New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2013), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2013.23930baa.001

New & Noteworthy

Article Type: New & Noteworthy From: Library Hi Tech News, Volume 30, Issue 2

Library services in the Digital Age: new research reports from Pew Internet Project

Libraries are key technology hubs in their communities, and free access to technology at libraries now rivals books and reference help as a key library service:

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  80 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say borrowing books is a “very important” service libraries provide.

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  80 percent say reference librarians are a “very important” service of libraries.

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  77 percent say free access to computers and the internet is a “very important” service of libraries.

Moreover, a notable share of Americans say they would embrace even wider uses of technology at libraries such as:

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  Online research services allowing patrons to pose questions and get answers from librarians: 73 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say they would be likely to use such a service.

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  Access to technology “petting zoos” to try out new devices: 69 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say they would likely use that service.

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  “Amazon”-style customized book/audio/video recommendation options that are based on patrons’ prior library behavior: 64 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say they would be likely to use that service.

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  Apps-based access to library materials and programs: 63 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say they would likely use that service.

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  “Redbox”-style lending machines or kiosks located throughout the community where people can check out books, movies or music without having to go to the library itself: 63 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say they would likely use that service.

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  GPS-navigation apps to help patrons local material inside library buildings: 62 percent of Americans ages 16 and older say they would likely use that service.

These are some of the key findings from a new national survey of 2,252 Americans ages 16 and older by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, conducted via cell phones and landlines between October 15 and November 2012 and in English and Spanish. The survey has an overall margin of error of ±2.3 percentage points.

“In the past generation, public libraries have reinvented themselves to become technology hubs in order to help their communities access information in all its new forms”, noted Kathryn Zickuhr, Research Analyst at the Pew Internet Project, and co-author of a new report on the survey findings:

While many patrons appreciate being able to access new digital resources at libraries, they also say they value having print books and other traditional resources at libraries and still want a personal connection with library staff. Many libraries are torn between expanding their digital offerings on the latest platforms and still providing quality resources for patrons who may lack experience with technology or the means to own the latest devices.

When it comes to tech activities at libraries: 26 percent of Americans ages 16 and older have used computers and the internet at their library in the past 12 months, 25 percent visited a library web site, and 13 percent have access library material via mobile connections through a smartphone or tablet.

Library Services in the Digital Age – read or download the full report at: http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/01/22/library-services/

Another recent report from Pew examines in greater detail how Americans are accessing library services on mobile devices. Some 13 percent of Americans ages 16 and older have visited library web sites or otherwise accessed library services by mobile device. This is the first reading in a national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project on this subject. An earlier survey in 2009 by scholars at the University of Washington found that 6 percent of Americans ages 16 and older had used a mobile device to connect to a library site, so the incidence of this activity has doubled since then.

Those who are most likely to have connected to a library site include parents of minor children, women, and those with at least some college education.

In all, the Pew Internet Project survey finds that 39 percent of Americans ages 16 and older have gone to a library web site at one time or another and, of them, 64 percent visited a library site in the previous 12 months. That translates into 25 percent of all Americans ages 16+ who visited a library web site in the past year.

When they were on the library web sites, users sampled a wide variety of library services. Of those 25 percent of Americans who went to a library web site in the past 12 months:

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  82 percent of them searched the library catalog for books (including audiobooks and e-books), CDs, and DVDs.

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  72 percent got basic library information such as the hours of operation, location of branches, or directions.

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  62 percent reserved books (including audiobooks and e-books), CDs, and DVDs.

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  51 percent renewed a book, DVD, or CD. Those ages 30-49 and parents of minor children are especially likely to have done this.

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  51 percent used an online database. Those ages 18-29 are particularly likely to have done this.

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  48 percent looked for information about library programs or events. Those ages 50-64 are especially likely to do this.

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  44 percent got research or homework help.

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  30 percent read book reviews or got book recommendations.

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  30 percent checked whether they owed fines or paid the fines online. Those ages 30-49 are particularly likely to have done this.

