Content enhancement and knowledge services company Scope e-Knowledge Center, a Quatrro Group Company, has announced that the company has been selected to perform a mission critical project for medical terminology mapping from Zynx Health Inc. Zynx Health is a health information provider and a pioneer in evidence-based medicine. It publishes evidence-based clinical decision support to improve quality across the continuum of care.

  Specialty healthcare solutions provider APS Healthcare and business information company Thomson Reuters have been selected by the New York State Department of Health to manage the state's Medicaid clinical best practice utilisation review programme. The project leverages the clinical and behaviour change expertise of APS Healthcare and the unique analytic and predictive modeling capabilities of the Medstat Advantage Suite application from Thomson Reuters to identify patient safety issues and flag healthcare services that are duplicative or outside evidenced-based practice guidelines.

  Publishing solutions provider The Charlesworth Group has announced that 14 international publishers will benefit from additional gross annual revenue worth over $1 million through deals negotiated by The Charlesworth Group in China. For the seventh consecutive year Charlesworth has successfully negotiated individual contracts between the publishers and the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL), a consortia headed by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

  Serials Solutions, the e-resource access and management services arm of ProQuest, has signed Western Michigan University as a beta development site for its new Summon unified discovery service. Also participating are new content providers, including engineering society IEEE; IT publisher IGI-Global; scholarly publisher Brill; and a pair of Australian presses that expand the service’s local coverage. The Summon service’s contributors, which include the content resources of ProQuest and Gale, have expanded to more than 80. Harvested content now exceeds 400 million records in preparation for the service’s July launch.

  Online reference library Credo Reference and electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing have announced a new custom linking agreement. Mutual customers will now be able to expand their searches and easily link from one resource into the other. Credo offers full text reference services for libraries and information centres with a collection of over 400 subject encyclopedias and other reference works consisting of 3.1 million entries, all interconnected by millions of links.

  Digital content services provider Ingram Digital has announced that it has been selected by Berrett-Koehler, an independent publisher, to manage the conversion, storage and distribution of the publisher's digital assets. The new agreement is an expansion of Berrett-Koehler's existing relationship with the Ingram content companies. Ingram Publisher Services, a full-service distributor for a roster of publishers, has been handling the physical distribution of Berrett-Koehler books since 2007.

  Digital content services provider Ingram Digital has announced a new agreement with Kogan Page, Europe’s leading independent business book publisher. Kogan Page currently works with Ingram Publisher Services, a full-service distributor for publishers of all sizes, to facilitate their print distribution strategy in the US. Through this expanded relationship, Kogan Page will now also leverage Ingram Digital’s cutting-edge solutions for digital content worldwide.

  Online submission system provider Aries Systems Corporation has announced a collaboration and distribution agreement with Chinese company Asia Pacific Medinfo. The move is in response to the growing interest in the company’s Editorial Manager peer-review system from Chinese publishers and authors. Under the deal, Asia Pacific Medinfo will provide local support, training and configuration services with a focus on language localisation.

  STM publisher Springer has announced an agreement with the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) to publish The Encyclopedia of Molecular Life Sciences. The 11-volume work will be published in print and electronically in 2012. Society members will have free access to the online edition in perpetuity.

  Academic and professional literature publisher Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. recently announced a partnership with the Association of MBAs (AMBA). AMBA sets global standards for all MBA, DBA and MBM courses and accredits over 157 programmes in 71 countries. This agreement will benefit AMBA’s 9,000 members with access to trusted, high quality resources held on Emerald Management First.

  e-content services and technology provider ebrary and Ambassador Books and Media, a premier provider of print and non-print materials to libraries of all types, has announced that more than 100,000 multi-disciplinary e-books and other titles from ebrary can now be purchased through OneSource, Ambassador’s proprietary online ordering system.

  Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing has announced the creation of a new research tool that will harvest metadata from internal and external sources, creating a centralised pre-indexed service of significant size and speed. The tool, EBSCO Discovery Service, will provide libraries with a single entry point for research and launch users into the entire array of a library's collection. The launch is expected by the end of the calendar year.

