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Weekly News Digest

April 8, 2021 — 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.

Libraries Can Now Order JSTOR Ebooks Using Rialto and OASIS

“At a time when demand for ebooks is higher than ever before, libraries need simple workflows to manage their acquisitions,” says Rebecca Seger, VP of institutional participation and strategic partnerships at JSTOR. “Working with ProQuest enables us to expand the options available to libraries to support their established ebook workflows.”

“We are pleased to offer libraries the option to acquire JSTOR ebooks through their primary acquisitions workflow for greater efficiency,” says Audrey Marcus, VP of product management at ProQuest. “JSTOR is highly respected by librarians and users alike—and integrating their ebooks into Rialto and OASIS exemplifies the ProQuest value of delivering choice.”

For more information, read the press release.

'Should All Conference Talks Be Pre-Recorded?' by Peter Murray

The Code4Lib conference was last week. That meeting used all pre-recorded talks, and we saw the benefits of pre-recording for attendees, presenters, and conference organizers. Should all talks be pre-recorded, even when we are back face-to-face? …

For organizers and presenters, pre-recording allowed technical glitches to be worked through without the pressure of a live event happening. … Attendees and presenters benefited from pre-recording because the presenters could be in the text chat channel to answer questions and provide insights. Having the presenter free during the playback offers new possibilities for making talks more engaging: responding in real-time to polls, getting forehand knowledge of topics for subsequent real-time question/answer sessions, and so forth. …

For those with the means and privilege of traveling, there can still be face-to-face discussions in the hall, over meals, and social activities. For those that can’t travel (due to risks of traveling, family/personal responsibilities, or budget cuts), the attendee experience is a little more level—everyone is watching the same playback and in the same text backchannels during the talk. I can imagine a conference tool capable of segmenting chat sessions during the talk playback to ‘tables’ where you and close colleagues can exchange ideas and then promote the best ones to a conference-wide chat room. Something like that would be beneficial as attendance grows for events with an online component, and it would be a new form of engagement that isn’t practical now.

For more information, read the blog post.

DEI Updates

On March 30, NISO (National Information Standards Organization) shared “two important actions to support increased [DEI] in its work and its community. First, following Board approval of the NISO DEI Policy in January, a full DEI Committee has now been formed, led by NISO Board member Maria Stanton, who is Director of Production at Atla. Second, later this year, NISO will be hosting a workshop on DEI and standards, organized by the Committee, to help identify and prioritize key areas of opportunity and development.”

On March 29, Kanopy introduced two new collections “[t]o make it easier for libraries to ensure their streaming video collections contain films for people with different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs”—“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a curated collection of over 200 films from key suppliers like Video Project, First Run Features, and Film Movement that cover a wide range of DEI topics” and a “hand-selected package by Women Make Movies, more than half of which are produced by women from different cultures, as well as by LGBTQI women, older women, women with disabilities, and women of color.”

On March 25, eLife extended its partnership with PREreview, “an open project aimed at bringing more equity and diversity to the scholarly peer-review system.” The organizations “are now continuing their joint efforts to involve more early-career researchers, and researchers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented within the peer-review process, in the public review of preprints. PREreview will work with eLife to extend [their existing] series of preprint journal clubs and develop a framework for scaling the PREreview Open Reviewers program to reach more research communities globally. They will also help create new ways to increase the engagement and use of eLife’s early-career reviewer pool.”

On March 24, ACRL’s Choice publishing unit launched “a new content vertical, Toward Inclusive Excellence, focusing on racial justice. … [It] will explore issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, particularly as they affect the library community. The vertical is anchored by a weekly updated blog … and will incorporate podcasts, webinars, and research reports. Contributors and participants will include administrators at every level, faculty, and other members of the library community.”

Congressional and State Legislature Updates

First, on March 24, Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) introduced a bill, “the Guarding Readers’ Independence and Choice (GRINCH) Act, which would safeguard access to historical literature and combat growing threats to Americans’ First Amendment rights. … In recent weeks, classic authors, including Dr. Seuss, have been criticized for materials deemed to be offensive by the media. The GRINCH Act would protect authors and literature from the cancel culture that has become intertwined with public education [by prohibiting] states and local government agencies from receiving funding under the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants program if they ban books. For further details, read the full text of H.R. 2147 … here.”

