A digital object identifier (DOI) is an alphanumeric string created both to:

•         uniquely identify/name a piece of electronic content, and to

•         serve as a stable, persistent link to that content’s location on the web

As libraries are the main customers of CrossRef's member publishers, CrossRef shares our concerns about the development of linking across a wide range of resources and services. CrossRef believes that standards and interoperability are very important to the creation of useful, viable linking services.

It is important to note that without persistent identifiers and standardized metadata for journal articles, even basic reference linking is difficult, let alone more sophisticated localized linking.  DOIs and standardized metadata are a powerful combination.

QS World University Rankings 2011/2012:

Three Azerbaijani Universities Among Top 700 in the World

On September 5, 2011 QS Intelligence Unit published the 8th annual QS World University Rankings® 2011/2012 with international universities.

Highlights:

- Baku State University, Khazar University and Qafqaz University have been included in the final table for the first time. Results will be published on www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings.

- 2,919 universities were considered; over 700 universities in the world were evaluated, and the top 300 were ranked;

- More than 80 new universities have been included in the list for the first time, including 18 universities from Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union countries;

- Cambridge University was named best in the world, leaving the USA’s oldest and most prestigious university Harvard in 2nd place. Cambridge is ranked first for a second consecutive year ahead of Harvard, MIT, Yale and Oxford. Despite Cambridge’s table-topping performance, US institutions continue to dominate, taking 20 of the top 50 places and accounting for 70 of the top 300.

- This year's rankings draw on the views of over 33,000 academics and 16,000 graduate employers from around the globe.

While other rankings focus primarily on measures of research productivity such as citations, the QS exercise counterbalances this information with the views of global academic and graduate employers.

Azerbaijani Universities in the top of 700 of QS World University Rankings® 2011-2012

© QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2011 www.topuniversities.com .

Top Institutional Repositories Ranking, July, 2011

On July, 2011 the CSIC Cybermetrics Lab (Spain) published its Top Institutional Repositories Ranking. In total, 1222 repositories were ranked including 1154 institutional ones. It's worth mentioning that there are only very little requirements in order to get university repository added to the ranking. The most important requirement is having a unique (sub-level) URL attributed to the repository.

  The aim of the Ranking is to support Open Access initiatives and therefore the free access to scientific publications in an electronic form and to other academic material. The web indicators are used here to measure the global visibility and impact of the scientific repositories. 

Khazar University Institutional Repository is still the only repository in the Caucasus and Central Asia included in Top Institutional Repositories list.

Give it a look– hhttp://dspace.khazar.org – there are new items and new features added regularly!

Khazar University signed CrossRef/PILA Membership Agreement

This membership agreement  sets forth the terms and conditions under which a qualified institution becomes a member of The Publishers international Linking Association, Inc. ("PILA"), a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of New York, and doing business as CrossRef, subject to the approval of PILA. Membership in PILA is open to publishers of scholarly and professional content who have rights to transfer, manage and otherwise fulfil the obligations of this Agreement.

CrossRef is a not-for-profit membership association. They provide reference linking among scholarly publishers and other collaborative services. Publishers get many benefits from CrossRef and they must also follow some important rules to ensure their services are persistent, sustainable and fair to all members.

What is a DOI?

 A digital object identifier (DOI) is an alphanumeric string created both to:

•         uniquely identify/name a piece of electronic content, and to

•         serve as a stable, persistent link to that content’s location on the web

CrossRef Benefits Libraries and Users

•         User navigation at the article level leads to increased usage of electronic resources (access)

•         DOI links can extend access to content not owned (access)

•         CrossRef provides persistent DOI links (valid and robust)

•         CrossRef helps find the appropriate copy (appropriate and in context)

•         Article-level metadata look-up makes CrossRef publishers OpenURL compliant.

Thomson Reuters (UK) representatives at the Khazar University

Program of visit representatives from the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals such as Thomson Reuters (UK) was to share best practice for two days of focused debate on 31st May and 1st June 2011 in Baku.

On the first day Founder of Khazar University and Chairman of the Board of Directors and Trustees, Professor Hamlet Isaxanli, Library Director, Mrs.. T. Zaytseva and Deputy LIC Director, Mrs. Lyudmila Sotova hosted guests to discuss a variety of issues, including new research environment, increasing Azerbaijani research potential, opportunity for cooperation.  Mr. David Horky, Country Manager- Central and Eastern Europe Healthcare & Science, Mr. Shanroo0z Sharifrazy, Regional Sales Manager Scientific and Scholarly Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mr. Metin Tunc, Sales Manger from MIIKRO discussed collaboration, partnerships, funding, and the role of the government in improving research capabilities in our country. Mr. Isaxanli noted that real focus can be achieved by establishing so called partnership-guided aid, which a significant fraction of assistance being directed to programs of excellence using publishing criteria set by the developed nations. Such partnerships aim at improving science and technology in Azerbaijan, publication and citation indicators, showing developments across the region in term of research policy, investment and outputs.

