Repost: 'Qualified Metadata' - What Does it All Mean?

Originally posted on 2/22/2007, I was speaking to someone this afternoon about this topic and it reminded me a little of this post.


Earlier this month I spoke about how data providers may be able to carve a place for themselves as the single provider of catalog information for particular industries. This data, representing 'base level' descriptive information (in the book world we call it bibliographic data) would be widely disseminated across the Internet to facilitate trade of products, materials and services and would be provided by one data supplier. Other data suppliers - one layer up if you will - would also make use of this base level information but add to it value added data elements which would be particularly important to segments of the supply chain. The most obvious example in books would be subject and categorization data which aids in discovery of the item described. Another set of data elements could reflect more descriptive information about a publisher over and above basic address and contact details. In the second of my series, I take a look at the library environment.

In a recent article in D-Lib (January 07), Karen Markey of the University of Michigan looks at how the library online catalog experience needs to change in order for users to receive more relevant and authoritative sources of information to support their research needs. She goes on to quote Deanna Marcum of Library of Congress "the detailed attention that we have paid to descriptive cataloguing may no longer be justified...retooled catalogers could give more time to authority control, subject analysis, [and] resource identification and evaluation." Markey proposes redesigning the library catalog to embrace three things:

1. post-Boolean probabilistic searching to ensure the precision in online catalogs that contain full-text
2. subject cataloguing that takes advantage of a users ability to recognize what they do and don't want
3. qualification cataloguing to enable users to customize retrieval based on level of understanding or expertise

New search technologies such as MarkLogic, FAST and the search tool behind Worldcat offer some of these capabilities but are generally not accessible to the average user. For example, some of these tools enable flexibility in the relevant importance given to elements within a record; so manipulating the importance of Audience level in a WorldCat search would 'skew' the search result set to higher or lower comprehension titles based on the bias given to one or the other.

Perhaps the most compelling point Markey raises in her article supporting increased attention to "qualification metadata" is the 30 to 1 'rule'.

The evidence pertains to the 30-to-1 ratios that characterize access to stores of information (Dolby and Resnikoff, 1971). With respect to books, titles and subject headings are 1/30 the length of a table of contents, tables of contents are 1/30 the length of a back-of-the-book index, and the back-of-the-book index is 1/30 the length of a text. Similar 30 to 1 ratios are reported for the journal article, card catalog, and college class. "The persistence of these ratios suggests that they represent the end result of a shaking down process, in which, through experience, people became most comfortable when access to information is staged in 30-to-1 ratios" (Bates, 2003, 27). Recognizing the implications of the 30-to-1 rule, Atherton 1978) demonstrated the usefulness of an online catalog that filled the two 30-to-1 gaps between subject headings and full-length texts with tables of contents and
back-of-the-book indexes.

Once I read this it was obvious to me that we may not have thought through the implications of projects such as Google Print on retrieval. These initiatives will result in huge (big, big, big) increases in the amount of stuff researchers and students will have to wade through to find items that are even remotely relevant to what they are looking for. In the case of students, unless appropriate tools and descriptive data is made available we will only compound the 'its good enough' mentality and they will never see anything but Google Search as useful.

Markey's article is worth a read if you are interested in this type of stuff, but I think her view point is a starting point for any bibliographic agency or catalog operation in defining their strategy for the next ten years. Most bibliographers understand that base level data is a commodity. The only value a provider can supply here is consistency and one-stop shopping and the barriers to entry are lowered every day. I am of the view (see my first article on this subject) that the agency that can demonstrably deliver consistent data should do so as a loss leader in order to corner the market on base level data and then generate a (closed) market for value added and descriptive (qualification) metadata. There are indications that markets may be heading in this direction (Global Data Synchronization - which I will address next) with incumbent data providers reluctantly following.

