Information Today articles from June 2008

Information Today archives from June 2008

Putting academic fair use to the test.
June 1, 2008... The Fair Use Doctrine is one of the most important, complex, and misunderstood elements of copyright law. It was born out of the principle that copyright law needs to balance the rights of authors and creators to reap a benefit from their...

I want my net TV!
June 1, 2008... Nearly 27 years ago MTV premiered, introducing a generation to the idea of consuming entertainment in 3-minute clips. In the intervening years the network has all but given up on music videos, but thanks to the internet, bite-sized media is...

Dow Jones acquires generate.(Dow Jones & Co. acquired with Generate, Inc., )
June 1, 2008... In late April, Dow Jones & Co. acquired Generate, Inc., a Maynard, Mass.-based firm that provides business intelligence capabilities. The deal is expected to provide the parent firm with a more powerful way to package and market business...

Thomson Reuters announces top researchers and papers.(NewsBytes)(award for Thomson Reuters)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Thomson Corp. completed its acquisition of Reuters. The new company will be named Thomson Reuters. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters announced the results of its annual roundup of the "hottest"...

StrategyEye to provide feeds to BNET Industries.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... StrategyEye entered a partnership to provide content to BNET Industries, a new business media website that is part of CNET Networks, Inc. StrategyEye will provide its feeds to the site alongside a number of global providers, including Thomson...

Malawi library leader wins CILIP's International Award.(NewsBytes)(award for Gray Nyali )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The International Library and Information Group of CILIP honored Gray Nyali of the Malawi National Library Service with its International Award. Nyali was chosen because he has developed library and information services in Malawi and made them...

Nature.com nominated for two Webby Awards.(NewsBytes)
June 1, 2008... The Nature Publishing Group's website was nominated for two awards in the science category of the 12th annual Webby Awards. The site competed for the Webby Award and the People's Voice award, winning the Webby Award. Winners were announced May...

ALPSP unveils three new training courses.(NewsBytes)
June 1, 2008... The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers' (ALPSP) North American Chapter announced that three new training courses will be held June 11 at the AED conference center in Washington, D.C. The new programs are licensing...

WhiteSmoke survey: technology hurts spelling.(NewsBytes)(Survey)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... A survey conducted by WhiteSmoke, Inc. found that many adults can't spell everyday words, and 68% of the 2,500 randomly selected participants claimed technology, particularly mobile-phone predictive spelling and text-speak abbreviations, was to...

National Geographic announces online VP.(NewsBytes)(appointment of Rob Covey at National Geographic Digital Media )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... National Geographic Digital Media promoted Rob Covey to senior VP of content development and design for online material. He joined National Geographic as managing editor and creative director for NGM Online in February 2007, and during his...

New AP program to deliver news to Smartphones.(NewsBytes)(The Associated Press)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Associated Press is developing The Mobile News Network, a new product that will deliver news to Apple's iPhone and other smartphones. The network is currently in the testing phase and is expected to launch publicly by the summer. ...

Wikipedia hits 10 million articles.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Wikimedia Foundation announced that the official article count for all Wikipedias combined reached 10 million. The 10-millionth article was a biography of 16th-century English goldsmith and painter Nicholas Hilliard, which was created in...

Lightning Source UK to switch facilities.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Lightning Source, Inc. announced that Lightning Source UK is moving to a newer, larger facility. The company acquired Chapter House, an 88,000-square-foot facility in Milton Keynes. The building offers a production and distribution area of...

Tough times ahead.(Up Front)
June 1, 2008... Maybe I'm just whistling in the dark, but does it ever strike you that the reporting on the "impending recession" sometimes seems to be reminiscent of stories driven by a slow news day? To quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "The only thing we...

Reports on libraries, cloud computing, and better mapping tools.(NewsBreak Update)
June 1, 2008... Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the last decade, you are acutely aware that the digital age has impacted nearly all personal and professional aspects of our lives. We find, research, buy, use, and share content of all kinds in...

Baker College wins cyber defense competition.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The University of Texas-San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) hosted the third annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition at the Hilton San Antonio Airport hotel. The six finalist schools competing this...

IGI Global to publish book on telepsychiatry.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... IGI Global has announced the forthcoming publication of Handbook of Research on Distributed Medical Informatics and E-Health by Athina A. Lazakidou. The book will discuss telepsychiatry, or the practice of using video conferencing and other...

