Information Today articles from April 2003

Information Today archives from April 2003

Surviving in a harsh world. (Interview With Roger Bowes).
April 1, 2003... Created in 1924, the U.K.-based Aslib has a proud history. It founded world-class LIS journals like the Journal of Documentation (JDoc) and has been a premier information research organization. Aslib aided the World War II effort with its...

NFAIS 45th Annual Conference. (Report from the Field).(National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services)
April 1, 2003... "Markets, Technologies and Standards: Strategies for Success" was the theme of the NFAIS 45th Annual Conference, held Feb. 23-25 in Philadelphia. Attended primarily by aggregators, the event is a major opportunity for providers to voice and...

A tale of three ties. (Report from the Field).(National Technical Information Service's Kurt Molholm gives opinions on government competition with private sector, among other topics)
April 1, 2003... Government officials are not generally known for their fashion statements. Then of course, neither am I. But when Kurt Molholm, NFAIS's Miles Conrad Lecturer for 2003, met up with me at the NFAIS Annual Conference's opening reception, even I...

Emerald acquires ECAM journal. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Emerald, a management information publisher, announced the acquisition of the Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management (ECAM) journal from Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. According to the announcement, the move will strengthen the...

FindLaw to provide content to latimes.com. (News Bytes).
April 1, 2003... FindLaw, a legal Web site, announced an agreement to provide a comprehensive collection of legal content and resources to latimes.com, the Web site of the Los Angeles Times. Under the agreement, FindLaw will supply latimes.com with...

Innodata, ProQuest agree on outsourcing deal. (News Bytes).(ProQuest Information and Learning)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Innodata Corp., a provider of digital content services, announced that it has been selected by ProQuest Information and Learning to provide ongoing content product manufacturing services on an extensive portfolio of periodical titles. In...

LC introduces Digital Preservation Plan. (News Bytes).
April 1, 2003... The Library of Congress (LC) announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Congress for its "Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program" (NDIIPP), which will enable the LC to launch the initial...

Publishers announce copyright settlement. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Copyright Clearance Center announced that Elsevier, Inc., The MIT Press, Sage Publications, Inc., and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. have settled their pending copyright infringement litigation against Los Angeles-based Westwood Copies' and its owner,...

Microsoft opens fast lane for end users. (Up Front).(Microsoft's MS Office System 2003 programs is beta tested; it offers a Research Library Pane)
April 1, 2003... Sometimes, the most historic of historical moments are the ones that never happen. I can remember way, way back when IBM announced that it would start producing PCs. We all knew it was a Moment in Time. The revolution was not only underway, but...

The latest on companies, search engines, and products. (News Break Update).(EBSCO continued to move closer to finalizing purchase of RoweCom's US and Australian operations; notes other news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Once again, the past month's news has been dominated by developments in the RoweCom/divine situation. Following divine's bankruptcy filing in late February, EBSCO continued to move closer to finalizing its purchase of RoweCom's U.S. and...

Site Licensing Project to offer Sciencedirect. (News Bytes).(Elsevier)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Elsevier announced that the Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP) has acquired a license agreement to provide online access to STM full-text articles and content through its ScienceDirect platform. Deb deBruijn, executive...

Knovel adds content, partners with OCLC. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... knovel Corp., a Web-based reference publisher that delivers scientific and technical books and databases to engineers, scientists, and students, has re leased six new chemistry references from major publishers. knovel also announced that it has...

TDNet to take over JournalWebCite service. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... TDNet, Inc., a supplier of electronic journals and electronic content management solutions, announced that it has reached an agreement with JournalWebCite to take over service for all JournalWebCite subscriber libraries. According to the...

EBSCO makes 100 million records available. (News Bytes).(EBSCO Publishing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... EBSCO Publishing has announced that, through EBSOO SmartLinks, it has made available to EBSCOhost database subscribers more than 100 million records with access to full text. EBSCO SmartLinks allows users to gain seamless access from a...

