SAGE to publish Healthcare Management Forum starting January 2015

SAGE and the Canadian College of Health Leaders announced that SAGE will begin publishing the College’s journal, Healthcare Management Forum (HMF), with the first edition in January 2015.

The journal publishes articles on leading practices related to health leadership and management, including recent research, new technology and professional practices from health leaders' perspectives.

The research published in HMF will benefit health leaders who work in a variety of environments, such as medical companies, health authorities, multi-level care facilities, hospitals, public and private health agencies, health charities, the Canadian military and all levels of the Canadian government.

Springer Healthcare launches reprintsWarehouse.com for pharmaceutical professionals

Springer Healthcare has announced the launch of reprintsWarehouse.com – a responsive platform that enables pharmaceutical professionals to rapidly identify content that supports their product or device marketing activities, from a database of over 50,000 clinically relevant medical journals, books, continuing medical education materials and anatomical charts.

Users of reprintsWarehouse.com can easily navigate a search capability, which is differentiated from other search engines, to explore a database of thousands of pieces of content, specially selected and tagged by scientific experts. By searching a variety of terms such as drug name, manufacturer, author, publication date and/or keyword, users quickly locate relevant, peer-reviewed content.

Springer Healthcare holds the reprint rights encompassing more clinically relevant titles than any other company in the world. This wealth of content enables reprintsWarehouse.com users to quickly receive quotes on request or obtain permissions from the publisher through our dedicated reprints services team to ensure they receive the fastest copyright compliant service available.

Abu Dhabi Time Lapse video

A group of time-lapse sequences filmed between December 2013 and February 2014 show off parts of Abu Dhabi.


Twenty-eight locations star in the four-minute video, which was shot and edited by Beno Saradzic, who made his first Abu Dhabi time-lapse film in 2011.


The time-lapse film was commissioned by the Abu Dhabi General Secretariat of the Executive Council.

ABU DHABI THE CAPITAL (TIME LAPSE) from Beno Saradzic on Vimeo.

OUP to launch updated print, digital Oxford Arabic Dictionary

The Oxford University Press is celebrating the print and digital publication of the Oxford Arabic Dictionary, which is produced by an international team of expert translators and advisors using Oxford’s renowned language research programme.

The Oxford Arabic Dictionary is the first of its kind to be based throughout on real modern evidence of both English and Arabic usage, WAM reported. The unique Arabic corpus, developed specially for this project, provides evidence of the latest vocabulary used in computing, business, the media, and the arts, making the resource the most up-to-date bilingual Arabic and English dictionary available. The dictionary focuses on the standardized variant of Arabic used in writing and formal speech, commonly known as Modern Standard Arabic.

The dictionary can be viewed here http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199580330.do

The State of Worldwide Library eBook Lending

 The flow of electronic resources is largely dominated from the West for the West but the concept of e-lending is slowly catching on worldwide as libraries move to mostly digital resources.

Here’s taking a look at a study done by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions looking at other regions.

Africa

The International Publishers Association estimates that 90% of overall publishing revenue in Africa is derived from education markets. It is not a surprise that the availability of eBooks from African libraries is limited largely to university collections with an emphasis on streamed scholarly publishing content originating outside the continent. The 2013 South African Book Fair had as its focus “The future of eBooks: the impact of the digital eBook phenomenon” and the comments from publishing executives solely dealt with the education market and the potential for acceptance of digital textbooks.

Asia

eBook data reported from Asian countries indicates wide variations in library availability and use.

Apabi Chinese eBooks are published in Mainland China and its content emphasises more scholarly rather than leisure reading content.

Hong Kong public libraries report 186,497 eBook titles in their collections, 72,500 which are Apabi eBooks. The balance is made up of streamed bundle services including ebrary Academic Complete and EBSCOhost. The relatively low use of eBook collections (annual use of 1.1 per title) is attributed by library staff to the lack of leisure reading titles available and the confusing access requirements for the different databases.

A large majority of Japanese public libraries do not provide eBooks at this time.

