Information Community News

Archived News

  2006 NFAIS Annual Conference – 12/20/2005

Updates will be even more sporadic than in recent weeks during this holiday hiatus. In the meantime, do consider attending the NFAIS 2006 Annual Conference (our 48th!). As you consider whether you can fit us into your travel schedule, you can review the program for each day:

  Scirus Adds Additional Content – 12/19/2005

Scirus Expands its Index of Over Two Million Physics-Related Articles to Include Valuable Content from Institute of Physics Publishing  From the press release:  The addition of IOP’s 200,000 full-text articles to Scirus’ over two million physics-related articles reinforces Scirus’ comprehensiveness in the area of physics.  The index includes physics titles from the American Institute of Physics and Elsevier, as well as preprints from ArXiv.

  New Business Information Services – 12/14/2005

Interesting juxtaposition of two different business information services this week.  The first has to do with the Northern Light Business Research Engine.  They've announced that they've lowered the price on the service from $50.00 per month to a mere $9.99 per month. Information Today, Inc publication Information Advisor had a review last month of the engine.

  Digital Information Future – 12/08/2005

From Inside Higher Ed, this article, on the move to take the research journal literature digital, urges caution as we near the real tipping point in the transition from print-only collections to hybrid collections to fully digital collections.  It is imperative that all parties consider carefully the long-term impact of acquisition and licensing decisions on the wider publishing community to ensure that the scholarly record not be adversely affected, most particularly in the humanities and in the social sciences.

  Presentations from November 18 – 12/05/2005

The bulk of the presentations have been made available from the NFAIS-sponsored one-day event on Web 2.0. You'll want to investigate further.  

  Nerac Launches New Service – 11/29/2005

Nerac 180 Offers Best of Both Worlds: Online Searching and Advanced Analytical Research  Aimed at engineers and small to medium enterprises, this new service from Nerac "features an easy-to-use interface, which provides access to database content comprised of abstracted references to thousands of selected engineering publications and conference proceedings. Nerac 180 offers the unique integration of the hands-on assistance of Nerac’s research staff with end-user focused web search tools. The Nerac 180 database includes a broad range of engineering content relevant to workers in industry, including fields such as aerospace, automotive, bioengineering, chemical, electrical, fuel, nuclear and optics."

  Member Announcements – 11/28/2005

There were a slew of member announcements in my absence so what follows is a long list of links to noteworthy items that may have eluded our readers. First, announcements about people:

  More on Tagging – 11/16/2005

Tagging in the context of the library catalog. The blog entry contains a link to a tag cloud and then to bibliographic records associated with the specific tag, as in this instance with the tag of "child psychology". Very interesting concept.

  Tagging -- Indexing In All Its Glory – 11/15/2005

I've been working on my presentation for later this week (see here; I'm in the afternoon). I've posted the Reading List of Material on Social Bookmarking and Tagging Tools that accompanies my talk. Clearly I've got a hot topic, given that Amazon has now introduced tagging. Business 2.0 has an article in its December issue called The Flickrization of Yahoo.   An interesting area of development!

  Shore Communications – 11/10/2005

John Blossom points out a relevant detail about Google Print for Libraries to reporters at the New York Times.

  Make A Wish, Nov 11th – 11/09/2005

A friend at PALINET forwarded this news to me:

  Carnival of the Infosciences #14 – 11/07/2005

Carnival of the Infosciences #14 (permanent link here):

  Call for Submissions, Recommendations – 11/04/2005

This post will remain at the top of this page for the next week so please scroll down to ensure that you don't miss out on other news entries:

  Tidbits from here and there – 10/31/2005

General roundup of member news:

  Emerging Technologies – 10/27/2005

Interesting article on the topic of Web 2.0. Which of course is also the topic of the November event on the NFAIS calendar.

