Resource of the Week
Documents in the News
Legal Documents
FindLaw’s “Breaking Docs” Site and New Newsletter
If you haven’t visited FindLaw’s document archive you should. It’s a must have tool that provides access to the full-text and full-image of primary legal documents for stories that are currently or have been in the news. From the Enron investigation to the Microsoft trial you’ll find hundreds of files available in .pdf. New! FindLaw will notify you via e-mail to new documents added to the compilation. A useful, time saving, and interesting service.
To subscribe (free) to the newsletter, go to: http://newsletters.findlaw.com/ and select “Breaking Docs”.
See Also: Direct to FindLaw’s “Breaking Docs” Re: War On Terrorism
See Also: Direct to FindLaw’s “Breaking Docs” Re: Enron
See Also: Direct to FindLaw’s “Breaking Docs” Re: Microsoft

Information Industry–Micromedia
Canada’s Micromedia Acquired by ProQuest
From the news release, “ProQuest Company’s (NYSE: PQE) Information and Learning unit announced today that it has acquired Micromedia Limited, Canada’s largest developer, publisher, and distributor of value-added reference information for academic, government, and corporate markets. Founded in 1972 and headquartered in
Toronto, Micromedia licenses information from media, government, and other sources, creates abstracts, and delivers the information via the Internet, CD-ROM, microform, and print media.” “Stephen Abram, vice president of corporate development for Micromedia, commented, “We are pleased to join the ProQuest family. ProQuest has a uniqueunderstanding of the library market and the products we create and distribute.This pairing is an ideal combination for customers, publishers, and employees.” Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
See Also: Direct to Micromedia
See Also: Direct to ProQuest

Web Search–Google
On the Google Beat
1) Word from the Googleplex that search interfaces in Belarusian, Javanese, Occitan, Thai, Urdu, and Klingon are now available. You can select your interface language (72 languages now available) on the Google preferences page.
2) PC World has a brief chat with Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt.
3) Those of you who use Canada’s Sympatico.Ca portal will notice that search results are now being powered by Google. The same is true for Germany’s Web.De portal. Like most Google powered sites both of these services do not offer the Google Cache feature. Thanks to Webmaster World for the news tip.

Web Search Industry–Pay-Per-Click Engines
Trademark Infringement
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
“Search Engines Sued for Delivering Hits Based on Payment”
From Verne Kopytoff’s story, “Mark Nutritionals, a diet pill manufacturer in San Antonio, says that people who enter queries about its product, Body Solutions, are misdirected to competing Web sites that have paid for top billing. The suit claims the search engines are allowing an illegal “bait and switch.” The lawsuit — believed to be the first of its kind — is a major challenge to pay-for-placement search engines, which provide links based not on relevancy, but on who pays. The Federal Trade Commission is already investigating Web sites using this technology for not explicitly telling consumers the results are advertisements in disguise. Mark Nutritionals filed its civil suits against search engines AltaVista, Overture, FindWhat and Kanoodle. The suits, which ask for a total of $440 million in damages, were filed Monday in federal court in San Antonio.”
See Also: “Suit Targets Pay-for-Play Sites” (via News.Com)

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
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Crime Laboratories–United States–Statistics
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
Survey of DNA Crime Laboratories, 2001
Summary, Spreadsheets ||| Direct to Full-Text
8 pages .pdf
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Drug Abuse–United States–Statistics
Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy
“Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States, 1992-1998″
See Also: Price of Illicit Drugs: 1981 through the Second Quarter of 2000 (via ONDCP)
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Unclassified Report
Source: CIA
Full-Text Report: Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January Through 30 June 2001

Information Retrieval–Vivisimo
“Vivisimo Awarded National Science Foundation Grant“
The National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase II grant to commercialize its breakthrough document clustering technology is for $500,000, with additional funds available going forward. From the article, “This second grant from the NSF affirms the commercial potential of our document clustering invention,” said Raul Valdes-Perez, President of Vivisimo. “Leading industry experts recognize that we provide a solution to two difficult problems facing effective information management and retrieval, which, until now, end users and enterprises have generally had to tolerate.”
See Also: Direct to Vivisimo Web Search Demo #1 and Vivisimo Demos #2

Book Reviews–Children’s Literature–Fee-Based Databases
Online Information–Greenwood Electronic Media
Database of Horn Book Reviews Premieres Online
The searchable “Horn Book Guide” contains 35,000 reviews published between 1990 and 2001. A free 30 day trial is available.