Read or download the full report: http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/12/31/mobile-connections-to-libraries

Issuing, earning, displaying badges across the web: the Mozilla open badges project

Learning today happens everywhere, but it is often difficult to get recognition for skills and achievements gained outside of school. Mozilla’s Open Badges project is working to solve that problem, making it easy for any organization or learning community to issue, earn and display badges across the web. The result: recognizing twenty-first century skills, unlocking career and educational opportunities, and helping learners everywhere level up in their life and work.

The web and other new learning spaces provide exciting ways to gain skills and experience – from online courses, learning networks and mentorship to peer learning, volunteering and after-school programs. Badges provide a way for learners to get recognition for these skills, and display them to potential employers, schools, colleagues and their community.

Badges can represent a diverse range of skills, competencies, qualities, achievements and interests, including:

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  hard skills like completing a course, mastering a specific programming language or math concept;

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  soft skills like critical thinking, communication or collaboration;

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  community recognition like reputation and status;

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  new skills like digital literacies; and

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  specific, granular accomplishments or activities like leaving helpful comments for other learners, etc.

The badge itself is more than a static image or button – its value comes from the information or metadata attached to it. The information behind each badge provides justification and validation, including:

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  who issued the badge;

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  the issue date;

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  how the badge was earned;

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  hyperlinks back to artifacts, documents, or testimonials demonstrating the work that lead to earning the badge; and

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  authentication back to the issuer.

This supporting data reduces the risk of gaming the system (e.g. illegitimately copying badges and putting them on your site) and builds in an implicit validation system. The metadata may vary based on the particular skill, assessment and issuer.

Using Mozilla’s Open Badge Infrastructure, any organization or community can issue badges backed by their own seal of approval. Learners and badge earners can then collect badges from different sources and display them across the web – on their resume, web site, social networking profiles, job sites or just about anywhere.

By displaying skills and achievements that traditional degrees and transcripts often leave out, badges can lead to jobs, community recognition, and new learning opportunities.

Mozilla’s Open Badge Infrastructure provides the open, core technology to support an ecosystem of badges. It is designed to support a broad range of different badge issuers, and allow any user to earn badges across different issuers, web sites and experiences, then combine them into a single collection tied to their identity. This collection of badges can then be shared out to various audiences across the web, resulting in real-world results like jobs or formal credit.

Mozilla is building this infrastructure including the core repositories and management interfaces (each user’s Badge Backpack), as well as specifications required to push badges in (issuers) or pull them out (displayers).

Learn more about Mozilla Open Badges: http://openbadges.org

Kuali OLE project awarded $750,000 from Andrew W. Mellon foundation

The Kuali open library environment (OLE) has received a $750,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop an open, community-based library software system. OLE was launched in 2009 in part from a $2.3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, and is designed to help libraries manage and deliver an ever-increasing amount of digital resources and collections.

“In an environment of constant change, the OLE project is visionary in its efforts to produce not only an open, shared software solution to enhance the management systems of research libraries”, says Brenda L. Johnson, Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries, “but a community that provides the structure for collective action and influence that can impact educational institutions worldwide”.

The OLE (pronounced Oh-LAY) project was founded by a partnership of research libraries, led by Indiana University, which includes Duke University, University of Chicago, North Carolina State University, University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University and Villanova University. The partners have pooled resources and expertise along with generous investments from the Mellon Foundation to develop this next generation system. This latest award will help complete the system’s third year of development, delivering enhanced functionality and flexible support to its primary users. Upcoming releases will provide the functionality required for multi-site implementations, such as print and electronic item delivery, self-check automation, and high-density storage facilities. The University of Chicago and Lehigh University will be the first schools to implement this new platform later this year.

“The University of Chicago is proud to be an OLE early implementer because we are eager to enhance our own library business processes by using the flexible framework that OLE provides while helping our OLE partnership develop a sure path to OLE implementation for like-size research libraries”, says Judi Nadler, Director and University Librarian at the University of Chicago Library.

