Latest Information Industry News and Resources
Introducing an Experimental Format for Learning About Content Mining for Digital Scholarship
Filed by Gary Price on December 7, 2018
From the British Library Digital Scholarship Blog: This post by the British Library’s Digital Curator for Western Heritage Collections, Dr Mia Ridge, reports on an experimental format designed to provide more flexible and timely training on fast-moving topics like text and data mining. This … [Read More...]
LA Times: “In University of California Battle With the World’s Largest Scientific Publisher, the Future Of Information is at Stake”
Filed by Gary Price on December 7, 2018
From The Los Angeles Times: Boiled down to dollars and cents, the battle between the University of California, the nation’s premier producer of academic research, and Reed Elsevier, the world’s leading publisher of academic journals, can seem almost trivial. UC is paying almost $11 … [Read More...]
This is the Library of Alexandria 2.0 (A Visit to The Internet Archive, Interview with Brewster Kahle)
Filed by Gary Price on December 7, 2018
From NBCNews.com-Signal: The Internet Archive's mission is universal access to all knowledge. Signal's Dasha Burns takes a look inside the old church where the non-profit is digitizing things like old records and reels of film and even archiving the internet itself. Fast Fact: Did You Know Any … [Read More...]
Funding: Library of Congress Announces Grant for Research Using World’s Largest Geography and Map Collection
Filed by Gary Price on December 7, 2018
From the Library of Congress: The John W. Kluge Center and the Philip Lee Phillips Map Society at the Library of Congress invite qualified scholars to apply for a grant to conduct research for two months at the Kluge Center using the Geography and Map Division’s collections and … [Read More...]
New ITU Statistics Show More Than Half the World is Now Using the Internet
Filed by Gary Price on December 7, 2018
From the ITU (International Telecommunications Union): ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), estimates that at the end of 2018, 51.2 per cent of the global population, or 3.9 billion people, will be using the Internet. “ITU's global … [Read More...]
New $10 Million, 65,000 Sq. Ft Philadelphia City Archives Opens
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
From Hidden City Philadelphia: Today the Philadelphia City Archives celebrated the opening of their new 65,000-square-foot research center at 548 Spring Garden Street. The vast, indispensable collection of historical, cultural, and administrative municipal records joins Yards Brewery and the … [Read More...]
New Video: “Machine Learning Meets Library Archives” (LYRASIS Catalyst Funded Project From the University of Utah)
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
The following video was recorded at the LYRASIS 3rd Annual Member Summit held at the Nashville Public Library on October 24, 2018. Description In this video, meet Harish Maringanti, Associate Dean of IT & Digital Library and Dhanushka Samarakoon, Assistant Head of Software Development. … [Read More...]
University of Illinois, French Partners Digitizing Marcel Proust’s Letters
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
From the University of Illinois: Thousands of letters written by Marcel Proust (1871-1922) will be available to scholars, Proust fans and the public on a website created by University of Illinois researchers and their partners in France to digitize Proust’s correspondence. The first phase of … [Read More...]
New Data from the Association of American Publishers (AAP): Publisher Revenue for eBooks Increased in October
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
From the Association of American Publishers (AAP): October 2018 marked the second time in two years that publishers saw modest revenue growth in eBooks (+4.4%), with increases for the format across all trade book categories. Aside from downloaded audio, eBooks had the largest percent of revenue … [Read More...]
Senate Committee Unanimously Passes the Museum and Library Services Act, Which Trump Opposes. Who Will Win Out?
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
From GovTrack.us: The previous reauthorization of the Museum and Library Service Act came in 2010, signed by President Obama. But President Trump wants to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services agency, and its $231 million budget, entirely. A Senate committee voted unanimously … [Read More...]
Just Released: “Europeana Innovation Agenda: Research and Innovation Priorities for the European Cultural Heritage Sector”
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
From the Executive Summary of the Report: The Europeana Innovation Agenda highlights research and innovation priorities in the cultural heritage domain and advocates for their implementation across Europe. Working in consultation with the Europeana Network Association, a dedicated task force … [Read More...]
Amazon Begins Testing “User Contributed Answers” with Invitation-Only “Alexa Answers”
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
Note: We've asked Amazon for more info about the announcement below including questions about sourcing, verification, updating, etc. of an answer(s) that's contributed by an Alexa user. Crowdsourcing answers is something many others including Google ,Yahoo, ChaCha have tried over the years. These … [Read More...]
U.S. Census Releases Five-Year Estimates on Computer and Internet Use, Poverty, Media Household Income, and Other Economic, Housing and Demographic Topics
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
From the U.S. Census: Today, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the release of the 2013-2017 American Community Survey (ACS) five-year estimates, which features more than 40 social, economic, housing and demographic topics, including homeownership rates and costs, health insurance, and educational … [Read More...]
A Recording of LIBER’s “Reproducibility Librarianship in Practice” Webinar Now Available Online
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
The webinar recording (audio and video embedded below) was organized by LIBER’s (European Association of Research Libraries) Research Data Management Working Group and recorded on December 4, 2018. Description As research across domains of study has become increasingly reliant on digital tools … [Read More...]
News Roundup (December 6, 2018)
Filed by Gary Price on December 6, 2018
1. Scholarly Books: Altmetric Releases Top 20 Books of 2018 (12 Are Open Access) ||| Direct to Data 2. GPO Announces New Digital Access Partnership with the Library of Congress 3. LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) Open Access Working Group Posts Statement on Plan S … [Read More...]
New Article/Blog Post: “Towards a Plan S Gap Analysis: Open Access Potential Across Disciplines”
Filed by Gary Price on December 5, 2018
From a Post on Innovations in Scholarly Communications: In the proposed implementation guidelines for Plan S, it has become clear there will be, for the coming years at least, three ways to open access (OA) that are compliant with Plan S: publication in full open access journals and … [Read More...]
Report: “China Backs Bold Plan To Tear Down Journal Paywalls”
Filed by Gary Price on December 5, 2018
From Nature: In a huge boost to the open-access movement, librarians and funders in China have said that they intend to make the results of publicly funded research free to read immediately on publication. The move, announced at an open-access meeting this week in Berlin, includes a pledge of … [Read More...]
Australia: Oldest European Map of Southern Cross Acquired by State Library of New South Wales Providing Explorers with a Navigational Guide South
Filed by Gary Price on December 5, 2018
From The Sydney Morning Herald: The Southern Cross was never lost to Indigenous Australians, but it was to Europeans when its five bright stars disappeared from sight in Roman times. So when adventurer Andrea Corsali saw its "marveylous crosse" after he passed the Cape of Good Hope in 1516, he … [Read More...]
Crossref: “Newly Approved Membership Terms Will Replace Existing Agreement”
Filed by Gary Price on December 5, 2018
From a Crossref Blog Post: In its July 2018 meeting, the Crossref Board voted unanimously to approve and introduce a new set of membership terms. At the same meeting, the board also voted to change the description of membership eligibility in our Bylaws, officially broadening our remit be Why … [Read More...]
Reference: “The Origins of the Cold War: Deciphering Open Access Primary Sources” (New Annotated Webliography)
Filed by Gary Price on December 5, 2018
Title The Origins of the Cold War: Deciphering Open Access Primary Sources Author Amy Dye-Reeves Murray State University Source C&RL News (2018; 79.11) From the Introduction This article provides topographical primary source guidance to all researchers on the origins of the … [Read More...]