OCLC and Elsevier sign agreement to provide full-text searching of SciVerse ScienceDirect journals and e-books through WorldCat Local

OCLC and Elsevier have signed an agreement that will make the full text from Elsevier's SciVerse ScienceDirect journals and e-books available to users of OCLC’s WorldCat Local

F1000 Research - a new fully Open Access publishing program

F1000 Research is a new fully Open Access publishing program across biology and medicine, that will start publishing later this year. It is intended to address the major issues afflicting scientific publishing today: timely dissemination of research, peer review, and sharing of data. Diverging from traditional journal publishing, F1000 Research will offer immediate publication; open, post-publication peer review; open revisioning of work including ongoing updates; and encourage raw data deposition and publication. In addition, F1000 Research will accept a broad range of article formats and content types

SMU Digital Repository (USA)

The SMU Digital Repository at Southern Methodist University provides access to research, online journals, articles, conference agendas and papers, theses, image collections, and other scholarly works. The Digital Repository team works with faculty and academic units to identify, manage, upload, and present via the internet a wide range of text, image, video, audio, database and other files that showcase SMU's research and scholarly achievements

Call for Proposals: Library Assessment Conference 2012

The Association of Research Libraries, the University of Virginia Library, the University of Washington Libraries, and the Conference Planning Committee are issuing a call for proposals for the 2012 Library Assessment Conference: Building Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment, to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia, October 29-31, 2012

IGeLU 2012 Conference - Switzerland

The 7th IGeLU Conference will be hosted by the ETH Zurich and is organized by the ETH-Bibliothek - 11-13 September 2012

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business

Synergies Pologne

Ethnomusicology Review

Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biological Research

Revista Brasileira de História das Religiões

Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy

Current Cites - January 2012

Current Cites (edited by Roy Tennant) - January 2012 is now available

VuFind 1.3 released

VuFind, the library portal software, has a new version. The latest version of the VuFind Open Source discovery software has just been released. The new release includes several significant enhancements:

* A new "book bag" feature has been added for shopping-cart-style bulk actions (save, email, export multiple records).
* VuFind is now driven by Apache Solr 3.5, the latest version of the powerful index engine.
* New optional search plug-ins have been added for visual timelines, Google Maps integration and Europeana searches.
* Enhanced RSS feeds allow VuFind results to be easily shared with external services such as Elsevier's SciVerse platform.
* Syndetics integration has been improved.
* VuFind's default theme now uses jQuery and Blueprint for a more dynamic, polished interface.

UPCC Books launched on Project MUSE

UPCC Books launched on Project MUSE in January 2012. The book collections offer thousands of peer-reviewed digital books from over 65 major university presses and scholarly publishers and allow books to be discovered and searched in an integrated environment with content from nearly 500 journals currently on MUSE

SCONUL Focus - Number 53

SCONUL Focus - Number 53 is now available from the Society of College, National and University Libraries, UK

InSITE: A Current Awareness Service of Cornell Law Library - Vol. 17, No. 10, January 30, 2012

InSITE: A Current Awareness Service of Cornell Law Library - Vol. 17, No. 10, January 30, 2012 is now available. Contents:

DREaM event 5 – conference (UK)

The DREaM project concluding event takes place at the British Library Conference Centre on Monday 9 July 2012. DREaM = Developing Research Excellence and Methods

New exhibition: The Romance of the Middle Ages (UK)

The Bodleian main exhibition has opened to the public. It celebrates the stories of medieval romance and how they have influenced our culture, literature and art over the last thousand years. It includes the dramatic love stories about King Arthur and Tristan and Isolde as they are illustrated in sumptuous medieval manuscripts, alongside works of art and draft papers by J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip Pullman and Monty Python, the last on public display for first time. The Romance of the Middle Ages exhibition at the Bodleian Library draws on the Bodleian's outstanding collection of manuscripts and early printed books containing medieval romances. These range from lavishly-illustrated volumes to personal notebooks and fragments only saved by chance. Alongside these will be works of art from across Europe that illustrate romance legends; these include ivory carvings, jewellery and caskets, on loan from national museums and collections

2000 Years of Romance… the British Library celebrates Love Letters through the ages

Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, a title published by the British Library, is the first ever anthology to reproduce original love letters in each of the writers' own hand. Featuring letters drawn from the Library's unique and vast collections, the romance spans from 168 BC to the 20th century and offers a rare insight into the intimate thoughts, feelings and desires of iconic individuals such as Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde

Teen Librarian Monthly: January 2012

Teen Librarian Monthly: January 2012 is now available for download

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. launches next-generation web platform

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. has announced the launch of its new website, offering streamlined access to over 92,000 articles from 70 high-impact publications. Using the latest technology, Liebertpub.com introduces an intuitive interface that helps users discover content quickly and easily, as well as new tools to help librarians manage access

Podcast: Researching Mr Briggs' Hat: an account of Britain's first railway murder

Researching Mr Briggs' Hat: an account of Britain's first railway murder The 1864 murder of Thomas Briggs in his first-class railway carriage is investigated through documents in The National Archives, The US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), newspapers and other resources. The overwhelming reaction to this event tells us about second generation Victorian society, how the trial stood at the cusp of legal change and has parallels with our own time. Kate Colquhoun is the author of Mr Briggs' Hat. Her books have been shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Award. She writes regularly for The Telegraph, The Sunday Times and many other newspapers and magazines including Who Do You Think You Are?, as well as appearing on television and radio

The European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation becomes the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology

SAGE and the European Society of Cardiology have announced that the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation has become the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The Journal is the official journal of the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation of the European Society of Cardiology and embraces all the scientific, clinical and public health disciplines that address the causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as cardiovascular rehabilitation and exercise physiology

Learn Chemistry - hundreds of high-quality education resources in one place

Learn Chemistry brings the RSC's huge range of educational resources into one place. It makes them easily accessible with improved searching. To help with navigation, resources have been tagged in terms of their chemistry content and their relevance to global issues and challenges. Resources are also linked to other relevant content on Learn Chemistry to help teachers prepare their lessons

MediaSurfer

MediaSurfer, created by Tech Logic Corporation, is a stand-alone machine that makes it easy for libraries to automatically lend iPads and other media devices to library patrons, allowing them to borrow the latest mobile technology and embrace digital learning

Slovenian library creates surprise book packs based on genre

The National and University Library of Slovenia recently offered packs of three books, curated by genre, to their visitors

Eurostat regional yearbook 2011

The Eurostat regional yearbook 2011 gives a detailed picture of a large number of statistical fields in the 27 Member States of the European Union, as well as in EFTA and candidate countries. The text of each chapter has been written by specialists in statistics and is accompanied by maps, figures and tables. A broad set of regional indicators are presented for the following 16 subjects: population, labour market, labour cost, education, health, European cities, gross domestic product, household accounts, structural business statistics, information society, tourism, land cover and land use, coastal regions, transport, science, technology and innovation, and last but not least, a study on trends in densely and thinly populated areas

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Tecnoscienza : Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies

REMISE : Revue de Microbiologie Industrielle Sanitaire et Environnementale

Revista Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade

Incontri : Rivista Europea di Studi Italiani

Revista Iberoamericana de Turismo

Jurnal Akuntansi dan Keuangan

Jurnal Teknik Mesin

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - January 27, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Television. "This week's brainteaser is about television and some of the programmes shown on it, old and new" Answers here.

