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Vol. 20 No. 3 — March 2003

EDUCAUSE has announced that the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) program and the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) have formed an alliance to promote discourse among their constituencies and develop joint programs that advance online learning.

The alliance will support national and campus-based initiatives in faculty development, technology use in teaching and learning, shared learning tools, and online community facilitation. NLII, formed in 1994 by Educom and expanded by EDUCAUSE, is a coalition of organizations that work to enhance teaching and learning environments through technology applications. Current projects include e-portfolios, learning objects and design, virtual communities of practice, assessment systems, and institutional e-learning readiness.

MERLOT, established in 1997, is an international cooperative that connects institutions, consortia, academic-discipline associations, and individual members. Through an online repository and network of peer reviewers, MERLOT provides a free, open resource of online learning materials, sample assignments, evaluations of learning materials, and links to people with common interests.

Source: EDUCAUSE, Washington, DC, 202/872-4200; http://www.educause.edu.

Four Major Publishers Sue for Copyright Infringement

Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. announced that four major STM publishers have filed suit against Los Angeles-based Westwood Copies and co-owners Sam and Elias Negash for copyright infringement. The suit—filed by Elsevier Science, Inc.; The MIT Press; Sage Publications, Inc.; and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.—charges that the defendants routinely photocopied materials from the plaintiffs' publications without their authorization.

The publishers' complaint, filed recently in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that Westwood Copies produces unauthorized coursepacks for classes taught at the University of California—Los Angeles. Coursepacks are bound collections of copied excerpts from books and other copyrighted materials selected by teachers for use by students. Copy shops cannot reproduce and sell coursepacks without permission from the rightsholders.

"Coursepack producers cannot lawfully photocopy others'intellectual property and then sell those copies without first obtaining rights and paying royalties to do so," said Mark Seeley, vice president and general counsel of Elsevier Science. "This is a clear example of copyright infringement. This type of practice inflicts harm on rightsholders and puts law-abiding copy services at a competitive disadvantage in their markets."

The case is the latest being coordinated by Copyright Clearance Center, the world's largest licenser of text reproduction rights and a licensing agent for all four publishers, according to the announcement.

Source: Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., Danvers, MA, 978/750-8400; http://www.copyright.com.

EBSCO Streamlines Consortia Purchasing

EBSCO Information Services has announced recent agreements benefiting the California Digital Library, the Brazilian academic consortium CAPES, and KESLI, a group of Korean academic institutions. These deals represent both large and small publishers.

According to the announcement, collective purchasing groups value EBSCO's detailed invoicing, payment processing, ILS integration, and e-journal gateways. Now, in addition, EBSCO systematically collects member information for publishers and addresses license issues and common questions from consortia members while meeting the objectives of both parties.

"These consortia successes demonstrate EBSCO's commitment to extend its service role to all aspects of the evolving subscription business, from guiding the consortia-negotiation process to providing integrated tools for using electronic and print resources," said Sid McNeal Jr., EBSCO International's vice president and general manager, who oversees the EBSCO regional offices in South America and South Korea. "In 2004, we will build on the experience we have gained in helping consortia and publishers increase access and create sustainable business."

Source: EBSCO Information Services, Ipswich, MA, 978/356-6500; http://www.ebsco.com.

Ingenta Announces Signings, Will Create OUP Web Site

Ingenta, Inc. announced that it continues to experience significant growth, having signed more than 15 new publishers and societies since October 2002. These new publisher accounts bring the company's total number to almost 250.

In addition to providing an online journal service via ingenta.com, Ingenta has now built more than 50 publisher-branded Web sites for its clients and hundreds of journal Web sites, ranging from branded home pages to highly customized stand-alone sites. Ingenta says that more than 13,000 libraries worldwide now use its services and almost 1.8 million articles were delivered to users in November 2002.

