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Weekly News Digest
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August 27, 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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bibliotheca and Patron Point Join Forces for Better Library Marketing
bibliotheca partnered with Patron Point to provide “libraries with effective marketing tactics they can employ to easily promote the many benefits of [bibliotheca’s] cloudLibrary and drive new user adoption. … The partnership allows data usage to be shared between cloudLibrary and the Patron Point marketing platform to allow the library to identify frequent, occasional and non-users, then segment those user groups for targeted messaging and promotion. The partnership will also provide mutual customers with a pre-designed marketing kit of templates, images and messaging that will greatly simplify the process of designing and producing the campaigns.”For more information, read the press release.
Upcoming Events in the Civic Tech Space
Zack Quaintance writes about the following upcoming civic technology events for Government Technology:Code for America, the nonprofit and nonpartisan group at the forefront of civic tech, is preparing for National Day of Civic Hacking 2019, which will take place on Sept. 21. … [T]he 2019 National Day of Civic Hacking will coincide with National Expungement Week, which is an effort by community groups across the country to help those who are eligible start the process of clearing their criminal records. … [T]he civic tech group and Code for America brigade in Philadelphia, Code for Philly, is preparing for its own annual month-long hackathon. Dubbed Launchpad 2019: Phundamentals, this event will start in early September and span the entire month, as it has for the past two years as well. Launchpad is [a] hackathon composed of many different events, participated in by groups of multi-disciplinary volunteers. For more information, read the article.
Koios Brings Together Canadian Library Marketers
Koios has implemented a national roundtable for Canadian library marketers so they can share ideas and best practices for online marketing (including initiatives involving search engines, social media, and vendors). Called SMART (Search MArketing RoundTable), its founding members are the leaders of Hamilton Public Library, Barrie Public Library, and Brampton Library. Librarians from across Canada are invited to join its moderated community on LinkedIn by connecting with Koios’ Beatrice Pitocco at linkedin.com/in/beatricepitocco.For more information, read the press release.
APA Plans Conference on the Links Between Psychology and Technology
The American Psychological Association (APA) is hosting a conference, Technology, Mind & Society, from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, 2019, in Washington, D.C. The conference “will focus on efforts to understand and shape the interactions of human beings and technology.” Psychologists, computer scientists, engineers, and others will be able to share discoveries, network, and plan future research.Topics include older adults and technology, digital games in therapy, virtual reality for health and well-being, and mental healthcare for rural and underserved populations. The keynote speakers come from organizations such as the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, the Center on Aging and Behavioral Research at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. For more information, read the article.
ALA Encourages Opposition to Macmillan's Ebook-Purchasing Policy
ALA and the Public Library Association (PLA) created a customizable template to help state library chapters and local library boards speak out against Macmillan Publishers’ new ebook policy “that would allow a library to purchase only one copy of a new title in eBook format upon release. After this time, Macmillan will impose an eight-week embargo on a library’s ability to purchase additional copies to lend.”Alan Inouye, ALA’s senior director of public policy and government relations, says, “As ALA President Wanda Brown said in July, this is unacceptable, and Macmillan needs to hear from more of us that this embargo hurts readers, libraries and authors. … The time to speak is now—before the embargo is scheduled to go into effect on November 1.” For more information and to download the template, read the press release.
Studying the Effectiveness of Fact-Checker Warning Labels
The American Press Institute published an article in its newsletter, Factually, asking, “Can warnings from fact-checkers reduce sharing?” It notes the following:Paul Mena, a professor of journalism and news writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara … concluded that people were less likely to share content on Facebook that includes a fact-checking warning label than stories that are not flagged. … Mena’s study was based on a sample of 501 participants from across the political spectrum who were asked about whether they would share certain kinds of content on Facebook. ‘The study showed that respondents who saw a fabricated Facebook post with a warning label had lower intentions to share that content than those who did not see the flag,’ his report said. The effect of these sharing intentions, notably, remained the same even after Mena controlled for the participants’ political leaning. For more information, read the article.
