Wednesday 5 July 2006

Popular science and Ebay power

The latest issue of IWR features a bevvy of stories from the scientific, technical and medical (STM) sector.  We don't make any apologies for the STM dominance in this edition because this has been an exceptional month .


Browse through the news pages when it arrives on Monday and you'll see news on Author ID, Elsevier experimenting with new publishing models, OUP revealing the figures of its open access programme, the RCUK statement and information professionals concerned about the number of journals launched by Nature Publishing Group. And now the latest news that Cambridge University Press has acquired CABI's journal range.


Scientific publishers, like the authors and readers are at the cutting edge of new developments, but with today's news that Ebay is developing tool to enable bloggers to build links between niche communities they write for and products for sale shows there are new issues on the horizon for the information sector. The Financial Times reports that Ebay is developing the technology that will enable bloggers to shape a marketplace.  The story adds that MeCommerce, an existing service of the same model, links book shop Barnes & Noble to bloggers. 


With information professionals and members of the online information community already keen bloggers, these developments could be a major opportunity, creating new revenue streams for quality information, collections and services and ultimately driving up the web awareness of quality online information.

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