Online articles from September 2008

Online archives from September 2008

Stormy weather, redundancy, and de-duplication.(homepage)
September 1, 2008... IT'S been a stormy summer here in the American Midwest. We've had massive thunderstorms and, in some areas, severe flooding. There's also been the occasional tornado. Personally, I've been lucky. No floods at my house or office, although the...

ProQuest decides on Dialog.(industry news)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... ProQuest finalized its acquisition of the Thomson Reuters Dialog business, which includes both Dialog and DataStar. According to ProQuest, the acquisition allows it "to deepen its penetration in the corporate library and professional research...

New government printing office business unit.(industry news)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Public Printer Robert C. Tapella announced the formation of a new business unit that will better serve the U.S. Congress and the Office of the Federal Register. The creation of the Official Journals of Government business unit is part of GPO's...

Letter to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... Thanks for the thoughtful review of Scitopia.org that appears in the July/August issue ("Scitopia: Worthy Effort; Worth Your Effort?" by Susan Fingerman). As content partners for this free site, we're committed to continually enhancing and...

Open Archives Initiative.(Open Access)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) released the beta version of the Object Reuse and Exchange (OAIORE) project. The release includes user guides and specifications describing the ORE Data Model, ATOM, and RDF serializations; vocabulary; and...

Nature Publishing Group.(Open Access)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Nature Publishing Group (NPG) will offer a free service to help authors fulfill funder and institutional mandates. It will begin depositing authors' accepted manuscripts with PubMed Central and UK PubMed Central, with an embargo of 6-months...

ScieCom Info.(Open Access)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... ScieCom Info has been revived to become a forum for scientific communication among the Nordic and Baltic countries. It intends to demonstrate the importance of open access in these countries, describe theoretical and best-practice models, and...

ProQuest is adding The Kissinger Telephone Conversations to its Digital National Security Archive (DNSA).(Social Sciences & Humanities)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... ProQuest is adding The Kissinger Telephone Conversations to its Digital National Security Archive (DNSA). Comprised of 50 audio recordings and more than 15,000 transcripts of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's conversations with top...

Accessible Archives, Inc.(Social Sciences & Humanities)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Accessible Archives, Inc. announced enhancements to its online databases of 18th- and 19th-century American newspapers, periodicals, and county histories. Users can now email their search results with images included. MARC records have also...

H.W.Wilson.(Social Sciences & Humanities)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The ERIC database is now searchable on H.W.Wilson's WilsonWeb. ERIC search results are fully integrated with other WilsonWeb databases and cross-referenced with Wilson's education subject thesaurus. It features relevancy ranking and full-text...

Readex, a division of NewsBank, Inc., and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) announced a project to create the world's largest, fully searchable digital archive of international newspapers.(Social Sciences & Humanities)
September 1, 2008... Readex, a division of NewsBank, Inc., and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) announced a project to create the world's largest, fully searchable digital archive of international newspapers. The World Newspaper Archive will provide access...

Credo Reference and ABC-CLIO have agreed to integrate 24 key ABC-CLIO titles.(Social Sciences & Humanities)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Credo Reference and ABC-CLIO have agreed to integrate 24 key ABC-CLIO titles into the Credo General Reference collection (www.abc-clio.com).

A copyright infringement suit filed by Copiepresse, a Belgian press trade organization representing the French and German language newspapers in the country, against the European Union's news aggregator, NewsExplorer, was thrown out on jurisdictional grounds.(Current Awareness)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A copyright infringement suit filed by Copiepresse, a Belgian press trade organization representing the French and German language newspapers in the country, against the European Union's news aggregator, NewsExplorer, was thrown out on...

ProQuest.(Peopleware)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... ProQuest named Suzanne BeDell as Dialog general manager, reporting to CEO Marty Kahn.

Elsevier.(Peopleware)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Elsevier announced the appointment of Rafael Sidi as vice president of product management for ScienceDirect. In this position he will be helping implement innovative features on ScienceDirect while taking the platform in new directions.

National Information Standards Organization.(Peopleware)(EBSCO Information Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Oliver Pesch was elected chair of the board of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) for the 2008-2009 term, and Chuck Koscher was elected vice-chair. Pesch is chief strategist for EBSCO Information Services. Koscher, who will...

