Information Today articles from March 2003

Information Today archives from March 2003

Information Online 2003. (Report from the Field).(a discussion of the Information Online 2003 conference)(Column)
March 1, 2003... This conference, held Jan. 21-23, saw my fourth consecutive visit to the "Land Down Under." Of the many such events I've attended down the years, this continues to be my favorite. Not only was the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre South...

The future of journals. (Report from the Field).(Pieter Bolman disucsses the future of journal publishing)(Interview)
March 1, 2003... It had been a long day for Pieter Bolman, Elsevier executive and former CEO of such prestigious names in scholarly publishing as Pergamon and Academic Press. In the morning, he had, in his role as chair of the PSP Executive Council, introduced...

An ugly situation. (Poynder on Point).(a discussion of the problems of divine Inc.)
March 1, 2003... Overnight, Chicago-based divine, Inc. has become the bete noire of the library community. It took millions of dollars from libraries for journal subscriptions, but failed to pass the money on to publishers. Then it sought bankruptcy protection...

NLII, MERLOT announce alliance. (News Bytes).(the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative, the Multimedia Educational Resource Learning and Online Teaching)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... EDUCAUSE has announced that the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) program and the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) have formed an alliance to promote discourse among their constituencies...

Four major publishers sue for copyright infringement. (News Bytes).(Copyright Clearance Center announces that four publishers have sued WEstwood Copies and its owners)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. announced that four major STM publishers have filed suit against Los Angeles-based Westwood Copies and co-owners Sam and Elias Negash for copyright infringement. The suit--filed by Elsevier Science, Inc.; The...

Tick, tock, tick, tock. (Up Front).(information retrieval services pricing)
March 1, 2003... For years--decades actually--professional searchers who were conducting online searches as intermediaries for clients learned to race through the process like Eliza fleeing the bloodhounds. After a busy day at the computer, they would fall...

New developments in content licensing, open-access publishing, and more. (News Break Update).
March 1, 2003... Once again, the past month's news has been dominated by the RoweCom/divine situation. As this issue went to press, EBSCO had purchased RoweCom's European businesses from divine and reported that it was making significant progress in the...

EBSCO streamlines consortia purchasing. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... EBSCO Information Services has announced recent agreements benefiting the California Digital Library; the Brazilian academic consortium CAPES, and KESLI, a group of Korean academic institutions. These deals represent both large and small...

Ingenta announces signings, will create OUP Web site. (Newsbytes).(Oxford University Press)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Ingenta, Inc. announced that it continues to experience significant growth, having signed more than 15 new publishers and societies since October 2002. These new publisher accounts bring the company's total number to almost 250. In...

Nstein signs agreement with industry Canada. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Nstein Technologies, Inc. announced that it has signed a contract with Industry Canada to develop its new corporate taxonomy. A department of the Canadian federal government, Industry Canada's mandate is to help make Canadians more...

SFX links to OCLC services. (Newsbytes).(Ex Libris (USA) Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Ex Libris (USA), Inc. announced that it and OCLC have successfully implemented linking from the Ex Libris SEX link server to select OCLC reference and resource-sharing services. According to the announcement, this further integrates services...

Factiva unveils Factiva's Membership Circle. (Newsbytes).(website)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Factiva has announced the release of Factiva's Membership Circle, a new support and account management site designed to provide all customers with immediate access to comprehensive support and account management tools. Available directly...

Biz360, Dialog form alliance. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Biz36O, a provider of active market intelligence, and Dialog have announced a partnership to help corporate executives manage their company's public perception. This alliance will integrate Dialog's NewsEdge services with the active market...

Columbia University's EPIC awarded $3 million grant. (Newsbytes).(Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Columbia University announced that its Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC) has been awarded a 4-year renewal grant of $3 million from the National Science Foundation. EPIC is one of three partners that's building the core...

EIU commissions Snapshots International. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Snapshots International, Ltd. has announced that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has commissioned it to supply specially tailored industry data for EIU's Country Indicator products, and for use in Executive Briefings. Snapshots...

Taiwan eBooks Network has access to netLibrary titles. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... netLibrary, a division of OCLC, announced that the Taiwan eBooks Network (TEBNET) now has access to more than 11,000 e-book titles from netLibrary. It is the first netLibrary e-books consortium in the Asia Pacific region. Twenty-one...

BvD study shows European sector more active than U.S. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Bureau van Dijk (BvD) announced that it has just published figures showing that Europe is now the dominant force in M&A activity. BvD's research demonstrates that although completed deals with a European target are nearly double those in the...

