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Weekly News Digest
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February 8, 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.
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EveryLibrary Encourages Participation in Entrepreneurship Week
EveryLibrary was appointed as the library partnerships coordinator for National Entrepreneurship Week 2018, which will be held Feb. 17–24. It is encouraging libraries in the U.S. to add themselves to the event’s list of supporting organizations. It is also asking libraries to participate by tweeting (#NatlEshipWeek) or posting about their entrepreneurial support programs, business databases, training programs, collections and services, and tech facilities.For more information, read the press release.
Semantic Enrichment and the Information Manager: Turning Content into Insight
Download Copyright Clearance Center's new white paper, "Semantic Enrichment and the Information Manager: Turning Content Into Insight." In it, you'll discover:- How semantic enrichment can add structure to unstructured content
- Who can benefit from semantic enrichment across an organization
- Three takeaways for information managers
Click here to register and download this exclusive content.
Civil and Human Rights Group Endorses Anti-Harassment Acts
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights issued a statement praising the House of Representatives’ passage of HR 4924, the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 Reform Act, and for its introduction of H Res. 724. It says, in part, “We applaud the bipartisan effort in Congress to finally protect all the women and men in the legislative branch against discrimination, sexual harassment, and other workplace harassment. … We call on the Senate to take up H.R. 4924 as soon as possible and for both houses on a bipartisan basis to turn next to proposals to strengthen protections against sexual and other workplace harassment and discrimination for all employees outside of the Congress.” H.R. 4924 seeks to provide a more balanced method for investigating and resolving workplace discrimination and harassment in the legislative branch and to end mandatory mediation, among other goals. H Res. 724 would require mandatory policies in every representative’s office to address and prevent discrimination and harassment. For more information, read the press release.
CCC Unveils RightFind Insight
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) released RightFind Insight, its new scientific research solution. It was developed through CCC’s partnership with SciBite, a provider of semantic solutions. SciBite’s semantic enrichment software suite finds and extracts scientific terminology from unstructured text and changes it into machine-readable data. RightFind Insight combines semantic enrichment of documents with full-text search to allow users to get scientific and medical insights faster, find content that’s relevant to their research quicker, and enrich documents instantly.For more information, read the press release.
EFF Unveils a List of the Tools That Could Have Been
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its “Catalog of Missing Devices,” which lists “the gadgets that could and should exist, if not for bad copyright laws that prevent innovators from creating the cool new tools that could enrich our lives.” Without the use of DRM to deter competition, consumers could access “music software that tailors your listening to what you are reading on your audiobook, or a gadget that lets parents reprogram talking toys to replace canned, meaningless messaging,” and more.“The law that is supposed to restrict copying has instead been misused to crack down on competition, strangling a future’s worth of gadgets in their cradles,” says Cory Doctorow, EFF’s special advisor. For more information, read the press release.
The Getty Center Celebrates 20 Years With New Report
The J. Paul Getty Trust published its latest annual report, “The Getty Center at Twenty.” The chairwoman of the board of trustees, Maria Hummer-Tuttle, writes in her statement:This year’s annual J. Paul Getty Trust Report celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the Getty Center which opened to the public in December 1997. Sadly, this year we also mourn the loss of Harold Williams, whose vision gave birth to the Getty Center, and to whom this report is dedicated. … In the past year we have had several new beginnings. The Getty Patron Program was launched, offering individuals the opportunity to financially support Getty initiatives at various levels and thereby “join” the Getty. This program expands our connection to the community in an additional way and provides enhanced programming. … The first Getty Rothschild Fellowship was given this year to Dr. David Saunders, an expert in the area of conservation science. Awarded annually, this fellowship will nurture scholarship on subjects important to both the Getty and the Rothschild Foundation. … The Getty advanced its leadership in the field of digital technology with the appointment of Rich Fagan as the Getty’s first vice president and chief digital officer. More than 30,000 images of objects in the J. Paul Getty Museum collection were made available using the International Image Interoperability Framework, which allows researchers to bring together images from different institutional websites for comparison, manipulation, and annotation.
For more information, read the report.
Thomasnet.com Gets Updates
Thomas rolled out version 4.0 of its Thomasnet.com platform on its 120th anniversary. (The company was founded Jan. 31, 1898.) Version 4.0 features “the all new Thomas Insights section, which offers more than 300,000 articles, videos and white papers on manufacturing innovations, industry trends, new products and industry education. This data, plus the detailed information Thomas is known for on over 500,000 North American Suppliers, more than 6 million industrial products, and 10 million CAD files is now accessible through a single search offering.”For more information, read the press release.
NIH to Shut Down PubMed Commons
The NCBI Insights Blog is reporting that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is discontinuing PubMed Commons, a forum that allows authors to offer opinions and information about scientific publications in PubMed. NIH has decided that PubMed Commons’ low level of usage does not warrant continued investment in it. New comments will be accepted through Feb. 15, 2018, and comments will be viewable on the PubMed and PubMed Commons websites through March 2, 2018. After March 2, comments will be available by downloading them from the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s (NCBI) website.For more information, read the blog post.
Ingram and ODILO Team Up to Offer Multilingual Content
Ingram Library Services and ODILO have entered a partnership that will increase libraries’ access to multilingual ebooks and audiobooks. Through its iPage search, select, order, and account management tool, Ingram will provide access to ODILO’s offering of more than 1.4 million ebooks and audiobooks in 240 languages. In addition, 60 Spanish magazines and 35 Spanish newspapers will be incorporated in the coming months. Libraries will also be able to use ODILO’s software to upload local content, manage lending rules, and offer digital book clubs.For more information, read the press release.
LGBT+ Advocates Aim to Influence Amazon’s HQ2 Choice
Activists are calling on Amazon to reject some of the cities on its list of 20 finalists for a second headquarters due to unfriendly policies toward LGBT+ workers. A campaign is underway to discourage Amazon from choosing cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis, or Miami—whose states still permit employment, housing, and public accommodations discrimination.According to CNNMoney, “As a part of a demonstration on [Feb. 1], a plane with a banner touting the campaign's name—‘No Gay? No Way!’—is flying near the company’s Seattle headquarters.” Other initiatives include digital ads in Seattle and the nine objectionable states, as well as a traveling billboard in Seattle saying, “Hey, Alexa? Why would Amazon even consider putting HQ2 in a state that discriminates against LGBT people?" For more information, read the article.
EBSCO and ByWater Join Forces to Support Migration to FOLIO
EBSCO Information Services and ByWater Solutions expanded their partnership to give libraries using the FOLIO library services platform (LSP) implementation and support services from ByWater that are backed by EBSCO’s hosting technology and data services.“Open source services allow libraries to save money on the technology and focus on service and customer support. By extending our expertise, and leveraging EBSCO’s services, we expect to help libraries implement FOLIO and migrate libraries to the FOLIO LSP and provide ongoing support,” says Brendan Gallagher, ByWater’s co-owner and CEO. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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