LISTen: An LISNews.org Program - Episode #161

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #161. "This week's episode goes madly off in all directions". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

Discovery (UK)

In 2010, the JISC and RLUK Resource Discovery Taskforce worked with stakeholders from the libraries, archives and museums to set out a Vision for making the most of our resources by effectively positioning their metadata for discovery and reuse within the global information ecosystem. Our aim is that Discovery will help to mobilise and energise the community, engaging stakeholders to create a critical mass of open and reusable data, and explore what open data makes possible through real-world exemplars and case studies

Library-press collaboration presentation slides (USA)

The ALCTS Scholarly Communications Interest Group hosted the panel discussion, Library-Press Collaboration: How do they work together to advance scholarly communication?, on June 25 during the ALA Annual Conference. Raym Crow (SPARC) was the moderator and the panelists were James Mullins (Purdue University), Kizer Walker (Cornell University), and John Wilkin (University of Michigan and HathiTrust). The panelists' presentation slides and the audio recordings of this event are now available

The Summer Reading Challenge launched in Scotland by the new Children's Laureate

The Summer Reading Challenge in Scotland was launched at the McDonald Road Library, Edinburgh by Julia Donaldson MBE, the newly appointed UK Children's Laureate. The Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge, run with libraries, is the UK's most successful reading promotion for 4-11 year olds and is being supported for the first time by Tesco Bank as part of their investment in literary programmes for children in Scotland. Children from nearby Leith Walk Primary School were invited along to see that their local library had been transformed into a Big Top, in keeping with this year's Circus Stars theme. They were welcomed by a ringmaster, jugglers and clowns before being treated to an exclusive performance by Donaldson, best-selling author of The Gruffalo, Cave Baby and Tyrannosaurus Drip, amongst others

The Children's Bookshow 2011 (UK)

The Children's Bookshow is an organisation that arranges an annual tour of children's authors and illustrators. The tour takes place in the autumn and coincides with Children's Book Week

Inside Penguin - a live webchat on 14 July

At Penguin, we often get asked about how publishing works and who exactly does what, so with this in mind we've decided to set up a series of live webchats with people working in different roles around the company. The aim is to give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the publishing industry really works, from the initial idea for a book, through its production to the bookshop and beyond.

To start things off, the copywriters are going to be here to reveal the secrets of their trade on Thursday 14 July between 1 and 2pm. They work within Penguin's marketing departments, writing blurbs, book titles and subtitles, advertising and a whole lot more. It's quite a distinctive role in publishing, and one that's going to change more and more in the digital age

Podcast: Overseas births, marriages and deaths: records in The National Archives (UK)

There is no single place to find all the birth, marriage and death records of the British overseas. However, The National Archives holds a substantial number of them, in a variety of record collections. This talk looks at civilian and military registers kept by the British authorities, and by churches, consulates and other bodies abroad. Please note that this talk does not include events at sea, which are the subject of a separate talk. Speaker Keith Mitchell joined The National Archives ten years ago and specialises in overseas birth, marriage and death records

Exhibition: 'Lux in Arcana' - the Vatican Secret Archives unveiled

A forthcoming exhibition in Rome, entitled 'Lux in Arcana' - the Vatican Secret Archives unveiled has been announced. The show will open in Rome's Capitoline Museums in February 2012. Speaking at a press conference, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone Tarcisio said: "the inherent richness of this exhibition is amplified by the fact that it is being organised outside the Vatican, on the Capitol Hill which symbolically represents the 'heart' of Rome and its relationship with the papal city down the centuries. The challenge was to make the resources of the Vatican Secret Archives, with all their academic knowledge and experience, converge with those of the capital city, the Capitoline Museums and the office of the superintendent for archives and museums of the local authorities of Rome"

Exhibition: Fame, Fortune, and Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio

From the 1620s through the twenty-first century, the Shakespeare First Folio influenced the industries of conservation, editing, and book-collecting, eventually becoming a cause for idolatry in itself. This exhibition explores the complex history of the First Folio, from its humble beginnings in the seventeenth century to stories of theft and recovery of an idolized book, recounting how it came to mean so much across cultures and continents - Folger Shakespeare Library until September 3, 2011

New blog: The National Library of Ireland

The new blog from The National Library of Ireland is now available

The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival at Dartington Hall (UK)

The 2011 Telegraph Ways With Words festival of words and ideas is a vibrant and joyful 10-day event, a chance for those who read books to meet those who write them. The setting is glorious, the atmosphere is invigorating. People come together in spectacular surroundings to share the pleasure and power of language and ideas. The warmth and energy of this lively gathering make it a memorable occasion - 8 - 18 July 2011
Tag: @Ways_With_Words