  Information At the Point of Need – 10/26/2005

Connecting the individual with the appropriate information at their point of need is particularly critical with regard to doctors and patients, as evidenced by the following:

  Carnival of the Infosciences #11 – 10/20/2005

The Carnival of the Infosciences #11 was posted earlier this week at Christina's LISRant. One item that I thought was particularly interesting to consider came from MaisonBisson reflecting on the Web4Lib listserv discussion of Wikipedia and authoritative information.  The Google economy poses a challenge for all of us because while Google does improve awareness of content, it doesn't implement any editorial standards to the capture of available content. Unlike more traditional information services such as AARP's AgeLine or even non-traditional tools like Elsevier's Scirus search engine, Google indexes without judgement.     

  Academy for 21st Century Info Professionals – 10/18/2005

The Louis Round Wilson Academy, convened by the University of North Carolina's School of Information and Library Science, has been formed to "identify methods by which knowledge, trust and stewardship can be advanced in the digital age and information made more manageable and useable to more knowledge consumers". [Read full press release] A number of senior executives from NFAIS member organizations are included in this body:

  Excellent Report on Creativity-Support Tools – 10/17/2005

Excellent information included in this Report of the Workshop on Creativity Support Tools, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, held at the University of Maryland in June of 2005.  In particular, note the chapter by Bill Kules on the role of search tools in support of creativity.

  Merger Activity – 10/13/2005

InsideHigherEd has the news that Blackboard and WebCT are to merge. This has implications for providers in the higher education market space.  Blackboard has some additional information here.

  More to Read – 10/12/2005

First things first, Collin Brooke has written an interesting column about his experiences with technology and the humanities for InsideHigherEd. Go here to read "Mirror, Mirror on the Web". Collin is one of our featured speakers at this week's Humanities Roundtable IV.

  Carnival of the Infosciences #10 – 10/11/2005

The Carnival of the Infosciences (#10) is available today.  It's a really interesting set of links. Note that this page, Information Community News, will be hosting the Carnival the week of November 7th!

  Stuffing papers into your brief... – 10/07/2005

...case as you run out the door to your next conference or meeting. First the member news:

  Web 2.0 – 10/05/2005

Yes, I know Web 2.0 is a buzzword. But you'll still want to look into attending the NFAIS-sponsored one day event in November -- Web 2.0: Current Realities and a Look to the Future.  The date is Friday, November 18, and the venue is here in Philadelphia.

  Knowledge-Wise – 10/04/2005

The September issue of KnowledgeWise from Innodata Isogen looks at the emergence of grass-roots technologies. The issue also spotlights NFAIS as an organization! 

  Update on the STM Market – 09/29/2005

David Mort, writing in the current issue of Research Information, has an update on the STM information market landscape. Note that he is predicting an increase in activity in the area of mergers and acquisitions.

  Libraries, Information and Autonomy – 09/27/2005

Peter Scott today links to an Autonomy news release regarding Autonomy's partnership with NetLibrary, a division of OCLC. It reminded me of a recent interview I encountered with Autonomy's founder, Mike Lynch with the intriguing subtitle "On Google, penguins and the future of search" 

  Question and Answer on CSpan – 09/26/2005

Unofficial transcript of the outstanding CSpan interview last night with Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia.  Two billion pages served every month on 150 servers.

  Impending Hurricane Rita – 09/23/2005

The following is from an announcement by NFAIS member organization, LexisNexis.

  Relief Efforts – 09/19/2005

NFAIS Members Respond to Katrina Devastation.  The information community extends its sympathy and support to those individuals and institutions affected by the path of Hurricane Katrina.

  ThomsonPharma – 09/16/2005

Thomson Pharma Exceeds Expectations. The notable quote is from a vice president at one of the client companies using ThomsonPharma. "Thomson Pharma is a best in class database, providing access to the most complete data available in an efficient search engine.  Thomson Pharma enables us to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in our customer's pipelines as well as to find potential new customers.  We regularly mine the database to find patents, competitive intelligence and new opportunities," concluded Robins.  

