SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Vol. 20 No. 2 — February 2003

Streaming Media produces conferences and exhibitions in the streaming media field and also hosts the StreamingMedia.com Web site and e-mail newsletter. In addition, the company publishes a series of in-depth reports on various aspects of streaming media technology and applications.

The first Streaming Media conference and exhibition was held in San Francisco in 1998. More than 10 such events have been held since. The most recent exhibition, Streaming Media Europe, was held in London in December 2002 and featured more than 20 of the leading streaming media companies in Europe, including RealNetworks, Envivio, Network Appliance, and Groovy Gecko.

The StreamingMedia.com Web site, e-mail newsletter, and other related products will be produced and directed by Adam Pemberton, publisher of ITI's EMedia magazine and EMedia Xtra e-mail newsletter. Future Streaming Media conferences and other live events will fall under the direction of Dick Kaser, ITI's vice president of content.

Source: Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ, 609/654-6266; https://www.infotoday.com.

Cambridge University Selects MARC Link, OCLC
MARC Link announced that it and OCLC have been awarded a joint contract for the retrospective conversion of Cambridge University Library's guardbook catalog. The guardbook contains an estimated 1.3 million records that cover books and periodicals published between 1500 and 1978.

The library's Greensleeves Project has been working on the guardbook conversion for 5 years, but more than 60 percent of the pre-1978 General Catalogue still remains. According to the announcement, grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Isaac Newton Trust will allow this work to be contracted out to a commercial conversion company and thus completed more quickly than would be possible in-house.

MARC Link staff will search the CURL database, OCLC WorldCat, and the RLIN database to increase their hit rates.According to the announcement, these records will considerably improve subject access to material listed in the guardbook catalog. OCLC will then provide authority-control processing to further improve end-user searching.

Source: MARC Link, Orem, UT, 801/356-1852; http://www.marclink.com.

NISO Publishes Standards Guide for Library Systems
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced the publication of The RFP Writer's Guide to Standards for Library Systems, by Cynthia Hodgson. This manual is intended to aid library system request for proposal (RFP) writers and evaluators in understanding the relevant standards and determining a software product's compliance with them.

According to the announcement, the widespread use of integrated library systems, global communications via the Internet, and growing numbers of digital library initiatives have made the need for compliance with standards more critical than ever.

The RFP Writer's Guide to Standards for Library Systems identifies critical standards in the areas of bibliographic formats, record structure, character sets, exchange media, serials identifiers, binding, circulation protocols, bar codes, interlibrary loan, electronic documents, electronic data interchange, information retrieval, metadata, and Web access. For each standard, the guide talks about its applicability to libraries, provides sample RFP language, and discusses compliance-assessment issues.

Copies of the guide are available in print from NISO Press or for free download from NISO's Web site
(http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/RFP_Writers_Guide.pdf).

Source: National Information Standards Organization, Bethesda, MD, 301/654-2512; http://www.niso.org.

WilsonWeb Databases Now Link to SwetsWise E-Journals
H.W. Wilson announced that SwetsWise will be added to the list ofWilsonWeb's WilsonLink full-text sources. This integration is part of a reciprocal agreement that will also make WilsonWeb an information source for SwetsWise databases. Customers who subscribe to both WilsonWeb and SwetsWise will be able to access full text, where available, on either server. WilsonWeb subscribers will also be able to link to tables of contents for journals carried on SwetsWise.

WilsonLink open-URL technology, a feature of the new WilsonWeb interface, facilitates linking to SwetsWise. It allows libraries to integrate open-URL-compatible resources without installing their ownlink server, and at no additional cost to their WilsonWeb subscription.

With more than 7,000 titles in full text,SwetsWise offers access to more scholarly and research journals than any other e-journal service, according to the announcement. SwetsWise is just one of many electronic publishers and other information providers that, via WilsonLink SFX-powered software, seamlessly integrates with databases on the new WilsonWeb.

More than 50 H.W. Wilson reference databases are available via WilsonWeb. The new interface, which debuted in 2002, offers more intuitive navigation, detailed user statistics, natural language searching, full-text searching, relevancy-rankedresults, customization options, WilsonLink SFX technology, and more administrative control.

Source: H.W. Wilson, New York, 800/367-6770; http://www.hwwilson.com.

World Chambers Network Teams with Dialog
World Chambers Network (WCN), a Paris-based trade service for chambers of commerce, has announced a deal with Dialog to launch an online search engine that will help businesses research international markets.

Companies can now receive foreign market intelligence for new business ventures by visiting WCN's Web site (http://www
.worldchambers.com). After completing a customized search form, they can access the Dialog database of articles, reports, and documents that are published from dozens of sources worldwide.

The initial Dialog content available to WCN users includes industry and business news, company profiles, and market research. Additional categories will be added soon. Searching is free, and users may purchase the full text of desired documents online with a credit card.

According to the announcement, World Chambers Network, the Web's only official global network of chambers of commerce, links more than 12,000 chambers worldwide and attracts about 60,000 visitors per month. It offers a comprehensive directory of chambers, their services, and supporting organizations, and a validated database of international business opportunities.

Source: World Chambers Network, Paris, 011-33-1-49-53-29-67; http://www.worldchambers.com.

IEEE Announces Service Upgrades, Partnership
IEEE announced that it will add content and open universal access to its online archive. The organization also announced that it has entered into a linking agreement with ISI.

Content Additions

IEEE will add more than 85,000 technical papers from selected IEEE journals and conference proceedings to the 850,000 papers that are currently in its online digital archive. The new content, which extends from 1950 to 1987, will be available to researchers at subscribing institutions at no additional cost and to those buying individual articles through the IEEEXplore online delivery platform.

