Information Today articles from February 2008

Information Today archives from February 2008

The wired bunch: ranking the E-candidates.
February 1, 2008... When Howard Dean garnered national headlines with his internet-based grass-roots campaign leading up to the 2004 election, it was a sign that the electoral landscape was beginning to change from one $500-a-plate fundraising dinner after another...

Congress adds copyright to agenda.
February 1, 2008... When the 110th Congress began in January, there seemed to be little interest in copyright legislation. The newly elected Democratic majority was focused on reviewing Bush administration policies on terrorism and privacy, and patent reform...

Get strategy: leading with information: Part III.
February 1, 2008... [Previously, in Part I and II of this three-part series, we discussed how information delivery can be a critical factor in the success of an enterprise and how you can position yourself to lead this effort. Here in Part III, Bob Boiko shows you...

Ingram, CIC, and Springer unveil groundbreaking deal.(News Bytes)(Committee on Institutional Cooperation)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Ingram Digital Group, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), and Springer Science+Business Media have agreed to collaborate on Ingram's MyiLibrary aggregated ebook library solution. The deal will give consortium members access to all...

Microsoft makes offer to buy Fast Search & Transfer.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Microsoft announced that it offered $1.2 billion in cash for Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) in mid-January. According to a statement, Microsoft reported its offer is a 42% premium where FAST shares are traded in Norway. The final transaction is...

SLA goes Green.(News Bytes)(Special Libraries Association)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... SLA is taking the first steps toward becoming "an environmentally sensitive organization at the membership, board, volunteer, leadership, and staff level." Noting that SLA is ready to do whatever it can to make a difference, SLA CEO Janice R....

Ingram Publisher Services, Inc. to distribute The Taunton Press Books.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Ingram Publisher Services, Inc. will become the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of titles from The Taunton Press, which publishes books on lifestyle topics including home design, homebuilding, gardening, cooking, crafts, and woodworking....

Springer teams up with OCLC to catalog Ebook Collection.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Springer Science+Business Media teamed up with OCLC to produce MARC 21 records for the Springer eBook Collection. As a standardized form of electronic cataloging records, MARC 21 records are required to correctly locate and navigate online...

ProQuest Historical Newspapers earns Editor's Choice, Factiva extends agreement.(News Bytes)(Dow Jones & Company Inc.)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Booklist editors have selected ProQuest Historical Newspapers as the Editor's Choice 2007 Top of the List for Reference. According to the reviewer, the ProQuest collection was billed as "a fantastic resource for any school, public, or academic...

FTC clears way for Google's acquisition of DoubleClick.(News Bytes)
February 1, 2008... The U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared the way for Google to acquire DoubleClick, Inc., a provider of technology and services for ad display. In April 2007, Google announced its plan to acquire the company for $3.1 billion in cash from the...

The Hewlett Foundation adds $152.1 million in grants.(News Bytes)(William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation authorized $152.1 million in grants for 229 organizations in 4Q 2007. These new grants were part of the $480.6 million that the foundation authorized in 2007. Among the top recipients are the areas of...

LexisNexis discontinues AlaCarte! Service.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... LexisNexis announced that it was discontinuing its AlaCarte! service, effective Dec. 3, 2007. Several LexisNexis products are billed as "the same or better caliber and credibility" than the AlaCarte! service. As an option, the Nexis service...

Libraries and the internet: facts and publicity.(Up Front)(www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Pew_UI_LibrariesReport.pdf.)
February 1, 2008... A very wise man named Phineas T. Barnum once said, "Any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right." (Or, at least, I think it was good old P.T. Those online quotation sources aren't as comprehensive as they should...

Google developments, access to public resources, and more.(News Break Update)(briefs)
February 1, 2008... Google continues to grab headlines without announcing anything formally. Although the company shuns press releases and official rollouts, news about new features and even product tests is dribbled out on employee blogs or just gets noticed by...

The Information Advisor turns 20.(Robert Berkman)
February 1, 2008... This year, Robert Berkman celebrates 2 decades at the editorial helm of The Information Advisor (IA), a newsletter billed as "Analysis, Advice, and Strategy for Business Information Professionals" and published by Information Today, Inc. One of...

Planalytics weathers steady growth.(IT Spotlight)(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... Here's another high-tech company with an innovative service that offers a special method for predicting the climate of marketing. FOUNDER President and CEO Frederic Fox founded Wayne, Pa.-based Planalytics, a business weather...

