Nano based RFID tags

Rice, Korean collaboration produces printable tag Long lines at store checkouts could be history if a new technology created in part at Rice University comes to pass. Rice researchers, in collaboration with a team led by Gyou-jin Cho at Sunchon National University in Korea, have come up with an inexpensive, printable transmitter that can be invisibly embedded in packaging. It would allow a customer to walk a cart full of groceries or other goods past a scanner on the way to the car; the scanner would read all items in the cart at once, total them up and charge the customer's account while adjusting the store's inventory. More advanced versions could collect all the information about the contents of a store in an instant, letting a retailer know where every package is at any time. The technology reported in the March issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices is based on a carbon-nanotube-infused ink for ink-jet printers first developed in the Rice lab of James Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science. The ink is used to make thin-film transistors, a key element in radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be printed on paper or plastic. "We are going to a society where RFID is a key player," said Cho, a professor of printed electronics engineering at Sunchon, who expects the technology to mature in five years. Cho and his team are developing the electronics as well as the roll-to-roll printing process that, he said, will bring the cost of printing the tags down to a penny apiece and make them ubiquitous. RFID tags are almost everywhere already. The tiny electronic transmitters are used to identify and track products and farm animals. They're in passports, library books and devices that let drivers pass through tollbooths without digging for change. The technology behind RFID goes back to the 1940s, when Léon Theremin, inventor of the self-named electronic music instrument heard in so many '50s science fiction and horror movies, came up with a spy tool for the Soviet Union that drew power from and retransmitted radio waves. RFID itself came into being in the 1970s and has been widely adopted by the Department of Defense and industry to track shipping containers as they make their way around the world, among many other uses. But RFID tags to date are largely silicon-based. Paper or plastic tags printed as part of a package would cut costs dramatically. Cho expects his roll-to-roll technique, which uses a gravure process rather than ink-jet printers, to replace the bar codes now festooned on just about everything you can buy. Cho, Tour and their teams reported in the journal a three-step process to print one-bit tags, including the antenna, electrodes and dielectric layers, on plastic foil. Cho's lab is working on 16-bit tags that would hold a more practical amount of information and be printable on paper as well. Cho came across Tour's inks while spending a sabbatical at Rice in 2005. "Professor Tour first recommended we use single-walled carbon nanotubes for printing thin-film transistors," Cho said. Tour's lab continues to support the project in an advisory role and occasionally hosts Cho's students. Tour said Rice owns half of the patent, still pending, upon which all of the technology is based. "Gyou-jin has carried the brunt of this, and it's his sole project," Tour said. "We are advisers and we still send him the raw materials" -- the single-walled carbon nanotubes produced at Rice. Printable RFIDs are practical because they're passive. The tags power up when hit by radio waves at the right frequency and return the information they contain. "If there's no power source, there's no lifetime limit. When they receive the RF signal, they emit," Tour said. There are several hurdles to commercialization. First, the device must be reduced to the size of a bar code, about a third the size of the one reported in the paper, Tour said. Second, its range must increase. "Right now, the emitter has to be pretty close to the tags, but it's getting farther all the time," he said. "The practical distance to have it ring up all the items in your shopping cart is a meter. But the ultimate would be to signal and get immediate response back from every item in your store – what's on the shelves, their dates, everything. "At 300 meters, you're set – you have real-time information on every item in a warehouse. If something falls behind a shelf, you know about it. If a product is about to expire, you know to move it to the front – or to the bargain bin." Tour allayed concerns about the fate of nanotubes in packaging. "The amount of nanotubes in an RFID tag is probably less than a picogram. That means you can produce one trillion of them from a gram of nanotubes – a miniscule amount. Our HiPco reactor produces a gram of nanotubes an hour, and that would be enough to handle every item in every Walmart. "In fact, more nanotubes occur naturally in the environment, so it's not even fair to say the risk is minimal. It's infinitesimal." Co-authors of the paper include Rice graduate student Ashley Leonard; Minhun Jung, Jinsoo Noh and Gwangyong Lee of Sunchon National University; and Jaeyoung Kim, Namsoo Lim, Chaemin Lim, Junseok Kim, Kyunghwan Jung and Hwiwon Kang of the Printed Electronics Research Center, Paru Corp., Sunchon, Korea. --- Image Caption: RFID tags printed through a new roll-to-roll process could replace bar codes and make checking out of a store a snap. Credit: Gyou-Jin Cho/Sunchon National University ---

