New & Noteworthy
Article Type: New & Noteworthy From: Library Hi Tech News, Volume 26, Issue 3/4.
World Digital Library to Launch in April
UNESCO and 32 partner institutions will launch the World Digital Library(WDL), a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world, at UNESCO Headquarters on 21 April. The site will include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, and prints and photographs. It will provide unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.
The launch will take place at a reception co-hosted by UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, and US Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington. Directors of the partner institutions will also be on hand to present the project to ambassadors, ministers, delegates and special guests attending the semi-annual meeting of UNESCO's Executive Board.
Mr Billington first proposed the creation of a WDL to UNESCO in 2005,remarking that such a project could “have the salutary effect of bringing people together by celebrating the depth and uniqueness of different cultures in a single global undertaking”. In addition to promoting international understanding, the project aims to expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the internet, provide resources for educators, scholars and general audiences, and narrow the digital divide within and between countries by building capacity in partner countries.
The WDL will function in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese,Russian and Spanish, and will include content in a great many other languages. Browse and search features will facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration on the site. Descriptions of each item and videos with expert curators speaking about selected items will provide context for users, and are intended to spark curiosity and encourage both students and the general public to learn more about the cultural heritage of all countries.
The WDL was developed by a team at the Library of Congress. Technical assistance was provided by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt. Institutions contributing content and expertise to the WDL include national libraries and cultural and educational institutions in Brazil, Egypt, China,France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Uganda, the UK and the USA.
Examples of treasures that will be featured on the WDL include oracle bones and steles contributed by the National Library of China; Arabic scientific manuscripts from the National Library and Archives of Egypt; early photographs of Latin America from the National Library of Brazil; the Hyakumanto darani, a publication from the year 764 from the National Diet Library of Japan; the famous thirteenth century “Devil's Bible” from the National Library of Sweden; and works of Arabic, Persian and Turkish calligraphy from the collections of the Library of Congress.
One of UNESCO's main mandates is to promote the free flow of all forms of knowledge in education, science, culture and communication. The organization therefore supports initiatives to improve and increase content on the internet. To this end, it collaborates with a range of partners on the creation of digital and other repositories.
Kirtas and University of Pennsylvania Partner on Digitization Project
In February 2009 the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Libraries announced a partnership with Kirtas Technologies to make more than 200,000 public domain titles from Penn's collections available to the public through on-demand digitization and printing. The project represents Penn Libraries' increasing commitment to the development of digital collections. Kirtas, a leader in digitization technologies, can offer the general public a variety of value-added digitization and print-on-demand services using content provided by Penn Libraries. This partnership advances the Libraries' interest in improving scholarly access to its collections, and it may provide a new stream of revenue that will support information services at Penn.
Using information drawn from Penn Libraries' catalog records, Kirtas will make available out-of-copyright books for sale through its retail site, www.kirtasbooks.com. Customers will be able to search for a desired title, and when found, place a“digitize for me” request. The book will be pulled from the Libraries' shelves, digitized, then processed by Kirtas for optimal reading and printing, and a newly printed copy will be shipped to the requestor. Or, the requestor can purchase access to an online-only version of the book. Once the book has been reproduced, it is returned undamaged to the Libraries' shelves.
Kirtas will also return a digital copy of each scanned title and associated searchable text files to Penn Libraries, which will then make digital editions available to the public via the web or other open access channels. The scan- and print-on-demand service will allow Penn Libraries to experiment with user-driven digitization, and evaluate small-scale economic models as options for building digital assets from existing print resources.
Kirtas website: www.kirtas.com
Long-term Preservation of Open Access Journals Secured
In April 2009, the Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) – Lund University Libraries and the e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands(KB) announced the start of a cooperation in order to secure long-term preservation of open access journals. The Swedish Library Association is generously acting as sponsor. The DOAJ service aims to give users a one-stop-shop to quality controlled, scientific open access journals in full text. The e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands is a digital archiving environment that ensures long-term access to digital objects which would otherwise be threatened by rapidly evolving software and hardware platforms as well as media decay.
Long-term preservation of scholarly publications is of major importance for the research community. New formats of scholarly publications, new business models and new ways of dissemination are constantly being developed. To secure permanent access to scientific output for the future, focused on the preservation of articles published in open access journals, a cooperation between DOAJs (www.doaj.org)developed and operated by Lund University Libraries and the e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands (www.kb.nl/e-Depot) has been initiated.
The composition of the DOAJ collection (currently 4,000 journals) is characterized by a very large number of publishers (2,000), each publishing a very small number of journals on different platforms, in different formats and in more than 50 different languages. Many of these publishers are – with a number of exceptions – fragile when it comes to financial, technical and administrative sustainability.
