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The Poison Book Project Spreads Awareness of Arsenical Books
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by Patti Gibbons
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In 2019, while preparing materials for an exhibition at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library, book conservator and University of Delaware associate professor Melissa Tedone noticed that the surface of a vibrant green cloth book binding was brittle in an uncharacteristic way. The deterioration didn't match up with patterns of aged wear she commonly saw in older books, and the inconsistencies intrigued her. Tedone contacted Winterthur/University of Delaware scientist Rosie Grayburn to analyze the chemical composition of the covers. To her surprise, tests detected a once popular, but now known to be toxic, arsenic-based pigment colloquially called "emerald green." The findings raised safety concerns and spurred Tedone to further investigate similarly colored books in Winterthur's library collections. Identifying more books with arsenic-dyed covers, she and colleagues started the Poison Book Project, in which they maintain a growing database of arsenical books. They launched an awareness campaign that has caught the attention of librarians, rare book dealers, and book collectors.
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Merged Companies Rebrand as Circana
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Information Resources, Inc. and The NPD Group merged in August 2022, and they just announced a new combined company name and brand identity called Circana.
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SAGE: A Recent Investment and an Acquisition
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Technology From SAGE, a division of SAGE, invested in Skilltype, a talent management platform. In addition, SAGE acquired Epigeum, a provider of peer-reviewed online courses for higher education, from Oxford University Press.
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WorldCat Shares Resources About and by Women for Women's History Month
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OCLC's WorldCat released a collection of resources for Women's History Month. This effort is the result of a collaboration with women's organizations and scholars, including the National Women's History Alliance, the National Women's Studies Association, and the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice.
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'Is ChatGPT the New iPhone in Terms of Technological Innovation?' by William Webb
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William Webb, CTO of Access Partnership, writes the following for GovInsider: "At first glance, ChatGPT appears almost scarily capable."
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Helper Systems Releases Results of Survey on AI in Higher Education
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Helper Systems conducted a survey of 125-plus U.S. academic librarians and is releasing the results.
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The Latest Pew Research Center Reports From 2022 and 2023
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by Brandi Scardilli
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NewsBreaks often covers recent surveys and reports from Pew Research Center, "a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world." Its website has 12 main topic sections, each showcasing the latest research, which is collected in reports, fact sheets, or other formats that extrapolate respondents' answers to cover the entire U.S. (or other) population. There is a summary page that includes the methodology for how the information was collected and a link to download and read the full report.
This Spotlight shares some of the latest reports from 2022 and 2023.
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