Vol. 20, No. 4 • April 2000

According to a separate announcement, OCLC and the Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) have agreed to merge. PAIS, a not-for-profit corporation with offices in New York, publishes the PAIS International database, which contains over 460,000 records of abstracted and indexed literature from over 120 countries. OCLC Public Affairs Information Service will continue to operate in its New York offices.

Source: OCLC, Dublin, OH, 800/848-5878, 614/764-6000; Fax: 614/764-6096; http://www.oclc.org.
 

American Mathematical Society Enhances Utility and Functionality of Its E-Journals
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has announced the release of enhanced versions of its electronic journal publications. The AMS e-journal upgrades improve usefulness and relevance for both journal authors and journal subscribers. Improvements include refereed articles posted online before the print versions are available, citation services, secure manuscript tracking, more Adobe PDF linking options, enhanced abstracts, and expanded browsing.

AMS electronic journals are now accessible through OCLC, EBSCO, and Dawson Information Quest. The AMS says it is committed to enabling convenient access to its electronic journals; additional access arrangements with other journals’ subscription agents are now under consideration. There are now over 100,000 articles from 1996 to the present date that are accessible and searchable online to subscribers through these agents.

Source: American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 401/455-4083; http://www.ams.org/journals.
 

ISI Launches E-Commerce Online Store
The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) has announced the release of ShopISI, the company’s online store. According to the company, ShopISI (http://www.shopisi.net) offers an efficient way to learn about and order ISI products online using a secured credit card system or an invoice billing option. Visitors to ShopISI can search for products by field of research (such as biology or engineering), by product type (such as alerting services or specialty products), or by product name (such as Current Contents or Discovery Agent). The site will feature special discounts on selected ISI products.

ISI compiles and organizes pertinent research information from over 16,000 international journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Navigation within individual products provides Web links to related materials and enriched data retrieval.

Source: Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, 800/336-4474, 215/386-0100; Fax: 215/386-2911; http://www.isinet.com.
 

OneSource Information Services Includes D&B Business Information in Browsers
OneSource Information Services, Inc. has announced an expansion of its alliance with Dun & Bradstreet, now offering Dun & Bradstreet’s premier company records in all editions of OneSource’s Business Browser. OneSource will also include the D-U-N-S Number as part of the D&B U.S. and Canadian business information in Business Browser, allowing easy integration with company intranet applications.

Source: OneSource Information Services, Inc., Concord, MA, 800/554-5501, 978/318-4300; Fax: 978/318-4690; http://www.onesource.com.
 

CAS Improves Turnaround Time for Patent Records in Its CAplus Database
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has announced that fully indexed patent records for key patent offices are now appearing in the CAplus database within 30 days from the issue date. In addition, CAS adds preliminary records to the CAplus database within 2 days of the patents’ issuance by the U.S., Japanese, European, German, and world (WIPO) patent offices.

Also, to further enhance the electronic research environment, CAS says it has enriched its database records with hypertext links that take researchers directly from CAS services (SciFinder, SciFinder Scholar, and STN) to full-text patent documents in the U.S., German, European, and world patent offices. These patent documents are available immediately at no charge.

Source: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH, 800/753-4227, 614/447-3731; http://www.cas.org.
 

Ex Libris Acquires SFX Linking Software
Ex Libris has announced that it has acquired the sole rights to the SFX Reference Linking Software Solution from the University of Gent in Belgium, and will begin its immediate deployment.

According to the announcement, SFX is a system that dynamically inter-links numerous electronic resources and can be used in a wide range of digital libraries. It has been applied in complex digital library environments, and it has demonstrated its ability to create services that inter-link abstracting-and-indexing databases, library catalogs, citation databases, citations in research papers, e-print archives, and Internet bookstores on a wide variety of platforms.

Ex Libris says it will be working with SFX’s developers to deploy the software worldwide, and that several research institutions in the U.S. and Europe have already expressed interest in becoming early adopters. The company will be also establishing an independent Information Services Division of Ex Libris (USA), Inc. that will be responsible for the deployment, sales, and support of the SFX service.

