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Newsletter No. 198

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View the fully formatted version free at:
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.pdf>
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                             FreePint
         "Helping 76,000 people use the Web for their work"
                     http://www.freepint.com/

ISSN 1460-7239                               19th January 2006 No.198
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                           IN THIS ISSUE
                           -------------

                             EDITORIAL

                       MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
                          By Vernon Prior

                           FREEPINT BAR
                    In Association with Factiva
                   a Dow Jones & Reuters Company

                   JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
                            Researcher
                     Information Professional
                          Head of Library
               Senior Researcher, Corporate Finance
                Graduate Research Library Assistant
                      Lead Search Specialist
                    Sector Specialist (Energy)

                           TIPS ARTICLE
         "Engineering: the changing information landscape"
                         By Roddy MacLeod

                              REVIEW
  "The Library and Information Professional's Internet Companion"
      Written by Alan Poulter, Debra Hion and David McMenemy
                     Reviewed by Adrian Janes

                          FEATURE ARTICLE
         "Trends in business information, provision and use"
                           By Pam Foster

               EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES

                        CONTACT INFORMATION

             ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
            <http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.htm>

                      FULLY FORMATTED VERSION
            <http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.pdf>


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           *** Compare pay-as-you-go services in VIP ***

 The current issue of VIP compares pay-as-you-go services from four
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 VIP compares coverage, search options, results, usability and more:
                      <http://www.vivaVIP.com/>

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                     ***  ABOUT FREEPINT  ***

FreePint is an online network of information searchers. Members
receive this free newsletter twice a month: it is packed with tips
on finding quality and reliable business information on the Internet.

Joining is free at <http://www.freepint.com/> and provides access to a
substantial archive of articles, reviews and events, with answers to
research questions and networking at the FreePint Bar.

Please circulate this newsletter, which is best read when printed out.
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                             EDITORIAL
                          By William Hann

Having just re-read the Editorial in the last issue of FreePint,
I can't help noticing its very positive tone. This is due to it
having been published just five days into the new year, when
resolutions were newly formulated and, therefore, unbroken.

Two weeks later and things have moved on. The focus on 'favourites'
has been replaced by a focus on 'dislikes', and reality has
overtaken good intention.

As an example, an analysis of the many responses to our 'Understanding
the FreePint Community' survey <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36367>,
shows that whereas 92.4% of respondents read the FreePint Newsletter,
it appears that the 'FreePint Gold' section is not just unread,
but unliked. It's good to know, and shows the value of the
feedback-gathering process.

There is also discontent in the business information world, as Pam
Foster reports in her article today. Pam is Editor of FreePint's
sister publication VIP <http://www.vivavip.com/>, which actively
seeks the opinions of its readership of nearly 1,000 senior
decision-makers with budgetary control for choosing information
products. The discontent centres around the Financial Times'
embargo on content delivered through vendors, which is hitting
UK users harder than those in the US.

Whilst there is praise for the regular newsletter summary of the
latest happenings at the FreePint Bar, the commonest Bar-related
member-survey dislike is enquirers who don't summarise the responses
they receive (either offline or online) and post them with a 'thank
you'. This one small change in user behaviour would greatly enhance
the goodwill for all users at the Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar/>.

I'm a great believer in voicing my dislikes (in an appropriate manner)
in the hope that things will improve, however gradually and
imperceptibly. In my tenth year of self-employment, I am starting to
see how lots of small improvements can, over time, grow into something
which really matches user (and customer) expectations and needs.

If you'd like to be more involved in improving the FreePint and VIP
services, then it's not too late to make your opinions heard; either
in the FreePint member survey, or as a member of the VIP readership:

* FreePint Member Survey:
  <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36367>

* VIP for business information:
  <http://www.vivaVIP.com/>  

William Hann
Managing Editor and Founder, FreePint

e: william.hann@freepint.com
t: 0870 141 7474
i: +44 870 141 7474

FreePint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2006

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                       MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
                          By Vernon Prior

* CEO Express <http://www.ceoexpress.com> describes itself as
  'connecting busy executives to information that matters'. It is a
  very comprehensive site for business news and information, with
  links to online publications and technology sites.