Korean public libraries report over 3 million eBook titles available and annual expenditure of 3.6 million US dollars (2012).

Singapore reports 3,062,002 eBook titles, circulation of 8,247,966 and annual expenditure of $1,268,857 US (all

2012).

Taiwan public libraries report eBook title holdings of 255,278 (2012) and annual circulation of 562,482 (2013).

Australia/New Zealand

Public libraries in Australia and New Zealand report sustained and continuing growth in eBook provision and use:

·         State of Victoria public libraries report 298,809 eBook downloads in 2011/12 and 497,045 downloads in 2012/13 (+66%)

·         Users of the State Library of Western Australia downloaded 9,130 eBooks in January 2013 and 21,564 eBooks in January 2014 (+136%). The January 2014 loans constituted 1.4 loans per title available.

·         Users of Brisbane City Libraries downloaded 4,212 eBooks in 2008 and 116,272 eBooks in 2012.

·         New Zealand public libraries report 2012/13 holdings of 111,336 (growth of 1,762% in two years), downloads of 354,066 (growth of 1,968% in two years) and expenditure of $1,038,543 NZ

[$900,868 US/€654,011] (growth of 363% in two years).

Canada

Five large urban public libraries in Canada with mature digital collections serving a combined population of

8,402,000 reported the following combined digital use statistics:

·         Downloadable eBook circulation in 2013 was 2,871,514 downloads or 0.34 per capita.

·         This is a 1,313.3% increase over 2010 downloads and a 60.9% increase over 2012 downloads.

·          139,023 downloadable eBook titles were in their collections (an increase of 526% over 2010) and 244,951 eBook “volumes”12 or 1.8 “volumes” per title.

·         In 2013 the average annual downloads per volume was 12.

·         The libraries provide access to 37,369 downloadable audio titles.

In Quebec, 71 public libraries belong to BIBLIOPRESTO.CA.13 Library users downloaded 661,598 eBooks in

2012/13 and it is projected that downloads will double in the next 12 months. Individual library data is indicative of strong growth in eBook availability and use:

·         Montreal Public Library downloads grew from 9,559 in 2012 to 31,708 in 2013 (+232%)

·         Quebec City Public Library downloads grew from 27,417 in 2012 to 69,951 in 2013 (+155%).

Europe

As is the case with the publishing sector, libraries in the European Union have been slower to adopt eBooks, especially in non-English speaking countries. eBook availability in EU libraries varies significantly from country to country depending upon factors such as the funding available for library purchasing, indigenous publishing practice, library governance structure and preferred licensing regimes. EU national initiatives are discussed by country in the next section of the paper.

View the complete study here

Google textbooks now in Canada

 Where previous companies have been treading hesitantly, Google has marched right in to expand its mostly US based digital textbook service to Canada.

Available via the Play store for Android, iOS and Desktops, Google has added all the regular features of TOC, search option, book marking, notes and dictionary as well as the Wikipedia search option and yes, Google too.

The search engine giant was already providing this within the USA and Canada is the first country they expanded too. Will more countries follow? We’ll have to wait and see.

Wish you a blessed Ramadan Kareem

Free Online Courses in the Middle East a first

Paramount California University (PCU) recently became the first online university in the region to introduce the largest, state of the art e-library that offers free courses for individuals across the Middle East. 

Rapid advancements in the information technology sector have revolutionized the concept of learning across the world and as a result, traditional libraries have come across new challenges and competitors. On the contrary, a digital or e-library offers individuals ease and ready accessibility where they can logon to a computer or a tablet from anywhere and access thousands of informative articles and courses at the click of a button. Digital libraries have already begun attracting a lot of attention from users in the Middle East.

Through the Paramount California University e-library, learners in the Middle East can now get access to various free courses, e-journals and other informative materials. Mainly targeted at students and working adults, PCU has aimed to provide these individuals with a convenient and one of a kind learning experience. The e-library is already becoming a popular informational hub for students, and working adults in Middle East.

The PCU e-library currently offers courses on more than 10,000 topics related to over 100 fields of study. Students can search for in depth information on various subjects including business management, engineering, computer science, education, law and legal studies, psychology and arts. 

The digital library has a user friendly interface which makes it convenient for new and casual users to access the relevant information. Working adults can search for courses related to their respective profession. The courses can be searched through subject matter which makes it easier for users to finding related information. The e- library is set to revolutionize the way information is accessed by students, working adults and faculties.

“We believe in transforming the society at large by developing future leaders through education and enhance their leadership skills. We also aim to eliminate the gap between academic and professional world. Students will be able to actively participate and contribute in enhancing the economy through real world knowledge and applications” stated Dr. David Rivkin, the University President.

He further added “The digital library will also have a positive impact on the teaching methodology and it will also facilitate students in acquiring new information. For students who are looking to carry out research they can easily access the digital library and they can get access to relevant content and courses instantly.” 

Students pursuing higher education in Middle East can take advantage of the e-library launched by Paramount California University and achieve their academic and professional goals. Moreover, it is a gateway for working adults to take their careers to the next level.

As one of the largest digital course materials provider, PCU has a rapidly growing digital library of core graduation, post graduation and doctorate courses that are available absolutely free of cost to students across the Middle East.

The PCU e-library website can be accessed at http://courses.pcu.edu

source: http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/newsroom/news_view.phtml?news_id=4345 

Dibaj at SLA' AGC 2014

We'll be at the SLA AGC in Doha this year.
Will you?

We're excited to participate for a second year in a row in the biggest exhibition and conference for Academic and Specialist Librarians in the Middle East!

Last year at SLA we launched Dibaj, an aggregator portal for academic eBooks and Journals and received an immensely positive response.

This year we are back with New Content from More Publishers with New Resources for your academic needs and are thrilled to share this with you.

Visit our stand to also get a peak of the following among st others:

Interactive courses from Global Finance School

New 2014 titles from Joint Commission International

We look forward to having a chat with you. To set up appointments email tei@dibaj.org

Also follow us on:

     

Springer digitizes Book Archives and adds Altmetric to Springer Link

Springer has entered the New Year with two major projects accomplished. It completed its four year long project of digitizing every book published from 1840 to 2004 covering 110,000 titles.

Springer has also added a new feature to its SpringerLink (link.springer.com) by including altmetric information to every article available on the platform.  The data collected from this feature will track and analyze online activity around access of the articles to measure impact of research.

Sources:

http://www.subscription-agents.org/springer-book-archives-completed

http://www.subscription-agents.org/springer-now-sharing-data-altmetric-springerlink

Why You Need To Type Faster in 2014

Typing is one of the most important and invaluable skills that anyone can learn. It should be taught young, but in many cases it isn't, and many people are happy with the slow but steady hunt and peck typing skills that they have relied on all these years. There are a number of reasons that you should learn to type faster than average in 2014. 

1. The world is immersed in technology. There are many jobs that are not even possible without having at least some computer knowledge and skills. Even a basic cashiering position can require some basic typing skills to be able to manage the cash register. Learning to type faster than the average words per minute speed can increase your chances of landing a better job. 

2. It can make both work and school easier. Long gone are the days of the handwritten essays and assignments. Even as young as elementary school, students are being required to type and print out their assignments, and this will progress through college and beyond. 

3. Anyone can sit in front of a computer and knock out a few words per minute as a hunt and peck typist. It takes weeks of practice to learn to become a functional touch typist, but it is easily the most invaluable skill that you can learn.

4. The average words per minute speed is 41.1. Most employers are going to want touch typists that can type accurately at least 60 words per minute. The faster you type, the better you look to potential employers.

Learning to touch type doesn't happen immediately. It does take days or weeks of constant practice, and even more than that to increase your speed above the average. Time spent practicing to improve touch typing skills is never time wasted, however. It is easily the best and most important skill that anyone can learn.

Infographic source: http://www.ratatype.com/learn/average-typing-speed/