SUBSCRIBE NOW! Vol. 28 No. 3 — May/June 2004 Industry News Compiled by Suzanne Sabroski

Microsoft Recognizes Research
In its newest implementation of the immensely popular Office Suite, as released in beta 2, Microsoft has added research functionality, drawing on resources from Alacritude's eLibrary, Factiva's Publications Library, and Gale Group's Company Profiles. Microsoft Office 2003 customers will be able to conduct research through the Research Task Pane on their screen. Searches can be run by right-clicking on highlighted words and phrases within Office applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, or by entering search terms in a search box. Abstracts from eLibrary are available free of charge, but credit-card payment is required for full text. Factiva and Gale also provide some information free of charge, headlines in the case of Factiva, and basic company data from Gale. Fulltext and additional corporate information generally require a subscription. Other research tools in Office 2003 will include the Encarta Encyclopedia and translation services. As a productivity enhancer, adding a research component to Office empowers individuals, although it has the potential to destabilize the role of the corporate library. Office 2003 is expected to be released this summer [www.microsoft.com, www.factiva.com, www.alacritude.com, www.gale.com].


Google Acquires Pyra Labs, Creator of Blogger
Pyra Labs, Inc., San Francisco, has agreed to be acquired by Google Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Blogging, the online journal publishing phenomenon, makes information available from individuals in real time. Pyra's main product is Blogger, which has a million registered users, several of them familiar to those in the information industry. Examples are Gary Price's The Resource Shelf [www.resourceshelf.com], hosted by Free Pint, and Peter Scott's library blog [http://blog.xrefer.com], hosted by xrefer. When asked about the intentions of Google for the future of Blogger, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was expansive about the potential of the blogging technology. He never really answered the question as to what Google would do with Blogger—increase Google's publishing presence, put its search engine on top of Blogger (thus competing with Daypop), or something else [www.google.com].

Short Takes

The acquisition of Hoover's by D&B became final in March, based on the shareholders' vote. Austin Ventures and Marathon Partners withdrew their competing bid.

In February, Reuters announced its intention to acquire Multex, thus giving the financial news company a research arm. The deal closed the end of March.

EBSCO announced it would acquire the U.S. operations of RoweCom Inc., the divine inc. subsidiary that has declared bankruptcy. EBSCO is also buying divine RoweCom assets in Europe and Australia.

Legal

LoisLaw released LoisLaw Public Records, an online database that contains searchable and cross-referenced public information on approximately 98 percent of the adult population in the U.S. It enables subscribers to conduct searches for individuals, property, motor vehicles, and parties in civil actions [212/597-0381; www.aspenpubl.com].

Questel•Orbit has enhanced QPAT, its online patent search tool. Users can now create alerts, access full-text patent applications back to 1978, display results with an ordering capability toolbar, and display patent families [703/556-7493; www.questel.orbit.com].

LexisNexis has made available Practice Commentaries from the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). NITA's Practice Commentaries for the United States Code assist practitioners with interpreting the meaning of federal statutes and litigation strategy development and are authored by attorneys with significant courtroom experience. Headquartered at the University of Notre Dame, NITA is a provider of continuing legal education programs and materials [937/865-8844; www.lexisnexis.com].

FindLaw has agreed to provide a comprehensive collection of law-related content and resources to Clear Channel Television Interactive, the Internet subsidiary of Clear Channel Television. Under the agreement, FindLaw will provide law-related material to approximately 40 Clear Channel Web sites, including FindLaw Breaking Documents, FindLaw Research Centers, and U.S. Supreme Court Resources [650/210-1900; www.findlaw.com].

Thomson Derwent launched the Thomson Patent Store, offering users the ability to order any patent document from anywhere in the world through a single interface. Over 40 million patent documents can be ordered through the Direct View one-click delivery process, with documents available in PDF format via e-mail or hard copy. Additionally, The Thomson Derwent Patent Focus Report 2002-03 has been released, offering a review of significant news and events written by freelance journalist Joff Wild. The report can be downloaded at no cost from the Derwent Web site [800/336-4474; www.derwent.com].

Social Sciences & Humanities

Blackwell Publishing announced the addition of over 250 social science and humanities journals to its online research tool Blackwell Synergy. Many of the articles are available in full-text HTML and PDF formats and contain CrosRef links to cited articles, JSTOR links to back volumes, and references to the ISI database. Titles include top international peer-reviewed journals in economics, business, geography, politics, psychology, philosophy, and sociology [+44 1865 776868; www.blackwell-synergy.com].

Gale added the Modern Language Association's International Bibliography to its Infotrac search platform. This literature and humanities reference tool includes 1.5 million citations from 8,000 journals, dating from 1963 to the present, and is known for its coverage in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian.

