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Vol. 20 No. 2 — February 2003

IEEE announced the launch of the IEEE Information Technology Library (ITeL), a new online collection that offers the full text of more than 900 IEEE conference proceedings and periodicals in computing, communications, signal processing, and circuits and systems dating to 1993.

According to the announcement, the collection provides access to many of the world's leading information technology publications. It includes the top-five telecommunications journals, as indicated in ISI's 2001 Journal Citation Report, and 22 of the 50 top-rated journals in electrical and electronics engineering. Also included are top-cited journals in software engineering, hardware, computer theory and methods, artificial intelligence, and information systems.

Source: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 732/981-0060; http//www.ieee.org.

Blackwell Book Services Offers New Feature

Blackwell's Book Services has announced that its Collection Manager purchasing system for libraries now includes a full-text preview feature powered by ebrary, a provider of information distribution and retrieval technology that serves publishers and libraries worldwide. The new technology helps publishers increase sales of print books to libraries by showcasing exact replicas of books, particularly pre-publication and frontlist titles.

"By partnering with ebrary, Collection Manager advances to another level by allowing print books to be searched and browsed in full text before purchase by libraries," said Dan Halloran, president and CEO of Blackwell's Book Services. "Because ebrary is based on the portable document format (PDF), the de facto industry standard, publishers can efficiently submit their titles into Collection Manager and market them to librarians even before they appear in print. Not only does this increase sales and lower returns, it also can greatly reduce costs associated with printing and mailing sample copies or notification slips."

Source: Blackwell's Book Services, Oxford, U.K., 011-44-1865-792792; http://www.blackwell.com.

Cleveland Public Library to Open E-Book Collection

Cleveland Public Library announced that it has entered into an agreement with digital media company OverDrive, Inc. to open a circulating e-book and digital media collection. Patrons will be able to access and download digital books and periodicals for offline reading through either the library's online catalog or from a new kiosk-style Web site. The Cleveland Public Library eBook Collection, which will launch in March, will be the first of its kind to offer best-selling titles for reading on nearly every type of PC.

First-time services that will distinguish the Cleveland Public Library digital collection from earlier library e-book efforts include support for reading on Palm and Pocket PC PDA devices in addition to PCs, the ability for the library to add its own digitized titles to the collection (such as local newspapers or archived documents), and support for circulating copyrighted digital audiobooks and other multimedia. Cleveland Public Library personnel will be able to develop their digital book collection from a variety of sources and a growing list of media file formats.

Source: Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, 216/623-2800; http://www.cpl.org.

AIP Launches Search OJPS Service

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has announced the release of Search OJPS (http://searchojps.aip.org), a service that offers free searching of all the bibliographic records on its Online Journal Publishing Service (OJPS) for which Adobe PDF files of full-text articles are available. To date, searching has been restricted to those who subscribe to at least one of the more than 100 journals on OJPS. Search OJPS will be accessible on a 6-month experimental basis to anyone who registers.

Search OJPS has similar functionality to SPIN (Searchable Physics Information Notices), AIP's abstracts database. Users may browse or search bibliographic data from 110 online journals published by AIP and other scientific and engineering societies, with various options for accessing full-text articles.

Search OJPS enables fielded, cross-journal searching on more than 300,000 abstract records. Users may also browse tables of contents (with links to abstracts) for each of these journals for this same time period. Within each of these areas, options are provided for users to obtain the full-text articles. Users may directly download PDF files from journals to which they or their institutions subscribe, or they may use the pay-per-view facilities of AIP's DocumentStore (http://www.documentstore.org) to purchase full-text articles from publications to which they do not subscribe.

Source: American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY, 516/576-2411; http://www.aip.org.

Dialog Adds Searchable Domain Name Database

Dialog Corp. announced the launch of a searchable database of more than 65 million current and historic Internet domain name records. The database includes records for about 20 million currently active domain names, with most containing detailed "Whois" information.

A domain name is an alphanumeric name or Web address used to identify a particular site on the Internet. The Whois record attached to a domain name is part of a publicly available registration document that lists registrant and technical information for each name. According to the announcement, the new Dialog service is the largest and most robust database of its kind.