Providing relevancy in search is a holy grail of sorts and descriptive data is key to this. In the library environment if the current level of resources were reallocated to building the deeper bibliographic information we need then the traffic in and out of library catalogs would be tremendous. If no one steps in to provide this needed descriptive data then the continuing explosion of resources would be irrelevant because no-one would be directed to the most relevant stuff. Serendipity would rule. The data would also prove valuable and important to the search providers (Google, etc.) because they also want to provide relevance; having libraries and the library community execute on this task would be somewhat ironic given the current decline in use of the online library catalog.

Twin Beams of Light: Manhattan

Twin Beams of Light, September 2010

A weekly image from my archive. Click on the image to make it larger.

Taken around 8:30 on 9/11/2010 from Hoboken.

PND Technology: Apture

My weekly (kind of) recap of some of the interesting technology I've heard about at the tech meet-ups I've been going to (NYTech)

Apture is a great application that enables a publisher to offer a more in-depth experience to readers and browsers of their web site without them leaving the page. For the publisher a simple line of code added to their site gives 'look-up' capability to any highlighted segment of content on their page. One neat thing about the Apture application is that it can 'look-forward' and return the more detailed and deeper material (again in a pop-up window not by taking the user somewhere else) in an appropriate to the content manner. For example, if a reader highlights a photo link the pop up can produce a photo image viewer that is optimized for the content and the appropriate usage. (Best shown in the plug-in).

In allowing the user to access instantaneously more information, the Apture application provides a far more engaging experience for the user. Another aspect of the technology, is that each successive pop-up can be searched in a 'Russian doll effect'. So in the example on the live demo, if the user looks up information about Alfred Hitchcock and in the pop-up there is more information they want to search - including content such as photos, music and videos - they can do this sequentially. All without leaving the original website.

For a publisher implementing the technology, they can also 'manage' how the deeper information is displayed in each pop-up. For example, a publisher may want to highlight their own content they may have that is relevant to the search and they can present their links or content first. This can drive additional page views for the publisher which for usage statistics and for advertising could be important. The company says users will stay on a site 2-3x longer when this technology is implemented.

Each pop-up does not replace the earlier one and so the user can always see where they came from and navigate easily backwards and search other interesting links in earlier windows. The user can also re-size at will depending on their preference and there is an example of how that functionality is appropriate for maps and street view for example.

Apture is being used by the Financial Times, Thomson Reuters, NY Times, ReadWriteWeb, The Nation. The company also launched a browser plug-in which they claim will change the way you search the web. I'm playing with it now.

Houghton Mifflin Announces Innovation Fund

In a press release today Houghton Mifflin Harcourt annouced the creation of a $100mm innovation fund which the company will use to "promote and enhance student achievement, individualized learning and effective technology integration in the classroom." Some other large publishing companies have well known innovation or investment funds so this is nothing revolutionary or new in the publishing business but represents an important strategic move for HMH.

The HMH Innovation Fund will promote and support solutions aimed at engaging all education stakeholder groups — including teachers, administrators, parents and students — by creating a process for soliciting, evaluating, developing and executing innovative ideas that solve teaching and learning challenges. The process will be uniquely collaborative, encouraging input and participation from across the education and technology industries. The Fund will also look to support new consumer applications including gaming platforms and other interactive solutions to engage students outside the classroom.

“The HMH Innovation Fund is a first for our industry, providing the capital to identify and incubate the next generation of innovation in education. We are excited about the opportunity to share in developing new solutions for teachers, students, administrators and parents,” said Barry O’Callaghan, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “HMH will work with, partner and fund the innovators of today and support great ideas that will have an immediate impact in promoting greater student achievement with tools that can be used both inside and outside the classroom.”

HMH has seen its fair share of problems over the past three years with a major restructuring of the company's balance sheet at the end of last year. The core operations of each business have reputedly been doing well even in the tough economic climate. This news, coupled with the news that the company is also investing $300million to develop innovation centers in the US and Ireland, will come as welcome news to those left bewildered by the company's recent financial problems.

