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International library news

Open access coalition attacks Elsevier

A new hosting and sharing policy introduced in April by publisher Elsevier has been widely criticised by a global coalition of academic, library and technology organisations, reports the Times. Librarians and open access advocates believe that rather than making it easier for researchers to share their work, the new policy creates more barriers because of long embargo periods (up to 48 months) and restrictive licencing guidelines for institutional repositories such as universities. The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) have organised a petition signed by more than 30 organisations and 100 individuals calling on Elsevier to revise the changes. Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC, and Kathleen Shearer, executive director of COAR, said in a joint statement: ‘Elsevier’s policy is in direct conflict with the global trend towards open access and serves only to dilute the benefits of openly sharing research results.’ Alicia Wise, director of access and policy for Elsevier, said in a statement that ‘Elsevier was “a little surprised” by COAR’s “negative view”’.

Hoopla digital introduces ebooks and comics

In the US, Hoopla digital, the streaming media service for libraries, has added ebooks and comics to its catalogue, reports the Library Journal. Hoopla’s catalogue, which is available via a cross-platform app for Android, Apple and Kindle, offers more than 300,000 movies, TV shows, music albums and audiobooks. All Hoopla content is available on a pay-per-circulation basis, and can be viewed simultaneously by an unlimited number of library cardholders. Jeff Jankowski, co-founder of app developer Midwest Tape, told Library Journal: ‘It’s one app doing everything. What we’re trying to do is give libraries a real competitive advantage by offering patrons a single app to access multiple digital formats.’ He added that the introduction of ‘Action View’ technology for comics, which allows readers to navigate page-by-page or panel-by-panel, provides ‘an immersive experience’ across all mobile devices, particularly those with small screens. Hoopla’s current list of content partners is available here.

 

Category: Library news