“Collaboration among universities is essential for this decade, and the libraries are leading with the Kuali OLE Project”, said Brad Wheeler, Indiana University’s Vice President for Information Technology and CIO and Chair of the Kuali Foundation Board. “We remain grateful to the Mellon Foundation for their first visionary investment in the Kuali Financial System in 2005 and yet again this investment for the libraries”.

In March 2012, the Mellon Foundation also made a grant of $499,000 to North Carolina State University that allows Kuali OLE to partner with JISC Collections (UK) to create an open web service that provides electronic resource information on a global scale.

For more information on Kuali OLE: http://kuali.org/ole

LibLiveCD version 1.3 released; includes DSpace, Koha & Drupal

A new version of the LibLiveCD has recently been released. LibLiveCD version 1.3 is now available on: soureceforge.net

The current version of LibLiveCD contains LUbuntu 12.04 LTS, DSpace-1.8.2, Koha-3.8.6 & Drupal-7.16. All three of these are pre-configured and pre-installed on a livecd. The total size of the LibLiveCD is 696 MB. Drupal Content Management Open Source Software is added in consideration of the requirements of libraries to create their library web sites.

Along with DSpace, Koha & Drupal, the CD also contains following server-related software, pre-installed and pre-configured: Apache2 Web Server, OpenSSH Server, VSFTP Server, MySQL Server, PostGreSQL Server, Dovecot/Exim4 Mail Server, SquirrelMail Web Mail Client and Minimum desktop environment.

To input multilingual data in DSpace/Koha, IBUS input method is also installed on the CD. Teamviewer 7 is pre-installed to share desktop, Abiword for editing/reading word documents, gnumeric for using spread sheets, vim/medit/gedit for text editing and epdfview for reading PDF files.

Openoffice/Libreoffice and multimedia-related software are excluded from the CD and these can easily be installed by running “System Tools-Synaptic Package Manager”. LUbuntu operating system (Lightweight Operating System) has been chosen considering requirements from libraries where libraries have low configuration desktops in their libraries but still wish to initiate their library web sites, complete library automation as well as wish to create digital libraries.

Download LibLiveCD v1.3: http://sourceforge.net/projects/liblivecd/files/

LibLiveCD home: http://liblivecd.sourceforge.net/

eXtensible catalog release of MARC aggregation service and other updated services

Randall Cook, project manager for the eXtensible Catalog (XC), has announced the newest releases to the Metadata Services Toolkit (MST). Release 1.5 of the MST suite includes updates to two services – MARC Normalization, and MARC to XC Schema Transformation – and the first release of a new service, MARCXML Aggregation Service.

The MARCXML Aggregation Service (MAS) is designed to match bibliographic records that describe the same item and aggregate them into a single representative record. In this release there are three possible scenarios in which one bibliographic record will be considered a match for another:

1. 1.

   Exact match on OCLC number – this is the only single field match we currently support.

2. 2.

   Exact match on two fields:

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  LCCN and ISBN.

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  LCCN and ISSN.

More details on this, like which MARC tags and subfields are included, can be found in https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx4r3w4XYLVdWG5MS0xZOHFUR 3c/edit. Since the MAS creates a single record to represent one or more source records, the document also includes information about what data goes into that representative single record.

The updates to the MARC Normalization and the MARC to XC Schema Transformation services in this release primarily are changes that were required to support the MAS. For example, previous versions of the MARC to XC Schema Transformation were not equipped to handle de-duplicated source records (and the complex relationships inherent in such an environment, e.g. re linking holdings records to a new bibliographic record).

Release notes can be found at: http://code.google.com/p/xcmetadataservicestoolkit/wiki/ReleaseNotes?ts=1359567691&updated=ReleaseNotes

Downloads can be found at: http://code.google.com/p/xcmetadataservicestoolkit/downloads/list

Transforming library metadata into linked library data

Want to learn more about linked data? Check out the essay “Transforming Library Metadata into Linked Library Data: Introduction and Review of Linked Data for the Library Community, 2003-2011”, by Virginia Schilling, an online publication from the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS) Research and Publications Committee. This research essay provides an overview and context for linked data, a topic of increasing importance to the cataloging and metadata arenas. Researchers can also benefit from the overview of existing resources.