Extenza Marketing Solutions adds Swets Blackwell database. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Extenza Marketing Solutions (EMS), a division of Royal Swets & Zeitlinger and sister company of Swets Blackwell, has announced that it can help publishers to mail leaflets, brochures, and/or sample copies to Swets Blackwell library customers...

Outsell selects ECNext commerce solution. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... ECNext, a provider of Web marketing and commerce technology for market research firms and business publishers, announced that Outsell, Inc., a research and advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the information content industry, has selected...

Ovid introduces YourJournals@Ovid. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Ovid Technologies, Inc. announced the release of its new YourJournals@Ovid research tool. YourJournals@Ovid is a subset of the company's Journals@Ovid database. It's designed to let information professionals customize their organization's...

Dialog adds trademark images to TRADEMARKSCAN. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Dialog announced that it has added images to the TRADEMARKSCAN files from Finland (File 679) and Sweden (File 675) available through its online services. TRADEMARKSCAN File 679 contains valid applications and registrations published since...

The E-mail rebellion.
March 1, 2003... Ever had one of those days, when at the end of it, you said, "Man, all I got done today was my e-mail"? Last fall, I heard David Snowden speak at the ASIST meeting in Philadelphia. As you may know, Snowden is one of those...

Hands off the caps lock! (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2003... Hands Off the Caps Lock! Enjoyed your "big I, little i" doodle on the subject of the internet [in Dick Kaser's editorial, Information Today, February 2003]. Old English (like today's German language) used to capitalize all nouns. No...

Buying for the value. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2003... While I agree with much of what Barbara Quint says in her January Up Front column, I think her model of pricing information--which assigns a dollar value per article regardless of content--is odd. She asserts that the monthly $29.95 people pay...

The world's biggest copy machine. (Legal Issues).(a discussion of the World Intellectual Property Organization)
March 1, 2003... The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was formed in 1893 as the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI). It's now a specialized agency within the United Nations. WIPO's mission is to help...

Where have all the people gone? (Internet Waves).(humorous column)(Column)
March 1, 2003... Those of you who are longtime Information Today readers know that I've been writing this column since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Or at least since the Internet was all shiny and new, largely uncommercial, and absolutely awe-inspiring to those...

Spam jeopardizes e-Mail publishing. (Focus on Publishing).
March 1, 2003... E-mail publishing is one of the Internet's success stories. When handled correctly, it can be a wonderful marriage of timely content and interested eyeballs. But with spam running amok, this marriage is under threat. The industry must try to...

BBC's online curriculum. (International Report).(the BBC plans to create a Digital Curriculum)
March 1, 2003... On Jan. 9, Tessa Jowell, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announced her approval of the BBC's application to create a Digital Curriculum. This will be a no-fee public service that distributes -- via the Internet --...

In the European Parliament. (International Report).(information industry-related legal news)(Column)
March 1, 2003... A directive designed to cover the reuse and commercial exploitation of public-sector documents is rapidly making its way through the commitee stages of European Parliament. Following a vote by the Industry External Trade, Research and Energy...

Around the world. (International Report).(Column)
March 1, 2003... To gain a place in the record books for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by sail, the crew of Kingfisher2, a 110-ft. catamaran, needs to circle the globe in less than 64 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes, and 24 seconds. Led by British skipper...

The best man for the job is a woman? (Investigative Report).(stereotypes of librarians woefully inaccurate, say columnists, researchers)(Column)
March 1, 2003... Why is it that cartoonists still choose to cruelly portray the typical librarian as a spectacled spinster glaring across the reference desk, daring to be defied? An acquaintance of mine--who is not known for frequenting libraries but is...

BT Openzone. (International Report).(notes on Internet service provided by BT Openzone)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... You may not need to conduct an online search in the middle of the ocean, but the next time you visit London (perhaps for Online Information 2003), you might be able to get wireless Web access in an airport, hotel, conference center, or even a...

Serious about customer service. (Interview with Clare Hart).(president and CEO of Factiva)(Interview)
March 1, 2003... Clare Hart became president and CEO of Factiva in 2000. Since then, she has led the Dow Jones Interactive (DJI) and Reuters Business Briefing joint venture to form one Factiva culture and a suite of Factiva-branded products and services. In...

Elsevier launches e-Book program. (Newsbytes).(with netLibrary)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Elsevier announced that it is launching its Elsevier eBooks service. Through an alliance with netLibrary, Elsevier will make more than 300 titles available in e-book versions this year. netLibrary will host Elsevier eBooks, which will be...

New York Public Library digitizes Picture Collection. (Newsbytes).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... The New York Public Library announced an initiative to digitize 30,000 images from its Picture Collection by the end of 2003. Users can access this resource at http://www.picturecollection.nypl.org. Organized into more than 2 dozen subjects...

