Featured Link

Featured Link: World Book Trade (e-books, awards, videos)

Monday, December 31, 2007

Roy Tennant: My Digital Library New Year's Resolutions

Roy Tennant writes: "It's the time of year when people make promises to themselves to make the new year better than the last. Sure, many of those promises will not be kept in the end, but you have to hand it to anyone who makes the effort. So in case I can make this year better than the last for libraries and their ongoing effort to be more effective in a digital world, here's my list"

GovernmentDocs.org

"GovernmentDocs.org was created to advance the values of open and accountable government. This site gives the public an unprecedented level of access to government documents by allowing users to browse, search, and review hundreds of thousands of pages acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other public disclosure, or 'sunshine,' laws. With the GovernmentDocs.org system, citizen reviewers can engage in the government accountability process like never before. Registered users can review and comment on documents, adding their insights and expertise to the work of the national nonprofit organizations which are partnering on this project"

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Librarian of Congress announces National Film Registry selections for 2007

"Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has named 25 motion pictures - classics from every era of American filmmaking - to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, including "Bullitt," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Grand Hotel," "Oklahoma!" and "12 Angry Men." The selections were made as part of a program aimed at preserving the nation's movie heritage. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act of 1992, each year the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Film Preservation Board, names 25 films to the National Film Registry to be preserved for all time. The films are chosen because they are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. This year's selections bring to 475 the number of motion pictures in the registry"

CLIR Issues - Number 60

CLIR Issues - Number 60 November/December 2007 - is now available from the Council on Library and Information Resources

Publishing in the New Millennium presentations

Presentations from Publishing in the New Millennium - November 9, 2007 - Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, are now available

Oxford English Dictionary - December 2007 update

"OED Online is updated four times a year - March, June, September, and December. The material added to the Dictionary include both revised versions of existing entries (which replace the older versions), and also new words and senses both within the alphabetical sequence of revised entries and also across the whole A to Z range" December 2007 update now available

Saturday, December 29, 2007

British Books Today

British Books Today is a website containing the latest British book news; links to new releases; awards; reviews; and anything related to British publishing. It is compiled by yours truly

SCRIPT-ed now publishes under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license

SCRIPT-ed, an open access journal covering a broad range of topics relating to law and technologies has begun to publish its content under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. The journal, based out of the University of Edinburgh School of Law, examines issues including intellectual property, digital copyright, free expression, free software, privacy and public health

Friday, December 28, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: True or False?. Answers here.

1. George Bernard Shaw was born in Belfast - true or false?
2. Walt Disney initially provided the voice for Mickey Mouse himself - true or false?
3. Absinthe is a green liqueur - true or false?
4. Before she married David Beckham, Victoria Beckham's real name was Victoria Brown - true or false?
5. In Roman numerals, the letter "D" stands for 500 - true or false?
6. The chief opera house in Italy is La Scala in Rome - true or false?
7. Thailand used to be known as Myanmar - true or false?
8. Real caviare is obtained from the sturgeon - true or false?
9. In Greek mythology, a centaur was half-human, half-goat - true or false?
10. A grilse is a young salmon returning from the sea to fresh water for the first time - true or false?

Best Books of 2007 from Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk has announced its Best Books of 2007 list

Call for papers: FOIS 2008

Call for papers: The 5th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems - October 31 to November 3, 2008 - Saarbrücken, Germany

SparkIP

"SparkIP.com is a data-rich exchange designed for scientists/inventors, universities, government labs, corporations, patent attorneys, and anyone doing research on patented or emerging technologies. As you search on technologies, inventors, organizations or other terms, you will be introduced to our SparkCluster maps which are designed to give structure and context to the vast amounts of information available. SparkClusters are self-organizing and self-naming, ensuring that the maps reflect the latest trends in innovation. Today, there are over 49,000 SparkClusters on SparkIP.com; and each month, new ones will form as the innovation landscape evolves"

Papercutz reviving Classics Illustrated

"Graphic novel publisher Papercutz is reintroducing the noted Classics Illustrated comics, which ceased publication a decade ago. Papercutz said that beginning in January 2008, it is 'reviving the series in two formats.' A plain vanilla edition presents abridged versions of classic novels, and a Deluxe version featuring longer, more expansive adaptations. The line launches with Kenneth Grahame's children's classic The Wind in the Willows, adapted by Michel Plessix. Later volumes include Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, adapted by Rick Geary, followed by Grimm's Fairy Tales and H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man" - Library Journal

Current Cites - December 2007

Current Cites (edited by Roy Tennant) - December 2007 is now available

Duke University Library RSS Feeds

Duke University Library - North Carolina, USA. RSS feeds page

Thursday, December 27, 2007

OCLC Annual Report 2006/2007

The OCLC Annual Report 2006/2007 is now available online. 60-page PDF file

New England Journal of Medicine access change

From December 19, 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine now provides free access to original research articles (Original Articles and Special Articles), six-months after publication, with no registration required

Evaluation survey of IFLA website

The survey requests use feedback on their overall satisfaction with the IFLA Website as well as the relative degree to which they are satisfied with the ability to navigate the site; the accessibility of information; and the organization of the Website information, and more

Archivopedia

"Archivopedia is pleased to announce the launch of beta version 1.0 of its website. Designed with cutting-edge Web 2.0 technology, users can read news, update skills, and participate in a next generation knowledge base for archivists. The vision of Archivopedia is to offer users the ability to locate or view historical documents and images held in archival, museum, and library repositories around the world in a single search and to encourage professionals, teachers, and students at all levels to use archival documents"

Computers in Libraries 2008 advance program

The 23rd Annual Computers in Libraries conference and exhibition will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA, April 7-9, 2008. Advance program now available

Library Support Staff Certification Program

The Library Support Staff Certification Program (LSSCP), a project to develop a national voluntary certification program for support staff in public and academic libraries, has a new website. The site houses informational documents, minutes from discussions by its Advisory Council and contact information for library associations and groups wanting to host conference or meeting presentations about the project

Monday, December 24, 2007

MLA London Knowledge Transfer Programme

"We are trying to understand and explain the importance of museums, libraries and archives to business in London, and especially to business innovation. We are going to use this understanding to share the best of what is being done now, develop new ways of working and remove obstacles to cooperation"

Reuters Video Resource Center at Newscom.com

The Reuters Video Resource Center at Newscom is a new searchable database of video content from Reuters. Coverage will include breaking news, human interest, sports, and entertainment from around the globe, plus regional stories from Europe, Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. Up to 60 new stories each day will be available at Newscom, each supported with a complete script and shot-list

The Wise Guide - December 2007

The Wise Guide - monthly portal to the many resources available from the U.S. Library of Congress - December 2007 now available

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Fedora 3.0 Beta 1 released

"The 12th release of the popular Fedora software is now available for testing. The first beta version of Fedora 3.0 featuring a Content Model Architecture (CMA), an integrated structure for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital objects in Fedora, is available. The Fedora CMA plays a central role in the Fedora architecture, in many ways forming the over-arching conceptual framework for future development of Fedora Repositories"

Worldcat in Facebook

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog points to the new Worldcat application for Facebook

Canadian Library Association RSS Feeds

Canadian Library Association RSS feeds page

EPA will reopen closed libraries

From Library Journal: Reversing a policy bitterly opposed by library advocates, many Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, and the watchdog Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Congress in its omnibus appropriations bill sent to President George W. Bush has earmarked $3 million to restore service at the EPA's technical and research libraries. 'This is I think a great victory,' said Lynne Bradley, director of the Office of Government Relations in the American Library Associations Washington Office, who noted how librarians lobbied Congress and then-ALA President Leslie Burger on February 6, 2007 testified before Congress. 'These are marathons, not sprints. The library community kept the issue alive'

Saturday, December 22, 2007

informaworld RSS feeds

informaworld - All journals from Taylor & Francis, Routledge and Psychology Press. Over 180 Informa Healthcare journals. Selected encyclopedias (the former Dekker encyclopedia collection) from Taylor & Francis and Informa Healthcare. All Taylor & Francis abstract databases. More than 10,000 eBooks from Taylor & Francis, Routledge and Informa Healthcare. RSS feeds page

SUNCAT Newsletter - December 2007

SUNCAT Newsletter - Issue 5: December 2007 is now available online. SUNCAT = The Serials Union Catalogue for the UK

Journal of Information Literacy - Vol 1, No 3 (2007)

Journal of Information Literacy - Volume 1, Issue 3 (2007) is now available. It is an international, peer-reviewed, academic journal that aims to investigate Information Literacy within a wide range of settings

Primary Source - December 2007

Primary Source - December 2007 issue now available from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Free issue of the BMJ (British Medical Journal)

The 22 December 2007 of the BMJ (Vol 335, No 7633) is available free for all

ARL publishes Library Assessment, SPEC Kit 303

The Association of Research Libraries has published Library Assessment, SPEC Kit 303, which provides an overview of ARL libraries' current assessment activities and their development

2008 CALA Scholarship applications now available

The Chinese American Librarians Association has announced the availability of the 2008 CALA Scholarships. Winners will be announced by May 31 and presented with their awards by the Chinese American Librarians Association at the CALA Awards Banquet during the ALA annual conference in Anaheim, California, June 26 to July 2. The application deadline is March 15, 2008

Friday, December 21, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Oxford. Answers here.