JEGI closes eight sales, hires new VP, releases CEIR report.(NewsBytes)
June 1, 2008... The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) announced that it closed eight M&A transactions through March. JEGI sold Intercept Interactive's Undertone Networks to JMI Equity; Becker Group to Viad Corp.; Money-Media to Pearson, PLC; FierceMarkets to...

Stanford law professor joins MAPLight.org board.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Lawrence Lessig, a professor of law at Stanford Law School, joined the board of directors of MAPLight.org. Lessig founded Stanford's Center for Internet and Society and served as the Berkman professor of law at Harvard Law School and as a...

Wiley-Blackwell to help publish Plastics Engineering.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Wiley-Blackwell partnered with the Society of Plastics Engineers to publish Plastics Engineering, the society's news magazine. The publication has been published monthly since 1946 and covers topics including materials and additives, primary...

Tips on cell phone safety.
June 1, 2008... Now that the world is more connected, technology users can accomplish tasks that were previously impossible. But since much of what users now own is connected to the internet and more personal information is available than ever before, users...

Top tools for the Twittersphere.(Library Stuff Revisited)
June 1, 2008... If you haven't delved into the world of Twitter or at least heard about the new microblogging/messaging service, you may want to turn on your computer from time to time and read some library blogs. OK, I'm being sarcastic, but Twitter has...

Letter from the editor.(Editorial)
June 1, 2008... In our efforts to bring new insights to Information Today and to keep everyone up-to-date on our ever-changing world of technology, check out our latest addition on page 26. Our newest column, called "Cool Tools," is designed to keep readers on...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
June 1, 2008... READY TO START DIGITIZING THE BOOKS? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MAN, THIS ONE IS OLD... AND FALLING APART! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HOW'S IT GOING, MIKE? GEEZ, LOOKS LIKE I'LL BE DONE WITH THIS BATCH IN JUNE... 2008 ...

Just go.
June 1, 2008... I attend many conferences, and the 15 programs a year that Information Today, Inc. organizes are just for starters. I also hang with my peers at publishing events four or five times a year. And I'm out scoping the competition, scouting for...

SPARC Europe seal clarifies legal rights on OA Journals.(Focus on Publishing)(Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)
June 1, 2008... On April 23, SPARC Europe (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition; www.sparc europe.org), an alliance of 110 research-led university libraries from 14 European countries, and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), hosted...

Disruptive technologies.(Internet Waves)
June 1, 2008... OK, so I could think of several dozen places where I'd rather be on an amazing Saturday morning in early May than at a funeral for my friend's mother. But you do what you gotta do, and it wasn't that dreadful; she was 88 when she died and had...

Data breaches top the agenda at RSA Conference.(Legal Issues)(Conference notes)
June 1, 2008... Data breaches remain a significant problem for any company that manages information about personal identity. In recent weeks, widely publicized data breaches have hit Lending Tree, Hannaford Bros. Co., and the Bank of Ireland. Past data...

Turn you in: scholarly ethics in a culture of suspicion.(Intellectual Property)
June 1, 2008... With all the Sturm und Drang about the Georgia State lawsuit and the Section 108 Study Group findings, reaction to a federal court's decision in the Turnitin copyright infringement lawsuit has been buried. This is unfortunate because the...

Web search is heading for a Cambrian event.(Insider's Perspective)
June 1, 2008... [Insider's Perspective is a column written by an expert in the field who shares his or her insights about a specific corner of the information industry.--Ed.] A biological theory, called the Cambrian Explosion, states that many new animals...

Digging Digsby and tweeting locally.
June 1, 2008... The primordial ooze of Web 2.0 is constantly spawning strange new offspring. A few survive to find their place in the online environment; many die not long after birth. But every adaptation is worth examining--a short-lived service might have...

Disney to create advertising research lab.(NewsFlash)
June 1, 2008... The Media Networks division of the Walt Disney Co. recently announced that it will be opening an emerging media and advertising research laboratory in Austin, Texas, where it will test the effectiveness of various types of advertising,...

EarthLink shuts down Philadelphia Wi-Fi project.(NewsFlash)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... EarthLink,Inc. officially ceased work on the Philadelphia Wi-Fi project in mid-May. Previously, in 3Q 2007, EarthLink reclassified its municipal Wi-Fi assets as "discontinued operations." Since then, the company has tried to find a buyer to...