At present DOAJ and KB are carrying out a pilot project aimed at setting up a workflow for processing open access journals listed with DOAJ. In the pilot a limited number of open access journals will be subject to long-term preservation. These activities will be scaled up shortly and long-term archiving of the journals listed in the DOAJ at KB's e-Depot will become an integral part of the service provided by the DOAJ.
DOAJ: www.doaj.org/
UNESCO Releases Manual on Digital Archiving of Audio Content
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)Office in New Delhi recently published Digital Archiving of Audio Content Using WINISIS and Greenstone Software: A Manual for Community Radio Managers. This self-instructional handbook is aimed at helping managers of community and FM radio stations, public service broadcasting agencies and any other organizations that deal with audio files create prototype archives of digital audio documents.
The South Asian sub-region is now at the nascent stage of community radio development, with the introduction of policy frameworks in India, Nepal and other countries. Community radio has a great development potential across the sub-region with ever increasing number of community radio stations. To maintain an archive of broadcasted contents is a legal obligation as a self-regulatory mechanism; however, many stations are not equipped for doing this. Moreover,community radio stations often need to re-use and re-broadcast many of their archived contents.
Free and open source software (FOSS) helps digital inclusion of citizens in developing countries through easy-to-get and socially useful applications. UNESCO's information processing tools assist many grassroots institutions in disseminating information to local communities. A digital archive of a community radio station can be a knowledge repository containing collective wisdom of indigenous people, as well as of regional communities and institutions.
This new publication is a reliable manual for digital archiving of multimedia contents, with special focus on community radio contents. In line with the needs of the community, the manual guides users in creating their own archives with stable, free software like WINISIS, GenISIS and Greenstone. The book also provides the URL addresses from where this software can be downloaded.
The publication has its genesis in the recommendations and proceedings of two events, supported by UNESCO: National Consultation on Community Radio for Practising and Potential Community Radio Operators in India and National Consultation to Review Community Radio in Nepal, during which community radio station managers stressed the importance of archiving digital audio contents.
The manual is available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001808/180855e.pdf
The Research Library's Role in Digital Repository Services: Report from Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Digital Repository Issues Task Force has released its final report. The task force was charged with evaluating trends, contextualizing repository activities among ARL libraries, and recommending leadership roles and activities for ARL.
The report, “The research library's role in digital repository services,” identifies key issues surrounding repository development,explores common strategies that libraries are using, analyzes relevant environmental trends, discusses issues where ARL and its member libraries should focus attention and recommends the following actions for research libraries to undertake:
build a range of new kinds of partnerships and alliances, both within institutions and between institutions;
base service-development strategies on substantive assessment of local needs rather than blindly replicating work done at another institution;
engage with key local policy issues and stakeholders to encourage institutional engagement with national and international policy issues;
develop outreach and marketing strategies that assist “early adopters”of repositories to connect with the developing repository-related service system; and
define a scope of responsibility to guide the development of repository services for varied forms of content.
The report focuses on repository services generally, rather than concentrating on repository technologies or content. Repository services include services to authors, contributors and users, particularly of university-created content. Some examples of repository services provided by research libraries include long-term archiving and migration of content, dissemination and access management, metadata and format management, search and discovery tools,publishing, data mining, etc. Illustrations drawn from a variety of digital repositories are used throughout the report.
The task force notes that due to repository services' powerful potential to enable key work and enhance the effectiveness of functions across the research enterprise, research institutions cannot afford to do without such services,even in difficult economic times. Researchers and scholars with access to a spectrum of repository services possess a substantial advantage in conducting cutting-edge research, delivering high-quality teaching and contributing valuable services to society. Libraries have key strengths and missions requiring them to undertake various roles in repository service development. This report presents a fresh perspective on the digital repository environment and is intended to inspire ARL member libraries and others to assess their views and plans for service development.
Full text of the report at: www.arl.org/bm~doc/repository-services-report.pdf
ARL Task Force Calls for Revision of OCLC Policy on Use of WorldCat Records
The ARL Ad Hoc Task Force to Review the Proposed OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records has issued its final report, which calls on OCLC to develop a new policy to replace the one released in November 2008. The report is freely available on the ARL website.
OCLC's release of the policy elicited serious concern from the ARL community,as well as the broader library community. As a result, ARL established an ad hoc task force to review the policy and identify issues of particular interest to research libraries. The task force report includes a brief overview of the policy and the task force's understanding of the policy's intent. This is followed by an explication of specific issues and the task force's findings regarding both the policy itself and the implementation process.
