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Weekly News Digest

June 7, 2012 — 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.

LexisNexis Acquires Sanction Solutions

The addition of Sanction to LexisNexis expands the company’s diverse suite of litigation products and services to create an unmatched end-to-end solution set for litigators—spanning early case assessment, e-discovery processing and review, case analysis, transcript management and now presentation.

“We’re excited to bring Sanction Solutions into the diverse lineup of software products that LexisNexis offers litigators. Not only will it help them easily prepare and present crucial evidence,” said Matt Gillis, vice president and managing director for Litigation Tools & Professional Services at LexisNexis, “but Sanction further extends our presence in the litigation workflow—reinforcing LexisNexis as the comprehensive and integrated end-to-end provider of litigation solutions.”

Because Sanction delivers services throughout the litigation workflow, particularly for case assessment, planning, and presentation, it will be integrated with the LexisNexis CaseMap suite that contains the CaseMap, TextMap, and TimeMap tools. Sanction software also integrates with several industry-recognized third-party applications and utilizes Microsoft databases to make projects easily portable. Sanction will continue to be offered as a stand-alone product.

The acquisition of Sanction Solutions is part of the continuing LexisNexis commitment to provide industry-leading litigation support software and services that help customers increase productivity and achieve better outcomes for their organizations and clients. Other components of the LexisNexis litigation offering include LexisNexis Early Data Analyzer to narrow down huge sets of data, LAW PreDiscovery to identify relevant information and documents for discovery and review, Concordance for e-discovery review and the CaseMap suite for case assessment, planning, reporting and other important strategic functions of case preparation. LexisNexis also offers enterprise and on-demand hosted litigation solutions for customers seeking to increase their data capacity, decrease data management costs or ensure data security.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Sanction Solutions was founded in 1999 and is a division of Esquire Deposition Solutions LLC.

Source: LexisNexis Legal & Professional 

EBSCO to Distribute AP Images Collection to Libraries

AP Images Collection is a primary source database with millions of images from 1826 to present and more than 3,500 additional photographs are added daily. The collection also includes 36,400 audio sound bytes dating from the 1920s and more than 2,900 multimedia interactives. The multimedia interactives represent a compilation of integrated video, graphics, and photos that bring the latest news and educational topics to life. In addition, AP Images Collection provides 2.7 million Associated Press news stories from 1997 to present, and a professionally produced collection of more than 340,000 maps, graphs, charts, logos, flags, and illustrations.

The archive is currently available on AP Images.com but the eventual migration to EBSCOhost will benefit customers accessing the content through EBSCOhost as well as EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). AP Images Collection via EBSCOhost and EDS will provide a greater search experience for the end user with millions of images integrated into results.

Libraries using EDS that purchase AP Images Collection will add a rich database of images that will complement results from other image providers, as well as results from journals, magazines, newspapers, newswires, ebooks, print books, conference proceedings, video, and other sources types. EDS is a comprehensive discovery service for magazine, journal, and ebook searching, and this extensive collection from Associated Press, when teamed with other collections, means that EDS will be the most comprehensive discovery service for images.

Source: EBSCO Publishing

New EBSCO Discovery Service API Released

The EBSCO Discovery Service API solution complements and enhances the search experience for libraries with custom discovery solutions by providing access to premium content available through EDS, as well as a robust set of EDS features and functionality. With EDS API, libraries can integrate critical components of EDS into their library solution including rich metadata, superior relevancy ranking, full-text linking, (including SmartLinks), persistent links, custom links, facets, limiters and expanders, and book jacket images. By utilizing EDS API libraries also gain access to critical subject indexes via Platform Blending, which combines rich metadata with subject indexing and abstracts from leading subject indexes that aren’t available through any other discovery service (subscription via EBSCOhost required).

While EBSCO has long provided open APIs for its products, the company was determined to build a superior, state-of-the-art API for EDS and created EDS API from the ground up. EBSCO’s goal was to create an API with simplicity in mind. In order to offer an easy, simple integration for API consumers, EBSCO designed EDS API to allow for integration with the most popular systems such as VuFind, Drupal, etc. In addition, EDS API provides comprehensive developer documentation and support including XSD (XML Schema Definition), sample XSLTs, VuFind demo, as well as sample applications and code.

