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Weekly News Digest

June 9, 2022 — 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.

StackShare Reaches New Milestone in Helping Customers Get Insight Into Their Tech Stacks

StackShare Enterprise offers real-time, automated tech stack visibility that helps customers “identify opportunities for and coordinate consolidation of versions, technologies, and products. This allows companies to eliminate risk and costs from duplicate technologies with standardized tech stacks for different scenarios that everybody knows how to utilize.” The platform “automatically maps out all of the tools, services, and libraries being used across engineering orgs, down to the version level, with the click of a button and keeps the data updated as tech stacks change.”

For more information, read the press release.

The Palace Project Introduces a New App and a New Platform

The Palace App, for iOS and Android devices, has content from all major econtent vendors, including OverDrive, Baker and Taylor, Bibliotheca, and Bibliolabs. The Palace Marketplace offers titles (with flexible licensing terms) from the Big Five publishers, Amazon Publishing, and hundreds of independent publishers. The Palace Project is already serving 100-plus libraries and is currently onboarding more in various states across the U.S.

For more information, read the press release.

IMLS Shares Results of Studies on Library Services From Early in the Pandemic

The two-page infographic, How Public Libraries Adapted to Serve Their Communities at the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, “highlights strategies public libraries used to ensure patrons had access to library services as the pandemic forced closures in communities around the nation beginning in March 2020.”

The research brief, State Library Administrative Agency Adaptations in the Initial Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Ongoing Trends, “chronicles how SLAAs formed new partnerships with other government departments and agencies to provide services to libraries in their jurisdictions or members of the public during the onset of the pandemic. The brief also describes how SLAAs adapted to new restrictions related to on-site work.”

For more information, read the press release.

Frontiers Participates in Europe's Collaborative Stick to Science Initiative

Initiated by Universities UK, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), public research university ETH Zurich, the ETH Board, Wellcome and The Royal Society, the ‘Stick to Science’ campaign calls for an open, inclusive, and collaborative research and innovation landscape in Europe that is free from political barriers. The initiative comes off the back of uncertainties over the UK and Switzerland’s participation in Horizon Europe, the EU’s €95.5 billion [about $102 billion] research and innovation program. The UK’s relationship with Horizon Europe remains trapped in post-Brexit arrangements, while Switzerland is locked out of parts of the program, pending further government talks. In both cases, efficient science collaboration continues to be stalled by politics. …

Commenting on signing the initiative, Stephan Kuster, head of public affairs at Frontiers, says, ‘Scientists empower society and the ability to collaborate across borders is essential for this. As the 3rd most-cited publisher, Frontiers’ mission is to accelerate scientific discovery by making science open and we stand firmly for open and barrier-free collaboration among Europe’s research and innovation actors. We sincerely hope EU institutions, member states, and the governments of the UK and Switzerland recognize that advancement in [research and innovation] is best achieved when all actors in science work collaboratively together across geographic boundaries.’

For more information, read the blog post.

Denodo Publishes a White Paper Based on Its Global Cloud Technologies Survey

The Copyright Claims Board Is Ready to Get to Work

For more information, read the news bulletin.

'Thoughts on Post-Pandemic Fatigue, Resilience and Talent Management' by Masud Khokhar

Recently, I have been reflecting on how my staff are feeling currently as we slowly move out of the pandemic in the UK. Considering that a pandemic is typically a once in a century event, I want to pay huge credit to the adaptability and flexibility shown by staff during this time. Services were literally shifted from physical to virtual overnight, and work from home trials became a long-term reality within days. The strength of character and resilience shown was exemplary. So why is it that most staff are still feeling tired, unloved, not cared for, and frustrated[?] …

Some staff are fatigued due to the lack of social and psychological infrastructures to support their resilience and unless social and psychological safety aspects are reestablished, they will either be resistant to, or will have no capacity for, change. At the same time, some staff are feeling frustrated by being stuck in the neutral zone of the transition. They recognise that the pandemic has marked an end to a previous way of working and they are keen to exhibit the leadership and agility further, and establish a new beginning for themselves and the organisation. Unfortunately, with large change programmes, organisations are reverting back to the comfortable hierarchical structures they have been used to in the past, leading to frustration and anxiety for these people. This anxiety often leads to an escape mentality, leading to high turnover of staff for an organisation. …

So is there a way out of this difficult situation? This is the time where I have to be honest and say I don’t have all the answers. What I do know is that this is the time to manage talent effectively and enable talented people to achieve the very best they can. Now is the time to break obstacles rather than recreate barriers. Now is the time to readjust ways of working to create supportive infrastructures.

For more information, read the article.

Florida International University Works Toward Preventing Cyberattacks on U.S. Energy Systems

FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing researchers have received a $2 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help develop technology to prevent, detect, analyze and mitigate cyberattacks against U.S. energy systems. …

The project, entitled “Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Tools (ArtIT) for Cyber Hardening of Power Grids,” involves developing artificial intelligence techniques and analytics that identify attacks in real-time and creating intelligent controllers to enhance the bulk power system’s attack resiliency. The team will then validate and test the tools in collaboration with utility and industry partners.

For more information, read the press release.

'Conservative Group Launches "Hide the Pride" to Remove Books From Library Pride Displays' by Danika Ellis

CatholicVote … has launched a ‘parent-led movement’ called Hide the Pride to ‘empty libraries of LGBTQ content aimed at kids.’ It encourages members of the public to first collect signatures protesting library Pride displays containing children’s books, then to check out all of the books on display. …

Most public libraries use circulation numbers (how many times a book has been checked out) to determine popularity, so this strategy could backfire by suggesting to librarians that these are popular titles that should be kept and may even need more copies on the shelf. …

The increase in challenges and bans of LGBTQ books over the past two years, in public libraries and school libraries, shows a backlash to progress that punishes LGBTQ kids and teens the most. It makes public spaces a less accepting and safe place, it denies them essential resources that can save lives, and rhetoric like this is damaging for queer people of all ages, but especially young queer people, to have to hear.

For more information, read the article.

DOAJ Project Aims to Keep OA Journals on the Web

DOAJ notes, “Initially a scoping exercise, Phase One has subsequently seen the project partners design, implement and test a process for workflow efficiencies, capacity and usability. Articles from a number of journals have been ingested and documentation has been updated. Along the way, knowledge has been gained and valuable lessons have been learned. … Next up for Project Jasper is a funding drive to enable us to support even more journals and include more preservation agencies.”

For a list of positive outcomes from and challenges raised by the project, read the blog post.