1. Is "Oxford blue" a dark blue or light blue colour?
2. Which pair of film comedians starred in the 1940 film "A Chump at Oxford"?
3. What are "Oxford bags"? Are they trousers with very wide baggy legs, kinds of shopping bags, or a slang name for students?
4. "Oxford" is a rhyming slang word, short for "Oxford scholar". Does it mean a collar, a dollar, or squalor?
5. Who wrote the book "Lyra's Oxford" which was published in 2003?
6. What is the usual name given to the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, which was founded in 1942?
7. The Oxford Symphony got its popular name from being performed at Oxford in 1791 when the university awarded its composer an honorary degree. Was it written by Beethoven, Schubert or Haydn?
8. The name "Isis" is a local name around Oxford for what?
9. Who wrote the treatise "The Origin of Species" which led to an historic debate at Oxford in 1860 on whether man was descended from "apes or angels"?
10. Which product of Oxford is often abbreviated to "OED"?

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography Version 70

Version 70 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship. This selective bibliography presents over 3,195 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Compiled by Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

Web 2.0 for Librarians and Information Professionals

Web 2.0 for Librarians and Information Professionals by Ellyssa Kroski is being published by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. in 2008

FreePint Newsletter 243

FreePint Newsletter 243 - 20 December, 2007 now available

ASIST Bulletin - December/January 2008

ASIST Bulletin for December/January 2008 is now available. Theme: Virtual Reference

JISC roadmap of funding opportunities for 2008 (January–Summer 2008)

JISC has published a funding roadmap to cover the next six months, up to summer 2008, covering a wide range of areas of activity, including e-learning, organisational support, digitisation, integrated information environment and e-infrastructure

Intute RSS feeds

Intute - a free online service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research. RSS feeds page

Wiley-Blackwell and The Cochrane Collaboration

Wiley-Blackwell and The Cochrane Collaboration have announced that they had made The Cochrane Library available with free one-click access to all residents of countries in the World Bank's list of low-income economies (countries with a gross national income per capita of less that $1000)

Thursday, December 20, 2007

University College Dublin Library implements institutional repository with the help of Enovation Solutions

"University College Dublin Library and Enovation Solutions have completed the development of an open access institutional repository to collect, preserve and disseminate the full-text research outputs of researchers at University College Dublin. The repository, which was built on the DSpace technology platform, was chosen by UCD Library because of its open source flexibility, successful use by other Irish universities, and the availability of local support from Enovation Solutions"

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - December 20, 2007

New Internet for Geography tutorial

Intute has launched a new edition of the Internet for Geography online tutorial in the Virtual Training Suite. The tutorial is free to use, and aims to help students develop Internet research skills to help with university courses in Geography. The tutorial has been completely updated and revised by John Blunden-Ellis, Subject Liaison Librarian at the John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester, and is based on an original version by Pete Maggs, Liaison Librarian at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Wiley-Blackwell announces launch of Sports Technology

Wiley-Blackwell will be launching a new journal, Sports Technology. The inaugural issue will be published in February 2008. "Strongly supported by an editorial board made up of prominent international experts, Sports Technology is a new publication aimed at bridging the divide between academic researchers, industry, and sporting leaders"

Gates Foundation awards ALA $950,000

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the American Library Association $950,000 to improve the public's access to essential internet resources in America's public libraries

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

2008 Romantic Novel of the Year Award longlist announced

The longlist for the 2008 Romantic Novel of the Year Award has been announced

SPARC e-news - October-November 2007

SPARC e-news - October-November 2007: a bimonthly newsletter features the latest SPARC activities, an industry roundup, upcoming workshops and events, as well as articles related to developments in scholarly communication

Birmingham, UK pupils given free laptops

About 2,000 school pupils in Birmingham, UK, will each be given a new laptop computer to help them with their studies at home. The pupils are part of a universal home access programme led by Birmingham City Council, in partnership with the Birmingham e-Learning Foundation, a charity dedicated to help young people gain access to computers and the internet at home. The council was given a two year government Computers for Pupils grant of £5.7m in May 2006 to assist in bridging the digital divide. Funding was targeted at the 10% most deprived secondary school pupils. The Birmingham e-Learning Foundation is also working to match the government funding by applying for grants to the National e-Learning Foundation. It also administers a voluntary contribution scheme from parents in the city

Museums and Libraries Engaging America’s Youth

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has announced the release of Museums and Libraries Engaging America's Youth: Final Report of a Study of IMLS Youth Programs, 1998-2003. The study, which is part of IMLS' initiative, Museums and Libraries Engaging America's Youth, examined Institute-funded programs for youth aged 9-19 and surveyed nearly 400 museum and library programs about their goals, strategies, impact, and outcomes

MARC Code List for Languages 2007

The 2007 of the MARC Code List for Languages is now available from The Library of Congress

ARL: A Bimonthly Report - December 2007

ARL: A Bimonthly Report, no. 255 (December 2007) is now available

ALA to provide live Webcast of top children/teen literary awards

The American Library Association will provide a free live Webcast of its national announcement of the top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults - including the Caldecott, King, Newbery and Printz awards - on January 14 at 7:45 a.m. EST. The award announcements are made as part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, which will bring together more than 10,000 librarians, publishers, authors and guests in Philadelphia from January 11 to 16

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Word Market Festival 2008

The Word Market Festival 2008 takes place in Cumbria, UK, 1-9 February 2008

The Code4Lib Journal inaugural issue

The inaugural issue of The Code4Lib Journal, which covers the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future is now available

First winners of Their Past Your Future 2 funding announced

"Learning from conflict is at the heart of the 28 projects receiving funding in the first year of Their Past Your Future 2. The projects aim to promote a better understanding of the impact of wars and struggles by bringing the past to life - enabling young people to learn from those in their community with first-hand experience. Among those successful in this round of grants are an oral history archive project that will work with schools and members of the local Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities to look at experiences of Partition and the effect on the lives and experiences of local people. Other projects are enabling young people to work with local residents who experienced World War II, talking about the effect that war had on them and how current disputes affect communities"

ScienceDirect Connect - November/December 2007

ScienceDirect Connect - November/December 2007 is now available

RSS feeds for Inderscience journals

Ian Winship writes: Inderscience has introduced the facility to receive tables of contents of individual journals in a browser or a newsreader like Bloglines or Google Reader using RSS technology. Contents are available for the latest issue of all published titles - currently 189 journals, with many others in various stages of preparation. Previously a feed was available only for all new articles, but now users can choose just the journals of interest. This RSS delivery is an alternative to the tables of contents by email alerting service. Links are available to the full text of articles for subscribers - other users can pay for individual articles. From a journal homepage users should click on the orange RSS icon or the Latest TOC link - or copy the underlying URL - and follow appropriate procedures to add to their list of RSS feeds

IFLA Journal - December 2007

IFLA Journal - Volume 33, Number 4, December 2007, is now available

Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age

"This beautifully illustrated new book by renowned manuscripts expert Michelle Brown provides an authoritative introduction to Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age, aided by over 140 colour images from the finest antiquarian manuscripts. It was published by the British Library on 12 December 2007"

ARL publishes Managing Public Computing, SPEC Kit 302

The Association of Research Libraries has published Managing Public Computing, SPEC Kit 302, which reports on how ARL member libraries are supporting the public computing needs of their patrons

Monday, December 17, 2007

Survey: collaborative technologies in libraries

Beit Berl Academic College is conducting a survey on the application of Web 2.0 technologies in libraries (library 2.0)

Dymocks to sell iLiad ebook reader

"Having just announced a major foray into electronic books earlier this month, Dymocks Booksellers will now be the first in Australia to sell the iLiad eBook reader, with plans to have it on sale both in George Street, Sydney store and online from Wednesday 12th December, 2007."

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Knowledge Ontario

Knowledge Ontario is a collaboration of libraries, cultural heritage organizations and educational institutions. Its focus is on connecting Ontarians with digital content to support their information and learning needs. Over 45 licensed databases will provide access to materials far beyond the boundaries of the Internet. These resources, costing millions of dollars, includes hundreds of thousands of books, journals and magazine articles that have been organized and uploaded and are accessible from any college, university, public school or library in Ontario

What to preserve?

