New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2014), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 31 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-08-2014-0068

New & Noteworthy

Article Type: New & Noteworthy From: Library Hi Tech News, Volume 31, Issue 7

Higher education, library groups release net neutrality principles

In July, higher education and library organizations representing thousands of colleges, universities and libraries nationwide released a joint set of Net Neutrality Principles they recommend form the basis of an upcoming Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to protect the openness of the Internet. The groups believe network neutrality protections are essential to protecting freedom of speech, educational achievement and economic growth.

The organizations endorsing these principles are American Association of Community Colleges, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, American Council on Education, American Library Association (ALA), Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, EDUCAUSE, Modern Language Association and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Libraries and institutions of higher education are leaders in creating, fostering, using, extending and maximizing the potential of the Internet for research, education and the public good. These groups are extremely concerned that the recent court decision vacating two of the key “open Internet” rules creates an opportunity for Internet providers to block or degrade (e.g. arbitrarily slow) certain Internet traffic, or prioritize certain services, while relegating public interest services to the “slow lane”.

At its best, the Internet is a platform for learning, collaboration and interaction among students, faculty, library patrons, local communities and the world. Libraries and institutions of higher education make an enormous amount of Internet content available to the general public – from basic distance learning classes to multimedia instruction, cloud computing, digitized historical databases, research around “big data” and many other educational and civic resources – all of which require an open Internet. Institutions of higher education and libraries do not object to paying for the high-capacity Internet connections that they need to support their students, faculty, administrators and library patrons, but once connected, they should not have to pay additional fees to receive prioritized transmission of their content, services or applications.

These groups support strong enforceable rules to ensure that higher education and libraries can continue to deliver online educational and public interest content at a level of speed and quality on par with commercial providers. The proposed principles call upon the FCC to ban blocking, degradation and “paid prioritization”; ensure that the same rules apply to fixed and mobile broadband providers; promote greater transparency of broadband services; and prevent providers from treating similar customers in significantly different ways.

“Colleges and universities depend on broadband Internet access to support high-quality, media-rich teaching, learning, and research”, said Diana G. Oblinger, President and CEO of EDUCAUSE:

At a time when the country views higher education and its use of technology as central to social and economic progress, we cannot make the quality and effectiveness of learning and research dependent on the capacity of institutions – and ultimately students and their families – to pay additional fees on top of the costs they already bear for broadband access. The FCC must ensure an open Internet, which is essential to higher education’s ability to fulfill its mission in the digital age.

“America’s libraries collect, create, and disseminate essential information to the public over the Internet, and enable our users to create and distribute their own digital content and applications”, said ALA President Courtney Young:

Network neutrality is essential to ensuring open and nondiscriminatory access to Internet content and services for all. The American Library Association is proud to stand with other education and learning organizations in outlining core principles for preserving the open Internet as a vital platform for free speech, innovation, and civic engagement.

The FCC should use the joint principles submitted by higher education and library groups as a framework for creating rules to protect an open Internet that has fostered equitable access to information and sparked new innovations, including distance learning such as MOOCs, said Carol Pitts Diedrichs, President of the ARL.

Without rules governing net neutrality to ensure that blocking and discrimination do not occur, the Internet could be available only to those with the greatest financial resources to pay to have their content prioritized.

Net Neutrality Principles (.pdf): http://www.arl.org/storage/documents/publications/higher-ed-libraries-net-neutrality-principles-10July%202014.pdf

American library association welcomes progress on E-rate modernization

In July 2014, the FCC voted to release the first Order as part of its E-rate modernization proceeding. ALA President Courtney Young released the following statement:

This Order represents a solid first step toward increasing library participation in the E-rate program and moving our communities toward the gigabit speeds increasingly needed to support Wi-Fi, digital learning and multimedia collections. More than a year of hard work and advocacy on behalf of our nation’s 16,400 public libraries and the communities they serve has brought us to this point, and I’m proud of what ALA and its library and school partners have achieved.

We are pleased the Commission is addressing the long-term shortfall of funding for Wi-Fi and internal connections, and that support will be available for more libraries to meet demands for mobile access and services. Nearly all public libraries now offer free public Wi-Fi access, and usage is growing dramatically – from our largest city libraries to the rural libraries that often remain the only free public internet access point in the area. Our nation’s public libraries depend on affordable, scalable, high-capacity broadband in order to complete Education, jump-start Employment and Entrepreneurship, and foster individual Empowerment and Engagement, or the E’s of Libraries™.

The simplification and streamlining measures taken up in this Order also are critically important and will immediately improve the application process for thousands of libraries and schools. Increased data transparency should mean not only better pricing that will make the program more cost-effective, but also enable faster speeds that allow libraries to serve more people with better services.

