Information Today articles from June 2009

Information Today archives from June 2009

Ten things you need to know about Twitter.
June 1, 2009... Launched as a side project only 3 years ago, Twitter.com has achieved the stratospheric growth and household-name recognition status that most online startups can only dream about. Twitter is a social messaging utility that encourages users...

In pursuit of data integrity.
June 1, 2009... The government's $787 billion stimulus package promises to provide jobs, improve healthcare and education, and jump-start the economy. But much of the money planned for the various programs may never be used as it was intended, due to poor data...

A midyear report on the state of the industry.(Industry overview)
June 1, 2009... As rallies and setbacks continue to percolate throughout the global economy, the information industry has been weathering the turbulence rather well overall for the first 6 months of 2009. "The projections are continuing as planned," says...

CrossCheck enlists 50th customer.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The American Psychological Association became the 50th organization to adopt CrossCheck, a plagiarism screening service from CrossRef powered by iParadigms, LLC's iThenticate. Launched in June 2008, CrossCheck gives publishers the option to...

Swets expands partnerships, brokers IOS-NSTL deal.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Swets and the Missouri Library Network Corp. (MLNC), a library cooperative that organizes and facilitates electronic services and content to its member libraries, entered into a partnership that brings additional SwetsWise products to the MLNC....

Introducing the Attensity Group.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Three business intelligence and information management companies--Attensity Corp., Empolis GmbH, and Living-e AG--formed the Attensity Group, which offers applications rooted in semantic language technologies. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the...

FCC working on broadband plan.(NewsBytes)(Federal Communications Commission )(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is creating a plan to ensure that all Americans have access to broadband. The FCC is seeking input from consumers; industries; large and small businesses; nonprofits; the disabilities community;...

Report examines college students' thoughts on libraries.(NewsBytes)(Survey)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The Primary Research Group issued "The Survey of American College Students: Student Evaluation of the College Library," a report that includes data on student satisfaction with electronic reserves, the range of databases and periodicals...

PALINET and SOLINET form Lyrasis.(NewsBytes)(Southeastern Library Network Inc.)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... PALINET and SOLINET completed their merge on April 1, launching a new brand identity and website under the Lyrasis banner. The organization, which represents more than 4,000 member libraries and cultural heritage institutions, is maintaining...

California College offers fully online library degree.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science is letting students complete its 43-credit Master of Library and Information Science degree entirely online via the Global eCampus for Library and Information Science. Set...

Baker & Taylor teams with LibreDigital.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Baker & Taylor, Inc. is partnering with LibreDigital--a provider of conversion, storage, and secure distribution for digital services--to help publishers manage content distribution in multiple formats to numerous digital devices and...

Campaign for Reader Privacy Seeks PATRIOT Act exemption.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The Campaign for Reader Privacy--which includes the American Library Association, American Booksellers Association, Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center--sent a memo to Congress asking legislators to exempt library and...

Open Text Corp. purchases Vizible Corp.(NewsBytes)
June 1, 2009... Open Text Corp. acquired Vizible Corp., a Toronto-based developer of digital media interface solutions delivered through its own publishing platform. The deal expands Open Text's digital media solutions set, which helps users manage rich media...

Library of Congress issues report on unreleased pre-1972 recordings.(NewsBytes)(Report)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The Library of Congress released an 85-page report that collects and summarizes the legal issues surrounding sound recordings made prior to 1972. The document, "Copyright and Related Issues Relevant to Digital Preservation and Dissemination of...

In memoriam: Judith Krug.(NewsBytes)(death of Judith F. Krug)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Judith F. Krug, who served as director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and as executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation for more than 40 years, died in April after a lengthy illness. She...

Peekaboo, I don't see you.(UpFront with Barbara Quint)(Column)
June 1, 2009... When I was writing last month's column, I ran across some problems when I was trying to locate information about vendor products. But that's nothing new. These kinds of problems happen frequently in the course of writing my ITI NewsBreaks. ...

Settlement opposition, news options, and search developments top the news.(NewsBreak Update)
June 1, 2009... Opposition has been growing steadily as the date nears for the judicial approval of the settlement of Google Book Search with the Association of American Publishers and The Authors Guild. The settlement was announced in October 2008 (check the...

Words at work.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Chances are it won't be long before you'll be hearing one of these new terms around the corporate water cooler. action items: A term that sounds more macho and businesslike than "to do" list. ghost work: Following a layoff, it's the...