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
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Intelligence–United States–Searchable Database
Freedom of Information Act–CIA
Source: CIA
CIA Places “Electronic Reading Room” Online
This new Reading Room replaces the clunky Electronic Document Release Center (FOIA). The site is fully searchable and has an advanced interface which allows limiting by date. A browsable list of Frequently Requested Records is also available. From the site, “The CIA has established this site to provide the public with an overview of access to CIA information, including electronic access to previously released documents. Because of CIA’s need to comply with the national security laws of the United States, some documents or parts of documents cannot be released to the public.”
See Also: USA Patriot Act Raises Questions (via Library Journal)
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Court Information–State of Iowa–Databases
New Court Info Database Online From the Iowa Judicial Branch
“With the courts� new electronic public access service, the public will have free access via the Internet to basic court information such as child support payment histories, criminal and traffic records, and case dispositions, from all 99 counties and the appellate courts. The service will include a search tool that will allow users to search for information by case number, case title, litigant names and attorney names…Later this year, the Judicial Branch will provide access to more detailed court information for a $25 monthly subscription fee. Subscribers will be able to check trial and hearing dates, judgment liens, and other information.”
See Also: Direct to the New Online Database
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Electronic Information–United States
Information Law–United States
Source: Association of Research Libraries
“The Search & Seizure of Electronic Information: The Law Before and After The USA Patriot Act”
This matrix is available as a .pdf file.
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Canada–History
Source: National Library of Canada
Updated/Revised Site: Canadian Confederation Resource Redesigned
From the announcement, “While the original site focussed to a great extent on the influence of the American Civil War on Canadian Confederation, the new site provides a more historically Canadian background. The story of each province or territory�s entry into Confederation is supplemented with the biographies of individuals, both supporters and detractors, who had an impact on Confederation. A new graphical layout allows researchers to navigate the site with greater ease. Dozens of historical photos of Canadian cities, newspaper articles, various caricatures, and the full texts of documents and legislation add a multimedia dimension to the telling of this story.”
See Also: Direct to Canadian Confederation

Web Search–Teoma
Source: Newark Star-Ledger
“Search for Tomorrow”
All about Teoma. From the article, “A Rutgers team has created a competitor for Web search king Google. But can it take hold in the age of the Internet bust?”

Enterprise Search
Source: Information Week
“More Companies Integrate Search Technology with Enterprise Systems”
From the article, “Helping a company provide access to the widest possible swath of data is much more than search, says Prabhakar Raghavan, Verity’s chief technology officer. He says truly unlocking content requires the ability to build and populate taxonomies, add structure to unstructured data, and fully understand what he calls “social networks,” or the way people interact with each other and the data they use, and how those interactions affect each other.”

Web Search–Google
Source: Australian Financial Review
“At Google, The Search is On for Growth Strategy”
Note: This article originall appeared in the Wall Street Journal on 1/21.

Web Search
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
“Search Me: Doom Ahead for Search Engines that Charge Listing Fees”
From Hal Plotkin’s column, “Many Web surfers probably haven’t realized it yet, but most of the big online search and directory firms (with the notable exception of Google) recently started asking for money from sites that want to be included in their indexes or listings. The charges range anywhere from roughly $80 to $300, payable annually.”
See Also: Make sure to take advantage of two high quality non-commerical directories. The LII and Infomine are essential web resources for the researcher.

School Librarians
Source: Associated Press
“School Librarians Adapt to Times”
From the article, “Many of the same skills that make librarians indispensable in school are now making them more attractive to the private sector.”

