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Weekly News Digest
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February 26, 2019 — 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.
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Credo Introduces Research Quick Tips Videos
Credo added Research Quick Tips videos to its Credo Online Reference Service platform as a standard feature. They provide research guidance for students while they are using the platform and are designed to support library instruction around information literacy and developing critical thinking skills. Students can use Research Quick Tips to select research topics, find relevant sources, access research strategies, and more.“Research Quick Tips offer an integrated approach for students to learn fundamental research techniques and then apply them within the same research platform. It’s another major enhancement toward establishing Credo Online Reference Service as much more than an A-to-Z database, one that is increasingly used by librarians in instructional settings,” says Ian Singer, Credo’s general manager. For more information, read the news.
Scholarly Kitchen Open Letter Calls for Participation in the OA Movement
Rick Anderson writes on The Scholarly Kitchen that there are two reasons for researchers, authors, and other scholarly publishing stakeholders to get involved with the OA movement: to help encourage publishing to adopt “a primarily (or entirely) open-access model” and to “have an influence on whether (and if so, how and to what degree) it happens.” He continues, “[I]f you want to make OA happen, then join the movement; it needs your voice, and there are a thousand ways to get involved. If you have concerns or reservations about OA—or, more specifically, about OA being made mandatory rather than voluntary—then the movement also needs to hear your voice.”For more information, read the blog post.
National Archives White Paper Studies Blockchain
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released a white paper about blockchain that aims to give federal records managers an understanding of blockchain technology and help them deal with its implications at their agencies. Its content is based on a project from FY2018, during which the research team attended interest group meetings, webinars, symposiums, and discussions with external blockchain experts; the team also performed a technical review and analysis of blockchain-related articles. The project’s goals were to help NARA understand how blockchain works, how the federal government is using it, and how it could impact records management.The white paper features a selected bibliography of the articles the research team used, as well as a glossary of terms that are delineated by bold italics throughout. For more information, read the white paper.
Kudos Rolls Out Feature for Comparing How Content Is Shared
Kudos introduced a new share channel comparator for publisher partners. This simple visualization shows where a publisher’s content is being shared and which channels are most effective at driving readership.“The feature draws on Kudos’ unique data set of communications by over 275,000 researcher-users, built up since 2013,” says Colin Caveney, Kudos’ head of publisher business development. “Our publisher partners have always been able to access and analyse data about where their authors are sharing, and to what effect—but this new ‘at a glance’ visualization is a powerful new summary, saving them time and effort. It’s now easier to derive and act on insights from Kudos, in terms of evidence-based guidance to authors and marketers.” For more information, read the blog post.
APA Spreads Awareness of Applied Psychology
The American Psychological Association (APA) is forming a new Office of Applied Psychology, which is for “a branch of the field that uses psychological research, theory and methods to address real-world issues,” according to the press release. It encompasses areas such as business and industry, design and engineering, education, law, and sports and technology. APA has committed to elevating its focus on this branch to “better serve members and raise psychology’s profile among the public and key decision makers in the many settings where psychology can add value and improve outcomes.” The organization will roll out several initiatives related to applied psychology, including launching a new journal and expanding its Technology, Mind & Society conference.For more information, read the press release.
OverDrive Snags Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics titles are now available to libraries via OverDrive in both one-copy, one-user and cost-per-circ models. The comics are in OverDrive Read format, which means they are readable in OverDrive’s Libby app. OverDrive is offering them in various collections, such as Marvel Classics, the Stan Lee Tribute collection, Villain Centered Titles, and Marvel Women Who Kick Butt.For more information, read the news.
eLife Unveils Computationally Reproducible Article
eLife published its first reproducible article in collaboration with Substance Software GmbH, Stencila, and Tim Errington (director of research at the Center for Open Science). These organizations had partnered in September 2017 to begin the Reproducible Document Stack (RDS) project “to support the development of an open-source technology stack aimed at enabling researchers to publish reproducible manuscripts through online journals. Reproducible manuscripts enrich the traditional narrative of a research article with code, data and interactive figures that can be executed in the browser, downloaded and explored, giving readers a direct insight into the methods, algorithms and key data behind the published research.”For more information, read the news.
IMLS Releases Report on Cultural Heritage Institutions
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) published “Protecting America’s Collections: Results From the Heritage Health Information Survey.” This report “shed[s] light on the challenges faced by libraries, museums, and archives as they care for their collections, as well as the many strides they have made over a decade,” according to the press release. It is based on the Heritage Health Information Survey (HHIS) from 2014, which “assesses the preservation and conservation needs of today’s collecting institutions and provides selected updates from the Heritage Health Index of 2004.”Among other findings, the report notes that 42% of organizations engage in emergency planning (with only 20% doing so in 2004), and 45% of organizations have conducted more collection assessments (a 50% increase from 2004). For more information, read the press release.
Amazon Brings Computer Science Courses to 1,000-Plus High Schools
Amazon is planning to “fund computer science courses in more than 1,000 high schools across all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” according to the press release, through its Amazon Future Engineer program. These courses will help “tens of thousands of students from underprivileged, underrepresented, or underserved communities” and encourage students of all backgrounds to consider further education and careers in computer science. Funding from Amazon will facilitate Intro to Computer Science and AP Computer Science classes with lessons, tutorials, professional development for teachers, a digital curriculum, and live online support for teachers and students.For more information, read the press release.
Springer Nature Augments Its Nano Database With Patents
Springer Nature added a new module to its Nano nanotechnology research database that allows users to sort through more than 22 million patents relating to nanotechnology across all major jurisdictions and languages. They can narrow a search by country, filing year, and jurisdiction. All current Nano users have access to the new module.“The new patent module is built for researchers with all levels of patent search expertise. Nano’s intuitive and simple search interface, in addition to the large collection of articles and nanomaterial summaries developed through extensive user feedback, empowers researchers to easily incorporate patent search into their workflow and utilize Nano as a strategic scientific and commercial evaluation tool,” says Bettina Goerner, managing director of databases at Springer Nature. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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