Vol. 20, No. 10 • Nov./Dec. 2000	Newsline

K.G. Saur will continue to operate as an independent unit at its Munich offices. According to the announcement, Gale's plans for the company include major commitments to product development, particularly in the creation of Web-based products.

K.G. Saur was founded in 1949 and now employs approximately 90 people. It has offices in Munich and Leipzig, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland. Reed Reference had purchased the company in 1987.

Source: Gale Group, Farmington Hills, MI, 800/877-4253, 248/699-4253; http://www.galegroup.com.
 

Texas State Library Implements Bath Profile
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (http://www.tsl.state.tx.us) has announced that through the combined efforts of Blue Angel Technologies (http://www.blueangeltech.com) of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; SIRSI Corp. of Huntsville, Alabama; and Texas State Library personnel, it has successfully implemented the first cross-domain Web application to use the Z39.50 Bath Profile in a production environment.

The Bath Profile is an internationally registered Z39.50 profile designed to provide effective interoperability between electronic library catalogs and other database applications. According to the announcement, conformance to this profile's specifications will improve international search and retrieval of electronic information resources worldwide.

With this implementation, the Texas State Library has established a new, seamless interoperability between two of its flagship database services: its online catalog of holdings, and TRAIL, the Texas Records and Information Locator service. Now with a single query, Texas' library users can locate information resources not only from the 150 Texas state agencies represented in the TRAIL service, but also from the state library's electronic catalog. More services will be added as more vendors support the Bath Profile.

Source: SIRSI Corp., Huntsville, AL, 256/704-7000; http://www.sirsi.com.
 

AI Internet Solutions Releases New Versionof Its CSE HTML Validator Professional
AI Internet Solutions has announced the release of version 4.50 of CSE HTML Validator Professional, its configurable development software for creating syntactically correct HTML documents.

New features in this version include an integrated Web browser that lets you validate Web pages as you view them; an upgraded Batch Wizard to validate the links of an entire Web site; improved syntax checking and informational messages; checking for HTML 4.01, XHTML, WML, and more; improved interface with an integrated editor; and automatic link checking anytime a document is validated.

CSE HTML Validator Professional version 4.50 is compatible with Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT 4.0 or greater, and is $129 per single license. It comes configured with HTML 2.0, 3.2, 4.0, and 4.01; XHTML; Netscape Extension tags; Internet Explorer tags; Cold Fusion CFML; SMIL; RealText; WebTV; WML; and table tags. It also has tools to convert text files from and to UNIX, Mac, and MS-DOS.

Source: AI Internet Solutions, Hurst, TX, 520/569-2796; http://www.htmlvalidator.com.
 

EBSCO and Yale Develop Seamless Link
EBSCO Publishing has announced that researchers may now link from citations in EBSCOhost to detailed journal information via jake (Jointly Administered Knowledge Environment).

jake, a state-of-the-art reference resource started at Yale, seeks to make it easier for patrons and staff to manage and link between online resources. It does so by managing online resource metadata with a database union list, title authority control, linking tools, and a local holdings layer. jake is intended to facilitate access to and integration between the contents of many e-resources by appropriately relating metadata about these e-resources and their content.

The link from EBSCOhost to jake represents further implementation of the idea of a one-stop, comprehensive reference system. jake is free for anyone to use, modify, copy, or redistribute under the terms of GNU General Public License. For further details regarding jake and how to utilize it where you are, visit http://jake.med.yale.edu/docs/about.html. To access jake directly, visit http://jake.med.yale.edu.

Source: EBSCO Publishing, Ipswich, MA, 800/653-2726, 978/356-6500; http://www.epnet.com.
 

NLS Expands Capabilities of Its Catalog
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has announced a new feature that links its International Union Catalog for Braille and audio materials to its Internet Web-Braille system. Web-Braille books may now be accessed directly from the catalog by using author, title, subject, language, keywords, and other search parameters.

Web-Braille, which was introduced in August 1999, provides eligible Braille readers with a direct channel to thousands of electronic Braille files. The free Internet Braille program has 1,000 patrons registered, and more than 3,000 Web-Braille titles are available. The online collection is growing at a rate of about 40 titles every month, and a selection of online national magazines will be available in the near future.