We appreciate the opportunity to engage with FCC Commissioners and staff and are pleased they adopted many of ALA’s recommendations to make substantial improvements to the E-rate program. We look forward to the next phase of the E-rate reform process to further address barriers to high-speed broadband access and ensure sufficient program funding to achieve our vision for digital inclusion and learning through libraries and schools.

For more details see the FCC Summary of the E-Rate Modernization Order: http://www.fcc.gov/page/summary-e-rate-modernization-order

New OCLC report shows education, learning and libraries at a tipping point

A new report from OCLC, the computer library service and research organization, suggests that the cumulative weight of changing consumer habits, enabling technologies like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and mobile and the high cost of postsecondary education are resetting expectations and bringing permanent changes to education and lifelong learning. In July 2014, OCLC released At a Tipping Point: Education, Learning and Libraries, the latest in a series of OCLC Membership Reports designed to explore emerging trends that impact libraries and librarianship:

OCLC market research has tracked the perceptions of information consumers for more than a decade. Much has changed in the environment over that time. We have seen Google change search habits and Amazon change buying habits. We are now watching online learning services and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) change the landscape and expectations for education and learning, said Cathy De Rosa, OCLC Vice President for the Americas and Global Vice President of Marketing, and principal contributor to OCLC Membership Reports.

At a Tipping Point looks at the views of online learners – their concerns about the cost of higher education, their experiences with online learning and their expectations for more convenient life-based education models in the future:

The pressure is mounting on traditional models of learning. We see evidence in the research that we may be reaching a tipping point in how consumers think about and would like to manage their education, said Ms. De Rosa.

Students and parents are eager for more convenience and more options in how they learn – they favor convenience over structure, self-service over predefined options. Students of all ages are having success with online learning and, like most services that have moved onto the Web, consumers expect these new services to continue to improve in quality and increase in popularity.

Changes to education and online learning have implications and opportunities for libraries. “The same digital forces reshaping education will reshape library users’ expectations, on our campuses and across our communities”, said Ms De Rosa.

At a Tipping Point provides data on consumer attitudes and perceptions about online learning and MOOCs. The report also includes data about parents’ and students’ perceptions of campus life and their use of libraries – both at the library and online.

The report concludes with some thoughts for strategic consideration and action for libraries. “As consumers’ needs and preferences shift, libraries have new opportunities to deliver both services and convenience that will increase impact and grow relevance to online learners”, said Ms. De Rosa.

See a brief video about At a Tipping Point: Education, Learning and Libraries on the OCLC YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYhfUCt2rCM&feature=youtu.be

Direct link to the download the report (in .pdf format): http://oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/reports/tipping-point/215133-tipping-point.pdf

OCLC membership reports: http://oclc.org/reports.en.html

LYRASIS and reveal digital expand open access relationship

In June 2014, Reveal Digital selected LYRASIS Repository Services for hosting, support and management of its new open-access projects. LYRASIS is currently the exclusive North American agent for Reveal Digital’s Independent Voices, an online collection of alternative press publications sourced from participating libraries. Building on the success of that relationship, Reveal Digital chose to use LYRASIS Repository Services for a long-term hosting solution to further its aims of open access.

LYRASIS partners with member libraries and cultural heritage organizations to create, access and manage information with an emphasis on digital content, while building and sustaining collaboration, enhancing operations and technology and increasing buying power. Reveal Digital works closely with libraries and other content owners to work together as partners to bring rare content into the digital world using an open-access model as an effective alternate to popular mass digitization projects.

The partnership is an extension of both organizations’ focus on providing eContent to the larger library and cultural heritage organization communities and their users. It aligns seamlessly with the overall LYRASIS Digital focus of working with members to create, access, manage and share information. This agreement also helps Reveal Digital provide open access for important and unique content at a fraction of the cost of traditional publishers.

As Reveal Digital develops additional collections using its cost-recovery crowdfunding model, LYRASIS will provide hosting services once a project reaches its cost recovery goal. Content from each new project will become open access immediately after digitization is complete. LYRASIS’ partnership with SCOAP3 and Knowledge Unlatched and experience with providing open source individual and group repositories make this new partnership with Reveal Digital a natural alliance. The partnership also benefits LYRASIS members, who will receive a discount on Reveal Digital’s products.

