Inmagic, Inc. has releases BiblioTech PRO v2.5, aimed at giving corporate library and information centers the enhanced ability to customize resources to local standards. It is being released in conjunction with BibSpeed v2.5, a Web-enabling module for searching a BiblioTech PRO database over a corporate intranet or the Internet, creating a virtual library and virtual reference environment. The combination gives libraries the ability to customize search and results screens, new conversion programs to import NTIS, Dialog, and Reference Manager content, the ability to create online help, and self-service check-in and checkout of materials [800/229-8398; www.inmagic.com].

ManagementFirst, a management information portal produced by U.K.-based information science publisher Emerald, has updated and enhanced content aimed at information professionals seeking management information. ManagementFirst features articles, discussion forums, case studies, book reviews, and guru interviews with top management theorists and practitioners; content focus is theory and practice provided in a readily digestible style. A number of core management subject areas are covered, including management styles, marketing, strategy, change management, human resources, innovation, quality, knowledge management, and e-business [+44 (0) 1274 785280; www.managementfirst.com].

Peopleware

Marydee Ojala, editor of ONLINE, gave the keynote address at the Southern African Online Information Meeting in June 2003. She spoke on pricing and payment trends in the online information industry.

Comtex News Network appointed Raymond P. Capece to the position of president and chief executive officer. Charles W. Terry, former CEO, has resigned from the position and from the board of directors, but will remain available to the company on a consulting basis. Most recently, Capece served as president and chief operating officer of ExactOne, Inc.

Scholastic Inc. chose Joe Reynolds as president of Scholastic Library Publishing. Mr. Reynolds will report directly to Scholastic's chairman, CEO, and president, Richard Robinson. Most recently, Mr. Reynolds was president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning.

The PsycINFO department of the American Psychological Association (APA) appointed Leslie Kent Kunkel to the position of Customer Relations Manager. She will be APA's primary liaison between the library community and the PsycINFO management team, advocating for customer interests in the areas of product content and development, database education and training, and technical documentation and support.

Thomson Financial selected Sarah Dunn as executive vice president and chief content officer, Thomson Financial Research. She will replace former president Bob Bulik and will be responsible for acquiring and adding value to the content used by Thomson Financial products and services and its redistributors.

Innovative Interfaces appointed William Ho as director of sales, Australia and New Zealand, to be based in Sydney. Ho was previously director of iGroup (Australasia) Pty. Ltd.

Knovel Corporation chose Mark Sauter as director of North American sales. Sauter will look for new opportunities in the North American academic and consortia market for Knovel's products and services and to further expand its sci-tech reference services into the academic marketplace.

Online Services

Swets Blackwell recently concluded agreements with several publishers of professional titles to provide access to their online journal content via SwetsWise. Agreements have been reached with Australian Academic Press, Boom Publishers, Central European Science Journals, Radcliffe Medical Press, and Supply Chain Knowledge Centre (SCKC) of the Cranfield School of Management. SwetsWise content now includes 12 million searchable references and links to full-text articles from Elsevier Science, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, OECD, Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley, and Springer-Verlag [+31 252 435 584; www.swetsblackwell.com].

A new enhancement to Version 6.0 of the Internet Database Service (IDS) from Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) has been released with the addition of a new "Global Marking" capability. This feature allows users to collect marked records from multiple databases and multiple searches and Save/Print/E-mail the group all at once. In addition, subscribers to SAGE Full-Text Collection databases can now mark records displayed in a SAGE journal Table of Contents (TOC) view. The IDS 6.1 upgrade is delivered automatically to all IDS subscribers at no cost, and users do not have to change login links or any other settings as a result [301/961-6761; www.csa.com].

H.W. Wilson has announced enhancements to its redesigned WilsonWeb reference database service, reflecting customer and reviewer feedback since its release in January 2003. The new features include All-Smart Search Query, Keyword search capability, Bound Phrase searching, and a choice between Boolean and natural language capabilities [800/367-6770; hwwilson.com].

Alliances & Deals

Dialog has announced that the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) has incorporated Dialog as a lead information provider in the NHS's new extranet serving users in England. The NHS's contract with Dialog, with an initial phase of 3 years, eventually will see up to 1.2 million healthcare professionals and administrators in England linked through the NHS extranet. NHS's choice of Dialog is part of the £4.8 million National Core Content Project designed to provide NHS staff and its constituents with online access to a core collection of key electronic knowledge resources. Other information vendors contracted by the NHS are ProQuest and BioMed [800/3-DIALOG; 919/462-8600; www.dialog.com].

