Information Today articles from January 2006

Information Today archives from January 2006

A perspective on Google book search: viewpoint: Google offers its side.
January 1, 2006... Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. We started by making it possible to search information that's available on the Internet. But the real challenge is that most of the world's...

What's next: protecting data.
January 1, 2006... The ChoicePoint data breach, lost data tapes from a few different companies, more phishing, and increases in the reports of actual and attempted identity theft in 2005 prompted movement in technologies, corporate policies, and legislation to...

2006: the state of the industry.(information industry)
January 1, 2006... The 2005 calendars have been tucked away, we've toasted the arrival of the new year with some bubbly, and our new calendars are turned to the first page of 2006. Now's the time to sit back and briefly ponder about the state of the industry...

Answers.com acquires Brainboost Technology.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Answers Corp., creators of the answer-based search engine Answers.com, announced that it acquired Brainboost Technology, LLC. The company plans to integrate the Brainboost answer extraction engine into its own product line. Brainboost's...

Wiley expands STM publishing in Asia.(scientific, technical, and medical)(John Wiley & Sons Inc. appoints Ann-Marie Halligan )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... John Wiley & Sons, Inc. plans to create a new scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing program at Wiley's Asian headquarters in Singapore. Wiley currently has three STM publishing program locations (Hoboken, N.J.; Chichester,...

CMP Media acquires Black Hat.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... CMP Media announced that it acquired Black Hat, Inc., producer of information security conferences and training courses. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), a New York-based investment banking firm for the media and information industries,...

Semiprivate virtual libraries: a coming thing?(Up Front with Barbara Quint)
January 1, 2006... If you live long enough, you'll see a lot of things that you thought could never happen actually happen. If you live long enough, you might even learn to stop shooting your mouth off about what could never happen (unless, of course, you live so...

The latest on libraries, search engines, and more.(NewsBreak Update)(Company Profile)
January 1, 2006... In a surprising display of interest in cultural preservation, libraries, archives, and other "memory institutions" have gained the attention and support of some corporate giants. It's good to see national libraries in the news, particularly the...

Nature Publishing Group plans strategic alliance.(NewsBytes)(International Society of Endocrinology)(Contemporary Inflammation, Autoimmunity, Arthritis, Orthopedics, and Osteoporosis )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Nature Publishing Group announced two strategic alliances. Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism has been adopted as an official publication of the International Society of Endocrinology. Also, Nature Clinical Practice...

Black Duck expands advisory board.(appointments at Black Duck Software )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Black Duck Software has added seven industry executives and academics to its corporate advisory board: Alex Aiken (computer science professor at Stanford University), Dave Bernstein (software development consultant), Dan Bricklin (founder of...

Brooklyn Public Library teams up with Snapple.(Snapple Beverage Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), the fifth-largest library system in the nation, announced plans for a vending relationship with Snapple Beverage Corp. The agreement guarantees that Snapple vending machines will be stocked with Snapple teas and...

eBlind! teams up with FreedomBox.(NewsBytes)(Serotek Corp)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... eBlind! reported that Serotek Corp.'s FreedomBox, software that enables the visually impaired and physically challenged to access the Internet, is now available for students at its training facilities in Detroit and Pontiac, Mich. Serotek,...

Bacon's Information acquires Multivision.(NewsBytes)
January 1, 2006... Two of the leading firms in the broadcast media monitoring market joined forces as U.S. media monitor leader Bacon's Information, a division of Observer AB, acquired Multivision, a broadcast monitoring services firm with more than 160 media...

EPAM launches software development centers in Ukraine.(EPAM Systems)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... EPAM Systems, a global provider of software development outsourcing services, provided details about the first of its engineering centers in Ukraine. According to the announcement, the company considers its expansion into Ukraine a natural...

H.W. Wilson Foundation gives $50k to ALA Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The H.W. Wilson Foundation agreed to donate $50,000 to the American Library Association's (ALA) Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund to help libraries in the Gulf Coast region rebuild their collections. More than 1,000 ALA individual and...

