Press Releases & News

Mathematics titles to be published by Oxford Journals

Ex Libris Adds TechXtra and PerX Configurations to MetaLib

The National Library of Wales extends its collection with ebooks from NetLibrary

Emerald Selects ScholarOne's Manuscript Central for Online Peer Review

Richard Hainebach joins the Headfast Board

Oxford University Press announces major expansion of publishing new scholarly monographs online

WorldCat Registry offers management of organisational data

27 February 2007—OCLC has launched the WorldCat Registry, a comprehensive directory for libraries and consortia, and the services they provide. The WorldCat Registry will help libraries and consortia manage and share data that define their organisations – such as institution type, location, URLs for electronic services, circulation statistics, and population served – through a single, authoritative Web platform.

Profile data in the WorldCat Registry can include details such as branch library locations that can be used as part of WorldCat.org, the Web service that allows free access to the world's richest resource for finding materials held in libraries, enabling searchers to find what they need at the nearest library.

"The Registry was created to help libraries and other cultural heritage institutions make themselves more visible on the Web, and to ease libraries' administrative burdens associated with providing the same types of information to many sources," said Chip Nilges, Vice President, OCLC New Services.

The Registry also helps solve an increasingly common administrative burden for libraries and library groups: keeping multiple institutional identities up to date across different internal and third-party applications and through a variety of methods, including Web interfaces, faxed paper forms and phone calls.

"Libraries, consortia, and electronic content vendors all need to maintain current files of information such as computer-network IP addresses, local administrative contacts, and size of the user community," said Celeste Feather, Electronic Resources Librarian at The Ohio State University Libraries. "The problem for libraries is that they are expected to maintain this information in many places if they want to ensure reliable service. Vendors also need an efficient way to maintain this information in their systems."

"A centralised database such as the WorldCat Registry for this type of information would facilitate efficient sharing of critical information among many interested parties. If widely adopted, the Registry service could provide a solution to a difficult workflow issue for librarians," said Ms. Feather.

Any institution or consortium—OCLC members and non-members alike—can use the WorldCat Registry to share their profile with other libraries, technology vendors, e-content providers, funding agencies, and other parties that could benefit from access. A WorldCat Registry profile is shared via a special Web link that provides instant, read-only access to the most current data.

A WorldCat Registry profile will let an institution or consortium maintain and share information, such as:

• Institution name, "also known as" alias, and type
• Identifying codes issued by industry organisations
• Physical location
• Consortial memberships
• Parent-child relationships (main and branch institutions)
• Computer-network IP addresses
• Web-based services such as online catalogue, "Ask-a" virtual reference and OpenURL servers
• Budgetary and service statistics
• Administrative contacts

Sensitive information such as personal IP addresses and contact names, phone numbers or e-mail addresses are not made publicly available in the WorldCat Registry.

Web services that allow the query and retrieval of specific Registry data by online applications are also available. Two Web services have been released for free, non-commercial use as part of the WorldCat Affiliate Program at http://worldcat.org/affiliate/default.jsp .

Visit the WorldCat Registry at http://worldcat.org/registry/institutions . 

Ex Libris Adds TechXtra and PerX Configurations to MetaLib

Jerusalem, Israel, and Edinburgh, Scotland February 19th, 2007

Ex Libris Group announced today that two important new engineering and technology resources – TechXtra and PerX – have been added to the MetaLib Central KnowledgeBase of cross-searchable resources. PerX provides subject resource discovery across a series of repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research communities. TechXtra cross-searches 31 engineering, mathematics, and computing collections from over 50 publishers and providers.

The new resources effectively increase the range of cross-searchable engineering, mathematics, and computing resources in the MetaLib gateway and metasearch system. As with all new cross-search configurations in the MetaLib Central KnowledgeBase (whether added by Ex Libris or by libraries), these configurations are available to libraries at no additional charge.

Karen Groves, MetaLib product manager at Ex Libris, commented, "We are very pleased to offer these important new services with the MetaLib KnowledgeBase and are confident that many libraries will make use of these new configurations. An additional benefit to end users is that through the SFX linking server, they will see links to applicable services via records retrieved from TechXtra and PerX."

Roddy MacLeod, senior subject librarian at Heriot-Watt University and manager of TechXtra, added, "We are pleased that our innovative new service will be available to the global MetaLib user base. Having TechXtra and PerX in MetaLib means that we will receive more hits, both through metasearches and through direct hits on our native interface, as MetaLib provides both options."

