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Weekly News Digest
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April 13, 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.
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'More Thoughts on Pre-Recording Conference Talks' by Peter Murray
Peter Murray followed up this post on the Disruptive Library Technology Jester (DLTJ) blog with further discussion. He writes:Over the weekend [of April 3], I posted an article here about pre-recording conference talks and sent a tweet about the idea on Monday. I hoped to generate discussion about recording talks to fill in gaps—positive and negative—about the concept, and I was not disappointed. … I added to the previous article’s bullet points and am expanding on some of the issues here. … As I hoped, the Twitter replies tempered my eagerness for the all-recorded style with some real-world experience. There could be possibilities here, but adapting face-to-face meetings to a world with less travel won’t be simple and will take significant thought beyond the issues of technology platforms. For more information, read the blog post.
Innovative's Vega Discover Completes hoopla Integration
Innovative shared that its discovery solution, Vega Discover, has finished full hoopla account integration. Now patrons can use Vega Discover as a central place to view digital resources and interact with them without switching apps: Patrons can check out hoopla items and check them back in directly in their Vega Discover account. The hoopla integration was something the Vega Discover Development Partner libraries prioritized, and Vega Discover is designed to be open to all integrations with other vendors and third-party apps.For more information, read the press release.
GPO Plans to Digitize and Freely Offer Every U.S. Government Document
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) is aiming to make every U.S. government document publicly accessible via the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information, which houses all of the government’s public information products. GPO will digitize the documents, and the public can find them using govinfo and the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP). govinfo is a digital repository that has more than 2 million content packages that can be downloaded from the National Collection. CGP is a finding tool for more than 1 million records in the National Collection—users can get direct links to full documents and to Federal Depository libraries that offer the publication they’re looking for.GPO notes, “To achieve its vision, GPO will identify, acquire, catalog, disseminate, digitize, make accessible, authenticate, and preserve all Government publications.” For more information, read the press release.
Cambridge University Press Expands Its OA Publishing Program
Cambridge University Press has entered into 129 new OA read-and-publish agreements with institutions in the U.S., including state university systems, liberal arts colleges, and major research universities. This brings the number of institutions in the U.S. partnering with Cambridge University Press in this way to more than 140—and globally, it has agreements with nearly 1,000 institutions in 34 countries.“The sheer number of deals we have signed in the last year, against a tough economic back-drop, shows strong appetite and support for our push to transform our journals business to open,” says Chris Bennett, Cambridge University Press’ global sales director for academic publishing. “We are committed to transitioning our research journals publishing to full OA by 2025 and Transformative Agreements are an essential element of this strategy, ensuring a sustainable future for OA journals.” For more information, read the news item.
Library of Congress: 'Six Copyright Concepts Your K-12 Students Should Know'
The blog Teaching With the Library of Congress reposted an entry from another Library of Congress blog, Copyright: Creativity at Work. Although it’s from November 2020, the entry contains information worth sharing. Nicole Lamberson writes:Whether you’re teaching young students just starting out or preparing older students for life beyond high school, incorporating copyright concepts into your lesson plans can help engage a student’s creativity and foster an appreciation for the importance of protecting creative works. Students interact with copyright daily, often without realizing it. They draw a picture of their family or record themselves playing a familiar tune on their recorder. They perform a monologue from a well-known play or write a short story inspired by another work. They research a topic for a term paper or analyze a novel for a book report. At all ages, students are not only creating copyright-protected works, they are using the copyright-protected works of other authors along the way. The post cover six topics: Every Is a Copyright Owner, Copyright Gives Owners Some Exclusive Rights Over the Use of Their Work, Copyright Registration Protects Works by Creators of All Ages, Everyone Is a Copyright User, Learning About Fair Use Is Valuable, and Copyright Is Important. For more information, read the blog post.
Taylor & Francis Group Enters Transitional OA Agreement With Jisc
Taylor & Francis Group signed a 3-year transitional agreement for OA publishing with Jisc that offers Jisc members an OA allowance covering all of the current levels of U.K. research that Taylor & Francis Group is publishing on a subscription basis. Researchers also get reading access to subscription content and access to the Taylor & Francis Research Dashboard.“This deal provides author choice across the spectrum of journals published by Taylor & Francis Group, and underscores the commitment to supporting UK research excellence and impact,” says Annie Callanan, Taylor & Francis Group’s CEO. “Beyond this deal, we are keen to explore ways to work collaboratively with Jisc to encourage good open research practices: whether that be via a traditional journal article in front of the paywall, through to sharing all research data, methodologies and associated research. This deal is the first step on that path.” For more information, read the news item.
Springer Nature Publishes Updates on Its Plan to Meet Environmental and Social Goals
Springer Nature rolled out the “2020 Sustainable Business Report,” its fourth annual study of the company’s environmental, social, and governance performance. The report features “the steps being taken to champion open science, support delivery of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and the work [Springer Nature] is doing to reduce its own environmental impact. The company updates on the progress it is making in increasing diversity, equity and inclusion within its own leadership and how it is seeking to influence greater inclusion within the research and education communities it works with. The report also highlights the role of research publishing in the global endeavour to tackle COVID-19.”In addition, the report shows that Springer Nature is net carbon neutral for emissions associated with its offices, fleet, and flights. For more information, read the press release.
Clarivate Studies Research Trends in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey
Clarivate unveiled the newest “Global Research Report” from the Institute of Scientific Information, which “explores the seismic shift of the research landscape in 19 countries across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region over recent decades. It presents an international success story, with the region’s global share of research output quadrupling from 2% to 8% over the last 40 years, and papers from 22 million individual researchers identified within the region between 2008 and 2017.”In addition, “Iran has surpassed Israel and Turkey to become the largest research producer among MENAT countries, increasing its world share of the Web of Science literature from 0.2% in 2000 to 2.3% in 2019.” In the MENAT region, public health and epidemiology are the most popular topics for publication overall; in Turkey, the most popular topics are sustainable economic growth and biogas, and in Iran, the topic of soil erosion is “especially strong.” “The data indicate that MENAT research shows high levels of global collaboration, resulting in diverse and high-quality output with rising impact,” says Martin Szomszor, director of the Institute for Scientific Information. “However, regional collaboration remains relatively low and fragmented and our analysis suggests that a collaborative regional network could improve competitiveness between the region and the rest of the world by focusing on shared needs and international priorities.” For more information, read the press release.
BirdWatching Magazine Perches at Exact Editions
It’s a good time to be a birder. The Big Year was just added to Disney+, the World Series of Birding is less than a month away, and Exact Editions just launched a digital subscription to BirdWatching magazine. Individuals and institutions can subscribe to get the fully searchable archive dating to 2019. The magazine, focused on North American birding, offers tips for feeding and attracting birds, book reviews, new products, news about conservation hotspots, and more.“Regardless of whether readers enjoy watching birds in their backyard or further afield, the new archive will arm enthusiasts with the information they need to find, attract, identify and understand birds,” says Jason Pomerantz, VP of circulation strategy at Madavor Media, which owns BirdWatching. For more information, read the press release.
ALA Plans Preservation Week 2021
ALA shared plans for Preservation Week 2021, which will be held April 25–May 1 and have the theme Preserving Community Archives. Observed by ALA along with hundreds of libraries, institutions, archives, and museums, the week will feature journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones as its honorary chairperson. ALA notes, “As the creator of The New York Times’s landmark 1619 Project, Hannah-Jones examines slavery’s modern legacy, reframing the way we understand the history of slavery and the contributions made by Black Americans to this nation. Her essay, ‘Our Democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true,’ was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize.” She will be active on social media during the week, discussing issues related to civil rights and social justice.For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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