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
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News Search Engines–War on Terrorism
Source: Washington Post
Specialized Full-Text Search Engine From the Washington Post: War on Terrorism Coverage
The Post is making available a “specialized engine” of its 9/11 and War on Terrorism coverage. All material accessed via this engine is available in full-text format for free.
See Also: Browse the Complete Archive
See Also: To Browse By Subject, Select Topics in Pull-Down Box (3rd Column)
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United States Congress–History–Lists
Source: Historical Office, United States Senate
Presidents Who Addressed a Joint Session of Congress
(including State of the Union Addresses)
Speakers to Address a Joint Session of Congress
(including Presidents, Authors, Actors, Foreign Dignitaries, Others)
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Accounting Industry–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Accounting Today
Top 100 Accounting Firms
Also includes top regional firms.

Cross-Database Searching
Source: Biblio Tech Review
One Interface, Many Databases: ZPORTAL Lands Contract With Minnesota Library Information Network
A few months ago we highlighted Roy Tennant’s excellent article in LJ about cross-database searching. Word in the new issue of Biblio Tech Review that one of the companies mentioned in Roy’s article, ZPORTAL, has been chosen by MnLink, the Minnesota Library Information Network. From the article, “ZPORTAL will provide access to a multitude of different types of library resources including library catalogues and licensed commercial databases that have been made available to all Minnesota residents, including students, staff, and faculty at Minnesota educational institutions.”
See Also: Direct to the ZPORTAL Web Site and Product Overview

Professional Reading Shelf
The December/January Issue of Ariadne is Now Available Online
A few of the articles in the new issue of this U.K. based journal:
“Digitization: do we have a strategy?”
“Reference books on the Web”
“The Concept of the Portal”
“News from the Resource Discovery Network”

Information Industry–OCLC
“OCLC Closes on netLibrary Sale”
From the announcement, “The sale of netLibrary assets to OCLC was finalized at 5 p.m. Jan. 24 in Boulder, Colorado. The sale includes both the eBook Division, which will become a division of OCLC, and the MetaText eTextbook Division, which will become a for-profit subsidiary. Both operations will remain in Boulder.”

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Public Libraries–United States–Databases
Source: NCES
UPDATED DATA: Public Library Locator
From the site, “The Public Library Locator will help you find information about a public library or libraries when you know some information about it. The information in this locator comes from the fiscal year 1999 NCES Public Library Survey. In addition to the locator tool the Public Library Peer Comparison Tool has also been updated with the most recently available data. Or try searching for a public library by using the popular NCES Students’ Classroom option.”
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In the News
Enron Collapse–Resources
C-SPAN, “Enron Investigation”
Providing Streaming Media (Live and Archived) Access to Congressional Hearings
Financial Times, “The Enron Crisis”
Profiles, “Who’s Investigating Whom”, “Companies With Exposure to Enron (chart)”
See Also: For Additional Enron Resources See the January 23, 2002 VAS&ND
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U.S. Congress–Web Sites
Source: Congress Online Project (Funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts)
Full-Text Report Online, Congress Online: Assessing and Improving Capitol Hill Web Sites
See Also: “Most Web Sites On Hill Unimpressive - Survey” (via Newsbytes/Washington Post)
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Virtual Exhibits
United States History–Civil War
Source: Smithsonian Institution
New Digital Exhibit: Civil War @ The Smithsonian
From the site, “Virtual exhibit produced by the National Portrait Gallery and dedicated to examining the Civil War through the Smithsonian Institution’s extensive and historic collections.”

Resources, Tools, and Documents (2 Items)
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Campaign Finance–United States
Federal Contracts–United States
Two New Databases (Invisible Web) from the Campaign Finance Info Center and IRE
1) Federal Contracts Database
From the site, “Search for federal contracts awarded to a particular business.” Contracts awarded between fiscal year 1992 and 2000. “Because of space limitations, only a portion of the entire database is online. The entire dataset is available for purchase through the NICAR database library.”
2) Power Search
From the site, “Track the political cash flow across several states. This database includes contributions to candidates and how they spent the money. In some cases, it includes money flow to and from political action committees, candidate committees and party committees.”
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Broadband Technology
Source: Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council
Full-Text Online, Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits
From the site, “…provides a contemporary snapshot of technologies, strategies, and policies for improving our communications and information infrastructure.”

