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Weekly News Digest
June 23, 2011 — 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. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITI’s Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

Deep Web Technologies Adds Multilingual and Multimedia Search Capabilities

Multilingual federated search was previously only available as a beta release to users of the WorldWideScience.org gateway to global science; it is now available to all Deep Web Technologies customers who require seamless access to foreign language documents. Explorit’s multilingual search capability translates a user’s search query into the native languages of the collections being searched, aggregates and ranks these results according to relevance, and translates result titles and snippets back to the user’s original language. The multilingual translation functionality, powered by Microsoft, makes it simple to search collections in multiple languages from a single search box in the user’s native language.

Multimedia federated search, first introduced in the WorldWideScience.org and ScienceAccelerator.gov portals, allows for seamless integration of audio, video, and image content sources into Explorit. WorldWideScience.org searches seven multimedia sources: CDC Podcasts, CERN Multimedia, Medline Plus, NASA, NSF, NBII LIFE, and ScienceCinema. ScienceCinema is an example of the ability to search speech indexed multimedia content. The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) developed ScienceCinema in partnership with Microsoft. When multimedia sources are included in an Explorit search, images and links to multimedia content can be presented alongside text results or in a separate results tab.

Source: Deep Web Technologies

Elsevier and Molecular Connections Develop Two New Applications on SciVerse Applications

“Due to the enormous amount of published scientific information, applications that refine and simplify search results, or assist in creating a targeted query, can significantly benefit researcher workflows,” said Vidyendra Sadanand, chief technology officer of Molecular Connections.

“Molecular Connections has significant expertise in providing solutions to the life science research community,” said Rafael Sidi, vice president, Application Marketplace and Developer Network at Elsevier. “We look forward to continuing our work with Molecular Connections and the developer community to deliver applications that will improve researchers' productivity.”

SciVerse Applications and the Developer Network provide opportunities for researchers and librarians to collaborate with developers in creating and promoting new applications that improve research workflows. The Developer Network features a growing community of application developers that gain potential recognition, prestige, and revenue through their contributions to SciVerse Applications.

Source: Elsevier

HighBeam Business Launches New Business Blog

“When we asked our HighBeam Business community what further service we could provide to them, they told us that the more up-to-date content on trending business topics and analysis of breaking news we could supply, the happier they would be,” said Matt McCloskey, marketing director, HighBeam Business. “So here is our new business blog—Arrive Prepared! We're committed to providing fresh content throughout week and our team of bloggers is keeping up the pace.”

The Arrive Prepared blog comes at the request of the thousands of HighBeam Business subscribers who strive to have more impactful business conversations. HighBeam Business customers are professionals seeking fast, relevant, high-quality results including detailed industry reports, company profiles, contact information, and millions of articles from more than 10,000 publications. HighBeam Business provides professionals with tools to identify key business information, enabling them to make more informed business decisions, create better presentations, identify new opportunities, increase revenues, and close sales.

Source: Cengage Learning

Springer Launches SpringerReference.com

The Live eReference updates submitted by scientists are peer reviewed to ensure that all content on SpringerReference.com meets the same high standards for quality and integrity that libraries and researchers have come to expect from Springer. These updates are all accessible on one single platform and are interlinked with each other. New articles can easily be added and existing ones updated.

At launch, the new SpringerReference.com gives access to 146 major reference works, corresponding to about 185,000 articles and 220,000 pages. The platform will grow as updates and content are added.

Springer References comprise encyclopedias, handbooks and other types of major reference works. The Springer References are multivolume publications, managed by expert scientific boards of editors. These high-quality tomes consist of an organized sequence of entries and contributions by many different authors. The Reference Editorial Office publishes more than 40,000 entries a year covering a wide spectrum of sciences from biomedicine to engineering, from computer science to environmental science and from mathematics to human sciences. The contributions are written in such a way that the reader will benefit from them, even if the field is not his or her area of expertise. SpringerReference.com can be purchased on a subscription-based model.

Source: Springer

New Additions to the Summon Discovery Service From Serials Solutions

With the Summon service, researchers will be able to easily discover imagery from the Bridgeman collection such as fine art, cultural and historical images spanning every subject, concept, style, and medium. Bridgeman Education represents thousands of image suppliers including artists, museums, galleries, libraries, institutions, universities, stately homes, auctioneers, photographers, picture libraries, and private collections.

Serials Solutions and Elsevier announced their intention that the full-text of SciVerse ScienceDirect content will be indexed within the Summon service. Researchers will be able to search the full text of all ScienceDirect journal articles and ebooks via the Summon service.

Source: Serials Solutions

EPA Releases Two New Databases With Chemical Toxicity and Exposure Data

ToxCastDB users can search and download data from more than 500 rapid chemical tests conducted on more than 300 environmental chemicals. ToxCast uses advanced scientific tools to predict the potential toxicity of chemicals and to provide a cost-effective approach to prioritizing which chemicals of the thousands in use require further testing. ToxCast is currently screening 700 additional chemicals, and the data will be available in 2012.

ExpoCastDB consolidates human exposure data from studies that have collected chemical measurements from homes and childcare centers. Data include the amounts of chemicals found in food, drinking water, air, dust, indoor surfaces, and urine. ExpoCastDB users can obtain summary statistics of exposure data and download datasets. EPA will continue to add internal and external chemical exposure data and advanced user interface features to ExpoCastDB.

The new databases link together two important pieces of chemical research—exposure and toxicity data—both of which are required when considering potential risks posed by chemicals. The databases are connected through EPA’s Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR), an online data warehouse that collects data on more than 500,000 chemicals from more than 500 public sources.

Users can now access 30 years worth of animal chemical toxicity studies that were previously only found in paper documents, data from rapid chemical testing, and various chemical exposure measurements through one online resource. The ability to link and compare these different types of data better informs EPA’s decisions about chemical safety.

Source: EPA