Letter to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2009... After working in a college library for the last 30 years, I didn't realize how much was lacking until we became automated about 15 years later than would have been ideal. The article in Information Today by Shirley Duglin Kennedy [April...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
June 1, 2009... OK, WHY THE MASK? I DON'T WANT TO GET SWINE FLU. TRUST ME, EVERYONE AROUND HERE IS HEALTHY. WELL, I'M STILL ORDERING A CASE OF TAMIFLU. YOU'RE ORDERING IT ONLINE? YEP, JUST HEARD ABOUT IT ON TWITTER. TWITTER? HMM......

Bridging the past.
June 1, 2009... The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is "celebrating 100 years of learning, sharing and promoting the value of information" this month. It's become unpopular in recent years to recognize the past as having any relevance to the present,...

When a newspaper falls in the forest ...(Focus on Publishing)
June 1, 2009... I find it ironic that the medium where we read the most about the demise of the daily newspaper happens to be a newspaper. This is not to say that other media are not covering it; indeed many of the giant media companies are holding the debt on...

I came, I saw, I tweeted.(Internet Waves)
June 1, 2009... Let the record show that I actually have a Twitter account. It's not that I use it very much, but I try to be where I think I should be--at least where the internet is concerned. And these days, that is "on Twitter." (Let the record also show...

Google books settlement still a bit unsettled.(Legal Issues)
June 1, 2009... There are some folks who are concerned about Google taking over the information world. With a hearing on the proposed Google Book Search settlement set for early June, several organizations have been raising concerns and objections to the...

Wattpad powers mobile user-generated content.(IT Spotlight)
June 1, 2009... Here's a high-tech company offering an innovative mobile ebook reading application. FOUNDER It's not surprising that Allen Lau's latest endeavor is Wattpad, a mobile ebook reading application. It's the second such venture for Lau, who...

Developing a Newser corporate strategy.(NewsMakers)(appointment of Gordon Crovitz, Ned Desmond and Larry Kramer)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Experts from four online media companies moved into position on Newser's advisory board. Newser, an online news aggregator, added the following members to its advisory team: Gordon Crovitz, the former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and...

Hill honored for contributions to library and information science.(NewsMakers)(award for Cindy Hill)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Cindy Hill, CEO of Hill Information Consulting Group, received the John Jacob Astor Award in Library and Information Science in Berlin last May. Hill is a Special Libraries Association (SLA) San Andreas chapter member and past president. The...

Suber chosen as Berkman Fellow.(NewsMakers)(appointment of Peter Suber)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Peter Suber, known as the de facto leader of the open access (OA) movement, was appointed Fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The fellowship will give Suber the opportunity to begin writing books on OA and...

Swets awards MLA Scholarship.(NewsMakers)(award for Merle Colglazier )(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Merle Colglazier was awarded the 2009 Swets Medical Library Association (MLA) Scholarship at the annual MLA Conference last May in Hawaii. Colglazier, the system librarian and director of the Bon Secours Richmond Health System in Richmond, Va.,...

Global reference experts join Credo Reference advisory board.(NewsMakers)(appointment of Sheila Corral, Erin McKean and Ray Lester)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Credo Reference announced that it added three global reference experts to its corporate advisory board. The following experts are expected to add their own fields of expertise and perspective to the mix: Sheila Corral, head of the department of...

Why the frame of 'piracy' matters.(Intellectual Property)
June 1, 2009... Since the U.S. Navy rescued Capt. Richard Phillips in April, many news outlets have been writing about piracy. Interestingly, some news outlets have raised an important question about "piracy" as a term: In light of the ongoing (and newly...

People finding 2.0 revisited.(Library Stuff Revisited)
June 1, 2009... This is Part 2 of a two-part column on the best new web tools to locate biographical information about individuals. Last month, the first part of this column focused on specific sites, such as LinkedIn, and the pros and cons of using these...

iContact Corp.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Kevin Fitzgerald, Ralph Kasuba and Eric Sternkopf)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] iContact Corp. announced that it has added three executives to its management team: Kevin Fitzgerald, vice president of sales; Ralph Kasuba, vice president of...

3PAR.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Peter Slocum as vice president )(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 3PAR announced the appointment of Peter Slocum to the position of vice president of engineering. In this role, he will lead engineering development activity for the company. Most recently, Slocum was senior vice...

National Geographic Digital Media.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(appointment of Priya Bandisode as vice president of strategic development and operations)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... National Geographic Digital Media (NGDM) announced the appointment of Priya Bandisode as vice president of strategic development and operations. In this position, she will lead her team in identifying and implementing business strategies for...

