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Weekly News Digest

July 12, 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.

‘This Week In Libraries’ Show Now Available Free in iTunes

Many library leaders and visionaries have been joining in conversations with Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer on TWIL. So if you want to hear people such as professor/speaker Michael Stephens, library architect Francine Houben, Temple University librarian and blogger Steven Bell, IFLA past president Ellen Tise, ALA past president Roberta Stevens, president of the Library Assocation of Singapore Gene Tan, or Dick van Tol, the man who created Amsterdam’s famous airport library, then it is worth your time to go to the show’s website to check out some of the older episodes.

Starting with episode 77 (June 27, 2012), you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, so you never have to miss any global library news and inspiration again. You can also find the iTunes subscribe button on the show’s site: www.thisweekinlibraries.com.

Shanachie Media is an initiative of Jaap van de Geer and Erik Boekesteijn from Delft, the Netherlands, where for many years they have helped to build DOK, one of the most modern libraries in the world. These 2009 Library Journal Movers and Shakers are also known for their library road trip across the U.S. in 2007, which is available as a book with a DVD movie (Information Today, Inc., http://books.infotoday.com/books/ShanachieTour.shtml).

Source: This Week In Libraries

Inmagic Announces Presto for DB/Text

A few of the capabilities provided by Presto for DB/Text include:

• The ability to easily search across all textbases at once and display results in one view
• The ability to provide custom homepages to securely deliver different content to different audiences
• Support for SDI initiatives with email alerts and RSS feeds
• Integration of social features such as tagging, ratings, and comments
• The ability to select and act on multiple search results items including Info-Cart, Email, Print, or Save
• Advanced image handling including autothumbnail and gallery views without programming

Presto for DB/Text has been designed for customers who require advanced web publishing capabilities without the need for custom programming, which is often necessary when using WebPublisher PRO. Presto for DB/Text does not replace WebPublisher PRO, however; WebPublisher PRO will continue to be enhanced and supported. Presto for DB/Text just gives DB/Text customers an additional option for publishing information to the internet or their intranet.

Presto for DB/Text will also include additional optional features that can be purchased now or at a later time. Some of these features include:

• SharePoint integration
• Federated search (e.g., the ability to search an external database such as EBSCO while simultaneously searching a DB/Text database)
• SSO via Active Directory
• Integration capabilities via a published WCF API
• The ability to add and create native Presto databases/content types

Source: Inmagic

IET Launches Open Access Engineering Megajournal

The IET, which has 150,000 members in 127 countries around the world and has published engineering journals since 1872, will be inviting submissions for its new OA megajournal from autumn 2012, with the online-only publication expected to launch in 2013. As a broad-based engineering journal, it will accept papers on a wide range of engineering topics, rather than focusing on a single specific field. The title and editor-in-chief of this new publication will be announced later in 2012.

From 2013, authors will also be able to choose to make their research free to view in any of the IET’s 26 existing engineering journals, which include well-known titles such as Electronics Letters and the newly launched IET Biometrics. Currently all research papers published by the IET’s journals are available in print and online to paying subscribers only.

The IET’s decision to adopt the OA model comes after a major global review with more than 35,000 engineering researchers from academia and industry to gauge their appetite for OA. This research found that 87% of engineering researchers said they would continue to submit articles to a journal if it converted to an OA model, and around one-third of them had previously published in an OA journal.

Source: The Institution of Engineering and Technology

NoveList Select Gains New Features and Options

NoveList Select is the catalog enrichment component of NoveList readers’ advisory resources. This component pulls NoveList content into a library’s catalog. NoveList Select makes reading recommendations, series information, book discussion guides, Goodreads ratings and reviews, library newsletters, and events available to library patrons from within the catalog record. Patrons can find similar titles and authors based on their searches, discover more of the library’s collection, and sign up for library newsletters and upcoming events.

Vice president of NoveList, Duncan Smith, says NoveList Select has evolved as a way for librarians to enrich their catalogs, and the new features and upgrade options provide librarians with even more ways to serve their patrons. “The library catalog is the main destination for library patrons. Displaying NoveList’s rich content within catalog records allows patrons to learn more about their favorite authors, or to find out about a series or author they didn’t know existed. NoveList Select moves a library catalog from being only a book delivery service to being a book discovery service.”