For more information on LYRASIS: http://www.lyrasis.org

For more information on reveal digital: http://www.revealdigital.com

Promoting transparency in library discovery services: national Information Standards Organization publishes recommended practice; EBSCO announces full support

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has announced the publication of a new recommended practice, Open Discovery Initiative: Promoting Transparency in Discovery (NISO RP-19-2014), which provides specific guidelines on participation in the new generation of library discovery services. The NISO Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) began work in 2011 to develop recommendations that would increase transparency across all aspects of indexed discovery services. The group’s final publication includes guidelines to content providers on disclosure of level of participation, the minimum set of metadata elements provided for indexing, linking practices and technical formats. Recommendations for discovery service providers address content listings, linking practices, file formats and methods of transfer to be supported and usage statistics. The document also provides background information on the evolution of discovery and delivery technology and a standard set of terminology and definitions for this technology area:

An increasing number of libraries, especially those that serve academic or research institutions, have invested in the new generation of discovery services that use an aggregated central index to enable searching across a wide range of library related resources, explains Marshall Breeding, an independent library consultant and Co-chair of the ODI Working Group:

These libraries expect their entire collection, including licensed and purchased electronic content, to be made available within their discovery service of choice. But it is often not clear which resources are available and which are indexed in full text, by citations only, or both. Libraries deserve a clear explanation of the degree of availability of the content they license in their discovery service – and they need usage statistics to help assess the effectiveness of their discovery tool.

“Index-based discovery services involve a complex ecosystem of interrelating issues and interests among content providers, libraries, and discovery service creators”, states Jenny Walker, an independent publishing consultant and Co-chair of the ODI Working Group:

The ODI Working Group included participation and input from all three stakeholders in the development of these recommendations. These recommendations are intended to encourage participation by the content providers in providing their content for indexing, transparency for libraries with regard to the level of indexing for different collections in the discovery services, and implementation of best practice by the discovery services regarding unbiased linking to source material, the neutrality of algorithms for generating result sets, relevance rankings, and link order.

“NISO and the ODI Working Group intend to support the Recommended Practice with follow-up efforts”, states Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director:

Areas of further investigation potentially include collaborative discussion mechanisms, discovery of content via application programming interfaces, handling of restricted content, on-demand lookup, and interaction with COUNTER about usage statistics related to discovery services.

Open Discovery Initiative: Promoting Transparency in Discovery (NISO RP-19-2014) is available for free download from the ODI Working Group webpage on the NISO Web site at: http://www.niso.org/workrooms/odi/

In related news, EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has announced full support to the final recommendations of the ODI working group for best practices for discovery services. EBSCO participated in the ODI Committee and the resulting recommendations are in line with EBSCO’s open policies around metadata sharing and vendor cooperation.

ODI sets forth several objectives which cover metadata sharing, fair or unbiased linking from discovery services to publishers’ content and the provision of usage statistics – all of which EBSCO supports. As it pertains to metadata sharing, ODI calls for content providers to make core metadata available to discovery vendors, including underlying full-text/original content for complete offerings, for the purposes of indexing.

NISO’s Executive Director Todd Carpenter recognizes the significance of EBSCO’s support of the ODI recommendations:

EBSCO has been a long-time supporter of NISO, of consensus standards development, and standards implementation. We are very appreciative of the EBSCO staff’s active contributions and leadership in various NISO initiatives – including ODI. EBSCO’s recently released policy on metadata sharing is consistent with the ODI goals, and is a significant step toward greater vendor collaboration that enhances overall value for libraries and end users.

EBSCO intends to continue discussions with potential partners to ensure the availability of EBSCO content within third-party discovery solutions, and to encourage similar collaboration where OPAC functionality is seamlessly integrated within a customer’s discovery service of choice.

For more information, visit the EBSCO Web site at: http://www.ebsco.com

SeeSearch: new visual discovery tool

SeeSearch, a new online search and discovery tool, was launched on Wednesday 25th June 2014 at South Dublin Libraries in Ireland. SeeSearch was designed by Dr Hilary Kenna, a lecturer in design at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), who started researching the idea over two years ago with funding from Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund. In October 2013, Dr Kenna formed a spin-out company, Vizolve Ltd., with lead developer David Garvan, to commercially develop and sell the product. The company has secured investment from Telefonica’s accelerator programme, Wayra, and employs two IADT graduates at its offices in the Media Cube Incubation Centre at IADT.

South Dublin Libraries, who were looking for an all-in-one discovery solution, worked closely with Dr Kenna throughout the development of SeeSearch. Previously, their customers needed to carry out separate searches of different catalogs and resources within the library, including for example the e-books catalog or Britannica Encyclopaedia. Thanks to the application of SeeSearch, both customers and staff can do a single search across all resources. One search term returns relevant results from all online resources. In addition, SeeSearch helpfully provides highly visual search results which help customers and staff see all the resources available and to browse and select from the range of hits returned. SeeSearch enables South Dublin Libraries to showcase the vast range of diverse quality content it offers to customers.

