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Weekly News Digest

August 24, 2009 — 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.

ProQuest Adds New Content to Periodicals Archive Online

ProQuest, LLC (www.proquest.com) announced that Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) offers three more ways to build a library's research archive with the addition of The Spectator to Collection 7, the launch of Collection 8, and the development of 5 additional years of coverage for journals in Collections 1-5. Periodicals Archive Online is an online journal archive that digitizes the backfiles of periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, providing access to the full text of a growing number of titles that have been indexed in its sister database, Periodicals Index Online.

The inclusion of The Spectator in the completed Collection 7 (available from September) makes available exclusively the complete digital backfile from 1828 to 2000. This prestigious weekly publication is the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language and represents an essential resource for researchers, offering a unique record of this period.

Collection 8, which has also now launched, targets leading periodicals for inclusion. The choice of journals is based on their scholarly importance and is informed by recommendations from an international selection of librarians. Journals nominated by publishers and users are also considered. Among the titles in the first release of this collection are: Essays in Arts and Sciences, International Journal on World Peace, Psychiatry, and Science & Society.

Developed in response to customer demand, Collection Extensions offer additional years of content, from 1996 to 2000, for journals in Collections 1-5. Collection Extensions 1 and 2 are now available, with Extensions 3-5 to follow in 2010. As well as providing extra content for key publications, the Collection Extensions will extend the coverage of many journals to the point at which coverage often commences in current file services, offering institutions seamless electronic access to numerous complete journal runs.

More than 550 journals are featured in Periodicals Archive Online, representing more than 14 million pages and almost 200 years of scholarship. Libraries receive perpetual rights to content when they purchase PAO collections.

Source: ProQuest, LLC

Courtport Launches FreeCourtDockets.com with Free Pacer Docket Access

Courtport, LLC (www.courtport.com), a legal research and technology company, announced the launch of its free federal court docket retrieval site, Free CourtDockets (http://freecourtdockets.com), which enables anyone to retrieve full court dockets from any U.S. District Court (civil, criminal, or bankruptcy), as well as from the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Claims, and the U.S. Court of International Trade.

To manage its data costs, the site may limit how many dockets a user can retrieve in a single day, but no paid subscription or credit card information is required. As advertising revenue continues to increase, this limitation will be increased or eliminated. At this time access is granted by invitation only, and anyone can quickly apply for an invitation on the site.

The site allows dockets to be retrieved and updated using a simple interface, but customers who need a greater volume of court record access with more sophistication can get it using Courtport's customized software. Free CourtDockets does not provide searching by names of participants; users must already have a docket number for retrieval. According to a company representative, users can locate a docket number by using "http://dockets.justia.com, (civil only) Google, Pacer, or many other sources."

Courtport, LLC is a privately owned, New York-based company, focused on being a leading provider of inexpensive public record research and retrieval services for professional researchers and the general public. It owns several research sites, including Courtport (http://courtport.com) and Legal Dockets Online (http://legaldockets.com), and is actively seeking investors to expand its operations.

Source: Courtport, LLC

SLA Forms New Professional Interest Group for Taxonomy Professionals

Special Libraries Association (SLA; www.sla.org) announced the formation of a new professional interest division that will focus on issues related to planning, creating, maintaining, and using taxonomies, thesauri, ontologies, authority files, and other controlled vocabularies and information structures. The Taxonomy Division of SLA will provide information professionals interested in these topics a focused professional home base within SLA, cutting-edge learning opportunities, and access to a global network of colleagues.

SLA is organized into divisions representing subject interests, fields, or types of information-handling techniques. SLA Divisions conduct professional development, networking and knowledge programs during the association's annual conference and INFO-EXPO. The new Taxonomy Division will join the ranks of functional, cross-industry professional interest groups such as the Knowledge Management, Competitive Intelligence, and Information Technology Divisions. The Taxonomy Division is chaired by Marjorie M.K. Hlava, president of Access Innovations, Inc. (www.accessinn.com), a company specializing in document processing, database construction, content classification, and project management.

The Taxonomy Division will focus its professional development and networking activities around strategies to organize and structure information so that content is accessible and useful. The division's focus encompasses traditional and emerging approaches to organizing information and the full range of settings in which taxonomies are applied.