FluentMedia partners with Financial Times. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... FluentMedia, a content-licensing agency of Tribune Co., has broadened its supply of international news and commentary with the addition of the Financial Times to its list of information providers. Effective immediately, FluentMedia customers...

NHS Research now accessible to all for free. (News Bytes).(BioMed Central signs Institutional Membership contract with UK's National Health Service )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... BioMed Central announced that it has signed an Institutional Membership contract with the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) for the whole of NHS England. The membership will start this month and is a first step in NHS's commitment to ensure...

Open Text Corp. acquires Corechange. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Open Text Corp., the provider of Livelink collaboration and knowledge management software for the global enterprise, announced that its acquisition of Corechange is a major step in the company's end-to-end integration strategy for Livelink. The...

WilsonWeb allows free OpenURL linking. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... H.W. Wilson announced that sharing resources is now simple and cost-effective with WilsonLink SFX technology. Easy to use and free with a subscription to the new WilsonWeb database service, WilsonLink provides extensive linking features with...

IFLA renames Library Conference. (News Bytes).(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) announced that the biggest annual international gathering of librarians, the IFLA Conference, is to be known in the future as the "World Library and Information...

Letter to the editor.
April 1, 2003... Catching up on some of my professional reading this week brought me to your Information Today column, "What Vendors Can Do for Us Now" [Nov. 2002, P. 8]. I smiled as I read it, as I believe the LexisNexis Law Librarian Relations Group had beat...

Do you Yahoo!?(Google and issues of trademark are discussed)
April 1, 2003... Paul McFedries was on the receiving end of a cease-and-desist notice from Google lawyers after having published a definition for the new verb "google" at his Word Spy Web site (http://www.wordspy.com) earlier this year. The site tracks new...

In the April issue.
April 1, 2003... I considered surprising you this month with an April Fools' joke (no, my photo's not the joke--that's real), but it seemed rather frivolous given the current world situation. Instead, I'll point out a few of this issue's more interesting...

Could peer review be wrong? (Focus on Publishing).
April 1, 2003... Seriously questioning the validity of the peer-review process is like debating the merits of a holy grail. We've been conducting peer review for so long (more than 200 years, by some estimates) that it, well, just has to be good. Or as Martha...

Energy Polysearch cross-searches publisher archives. (Internet Insights).
April 1, 2003... In the past 2 years, many of the largest commercial scholarly journal publishers have made available to subscribers not only the full-text and/or Adobe PDF versions of documents, but also their abstracts free of charge to anyone. In addition,...

Copyright and the CCC. (Legal Issues).(U.S. Supreme Court's January 2003 Eldred v. Ashcroft decision upheld the Copyright Term Extension Act)
April 1, 2003... The U.S. Supreme Court's January 2003 Eldred v. Ashcroft decision, which upheld the Copyright Term Extension Act, also highlighted the problem that many copyright users have in seeking permission for legitimate use of copyrighted materials. ...

BioMed Central, ISI ResearchSoft offer way to speed author submissions. (New Bytes).(BioMed Central Group)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... BioMed Central and ISI ResearchSoft announced a new way for authors to speed submissions and increase accuracy. Authors who submit articles to BioMed Central's online publishing system using ISI ResearchSoft's Reference Manager 10 will...

askSam Systems releases askSam 5.1. (New Bytes).(New product allows users to turn different types of information into searchable full-text databases)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... askSam Systems announced the release of askSam 5.1. This resource allows users to turn different types of information into searchable full-text databases. It can create databases from unstructured information such as e-mail, resumes, legal...

Context launches online construction-law service. (New Bytes).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Electronic publisher Context, Ltd. has launched the Building Law Information Subscriber Service (BLISS), an online tool that provides building-law information for the construction industry. BLISS is a fully searchable information resource...

FIZ Karlsruhe. (People Line).(Sabine Brunger-Weilandt will be new managing director, starting in May)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... FIZ Karlsruhe announced that Sabine Brunger-Weilandt will be its new managing director, starting in May. She was appointed by company shareholders to succeed Georg Schultheiss, who is retiring. Most recently, Brunger-Weilandt headed her own...

