Gruffalo co-creator Axel Scheffler will be leading a Mini Literature Festival for West Yorkshire school pupils at (12.30pm, Bradford Grammar School, 18 April).

Axel Scheffler, who brought to life one of the world’s best-loved monsters, will be leading a Mini Literature Festival for West Yorkshire school pupils to celebrate a new 2.1 million library at Bradford Grammar School (BGS).
Axel Scheffler, co-creator of ‘The Gruffalo’, will visit BGS on Monday 18 April to open the new library and take part in a day of Gruffalo-related activities including ‘festival workshops’.

Simon Hinchliffe, Headmaster at Bradford Grammar School, said: “We are thrilled that Axel will be opening our new library and the unique opportunity this gives for our pupils to get creative with the help of such an experienced children’s book artist.”

The workshops will include arts and crafts tips, reading sessions, making art displays for the classroom, a LIVE drawing workshop by Axel himself, where he will show pupils his very own techniques, and a book signing.
As part of the ‘Mini Literature Festival’ Axel will also be joined by award-winning sculptor and writer, Anthony Padgett, renowned poet and best-selling children's writer Nick Toczek and children's writer Saci Lloyd, author of the Carbon Diaries.

The collective will also run a series of exciting workshops with pupils from Years 2 to 13 (6 to18 year olds) including poetry recitals, open mic sessions, talks about their work, careers and life experiences and Q and A sessions throughout the afternoon.

LearningExpress Named SIIA Education CODiE Award Finalist for Best College and Career Readiness Solution
~ PrepSTEP™ Earns Prestigious Education Industry Recognition ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — April 12, 2016 — LearningExpress, an EBSCO company and leading provider of standardized test preparation, today announced that PrepSTEP™ was named a finalist for the 2016 SIIA CODiE Awards in the Best College and Career Readiness Solution category. PrepSTEP™ was named as one of the 160 finalists across 29 education technology categories.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the premier awards for the software and information industries, and have been recognizing product excellence for over 30 years. The awards offer 91 categories that are organized by industry focus of education technology and business technology.

Winners will be announced during a virtual award ceremony on May 18. The top honour of best overall educational product will be presented at Education Industry Symposium, the nation’s leading education technology conference, in Denver July 26. The announcement will take place during a special celebration party and dinner.
PrepSTEP™ is a dynamic online learning platform that can change the lives of students, through academic success and preparation for today’s workplace. It is packed with powerful resources for self-guided skill building, supplemental development materials, as well as vital tools for career preparation and workforce readiness.
Kheil McIntyre, LearningExpress’ Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director said about PrepSTEP’s status as a CODiE finalist, “Our passion is to provide agile and innovative online resources that empower people to succeed. PrepSTEP is just another example of how we remain true to mission of helping students and adult learners achieve academic and career success.”
“Every year the list of CODIE finalists is a case study of how the ed tech industry is using new technologies in combination with knowledge about how people learn to respond to customer needs. They’re opening doors for learners of all ages.” said Karen Billings, vice president and managing director of ETIN.

Details about each finalist are listed at http://www.siia.net/codie/Finalists

About SIIA
SIIA is an umbrella association representing 800+ technology, data and media companies globally. Industry leaders work through SIIA’s divisions to address issues and challenges that impact their industry segments with the goal of driving innovation and growth for the industry and each member company. This is accomplished through in-person and online business development opportunities, peer networking, corporate education, intellectual property protection and government relations. For more information, visit siia.net.

About ETIN
ETIN (the Education Technology Industry Network of SIIA) is the leading voice for 200+ companies that provide software applications, digital content, online learning services and related technologies across the PK-20 sector. ETIN drives growth and innovation within the industry by providing leadership, advocacy, business development opportunities, government relations and critical ed tech market information. For more information, visit siia.net/etin.

About LearningExpress
LearningExpress, founded in 1995 and a part of EBSCO Information Services since April 2015, is an award-winning educational technology company and recognized leader in providing online workforce skills, academic, and career content for the business, education, government, and library markets. Visit LearningExpress at www.learningexpressllc.com.

About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 10,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 800,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.

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For more information, please contact:

EBSCO Information Services:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com

LearningExpress:
Janine Y. Swenson
Director of Marketing
LearningExpress, an EBSCO company
jswenson@ebsco.com

SIIA/ETIN Communications Contact:
Allison Bostrom
+1.202.789.4466
abostrom@siia.net

PlumX Metrics Help University of Helsinki Gauge Reach of Research
~ New Type of Metrics Provide University Researchers Greater Insights ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — April 11, 2016 — The University of Helsinki is the first university in Finland to use altmetrics provided by Plum™ Analytics, an EBSCO company, to gain greater insight into the research output of its scholars. Departments in several different disciplines are using PlumX Dashboard to monitor and quantify the digital footprint of its research, and in the process, are seeing how the instant feedback these metrics offer can be useful alongside standard academic citations when analyzing how its research is being used.

PlumX metrics have been an effective measure of real-time use of research articles for the university. The participating departments have seen feedback from several of the unique metrics that PlumX provides, including usage, captures, mentions, social media and citations. Through PlumX, the University is able to see a graphical summary, or Plum Print, of metrics for articles from researchers that are grouped by discipline. PlumX also shows metrics for individual researchers within their disciplines. Each type of metric can be analyzed separately, providing researchers with a granular view of their research’s impact.

