Pro Bono Net is pleased to announce a series of four "Libraries and Access to Justice" national training webinars. The series will help librarians better assist library patrons with legal needs by presenting a range of free online access to justice resources, and will showcase successful models for legal aid-library collaboration. Pro Bono Net is producing the webinars in collaboration with the Legal Aid Society of Louisville, Central Minnesota Legal Services and Legal Services State Support (MN), with funding from the Legal Services Corporation's Technology Initiative Grants program.

The webinars are free to public library and public law library staff, as well as stakeholders from the legal aid, court and access to justice communities. Attendees are welcome to join for the entire series or attend individual webinars on topics of interest. Recordings and presentation materials will be made available online afterwards.

Below is information about the second webinar:

Webinar 2: Connecting Library Patrons with Legal Information: Key Resources
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012
Time: 10am PDT / 11am MTN / noon CDT / 1pm EDT

With so much misinformation online, helping patrons find up to date, credible sources of legal self-help information and forms can be challenging. This webinar will provide an overview of online legal information and self-help tools developed by the nonprofit legal aid community, including a national network of statewide legal information portals, many of which have content available in languages other than English. Presenters will also highlight resources available through many courts, law libraries and key federal resources, including online consumer protection resources.

For More Information about the Series:
Descriptions, registration information, past webinars and other details about the entire series are available at http://www.probono.net/librarywebinars.

Please join us, and help us spread the word to anyone who might be interested in attending!

~Personalized usage management services can help librarians maximize their time and budgets~

Birmingham, Ala. — Sept. 18, 2012 — With EBSCONET® Usage Consolidation, librarians can collect, consolidate, and report on the usage of their online resources, making vital collection management information readily available in the librarian’s workflow — within EBSCONET® Subscription Management. But EBSCO knows gathering usage data can be time-consuming, and that is why the EBSCO Usage Loading Service can load usage on behalf of Usage Consolidation customers.

The Usage Loading Service is a highly skilled team that can obtain usage reports, load them to the library’s Usage Consolidation account, and match exceptions — allowing librarians to spend more time developing powerful collections that can help users achieve their research objectives.

Usage Consolidation customers who choose to take advantage of the Usage Loading Service can select from two time-saving options: Basic and Complete.

With the Basic Usage Loading Service — in addition to the automatic matching of titles available through Usage Consolidation — each library’s account is assigned to a knowledgeable representative who will:

Retrieve COUNTER reports from content providers
Manipulate reports, cleaning them up to ensure that they load
Load usage reports into the customer’s Usage Consolidation account

The Complete option goes even further. For libraries that choose this service, the Usage Loading Service team will:

Set up platform details within the library’s Usage Consolidation account — including setting up SUSHI, where applicable
Load historical details (up to two years, where available)
Manually match titles that were unmatched during the automated process
Coordinate to ensure that titles are accounted for
Act as the library’s advocate, communicating with content providers to ensure that usage data is correct and problems are resolved in a timely manner

Plus, with the Complete Usage Loading Service, thanks to the high level of integration among EBSCO’s products, librarians are assured that high-quality usage data will automatically be available directly in EBSCONET — the tool used by librarians worldwide for making collection development decisions.

For more information about the time-saving options available through the EBSCO Usage Loading Service, visit www.ebsco.com/uls.

About EBSCO
EBSCO Information Services — the provider of EBSCONET® Subscription Management — is the world’s leading information intermediary, offering cutting-edge technology and personalized consultative services for managing and accessing content, including e-journals, e-packages, e-books, and more. Today’s libraries and research organizations are looking for new ways to manage their collections more efficiently, so EBSCO Information Services has developed comprehensive, highly integrated management solutions to help librarians save time and money while empowering their users. EBSCO serves clients through our offices worldwide and has more than 140 librarians on staff. To learn more about products and services from EBSCO Information Services, visit www.ebsco.com.

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For more information, please contact:
Rossi Morris
Media Relations Coordinator
EBSCO Corporate Communications
www.twitter.com/EBSCOInfoSvcs
rmorris@ebsco.com
205.980.3885

9/18/2012
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

The Urban School of San Francisco’s Herbst Library Goes Live on Koha with ByWater Solutions

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and the U.S.’ forefront provider of Koha (www.koha-community.org) support, announced today that The Urban School of San Francisco’s Herbst Library is now live on their installation of the Koha integrated library system.

ByWater Solutions completed the migration for the Herbst Library in early  September and will be providing ongoing support and hosting services for them.

The Herbst Library supports the education needs of 375 students and nearly 40 faculty members with a collection totaling over 11,000 items. Their customized online catalog can be viewed here: http://search.urbanschool.org.

Sarah Levin, Urban Librarian, commented on her experience with migrating to and using Koha:

“We are so excited to have Koha as our new library system. The flexibility that an open source product has along with great support from ByWater Solutions made the decision to switch easy. We are excited to transition from a basic ILS that simply got the job done to a more robust tool that will not only make our OPAC more useful to patrons, but will also make my job as a solo librarian more streamlined.”

Nicole C. Engard, Vice President of Education, commented on the team at the Herbst Library:

“Training staff as excited about change and new technology as those at The Urban School was a pleasure! The enthusiasm that Sarah and her term showed about open source, both in libraries and in education, was refreshing. I can’t wait to work with this team both on improving Koha and educating the next generation on the values of open source.”