Converseon, Inc.(Peopleware)(Mike Moran)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Mike Moran, formerly distinguished engineer at IBM, joined Converseon, Inc. as chief strategist.

Swets.(Peopleware)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Swets announced the appointment of Jack O'Toole as its new director of global accounts.

Unlimited Priorities Corp.(Peopleware)(Iris L. Hanney)(Mark Gauthier )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Iris L. Hanney, founder and president of Unlimited Priorities Corp., has announced the appointment of Mark Gauthier to the company's advisory board, increasing the membership to seven.

Thomson Reuters.(Peopleware)(Michael Phillippe )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Thomson Reuters announced the appointment of Michael Phillippe as director of sales for Manuscript Central, reporting to Keith Collier, VP and GM of ScholarOne, Inc.

Serials Solutions.(Online Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Serials Solutions has added more than 500,000 ebooks from more than twenty providers to Serials Solutions KnowledgeWorks, which provides the foundation for Serials Solutions 360 services by integrating reliable metadata with all of the Serials...

OCLC and Index Data, a software development and consulting enterprise that specializes in information retrieval and metasearch solutions, are working together to extend the discovery capabilities of WorldCat Local to include all licensed and full-text resources of a library.(Online Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... OCLC and Index Data, a software development and consulting enterprise that specializes in information retrieval and metasearch solutions, are working together to extend the discovery capabilities of WorldCat Local to include all licensed and...

Database producers H.W.Wilson Co. and the Modern Language Association (MLA) have agreed to make article-level records available in WorldCat.org.(Online Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Database producers H.W.Wilson Co. and the Modern Language Association (MLA) have agreed to make article-level records available in WorldCat.org, increasing visibility and access to content licensed by libraries on the web through OCLC's...

Ingram Digital Group announced an agreement with Encyclopaedia Britannica to distribute the publisher's ebook reference set worldwide.(Online Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Ingram Digital Group announced an agreement with Encyclopaedia Britannica to distribute the publisher's ebook reference set worldwide. Encyclopaedia Britannica will offer 27 titles totaling 92 volumes, spanning preschool through higher...

Swets announced the launch of SwetsWise Release 5.1, which implements a host of additional features and functionalities into SwetsWise Subscriptions.(Online Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Swets announced the launch of SwetsWise Release 5.1, which implements a host of additional features and functionalities into SwetsWise Subscriptions. The new features include bulk renewal functionality, cancellation restrictions tracking,...

Attensity, Inc. released Attensity Market Voice, which enables users to track, analyze, and act on customer conversations in blogs, web forums, product review comments, and other online customer exchanges.(Enterprise Search)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Attensity, Inc. released Attensity Market Voice, which enables users to track, analyze, and act on customer conversations in blogs, web forums, product review comments, and other online customer exchanges. As part of Attensity's Voice of the...

Engineering Village announced the addition of the American Geological Institute's GeoRef database.(Sci-Tech)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Engineering Village announced the addition of the American Geological Institute's GeoRef database. The new GeoRef database and Engineering Village's existing GeoBase database have both been mashed-up with Google Maps to create a unique results...

Thomson Reuters announced the addition of Prous Science routes of synthesis (ROS) data to the Newport Horizon Premium and Newport Vision Premium solutions.(Sci-Tech)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Thomson Reuters announced the addition of Prous Science routes of synthesis (ROS) data to the Newport Horizon Premium and Newport Vision Premium solutions. An ROS focused search allows users to identify active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)...

FIZ Karlsruhe has released the new bibliographic patent family file INPAFAMDB (INternational PAtent FAmily DataBase) on STN International.(Sci-Tech)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... FIZ Karlsruhe has released the new bibliographic patent family file INPAFAMDB( INternational PAtent FAmily DataBase) on STN International. Data sources for INPAFAMDB are the EPO Patent Information Resource that covers 81 patent authorities and...

Thomson Reuters has partnered with Intertek, an independent testing, inspection, and certification company, to launch a new online standards store, supported by Techstreet.(Sci-Tech)(Intertek Services Corp.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Thomson Reuters has partnered with Intertek, an independent testing, inspection, and certification company, to launch a new online standards store, supported by Techstreet. It offers a wide range of industry codes and standards to ensure...

