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Weekly News Digest

June 25, 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.

EBSCO Announces New Partnerships that Enhance Discovery Options

The new agreement between EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) and SirsiDynix will provide mutual customers with easier access to the databases, ejournals, and other econtent end users are looking for. EBSCO and SirsiDynix will work together to allow (EDS) to be seamlessly integrated into SirsiDynix’s eResource Central solution. The plan also calls for a refined approach to the integration of eBooks on EBSCOhost within the SirsiDynix experience.

In addition to discovering the extensive content available via EDS, SirsiDynix customers who own or subscribe to eBooks on EBSCOhost will be able to identify which ebooks are available and check them out. Checkouts will be integrated with physical holdings, and users will be able to launch EBSCO’s ebook viewer directly without additional authentication.

OCLC and EBSCO have signed an agreement to make EDS interoperable with the OCLC WorldShare Management Service, enabling libraries to use EDS as their discovery layer and WorldShare Management Services as their library management system. Additionally, the companies are investigating working toward an integrated solution allowing WorldCat Local users who also subscribe to EDS to search and retrieve results from EDS within the WorldCat Local Service.

Libraries using the integrated EDS-WMS solution will be able to perform cataloging, acquisitions, license management, and circulation in OCLC’s next generation cloud-based management system, while providing their patrons with the EDS discovery service as a user front end. OCLC and EBSCO are working together to integrate such key WMS functions into EDS as patron identity management, item availability, circulation, and system configuration. Because libraries using this integrated solution will catalog in WorldCat, users of EDS in this configuration will have the ability to access all of WorldCat.

EBSCO and Innovative Interfaces agreed to joint development that will enable more tightly integrated access between EDS and Innovative’s Encore discovery platform in addition to facilitating access between EDS and Innovative’s Millennium ILS and Sierra Services Platform. Having access to EDS’s unified index will expand the quality and amount of content available for Encore users while adding the enhanced features and functionality available from EDS. Encore users will also be able to search their EBSCOhost databases via the Encore interface—providing a powerful article search experience.

Source: EBSCO

ProQuest Releases Digital NAACP Content Ahead of Schedule

The NAACP archives are part of the rapidly expanding ProQuest History Vault, which chronicles the American experience. Additional History Vault modules already online and available to researchers include the following:

• The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century, comprising documents ranging from the founding of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs at the close of the 19th century to the riots that followed the verdict in the Rodney King brutality case in the 1990s
• Slavery and the Law, which includes petitions on the subject of race and slavery to state legislatures and Southern county courts—some of the most revealing documentation in existence on the functioning of the slave system
• Vietnam War and Foreign Policy, 1960-1975, covering U.S. involvement in the region from the early days of the Kennedy administration to the final resolution at the Paris Peace Talks and the evacuation of U.S. troops in 1973

Documents in History Vault are available for remote study and are supported by rich, intuitive search technology. Original archival arrangement schemes are preserved and PDFs of the original sources replicate the user experience of browsing through archive boxes, providing an unparalleled research experience for students and faculty who would otherwise be unable to access materials held at geographically dispersed archives.

Source: ProQuest

Penguin Group Launches Library Lending Pilot Program

Under the initial phase of the pilot, ebooks will be made available to libraries for 1 year with renewable terms. Library patrons will be able to access ebooks remotely using public-library compatible reading devices. Titles will be available for lending 6 months after initial publication.

David Shanks, Penguin Group (USA) CEO, said, “We have always been committed to libraries and we are hopeful that this experiment will be successful. Our partnership with 3M and The New York Public Library is a first step toward understanding the best means of supporting the growing digital missions of our great library institutions and their sincere desire to bring writers to new readers.”

Anthony Marx, New York Public Library president, said, “We are delighted to partner with Penguin and 3M in this historic agreement, which is a powerful first step toward libraries and publishers working together to build a model that meets the needs of our ever-changing society. Since our founding in 1895, The New York Public Library has made it our mission to provide free books and educational materials for all, particularly for those of limited means. As ebooks grow in popularity, libraries nationwide have faced diminishing access to that content. As such, the Library is determined to work together with publishers and authors to craft a fair way to ensure ebooks are available to libraries and their users.”

“We are delighted to be collaborating with Penguin and The New York Public Library in order to find an eBook lending model that works for all sides,” said Matt Tempelis, global business manager, 3M Cloud Library. “The 3M team is dedicated to bringing the best content to our library partners in ways that work for both the libraries and publishers. This is a great step in that direction.”

Sources: Penguin Group (USA), The New York Public Library, and 3M

SAGE Releases SAGE Knowledge Platform for Ebook Delivery

Available in Beta since March 2012, more than 1,000 institutions have already trialed SAGE Knowledge, including current SAGE Reference customers who will be migrated onto the new platform.

“We are receiving enthusiastic feedback from beta-testing,” said Karen Phillips, editorial director, SAGE. “Readers have commented on the excellent range of titles in SAGE Knowledge, user-friendly interface and easy navigation, and are particularly excited by the ‘related content’ feature, which will seamlessly link users to similar content within SAGE Knowledge and across other SAGE platforms. This functionality is powered through our partnership with Temis, making search and discovery more advanced for SAGE Knowledge.”

For readers, SAGE Knowledge offers titles in full text HTML as well as PDF download. In addition to quick and advanced search options, titles can be browsed through book portal pages and table of contents. Content is discoverable by major search engines at the title and chapter level to ensure students find SAGE content no matter where they start their search. Personalization features are provided to create reading lists and save searches. Functionality to enable easy social sharing of materials and citation options are also provided.

Libraries are being offered a range of flexible purchasing options, including mix and match of titles as well as collection and subject bundles. MARC Records and COUNTER reports will be available. All DOIs are registered for each title and chapter and deposited in CrossRef.

Source: SAGE

Gale to Bring National Geographic Treasures to Libraries

Earlier this year, Gale announced the National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994, for libraries, which included all issues of the magazine for its first 107 years, fully searchable through an intuitive interface. The partnership has now been extended to provide all National Geographic magazine issues from 1995 onwards, as well as access to a new virtual reference collection of National Geographic books, maps, videos, images, and National Geographic Traveler magazine (2010-current).

Some of the notable National Geographic resources made available as part of the agreement include titles such as Polar Obsession, by Paul Nicklen, and Sizing Up the Universe: The Cosmos in Perspective, by J. Richard Gott; videos exploring topics such as alternative energy and the lifestyle of beluga whales; and destination guides and expedition maps.

This is the first time all these resources have been offered to libraries together in digital and searchable form. The extension of the virtual library provides the high quality that librarians expect from the National Geographic brand. These new resources will be created on the same platform as the National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994, and will work seamlessly together. These new resources will be available to customers starting in fall 2012.

Source: Gale

PsycTESTS Coming to EBSCOhost

PsycTESTS serves as a repository for the full text (when available) of psychological tests and measures, as well as a source of structured information about tests of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.

More than 7,000 master test profiles and more than 5,000 instances of actual tests or test items, dating from 1910, are currently included in PsycTESTS. Researchers using PsycTESTS are able to discover unpublished tests, tests developed by psychologists for which no source document has been located, and information about select published tests available from commercial publishers. PsycTESTS will be available via EBSCOhost in early July. 

PsycTESTS adds unique value to EBSCO’s collection of psychology databases. To see a full list of databases in this subject area, including detailed descriptions, visit http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/subjects/category/psychology.

Source: EBSCO Publishing