Clarivate to Acquire ProQuest

Clarivate announced it will acquire ProQuest from the privately-held, family-owned, Cambridge Information Group and the minority owner Atairos. Both these library titans are deeply embedded in libraries worldwide so this industry consolidation has significant implications not only for investors but also for the entire information industry, broadly defined.

Artificial Intelligence, the EU, Libraries and You

The European Union have proposed new rules and actions regarding Artificial Intelligence, in line with its desire to make "Europe fit for the Digital Age". Although most commentary regarding the proposed AI regulations have centred on "Big Tech", the library community is also affected. Library organisations, particularly IFLA, have been interested in issues surrounding new technologies such as AI for several years.

Quartex launches fully searchable transcriptions of digitized manuscript assets

Quartex, an Adam Matthew Digital SaaS platform, announced the launch of Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) Transcription, which creates automated, fully searchable transcriptions of manuscript assets with a single click.

CLIR Becomes Administrative Home for International Internet Preservation Consortium

CLIR has become the administrative home of the International Internet Preservation Consortium with the move of its senior program officer, Olga Holownia, to the CLIR staff. Founded in 2003, the IIPC is an international organization of member institutions from more than 35 countries that work to collect, preserve, and make accessible knowledge from the global web. Its activities include providing a forum for the sharing of knowledge about web archiving, collaborating on research and development projects, funding technical, curatorial, and educational projects, managing working groups, and convening the annual Web Archiving Conference and General Assembly.

Springer Nature launches The BookSubMarine for publishing dissertations as ebooks

The BookSubMarine portal makes it easier for authors from all academic disciplines to submit their theses and dissertations for publication as a book and provides comprehensive support throughout the publication process.

DeepDyve Digital Library offers affordable access to research literature

DeepDyve announced the availability of the DeepDyve Digital Library, a fully integrated platform aimed at helping research organisations discover, access and manage research papers. The Digital Library is a one-stop platform designed for small to medium-sized teams and organizations needing easy and affordable solutions for reading and organizing scientific papers. Although the press release states that this product doesn't need information professionals or IT staff, it should be on the radar screen of librarians, particularly those in smaller, poorly-funded institutions and companies.

The future of libraries in a post-Covid world

Barbara Band, School Library Consultant, reflects on what it means for the future of school libraries in a post-Covid world. Sparked by ideas from an IFLA webinar, she considers safety and technology in library spaces, evidence-based librarianship and the value of school libraries.

Time for another Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp

Need to brush up your taxonomy skills? Want to learn more about what taxonomists are doing that could help you in your job? Join taxonomy experts for the second Bite-sized Taxonomy Boot Camp on 9 June 2021. It's all virtual; no travel involved.

Librarians leading together to change the world

We are living in historic times! Cohesive library leadership at national and global levels is important to bring transformative change that benefits communities deeply impacted by COVID-19 and to establish a vibrant future for global libraries, writes international library consultant Loida Garcia-Febo.

Indigenous knowledge and futuristic avatars at NISOPlus

Internet librarians spend much of their working life in the present. However, two presentations at the 2021 NISOPlus conference brought home the importance of both looking back and looking forward. The speakers, one a Ghanaian librarian advocating for Indigenous Knowledge and the other a researcher from Japan investigating a future society enhanced with avatars, stimulated so many thoughts in my mind about the role of libraries, librarians, and our digital future.

ACS transformative ‘read and publish’ agreement expands open access in Spain

The Jewish Quarterly Relaunches Fully-Searchable Digital Subscriptions

Liverpool University Press launches Opening the Future OA membership programme

The Europeana Foundation have launched its 2021 Europeana Research Grants Programme.

Whose Bookcase Is This?

A Brainteaser for those intrigued by fictional characters and their imaginary bookcases.

The Bird Librarian

The "bird librarian" brings poisoners to justice.