The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) have submitted a supplemental filing with the US District Court that is overseeing the proposed Google Book Search settlement. The purpose of the supplemental filing is to address developments that have occurred since the groups submitted their filing on May 4. In their supplemental filing, the associations call upon the court to address concerns with pricing review, to direct Google to provide more detail on privacy issues, and to broaden representation on the Books Rights Registry.

  STM publisher Elsevier has announced a new publishing partnership with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives (CCHSE). Under the deal, Elsevier will publish the College’s official journal, Healthcare Management Forum (HMF), beginning 2010. Kevin Mercer, District Manager of ParaMed Home Health Care, will serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. He will be supported by an eminent Editorial Board.

  Symyx Technologies, Inc., a US-based provider of technologies for R&D, has announced the opening of a new software research and development center in Bangalore, India. Developers at the new facility will collaborate with other Symyx sites on the company's core scientific information management software solutions, including the Symyx enterprise electronic lab notebook (ELN), data acquisition software, decision-support software and scientific information databases.

  The UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) will launch a new organisation called JISC Advance later this week. JISC Advance will bring together eight established JISC services as part of JISC’s ongoing strategy to deliver world-class support to colleges and universities. The organisation will be led by new managing director Guy Lambert and will co-ordinate JISC Digital Media, JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISCMail, JISC Netskills, JISC Procureweb, JISC TechDis and the JISC Regional Support Centre UK by centralising funding and business development opportunties.

  Electronic research databases provider EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has released a new resource addressing health policy, an area seen to be of critical significance. Health Policy Reference Center provides extensive coverage of all aspects of health policy and related issues. Designed to assist those involved in the creation, implementation, and study of health policy & the health care system, Health Policy Reference Center is projected as a vital tool for researching health policy issues.

  The Harvard University Library has announced the launch of a University-wide, open-access repository, DASH — Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard. More than 350 members of the Harvard research community, including over a third of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, have jointly deposited hundreds of scholarly works in DASH. Still a beta, DASH is a joint project of the Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) and the Office for Information Systems (OIS), both of which are strategic programs of the Harvard University Library.

  The American Psychological Association has announced that it will soon begin publishing the Asian American Journal of Psychology. The journal is the official publication of the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA). The Association is in the process of developing a full publishing programme for the journal and expects to begin publication in spring, 2010. It will begin soliciting articles in the near future. The Journal will be edited by Dr Frederick T.L. Leong, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Multicultural Psychology Research at Michigan State University.

  American Institute of Physics (AIP) and knowledge discovery software developer Collexis Holdings, Inc. have announced the launch of a new web-based tool for the physics community - AIP UniPHY. AIP UniPHY is a scientific networking site for physical scientists that allows them to search for collaborators, see what competitors are up to, communicate with colleagues, and exhibit their own latest work.

  STM publisher Elsevier has announced that nearly 250 health sciences titles published and/or publishing in 2009 and 2010 will be launched in October. These new eBook collections cover clinical content in clinical medicine, veterinary medicine, and health professions. Elsevier will make these titles available electronically through ScienceDirect, its online scientific research platform. These new eBook collections follow the May release of titles published from 2000 to 2008, bringing the total Health Sciences eBooks on ScienceDirect to more than 870 titles.

  The Royal Society of Chemistry has announced the launch of a new book series on Green Chemistry. Green Chemistry is one of the most important and rapidly growing concepts in modern chemistry. Through national awards and funding programmes, national and international course, networks and conferences, and a dedicated RSC journal, Green Chemistry is now widely recognised as being important in all of the chemical sciences and technologies, and in industry as well as in education and research.

  Market research and data services provider Research and Markets has announced the addition of Woodhead Publishing Ltd's new report ‘The Future of the Academic Journal’ to their offering. The report contains contributions from leading international figures from universities and publishers. It examines current issues in journals publishing and looks at how the industry will develop over the next few years. With contributions from leading academics and industry professionals, the report provides an authoritative and balanced view of this fast-changing area.

  NetBase, Inc., a provider of research software solutions that enable knowledge workers to mine the Internet and other online data to accelerate research, has announced the launch of healthBase, a semantic search tool. healthBase is projected as a public showcase of the company’s Content Intelligence platform, which can read sentences inside documents, linguistically understand the meaning and power breakthrough search and discovery solutions.

  Construction cost information and reference data publisher RSMeans, a division of Reed Construction Data, has released the third edition of the RSMeans Estimating Handbook, a reference guide for construction estimating and cost analysis. The expanded third edition of the handbook is seen to cover the full spectrum of technical data required to estimate costs for major construction projects.

  Open access publisher BioMed Central has announced that the American Psychological Association has accepted two BioMed Central journals for inclusion in its abstracting database PsycINFO. The journals accepted for inclusion are: BMC Neurology and International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity. PsycINFO is an abstract database of psychological literature from the 1800s to the present.

  Non-profit electronic archiving service provider Portico has signed an agreement with the Society for Endocrinology and its subsidiary, BioScientifica Ltd. Under the deal, Portico will preserve the online collection of the five e-journals they publish, together with their predecessor titles. The UK-based Society has been publishing journals since 1939, and exists to advance scientific and clinical education and research in endocrinology for the public benefit. BioScientifica publishes journals on behalf of the European Society of Endocrinology and the Society for Reproduction and Fertility.

  Online publishing newsletter Publishing Perspectives has released the results of a survey, conducted among publishing and ad execs in the US, discussing the issue of declining marketing budgets. The survey revealed that one stable area of the marketing spend is on “co-op,” or the cash paid to retailers for a premium in-store display, such as on tables, end caps or in windows. It has also been observed that the online medium is a highly effective means of marketing books.