New journals from Inderscience Publishers

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology

International Journal of Satellite Communications Policy and Management

International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

International Journal of Management Development

New title in PubMed Central

Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry

Virtual conference: Ebooks: The New Normal

Ebooks: The New Normal, a one-day virtual conference, will bring together public, academic and school librarians (K-12), vendors, publishers, and industry experts to address how libraries are leveraging the ebook opportunity to improve service and reach more users than ever before. The event offers something for everyone, from building an ebook strategy and collection to mastering the transition and even how to market ebooks to patrons - October 12, 2011

Computers in Libraries 2012 (USA)

Creating Innovative Libraries is what librarians, systems and information professionals, and teams of other partners and experts do with computers, the internet and cutting edge technology. At Computers in Libraries 2012, the focus is on practices and techniques, technology, and the "secret sauce" or "extra" that creates innovative libraries. The conference program is filled with ideas, leading edge practices, tips and techniques for creating innovative libraries, engaging communities, as well as designing and delivering strategic services that are of primary importance to our communities. The emphasis is on thinking outside of the box, learning from other industries, finding strategic partners, and creating value for our user communities with new tools, techniques and skills that build innovative and priority services - March 21-23, 2011 - Washington, DC, USA

New journal: The Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication

A joint publishing partnership between the libraries at Pacific University (OR) and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (CA) has announced a new open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to library-led scholarly communication initiatives, online publishing and digital projects. The Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication will provide a focused forum for library practitioners to share ideas, strategies, research and pragmatic explorations of library-led initiatives related to such areas as institutional repository and digital collection management, library publishing/hosting services and authors’ rights advocacy efforts. As technology, scholarly communication, the economics of publishing, and the roles of libraries all continue to evolve, the work shared in JLSC will inform practices that strengthen librarianship. The first issue is planned for early 2012, with rolling publication of quarterly issues thereafter. All content will be open access upon publication and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license

Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, and Pet Shop Boys back Kensal Rise Library (UK)

Stars of the music world including Nick Cave (left), Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, and Goldfrapp are backing a campaign to save a local London library. The musicians have thrown their weight behind the drive to save Kensal Rise Library, which has been threatened with closure due to budget cuts, and they are auctioning off memorabilia online to help raise funds. Cave is selling the handwritten lyrics to his 1995 collaboration with Kylie Minogue, Where The Wild Roses Grow, while Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Goldfrapp and Sinead O'Connor are auctioning signed CDs

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

International Journal on Internet and Distributed Computing Systems

TESL Canada Journal

continent.

ZEF Working Papers Series

Vestnik of Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building

C&RL News – July/August 2011

C&RL News – July/August 2011 is now freely available online from The Association of College and Research Libraries

OverDrive: DRM-free eBooks are now available to libraries

All OverDrive-powered libraries can now add DRM-free eBooks to their digital collections

HathiTrust Digital Library - Update on June 2011 Activities

HathiTrust Digital Library - Update on June 2011 Activities:

July 2011 batch of Early Reviewer books now available at LibraryThing

The July 2011 batch of Early Reviewer books is now available at LibraryThing. There are 2918 copies of 100 books available this month

Books & Babies: Communicating Reproduction (Cambridge University Library)

The history of human reproduction - via its communication through the ages - is examined in a ground-breaking exhibition opening this week at Cambridge University Library. Books and Babies brings together items such as a medieval bestiary and an eighteenth-century Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus with research notes by IVF pioneer Robert Edwards. Edwards' notes and the embryo culture chamber he used to incubate human embryos are believed to be on public display for the first time. The free exhibition, part of the major five-year Generation to Reproduction project run by the University and funded by the Wellcome Trust, is the first ever to examine the communication of reproduction throughout thousands of years of history. It opens, free to the public, from July 7

Parliamentary proceedings go online (Kenya)

Kenyans can now access records of parliamentary proceedings dating back from 1959 online. This follows digitisation of parliamentary Hansard by the Kenya Law Report, Google Kenya, Kenya ICT Board, and the National Assembly

NISO publishes special E-book issue of Information Standards Quarterly

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has announced the publication of the Spring 2011 issue of the Information Standards Quarterly magazine with a special issue theme of Views of the E-book Renaissance. ISQ Guest Content Editor, October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions has pulled together a broad range of perspectives on what is happening today with e-books and particularly with e-book standards. As she states in her introductory letter: "Our goal for this issue of ISQ is to present an overview of the status of e-books from multiple perspectives-publishers and other content producers, librarians, and the many vendors who support their creation, management, sales, and distribution. Not coincidentally, it also illustrates the scope of the NISO community."

