PL 6/08: Pyrrhus the General

Institutional repositories don’t work as long as they depend on voluntary participation by scholars.

Cory Doctorow at Harvard.

Harvard will now make IR deposit the default rather than the optional choice. Caveat lector has a very interesting, close-to-the-jugular analysis of Harvard’s new policy- which the big academic journals will hate.

The Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus was hired by the Greek cities of South Italy to help them in their resistance to the expanding Romans. After a bloody battle - which he won, he exlaimed: One more victory like this - and I am finished.

Resources

• Caveat lector. Pyrrhic victories

PL 5/08: The high cost of quality

After the IFLA conference in Quebec (August 10-14) comes the statistics satellite conference in Montreal (August 18-19).

- Au cours de cette conférence les trois volets suivants doivent être présentés :

1. les résultats de la nouvelle enquête statistique sur les bibliothèques publiques et universitaires menée par l’UNESCO;
   
2. les développements récents en termes de statistiques, d’évaluation de la performance et d’études par étalonnage dans les bibliothèques publiques et universitaires;
3. quelques initiatives de coopération internationale dans la collecte de statistiques et de l’évaluation des services de bibliothèques

I have proposed a paper on indicator development - based on Norwegian experiences since 2002:

PL 4/08: Observing the traffic

In Quebec, The IFLA Management & Marketing Section; Statistics & Evaluation Section; and Library Theory & Research Section arrange a joint session with the theme

Managing Libraries in a Changing Environment - Legal, Technical, and Organizational Aspects.

I have proposed a paper on how to measure visitor traffic and activities inside the libary:

PL 3/08: How much is much?

In Quebec, the IFLA Statistics and Evaluation Section are holding a joint session with the IFLA National Libraries Section.

They have sent a call for papers and I am trying my luck with this proposal:

How much is much? Developing and interpreting national library visitor statistics