For books that are available through Web-Braille, searchers of the catalog will receive a message that notes the availability of the book as a Grade 2 Braille digital file. New users must register with a cooperating network library to establish their free user IDs and passwords. Registered users may proceed directly from the catalog to the online text of the books they want.

Source: Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 202/707-2905; http://www.loc.gov.
 

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Consortium Launches AVEL Virtual Library
A consortium of universities and professional groups has announced the launch of the Australasian Virtual Engineering Library (AVEL), a gateway or portal designed to help engineers and information technology professionals save time and find relevant information on the Web quickly. AVEL provides free access to over 2,000 quality Australasian information sources.

With its integrated structure, AVEL is a dynamic virtual research space, incorporating a database of quality and reliable engineering and IT resources, a list of conferences in the Australasian region, employment listings, access to full-text theses, an online book shop, and the latest Web resources in relevant fields. It is funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) with financial and in-kind contributions from the partner organizations.

Source: Australasian Virtual Engineering Library, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 011-61-7-3365-3974; Fax: 011-61-7-3365-3658; http://avel.edu.au.
 

Omani University Using an Arabic System
ELiAS (Extended Library Access Solutions) has announced that the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman is the first library to go live with an Arabic version of its AMICUS library management system.

The entire AMICUS library suite, including searching, cataloging, circulation, serials control, acquisitions, products, and client services, is available in an Arabic GUI. According to the announcement, staff members at the university are happy with the flexibility of being able to use either an English or an Arabic client.

The Sultan Qaboos, the only university in Oman, was founded in 1986. The library is spread over three floors and has a collection of over 150,000 items, including 5,000 audiovisual materials.

Source: ELiAS, Heverlee, Belgium, 011-32-16-298390; Fax: 011-32-16-298319; http://www.elias.be.
 

Johns Hopkins Digitization Project Is Funded
The Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Libraries have received total funding of $65,000 from the Samuel H. Kress and the Gladys Krieble Delmas foundations to continue the development of a Web-based research tool for medieval manuscripts. The first phase of the project resulted in a prototype containing digital surrogates of three manuscripts of Le Roman de la Rose, a principal medieval text. In collaboration with the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York) and the Bodleian Library (Oxford, England), the second phase of development will focus on the search and display capabilities of the Web site as well as the metadata, which enables these capabilities.

Attention will turn to developing sophisticated search capabilities to support searching each manuscript for "structural" features such as rubrics and miniatures. Another enhancement will be the development of a database of Old French variant spellings so that searches of the text result in more matches for scholars to consult. Improved site navigation and refinements to the display of the manuscripts will be informed by ongoing usability testing, including development of a method to remotely assess the usefulness of new search and display features.

Currently three different manuscripts can be viewed and searched simultaneously on the Web site (http://rose.mse.jhu.edu).

Source: Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries, Baltimore, 410/516-8337; http://www.jhu.edu.
 

BOOKS FOR LIBRARIANS

New Book Offers Online Course Tips
Atwood Publishing has announced the publication of 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups: Essentials of Web-Based Education (ISBN: 1-891859-34-X, $12.50), by Donald E. Hanna, Michelle Glowacki-Dudka, and Simone Conceição-Runlee. The book is designed to help online course moderators understand, prepare for, and confront the issues online education raises.

The authors suggest ways to "structure the class format, content, syllabus, timeline, use of technology, and evaluation." They advise moderators on ways to create the desired online environment, as well as ways to consider every facet of the course, ranging from organizational framework to keeping other people involved. 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups also helps the moderator deal with the uncontrolled variables, such as the other participants' personalities and technological limitations.

Source: Atwood Publishing, LLC, Madison, WI, 888/242-7101, 608/242-7101; http://www.atwoodpublishing.com.
 

O'Reilly Releases Titles for Tech Gurus
O'Reilly has announced the publication of two titles of particular interest to systems and Web administrators.

Linux in a Nutshell, third edition, by Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour, Jessica P. Hekman, and Stephen Figgins (ISBN: 0-596-00025-1, $34.95), covers the core commands for common Linux distributions. This complete reference to all user, programming, administration, and networking commands documents a wide range of GNU tools. New material in the third edition includes common configuration tasks for the GNOME and KDE desktops and the fvwm2 window manager, the (DPKG) Debian package manager, expanded coverage of the (RPM) Red Hat package manager, and many new commands.

Java Network Programming, second edition (ISBN: 1-56592-870-9, $39.95), by Elliotte Rusty Harold, is a complete introduction to developing network programs (both applets and applications) using Java, covering everything from networking fundamentals to Remote Method Invocation (RMI). This second edition includes coverage of Java 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. New chapters cover multithreaded network programming, I/O, HTML parsing and display, the Java Mail API, the Java Secure Sockets Extension, and more.

Source: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA, 800/998-9938, 707/829-0515; http://www.oreilly.com.
 

Top Floor Has Online Communities Guide
Top Floor Publishing has announced the release of Poor Richard's Building Online Communities: Create a Web Community for Your Business, Club, Association, or Family (ISBN: 0-9661032-9-7, $29.95), by Margaret Levine Young and John Levine. This title covers systems and types of communities, where to promote a community so others can find it, ways of dealing with disruption and troublemakers, and how to foster a sense of trust and belonging. A companion Web site at http://PoorRichard.com/communities contains links from the book, sample chapters, reviewer's comments, and additional Internet communication and e-business resources.

Source: Top Floor Publishing, Lakewood, CO, 303/205-9861; http://topfloor.com.
 

FOR K-12 LIBRARIES

SIRS Discoverer Upgrades Its Resources
SIRS Mandarin has announced that its Discoverer, a reference database for children in grades 1–9, now includes educational resources developed by SIRS' staff of teachers. Two Student Workbooks—an elementary school workbook for grades 1–6 and a middle school workbook for grades 5–9—are available for use in the library, classroom, and at home. Worksheet exercises teach students to use common search tools like logical operators, truncation, phrase search, keyword, subject tree, and subject headings searching.

SIRS Discoverer includes an Educator's Guide that provides an overview of SIRS Discoverer reading levels, search methods, and database features. SIRS Discoverer Student Workbooks and Educator's Guide are available online in Adobe PDF. Updated daily, SIRS Discoverer Deluxe on the Web includes full-text articles and graphics from more than 1,200 publications available in three reading levels.

Source: SIRS Mandarin, Inc., Boca Raton, FL, 800/232-7477, 561/994-0079; http://www.sirs.com.
 

Follett Offers Free Site on Literacy Skills
Follett Software Co. has announced that the Pathways Model Web site now includes a free Web Links page, which provides links to the best Web sites for help in teaching information literacy skills.

The Pathways Model (http://www.pathwaysmodel.com) features Follett Software's Pathways to Knowledge information skills model and resources. According to Follett, all of the sites on the Web Links page have been annotated and are carefully reviewed by prominent education professionals. The listing of sites has been broken into six categories: Information Literacy, Authentic Learning, Authentic Resources, Interactive Learning, Research, and Web-Based Tools.

Source: Follett Software Co., McHenry, IL, 800/323-3397, 815/344-8700; http://www.fsc.follett.com.
 

NEW ONLINE DATABASES

Facts On File Releases New DatabaseDocumenting American Women's History
Throughout the years, Facts On File has published a large number of works exploring American women's history. Now a number of these titles, plus original multimedia content, have been combined into one electronic reference: American Women's History: An On-line Encyclopedia (ISBN: 0-8160-4191-1; pricing as low as $198).

In this resource, users will find 1,170 biographies of historical and contemporary figures selected from more than 35 Facts On File titles; 225 entries, definitions, and descriptions of organizations, events, court cases, and historical themes and topics culled from the Encyclopedia of Women's History in America, second edition; 220 primary source documents—some full text, some selected excerpts; 325 photographs, paintings, cartoons, and other images depicting key figures and events; and 140 original tables, maps, and charts that present geographical and statistical data about the past and present American women's population. Search and browse features include keyword search, topic menu, era menus, year search, type menus, activity menu, custom search, timeline, and hyperlinks.

Source: Facts On File, Inc., New York, 212/967-8800; http://www.factsonfile.com.
 

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Is Now Online with Links to Web Resources
Routledge has announced that the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which was the first multivolume encyclopedia to be published in the discipline in over 30 years, is now available as the REP Online.

The REP Online features six specially commissioned new entries as well as editorially reviewed links to other sites and resources on the Web. It contains the 2,000 original entries from over 1,300 international experts, which are joined on a regular basis by new commissioned entries. All new and revised entries will not only keep the original style and format, but will also be connected to the earlier material by the same kind and level of cross-referencing. Every quarter the editorial team will focus on a different subject area in which it will bring researchers the latest scholarship and news including new articles covering the latest developments in philosophical inquiry and bibliographic updates. Visit the demo site at http://www.rep.routledge.com.