The Innovation teams at HMH work closely with third parties including Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), foundations and academia, and have already started rolling out an array of new solutions including:

• A one-year pilot program in four California school districts of the first ever full-curriculum Algebra application on the Apple iPad. More than 400 California eighth-grade students will receive instruction strictly via an iPad loaded with Holt Algebra 1 course materials including highly developed comprehension tracking tools, which provide students with customized online remediation based on quiz and test scores, and simultaneously provide teachers with student-specific performance feedback. Assessment data will be immediately available to the teacher for constant tracking and in-class remediation.
• A new all-digital language arts program in Texas for grades 2–12 called Texas Write Source, which helps students of every learning style master key writing forms and processes and grammar usage through whole-class interactive whiteboards, an online worktext and space that enables students to share personalized essays, and the ability to download video podcasts, audio-enabled interactive mini-lessons, games and trackable quizzes.

“We have a well-established and open incubation strategy for new ideas, partners and start ups that is different than anything that exists within the traditional publishing business,” said Fiona O’Carroll, Executive Vice President of New Ventures. “We have created an environment and a structure to foster and support incubation of new ideas and we feel we can be the partner of choice for big ideas due to our overall scale, market reach, positional advantage and speed in bringing things to market. This is a true incubation model.”

MediaWeek (Vol 3, No 37): Bookless Library, Color E-Readers, More Swedish Detecting, Lost Television, IPad Test in Schools

A bookless library opens in Texas (USTA):

Electronic research is central to the AET Library. Instead of storing printed volumes, the library offers students a rapidly growing collection of electronic resources including 425,000 e-books and 18,000 e-journal subscriptions. Skilled science and engineering librarians are available during library hours to help students who need research assistance. UTSA's electronic library is catching on quickly with students, who are finding that the library staff is more available to assist them now that they don't have to circulate and reshelf books. Publications that students want to read also are more accessible because the online format allows many students to simultaneously access the same volume. The trend to move higher education library collections online began in October 2000, when Kansas State University opened the Fiedler Engineering Library. The branch library's collection is completely electronic with the exception of a series of reference books and a few journals that are unavailable electronically. Earlier this year, Stanford University continued the trend when it removed all but 10,000 printed volumes from its Engineering Library.

New color eBook readers are on their way (NYTimes):

Major e-reader companies like Amazon.com, which sells the Kindle, and Barnes & Noble, seller of the Nook, have not announced that they are offering color versions, or that they are committed to a specific technology for doing so. But some smaller entrants in the market have said they will be using liquid crystal displays, just as the iPad does. The Literati by the Sharper Image, for example, has a a full-color LCD and will go on sale in October, priced at about $159. And Pandigital has said that the Novel, its full-color e-reader with an LCD touch screen, will be at retailers this month at a suggested price of about $200. But LCD displays have disadvantages, Mr. Semenza said. They consume a lot of power, he said, because they need backlighting and because much optical energy is lost as light passes through the polarizers, filters and crystals needed to create color. They are also hard to read outdoors, he added. Other types of displays may also find a foothold with consumers — particularly low-power, reflective technologies that take advantage of ambient light and are easy to read when outside. The EInk Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., uses this reflective technology for its present product — the black-and-white displays in the Kindle, Nook and other e-readers — and will soon introduce a color version of the technology, said Siram Peruvemba, E Ink’s vice president for global sales and marketing. The technology will probably first be used for textbook illustrations and for cartoons.

The Observer really likes those Swedish detective novels. Here's number xx in a series of articles (Guardian):

Mankell has always regarded himself as a gloomy man in any case. Married to Eva Bergman, daughter of the great Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, he has spoken of watching films in the brooding company of his late father-in-law "We would have long nights talking to each other and, while he didn't laugh that much, he did once say that we were the 'Swedish brothers of gloom'. That made us both smile," he said. Mankell's most recent novel, The Man From Beijing, has received mixed reviews in Britain. His protagonist, Judge Birgitta Roslin, has been criticised for being a Wallander derivative. For all those addicts of the taciturn police procedural, played out against a backdrop of lonely marshes, empty beaches and sinister summer cabins, the future is not so grim. A wide range of other writers is waiting to be discovered up there in the cold north. Try the 36-year-old Camilla Läckberg, Swedish author of The Ice Princess, who has a new book out. Or Karin Fossum, the Norwegian "Queen of Crime" who writes about Inspector Konrad Sejer. Failing that, there are Ake Edwardson, Karin Alvtegen, Håkan Nesser, Asa Larsson or Johan Theorin. And to prove beyond doubt that Scandinavia is now the promised land, the bestselling American crime author James Patterson has figuratively moved in. Patterson has written The Postcard Killers in collaboration with the seasoned Swedish writer Liza Marklund. Together they have created two sleuths, a rogue American policeman, based on Marklund in personality and style, and a Swedish reporter who is closer to Patterson.

