COLUMNS & NEWS
NewsBytes
EBSCO Publishing Partners with All Academic
EBSCO Publishing has entered into an agreement with
All Academic, Inc. that will provide researchers with
access to a growing collection of full-text conference
papers from top scholarly societies.
EBSCO's recent partnership with All Academic will
bring nearly 25,000 full-text conference papers into
appropriate EBSCOhost databases including Academic
Search Premier, Business Source Premier, and Communication
Mass Media Complete. The companies anticipate that
approximately 20,000 records will be added to EBSCOhost databases
on an annual basis beginning in 2005.
According to Tim Collins, EBSCO's vice president
and division general manager, this partnership represents
an important step for EBSCOhost researchers
as well as authors contributing their works as part
of conference proceedings. "With content from All Academic,
EBSCO is providing an avenue for societies dedicated
to virtually any area of study to share their associated
papers with a larger audience outside the realm of
their individual conferences." Collins continued, "With
so many highly regarded associations participating
with All Academic, the quality of this content is outstanding.
We anticipate and encourage other societies to consider
the possibility of working with All Academic to continue
to enhance access to their members' important research."
Source: EBSCO Publishing, Ipswich, MA, (978) 356-6500;
http://www.ebsco.com.
Thomson Signs Distribution Agreement with Universal
Technical Systems
Thomson announced that it has signed an agreement
with Universal Technical Systems, Inc. (UTS) to sell
its mathematical problem-solving software products
through Techstreet. UTS is a developer of high-productivity,
problem-solving software products and custom-developed
solutions.
The initial launch will feature three UTS products
under the umbrella title "Technology Tools for Engineers." Now
available on the Techstreet Web site (http://www.techstreet.com/uts.html),
the products include TK Solver, Interactive Roark's
Formulas, and MathLook for Excel.
"In addition to offering our engineering customers
these valuable time-saving tools, this agreement allows
us to explore the development of software line extensions
with the Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs)
that we represent," said Gregg Hammerman, Techstreet
founder and current director of operations and technology. "UTS
can do for other organizations what it did for Roark's:
develop interactive software products that save engineers
thousands of hours in research development, design,
and rework time. We see the potential for a lot of
new software products, some in the form of applets,
which are actually just line extensions to existing
formulas currently only available in print or PDF."
Source: Thomson Scientific, Philadelphia, (215) 386-0100;
http://www.thomsonscientific.com.
netLibrary Teams with Recorded Books
netLibrary has teamed with Recorded Books, LLC to
create a new program for delivering audiobooks to libraries
through the Web.
Key elements of the program include an innovative
pricing structure, unlimited access, the ability for
patrons to download to a range of portable devices,
and a technology solution that supports download via
broadband or dial-up capabilities.
Library users will be able to search for, preview,
check out, and listen to audiobooks via the Internet
and the netLibrary platform. They can focus their search
on audio titles only or take advantage of search functionality
that integrates audio titles with all electronic content
their library may have in its netLibrary collection.
Web-based collections of Recorded Books titles will
be available for purchase through either Recorded Books
or netLibrary and will be delivered via the netLibrary
interface. Library patrons will be able to search for
audiobooks just as they would for any type of e-content
in their library's netLibrary collection. The program
formally launches this month. Libraries can view demos
of the program upon request.
Source: netLibrary, Inc., Boulder, CO, (303) 544-9692;
http://www.netlibrary.com.
Blackwell Publishing Purchases Food and Nutrition
Press, Inc.
Blackwell Publishing announced its purchase of Food
and Nutrition Press, Inc. The acquisition adds 11 journal
titles and 50 books to Blackwell's food science list.
As part of the agreement, Blackwell will now publish Foodservice
Research
International, Journal of Food Biochemistry, Journal of Food
Lipids, Journal of Food Process Engineering, Journal of Food
Processing and Preservation, Journal of Food Quality, Journal
of Food Safety, Journal of Muscle Foods, Journal of Rapid Methods
and Automation in Microbiology, Journal of Sensory Studies, and Journal
of Texture Studies.
"Blackwell Publishing has invested heavily in food
science and technology over the last few years, and
this represents a major step toward our goal to be
the leading publisher in this area," commented Gordon
Tibbitts, Blackwell's U.S. president. "We will work
with the editors, authors, and reviewers to enhance
the quality of these journals, building upon the fine
reputation of the publications. Blackwell is committed
to providing the highest-quality products that foster
important interchanges among food science researchers
and technologists worldwide," said Tibbitts.