* The Economist Style Guide
  <http://www.economist.co.uk/research/StyleGuide/> offers advice on
  good writing practice. It includes tips on how to avoid common
  errors and blunders, and an online quiz to test your writing skills.


* Open Business Club <http://www.OpenBC.com> is a networking site for
  entrepreneurs, business managers, and freelancers. It helps you to
  find new business contacts or partners and identify new markets and
  business opportunities.

* Resource Discovery Network Virtual Training Suite
  <http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk> is a comprehensive set of free online
  tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers
  improve their Internet literacy and IT skills.

* The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)
  <http://www.scip.org> provides training, networking facilities,
  a newsletter, job vacancies and an events diary, as well as
  providing access to a variety of CI resources.

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Operating as Prior Knowledge, Vernon Prior presents seminars on
competitive intelligence, mainly throughout Asia and the Middle East.
More details may be found at <http://www.theknowledge-brokers.com>

Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.com/author/>.

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Download your copy at <http://www.factiva.com/ad/2005/freepint1115> 

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  ***  Survey :: Understanding FreePint as an Online Community  ***

        We're trying to build a better understanding of the
          composition and needs of the FreePint community.

          Please take two minutes to complete our survey:
                <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36367>

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                            FREEPINT BAR
                   <http://www.freepint.com/bar>

                    In Association with Factiva
                   a Dow Jones & Reuters Company

Welcome to another summary of the latest postings to the FreePint Bar. 

A couple of FreePinters are researching Internet use amongst
librarians. One of them wants to "develop a picture of change over
time" <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36652> and the other wants your
thoughts and recollections to include in a chapter of a book. Can you
help? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36648>.

Do you have experience of setting up a network of information
professionals? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36735>. Or do you know if
there is a list of researchers in South America, the Caribbean and
Central America? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36737>.

Are you in the recruitment industry or perhaps you are looking for a
job? The latest edition of the Jinfo Newsletter has just been
published and includes all the latest job listings and advice on "How
to leave gracefully" <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36718>.

Starting on January 16th, the Financial Times is giving away free
Compact Books. Every Monday for six weeks the FT will provide a
complimentary Compact Book along with the paper. Read about it at the
VIP Lounge <http://www.vivavip.com/go/l242>.

VIP Eye No.49 has also just been published and looks at the latest
business information vendor news from companies including LexisNexis,
Factiva, Pearson, infoUSA, Thomson and WSJ.com
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b36650>.

Can you help with these postings: 

* What is a COT code? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36678>.

* Are there statistics on flight delays or cancellations?
  <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36715>.

This posting has had no replies yet: Is there a study that compares
the price of a "basket of goods" across discount chains and
supermarkets? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36653>.

Can you recommend voice recognition software?
<http://www.freepint.com/go/b36706>. How about software to catalogue
Journals? <http://www.freepint.com/go/b36656>.

And finally, do you advertise with Google? If so, do you know how to
get Google campaign information automatically? <
http://www.freepint.com/go/b36729>.

Penny Hann
Production Editor, FreePint
<penny.hann@freepint.com>

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The FreePint Bar is where you can get free help with your tricky
research questions <http://www.freepint.com/bar>

Help with study for information-related courses is available at the
FreePint Student Bar <http://www.freepint.com/student>.

Subscribe to the twice-weekly email digests at
<http://www.freepint.com/subs/>.

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                   JINFO :: JOBS IN INFORMATION
                      <http://www.jinfo.com/>

The Jinfo service enables you to search and advertise
information-related job vacancies.

The Jinfo Newsletter is published free every two weeks, and contains a
list of the latest vacancies along with job-seeking advice. The latest
article is entitled "How to leave gracefully". Read
it online and subscribe free at <http://www.jinfo.com/newsletter/>.

