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Weekly News Digest
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November 6, 2014 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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NTIS Document Library Goes OA
The National Technical Reports Library (NTRL), a service of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), is providing free public access to its searchable online database of about 3 million federal science and technology reports. The full texts of 800,000 documents are now available to download as PDF files for free; the rest of the NTRL’s reports are still on microfiche. They can be accessed as PDFs once scanned or in print for a fee. Each time one of these documents is digitized, however, NTRL will add the full-text PDF to its open repository.“Our mission is to collect and broadly disseminate federal science and technology information using a self-supporting business model,” says Bruce Borzino, NTIS’s director. “However, we also recognize that a number of the documents previously offered for a fee through our website were available for free from other sources. … We have continually updated our pricing and business models in response to changing times and we’ll continue to do so.” Source: National Technical Information Service
Ingram Adds Functionality to ipage
Ingram Content Group launched a suite of comprehensive content selection tools on its ipage platform that are designed to simplify searching for, selecting, and acquiring materials for delivery to patrons. Now academic libraries can access searching, filtering, and content sorting options alongside ipage’s new title notification reviewing and management tools and its ebook and print book approval plans.Other updates to ipage include faster search results, intuitive navigation, email options, and the ability to view actions taken on titles. Additionally, Ingram’s OASIS (Online Acquisitions and Selection Information System) was integrated into ipage; Ingram will help its libraries transition to the combined platform in phases through mid-2015. “Expanding the functionality of our ipage platform and making it a valuable and useful tool for academic libraries around the world has been a priority for us as Ingram continues to invest in and enhance our library services,” says Shawn Everson, Ingram’s chief commercial officer. Source: Ingram Content Group
LibraryThing for Libraries Boosts Discovery
LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL), distributed by ProQuest, enhanced its book recommendations feature to add a broader selection of “if you like this, then read that” elements for library patrons looking for new reading material. Books in a library’s holdings will now offer recommendations for titles by the same author, similar authors and genres, and other specifications. Current LTFL catalog enhancement package subscribers will receive this upgrade automatically for free.In other news, ProQuest announced the digitization of the papers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to augment its U.S. civil rights movement coverage. The digitized content includes organizational records and leaders’ personal papers and is now available as part of ProQuest History Vault’s The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century collection. Source: ProQuest
Library of Congress Releases Digital Preservation Survey Results
The Library of Congress’ (LC) digital preservation blog, The Signal, announced the completion of the “2014 DPOE Training Needs Assessment Survey” from the LC’s DPOE (Digital Preservation Outreach & Education) program. The survey explores the state of digital preservation practice and how organizations and professionals can do preservation work. It received 436 responses from libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other related organizations, as well as an increased response over previous years from state governments.“The questions addressed issues like primary function (library, archive, museum, etc.), staff size and responsibilities, collection items, preferred training content and delivery options and financial support for professional development and training,” writes Barrie Howard, IT project manager at the LC. “The most significant takeaways are: 1) an overwhelming expression of concern that respondents ensure their digital content is accessible for 10 or more years (84%), and; 2) evidence of a strong commitment to support employee training opportunities (83%).” Howard discusses the survey’s other findings in his blog post. Source: The Signal
EBSCO Rolls Out Digital Magazine Reader
EBSCO Information Services introduced the Flipster digital magazine solution for libraries, allowing patrons to access issues of periodicals via Flipster’s browser-based desktop reader or mobile app while at the library. Libraries can also choose to give patrons remote access to the content and the ability to download magazines to their mobile devices for offline reading.Flipster’s features include browsing by category, a carousel of most recent issues, linked tables of contents in the magazines, and zooming in and out on articles for easy readability. “By providing a high quality digital reading experience for library patrons … Flipster offers a unique approach for experiencing content in popular magazines as well as extending library services in an exciting new way,” says Michael Laddin, EBSCO’s SVP for product management. “Flipster complements EBSCO’s full-text databases (e.g., MasterFILE, MAS, Business Source, etc.) which enable patrons to research topics of interest to them.” Source: EBSCO Information Services
DataNumen Offers Free Password-Recovery Tool
DataNumen, Inc. released a free Windows-based utility, DataNumen Outlook Password Recovery, which recovers passwords from encrypted Outlook files. This tool allows users such as managers, auditors, and security professionals to access email messages, posts, calendars, appointments, and other information from the Outlook accounts of employees who have left jobs or who are being investigated. It works with all versions of Outlook and is fully integrated into the Windows shell so that users can access the context (right-click) menu to recover batches of lost passwords.According to its website, “DataNumen Outlook Password Recovery is freeware. You can download, use and re-distribute it freely.” Source: DataNumen, Inc.
NISO Seeks Comments on New Recommended Practice
NISO (National Information Standards Organization) announced that its new recommended practice draft, Protocol for Exchanging Serial Content (PESC), is available for public comment until Dec. 5, 2014. The draft provides best practices for managing all of the elements of digital serial content packaging and exchange so that content providers and content recipients understand what was delivered and received.“As part of their missions, many different organizations—libraries, archives, indexing services, content aggregators, publishers, and content creators—need to exchange and work with digital files that make up serial content,” says Leslie Johnston, co-chair of the PESC Working Group. “When digital serial content is exchanged, the files that comprise a serial ‘publication’ are packaged together in some manner and these packages can be highly variable. Currently, there is no standardized packaging format that addresses the level of specificity and granularity needed and the PESC Recommended Practice was developed to fill this gap.” Source: NISO
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Brandi Scardilli
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