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    June 28th, 2012LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    NoveList Introduces New Features and Options into NoveList Select™, for Customers Incorporating NoveList Content into Their
    Library Catalogs
    ~ Improvements to Functionality and Display, Series Recommendations, Inclusion of Lexile Levels and Options to Purchase Content Café Features Part of Latest Upgrade ~

    IPSWICH, Mass. — June 28, 2012 — NoveList®, a division of EBSCO Publishing, is introducing new features to NoveList Select™, its catalog enrichment resource. These new features improve the user experience, as well as offer new upgrade options, including book jackets, professional book reviews, sample excerpts, tables of contents, and more, from Content Café – a database offered by Baker & Taylor.

    NoveList Select is the catalog enrichment component of NoveList readers’ advisory resources. This component pulls NoveList content into a library’s catalog. NoveList Select makes reading recommendations, series information, book discussion guides, Goodreads ratings and reviews, library newsletters and events available to library patrons from within the catalog record. Patrons can find similar titles and authors based on their searches, discover more of the library’s collection and sign up for library newsletters and upcoming events.

    Vice President of NoveList, Duncan Smith, says NoveList Select has evolved as a way for librarians to enrich their catalogs, and the new features and upgrade options provide librarians with even more ways to serve their patrons. “The library catalog is the main destination for library patrons. Displaying NoveList’s rich content within catalog records allows patrons to learn more about their favorite authors, or to find out about a series or author they didn’t know existed. NoveList Select moves a library catalog from being only a book delivery service to being a book discovery service.”

    Now Content Café, from Baker & Taylor, is available through NoveList Select as well.Content Caféis a comprehensive database with more than 22 million data elements, with new additions made daily. Content Café enriches OPACs with jacket images, reviews, summaries, complete book details, and more.

    Other new features will further enhance the user experience. Improvements to the display and usability of the NoveList content within the catalog records will make it easier for users to access the information. Recommendations for similar series in the library catalog will also be easier to find with a list of series titles added to the existing title and author recommendations that have always been part of NoveList Select in the You might Like These section. Lexile® reading levels are also being added where appropriate. These will primarily be available in juvenile records to help determine whether a title is appropriate for a child’s age and reading level.

    Optional upgrade packages
    It is now possible to integrate several optional upgrade packages into NoveList Select. These optional upgrade packages will provide librarians with the opportunity to enrich their catalogs with comprehensive Content Café data, such as book jackets, full-text reviews, tables of contents, summaries, excerpts, author bios, and more — an opportunity to seamlessly deliver relevant data right where patrons need it — inside the catalog.

    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 e-books. The company provides more than 350 databases and nearly 300,000 e-books. 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.

    About Baker & Taylor
    Baker & Taylor, Inc. (www.baker-taylor.com) is the world's largest distributor of books, digital content and entertainment products. The company offers cutting-edge digital media services and innovative technology platforms to thousands of publishers, libraries and retailers worldwide. Baker & Taylor also offers industry-leading customized library services and retail merchandising solutions. Charlotte, N.C.-based Baker & Taylor is majority owned by Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., an institutional private equity fund managed by Castle Harlan, Inc., a leading private equity investment firm.

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

    Baker & Taylor
    Kimberly Kuo
    704-998-3118
    Kimberly.Kuo@Baker-Taylor.com

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    June 28th, 2012LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha (www.koha-community.org) support, announced today that the Library at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Library in California is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

    ByWater Solutions completed their migration in late June and will be providing ongoing support and hosting services for them.

    The SF Maritime NHP Library has a collection of over 35,000 book and periodical titles dating from 1536 to the present, 50,000 pieces of ephemera, over 3000 maps and charts covering the Pacific Basin and the West Coast of the United States dating from 1850 to the present, audio, and video materials in multiple formats. The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Library customized online catalog can be viewed here: http://catalog.keys.bywatersolutions.com.

    The library staff will be documenting their experiences with their new ILS on their blog (http://fullfathomcollections.blogspot.com).