What to preserve?: Significant Properties of Digital Objects - Organised by JISC, the British Library and the Digital Preservation Coalition - 7 April 2008 - British Library Conference Centre, London, UK

The Publishers Association APD Conference 2008

The Publishers Association APD Conference 2008: "What does Higher Education want from Publishers?" - This full-day conference on the impact publishers make on today's learning experience will be held on 12 February 2008 at the Institute of Physics, London, UK. It will explore how publishers support today's multifaceted approaches to teaching and learning, and revisit the theme of the future of the textbook. Keynote speaker Professor Mike Pitillo, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, will chair a day of debate on how high-quality learning resources can meet the needs of modern students

Learned Publishing - January 2008

Learned Publishing - Volume 21, Number 1, January 2008 now available

Focus on Mimas - December 2007

The December 2007 edition of Focus on Mimas is now available. Mimas is a national data centre, supported by JISC and ESRC, and based at The University of Manchester, England

The Read/Write Web: Social Software and Libraries

The Read/Write Web: Social Software and Libraries: "The web continues to evolve, and whether you call it the read/write web, web 2.0, or web-as-platform - it is increasingly interactive, collaborative, and driven by user needs. However, the buzz words are not as important as the profound changes in communication that they are attempting to describe. In this four week online course, we will explore social software and the implications of the read/write web for libraries. This will be done through a combination of readings, discussion, and hands-on exercises" - January 1-31, 2008 - Online course

Music Library Association Newsletter - November-December 2007

Music Library Association Newsletter - No. 151 (November-December 2007) is now available

Wonderful Women of Whitechapel and Spitalfields guided walk

Wonderful Women of Whitechapel and Spitalfields guided walk: "Blow away the New Year cobwebs on this guided walk around the East End with Blue Badge Guide Rachel Kolsky. This is a revival of one of The Women’s Library's most popular walks, visiting sites associated with women who have defined Whitechapel and Spitalfields. Rachel Kolsky will tell the stories of such significant figures as Eva Luckes and Edith Cavell at the London Hospital; radical campaigner Annie Besant; and philanthropists Mary Hughes and Miriam Moses. The walk also explores locations related to influential characters in the contemporary cultural scene such as artist Tracey Emin and author Monica Ali" - 1 January 2008

Integrating Library Services into a Learning Management System

Integrating Library Services into a Learning Management System: A Conference On Computing In the Disciplines - 18 April 2008 - New York, USA

E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship - Winter 2007

E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship - v.8 no.3 (Winter 2007) now available

The Sheet Music Consortium

The Sheet Music Consortium is a group of libraries working toward the goal of building an open collection of digitized sheet music using the Open Archives Initiative:Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI:PMH). Harvested metadata about sheet music in participating collections is hosted by UCLA Digital Library Program, which provides an access service via this metadata to sheet music records at the host libraries

LITA Blog seeks volunteers

LITA Blog is looking for volunteer bloggers for ALA Midwinter 2008 in Philadelphia

Census of Ireland, Dublin 1911

Census of Ireland, Dublin 1911 is now available from The National Archives of Ireland

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Zotero and the Internet Archive join forces

Dan Cohen writes: "I'm pleased to announce a major alliance between the Zotero project at the Center for History and New Media and the Internet Archive. It's really a match made in heaven - a project to provide free and open source software and services for scholars joining together with the leading open library. The vision and support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has made this possible, as they have made possible the major expansion of the Zotero project over the last year"

ABC-CLIO eZine - December, 2007

The ABC-CLIO eZine for December 2007 is now available

Canadian universities' resource sharing agreement extends from coast to coast

"Effective January 2, 2008, Canadian university faculty, students and staff will now be supported by one Resource Sharing Agreement amongst institutions. The new agreement will extend standardized reciprocal interlibrary loan / document delivery privileges across Canada"

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice - latest issue

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice - Vol 2, No 4 (2007) is now available

Conversants

"Conversants is a limited-run, open-access journal about participatory networks. Part of a joint project between the Information Institute of Syracuse and ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy, the journal is a forum for the exchange of ideas relating to conversation-based theories as well as their applications in knowledge environments"

VuFind 0.7 released

"VuFind is a library resource portal designed and developed for libraries by libraries. The goal of VuFind is to enable your users to search and browse through all of your library's resources by replacing the traditional OPAC..." VuFind 0.7 released 12 December 2007

Friday, December 14, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Greece. Answers here.

1. What is the capital city of Greece?
2. Is the currency of Greece the drachma or the euro?
3. What is the name of the famous temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens?
4. What is the largest island which is part of Greece?
5. What are the Elgin marbles?
6. Retsina is a Greek product. Is it a wine, a food or a cloth?
7. In 1823, which famous British poet became involved in Greece's war of independence from Turkey, and died the following year in Missolonghi?
8. The Greek mathematician Pythagoras devised a famous theorem about right-angled triangles. What was Pythagoras' theorem?
9. How was Greece's democratic government ended in 1967?
10. Which ancient Greek author wrote the play "Lysistrata" in which the women of Athens and Sparta, which are at war, refuse sexual contact with their husbands until the two cities make peace?

Copyright Labs

Copyright Clearance Center, a provider of copyright licensing solutions, has announced the launch of Copyright Labs, a testing ground for new services, applications, and products

Salford's Working Class Movement Library awarded GBP313,000 grant

Salford's Working Class Movement Library has been awarded a GBP313,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant. The money will be used to tell the story of the working man's fight for social justice. Over three years it will be spent on its The Past Meets the Present: a History of Working Lives project. The scheme aims to make the library's priceless collection of 30,000 books, pamphlets, periodicals and 2,000 items of memorabilia more accessible to the whole community. Its archives and books tell the story of working people's fight for social justice and political rights over the past 200 years - Manchester Evening News, UK

Amazon.com buys rare Rowling book

Amazon.com has bought J K Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, one of only seven handwritten books of fairy tales from the Harry Potter author. The online retailer bought the only copy for sale at an auction held by Sotheby's in London on 13th December for GBP1,950,000, and the proceeds will go to Rowling's charity The Children's Voice Campaign

The World Almanac E-Newsletter - December 2007

The World Almanac E-Newsletter - Volume 07, Number 12 - December 2007 is now available

OCLC to conduct new cataloging and metadata pilot

OCLC is conducting a pilot project to explore the viability and efficiency of capturing metadata from publishers and vendors upstream and enhancing that metadata in WorldCat, an approach that could provide added value to libraries and publishers by enhancing and delivering data that can work in multiple contexts and systems

Exact Editions now makes ISBNs clickable

"The Exact Editions system now makes ISBNs clickable and the first examples (for subscribers only, as the issue is behind the subs pay-wall) are in the current issue of Opera magazine"

Columbia University joins the Google Book Search Library Project

"Columbia University has become the 28th library to join with Google Book Search to digitize works from its collections, and make them searchable and discoverable online. These public-domain works will be available to view and download for anyone with an internet connection" - Source: Inside Google Book Search

Two volumes of State Papers, Colonial now live

The first two volumes of this calendar series are now live. These are: America and West Indies (1574-1660) and East Indies, China and Japan (1513-1616). Plans are to launch 44 further volumes over the coming months

Thursday, December 13, 2007

2008 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

"The programme for the 2008 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival has been launched in a glittering event at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate. Author and programming chair, Simon Kernick welcomed everyone to the event, along with Simon Theakston, title sponsor. Among the highlights announced is a special appearance by reclusive bestseller Andy McNab. Other special guests include local boy, Peter Robinson, as well as Robert Crais, Jeffery Deaver and Tess Gerritsen who will appear alongside panels discussing themes in crime fiction and a brand new late night panel for 2008, The Balloon Game, hosted by Radio 4's Mark Lawson"

Biblio Tech Review - December 2007

The December 2007 issue of Biblio Tech Review is now available

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - December 13, 2007

2008 Sami Rohr Prize finalists

"The Jewish Book Council, administrator of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, has announced the selection of five finalists for the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize. This year, the prize of $100,000 will be awarded to a writer of non-fiction. This is the largest prize of its kind in the Jewish literary world, and one of the largest literary prizes worldwide. In 2006, in celebration of Sami Rohr's 80th birthday, his children and grandchildren inaugurated the Sami Rohr Prize to honor his lifelong love of Jewish literature"

2007 Nestle Children's Book Prize winner

Novelist Matt Haig was awarded a gold medal at this year's Nestle Children's Book Prize for his fantasy tale Shadow Forest, published by Bodley Head

Directory of Open Access Journals reaches 3000

Directory of Open Access Journals covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals, in all subjects and languages. There are now 3000 journals in the directory. Currently 974 journals are searchable at article level. 164675 articles are included in the DOAJ service

JISC Conference 2008 registration open

Registration is now open for the JISC Conference 2008 - April 15, 2008 - Birmingham, UK

