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Weekly News Digest
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July 30, 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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EBSCO Publishing Acquires AgeLine From AARP
EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com) has purchased the AgeLine database, formerly produced by AARP. AgeLine is a leading source for the literature of social gerontology and includes aging-related content from the health sciences, psychology, sociology, social work, economics, and public policy. AgeLine also includes information for professionals working in aging-related fields and for consumers. EBSCO Publishing has provided AgeLine on its EBSCOhost platform for many years. EBSCO Publishing president Tim Collins says purchasing AgeLine allows the company to continue to offer the database to its customers. "We are always looking for acquisitions that match our core content areas and supplement our strengths. AgeLine is a tremendous resource that fits well with our existing mix of products and we look forward to offering it to libraries and continuing to strengthen the content it provides." AgeLine is designed for researchers, professionals, students, and general consumers. The database addresses aging issues from individual, national, and global perspectives. EBSCO provides a variety of additional databases related to health for professional and consumer use including Alt HealthWatch; Consumer Health Complete; Health Source: Consumer Edition; Natural & Alternative Treatments; and SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Source: EBSCO Publishing
New OCLC Gateway Service Increases Web Visibility of Digital Collections
OCLC has released the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway (www.oclc.org/gateway), a new service that helps libraries and other institutions maximize the visibility of unique primary source materials, such as digital photos, newspapers, letters, and diaries, through WorldCat on the Web. Gateway is available to all users of OCLC CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management software at no additional charge.The WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway offers libraries a self-service tool to easily upload metadata from their unique digital content to WorldCat, the world's largest online resource for finding items held in libraries. Once the metadata is in WorldCat, libraries' digital collections are more visible and discoverable by web searchers through WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local (including the "quick start" version), Google, Yahoo!, and other search engines. Gateway has been piloted in 12 institutions. Since May, the pilot participants used the Gateway self-service tools to upload thousands of records from their CONTENTdm collections into WorldCat. Because they have used Gateway to set up profiles for their collections, the pilot users' metadata will be regularly uploaded to WorldCat as they add to their digital collections over time. As libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations continue to upload CONTENTdm metadata, they are creating a collective digital repository to enrich the resources available to their end users. End users will be able to search WorldCat to find the resources they need from their libraries' digital collections of rare, historic, or local materials, along with materials provided by other libraries around the world. Users will be able to click on items and visit these unique collections virtually by viewing items immediately on their computer screens-anytime, from anywhere. CONTENTdm is a single-software solution for storage, management, and delivery of a library's digital collections to the web, providing a Windows-based, digital-collection builder where data and digital items are prepared in large batches; a server where data and images are stored and can be edited; a web-based search interface and customizable display templates; integration with OCLC services for building collections with cataloging workflows, as well as the option of harvesting from the websites and adding long-term preservation; and services to assist with every phase of collection development from digitization to preservation. Source: OCLC
Informa Combines Journal Content on Single Platform
Informa Healthcare has announced that the new interactive www.informahealthcare.com site is now live and delivers online content from more than 180 peer-reviewed journals. The site combines all the journal titles listed on InformaWorld.com and InformaPharmaScience.com to help simplify the customer experience. The new site uses the online content management and delivery system provided by Atypon Systems, Inc. (www.atypon.com), an epublishing solutions supplier for a number of leading information providers including JSTOR, New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Chemical Society. The Atypon system enables Informa Healthcare to integrate a comprehensive archive service-dating back to 1918-giving pharmaceutical, medical, and healthcare professionals one central, high-quality source of information. The new platform offers the option of online trials, advanced searching, alerting, and single article purchases. The site also provides COUNTER-compliant reports and statistics to help subscribers analyze usage. There will be a dual-hosting period with the InformaWorld platform, which currently hosts the medical content, through 2009, allowing for a gradual migration. Informa Healthcare will set up customer accounts in August and will notify subscribers of the change to ensure a seamless transition to the new site. Customers with journals on InformaPharmaScience.com will be automatically redirected. Source: Informa Healthcare
Information Overload Awareness Day Coming on Aug. 12
Information Overload Awareness Day (www.informationoverloadday.com) is a new workplace observance to be held on Aug. 12 that calls attention to the problem of information overload and how it impacts both individuals and organizations. The cost of the half-day online inaugural event is $50; attendees who promise not to multitask (i.e., instant message, email, or text) during the event will receive a 50% discount. Companies are invited to sponsor Information Overload Awareness Day by enrolling as Designated Sites. This allows all of their employees to attend at no charge and demonstrates their commitment to helping solve the problem. Information Overload describes an excess of information that results in the loss of ability to make decisions, process information, and prioritize tasks. Organizations of all shapes and sizes have already been significantly impacted by information overload, a problem that costs the U.S. economy $900 billion per year in lower productivity and throttled innovation, according to research from Basex (www.basex.com). (For more information, see http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/Spotlight/Tackling-Information-Overload-53712.asp.) The featured keynote speaker is John Seely Brown, co-chairman, the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation and former chief scientist, Xerox. Other speakers include noted authors Maggie Jackson (Distracted) and Mike Song (The Hamster Revolution); executives from such companies as Dow Jones and Morgan Stanley; a CIO from the U.S. Air Force; and Jonathan Spira, chief analyst, Basex. Source: Basex
Advocacy Groups Ask for Privacy Guarantees in Google Book Search
Three privacy advocacy groups have written a letter to Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, Inc., expressing their concerns over reader privacy and Google Book Search (www.eff.org/files/gbs_privacy_schmidt_letter.pdf). The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at Berkeley Law School wrote the joint letter dated July 23 because of their "strong support for increased access to books for all people and our grave concern that in designing Google Book Search, [Google is] leaving the crucial component of reader privacy behind."As Google awaits U.S. District Court approval for its proposed class action settlement with publishers-the hearing is now scheduled for Oct. 7 (http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/Spotlight/Update-on-the-Google-Book-Settlement-54998.asp) -the groups urged Google to "assure Americans that Google will maintain the security and freedom that library patrons have long had to read and learn about anything from politics to health to science without worrying that someone is looking over their shoulder or could retrace their steps." The letter specified four efforts that must be included "at a minimum": - Protection against disclosure
- Limited tracking
- User control
- User transparency
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Expanded Availability of Pharmaceutical ePrint Procurement Service
Reprints Desk, Inc. (www.reprintsdesk.com), the content workflow company, and FIZ Karlsruhe (www.fiz-karlsruhe.de), a European-based provider of information delivery services, announced the immediate availability of Reprints Desk's article eprint procurement service within the FIZ AutoDoc full-text brokerage routing system for document delivery. The new service offering enables FIZ AutoDoc customers, including dozens of major life science and other research-intensive companies, to simplify the content retrieval workflow for individual buyers and to improve internal visibility into electronic content spending and regulatory compliance.FIZ AutoDoc is the document delivery system for many of Europe's largest corporations, supporting unmediated and mediated ordering for single journal articles, patent documents, reports, conference papers, proceedings, or other publications. Reprints Desk offers eprint procurement services as part of its Reprints NRx service that makes it easier for life science and healthcare communications companies to order bulk copies of peer-reviewed journal articles from scientific and medical publications for use in promotions and educational programs. FIZ Karlsruhe's main activities are the operation of the online service STN International, which focuses on science and patent information and is operated together with Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), and the development of the KnowEsis product line offering e-science solutions for web-based scientific work. FIZ Karlsruhe also produces databases and information services and operates scientific portals, mainly in mathematics, computer science, energy, and crystallography. Source: Reprints Desk, Inc.
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Brandi Scardilli
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