1. Which US science-fiction television series included the characters Captain Kirk and Mr Spock?
2. "D'oh!" is the characteristic cry of pain or exasperation frequently uttered by Homer in which TV series?
3. In talking about television, what does "HDTV" stand for?
4. Who was the co-writer with Ricky Gervais for the TV series "The Office'?
5. Which television show starred Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz?
6. Who played Chief Inspector Morse in the television series "Morse"?
7. "The truth is out there" appeared in the opening credits of which American series about two FBI agents?
8. Which American animated television comedy follows the adventures of Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick?
9. Name four of the six members of the British comedy team who made the television series "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
10. Wooburn Grange in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, served as which building in a 1970s BBC television sitcom?

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #183

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #183. "This week's episode looks at the aftermath of the SOPA battle and the take-down of MegaUpload while looking at some consequences thereupon for the knowledge ecology. A draft resolution for any upcoming ALA meeting is also presented". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

Foreign Official Gazette cataloging completed

The Center for Research Libraries recently completed cataloging its extensive Foreign Official Gazette collection, with holdings that date from 1665 to the 1980s; 161 countries are represented in 582 records. About one-third of the physical collection is in original format. The collection was cataloged with MARC records, which are now in the CRL catalog and in OCLC's WorldCat

The British Library 19th Century Historical Collection App wins Publishing Innovation Award

The British Library, together with technology partner, BiblioLabs, LLC, was awarded the prestigious Publishing Innovation Award for their British Library 19th Century Historical Collection iPad App. The App, released in August last year, offers seamless, cloud-based access to more than 45,000 historical works from the British Library, spanning 21 thematic collections. The Publishing Innovation Awards were established to honour outstanding digital products that enrich and delight readers. The British Library 19th Century Historical Collection App was named the 2012 Winner in the Reference/Academic category

Luis Herrera: Library Journal's 2012 Librarian of the Year

Luis Herrera has been named as Library Journal's 2012 Librarian of the Year

Podcast: Anxiety, dread and disease: British ports 1834-1870

As Britain's status as the 'workshop of the world' grew, so did the new industrial and trading towns. Ports became densely populated and ripe for the spread of infection; once disease took hold it moved rapidly and lethally. Yet what made these ports so particularly vulnerable, in addition to the threat from within, was their high exposure to threats from abroad. While obviously of huge economic importance, a section of the 'inside' port town community undoubtedly perceived seafarers as 'outside', 'foreign' and a medical threat. The daily interplay between these settled and transient communities created an environment imbued with anxieties as to the nature of disease, its transmission and its treatment. Sarah Hutton is a modern domestic records specialist at The National Archives, where she has worked for five years. She is particularly interested in 19th and early 20th century health. This talk was part of our diversity week event in November, highlighting the diversity of The National Archives' collection

Electronic Enlightenment

With 59,489 letters and documents and 7,230 correspondents as of November 2011, Electronic Enlightenment is the most wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. Drawn from the best available critical editions, EE is not simply an "electronic bookshelf" of isolated texts but a network of interconnected documents, allowing you to see the complex web of personal relationships in the early modern period and the making of the modern world

Literati by Credo is now available

Literati by Credo is a collaborative research platform that supports research effectiveness and information literacy. It gives users a simplified and smart process for locating, analyzing, and utilizing the right information. It enhances this information with embedded technology features and automates the best practices of effective research. With its adaptable, state-of-the-art architecture, Literati is a flexible, long-term solution that can accommodate changing organizational needs and evolving technical requirements

OCLC Research Distinguished Seminar Series presents "Libraries as Read/Write Services" by Gary Marchionini

The public is invited to attend this free presentation in person or online. Gary Marchionini is the Dean and Cary C. Boshamer Professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He teaches courses in human-information interaction, interface design and testing, and digital libraries. He also heads the Interaction Design Laboratory at SILS - 21 February 2012

New book: The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing

The Librarian's Guide to Micropublishing: Helping Patrons and Communities Use Free and Low-Cost Publishing Tools to Tell Their Stories by Walt Crawford, is now available both in paperback from the publisher, Information Today, Inc. and in casewrap hardcover from Lulu

New publication: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries, the Center for Social Media at the School of Communication of American University, and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at the Washington College of Law of American University have released the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries

2012 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award

The Association of College and Research Libraries has announced the recipients of the 2012 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award – Seattle Central Community College Library; Champlain College Library, Burlington, Vt. and the Grand Valley State University Libraries, Allendale, Mich. Sponsored by ACRL and YBP Library Services, the award recognizes the staff of a college, university and community college library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution

TAPAS

TAPAS is the TEI Archival Publishing and Access Service for scholars and other creators of TEI data who need a place to publish their materials in different forms and ensure it remains accessible over time. Tapas is also for anyone interested in reading and exploring TEI data, and communicating with those that share that interest

NISO Webinar: Embracing the Cloud: Real Life Examples of Library Cloud Implementation

NISO Webinar: Embracing the Cloud: Real Life Examples of Library Cloud Implementation - February 8, 2012 - 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

SANE Journal

Walailak Journal of Science and Technology

Ingenierías USBMed

Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada

Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Basic and Clinical Neuroscience

ACDI : Anuario Colombiano de Derecho Internacional

FreePint Newsletter 343

FreePint Newsletter 343 - 26 January 2011 now available

Book Grocer: 25-31 January 2012

Book Grocer: 25-31 January 2012 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

Know Your Copy Rights

Know Your Copy Rights - a Web site for librarians who are developing positive educational programs for academic users of copyrighted materials in US not-for-profit institutions. This site looks at copyright from the perspectives of all key academic stakeholders and suggests what each group can do to enhance their copyright practices and advance academic interests. To help libraries undertake a campus copyright educational campaign, a range of tools are offered. Your feedback on what is most useful is encouraged

Paula T. Kaufman Named 2012 ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year

Paula T. Kaufman, Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Dean of Libraries and university librarian and professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the 2012 Association of College and Research Libraries' Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. The award, sponsored by YBP Library Services, recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic/research librarianship and library development

American Library Association announces 2012 Youth Media Award winners

The American Library Association has announced the top books, video and audiobooks for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards – at its Midwinter Meeting in Dallas

Above the Fold - January 17, 2012

Above the Fold is a Web-based newsletter published by OCLC Research. It has been developed to serve a broad international readership from libraries, archives and museums - January 17, 2012 - Vol. 5, No. 3 now available

Final JFK White House recordings released

President John F Kennedy's presidential library has released the final 45 hours of his private recordings, representing the last months of Kennedy's life. The tapes include discussions on the growing conflict in Vietnam and plans for the 1964 election. Kennedy recorded many of his White House meetings secretly, keeping their existence away from top aides. The library has declassified and released portions of the tapes since 1993

60 more Open Access (OA) Journals with TOC RSS feeds added to JournalTOCs, the free journal current awareness service

Roddy MacLeod has added 60 more Open Access journals to JournalTOCs, where you can find the latest Tables of Contents from over 17,700 scholarly journals, including over 3,100 Open Access journals

RSC launches Biomaterials Science journal in collaboration with Kyoto University (iCeMS)

Academic and industrial researchers in the field of biomaterials have a new option for the publication of their research in 2012, with the launch of the latest Royal Society of Chemistry journal Biomaterials Science. The journal is a collaborative venture between RSC Publishing and Kyoto University's WPI Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan. The new journal bridges material science, biology, chemistry and physics and will ensure through free access the authors' work has maximum visibility

New Podcast: "The Power of Raised Expectations"

