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Weekly News Digest
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September 17, 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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Boopsie Reviews Its 2Q 2015 Accomplishments
Boopsie for Libraries shared its most recent milestones: It has signed 12 new library clients in multiple library markets and two new content partners, and it has added product enhancements and multiple features to its service. The new partners include military libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, and consortia. Boopsie signed deals to integrate its mobile platform with Comics Plus Library Edition and Recorded Books, and updated the mobile app with Ratings and Reviews (allowing patrons to leave star ratings and reviews for any title in their library’s catalog), as well as a Top 20 Books channel (a data-driven carousel of trending book titles).For more information, read the press release.
NFAIS Plans Digital Humanities Roundtable
The National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) will host its annual NFAIS Humanities Roundtable to discuss global opportunities and challenges in the digital humanities on Oct. 2, 2015. Co-sponsored by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA); Quarles & Brady, LLP; and others, it will take place in Quarles & Brady’s Chicago office, although anyone can register to participate virtually.Topics will include updates on scholarly engagement, intellectual property, editorial policies, and accessibility. For more information, read the press release.
Pew Research Center Studies Library Expectations
Pew Research Center’s Internet, Science & Tech division published a new report, “Libraries at the Crossroads,” which explores what the American public expects of libraries—such as supporting local education; serving veterans, immigrants, and other special constituents; helping local businesses and job seekers; and providing new technologies such as 3D printers.The report also notes that the percentage of Americans who use libraries’ resources has decreased in the past several years, although this does not necessarily signal a trend. For more information, read the report’s summary.
ProQuest Enhances Discoverability of Its Dissertations and Theses Collection
ProQuest partnered with Elsevier and the Philosopher’s Information Center to make dissertations and theses more discoverable in context with other relevant content and thus more easily accessible. Its collection of these documents, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT Global), is now indexed in 35-plus databases, such as the Ei Compendex engineering literature source, The Philosopher’s Index of philosophy dissertations, and others.For more information, read the press release.
Credo Launches Webinar Series on Reference Strategies
Credo announced a free webinar series that will promote the importance of reference in helping students hone their information skills. Topics and speakers will center on innovative ideas for updating library reference services.Jodie Morin, Buena Vista University’s library director, will speak at the first session, The Four (or Five?) Bs: Preparing for the Research Process (Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m. EDT). The second session, Reference Publishing: Fortitude, Leadership, and Passion (Oct. 8) will feature Rolf Janke, Mission Bell Media’s CEO. Credo welcomes topic and speaker suggestions for future sessions. For more information, read the press release.
ProQuest Facilitates Library Access to Global Newspapers
ProQuest rolled out the Newspapers.com Library Edition, giving library patrons access to more than 85 million pages of digitized newspapers from the early 1700s to the early 2000s. They can search full-text pages by location, title, and other keywords, as well as clip, save, and share images via social media. Libraries can subscribe to the World Collection or U.S. state and multistate collections. A free trial subscription is available.“Whether a student looking to learn about pop culture, a researcher studying societal attitudes, or a genealogist searching for family history, this newspaper database can help people in their quest to understand history through the storytelling of local and regional newspapers from the U.S. and overseas,” says Andon Baltakov, VP of product management at ProQuest. For more information, read the press release.
iCIMS Shares Findings From Employee Referral Program Study
iCIMS released its study findings on the impact of employee referral programs on employee satisfaction. Conducted with Hanover Research, this study shows the following:- 88% of employers rate employee referrals above all other sources for quality hires
- 88% of referred employees on average feel satisfaction towards their ability to fulfill job duties
- 40% of employers hire their staff based on employee referrals
- 66% of employees who are referred are hired
For more information, read the infographic accompanying this article.
Springer Provides Austrian Researchers With OA Options
Springer and the Austrian Academic Consortium finalized a 2-year Springer Compact agreement to combine reading and open access (OA) publishing in one annual fee. Consortium members can access more than 2,000 Springer journals and can publish their research as OA in more than 1,600 Springer hybrid journals.Springer previously signed a similar deal with the Association of Universities in the Netherlands and is currently working to finalize deals with organizations in the U.K. and Germany. For more information, read the press release.
Zepheira Steps Up Its Linked Data Initiative for Public Libraries
Zepheira signed the first public libraries to its new Experimenter Program: New York’s Mohawk Valley Library System, Southern Adirondack Library System, and Westchester Library System, as well as Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library.Based on the Libhub Initiative Early Adopter program of 12 libraries in the U.S. and Canada, the Experimenter Program is designed to build awareness of linked data through education and training. Zepheira will work with these four libraries to assess their MARC data and experiment with linked data publishing on the web. New libraries are encouraged to join the program until the cutoff date of Oct. 16, 2015. For more information, read the press release.
Innovative Lays Out Strategic Goals
Innovative released a set of strategic goals for the following areas: library success, employee success, product leadership, and library partnership. Library success involves partnering with libraries to help them achieve their goals and exceed patron expectations. For employee success, the company pledges to provide comprehensive training and self-development programs. Product leadership means providing software solutions with the best ROI, user experience, and quality. The company intends to strengthen its library partnerships to help shape the library of the future.For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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