Gale also unveiled its first Spanish-language Resource Center, Consulta, as the centerpiece of a growing line of products for the Spanish-speaking community. Through a partnership with Barcelona-based Oceana Grupo Editorial, Consulta includes 60 reference titles and over 1,600 primary source documents, as well as an Image Gallery and extensive chronology records [800/877-4253; www.gale.com].

H.W. Wilson enhanced its WilsonWeb databases Art Full Text and Social Sciences Full Text. The additions feature peer-reviewed journals and core sourcebooks in their respective fields, bringing total content to over 550 periodicals. Art Full Text users will note increased coverage of crafts, costumes and textiles, non-Western art, contemporary art, and feminist art criticism, plus broader coverage of archeology, architecture, and art history. Social Sciences Full Text has more than doubled its coverage of mass media and communications titles while also increasing coverage of area studies [800/367-6770; www.hwwilson.com].

Sci-Tech

Thomson Derwent announced the development of Derwent Web of Nanotechnology, the only Web-based resource that delivers nanotechnology-related patent records from Derwent, Thomson ISI, and editorially approved Web sites. Over 35,000 patent records and 185,000 journal records from ISI Web of Science are included, and the database is equipped with an alert feature and advanced search capabilities [+44 (0) 20 7344 2800; www.derwent.com].

knovel Corporation announced the release of six new chemistry references from major publishers within their online offerings. Content now includes 66 interactive cross-searchable books and databases totaling 285,000 records and is growing at a rate of over 3,500 new records per month. New titles include International Critical Tables of Numeric Data, Physics, Chemistry and Technology; knovel Critical Tables; knovel Solvents—A Properties Database; Thermochemistry of the Chemical Substances; Smithsonian Physical Tables; and Yaws Handbook of Thermodynamic and Physical Properties of Chemical Compounds.

In the science and engineering reference areas, nine new titles have been announced, including Military Handbook—Composite Materials Handbook, Volumes 1­4; Air Pollution and Health; Contaminated Land and Its Reclamation; Fluoroplastics—Melt Processible Fluoropolymers, Volume 2; Indexing—A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers; and Single Sourcing [607/648-4770; www.knovel.com].

Elsevier Engineering Information, Inc. will add additional databases to ChemVillage. Access is now provided to Bretherick's Reactive Chemical Hazards Database, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Abstracts (CEABA), Advanced Chemistry Development Labs Database (ACD/Labs), and OHS Material Safety Data Sheets Database. With these additions, ChemVillage users will have access to 19 databases, including Chimica, a bibliographic database covering 600 chemistry and chemical engineering journals, Chemical Business NewsBase, and Beilstein Abstracts [800/221-1044; www.ei.org].

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Environmental Information noted that links to the Chemical Registry System (CRS) and the Biological Registry System (BioRS) have been changed to the Substance Registry System (SRS). Old links www.epa.gov/crs/ and www.epa.gov/biors have been replaced with www.epa.gov/srs.

Business & Finance

The U.S. Census Bureau released the CensusCD Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) that presents 4 decades (1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000) of tract series data. Information can be presented with either year-specific boundaries or weighted and normalized to year 2000 boundaries, allowing easy time series analysis with identical geographic boundaries over time. Built-in mapping capabilities are available, along with long- and short-form versions of the product [800/577-6717; www.uscensus.net].

FluentMedia broadened its supply of international news and commentary with the addition of the Financial Times to its list of information providers. Financial Times content will be included as part of FluentMedia's premium daily filtered news feeds, adding over 400 international news articles per day [FluentMedia: 323/660-9004; www.fluentmediainfo.com; Financial Times: 212/641-6417; www.ft.com].

OneSource Information Services announced major enhancements to its Business Browser product line. The new Find Executives module allows OneSource subscribers to locate and research prospects and colleagues by searching a database of over 6 million names and 250,000 biographies at over 1.7 million companies. The Directory of Corporate Affiliations has also been updated with 50,000 new companies and 90,00 branch and subsidiary entries [978/318-4343; www.onesource.com].

Reuters and Factiva have announced an expanded relationship that will increase customer access to Factiva's content through Reuters' financial products. The agreement covers two types of Factiva services: Global Press Watch will be integrated in Reuters' products aimed at trading and investment professionals, and Knowledge Worker will be a component in products offered to research-intensive financial professionals and investment advisors. Both services will be added at no additional cost to Reuters customers [Reuters: 646/223-5224; www.reuters.com; Factiva: 609/627-2342; www.factiva.com].

Online Services

ProQuest Information and Learning announced the addition of the full text of The Wall Street Journal to its family of ABI/INFORM business databases. However, the archive will only be available through ProQuest directly. Searchers who access ABI/INFORM through a third-party distributor such as Dialog or LexisNexis will not see The Wall Street Journal.

