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Weekly News Digest
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December 17, 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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Cadmore Media and IET.tv Join Forces to Offer Video Production Services for Clients
Cadmore Media entered into “a new partnership with IET.tv, a trusted leader in video production since 2002. This collaboration allows Cadmore Media to offer production services to its clients, including high-quality broadcasts, webinar production, original content creation, and in-person event capture, all seamlessly integrated with Cadmore’s industry-leading video publishing solutions.”For more information, read the blog post.
ByWater Solutions Plans Webinar Series for 2025
ByWater Solutions’ new webinar series will “focus on the fundamental features of Koha and Aspen so that you can have all the information you need to get ready to make the switch to an open-source product.” The webinars include the following:- A Librarian’s Guide to Koha, Jan. 15
- Libki at Your Library, Feb. 26
- What Is Metabase?, March 5
- What to Expect When Implementing Aspen Discovery, March 11
For more information, read the news item.
Open Library of Humanities Launches a Recommend Us Tool
The Open Library of the Humanities (OLH) announced the following via its email list:We’re thrilled to share our latest website feature: the Recommend Us tool! This new tool makes it easy for you to generate personalised emails to your library, encouraging them to support the Open Library of Humanities. Check it out here: https://www.openlibhums.org/plugins/supporters/recommend-us/ If you’re an author, editor, or member of a journal whose library doesn’t yet support the OLH, or if you’d like to use the tool to thank your library for being a supporter, we encourage you to give it a try. It’s a quick, simple, and meaningful way to contribute to the future of diamond open access publishing. The OLH is collectively funded by its member libraries, whose generous support sustains open access publishing for the entire academic community. Thank you for helping us grow the OLH community. If you like the work that the Open Library of Humanities is doing, please consider asking your institution to support us financially. We cannot operate without our library members. More details here.
LibraryPAC Launches in NYC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDate: December 10, 2024 Contact: Jen Manley Jen@jenmanley.com | 718-915-6302 LibraryPAC Launches in NYC The first of its kind in a US City, the political action committee will endorse and financially support candidates for local offices who commit to providing robust and rational financial support for the City’s libraries and fully supporting public libraries and librarians under siege for practicing the values of inclusivity and access. NEW YORK CITY—Today, the organizers of a new political action committee announced its formal launch. The purpose of the PAC, which is a registered entity in the State of New York, is to aid in the election of City leaders who will demonstrate material support for NYC’s libraries, their patrons and their staff through their votes, actions and commitments. LibraryPAC aims to hold current and aspiring elected leaders to new standards of support, both in the process of funding public libraries’ operating and capital needs and in standing up for the values that libraries embody and communities rely on. LibraryPAC is now taking donations and is chiefly focused on the 2025 Mayoral race, the two citywide races for Comptroller and Public Advocate, and NYC Council Seats. LibraryPAC will be soliciting responses to a survey in the Spring of 2025 and will factor those responses into its endorsements and campaign contributions to candidates. LibraryPAC was founded by a group of former library staff, advocates and national leaders including: - Chair: David Woloch, former Executive Vice President for External Affairs, Brooklyn Public Library
- Treasurer: Emily Drabinski, former President, American Library Association and current Associate Professor, Queens College
- Secretary: Lauren Comito, Executive Director, Urban Librarians Unite and local public librarian
- Steering Committee Founding Member: Jen Manley, President Park&K Public Affairs, former Vice President for Government and Community Affairs, Queens Library and current Chair, Urban Librarians Unite
Statement from David Woloch, Chair and Emily Drabinski, Treasurer: “In this critical moment, when our public libraries have never been more vital and their values more under threat, it is time to flex as much advocacy muscle as possible to reimagine long-standing funding models and elevate political leaders committed to doing more than just maintaining the status quo.” “We believe that this new independent force for libraries, through endorsements and campaign dollars, will amplify the many voices citywide who all agree we need strong, well funded and sustainable public libraries. We look forward to supporting candidates for elected office regardless of party affiliation, who will be committed to a new standard of support for our shared treasure of the public library.” Public support for libraries nationally and in NYC is overwhelming. Libraries are consistently rated as the most trustworthy institutions in civic life and multitudes of surveys over time show Americans view their public library as a benefit to their community. New Yorkers use their libraries in every community. In FY24, every borough’s library leaders reported upwards trends over the last 3 years in circulation, visits, and programs. It is no surprise then that over 90 percent of respondents to a citywide survey indicated libraries are “important to New York City (93%)”, “further many important initiatives for New York City (95%), and are a cornerstone of all New York City communities (93%). Similarly, over 84% agree that “libraries should receive an increase in funding.” Despite this overwhelming public support, and years of hard-won budget fights by City elected officials, the difficult reality is that NYC funding is not keeping up with what New Yorkers need and deserve from their public libraries. Since 2008, more often than not, libraries have faced budget reductions. While they have largely prevailed in reversing those proposed cuts, the process itself is harmful, and at the end of the day, funding has remained stable at best. In the meantime, rising operating costs and changing trends in digital lending require a deeper investment. LibraryPAC is committed to ushering in a new generation of leaders willing to end the budget dance, and take a new approach to funding libraries that will be responsive to the growing demand and needs of New Yorkers who rely on them. LIbraryPAC welcomes all to learn more and join the cause at www.libraryPAC.nyc ABOUT LibraryPAC: LibraryPAC is a registered Political Action Committee in New York City whose purpose is to endorse and financially support candidates for local and state elected office in NYC who believe in the value and potential of libraries to improve the lives of all New Yorkers and subscribe to the principles of robust, equitable and well funded libraries in the city of New York. As a registered PAC in New York City, LibraryPAC abides by the rules of the City of New York's Campaign Finance Board and New York State Public Campaign Finance Board. LibraryPAC believes in the values of Transparency, Non-Partisanship and Inclusivity. For more information visit www.LibraryPAC.nyc
WIRED Reports on Harvard University Releasing an AI Training Set of Public-Domain Books
Kate Knibbs writes the following in “Harvard Is Releasing a Massive Free AI Training Dataset Funded by OpenAI and Microsoft” for WIRED:Harvard University [is] releasing a high-quality dataset of nearly 1 million public-domain books that could be used by anyone to train large language models and other AI tools. The dataset was created by Harvard’s newly formed Institutional Data Initiative with funding from both Microsoft and OpenAI. It contains books scanned as part of the Google Books project that are no longer protected by copyright. For more information, read the article.
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Brandi Scardilli
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