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Weekly News Digest
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May 1, 2025 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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U.S. Copyright Office Publishes a Copyright Registration Toolkit
The U.S. Copyright Office rolled out the Copyright Registration Toolkit, “a comprehensive resource designed to help creators, small business owners, advisors, and others navigate the copyright system. As part of the Copyright Office’s Copyright for All initiative, the toolkit is a visual breakdown of copyright, including essential information about copyright law, how to prepare for copyright registration, what to expect during the process, and post-registration considerations.” It was developed by Copyright Office attorneys, writers, and designers and in conjunction with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s intellectual property (IP) toolkits for trademarks, trade secrets, and patents.“The Copyright Registration Toolkit makes copyright information more accessible and user-friendly for all creators,” says Miriam Lord, associate register of copyrights and director of public information and education. “Resources like this one empower authors, artists, musicians, and their advisors to protect and manage creative works with confidence.” For more information, read the news item.
Clarivate Updates EndNote With AI-Powered Features
Clarivate introduced EndNote 2025, the latest release of its comprehensive reference management solution, now with AI support, enhanced referencing tools, and journal matching capabilities. It features a “generative AI-powered tool that expedites research discovery by extracting key insights and takeaways from individual papers.”The new Find a Journal machine learning tool is “available directly in Cite While You Write[, allowing] researchers to find the best journal match using their paper.” Users can now “insert both a highlighted quote from a PDF and its corresponding citation into the document with a click of a button.” The summary panel now offers “a more modern, organized summary of record with configurable detail options.” The Web of Science facilitates the curation of “a more comprehensive reference library by viewing relevant articles and finding papers that have cited existing references.” And users can “access both the Find Reference Updates and Find Full-Text tools at the top of the record menu, creating a more streamlined user experience.” For more information, read the press release.
Librarian Shares Link to Rescued COVID.gov Data
A Hofstra University librarian posted the following to the MEDLIB-L email list:You may have seen what happened to covid.gov. If you need access to the old version, there is an archived version here: https://app.browsertrix.com/explore/usgov-archive/collections/covid-gov#url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.covid.gov%2F&ts=20250411171357.
May want to update any libguide links to the archive ...
Lucidea Post Encourages New Ways to Connect After the Dissolution of SLA
Lauren Hays writes the following in “Where Special Librarians Can Find Community After the SLA Dissolution” for Lucidea:I’d like to share some ways you can find and create a professional community beyond SLA, ensuring that the valuable networks and support systems remain intact even as the formal organization changes. … For many special librarians, the news of SLA’s dissolution has been upsetting. SLA has long been a cornerstone of our shared professional identity and community. This change doesn’t just mark the end of an organization, but potentially a disruption to the relationships and connections we’ve built throughout our careers. However, this moment also presents an opportunity to reimagine how we connect, collaborate, and grow as professionals. For more information, read the blog post.
Cynthia Erivo Narrates Wicked Audiobook for RBmedia
RBmedia announced that Elphaba herself, Cynthia Erivo, narrated a new edition of Wicked by Gregory Maguire that is now available for preorder. It will be released on July 1 by Recorded Books.“I’m incredibly excited to narrate ‘Wicked,’ especially after having had the privilege of portraying Elphaba on screen. I feel deeply connected to Elphaba. We have been on quite the journey together, and now I’m eager to begin an adventure with her whilst exploring the full world of ‘Wicked’ and its myriad of other characters in the audiobook. I’m looking forward to bringing this incredible story to life in a new way for listeners, and I hope it resonates as deeply with them as I know it will with me,” Erivo says. “Three decades after its debut, ‘Wicked’ remains one of the most clever revisionist novels of our time,” says Troy Juliar, chief content officer for RBmedia. “In that spirit, we’re revising and updating the narration of the audiobook to feature the novel’s most gifted interpreter. [Erivo]’s work behind the mic, and her exploration of identity and belonging, will resonate with all who encounter it and bring these themes to life in a way that inspires and captivates a new generation.” For more information, read the press release.
