27 augustus 2007
The Science Commons and the Library: Opportunities and Business Models
A provocative talk by John Wilbanks, the Executive Director of Science Commons. The interesting thing was that the first time I really noticed Willbanks work, or that of the Science Commons was in the last issue of CRWatch Quarterly. On which I blogged in Dutch just the other week. My problem then, was that in that issue a lot of noise was generated on the changing face of scientific communication, but none of the articles listed there actually mentioned libraries, or anybody from the library sketched their perspective on the changing face of the scientific discourse.
Today’s talk was different though. John Wilbanks pleaded strongly for an major library role in the changing face of scientific communication. That is encouraging. However, as to the exact role that libraries should take, there isn’t a single blue print yet. The Science Commons have some interesting examples of text mining initiatives on medically oriented databases, Bibliographic databases in combination with protein databases en genetic databases. I think it is an illustrative example of technologies and expertise most academic libraries have not easily, or readily available.
I think I can foresee technologies like this in the mid term future, but most libraries are not ready for the roles outlined by Wilbanks.
Should we just sit and wait for the blue prints for these future applications to arrive. No of course not. Wilbanks is also an OA advocate and presses the librarians to go out into the faculties and educate the researchers about Open Access and Copyright issues. Because at this moment copyright laws are hampering the kind of big science that e-science really stands for. In addition to his recommended reading I would like to add his paper in CRWatch Quarterly.
Willbanks, J. (2007). Cyberinfrastructure for Knowledge Sharing CTWatch Quarterly 3(3): 58-66. http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/articles/2007/08/cyberinfrastructure-for-knowledge-sharing/
Today’s talk was different though. John Wilbanks pleaded strongly for an major library role in the changing face of scientific communication. That is encouraging. However, as to the exact role that libraries should take, there isn’t a single blue print yet. The Science Commons have some interesting examples of text mining initiatives on medically oriented databases, Bibliographic databases in combination with protein databases en genetic databases. I think it is an illustrative example of technologies and expertise most academic libraries have not easily, or readily available.
I think I can foresee technologies like this in the mid term future, but most libraries are not ready for the roles outlined by Wilbanks.
Should we just sit and wait for the blue prints for these future applications to arrive. No of course not. Wilbanks is also an OA advocate and presses the librarians to go out into the faculties and educate the researchers about Open Access and Copyright issues. Because at this moment copyright laws are hampering the kind of big science that e-science really stands for. In addition to his recommended reading I would like to add his paper in CRWatch Quarterly.
Willbanks, J. (2007). Cyberinfrastructure for Knowledge Sharing CTWatch Quarterly 3(3): 58-66. http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/articles/2007/08/cyberinfrastructure-for-knowledge-sharing/
Labels: English, Open Access, ScienceCommons, Ticer, Ticer07
