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Weekly News Digest
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November 21, 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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Reprints Desk Plans Document Delivery Upgrade
Reprints Desk announced an upgrade to its Article Galaxy document delivery management system: The revamped service will debut in January 2014.The upgrade is designed to help new customers such as law libraries, biotech startups, and information centers that mediate document delivery, according to Peter Derycz, president and CEO of Reprints Desk. The new Article Galaxy “includes infrastructure that will serve as our foundation to deliver Reprints Desk customers with many new innovations over the coming year,” he says. New features will include workflows enhanced with digital object identifiers; a new administrator interface with access to release notes and product feedback; concierge support, batch delivery, and other services for legal and small-to-midsize market customers; and expanded delivery and data capture configuration options that comply with regulations for medical reprint distribution. Reprints Desk launched Article Galaxy in 2012 as a platform for its library buyer, medical information, procurement, or publishing customers and research, marketing, or sales users to retrieve single copies of full-text articles in peer-reviewed journals. Article Galaxy helps with evidence-based promotions, medical information responses, and STM research. Source: Reprints Desk
F1000 Announces Data-Plotting Tool
Faculty of 1000 (F1000) launched a beta version of its data-plotting tool for the F1000Research open access life sciences journal. Referees and readers can now visualize and manipulate the raw data in the journal’s articles using an instant first-pass view of the datasets.Anyone publishing an article in F1000Research is required to make research data publicly available with the article. F1000’s new tool helps streamline the data peer-review process, which was previously too time-consuming to undertake. The tool allows users to analyze and interpret all articles’ supporting data using a CSV (comma separated values) file to plot results in a scatter plot graph, with the ability to view outliers and correlations in the data that authors may have missed and to verify that authors’ conclusions align with the raw data. “We hope it will be particularly helpful for referees to quickly assess the underlying data and spot any obvious flaws in the data itself, or in the conclusions drawn. Readers and referees can then download their version of the data plot and share it with others,” says Rebecca Lawrence, Ph.D. and managing director at F1000Research. F1000 asks that the scientific community offer feedback on the tool, demonstrations of which are currently accessible for the datasets of two articles on Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Source: Faculty of 1000
Thomson Reuters Updates West km
Thomson Reuters launched West km 5.0, an updated version of its knowledge management tool that helps litigation and transactional legal professionals find content from their organization’s work product and combine it with Westlaw Next’s legal information.Using West km, legal professionals can search internal documents and Westlaw Next to see combined results, as well as use Drafting Assistant, which automates workflow tasks and is integrated with West km. West km 5.0 now has similar features and design to Westlaw Next. For example, the user interface was updated to include post-search filters and content pages for users to browse. Search capability has been enhanced with a global search box and simultaneous searching of litigation and transactions content. Also, the Litigation Analyzer Engine now has entity extraction: It identifies attorneys, law firms, expert witnesses, and companies from documents’ text so users can filter searches using these elements. “West km 5.0 helps users work more efficiently, streamlining research and related workflows. Now more than ever, West km helps law firms and organizations gain a competitive edge by working smarter and faster with the best information,” says Craig Larson, senior director of product development at Thomson Reuters. Source: Thomson Reuters
Facebook App Enables Library OPAC Searches
Syndetic Solutions, ProQuest’s OPAC and discovery layer enrichment tool, introduced a free Facebook app for its library subscribers. Patrons who follow a library on Facebook can access its catalog and search for books all within the new app.“Providing patrons seamless access to local library catalogs directly through Facebook is a new opportunity for libraries to stay connected to their patron base,” says Sharon Lubrano, VP and general manager of research solutions at ProQuest. Libraries interested in using the app can follow the setup instructions. When the app is installed, a Search the Catalog button appears on their Facebook pages and patrons can begin clicking on the button to search library holdings by topic or keyword. Search results include title, author, ISBN, and other library-specific elements such as summaries and sample chapters. There are links to the library’s OPAC so patrons can place holds on titles. Users can also click to like books in the app. The titles are displayed on their individual Facebook pages so others can see what books interest them. Source: ProQuest
Ex Libris Group Collaborates on E-Resource Management
Ex Libris Group partnered with Jisc to enhance e-resource management for U.K. libraries. Their collaboration is designed to help academic libraries improve efficiency by continually updating data from Jisc’s Knowledge Base+ (KB+) to Ex Libris Group’s SFX OpenURL link resolver and KnowledgeBase and the Ex Libris Alma library services framework.KB+ is a recently launched community service for U.K. academic institutions that helps librarians manage titles and packages of digital content negotiated on behalf of several consortia. By integrating KB+ tasks such as data verification, normalization, and updates into Ex Libris Group’s automation solutions, librarians “will achieve significant time savings and greater accuracy in their e-resource collections,” according to David Beychok, VP of discovery and delivery solutions at Ex Libris Group. “Because details of e-resource packages from the cooperating consortia will be centrally managed and freely available under a CC0 license, we will be able to streamline the delivery of information about the contents of e-resource packages, for the benefit of library staff and end users,” says Liam Earney, project director of KB+. Source: Ex Libris Group
OverDrive Media Station Debuts
Patrons have a new way to browse a library’s ebook, audiobook, music, and video collections: The OverDrive Media Station is available as a browsing and checkout terminal for all OverDrive member library systems.The launch comes after a successful pilot program conducted with 50 library systems in five countries. “The OverDrive Media Station has been really well received by our patrons,” according to Jennifer Simon Halai, virtual library services librarian at King County Library System, an OverDrive customer. “During the day, adults are the dominant users, but after school and in the evenings, it’s the kids and teens who are engaging with it, usually with a smartphone or tablet in hand.” The kiosk features touchscreen navigation for viewing a library’s entire digital catalog. Users can search and sample any media they find and check out titles by sending links to their devices using a QR code, email, or text message. Source: OverDrive
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Brandi Scardilli
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