Information Today articles from April 2005

Information Today archives from April 2005

Paving the way for educated consumers.(Interview with Jim McGinty)
April 1, 2005... Life for Jim McGinty may have started in Brooklyn, N.Y., but it now stretches around the world. His name conjures up the image of a man with a firm handshake and strong business acuity. He's been called a "strategic visionary" by NFAIS...

Recent developments in China.(International Report)
April 1, 2005... With a population now topping 1.3 billion, China represents one-fifth of the world's total population. And with an economy growing at more than 9 percent per year, China is moving up quickly on the list of the world's largest economies. In...

Patenting the Internet.(Legal Trends)
April 1, 2005... Virtually every window of time can be identified by its technological advances. The industrial revolution of the 1800s gave way to the transportation revolution of the early 1900s. The development of synthetics such as nylon and plastics was...

ProQuest introduces Curriculum Match Factor.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... ProQuest Information and Learning announced that it will provide Curriculum Match Factor analysis, a new service that matches business course textbooks with journals and articles from the company's ABI/INFORM suite of business databases. ...

New SwetsWise Title Bank unveiled.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Swets Information Services launched a new version of SwetsWise Title Bank. SwetsWise Title Bank allows Swets' clients to customize their entire list of electronic subscription links. It also assists them in maintaining control of their...

DOE/OSTI joins CrossRef.(NewsBytes)(Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI))(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... CrossRef announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has joined CrossRef. OSTI plans to assign digital object identifiers to its Information Bridge platform, which currently contains...

Ingenta expands relationship with Infotrieve.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Ingenta and Infotrieve, Inc. announced an expanded partnership that will enable Ingenta-hosted content to be indexed by Infotrieve's full-text crawler. This relationship will allow Infotrieve to provide full-text article searches via its...

Elsevier signs agreement with Bibliotheca Alexandrina.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Elsevier signed a 3-year agreement with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt for the provision of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) information that includes full access to all Elsevier electronic journals, 6 million articles via...

John Cotton Dana 2005 Library Public Relations Award winners announced.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Winners of the 2005 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award were announced at the ALA Midwinter conference. Awards were presented to: * The Riverside County Library System (Riverside, Calif.) * The Seattle Public Library...

Bookblogs or blogbooks? Are new content formats on the way?(UpFront with Barbara Quint)
April 1, 2005... The Google Print/Library project continues to fascinate me, as it does most of the library community and a lot of the rest of the world. Only Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association, seems to pooh-pooh its...

Spring ahead with new tools and technologies.(NewsBreak Update)
April 1, 2005... Spring is in the air, and people's outlooks seem to be taking a more positive turn--unless they're in an area that is still getting hit with snowstorms. As I write this, I'm getting ready to leave for the Computers in Libraries conference...

Search engine update.(NewsBreak Update)
April 1, 2005... Lycos has announced a "recommitment and reinvestment" in search. Adam Soroca, general manager of search services for Lycos, Inc., said: "We recently launched a new search-centric home page that cleanly presents all of our search products...

Update on CrossRef-Google Pilot.(NewsBreak Update)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... In its February newsletter, CrossRef reported on its evaluation of the CrossRef Search Pilot with Google and its consideration of Google Scholar. The pilot project was announced in April 2004. The CrossRefboard has approved continuing with the...

Web management tools.(NewsBreak Update)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Surf Wax, Inc., a provider of Internet search and post-search solutions, formally launched its Web-based Nextaris service, an integrated set of tools that allow users to search, capture, manage, securely share, and publish online information...

RSS update.(NewsBreak Update)(Really Simple Syndication)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... RSS is definitely gaining momentum and is even starting to hit the traditional services and library vendors. Ingenta introduced RSS feeds for its IngentaConnect service last year. A sci-tech library blogger, Christina Pikas, noticed that...

New tech to watch.(NewsBreak Update)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Now that we're savvy about blogs, RSS, wikis, and other tech goodies, along comes podcasting. It started as a way to move music and other audio files (including radio programs such as NPR's On the Media) from PCs over to MP3-type devices, such...

Follow up on video.(NewsBreak Update)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The Online Publishers Association (OPA) recently announced the results of its Online Video Viewing Study. Conducted in partnership with Frank N. Magid Associates, the study surveyed 27,841 Internet users 13 and older and found that "online...