Publisher Experiments With 'Free' And Sees Book Sales Increase 20x

from the not-bad dept We've pointed to numerous studies, at this point, that have all found that, when done right, free ebooks can greatly increase the sales of physical books (and, in some cases, even of ebooks). Here's another empirical example of that in action. Chris Anderson points us to a blog post by someone at a mid-list niche publisher, talking about how successful its experiments with "free" ebooks have been. In this case, the publisher would offer up the first book in a series as a free ebook, and found that it drove massive increases in sales: One of our free titles was the #1 download on Amazon for the entire month of February. The subsequent sales of books 2 and 3 in the series increased by a rate of 20 to 1. For this series, digital sales are approaching 20% of the total product sales distribution and growing. With the visibility of the digital sales on Amazon, we have seen a substantial increase in print sales to the brick and mortar book chains. In this one instance, digital is driving print sales. Basically, what this publisher realized is that with most books, obscurity is a greater threat than "piracy," and free helps deal with that: Much of the talk by the big 6 publishers has been stress over cannibalization of print sales, or the idea of replacement sales, by ebooks. For midlist publishers such as ourselves, I believe we fight against substitution. We capture the "browser" market. If our title is not available or visible, a customer will simply substitute for another one in the genre. Free gave us the visibility that we could not purchase.

Reference Books or Google

Teenagers today spend most of their time online. But do they really know the dangers that lurk out there? Who among you would rather pore over a stack of reference books in the library, when ‘Google Books' can take you straight to the very page you want to read? We have long since bid farewell to letter writing to friends and family, with the entry of e-mail, SMS and the now hyped social networking sites. India is a developing country, but we are not too far behind when we talk in terms of the World Wide Web. India is the fourth largest user of the Internet. When compared to the total population of internet users in our country, the age group14-25 is the one who spend most of their time online. Undoubtedly, the internet is extremely useful and many of us will agree that we would be handicapped without it, but unfortunately, it brings with it, its share of evils, which are well publicized these days. By large, India is still a conservative nation. While merely talking to a person of the opposite sex is no longer considered “taboo”, it is still frowned upon in most households. The internet provides youngsters with an outlet, as here they can easily interact with whomever they wish, without their parents knowing. They can be unrestrained under the cloak of anonymity and may say or do things that they would probably have never done if they were face to face with the person. Technology-imposed distancing encourages insensitive behaviour as one cannot see the impact of one's words or actions. With increasing awareness and use of the internet and mobile phones, there seems to be an alarming increase in cyber-crime. Today, online safety is the talk of the town and many people are concerned about the well-being of our youngsters who are exposed to a lot of nasty material on the internet. Several articles and campaigns have targeted this vulnerable group and certain ground rules are drilled into their heads. Do's and don'ts Never give out personal information (such as your full name, home/school address, telephone/mobile number and personal e-mail id. You would be surprised at how easy it is to track an individual with any one of these details! Never accept nor open mails from strangers. It just spells trouble as it could be a virus, annoying material or a porn link. 41% of youngsters in Chennai have reported to have received unwanted pornographic material as a link or an advertisement. Never meet up alone with someone you have just known through the internet. As you cannot actually see the other person, you may not know who they actually are. Pedophiles and sex abusers find it easy to prey on youngsters, by winning their trust, pretending to be age-mates. Talk to a trusted adult in case anything on the net makes you uncomfortable. These methods to use the internet safely are all fine and good, but what do teenagers think of these restrictions? Talking to a few sixteen-year olds who are avid internet users, I got a little more insight into how exactly they view the problem. Well at first, you would be pleased to know that today's youngsters seem to be pretty mature on realising the need for cyber safety. They agree that meeting up with a stranger is “stupid” and someone who enters an open chat