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

ITI Abstracts Journal Changes Its Name
Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has announced that Internet & Personal Computing Abstracts (IPCA) will be the new name for its quarterly journal formerly published as Microcomputer Abstracts.

Covering more than 120 influential and widely read mainstream magazines (Yahoo! Internet Life, eBay, and PC Magazine), industry publications (Internet Week, Internet World, and InfoWorld), and academic journals (Journal of Internet Cataloging and Internet Research) discussing the Internet and personal computers, IPCA now has even more Internet coverage. It has added over 1,000 abstracts on such Internet topics as Web commerce, online trading, Web auctions, Web hosting, information retrieval, data mining, data warehousing, Web publishing, Internet business trends, and Web portals.

IPCA is available from ITI ($235 per year), and a subscription also includes the annual Cumulative Index. IPCA is also available online through DIALOG, OCLC, and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts.

Source: Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ, 609/654-6266; Fax: 609/654-4309; https://www.infotoday.com.
 

NLM Funds Health Information Projects
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has announced that it is funding 49 electronic health information projects in 34 states, affecting rural, inner-city, and suburban areas.

For example, the Wyoming Medical Center will build partnerships with libraries in the local counties, an area that covers nearly half the population of Wyoming, including many Native Americans. In Atlanta, Emory University Health Sciences Center Library will team up with a hospital, a regional library, and the Cascade United Methodist Church in training librarians to help consumers search for health information and to develop a consumer health Web site. Massachusetts General Hospital will join forces with community-based organizations in the area to create a Health Resource Center that will provide online healthcare information for an exceptionally diverse population of residents.

On the NLM Web site there are descriptions of each of the 49 projects, including the name of the director, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. The projects total more than $1 million and will be running anywhere from 1 year to 18 months.

Source: National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, 888/FIND-NLM; http://www.nlm.nih.gov.
 

ISI Emerging Markets Subscribers Can Now Receive Same-Day Investext Reports
Internet Securities, Inc. has announced that subscribers can now access up-to-date Investext reports the same day they are released by Thomson Financial Securities Data (TFSD). Reports can be retrieved in the original Adobe PDF format and are fully archived in the IntelliFind search engine with a comprehensive Investext citation feed. ISI Emerging Markets subscribers benefit by receiving more than 10,000 continuous Investext reports on original PDF format, with no embargo period and no additional charge. Subscribers can search through reports by keyword, publication date, and/or publication name.

The ISI Emerging Markets service provides online access to local emerging market news and business information from over 30 countries throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The service offers more than 3,500 publications derived directly from local and primary sources, including the Investext Database and Nelson Broker Summary Reports.

Source: Internet Securities, Inc., Boston, 617/204-3100; http://www.securities.com.
 

RLG Begins Cultural Materials Initiative
The Research Libraries Group (RLG) has announced that it has made electronic access to cultural materials a priority. In a collaborative, international effort, the organization will be creating shared access to high-quality images, plus descriptions, of the works and artifacts that document culture and civilization. The result will be a globally accessible, Web-based research resource drawn from pre-eminent collections in RLG member institutions, according to the announcement.

Cultural materials include published and unpublished texts, images, objects, and artifacts of many types. For example, the Chicago Historical Society holds architectural drawings, maps, and plans of the city. The New York State Archives collections include Shaker furniture. The International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands has extensive collections of political posters, banners, broadsides, and recordings.

Source: Research Libraries Group, Mountain View, CA, 800/537-7546, 650/691-2333; http://www.rlg.org.
 

ONLINE RESOURCES

The American Film Institute Catalog Now Available Electronically from B&H
Bell & Howell Information and Learning (B&H) and the American Film Institute (AFI) have announced that they are now providing electronic access to films of the last century (http://afi.chadwyck.com). With this online version of the AFI Catalog, researchers may access records on more than 14,000 films made from 1893 to 1970 (minus 1951 to 1960). Each record contains searchable information about a film’s entire cast and crew, genres, subject keywords for the title, release dates, extensive plot summaries, and notes on the research involved. The electronic AFI Catalog is fully indexed, and searches can be executed across the entire span of coverage.

