ITI's NewsLink

NewsLink — Issue 75/January 2006
NewsLink is a free weekly e-mail newsletter featuring news and resources for the information industry. If you are receiving this issue as a forward and would like to become a subscriber, please visit our Web site at www.infotoday.com or send a blank e-mail to join-infotoday@lists.infotoday.com.

Sponsor – Buying & Selling eContent

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The Shifting Dynamics of the Content Market

If you buy, sell, distribute, or market electronic content, or provide
content technology solutions, plan now to attend Buying & Selling eContent, April 9-11, 2006, at the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona. This 3-day event is the place to be to build relationships and explore deals.

Register now at Buy-Sell-EContent.com!


IN THIS ISSUE
1) WELCOME
2) ITI SNAP POLL
3) NEWSLINK MONTHLY SPOTLIGHT
4) NEWSBREAKS
5) FEATURED ARTICLES
6) CONFERENCE CONNECTION
7) BOOKSHELF
 

1) WELCOME

Welcome to the January 2006 issue of NewsLink, Information Today, Inc.'s FREE e-mail newsletter for library and information professionals. 

Happy New Year from Information Today, Inc.! 2006 looks to be an exciting year for us, with several of our flagship events already in sight. Our library and information technology conferences have enjoyed continued success for years, and we look forward to seeing many of you again in 2006.

Our 21st annual Computers in Libraries conference and exhibition will again be held at the Washington Hilton in D.C. This year's event will feature 3 keynote speakers and 90 programs over 3 days. This year's theme is Managing Digital: Innovations, Initiatives & Insights. You can register for the early bird event discount now, or get a free exhibit hall pass at https://www.infotoday.com/cil2006.

Buying & Selling eContent is again returning to Scottsdale, Ariz., this April. Top-level content industry executives will gather to discuss major industry trends and issues affecting the content industry. This conference offers the unique networking opportunity for content buyers and sellers. For more information and program specifics, go to http://www.buy-sell-econtent.com.

In publishing news, we are proud to announce the launch of our new magazine for 2006, Streaming Media. For executives in the streaming and digital media industry, Streaming Media magazine is a quarterly publication that is written by streaming media executives and experts. Each issue has a specific theme. For more information, or to register for a free subscription, go to http://www.streamingmedia.com/magazine.

We look forward to seeing you at our events this coming year. If you have any comments or suggestions on any special content you would like to see covered or on how to improve this newsletter and the information held in it, please let us know at newslink@infotoday.com

Best Wishes, 
Tom Hogan, Jr.



2) ITI SNAP POLL

Do you trust the content in Wikipedia? Please comment at https://www.infotoday.com/
 

3) NEWSLINK MONTHLY SPOTLIGHT

Into the 'Tagosphere'

by Paula J. Hane

I recently went to check out Yet Another Search Engine that had just launched (I call it the YASE phenomenon). But this one had a new twist and some intriguing language. Here’s what is posted at the site (http://www.wink.com): “Warning: This isn’t your Dad’s search engine… Wink lets you search across the Tagosphere. If you’re using services like Digg, Furl, Slashdot, or Yahoo! MyWeb, this is your search engine. Find the latest links that people like you think are great. Enjoy!”

Now, you may just be feeling good that you understand the term “blogosphere,” and here we’re thrown a new term, “tagosphere.” While I’d been following the popular use of Web tags, I was introduced to social tagging firsthand when I helped blog several ITI conferences. Readers were able to easily locate blog posts about the Internet Librarian 2005 event because those of us involved agreed to use “IL05” as the way to identify posts about this conference. Tags seem to work best for close-knit social communities.

For an interesting discussion on the pros and cons of tagging, see Mary Ellen Bates’ Online Spotlight column, “Tag—You’re It!” in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of ONLINE. She rightly points out: “Right now, tagging in the general Web is no more useful than metadata was; you miss too much and you find too many irrelevant items.” But, she did point out the usefulness of tagging for finding our own information sources, using the “MyWeb” services. For this, a social tagging-driven search engine like Wink could prove useful.

Wink searches and integrates tag results from multiple sources such as del.icio.us, digg, Furl, SlashDot, and Yahoo! MyWeb. The site promises to add more. The tag results are served up along with Web results provided by Google—since “tag coverage is still thin in some areas,” according to Wink. It also includes user-contributed content that you’ll find under the Wink Answers tab, and it populates many of the Answer concepts with content from Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org). Users can also choose to click on a star to rate a search result.

You can also tag your results directly in Wink and annotate any link with words that you associate with that link. For instance, if you tagged http://www.kodak.com, you could notate it with the terms “camera,” “photography,” and “film.” Your tags are stored in your “My Page,” so if you want to then go look at all the sites you use for photography, http://www.kodak.com and any others that you have tagged will be there.

Other ideas for how to use Wink are in the Field Guide (http://www.wink.com/Wink:field_guide). For example, “Have you just spent hours researching your next vacation or next weeks term paper? …Wink lets you create Collections from all of your tags, classify them and share them with others. You can create, publish and modify your Collections from your My Page.” Users can also choose to subscribe to Collections.

