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Thursday, August 30, 2012
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MOOCs and the Changing Face of Higher Education
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by Abby Clobridge
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Although universities are usually slow to change, several high-profile institutions in recent months have begun to experiment with offering courses to unprecedented numbers of simultaneous learners anywhere in the world for free. These initiatives, often referred to as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), have the following potential avenues: to expand access to learning opportunities, eliminate many geographic and economic barriers to education, create more diverse learning communities, transform lifelong learning, and augment face-to-face and traditional education in new ways. However, while MOOCs present new opportunities, they also raise a number of important questions for higher education administrators, faculty, and students.
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OCLC Libraries Begin Phased Migration to WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Service
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OCLC completed beta testing of the new OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan service and is moving forward with an 18-month phased migration to the new service. WorldShare Interlibrary Loan is scheduled to replace WorldCat Resource Sharing in 2013 as part of libraries' existing subscriptions. The new service will centralize workflows now managed in multiple systems, and provide new functionality that speeds fulfillment of interlibrary loan requests, saving time for library staff and library users.
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InfoDesk Introduces InfoMonitor: Competitive Intelligence Made Easy
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InfoDesk announced the launch of InfoMonitor, a new once-daily competitive intelligence, news and media monitoring service. InfoMonitor brings an organization all the important news and information, from all its preferred sources in one custom-edited, easily digestible daily email update. InfoMonitor can be delivered to your email inbox, web portal, or RSS feed.
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New Resource—Gale Genealogy Connect
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Gale, part of Cengage Learning, partnered with Genealogical.com to launch a new online resource for genealogists—Gale Genealogy Connect. Focusing on the "how to" of genealogical research, this new resource serves as a complement to popular fact, date, and people-based genealogy resources already on the market.
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Expand Your Search Engine Options
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by Paula J. Hane
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One of the most popular bylined pieces in our NewsBreaks/NewsLink Spotlight collection has been my April 1, 2010 article, "Alternative Search Engines Offer Rich Options." Since things have changed considerably in the last 2-plus years, I decided it was time to look at what some of the most useful options now are for search engines. While Google continues its domination of the search market, some enterprising folks continue to seek out alternatives—for additional features, interface preferences, spam avoidance, or privacy and security reasons.
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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
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