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Weekly News Digest
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February 13, 2024 — 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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Clarivate Extends Financial Times Partnership for 2024 Business School Rankings
Clarivate is continuing its partnership with the Financial Times (FT) for the sixth consecutive year to get the FT’s “trusted high-quality data for three of its business school rankings, including the Global MBA Rankings,” whose 2024 edition was released on Feb. 12. The other two 2024 rankings will follow in March (Online MBA Rankings) and October (Executive MBA Rankings). “Its three annual business school rankings provide valuable insights for prospective students seeking a high-quality business education. The rankings show how institutions have performed and progressed in the past year, influencing institutional strategy including talent acquisition,” Clarivate notes. The FT uses Web of Science data to inform its rankings.For more information, read the press release.
Access Innovations Provides Knowledge Domains to Help Deploy AI Systems
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 12, 2024 Access Innovations, Inc. Launches Knowledge Domains that Support AI Efforts for Content Producers Access Innovations, Inc., provider of Data Harmony software solutions, is proud to announce that they have over 70 knowledge domains available for license to content producers in support of deployment of artificial intelligence systems in their organizations. The knowledge domains cover a wide range of topics, including medicine, engineering, humanities, biology, and chemistry, among others.“The knowledge domains are not only a fully developed thesaurus including the hierarchical taxonomy view, related terms, and a robust layer of synonyms, but have the option to include an automatic tagging component using the outline of knowledge for a specific conceptual area or ‘domain’ as well. Data must have tags that will enable it to be found in search, no matter how large the LLM is,” said Marjorie Hlava, Chief Scientist and Founder of Access Innovations, Inc. “With these knowledge domains, content producers can easily and quickly tag their content for use in ingestion into various AI systems.” “These systems, like ChatGPT and Bing, will always provide an answer, even if the answer is wrong,” commented Jay Ven Eman, Chief Administrative Officer at Access Innovations. “If there is a piece of content that doesn’t have appropriate tags, the AI system will ignore it and the response can be anywhere from a simple omission to a gross mistake that could have serious consequences.” “LLMs need to be fed every single possible synonym for any given word. It is different from other tagging applications,” added Heather Kotula, President and CEO of Access Innovations. “That’s a lot of work, and our knowledge domain offerings make it a machine aided process to give content producers quick results. Time to market is short, usually within a week or less to deploy and tag a corpus.” Knowledge Domains are listed on the company’s website. # # # About Access Innovations, Inc.
Access Innovations is a top 100 company in the global knowledge management industry. We empower our clients to realize their search goals by leveraging our Data Harmony Suite, Data Harmony Hub, and our team of semantic experts. Every day millions of users’ search experience is influenced by the taxonomies, thesauri, and metadata that Data Harmony has created. Whether you need a taxonomy editor, an indexing, classification, and metadata enrichment tool, or content analysis tools to construct a semantic model, Data Harmony builds explainable AI that increases search precision by over 90% and your team’s productivity by over 7 times. For more information about Access Innovations or Data Harmony, please visit www.accessinn.com or www.taxodiary.com. CONTACT:
Jay Ven Eman
Chief Administration Officer
J_Ven_Eman@accessinn.com
+1 505 975 2755 Press release archive: www.accessinn.com/news
Cyber Civics Introduces a New Curriculum for 4th- and 5th-Grade Digital Literacy Instruction
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE‘Digital On-Ramps’ Lessons Prepare Elementary School Students to Use Technology Responsibly San Clemente, Calif.—The digital literacy experts at Cyber Civics have just released a brand new curriculum called “Digital On-Ramps.” As the name implies, this innovative program for 4th and 5th grade students is an on-ramp to safe and wise technology use. The curriculum packs social emotional learning (SEL) plus digital literacy into 40 turnkey lessons, hands-on activities, original videos, student worksheets, and (sometimes) homework. The aim is to equip youth with the skills they need most to use connected devices responsibly.  Like the Cyber Civics middle school curriculum, Digital On-Ramps is fun and easy to teach. Educators simply access turnkey materials via a private online portal. Every lesson is anchored by an entertaining video featuring the intrepid Cyberwise owl mascot who is just learning to use the internet too! Whether teachers show these videos in the classroom or not, they can use the lesson plan as a guide to deliver lessons, activities, and facilitate discussions in the classroom (or at home!).