London Street Photography Festival (UK)

The London Street Photography Festival is an exciting new event in London's cultural calendar which will champion the best contemporary street photographers, honor past masters and provide a space for discussion, debate and appreciation of the current relevance of this time-honored genre. The festival takes place throughout July with a diverse programme of exhibitions, events, talks, walks and workshops

Berghahn Books Librarian's Newsletter - June 2011

Berghahn Books Librarian's Newsletter – June 2011 issue is now available

Palgrave Macmillan announces EPUB now available for all 2011 collections

Palgrave Macmillan has announced that all 2011 Subject Collections are now available in EPUB format

Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries online guide

Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries is an online guide to thousands of items - diaries, commonplace books, correspondence, legal documents, University records, drawings, maps, student notebooks, scientific observations, and lecture notes - that form the documentary history of Harvard and serve as one of the great social history collections on the evolving United States. Together, these materials provide insight into the material culture of colonial life, the legal and social concerns of citizens, the costs of goods and services, the books that influenced thought and education, and myriad other aspects of the material and intellectual life in New England

2011 International Literature Award winner

Venushaar by Russian author Michail Schischkin, translated by Andreas Tretner, won the 2011 International Literature Award, honoring works of "international prose translated into German for the first time." The €35,000 (US$31,450) prize, which has been awarded annually by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the foundation Elementarteilchen since 2009, is divided between the author (€25,000) and translator (€10,000)

2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards winners announced (Australia)

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced the winners of the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Debut novelist Stephen Daisley won the fiction prize for his novel Traitor and the award for non-fiction went to Rod Moss for The Hard Light of Day. The young adult fiction category was won by Cath Crowley for Graffiti Moon. The children's fiction award went to author Boori Monty Pryor and illustrator Jan Ormerod for their picture book Shake a Leg. The Prime Minister congratulated the winners who were selected from 20 shortlisted books across four categories

CARL E-Lert # 430

CARL E-Lert # 430, July 8 2011 from Canadian Association of Research Libraries. Some of this week's items: Canada plays critical role in world's largest scientific initiative - Rôle déterminant du Canada dans la plus ambitieuse initiative scientifique au monde / World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data / OECD Communiqué on principles for Internet policy-making / Suber: Leader of a Leaderless Revolution / Assessing Innovation in Corporate and Government Libraries

Visualising China has been launched

Visualising China is a JISC-funded project to allow users to explore and enhance more than 8000 digitised images of photographs of China taken between 1850 and 1950. It allows access to many previously unseen albums, envelopes and private collections and also major collections such as Historical Photographs of China, the Sir Robert Hart Collection and Joseph Needham's Photographs of Wartime China. These have many sub-collections and albums. We hope you will contribute by using your knowledge to comment on or annotate these images

CLPE Poetry Award 2011 (UK)

The winner of the CLPE Poetry Award for 2011 is Philip Gross for Off Road to Everywhere, illustrated by Jonathan Gross, Salt Publishing

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - July 8, 2011

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: General Knowledge. "We haven't had a General Knowledge brainteaser for some while, so here's a quiz to test the breadth and depth of your knowledge." Answers here.

1. How many lungs do humans normally have?
2. When talking about cars, what does "GT" usually stand for`?
3. Which Russian-born US actor played the king in "The King and I" both on stage (1951) and on film (1956)?
4. The rugby team known as the "All Blacks" comes from which country?
5. Which Russian novelist wrote "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina"?
6. The dish called "souvlaki" originated in which country?
7. In measuring sheets of paper, is A4 bigger or smaller than A3?
8. Which American city is nicknamed "Motown"?
9. Who was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995?
10. Name two of the five "Great Lakes" between the United States and Canada

A good day in the courts for UK public libraries

From Public Libraries News:, July 7, 2011 It's been a day to remember for those who want to save libraries. Campaigners in Brent have today received legal permission to have a judicial review in the High Court in just a couple of weeks' time. This, if the funding for the case is found by the campaigners, will be the first into court and will set the vital precedent. Also today, a court in Birmingham has agreed that there can be a judicial review on the Gloucestershire closures in September. As well as these two, and also today, campaigners in the Isle of Wight have been told they will receive funding to go to court and there apply for a judicial review

The Green Carnation Prize 2011

The Green Carnation Prize 2011 is a literary prize for modern gay writing:

