Information Industry–Yahoo
Information Industry–Inktomi
Yahoo! Acquires Inktomi
Yahoo pays $1.65/share (cash) for Inktomi. In early 2000, Inktomi was trading for over $230/share. From the announcement, “The addition of Inktomi’s search platform adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative search offerings for consumers and businesses.” -Terry Semel, Yahoo CEO. A few weeks ago Inktomi sold it’s enterprise search business to Verity. On the Yahoo! site, Google currently “powers” Yahoo’s search functionality and “fall-through” catalog. In October, 2002 Yahoo renewed it’s contract with Google to provide these services. However, the contact also also allows Yahoo! to use results from other providers. Let’s see how long it takes for Inktomi content and functionality to begin to be visible at Yahoo.
See Also: A Few Additional Details in this New York Times Article

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents
Population–United States–Fast Facts
Source: U.S. Census
Fact Sheet/Table: New U.S. Total Population Estimates
See Also: Direct to Population Estimates (by State)
Neveda is America’s fastest growing state. Also, “Of the 10 fastest-growing states since July 1, 2001, seven are in
the West and three in the South.” Much more on the site.
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Legal Industry–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Corporate Counsel
Updated List, Who Represents America’s Biggest Companies?
A list of who reps Fortune 250 companies.

Information Industry–divine
Source: Information Today NewsBreaks
divine Library Services Shuts Down, Customers Left in Limbo
In a co-authored article Barbara Quint and Paula Hane write, “One of the nation�s largest subscription agents, divine Library Services, has apparently suffered financial failure. The Massachusetts-based subsidiary of divine, inc. is also referred to by many as RoweCom or Faxon, its former names. As divine began shutting down access to incoming orders, an official notice appeared on one access point (http://www.kstore.com) that echoed e-mail announcements sent to selected customers.” The Info Today article offers suggestions for customers how to proceed and gives a bit of background on the company. Quint and Hane write, “Started in 1999, divine, inc. rapidly acquired a large number of software houses and services to assemble technologies and build a customer base�Northern Light, Open Market, Eprise, Synchrony Communications, etc. Acquired in November 2001, RoweCom, Inc. has been a wholly owned subsidiary of divine�s, operating under the name divine Library Services. RoweCom had acquired Faxon in 1999. The century-old Faxon had faced bankruptcy in 1998-99, but managed to work out relationships with librarians and publisher and recover by 2000. Repeated calls to divine headquarters in Chicago for comment on the situation were not returned. As we [Info Today] went to press, divine finally issued a press release announcing that it was reorganizing and streamlining the company into three �solutions areas� and that it intended �to divest the content subscription business delivered through its RoweCom, Inc. subsidiary and focus on digital content delivery.� At this time, divine’s web search and pay-per-view article service Northern Light is still operational.
See Also: The 7/2001 Announcement of divine’s Acquisition of RoweCom
See Also: Learn More About divine’s Many Acquisitions over the Past Few Years Via Their News Release Archive (They Sure Were Busy)
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UPDATE (1/11/03) You Can Find Updated Material and Additional Resources Posted in The ResourceShelf in Early January
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UPDATE (12/23/02) Library Journal Asks, Is divine Going Bankrupt?

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents
Topics in the News–Iraq
Source: National Security Archive
New, Electronic Briefing Book, Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction
From the site, “The documents presented in this electronic briefing book include the major unclassified U.S. and British assessments of Iraqi WMD programs, the reports of the IAEA and UNSCOM covering the final period prior to the 1998 expulsions, the transcript of a key speech by President George W. Bush, a recently released statement on U.S. policy towards combating WMD, and documents from the 1980s and 1990s concerning various aspects of Iraqi WMD activities.”

Reference Books
Source: Ascribe
Dedication and 27 Years of Research Result In New Reference Series
From the newswire, In 1975 University of Vermont political science professor Garrison Nelson, then a member of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s staff, began a research project on the importance of committee assignments to the careers of legislative leaders. His inquiries took him to the Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, where he learned that no history of legislative committee assignments in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives existed. When Nelson wondered aloud if such a compilation might be created, he got a straightforward answer. “The consensus was, no, this couldn’t be done,” Nelson says. “The information was buried in obscure resolutions deep in the archives. It would be virtually impossible, people said, to put together a membership history of each committee.” Twenty-seven years and countless research hours later, Nelson, along with co-authors David T. Canon of the University of Wisconsin and Charles Stewart III of MIT, have proven the experts wrong with the publication of “Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789-1946,” a weighty four-volume set that contains over 100,000 committee assignments and more than three million separate pieces of information. The four new volumes join a two-volume set Nelson published in 1993, “Committees of the U.S. Congress, 1947-1992.” All six volumes are published by Congressional Quarterly Press.

