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Weekly News Digest
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June 28, 2016 — 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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BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'What Brexit Means for Book Publishing'
“In the space of a few hours we have voted to leave Europe, the pound has sunk like a stone, the stock market has tanked and the Prime Minister resigned. Caught in this maelstrom the book trade is a reasonably calm backwater. There are implications for us, but they are slower, smoother and some even are positive,” writes Neill Denny, co-editor of BookBrunch. Read more at Publishers Weekly
New Community for Enhanced Library Automation Debuts
FOLIO (Future of Libraries is Open), a collaboration among libraries, service providers, and other organizations, launched as an initiative to “reshape the future of libraries and develop new technologies,” according to the press release. Funded primarily by EBSCO Information Services, this community aims to create a reimagined library services platform (LSP) using open source projects. The LSP would support traditional resource management requirements and functionality, but be engineered for extensibility. The initial code for the base platform, which will be a technical preview for developers, will be released on GitHub in August 2016.For more information, read the press release.
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Brexit and What It Means for the Information Industry'
“There will be much ado about sorting out trade and regulatory arrangements on a country-by-country and company-by-company level. US and European companies will reassess their UK businesses. These uncertainties and the measure of power that is now in the hands of national trade and regulatory negotiators will make it hard for any company to act on any contingency plans they may have waiting on the shelf. UK’s leaving will create disruption in trade and commerce and tension in the economy that will last for years. In information circles, it will mean upside for law and risk and related practice areas. Some may go relatively unaffected unless R&D dollars dry up—health and STM—others may face downturn—businesses that depend on marketing dollars. Information companies face the same general uncertainty and risks as all other businesses,” writes Leigh Watson Healy, chief analyst at Outsell.Read more at Outsell
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Tech After Brexit: Where Do We Go From Here?'
“Only last week the UK bosses of some of the world’s biggest technology companies warned that exiting—aka Brexiting—the European Union would undermine the country’s tech sector and would mean firms and their customers face ‘significant and prolonged uncertainty and leave the UK side-lined’. Now it looks like we will soon be able to find out if their warning was right,” writes Steve Ranger, U.K. editor-in-chief of TechRepublic and ZDNet.Read more at ZDNet
Google Adds App Options to Chromebooks
Google for Education announced that Google’s Chromebooks users now have access to the Google Play store, which gives them the ability to download more content, get offline options, and find touch-optimized apps. (View the list of eligible Chromebooks here.) Android apps that are now available to users include LightSail (an adaptive reading platform for K–12 students), Explain Everything (an interactive screencasting whiteboard and content discovery portal), and Open eBooks (a free e-reading app that is part of the ConnectED initiative).For more information, read the blog post.
Gale Products Add Microsoft Office Functionality
Gale partnered with Microsoft to integrate Office 365 into its most widely used product lines, including Gale In Context, InfoTrac, ebooks on Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL), Literature Resource Center, and Interactive: Science. Students and researchers can save, share, and download content from their school or library’s Gale resources to the Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage site, which is part of Office 365. They can then transfer the OneDrive content to other Microsoft tools such as OneNote and Classroom.For more information, read the press release.
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Trade Vows to Face Challenge of Brexit'
“Amid a mix of shock, dismay and jubilation at the ‘Leave’ camp’s victory in the EU referendum, senior industry figures have vowed to hold off on taking any steps in response until the implications of the result become clear, and to take a positive approach to the challenges ahead. But there have also been warnings of an ‘enormous amount of work’ in the future,” writes The Bookseller’s news team.Read more at The Bookseller
HathiTrust Makes Digitized Books Available for Blind and Print-Disabled Readers
HathiTrust Digital Library and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) joined forces to make more than 14 million digitized books available to blind and print-disabled users who are not affiliated with HathiTrust member schools. “According to the NFB, currently less than 5 percent of all published works are estimated to be available to the blind, most of which are popular titles,” according to the press release. The HathiTrust Digital Library has millions of digitized titles in a variety of languages. During the next year, HathiTrust and the NFB will develop and implement this plan for eligible readers, who will be determined by criteria from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, among other organizations.For more information, read the press release.
INSTANT Video Platform Celebrates Digital Artists
Time, Inc. launched INSTANT, an all-video, mobile-first content platform about and by digital artists from YouTube, Instagram, YouNow, musical.ly, and other sites. It features a video stream that allows users to engage with content, along with native and branded advertising. Daily editions of the platform have “snack-sized, share-worthy videos,” or “Instants,” which cover topics such as entertainment, beauty, fashion, and food.For more information, read the press release.
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Dun & Bradstreet Provides Free Access to Business Credit Data Through July 31 for U.S. Companies Impacted by Brexit'
“In response to Britain’s vote to exit the European Union, Dun & Bradstreet announced that it will provide, at no cost, business credit reports to U.S. companies trying to limit their risk and make intelligent business decisions during this time of uncertainty,” D&B’s press release states.Read more at D&B
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Brexit? Maybe Not, After All'
“In dining rooms across London and Brussels, anxious Remainers—the ‘48 percent’ that wanted to stay in the union—are gaming out various scenarios. The politics and the legalities of an exit from the EU are so unclear and unprecedented that the thought isn’t entirely wishful. … Here are six possible scenarios to stave off Brexit,” write Tom McTague and Alex Spence for POLITICO Europe Edition.Read more at POLITICO Europe Edition
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'It's a New World Now, as the UK Votes to Exit the European Union'
“For Americans, the news from overseas has ominous consequences. Not only are their investment and retirement accounts about to take a hit, but the fact that the Brits did the unthinkable means the same thing could happen here,” writes Talking New Media’s D.B. Hebbard.Hebbard states in the article “Brexit and the Media: Publishing Executives Certainly Not Eager to See Any Economic Weakening” that “[t]he last recession, a doozy, initiated a sharp decline in the fortunes of many traditional media jobs. Many publishers have been hoping that better times would be arriving, and a few have actually seen somewhat better times in the past year or two. But few will be well positioned for another economic dip so soon after the last one—especially in the UK, which is likely to feel the effects of Brexit far more than Europe and certainly more than the US.” Read more at Talking New Media
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Digital Science Response to UK Referendum Result to Leave the European Union'
“As our data has shown and has been widely publicised in recent weeks, the UK risks losing EU research funding to the tune of £1 billion per year. Currently, a quarter of all public funding for research in the UK comes from the European Union. In 2015, the amount of new grant funding awarded to the UK was £967 million,” writes Laura Wheeler, community manager and blog editor for Digital Science.Read more at Digital Science
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'How Will "The Brexit" Impact Book Publishing?'
“Many authors and publishers have taken to twitter to voice their concern and disapproval, equating the Brexit as a move away from inclusiveness and tolerance,” writes Ellen Harvey, the associate/digital editor of Book Business and Publishing Executive. “Already several publishing professionals have voiced questions about the decision. How will the VAT on ebooks be handled? Will a new tax emerge? Will international book sales decline for U.K. publishers? What will be the effect on copyright?”Read more at Book Business
BREXIT ANALYSIS: 'Is the Brexit Bad News for Amazon's International Ambitions?'
“The concern is that Amazon doesn’t have nearly as good a reason to invest a lot of money and hire a lot of people within the U.K. in the coming months and years. Uncertainly is a driver—it is not clear when and if the Brexit will ever come to pass—but Amazon now faces potentially higher labor costs, a surplus of certain skills (and a deficit of others) and a host of other brand new, highly unpredictable issues that take massive bites out of the bottom line,” according to PYMNTS.com.Read more at PYMNTS.com
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Brandi Scardilli
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