For immediate release:
October 6, 2009

For more information, contact:
Lee Anne George
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
leeanne@arl.org

ARL Tests New Web-Based Publishing Platform

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is offering improved search and new online capabilities to readers of its flagship publication Research Library Issues: A Bimonthly Report from ARL, CNI, and SPARC (RLI). RLI includes articles on the major issues that research libraries face in meeting the academic and research needs of the diverse communities they serve.

Recent issues of RLI are now available on a test basis through Tizra™ Publisher, a Web-based publishing platform. The system’s features include

• Full-text search—Results are relevancy-ranked and lead directly to the exact page containing the search terms. Snippets and search-term highlighting make it easier to home in on relevant passages.
• Page-at-a-time linking—Every page within every issue has its own URL, so you can bookmark it, e-mail it, and yes, even Tweet it. Links lead directly to the page you've referenced, including any search highlighting. Search results are linkable, too.
• Compatibility with mobile devices—Page-at-a-time content delivery also improves access for iPhones, Netbooks, and other portable devices with small screens and limited bandwidth.

The software also allows you to zoom in if text is too small, and download full articles for printing or offline viewing via links available on every page.

The new Test Site for Research Library Issues is freely available at http://publications.arl.org.

This service is introduced by ARL as a test to gauge user response and determine if such a platform could be used to distribute other ARL publications. Comments on the new platform should be directed to pubs@arl.org.

Research Library Issues: A Bimonthly Report from ARL, CNI, and SPARC is a freely available, online-only publication released six times per year by the Association of Research Libraries.

Tizra™ Publisher is an on-demand Web application that enables non-technical personnel to quickly create Web sites for electronic publication sales, document distribution, intranets, and knowledge management. See http://tizra.com/.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.