    Nathan Curulla, Co-Owner of ByWater commented on the new partnership:

    “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the SF Maritime NHP Library. The staff of the Maritime Library have been a delight to work with and we look forward to a long and productive relationship together. We strongly recommend that anyone in the San Francisco area take the time to visit the Maritime Park and enjoy the history contained within!”

    About The Library at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park:
    The Library at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is the research portal into the Park’s collections. Reference staff are available by phone, email, fax or in person by appointment to assist you with your research in all of the Park’s collections–with books, photographs, or even the objects cared for by collections staff.

    Within the Library itself are over 35,000 book and periodical titles dating from 1536 to the present, 50,000 pieces of ephemera, over 3000 maps and charts covering the Pacific Basin and the West Coast of the United States dating from 1850 to the present, audio, and video materials in multiple formats. For more information about the J. Porter Shaw Library at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park please visit: http://www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/library-collections.htm

    About Koha:
    Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

    Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–XHTML, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org/

    About ByWater Solutions:
    ByWater Solutions is a full service, high quality support and implementation company dedicated to providing libraries with a lower cost, more advanced level of support for their ILS than a traditional proprietary solution can offer. ByWater Solutions has a proven track record in first rate Koha implementation and support with library systems of all sizes. Our highly ranked, comprehensive support is what sets our company apart from any other vendor in the industry. Partnering with ByWater Solutions to support Koha not only lowers the cost of implementing and maintaining an ILS, but more importantly empowers libraries by giving them the flexibility and freedom they deserve. For more information please visit: http://bywatersolutions.com/

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    June 26th, 2012LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    Editorial Introduction
    Tim Lepczyk
    Coordinating Editor Tim Lepczyk salutes change in this issue, welcoming new editors to the Journal and announcing his departure.

    Tools for Reducing and Managing Link Rot in LibGuides
    Wilhelmina Randtke and Matthew D. Burrell
    While creating content in LibGuides in quite easy, link maintenance is troublesome, and the built-in link checker offers only a partial solution. The authors describe a method of using PURLs and a third-party link checker to effectively manage links within LibGuides.

    Discovering Digital Library User Behavior with Google Analytics
    Kirk Hess
    Google Analytics has advanced features for tracking search queries, events such as clicking external links or downloading files, which you can use to track user behavior that is normally difficult to track with traditional web logging software. By tracking behavior, you can use Google Analytics API to extract data and integrate it with data from your digital repository to show granular data about individual items. Using this information, digital libraries can learn how users use the site without extensive HCI studies, and can use this information to improve the user experience.

    The Martha Berry Digital Archive Project: A Case Study in Experimental pEDagogy
    Stephanie A. Schlitz and Garrick S. Bodine
    Using the Martha Berry Digital Archive Project as an exploratory case study, this article discusses experimental methods in digital archive development, describing how and why a small project team is leveraging undergraduate student support, a participatory (crowdsourced) editing model, and free and open source software to digitize and disseminate a large documentary collection.

    Using Semantic Web Technologies to Collaboratively Collect and Share User-Generated Content in Order to Enrich the Presentation of Bibliographic Records–Development of a Prototype Based on RDF, D2RQ, Jena, SPARQL and WorldCat’s FRBRization Web Service
    Ragnhild Holgersen, Michael Preminger, David Massey
    In this article we present a prototype of a semantic web-based framework for collecting and sharing user-generated content (reviews, ratings, tags, etc.) across different libraries in order to enrich the presentation of bibliographic records. The user-generated data is remodeled into RDF, utilizing established linked data ontologies. This is done in a semi-automatic manner utilizing the Jena and the D2RQ-toolkits. For the remodeling, a SPARQL-construct statement is tailored for each data source. In the data source used in our prototype, user-generated content is linked to the relevant books via their ISBN. By remodeling the data according to the FRBR model, and expanding the RDF graph with data returned by WorldCat’s FRBRization web service, we are able to greatly increase the number of entry points to each book. We make the social content available through a RESTful web service with ISBN as a parameter. The web service returns a graph of all user-generated data registered to any edition of the book in question in the RDF/XML format. Libraries using our framework would thus be able to present relevant social content in association with bibliographic records, even if they hold a different version of a book than the one that was originally accessed by users. Finally, we connect our RDF graph to the linked open data cloud through the use of Talis’ openlibrary.org SPARQL endpoint.