  Google and Medicine – 09/15/2005

It's not that one begrudges Google's use of this story, but doesn't it reflect poorly on the medical professionals that they didn't take  advantage of the information resources available to them before they recommended the procedure to the distraught parents in the first place?  A quick review of resources from NLM or Elsevier or Ovid would have been a good strategy. 

  What a question! – 09/14/2005

Jeremy Zawodny asks "How did you learn to search?"  John Battelle fortunately recognizes that some level of effort and critical thinking on the part of the searcher is required. And he links to Gary Price who's covered this discussion in depth. From the NFAIS perspective, there's plenty of good material available and learning opportunities at hand. 

  Member Announcements – 09/13/2005

CABI Publishing has announced the forthcoming launch of CAB Abstracts Plus. This new full text enhancement to CAB Abstracts will provide researchers with access to thousands of additional full text documents direct from the database. Read press release in full [PDF]

CAB Abstracts Plus brings together a range of full text content from difficult-to-find journal and conference papers to distribution maps. Each component is available separately but together they offer a complete range of scientific resources in agriculture and the applied life sciences.

  Keynote Presentations – 09/12/2005

Stephen E. Arnold, Arnold IT, recently posted two keynote presentations he'll be giving at forthcoming conferences. They're both worth reviewing:

  More Discussion of Web 2.0 – 09/08/2005

The most recent issue of our NFAIS Enotes may have whetted members' appetites for additional information pertaining to Web 2.0. I just found this back-and-forth discussion regarding Web 2.0 between Abstract Dynamics (opening discussion), a response from Peter Merholz's Peterme blog, and the subsequent followup from Abstract Dynamics. It's the dialogue that keeps life interesting.

  Google Print (and what to do about it) – 09/07/2005

If you saw the August 12 entry on this page (scroll down), you're aware of the online debate sponsored by the UK-based Publishers Association and EPS, Ltd as to "Publishing and the Age of Search". The initial comment was posted yesterday, an argument written by Adam Hodgkin of xrefer.com. Quote: "Copyrights deserve respect and whereever possible the copyright holder should be identified in any Google service which uses or searches copyright material.  Publishers' representative organizations should admit that the industry has not been very good at keeping track of copyrights..." Worth reading in full.

  Blogs, the Information Community and Katrina – 09/06/2005

The immediate and long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina are moving everyone to extraordinary efforts. Miguel Ramos reports on the response of the information community in today's Newsbreak at Information Today. Read the piece in full. 

  Dissemination of Government Information – 09/05/2005

This presentation, given in August at the IFLA meeting in Oslo, highlights work by U.S. government agencies across the board in disseminating information. It specifically references activities by the General Printing Office, the National Biological Information Infrastructure and the twelve agencies that make up the Science.gov Alliance.

  JISC Licenses SCOPUS for UK Universities – 09/01/2005

UK based JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) finalizes agreement with Elsevier to deliver Scopus A&I database to 70 universities. From the press release: "JISC runs rigorous evaluations before deciding to include an online resource in its portfolio of collections and has been assessing Scopus since its launch in November 2004."

  Meta- or Federated Search – 08/30/2005

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog offers an interesting entry on the state of federated search in the library community.

  Blogs – 08/29/2005

First, kill all the press releases! Deutsche Bank Research explains why we ought to do so.... 

  SciFinder Intro's Similarity Search – 08/28/2005

From the CAS press release: Building upon a decade of innovation, the new SciFinder 2006 advances its reputation as an essential information tool and part of the process of chemical and pharmaceutical research. For the first time, scientists exploring the CAS Registry of 26 million organic and inorganic chemical substances can retrieve "similar substances" to foster new ideas and directions in drug discovery and other fields of scientific inquiry. "Similarity Searching" is only one of several new features adding new power and depth to SciFinder this year.

