News and Announcements for St. Patty’s Day

Today’s menu: Proquest’s Roger K. Summit Scholarship; SPARC’s open access meeting; Ex Libris adds new bX services; the WSJ pumps out video content; eBookIt.com partners with Audible.com; and Thomas Nelson has a new editor-in-Chief

ProQuest Invites Future Information Professionals to Apply for Annual Scholarship

“ProQuest is seeking applicants for its 2012 Roger K. Summit Scholarship.  Open to applicants from around the world, the US$5,000 award is given annually to a promising graduate student in library and information sciences. The winner will be announced at the Special Libraries Association’s 2012 Annual Conference to be held July 15-18 in Chicago, Illinois, in the U.S.”

This year’s winner Applications are available at: http://gep.dialog.com/scholarship/application

Presenter Slides from SPARC’s First-Ever Open Access Meeting Now Available

This INFOdocket post excerpts highlights from the Meeting Summary as well as providing a direct link to a SPARC webpage containing Program/Abstracts/Presentation Slides and a list of meeting attendees (Check back for updates. Recordings to come.)

Ex Libris Adds New bX Services Based on Scholarly Usage Data

Information Today reports about an Ex Libris Group announcement on “the addition of three new services to the suite of bX usage-based services. Released in 2009, the first member of the bX suite—the bX Recommender—is deployed in more than 1,000 institutions worldwide.

Using data-mining techniques to analyze scholarly usage data from multiple information systems, the bX technology identifies topics that are currently in the spotlight of academic discourse and assesses the popularity of specific publications. Data analyzed by bX also reveals subtle usage patterns and associations between articles and journals, themes, and authors. By providing analytics and trending information based on the usage patterns of many millions of users, bX services enable librarians to evaluate objectively both the electronic resources that they license and their institutions’ collection strategies…”

Newspapers And Video: Slow And Steady Or Flood The Zone?

This post from PaidContent.com notes that “the Wall Street Journal … is pumping out hours of live news clips and splashing them onto everything from the iPhone to the X-Box. According to Alisa Bowen, General Manager of the Journal’s Digital Network, the paper now has its video on more than 15 different platforms.”  This is an entirely different strategy than the New York Times ” toe-in-the-water approach. The rival paper is showing just two short clips every day, branded as TimesCast and the newly added Business Day Live…”

eBookIt.com Launches Audiobook Distribution Through Audible.com

“eBookIt.com has teamed with Audible.com to take the possibilities to a new level with a human-voice audiobook package. Authors looking for new markets and new audiences have a new opportunity through eBookIt.com to share their books via the spoken word…”

Thomas Nelson’s Bible Group has a new Editor-in-Chief

Thomas Nelson’s Bible Group has a new Editor-in-Chief; Bob Sennett has been promoted to the position. He has 24 years with the Nashville publisher.  “I couldn’t ask more of an Editor-in-Chief than what Bob Sennett brings us,” says Bob Sanford, Thomas Nelson Vice-President and Associate Publisher of the Bible Group. “His product and market knowledge are thorough; his biblical acumen ensures that we stay true to the message of the Scriptures. Bob is well-deserving of this promotion…”