Information Today articles from May 2006

Information Today archives from May 2006

BlackBerry: lawsuit and patent reform.(Research in Motion, NTP Inc.)
May 1, 2006... It looks as though your BlackBerry is sale now. After more than 4 years of litigation and a threatened shutdown, a settlement was reached between Research in Motion (RIM)--the manufacturer of the BlackBerry--and NTP, the firm holding several...

Exalead offers unified search experience.(Interview)
May 1, 2006... Exalead officially entered the U.S. market for enterprise search last fall, but its Web search engine had already garnered interest from search engine experts who liked its AltaVista-like capabilities. I recently talked with the company's...

Trends in database management systems technology.
May 1, 2006... In an age when enterprises (and individuals) are handling more and more information, managing this data efficiently and securely has become a challenge. And with every challenge, innovators can step up to the plate with technology that makes...

Push to register for .eu domain name.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Europeans registered their new .eu Internet domain names, according to European Union (EU) officials, who reported that about 300,000 claims were staked within the first hour. Within a week of the general launch, about 1.5 million domain names...

Swets, Ex Libris collaborate on EDI serial claiming.(NewsBytes)(Swets Information Services )(Ex Libris Group )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Swets Information Services and the Ex Libris Group announced that the EDI trials they have been conducting with University College London have been completed. This collaboration accelerated the claims-processing procedures for the college....

Special award created to honor Everett Brenner.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Technology author and lecturer Stephen E. Arnold has established and funded a new award in honor of the late Everett Brenner for the Best Paper at the 11th Search Engine Meeting, which was held April 24-25 in Boston. The award is a special...

Powered by pride: vanity as virtue.(Up Front)(Column)
May 1, 2006... Down through history, one of the somewhat embarrassing truths about human conduct is the shockingly well-documented (though rarely discussed) fact that human beings often derive the motivation for their conduct--both good and bad--from vanity,...

Changes in the news industry, search engine developments, and more.(McClatchy Co., Knight Ridder, Microsoft Corp., IAC Search & Media)
May 1, 2006... The business of news reporting and dissemination continues to morph. In mid-March, newspaper owner McClatchy Co. agreed to buy Knight Ridder (KR), the second-largest newspaper company in the U.S., for about $4.5 billion in cash and stock. This...

Thomson Scientific awarded contract from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded a contract to Thomson Scientific to create a value-added international patent database. Thomson Scientific will continue to provide USPTO patent examiners with unlimited access to the Derwent...

America Online changes its name.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... In early April, AOL announced that it is retiring the name America Online after 15 years and that the company is now officially known as AOL. Our company long ago accomplished the mission implied by our old name... we literally got America...

Nielsen BookData, The British Library announce partnership.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Nielsen BookData and The British Library (BL) have agreed to have BookData incorporate BL's data records into its products and services. The deal comes after an announcement that BookData will offer new catalog-quality information services to...

Nature Publishing Group expands into India, Latin America/Spain.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Nature Publishing Group (NPG) will open two new divisions: NPG India (based in Gurgaon) and NPG Latin America/ Spain (based in Mexico City). These two divisions will focus on marketing, sales, advertising, and society relationships and...

Dialog sponsors SLA Award for Australia and New Zealand.
May 1, 2006... Dialog announced that it will sponsor the Australia & New Zealand Informational Professional of the Year Award again this year. Nominations are now being accepted for the award, which is given annually by the Australia and New Zealand chapter...

Endeavor Information Systems' Voyager selected for National Library of Croatia.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Endeavor Information Systems announced that the Republic of Croatia's National and University Library in Zagreb selected Voyager, the company's integrated library management system, to help improve library automation, resource sharing, and...

Cast your vote.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2006... Drum roll, please. The nominations for our first-ever 2006 People's Choice Awards are now officially over, and we're opening up the ballots again so our readers can cast their final votes for the best and brightest in the world of information...