  New York, New York! – 08/25/2005

The fourth NFAIS Humanities Roundtable will be held in New  York on Friday, October 14.  This year's event is sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Trust and by RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. It is a unique opportunity for content providers in the humanities. The discussions throughout the day will follow the full product life cycle - the identification of user needs, the development of traditional and non-traditional humanities information products and services, the implementation of federated search, and the marketing of humanities information - not only by data providers but also by librarians within their campus environment. Register using this form!

  Amazon's New Business Model? – 08/22/2005

Amazon's newest venture puts them in the role of a publisher but their approach focuses on price reduction (49 cents per item), electronic distribution using a variety of file formats, and perpetual access once you've paid. This entry reveals how one publishing author responded and the subsequent comments go into further discussion. The Wall Street Journal covered the move this way and more author and customer response may be found here.

  Publishers Blog as Much as Librarians! – 08/18/2005

I've been keeping an eye out for scholarly publishing types who have entered the world of blogging, particularly those who understand that they shouldn't be doing this just for the sake of selling a product. It's a mixed bag, but here are the recent results of my monitoring.

  University of California & Google Scholar – 08/17/2005

A posting to Web4Lib brought this report to my attention. The twelve-page report, available in PDF file format, is entitled UC Libraries Use of Google Scholar.  This is a quote from the opening page: "The replies indicate a core of respondents do not use Google Scholar at all. Others use it rarely, instead strongly preferring licensed article databases purchased by the libraries for use in specific disciplines. Some are reluctant to use it because they are unsure of what it actually covers."  Check out the last page of the report for some useful training tools.

  Make Contact – 08/16/2005

If you're a regular reader of this particular content and have a spare minute during these dog days of August, please drop Jill O'Neill a line and let her know. Except for those weeks before the NFAIS Annual Conference, this page is the one most frequently visited.  Knowing who's looking at the page regularly may be a starting point for forming a focus group to help us work out potential improvements. 

  Amazon (UK) and Talis – 08/15/2005

This announcement of an agreement between Amazon UK and Talis puts a whole new spin to library book sales. You may recall that Talis is the far-seeing organization behind Project Silkworm. You'll certainly want to read the white paper on Silkworm, if you haven't done so already.

  Google Debate (at) EPS, Ltd – 08/12/2005

Publishers Association and EPS, Ltd. to Stage Major Online Debate on Traditional Publishing in the 'Age of Search'. The two UK-based organizations are planning to "stage a six-month major online debate on the impact of digitisation technologies and web search tools on traditional book publishing". To read the full text of the press release, go to the Publishers Association web site [linked above] and find the link under "What's New". The list of debate topics are quite provocative.

  DRM and Textbooks – 08/11/2005

Oh, this has such potential on so many fronts...Recently MBS Textbook Exchange, in cooperation with four leading textbook publishers, launched the Universal Digital Textbooks(TM) program. Go here to read the press release in full. Note in particular the very last paragraph of the press release as it indicates at least in part the rationale behind the initiative.

  Tim Berners-Lee, Blogs, and more – 08/10/2005

Excellent BBC interview with Tim Berners-Lee on the Read/Write Web. Discusses the value of blogging.

  ASIDIC in the Napa Valley – 08/09/2005

ASIDIC will be holding their forthcoming fall meeting, The Changing Value of Content, in Napa, California. The topics center around how providers are addressing the value added equation and producing content that users feel is worth paying for. The speaker roster looks interesting!

  Carnival of the InfoSciences – 08/08/2005

I've watched these carnivals spring up surrounding the blogging entries of other special interest groups (such as Carnival of the Recipes or Carnival of the Capitalists) but here's one for this group. The Carnival of the Infosciences! And there's really good content to be found there! I challenge you to read them all.

  Federated Search Presentations – 08/04/2005

The powerpoint presentations from last Friday's event, Federated Search: Practical Applications and Future Direction , are now posted! We had a packed house.

  Knowledge Wise – 08/03/2005

Innodata Isogen is publishing a newsletter, Knowledge Wise, that will offer glimpses into content industries. Their website offers a number of good resources.

