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Weekly News Digest
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February 16, 2023 — 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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PREreview Provides Update on Training Peer Reviewers in Africa
Daniela Saderi writes the following in “Open Peer Reviewers in Africa: A Train-of-Trainer Program Pilot Recap” for PREreview:Over the past 18 months, AfricArXiv, Eider Africa, eLife, PREreview, and the Training Centre in Communication Africa (TCC Africa) have collaborated to develop a peer-review training workshop called Open Peer Reviewers in Africa, tailored to the region-specific context of African researchers. Together we co-created and openly shared tools and strategies for scholarly literature evaluation, and trained the first cohort of 11 African researchers. With this blog post we aim to summarize the fruits of this collaboration, and highlight the profile and work of the 5 trainees who have moved on to be open peer review trainers themselves. For more information, read the blog post.
Clarivate's Preprint Citation Index Joins the Web of Science
Clarivate added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science, enabling researchers to discover and link to preprints alongside other content in the Web of Science. The preprints are connected to their final versions when applicable. Clarivate notes that with the addition of the Preprint Citation Index, it becomes “quicker and easier for researchers to include [preprints] in their existing research workflows. It enables immediate access to up-to-date, aggregated and searchable preprints from selected repositories linked to author profiles.”The Preprint Citation Index currently offers nearly 2 million preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, ChemRxiv, medRxiv, and Preprints. Throughout 2023, preprints from more repositories will be added. For more information, read the press release.
'Publishers Want to End How Libraries Lend Books Online' by Andrew Bauld
Andrew Bauld writes the following for EveryLibrary’s Medium account:When it comes to physical books, copyright laws are relatively straightforward. Libraries purchase a book and lend it to patrons one at a time. But with digital copies, libraries usually rent e-books from publishers, lending them out a few dozen times before they have to renew licenses which can cost upwards of four to five times the amount of buying the book. But the [Internet Archive] and other libraries have tried a different tack by buying and scanning copies of books to lend out to patrons one at a time through a model called Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). What has become clear … is that publishers want CDL as a whole declared illegal. … [P]ublishers argue that digital lending harms markets they claim to own and that CDL is not a fair use under copyright law. But library advocates argue that behind their argument of copyright infringement, publishers are simply trying to increase their profits while wresting control of the use of digital books away from libraries. For more information, read the article.
SAGE and the Joint Council of Librarians of Color to Launch a Scholarship Program
SAGE joined forces with the Joint Council of Librarians of Color (JCLC, Inc.) to create a new scholarship program that will provide $2,000 each to library school students from underrepresented backgrounds, with the call for applications coming this spring.The five awardees will be selected from each of the five National Associations of Librarians of Color (NALCo): the American Indian Library Association (AILA), the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking. For more information, read the press release.
Taylor & Francis Signs 3-Year OA Deal With Tokyo Tech
Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) entered into a 3-year transformative partnership with Taylor & Francis in order to increase the publication of OA articles by Tokyo Tech researchers.“Under the agreement, articles with a corresponding author based at Tokyo Tech will receive funding support to publish OA in Taylor & Francis and Routledge Open Select (hybrid) journals,” Taylor & Francis states. “Tokyo Tech is the first member of the Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources (JUSTICE) to opt in to a new ‘read & publish’ deal negotiated by the consortium.” This is also Taylor & Francis’ first read-and-publish deal with an institution in the Asia Pacific region. For more information, read the press release.
The Library of Congress Updates the Federal Library Directory
The Library of Congress (LC) launched the free Federal Library Directory’s updated second edition, which “profiles federal libraries and information centers in the United States and abroad. Presented with an interactive map, the directory displays geographic and collections data from nearly 1,400 federal libraries.” The LC explains that this digital directory “provides a comprehensive view of federal agency library efforts including their collections, staff size, leadership, circulation and reference services.”It is sponsored by the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK), with research support from the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. “FEDLINK anticipates this directory will raise awareness of federal libraries and information centers and contribute to more effective use of the resources maintained by these organizations,” the LC says. For more information, read the news item.
Helper Systems Rolls Out Its First Preview of kOS
Helper Systems introduced a preview of its first app, kOS, which helps researchers find and use information across PDFs with tools such as Word Cloud and Occurrences. Anyone can try out kOS 1.0 using their macOS laptop or desktop via Apple’s TestFlight.kOS is designed for students, professors, and knowledge workers who are looking to research more effectively, as well as for legal, government, and corporate employees who need to manage contracts, invoices, patents, and other documents in PDF. For more information, read the press release.
The ISSN International Centre Signs Its First German Partner
The ISSN International Centre announced that the ZBW–Leibniz Information Centre for Economics is the first partner from Germany to report its digital preservation efforts to the Keepers Registry—nearly 2,000 journals and working paper series in the coming years. As ISSN’s newest “Keeper,” ZBW–Leibniz Information Centre for Economics will list its output in the ISSN Portal.“To give libraries worldwide an overview of titles for which digital preservation is already being guaranteed or not, and who is responsible for it, the ISSN International Centre keeps a list, the Keepers Registry, integrated into the ISSN-Portal,” ISSN states. For more information, read the press release.
OpenAthens Studies Access to Digital Content in Academic Libraries
OpenAthens released a report, “Library User Experience: Removing Barriers in the Search for Knowledge” (registration required), which reviews “the common challenges that users and researchers face and how they could be resolved.” OpenAthens “worked with consultancy firm Digirati to talk in depth to academic library users across the globe about access to digital content.” The report is designed for librarians, publishers, service providers, network operators, governments, and any other stakeholders in the area of remote access to digital content.For more information, download the report.
ZDNet Offers Tips for Limiting Your Phone Usage
Christina Darby, ZDNet’s associate editor, writes the following in “5 Simple Ways to Ditch Doomscrolling and Beat Screen Fatigue”: Taking the day—or every day—off of doomscrolling doesn’t require some elaborate scheme or deleting [an] app altogether. Rather, it’s the implementation of a few small practices I’ve started to incorporate that make for big results. … As a Gen Zer, scrolling through my [friends’] social lives isn’t just a habit, but a social custom. But there’s a sweet spot, and custom algorithms make it harder and harder to find. Someday, I hope I can instantly know when enough is enough on social media, and then have the willpower to close out of the app for the day. For more information, read the article.
Springer Nature Acquires the TooWrite Platform Digital Writing Tool
SpringerNature acquired the TooWrite Platform, a digital writing aid that was developed by researchers. Springer Nature shares that “the TooWrite platform streamlines and simplifies scientific writing by guiding researchers through the process as if they were answering a questionnaire. In addition, expert how-to guides are attached to each question, supporting researchers as if they had an editor by their side. By structuring it in this step by step way, researchers’ time is freed up by making the writing process more efficient. Currently available to support the writing of abstracts (beta prototype), it is being developed to support the writing of full research papers.”The TooWrite Platform’s co-founder, Ivy Cavendish, will join Springer Nature in the newly created role of head of writing solutions. She will oversee the tool’s development. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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