Online articles from January 1995

Online archives from January 1995

The pricing conundrum. (online databases)
January 1, 1995... Looking back at 1994, a major theme was the change in online pricing. It sort of snuck up on us, but by November and the DataTimes announcement, the trend was clear. Change was in the wind and connect time was dying, albeit a slow, reluctant...

Thomson Corp. buys IAC for $465 million. (Information Access) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... In November 1994, The Thomson Corporation (TTC) reached an agreement with the Ziff family to acquire Information Access Company (IAC) for $465 million. This followed the sale of the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company a week earlier to Forstmann...

DataTimes re-launches with "consumer online" look. (graphical, flat fee-based service) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... After a year of "intensive, top-secret development," DataTimes will introduce a new graphical, flat-fee based service in early 1995. The new service features EyeQ, a Windows-based graphical interface, and DataTimes Online, a non-Windows...

NewsNet converts online system to PLS Software. (Personal Library Software) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... In early 1995, NewsNet will replace its existing full-text search software with Personal Library Software (PLS). With the PLS engine, NewsNet will offer enhanced searching capabilities, including the ability to choose between natural language or...

PLS and Dialog working together to improve information service. (Dialog Information Services) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... PLS and Dialog Information Services have also confirmed that they are working together on methods to enhance Dialog's online service. The effort is part of a broader plan to provide researcher with all the information they need in one seamless...

Dialog acquires Article Express International. (DIALOG Information Services) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... Dialog has acquired 100 percent interest in Article Express International a document delivery supplier. Formed originally in 1992 as a joint project of Dialog and Engineering Information Inc. (Ei), Article Express has grown considerably,...

NewsEDGE Alert selected for Lotus NotesSuite. (business information vendor to use Lotus Development software) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... NewsEDGE Alert from Desktop Data has been selected as the news application for Lotus Development Corporation's NotesSuite Application Collection, enabling teams of workers to receive and share timely, updates on topics ranging from current events...

Economist Intelligence Unit launches new media division. (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business information arm of the Economist Group, has launched a new media division to "provide international executives and their staffs as with timely access to cross-border business analysis." The EIU,...

The marriage of fax & online. (Cover Story)
January 1, 1995... My friend Tracy Johnston is writing a book about polygamy. Several months ago, her research took her to a city called Kano in northern Nigeria during a period of national political unrest. The people of Kano live in mud houses and subsist...

Search strategies for Dialog's view fee. (online searching; includes list of publications that aid searching)
January 1, 1995... In essence, this is what the online world is struggling with today. Dia!og used to base its pricing structure on Scenario 1 but has changed to Scenario 2. Dow Jones News/Retrieval has restructured its pricing in an effort to move toward Scenario...

FOCUS revisited. (NEXIS command narrows online searches)
January 1, 1995... Focus. Sharpen your ideas. Concentrate on what's important. We wish our presidents had focus, and we love it when our online systems do. Too often we spend valuable time online, but never manage to narrow our search to just the right focus....

People who need people: extending the never-ending search for people. (online searching for names)
January 1, 1995... My last two Dollar $ign columns (September and November 1994) explored the ins and outs of searching for people. The search techniques described and the databases selected assumed the searcher had a specific individual's name in mind. But this is...

Viewing, downloading and printing online images. (Part 2: Using DialogLink)
January 1, 1995... This column is the second in a continuing discussion of search software that allows images to be viewed online, downloaded and printed. Part 1 appeared in the November/December 1994 issue of Online. It introduced issues and procedures in...

Going online to save the world.
January 1, 1995... Banned Books Week doesn't quite cut it anymore. Once upon a time, the nature of most library controversies was easy to predict - usually someone wanted Playboy Huckleberry Finn or Judy Blume's latest novel removed from the collection. But the...

Organizational impacts of implementing an Internet gopher.
January 1, 1995... How does electronic publishing on the Internet affect an organization? What kinds of decisions have to be made about information within an organization? What becomes public, what remains private and who makes those decisions? How much work is...

The upgrade upheaval: moving from a terminal account to a direct connection.
January 1, 1995... Mosaic and other multimedia Net applications can be very useful for searching the information jungle of the Internet. However, for people accustomed to a basic ASCII interface on a terminal account, moving from a text-based, terminal account...

Adventures in the temple of doom. (Graphical User Interface Software for Online Communications)
January 1, 1995... If You still use DOS-based communications software and read computer magazines, by now you probably feel vaguely guilty. For the last year or so you've read glowing reviews of new Windows or other graphical user interface (GUI) packages that...