    GLIMIR: Manifestation and Content Clustering within WorldCat
    Janifer Gatenby, Richard O. Greene, W. Michael Oskins, Gail Thornburg
    The GLIMIR project at OCLC clusters and assigns an identifier to WorldCat records representing the same manifestation. These include parallel records in different languages (e.g., a record with English descriptive notes and subject headings and one for the same book with French equivalents). It also clusters records that probably represent the same manifestation, but which could not be safely merged by OCLC’s Duplicate Detection and Resolution (DDR) program for various reasons. As the project progressed, it became clear that it would also be useful to create content-based clusters for groups of manifestations that are generally equivalent from the end user perspective (e.g., the original print text with its microform, ebook and reprint versions, but not new editions). Lessons from the GLIMIR project have improved OCLC’s duplicate detection program through the introduction of new matching techniques. GLIMIR has also had unexpected benefits for OCLC’s FRBR algorithm by providing new methods for identifying outliers thus enabling more records to be included in the correct work cluster.

    Case Study: Using Perl and CGI Scripts to Automate a Quality Control Workflow for Scanned Congressional Documents
    Doreva Belfiore
    The Law Library Digitization Project of the Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, New Jersey, developed a series of scripts in Perl and CGI that take advantage of the open-source module PerlMagick to automatically review the image quality of scanned government documents. By implementing these procedures, Rutgers was able to save staff working hours for document quality control by an estimated 25% percent from the previous manual-only workflow. These scripts can be adapted by novice Perl and CGI programmers to review and manipulate large numbers of text and image files using commands available in PerlMagick and ImageMagick.

    From the Catalog to the Book on the Shelf: Building a Mapping Application for Vufind
    Kathleen Bauer, Michael Friscia, and Scott Matheson
    At Yale University Library (YUL), recorded reference transactions revealed that after finding a book in the catalog patrons had difficulty knowing how to use the call number to find the book on the shelf. The Library created a mobile service to help locate the call number in the library stacks. From any call number of a book in Sterling Memorial Library at YUL, a map will be displayed which highlights that call number’s general area on a floor in the stacks. YUL introduced the mapping application in Yufind, a catalog in place at Yale since 2008 which is based on Vufind.

    Code4Lib 2012 Conference Report
    Amy Unger
    Amy Unger is one of the recipients of the Gender Diversity Scholarships to attend the Code4Lib 2012 conference. The Journal is pleased to present her conference report here.

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    June 22nd, 2012LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    ~ Annual Award Recognizes Libraries That Make a Difference in Their Communities and the Cities and Towns That Support Them ~

    IPSWICH, Mass. — June 22, 2012 — Library Journal is looking for libraries that are deeply engaged with their community and where the community is equally engaged with the library. A new award, the LibraryAware Community Award, will recognize those cities and towns and their libraries, or library systems, that have demonstrated their ability to make the community aware of what the library can do for them—and have delivered on that promise. The award will be given by Library Journal and underwritten by LibraryAware™, a product of the NoveList division of EBSCO Publishing.

    This award will illuminate the value that communities throughout the United States and Canada derive from their libraries and highlight the outcomes of work by libraries—through the development of effective programs, services, partnerships, and communications—that result in better communities and an increased understanding of how libraries contribute to a community’s well-being. “The award will demonstrate why libraries deserve the resources necessary to deliver services that result in healthier, more prosperous, and more engaged cities and towns,” says LJ editor-in-chief Francine Fialkoff.

