Thomson ePIB (Thomson Financial) is a new Web-based tool that electronically collects documents from financial databases and assembles a customized Public Information Book (PIB) in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). The simultaneously searches multiple databases covering over 80,000 global companies, and retrieves and tailors targeted company information according to predefined criteria. Thomson ePIB integrates Thomson Financial content, third-party sources, and selected proprietary data into one database, including financials, news articles, M&A deals, new issues, ownership, earnings estimates, daily pricing, block trading activity and investment research. Cross-content searches can be conducted by name, ticker symbol, ISIN, SEDOL or CUSIP. Unique search and reporting criteria for each content set can be defined by variables including date, report type, deal value or keyword. Accessible Thomson Financial content includes data from Disclosure, NewsEdge, Worldscope, Securities Data, Investext, MarkIntel, Thomson Ownership Data, I/B/E/S, Datastream and AutEx BlockDATA. Third party data includes Standard & Poor's. Thomson is positioning its ePIB directly against Alacra Book, profiled in The Dollar Sign published in the November/December 2001 of ONLINE (646/822-2000; www.thomsonfinancial.com)

DialogPRO ("Predictable Research Online") is a new Web-based information retrieval service that tailors Dialog's online searching and content aggregating attributes for ever-elusive small business owners and managers. Available for fixed monthly fees with unlimited usage, DialogPRO subscribers may initially choose one of two content channels—DialogPRO News or DialogPRO Advertising. Dialog plans additional content channels focused on areas such as health and wellness, energy, defense, biotech, competitive intelligence, and intellectual property. Within each content channel there are additional tiered options (primary, plus, and premier tiers) for users to create their own continuously updated databases of news and information sources. A user's fixed monthly subscription is based on individual source selections. All DialogPRO accounts are available for flat fee subscriptions. (Certain restrictions, based on client revenue size, apply.) Additional content materials not included in a subscription may be searched and retrieved on a transactional basis. DialogPRO subscribers also have full access to Dialog's three Knowledge Centers, based in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (800/3-DIALOG; 919/462-8600; www.dialog.com)
 

BIOMEDICAL

BIOSIS Previews, produced by Biological Abstracts, Inc. and available through ISI Web of Knowledge, includes new searching and linking capabilities. Users may use biosystematic and concept code and name searching to search groups of organisms by a term or combination of terms; identify articles where authors have announced a new species. Additionally, back years of Biological Abstracts (BA), back to 1980, content have been released on EBSCOhost. (BIOSIS: 800/523-4806; 215/587-4800; info@biosis.org; www.biosis.org; 215/386-0100; ISI: www.isinet.com; Additional back years of Biological Abstracts (BA) content has been released on EBSCOhost. BA content on EBSCOhost is now available back to 1980.

helpMD.com now offers an online library of medical-related images accessible by subscription. The library offers over 50,000 medical photos and illustrations, covering all areas of medicine, useful for educational or marketing purposes. Images can be searched and downloaded for use in Microsoft PowerPoint software, intranets, papers, and Web sites. The site also features vLightbox Technology, which lets users create virtual lightboxes to store images. These lightboxes can be e-mailed to colleagues with comments. The helpMD support center is available to help locate hard-to-find images. (773/267-3100; www.helpmd.com)
 

BUSINESS & FINANCE

LexisNexis and Hoovers, Inc. have announced an agreement whereby Hoover's Online users are granted pay-per-use access to the Directory of Corporate Affiliations (DCA) from LexisNexis. To access the DCA, Hoover's Online subscribers use the Corporate Hierarchy links on Hoover's Company Capsules and the Business Reports section of Hoover's Information Marketplace. (LexisNexis: 937/865-7229; www.lexisnexis.com; Hoovers: www.hoovers.com)

Mutualfundtaxinfo.com is a free Web-based portal that offers a clearinghouse of information regarding the tax implications of users' mutual funds investments plus other tax information such as mergers and acquisitions, passive foreign investment companies, stock distribution information, and more. It is also hoped that because the site raises the profile of the particularities of investment tax law issues, greater compliance will occur. (248/855-6777)

Frost & Sullivan market research reports will be available exclusively on Dialog's three platforms? Dialog, DataStar, and Profound? with some 40 newly released analyses being added monthly. A site licensing agreement allows for highly tailored packages and fixed monthly subscriptions. (Dialog: www.dialog.com, 919/461-7354)

RiskWire, the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) new risk service, analyzes operating conditions in key markets using a ratings model to map operational risks for businesses in 60 countries. The service also provides users daily alerts. RiskWire unites EIU’s analyses of economies and political movements with coverage of tax policies, the legal environment, and security issues. With the help of a global network of more than 500 experts, EIU rates 66 factors and feeds those scores into its new operating risk model. Scores are underpinned and given context by EIU’s country analysis. RiskWire is delivered online as a premium channel on ViewsWire, EIU’s daily briefing service, or as a stand-alone subscription. (212/698-9714; www.store.eiu.com; http://riskwire.eiu.com)
 