Web sites for teachers: teachers have become adept at modifying other teachers' ideas for use in their own classrooms. (Link-Up@Home).
March 1, 2003... Kim Steele has been teaching at the Abe Hubert Middle School in Garden City, Kan., since 1988. For the past few years, she also has been publishing teaching information and ideas on a Web site called Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk...

Cybersports. (Link-Up@Home).(includes Michael Buffer website offers products and services)(Column)
March 1, 2003... Not since the halcyon days of the 1940s has someone attracted so much attention and achieved so much fame with one seemingly insignificant little catchphrase. It's not something nobly Latin like "Carpe Cerevisi!" (Seize the beer!) or as...

Virtual volunteering. (Perspectives).
March 1, 2003... Needed: An idea researcher Details: To research amazing cultures/belief systems in the world so GLEAN (Girls Global Education and Action Network) can prepare expeditions to learn more about them Skills Needed: Ability to gather...

LexisNexis. (People Line).(Wendy Beecham senior vice president of its Enterprise & Library unit)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... LexisNexis announced that it has named Wendy Beecham senior vice president of its Enterprise & Library unit. Most recently, Beecham was managing director for Thomson's Sweet & Maxwell group. Previously, she held positions with Predicasts,...

Sweet & Maxwell. (People Line).(Peter Lake as its new managing director)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Sweet & Maxwell has announced the appointment of Peter Lake as its new managing director. Prior to this, Lake had been in charge of Thomson Legal & Regulatory's business development activities in Europe. Before that, he was managing...

ProQuest Information and Learning. (People Line).(Constance Crump, new public relations manager)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... ProQuest Information and Learning has announced that Constance Crump will be its new public relations manager. Most recently, she was marketing manager for ProQuest's Chadwyck-Healey products. Prior to that, she worked for various...

TechBooks' Information Publishing Group. (People Line).(Iris L. Hanney, new group president)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... TechBooks' Information Publishing Group has announced the promotion of Iris L. Hanney to group president. Prior to this, she was senior vice president of TechBooks' Corporate Publishing Group. Earlier, she was general manager of U.S. operations...

Emory University. (People Line).(Susan M. Kiopper is the new manager of research services for its Goizueta Business Library)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Emory University has announced that Susan M. Kiopper is the new manager of research services for its Goizueta Business Library. Her responsibilities will include acting as liaison to the Goizueta Business School's accounting and finance faculty...

West Client Development Services. (People Line).(appointment of Debbie Monroe as senior vice president and general manager of its FindLaw division)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... West has announced the appointment of Debbie Monroe as senior vice president and general manager of its FindLaw division. In this position, she will oversee the strategic direction and growth of the West Client Development Services business....

The executive profile.(knovel Corp. president, CEO Christopher M. Forbes)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Christopher M. Forbes, president and CEO of knovel Corp. Christopher M. Forbes is the co-founder, president, and CEO of knovel Corp., a Web-based reference publisher that delivers scientific and technical books and databases to engineers,...

Where we've been and where we're going. (Cover Notes).(review of "Evolution in Reference and Information Services: The Impact of the Internet" edited by Di Su Binghamton)(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... Evolution in Reference and Information Services: The Impact of the Internet edited by Di Su Binghamton, N.Y.; Haworth Information Press, 2002 ISBN: 0-7890-1723-7 230 pages $49.95 All information professionals intuitively...

What's new in ITI's other publications. (Cover Notes).
March 1, 2003... Greetings from the Great White North-Northeast, that is. This winter is feeling more like Newfoundland than New Jersey. As the snowflakes fall yet again, it's time to "dig out" a few more worthy articles from the Information Today, Inc. (ITI)...

New titles for the information professional.(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... Naked in Cyberspace, 2nd Edition: How to Find Personal Information Online By Carole A. Lane Foreword by Beth Givens In this revised and updated second edition of her best-selling guide, author Carole A. Lane surveys the types of...

On the road. (Conference Circuit).
March 1, 2003... As you read this issue of Information Today, you may be about to leave for the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington, D.C. Or you may have the preliminary program for May's InfoToday meeting on your desk. You should definitely attend...

Information Online plenary presentations. (Report from the Field).
March 1, 2003... Information Online 2003, held Jan. 21-23 in Sydney, attracted 1,200 attendees. This conference is the largest that addresses online information in Australasia. It featured an exhibit shorter presentations (many by international authors), and...

