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Google Book Settlement Rejected: What’s Next?
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by George H. Pike
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Last week's rejection of the proposed settlement of the lawsuit between Google and a group of authors and publishers has thrown the future of the Google Book database into question. A federal court in New York declined to approve the settlement, recognizing that while there was a benefit to society from the widespread digitization of books, the proposal "simply went too far." The court indicated that the settlement was a "forward-looking business arrangement" that would give Google too much power to exploit books at the expense of authors' rights to control their copyrights.
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ebrary and YBP Library Services Announce Integrated Demand Driven Acquisition and Short Term Loans
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ebrary, a provider of ebooks and research technology, and long-time partner YBP Library Services, announced the launch of an integrated Demand Driven Acquisition model that may be used in conjunction with Short Term Loans. The new program enables libraries to cost-effectively and efficiently provide patrons with access to vast amounts of information through their existing YBP workflow and only purchase ebooks that are used.
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Wolters Kluwer Health Supports Disaster Relief Efforts in Japan
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In support of disaster relief efforts in Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami, Ovid and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, are providing free online access to emergency, disaster, trauma, and radiation contamination resources to Japanese hospitals and healthcare institutions affected by the disasters via the Wolters Kluwer Health Emergency Resources Portal. The access will be immediate and extend for 30 days.
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Elsevier Provides Free Clinical Reference Support for Japan Earthquake Relief Efforts
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Elsevier announced that following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, the company is providing free access to its primary online clinical reference tools—MD Consult and First Consult—to all IPs originating from Japan. Free access will be available through April 2011. This effort is part of a new initiative to provide easily accessible focused resources in response to world events that present difficult medical challenges.
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Search Quality, Content Farms, and Conspiracy Theories
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by Paula J. Hane
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The blogosphere and media outlets have been abuzz lately with reports of low-quality search results from the major search engines. It started in December 2010 with a New York Times, story about an unscrupulous merchant whose bad treatment of customers and negative reviews pushed the site to prominence in Google searches. In response to the flap that arose, Google quickly addressed this with changes to its search algorithms. Since then, there have been a New York Times expose of J.C. Penney's SEO practices ("The Dirty Little Secrets of Search") and Google's subsequent changes to its algorithm, Google's assertion that Microsoft Bing was copying Google search results, Google's banning of spam from low-quality sites and so-called "content farms," and even a conspiracy theory about which company was launching a negative publicity campaign against Google. This has indeed been a wild and crazy time.
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If you regularly read blogs, add these to your reader:
ITI Books Blog – booksblog.infotoday.com – news, observations, and commentary from the authors, editors, and publishers of Information Today, Inc.'s many book offerings.
ITI Conference Blog – libconf.com – covering ITI's library conferences worldwide.
Library Stuff – librarystuff.net – the library blog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development, written by Steven M. Cohen.
InfoToday Europe Blog – infotodayeurope.com – The latest news, analysis and opinion on the information industry in Europe and the UK.
Business of Video blog – blog.streamingmedia.com – Daily posts about the online video industry, business trends and analysis, market data, and research as well as the online video business models in the media and entertainment, broadcast, publishing, advertising and enterprise industries.
destinationCRM Blog – destinationcrmblog.com – a blog from the editors of CRM magazine, dedicated to providing Customer Relationship Management information in a timely manner to connect decision makers and providers.
SpeechTech Blog – speechtechblog.com – updates on speech technology and its applications in daily life. Covers everything from ASR to VUI, with lots of links, threads, and even a few pictures thrown in for good measure.
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Paula Hane's New Chapter
Effective June 1, Paula J. Hane is giving up her assignment as News Bureau Chief at Information Today, Inc. (ITI), where she was engaged to provide editorial direction to the ITI NewsBreaks service hosted on infotoday.com. She also wrote for Information Today and the Cyberskeptic’s Guide to Internet Research. She has been associated with the company for 16½ years and was previously the Editor of Database magazine for Online, Inc. She will continue to accept freelance editorial and writing assignments.
The responsibility for producing news commentaries and in-depth analyses for the infotoday.com website will be integrated into the workflow of the Information Today newspaper, with Barbara Brynko as Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Director. Assisting Barbara will be Brandi Scardilli as Managing Editor.
Vendors should continue to send information industry and product news items to Information Today: Barbara Brynko (Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Director) at bbrynko@infotoday.com. Library technology news should continue to be sent to Computers in Libraries magazine at cilnews@infotoday.com. As always, freelance writers are encouraged to submit story ideas directly to the editors.
We wish Paula success in her new ventures and thank her for her many years of great work as News Bureau Chief at ITI. Paula can be reached at paulajeanhane@gmail.com.
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