In this 21-minute interview, Senior Program Officer Roy Tennant talks with David Lankes, a professor and Dean's Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, the director of the library science program for the school, and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, about the power of raised expectations. In this wide-ranging and optimistic interview, Professor Lankes challenges us to raise our expectations - of ourselves, our colleagues, and of our institutions - to better serve our communities. He describes how fostering an environment where risk-taking and expectation of occasional failure (as opposed to mistakes) can better enable us to meet our challenges. He urges us to engage in lively conversations with the communities we serve and imagine what we could be instead of what we were. And he says all of this in a very engaging, interesting, and eloquent way

University of Delaware Library joins OCLC WorldShare community

The University of Delaware Library has selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services as its Web-based cooperative library management system for metadata management, acquisitions, circulation, discovery, license management and workflow improvements. The University of Delaware Library is the first member of the Association of Research Libraries to join the OCLC WorldShare Management Services community

JURN

JURN is a search-engine dedicated to indexing free 'open access' ejournals in the arts and humanities, along with other arts and scholarly publications offering free content

Search new London Docklands baptism records (UK)

findmypast.co.uk has just published 16,696 new London Docklands baptism records:

* St Dunstan, Stepney: 10,035 baptism entries spanning 1668-1679
* Christchurch, Spitalfields: 6,661 baptism entries spanning 1843-1875

National Digital Promise for Public Libraries (UK)

The Society of Chief Librarians has announced a National Digital Promise for public libraries in Wales, England and Northern Ireland that will set the standard for digital access in libraries. This Promise sets a minimum standard of digital resources available in the more than 4000 libraries across the UK. Key promises made in the National Digital Promise include:

* free access to the internet in every library (for a minimum period)
* 24/7 access to a virtual library online
* library staff trained to help people to go online
* the ability to join a library online, and much more

Upper Canada Land Petitions update

Library and Archives Canada has announced a major update to its online database "Upper Canada Land Petitions (1763–1865)."

* All suggestions for corrections received from users since the original launch in September 2010 have been integrated into the database
* More than 5,000 references to land petitions occurring in the Upper Canada Sundries have been added to the database

Through this updated online database, researchers can access more than 82,000 references to petitions for grants or leases of land created by individuals who lived in present-day Ontario between 1763 and 1865

SPARC enews/January 2012

SPARC enews/January 2012 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

Durham library cuts may affect 250 staff (UK)

Hundreds of workers face an anxious wait for news about their jobs, after the North-East's largest council unveiled plans to slash library opening hours. Labour-run Durham County Council wants to cut opening hours at all but one of its libraries - some by more than half - before outsourcing their management to a nonprofit-making trust

KBART project seeks input on e-holdings metadata in libraries and library consortia

The Knowledge Bases And related Tools Project (KBART) - a NISO / UKSG initiative - would like to hear your views on the importance of holdings metadata for open access and free content and holdings for consortia

Nineteenth Century Collections Online from Gale

Nineteenth Century Collections Online is the most ambitious scholarly digitization and publication project ever undertaken, providing full-text, fully searchable content from a wide range of primary sources for the "long" 19th century. Released incrementally beginning in mid-2012, the Nineteenth Century Collections Online publishing program allows libraries to customize and scale their selections to meet their specific collection needs. Modular, content-specific installments will explore the themes and movements most requested by scholars and researchers. Nineteenth Century Collections Online will include works in Western as well as non-Western languages, sourced from rare collections at libraries and other institutions around the globe

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - January 20, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: General Knowledge. "This week's brainteaser is to test the breadth as well as the depth of your knowledge" Answers here.

1. In the nursery rhyme, what had Little Bo-peep lost?
2. Is the colour vermilion blue, green or red?
3. Name the place in the Ukraine where there was a nuclear disaster on 26 April, 1986, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.
4. "Oxbridge" is a word that refers to what?
5. Which US actor starred in the films "The Magnificent Seven", "The Great Escape" and "Bullitt"?
6. Who has been president of France since 2007? - try to give both his names.
7. Who write the novels "Jamaica Inn", "Rebecca" and "Frenchman's Creek"?
8. Which part of the human body includes the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup?
9. In which two countries would you be most likely to find Walloons?
10. Can you name four of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

NISO publishes new recommended practice on Physical Delivery of Library Resources

The National Information Standards Organization has announced the publication of the new recommended practice: "Physical Delivery of Library Resources" (NISO RP-12-2012). The physical delivery of library materials is an integral component of the library resource sharing process. Despite the ever-increasing availability of electronic journals, e-books, and other digital resources, the movement of physical items remains a major concern and a major cost for many libraries. In one state, borrowing of returnable items increased by 107.4% in six years. A recent study showed that the average academic library spends more than $6,800/year for delivery services, with some libraries paying as high as $60,000. Given such volumes, libraries are struggling to deal with the labor and equipment costs, material wear and tear, and transit and sorting needs

Promoting good handling - Preservation Advisory Centre Training Day (UK)

Ensuring the safe use of collections by staff and readers is both good practice and a cost-effective method of preventing damage. Risk assessments regularly find that use of collections presents a high risk of damage, yet it is a risk that is easily mitigated. This training day is aimed at library and archive staff with responsibility for writing, implementing or promoting handling and use policies. The day communicates the role of good handling practices in the preservation of library and archive collections, outlines methods of promoting good handling practices within organisations and to users, and provides information that supports library and archive staff with the implementation of handling policies. It is led by Jane Pimlott and Sarah Hamlyn of the British Library - 14 March 2012 - British Library, London

Cambridge University Library's greatest treasures on show

An unpublished Rupert Brooke poem will sit alongside some of Cambridge University Library's greatest treasures when a free exhibition of highlights from its priceless collections opens to the public on January 18. Shelf Lives: Four Centuries of Collectors and their Books celebrates some of the men and women who have donated their libraries to Cambridge University over the past four hundred years, and the diverse and extraordinary treasures they owned. It brings together the cream of ten exemplary collections encompassing more than a millennium of the written and printed word

New from Bodleian Library Publishing - Brian Aldiss: An Exile on Planet Earth

Published to celebrate the deposit of the Brian Aldiss archive in the Bodleian Library, An Exile on Planet Earth brings together twelve personal and revealing essays by the master of science fiction, offering real insight into his life and work. This collection of essays, most of which are revised for this volume, is a testimony to the influences behind Brian Aldiss' writing, showing how the circumstances and events of his childhood are translated into strange metaphors in his novels and stories (the lonely boy playing on the beach in Walcot), how his identification with the 'exile' is a recurring theme throughout his work (it is surely no accident that he was asked to write an introduction to Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago), and how a world without children (Greybeard) expressed his grief at the temporary loss of his own children after his first marriage broke up

National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994

Featuring the complete archive of the magazine to the mid-1990s, National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994, includes every page and every photograph, all fully searchable through an intuitive interface

SpringerLink now offers more than 50,000 eBooks

Springer celebrates its 50,000th eBook, available on its online platform SpringerLink. In addition, as announced in October 2011, Springer will digitize nearly all books it has published since 1842. By adding the Springer Book Archives to SpringerLink by the end of 2012, the total number of titles will increase to well over 100,000 eBooks, including valuable historic research dating back to the 1840s

Balisage: The Markup Conference 2012

Balisage is an annual conference devoted to the theory and practice of descriptive markup and related technologies for structuring and managing information. The conference takes its name from the French term for 'markup', in a friendly gesture towards the city of Montréal, where for years people interested in markup have met each August for informed technical discussion, occasionally impassioned debate, good coffee, and the incomparable ambience of one of North America's greatest cities. (Despite the Francophone name, however, conference sessions, events, and publications are in English.) - August 7-10, 2012 - Montréal, Canada

University Publishing Online adds a further six academic presses to its portfolio

