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Weekly News Digest
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April 25, 2017 — 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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DCL Studies Content Trends
DCL (Data Conversion Laboratory) and the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) released the results of their fifth annual content trends survey, “Following the Trends 2017—Is Your Content Ready?” It finds that “a surprising 51% of those polled responded ‘No,’ that their content is not ready—a 21% increase over last year. … Tellingly, 66% said their ‘search capability needs improvement;’ 53% ‘have so much content that customers cannot find the correct information to help them be successful;’ and 44% noted that their ‘current content does not fully support customers’ needs.’” Respondents included writers, managers, information architects, and content strategists. Other questions covered topics such as types of content being developed, authoring tools, and mobile strategies.According to DCL, “Each year the survey’s goal is to probe and track how, and if, organizations or individual professionals are adapting their processes and content to be more viable in an increasingly electronic world.” For more information, read the press release.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Directory of 120-Plus Free Business Resources Available From BestBizWeb
The Best of the Business Web published The Best of The Best of the Business Web 2015-2016, a highly selective directory of more than 120 of the “best” substantive free business information resources that it reported on over the past 2 years. The sites are organized into dozens of business topics, including advertising, Big Data, financial information, market research, statistical information, venture capital information, and more. Each entry identifies the site’s name, its URL, and who is behind it, as well as provides a description and succinct analysis of its value.Click here to get more information and to place an order. The price is $59, but NewsBreaks readers may order it for $39 until May 15, 2017, by inputting the coupon code “ITI” at checkout.
W3C Expands Its MOOCs Program
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is celebrating the second anniversary of W3Cx by offering its first introductory-level course in JavaScript. It will begin its 5-week run on May 30, 2017. W3Cx is also providing a Front-End Web Developer professional certificate on edX, for which learners take a suite of five W3Cx courses: the new JavaScript course, HTML5 and CSS Fundamentals, CSS Basics, HTML5 Coding Essentials and Best Practices, and HTML5 Apps and Games: Advanced Techniques.For more information, read the press release.
WikiTribune Aims to Distribute 'News by the People and for the People'
According to The Guardian, Wikipedia’s co-founder, Jimmy Wales, “is launching a new online publication which will aim to fight fake news by pairing professional journalists with an army of volunteer community contributors.” WikiTribune will be crowdfunded, and it will cover topics such as U.S. and U.K. politics and specialist science and technology. “Those who donate will become supporters, who in turn will have a say in which subjects and story threads the site focuses on. And Wales intends that the community of readers will fact-check and subedit published articles.”For more information, read the article.
GPO Unveils Streamlined New Website
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) launched a new website, which is now in beta. It has a simple, mobile-friendly structure that helps customers, vendors, federal agencies, libraries, and others find government information, read GPO’s news, and access GPO’s products and services. Updates include an improved internal site search, easier access to GPO’s social media platforms, and a better way to locate Federal Depository Libraries.For more information, read the press release.
DPLA Pledges to Uphold Its Core Values
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) released its Values Statement of core commitments for the organization and its staff: commitment to its mission; to constructive collaboration; to diversity, inclusion, and social justice; to the public and its community; and to stewardship of resources. The statement outlines each tenet and provides examples of how it drives DPLA’s everyday practices.“In today’s society, where fake news abounds, funding for arts and humanities programs is at risk, inequality is expanding, and our nation continues to wrestle with questions of belonging and inclusion for many people, we at DPLA believe it is more important than ever to be clear about who we are and what we value as an organization,” DPLA states in a blog post. For more information, read the blog post.
PubFactory Adds Altmetric Functionality
PubFactory partnered with Altmetric to give authors, readers, and editors real-time insights into how people are engaging with their research publications. Publishers hosting content on PubFactory’s platform now have access to Altmetric badge visualizations and the associated details pages, which provide context and feedback on how publications are received.For more information, read the press release.
CLOCKSS Announces More Partners
The CLOCKSS Archive is preserving content from five additional publishers and is getting support from six additional libraries. According to the press release, they are the following publishers:- American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®)
- Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation
- Carl Grossmann Publishers
- McMaster University Library Press
- New Zealand Medical Association
And the following libraries: - Foro Italico University of Rome
- Indian Institutes of Management Bangalore
- Indian Institutes of Management Indore
- Indian Institutes of Management Lucknow
- Indian Institutes of Management Udaipur
- Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach
For more information, read the press release.
Springer Facilitates Use of MOOC-Textbook Teaching Plans
Springer teamed up with Federica Weblearning, a European provider of free multimedia courses, to give authors and lecturers from around the world options for using textbooks alongside accompanying MOOCs (massive open online courses) on particular topics. Authors can plan their textbooks with a MOOC in mind, and lecturers who are using the Federica platform to run a MOOC can publish a complementary textbook using Springer. Fields covered by this collaboration include mathematics and statistics, computer science, engineering and physical sciences, biomedical and life sciences, business and economics, and humanities and social sciences.For more information, read the press release.
VitalSource Content Studio Gets Enhancements
VitalSource updated VitalSource Content Studio (VCS), an authoring platform for publishers, academic institutions, corporations, and professionals. It now offers legacy content conversion and one-click publishing, allows users to publish EPUB 3s directly into the Bookshelf platform, and makes updates and revisions faster. Additionally, authors are able to create complex math notation using the WIRIS EDITOR.For more information, read the press release.
National FOIA Portal in the Works
The Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) joined forces with 18F to create a National FOIA Portal. According to the OIP, “Most recently, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 required the creation of a National FOIA Portal that is interoperable with agencies’ current systems and allows the public to submit a request for records to any agency from a single website.”Meanwhile, “OIP and 18F will focus on user research and discovery of issues necessary to inform future development.” The OIP is seeking feedback and volunteers. For more information and to join the initiative, read the blog post.
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
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