News
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045235 |
| Pages | 214-220 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
News
Internet navigation eased
Significant new resources have been
made available to help users find their
way around the 10 000 connected net-
works on the Internet.
They are financed by the US Na-
tional Science Foundation
as
part of its
Network Information Centre Manager
Project, known in brief
as
the InterNIC.
The aim is to make the Internet 'easier
to use and more accessible to a broader
segment of the US Research and Educa-
tional Communities, enabling even
non-technical
users to
take advantage
of
its services.' One does not, however,
need to be American to benefit.
As a result of a Project Solicitation
last year, three organisations have been
chosen to provide InterNIC facilities.
Network Solutions Inc. is providing
Internet Information Provider registra-
tion services, in cooperation with the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority,
and is working towards automating this
process. Details of those registering will
contribute towards directory database
compilation.
AT&T is providing directory serv-
ices free of charge to all Internet users,
including a Directory of Directories
which lists File Transfer Protocol (ftp)
sites and white and yellow page tele-
phone information. It is also hosting
other database services and document
collections on a server which the Na-
tional Science Foundation and its affili-
ates wish to make generally available.
General Atomics/CERFnet is to act
as the Network Information Centre of
first and last resort and
the
NIC of
NICs,
with representatives staffing
a
reference
desk. Its services will include the In-
foSource, an online collection of In-
ternet information which makes it eas-
ier to find and access people, resources
and projects, and someone called an In-
foScout, who will be dedicated to
'scouting' out new resources.
The US National Science Founda-
tion is responsible for NSFNET, re-
garded as the backbone of the US por-
tion of
the
Internet.
Current awareness,
document delivery
The Colorado-based UnCover service
for faxed delivery of images of journal
articles has made two notable moves.
One has been to finalise
a
joint ven-
ture tie-up with the UK publisher and
distributor, BH Blackwell Ltd. The
other is to have sealed an agreement for
articles published by John Wiley &
Sons
to be
scanned, digitised, stored and
faxed to remote customers on demand.
Like the publishers already participat-
ing, Wiley will receive copyright pay-
ment for each article supplied, together
with statistical information about the
use of
its
material.
Following the joint-venture launch,
CARL Systems will continue to market
UnCover as part of its library manage-
ment system, but in addition Blackwell
and Readmore Inc. will be actively pro-
moting the service to their clients.
Since its introduction by CARL
Sys-
tems Inc., UnCover has delivered
nearly 50 000 articles to homes, offices
and libraries and demand has increased
by 400%. The Blackwell tie-up raises
the size of the database from 13 600 to
over 20 000
titles.
Clients search online
information about the titles, authors,
etc.
of articles and then order the page
images of choice to be sent to their fax
machines.
New ordering options are being de-
veloped to suit high-volume users, and
a graphical front end is planned.
Trends towards single-document de-
livery, rather than journal subscription,
have been further illustrated by deals
between The Research Libraries
Group and two US state universities.
These give unlimited use of various
RLG CitaDel databases in
the case
of all
nine of Florida's and 12 out of 20 of
California's university campuses.
Florida's Director of University Li-
braries says 'this is the first step in a
very important transition away from
ownership and towards supplying infor-
mation on demand through interlibrary
loan of materials listed in RLIN and
through CitaDel's document-delivery
service. That change is critical because
we
recognise that it
is
no longer possible
for us to acquire everything our library
patrons need.'
Site licences have become available
for Faxon Finder, a current awareness
multi-disciplinary database which in-
cludes tables of contents and individual
article citations from over 9300 journals
from January
1990.
Foreign language as
well as English titles are covered.
Site licensing options from Faxon
Research Services include for the Cur-
rent Database, which includes all 1992
and 1993 data, or else a one-off fee for
any or
all
of the backfiles. Alternatively,
an on-going subscription to the data-
base can be taken out for 1994 and be-
yond. Full details can be obtained from
the Cambridge, Massachusetts office or
from the Faxon UK one, which has just
relocated from Leamington Spa to the
University of Warwick Science Park.
A new current awareness diskette for
the field of veterinary science and medi-
cine has been announced by the Insti-
tute for Scientific Information (ISI).
FocusOn: Veterinary Science and
Medicine will be published monthly
with some 2500 items each time. Intro-
ductory pricing is $215 for the year and
diskettes are available in PC, Mac and
NEC PC 9800 series formats.
An electronic table of contents serv-
ice,
SwetScan, has been launched by
Swets and Zeitlinger in conjunction
with Pica, the centre for cooperative li-
brary automation in The Netherlands.
There is coverage of more than 7000
core scientific journals with availability
on magnetic tape, diskette, and online
through DataSwets as well as on paper.
A
database called 48 Hours has been
launched by BRS Online Products as
214 The Electronic Library, Vol.
11,
No. 3, June 1993
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