Category: Libraries

"Readers Have Borrowed over 3 Billion Digital Books through Overdrive"


From the very first library checkout of an ebook through OverDrive back in 2003, we have had one vision: to create a world enlightened by reading. . . . It took us four years to reach the first 1 million checkouts in 2007 and another five to reach 100 million in 2012. In 2018, our all-time checkouts reached one billion. And now, twenty years after that very first ebook checkout, thanks to readers, librarians, and booklovers like you, we have reached three billion checkouts.

https://cutt.ly/5MTS5N8

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"An AI Toolkit for Libraries"


Now that artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being widely used across academic publishing, how can we make informed assessments of these utilities? There is a need for a set of skills for evaluating new tools and measuring existing ones, which should enable anyone commissioning or managing AI utilities to understand what questions to ask, what parameters to measure and possible pitfalls to avoid when introducing a new utility. The skills required are not technical. Potential problems include bias in the corpus, a poor training set or poor use of metrics for evaluation. This article gives a quick overview of some of areas where AI tools are being used and how they work. It then provides a checklist for assessment. The goal is not to discredit AI, but to make effective use of it.

http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.592

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"Lessons Learned from Reevaluating Big Deals with Unsub"


The value of big deals is increasingly unclear. This article briefly discusses factors others have considered in evaluating big deals and covers the four factors that should be considered moving forward: open access, interlibrary loan, post-termination access, and a-la-carte costs. Unsub, a tool for reevaluating big deals created by the nonprofit OurResearch, is introduced. Lessons learned are shared from two years of helping libraries reevaluate big deals to provide insight into the complexities and tradeoffs involved in evaluating big deals across many libraries.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2022.2132090

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"Frankfurt Spotlight: Library E-books Have Leveled Up "


During the height of the pandemic, a number of publishers relaxed terms and prices for library e-books, helping libraries meet digital demand. But as pandemic restrictions have eased and libraries, schools, and business have gotten back to some version of normal, budgets are now strained while digital prices are rising again, and librarians say they don’t know how they will meet the increased digital demand.

https://cutt.ly/kBFFN89

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"Publishers, Internet Archive Ready for Summary Judgment Hearing in Book Scanning Case "


“That is what this case is about,” IA lawyers conclude. “Whether the selection of books available from libraries digitally will be chosen by librarians, or instead determined by publishers’ unilateral and unreviewable licensing choices. This Court is being asked to decide whether copyright law gives publishers the power to dictate which books in a library’s collection can and cannot be loaned digitally.”

https://cutt.ly/wBbwUxg

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"The Real Impact of #BookTok on Library Circulation"


From before #BookTok began in 2019 to now in 2022, the sales of backlist titles that have trended on #BookTok increased over 1,000%! . . .Since a library’s ability to circulate titles is limited by the number of copies it has in its collection, library holds, rather than library loans, can show a clearer picture of library book borrowers’ interest in particular books. When we look at the library holds for our #BookTok trending titles over this time period, the number of holds increases exponentially, by 1,430%.

https://cutt.ly/rBbrYhQ

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

"OIF’s Workbook of Privacy Best Practices for Libraries"

"Written by library privacy experts and based on input and guidance from a wide cross-section of stakeholders, The Ultimate Privacy Field Guide: A Workbook of Best Practices is structured to give library workers the tools needed to create and be advocates for privacy-protecting practices and policies. Published by ALA Editions in collaboration with ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), it’s designed for use in school, public, and academic settings of all types and sizes."

https://cutt.ly/RBuJEzH

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |