Firstly, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers and colleagues very happy holidays and thank you for your support over the last year.
Instead of sending cards we will be donating to leukaemia charities this year in memory of James Culling, of DataSalon, a friend to Ringgold who died from leukaemia on November 22. James’ death leaves a huge gaping hole in many people’s lives. Without the work of organisations such as Leukaemia Research it is likely that he would have lost his life much sooner.
Please help us to support Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research in James’ name so that others in the future have every chance of a cure. Visit here to donate www.justgiving.com/jamesculling.
We very much look forward to working with you in 2013 and wish you continued prosperity for the year ahead.
Warmest wishes, from all of us here at Ringgold.
Ringgold availability over Christmas
Ringgold will be closed during 24-26 December and on 1 January. We will, however, deal with any general or technical enquiries promptly upon our return.
Validate customers will not get a daily report for the week 24-1 Jan but the system will still be available as normal.
Identify will be updated on 21 December, and then 2 January.
Frankfurt and coming events
Ringgold had yet another successful Frankfurt with many meetings with customers and new colleagues.
If you were not able to meet with us there we will be at ALA Midwinter in Seattle, WA during 25-29 Jan. Find us at booth 1225. If you would like to arrange an appointment for this or any forthcoming event, please contact us at info@ringgold.com
We will be at the following conferences in early 2013:
- PSP Annual Conference, Washington DC, 6-8 February
- ASA Annual Conference, London, 25-6 February
- UKSG Annual Conference, Bournemouth, 8 April
Ringgold and Accucoms
You may have seen a press release about our partnership with Accucoms. Accucoms will be selling our services outside of North America and the UK, but this will not affect any existing relationships with customers or anyone with whom we are already in discussion. We will be working with Accucoms to bring in more publishers from new parts of the world and hope that this will further enhance our (already rather good) coverage of newer markets.
Types Project
The final schema for the types project is now available. We are working on the data input and production system functions at present and hope to be able to start applying the new types in early 2013. If you would like a copy of the final types schema, please ask Laura Cox. We will also be publishing the subjects from the schema on our website next year.
Identify Database Update
Identify has reached another milestone; it now contains over 350,000 records.
We are now producing regular monthly infographics to show the scope of Identify and other interesting metrics. To download Ringgold infographics for December, click here.
In November we set up a project to review the url data we hold. We are now in the process of reviewing all institution records that do not have urls. Non-official urls have been removed from Identify records and replaced with the correct institution website address, where available.
In addition to this, to improve consistency US Government Military and Veterans Affairs hospitals, which previously were classified with the G3 tier, have now been reassigned the H2 or H5 tier as appropriate. This will bring all the hospitals on the database within ‘H’ tiers.
We now have complete coverage of all public library records for the Top 200 largest cities and counties in the USA by population.
Consortium Directory Online (CDO) Updates
In the past month, new deals have been brokered in Russia and China. At the beginning of December, it was announced that Elsevier made a deal with the Far Eastern Consortium, a new consortium in Russia that is composed of over 50 universities and academic institutes in the Asia-Pacific region. The agreement was made with Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) to provide access to ScienceDirect and Scopus as part of a five-year agreement. The press release can be accessed here.
In China, the Charlesworth Group brokered a deal with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) on behalf of the Independent Scholarly Publishers Group (ISPG). CAMS will be provided with access to 32 key medical publications in a three-year agreement. More information can be found here.
The following consortia have been added recently:
Germany
– Bibliothekarische Arbeitsgruppen in Sachsen, ID 214758
– Joint Initiative of Non-University Research Institutes in Adlershof (IGAFA), ID 52778
Malaysia
– Malaysian Online E-Resources Consortium (MOLEC), ID 333348
Norway
– Current Research Information System in Norway (CRIStin), ID 245706
Sudan
– Sudanese Research and Education Network (SudREN), ID 355484
Sweden
– KTH Biblioteket Konsortieavtal (KTH Library Consortium), ID 205670
Taiwan
– Digital Library Alliance of National Military Hospitals, ID 252878
– Taiwan E-Books Supply Cooperative Limited (TEBSCO), ID 245805
United States
– Mid-South Independent School Business Officers (MISBO)-GA, ID 199162
If you have any suggestions for future developments to CDO, or wish to provide us with any feedback, please contact us at info@ringgold.com
Other News
President of Ringgold and Chief Operating Officer Don Chvatal and Vice President of Sales & Marketing Jay Henry gave an insightful interview about Ringgold on camera at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Take a look at the video on our YouTube channel.
Follow us on Twitter for all the latest Ringgold announcements, news, and technical status of our products.
Ringgold’s 12 Days of Christmas & Festive Fun
Identify Days of Christmas:
12 Drummers Drumming – Dharma Drum University (TW), ID 205671
11 Pipers Piping – Pied Piper School (USA), ID 278301
10 Lords A-Leaping – House of Lords (GB), ID 4936
9 Ladies Dancing – National First Ladies’ Library (USA), ID 106325
8 Maids A-Milking – Milken Institute (USA), ID 7207
7 Swans A-Swimming – Amateur Swimming Association (GB), ID 202121
6 Geese A-Laying – Happy Valley-Goose Bay Public Library (CAN), ID 296087
5 Gold Rings – Ringgold Inc (USA), ID 94176
4 Colly Birds – Birdlife International (GB), ID 2146
3 French Hens – Association of French Librarians (FR), ID 105444
2 Turtle Doves – Turtle Mountain Community College (USA), ID 34275
1 Partridge in A Pear Tree – Pear Tree Point School (USA), ID 332158
Number of institutions containing the word Santa: 650
Number of institutions containing the word Jesus: 139
Number of institutions we have for Christmas Island: 2
Our top 5 favourite seasonal Identify records:
Lockport Santa Christmas Cottage, ID 340462
National Snow and Ice Data Center, ID 129422
Gingerbread, ID 102213
Crystal Children’s Choir, ID 360355
Wisemen School of Management, ID 247374