This essay attempts to provide an overview of the current state of the discussion about linked data as well as provide a solid introduction for practitioners who wish to get involved in the conversation themselves. It draws from a range of sources published between 2003 and 2011 and is organized in five sections: An Overview of Library Metadata, An Overview of Linked Data, The Convergence of Linked Data and Library Metadata, Problems with Linked Data, and Looking to the Future of Linked Library Data.

Read at essay at: www.ala.org/alcts/resources/org/cat/research/linked-data

More research topics from this committee can be found at: www.ala.org/alcts/resources/org/cat/research

Innovative commits to early adoption of the digital public library of America initiative

Innovative Interfaces, Inc. has announced a development initiative to integrate access of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) large-scale digital public library collections into the Encore Synergy platform. Encore Synergy will harness the open DPLA discovery framework to provide users with a seamless, single-search experience of the digitized materials aggregated from the various universities, public libraries, and other organizations participating with the DPLA initiative.

“The Digital Public Library of America is delighted that Innovative Interfaces is making use of the DPLA’s open platform as it develops the next generation of its services”, said John Palfrey, president of the Board of Directors of the DPLA, Inc.:

The DPLA is designed as a public-private initiative, where we view open APIs, open code, open content, and open metadata as essential to the future of libraries, archives, and museums. We strongly encourage companies to follow the lead of Innovative Interfaces to make use of these open resources, in the public interest.

Scheduled for initial operation in April 2013, the DPLA is the culmination of a two-year grassroots community goal to create and maintain a free, open, and sustainable national digital library resource. Content and resources contributed by existing repositories, or funded by the DPLA, will be placed in the public domain and include books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts, digital text, and audiovisual materials.

“With Encore Synergy, libraries provide a single-search of electronic articles, ebooks, local books, and digital collections”, says Gene Shimshock, Innovative Senior Vice President of Product and Market Management:

With the vast, content-rich metadata now offered through the DPLA, Encore Synergy becomes even more powerful in its ability to deliver content and enhances the specialized search experience that libraries have designed.

Innovative Interfaces, Inc.: www.iii.com

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): http://dp.la

PlumX: new product from plum™ analytics collects research impact metrics

Given this era of frequent budget cuts and a constriction of funding sources, it is important for those performing, funding, or monitoring research to understand the impact of research on a timely and accurate basis. It is in this climate that Plum™ Analytics launches their new product, PlumX™. PlumX is designed to help funders, researchers, librarians, and others at institutions to answer questions about research. PlumX analyzes data about research artifacts to provide a complete and timely view of not only research and researchers, but also the groups they are affiliated with such as labs, departments and institutes.

People interact with research output in multiple ways. The online activities of other researchers and the public create data exhaust that PlumX harvests and aggregates to provide a comprehensive view of research impact. PlumX collects impact metrics in five major categories: usage, captures, mentions, social media, and citations. Within these five categories PlumX tracks over 20 different types of artifacts including journals, books, videos, presentations, datasets, and source code. All of this data is combined to give users easy to use tools to answer their questions about research, researchers, labs, departments and more.

PlumX provides a suite of tools to help answer questions about research such as:

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  How do I provide quantifiable research outcomes in pursuit of grant funding?

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  How do I tell how departments or labs measure up to their peers?

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  How do I discover “rising stars” in different research areas for recruiting or co-research purposes?

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  How do I monitor research marketing efforts?

“As someone who has spent my career manipulating large amounts of data to help individuals find hidden answers to important questions, I was excited to help move the research community beyond citation counts and journal impact factor to a place where research impact could be seen more quickly and with a wider perspective”, said Andrea Michalek, co-founder of Plum:

As we’ve worked over the last year, we’ve come to realize that “altmetrics” are quickly moving from alternative to mainstream. We developed PlumX to help librarians and others take advantage of that shift.

Try PlumX by visiting: http://try.plu.mx

Plum Analytics helps answer questions about the impact of research so funders, researchers, librarians and others have up-to-date and comprehensive information. Whether you are performing, funding or monitoring research, Plum provides accurate and timely information through their PlumX product.