Turning the Pages 2.0 wins a top award for excellence and innovation

The British Library's Turning the Pages 2.0 has won the 'Best Web-based Technology Project' award at the British Computer Society's annual IT industry awards on 6 December

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Credo Reference partnering with Wisconsin Library Services

"Credo Reference (formerly Xrefer), has announced that they are partnering with the Wisconsin Library Services (WiLS) to provide its General Reference service to member libraries at a discount. The new promotion for the participating WiLS institutions includes two months of free service and a discount on their subscription"

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2008 judges announced

Now in its thirteenth year, the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is the UK's most prestigious annual book award for fiction written by a woman, celebrating excellence, innovation and accessibility and the best of outstanding international fiction in women's writing. The judges the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2008 have been confirmed as:
Kirsty Lang (Chair), Journalist & Broadcaster
Lisa Allardice, Editor of Guardian Review
Lily Allen, Musician
Philippa Gregory, Novelist
Bel Mooney, Novelist, Journalist & Children's Author

ILoveLibraries.org

"ILoveLibraries.org is a Web site designed for the people who use and love libraries. We want to keep you informed about everything libraries have to offer, as well as develop new ways to involve you in their continued health and vitality. Simply put, you love libraries, and we hope this Web site will keep it that way! ILoveLibraries.org is an initiative of the American Library Association"

E-learning symposium

E-learning symposium: This one-day event will focus on issues relating to Web 2.0 in education and will engage critically with the use of social networking technologies (wikis, blogs, and tools such as Facebook, MySpace, Elgg and Second Life) for educational purposes - 25 January 2008 - University of Southampton, UK

Open Yale Courses

"Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn"

ARL Statistics webcast and chat history now available

The Association of Research Libraries Statistics webcast presented on December 4 is now available on the ARL Statistics web site, along with the chat history and PowerPoint slides

British Library acquires Harold Pinter archive

The archive of Britain's leading playwright and writer, the 2005 Literature Nobel Laureate, Harold Pinter, has been acquired by the British Library. This pre-eminent archive comprising over one hundred and fifty boxes of manuscripts, scrapbooks, letters, photographs, programmes, and emails offers an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars of Pinter's work for stage, cinema, and poetry. The collection of correspondence completes the Pinter archive of playscripts that has been on loan by the playwright to the British Library since 1993. The entire archive has been purchased for the nation for GBP1.1million with the aid of a grant of GBP216,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and generous grants from Dr Alice Griffin, American Trust for the British Library, Michael Marks Charitable Trust, other private trusts and donors in addition to British Library funds

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The MetaCarta NewsMap service

"The MetaCarta NewsMap service is a hosted service that lets publishers dynamically display maps that show the places mentioned in their news stories. The NewsMap service processes the text of stories using our proprietary geoparsing and geotagging technology to extract the geographic places mentioned in them, and resolves them to their respective latitude and longitude coordinates. The places are then represented as an overlay of markers on virtually any digital map such as those from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft"

The SCImago Journal & Country Rank

"The SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators could be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. This platform takes its name from the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, developed by SCImago from the widely known algorithm Google PageRank. This indicator shows the visibility of the journals contained in the Scopus database from 1996. SCImago is a research group from the University of Granada, Extremadura, Carlos III (Madrid) and Alcala de Henares, dedicated to information analysis, representation and retrieval by means of visualisation techniques."

The Manchester Lit List

"A blog dedicated to the city's literary world has been launched in Manchester, England. The Manchester Lit List is the name of the newly launched Manchester Library blog which reports on literature events and news in Manchester Libraries. The blog also features author profiles and other material such as links to blogs and sites of help to writers"

Resource of the Month from Ovid - December 2007

"Each month, Ovid provides you with the opportunity to "test drive" a sampling of our content, tools and services - FREE of charge - through our Resource of the Month program. A different combination of resources is offered around the first business day of each month, so be sure to check back regularly to see what new resources are available". December's Resource of the Month: EMBASE Classic

CALL/ACBD 2008

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2008 Conference - May 25-28 2008 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Carnival of the Infosciences #85

Carnival of the Infosciences #85 hosted by Libraryola. Previous Carnivals can be found here

ARL Publishes Liaison Services, SPEC Kit 301

"The Association of Research Libraries has published Liaison Services, SPEC Kit 301, which identifies the current roles of liaisons in ARL libraries and the changes in their interactions with academic departments since the last SPEC survey on liaison services in 1992. This new SPEC Kit explores whether liaisons are being reactive to faculty and student needs, partnering in providing teaching/library instruction, pioneering in the new electronic world. It also documents how libraries mix the activities of traditional liaison responsibilities with the new trends that are fostered by the evolving needs of today’s library patrons"

Monday, December 10, 2007

Spontaneous Generations

"Spontaneous Generations is a new online academic journal published by graduate students at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto. The journal aims to establish a platform for interdisciplinary discussion and debate about issues that concern the community of scholars in HPS and related fields. Apart from selecting peer reviewed articles, the journal encourages a direct dialogue among academics by means of short editorials and focused discussion papers which highlight central questions, new developments, and controversial matters affecting HPS"

Roger K. Summit Scholarship 2007 for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific

Thomson Scientific has awarded the 2007 Roger K. Summit Scholarship for the Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa region to Mehrnoush Mozaffarian, a doctoral student from University College, London

Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums

"Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the Foundation Center. This publication lists 1,725 grants of $5,000 or more awarded by 474 foundations, from 2003 through 2007. It covers grants to public, academic, research, school, and special libraries, and to archives and museums for activities related to conservation and preservation"

BMC Research Notes

BioMed Central has announced the forthcoming launch of the newest addition to the BMC series of journals, BMC Research Notes, which will begin to accept submissions in early 2008

The Hyperlinked Library

The Hyperlinked Library: Tools, Trends & Transparency by Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor, Dominican University GSLIS

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Manitoba Digitization Summit

Manitoba Digitization Summit: Create | Collaborate | $trategize! - "This Summit will bring together individuals and groups interested in digitizing Manitoba's cultural heritage. We'll look at best practices, share our success stories and investigate opportunities. Participants will create a plan and develop strategies to increase access to Manitoba's cultural heritage" - January 25, 2008 - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

2008 Marcia Tuttle International Grant

The North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) invites applicants for the Marcia Tuttle International Grant. The award includes a $2000 grant and a one-year free NASIG membership. NASIG will give one award per year or no award, depending upon the applications. Deadline is February 15, 2008

OAPEN: Open Access Publishing in European Networks

"OAPEN is a project in Open Access publishing for humanities monographs. The Open Access movement has developed rapidly in the sciences and in journal publishing. The consortium of University-based academic publishers who make up OAPEN believe that the time is ripe to fully explore the possibilities of Open Access in the humanities and social sciences"

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Bookfaironline.net

"Bookfaironline.net is the first book fair available online. It's a simple but new concept of a virtual international book fair. It supports independent publishing by providing a neutral platform. It's available online 365 days a year, no need to travel across the hemisphere, no need to exhaust yourself in endless marathons from one stand to another. It's the easy way to see what's happening and to let others see what you are doing"

The Mark of Zotero: Two-Clicks to Citation Management

The Mark of Zotero: Two-Clicks to Citation Management - a free online program about Zotero, a free citation manager that works with the Firefox web browser - January 23, 2008 beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Formal Ontologies Meet Industry: FOMI 2008

Call for papers: Formal Ontologies Meet Industry: FOMI 2008 - 5-6 June 2008 - Torino, Italy

BMC Proceedings

"BMC Proceedings is a peer-reviewed online journal publishing proceedings from academic conferences, including both peer-reviewed full articles and collections of meeting abstracts. Devoted specifically to conference publications, BMC Proceedings aims to provide open access journal publication for all types of proceedings, including large collections of articles, meetings of specialised interest and conferences of a cross- or multi-disciplinary nature. Content is not restricted to any particular discipline within biomedicine and all proceedings are published without barriers to access. All proceedings will be indexed/included in PubMed and PubMed Central"

Travelers in the Middle East Archive

The Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA), from Rice University, is a digital archive that focuses on Western interactions with the Middle East, particularly travels to Egypt during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. TIMEA offers electronic texts such as travel guides, museum catalogs, and travel narratives, photographic and hand-drawn images of Egypt, historical maps, and interactive GIS (Geographic Information Systems) maps of Egypt and Cyprus. In addition, TIMEA provides educational modules that set the materials in context and explore how to conduct historical research

YourSciCom

"YourSciCom is a community for scientists in all fields of life science. We offer a platform where you and other scientists can work together on completely open research projects and post individual experiments and ideas as the work proceeds. In addition, you can find and add protocols, publish the always so hard to find negative data, and interact with your peers"

Truman Library to open the Edwin Pauley Papers for research

The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum has opened for research the Edwin Pauley Papers, additional films from the Screen Gems Collection, and new documents from the papers of George Elsey. These materials provide valuable new insights into the Korean conflict, the 1948 Whistle Stop campaign, and other historical topics relating to Truman's years in the White House

Paperspine

Paperspine is a new subscription-based service for renting books

Friday, December 07, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Where Did It Happen? Answers here.

