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Analytics company Clarivate has announced that it will acquire library technology company ProQuest from Cambridge Information Group and its partners for $5.3 billion. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2021. “Clarivate and ProQuest are highly complementary businesses,” said Clarivate Executive Chairman and CEO Jerre Stead in a May 17 statement. “We share the goal to accelerate innovation through research and knowledge-sharing and together we will enable our customers to solve the world’s most complex challenges.”...
Clarivate, May 17
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Donna Seaman writes: “Since the start of the pandemic, the US has seen a sharp rise in harassment and violence directed at Asian Americans. In consultation with Terry Hong, Booklist advisory board chair, we have compiled this list of recommended titles for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this May as a literary antidote to the ongoing fight against bigotry, harassment, and violence. One small way to counter racism is to read historical fiction and discover the truth about diverse peoples’ heritage and experiences and how much we all have in common.”...
AL: The Scoop, May 17
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May 1 marked Law Day in the US.
Episode 62 of Call Number with American Libraries features conversations about two differing areas of law librarianship. American Libraries Senior Editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Emily Florio, senior research services manager at international law firm Hogan Lovells and president of the American Association of Law Libraries, and Anne Lucke, librarian at the National Indian Law Library in Boulder, Colorado....
AL: The Scoop, May 18
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Equinox Open Library Initiative, the successor to Equinox Software, celebrates 15 years as a small business delivering “Extraordinary Service. Exceptional Value” to libraries worldwide.
Equinox provides innovative open source software for libraries and consortia of all types, serving academic, public, school, corporate, cultural, and government organizations. Equinox launched a newly designed website,
equinoxOLI.org, featuring open source library products, services, and educational resources. The new website offers current news; information about Evergreen ILS, Koha ILS, Fulfillment ILL, and CORAL ERM; and announcements about Equinox’s grants, programs, and upcoming community events.
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What is the CASE (Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement) Act, and what does it have to do with copyright? What aspects of copyright law can help libraries in preserving community archives? As libraries make plans to reopen or increase capacity, what are the laws surrounding patron codes of conduct? Lawyer and librarian Tomas A. Lipinski answers these questions in American Libraries’ latest Letters of the Law column....
AL Online, May 18
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Lara Ewen writes: “In spring 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the small town of Pottsboro, Texas, local doctors switched from in-person to telemedicine appointments with patients. But many of the town’s 2,500 residents don’t have internet access at home, or lack the bandwidth for video calls. So they went to Pottsboro Area Library, where Director Dianne Connery let patrons use her office—the only private space in the one-room building—for their telehealth visits.”...
American Libraries Trend, May
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LIS assistant professor Andrea Jamison writes: “As part of my dissertation in 2020, I researched the collection development policies of academic libraries. I looked specifically at universities and colleges with ALA–accredited LIS programs that offer master’s degrees or library programs with concentrations or career pathways in children’s services. It was important to situate this study within this context because these types of library programs provide the requisite skills and training needed for the selection and acquisition of children’s books. Academic libraries with children’s collections that support these types of programs can and should serve as models for collection practices.”...
American Libraries column, May
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The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has signed an agreement with Amazon Publishing to make 10,000 ebooks and audiobooks available to US libraries and their patrons, DPLA announced May 18. This marks the first time Amazon Publishing content will be made available to libraries. Titles can be licensed this summer through the
DPLA Exchange via four lending models. Patrons can access the books through SimplyE, the open source e-reader app developed by New York Public Library....
DPLA, May 18
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The American Association of School Librarians released its
final survey in a series of
snapshot surveys measuring the state of school libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses to the latest survey indicate that a majority of school librarians have seen an increase in responsibilities during the 2020–2021 school year, with 75% of respondents reporting they are doing more technology troubleshooting and nearly 86% reporting they are doing more ebook promotion in their districts.
See the full results at Knowledge Quest....
Knowledge Quest, May 3; AASL, May 18
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Lily Hay Newman writes: “Ransomware groups have always taken
a more-is-more approach. If a victim pays a ransom and then goes back to business as usual—hit them again. Or don’t just encrypt a target’s systems; steal their data first, so
you can threaten to leak it if they don’t pay up. The latest escalation? Ransomware hackers who encrypt a victim’s data twice at the same time.”...
Wired, May 17, April 23, December 29, 2020
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The LeVar Burton Book Club launched May 11 via the “social reading app”
Fable, with selections handpicked by the actor. To start off, he’s chosen three books that “represent how my identity as a reader has been shaped,” he says: James Baldwin’s semi-autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Octavia Butler’s modern sci-fi classic Parable of the Sower, and the essay and poetry collection The Fire This Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward....
Entertainment Weekly, May 11
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Evgeny Morozov writes: “For privacy activists, 2021 brings one big victory after another. Yet I wonder if these surprising victories for the privacy movement may, in the end, turn out to be pyrrhic ones—at least for the broader democratic agenda. Terrorized by the ubiquity and eternity of ‘surveillance capitalism,’ have we made it all too easy for technology companies to actually live up to our expectations?”...
The Guardian (UK), May 15
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Zoe Robertson writes: “After the PlayStation controller has been put away or the PC has been turned off, settle down the kids with some terrific books for young gamers, that are packed with all the excitement and enjoyment of their favorite videogames.” Robertson includes recommendations for fans of Pokémon, Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and other videogame series....
Book Riot, May 18
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