Information Today articles from March 2007

Information Today archives from March 2007

SIIA's Information Industry Summit: spotlight on Time, Inc. and Dow Jones & Co.(Software & Information Industry Association)(Conference notes)
March 1, 2007... On Jan. 30 and 31, the early morning foot traffic near Grand Central Station scurried across a busy 42nd Street to the revolving doors of the Cipriani for the start of SIIA's sixth annual Information Industry Summit. The 2-day event,...

The new face of Swets.(Swets Information Services)
March 1, 2007... The evolution of digital content and digital subscriptions has triggered a variety of discussions across the industry. At the core of these discussions is whether a subscription agent is still needed in the electronic publishing marketplace....

Get ready for Science.world.
March 1, 2007... The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has signed an agreement with The British Library to partner on the development of a global science gateway that aims to make science information resources of many nations accessible via a single Internet...

YouTube founders cash in on Google buyout.(NewsFlash)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Google recently filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) detailing the transaction between the company and YouTube founders. The SEC report reveals that Google paid co-founder Steve Chen 625,366 shares of Google...

Scion releases model for Second Life.(NewsFlash)(Toyota Motor Corp.)(xD)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Toyota recently revealed two new models of the Scion at the 2007 Chicago Auto Show--the xB for real life and the xD for Second Life (SL). Scion introduced the 2008 virtual vehicle in early February at a press conference in Scion City, which...

ICANN shortens list of domain names.(NewsFlash)(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... In a 12-0 vote, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board members unanimously decided to remove the .um domain name. Minutes from the mid-January meeting reported that "the .UM registry had no usage, and for much of...

VA announces missing hard drive.(NewsFlash)(United States. Department of Veterans Affairs)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that a portable hard drive used by a VA employee in Birmingham, Ala., is missing. At press time, information about the missing data was still being investigated. The VA's Office of Inspector...

Connecting the Pipes.(NewsFlash)(Yahoo! Pipes)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Yahoo! recently released a new product called Pipes that gives nonprogrammers an easy way to create mashups. According to Yahoo!, Pipes "lets you assemble personalized information sources out of existing Web services and data feeds." For...

Blackwell to launch new Clinical Science journal.(Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Blackwell Publishing announced plans to launch a new journal titled Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) beginning in January 2008. CTS will focus on translational studies, an emerging medical discipline that combines applied bench research...

Trade Service Corp. receives equity investment from GF Capital Private Equity Fund.(NewsBytes)
March 1, 2007... Trade Service Corp. (TSC), a database provider of product and pricing solutions to 18,000 subscribers, received an equity investment from GF Capital Private Equity Fund, L.P. TSC provides a variety of services, from content acquisition and...

HP acquires Bristol Technology.(NewsBytes)
March 1, 2007... HP has signed an agreement to acquire Bristol Technology, Inc. to enhance HP Software's position in business technology optimization (BTO). Bristol Technology, a private company based in Danbury, Conn., offered services to help customers...

Dow Jones plans to enhance Factiva SalesWorks for AppExchange.(Dow Jones and Company Inc.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Dow Jones plans to enhance Factiva SalesWorks for salesforce.com's AppExchange to use features in Salesforce Winter '07. salesforce.com customers will be able to use a sales intelligence tool for improved navigation and to produce company and...

ALA Editions releases new Stephen Abram book.(NewsBytes)(Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... SirsiDynix announced the release of Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders, published by ALA Editions. The book is a collection of Abram's writings compiled by Judith A. Siess and Jonathan Lorig with a foreward by Jane...

Wiley acquires publications from Carpe Diem Communications.(John Wiley & Sons, Inc. )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... John Wiley & Sons, Inc. announced that it has acquired three controlled-circulation publications from Carpe Diem Communications, Inc. that will expand Wiley's life and physical science offerings. The acquisitions--Food Quality, PFQ...

Thomson beefs up Eagan campus, provides data to NSF.(NewsBytes)(National Science Foundation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Thomson Corp. plans to expand its facilities on the Thomson West Eagan campus to include a new office building and data center. Thomson expects the new office space to house 2,000 additional employees by 2012. The expansion will add about...