Submission deadline: 5 August 2011
Longlist announced: 1 September 2011
Shortlist announced: 1 November 2011
Winner announced: 1 December 2011

New book: Librarians' Assessments of Automation Systems: Survey Results, 2007–2010

Librarians' Assessments of Automation Systems: Survey Results, 2007-2010 by Marshall Breeding and Andromeda Yelton. "For the last four years, Breeding has conducted an online survey to measure satisfaction with multiple aspects of the automation products used by libraries. In this issue of Library Technology Reports Breeding and Yelton take a deeper look at the survey data, including an expansion of findings based on the 2010 iteration, an examination of trends seen across the four years, and additional analysis not previously published. The survey data have been extended with additional fields that provide the opportunity to separate the findings into categories that show some interesting trends not otherwise apparent. Brief interpretive narratives help place the data in context"

Europeana Libraries

Europeana Libraries is a 2-year project, working to put 5 million digitised objects from 19 leading European research libraries online. When complete, the new website will include books, scientific papers, films and images. Spanish civil war photographs, Ottoman manuscripts and thousands of theses, journals and academic articles are among the digital resources that Europeana Libraries will make freely accessible on The European Library and Europeana websites. The work of Europeana Libraries will:

* Create a valuable resource for scholars, with full-text search capabilities for written works
* Build a robust network of national, university and research libraries
* Establish an efficient aggregation model that can be used by research libraries across Europe

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #159

SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #159 - July 2, 2011 is now available from Peter Suber

Mills & Boon romances can cause marital breakdown, adulterous affairs and unwanted pregnancies, according to British Medical Journal

With their chiselled menfolk and swooning heroines, Mills & Boon novels are a guilty pleasure. They are also a cause of marital breakdown, adulterous affairs and unwanted pregnancies, according to a warning published by the British Medical Journal. Far from being a slice of innocent escapism for millions of female readers, romantic novels are a danger to relationships and sexual health. That is the verdict of an article in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, which said women struggle to distinguish between romantic fiction and real life. Susan Quilliam, a relationship psychologist and author of the article, said that a "huge number" of problems dealt with in family planning clinics have their roots in romance novels - The Telegraph

Branford Boase Award 2011 winner

Out Of Shadows by Jason Wallace, edited by Charlie Sheppard and published by Andersen Press, has won this year's Branford Boase Award, which is given each year to the most outstanding work of fiction for children by a first time novelist. Out of Shadows is set in Zimbabwe in the 1980s. The war is over, independence has been won and Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the old way and the start of a promising new era. For Robert Jacklin, it’s all new: new continent, new country, new school. But, very quickly he learns that for some of his classmates, the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on

The Booksellers' Choice Award 2011 shortlist (South Africa)

The Booksellers' Choice Award is chosen and presented by the South African book trade in recognition of outstanding contribution to the industry. It is awarded to the book that booksellers across South Africa have most enjoyed reading, selling or promoting over the past year. The award is only open to South African authors who are published in South Africa and celebrates the excellence and high standard of South African writing. The shortlist:

* 50 People Who Stuffed Up South Africa by Alexander Parker Illustrations by: Zapiro published by Burnet Media

* Awesome South Africa: The Best, Greatest, Craziest, Biggest and Funniest by Derryn Campbell, published by Awesome SA Publishers

* Evita's Kossie Sikelela by Evita Bezuidenhout published by Random House Struik

* Four Drunk Beauties by Alex Smith published by Random House Struik

* Happiness is a Four-letter Word by Cynthia Jele published by Kwela Books

* Zoo City by Lauren Beukes published by Jacana Media

iPRES2011 call for contributions extended to 17 July 2011

iPRES, the main international conference on digital preservation, is calling for proposals for original full and short papers, panels, workshops, posters and demonstration - November 1-4, 2011, Singapore

New book: Managing Your Library and its Quality

Managing Your Library and its Quality: The ISO 9001 way by Núria Balagué, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain and Jarmo Saarti, University of Eastern Finland, Finland. This book, divided into two parts provides an introduction to the quality management issues and gives a general overview to the use on ISO 9001 in the library environment. The second part will present the main features of ISO 9001:2008 with practical comments and examples on how to implement its clauses in libraries

Crossroads - July 2011

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

2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize winner

Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, is the winner of the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize

Historic library may close as subsidy slashed (UK)