room is asking for trouble. Talk to people only on your friends list and accept friend requests only if you know who that person is. Friends of friends should be added only if they are known to you as well, or you have met them before. Talk it out The only problem seems to be the “talk to a trusted adult” part. Most young people would not go to their parents about problems online as many parents are not familiar with the workings of the net and hence would overreact. They might fly off the handle and ban their children from using the internet, something which teenagers would rather not risk. Moving on to teachers, there are very few with whom these youngsters would feel comfortable in confiding in. On the brighter side, school counselors, if they are approachable and if they interact closely with the students, get the teens' vote for divulging information about their online concerns. A small note – schools are encouraged to invest in a good counsellor as today's youngsters seem more willing to open up to them. Basically the youth feel that they are well-equipped to handle most issues by themselves. They can block unwanted people on the net and in the case of girls, who receive messages or calls on their mobile phones, from boys or men they do not know, guy friends, older brothers and fathers are always there to scare them off. Only if problems escalate, for example if someone consistently sends disturbing material, then they would probably take it up with the school counsellor, who would communicate the same to their parents. Teenagers prefer if this goes through the counsellor first as they feel that the counsellor will be able to phrase things in such a way that parents do not “freak out”. In case things have to be taken up with the police, young people say that they will most definitely need their parents' support. When asked about the most vulnerable age group, it was unanimously agreed that instead of having age as a criterion, internet experience should be used as the yardstick. New users to the internet at any age are easy targets. Another thing is that more awareness programs should be focused at parents, teaching them how to deal with problems that their children may face. Plain parental monitoring or forbidding the use of the internet is NOT going to help. If children can sneak and use mobile phones without their parents' knowledge, using the internet on the sly will be like a walk in the park for them! What parents can do is create an atmosphere of trust so that their children will feel comfortable to approach them. They should know their teen's friends and importantly take time to listen to their children. Safety on social networking sites have been dealt with a good number of times, but an issue in which many teens are the perpetrators and yet do not consider serious is “cyber-bullying”. By definition, it refers to any bullying behaviour that takes place through electronic means, such as sending threatening texts messages, posting unpleasant things about people and circulating unpleasant pictures and videos of someone. Sounds familiar? What is the harm in teasing someone you may ask; they should just take it in their stride and be a sport. Well, harmlessly pulling your friend's leg is very different from posting rude and derogatory stuff on the net, which can haunt the victim 24/7. Cyber-bullying can be a lot more upsetting than normal bullying as it spreads widely and has a greater degree of publicity. The problem is also that most young people will not complain about such instances, for fear of being bullied even more, especially if school mates are involved. The solution lies with the teenagers themselves, who should learn to be more sensitive and respect others even online. It would help if you took a little time to put yourself in the shoes of the victim and feel their hurt, instead of adopting technology's cold indifference. Be human! In conclusion, here is a simple piece of advice, do not do things online, that you would not do in real life. Treat people on the internet as you would if you were dealing with them face-to-face. You would not accept a lift from a stranger; in the same way, treat everyone you do not know personally on the net as strangers. Most importantly, be yourself! Do not become someone else you are not, just because the internet offers you the opportunity to do so – it is too much trouble and besides, there is no need to. At the end of the day, it's the real you that you should celebrate being, and not your cyber-alter! Online helplines www.watchoutkid.com www.safeteens.com www.kidsmart.org.uk www.watchyourspace.ie www.thinkyouknow.co.uk www.netsmartz.org www.chatdanger.com www.webwise.ie www.thatsnotcool.com www.livewires.com www.webwisekids.org www.netbullies.com www.2smrt4u.com Online abuse can be reported to report@watchoutkid.com Cassandra Sundaraja is a III B.Sc Psychology student at WCC

