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Weekly News Digest

October 12, 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.

CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

JSTOR Introduces the First Titles From the Path to Open Program

JSTOR shared that the first books from the Path to Open program have been released. Path to Open is a delayed-OA model that was “designed to affordably and sustainably support the open access publication of new groundbreaking books in the humanities and social sciences.” New books are made available to libraries in the program, and they become OA after 3 years. So far, 37 university presses and 60-plus academic libraries have joined.

The released books, which are all peer-reviewed, were selected by the participating presses and JSTOR. They cover topics such as Public Health, Religion, Education, Communications, Literature, Conflict Resolution, and Film Studies. JSTOR aims to release 300 titles per year in 2024 and 2025.

For more information, read the press release.

The Latest IFLA News

On Oct. 3, IFLA shared that it was “informed of the decision to withdraw the invitation to hold the 2024 World Library and Information Congress in Dubai. … As Dubai was the only viable bid, there will now not be a World Library and Information Conference in 2024.”

On Oct. 6, IFLA released an “analysis of library fields at the regional level around the world. Based on the data submitted to the Library Map of the World, this offers initial high-level insights in order to start conversations. Above all, it represents a call for ongoing work to increase and improve available data.”

On Oct. 9, IFLA published “[a]ll videos and slides from this August[‘s] IFLA Academic & Research Libraries Section (ARL) Satellite conference to the 2023 WLIC in Rotterdam. …”

CCC Updates Its Open Access Modeling and Analytics Tool

CCC added “new data import capabilities and AI-enabled affiliation matching in its OA Agreement Intelligence modeling and analytics tool that provides publishers with a 360-degree view of disambiguated publication data to build accurate, transparent institutional offers regarding OA.”

CCC continues, “OA Agreement Intelligence supports the import of publication data from subscriptions and non-RightsLink sources to further enhance the capability to analyze and compare various business scenarios. The solution combines sophisticated, AI-enabled, affiliation-matching technology and analytic capabilities, to reliably disambiguate institution affiliation and funder relationships. This empowers publishers to easily structure and negotiate OA agreements.”

For more information, read the press release.

DPLA and University of Chicago Bring The Banned Book Club to All Illinois Readers

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) entered into a new partnership with the University of Chicago Library to expand The Banned Book Club, which launched in July, to all readers in the state of Illinois. The club ensures “that every reader in communities where books have been banned can access ebook versions of banned titles for free via the Palace app.” In addition, the University of Chicago Library is making physical copies of the banned titles available for borrowing.

For more information, read the news item.

ByWater Solutions Owners Replace Outgoing PTFS Europe Leaders

ByWater Solutions shared the following:

Nick Dimant, one of the original founders of PTFS Europe, and Ian Bays are retiring as shareholders and Directors of PTFS Europe with immediate effect. Their outstanding shareholding has been purchased by ByWater Solutions. Brendan Gallagher and Nathan Curulla, co-owners of ByWater Solutions, are also joining the board as Directors. This provides new growth opportunities for both organisations and assures a strong future for the companies.

PTFS Europe and ByWater Solutions have already enjoyed a long and fruitful working relationship in the Koha and Aspen open source communities. We see this as an opportunity to strengthen this relationship and provide many benefits for the libraries and software communities that we work with.

For more information, read the news item.

TLC Updates Its ILS With a Redesigned Interface and Other Features

The Library Corp. (TLC) rolled out the newest release of the CARL•Solution ILS. There is “a redesigned interface in CARL•Connect Staff, new Holds Management functionality [in CARL•Connect], and the addition of PayPal as an eCommerce option for CARL•Connect Discovery Desktop and Mobile.”

CARL•Connect Staff Items now displays a grid view, and users with the appropriate permissions can access the “add an item” page more simply. “Holds counts and statistical information at the bibliographic and item level are available in an easy-to-read view at the top,” TLC notes. “Other features in this release further support TLC’s security-first design principles, providing a secure client connection without the need for a VPN tunnel.”

For more information, read the press release.

Annual Reviews Acquires Charleston Hub

Annual Reviews purchased Charleston Hub, which puts on the Charleston Conference and publishes the Against the Grain journal. The leadership team at Charleston Hub will stay in place, and they will discuss the acquisition at this year’s conference, to be held Nov. 27–Dec. 1, 2023, in Charleston, S.C.

“This acquisition will preserve and extend a conference that addresses topics such as open science, data curation, and the role of artificial intelligence,” says Richard Gallagher, president and editor-in-chief of Annual Reviews. “It reinforces our commitment to the knowledge community, following our acquisition of The Charleston Advisor last year.”

For more information, read the press release.

EveryLibrary Institute and Book Riot Publish Results of Parent Perceptions of Public Libraries Survey

The EveryLibrary Institute and Book Riot released the results of their survey of parental attitudes toward public libraries and the issues they face. “The ‘Public Libraries and Book Bans - Parent Perception Survey’ gathered insights from 853 parents and guardians with children under 18 during September 2023. The survey asked parents and guardians to share their experiences and opinions about book bans, their trust in libraries, their understanding of librarians’ book selection process, and their feelings on sensitive subjects in children's books,” EveryLibrary shares. “Top-level findings show that a majority of respondents (67%) think that ‘banning books is a waste of time,’ and 74% agree or somewhat agree that book bans infringe on their right to make decisions for their children. The survey also found that 92% of all respondents feel their child/children are safe at the library, and 58% think librarians should be primarily responsible for what books are selected in the public library. Respondents are largely unaware of how librarians decide what books to include in the library collection.”

For more information, read the results summary.

Getty Images Rolls Out a New Generative AI Tool for Content Creation

Getty Images launched “Generative AI by Getty Images, a new tool that pairs the company’s best-in-class creative content with the latest AI technology for a commercially safe generative AI tool.”

The company continues:

Generative AI by Getty Images is trained on the state-of-the-art Edify model architecture, which is part of NVIDIA Picasso, a foundry for generative AI models for visual design. The tool is trained solely from Getty Images’ vast creative library, including exclusive premium content. …

Customers creating and downloading visuals through the tool will receive Getty Images’ standard royalty-free license, which includes representations and warranties, uncapped indemnification, and the right to perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive use in all media. Content generated through the tool will not be added into existing Getty Images and iStock content libraries for others to license. Further, contributors will be compensated for any inclusion of their content in the training set.

For more information, read the press release.

Cassyni and Imperial College London Join Forces to Publish Researcher Seminars

The Cassyni seminar platform teamed up with the graduate school of Imperial College London for 2023–2024 to allow Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers to publish a seminar for free so they can increase the impact and visibility of their work.

“Seminar recordings are enhanced using Cassyni’s proprietary AI technology to produce high quality transcripts, extract slides, and resolve references to scholarly works contained in the talk, linking seminars to the wider scholarly literature. The enhanced recording is then published with a DOI making it part of the scholarly record,” the press release states. “The partnership is complementary to the university’s sustainability strategy since it reduces the need for international travel whilst giving their staff and students the opportunity to grow their global profile.”

For more information, read the press release.



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