Online articles from September 1998

Online archives from September 1998

Errors, Corrections, Retractions.(how databases handle retractions in articles)(Column)
September 1, 1998... The Cincinnati Enquirer printed the retraction in a blazing headline at the top of the fold on Sunday, June 28. The story about Chiquita Brands that it had broken with great fanfare in a special section just six weeks before (May 3, 1998) was...

LEXIS-NEXIS Makes Major Move Into Academic Market.(Academic Universe online database)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... LEXIS-NEXIS has broken into the academic market in a huge way with its announcement of a contract with a mega-consortium of colleges and universities for the use of the Web-based LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe from the Congressional Information...

Data-Star to Remain As Standalone Service.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Dialog has changed its mind about merging the DataStar service into Dialog, announcing in early July that DataStar will continue more or less in its present form. Earlier, Dialog announced plans to merge the service with Dialog, to the dismay of...

DialUnits Halved on 21 Dialog Files.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... In a minor nod to the furor over DialUnit pricing (see Reva Basch's article beginning on page 34), Dialog has cut by 50% the cost of DialUnits on 21 files, including a number of patent and Dun & Bradstreet files. Customers received their first...

Moody's financial Information Services Purchased.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Moody's Investors Services announced that it has sold Moody's Financial Information Services division (FIS) to Financial Communications Company (FCC). No financial details were disclosed. Moody's FIS division is the publisher of Moody's manuals...

Dow Jones To Move Entirely to the Web in 1999.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... As of April 1, 1999, all access to Dow Jones online services will be via its Webbased service, Dow Jones Interactive, Dow Jones announced recently, moving away from Windows-based and terminal access. Major enhancements to the functionality of Dow...

Data Downlink Corporation.(releases new version of .xls service)
September 1, 1998... Data Downlink Corporation has released version 2.0 of its .xls service. Enhancements include new data shredding capability for converting text and tables into downloadable customizable spreadsheet format, better spreadsheet indexing, advanced...

ProQuest Direct.(UMI offers new version of database software)
September 1, 1998... UMI's new Web version of ProQuest Direct (2.0) incorporates a redesigned user interface that offers users a simpler path for searching and retrieving articles. Other features include database segmentation, marked lists, subject lists, library...

Northern Light.(adds new features for online searching)
September 1, 1998... Northern Light has recently added three new features for professional searchers: Publication Search, Power Search, and support for advanced query syntax. Publication Search lets users narrow searches to specific publications from the Northern...

UnCoverWeb 2.0.(new features for online searching)
September 1, 1998... UnCoverWeb 2.0 has been released to users who search and order articles from UnCover's Web interface, including Customized Gateways. Functionality parallels version 1.0 and also includes features from the text-based, telnet version of UnCover....

OCLC SiteSearch 4.0.(new version of software suite)
September 1, 1998... OCLC SiteSearch 4.0 is a new Java-based version of the SiteSearch software suite that includes a WebZ feature with improved access to local and remote databases. WebZ provides a single point of access to diverse library resources, letting users...

EBSCOhost.(new version of database searching software)
September 1, 1998... EBSCOhost, version 3.0, now features a multiple database searching capability that lets users select several different databases to search and then presents results in a single sorted results list in order of the selected databases. Other new...

Research Bank Web.(expanded edition released)
September 1, 1998... An expanded edition of The Investext Group's Research Bank Web has been released with new features including free-text searching, the option to buy individual pages of reports in portable document format, relevancy ranking, and pre-purchase...

ScienceDirect.(introduces gateway technology)
September 1, 1998... ScienceDirect has launched version 1.0 of a gateway technology that lets remote services link to the ScienceDirect Web database at the article level. Future versions of the gateway will provide links at the abstract level and contain index and...

Merged Markush Service.(patent searching enhancements)
September 1, 1998... INPI's Merged Markush Service (MMS) has been recently enhanced to offer MMS to all Questel/Orbit users without restriction, extend search limits, and improve searching. All chemical patents are covered from January 1987 to the present,...

SoluSource.(new online service for engineers)
September 1, 1998... SoluSource is an online product by engineers for engineers that combines an index that accesses product information from manufacturers' product catalogs, with an intelligent search system that helps users retrieve data and also enhance idea...