The Reed Business Information Media Group. (People Line).(Names Joe Tessitore vice president/group publisher of Publishing Group)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Reed Business Information Media Group announced that Joe Tessitore has been appointed vice president/group publisher of its Publishing Group. He will be responsible for the continuing development of Publishers Weekly, Library Journal,...

LexisNexis. (People Line).(Mary Dale Walters is named vice president of global marketing and communications)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... LexisNexis announced that Mary Dale Walters has been named vice president of global marketing and communications. She'll be responsible for global marketing, corporate communications, and e-services. Previously, Walters was senior director...

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. (People Line).(Patrick Julius is named vice president of licensing and publishing operations)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) announced that Patrick Julius is now its vice president of licensing and publishing operations. He will manage CSA's relationships with information industry organizations and lead special...

FIND/SVP, Inc. (People Line).(Elects Denise L. Shapiro to board of directors)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... FIND/SVP, Inc. announced the election of Denise L. Shapiro to its board of directors. She will also serve on the board's audit committee. Currently, Shapiro is a managing director of the entertainment and media practice for...

Ingenta, PLC. (People Line).(Makes additions to publishing and library client management teams)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Ingenta, PLC announced additions to its publishing and library client management teams. Adam Chesler is the vice president of new business and Christopher Woodhead is the director of client management. Before this, Chesler was director of...

The Executive Profile.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Dean M. Vogel was appointed president and CEO of Ovid in September 2001. Ovid, a Wolters Kluwer Co., is a provider of customizable content, tools, and services for information managers, students, clinicians, and researchers. Vogel joined...

Amsterdam, Netherlands. (International Report).
April 1, 2003... Many European newspapers remain cautious about charging for online content. Of those that do, two-thirds still prefer to use credit and debit cards rather than more user-friendly--and often cheaper--payment solutions. This limits the range and...

Geneva. (International Report).(Countries best placed to reap economic and social benefits of Internet)
April 1, 2003... The U.S. has slipped from first to second as the country best placed to reap the economic and social benefits of the Internet, according to this year's ranking of 82 nations by the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Geneva-based independent...

Helsinki, Finland. (International Report).(Finland is sensitized to legal issues raised by global information infrastructure)
April 1, 2003... Judging by the degree of oversight that Finns give to new Internet-related laws, the country is also highly sensitized to the legal issues that are raised by the global information infrastructure. For instance, the Finnish government's...

Hanoi, Vietnam. (International Report).(Vietnamese government will commit $100 million to information technology sector over next 2 years)
April 1, 2003... In order to reap the economic benefits of the Internet, the Vietnamese government will over the next 2 years commit $100 million to the information technology sector, with the aim of quadrupling the number of Internet users to 4 million by...

Dusseldorf, Germany. (International Report).(Public prosecutor in Dusseldorf ordered Joker.com to remove Ogrish.com domain name from its database)
April 1, 2003... In early February, the public prosecutor in Dusseldorf ordered Joker.com, a German domain-name registrar, to remove the Ogrish.com domain name from its database on the grounds that the site glorifies violence and death. Run by Dan Klinker,...

London. (International Report).(report on the future of public libraries in the U.K.)
April 1, 2003... The U.K.'s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has published "Framework for the Future" (http://www.culture.gov.uk/her itage/pl_framework.html), a report on the future of public libraries in the U.K. It outlines the government's vision for...

Resolving the links. (Investigative Report).
April 1, 2003... Reference linking is the most highly cited benefit of electronic publishing. Decision makers are striving to create frameworks in which the four information-gathering demand-side activities (discover, locate, request, and access) can...

Ingenta optimistic about market potential. (Interview with Simon Dessain).
April 1, 2003... It was an optimistic Simon Dessain, the new chief operating officer of Ingenta, who met with me at the ALA Midwinter Meeting to discuss the status of his company, which underwent serious difficulties last fall. According to Dessain, the crisis...

