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Weekly News Digest
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December 7, 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.
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W3C Adds Web of Things Recommendations
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has made Web of Things (WoT) Architecture 1.1, Web of Things (WoT) Thing Description 1.1, and Web of Things (WoT) Discovery official W3C Recommendations. The press release shares, “Without breaking compatibility with the first release in 2020, these new W3C Recommendations improve and expand the scope of the Web of Things and add significant new functionality. In addition, two supporting W3C Notes have been updated, the Web of Things (WoT) Binding Templates and the Web of Things (WoT) Scripting API.”For more information, read the press release.
Kudos Calls for Publisher Respondents to SDGs Survey
Kudos shared the following request on behalf of the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows:Publishers, please take 5 minutes to share your organization’s awareness/activities around the SDGs. At January’s Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) conference, the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows have convened a panel to debate the role of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the scholarly publishing sector—and the sector’s role in changing the world. Ahead of the conference, the panelists are trying to gauge how well people in publishing understand the goals, how strongly they are supported, and what the opportunities and challenges are in terms of expanding SDG activities. Scholarly publishing colleagues are invited to share your perspective on these issues by completing a quick 5-minute survey: bit.ly/sdg-survey
Thomson Reuters Exec Makes AI Predictions for 2024
Thomson Reuters offers the following piece about artificial intelligence:Due to the ever-shifting landscape of Generative AI, leaders across industries must take stock of AI ethics and provenance. More specifically—once the hype has settled down—companies will need to examine their approach to the technology. Carter Cousineau, VP of data and model governance at Thomson Reuters, affirms that while speed of AI adoption is important, this should not be at the cost of responsible design, development, and deployment. With an intimate understanding [about] keeping AI ethics and transparency in check, Carter has shared several predictions for organizations/leaders to note as we head into 2024: - The dust will settle—The AI hype will begin to settle, but that doesn’t mean that companies can take a back seat. Rather, it will become necessary for organizations to really examine their approach to AI.
- Knowing your AI supply chain will be critical—We can expect to see growing focus on AI supply chain transparency in 2024 as companies look to ensure they have sufficient safeguards in place to protect against bias and ensure transparency.
- Organizational governance will increase—Vendors will need to be crisp on the value they’re bringing as companies ask more probing questions and lay down more governance. As focus grows, we could see ethical AI procurement become part of ESG [environmental, social, and governance] reporting.
Merriam-Webster Defines Its Word of the Year 2023
Merriam-Webster reveals the following:Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2023 is authentic—the term for something we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more than ever. A high-volume lookup most years, authentic saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media. Authentic has a number of meanings including ‘not false or imitation,’ a synonym of real and actual; and also ‘true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.’ Although clearly a desirable quality, authentic is hard to define and subject to debate—two reasons it sends many people to the dictionary. For more information and other noteworthy words of the year, read the news item.
Taylor & Francis and Future Science Group Join Forces
Taylor & Francis has brought the publisher Future Science Group (FSG) into its fold. “As well as bringing a portfolio of cutting-edge journals and digital hubs, FSG’s leading publishing solutions program will enable Taylor & Francis to offer researchers and medical communication planners a host of additional services,” the press release states. “Taylor & Francis now becomes the fourth largest publisher of pharma-funded research, with the addition of 32 peer-reviewed FSG journals and five digital hubs.”FSG has 15 fully OA journals, and researchers can choose to publish OA in all of its journals. FSG also has a Plain Language Summary Hub, which “supports authors to make technical content accessible for lay audiences and empowers patients in decision-making about their care.” For more information, read the press release.
OCLC Creates Discovery Catalog for Arabic Records
OCLC unveiled the Arabic Discovery Catalog (with information pages in both English and Arabic), which “brings together bibliographic records from libraries located in Arab countries into one catalog to enhance the discoverability and visibility of these collections for international research.” Built on the WorldCat Discovery platform, it features the records of more than 3.8 million Arabic resources, with more to be added.“The Arabic Discovery Catalog supports specific cultural and regional needs around improved discoverability and reach, nationally and internationally. It is our hope that this will mark a significant step forward for libraries and their users in the region, providing greater access and discoverability of these collections,” says Eric van Lubeek, VP of global library services and managing director for OCLC EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and APAC (Asia and Pacific). For more information, read the press release.
The Library Marketing Show Advocates for a Social Media Pause
Angela Hursh, founder of the Super Library Marketing blog, posted a new episode of her video series, The Library Marketing Show, titled “It’s Okay to Take a Break From Social Media! Here Are the Benefits of a Pause for Your Library.” She says taking a pause from some social channels can help a library analyze its effectiveness, among other benefits.For more information, visit the webpage and view the video.
AM Debuts Collection of Amnesty International Primary Sources
AM introduced a new primary source database, Amnesty International Archives: A Global Movement for Human Rights, which presents “the history of the leading human rights NGO, and how their activities intersected with other key events in the development of the idea of universal human rights.”The content, covering the first 30 years of Amnesty International after its founding in 1961, comes from the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. It includes about 50 hours of oral histories with founders and members, organizational records—reports, meeting agendas and minutes, conference proceedings, etc.—as well as the Urgent Actions series, “produced for international prisoners in immediate danger to request rapid action on their behalf” and the papers of founding member Eric Baker. For more information, read the news item.
Book Riot Recommends Affordable Book-Related Gifts
Kelly Jensen writes the following in “Gifts for Readers 2023: The Best Bookish Gifts Under $30” for Book Riot:I’ve organized this guide to the best gifts for readers under $30 by price point. You can look for gifts under $10, under $20, and then under $30. I’ve kept to non-specific gifts for readers. This means they’re not going to highlight a single author or book but rather encompass reading and books more broadly. In other words, these gifts are thoughtful but just generic enough to not offend a book lover because you accidentally bought them something about Jane Austen, and that’s not their jam. For more information, read the article.
Emerald Journals Added to ResearchGate for Better Discoverability
ResearchGate partnered with Emerald Publishing to add 18 Emerald journals to the ResearchGate network so they’ll be discoverable by ResearchGate members. Emerald’s journals cover the social sciences, economics, management, education, health social care, engineering, and more.“The new partnership will see the pilot Emerald journals benefit from ResearchGate’s innovative Journal Home offering. This will provide enhanced journal visibility through dedicated journal profiles, each journal being prominently represented on all associated article pages and other relevant touch points on the platform that are accessed regularly by ResearchGate’s 25 million members, including nearly 7 million users in the Social Sciences and Humanities,” according to the press release. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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