ATG Hot Topics of the Week

by Jonathan H. Harwell, Rollins College

The news rarely slows down these days, does it?  And neither does our work.  Thanks for your patience as sometimes the hot topics take longer than a week.  Here are a few new highlights.

Amherst College Press is getting into the swing of things as an open access publisher, and the Library Publishing Coalition is moving ahead as well (Amherst is not listed with the LPC).  Jennifer Howard has the story in the Chronicle.

Edwin Mellen Press has threatened to sue a librarian.  Coverage and strong opinions are widely available.  Visit Wayne Bivens-Tatum, ACRLog, The Scholarly Kitchen, Inside Higher Ed, The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) have published a joint statement on the issue.

And the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research ACT (FASTR) has been introduced in the House and Senate.  LJ’s InfoDocket has the rundown, including statements from AAP and ACRL.

Amazon has cut ties with Hensel European Security Services after allegations that they Hensel had mistreated Amazon employees.

Finally, I’m sure plenty of students drop MOOCs just like they do other classes.  Professors dropping classes are probably less common.  Apparently one of the issues in this case was that the textbook wasn’t open access.