  Collection Development Manager – 08/02/2005

Thomson Scientific to launch Collection Development Manager tool in 2006. According to this Information Week article, the tool will allow information managers to "measure article usage, impact factors, where their academics publish their articles and the journals they cite." The tool is being developed in conjunction with five major research institutions including Dartmouth College and Drexel University.  

  ISI Web of Knowledge – 07/28/2005

Thomson Scientific has announced a new service that will allow users to access ISI Web of KnowledgeSM from wherever they are working. Over 100,000 users each day will benefit from the XML gateway that puts premium content and tools in easy reach from within library and institutional portals. Thomson Scientific has collaborated with Ex Libris to test the XML gateway. Ex Libris is the provider of MetaLib®—which enables patrons at academic institutions to conduct a MetaSearch™ across heterogeneous resources.  Full Press Release.

  APA Enhances Permission Processes – 07/27/2005

The American Psychological Association (APA) has revised its permissions policy by automatically authorizing re-use of material within specific parameters.  In addition, permission to use APA material in a print product automatically grants permission to use content in the equivalent electronic version of the book or journal.

  Personalized Google – 07/26/2005

Google has quietly improved the personalization function of the site. If you are looking for a new RSS reader, their hope is that the ease of use and intuitive feel of their system will draw users further into the adoption of RSS and similar services for receiving and retrieving information on the Web.

  From the Blogosphere – 07/23/2005

Here's a new approach to teaching preservation techniques. By the way, if you have time, go visit the various blogs on Tangognat's blogroll. Marvelous library-oriented material and interesting people.

  Launch of IEE Digital Library – 07/22/2005

The IEE is pleased to announce the launch of the new IEE Digital Library.  The IEE Digital Library is hosted on the Scitation platform from the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and replaces the current IOJ (IEE Online Journals) platform. For more information, read the announcement on their site.

  This Is So Cool! – 07/20/2005

Search Tuna is just one of the coolest search applications I've seen in a good long while. It still has a few bugs with its algorithms but otherwise, there's real potential for this type of functionality. For-fee content providers might want to pay attention to this particular beta product.

  Engineering Information & RSS – 07/19/2005

Straight from the Elsevier Engineering Information press release in my email: "After a successful beta release in January 2005, Engineering Village 2 is among the first subscription based abstracting and indexing (A&I) services to allow users to view, group, organize and retain references (including article titles and hyperlinks) using their preferred RSS reader (compatible with all RSS 2.0 readers).  It enables users to build their own search criteria based upon their specific areas of interest and create personalized RSS feeds in accordance with their own information needs."  For more information, read the most recent EI Update.

  ArtStor and more – 07/18/2005

Interesting article on ArtSTOR in the current issue of Library Journal! In particular, the article notes the challenges to the creation of this type of resource, particularly:

  From The Blogs – 07/15/2005

Some interesting tidbits of blogs of interest to this community:

  American Psychological Association – 07/12/2005

The American Psychological Association (APA) has updated the journal coverage list for PsycInfo. The database currently indexes just under 2000 titles. More on PsycInfo Journal Literature Coverage, including interdisciplinary applications and coverage.

  Interesting Reading – 07/11/2005

"Cost-conscious clients have begun demanding that lawyers improve their efficiency by using librarians who are more skilled searchers." From The American Lawyer, quoted from an article in this month's issue entitled "Don't Count Them Out". The median number of hours billed by a library research to clients in 2004 was 292. Interesting!

  Paula J. Hane on Multisearch – 07/07/2005

This week's Newsbreak by Paula J. Hane of  Information Today focuses on the Multisearch functionality from CSA, a new federated search service featured on this page just before ALA   (scroll down to the entry for June 22).  Note as well that when blogger Tangognat wrote up her take-aways from ALA, she included this tidbit, " CSA is going to implement an author information feature for their databases at some point in the future, which will provide a brief biographical sketch, picture when available, institutional affiliation, etc. This looked very cool..."