Get fit on the Web: did you know your sleep habits could contribute to weight gain? (Link-Up@Home).
April 1, 2003... Among the spam that clogs your e-mail, you probably find dubious offers from cyberage snake-oil salespeople who claim their diet or exercise products can help you lose weight and get fit. But the Web can provide legitimate and genuinely useful...

CyberSports. (Link-Up@Home).(Michael Jordan Web sites draw traffic)
April 1, 2003... According to one esteemed search engine (And! You! Know! Which! One!), the third and (we hope) final coming of Michael Jordan still generates the most interest among the geeks out there with too much time on their hands. Yes, the count on...

Let the Internet choose your reading: perspectives. (Link-Up@Home).(Editorial)
April 1, 2003... My husband is a serial monogamist. He falls passionately in love with an author and reads all of his or her works, and then moves on to an equally passionate love affair with another author. Recently, he worked his way through the oeuvres of W....

On the road. (Conference Circuit).
April 1, 2003... Planning is already underway for Information Today, Inc.'s (ITI) fall conferences: Internet Librarian and KMWorld & Intranets. Internet Librarian will be held Nov. 3-5 in Monterey, Calif. Please consider joining us as a speaker by submitting a...

Miles Conrad Memorial Lecture. (Report from the Field).
April 1, 2003... The Miles Conrad Memorial Lecture is a highlight of the NFAIS Annual Conference. It honors the memory of G. Miles Conrad, a former BIOSIS president whose efforts led to NFAIS's founding in 1958. An invitation to deliver the lecture is one of...

Conference calendar.(Calendar)
April 1, 2003... April 7-8: Boston (Logan Airport Hilton). Infonortics, Ltd. will host the Eighth Annual Search Engine Conference, which will lead off with a keynote by David Evans titled "The Search Engine Decade." Topics covered will include automatic...

Google introduces content-targeted advertising service. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Google announced a new content-targeted advertising service that extends advertiser reach and makes Web pages more useful by replacing untargeted ads with relevant, sponsored links. According to the company, this results in an improved user...

ChemVillage enhanced with new databases. (Product News & Reviews).(Elsevier Engineering Information, Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Elsevier Engineering Information, Inc. announced that it will add new databases to ChemVillage, its online information delivery product. ChemVillage will now provide access to Bretherick's Reactive Chemical Hazards Database, Chemical...

ITI releases new Super Searchers book. (Product News & Reviews).(Information Today, Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Information Today, Inc. (ITI) announced the publication of Super Searchers on Madison Avenue: Top Advertising and Marketing Professionals Share Their Online Research Strategies, a new book by Grace Avellana Villamora. According to the...

Questel-Orbit unveils new QPAT enhancements. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Questel * Orbit, Inc. announced the addition of new features to QPAT, its online patent search tool. According to the company, these upgrades give users easier access to the latest, broadest range of patent information and offer the market's...

Gale to link InfoTrac, WorldCat on FirstSearch. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Gale announced the launch of linking technology that allows library patrons to search WorldCat holdings on the OCLC FirstSearch service through Gale's InfoTrac search interface. "Gale is actively pursuing the creation of a search...

Factiva upgrades Factiva Publisher, teams with Reuters. (Product News & Reviews).
April 1, 2003... Factiva announced the launch of Factiva Publisher 3.8, the latest version of its news and decision portal software. The company also announced an expanded relationship with Reuters that will increase customer access to Factiva's content through...

Buddie reveals database gem. (Database Review).
April 1, 2003... Last year was edgy and troubled, and the awards ceremonies that honor the work produced during that period have been correspondingly subdued. The Grammy and Oscar nominees were lackluster. In fact, the entire awards season lacks style and...

Library of Congress commissions Election Web site. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Library of Congress announced the launch of the Election 2002 Web Archive (http://politicalweb.info), the world's first fully cataloged and searchable collection of material that originates in digital form. The collection, commissioned...

MicroPatent launches new product, enhances Aureka. (Product News & Reviews).
April 1, 2003... MicroPatent announced the release of Saved WorkSheets, an upgrade to its existing PatSearch FullText WorkSheets. The company also announced the launch of ThemeScape with Colorized Content Review, an enhancement to its Aureka IP management...

