New & noteworthy

Citation

(2008), "New & noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 25 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2008.23925hab.001

New & noteworthy

Article Type: New & noteworthy From: Library Hi Tech News, Volume 25, Issue 8.

Linden Lab and IBM Develop Virtual World Interconnectivity

Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, and IBM have successfully demonstrated virtual world interoperability by teleporting avatars between the Second Life Preview Grid and an OpenSim virtual world server. The joint development project represents an industry first of a quantifiable milestone for virtual world interconnectivity.

Teleporting an avatar between platforms has the potential to have a significant impact on the future of virtual worlds. An open standard for interoperability would allow users to cross freely from one world to another in a seamless transfer, just as they can go from one Web site to another on the internet today.

“Interoperability is a key component of the 3D internet and an important step to enabling individuals and organizations to take advantage of virtual worlds for commerce, collaboration, education, operations and other business applications”, said Colin Parris, Vice President, Digital Convergence, IBM. “Developing this protocol is a key milestone and has the potential to push virtual worlds into the next stage of their evolution”.

Linden Lab and IBM are exploring ways to expand the capabilities of virtual worlds and to help meet the industry-wide demand to develop platforms and protocols that will make these environments appropriate for enterprise use. Interoperability is a key facet of this mission and the recent work of Linden Lab and IBM's development teams is an important proof point and step in that direction.

To facilitate the continued development of this interoperability function, technical details will be made available to the community. The protocol interactions used for the teleport will be documented on the web site of the Architecture Working Group (AWG), an open forum that is designing and publishing the Open Grid Protocol. IBM plans to offer the extensions developed for OpenSim to the OpenSim community, and Linden Lab plans to make the extensions developed for the Second Life viewer available as open source. To foster testing and further development, a test grid will be made available by Linden Lab.

The interoperability protocol was tested and deployed on a separated test environment involving the Second Life Preview Grid and an OpenSim server. The companies have not announced plans or a schedule for when it might be made available on the main Second Life Grid.

A video of Linden Lab and IBM's development teams successfully teleporting avatars is available at: http://torley.s3.amazonaws.com/Across-the-Metaverse.mp4

Linden Lab website: http://lindenlab.com/

For more information on the AWG visit: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group

For more information about the Second Life Grid visit: www.secondlifegrid.net

For more information about IBM's 3D internet initiatives, visit: www.ibm.com/3dinternet

Vivaty Launches Public Beta of Vivaty Scenes, A Personal Virtual Web Community

In July Vivaty Inc. launched the public beta of Vivaty Scenes, a new way for people to personalize a virtual scene and then socialize with friends. Entirely browser-based and available publicly on both Facebook and AOL's AIM service, Vivaty Scenes is built on the company's end-to-end immersive web platform, which is designed to enable visually rich, engaging virtual experiences across a broad range of social networks, communities, brands and online destinations.

“Vivaty Scenes transforms a user's everyday social network or IM client visit into a more expressive, visually engaging and fun experience”, said Keith McCurdy, Vivaty co-founder and CEO. “There is an undeniable trend towards new levels of socialization and engagement on the web, and we have removed the technology barriers preventing users from having a more immersive web experience. This is the first of several products on the Vivaty platform and we're excited to make it available on a massive scale”.

Vivaty's vision is to make the immersive web a reality by transforming the flat web into a more visually rich and expressive experience that amplifies socialization and engagement. The company's web platform is designed to enable distributed virtual experiences anywhere on the web. Founded in 2007, Vivaty is led by a team of web, gaming, and graphics experts, and is backed by venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Mohr Davidow Ventures.

Vivaty's immersive platform is built to power a broad range of distributed virtual experiences that can live inside any browser-based community, service or site. The company recently launched as one of the first featured mini-applications on AOL's popular instant messaging service, AIM. Both AIM and Facebook users can socialize and share photos, videos and music, all inside their personal virtual scenes. In addition to personal scenes, Vivaty's platform will also power broader virtual experiences for major global brands. The first branded virtual experience on the Vivaty platform is also currently available to Facebook consumers.

Vivaty Scenes let users:

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  choose a scene to share with AIM and Facebook friends;

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  personalize it with hundreds of objects and make it uniquely yours;

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  share your photos from the web, Flickr and Facebook on your walls;

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  invite friends to watch your favorite YouTube videos on virtual TVs;

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  chat or leave notes for friends; and

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  have a virtual party!

Vivaty Scenes is a free service currently available on Facebook and AIM 6.8, and the platform currently supports Windows XP/Vista and IE 6 or 7.