Unlike the simple domain name look-up services available on the open Web, Dialog subscribers can search from more than 50 indexed Whois data fields contained in domain registrations, including the registrant's name, corporate affiliation, address, and phone number, as well as specific technical information such as IP addresses.

Source: Dialog Corp., Cary, NC, 919/462-8600; http://www.dialog.com.

MITRE Corp. Management Software Now Available

MITRE Corp. announced that its eCommunities Collaborative Knowledge Management software is now available through a technology transfer agreement with Ensenyo Software. The product is built upon a team portal framework that uses Java 2 open-source tools and is accessible via any standard Web browser. According to the announcement, it allows distributed research teams and organizations to create and deploy virtual community and knowledge-based content Web sites at a fraction of the cost and in less time than alternative approaches.

eCommunities includes a content-management platform with a database for information organization and retrieval, an information center with domain-specific news and information content, a member directory, document and file-sharing capability, e-mail lists and forums, discussion groups, and instant messenger capability. In addition, the platform offers a site administration module for rapid configuration, content management, and maintenance.

Source: MITRE Corp., McLean, VA, 703/883-6000; http://www.mitre.org.

InfoExpress Releases New Web Agent

InfoExpress announced that, in a key update to its remote-access policy enforcement system, the latest version of its CyberGatekeeper Suite now offers policy enforcement for Web-based applications.

CyberGatekeeper lets administrators enforce security policies for remote computersthat access the corporate network over remote connections, such as VPN, wireless, dial-up, and extranet. It proactively audits systems before allowing access to the corporate network. Systems failing to adhere to customer-designed policies and security requirements are denied access to the company network.

The new CyberGatekeeper Web Agent eliminates the need to install client software on remote systems. When users launch their Web browsers, the Web Agent automatically audits their systems. System configurations are compared with custom security policies to inspect application, file, and other configurations. Users whose systems fail to meet security standards must correct the deficiency before access to the company network is allowed.

Source: InfoExpress, Mountain View, CA, 650/623-0260; http://www.infoexpress.com.

Mergent, Inc. Introduces Mergent Online

Mergent, Inc., a source for global business and financial information, announced the release of Mergent Online, its new flagship product, at http://www.mergentonline.com. Mergent Online will replace Mergent FISonline, a Web-based source for business and financial information.

According to the announcement, Mergent Online will include the same information, reports, and services that its clients have come to expect. However, company CEO Jonathan Worrall said: "Mergent Online is not a new and improved FISonline. This is a completely new product with a substantial amount of additional content and incredibly useful new features. Our clients will be delighted with the precision and flexibility of this new research tool."

According to Tim Roche, Mergent's senior vice president and chief information officer, Mergent Online's development was guided by client suggestions and requests. "In essence, we solicited our clients' wish lists as a base for constructing this product, and their feedback guided its development. The result is even more exciting than we could have imagined at the outset."

Source: Mergent, Inc., New York, 212/413-7601; http://www.mergent.com.

ProQuest Adds Titles, Co-Develops Application

ProQuest Information and Learning has announced an agreement with Rogers Publishing, Ltd. that will bring the full text of 64 periodicals to the company's line of business and general reference databases. The agreement, which is effective immediately, allows ProQuest to distribute the journal content to educational institutions, libraries, and other markets around the world. ProQuest also announced that in conjunction with The Berkeley Electronic Press, it has developed a Web-based application for the submission, review, and approval of electronic theses and dissertations.

Rogers Publishing

The Rogers Publishing content will be offered in ProQuest databases with no embargo, so users will be able to access current information within days of publication in the print edition. Current coverage—including both indexing and full text for the titles—will appear in such ProQuest databases as ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest Research Library, and ProQuest 5000. The agreement also confers rights to ProQuest to microfilm the titles as part of the company's extensive Serials in Microform program.

Dissertation Application

The Web-based dissertation application, which will be made available to graduate schools, is expected to improve and speed the dissertation publishing process for graduate students, faculty, and schools.