Second, Publishers Weekly reports:

A Maryland state bill that would ensure public libraries the right to license and lend e-books that are available to consumers is headed to Governor Larry Hogan’s desk.

After passing the Maryland General Assembly unanimously on March 10, the bill sailed through the final steps of reconciliation this week, and is now ready to be signed into law. Hogan is known in Maryland to be a strong supporter of libraries, and library advocates say they are hopeful he will sign the bill. …

First introduced in January, the bill (HB518 in the House of Delegates and SB432 in the Senate) specifically requires that ‘a publisher who offers to license an electronic literary product to the public to also offer to license the product to public libraries in the State on reasonable terms that would enable public libraries to provide library users with access to the electronic literary product.’

In addition, ALA released a statement “welcom[ing] the release of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, an outline for modernizing the nation’s infrastructure. The plan includes certain investments in educational infrastructure, workforce development, broadband, and energy efficiency; however, the plan omits funding for library facilities, such as the bipartisan Build America’s Libraries Act … [which] would provide $5 billion to support long-term improvements to public and tribal library facilities in underserved areas, such as communities of color and rural areas, while also creating jobs. … The Build America’s Libraries Act currently has 85 bipartisan House sponsors and 12 Senate sponsors, and is supported by 30 organizations. … ALA is asking library advocates to urge the White House and Congress to ensure library facilities are included in any infrastructure package.”

Access Partnership: 'U.S. Supreme Court Rules on API Copyrights and Trump's Use of Twitter'

On Monday April 5th, the United States Supreme Court decided two cases with important long-term implications for tech companies. The first allows software companies to re-use portions of APIs developed by others, while the second will add momentum to calls for regulation of social media platforms. …

Google v. Oracle … has important implications for future software development. Although ‘fair use’ determinations will be fact-specific, Justice Breyer’s opinion focused on the ability of programmers to transfer their skills. This may impact companies that have invested in developing their own software ecosystems, or that seek to benefit from well-established ecosystems developed by others. The ruling will likely lead to further attempts at copying and more litigation as the boundaries of ‘fair use’ in software are explored further. …

In Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute, the Court dismissed a lawsuit against President Trump on behalf of users he had blocked from his now-defunct Twitter account. The lawsuit alleged that President Trump was acting in a governmental capacity on Twitter in his use of @RealDonaldTrump, hence blocking users was a violation of their free speech rights. The Court dismissed the case as moot, which was widely expected since he no longer holds office. (Biden’s name was substituted in the case since Trump was sued in his official capacity and Biden is now President.)

For more information, read the alert.

ACS Spreads Awareness for Chemists Celebrate Earth Week Activities

Anyone can get involved by planning virtual activities, sharing educational resources such as Celebrating Chemistry, encouraging students to participate in a digital illustrated poem contest, using the CCEW design toolkit, and more.

For more information, read the press release.

ALA Sponsors Dan Rather Event on Take Action for Libraries Day

For more information, read the press release.

REALM Project Plans Webinar on COVID-19 Vaccines

For more information and to register, visit the webinar’s description page.

ALA Releases Report on the Effects of COVID-19 on Libraries—Plus Banned Books

Additionally, “attempts to remove library materials continued during the pandemic, despite many libraries and schools closing or moving their activities and services online. …  In 2020, more than 273 books were challenged or banned. Demands to remove books addressing racism and racial justice or those that shared the stories of Black, Indigenous, or people of color grew in number. At the same time, books addressing themes and issues of concern for LGBTQIA+ people continued to dominate the list.” The top 10 most challenged books of 2020 were the following:

1. George by Alex Gino
2. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
3. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
6. Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
9. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
10. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

For more information and explanations for why each book was banned, read the press release.

Exact Editions Offers Digital Subscriptions to New Archaeology Magazine

“With double the content of all comparable titles, and covering the whole of human history, it’s full of compelling content,” says Nadia Durrani, the magazine’s co-founder. “We’re really excited to be able to offer archaeology devotees such a superb digital subscription, which will only grow in value as future issues build up to form a valuable archive of content.”

For more information, read the press release.