For more information, visit: www.plumanalytics.com

Talis Aspire Digitised Content: new digitisation software service for universities

Talis has announced the launch of its new software service – Talis Aspire Digitised Content. Developed with the collaboration of university library partners, The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), and using trusted data supplied via the OCLC xISBN service, the new software service will help universities and colleges in the UK manage complex digitisation workflows, and help ensure they are compliant with copyright legislation.

With the launch of Talis Aspire Digitised Content lecturers will raise digitisation requests quickly and easily from their desktops, libraries will benefit from easy reporting and management tools that integrate with existing technology, and learners will get easy online access to digitised content to support their studies.

The application is delivered as SaaS and uses The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) new API, enabling universities in the UK to get real-time copyright permissions for the first time. The software offers universities a “full-service” copyright and digitised content management solution, bringing trust and transparency to the digitisation process, and a high level of assurance for students, universities and publishers.

“The explosion of digital content sharing creates a necessity for learning technology companies like Talis to support copyright compliance concerns. We share with The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) a commitment to improving trust and transparency and to working with universities as they turn increasingly to digital resources for learning. Lecturers, libraries, learners and publishers alike will benefit from knowing that their activities are supported not only by the latest technology but also by the highest standards”, says Talis CEO, Dave Errington:

By collaborating with CLA as well as with our university partners we were able to leverage our collective expertise to develop a unique, reliable service which ensures students can access the best resources to support their learning.

Mat Pfleger, UK Sales and Marketing Director at CLA remarked:

We are always looking for new ways to support universities and make it easier for them to comply with the terms of their CLA licence. This new software service from Talis is one of the first to utilise our new API and helps university staff ensure they have the copyright permissions they need. Working in collaboration with technology companies like Talis, is an important part of CLA’s role in developing our services to universities on behalf of rightsholders. The collaboration provides an excellent opportunity for us to test our new approach with a trusted technology provider.

Learn more about the new software: http://content.talisaspire.com

OverDrive announces streaming video and audio services for libraries

OverDrive has announced that it will enhance its industry-leading library service platform with streaming video and audio technology. The new services will improve ease of use and device compatibility for OverDrive-hosted video, audiobook and music collections at libraries and schools around the world.

Scheduled for launch later this year, OverDrive’s streaming services will extend the reach of libraries’ digital collections thanks to virtually unlimited device compatibility. Users will enjoy quick and easy access to their library’s catalog of OverDrive-hosted video, audiobook and music on any device with a web browser and an internet connection. The streaming technology will dramatically enhance discovery and access to libraries’ existing collections of WMV and WMA titles, pending publisher approval.

“Streaming video and audio technology is a key extension of our Next Generation platform”, said Karen Estrovich, OverDrive’s collection development manager:

With our browser-based eBook reading technology OverDrive Read, users simply “See Book – Read Book”. Now, streaming technology will similarly empower library users to “See Video – Watch Video” or “See Audiobook – Listen to Audiobook”.

OverDrive’s streaming services won’t require users to download apps or activate a device. This instant-access technology enables users to check out a video, audiobook or music title and immediately start watching or listening in any web browser. The streaming option will complement the download options already in use via the popular OverDrive Media Console apps for all major computers and devices.

Streaming services are part of OverDrive’s Next Generation platform, which includes completely reimagined library web sites featuring One-Step Checkout™, a powerful search engine, and the browser-based e-Book reading technology OverDrive Read. OverDrive offers the industry’s largest catalog, delivering more than 1 million e-Book, audiobook, music and video titles on a single platform with support for all major computers and devices, including iPhone^®, iPad^®, NOOK^®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindle^® (USA only).

More information: www.overdrive.com

Ingram adds new e-book lending model to MyiLibrary^® e-content platform

As more libraries develop digital programs as part of their core offering, Ingram Content Group Inc. has announced it has added a new content access model to its MyiLibrary^® e-content platform to provide academic, professional and public libraries greater flexibility in e-book lending.

