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Weekly News Digest
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February 4, 2010 — 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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mk Sorting Systems Announces LibDispenser—A Stand-Alone Library Branch
mk Sorting Systems (www.mk-sorting-systems.com) announced the launch of LibDispenser, a technologically advanced solution to make materials more widely available to patrons anytime and just about anywhere. This product was designed to help strengthen a library's position as budgets are being carefully considered, at the same time that library services need to extend, not diminish. Operating as a stand-alone branch, LibDispenser is a 24-hour, 365-days-a-year service solution that handles books, holds, CDs, and DVDs, borrowed or returned, at any branch location. LibDispenser has a simple and intuitive touch-screen user interface, uses the library's existing online catalog, and has a real-time circulation interface with the library's ILS via SIP2 or NCIP. LibDispenser opens up new opportunities to serve library customers in high-traffic disparate locations, such as railway stations, hospitals, schools, airports, and shopping malls. In addition to being able to provide this focused type of public service, LibDispenser is also ideal for inside the library for securing access to holds and media. Libraries continue to look for ways to ensure that they remain relevant and effective during these economic times. This highly adaptable and versatile solution has a base capacity of up to 910 materials (books, CDs, DVDs, and games), is 100% weatherproof, and is expandable as required. mk Sorting Systems, a division of Maschinenbau Kitz GmbH, develops and installs user-friendly self-service and sorting systems for libraries. It offers individual, customized automation solutions that are designed to meet each library's specific needs. To watch the system in action, see www.mk-sorting-systems.com/en/products/movie.html. Source: mk Sorting Systems
National Archives Releases New Data Sets on Data.gov
Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero announced that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA; www.archives.gov) has added three new high-value data sets to the Data.gov website. He invites public comment on developing an Open Government Plan, focusing on transparency, participation, and collaboration improvements. The National Archives is creating this plan in accordance with the Obama Administration's Open Government Directive of December 2009, which was issued to promote new lines of communication and cooperation between the federal government and the American people. The first milestone of the Open Government Directive was met on Jan. 22 with the release of new data sets on Data.gov. Each major government agency has uploaded at least three data sets in this initial action. The National Archives released the 2007-2009 Code of Federal Regulations and two data sets from its Archival Research Catalog. This is the first time this material is available as raw data in XML format. The National Archives is also creating a plan that lays out what it needs to do to further meet the goals of Open Government and how it will get there. To help the National Archives develop its Open Government Plan, it is asking the public to share ideas for a plan. Submit comments on the National Archives Open Government Plan by March 19, 2010, using any of the following methods: The Open Government Directive is available at www.whitehouse.gov/open/documents/open-government-directive. Source: NARA
OneSource Launches LiveContent Platform for Sales and Marketing Intelligence
OneSource (www.onesource.com), an Infogroup, Inc. company (formerly infoUSA, Inc.; www.infogroup.com), launched the LiveContent platform, which combines data from traditional compiled data (directories), editorial content, web mining (corporate websites, blogs, etc.), and social media (user contributions) into a unified information service for sales intelligence, marketing, and research. The OneSource LiveContent platform enables companies to develop sales leads and gain actionable business intelligence about companies, executives, and industries around the world, including Asia, Europe, and North America. It is available through OneSource's subscription service offerings, including its flagship Global Business Browser. It will also be available through OneSource for CRM. The LiveContent methodology is defined by a rigorous, multistep process to ensure the highest level of quality: - Integrating best-of-breed data sources from around the world
- Selecting and combining the most reliable elements from each data source
- Leveraging technology to refine and enrich the information
- Employing editorial resources to add value through research-based review
- Verifying data elements through phone calls on a periodic basis
- Capturing user contributions of both content and feedback
To develop a more comprehensive set of business contact information for a particular company, LiveContent may blend together contacts from several different sources, removing duplicates and synthesizing the information at both the contact and data-element level. OneSource aggregates information from more than 50 different sources of data, including providers such as Thomson Reuters, Experian, and NetProspex. Source: OneSource
Stanford Signs Google Book Search Agreement, Endorses Court Settlement
