By Ruth A. Pagell* Fast Facts: NTU’s top ten East Asian universities rank 17 to 59 in the world. In 2007 they ranked 13 to 479 U.S. News Global has 593 European schools and 589 from Asia BONUS: In QS Asia, five Malaysian universities are in the top 50 (6 Dec 2020) “Higher…
(9 Dec 2020) IFLA’s new research into digital skills strategies highlights examples of where governments have recognised the role of libraries in helping people become more competent, confident internet users. It provides examples to use in advocacy for library inclusion in such policy documents. While giving everyone the possibility to get online is essential…
(10 Dec 2020) Escalating computing power, expanding data sets, and algorithms of unprecedented sophistication have led to a massive increase in the number of journal and conference papers referring to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years. The Nature Index AI supplement draws on Nature Index data and the larger Dimensions from Digital Science database to analyse the…
(4 Dec 2020) An article titled “A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Views: A Triple Crossover Trial of Visual Abstracts to Examine Their Impact on Research Dissemination” is published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Background: A visual abstract is a graphic summary of a research article’s question, methods, and major findings. Although they…
(3 Dec 2020) A children’s book that local politicians have said glorifies China’s COVID-19 response has been banned in Taiwan, after its publisher was found to have not applied for permission for it to be distributed, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) said Wednesday. As the picture book “Waiting for Dad to Come Home” (等爸爸回家) was…
(3 Dec 2020) During the pandemic, the Chinese publishing industry has seen a huge increase in E-book export sales. School lockdowns have forced librarians to mainly purchase E-books instead of printed versions. The increasing demand of digital content has also driven the publishers to explore new sales and service models to better serve customers during this pandemic. According to China National Publications Import and Export (Group)…
(1 Dec 2020) The National Library of Australia has the world’s biggest oral history collection conducted at the height of the HIV and Aids epidemic in Australia. ABS has a full interview with Dr Shirleene Robinson (Senior curator of oral history at the National Library of Australia) about the collection and its historical background…
(12 Nov 2020) News from New Zealand: The National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library are preserving millions of online digital communications to create a snapshot of Aotearoa’s response to COVID-19. The collection includes online posts that are already within the public realm and donated material. Here is the full news with…
(6 Dec 2020) UN Sustainability Goals or UN SDGs was first adopted in 2015 and consists of 17 goals adopted by all United Nations Member States to achieve by 2030. In particular, in academia, there seems to be increasing interest in mapping literature directed at each of the 17 UN SDGs and filters showing…
(4 Dec 2020) In what came as a surprise to many librarians and industry observers, a report in The Hill this week revealed that the nonprofit Digital Public Library of America has been in discussions with Amazon Publishing on a potential a deal to make Amazon’s e-book content available in public libraries. And in a call with Publishers…