SAGE Strikes Gold with Andy Field's New Statistics Textbook/Ebook

Think back for a minute: Do you remember your college class in research methods? Was it inspiring? Fun? Innovative? Engaging? Well, perhaps not. Mine wasn't. It was more something to survive. However, a Sussex University professor is proving that apparently any class can be made engaging and yet successfully convey the concepts and information needed.

I was asked if I would cover the first book in the planned SAGE MobileStudy series - Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics, 4th edition. It's officially being released next month in both print and ebook formats. However, I found that MobileStudy and other innovations of the series were far less interesting and important than the author - so the just-released NewsBreak on the book instead focused on the author's approach not only to learning but also his relationship to his readers. In this age of social media, Andy Field, the author, has much to teach other academics.

From his experience and perspective, it was clear that textbooks as we have come to know them, are probably going to change massively - in many ways. Here at the University of Minnesota we are doing far more eReserves an linking from course Moodle pages to course materials. We are buying more ebooks as well - although the interfaces for many are still a major issue. Open Access is another key change-maker.

However, another key element is the author - his experience, expertise, approach to his subject and relationship to his audience. This is something that Andy Field excels at. He has his own Facebook Andy Field facebook-149856.htmlaccount, TwitterAndy field twitter-149859.html account, webpage - called Statistics Hell - and his own View imageAmazon page that links not only to his books but to his favorite heavy metal rock albums.

Not your average academic! But a truly successful academic at that! And one from which the rest of us can learn a great deal. For the article, I found ten major aspects of his example that I think are key for any academic writer today:

1. Texts are no longer limited to the printed (or e-printed) page.

2. Add value where it counts: Creating community

3. Using technology where it counts (mobility for students, teaching aids for faculty)

4. An author that is present, & approachable

5. Connections to the real world in terms of examples and and applications

6. Branding is key to the new altmetrics

7. Focus on the audience as much as the content

8. Embrace creativity and change

9. Accept criticism, as well as plaudits, as part of the game.

10. 'It isn't over 'til it's over' Always look for improvements and enhancements.

Take a minute to look at the article and then check out Field's credentials (which are impressive) as well as his use of social media. Engagement is one of the big themes of academe today - and Andy Field is way ahead of the rest of us on that one! Change is coming and Field gives us an excellent example of how to weather the change and come out a winner!

Enjoy!

The Internet in the Crosshairs - Governments and Politics Challenge the Future of the Internet

In the past 20 years, we've all come to rely on the Internet for quick information, for commerce, communication, cloud storage and more. What if the Internet as we know it - a reliable, relatively free and open 'information superhighway' - was gone? This may sound like some bad science fiction - but it could be a reality.

At last December's WCIT conference, leaders from the world's countries met to talk about the Internet and many of the global leaders were pushing for more controls and less centralization in setting standards.

I'm not an alarmist, but the pressures of many governments today is for a much less free and open Internet. Add to that the recent statement from President Obama noting that some of the cyberattacks on Western governments and companies are, in fact, state-sponsored.

I was happy when asked by Online Searcher magazine to look into the meetings in Dubai for an article. The article is available freely here and you might want to give it a good look. Just like our freedoms, the Internet is something we can't take for granted, but requires the diligence of everyone to protect its future.

Library Publishing Coalition--A Milestone in Evolution of Scholarly Publishing

As soon as I read some of the first reports of the new Library Publishing Coalition I knew this was going to be a milestone. Paula Hane of Information Today's Newsbreaks asked me if I wanted to research and write up a news report for the blog - I was thrilled just to be asked!

The NewsBreak was just published this morning and is available here.

Anytime you do interviews or research there is always so much that just doesn't fit into the article. Here is some background information and perspective on the motivation to establish this two-year effort from Rebecca Kennison, Director of Columbia University's Center for Digital research and Scholarship:

"The LPC arose from the perception - rightly, I believe - that the existing organizations were limited venues for discussion and collaboration among those of us within academic libraries who provide services in support of scholarly communication endeavors on our campuses. Are we publishers, so should we attend publishing conferences? Are we librarians, so should we attend library conferences? Or are we "liblishers," as John Unsworth famously put it in his keynote address to the Society for Scholarly Publishing meeting in 2005, "Pubrarians and Liblishers: New Roles for Old Foes." (I know my colleague Charles Watkinson of Purdue University Press has proudly claimed that title: http://librarypublishing.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/my-name-is-charles-and-im-a-liblisher/.)

While, as Unsworth observed, library-based publishing was already starting to emerge more than a decade ago, the number of libraries engaged in publication support has exploded in the last few years - for several reasons. First, the barrier to entry into publishing has been lowered by increasingly easier-to-use software and open-source platforms. Second, several university presses have recently undergone reorganizations that have resulted in their now reporting to the university librarian/director of the library/dean of the library. Third, many university librarians/directors of the library/deans of the library have embraced scholarly communication services as a primary role to be played by their libraries and have created positions and (in some cases, such as Columbia's Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, the group I head) entire units devoted to fulfilling that role.

I do think the membership of the LPC will grow, if the LPC can establish itself as a organizational venue in which those of us who are providing publication services - however those are defined now, however those might be defined in the future - within the library context can converse with colleagues about problems and solutions unique to that environment. It remains to be seen whether the LPC can coalesce around a shared sense of what it means to do library-based publishing, what it means to be a "liblisher." That is the current challenge: to create a mission statement for the coalition, to craft the goals the group would hope to achieve as an organization, and then to construct programs and projects that would fulfill those goals. It is my hope that by the end of the two-year planning stage that the LPC will emerge with a clear mission, clear goals, and clear programs, particularly in bringing together like-minded colleagues who not only can but will collaborate on projects.

To that last point, the reason Columbia is a founding member of the LPC is our commitment not only to library-based publishing, a role in which we are seen to be leaders, but also to forging collaborative partnerships with our colleagues. As you observe, the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship provides robust support throughout the entire research and scholarly communication life cycle via an operation that enjoys backing from the highest levels within the Columbia University Libraries/Information Services. Even so, we recognize that we cannot and should not "go it alone," as it were, and we are always looking for collaborators and collaborative projects with others. Our hope for the LPC is that more of these collaborations will develop among members of the community, so that we can be even more effective on our campuses."

If you have any interest/concern about the future of scholarly communication, new roles for libraries or potential publishing futures, you will want to give this article a read!

Do you see a future for libraries as publishers? Feel free to share your thoughts here.