MySpace, Facebook, Google integrate Data Portability.(NewsFlash)
June 1, 2008... With more websites requiring personal data to work effectively, data portability is one way to give website owners access to social features that can draw in more traffic while letting users synchronize their profiles and friends lists across...

Global partnerships boost visibility of digitized scientific papers online.(International REPORT)
June 1, 2008... While one historical scientific collection added thousands of new digitized pages in April, another new project was launched. The key factors in both of these preservation efforts involved international collaboration and intercultural...

To blog or not to blog.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... While it may seem that simply everyone is blogging these days, that's not quite the case. A recent study by BIGresearch shows that 26% of the U.S. population blogs occasionally or regularly. The old stereotypes of bloggers being computer geeks,...

Swets CFO nominated for top honors.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Siebe van Elsloo, CFO at Swets, was nominated for the title of CFO of the Year in the Non-Listed Companies category by the Netherlands-based CFO Magazine. The award will be presented at the magazine's annual CFO Day, June 12 in Noordwijkerhout,...

Harrington, Villa appointed to Reuters Foundation team.(NewsMakers)(appointment of Richard J. Harrington at Reuters Media)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Richard J. Harrington, former Thomson president and CEO, was appointed foundation chairman, and Monique Villa, former managing director at Reuters Media, was appointed CEO of the Reuters Foundation. The foundation runs four core programs:...

Summer sessions appeal to special library interests.(Conference Circuit)(Calendar)
June 1, 2008... Summer has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere with its usual plethora of meetings for major library organizations and other specialized conferences. This year's June schedule is noteworthy for its larger-than-usual number of conferences of...

Hot topics in search: XML, visualization, and federated/enterprise search.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
June 1, 2008... The Search Engine Meeting, organized by Infonortics, Ltd., has always been the place to go to learn about new approaches to search and the latest research on its technology. And this year was no exception. At the 13th Search Engine Meeting...

OnCopyright 2008: a step in the right direction.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
June 1, 2008... In this era of collaboration and digital accessibility, the fine line between sharing and stealing has become downright hazy for content users. Plagiarism, piracy, and infringement are tipping the scales with the delicate balance of copyright,...

SIIA NetGain: a mashup of content and software.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
June 1, 2008... The Palace Hotel in San Francisco was the site of the premiere SIIA NetGain conference May 18-21, a grand mashup of the software and content divisions, topped off with the 23rd CODiE Awards and Gala. According to Ed Keating, vice president...

The Bloomsbury Conference: EUSIDIC and CLSIG meet in London.(REPORT FOR THE FIELD)(European Association of Information Services)(Commercial, Legal & Scientific Information Group of CILIP)
June 1, 2008... When I first heard about The Bloomsbury Conference, I immediately thought of literary London in the early 1900s. But this was the name of the spring 2008 conference of EUSIDIC (the European Association of Information Services) as it teamed up...

Conferences around the world.(Calendar)
June 1, 2008... For information on ITI's conferences, turn to page 30. June 1-5: Tenerife, Spain (Sheraton La Caleta Resort & Spa). The 5th Annual European Semantic Web Conference will present the latest results in research and applications of semantic web...

And the 2008 CODiE winners are ...
June 1, 2008... The votes have been counted, and the final results have been tabulated. Roll out the red carpet. The winners of 23rd Annual CODiE Awards were announced at the gala on May 20 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, marking the end of the SIIA...

Words at work.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... If you have your favorite Dilbert cartoon hanging on your computer or bulletin board, you're sure to appreciate some of these corporate buzzwords from BuzzWhack: COR: The latest C-level title--Chief Obstacle Remover. flight insurance:...

Google: designing a user-generated encyclopedia.
June 1, 2008... Search engine giant Google is in the process of creating its own user-generated web encyclopedia system called Knol. The company uses the term, which represents a unit of knowledge, as the name for the project as a whole and for each of its...

Xenu's Link Sleuth strives to find broken links before site visitors do.(IT Spotlight)(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... Here's another high-tech company with an innovative service that offers a special method for keeping links up-to-date. FOUNDER There's not much most people can do when they are frustrated with a website that has broken hyperlinks that...

