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Weekly News Digest

November 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.

TDNet Announces New ‘Discovery to Delivery’ Platform

TDNet, Inc. recently announced a new "discovery to delivery" platform for corporate libraries and information centers. The TDOne TDNet (www.tdnet.com) platform integrates access to all of the internal and external information resources available across the enterprise with TDNet's search-and-browse technology.

Incorporated directly onto the organization's internet homepage or web portal, this search solution allows end users from all around the world to easily discover and access content from their local libraries, information repositories, external e-resources, journals, book collections, and more.

TDNet offers a full suite of customized e-resource library search management and access options to maximize the growing investment in electronic and other information resources while containing staff and administrative costs. These search solutions include federated search, an OpenURL Resolver, a portal for e-resources, and more.

TDNet's Searcher Analyzer is a federated searching solution with real-time results analysis and automatic metadata tagging. Federated Search features advanced personal profiling and alerting services that can be customized to meet the specific requirements of corporate and government information centers. For an organization, the system connects to external databases as well as to internal repositories, and it fully integrates with content and knowledge management systems and various enterprise portals such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).

TOUResolver provides full-text linking with customized options. TDNet builds a custom knowledgebase of a library's holdings, providing accurate resolving of both journal and book citations with a hosted solution.

TDNet offers the A-Z Portal for e-resources. This provides access to ejournals, ebooks, and databases, including vendor and coverage information, as well as full-text links. It offers optional integration of print resources.

Source: TDNet, Inc.

Springer Collaborates With Amazon’s CreateSpace for POD

Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) has signed an agreement with CreateSpace (www.createspace.com), part of the Amazon.com group of companies, that will make Springer's paperback book catalog, frontlist, midlist, and backlist, available via print on demand (POD) in the U.S. In addition to moving a significant amount of its paperback selection to POD, Springer will also supply many new paperback titles via POD only. A large number of hardcover titles are being converted to paperback for inclusion, and Springer will also make new large-print paperback editions of some of its most popular selections available via POD.

All of Springer's books will remain continuously available, ensuring that titles will never be out of stock. In addition, the development of the POD model enables publishers to economize on inventory and shipping costs associated with getting inventory to retailers.

With CreateSpace print on demand, Springer's titles can be manufactured and shipped to customers on the same day they are ordered. Springer's print-on-demand titles are also eligible for Amazon's shipping programs, including Free Super Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime, as well as enrollment in Amazon's Search Inside the Book program.

Source: Springer Science+Business Media

ProQuest Adds Deep Indexing for SciTech Databases

ProQuest (www.proquest.com) has incorporated its patent-pending Deep Indexing technology, pioneered with the company's Illustrata offerings, into selected natural science, technology, and engineering subject-oriented databases. Deep Indexing will surface data from more than 7 million tables and figures found in more than 5,500 academic journal articles. This innovation in indexing moves beyond traditional article-level indexing to help researchers quickly pinpoint the data most relevant to them.

Deep Indexing technology categorizes data represented in tables, maps, charts, graphs, photographs, and other figures, allowing researchers to surface data not previously included in traditional article-level index records. Now, ProQuest has combined Deep Indexing with the traditional article-level indexing to offer users a more-robust and relevant results set. Journal articles with Deep Indexing are further enhanced with thumbnail images or full images where available, giving a quick preview of the image(s). An illustration is available at www.proquest.com/assets/downloads/corporate/deepindexing.pdf.

Deep Indexing provides greater discoverability in the following resources:

• AGRICOLA
• ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts
• Biological Sciences Database
• Engineering Research Database
• Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management Database
• GeoRef
• High Technology Research Database with Aerospace
• Materials Research Database with METADEX
• Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts
• Polymer Library
• Technology Research Database

ProQuest is also offering complimentary training webinars about this new enhancement. For information on training sessions visit www.proquest.com/en-US/support/default.shtml. For more information on Deep Indexing, visit www.csa.com/e_products/pqdeepindex.php.

Source: ProQuest

Serials Solutions Completes Beta Testing of New 360 Search

Serials Solutions (www.serialssolutions.com), a business unit of ProQuest (www.proquest.com), announced the completion of beta testing for the new 360 Search federated search service. The new service, which will be commercially released in mid-December, combines the best features of the Serials Solutions 360 Search and WebFeat platforms with new and improved capabilities.

Thirteen beta partners selected from current 360 Search and WebFeat clients have been asked to validate new features and functionality, including testing of the new administrative console and verifying improved consortium support. Beta partners for the new 360 Search service include the following:

• The Seattle Public Library
• Rice University
• The University of New Mexico
• The University of Edinburgh, on behalf of the Scottish Digital Library Consortium
• Louisiana State University and Louisiana State University-Shreveport, on behalf of the LOUIS Consortium
• GALILEO-an initiative of the University System of Georgia

With this release, 360 Search clients will enjoy a streamlined administration console and the ability to share branding and resources between multiple libraries. New to WebFeat clients will be the 360 Search user interface, designed to meet the workflow needs of federated search patrons, and access to the Serials Solutions Client Center, the central location for administration of all Serials Solutions 360 services and access point for the Serials Solutions Support Center and User Community. Also as a result of this release, 360 Search will connect to more resources than ever before and will support 20 languages, while giving users the ability to change the language of the interface on-the-fly.

Source: Serials Solutions

ebrary Launches New Title Preview as SaaS Feature

ebrary (www.ebrary.com) announced the availability of Title Preview, a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) feature that enables publishers, aggregators, corporations, and others to effectively market their digital content and increase leads. ebrary has been using the tool to successfully promote its own content products and services for several months. Anyone may try Title Preview by visiting http://librarytitles.ebrary.com.

A key new feature of ebrary's SaaS solutions, which enable organizations to quickly and cost-effectively create digital content products and distribute them directly to the markets of their choice, Title Preview offers the following features and benefits:

• ebrary marketing services to assist with generating and tracking leads
• Customized landing page created by ebrary's designer
• Ability to specify number of viewable pages
• Multiple searching options-simple and advanced
• Browse by topic
• Personal bookshelves to store titles of interest and email selections to peers
• Usage reports and statistics
• Other ebrary interface features including InfoTools

"Since using Title Preview to showcase e-books that we sell as part of our Canadian Electronic Library, we have seen a tremendous increase in both website traffic and leads," said Gary Gibson, president of Gibson Library Connections, Inc. "With Title Preview, prospects can easily search across our entire selection, access the first few pages, and use InfoTools to navigate to other relevant titles. This interactive and integrated approach provides a very compelling and innovative way to market content online."

Source: ebrary

EBSCO Introduces Art & Architecture Databases

EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com) has created two new resources dedicated to serve the needs of art and architecture researchers-Art & Architecture Index and Art & Architecture Complete. Designed for use by a diverse audience, Art & Architecture Index and Art & Architecture Complete will appeal to art scholars, artists, designers, college students, and general researchers.

These new art and architecture resources include cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 620 academic journals, magazines, and trade publications as well as more than 140 books. Selective coverage is also provided for more than 135 additional publications. Subjects covered include antiques, archaeology, costume design, and interior and landscape design.

Art & Architecture Complete also contains full-text coverage of more than 230 art and architecture-specific periodicals and more than 100 books. These databases are available via the EBSCOhost platform.

Source: EBSCO Publishing