The report concludes with recommendations for OCLC and the library community,as follows:
OCLC needs to develop a new policy regarding the transfer and use of WorldCat records that results from a wide community review of issues; from member library engagement that builds understanding and consensus; and from a careful, widely discussed exploration of how the policy will achieve articulated goals, including whether or how restraints in record sharing may be needed. The currently proposed policy does not meet these criteria.
The policy needs to be written in a manner that can be understood and accepted by the community (e.g. as were the prior guidelines). This includes using a positive tone, a full description of reasonable use and a consistent integration with FAQs that will need to be linked to, and thus incorporated in,the policy.
The policy statement should include explicit and specific explanation of its intent and how it carries out that intent.
Before a policy is implemented, member libraries need an opportunity to analyze how it impacts their operating environments, existing third-party or other agreements, and legal or regulatory environments and resolve implementation questions raised by that review.
The policy addressing the use and transfer of WorldCat records should not apply to records from other OCLC services that make use of WorldCat data, such as identities. Separate policies should be developed for these services.
Recognizing that the policy will be a living document applied in a changing environment, there needs to be a member-community process for ongoing periodic review of applications and interpretations of the policy, e.g. through the work of a continuing review board. Agreements (and denials of agreements) for uses of records, such as those made (or denied) for commercial use, are also integral to the interpretation of how WorldCat records should be used and transferred. Information on these agreements and decisions should be incorporated into the review process.
The ARL Board of Directors has accepted the task force's report and ARL has shared the report with OCLC for the use of its Board of Trustees and its newly established Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship.
Full text of the report at: www.arl.org/bm~doc/oclc-report-jan09.pdf
The Mobile Difference: New Report from Pew Internet Project
Some 39 percent of Americans have positive and improving attitudes about their mobile communication devices, which in turn draws them further into engagement with digital resources – on both wireless and wireline platforms.
Mobile connectivity is now a powerful differentiator among technology users. Those who plug into the information and communications world while on-the-go are notably more active in many facets of digital life than those who use wires to jack into the internet and the 14 percent of Americans who are off the grid entirely.
These findings are the centerpiece of a new typology of technology users released by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. The typology places information and communication technology (ICT) users into ten categories built around their assets (the gadgets they have), actions (how they use ICTs) and attitudes (how they feel about the role of ICTs in their lives).
Here is a rundown of the ten groups in the typology. The first five groups(39 percent of the adult population) share the common characteristic of being motivated by mobility in their use of ICTs:
- 1.
Digital collaborators (8 percent of the population) are very much about continual information exchange with others, as they frequently mix it up with online collaborators to create and share content or express themselves.
- 2.
Ambivalent networkers (7 percent) are extremely active in using social networking sites and accessing digital resources “on the go” yet are not always thrilled to be contacted by others. They sometimes yearn for a break from online use and pervasive connectivity.
- 3.
Media movers (7 percent) are the accelerants of user-generated content as they use their ICT assets to send material (say, a photo or video they have taken) out onto the web.
- 4.
Roving nodes (9 percent) are active managers of their social lives using basic applications – texting and emailing – to connect with others, pass along information, and bolster personal productivity.
- 5.
Mobile newbies (8 percent) are occasional internet users, but many in this group are recent cell phone adopters and very enthusiastic about how mobile service makes them more available to others. They would be hard pressed to give up their cell phones.
The final five groups (61 percent of the general population) make up the stationary media majority:
- 1.
Desktop veterans (13 percent) are tech-oriented, but in a “year 2004”kind of way. They consume online information and connect with others using traditional tools such as e-mail on a home high-speed connection. They are not heavy users of cell phones for much beyond a voice call.
- 2.
Drifting surfers (14 percent) have the tools for connectivity, but are relatively infrequent users of them. They say they could give up their internet and cell phones. In spite of years of online experience, they seem to have checked out of the digital revolution.
- 3.
Information encumbered (10 percent) have average amounts of connectivity,but suffer from information overload and have a tough time getting their gadgets to work without help from others.
- 4.
Tech indifferent (10 percent) have limited online capability at home and,even though most have cell phones, they bristle at the intrusiveness cell phones can foster.
- 5.
Off the network (14 percent) lack the tools for digital connectivity, as they have neither online access nor cell phones.
Two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents in the five “motivated by mobility” groups collectively report that it would be “very hard”to give up their mobile devices. This represents a 20 percent increase in the share saying this compared to when these respondents were interviewed twenty months earlier in April 2006. In sharp contrast, just 21 percent of the “stationary media majority” respondents say they would find it very hard to do without their mobile devices, and this represents a 64 percent decrease in the share saying this since April 2006.