LEGAL

Findlaw now includes a special section providing information and analysis of the growing legal issues involved in the war on terrorism (http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism). Information includes the first federal indictment against terrorism suspect, Zacharias Moussaoui; federal charges against John Walker Lindh; possible military tribunals for Taliban and Al Queda prisoners in Guantanamo, Cuba; criminal investigations into anthrax cases and hoaxes; suspects and witnesses from September 11; related and proposed executive orders and federal laws. Special resources include court and government documents, legal analysis, applicable laws, previous cases, links to state and federal government Web sites, and headlines and links to news stories and organizations. (651/687-7082; www.westgroup.com; http://findlaw.com)

LexisNexis is offering a free 14-day trial of its security, travel, and transportation industry information, powered by LexisNexis Web Publisher and LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology. Users may access more than 20 current topics and over 2,700 sources from news outlets worldwide. Topics include travel industry security, international security, postal security, economic impact on transportation industry, economic impact on travel and hospitality industry, effects on public confidence in the travel industry, aviation and trucking licensing, and hazardous materials shipping. (www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/security; 703/731-7518)

Questel•Orbit, Inc. and Patent Complete, LLC have formed a partnership to combine Questel•Orbit's search engine and patent database with Patent Complete's technical and searching expertise to produce high-tech patent "Expert Searches." Expert Searches come with a report that includes summaries of each piece of prior art cited, plus an explanation of any parallels noted with the disclosure. (Questel•Orbit: 800/456-7248; 703/556-7493; www.questel.orbit.com; Patent Complete: 877/214-1208; www.patentcomplete.com)

Questel•Orbit has also announced that images are now displayable with the PlusPat family displays. To display clipped images in the family displays, users may use the IMG option after the family display format. PlusPat has approximately nine million images available for display, either with individual records or family displays. Pricing for PlusPat images is USD 0.18 and Euro 0.16. (Questel•Orbit: 800/456-7248; 703/556-7446; www.questel.orbit.com)

Planned improvements to Dialog's SourceOne patent document ordering system include making retrieved documents available as full-text PDF and restoring the "order review" feature. SourceOne is available through Dialog online services that use command line searching, such as DialogClassic, DialogWeb, and DialogClassic Web. The SourceOne service generates a link sent to a document buyer via e-mail that, when activated, opens the retrieved document as full-text PDF. From there, a user may download or print the document. Some older or more esoteric patent documents are not deliverable through SourceOne. (Dialog: 800/3-DIALOG; 919/462-8600; www.dialog.com, www.thomson.com)

Metrics Group's Citation Bridge helps patent holders identify potential infringement, find potential patent licensees, and conduct competitive intelligence. Citation Bridge is a free tool that uses Metric Group's Citation Indicator Analytics database. Access requires registration and login. Further information and a graphical image of the tool is available from www.PatentCitations.com. (www.metricsgroup.com)

OrangeBookPatents.com has announced a new online service that provides Web access to all OrangeBookPatents.com's U.S. drug patent and exclusivity data files. This is an alternative to e-mailing the files monthly for placement on subscribers' intranets. OrangeBookPatents.com provides links for navigation back and forth between Orange Book information and the text of patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (908/281-7165; www.orangebookpatents.com)
 

PORTALS & INTRANETS

Link Studio (Context Limited) is an information management product that automatically creates hypertext links within documents. The tool converts references, such as bibliographic citations, within text into links to the full text of cited documents, without the need for manual editing or document markup. It is intended for electronic publishers and other organizations that publish or produce large amounts of electronic data. LinkStudio is a standalone Windows application. Users may specify the types of references to convert into links and the destination addresses. (+44 (0)20 7267 8989; www.context.co.uk)

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is integrating three Web sites into one Web portal using NextPage P2P technology. The NFPA is an international organization that develops fire, building, and life safety codes and standards, plus public safety educational material and programs. With this technology, NFPA members can connect to information in different formats and search through information from different resources with one inquiry. Users have access to all up-to-date NFPA codes and standards, plus the Web site and catalog, with a single sign-on. (NFPA: www.nfpa.org; NextPage: 800/639-8724; 801/768-7500; www.nextpage.com)

Convera has partnered with SIGNAL Corporation to deliver Convera's RetrievalWare knowledge management solutions to the United States Military Academy at West Point via SIGNAL's information technology and engineering and management services. Several West Point departments are using RetrievalWare to give personnel access to information, much of which had been stored exclusively as paper documents. (800/788-7758; info@convera.com; www.convera.com)
 