  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a white paper titled ‘We Need Publishing Standards for Datasets and Data Tables’. The paper seeks to provide straightforward standards that publishers, librarians and data providers can implement to improve the accessibility and usage of important datasets. This applies both to the data that underlies scholarly works and data that is published in its own right.

  Wiley-Blackwell, the STM and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has announced the relaunch of Current Protocols.com, a website for scientists engaged in experimental research in the life sciences. The site is projected as an essential resource, bringing reliable, peer-reviewed Current Protocols content together with cutting-edge tools and user-generated content.

  Genome Medicine, published by open access publisher BioMed Central, has announced the publication of its first research article. The article, covering work on systems medicine and informatics, reflects the journal’s aim to publish high-quality research across a wide range of topics relevant for medical researchers and clinicians.

  Nielsen Book, part of global information and media company Nielsen Company, has announced new developments and a significant expansion to its flagship books ordering service, BookData Online. The upgraded service will allow users to access one exclusive source of comprehensive and accurate book information with sales ranking alongside ordering tools; and functionality that provides a one-stop service for booksellers, libraries and publishers.

  Begell House Publishers, a publisher of scholarly publications in science and engineering, has announced the launch of Thermopedia, a new web-based research tool. The product serves as a guide to concepts and gateway to a number of journals and reference works in the field of heat and mass transfer, fluid flow and thermodynamics. Thermopedia’s video demonstrations and animated 3DMax images in selected works are expected to help illustrate specific concepts, enhancing the classroom experience for both faculty and students.

  Knowledgespeak.com, a web only publication of Scope e-Knowledge Center Pvt. Ltd, is now offering a translation widget, which will enable subscribers to access content in 29 different languages, including Chinese, Korean, German and French. The translation option is currently available in all pages of Knowledgespeak on the left side of the main menu bar.

  Medical publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. has announced the launch of a new, peer-reviewed online journal, Ecopsychology. Thomas Joseph Doherty, PsyD, Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR), is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, the inaugural issue of which is currently available for free online.

  Anaheim University, a US-based institution which pioneered online education in the mid-nineties, has now committed to being paperless by 2010. This directive has caused Anaheim to push publishers to produce e-books, as well as adopt technical innovations such as the Sony book reader that allow the entire university's curriculum of textbooks to be stored in a portable palm-sized electronic reader.

  e-content services and technology provider ebrary has announced that it has been appointed by JISC Collections to supply the e-book content and delivery platform for its multimillion-dollar e-books for Further Education (FE ) Project. Under the terms of the contract, negotiated in partnership with the company’s authorised distributor 2info, the JISC will fund a collection of over 3,000 multidisciplinary e-books from ebrary and use ebrary’s technology to deliver the content to over 440 Further Education colleges in the UK. Participating colleges may also supplement this collection by purchasing additional titles through a framework agreement.

  The Research Information Network (RIN) has published a new briefing note, Scholarly books and journals at risk: responding to the challenges of a changing economy. The briefing note warns that if libraries are forced to make budget cuts on their journals and books subscriptions, then the UK's ability to support world class research and teaching could be put into jeopardy.

  The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has announced that it recently hosted a webcast for Oberlin Group liberal arts colleges about Harvard University’s open access (OA) policy. A number of Oberlin Group colleges are in various stages of discussing faculty OA policies similar to those that have been adopted at Harvard, MIT and the Stanford University School of Education. The webcast served to reinforce these ongoing conversations by answering key questions from librarians and faculty members.

  The Publishing and the Ecology of European Research (PEER) recently published a draft report on the provision of usage data and manuscript deposit procedures for publishers and repository managers. The report is now available online at http://www.peerproject.eu/reports/. PEER, a joint initiative of publishers, repositories and the research community, aims to investigate the effects of large-scale deposit ('Green Open Access') on user access, author visibility, journal viability and the broader European research environment.