The typology of ICT users is based on two surveys concluded in December 2007. One survey obtained telephone interviews – both landline and cell phone– with a nationally representative sample of 2,054 adults living in the continental US. The interviews were conducted in English from October 24 to December 2, 2007. The second survey, conducted from October 23, 2007 to December 11, 2007, was a callback survey of 1,499 adults re-interviewed from the project's February to March 2006 survey of ICT users. Together, the two surveys contained 3,553 American adults, whose responses were used to build the typology.
Take the typology quiz at: http://pewinternet.org/Participate/What-Kind-of-Tech-User-Are-You.aspx
Moodlerooms Integrates Google Features with Moodle
Moodlerooms Inc. has teamed up with Google to develop an integration that allows Moodle users to access Google AppsTM Education Edition from Moodle using a single sign on (SSO). “Moodle” is both an acronym (Modular Object Oriented Development Learning Environment)and a verb (creatively meander through the various activities of a course;tinker toward insight and creativity). Moodle is a global movement, used in over 199 countries and translated into 78 languages, with a community of thousands of educators and developers working together to continually improve Moodle and online learning, as well as promote pedagogically sound education tools.
Many schools are facing the challenge of how to implement or scale a campus-wide e-mail and documentation suite as older desktop-based suites give way to collaborative web-based systems. Managing user names and passwords and deeper integrations with authentication and enrollment systems is challenging,especially for schools and institutions with tight deadlines, limited IT staff and decreasing budgets.
“This integration means that schools and institutions need only load their users into Moodle, and the integration will automatically load these users into their Google Apps Education Edition, providing users with Web-based e-mail,document authoring, spreadsheets, presentations and sites, all integrated with their online learning platform. This greatly simplifies the task of implementing a collaborative suite, as well as enables institutions to leverage the work they've already done integrating their platforms with their other systems,”explains Michael Penney, managing director for Moodlerooms' West Coast office,where all programming and customization work is done. “From a teacher's perspective, this provides an easy way to assign students to collaborative tasks without having to worry about the students having different operating systems or incompatible software or being unable to access an online system. From an IT staffer or CIO's perspective, this provides an integration tested with large-scale data loads and built on industry standard SAML 2.0 and OAuth protocols for secure single sign on and information transfer.”
Moodlerooms currently provides Moodle solutions to educational institutions,nonprofits and corporations of all sizes across the country. Many districts and university systems are looking for an easy way to increase and improve students'collaboration via web-based tools like Moodle and Google Apps. Currently, Centro Latino for Literacy and Project KNOTtT (Kansas, Nevada, Ohio and Texas Transition to Teaching) are piloting the Google integration before it is officially released.
Centro Latino, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that provides Spanish literacy courses to adults in the Los Angeles area, will provide Google Apps e-mail accounts to the new readers as well as use Google DocsTM to collaborate internally, which they can access easily from Centro Latino's Moodle platform. Moodlerooms built Centro Latino's Moodle site with a custom multimedia display module, which can display flash-based literacy courses in Moodle, as well as a custom theme that makes it possible to navigate the lessons without requiring reading skills.
Project KNOTtT, a consortium of colleges and universities in Kansas, Nevada,Ohio and Texas that recently received funding to develop a system to address the common needs of the consortium's teacher preparation program, is using the Google Apps integration to strengthen their internal communication and share documents, spreadsheets and mail among their team.
Moodlerooms: www.moodlerooms.com/
More about Moodle: http://moodle.org/
Collaborative Web Discovery Service: StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is the internet's only web discovery service that allows people to discover great websites recommended by others with similar interests. With a single click, users may “stumble upon” high-quality content matched to their personal preferences. Originally launched in Calgary in 2002,StumbleUpon's goal is simple: help people discover interesting or informative web content that they would not have thought to search for.
To use StumbleUpon, a user simply installs the StumbleUpon toolbar extension into Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Once installed, users select areas of interest and begin stumbling. StumbleUpon displays the top-ranking sites as voted by the stumbling community. Stumblers (StumbleUpon members) then have the ability to rate all content they find on the internet with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”
Over time, as users indicate whether or not they like each newly discovered website, the StumbleUpon engine learns personal content preferences to deliver increasingly relevant results. This content discovery approach also enables users to meet others with similar interests and media preferences.
Stumbling is so easy that through word-of-mouth alone, nearly 1 million people have installed the StumbleUpon toolbar extension, stumbling an average of 20 times per day. The toolbar extension is so easy to install and use that member demographics range from internet newbies to experienced users –from grandmas to techies. But beware! Stumbling to discover what is out there can be quite addictive.
