Information Today articles from January 2004

Information Today archives from January 2004

Internet Librarian returns to Monterey.(Report From The Field)(Internet Librarian conference)
January 1, 2004... Librarians and information professionals from a wide variety of environments descended on beautiful Monterey, Calif., for the seventh annual Internet Librarian conference, held Nov. 3-5, 2003. They came to learn more about search, explore new...

What's ahead for 2004?
January 1, 2004... It's that time again. The calendar has flipped over to 2004, and there are grand hopes for the information industry's future. The economy is bouncing back, even though there have been some industry layoffs as we went to press. Regardless, this...

Fiddling while Rome burns?(Investigative Report)(intellectual freedom)
January 1, 2004... Librarians market themselves as staunch advocates of intellectual freedom. But what is intellectual freedom, why do librarians care about it so much, and how well do they defend it anyway? Librarians are getting a lot of bad press. In...

Librarians release new info pro Web log.(News Bytes)(Beyond the Job)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Sarah Johnson and Rachel Singer Gordon have announced the release of Beyond the Job, a new career-development Web log for information professionals. The first Web log to focus exclusively on professional development opportunities for...

FreePint publishes data-protection report online.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... FreePint announced that it has published a new report, "Data Protection for Websites and Intranets" by Paul Pedley. According to the announcement, it's essential reading for anyone working with electronic information as it explains how...

ProQuest signs three new agreements.(News Bytes)
January 1, 2004... ProQuest Information and Learning has announced agreements with three companies. OxResearch Database A distribution agreement for Oxford Analytica's OxResearch database gives ProQuest exclusive worldwide distribution rights for the...

IFLA announces donation to FAIFE.(News Bytes)(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) announced that FOBID, the library umbrella organization of the Netherlands, will donate $61,000 to the IFLA Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE)...

NESLi2, Blackwell Publishing announce agreement.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Blackwell Publishing, Ltd., and NESLi2 announced an agreement that will enable U.K. universities and higher education institutions to gain online access to Blackwell's collection of 660 international peer-reviewed journals, many published on...

LexisNexis partners with American Bar Association.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... LexisNexis and the American Bar Association Section of Public Utility, Communications, and Transportation Law announced an extensive sponsorship agreement between the two organizations. As part of the new relationship, LexisNexis becomes...

OCLC purchases CAPCON assets.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... OCLC announced that, in a move initiated by the CAPCON board of trustees and approved by the CAPCON membership, it has purchased the business assets of the CAPCON Library Network to form the OCLC CAPCON Service Center. The new unit will...

CrossRef drops DOI retrieval fees.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... CrossRef, the cross-publisher reference-linking service, announced that it will drop its DOI retrieval fees for all members and affiliates starting this month. This move gives all CrossRef users unlimited access to DOIs and is particularly...

The end of the 'big deal' era.(Up Front)
January 1, 2004... Frightened by the still-limping economy, even those information industry vendors that believe every revival statistic published by the feds still cling to bulk, institutional sales. Large sales to consortia and institutions top the desirability...

The latest developments in open access, e-books, and more.(News Break Update)
January 1, 2004... The big news for us at Information Today, Inc. is our Live from London blog, which provided coverage of the Online Information 2003 conference Dec. 2-4 and was ITI's first foray into the Web log publishing environment. Our determined group...

Elsevier signs on with CISTI.(News Bytes)(Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) announced the signing of a key agreement that makes Elsevier's major STM titles available to CISTI clients who choose Secure Desktop Delivery (SDD). This new document...

BioMed Central signs two new members.(News Bytes)(Consortium of Southern BioMedical Libraries, Maine Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... BioMed Central announced that it has signed institutional membership agreements with two U.S. consortia, the Consortium of Southern BioMedical Libraries (CONBLS) and Maine Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN). CONBLS is a...

ATLA to produce new testament abstracts. (American Theological Library Association).(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) announced a formal agreement with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology to produce electronic versions of the New Testament Abstracts (NTA). The agreement calls for an online version developed...

Inmagic changes solution's business model.(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Inmagic, Inc. announced a partnership with Digital Vantage Point, an open standards systems integrator. Digital Vantage Point, which will work with Inmagic Content Server customers in the U.S. and Canada, will provide consulting, integration,...

SLA adopts new values statements. (Special Libraries Association).(News Bytes)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Special Libraries Association (SLA) board of directors announced that the organization has adopted new vision, mission, and values statements during its fall board meeting. The new vision, mission, and core values were created by SLA's...

