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Weekly News Digest
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July 30, 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.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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ALA Disapproves of LinkedIn Learning's Terms of Service
ALA released the following statement about LinkedIn Learning:LinkedIn Learning—formerly Lynda.com, a platform used by libraries to provide online learning opportunities to library users—plans to make substantial changes to its terms of service that would significantly impair library users’ privacy rights. Under LinkedIn Learning’s new terms of service, a library cardholder will need to create a LinkedIn profile in order to access LinkedIn Learning. In addition to providing their library card number and PIN, users will have to disclose their full name and email address to create a new LinkedIn profile or connect to their existing profile. New users will have their LinkedIn profile set to public by default, allowing their full name to be searched on Google and LinkedIn. ALA has long affirmed that the protection of library users’ privacy and confidentiality rights are necessary for intellectual freedom and are fundamental to the ethical practice of librarianship. ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and its interpretations maintain that all library users have the right to access library resources without disclosing their personally identifiable information (PII) to third parties, and to be free from unreasonable intrusion into, or surveillance of, their lawful library use. To read the rest of the statement, view the press release.
ALA Aims to Help New American Populations
ALA published “Library Programs and New Americans: A White Paper” to help public libraries better serve immigrant populations. Its content comes from a 6-month research project by ALA’s Public Programs Office and a team of public library staffers and partner organizations, which studied library offerings for new Americans, identified gaps in service, and developed a set of recommendations. The team also conducted site visits across the U.S. and held focus groups.Melanie Welch, project director, says that “ALA has not yet undertaken a comprehensive approach toward developing a set of best practices, nor have we endeavored to start a national conversation about library services to new Americans, until now. We hope this white paper feeds the discussion and advances the public library field’s work to support the needs of immigrants, refugees and displaced persons in their local communities.” For more information, read the press release.
Portico Archive Safeguarded at the National Library of the Netherlands
Portico teamed up with the National Library of the Netherlands to create an online replica of the Portico archive that the library will host. The organizations have collaborated for more than a decade on digital preservation practices.“We believe that placing a replica of the Portico archive in Europe … will provide Portico’s library and publisher supporters around the world with additional assurance of the long-term safeguarding of the content we preserve,” says Kate Wittenberg, managing director of Portico. For more information, read the press release.
The CASE Act Moves Forward in the Senate
DL Cade writes for PetaPixel, “The CASE [Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement] Act, a major piece of legislation that would introduce a small claims court for copyright infringement cases, has officially been passed by Senate Judiciary Committee, clearing the way for a full vote on the Senate floor. … As of now, defending your copyrights means taking your case to federal court—a complicated and expensive proposition. If passed, the CASE Act would remedy this by establishing a small claims tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office, making it much easier and cheaper to defend your copyrights in court.”For more information, read the article.
ProQuest Updates OASIS With Bowker Data
ProQuest enhanced its OASIS (Online Acquisitions and Selection Information System) catalog with bibliographic information from Bowker’s Books In Print. With this data, the OASIS database has more than 39 million print titles, 2 million ebooks, and 36,000 streaming videos. The data offers librarians higher-quality search results, better linking between formats, and more accurate and consistent information such as publication date and author.For more information, read the press release.
Elsevier Is Set to Acquire Parity Computing
Elsevier signed a definitive agreement to acquire Parity Computing, which “employs artificial intelligence to provide high-accuracy entity resolution, profiling and recommendations for STM content and applications in the world of research.” It also offers disambiguation technology for Elsevier’s A&I databases. According to the press release, “Parity and Elsevier will work together to build on Parity’s existing capabilities, deepen their integration and extend them more broadly across Elsevier’s research platform.”“By working more closely with Parity, we can deliver even better insights to help researchers, universities, governments and funding agencies make better decisions by enabling them to find emerging trends, increase the visibility of their research, build collaborative networks, bolster funding applications and articulate the value of research,” says Olivier Dumon, managing director of research products at Elsevier. For more information, read the press release.
Science Labs Partner With the LabTwin Digital Assistant
LabTwin, a voice- and AI-powered digital lab assistant, joined forces with life science lab facilities in California that provide space to scientists and biotech startups—Bonneville Labs and Lab Launch, Inc. According to the press release, “Bonneville Labs and Lab Launch have selected LabTwin’s digital assistant to augment their smart lab capabilities and allow their resident scientists to be more productive. … [LabTwin] works alongside scientists to collect data, connect internal and external information streams, help manage experiments and streamline documentation.”The labs’ resident companies will get a free, fixed-period LabTwin trial and preferred rates after that. For more information, read the press release.
Sen. Thom Tillis Pledges a Modernized U.S. Copyright Office
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) writes the following for IPWatchdog.com:Unfortunately, Congress has fallen behind in one crucial aspect of the copyright system: ensuring that the American people have a nimble, state-of-the-art, and efficient Copyright Office at their service. The Copyright Office administers the copyright law, not only registering a wealth of intellectual property but also providing the public with critical notice of ownership, licenses and assignments, date of publication, public domain status and more. But despite years of debate amongst Congress and stakeholders, the Copyright Office remains woefully underfunded and antiquated. It no longer effectively serves the needs of the United States. [M]y Subcommittee [the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property] will convene a hearing later this month to provide oversight and support of the Copyright Office … and it is my hope that our work throughout the fall will produce a bill by the end of this year that provides the Copyright Office with the appropriate structural autonomy and necessary resources it needs to support … America’s creators in the 21st century. For more information, read the article.
WomenCorporateDirectors Celebrates a Win for Women in Business
Susan C. Keating, CEO of the WomenCorporateDirectors (WDC) Foundation, released a statement on the fact that there is “at least one woman board director on every S&P 500 company board of directors,” which “means that women’s voices are now being heard where it matters. And this inclusiveness will change everything.”She continues: “At WomenCorporateDirectors, we have been working steadily for 18 years to change the face of corporate governance, as well as equip the world’s women corporate directors with the best governance skills needed for board service. … Now, on to parity!” For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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