Here are some of the latest featured jobs:

Researcher
  Use your financial online skills - this and other temp roles and
  also a perm post all available in investment banking right now!
  Recruiter: Sue Hill Recruitment
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4654>

Information Professional
  Promoting and increasing usage of STN databases and services.
  Maintain and support existing users, involvement in marketing.
  Recruiter: The Royal Society of Chemistry
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4765>

Head of Library
  We are seeking an experienced library and information professional
  to join a world-class team working in International Development
  Recruiter: Institute of Development Studies.
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4766>

Senior Researcher, Corporate Finance
  Providing business research and due diligence to private equity
  firms, corporate finance boutiques and corporates.
  Recruiter: Armstrong Craven Limited
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4782>

Graduate Research Library Assistant
  LANL has a firmly established reputation as one of the premier
  research and development institutions in the world.
  Recruiter: Los Alamos National Laboratory
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4783>

Lead Search Specialist
  Syngenta are looking for a PhD qualified Chemist, to be a Lead
  Search Specialist, to carry out scientific searches for R&D teams.
  Recruiter: Syngenta
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4793>

Sector Specialist (Energy)
  Energy & Utilities sector experience? Bright and proactive Senior
  Researcher required with some exposure in this sector.
  Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
  <http://www.jinfo.com/go/j4801>

[The above jobs are paid listings]

NB: There are 72 other jobs in the current edition of the Jinfo
Newsletter <http://www.jinfo.com/newsletter/> and over 100 in the
Jinfo database <http://www.jinfo.com/>.

Jinfo -- the best place for information-related job vacancies.

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                            TIPS ARTICLE
         <http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.htm#tips>
         "Engineering: the changing information landscape"
                         By Roddy MacLeod

My first FreePint article on engineering portals appeared back in
issue No. 66 (6th July 2000). Quite a number of things have changed
since that time. The first part of this article revisits some of the
resources I shared back then. The second section is an analysis of
some useful engineering-related digital repositories which have
emerged over the past five years. Finally, the third section comments
on the changing engineering information landscape.


Part 1 - Visit to the Past
--------------------------

Just over five years ago I wrote an article entitled "Panorama of
Engineering Portals" <http://www.freepint.com/issues/060700.htm#tips>,
which appeared in Free Pint No.66. Of the 'portals' identified (and I
recognise that today, most of these resources would no longer be
categorised under that heading), many are no longer available. Those
which seem to have completely disappeared include: Engineering Direct,
Engineers Online (the UK service), Engineering UK, Internet
Connections for Engineering, and the CASTI 'portal'.

Others, though still available, have shifted their focus or content.
For example: i-engineering.com is now an enabler of integrated
e- business technology solutions; 4engineers.com now offers little or
no engineering content; the Engineers4engineers domain has been
'parked'; the MyPlant domain name is currently for sale; ER-Online has
not been updated for a long time; IndustryCommunity appears to be in
abeyance; the EELS service has been frozen for some years; and
E4Engineering has been subsumed into The Engineer
<http://www.theengineer.co.uk>, the well-known trade journal.

The disappearance of so many resources which were once regarded as
high level sites is disappointing, but shows that the engineering
information landscape is constantly evolving.


Part 2 - Brave New World
------------------------

In the meantime, several very useful engineering resources have
emerged, particularly some which can be classified, loosely, as
digital repositories.

What does that loose classification point to? Without getting too
mired in definitions, I quote Peters [1], who wrote: "Digital
repositories, like digital libraries, mean many things to many
people". For present purposes, it should be noted that 'repository'
is generally accepted to mean a central place where data is stored and
maintained, and 'metadata repository' is a repository of data about
data.

With that definition in mind, the Listing of Engineering Repository
Sources <http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/perx/sourceslisting.htm> is a
goldmine of repositories. The Listing is one of the recent
deliverables of the PerX (Pilot Engineering Repository Xsearch)
Project <http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/perx/>, which is part of the
JISC-funded Digital Repositories Programme <http://digbig.com/4fyye>.
It identifies the most significant repositories and metadata
repositories relevant to engineering, and categorises them by
type and coverage.

All of the following examples have been selected from that Listing,
where many more can be found.