More information: www.vivaty.com

Flock Social Web Browser Releases 2.0 Beta, Built on Firefox 3 Technology

Flock is the first and only social web browser that helps users connect, share and discover the best of the modern web. Flock delivers a more personal web experience, where users are in control and more connected to what they value. In June, Flock announced that the Flock 2.0 Beta, built on the latest Firefox 3 technology, is available for early trials.

Flock 2.0 includes all of the enhanced browsing capabilities that have been widely recognized with numerous awards, including the 2008 Webby for Social Networking and as #6 on PC World's 100 best products list of 2008. Flock's powerful features include easier connecting, sharing, discovering and publishing, plus all of the latest performance, security and UI enhancements from FireFox 3. Highlights include:

Improved performance:

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  faster page rendering with new and improved Gecko 1.9 web rendering engine;

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  reduced memory footprint over the duration of browsing sessions; and

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  complex web applications like Google mail and Zoho office run twice as fast.

Security improvements:

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  site security is validated within the address bar;

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  malware detection and blocking functionality has been added with visible alerts; and

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  improved password manager reduces the amount of memory required.

User interface feature enhancements:

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  new location bar auto-completes based on user history and favorites;

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  new favorites manager combines favorites, tags and browsing history; and

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  new download manager allows users to resume downloads after re-start.

Flock 2.0 Beta is now available for free download at: www.flock.com/beta/download

Medialab Announces General Release of My Discoveries Social Networking Software

Medialab, creator of the search and discovery platform AquaBrowser, announced in July 2008 the general release of My Discoveries with functionality for users to create reviews and ratings and view personal tags. These features boost the existing AquaBrowser social networking experience to create a more global community for library users worldwide.

My Discoveries was introduced in 2007 and initially allowed users to tag items, search and refine on user tags, plus create, share and search on user lists. My Discoveries with LibraryThing content has been seeding library catalogs with 21 million tags created by users of LibraryThing.com. Now with the latest release of My Discoveries, users can review and rate items and view personal tag clouds. The user interface was also enhanced to be more intuitive based on patron comments and customer feedback.

Ratings are easily created using the star system employed at other popular sites such as Netflix. Individuals see not only the rating they have attached to an item, but the averaged global community rating based on all user input across all My Discoveries libraries worldwide. And the user functionality to create tags, lists, reviews and ratings is now accessible at both the results list and title level.

Blacklisting support for tags has been expanded and is also available for reviews. Although libraries are embracing library 2.0 technology, there is still a desire to monitor language that appears in the library's website and catalog. Library staff may also monitor their statistics for how many tags, lists, ratings and reviews are being created in their local system as well as globally.

Aquabrowser My Discoveries information: www.aquabrowser.com/advantages/my-discoveries/

Blackboard and Syracuse University Collaborate on Sakai Connector

Blackboard Inc., a leading provider of educational enterprise technology, announced in July 2008 that it has partnered with Syracuse University to develop software that will allow institutions to connect their Blackboard learning environment with the open source Sakai course management system.

The effort is part of Project NG, Blackboard's multi-year, multi-release project to deliver a next generation teaching and learning solution. With Project NG, Blackboard is working to create a more open, flexible platform that allows educators to better personalize, customize and integrate their educational ecosystem.

As part of Project NG, Blackboard developed the Learning Environment Connector, which makes it possible for students and faculty to use other course management systems within the Blackboard environment and is available now on version 8 of the Blackboard Learning System(TM). Building on that technology, Syracuse will develop the Blackboard-Sakai Connector to allow for seamless integration between the two systems. Blackboard is also planning to develop a similar connector for the open source Moodle course management system.

“Students should not have to worry about whether different technology is powering their online learning environments for different classes”, said Michael L. Chasen, President and CEO of Blackboard. “With a single login users should have access to all of their courses and course material. There should be one place they can go to get all of their course information”.

With the Blackboard-Sakai Connector, institutions can provide access to a full range of educational opportunities and materials in one place, regardless of where they were originally developed or located, making access easier for faculty and students at campuses that may be using more than one course management system.

The Blackboard-Sakai Connector will be a Blackboard Building Block(TM), an application that institutions or third-parties develop to enhance and extend the Blackboard learning environment. The Blackboard-Sakai Connector will be released as open source and join more than 150 free or open source Blackboard Building Blocks currently available to the entire Blackboard community. The Connector will then be integrated as part of Blackboard's next generation product roadmap.

Primary development of the Blackboard-Sakai Connector will take place at Syracuse, with design guidance and review and support from Blackboard.