  The Publishing Research Consortium has released a study analysing the use of journals by the staff of high-tech small businesses (small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs) in the UK – with 250 employees or fewer. The study says that these staffers place a high value on, and make considerable use of, research articles and other academic and professional information. Their access to such information is good, and improving, although it could be even better. This study is projected as an important first step in improving understanding of how staffers in small businesses use journals and what can be done to achieve even greater access.

  The US’ National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the availability of funding information for grants and contracts through RePORT Expenditures and Results (RePORTER), a new search system on its Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT). RePORTER is expected to allow users to locate descriptions and funding details on NIH-funded projects along with research results that cite NIH support. It seeks to combine NIH project databases and funding records, PubMed abstracts, full-text articles from PubMed Central and information from the US Patent and Trademark Office with a robust search engine.

  STM publisher Elsevier has announced that Scopus, its abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, in joint partnership with the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) and Commission on Higher Education (CHE) Thailand, will present the TRF-CHE Researcher Awards. The Awards recognise outstanding and exemplary new researchers and mid-career researchers who have received grants from TRF and CHE.

  Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, has announced that it recently recorded the 50 millionth substance in CAS REGISTRY. The CAS REGISTRY claims to be the most comprehensive and high-quality compendium of publicly disclosed chemical information. This milestone comes only 9 months after CAS registered its 40 millionth substance. The recently registered substance is a novel arylmethylidene heterocycle with analgesic properties.

  The latest edition of blogspeak is now online. Featured are Kent Anderson (Learning from Books — Lessons for STM Publishers); John Blossom (Doubling Down on Print: Magazine Launches Uptick in A Crunched Economy); Michael Clarke (SSP IN — INteract, INspire, and Innovate); and Gideon Burton (Scholarly Communications must be Syndicated). 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 Here

  The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has announced that 'From Groundwork to Action', the 2010 National Diversity in Libraries Conference (NDLC), will take place from July 14-16 in Princeton, New Jersey. The 2010 NDLC Planning Committee has called for proposals for presentation at the conference. Conference presentations are sought in all areas of diversity including – but not limited to - workplace, user services and technology.

  TechWeb, a division of United Business Media, has announced the Enterprise 2.0 Conference San Francisco is bringing its Launch Pad program to the recently announced West Coast event happening November 2-5, 2009 in the Moscone North Convention Center. Launch Pad provides a public forum for companies to unveil new social tools intended to make businesses more agile, efficient and adaptable in today's enterprise. The first round of submissions is now open and interested parties can submit their Twitter pitch to #e2conflp.

  Incisive Media, the UK-based organiser of the Online Information 2009 conference, has announced that the event will feature three opening keynote sessions. The keynote sessions will be dedicated to each of the conference tracks taking place from December 1 – 3, 2009, at Olympia, Conference Centre London. Each track will be keynoted by expert speakers. ‘Information + Conversation = Collaboration + Innovation’ is the common theme of the 2009 event and the three diverse tracks with dedicated keynotes will seek to deliver vital and thought provoking sessions.

  Internet search services provider Google, Inc.’s book-scanning project has been criticised by a group of authors, publishers and the governments of Germany and France, it has been reported. According to them, the plan would give Google too much control over out-of-print books. The complaints were raised at a EU hearing in Brussels that is reviewing how a $125 million settlement between Google and US publishers will affect the EU.

  British Library, the national library of the UK, has announced plans to extend its ‘New Ways of Reading’ display to encourage users to investigate new reading technology from the moment it is released. Under the initiative, the library is showcasing the Bloomsbury Library Online, a new service which allows readers to borrow e-books from their public libraries. Also, three new e-reader devices are on display. These include the COOL-ER reader and Sony’s ‘Pocket’ and ‘Touch’ Reader devices - not available in shops until September 10.

  Library solutions provider Ex Libris (Deutschland) GmbH has announced that the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has successfully gone live with its new Aleph integrated library system (ILS). Aleph provides academic, research, and national libraries with the efficient, user-friendly tools and workflow support they need to meet the increasing requirements of the industry.

  Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism have announced the appointment of the new Editors of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism (JCBFM). Dr. Ulrich Dirnagl and Dr. Martin Lauritzen take up their positions with immediate effect.

  The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) has announced Dr. Maulik Joshi as the new Editor in Chief of its official journal - Journal for Healthcare Quality (JHQ). Reaching more than 5,000 health professionals, faculty, and students, the JHQ is a professional forum that continuously advances healthcare quality practice in diverse and changing environments. The publication claims to be the journal of choice for creative and scientific solutions in healthcare quality.

  Medical education solutions provider M|C Communications has announced the appointment of Frank F. Britt as President and Chief Executive Officer. As President & Chief Executive Officer, Britt will be responsible for managing the overall day-to-day operations of the company with the executive team.

  The newly formed UK Library and Information Science Research Coalition has announced the appointment of Dr Hazel Hall to provide strategic leadership. The Coalition will provide a formal structure to improve access to LIS research, and maximise its relevance and impact. It is governed by a Board of Directors comprising a representative of each member organisation.

  Open access publisher BioMed Central has announced the appointment of Bev Acreman as Commercial Director. Acreman comes to BioMed Central from Taylor & Francis, where she has played a significant role in growing the company to its present position as a major player in STM publishing. In her new role, she will use her wide experience of STM publishing to ensure that BioMed Central continues to lead the way in delivering excellent service to authors, readers and institutional customers.