Source: Routledge, London, 011-44-20-7842-2184; http://www.tandf.co.uk.
 

LC Puts George Washington's Diaries Online
The Library of Congress, the University Press of Virginia, and the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia have released The Diaries of George Washington on the American Memory collection Web site at http://www.loc.gov. This release provides the first electronic publication of the work of the Founding Fathers Papers Project, established by President Truman in 1950.

The American Memory presentation includes both the published documentary edition of The Diaries of George Washington, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, plus the one-volume abridgment edited by Twohig that was published in 1999. All materials are available to the public as searchable text and as bi-tonal and gray-scale page images.

Source: Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 202/707-2905; http://www.loc.gov.
 

AUTOMATION/CATALOGING

Inmagic Releases New BiblioTech PRO 2.1
Inmagic, Inc. has announced the release of version 2.1 of Biblio-Tech PRO, its Progress RDBMS-based integrated library system for special libraries and corporate information centers.

New or improved features in version 2.1 include enhanced validation, thesaurus, searching, and update functions that allow users to operate with greater efficiency and accuracy; expanded sort-by, results sorting, and special character search options along with Web linking to search results; addition of a universal global modify utility that allows the end-user to save keystrokes by being able to perform batch updates; internationalization features including customization of currency symbol and date format; record-level password-controlled security to ensure that all users see only records they are privileged to view; and user-defined fields in all tables that users can customize based on their needs.

Source: Inmagic, Inc., Woburn, MA, 800/229-8398, 781/938-4442; http://www.inmagic.com.
 

New Voyager ILL Module in Beta Testing
Endeavor Information Systems has announced the beta release of the new add-on Interlibrary Loan (ILL) module for the Voyager integrated library management system.

Coinciding with the 2000.1 release of Voyager, the new ILL module reduces staff involvement though the integrated management of requesting and tracking and increased patron-initiated services. It combines Voyager's reporting capabilities with robust patron validation and requesting tools. Patron-initiated requests are automatically delivered to ILL staff and are easily transferred to the ILL database without the re-keying of information. Phase 2, planned for the 2001 release of Voyager's ILL module, will be able to create bibliographic and item records needed to place holds, properly managing the library's statistics. The 2000.1 release will be ISO 10160/1061-compliant.

Source: Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., Des Plaines, IL, 800/762-6300, 847/296-2200; http://www.endinfosys.com.
 

RockHill Teams Up with MARC Link
RockHill Communications, publisher of WEB FEET: Subject Guide to the Best Web Sites, has announced a new partnership with MARC Link Retrospective Conversion.

The companies are collaborating to create two new electronic products for libraries—WEB FEET MARC Records and WEB FEET ONLINE. Following industry standards, MARC Link has created full MARC records for the entire WEB FEET database of several thousand records, as well as for new WEB FEET content and updates added monthly.

When patrons search their library catalogs by subject, they will now find recommended Web sites along with books and other media in the library collection. Not only does this help point users toward all types of resources, but it also provides access to safe, reviewed sites. Additionally, when many books on a subject are in circulation, users will be shown Internet resources that are available as alternatives.

Source: RockHill Communications, Bala Cynwyd, PA, 888/ROCK-HIL, 610/667-2040; http://www.rockhillcommunications.com.
 

MARC Magician Cleans Up Your Records
MITINET/marc Software has announced the release of its new MARC data cleanup software, MARC Magician, which can be used whether the user needs to clean up the entire automation database or MARC records received from other sources such as book and A/V jobbers, the Internet, or in-house catalogers.

Automatic MARC Record Repair checks records for structural accuracy and corrects all ISBD punctuation, General Materials Designation, more than 90 different non-filing indicators, and invalid control fields and codes. Active Error Checking lets the user define what sorts of errors and omissions in the database should be reported. Sixteen different commands are included to make changes to both bibliographic and holdings data. MARC Magician also provides a user-friendly approach to original cataloging.

MARC Magician runs on Windows 95/98/2000/NT 4.0 or later. The single copy price is $549 with volume discounts and site licensing available.