MethodsFinder.(Internet database from BIOSIS)
September 1, 1998... MethodsFinder is a subscription-based Internet database from BIOSIS planned for availability this fall. The database will provide a central source for researchers to access the latest multidisciplinary experimental techniques, offering 25,000...

CD-7, Concepts in Health, Science and Medicine.(image library offered on CD)
September 1, 1998... CD-7, Concepts in Health, Science and Medicine, is seventh in a series of CDs from The Image Bank containing 5,000 health, medicine, and science still pictures and film clips available for licensing. Images can be found by keywords, subject...

RAND California.(online information on California)
September 1, 1998... RAND California (http://www.ca.rand.org) is a one-stop, for-fee source for information on California business, economics, population, government, public affairs, and current policy issues. Multiple-user discounts and site license fees are...

Declassified Documents Reference System-US.(online service from Primary Source Media)
September 1, 1998... Declassified Documents Reference System-US is the first release in a new online series entitled World Government Documents Archive now available online from Primary Source Media (http://www.psmedia.com/ddrs.htm). The Internet database offers a...

Business Week.(new web-based version)
September 1, 1998... Business Week is now available full-text on the Web and is free to print subscribers, or $39.95 to others. Subscribers receive two new editions every Thursday, plus the Business Week Online Daily Briefing, the Business Week Online Computer Buying...

Global 500.(new business database)
September 1, 1998... Global 500 is an interactive and searchable database of Fortune magazine's Global 500 top companies available for purchase ($495) and download from the Web (http://www.ownthefortune500.com). Content includes company information plus resources and...

Free Web access.(SEC EDGAR filings availabe from First Call)
September 1, 1998... Free Web access to real-time and historical SEC EDGAR filings are now available for customers of First Call Corp., a division of Thomson Financial Services. When logging on to First Call products, users can click on an EDGAR icon to search the...

North American Industry Classification System.(replaces Standard Industrial Classification System)
September 1, 1998... North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)--United States, 1997 is an official U.S. government reference published by Bernan Associates and the National Technical Information Service. The reference is intended to guide researchers and...

Ad-Guide.com.(new web-site directory and search engine)
September 1, 1998... Ad-Guide.com (http://www.Ad-Guide.com) is a new Web site directory and search engine released by ChannelSeven.com (http://www.channelseven.com) and devoted to advertising and marketing services and resources worldwide. (212/355-5049)

NewsEdge Corporation and Northern Light Technology.(companies collaborate for online Business Journal)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... NewsEdge Corporation and Northern Light Technology, LLC have announced an agreement where Northern Light will provide business research services as part of Netscape Netcenter's Business Journal by NewsEdge...

Hoover's Online.(company website)
September 1, 1998... Hoover's Online (http://www.hoovers.com) has been upgraded to offer Hoover's users expanded company information plus several pay-per-view and direct sale options. Enhancements include an expanded list of officers for an additional 3,000...

Latin America sources.(Investext Group adds coverage)
September 1, 1998... The Investext Group has added 18 locally-based Latin America sources over the past year, and plans to double coverage of this region by the end of 1998. New sources include firms from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. Also provided is...

Billboard Music Search.(music information search engine)
September 1, 1998... The Billboard Music Search (http://www.nlsearch.com/billboard/) is a music information research engine from Northern Light Technology, LLC available from the Billboard Web site (http://www.billboard.com). Users can access content from BPI...

Ultimate Reference Suite.(new reference CD-ROM)
September 1, 1998... The Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM collection is a combination of resources from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Rand McNally, and Merriam-Webster. The suite includes Encyclopaedia Britannica's Britannica CD Multimedia Edition, Rand McNally's New...

Thomson Financial Services Europe.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Thomson Financial Services Europe has acquired Tudor House Publications Limited, a privately owned business specializing in mergers and acquisition, and publisher of Acquisitions Monthly. (0717 369 7000; http://www.tfn.com)

Dawson Information Services Group.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Dawson Information Services Group has announced an agreement with Springer-Verlag to make Springer-Verlag's electronic scientific, medical, and technical content available through Dawson's Information Quest. (800/422-3223; 760/431-7474;...