Advantage Archives Offers a $500 Credit to Digitize a Community History Archive
Advantage Archives announced the following:For a Limited Time, Advantage is offering a $500 digitization credit to kickstart your Community History Archive Right now, access to history is under real, growing pressure. Across the country, we’re seeing institutions that have long protected public memory—libraries, museums, archives—being defunded, restructured, or politically targeted. It’s not just about removing books or websites. It’s about controlling the story. More often than not, the stories that get cut first are the ones that document the hard truths about race, inequality, gender, struggle, and resilience. Non-profit organizations that would like to join us in our mission to provide free and open access to local history will receive: - A free Community History Archive—a public digital platform where your local history lives online, accessible to anyone, anytime. No subscriptions. No hosting fees. No ongoing costs.
- A $500 digitization credit—to help you take the first step in making your collections available to the public, at your own pace, with your own priorities.
From the beginning, Advantage Archives was built on the belief that communities should not have to rent access to their own history. That access is not a feature—it’s a foundation. But right now, that belief isn’t just a guiding principle. It’s a responsibility. That is why any nonprofit dedicated to safe guarding public memory and providing access to its historical collections will now receive a Community History Archive at no cost, along with a $500 credit to help them begin the work. Are you interested in kickstarting your archive? Contact us today to get started. Claim The $500 Credit
Katina Spreads IMLS Matters Stories
Thomas Padilla writes the following in “‘No Longer Serves the Interest of the United States’: The Terminated Work of the Institute of Museum and Library Services” for Katina:On April 1, I created IMLS Matters. It is a place for people to share stories of how IMLS matters to them. In a short period of time people have shared stories from across the country—more than 20 different states represented so far. Stories are powerful. They are one of the oldest technologies we use to achieve solidarity. Solidarity is fundamental to individual and collective action. Here are some of the stories people have shared with IMLS Matters[.] For more information, read the article.
Energy Studies Journal to Join Open Library of Humanities
Caroline Edwards, co-founder and executive director of the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), shares the following:The OLH is pleased to welcome a field-defining journal to its portfolio of leading humanities and social sciences titles. Energy Humanities, which will begin publishing at the OLH in 2026, is a rigorous, highly respected journal in the interdisciplinary field of energy studies. … Launched in 2020 by the Transitions in Energy, Culture, and Society (TECS) project in Canada and the Petrocultures Research Group, Energy Humanities has rapidly become an important intellectual hub for new ideas and insights about climate, energy, and culture. The journal was designed to support a growing community of researchers, with biweekly articles and commentary on current events from leading thinkers in the energy humanities and related fields. It also features video interviews with influential and emerging voices on energy and society, as well as relevant news and original essays. With funding from the OLH, Energy Humanities can support this lively community long term whilst also publishing peer-reviewed journal articles without paywalls or author payments. For more information, read the news item.
Historic Photography Magazine Comes Into Focus at Exact Editions
The longest-running (since 1854) photography publication, British Journal of Photography, launched a digital archive on the Exact Editions platform. “Subscribers will be able to access a digital archive that goes back to 2020 as well as new issues as they are published. The archive contains rich, searchable content that preserves the visual impact of the publication’s acclaimed photography and design,” Exact Editions states.“The Exact Editions platform was designed for visually stunning magazines such as [this] in mind. Exact Editions are proud to offer a seamless solution for the publisher’s subscribers to access back issues and are pleased to be trusted as a vendor for library subscriptions,” says Daryl Rayner, managing director of Exact Editions. For more information, read the press release.
Access Innovations Unveils Catalog of 53 Knowledge Domains as Standalone Products
Access Innovations, Inc. announced that “its 53+ Knowledge Domains are now available for enhancing content prior to ingestion into LLMs and will provide improved GPT outputs.”The company states: A Knowledge Domain is an outline of expertise for a specific topical or content area formatted as a taxonomy (hierarchy) or thesaurus (with full records for every term). Knowledge Domains enhance knowledge management systems by enabling tagging, improving search accuracy, supporting web navigation, facilitating semantic fingerprinting, and more. Knowledge Domains were created by Access Innovations as a way to share decades of hands-on, client-based knowledge management valuable for organizations in various industries. Out of the box, Knowledge Domains are designed to immediately improve the workflow efficiency of existing knowledge management systems by reducing search times and yielding more relevant search results. … Information about utilizing knowledge domains is available on the Access Innovations website at https://www.accessinn.com/knowledge-domains/. For more information, read the press release.
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Brandi Scardilli
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