*Global Database Launches With Data For Nearly 20 Million Sound Recordings; *More Than 50 U.S. Publishers and Others Petition Congress, President to End Cuba Book Embargo; *Knowledge Unlatched – Scaling Up In 2016; *Fact Sheet on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Internet Data Privacy, Security, and Transparency Proposal; *Latest wait list, tweets hint at Amazon Education ebook, content plans; and the *USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education partners with ProQuest; plus more library and publishing news from a variety of sources.
Global Database Launches With Data For Nearly 20 Million Sound Recordings
According to infoDOCKET “Global trade body IFPI has partnered with the world’s biggest digital Collective Management Organisation SoundExchange to create a website that will make it easier to identify sound recordings.
The ISRC Search Site is a new platform which will give recording artists, rights owners and music services access to nearly 20 million unique recordings…”
More Than 50 U.S. Publishers and Others Petition Congress, President to End Cuba Book Embargo
Also according to infoDOCKET “more than 50 major players in the U.S. publishing industry are petitioning the White House and Congress to end the Cuba trade embargo as it pertains to books and educational materials.
Calling the book embargo “counter to American ideals of free expression,” the petition — endorsed by publishing companies, authors and agents — says “books are catalysts for greater cross-cultural understanding, economic development, free expression, and positive social change…”
Knowledge Unlatched – Scaling Up In 2016
According to this press release “Knowledge Unlatched (KU) is pleased to announce that it is expanding and scaling up. There will be several announcements over the next few months about KU’s greatly expanded new collections.
As KU scales up it will experiment with more choices – more curated thematic and topical packages, new subjects and more diverse content. KU is looking now at opening up access to journals as well as to backlist books. It will offer more purchasing models (including more consortia models). KU will continue to focus on its prime goal – sustainable and affordable Open Access for scholarly publications…”
Fact Sheet on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Internet Data Privacy, Security, and Transparency Proposal
infoDOCKET reports that “the head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to unveil details of a proposal on Thursday to protect consumers’ internet privacy, safety advocates and industry officials said.
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to unveil a long-awaited plan for new broadband privacy rules that be voted on initially by the commission during its March 31 meeting. A final vote on new regulations would follow a public comment period…”
Latest wait list, tweets hint at Amazon Education ebook, content plans
TeleRead reports that “some tweeted comments from educational technology specialist Audrey Watters, and other reports elsewhere, are hinting at the direction that Amazon might be taking with its new education platform. Joanna Cabot analyzed the potential of this earlier when the whole initiative was a little less concrete, and there are still some big question marks against it – not least whether and how much Amazon will actually expect educationalists to pay for stuff.
Reports elsewhere that Amazon is “said” to be launching an education platform are kind of oddly headlined, given that Amazon Education has a page right out there in the open. But this page is still firmly stuck at the wait list stage…”
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education partners with ProQuest to increase access to Visual History Archive
According to KnowledgeSpeak “USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education has announced a landmark partnership with ProQuest, a technology company that empowers researchers at universities, libraries, schools and knowledge-driven organisations around the world. Starting immediately, ProQuest will become the exclusive distributor of USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive to colleges and universities around the world (except China)…”
Government Publishing Office (GPO) Transitioning ILS Websites/Databases to Amazon Cloud
According ot this press release “the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) continues to embrace technological innovation by transitioning its Integrated Library System (ILS) public websites to the cloud using Amazon Cloud Services. This move supports the Federal Cloud First policy that encourages agencies to take advantage of cloud computing opportunities. The cloud improves performance of these sites during peak traffic times, giving the user faster search results and content downloads.
The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP): http://catalog.gpo.gov
The Federal Depository Library Directory: http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.jsp
MetaLib: http://metalib.gpo.gov/
More library and publishing news from a variety of sources
Elsevier offers Gold Standard Drug Database API as web-accessible, cloud-hosted solution
Wiley Announces Partnership with IT Learning Platform ITPro.TV;
Alexander Street Adds Documentary Films Collection;
Nature Will Launch Five New Online-Only Subscription Journals in January 2017;
Macmillan Adds 6,000 New Titles to the Scribd Library;
Reprints Desk Acquires TRI Customers;
2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction Revealed;
De Gruyter and National Defense Industry Press sign partnership agreement