An initiative of the Institute for Computer Based Learning (ICBL) and the library at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, TechXtra receives no external funding. TechXtra is an independent service and free source of information in engineering, mathematics, and computing. TechXtra is based on a search engine that provides immediate access to the freely available full-text content of millions of articles, key Web sites, theses and dissertations, books, industry news, new job announcements, technical reports, e-prints, learning and teaching resources, and the latest research in engineering, mathematics, and computing. In cases where the full text is not freely available, TechXtra provides links to vendors for pay-per-view options.

TechXtra also offers access to hundreds of free trade magazine subscriptions and technical document downloads, job announcements, the latest industry news, cut-price new books, discovery guides, information about validated engineering design data, information about offshore engineering publications, newsletters, and more. In the future, new databases, feeds, journals, newsletters, and guides will be added to TechXtra, and the interface will be updated.

For additional information on TechXtra, see http://www.techxtra.ac.uk .

PerX – Pilot Engineering Repository XSearch – is a two-year Joint Information Systems Committee Digital Repositories Programme project. The purpose of the project is to develop a pilot service that will provide subject resource discovery across a series of repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research community. This pilot will then be used as a test bed for exploring the practical issues that would be involved in a full-scale subject resource discovery service.

For more information on PerX, see http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/perx/about.htm .

The Ex Libris MetaLib gateway and metasearch system enables users to access their institution's e-collections, obtain relevant services, and work in a personalized environment. Using the easily customized MetaLib user interface or the user interface of another application tightly integrated with MetaLib, library patrons can conduct a metasearch across heterogeneous resources or link to the resources' native interface.

The flexible MetaLib infrastructure accommodates both single institutions and consortia. Web-based administration tools enable librarians to quickly activate the full range of information resources that they offer their users. Integrated with the MetaLib gateway is the award-winning SFX OpenURL-compliant linking server, which provides users with context-sensitive linking to services that their institution has defined and customized on the basis of its e-collections and policies.

For additional information on MetaLib, see http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/metalib.htm .

The National Library of Wales extends its collection with ebooks from NetLibrary

6 February 2007

The National Library of Wales has supplemented its book collection with 295 eBooks on Welsh interests and culture from NetLibrary through OCLC PICA, enabling further remote access to its resources for over 350,000 registered users.

Robert Lacey, acquisitions librarian at the National Library's Department of Collection Services says, "The National Library of Wales has the world's largest collection of works about Wales and the other Celtic countries: books and pamphlets, archives and manuscripts, magazines and newspapers, paintings and photographs, microforms and ephemera. Also, as an important general reference library, we are constantly seeking to add to our electronic resources so that users from afar can access information at any time of day or night and the new eBooks are an excellent addition to our collection."

Users accessing the National Library of Wales' website can link through to the ebooks via the library's Web catalogue.

NetLibrary, available from OCLC PICA, is an established leader in EContent delivery. As of January 2007, NetLibrary has 15,000 customers in over 50 countries. NetLibrary acquires over 1500 new titles every month and is currently offering 127,000 titles from over 450 publishers.

OCLC PICA's director of sales, Mark Carden added “The National Library of Wales joins a growing number of academic, public and special libraries in the UK that are developing their collections through the acquisition of eContent. There are nearly 100 libraries in the UK, who have chosen NetLibrary because of the breadth and diversity of its content.”

Emerald Selects ScholarOne's Manuscript Central for Online Peer Review

5 February 2007

Emerald, a leading publisher of academic and professional literature in management, library services and engineering is pleased to announce its partnership with Thomson Scientific to use ScholarOne's Manuscript Central as its online peer review system. Thomson Scientific is part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities.

“It is with great pleasure that we welcome Emerald to the Manuscript Central user community,” said Keith MacGregor, executive vice president of Academic and Government Markets at Thomson Scientific. “A partnership between Emerald, the world's leading publisher of management journals and databases, and ScholarOne, the industry leader in scholarly publishing, is a natural fit. We are both dedicated to servicing the publishing needs of authors and editors.”

“Emerald prides itself as being a publisher that offers an excellent service to its authors and editors,” said Rebecca Marsh, Emerald's director of editorial and production. “Therefore, we are delighted to sign an agreement with ScholarOne to provide an efficient online submission and peer review system through Manuscript Central.”

Manuscript Central offers a number of features to address scholarly publishers' needs, enabling users to submit, review, annotate and format technical manuscripts in innovative ways. In addition, the recent acquisition of ScholarOne by Thomson Scientific gives authors and publishers access to additional expertise in information and tools that span the entire research process.

“Thomson Scientific is launching a Manuscript Management Toolset that integrates elements of Manuscript Central with Web of Science® and EndNote,” added MacGregor. “Publishers such as Emerald will soon be able to offer journals these tools which will enable authors to create their manuscripts in EndNote and then use Manuscript Central to easily submit them for review.”