 On the  second day discussions between and among representatives from Academy of Science, higher education institutions from Azerbaijan , including Khazar University  were continued at the Baku State University at the meeting on the subject of “Increase of Azerbaijan’s Scientific Impact; National View by Thomson Reuters.” This meeting aimed to bring researchers, developers and practitioners together to discuss the current state of Web of knowledge and individual aspects of this growing research area. In particular, the meeting aimed to broaden the discussion by considering important topics such as research output, ICT support for policy analysis and modelling as well as Web-based scientists involvement in research.

 Presentations were given by Mr. David Horky on “Introducing on the new Web of Knowledge, National Scientific Development of Azerbaijan, Based on Thomson Reuters Data” and Mr. Metin Tunc on “In-Depth Overview of the New Web of Knowledge Features and Functionality”.

Moreover, this meeting and discussion provided a platform for researchers and practitioners in Azerbaijan to exchange preliminary results, new concepts and methodologies in this area.

Khazar University LIC has been selected as an ISSR (The International Society for Science & Religion) Library Awardee

Khazar University LIC   has been selected as an ISSR Library awardee. Our application was reviewed under a competitive judging process and our institution will join a select group of only 150 institutions worldwide to receive a full set of the Library.

The ISSR Library consists of 224 volumes spanning all areas of the interface between science and spirituality. ISSR Editorial Board selected these books in consultation with the membership of the International Society for Science and Religion and experts from many academic disciplines, faith traditions, and regions. The result is a truly remarkable collection that ranges from a ‘core’ group of books whose primary focus is directly on science and spirituality (from many perspectives, including non-religious ones) to eleven other subject areas. These range from the sciences and social sciences to history, philosophy and the environment.

It is truly a pleasure to have the books go out from such an interesting and productive organization such as The International Society for Science & Religion.

Meeting with representatives of Ebook library and University of Alberta

On February 02, 2011 David Sword, Vice President of Sales & Marketing EBook Library and Margaret Law, Associate University Librarian at the University of Alberta had a meeting  with Tatyana Zaytseva, Library Director.

Ebook Library is a leading supplier of electronic books to academic and corporate libraries around the world. EBL’s catalogue serves out thousands and thousands of books from across all subject areas featuring content over 270 international publishers.

During the meeting possibilities for future cooperation were discussed.

Good News for the Khazar University Institutional Repository (KUIR)

The Ranking Web of World Repositories (January 2011) announced the latest institutional repository worldwide rankings. First in our country according to this ranking, the Khazar University Institutional Repository is the only repository in the Caucasus and Central Asia. KUIR moved up to 892 on the list of more than 1,100 total repositories evaluated. In general KUIR does very well in comparison with many, even in more developed countries.

There are currently more than 650 items archived in the Repository, and almost all of them are full-text and freely accessible. Items in the Repository include peer reviewed journal articles, textbooks, theses and dissertations, presentations, and more. 

Take a look– http://dspace.khazar.org – there are new items and new features added regularly!

FFourteenth International Conference and Exhibition Information Technologies, Computer Systems and Publications for Libraries “LIBCOM-2010”

CrossRef for Libraries

CrossRef, the official DOI registration agency for scholarly and professional publications, harnesses collaboration among publishers to provide the scholarly community with easier access to online research content. CrossRef was established in 2000 as an independent, non-profit membership association, with a mandate to make cross-publisher linking throughout online scholarly literature efficient and reliable using the DOI system.

"DOI" stands for Digital Object Identifier and is an open standard. A CrossRef DOI is an alphanumeric name that identifies digital content, such as a book or journal article. The DOI is paired with the object's electronic address, or URL, in an updateable central directory, and is published in place of the URL in order to avoid broken links while allowing the content to move as needed. DOIs are distributed by publishers and by CrossRef, and there is no end-user charge associated with their use. The CrossRef DOI can be assigned at any level of granularity and incorporated into many different systems and databases.

The key benefits of the CrossRef DOI for libraries are:

• Truly persistent links

• Increases usage of acquired resources

• Expanded access to content not owned

• Enhanced localized linking

• DOI and metadata retrieval privileges at no cost to most libraries

Please click here to download the PowerPoint file.

Think: Philosophy for Everyone journal

Highlights from the Autumn 2010 issue

Dear Khazar Community,

Think demonstrates the relevance of philosophy to everyday life and forges a direct link between contemporary philosophy and the widest possible readership.

The Autumn 2010 issue is available online right now, including the following articles, available for FREE until November 30th.

Time Travel Testimony and the ‘John Titor’ Fiasco
Alasdair Richmond
 

Williams on Dawkins - Response
Brendan Larvor
 

While perfect for anyone with an interest in Philosophy, Think is also ideal for those studying philosophy at school or college.

