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Weekly News Digest
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March 31, 2015 — 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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Digitalback Books Promotes African Literature
Digitalback Books, a new ebook subscription platform for African literature, rolled out a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. It offers unlimited access to a collection of more than 100 mostly indie titles about Africa or by African writers and writers of African origin.A monthly subscription to Digitalback Books is about $13. For more information, read TechCabal’s article.
CLOCKSS and CHORUS Ensure Perpetual Access to Government-Funded Research
The CLOCKSS Archive and CHORUS (Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States) entered into an agreement that allows CHORUS’ publisher members to have a special arrangement with CLOCKSS for permanent, perpetual public access to its archived publications (if public access is unavailable elsewhere).“Safeguards are necessary to ensure that public access to articles reporting on federally funded research is never disrupted. That’s where CLOCKSS comes in,” says Howard Ratner, CHORUS’ executive director. “This agreement allows CHORUS partners to rely on CLOCKSS’ rich and trusted repository of content in the event that publicly accessible research articles become unavailable.” For more information, read the press release.
W3C Will Provide MOOCs via edX
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) teamed up with edX to offer W3Cx, a series of massive open online courses (MOOCs) on core web technologies. The first MOOC, on HTML5 and web design fundamentals, will begin on June 1, 2015. Registration is now open.“W3C’s partnership with edX expands opportunities for Web developers to take courses specifically created for them by W3C,” says Jeff Jaffe, W3C’s CEO. “These W3Cx courses will help them increase their skills and empower them to become the next leaders and innovators on the Web.” For more information, read the press release.
WorldCat Discovery Services Lands LexisNexis Academic
The LexisNexis Academic database will be accessible via WorldCat Discovery Services for mutual subscribers. OCLC and LexisNexis Legal & Professional are working to complete the integration for later in 2015.LexisNexis Academic has more than 15,000 news, legal, and business sources from 150-plus countries. WorldCat Discovery Services is an integrated suite of cloud-based applications for the discovery of electronic, digital, and physical resources in participating libraries. For more information, read the press release.
3M Library Systems’ Staff Workstation Integrates With SirsiDynix Symphony
3M Library Systems completed a full integration between the SirsiDynix Symphony ILS and the 3M RFID Staff Workstation. After starting with a partial integration, the final products have all 21 program features that give library users a more seamless and streamlined user experience.Program features include cash management, the ability to display or place holds, and item renewal. For more information, read Library Technology Guides’ press release.
Internet Archive and DPLA Form Partnership
The Internet Archive and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) joined forces for a joint program that will enhance collection sharing from the Internet Archive in the DPLA. The Internet Archive will work with libraries and content providers to make sure that their metadata will meet the DPLA’s standards and requirements. Content will then be digitized, and metadata will be ingested into the DPLA as long as the provider has an agreement with the digital library.The partnership aims to improve overall metadata quality and, therefore, provide easier access to materials. Organizations that choose the Internet Archive as their service provider to the DPLA will also have their content made available on the Internet Archive and its Open Library. For more information, read the blog post.
OverDrive Marketplace Now Allows Preorders
OverDrive introduced a preordering feature in its OverDrive Marketplace for all libraries, schools, and consortia. They can preorder ebooks and audiobooks 6 months in advance of the street date of public availability, and library users can place holds on titles for when they become available. Libraries will not be invoiced for the titles until their street dates.For this launch, OverDrive is offering a segment of its catalog for preorder—including titles from the Big Five publishers—with more publishers to be added in the coming months. For more information, read the blog post.
Cogent OA Redefines APC Strategy
Open access (OA) publisher Cogent OA introduced the Freedom APC (article processing charge) initiative. This experimental model lets authors choose the prices of their own APCs. They can explore various avenues for funding their articles’ publication—funding agencies, institutions, or companies, etc.—and select an APC from a range of options that are based on how much they can afford. Cogent OA plans to release an initial analysis of the model in 2016 to generate discussion on OA affordability and the development of APC models and fee structures.“We’re introducing Freedom APCs as a mechanism to test to what degree authors can afford to pay article publishing charges,” says Bryan Vickery, Cogent OA’s director. “[W]e’re keen to learn how much cost is a barrier to the uptake of Open Access[.]” For more information, read the press release.
GPO to Launch Webinar Series in April
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) is offering a series of free, hour-long webinars in April that will be presented via its FDLP (Federal Depository Library Program) Academy by representatives from the GPO, other federal government agencies, and FDLP libraries across the country. The first webinar will be on April 2 at 2 p.m. EST.For a list of the webinars, read the press release.
Society of Interventional Radiology Chooses Thieme as Publishing Partner
Thieme is now the publishing partner for the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR). The plan is to publish several books each year about topics in the interventional radiology field. “Thieme’s expertise in medical publishing along with their global reach are an ideal match for SIR,” says Cheryl Sadowski, SIR’s senior director of communications, publications, and marketing. The upcoming publications will “show how interventional radiology harnesses image-guided therapies to develop breakthrough treatments, change medical practice, and improve the standard of patient care.” For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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