A historic London reference library containing 50,000 books, including unique, centuries-old tomes relating to the history of the British Museum, is under threat of closure. The Paul Hamlyn public library at the British Museum, which has a unique collection of museum guidebooks dating from 1762, along with collections on archaeology, history and art, could close as the institution seeks to cut costs. "It is with regret that the British Museum is having to consider the closure of the Paul Hamlyn Library," a spokeswoman said. The museum is scaling back to accommodate a 15 per cent cut in government subsidy over the next four years - The Independent

2011 Inky Awards longlist (Australia)

The Inkys are international awards for teenage literature that are voted for online by the readers of insideadog.com.au. It recognises the fantastic home grown writing talent from Australia with the Gold Inky and also titles that come from across the ocean with the Silver Inky. The longlist:

* Pigboy by JC Burke
* Good Oil by Laura Buzo
* Just a Girl by Jane Caro
* The FitzOsbourne's in Exile by Michelle Cooper
* Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
* This is Shyness by Leanne Hall
* Black Painted Fingernails by Steven Herrick
* Silvermay by James Moloney
* The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling
* All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Scientific Bulletin : Economic Sciences

Microwave Review

Advances in BioResearch

Moderna Språk

CEU Political Science Journal

The Elsevier Heritage Collection

The Elsevier Heritage Collection consists of 2105 volumes with 1582 distinct titles published by the original House of Elzevier from 1580-1712. The collection is divided into our core collection, of 1501 volumes and a reserve or "duplicate" collection. An additional 392 non-Elzevier antiquarian titles and over 30 reference titles are also preserved in our museum quality, acclimatized display shelves in our Elsevier headquarters in Amsterdam

Oliver Letwin and Julian Fellowes back plan to save Dorset libraries (UK)

THE campaign to save Dorset's threatened libraries has been backed by two high profile local Tories. Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, a Conservative peer, has given his support to the Ad Lib (Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) campaign. West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin, a member of the coalition Cabinet, has also backed opposition to Dorset County Council proposals to withdraw funding to ten libraries. The council is just weeks away from making a decision on the future of the library service in Dorset as it seeks to achieve savings of £800,000. The option preferred by council officers would see ten of the county's 34 libraries lose funding and face the threat of closure

Alexander Street Press to launch five new online collections before end of the year

Electronic publisher Alexander Street Press has announced plans to publish five new online collections for scholars and students in the final quarter of 2011. Said Alexander Street publisher Stephen Rhind-Tutt, "It's a big year for us in terms of new product launches, both in our traditional areas of primary materials and music education, and now in video. We've got hundreds of top video production and distribution companies as well as individual filmmakers licensing thousands and thousands of hours of content to us for our Academic Video Online, platform, and we're thrilled to be able to make all of this video content more accessible to faculty, students, and the general public through their libraries"

Book Grocer: 6-12 July (UK)

Book Grocer: 6-12 July 2011 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

FreePint Newsletter 330

FreePint Newsletter 330 - 7 July 2011 now available

First Monday - July 2011

First Monday - Volume 16, Number 7, 4 July 2011 now available. First Monday is a Great Cities Initiative of the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library, USA

PBS LearningMedia

PBS LearningMedia is a dynamic platform offering the best of public media content and produced specifically for PreK-16 teachers. With free access to over 14,000 high-quality resources tied to national standards, teachers can download, save and share exactly what they need for an inspired classroom experience

OCLC Research and RLUK to survey special collections and archives in research libraries within the UK and Ireland

OCLC Research and Research Libraries UK are working together on a project to gather data on special collections in research libraries in the UK and Ireland. The project is similar to a project conducted by OCLC Research in 2009 that gathered data on special collections in the United States and Canada

Polari First Book Prize for queer fiction: long list announced

The long list for the Polari First Book Prize for queer fiction has been announced:

* Julian Corkle Is A Filthy Liar – DJ Connell
* Same Again Please - Michael B Jones
* London Triptych – Jonathan Kemp
* The Bird Keeper – Issy Festing
* Love, Hope and High Heels – Clare Campbell
* I Don’t Remember You – Stephanie Lennox
* Children of the Sun – Max Schaefer
* Autofellatio – James Maker
* Homo Jihad – Timothy Graves
* C'est La Vie – Bruce Hodson

Axiell CALM has been launched

Axiell has launched a new company named Axiell CALM Limited, specialising in Collection management for Archives, Local studies libraries and Museums. The new company previously operated as a separate business unit within Axiell Limited, supplying the Calm collection management system used by over 400 Archives, Museums and Records Offices in the UK and in Europe. Axiell CALM Limited will have Malcolm Howitt (pictured left)as Managing Director and will operate primarily from their UK office in Nottingham