Judith Saltman.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(award for Judith Saltman)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The Canadian Association of Public Libraries (CAPL) and Brodart Canada announced that Judith Saltman is the 2009 recipient of the CAPL/Brodart Outstanding Public Library Service Award. The annual award, sponsored by Brodart Canada, is presented...

Jim Peck, CEO, LexisNexis Risk & Information Analytics Group.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While many companies are cutting costs through layoffs and selling off sectors of their businesses during the economic crisis, LexisNexis is looking toward more growth. "We are facing [the economy] head-on with...

Latest news: George Orwell blogs about World War II.(International REPORT)
June 1, 2009... Literary prize competitions and awards are thriving around the world. They range from long-established international and national awards such as the Nobel Prize in literature, the Pulitzer, and the Man Booker to the recently created awards for...

Pew report highlights the impact of mobile technology.(International REPORT)
June 1, 2009... As mobile phone usage becomes more popular, so does internet usage, according to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report, "The Mobile Difference," groups respondents into two categories: Motivated by Mobility...

Application Security, Inc.: compliance made easy.(International REPORT)
June 1, 2009... AppDetectivePro 6.0 is giving auditors, IT advisors, and consultants a new way of keeping compliant with industry and government regulations. The latest release from Application Security, Inc. offers a host of user rights review...

Conference dates.(Conference Circuit)(Calendar)
June 1, 2009... CRM Evolution (formerly destinationCRM) Aug. 24-26 New York Marriott Marquis * New York SpeechTEK Aug. 24-26 (Preconference workshops begin Aug. 23; postconference workshops begin Aug. 27) New York Marriott...

Publishing is the 'hot' topic for summer sessions.(Conference Circuit)
June 1, 2009... While some of you will be enjoying seaside vacations or relaxing at a mountaintop retreat in July, others will be attending one of the key conferences this summer, including the annual meetings of the American Library Association (ALA), the...

Search: the last frontier.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
June 1, 2009... A collection of 17 sessions, two keynotes, and a wrap-up panel was the winning formula for the 14th annual Search Engine Meeting, "where search engine developers, academics and corporate professionals learn from each other." The 2-day...

Two Everett Brenner awards presented for best papers.(Conference Circuit)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Two presenters received the third annual Ev vie award, which is sponsored by Arnold IT and pays homage to the late Everett Brenner. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This year, Stephen Arnold gave the top award to David...

SIIA NetGain 2009: the convergence of content and technology.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
June 1, 2009... Those who made it to the SIIA NetGain this year were treated to 2 days of thought-provoking discussions and user-friendly take-aways in content and technology. A core of industry Tweeters kept followers far and wide informed about the news...

Conferences around the world.(Conference Circuit)(Calendar)
June 1, 2009... For information on ITI's conferences, turn to page 30. June 8-11: Dallas (Hyatt Regency North Dallas). The IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics 2009 Conference, which covers context-aware data analysis, effective...

American Chemistry Council unveils Facebook App.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... The American Chemistry Council entered the Facebook arena with its Mylecule application. The creator, or nucleus, of a Mylecule may invite his or her friends, or elements, to join. The application then creates "common bonds" that reveal how...

Wolters Kluwer launches IntelliConnect.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... Wolters Kluwer Law & Business is offering IntelliConnect, a research platform designed to streamline professionals' workflows, improve accuracy and efficiency, and provide access to authoritative content from CCH and Aspen Publishers. The...

MarkLogic server powers Wiley Publishing Service.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is using the Mark Logic Corp.'s XML Server to power Wiley Custom Select, a strategic publishing application released to college and university faculty in March. The program lets teachers...

SAGE forms education partnerships, adds titles to access to research.(Product News & Reviews)(Sage Publications Inc.)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... SAGE Publications is teaming with Blackboard/WebCT, an online course management system for colleges and universities, and CourseSmart, an ebook platform that specializes in textbooks, to give students and education professionals ways to learn...

Begell House Publishers introduce THERMOPEDIA.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Begell House Publishers released THERMOPEDIA, a web-based research tool for those working in the fields of heat and mass transfer, fluid flow, and thermodynamics. Featuring video demonstrations and animated 3D Max...

University researchers create mobile ultrasound probe.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) are bringing ultrasound technology to the mobile market. With a $100,000 grant from Microsoft, William Richard and David Zar, both of WUSTL, developed...

