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Weekly News Digest
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August 26, 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.
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ISSN Adds New National Centre for Peru
The ISSN International Centre opened its 93rd National Centre in the ISSN Network in Lima, Peru. It is hosted by the National Library of Peru and serves as a registration agency for ISO 3297, which is the standard for identifying serials and continuing resources.“2021 is a very successful year for the ISSN Network with three consecutive openings of national centers: ISSN Ukraine in March 2021, ISSN Austria in April 2021 and ISSN Peru in August 2021,” says Gaelle Bequet, director of the ISSN International Centre. “Our teams of information professionals in Kiev, Lima, Paris and Vienna have been instrumental to achieve this expansion. The recent commitment of the National Library of Peru to promote ISSN is a pledge of success for this persistent identifier in Latin America.” For more information, read the press release.
'Hard-Won Victories and Lessons Learned During the Pandemic' by Dana Mannino
Dana Mannino writes the following for the Spokane County Library District (SCLD) in Washington:Without minimizing the negative impact that the pandemic has had on our lives, I’d like to take a moment to share some of the ways that I think the pandemic has changed my librarianship for the better. … While the library was closed, no one could browse the shelves to find new reads. People quickly discovered how limiting it is to only read books you’ve already heard of. Enter Book Butler. To use Book Butler, customers fill out a form describing their reading tastes, and we place several books on hold for them. When we rolled out the system, which also used curbside service, we received 35 requests in a single day. I spent a full shift responding to them. … Zoom fatigue is real, and I can hardly wait to get back to in-person programs. But it appears that there are situations where virtual programs are actually better than in-person ones. … [T]here may be information out there that you need, but you don’t need it badly enough to put on pants, or maybe a screen is a more comfortable way to talk about uncomfortable topics. Either way, I’m happy we can now connect you to live experts from the comfort of your home. For more information, read the article.
'Libraries Can Help in Times of Stress, Uncertainty, and Burnout' by EveryLibrary
EveryLibrary’s Take Action for Libraries platform published an article about libraries’ role in facilitating self-care and strong mental health. It states the following: Americans [who] are struggling with excessive stress, anxiety, or burnouts find that it affects all aspects of their lives—from work to social circles and family. This is why many libraries have created initiatives to not only bring awareness to mental health but also ways to maintain good mental health and work through trying times. Libraries are taking part in helping the community with mental health and wellbeing initiatives. This may not seem like the most obvious thing but libraries hold a huge impact when it comes to making a difference with mental health and wellness. Libraries maintain a wide reach into different populations within a community. Being such a centralized resource that is open to any and all types of people, the library is the ideal place to launch educational wellness programs and create a safe space for people to take refuge when needed. In some countries such as the United Kingdom, libraries and reading are specifically prescribed as a tool to help with healing. Libraries wear a variety of hats when it comes to helping their communities. Mental health is just another area where patrons are served. With growing daily stresses that come with living in a modern age and unexpected global disasters like the pandemic, people are needing guidance and support more than ever. Libraries are there to fill this need. For more information, read the article.
CCC's RightFind Now Offers Wiley Subscriptions for Life Sciences Customers
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is making subscriptions to Wiley journals available via its RightFind content workflow solution so that emerging life science and biotech organizations that are RightFind customers can subscribe to more than 8 million articles from 1,750-plus journals.“Individual article purchase is often not the most efficient or cost-effective way for emerging R&D organizations to get content,” says Lauren Tulloch, VP and managing director of corporate solutions at CCC. “This collaboration with Wiley enables us to offer quick and easy access to a wide range of the content researchers need to conduct critical work efficiently and effectively.” For more information, read the press release.
Quartex Makes It Easier to Edit Transcripts for Audiovisual Content
Adam Matthew Digital’s Quartex digital collections platform introduced a new feature, “edit A/V transcripts,” which improves discoverability and understanding of audiovisual content. Quartex notes that “where sound quality is poor or there is excessive background noise or music, correction of transcription files may be necessary. Users of Quartex can now edit these transcriptions and timecoding to significantly improve the experience for all users, including those who rely on accurate transcriptions to support screen reader technology.”“Editing our transcriptions with other vendors used to be a problematic, time-consuming process,” says Alex Cherian, TV archivist at the Bay Area TV Archive. “The release in Quartex of the ability to edit A/V transcriptions in-platform enhances its position as one of the most intuitive, user-friendly interfaces I’ve worked with. I’m now fully editing clip transcriptions in a few minutes, which is much more efficient.” For more information, read the news item.
