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    December 6th, 2011LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    ~Three International Open Access Publishing Platforms Will Be Available
    to EBSCO Discovery Service™ Users ~

    IPSWICH, Mass. —December 6, 2011 — Content from the French open access publishing platform openedition.org (OpenEdition) will be searchable through EBSCO Discovery Service™ from EBSCO Publishing. OpenEdition is made up of three community publishing platforms dedicated to the humanities and social sciences. The complementary platforms represent a complete electronic publishing system dedicated to promoting research and open access publishing of tens of thousands of scientific papers.

    OpenEdition is an initiative of the Centre for open electronic publishing—Centre pour ľédition électronique ouverte (Cléo)—based in Marseille, Paris and Lisbon, Portugal. Cléo is a laboratory involving the CNRS (the National Centre for Science Research), the University of Provence, the EHESS (the Graduate School of Social Sciences) and the University of Avignon. OpenEdition is the umbrella portal for Revues.org, Hypotheses.org and Calenda.

    • Revues.org is a Web platform for more than 300 journals and book series in the humanities and social sciences that is open to publishers, research units and organizations looking to publish quality full-text material online.

    • Calenda is the largest European scientific calendar for the humanities and social sciences. Published since 2000, Calenda includes announcements of nearly 16,000 scientific events.

    • Hypotheses.org is a platform hosting more than 200 scholarly blogs. The research blogs offer a quick and easy way to report research—a blog-like way to chronicle the work on a given topic.

    OpenEdition joins a growing list of publishers and other content partners that are taking part in EDS to bring more visibility to their content. Partners include the world’s largest scholarly journal & book publishers including Elsevier, Wiley Blackwell, Springer Science & Business Media, Taylor & Francis Informa, Sage Publications, and thousands of others. Partners also include content providers, such as LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters (Web of Science), JSTOR, ARTstor, Credo Reference, Oxford University Press, World Book, ABC-CLIO, and many others.

    The EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers (and growing) in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers, representing far more content providers and publishers than any other discovery service.

    EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box—searching made even more powerful because of the quality of metadata and depth and breadth of coverage.

    EBSCO Discovery Service is quickly becoming the discovery selection for many libraries (www.ebscohost.com/discovery/eds-news), and an obvious partner for content providers. Because the service builds on the foundation provided by the EBSCOhost® platform, libraries gain a full user experience for discovering their collections/OPAC—which is not typical in the discovery space. Further still, in the many universities and other libraries where EBSCOhost is the most-used platform for premium research, users are not asked to change their pathways or habits for searching. There’s simply more to discover on the familiar EBSCOhost platform, and the same can be said for library administrators who can leverage their previous work with EBSCOadmin™.

    About EBSCO Publishing
    EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost®, the world’s premier for-fee online research service, including full-text databases, subject indexes, point-of-care medical reference, historical digital archives, and eBooks. The company provides more than 350 databases and nearly 300,000 eBooks. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), which provides each institution with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full-text searching of journals and magazines than any other discovery service (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com. EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

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    For more information, please contact:
    Kathleen McEvoy
    Director of Public Relations
    (800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
    kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

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    December 6th, 2011LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    Farmington Hills, Mich., December 5, 2011 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced a totally redesigned user interface for Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL), its online ebook platform. After extensive user analysis and market feedback, the interface has been overhauled with improved navigation and organization, and a vibrant and engaging display to draw in students, researchers, professionals and general readers.

    “Our newly designed Gale Virtual Reference Library enables reference content to literally jump off the shelves - it’s easy-to-use, and even easier for researchers to find exactly what they are looking for,” said Cynthia Sanner, general reference publisher, Gale. “New features and functionalities will encourage users to stay longer, search deeper, and find what they need faster.”

    Based on market feedback, Gale redesigned the homepage of GVRL to display eye-catching book cover images that replicate a familiar in-library browsing experience. The interface is available in 34 languages ensuring the majority of library patrons will be able to navigate reference content in the language which they are most comfortable. ReadSpeaker technology (text-to-speech functionality) is embedded in the resource and is available in 19 languages. In addition, GVRL features on-demand machine-aided content translation into 14 languages.

    The new GVRL interface offers a multi-page viewer that allows users to choose either a one or two-page view, providing for an interactive, book-like experience. The new page flipper feature allows readers to page through a section or an entire book, replicating a traditional library research experience, but one that can be done from anywhere, at any time and with an unlimited number of users.