“As use of our MyiLibrary solution grows, our ongoing development of the platform continues to be driven in a large part by industry growth and direct library and patron feedback”, said Dan Sheehan, Vice President and General Manager, Ingram Content Group library services:

Patron usage of e-books continues to climb, and the addition of our new multi-user concurrent Access Model gives libraries the flexibility to meet the content requirements of their patrons, and manage budgets effectively.

MyiLibrary’s newest model, its Access Model, enables libraries to purchase a set of access credits for an e-book and lend it simultaneously to multiple patrons for a set cost, and lending period. For libraries, the model can easily eliminate turnaways due to concurrent use, and provides libraries with a relevant tool to make the most out of high usage titles. The Access model is compatible MyiLibrary’s other popular acquisition models including Perpetuity, Patron Selection and Short-Term Loan.

Ingram’s MyiLibrary platform, the fastest-growing and most comprehensive online e-content solution for libraries, provides a single source for content hosting, archiving, discovery, access and purchasing. More than 3,000 academic, professional, and public libraries around the world have integrated the platform into daily lending activities, and have access to more than 400,000 titles that cover all major disciplines. Using the platform, library patrons can read content online, or download to a PC, laptop or digital device.

More information: www.ingramcontent.com/pages/myilibrary.aspx

ProQuest signs agreement to acquire e-book library (EBL)

ProQuest, an information company central to global research, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire e-book library (EBL), which will significantly expand its e-book delivery and aggregation capabilities with libraries worldwide. The acquisition will further ProQuest’s goal of enhancing the research experience, enabling users to seamlessly discover content across multiple formats including books, journals, dissertations, newspapers, and video. ProQuest acquired e-book pioneer ebrary in January 2011 and plans to combine the strongest features of ebrary and EBL into a single, comprehensive e-book platform once finalized.

“EBL’s first-rate user experience, innovative business models, and acquisition tools are very complementary to ebrary”, said Kurt Sanford, ProQuest CEO:

These features will be combined with ebrary’s unmatched content selection, award-winning subscription service, and cutting edge, patent-protected core platform technology. The result will be an unparalleled e-book research platform that is connected to all of ProQuest’s products and services.

Founded in 2004 by Ebooks Corporation, EBL pioneered a wide range of new services in the library market, including the patented Non-Linear™ Lending (NLL) model, demand-driven acquisitions, short-term loans, and chapter-level purchases for reserve circulation and coursepacks. EBL offers more than 300,000 e-books from more than 500 publishers to libraries around the world and counts some of the world’s most prestigious academic and research institutions among its customers.

Kari Paulson, EBL’s President, will join ProQuest to manage the combined e-book business unit and lead the effort to merge EBL and ebrary into one optimized platform. “From the beginning, EBL’s vision has been to advance research and knowledge through technology”, said Ms. Paulson. “I look forward to joining ProQuest and to have the opportunity to be part of an organization with the very same goal”.

More about e-book Library: www.eblib.com

ProQuest: www.proquest.com

Duke university press e-books will move to HighWire

Duke University Press and HighWire Press are pleased to announce a major expansion of their partnership to include the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection. Beginning with the 2014 collection, e-Duke Books, an annual collection of at least 100 new electronic books published by Duke University Press as well as more than 1,500 backlist titles, will move to HighWire’s Open Platform and the newly developed Folio e-book solution.

With the launch of the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection on HighWire, Duke University Press’s readers and library subscribers will benefit from HighWire’s long record of innovation and reliability. The integrated platform will connect users with content more effectively by incorporating searching across all of Duke’s publications – not only e-books but their highly ranked journals as well.

A division of the Stanford University Libraries, HighWire partners with influential societies, university presses, and other independent publishers, sharing ideas and innovations in publishing, and producing definitive online versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, books, reference works, and other scholarly content. “HighWire has been a fabulous partner for us, ever since we moved our electronic journals in the humanities and social sciences, including the e-Duke Journals Scholarly Collections, to their platform in 2005”, said Steve Cohn, Director of Duke University Press:

Above all, we are very much looking forward to having our books and our journals on a single platform, where we can provide a seamless research experience to users and offer a variety of collections to libraries that include both book and journal content together. We think that’s the way the world of scholarly publishing needs to be moving, and we think HighWire will be the ideal collaborator for helping us move in that direction with integrity and creativity.