Twenty-five years and counting ...(LETTER FROM THE EDITOR)(Learned Information Inc.)(Information Today Inc.)(Editorial)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Where were you in 1983? That was the same year the first issue of Information Today rolled off the presses. The 36-page newspaper was chock-full of articles, with an ad on every page and the promise of a long publishing career ahead. (For more...

OA and the end game.(United States. National Institutes of Health)
February 1, 2008... It happened in the final hours as big things sometimes do, and the ending was more like a whimper than a big bang. Buried in the epic text of the U.S. Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 is a single paragraph that delivers the bottom line:...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
February 1, 2008... HEY GEORGE, CHECK THIS OUT. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I'M DOING A GOOGLE SEARCH ON ALL THE CANDIDATES HONEST ABE, CHECK OUT WHERE MY AMAZON ORDER IS FIRST. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GENTLEMEN, IS THIS REALLY THE AMERICA WE...

NIH OA mandate passes.(Focus on Publishing)(United States. National Institutes of Health)(open access)
February 1, 2008... One of the major victories in the open access (OA) movement was ushered in quietly during what is typically known as vacation week in Washington, D.C. On Dec. 26, President George W. Bush signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007, a...

VA data breach and the privacy act.(Legal Issues)(Veterans Administration)
February 1, 2008... Who would have thought that the theft of one laptop computer could have the potential for a judgment against the government for billions of dollars? In May 2006, a laptop computer belonging to a Veterans Administration (VA) employee was stolen...

Low-hanging fruit.(Internet Waves)(Column)
February 1, 2008... It can be done. I recently managed to wrestle my wireless provider to the mat and was grudgingly released from my contract without an early termination fee. I'm not naming any names here, but it's the company that touts itself as having "more...

Desktop virtualization: streamlining the future of university IT.(Insider's Perspective)(information technology)
February 1, 2008... [Insider's Perspective lets experts in the information technology industry discuss the challenges and trends in their special niche in the marketplace.--Ed.] Even in today's highly distributed university IT environments, the desktop PC...

Seriously, what's so good about Gmail?(Library Stuff Revisited)
February 1, 2008... [Here's Part I of a two-part series on Steven M. Cohen's insights about Google's Gmail. Part II will appear in the next issue of IT.--Ed.] On April 1, 2004, Google played a practical joke on its users: It introduced a free email service...

Copyright and the speed limit.(Intellectual Property)(Macrovision Corp. (Santa Clara, California))
February 1, 2008... When Macrovision (the content control company) bought the venerable TV Guide (which happened in December), it was reasonable to ask to what extent will Macrovision implement digital rights management that could force electronics manufacturers...

Pew Internet study finds Americans turn to the internet first for answers.(Survey)
February 1, 2008... A recent Pew Internet & American Life Project study (www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Pew_UI_LibrariesReport.pdf) looked at how Americans use libraries and how libraries can better serve the one-third of the U.S. population with low internet access...

Collexis: the research fingerprint.(Collexis Holdings Inc.)
February 1, 2008... The new year ushered in more than champagne and confetti for Collexis Holdings, Inc., a relatively new search system that hit the ground running last year with its one-of-a-kind applications for search, indexing, and aggregation. So far in...

Data breaches: a growing global dilemma.
February 1, 2008... While reporting laws and an insatiable appetite by U.S. consumers for privacy-related news keep data breaches in this country on many people's radar, it's not just a problem in America. Recent widely reported data breaches in the U.K. and...

Market growth in Asia, Africa, and Middle East set to tip the balance.(International REPORT)
February 1, 2008... Burgeoning markets in Asia, the growth of mobile services in Africa, and large investments by the European Union (EU) continue to push the development of the information industry outside the Americas. New analysis suggests that the dominance of...

Title of librarian of the year 2008 goes to Norma Blake.(News Makers)(New Jersey State Library)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Library Journal's prestigious honor of 2008 Librarian of the Year was bestowed upon state librarian Norma Blake from the New Jersey State Library (NJSL). Blake's longstanding legacy of leadership and innovation...

NFAIS: a half-century celebration.(News Makers)(National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... NFAIS kicks off its 50th anniversary celebration with the start of the 3-day 2008 NFAIS Annual Conference Feb. 24 in Philadelphia. In honor of NFAIS's half-century of contributions, the city of Philadelphia will proclaim the first day of the...

LACASIS honors Tenopir.(News Makers)(Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society of Information Science and Technology)(Carol Tenopir)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Industry notable Carol Tenopir won the 2007 Contribution to Information Science & Technology Award (CISTA), an annual honor presented by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society of Information Science & Technology (LACASIS) in January to...