Free membership is supported by a unique, targeted advertising model which guarantees relevant audiences and elicits community feedback. Members who opt to pay an annual fee never have to see an ad.
Equinox Selected to Develop Open Source Statewide Resource Sharing System
The State Library of Ohio has announced that Equinox Software Inc. has been selected to develop a new open source resource sharing solution called Equinox FulfILLment. The goal of the project is to develop a seamless resource sharing application under an open source licensing framework in an environment of disparate integrated library systems (ILSs).
An Open Source Statewide Resource Sharing Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued on December 15, 2008. The RFP process and acceptance of the Equinox proposal are the result of a collaborative effort, initiated by the State Library of Ohio, of multiple state libraries and regional library network providers. This resource sharing system will first be deployed in Ohio, but will also be deployed individually by the members of the Collaborative.
“This is a very exciting and promising collaborative effort,”said State Librarian of Ohio Jo Budler. “We have a common vision of how resource sharing should work and how this would benefit the residents of each of our states. But this is the first time that I recall so many state libraries and statewide networks have been successful in combining resources toward such a shared vision and goal.”
Members of the Collaborative include: State Library of Ohio, OHIONET (fiscal agent), WiLS – Wisconsin Library Service, State Library of Iowa, State Library of Illinois, State Library of Indiana, State Library of Missouri and State Library of South Carolina.
Future updates of the Equinox FulfILLment development process will be posted to the Statewide Resource Sharing homepage at www.library.ohio.gov/swrs
Equinox Software: www.esilibrary.com/esi/
Variations: New Open Source Software for Creating Digital Music Libraries
Indiana University (IU) announced in April 2009 the release of an open source software to create a digital music library system. The software, called Variations, provides online access to streaming audio and scanned score images in support of teaching, learning and research.
Variations enables institutions such as college and university libraries and music schools to digitize audio and score materials from their own collections,provide those materials to their students and faculty in an interactive online environment, and respect intellectual property rights.
A key feature of the system for faculty and students is the ability to create bookmarks and playlists for use in studying or in preparing classroom presentations, allowing easy access later on to specific audio time points or segments. A key feature for libraries is a flexible access control and authentication system, which allows libraries to set up access rules based on their own local institutional policies.
This software is the culmination of nearly 15 years of development and use of digital music library systems at IU. Creation of the current Variations software platform was originally funded by the National Science Foundation. In 2005, the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded IU a National Leadership Grant to extend this highly successful system to the nationwide library community. Beyond IU, the software is currently being used at the Ohio State University,University of Maryland, New England Conservatory of Music and the Philadelphia area Tri-College Consortium (Haverford, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr).
This open source release of Variations complements IU's earlier release of the open source Variations Audio Timeliner, which lets users identify relationships in passages of music, annotate their findings and play back the results with simple point-and-click navigation. This tool is also included as a feature of the complete Variations system.
The IU Digital Library Program created Variations in collaboration with faculty and students in IU's Jacobs School of Music. The IU Digital Library Program is a collaborative effort of the IU Libraries and the IU Office of the Vice President for Information Technology.
Variations 3 project website: www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/variations3/
For more information on the Variations open source release, see: http://variations.sourceforge.net/
Variations Open Source Webinar: www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/variations3/oss-webinar.html
AuthorMapper: Springer Launches Free Analytical Tool
In February 2009, Springer ScienceBusiness Media launched the website www.AuthorMapper.com,a free analytical online tool for discerning trends, patterns and subject experts within scientific research. Currently, AuthorMapper.com searches over 3 million journal articles to deliver a variety of useful information. The current searchable content is from all Springer journals, and metadata from other STM publishers will be included in the near future.
The tool can provide a variety of analyses, such as keyword tag clouds and“Top 5” bar charts for various important metrics, and includes an interactive world map of the results. AuthorMapper.com's advanced search function also allows complex queries using keyword, discipline, institution,journal and author. The results can identify new and historic scientific trends through timeline graphs and bar charts of top statistics, allowing for identification of trends in the literature, discovery of wider scientific relationships and locating other experts in a field of study.
The trend timeline graph, for example, allows authors to see whether their area of expertise is growing or has already peaked. Users that are only interested in open access content can restrict their searches accordingly, and all search results provide link-outs to content on SpringerLink.
For graduates, post-docs and emerging researchers, AuthorMapper.com shows which institutions are the most prolific in specific research areas and allows for their comparison. AuthorMapper.com can even be useful for members of the general public seeking to identify experts, for example medical specialists,working close to where they are located.