WavePhore Newscast Inc.(NewsCast Canada service launched)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... WavePhore Newscast Inc. and Infomart Dialog Ltd. have formed a partnership to launch a co-branded business information service called Newscast Canada for corporations in the Canadian market. (800/ 748-3737; 972/789-1990; http://www.wavephore.com;...

BIOSIS and CAB International Publishing.(web-based life science databases)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... BIOSIS and CAB International Publishing have planned a joint venture to provide a comprehensive international source of pure and applied life science data. New products from this partnership will be Web-based databases of information from both...

Blackwell's Information Services.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Blackwell's Information Services has signed an agreement with SilverPlatter Information to make the SilverLinker service available to Blackwell's Electronic Journal Navigator customers. (800/221-3306)

Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. has announced an agreement with Gale Research under which subscribers to both ChadwyckHealey's Literature Online and Gale's Literature Resource Center will be able to move via links between the two services. (800/752-0515;...

PEOPLE WARE.(includes brief articles on people in the online information industry)
September 1, 1998... Susan M. Kiopper has been awarded the Special Libraries Association"s Library Management Division Management Leadership Award, sponsored by Carol Stream, IL. C. Berger And Company. Mary Murphy has been hired as Vice President of Marketing for...

DVD-Video players.(market forecasts)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... DVD-Video players are estimated to sell more than 1.2 million units worldwide this year, a 140% increase over 1997, while DVD-ROM drive sales are predicted to exceed 6.5 million units. (InfoTech, DVD Assessment, Third Edition)

Internet users in the U.S.(June 1998)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... The number of active Internet users in the U.S. is 37 million as of June of this year--representing 18.5% of U.S. adults over 18, and well below the figures widely claimed in most published reports, which put the number in the range of 50-70...

FIND/SVP.(company sells assets)(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... FIND/SVP has sold various product lines and assets of its Published Research Division to Kalorama Information, LIC, a Bethesda, Maryland-based market research publisher. Kalorama is a subsidiary of Cambridge Scientific Information. (212/391-9475)...

Internet search engine update: AltaVista.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... AltaVista (http://altavista.digital.com/) continues adding new partner services. In its Zones area, AltaVista has added a Careers Zone and News by ABC, headlines of which also appear on the top AltaVista page. Under Services, AltaVista now offers...

Internet search engine update: Infoseek.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com/) includes a name searching capability in its advanced search. The name search is actually a phrase search that also relies on Infoseek's capitalization recognition. However, for the capitalization recognition to...

Internet search engine update: GoTo.com.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... GoTo.com (http://goto.com) which rose from the ashes of the World Wide Web Worm, has been aggressively marketing itself. GoTo.com allows sites to buy higher placements. Those sites that pay for higher placements from particular keyword searches...

Internet search engine update: Thunderstone.
September 1, 1998... Thunderstone (http://search.thunderstone.com/) is a less well-known search engine that takes a rather different approach than the major Web search engines. Its database covers Web sites rather than individual Web pages, so it is smaller than most...

Internet search engine update: Northern Light.(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Northern Light (http://www.nlsearch.com/) now has a Power Search option. The Power Search form includes a number of advanced search features. Field searching for title words and words within a URL is available just below the Search Anywhere box....

Internet search engine update: Yahoo!(Brief Article)
September 1, 1998... Yahoo! now has replaced AltaVista with Inktomi as its search engine. Any search that does not result in any hits from Yahoo! Categories or Web Sites will default to Inktomi search results. These Inktomi search results are also available on all...

Ford Motor Company.(profile of Research Library & Information Services at Ford)
September 1, 1998... "Telephone, fax, email, Web, walkins. However people want to use our services, we try to make it easy for them. We accommodate their level of comfort," said Robert Schwarzwalder, supervisor of Research Library & Information Services (RLIS) at...

Internet Use Policies.
September 1, 1998... Employees and management usually agree that company time should not be spent on personal affairs. While that restriction once meant personal telephone calls and mail, today it includes electronic mail, Web surfing, chat rooms, and other online...

Interactive.(Dow Jones Interactive, online business information service)
September 1, 1998... Business Information for Business Searchers Dow Jones Interactive (DJI), the Web-based reincarnation of Dow Jones News/Retrieval (DJN/R), is getting a lot more attention these days. Dialog's new DialUnits pricing plan has caused many...

