Over 60 libraries worldwide are forming a free Comprehensive Digital Reference Service to route queries to the libraries best able to answer them. Initial service will be in English, but 20 languages are planned. The launch is expected in Jun01 according to coordinator Diane Nester Kresh, director of public service collections at the US Library of Congress. [SNS, 22Nov00.]

If you need a place to post your research papers online, check out . [, sci.research, 03Jan01.]

Research papers in all OAI-compliant Open Archives -- for distributed, institution-based self-archiving -- can be indexed as one global virtual archive. This is intended to help research communities break free from reprint restrictions of commercial publishers, as documented at . Free (and soon open-sourced) Eprints Version 1.1.1 archiving software is now available from . It has been upgraded to the new OAI 1.0, and universities and research institutions should be able to configure it with minimal effort. Index harvesting protocols are given at . See also Open Archives Service Providers and the Cross Archive Searching Service . [Stevan Harnad , PSYCOLOQUY, 23Jan01.]

-- Ken