Interconnection between the major national catalogues and the possibilities it offers for bouncing between different collections and bibliographic databases are at the heart of current Abes developments in terms of access to bibliographic resources. In order to facilitate cross-over uses, the interconnection of Sudoc and BnF catalogues has been strengthened by using the ARK identifier adopted by BnF.

Since March 2021, the ISSN International Centre/CIEPS has also implemented a direct link between ISSN Portal records and Sudoc localised records, an approach based on a comparable technical principle:

It is now envisaged to create this same reverse link, i.e. from Sudoc records to those of the ISSN Portal. Insofar as the reciprocal link already exists between the records in the BnF Catalogue and those in ISSN Portal, this would further strengthen the “virtuous circle” created between the three managing bodies, all three of which are involved in the creation and improvement of reliable bibliographic data on continuing resources, resources that are complex to describe and, moreover, evolving.

The ISSN National Centre Australia hosted by the National Library of Australia has modernised its ISSN allocation service. ISSN application and enquiry forms are now required for all correspondence. View the application form and read about ISSNs.

The ISSN National Centre of the Philippines will launch its International Standard Numbering System – Philippines Online Application System (INS-POAS) on 25 June 2021 through a recorded video which will be uploaded in the  National Library of the Philippines (NLP) website and Facebook page. INS-POAS is a web application system for Philippine publishers, accessible through the link: http://116.50.242.167/ins/.

The ISSN National Centre of the Philippines started operating in late 1975 with the National Science Development Board (NSDB) as the National Center. In 1981, the ISSN National Center was transferred to the National Library as part of its integrated bibliographic services. This is in keeping with the internationally accepted practice of establishing national centres within the framework of national libraries together with the national agency for ISBN as part of its supportive programs.

En production depuis 2015, l’application professionnelle CIDEMIS – Circuit des Demandes ISSN est un outil de workflow dédié aux demandes de correction/numérotation ISSN des ressources continues signalées dans le Sudoc. Il a été conçu afin de fluidifier les échanges entre les bibliothèques membres des réseaux Sudoc/Sudoc-PS, le CIEPS et les différents Centres ISSN, notamment le Centre ISSN France. Il restait cependant à développer certaines améliorations demandées à plusieurs reprises par les responsables des Centres du Réseau Sudoc-PS, principaux utilisateurs de Cidemis en dehors du CIEPS et des centres qu’il coordonne. Ainsi, la page d’accueil a été revisitée, un nouveau workflow d’envoi automatisé de courriels va simplifier le suivi du traitement des demandes. Enfin, un processus de contrôle bibliographique renforcé a été mis en place.

In production since 2015, the professional application CIDEMIS – Circuit des Demandes ISSN is a workflow tool dedicated to ISSN correction/numbering requests for continuing resources reported in Sudoc. It was designed to facilitate exchanges between the member libraries of the Sudoc/Sudoc-PS networks, CIEPS and the various ISSN Centres, in particular the ISSN Centre France. However, certain improvements requested on several occasions by the heads of the Sudoc-PS Network Centres, the main users of Cidemis outside CIEPS and the centres it coordinates, still needed to be developed. Thus, the home page has been revisited, and a new workflow for sending automated e-mails will simplify the follow-up of the processing of requests. Finally, a reinforced bibliographic control process has been put in place.

The British Library has now launched its online, all-in-one service for the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI). The Portal offers three services for ISNI users: a registration service for the assignment of ISNIs; a search and discovery function for finding and viewing existing ISNI records via the ISNI database; and a review function which enables ISNI users to recommend additions or corrections to existing ISNI records.

Clarivate acquiring ProQuest, valued at $5.3 billion, is the largest transaction in recent memory in the scholarly information sector. Both companies are intermediaries — they each work extensively with publishers and libraries — and each has extensive interests in discovery, a lynchpin service in the research ecosystem. Will this transaction result in dramatically strengthened products and improved services for researchers, as its proponents foresee? Or will it result in information enclosure, lock-in, service deterioration, and price increases, as detractors forewarn?

