(1 Jan 2021) The Leisure and Cultural Service Department (LCSD), Hong Kong launches its Edutainment Channel, a new one-stop online platform covering informative and learning materials on aspects of culture and leisure. The Edutainment Channel, combing education with entertainment, is best captured by its slogan “One click to treasures – Culture & Leisure” With…
(27 Jan 2021) A children’s library on a boat was launched in Kolkata on Republic Day, a first-of-a-kind initiative. Children will be able to choose from a selection of 500 titles in English and Bengali on the Young Readers’ Boat Library, an official said on Tuesday. The idea behind the boat library is that one…
(29 Jan 2021) Retraction of academic journal articles generally means major flaws are found in the research, which cannot be amended by simple correction. There might be many reasons why the articles are retracted. In this issue on Fun Facts on Numbers, let’s take a look at how many articles were retracted due to image-related…
(23 Jan 2021) From the abstract: “To provide some context for the potential engagement behavior of Twitter users around science, this article investigates how Bitly short links to scientific publications embedded in scholarly Twitter mentions are clicked on Twitter. Based on the click metrics of over 1.1 million Bitly short links referring to Web of…
(22 Jan 2021) The uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are topics of presentations at most conferences today across diverse professional disciplines. Why? The following quote says it all: “Just as electricity transformed almost everything 100 years ago, today I actually have a hard time thinking of an industry that I don’t…
(28 Jan 2021) IWA Publishing, the wholly-owned publishing subsidiary of the International Water Association based in London, UK, has successfully transformed its journal portfolio of 10 subscription titles—including the flagship journal Water Science & Technology—to Open Access (OA) from 2021 onwards. In partnership with Knowledge Unlatched (KU), IWA Publishing has asked libraries and institutions currently subscribing to…
(25 Jan 2021) The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about tremendous changes to our daily lives, and libraries everywhere now face the challenge of maintaining and improving their services while ensuring the safety of patrons and staff. The National Diet Library will host a web lecture featuring Ms. Christine Mackenzie, president of the International Federation of Library Associations…
(12 Jan 2021) News from India: The Department of Public Libraries has decided to promote community libraries in small residential clusters in urban centres and the first such library was declared open at an apartment complex in Tiruchi last week. Under the initiative, local communities comprising residents of an apartment or gated communities can…
(19 Jan 2021) More than a hundred scholars and academics have signed an open letter accusing the National University of Singapore (NUS) Press of bowing to political pressure after it last year withdrew abruptly from publication of a volume of essays touching on sensitive aspects of Thai politics. The book, “Coup, King, Crisis: A Critical…
Google is fighting against Australian legislation to pay news publishers while signing an agreement to pay French publishers. What’s the difference? (26 Jan 2021) Search Engine Journal has been reporting on the ongoing fight between Google and Australia regarding the News Media Bargaining Code. Confusion ensued when Google continued to disagree with pending legislation that would force…