Universal Access

IEEE now allows anyone to view, download, and print technical articles from its online archive on a pay-per-view basis. This service lets researchers read full-text technical papers from IEEE periodicals and conference proceedings.

The new offering provides articles through IEEE Xplore. This platform allows anyone to browse tables of contents of IEEE publications and permits IEEE members and subscribers to search for and read abstracts. One-time article purchases cost $13 for IEEE members and $35 for nonmembers.

ISI Agreement

The partnership with ISI will provide ISI Web of Knowledge and IEEE subscribers with links to the full text of articles from IEEE journals and conference proceedings.

Once the links are in place, subscribers to IEEE publications online and ISI Web of Knowledge will be able to link from ISI Web of Science and ISI Current Contents Connect to the IEEE engineering and computer science journal literature and to the proceedings information from IEEE-sponsored conferences.

Source: IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 732/981-3449; http://www.ieee.org.

ProQuest Adds New Content
ProQuest Information and Learning announced that its acquisition of Norman Ross Publishing will expand its international content in microform. Thecompany also announced an agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology that will bring the full text of MIT Sloan Management Review to ProQuest's ABI/INFORM database.

New International Information

Founded in 1972, Norman Ross Publishing produces microfilm collections,books, and CD-ROM information products. With the acquisition, ProQuest will provide the following Norman Ross offerings:

• More than 300 newspapers from more than 50 countries

• Nearly 2,000 newspaper backfiles from Eastern and Central Europe, Central Asia, and elsewhere

• Special collections of primary-source materials that support Slavic, East-Asian, Jewish, and European studies

• Government documents from dozens of countries, covering census data, foreign-affairs reports, labor reports, legal information, and more

• The Official Journal of the European Communities, the main publication of the European Union, published every workday

MIT Sloan Management Review

ProQuest will distribute MIT Sloan Management Review content to educational institutions, libraries, and other markets around the world. According to the announcement, the journal is a quarterly, peer-reviewed business publication that bridges the gap between management research and practice, presenting the best in new research to help readers identify and understand significant management trends.

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

Survey Shows Public Opinion on Biometric Identifiers
Privacy &American Business (P&AB) announced the results of a survey commissioned by SEARCH, funded by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, and developed by Alan Westin, P&AB's president and publisher.

The survey found that 56 to 91 percent of the U.S. public believes that it's acceptable for the private sector to use biometric technologies. However, public support for biometrics hinges on privacy safeguards set in place by legislators and adopted voluntarily by companies themselves. This is to protect consumers from potential misuse of their biometric identifiers and to gain consumer trust.

The results also show a strong link between public concerns over identity fraud and support for the uses of biometrics by both the public and private sectors. Eight of 10 respondents say they have heard or read about some form of identity theft.

Source: Privacy & American Business, Hackensack, NJ, 201/966-1154; http://www.pandab.org.

Nstein, Gale Announce Partnership Agreement
Nstein Technologies, Inc. announced an agreement to provide Gale's subject taxonomy through its flagship automated indexing software. According to the announcement, this partnership will enhance content search-and-retrieval services and extend market research for both companies in many domains, including business/financial services, law, medicine and health, technology, and social sciences.

Gale's 70,000-node subject taxonomy will be prepackaged within Nstein's Intelligent Categorizer and Nfinder automated indexing and search tools. This will enable Gale, Nstein, and their partners to license and deploy a hybrid product to enterprises around the world. Business analysts, financial researchers, product managers, and information professionals will now be able to automatically index and retrieve information from their databases.

Source: Nstein Technologies, Inc., Montreal, 514/908-5406; http://www.nstein.com and Gale, Farmington Hills, MI, 248/699-8554; http://www.gale.com.

CAS Announces Product Enhancement, New Finding
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced that STN International has enhanced STN Easy for Intranets. The company also announced a new finding based on data from its Chemical Registry system.

STN Easy for Intranets

According to CAS, the new capabilities in STN Easy for Intranets will enable information professionals to deliver additional value to their end users through new options that support a wide range of user preferences and expertise. These include predefined search strategies from more than 80 databases on STN Easy and the ability to post search results from STN's more than 200 sci-tech databases.

Patent Finding

CAS reports that more than 50 percent of the organic and inorganic chemical substances recorded in the CAS Chemical Registry system during 2002 were derived from patent documents as opposed to journal literature and other publications. This finding highlights a trend evident since at least 1998 in which an increasing percentage of substances of this type have been reported for the first time in patents.

CAS registers substances of all types as they are newly reported and come to the attention of the organization's scientists. These experts analyze and index patents from 37 issuing authorities as well as articles from more than 9,000 scientific journals, books, and other documents published around the world.

Source: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH, 614/447-3600; http://www.cas.org.

MetaPress Will Host Taylor & Francis Journals
MetaPress, a service of EBSCO Industries' Publisher Promotion & Fulfillment division, announced that it will produce and host online editions of all journals published by Taylor & Francis Group.

In an extension of an agreement begun in 2001—originally initiated to host 140 titles acquired from Gordon & Breach—Taylor & Francis has decided to migrate the primary hosting responsibilities for all of its journals to MetaPress.

MetaPress provides access to articles from thousands of journals, newsletters, and other professional and academic publications. The functionality of the MetaPress system has been integrated into the Taylor & Francis Web site (http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com) so that tables of contents and abstracts are available to users regardless of subscription status. Alerting and persistent searching services are provided to all registered users at no charge.

Source: MetaPress, Birmingham, AL, 205/991-1176; http://www.metapress.com.