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Weekly News Digest
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August 21, 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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The Shifting Opinions on Blue-Light Screens
Rachel Becker writes on The Verge, “If you believe the headlines that have been circulating over the past few weeks, staring at screens is ruining our eyes. ‘Blue light from phones, tablets could accelerate blindness and hurt vision, study finds,’ USA Today declared. Only, that particular study didn’t actually test the blue light that comes out of screens—and it didn’t look at the light’s effects on actual eyeballs.”She notes that there is evidence that exposure to blue light can disrupt people’s sleep schedules. “And some research suggests blue light might damage rat retinas. But that doesn’t mean that the blue light from screens does the same thing to people—and ophthalmologist Rebecca Taylor told The Verge earlier this year that ‘the devices that we use do not appear to cause long-term eye damage.’” For more information, read the article.
SAGE Purchases Talis
SAGE acquired Talis, a tech company that offers Talis Aspire, an enterprise teaching and learning platform and resource list management system (RLMS). It helps academic librarians connect faculty members and students with library resources and make efficient purchasing decisions.Talis will be run by its existing management team as a SAGE company. According to the press release, “This acquisition marks an important step for SAGE as it moves SAGE’s product portfolio beyond content-led resources into technology solutions that support teaching, learning and research in the higher education institution. This new move is in response to the evolving student, researcher, and library needs.” For more information, read the press release.
Thieme Creates Discovery Tool for Chemistry Researchers
Thieme launched SynOne, a discovery tool for synthetic chemistry methods. Scientific researchers can search for and browse selected publications from the Thieme Chemistry portfolio. According to the press release, “Organized systematically by compound classes to ensure easy access, SynOne links up content from journals and reference works—including SYNTHESIS, SYNLETT, SYNFACTS, Science of Synthesis and Pharmaceutical Substances. The innovative interface offers organic chemists fast access to relevant and reliable syntheses in context.”Searching SynOne is free, but full access to the articles requires individual or institutional subscriptions to the respective sources. For more information, read the press release.
'How Unpaywall Is Transforming Open Science' by Holly Else
In an article in Nature, Holly Else notes that “firms that run established scientific search engines are starting to take advantage of Unpaywall.” Additionally, Unpaywall is “integrated into many university-library discovery systems, so that users can easily find freely available versions of research papers in institutional repositories.”She continues, “Large citation databases such as Scopus and Web of Science list the majority of all research articles. By integrating their records with Unpaywall data, researchers can systematically measure the proportion of the literature that is freely available—a feat that wasn’t previously possible.” For more information, read the article.
Library of Congress Free Browser Extension Is in Beta
Flynn Shannon, a junior fellow in the Library of Congress’ (LC) Office of Communications, writes in a guest post about creating a Chrome extension for free-to-use images from the LC. It is currently in beta. “I was tasked with designing and developing a proof-of-concept Chrome browser extension to increase awareness and interaction with digital images with no known copyright restrictions. These images are of particular interest because they can be used freely for any purpose.“Once installed, the extension will change the background of each new tab to a random picture from the Library’s collections that is free to use and reuse. The extension will encourage the use of these images by giving users the option to easily download, email, and share the photos on Facebook and Twitter. Users will also be encouraged to learn more about the items by interacting with them on the Library’s website.” For more information, read the blog post.
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Brandi Scardilli
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