Source: Bell & Howell Information and Learning, Ann Arbor, MI, 800/521-0600, 734/761-4700; http://www.bellhowell.infolearning.com.
 

U-M Launches the HealthWeb Guide
The University of Michigan (U-M) has announced that 22 academic medical centers in the Midwest have collaborated to provide HealthWeb, a Web entry point to evaluated, annotated Internet health resources.

Pat Redman, head of information services at the Taubman Medical Library at U-M, and other health sciences staff members began the grassroots project, which now includes 75 subject pages. According to the announcement, HealthWeb’s guides for using electronic resources are designed to help health professionals and consumers use electronic resources more effectively. The guides come from a variety of sources and provide some of the best information on the Web for locating, evaluating, and using health-related Internet and other electronic resources, U-M says.

Redman is responsible for the Nursing subject page, which served as a prototype for the rest of HealthWeb. Students from U-M’s School of Information work on the project, with each being responsible for different areas of the page.

Source: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 734/764-7260; http://www.umich.edu.
 

SoftLine Information Releases New Web- Based Database, Diversity Your World
SoftLine Information, Inc. has announced its newest database, Diversity Your World, which addresses a wide variety of issues, including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, physical and mental disabilities, talents, culture, language, and more from over 100 publications, with more than 70,000 articles to start. Particularly suited for schools, community colleges, and small public libraries, coverage goes back to 1998 for most publications (some go back earlier). Delivered via the Web, Diversity Your World provides users with access to valuable firsthand coverage by journalists, editors, and publishers who confront these issues on a daily basis.

A unique feature of the database is YouSpeak, an electronic platform that gives all users an opportunity to “talk back” by submitting articles, essays, reports, poems, or other original writing for consideration for publication in the YouSpeak section of the database.

Source: SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT, 800/524-7922; http://www.slinfo.com.
 

Gale Group to Introduce New Products
The Gale Group has announced that its new History Resource Center will be launching this month. This Web-based research site, geared toward undergraduate students, will integrate current full-text periodicals, multimedia reference articles, and facsimiles of historic documents under a single search interface.

History Resource Center will be released in modules, with the first focusing on the most studied events and issues in U.S. history. It will combine documents from Primary Source Microfilm’s digital archives and encyclopedia articles from Macmillan Reference USA, Scribner’s, and Gale, as well as periodical databases from InfoTrac and links to digitized special collections.

In a separate news release, Gale announced that it has added to the flexibility of its newspapers with InfoTrac Custom Newspapers. The Web-based database delivers full-text articles from more than 30 major newspapers from the U.S. and U.K. using specific search parameters. InfoTrac Custom Newspapers allows searching by title, headline, date, author, or newspaper section, and search results are displayed within the newspaper section, providing context for the articles. Results are delivered electronically from the newspaper, creating an electronic edition with only the articles the searcher needs.

The database currently includes such newspapers as The Washington Post, London Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the entire Knight-Ridder family of newspapers, and Gale expects to add another 40 major newspapers this year.

Also, Gale reports that its Student Resource Center is now available in a College Edition. The new edition contains more sophisticated periodical databases to serve the research needs of freshman and sophomore college students in all disciplines.

Periodical content in the College Edition comes from either Expanded Academic ASAP or Academic ASAP—both databases include up to 2,000 indexed articles, 1,000 full-text articles, and more than 600 referred articles. College Edition also includes access to a collection of vocational and technical articles, which will be expanded over time, Gale says.

Source: Gale Group, Farmington Hills, MI, 248/699-4253; http://www.galegroup.com.
 

WEB SITE AWARDS

Columbia Earthscape Wins Best New Internet-Based Publication Prize
The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has announced that Columbia Earthscape, a SPARC Scientific Communities project, has won the prize for best new Internet-based publication in science/math from the Professional Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers. Columbia Earthscape (http://www.earthscape.org) was among the three awardees of SPARC’s Scientific Communities Initiative grants to spur digital science publishing ventures based in academe. It is managed within the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC).

Columbia Earthscape includes reports of research projects and conference proceedings as well as curriculum materials for teaching about the earth. It will link to data sets and computer models and an online magazine, Earth Affairs, that’s designed to educate undergraduate students, the general public, and policy makers about current issues in earth interactions, domestic and international environmental policy, and other related topics.

Source: Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition, Washington, DC, 202/296-2296; Fax: 202/872-0884; http://www.arl.org/sparc.
 

LibrarySpot.com Awards Excellent Sites
StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc. has announced that it’s LibrarySpot.com, the vertical information portal of the best library and reference resources on the Web, has announced two awards. The site selected the Multnomah County (Oregon) Library Web site as Library Site of the Year, and How Stuff Works, of Raleigh, North Carolina, as Reference Site of the Year for 1999.

According to the announcement, LibrarySpot.com judges were impressed with the Multnomah County Library site’s (http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us) welcoming, community feel and strong local content, its Ask Us! section, and its resources for kids and teens. Judges found the How Stuff Works site’s (http://www.howstuffworks.com) content current and practical, offering answers for everything from how the engine in your car works to what makes the inside of your refrigerator cold. Judges also noted a user-friendly interface and a good combination of visual, audio, and text explanations.

Source: StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc., Evanston, IL, 847/866-1830; http://www.startspot.com.
 

CONTENT AGREEMENTS

ScienceDirect Expands the Distribution of Electronic Content with Agreements
ScienceDirect has announced agreements with several organizations, expanding the distribution of electronic content. The agreement with the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE, http://www.iee.org) permits researchers to search across the breadth of the INSPEC abstracts database and link directly to the full-text article collection on ScienceDirect. The INSPEC Database contains abstracts and index terms for over 6 million articles published worldwide in all fields of physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computing, and information technology.

ScienceDirect and BIOSIS (http://www.biosis.org) will jointly produce a Web-based version of BIOSIS Previews for the ScienceDirect platform, enabling users to link from abstracts in the BIOSIS Previews database to the related full-text articles within ScienceDirect.

In addition, an agreement with SilverPlatter (http://www.silverplatter.com) enables customers to link from abstracts in SilverPlatter databases to the full-text articles within ScienceDirect. ScienceDirect Onsite customers will also soon have the ability to link from SilverPlatter databases to their local electronic journal collections.

Source: ScienceDirect, New York, 212/462-1973; Fax: 212/462-1985; http://www.sciencedirect.com.
 

SilverLinker Adds Portland Press Journals
SilverPlatter Information, Inc. and Portland Press, Ltd. have announced an agreement to link four biomedical journals through SilverLinker, SilverPlatter’s solution for linking from bibliographic references to full-text journal articles.

Portland Press, Ltd., the wholly owned publishing subsidiary of The Biochemical Society, is a not-for-profit publisher of journals and books in the cellular and molecular life sciences. The organization publishes Biochemical Journal, Biochemical Society Transactions, Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry, and Clinical Science.

Source: SilverPlatter Information, Inc., Norwood, MA, 781/769-2599; Fax: 781/769-8763; http://www.silverplatter.com.
 

Journals@Ovid Adds Kluwer Journals
Ovid Technologies, Inc. and Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) have announced the addition of five Kluwer Academic medical journal titles to Journals@Ovid. Ovid was to begin offering the journals this spring, beginning with the January 2000 issues.

The five KAP titles being added to Journals@Ovid are Annals of Oncology—the official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology; Breast Cancer Research and Treatment—a source of communication for presenting pertinent treatment of and investigations in breast cancer; Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy—an authoritative source of current and relevant news for cardiologists; Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease—the official journal of the Society for the study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism; and Journal of Neuro-Oncology—a multidisciplinary journal encompassing basic, applied, and clinical investigations on all research areas as they relate to cancer and the central nervous system.

Source: Ovid Technologies, Inc., New York, 212/563-3006; Fax: 212/563-3784; http://www.ovid.com.
 

SITES FOR LIBRARIANS

New LibraryHQ.com Portal for Librarians
According to a recent press release, library professionals now have a new starting point on the Web: LibraryHQ.com: Resources for the Wired Librarian. The site features library-related, current information, including unique databases and organized hotlinks to other informative Web sites.