Web Resources in Social Sciences

A Three Day Seminar - Gear up to meet new challenges: Experts to librarians Srinagar, Mar 16 (PTI) Library science experts today asked professionals in the field to gear up to meet the new challenges posed by the expanding role of libraries. "The role of libraries and library professionals is changing and exponentially expanding. Therefore, professionals will have to act as good mediators between users and resources available online or otherwise," Usha Munshi, a library science expert said while addressing the inaugural session of a 3-day seminar at the University of Kashmir. Munshi, from the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, said "you are committed to generate, preserve and disseminate resources, with widest dissemination as the mission in mind." The three-day seminar titled "Web Resources in Social Science Research" is being organised by the University's Department of Library and Information Sciences in collaboration with Indian Council of Social Science Research and UGC's Academic Staff College.

Electronic monitors can now be borrowed free of charge for a week

Anyone interesting in finding out just how much wasted energy their household appliances are costing them each day can now do so by borrowing special energy readers from libraries in Leeds. As part of the drive to improve energy efficiency and protect the environment, Leeds Library and Information Service has now taken on a stock of energy readers which show how much energy an appliance is using and how much it is costing when it is switched on and also how much is being wasted when it is left on in standby mode. The readers can monitor any electrical appliance from washing machines and tumble driers to lighting and heating as well as everyday items like kettles, mobile phone chargers, hair straighteners and games consoles. These monitors can now be borrowed free of charge for a week by all Leeds library members and are available from 22 libraries across the city. The project follows a successful pilot scheme carried out last year in Otley organised by Leeds City Council, Otley Town Council and SURE (Sustainable and Renewable Energy in Wharfedale). The pilot produced hugely encouraging results, and if those results are matched by the new readers each home could see a reduction in electricity use of 5% which across Leeds has the potential to save 772,200 kilowatt hours per year which equates to 404 tonnes less carbon dioxide being produced. The readers show the cost of using an appliance as well as leaving it on in standby mode, so therefore encourages users to make sure household products such as washing machines and dishwashers are being used with full loads each time as well as things being switched off properly when not in use to save money and energy. Figures from the Energy Saving Trust show that UK households now spend up to 8% of their electricity bill on standby power, which is taken across the country is equivalent to the annual output from two-and-a-half large power stations. Leaving lights on unnecessarily is another big energy waster, costing the UK £170m pounds each year. The new service also fits in with the international WWF Earth Hour which takes place on Saturday 27th March. Some of the world's most iconic landmarks will be joined by buildings all over the world, including those managed by Leeds City Council, in turning their lights completely off for one hour to promote the campaign against climate change. Leeds City Council executive member for Leisure Councillor John Procter said: "We are pleased to be able to offer these new energy readers for our library users to try out. With these readers you can actually see for yourself how much energy you are using and possibly wasting and what it is costing you. "I am keen to try one out for myself at home as I'm sure like most people I will be shocked at the figures. We all need to do our bit for the environment so using these free readers is a great way to start and may also help you reduce your energy bills too so can bring real benefits in both respects." For more information on the energy readers, contact Leeds City Council's Sustainability Communications Officer Amanda

Cotsen Children’s Library

Traveling to India usually involves a long plane ride and maybe even a rickshaw. But for two hours on Saturday, local children journeyed to the subcontinent without leaving Princeton. Through the World Story Festival, an annual event at the Cotsen Children’s Library, local children made masks, marveled at a LEGO sculpture of the Taj Mahal and watched a special performance by Kalaa, the University’s classical Indian dance troupe. The event, organized by Patricia Sever ’11 and Dana Sheridan, Cotsen’s education and outreach coordinator, featured a wide variety of India-themed educational programming. “I mostly chose India because it has a really fascinating culture and history,” Sever said. “There’s great food, beautiful music, and I just thought that it would be a lot of fun.” Small details that made the experience seem real were highlights for the voyagers. Eight-year-old Sanjiv said that his favorite part of the event was “doing the whole simulation by getting your passport and going to the baggage claim ... and going [to the other stations] to see all the other places.” While event coordinators wanted to ensure that all the kids had fun, they made efforts to include an educational component in the program. Even the more overtly educational aspects of the event, though, were well received by parents and children alike. Eight-year old Anirudh Kirshnaprasad said he particularly enjoyed the station where participants learned how to write their names in Hindi. “I want to learn to write my name in different languages and speak the different languages, too,” he added. “It was well organized, well thought-out [and] really informative,” said Tina Biswas, a mother of two, who added that her family often tries to attend family-oriented events at the University. Biswas, like several others, said she heard about the event through princetonkids.com, a website that compiles information about family-friendly opportunities in the Princeton area. “[The Festival] is a great service that the community offers,” said Lenora Ziegler, who brought her two young children with her to the program. “It’s great to expose children at this age to an academic environment. It makes them comfortable.” John DaCruz, a local resident who brought his children Sofia and Jay, said he thought the event was “fabulous,” adding that “the dancing was very good ... It kept the kids’ interest.” Six-year-old Sofia agreed with her father, saying that she enjoyed the festival and would love to attend future events. Steve Chastain, who attended the program with his three youngest children, echoed both Biswas and Krishnaprasad, saying that it was the “hands-on aspect” of the festival that really appealed to him and made him think of bringing his family to attend. Sever said that she was pleased with the event’s outcome. “I don’t know what turnout was like last time, but it was pretty good,” she said. “The kids seemed like they had fun, and the adults seemed like they had fun, so I thought it was a success.” Beyond the activities’ educational and entertainment value, families were lured by the event’s cost. “Free is my favorite price,” Chastain said. “Free is very good when you have four kids.”