Ex Libris Integrates Controlled Digital Lending Into Its Library Software Solutions
Ex Libris developed “new functions that will increase the compatibility of the company’s library software solutions with controlled digital lending,” aka CDL. This means that libraries can “lend a digital copy of a physical resource in a ‘lend like print’ manner—that is, in the same way in which they lend the physical resource itself. … CDL enables libraries to cater to patrons with differing needs, such as a print disability or difficulty in accessing a library building. CDL also gives patrons the option to borrow books in a manner that suits them.”Ex Libris added a new tool to Alma Digital that allows “a librarian to easily make CDL resources available for short-term use. The key principle of CDL is maintaining the own-to-loan ratio between the number of copies—both digital and physical—that the library holds and the number of concurrent copies in circulation.” Ex Libris will also implement CDL for general circulation loans, via Rapido. In addition, the company created a community-led advisory group “to create a roadmap for implementing more CDL capabilities in Ex Libris products. The advisory group members bring to the table a broad range of expertise on CDL workflows and copyright issues.” For more information, read the press release.
Digital Science Rolls Out New Dimensions Database for Life Sciences and Chemistry
Digital Science introduced Dimensions Life Sciences & Chemistry (L&C), a new version of its Dimensions platform. The press release shares the following:Dimensions L&C analyzes more than 120 million scientific publications, millions of patents, grants and clinical trial documents. It is both larger than other databases, and unlike traditional manually curated tools, applies up-to-the-minute semantic text analysis tools and ontologies, providing powerful up-to-date discovery functionality previously unavailable at such scale. … Users can search for small molecules, chemical reactions and gene sequences, validate biomarkers, understand disease mechanisms and identify drug targets. They can also quickly discover relevant chemical information in broader life sciences and chemistry research areas working with a chemistry structure editor and a biosequence search for nucleotides and proteins. Different from other products, data is identified in full-text documents on a daily basis, creating a highly comprehensive and up-to-date resource. For more information, read the press release.
Craftsy and LawDepot Are Now Available From OverDrive
OverDrive added Craftsy and LawDepot to its collection of databases and streaming media services. OverDrive describes Craftsy as “a cost-per-circ-based service that offers crafting videos, tutorials and additional resources for creative makers. With more than 3,000 hours of content and over 1,300 courses from expert instructors, Craftsy allows users to bring quality crafting courses into their homes in an accessible way.” Courses include Sewing, Quilting, Knitting, Baking, Cake Decorating, Painting, Jewelry Making, and Woodworking.OverDrive describes LawDepot as “a subscription-based service that offers an extensive library of documents and legal resources, providing easy-to-use assistance with a wide range of legal needs. More than two million people have used LawDepot to save over a billion dollars in legal fees.” For more information, read the blog post.
IEEE Signs OA Agreement With FinELib
IEEE and the FinELib consortium of Finnish organizations signed an OA read-and-publish agreement. This allows users at FinELib institutions to access IEEE journals, conferences, and standards from the IEEE Xplore digital library. In addition, affiliated authors will be able to publish their work OA. During this 3-year agreement, “the costs of accessing subscription content and the article processing charges (APCs) required to publish open access are covered by the license fees paid by consortium members, making the process easier and more convenient for authors.”IEEE CMO Karen Hawkins says, “By offering this pilot agreement, IEEE has an opportunity to test a model that we can offer more broadly if it proves to successfully and sustainably meet the needs of our readers and authors. IEEE is committed to exposing vital research to the global community and to making the publication experience for the research community in Finland and across the globe as easy as possible in the journals on which the scientific and engineering community relies.” For more information, read the press release.
The Library Corp. Announces Updates to Its CARL ILS
The Library Corp. (TLC) unveiled the newest release of its CARL suite of ILS products, “including features targeted at providing inclusive library [services] and pleasant patron experiences, in addition to enhancing library staff workflows and providing additional customization options to meet their libraries’ community needs.” CARL•X is on version 9.6.9, CARL•Connect Staff is on version 1.6.5, CARL•Connect Discovery is on version 3.6.3, and CARL APIs is on version 1.9.9.The press release describes one of the updates: “A longstanding patron frustration in the library industry has been when an item on their account is unable to be renewed because a hold has been placed on the title, even though patrons can see additional copies available on shelf. The latest CARL release addresses this concern by comparing the number of holds currently placed on a title against the number of copies available on shelf that could fulfill the outstanding holds, and allowing the renewal if the available items to holds ratio meets library-defined parameters. This comparison happens at the point of renewal via staff access, within the patron’s account, and during auto-renewal.” In addition, CARL now “allows libraries to customize the number of days before a patron account is blocked when an item on their account is overdue. A nuanced approach to the Fine Free movement taking place in libraries, this setting will continue to incentivize the return of materials without creating a financial impact to patrons.” And libraries will have the option to use a patron’s preferred name on their account, not just their full legal name. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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