    GVRL titles can de downloaded as article-level pdf’s which can then be uploaded to most readers, making it easy for patrons to download the articles they need. Users can also download books to their MP3 player.

    GVRL hosts more than 7,000 full-text titles from Gale and more than 80 other publishers. Recently named a 2012 “Best Database” by Library Journal for its ambitious scope and content, GVRL contains full-text interdisciplinary content on virtually any subject area to tackle assignments, papers, projects and presentations. GVRL offers titles for all audiences – children can enjoy full-color titles, students can learn about current topics with Gale’s Greenhaven Press titles and educators and administrators can access the best in professional development titles from ISTE and ASCD. Scholars will be able to access publications from university and academic presses and professionals can choose from a growing collection of business references. Libraries can also cross-search their GVRL eReference collection via Gale PowerSearch as well as other Gale holdings including InfoTrac and select InContext resources to build a customized resource.

    Libraries can also customize their collection by subject, assignment, topic or class and increase use with free search widgets on their library or course web site. The Gale Admin features allows libraries to easily generate usage reports for their collection. For tips and information on how to boost usage, please visit the Re:sources Blog at http://blog.gale.com/resources/.

    For more information on Gale Virtual Reference Library or to request a trial, please visit www.gale.cengage.com/gvrl or contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com.

    About Cengage Learning and Gale
    Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

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    December 6th, 2011LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    OCLC, together with OCLC Global Council and members, is taking the cooperative’s ongoing strategy to help libraries operate and innovate at Webscale to a much broader level with the introduction of OCLC WorldShare, a new platform and a new brand that signals OCLC’s commitment to greater collaboration in library service delivery.

    OCLC is launching the OCLC WorldShare Platform, which will enable library developers, partners and other organizations to create, configure and share a wide range of applications that deliver new functionality and value for libraries and their users.

    OCLC will also deploy data centers around the world in support of OCLC WorldShare and other services. The first data center outside the United States will be implemented this week in the United Kingdom. Additional data centers will be deployed in continental Europe, Australia and Canada in the coming year.

    “OCLC’s mission and public purpose are clearly aligned with the concept of Webscale,” said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. “We have been providing infrastructure and services that have enabled members to build efficiencies in the management of libraries, and to increase the visibility and impact of their collections in compelling user environments on the Web. To date, this work has been significant. Now we see a need to provide more of those connective elements, the services and systems that will allow libraries to leverage even more of their activities and data together, at Webscale.”

    The OCLC WorldShare Platform facilitates collaboration and app-sharing across the library community, so that libraries can combine library-built applications, partner-built applications and OCLC-built applications. This enables the benefits of each single solution to be shared broadly throughout the library community.

    In the coming weeks, participants from platform pilot libraries will work with members of the OCLC Developer Network to help create and build new applications to populate the OCLC WorldShare App Gallery, where users will see available apps and can install them into current work environments. Developers can showcase their creativity, partners can create add-on functionality and library staff can find practical, everyday solutions to streamline and enhance their workflows.

    The first services built on this new technical infrastructure are Webscale Management Services, which have been rebranded as OCLC WorldShare Management Services, and include circulation, acquisitions and license management applications. Today, more than 30 libraries are already using OCLC WorldShare Management Services, and more than 150 libraries worldwide have committed to the new service since September 2010.

    Over time, OCLC will bring together additional OCLC services and applications under the OCLC WorldShare name, including resource sharing, consortial borrowing, metadata management and additional applications. OCLC’s currently deployed library management solutions will continue to be maintained and enhanced in line with libraries’ ongoing requirements under their current brand names.

    WorldCat will continue to serve as the name for shared data, including registries and the knowledge base, as well as discovery services such as WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local.

    There are many examples of organizations contributing to the broader Webscale information environment. Some, like HathiTrust, JSTOR and Europeana, are most recognizable to libraries and library users. Others, such as Google and Amazon, are global services familiar to all Web users. These services, and many others, are all part of the information environment users navigate every day—a Webscale environment.

    OCLC is committed to working with libraries to expand the scope and type of partnerships that will be critical for libraries to achieve Webscale.

    “OCLC WorldShare provides a Web-based platform for collective innovation across shared services, integrated applications and streamlined library workflows,” said Mr. Jordan. “In combination with WorldCat, OCLC WorldShare will support the work of libraries of all types to collaborate in new, more efficient ways, reduce operating costs and provide greatly enhanced user experiences.”

    Visit the OCLC website at www.oclc.org for more details about OCLC WorldShare.