Ingenta also announced that it's been appointed to build a scholarly books Web site on behalf of Oxford University Press. According to the announcement, the site will offer the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and will be online and cross-searchable this fall at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.

Access to all of the abstracts and keywords in Oxford Scholarship Online will be freely available alongside journal abstracts through a wide variety of services, including ingenta.com.

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

Nstein Signs Agreement with Industry Canada

Nstein Technologies, Inc. announced that it has signed a contract with Industry Canada to develop its new corporate taxonomy.

A department of the Canadian federal government, Industry Canada's mandate is to help make Canadians more productive and competitive in the knowledge-based economy, thus improving the standard of living and quality of life in that country.

Catherine Brieger, of Industry Canada's Corporate Reference Services, said: "Nstein possesses a comprehensive understanding and tremendous track record in assisting groups such as Industry Canada in developing world-class taxonomies—and implementing computer-aided indexing solutions around these taxonomies."

"Nstein is pleased to be working with Industry Canada on this taxonomy project," said Charles Alexander, Nstein's vice president of sales and marketing. "The Industry Canada Library group is very knowledgeable regarding the need for a comprehensive, well-structured taxonomy as a key component of an overall information management strategy."

Nstein also announced the release of the latest version (2.2) of its Taxonomy Manager. Nstein introduced the first version of the product in fall 2002.

Source: Nstein Technologies, Inc., Montreal, 514/908-5406; http://www.nstein.com.

SFX Links to OCLC Services

Ex Libris (USA), Inc. announced that it and OCLC have successfully implemented linking from the Ex Libris SFX link server to select OCLC reference and resource-sharing services. According to the announcement, this further integrates services for mutual customers and ensures that libraries' collections are made more visible to information seekers.

Frank Hermes, vice president of OCLC Cooperative Discovery Services, said, "The integration of these services builds on the already successful partnership between Ex Libris and OCLC, whereby mutual subscribers to SFX and a variety of OCLC services benefit from seamless access to journal articles, regardless of the information resource in which the user begins the research."

Jenny Walker, director of sales and marketing at Ex Libris (USA), Inc., said, "OCLC was one of the early adopters of the OpenURL standard and continues to be an industry leader in enabling interoperability between their systems and other library services."

Source: Ex Libris (USA), Inc., Chicago, 773/404-5527; http://www.exlibris-usa.com.

Factiva Unveils Factiva's Membership Circle

Factiva has announced the release of Factiva's Membership Circle, a new support and account management site designed to provide all customers with immediate access to comprehensive support and account management tools.

Available directly from Factiva products, the portal supplies, in one place, product help, FAQs, learning modules, customer service contacts, and up-to-date information on Factiva's content. Further, it enables administrators to manage their accounts with online invoices, usage reports, end-user administrative functions, and product reference documents.

Through Factiva's Membership Circle, site administrators will be able to save time and manage their accounts more efficiently. According to the announcement, users will find self-service support that is quick and more convenient, along with e-learning training tools available at the point of need for use at their own individual pace. The result for the organization is a better return on investment and more successful implementation of Factiva products.

Source: Factiva, Princeton, NJ, 800/369-8474; http://www.factiva.com.

Biz360, Dialog Form Alliance

Biz360, a provider of active market intelligence, and Dialog have announced a partnership to help corporate executives manage their company's public perception. This alliance will integrate Dialog's NewsEdge services with the active market intelligence provided by Market360, Biz360's media-measurement application. According to the announcement, corporate communications professionals will benefit from this comprehensive solution, which is designed to improve strategic planning and execution as they manage their companies' perceptions in the marketplace.

Source: Biz360, San Mateo, CA, 866/424-9360; http://www.biz360.com and Dialog, Cary, NC, 919/462-8600; http://www.dialog.com.