Through its UMI Dissertation Publishing program, ProQuest publishes more than 55,000 dissertations and master's theses each year and offers full-text copies of more than 1 million dissertations dating to the 19th century. Some 3,000 (or 5 percent) of the dissertations submitted for publication in 2002 were in electronic format, and that number is expected to increase significantly in the next few years.

Source: ProQuest Information and Learning, Ann Arbor, MI, 734/761-4700; http://il.proquest.com.

AP, Yahoo! Launch AP Archives on Yahoo! News

The Associated Press (AP) and Yahoo!, Inc. have announced the release of AP Archives, a fee-based news archive on Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com). This service reinforces both companies' commitment to providing comprehensive news and information to millions of consumers worldwide and greatly increases the time that each AP story is accessible on Yahoo! News, according to the announcement.

The agreement integrates the AP archive into Yahoo! News' news search. Users can access AP archives via Yahoo! News by conducting keyword searches for articles dating to January 1, 1998. Users will be able to see available AP archive articles, based on relevance defined by Yahoo!'s search technology, on any search they do at Yahoo! News. Listed AP archived news articles can be purchased for $1.50 per article. Nearly 1 million archived AP stories are now available. Top AP news in the form of headlines, stories, photos, interactive roundups, slideshows, audio cuts, and video clips will continue to be available for free for 15 days from publication on Yahoo! News.

Source: Associated Press, New York, 212/621-1500; http://www.ap.org and Yahoo!, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, 408/349-3300; http://www.yahoo.com.

Bureau van Dijk, Zephus Offer Free M&A Synopsis

Bureau van Dijk (BvD) and Zephus, researchers of global M&A activity, announced the publication of a free quarterly M&A Synopsis, prepared in association with the ZEPHYR database. Zephus also offers M&A-related research service for journalists.

Each M&A Synopsis includes an overview of M&A activity for the quarter, country, and sector focus; deal of the quarter; rumor highlights; advisor analysis; and a venture capital/private equity review.

The synopsis is researched and written by Ed Mountifield, head of research at Zephus, a division of BvD. The information is compiled using the ZEPHYR database (http://zephyr.bvdep.com), which combines BvD's software with Zephus' data. ZEPHYR was launched last year.

You can download the complete M&A Synopsis by clicking "Free M&A Synopsis" at http://zephyr.bvdep.com. Alternatively, contact suzanne.clare@bvdny.com to receive the Adobe PDF via e-mail each quarter.

Source: Bureau van Dijk, New York, 212/797-7120; http://www.bvdep.com.

H.W. Wilson Upgrades Its Biography Reference Bank

H.W. Wilson Co. announced that its WilsonWeb database Biography Reference Bank now features an innovative new structure that makes finding information more precise, as new content increases the number of people covered to beyond 400,000. The new structure and content come as the database is relaunched on the all-new WilsonWeb interface, which offers a host of new features for more precise and convenient searching. Biography Reference Bank brings users in-depth profiles of prominent individuals from a wide range of professions, photos, and links to related magazine articles and book reviews.

Because the database can include a daunting number of entries of various types about an individual, searches now retrieve a single master record. This record, in turn, features hotlinks to each category of material available: original Wilson profiles, profiles licensed from other reference publishers, magazine articles with the person as subject, and records of books by and about. From the page for each category, users can click to the citation of interest.

Source: H.W. Wilson Co., New York, 718/588-8400; http://www.hwwilson.com.

Macromedia Launches Macromedia Contribute

Macromedia, Inc. has announced the release of Macromedia Contribute, a new desktop application that enables anyone to update, add, and publish Web content to existing Web sites without needing to learn HTML. According to the announcement, in its first few weeks of availability, the preview version was downloaded by tens of thousands ofWeb professionals and nontechnical business users. Macromedia Contribute isavailable for Windows at an introductory price of $99 from the Macromedia Online Store (http://www.macromedia.com/go/buycontribute).

Unlike traditional content management systems, Macromedia Contribute doesn't require a long implementation time or a large technical staff. The $99-per-seat product is a full-featured desktop application that provides a practical, flexible way to enable end users to update Web content without learning complicated work flows.

Source: Macromedia, Inc., San Francisco, 415/252-2000; http://www.macromedia.com.