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Weekly News Digest

February 18, 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.

New Direct Export Partners Link to RefWorks

RefWorks-COS (www.refworks-cos.com), a business unit of ProQuest, LLC, announced that several new direct export partners are now linking to RefWorks, its web-based research management service. Dialog's DataStar service, GoPubMed, R2 Digital Library, and DanBib are now among the more than 300 online databases linking directly to RefWorks. In addition, in the coming months, direct export links will also be available on other Dialog products.

Direct links mean that RefWorks users can export references from the online publishing collections directly into their personal RefWorks databases with the simple click of an icon. This makes it extremely quick and easy for researchers and students to gather information. 

"Direct export of search results from Dialog and DataStar into RefWorks is an outstanding example of pairing ProQuest technology with Dialog content to enhance the value of information," said Suzanne BeDell, general manager of Dialog and SVP of ProQuest. "This new capability helps customers manage access and distribution of documents across the organization and is a tremendous time-saver."

Other organizations that have implemented the RefWorks Direct Export include LexisNexis, Elsevier, OCLC, IEEE, BioMed Central, EBSCO, Google Scholar, JSTOR, HighWire, ebrary, Ovid, and the entire range of ProQuest information services.

Source: RefWorks-COS

Baker & Taylor Book Data to Be Available in EBSCO Discovery Service

Baker & Taylor (www.baker-taylor.com) and EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com) are partnering to bring added value to book records in EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), which provides a single entry point to a library's entire collection-including local loading of the OPAC. EDS, enhanced with rich Baker & Taylor content, is designed to offer patrons a fuller user experience, bringing more exposure and usage to the collection.

Baker & Taylor provides information on books, ebooks, A/V materials, and more, including more than 10 million data elements representing an ever-expanding resource for libraries. Data elements from Baker & Taylor include book jackets with full-color images, publisher annotations, family keys, and a display of selected subject headings.

Additionally, EBSCO Discovery Service conducts real-time availability checks, so that patrons have up-to-the-minute status and availability of catalog items. Customers who wish to further enhance applicable records within the EDS experience can elect to include additional data from Baker & Taylor, including the following:

• Tables of contents information
• Subject descriptors
• Display of complete list of subject headings
• Professionally written summaries
• Book excerpts (first chapters)
• Author biographies
• Awards information
• Review citations
• Additional bibliographies
• Options for a results limiting to include Baker & Taylor data
• Ability to include patron-driven wish lists/purchase options (if desired by library)

Source: EBSCO Publishing

NewspaperDirect Updates PressReader for iPhone, Readies News App for iPad

NewspaperDirect, Inc. (www.newspaperdirect.com) has added numerous enhancements to its PressReader application for iPhone and iPod touch. Users can download their favorite daily read from a selection of more than 1,400 newspapers and magazines from 90 countries in 42 languages. NewspaperDirect also announced that it will release a special version of PressReader for the upcoming Apple iPad, which offers a larger screen and a dramatically improved reading experience, making it ideal for browsing newspapers the way they read best-in their original format.

The PressReader iPhone app is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store (http://tinyurl.com/yh3ud4k). Additional titles can be purchased individually for 99 cents per issue or downloaded in conjunction with a paid subscription on PressDisplay.com. A growing list of prestigious international and national titles is available. Olympics fans can get 1 month free access of PressDisplay by visiting the PressDisplay Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PressDisplay).

PressReader has been completely optimized for iPhone and iPod touch, enabling users to flip through pages just as they would browse a real newspaper and then zoom in to view any article or photograph. PressReader presents publications as full-content digital replicas in their original layout. Every article, advertisement, crossword puzzle, and cartoon is presented in its original context in the paper, with the ability to instantly zoom in on any element. PressReader offers rich-graphics or text-only viewing options, an interactive table of contents, cross-title searching, sharing of articles, and live, clickable elements such as URLs, telephone numbers, email addresses and hyperlinks to other articles.

Source: NewspaperDirect, Inc.

