Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

I am a retired librarian. I spent 40 years working in biomedical research libraries.

Elegy for a building

Posted on 27 June 2018 by Frank Norman

The building is still there, holding its head high, but it’s fatally wounded. It is plain to see that it won’t be with us for much longer. NIMR, Mill Hill – with its iconic copper green roof visible across north … Continue reading →

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Disruptive publishing

Posted on 4 June 2018 by Frank Norman

To build a successful career in scientific research you need to understand the scientific publishing system. It is going through a period of change and innovation but has remained largely intact. Recently I and a colleague ran some ‘Disruptive Publishing’ … Continue reading →

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The meaning of sixty

Posted on 16 July 2017 by Frank Norman

I recently celebrated my sixtieth birthday. I had a very nice birthday party in a local pub with several friends and family members. Having plied them with food and drink I thought I’d earned the right to give a short … Continue reading →

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Blog June

Posted on 6 June 2017 by Frank Norman

Apparently BlogJune is a thing. I’d not heard of it before – it’s a challenge to blog every day in June – or as often as you can manage, or comment on someone else’s blog every day The first part … Continue reading →

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Digital skills – how do we …

Posted on 22 May 2017 by Frank Norman

The concept of digital skills is a bit slippery.  The term has changed its meaning as the digital universe has expanded. Jisc is currently doing some work in this area, led by Caroline Ingram. I attended an interesting workshop recently … Continue reading →

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Six questions about preprints

Posted on 9 May 2017 by Frank Norman

2017 is shaping up to be the year that preprints in biomedical sciences go mainstream. At the beginning of the year MRC and Wellcome Trust both moved to accept preprints in grant applications and scientific reviews. Another major UK biomedical … Continue reading →

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R2R – the Researcher to Reader conference

Posted on 4 April 2017 by Frank Norman

The R2R conference took place back in late February. It is an event more dominated than others (46%) by publishers – those on the business, strategy, and marketing side of the publishing industry. Smaller numbers come from libraries (15%), technology (12%) … Continue reading →

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Weird things from publishers part 94

Posted on 14 December 2016 by Frank Norman

Many of the things that publishers do are perplexing, frustrating or reek of exploitation (it’s arguable that even the act of selling us subscriptions falls into the latter category) . I wrote earlier this year about a perplexing and frustrating … Continue reading →

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Open Research London – Oct 2016 meeting

Posted on 27 October 2016 by Frank Norman

I was very relieved that the Open Research London (ORL) meeting on 19 October 2016 went well. Jon Tennant, Ross Mounce and Liz Ing-Simmons established ORL in Jan 2015 but it faded away after a couple of meetings.  I’d been thinking for … Continue reading →

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Rapid or vapid?

Posted on 4 October 2016 by Frank Norman

Someone recently asked me what I thought about the open access journal Molecular Metabolism. I had just delivered a short talk to a group of researchers as a reminder about our open access policy and what my team could do … Continue reading →

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