On behalf of the British Empire.(News Makers)(Lynne Brindley)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Lynne Brindley, chief executive of The British Library, has breathed new life into U.K.'s largest public building of the 20th century since she arrived to her post in 2000 with digitization initiatives and countless innovations. And all her...

Reaching a major milestone.(Conference Circuit)
February 1, 2008... The conference scene begins to heat up this month. Top on the list this year is NFAIS's (National Federation of Advanced Information Services) major milestone as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. The publishing industry is also...

Gray literature: what's new on the information landscape.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
February 1, 2008... A bout 40 devotees of gray literature (GL) assembled Dec. 10-11 in the Council Chamber of the Province House, Antwerp, Belgium for the GL9 conference, the ninth in a series on the subject. GL9 was titled Grey Foundations in the Information...

ALA Midwinter: welcome to Philadelphia.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
February 1, 2008... Throngs of librarians and library-related vendors flocked to the city of Philadelphia, host of the American Library Association's 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting held from Jan. 11 to 14. A steady stream of attendees stopped by exhibitor booths and...

Conferences around the world.(Calendar)
February 1, 2008... For information on ITI's conferences, turn to page 26. February 11-12: Stanford, Calif. (Stanford University). The First ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM, pronounced "wisdom") is intended to complement...

Accessible archives adds federated searching functions.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... Accessible Archives, Inc. recently added federated searching of its content through arrangements with Serials Solutions and Paratext. Serials Solutions offers access to online content in libraries through its 360 Search federated search...

Thomson Scientific introduces journal citation forum.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Thomson Scientific recently launched its Citation Impact Forum, an online forum to promote scholarly discussion about citation-based research evaluation ranging from Thomson's Journal Impact Factor to emerging citation metrics. The forum will...

Pedia proliferation.(Database Review)
February 1, 2008... People either love or hate Wikipedia, but the vast majority are lovers. Wikipedia has many thousands of dedicated (which is a nice way to say "obsessive") contributors, more than 2 million articles, and an Alexa ranking as one of the top 10...

Generate: introducing the g2 toolbar.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... Generate, Inc. unleashed its latest on-demand business intelligence application, turning the new Version 3 into a virtual Sherlock Holmes of enterprise data. The latest enhancements include the g2 Toolbar that incorporates Generate gClick...

ProQuest unveils largest digital collection of U.S. Hispanic newspapers.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... ProQuest is getting ready to unveil the largest digital collection of U.S. Hispanic newspapers available in a single interface with its ProQuest U.S. Hispanic Newsstand. The collection will feature coverage from more than 30 titles, including...

SirsiDynix now offers Symphony 3.2.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... SirsiDynix introduced SirsiDynix Symphony 3.2, a customizable integrated library system that's billed as "open architecture... open standards... open integration." Highlights include open n-tier architecture, software-as-a-service options, a...

Ex Libris Group releases Aleph V. 19.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... Ex Libris Group released v. 19 of its Aleph integrated library system, which incorporates user-driven functionality. More than 2,200 customers worldwide submitted 100-plus feature requests for streamlining library processes. Ex Libris worked...

Emerald Group Publishing introduces Emerald Backfiles.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Emerald Group Publishing launched Emerald Backfiles, the digitization of the full archive of its journals in business, management, library and information services, materials sciences, and engineering. The British Library helped convert more...

Nature archive goes live online, NPG launches new journal.(Product News & Reviews)(Nature Publishing Group)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The journal Nature now offers online access to historic moments in modern science as its archive goes live. All Nature articles dating from 1869 (Vol. 1, No. 1) will be available. Highlights include Wilhelm Rontgen's first observations of...

Springer protocols: recipe for success.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... When Springer acquired medical and science publisher Humana Press 18 months ago, the expanded collection of Springer offerings laid the foundation for Springer Protocols. This new product, which blends easy-to-use online navigation with content...

EBSCO Publishing adds backfile to International Political Science abstracts.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... EBSCO Publishing and the International Political Science Association have jointly brought the bibliographic records in International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA) from Vol. 25 to EBSCOhost. More than 3 decades of IPSA records are now...

Questel releases PatLegal Monitor.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... Questel recently released its new PatLegal Monitor service, with easy-to-use alerts that automatically notify users of changes to the patent family's legal status and file histories from various patent offices. The patent office coverage ranges...

Knovel adds Merck Index to e-reference collection, expands technical references.(Product News & Reviews)(Knovel and Merck Publishing)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Knovel and Merck Publishing announced that The Merck Index was integrated into Knovel's e-reference collection. Chemists and engineers consider The Merck Index the "go-to reference for generations of professionals and academics" who can now...