Blackboard website: www.blackboard.com

BiblioCommons Has First Live Release

As reported in Library Journal, July 19, 2008, BiblioCommons, a new social discovery system for libraries that replaces all user-facing OPAC functionality, allowing for faceted searching and easier user commenting and tagging, has gone live in Oakville, ON, a city of 160,000 outside Toronto. It is expected to be used by public libraries serving more than half of Canada's population – and some libraries in the USA, too. “This is revolutionary, as far as I'm concerned”, Gail Richardson, Oakville Public Library's acting director of online services, told LJ. “People don't want a library that acts like just a glorified card catalog online. They want a catalog that's as good as Google and Amazon”.

Oakville Public Library interface: http://opl.bibliocommons.com/dashboard

Adobe Captivate tour of the Oakville Public Library's beta test: www.bibliocommons.com/tour/CAN-OAK/tour.html

BiblioCommons website: http://bibliocommons.com/

Library Journal article: www.library journal.com/article/CA6579748.html

LibLime and the eXtensible Catalog (XC) Project Announce Partnership

LibLime, a leader in open-source solutions for libraries, and the XC project, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project currently underway at the University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries, have announced a new partnership agreement to ensure future compatibility between the XC project and Koha, the first open-source integrated library system.

The XC/LibLime partnership will ensure that the open-source software being developed as part of the XC project and the Koha open-source integrated library system will be fully compatible with each other, enabling current and future users of Koha to take advantage of the added capabilities for managing and distributing metadata that XC will offer. These benefits include facilitating the ability to combine legacy metadata with emerging schemas, and delivering library content to web content management and learning management systems.

The XC system currently in development will provide libraries with open-source tools and software that will allow libraries to expand their current roles. Library content, both traditional and digital, can easily be integrated in other systems, including Content and Learning Management Systems. The XC system will empower libraries to create customized discovery systems and solutions for their users needs.

XC is being created through a collaborative design and development process with a team of developers at the University of Rochester and at partner institutions. XC will be compatible with a range of ILS's and centralized authentication services, will support multiple metadata formats and will deliver a customizable next-generation user interface. The XC project has a funded development period from January 2008 until July 2009.

XC project: http://extensiblecatalog.info

LibLime website: http://liblime.com

Koha software: www.koha.org/

LibLime Acquires CARE; Grant Goes to Ex Libris

LibLime, a leader in open source solutions for libraries and CARE Affiliates announced in July 2008 that they have entered into a definitive agreement to sell select assets of CARE Affiliates to LibLime. CARE Affiliates provides services and products based on open-source software to libraries and information centers around the world. The sale will include select products, related services and domain names along with associated service contracts. Final closing is scheduled for August 2008.

Carl Grant, President of CARE Affiliates will be taking a new position as president of Ex Libris, North America, effective immediately. “I'm delighted that LibLime has decided to acquire these assets”, said Carl. “This will ensure the continuation of these products/services well into the future. I look forward to seeing how LibLime grows these ideas. I also feel it's important to say that this sale and my move is based primarily on personal reasons and is in no way a reflection on the open-source community or service providers serving libraries. Open source has a vibrant future in libraries and I'm pleased to say that Ex Libris is one of the proprietary vendors listening to this community as evidenced by their recent announcement about their new Open Platform strategy. I will continue to stay engaged with the library open-source community, albeit in a different role”.

“We've been proud to list CARE Affiliates as one of our strategic partners since they started supporting open source in 2007”, says Joshua Ferraro, CEO of LibLime. “This arrangement gives us increased capacity to deliver open-source and open architecture solutions for libraries in the strategic area of metasearching”.

LibLime's acquisition of CARE again highlights one strength of open-source solutions – no vendor lock-in. CARE's customers do not need to worry about switching to new solutions. With open source, switching vendors does not mean switching software.

CARE Affiliates website: www.care-affiliates.com

LibLime website: http://liblime.com

OCLC and Index Data Partner to Incorporate Metasearch into WorldCat Local

OCLC and Index Data, a software development and consulting enterprise that specializes in information retrieval and metasearch solutions, are working together to extend the discovery capabilities of WorldCat Local to include all licensed and full-text resources of a library. WorldCat Local is the service that combines the cooperative power of OCLC member libraries worldwide with the ability to use WorldCat.org as a solution for local discovery and delivery services.

OCLC continues to work with database producers to add article-level metadata to WorldCat.org to enrich the search experience and make collections from libraries more visible on the web. Index Data will help OCLC incorporate metasearch into WorldCat Local for searching databases that are not indexed in WorldCat.org. “The integration of metasearch and locally indexed results will help OCLC to provide a single search through WorldCat Local for licensed resources across the library”, said Robin Murray, Vice President, OCLC Global Product Management.

“Index Data believes that the future of information discovery lies in a combination of many different technologies including broadcast searching and local indexes. Our expertise and modular technologies are a perfect fit for OCLC's demanding production environment”, said Lynn Bailey, CEO of Index Data.

