Editorial
This issue may require some careful reading as it contains some intense content. Howard Falk's E-currents. So much has been in the news about the range of STM publishers who have been causing great concerns for the library or institutional subscriber who in today's economic environment is struggling to pay the high prices of subscriptions for electronic content. The subscription models vary tremendously and what was once common with the "big deal" is definitely out of fancy as libraries have learned what its readership demands and more carefully scrutinizes content and method of delivery. Falk contributes by covering these debates and sharing how information providers and publishers present their content and the recent actions of many libraries in a wonderfully clear journalistic style.
Gerry McKiernan launches a new series on open archives initiatives (OAI) with many developments about the maturation of several products. This is the first of three E-profiles on select OAI data providers. The second in the series will focus on science and technology sources, while the third will review those in the social sciences and humanities. If you want a good overview about the current OAI movement do not miss this series.
The conference reports reinforce McKiernan's work in this latest series. Valentina Comba writes from Bologna about the recently held OAI3 Workshop held in mid-February in Geneva which brought together a program of European leaders in this area to discuss the next generation of OAI. It was a very exciting program that is captured and makes readers already calendar the next one scheduled in 20 months time.
INFLIBNET in Ahmedabad, India organized the second CALIBER conference and again there was a strong sense of OAI among the content there as well as other new and emerging technologies in academic libraries and how a stronger sense of consortia can augment and stabilize common library access features and provide a larger segment of content to more libraries and institutions.
The new Professional Literature is exciting and prolific. Our New Books list is a tip of the iceberg to round out some personal and professional reading about library technology applications from a range of sources and for different library environments. Finding out what the information industry, professional societies and specific libraries are doing in a snapshot makes the New &Noteworthy column particularly useful and planning for what is coming down the pike in meetings and conferences around the world is found in the Calendar. So one can read about recent events, anticipate others and stay abreast of new trends. We hope that you have an enjoyable read.
Julia Gelfand(jgelfand@uci.edu)Colby Riggs(cmriggs@uci.edu)Co-editors