  CABI Announcement – 07/06/2005

CAB International Publishing (CABI Publishing) is to begin delivering the journal, Animal Sciences, on behalf of the British Society of Animal Science as of 2006. The full press release is here.

  Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – 07/05/2005

The National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (NCPTSD) is responsible for the PILOTS database (Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress). Their 2004 Annual Report provides specifics about enhancements. PILOTS is adding 2000 records per year and increasing their coverage of child trauma. For more on the Center's publications, see pages 13-14 of the Annual Report.

  New Strategic Direction – 06/29/2005

Lynne Brindley of the British Library is predicting that -- by the year 2020 -- 40% of UK research monographs will be available in electronic format only, while a further 50% will be produced in both print and digital. Her remarks were made at the launch of the Library's new three-year strategy. "The Library will build on its work in collecting digital items, digitising existing collections, and archiving websites, to set up the infrastructure to hold the national collection of digital items in the same way as the organisation manages the 150 million item national collection of books, manuscripts, sound recordings, patents, stamps and maps."

  Federated Search – 06/23/2005

Presentation on Federated Search from SLA 2005, provided by Abe Lederman of DeepWeb Technologies.  He's also one of our speakers at the NFAIS event on Federated Search. Check out the updated program with confirmed speaker names. 

  Product News from CSA and More – 06/22/2005

CSA has some interesting news due out at ALA. For a start, here's yesterday's press release on their implementation of Multisearch. 

CSA, Elsevier, and NBII/USGS are all member organizations of  NFAIS.

  OpenURL Linking to Google Scholar – 06/21/2005

EBSCO has announced that they've included Google Scholar as one of the many OpenURL-enabled sources to provide users with access through their link resolver, LinkSource(TM).  From the press release: "...end users at participating schools who use Google Scholar will see article-level links displayed for their institution’s subscriptions. These links will lead to the library’s LinkSource menu from which the user can access the appropriate copy of the article, bringing the licensed electronic full-text to just a click or two from the Google Scholar search results."

  Scope e-Knowledge Wins! – 06/20/2005

Scope e-Knowledge has been named as  "Service Provider of the Year 2005" by the Data Publishers Association (UK) on the basis of superior project management and operational offshore efficiencies. Read the press release.

  From the Blogosphere – 06/17/2005

Given that news and commentary flows from a number of new information sources, the following blogged items may be of interest to this readership:

  Yahoo Search Subscriptions – 06/16/2005

I haven't even looked yet to see if Gary Price has already written this up for Search Engine Watch, but I think it's worthy of note that both IEEE and the New England Journal of Medicine are included in this new beta service from Yahoo!  Learn more here.

  The Single Search Box – 06/15/2005

In Search of the Single Search Box was a presentation by two NCSU librarians given at the DLF Spring Forum, April 2005.  Apparently the tool they've created will be launched this coming fall.

  JISC and Digital Repositories in the UK – 06/14/2005

In the UK, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has announced that a new £4m programme will continue JISC's work to encourage the growth of repositories in universities and colleges across the UK. For more information on the Digital Repositories Programme, visit this page.

  Nerac Has A Blog! – 06/13/2005

Nerac has a blog. And people must be reading it because I note that the entries already have comments!  (No, the comments aren't due to spammers either). Cool!

  Federated Search – 06/10/2005

ScienceResearch.com is a metasearch tool from Deep Web Technologies that facilitates searching STM content from a variety of content providers.  A few quick and simple searches garnered results from commercial providers (Blackwells, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier & others), from government agencies participating in the Science.gov initiative and from openly accessible resources such as the DOAJ and Yahoo! Science News. Note that this is still in beta testing, but I'm told it is expected to be out of that phase very soon.

  Judith Russell Honored by SLA – 06/09/2005

Judith Russell, Managing Director, Information Dissemination, US General Printing Office has been honored by the Special Library Association for her outstanding contribution to the global community of information professionals. (The press release is not yet available on line) Judith is also the first woman in history to hold the position of US Superintendent of Documents. She is a member of the NFAIS Board of Directors.

