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Weekly News Digest
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August 16, 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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DPLA Announces Technology Enhancements
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) posted an update from the DPLA Tech Team on new projects, including the following:- [W]e have just launched our new take on list-making functionality. The Lists feature is built right into DPLA search results, topic browse lists, and item pages and allows you to create lists of items from across DPLA collections.
- Over the past few months, we built a mass-reindexing system … that lets us rebuild our search index from scratch multiple times a week. Now, we’re set to evolve our search capabilities, experiment with new ideas, and recover our search infrastructure from nothing within two hours.
- [W]e’re launching a new web application, custom-built for our Members, that presents an easy-to-use view of multifaceted usage analytics. Using these new dashboards, our Members will have access to new information about usage of our API and metadata quality metrics alongside data from Google Analytics.
For more information, read the news.
NFAIS Seeks Presenters for 2019 Humanities Roundtable
The National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) issued a call for presentations for its next Humanities Roundtable, Evaluation of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities and Its Impact, which will be held on March 10, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Presenters should discuss the skills, tools, and resources needed for digital humanities evaluation and the impact of new technologies on the humanities and humanities funding. Submissions will be accepted through Aug. 31, 2018.For more information, read the press release.
'Why We're Susceptible to Fake News, How to Defend Against It'
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “Thought processes and belief systems that people develop early in life to help protect against the anxiety and stress of an uncertain world may help explain why some individuals fall victim to what has come to be known as fake news. …”“The key to people’s accepting fake news as true, despite evidence to the contrary, is a phenomenon known as confirmation bias, or the tendency for people to seek and accept information that confirms their existing beliefs while rejecting or ignoring that which contradicts those beliefs, [Mark Whitmore, assistant professor of management and information systems at Kent State University’s College of Business Administration] said.” Eve Whitmore, a developmental psychologist with Western Reserve Psychological Association, says, “In adolescence, people develop critical thinking skills and some begin to question what they were taught as children, perhaps religious beliefs or even the belief that authority figures such as parents or even the government leaders are always right. But going against one’s parents’ beliefs can cause friction within the family, and, despite evidence to the contrary, some are willing to rationalize those false beliefs in order to avoid upsetting their parents. …” Mark Whitmore suggests lessening anxieties that make confirmation bias appealing by using strategies such as humor—e.g., watching late-night comedy or political satire to alter the source of the stressor. Additionally, people can channel their feelings into a positive goal, such as running for office or volunteering. They can open their minds by deliberately engaging with different points of view. “‘Developing a greater degree of skepticism in children, by encouraging them to ask why and to question, diminishes confirmation bias,’ he said. ‘All of these strategies have substantial research supporting their beneficial effects.’” For more information, read the press release.
GOBI Library Solutions and ByWater Solutions Improve Koha ILS
EBSCO Information Services’ GOBI Library Solutions partnered with ByWater Solutions to enhance the acquisition workflow of the Koha open source ILS. According to the press release, “The GobiAPI Plug-in, which allows Koha systems to fully integrate with the GOBI platform in real-time, will now facilitate the immediate transfer of bibliographic and order data.” Koha users will be able to search for print and ebook titles in GOBI’s online catalog, and GOBI orders will be automatically delivered to Koha.For more information, read the press release.
Thomson Reuters Debuts Accounting Tool for Small Businesses
Thomson Reuters introduced OnBalance Express, a cloud-based accounting application for small businesses. Available as a web and mobile app, the new solution’s dashboard simplifies day-to-day accounting activities (customer tracking, vendor tracking, invoicing, online payments, expense tracking, banking, and reporting) and provides real-time access to data necessary for proactive client engagement and guidance. The mobile app uses OCR to automatically log photographed receipts, and a mileage tracker can be enabled to automatically log trips.For more information, read the press release.
W3C Updates Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) rolled out a new version of the Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile. It provides an overview of W3C technologies that increase the capabilities of web applications and how they apply on mobile, and the updates to it are “focused on mechanisms that allow mobile web applications to tweak performance settings and gain finer-grained control over the browser’s default behavior.” It now mentions WebDriver, “a key technology for mobile web developers as it enables automated testing across browsers and devices.”For more information, read the news.
SAGE Knowledge Content Comes to ProQuest's OASIS Platform
ProQuest’s OASIS (Online Acquisitions and Selection Information System) added the SAGE Knowledge collection of ebooks and e-reference content to its platform so that academic libraries can acquire the SAGE content directly via OASIS.“SAGE has always been committed to ensuring content can be readily accessible in a format that is best suited to the user’s needs,” says Huw Alexander, digital sales manager at SAGE. “This expanded partnership with ProQuest is an extension of that mission and our longstanding commitment to supporting academic librarians in their workflow and effectiveness. Being able to offer SAGE Knowledge content through the ProQuest OASIS platform further increases the discoverability, ease and reach of our high-quality content on this platform.” For more information, read the press release.
RedLink Makes Publisher Dashboard More User-Friendly
RedLink updated its Publisher Dashboard usage data analytics system to offer new insights into content usage at the product level. An enhanced Product View makes it easy to identify institutions’ and countries’ usage and other usage patterns. Dashboard users can compare products and export or save data and visualizations. They can review the product portfolio at the top level, with the option to drill down for more details and trends.For more information, read the press release.
VitalSource Pilots Courseware Integrations With Pearson
VitalSource teamed up with Pearson to “simplify courseware integrations by removing barriers to access for students and instructors and streamlining administrative setup for institutions.” The two companies will pilot the integrations by offering access to Pearson’s MyLab and Mastering and Revel courseware products for students and instructors.“Ensuring course materials are affordable and accessible for students is our driving focus at VitalSource. Making it easier for students to get their materials is just common sense,” says Michael Hale, VitalSource’s VP of education. “VitalSource is leading the marketplace by removing friction and simplifying the process for students, instructors, college stores, campus IT and publishers. Above all else, we want to help students succeed, and this partnership with Pearson is an important step toward this goal.” For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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