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Weekly News Digest
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February 4, 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.
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Summon Service Slated to Index SciELO Ebook Titles
Serials Solutions, a ProQuest business, is working with Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) to index its ebook collection in the Summon discovery service. Recognizing that much scholarly work in the humanities and social sciences is published in book form rather than in periodicals, SciELO introduced this collection as a parallel to its collection of scientific academic journals. The collection is a mix of open access and commercial ebooks from major academic publishers in Brazil and Latin America.The majority of titles are selected by a peer-review process and are devoted to social sciences and humanities, including fields such as architecture, art, economics, education, geography, history, linguistics, literature, media, music, performing arts, philosophy, political science, and sociology. The initial collection of about 250 books is expected to increase by 500-1,000 more books each year. SciELO’s objective is to maximize the use, visibility, accessibility, and impact of the work of Latin American scholars. With the addition of these resources in the Summon service, the works will be more widely available to a worldwide audience. Used by more than 500 libraries in more than 40 countries, the Summon discovery service is based on a unified index of content. Source: Serials Solutions
EBSCO Adds New Ebook Subscription Collections
EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) released EngineeringCore and ITCore, two ebook subscription collections designed to support the learning and reference needs of engineering and technology professionals. The collections are available as annual subscriptions that give users unlimited access to all titles.EngineeringCore provides professionals with an easy way to access ebooks specific to their research and learning needs. The collection offers more than 4,200 ebook titles spanning all major engineering disciplines and covering top subjects such as biotechnology, energy sciences, industrial safety, innovation and technological advancement, materials, optics and photonics, robotics and more. The ITCore collection contains more than 3,500 titles to support all IT needs, from expert-level programming and cybersecurity to systems administration and web design. Subjects include mobile devices, networks, and platforms; LANs and MANs; open source software; ecommerce; scripting and programming languages; and data warehousing. ITCore also features certification exam preparation guides, as well as basic guides and tutorials for desktop applications and software to support staff. The collections include thousands of titles from leading publishers, with new titles added on a quarterly basis. Users can print, email, and save chapters, or transfer them to a number of ebook readers and mobile devices including the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble NOOK, and Sony Digital Book. The collections provide a robust ebook experience that includes the ability to search alongside EBSCO’s magazine and journal collections, create and add notes and bookmarks, as well as save research for future reference. As with all ebooks available from EBSCO, EngineeringCore and ITCore will integrate seamlessly with all EBSCOhost content. The collection may also be integrated into organizational portals and intranets, learning management systems (LMSs), as well as mapped to an organization’s key competencies allowing users to have easy access to relevant content wherever and whenever it is needed. More information about ebook subscription collections is available here. Source: EBSCO Publishing
Expanded Access to U.S. Federal Court Opinions
A pilot project giving the public free, text-searchable, online access to court opinions now is available to all federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. The Judicial Conference, the policymaking body of the federal court system, approved national implementation of the project with the Government Printing Office, Federal Digital System (FDsys), which provides free access to publications from all three branches of federal government via the internet. The pilot project pulls opinions nightly from courts’ Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) systems and sends them to the GPO, where they are processed and posted on the FDsys website. The functionality to transfer opinions to FDsys is included in the latest release of CM/ECF, which is now available to all courts. Twenty-nine courts participated in the original pilot, and now, all courts may opt to participate in the program. Access to judicial opinions through FDsys allows the Judiciary to make its work more easily available to the public. Collections are divided into appellate, district, or bankruptcy court opinions and are text-searchable across opinions and across courts. FDsys also permits embedded animation and audio. Presently, more than 600,000 opinions dating back to 2004 are available. Opinions from the pilot are already one of the most heavily used collections on FDsys, with millions of retrievals each month. Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
EBSCO Releases eBook Public Library Collection
EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) released its latest ebook subscription collection focused on the needs of public library patrons. eBook Public Library Collection includes more than 25,000 general reference ebook titles in a variety of subjects and topics including social sciences, language and literature, and science and technology.eBook Public Library Collection complements any public library’s general reference collection and includes many industry-leading publishers with numerous best-selling titles. As a pre-packaged collection, eBook Public Library Collection saves libraries time by organizing titles and makes it easy for patrons to discover the titles they need. The collection will provide libraries with a substantial selection in the areas of self-help, health and fitness, games, crafts and hobbies, medical, cooking, and religion. In addition to the larger concentrations listed, eBook Public Library Collection also features recreation and leisure, geography, commerce, finance, the family, marriage, women, folklore, social and public welfare, and home economics. eBook Public Library Collection is offered as an annual subscription and includes unlimited simultaneous access for users; titles are continually added at no additional cost. Each title is offered with unlimited users allowing more users access to each title in the collection. eBook Public Library Collection also offers unlimited downloads to a variety of devices . As with all ebooks available from EBSCO, eBook Public Library Collection will integrate seamlessly with all EBSCOhost content. Users will be able to search the collection on its own or side-by-side with other EBSCOhost databases. More information about ebooks on EBSCOhost is available here. Source: EBSCO Publishing
IET Launches Next Generation IET Digital Library
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), in partnership with Publishing Technology, re-engineered its IET Digital Library, the central access point for the organization’s online content, with an abundance of new user-friendly features. Launched on Publishing Technology’s pub2web platform with intrinsic semantic web technology, the fully redeveloped online hub is designed to improve the speed and ease with which academic and corporate users and the Institution’s 150,000-plus international members access its wealth of digital content.The IET Digital Library houses all of the IET’s engineering research and information, which includes content from 128 journal and magazine titles, 300 ebooks, and 1,300 conference publications, comprising 255,000 articles ranging back to 1872, 5,000 ebook chapters, and 36,300 conference papers. The IET’s recently announced open access journal, The Journal of Engineering will also be added to the site in April. The new IET Digital Library features a number of new features to enhance the user experience and support an agile strategy for monetization. Key highlights include the following: - Improved navigation and more efficient discoverability and search capabilities across the site, such as, enhanced faceted navigation via the IET Inspec classification system and new concept pages allowing navigation through all content types (journal, magazine, and book content) via a subject entry page, driven by the classification hierarchy
- new authentication options for all users including single sign-on functionality for members, providing ease of access across all IET products
- integration with social networks, including Mendeley, Google, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
- flexible bundling and pricing options for journal and book collections
- bespoke licence models and discounts as well as members-only access benefits
- publisher tools for improved librarian and customer support and communication
Source: Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
New Website for Readers Launches—Bookish
Bookish, a one-stop, comprehensive online destination designed to connect readers with books and authors, has launched, providing visitors with exclusive content and insider access to A-list writers. With the backing of Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, and Simon & Schuster, as well as the participation of 16 other major publishers, including Random House, Inc., Scholastic, HarperCollins Publishers, and Perseus Books Group, Bookish will provide readers with a wealth of original and exclusive content about books and writers, while also allowing users to conveniently browse, discover, and purchase new reads without leaving the site.The Bookish editorial team, made up of seasoned journalists, book editors, and industry professionals, will update the site daily with features that give a fresh and compelling perspective on books and authors. With copious original book coverage about authors and inside information on upcoming books each week, the site lets visitors engage with great reads and writers across 18 popular categories in sections devoted to subjects ranging from Fiction & Literature and Young Adult to Biographies & Memoirs and Cookbooks, Food & Wine. Visitors to Bookish looking to find their next book will also benefit from the site’s state-of-the-art recommendation tool. After simply inputting up to four books from a specific category, Bookish will quickly generate recommendations from a proprietary algorithm that factors in editorial themes, professional and consumer reviews, publishing house editor insights, awards and more. Bookish also gives users the option of buying both physical books and ebooks through a seamless process on the site (powered by its ecommerce partner Baker & Taylor), or to easily click through to a retailer of the user’s choice, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound, to purchase their next read. In addition to ecommerce, Bookish will also derive revenue through digital advertising sales. Source: Bookish
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Brandi Scardilli
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