For all intents and purposes, the following repositories and metadata
repositories are online databases, some of which provide open access
to their content, and some of which may link, by various means, to the
full text. More importantly, they are excellent sources of
engineering information in their own areas and can all be searched for
free!

Due to the rapid uptake of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) within
academia, there is currently much interest in digital learning
materials, sometimes referred to as learning objects or learning
modules. Learning and teaching repositories help ensure the sharing
and reuse of such materials. Descriptions of four sources of
information about learning materials in engineering follow.

The Geotechnical, Rock & Water (GROW) Digital Library
<http://www.grow.arizona.edu/> is based at the University of Arizona,
and is part of the National Science, Mathematics and Technology
Digital Library (NSDL) <http://nsdl.org/>. In addition to providing
details about, and links to, approximately 1,000 learning resources
produced elsewhere, the GROW Team has also developed over 200
interactive learning objects in civil engineering. All of these are
available from this website.

Also part of the NSDL is the Digital Library Network for Engineering
and Technology (DLNET) <http://www.dlnet.vt.edu/>. DLNET is a learning
object repository with facilities for searching, downloading,
submitting and reviewing learning objects in engineering. Over 1,000
learning objects have been catalogued, but I do not find it the
easiest of sites to browse.

The SMETE Digital Library <http://www.smete.org/smete/> (which was
just emerging when I mentioned it in Free Pint No.66) is easier to
use, though it covers broader ground than just engineering. SMETE
gives access to learning resources of various kinds, and also provides
a federated search facility for content from the National Engineering
Education Delivery System (NEEDS) <http://www.needs.org/needs/> and
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online
Teaching) <http://www.merlot.org/Home.po>.

In the UK, the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre
provides a searchable Resource Database
<http://www.engsc.ac.uk/er/resources/index.asp> of over 1,000 learning
and teaching resources.

Two examples of multimedia repositories are the Structural Engineering
Slide Library <http://nisee.berkeley.edu/godden/godden_intro.html> at
the University of California Berkeley, featuring 550 images collected
between 1950 and 1980 and used in undergraduate courses in structural
analysis and design; and the CALVisual for Construction Image Archive
<http://www.engsc.ac.uk/resources/calvisual/> consisting of images of
bricks, bridges, concrete, damp, defects, scaffolding, etc.

As identified in PerX's Engineering Digital Repositories Landscape
Analysis <http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/perx/analysis.htm>, a number of
substantial engineering technical report repositories give access to
reports published in the USA, for example the NASA Technical Report
Server (NTRS) <http://ntrs.nasa.gov/> and the Caltech Earthquake
Engineering Research Laboratory Technical Reports service
<http://caltecheerl.library.caltech.edu/>. Also available is Public
STINET (Scientific and Technical Information Network)
<http://stinet.dtic.mil/> from the Defense Technical Information
Center (DTIC).

There are, however, few equivalents for the UK. One exception is the
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC)
ePublication Archive <http://epubs.cclrc.ac.uk/>. Nearly 1,000
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Technical Reports are detailed in this
database, along with information on other academic outputs of the
CCLRC (pre-print journal articles, conference presentations/papers,
book chapters, theses and final project reports, etc.). Where copyright
permits, the full text is available.

A fast growing number of UK universities are developing institutional
repositories. An example, with good coverage in engineering. is
Cranfield University's QUEprints <http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/>,
which gives details of, and links to, over 800 items (staff
publications, theses, reports, etc.) produced by academics at that
institution.

A useful repository has been made available by the American Society
for Engineering Education (ASEE). The ASEE Conference Proceedings
Search <http://www.asee.org/about/events/conferences/search.cfm>
provides access to papers presented at ASEE conferences from
1996-2005.

Other useful and freely searchable digital repositories include the
ASCE Research Library <http://ascelibrary.org/> from the American
Society of Civil Engineers. This provides details of, and access to,
more than 18,500 full-text papers from ASCE Journals and Proceedings.
In the UK, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Virtual Library
<http://www.iceknowledge.com/> is "the largest repository of full text
civil engineering papers in the world" with an archive of technical
papers from 1836 to the present day. The full text is available to
subscribers, or by pay-per-view.

The SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) eLibrary
<http://www.spe.org/elibrary/app/search.do> is a repository of
technical papers presented at SPE-sponsored conferences and in SPE's
technical journals since the 1950s, consisting of more than 40,000
documents on drilling, exploration, production, and so on.

In other areas of engineering, the SPIE Digital Library
<http://www.spiedl.org/> includes more than 200,000 optics and
photonics technical papers from SPIE journals and conference
proceedings from 1990 onwards. Full-text is available only to
subscribers, but non-subscribers can search, browse and view the
bibliographic information and abstracts free of charge. The Society
of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Digital Library
<http://www.sae.org/products/digitallibrary.htm> covers SAE Standards
and Technical Papers. Once again, although the Digital Library is a
subscription-based service, its content can be freely searched.

The final metadata repository I will mention may already be familiar:

IEEE Xplore <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/> contains documents from IEEE
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) journals,
transactions, magazines, letters, conference proceedings and
standards, as well as IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers)
publications. Metadata is freely searchable, with access to the full
text via subscription or online article purchase.

Unlike some disciplines, engineering has been slow to develop open
access journals. One of only a few initiatives is Petroleum Journals
Online <http://petroleumjournalsonline.com/>, which is developing six
open access journals in petrophysics, production geology, drilling,
production, reservoir engineering, and petroleum management and
economics.


Part 3 - Trend Talk
-------------------

One thing which seems to have modified the landscape of engineering
information since I described it in 2000 is that there has been a
clearout of several services which offered little more than
directories of websites. More recently, a new breed of service, often
based around a professional society or publicly funded initiative, has
emerged, providing access to scholarly and research output of various
kinds. Engineering papers, reports, standards, learning materials,
images and more can be identified using these various services.
Information (bibliographic details) about the content is free,
and sometimes the content itself is freely available; otherwise the
content is available to subscribers and/or by pay-per-view.

My personal view of the current engineering landscape is that it
remains very complicated and fragmented. Many more sources could
actually be added to the above list, and considerable effort is still
required to locate relevant publications and other materials.

I predict that by the time I once more write for FreePint on this
subject, the engineering information landscape will have changed yet
again. In the future, services will evolve to take advantage of
emerging Web 2.0 technologies. Community-driven services will be the
order of the day, supplemented by aggregation facilities using
metasearch and syndication protocols, and much more. Eventually,
finding engineering information will become a simpler and less
frustrating process, though such a transformation will require
considerable effort, investment and co-ordination.

Reference: 1] Peters, T.A. (2002). Digital repositories: Individual,
discipline-based, institutional, consortial, or national? The Journal
of Academic Librarianship, 28(6), pp. 414-417.

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Roddy MacLeod is Senior Subject Librarian at Heriot Watt University,
Edinburgh. He edits the Internet Resources Newsletter
<http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/>, and manages the PerX Project
<http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/perx/>. He co-edited the 4th edition of
'Information sources in engineering' published by KG Saur in 2005,
and has written extensively on information in engineering.

Email: 
Home page: <http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/libram/roddy.html>

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Related FreePint links:

* 'Engineering' articles in the FreePint Portal
  <http://www.freepint.com/go/p45>
* Post a message to the author, Roddy MacLeod, or suggest
  further resources at the FreePint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.htm#tips>
* Access the entire archive of FreePint content
  <http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>

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                               REVIEW
 "The Library and Information Professional's Internet Companion"
        Written by Alan Poulter, Debra Hion, David McMenemy
                     Reviewed by Adrian Janes

This is a very wide-ranging book which touches on virtually every
aspect of the Internet, from email to web page design, search engines
to the Semantic Web. Given this range, and the book's relative
shortness, in-depth discussion is not a strength. Rather, the subjects
covered are treated in a series of concise introductions. These are
supported with plentiful Web and bibliographic references.

