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Weekly News Digest
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April 2, 2009 — 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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WorldCat Partners With Social Book Community weRead
OCLC (www.oclc.org) has partnered with weRead (http://weread.com), a social reading site and community for book lovers, to provide content on WorldCat.org, which now features weRead customer reviews alongside Amazon, Educational Media Reviews Online, and original user review submissions. In addition, WorldCat also uses the weRead recommendations engine to make "Read By Others" suggestions for additional titles of interest on a WorldCat detailed record page. It is the latest organization to join the list of more than 25 OCLC World partners. With one of the largest and most popular social book discovery applications on Facebook, MySpace, bebo, Hi5, and Orkut, weRead is a natural fit to partner with OCLC to enhance the social networking and user-discovery aspects of WorldCat. Cindy Cunningham, director of partner programs for OCLC says, "The mission of weRead-the social discovery of books-extends and further enhances the WorldCat.org goal to connect users with their local libraries. With weRead being a Lulu company and the corresponding support for self-publishing, OCLC can offer its users access to an entirely new reading experience." Lulu.com is changing the world of publishing by enabling creators to publish their work themselves for free, with complete editorial and copyright control. Lulu is the marketplace for digital content on the internet with more than 820,000 recently published titles and more than 5,000 new titles added each week. All of these titles are accessible through weRead. Source: OCLC
Library of Congress in New Media Initiatives
The Library of Congress (LC) will begin sharing content from its vast video and audio collections on the YouTube (www.youtube.com) and Apple iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes) web services as part of a continuing initiative to make its treasures more-widely accessible to a broad audience. The new LC channels on each of these services will launch within the next few weeks. All content made available on third-party sites will also be available on the LC's own website at www.loc.gov.New channels on the video and podcasting services will be devoted to LC content, including 100-year-old films from the Thomas Edison studio, book talks with contemporary authors, early industrial films from Westinghouse factories, first-person audio accounts of life in slavery, and inside looks into the LC's fascinating holdings, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination. The General Services Administration (GSA; www.gsa.gov) also announced agreements with Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, and blip.tv that will allow other federal agencies to participate in new media while meeting legal requirements and the unique needs of government. GSA plans to negotiate agreements with other providers, and the LC will explore these new media services when they are appropriate to its mission and as resources permit. The LC began a groundbreaking pilot project with the Flickr photo-sharing service (www.flickr.com) last year, loading 3,100 historic photos to start and an additional 50 photos each week. The overwhelmingly positive response from the Flickr user community not only brought broad public awareness to the LC's existing online collection of more than 1 million prints and photos but also sparked creative interaction with them-users helped provide LC curators with new information on photos with limited descriptions through public review and tagging. LC photos on Flickr currently have received more than 15 million views. Source: Library of Congress
Readex Launches American Newspaper Archives
Readex (www.readex.com), a division of NewsBank, Inc. (www.newsbank.com), announced the launch of American Newspaper Archives, an expanding online collection that will offer access to major U.S. newspapers. A part of America's Historical Newspapers, the archives will provide users with fully searchable digital editions of historically significant and regionally diverse publications dating from the 19th century to the 1990s.American Newspaper Archives will initially feature nine papers and their relevant predecessors: The Times-Picayune (New Orleans; 1837-1988), The Plain-Dealer (Cleveland; 1845-1991), The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.; 1850-1987), Press-Register (Mobile, Ala.; 1821-1992), The Times (Trenton, N.J.; 1883-1993), The Seattle Times (Seattle; 1896-1984), The Republican (Springfield, Mass.; 1850-1987), The Dallas Morning News (Dallas; 1885-1984) and The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.; 1792-1993). Each title is available individually, and all are cross-searchable via an integrated interface that allows users to easily view, magnify, print, and save digital page images. Source: Readex
Vitrium Offers protectedpdf Small Business Edition
Vitrium Systems (www.vitrium.com) announced the release of protectedpdf Small Business Edition, a web-based application that allows content providers of books, magazines, reports, and other publications to define and modify reader access rights to their content. Vitrium is now the only company offering PDF protection that does not require readers to use third-party software to view files. protectedpdf is designed to give content owners the tools they need to distribute their information while retaining control of their valuable content.Whether protectedpdf users want to limit the number of computers a PDF can be viewed on, disable printing or set permissions for a multitude of other items, protectedpdf makes it quick, easy, and economical to protect, track, and know who is reading your PDFs. The service is accessed entirely via the internet and requires no software installations or downloads. Users simply log in to the protectedpdf website, upload their PDFs, choose protection options, and download the protected PDF for distribution. The PDF may be emailed as an attachment, posted to a website, burned to a CD/DVD, saved to a flash/USB drive, etc., for distribution as you normally would do. protectedpdf allows readers to access protected PDFs without having to download any special plug-ins, proprietary readers, viewers, or other additional software. In addition, publishers may modify or revoke rights including the ability to view or print a PDF after a document has been published and distributed. To purchase protectedpdf Small Business Edition, or for a free 7-day trial, visit www.protectedpdf.com. Source: Vitrium Systems
Alacra Adds Morningstar Research and Reports
Alacra, Inc. (www.alacra.com), a provider of online business information solutions, announced the addition of Morningstar equity research and data reports to its list of more than 160 databases. In the coming weeks, Alacra also plans to offer Morningstar's Mutual Fund Investment Profiles.Morningstar, Inc. (www.morningstar.com) is a leading provider of independent investment research, with more than 120 analysts providing research on about 2,000 companies and 130 industries. Morningstar also provides data reports on an additional 7,000 stocks. Alacra users will now have access to Morningstar's in-depth and unbiased research reports that provide insight into a company's value, risk factors, and key financials, as well as the proprietary Morningstar Rating for Stocks. Steve Goldstein, CEO of Alacra, views Morningstar's breadth and depth of coverage as a nice complement to Alacra's repository. "Our customers are constantly looking for valuable, brand-name sources of equity research, and Morningstar will provide a great resource." Source: Alacra, Inc.
New Tax, Legal, and Business Platform From Wolters Kluwer's CCH
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business introduced IntelliConnect (http://cchgroup.com/intelliconnect), an innovative research platform designed to streamline professionals' workflows, improve accuracy and efficiency, and provide unprecedented access to authoritative content from CCH and Aspen Publishers. IntelliConnect is the evolution of CCH's Tax Research NetWork and Internet Research NetWork platforms. Delivering the ease of use of today's most popular consumer-based web searching, IntelliConnect takes professional research to the next level with its ease of use and research capabilities integrated with authoritative tax, accounting, and legal content and advanced workflow tools. IntelliConnect's key features include the following: - Intuitive and innovative research capabilities
- Easy searching and browsing
- Multiple searches saved in tab format
- Filtering for fine-tuned results
- Tri-screen display for easier navigation
- Search within a search for refined results
- Convenient records management options
- Ready access to customized Tracker News
View a product demonstration of IntelliConnect at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVcJN7cFD18. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business is a provider of research products and software solutions in key specialty areas for legal and business professionals, as well as casebooks and study aids for law students. Its major product lines include Aspen Publishers, CCH, Kluwer Law International, and Loislaw. Its markets include law firms, law schools, corporate counsel, and professionals requiring legal and compliance information. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, a unit of Wolters Kluwer (www.wolterskluwer.com), is based in New York City and Riverwoods, Ill. Source: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business
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Brandi Scardilli
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