Weekly News Digest

Blackwell (http://www.blackwell.com) and ebrary, Inc. (http://www.ebrary.com) announced the launch of ECHO, a new e-content hosting platform for libraries. With ECHO, librarians worldwide can purchase and manage e-book and print collections within their current acquisitions work flows. Powered by ebrary, ECHO provides a way for librarians to preview a growing selection of full-text e-books, select from either multiple- or single-user access for the majority of titles, and purchase titles instantly through Blackwell's Collection Manager.

Blackwell and ebrary are collaborating to aggregate current and high-value e-content from leading academic, STM (scientific, technical, and medical), and professional publishers. E-books delivered through ECHO feature unique research tools and integrate with other digital resources in the library and on the Web through ebrary's InfoTools software. They are also delivered page by page online, eliminating cumbersome document downloads.

Key features and benefits of the ECHO platform include the following:

• Access to a growing selection of tens of thousands of titles from more than 220 publishers
• Selection of either single- or multiple-user access for the majority of titles
• Collection Manager work-flow integration and consolidated billing
• Access to a full-text preview of a title before making a purchasing decision
• Integration with other digital resources in the library and on the Web through InfoTools
• 24/7/365 accessibility
• Comprehensive search options
• Copying and printing text with automatic citations with a URL hyperlink back to the source
• Reduced overhead costs through a hosted solution
• Expanded library collection capacity unrestricted by physical space constraints
• Reduced risk of loss due to damage or theft
• Support of distance learning

Ovid Technologies, Inc. (http://www.ovid.com), part of Wolters Kluwer Health and a provider of electronic medical, scientific, and academic information research solutions, announced that it will offer the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) Journal Legacy Archive. This archive will be available exclusively on Journals@Ovid, the company's single-database aggregation of searchable peer-reviewed journals. The LWW Journal Legacy Archive will be available in 4Q 2006. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Ovid are sister companies within Wolters Kluwer Health.

The LWW Journal Legacy Archive features more than 3 million pages of information—more than 800,000 articles of original research, reviews, notes, letters, and case studies—from 220 journals in a wide range of medical, clinical, and healthcare specialty areas, including nursing, cardiology, infectious disease, and surgery. Coverage for each journal begins with Volume 1, Issue 1 and runs through the final issue of 1999. A number of journals date from the 19th century; the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, the oldest in the collection, was first published in November 1827.

WebFeat (http://www.webfeat.org) launched WebFeat Enterprise Edition, a custom, configurable, federated search solution for multilibrary networks. WebFeat Enterprise Edition combines the capabilities of WebFeat's independent library solution with the profiling, authentication tools, and usage tracking required to meet the needs of modern library networks.

WebFeat Enterprise Edition supports all major site authentication methods, including IP and referrer URL, to solve the challenge of discrete multilibrary identification and authentication into the federated system. WebFeat Enterprise Edition also offers networks the ability to set up an infinite number of profiles. These profiles may include different database lists, authentication credentials, and even completely different interface looks and feels. WebFeat Enterprise Edition also offers the ability to seamlessly augment common networkwide database collections with those from individual member libraries. The Enterprise Edition of WebFeat's SMART usage tracker can report enterprisewide usage or usage by each individual member library.

WebFeat Enterprise Edition systems are built on the same Search Prism platform that WebFeat currently provides to more than a dozen state library and multilibrary networks. WebFeat is the developer of the WEBFEAT and WebFeat Express Search Prisms, used by more than 5,000 public, academic, government, and Global 1,000 libraries and information centers.