Information Today articles from December 2003

Information Today archives from December 2003

Execs agree that customers are key.
December 1, 2003... On a trip to Ohio this fall, I thought it might be interesting to visit the three big information companies based there, talk to the top execs, and maybe learn what it is that keeps the businesses going in these troubled economic times. ...

Czech-ing out EUSIDIC.(Report From The Field)(Prague, Czech Republic, hosts European Association of Information Services' (EUSIDIC) annual conference)
December 1, 2003... It was a small but lively group that gathered in mid-October in Prague, Czech Republic, for the European Association of Information Services' (EUSIDIC) annual conference. With "Building Customer Loyalty: The Branding Imperative" as its theme,...

Meet the press ... or not.(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2003... Professional ethics require a journalist to gather information as vigorously and assertively as possible. The service ethic requires a librarian to deliver all known or accessible truths to needy clients as completely as possible. So what...

Taylor & Francis buys Swets & Zeitlinger.(News Bytes)(Royal Swets & Zeitlinger sells publishing business and assets of Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers and A.A. Balkema to Taylor & Francis Group)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Royal Swets & Zeitlinger announced the sale of the publishing business and assets of Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers (SZP) and A.A. Balkema to the Taylor & Francis Group, a specialist publisher of scientific, academic, and professional books and...

Openly Informatics partners with Sirsi.(News Bytes)(Sirsi Corp. announced technology partnership with Openly Informatics Inc)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Sirsi Corp. announced a technology partnership with Openly Informatics, Inc., a provider of OEM linking software and services. Sirsi has selected Openly Informatics OpenURL linking technology as the core engine for Sirsi Resolver, a solution...

State of Ohio recognizes LexisNexis U.S.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... LexisNexis U.S. announced that it has received the prestigious Thomas Edison Award from the state of Ohio. Gov. Bob Taft presented the award during ceremonies at the USAF Museum in Dayton. Ohio also honored eight small companies with Emerging...

Swets Blackwell achieves COUNTER level 2 compliance.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Swets Blackwell announced that it is the first subscription agent member to achieve level 2 compliance with COUNTER's international e-journal usage standards. Swets has signed a formal declaration of compliance with COUNTER, an international...

Factiva partners with Verity.(News Bytes)(Will jointly allow enterprise customers to integrate set of Factiva's industry-specific taxonomies with K2 Enterprise, Verity's intellectual capital management software)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Factiva and Verity, Inc. have announced an agreement that will help global enterprise customers organize their intellectual capital assets. The companies will jointly allow enterprise customers to integrate a set of Factiva's...

The numbers racket.(Up Front)(GPO Access service is discussed)
December 1, 2003... In October, Bruce James, the Public Printer and head of the U.S. Government Printing Office, told a meeting of federal depository librarians that the GPO Access service does not have a sustainable business model and that GPO needs to "create a...

Updates on projects, partnerships, improved services, and more.(News Break Update)
December 1, 2003... I recently returned from the Internet Librarian conference. As usual, it offered a useful mix of practical and visionary presentations along with excellent networking opportunities. Though the event is organized by ITI, the publisher of...

The Wall Street Journal announces new marketing initiatives.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Dow Jones & Co. announced new integrated sales and marketing initiatives for The Wall Street Journal and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com. In addition, Dow Jones will begin reporting its U.S. print and applicable online subscribers...

Emerald acquires journal, handbook.(News Bytes)(Buys Journal of Business Strategy (JBS) and Handbook of Business Strategy)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Emerald, an international management and information science publisher, has announced the acquisition of the Journal of Business Strategy (JBS) and the Handbook of Business Strategy. Written for senior managers, the Journal of Business...

Ovid launches Taiwan Regional Data Center.(News Bytes)(Ovid Technologies, Inc., National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), and Flysheet Information Services, Inc. set up new Ovid Regional Data Center (RDC) in Taiwan)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Ovid Technologies, Inc., National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), and Flysheet Information Services, Inc. announced the establishment of a new Ovid Regional Data Center (RDC) in Taiwan. The RDC will be hosted by NCTU and Flysheet Information...

BL announces historic change in legal deposit law.(News Bytes)(British Library)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The British Library announced that a Private Members Bill, introduced in December 2002, has passed all its parliamentary hurdles and became law when it received Royal Assent. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 extends previous legal deposit...

Library community opposes bill to restrict data access.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The Association of Research Libraries announced that Prue Adler, its associate executive director, voiced the opposition of the library community to the recently introduced "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act" (H.R....

MacArthur Foundation makes grant.(News Bytes)(John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announces grant of $600,000 over 3 years to Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced a grant of $600,000 over 3 years to Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to explore options for the future of copyright in a digital environment. The grant...

