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Weekly News Digest

April 19, 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 Version of Medical Illustrations Database Now Available From EBSCO

Nucleus Medical Media, Inc. (www.smartimagebase.com) has launched a new version of Scientific and Medical ART Imagebase (SMART Imagebase), a subscription-based website available from EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com). In addition to medical illustrations and medical animations, SMART Imagebase also includes illustrated monographs and interactive projects.

SMART Imagebase is used in schools and colleges worldwide and lets users download more than 20,000 images and animations of anatomy, physiology, disease, conditions, surgery, and trauma to use for educational, non-commercial purposes such as classroom projects, web-based course curricula, and professional training.

For the latest version of SMART Imagebase, Nucleus added more than 2,000 new content items, along with additional features to help users find, download, share, and edit content faster than ever. Users will notice a new look to the interface and faster performance from the upgraded resource. Pop-down search menus, larger image previews, and a more user-friendly design along with enhancements designed to improve search and display speed will make the resource even easier to use.

Nucleus has also made "under the hood" upgrades that improve the overall performance over the original version. Additional upgrades include better navigation and search-expanded content categories and tag-based search terms; additional languages, along with a faster search engine, will allow users to access SMART Imagebase content more efficiently.

The new version also includes editing tools so users can edit the image titles and add labels plus social media sharing options. The new image editing tool suite allows those who need to edit and print images quickly the ability to make changes with a few intuitive clicks-an easy alternative to graphics or word processing software. Users may also create collections of content to share with others, comment on content items, and create links to collections, images, and third party content.

Source: EBSCO Publishing

Oxford University Press Launches New Online Resources

Oxford University Press (OUP; www.oup.com) has released the online edition of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (www.oxford-greecerome.com) in partnership with Semantico Ltd. (www.semantico.com), a provider of services and technology for online publishing. With more than 1,100 articles, the encyclopedia covers the legacy of the classical world and its interpretation and influence in subsequent centuries.

The encyclopedia forms part of the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf (www.oxford-digitalreference.com), the online collection of Oxford's scholarly reference titles. The Oxford Digital Reference Shelf is a unique online publishing platform designed by Semantico, featuring a production interface built on the Semantico Information Publishing Platform (SIPP). This software creates the opportunity for OUP to provide flexible purchase options allowing existing Oxford Reference Online (www.oxfordreference.com) customers to add titles to their collection whilst also enabling the purchase of individual titles.

OUP has also launched Oxford Bibliographies Online-a series of intuitive and easy-to-use "ultimate reading lists." OUP's first online-only product goes beyond search algorithms to present bibliographies in several disciplines selected by leading subject experts and vetted by the highest professional standards.

The product launched with modules on Classics, Islamic Studies, Criminology and Social Work, with an additional 10-12 subject area modules scheduled to launch within the next year. Forthcoming modules in May 2010 include Atlantic History, Renaissance & Reformation, and Philosophy. Every module is overseen by a subject-area expert editor-in-chief and editorial board.

Each entry receives multiple peer reviews and board vetting. Each individual entry provides expert recommendations through key literature on a specialized sub-topic. It features an annotated bibliography broken into subsections, each preceded by context-setting text introducing the entries that follow.

Source: Oxford University Press

Credo Reference Adds Princeton University Press Titles

Credo Reference (www.credoreference.com) has signed an agreement to integrate five Princeton University Press titles into the online Credo General Reference collection. These are the first Princeton University Press titles to be made available on the reference service.

With this new agreement, Credo users will have full access to the high-quality content of these well-reviewed and award-winning reference works:

• The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
• The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
• The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy
• The Handbook of Economic Sociology
• The Princeton Guide to Ecology

Source: Credo Reference

EBSCOhost Adds U.S. Hispanic Historical Collection

EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has released Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1, the first digital collection made available through a partnership with Arte Público Press (www.latinoteca.com/arte-publico-press). This database provides a digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature, and culture. By digitizing key aspects of the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project," this collection broadens and enriches the curriculum across the humanities, from the study of the Spanish language to the way history is viewed.

Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection: Series 1 includes approximately 60,000 historical articles, 1,100 historical books and hundreds of political and religious pamphlets and broadsides. Approximately 80% of the content is in Spanish and 20% is in English and the content is indexed and searchable in both Spanish and English. The holdings are a major resource for scholars interested in the study of Hispanic literature and culture.

The collections draw its content from the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project-the largest national project ever to locate, preserve, and disseminate Hispanic culture of the U.S. in its written form since colonial times until 1960. The project functions under the direction of Dr. Nicolás Kanellos, founder and director of Arte Público Press, the oldest and largest publisher of U.S. Hispanic literature in the U.S., and geographically covers all fifty states.

Source: EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com)

Springer Expands its Service on AuthorMapper.com

Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) has expanded its service on the website www.AuthorMapper.com, a free analytical online tool for discerning trends, patterns, and subject experts within scientific research. AuthorMapper was launched a year ago offering searchable content from all Springer and BioMed Central journals. The platform now offers ebook data as well.

Currently the tool can retrieve useful information across all disciplines, from more than three million journal articles and more than 742,000 book chapters from 29,000 ebooks. Adding ebook data allows all the benefits of specific ebook analysis just as the success of the journal data has shown in the past.

The AuthorMapper tool can provide a variety of analyses, such as keyword tag clouds and "Top 5" bar charts for various important metrics, and includes an interactive world map of the results. AuthorMapper.com's advanced search function also allows complex queries using keyword, discipline, institution, journal, publisher, and author. The results can identify new and historic scientific trends through timeline graphs and bar charts of top statistics, allowing for identification of trends in the literature, discovery of wider scientific relationships, and locating other experts in a field of study.

The trend timeline graph, for example, allows authors to see whether their areas of expertise are growing or have already peaked. Users that are only interested in open access content can restrict their searches accordingly, and all search results provide link-outs to content on SpringerLink. 

For graduates, post-docs, and emerging researchers, AuthorMapper.com shows which institutions are the most prolific in specific research areas and allows for their comparison. AuthorMapper.com can even be useful for members of the general public seeking to identify experts, for example, medical specialists, working close to where they are located.

Source: Springer Science+Business Media

Spring Design Now Shipping Multimedia Alex eReader

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Spring Design, Inc. (www.springdesign.com) is now shipping the dual screen multimedia Alex eReader. Weighing only 11 ounces, the Android-based Alex eReader supporting ebooks in EPUB, PDF, HTML, and TXT formats, offers full internet browsing using WiFi connectivity, and later this year will also feature 3G and EVDO/CDMA connectivity. 

Alex offers multitasking, enabling users to enjoy music while they read, supplement their ebook on the EPD screen (electronic paper display) with video on the LCD screen (liquid crystal display), search the web, or use email so users may connect with each other in book clubs and social media.

The Alex eReader costs $399 and measures 4.7" by 8.9" and less than a half inch deep. It comes with headphones, AC connector, USB cable, and protective cover.  The USB 2.0 connector makes it easy to transfer photos, videos or other files to the Alex MicroSD card offering expansion of user libraries up to 32GB.  Spring Design will offer periodic over the air updates for the Alex.  

Spring will shortly being to announce multi-language versions of Alex for countries speaking Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Hebrew.  Alex is the first eReader to offer international versions of the product through its local country partners connecting to local bookstores. Spring Design Inc., founded in 2006, is located in Fremont, Calif. with engineering offices in Taiwan and China.

In addition, Grammata, a Spanish company specializing in the design, content, and sale of eReaders and Spring Design announced that Grammata will open an online ebookstore and sell the Alex eReader in Spain online and in retail stores starting July 2010 starting with 1,000 titles.  Grammata is currently consolidating digital books from various Spanish publishers and expects to offer 15,000 to 45,000 Spanish language ebooks for sale and selected copyright-free classics at no cost through its online store at www.grammata.es.

Source: Spring Design, Inc.