RefWorks adds enhancements to RefAware and RefWorks.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... RefWorks added enhancements to RefAware, its online personal research assistant and monitoring service launched in March 2008, and to RefWorks, provider of a web-based research management, writing, and collaboration tool designed for the...

The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters adopts plagiarism-detection tool.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters announced that it will incorporate the iThenticate checking tool into its submission and peer-review process in Manuscript Central's online workflow system. Manuscript Central is a web-based,...

Smart search engines find best facts.(Database Review)(SenseBot and Factbites)
June 1, 2008... Last month, I reviewed AltSearchEngines, a blog and directory that focuses on alternative search engines that many people don't know about. I promised to return with a closer look at some of them, and here are two: SenseBot and Factbites. ...

MuseGlobal and adhere solutions debut the all access connector.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2008... MuseGlobal teamed up with Adhere Solutions to introduce an enterprise search solution that combines the ease of Google search with the in-depth sophistication of federated search and content integration. This solution, called the All Access...

CSA Illustrata adds deep indexing for Springer journals.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... ProQuest and Springer Science + Business Media are collaborating on a project to enhance CSA Illustrata with deep indexing from Springer's journals. Researchers, librarians, and reviewers will soon be able to use indexing tables, figures, and...

LockedEnvelope: the alarm for email.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Because email and IM (instant messaging) are not encrypted, just about anyone with any interest can easily access the data. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] That's why Terry Heath, founder and director of Navoty, Inc., created a solution that...

Columbia libraries adds Rare Samuel Roth writings.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library added a large collection of writings from Samuel Roth, a writer, publisher, and entrepreneur who lived from 1893 to 1974. The writings include letters and/or...

Collexis upgrades BioMedExperts.com.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Collexis Holdings, Inc. added several new features to BioMedExperts.com, an online social network that promotes global collaborative medical research and development. The new features include the following: * Expansion of available...

NPG announces agreements, launches Website, adds articles.(Product News & Reviews)(Nature Publishing Group )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announced five new co-publishing agreements for 2009 in China and Japan. It also launched the NPG Asia Materials (www.nature asia.com/asia-materials) website with the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In China, NPG...

EBSCO expands Shibboleth to Germany.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... EBSCO Publishing expanded its Shibboleth authentication service to Germany by working with the German Research Network to enable German institutions to access their EBSCOhost research databases through Shibboleth authentication. Sites that use...

Hoover's paves fast track to new features and content.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Hoover's, Inc., a D&B company, announced the launch of HOOV Lane, an interactive microsite that's designed to introduce prospects and existing customers to Hoover's new features and content. HOOV Lane, described as a marketing...

BroadSoft: building on innovation.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2008... Phone service has come a long way in the past decade. And it's still changing. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For BroadSoft, a provider of internet voice (VoIP) application software, the wave of the future rests in the hands of the users. The...

Safari to make Packt titles available online.(Product News & Reviews)(Safari Books Online and Packt Publishing )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Safari Books Online entered into an agreement with Packt Publishing to make the publisher's books and other technical publications available online to corporate and individual library subscribers. Safari will upload 20 Packt ebooks initially...

ACM adds author profiles to digital library.(Product News & Reviews)(Association for Computing Machinery )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) added several new features to its Digital Library. These include author profile pages as well as citation and usage statistics that are designed to provide a snapshot of an author's contributions to...

TDNet develops British Library Direct Plus.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2008... TDNet, Ltd. teamed up with The British Library to develop British Library Direct Plus, a subscription-based service that combines TDNet's federated search and post-search analysis with article level data from The British Library. The service...

Deep Web to develop federated search for Stanford libraries.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Stanford University Libraries has chosen Deep Web Technologies to develop a federated search engine for its libraries. The engine is designed to simplify access to the libraries' online resources and create a new access point for the...

iCopyright enters agreement with AP.(Product News & Reviews)(The Associated Press )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... iCopyright entered into a digital content copyright protection and permission agreement with The Associated Press (AP). AP will display iCopyright links at the top and bottom of every AP-hosted story and will encourage subscribers to add the...

Old Bailey proceedings boosts records online.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... More rich, detailed historical sources have been added to the Proceedings of the Old Bailey online (www.oldbaileyonline.org). The digitized collection now covers the years 1674 to 1913 with nearly 200,000 cases in its fully searchable text that...