OCLC recently announced that article-level metadata from H.W. Wilson and MLA will be added to the more than 50 million articles indexed from NLM MEDLINE, the Department of Education's ERIC database, the British Library Inside serials, the GPO Monthly Catalog and the OCLC ArticleFirst database to expand access and discovery of authoritative content through the WorldCat.org platform. The work with Index Data will help to ensure that libraries can provide access to their full collections.

OCLC WorldCat Local: www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcatlocal/default.htm

Index Data website: www.indexdata.com

DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons Join Forces

In July 2008 two of the largest providers of open source software for managing and providing access to digital content, the DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons, announced plans to combine strengths to work on joint initiatives that will more closely align their organizations' goals and better serve both open source repository communities in the coming months.

This advance comes as institutions such as universities, libraries, museums and research laboratories worldwide are focused on utilizing open source software solutions for the dissemination and preservation of scholarly, scientific, and cultural heritage digital content into the future. Making books, articles, films, music, large and small data sets, scholarly works, multi-media, learning objects and mash-ups from all parts of the globe discoverable and accessible is at the core of the DSpace and Fedora collaboration.

The collaboration is expected to benefit over 500 organizations from around the world who are currently using either DSpace (examples include MIT, Rice University, Texas Digital Library and University of Toronto) or Fedora (examples include the National Library of France, New York Public Library, Encyclopedia of Chicago and eSciDoc) open source software to create repositories for a wide variety of purposes.

Coalition for Networked Information director Clifford Lynch remarked, “Repositories are a key part of the infrastructure for supporting scholarly work, and they need to integrate more effectively with a range of other evolving components. I think there are great opportunities for DSpace and Fedora to work together not only on repository interoperability but on common approaches to repository roles in the scholarly and scientific workflows”.

The decision to collaborate came out of meetings held this spring where members of DSpace and Fedora Commons communities discussed multiple dimensions of cooperation and collaboration between the two organizations. Ideas included leveraging the power and reach of open source knowledge communities by using the same services and standards in the future. The organizations will also explore opportunities to provide new capabilities for accessing and preserving digital content, developing common web services and enabling interoperability across repositories.

In the spirit of advancing open source software, Fedora Commons and DSpace will look at ways to leverage and incubate ideas, community and culture to:

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  (1)  Provide the best technology and services to open source repository framework communities.

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  (2)  Evaluate and synchronize, where possible, both organizations' technology roadmaps to enable convergence and interoperability of key architectural components.

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  (3)  Demonstrate how the DSpace and Fedora open source repository frameworks offer a unique value proposition compared to proprietary solutions.

The announcement came on the heels of an event sponsored by the Joint Information Systems Committee's Common Repository Interface Group held at the Library of Congress. The event, known as “RepoCamp”, was a forum where developers gathered to discuss innovative approaches to improving interoperability and web-orientation for digital repositories. Sandy Payette, Executive Director of Fedora Commons, and Michele Kimpton, Executive Director of the DSpace Foundation, reiterated their commitment to collaboration and encouraged input and participation from both communities as work gets underway.

DSpace Foundation: http://dspace.org/

Fedora Commons: http://fedora-commons.org/

RepoCamp: http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/RepoCamp

Version 3.0 of Fedora Software Now Available

In July 2008 Fedora Commons released version 3.0 of the Fedora software that completes all general release features. Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, Fedora Commons, explained, “We are pleased to offer a Fedora 3.0 that is a foundational step towards a model-driven content architecture”. He went on to say, “Users will find it simpler to maintain and operate their repositories with version 3.0 – it's more scalable and fits better into the Web”.

Fedora 3.0 features the content model architecture (CMA), an integrated structure for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital objects in Fedora. The Fedora CMA plays a central role in the Fedora architecture and in many ways forms the over-arching conceptual framework for future development of Fedora Repositories.

Fedora 3.0 new features include:

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  (1)  CMA – provides a model-driven approach for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital content in Fedora.

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  (2)  Fedora REST API – a new API that exposes a subset of the access and management API using a RESTful web interface contributed by MediaShelf.

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  (3)  Mulgara support – Fedora supports the Mulgara 2.0 Semantic Triplestore replacing Kowari.

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  (4)  Migration utility – provides an update utility to convert existing collections for CMA compatibility.

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  (5)  Relational index simplification – the Fedora schema was simplified making changes easier without having to reload the database and significantly increasing scalability.

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  (6)  Dynamic behaviors – objects may be added or removed dynamically from the system moving system checks into run-time errors.

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  (7)  Error reporting – provides improved run-time error details.

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  (8)  Multiple owner as a CSV String – enables using a CSV string as ownerID and in XACML policies.