  Somebody Gets It! – 06/08/2005

Kudos to this NFAIS member organization. Institutional repositories are beginning to be an important element of the information landscape and this is the right direction in which to move!

  Member Announcements – 06/07/2005

Mark Logic Releases New MarkLogic Content Server 3.0.  Mark Logic provides technology in support of the repurposing of content by publishers.  That flexibility allows publishers to create new content products from existing lines. In the words of the press release, publishers are enabled to "rapidly and precisely search, discover, and retrieve specific pieces of information, not just links to documents, otherwise hidden within large contentbases."  

  Practical Advice and News from SLA – 06/06/2005

Elsevier is providing Library Connect Practical Assistance Pamphlets in PDF file formats from their Web site (scroll down on the page.). Topics covered include usage statistics, authorized uses of articles published by Elsevier, and best practices for training users on e-resources. These are substantive resources rather than sales literature.

  Miscellany – 06/02/2005

A mixed bag of articles, press releases and other forms of content:

  Searching Google Print – 05/27/2005

Google Print Launches Search Interface.  Visit the Search Engine Watch Blog to see what Gary Price has to say about the new functionality.  Meanwhile, there's an interesting discussion in their forum as to whether Google has overstepped the bounds as AAUP's letter to Google suggests. You might also be interested in reading what the Outsell blog has to say about it. 

  Cutting Editorial Costs – 05/26/2005

Publishers may be able to cut back on costs by outsourcing editorial functions. Innodata-Isogen is offering a two-part Webinar series to commercial publishers as well as a white paper entitled, Outsourcing Editorial Services -- Seven Tips for Reducing Costs and Improving Quality (registration required).

  Google Scholar and Metasearch – 05/24/2005

Perhaps others have seen this presentation by Roy Tennant, given at NISO's Spring 2005 meeting, with the provocative title, Google Scholar: Is Metasearch Dead?  Here's a quote, "Libraries need the ability to unify searching of heterogenous sources that apply to a specific audience and/or purpose." Tennant raises legitimate concerns with the resource from the information professional perspective.

  Database Marketplace 2005 – 05/23/2005

Dr. Carol Tenopir's column in the May 15th issue of Library Journal is a rundown on database producers. There's a sidebar feature which itemizes the following characteristics of the typical 2005 database firm:

  UK Report on E-Resources – 05/20/2005

The British Academy has released a lengthy report on the status of E-Resources for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Among the recommendations included in the report, "that provision for non-e-resources, especially monographs, be maintained; that coordinated provision for digitizing other primary and secondary resources be adopted and that guidelines for e-resource creation be formulated and promoted."

  Stated Concerns from ACS and CAS – 05/19/2005

The American Chemical Society along with its business division, Chemical Abstracts Service,  have issued a statement with regard to their concerns about PubChem [PDF].  From that statement: "We have asked NIH to "refocus" PubChem, not discontinue it, but refocus it, on the stated mission: linking and communicating data created by the Molecular Libraries Screening Center initiative which NIH funds".  The statement is worth reading.

  Publishers, You May Want to Take Note – 05/18/2005

From the press release: LookSmart, an online media and technology company, announced on Monday that it will begin making Furl, its personalized, online filing cabinet and bookmarking service, available to publishers as part of a comprehensive toolset designed to increase audience, revenue and profits. Furl allows for saving of a publisher's content for personal use, as well as sharing of links to the content with others. Read the press release.

  IEEE Journals – 05/17/2005

IEEE journals shown to be less expensive than those of commercial providers. From the press release: Based solely on price, the survey reveals that the average cost of an engineering journal in 2005 is $1,683, and the average cost of a math and computer science journal is approximately $1,262. Using the same calculation method, the average price of an individual IEEE Journal is just $549.

  Fair Use: An International Overview – 05/16/2005

Barry Mahon of ICSTI has forwarded a link to this document from the Australian Attorney General, "Fair Use and Other Copyright Exceptions" [PDF]. Comments are sought on the options proposed.