Information Quality on the Internet
SEC Issues Fake Press Release To Alert Investors, Students About Info Quality
From the article, “In a twist on recent investment hoaxes, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday issued a news release from a nonexistent company in an elaborate effort to educate investors on the dangers of casual investing. According to the fake release, biological defense systems manufacturer McWhortle Enterprises will go public Jan. 30, 2002. The statement was issued by the SEC via PRNewswire, which disseminates financial news releases.”
See Also: Read The Fake Press Release (via PR Newswire)
See Also: View The Fake “McWhortle Enterprises” Web Site
See Also: Read The SEC News Release

Resources, Tools and Documents (3 Items)
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Employment–United States & Europe–Lists & Rankings
Source: Fortune
“The 100 Best Companies To Work For” (U.S.)
Sidebar: 10 Great Companies in Europe
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Research and Development–United States–Statistics
Business–United States
Source: National Science Foundation
Research and Development in Industry: 2000 [Early Release Tables]
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Health–United States–Statistics
Source: National Center for Health Statistics
Healthy People 2000:
Trends in Racial and Ethnic-Specific Rates for the Health Status Indicators: United States, 1990-98
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
16 pages .pdf

Specialized Web Search–Scirus
Science Resources
Scirus Debuts Enhanced Search Tool
Word from Elsevier, the organization that owns Scirus, that they are online with an “enhanced” and hopefully improved version of their science search tool. What’s new? According to the company Scirus has an easier to use interface, a fresher index of content (the Scirus web index is provided by Fast), and word that the engine has formed an advisory board of scientists and librarians to advise “on development” of the engine. Actions speak louder than words and I’m looking forward to testing. In the past Scirus results have been less than impressive. I haven’t had a chance to run some sample searches yet but you might want to compare your results with what P�ter Jacs� found when he reviewed Scirus last June. More later.
See Also: Direct link to Scirus

Information Industry–OCLC
Used Books
OCLC and Abebooks Make A Deal
From the Abebooks news release, “Users will be able to link to the abebooks web site (www.abebooks.com) to source out-of-print, secondhand, and rare copies of the books they are looking for in OCLC’s WorldCat, the world’s largest bibliographic database, through the OCLC FirstSearch service, an online reference service. In turn, visitors to the Abebooks web site who cannot find what they are looking for will have the option to find the title in their local library through WorldCat.” The OCLC announcement tells us that this new service can be turned on and off by each subscribing library. Also from OCLC, “This alliance is part of OCLC’s global strategic initiative to “weave libraries into the Web,” giving libraries greater visibility and expanding the availability of WorldCat for information seekers. The partnerships also allow libraries that use the FirstSearch to offer a wider range of services and materials to their users by providing online access to partner services. The first step in this program was the link from FirstSearch to the Alibris bookseller’s web site in October 2001. Since that time, OCLC has signed partnerships with the following organizations: the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, Bowker’s booksinprint.com and Gale Group’s InfoTrac. Links to these partners from the OCLC FirstSearch service will be implemented in the next few months.”
See Also: OCLC/Alibris Announcement and Links (via VAS&ND 10/19/01)

Public Companies–United States
Companies A to Z from Business 2.0
Direct links to key resources and related full-text articles (no charge) from Fortune and Business 2.0. Links for the top 200 companies in the Fortune 500 plus “major players” in key industries.

Information Quality
Source: The Virtual Chase
“Assess the Quality of the Information at a Web Site”
Short and to-the-point with respect to the steps readers can take to avoid relying on bad information.

Resources, Tools and Documents
New Edition of Standard Reference Tool Now Available: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2001
Highlights and Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text (Available by Chapter)

Comments: “Research Documents” and Public Libraries
For many people, Yahoo is synonymous with searching. No matter what you need, Yahoo is it. One of the most popular search terms in web search is Yahoo, but that’s another story. With the addition of Northern Light/divine full-text “premium content”, Yahoo is making material from about 7100 sources available to the masses. That’s fine. No problem at all. For info pros NL has been a useful content provider for several years. For end users who don’t have access to library databases or need a source not available to them through a library dbase this will be a great service. However, what I find sad is that some of this content is available to public library users who might just head straight for Yahoo without realizing that it’s available to them, 24X7 via their local library, from any web accessible computer. Bottom Line? People might be paying for what they could possibly get for free while at the same time reinforcing the Internet myth that Yahoo and other web engines are the only library they’ll ever need.
The Deal
Many public libraries and/or library consortiums make available full-text and full-image content from various well-established database providers like Gale, ProQuest, and EBSCO. Even more full-text/image content is available to those who have access to an academic library and are working on school related projects. Btw, I know that many public libraries outside the U.S. do not currently offer remotely accessible databases.

