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Weekly News Digest

January 28, 2013 — 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 ProQuest Congressional Service Unveiled

The congressional service has long been a staple in libraries because its broad and authoritative content can inform research on such a wide variety of topics. While the volume of content is extraordinary—complete content from congressional publications, including the first-ever full-text digital collection of all U.S. bills and resolutions from the first Congress in 1789 to the present—its new technology architecture allows it to be easily navigated, discovered and used within the context of the overall library collection. For example, the service’s popular Bill Tracking feature now expands out through links to the library’s other Congressional documents. Searching and other finding aids are both simpler and more precis, with fewer steps and more facets that zero in on exactly the right bits of data, whether it’s congressional testimony by experts and other witnesses, research carried out by staffers, or authoritative statistics.

The entire congressional service includes a core product and six modules—all have been rebuilt—and subscribers are currently introducing their users to its new features, look, and feel.

Source: ProQuest

SirsiDynix Announces Integration Partnerships

SirsiDynix and 3M announced their intent to integrate the 3M Cloud Library content into eResource Central, currently scheduled for release in 1Q 2013. SirsiDynix’ eResource Central delivers key features such as hit-list availability, centralized sign-on, and one-click downloads. The initiative with 3M is a significant broadening of the project, integrating 3M content in a way that will benefit both libraries and their users.

With more than 250,000 titles from more than 300 publishers, the 3M Cloud Library has an extensive collection of popular fiction and nonfiction titles for a library collection. All libraries using the 3M Cloud Library can select books from top publishers such as Penguin, Random House, and HarperCollins, as well as ebooks from hundreds of smaller publishers. 

SirsiDynix and Recorded Books announced a partnership to deliver seamless audiobook access to end users via the SirsiDynix eResource Central product. The partnership with Recorded Books was one of the first to be developed for eResource Central and is an important step forward for the project.

Recorded Books is a provider of library services around the world, the largest independent producer of unabridged audiobooks, and a distributor of ebooks and other digital products and services. More than 25,000 titles for adults, children, and young adults are narrated by professional actors. Recorded Books offers digital database services for downloadable audiobooks and ebooks as well as continuing education courses, software training, online foreign language courses, digital magazines, independent films, and much more.

SirsiDynix announced its intent to integrate the OverDrive API toolkit into the soon-to-be-released eResource Central. SirsiDynix’ eResource Central will provide one-click electronic resource and ebook delivery. The initiative with OverDrive is a major step forward in the project, making available OverDrive content in a meaningful integration that will benefit both libraries and their users

eResource Central simplifies the discovery and delivery of econtent to users however, wherever or whenever they need it. eResource Central will be available to 100% of both SirsiDynix Symphony and Horizon ILS customers via the BLUE Cloud clients, which include the SirsiDynix Enterprise and Portfolio discovery solutions, as well as SirsiDynix Social Library on Facebook and the BookMyne mobile app. eResource Central bridges the gap between content providers and users, enabling libraries to manage and deliver e-resources seamlessly and cost-effectively, while also handling traditional collections with proven solutions used by more than 3,600 libraries worldwide.

Source: SirsiDynix

OCLC and Gale Expand Partnership

In addition, Gale and OCLC will identify metadata that could be made discoverable to any user through OCLC WorldShare Platform applications, making it possible for libraries to better manage these resources, from selection and acquisition, to circulation and access.

Gale will work with OCLC to register all its collections, including the Gale Virtual Reference Library platform and the Gale In Context collections, within the OCLC WorldShare Platform. Gale and OCLC will index for discovery all full text associated with ebooks and periodicals in the collections. Gale will provide OCLC with updated Gale Knowledge Base profiles and library holdings information for all collections, making them fully discoverable and easily accessible to mutual subscribers.

Gale and OCLC will also identify metadata from these collections that can be made discoverable to users around the world through WorldCat.org, the OCLC website that offers access to the global catalog for discovery of library materials.

The OCLC WorldShare Platform is a global, interconnected web architecture that supports OCLC services and applications, and provides flexible, open access to library data through APIs and other web services. Libraries, developers, and partners can use this data to build and share applications that streamline and enhance their local library workflows. Adding metadata from Gale databases and archives to the WorldCat knowledgebase, for example, enhances the ability of library staff to select, acquire, and manage their Gale content, using both OCLC applications and other applications in their workflow.

