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Matt Enis (menis@mediasourceinc.com; @matthewenis on Twitter) is Associate Editor, Technology for Library Journal.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced on May 21 its plans to participate in the first National Day of Civic Hacking on June 1 and 2. Described as a “public-private-people partnership,” the event is being further described as “the largest ever to bring together citizens from around the country to work with local, state, and federal governments—as well as private sector organizations—with the common goal of improving their community through technology.”
The Califa Library Group and Contra Costa County Library (CCCL) today officially announced the beta launch of Enki Library, a new ebook platform designed to host and lend library-managed ebooks using the Douglas County model. Named after the Sumerian god of mischief, creativity, and intelligence, Enki went live at CCCL and the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) on May 6, and will soon serve multiple libraries in California, beginning with members of the Bay Area Library and Information System (BALIS) consortium.
This spring, BiblioLabs, the Charleston, SC–based developer of the free multimedia anthology production platform BiblioBoard Creator, began offering a subscription service that will allow users to download and view anthologies created by libraries and other third parties.
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) last week launched PLOS Labs, a new division that will develop software prototypes and coordinate open-source development projects aimed at generating “disruptive ideas and products for scientific communication.”
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $4 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) has helped about 20 percent of U.S. libraries make improvements to publicly available technology resources and digital literacy within their communities, according to a report released on Monday by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP).
Baker & Taylor (B&T) has announced the release of axisReader, a new ereader app developed specifically to work with the company’s Axis 360 digital media platform. The axisReader app is now available for library patrons to install on both Android and Apple iOS tablets and phones via the Google Play store and iTunes.
Purdue University Libraries (PUL) and its Distributed Data Curation Center have partnered with the Purdue University e-Pubs Repository to launch the Data Curation Profiles Directory, a new online resource that will track research data management projects at academic libraries.
Hachette Book Group today announced that it will once again sell its frontlist ebook titles to libraries, beginning on May 8. Hachette’s entire catalog of 5,000 ebooks will now be available through OverDrive, Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 platform, and the 3M Cloud Library, under a pricing and licensing model similar to the one employed by Random House.
OCLC has begun supporting demand-driven acquisition (DDA) through the WorldCat Knowledge Base. DDA pioneer and ProQuest subsidiary EBL will be the first ebook service to provide data, with sister company ebrary to follow soon. Interest in DDA is well established, but there are still challenges facing adopters of these programs.
OverDrive’s most recent agreement touts plans for “deep API integration” with Innovative Interfaces Inc. (III) products, including Sierra and the Encore Discovery Services Platform, including new API updates that “will include the ability to check out and place a hold on ebooks from a library’s online catalog,” according to a company announcement. The integration will also enable a “seamless experience,” within OverDrive’s Content Reserve collection portal, offering the option of viewing a library’s physical and digital holdings side-by-side
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