Found: Golden age of British Television at the Library of Congress (Observer):

The extraordinary cache of televised plays – described by experts as "an embarrassment of riches" – features performances from a cavalcade of postwar British stars. The list includes John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Gemma Jones, Dorothy Tutin, Robert Stephens, Susannah York, John Le Mesurier, Peggy Ashcroft, Patrick Troughton, David Hemmings, Leonard Rossiter, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith and Jane Asher. The tapes have been unearthed in the Library of Congress in Washington DC.After months of negotiation, the library and the New York-based public service television station WNET have agreed to allow the British Film Institute in London to showcase the highlights in November, an occasion that is certain to generate intense nostalgia for what many critics maintain was the golden age of television. A hint of what is to come appears in the joint BFI and National Film Theatre guide for November, which refers to the forthcoming "Missing Believed Wiped" event and mentions the discovery of hundreds of hours of British TV drama. The tapes are understood to have been sent out to WNET for broadcast and later stored in the TV station's collection inside the Library of Congress, where they were recently catalogued with British assistance.

News reporter Kay Burley's book is to be edited again but not without some PR thrown in (Telegraph):

Among the details removed is the description of Simpson as "titian-haired" and "flame-haired," both phrases regularly used to describe a prominent former supporter of Blair. The character of McGovern, meanwhile, is said to be not dissimilar to Gloria De Piero, the glamorous Labour MP and former political correspondent for GMTV. A publishing source says the legal team were particularly concerned about Burley's depiction of her fictional prime minister's affairs with the women in the book. Blair's attitude towards extra-marital relationships has come under the spotlight after the publication of his memoirs, in which he implied that for a politician to have an affair is like being able to escape to a "remote desert island of pleasure". Burley, who recently split up with George Pascoe-Watson, a former political journalist, also appears to have written a thinly veiled version of the relationship between Blair and Alastair Campbell in her portrayal of Jenson and his spin-doctor, Ben Watson.

No doubt Blair also assumes the island has its own Catholic church for recompense? Fresno schools are testing the iPAd with the help of Houghton Mifflin (FresnoBee):

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the education publishing company that created the program, is working with Apple -- the iPad's manufacturer -- and is subsidizing the pilot program. The students will get iPads in the next few days and will be allowed to take the portable computers home. John Sipe, vice president of K-12 sales for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, said the iPad app essentially replaces the 800-page algebra book that students would normally use.The program is designed so students can use it for homework, note-taking, quizzes and possibly testing. The app includes tutorial videos that can help students at home and automatically lets teachers know how students are progressing. But Sipe said just how much students will use the new technology will be up to each individual district, and some districts may opt to continue using textbooks to supplement digital lessons. Students will be allowed to use the iPads for other uses, such as surfing the Web.Company officials believe the algebra app will lead to improved test scores and increased student interest, Sipe said. Fresno was selected partly based on the recommendation of education officials in Sacramento because of its involvement in the state's Race to the Top application for federal education funds, Sipe said. California did not win the funds, but the state application demonstrated a willingness to use digital textbooks.

From the Twitter: Announcing Identification of E-Books Research Project: In the interview stage so get in touch if you would like to pa…BISG Albany's library revival a story to embrace Times Union Elsevier’s SciVerse Hub--Transforming Scientific Research Info-Today Surprise to be quoted.

Announcing Identification of E-Books Research Project

From BISG:

As some of you are aware, in May 2010 the Identification of E-Books Working Group of BISG's Identification Committee began a systematic review of the International ISBN Agency recommendations for the identification of e-books and digital content.

