The Distant Librarian

EBSCO Enters the Federated Search Market

Just received the following in my email:

Dear Customers,

We are very excited to announce that in just a few months, EBSCOhost Integrated Search will be made available.  We are confident that you will find this to be the true one-stop research environment that has thus far eluded the library world.

Until now federated search products have struggled to offer the kind of unified search experience that users want.  Our research shows that many customers who are using federated search products are unhappy with four essential components:

1.) Search Quality
2.) Search Speed
3.) Customer Service
4.) Cost

Because the recently revitalized EBSCOhost interface is the essence of EBSCOhost Integrated Search, it leverages the EBSCOhost features and functionality that you know, eliminates unnecessary end-user confusion (and training), offers a single point for all usage reports, gives fast response times, and provides a cost effective search solution.  EBSCOhost Integrated Search allows librarians to use the power of EBSCOhost to search not only all of their EBSCO products, but also ALL other electronic resources including those from other database aggregators, OPACs, publisher packages, and virtually any other electronic resource. 

EBSCO will not charge for EBSCOhost databases to be included in this service, and as a result, the number of connectors will be reduced when pricing.  Due to this, customers of multiple EBSCOhost databases may find the service to be affordable relative to other options.

EBSCOhost Integrated Search is coming soon.  So, if you are looking to change, renew or just considering your first federated search product…please wait. You’ll be glad you did.

If you would like to see the initial designs, receive pricing, and/or obtain more information, please contact us at: [email protected].

Could be interesting...

3.94 million online students in the US

So says the most recent Sloan-C publication, Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008 (28 page PDF).  Lots of good general statistics (how many, which programs, drivers of distance ed, etc.) but not a single mention of libraries.

Google Prefs for Mobile Devices and XHTML

I'm on the Google Preference page from time to time, and noticed something new today.  Google now allows you to output search results in HTML (default), XHTML or for PDAs!  Or does it?  I just went back to grab a screenshot of what the different outputs would look like, and the setting is gone.  Weird.  Something to look forward to I guess.

Collect and Connect - new strategy for NRC-CISTI

The National Research Council Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI) is implementing its collect and connect strategy.

From their Press Release:

For journals, this strategy focuses on collecting electronic-only and connecting clients to publisher sites and other sources of content. This is part of the transition from print delivery to knowledge discovery of the electronic information that will be taking place over the next two years as we cancel print journal titles and clients move to new ways of accessing the content they need. As part of this transition, we will continue to deliver from our print collection and play an enabling role in helping clients access electronic content.

I hadn't heard that phrase before - I like it!

Wiki to Discuss Canadian Educational Response to Bill C-61

Scott Leslie has thrown up a framework wiki intended to help Canada's post-secondary institutions draft a collective or concerted response to Bill C-61.  Initial topics of suggested discussion include:

•  What uses can educators in Canadian higher ed make of copyrighted (and DRM protected) materials under *current* copyright laws?
• What are the implications to these uses of proposed copyright law ammendments (e.g. Bill C-61, now defunct, or its spawn)?
• Why is net neutrality important to higher education, and how do recent Canadian government agency rulings affect it?
• What can higher educators do? How can higher education as a whole respond to these threats?

Please join in!

Reading a Nintendo DS

HarperCollins and Nintendo have made a deal that will allow 100 classic books to be readable on the Nintendo DS.  Initially this will only be available in Britain, for some reason.  I think, as I guess the audience for the DS is young-ish, this would work better if they could've worked a deal for literature aimed at that age group, but we'll see how it goes.

The Inevitable

Choose your poison, C or F, it's just gonna be damn cold!

Using Google Analytics to track screencast usage

Paul Betty of Regis University offered the following link on the OFFCAMP listserve earlier today.  Using Google Analytics to track screencast usage.  In his screencast he covers how to embed a javascript call in Adobe Captivate, Qarbon ViewletBuilder, and Camtasia Studio, which will then allow Google Analytics to track pretty much whatever you might want within a Flash-based screencast.

This is a really excellent piece of information - one of the shortcomings I've always had with screencasts has been the difficulty of tracking usage.  If you can copy and paste, you can implement this.

You can also read the paper Paul delivered earlier this year in the most recent issue 48(3/4) of the Journal of Library Administration: Creation, Management, and Assessment of Library Screencasts: The Regis Libraries Animated Tutorials Project Page Range: 295 - 315 DOI: 10.1080/01930820802289342

Thanks Paul!

Literal Library Video - Tears for Fears

Enjoy!

A couple more (non-library) at http://www.dustfilms.com/literalvideos

(thanks for the tip Jerremie!)

OECD using Espresso Book Machine to launch new Green book

An interesting press release from the OECD stating that instead of shipping their latest book on sustainable development to Australia, they're going to reduce the carbon footprint and use an Espresso Book Machine to allow Australians to print on demand.

‘OECD Insights: Sustainable Development’ will still be published using traditional methods in markets where the new technology is not yet installed.  As technology progresses, however, more OECD books are expected to be printed for local sale in this way.

Seems like a logical future to me!

The Thirteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference Proceedings, Part I

Volume 48(3/4) of the Journal of Library Administration has just been released, containing papers from the Thirteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference held earlier this year in Salt Lake City.

And on a related note, the Fourteenth Off-Campus Library Services Conference will be held April 28-30, 2010, in Cleveland, OH.