SAGE Publications has acquired CQ Press, the book-publishing unit of Washington D.C.-based Congressional Quarterly, Inc. from Times Publishing Co.(Alliances & Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... SAGE Publications has acquired CQ Press, the book-publishing unit of Washington D.C.-based Congressional Quarterly, Inc. from Times Publishing Co. The divestiture will allow CQ's parent to direct investment resources to its core publishing...

EBSCO Information Services has acquired Minerva Wissenschaftliche Buchhandlung GmbH (Minerva), of Vienna, Austria, from Springer-Verlag GmbH & Co., a subsidiary of Springer Science+Business Media.(Alliances & Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... EBSCO Information Services has acquired Minerva Wissenschaftliche Buchhandlung GmbH (Minerva), of Vienna, Austria, from Springer-Verlag GmbH & Co., a subsidiary of Springer Science+Business Media. Founded in 1909, Minerva provides service to...

Cuadra Associates, Inc. is now part of The SydneyPLUS group of companies.(Alliances & Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Cuadra Associates, Inc. is now part of The SydneyPLUS group of companies. It will retain the Cuadra name and the management team, led by Carlos Cuadra and Judy Wanger, will remain with the company. Cuadra recently released STAR Knowledge Center...

LexisNexis sold its Mealey's Conferences business, which produces professional education and development events for attorneys and insurance industry executives, to Business Valuation Resources LLC (BVR).(Alliances & Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... LexisNexis sold its Mealey's Conferences business, which produces professional education and development events for attorneys and insurance industry executives, to Business Valuation Resources LLC (BVR). Marlin & Associates advised LexisNexis...

EMpact Sales.(Alliances & Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... EMpact Sales (EMpact), the publisher representation group within the EBSCO Information Services division, has entered into an agreement with Akademiai Kiado Zrt (AK), Hungary's oldest publishing house. EMpact will promote and sell AK's products...

EBSCO has partnered with American Theological Library Association (ATLA) to provide new collections of historical monographs and serials in digital format.(Alliances & Deals)(EBSCO Information Services)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... EBSCO has partnered with American Theological Library Association (ATLA) to provide new collections of historical monographs and serials in digital format. ATLA Historical Monographs Collection: 19th Century, ATLA Historical Monographs...

10-K Wizard.(Business & Finance)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... 10-K Wizard has added an "Ownership" search page to assist in tracking 13F-HR and Insider Trading filings (forms 3, 4, and 5). This allows users to search for an issuer or holder of a particular security and view extracted summary data of their...

Ask.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Ask added links to its privacy policy on its front page. It bought Lexico, which runs Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. The source for map and satellite data for both Ask Maps & Directions and AskCity is now Microsoft Virtual...

Exalead.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Exalead has updated its desktop search program, one:desktop, to version 4.6. New features include a rich preview of most documents, right column personalization tools for refining results including an optional tag cloud display, and tabbed...

Flash Earth.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Flash Earth, the search switcher for several sources of satellite imagery, has dropped Google maps (at Google's request) from its data sources. It continues to have Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo!, NASA, OpenLayers, and Ask. Greg R. Notess...

Google.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Google changed its related searches algorithm to update the suggestions more quickly. The aim is to provide more relevant suggestions for searches on topics of current interest. Textual content within Flash files is now indexed more fully by...

Google News.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Google News changed its clustering algorithm. Previously, similar news stories were grouped together as long as they had been published within 3 days of each other. Now, similar stories will show up in the same cluster if they are from any time...

Live Search.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Live Search has abandoned its Academic and Book Search efforts. Both are now offline. Microsoft says that books and scholarly publications will continue to appear in the web search results but not in separate databases. Microsoft has bought the...

Me.dium.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Me.dium (www.me.dium.com) has launched its Me.dium Social Search in alpha. Based on the browsing habits of Me.dium Social Toolbar users, along with records from Yahoo!'s, Me.dium tries to mine the wisdom of the crowd. The relevance ranking...

Wikia Search.(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Wikia Search no longer sports an "alpha" tag and now allows all users to edit and filter search results. Any user can edit the title or summary of a record, add a picture to the top background, comment on results, add other suggested searches,...

Yahoo!(search engine update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Yahoo! is busy opening up its database for others to use. Two initiatives --SearchMonkey and BOSS--let people use the Yahoo! database or results set in new and different ways. Web developers can use SearchMonkey to share structured data with...