AuthorMapper website: www.AuthorMapper.com
Bibliotheca Develops “On-the-Fly” RFID Conversion Software
In March 2009, Bibliotheca Inc., open RFID solutions partner of choice to 350 libraries worldwide, announced non-proprietary “on-the-fly” RFID conversion software that allows libraries equipped with barcodes the flexibility to convert to RFID at the self-check station or book return as patrons complete routine check-out/check-in of library materials. The RFID conversion software helps unburden libraries from the amount of time, labor and cost needed to convert entire collections from barcodes to RFID. Bibliotheca's flexible,patent-pending BiblioChip conversion software will work with Bibliotheca's line of self-check stations and book returns, as well as products from other vendors.
Blank RFID labels are simply applied to media and placed on the shelves. When the patron checks out items at the self-check station, the barcode is read and,at the same time (and unnoticed by the user), the RFID chip is initialized with the barcode item ID data. Or, in the same manner, media can be automatically converted to RFID at the book return when patrons return materials to the library. In addition to parallel processing of barcodes and RFID labels,Bibliotheca's BiblioChip conversion software makes possible the following:
Smooth implementation of new data formats as they evolve.
Simultaneous reading of multiple formats.
Reading/writing of different vendor formats.
Reading/writing of older, non-standard chips.
For libraries needing to upgrade to RFID while still using barcodes and EM security strips, Bibliotheca's SelfCheck Hybrid models are capable of deactivating EM security strips as well as performing on-the-fly RFID conversion.
Bibliotheca website: www.bibiotheca-rfid.com
San Diego Public Library Rolls Out Self-service Machines
In March 2009, Library Automation Technologies Inc. (LAT) announced it had completed the phase-one rollout plan for the San Diego Public Library, which encompassed over 36 self-service machines in 18 branches. The operation and patron interface were customized to meet the library system's requirements while the physical looks were modified with custom table tops to match the library's décor. The installed machines provide an easy, seamless and integrated environment for both patrons and staff.
LAT-Max, LAT-MAXine and LAT-MAXwell are a family of self-service machines for libraries based on FlashScan technology. By providing multiple form factors,such as desktop, floor-standing, kiosk and even wall-mount, all with the same patron interface and multiple finishes, the machines allow libraries to take advantage of the modern self-service technology regardless of their physical space constraints. Coupled with an array of impressive features and capabilities, such as on-demand, field-upgradable RFID capability,desensitization support, wireless networking, included multi-language support,as well as over 400 features and settings, these machines are installed in hundreds of libraries worldwide.
Library Automation Technologies website: www.LATcorp.com
ReadSpeaker: H.W. Wilson Debuts New Feature to Enhance Accessibility
In January 2009, H.W. Wilson debuted a new feature for its WilsonWeb full text databases. WilsonWeb's new ReadSpeaker tool converts the databases' HTML full-text articles into audio files for immediate listening or downloading for later, with no plug-ins or special software necessary. It is possible to listen to articles as streaming audio or save the files in MP3 format to iPods and other portable devices. The new tool covers content from some 2,500 publications back as far as 15 years.
ReadSpeaker makes WilsonWeb's full-text content accessible to a wider range of users, including people with dyslexia and other learning challenges, users whose low vision, blindness or physical handicap makes it difficult to read a standard printed page, and others who might like to hear as well as read the words, such as users who struggle with English or those challenged by low literacy.
For the sight-impaired, ReadSpeaker opens a world of content to complement the lauded Talking Book programs in libraries around the US. What Talking Books does for book literature, WilsonWeb's ReadSpeaker does for a wide range of periodical content. For fiction lovers, ReadSpeaker even delivers more than 4,200 short stories provided in full text on Wilson's Short Story Index database.
Twenty of WilsonWeb's full-text databases will feature ReadSpeaker, including Applied Science and Technology Full Text; Art Full Text; Biological and Agricultural Index Plus; Book Review Digest Plus; Current Issues: Environment;Current Issues: Health; Current Issues: Reference Shelf Plus; Education Full Text; General Science Full Text; Humanities Full Text; Index to Legal Periodicals Full Text; Library Literature and Information Science Full Text;Readers' Guide Full Text, Mega Edition; Readers' Guide Full Text, Select Edition; Science Full Text Select; Short Story Index; Social Sciences Full Text;Wilson Business Full Text; Wilson OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition; and Wilson OmniFile Full Text, Select Edition. Each is available for free 30-day trials.
“WilsonWeb has always met Section 508 requirements,” said Ron Miller, Director of Product Management, referring to ordinances that oblige system compatibility with screen-reading devices. “With ReadSpeaker, we exceed 508, enhancing accessibility for an important segment of the public.”