Another Unique Library

PUNE: Nine year-old Dev Basavekar has a plan of action every Friday evening. "I finish my homework and head straight to the Adarsh Mitra Mandal's sports library. They lend me all kinds of sports equipment. I especially like football and throw rings. It's a really nice library. Of course, I have to return the stuff every Sunday evening, as I am supposed to study over the week," he says. In a span of just four months, this unique sports library, set up in Adarshnagar, Dhankawdi, has become the great source of entertainment for over 800 children, mostly from underprivileged families. The origin of the concept, according to Uday Jagtap, a member-activist of Adarsh Mitra Mandal, lies in the belief that no child should be deprived of the pleasure of playing for want of resources. "We are a chawl settlement of over 200 families. Many of these children cannot afford to buy the equipment, so we thought it would be a good idea to set up a library of this kind. The library remains open over the weekend so that it does not come in the way of children's studies. We are happy to observe that it has emerged as a source of development -- both physical and intellectual," said Jagtap. So be it cricket kits, chessboards, volleyball, skates, skipping ropes, badminton racquets or more... there's something for every aspiring sportsman in the age group of 4 to 14 years. "We charge them a nominal fee of Re 1 for each set for a duration of three days," explained Vishal Naik, another member-activist. "The amount may be negligible, but it is important that we don't give away things for free. Children must learn to respect and value good things. Furthermore, the amount we charge is given to an orphanage. We are determined not to use it for commercial activities," he said. The library also houses over 1,200 children's books on subjects ranging from the lives of great men to number games, puzzles, history, fiction and so on. Twelve-year-old Pooja Jagtap and Trupti Bhoirkar are regular borrowers of the chess board and skates. "We just love them. Chess is very good for the mind and increases concentration," said Pooja. "It's important to ensure that children are gainfully occupied in activities they enjoy and are good for them," said Naik. "With the advent of technology, TV addiction is a common problem. Children ought to be outdoors, engaging in sporting activity that aids their overall growth in the right direction." "Besides, we thought an initiative of this sort would bring children together in a positive manner and keep them from seeking harmful activities in the name of curiosity," explained Jagtap. "Given the backdrop of the nuclear family, not to forget the rising instances of suicide amongst students, channelising youthful energies in a meaningful manner is the need of the time. The library is a small step towards a bigger goal." Other activities Established in 2000, the Adarsh Mitra Mandal takes up a number of socially relevant activities including cultural programmes and gatherings for senior citizens and children, plantation etc. The mandal runs the Bhagini helpline, which offers aid and advice to women who are victims of stalking and other forms of sexual harassment. It started the two-and-half-year-old Criminal Adoption Scheme (CAS), a rehabilitation programme for ex-convicts, that encourages them to seek employment and begin their life afresh. Under the CAS, the Mitra Mandal has brought about the rehabilitation of 21 ex-convicts, by facilitating jobs and land for farming. Similarly, the Valmiki Awards, which are instituted every year by the mandal, seek to encourage and recognise the achievements of ex-convicts who have successfully overcome the odds to lead a socially useful and meaningful life.

University in A Google World

The Role of Universities in the current generation of Digital Libraries and Google Look at the Video to know more

Digital Libraries in Developing Nations

The role and mission of libraries is to collect, organise, preserve and make available the world’s cultural and scientific heritage for current and future generations. Publicly funded libraries operating for the public benefit support access to knowledge, as well as education and training, critical to developing nations whose human resource is central to their advancement. Digital technologies are transforming the way that libraries work. What new opportunities are being created? What challenges do we face and how is eIFL.net addressing them? Teresa Hackett runs eIFL-IP, Advocacy for Access to Knowledge copyright & libraries, a programme to raise awareness in copyright issues for libraries in 50 developing and transition countries. The goal is to build capacity and expertise amongst the eIFL.net library community and to represent the interests of members in key international policy fora such as WIPO, UNESCO and the WTO. Previously, Teresa was the Director of the European library association, EBLIDA, provided technical support to the European Commission library research programme and was part of the team to establish electronic information centres at the British Council Germany.Teresa is currently an Expert Resource Person on the Copyright and Other Legal Matters Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA-CLM). She is a chartered librarian and in 2004 completed a post-graduate diploma in legal studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Global Meet to Discuss Digitising Libraries