Rewiring a working library or teaching an old dog new tricks. (data networks at university libraries)
January 1, 1995... What does it take to install new network wiring in a building designed before the information revolution? One of the challenges brought about by new information tools is being able to provide the infrastructure to support new systems and...

InfoPop: a Windows guide to the Internet. (Evaluation)
January 1, 1995... There are many electronic guides to Internet resources. Some are about the Internet itself, and some are designed to be used "locally" (i.e., on your own PC). This month we'll look at an example of a local guide named InfoPop. InfoPop for...

WinSpirs: Windows software for SilverPlatter CD-ROMs. (Evaluation)
January 1, 1995... SilverPlatter deserves much credit for making about 200 abstracting/indexing, directory and full-text databases available on CD-ROM since 1986. Its DOS software (SPIRS) has been very popular, but I have found the user interface and help system...

Windows on a catalog database: WLN LaserCat. (Evaluation)
January 1, 1995... Databases are at the heart of full-service libraries. While much of the "sizzle" resides in databases used as electronic reference tools, the heart of the matter for most institutions remains the local catalog database and, to a lesser degree,...

The Rugge Group and Cooper Heller Research Merge. (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... The Rugge Group And Cooper Heller Research Merge The Rugge Group and Cooper Heller Research, Inc. are merging to become one of the largest independently owned custom research firms, Cooper Hydock Rugge, Inc. (CHR). CHR's east and west coast...

Learned Information buys Mecklermedia's U.K. trade shows. (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... Learned Information Buys Mecklermedia's U.K. Trade Shows Learned Information Limited of Europe has acquired Mecklermedia Corporation's U.K. trade shows including Computers in Libraries International, Electronic Books International and...

SilverPlatter moves online with Internet subscription to databases. (SilverPlatter Information) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... SilverPlatter Moves Online With Internet Subscription To Databases Following a successful test of Internet access to its databases last fall, SilverPlatter announced Internet subscriptions to all of its public domain databases,...

MecklerWeb changes focus - future uncertain. (Mecklermedia's Internet service) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... Mecklerweb Changes Focus-Future Uncertain After signing up only one corporate customer to pay the $25,000 fee, MecklerWeb has shut down and will become a vertical service based on Mecklermedia magazines. The original Mecklerweb was designed...

CAS announces Web server. (Chemical Abstracts Service) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... CAS Announces Web Server Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced its Web server, offering information on CAS products, services, training and special offers on products and databases. Comments and suggestions to CAS can also be sent. The...

Bill Gates outlines Microsoft Network. (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... Bill Gates Outlines Microsoft Network At the Fall COMDEX show in Las Vegas last November, oft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates outlined the company's strategy for its new interactive online service, The Microsoft Network. Mr. Gates, vision of...

America Online strengthens Internet offerings with acquisition of two companies. (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... America Online Strengthens Internet offerings With Acquisition OF Two Companies America Online (AOL) recently agreed to acquire two Internet companies, BookLink Technologies, Inc. and NaviSoft, Inc. The BookLink and NaviSoft companies...

Prodigy launches separate Internet service. (Prodigy Services' AstraNet) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... Prodigy Launches Separate Internet Service Prodigy Services Company has announced the launch of AstraNet, an independent service that offers content to a variety of Internet market segments on the World-Wide Web (WWW). AstraNet is managed by...

The McGraw-Hill Energy Library. (to be published on CD-ROM by SilverPlatter Information) (Brief Article)
January 1, 1995... SilverPlatter has entered into a licensing agreement with McGraw-Hill to publish The McGraw-Hill Energy Library, containing the complete text of 18 of McGraw-Hill's leading newsletters. The newsletters cover the electric power industry, nuclear...

The Canadian Internet Handbook.
January 1, 1995... This column takes a critical view of publications of interest to ONLINE readers. ONLINE and its sister publications, DATABASE and CD-ROM Professional are the only magazines in the industry that formally assign ratings to books that are...

Find it Online!: Fast Facts & Answers from Around the Globe.
January 1, 1995... Find It Online is a complement to Mr. Berkman's 1984 book, Find It Fast. The new book focuses on electronic information in online and CD-ROM formats. Purists might wish that the title made this coverage of remote dial-up access and local access...

The Internet Library.
January 1, 1995... Greek mythology tells us that Hercules slew the many-headed Hydra with the help of his nephew Iolaus. Librarians don't have to face the Hydra, but they do have the challenge of the Internet and its many heads (gophers, veronica, jughead,...