The Working Group identified several areas in which detailed definitions and a formal examination of the issues would lead to a better perspective on the International ISBN Agency's position and, perhaps, help inform a more data-driven recommendation from the U.S. market to the International ISBN Agency.

To that end, BISG's Identification of E-Books Working Group has contracted with Michael Cairns of the firm Information Media Partners to conduct an objective, research-based study that describes, defines and makes recommendations for the identification of e-books in the U.S. supply chain.

In the coming weeks and months (through October 2010), Michael will conduct a series of fact-finding interviews and information requests to support a set of recommendations that will be reviewed by the Working Group during the first quarter of 2011. Ultimately, these recommendations will form the basis for further discussions with the International ISBN Agency over policies and procedures with respect to e-books and digital content.

Michael will be directly contacting many BISG members and non-members to seek input and participation in the interview and fact finding process. We hope should you be someone Michael reaches out to that you will offer your full cooperation in this project.

Please feel free to contact Michael Cairns directly via email if you would like to participate or, alternatively, Angela Bole who will be in regular contact with Michael as the project moves forward.

Evonne Goolagong US Open 1972

Evonne Goolagong, US Open 1972

A weekly image from my archive. Click on the image to make it larger.
Since it is US Open Week: Evonne Goolagong Cawley at the 1972 US Open Championships at Forest Hills Goolagong later lost to Teeguarden in the 3rd Round. There are some additional photos on my flickr page of her and many other great players. (Here)

Beyond the Book: Peter Brantley Interviewed

From Copyright Clearence center's beyond the book series an interview with Peter Brantley of the Internet Archive and Open Book Alliance (Podcast):

“I wouldn’t say I’m concerned about the future of authors,” Peter Brantley tells Chris Kenneally, “but I think that authors have something to be concerned about as we move into a digital future.”

The director of the Internet Archive’s BookServer project, a not-for-profit digital library, and a co-founder of the Open Book Alliance, Brantley shares insights on the perils for authors hoping to “navigate and arbitrate what their rights are to recreate their product in a digital environment.”

With the excitement and freedom of digital publishing, Brantley warns, there remains a need to remain watchful. “It’s not just that authors [now] have an opportunity to create trans-media works that are new and fresh with new material,” he notes. “They also have an opportunity to create trans-media works that are new and fresh from old material. And, again, trying to work through how those things are created, distributed and how the rights are arbitrated for that content, is a big challenge.

MediaWeek (Vol 3, No 36): Graphic Conrad, Books and Houses, Television, Disney's Education Play and Twitter

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been published as a graphic novel (Guardian):

To reinforce the geographical and historical immediacy of Conrad's tale, the graphic novel is interspersed with excerpts from The Congo Diary – the journal Conrad kept of his 1890 voyage up the river.Anyango's research also led her to the story of a man from a village in the Upper Congo called Nsala. She came across a photograph of him sat on a step contemplating the hand and foot of his daughter, which had been cut off by guards sent to his village by the Anglo Belgian India Rubber Company. The men, ordered to attack Nsala's village for failing to provide the company with enough rubber, devoured his wife and daughter, leaving only the child's hand and foot."I put him on one page, and similar portraits on others, so the Congolese characters have resonance at least for me, even if they remain stereotyped because of the existing narrative," she said. In her efforts to ensure the authenticity of the uniforms she drew — the protagonist, Marlow, is given a cap with a prominent Belgian lion badge — Anyango was shocked to discover how markedly Belgian perceptions of the occupation of Congo still vary. For some, it is a shameful episode in the country's history, while others still view it as a benign experience despite the evidence uncovered by recent histories such as Adam Hochschild's 1998 book, King Leopold's Ghost, which laid bare the barbarism inflicted on Congo.