New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Experts from the field of information communication technology and education will gather here for a four-day conference starting Feb 23 to discuss how to digitise the world’s print based libraries. The International Conference on Digital Libraries will be held at the India Habitat Centre and is being organised by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in collaboration with TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute). The event will be inaugurated Feb 23 by union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal. Experts from 30 countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, New Zealand and Spain, will deliberate on how digitization modules can be used for converting the corpus of existing print and manuscript resources into digitized format and how libraries can be interlinked through the world wide web. Explaining the agenda of the event, IGNOU Pro Vice-Chancellor K.R. Srivathsan said: “Today’s students do not want to go to libraries, but would love to pursue knowledge through the web. So it is necessary to customise the libraries online, network all libraries of the world for all domains of knowledge for sharing, research and development.” He added that with the boom in technology, information can easily be accessed via multimedia, e-content, e-Books, i-pads. The conference will also address how to address copyright issues tagged with the corpus in the print and manuscript resources, and evolve regulatory policies required to handle the intellectual property rights issues. Minister for State D. Purandeswari from the HRD ministry, IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, TERI director general R.K. Pachauri and N. Balakrishnan from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will be participating in the conference. [LM1]

Grey Literature Sources

Grey Literature Index GreySource provides examples of grey literature to the average net-user and in so doing profiles organizations responsible for its production and/or processing. Only web-based resources that explicitly refer to the term grey literature (or its equivalent in any language) are listed. GreySource identifies the hyperlink directly embedded in a resource, thus allowing immediate and virtual exposure to grey literature. The web-based resources appear within categories derived from the COSATI (American) and SIGLE (European) Classification Systems. The few changes that have been introduced into the classification scheme are intended to facilitate the search and retrieval of net-users. New examples are welcome and will be indexed in GreySource. info@greynet.org Classification Scheme: 00 - GENERAL, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 01 - AERONAUTICS 02 - AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, FISHERIES, VETERINARY SCIENCES 03 - ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, PROTECTION AND CONTROL 04 - HUMANITIES (HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, ETC.) 05 - SOCIAL SCIENCES (ECONOMICS, INFORMATION SCIENCE, PSYCHOLOGY, ETC.) 06 - BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL SCIENCES 07 - CHEMISTRY 08 - EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES 09 - ELECTRONICS, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE 10 - ENERGY & POWER 11 - MATERIALS 12 - MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 13 - MECHANICAL, INDUSTRIAL, CIVIL & MARINE ENGINEERING 14 - METHODS & EQUIPMENT 15 - MILITARY SCIENCES 16 - MISSILE TECHNOLOGY 17 - NAVIGATION, COMMUNICATION, DETECTION, COUNTERMEASURES 18 - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - S&T (MULTIDISCIPLINARY) 19 - ORDNANCE 20 - PHYSICS 21 - PROPULSION & FUELS 22 - SPACE TECHNOLOGY ICT4D, Information and Communication Technologies for Development https://www.com.washington.edu/ict4d2/ Information for Practice http://www.nyu.edu/socialwork/ip/ PADI, Preserving Access to Digital Information http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/topics/372.html

OpenThesis.org

A new web property called OpenThesis (www.openthesis. org) has been launched. It exposes theses and dissertations, making them highly accessible, useful, and shareable-at absolutely no cost. OpenThesis.org will allow authors to upload their theses/dissertation s, and the documents will then be vaulted for posterity and made searchable anywhere in the world. If an author (or an author's family) has only a paper copy of a thesis/dissertation , the site will give guidance on how to get it scanned into computer-readable form for subsequent uploading. OpenThesis.org also will work directly with universities to ensure as comprehensive a database as possible. The existence of a comprehensive electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) database will benefit universities in licensing efforts and will benefit authors regarding networking for collaboration and jobs. Optionally, visitors to OpenThesis will be able to register in about 1 minute, also for free. They will gain access to special features such as the ability to organize documents into portfolios, and they will be able to set up alerts for automatic notification of new documents of interest. Here are a few other important aspects of OpenThesis.org: Authors will create accounts that will be email-verified as part of uploading their document(s), and they can choose on their own author pages (www.OpenThesis. org/their- name) to show their contact information and/or LinkedIn profile page as desired. There's even an embargo feature-authors can upload and indicate a future "go live" date on a given document. All colleges and universities will have free microsites, e.g., www.openthesis. org/school/ The-University- of-Texas- at-Austin/ results.html, such that they can link to a repository of documents from their own authors, co-branded with their logos. The site will allow users to search the entire document collection or to limit the search to a particular institution. The documents from a given institution also can be browsed within that institution' s microsite.