Cambridge University Press has announced the addition of six more academic presses to its University Publishing Online platform. 2012 will see the addition of content from Anthem Press, Boydell & Brewer, Edinburgh University Press, Nottingham University Press, Pickering & Chatto and the University of Adelaide Press. Launched in October 2011, University Publishing Online provides access to thousands of titles from scholarly Presses around the world, accessible through quick, powerful search and browse functionality

FT Digital Media Conference 2012

FT Digital Media Conference 2012 - 7-8 March 2012 - London, UK. "As the appetite for multi-devices, multi-screens and evolving platforms continues to soar, the FT conference will bring together innovators and business leaders from the world's most influential media companies to share their thoughts on how to succeed in this new connected world"

British Library Prints

British Library Prints features the most popular images from the British Library's archives, from iconic documents such as the Magna Carta to 20th century photographs by Fay Godwin. The British Library receives a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland. We hold over 150 million items, including maps, rare books, illustrations, paintings and photographs. To order your customised print simply select the image, paper, size and frame and your picture will be delivered to your home

Display commemorates Scott's South Pole expedition (Scotland)

One of the greatest stories of triumph and tragedy is told in a display at the National Library of Scotland. 'Scott's last expedition' uses material from NLS collections to recount the achievements of the men of the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. Four members of the expedition went with Captain Robert Falcon Scott on a gruelling trek across the Antarctic's snow and ice. Enduring extreme and hostile conditions, they reached the pole on 17 January 1912. It was an epic accomplishment, but it took its toll. All five men died on the return journey - when they were only a few miles from safety

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #182

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #182. "This week's episode brings a segment-sized version of the infamous Tech for Techies as well as an essay looking at the legislative steps for the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act and how there may yet be other points at which the bill could be killed." Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

RLUK/SCONUL briefing on the impact of Open Access

RLUK and SCONUL have commissioned from Alma Swan a short briefing on the impact of open access on researchers, universities and society. The briefing outlines the latest evidence on increased impact for researchers in terms of visibility, usage and citation, together with a description of the benefits for the profile of institutions and the wider economic impact for society

Tall Timbers Little Free Library (USA)

The Tall Timbers Little Free Library is part of a series of little lending libraries all over the United States. Each is a small enclosure that looks like a large birdhouse with a door. Constructed from Amish barn wood and plywood in the interior, each "little library" weighs no more than 50 pounds. The library can hold more than two dozen books depending on size, and is so popular that it must be filled and refilled every day

Huron Street Press furthers ALA's mission to the public

The American Library Association had announced the launch of a new publishing imprint, Huron Street Press. In line with ALA's mission to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all, Huron Street Press will publish a variety of titles designed to appeal to a broad consumer and library market

ALA announces new member benefit program with NetGalley

The American Library Association has announced the official launch of a new member benefit program for members in partnership with NetGalley. ALA members who sign up to request digital galleys from NetGalley can now add their ALA member number to their profile, to speed request approval and access to upcoming titles. NetGalley's catalog currently includes new titles from more than 140 publishers, and galleys can be read securely on all major reading devices and tablets. There is no charge for readers to use the site

Book Grocer: 18-24 January 2012

Book Grocer: 18-24 January 2012 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

FOSS4LIB

Is your library thinking about jumping into open source software, but not sure if you have the tools in place to succeed, or where to start? You've come to the right place. Whether you are looking to decide if open source software is right for your library or need help finding what open source software package meets your needs, this site has the content and the community to help you with those decisions

Search for your ancestors in the 1881 Scottish census

findmypast.co.uk has just published the 1881 Scottish census. The census recorded the population of Scotland at over 3.7 million in 1881

New book: Curriculum Materials Collections and Centers: Legacies from the Past, Visions of the Future

ACRL has announced the release of Curriculum Materials Collections and Centers: Legacies from the Past, Visions of the Future. Edited by Rita Kohrman, education resources librarian at Grand Valley State University, the book provides practical applications for curriculum material center operations that focus on the fundamental needs of students, faculty and current teachers

Irish names added to new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

A number of high-profile names from the North of Ireland are among the latest to be added to the newest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The lives of 217 men and women who died in 2008 are now part of the dictionary series, which includes 53,084 articles telling the life stories of 58,094 people. The new additions include a selection of people who shaped or commented on the recent history of the North. They are Sir John Hermon, Brian Keenan, Conor Cruise O'Brien, and Basil Kelly. The four Irishmen take their place alongside other new additions to the Oxford DNB including the dramatist Harold Pinter, science fiction and science writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the broadcast journalist Sir Charles Wheeler, jazz trumpeter and radio performer Humphrey Lyttelton and television performer Jeremy Beadle - all of whom died in 2008. The Oxford DNB is updated three times annually and published every January, May, and September

Library Journal: rate your satisfaction with your ILS

Library Journal is conducting a snap survey to determine library and patron satisfaction with integrated library systems (ILS) in both public and academic libraries

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography Version 6

The Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography includes selected English-language articles, books, conference papers, technical reports, unpublished e-prints and other scholarly textual sources that are useful in understanding electronic theses and dissertations. The bibliography does not cover digital media works (such as MP3 files), editorials, e-mail messages, interviews, letters to the editor, presentation slides or transcripts, or weblog postings. Version 6 now available

Deep Web Research 2012 by Marcus P. Zillman

Deep Web Research 2012 by Marcus P. Zillman is designed to give you the resources you need to better understand the history of the deep web research, as well as various classified resources that allow you to search through the currently available web to find those key sources of information nuggets only found by understanding how to search the "deep web"

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's new Library and Archives

Andy Leach, Director of Library and Archives Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, wrote on January 17, 2012:

"I am proud to announce that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's new Library and Archives officially opened its doors to the public this morning. A more elaborate grand opening celebration will happen in April during a week of events leading up to the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony here in Cleveland, so you might hear more about the Library and Archives at that point. For that reason, we're referring to today's opening as a "soft" one, but regardless, we're now officially serving the information needs of music scholars, teachers, students, and the general public. Please spread the word that we're open for business! I will close with a phrase my former boss and mentor Suzanne Flandreau might use at a moment like this...Onward and upward"

Sex Pistols artist Jamie Reid donates prints to Save Kensal Rise Library campaign (UK)

Legendary artist, Jamie Reid, who created the Sex Pistols’ album cover for God Save the Queen has designed and donated 200 signed limited edition prints to the Save Kensal Rise Library campaign. The prints will be sold for £30 a piece at the Masons Arms, in Harrow Road, Kensal Green on February 3. The event will mark National Libraries Day, which falls on February 4. The prints are currently on display in Los Angeles where they are being used to highlight the plight of British libraries following government cuts

Springer permits commercial use for its hybrid open access program

Springer is bringing Open Choice, its hybrid open access option, into line with the fully open access journals published by BioMed Central and SpringerOpen. As a result, all open access content at Springer will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license

D-Lib Magazine - January/February 2012 now available

D-Lib Magazine - January/February 2012 is now available. D-Lib Magazine is produced by Corporation for National Research Initiatives

C&RL News – January 2012

C&RL News – January 2012 is now freely available online from The Association of College and Research Libraries

Gloucestershire County Council reveals new library plan (UK)

Revised plans to save £1.8m from library services in Gloucestershire have been unveiled. The county council's previous plan to stop funding 10 libraries was reversed after it was judged unlawful at the High Court. Now, it proposes to end funding for seven libraries but continue to staff and run Matson and Tuffley libraries in Gloucester and Hesters Way, Cheltenham. A six week consultation is due to begin on 30 January. The draft strategy involves "a network" of nine main libraries being open six days a week, and 12 local libraries open five days a week

