many months (!!) but due to other professional commitments I couldn't do it..

Recently I came across a site http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/ where users can access free and open college textbooks. Anyone can read the book online but for customization / adoption one needs to register. There is separate provision for faculty as well as students.

This is a good start for online free textbooks.

From Indian point of view there should be more such efforts where Indian textbooks will be available free and online. This will change the educational scenario as the present one is unaffordable due to high fees. At least students can get the access to books and study material free.

Infographics in Libraries

Recently I come across a new term “Infographics” which means Information graphics or graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge.

I found Is Print Dead? (Infographic) very interesting.

The librarians can use this technique for displaying library usage, collection development, and expenditure analysis over a period of time. Generally this kind of information is given during committee meetings by means of PowerPoint presentations. But for display purpose the infographics is best way to communicate same data / information to the readers.

This may be used for library advocacy programme as suggested by Linda W Braun in How-To Use Infographics for Library Advocacy 

Another example I come across is Layola University in New Orleans where the students are guided about infographics.

Anatomy of a Librarian is another example for infographics. The accuracy of data given is not known but the picture gives an idea how infographics helps the readers to understand the concept in better way with visual representation.

Instead of giving data / statistical information in tabular forms infographics really works due to its meaningful presentation by use of charts, graphs & visualizations.

Also University of Texas Libraries is organizing special class / workshop Beyond PowerPoint: Say it with Infographics in October 2011.

This is something new hence sharing with all of you!!!!