Contributed by:
Jöran Beel, Bela Gipp and Christoph Müller
OvGU Magdeburg
FIN/ITI/VLBA
Germany
 SciPlore.org
{beel, gipp, mueller}@sciplore.org

Mind maps are useful tools for researchers. They can use mind maps, for example, to manage their literature or to draft research papers. Dozens of tools exist to create mind maps, for instance, FreeMind, MindManager, and XMind. However, researchers need special features such as the possibility of accessing their bibliographic databases (e.g., BibTeX) directly from within the mind mapping software. Therefore, we developed SciPlore MindMapping, the first mind mapping tool solely focusing on researchers’ needs. It offers all the features one would expect from a standard mind mapping software, plus three additional features for researchers.

Adding references manually allows users to assign a BibTeX key to a mind map’s node. This way, researchers can organize their ideas and references to the originals. To ease the process, the key is automatically completed with data from the user’s bibliographic database. In the current version, SciPlore MindMapping supports only bibliographic databases in the BibTeX format (and therefore can only be used directly in combination with reference managers such as JabRef, BibDesk, or Referencer). In upcoming versions, the support of Mendeley, Zotero, and others will be available as well.
References can also be added automatically to a node. Most reference managers allow assigning a file (usually a PDF file) to entries in the bibliographic database. If the same file is linked by a node in the mind map, SciPlore MindMapping automatically assigns the corresponding BibTeX key to the node.
When researchers read an article in PDF format, some create bookmarks for the most important statements in the article. The same information is likely to be needed in a mind map when structuring ideas or drafting a new paper. SciPlore MindMapping offers the option of importing bookmarks from a PDF. Each bookmark is imported as a node into the mind map that links to the PDF. If the PDF is included in the user’s bibliographic database, the corresponding BibTeX key is also added.
SciPlore MindMapping is based on the mind mapping tool FreeMind. It is written in Java and offered as open source under the GNU license on . (software section).

source: DLIB Nov/Dec 2009

The Kuali Foundation hopes its wares will be the most tempting—and the least expensive. A nonprofit group that coordinates colleges’ efforts to produce free software that is built through a collaborative, “open source” process, Kuali is bringing out a research-administration system that it says could ultimately save universities millions.

The project, plus a student-information system, opens another front in Kuali’s five-year-old challenge to Big Software. The foundation intends to produce software to handle many of a university’s crucial business functions, like accounting, enrollment, and budgeting. At a time when information-technology budgets are getting cut, commercial programs to handle these tasks can cost in the tens of millions….

source: Chronicle of Higher Education

With funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Open Library Environment project
(OLE Project) convened a multi-national group of libraries to analyze library business processes
and to define a next-generation library technology platform. The resulting OLE platform is
predicated on Service Oriented Architecture and a community-source model of development and
governance. Over 300 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations and business
participated in some phase of the project. Using input from those participants, the project
planners produced an OLE design framework that embeds libraries directly in the key processes
of scholarship generation, knowledge management, teaching and learning by utilizing existing
enterprise systems where appropriate and by delivering new services built on connections
between the library’s business systems and other technology systems.

NOTICE OF MEETING
Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne
Wednesday 28 October 2009

Australian Policy Online (APO) goes open source…

Speaker:
Amanda Lawrence
Managing Editor
Australian Policy Online

Amanda will discuss the process of upgrading the Australian Policy Online website,
which was launched in its new form in May this year.
In particular she will look at the process of selecting a content management system
for CCI and APO, and the implementation of the open source CMS Drupal.

Amanda Lawrence is managing editor of the gateway website
Australian Policy Online  apo.org.au) hosted by
the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology.
She also edits the Creative Economy weekly newsletter and manages
the website for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation  www.cci.edu.au).
She is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information management at RMIT.
Since completing an arts degree with honours at the University of Melbourne,
Amanda has worked in various roles in the book industry, including
manager of the Literature Program at the Asialink Centre from its inception in 1996 until 2005,
program manager at the Victorian Writers Centre,
newsletter editor and bookseller at Readings books and music,
and coordinator of the 1999 Melbourne Festival of Poetry.

Not a VALA member?
Visitors are welcome at VALA meetings – just come!

Want to join Committee and the speaker for dinner (your expense) afterwards?
Dinner RSVPs only by 5.00 p.m. Monday 26 October:  vala at vala.org.au or (03) 9725 2725

Venue
Tutorial Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library,
University of Melbourne

Date
Wednesday 28 October 2009
5.30 p.m. Wine and nibbles 6.00 p.m. Meeting

1. Student journal: http://www.librarystudentjournal.org/
2. Teaching tool: http://ejournal.vudat.msu.edu/
3. Book archive: http://journals.sfu.ca/coactionbks/
4: NGO Newsletter: http://www.americanmorrisnews.org/
5: Genealogy: http://www.genlit.org/
6. Annual Reports: http://ojs.iucaa.ernet.in/index.php/annu…
7. Staff Publication: http://researchnews.athabascau.ca/index….

source: Kevin on PKP blog

A little while ago, as part of our JISC funded IncReASe project, we wrote 4 plugins for EPrints to import bibliographic metadata from arXiv. In case of interest, further details of the plugins are below. Screenshots and tips are available at: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/increase/…
The plugins should work with Eprints 3.1.1 – use with other releases might need a bit of tweaking.

1. arXivID – this can import bibliographic metadata from arXiv into EPrints using the arXiv ID. Multiple IDs can be entered into the text box (separated by a carriage return) or in a file for batch upload. Available from http://files.eprints.org/423

2. arXiv Author – this plugin can import all bibliographic metadata associated with the particular author in arXiv. The author search can be made more specific by combining author name with institutional affiliation. Available from http://files.eprints.org/425

3. arXiv API URL – this plugin allows searching of the arXiv API from within EPrints. Available from http://files.eprints.org/426

4. arXiv XML – can import XML feed that may have been downloaded from the arXiv API search. Available from http://files.eprints.org/425

***
Rachel Proudfoot
White Rose Research Online Officer
 http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/
0113 343 7067