Kieran Swords, Acting County Librarian, South Dublin Libraries stated that:

South Dublin Libraries are thrilled to be implementing SeeSearch, an extremely impressive discovery tool, designed and developed in Ireland. SeeSearch, with its single search, simplifies access to the online resources offered by South Dublin Libraries exposing the wide range of informational, recreational and cultural resources of our Libraries. The user-friendly visual search results interface surpasses our expectations in delivering the library service’s vision of the 24/7 library without walls.

For more information about SeeSearch: http://www.myseesearch.com/

Full IADT release: http://www.iadt.i.e./en/InformationAbout/NewsEvents/News/Title,3583,en.html

South Dublin Libraries Implementation: http://www.southdublinlibraries.i.e

SirsiDynix to create BLUEcloud campus, a library service platform built for education

SirsiDynix has announced BLUEcloud Campus, a next-generation library services platform (LSP) which was designed for the needs of academic and research libraries and will also benefit schools. Built on the state-of-the-art SirsiDynix BLUEcloud architecture, BLUEcloud Campus is designed for libraries looking for a comprehensive and seamless integration of best-of-breed components from SirsiDynix and resource providers such as EBSCO.

“We’ve spent the last year building a collaborative partnership with EBSCO that will help us deliver enhanced functionality to the academic and school marketplace”, said Bill Davison, CEO of SirsiDynix:

This LSP will give academic and school libraries electronic and physical content management tools designed for researchers and students, as well as integration with education-specific programs like learning management systems. Working with a world-class organization such as EBSCO allows us to leverage the valuable metadata from EBSCO Discovery Service and bring this unique product that includes resources from both SirsiDynix and EBSCO to our industry. We believe BLUEcloud Campus will change the way we think about content and the ways it can integrate with a library services platform.

“BLUEcloud Campus leverages the EDS API for mutual customers, providing a powerful and tightly integrated solution, catering to both academic environments and schools”, said Neil Block, Vice President of Discovery Innovation, Academic Libraries. “The combination of EBSCO content, products, and services with SirsiDynix BLUEcloud modules will provide great value to both staff and end user.”

BLUEcloud Campus is characterized by its openness and service-oriented architecture. The goal of BLUEcloud, and the origin of its name, is to capitalize on the SirsiDynix vision of helping customer libraries achieve – and, in turn, offer to their users – the Best Library User Experience with industry-leading cloud architecture.

“BLUEcloud Campus breaks down the barriers between global information silos to get content into your carefully-curated collection”, said Rick Branham, VP of Academic Libraries at SirsiDynix:

It uses web services to bridge the gap between content repositories and your library, allowing your users to easily discover materials from hundreds or even thousands of subscription databases and journals alongside your own collection, with sophisticated relevancy ranking and facet-based search limiting to help users to find the best resources to meet their needs.

The BLUEcloud Campus LSP sets itself apart as a truly open system with a scalable proven foundation. In BLUEcloud, openness was not bolted on as an afterthought. The service-based architecture of BLUEcloud is based on the web services and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) available through the SirsiDynix’s integrated library systems. BLUEcloud Campus libraries have access to these same APIs and web services.

SirsiDynix: http://www.sirsidynix.com/

Capira technologies announces service integration with StackMap

Capira Technologies LLC, a software and mobile app technology developer for libraries, announced in June 2014 a service integration option with StackMap™, a bookshelf visualization platform for library catalogs. Founded in 2012 by former library employees, Capira Technologies customized mobile apps personalize libraries for an optimal patron experience, including state-of-the-art functionality and services, such as digital library cards, self-checkout, remote renewal capabilities and more. StackMap™ is a solution that provides patrons with a detailed map and written directions to an item in one click, without ever leaving the catalog. Libraries that already have the service will also have the option to use it in their mobile apps when signing up with Capira Technologies for their mobile patron service. Hampton Library, based in Long Island, NY, is the first to integrate StackMap™ into their mobile library app developed by Capira Technologies. The update containing StackMap™ integration for Hampton Mobile Library is expected to be available on Apple iOS by July 1 and Android by July 30.

Kelly Harris, Library Director at Hampton Library, stated that the benefits of this new feature for patrons would improve their overall experience at the library, especially for those who prefer serving themselves:

Offering a mobile app with StackMap™ and self-checkout allows our busiest library users, and soon-to-be library users, to find the item they need in the catalog while they sit and wait to pick their kids up, map it as they walk in the library door, find it, check it out and continue on with their busy day […] no waiting in line, no small talk, no tiny paper receipt they will lose, she stated.

