[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #412: Old, but not forgotten

Wed Nov 19 10:30:05 EST 2014

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4cast #412: Old, but not forgotten
November 19th, 2014

quill penA couple of weeks ago, a paper was published on arXiv.org 
<http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.0275>, hosted by the Cornell University 
Library, regarding a study of how often older scholarly papers that have 
been digitized and put online are cited in new scholarly papers. The 
paper ("On the shoulders of giants," first link below) presents data 
indicating that citing older papers is becoming more common recently, as 
more of them are available online. The paper itself cites older studies, 
including one of OhioLINK database usage, and briefly discusses some 
library tools for assessing the usefulness of older journals. You could 
argue that this study supports the value of libraries purchasing 
databases of journal articles, but you should keep in mind that the 
authors of the paper work for Google.

  * On the shoulders of giants: The growing impact of older articles
    <http://arxiv.org/pdf/1411.0275v1.pdf> [pdf] (arXiv.org | Alex
    Verstak et al.) "For most fields, retrospective digitization as well
    as inclusion in a broad-based search service with relevance ranking
    occurred in the second half of the period of study. As mentioned
    earlier, this is also the period that saw a larger growth in the
    fraction of older citations. Now that finding and reading relevant
    older articles is about as easy as finding and reading recently
    published articles, significant advances aren't getting lost on the
    shelves and are influencing work worldwide for years after."
  * Older papers are increasingly remembered-and cited
    <http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2014/11/older-papers-are-increasingly-remembered-and-cited>
    (Science | John Bohannon) "For a study to mark Google Scholar's 10th
    anniversary celebration
    <http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2014/10/uprising-less-prestigious-journals-publishing-greater-share-high-impact>,
    its researchers analyzed scientific papers published between 1990
    and 2013. They divided the papers into nine broad research areas and
    261 subject categories. Then they compared the publication dates of
    the papers cited in all those papers. (Google Scholar is universally
    acknowledged to index more scientific documents than anyone else,
    but as usual
    <http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2014/09/just-how-big-google-scholar-ummm>,
    the researchers are keeping the size of their data set secret.)"
  * The extraordinary growing impact of the history of science
    <https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/the-extraordinary-growing-impact-of-the-history-of-science-642022a39d67>
    (Medium | The Physics arXiv Blog) "There are one or two interesting
    wrinkles in the data. These trends appeared in 231 out of 261
    subject areas. But many of the subject areas that experienced a
    decline in older citations were part of two broader areas: chemical
    and materials sciences, and engineering. Consequently, these broad
    disciplines show almost no increase in old citations."
  * Digitization is increasing the accessibility of old scientific
    papers, and of history
    <http://selfawarepatterns.com/2014/11/13/digitization-is-increasing-the-accessibility-of-old-scientific-papers-and-of-history/>
    (SelfAwarePatterns | Mike Smith) "Will this make history more
    relevant for everyone? I think it will make history more accessible.
    But history has always been relevant. I wish I could say it will
    make people more likely to check history, but I have to admit that I
    doubt it. Despite the incredible amount of information available at
    people's finger tips these days, I can't say that I've noticed that,
    in general, they are really any more informed than they were before
    the internet."

*/Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:/*

  * Mass digitization at Yale University Library: Exposing the treasures
    in our stacks.
    <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/chc/detail?sid=c79a075c-b3ce-469d-bc91-b0519618a4ec%40sessionmgr111&vid=0&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9Y2hjLWxpdmU%3d#db=cmh&AN=34784210>
    (Computers in Libraries, Oct. 2008, p10-16 | Jennifer Weintraub and
    Melissa Wisner)
  * Learning to share: Measuring use of a digitized collection on Flickr
    and in the IR.
    <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=d62fa5e0-6d85-48f7-8843-cd1d42b54bc3%40sessionmgr198&vid=0&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=83583649>
    (Information Technology & Libraries, Sept. 2012, p85-93 | Melanie
    Schlosser and Brian Stamper)
  * Selection for preservation.
    <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=129c9505-a747-4441-b3e8-d29012d9c5f8%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=99263271>
    (Library Resources & Technical Services, Oct. 2014, p220-232 |
    Jennifer Hain Teper)

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