Scott Gatz, V.P of Search at Yahoo, was quoted in a Newsbytes article saying that, “there are sources (in the library) just not available on the Internet today.” Gatz is correct in stating that a library holds thousands if not millions of resources only available for those who visit a library. However, much of what Yahoo is now making available can be found on services that are REMOTELY accessible to patrons via their public library. Others can gain access to proprietary databases via their school or academic library if the material will be used for school projects or other academic purposes.

Let’s hope that libraries are able to continue getting the word out about the full-text and full-image resources. Word of mouth marketing will work. Do libraries a p.r. favor and find out if your public library offers remote database services. Then, let friends and neighbors know about the high quality content available to them at no charge. It would also be wonderful for the database vendors to do some public service advertising promoting these types of services at local public libraries.
Obviously I can’t list every public library, but here are a few examples of remotely accessible databases from 5 libraries/library systems.
Fairfax County Library (VA.)
Los Angeles Public Library
King County (WA.) Library System
Chicago Public Library
Downers Grove (IL.) Public Library
Other Choices
Many online services also offer pay-per-document services. Factiva/Dow Jones News Retrieval offers a library of 6,000 publications. Note: Once enrolled, DJ search syntax seems to work without a problem. LexisNexis and Dialog also offer pay-per-document services.
Two More Points
One appealing concept in the Yahoo announcement is the ability to view up to 50 documents per month for $4.95. It’s a great idea but be careful because not all of the 7,100 resources are included in the flat rate. Here’s a list of what does apply towards the 50 document limit. Finally, don’t forget that Northern Light’s news search and alert services are still available for free. This real-time feed contains full-text content from 56 newswires. All of this content is free to search and read/print for two weeks after publication.

Online Information–Questia
Source: Houston Chronicle
More Layoffs At Questia
From the article, “Another round of layoffs at online library and academic research firm Questia Media has reduced the company to a skeleton crew of about 28 workers, just enough to maintain its Web site. About 40 workers were laid off last week without severance pay, sources say, when it became clear plans for another round of investment cash wouldn’t materialize. The company previously raised more than $135 million and at one time employed over 300 workers, but has had several rounds of layoffs beginning last spring.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries–Wireless Technology
Source: Free Pint
“Using Wireless Technology - Where Does the Library Fit In?”

Resources, Tools and Documents (5 Items)
Consumer Fraud–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Federal Trade Commission
Top 10 Consumer Fraud Complaints of 2001
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Public Company Research–United States
Two Useful Features from the New Lycos Financial Site
After entering a ticker symbol in the search box notice the following links found under the the gray header (top of page):
1) Top Holders
Short lists of top institutional, mutual funds, and insider holders of stock.
2) I-Watch
“…a window into the previously closed world of institutional trading.”
Both of these services are “powered” with data from Thomson Financial.
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Cities–World–Lists & Rankings
Source: EIU
World’s Most Expensive Cities (Highlights from Press Release)
This link contains the Top 20 cities.
See Also: World’s Most Expensive Countries For Operating a Business (Press Release via EIU)
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Connecticut–History–Databases
Invisible Web
Image Databases
New Database: Connecticut History Online
From the site, “Connecticut History Online (CHO) is a collaboration between the Connecticut Historical Society, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and Mystic Seaport.”
See Also: “Research Institutions Put Connecticut History Online” (via AP)
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Current News Search
Yahoo News Adds Content From USA Today
See Also: Yahoo Advanced News Search