ProQuest selected Innodata Corporation to provide ongoing content product manufacturing services on an extensive list of periodical titles. Under the agreement, Innodata will provide XML conversion and transformation services, digitization and imaging services, and outsourced indexing and abstracting. Innodata recently completed the digital conversion of the entire production runs of The New York Times and The Washington Post for ProQuest [ProQuest: 800/521-0600; 734/761-4700; www.il.proquest; Innodata: 201/488-1200; www.innodata.com].

WilsonWeb database service is now offering enhanced sharing of resources through WilsonLink, powered by EX Libris's SFX technology. Researchers and library patrons can click from citations on WilsonWeb databases to the full text of articles and related material that a library subscribes to. According to Wilson, open-URL linking continues to be a growth market within the library community [Wilson: 800/367-6770; www.hwwilson.com; Ex Libris: 877/527-1689; 773/404-5527; www.exlibris-usa.com].

Xrefer announced the availability of a new content selection system for xreferplus, its digital reference library. All subscribers will now be able to choose the subscription option and content selection that best suits their needs, as well as make changes throughout the life of their subscription. The new options are based on extensive consultations with the library and information community, which directed the company toward a more customer-led business model [+44 (0) 20 7479 9203; www.xrefer.com].

Portals & Intranets

Applied Psychology Research Ltd (APR) has signed a product development agreement with Yell.com, a U.K.-based online classified directory service, to build a thesaurus management solution, SmartlogikThesBuilder. Under the agreement, APR will develop tools to enable text mining, thesaurus creation and management, and content tagging capabilities. The thesaurus will be delivered to internal Yell business areas, online applications, and the Yell.com search function [APR: +44 (0) 20 7961 3945; www.aprsmartlogik.com; Yell: +44 (0) 11 8950 6345; www.yell.com].

BASF Corporation, the North American affiliate of leading chemical company BASF AG, selected EasyAsk to develop its search and navigation corporate portal. Of particular interest to BASF were the natural language query abilities of EasyAsk's technology, with the goal of reducing duplicate report requests among its 14,000 employees and increasing access to business intelligence [BASF: 800/669-2273; 973/426-2800; www.basf.com/static; EasyAsk: 800/425-8200; www.easyask.com].

Libraryevents.com launched a new Web site that provides details on news and events of interest to the library community. A current awareness database, monthly newsletter, training courses, exhibitions, and conferences and library association meetings are compiled [+46 411 121 70; www.libraryevents.com].

Alliances & Deals

Biz360 and Dialog have announced a partnership to help corporate executives manage their company's public perception. The effort will involve integrating Dialog's NewsEdge services with active market intelligence provided by Biz360's media measurement application, Market360, with corporate communications professionals receiving measurable results of public perceptions through quantitative metrics [Biz360: 650/373-3310; www.biz360.com; Dialog: 919/461-7354; www.dialog.com].

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has commissioned Snapshots International Ltd, a publisher of top-line market research overviews, to supply tailored industry data for its Country Indicator Products and for use in its Executive Briefings. Industry sectors covered will include IT, telecom, pharmaceutical, energy, automotive, and retail for 40 countries [EIU: +44 (0) 20 7830 1007; www.eiu.com; Snapshots: +44 (0) 20 7829 8408; www.snapdata.com].

E-centives, Inc., a provider of interactive direct marketing technologies and services,has acquired ConsumerREVIEW.com, a producer of online consumer product reviews and vertical Web communities. ConsumerREVIEW.com will be run as a separate business unit, combining the E-centive interactive relationship marketing platform (IDBM) with the newly acquired product review and feedback technologies [212/779-7779; www.e-centives.com].

Factiva and divine, Inc. have announced Factiva's offer of a replacement product for customers of divine's discontinued Special Collection service. At no additional charge, qualified customers will receive access to a special version of Factiva along with a customized e-learning tool to ensure a smooth transition [Factiva: 609/627-2342; www.factiva.com; divine: 773/394-6746; www.divine.com].

Elsevier, Inc., The MIT Press, Sage Publications, and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. have announced a settlement in the Westwood Copies copyright infringement suit. The defendants have agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in damages for past unauthorized copying of publications owned by the plaintiffs. The original claim filed by the publishers was coordinated by the Copyright Clearance Center and charged the defendants with producing unauthorized course packs for courses taught at the University of Los Angeles.

EBSCO Information Services, partnering with ExLibris, now provides the invoice data and format specifications that allow libraries using the ALEPH500 system to load EDIFACT serials invoices from EBSCO. An interface between the two systems allows EDIFACT invoice files to be transmitted to the customer via Internet File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, was the first U.S. library to implement the system and has found it to be a success [EBSCO: 205/980-6794; www.ebsco.com; ExLibris: 877/527-1689; 773/404-5527; www.exlibrisgroup.com].