2011 SIBA Books Awards winners

The winners of the 2011 SIBA Books Awards, honoring the best in Southern literature and sponsored by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, are:

* Fiction: Burning Bright by Ron Rash (Ecco Press)
* Nonfiction: The Blueberry Years by Jim Minick (Thomas Dunne Books)
* Poetry: A House of Branches by Janisse Ray (Wind Publications)
* Cooking: Southern My Way by Gena Knox (Gena Knox Media)
* Young Adult: Countdown by Deborah Wiles (Scholastic)
* Children's: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (Puffin Books)

Howard Jacobson to open Soho Literary Festival (UK)

Howard Jacobson, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2010, will open the inaugural Soho Literary Festival in London this September. The first Soho Literary Festival will start at 7.30pm on Friday 23rd September 2011 and will run until 10.30pm on Sunday 25th September 2011

Ex Libris opens a new data center in the Netherlands

Ex Libris® Group has announced the opening of a new data center to support the Company's continually expanding range of cloud-based services offered to the European customer community. Located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the data center uses multiple Internet service providers to deliver efficient, reliable, and scalable performance, together with powerful route optimization

#uklibchat: Library Activism at Twitter

A Twitter discussion about library activism in LIS departments and university libraries - July 7 2011

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Revista Brasileira de Geografia Física

Lumen et Virtus

Journal of Defense Resources Management

Eleutheria

30th anniversary of the Publishers Licensing Society (UK)

The Publishers Licensing Society is 30 years old and will be celebrating at its Open Day on Tuesday 12 July. The Open Day will take place at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD from 2pm and a full programme can be found on the PLS website. The Open Day will be followed by a drinks reception - #publisher #publishing

Open Data and the Institutional Web (UK)

Open Data and the Institutional Web: A two day event hacking content, systems and services for institutional / open data - 25-26 July 2011 - Reading, UK

Still time to nominate for Alan Jeffreys Award 2011 (UK)

Nominations are invited for the Alan Jeffreys Award. Established in 1996, in memory of a former chairman of the group who died two years earlier, the Award recognises those who have made a substantive contribution to the development, teaching or practice of cataloguing or indexing. The award is made annually. In addition to a framed certificate, the recipient will have a complimentary registration at the next CIG conference (or a CPD event of their choice)

Michael Hart on the 40th anniversary of eBooks

"40 years ago there was only one eBook on the Internet that you could download, and the operators were resistant to an additional eBook being added more than once a year, and it had to be a short one, given the space and bandwidth..."

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program - Episode #160

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #160. "This week's episode is somewhat light but, then again, we did some technical experimentation". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

Web event: Sandy Hirsh on Libraries and Digital Literacy (USA)

Join Steve Hargadon Tuesday, July 5, for a live and interactive Future of Education interview with Sandy Hirsh, the director of the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University. We'll be talking all about the current and future state of libraries and librarians, and will also discuss our recently announced Library 2.011 worldwide virtual conference, for which she is the conference co-chair

Parliamentary Metadata Meeting: a brief report (UK)

A one-day meeting on parliamentary metadata was held with financial support from JISC on June 8th 2011. This meeting was called as it is widely acknowledged in the community of practitioners in the area of parliamentary papers that an approach to linking the substantial number of projects in existence would be highly valuable. This has been discussed in the past, particularly in a series of meetings convened by Paul Seaward in the mid-2000s, but this has remained something of an aspiration until the present day. This meeting aimed to revive discussion on this, and to examine a possible approach to parliamentary metadata which would make this goal feasible

Ed Miliband slams Labour-run Brent Council: "closing libraries is a false economy" (UK)

Brent Council Leader Ann John is under the most intense pressure yet, as her own party leader has slammed library closures. Speaking out, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said:

I believe that to close libraries is a false economy and a very cheap option to save money.

It is most unfortunate that libraries always seem to be at the forefront of any cuts in local expenditure.

