Information Today, Inc. (ITI) published an article on the ACI Scholarly Blog Index in NewsBreaks, which highlights breaking news and important developments in the information industry and library world. Authored by Brandi Scardilli, NewsBreaks Editor and Information Today Managing Editor, ACI Helps Researchers Find Trusted Blog Content provides readers with an introduction to the ACI Scholarly Blog Index and the online research needs that ACI aims to address with its comprehensive collection of editorially-curated scholarly blogs.Published on April 14, 2015, the featured article highlights interviews with Pat Sabosik, the General Manager of the ACI Scholarly Blog Index, and Larry Schwartz, co-founder and President of ACI Information Group. In the article, Larry explains how the idea for the ACI Scholarly Blog Index first came about, and then the evolution of that idea into a product that would meet the needs of today's academic researchers. “About 2 years ago,” says Larry Schwartz, ACI’s president, “we started looking around for other markets and other segments that could be opportunities for us, and we settled into looking at the scholarly blogs and applying them to the academic library space.”

"We really see a trend in early-career scientists and early-career researchers, even in the social sciences, owning their research topics on the web, talking about what they’re going to do. And then post-publication, a lot of blogging on discoveries, positions, opinions, reports."Pat Sabosik, General Manager, ACI Scholarly Blog Index

In the article, Pat expands on the rigor of the editorial curation and vetting process, an ongoing standardized evaluation and review process that involves subject matter experts and librarians to ensure a comprehensive collection of scholarly blogs that address content needs across all academic fields. “We’re rejecting about 50% of what we find, and just because we want to make sure that we’re not including things that for example are something like link bait—it’s just somebody providing a list of links of things that they found interesting, with no commentary."Pat also discusses the exponential growth of the collection due to both the ongoing curation process and the inherent nature of continued postings of existing blogs. She states in the article that ACI is expected to contain at least one million blog posts by the end of the year, and quite possibly well before then.

“We’re very respectful of copyright. So this is all done by indexing in place […] A lot of companies out there will do these abstracts, and actually take into the database the content from the blogs … we’re actually taking you to the site and driving the traffic to the site.”Larry Schwartz, co-founder and President, ACI Information Group

In addition to the many search and refinement options available to users of the ACI Scholarly Blog Index, the article also looks at the comprehensive array of tools and features that ACI has implemented into the product. For example, users have the ability to save any search to RSS, which allows them to receive automatic updates in their RSS feed reader anytime new content from blogs relevant to that search come through ACI. ACI also integrates seamlessly with users of popular utilities such as RefWorks and Mendeley. In addition, ACI users can also export selected articles to collaborative tools and programs such as Dropbox and even Google Drive.Because the publication is widely read by library, information science, and research professionals, readers will be given an introduction and insight into a collection that was specifically designed to meet the needs of today's academic researchers. Faculty, students, and other online researchers needing credentialed opinion and commentary by experts and thought leaders with backgrounds in those disciplines will find the ACI Scholarly Blog Index a valued resource for their collections. ACI even has a Google Search Chrome Extension that allow individuals and institutions to incorporate the top three scholarly blog posts most relevant to them for any search conducted in Google.

"Researchers typically know where to find journal articles, reference books, and other materials on topics that interest them—but it can be difficult to separate trustworthy blogs from those that might, intentionally or otherwise, spread misinformation. That’s where the ACI Scholarly Blog Index, a curated collection of scholarly blogs for the academic market, comes in."Brandi Scardilli, ITI NewsBreaks, Information Today, Inc.

From citation and exporting tools to RSS options and the ability to create and organize customized bookmarks of selected posts, users will find a wealth of credentialed and authoritative blog content in the ACI Scholarly Blog Index.

Read the full ITI NewsBreaks article, ACI Helps Researchers Find Trusted Blog Content.