Major cancer societies to support new Wiley Open Access journal

Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has announced the launch of Cancer Medicine, a new Wiley Open Access journal. Cancer Medicine is a peer reviewed, open access, interdisciplinary journal providing rapid publication of cutting edge research from global biomedical and clinical researchers across all the oncologic specialties in cancer biology, clinical cancer research and cancer prevention. The journal's promise of full global reach is reinforced by its editorial leadership and support from prestigious journals and societies. Cancer Medicine has unprecedented support from three major cancer societies: American Cancer Society, Union for International Cancer Control, and Japanese Cancer Association

Springer in book partnership with American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy

Springer has signed a co-development partnership with the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy for the publication of books to be included in the Springer series Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. The agreement is to publish four edited volumes per year in the field of gene and cell therapy

Emerald launches Video Abstracts to showcase research (UK)

Emerald Group Publishing has announced the launch of its Video Abstracts Showcase, a new initiative that provides a platform for researchers to connect with their audience. These short summaries of recently published Emerald articles are filmed by the authors themselves, providing an opportunity to present an overview and the motivation behind their piece of work

Library taken over by charity to charge fees (UK)

Residents in Bexley will have to pay a membership fee to have full access to their public library. Bexley Library, which is run by the borough council, is to be handed over to a community group which is set to charge users £24 a year. Although non-paying users will still be able to borrow books, paying members will be able to take out more and keep them for an unlimited time. Other benefits will include some free time on public computers - all other computer time will be charged - discounts in the café and priority booking for events. There will also be a "gold" membership where customers can join as a patron for £75 a year. Bexley Village Community Library, the group taking control, said it would reinvest income earned through membership in new library stock. The move, which will come into effect on April 1, is expected to save council bosses about £40,000 a year. However, Bexley council said it would not be handing over control of any other libraries

HathiTrust Digital Library - Update on December 2011 Activities

HathiTrust Digital Library - Update on December 2011 Activities

Evaluating the impact of your public library service (UK)

How good is your library? How can you measure the impact you make? Designed for public library service managers, this one-day programme will help staff move beyond performance indicators to see the effectiveness of the library service. Participants will learn how to get to grips with evaluating service impact, incorporating this effort into the overall service monitoring and evaluation process, and learn how to put the evidence of success across in convincing ways

VIAF: The Virtual International Authority File

VIAF, implemented and hosted by OCLC, is joint project of several national libraries plus selected regional and trans-national library agencies. The project's goal is to lower the cost and increase the utility of library authority files by matching and linking widely-used authority files and making that information available on the Web

Selfridges to open in-store library (UK)

Selfridges is putting the shh... into shopping - by opening its own 15,000-book library. At a time when many libraries are under threat, the department store has opened a pop-up branch for the next seven weeks. It will run for the duration of the store-wide Words Words Words event, which is a celebration of the printed word. Four publishers - Penguin, Taschen, Faber and Thames And Hudson - have worked with the Oxford Street shop to curate the section, located in its basement Ultralounge area. Although the temporary nature of the library means visitors will be unable to take the books away, they can use the 3,500 sq ft space as a reading room and as a bookstore. They can also listen to audio books at listening posts, and read works on iPads. Celebrities including Miranda Hart, Thandie Newton and Sophie Dahl have also given visitors an insight into their favourite books

Dorset libraries seek volunteers (UK)

Campaigners in Dorset are warning that nine of the county's libraries could close unless sufficient numbers of volunteers can be found to run them. In July, the county council voted to withdraw funding from the libraries to save £800,000 a year by 2012. While campaigners say there has been "initial enthusiasm", they fear it may not be sustainable. The council says discussions are under way with community groups about keeping the sites open

Podcast: Henry III Fine Rolls (UK)

The fine rolls record sums of money offered to the king in return for concessions and favours, providing a fascinating record of what people wanted from royal government, and what they were willing to give for it. In the past, these records were only available as original Latin documents; this pioneering project has made them accessible to all by making the surviving rolls from the reign of Henry III (1216-1272) available online, complete with translations into English and supporting materials. In this talk Professor David Carpenter explores what light the rolls can shed on this crucial period of English history, and how people can use the fine rolls resource in their own research. David Carpenter is Professor of Medieval History at King's College London and a leading authority on the history of Britain in the central middle ages. David's numerous publications include The Struggle for Mastery (part of the Penguin History of Britain series) and he often appears on television and radio documentaries providing expertise on the medieval period

New libraries for Dalston, Deptford And Canada Water (UK)

A new library opens its doors on 23 January in Hackney, which the council says is one of the largest in the UK. Dalston C.L.R. James library is twice the size of the one it's replacing, covering three floors and with 32,000 items to read, watch or listen to. There are also 57 computers and free wifi throughout, so you could take your own laptop while drinking a coffee in the cafe...

Register & Read from JSTOR

Register & Read Beta is a new, experimental program to offer free, read-online access to individual scholars and researchers who register for a MyJSTOR account. Register & Read follows the release of the Early Journal Content as the next step in our efforts to find sustainable ways to extend access to JSTOR, specifically to those not affiliated with participating institutions

New journals from Inderscience Publishers

International Journal of Computational Systems Engineering

International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity

International Journal of Planning and Scheduling

International Journal of the Built Environment and Asset Management

International Journal of Web Science

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - January 13, 2011

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: General Knowledge. "This week's brainteaser is to test the breadth as well as the depth of your knowledge" Answers here.

1. In "Sesame Street" and the "Muppet Show", what sort of animal was Kermit?
2. Which rock group released albums called "Their Satanic Majesties Request" and "Sticky Fingers"?
3. The word "Hock" is used to refer to wine from which country?
4. Which animal is usually associated with Capricorn, the tenth sign of the zodiac?
5. Monza is well known for its motor-racing circuit. In which country is Monza?
6. "Zn" is the symbol for which chemical element?
7. Was the film "Casablanca" made before, during, or after the Second World War?
8. Who was the predecessor of John F. Kennedy as president of the United States?
9. What shape is the pitch in Australian Rules football?
10. What name is usually given to Beethoven's 3rd Symphony?

Credo Reference and SWETS announce new partnership

Credo Reference has announced a new partnership with SWETS. Under the agreement, SWETS will incorporate Credo Reference with over 1,500 reference works from more than 80 of the world's reference publishers into the SwetsWise eBook catalog

The CWA Dagger in the Library, 2012

Sponsored by the publishers, Random House, the Dagger is awarded to a writer nominated by library users and chosen by a panel of librarians, all of whom work with the public. This year's panel is chaired Karen Fraser, Executive Manager at Shetland Library, and includes librarians from throughout the UK

Proposed Somerset library cuts cancelled (UK)

A series of library funding cuts in Somerset will not go ahead, councillors have decided. Somerset County Council wanted to make funding cuts but the High Court found they did not comply with equality laws. Eleven libraries will now keep their funding, four mobile libraries will be reinstated and opening hours at 23 libraries will increase. About £600,000 will be spent on self service technology at some of the county's busiest libraries - BBC

Nancy Pearl presents Book Lust Rediscoveries

Book Lust Rediscoveries is a series devoted to reprinting some of the best (and now out of print) novels originally published between 1960-2000. Each book is personally selected by Nancy Pearl and includes an introduction by her, as well as discussion questions for book groups and a list of recommended further reading

Ragtime to riches, a musical legacy at the Bodleian Library (UK)

