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Texas Digital Library Blog

DuraSpace webinar on February 7: “Digital Preservation Plannning”

February 1st, 2012

For those interested in planning for preservation of digital collections, DuraSpace is holding a free webinar series entitled “Knowledge Futures: Digital Preservation Planning” throughout February and March.

The first of the series, entitled “Assessing Preservation Readiness” will take place Tuesday, February 7 from 10:30 to 11:30 AM (Central time). All the seats are filled for this webinar, but you can sign up to receive a recording, and also register for the later events in the series, including “Preservation Planning Success Stores” and “Preservation and Archiving Highlights from the Alliance Digital Repository.”

To learn more about the series and to register for events, visit the DuraSpace website.

SAVE THE DATES: Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in Austin, May 24-25

February 1st, 2012

The Texas Digital Library is pleased to announce that the 2012 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries will be held May 24-25, 2012, at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin, Texas.

The theme of TCDL 2012 is “Connections,” and it will focus on ways that libraries are connecting with users through digital services.

Conference committee chair Sarah Sutton, Serials/Electronic Resources Librarian at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, hopes the conference will be a valuable event for those who attend.

“I hope that TCDL 2012 attendees will make connections,” she said, “I hope they’ll make connections with each other that will enhance their libraries’ collections, connections with their constituents that will enhance their constituents’ access to scholarship and make their constituents’ scholarship more accessible, and connections with the Texas Digital Library that will provide the attendees with the tools to accomplish the former as well as advance the TDL.”

Additional members of the Conference Committee are: Amy Rushing (Vice Chair), UT Austin; Jim Brewer, Texas Tech; Jeanne Hazzard, Texas State; Billie Peterson-Lugo, Baylor; and Leslie Reynolds, Texas A&M.

The TCDL 2012 program will feature a general track and a second track focused on technical issues, as well as a poster session and opportunities for workshops and “birds of a feather” sessions. The committee also anticipates that TDL working groups and committees will hold meetings on May 23 before the main conference begins.

The committee will release a call for papers in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned to the TCDL 2012 website for more information.

Latest issue of TDL Update is available

January 30th, 2012

Check out the latest issue of TDL Update, the newsletter of the Texas Digital Library, to discover the latest news and learn how TDL is working with its members to advance scholarly communication.

You can read the newsletter in either HTML or PDF format.

In the January issue, TDL director Mark McFarland provides an update and overview of the TDL Strategic Planning process. Additionally, the newsletter includes:

An announcement about the 2012 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries
The TDLTraining schedule for Spring 2012
An update on software development, DSpace and Vireo upgrades, and other technical matters
Information about next month’s TDL Forum, which will feature an in-depth discussion of the TDL Strategic Plan

For suggestions about content for the TDL Update, please contact Kristi Park at kristi.park@austin.utexas.edu.

TDL announces Spring 2012 training schedule

January 24th, 2012

The Texas Digital Library is pleased to announce its training schedule for Spring 2012.

Following a new model introduced in Fall 2011, training will now be hosted at various member schools throughout the semester. All classes are free for members, but registration is required. You can register for the classes below at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DJSZNDB

For more information about the TDL Training Program please visit the TDL website.

DATE	LOCATION	COURSE	TIME
February 29, 2012	Texas A&M University\| Evans Library Annex Room 116	Intro to Metadata	9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
March 14, 2012	Texas A&M University-Kingsville \| James C. Jernigan Library (Room TBA)	Online Conference Management with OCS	9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
March 15, 2012	Texas A&M University-Kingsville \| James C. Jernigan Library (Room TBA)	Creating and Managing Electronic Journals with Open Journal Systems	9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
April 10, 2012	UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas \| UT Southwestern Medical Center Library (Room TBA)	Introduction to DSpace	9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
April 11, 2012	UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas \| UT Southwestern Medical Center Library (Room TBA)	ETD Submission & Management with Vireo	9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

REGISTER for classes here.

Anyone interested in participating as a host institution or an instructor for future training sessions, please contact TDL Program Coordinator Ryan Steans at info@tdl.org

Member Story: Texas A&M Libraries promotes Open Access to research

December 19th, 2011

Holly Mercer of Texas A&M Libraries staffs the Open Access Café during Open Access Week 2011. (Photo courtesy of Texas A&M Libraries.)

TDL supports Open Access to research by providing online publication tools that member schools and faculty researchers can use to make their work freely available. Texas A&M University Libraries, a founding member of the TDL, recently held a number of activities during Open Access Week 2011 (held October 24-30) designed to raise awareness about the benefits of free and immediate access to research.

Through a traveling “Open Access Café,” as well as several special events, Texas A&M Libraries engaged students, staff, and faculty on campus in a discussion about Open Access, including about the tools offered through the Libraries’ membership in TDL.

Open Access Café

Texas A&M Libraries’ Open Access Week activities included an Open Access Café that visited several of the campus’s libraries to engage with undergraduates, graduate and professional students, and faculty about the importance of Open Access.

As the costs of journal subscriptions — and other toll-access scholarly resources — continues to escalate, the benefits of Open Access for academic institutions becomes increasingly apparent.

According to Gail Clement, Outreach Librarian for Digital Services and Scholarly Communications at Texas A&M Libraries, a pragmatic message about the costs of scholarly work resonates particularly well with students.