LibraryHQ’s News Source focuses on news and issues about libraries. Articles are drawn daily from a long list of sources that includes major newspapers and newswires; university newspapers; library-, education-, and technology-related journals; and general-interest publications. Site Source is a database of more than 6,000 carefully selected research Web sites that have been fully cataloged in MARC format. Review Source contains all current book and media reviews from Library Journal, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. A library technology message board, free classified ads for libraries and individuals, and sources for grants and funding are also features of the site.

[Editor’s Note: LibraryHQ.com is hosted by the Sirsi Corp., though the site does not seem to be intended as a venue for the sale of Sirsi products.]

Source: LibraryHQ.com, New York, 877/401-9535; http://www.libraryhq.com.
 

LibraryCard.com Launches Job Feature
Auto-Graphics, Inc.’s LibraryCard.com Web site, a virtual library on the Internet, has announced LibraryCareers, a new feature on the site. LibraryCareers lists employment opportunities for those working in or supporting the library industry and provides a place for employers to recruit for their positions. The new service provides information on job openings for library staff at all levels and all types of libraries, as well as positions within the library vendor community. Listings on the site are free through April 15.

Users may search the LibraryCareers feature, and in the near future job seekers will be able to list their resumes on the site for free.

Source: Auto-Graphics, Inc., Pomona, CA, 800/776-6939; http://www.auto-graphics.com.
 

LIBRARY UTILITIES

Auto-Graphics Introduces Its NewWeb-Based Impact/ISO ILL Software
Auto-Graphics, Inc. has announced that it has released its Impact/ISO ILL software. This Web-based request-management system has the capabilities to manage interlibrary loan, document delivery, and resource sharing from one or many document retention sites.

According to the company, Impact/ISO ILL is designed to allow seamless interfacing within the application-management database interaction with ISO 10160/10161 compatibility. The software also allows individual users to enter their own requests and track the current status of the requests made. A Web-based interface has been provided for library staff to centralize workflow for borrowing, requesting, lending, and responding tasks. Impact/ISO ILL gathers management and collection-development statistics and is able to communicate in a variety of ways with other libraries and document suppliers in print, Web, fax, and e-mail format. When Impact/ISO ILL is integrated with Impact/ONLINE and/or Impact/Z39.50 Gateway, Auto-Graphics provides a complete ISO-compliant Z39.50 searching and ILL-management solution.

Source: Auto-Graphics, Inc., Pomona, CA, 800/776-6939; http://www.auto-graphics.com.
 

Inmagic Releases BiblioTech PRO 2
Inmagic, Inc. has released BiblioTech PRO version 2.0. According to the announcement, BiblioTech PRO version 2 is a fast, scalable, robust, and fully integrated library system powered by Progress Software’s version 9.0 RDBMS (relational database management system) database that can operate in a Windows NT, UNIX, Linux, or AS400 environment. Standard modules include cataloging and record update, indexing and searching across one or more indexes, and an ANSI-standard thesaurus. Optional modules include procurement and accounting, integrated serials management, and circulation management.

With this new release, customers will be able to take advantage of Microsoft Windows options such as re-sizing screens, columns in the browser display, and customizable colors and type fonts. Several modules have been updated with a tabbed folders method for accessing different functions. New data structures eliminate the need for data reloads if the data dictionary is changed. Also, BibSpeed, the Web interface, now offers the ability to construct and maintain a personal bibliography online, the ability to save personal search strategies, and a new acquisitions bulletin.

Source: Inmagic, Inc., Woburn, MA, 800/229-8398; http://www.inmagic.com.
 

EBSCO/epixtech Dynix Claim Is Available
EBSCO Subscription Services and epixtech, inc. have announced that EDI X12 format claims are now available to EBSCO Subscription Services customers using the Dynix integrated library system. An interface between the two systems allows Dynix customers to submit claims to EBSCO electronically via ftp.