The Scholarly Publishing debate.(a discussion of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing 2003 Annual Conference)
March 1, 2003... What do you get when you invite a journal publisher, a librarian, and a professor to sit on a panel to discuss the values of scholarly communication and the business of scholarly publishing? a) A meeting of the minds b) An interesting...

Conference calendar.(upcoming information industry events)(Calendar)
March 1, 2003... March 17-18: Karlsruhe, Germany (Renaissance Hotel). EUSIDIC will host the EUSIDIC Spring Meeting 2003, an event designed to consider current legal, technical, commercial, and policy issues surrounding digital content and the effects on...

InfoToday 2003: The Global Conference & Exhibition on Electronic Information and Knowledge Management.(a breakdown of the InfoToday 2003 event)
March 1, 2003... InfoToday 2003 InfoToday 2003 offers information professionals and knowledge managers an unparalleled opportunity to expand their horizons and extend their professional expertise. The three co-located conferences, National Online,...

ITI publishes new book, renames journal. (Product News & Reviews).(Information Today Inc. has published 'The Accidental Systems Librarian')(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Information Today, Inc. (ITI) announced the publication of The Accidental Systems Librarian, by Rachel Singer Gordon. This new book offers practical advice and strategies for managing library technology. ITI also announced that Information...

ProQuest enhances information products. (Product News & Reviews).(ProQuest Information and Learning enhances its Historical Newspapers and American Periodicals Series databases)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... ProQuest Information and Learning announced that it has enhanced its Historical Newspapers and American Periodicals Series databases. Historical Newspapers In response to feedback, ProQuest has added new features to Historical...

Safari/ProQuest team boosts e-book prospects. (Database Review).
March 1, 2003... E-books continue their erratic march toward widespread acceptance. Progress on the consumer front has been slow because people have not embraced e-book readers. Web-based e-book collections may have a brighter future since they offer the same...

WebFeat announces new technology, program. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... WebFeat announced the release of WebFeat 2, new technology that enables libraries to capture and report usage statistics from any or all of their databases' native interfaces. The company also announced that it will build for libraries free...

Progressive Information Technologies releases Vasont 8.0. (Product News & Reviews).(a content management system)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Progressive Information Technologies announced the release of Vasont 8.0, the latest version of its flagship content management system for cross-media publishing. Vasont 8.0 handles the creation, management, and publication of content,...

Blackwell Synergy offers new journals. (Product News & Reviews).(to its Blackwell Synergy online research tool)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Blackwell Publishing announced the addition of more than 250 social science and humanities journals to its Blackwell Synergy online research tool. Many of these titles are published on behalf of scholarly and professional societies and include...

ebrary launches new database collections. (Products News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... ebrary announced the availability of database collections that combine more than 20,000 books and other documents from more than 150 leading academic, trade, and professional publishers. The company now offers a set of Aggregated Collections...

Knovel adds nine new science, engineering titles. (Products News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Knovel Corp. announced that it has added nine new titles to its database, which can be accessed through its Web site. Knovel's content, all full text, is enhanced with productivity tools like interactive tables, graphing applets, and...

ISI ResearchSoft unveils WriteNote. (Products News & Reviews).(Web-based research/writing tool for undergraduates)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... ISI ResearchSoft announced the release of WriteNote, a Web-based research and writing tool designed for the undergraduate market. Sold as an annual, sitewide subscription to the institution, WriteNote is designed to help students conduct...

Paratext links to ABC-CLIO databases. (Products News & Reviews).(historical abstracting/indexing databases link)
March 1, 2003... Paratext, a reference database publisher, announced that its 19th Century Masterfile resource now contains more than 2 million additional links to Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life, ABC-CLIO's historical...

CambridgeDocs releases xDoc XML Converter. (Products News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... CambridgeDocs announced the release of xDoc Converter, a tool for migrating unstructured content from legacy sources--including Microsoft Word, HTML, and Adobe PDF documents--into any XML schema (XSD) or DTD for improved searching and indexing...

H.W. Wilson rolls out new database. (Products News & Reviews).(Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... H.W. Wilson Co. announced the debut of Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text, a new WilsonWeb resource based on the reference work Index to Legal Periodicals & Books. Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text delivers articles from...

EBSCO Publishing releases History Reference Center. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... EBSCO Publishing announced the launch of the History Reference Center, a database that includes the full text for more than 270,000 entries from many historical sources. History Reference Center features more than 300 reference books and...

Extenza unveils e-Publishing Services. (Product News & Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Extenza, a division of Royal Swets & Zeitlinger, has announced the operational launch of e-Publishing Services. This new resource provides scholarly and professional publishers with a cost-effective and comprehensive outsourced solution for...