|
|
|
University Presses Lead the Way for Publisher-Based Ebook Systems
|
|
by Nancy K. Herther
|
|
In 2010, Michael Jon Jensen, director of strategic web communications at the National Academies and National Academies Press, wrote that "today, university presses are a key part of a scholarly communications enterprise that performs a key social service, to help civilization gain access to the work of true specialists, the people who have spent more than Gladwell's ten thousand hours developing true expertise in a field. Not pundits, not famous talking heads, but scholars and experts. I expect the same to be true tomorrow." However, he cautioned that "if university presses are to continue to fulfill that fundamental mission, we will need to rethink our roles and partnerships—in preparation for not only a radically universal digital environment of knowledge ubiquity, but (even if I'm only half right) a radically disrupted economy and ecosystem." In the past year, university presses have made major, aggressive strides into ebook adoption that might not only answer this challenge but provide a useful model for the commercial sector.
|
|
OCLC’s Geek the Library Campaign Receives Additional Funding
|
|
|
|
OCLC's Geek the Library community awareness campaign, piloted in 2009 and 2010 and now available to all U.S. public libraries, received an additional grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The supplementary $726,000 provides ongoing campaign materials and field support for libraries currently running the campaign and allows OCLC to work with additional public libraries that sign up by March 31, 2012. Funding ensures that participating libraries can use the campaign to reach their local communities through June 2013.
|
|
Europeana Adopts New Data Exchange Agreement
|
|
|
|
Europe's digital library, museum and archive, and the first major adopter of the Public Domain Mark for works in the worldwide public domain—adopted a new Data Exchange Agreement. The agreement, which data providers and aggregators will transition to by the end of 2011, authorizes Europeana to release the metadata for millions of cultural works into the public domain using the CC0 public domain dedication. All metadata for cultural works accessible via the Europeana portal, including previously delivered metadata, will then be available for free and open re-use.
|
|
ProQuest Microfiche Collection Linked to Digital Texts
|
|
|
|
Advances in the ProQuest research environment have streamlined access to a major literary collection assembled by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Scholars and students who rely on Gates' ground-breaking Black Literature, 1827-1940, a microfiche collection, can now quickly identify and connect to tens of thousands full-text, digitized versions of articles found through ProQuest's Black Studies Center and Historical Black Newspapers.
|
|
Mine the Web Like a Journalist
|
|
by Paula J. Hane
|
|
I recently had the opportunity to sit in on two webinars aimed at journalists. One was sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, titled "Beyond Google: Mining the Web for Company Intelligence." The other was a "LinkedIn for Journalists" training session, which is offered frequently by Krista Canfield, senior manager of corporate communications at LinkedIn. Both proved to be well worth my time. I thought I might share some of the best suggestions I picked up that are applicable for many researchers, journalists or not.
|
If you regularly read blogs, add these to your reader:
ITI Conferences (libconf.com): covering ITI’s library conferences worldwide
ILI365/InfoToday Europe (infotoday.eu): news and ideas for, and by, innovative info pros from around the world, throughout the year
Streaming Media (streamingmedia.com/Articles/Blog): the go-to destination for opinion, analysis, and insights into the entire online video ecosystem
|
|
