The Primary Research Group just released a new report on the use of E-books in libraries. The full text report is fee-based but several highlights/stats are available at no charge.
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From the British Library News Release:

Free engravings to give away to every reader, satirical stories about the Royal Family and advice on whether it is correct for a recently widowed husband to marry his sister-in-law: these aren’t press features from today’s newsstands but from papers 150 years ago. All of this material becomes freely accessible as the British Library, Birkbeck College, King’s College London and Olive Software launch a complete digital edition of six 19th Century newspapers and periodicals on 13 May. Selected for their rich variety and originality, the titles offer a fascinating glimpse into 19th century life, and will resonate with students, researchers and the general public interested in subjects ranging from history, theology and politics through to art and feminism.

The Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (ncse), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is a unique digital resource, which gives the user an informative, accessible and authentic experience of 19th century newspapers. The collection illustrates the phenomenal growth and transformation of the press in the 19th century and brings to life a society and century in flux.

Source: BL

by: Fanning, Betsy A.

From the abstract/paper:

This 27p. report reviews PDF and the newly introduced PDF/Archive (PDF/A) format as a potential solution for long-term digital preservation. It considers the use of PDF/A as part of a comprehensive records management program, to archive electronic documents as a standard to aid preservation and future retrieval.

Source: Digital Preservation Coalition

Track Flooding with the New USGS Flood Map

An online, user-friendly map that tracks flood conditions has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

As expected rains drive flood waters higher along the Mississippi River Valley, USGS crews are in the field collecting data needed to update the flood maps, prepare forecasts, manage the flood and warn communities.

This new system is part of the USGS WaterWatch suite of web-based streamflow products and can be accessed at the Map of flood and high flow conditions Web site.
…
This real-time water monitoring is part of a continuing effort by the USGS to assist the National Weather Service (NWS) in making accurate and timely flood forecasts. During a flood, teams of USGS hydrographers travel to streamgages to keep the instruments operating and to make crucial calibration measurements of the streamflow.

Other information available from this web site for each streamgage include current flood levels, historical peaks and NWS flood forecast information. Monthly flood reports are also available that include maximum flows and compares the data to previous years that observations were made at each station.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey

+ NLM Classification updated, April 24, 2008

+ NLM Honored with Internet2 Award

+ MSN Live News Search, Now With RSS

+ Google Maps Street View now available in driving directions

+ Playboy In Pacts With YouTube, Break,Veoh, Howcast, Metacafe

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2007 Annual Edition is now available from Digital Scholarship:
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/sepb/annual/annual.htm

Annual editions of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography are PDF files designed for printing. Each annual edition is based on the last HTML version published during the edition’s year.

The SEPB 2007 Annual Edition is based on Version 70 (12/18/2007). The printed bibliography is over 260 pages long. The PDF file is over 1 MB.

In addition to updated URLs, hundreds of additional URLs have been added to the SEPB 2007 Annual Edition. (The additional URLs will be added to Version 72 of the SEPB HTML edition.)

Source: Charles W. Bailey, Jr.,
Publisher, Digital Scholarship

(1st Version) Programme and Proceedings: World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council

The IFLA conference will take place in Quebec City this August. We will do out best to highlight papers from the proceedings as they become available.

Source: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

+ Former Broward librarian is found dead on Death Row (via S. Florida Sun-Sentinel)

+ Public Citizen: Movers Database Missing Crucial Information (via Consumeraffairs.com)

+ Japan: Librarian arrested for bomb threat (via Asahi Shimbun)

+ Judge’s ruling clears way for library lawsuit to go to trial (via Bay City Times)

From the news release:

ProQuest has launched The John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded a unique partnership between ProQuest and the Bodleian Library to digitise more than 65,000 items from the Bodleian Library’s John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera. The John Johnson Collection: An Archive of Printed Ephemera, which will be the largest collection of its kind, is now available free of charge to all staff and students in colleges and universities in the UK through funding from the JISC Digitisation Programme, and available through ProQuest for purchase and subscription to libraries worldwide.

Source: ProQuest

In January 2008, there were 4,739 federal prosecutions classified as immigration matters, according to timely enforcement data from the Justice Department. This is up over 20% from the previous month, and represents the largest monthly number of such prosecutions in the past seven years. There has been substantial growth in the number of cases handled by U.S. Magistrate Courts, and some portion of this increase may reflect improvements in the recording of these magistrate cases by the Justice Department.

Prosecutions ||| Convictions

See Also: More TRAC Reports

Source: TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse), Syracuse University

+ Indiana in Focus: Census Bureau Pre-Primary Snapshot

+ North Carolina in Focus: Census Bureau Pre-Primary Snapshot

Source: U.S. Census

Direct to List

Companies on the list (in alphabetical order):
* Blue Pulse
* Carrier IQ
* Celltrust
* Cequint
* ChaCha
* DeviceAnywhere
* Firetide
* Loopt
* mFoundry
* Pelago
* Sequans Communications
* SkyCross
* Ubiquisys
* uLocate
* vLingo

Source: FierceWireless

Posted 29 April 2008 on DocuTicker:
+ Hate, Violence, And Death on Main Street USA, 2007 (National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty)
+ Putting Meat on The Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America (National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production)
+ Blogs, Cyber-Literature and Virtual Culture in Iran (George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies)

From the summary:

Libraries should look for increased value from their principal library-wide computer systems, ensure that those ‘library management systems’ are integrated with other institutional systems and look to break down barriers between library users and resources.

These are some of the recommendations of a report published today which takes a far-reaching look at the library management systems (LMS) market and attempts to help influence the future development of a crucial element of the academic library environment.

The report, commissioned by JISC and SCONUL, is based on findings from 100 UK higher education libraries and attempts to analyse the LMS market and its place in a user environment increasingly dominated by high expectations around ease of delivery, unhindered access to resources and their integration with user-generated content.

The report confirms that UK Higher Education is dominated by four LMS vendors with what can be seen as relatively little product differentiation, typical of a mature systems market. Movement in product replacement is slow, says the report, and customer loyalty to their LMS vendor is high. It also recommends that JISC and SCONUL work jointly with the library community and the systems developers to enhance understanding of ‘Library 2.0’ developments and establish a strategic engagement with LMS vendors.

Direct to Full Text Report
157 pages; PDF.

Direct to Briefing Paper (HTML)

From the news release:

SPARC and Science Commons have released “Open Doors and Open Minds: What faculty authors can do to ensure open access to their work through their institution.” The new white paper assists institutions in adopting policies that ensure the widest practical exposure for scholarly works produced, such as that adopted by the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences in February.

Source: ARL, SPARC, Science Commons