CQ Press Advocates for Women in Politics
CQ Press published the book Why Don’t Women Rule the World?: Understanding Women’s Civic and Political Choices, which seeks “to encourage students’ political interest and ambition and close the gender gap along the way. The book integrates intersectionality throughout, taking into account global and diverse experiences and backgrounds.” It also offers Ambition Activities to boost women’s confidence in political environments by teaching them how to deal with sexist comments, prevent ideas from being misappropriated, practice authoritative speaking, and more.Topics covered include the following: - How individuals form opinions about gender issues
- When and where women candidates emerge (including insight into campaign finances)
- How the underrepresentation of women in politics affects policy
- A five-step action plan to begin ‘dismantling the patriarchy’
For more information, read the press release.
Simba Information Releases Report on the School Publishing Market
Simba Information rolled out a new report, “Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2019-2020,” “which examines changes in market demand and how the publishing industry is meeting those changes.” The market forces shaping demands for instructional materials are identified in the report in categories such as statewide tests, digital supplements, and video. The report’s findings include the following:- There is renewed focus on having students capable of grade-level reading by third grade;
- Workforce training and career and technical education are receiving renewed focus in statehouses and school districts;
- Civics and civic engagement are burgeoning areas with plenty of room for growth.
- Increased use of apps, games and maker-spaces for hands-on projects in classrooms has led to what teachers have called an ‘integrated a la carte’ approach that ties together data on student needs and resources to address those needs.
For more information, read the press release.
Ithaka S+R Studies Reproducibility and Replicability in Research
Melissa Blankstein writes for Ithaka S+R about a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on reproducibility and replicability in different research fields. She notes, “Congress requested this collaborative study because of prolific media exposure on data misconduct and the inability of scientists to replicate important research. Additionally, there has been extensive media coverage of researchers who fabricate their data and have published fraudulent findings. Due to this abundance of concern regarding research fraud and data fabrication in diverse fields, as well as feedback from various academic communities, the 2018 cycle of the [Ithaka S+R] US Faculty Survey included new inquiries to assess faculty attitudes on this topic.” For more information, read the blog post.
Association of American Publishers Sues Audible Over Captions Feature
Porter Anderson writes the following for Publishing Perspectives:The Association of American Publishers [AAP] … has asked the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to enjoin Audible from providing to its audiobook consumers the machine-generated text of literary works ‘without any authorization from, compensation to, or quality control by the copyright owners.’ In media messaging … from the Washington DC offices of AAP, the organization says its lawsuit names seven AAP member-companies as plaintiffs. They include the Big Five major publishing houses. … The suit is being filed in response to recent public statements from Audible, in which it announced its planned rollout of a feature called ‘Audible Captions.’ And in a special note to member publishing houses, AAP president and CEO Maria A. Pallante writes, in part, ‘The feature, wholly unauthorized, transcribes and displays the text of narrated performances, which are embodied in the audiobook sound recordings that publishers have otherwise authorized Audible to distribute.’ For more information, read the article.
OCLC Celebrates 20 Years of Fellowship Program
Nancy Lensenmayer, OCLC’s program director for education and professional development, writes on the OCLC Next blog, “Who would have imagined that the program announced at the 1999 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Thailand would have such an incredible, far-reaching impact? That’s exactly what the Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Fellowship, an education and professional development program for early career librarians from developing countries, has done. Twenty years later, the program has realized [its] potential. … What a joy it has been to work with IFLA and the 95 remarkable early career librarians from 42 developing countries selected for program participation!”She continues, “Where are the Fellows now and what are they doing? Energetic, enthusiastic, and engaged, these library leaders are developing and implementing best practices and making significant contributions to librarianship. Many have assumed leadership positions in libraries and professional associations in their countries. Others have earned advanced degrees and are teaching in library schools, mentoring young professionals, and partnering on collaborative projects.” For more information, read the blog post.
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Brandi Scardilli
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