H.W. Wilson website: www.hwwilson.com/
EBSCOhost Integrated Search (Coming Soon)
Research shows that many customers who are using federated search products are unhappy with four essential components – search quality, search speed, customer service and cost. Because the recently enhanced EBSCOhost interface is the essence of EBSCOhost Integrated Search, it leverages the same EBSCOhost features and functionality that users know and have come to rely on.
Like federated search engines, EBSCOhost Integrated Search allows users to simultaneously search EBSCO databases as well as all other electronic resources,including those from other database aggregators, OPACs and publisher packages. However, unlike federated search products, true integration is possible with EBSCOhost Integrated Search as libraries can now apply the EBSCOhost search experience to all of their other electronic information resources. EBSCOhost features that are available for any database, from any vendor, include:
EBSCOhost basic and advanced search screen functionality;
subject clustering;
publication clustering;
sorting results by relevancy or date;
date slider limiter;
add to folders option;
use of custom links; and
fast response times, allowing results to trickle in without delaying the user.
In addition, through EBSCOadmin, librarians can now set up any databases from any vendor, customize the user experience for external databases, generate usage reports from external databases, add labels of databases for unfamiliar end users and more.
EBSCOhost integrated search functions include:
subject clustering;
publication clustering;
result sorting by relevancy or date;
date slider limiter;
add to folders options;
use of custom links; and
EBSCOhost basic and advanced search screen functionality.
EBSCOhost Integrated Search Flyer (pdf): www.ebscohost.com/uploads/thisTopic-dbTopic-1186.pdf
Harvard Chooses Aquabrowser for Search and Discovery Platform
AquaBrowser Library has been chosen by the Harvard University Library, one of the largest academic libraries worldwide, as its search and discovery platform. The AquaBrowser implementation will include faceted navigation, word cloud discovery, relevancy ranking, an integrated authority file, real-time availability information for items and integration with the ILS for patron services such as placing holds, making requests, viewing checkouts and renewing items.
The AquaBrowser implementation at Harvard University is set to debut to students and faculty in the spring of 2009.
Aquabrowser: www.aquabrowser.com
Harvard University Library HOLLIS Beta: http://discovery.lib.harvard.edu/
MPS Insight Delivers COUNTER Compliant Reports
In April 2009, MPS Technologies announced the launch of MPS Insight, a new service to deliver essential COUNTER Compliant reports to libraries on behalf of publishers. The new platform, which recently passed an independent COUNTER audit by ABCe, delivers COUNTER Compliant reports including COUNTER Release 3 as well as SUSHI.
Key features of MPS Insight include:
Timely reports – MPS Insight provides reports significantly earlier in the month than is required by COUNTER, with some publishers delivering reports within two weeks.
SUSHI delivery of repost for ERM systems, in addition to the familiar Excel format.
Easy administration – allowing libraries to make real time changes to accounts.
Additional users – librarians can create additional user accounts for staff.
Easy to use – attractive, intuitive interface designed with input from librarians.
Consortia administration – access consolidated consortia stats and individual member sites' stats from a single login.
Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, IEEE, Institute of Physics Publishing and Royal Society of Chemistry are among the initial wave of publishers to use the service. In launching the platform, MPS Technologies invited a group of librarians to beta test it. Over 96 percent rated MPS Insight as “easy” or “very easy” to use.
MPS Technologies website: www.mpstechnologies.com/
NISO Publishes the CORE Protocol
NISO's Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE) Working Group announced in April 2009 the publication of Z39.95-200x, CORE Protocol as a draft standard for trial use(DSFTU). The CORE draft standard defines an XML schema to facilitate the exchange of financial information related to the acquisition of library resources between systems, such as an ILS and an ERMS. The CORE draft standard identifies a compact yet useful structure for query and delivery of relevant acquisitions data. The document was approved on March 31, 2009 by the Business Information Topic Committee, which provides oversight to the CORE Working Group.
The CORE standard is being issued for a one-year trial use period, to run from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. Following the DFSTU phase will be an evaluation and correction period before final publication.
The DSFTU phase allows the draft standard to be tested and validated by implementers and the marketplace prior to final publication. The trial work will also serve as an opportunity for the information community to provide the CORE Working Group and NISO with feedback on the draft, including the identification of any errors or omissions that may arise during the trial. The intent of this period is to discover and subsequently address such issues, with the goal of creating a more perfect CORE standard.
Trial participants will be asked to implement the CORE protocol in their own organization (or with another trial implementer), participate in the CORE Interest Group list during the trial to share experiences, and provide feedback on any needed changes to the protocol prior to final issuance of the standard. The CORE Working Group will be available to provide guidance and answer questions and will continue to develop support documents during the trial. All comments will be reviewed regularly by the Working Group and will be responded to and made public at the end of the trial use period.