Close encounters of the digital kind.
May 1, 2006... I was merely a keystroke away from agreeing to the instructions on the start-up disk that would restore my laptop and erase everything on it. I was even OK with the idea--suddenly, yet oddly--that wiping out 30 gigabytes of stored data...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
May 1, 2006... WE NEED TO FILL THE V.P. SLOT... YES, I HAVE TIME TO DO A BACKGROUND CHECK ON HER THIS AFTERNOON. LET' SEE... PHONE REFERENCES CHECKED OUT O.K. UH-OH, HERE ARE SOME REMNANTS FROM THE PAST... OLD BLOG POSTINGS, AN ANCIENT PROFILE ON...

Redefining the book.(Focus on Publishing)
May 1, 2006... I have been thinking about books lately. Or, more specifically, thinking about what exactly a book is these days. Is a book the whole of its text or a mere sum of its parts? Now, I am not talking about fiction here. I'm talking about all the...

Seek and ye shall find.(searching and finding through Internet)
May 1, 2006... The modern world is conspiring against serendipity. But we cannot blame technology. I've met this enemy, and it is us. We forget: We invented this stuff. We must lead technology, not allow technology to lead us. The world is a better and more...

The legal problems of spyware.(Legal Issues)
May 1, 2006... When I was working on my home computer a few months ago, my Internet Explorer was suddenly bombarded with full-page pop-up ads. I closed each of four or five windows and ran a virus check, although it came up empty. But the same thing happened...

What's in your wallet?(creating reading lists, information management)(Column)
May 1, 2006... We've all seen the television commercials where a scruffy band of Vikings follows unsuspecting folks who are about to charge items to their high-interest credit cards. When the savvy consumer whips out a Capital One card from his or her wallet,...

For moms and dads everywhere.(gifts)(List)
May 1, 2006... With Mother's Day on May 14 and Father's Day on June 18, here are some ideas--in a variety of price ranges--for all you last-minute shoppers. Gifts for Mom * PictureBook Digital Photo Album ($500): What mother doesn't enjoy seeing...

Geomagic opens office in Japan.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Global software and services firm Geomagic opened its first branch office in Tokyo. The Japan office was established to meet the increasing demand for Geomagic solutions in Japanese design, en gineering, inspection, and manufacturing...

EBSCO announces sponsorship winners.(EBSCO Information Services, American Library Association )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... EBSCO Information Services and the American Library Association announced the following winners of the 2006 EBSCO/ ALA Conference Sponsorships: * Rita B. Baladad, Minnetonka, Minn. * Tina Bradley, Mountain Home, Ark. * Emily...

Coutts Library Services kicks off e-book initiatives.(MyiLibrary)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Coutts Library Services and the University ofToronto Libraries agreed to deliver more than 11,300 electronic Taylor & Francis titles via the MyiLibrary platform. The two organizations have also agreed to enhance the collection with content from...

Travelzoo to send subscriber into space.(NewsBytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Travelzoo, Inc. is celebrating a milestone by offering to send its 10 millionth publication subscriber into space. Matthew Wagner from Santa Fe Springs, Calif., received a ticket for a suborbital space flight from Travelzoo chairman and CEO...

IEEE/HP telecenter opens in Nigeria.(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Hewlett-Packard Co.)
May 1, 2006... In 2003, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) sent Harry Goldstein, then an IEEE Spectrum senior associate editor, to Nigeria to research an article on an undersea fiber optic cable. When he arrived, Goldstein...

The Merry, Merry Month of May.
May 1, 2006... May, the time of year when spring flowers are in full bloom, is one of my favorite months. But to quote songwriter Stephen Foster in The Merry, Merry Month of May, I certainly won't be "[whiling] the hours away," because this month features a...

Digitization: from inception to income.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
May 1, 2006... Digitization--converting content in print, microform, images, composition files, or outmoded electronic formats to usable electronic formats--has emerged from a step in the content creation process to a business in its own right. And...

Computers in Libraries 2006.
May 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: K. Matthew Dames, Information Today columnist, provided his input on understanding copyright and the intersection between laws and information technology at the CIL 2006 conference March 22-24 in Washington,...

Factiva, ProQuest expand alliance.(Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive L.L.C. and ProQuest Information and Learning Co.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Factiva and ProQuest Information and Learning have plans to expand their existing partnership. ProQuest will now serve as channel partner for Factiva.com (Factiva's flagship business news and information solution) in the corporate and...

ALPSP seminar: the new publishers.(Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers)(Mary Waltham, Keith Jeffery, Ian Russell)
May 1, 2006... While the venue was traditional--marble corridors, oak-paneled meeting rooms, oil paintings of great engineers, and proximity to the Houses of Parliament in London--the topic was up-to-date and relevant: The New Publishers. Attendees of...

Pacific rim: connecting with users.(13th Biennial Conference and Exhibition)
May 1, 2006... Melbourne, Australia, was the hub of the Australasian Information Technology and Information Industry from Feb. 8 to 10 as the VALA2006 13th Biennial Conference and Exhibition offered prime exposure to the hottest technological developments...

Creating a Universal Digital Library.(Biennial Conference and Exhibition of information industry)
May 1, 2006... Storing all the world's published information in a single repository may seem a bit farfetched to some or something right out of the pages of a Bradbury-esque science fiction novel to others. But for Narayanaswamy Balakrishnan, professor at the...

Technology trends in the pacific rim.(conferences of information industry)
May 1, 2006... A hushed audience watched as Anne Beaumont sat alone on the stage studying a laptop screen in a session at the VALA2006 Conference, held Feb. 8-10 in Melbourne. Beaumont, one of the authors of Federated Searching: Disparate and Distributed...

Conference calendar.
May 1, 2006... May 8: Houston (Texas Medical Center). The University of Texas-Houston School of Nursing will sponsor the 10th Annual Houston Conference on Health Informatics. The theme is Vanishing Bits & Bytes: Preserving Information. The conference...

NetLibrary offers Springer Science+Business Media journals.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... NetLibrary, a division of OCLC, signed a distribution agreement that will make all Springer Science+Business Media journal titles accessible through NetLibrary's Electronic Collections Online service. The Springer Journal collection will...

Wiley forms partnership with Epocrates.(John Wiley & Sons Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... John Wiley & Sons, Inc. announced an agreement with Epocrates, Inc. to make Wiley's InfoPOEMs medical content available to Epocrates users. Epocrates will integrate selected POEMs into its free DocAlert medical news service. (POEMs, an acronym...

Jeeves gone, Google next?(http://www.ask.com)(uses of search engines)
May 1, 2006... If you've clicked on the Ask Jeeves site recently, you may have noticed that the butler's pleasant image has been replaced by a sparse interface that (not coincidentally) resembles Google's home page. Although you may also have learned about...

EBSCOhost Electronic Journals Service introduces enhancements.(Project News & Reviews)
May 1, 2006... EBSCO Publishing announced new features and enhanced functionality for the EBSCOhost interface. These include RSS enabled alerts; EBSCOhost clustering; printing, e-mailing, and saving in standard industry formats; visual search; database...

The American Society of Gene Therapy and NPG enter publishing partnership.(Nature Publishing Group)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... The American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) have formed a publishing partnership. NPG will publish the society's leading international title, Molecular Therapy, and the journal will be relaunched with a...

NoveList offers NextReads e-mail newsletter service.(Project News & Reviews)
May 1, 2006... NoveList, a division of EBSCO Publishing, has launched the NextReads e-mail newsletter service. This subscription-based e-mail readers' advisory and library marketing service provides libraries with more than 20 customizable subject and...

McGraw-Hill Professional launches online genetics resource.(Project News & Reviews)
May 1, 2006... Researchers, scientists, and clinicians will now have a Web-based reference service from McGraw-Hill Professional, Charles R. Scriver's reference in medical genetics and molecular medicine. The eighth edition of Online Metabolic and Molecular...

Clusty.com sets up special branded search tab.
May 1, 2006... Vivisimo, Inc.'s new free search service for nonprofits and educational institutions sets up a handy dedicated tab of their own at Clusty.com. The tab showcases the organization's name in red for brand identity and creates search results...

Carswell signs agreement for access to CriminalSource.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Carswell, provider of Canada's specialized information and electronic research solutions to the legal, tax, finance, accounting, and human resources markets, announced an agreement with the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario to provide...

DialogLink 5 enhances chemical structure searching capabilities.(Project News & Reviews)
May 1, 2006... DialogLink 5 now lets researchers search chemical structures in multiple drug pipeline files simultaneously. According to Dialog, it is currently the only major information aggregator to offer this functionality. DialogLink 5 also includes...

Silobreaker opens doors to current awareness.(services and management)
May 1, 2006... In an era when global initiatives meet political unrest, Silobreaker (http://www.silobreaker.com) is emerging as a savvy service that analyzes events in every corner of the world. Credit Mats Bjore, Silobreaker's business development...

Premiere Global takes the guesswork out of mobile printing and conference calls.
May 1, 2006... While BlackBerries and PDAs are being used by increasing numbers of on-the-go workers, printing attachments and reading Excel documents on the road can be a bit of a challenge. Users now have more options for keeping in touch with the office...

SmartShopper launches shopping tool.
May 1, 2006... SmartShopper, a comparative shopping tool that searches retail and travel sites, combines two popular activities into one simple application. It delivers a list of competitive deals from merchants in the browser sidebar. When users download...

H.W. Wilson introduces one-stop portal, database service, and new edition.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... H.W. Wilson debuted its new online Technical Support Center, a Web hub that offers administrative and technical resources for WilsonWeb subscribers, who can consult links to usage statistics, WilsonWeb training, WilsonWeb Administrative Module,...

New Global Telecom launches S.M.A.R.T. VoIP.(Strategic Market Acquisition & Retention Techniques)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... New Global Telecom (NGT) announced the launch of its informational series S.M.A.R.T. VoIP (Strategic Market, Acquisition & Retention Techniques). It is designed to focus on helping service providers gain small and midsize business (SMB) market...

Intellext integrates with Microsoft SharePoint Technologies.(usage of intelligent search tool Watson)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Intellext, creators of the intelligent search tool Watson, announced enhancements for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies with the ability to deliver content automatically from SharePoint sites directly to their desktop. Watson,...

CAS enhances databases with record-breaking growth.(Project News & Reviews)(Chemical Abstracts Service)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) enriched its databases with properties data as well as substance and document information. Nearly 1.1 billion predicted and experimental properties (tags that refer to additional data) and spectra were added to...

Inderscience reaches 200 journal title landmark.(Project News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Inderscience Publishers announced the addition of four new titles, which increases the Inderscience portfolio to 200 journals. The four titles are International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies, International Journal of Business Innovation...

Word crazes: slang dictionaries: the goal of Double-Tongued is to record 'undocumented or under-documented old and new words from the fringes of English.'.(Link-Up@Home: Your Personal Guide to the Web)(www.urbandictionary.com)(www.pseudodictionary.com)(www.doubletongued.org)
May 1, 2006... If you think being "off your hinges is a bad thing, you need to spend time reading the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com). You'll learn that "off the hinges" is like the phrase "off the hook" (current slang that means "great" or...

As Renee Zellweger said ...(Cybersports)(http ://www.ThisGreatGame.com)
May 1, 2006... Sometimes a Web site gives you that feeling made famous by Renee Zellweger and Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire... it gets you at hello. Such is the case with a new baseball site called This Great Game (http ://www.ThisGreatGame.com) that was...

Internet TV: a new era begins.(Perspectives)
May 1, 2006... The Internet continues to transform industries and institutions faster and more profoundly than anyone ever anticipated. And this is the case with the recent flurry of announcements about Internet TV. On-demand TV and film, long within the...

The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers.(People Line)(Michael A. Mabe appointed as new CEO)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) announced the appointment of Michael A. Mabe as its new CEO. Since 1999, Mabe has been director of academic relations at Elsevier. Prior to this, he was...

Thomson Legal & Regulatory.(People Line)(Karl Florida has been named vice president)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Thomson Legal & Regulatory announced that Karl Florida has been named vice president of global strategy. In this role, he will direct growth strategy projects. Most recently, Florida was senior director of global strategy at Thomson Legal...

SirsiDynix.(Talin R. Bingham appointed)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... SirsiDynix announced the appointment of Talin R. Bingham as senior vice president of technology. Most recently, Bingham held roles as a consultant in the development of software systems and applications, vice president of development for...

Contexo Media, Inc.(Jason Pierson and Lori Reichard appointed)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Contexo Media, Inc. announced that it has hired two new executives: Jason Pierson is the new chief information officer and Lori Reichard is chief financial officer. In this position, Pierson will oversee all technology and software...

Vivisimo.(Rebecca Thompson appointed)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Vivisimo announced that Rebecca Thompson has joined the company as vice president of marketing. She will be responsible for designing and implementing new strategic marketing initiatives and will oversee all aspects of marketing for Velocity...

ProQuest Information and Learning.(Vince Price appointed)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... ProQuest Information and Learning announced the appointment of Vince Price as vice president of content operations for the higher education and library business segments. In 1996, Price joined ProQuest as product manager for ABUINFORM....

T.N. Hari, Vice President, Virtusa Corp.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... As T. N. Hari stepped into the post of vice president and global head of human resources at Virtusa Corp., he began to draw upon his expertise in marketing dynamics and past experience of overseeing more than 20,000 people across the globe. ...

Theory to the trenches.(Spanning the Theory-Practice Divide in Library and Information Science)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Spanning the Theory-Practice Divide in Library and Information Science by Bill Crowley Latham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2005 ISBN: 0-8108-5165-2 240 pages $45 softcover If you went to library school (or another professional school), you may...

What's snu?(In Other Words)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2006... OK, I admit it. I'm a merry prankster. I love bad puns and jokes that make you moan. I have no shame in stealing anything funny and adding it to my repertoire. About 15 years ago, I heard a routine that begins, "I wish I had some snu."...

The Visible Employee: Using Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance to Protect Information Assets--Without Compromising Employee Privacy or Trust.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Visible Employee: Using Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance to Protect Information Assets--Without Compromising Employee Privacy or Trust By Jeffrey M. Stanton and Kathryn R. Stam If you think the information stored, used, and shared...

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

Teach Beyond Your Reach: An Instructor's Guide to Developing and Running Successful Distance Learning Classes, Workshops, Training Sessions and More.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Teach Beyond Your Reach: An Instructor's Guide to Developing and Running Successful Distance Learning Classes, Workshops, Training Sessions and More By Robin Neidorf Distance learning is enabling students of all kinds to earn college and...

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

The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders Edited by Gwen Meyer Gregory The role of academic librarian is far from cut-and-dried. For starters, there are the numerous job classifications: staff or...

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

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

The NextGen Librarian's Survival Guide.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The NextGen Librarian's Survival Guide By Rachel Singer Gordon Here is a unique resource for next generation librarians, addressing the specific needs of GenXers and Millennials as they work to define themselves as information...

The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries By Judith A. Siess This new edition of the essential management guide for small and one-person libraries (OPLs) features a wealth of practical tips, strategies, and success...

The Accidental Library Manager.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... The Accidental Library Manager By Rachel Singer Gordon Most librarians enter the field intending to focus on a particular specialty, but eventually need to take on certain supervisory or managerial responsibilities in order to move forward....

Identity theft: targeting younger victims.(security management)
May 1, 2006... When his teenage son showed him the sign-up sheet for a local bowling league, Al Decker, executive director of Electronic Data Systems, an enterprise risk management firm in Plano, Texas, was shocked to see a space requesting his son's Social...

Study addresses Europe's scientific publications system.(European Commission study on European scientific publication system)
May 1, 2006... The European Commission (EC) released a study in late March that examines the European scientific publication system. The actual document, which was dated January 2006, follows the original call for work issued in July 2003. The study can...

Creating a Future Digital System.(NewsMakers)
May 1, 2006... The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Master Integrator of the Future Digital System, also known as FDsys. The launch of the RFP marks a major point in GPO's timetable to create a new content...

BioMed Central welcomes EC report.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... BioMed Central welcomed a report from the European Commission (EC) that calls attention to problems with the current system for scientific publication. The study, prepared by economists at Toulouse University and the Free University of...

SLA announces new board members.(Special Libraries Association)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... SLA has announced the results of its 2006 board of directors elections. This was the first election to use an Internet-based voting system. The new board members will be installed at the SLA Annual Conference in June. Stephen Abram, vice...

James announces retirement.(Bruce James retires from Government Printing Office )(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Public printer of the United States Bruce James announced his plans to retire as head of the U.S. Government Printing Office as soon as a replacement has been found. James, who was appointed to the post in 2002 at the request of President...