Now Content Café, from Baker & Taylor, is available through NoveList Select as well. Content Café is a comprehensive database with more than 22 million data elements, with new additions made daily. Content Café enriches OPACs with jacket images, reviews, summaries, complete book details, and more.

Other new features will further enhance the user experience. Improvements to the display and usability of the NoveList content within the catalog records will make it easier for users to access the information. Recommendations for similar series in the library catalog will also be easier to find with a list of series titles added to the existing title and author recommendations that have always been part of NoveList Select in the You might Like These section. Lexile reading levels are also being added where appropriate. These will primarily be available in juvenile records to help determine whether a title is appropriate for a child’s age and reading level.

Source: NoveList 

Columbia University and Thomson Reuters Launch Advanced Data Visualization Project

Advances in digital archives and new data collected from embedded devices in common items such as clothing, cellphones, vehicles, roads, buildings, and anything else one can think of will fundamentally change the way societies plan, finance, monitor, maintain, modify, move within, interact with, and think about our cities. As the university unit devoted to the future of cities, the GSAPP at Columbia University is in a unique position to galvanize this universitywide project on the future of data visualization. Thomson Reuters, a leading source of intelligent information to businesses and professionals, is likewise in a unique position to support the highest level of research throughout this project.

The guiding proposition of the ADVP is that a research university will only be as effective as its ability to visualize data and that new modes of visualization will inevitably redefine all disciplines within the university, the relationships between disciplines, and the relationship between the university and the rapidly urbanizing world. Although based at the GSAPP, the project will explore data visualization applications in various fields including journalism, science, medicine and public health, law, architecture, planning and political science and use experts from the university, Thomson Reuters, and outside researchers. Thomson Reuters will be actively engaged with the program and lead one of six flagship visualization projects.

The first year of the ADVP will serve to establish the basic platform for a wider range of large-scale experiments to be carried out over the following 2 years, culminating in the establishment of a Universitywide Institute for Advanced Data Visualization at Columbia University. The first few years of the program will also serve to produce a definitive edited volume of exhibited experimental work that will become a guide to understand this evolving field.

Source: Thomson Reuters

Latest Version of Thomson Reuters ProView E-Reader Platform Announced

Thomson Reuters ProView is a professional-grade platform for the delivery and use anywhere, anytime of specialized Thomson Reuters content and productivity tools, including popular legal reference books from Thomson Reuters Westlaw; Sweet & Maxwell; Carswell; Aranzadi; and Thomson Reuters Legal, Tax & Accounting ANZ; there are also leading reference books from the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters. ProView’s advanced features, such as full-text search, secured notes and highlights, and content updating, are unique in the marketplace. Information on ProView and its numerous legal reference and professional development titles can be found at http://thomsonreuters.com/proview.

ProView now includes public beta versions for Android tablets, as well as Windows and Mac laptop and desktop computers. ProView is available for Android tablet users at Google Play and the Amazon Appstore for Android, and for Windows and Mac users at www.thomsonreuters.com/proview.

Meanwhile, the latest version of Thomson Reuters ProView for the iPad is available at the Apple App Store and includes these new features and others:

• Enhanced user interface: There is a new landscape mode and improved navigation
• Offline capabilities: Any changes, such as new notes, highlights and comments, are automatically updated and securely stored as soon as connectivity is restored
• Support for embedded file formats: Content containing embedded files in popular formats, including PDF, Microsoft Word and Excelâ, can be accessed; for example, court forms within a title can be opened, completed, and exported

Thomson Reuters ProView is currently available with leading legal reference and professional development titles, including court rules for selected states from Thomson Reuters Westlaw in the U.S.; Archbold: Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice 2012 from Sweet & Maxwell in the U.K.; Practitioner's Income Tax Act 2012 from Carswell in Canada; 2012 Tax and Law Annuals from Thomson Reuters Legal, Tax & Accounting ANZ in Australia; and Derecho privado en Internet from Aranzadi. In addition, leading tax and accounting reference titles including RIA Federal Tax Handbook are available from the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters.

Source: Thomson Reuters