Latest Information Industry News and Resources
New Video: First Lady Michelle Obama Presents Recipients With 2014 National Medal for Museum and Library Service
Here's a 25 minute video recording of the 2014 National Medal for Museum and Library Service ceremony that took place yesterday in the East Room of The White House. A list of the ten 2014 recipients is available here. Along with the video that's embedded below is a complete text transcript … [Read More...]
World Publishers Condemn Russia’s Ban on Obscene Language in the Arts, Media
Absolutely the right thing to do. We hope to learn about library groups as well as others (humanities organization, writer groups, etc.) condemning this action by the Russian government. From the International Publishers Association (IPA): The IPA condemns the Russian government’s introduction … [Read More...]
A New Compilation of Open Web Resources From the National Library of Medicine: “Climate Change”
Here's a new collection of open web resources about climate change compiled by Specialized Information Services division at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD. This resource debuted online about two weeks ago. Links to web resources (including some full text reports) are … [Read More...]
MOOC Provider Udemy Gets Another $32 Million in Funding
From VentureBeat: The startup [Udemy] announced $32 million in new funding today. Udemy offers some free courses, while it charges for others. It claims more than 3 million students up 50 percent from January; while Coursera had hit 5 million as of October 2013. Competitor Udacity had more 1.6 … [Read More...]
Wellcome Library Launches an Online Sandbox, Go “Play” With Some Experimental Tools
From a Wellcome Library Blog Post by Jenn Phillips-Bache: Tucked away in the Library’s website is a new space called the Sandbox. Here we are trialing a few experimental tools with the hope that we can develop them further into something that you can use to explore the collections. The tools … [Read More...]
Grants: Gates Foundation Ending Global Libraries Program Over Next 3-5 Years
Here's the Full Text of a Gates Foundation Blog Post by Deborah Jacobs, Director of Global Libraries Program: The foundation has decided to conclude our work in Global Libraries over the next three to five years. This transition will happen slowly with no programmatic changes to our budgets this … [Read More...]
California: Proposed San Diego Public Library Budget Shifts $500K Away from Books Fund, to New Tutoring Program
UPDATE: At the bottom of this post is the full text of the San Diego Public Library's FY2015 Budget Request From City News Service/Time of San Diego: San Diego City Council members praised the mayor’s proposed budget for libraries Wednesday, but expressed concerned about a fund for … [Read More...]
UK Government Web Archive Begins Capturing Official Government Tweets and YouTube Videos
From The National Archives (UK): From today The National Archives will begin to archive tweets sand You Tube videos published by UK central government departments from their official Twitter and YouTube social media platforms. [Clip] The UK government social media archive contains over … [Read More...]
Reference File: Statistics: Nation’s Working Mothers Increase 800% Over Last 150 Years
A new brief from Ancestry.com after mining and massaging U.S. Census data. Includes graphic. From Ancestry.com: One hundred and fifty years of federal census data and one thing is clear: the growing trend of working mothers in the United States is as old as Lincoln’s presidency. Ancestry.com, … [Read More...]
Ebook Subscription Services: Oyster Now Offers Access to More than 500,000 Titles
We've been talking about ebook subscription service (aka Netflix-like/Spotify-like services) and what they might mean for libraries, especially public libraries, for close to two years. Sadly, the library community, as a whole, has not spent a lot of energy (any?) in talking about how these … [Read More...]
Collaboration: Open Planets Foundation and Digital Preservation Coalition Sign Memorandum of Understanding
From an Open Planets Foundation Blog Post: The Open Planets Foundation (OPF) and the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) are delighted to announce a new memorandum of understanding that strengthens their ongoing collaboration to tackle digital preservation challenges. Signed by OPF Executive … [Read More...]
New Online Resource: Library of Congress Launches Civil Rights History Project Portal
From LC: The Civil Rights History Project Collection consists primarily of recent, never-before-seen interviews with people who participated in the civil rights movement. It contains several hundred items consisting of video files, videocassettes, digital photographs and interview transcripts. More … [Read More...]
NISO and OAI Publish American National Standard on ResourceSync Framework Specification
Released today by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). NISO and OAI announce the publication of the ResourceSync Framework Specification (ANSI/NISO Z39.99-2014)—a new American National Standard for the web detailing various capabilities … [Read More...]
Slides: More on the Data Conservancy, IEEE, & Portico Project to Connect Publications, Linked Data (Project Matchmaker)
About two weeks ago (April 30, 2014) we shared a news item that a two-year research partnership from Data Conservancy, IEEE, & Portico had just received a $602,000 grant from the Sloan Foundation to, "design and prototype a data curation infrastructure that connects published research and … [Read More...]
New Article: “Planning from the Middle Out: Phase 1 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration”
The following full text article appears in the latest issue of Collaborative Librarianship (Vol 6, No 1). Title Planning from the Middle Out: Phase 1 of 2CUL Technical Services Integration Authors Kate Harcourt Columbia University Jim LeBlanc Cornell University Library Abstract The … [Read More...]
Video: In Stanton, Iowa, human chain of 400+ Passes Books from Old Library to New
From the Omaha World-Herald: From the children's library inside what used to be an old bank vault, out the door and past downtown establishments and white frame houses on Broad Avenue, then up Elliott Street to the Viking Center, a newly-built community building that will contain the new … [Read More...]
Roundup: New York Public Ends Plan to Renovate 42nd Street Building (Central Library Plan)
UPDATED on May 8th, 2014 with Addition Material and Formal Statement from NYPL. From The NY Times: In a striking about-face, the New York Public Library has abandoned its plan to turn part of its research flagship on 42nd Street into a circulating library and instead will renovate the … [Read More...]
Say Hello to the NeRD: Findaway World Unveils a Customized Ereader for the U.S. Navy
Note: In 2012 we shared an item about the U.S. Navy wanting to learn more about ereaders that would allow personnel to access ebooks without an Internet connection. About one year ago we shared a Navy solicitation with specifics about what they wanted the device to provide. Today, the ereader was … [Read More...]
Name Identification: Use of ISNI is Growing Fast Among Authors, Says New Bowker Analysis
From Bowker/ProQuest: A new analysis of Bowker Books In Print shows that a full 33 percent of its contributors have the ISO-certified International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) connected with their names and in use in the database. ISNI was created just over two years ago and has topped 8 … [Read More...]
New Article Looks at “Implications and Opportunities” For Google Glass in Libraries
The following full text article appears in the May 2014 issue (vol. 75 no. 5) of C&RL News. Title Ok, library: Implications and opportunities for Google Glass Authors Char Booth Claremont Colleges Dani Brecher Claremont Colleges From the Article Like virtually any emerging technology, … [Read More...]