Contemplating the end of the physical book (WaPo):

But what a loss to the ways books represent, bedevil and impeach us. They represent us, of course, as anyone knows who has made basic decisions about which books go in the living room and which get confined to less public places. That they bedevil us is clear if you have moved recently or live burdened with closets filled with books -- books under the bed, books in the attic -- or if you have ever saved a book for years or decades only to discover, upon desperately needing it, that it has been lost in the general deluge of too many books. But they also impeach us, and it is that function that electronic readers can never replicate. A wall of books is mortality made geometric, a pattern of hope and loss, ambition and failure. There's so much fraud lurking on our shelves, fraudulent books such as "My Sister and I." Purported to be by Nietzsche, it is suspiciously more readable, lurid and fun than anything by Nietzsche. But there's also the record of our own fraud, the books we intend to read but never will, the books of which we remember no more than what is printed on the dust jacket -- yet claim to possess in some deeper way. There are books we pretend to keep for reference, but in fact keep only because they look so damn fine on the shelf. And then there are the books where should-have-read blends with may-have-read, and we're too embarrassed to confess we can't remember which is the case ("Catcher in the Rye"). There are also the books of hollow triumph, the great tomes of philosophy read in college, which remain on the shelves like snapshots taken from the summit of Everest or like pants in the closet that will never again slide up our thighs without tearing.

The noise about online TV may not matter: Old line media firms are firmly in control of internet video (Economist):

Even Google, the arch-disrupter, is looking tame. The firm is building its browser and search bar into high-end televisions, hoping that couch potatoes will use it to look for programmes. If some of them can be directed to shows on YouTube, Google will be able to siphon advertising away from television. It would be a fine plan if YouTube had lots of high-quality programmes, but it hasn’t. (The Onion, a humorous website, once imagined a YouTube contest challenging users to make a “good” video.) So YouTube will probably have to pay top dollar for films, limiting its appeal and turning a once subversive force into a humdrum distributor. Old-fashioned television is hardly being swept away. At present people watch online video for three hours per month, according to Nielsen, compared with 158 hours for old-style television. And the early evidence suggests that those whizzy new connected sets are not always connected. A recent poll for Forrester Research found that many people didn’t fully understand the devices they had bought, and only a few had recommended them to their friends. They may learn. But such apathy from early adopters suggests that content owners will have plenty of time to prepare for the revolution.

Looking at Disney's education play in China (Economist):

The initial development costs, which Disney has not disclosed, must have been huge. Within a decade the programme will have a material impact on Disney’s results, predicts Andrew Sugerman, who runs it. Disney hopes to keep doubling the number of Chinese students it teaches every year for a while. This is a risky venture—long-term, complex and in an area China considers sensitive: education. Yet the potential rewards are huge. The very complexity of education means that it is less vulnerable to the piracy that usually stops Western media firms from making money in China. A bootleg copy of “Mulan” is much cheaper than the real thing and possibly just as good, other than the fact that it is stolen. It is harder to fake a good education. Disney’s focus groups find that for Chinese parents, “education means everything”. English, in particular, is viewed as a ticket to the wider world, says Mr Sugerman. Studies commissioned by Disney estimate that the market for children’s English-language education in China is growing by 12% annually and will reach $3.7 billion by 2012. That may be too modest. Adele Mao, an analyst at OLP Global, a research and consulting firm, reckons the market is already nearly $6 billion a year and is growing by 20%. There is an equally dynamic market for adult education. One Chinese company which caters to all ages, New York-listed New Oriental Education, has a market valuation of $3.8 billion. Dozens of others have entered the business.

From the twitter: Grisham Dreams of a Desk Job - NYTimes. His own #jobsivehad Source Interlink Takes on Massive Photo Digitization Project Folio PND Blogpost: Elsevier Introduces SciVerse PND A significant change for the platform. Los Angeles Times: Our 12 favorite non-book literary oddities on EBay Jacket Copy

Animals in War Monument Park Lane

Animals in War - Mayfair London 2009

A weekly image from my archive. Click on the image to make it larger.

For a nation that supposedly loves animals the British certainly put them through a lot. Finally, they have their own memorial that sits in the center divide running down Park Lane. Inscribed in the portland stone is the inscription:
"This monument is dedicated to all the animals that served and died alongside British and allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time. They had no choice"
This image was taken in April 2009.