Source: MITINET/marc Software, Madison, WI, 800/824-6272, 608/270-1774; http://www.mitinet.com.
 

epixtech Releases New Version of ILL RSS
epixtech, Inc. has announced its new ILL product, RSS 3.1, which has 35 new features.

Some of the new features are automatic partner assignment, automatic checking of availability during patron requesting, aging of pending requests, interoperability with OCLC's Direct Request service, and support for Remote Patron Authentication.

According to the announcement, the next release of RSS, which was expected to be sometime this fall, will complete inter-operability with OCLC ILL Gateway via ISO messaging and several new statistical reports.

Source: epixtech, Inc., Provo, UT, 800/288-8020; http://www.epixtech.com.
 

CD-ROM PRODUCTS

Cultural Resources Announces Culture 4.0
Cultural Resources, Inc. has announced that it has released Culture 4.0: The Contextual Guide and Internet Index to Western Civilization on CD-ROM ($69), which now operates in both Windows and Mac formats.

Culture 4.0 organizes and provides an overview of more than 3,800 years of Western culture, and includes thousands of profiles of every major Western leader, author, artist, sculptor, architect, composer, theologian, philosopher, and scientist from the time of Homer to the present day. Some 25,000 active links to the Web now join the 25,000 internal hypertext links. The CD also features 159 historical maps, 1,700 graphics, 222 essays on topics ranging from the Black Plague to the Cold War, and extensive new coverage of 20th-century literature and every book of the Bible. There are also 30 CultureGrids, which organize more than 15,000 people, places, and events by country, discipline, and generation.

Source: Cultural Resources, Inc., Cranford, NJ, 908/709-1574; http://www.culturalresources.com.
 

ABC-CLIO Offers Native American Resource
ABC-CLIO has announced the release of The Native American Rights Movement in the United States: An Interactive Encyclopedia on CD-ROM (ISBN: 1-57607-251-7; $69 for stand-alone copy, $339 for site license).

It features a wealth of primary-source video and audio clips, images, and documents arranged around themes; a companion Web site; an image-mapped timeline that visually highlights the key people and events of the movement; biographies and background articles; an intuitive design and navigation system; and over 2 dozen tables that provide a quantitative foundation in the subject. Users can read the Doolittle Commission's prejudiced 1867 report "Conditions of the Indian Tribes," hear Wintu tribe member Carol Dempsey discuss the 1969-1971 protest occupation of Alcatraz Island, see a 19th-century illustration of U.S. troops using bloodhounds to hunt Seminole Indians, examine data from 1990 on reservation living conditions, or watch a video clip of Oglala Sioux leader Russell Means announcing the 1973 takeover of Wounded Knee.

Source: ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA, 800/368-6868, 805/968-1911; http://www.abc-clio.com.
 

Continental Datalabel's CD-Rappit Sheets
Continental Datalabel has announced its CD-Rappit sheets, an innovative solution for libraries that record their own CD-Rs. The CD-Rappit sheets provide not only a CD label, but they can also be easily folded into a CD filing sleeve (complete with index tab) or mailing pouch.

Here's how the system works: Design the CD label and storage sleeve using the supplied software. One pass through the laser or inkjet printer produces all the copy needed for the project. Remove the CD label from the CD-Rappit sheet and apply it onto the CD using the Slapper label applicator. Tear down and fold the remainder of the sheet into either a filing sleeve or a CD mailing pouch. The sheet also includes a Hub Label used for identifying DVDs.

You can find complete product information along with video instructions for CD-Rappit on http://www.cdlabel.com. CD-Rappit is $24.99 for a 20-sheet pack, with software, applicator, and practice templates included.

Source: Continental Datalabel, Elgin, IL, 847/742-1600; http://www.datalabel.com.
 

E-BOOK PARTNERSHIPS

Lightning Source Makes E-Book Alliances
Lightning Source, Inc. and Glassbook, Inc. have announced an alliance to broadly and securely distribute e-books and digital content over the Internet using Glassbook Reader and Server software. This arrangement will make e-book titles from Lightning Source's digital library available to view, purchase, and download over the Internet.

In other news, Penguin Putnam, Inc. and Lightning Source have announced the creation of a strategic alliance. Under the terms of the agreement, Lightning Source will help Penguin digitize its vast content offerings, help ensure the secure delivery of its current and future e-book titles, and provide consumers with greater access to its frontlist and backlist titles. Lightning Source will become the major digital fulfillment partner for Penguin Putnam.