Cirque Corp. Receives Patent for Touch Pad Apps.(NewsBytes)
March 1, 2007... Cirque Corp. has been issued U.S. patent No. 7,151,528 B2, which grants broad coverage for the use of capacitive touch pad technology in mobile phones. The new patent covers a proximity-based, mutually capacitance-sensitive touch pad beneath...

Red Hat selects Czech Republic for global engineering center.(Red Hat Software Inc.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Red Hat has established a development center in the Czech Republic. Staffed with 207 specialists, the new center in Brno will become one of the company's global branches for open source solutions. Red Hat is known for its Linux operating...

If I were Clare Hart.(Up Front with Barbara Quint)(Column)
March 1, 2007... Clare Hart is executive vice president at Dow Jones & Co. and president of its Enterprise Media Group (EMG). She was promoted to that position after serving as the head of Factiva. Now that Dow Jones has bought out Reuters' interest in Factiva,...

Spring winds blow in changes.(NewsBreak Update)(Thomson Business Intelligence)
March 1, 2007... As we face the blustery days of March, the winds of change are already hitting many brands and companies in our industry. And it looks as though most of the changes will be for the better, despite some disruptions and questions from users. ...

Publishers launch Brussels declaration.(NewsBytes)(scientific, technical, medical publising)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... A publishing group issued a joint declaration providing 10 principles in which STM publishing can continue to benefit science and society. The declaration has been endorsed by 35 publishing houses, including the leading European and...

SIIA issued 17 rewards for reports of software piracy in 2006.(NewsBytes)(Software & Information Industry Association)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced that it paid $78,500 to sources who reported software piracy in 2006 and that it is increasing the maximum reward available under its software piracy reward program from $200,000...

Ex Libris announces Primo Charter Members Program.(NewsBytes)(information resources management)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Ex Libris Group has formed the Primo Charter Members Program to give organizations the opportunity to collaborate on the development of Primo, a single, unified solution to discover and deliver local and remote scholarly information resources....

Answers.com gains footing as U.S. Web property.(market share of Answers.com )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Answers Corp. announced that Answers.com became the 62nd-largest Web property in the U.S., based upon unique monthly visitors in January 2007, according to figures from comScore Media Metrix. In December 2006, Answers.com was ranked 78th. The...

James Humphry III, former H.W. Wilson vice president, dies at 90.(NewsBytes)(Obituary)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... James Humphry III, former vice president of H.W. Wilson, died Jan. 11, 2007. He was 90 years old. Mr. Humphry, who served as vice president from 1968 until his retirement in 1982, was instrumental in helping H.W. Wilson adjust to changes in the...

OCLC hosts CERL Hand Press Book Database.(NewsBytes)(Consortium of European Research Libraries)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) reported that OCLC will host the CERL Hand Press Book Database, a collection of more than 2 million catalog records from libraries representing items of European printing from the 15th...

Social media: what's on the horizon?(corporate marketing methods)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The social media phenomenon is making a big splash in corporate waters, according to senior consultant Stowe Boyd from Cutter Consortium, a global IT advisory firm. Social media that caught on in the media and in personal realms are just as...

A Consolidated Industry.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... I very much enjoyed [Dick Kaser's] "Thoughts on a Consolidated Industry" article [Information Today, February 2007]. It addresses something I've been concerned about for many years. Decades ago, when I was head of systems at the Defense...

Virtuality.(computer crashing )(Column)
March 1, 2007... After my PC crashed about a year ago, I wrote in my Information Today column (May 2006) that I actually wished the hard drive had been fried, just so I wouldn't have to manage 30 gigs of files anymore. I guess I should have crossed my fingers...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2007... Caption: I'LL JUST USE GOOGLE EARTH TO PROVE MY POINT ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LOOK AT THAT, EVEN THE SNOWCAP ON MT. KILIMANJARO IS SHRINKING! WAIT... --WHAT'S THAT THING? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SOMEONE...

Paying users for content.(Focus on Publishing)(EPIC 2014)
March 1, 2007... In 2004, a popular Flash movie called "EPIC 2014" by Robin Sloan and Mark Thompson began circulating around the Web, which predicted the 10-year future of the media landscape. (A revised edition was later released in 2005.) Created under...

