North Bethesda, MD, June 20, 2013-Bonnechere Union Public Library, located in Eganville, Ontario, Canada, has joined LibLime Koha and LibLime Koha 4.14.

The Bonnechere Union Public Library staff will work with LibLime Project Management in the upcoming months to migrate bibliographic, item, and patron data to the LibLime Koha 4.14 platform. Bonnechere Union Public Library looks forward to taking advantage of the rich functionality in LibLime Koha 4.14, including enhanced circulation policies, the Solr search engine, full faceted support in the OPAC, an embedded New Titles list, and additional functionality for expired and cancelled holds. As with all versions of LibLime Koha since 4.8, the entire application resides in the Plack environment for enhanced performance.

About Bonnechere Union Public Library
Bonnechere Union Public Library serves as a community gathering place with equal access to information for all patrons, available from multiple sources, about local heritage and the greater world beyond. The Library is a key partner in the development of the economic, cultural and social well-being of its community. As a community gathering place, the Bonnechere Union Public Library offers programming for all ages; it supports learning, literacy and leisure in a welcoming environment, and provides access to historical and modern resources in print and electronic formats.

About LibLime - PTFS
LibLime – PTFS is the global leader in providing support for the Koha open source ILS. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, the PTFS LibLime Division educates libraries about the benefits of open source, enabling them to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. The PTFS LibLime Division then facilitates deployment of Koha in libraries by providing outstanding consulting, development, implementation, and support/hosting for libraries of all types and sizes. PTFS is also the developer of the world’s leading content management software, ArchivalWare, and specializes in meeting library personnel staffing requirements, digitization, and metadata keying services. For more information, see http://liblime.com or http://ptfs.com or http://archivalware.net.

Grant from Sloan Foundation will fund community-informed effort to standardize collection and use of alternative metrics measuring research impact

Baltimore, MD – June 20, 2013 – The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces a new two-phase project to study, propose, and develop community-based standards or recommended practices in the field of alternative metrics. Assessment of scholarship is a critical component of the research process, impacting everything from which projects get funded to who gains promotion and tenure to which publications gain prominence. Since Eugene Garfield’s pioneering work in the 1960s, much of the work on research assessment has been based upon citations, a valuable measure but one that has failed to keep pace with online reader behavior, network interactions with content, social media, and online content management. Exemplified by innovative new platforms like ImpactStory, a new movement is growing to develop more robust alternative metrics—called altmetrics—that complement traditional citation metrics. NISO will first hold several in-person and virtual meetings to identify critical areas where altmetrics standards or recommended practices are needed and then convene a working group to develop consensus standards and/or recommended practices. The project is funded through a $207,500 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

“Citation analysis lacks ways to measure the newer and more prevalent ways that articles generate impact such as through social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, or blogs,” explains Nettie Lagace, NISO’s Associate Director for Programs. “Additionally, new forms of scholarly outputs, such as datasets, software tools, algorithms, or molecular structures are now commonplace, but they are not easily—if at all—assessed by traditional citation metrics. These are two among the many concerns the growing movement around altmetrics is trying to address.”

“For altmetrics to move out of its current pilot and proof-of-concept phase, the community must begin coalescing around a suite of commonly understood definitions, calculations, and data sharing practices,” states Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. “Organizations and researchers wanting to apply these metrics need to adequately understand them, ensure their consistent application and meaning across the community, and have methods for auditing their accuracy. We must agree on what gets measured, what the criteria are for assessing the quality of the measures, at what granularity these metrics are compiled and analyzed, how long a period the altmetrics should cover, the role of social media in altmetrics, the technical infrastructure necessary to exchange this data, and which new altmetrics will prove most valuable. The creation of altmetrics standards and best practices will facilitate the community trust in altmetrics, which will be a requirement for any broad-based acceptance, and will ensure that these altmetrics can be accurately compared and exchanged across publishers and platforms.”

“Sensible, community-informed, discipline-sensitive standards and practices are essential if altmetrics are to play a serious role in the evaluation of research,” says Joshua M. Greenberg, Director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Digital Information Technology program. “With its long history of crafting just such standards, NISO is uniquely positioned to help take altmetrics to the next level.”

The first phase of the project will gather two groups of invited experts in altmetrics research, traditional publishing, bibliometrics, and faculty assessment for in-person discussions with the goal of identifying key altmetrics issues and those that can best be addressed through standards or recommended practices. This input will form the basis of two virtual meetings open to the public to further refine and prioritize the issues. Additional community input will be sought through an array of electronic and social mechanisms and events coordinated with major community conferences. A report summarizing this input will identify the specific areas where NISO should develop standards or recommended practices, which will be undertaken by a working group convened in phase two. The complete project from initial meetings to publication of standards is expected to take two years. Information about the meetings and other methods for participation will be announced on the NISO website (www.niso.org) and in the monthly Newsline e-newsletter (www.niso.org/publications/newsline/).

About the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org.