1. The treaty ending World War I was signed at Versailles. In which country is Versailles?
2. The Kyoto Protocol was agreed at Kyoto in 1997. In which country is Kyoto?
3. The Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970 - in which country?
4. The Motown record company was founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy, Jr. Its name was short for "Motor Town", which is a nickname for which US city?
5. Pearl Harbor was the object of a surprise air attack in 1941. On which Hawaiian island is Pearl Harbor located?
6. The Kruger National Park was founded in 1898. In which country is it now?
7. The city of Budapest was created in 1872 from two cities: Buda and Pest. Budapest is the capital of which country?
8. In the sitcom "Frasier", first screened in 1994, Dr Frasier Crane returned home to which American city to work as a radio phone-in psychiatrist?
9. An epic heavyweight boxing bout called the "Rumble in the Jungle" was fought in 1974 in Kinshasa. Kinshasa was at that time in which country?
10. The Gettysburg Address was a famous speech given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In which US state is Gettysburg?

Cambridge eBook Collections

Cambridge University Press has announced the launch of new subject-based collections of eBooks to be sold on a perpetual access, unlimited multiple concurrent user basis. The initial release will include specialist collections of humanities, science and business eBooks, and will be developing further collections in the future

eBooks.com RSS feeds

eBooks.com - offers RSS feeds for the featured titles in each of its main subject areas. These feeds include the title/author, a short summary and a link back to eBooks.com for further information

Copyright Clearance Center integrates licensing services with Stanford's HighWire Press

Copyright Clearance Center has announced that scientists, researchers, physicians, college faculty and other readers of scholarly journals hosted by Stanford University's HighWire Press now can obtain permissions and licenses to use content from those journals in a variety of ways

30 Web 2.0 applications from Phil Bradley

Phil Bradley has uploaded his presentation 30 Web 2.0 applications. The presentation uses authorSTREAM, an online presentation sharing engine that not only allows you to upload your PowerPoint presentations online for free

Medieval Archaeology free online

In celebration of the Society for Medieval Archaeology's 50th anniversary the first fifty volumes of Medieval Archaeology have been made available in digital form

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - December 6, 2007

Learning and Skills Observatory Wales

The Welsh Assembly Government has launched an interactive website to support lifelong learning. Named the Learning and Skills Observatory Wales, it provides a database of research and analysis on education, learning, skills and labour market information. It also provides visitors with the the opportunity to share knowledge and best practice and participate in forums on policy analysis. Users will be able to access up-to-date research and analysis on learning and skills

IWR Information Professional of the Year Award

Brian Kelly of UKOLN has received the IWR Information Professional of the Year Award

Nature Publishing Group to publish genomes using Creative Commons

Nature Publishing Group has announced that is introducing a Creative Commons licence for original research articles publishing the primary sequence of an organism's genome for the first time in any of the Nature journals

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Maps: Finding Our Place in the World

Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, is part of The Festival of Maps Chicago. The Festival of Maps Chicago is a citywide celebration, made up of more than 30 cultural and scientific institutions, dedicated to exploring and understanding the discoveries and history of wayfinding across time, space, and cultures

OECD.Stat

OECD.Stat enables users to search for and extract data from across OECD's many databases included in SourceOECD Statistics

EDINA Newsline December 2007

EDINA Newsline December 2007 is now available

DRUPAL4LIB ListServ

Leo Robert Klein writes: "I'm pleased to announce a new ListServ for librarians called DRUPAL4LIB. As the name implies, DRUPAL4LIB is for those interested in Drupal, a popular open-source CMS, as it relates to libraries and librarians. The idea is to have a forum to exchange ideas and advice, share experiences, and maybe even collaborate on a couple of projects that highlight the use of Drupal in a library context"

ECDL2008

ECDL2008: 12th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries - 14-19 September 2008 - Aarhus, Denmark

ARSC Conference 2008 program available

The 42nd annual ARSC Conference will be held in Palo Alto, California, March 26-30, 2008. Stanford University will host the event, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound. Preliminary program now available

Nectar launches books service

"UK loyalty card Nectar has teamed up with Gardners to launch Nectar Books. The new service offers cardholders more than 200,000 titles to choose from, with delivery included on purchases and guaranteed to arrive within five working days of the order"

The European Library Newsletter - November-December 2007

The European Library Newsletter - November-December 2007 is now available online

WorldCat now provides access to articles in Latin American RedALyC eJournal collection

Article level records for more than 350 scholarly eJournals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal are now accessible through the WorldCat database. The eJournals, representing more than 40,000 new records, are provided by RedALyC, a research group from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico

NetLibrary to offer Oxford Scholarship Online eBook titles

OCLC NetLibrary will soon make available the individual eBook titles previously only available digitally through Oxford University Press' Oxford Scholarship Online product (OSO)

Walthamstow: Something fishy down at the library

"It has cost nearly GBP8,000 so far, but the new fish tank in Walthamstow's flagship library gives good value for money. That is, at least, what Waltham Forest Council's cabinet member for libraries, Cllr Geraldine Reardon thinks"

2007 Guardian First Book Award wiiner announced

"A novel that tackles fraught questions of identity, dislocation and loneliness through the life of an Ethiopian emigre in the US has taken this year's Guardian First Book Award. Dinaw Mengestu's Children of the Revolution tells the story of Sepha Stephanos, a man who fled to America to escape the violence of Ethiopia's communist revolution after witnessing his father's death at the hands of junta soldiers. Seventeen years later, running a struggling convenience store in a once grand but now dilapidated neighbourhood of Washington DC, Stephanos is still trying to find his place in the new world"

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Crossroads - December 2007

Crossroads: the newsletter of WebJuntion.org - December 2007 issue is now available

SirsiDynix Institute Web Seminar - December 11, 2007

SirsiDynix Institute Web Seminar - Guide to Roving: An Essential Service for Library 2.0 presented by Joan Giannone, President, Mentor Group Training Inc. - December 11, 2007

British Phone Books, 1880-1984 Releases 1-4

This collection contains British phone books published between 1880, the year after the public telephone service was introduced to the UK, and 1984, from the historic phone book collection held by BT Archives. The database currently contains 1780 phone books and provides near full county coverage for England as well as containing substantial records for Scotland, Ireland, and Wales

Bird Sounds of Madagascar

"On 5 December 2007, the British Library releases Bird Sounds of Madagascar, the latest addition to its popular series of wildlife compilations. This captivating collection celebrates the unique bird life of the island of Madagascar, bringing together rare and previously unpublished recordings of 127 different species of the island's extraordinary winged inhabitants"

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Thomson Innovation

"Thomson Innovation is the new standard in IP research and analysis. It is a single, integrated solution that combines intellectual property, scientific literature, business data and news with analytic, collaboration and alerting tools in a robust platform. Thomson Innovation is now in Beta and we are gearing up for the fast-approaching product launch"

Dzanc Prize winner announced

Dzanc Books has announced that Laura van den Berg of Boston, Massachusetts is the winner of the first annual $5,000 Dzanc Prize. Selected from more than 160 applicants for her proposal to teach creative writing in area prisons and on the quality of her fiction writing, the Emerson College MFA student will begin her service in 2008 with half of the prize awarded in January and the other half awarded once the service is completed

Cengage Learning to acquire Houghton Mifflin College Division assets

Cengage Learning has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Houghton Mifflin Company, under which Cengage Learning will acquire the assets of the Houghton Mifflin College Division (HM College) for $750 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2008 upon satisfaction of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions

The Orwell Prize 2008 launch

"The Orwell Prize, Britain's pre-eminent prize for political writing, has opened submissions for its 2008 prize. Prize money for each of the two awards (one for journalism, one for books) has trebled, from GBP1000 to GBP3000, thanks to the generosity of The Political Quarterly and Orwell's son, Richard Blair"

SirsiDynix SuperConference 2008

SirsiDynix SuperConference 2008 - April 6-8, 2008 - Detroit, Michigan, USA

4th Italian Research Conference on Digital Library Systems

4th Italian Research Conference on Digital Library Systems - 24-25 January 2008 - Padova, Italy

The DELOS Association for Digital Libraries

"The DELOS Association for Digital Libraries has been established in order to keep the 'DELOS spirit' alive by promoting research activities in the field of digital libraries"