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  (9)  Java 6 compatibility – Fedora may be optionally compiled using Java 6 while retaining support for Java Enterprise Edition 1.5 deployments.

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  (10)  Relationships API – API-M has been extended to enable adding, removing and discovering RDF relations between Fedora objects.

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  (11)  Revised Fedora Object XML Schemata – the new schemata are simpler, supporting the CMA and removing disseminators.

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  (12)  Atom support – Fedora objects can now be imported and exported in the Atom format.

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  (13)  Messaging support – integrates JMS messaging for sending notification of important events.

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  (14)  Validation framework – provides system operators a way to validate all or part of their repository, based on content models.

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  (15)  3.0-Compatible Service Releases – new versions of the OAI Provider and GSearch services are compatible with Fedora 3.0. The GSearch release also enables messaging support for GSearch, which allows for more robust and seamless integration with the Fedora repository.

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  (16)  Many new enhancements (details in the product release notes).

The Fedora CMA builds on the Fedora architecture to simplify use while unlocking potential. Dan Davis explains the CMA in the context of Fedora 3.0, “It's a hybrid. The Fedora CMA handles content models that are used by publishers and others, and is also a computer model that describes an information representation and processing architecture”. By combining these viewpoints, Fedora CMA has the potential to provide a way to build an interoperable repository for integrated information access within organizations and to provide durable access to our intellectual works.

Fedora website: www.fedora-commons.org/

Release notes: www.fedora-commons.org/documentation/3.0b2/userdocs/distribution/release-notes.html

SourceForge software download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fedora-commons

COUNTER Release 3 Implementation Date Postponed

The draft Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Journals and Databases was published in March 2008; comments on it were accepted until May 31, 2008. During that period feedback from librarians and vendors was both extensive and very helpful. The COUNTER Executive Committee has reflected on that feedback and will modify Release 3 as a result. The most significant modifications will be:

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  (1)  Reporting usage of journal archives: while the requirement for reporting the usage of journal archives will remain, it has become clear that not all COUNTER-compliant vendors will be able to provide Journal Report 1a: Number of Successful Full-text Requests from an Archive by Month and Journal, as specified in the draft Release 3. For this reason, vendors will be offered the option of providing either Journal Report 1a as specified above, or a new Journal Report 5 that breaks down usage in the existing Journal Report 1 by year of publication, which will allow customers to separate out archival usage from current subscription usage.

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  (2)  A new, optional report that allows the reporting of usage of online journals and books available on the same platform to be included in the same COUNTER report: this reflects the fact that a growing number of vendors are making online journals and books available on the same platform, often as part of the same license. This new COUNTER report, entitled Journal/Book Report 1: Number of full-text item requests by month and title, will be specified in XML format only and will be modeled on the existing Consortium Report 1 already published in the draft Release 3.

To allow sufficient time for these, as well as other, smaller modifications to be incorporated into the Code of Practice, the publication of the final version of Release 3 has been postponed from June 30, 2008 to July 31, 2008.

It has also been decided to allow vendors more time to implement Release 3. This takes into account the concerns expressed by vendors that, while they support SUSHI and plan to implement the SUSHI protocols that enable customers to automate the collection and consolidation of COUNTER usage reports from different sources, they will require more time for implementation. For this reason the deadline date for implementation by vendors of Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice will be postponed from January 1, 2009 to August 1, 2009.

COUNTER: www.projectcounter.org

Draft Release 3 (pdf): www.projectcounter.org/r3/r3_release.pdf

SUSHI Protocol: www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi

ICANN Approves Proposal to Expand the World's Domain Name System

At the conclusion of its 32nd International Public Meeting in Paris in June, the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced it has approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the internet's addressing system.

“The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity”, said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from – names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info. This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

“One of the most exciting prospects before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world”, said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Chairman. “This is going to be very important for the future of the internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia”. The present system only supports 37 Roman characters.

Upon approval of the implementation plan, it is planned that applications for new names will be available in the second quarter of 2009.

ICANN: www.icann.org/

OverDrive Offers New MP3 Audiobook DRM-free Format

The District of Columbia Public Library download media collection, featuring the new OverDrive MP3 Audiobook format, was demonstrated at the American Library Association National Conference, June 28-July 1 in Anaheim, CA.

To enable the DRM-free format, OverDrive is working with participating audio publishers and OverDrive library partners to reinforce the copyrights and permissions associated with download lending of OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks. These include new download steps for users seeking to borrow the new format. Library users are required to acknowledge and agree to specific terms of use to the borrowed MP3 files before they can download from their library's “Virtual Branch” website. After the lending period expires, the OverDrive Media Console software disables access to the expired title. OverDrive Media Console then prompts the user to delete all OverDrive MP3 Audiobook files from their PC and any and all transferred copies.