Closely aligned to IFLA Key Initiative 2.4 “Provide tools and infrastructure that support the work of libraries”, IFLA’s Library Publishing Special Interest Group (IFLA LibPub SIG) is focused on an identified trend which has emerged over the past decade: libraries taking on a visible role along the publishing continuum. This concerns not only scholarly materials by academic libraries (articles, reports, books, data), but also community content (stories, local histories, self-publishing support). IFLA LibPub presents the Global Library Publishing Map as the first main action involved documenting library publishing activities among IFLA’s global membership. IFLA LibPub partners with the Library Publishing Coalition on the 2021 Library Publishing Directory:

A new IFLA report highlights greater understanding of the contribution of libraries to delivering the United Nations 2030 Agenda among local governments, in a wider range of areas, than in national reviews of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation. The report is designed to be used as a reference by libraries and library associations in their own advocacy for inclusion in Voluntary Local Reviews, as well as more broadly around the SDGs.

Download the report as a pdf.

This paper presents key findings from the AHRC-funded Digital Library Futures project. Its purpose is to provide a “user-centric” perspective on the potential future impact of the digital collections that are being created under electronic legal deposit regulations. The authors show that contemporary tensions between user behaviour and access protocols risk limiting the instrumental value of these digital library collections, which are not being used in the way that they could, due to access and legal restrictions.

Founded in 2003, the IIPC is an international organization of member institutions from more than 35 countries that work to collect, preserve, and make accessible knowledge from the global web. IIPC will remain independent, and its Steering Committee and Executive Board will continue to be responsible for setting the strategy, overseeing membership, tools development, and outreach, as well as the Consortium’s key events.

Funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Endangered But Not Too Late: The State of Digital News Preservation sounds a serious alarm about the looming crisis resulting from the pressures on an industry charged with delivering news coverage in a variety of digital formats. Based on interviews and consultations with approximately 40 newsrooms and related organizations, as well as with the Library of Congress and the Center for Research Libraries, the report documents an on-going loss of digital news content, our “first draft of history.” It also documents efforts being made to mitigate such losses in the face of ever-changing technology and the severe financial constraints affecting the news industry. The full report is available for download.

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) study is gauging the extent and impact of predatory practices, identifying their root causes, and reviewing efforts to combat them. This study is led by an independent working group of international experts, counting notably Rabab Ahmed Rashwan, head of the ISSN National Centre Egypt. A vital part of the study is a survey for all members of the research community to raise their awareness of predatory journals and conferences across different geographies, disciplines and career stages. The IAP study will report at the end of 2021 and is anticipated to inform a further major study on research evaluation, which lies at the heart of many of the global research community’s challenges and for which predatory practices are a symptom.

This exploratory study of the status of institutional repositories implementation in African countries using the global Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and Transparent Ranking: All Repositories by Google Scholar, reports on the operational status and the performance of repositories. The widespread implementation of institutional repositories is still very slow paced, and the performance of the implemented repositories was below expectation. Suggestions for regaining the intended direction of African institutional repositories are given based on the current status.

The post calls for a greater focus on “Fully OA” publishing agreements and argues that while much time and energy is devoted to Transformative Agreements and transforming subscription models, a balanced approach whereby institutions also partner with fully OA publishers is optimal. It contains a list of the benefits of fully OA agreements and a Call to Action.

The International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) conference brings together world experts in web archiving. It is also intended for a wide audience interested in working with digital content.

Free registration

Check the programme

This four-hour virtual event will bring together stakeholders concerned with the improvements needed to more efficiently and effectively create and transfer metadata between information systems.

Topic: Interoperability: Enabling Better Discovery

Registration is open and free.

The Z39.4 standard, created by the NISO Criteria for Indexes Working Group and now in the process of approval as an ANSI/NISO standard, provides guidelines for the content, organization, and presentation of indexes used for the retrieval of documents and parts of documents. The motivations of this project will be discussed, as well as the expected impact, and the process followed in ensuring that the eventual ANSI/NISO standard will be as up-to-date and useful as possible. The call is free and anyone is welcome to participate.

In this program, the challenges from both a management and a technology perspective will be explored, considering how the information community can develop systems that continue to add value to scholarly communication and success.

Registration closes on June 16, 2021 09:30am

LATMÉTRICAS 2021 is a free virtual event promoted by Latmetrics and the Latin American Symposium on Metric Studies in Science and Technology, which seeks to offer a common dialogue space that allows to know the general panorama of the metrics studies of science and technology from a comprehensive and multidimensional view in Latin America. The event has the support of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (ABEC-Brasil), SciELO, Dialnet and the Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO). The deadline for sending short articles or posters is 30th May 2021.

Bringing together professionals from national libraries worldwide, this conference will explore the state of national library curation now, interrogating the complex challenges faced in building and interpreting collections, and the practical approaches that are being taken to address them. What does it mean to work in a national library now? What new possibilities are there for international collaboration?

The call for papers closes on 19 June 2021.