About The Thomson Corporation

http://www.thomson.com

The Thomson Corporation is a global leader in providing essential electronic workflow solutions to business and professional customers. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, scientific research and healthcare. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

About ScholarOne, Inc.

http://www.scholarone.com

ScholarOne, Inc. provides comprehensive workflow management systems for scholarly journals, books, and conferences. Its Web-based applications enable publishers to manage the submission, peer review, production, and publication processes more efficiently, increasing their profile among authors, decreasing time-to-market for critical scientific data, and lowering infrastructure costs. The Manuscript Central user base has grown to 2.6 million registered users worldwide.

Richard Hainebach joins the Headfast Board

Caterham, Surrey, 30 January 2007

Headfast has appointed Richard Hainebach as its new Chairman with special responsibility for business strategy and development. Richard brings with him a great deal of experience in publishing and online information services. He is also a long-time user of the company's software and services. Sue Hyman, one of Headfast's founding directors, said when announcing the appointment, "I am delighted to welcome Richard on board. His knowledge and experience of our core application areas will be a great asset as we expand both within our existing markets and into new ones."

Born in South Africa, Richard is a consultant and entrepreneur specialising in legal publishing and information management. He has been a business strategy adviser to Thomson Legal & Regulatory since selling his own company, ELLIS Publications in November 1999 to the Thomson Corporation, one of the world's largest information companies. Richard set up ELLIS Publications in 1986 to provide a European legal information service. By the time it was bought by Thomson, ELLIS Publications had established itself as a global leader in European Union law by enriching the EU's own materials with a wealth of extra data and by making it very easy to search and to view. Earlier in his career, Richard worked for the European Commission on a variety of major projects concerned with the storage, indexing and retrieval of legal information. This was followed by a spell with Elsevier, another global information and publishing company, where he again specialised in the legal marketplace.

Mike Hyman, the Managing Director of Headfast, said: "Richard is one of the pioneers and stalwarts of European legal information services. We first met in 1977 during the tendering process for a European Commission study looking at software for legal information storage and retrieval. Since then our paths have crossed many times until, ultimately, he became a client in the mid 1980s. Firstly as a dealer selling our software in the Netherlands and later at ELLIS Publications using Headfast as the software for its very successful information publishing business on CD-ROM and the Internet. We have also worked together on a number of projects for Thomson Legal & Regulatory in the past few years."

Oxford University Press announces major expansion of publishing new scholarly monographs online

Oxford University Press is pleased to announce that, as of September 2007, it will be expanding its groundbreaking Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) ( http://www.oxfordscholarship.com ) programme to offer the majority of its scholarly monograph publishing online. Scholars and students will have unrivalled access to online monographs in the core areas of: Biology, Business/Management, Classics, History, Maths, Linguistics, Literature, Physics and Psychology – in addition to the current list of available subjects: Economic and Finance, Philosophy, Political Science and Religion

Launched in 2003 as a subscription database, OSO expanded to a perpetual access purchase model in 2005, and increased usage over that time by 450%. With the September 2007 expansion, Oxford University Press will publish frontlist titles in the core disciplines more or less simultaneously with the publication of the print edition. Many universities, institutions, and government offices throughout the world now make use of OSO, each with thousands of users. As a result, millions of scholars, students and researchers now have access to this outstanding content, when they need it, wherever they need it.

Claire Grace, Electronic Resources Manager, Open University, comments, “The Open University Library welcomes the announcement by Oxford University Press and keenly awaits the delivery of additional titles, in new subject areas and in a format which substantially increases access for our students to valuable online book content. We also acknowledge and support Oxford University Press's efforts to respond to customer demand in publishing their frontlist titles in this format.”

Kate Jury, Marketing Director, OUP Academic Division-UK, says, “Throughout the conception, development, and expansion of OSO we have worked very closely with librarians and academics, and have benefited greatly from their advice and support. We hope that this further expansion of OSO will enable all of us to benefit from the continued vitality of the monograph, and we believe that it is a strong commitment from Oxford to the support and dissemination of scholarship in this much valued and important publishing format.”

Dr. Henry Reece, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford University Press explains, "Oxford Scholarship Online is a prime example of the ways in which innovative technologies can assist us in our mission of disseminating high-quality information. OSO enables our authors to reach audiences around the globe who would once have been far out of reach. Since its launch, the number of OSO users has been growing steadily and we are delighted to be in a position to extend OSO's reach even further, into most of the core areas in which the press publishes."

At least 200 new titles will be available online each year, and from September, Oxford will publish many new monographs online and in traditional print versions.