The politics of open access.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... [This letter was inspired by a recent article in USA TODAY by Dan Vergano; http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-11-19-journals-usat_x.htm.] Today, there are 24,000 research journals (across all disciplines and languages, worldwide) that...

Reading from the bottom up.(intranet and enterprise portal development)
January 1, 2004... Content management guru Bob Boiko, speaking at the London Online Information meeting in December, urged those who are developing enterprise portals and intranets to note that the audiences for their services expect information to be in the form...

Infotoons.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... THESE 'WHAT'S AHEAD?' PIECES ARE ALWAYS SO HARD TO WRITE. WHY CAN'T I WRITE ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL THIS COMPANY IS? 'THIS YEAR, I PREDICT I'LL EARN MILLIONS IN COMPENSATION AND GET TO DRIVE A BRAND-NEW LEXUS. FABULOUS BABES, WILL BE AT MY BECK...

Open access expands its reach. (scholarly publishing).(Focus on Publishing)
January 1, 2004... If I were Alice in Wonderland, I'd say that with each passing month the scholarly publishing landscape just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Indeed, those who hoped that open access was just another fantasy in Alice's vivid imagination...

Jacso's 2003 Cheers and Jeers.(Internet Insights)(Industry Overview)(Column)
January 1, 2004... This year's Cheers and Jeers column is dedicated to linking, including the mother of all links: cited references in publications. Links are digital manifestations of the traditional intellectual acts of citing other works. You certainly...

New International IP laws on the horizon. (intellectual property).(Legal Issues)
January 1, 2004... Everyone knows that the information community is global. When I go to a Russian Internet cafe and access LexisNexis (owned by Reed Elsevier, a Dutch multinational corporation) or sit in my office in Pittsburgh and review e-journals provided by...

U.K. (electronic publication collection legislation).(International Report)
January 1, 2004... The U.K. has passed new legislation that extends legal deposit to electronic publications. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, which became law last October, provides a legal framework for ensuring that electronic media is systematically...

France. (trademarks).(International Report)
January 1, 2004... It seems that in the world of trademarks--as in many areas of life--those who live by the sword risk dying by it. Last year, for instance, Google's lawyers dispatched letters to a number of Web sites--including the lexicographical site The...

Kenya. (copyright).(International Report)
January 1, 2004... Copyright has become hugely contentious in the digital age, particularly in North America and Europe. In Africa, it's no less contentious, although the concerns tend to be more traditional. The problems are perhaps best demonstrated by...

On the road.(Conference Circuit)(Calendar)
January 1, 2004... Information Today, Inc.'s spring 2004 conference schedule offers a few new twists along with some old favorites. You've probably already marked your calendar for Computers in Libraries in March. This event is co-located with Internet@Schools...

Live from London! (Online Information 2003).(Conference Circuit)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Our Live from London Web log (http://www.infotodayblog.com), which covered the Dec. 2-4 Online Information 2003 conference at London's Olympia venue, attracted a good bit of attention in the industry. So much so that we now find it difficult to...

Search, navigate, find, personalize. (Internet Librarian 2003).(Conference Circuit)
January 1, 2004... The ever-popular topic of navigating and searching proved once again to be irresistible to a number of Internet Librarian attendees. This track (which I moderated) featured world-class speakers and provided an in-depth overview of what's new...

Funding strategies for libraries. (Internet Librarian 2003).(Conference Circuit)
January 1, 2004... Rebecca Jones of Dysart & Jones Associates moderated an evening session at Internet Librarian 2003 titled "Saving Ourselves: Alternative or Adventuresome Funding Strategies." It featured Steve Coffman of LSSI, Caroline Punches of the new...

Tech trends at Internet Librarian.(Conference Circuit)
January 1, 2004... Technology developments were a common thread throughout the conference, but the discussions on this topic always connected to content--how technology tools can be employed for content organization, access, delivery, and use. An opening day...

Conference calendar.(Conference Circuit)(Calendar)
January 1, 2004... January 9-14: San Diego (San Diego Convention Center). ALA is hosting its 2004 Midwinter Meeting. For more detailed information about the conference, check ALA's Web site (http://www.ala.org). Contact: American Library Association, 50...

Shoppinq for health insurance on the web: perspectives.(Link-up@home: your personal guide to the web)
January 1, 2004... Our need to understand health insurance has never been greater. Many of us are experiencing radical changes as premiums rise, employers reduce the share of health costs they're willing to pay, and the government changes the rules. Selecting the...