By leveraging the StackMap™ set of web APIs, Capira Technologies mobile apps will now provide the capability to display the visual mapping layout of where an item resides inside the library when users search the catalog. Additionally, the app will automatically zoom to the location of the item selected on the graphical mapping, allowing patrons to easily find where their item is located. This functionality in Capira Technologies mobile apps will sit alongside other patron-first features the developer offers, such as digital library cards, mobile library card signup and renewal, self-checkout and push notifications.

Lex Cooke, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of StackMap LLC, stated that he is happy to be collaborating with Capira Technologies and bringing the service directly to mobile devices:

We are particularly excited to be working with Capira on mobile because it will enable StackMap™ to provide that much more value to a library patron, by giving that patron the ability to carry the digital map with them while they attempt to navigate the physical space of the library, he stated.

“Working with Capira has been a great experience for us to really collaborate and tailor the StackMap™ experience to a native mobile environment.”

For additional information about StackMap™ integration: http://www.capiratech.com/stackmap

For more information on capira technologies: http://www.capiratech.com

Vital source technologies enhances E-textbook accessibility support

Vital Source Technologies, Inc., Ingram Content Group’s leading e-textbook solution, showcased new features to its comprehensive accessibility support for its VitalSource Bookshelf® platform at the National Federation of the Blind National Convention, July 1–6, in Orlando, FL:

As a result of rigorous, ongoing accessibility testing of the various Bookshelf platforms, Tech For All, Inc. can attest that a real asset of the Vital Source approach is its strong commitment to deliver an accessible, rich eBook reading experience which students with disabilities, like their peers, can access from home, in the classroom, and in a mobile environment, said Rick Bowes, Executive Consultant for Tech For All, Inc., a leading accessibility and universal design consulting firm.

Vital Source Technologies continues to work to support industry standards for accessibility by conducting conformance testing on all Bookshelf platforms – offline on Windows and Macs; online on Windows and Macs using standard browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari); and on mobile devices for iOS and Android. All Bookshelf platforms are evaluated using industry-leading screen reading programs available for the platform including JAWS and NVDA for Windows, VoiceOver for Mac and IOS and TalkBack for Android. To ensure a comprehensive reading experience, all Bookshelf platforms have been evaluated using EPUB® and enhanced PDF books:

Through VitalSource Bookshelf, we strive to provide the right accessibility features in e-textbooks that will enable people of all abilities to get the most out of an e-textbook experience and realize its full potential, said Rick Johnson, Vice President Product and Sales Engineering, Vital Source Technologies, Inc.

“We’ve been doing this for more than a decade, and we will continue to innovate and introduce new ways to enhance e-textbook accessibility.”

Because accessibility is a fundamental part of teaching and learning, Vital Source regularly collaborates with independent consultants and industry experts including the National Federation of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, Tech For All, JISC and others to ensure the platform is tested in conformance with the section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Along with the client updates being released, Vital Source will provide an updated and independently reviewed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template™ (VPAT) statement for each platform. The VPAT is an industry standard template used by suppliers to systematically document a product’s conformance with the Section 508 accessibility standards. The Android, iOS, Browser, Macintosh and Windows VPAT’s are available for download from http://www.vitalsource.com/508

The VitalSource Bookshelf platform is the most used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education. Vital Source Technologies has > 500,000 titles available in distribution encompassing content from > 750 educational publishers. Content is available to VitalSource Bookshelf users, including those living with disabilities anytime, anywhere, and on a variety of operating systems and devices.

For more information about vital source technologies, visit http://www.vitalsource.com/

ProQuest debuts beta of new e-book reader on ebrary platform

ProQuest continues to innovate the use of e-books in research, launching a beta version of its new e-book reader, developed with extensive user input and debuting on the ebrary® platform. The ebrary Reader delivers a modern experience, with a simple interface, intuitive navigation and user-centered design. The Reader represents the best-in-class user experience being developed for the integrated platform that will unite ProQuest’s businesses ebrary and Ebook Library – EBL.

“Our mission is to create the industry’s most progressive ebook platform by working in partnership with our customers and the researchers they serve”, said Kari Paulson, vice-president and general manager, ProQuest Ebooks:

The Reader is a significant step toward achieving this mission. It’s an elegant solution that reflects the intense user collaboration that drove its development. We’re encouraged by the very positive feedback we’re receiving from our beta customers.

The new ebrary Reader is designed to meet the continually evolving expectations of researchers. Extensive user testing with library patrons, particularly university students in the midst of research projects, steered its development. Copying, printing, downloading and searching within books is streamlined and intuitive navigation gets users to popular features faster. Improved text and page quality boost readability, while new viewing options (including vertical scrolling) give users more control of their reading experience. Further accessibility features for those who are blind or visually impaired will be rolled out later in 2014. The ebrary Reader was designed from the ground up to work seamlessly across the devices most used by researchers, with a new emphasis on tablets – increasingly popular in libraries.