ALA announces Ingenta Research Award.(NewsBytes)(American Library Association)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The Library Research Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA) and Ingenta announced the creation of the Ingenta Research Award. The grant was created to support research projects about acquiring, using, and preserving digital...

Baker & Taylor and netLibrary join forces.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Baker & Taylor and OCLC netLibrary announced an agreement to combine strengths to facilitate delivery of a broader range of e-content to the library market. "This partnership is the perfect union of each company's strengths to best deliver...

Amigos Library Services receives NEH Grant.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Amigos Library Services has been awarded a $594,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund the Amigos Imaging and Preservation Service (IPS) through 2007. The grant, funded by NEH's Division of Preservation and...

Content added to MetaPress.(NewsBytes)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Seven publishers have signed agreements to add journal content to MetaPress, the online hosting platform service that is a part of Publisher Promotion & Fulfillment, a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc. The publishers are the American...

Letter from the editor.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Icame across an article the other day that caught my attention. CNN.com published the results of a recent study by the Lemelson-MIT Program, in which a group of technology leaders ranked the top "25 non-medically related technological...

Quick question.
April 1, 2005... About twice a month, I get an e-mail from one of our editors or authors that usually bears the subject line "Quick Question" (insert ominous musical chord here). The message generally reads something like this: "Hey, I was just out surfing...

Infotoons.
April 1, 2005... WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THIS "LEANING TOWER" OF FLOPPY DISKS? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW ABOUT EARRINGS? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A FASHIONABLE SWING PURSE! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALL THESE OLD THINGS MAKE ME...

NIH's embattled policy.(Focus on Publishing)
April 1, 2005... On Feb. 3, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced its final Public Access Implementation Plan, which begins on May 2. The plan asks any NIH-funded author to submit his or her final manuscript to the NIH National Library of Medicine's...

Why do they keep doing that?(Websites needing improvement)
April 1, 2005... Sree Sreenivasan, a journalism professor at Columbia University, recently wrote a column titled "Stuff I Hate" for PoynterOnline (http://www .poynter.org/column.asp?id=32 &aid=78077). He wrote a similar piece in 2003. In each, he asked readers...

Freedom of information?(Legal Issues)
April 1, 2005... Section 105 of the Copyright Act states that most works created by the U.S. government are not subject to copyright and are automatically in the public domain. The First Amendment establishes not only a right to freedom of speech, but also...

Learn what you don't know: Answers.com is for anybody who's looking for the quickest, most convenient way to get basic background information on a multitude of topics.(Perspectives)
April 1, 2005... Since the advent of computers more than a half century ago, the holy grail has been an intelligent machine that provides just the answers you're looking for. This machine was dramatized by HAL, the soft-spoken computer in the film 2001: A Space...

Sports, steroids, and scandals.(CyberSports)
April 1, 2005... It's head-scratching time again for your Field Correspondent. First, there was the amazing shrinking Jason Giambi appearing before select members of the New York media to apologize for, well, something that happened earlier this year. He...

The ringtone phenomenon.
April 1, 2005... It's a sign of the times: Billboard magazine is now charting the top ringtones (http://www.billboard .com/bb/charts/singles in dex.jsp). In case you didn't know you could hear Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" or Henry Mancini's "The...

Privacy breach of the week.(NewsMakers)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... And what's the next step for vendors of personal data after the recent spate of privacy breaches at ChoicePoint, Thomson West, and LexisNexis Seisint? In a recent blog, Chuck Richard, vice president and lead analyst at Outsell, Inc., offered...

Knight moves.(Bill Gates received his honorary knighthood)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... When Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates received his honorary knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on March 2, he described himself as "humbled and delighted." The tribute recognized Gates' contributions to improving healthcare and...

Done deal.(NewsMakers)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Harold McGraw III (right), chairman, president, and chief executive officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies, and J.D. Power III, founder of J.D. Power and Associates, signed an agreement March 7 at J.D. Power headquarters in Westlake Village,...

First general release of EJOS available.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Endeavor Information Systems announced the first general release of ENCompass for Journals OnSite (EJOS). Using EJOS, a library can locally load the fulltext journal content it licenses, allowing users to search, browse, and view journal...

New databases available on EBSCOhost.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... EBSCOhost now offers Scientific American Archive Online. The archive includes ongoing coverage for the publication in addition to backfile content beginning with the January 1993 issue. It also contains Scientific American Mind (starting with...

BUDDIE recognizes quiet quality.(Database Review)
April 1, 2005... It's that time again. The official 2005 BUDDIE award for Best Unknown Database is hereby proclaimed. The BUDDIE winner is always a welcome contrast to the egomaniacal, bling-shrouded celebrities who haunt other awards events because the...

Nexsan and Asigra join forces.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Nexsan Technologies announced that Asigra has been selected for the Nexsan Strategic Solutions (S2) Program. The partnership combines Nexsan's InfiniSAN disk-based storage hardware with Asigra's Televaulting multisite backup and recovery...

BurrellesLuce launches MediaConnect.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... BurrellesLuce announced the launch of MediaConnect, the company's media communications management portal. This portal uses two of the company's MDOL online media database applications and the InSight electronic content delivery platform to...

ATLA signs eight titles to ATLAS.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) announced that the following titles will be added to the ATLASerials (ATLAS) online collection of major religion and theology journals: * Biblical Interpretation * Christianity Today...

DialogLink 5 download available.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Dialog announced that DialogLink 5 is now available for free downloading. The software package has a more intuitive interface and additional tools to streamline the process of finding, retrieving, and distributing information found through the...

Westlaw U.K. moves to Dialog NewsRoom.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Westlaw U.K. moved to Dialog NewsRoom on March 1. Dialog NewsRoom gives subscribers access to more than 11,000 publications--25 percent more than the old Westlaw U.K. news service. Subscribers will have access to 99 of the world's top 100...

Amigos and The Digital Network form partnership.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Amigos Library Services and The Digital Network have partnered to explore the application of datacasting technology to benefit libraries and library patrons. Datacasting enables the movement of large digital files and associated digital...

FindLaw.com enhances Web site.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... FindLaw.com launched a new version of its FindLaw for Small Business Web site (http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com). The new site has expanded content for starting and running a business, state-specific resources, and an improved lawyer search....

ProQuest Information and Learning to digitize 19th Century British Parliamentary Papers.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... ProQuest Information and Learning announced that it will digitize the British House of Commons Parliamentary Papers from 1801 to 1900 and release them later this year. The collection will include the Chadwyck-Healey subject index and search...

Coverage added to Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... H.W. Wilson announced that it plans to add 10 more years of retrospective coverage to Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective in September, allowing users to search as far back as 1908. With the added content, subscribers will have access to...

WSJ Online offers Desktop News Alerts.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Online announced the launch of Desktop News Alerts. Within minutes of a major news event, this service will deliver an alert to users' computer screens. The alert will appear in a small window on users' desktops...

ClearForest outlines product plans.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... ClearForest Corp. announced its product roadmap and strategic direction for 2005, which included introducing version 6.1 of its ClearForest Text Analytics Suite last month. According to the release, the suite offers a partner-ready...

Thomson Scientific & Healthcare.(appointment of Kevin M. King)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Thomson Scientific & Healthcare announced the appointment of Kevin M. King as president and CEO of its healthcare business. Most recently, King was vice president and general manager of Global Clinical Systems. Before that, he was vice...

Thomson West.(promotion of Sue Schway)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Thomson West announced the promotion of Sue Schway to vice president of customer experience operations. In this position, she will oversee customer service and develop long-term strategies for the business. Prior to this, Schway was West's...

Ohio board of regents.(awards)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The Ohio board of regents has announced that Clifford Lynch is the recipient of the second George V. Voinovich Award for Information Innovation. The award, created in 2002 by the Ohio board of regents in recognition of OhioLINK's 10 years of...

National Institutes of Health.(appointment of Betsy L. Humphreys)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The National Institutes of Health announced that Betsy L. Humphreys has been appointed deputy director of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). In this position, she will share responsibility with the director for program development, program...

Endeavor Information Systems.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Robert Gerovski)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Endeavor Information Systems announced that Robert Gerovski has joined the company as director of development. He will oversee development programming for Endeavor's existing and emerging library software systems. Previously, Gerovski was...

BlowSearch.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(BlowSearch)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... BlowSearch, a provider of Internet search tools, announced that it has named Joseph Holcomb as senior vice president of marketing. In this position, he will plan and direct the company's marketing and advertising and will oversee new...

Kate Noerr, CEO, MuseGlobal, Inc.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
April 1, 2005... For Kate Noerr, CEO of the Salt Lake City-based MuseGlobal, Inc., the third time was the charm. A self-proclaimed "inveterate entrepreneur," Noerr's third venture in the IT industry was the creation of MuseGlobal in 2001 with three other owners...

