Every bird deserves a nest, and so here it is.  A  year ago, Paratext launched bird: Base Inventory of Research Databases.   The response has been fantastic, and many libraries are now using it to make better decisions about their research database collection.   But a few questions lingered. How does our library compare with others?  Well, Paratext now has an answer for that--nest. nest is a new suite of library comparison analytics, built upon(read more)

"Some birds are poets, and sing all summer."  -- Henry David Thoreau, journals, July 1852. bird helps selectors, public services librarians, collection analysts and advanced researchers stay current on all research databases. When you use bird, you know what is out there--and save time spent wandering the web. Here is the latest on recent bird additions:   *  376 new database profiles added since February As editorial work expands,(read more)

  “It is spring again.  The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”     — Rainer Maria Rilke.   Spring is when birds take center stage. With this in mind, here's the latest on bird: Base Inventory of Research Databases from Paratext.    EBOOK collections now also in bird The inclusion of eBook collections within bird has been a much-debated issue for our editorial group since the project began in 2021.(read more)

Paratext launched bird; Base Inventory of Research Databases last Tuesday at the Charleston Conference, and we were rather encouraged by the enthusiastic response from the attendees who saw it live.    Well, things got even better after the exhibits closed. During the Charleston Premiers segment later on, the roughly 200 attendees at the session were polled and voted bird, the Best Overall New Product and Best Designed New Product! This is enormously gratifying.(read more)

What do two ‘80s punk rockers, a half-fish/half-woman, and a Cyprian big shot have in common? Besides sounding like the beginning of a bad joke, these are all subjects found in source material cataloged in Europeana—a massive repository of cultural heritage bringing together records from thousands of institutions across Europe which is now searchable in Eight Centuries. One of the most remarkable qualities of Europeana in Eight Centuries is its vastness: nearly 53 million records(read more)