Columbia University's EPIC Awarded $3 Million Grant

Columbia University announced that its Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC) has been awarded a 4-year renewal grant of $3 million from the National Science Foundation. EPIC is one of three partners that's building the core integration components of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL; http://www.nsdl.nsf.gov), along with Cornell University and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

Led by Kate Wittenberg, director of EPIC, and David Millman, director of R&D for Academic Computing Systems, the Columbia team is working with its Cornell and UCAR partners to build the infrastructure that will support the entire NSDL.

Source: Columbia University Information Services & University Libraries, New York, 212/854-0025; http://www.columbia.edu.

EIU Commissions Snapshots International

Snapshots International, Ltd. has announced that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has commissioned it to supply specially tailored industry data for EIU's Country Indicator products, and for use in Executive Briefings.

Snapshots International will provide EIU with a range of market data series for industry sectors, including IT, Telecom, Pharmaceutical, Energy, Automotive, and Retail, for 40 different countries. As part of the agreement, Snapshots is now using EIU socioeconomic data, such as GDP, population, exchange rates, and inflation rates in the Snapshots Series.

The Economist Intelligence Unit Country Indicators allow analysts to construct their own country and industry comparisons, while the Executive Briefings offer industry and strategic intelligence for senior executives. A selection of Snapshots Reports is now available for purchase from the EIU Online Store
(http://www.store.eiu.com). The Snapshots Series, which consists of approximately 1,700 market research reports that cover 35 industries in 23 countries, is available as a modular solution for stand-alone, intranet, and global networking solutions. The full collection of reports is available singly from the Snapshots International Web site.

Source: Snapshots International, Ltd., London, 011-44-20-7829-8408; http://www.snapdata.com.

Taiwan eBooks Network Has Access to netLibrary Titles

netLibrary, a division of OCLC, announced that the Taiwan eBooks Network (TEBNET) now has access to more than 11,000 e-book titles from netLibrary. It is the first netLibrary e-books consortium in the Asia Pacific region.

Twenty-one university libraries came together to form TEBNET under the leadership of Hsianghoo S. Ching, library director at Feng Chia University in Taichung, Taiwan. Ching currently serves as chairperson for the National Committee of Distance Education Evaluation, a position that's nominated by the Minister of Education in Taiwan.

Twelve more university libraries are expected to join TEBNET in 2003.

Source: netLibrary, Boulder, CO; http://www.netlibrary.com.

BvD Study Shows European Sector More Active Than U.S.

Bureau van Dijk (BvD) announced that it has just published figures showing that Europe is now the dominant force in M&A activity. BvD's research demonstrates that although completed deals with a European target are nearly double those in the U.S., the U.S. still leads in overall deal value.

Looking at deals completed by the end of 2002, BvD's research, which uses data from its M&A database ZEPHYR, shows 11,149 deals with a European target compared to 6,271 U.S. deals. In terms of deal value, the U.S. leads with a total of $658.4 billion compared to $569.6 billion in Europe.

This research forms part of the latest issue of the M&A Synopsis, which is published quarterly by BvD in conjunction with Zephus, its wholly owned subsidiary. Each M&A Synopsis includes an overview of activity for the quarter, country and sector focus, deal of the quarter, rumor highlights, advisor analysis, and a venture capital/private equity review.

You can download the complete M&A Synopsis for the most recent quarter by clicking "Free M&A Synopsis" at http://zephyr.bvdep.com.

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

Extenza Marketing Solutions Adds Swets Blackwell Database

Extenza Marketing Solutions (EMS), a division of Royal Swets & Zeitlinger and sister company of Swets Blackwell, has announced that it can help publishers to mail leaflets, brochures, and/or sample copies to Swets Blackwell library customers around the world.

The new service complements the established telemarketing and direct marketing services that EMS provides for scholarly and professional publishers. Swets Blackwell, a global subscription and information services company, first began offering the ability to contact its customers in response to publishers'demands more than 15 years ago. Since then, it has become an integral part of many publishers' promotional campaigns to reach senior decision makers within the library community.