LexisNexis UK uses XyEnterprise XML Web Services.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... XyEnterprise, a developer of XML content management and enterprise publishing software, announced that its XML Professional Publisher (XPP) Web Services technology has been deployed to support a sophisticated XML content management and...

Publisher Axel Springer teams with NewsStand.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... NewsStand, Inc., a digital distributor for newspapers and magazines worldwide, and publisher Axel Springer have teamed to launch digital editions of Sunday newspaper WELT am SONNTAG and daily newspaper DIE WELT (http://www.welt .de). Now,...

ProQuest, NCBI offer access to ProQuest Medical Library.(News Bytes)(ProQuest Information and Learning, in cooperation with NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), offers PubMed LinkOut capabilities in ProQuest Medical Library)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... ProQuest Information and Learning, in cooperation with NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), is now offering PubMed LinkOut capabilities in ProQuest Medical Library. ProQuest Information and Learning, a unit of ProQuest Co.,...

The politics of open access.(Opinion)(Conference in Europe is noted)
December 1, 2003... The battle of words over how research results should best be distributed heated up again this fall. And once again, the heat was coming from Europe. In late October, a conference sponsored by the venerable Max Planck Society in Germany...

InfoToons.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... WELCOME OUR NEW C.E.O. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW C.E.O.? YOU JUST WON'T BELIEVE WHO HE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OOOH! I'LL HAVE TO CHECK HIM OUT. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LATER......

U.S. Treasury rules on IEEE.(Focus on Publishing)(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
December 1, 2003... This September, the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ruled on the nature of the restrictions that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) should undertake when publishing and serving members in...

But we're not allowed to use the Internet!(Internet Waves)
December 1, 2003... Here at MacDill Air Force Base, our library supports not only those students who take classes at the five colleges that have a physical presence on the base, but also those who participate in distance education from institutions around the...

OCLC v. The Library Hotel.(Legal Issues)(OCLC sued The Library Hotel (New York) for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising)
December 1, 2003... One of the most amusing trademark lawsuits of all time was recently filed. On Sept. 10, OCLC sued The Library Hotel (located in New York) for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising. OCLC accuses the lodging of...

Seeing the bigger picture.
December 1, 2003... This is not a PR put-on. I see chemists smile. I've shown them SciFinder. They'll sit down at the computer, they'll look at the screen, and they'll start smiling. They'll say: "This is unbelievable. I remember doing this as a student, you know....

The secret to our comeback.(Interview with Bill Pardue, president and CEO of LexisNexis Corporate and Federal Markets)(Interview)
December 1, 2003... In September, I visited LexisNexis and the other Ohio companies in this series. A week later, Bill Pardue, president and CEO of LexisNexis Corporate and Federal Markets, and I caught up with each other on the phone. Kaser: LexisNexis has...

Pushing the envelope.
December 1, 2003... Jay Jordan's computer chimed with the sound of arriving e-mail. Over the next hour, it chimed 10 times and his phone rang twice. Jordan's a busy guy. We were both running late for the scheduled interview. "What's up?" I asked. And without...

Frankfurt Book Fair 2003.(International Report)
December 1, 2003... The number of visitors to the Frankfurt Book Fair increased for the second straight year, with 288,887 attending during the event's Oct. 8-13 run (an 8.7-percent increase from 2002). With the number of exhibitors also increasing by 4 percent to...

The Big Read.(International Report)(BBC's Big Read project ran nationwide poll to determine Britain's 100 best-loved novels)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... In Britain, the joys of reading are being heavily promoted by the BBC. In April, its Big Read project ran a nationwide poll to determine Britain's 100 best-loved novels. The list is on the BBC Web site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/...

Publishers win prizes.(International Report)(Association of Online Publishers (AOP) held annual awards ceremony)
December 1, 2003... While on the topic of prizewinners, the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) held its annual awards ceremony on Oct. 14 in London. When AOP was launched in July 2002, it took over the awards from the interactive arm of the Periodical...

On the road.(Conference Circuit)(Information Today's Computers in Libraries conference is noted)
December 1, 2003... Think spring! So what If you're still putting up holiday decorations. Spring brings to mind robins, warmer days, more sunshine, and heading to Washington, D.C., for the Computers in Libraries conference, which will be held March 10-12, 2004, at...

ASIS&T 2003.(Report From The Field)(American Society for Information Science and Technology conference )
December 1, 2003... "Humanizing Information Technology: From Ideas to Bits and Back" was the theme of this year's annual conference of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). The meeting was held Oct. 19-22 in sunny Long Beach,...

