• Justice Department Sues to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Rival Publisher Simon & Schuster

According to infoDOCKET “The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today to block Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of its close competitor, Simon & Schuster. As alleged in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, this acquisition would enable Penguin Random House, which is already the largest book publisher in the world, to exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work…”

Umass Amherst Libraries in deal with PLOS to cover OA publication fees

KnowledgeSpeak reports that “UMass Amherst Libraries, through its membership with the NERL Consortium of academic and research libraries, has signed a three-year agreement with the non-profit, open access publisher Public Library of Science (PLOS), providing UMass Amherst researchers with no or reduced fee publication of accepted manuscripts in 12 PLOS journals…”

MORE LIBRARY AND PUBLISHING NEWS FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES

• University of Illinois: New Grant to Help Libraries Increase Information Literacy Around Scientific Information

• New Report/Survey Findings From Lean Library: “Librarian Futures: Charting Librarian-Patron Behaviors and Relationships in the Networked Digital Age

• Gale launches Learning Centers for Primary Sources

• OverDrive Academic expands service and team dedicated to colleges and universities worldwide

• OpenAthens opens applications for Best Publisher User Experience Award

• New from ACRL – “The Scholarly Communications Cookbook”

• Cybersecurity Incident Cripples Library Computer Systems

CONFERENCES, MEETINGS & WEBINARS

• Taxonomy Boot Camp 2021 to be held virtually – November 1, 2021

KnowledgeSpeak reports that Taxonomy Boot Camp Connect 2021 will be held virtual this year. The virtual conference will be held during the week of November 15 – 17, 2021.
Taxonomy Boot Camp Connect 2021 is the world’s leading conference dedicated to exploring the successes, challenges, methodologies and products for taxonomies. Attendees get to share their experiences, network with peers, and get incredible insight on taxonomies, ontologies, folksonomies, tagging mechanisms and other techniques for organizing information at this one-of-a-kind event.
Full program, registration, and sponsorship information is available on the virtual event website.