The CAN-SPAM Act: not canning spam.(Legal Issues)(Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003)
March 1, 2007... Judging by the 4,287 emails in my junk folder, spam is a problem that has not gone away. While spam-filtering software applications have made a dent in my spam traffic (the filter directs the emails right into my junk-mail folder instead of my...

The digital divide revisited.(Internet Waves)(real simple syndication)
March 1, 2007... Maybe it shouldn't have been such a surprise when one of my customers (a retired Air Force officer now working on base in a civilian job) told me he had enrolled in library school. As one of my regulars, he is a well-traveled man with a...

Finding the vocal minority.(Library Stuff Revisited)
March 1, 2007... My cousin Eric (www.komarmusic.com) is a genius. He writes and composes his own brand of contemporary Jewish music, which lets him travel all over the country. He gets to sing at festivals and conferences, while teaching, learning, and doing...

Librarians and licensing.(Intellectual Property)(Column)
March 1, 2007... A few months ago, a colleague asked me to review a prospective job posting for a new position in his organization. He wanted to hire a high-level executive whose primary responsibility would be to negotiate and sign contracts to buy electronic...

Gaining global clientele sooner than ever.(Insider's Perspective)(internationalizing software applications)
March 1, 2007... When it comes to attracting global clientele, many companies are starting to redirect their attention, timing, and efforts. When I attend general business conferences, issues around globalization invariably come up within the first five general...

Opening the door to public access to publicly funded research.(International REPORT)(PubMed Central's new programs)
March 1, 2007... On Jan. 9, 2007, a U.K. version of the U.S. National Institutes of Health's PubMed Central was officially launched as UK PubMed Central (UKPMC). It will provide free access to a permanent online archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the...

Wetzel joins NISO.(Karen A. Wetzel as standards program manager for the National Information Standards Organization)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Karen A. Wetzel was recently appointed the standards program manager for the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). Wetzel will be in charge of standards development and will oversee the activities of the technical committees...

James G. Neal wins Memorial Award.(librarian for Columbia University wins Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award for library automation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... James G. Neal, vice president for information services and university librarian for Columbia University, is the 2007 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. The award, named in honor of one of the pioneers of library automation,...

BioMed Central announces winners of open access Research Awards.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... BioMed Central announced the winners of the first BioMed Central Research Awards, recognizing achievements in medicine and biology research that were made available in one of BioMed Central's OA journals. * Lalit Dandona, senior director...

The conference scene comes to life.(Conference Circuit)(executive-level conference)
March 1, 2007... The spring information industry conference scene is bursting into bloom following a long, cold winter. This year's rich selection of options is bountiful no matter where your professional interests lie. Buying & Selling eContent ...

Business networking solutions: Generate and Jigsaw.
March 1, 2007... Once enterprising business-information professionals took a serious look at social networking, innovative things started to happen. Take Generate, Inc. and Jigsaw, for example. These two companies ushered in novel new ways to stay connected in...

Conference calendar.(Conference Circuit)(Calendar)
March 1, 2007... March 4-8: Sorrento, Italy (Hilton Sorrento Palace). IPI-ConfEx's International Patent Information Conference will cover Best Practices in Patent Information Management and Searching. Information professionals will hear updates on the...

Test your prejudices online: project implicit also offers some suggestions on how we can overcome biases.(Link-Up@Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)
March 1, 2007... After Mel Gibson and Michael Richards made headlines last year with their racist rants, many bloggers and print media pundits observed that we citizens of the 21st century may like to believe that we are more enlightened than people of previous...

'Greatest of All Time' turns 65: Muhammad Ali's revamped Web site shows the boxer's humanitarian side.(CyberSports)(CKx, Inc.)
March 1, 2007... Besides making more than a few baby boomers feel a little older, Muhammad Ali's recent birthday--No. 65 for the Mouth That Roared (aka The Greatest of All Time)--also provided good entertainment for the debut of his redesigned Web site at...