OvidSP: a new way of searching.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... Since Ovid (a Wolters Kluwer Health business) rolled out its new precision search and discovery platform called OvidSP late last fall, the list of users continues to grow worldwide. The Ovid innovation team consulted with an extensive user...

Wiley-Blackwell adds 2,000 online books to Wiley interscience.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Wiley-Blackwell's new digitization initiative made 2,000 more books accessible online to librarians, information professionals, academics, researchers, and students. The collection includes titles from Blackwell Publishing, Wiley-VCH, and the...

FIZ CHEMIE Berlin launches ChemgaMedia.(Product News & Reviews)
February 1, 2008... FIZ CHEMIE Berlin recently introduced ChemgaMedia, ready-made electronic material demonstrating chemical processes with downloadable digital images, interactive graphics, animations, and video clips. These multimedia components can be used in...

Library acquires rare C. L. R. James manuscript.(Product News & Reviews)(Cyril Lionel Robert James)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquired a manuscript by Cyril Lionel Robert James that is judged to be his most important work. James, a West Indian polymath and 20th-century expert in intellectual history (1901-1989),...

Analytics revisited.(Product News & Reviews)(San Diego Software Industry Council)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Although the wildfires in San Diego last October delayed the date of the first annual Forum on Analytics, it sure didn't dampen enthusiasm. The 1-day forum titled The Forum on Analytics: From Data to Decision, which was hosted by the San Diego...

Ingram Book Group.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Joseph P. Reynolds)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ingram Book Group announced the appointment of Joseph P. Reynolds as president of Ingram Library Services, Inc. and group managing director of Coutts Information Services. Reynolds joined Ingram Library Services a...

Index Data.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Lynn Bailey)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Index Data announced the appointment of Lynn Bailey as its new CEO. Prior to this, she held various positions in management, marketing, and technical sales at AT&T. While there, she was involved in emerging...

Wikimedia Foundation.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Erik Moller)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The Wikimedia Foundation announced the appointment of Erik Moller as its deputy director. In this role, Moller will lead the development and execution of Wikimedia's technical strategy and projects. Since 2001, he has been an editor of the...

Library of Congress.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Martha Anderson has appointed as adirector of program mng.)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Library of Congress announced that Martha Anderson has been named director of program management for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). She has been acting director...

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Chris Armstrong has been appointed)(Judy Broady-Preston has appointed)(Paul Clarke has selected)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals announced that 12 trustees have been elected to serve on its reformed council. The newly elected members are Chris Armstrong, Judy Broady-Preston, Paul Clarke, Veronica...

OCLC.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Online Computer Library Center)(appointment of Andrew Pace )(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OCLC announced the appointment of Andrew Pace as executive director of networked library services. In this role, he will guide the development of network-level services for libraries. Most recently, Pace was head...

Cistera Networks, Inc.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cistera Networks, Inc. announced that Kurt Krueger has been appointed senior director of sales for North America. In his new role, he will be responsible for all aspects of sales initiatives in North America. ...

Terry Hulbert, Director, Business Development, American Institute of Physics.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Terry Hulbert has joined )
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While Web 2.0 and new technologies have opened the door to endless possibilities in this industry, most STM information has already been digitized and made accessible. The next challenge is to find new means for...

Offline readers meet in online community: but a large and growing group of internet users use their time with digital media as a way to enhance their offline engagement with text.(Link-Up @ Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
February 1, 2008... "A book holds a house of gold," according to a Chinese proverb. But many people don't seem interested in gold houses, even though public libraries let you live in them free. According to a report called "To Read or Not To Read," released in...

From hoodies to trivia, these sports sites shine.(CyberSports)
February 1, 2008... As folks around the rest of the country already know, we love our small-town sports in Texas, especially football. (That may be why the only ones watching Friday Night Lights on NBC every week are living in your Field Correspondent's...

A librarian's guide to negotiating the IP maze.(Cover Notes)(Book review)
February 1, 2008... Intellectual Property: Everything the Digital-Age Librarian Needs to Know by Timothy Wherry Chicago: ALA, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-8389-0948-5 152 pages; $50, softcover Since I started my new job in a law school library, I've...

O, pioneers!(In Other Words)(Column)
February 1, 2008... While procrastinating about writing my column (a favorite pastime) by channel surfing (another favorite pastime), I happened to find the new PBS series on TV pioneers. So, in honor of sitcom legends Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez,...

Information today celebrates its silver anniversary.
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The year was 1983. Ronald Reagan was president; George Bush was vice president. Sally K. Ride became the first U.S. woman astronaut in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. The median household income was...