Response from beta users such as the renowned library at Gettysburg College is enthusiastic:

When we heard that the new Reader would significantly enhance user functionality and navigation and facilitate researcher needs, we were eager to participate in the beta program and experience the improvements for ourselves, said Acquisitions Librarian Jeremy Garskof.

We are very impressed with the Reader’s user-centered design and intuitive features. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with the ProQuest team to provide real-time feedback during development with the goal of further improving the usability of the new Reader. The beta program and the solicitation of feedback from real patrons demonstrate ProQuest’s strong commitment to developing meaningful partnerships with the library community with an emphasis on the user experience.

ProQuest expects to conclude beta and go live with the new Reader in August.

Learn more at: http://www.proquest.com/libraries/academic/ebooks

NISO issues recommended practice on demand driven acquisition of monographs

The NISO announces the publication of a new recommended practice, Demand Driven Acquisition of Monographs (NISO RP-20-2014). Demand driven acquisition (DDA), also referred to as patron-driven acquisition, is a method used by libraries for collection development where monographs are purchased at their point of need when selected by users from a pool of potential titles. NISO’s Recommended Practice discusses and makes recommendations for publishers, vendors, aggregators and libraries about key aspects of DDA, goals and objectives of a DDA program, choosing parameters of the program, profiling options, managing MARC records for DDA, removing materials from the consideration pool, assessment of the program, providing long-term access to un-owned content, consortial considerations for DDA and public library DDA. Although DDA is more commonly used for e-books, the method can also be applied to print publications and these recommendations provide a single set of best practices for both formats, with articulation of differences where they occur.

“Under a traditional up-front purchase model for monographs, the acquisition process ends soon after the book arrives in the library”, explains Michael Levine-Clark, Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collections Services at University of Denver Libraries and NISO DDA Working Group Co-chair:

DDA, on the other hand, requires long-term management of a preselected ‘consideration pool’ of titles available for purchase. The process of acquisition evolves from one of getting books into the collection to one of long-term management of the discovery tools that allow for demand-driven access to monographs. The guidelines in this Recommended Practice will allow libraries to develop DDA plans for both electronic and print books that meet differing local collecting and budgetary needs, while also allowing consortial participation and cross-aggregator implementation.

DDA may disrupt the traditional scholarly communication supply chain, therefore libraries, publishers, and aggregators must be committed to working together to establish long-term sustainable models that highlight mutual benefits, states Barbara Kawecki, Director of Western USA Sales at YBP Library Services and NISO DDA Working Group Co-chair.

It is important that there is some free discovery without triggering purchase, and that discovery is integrated in some way with other tools in use by the library. Although DDA has currently been adopted primarily by academic libraries, greater interest in and use of DDA by public libraries is expected in the future and these recommendations should work equally well for them.

“There are many approaches an institution can adopt when launching DDA”, states Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director:

This Recommended Practice provides an overview of those options and concludes with specific recommendations that give guidance to libraries, publishers, aggregators, and vendors as they implement and manage their DDA programs.

DDA of Monographs (NISO RP-20-2014) is available for free download from the Demand-Driven Acquisition Working Group webpage on the NISO Web site at: http://www.niso.org/workrooms/dda/

CrossRef offers text and data mining services to simplify researcher access

CrossRef Text and Data Mining services, allowing publishers to provide information that will simplify access arrangements for researchers who desire to mine and analyze scholarly publisher sites, is now available to CrossRef Members. CrossRef, a not-for-profit association of worldwide scholarly publishers, made the announcement at the Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Meeting in May.

Publishers participating in CrossRef Text and Data Mining services may now deposit full-text links in the metadata for their DOIs, as well as license URIs by which researchers can determine whether they have permission to mine a particular content item. Through CrossRef’s API, researchers will then to be able to access the full-text, CrossRef DOI–identified content across participating publishers’ sites, regardless of their access models.

For all publishers, whether using open access or subscription business models, CrossRef Text and Data Mining services easily direct researchers to the appropriate location of the full text content and licenses for that content. In addition, publishers can add download rate limits to the information they provide to minimize any impact of text and data mining activities on Web site performance:

CrossRef Text and Data Mining services extend the infrastructure for publications data to make the process of locating content for text and data mining easier and more consistent across publishers, commented CrossRef Product Manager Rachael Lammey.

“This common system for text and data mining benefits publishers and researchers alike, enhancing collaboration in scholarly communications.”