I believe that libraries are, and should be, an essential part of our lives, and are vital to our communities and can be a central focus point for an area. A library can help enrich people’s lives, and so many other services can also come from a library

IFLA Journal - June 2011

IFLA Journal - Volume 37, Number 2, June 2011, is now available

Union Institute & University Library, Vermont, entirely online (USA)

As part of its ongoing effort to provide the best educational opportunities for its students, Union Institute & University (UI&U) has announced that is has transitioned to a state-of-the-art, entirely online library and an enhanced library website for Union students, alumni, and faculty. The new library will focus on enhancing its comprehensive library research collections and increasing its access to a wide range of online databases, electronic books, journal articles, dissertations, and other web-based media

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences

Archive of Mechanical Engineering

Forum of Clinical Oncology : Quarterly Official Publication of the Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology

Archives of Civil Engineering

Acta Electrotechnica et Informatica

Polish Journal of Entomology

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

L'Infirmière Clinicienne

Interdisciplinary Toxicology

Alternative Medicine Studies

Anthropological Review

Folia Medica

Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism

Jazykovedný C(asopis

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis

Clinical and Experimental Otorhinolaryngology

Journal of Agrobiology

Limnological Review

Acta Medica Martiniana

Biomedical Human Kinetics

Libertas

Video: Libraries the new frontline in cuts row (UK)

Library campaigners in Gloucestershire have turned to the law to stop local authorities cutting services:

Hamptead Garden Suburb fight in their thousands for Market Place library (UK)

Half of Hampstead Garden Suburb has thrown its weight behind a battle to save their beloved local library from the axe. In just two months more than 2,500 people have signed a petition - a number which represents almost half of the 6,500 Suburb households - to save the 80 square foot library earmarked by Barnet Council for closure. Deborah Warman, who is leading the SOS: Save Our Suburb Library campaign, describes the 60-year-old library as the "lynchpin" of Market Place and the suburb community as a whole

Ruskin College library named after former Prime Minister James Callaghan (UK)

The grandson of former Prime Minister James Callaghan has laid a foundation stone at a new library named after him. Joe Callaghan studies at Ruskin College Oxford, which his grandfather supported in his lifetime and gave a speech at in 1976. Mike Callaghan, the former PM's son, said: "It is hard to think of anything which would have given my father more pleasure." The Callaghan Library is part of a £5m refurbishment project

The archives of Robert Russell Race and Ruth Sanger now available at Wellcome Library (UK)

The archives of Robert Russell Race and Ruth Sanger have recently been made available for consultation in the Wellcome Library (ref. PP/SAR). Race and Sanger are best known for their contribution to the understanding of blood groups, in particular Rh antigens and antibodies, and the genetic mapping of the X chromosome

SoarwithReading.com launched by JetBlue Airways and PBS KIDS to keep children reading (USA)

As schools across the country let out this month, a joint project launched today by New York's hometown value carrier JetBlue Airways and PBS KIDS aims to keep children reading wherever they go this summer - with a combination of in-flight and online literacy resources, community reading events and a partnership with First Book, a nonprofit organization that provides new books to children in need. At the center of the program is the newly launched SoarwithReading.com, where parents can download a free reading activity kit, create a summer reading list with recommendations from Random House Children's Books and log their children's reading minutes, among other activities. For every reader who registers on SoarwithReading.com, JetBlue will make a book donation to a child through First Book, up to 10,000 books

Podcast: 1611-2011: The 400th anniversary of the King James Bible (UK National Archives)

The wealth of celebrations taking place in 2011 for the anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible testifies to the lasting resonance of this translation of the Bible, for both believers and non-believers alike. But in the years immediately after publication it was slow to gain acceptance, and it was only after the Restoration that it became genuinely popular. This talk examines the context of the translation and its origins at the Hampton Court Conference, and considers the extent of King James' involvement in its production. Pauline Croft is Professor of Early Modern History at Royal Holloway College, University of London, and a trustee of the King James Bible Trust. She has published extensively on sixteenth and seventeenth British political, parliamentary and cultural history

2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries now available

The 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries: e-Initiatives and e-Efforts: Expanding Our Horizons is now available. It is a collaborative document that is put out annually on a specific topic of interest to government libraries and includes content submitted by government librarians and community leaders with an interest in government libraries

An Awfully Big Blog Adventure Online Literary Festival 2011

An Awfully Big Blog Adventure is celebrating its 3rd birthday with the first ever Online Literary Festival run entirely by children's authors. On 9 and 10 July 2011 40 children's authors from the Scattered Authors' Society, including Adele Geras, Mary Hoffman, Liz Kessler and Celia Rees will be bringing you something new and special on the relaunched 'new look' blog every half hour from 9.30am to 7.30pm. There will be:

* Amazing Blogs
* Stunning Videos
* Exciting Giveaways
* Fascinating Interviews
* Mind-boggling Competitions

Frederick G. Kilgour Award recipient named for 2011

Dr. Daniel J. Cohen, associate professor of history and art history at George Mason University and director of the Center for History and New Media, is the winner of the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology for 2011. LITA, the Library and Information Technology Association, a division of the American Library Association, sponsors the award together with OCLC. The award committee chose Dr. Cohen from a strong field of nominated leaders whose work has positively impacted libraries and information technology