UPDATE: Yahoo Officially Unveils “Premium Document Search” Service
The service, which has been available for the past few weeks, is basically Northern Light via Yahoo. It’s accessible either by going to http://premium.search.yahoo.com/ OR by conducting a search via the main yahoo search interface, news search interface, or Yahoo Finance. An advanced search interface is also available. Links to “Premium Content” can be found under the “Research Documents” header on the right side of a results page or in the box labeled “Research Documents”. Content comes from Northern Light/divine’s “Special Collection” of over 7100 sources. This premium content will be available for either $2.95 per article OR $4.95 a month to view up to 50 documents
BE CAREFUL: Not ALL “Premium Content” qualifies towards the $4.95/50 document limit. Here’s a list of what does qualify.
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See Also: “Yahoo to Put Price on Searches” (via CNET)
See Also: “Yahoo Teams Up With Northern Light for Premium Document Search” (via ResearchBuzz 1/15/02)

Electronic Publishing
Academic Libraries
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
“Consortium of 12 Universities Begins Project to Deliver Academic E-Books”
From the article, “Academic libraries and university presses at Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago have teamed up in an e-publishing venture that aims to put hundreds of scholarly books in electronic form. Last month, leaders of the 12 universities committed from $50,000 to $100,000 to develop a prototype for the joint e-publishing venture, says Tom Peters, director of the consortium’s center for library initiatives. The institutions have worked together for decades as part of a group called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.” Also, from the article, “The electronic books would be offered at no charge to libraries within the consortium, says Mr. Peters. The consortium is also considering making the service available to other academic libraries for a fee that would help pay to run the operation, he adds.”
See Also: Read the Committee on Institutional Cooperation News Release

Resources, Tools and Documents (4 Items)
In the News
Enron Collapse–Resources
Special Sections Devoted to Enron
Findlaw.Com
Extensive list of primary documents.
Houston Chronicle, “Hot-Topic-Enron”
Full-Text articles, numerous charts, list of area creditors, company history.
New York Times, “Understanding Enron”
Full-Text articles, lawyer bios, board of director bios.
Washington Post, “Enron Probe”
Full-Text articles, bios of key players, timeline, key documents.
See Also: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, “Enron Issues”
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Children–Health & Well Being–World
Source: Population Reference Bureau/Child Trends/UNICEF
Kids Count-International Data Sheet
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text (.pdf)
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Education–United States–Statistics
Source: National Education Data Resource Center (NEDRC)
NEDRC Table Library
From the NCES announcement, “These tables are based on analyses of NCES data including: the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. You can also request new tables through the NEDRC Table Library.”
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Olympics–Webliography
Source: Free Pint
“Winter Olympic Adventures Online”
By Marydee Ojala.
See Also: Winter Olympics 2002: Ready Reference Resources

Web Search–Northern Light
Northern Light Acquired By divine
News Release Highlights–”CHICAGO/CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Jan. 22, 2002 - divine, inc., (Nasdaq: DVIN), a premier integrated solution provider focused on the extended enterprise, today announced that it has acquired certain assets of privately held Northern Light� Technology LLC, a leading provider of search and content integration solutions for enterprises, in an all-stock transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.”… “Merging content with the technologies that find and manage it is a logical next step in the development of content-related applications,” said Susan Feldman, director of content and retrieval software research at IDC. “In the past year, divine has acquired content management vendors such as Eprise and Open Market, and information aggregators such as RoweCom and Sagemaker. Search was the missing piece. By closely integrating search and content management with a collection of high-quality information sources, divine offers enterprises a single point of entry into both their internal information sources and the external ones that are strategically necessary to their survival. Integrated solutions enable an enterprise to develop an integrated information strategy based on the particular needs and processes of their organization. Workflow, categorization, tagging, publishing, search, and information analysis can now become one seamless process that builds a strong foundation for knowledge work. divine now has a strong offering that will make other content-related software vendors and content aggregators sit up and take notice.”
See Also: “divine Buys Northern Light” (via Internet.Com)
See Also: Direct to divine Home Page
See Also: Direct to Northern Light Home Page

Academic Libraries
Source: Christian Science Monitor
“Food for Thought”
From the article, “Campus libraries add cafes and meeting spaces to lure students away from their computer screens.”…”It’s one of many responses to competition from the Internet and electronic databases, which have thrown the quiet world of the college library into a state of flux. Legislators and even college administrators are looking for proof that libraries still matter to students, who would rather use a search engine than hike to the library for a book.” Comment: Once again confusion between “search engines” (Google, AltaVista, AlltheWeb) and proprietary search tools that many academic libraries offer via remote access.