Wink is still in open beta. If you do try it out, be sure to provide feedback so the site can improve. There’s also a Wink blog (http://blog.wink.com). Wink Technologies, Inc. is a venture-backed startup in Mountain View, Calif. It has a team of “search and stats people from Inktomi, Excite, SGI, and Verity.” Om Malik noted in his blog that “Wink is backed by some serious heavy weights: Scott Kurnit of About.com; Ron Conway; Reid Hoffman, Marc Andressen along with Venky Harinarayan (of Cambrian ventures) and David Sze (of Greylock).”

Wink has been fairly well-received, considering how new it is. Some see the new site as solidly part of the Web 2.0 wave of social networking and folksonomies. Some pointed out the inherent weaknesses in tagging while others pointed out the difficulty of gaining visibility as a startup and potential spamming problems.

In SearchEngineWatchBlog, search engine expert Danny Sullivan commented: “Overall, I like the idea of meta tag searching because it can be a useful way to find the latest stuff being bookmarked on popular topics across various tagging communities.” For Wink to succeed, he suggested that it clearly identify the source community in the results—sometimes the URL gives a clue, but not always. He’d also like to see the ability to custom select the communities to include.

Paula J. Hane is Information Today, Inc.’s news bureau chief and editor of NewsBreaks. Her e-mail address is phane@infotoday.com.
 

 

4) NEWSBREAKS
For a complete listing of previous NewsBreaks visit the Information Today, Inc. Web site at https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks

NewsBreaks for Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Wrapping Up 2005; Looking Forward
by Paula J. Hane

2005 was quite a momentous year, by almost any measure—devastating hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, the ongoing war in Iraq, worldwide terrorist attacks, a new pope, changes in the Supreme Court, political wrangling, data thefts, scandals, and more. Possibly the biggest headlines for the year in our world—the library community and the information industry—centered on the various content digitization efforts, particularly Google’s book scanning project, and the reactions of publishers and libraries. The biggest drivers of the news were not traditional information industry companies but “GYM”—Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. Of the 88 NewsBreaks posted this year on the https://www.infotoday.com site, 24 (or 27 percent) covered news from these three or another Internet search company, such as Ask Jeeves, AOL, blinkx, or Amazon. Another 12 articles covered content/service offerings from startups or ot her companies not considered to be “traditional” content providers, including companies like Newstex, Healthline, Inform.com, Answers.com, and PubSub. (You can review the full list of NewsBreaks at https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks.)

--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb060102-1.shtml

NewsBreaks Weekly News Digest

Recommind Introduces MindServer Legal 4.0
Recommind, Inc. (http://www.recommind.com), a provider of search and automated categorization systems, announced the immediate availability of MindServer Legal 4.0, an enhanced version of the company’s flagship legal enterprise search platform. Built on the MindServer platform, new smart-filters now help attorneys quickly pinpoint the critical information they are looking for at the click of a button. The product is designed to give attorneys easy and intuitive tools to find the information they need within the firm, making them more productive and allowing them to better serve their clients.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd060102.shtml#1

EOS Updates EOS.Web
EOS International (http://www.eosintl.com) has released updates to EOS.Web Express and EOS.Web Enterprise, including expanded internationalization and customization setup processes, as well as enhanced collection and authority maintenance capabilities. Based on Microsoft .NET technologies, EOS.Web is designed to be a fast, intuitive, Web-based library information system for special libraries that enables librarians and knowledge services staff to work from anywhere in the world.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd060102.shtml#2

Mamma.com Acquires Copernic Technologies
Mamma.com, Inc. (http://www.mamma.com) has acquired Copernic Technologies, Inc. (http://www.copernic.com) for $15.9 million and the issuance of 2.38 million common shares. Copernic had approximately $5.9 million of revenue and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of approximately $1.8 million in its fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2005. The transaction closed Dec. 22, 2005. Copernic chairman Martin Bouchard will join the company as executive vice president and chief strategist and technology officer. Eric Bouchard, Copernic’s executive vice president of products, will join the company as vice president of research and development; Albert Dang-Vu, Copernic’s vice president of technology, will join the company as vice president of technology.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd060102.shtml#3

 

5) FEATURED ARTICLES

For full-text coverage of the following articles please use the hotlinks provided. 

INFORMATION TODAY
To Have and to Hold
Viewpoint: Association of American Publishers

The siren song of Google’s oft-quoted corporate mission, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” is seductive in its promise to benefit humanity. But like all Utopian visions, this one has its limitations dictated by countervailing public interests, such as the right to privacy, security considerations, and the ability to own property.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/it/jan06/viewpoint.shtml

ONLINE Magazine
The New Life Cycle of Business Information
By Marydee Ojala

Ten years ago, the life cycle of business information was more predictable and less chaotic than it is today. You could trace the development of a news item about a company, industry, or product with a fair amount of certainty as to where you were in the process. Information creation, and its subsequent retrievability, progressed in a relatively linear fashion. Understanding the life cycle of business information helped researchers gauge the validity and reliability of the information they found.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/online/jan06/DollarSign.shtml

COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES
Keep Your Small Network Sailing Safely in Dangerous Waters
By Jim Semmelroth

Following a few fundamental procedures can go a long way toward protecting your small network from hacking pirates, adventurous patrons, and careless crew members. Reliably providing electronic services has become increasingly difficult for small public libraries as the Internet environment has become increasingly threatening. Our communities expect us to provide the latest information services, but skilled and experienced technical support is often in short supply in these smaller libraries and communities. What is a librarian to do?
--> https://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jan06/semmelroth.shtml

SEARCHER Magazine
Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy
By Laura Gordon-Murnane

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, the Bush administration has issued important and far-ranging policy directives that include executive orders, memoranda, and new legislation, all designed to ensure the safety of the nation and protect the American public against future terrorist attacks. At the same time, these very policy changes have profoundly impacted how American citizens gain access to taxpayer-supported government information. Frequently, news stories highlight the removal of reports, database files, and documents once available to the American public that have become unavailable due to national security concerns.
--> https://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan06/Gordon-Murnane.shtml

MULTIMEDIA & INTERNET@SCHOOLS
Digging into Databases--Using Databases to Inspire Novel Approaches to Creating Curriculum
By Sarah Cooper

Databases can inspire novel approaches to creating curriculum. As teachers become familiar with them, their thinking about lesson planning and student research often moves in innovative directions. In this article, Sarah Cooper describes five projects through which librarians can take the lead in helping history and English teachers see the potential of this new world of sources. Included is coverage of database resources from Accessible Archives, Country Watch, EBSCO, Gale, JSTOR, LexisNexis, NewsBank, The OED Online, and ProQuest.
--> http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/
ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=10686

EContent
What Ever Happened to “Eureka!”?
By Martin White

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Alta Vista in December 1995 and more than 40 years since the first full-text search engine with Boolean operators became operational. Indeed, most of the features now commonplace on enterprise search engines had been developed and commercialized by the mid-1970s. So you would think that the use of enterprise search technology would be well-established and reliable by now.
--> http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/
ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=14536&ContextSubtypeID=10

LINK-UP DIGITAL
Web Linking: Is It Legal or Not?
By Reid Goldsborough

If interactivity is the defining characteristic of the Internet in general, linking is the defining characteristic of the Web in particular. By creating hypertext documents and including links to related information within or outside their sites, Web authors can greatly multiply the information they provide.
 --> https://www.infotoday.com/linkup/lud010206-goldsborough.shtml



6) CONFERENCE CONNECTION
Get the latest event information available for the library and information fields in the Conference Connection. The Conference Report/Update gives you an inside look at the most recent information industry events, while the Conference Calendar is updated monthly to provide you with important contact information for up-and-coming industry events. 

CONFERENCE REPORT/UPDATE

21st Annual Computers in Libraries-Register Now
ITI's 21st annual Computers in Libraries conference is once again being held in Washington, D.C., this spring. Join us from March 22-24, 2006, at what has become the leading conference for librarians and information professionals who need to know about the latest technologies, equipment, software, and services available.

This year's theme is Managing Digital: Innovations, Initiatives & Insights. The CIL 2006 program has been expanded to include three keynote speakers and 90 programs.

The program is available online at https://www.infotoday.com/cil2006.

Register now and save $100 on the conference.

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

January 2006

January 18 - 21; SLA Leadership Summit (Winter Meeting). Houston, TX.
http://www.sla.org

January 20 - 26; ALA Midwinter. San Antonio, TX
http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/midwinter/2006/home.htm

January 31 - February 1; SIIA Information Industry Summit. New York, NY
http://www.siia.net/events/prereg.asp?eventid=520

For the complete Conference Calendar visit https://www.infotoday.com/calendar.shtml
 

 

7) BOOKSHELF


The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders
By Gwen Meyer Gregory

The Successful Academic Librarian, expertly edited by academic librarian, writer, and speaker Gwen Meyer Gregory, is an antidote to the stress and burnout that almost every academic librarian experiences at one time or another. Gregory and nearly 20 of her peers and mentors take a practical approach to a full range of critical topics facing the profession.

October 2005/256 pp/softbound
ISBND: 1-57387-232-6
Regular price: $39.50

To purchase this title, please go to https://books.infotoday.com/books/sucaclib.shtml .
 



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CRM eWeekly: http://www.destinationcrm.com/newsletter/
 
 

Sponsor - Buying & Selling EContent

Click here to learn more!

If you buy, sell, distribute, or market electronic content, or provide
content technology solutions, plan now to attend Buying & Selling eContent, April 9-11, 2006, at the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona. This 3-day event is the place to be to build relationships and explore deals.

http://www.Buy-Sell-EContent.com


©2006 Information Today, Inc. all rights reserved.

This newsletter is published by Information Today, Inc.
Editor in Chief: Tom Hogan, Jr.
Managing Editor: David G. White
143 Old Marlton Pike
Medford, NJ 08055
Phone: (609) 654-6266 Fax: (609) 654-4309
Web site: https://www.infotoday.com/default.shtml
E-mail: newslink@infotoday.com