    NoveList Vice President Duncan Smith says the community is as vital to the success of any library as libraries are to successful communities. “We want to live in communities where people see themselves as part of the future, as part of the solution. We want communities where the spirit of inquiry is alive, where not only the librarians and library staff but the citizens themselves embrace self-directed learning. It is in the public library where a community extends its capacity to imagine.”

    The LibraryAware Community Award will be given annually to a community of any size and its library during National Library Week. It will be presented to the city or town officials and the library director. The city or town will receive a plaque identifying it as a “LibraryAware” community. The winning library will receive $10,000, with second place receiving $7500, and third place receiving $5000. The first winners will be announced in April 2013 and the winning library will be featured in an article in Library Journal that same month.

    THE CRITERIA
    The LibraryAware Community Award will go to a library whose community is aware of, and recognizes, the library’s role:

    In areas that are documented priorities in the community served by the library, such as digital access, adoption, and/or literacy; economic and workforce development; education; health care; public safety and emergency services; civic engagement.

    As a place of transformation and change

    As an organization whose activities ensure outcomes that are essential to the vitality of the community.

    Criteria for the award include any and all components that create a LibraryAware community: strategic planning, marketing, outreach, partnerships, and programs, product, or service development. Additional information on the criteria plus submission requirements is available at: http://features.libraryjournal.com/awards/

    Submissions will be judged by a variety of library and community experts. Judges include:

    Ron Carlee, COO, ICMA (International City/County Management Association

    Deborah Jacobs, Director, Global Libraries Initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

    Jorge Martinez, Director, Information Systems/Project Lead, Knight Library Initiative on Universal Wireless Access, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

    Additional judges to be announced soon

    LibraryAware Product Lead Nancy Dowd says the goal of the LibraryAware product is to help libraries promote what they do to all citizens of their community. “Communities that are LibraryAware know, celebrate, and support the institutions that serve as the anchors for these services. We want to celebrate those communities.”

    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 e-books. The company provides more than 350 databases and nearly 300,000 e-books. 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.

    About Library Journal
    Founded in 1876, Library Journal (LJ) is one of the oldest and most respected publications covering the library field. More than 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries read LJ. Library Journal reviews more than 8,000 books, audiobooks, videos, databases, and web sites annually, and provides coverage of technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns. Visit www.libraryjournal.com.

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

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    June 22nd, 2012LISWire aggregatorLISWire

    ~ Descriptive Summaries, Full Text, Relevant Citations on the Development and Assessment of Psychological Tests and Measures ~

    IPSWICH, Mass. — June 22, 2012 — EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) and American Psychological Association (APA) has expanded their partnership to allow PsycTESTS® to be available via EBSCOhost®. PsycTESTS is a one-of-a kind database providing descriptive summaries, full text and relevant citations on the development and assessment of tests and measures that can be used in research and teaching.

    PsycTESTS serves as a repository for the full text (when available) of psychological tests and measures as well as a source of structured information about tests of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.

    More than 7,000 master test profiles and over 5,000 instances of actual tests or test items, spanning from 1910 to the present, are currently included in PsycTESTS. Researchers using PsycTESTS are able to discover unpublished tests, tests developed by psychologists for which no source document has been located and information about select published tests available from commercial publishers. PsycTESTS will be available via EBSCOhost in early July.

    EBSCOhost is the world’s most used research database platform. EBSCO has more than 60 years of experience dealing with libraries and has long been recognized as a provider of quality content for researchers.

    PsycTESTS adds unique value to EBSCO’s collection of psychology databases. To see a full list of databases in this subject area, including detailed descriptions, please go to: http://www.ebscohost.com/academic/subjects/category/psychology.

    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 e-books. The company provides more than 350 databases and nearly 300,000 e-books. 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.

    About APA
    The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 137,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.

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

    Tim Rinda
    Director, Database & Electronic Product Marketing
    American Psychological Association
    (202) 336-5736
    trinda@apa.org

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