|
|
Weekly News Digest
 |
January 18, 2018 — 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.
|
NEH Starts Grant Program for Humanities Infrastructures at Cultural Institutions
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) created a grant program to support humanities infrastructure, titled Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grants. It will offer cultural institutions (libraries, museums, archives, historic sites, etc.) up to $750,000 in grants as a way to build up their capacity or infrastructure for long-term sustainability. The press release notes that the grants, “which require a match of nonfederal funds, may be used toward capital expenditures such as construction and renovation projects, purchase of equipment and software, sharing of humanities collections between institutions, documentation of lost or imperiled cultural heritage, sustaining digital scholarly infrastructure, and preservation and conservation of humanities collections.”The application deadline for the first round of grants is March 15, 2018. For more information, read the press release.
'Why University Students Still Need Public Libraries' by Kate Stericker
Kate Stericker, micro-course developer at Minute School, writes, “When you make the transition to university, one of the best resources that becomes available to you is the campus library system. Most universities have multiple libraries with extensive collections and generous hours of operation. … Because campus libraries offer such a wealth of resources, many students aren’t motivated to explore the public libraries in their areas and may earn their entire degrees without ever setting foot in a community library. However, by not bothering to apply for a public library card, students are missing out on more than they realize.”For more information, read the article.
Renew Publishing Consultants Announces Participants in Research Study
Thirteen organizations are supporting Renew Publishing Consultants’ research on how worldwide readers discover academic content. They include the APA (American Psychological Association), Annual Reviews, Cambridge University Press, PLOS, the Royal Society of Chemistry, SAGE, the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology), and Wiley. According to the press release, this research project will explore “the very contentious issue of measuring perceptions of Sci-Hub and ResearchGate in discovery and delivery, and will also ask about how readers discover academic video content.” The research report and data will be available for free later in 2018.For more information, read the press release.
RedLink Releases Report on Scholarly Journal Usage
RedLink published a free report, “The 2018 RedLink Index,” which provides benchmarks and comparisons of usage patterns for more than 1,700 journals during the 2017 subscription year. It shows the percentage of institutions with increasing, decreasing, or steady usage; percentages of usage from current and archival content; usage by world region; and more. The journals’ publishers serve more than 7,500 institutions.For more information, read the blog post.
Censored Planet Works Toward 'Internet Freedom'
In Fordham University’s News portal, Janet Sassi shares a new project from the University of Michigan called Censored Planet, which is “enlisting 400,000 servers around the world to monitor censorship and network interference.” She cites Benjamin Vandersloot from the University of Michigan, who says, “Ideally, a router’s job is to send data forward—but they are smarter now. Some very clever things are being used to block access to information. … China and Iran are the most public countries about web censorship practices.”Sassi explains, “Although nobody can say for certain that the persons pulling the switches are censoring, the [Censored Planet] project measures patterns that show connection breakdowns.” Vandersloot says, “We who work on Censored Planet are in favor of internet freedom. And we’re trying to enable that for everyone.” For more information, read the article.
ARL Plans 2018 Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) announced that 2018’s Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week will be held Feb. 26–March 2. According to the press release, fair use in the U.S. and fair dealing in Canada “are essential limitations and exceptions to copyright, allowing the use of copyrighted materials without permission from the copyright holder under certain circumstances. Fair use and fair dealing are flexible doctrines, allowing copyright to adapt to new technologies. These doctrines facilitate balance in copyright law, promoting further progress and accommodating freedom of speech and expression.”For more information and ideas on how to participate during the week, read the press release.
Library of Congress Discusses Flickr Commons’ 10th Anniversary
The Library of Congress (LC) is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Flickr Commons with a guest blog post by Helena Zinkham, chief of the LC’s Prints & Photographs Division. She writes, “Thank you for a rich and growing experience! You inspire [our] staff to keep diving deeper into our collections to share the pictures we love. Your subject expertise and impressive research skills also provide much-needed help to identify the many fascinating images that arrived at the Library with only one or two words of description. … A fantastic community of people who enjoy looking at old pictures has developed through the comments they exchange online.”The LC is featuring a display of Flickr favorites on its homepage this month. For more information, read the blog post.
Ex Libris and HighPoint Solutions Develop App for Campus Services
Ex Libris Group entered a strategic partnership with HighPoint Solutions to create an app for higher education students. According to the press release, “The joint product will deliver consolidated functionality covering administration and student life and will facilitate teaching and learning via users’ mobile phone and, simultaneously, a web portal.” It brings together Ex Libris’ campusM mobile solution and HighPoint’s expansion of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions platform.For more information, read the press release.
IMLS Rolls Out 5-Year Strategic Plan
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) unveiled “Transforming Communities,” its new strategic plan for 2018 to 2022. It outlines four goals for the agency’s programs and services to follow: promote the idea of lifelong learning at museums and libraries; build the capacity of museums and libraries to improve the well-being of their communities; help libraries and museums increase public access to information, ideas, and networks; and achieve excellence by aligning resources and relationships that support libraries and museums across the country.For more information, read the press release.
Brill and Publons Pilot New Peer Reviewer Protocol
Brill and Publons joined forces for a pilot using 10 of Brill’s journals, which are now integrated with Publons for 1 year. Peer reviewers of these journals “will receive an invitation to automatically add a verified record of each review performed to their Publons profile, when submitting the report. With this pilot, Brill aims to build more effective, long-lasting relationships with peer reviewers, ensuring peer reviewers get the credit they deserve for their critical work,” according to the press release. Academics can use Publons for free to track, verify, and showcase their peer review and editorial work.For more information, read the press release.
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
|
