The open access movement received another major boost on May 21 when the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), one of the leading public, scientific institutions in the country, adopted an open access policy.
Ebrary Cultivates a Niche in the Public Library Market
By on May 22, 2012
Ebrary’s flagship ebook product is Academic Complete, but the ProQuest unit has also offered for two years a parallel product in the public library channel called Public Library Complete that some libraries are finding a congenial fit as they sort through the growing number of offerings on the market.
Update: Library Ebook Petition Hits 10000 Names
By on May 2, 2012
The Topeka & Shawnee County Library in Kansas has launched a grassroots campaign whose goal is to convince publishers to increase the availability of ebooks to libraries.
Moving Beyond the NetLibrary Legacy, EBSCO Reshapes Its Ebook Platform
By on May 1, 2012
When EBSCO acquired NetLibrary from OCLC in March 2010, it obtained a fully formed ebook platform that already had a large collection of about 200,000 ebooks from 500 publishers available in 17,000 sites worldwide. The challenge was to smooth out this platform, now known as Ebooks on EBSCOhost, so that it could migrate to the EBSCO interface and there be remade.
Retail DRM Is an Apple. Library DRM Is an Orange.
By on April 26, 2012
DRM will remain an integral part of the library lending workflow for the foreseeable future. What a publisher decides to do with DRM on the retail side does not necessarily correlate to anything they will do with DRM on the library side.
Chattanooga Only Weeks Away From One Gigabit Per Second; Kansas City Close Behind
By on April 24, 2012
Libraries in Tennessee, Kansas, Missouri, are close to entering a dizzying space where they will have so much digital horsepower that they will be able to download and upload files on the Internet at speeds up to one gigabit per second.
Consortium of 25 Libraries in Connecticut Votes to Boycott Random House
By on April 5, 2012
Libraries Online Incorporated (LION), a consortium of twenty-five Connecticut public, academic, and school libraries, has imposed a moratorium on the purchase of ebooks from Random House.
New Apps Bring OPAC Functionality to Library Facebook Pages
By on April 5, 2012
Recently released apps from ChiliFresh and SirsiDynix allow library OPACs and Facebook to play nice together. Both apps integrate OPAC functionality into library Facebook pages, enabling patrons to search the catalog, place holds, log into their accounts, and pay fines — all from within Facebook.
Freading, the Ebook Sibling of Freegal, Shows Signs of Rapid Growth
By on April 2, 2012
The Freading ebook platform has only been live for about three months, but it is already showing a fairly rapid rate of growth, thanks in part to its low fees and the immediate access it gives libraries to a collection of about 20,000 ebooks on a multi-user, simultaneous basis.
Licensing Issue Pulls the Plug on Librarian’s Online Newsstand
By on March 30, 2012
A popular online newsstand devised by a New Hampshire librarian has run afoul of licensing terms and has had to be deactivated at least temporarily.