About The Urban School of San Fransisco:
Founded in 1966, The Urban School of San Francisco is an innovative, independent high school with a mission to ignite a passion for learning and to inspire our students to become self-motivated, enthusiastic participants in their education. We honor the uniqueness of each individual and seek students from diverse backgrounds in order to build a strong, inclusive community and prepare students for lives in a multicultural society. For more information about The Urban School of San Fransisco, please visit: http://www.urbanschool.org

About the Herbst Library:
The library is a dynamic information commons. It supports the school’s philosophy of instilling in students a life-long love of learning. The mission of the library is to ensure that students acquire research skills needed to succeed in their courses and in college. The library supports the curriculum by providing primary source material and other resources not easily found at the local public libraries. For more information about the Herbst Library, please visit: http://www.urbanschool.org/page.cfm?p=39

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/

Leiden (NL) / Boston (MA) -- 18 September 2012

Brill, the international scholarly publisher, has now completed the acquisition of Leiden-based KITLV Press.

Following an earlier announcement, Brill has now completed the acquisition of all publishing activities of KITLV Press, the Dutch publisher of Asian and Caribbean studies. The acquisition includes two prestigious open access journals—Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania (published since 1853) and New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids (published since 1919)—in addition to the complete book list of some 450 titles.

The KITLV publications list fits well with Brill’s expanding publishing programs in Asian Studies and American Studies. “Brill is proud to have been selected by the Learned Society KITLV as the new home for this well-known list of Asian and Caribbean studies,” says Sam Bruinsma, Vice President Business Development at Brill. “Especially the two longstanding and distinguished journals were on our wish list for a long time and are a wonderful addition to our collection of now nearly 200 journal titles.”

“I really am pleased that our 160 year tradition of scholarly publishing will be continued with a prestigious publisher like Brill,” says Professor Susan Legêne, Chair of the Learned Society KITLV.

Both parties also agreed that the Learned Society KITLV will act as the open access sponsor of the two journals taken over by Brill. Through this unique sponsorship, Brill and the Learned Society KITLV guarantee the general public has access to all current and archival content, while at the same time providing contributing authors with a true open access option, free of charge.

Brill will take on all book publishing activities from Leiden-based KITLV Press with immediate effect and assumes responsibility for the two journals starting with the 2013 volumes.

For more information on this media alert please contact Sam Bruinsma (bruinsma@brill.com or + 31 71 5353 517).

For customer queries please contact sales-us@brill.com or sales-nl@brill.com.

About Brill (brill.com)
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, BRILL is a leading international academic publisher in the fields of Ancient Near East and Egypt, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, contemporary History and History of War studies, Biblical and Religious Studies, Slavic Studies, Language & Linguistics, Biology, Human Rights and Public International Law. With offices in Leiden and Boston, BRILL today publishes more than 175 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year. All publications are available in both print and electronic form. BRILL also markets a large number of research collections and databases with primary source material. The company’s key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. BRILL is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information please visit www.brill.com.

About KITLV (kitlv.nl)
The Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV) / Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies was founded in 1851. It specializes in collecting information and advancing research on the present and former Dutch colonies and their surroundings. The collection, publications and research encompass the humanities and the social sciences, ranging from colonial history to present-day social issues. Since 1969 KITLV has a representative office in Indonesia, KITLV-Jakarta, in collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

Leiden (NL) / Boston (MA) – 17 September 2012

Brill, the international scholarly publisher, has finalized an agreement with Emerald Group Publishing to acquire the Language and Linguistics titles from their extensive books portfolio, effective immediately. The list is expected to add 200,000 Euro in revenue per annum.

Brill, the international scholarly publisher, has finalized an agreement with Emerald Group Publishing to acquire the Language and Linguistics titles from their extensive books portfolio. The acquisition comprises six high-quality book series including the prestigious series Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface, Studies in Pragmatics and Syntax and Semantics, in addition to a backlist of some 150 titles. The list is expected to add 200,000 Euro in revenue per annum.

The deal also includes established individual textbooks and reference works, especially in the field of Speech and Hearing. Among the most recognized are Fundamentals of Hearing, An Introduction to the Physiology of Hearing, Psychology of Hearing, and The New Handbook of Second Language Acquisition.

The acquisition fits well with Brill´s expanding publishing program in Language & Linguistics. By adding the prestigious book series, the agreement strengthens Brill’s position in theoretical linguistics, particularly in pragmatics. Brill already publishes the International Review of Pragmatics.

Vicky Williams, Director of Business Development for Emerald, notes: “We are delighted that Brill has acquired this vibrant list from Emerald. Given their expertise in this subject field, we are confident that the list will go from strength to strength.”
Brill assumes publishing responsibilities for the Language and Linguistics titles with immediate effect.

For more information on this media alert please contact Sam Bruinsma (bruinsma@brill.com or + 31 71 5353 517).

For customer queries please contact sales-us@brill.com or sales-nl@brill.com.

About Brill (brill.com)
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, BRILL is a leading international academic publisher in the fields of Ancient Near East and Egypt, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, contemporary History and History of War studies, Biblical and Religious Studies, Slavic Studies, Language & Linguistics, Biology, Human Rights and Public International Law. With offices in Leiden and Boston, BRILL today publishes more than 175 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year. All publications are available in both print and electronic form. BRILL also markets a large number of research collections and databases with primary source material. The company’s key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. BRILL is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information please visit www.brill.com.

About Emerald (www.emeraldinsight.com)
Emerald Group Publishing Limited is a global scholarly publisher, with over 40 years’ publishing experience. Emerald manages a portfolio of over 290 journals, more than 2,000 books and book series volumes, as well as an extensive range of online products and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.