In addition to print copies, the journals will soon
be available in electronic versions via Blackwell Synergy,
the company's online delivery platform.
Source: Blackwell Publishing, Inc., Malden, MA, (781)
388-8200;
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com.
ICOLC Updates Statement of Current Perspective
and Preferred Practices
The International Coalition of Library Consortia
(ICOLC) announced a second update to its 1998 Statement
of Current Perspective and Preferred Practices for
the Selection and Purchase of Electronic Information.
Last updated in 2001, this statement continues to address
issues vital to libraries.
Update No. 2, Pricing and Economics, is now available
on the ICOLC Web site. It focuses predominantly on
financial topics, while updating and reaffirming the
broad goals of library
consortia as expressed in the previous ICOLC statements.
This update is initially endorsed by more than 50
consortia in 12 countries. More are expected as consortia
complete their review and approval processes. The complete
update and endorsers' list can be found at
http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/2004currentpractices.html.
The complete set of original and updated ICOLC statements
and
guidelines with endorsing library consortia and
additional
information about the ICOLC can be found at http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia.
Source: The International Coalition of Library Consortia,
Yale University Library, New Haven, CT, (203) 432-1810;
http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia.
U. of I. Plays Role in Digital Preservation Project
The University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign
has been chosen as one of the lead institutions in
a new Library of Congress (LC) project to save at-risk
digital materials nationwide.
The U. of I. Library and the U. of I. Graduate School
of Library and Information Science will receive nearly
$3 million over 3 years for their role in the LC preservation
project, called the National Digital Information Infrastucture
and Preservation Program.
The U. of I.'s nationwide partners are OCLC in Dublin,
Ohio; Tufts University's Perseus Project; the Michigan
State University Library; and an alliance of state
libraries from Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, North
Carolina, and Wisconsin. Partners on the Illinois campus
include WILL-AM, -FM, and -TV (public radio and television
stations); the Division of Management Information;
and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA).
Illinois' project will develop criteria for selecting
digital material for capture and preservation, with
OCLC building software to help automate the process.
Illinois, OCLC, and NCSA will jointly provide storage
for the digital content collected in the project in
databases called "repositories" and will test real-world
problems that are encountered in the process of digital
archiving.
Illinois also will explore ways for libraries and
repositories to share and preserve digital information
existing in a wide variety of formats, including Web-based
government publications, historical documents and photos,
sound and video recordings, Web sites, and other varied
digital resources that will be of historical interest
to future generations.
Source: University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign,
Champaign, IL, (217) 333-1085; http://www.uiuc.edu.
LexisNexis Content Available via BlackBerry
LexisNexis U.S. announced the availability of LexisNexis
content to attorneys and law firms through the BlackBerry
wireless platform.
With this latest phase of wireless
delivery options, legal professionals now can search the LexisNexis service
and access LexisNexis Publisher topics from their BlackBerry wireless handhelds.
Available LexisNexis information includes full-text news; business, legal,
and public records; and regulatory and legislative information sources.
For current LexisNexis subscribers, there is no additional
charge to access LexisNexis content via BlackBerry.
In addition, special search interfaces created for
BlackBerry are customized by task for ease of display
when getting a case, searching news content, etc.
Source: LexisNexis Group, Dayton, OH, (937) 865-6800;
http://www.lexisnexis.com.
WilsonWeb Offers Project COUNTER Statistical Reports
WilsonWeb has passed an audit of
its usage statistics reports by Project COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked
Electronic Resources). Standardized database usage statistics through COUNTER
compliancy is an issue of
increasing importance to librarians. In response, HW Wilson has made COUNTER
reports standard to the WilsonWeb statistical interface. WilsonWeb will continue
to offer other reports based on the earlier ICOC-compliant requirements.
WilsonWeb statistics reports include Database Usage,
Session Usage, Peak Usage, Journal Usage, IP Usage,
and Turnaways. All can be downloaded as needed, or
they may be automatically downloaded each week or month.
Source: HW Wilson Co., New York, (718) 588-8400;
http://www.hwwilson.com.
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