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Weekly News Digest
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August 28, 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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Library 2.018 Conference Adds Event on Social Crisis Management
The Library 2.018 Worldwide Virtual Conference introduced a free online mini-conference, Social Crisis Management in a 21st Century World, which will be held on Oct. 17, 2018. It will be a platform for library professionals, employers, LIS students, and educators to discuss how libraries have developed and encouraged programs and services that address social crises such as hunger, homelessness, and substance abuse. The call for proposals is now open. Register to attend live or to get a link to the recording afterward.For more information, visit the website.
Library of Congress Website Showcases Political Cartoons
In a guest blog post for the Library of Congress, Jeffrey Shen writes, “Over the course of my three month internship with the LC Labs team, I developed a website/interactive data visualization which allows users to explore the late 1800s through political cartoons contained in the Cartoon Drawings collection. The main feature of the website is an interactive timeline that displays the number of cartoons in this collection, graphed by year. … Underneath the timeline, there is also a slideshow of political cartoons from the Library’s collections. These images, which update alongside the timeline, help the user explore Library content in an interactive and engaging manner.”For more information, read the blog post.
Amazon Launches Prime Book Box for Children's Titles
Amazon announced that its Prime Book Box, a subscription service for hardcover children’s books, is now available to all Prime members in the U.S. At $22.99 per box, it delivers a selection of books every 1, 2, or 3 months to anyone age 12 or younger that is curated by Amazon’s team of book editors. The books can be new releases, classics, and other titles that are tailored to a child’s age group, and subscribers can choose to preview them or be surprised when they get the boxes.For more information, read the press release.
IMLS Announces Newest Grant Awardees
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is offering 45 grants totaling more than $8 million for U.S. libraries. They are part of the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program (31 projects “that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance theory and practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used”) and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (14 projects that support “developing a diverse workforce of librarians to better serve the changing learning and information needs of the American public by enhancing the training and professional development of librarians, developing faculty and library leaders, and recruiting and educating the next generation of librarians”).For a partial list of the grantees, read the press release.
EveryLibrary Hosts Funding Drive With Help From ByWater Solutions
EveryLibrary and ByWater Solutions created a monthly donor drive with the aim of raising $1,500 in new monthly donations for EveryLibrary by Oct. 1, 2018. If that goal is reached, ByWater Solutions will match the first month of donations. Donors—who can pledge $1, $3, $5, or $10 per month—will receive an I Love My Library enamel pin.“We want to see EveryLibrary have the resources it needs,” says Brendan Gallagher, co-owner and CEO of ByWater Solutions. “The impact they have on library funding is so important. We want to encourage people to become monthly donors because those donations are the base for growth.” To find out what EveryLibrary activities, and how much stable library funding, these donations support, read the news.
Library Lending Comes to Kobo E-Readers
Kobo added one-touch public library lending capability to its line of e-readers: Kobo Aura ONE, Kobo Aura H2O (Edition 2), Kobo Clara HD, and Kobo Aura (Edition 2). According to the press release, “Set-up is free and easy, all that’s needed is a library card from any OverDrive-powered library, and through an integrated catalogue [on the device], booklovers can search for the title they want, and depending on the title, choose either to borrow or buy with just one click.”For more information, read the press release.
New Book Review Enewsletter Launches
John Maher writes in Publishers Weekly, “Ann Kjellberg, a longtime former contributing editor at the New York Review of Books, has launched Book Post, a subscription-based book review.” Sent out twice a week via email, the newsletter features a book review and what Kjellberg calls “occasional writerly reflections and digests of the current book scene, the latter available for free to non-paying subscribers and visitors on the web.” Maher notes Kjellberg will partner with independent bookshops each month to promote local bookstores and share reading-life stories from across the U.S.A $30-per-year subscription is available until Sept. 10, after which it will cost $45 per year. For more information, read the article.
GlobalData Studies Company Spending on Emerging Technologies
GlobalData released research that “reveals a significant shift toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data platform spending among IT practitioners.” Brad Shimmin, GlobalData’s service director, says:If the last few years has shown anything it’s that the Internet of Things (IoT) is a clear stepping stone along the path toward what many consider to be the next industrial revolution. … But the great myth of IoT, that it alone can miraculously enable factories and cities to run themselves is just that—a myth. Without a view into the business as a whole, IoT is nothing but the instrumentation and reporting of select functions. Real digital transformation requires not just IoT but IoT in context, which is to say alongside big data and analytics, all fueled by AI. … As companies come up to speed on AI and big data, GlobalData expects to see continued efforts by IoT players in driving digital twin-enabling technologies, for example blockchain, that will help companies understand how those foundational investments can be put to work more broadly. For more information, read the press release.
GOBI Library Solutions Joins Forces With the TIND ILS
EBSCO Information Services’ GOBI Library Solutions partnered with TIND, an ILS provider, to streamline GOBI acquisitions for TIND libraries. Libraries can use the GobiAPI to fully integrate with the GOBI platform in real time and transfer bibliographic and order data from GOBI to the TIND ILS. According to the press release, TIND ILS users can “search for e-book and print titles in the extensive GOBI online catalog. All orders placed in GOBI will be automatically delivered to TIND ILS, creating a brief bibliographic and order record in the ILS. The API service, which will work on TIND ILS Version 1.6 and higher, will further enhance the workflow process and make it easier and more efficient for customers to locate titles and place orders.”For more information, read the press release.
IMLS to Explore Effects of Libraries and Museums on Communities
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will undertake a new study, Understanding the Social Wellbeing Impacts of the Nation’s Libraries and Museums. According to the press release, “The goal of the year-long project is to gain a better understanding on a national level of the conditions under which museums and libraries contribute to quality of life and wellbeing in the communities they serve. The new study will focus on these institutions’ essential roles within a community to help them demonstrate the success and impact of their programs and services.”For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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