Researchers at the university who are working with PlumX Dashboard believe that the PlumX metrics it provides will play an increasing role in the way researchers evaluate the impact of their research, especially as these tools become more entrenched in universities and libraries. According to Service Director Pälvi Kaiponen, “Altmetrics is still in its early stages, but as technology advances, its importance is likely to grow. It is essential to be involved from the beginning, so that we can influence the development of the tools. Perhaps in the near future altmetrics in sciences and other disciplines will be just as commonplace as traditional metrics are now.”

For more information on PlumX Dashboard and the entire PlumX Suite, visit http://plumanalytics.com/.

About University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest institution of academic education in Finland, an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. In international university rankings, the University of Helsinki typically ranks among the top 100. The University of Helsinki seeks solutions for global challenges and creates new ways of thinking for the best of humanity. Through the power of science, the University has contributed to society, education and welfare since 1640.

About Plum™ Analytics
Plum Analytics was founded in 2012 to bring modern ways of measuring research impact to individuals and organizations that use, fund, support, perform, publish or analyze research. Plum Analytics provides contemporary information about research impact and gather metrics (often called altmetrics) about research from more than 30 sources (including PLOS, PubMed and YouTube) and categorizes them into Usage, Captures, Mentions, Social Media and Citations. The PlumX Suite is comprised of five products that ensure that information on research output is available to those that fund, perform, support or publish research based on the unique needs of each group. For more information, visit http://www.plumanalytics.com.

About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 8,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 800,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.

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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com

Leiden (NL) / Boston (USA) / Singapore (SG) – 11 April 2016

As one of the first publishers, Brill’s edited book volumes will be indexed by Google Scholar, the most influential web search engine for the scholarly world. Google Scholar allows users to search for digital or physical copies of articles, whether online or in libraries. It indexes full-text journal articles, technical reports, preprints, theses, books, and other scholarly documents. So far, Google Scholar has already been indexing Brill’s journal articles. As of now, this is also the case for Brill’s e-books.

Albert Schoenmaker, Senior Product Manager Platforms with Brill: “We see that Google Scholar is an important discovery tool for scholars to find our journal articles. In Brill’s main subject areas, books are an important channel for scholarly communication. Our users will welcome the enhancement of Google Scholar in relevant books in their field.”

Brill has adjusted its Books and Journals platform to allow book content to be indexed by Google Scholar, thus improving the discoverability of this content. The adjustments have been made in close cooperation with platform provider Ingenta.

Justin Ackerman, Customer Services Director at Ingenta commented: “We have been working closely with Google Scholar for some time now, looking at innovative ways to link researchers with the wealth of information available via our platforms. Our work on Brill Online should significantly improve the discovery of its book titles via the indexing facility and ultimately drive more traffic to the site as a result.”

For more information, please contact Albert Schoenmaker, Sr. Product Manager Platforms: Schoenmaker@brill.com

About Brill
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in 20 main subject areas, including Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, History, Biblical and Religious Studies, Language & Linguistics, Biology, and International Law. With offices in Leiden and Boston and a representative office in Singapore, Brill today publishes 265 journals and around 1000 new books and reference works each year, available in both print and electronic form. Brill also markets a large number of primary source research collections and databases. 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 more information, visit www.brill.com.

View this media alert online: http://www.brill.com/news/brill-books-now-indexed-google-scholar

Leiden (NL) / Boston (USA) / Singapore (SG) – 8 April 2016

International publisher Brill has signed an agreement with Kudos to help authors maximize their impact. Starting April 2016, the Kudos platform will be available for all authors within Brill’s publishing program.

Kudos is a platform which allows authors to enrich their publications, and to maximize their visibility, by providing new means to engage with their digital community on social media, in just a few clicks. By providing this new service, Brill will further improve the dissemination and visibility of their high quality research.

“Our new partnership marries Brill’s long tradition in publishing high quality scholarly research with the Kudos team’s expertise in new media and its ability to help increase visibility and impact of research,” says Charlie Rapple, Sales & Marketing Director and Co-founder of Kudos. “We are proud to be working with Brill and look forward to helping their researchers broaden the reach of their work.”

"Today’s top quality service to authors asks for support in the digital world as well. Kudos helps Brill to further improve that top quality author service and at the same time creates better visibility for its publications. A valuable innovation has been added to Brill’s 333 years of publishing experience," says Peter Coebergh, EVP Sales & Marketing.

For more information, contact Caroline van Erp, Marketing Manager: erp@brill.com.

About Brill
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in 20 main subject areas, including Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, History, Biblical and Religious Studies, Language & Linguistics, Biology, and International Law. With offices in Leiden and Boston and a representative office in Singapore, Brill today publishes 243 journals and around 1000 new books and reference works each year, available in both print and electronic form. Brill also markets a large number of primary source research collections and databases. 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 more information, visit www.brill.com.

About Kudos
Kudos is a new service that helps researchers and their institutions to measure, monitor and maximize the visibility and impact of their published articles. It builds on three core principles: that readers are increasingly struggling to filter the growing quantity of published research; that information which supports filtering – such as lay summaries and impact statements – often exists but is not made public; and that authors are well placed to increase awareness and impact of their own work, but don't always know how to do this. Kudos provides a platform for assembling or creating information to help filtering, for sharing information to drive discovery, and for measuring and monitoring the effect of these activities. More information at: www.growkudos.com.

View this media alert online: http://www.brill.com/news/brill-starts-partnership-kudos