The Bodleian Libraries' first display in 2012 showcases a selection of material from the largest donation ever made to the library. Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1974, the collection belonged to Walter Harding who worked as a ragtime pianist in Chicago. He built the largest collection of popular music and verse from the 17th and 18th centuries in the world. Packed in 900 boxes weighing 20 tonnes, the donation was flown from Chicago to Oxford in two chartered aircraft. The display will tell the story of Walter Harding, his collection, and its journey to Oxford, and will showcase a selection of the remarkable and varied holdings of the collection. These range from rare Italian part books to broadsheet ballads, miniature theatres and eighteenth-century French opera. It will also explore the act of collecting: Harding’s meticulous indexing of his library, and his relationship with his books

ARL Statistics & Assessment Webcast Series

Online registration is now open for the 2012 ARL Statistics & Assessment Webcast Series, a set of free workshops designed to provide potential and current participants with vital information on the StatsQUAL® tools. Each workshop covers a variety of topics including the strategic aspects of a specific tool, the tool's development, objectives and goals for its implementation, promoting its purpose, analyzing results, and creating improvement strategies. This series of workshops highlights the impact of these tools in individual libraries as well as the tools' transformative agency in an environment where libraries are asked to demonstrate their value in new and innovative ways

SpringerPlus - open access journal

Springer's new open access journal SpringerPlus is a further addition to the publishing company's SpringerOpen portfolio, underlining its flexible publication strategy. It is the publisher’s first open access journal with a broad interdisciplinary approach covering the entire scientific spectrum. Papers from emerging areas of research are welcome

FreePint Newsletter 342

FreePint Newsletter 342 - 12 January 2011 now available

Springer partners with Belgian Neurological Society

Springer and the Belgian Neurological Society will collaborate to publish the journal Acta Neurologica Belgica. Founded in 1900, ANB is the second-oldest neurological publication in Europe. The first volume with Springer, Vol. 112, No. 1, will be published in March 2012. It was formerly published by Publications Acta Medica Belgica

Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings - BBC/British Library

Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings and explores the medieval world they reveal

Military Archives (Ireland)

The mission of the Military Archives is to acquire, preserve and make available to the public the documentary heritage of the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence. As such, the Military Archives is the place of deposit for the archives of the Defence Forces, the Department of Defence and the Army Pensions Board, under the terms of the National Archives Act, 1986. Archives are records with a special significance, records that are deemed to be of enduring value, for a variety of reasons. The term record includes paper documents such as 'one off' files, letters and memoranda, as well as pictorial records such as photographs and film. This is unlike the material held in a typical library, which is almost always printed or published material that has been widely disseminated in bound volume (book) format. Archives are therefore absolutely unique and irreplaceable: once lost they can never be recovered. Increasingly, archives today are also acquired in electronic format - whether sound, image or text digital files

HathiTrust exceeds 10 million volumes in its digital collections

HathiTrust reached a major milestone on January 5, 2012, exceeding 10 million volumes in its digital collections. More than 2.7 million of these volumes are in the public domain, with viewing and downloading options available online

The Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists

The Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists is a compact but highly complex, multi-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images. Some of its components, including copies of records of the Montgomery Improvements Association and many hours of oral history of the renowned cival liberties lawyer Clifford Durr, complement major holdings in other American archives. Other components of the Rabin Collection are unique. These include an updated filmed interview of Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) in Montgomery; 450 black-and-white photographs created by the Subversive Unit of the Investigative and Identification Division of the Alabama Department of Public Safety in the course of sit-ins, demonstrations, and marches in several Alabama cities during the early to mid-1960s; and surveillance tapes preserving speeches made variously at an anniversary meeting of the MIA in 1963, at the conclusion of the Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965, and in Bessemer and Birmingham, Alabama, in the course of the Poor People's Campaign of 1968. Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy are among many leading lights of the civil rights movement heard on these tapes

Hispanic Research Journal - Maney's Journal of the Month

Maney Publishing's Journal of the Month in January is the 'Hispanic Research Journal'. Maney has made 3 years' worth of content completely free to download

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #181

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #181. "This week's program takes a look at the continuing issue that is the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act." Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

OCLC working with SkillSoft to add records for Books24x7 digital book catalog to WorldCat

OCLC is working with SkillSoft to add records for the Books24x7 digital book catalog to WorldCat

The Bielefeld Conference 2012 (Germany)

The 10th International Bielefeld Conference 2012 will provide ideas to renew structures of documents, data, services and organisations, i.e. the Conference will present a vision of future INFO-Structures - 24-26 April 2012 - Germany

Toronto budget committee votes to chop library, but save two pools in Ford allies' wards (Canada)

Toronto's budget committee has voted to cut an extra $7 million from the budget of the library system, a decision that will mean reducing some combination of branch hours, reading programs and book purchases if it's approved by council next week. Defying Mayor Rob Ford's demand for a 10 per cent cut, the library board voted in the fall to approve a cut of only 5.9 per cent, or $10 million. But council has the final say, and the conservative-dominated budget committee voted Monday to force the board to meet Ford's target. The committee also voted to save two of seven threatened school pools. Both are located in communities represented by Ford allies - a fact the conservatives said was coincidental and left-leaning Ford critics said was not - The Star

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Psiencia. Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencia Psicológica

Research Journal of Science and IT Management

International Journal of Medicine and Public Health

Revista de Derecho Privado

Journal of Comparative Social Work

Chris Sharp and Tara Robertson awarded Code4Lib Conference scholarships from Equinox Software

Equinox Software has announced that Chris Sharp from Georgia Public Library Service and Tara Robertson from Emily Carr University of Art + Design will receive scholarships to the Code4Lib Conference in Seattle, Washington. The award includes reimbursement for registration as well as travel and accommodation expenses

Copyright Clearance Center acquires Pubget

Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. has acquired Pubget, a solutions provider focused on expediting the acquisition and analysis of content. Pubget offers search, retrieval and browse capabilities for content

MmIT National Conference 2012 (UK)

MmIT National Conference 2012 (UK) - Reduced Budgets? Increased Impact!. Increasing LIS impact with new technologies - 17 April 2012 - Sheffield

Free fitnes claases at Bristol Public Library, CT (USA)

Starting in February, Bristol Public Library, CT (USA) will be promoting community health and fitness by offering free fitness classes including laughter yoga, Nia, Qigong, and Zumba as well as several healthy eating workshops

Health Libraries Group - new website (UK)

The Health Libraries Group is a UK based network of individuals working in or professionally interested in health and social care information. Our 1500 members work for the health service, the academic sector, the independent sector, government departments, professional associations, charities and public libraries. We are a Special Interest Group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). The HLG Business Plan has as one of its objectives to 'create distinct identity for HLG through developing independent website with Web 2.0 functionality and enhanced resources for member'

Alexander Street Anthropology

Alexander Street Anthropology is a comprehensive resource for the study of human culture and behavior. Featuring cross-searchable access to the acclaimed Ethnographic Video Online and Anthropology Online collections, Alexander Street Anthropology provides Anthropologists, Sociologists and cultural historians with an expansive and multifaceted survey of the discipline. Researchers can explore a wide range of materials - from documentaries and field notes to written ethnographies and reference works

Digital Library Digest: January 6, 2012

Digital Library Digest: January 6, 2012 is now available from the Digital Public Library of America

2012 WebWise Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital Age (USA)

A signature initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the WebWise Conference annually brings together representatives of museums, libraries, archives, systems science, education, and other fields to explore the many opportunities made possible by digital technologies. WebWise 2012 will take up the theme of "Tradition and Innovation," investigating how libraries and museums have used digital technologies to help scholars, students, educators, and the general public understand history and the humanities - February 29 - March 2, 2012 - Baltimore, MD, USA

Detroit neighbors refuse to give up east side library (USA)