Think tech: something for everyone.(Cover Notes)(new book for librarians)(Book review)
March 1, 2007... Neal-Schuman Library Technology Companion: A Basic Guide for Library Staff, Second Edition by John J. Burke New York: Neal-Schuman, 2006 ISBN: 9781555705503 $59.95 softcover 237 pages By this time, all information professionals have some...

All that jazz.(Bebe Neuwirth takes up role in "Chicago")(del.icio.us)(Georgia State University's digital services)
March 1, 2007... A Broadway musical with someone who has "oomph" oozing out of every pore is guaranteed to liven up a winter day. Bebe Neuwirth--perhaps best known from her Cheers character Lilith, the psychiatrist ex-spouse to Kelsey Grammer's Frasier...

Atypon Systems, Inc.(Chris Beckett as vice president of sales and marketing)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Atypon Systems, Inc. announced the appointment of Chris Beckett as vice president of sales and marketing. In this role, he will oversee sales, marketing, and customer development. Before this, Beckett was co-founder of Scholarly Information...

H.W. Wilson.(H.W. Wilson Co. promotes Mark Gauthier and Joseph Miller )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... H.W. Wilson announced two promotions. Mark Gauthier is vice president of indexing and editorial services, and Joseph Miller is vice president of cataloging and general reference. Prior to this promotion, Gauthier was director of indexing...

Ex Libris (Australia) Pty., Ltd.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Petros Demetriou appointed)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The Ex Libris Group announced that Petros Demetriou has been appointed managing director of Ex Libris (Australia) Pty., Ltd. As such, he will provide strategic and tactical leadership for all Australasian operations. Most recently,...

Xrefer, Inc.(appoints Sara Borzcik and Anne Kail directors of sales )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Xrefer, Inc. announced that Sara Borzcik has been appointed director of sales for the U.S. western region and that Anne Kail will manage the company's London-based sales. In this position, Borzcik will manage all aspects of promotions and...

Nielsen Book Services, Ltd.(appoints four new executives)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Nielsen Book Services, Ltd. has made four staff announcements. Richard Knight is now operations director of Nielsen Book U.K. He will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of data and processing activities and also for all data...

Tracey Armstrong CEO, Copyright Clearance Center.(People Line & the Executive Profile)
March 1, 2007... Digital distribution, initiatives such as the Google Book Search, and new businesses such as YouTube have "create[d] fundamental shifts in how people produce, find, organize, consume and share content in corporations and academic institutions...

New technology solution to protect user identity.(Product News & Reviews)(EncryptaKey)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... EncryptaKey recently launched a technology device to protect user identity online. Auser can insert the device into the USB port, verify his or her identity with the biometric finger scanner, and type in a password. EncryptaKey's operating...

The Royal Society registers archive with CrossRef.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... CrossRef announced that The Royal Society has registered its historical backfile content with the company. The Oldenburg Epistle Dedicatory, dating from 1665 and published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, is now linkable via...

BUDDIE winner takes on tough mission.(Database Review)
March 1, 2007... It's awards season again. The fanfare starts with the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Grammys, and, last but not least, the BUDDIE, for Best Unknown Database, an award that's especially of interest to Information Today readers. The atmosphere...

NotePage releases FeedForAll.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... NotePage recently released a new version of FeedForAll, software that lets Webmasters and publishers create, edit, and publish RSS feeds, podcasts, and video podcasts. This new version includes a built-in validator, advanced publishing...

Nature Publishing Group launches Nature Education.(new educational resources venture )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announced the launch of Nature Education, a new venture to develop educational resources and tools for science students and their professors. Nature Education will focus on creating leading-edge, digitally based...

EBSCO Publishing offers CME credits, announces partnership.(continuing medical education and alliance with The Paris Review)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... EBSCO Publishing announced that it is offering continuing medical education (CME) credits through its DynaMed database. The CME credits available include American Academy of Family Physicians and American Medical Association prescribed credit...

Students, teachers discover an easier way to search.(Product News & Reviews)(Intellext's Watson)
March 1, 2007... Watson has found a new home in the classroom. Intellext's Watson, a contextual search tool that frees users from the search box, is now giving students a better way to learn with the AOL@SCHOOL (www.aolatschool.com) Desktop Sidebar. The...