Key features of the e-Duke Books collection on Folio will include a device-friendly reading experience, viewable in PDF and mobile-optimized e-reader formats; toll-free inter-content linked access to cited content also hosted by HighWire, including journal articles from Duke, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publications; and increased content granularity for better discovery, sharing, and navigating.

“The HighWire Open Platform provides Duke University Press with flexible options to deliver reader experiences that are appropriate for their content”, said Tom Rump, Managing Director at HighWire:

Our e-book solutions enhance the versatility of the platform, offering Duke and others the opportunity to integrate their multiple content types – books, journals, figures, data, etc. – in one highly discoverable service.

All e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection content will be available on the new platform in December 2013. The current 2013 collection will be unaffected by this change and will continue to be hosted by ebrary through the end of this year. Throughout 2013, e-Duke Books customers will receive frequent communications to ensure a smooth and timely transition.

Additional library transition resources and FAQs: www.dukeupress.edu/e-duke-books-platform-transition-resources

HighWire Press: www.highwire.stanford.edu

NISO and NFAIS recommended practices for Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the National Federation for Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) have published a new Recommended Practice on Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials (NISO RP-15-2013). Supplemental materials are increasingly being added to journal articles, but until now there has been no recognized set of practices to guide in the selection, delivery, discovery, and preservation of these materials. To address this gap, NISO and NFAIS jointly sponsored an initiative to establish best practices that would provide guidance to publishers and authors for management of supplemental materials and would address related problems for librarians, abstracting and indexing services, and repository administrators. The Supplemental Materials project involved two teams working in tandem: one to address business practices and one to focus on technical issues. This new publication is the combined outcome of the two groups’ work.

“A key aspect of these recommendations is the distinction between what we define as Integral Content, which is content that is essential for the full understanding of the journal article, and what we have designated Additional Content, which provides relevant and useful expansion of the article’s content”, explains Marie McVeigh, Director, JCR and Bibliographic Policy, Thomson Reuters, and co-chair of the Business Working Group. “As this Recommended Practice makes clear”, states Linda Beebe, co-chair of the Business Working Group who recently retired as Senior Director, PsycINFO, American Psychological Association, “Integral Content and Additional Content are likely to be treated differently throughout the entire lifecycle of a scientific article”.

“Ensuring effective access, use, and long-term preservation of supplemental materials to journal articles requires up-front planning about persistent identifiers, metadata, file formats, and packaging”, explained David Martinsen, Senior Scientist, Digital Publishing Strategy, American Chemical Society, and co-chair of the Technical Working Group. “These technical recommendations for handling of supplemental materials simplify much of that planning and decision-making, and will also ensure a standardized approach across publishers and publishing platforms”, affirmed Alexander (“Sasha”) Schwarzman, Content Technology Architect with OSA – The Optical Society, and co-chair of the Technical Working Group.

“Supplemental materials are appearing with increasing frequency and can no longer be effectively managed on a case-by-case basis”, Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director, stated:

This new Recommended Practice will provide a consistent approach for publishers to use in handling these materials. Ensuring discovery, access, and preservation of these materials is in the interests not only of the authors and publishers, but also of the library community and end-users.

“Electronic media and the Web have changed the nature of journal articles and what can be delivered along with the article”, asserts Bonnie Lawlor, NFAIS Executive Director:

What hasn’t changed is that the journal article constitutes the scholarly record and today’s practices for handling them and their supporting materials must ensure that the information is available to future researchers. What is published outside the article as Supplemental Materials today may well be incorporated into a new type of article tomorrow.

The Recommended Practice on Online Supplemental Journal Article Materials, a metadata schema, a tag library, and tagged examples are available from the NISO web site at: www.niso.org/workrooms/supplemental