SCI-TECH

Chemical Abstracts Service's TOXCENTER is a new database of international publications in the field of toxicology available via Fiz Karlsruhe's STN International. Content includes more than five million references to specialist publications addressing pharmacological, biochemical, physiological, and toxicological effects of pharmaceuticals, good, and chemicals. Information on a specific subject is retrieved through search and retrieval programs, plus database structure. Fiz Karlsruhe has also released the COPPERLIT, WELDASEARCH, and STANDARDS databases of engineering information. COPPERLIT is a bibliographic database cataloguing literature on copper and copper technology; WELDASEARCH is a bibliographic database of welding and allied processes; and STANDARDS is a bibliographic database of international standards information. (+49 7247 808-555; www.fiz-karlsruhe.de)

CSA Civil Engineering Abstracts and CSA Mechanical & Transportation Engineering Abstracts (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts) are two new bibliographic engineering databases. Content includes international engineering literature for each engineering specialty, plus record/file features for search and retrieval. The databases are drawn from a source list of more than 3,000 engineering related journals, and include back files to 1966. They are delivered via CSA's Internet Database Service, and are the first CSA-published files to include a cited references field, reproducing the bibliography from a journal article. (800/843-7751; 301/961-6700; www.csa.com)

IEEE now provides online usage reports for IEEE account holders to learn how much patrons are using their IEEE online subscription products. The reports can track the number of PDF files downloaded, citations viewed, and denials based on exceeding simultaneous user limits. They are available upon request from IEEE account managers in the U.S. or Canada, an IHS representative for outside the U.S., or via onlineproducts@ieee.org.

Dialog users may now link seamlessly to the full text of more than 8,000 scientific, medical, and technical e-Journals published by more than 40 scientific publishers and information aggregators. The free feature gives access to mostly peer-reviewed scientific, medical, and technical journals for specialized audiences. Publishers for the service include EBSCO Online, John Wiley & Sons, Science Direct, SwetsNet, and Information Quest. Twenty files through the Dialog online platform now include this feature. (800/3-DIALOG; 919/462-8600; www.dialog.com)

The Midrange Blue Book, Inc. Web site (TheMBB.com) provides unbiased information for the most current market pricing on manufacturers' hardware from IBM, Cisco, Sun Micro, HP, and others. The site currently covers the market prices on over 50,000 pieces of midrange equipment, employing a team of researchers who work with midrange dealers to ensure that reported pricing is accurate. The site offers subscribers free market research, with e-mailed information of market prices within 48 hours for any midrange or mainframe hardware not yet covered. (516/333-6720; www.thembb.com)

Guide IT LLC is making its 2002 Journals List available to the library and research communities. The 2002 Journals list is a listing of the names, start date, and end date for each of the source journals for the SOFTBASE database. It also contains the ISSN number for confirmation of names and name changes associated with the individual journals. (journals@searchsoftbase.com; 510/525-6220; www.searchsoftbase.com)

The IEEE and Information Handling Services (IHS) have renewed their sales representative agreement. However, IEEE will now represent all IEEE products to academic and government customers in the U.S. and Canada, while IHS will now represent all sales of IEEE online products to corporate customers in the U.S. and Canada, and to all other customers outside North America. (IEEE: 732/562-3997; www.ieee.org; IHS: www.ihs.com)
 

SEARCH ENGINES

Microtech Corporation has released a solution set for online publication of library special collections. Microtech's services include scanning, conversion, indexing, full-text searching, hosting, and other functionality. For a typical project, Microsoft publishing specialists visit a library, become familiar with the special collection features, and design a customized solution. Projects usually involve some combination of the Microtech services. Microtech solutions apply to all special collections and research databases involving documents of nearly any type, including text or image, paper or electronic files, books, microfiche, photographs, negatives, or plates. All services are available immediately. (800/895-0212; 781/231-9996; www.microsearchcorp.com)

FirstStop WebSearch Visual Edition is a new meta search tool from Brush Systems Group, Inc. that features a search process that returns visual representation of textual hyperlinks in the form of thumbnail images. One query searches and filters from many information sources simultaneously, then automatically verifies, aggregates, and integrates results into a single, ordered textual list or thumbnail image collection. Search results can be saved in XML, MS Word, MS Excel, text, and more. Advanced searching without knowledge of Boolean operators or database language is possible through a query builder wizard. Brush Systems Group is also publishing an open XML specification to permit users to extend FirstStop WebSearch to online information resources. (805/712-1510; www.FirstStopWebSearch.com)
 

ALLIANCES & DEALS

ProQuest Company's Information and Learning unit has acquired Micromedia Limited, Canada's developer, publisher, and distributor of reference information fror academic, government, and corporate markets. Micromedia products include reference materials-news, periodicals, government information appearing in databases, corporate information-financial, securities information, and more. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. (ProQuest: www.proquestcompany.com; www.il.proquest.com; Micromedia: www.micromedia.on.ca)