Conference calendar.(Calendar)
April 1, 2005... APRIL 10-12 Buying & Selling eContent Camelback Inn, Scottsdale, AZ http://www.buy-sell-econtent.com MAY 17-18, 2005 WebSearch University Hilton New York, New York http://www.websearchu.com 17-18, 2005 Enterprise Search...

The research edge.(On the Road)
April 1, 2005... Conferences and trade shows play an important role in today's commercial world. Not only do they provide an opportunity for sellers and product developers to show their wares, but they also give buyers a chance to learn about new and upgraded...

Content, Global Information Architecture key to sixth annual ASIST Conference.(Report From The Field)
April 1, 2005... Montreal was the site of the sixth annual ASIST Information Architecture Summit held March 4-7. This multicultural, cosmopolitan city was a suitable setting for a meeting with the theme Crossing Boundaries. Since the summit was held...

The state of the industry: NFAIS targets the Battle for Mindshare.(Report From The Field)
April 1, 2005... Just as Philadelphia was preparing for a nor'easter that blanketed the city with snow, participants and attendees for the 47th NFAIS Annual Con ference, held Feb. 27-March 1, arrived at The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia, ready to tackle the...

Leading the way in Tampa.(Report From The Field)
April 1, 2005... The Special Libraries Association (SLA) held its Leadership Summit in Tampa, Fla., at the end of January. Known as the Winter Meeting until last year, SLA is repositioning this gathering from a training session for chapter and division officers...

Conference calendar.(Calendar)
April 1, 2005... April 8: London (The Royal College of Nursing). The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) will host The Web and After: The Future of Scholarly E-Publishing, its 21st International Learned Journals Seminar....

Don't hesitate to collaborate.(Cover Notes)(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... Collaborative Electronic Resource Management: From Acquisitions to Assessment by Joan E. Conger Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2004 ISBN: 1-59158-114-1 249 pages $45 hardback The advent of electronic information sources has produced...

'April showers bring ...'.(A view of three works)
April 1, 2005... Not long after my brother-in-law Wayne smugly remarked how well he had predicted a mild local winter, the snow started coming. And coming. And coming. Consequently, here's my advice to Wayne: Don't quit your day job hoping for a post at the...

The Skeptical Business Searcher: the Information Advisor's Guide to Evaluating Web Data, Sites, and Sources.(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... The Skeptical Business Searcher: The Information Advisor's Guide to Evaluating Web Data, Sites, and Sources By Robert Berkman Foreword by Reva Basch This is the experts' guide to finding dependable, high-quality company and industry data...

The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: a Guide for the Serious Searcher.(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious Searcher By Randolph Hock Foreword by Gary Price The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook is the essential guide for anyone who uses the Internet for research: librarians,...

Choosing and Using a News Alert Service.(New Titles for the Information Professional)(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... Choosing and Using a News Alert Service By Robert Berkman There are dozens of competing firms that offer an e-mail-based news alert service. But how to know which one is best? This comprehensive new guide explains how these tools work and...

The Accidental Library Manager.(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... The Accidental Library Manager By Rachel Singer Gordon Most librarians enter the field intending to focus on a particular specialty, but eventually need to take on certain supervisory or managerial responsibilities in order to move forward....

Best Technology Practices in Higher Education.(New Titles for the Information Professional)(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... Best Technology Practices in Higher Education Edited by Les Lloyd A handful of progressive teachers and administrators are integrating technology in new and creative ways at their colleges and universities, raising the bar for all schools....

Super Searchers on Competitive Intelligence: the Online and Offline Secrets of Top CI Researchers.(New Titles for the Information Professional)(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... Super Searchers on Competitive Intelligence: The Online and Offline Secrets of Top CI Researchers By Margaret Metcalf Carr; Edited by Reva Basch; Foreword by Jan Herring Companies operating in today's unpredictable roller-coaster economy...

The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources.(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources By Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo Edited by Barbara Quint With this remarkable, eye-opening book and its companion Web site, Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo shows how anyone can...

Assessing Competitive Intelligence Software: a Guide to Evaluating CI Technology.(Book Review)
April 1, 2005... Assessing Competitive Intelligence Software: A Guide to Evaluating CI Technology By France Bouthillier and Kathleen Shearer Foreword by Chun Wei Choo As commercial software products for competitive intelligence (CI) emerge and gain...