The launch of CrossRef Text and Data Mining services follows a successful pilot. Charter participants include the following organizations: American Institute of Physics; American Physical Society; Elsevier; HighWire Press; Hindawi; Institute of Physics; Public Library of Science; Springer; Taylor & Francis; Walter de Gruyter; and Wiley.

An optional part of CrossRef Text and Data Mining services will allow a publisher to provide a click-through agreement if that publisher requires the researcher to agree to supplementary license terms before accessing content for text and data mining. For publishers whose general licenses already include permission for text and data mining, the click-through service will not be necessary. CrossRef Text and Data Mining Services are provided at no cost to researchers, and at no cost to publishers during the first year of operation.

More information on CrossRef text and data mining services at: http://www.crossref.org/tdm/

North Carolina State University libraries publish North Carolina State University organization name linked data set

Eric Hanson, Electronic Resources Librarian, North Carolina State University (NCSU), recently announced that the NCSU Libraries has published its first linked data set, NCSU Organization Name Linked Data. This data set is based on the NCSU Organization Name Authority, a tool maintained by the Acquisitions and Discovery department since 2009 to manage the variant forms of name for serial and e-resource publishers, providers and vendors in E-Matrix, a locally developed electronic resource management system.

The names chosen as the authorized form reflect an acquisitions, rather than bibliographic, orientation. For example, in the Library of Congress (LC) Name Authority File, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is represented by its full name, whereas in the NCSU Organization Name Linked Data, it appears as “IEEE”, which is how it is generally known among acquisitions staff. Also, there many subsidiary units with valid headings in the LC Name Authority File, but for the purpose of managing journals and electronic resources they are simply considered to be variant forms of name for the parent organization that manages acquisitions and licensing-related functions for the subsidiaries.

The data in the NCSU Organization Name Linked Data is represented as RDF triples using properties from the SKOS, RDF Schema, FOAF and OWL vocabularies. Where possible, links to descriptions of the organizations in other linked data sources are included, including the Virtual International Authority File, the LC Name Authority File, DBpedia, Freebase and International Standard Name Identifier. These types of links are encouraged in Tim Berners-Lee’s description of 5 Star Open Data and will enable users of the data to easily incorporate properties from these other linked data sources in future applications.

The data set is made freely available with the Creative Commons CC0 License and can be downloaded as RDF-XML, N3/Turtle, N-Triples, JSON-LD or through RDFa embedded in the HTML page for each organization. The NCSU Libraries plan on periodically updating this data set with new organizations from our E-matrix system.

This data set will also be the seed data for organizations in the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) (http://gokb.org/), a freely available data repository with key publication information about electronic resources that will have its public release in September. As a part of NCSU’s lead role in the GOKb project, the NCSU Libraries are collaborating with the GOKb developers on future linked data initiatives involving title, package and platform data.

NCSU organization name linked data: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ld/onld/

LC releases recommended format specifications

The LC has announced the availability of its Recommended Format Specifications, a document describing the hierarchies of the physical and technical characteristics of creative formats, both analog and digital, which will best maximize the chances for preservation and continued accessibility of creative content. Creators and publishers have also begun to employ a wide array of intangible digital formats, as well as continuing to change and adapt the physical formats in which they work. The Library needs to be able to identify the formats which are suitable for large-scale acquisition and preservation for long-term access if it is to continue to build its collection and ensure that it lasts into the future.

The Library was able to identify six basic categories of creative output, which represent significant parts of the publishing, information and media industries, especially those that are rapidly adopting digital production and are central to building the Library’s collections: Textual Works and Musical Compositions; Still Image Works; Audio Works; Moving Image Works; Software and Electronic Gaming and Learning; and Datasets/Databases. Technical teams, made up of experts came from across the institution bringing specialized knowledge in technical aspects of preservation, ongoing access needs and developments in the marketplace and in the publishing world, were established to identify recommended formats for each of these categories and to establish hierarchies of preference among the formats within them.

The Library will be revisiting these specifications on an annual basis. The creation and publication of these recommended format specifications is not intended to serve as an answer to all the questions raised in preserving and providing long-term access to creative content. They do not provide instructions for receiving this material into repositories, managing that content or undertaking the many ongoing tasks which will be necessary to maintain this content so that it may be used well into the future.

The recommended format specifications are available at: http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/

The library corporation’s eBiblioFile service provides RDA records for e-books

The Library Corporation (TLC) has announced its eBiblioFile service, which delivers MARC records for eResources in 48 hours or less, upgraded to the new RDA cataloging standard on July 1, 2014:

MARC records have served libraries well, but the new RDA records are much more robust and thorough. Catalog searches and cross-references are richer than ever, and one search term opens the door to a multitude of related titles and themes. That gives borrowers unprecedented discoverability of a library’s offerings, said eBiblioFile Product Owner Heather Powers.

