Report from the Field
Search Engines: 1999 Conference
Three themes emerged during 2 intense days in Boston: visualization, metadata and categorization, and pursuit of the elusive user.
by Susan Feldman — Page 1

Report from the Field
Second International Conference on VCs
Though sometimes confusing, the recent virtual communities conference in Bath, England, was nonetheless an excellent event.
by Ev Brenner — Page 20
 

DJI and Reuters Merge Their Business Information Services
by Barbara Quint and Richard Poynder — Page 1

Northern Light Receives $35 Million in Funding
by Paula J. Hane — Page 1

Primark Rolls Out Piranha
by Richard Poynder — Page 7

NewsEdge Offers New Insight on the News
by Paula J. Hane — Page 16

DJI Offers Competitive Intelligence Resources, Free Portal Service for Web Users
by Barbara Quint — Page 24

Quint’s Online
More Practices We’d Like to See Less
Barbara Quint blasts the marketing practices that some vendors employ to “ambush” their loyal customers. — Page 12

Online Insights
Art, Opera, and The Bard
Paul Blake notes that arts and literature publishing companies have been slow getting to the Web, but describes three significant new resources that are reversing this trend. — Page 14

Database Review
iVillage Creates Web Global Village
Mick O’Leary reports on the virtues of iVillage, a multifaceted Web community for women. — Page 22

Legal Line
Keep in Touch from Any Place, at Any Time
Cary Griffith notes that Legal Anywhere is an extranet application that provides a sophisticated infrastructure for collaborating on virtually any kind of project at any time, from practically any location.  — Page 29
 

Company Announcements

• Securities Data Publishing Launches SDPonline, Expands Distribution Agreement with Dow Jones Interactive Publishing— Page 10
• SilverPlatter Announces Improvements to Web Site, Plus New Partnerships, Additions— Page 17
• OCLC Adds to OCLC FirstSearch, Reports on International Library Directors’ Conference— Page 26
• SIIA Announces Plans for Upcoming Conference— Page 28
• Primark Announces Agreement with Dow Jones for Real-Time News— Page 32
• Blackwell’s Awards Management of EJN IT Infrastructure to Ingenta— Page 34

Internet Insights
Sorting Out the Wheat from the Chaff
Péter Jacsó compares the multimedia searching features of seven different search engines. — Page 38

Internet Waves
How I Overcame the Bandwidth Barrier
Shirley Kennedy relays her recent experience with cable modems, and discusses other options for making life on the Internet more bearable. — Page 44

 Internet Announcements

• New Ei Computing Village Goes Live— Page 35
• Dialog’s Intranet Delivery Tool Enhances Information Management — Page 35
• EBSCO to Offer New Publishers’ Journals on EBSCO Online— Page 36
• SwetsNet Adds Content from Publishers, Teams with MDL— Page 37
• LEXIS-NEXIS Launches Web Site for Information Professionals— Page 36
• Facts On File News Service Site Goes Live— Page 37

Focus on Publishing
Access for Everyone—Sort Of
Robin Peek discusses how the definition of Web access is broadening in an attempt to ensure that all Web formats—from HTML to multimedia and graphics to internationalization—will ultimately be usable regardless of the browser and type of  viewing/playback technology available. — Page 48

Internet Publishing Announcements

• Inxight Finds ‘Things’ in Text with Thing Finder — Page 47
• NuvoMedia Adds Self-Publishing Features to Its Rocket eBook— Page 47
• SolutionSoft Ships WordToWeb 2.0, an Upgraded HTML Conversion Tool— Page 50
• Reed Technology to Build Congressional Quarterly Publishing System — Page 50
• Redherring.com to Use Change Detection Solution — Page 50
• SoftBook Press Introduces Publishing Solutions for Corporate Customers — Page 51

CD/DVD Commentaries

It Took a While, but DVD-Audio Is Here
Péter Jacsó notes that DVD-Audio may be better quality-wise, but he doubts whether our damaged ears can really discern the difference between it and CD-Audio. — Page 54

CD/DVD Announcements

• Primary Source Media Launches The Vietnam Era CD-ROM— Page 53
• Alcita Technologies Unveils IDEplex for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Integration— Page 53
• Memorex Introduces DVD-ROM Kit— Page 54
• The Foundation Center Releases Version 3.0 of FC Search CD-ROM— Page 55
• Smart Storage Announces Name Change from SmartCD to SmartStor— Page 57
• R.R. Bowker Unveils New Children’s Reference CD— Page 58

The Systems Librarian
Behind the Scenes at an IUG Meeting
Terry Ballard reports on his experiences last year and this year as AV coordinator at the Innovative Users Group annual conferences. — Page 60

Library Systems Announcements

• Winnebago Software Announces Spectrum 4— Page 59
• EBSCO Acquires CARL Corporation’s NoveList— Page 59
• Massachusetts Library Enters 90 Millionth OCLC Request— Page 62
• Endeavor Opens New Office in the U.K.— Page 62
• Kansas, New Hampshire Contracts to Auto-Graphics— Page 63
• Best-Seller Implementations in France— Page 64

• Calendar — Page 67
• Book Review

Designing Web Interfaces to Library Services and Resources
by Kristen L. Garlock and Sherry Piontek, reviewed by Gwen Gregory — Page 69
• People Line — Page 73

• Index to Advertisers