[EAS]E-Books in Academe/RDN

[pjk]

Subject:   E-Books in Academe/RDN

Dear Colleagues --  Except for any items of last minute interest
you'll have a rest from EAS-INFO mailings for the next two weeks
during which I'll be travelling.  All best,  --PJK

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(from CIT INFOBITS	May 2001		No. 35		ISSN 1521-9275)
 http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/

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ARTICLES ON E-BOOKS IN ACADEME

"A University That Reveres Tradition Experiments With E-Books" (by
Jeffrey R. Young, THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, May 18, 2001,
p. A39) describes an experimental University of Virginia seminar in
which students use hand-held computers loaded with all the course
materials. The seminar is part of a pilot project to see if e-book
technologies could allow entire courses to go "bookless." The
article is available
online at http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i36/36a03901.htm 

Related articles from the same issue:

"Publishers Promote E-Textbooks, but Many Students and Professors
Are Skeptical"
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i36/36a03502.htm

"Companies Find Academic Libraries a Key Target and a Tough Sell"
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i36/36a03701.htm

"Academic E-Publishing: Some Key Players"
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i36/36a03702.htm

"Author Says Libraries Shouldn't Abandon Paper"
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i36/36a04001.htm

The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published
weekly by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255
Twenty-third Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel:
202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033; Web: http://chronicle.com/ 
To subscribe contact Circulation Department, The Chronicle of
Higher Education, 1255 23rd Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037 USA;
tel: 800-728-2803 or 740-382-3322 (outside U.S.);
email: circulation at chronicle.com; 
Web: http://chronicle.com/about-help.dir/subscrib.htm

For another perspective on the future of books, read "The Premature
Obituary of the Book: Why Literature?" (THE NEW REPUBLIC, May 14).
Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist and professor of literature at
Georgetown University, reviews the challenges facing literature and
books. The article is available online at
http://www.thenewrepublic.com/051401/llosa051401.html

The New Republic [ISSN 0028-6583] is published 48 times a year. For
more information, contact The New Republic, 1220 19th St. NW Suite
600, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-331-7494; fax: 202-331-0275; 
Web: http://www.tnr.com/index.html

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[I covered this as part of an earlier EAS-INFO mailing at
http://www.yale.edu/engineering/eng-info/msg00854.html  --PJK]

TUTORIALS ON USING THE WEB FOR SCHOLARLY STUDY

The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) launched the Virtual Training
Suite, a collaboration between 30 universities providing 40
tutorials to help people learn more about using the Internet as a
source of scholarly information. Tutorial topics cover the
categories of engineering and mathematics, humanities, social
sciences, business and law, health and life sciences, and physical
sciences. The tutorials offer self-directed learning with the help
of an expert "tour guide" commissioned from universities,
libraries, museums, and research institutes across the United
Kingdom. The Virtual Training Suite is on the Web at
http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/

The RDN is a national Internet service for academics and
professionals funded by the Higher and Further Education Funding
Bodies via the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and by
Research Councils such as the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC). It is coordinated by the Resource Discovery Network Centre
(RDNC), a center run jointly by staff from UKOLN (UK Office for
Library and Information Networking at the University of Bath) and
King's College London. For more information about the RDN, contact:
RDNC, Kings College London, 3rd Floor, Strand Bridge House, 138-142
The Strand, London WC2R 1HH UK; 
email: info at rdn.ac.uk; Web: http://www.rdn.ac.uk/

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