Vacancy announcement

back

Khazar University Institutional Repository is now in global rankings of world repositories

International Scholars Reception at the Khazar University Library and Information Center

International Scholars Reception in honor of Khazar University international scholars, teachers, and researchers was held at the Khazar University Library Information Center. There were representatives of the Ambassadors from France, USA, Turkish, and India. Khazar University deans of faculty introduced its foreign quests from various countries such as the USA, United Kingdom, Turkish, Pakistan, Moldova, Lithuania, India, and Bulgaria. Khazar University founder and president, prof. Hamlet Isaxanli and vice-president, prof. M. Nouriyev warmly welcomed our quests. An exciting evening was arranged a fine dinner.

World Universities’s Ranking on the Web

The Web is a more universal, cheaper and powerful communication tool and Web indicators could be used to wider and feasible evaluation purposes.

The Web ranking provides for the developed and developing countries universities that is not Web specific, measuring overall performance and global impact.

Since 2004, the Ranking Web (http://www.webometrics.info) is published twice a year (January and July), covering more than 18,000 Higher Education Institutions worldwide.

January 2010 edition ranks more universities in order to make consistent the world and regional rankings. Now it has expanded the Top ranking to 8,000 institutions.
Among these top ranking universities two from Azerbaijan: Khazar University and Qafqaz University.

Now Khazar University Library and information Center is preparing recommendations in order to increase our website's ranking. Khazar University web site should reflect the set of activities and results produced by university and help to improve visibility, prestige and attracting new students, excellent scholars and big funding.

LIC provides access to the BioOne

Khazar University now has access to BioOne. www.bioone.org

BioOne provides a unique aggregation of high-impact bioscience research journals, featuring timely content on a wide-array of today's most pressing topics, including global warming, stem cell research, ecological and biodiversity conservation. Complementing this content is an agile new platform launched in January 2009 that allows for easy navigation to content both within and outside the BioOne aggregation, as well as researcher-designed toolbars with valuable title, article, and reference-linking tools.

For access to the database please ask LIC staff.

New features from Cambridge Journals Online

A number of new features allow CJO users to access our content in more advanced ways:
CJO visitors can now search a large number of pages and extensive content across both Journals and eBooks content from the Quick Search on CJO.

• A link to a PDF version of the Table of Contents is included in all My Content Alerts for issues and FirstView articles.

• CJO now offers a possibility for journals to publish accepted manuscripts prior to copy-editing and proof-reading.

• CJO users now benefit from full article functionality in both PDF and HTML versions via a set of links on a PDF page.

 • There are further improved the multiple content feed options available on CJO. The latest changes to the Social Bookmarking feature make it simpler and quicker for CJO visitors to share the information with friends and colleagues on Twitter, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Reddit and other social bookmarking sites.

 • The improved CJO Journals Widgets – downloadable for each journal – now display the latest articles published online, as well as allowing CJO users to search their favourite journals from blogs, ‘start pages' or social networking sites.

New books from the Embassy of India

Khazar University LIC has received a donation of excellent books from the Embassy of India, including Encyclopaedia of India in 5 volumes, comprehensive Reference Annual "India2009” containing information on varied subjects related to India like economy, rural and urban development, industry and infrastructure, art and culture, health, mass communication; book "Faces of Indian Art” that takes the reader on a journey that is quite unique; Buddhism book is an effort to distil centuries of Buddhism, its insights into ultimate reality, its colourful imagery; India's Wild Wonders captures the essence of the life and work of India's two most celebrated wildlife photographers and beautiful book about Delhi then and now.

eGranary Digital Library has implemented at the Khazar University Library

LIC has access to the eGranary Digital Library based at the University of Iowa (USA) the WiderNet innovation project. The goal of this project is to improve educational communication systems in developing countries.

The eGranary Digital Library is an off-line educational information store.  Also called “the Internet in a Box,” it is a high-capacity hard drive that contains more than ten million digital educational resources that can be accessed at extremely high speeds over wired and wireless local area networks without using any Internet bandwidth.

Each eGranary contains more than 30,000 books, 250 journals, and 1,200 Web sites and CD-ROMs that can be browsed and searched just like the Internet.  The eGranary also includes multi-media resources such as sound files, instructional videos, and educational software.

The eGranary Digital Library is not just a supplement to existing library infrastructure – for most institutions it enhances library infrastructure dramatically, often multiplying a university's collection by powers of ten.   The eGranary Digital Library expands real access to vital information on science, medicine, and technology to the students, researchers, and clinicians that need it, by operating completely independently of endemic bandwidth constraints.

Khazar University Library Information Center has mooved to the new building

Academic year of 2009 is the most significant year in the history of the Khazar University Library since it is the year when the Library moved into its new building Reading Halls.

Students and staff can now enjoy more facilities and books with the opening of new extension to the Khazar University Library and Information Center (LIC) on October 27 th , 2009.

Now LIC is established on the five and six floors of the Khazar University new building. And here we have a library designed to be welcoming to all who enter, a user-friendly building which provides for students not only the most modern equipment for the access of knowledge, but the comfort and convenience of well-designed reading rooms. This library is a place where we can move apart from the noise of our over-busy lives and study in quietude, peace and comfort.

The new library houses 15 computer terminals and more reading areas have been added to provide a better studying environment for students.

With this new Library , the future could not look brighter for excellence in learning in Khazar.