FluentMedia has enhanced its offering of deep industry and specialized content with the addition of Primedia Business Magazines & Media and Thomson Media. The licensing agreement includes Primedia journals such as Telephony, American School & University, Waste Age, National Real Estate Investor, Fire Chief, and Ward's Auto World, along with access to Primedia Insight, a news wire aggregator. Thomson publications offered in the deal include American Banker, the Bond Buyer, Bank Loan Report, High Yield Report, Investment Dealers' Digest, and Private Placement Letter. FluentMedia has also expanded the scope of its international sources by adding BBC Monitoring to its list of media partners. BBC Monitoring will supply FluentMedia with daily news feeds and commentary gathered from mass media around the world [323/660-9004; www.fluentmediainfo.com].

Searchfeed.com, a leader in Cost-Per-Click search technology, has announced the incorporation of its paid keyword content onto Addresses.com, the largest e-mail address database and directory on the Web. With the addition of Addresses.com, advertisers have the ability to reach a more diverse audience and access information grouped into content channels. Paid search results provided by Searchfeed.com are submitted by advertisers and reviewed by an editorial team [Searchfeed: 866/359-9237; www.Searchfeed.com; www.addresses.com].

The Thomson Corporation and Elite Information Group, Inc. have signed an agreement under which Thomson will acquire Elite, and join West as part of the Thomson Legal & Regulatory market group. Elite's management team, led by Christopher K. Poole, Elite chairman and chief executive officer, will continue to lead the business from the company's headquarters in Los Angeles [Thomson: 215/386-0100; www.thomson.com; Elite: 323/642-5200; www.elite.com].

Search Engines

Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) has unveiled FAST Data Search 3.2, an advanced version of its real-time search solution designed for organizations seeking departmental or enterprise-wide solutions. Offered as FAST Data Search Professional, FAST Data Search Enterprise, and FAST Data Search SST, the product line expands with these two new features: Live Analytics, which enables "on-the-fly" data and information analysis with a drill-down capability without needing pre-defined binning of the data; and Business Manager's Control Panel, in which managers can tune the search attributes of the data source to ensure specific user search queries that optimize both the relevance for the end user and reflect business objectives [781/304-2495; www.fastsearch.com].

MuseGlobal, Inc. has announced a new authentication option to MuseSearch, providing more flexible alternatives for retrieving data from subscription-based HTTP sources. The new feature eliminates the need to configure individual browsers and simplifies administration by including the Muse Proxy Server with a rewriting filter component. In this way, authentication is maintained and the user is not required to individually log on to the content provider servers [775/832-6698; www.museglobal.com].

Biomedical

Dialog has enhanced its ToxFile database by integrating additional material to its range of articles, reports, and proceedings related to toxicology. Previously, ToxFile on Dialog consisted of only journal materials provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), a dataset also referred to as TOXLINE Core. To that, Dialog has added material from TOXLINE Special, also provided by the NLM, which consists of 15 datasets covering toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas, as well as references from specialized journals and sources published by government departments and international organizations [800/3-DIALOG; 919/462-8600; www.dialog.com].

ProQuest Company's Information and Learning unit signed a limited exclusive agreement with Kluwer Academic Publishers that will bring the full text of 63 medical journals to the company's ProQuest online databases, including ProQuest Medical Library, MEDLINE with Full Text, and other databases. The agreement allows ProQuest to electronically distribute Kluwer's journal content to educational institutions, libraries, and other markets around the world. Full text for all new Kluwer title additions will begin with 1999 issues and move forward. Current content will be subject to a 12-month embargo [800/521-0600; 734/761-4700; www.proquest.com].

FIZ Karlsruhe has announced the release of the PCTGEN database, a new source of nucleotide and amino acid sequence information. Containing sequence and patent application information submitted electronically to the World Intellectual Property organization, PTCGEN includes both the nucleotide and peptide sequences, as well as bibliographic data. The database is comprised of 1.5 million records from August 2001 to date [+49 7247 808 555; www.fiz-karlsruhe.de].