Stanford University (www.stanford.edu) has affirmed its support for the recently amended Google Book Search settlement agreement, which is now before a federal court, by expanding its earlier agreement with Google, Inc. to digitize its library materials. The expanded agreement establishes it as a "Fully Participating Library" under the terms of the amended settlement agreement. "Stanford is on the cutting edge of technology development and is using technology to improve access to information not just for their faculty and students, but for the world," said Dan Clancy, Google Books engineering director. "Their early participation was important to the establishment of the Google Books project, and we're very pleased that they have continued to support this effort and expanded their commitment under the terms of the settlement." University librarian Michael A. Keller said, "We are highly supportive of the amended settlement, which offers an enormous public good, making the full text of millions of books available to the American public." Keller added that another effect of the settlement is to respect the rights and prerogatives of authors and publishers at the same time as it increases public access. "The settlement creates a working partnership among authors, publishers, libraries, and Google that will usher in a revolutionary change in access to books on library shelves, even beyond the incredibly powerful vision that Google Books first developed. It's no longer just about finding books of potential interest; it makes them vastly more readily readable. The agreement also compensates authors and publishers for the use of works that, by virtue of being out of print, would not have earned the rightsholders any income-a novel and, for most authors, a most welcome innovation." Over the past 5 years, Google has scanned more than 1.7 million books owned by Stanford and plans to scan millions more. More than 2 dozen other major libraries around the world are now involved in this project. This action by Stanford runs counter to the recent rush of court filings from interested parties that are still opposed to the proposed amended settlement. For more information and links to some filings, see www.openbookalliance.org. Objections were due to the court by Jan. 28; the final fairness court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18. Google news release on the settlement agreement: www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20081027_booksearchagreement.html Source: Stanford University
ProQuest Launches AtmosPeer—New Social Network for Atmospheric Scientists
A new online community designed specifically for researchers, scholars, librarians, and students in the atmospheric science community leverages the collaborative power of social networking across discipline-specific information to create a research workflow tool. AtmosPeer (www.atmospeer.net), which was launched by ProQuest (www.proquest.com), connects atmospheric scientists to not only their colleagues but also to emerging research trends, current news feeds, conference information, and funding opportunities. Created in close cooperation with the atmospheric science community, AtmosPeer offers a tailored research environment for scientists in the field. It allows scholars to identify peers doing similar research and creates a simple method for document sharing and collaboration. Users can create discussion topics and share ideas and best practices in a community forum. To help users stay current on the latest developments in the field, AtmosPeer acts as a central source of community news from such websites as American Meteorological Society (AMS), University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Royal Meteorological Society, Scientific American, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Background on current and upcoming conferences is easily accessible for quick reference, and abstracts from emerging research can be searched and explored. Further, relevant articles from AMS publications can be quickly surfaced with a unique deep-indexing tool that uncovers data and findings not only in the text but also in the tables and figures. The site also allows a quick, simple search of material that has been presented at conferences in the atmospheric sciences, specifically by linking to the content stored at The Conference Exchange, an AtmosPeer partner. AtmosPeer was designed with an advisory group that includes AMS, Environment Canada, Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is a free service from ProQuest that was developed in partnership with AMS, the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI), and The Conference Exchange. Source: ProQuest
CERN Library Publishes Its Book Catalog as Open Data
Librarians are, in general, very favorable to the principles of Open Access. But surprisingly few libraries have so far set free the data they produce themselves. As one of the first scientific libraries in the world, the CERN Library now offers the bibliographic book records, held in its library catalog, to be freely downloaded by any third party. The records are provided under the Public Domain Data License, a license that permits colleagues around the world to reuse and upgrade the data for any purpose. Jens Vigen, head of the CERN Library, says: "Books should only be catalogued once. Currently the public purse pays for having the same book catalogued over and over again. Librarians should act as they preach: data sets created through public funding should be made freely available to anyone interested. Open Access is natural for us, here at CERN we believe in openness and reuse. There is a tremendous potential. By getting academic libraries worldwide involved in this movement, it will lead to a natural atmosphere of sharing and reusing bibliographic data in a rich landscape of so-called mash-up services, where most of the actors who will be involved, both among the users and the providers, will not even be library users or librarians. Our action is made in the spirit of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities; bibliographic data belongs to the cultural heritage. All other signatories should align their policy accordingly." The data of CERN Library will be used by the Open Library Project (http://openlibrary.org) to provide a webpage for every book and to allow users to add content, such as tables of contents, classifications, and summaries. For massive reuse of data, the data will be provided soon by an open Z39.50, SRU, and OAI interface via biblios.net (http://biblios.net), a repository of open bibliographic data. The whole data set can be downloaded from http://cern.ch/bookdata. The press announcement is accompanied by a YouTube video that can be found at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CSmieTXbsk. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its member states are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the U.S., Turkey, the European Commission, and UNESCO have observer status. Source: CERN Library
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Brandi Scardilli
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