PlateSpin secures financing from Insight Venture Partners.(NewsBytes)
January 1, 2006... Canadian firm PlateSpin, Ltd. reported that Insight Venture Partners, a New York City-based venture capital firm, will provide the company $7.4 million in financing. The investment follows consecutive quarters of double-digit growth and a...

Publishing made easy.(Wolters Kluwer Health Co.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Anyone involved in publishing can appreciate that the process comes with its own set of problems: writers miss deadlines, editing gets delayed, fact-checking hits a snag. Thankfully, Wolters Kluwer Health has just taken out most of the pain...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... It was gratifying to read that ALA's Sheketoff(George H. Pike's "The USA PATRIOT Act and Libraries: A Sensitive Relationship" in the November 2005 issue) said that libraries should not be safe havens for terrorists. Finally a sane voice is...

Call me unreachable.
January 1, 2006... Is this the fifth or sixth year of the new century? Argue among yourselves and come to your own conclusions, but leave me out of it. I've resolved to be more laid back this year. Suffice it to say, I'm sure if Father Time were Google, he'd...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
January 1, 2006... HOW HIGH WILL GAS PRICES GO? WILL WE SEE A "HYBRID HUMMER"? HYBRID, SIR? HOW WILL THE INTERNET BE GOVERNED? SHOULD I CALL YOU "SWAMI", SIR? DON'T FORGET, I KNOW A LOT ABOUT THE INTERNET! HELLO, AL...

Google base Mayhem.(Focus on Publishing)(Google Base )
January 1, 2006... Last month Google quietly opened Google Base (or, as Google describes it, the service that will "help the world find your content") in beta--and the publishing community gasped (free advertising!). The problem with starting up a database...

Global reach of anti-terrorism laws.(Legal Issues)
January 1, 2006... While the 9/11 attacks were targeted toward the U.S., the global impact of the catastrophe was unsurpassed by any event in recent history. With armed conflicts on the other side of the world, the process of detaining foreign nationals at the...

The digital divide and me.(Internet Waves)
January 1, 2006... I must say that RSS fills me with joy. I was less than enthusiastic about it when it first bubbled up from that ever-steaming cauldron from whence our new technologies emerge. It just seemed like way too much trouble to download, install, and...

Pan-European cooperation.(International REPORT)
January 1, 2006... The many and varied institutions of Europe can present a confusing and seemingly unending array of unions, councils, commissions, committees, and parliaments. The 25-state European Union may be the best-known governmental entity, but the oldest...

Shivering through January.(Conference Circuit)
January 1, 2006... As I write this on an unseasonably warm November day, it hardly seems possible that we'll soon be in the depths of winter and struggling to keep warm. But look on the bright side: Some of the January conferences are in warmer locales, so you...

Observations from Online Information 2005.(Conference Circuit)
January 1, 2006... As Online Information 2005 in London (Nov. 27-Dec. 1) came to a close, the industry buzz continued. Here are a few edited insights excerpted from Information Today, Inc.'s blog coverage from Nancy Garman and Don Hawkins, who watched the...

Conference calendar.(Calendar)
January 1, 2006... January 20-25: San Antonio (Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center). The American Library Association is hosting its 2006 Midwinter Meeting. For more information about the conference, check ALA's Web site. Contact: American Library...

Searching the full text of books.(Link-Up @ Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
January 1, 2006... To do research over the Internet, books remain one of the last great frontiers that are still largely unexplored. Suppose you're looking for background information to help with a business presentation. For some time now, you've been able to...

It's all a big gamble: CyberSports.(Link-Up @ Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
January 1, 2006... Remember the good old days when being a sports fanatic meant showing up early for every game, wearing your school/ team colors, and maybe painting your face with a hard-to-remove, booster-ish design? Man, you're old. Fans today buy...