Wiley-Blackwell to make 2000 more OnlineBooks available on Wiley InterScience

"Wiley-Blackwell is launching a new digitization initiative which will soon make 2000 additional books online for the first time and accessible to librarians, information professionals, academics, researchers and students worldwide. Fifteen-hundred titles from Blackwell Publishing, 400 titles from Wiley-VCH, and several hundred book series volumes, such as the Novartis Foundation Symposia series, the Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds series, and the Wiley Statistics and Probability Series will appear on Wiley InterScience commencing in December 2007"

Carnival of the Infosciences #84

Carnival of the Infosciences #84 hosted by The Other Librarian. Previous Carnivals can be found here

LLRX.com November 24, 2007 update

LLRX.com November 24, 2007 update is now online. LLRX.com is a unique, free Web journal dedicated to providing legal, library, IT/IS, marketing and administrative professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools, since 1996

Monday, December 03, 2007

Stockton Children's Book of the Year 2008 shorlist

The shortlist for the Stockton Children's Book of the Year 2008 has been announced

BioMed Central announces new release of Open Repository

"BioMed Central has announced the latest upgrades to Open Repository, the open access
publisher's hosted repository solution. The upgrades include new features from DSpace, the open-source platform for accessing, managing, and preserving scholarly works. Open Repository now offers institutions increased customization options and a new and improved user interface. Also, two prestigious organizations have recently elected to host their repositories on Open Repository: Roehampton University and Medecins Sans Frontieres"

EU Information 2008

EU Information 2008 - 17th annual conference - What's new in European information? - March 17-18 2008 - University of Chester, UK

Chicago Journals Online

"Chicago Journals Online: the new online home of the University of Chicago Press portfolio of journals. With a redesigned appearance and upgraded publishing platform, Chicago Journals Online emphasizes functionality and organization, making it easier for users to search, access, and save content. Chicago Journals Online also hosts substantially more historical content, in many cases going back to the first issue of the journal". Reminder: there is also a list of RSS feeds for these journals

Win a copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary Sixth Edition

AskOxford.com is offering a copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as this month's Quick Quiz prize. Closing date is December 15, 2007

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #116

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #116 - December 2 2007 is now available

TLA 2008

TLA 2008 - The Texas Library Association Conference - April 15-18 - Dallas, TX

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, December 2007

Archives Hub Collections of the Month, December 2007: The Rathbones: "This month we look at the Rathbones of Liverpool, a family of non-conformist merchants and shipowners, whose sense of high social consciousness led to a fine tradition of philanthropy and public service"

Yale University Press Holiday Sale

Yale University Press is having a Holiday Sale on specially selected titles, both recent and classic, in Art, Architecture, & Graphic Design, the Humanities, Social Science, Science & Medicine, and Reference

IMLS calls for 2008 National Leadership Grant applications

"The Institute of Museum and Library Services is accepting grant applications for the agency's 2008 National Leadership Grant program. The deadline for submitting applications is February 1, 2008. Now in their 10th year, National Leadership Grants have supported the innovative thinking necessary to help libraries and museums meet the changing needs of the American public. This year's guidelines encourage projects that create partnerships between libraries and museums, integrate new technologies, and highlight the agency's focus on conservation and preservation"

Saturday, December 01, 2007

HeinOnline Update - November 2007

HeinOnline Update - November 2007 is now available

2007 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winner

Sarah Hall has won the 2007 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her novel The Carhullan Army. The award, which comes with a GBP5,000 prize, is presented by the UK's Booktrust and named for the late writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action during World War II

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2008 shortlist

The shortlist for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2008 has been announced

Exploring the Early Americas at The Library of Congress

"A new exhibition opening December 13 marks the beginning of a months-long transformation of public spaces in the Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson Building into an experience for visitors that merges cutting-edge technology with the knowledge and inspiration embodied in the Library's unparalleled collections and curators. 'Exploring the Early Americas,' which features items from the Jay I. Kislak Collection and Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 World Map - the first document of any kind to use the word 'America' - focuses on the history and legacies of the Americas and the impact of European contact, culture and conquest."

TL InfoBits - November 2007

The November 2007 issue of TL InfoBits, the information and instructional technology newsletter from the Information Technology Services at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is now available online

Big Read application deadline

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, has announced the fourth deadline for the Big Read program as February 12, 2008. The purpose of the Big Read is to revitalize the role of literature in American popular culture. Grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 are available to encourage local communities to inspire reading through the Big Read program

Double win for the British Library

"The British Library has scooped two awards at the CorpComms Awards 2007: Best Online Report for its Annual Report and Accounts 2006/07, and Best Communications by a Public or Voluntary sector Organisation. The judges described the online report as 'simply stunning', praising its innovative use of video clips, interactivity and animation"

Friday, November 30, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Photography and Photographers. Answers here.

1. What is the word for a room in which photographic materials are processed, either in complete darkness or with a safelight?
2. Which New Zealand mountaineer said of Tenzing Norgay in 1953: "He had never taken a photograph before, and the summit of Everest was hardly the place to show him how"?
3. In describing a camera, what does "SLR" stand for?
4. The screenwriter of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" (with Stanley Kubrick) was also a photographer of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and coast of Ceylon from 1954 to 1964. Name him.
5. Which famous English photographer made his name photographing Jean Shrimpton and later Catherine Deneuve (the second of his four wives)?
6. Which two-word phrase describes a darkened box with a tiny hole for projecting the inverted image of the scene outside on to a screen inside?
7. In photography, what does the abbreviation BCU stand for?
8. What was the first practicable photographic process, announced to the public in 1839, invented by Louis Daguerre?
9. The first photographs of moving objects were taken in 1877 when Eadweard Muybridge managed to record what?
10. Which British photographer began his career as a fashion photographer and later made film and stage designs for "My Fair Lady"?

The University of Maryland Libraries launches digital collections portal

The University of Maryland Libraries has announced the launch of its digital collections portal. This release marks two and a half years of work in the creation of a repository that serves the teaching and research mission of the University of Maryland Libraries. Many of the objects are digital versions from Maryland's Special Collections (such as A Treasury of World's Fairs Art and Architecture) or are new virtual collections (The Jim Henson Works). Other collections (such as Films@UM) support the teaching mission of the Libraries. This release also marks the integration of electronically available finding aids, ArchivesUM, into the repository architecture, creating a framework for digital objects to be dynamically discovered from finding aids

University of Pittsburgh's Library System and University Press collaborate

The University of Pittsburgh's University Library System and University Press have formed a partnership to provide digital editions of press titles as part of the library system's D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program. Thirty-nine books from the Pitt Latin American Series published by the University of Pittsburgh Press are now available online, freely accessible to scholars and students worldwide. Ultimately, most of the Press' titles older than 2 years will be provided through this open access platform

WorldCat.org adds links to WorldCat Identities, British Library Direct service

"The latest enhancement to WorldCat.org is a link to WorldCat Identities, an OCLC research prototype that creates a summary page for some 25 million personal and corporate authors mentioned in WorldCat. In addition, research journal articles discoverable on WorldCat.org now include links to the British Library Direct service, where electronic copies of the articles may be purchased"

Scirus and OCLC promote benefits of full-text linking

"Elsevier's Scirus team and OCLC are launching an initiative to inform the librarian and academic community of the benefits of image-based, full-text linking from search engines to library journal holdings as supported by library link resolvers. Based on the OpenURL standard, image-based linking allows search engine users to find the shortest path to the full text of specific journal articles, if held by their libraries"

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - November 29, 2007

JISC Information Governance Gateway

"JISC Information Governance Gateway is a JISC commissioned 'one stop shop' for all matters relating to information governance legislation and the HE sector"

Museums and the Web 2008 registration now open

Registration is now open for Museums and the Web 2008, which addresses the social, cultural, design, technological, economic, and organizational issues of culture, science and heritage on-line. Taking an international perspective, the MW program reviews and analyzes the issues and impacts of networked cultural, natural and scientific heritage - April 9-12, 2008 - Montreal, Quebec, Canada

JISC Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year Award winner

"An initiative which has forged a 'partnership' between students and staff, overcome challenges of physical remoteness, a growing number of teaching placements and a high number of part-time students has won the JISC-sponsored Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year award. The e-course team at the School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham, was presented with the award for its development of an e-course which allows users, with no formal training and no need of technical support, to create and contribute podcasts and interactive learning materials

ARL publishes Law Library Statistics for 2005–06

The Association of Research Libraries has published the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2005–06, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 75 law libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America

ARL publishes Health Sciences Library Statistics for 2005–06

The Association of Research Libraries has published the ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2005–06, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 65 medical libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America