The initial OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks catalog for public libraries features more than 3,000 popular novels, children's books, foreign language learning titles, and classic works and is growing rapidly as publishers join the program. Participating publishers currently include Books In Motion, Blackstone Audio, L.A. Theatre Works, Gildan Media, Audio Realms, CSA Word, plus others. The new catalog of OverDrive MP3 Audiobook titles will complement OverDrive's catalog of approximately 20,000 DRM-protected digital audiobooks (WMA format) and over 80,000 eBooks in popular formats. Other libraries adding OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks into their download catalogs include New York Public Library, Cleveland Public Library, King County Library System (WA), and Hamilton Public Library (Ontario), as well as hundreds more throughout the end of 2008.

In order to download OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks, users must install the free OverDrive Media Console version 3.0. OverDrive Media Console provides users with a superior audiobook listening and navigation experience with newly added support for easy transferring of OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks to iPod, iPhone, and iPod touch. This new release also includes a Burn Wizard feature for creating standard audio CDs from download audiobooks. Library users can obtain the free software at: http://overdrive.com/software/omc

Adobe Optimizes Flash to Enhance Search Engine Indexing of SWF

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced in July 2008 the company is teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search results of dynamic web content and rich internet applications (RIAs). Adobe is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines. This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich web content producers would not need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable.

The openly published SWF specification describes the file format used to deliver rich applications and interactive content via Adobe Flash Player, which is installed on more than 98 per cent of internet-connected computers. Although search engines already index static text and links within SWF files, RIAs and dynamic web content have been generally difficult to fully expose to search engines because of their changing states – a problem also inherent in other RIA technologies.

“Until now it has been extremely challenging to search the millions of RIAs and dynamic content on the web, so we are leading the charge in improving search of content that runs in Adobe Flash Player”, said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “We are initially working with Google and Yahoo! to significantly improve search of this rich content on the web, and we intend to broaden the availability of this capability to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users”.

Google has already begun to roll out Adobe Flash Player technology incorporated into its search engine. With Adobe's help, Google can now better read the content on sites that use Adobe Flash technology, helping users find more relevant information when conducting searches. As a result, millions of pre-existing RIAs and dynamic web experiences that utilize Adobe Flash technology, including content that loads at runtime, are immediately searchable without the need for companies and developers to alter them.

Yahoo! also expects to deliver improved web search capabilities for SWF applications in a future update to Yahoo! Search. “Yahoo! is committed to supporting webmaster needs with plans to support searchable SWF and is working with Adobe to determine the best possible implementation”, said Sean Suchter, vice president Yahoo! Search Technology Engineering.

SWF Searchability FAQ: www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/swf_searchability.html

Copyright Advisory Network's Slider Tool Answers Copyright Questions

The American Library Association's Copyright Advisory Network has created two versions – physical and digital – of a tool to help answer copyright questions such as: is a work in the public domain? Do you need permission to use it? When does copyright expire?

For either version, the user aligns an arrow by date of publication to determine a work's copyright status and term, and a box labeled “Permission Needed?” provides a quick answer to this very important question. The digital version of the slider provides links to additional resources at the US Copyright Office website, including relevant sections of the Copyright Law of the USA and to copyright public records. The slider is a helpful tool for librarians, teachers, artists, students, researchers, attorneys and anyone who needs clear, concise information on copyright terms and conditions.

Physical copyright slider: http://librarycopyright.net/wordpress/?page_id=108

Digital Copyright slider: http://librarycopyright.net/wordpress/?p=101

New Technology Launched for Processing Copyright Applications Online

Handling about 550,000 copyright claims annually, the US Copyright Office in the Library of Congress is making it much easier for the public to register and protect its collective creativity. On July 1, the Copyright Office will enter the next phase in the implementation of its multi-year business process re-engineering effort to modernize operations from a paper-based to a web-based processing environment.

“The Copyright Office's re-engineering initiative is not a goal, but a framework to continually improve business operations”, said Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights. “We will continue evaluating and making adjustments in workflows in the various process areas, testing and development of the IT system, and making system enhancements in response to feedback from both our staff and our customers”.

At the heart of the re-engineering initiative is a new online registration system named electronic Copyright Office (eCO), which the office plans to release through a portal on its web site on July 1. Filing an eService claim via eCO offers several advantages:

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  lower filing fee of $35 for a basic claim;

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  fastest processing time;

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  earlier effective date of registration;

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  online status tracking;

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  secure payment by credit or debit card, electronic check or Copyright Office deposit account; and

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  ability to upload certain categories of deposits directly into eCO as electronic files.