Internet Archives
Source: O’Reilly Net
Learn About: The Internet Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org)
An interview with founder, Brewster Kahle.
See Also: “Relics of the Lost Bulletin-Board Tribes” (via Salon)
From Katharine Mieszkowski’s article, “Text files preserve some of the vivacity of old-fashioned online conversation. Will Web-based discussions vanish from the historical record?”

Web Search
Source: Business Week
“A Better Web Through Higher Math”

Resources, Tools and Documents (5 Items)
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Human Rights
Full-Text: Human Rights Watch Annual Report 2002
Released 1/16/02.
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United States Capitol
Source: Government Printing Office
Full-Text: History of the United States Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and Politics
Available as a .pdf file. Written by William C. Allen, architectural historian in the office of the Architect of the Capitol since 1982.
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Internet Resources–Webliography
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology
Full-Text: Web Links 2001/2002: Internet Resources for Children
From the site, “Web Links is a new annual publication from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology that provides links to some of the best educational resources available online. Web Links 2001/2002: Internet Resources for Children describes over 50 high quality internet resources for children in grades K-8. Also available as a .pdf file.
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Literacy–United States–Databases
America’s Literacy Directory
Searchable database from the National Institute for Literacy.
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Aviation Safety
Source: General Accounting Office
Full-Text: FAA and DOD Response to Similar Safety Concerns
74 pages .pdf

Online Databases
Tasini Decision
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
“Once-Trustworthy Newspaper Databases Have Become Unreliable and Frustrating”
From the article, “Scholars worry that they might find holes in their research. No one in academe seems to know how many articles, and which ones, are missing from the databases. After all, online databases, with their ethereal form, aren’t like broadsheets of newsprint — you can’t open them like you would a morning paper and see the holes cut out.”

Information Industry–Gale Group
Information Industry–ingenta
Source: Information Today NewsBreaks
“Gale, ingenta Partner on InfoTrac Plus”
From the article, “Gale and ingenta plan to create a joint product that combines Gale�s periodical databases with ingenta�s e-journals within the InfoTrac search interface. ingenta�s more than 5,400 scholarly and academic electronic journals will be integrated within InfoTrac, Gale�s search framework.”
See Also: Gale/ingenta News Release

Information Industry–Elsevier
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
“Elsevier Offers Electronic-Only Option for Journal Subscriptions”
From the article, “Elsevier Science announced Friday that it would begin offering electronic-only subscriptions for its ScienceDirect package, a collection of more than 1,200 journals. Institutions previously had to subscribe to paper editions of the journals to get access to their electronic versions.”
See Also: ScienceDirect News Release

Bioinformatics
Web Search–Fast Search and Transfer
“FAST Search and Transfer Spins-Off Interagon”
Fast is the company behind the AllTheWeb search engine. From the announcement, “Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST) today announced that it is spinning off Interagon AS, a newly formed bioinformatics company whose products will assist research efforts in the biotechnology market. Based on technology developed at FAST�s research and development labs, Interagon plans to develop products and services intended to allow the discovery of patterns in huge data volumes. By applying this technology to the biotechnology sector, Interagon aims at automating the analysis of the ever-expanding number of biological databases.”

Web Search–FirstGov
Source: Federal Computer Week
Inktomi, AltaVista, Yahoo, and Many Others Vie For FirstGov Contract
From the article, “At least three major search engine companies and scores of other businesses are competing to supply the new search engine for the federal government’s Web portal, firstgov.gov. Inktomi Corp., whose donated search engine is now running on the site, is among the bidders. So are search engine company AltaVista Co. and Web portal giant Yahoo Inc. In all, about 80 other companies � including consultancies, technology vendors and Internet service providers � are vying for the contract.”
See Also: VAS&ND 1/9/02 Postings

Reference Tools–Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source: Library Journal
“Public Antes Up for Britannica.com”
From the article, “Encyclopedia Britannica reports that it is doing brisk business five months after instituting a charge for its initially free Britannica.com site. Britannica said that not only is it enjoying “strong and steady sales of new subscriptions” but insists that converting to a fee-based site has helped it re-sign colleges and libraries that had dropped the Britannica Online institutional site when the encyclopedia became free, thus benefiting both the consumer and institutional Internet business.”