About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (www.sloan.org/) is a philanthropic, not-for-profit grantmaking institution that supports original research and education in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economic performance. Funds for this project were provided through the Foundation's Digital Information Technology program, which leverages developments in information technology to increase the effectiveness of scholarly research and public engagement with knowledge.

Contact:
Nettie Lagace
Associate Director for Programs
National Information Standards Organization
nlagace@niso.org
301-654-2512

New Archives Available covering Europe & Africa, Photography, Women, and Science, Technology & Medicine

Farmington Hills, Mich., June 19, 2013 — Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced the launch of the next four archives in its Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) program, a multi-year global digitization and publishing program that brings together rare primary source materials from the nineteenth century and beyond. The launch of the new archives brings the total number available in the NCCO program to eight, and the total number of collections within the resource to more than 170. Gale partners with more than 80 institutions from around the world to bring NCCO to life, and the list is growing.

“The nineteenth century is one of the most-studied historical periods, and by providing a variety of rare, and cross-curricular content in NCCO, we are enabling researchers to make revolutionary discoveries about one of the most transformative periods in our history,” said Jim Draper, vice president and general manager, Gale. “Like its predecessor, Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), NCCO has quickly become the essential resource for any institution looking to provide its students and faculty with the ability to perform innovative historical research.”

The new NCCO archives cover a variety of topics and have been brought together with the help of an expanded advisory board that includes specific subject matter experts. The newly launched NCCO archives include:
• Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest – This archive documents the motivations, activities and results of the European conquest of Africa by bringing together monographs, manuscripts, and newspaper accounts covering key issues of economics, world politics, and international strategy.
• Photography: The World Through the Lens – The invention of photography initiated a mania for explorers, artists, scientists and ordinary people to document their surroundings. This archive assembles collections of photographs, photograph albums, photographically-illustrated books and texts covering remote places, the landscapes of the American West, scientific records of archaeological digs and anthropological studies, police photography, images of war, images of the urban and rural poor, and more. The archive covers the subject from key points of view: photography as a technical process; photography as an art form; photography as documentary evidence; and photography as an information type.
• Science, Technology and Medicine, 1780-1925 – The period is characterized by industrial, technical and social revolution. With a changing society came new approaches to the study of natural history, physics, mathematics, medicine, and public health. This interdisciplinary collection consists primarily of journals and monographs and major topics covered include: electricity and physics, the Darwinian revolution and global reception of evolution, civil engineering, mathematics and the social history of American medicine.
• Women: Transnational Networks – The collection contains information on European and North American movements, but also includes collections from other regions. Using a wide array of primary source documents – serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, reports, and visuals – this archive focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective.

For more information on Nineteenth Century Collections Online, including guided tutorials and a video on the making of the program, please visit http://gdc.gale.com/nineteenth-century-collections-online/ or stop by the Gale booth (#600) at the American Library Association annual meeting in Chicago, June 28 – July 1. For questions or to request a free trial, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com.

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading educational content, software and services company, empowering educators and driving learner engagement through personalized services and course-driven digital solutions that bridge from the library to the classroom. 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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For Immediate Release
Contact: Rob Colding
Information Today, Inc.
(609) 654-6266, ext. 330
rcolding@infotoday.com

June 17, 2013, Medford, New Jersey—Information Today, Inc. (ITI) announced the publication, in print and ebook editions, of The Accidental Law Librarian by Anthony Aycock, a how-to guide for librarians and information professionals who may lack formal training in law librarianship but are nevertheless called upon to answer legal questions. Aycock’s clear and practical coverage will also benefit new law librarians, attorneys, paralegals, corporate legal professionals, and anyone considering a career that involves legal research and reference.

Most librarians are presented with legal questions at one time or another and may find it a challenge to respond effectively. Where can I find the case Simpson v. Satterfield? What are the laws in Nevada on gun ownership? Can you help me apply for a business license? How do I copyright my name? These types of questions can make a librarian’s head spin. Collection development, too, is challenging for those who don’t work with legal information on a regular basis. As the law touches more and more of our daily lives while lawyers price their services out of the average person’s range, the public increasingly turns to libraries for answers. Now, librarians can turn to this book.

“The Accidental Law Librarian is the first comprehensive, non-scholarly book on law libraries in 20-plus years,” according to Aycock. “It is not focused on academic law librarians [but] is a resource for people thrust into the law librarian role. From legal research basics to the needs of legal information seekers, from database licensing to database use, from the history of legal publishing, to the future of law libraries, The Accidental Law Librarian helps public librarians build better collections and deliver accurate, worry-free service.”

“Anthony Aycock has done for law librarianship what James Herriot did for veterinary practice,” said Virginia Tucker, author of Finding the Answers to Legal Questions. “He brings alive the challenges of legal reference work, including the sometimes painful and often hilarious questions that arise. Whether you work in a law library or just appreciate the complexities of legal research, this book is a great read.”

The Accidental Law Librarian has 10 chapters, 2 appendices, the author’s Introduction, an exhaustive index, and a companion webpage at accidentallawlibrarian.wordpress.com. The webpage offers readers links to useful resources, insights and updates on law librarianship, and additional content selected by the author.

