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Weekly News Digest

August 30, 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.

New Resource—Gale Genealogy Connect

Sourced from the publications of Genealogical.com, parent company for Genealogical Publishing Company and Clearfield Company, Gale Genealogy Connect features more than 550 reference works at release (formerly only available in print or CD-ROM) on a stand-alone ebook platform, with a goal of growing the collection to nearly 1,500 works. The content covers a wide range of topics such as genealogy research basics, genealogy methods and sources, colonial genealogy, immigration, royal and Native American ancestry. Gale Genealogy Connect serves both novice and advanced researchers—beginners will learn proper research methods and how to define and organize goals, while powerful search features help advanced researchers make connections among data to uncover a meaningful story behind their family tree.

“With Gale Genealogy Connect we are opening up a treasure chest of resources for current and future genealogists as this is the first time much of this information is available in an online, searchable database,” said Gerald Sawchuk, publisher for public library solutions at Gale. “Instead of spending countless hours scouring a book for mention of a family name, users can quickly search across multiple information sources, making the research experience much more efficient and exciting.”

Additional features of Gale Genealogy Connect include the following:

• An engaging user interface with translation into 38 languages
• Unlimited and simultaneous 24/7 access
• Seamless cross-searching across all Gale Genealogy Connect collections
• Ability to print, save, email, or share articles
• Multipage PDF viewing recreating the book experience

Content is divided into six convenient bundles, giving libraries a variety of purchase and subscription options to meet their needs.

Source: Gale 

New Sports Medicine and Exercise Videos From Alexander Street Press

Sports Medicine and Exercise Science in Video includes demonstrations of the principles, techniques, and modalities of modern exercise and sport science from acclaimed athletic trainers, physicians, physical therapists, registered dieticians, and other wellness professionals. Focal topics across the collection include includes sport-specific training, exercise psychology, injury prevention and treatment, nutrition, special populations, fitness and health assessment, medical fitness, exercise adherence, sport science, worksite wellness, and much more.

Titles in each collection have been approved for educational use by key organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Athletic Trainers Association, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and the American Council on Exercise. Content is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure accuracy and compliance with current standards.

Source: Alexander Street Press

OCLC Libraries Begin Phased Migration to WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Service

Librarians from 20 OCLC member libraries participated in a 6-month beta test of WorldShare Interlibrary Loan. Librarians from these institutions provided input that helped shape the development of WorldShare Interlibrary Loan. Many beta testing participants will continue their roles as advisors to OCLC on development of the new service as members of a new WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Advisory Group.

The release of WorldShare Interlibrary Loan represents the first large migration of OCLC member libraries to the OCLC WorldShare Platform, where they will benefit from expanded integration across a growing number of services. The platform will enable library staff and others to develop applications that will help them connect the service with other services in use within their libraries. They may also use the new service it in conjunction with other components of OCLC WorldShare Management Services.

The phased rollout of the service has begun and will continue through December 2013. Open migration for all WorldCat Resource Sharing users will begin in February 2013 and continue until the end of access to WorldCat Resource Sharing on Dec. 31, 2013.

OCLC has invited a small group of libraries with a low volume of borrowing-only interlibrary loan activity to participate in the initial 90-day managed migration currently in progress. Participation in the next managed migration group, scheduled to begin in October 2012, will be open to interested WorldCat Resource Sharing librarians whose normal interlibrary loan activities can be supported by available functionality in the service before its full release in February.

Source: OCLC

InfoDesk Introduces InfoMonitor: Competitive Intelligence Made Easy

InfoMonitor combines InfoDesk’s state-of-the-art technology with a professional editor’s review, enabling it to scan and filter thousands of news sources—including all types of subscription, web, and social media sources—to deliver only the most relevant clips, without redundancy.

Sterling Stites, president and CEO of InfoDesk, explained the difference between InfoMonitor and other services: “It’s our editors. We have put together a team of highly skilled and experienced librarians and information professionals that review, select, and summarize all the content in every InfoMonitor update.” He added, “Every story we include is there for a reason.”

In addition to professionally written summaries with links to original sources, each news item includes content rating buttons that allow readers to vote on the relevancy of each article. These interactive rating buttons reinforce the relevancy of each story. Email links allow users to send articles to colleagues with one easy click. 

InfoDesk just released a new video to introduce InfoMonitor. To learn more, download a complimentary 6-page InfoMonitor Sample CI Brief or request a free demo.

For more than 12 years, InfoDesk has helped some of the largest multinational corporations, top government agencies and media companies integrate, deliver, and share large volumes of information more effectively. InfoDesk is based in Tarrytown, NY with offices in London and Washington, DC.

Source: InfoDesk

LexisNexis eBooks Available on Amazon Kindle Store

A collection of several hundred electronic titles from the LexisNexis collection is available for purchase in the Amazon.com Kindle Store in a number of categories within the nonfiction department under Law. For example, the initial offering of LexisNexis eBooks includes titles covering topics such as bankruptcy, immigration, tax, and many more practice areas and jurisdictions. For law school students, textbooks, casebooks, and study aids for many first-, second-, and third-year law students are now available, along with popular study guides such as the Understanding and Questions & Answers series—with more being added for the fall semester.

LexisNexis eBooks purchased via Amazon.com are readable using Kindle or any of the many free Kindle reading apps. For those studying or practicing law, this combines purchasing convenience with compatibility across the most popular tablet and mobile devices for an integrated and highly portable reading experience. As with all Kindle books, customers reading on Kindle or one of the free Kindle apps can sync their library as well as annotations they make to their books between devices, allowing for a seamless research experience from desktop computers to mobile devices and tablets.

Additionally, regardless of how they are acquired, many LexisNexis ebooks now also feature embedded links to valuable primary and analytical legal content on Lexis Advance for users who have a subscription, with more titles offering links going forward. Prices for LexisNexis eBooks in the Kindle Store vary depending on individual publications, and more titles will be added over time.

Source: LexisNexis 

Census Bureau Mobile App Now Available for iPhone and iPad

The app consolidates indicators from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produce monthly and quarterly snapshots of key sectors within the U.S. economy. It provides smartphone and tablet users with real-time releases of 16 key government statistics that drive business hiring, sales and production decisions useful to small businesses, the construction industry, the banking industry, journalists, economists, planners, policymakers and anyone who wants to monitor U.S. economic data.

As a leader in the Federal Digital Strategy, the Census Bureau continues to open its statistics to the American people through its Web Transformation Project. In the first three weeks since the Census Bureau's Application Programming Interface was released in July 2012, 860 developers received keys to access its data sets. The API will be updated with 2011 American Community Survey statistics in December.

Users are able to set alerts to receive notifications when economic indicators are updated. They can also add statistical release schedules to their personal calendars. When each indicator is released, users can share the news on both Facebook and Twitter. Future updates of America's Economy will include additional statistics.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau