Information Today articles from May 2008

Information Today archives from May 2008

Facebook apps: deeper social networking.(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... When Facebook first launched in February 2004, users could customize very little on the fledgling social networking site. An average user profile contained about as much information as a police dossier: name, date of birth, hometown, and a few...

Case study: open access yields solid growth for Hindawi.(Hindawi Publishing Corp. )(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... At first glance, Hindawi Publishing Corp. appears to be just like any other STM publisher. It publishes a healthy slate of peer-reviewed titles and has a relatively large staff that runs the operations typical of a traditional publishing house....

Visions of a wireless Philadelphia.
May 1, 2008... It's been 3 years since former Mayor John Street and former chief information officer (CIO) Dianah Neff made the announcement that Philadelphia would be the first major wireless city in the U.S. This innovative step was considered by many to be...

Dow Jones acquires Generate, Inc.(News Bytes)
May 1, 2008... Dow Jones acquired the Massachusetts-based Generate, Inc., a business intelligence company, in mid-April. Generate joins the Dow Jones' Enterprise Media Group (EMG) as part of a new business unit called Business & Relationship Intelligence....

MySpace adds exclusive content to MySpace Latino.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... MySpace is expanding its year-old MySpace Latino website, adding eight bilingual communities focused on Latino bands and celebrities, soccer, and other interests. The addition of exclusive content is new to the site, which had largely been a...

Council of Europe discusses Cybercrime at Convention.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Council of Europe, a pan-European body concerned with human rights and the rule of law, held a conference April 1-2 in Strasbourg, France, to discuss how governments should counter cybercrime aimed at crippling the internet and causing data...

Jordan, Edmiston Group announces 1Q findings.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) announced that M&As in the media and information industries are continuing at a strong pace in 1Q 2008. According to JEGI, 202 transactions were announced, totaling $13.4 billion in value, across the 11...

Dodge the bullet or grab the gun? Publisher decision making.(Up Front)
May 1, 2008... Hey, I don't want to be rude, but has it struck you lately that publishers are starting to kind of flake out? I mean the elevator doesn't reach the top floor... They're not playing with a full deck... One sandwich short of a picnic. One...

Text analytics, legal research, and semantic search top the news.(News Break Update)
May 1, 2008... In my wrap-up at the end of 2007, I mentioned a number of trends I was watching for 2008. Among these was the increasing interest in text analytics, data extraction and mining, semantic search, and related technologies. So far, this has proven...

Swets implements lean Six Sigma at Netherlands HQ.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Swets reported that the first wave of its Lean Six Sigma program was implemented at the company's global headquarters in Lisse, Netherlands.The program is a business-improvement methodology designed to improve an organization's performance in...

Philanthropists donate $500,000 to Wikimedia Foundation.(News Bytes)(Vinod Khosla and Neeru Khosla)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Wikimedia Foundation received a $500,000 donation from philanthropists Vinod and Neeru Khosla. The nonprofit foundation provides organizational support for Wikipedia and eight other collaboratively created information projects and is...

RSC selects EMpact as Brazil sales rep.(News Bytes)(Royal Society of Chemistry )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) appointed EMpact Sales as its sales and marketing representative and consultant to Brazil. EMpact will promote and sell the RSC's subscription journals in the country and will continue to do so in Korea, as...

Computer Rx: troubleshooting tech tips.
May 1, 2008... You know the adage about an ounce of prevention? No one likes to spend time on computer maintenance, but problems can add up to tens of thousands of dollars lost to decreased productivity and repairs for big business. Chip Reeves, national...

San Jose State offers LIS Ph.D. program.(News Bytes)(Library and Information Science )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University announced the San Jose Gateway Ph.D. Program, which will be offered through a partnership with the Queensland University of Technology. The part-time program will be...

Columbia University, YIVO join to preserve Yiddish newspapers.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Columbia University Libraries and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research agreed to a joint initiative to preserve a collection of more than 100 South American Yiddish newspapers and journals covering the years 1933-1956 and to make them...

Zinio announces results of digital-magazine survey.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Zinio has announced the results of a survey it recently conducted with The Harrison Group that showed that 80% of digital magazine readers are satisfied with their experience and that one-third of the readers pay more attention to ads in...

Thomson Scientific honors 10 researchers with Citation Awards.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Thomson Scientific announced that 10 researchers working in Australia received Citation Awards from the company. The recipients were selected using a quantitative process that identified the average number of citations per paper of their...

Mark Logic joins Vendor Alliance, announces Tech Partnership.(News Bytes)
May 1, 2008... Mark Logic joined the Interop Vendor Alliance, a group of hardware and software vendors seeking to enhance interoperability with Microsoft systems, to improve MarkLogic Server. The company also announced a technology partnership with Medialab...

ALPSP partners with Ingram Digital for Ebook Service.(News Bytes)(Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) said it has partnered with Ingram Digital to establish a cooperative ebook service for the ALPSP's publisher members. Ingram will establish an ALPSP ebook collection program...

ProQuest announces hires, receives Choice Magazine Awards.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... ProQuest reported several recent staff appointments: Ron Clowney will become vice president of U.S. higher education and government sales, and Dave Leach will take over as director of strategic account management. Clowney will be responsible...

Update on portals.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... The Deep Web Technologies crew was thrilled to read your review of four portals using our federated search technology, Explorit Research Accelerator [Mick O'Leary's Database Review, "New Portals Enrich STM Menu," April 2008, IT]. Interestingly,...

Return to authority.
May 1, 2008... There has been much talk--and many assertions--in the past couple of years about how the wisdom of crowds and the capabilities of things Web 2.0 are going to upset the traditional scales of social balance. Where once a few minds prevailed,...

Infotoons.(Cartoon)
May 1, 2008... WE SHOULD GET MOM A LAPTOP FOR MOTHER'S DAY... I CAN TEACH HER SOME OF THE BASICS. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I SHOULD TAKE A PEEK AT THE MARKET... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OH, MY! NOT LOOKING GOOD TODAY... [ILLUSTRATION...

Wikipedia and misunderstandings.(Focus on Publishing)(Column)
May 1, 2008... Of all the websites in all the days of Webdom, no single site has ever touched a collective nerve in the same way that Wikipedia has. This month's column is about two Wikipedia stories that illustrate the dynamics of how the mere association of...

Is it just me? Or are we overlooking today's trends?(Internet Waves)(Column)
May 1, 2008... Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. --Conventional wisdom, combinations and permutations thereof variously attributed to Kurt Cobain, Catch 22, and numerous posters and bumper stickers As this was...

Progress continues in patent reform and Pro IP.(Legal Issues)
May 1, 2008... The 2-year life cycle of the congressional term is somewhat predictable. During the first year, few laws are enacted since much of Congress' focus is in the background work of lawmaking. Committees hold hearings, staffers draft reports, and...

Creative Kingdom begins developing 'Cyber City' in Thailand.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Mindark announced that its partner Creative Kingdom, Inc. began developing a film/television studio and IT production complex dubbed Cyber City in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The project, underwritten by the Thai government and a consortium of...

Library of Congress names special projects liaison.(News Bytes)(Karen Motylewski)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Library of Congress announced that Karen Motylewski of the Institute of Museum and Library Services will serve a 1-year term at the library as special projects liaison. In this role, she is expected to help both agencies advance their goals...

Executives elected to SIIA content division board of directors.(News Bytes)
May 1, 2008... The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) released the names of 12 executives representing member companies of its content division who have been elected to the division's board of directors. Here are the new and re-elected...

Google apps: making the most of Google calendar.(Library Stuff Revisited)
May 1, 2008... Welcome to the latest installment in a series that reviews various applications for Google tools. In my past three columns, I discussed internal options and third-party applications for Gmail, and in my last column, I ran through the basic...

The search gap.(Insider's Perspective)(Column)
May 1, 2008... [Insider's Perspective is a column written by an expert who shares insights about challenges and trends in his or her specific niche in the information industry.] Do a simple experiment: Ask yourself or a colleague who works in a large...

Answers Corp. names AnswerThon winners, reports increased site traffic.(News Bytes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Answers Corp. announced the winners of its first AnswerThon, a contest in which participants were given 48 hours to answer as many questions as possible for WikiAnswers.com's social knowledge community. The first-place winner, Aggie80,...

We stand corrected.(Correction notice)
May 1, 2008... In the March 2008 issue, we inadvertently printed an error in our Product News section. In "Safari Online: Adventures in Elearning," we noted that "Safari now has more than 65,000 titles in its library about software development, web design,...

Ten years later: Akamai continues to evolve with the internet.(IT Spotlight)(Akamai Technologies )(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... Here's a high-tech company that offers a special innovative service to improve website performance. FOUNDER Co-founder Tom Leighton officially founded Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai Technologies in August 1998.This was after he spent 3...

The intelligent wine bottle, virtual running, and more.(International REPORT)
May 1, 2008... In our highly networked society, not much in life remains untouched by technology or has not been reproduced as some form of virtual entertainment. In fact, information technology has permeated practically every aspect of our lives over...

Another health advocacy center opens.(News Makers)(Westchester Library System )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Westchester Library System (WLS) just opened the doors to its second Health Advocacy Resource Center in New York's Westchester County. The library-based health information center, located in the John C. Hart Memorial Library in Shrub Oak,...

Listening has its rewards.(News Makers)(The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence through Blogs and Other Social Media )(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... With more than 80 million blogs and social media sites, how can companies keep track of the buzz being generated about them? Robert Berkman, editor of ITI's The Information Advisor, book author, and associate professor at the New School in...

Thomson announces new ticker symbols for Thomson Reuters.(News Makers)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... After The Thomson Corp. finalized acquisition of Reuters Group PLC in mid-April, new stock ticker symbols were added to the stock exchanges. Common shares for The Thomson Reuters Corp. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the...

Conferences in full bloom.(Conference Circuit)(Conference news)
May 1, 2008... Like spring flowers in May, the information industry conference season is now in full bloom. Many professional societies customarily meet in May, and this year is no exception. About 20 society meetings are on the calendar. Seven book fairs are...

CIL: merging high tech with high touch.(Computers in Libraries )(Conference news)
May 1, 2008... A record number of 2,267 attended the 23rd Computers in Libraries conference (the 14th under Information Today, Inc.'s organization): The total included 2,202 attendees, 283 exhibits-only visitors, and 182 exhibitors from 49 states (except...

Spring 2008 ASIDIC: as worlds collide.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)(Association of Information and Dissemination Centers)
May 1, 2008... While worlds are certainly colliding in the information industry, ASIDIC's spring meeting--held March 16-18 in Las Vegas--helped negotiate users through the virtual cosmos. Many collisions are occurring simultaneously, creating dangers to...

INSOURCE: not for competitive intelligence specialists only.(REPORT FROM THE FIELD)
May 1, 2008... Does the information world need a new conference? Albertina icome Praha thinks so. In early February, it introduced INSOURCE (www .insource.cz/en), a 2-day conference in Prague, Czech Republic. Its expected audience was business...

Conferences around the world.(Calendar)
May 1, 2008... For information on ITI's conferences, turn to page 24. May 7-9: Klagenfurt, Austria (Klagenfurt University). The 8th International Workshop on Multimedia Metadata Management & Retrieval (M3R 08) focuses on the delivery, adaptation,...

ECPR, Cambridge to launch political science journal.(Product News & Reviews)(Cambridge University Press)(European Consortium for Political Research)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and the Cambridge University Press plan to launch the European Political Science Review, a new general political science journal, in 2009. The journal will be published three times each year...

Collexis to develop expert profiling system for KMU.(Product News & Reviews)(Collexis Holdings, Inc.)(Kaohsiung Medical University)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU) selected Collexis Holdings, Inc. to develop an Advanced Expert Profiling System that will allow KMU's students, faculty, and researchers to connect via a web interface. The program is meant to maximize...

AltSearchEngines monitors non-Google search world.(Database Review)
May 1, 2008... AltSearchEngines SYNOPSIS AltSearchEngines is a blog that provides news, reviews, and analysis of specialized and emerging search engines. It's a fascinating window into the non-Google search engine world, and it's a necessary hangout...

Encyclopaedia Britannica releases iPhone application.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. released an application for Apple's iPhone that gives users access to tens of thousands of articles covering all subjects. The application offers full-text searching, thousands of high-resolution thumbnails that...

Web of Science adds 162 regional journals.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Thomson Scientific reported that Web of Science has added 162 regional social science journals. The new journals typically approach subjects from a local perspective or focus on particular topics of regional interest. To be included in Web of...

Science of Synthesis update adds two volumes, 18,000 reactions.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Thieme Publishing Group released Science of Synthesis Version 3.5, an electronic information resource for synthetic organic chemistry. The new version adds two volumes, bringing the total to 34, and more than 18,000 new reactions for a total of...

Atypon Systems: raising the bar on platforms.(Product News & Reviews)
May 1, 2008... By the end of 1Q 2008, the American Statistical Association (ASA) had signed on with Atypon Systems, Inc. to develop its platform for online journal hosting and delivery services. This was good news for Chris Beckett, vice president of...

Wiley-Blackwell to launch climate change publication.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Wiley-Blackwell has announced that it will launch a new online publication called Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change in 2010 as a collaborative project with the Royal Meteorological Society and the Royal Geographical Society. The...

SwetsWise adds Science magazine.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Swets and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) announced that the journal Science--which includes original scientific research, global news, and commentary--will be available via SwetsWise Online Content, an ejournal...

Thomson, Ringgold release journal analysis database expanded.(Product News & Reviews)(Thomson Corp. Thomson Scientific)(Ringgold Management Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Thomson Scientific and Ringgold, Inc. announced the availability of Journal Analysis Database Expanded. This new program lets users view detailed analyses of authors and subscribers of a journal or set of journals using definitions of the...

Four N.Y. Library systems to use credo reference products.(Product News & Reviews)(New York, United States)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Credo Reference recently reached an agreement with four New York library systems to provide residents with online reference resources through their local libraries. Credo's services will be available at The New York Public Library, the Brooklyn...

Near-Time: wikis, blogs, and widgets.(Product News & Reviews)
May 1, 2008... In keeping with today's push for collaboration, professionals and businesses are finding new ways to leverage the new web. That's why Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time, recently opened up the company's existing Web 2.0-based service to interactive...

IDPF Digital Book Conference to be held in May.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) reported that it will hold the IDPF Digital Book 2008 Conference on May 14 at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New York City. The conference will focus on the global ebook market and the adoption...

ProQuest adds bibliographic records to C19.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... ProQuest recently added two bibliographic records, the American State Papers and the United States Congressional Serial Set, to C19: The Nineteenth Century Index from LexisNexis. The new records cover more than 131,000 congressional and...

Everest vehicle computers offer heated touchscreens.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Glacier Computer invented a heated touchscreen for its Everest line of vehicle computers. The screen is meant to keep condensation from refreezing on the Everest--an all-in-one computer designed for use on forklifts, carts, pallet jacks, and...

EBSCO announces Novelist Plus.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... EBSCO Publishing announced the creation of NoveList Plus, which adds nonfiction content to fiction offerings included in the original NoveList, a readers' advisory service for pleasure reading. NoveList Plus also uses a new interface that...

Carbonite: securing files the easy way.(Product News & Reviews)(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... As everyone who has ever lost a file knows, the process of restoring data isn't always easy or even possible. But for many computer users, backing up files is still far from routine. "Most people don't realize the value of a file until it's...

CommonTime, Microsoft offer mobile program package.(Product News & Reviews)
May 1, 2008... CommonTime teamed up with Microsoft to offer a program that provides mobile email, messaging, and line of business applications. It will feature Microsoft's System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 for security and device management and...

RefWorks releases online research assistant and monitoring service.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... RefWorks recently released RefAware, an online personal research assistant and monitoring service. The program lets researchers search through 8,000-plus peer-reviewed journals and other nonreferred information in six areas: life science,...

H.W. Wilson debuts short story locater tool.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... H.W. Wilson announced Short Story Index Retrospective: 1915-1983, a tool designed to help users find more than 150,000 short stories published in the U.S., Canada, and England. Users may search by author, title, publication, topic, theme,...

Twing: forum decorum.(Product News & Reviews)
May 1, 2008... With blogs and online communities at an all-time high, Twing bolted out of the virtual starting gate last January with a new search technology devoted to forums and online communities. Scott Germaise, director of product management, sees...

ScienceDirect: research-friendly enhancements.(Product News & Reviews)
May 1, 2008... ScienceDirect just became more research-friendly. Elsevier announced that the online STM platform recently added new intuitive reference and navigational features to its offerings. A number of researchers helped develop tools "to deliver...

365 Media offers real-time research service.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... 365 Media, Inc. launched a new real-time research service that helps business media and premium information companies augment their current data-gathering strategies. The service allows publishers to define a target business entity group and to...

ProQuest adds 65 poetry volumes to literature online.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... ProQuest is adding more than 65 volumes of poetry from publisher Faber and Faber, Ltd. to its Literature Online program, a full-text and reference resource for English-language literature. The addition will include the poetry of W. H. Auden and...

Convera launches pharmaceutical Website, new publisher control panel.(Product News & Reviews)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Convera Corp. has announced the launch of www.pharmalivesearch.com, a vertical search site that focuses on the pharmaceutical industry and was developed in partnership with Canon Communications. The site allows users to search across PharmaLive...

Pandora lets users create online radio stations.(Link-Up @ Home)
May 1, 2008... "Oh, no, not that song again!" How many times have you said that when you listen to the radio? Of course, the vast number of stations now broadcasting via the internet has broadened our choices dramatically. We can listen to reggae from...

As the Beijing Games approach, this site will have plenty of info.(CyberSports)
May 1, 2008... Dark clouds seem to be looming for the Beijing Olympics lately. And smokestacks and car exhaust aren't the cause of all of them. All that nasty business with Tibet and Taiwan and those suddenly dark TV screens that reporters covering the...

FRBR: not a cuddly talking toy for catalogers.(Cover Notes)(FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed )(Book review)
May 1, 2008... FRBR: A Guide for the Perplexed by Robert L. Maxwell Chicago: ALA Editions, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-8389-0950-8 151 pages; $50, softcover FRBR (pronounced furbur) is an acronym for Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. That translates...

Spring Potpourri.(In Other Words)(Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization )
May 1, 2008... I may be a smart aleck, but I am not a gardener. So, when March ends and April rolls around, it's always a surprise what might pop up in my flowerbed or in my backyard. Maybe it's a daffodil, a perennial, or maybe another pretty flower with a...

Retrospective: 25 years ago in Information Today.
May 1, 2008... Back in 1984, Information Today rolled off the presses for the first time as "The Newspaper for Users and Producers of Electronic Information." And here we are 25 years later, delivering the news and trends that shape our industry today....

Security: by the numbers.
May 1, 2008... Now that tax time has come and gone, how much personal and financial information have you left unsecured on your desktop, on email, or even on the office printer? A record number of 77 million tax returns were filed electronically in 2007,...

Ingram Digital has announced several appointments within newly created business units.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Ingram Digital has announced several appointments within newly created business units. William Chesser, previously vice president of sales and marketing for VitalSource, is now vice president and general manager...

Ingenta announced the appointment of Anna Drage to the position of senior client manager.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Ingenta announced the appointment of Anna Drage to the position of senior client manager. In this position, she will be part of a team that handles business and operational relationships with the company's publisher clients. Most recently,...

Inmagic, Inc. announced that Dave Golan has joined the company as vice president of sales.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Inmagic, Inc. announced that Dave Golan has joined the company as vice president of sales. He will be responsible for the company's global sales strategy and development. Most recently, Golan was vice president of business development at...

Swets announced the appointment of Christine Stamison as its senior customer relations manager for North America.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Swets announced the appointment of Christine Stamison as its senior customer relations manager for North America. In this role, she will design and implement customer-centric strategies. Most recently, Stamison was Swets' national sales...

Library and Archives Canada announced that Ian E. Wilson, the librarian and archivist of Canada, has been elected president of the International Council on Archives (ICA).(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Library and Archives Canada announced that Ian E. Wilson, the librarian and archivist of Canada, has been elected president of the International Council on Archives (ICA). ICA is the professional organization for the world archival community,...

Kristina Bivins, President, MuseGlobal, Inc.(People Line & the Executive Profile)(Brief biography)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The internet and its capabilities have expanded how we define the information industry. Its functionality and convenience have brought it to the forefront of mainstream culture as well as business, leading to "a...