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Weekly News Digest

May 16, 2011 — 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.

EBSCO Publishing Releases New iPhone App

The new iPhone app, available free from the iTunes App Store, offers easy authentication for users via a library’s EBSCOhost profile. New features include the ability to view content in visual landscape mode and the option to save articles and PDF full-text content on the device for offline viewing. The app also includes existing EBSCOhost features bringing the most popular and useful functionality to researchers. These features include limiting to full text, date ranges, peer-reviewed content, or by publication.

Clicking into a result replicates the EBSCOhost user experience providing researchers with abstracts and links to full text, as well as key citation information such as source, authors, and subject terms that are all easily clickable to launch new searches. Users also have the ability to save and email articles as well as store PDFs for offline viewing. The result list is scrollable, can be refined by subject and publication facets, and can be sorted by relevancy or date. Available data in the result list includes citations and access to full-text articles.

The interface has been simplified for increased speed and user convenience. EBSCO currently offers a mobile app for DynaMed, a point-of-care resource. Future apps will include an EBSCOhost app for Android devices, iPhone apps for Business Book Summaries and Nursing Reference Center, and eBook reader apps.

Source: EBSCO Publishing

Library Copyright Alliance Releases Statement on Copyright Reform

Interested parties are discussing with renewed vigor the issues of orphan works, mass digitization, and even modernization of Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act in the wake of the Google Books settlement rejection by Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York. The LCA statement, which represents the needs of library stakeholders in these debates, provides helpful guideposts for these discussions.

Libraries have always advocated for reasonable copyright policy—in the courts as well as in the U.S. Congress. Library activities already benefit from broad, flexible protection under the fair use doctrine and related provisions in current law. The LCA’s statement describes the status quo for libraries as well as the policies that would constitute substantial legislative improvement to existing copyright law.

Source: Library Copyright Alliance

Elsevier Launches Apps for Library Idea Challenge

Entrants are invited to submit specific ideas for applications for the SciVerse suite that solve problems affecting the search and discovery of information within librarian and researcher workflows alike. Selected app concepts will be posted on the challenge website and open to commentary from peers and the public, enabling a dialogue within the librarian community to identify problems and discuss potential solutions.

The call for entries opened May 13 and the deadline for submissions is Sept.2, 2011. An international panel of judges will select up to 10 finalist app idea entries. Two grand-prize winners will be selected—one by a panel of judges and one by community vote. The winners will each receive a cash prize of € 750 (approximately $1,000). The winners’ names and concepts will also be featured in the relevant Elsevier library and information science journals. Other prizes will be available to eligible idea entrants and commenters.

The Apps for Library Idea Challenge is part of a series of community competitions launched by Elsevier that engage the scientific research communities, librarians, and application developers in the creation and conceptualization of search and discovery applications. Most recently, the Developer Network at Elsevier introduced the “Apps for Science Challenge,” an international competition calling specifically upon developers to build applications within this vein. Through SciVerse Applications, researchers and librarians can collaborate with developers to create new applications and customize their SciVerse search and discovery workflow. The Developer Network features a community for developers and opens up opportunities for developers to gain recognition, prestige, and revenue through the contribution of new applications to SciVerse.

To enter the Apps for Library Idea Challenge, and for complete official rules and additional information, visit http://www.appsforlibrary.com.

Source: Elsevier

Northern Light Launches SinglePoint API and SharePoint Web Parts Collection

Northern Light launched the SinglePoint API and SharePoint Web Parts Collection, which lets organizations easily embed SinglePoint portal content and search facilities throughout a company’s intranet. SinglePoint context-specific search facilities, research reports, and news content may be inserted directly into the intranet sites of product and brand groups within a SinglePoint client organization, through secure web calls from the SharePoint installation to SinglePoint

“Embedding content from SinglePoint directly into our clients’ intranet sites has led to increases in SinglePoint content usage of 100 percent or more,” Northern Light CEO David Seuss said. “The more that content is used, the better an organization’s decisions, and the greater the value derived from its premium research subscriptions.

The SinglePoint API can be used for any intranet platform, such as IBM WebSphere, Microsoft SharePoint, and Oracle Portal 11g. Northern Light’s Web Parts Collection is specifically for Microsoft SharePoint installations. Northern Light also can crawl Microsoft SharePoint installations to index content from internal sources into the organization’s SinglePoint portal, which makes the documents searchable and findable across the enterprise.

Northern Light has been providing strategic research portals, business research content, and search technology to global enterprises since 1996. Northern Light’s current clients include Fortune 100 market leaders in information technology, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, financial services and insurance, transportation, retailing, and electronics. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with a development center in St. Petersburg, Russia, Northern Light Group LLC is a profitable, privately-held, self-funded company with more than 50 employees.

Source: Northern Light

Laplink Rolls Out New Data Protection Software

PC Lock uses the latest in remote services with a cloud-based Web Management Console. With this unique console, users can modify preferences, change settings, reset passwords, lock the data on a missing or stolen PC and remotely delete sensitive data. The Web Management Console is accessible from any web-enabled device, including smartphones, allowing management from virtually anywhere, even if the user is on the go; no need to rely on live customer support as with other products.

PC Lock also features multiple levels of security, a sophisticated EKE “Encrypted Key Encryption” approach with military-grade 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), providing the most secure and simplest data security solutions available.

PC Lock utilizes a simple wizard that walks users through installation, configuration, and encryption of their PC’s data. After installation, PC Lock encrypts files automatically in the background without degrading the PC’s performance. Files are unencrypted when opened and re-encrypted when saved. The result is a simple-to-use but powerful tool with real-time, always-on protection.

Encrypted data is locked behind the PC Lock password, which is separate from the Windows login. This has two important benefits: if you forget your PC Lock password, you can still log into Windows and access the Web Management Console to reset your password; and secondly, it adds another level of security guarding against cold boot hacks and pre-boot login problems.

Files and folders on a PC remain protected even if the PC is lost or stolen. Users can trigger a remote wipe of their encrypted data from the Web Management Console, preventing access of stolen files. Even if the thief pulls the hard drive from the PC and never accesses the internet, the data remains encrypted and inaccessible. PC Lock is also compatible with other security software, so it can provide an extra layer of protection and complement existing safeguards a user may already have in place or add in the future.

Source: Laplink Software, Inc.

Gale Partners With TheGreenInterview.com to Enhance GREENR Content

Transcripts and audio (MP3) files of the video content and biographies of the interviewees in each video segment will also be available. Additional Green Interview content will be added to GREENR in the future, as it is produced. The agreement also licenses to Gale two blogs from TheGreenInterview.com that discuss current and past environmental topics and developments.

TheGreenInterview.com, hosted by noted author, speaker, and educator Silver Donald Cameron, provides an e-newsletter and video series that captures, in interview form, the ideas of the world’s most prominent advocates of sustainability and environmental protection. The shows are produced and directed by Chris Beckett, and released in association with Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Launched in April 2010, TheGreenInterview.com seeks out leaders, the “green giants” of our time, for intense, searching conversations (running an hour or more), and makes those interviews available to its subscribing customers via its website. The goal of TheGreenInterview.com is to amass an unparalleled library of extended video and audio interviews with the world's environmental leaders. The complete list of interviews can be found online at http://www.thegreeninterview.com/interviews. TheGreenInterview.com content will be added to GREENR at no additional cost to current customers.

Source: Gale