For residents of Detroit's lower east side, the historic Monteith Branch Library was one of the last existing signs of public subsidy and support. In a neighborhood where city services have diminished to the point of non-existence, the library served as a focal point for scholastic resources and community gatherings. Folks living near Monteith Library are now mounting a sustained campaign to reopen its doors. The seven-member Detroit Library Commission announced the closure of four branch libraries in November 2011. Citing budget shortfalls and decreasing property taxes, the commission executed those closures December 22 - The Michigan Citizen

Decatur Public Library partners with fitness centers to provide free exercises classes (USA)

Area residents visiting the Decatur Public Library, Illinois, for health and fitness information this winter will also have the opportunity to try out various exercise styles. The library has joined with the Decatur Indoor Sports Center and Decatur Family YMCA to provide a series of free trial exercise classes and demonstrations this month. The classes will focus on a range of different workout types to help area residents of all ages and skill levels get started on their New Year's resolutions, said Amanda Standerfer, head of the library's adult division. "I know a lot of New Year's resolutions are around exercising and getting fit," she said. Standerfer said she hopes the fitness offerings, which will include tai chi, karate and Zumba and recently included a Pilates class, will offer something new to existing library patrons and also attract some new visitors. Some people might feel more comfortable trying out an exercise class at the library than they would feel walking into a gym or fitness center for the first time, she said. Standerfer said the library is a unique place to hold exercise classes because people can also access a wealth of information and resources about various health topics. She recently set up a display with DVDs and books on exercise topics

City plans to close libraries all day on Mondays; aldermen infuriated (Chicago, USA)

Chicago Public libraries will close all day Mondays - instead of Monday and Friday mornings as promised - stunning and infuriating aldermen who thought they had an agreement with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. "That's not what was proposed or voted on. It's completely contrary. We need to sit down quickly and get back to the original agreement, which was keep those libraries open" every day, said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), who led the charge against the library cuts. The mayor's plan to reduce library hours and impose draconian job cuts that would impact library services at all hours fast emerged as the most controversial element of the mayor's 2012 budget. Aldermen from across the city decried the mayor's decision to reduce corporate fund support for libraries by $10 million - even as the city continues to build new libraries on top of the 59 constructed under former Mayor Richard M. Daley

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Research in Plant Biology

African Review of Physics

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research

International Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry

Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education

Contexto

Derecho Penal y Criminología

Revista e-Mercatoria

Anuario Turismo y Sociedad

La Propiedad Inmaterial

International Journal of Optimization and Control : Theories & Applications

International Journal of Agriculture : Research and Review

January 2012 batch of Early Reviewer books is up at LibraryThing

The January 2012 batch of Early Reviewer books is now available at LibraryThing. There are 2069 copies of 86 books available this month

Universities raise £50million - from fining students for overdue library books (UK)

Universities have raised nearly £50 million from fining students for overdue library books, figures have revealed. Top of the pile was Leeds University, which has raised more than £1.8 million in the last six years. In second place was Manchester University, which collected almost £1.3 million and in third was the University of Wolverhampton with £1.25 million. At the bottom of the table was Imperial College London, which collected just £26,703 in fines. With fines as little as 10p for each day a book is overdue, it shows that students are returning thousands of books late each year. However, many are never returned at all as more than 300,000 books remain unaccounted for from universities across the country. Leading the way at number one was Bucks New University with 30,540, closely followed by Oxford University with 20,923 and the University of Kent with 19,613. In order to avoid paying the full price to their university for a new copy, some students are turning to the internet and buying replacements from Amazon. The figures were revealed in Freedom of Information requests to all of Britain's universities by the Press Association - Mirror

Journal of Scholarly Publishing - January 2012

Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Volume 43, Number 2, January 2012 is now available from University of Toronto Press

View previously hidden details of your family's health in 1911 (UK)

findmypast.co.uk has just published the 'infirmity' column of the 1911 census. If your ancestors completed this part of their census return, you'll be able to see fresh information about your family's illnesses and conditions in 1911

First Monday - January 2012

First Monday - Volume 17, Number 1, 2 January 2012 now available. First Monday is a Great Cities Initiative of the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library, USA

Wandsworth opens the competition to save London's libraries (UK)

Maintaining a high quality network of libraries is a challenge for local authorities in these tough times. As budgets are cut we must be more inventive and prepared to take bold steps to protect this vital local service. In Wandsworth our big idea is to look at competitively tendering our library and heritage service. We believe a new and competitive market of library service providers has emerged with the potential to improve delivery and reduce costs. If another organisation can do a better job, we will open the door - Jonathan Cook in The Guardian

Christmas Kindle sales reach 1.2 million

More than 1.3 million e-readers were sold in the UK pre-Christmas, equating to one in every 40 adults receiving the device as a present this year, new research has shown. Of those sold 92 per cent were Kindle products, produced by global e-tail giant Amazon, according to a recent survey conducted by research firm YouGov and published today, making it the most popular technology gift of Christmas 2011 - Retail Gazette

Above the Fold - December 19, 2011

Above the Fold is a Web-based newsletter published by OCLC Research. It has been developed to serve a broad international readership from libraries, archives and museums - December 19 2011 - Vol. 4, No. 45 now available

Crossroads - January 2012

Crossroads: the newsletter of WebJuntion.org - December 2011 issue is now available. RSS feed

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - January 6, 2011

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Weather. "All these questions are about the weather, or things that have "weather" in their names" Answers here.

1. What is a weather vane?
2. In which ocean does El Niño occur?
3. What is the difference between "weather" and "climate"?
4. What was the name of the jazz-rock group founded in 1971 by Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul?
5. In 1803, Luke Howard devised a classification of clouds into three primary types. Can you name two of these types?
6. The US terrorist group the Weathermen took their name from a line in a song by which writer?
7. What is measured by the Beaufort scale?
8. Is an anti-cyclone a region of high or low atmospheric pressure?
9. What is a "weather front"?
10. An anemometer is an instrument for measuring what?

Eight international research funders announce winners of 2011 Digging into Data challenge

Analysing 600 years of music, drilling down into population databases, understanding social unrest through digitised newspapers – these are just some of the new lines of research that the winners of the second Digging into Data Challenge will now undertake. Their research is part of an international competition that promotes innovative humanities and social science research using large-scale data analysis. Funded by eight international research organisations from four countries – including JISC, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the arts and humanities research council (AHRC) from the UK - the successful 14 teams are mixed groups of researchers from the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. They will receive grants of over £3m in total to investigate how computational techniques typically applied to the sciences can also be applied to change humanities and social sciences research

Publishing partnership signed between Springer and the American Society of Pharmacometrics

Springer's Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics has announced an affiliation with the American Society of Pharmacometrics (ASoP) starting in 2012. Publishing six issues per year, the journal presents cutting-edge research for pharmaceutical scientists in industry and academia. The publication was launched in 1973 and had an impact factor (IF) of 1.708 in 2010

Alexander Street Press launches two new collections

Alexander Street Press has announced the launch of two highly anticipated collections: Classical Scores Library: Volume II, the first online score collection for libraries composed mostly of in-copyright classical scores from major composers; and Anthropology Online, a comprehensive resource that at completion will contain more than 100,000 pages of written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs and contemporary studies from major archives around the world - many previously unpublished

New from Bodleian Library Publishing, Travel: A Literary History

"The first general survey of the history of travel literature, covering more than 3000 years from the ancient world to the present day, has just been released by Bodleian Library Publishing. Written in a clear accessible style, Travel: A Literary History focuses on almost 200 key authors, from Pliny the Elder to Colin Thubron, and including Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, Thomas Coryate, Captain Cook, T.E. Lawrence, and Christopher Columbus as well as Boswell and Johnson, Byron, Ruskin, Defoe, Conrad, and James"