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents
United States–History
Source: The Library of Congress
New, Online Presentation: “After the Day of Infamy: ‘Man-on-the-Street’ Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor.”
From the announcement, “Salesmen, janitors, cab drivers, housewives, students, soldiers and senators; young and old; men and women; long-time residents and recent immigrants to the United States-all are represented in a new online presentation of the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress titled “After the Day of Infamy: ‘Man-on-the-Street’ Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor.” You can read more about the presentation here.
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Internet–United States–Statistics
Internet–United Kingdom–Statistics
1) High-Speed Internet Use in the U.S. (Source: FCC)
2) Internet Connectivity in the U.K., 10/02 (Source: National Statistics Office)

Information Industry–FAST Search & Transfer
FAST Search & Transfer Powering Ei (Elsevier Engineering Info)
The FAST Data Search product is powering the search and retrieval portions of the Ei Village product. FAST also provides the AlltheWeb web search engine and its technology is used at FirstGov and Scirus.

Information Industry–FAST Search & Transfer
FAST Search & Transfer Powering Ei (Elsevier Engineering Info)
The FAST Data Search product is powering the search and retrieval portions of the Ei Village product. FAST also provides the AlltheWeb web search engine and its technology is used at FirstGov and Scirus.

Information Industry–ProQuest–Canada
ProQuest Adds Canadian Titles from Rogers Publishing
64 titles, full-text, no embargo. Key titles include Maclean’s, Canadian Business, MoneySense, Chatelaine (French and English editions), Today’s Parent, L’Actualit�, and many more. From the news release, “Current coverage — including both indexing and full text for the titles — will appear in such ProQuest� databases as ABI/INFORM� Global, ProQuest Research LibraryTM, and ProQuest 5000TM…In addition, the agreement grants ProQuest rights to digitize backfiles (through 1950) of Canadian Business and Maclean’s to distribute as part of the companys Digital VaultTM retrospective, full-image databases.”

Information Industry–Hemscott
U.K.’s Hemscott Acquires Reed Business Info Title
From the announcement, “In early-January, the company will purchase the ‘Directory of Directors’ from Reed Business Information for �343,000, funded out of its �7m cash pile. The Directory of Directors, which has been published annually for 135 years, collates data on key industry figures across 12,500 public and private sector companies, featuring around 38,000 directors. Hemscott intends to continue to publish the offline version, which reaps annual profits of around �60,000, adding its own information to the directory. Furthermore, it will integrate the directory’s database into its online platform, adding its existing information on directors and related data to the online resource, which will provide details on some 60,000 directors.”
See Also: Direct to the Hemscott Home Page

Wire Services–Associated Press–Archives
Source: Reuters
AP Now Offering Fee-Based Archive on Yahoo
From the article, “…the search engine on its Yahoo News site will be able to search the AP Archives going back to Jan. 1, 1998, and display a list of results. Articles listed in those results will cost $1.50 each to access. Yahoo said nearly 1 million AP stories were available in the Yahoo News archives.” To access, use the Yahoo News search interface.

Web Search–Google
Source: News.Com
“Local” Version of Google Launches for Australia
Launched earlier this week. Like other “local” versions of Google a search can be limited to the country code directly from the home page. Of course you can also achieve the same results by using the site: syntax or the domain limit box on the advanced search page from any version of Google. You can also limit by language or country using the pull-down box on the language tools page.
See Also: “Google opens up in the land down under” (via News.Com)

Web Resources of the Week
Fast Facts–Year-End Resources
Here are a few resources that review the events of 2002.
1) Infoplease Year In Review, 2002
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2) CNN Year in Review, 2002
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3) BBC Year in Review, 2002
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4) Yahoo Year in Review, 2002
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and a few calendar resources to inform you about events before they happen in 2003
* BBC Monitoring: The Week Ahead
** APTN (AP Television) Weekly Editorial News Planner
Look for the link in the gray box, right side of page (url changes weekly)
*** U.S. State Department: Public Diplomacy Calendar
*** U.S. Political Futures (via ABC News “The Note”)
**** NewsAhead (Free Sample, Full-Database Fee-Based)
****** Upcoming Elections Around the World
*******Space Calendar
******** Festivals.Com
*********What’sonWhen.Com
A great database for future events, festivals, etc. Global in scope.
See Also: Two Fee-Based Services of Possible Interest
* Kalends from Reuters
** Future News

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Scholarly Publishing
Source: National Science Foundation
Full-Text Info Brief, Scholars Debate the Implications of Information Technology for Scientific Journal Publishing
From the site, InfoBrief reports key findings from a larger report on “The Implications of Information Technology for Scientific Journal Publishing [forthcoming].”
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Dictionaries
Source: Oxford English Dictionary News
The OED Comments: Web Search Engines and the Lexicographer
From the article, “…with the arrival of the Internet, tens of thousands of scholarly texts and individual works of literature are available to us in a searchable form. However, bigger isn’t necessarily better: we need to be discriminating. A search engine, such as Google, provides a scattergun approach, returning a vast set of results with no indication of the date or reliability of sources. We are therefore most interested in material that has been collected together in databases, where we are able to carry out sophisticated searches (by date, in proximity to other terms, etc.) and where we can rely on the provenance of the information we are viewing.”