Electronic claims, like their paper counterparts, are produced based on parameters defined by the library. Once a claim has been generated, the library prepares the claim using Dynix’s Process Electronic Serial Claims (PESC) menu option. The system builds a Serial Item Contribution Identifier (SICI) file that identifies which issue is being claimed. The generated claim is then sent to EBSCO via ftp.

Source: EBSCO Subscription Services, Birmingham, AL, 205/991-1368; http://www.ebsco.com.
 

GIS Unveils Its New Polaris 1.4 Solution
Gaylord Information Systems (GIS) has announced the release of Polaris 1.4, its non-modular, Native-Windows NT library automation solution.

With the release of Polaris 1.4, system performance of the third-generation automation solution has increased dramatically, according to a report from the Washington County Cooperative Library System after it completed benchmark testing of version 1.4. According to the company, the primary goals of Polaris 1.4 development were system optimization and work-flow acceleration. To achieve these goals, GIS measured customer-specific functionality against existing technical-services work flow to determine how new features would enhance flexibility and accelerate work flow. GIS refined a number of database processes to optimize SQL Server and other Microsoft BackOffice utilities.

Other new improvements include bulk change functionality in cataloging to facilitate record processing, scoping availability in the OPAC to assist patrons in locating available items, purchase order templates in acquisitions to expedite ordering, and automatic prediction of serials without enumeration to accelerate work flow.

Source: Gaylord Information Systems, Syracuse, NY, 800/272-3414; http://www.gaylord.com.
 

Endeavor Information Systems to Offer Geospatial Searching in Voyager 2000
Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. has announced the incorporation of geospatial searching capabilities as an optional module available in this summer’s Voyager 2000 release. The geospatial search capability provides specifically tailored searching for researchers to navigate within map collections.

The new search interface offers searching of the MARC 034 coded cartographic mathematical data field, which stores the coordinates and the scale of maps. Voyager’s search engine pinpoints only maps that include the exact coordinates a researcher enters. Users may further limit their searches by map projection or scale. Other features include searching by a certain point in a radius; rectangular searches between two points; polygon searches for more obtuse searching; and corridor searching, allowing users to accurately locate coastal regions, rivers, or roads.

Source: Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., Des Plaines, IL, 847/296-2200; http://www.endinfosys.com.
 

ENHANCED DATABASES

Bowker’s New Booksinprint.com 2000
Bowker has announced that it has unveiled booksinprint.com 2000, a new and enhanced version of its online reference. Containing 3.2 million titles, booksinprint.com 2000 will be the most comprehensive source of authoritative and unbiased data for libraries, bookstores, and publishers, according to the announcement.

The new version features a friendlier, more intuitive interface; direct searching and complete information for over 165,000 publishers, distributors, and wholesalers; stock availability from major suppliers; a growing library of over 200,000 book jackets; more than 385,000 full-text reviews; access to two bestseller databases; 12 bestseller lists; easier searching for award-winning books, audios, or videos; hyperlinks by author, publisher, and subject classification; and searching for titles based on the names of key fictional characters and real or imaginary settings.

Source: Bowker, New Providence, NJ, 888/269-5372; http://www.bowker.com.
 

H.W. Wilson Adds 25,000 New Biographies
H.W. Wilson has announced that it has added more than 25,000 biographies to its Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated database. These additions further strengthen the Web reference’s coverage of black people, figures from the world of art, women, international headliners, and notables in other categories, according to the announcement. The new entries were licensed from leading print biography resources, including The Grove Dictionary of Art and 11 publications from Oryx Press. The database also gained files from new H.W. Wilson biographical print resources, including Eighth Book of Junior Authors & Illustrators.

Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated now delivers in-depth profiles of some 72,000 figures from antiquity through the present, along with links to full-text articles, article abstracts, and index citations from Wilson bibliographic databases. Regular updates add more than 1,000 profiles annually. The company says that links to the wider Web are also planned.

Source: H.W. Wilson, Bronx, NY, 800/367-6770, 718/588-8400; http://www.hwwilson.com.
 