Digital On-Ramps is a research-based program that meets national educational standards (CASEL Social-Emotional Competencies, ISTE Tech Standards, and Common Core ELA Standards) as it prepares students for the challenges of online life. Program Begins by Exploring ‘Values’ Like a compass, values can guide students towards making wise decisions, online and off. They also promote character development and help youth become well-rounded individuals. The first unit of Digital On-Ramps—Using Values to Guide You—begins with an exploration of important values, like kindness, responsibility, self-discipline, tact, and more. The value lessons come in pairs, the first explores the value in the offline world, while its pair explains how it can guide us online. A second unit—Getting Ready to Take Flight—introduces students to the basics of technology, such as the history of the Internet, how search works, device care, and finding balance. A third and final unit—Are You Really Ready?—explores topics such as misinformation, reputation, cyberbullying, privacy, safety, and more. Digital Literacy + SEL Go Hand-in-Hand In a meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL (Social Emotional Learning) programs, participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behavior, as well as an 11-percentile-point gain in academic performance.1 The social-emotional competencies—Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making—are in high demand online too! These are the skills students desperately need in order to avoid the pitfalls of online life and to know how to engage, safely and wisely, with the flood of information (and people!) they will encounter online. “We are thrilled to introduce our new curriculum for 4th and 5th graders, designed to prepare and empower the next generation of digital citizens,” says Diana Graber, Cyber Civics founder and author of Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship With Technology. “In today’s increasingly digital world, it’s more important than ever to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and emotional intelligence they need to navigate the online landscape responsibly. By providing comprehensive digital literacy education for students from grades 4 to 8, our aim is to do just that.” The launch of a 4th and 5th grade curriculum marks another milestone in Cyber Civics’ mission to provide high-quality digital literacy education to students worldwide. With a track record of success and a commitment to excellence, Cyber Civics continues to lead the way in preparing students to become ethical, safe, and productive digital citizens. Phase 1 (20 lessons) available now. Phase 2 (coming June ’24) will add an additional unit (Are You Really Ready?).
- Drlak, Joseph A et al. “The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: a meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions.” Child development vol. 82,1 (2011): 405-32. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
CYBER CIVICS is the provider of a comprehensive middle school digital literacy curriculum that teaches digital citizenship, information literacy, and media literacy skills. The curriculum, delivered in three levels, includes 75+ turnkey lessons, hands-on activities, slides with embedded videos, student worksheets, teacher guides, and send-home parent letters with activities. Schools across the US and internationally have taught Cyber Civics since 2013. Cyber Civics now offers “Digital On-Ramps,” an SEL + Digital Literacy curriculum for fourth and fifth grades that consists of 40 turnkey lessons, activities, videos, student worksheets, and more. Visit our websites: www.cybercivics.com www.cyberwise.org Connect with us on social media: Instagram: www.instagram.com/cyber.civics Facebook: www.facebook.com/cybercivics Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/cybercivics YouTube: www.youtube.com/@CyberCivicsStudentHub
PRAISE FOR CYBER CIVICS “The Cyber Civics Digital On Ramps curriculum is age appropriate and meets the children where they are developmentally. My colleagues love the turnkey aspect, and students love all the engaging and fun activities. It’s the perfect fit for our 4th/5th graders just about to enter the digital world.” —Shelley Glaze-Kelley, administrator, Journey School, California “I appreciate the thoughtfulness to the curriculum and the variety of types of activities and engagements.” —Sara Andrassy, teacher, Richmond Waldorf School, Virginia “Cyber Civics has been such a valuable resource for Socrates Academy. We have noticed a considerable increase in our scholar’s digital citizenship and making good decisions online. Prior to implementation, we were having a HUGE problem with TikTok and bullying—since implementing we’ve noticed a stark difference. I attribute that change to Cyber Civics.” —Vanessa Baker, principal, Socrates Academy, North Carolina “Fantastic programs/lessons! The kids get a lot from them!” —Susan Pennington, librarian/ELA teacher, Springfield Public Schools, Illinois “Cyber Civics is a wonderful curriculum. It’s easy to use and has great, easy to use presentations!” —Consuelo Candelaria, teacher, Magdalena Municipal School District, New Mexico “Cyber Civics lays a strong foundation for healthy digital ethics, information and computer literacy for our children so when they face inevitable, difficult choices online, they will make the right decisions.” —Dr. Paul Helfrich, teacher, Westside Waldorf School, California
CABI Publishes New Case Study Collections for Animal Science and Food Science Research
CABI added two new collection titles to its case studies series, which is based on CABI’s expertise in research and publishing in the areas of agriculture, the environment, and the applied life sciences.Animal Science Cases applies “the biological, physical, and social sciences to problems associated with livestock production and management. Subjects range from livestock nutrition to climate change adaptation.” Food Science and Nutrition Cases focuses “on the growing area of food science and nutrition. The case studies address nutrition, food quality and quality of diet and their impact on health. They also consider food in relation to chemistry, microbiology, production, processing, formulation, engineering, analysis, and regulation.” The other titles in the series are Animal Behaviour and Welfare Cases, One Health Cases, Plant Heath Cases, and Tourism Cases. For more information, read the press release.