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Demographics–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Full-Text Report, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century
From the publication announcement, “The report analyzes data gathered in 11 censuses stretching from 1900 to 2000. The subjects covered are from the Census 2000 short-form questionnaire. Titled Demographic Trends in the 20th Century and released during the bureau’s 100th anniversary year, the report tracks trends in population, housing and household data for the nation, regions and states. “Our goal was to produce a publication that appeals to people interested in the demographic changes that shaped our nation in the 20th century and to those interested in the numbers underlying those trends,” said Frank Hobbs, who co-authored the report with Nicole Stoops. “We hope it will serve as a valuable reference work for years to come.”
See Also: Summary of Report ||| Direct to Complete Report (240 Pages)
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Legal Industry–United States
Source: National Law Journal
Billing Rates Survey, 2002
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Stories in the News–World Trade Center Site
Source: Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
New World Trade Center Site Design Concepts
Includes slide shows, descriptions, and info on design teams.
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Health Information
Source: NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)
Full-Text Book, The NCBI Handbook
Chapters on PubMed, the NCBI Bookshelf, the Entrez Search and Retrieval System, and other databases.

Internet Resources
100th Issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter is Now Online
If you’re not taking a look at the this monthly newsletter, you’re missing on a great web collection development resource. The IRN has not only informed me about hundreds of useful sites/tools over the first 100 issues but the work and commitment of IRN editor Roddy MacLeod continues to serve as a guide to me and the development of The ResourceShelf. Btw, Roddy was recently inducted into the Internet Librarian Hall of Fame. Congrats on all counts!
See Also: R.M. is also the Manager of RDN’s EEVL,
an Essential Resource for Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing Materials.

Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items)
Web Sites
Source: RLG DigiNews
“In Search of Lost Pages: Stemming the Tide of Broken Links”
This article was written by Richard Entlich from Cornell University Library (CUL) Research Program.
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Scholarly Publishing
Source: The New York Times
“New Premise in Science: Get the Word Out Quickly, Online”
Thanks to S.J. for the news tip.
See Also: Scientists Plan 2 Online Journals to Make Articles Available ‘Freely and Universally’ (via COHE)
See Also: Direct to Public Library of Science
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Health Information on the Web–European Union
“Commission Recommends Quality Criteria for Health Websites”
From the announcement, “The European Commission has adopted a Communication setting out a core set of Quality Criteria for Health Related Websites. It outlines 6 quality criteria: transparency and honesty, authority, privacy and data protection, updating of information, accountability and accessibility. The Communication states the need to tailor these criteria according to particular audiences and describes the methods of implementing quality criteria including codes of conduct, self applied codes or quality labels, user guidance tools, filtering tools, and third party quality and accreditation systems.”
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Government Publishing–United States
Source: The Washington Post
“E-Gov Law Sets Up Clash Over White House Outsourcing Plan”
From the article, At issue is the White House’s policy to allow private companies to bid for printing jobs, a move aimed at weakening the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) longstanding near-monopoly on printing government documents…Library groups said that this centralized dissemination process may falter — along with the reliable availability of government information online — when agencies get the freedom to take their printing jobs to a field of private vendors. “This proposal is going to blow a huge hole in the distribution of government information, and limit the amount of information that’s available to the public online,” said Patrice McDermott, assistant director for government relations at the American Library Association…”We’ve been very supportive of effective e-government,” said Mark Bohannon, senior vice president of public policy at SIIA, whose clients include Thomson Corp., and Reed Elsevier, which runs Lexis-Nexis. “We simply want to make sure that as the positive aspects of e-government are promoted that it not lead to competition by the government for services that can or should be provided by the private sector.”

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Business–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Fortune
“Blue-Ribbon Companies 2002″
From the site, “From the Best Companies for Minorities to the Global Most Admired Companies, these companies appeared with the most frequency on FORTUNE’s lists this year.” You can view lists in rank order, by number of employees, and by State.
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Smallpox–United States
Source: Department of Health and Human Services
New Web Site, Smallpox.Gov
Info about the vaccination program and disease.
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Automobile Safety–United States–Statistics
Source: NCSA/NHTSA
Full-Text Report, Alcohol Fatality Rates, by State
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Film–Lists & Rankings
List, The Library of Congress Announces Latest Additions to the National Film Registry
The 2002 list includes a personal fave, “This is Spinal Tap”!
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Presidents of the United States–Public Papers
Source: GPO
Now Available, The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton — 2000-2001, Vol. III.

Web Search–AlltheWeb
First Reported Here 11 Days Ago, AlltheWeb Now Providing Access to Microsoft Word Documents
Official word today of something mentioned on The ResourceShelf 11 days ago, AtW is now crawling and offering searchable access to MS Word docs (.doc). The press release also mentions news of a few tweaks to the relevancy algorithm.

Image Searching
Wireless Search–Google
Sprint/Google Premiere First Wireless Image Search Tool in U.S. Marketplace
Fast and furious innovation news from Google in the past week or so. New Google Lab “experiments and the intro of Froogle. Today, news of wireless image search capabilities for those of you with Sprint PCS Vision enabled phones. From the way the news release reads, the entire Google Image database is now accessible with this product.