Get organized.(Link-Up @ Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
January 1, 2006... The world annually produces more than 800 megabytes of recorded information per person--the equivalent of about 30 feet of books if all that data was stored on paper. And according to a study done at the University of California--Berkeley...

New look for The Scientist.(NewsMakers)
January 1, 2006... Readers of The Scientist had a surprise when their January 2006 issues arrived. The print and online versions of the pub unveiled a new look and design. The magazine, founded by Eugene Garfield, rolled off the presses in October 1986 as a...

Beyond books.(NewsMakers)(digital libraries)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... "Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources," a recently released study by OCLC, surveyed information users in six countries via Harris Interactive. The report found that consumers aren't aware of the range of electronic content...

Point, counterpoint.(NewsMakers)
January 1, 2006... Now that 41 Fellows of the Royal Society have written an open letter dated Dec. 7 to new president Lord Martin Rees expressing concern and disappointment about the society's recent position statement on open access, expect a little more OA...

Blooks, anyone?(NewsMakers)
January 1, 2006... Blooks (blogs that will eventually spin into books) has become an awards category at Lulu.com, a Web-based provider of print-on-demand books. Judges will select their picks from the more than 100 blooks that have already been listed as...

Defense Technical Information Center.(appoints R. Paul Ryan)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... NFAIS has announced that R. Paul Ryan is the new administrator of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). He has been acting administrator since November 2004. Previously, Ryan was deputy administrator responsible for daily...

Novell, Inc.(promotes Ron Hovsepian)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Novell, Inc. announced the promotion of Ron Hovsepian to president and COO. He will be responsible for product development, marketing, and field operations. Hovsepian, who joined the company in 2003, was most recently executive vice...

Chemical Abstracts Service.(appoints Catharina Maulbecker )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced the appointment of Catharina Maulbecker as vice president of marketing and sales. Prior to joining CAS, Maulbecker was a consultant to a wide range of clients (including CAS) in Europe and the U.S....

Siperian, Inc.(appoints Paul Kayatta)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Siperian, Inc. announced that Paul Kayatta has joined the company as general manager of the Federal Business Unit. Most recently, Kayatta held senior management positions at Cross Match Technologies and Pragmatics, Inc. He has also served...

CSA.(appoints Boe Horton)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... CSA announced the appointment of Boe Horton to the position of COO and general manager. He will direct the sales, marketing, and editorial divisions of CSA and will oversee Ulrich's product line. Most recently, Horton was senior vice...

FIZ CHEMIE.(appoints Richard Huber)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... FIZ CHEMIE announced that Richard Huber will be head of marketing and communication. Huber has been with the company for 6 years, most recently serving as overall project manager responsible for coordinating development work in the networked...

National Archive Publishing Co.(appoints Kimberly R. Durliat )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... National Archive Publishing Co. (NAPC), a newly formed company consisting of three business units from ProQuest Information and Learning, has named Kimberly R. Durliat as its vice president of finance and administration. Most recently,...

Christopher M. Forbes CEO, Knovel Corp.(Biography)
January 1, 2006... CEO Christopher Forbes has watched Knovel Corp. grow steadily since its launch in 1999. But Forbes is far from a CEO who sits back on the sidelines. He's the first to offer stats on the company, which now reaches into 40 countries around the...

Thomson Scientific and Dialog enhance Derwent World Patents Index.(Product News & Reviews)(Thomson Corp. Thomson Scientific)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Thomson Scientific and Dialog announced that the enhanced version of Derwent World Patents Index (DWPISM) will be available on the Dialog online service in 1Q 2006. DWPI, a comprehensive database of value-added patent information, is provided...

EMBASE.com moves into China.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Elsevier announced that its EMBASE.com service is now available to faculty, students, researchers, and physicians in 11 of China's major universities as part of a new consortium licensing agreement and trial. It will let specific users in China...

SSRN defies publishing status quo.(Database Review)
January 1, 2006... Scholarly journal publishing is full of mysteries. So here are a few questions to ponder: Why do scholarly journal prices keep increasing so rapidly if, unlike any other forms of commercial publishing, they do not pay their authors and have few...

