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Weekly News Digest

October 27, 2008 — 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.

Thomson Reuters Launches Integrated Solution Suite

The solutions are tiered to meet a range of corporate workflow and budgetary needs. Thomson ONE Corporate Development is the flagship offering, providing integrated access to all of the features within the other two solutions, as well as equity ownership, VentureXpert, SDC deals data, and StreetEvents Guidance.

The solution brings together powerful brands such as First Call, StreetEvents, SDC Platinum, Investext, VentureXpert, and Reuters News. It includes the largest collection of after-market research, dating back to 1982, from more than 1,000 contributing brokers—more than 40 of which have an exclusive relationship with Thomson Reuters.

Built on the flexible Thomson ONE platform, users can customize their workspace to access only the components they need, in the order that mirrors their workflow. As needs grow, users have the option of adding more features and information to their core solution.

Source: Thomson Reuters

Google Reaches Settlement Agreement with Publishers and Authors

The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the web. The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for these owners to control how their intellectual property is accessed online, and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.

Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers, and to cover legal fees. For more information about this agreement, including information about whether you may be a class member, please visit http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders.

Note: A full NewsBreak report and analysis by Barbara Quint will be posted on Monday, Nov. 3.

Source: Google, Inc.

LISjobs.com Launches New Website

Highlights of the redesign include the following: 

• Better integration of the LISjobs.com forum (www.lisjobs.com/forum) and other interactive site features 
• Job ads that, as always, are free to both job seekers and employers 
• New content on education and career development, including information on MLIS scholarships as well as on funding conference attendance and other CE opportunities 
• A more standards-compliant and accessible design 
• A new logo designed by Wendy Koff, librarian and web designer 
• Updated links to outside resources; all links were checked manually in October 2008 
• Improved organization—Easier-to-find information for both job seekers and employers 
• Opportunities for sponsorship—Easier-to-reach audience of librarians and info pros for relevant organizations

Since 1996, LISjobs has provided career information for librarians and information professionals. The site is entirely maintained by Rachel Singer Gordon; the job postings database is jointly maintained with Sarah Johnson of Library Job Postings on the Internet (http://libraryjobpostings.org). The LISjobs relaunch is designed to target all stages of an information professional’s career.

Source: Lisjobs.com

Bibliothèque nationale de France to Add Records to WorldCat

OCLC and Bibliothèque nationale de France have worked together on other projects, such as the cooperative effort to create the Virtual International Authority File (Fichier d’Autorité International Virtuel), which virtually combines multiple name authority files into a single name authority service, and French translations of the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

The WorldCat database continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with many of the records entered into the world’s largest bibliographic resource coming from outside the U.S., in non-English languages. Between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008, records from the National Library of Sweden, the Swiss National Library, the National Library of Australia, and the National Library of New Zealand were added to WorldCat.

In 1998, about one-third of the WorldCat database represented non-English-language work. This year, for the first time ever, WorldCat contained slightly more records representing non-English-language materials than for English. More information, a complete list, and world map illustrating OCLC’s work with national libraries can be found at www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcat/catalog/national.

Source: OCLC

PALINET Launches Mass Digitization Collaborative

Collaborative participants select unique items from their collections for digitization at regional scanning centers and add the new digital assets to their online collections. PALINET staff supports members throughout the process, as project participants work together to create best practices, standards, and policies. Through participation in the Collaborative, PALINET members create a community of practice dedicated to the development of the regional digital collection. For more information on the collaborative, please contact Laurie Gemmill, PALINET’s digital services manager, at gemmill@palinet.org or visit www.palinet.org/dshome.aspx.

Founded in 1936, PALINET is a member-owned and governed regional library network, representing 600-plus libraries and cultural heritage institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.

Source: PALINET

Elsevier’s illumin8 Is Now “Smarter” and Faster

For end users, illumin8 is now even "smarter" in that users do not need to remember search parameters or syntax. Instead, users can simply enter the phrases they are interested in and the system figures out how to interpret it. This built-out search logic is able to ferret out very relevant, specific information to answer tough questions for R&D professionals working in innovation, technology intelligence, and related areas.

Enhanced technology landscaping capabilities provide R&D users with new result types that can prove valuable for research projects on specific technology categories. With this upgrade researchers will gain the following benefits: 

• Richer results providing a technology overview or landscape including organizations, products, approaches, benefits, and people associated with a technology or product category 
• Smarter search logic that relieves the user of having to enter specialized syntax or parameters 
• Explicit display of result types showing the semantic relationship of the result to the search input 
• Addition of nearly half a million predefined technology terms to the search guide

Source: Elsevier