Even users who intend to submit a hard copy of the work being registered may file an application and payment online and print out an eCO-generated shipping slip to be attached to the hardcopy deposit. Beginning July 1 eCO may be used to register basic claims to copyright for literary works, visual arts works, performing arts works including motion pictures, sound recordings and single serials. Basic claims include:

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  a single work;

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  multiple unpublished works if they are by the same author(s) and owned by the same claimant; and

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  multiple published works if they are all first published together in the same publication on the same date and owned by the same claimant.

In July the Copyright Office also plans to release the new Form CO, which effectively replaces six traditional paper application forms. Users will complete a Form CO online, print it out and send it to the Copyright Office with payment and a copy(ies) of the work being registered. Each Form CO is imprinted with 2D barcodes that are scanned to automatically transfer the information contained in the form into an eCO service request record. The fee for registering a basic claim using Form CO is $45. Paper applications for basic claims will still be made available through the Copyright Office. The fee for registering a basic claim using a traditional application form is $45.

For more information, or to access eCO, go to the Copyright Office web site: www.copyright.gov

Chicago Distribution Center (CDC) Partners with Tizra

CDC, a division of the University of Chicago Press and one of the nation's largest distributors of scholarly and professional books, has signed an agreement with Tizra, which provides technical infrastructure and support for online publishing endeavors, that will enable CDC publishers to sell subscriptions to online books. The joint venture will pilot in summer 2008 with the University of Chicago Press and other CDC publishers and will use the services of Bibliovault, the CDC's digital repository for not-for-profit publishers.

“The demand for access to scholarly content online is increasing both in the academic community and among the general public”, reported Carol Kasper, Marketing Director of the Books Division at Chicago. “Bibliovault is a cooperative venture between members of the scholarly publishing community, and the University of Chicago Press is very pleased that it can be used to facilitate online access to Chicago content and that of our CDC client presses”.

The CDC/Tizra service will combine the data conversion, shopping cart, print fulfillment, e-commerce and reporting systems of the CDC with the web publishing and delivery capabilities of the Tizra Agile PDFTM hosted application. The result will allow CDC publishers seamless online marketing and merchandising. Agile PDF creates branded web sites, while collaboration with the CDC enables publishers to integrate sales reporting for online and print publications.

Anne Orens, Chief Marketing Officer of Tizra adds, “Tizra's goal is to provide a platform for the future of online publishing, and help publishers generate new, immediate revenue streams from existing content, without disrupting existing processes. Our partnership model keeps us focused on our publishers, whether that means giving them a complete stand-alone sales and delivery solution, or linking our platform to existing services. We're delighted to work with a distribution center with CDC's size and reputation, and through them, to serve their pre-eminent publishers”.

CDCwebsite: www.chicagodistributioncenter.org/

Tizra website: http://tizra.com

CLOCKSS Cooperative Archive Debuts

The founding members of the CLOCKSS pilot program announced in June 2008 that CLOCKSS will advance to active operations in mid-2008. Two years ago, scholarly publishers and research libraries, challenged by the responsibility to preserve the digital assets of the community, joined forces to build a prototype for a global dark archive. Their unique collaboration focused on creating an archive “cooperative” with publishers and libraries running the archive together. The prototype was successfully built and tested and, during the pilot period, the need for a robust governing structure was addressed.

One of the CLOCKSS board's first resolutions was that any content released from the archive would be made available for free to the world, without need of a subscription. Content stored in CLOCKSS cannot be accessed until a trigger event is deemed to have occurred and the CLOCKSS board votes to “light up” the affected titles and restore access to them again.

Utilizing open source LOCKSS (for Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) technology, the CLOCKSS archive comprises geographically-dispersed nodes located at major research libraries into which e-content is routinely ingested and preserved. Within the past year, CLOCKSS experienced two trigger events and responded by releasing the endangered content at CLOCKSS host organizations.

A unanimous vote by the CLOCKSS board in April 2008 led to the decision to transition the archive from prototype to production. With commitment from Elsevier, Wiley, Nature Publishing Group, American Physiological Society, Taylor & Francis, bepress and other premier publishers to deposit their titles, and from libraries across the world to act as archive nodes, CLOCKSS is currently incorporating as a not-for-profit organization, and will begin operations soon thereafter.

Among the pilot participants are publishers including the American Chemical Society, American Medical Association, American Physiological Society, Elsevier, IOP Publishing, Nature Publishing Group, Oxford University Press, SAGE Publications, Springer, Taylor & Francis and Wiley-Blackwell. Library organizations participating include Indiana University, New York Public Library, OCLC, Rice University, Stanford University, University of Edinburgh and University of Virginia.