Equinox Software Announces New Hosting and Support Services for Koha Libraries

Equinox Software, Inc. (www.esilibrary.com) announced two new hosting and support services for the Koha open source ILS to libraries. Koha on Demand is aimed at libraries looking for quick provisioning of new Koha databases. This service provides a modern, full-featured ILS with system administration managed by Equinox. Koha Dedicated Hosting provides a virtual private server (VPS) with Koha installed. This service is geared toward libraries looking to outsource the provisioning, hosting, and basic maintenance of a Koha database while still having direct access to customize and develop their Koha installations as they see fit.

According to Galen Charlton, Equinox vice president for data services, "Equinox Software will, of course, continue to support and develop Evergreen. However, we are taking advantage of in-house Koha expertise to be able to diversify our service offerings. In addition, we plan to build on our expertise in resource sharing in the context of a single ILS and extend it to encompass sharing among multiple ILSs."

There has been debate in the Koha community about certain issues regarding development and community assets. One of Equinox's advantages for Koha customers is the Equinox promise (http://blog.esilibrary.com/2009/09/16/the-equinox-promise). Full access to the source code will always be available to hosted customers, to use, modify, or redistribute under the terms of the General Public License (GPL). Furthermore, source code will be available in a form that makes it convenient for a customer to manage and submit contributions to the Koha project.

Created in 1999 by Katipo Communications for the Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand, Koha is the first open source integrated library system (ILS) to be used worldwide. The software is a full-featured ILS with a dual database design (text based and RDBMS) built to be library standards compliant. Koha's OPAC, staff, and self-checkout interfaces are all web applications. Distributed under the GPL, libraries are free to use and install Koha themselves or to purchase support and development service. For more information on Koha, visit http://koha.org or http://koha-community.org.

Founded by the original Evergreen designers and developers, Equinox Software is a growing team of skilled professionals who work to continue improving Evergreen, the consortial, open source ILS. Equinox not only continues to develop Evergreen but also consults, migrates, integrates, supports, and offers hosting packages for libraries that prefer not to maintain local servers. Equinox also engages and supports a rapidly expanding Evergreen community.

Source: Equinox Software

Kluwer Law International Offers Transactional Pricing With Launch of New E-Store

Kluwer Law International has launched a new e-store, where customers without subscriptions can purchase journal articles on a transactional basis. Kluwer Law International is part of the Wolters Kluwer Law & Business group, a provider of research products and software solutions in key legal and compliance specialty areas (www.kluwerlaw.com).

The creation of the store was designed to address the numerous requests Kluwer Law International receives for individual articles. "Until now, we have been unable to honor such requests, as articles were only available on a subscription basis," said Kluwer Law International director of marketing and product management Joyce Rivers. "With the launch of the new Kluwer Law International e-store, we are better able to meet the needs of customers while providing them with greater flexibility and convenience."

The store is linked with the existing Kluwer Law International platform for online journals at www.kluwerlawonline.com. Articles available for sale have a "Buy" button next to the description that users can click on to be directed to the transactional store. Once in, users can complete an order form, provide credit card information, and, within minutes, receive an email with the article attached as a PDF.

Source: Kluwer Law International

Morningstar Acquires Financial Fineprint Business, Footnoted.org

Morningstar, Inc. (www.morningstar.com), a provider of independent investment research, announced it has acquired the Footnoted business of Financial Fineprint, Inc., a privately held firm based in Peekskill, N.Y. The acquisition includes the Footnoted.org website and the Footnoted Pro service. Terms were not disclosed.

Footnoted.org was founded in 2003 by Michelle Leder, author and journalist. Footnoted's research staff pores over hundreds of SEC filings a day to unearth critical information buried in the fine print, such as evidence of aggressive accounting, excessive compensation, or the type of questionable self-dealing that can indicate more serious problems at a company. The company also publishes Footnoted Pro, a service for institutional investors, such as hedge fund firms, that provides insight on actionable items and trends in filings.

Leder will continue to run Footnoted, and Morningstar will make some content from the site available on Morningstar.com, the company's investment website. In the near future, Footnoted.org will become Footnoted.com. Morningstar will also offer Footnoted Pro to its individual investor, advisor, and institutional clients.

Source: Morningstar, Inc.