|
|
Weekly News Digest
 |
May 5, 2003 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
|
MarketResearch.com Launches New Version
MarketResearch.com has launched Version 3.0 of its site with enhancements designed to make locating relevant business intelligence easier. The new site, based on months of client feedback and testing, has been completely redesigned with more intuitive navigation, additional browse features, and new search functionality.MarketResearch.com has added a "Matching Categories" feature that classifies search results into relevant industry groups. These functions not only allow clients to perform searches within specific topic categories, but also give users the ability to refine their searches using keywords, publisher name, date published, price, and geographic region. MarketResearch.com offers 50,000 research reports covering hundreds of industries and geographic regions. The continuously updating research collection comes from over 350 leading research firms and consultancies worldwide. Searching is free but registration is required for full access to view report abstracts and tables of contents, search inside reports, and submit requests to Research Specialists. Reports are priced by the provider and are purchased by credit card. In 1998, Rob Granader formed Kalorama Information, LLC and acquired substantially all the assets of FIND/SVP's published products division. In May 2000, Kalorama Information officially incorporated as MarketResearch.com, Inc. Source: MarketResearch.com
British Library Opens New Online Image Service
The British Library (BL) has introduced a new service that offers access to thousands of unique and unusual images from the illuminated manuscripts, archive photographs, maps, and engravings held by the BL. Images Online (http://www.bl.uk/imagesonline) enables users to search thousands of items from library collections and currently contains around 8,000 images, ranging from medieval depictions of witchcraft to Lewis Carroll's original drawings for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The library hopes to have some 17,000 images online by the end of the year.While many of these have come from the Picture Library's existing collection of transparencies, some 2,500 are newly digitized images from manuscripts, maps, Asia Pacific and Africa collections, music, and philately. Developed in collaboration with image management company iBase, Images Online offers users a sophisticated search facility--including keyword or shelfmark searches and browsing by subject--and the option to buy and download small image files. A link to the Picture Library allows users to order larger files; any image on the site can be supplied as a 30 megabyte TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) on CD-ROM, or a transparency may be available. Source: The British Library
NISO Releases OpenURL Standard, Questions Patent Filing
NISO (National Information Standards Organization) announced it has learned that an international patent application was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) by Openly Informatics, Inc. The organization said it subsequently learned that Openly Informatics also filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Nov. 10, 1999. Openly Informatics is a NISO voting member and Eric Hellman, president of Openly Informatics, is a member of NISO's OpenURL standards committee.On its face, the description of the "invention" in the patent filing mirrors the OpenURL Framework, the basis for NISO's OpenURL standard. Learning of this patent application was of great concern. One of NISO's aims is to create a body of standards that is open, and fully and freely available, with no impediments to implementation. NISO said it researched the Openly Informatics patent applications. NISO then asked Hellman to state in writing that the patent application and the patent, if granted, would not prevent the implementation of the OpenURL Standard and that people can use the OpenURL Standard without running afoul of the patent. Hellman provided a statement and it is being reviewed. The following is from Hellman's letter posted on the NISO site: "It is clear in the complete filing that the technology disclosed in this filing is not essential or necessary for implementation of the proposed OpenURL standard, and that organizations can implement the Standard without infringing on the patent, even if it were to be granted in full." The OpenURL Standard, version 1.0 was released as a Draft Standard for Trial Use April 15, 2003 and the trial implementation period commenced May 1. This new draft standard is the culmination of two years of committee work. Source: NISO
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
|