Jumping into the assignment: cybersports.(Link-up@home: your personal guide to the web)
January 1, 2004... For me, most of college basketball's attraction ended around the time Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter. Perhaps it was the fact that the hometown Texas Longhorns were uniformly awful through my formative years. Dedication to the alma mater...

Good answers to job interview questions.(Link-up@home: your personal guide to the web)
January 1, 2004... The second most common mistake people make during job interviews is not showing enough enthusiasm, according to JobsOnTheWeb.com, a site developed by employment firm Thomas J. Dougherty &Associates. JobsOnTheWeb.com includes a list of the 34...

ProQuest offers new full-text links to CSA.(Product News & Reviews)(ProQuest Information and Learning announced new agreement that lets customers to link from CSA's research abstracts to full-text of scholarly journals in ProQuest online databases)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ProQuest Information and Learning announced a new agreement that allows customers to link from CSA's research abstracts to the full-text of scholarly journals in ProQuest online databases. Among the titles included in the new agreement are...

FreePint unveils interactive VIP service.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... FreePint, an online community of research workers, announced the launch of VIP, an interactive service targeted to the international business information community, including information professionals, knowledge managers, IT professionals, Web...

More than just market research.(Database Review)(Market research continues its march into the online mainstream, with introduction of Euromonitor's Global Market Information Database)
January 1, 2004... Market research continues its march into the online mainstream. Market research publishers have lagged behind other types of content producers in embracing the online state of the art. This is due primarily to the cost of the reports, which can...

WSJ.com launches Personal Journal.(Product News & Reviews)(Wall Street Journal Online announced addition of Personal Journal section to its Online Journal)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Wall Street Journal Online announced the addition of a Personal Journal section to its Online Journal. The Personal Journal, which includes features from the Online Journal's previous Your Money section, contains new content and tools as...

Dialog announces new Web service.(Product News & Reviews)(Dialog Corp. announced launch of Dialog Application Programming Interface, a Web service)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Dialog Corp. announced the launch of the Dialog Application Programming Interface, a Web service that enables Dialog's content collection and search engine to be integrated seamlessly into Web sites, enterprise portals, corporate intranets and...

French full-text patents available on Questel*Orbit.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Questel*Orbit has announced the addition of French full-text patents to its collection. The new FRFULL file covers French patent applications dating to 1980 and is updated weekly. FRFULL is produced by the patent information service company...

Planet Data releases Targeted Data Extraction.(Product News & Reviews)(Planet Data Solutions Inc. offers new service)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Planet Data Solutions, Inc., a provider of legal, corporate, and government document management and litigation-data-support services, announced the launch of Targeted Data Extraction. According to the announcement, this proprietary...

MicroPatent adds new features to Trademark.com.(Product News & Reviews)(MicroPatent LLC adds two tools to its Trademark.com service: Searchable International Classification Lookup and Ranking)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... MicroPatent, LLC announced the addition of two tools to its Trademark.com service: Searchable International Classification Lookup and Ranking. Trademark.com's searchable, international classification database includes goods and services...

Short Story Index now available via EBSCOhost.(Product News & Reviews)(EBSCO Publishing announced availability of H.W. Wilson's Short Story Index through EBSCOhost)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... EBSCO Publishing announced the availability of H.W. Wilson's Short Story Index through EBSCOhost. Short Story Index is a detailed database of citation information for more than 76,500 stories from more than 4,025 collections. It's...

LexisNexis to provide Zimmerman's Research Guide.(Product News & Reviews)(LexisNexis announced that Zimmerman's Research Guide is now available to librarians and other researchers exclusively through LexisNexis InfoPro Web site and lexisONE portal )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... LexisNexis announced that Zimmerman's Research Guide is now available to librarians and other researchers exclusively through the LexisNexis InfoPro Web site and the lexisONE portal for solo and small-firm attorneys. Zimmerman's Research...

STN International releases new patent databases.(Product News & Reviews)(FIZ Karlsruhe, European service center of STN International, announced release of several new patent databases)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... FIZ Karlsruhe, the European service center of STN International, announced the release of several new patent databases. The new FRANCEPAT database contains abstracts of patent applications and patents published since 1966 by France's...

Agence France-Presse content available through Factiva.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Factiva announced the addition of international news and photo agency Agence France-Presse to its service. Factiva customers can now access AFP's multilingual content, including worldwide general news, sports, and economic coverage. Agence...

