Press Releases & News
HighWire expands program for books and reference works
Stanford, California – May 27, 2009:HighWire Press announced today a marked increase in the growth of its books program, with over 30 new titles launched online so far this year and hundreds more scheduled through 2009 and early 2010.
For many years, HighWire has developed and hosted non-journal content, such as books, reference works, databases, continuing education, and conference proceedings sites. In 2000 the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language, was launched on HighWire, and in 2003 Red Book(r) Online, the authoritative reference work on childhood infectious disease published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, launched on HighWire. Both of these sites are examples of how publishers can best use continuous updates, virtual supplements, and news to enrich books and reference works online.
'In the next 12 months, about a third of the new sites going up on HighWire will be books, reference works, and handbooks,' said John Sack, Director of HighWire. 'Our approach involves intelligently integrating books and journals online to offer publishers new opportunities to productize (and monetize) across all content.'
Recent book and reference work sites launched on HighWire include:
In addition to over 100 books, reference works, and other non-journal content sites, HighWire hosts the definitive editions of over 1200 full text journals in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and humanities, as well as cross-content products for niche markets that combine content from many different sources.
'Our market research shows that publishers want to experiment easily and respond quickly to the marketplace with new products, many of which will combine books, journal articles, and other content types,' said Julie Noblitt, Associate Director of HighWire. 'Our new platform is designed to allow publishers to mix and match content easily, create new products, and try out various business models and channels, such as the iPhone and Kindle.'
WorldCat Mashathon inspires nine new tools for European library users
29 May 2009, Leiden, Netherlands: Librarians, developers, information managers and other Web professionals who gathered Wednesday and Thursday, 13-14 May 2009 for the second ever WorldCat Mashathon have already shown off nine new applications created during the event for library users.
The event was deemed very successful by participants and organizers alike. In an interesting twist for the audience of highly-networked informational professionals, the Mashathon reconfirmed the importance of face-to-face meetings, even in today’s online environment.
“I had a great time, learned a lot and met lots of interesting people,” tweets Andreas Neumann of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, Germany which goes by bsb_it_andi on Twitter. Fellow participants echoed the sentiment in similar tweets and event evaluations.
Held at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the WorldCat Mashathon attracted more than 40 participants from Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States who represented all types of libraries and cultural institutions. The goal of the event was twofold: one was to raise awareness of the WorldCat Search API and related Web Services freely available from OCLC and other library-related organizations. The equally important second goal was to help developers connect with fellow developers and other technology-minded thinkers to work on shared solutions to similar situations or challenges within their respective settings.
Outcomes from the two days typically included a range of mash-ups, apps and new creative ideas to implement in developers’ home library catalogues. Examples of successful projects included:
WorldCat World Tour—an app that finds artists’ albums through the WorldCat Search API and uses a UK-based streaming music service to play the musical tracks online. (Hear the developer present at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QndR-yOZkKg)
WorldCat Identities widgets—4 small blocks of functionality that build on each other to turn a Dutch catalogue ppn number into an OCLC number, return author names, citations and related works (subject headings) in XML and JSON. (Try the demo at http://www.worldcatdoor.org/widgets/ppn/)
Also available at a WorldCat Library—a new sidebar in the Wageningen UR Library Catalogue that uses the WorldCat Search API and the WorldCat Registry OpenURL Gateway to display a location-sensitive listing for other WorldCat libraries who also hold the item. (See it in action at
http://bohee001.devel.library.wur.nl/WebQuery/catalog/lang/1667730)
The format of the Mashathon included a mix of short prepared presentations and spontaneous small break-out groups. A mix of seasoned and early career professionals made for a rich environment for creative innovation and fresh approaches. As one attendee explained, “There were three people in the world that had experience with combining SOLR and SRU—because of this event we were able to connect this expertise together very quickly.”
Videos, photos and tweets from the event may be found at the tags #masheu09 and #mashathon on YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.
Mashathon organisers are enthusiastic about the success of the event series. “This is such a great way to bring the library development community together,” explained Roy Tennant, one of the founders of the OCLC Developer Network. “We are so pleased with the creativity of the implementations and expect the tools created these two days to continue delivering long-term value for libraries and library users around the world.”
Box of Broadcasts – iPlayer for education
May 19, 2009: Television and radio broadcast content is now available as an online streaming service to thousands of students and researchers for the first time following the launch of Box of Broadcasts (BoB National) by the JISC part-funded British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC).
The off-air recording and video archive service is available to staff and students of the Education Recording Agency (ERA) licensed member institutions. Like the BBC ‘iPlayer’, it allows users to watch or listen to programmes missed in the last week. However, unlike iPlayer, programmes to air over the coming seven days can be scheduled, recorded and do not expire. This means they can be archived and available indefinitely, making it invaluable for lecturers and students requiring constant access.
The BUFVC has been piloting BoB National with its partners, Bournemouth University and Cambridge Imaging Systems, and there are thousands of users already signed up. BoB National is self-perpetuating, so the more institutions sign up and record programmes, the more content is made available to other users. There is also a simple editing service which allows users to create specific clips. These, as well as entire programmes or series can be added to playlists, for sharing with other students or research colleagues. Users can then comment, tag or rate these playlists, clips or programmes.
Commenting on the launch of BoB National, Keith Parry, programme leader for sports coaching and development, Bournemouth University, said: "It's a fantastic resource which allows me to share content with students and staff alike. For example, students are encouraged to watch European football games as part of their coaching analysis module, and they appreciate the fact they can watch these as many times as they need, wherever they need. For sports history and sociology I use the service to link footage to the department's Virtual Learning Environment – without BoB this would not be possible.
"BoB has given us the ability here at Bournemouth to be able to facilitate new and different learning styles which fit perfectly with today's students' consumption of learning material. And student feedback is that they enjoy the ability to view content off-campus and at a time of their choosing, which is particularly useful when it comes to revision time. BoB is already well-used among staff and researchers at Bournemouth and we look forward to it being opened up to peers at other institutions.”
Further information
* BoB National operates specifically within the terms of the ERA+ licensing scheme offered by the Educational Recording Agency. The head licensee for BoB is Bournemouth University and any institution given access to share the facility is required to be in membership of the BUFVC, and also to hold a current ERA+ licence. The ERA+ licence operates only within the territory of the United Kingdom and relates to off campus access to content acquired under Section 35 of the UK's Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Educational Recording Agency (ERA) is a licensing and collecting agency which represents broadcasters, performers and rights holders, for more information please visit the ERA website on http://www.era.org.uk.
** It is envisaged that users may be asked to delete any unwanted programmes on a regular basis to reduce storage needs.
Find out more about BoB at http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/services/bob.html
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