Thursday, November 29, 2007

FreePint Newsletter 242

FreePint Newsletter 242 - 29 November, 2007 - now available

Innovations in e-information - the UKeIG 2009 State of the Art Conference

"UKeiG has announced a major addition to its training and seminar programme. There has been considerable demand from members for a residential forum that provides opportunities for information and IT professionals to network, wine and dine in excellent social surroundings while catching up on the very latest developments in e-information. Innovations in e-information - the UKeiG 2009 State of the Art Conference will be held at the Manchester Conference Centre from Tuesday 16th - Wednesday 17th June 2009. UKeiG will be drawing on the expertise of many of its high profile information experts to deliver on a range of key topics. A call for papers will shortly be issued inviting recommendations for presentations and breakout sessions"

New film "trailers" for books award

"A new project to create film 'trailers' for books is being launched by The Bookseller, in partnership with the Random House Group, Play.com and the National Film & Television School (NFTS). The inaugural Book Video Awards will see NFTS students and alumni develop 90-second films based on three novels to be published by the Random House Group early next year. The videos will be launched in March 2008 and screened via Play.com, thebookseller.com, YouTube and other viral sites"

Archives New Zealand launches films online

"A bigger slice of New Zealand's history is now available online following the launch of Archives New Zealand new audio visual website. The site features over 100 film clips sourced from the National Film Unit and is a big step forward in making Archives New Zealand's audio visual collection more accessible and visible to New Zealand and international viewers"

Search Engine Meeting 2008 program available

The program for the Search Engine Meeting 2008 - April 28-29, 2008 - Boston, MA, USA, is now available

Strix and Jason Farradane Award winners

UKeiG has announced the winners of the Strix and Jason Farradane Awards, which will be presented at the Online Information conference and exhibition at London's Olympia in December. The awards are sponsored by The Journal of Information Science, published by SAGE

International Tracing Service opens archives to public

"After more than 60 years the archives of the International Tracing Service have become accessible to the public. Historical researchers and other interested people can now examine archives and documents from the Second World War at the Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Previously such access was granted only to the victims of Nazi persecution and their next of kin. The archives contain over 50 million information regarding the persecution, exploitation and extermination of millions of civilians by the Nazis"

Eye-to-Eye - Issue 23

Eye-to-Eye - An e-newsletter dedicated to connecting Ingenta and its library communities - Issue 23, November 2007 now available

National Agriculture Library RSS feeds

National Agriculture Library - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. RSS feeds page

Free Library of Philadelphia RSS feeds

Free Library of Philadelphia - Pennsylvania, USA. RSS feeds page

The Digital Academic Repository of Naturalis

"The Digital Academic Repository of Naturalis is a service which is part of a national and international network of scientific and scholarly information services. In the Naturalis repository, the scientific staff of Naturalis stores the electronic version of its publications for future use. The repository also makes sure that references to the publications become available within a international network of information services, hereby increasing the visibility of the publications"

The Times (London, England), 1 Jan 1788 - 30 Dec 1820

Footnote has announced the release of original images from The Times (London, England) from 1785–1820. 7-day free trial available

ARL publishes Open Access Resources - SPEC Kit 300

"Faced with ever-increasing journal subscription costs and declining library collections budgets, libraries are expanding their collections by making open access (OA) research literature available through their catalogs, Web sites, open URL resolvers, and other resources. While not free to produce, as defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative, OA research literature is made freely accessible to users by removing price and permission barriers. This SPEC survey gathered information on whether and how ARL member libraries are selecting, providing access to, cataloging, hosting, tracking usage of, and promoting the use of open access research literature for their patrons by using established library resources such as online catalogs and link resolvers. The survey results provide valuable information for those libraries interested in incorporating OA content into their collections"

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Exploring 20th Century London

Exploring 20th Century London - Explore London's history, culture and religions from the collections of the Museum of London, London's Transport Museum, The Jewish Museum and Croydon Museum and Heritage Service. Jointly funded by the MLA Designation Challenge Fund and the London Museums Hub

E-JASL Call for Papers

"E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship is looking for outstanding articles in all areas of academic and special librarianship--regrardless of region or country. Send your manuscript as an attachment in your e-mail to phaschak@usouthal.edu

E-JASL is an independent, international, professional, permanently archived, indexed/abstracted, peer-reviewed, open access, electronic library journal."

Parliament and the British Slave Trade 1600-1807

Parliament and the British Slave Trade 1600-1807 - contains a wealth of archival material providing evidence of the issues, processes and people at the heart of the UK Parliament's relationship with the slave trade. Produced by the 24 Hour Museum

Winchester Discovery Centre (Hampshire, UK)

"The new Winchester Discovery Centre (Hampshire, UK) will combine the best of libraries, with an exciting world of learning, leisure, entertainment and fun. First class library services with over 30,000 new books on top of current stock. 'Fast back' service, express check out and returns... special spaces for children and young people, plus comfy seating for reading and relaxing. Internet access, Wi-Fi and online learning with meeting rooms, study areas and refreshments"

British Library Direct Plus

"From today, organisations around the World will be able to subscribe to a new service from the British Library which provides the largest article level index to its collection of journals and conference proceedings. Developed with Israel-based library technology company, TDNet, British Library Direct Plus is the first part of a two stage development by the British Library which will replace its existing 'Inside' service"

ARL: A Bimonthly Report - June/August 2007

ARL: A Bimonthly Report, no. 252/253 (June/August 2007) is now available

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ingenta launches pub2web

"Ingenta, the technology provider that connects the publishing and information industries, has announced the launch of its next generation publications platform, pub2web. This full-service feature-rich publishing system assembles best-of-breed components into a scalable, extensible platform, building on the proven technical architecture of leading research destination IngentaConnect while offering comprehensive customisation options to its clients. Publishers will benefit from fully-tailored graphical design, flexible information and content architecture, and an extensive suite of functionality that ranges from standard website navigation tools, to leading-edge features that take advantage of evolving browser capabilities"

Cites & Insights Index to Volume 7

Cites & Insights Index to Volume 7 is now available for downloading

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 157

Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 157 - November 2007 - edited by Roddy MacLeod, Heriot-Watt University, is now available

ProQuest offers help for library marketing

"ProQuest offers tools and services that help librarians connect with their user communities, free database access and scholarship support for library students, and a new award to recognize outstanding library school educators"

Texterity's Digital Magazine iPhone Interface & Portal

"Texterity's Digital Magazine iPhone Interface & Portal provides a collection of magazines that can be viewed through Texterity's interface, which leverages the Safari browser built in to the Apple iPhone or iPod touch. No additional applications, downloads, or other software is required. Users can instantly view entire magazines as they were originally published, with all pages completely readable. As part of a beta test Texterity will provide free and open access to a great selection of consumer and business magazines to all iPhone and iPod touch users"

100 Notable Books of 2007 from New York Times

The New York Times has released its annual list of 100 Notable Books of the Year

JISC Annual Review 2006-2007

"JISC's annual review has been published and is for the first time an entirely online publication. The review documents a year of achievement in the key areas of JISC's activities and includes podcast interviews with senior JISC figures and the chairs of its committees, an image gallery and a Year in View giving the highlights of JISC's activities during the academic year 2006-2007"

Primary Source - November 2007

Primary Source - November 2007 issue now available from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The New York Public Library acquires Schlesinger papers

The New York Public Library has acquired the papers of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the late American historian, social critic, and advisor to President John F. Kennedy

PBS campaign provides partnership opportunities for libraries

"The American Library Association has announced that it is working with WGBH Boston on the upcoming national outreach campaign for the film "The Truth About Cancer," which will air on PBS in April. The 90-minute documentary film, followed by a 30-minute expert panel, will be the launching pad for events and projects across the country focused on creating community conversations around cancer survivorship"

Monday, November 26, 2007

NICE Paintings launched

"A new online database available from the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) offers the chance to explore nearly 8,000 European oil paintings in Britain's public art collections. NICE Paintings (The National Inventory of Continental European Paintings) was launched on 21 November 2007 and will be the first time information on many of the pre-1900 oil paintings have been accessible outside the museums and galleries in which they are housed. The database has been created by the National Inventory Research Project - a groundbreaking research project designed to gather and present information about Britain's public art collections"

Netskills joins Facebook

Netskills, the training and staff development service, Newcastle University, UK, has set up a presence on Facebook

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Journal of Plant Registrations

The Crop Science Society of America has announced that the full text of the Journal of Plant Registrations is now available online

BioMed Central launches YouTube channel

"BioMed Central YouTube channel brings together videos of its authors and editors talking about their work, BioMed Central's journals, and the benefits of open access publishing"

Saturday, November 24, 2007

First DIGMAP Workshop

First DIGMAP Workshop - 7 December 2007 - National Library of Portugal

The London Book Fair 2008

The London Book Fair is the global publishing community's leading spring forum for booksellers, publishers, librarians and book production services worldwide - 14-16 April 2008 - Earl's Court, London

The Independent Publishing Awards 2008

The Independent Publishers Guild has announced the call for entries for the Independent Publishing Awards 2008

London Libraries wins support to help reach homeless people

London Libraries Development Agency (LLDA) has been awarded a grant of GBP80,000 by The JJ Charitable Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, to develop Opening The Doors, a project which will improve access to books, reading and library services for homeless and vulnerably housed people

Friday, November 23, 2007

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Brothers and Sisters. Answers here.