Source: Gale and OCLC

Ingram Adds Ebook Lending Model to MyiLibrary

Ingram’s MyiLibrary platform provides a single source for content hosting, archiving, discovery, access, and purchasing. More than 3,000 academic, professional, and public libraries around the world have integrated the platform into daily lending activities and have access to more than 400,000 titles that cover all major disciplines. Using the platform, library patrons can read content online, or download to a PC, laptop, or digital device. The company also announced it will now offer more than 36,000 titles Random House, Inc. U.S. titles to libraries via the platform.

Ingram Content Group Inc. is a subsidiary of Nashville-based Ingram Industries, Inc. The company provides books, music, and media content to more than 39,000 retailers, libraries, schools and distribution partners in 195 countries. More than 26,000 publishers use Ingram’s fully integrated physical and digital distribution, logistics, and manufacturing solutions.

Source: Ingram Content Group, Inc.

Thomson Reuters Adds CQ Roll Call Washington Briefings to WestlawNext

The alliance between Thomson Reuters and CQ Roll Call will provide WestlawNext customers exclusive current awareness content and analysis from the CQ Roll Call newsroom in Washington, D.C., leveraging CQ Roll Call’s expertise in legislative and regulatory policy reporting. Regulatory content will focus on activity involving federal agencies in each practice area, providing news and analysis on proposed and enacted regulations, trends, and other developments. On the legislative side, CQ Roll Call will provide Thomson Reuters with news and analysis of legislative proposals and congressional actions, with an eye toward the needs of lawyers and other legal professionals.

Practitioner Insights, a new current awareness offering for WestlawNext customers, will debut soon and will be available to customers shortly thereafter. It will contain legal insights, alerts, and other current awareness content, including Reuters Legal news and Wolters Kluwer Daily news summaries with original, attorney-authored analysis that puts context around breaking legal developments, as well as articles written by Westlaw attorney editors. Initial offerings will include Antitrust, Employment, Health, and Intellectual Property, as well as Bankruptcy and Securities.

The CQ Roll Call relationship further strengthens current awareness offerings from Thomson Reuters for key practice areas. Last June, Thomson Reuters announced that it had joined forces with Wolters Kluwer Law and Business to include Wolters Kluwer’s Employment Law Daily and IP Law Daily as part of the current awareness content set on WestlawNext. Since that time, Thomson Reuters added Wolters Kluwer secondary-source content across a range of practice areas in law and business compliance and released Wolters Kluwer Antitrust and Healthcare dailies to its Practitioner Insights pages.

In addition, Thomson Reuters will introduce a new Alert Center later in the first quarter. The Alert Center will bring breaking legal developments, client and competitor information, and other alerting capabilities together in one convenient location on WestlawNext, where alerts can be more simply managed to help customers make more informed decisions, serve their clients, and grow their practices.

Source: Thomson Reuters

LexisNexis Introduces Enhanced Lexis Advance

The addition of litigation and transactional products to Lexis Advance, alongside a complete, customizable research experience, delivers end-to-end legal support. Lexis Advance users already have integrated access to LexisNexis Verdict & Settlement Analyzer. Now, three more tools join it to offer a suite of litigation tools:

• LexisNexis MedMal Navigator provides medical litigators with an express advantage: Leveraging industry-first, interactive Q&A technology, the new tool guides users through the medical and legal information relevant to their case, helping them assess the value of a case and formulate the appropriate on-point strategy quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. The MedMal Navigator tool integrates up-to-date medical and legal content, so attorneys can understand the medicine and current standard of care, identify medical experts, and analyze relevant case law.
• LexisNexis Litigation Profile Suite is newly integrated and provides a comprehensive portrait and vital facts of key players influential to a case, including expert witnesses, judges or opposing counsel. A dynamic, graphical snapshot delivers insights derived from more than 320,000 experts, 100,000-plus full-text transcripts, and more than 40,000 expert witness curricula vitae and resumes.
• CaseMap document delivery now allows users to save documents directly to LexisNexis CaseMap, enabling litigators to quickly import and manage case facts, issues, and research for faster and more informed decision making.
  
  

In 2013, Lexis for Microsoft Office will also integrate with Lexis Advance, offering users seamless access to deep legal research content and innovative tools without ever having to leave the Microsoft Word and Outlook applications lawyers use day-to-day, delivering even greater work efficiency and productivity.

Alongside these new products and integrations, Lexis Advance continues to enhance legal research usability and efficiency with new and enhanced capabilities. Launches this month include the following:

• A Richer Shepard’s Experience
• Additional Alerts
• Enhanced Work Folders
• More Topic Summaries
• Mobile Advancements
• New Account Management Tool My Lexis

Source: LexisNexis Legal & Professional