Conference calendar.(Calendar)
December 1, 2003... December 2-4: London (Olympia Grand Hall). Imark Communications is sponsoring Online Information 2003, the world's largest exhibition for information content, management, and delivery. Bob Boiko, a leading commentator on content...

Education ain't what it used to be: eighty-one percent of all higher education institutions offer at least one fully online or blended course, and 34 percent offer one or more complete online degree programs.(Perspectives)
December 1, 2003... Online learning is the fastest growing segment in the educational marketplace. According to a July 2003 U.S. Department of Education report (http:// nces.ed.gov), more than 3 million people were enrolled in online classes in 2001, and 6 million...

Something for the zebra set.(CyberSports)
December 1, 2003... Lately, I've been spending much of my work week perched high in assorted stadia, relentlessly taking notes and keeping statistics to record the single greatest events in the lives of people who obviously don't have enough lives of their own....

How to dress for success.(Link-up @ Home: your personal guied to the Web)
December 1, 2003... According to the book At Ease Professionally: An Etiquette Guide for the Business Arena, the first impression you make on someone consists of three components: words, 7 percent; vocal quality, 35 percent; nonverbal communication, including body...

Nexcerpt announces product enhancements.(Product News & Reviews)(Solution uses proprietary text analysis technology to monitor thousands of media sources and highlight a user's most relevant information in a digestible article excerpt)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Nexcerpt, Inc., a provider of media-monitoring and media-report publishing products, announced several product enhancements that are designed to reduce the time spent managing media clippings and distributing this information to internal and...

ebrary, Society of Manufacturing Engineers launch manufacturing engineering database.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... ebrary and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers announced the availability of SME Source, an interactive, full-text database that contains more than 4,000 individual book chapters, journal articles, and technical papers. Key features of...

Dialog offers new content, portal service.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Dialog Corp. announced that it has added three files of epidemiological data to the collection of medical information available through its online service. The company also announced the launch of Dialog Portals, a service that allows business...

ProQuest unveils eLibrary Curriculum Edition, teams up with Project MUSE.(Product News & Reviews)(ProQuest Information and Learning)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... ProQuest Information and Learning announced the release of eLibrary Curriculum Edition, a collection of periodical and digital media content designed specifically for secondary schools and libraries. The company also announced that it will link...

Cymfony adds FluentMedia sources to Brand Dashboard.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... FluentMedia, a content-licensing agency of Tribune Co., announced that it will augment Cymfony, Inc.'s Brand Dashboard by providing business and consumer news sources. Brand Dashboard is a media measurement and analysis solution that delivers...

LexisNexis to provide free legal research option to Microsoft Office 2003.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... LexisNexis announced it would provide free legal research to users of Microsoft Office. The company will offer a legal research option on Microsoft Corp.'s new Research Task Pane featured in Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel...

CSA adds database to IDS.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Cambridge Scientific Abstracts announced that the Institute of Management International Database, published by the Chartered Management Institute, is now available on its Internet Database Service. According to the announcement, the...

MuseGlobal launches MuseSeek for consumers.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... MuseGlobal, Inc. has announced the release of MuseSeek, a new consumer-oriented version of its metasearching technology. With its intuitive interface, MuseSeek will allow Internet users to perform simultaneous searches of an unlimited number of...

Marcel Dekker unveils e-book sites.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Publisher Marcel Dekker, Inc., along with its technology partner OverDrive, Inc., an e-book distributor, has launched two e-book sites. The institutional site, http://www.ebooks.lib.dekker.com, allows libraries to purchase titles for perpetual...

Copernic releases Copernic Enterprise Search.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Copernic, an information technology provider, announced the launch of Copernic Enterprise Search. This offering is specifically designed to meet the needs of the small-to-medium-sized enterprise and departments of larger enterprises. ...

H.W. Wilson expands legal database.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... H.W. Wilson announced that 25 select journals have been added to its Index to Legal Periodicals Full Text database. This brings the total to more than 1,000. The new journals expand the database's international scope and focus on a range of key...

Convera, Nexidia add integrated audio search component into RetrievalWare platform.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Convera, a provider of search and categorization software for enterprises and government agencies, and Nexidia, developer of a solution for audio/video searching and intelligent mining, announced a partnership that will add phonetic audio...

EDGAR Online, Inc. releases a new version of its premium subscription service.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... EDGAR Online, Inc. announced the release of a new version of its premium EDGAR Online Pro service. The company also outlined a new strategic focus on selling EDGAR Online Pro to clients in financial services companies, including investment...