Freedom to Read Foundation Plans Virtual Program on Intellectual Freedom
Freedom to Read Foundation Presents a Virtual President’s Program: Continuing the Conversation: Intellectual Freedom and Social Justice February 22, 20243:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 p.m. Central, 1:00 p.m. Mountain, 12:00 p.m. Pacific 90 minutes Please register here. Freedom to Read Foundation and National Associations of Librarians of Color leaders will share how our organizations are responding to challenges to intellectual freedom and the right to access information. A significant number of the challenges in the past two years have been to works by or about persons of color. Through this conversation we will identify ways our organizations can support one another in fighting censorship. Through Education, Litigation, and Advocacy, the Freedom to Read Foundation works to protect First Amendment rights. A commitment to social justice is fundamental to the work of the Foundation. Learn more here. Panelists include: Sukrit Goswami, President of the Freedom to Read Foundation Alison Waukau, President of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) Amy Breslin, Member at Large, Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Nichelle Hayes, President of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) Ray Pun, Immediate Past President of the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) Loida Garcia-Febo, International Relations Committee Chair, REFORMA—The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking Press release archive: ftrf.org/news
New HeinOnline Database Reveals U.S. States' Interactions With Foreign Governments
HeinOnline, a product of William S. Hein & Co., Inc., launched a new database: U.S. State Commitments With Foreign Governments. This “groundbreaking collection of more than 750 legal and political commitments between U.S. states and foreign governments, edited by Ryan Scoville, Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School,” features many agreements that have never been published before.“U.S. states frequently enter into arrangements with foreign governments to cooperate on issues ranging from economic development to environmental protection,” HeinOnline explains. The database offers the full text of hundreds of these, sourced from 650-plus freedom-of-information requests, “including one with every major administrative agency in each of the fifty states. State officials responded by delivering copies of more than 750 commitments totaling more than 3,500 pages.” The database is designed “for scholars of international law and U.S. foreign relations law, political scientists who study paradiplomacy, federal and state policymakers, and the voting public.” The database can be purchased in print or online database formats. The online version has the full collection, features a Commitment Index tool for easy searching, and can be browsed by state, country, or subject. The book has a curated set of about a quarter of the commitments, along with notations providing context, highlighting legal issues, and identifying academic sources. For more information, read the press release.
Fandom Leverages Generative AI for Streamlined Creation on Its Platform
Fan platform Fandom “is utilizing AI to provide faster and easier ways for both creators and fans to find and engage with content across its 45 million wiki pages. Fandom’s new AI features will deliver curated quick answers, easier image selection and management and optimized content recommendations to enable faster and more accurate editing for wiki admins while making information more accessible for the 350 million fans that come to the platform each month,” the press release reports.The two generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) features are Quick Answers and Image Review. Quick Answers “utilizes Gen AI to provide fans with concise, direct answers to their questions, allows wiki admins and editors to quickly review curated answers to maintain a high bar for quality, and provides the option for creators to add their own curated questions & answers.” Image Review simplifies “the image review process across its wikis to ensure quick and accurate removal of inappropriate content, in collaboration with Coactive.AI. This eliminates time-intensive human review for every image and video on Fandom's 45 million pages, enabling admins to use auto-approve or auto-reject options.” For more information, read the press release.
Thieme and Cassyni Join Forces for AI-Enhanced Chemistry Webinars
Thieme and Cassyni will enhance Thieme Cheminar recordings with Cassyni’s semantic video technology, and they’ll be available to view via its smart video player. In addition, “Cheminar recordings will be augmented with AI outlines which highlight key moments within the recordings as well as clickable links to Thieme content referenced within talks. Each recording will be assigned a DOI for enhanced discovery through Cassyni’s integrations into the wider scholarly ecosystem,” Thieme shares.Cheminars are “a series of live online seminars for the chemistry community” that are “hosted by editorial members from the Thieme portfolio of chemistry journals and the reference work Science of Synthesis, introducing talks presented by Thieme authors of papers judged to be particularly outstanding. Cheminar events are free to attend and cover topics at the forefront of chemical research of interest to scientists both in academia and industry.” For more information, read the press release.
Springshare Unveils Interactive Tutorials Options for Libraries Using LibWizard Full
Springshare rolled out Interactive Tutorials functionality for its LibWizard Full feedback and assessment product. “With Interactive Tutorials, creators add content slides, then overlay interactive components to create an engaging learning experience for students and patrons,” the press release shares. “Interactive Tutorials allow libraries to guide their users through tutorial content, provide self-paced instruction, and assess patrons’ progress and understanding. Furthermore, creators can use the new interaction types to design virtual escape rooms, interactive puzzle slides, choose-your-own-adventure scenarios, and other creative applications.”For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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