The DSpace Foundation has published the Provider Grid, which lists vetted companies that can provide DSpace customization, design, development, hosting, integration, installation/configuration, metadata import/export, training and analysis, and other services.

The University of Michigan Library has launched MTagger, which allows users to tag library web pages, online catalog pages, image pages, and locally published e-journal articles and to utilize tag clouds for these resources. Read more about it at "New Tagging Tool at University of Michigan Library."

The University of Auckland now gives students submitting an electronic theses or dissertation the option of putting it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License. Read more about it "University of Auckland Embeds CC Licensing" and "Guidelines for Formatting a Digital Thesis."

Of late, there has been discussion on the Liblicense-L list about how libraries should go about performing interlibrary loan transactions for articles published in licensed e-journals. Since, in the U.S., print journals are owned, are subject to the "first sale doctrine," and are covered by long-standing CONTU ...

The SURFfoundation has published Acceptance of the JISC/SURF Licence to Publish & accompanying Principles by Traditional Publishers of Journals. Here's an excerpt from the "Management Survey" section (I have added the link to the Licence to Publish): In 2006, JISC and SURF ...

The Scriblio project, which was partially funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has issued "Scriblio MATC Project Final Report." Scriblio is an open source, WordPress-based online catalog and content management system. Here's an excerpt from the report: Open source software may ...

Under a bill in the Utah legislature (H.B. 407), Utah would certify a qualifying ISPs as a Community Conscious Internet Provider (CCIP). The designation would be renewed annually. Among other provisions, the a CCIP ISP must "prohibit its customers by contract from publishing any prohibited communication"; "remove ...

Scientist Dallas Weaver has suggested that if copyright holders want "property" rights then they should be subject to a significant fixed annual tax in order to continue to hold the copyright. This tax would encourage copyright holders to put their works in the public domain. Read more ...

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) has released Topaz 0.8.2.1, an open source digital publishing system that is used to support several PLoS publications. Read more about it at "Topaz Release Candidate 0.8.2.1."

The Australian government is ready to proceed with testing an ISP Internet filter that aims to eliminate digital pornography. Customers who do not want a filtered Internet connection will need to opt out. Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said that the government's previous $85 million PC-based filter ...

DigitalKoans postings will resume on 2/15/08.

The College Opportunity and Affordability Act, recently passed by the House, included funding for Digital Promise's National Center for Learning Science and Technology Trust Fund. One of Digital Promise's goals is to: "Digitize America’s collected memory stored in our nation's universities, libraries, museums and public television archives to ...

The Data-Intensive Computing Environments group at the San Diego Supercomputer Center has released version 1.0 of the open-source iRODS (Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System) system, which can be used to support data grids, digital libraries, persistent archives, and real-time data systems. Here's an excerpt from the press release: ...

The OAK (Open Access to Knowledge) Law Project has published A Review and Analysis of Academic Publishing Agreements and Open Access Policies. Here's an excerpt from the "Conclusion and Next Steps": The review of publishers’ open access policies and practices found that: ...

In the seventh edition (2007) of the Places Rated Almanac, the Houston metro area has a mean score of 67, where zero is the worst score and 100 is the best score. Overall, it ranked 48th out of 379 metro areas. Below are the specific rankings from ...

The Digital Library Federation has been given a $18,000 by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation grant to investigate the use of metadata tools to improve access to cultural heritage materials. Here's an excerpt from the press release: The assessment will be done ...

Despite lobbying by EDUCAUSE and others, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed, 354 to 58, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act with its Sec. 494 illegal file sharing provision intact. Here's the provision: SEC. 494. CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION. ...

The Council on Library and Information Resources has published Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization: A White Paper by Oya Rieger. Here's an excerpt from the "Preface": This paper examines large-scale initiatives to identify issues that will influence the availability and ...

Indiana University at Bloomington has establishes an Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities. Here's an excerpt from the press release: The Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities (IDAH) will enable and expand digitally based arts and humanities projects at IU by bringing ...

Is a photograph of a vodka bottle a derivative work? How about a photograph of a toy? A sculpture? Noted copyright expert William Patry examines cases dealing with these questions in "Photographs and Derivative Works," finding that the court's interpretation isn't always correct. Here's an excerpt: ...