OECD.Stat adds new enhancements.(Product News & Reviews)(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... OECD.Stat, which was launched in December 2007, just released several new features to its platform. These enhancements are part of OECD's (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) continuing work to improve accessibility and use...

Adobe offers a digital darkroom on the Web: the Photoshop Express display and organization tools let users set up slide shows, group images into albums, add captions, and create cool 3D galleries.(Link-Up@Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
June 1, 2008... Sharpen out-of-focus shots. Make them brighter or darker. Crop and straighten. Get rid of that satanic red-eye look. This is all possible with Adobe Photoshop, the powerful photo-editing software used by professional photographers, graphic...

California dreamin' ... of a new football stadium.(CyberSports)
June 1, 2008... Not so long ago, in a galaxy far, far away (or maybe Southern California just seems that way), a man with a large tract of land and an even larger bank account announced plans for a 75,000-seat stadium for an as-of-yet-unpilfered NFL team. ...

Planning: how to make the process short and sweet.(Cover Notes)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Strategic Planning for Results (PLA Results series) by Sandra Nelson Chicago: ALA, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-8389-3573-6 312 pages; $65, softcover If you have worked in libraries for a while, you probably have experienced...

Chats, stats, and hits.(In Other Words)
June 1, 2008... No, this isn't going to be a Sopranos-esque column. Personally, I never saw the attraction in that show. If I want to see blood, guts, and broken bones, I'd start watching hockey. Instead, the articles from the June issues of Computers in...

Technology turns a brighter shade of green.
June 1, 2008... As concern for the environment grows every day, more companies are developing "green technologies" to reduce their impact on the environment. A number of these companies recently announced new initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint in the...

Microsoft launches WorldWide Telescope.(NewsFlash)
June 1, 2008... Microsoft now offers a free software application called WorldWide Telescope, which lets users explore images from various sources, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The program compiles the equivalent of 12 terabytes of original material....

Computer History Museum debuts Babbage engine.(NewsFlash)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley recently opened an exhibit displaying a complete, working version of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 for the first time in North America. Babbage (1791-1871) was an inventor who pioneered...

HBO coming to iTunes Store.(NewsFlash)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Apple and HBO announced that several of the cable network's programs are now available as downloads from Apple's iTunes Store. Thirty-minute programs are $1.99 per episode; 1-hour programs are $2.99. This is a departure from Apple's pricing...

EDS acquired by HP.(NewsFlash)
June 1, 2008... HP announced that it plans to acquire Electronic Data Systems Corp. for $13.9 billion. EDS operates corporate computer systems; this acquisition will make HP the second-largest competitor in that business space after IBM. HP garnered $16.6...

Publishing Technology.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Randy Petway )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Publishing Technology announced the appointment of Randy Petway to the newly created position of executive vice president, strategy and business development. In this role, he will lead the business in strategic...

The American Library Association (ALA) announced that the San Diego County Library (SDCL) is the recipient of the 2008 ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The American Library Association (ALA) announced that the San Diego County Library (SDCL) is the recipient of the 2008 ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award. The award, consisting of $1,500 and a 24k gold-framed citation of...

Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals announced that Ken Garrison is its new executive director. Most recently, Garrison was president of the Federation of Credit and Financial Professionals...

ProQuest.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of John Law )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... ProQuest announced the appointment of John Law to the newly created position of vice president of discovery services. In this position, he will oversee business, technical, and project leadership. Most recently, Law managed ProQuest's...

BCR.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
June 1, 2008... BCR announced that Liz Bishoff is now director of its newly created digital preservation services division. Most recently, Bishoff was special assistant to the dean and head of the office of sponsored programs at the University of...

Copyright Clearance Center.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
June 1, 2008... Copyright Clearance Center announced that A. Miles McNamee has joined the company as vice president of business development. In this position, he will be in charge of expanding the scope and reach of its licensing and rights-management services...

Janice McCallum, managing director, InfoCommerce Group and Health Content Advisors.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Online publishing has advanced a bit since Janice McCallum began her career at Dialog, a Thomson Reuters business, in 1985. As the new managing director of InfoCommerce Group, Inc. and the head of Health Content...

Retrospective: 25 years ago in Information Today.
June 1, 2008... Around the time that the word "Macintosh" began to mean something other than a tart and juicy apple and the names Atari and Commodore brought smiles to newfound gamers, Information Today's subscription list was growing steadily to accommodate...