Nature goes back to the 1960s.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Another decade of Nature will be available in online archive form, with the addition of all content published between January 1960 and December 1969. This will include 53,069 articles from 522 issues. Nature is currently digitizing its archives...

EBSCOhost offers ECONOMIA Y NEGOCIOS.(Product News & Reviews)(EBSCO Publishing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... EBSCO Publishing now offers EBSCOhost ECONOMIA Y NEGOCIOS to meet the demand for Spanish- and Portuguese-language publications for business and economics, as well as easy access to bibliographic content. This is a joint effort between EBSCO...

Scientific online searching via handhelds.(Product News & Reviews)(Chemical Abstracts Service)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced the arrival of CAS Mobile, which allows users to search CAS's chemical information database from hand-held devices. CAS is one of the "traditional" information retrieval services and an innovator in...

FIZ CHEMIE Berlin and Software AG team up.(German Chemistry Information Centre)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The German Chemistry Information Centre (FIZ CHEMIE Berlin) and Software AG, Darmstadt, have teamed up to provide chemical engineering data for corporate networks. The partners are developing an intranet-capable in-house version of the...

Scenes from U.K's past.(Product News & Reviews)(ProQuest Information and Learning Co.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Instead of letting historical books and papers fall victim to the ravages of time, ProQuest Information and Learning is continuing its efforts to digitize some U.K. treasures. In fact, ProQuest will have preserved nearly 10 million pages when...

CryptoMetrics: security at your fingertips.(Product News & Reviews)
January 1, 2006... Tired of trying to remember separate passwords for your laptop, desktop, and PDA? If so, the answer to your security problems could be at the tips of your fingers--literally. Many companies and individuals have welcomed the security that...

Swets Information Services launches SwetsWise Searcher.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Swets Information Services launched SwetsWise Searcher, a federated search solution that's built on Vivisimo's metasearch and clustering technology. It's designed to facilitate faster and more effective federated searching by organizing search...

ScholarOne and Atypon agree on collaboration.(Product News & Reviews)(Atypon Systems Inc. )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... ScholarOne, Inc. and Atypon announced that they are collaborating to provide "Web First" and rapid publication capabilities. The ScholarOne Manuscript Central peer-review system's publish-before-print capabilities offer publishers the...

The Wall Street Journal Online and LexisNexis create alliance to help law firms.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The Wall Street Journal Online and LexisNexis have announced a new arrangement where LexisNexis will become the exclusive distributor of enterprise subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal Online to North American law firms. In addition, WSJ...

Endeca adds Information Access Solutions.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Endeca announced the availability of new Information Access Solutions for Media and Publishing to help online publishers, content providers, and other information suppliers quickly deploy retrieval capabilities for Web sites, customer- and...

HP adds enhancements to HP OpenView management software.(Product News & Reviews)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Hewlett-Packard announced enhancements to its HP OpenView management software and services to improve IT service delivery through a tighter linkage between IT and business services. The software and services include: * HP OpenView...

Ovid Lingua: delivering content in multiple languages.(Product News & Reviews)(Ovid Technologies Inc.)
January 1, 2006... Ovid Technologies, a provider of electronic medical, scientific, and academic information research solutions, announced the launch of Ovid Lingua, its new multilanguage content platform. According to the company, the plat form helps...

Xrefer signs Omnigraphics as publishing partner.
January 1, 2006... Xrefer has signed an agreement with Omnigraphics to add Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary 3rd Edition (2005) to xreferplus' Ready-Reference service. The dictionary contains information on 2,500 holidays, festivals,...

Virtusa Corp. and VISTA International announce alliance.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Virtusa Corp. and VISTA International announced an alliance called V2 ("V squared") to provide customized services for the publishing industry. V2 leverages VISTA's publishing expertise and Virtusa's engineering model to deliver cost-effective...