A.D.A.M., Inc. has acquired the consumer health information assets of Electronic Medical Distribution, Inc. (eMD), a provider of Internet-based medical services. The assets were purchased through a bankruptcy proceeding for a nominal amount of cash. Assets include Web-based patient education guides on asthma, allergies, diabetes type1, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight loss, and exercise. (770/980-0888; www.adamcorp.com)

Gale and ingenta have joined forces to create a new service that allows a single search for online journals held by both companies. ingenta's content will be integrated within Gale's search framework, InfoTrac. The new service will begin with InfoTrac One File and Expanded Academic this summer and will later expand to Gale's Resource Centers. InfoTrac OneFile and InfoTrac Expanded Academic with the new service option will launch within six months, but current InfoTrac and ingenta subscribers can activate a link immediately. (248/699-8554; www.gale.com)

LexisNexis and i2 have formed an alliance to bring i2 data visualization technology to LexisNexis information for government investigative and law enforcement professionals. i2 provides visualization and analysis tools to the law enforcement and intelligence community. (LexisNexis: 937/865-7229; www.lexisnexis.com; I2: www.i2Group.com)

Endeavors Technology, Inc. and AltaVista Software have announced a marketing agreement, which pairs AltaVista Software's enterprise search functionality with Endeavor's Magi P2P technology. The agreement allows corporate information to be located and shared among disparate data sources in an enterprise-computing environment. (AltaVista Software: http://solutions.altavista.com; Endeavors: 949/833-2800; www.endeavors.com)

Coutts Library Services Ltd. has acquired the books division of Martinus Nijhoff International from Swets Blackwell. As part of the agreement, Swets Blackwell took over John Smith's journal subscription business from the Coutts Group. (Swets Blackwell: www.swetsblackwell.com, +31 (0) 252 435 584)

OCLC FirstSearch service users can now export information directly into an ISI ResearchSoft EndNote library by selecting a new Export option. References can also be exported without any additional typing from a FirstSearch database to a ProCite or Reference Manager database. (OCLC: www.oclc.org; www.oclc.org/firstsearch; ISI ResearchSoft: 760/438-5526; www.isiresearchsoft.com)

ECNext and Aurora WDC have formed an alliance where Aurora's Recon Competitive Intelligence Solutions Team will resell ECNext econtent techologies, services, and content collection to Aurora's corporate account-base. Thus Aurora will create linkage between its corporate client base and ECNext's Publisher Partners. Aurora's Recon Competitive Intelligence Solutions Team specializes in developing specific competitive research, analysis, consulting, and training services to meet the needs of diverse clients in several market sectors. Aurora will also work closely with ECNext to remarket ECNext's Knowledge Centers. (ECNext: 614/932-7007; www.ecnext.com; Aurora WDC: www.aurorawdc.com)

LexisNexis plans to develop an online Continuing Legal Education (CLE) center for legal professionals, and will expand its partnership with LawCommerce to create a jointly sponsored service. CLE courses and material will be available through lexisnexis.com, martindale.com, lexisone.com, and other Web sites. Features will include accredited E-Seminars from CLE providers and bar associations, a searchable CLE Product Database, a directory of CLE providers, a calendar of live CLE events, and a listing of each state's MCLE requirements. (LexisNexis: 937/865-7574; www.lexisnexis.com; LawCommerce: 415/773-5532; www.lawcommerce.com)

Kluwer Academic Publishers will use iUniverse's Publishing Commerce Platform to prepare, manage, distribute, and fulfill books with custom-content either in print or eBook format for clients. iUniverse is a digital publishing infrastructure provider, which helps users assemble, produce, and deliver content. (www.iuniverse.com)
 

PEOPLEWARE

Alan Aldworth has been promoted to president and chief operating officer of ProQuest Company, previously serving as the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer. Before joining ProQuest, Aldworth spent 18 years at Tribune Company in various financial and management positions.

CSA has appointed Patrick Julius senior director of licensing and publishing operations, responsible for managing CSA's relationships with industry organizations and leading special projects in technology development. Julius was most recently senior director of product development for COMTEX News Network.

Quiver, Inc. has appointed Philip Bradley vice president of sales. Bradley has held senior sales management positions at companies such as Documentum, Open Text, Docent, and Wang Laboratories. 

Carol Hutchins, head librarian of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Library at New York University, has been appointed editor-in chief of Computing Reviews.

Ebrahim Keshavarz has been named executive vice president of Sales and Marketing for Digital World Services, responsible for American-based DRM customers. Keshavarz joins Digital World Services from DoubleClick.