Anyone interested in participating in the trial or who would like additional information should contact NISO using the Contact Us form available online at www.niso.org/contact.
CORE DSFTU Document: www.niso.org/standards/z39-95/
About the CORE DSFTU Trial Period: www.niso.org/standards/draft/
CORE Working Group Home: www.niso.org/workrooms/core/
Business Information Topic Committee: www.niso.org/topics/businfo/
More Publishers Sign up for UKSG's TRANSFER Code of Practice
In March 2009, the UK Serials Group (UKSG) announced that 20 publishers have now signed up to its TRANSFER Code of Practice, which provides best practice guidelines and outlines responsibilities to ensure that journal content remains easily accessible in the event of a change of ownership. This means that library and reader access to over 8,000 journals will now be protected in transfers between publisher signatories.
Major signatories to the code include Elsevier, Nature and Wiley, but it is equally appropriate to smaller publishers – those signed up so far include the American Diabetes Association, Earthscan and the Rural Sociological Society. UKSG's objective is to persuade all publishers of the importance and value of endorsing the TRANSFER code. “Librarians must be increasingly rigorous in assessing the merits of journals and journals packages for renewal or purchase,” said Joan Emmet, NERL Program Librarian. “TRANSFER endorsement is a signal that a publisher understands its customers' needs and is committed to providing a good level of service even in complex circumstances. By implementing standards of practice for the treatment of transfer titles, the job of keeping track of these titles becomes easier both for publisher and customer. The publisher who puts the code into practice will help set apart a journal/journals package when we are reviewing our collections.”
The TRANSFER Code of Practice was developed by a cross-party working group to resolve problems encountered by subscribers when journals move from one publisher to another. Many critical issues, such as continuity of access during a transfer or perpetual ongoing access to archives, were previously a grey area in journal sale agreements; this resulted in frustration for end users and librarians as key e-journals became temporarily or even permanently unavailable despite licence terms.
For more information, and to sign up to the TRANSFER Code, visit www.uksg.org/transfer
University of Michigan Press Merges with UM Libraries
To maintain its leadership role in scholarly publishing in the digital age,the University of Michigan (U-M) will restructure its largest publishing affiliate, U-M Press. With the changes, the press will shift its focus to the recruitment, production and dissemination of primarily digital monographs.
“Digital publishing helps the U-M Press to adopt a business model more consistent with the university research goal to disseminate information as widely and freely as possible,” said U-M Provost Teresa Sullivan. “In addition, the change aligns with the university's ongoing effort to digitize its library collection, enhances U-M Press' print-on-demand capacity, and increases the range and means of expression of published ideas and authors.
The move also realigns U-M Press from a financially self-sustaining university unit to a department that reports to the dean of libraries as is the case with several other university presses, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University. In addition to this organization shift, the current U-M Press board will be disbanded and a new board with broader oversight and expanded responsibilities will be created by July 1, 2009.
The move also offers an opportunity for closer coordination between the press and existing U-M Library publishing services offered by its Scholarly Publishing Office. A closer alliance of these two efforts will offer the university and its scholars a rich, functional and efficient publishing environment.
With a more efficient publishing process, U-M Press will likely broaden its current offerings and increase the number of authors. At the same time, all contracts will be honored with current authors. Among the new line of books could be specialized publications based on papers presented at conferences.
Among the most significant changes from printing on paper to making scholarly works available in digitized formats will be an emphasis on interactive design,which will include much enhanced digital options, including hot links, graphics,3D animation and video. Print on demand – the ability to turn electronic works into bound volumes quickly and in small batches – will be used extensively by the revamped press. Long-term plans also call for the U-M Press'backlist to be digitized and made freely available throughout the world.
U-M has been a leader in the use of print on demand technology. In addition to selling reprints of thousands of volumes from its collection through distributors such as Amazon, last fall, U-M Libraries installed a state-of-the-art book-printing machine at the Shapiro Library on Central Campus. The library offers printing and bound reprints of out-of-copyright books from its digitized collections as well as thousands of books from the Open Content Alliance and other sources.
Full press release: www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id7052
Museums and the Web 2009 Papers Now Available
Many of the papers to be presented at museums and the web 2009 in Indianapolis (April 15-18, 2009) are now available online. To find them easily,browse the list of speakers – at www.archimuse.com/mw2009/speakers/for the “paper” icon. All MW2009 papers will be available online before the conference. All past museums and the web (and ICHIM) papers are online and included in a searchable bibliography at http://conference.archimuse.com/researchForum