Source: Lightning Source, Inc., La Vergne, TN, 615/213-5815; http://www.lightningsource.com.
 

Informata.com Enters E-Book Initiatives
Baker & Taylor's Informata.com has selected two technology partners, ibooks.com and DigitalOwl, to develop and deliver e-book selections.

According to Baker & Taylor, this offering is being designed to provide library customers with access to premium collections of e-books from premiere book publishers. Informata.com will utilize ibooks.com to support this new service, beginning with its online collection of more than 1,400 IT reference books. The service will offer libraries new usage models for e-book content, including pay-per-view, patron purchase, annual subscription, and automatic time-out/renewal. Baker & Taylor reports that the eBook Library service will be available in January.

Source: Baker & Taylor, Charlotte, NC, 800/775-1800, 704/329-9011; http://www.btol.com.
 

DATABASE/CONTENT NEWS

Questia Signs Stanford University Press
Questia Media, Inc. has announced that it has signed Stanford University Press as its 100th publisher. Questia says it expects to digitize more than 1,000 of Stanford's liberal arts titles over 2 years. When it launches in January, the Questia service will provide students with simultaneous access to its hyperlinked online collection of 50,000 scholarly books and journals, combined with a suite of writing tools for composing papers.

The following other publishers have also been signed in the last few weeks: M.E. Sharpe, Mc-Gill-Queens University Press, Peter Lang Publishing, Pearson Education, Greenwood Publishing Group, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Rutgers University Press, Amadeus Press, Westminster/John Know Press, Pendragon Press, University of British Columbia Press, Four Walls Eight Windows, and Resources for the Future.

Source: Questia Media, Inc., Houston, 713/358-2500; http://www.questia.com.
 

CAS Will Introduce New Thesaurus on STN
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has announced new thesaurus capability with features to guide searchers through the intricacies of scientific vocabulary; it is scheduled to be released in December. The new tool, called CA Lexicon on STN, organizes scientific concept families, and will give researchers greatly improved recall and precision in the CA and CAplus files on STN International.

According to CAS, the CA Lexicon will help information professionals by helping them apply CAS's indexing from 1967 forward to best advantage, by opening up new vistas of productive STN searching by showcasing concept families, and by suggesting alternative terms to use in search strategies. CA Lexicon employs intelligence that lets users apply the expertise of vocabulary experts. CAS scientists have networked three vocabularies together and clarified relationships among all the terms. The major components are a Concept/General Subject vocabulary; a Taxonomic vocabulary for biological genus and species terms; and Compound classes, including the chemical substances most frequently indexed by CAS, common synonyms, relationships, and more.

Source: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH, 800/753-4227, 614/447-3731; http://www.cas.org.
 

Aries to Offer S. Karger Journals in PDF
Aries Systems Corp. has announced that it will soon begin offering access to individual biomedical journal articles from Swiss publisher S. Karger AG on a pay-per-view basis.

Articles will be purchased by customers via the Internet in Adobe PDF, using Aries' DocuRights secure container technology. Karger publishes approximately 80 biomedical journals, as well as about 70 book titles annually. Most of Karger's publications are in English.

Using the DocuRights solution, the customer browses one of Aries' biomedical databases. When the user finds an article reference and abstract of interest, and for which a DocuRights full-text PDF file is available, the secured PDF is downloaded immediately to his computer across the Internet. A short preview of the article lets the user confirm that he wants to purchase it. Next, DocuRights coordinates an e-commerce transaction, and then the full article is available for him to view and print.

Source: Aries Systems Corp., North Andover, MA, 978/975-7570; http://www.docurights.com.
 

Westlaw.com Simplifies Legal Research
West Group has announced that westlaw.com now provides a more intuitive interface, superior features, and improved speed, with lower technical requirements. This release of westlaw.com is now 25 to 30 percent faster than its predecessors, with even more functionality, West Group reports.

A new tabbed interface enables researchers to quickly find commonly used databases and perform powerful functions. The new version also offers split-screen and full-screen views; choices of hourly or transactional billing; and new features such as the Table of Contents Center, Find a Database Wizard, and PeopleCite.