Retracing steps in time.(Product News & Reviews)(Ultra wideband technology of Ubisense)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Waiting for an appointment or queuing up can be a taxing experience. But imagine a system that can track waiting time in a hospital emergency room or key military training operations to provide more efficient service. Less than a year...

RealRead lets users flip pages.(Product News & Reviews)(Uploader Pro v. 2.0)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... There's something appealing about browsing through a print catalog. And RealRead has captured the feel and ease of print for e-catalogs with a fast and easy-to-use production process that doesn't require third-party support or a lengthy...

EBSCO offers Inspec Archive--Science Abstracts.(Products News & Reviews)(EBSCO Publishing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... EBSCO Publishing will offer the new Inspec Archive--Science Abstracts 1898-1968 database via EBSCOhost. The archive complements the existing Inspec database for institutions that have research needs in engineering, physics, computer science, or...

Fostering a spirit of collaboration.(Cover Notes)
January 1, 2006... Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work edited by William Miller and Rita M. Pellen New York: Haworth Information Press, 2005 Published simultaneously as Resource Sharing & Information Networks, Volume 18, Numbers 1 and 2,...

Anchors away.(In Other Words)
January 1, 2006... Yes, another year has dropped anchor. But 2006 brings with it the same problems as 2005. Security concerns, funding worries, and ethics questions seem to cut across all aspects of our lives. So, it is appropriate that Computers in Libraries,...

Cashing in with Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... Cashing In with Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers By David Meerman Scott; Foreword by Michelle Manafy Gimmicky Web sites are out. Content is in. In Cashing In with Content, award-winning...

Yahoo! to the Max: An Extreme Searcher Guide.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... Yahoo! to the Max: An Extreme Searcher Guide By Randolph Hock; Foreword by Mary Ellen Bates With its many and diverse features, it's not easy for any individual to keep up with all that Yahoo! has to offer. Fortunately, Ran Hock--"The...

Theories of Information Behavior.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... Theories of Information Behavior Edited by Karen E. Fisher, Sanda Erdelez, and Lynne McKechnie This unique book presents authoritative overviews of more than 70 conceptual frameworks for understanding how people seek, manage, share, and...

The Accidental Library Manager.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... 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....

The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders.(New Titles for the Information Professional)(Brief Article)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2006... The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders Edited by Gwen Meyer Gregory The role of academic librarian is far from cut-and-dried. For starters, there are the numerous job classifications: staff or...

Choosing and Using a News Alert Service.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... 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...

Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies.(New Titles for the Information Professional)(Brief Article)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2006... Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies By Rob Kling, Howard Rosenbaum, and Steve Sawyer This book presents a sustained...

The Librarian's Internet Survival Guide: Strategies for the High-Tech Reference Desk, Second Edition.(New Titles for the Information Professional)(Brief Article)(Book Review)(Brief Review)
January 1, 2006... The Librarian's Internet Survival Guide: Strategies for the High-Tech Reference Desk, Second Edition By Irene E. McDermott Edited by Barbara Quint In this updated and expanded second edition of her popular guidebook, Searcher columnist...

Looking into The Google Legacy.
January 1, 2006... Is Google the next Icarus or the next Microsoft? Will the 7-year-old, highflying darling of Mountain View, Calif., fall down to earth when the hot rays of competitive reality melt its wax wings? Or, will it be the heir to the worldwide...

Survey: government struggles with data breaches.
January 1, 2006... As lawmakers attempt to strengthen information security provisions for companies that collect consumer information, the government is struggling with data protection itself, according to a new survey from San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems,...

And the winner is.
January 1, 2006... The gala banquet at Online Information 2005 heralded the winners of the International Information Industry Awards, hosted by Online Information and Information World Review. The event, held Nov. 30 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London,...

Information Today's 2006 People's Choice Awards.
January 1, 2006... Have you heard about new (or tried-and-true) products and services that consistently rank above others in the industry? Know about any key people in the industry who deserve to be acknowledged for their exceptional work? Isn't it time to give...