“Students are focused on the pragmatic,” she said. “Students directly see that if we don’t put controls on subscriptions, they’re paying more in student fees.”

tamu oa week postcard web 240x161 Member Story: Texas A&M Libraries promotes Open Access to research

Postcards encourage faculty to support Open Access through 5 specific actions. (Photo courtesy of Texas A&M Libraries.)

In addition to offering cake and giveaways, the Café gave students the opportunity to actively engage by providing them with stamped postcards to send to their professors. The postcards encouraged faculty to support Open Access in five specific ways: (1) Manage your rights, (2) Use open resources, (3) Exercise fair use, (4) Steward your resources, and (5) Share your work.

Faculty and researcher discussions: OA publishing and Data Management

In addition to creating the Open Access Café, Texas A&M Libraries engaged faculty members and researchers through panel discussions dealing with timely issues related to scholarly communication and access to research.

At a Data Management Discussion held at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, faculty from the social sciences and humanities discussed the challenges of maintaining and preserving increasingly large amounts of data.

A second forum featured journal editors who publish online, peer-reviewed journals hosted by the Texas Digital Library on the TDL Electronic Press. Participants discussed Open Access journals as a viable alternative to traditional subscription-based publications, as well as the risks and rewards the open-access publishing model.

Among the journals managed at Texas A&M through the TDL Electronic Press are: Library Leadership & Management, Politica Comun, Practical Academic Librarianship, The International Journal of Structural Changes in Solids, the Journal of Digital Information, and the Texas Water Journal.

Fair Use Film Festival: Creativity & Remixing

To highlight the importance of access in supporting creativity and innovation, Texas A&M Libraries also held a “Fair Use Film Festival” during Open Access Week, at which faculty, staff, and students could view and discuss a program of film clips, mash-ups, remixes, and other forms of media that demonstrated the importance of fair use in supporting creativity.

“The festival was intended to promote the idea that culture depends on the ability to remix and mash up,” said Clement. “Creativity is about transforming pieces that already exist.”

Open Access Week is held each year, and is celebrated globally by libraries, faculty, and students to promote an emerging model for scholarly communications. Next year’s Open Access Week is scheduled for October 22-28, 2012.

The Texas Digital Library provides information about Open Access Week, as well as the tools TDL provides in support of Open Access, on its website at http://tdl.org/open-access/.

TDL offices closed for winter break beginning December 23

December 19th, 2011

single snowflake 234x240 TDL offices closed for winter break beginning December 23 The Texas Digital Library offices in Austin will be closed for the Winter Break from Friday, December 23 through Monday, January 2.

Any technical support requests submitted through support@tdl.org or the toll free Helpdesk number (855-495-4317) during this time will be processed when offices re-open on January 3.

All holiday-related office closures at TDL can be found here.

The TDL wishes all our members and friends a happy and safe holiday season!

TDL welcomes new senior system administrators

December 12th, 2011

TDL system administrators Effie Jarrett (left) and Gene Titus (right)

The Texas Digital Library is excited to welcome Effie Jarrett and Gene Titus to the TDL staff in Austin. Gene and Effie joined the team in late November as Senior System Administrators; they will be responsible for maintaining, upgrading, and securing TDL systems and working to ensure reliable and responsive user environments for TDL members.

“We are thrilled to have Effie and Gene join our team,” said Ladd Hanson, Director of IT for Texas Digital Library. “They each bring a set of skills and experiences that will strengthen TDL’s ability to offer valuable and reliable scholarly communication services for our members.”

Effie Jarrett comes to TDL from UT Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences where she worked as Senior Systems Analyst and Senior Systems Administrator. Effie has more than a decade of systems administration experience, including extensive expertise in working directly with faculty to set up classroom and research systems.

Prior to joining TDL, Gene Titus served since 1990 Senior Systems Administrator with the Office of Telecommunication Services at UT Austin, where he was responsible for 20 Unix servers and a statewide network monitoring system. He brings a wealth of experience in IT administration, including in collaborating with institutions across the state and managing distributed applications such as Shibboleth, a key component of TDL systems.

For more information about these key staff appointments, please contact the TDL Program Coordinator at info@tdl.org.

Article outlines cooperative efforts between Texas A&M, University of Texas libraries

November 22nd, 2011

As the A&M/UT game approaches (and a football rivalry comes to an end, for now), the TAMUtimes focuses on ongoing areas of collaboration between the two universities — including projects where their libraries are working together to preserve library resources.

One of those projects is the Texas Digital Library. An excerpt from the article follows:

Projects from the shared libraries initiative have and will continue to benefit students, faculty, researchers of both systems, as well as the entire state of Texas, says interim dean Charles Gilreath.

“For several years the Texas A&M University Libraries has collaborated closely with our library colleagues at the University of Texas on projects to benefit library users in our respective systems and throughout the state, most notably the Texas Digital Library and the joint storage projects both in Austin and at the Riverside Campus,” Gilreath adds.

***** Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving Holiday hours for Texas Digital Library

November 22nd, 2011

The Texas Digital Library offices in Austin will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25. TDL will be back in the office on the following Monday.

Any technical support requests submitted through support@tdl.org or the toll free Helpdesk number (855-495-4317) during this time will be processed when offices re-open on November 28.

TDL wishes all our members and friends a happy and memorable holiday week!