CSA integrates full-text links to services.(Product News & Reviews)(Cambridge Scientific Abstracts announced that users of its Internet Database Service bibliographic databases can now link search results to electronic full text provided by Nature Publishing Group)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Cambridge Scientific Abstracts announced that users of its Internet Database Service bibliographic databases can now link their search results to electronic full text provided by the Nature Publishing Group. Linking to Blackwell...

Gale launches Virtual Reference Library, Consulta 2.0.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Gale announced the release of Gale Virtual Reference Library and Consulta 2.0, its Spanish-language resource center. Virtual Reference Library According to the announcement, the Gale Virtual Reference Library program integrates...

Serials Solutions adds subject browsing.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Serials Solutions, Inc. announced that it will offer subject browsing functionality as part of its standard A-to-Z Title List service. The new feature employs Ulrich's Periodicals Directory subject headings and allows librarians to view...

WilsonWeb expands searching capabilities.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... H.W. Wilson announced that the scope of WilsonWeb searching has expanded to include information drawn from a variety of Web resources. A single WilsonWeb search brings users results from three distinct sources: the database(s) searched,...

FIZ CHEMIE Berlin releases INFOTHERM.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... FIZ CHEMIE Berlin, Germany's chemistry information center, announced that INFOTHERM, its database of thermophysical substance data, is now available online. The new database will feature the thermophysical properties of about 6,300 pure...

xrefer.(People Line)(John G. Dove appointed CEO)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... xrefer has announced the appointment of John G. Dove as its new CEO. Most recently, Dove was working with the e-Government Executive Education Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he served as president...

Nstein Technologies, Inc.(People Line)(appointments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Nstein Technologies, Inc. announced that chairman and CEO Mario Girard will become the COO and Randall Marcinko will return as CEO to Marcinko Enterprises, Inc. while remaining president emeritus of Nstein. In other news from Nstein, Denis...

OCLC.(People Line)(Lizabeth A. Wilson elected board of trustees chair)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... OCLC announced that Lizabeth A. Wilson, director of university libraries at the University of Washington, has been elected chair of OCLC's board of trustees. She was OCLC Members Council president from 1999 to 2000 and has served on the board...

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO).(People Line)(Standards Development Committee appointments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced the appointments of Peter Noerr, Ed Pastorius, Richard Rodgers, and Jenny Walker to the Standards Development Committee. They will serve 3-year terms. Noerr is founder and...

Gale.(People Line)(Ray F. Lowrey appointed executive vp, CTO)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Gale announced that Ray F. Lowrey has been named its executive vice president and CTO. Most recently, Lowrey was vice president of strategic product technology at Thomson Learning. Prior to that, he held management roles in plant...

The Associated Press.(People Line)(Jane Seagrave appointed AP Digital director)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Associated Press announced that it has appointed Jane Seagrave director of AP Digital. Seagrave is returning to AP from a position in which she managed the integration of American Lawyer Media, a print publisher of news for legal...

The Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS).(People Line)(announced that Jouko Ruissalo is its new president)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) has announced that Jouko Ruissalo is its new president. He will hold this office for 2 years and will be supported in his duties by the CEPIS executive committee. CEPIS is the...

WebFeat.(People Line)(named Donald N. Kennedy as its new director of sales)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... WebFeat, a provider of federated search technology, has announced Donald N. Kennedy as its new director of sales. Most recently, Kennedy was Enterprise Solutions' North American sales and sales support director for publishing and conversion...

Budget Web sites can still do the job.(Cover Notes)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Web Design on a Shoestring by Carrie Bickner Boston: New Riders Publishing, 2004 ISBN: 0-7357-1328-6 215 pages $24.99 When I first created Web pages (in the dark ages of the mid-1990s), there were no Web-authoring tools, templates, or style...

Buy the farm, pick the pol, and hold the list.(In Other Words)(Column)
January 1, 2004... It's January. And you know what that means: It's prediction time. As I write this, New Jersey has had its first major snowfall of the season. The weather forecasters started saying the "s" word early in the week. As usual, predicted amounts...

The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: a Guide for the Serious Searcher.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... 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.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... 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.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... 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)
January 1, 2004... 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...

Building & Running a Successful Research Business: a Guide for the Independent Information Professional.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... 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.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... 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...

Knowledge Management Lessons Learned: What Works and What Doesn't.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Edited by Michael E. D. Koenig and T. Kanti Srikantaiah Editors Srikantaiah and Koenig follow up their groundbreaking Knowledge Management for the Information Professional (2000) with this important book. While the earlier work offered an...

Business Statistics on the Web: Find Them Fast--At Little or No Cost.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... 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...