“The difference between MARC and RDA,” she added, “is just as dramatic as the difference between VHS tapes and DVDs. The quality is amazing and the improvements that RDA provides to library catalogs are amazing.”

eBiblioFile was introduced in 2012 as an on-demand data service to provide MARC records for eResources from OverDrive and 3M’s Cloud Library. Its low cost and 48-hour turnaround time has attracted New York Public Library, Contra Costa County Library, the North Carolina Digital Consortium, Greater Victoria Public Library, the Maryland eLibrary Consortia, Sno-Isle Regional Library System, Princeton University and Brooklyn Public Library.

eBiblioFile is an on-demand MARC record creation and delivery service for library e-resource titles. When a library places an order with their e-resource vendor, eBiblioFile automatically receives information for each title and delivers ready-to-load MARC records directly to the library. The records are authority controlled, contain the library’s predefined customized fields, and the URL link to the title on the e-resource vendor Web site. Libraries also have the option to receive MARC records for previously ordered e-resource titles.

Unlike other MARC services, the library receives a record for every title within two days of submitting an order to their e-resource vendor. When there is not enough information in the vendor metadata to create a full record, a minimal record is created with all the standard MARC fields except topical subject headings. Libraries have the option to get full replacement records for minimal records.

Full records are $1.00; minimal records are free of charge. With full coverage of each order and quick turnaround time, it is no longer necessary for a library to load minimal “on order” records (records inserted in the catalog until actual records are available) from their e-resource vendor.

The RDA enhancement to eBiblioFile is in conjunction with the release of RDAExpress, a new eBiblioFile-powered data service that converts legacy records to RDA. RDAExpress works with any traditional or downloadable title, and can be used to convert an entire catalog or just portions of it. As new physical titles are acquired by a library, RDAExpress will be an as-needed resource for converting MARC records to RDA. The RDA records delivered by eBiblioFile beginning July 1st will continue to cost just $1 per full record.

To learn more about eBiblioFile and request 25 sample records, visit: http://www.ebibliofile.com/

Information about RDAExpress available at: http://rdaexpress.com/

TLC: http://www.tlcdelivers.com/

Kodak high-speed batch photo scanning software now available for MAC users

A new high-quality batch scanning software driver, developed by Kodak Alaris and offered as a free download from the company’s Web site, now makes the Kodak Picture Saver Scanning Systems PS50 and PS80 available to users in MAC environments.

“Many libraries have standardized on the MAC platform for their workstations, and have been very limited in their offerings to the community for batch photo scanning,” said Bruce Holroyd, Kodak Alaris’ Worldwide Product Manager, Photo Scanning Solutions:

Scanning to WINDOWS-based devices and moving files over to a MAC system is terribly inefficient. Now, they can scan directly to MAC computers and use the images in a variety of creative applications to create prints, slideshows, photobooks, or whatever they need.

The Kodak Picture Saver Scanning Systems PS50 and PS80: (http://www.kodakalaris.com/go/macdrivernews) offer a number of productivity features that deliver high-quality images with ease and speed. The scanners feature a specially designed transport for gentle handling of photos, an advanced image guide, and built-in image processing, which de-skews images and enhances color, brightness and contrast. The PS50 and PS80 Systems also include two-sided scanning and support a variety of output formats.

The drivers are available immediately at no charge by visiting: http://kodakalaris.com/go/psmacdriver Current users of these scanner models may also download the driver from the Kodak Alaris Web site.

More information on kodak alaris document imaging: http://graphics.kodak.com/DocImaging/USA/en/index.htm

University of Barcelona’s digital heritage library launched

In May 2014, the University of Barcelona’s Learning and Research Resources Centre (CRAI) made available its Digital Heritage Library. In this initial phase, The Digital Heritage Library contains six collections and is intended to grow with the digitization of the > 2,100 manuscripts, 1,000 incunabula and 150,000 other items from the University of Barcelona’s 16th to the 19th century documents and archives. Other collections will also be added in the future. This unique digital collection is powered by OCLC’s CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software.

For the first time, the University of Barcelona has a Web site dedicated to sharing this exceptional bibliographic heritage from one of the largest library collections of historical materials in Spain. The value of some of these items is priceless due to their age or because there are few examples in the world with the same originality or artistry.

Digital heritage library: http://bipadi.ub.edu/cdm/home

The University of Barcelona’s press release about this collection is available at: http://bipadi.ub.edu/cdm/about (in Spanish).