Mounting Presentations On the Web.(advice on choosing between HTML or presentation software)
September 1, 1998... A popular commercial once featured two characters arguing over who had the better snack. One has peanut butter and the other chocolate. Both snacks have their merits, but each person is adamant about his snack's superiority. Only after an...

More Internet Search Strategies.
September 1, 1998... As the strands of the World Wide Web expand further and snare more and more information content, effective searching requires new approaches and strategies. The Web definitely continues to grow. Substantial new resources, the movement of print...

Freemail Becomes a Web Staple.
September 1, 1998... I am continually surprised at all the free information on the Web. Things we used to--or still--pay for are right there for the taking. And it's not just data such as stock quotes or news. Free services also are popping up, and nothing seems to...

Shopping the Mall for Market Research.(International Market Research Mall)
September 1, 1998... Once I used the analogy of a shopping center to describe different ways to obtain market research data ("Creating Your Own Market Research Report," ONLINE USER, March/April 1997, pp. 20-24). For pre-packaged market research reports, I imagined...

Licensing Images for Use: The Royalty-Free Model.
September 1, 1998... A reader of my book, Finding Images Online, recently wrote to corn plain that a Web site I'd listed as royalty-free wasn't free at all. The site's owner was actually charging fees for images! I can understand the reader's outrage. After all,...

Blue Web'n--A Library of Blue Ribbon Learning Sites on the Web.(Column)
September 1, 1998... We're off the ground! BOOKMARK CENTRAL has received several submissions already and expects more soon. Visit the electronic home of BOOKMARK CENTRAL at http://www.onlineinc.com/bookmark. The topics covered thus far are Energy, Mathematics, and...

@BRINT--A Business Researcher's Interests.
September 1, 1998... @BRINT (http://www.brint.com), is not quite the "...one W stop resource for business, management, and technology" that it proclaims to be. But it is a site that is quite useful as a pointer to certain types of business information on the Web....

CNET-Computer News You Can Use.(evaluation of website)
September 1, 1998... Information professionals spend so much time performing research for customers that finding information for ourselves can become almost a luxury, something we save for our lunch hour. With limited time we turn to sources that deliver a lot of...

Reviews of Recent Writings.(Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)
September 1, 1998... Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. (ISBN 1-56592-282-4; softcover; 1998; 202 pp.; $24.95) Available from O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472. 707/829-0515 or...

A Guide to Genealogy and Local History on the World Wide Web.(Virtual Roots)
September 1, 1998... Virtual Roots: A Guide to Genealogy and Local History on the World Wide Web by Thomas J. Kemp. (ISBN 0-9420-2718-1; softcover; 1997; 279 pp.; $24.95) Available from Scholarly Resources, Inc., 104 Greenhill Avenue, Wilmington, DE 19805-1897....

RESOURCE GUIDE/WORKBOOK.(The Complete Intranet Source for Information Professionals: Resource Guide)
September 1, 1998... The Complete Intranet Source for Information Professionals: Resource Guide by Jane K. Starnes, John Graves, and Jacqueline Justice. (ISBN 0-87111-478-X; softcover; 1997; 205 pp.; Resource Guide alone, $95.00, $75.00 for SLA members; Resource...

Corporate Information Factory.
September 1, 1998... Corporate Information Factory by W.H. Inmon, Claudia Imhoff, and Ryan Sousa. (ISBN 0-471-19733-5; hardcover; 1998; 274 pp.; $39.99) Available from Wiley Computer Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012....

Rescued by C++.
September 1, 1998... Rescued by C++, 3rd edition, by Kris Jamsa. (ISBN 1-884133-59-2; softcover; 1997; 276 pp.; $29.95) Available from JAMSA Press, 2975 S. Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 1, Las Vegas, NV 89102. 800/432-4112. http:llwww.jamsa .com. As someone who works...

People are Talking.(chatting)
September 1, 1998... Two years ago, you couldn't pry my 11-year-old friend Zack away from his Nintendo. By last summer, he'd graduated to Mortal Kombat on a PC. This year, it's chat. Zack and his real-world pals hang out after school in a private AOL chat room. From...