  What Google Said – 05/12/2005

Dr. Carol Tenopir provides a write-up in Library Journal of the presentation provided by Cathy Gordon, Director, Business Development, Google, to attendees of the NFAIS Annual Conference. 

  Reading for the Train or Plane – 05/11/2005

A miscellany of interesting readings that deserve higher visibility:

  H.W. Wilson Product Enhancement – 05/10/2005

WilsonWeb Full Text Coverage Tops 2,000 Journals From the press release:  This expansion is part of a carefully controlled Wilson program to give researchers greater access to full text while ensuring that this content is research-worthy and of the highest quality...Says WilsonWeb product manager Bernie Seiler. "Wilson scrupulously vets the journals that make their way into our databases, so users can be confident that everything they find has come through layers of authoritative review and editorial scrutiny."

  Ovid and Federated Search – 05/10/2005

Two entries in one day!  But this is a member announcement that has some interesting potential.  Ovid Announces SearchSolver - A Next Generation Federated Search Solution. Apparently they're launching it next week at the Medical Library Association meeting in San Antonio.

  NYTimes on Grokker – 05/09/2005

Today's issue of the New York Times has a nice article on Groxis' move to allow users to view Yahoo! search results with their desktop software tool, Grokker.   See how it works.

  Book Content – 05/05/2005

It may have been a serendipitous occurence or perhaps Gary Price and Greg Notess planned it this way. In any case, both published columns this week on the topic of searchable book content, focused largely on Google and Amazon. 

  Long-Lived Digital Data Collections – 05/04/2005

A draft report from the National Science Board entitled Long-Lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century makes for some interesting reading for the STM community. From the Executive Summary: "...the NSB and NSF working together -- with each fulfilling its respective responsibilities -- need to take stock of the current NSF policies that lead to Foundation funding of a large number of data collections with an indeterminate lifetime and to ask what deliberate strategies will best serve the multiple research and education communities."

  Thomson Learning Labs Research Results – 05/02/2005

The press release came to me from the Thomson Corporation but the research project involved the University of Virginia, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard as well as Thomson Learning Labs. From that press release: "The first phase of the project involved 362 UVa students enrolled in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences' fall 2004 biochemistry, psychology and statistics classes, as well as their instructors. Students participating in the technology-rich courses provided formal evaluations of the tools and materials and gave predominantly positive feedback on the content, Microsoft® OneNote® software and the HP Tablet PC 1100."

  More on the Complexities of Publishing – 04/28/2005

A colleague had forwarded this keynote speech from the Humber College "The New Face of Publishing" conference held earlier in April. The author is Mike Shatzkin of The Idea Logical Company.  The presentation does not specifically deal with scholarly or reference publishing although it does reference John Wiley & Sons in the context of trade publishing. Shatzkin provides an illuminating and in-depth look at the book-selling business in the current transitioning environment.  The overall picture is far more complex than most realize and this should be required reading. 

  Presentations, NFAIS Automated Indexing For – 04/26/2005

The slides from each presentation at the NFAIS-sponsored Automated Indexing Forum in New York City last week are now available on this site. Do take a look!

  Comments on Automated Indexing – 04/25/2005

Last Friday in New York, NFAIS sponsored a Forum on Automated Indexing.  John Blossom, President of Shore Communications, tells you what he heard while there. John's slides as well as those from other speakers of the day will be available on this site by week's end.

  One Person's Commentary – 04/21/2005

This is a truly challenging time for all of us in the information community.  We have to serve users, some of whom may be slow in figuring out when and where fee-paid services may be preferable to free services.  This particular doctoral candidate/researcher noted his lessons in his blog when he (a) had to do some serious reviews of the biomedical literature and (b) when he worked for a bit with Google Scholar. The upshot was that for the particular work he had in hand, he was going to stick with the Web of Science. Google wouldn't work for him in this particular instance.