Source: Special Libraries Association

U.S. Healthcare Reform Bill Available on FDsys

As lawmakers and Americans discuss healthcare reform, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has made available H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, in electronic and printed form. The bill was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee. The authentic electronic version is available on GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys). GPO authenticated the document by digital signature. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered. A digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document's integrity and authenticity (www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=&packageId=BILLS-111hr3200IH).

FDsys gives the American people a one-stop site to access authentic, published government information. This system allows GPO to receive information from federal agencies in all three branches of government and create a repository for permanent, public access. FDsys offers search capabilities for users such as searching by Congressional Committee, member of Congress, keyword, and date.

The public can purchase a printed version of the bill at GPO's bookstore:

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/actions/GetPublication.do?stocknumber=052-071-01510-8.

The GPO is the federal government's primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing, authenticating, and preserving published U.S. government information in all its forms. GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the federal government. In addition to publication sales, GPO makes government information available at no cost to the public through GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov) and FDsys, and through partnerships with 1,240 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, visit www.gpo.gov.

Source: U.S. Government Printing Office

SirsiDynix Horizon 7.5 and Horizon Information Portal 3.20 Released

SirsiDynix (www.sirsidynix.com), a provider of library automation technology, announced the release of SirsiDynix Horizon 7.5 and Horizon Information Portal (HIP) 3.20. The Horizon integrated library system (ILS) continues to be used by thousands of libraries across the world. This software release supports crucial database upgrades and infrastructure improvements to both Horizon and HIP.

Horizon 7.5 provides support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Sybase ASE 15, giving an upgrade path for Horizon customers running older versions of Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase ASE. HIP has been enhanced to support the latest development environments including Java SE 6, JBoss 4.2.3, and Jetty 6.1.12. These new versions of JBoss and Java also make it possible to take advantage of 64-bit systems, including Microsoft Windows 2008 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0.

Although a major emphasis has been placed on infrastructure improvements for Horizon and HIP, the release also delivers the following enhancements:

*Horizon SIP2 Responder-This product replaces previous versions of the SIP server, and provides faster and more reliable interaction with SIP-based products.

*HIP Search Limit capability-Search limiting has been improved to clearly display search limits or filters which have been applied and allow easy removal of them to broaden search results.

*Horizon Floating Collection functionality for consortia-For those library consortia that have some locations that want to participate in using Floating Collections and some that do not, Floating Collections can now be restricted to specific item loan types and locations, in addition to collection settings.

*Tighter integration of Debt Collect administrative tools-Debt Collect administration has been integrated with the Horizon launcher, taking full advantage of the Horizon staff user interface and security features.

*More than 50 additional software improvements-Details of these improvements are included in the Horizon 7.5 release notes.

Source: SirsiDynix

Safari Books Online Adds Training Video Titles

Safari Books Online (www.safaribooksonline.com), an on-demand digital library for technology, creative, and business professionals, announced that it is offering more than 250 new training videos from top training video companies such as Total Training, Inc.; Talented Pixie; Class On Demand, Inc.; Skill-Pill; and PeepCode. Many of the videos are available now, with the rest coming online over the next month.

With Total Training and Talented Pixie videos alone, Safari Books Online customers will have a one-stop shop for finding any video about Adobe's Creative Suite 4 as well as a full set of training videos for CS3 products. The other video producers add important training opportunities for Safari Books Online users seeking to improve their business skills or other professional development skills.

Training video companies will be adding the following content to Safari Books Online's library:

*Total Training-This will add 151 Total Training titles (700-plus hours) to Safari Books Online's library when completed. The list of videos includes tutorials on all Adobe CS3 and CS4 products.

*Talented Pixie-The expanded list of 36 training videos being added includes a complete list of Adobe CS3 and CS4 titles on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign, and Acrobat.

*Class on Demand-This will add 28 titles focusing on topics for creative professionals and digital-media enthusiasts.

*Skill-Pill-The company will add 30 business titles about various business skills such as effective communications and leadership.

*PeepCode-This will add 12 titles about professional development topics such as Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Git, Objective-C, and Clojure.

Safari Books Online offers a range of product mixes and pricing programs for organizations, government agencies, and individuals. Subscribers have access to thousands of books, training videos and prepublication manuscripts in one fully searchable database.

Source: Safari books Online