When creating the API, EBSCO also wanted to enable libraries to create their own user interface experience. EDS API delivers this experience with expanded web service interfaces (SOAP and REST) and improved response formats (XML and JSON) that enable programmers to easily reproduce the EDS result list and detailed record exactly as seen in EDS or to customize the display to fit the interface.

Source: EBSCO Publishing

Impelsys Unveils iPublishCentral 4.0

“The library market is an important and growing segment for publishers, but many publishers have been challenged by the reality that library patrons are increasingly demanding access to eBooks on all of the major mobile devices,” said Sameer Shariff, founder and CEO of Impelsys. “With iPublishCentral 4.0, publishers can more aggressively pursue this key market segment with the confidence that they’re able to deliver mobile content to library patrons whenever and wherever they want that access.”

iPublishCentral 4.0 will help publishers increase their institutional sales in a few key ways. First, the new version enables institutional patrons to access eBooks from their iPads, laptops, and desktop computers and read their titles offline, regardless of the authentication mode that is setup for the institution. Second, the new version includes content protection that enables publishers to control the expiration terms for eBook downloads and define them however they choose, giving them increased flexibility. Third, iPublishCentral 4.0 has a new feature that allows institutions to produce a custom report on how many times a title was opened and downloaded, providing greater visibility into trends.

The new version of iPublishCentral also includes some important usability enhancements for end users who download ebooks from any of Impelsys’ publishing partners worldwide. These improvements are centered around creating a better reading experience while reading PDF versions of eBook titles, both online and offline. The new iPublishCentral Reader is available now on iTunes and can be used as a generic reader for both ePub and PDF files.

Impelsys clients include McGraw-Hill, MIT Press, Elsevier Science, F&W Media, Wolters Kluwer, Thieme Publishers, Benchmark Education, Marshall Cavendish, Houghton Mifflin, American Academy of Pediatrics, Sesame Street, Lerner Education, and Hong Kong University Press. Headquartered in New York, Impelsys operates across North America, Europe, Middle East, and India.

Source: Impelsys 

Innovative Interfaces Launches Content Pro IRX

IRX handles any digital file format, including documents, images, video, and audio. An elegant, intuitive, and thoroughly modern web interface includes multiple embedded media viewers to make files easily accessible to users. The wizard submission form for uploading files makes it easy for anyone to contribute to the repository, so individual departments can manage any or all of their production, freeing up system administration needs.

A hierarchical architecture gives each institution the flexibility to set up the structure that works best for them. Multiple levels of access provide control over who accesses which collections. Confidential documents remain confidential, and theses, dissertations, and other copyrighted materials can be viewable only by the institution's community, while special collections can be exposed to the world.

Full integration with the Encore discovery platform (and all OAI-PMH-compliant systems) exposes collections to users across the web. Integration with the Handle System provides persistent identifiers for all items, ensuring that collections are always findable. In addition, user communities can stay up to date with collections as they grow, through RSS feeds.

The slideshow feature allows staff to curate digital exhibitions. This feature also enables faculty to extend the use of special collections into the classroom by creating slideshows and embedding them in course management software or using them to augment lectures.

Libraries will have the flexibility to first implement Content Pro and later add IRX as they outgrow their system, or choose Content Pro IRX at the outset for its institutional repository features. Libraries that currently use Innovative’s previous institutional repository system, Symposia, will upgrade to IRX. IRX will be available for general release in summer 2012.

Source: Innovative Interfaces

Gale Announces Classroom in Context

Delivered through a unique portal experience, CLiC also has the flexibility to be easily integrated into an existing Learning Management System (LMS). Since CLiC can be used in the classroom, students can follow along and conduct research as they go, which also helps librarians accelerate usage of library products.

CLiC resources are aligned to universal themes, units and topics found in national and state curriculum frameworks and many nationally adopted textbooks. The national curriculum framework provides core learning goals, including real world skills and knowledge that students need to be successful after they graduate. By utilizing CLiC, administrators, librarians, and teachers can ensure they’re preparing students for college and real world challenges. With options to customize content selection and add new content, CLiC is a powerful and highly versatile tool for any classroom.

The CLiC product suite currently includes high school biology, chemistry, U.S history and world history, with earth science and government underway. Customers that purchase CLiC resources are provided with unlimited schoolwide and remote access anytime, anywhere with an internet connection.

Source: Gale