The EEVL Engineering Web Gateway Celebrates Awards, Enhances Web Site
EEVL, the U.K.-based nonprofit, free gateway to engineering information on the Internet, has announced that it has become the WWW Virtual Library for Engineering. In addition, EEVL has been awarded accreditation from Enterprise Zone, the DTI- and Business Link-supported portal site, in recognition of its provision of accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information. EEVL, which covers all areas of engineering, was recently strengthened through the addition of an Aerospace and Defense Engineering section, provided by AERADE at Cranfield University. Other new sections include Occupational Safety and Health, and Materials and Energy Recycling and Reuse. EEVL has redesigned its site to make it easier to use, and has added hotlinks to other engineering guides, other subject portals, recruitment agencies, events, engineering industry news sources, teaching and learning resources, and literature searching sites.

Source: EEVL, Edinburgh, U.K., 011-44-131-451-3576; Fax: 011-44-131-451-3164; http://www.eevl.ac.uk.
 

EBIS Enhances Its ‘The Title Source II’
Electronic Business and Information Services (EBIS), Baker & Taylor’s information services unit, has announced that it has unveiled new enhancements to its Internet bibliographic database, The Title Source II.

EBIS’s The Title Source II—a subscription product for verified bibliographic information on the Internet—recently added inventory information from five wholesalers: Bookpeople, The Booksource, the distributors, Partners Book Distributing, Inc., and Partners/West. These wholesalers join Baker & Taylor, Koen Distributors, Koen-Pacific, Login Brothers, and The Bookmen, whose inventories already are displayed on The Title Source II.

Source: Electronic Business and Information Services, Baker & Taylor Books, Charlotte, NC, 704/357-3500; Fax: 704/329-8989; http://www.baker-taylor.com.
 

CD PRODUCTS

Microtech Lowers Its CD-R System Prices
Microtech Systems has announced that it has made significant cuts in pricing on its ImageMaker CD-R duplication systems. The company is also offering two special promotions at an even greater cost reduction.

Microtech’s stand-alone tower duplicators come in four-, six-,seven-, eight-, 10-, 12-, and 17-recording-drive configurations. The four-drive model now sells for $4,495, a 52-percent reduction, while the 17-drive ImageMaker MJ Pro price has dropped by more than 44 percent to $13,795. Microtech is also offering a one-time promotional price of $5,995 on the ImageMaker MJ seven-drive system and $11,995 on the MJ Pro 17-drive model. The special offer cuts prices on the already lowered rated by as much as 13 percent, and in the case of the MJ Pro, brings the cost per drive down to $706.

Source: Microtech Systems, Belmont, CA, 800/223-3693, 650/596-1900; http://www.microtech.com.
 

Matthew Bender Releases the Delaware Corporate Law Library on Authority Set
Matthew Bender & Co., Inc. has announced the release of the Matthew Bender Delaware Corporate Law Library on Authority. Available through Authority on Demand at http://www.bender.com or in a six-CD-ROM set, this library is the first collection of practice-oriented treatises, case law, statutes, and rules concerning the corporate laws of the most important corporate domicile in America.

Source: Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., New York, 212/448-2000; http://www.bender.com.
 

SilverPlatter Offers the HMIC Database
SilverPlatter Information, Inc. has announced that the Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC) database is now available on CD-ROM and via the Web. The HMIC database contains three health-management databases: those of the Department of Health (U.K.) Library & Information Services, the King’s Fund Library & Information Service, and the Nuffield Institute for Health.

Data from the Department of Health (DH-Data) targets health service and hospital administration, management, and policy; medical equipment and supplies; personal social services; and nursing, primary care, and public health. The King’s Fund database comprises records on topics such as healthcare and community-care management and organizational development, inequalities in health, user involvement, and healthcare economics. The Nuffield Institute’s database contains archival HELMIS data, which holds records relating to health systems in the U.K., Europe, and developing countries.

Source: SilverPlatter Information, Inc., Norwood, MA, 781/769-2599; Fax: 781/769-8763; http://www.silverplatter.com.
 

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

The Foundation Center to Hold Seminars
The Foundation Center has announced the spring 2000 schedule for its series of Proposal Writing Seminars. These full-day seminars, now in their eighth year, introduce novice grant-seekers to the most effective proposal-writing strategies and help more experienced fundraisers and nonprofit executives refine and augment their skills, according to the announcement.