GIS and libraries: a cross-disciplinary approach.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Digital mapmaking has become a cross-disciplinary and collaborative phenomenon, thanks to increased access to commercial mapping software, free software such as Google Maps, and the development of Global Positioning...

Evaluating free online legal information.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a professional law librarian, I am fortunate to have access to a wealth of legal information. Right outside my office are more than 400,000 volumes of cases, statutes, regulations, books, and journals presenting...

EPA libraries' roller coaster ride.( United States. Environmental Protection Agency)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The public became aware that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was grappling with its library network on June 30, 2003, when the agency issued a request for quote (RFQ) to analyze the business processes...

Web 2.0 tools for social and professional use.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Standard practice for librarians and information professionals is to look for new and improved methods of communication. We're in the business of information sharing. Thus we want to use communication tools to...

Lobbying disclosure databases: a users' guide.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What started as a headline-making political scandal has resulted in a boon for researchers. In 2005 and 2006, the press unraveled and exposed the corrupt dealings of now-infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In 2007,...

Putting the library in Wikipedia.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Few online resources provoke as much controversy in the library community as Wikipedia. Some librarians hate it, arguing that since anyone can edit it, it can't be trusted. Others love it, because it is fast, easy to...

A potpourri of 2.0 tools.(on the net)(Column)
September 1, 2008... Keeping current with new technology these days requires extensive browsing, both online and off. While reading about new software and online tools, many are worth only a single visit. Even those that do something new with graphics, offer a...

Stepping out in Seattle: ONLINE visits SLA.(the dollar sign)(Special Libraries Association)(Conference news)
September 1, 2008... The 99th Annual Conference of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) convened in Seattle this past June (www.sla.org). In addition to numerous conference sessions, educational seminars, social events, and business meetings, the exhibit hall...

EBSCOhost 2.0: how EBSCO is changing my mind, sort of.(infolit land)
September 1, 2008... I have to admit that I'm a bit of a purist. I believe that we need to train people to become skilled users of information rather than dumbing down the process to meet the demands of an uninterested audience. I've resisted federating searching,...

PROLA, SPIRES-HEP, AIP scitation.(peter's picks & pans)(Physical Review On-Line Archive)
September 1, 2008... All three databases I'm reviewing in this issue are from the field of physics (and in the last issue, one of my picks was the Astrophysics Data System). Is this some neophyte enthusiasm of mine? No, physics has never been my strong point. I...

Tune it up, don't tear it down: website redesigns.(intranet librarian)
September 1, 2008... Library website redesign projects too often involve a complete "do over." The problem with the "tear it down and rebuild it" model of redesign is that it takes a lot of effort, not to mention it's terribly disruptive for users. Often we feel...

Twitter ate my column.(crawford at large)
September 1, 2008... 'Dear Marydee: Sorry about the missed deadline. I would have written the column on time, but I got caught up in Twitter conversations, and the time got away from me. You know how it is... " "Dear Patrick: Yes, I know, the book's a year...

Excellence Every Day: Make the Daily Choice--Inspire Your Employees and Amaze Your Customers.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... *** 1/2 Excellence Every Day: Make the Daily Choice--Inspire Your Employees and Amaze Your Customers by Lior Arussy ISBN: 978-0-910965-79-8 Published: 2008 Pages: 220 pp.; softcover Price: $24.95 Available from:...

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... *** Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds ISBN: 978-0-321-52565-9 Published: 2008 Pages: 230 pp.; softcover Price: $29.99 Available from: New Riders, 1249 Eighth St.,...

What's the Alternative? Career Options for Librarians and Info Pros.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... *** 1/2 What's the Alternative? Career Options for Librarians and Info Pros by Rachel Singer Gordon ISBN: 978-1-57387-333-8 Published: 2008 Pages: 220 pp.; softcover Price: $24.95 Available from: Information...

Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... ** 1/2 Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards by Patrick O'Keefe ISBN: 978-0-8144-0197-2 Published: 2008 Pages: 298 pp; softcover Price: $24.00...

Silobreaker.(online spotlight)
September 1, 2008... WARNING: If you have issues with staying focused and working sequentially through a collection of information until you get to the end, read no further. This column is going to cause you endless hours of "Gee, I wonder what I could do with..."...