Source: Extenza Marketing Solutions, Lisse, Netherlands, 011-31-252-435687; http://www.extenzamarketing.com.

Outsell Selects ECNext Commerce Solution

ECNext, a provider of Web marketing and commerce technology for market research firms and business publishers, announced that Outsell, Inc., a research and advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the information content industry, has selected ECNext to provide its commerce Web site.

ECNext's advanced technology will power Outsell's commerce Web site and enable the company to package, market, and deliver high-value information to the burgeoning market of Web-based ad-hoc purchases. ECNext's comprehensive Web Visibility program will assure that Outsell's site shows up well in relevant search categories and that it attracts traffic and delivers sales. In addition, Outsell will utilize ECNext's site-content-managementtools to enable timely updates of information and provide maximum visibility from Web search engines.

Source: ECNext, Columbus, OH, 614/932-0956; http://www.ecnext.com.

Ovid Introduces YourJournals@Ovid

Ovid Technologies, Inc. announced the release of its new YourJournals@Ovid research tool. YourJournals@Ovid is a subset of the company's Journals@Ovid database. It's designed to let information professionals customize their organization's journal searching to include only the electronic journal content to which the institution subscribes. This enables researchers to streamline access to the information they need. According to the announcement, YourJournals@Ovid delivers 100-percent searchability, seamless integration with other Ovid bibliographic databases, and the ability to browse content by journal and subject.

Source: Ovid Technologies, Inc., New York, 646/674-6300; http://www.ovid.com.

Dialog Adds Trademark Images to TRADEMARKSCAN

Dialog announced that it has added images to the TRADEMARKSCAN files from Finland (File 679) and Sweden (File 675) available through its online services.

TRADEMARKSCAN File 679 contains valid applications and registrations published since 1891, plus inactive, unpublished, and published trademarks dating to 1995. About 36,000 trademarks—out of a total of approximately 120,000—now have associated images.

TRADEMARKSCAN File 675 contains valid applications and registrations dating to 1885. It also offers unpublished applications as well as inactive unpublished and published trademarks dating to 1987. More than 77,000 trademarks, which represent one-third of the file, now have associated images.

Additionally, all European trademark databases, as well as the International Register database of trademark information published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, are now updated on a weekly schedule. According to the announcement, this increases the frequency of automatically generated Alerts and gives Dialog users faster access to accurate and more up-to-date trademark data.

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

Elsevier Launches E-Book Program

Elsevier announced that it is launching its Elsevier eBooks service. Through an alliance with netLibrary, Elsevier will make more than 300 titles available in e-book versions this year.

netLibrary will host Elsevier eBooks, which will be available to any institution with a netLibrary account. Titles will come initially from the Science and Technology division within Elsevier and will cover high-demand subject areas such as Computer Science, Life Science, Economics, Business and Management, Engineering, and Environmental Sciences.

netLibrary's e-books provide users with access to library resources anywhere, anytime. Full-text searches can be conducted across hundreds of books or within a specific book to speed research and reference projects. The books can be viewed online from a library, office, home, or remote location using an Internet browser, or they can be downloaded to a laptop. E-books are available for varying checkout periods and are automatically checked back into the library collection when the period expires.

Source: Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 011-31-20-485-2994; http://www.elsevier.com.

New York Public Library Digitizes Picture Collection

The New York Public Library announced an initiative to digitize 30,000 images from its Picture Collection by the end of 2003. Users can access this resource at http://www.picturecollection.nypl.org.

Organized into more than 2 dozen subjects—including African American History, Costumes, Fashion Drawings, New York City, Dragons, and Animals—the digitized images date from the 1700s through the first quarter of the 20th century. They are drawn from the Mid-Manhattan branch's Picture Collection, which offers vast reference holdings of images clipped from books, newspapers, and magazines. The online database also includes digitized copies of original photographs, prints, and postcards from the collection.

Source: New York Public Library, New York, 212/340-0878; http://www.nypl.org.