Information Today - July/August 2011 issues

The July/August 2011 issues of Computers in Libraries, Information Today, and Searcher, are now available

SCATNews: Newsletter of the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section - June 2011

SCATNews: Newsletter of the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section - Number 35, June 2011 is now available

Four new sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

The Residence of Bukovinian and Dalmatian Metropolitans (Ukraine), the Petroglyphs Complexes of the Mongolian Altai (Mongolia), The Causses and the Cévennes, Mediterranean Agro-pastoral Cultural Landscape (France) and León Cathedral (Nicaragua) - have been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List. The full list of new inscriptions which is now complete will be given out shortly

Council library services need to improve their performance online says new Socitm report based on mystery shopping exercise (UK)

The usability of libraries' online services needs to improve if more customers are to get a better service at lower cost, says a new report from Socitm Insight, based on a comprehensive mystery shopping exercise that tested the library user experience online. According to other Socitm research, libraries are the fourth most popular reason for people to visit a UK council website (7.86% of all visits), with an estimated 25.7m visits to libraries taking place online across the UK each year. To carry out the mystery shopping exercise, a Socitm researcher joined libraries in six different London boroughs and experienced a range of processes from signing up through catalogue searches to paying fines for overdue books

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea partners with Bloomsbury to promote library use (UK)

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Bloomsbury Publishing have announced plans to form a working partnership designed to promote reading and to encourage people to visit and use their local libraries. Council librarians will use their knowledge of the public's reading interests to work with the Bloomsbury team to design a series of events that will run throughout the year. The first event will be a major initiative focused on London schools this September. This will be open to teachers and children attending any school in Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster or Hammersmith & Fulham. Librarians hope the event will encourage children to visit libraries regularly

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals launches QScience Connect

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals has announced the launch of QScience Connect on its digital publishing platform QScience.com. QScience Connect is a new kind of peer-reviewed academic and scientific journal that aims to provide a home for all research considered to be valid, ethical and correct. All content in the journal will be "open access", meaning it is free-to-read on the web while authors retain copyright on their works

OCLC Research and Research Libraries UK to survey special collections and archives in research libraries within the UK and Ireland

OCLC Research and Research Libraries UK are working together on a project to gather data on special collections in research libraries in the UK and Ireland. The project is similar to a project conducted by OCLC Research in 2009 that gathered data on special collections in the United States and Canada

4th anniversary of Project Gutenberg Canada

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the launch of Project Gutenberg Canada on July 1st 2007

Code4Lib Journal Issue 15 call for papers

The Code4Lib Journal has issued a call for papers for its 15th issue

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog - June 30, 2011 update

The June 30, 2011 edition of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog from Charles W. Bailey, Jr. is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers

PLoS ONE named as the new SPARC Innovator

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) has named the Public Library of Science's (PLoS) PLoS ONE as the SPARC Innovator for June 2011

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - July 1, 2011

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Indoor Games. "This week's brainteaser is about indoor games, and particularly the numbers associated with each game" Answers here.

1. In the card game of pontoon or vingt-et-un, players try to obtain card combinations which add up to how many points?
2. How many squares are there in the game of noughts and crosses (known in the US and Canada as tick-tack-toe)?
3. In the game of Cluedo, how many suspects are there?
4. In the game of darts, how many points are scored if a dart hits the centre ring (the bull)?
5. In Trivial Pursuit, how many colour categories are the questions in?
6. In Chess, how many pieces or chessmen does each player start with?
7. In roulette, how many numbered slots are there in the wheel (there are two possible answers)?
8. In a game of ludo, how many counters does each player have?
9. A backgammon board is marked out in how many triangular points?
10. If two people are playing a game of halma, how many pieces do they normally start with?

National Technical Information Service now on Facebook

The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) has announced its new Facebook page. It will be using Facebook to announce special offers and events, new products and services, and for greater interaction with its customers

E-book publishers to gain access to 15,000 libraries (Ireland)

From Silicon Republic: "If you think the speed at which e-books have become a viable marketplace is astonishing, a clever Irish publishing company is now about to offer e-book publishers access to public libraries for the first time. Irish e-book distribution company ePub Direct plans to offer access to libraries for publishers' e-book titles. The move will give publishers access to 15,000 library outlets in 13 countries, 70 of which are based in the UK and Ireland"

Current Cites - June 2011

Current Cites (edited by Roy Tennant) - June 2011 is now available