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Weekly News Digest
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August 28, 2014 — 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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EBSCO Will Identify Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles in Ebook Collection
EBSCO Information Services and Choice magazine entered into an agreement that allows EBSCO eBooks & Audiobooks to highlight ebooks that were named Outstanding Academic Titles. Now libraries can recognize the titles that Choice designated as excellent in presentation and scholarship and acquire them to increase the value of their collections.Choice has reviewed academic books and digital resources relevant to scholars and students in higher education for the past 50 years. Its Outstanding Academic Titles list represents about 10% of the content the magazine reviews each year. Source: EBSCO Information Services
Plum Analytics Adds Goodreads Metrics
Plum Analytics expanded its support for books to include metrics from Goodreads. PlumX, its impact dashboard, uses the Goodreads API to show ratings, reviews, and readers from the site. Goodreads ratings are paired with Amazon ratings in PlumX, and users can click through the profiles to visit a book’s Goodreads page.Goodreads has data on more than 900 million books, which include academic titles in the humanities and social sciences. Source: Plum Analytics
The Getty Continues to Expand Access to Vocabularies
The Getty Research Institute released the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) as linked open data. Anyone may now access the vocabulary to download, share, or modify it for free under an Open Data Commons Attribution License. The TGN has 2 million-plus current and historical place names such as cities, archaeological sites, and nations that help users conduct humanities research.The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) became available in February, and the remaining vocabularies—the Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA) and the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)—will follow as linked open data by the end of 2015. Source: J. Paul Getty Trust
National Library of Medicine Launches Ebola Resources Webpage
The U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center released a new webpage about the Ebola virus, Ebola Outbreak 2014: Information Resources, which is designed to help organizations and individuals who are working to combat the virus in West Africa or those who are friends and family of people in the affected region.The webpage features sections such as U.S. Organizations, International Organizations, Free Resources from Publishers for Medical Responders, Biomedical Journal Literature and Reports, Maps, and Health Resources for the Public. Source: National Library of Medicine
OpenStax College Expands Its Textbook Catalog
OpenStax College, an initiative of Rice University, will use a $9.5 million grant from multiple donors to add 10 free college textbooks to its catalog by 2017.“Our books are opening access to higher education for students who couldn’t otherwise afford it,” says Richard G. Baraniuk, OpenStax College’s founder and director. “We’ve already saved students millions of dollars, and thanks to the generosity of our philanthropic partners, we hope to save students more than $500 million by 2020.” The peer-reviewed, free online, and low-cost print textbooks are used in almost 900 courses at community colleges, 4-year colleges, universities, and high schools. Source: OpenStax College
ACS Adopts CCC's RightsLink for Open Access
The ACS (American Chemical Society) implemented Copyright Clearance Center’s (CCC) RightsLink for Open Access platform to manage the article processing charges (APCs) for its open access (OA) content. ACS is the first publisher to use RightsLink for Open Access, which streamlines the author payment process by integrating with editorial and production workflows. It complies with funding agencies’ mandates and gives publishers tools for author support, billing, and rapid collection.“As the Open Access opportunity evolves, publishers need efficiency and flexibility, authors and institutions need an easy process for paying Open Access and other charges, and funders need proof of compliance with their policies,” says Bill Neuman, CCC’s VP of products. Source: Copyright Clearance Center
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Brandi Scardilli
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