Search Engines

Thunderstone Software LLC has introduced the Thunderstone Search Appliance that can reportedly handle 10 times the load of other turnkey search solutions. As a complete Web-search or intranet-search tool, it serves 1,000 typical searches per minute and indexes most document formats, including HTML, PDF, JavaScript links and content, and word processor files [216/820-2200; www.thunderstone.com].

Atomica released GuruNet 4.0, an advanced version of its Atomica Slingshot application, which delivers real-time and reference information by a single click on a word or phrase. GuruNet operates in any Windows environment, providing an instant definition, overview, or snapshot description compiled from over 50 premium content sources [845/818-3988; www.atomica.com].

Specializing in visual investigative analysis software, anacubis, a division of the Washington, D.C.-based i2 Group, has announced the availability of the anacubis Viewer for online information portals. As a Web-enabled visualization product, it enables end users and information professionals alike to navigate online business information and uncover hidden relationships and trends within data, resulting in a pictorial view of a particular organization, market or area of interest. The anacubis Viewer has been incorporated into recently announced partnerships with LexisNexis and Questel•Orbit [408/969-4888; www.anacubis.com].

Sirsi Corporation, a provider of library management software, has announced that MuseGlobal technology will be incorporated into the release of Sirsi SingleSearchT, version 2. SingleSearchT allows users to search multiple network-accessible information resources simultaneously from a single interface, and Version 2 includes broadcast search functionality [Sirsi: www.sirsi.com; MuseGlobal: 775/832-6698; www.museglobal.com].

Peopleware

George Plosker has left Gale Group to start his own consulting company, George Plosker and Associates (650/631-9251), aimed at helping publishers and libraries develop marketing, product, and service programs that improve alignment with their customers.

FIZ Karlsruhe has named Sabine Brunger-Weilandt as managing director, succeeding Professor Georg Friedrich Schultheiss who retired in April 2003. A management and marketing expert, Ms. Brunger-Weilandt has held senior management positions and worked as a consultant for major corporations throughout Germany.

knovel Corporation has named Delores Meglio as editorial director, overseeing publisher contract negotiations and content aggregation for corporate and academic markets. Ms. Meglio has held executive positions at Ziff-Davis, Thomson Corporation, and the New York Times. Additionally, Glenn Pagan has been named vice president of sales at knovel, where he will be responsible for building and maintaining the sales force and developing strategic relationships. Mr. Pagan brings executive experience from Interactive Advertising Bureau, Time Warner, Sticky Networks, Inc., and News Alert to his new role.

Patrick Julius has been promoted to vice president of licensing and publishing operations at Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). He will be responsible for managing CSA's relationships with information industry organizations and leading special projects in technology development. Mr. Julius has previous experience with COMTEX News Network and LexisNexis.

Alacritude, LLC has announced the appointment of Rich Kreisman as vice president of business development, responsible for all revenue-generating activities. Previously he held posts with Thomson's Gale Group and Bell & Howell, as well as editorial positions at Business Week, Advertising Age, and Inc. magazines. Additionally, Kathleen Greenler has been named vice president of marketing and product management for Alacritude. Ms. Greenler has prior experience with Pinnacor, Office.com, and was a founding member of AltaVista.

West Publishing has named Debbie Monroe, Ph.D., as senior vice president/general manager of FindLaw. She will continue to oversee the strategic direction and growth of the West Client Development Services business. Ms. Monroe has led the company's FindLaw business since it was acquired in January 2001.

Gordon Petrash, former Dow Chemical Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) leader, and Delphion chief IP strategist Rob Williamson have formed a team of IAM experts to provide IAM best practices guidance services. Petrash-Williamson has developed a comprehensive library and will be working with organizations attempting to transition their IAM practice from a legal-focused process to a business-focused process.

Somia Mourad has been promoted to director, global strategy, for Thomson Legal & Regulatory, the lead market group of The Thomson Corporation.

MARC Link has named Maritta Coppieters as vice president, sales, and marketing, filling the position vacated by retiring Sharon Cline McKay. Ms. Coppieters will lead a library sales group for worldwide sales and take responsibility for the company's marketing activities.

EOS International has announced the appointment of former Microsoft executive, Salvatore Provenza, as director of sales and marketing for the Americas and the Asia Pacific regions.

Innovative Interfaces has announced the appointment of Sharon Hurd as director of sales, Digital Solutions. Ms. Hurd has held senior management positions with Northern Light Technology and EBSCO.

Former WebMD executive producer Dominique Walton Brooks, M.D., has joined NewsRX as senior medical editor. In addition, three board-certified life science editors have joined the team as senior medical writers: Janet L. Tremaine, Nancy S. Wachter, and Michelle B. Arneson.

ProQuest Company announced the appointment of Ron Klausner as president, ProQuest Information and Learning.