New Digital Partners: Google and the British Library

Per the agreement, 250 000 out-of-copyright titles representing 40 million pages from 1700-1870, from the French Revolution to the end of slavery will be digitized.

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, The Natural History of the Hippopotamusor River horse. 1775 (2), British Library Board

"Once digitised, these unique items will be available for full text search, download and reading through Google Books, as well as being searchable through the Library’s website and stored in perpetuity within the Library’s digital archive."[Click for full press release]

Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity

A 2011 McKinsey report shows that:

Analyzing large data sets—so called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus as long as the right policies and enablers are in place.

Google's chief economist Hal Varian has been reported as saying that "the sexy job of the next ten years will be statisticians" [p.103]

Executive summary - Full report 

Top-Ten IT Issues in Higher Education: 2011Survey

Top-Ten IT Issues, 2011 - Educause survey

Top-Ten IT Issues, 2011

1.   Funding IT
2.   Administrative/ERP/Information Systems
3.   Teaching and Learning with Technology
4.   Security
5.   Mobile Technologies
6.   Agility/Adaptability/Responsiveness
7.   Governance, Portfolio/Project Management
8.   Infrastructure/Cyberinfrastructure
9.   Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity
10.  Strategic Planning

Full text of the survey in HTML or PDF

American Economic Association drops double-blind peer review process

"The American Economic Association announced last week that it is ending "double blind" peer review, the traditional system in the social sciences in which authors of submitted articles are not known to reviewers, nor are reviewers known to authors. Political Analysis, a key journal in political science, is making a similar shift."

Full article from Inside Higher Ed.  
AEA announcement

Higher education presidents not strongest supporters of tenure

The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education in March and April this year.

• Access the full report (PDF): Is College Worth It?
• Go directly to chapter 4 for the Views of College Presidents
• Chronicle of Higher Ed article: Most Presidents Prefer No Tenure for Majority of Faculty

What makes a good App? A usability survey

Web design guru Jakob Nielsen has released a new and free survey: Usability of iPad Apps and Websites (2nd edition).

As reported in this RWW article:  It provides an " in-depth analysis about how people are using iPads. As is usual with Nielsen reports, it also lustily lists all the design flaws that his users found - such as touchable areas that are too small, low discoverability and "swipe ambiguity."

 

Corporate Recruiters Survey 2011

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has released its Corporate Recruiters Survey 2011 report.

Trends:

• School ranking comes before academic quality for MBA recruiters (see related article from CNN Money)
• Globally, more companies are hiring in 2011 and the average number of new hires is expected to increase. 
• In 2011, European companies are poised to exceed the average annual starting salary that US employers plan to offer MBA graduates.
• Demand for MBA graduates in the United States is expected to be strongest in the finance, accounting, health care, pharmaceutical, consulting, and high-tech sectors; in Europe, energy and utilities; and in Asia, high technology, products and services, finance, and accounting. 

Amazon announces Kindle Library Lending Program

Press relase from Amazon and from Overdrive, digital distributor of eBooks for many libraries, and Amazon's partner in this program.

The release is planned for later this year in the US.

Annual Reviews white paper

A white paper from Annual Reviews publisher:

"The paper draws on a survey of early-career researchers to examine their approach to academic literature, such as how and why they read it, how much time they dedicate to it, what informs their reading choices, and how they assess quality. "

Click to read

AAUP Faculty Salary report – 2010/2011

It’s Not Over Yet: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2010–11

Per the press release, the results of the latest AAUP survey:

“…are only marginally better than last year and represent the continuation of a historic low period for faculty salaries. For the second consecutive year, the overall average salary level increased at a rate less than inflation, and this is the fifth of the last seven years in which overall faculty salaries declined in purchasing power.”

Top Private Universities in Faculty Salaries for Full Professors, 2010-11

University	Average Salary
1. Harvard University	$193,800
2. Columbia University	$191,400
3. University of Chicago	$190,400
4. Stanford University	$188,400
5. Princeton University	$186,000

Top Public Universities in Pay for Full Professors, 2010-11

University	Average Salary
1. New Jersey Institute of Technology	$158,700
2. University of California at Los Angeles	$153,700
3. University of California at Berkeley	$149,100
4. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor	$146,900
5. University of Maryland at Baltimore	$144,800

Adapated from Losing Ground on Salary (Inside Higher Ed. article)