Legal action over Surrey council's library plans (UK)

An action group has started a legal process against Surrey County Council's plans which it said will lead to library closures. The Conservative-run council agreed in September to devolve responsibilities to groups of volunteers at 10 libraries in the county. The Surrey Libraries Action Movement (SLAM) is seeking a judicial review of the council's decision making process. A council spokeswoman said it would not be commenting. Lawyers acting for SLAM have sent a pre-action letter to the council requesting it to reverse the decision. The group said further action would be taken if the council does not respond by 10 January

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Completely Updated - December 2011

Sabrina I. Pacifici's comprehensive, current awareness guide focuses on leveraging a wide but selected range of reliable, focused, predominantly free websites and resources to effectively track, monitor, analyze, background and review current and historical data, news, reports, and profiles on companies, markets, countries, people, and issues, from a global perspective. Sabrina's guide is a "best of" web resource that encompasses search engines, databases, alerts, publisher specific services and tools, along with links to content targeted sources produced by leading media organizations, governments, academia, NGOs and independent researchers

ACRL Roadshow Workshop: Scholarly Communications: From Understanding to Engagement

ACRL will once again be offering the Scholarly Communications Road show at a subsidized rate. Now titled "Scholarly Communication: From Understanding to Engagement," the road show was originally offered to raise awareness about scholarly communications in the community. ACRL initially underwrote the full costs of the then named "Scholarly Communications 101 - Starting with the Basics" program to support this goal. The program has evolved from this central goal of awareness building and three successful years later, the program now supports in-depth training as institutions are developing scholarly communications programming. As the workshop's goals have moved from raising awareness to training, the road show program is transitioning into an established ACRL professional development program in alignment with ACRL's other offerings. In 2012, the program will be expanded and enhanced to a full day workshop with more applied programmatic elements while still retaining much of the "101 basics" elements. The program will also move to a cost sharing model. In 2012-13, virtual program offerings will be developed

Book Grocer: 4-10 January 2012

Book Grocer: 4-10 January 2012 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

Springer launches SpringerLink mobile app for iPhone

Springer has launched the SpringerLink mobile app for iPhone and iPod Touch. It is free to download from the iTunes App Store providing access to the science platform www.springerlink.com containing articles and chapters from over 2,000 peer-reviewed journals and 49,000 books. In total SpringerLink is offering over 5.4 million documents spanning every area of science, technology and medicine

1940 Census Records to be released April 2012 (USA)

The 1940 census will be released online on April 2, 2012. The digital images will be accessible free of charge at NARA facilities nationwide through our public access computers as well as on personal computers via the internet

Your Paintings now on Twitter

Your Paintings has launched on Twitter with the aptly named @Your_Paintings. The Public Catalogue Foundation - the BBC's partner for Your Paintings - will be doing the tweeting. By following @Your_Paintings you can keep up-to-date with the latest developments, including news of the most recent additions of paintings, collections, features and functions to the site

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #180 (Part 2)

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #180 (Part 1). "This is the second part of LISTen's 2011 New Year's Eve Special that originally aired on shortwave powerhouse WBCQ" Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #180 (Part 1)

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #180 (Part 1). "This is the first part of LISTen's 2011 New Year's Eve Special that originally aired on shortwave powerhouse WBCQ." Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Revista Derecho del Estado

Free Radicals and Antioxidants

Pediatria Wspó?czesna

Advanced Pharmaceutical BulletinEpilepsy Research and Treatment

Andamios. Revista de Investigación Social

Anatomy Research International

Case Reports in Veterinary Medicine

Leukemia Research and Treatment

Sleep Disorders

Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Lake Superior State University releases 37th annual list of banished words

Lake Superior State University released its 37th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness a day early this year, on December 30, 2011

Today is Public Domain Day

The Public Domain Day (each year's January 1st) website is an initiative of COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain. The aim is to raise worldwide awareness about the role of the public domain in our societies and to provide resources and information

Red phone box turned into Little Eaton village library (UK)

A red telephone box which was bought for £1 has been turned into a village library in Derbyshire. The former public payphone, which was purchased by Little Eaton Parish Council, was converted into a book exchange after a suggestion by the village book club. The box on Alfreton Road has been stocked through local donations. Clare Howard, from the book club, said a library was the one facility the village lacked. "We've got the butcher, a chemist, a doctor, pubs and shops but we didn't have a library," she said. "The phone box was outside my house, looking a bit shabby and not doing much. Once we knew it was possible we said, 'let's go for it'." People can go to the exchange take a book and swap it for one of their own or one they are returning. The idea was inspired by other renovated telephone boxes, including a mini art gallery and tourist information centre

Podcast: New files from 1981 (UK National Archives)

An overview of newly-released government files from 1981 including discussion of the major stories of the year. From urban riots and IRA hunger strikes to splits in Cabinet over economic policy, 1981 was an extremely challenging year for Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government. Contemporary records specialists Mark Dunton and Simon Demissie delve into the files for new revelations. Introduced by Tommy Norton

Report on Federal Copyright Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings (USA)

The United States Copyright Office has recommended that pre-1972 sound recordings should be protected by federal copyright law in its Report on Federal Copyright Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings. Currently, these older sound recordings are protected by state laws under which copyright exceptions such as library and archival preservation and fair use are uncertain. This uncertainty leads to caution on the part of music librarians and archivists to actively preserve sound recordings - some in fragile or obsolete formats and extremely rare

Webinar: Creating a Digital Media Lab at Your Library

This webinar will explore the new wave of creative spaces appearing in public libraries all over the United States and explain why libraries have an essential role to play in digital media creation. Toby Greenwalt and Mick Jacobsen from the Skokie (Ill.) Public Library will share their insights on how to sell the concept of a Digital Media Lab to library administration, set up a space that fits any budget, and offer programs and services that maintain public interest over time - January 25, 2012

Human Resources library closure part of troubling trend (Canada)

Ottawa Citizen: The announcement that the departmental library at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada will be closed in little more than a year is "a generic problem," says the member of a group protesting recent cuts and changes to the Library and Archives of Canada. "The federal government is really cutting back on its obligations to provide library and archive services both for its own staff and for the public," says James Turk, who is also executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. "It's going to do damage that's not going to be reparable." The HRSDC library, which operates out of Gatineau and Montreal, will be shut down and its contents relocated or sold, a departmental spokesperson said in an email. "Our employees are researching and accessing information online more than ever. To address this trend while ensuring we use taxpayer's dollars wisely, we will no longer operate an internal library as of March 31, 2013," the email said

HarperCollins' Collins Language dictionary is going digital

HarperCollins' Collins Language dictionary is going digital. The company has created an ad-supported website at collinsdictionary.com to let Internet users check English language definitions for free. The library which has about 120,000 words available is in the process of upping its content and will have almost double that number of words by March

Council defies public and goes ahead with library closures (Croydon, UK)

Croydon Council is to close "several" of the borough's libraries, according to a letter from a councillor in a neighbouring borough. This apparent determination to close any Croydon libraries comes in spite of overwhelming public opposition to closure plans in a consultation conducted by the council 12 months ago and the council's legal requirement to provide a comprehensive and efficient public library service. Croydon's libraries, under the malign stewardship of Councillor Sara "Book Token" Bashford, have endured a policy of "managed neglect" since 2010, with trained librarians made redundant or retired and unreplaced. When Bashford's scheme to pick off up to six of Croydon's libraries for closure encountered widespread hostility from local residents there was a public change of tack - Inside Croydon