Wiley announces launch of InfoPOEMs for Hospitalists.(John Wiley & Sons and the Society of Hospital Medicine)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... John Wiley & Sons and the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) announced an agreement to release InfoPOEMs for Hospitalists in spring 2007 to deliver evidence-based medical information to physicians of hospitalized patients. The print, bimonthly...

Having trouble reQalling?(Product News & Reviews)(QTech, Inc.'s reQall)
March 1, 2007... Just when you thought the industry had digitized all it possibly could, QTech, Inc. (http://qtechinc.com) has focused on a new domain--the human memory. The company recently released a new voice-activated memory solution called reQall...

Experian: access to business data anywhere, anytime.(Product News & Reviews)(Experian Information Solutions' BizGo)
March 1, 2007... For those who need a wealth of information in the palm of their hands, Experian Group, Ltd. has introduced instant access to business-critical information via BizGo. The BizGo application, which can be delivered to Web-enabled cell phones,...

Thomson Scientific releases tools for Manuscript Submission Management.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Thomson Scientific launched the Manuscript Management Toolset, which integrates elements of ScholarOne Manuscript Central with Web of Science and EndNote. Authors can now create a manuscript in EndNote and submit it for review using Manuscript...

WebFeat releases WebFeat Express 2.0.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... WebFeat released version 2.0 of its WebFeat Express federated search prism. This new version includes results clustering, expanded customization options, support for seven languages, a thesaurus, and WebFeat API integration. Users can now...

ASC and Knovel launch e-library.(Knovel Corp. and Adhesive and Sealant Council )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Knovel Corp. announced a new partnership with the Adhesive and Sealant Council (ASC) to launch a customized electronic library, bringing research data and problem-solving technology to its members. This new service gives ASC members online...

ITtoolbox: tricks of the trade.(Product News & Reviews)
March 1, 2007... When a group of professionals turns to social networking, the result is a community of peers dedicated to sharing knowledge. ITtoolbox is such a site designed for the professional IT community, where peers can share knowledge about information...

Factiva expands Taxonomy Warehouse Partner Network.(Product News & Reviews)(signs deal with Cycorp, Ibuki, and Intellisophic)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Factiva has added three new partners to its Taxonomy Warehouse Partner Network: Cycorp, Ibuki, and Intellisophic. The network currently includes Thomson Gale and WAND. It is a community directory and information source for vocabularies,...

Blackwell Publishing announces redesign, partnership.(Blackwell Publishing Ltd. enhances Blackwell Synergy and alliance with American Association of Public Health Dentistry)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Blackwell Publishing launched its newly redesigned online-delivery platform, Blackwell Synergy (www.blackwell-synergy.com). Blackwell Synergy lets users search 1 million articles from more than 850 scholarly journals across the sciences, social...

Collaborating in Near-Time.(Product News & Reviews)(Near-Time Premium)(paid membership service)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time, Inc., is taking advantage of the wave of user-generated content. But he's taking it one step further: He's combining user-generated content and expertise as a way to "collaborate on the Web." For a fee, users can...

MessageGate: securing your email channels.(Product News & Reviews)
March 1, 2007... You might want to think twice before hitting the "send" button on that outgoing email. Email, which has become the quick and easy way to communicate electronically these days, often helps users send more information than they thought they were....

Synaptec Software releases new version of Matter Management.(Product News & Reviews)
March 1, 2007... Synaptec Software, a developer of legal software, announced LawBase HD, a new version of its Matter Management software. LawBase HD provides a clearer, more focused view of the information stored in LawBase. Advances in the product will provide...

Scopus enters agreement with publishers and societies.(Product News & Reviews)(Scopus Digital Video Compression Ltd.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Scopus announced that it has signed strategic content deals with Springer, Nature Publishing Group, the American Physical Society, and the American Institute of Physics to index their back issues. Scopus will add digitized physics, chemistry,...

Repackaging election results.(Product News & Reviews)(political news sources)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Just as election fever started heating up across the nation, the Pew Internet & American Life Project took a survey of Americans' preferences for political news sources. Check out the results: * Television was still the No. 1 favorite (69...