  E-research and educational publisher Gale, part of Cengage Learning, is offering free resources on its completely updated Environmental Resource website in celebration of Earth Day. Users can browse the activities page to learn more about endangered species, biomes, tips on 'going green,' lesson plans and more, or download a free bookmark, poster or screensaver.

  The Elsevier Foundation is seeking new grant proposals for its 2009 Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries and New Scholars programs. Sponsored by STM publisher Elsevier, the new Foundation proposals are due by August 1, 2009. The grants for the two programs will be awarded in December 2009 and provide one, two and three year awards between $5,000 to $50,000 per year.

  STM publisher Springer has announced that two Springer plant science journals - Journal of Plant Research and Plant Ecology - have been included in the 100 most influential journals in biology and medicine over the last 100 years. The journals were described by the SLA as 'important to the plant science community worldwide and to the librarians who serve them.'

  The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre has announced that everyone in Canada with access to the Internet will now be able to view the full content of The Cochrane Library, an on-line resource that provides evaluations on health treatments. The Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre, in partnership with the Canadian Health Libraries Association, has successfully secured a national license to The Cochrane Library. The license provides a subscription for every Canadian with access to the Internet to benefit from the immense volume of health information found in The Cochrane Library.

  Medical publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. has announced that it will provide complimentary online access to the bimonthly journal, Sustainability: The Journal of Record, for the remainder of the month of April. The journal is being made available in recognition of Earth Day 2009. Complimentary access is available online at www.liebertonline.com/sus.

  STM publisher Elsevier and the American College of Cardiology has announced that JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging and JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions have been selected for coverage in MEDLINE. Maintained by the US National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) is a premier bibliographic database containing approximately 13 million references to journal articles in life sciences.

  The Fifth edition of blogspeak is now online. Featured are Liz Wager (If comment is cheap why is peer review so expensive?); Ryan Paul (Wikipedians to vote on Creative Commons license adoption); Nicole Harris (Where is the I in Open Content?); Christian Zimmermann (Tips for authors to improve their RePEc ranking); and Nate Anderson (Journalism Online: time to start paying for online news). A service of Knowledgespeak.com, Blogspeak includes blog posts relevant to the publishing industry, particularly STM publishing. Subscribers are invited to participate in the latest edition of blogspeak at http://www.knowledgespeak.com/
Blog/Blog_Index_More.asp?MID=1#41.

  The Association of Research Libraries has announced that the proceedings of the 2008 Library Assessment Conference, ‘Building Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment,’ are now freely available on the web and for purchase in print or on CD-ROM. The proceedings contain more than 60 papers spanning assessment activities in libraries, information literacy, library as place, organisational culture, management information, using assessment data for change, assessment methods and more.

  Health information services provider Healthline Networks has announced two new decision-support platforms for online healthcare. These are Healthline TreatmentSearch, a treatment search application for the web; and Healthline DocSearch, a searchable doctor database featuring semantically-suggested specialists based on the consumer's health condition or symptoms.

  Online reference library Credo Reference has announced that it has added Sheila Corral, Erin McKean and Ray Lester to its corporate advisory board. The three latest Advisory Board members will each contribute their distinctive perspectives, providing input culled from years of work in their respective fields.

  Information services provider McGraw-Hill Companies, has announced plans to enhance certain corporate governance provisions. The company’s Chairman, President and CEO, Harold McGraw III, has recommended to the board that the company eliminate its classified board of directors and the requirements in the company’s certificate of incorporation for supermajority votes to approve certain corporate actions. This followed discussions with shareholders on the matters to be acted upon at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders slated for April 29, 2009.

  XML content server provider Mark Logic Corporation has announced the appointment of Simon Atkinson as managing director of Mark Logic (UK) Limited, the company’s subsidiary in the UK. This appointment is seen to further strengthen the company’s management team and presence in the UK.

  Publisher Reed Elsevier has announced the appointment of Anthony Habgood as chairman with effect from 1 June 2009, subject to his appointment as a member of the supervisory board of Reed Elsevier NV at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting to be held in May. He will succeed Jan Hommen.