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Weekly News Digest
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March 6, 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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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Donates 100 Millionth Book
NPR reports that Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has delivered its 100 millionth book to a young reader. “Every month, the nonprofit program mails a free book to more than a million children—from infants to preschoolers,” the article notes. “The program is available in communities where a local partner has teamed up with the Imagination Library,” such as a nonprofit, a state agency, or a public library system. “A panel of educators and reading specialists picks books that are developmentally appropriate for each year of a child’s life” until age 5.Parton founded the program 23 years ago to give children in her county in Tennessee early access to books. It has grown to serve children in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., as well as Canada, Australia, and the U.K. “If you can read, even if you can't afford education, you can go on and learn about anything you want to know. There’s a book on everything,” Parton tells NPR. “So I just think that it’s important for kids to be encouraged to read, to dream and to plan for a better life and better future.” For more information, read the article.
'Who Should Be Armed in Florida Schools? … Maybe Librarians.'
The New York Times published “Who Should Be Armed in Florida Schools? Not Teachers, Lawmakers Say. But Maybe Librarians.” Author Patricia Mazzei writes:After a debate on the State Senate floor on Monday, Republican legislative leaders struck a compromise that would keep guns away from teachers, but keep guns in schools. How? By arming librarians, counselors and coaches. The Senate agreed to exempt only teachers who work full-time in the classroom from having weapons on campus. Everyone else—no matter how closely they also deal with students—could be eligible to carry. For more information, read the article.
EBSCO eBooks Offers DRM-Free Titles
EBSCO Information Services is making 70,000 titles from its EBSCO eBooks platform DRM-free so libraries can offer their patrons access to high-quality ebooks without limiting what they can do with them—printing, saving, downloading (as PDF or EPUB), etc. Librarians have the option to purchase the DRM-free titles individually on an unlimited concurrent user (UU) basis or DRM-protected ebooks on a limited concurrent user model (1U or 3U) to maximize their budgets and meet patron demand. Those using the limited concurrent user model can easily upgrade to the unlimited model.For more information, read the press release.
ProQuest's Ebook Central Enhances User Experience With Syndetics Unbound Enrichments
ProQuest integrated its Academic Complete ebook solution with its Syndetics Unbound enrichment service so that Academic Complete subscribers can give their patrons an improved experience in its Ebook Central platform. They’ll be able to view recommendations, reader reviews, awards, and other related content on “book detail” pages, giving students and researchers access to information they might not have discovered along with the standard real-time availability and bibliographic information. Syndetics Unbound “integrates with a library’s catalog or discovery layer, adding up to 16 interactive elements designed to encourage exploration and increase circulation,” according to the press release.For more information, read the press release.
David Lee King Puts Out New Report on Emerging Tech Trends
Information Today, Inc. author David Lee King announced on his blog that his Library Technology Report, “How to Stay on Top of Emerging Technology Trends for Libraries,” is now available from the ALA Store. It covers how to monitor emerging tech trends and incorporate them into your library when needed. The four main areas he focuses on are “why you should stay on top of technology trends, the trend watchers you should follow and how to follow them, practical ways to incorporate new technology trends into your library, and how to prepare for and know when not to pursue current trends.”For more information, read the blog post. View King’s books here and here.
ProQuest Dialog and Northern Light Team Up to Provide Life Sciences Content
ProQuest Dialog partnered with Northern Light to bring Dialog users more than 2.7 million abstracts and posters from more than 3,800 international medical and life sciences conferences since 2010 (via Northern Light’s Life Sciences Conference Abstracts database). The database is updated daily, and content can be accessed within 3 weeks of its posting on conference websites. The content is cross-searchable with more than 130 additional biomedical, engineering, patent, and news databases. According to the press release, “The ‘grey literature’ available in Northern Light—material not formally published or peer-reviewed—helps keep researchers ahead of the curve in a competitive industry.”For more information, read the press release.
Black Panther Inspires NoveList to Add Afrofuturism Category
NoveList announced that to celebrate the release of Black Panther, it has created a new searchable genre: Afrofuturism and Afrofantasy. The company defines Afrofuturism as “a distinct artistic and philosophical movement that critically reinterprets black identity, the history of Africa, and the African diaspora through a science fictional/hypertechnological lens,” according to a blog post. Afrofantasy is “genre fantasy featuring mainly black characters and set in a fantasy version of Africa, a fantasy setting inspired by Africa, or among African diasporic populations encountering magic anywhere.”For more information, read the blog post.
DPLA Provides New Primary Source Sets
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) rolled out 21 new Primary Source Sets, which give libraries, archives, and museums access to resources that are classroom-ready for secondary school and higher education students and teachers. New topics explore women’s history, African-American history, and migration experiences, among others. Each set has a topic overview, 10–15 primary sources, discussion questions, and classroom activities. The new sets were developed in collaboration with DPLA’s Education Advisory Committee.For more information, read the blog post.
SAGE and USASBE Join Forces for Entrepreneurship Education Journal
SAGE and USASBE (U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) launched a new journal, Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy (EE&P). It aims to inform the next generation of entrepreneurs by publishing the latest research, teaching cases, and learning innovations by entrepreneurship educators.“As we enter our 71st year of formal entrepreneurship education, it’s time the field had a dedicated journal to the teaching and learning of entrepreneurship,” says Eric Liguori, EE&P’s executive editor. For more information, read the press release.
The New York Times Adds Audiobook Best-Seller Lists
The New York Times announced that it will begin publishing monthly Audiobook Best-Seller Lists online starting March 8, 2018. They will feature top 15 fiction and top 15 nonfiction lists based on the previous month’s sales of digital and physical audiobooks. The first print version will appear in the Sunday Book Review on March 18. According to the press release, “Moving forward, the Best-Seller Lists, which previously published online on Fridays, will now publish on Thursday mornings.” Additionally, the Paperback Lists will now feature 15 books instead of 10.“The vibrant growth of audiobooks in the industry has created a need for an impartial, reliable source for tracking and reporting the top-selling audiobooks across the country,” says Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review. “The Times recognizes the increased reader and listener interest in audiobooks, as well as in the Book Review’s increasing depth of coverage of audiobooks, and we’re thrilled we’ll be able to provide them independent data they can rely on.” For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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