The spring seminars will be held in New York (April 6, April 17, May 3, May 17, June 1, or June 16), the Washington, DC, area (May 25), Colorado Springs, CO (April 11), Chicago (April 26), Seattle (May 5), Cleveland (May 19), and San Francisco (June 2).

Each Proposal Writing Seminar attendee receives a copy of The Foundation Center’s Guide to Proposal Writing (a $34.95 value) and a 100-plus page workbook outlining all major seminar topics, as part of the registration fee. The seminar fee is $195 per person, and $170 for additional attendees from the same organization who register at the same time.

To register or to get more information, visit the center’s Web site at http://www.fdncenter.org/marketplace/training/proposal.html or call 212/807-2451.

Source: The Foundation Center, New York, 212/620-4230; Fax: 212/807-3677; http://fdncenter.org.
 

3M Sponsors LAMA National Institute
3M Library Systems has announced that it will be the principal sponsor of “Vision, Mission, and Reality: Creating Libraries for the 21st Century,” the first Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) National Institute, to be held in Palm Springs, California, November 30–December 2, 2000. According to 3M, the 2000 National Institute’s format will differ from traditional library workshops in that it will be structured around a single theme that will be explored in depth from a variety of perspectives.

Some of the tracks that will be presented include the following: “The Role of Librarians in Creating Information Communities: Strategies for Success,” by Joan Durrance, professor at the University of Michigan School of Information; “To Build or Not to Build, That Is the Question,” by William Sannwald, manager of library design and development in San Diego; “Marketing Models for Libraries: A Survey of Effective Muses for Far Afield,” by Martín Gómez, executive director of the Brooklyn Public Library; and “The Effective Organization in the 21st Century,” by Julie Todaro, head librarian of the Learning Resources Service at the Rio Grande Campus of Austin (Texas) Community College.

The early-bird registration deadline for the LAMA National Institute is July 29, 2000, and the advance registration deadline is November 9, 2000. For more information about the institute, visit http://www.ala.org/lama/vision/index.html or http://www.3m.com/library.

Source: 3M Library Systems, St. Paul, MN, 800/328-0067; http://www.3m.com/library.
 

NEW BOOKS

New Title from Idea Group Explores Libraries Using the Info Superhighway
Idea Group Publishing has announced the publication of World Libraries on the Information Superhighway: Preparing for the Challenges of the New Millennium, edited by Patricia Diamond Fletcher and John Carlo Bertot (ISBN: 1-878-28966-7, $74.95). According to the announcement, this new book presents the thoughts and experiences of librarians and academics on the changing role of libraries in a global networked community. It addresses diverse and important topics that acknowledge the strengths of traditional library practices and the challenges of reconfiguring these practices in a digital world.

Many librarians are novices with information technologies, and many are greatly concerned about obtaining Internet funding, staffing and training, copyright issues, and privacy matters. This book details various librarians’ experiences in dealing with these issues and provides examples of both successes and failures. The authors discuss topics from many perspectives—applied, technological, and theoretical.

Source: Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, 717/533-8845; Fax: 717/533-8661; http://www.idea-group.com.
 

O’Reilly Releases a New Ethernet Guide
O’Reilly & Associates has announced that one of the foremost experts on Ethernet standards and configuration, Charles Spurgeon, has just written a new book, Ethernet: The Definitive Guide, published by O’Reilly (ISBN: 1-56592-660-9, $44.95). Used by networking administrators since the early ’80s, Ethernet is the core networking technology used by every high-tech business, according to the announcement. While the basic protocols have changed little, new options such as Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet have increased the complexity of the topic.

According to the author, the book covers the entire range of Ethernet speeds and components, providing the information people need to understand and manage their Ethernet systems. The book is separated into five parts: an introduction to Ethernet, media systems, how to build your Ethernet system, performance analysis, and troubleshooting. O’Reilly says it is the definitive guide for anyone who wants to build a scalable local area network using Ethernet.

Source: O’Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, 800/998-9938, 707/829-0515; http://www.oreilly.com.