National Academies reports coming to Google Book Search.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... The National Academies (NA) completed the first phase of a partnership with Google that is bringing free, searchable, full-text versions of the NA's collection of reports dating from 1863 to 1997 to Google Book Search. Previously, more than...

Maponics unveils local search and mapping API.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... Maponics, LLC released the Maponics Spatial API (application programming interface), which lets businesses offer web-based local search and mapping without making significant geographic information system investments. With the API, businesses...

Safari Books Online goes German.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... Safari Books Online unveiled Safari Books Online German Basic Tech Library, a German-language digital library that offers more than 200 titles for corporate teams with German-speaking developers and IT professionals. Books from German technical...

Dow Jones adds Library House content to VentureSource.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... Dow Jones Financial Information Services added details on more than 3,800 portfolio companies and investment firms, as well as more than 7,700 financing rounds, to its VentureSource database. The new information comes from The Library House...

EssentiaESP Version 2.5 released.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... Version 2.5 of EssentiaESP, a community-building platform for commercial open space developed by Essentia, is now available. The release includes several additions, such as support for Mercurial distributed version control and the Mantis BT...

Readex creates U.S. newspaper archive.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Readex unveiled the American Newspaper Archive, an online collection of major U.S. newspapers. Initially, the archive will feature nine papers and their relevant predecessors: The Times-Picayune, The Plain-Dealer, The Oregonian, the...

Newstex: sharing video content with LexisNexis.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Newstex and LexisNexis recently shook hands on a deal where Newstex Video on Demand content will be channeled through LexisNexis' research platforms. LexisNexis is the first launch distributor for Newstex's video product under the terms of...

BetterWorldBooks.com: giving something back.(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... The real-time figures at the top of the homepage of BetterWorldBooks.com say it all. Funds Raised for Global Literacy: $6,261,231.20 and climbing; Books Saved From Landfill: 23,631,143 and climbing. Dustin Holland, vice president of...

Transcepta: banking on e-invoicing.(Product News & Reviews)(Company overview)
June 1, 2009... These days when companies are going green and streamlining workflows, the time for e-invoicing may have arrived. Accounts payable invoicing represents the single largest driver of paper drain for most businesses, according to Shan Haq, vice...

Springer opens portal to researchers.(Product News & Reviews)(www.stemcellgateway.net)
June 1, 2009... Springer Science+Business Media is strengthening the global stem cell community one researcher at a time. With the recent launch of www.stemcellgateway.net, Springer becomes a front-runner in the research community, creating a portal that...

Exemplar: what's in a word?(Product News & Reviews)
June 1, 2009... The word "exemplar" means "one that serves as a model or example... an ideal model..." according to Merriam-Webster Online. And Exemplar, Springer Science+Business Media's free linguistic tool, may be just that. Springer Exemplar, which...

Shopping at online drugstores: if you're thinking about filling your prescriptions through the web for the first time, you might want to stop at the FDA's site first....(Link-Up@Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
June 1, 2009... The potential benefits of filling prescriptions through a computer are hard to ignore. For starters, there are savings, privacy, convenience, and avoiding an office full of sick people. But which ones can you trust? Spam messages that...

This site dishes out the dirt on baseball.(CyberSports)
June 1, 2009... As regular readers of this feature know, your Field Correspondent loves to browse in the online shops of major professional sports leagues. And as you also may know, we browse not for that Personalized Replica Throwback New York Yankees Jersey...

Academic library users: what do they really want?(Book review)
June 1, 2009... Creating the Customer-Driven Academic Library by Jeannette Woodward Chicago: ALA, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-8389-0976-8 208 pages; $58, softcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You may think that an academic library is a building...

Kathy Dempsey: marketing to keep libraries going.(Meet the Editor)
June 1, 2009... Perhaps it was Kathy Dempsey's destiny that as the first New Year's baby in 1965 to voice her arrival in Trenton, N.J., she would become a heralding voice for libraries in her home state, nationally, and even globally. Only Yesterday......

Hopelessly devoted to ... Intranets.(Cover Notes)(dialogue with Michelle Manafy)(Interview)
June 1, 2009... Last April in my interview with Michelle Manafy, editor-in-chief of EContent, we briefly touched on her other publication, Intranets (see April 2009, IT). This month, editorial assistant Eileen Mullan whipped up the following description about...

2009 CODiE Award winners.
June 1, 2009... Drumroll, please. Members of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) gathered in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on May 5 for the gala celebration honoring the 24th Annual CODiE Awards. More than 70 products received top honors...