Resources, Tools and Documents (2 Items)
Sports Business–United States–Lists & Rankings
NBA and NHL Team Valuations
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Education
Source: UNESCO
New Web Site: Knowledge Resources
From an announcement, “The Information Programmes and Services (IPS) of the UNESCO Bangkok Office has recently launched a gateway to information resources on education, science and social sciences, culture, and communication/ informatics. The new web-based service entitled “Knowledge Resources” provides links to websites, articles and full text under the main categories ‘Virtual Library’; ‘Portals’, ‘Electronic articles’ and ‘Webcasts’.”

Resources, Tools and Documents
Oil Prices–Chronology
Source: EIA
World Oil Market and Oil Price Chronologies: 1970 - 2001
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Home-Based Workers–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Home-Based Workers in the United States: 1997
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Businesses–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Nonemployer Statistics: 1999
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text

Ready Reference Resources–Web Tools
Another Look at Atomica
Atomica, known to some by its former name, Gurunet, continues developing into a worthwhile ready reference tool by compiling content from many well-known reference sources into a useful “one-stop shop”. Atomica can be accessed either by entering a term/phrase into a search box on the Atomica site or by downloading a small app (Windows only) to your computer. Downloading the app allows you to highlight words/terms on web pages (pdf pages, MS Word documents, etc.) and automatically run the search (alt-click or right mouse click) against the Atomica database. Atomica’s search technology can also be licensed for the enterprise.
What types of content can you access with Atomica? Who are the content providers?
Acronyms (Acronymfinder.Com)
Biographical Info (AND, Muze, InfoPlease.Com, Who2)
Company Profiles (Inlumen/Market Guide)
Congressional Contact Info (Votenet.Com)
Conversion Info
Country Data (CIA World Factbook)
Dialing Code Info
Dictionaries
(American Heritage, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary)
Encyclopedias (Concise Columbia, Computer Desktop)
Maps (MapBlast)
Phone Numbers (Highlight A Number, Reverse Search via WhitePages.Com)
Stock Quotes (Inlumen)
Time Zone Info
Translations (Over 10 Languages)
Quotations (Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations)
Also, One-Click Access to Google, Abilty to E-Mail Content
See Also: Read P�ter Jacs�’s August 2001 review of Atomica

Information Industry–Factiva
Academic Market is the Next Stop For Factiva Roll Out
From the announcement, “Factiva(TM), a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, announced today the launch of Factiva.com for the academic and library market. Factiva.com will replace Dow Jones Interactive(R) and Reuters Business Briefing, and deliver for the first time, to schools, the content sets from these two existing products to provide a universally indexed, global content collection of nearly 8,000 sources in 22 languages from 118 countries.”

Web Search–Google
Source: The Guardian
“Seeking Search Engine Perfection”
Neil Macintosh of The Guardian on the future of Google.

Dictionaries–Oxford English Dictionary
Source: AP
“Oxford English Dictionary Updated”
From the article, “Hot-link, karoshi, pitta, riot grrrl … not some strange new language, just some of the hundreds of new words to make it into the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary Online.The latest quarterly update to the Internet version of the famous authority on the English language reflects many facets of life in the 21st century.”
See Also: Oxford English Dictionary News, a newsletter from OED (no charge).

Reading Shelf
FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service)–History
Open Source Information
Source: Studies In Intelligence (CIA)
“Open�Source Intelligence From the Airwaves: FBIS Against the Axis, 1941-1945″
See Also: World News Connection (powered with data provided by the FBIS)

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (2 Items)
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Internet Portals–Various States
Source: PriceWaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government
Full-Text Report-State Web Portals: Delivering and Financing E-Service
64 pages .pdf
See Also: Background Article About the Report (FCW.Com)
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Business–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Current Business Reports: Service Annual Survey 2000
207 pages .pdf