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Weekly News Digest
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December 15, 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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Facebook at Work Nears Official Launch
According to Canada’s National Post, Facebook is planning to introduce Facebook at Work, a professional version of its social network that is focused on workplace collaboration. It features the News Feed, a chat service, and the ability to Like posts, but profiles are separate from users’ existing Facebook ones.Facebook at Work has been a free, invitation-only beta service since January 2015. When it launches, it will be open to all companies for a small fee per user per month. They will have access to analytics, customer support, and other premium tools. For more information, read the article.
NPG Announces Results of Article-Sharing Trial
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) released the results of its article-sharing trial, which was developed to encourage researcher collaboration and give the public access to scientific content. The company will continue to offer on-platform sharing of full-text NPG articles using ReadCube’s enhanced PDF technology.For the past 12 months, subscribers to 49 NPG journals shared the full text of articles with colleagues who didn’t have a subscription via a shareable link enabled by ReadCube. Global media outlets and blogs also participated, providing readers with the links to full-text, read-only versions of original papers. Media reports of NPG articles drove the most traffic during the trial. The most popular news outlets were the BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, Science magazine, and The Washington Post. For more information, read the press release.
ACS Publishes New OA Journal
The American Chemical Society (ACS) announced ACS Omega, a new peer-reviewed, open access (OA), multidisciplinary journal featuring research in chemistry, chemical engineering, and allied scientific fields from around the world.The journal has one co-editor each from China, India, Europe, and the Americas, who will lead its editorial board of active scientists. Research submissions will be accepted in spring 2016, with an online publishing date of summer 2016. For more information, read the press release.
Ingram Acquires Direct Sales Service
Ingram Content Group acquired Aer.io, a service that helps publishers, retailers, and authors sell print books and ebooks directly via their websites, blogs, and social networks. Titles can be sold worldwide, and Aer.io’s marketing platform facilitates promotion. Aer.io will be able to leverage Ingram’s global distribution network, while Ingram can use Aer.io to connect its customers more directly with readers. Sellers on Aer.io will have access to Ingram’s full inventory of ebooks and print-on-demand titles.For more information, read the press release.
GPO Signs Up to Help Preserve Historical Government Technical Reports
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) became the first federal agency to join the Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL). The organizations will work together to advance free public access to government information through the discoverability, permanent public access, and preservation of government technical reports. TRAIL, which has more than 3 dozen member institutions, identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes, and provides open access to these reports. The GPO will offer its expertise and help TRAIL with cataloging and other tasks, especially for reports produced before 1976.For more information, read the press release.
Zimmerman's Research Guide to Shut Down
Zimmerman’s Research Guide—the free online encyclopedia for legal researchers hosted by LexisNexis Legal & Professional’s InfoPro site and created, edited, and updated by Andy Zimmerman—will no longer be available as of Dec. 31, 2015. Zimmerman decided to retire the encyclopedia after more than 15 years. It was first posted on LLRX.com and then moved to LexisNexis in 2003.For more information, read the blog post.
Reprints Desk Updates Article Galaxy Platform
Reprints Desk released the fall 2015 version of its Article Galaxy platform, which features short-term article rentals, instant subscription content access, and a new add-on for the library portal. Article rentals give scientists, engineers, and other professionals limited-time, full-text previews to help inform their purchasing decisions. Instant access to subscription content from online databases and Article Galaxy’s online document delivery order form eliminates the need for users to manually check whether they have access for each content asset before purchasing it. The Article Galaxy Library Portal is a point of access and management for licensed journals, books, databases, and other content.For more information, read the press release.
ODILO Reaches Nearly 1 Million Ebooks
Ebook provider ODILO partnered with Gardners, a European wholesaler of English-language physical and digital products, to add more than 650,000 titles in January 2016. This addition brings ODILO’s collection to nearly 1 million titles available to North American libraries.For more information, read the press release.
EBSCO Donates Articles to Readers in Developing Countries
EBSCO Information Services teamed up with the nonprofit Worldreader to bring nonfiction content to children and families in sub-Saharan Africa and India. EBSCO will donate proprietary reference articles that will bring Worldreader closer to its goal of reaching 10 million readers by the end of 2015. Readers can access these articles—which cover topics such as science, literature, history, philosophy, and math for those who are new to the English language—via Worldreader Mobile on their own cellphones.“Reading is transformative; especially in the developing world where access to books is often limited or non-existent,” says Danielle Zacarias, Worldreader’s director of content. “This partnership with EBSCO enables Worldreader to provide a variety of non-fiction reference articles filled with real-world knowledge … that will educate, inspire, and empower growth and hope in the parts of the world that need it most.” For more information, read the press release.
Gale Debuts 19th-Century Crime and Punishment Collection
Gale launched Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920, its new primary-source archive of more than 2 million pages of material on 19th-century history, literature, law, and criminal justice. It consists of sources such as trial transcripts, police and forensic reports, criminal case files, detective agency records, detective novels, and newspaper accounts.Researchers can use it to explore the rise in crime during the Industrial Revolution, the development of metropolitan police departments, and the public’s fascination with sensationalized true crime stories. Content comes from institutions such as the U.S. National Archives, the American Antiquarian Society, and the British Library. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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