OverDrive adds new publishers to its Digital Library.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... OverDrive, Inc. has announced that more than 150 publishers have been added to its Digital Library Reserve. Best-selling titles from Microsoft Press, Merriam-Webster, Barnes & Noble Digital Publishing, Tyndale House, Zondervan, Multnomah, Rough...

EBSCO Publishing adds databases to EBSCOhost.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... EBSCO Publishing announced that it has added the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, Biological & Agricultural Index, and Essay and General Literature Index to its EBSCOhost service. Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals Avery...

Sjoerd Vogt.(People Line)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Swets Blackwell U.K. has announced that Sjoerd Vogt is its new managing director. Most recently, Vogt was vice president and general manager of Dialog's OnDisc/@Site division. Vogt began his career as Dialog's head of training and customer...

Ingenta.(People Line)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Ingenta has announced four new appointments to lead its programs in the U.S. and the U.K. Anne Orens will be the new director of business development for North America. Most recently, she was the American Mathematical Society's director...

FIND/SVP, Inc.(People Line)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... FIND/SVP, Inc. has announced that Richard Longenecker is its new executive vice president of business development. He will oversee sales and corporate business development efforts throughout the company. He will also be a member of its...

ProQuest Information and Learning.(People Line)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... ProQuest Information and Learning has announced that Carolyn Dyer, its senior vice president of content operations, has been named Top Michigan Woman in Computing by the Association of Women in Computing. According to the announcement, this...

EBSCO Industries, Inc.(People Line)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... EBSCO Industries, Inc. announced that James T. Stephens, its president and CEO, has been inducted into the University of Alabama's Communication Hall of Fame. According to the announcement, this award, created by the Communication and...

The executive profile.(Robert Granader, CEO of Market-Research.com)
December 1, 2003... Robert Granader, CEO of Market-Research .com Before his current position as MarketResearch .com's CEO, Robert Granader covered Capitol Hill and the White House as a reporter for a number of print news outlets. From 1994 to 1998, he reported...

IM a librarian today.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Going Live: Starting & Running a Virtual Reference Service by Steve Coffman Chicago: American Library Association, 2003 ISBN: 0-8389-0850-0 192 pages $42 Instant messaging and chat have become huge components of Internet use, especially...

Tomes for the holidays.(In Other Words)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... A lot happens in December. Jews observe Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. On Dec. 25, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, while those with a more secular view welcome the arrival of Santa. A day later, African-Americans begin the...

The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: a Guide for the Serious Searcher.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... 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, teachers, students, writers, business professionals, and others who need to...

Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Edited by Marylaine Block The Internet is a mixed blessing for libraries and librarians. Today, the Net challenges the librarian's ability to select, threatens the survival of the book, necessitates continuous retraining, presents unique...

The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library With Free Web Resources.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... 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 create a comprehensive personal library using no-cost Web resources. And when...

The Accidental Webmaster.(Book Review)(Brief Review)
December 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 Web-mastering books focus on programming and related...

Building & Running a Successful Research Business: a Guide for the Independent Information Professional.(Book Review)(Brief Review)
December 1, 2003... By Mary Ellen Bates Edited by Reva Basch This is the handbook every aspiring independent information professional needs to launch, manage, and build a research business. Organized into four sections, "Getting Started," "Running the...

Assessing Competitive Intelligence Software: a Guide to Evaluating CI Technology.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By France Bouthillier and Kathleen Shearer Foreword by Chun Wei Choo As commercial software products for competitive intelligence (CI) emerge and gain acceptance, potential users find themselves overly dependent on information supplied by...

Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Heting Chu This is the first book to offer a comprehensive view of information representation and retrieval (IRR). With an emphasis on principles and fundamentals, author Heting Chu reviews key concepts and major developmental stages of...

Business Statistics on the Web: Find Them Fast--At Little or No Cost.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Paula Berinstein Foreword by Charles Cotton Statistics are a critical component of business and marketing plans, press releases, surveys, economic analyses, presentations, proposals, and more--yet good statistics are notoriously hard to...

Elsevier adopts COUNTER Code of Practice.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Elsevier has announced that its ScienceDirect product will comply with Release 1 of the international COUNTER Code of Practice, which governs the recording and exchange of online usage data and primarily focuses on journals and databases. ...

Another view of de-duplication.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... In the opinion of MuseGlobal, "The Truth About Federated Searching" in your October 2003 issue contains a number of statements that are erroneous. In the interest of presenting your readership a more balanced view of federated search...

Where in the world?(Letters To The Editor)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... I have been a subscriber to Information Today for some time now, and generally look forward to Barbara Quint's articles, which are usually very pithy and informative. I must tell you however, that I was a bit bothered by something she...