EBSCO Publishing debuts LinkSource. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... EBSCO Publishing announced the release of LinkSource, its new OpenURLcompliant links resolver. From a single link menu, LinkSource is designed specifically to let libraries provide bidirectional, item-level linking to a wide range of on[me...

West introduces Westlaw Litigator. (Product News & Reviews).
April 1, 2003... West announced the launch of Westlaw Litigator, a resource that can help legal professionals determine the value of a case; investigate parties, opposing counsel, and expert witnesses; learn how judges have ruled on similar legal issues; and...

H.W. Wilson expands databases. (Product News & Reviews).
April 1, 2003... H.W. Wilson announced that its Art Full Text and Social Sciences Full Text databases are being enhanced with increased journal coverage, new treatment of key specialties, and broader international scope. Fifty-one periodicals have been...

The Orange County Register rolls out electronic edition. (Product News & Reviews).
April 1, 2003... The Orange County Register announced the launch of E-Register, a Web-based edition of the newspaper. Using digital publishing technology, E-Register displays the entire content and layout of the newspaper on the Web--all headlines,...

Applying case-based reasoning to KM. (Cover Notes).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Applying Knowledge Management: Techniques for Building Corporate Memories by Ian Watson San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2003 ISBN: 1-55860-760-9 252 pages $49.95 Everyone in the information...

What's new in ITI's other publications. (Cover Notes).
April 1, 2003... By the time you read this, it will be spring--even in New Jersey. March Madness will have been extended into April Angst as all the crazy college hoops fans out there (me included) see how well their early-round bracket picks have held up going...

Naked in Cyberspace, 2nd Edition: How to Find Personal Information Online. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... By Carole A. Lane Foreword by Beth Givens In this revised and updated second edition of her best-selling guide, author Carole A. Lane surveys the types of personal records and online services that are available on the Internet. You'll...

Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... Edited by Anne P. Mintz Intentionally misleading or erroneous information on the Web can wreak havoc on your health, privacy, investments, business decisions, online purchases, legal affairs, and more. Until now, the significance of this...

The Accidental Webmaster. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... By Julie M. Still Here is a lifeline for the individual who has not been trained as a Webmaster, but who--whether by choice or under duress--has become one nonetheless. While most Webmastering books focus on programming and related...

The Librarian's Internet Survival Guide: Strategies for the High-Tech Reference Desk. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... By Irene E. McDermott Edited by Barbara Quint In this authoritative and tremendously useful guide, Irene McDermott helps her fellow reference librarians succeed in the bold new world of the Web. This handy book features troubleshooting...

Super Searchers on Madison Avenue: Top Advertising and Marketing Professionals Share Their Online Research Strategies. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... By Grace Avellana Villamora Edited by Reva Basch Research professionals in the advertising and marketing game are a rare breed. Working in one of the business world's true pressure cookers, these super searchers find and analyze the...

The Accidental Systems Librarian. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... By Rachel Singer Gordon Foreword by Kathy Dempsey The Accidental Systems Librarian takes the approach that anyone with a solid foundation in the practices and principles of librarianship and a willingness to confront changing...

Super Searchers Make It on Their Own: Top Independent Information Professionals Share Their Secrets for Starting and Running a Research Business. (New Titles for the Information Professional).
April 1, 2003... By Suzanne Sabroski Edited by Reva Basch If you want to start and run a successful Information Age business, read this book. Here, for the first time anywhere, 11 of the world's top research entrepreneurs share their strategies for...

Software for Indexing. (New Titles for the Information Professional).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Edited by Sandi Schroeder In this thorough and objective review of the software products used in indexing, professional indexers share their favorite features, tips, and techniques. Starting with a chapter on dedicated indexing programs,...

STN international releases new biosequence database. (Product News & Reviews).
April 1, 2003... FIZ Karlsruhe announced the launch of the PCTGEN database, a new source of nucleotide and amino acid sequence information. PCTGEN contains sequence and patent-application information that has been electronically submitted to the World...