Elsevier Introduces SciVerse

I've mentioned that information and academic publishers are starting to open up their data to third party applications providers and, in the process, enable greater utility for their subscribers and users. SciVerse, announced today by Elsevier, is a platform for doing just that. For a publisher of this size and importance to academics, professionals and institutions this initiative should be considered quite important as it represents a significant (and logical) step in the evolution of information database publishing.

As the press release states, SciVerse is "an innovative platform that integrates the company's key products and encourages the scientific community to collaborate on the development of customized search and discovery applications. Elsevier has committed to releasing the APIs (application programming interfaces) for all of the content on SciVerse and will offer application development support tools on the site."

SciVerse will be impressive from the start and will incorporate ScienceDirect, Scopus and targeted web content from Scirus, Elsevier's science-specific Internet search engine. Built into the platform will be some basic but useful technology which will enable efficient cross database searching and other functionality, but what Elsevier is banking on (and, it seems a pretty safe bet given the quality of this content) is that third party application providers will provide significant ingenuity in building applications that Elsevier's subscribers will find useful. As Jay Katzen, Managing Director, Academic & Government Products, Elsevier notes,

"SciVerse is a start of a new journey for Elsevier where we plan to provide customized search and discovery solutions and increase interoperability within our products and third party services. We recognize that it is critical to involve the researchers and librarians in the creation of solutions as they are in the best position to identify and address their search and discovery challenges. By providing our content APIs later this year, we will empower researchers and developers to build custom applications to enhance their workflow and share these applications with the scientific community within SciVerse."

Elsevier will open up SciVerse to the developer community (many of whom are likely to be their subscribers) later in the year and the mechanism for doing this isn't clear; however, it is likely that their will be some type of registration and/or approval process similar to the Apple apps store process. Whether or how Elsevier will share in revenues that may be generated by some of these new apps is also unclear; however, should this be a practical outcome of this initiative it may end up driving some substantial incremental revenue for Elsevier. Most importantly though, this initiative will ultimately tie Elsevier content even firmer into the workflow and processes of their customers as these applications address specific problems for customers. This aspect shouldn't be under valued as an important contributor to the continued growth of the Elsevier product line. It will be interesting to see how other information and academic publishers react to this news.

Cal State's Digital Marketplace Announces Pilot

The Digital Marketplace, an initiative of the California State University Office of the Chancellor, announced plans today to launch a pilot to license digital course content from Bedford/Freeman/Worth, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Students will purchase their personal-use subscriptions for the digital content through their local campus bookstore. More from the press release:

“Offering faculty the choice of a licensing model gives them the option of finding the highest quality content at the lowest cost,” said Gerard L. Hanley, PhD., Senior Director of Academic Technology Services for the CSU. “The purpose of the Digital Marketplace is to provide everyone access to quality, affordable educational content. This is a wonderful example of an academic institution and publishers working together for the benefit of our students.”

“Wiley is pleased to join this venture to promote learning by providing students with quality products at the most affordable price points,” said Bonnie Lieberman, Senior VP and General Manager, Higher Education, Wiley.

“For the past several years, we have offered numerous low-cost options to professors and students, but we are continuously exploring new avenues, and we are excited about this new model for teaching and learning with digital materials,” said Tom Scotty, President of Sales, BFW Publishing Group.

"Pearson supports the efforts of instructors at CSU to explore the effective deployment of digital course materials that hold the promise of more effective learning,” said Don Kilburn, CEO of Pearson Learning Solutions.

“We are continuously looking for ways to deliver content to students in the format that is most engaging to them,” said Rik Kranenburg at McGraw-Hill Education.

“Cengage Learning is pleased to be a leader in CSU’s Digital Marketplace and we are committed to providing students a range of high quality, high value course content in formats and at price points to meet each student's budget and learning style,” said Rich Foley, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Cengage Learning.

The pilot program will collect and analyze student and faculty user data during the fall 2010 term to learn more about usage and preferences for digital materials.