The CLOCKSS pilot was funded by participating publishers and library organizations, as well as by a grant from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program via the US Library of Congress.

CLOCKSS initiative: www.clockss.org

Onondaga County Public Library Publishes Interactive Library History Timeline

Onondaga County Public Library is known for its genealogy collection, resources and service. Viewing the history of the library utilizing their new OCPL interactive timeline can be accomplished by visiting www.onlib.org and clicking on “Come Explore OCPL's History”.

“The timeline evolved from a presentation about the history of the OCPL for a library Staff Development Day following a request from Dr Joyce Latham a few years ago”, said Dan Smith, Librarian in the Local History department at Central Library. “Until the mid-1980s, printed publicity for the library was kept in annual scrapbooks and these provided a great resource for compiling a timeline. Along with annual reports and library vertical files, a number of large format professionally-photographed and downloadable pictures have been placed on the website”. The timeline begins in the early 1800s with a bookcase for the public in Salina Town Hall. In 1858 the first Central Library was established. The tool allows the viewer to travel through present day noting all of the developments, progress, technology and library directors along the way.

The timeline is also interactive. Photographs are linked to images on OnPix, an ongoing digitization project of Central's Local History department. Patrons can download photos and add comments to the pictures. Library staff hope that patrons will identify some of the people in the photos whose names are not recorded. The timeline is also searchable. If a patron is interested in researching a particular library, they can type in the name and access all related information and photos.

“We would really like this collection to include the community's knowledge about itself, and invite residents of the greater Syracuse area to participate”, says Latham. The Local History department at Central Library is happy to accept any donated library-related photos and add them to the collection.

OCPL Timeline: www.onlib.org/website/about/timeline/index.htm

OnPix – Images of Onondaga County: http://drew.syr.edu/onpix/main.php

ThinkeringSpace Project Melds Physical and Virtual Learning Environments

ThinkeringSpace is a system, made of both physical and virtual environments, that aims to promote creative and critical thinking skills for the twenty-first century. Celebrating the book, it presents opportunities for doing things together, sharing ideas and authoring in new ways. Focused on school-aged children in libraries, the project is part of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Initiative.

In July, 2006, the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology began a funded research project, now part of the MacArthur Foundation's five-year, $50 million Digital Media, Learning and Education initiative, launched in 2006, to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. The ThinkeringSpace project focus is on developing preliminary criteria for the design of kids' informal, exploratory spaces situated in libraries. The outcomes from this research are design principles for installations, including criteria for spaces, affordances and interactions that can guide the planning, design, specification and installation of a full scale system prototype.

The American Library Association's Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian) visited the project's developmental prototype in June and gives her impressions on her blog at: http://the shiftedlibrarian.com/tag/thinkering-spaces/. According to the blog:

“Using the MacArthur grant, the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design folks are going to implement two installations in the Chicagoland area so that they can monitor them closely. While they hope to put one in Chicago itself, they're also looking at putting the other in a nearby suburb in order to get usage data from a range of demographics. According to the grant's timeline, this will happen around September and will last for a few months, as this is phase is a temporary one. Then project staff will analyze and publish the data in 2009”.

ThinkeringSpace project homepage: www.id.iit.edu/ThinkeringSpaces/

Ebrary Global Student E-book Survey Results Available

ebrary, a leading provider of e-content services and technology, announced in June 2008 that the results of its first 2008 Global Student E-book Survey completed by nearly 6,500 students throughout the world, representing approximately 400 individual institutions, are now publicly available at no cost.

Designed by more than 150 college and university librarians throughout the world, the wide-scale survey explores students' usage and perceptions of e-books. ebrary plans to periodically repeat the survey to compare how e-book usage and attitudes among students change over time.

Key findings of the 2008 Global Student E-book Survey include the following:

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  (1)  On research or class assignments, e-book usage is on par with print books, with almost equal numbers of students using each type.

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  (2)  A total of 51 per cent of students would “very often or often” opt to use electronic versions of books over print versions, compared to 32 per cent who “sometimes” prefer e-books and 17 per cent who always use the print version.

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  (3)  E-books rank among the top resources students consider trustworthy, along with print materials such as books, textbooks, reference (dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps) and journals.

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  (4)  Google and other search engines are indicated by the highest number of students for use in research or class assignments. Other top resources include e-books, print books, e-reference resources such as online dictionaries, encyclopedias and maps and Wikipedia.

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  (5)  A total of 57 per cent of students view instruction in information literacy as very important, compared with 38 per cent who consider it somewhat important and only 5 per cent who find it not important.

A digital copy is freely available however registration is required: www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MQw_2bsqqPdvfhhTWvN31Fwg_3d_3d