1. Critical remarks made by Earl Spencer at his sister's funeral in 1997 resulted in changes in royal protocol. Who was Earl Spencer's sister?
2. The Biblical character Cain had two brothers. One was called Seth: what was the name of the other brother?
3. The tennis-playing Williams sisters won the Wimbledon Ladies Doubles title in 2000. One is Serena Williams: what is the name of her sister?
4. The Gershwin brothers wrote many songs together. The first name of one of the brothers was Ira - what was the first name of the other one?
5. In 1799, which British poet settled in the Lake District where, cared for devotedly by his wife Mary and his sister Dorothy, he completed his masterpiece "The Prelude"?
6. What was the name of the US novelist whose brother was William James, the psychologist and philosopher?
7. Which American actress is the older sister of the actor Warren Beatty?
8. Ptolemy XIII was the younger brother of which queen of Egypt?
9. The British artist Vanessa Bell had a younger sister who was a writer. What was the sister's name?
10. In 1999, which English film and stage actor collaborated with his sister, Martha, who directed, and his brother, Magnus, who wrote the score, in an adaptation of Pushkin's novel "Onegin"?

R&D Chemicals

"R&D Chemicals is a common and freely accessible chemicals catalog and directory of suppliers of products and services for research and development over the internet. One of the biggest problems of traditional search engines like Google, Yahoo, AltaVista is that simple keyword-based queries often return vast amount of irrelevant information. Most of scientists' time is inefficiently used in sieving of irrelevant information from the search engines. Also traditional search engines cannot search chemical compounds by structure and substructure. In this context, R&D Chemicals, a web site designed for the specific requirements of researchers and scientists, was created. The goal of this project is to create a common and freely accessible database of chemicals and directory of companies providing products and services that support drug discovery in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry"

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road

This exhibition will explore the life and career of the Beat writer and poet Jack Kerouac, including the evolution of On the Road and other works; his unique amalgam of Christian and Buddhist spirituality; and his attitude to the movement that he felt had forsaken its beatific roots and purpose - D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY - Until March 16, 2008

Lib Gaming UK

Lib Gaming UK - a forum to discuss games and gaming in UK public libraries

World Book Day 2008

The official World Book Day 2008 website for the UK and Ireland is now available

Public Domain Books Reprints Service

Public Domain Books Reprints Service - "This is an experiment to see what the demand for reprints of public domain books would be. This free service can take any book from the Internet Archive (that is in public domain) and reprint it using Lulu.com. Prices of the books are rounded up from Lulu.com cost prices to the nearest $0.99 to cover the bandwidth and processing power that we rent from Amazon using their EC2 service"

Thursday, November 22, 2007

2008 British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction shortlist

The 2008 shortlist for Canada's largest literary non-fiction prize, the BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, was announced November 22 by British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell. In the running for the $40,000 prize are Donald Harman Akenson, Lorna Goodison, and Jacques Poitras. The shortlist was chosen by a distinguished jury comprising David Mitchell (jury chair), a well-known political commentator and historian; Patrick Lane, one of Canada's finest poets; and Sandra Martin, award-winning senior features writer for the Globe and Mail

SAGE and Hindawi announce landmark open access agreement

"SAGE and the Hindawi Publishing Corporation have entered into an agreement to jointly launch and publish a suite of fully Open Access (OA) journals"

SIGIR 2008

SIGIR 2008: The 31st Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference - 20-24 July 2008 - Singapore

dg.o 2008

dg.o 2008: The 9th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research - May 18-21, 2008 - Montreal, Canada

ISMIR 2008

ISMIR 2008: Ninth International Conference on Music Information Retrieval - 14-18 September, 2008 - Philadelphia, PA, USA

FreePint News - November 2007

FreePint News - November 2007 is now available online

Merriam-Webster launches Visual Dictionary Online

"From the image to the word and its definition, the Visual Dictionary Online is an all-in-one reference. Search the themes to quickly locate words, or find the meaning of a word by viewing the image it represents. What's more, the Visual Dictionary Online helps you learn English in a visual and accessible way. The Visual Dictionary Online is ideal for teachers, parents, translators and students of all skill levels. Explore the Visual Dictionary Online and enrich your mind. Perfect for home, school or work."

Nixon Presidential Library to release new materials at the U.S. National Archives

"The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum will release approximately 122,800 pages of historical materials from the Nixon presidency at the U.S. National Archives in College Park, MD. Highlights include national security documents on U.S. policy towards Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Soviet Union, and on the Kurds. Also included are documents on the Vietnam War, on dealing with the terrorist Black September Organization, on producing the CIA’s Presidential Daily Brief, and on U.S. covert action in Chile. A selection of 15 documents from the release will be posted on the Nixon Presidential Library web site at www.nixonlibrary.gov

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week

Librarians' Internet Index - New This Week - November 22, 2007

EDUCAUSE Quarterly

EDUCAUSE Quarterly - Volume 30, Number 4, 2007 is now available

The U.K. Met Office launches web gadgets

"The U.K. Met Office has launched a new dashboard of weather gadgets aimed at allowing users to add and customise information from the Met Office website. The suite of options are free to download and include localised weather forecasts, severe weather warnings, marine warnings and radar images. The gadgets are mini-applications - available on the Windows Vista operating system or via a Mozilla Firefox browser - that allow users to have automatically updated weather information at a glance, while working on other tasks"

British Library appoints four new international sales partners to distribute new online services

The British Library has announced four new sales partnerships with BTJ Sverige AB, Arabian Advanced Systems, FlySheet Information Services and Orex to distribute its new services including British Library Direct+ and Turning the Pages 2.0

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The University of Google: Education in a (post) information age

The University of Google: Education in a (post) information age by Tara Brabazon. Ashgate, 2007. - "Google is a brand name that has transformed into a verb for web searching. The word has also entered popular culture. But an absence in this narrative of commercial success is the impact of Google on education. Googling signals simple and intuitive surfing, rather than planned researching, and quick answers to difficult questions. The costs and consequences of students entering this digital shopping mall for research, scholarship and interpretation require attention." More at Brabazon.net

Parker Library on the Web

"Parker Library on the Web is a multi-year undertaking of Corpus Christi College, the Stanford University Libraries and the Cambridge University Library, to produce a high-resolution digital copy of every imageable page in the 538 manuscripts described in M. R. James Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 1912), and to build an interactive web application in which the manuscript page images can be used by scholars and students in the context of editions, translations and secondary sources"

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large: 7:13 (December 2007)

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large: 7:13 (December 2007) is now available for downloading

360 Counter from Serials Solutions

"Serials Solutions 360 Counter provides a complete solution for assessing e-resources. Although usage statistics from content vendors are widely available, it has been extremely challenging for libraries to assess the usage and cost of journals, databases, and vendors. 360 Counter makes it easy to get answers and make decisions using this information"

HarperCollins launches website for deluxe Tolkien

HarperCollins has launched a new website selling deluxe, limited editions of JRR Tolkien's The Children of Hùrin. The publisher has produced 500 signed, leather-bound editions of the book, which will be sold exclusively online for GBP350

Costa Book Awards 2007 shortlists

The 2007 Costa Book Awards shortlists have been announced. See also videos from the 2006 winners

Defence Dynamics

"The U.K. Ministry of Defence has launched a web-based learning programme for schools. Named Defence Dynamics, it provides an interactive library of material for lessons on many subjects in the core curriculum. Among the subjects covered is the protection of sustainable fish stocks and the maths involved in navigating a fast jet. The programme is also aimed at broadening children's understanding of the role of defence in society

OpenDOAR now includes 1000 repositories

"SHERPA has announced that its OpenDOAR directory, which contains an authoritative list of institutional and subject-based repositories, now boasts 1000 repository entries from across the globe. With each of the repositories listed by the OpenDOAR service having been visited by project staff, the gathered information is both accurate and precise, and contains a quality-controlled list of repository features."

Bodleian Depository plan rejected by Oxford City Council

"Oxford City Council has rejected development plans put forward by the University to build a book depository at Osney Mead to house the Bodleian's growing collections and to enable it to undertake a major redevelopment of the New Bodleian Library in Broad Street. The proposal underpinned the University's strategy to maintain and develop the world-class status of its libraries in the 21st century"

Stories of survival and loss: British Library archives Haemophilia and HIV Life Histories

From The British Library: "The unheard voices of the people with bleeding disorders infected with HIV through their treatment, and the often silenced stories of the parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters who played a vital role through all the challenging years, have been recorded as part of two oral history projects Haemophilia and HIV Life History Project and HIV in the Family"