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Weekly News Digest
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October 6, 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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Opus Global Acquires Alacra
Compliance solutions provider Opus Global acquired Alacra, a business information solutions company. The agreement will allow for the integration of compliance data from Alacra’s more than 170 external providers into Opus Global’s Hiperos third-party management network. Opus Global is aiming to deliver an integrated SaaS platform of world-class compliance that is fast and low-cost.Steve Goldstein, CEO and co-founder of Alacra, says, “We look forward to being an integral part of their strategy to build a world leading compliance platform. Customers will be the big winners, with faster easier access to world class compliance data, and more ways to utilize it quickly and effectively in their compliance programs.” For more information, read the press release.
Demco Acquires Boopsie
Demco, Inc. acquired Boopsie for Libraries, which will add Boopsie’s team and software platform to Demco, a global company that has been in the library space for 100-plus years. Boopsie’s mobile expertise will help Demco offer additional services to its library customers to help them increase the access and usage of their online materials and services.“Demco and Boopsie are a great match—we share strong commitments to long-term relationships with the libraries we serve, and a culture that values the team members who make our mission possible,” says Tony Medrano, Boopsie’s president. “Demco’s resources, relationships and reach allow Boopsie to rapidly expand in large and small public library systems, as well as help fuel Boopsie’s recent successes in the academic, corporate and law library industries. Our team is inspired to help Demco expand and serve libraries and citizens worldwide in the pursuit of lifelong learning and enrichment.” For more information, read the press release.
Bibliotheca Takes On 3M Library Systems
Bibliotheca’s shareholders, One Equity Partners (OEP), completed the acquisition of 3M Library Systems’ North American business, including its security, productivity, and cloud solutions. OEP will purchase the assets of the rest of the worldwide 3M Library Systems business. By combining Bibliotheca and 3M Library Systems into one brand, the companies will bring their products and services to the library market in a new portfolio of solutions and expand into new regions. The support and maintenance contracts for existing customers will not change.“The combined company has the scale needed to accelerate our product development pipeline. As before, we will continue to listen to the needs of our library customers while delivering the highest possible levels of service and quality that customers have expected,” says Matt Tempelis, 3M Library Systems’ global business leader, who has joined the Bibliotheca team. For more information, read the press release.
NoveList Becomes Libhub Initiative Sponsor
NoveList is Zepheira’s newest Libhub Initiative sponsor, joining others such as Atlas Systems, Innovative, and SirsiDynix in providing its expertise and supporting the initiative’s efforts to increase the visibility of library collections on the web.According to Roger Rohweder, NoveList’s co-founder and senior director of technology, the company believes in the potential for linked data to help public libraries. “Working with the Libhub initiative is a natural progression for us because NoveList has always worked with libraries to improve their exposure,” he says. “This is just the next step in helping libraries become an essential go-to resource in their communities.” For more information, read the press release.
EBSCO Rolls Out 2016 Serials Price Projections
EBSCO Information Services introduced its “Serials Price Projections for 2016,” which notes that the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and medical libraries is expected to be 4%–6% before currency impact. EBSCO surveyed a wide range of publishers and reviewed historical serials pricing data to calculate the projections. The company will update them if economic conditions change.“[T]he increased library budgets are not keeping the pace with the increase in serials costs and libraries are working to ensure they are receiving the greatest value for spend,” the press release states. Libraries must carefully analyze their content purchases, and econtent and packaged content are prevailing over print materials and individual subscriptions, respectively. “E-journal packages are still consuming a significant proportion of library materials budgets and most large publishers remain focused on selling some form of bundled e-package content.” For more information, read the press release.
New OpenAthens Tool Provides One-Link Resource Access
Eduserv’s OpenAthens launched Redirector, a tool that helps patrons get access—via a single link for both on- and off-network access—to subscriptions and other paid-for content by requesting their credentials while they are off of a library’s network and delivering the content when they are in range of the library IP addresses. “The proxy-like syntax eases the burden of link management for librarians and provides a seamless experience for users, who are increasingly demanding off-site and mobile access,” the press release states.“Our clients want their resources to be discoverable and accessible from any location,” says Belinda Kennedy, senior SaaS specialist at EBSCO Information Services. “The Redirector gives OpenAthens the intuitive ability to identify a user’s location and authorise access appropriately.” For more information, read the press release.
Ringgold Adds New Classification System to Its Identify Database
Ringgold introduced a new classification system to expand the descriptive metadata for records in its Identify Database. The company consulted with its customers about how they classify their records, and it developed a schema for nine new classifications for organizations that will enhance the existing ones: economic model, governance, reach, mission, granular subjects, self-description, fixed hierarchy level, activity status, and number of sites.Identify Database subscribers will now receive this expanded metadata as part of their weekly database exports. For more information, read the press release.
Reprints Desk Customers Now Have Access to OpenAthens
Reprints Desk became a reseller of Eduserv’s OpenAthens access management system. It will offer OpenAthens, which provides a single username and password to access subscription-based content, to its customer base for the Article Galaxy document delivery solution—including life science companies, academic institutions, and other research-based institutions.“OpenAthens supplements the expansive authentication offerings available today inside Article Galaxy, our robust platform that simplifies journal content access and management,” says Ian Palmer, Research Solutions’ chief sales and marketing officer. “Multinational corporations and others that support remote or mobile access to paid content resources, now have even more reasons to utilize Reprints Desk as a single-source supplier for a variety of STM content workflow solutions, which span document delivery services, portal solutions, authentication, reference management, table of contents alerting, tools for PubMed and Google Scholar, and more.” For more information, read the press release.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Prepares Resource-Sharing Portal for Teachers
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) announced the upcoming beta version of HMH Marketplace, an online resource to help educators find teaching tools and connect them with educational technology startups. It will feature apps from ed tech developers, games and other classroom resources, and original content created by teachers (e.g., lesson plans). Teachers will be able to use these materials and submit their own.“The goal of the Marketplace is to provide a simple way for educators to find applications and resources that add value to the learning experience, without the hassle of an exhaustive search, additional log-ins or technical integration with their existing platforms,” says Brook Colangelo, HMH’s CTO. “By leveraging HMH APIs through our new Developer Portal, developers can also ensure that their solutions connect seamlessly with HMH’s ecosystem, providing a tailored solution for educators in a unified Marketplace experience.” For more information, read the press release.
Springer Unveils Addition to Ebook and Journal Licensing Terms
Springer introduced Online Learning Language, a new set of licensing terms for its ebooks and journals on noncommercial, educational platforms—including massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, learning management systems, and in-house platforms. Institutions in most parts of the world that purchase Springer’s frontlist content can opt in to Online Learning Language in order to embed up to 30 specialized links into their ebook chapters (back to 2005) and journal articles (back to 1997) at no additional cost.For more information, read the press release.
SirsiDynix Updates BLUEcloud Analytics
SirsiDynix added bill, hold, and historical data to its latest release of the BLUEcloud Analytics reporting tool, allowing customers to generate reports on all non-serials and non-acquisitions data.“This release, especially the addition of historical data, brings significant value to libraries,” says Bill Davison, SirsiDynix’s CEO. “Now libraries can see their performance over time, which is crucial for important decisions.” For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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