Terry Ballard, librarian and author of Google This! Putting Google and Other Social Media Sites to Work for Your Library, called The Accidental Librarian “A brilliant summary of everything a librarian should know before entering the law library profession.” He added, “I wish this book had been around when I accidentally entered the legal library world myself.”

Since 2010, Anthony Aycock has managed the library of the North Carolina Justice Academy, a nationally accredited law enforcement training facility in eastern North Carolina. Aycock’s essays and articles have appeared in the Missouri Review, Gettysburg Review, Creative Nonfiction, ONLINE, Library Journal, National Paralegal Reporter, and Community & Junior College Libraries. He holds a BA in English, an MLIS, and an MFA in creative writing.

The Accidental Law Librarian (272 pp/softbound/$39.50/ISBN 978-1-57387-477-9) is published by Information Today, Inc. (ITI) and is available wherever professional books and ebooks are sold. For more information, contact the publisher by calling (800) 300-9868; faxing (609) 654-4309; emailing custserv@infotoday.com; or visiting the ITI website at infotoday.com.

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A collaboration between EBSCO Information Services and Coutts Information Services has allowed EBSCO eBooks™ to be integrated with Ingram's OASIS® content, creating one of the largest and most comprehensive content repositories of academic e-book content for libraries. Users of the OASIS platform that have their account enabled will have access to an expanded selection of scholarly, frontlist and award-winning e-book titles from leading publishers.

The release is below and can also be found online at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10843107.htm or on the EBSCO website at http://www.ebscohost.com/newsroom/stories/ebsco-ebooks-now-available-on-...

EBSCO eBooks™ Now Available on
Ingram's OASIS® Academic Library Platform

NASHVILLE, TN – Ingram Content Group Inc., and EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) today announced that more than 400,000 e-book titles from EBSCO eBooks™ have been integrated with Ingram's OASIS® content platform and are now available to academic libraries worldwide.

"Enabling librarians to select and order EBSCO eBooks from within their desired workflow allows more libraries to seamlessly integrate EBSCO eBooks into collection development processes, and in turn their collections for their patrons," said Ken Breen, EBSCO’s Senior Director of E-book Products. "Our collaborative work with Ingram will help more content reach more readers worldwide."

The collaboration between EBSCO and Coutts Information Services, Ingram Content Group's academic library company, has created one of the largest and most comprehensive content repositories of academic e-book content for libraries. Users of the OASIS platform that have their account enabled will have access to an expanded selection of scholarly, frontlist and award-winning e-book titles from leading publishers.

Users of the OASIS platform can view and select from e-books alongside print books, with no changes to existing and preferred workflows. Billing will be consolidated, offering libraries integrated acquisition services and invoicing for all EBSCO eBooks content.

"At Ingram, we continue to expand our services to provide complete end-to-end solutions for libraries, whether they need print, digital, print-on-demand or hard to find content," said Dan Sheehan, Vice President and General Manager, Ingram Content Group library services. "Through our work with EBSCO, more libraries will have access to the content that's in demand by their patrons, all within their preferred workflow."

The OASIS platform, Ingram's academic content platform for its library company Coutts Information Services, is a comprehensive online library interface for bibliographic information and searching, book and e-book acquisition, collection development and workflow management. Through the OASIS platform, libraries are able to access a database of millions of titles; search, select and manage orders online; download records, including no-cost MARC downloads; monitor standing orders; manage approval plans and new title notification plans; track orders and access reporting information.
EBSCO’s extensive collection of e-book titles allows for a comprehensive and powerful search experience—with every search, relevant e-book titles appear directly alongside other EBSCOhost® databases, exposing users to the full depth of a library’s offerings and increasing usage and visibility of the library’s entire collection. EBSCO offers more than 420,000 high-quality e-book titles from leading publishers. Collections may be built from a growing selection of best-selling, frontlist and award-winning e-book titles across a wide range of subject matter or chosen from EBSCO’s pre-packaged collections that are hand-selected by EBSCO’s Collection Development team.
ABOUT EBSCO INFORMATION SERVICES
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading provider of resources for libraries including EBSCONET®, EBSCO’s total e-resource management system, and 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. EBSCO provides more than 375 research databases and more than 420,000 e-books plus subscription management services for 355,000 e-journals and e-journal packages. 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. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

ABOUT INGRAM
Ingram Content Group Inc. is a subsidiary of Nashville-based Ingram Industries Inc. The company provides books, music and media content to over 39,000 retailers, libraries, schools and distribution partners in 195 countries. More than 26,000 publishers use Ingram’s fully integrated physical and digital distribution, logistics, and manufacturing solutions to access global consumer demand, and realize the full business potential of book content. Ingram’s operating units are Ingram Book Company, Lightning Source Inc., Vital Source Technologies, Inc., Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., Ingram Publisher Services Inc., Tennessee Book Company LLC, and Coutts Information Services. For more information, visit www.ingramcontent.com

Contacts:
For Ingram: Keel Hunt (615) 321-3110
For EBSCO: Kathleen McEvoy (800) 653-2726