Source: West Group, Eagan, MN, 800/328-7990, 651/687-4749; http://www.westgroup.com.
 

Northern Light Expands Business Information
Northern Light Technology, Inc. has announced agreements to bring over 140 new titles to its Special Collection, which now numbers more than 7,000 journals, periodicals, and research reports. This expansion includes such established information sources as The Washington Post, McGraw-Hill Publications, Quest Economics, and the Lafferty database of international business news.

Northern Light allows its users to perform a single, integrated search of one of the largest full-text indexes of Web pages (more than 300 million pages) and a 50-million-page database of high-quality business information sources. Enterprise customers and partners of Northern Light can access this new content through an array of customizable enterprise search solutions ranging from flat-rate access from the desktop to integration with the corporate intranet and development of a custom enterprise portal.

Source: Northern Light Technology, Inc., Cambridge, MA, 617/621-5194; http://www.northernlight.com.
 

CSA Acquires New Aerospace Products
As the result of a recent agreement with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) has announced that it has acquired the Aerospace Database and its corresponding print product, International Aerospace Abstracts (IAA). The database has been available through CSA's Internet Database Service (IDS) since 1997.

According to the announcement, the Aerospace Database is considered the world's foremost source of scientific and technical aerospace information. It provides bibliographic coverage extending across a wide variety of disciplines including aeronautics, astronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering, geo-sciences, life sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physics, social sciences, and space sciences. More than 60,000 records a year are drawn from journal articles, conference papers, books, and technical reports, including reports issued by NASA, other U.S. government agencies, international institutions, universities, and private firms.

Source: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Bethesda, MD, 301/961-6761; http://www.csa.com.
 

Wilson Select Plus Is Now Available on the New OCLC FirstSearch Service
OCLC has announced that Wilson Select Plus, a new database that includes approximately 500 more full-text titles than the Wilson Select database, is now available on the new OCLC FirstSearch service. Initially, full-text articles in Wilson Select Plus have been linked to citations in the 13 H.W. Wilson databases available through the new FirstSearch. Linking from its full-text articles to citations in the other bibliographic databases on the service will be completed soon.

Wilson Select Plus will replace the current Wilson Select database in the FirstSearch Base Package with Full Text and the General Reference Collection subscription packages. By June 30 of next year, all Base Package with Full Text and General Reference Collection subscribers will have access to Wilson Select Plus. The Wilson Select database will continue to be available to libraries that prefer the smaller file.

Source: OCLC, Dublin, OH, 800/848-5878, 614/764-6000; http://www.oclc.org.
 

ingenta to Deliver Sage Electronic Journals
ingenta has announced an agreement with Sage, which publishes social science, media and communications, and humanities journals. The addition of Sage's portfolio of over 200 journals will bring the titles available through ingenta's Web site to a total of 2,800 academic and professional journals and over 1 million articles online.

The agreement with Sage expands ingenta's cross-disciplinary content. Over the past 6 months ingenta has brokered deals with publishers such as Bowker-Saur, Henry Stewart, and Bentham Press to increase the breadth and depth of content available. Other publishers that have gone live within the last 6 months include ADIS, CABI, John Benjamins, OECD, The Geological Society, RAPRA, The Institute of Fiscal Studies, and the Action Learning Institute (ALI).

Source: ingenta, Cambridge, MA, 617/395-4000; http://www.ingenta.com.
 

IDEALReferenceWorks Has Been Expanded
Academic Press has announced that it has expanded its IDEALReferenceWorks online collection with more Academic Press titles that were previously available only in print. As of now, the collection offers the following online editions: Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition; Encyclopedia of Immunology, second edition; and Encyclopedia of Virology, second edition. By the end of this year, Academic Press says that IDEALReferenceWorks will also offer Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, Encyclopedia of Spectroscopy and Spectrometry, Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences, Encyclopedia of Separation Science, and Encyclopedia of Biodiversity.

The online versions of these encyclopedias offer fully searchable text features, including hyperlinked cross-references between articles and a searchable electronic index. The online versions also contain some unique features, such as 3-D visualizations.

Purchasing the print version of any IDEALReferenceWorks title allows the buyer to register for the online version at no additional cost. See http://www.idealibrary.com/idealreferenceworks. Discounted prices are available to APPEAL licensees.

Source: Academic Press, San Diego, 619/231-6616; http://www.academicpress.com.