The structure of the book does not always seem logical. For example,
connecting to the Internet is not discussed until Chapter 8. However,
I would suggest that, although it can work as a cover-to-cover read,
this book is better treated as a resource to dip into. The authors
have clearly striven to cover both the well-established aspects of the
Internet as well as to anticipate some technologies (such as Instant
Messaging) that seem likely to have an increasing impact on library
and information work. So you are very likely to find, at least, some
mention of any significant Internet-related technology, besides
pointers to further information.

In a way, the book thus seems oddly contradictory, treating email and
basic searching strategies alongside very contemporary subjects like
blogs, wikis and RSS (Rich Site Summary - it's good for explaining
many mysterious abbreviations). Surely the former are things we've
been working with for years or, in the case of younger professionals,
have grown up with so as to take them for granted? However, I would
argue that the inclusion of such topics confirms the book's
comprehensiveness, as well as providing some valuable reminders of
first principles.

I was pleased that there are at least hints at the Internet's
limitations, and the continuing relevance of books and libraries in
which to house them. Nonetheless, the overriding impression is of the
assumed superiority of electronic information sources and means of
delivery. Given the book's intended audience, I would have liked to
see more discussion of the pros and cons of print and online. Working
in a public library, it is perhaps more striking than in other
environments how so many people make that assumption, and thus the
authority of what a website (merely because it is a website) puts
before them. Unfortunately, unlike the academic libraries from which
the authors draw many of their examples, it is not often possible to
engage in education in information literacy, which might promote a
more balanced attitude and more successful quests for reliable
information.

But what this book chiefly aims to do is at least acquaint information
professionals with the possibilities of the Internet rather than to
debate it, and in this it is certainly successful.

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Adrian Janes began his career in academic libraries. Since 1997 he
has been a reference/information librarian with the London Borough of
Havering library service. Among his influences are Gary Price, Samuel
Beckett and Iggy and the Stooges.

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Related FreePint links:

* Find out more about this book online at the FreePint Bookshelf
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  <http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1856045099/freepint0c>
* "The Library and Information Professional's Internet Companion: A
  Practical Resource for Library and Information Professionals"
  ISBN 1856045099, published by Facet Publishing.
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the FreePint
  Bookshelf at <http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>
* Read about other Internet Strategy books on the FreePint Bookshelf
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To propose an information-related book for review, send details
to <support@freepint.com>.

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                           FEATURE ARTICLE
         <http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.htm#feature>
         "Trends in business information, provision and use"
                           By Pam Foster

The VIP publications, VIP and VIP Eye, are concerned with the business
information industry - its products, its providers and its users. An
analysis of their content for the fourth quarter of 2005 reveals a
number of emerging trends:


Newspapers are struggling to find satisfactory business models
--------------------------------------------------------------

Many newspapers are experiencing falling subscriptions as more and
more readers, especially younger people, shift their reading habits to
the web. Consequently, some newspapers are attempting to protect their
content by pursuing strategies that are unpopular with online users.

In an effort to drive up sales of its FT.com service, the Financial
Times has enforced an embargo of its news content on all vendors.
Today's FT content is available from noon (UK time) onwards. While
this arrangement will have minimal impact on North American users, it
has obvious implications for UK and other European users. Individuals
and organisations that need the FT's electronic content early in the
day will be forced to take out a subscription to FT.com.

According to Pearson's 2005 half-yearly results, sales of the
Financial Times newspaper are falling, while sales of FT.com increased
by more than 20%. However, some critics of the Financial Times claim
that its declining newspaper circulation is not simply due to the
influence of the web but is more to do with coverage. Critics claim
that the paper has become too broad, concerning itself with countries
and politics, rather than with news and analysis of companies and
markets.

In an attempt to make money from its premium content, The New York
Times has launched TimesSelect which provides subscribers with
exclusive online access to 22 Op-Ed Business, Metro and Sports
columnists of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune,
plus the NYT archive and other material. The vast majority of the
NYTimes.com site is still freely available.

A few days after TimesSelect was launched, most of its content could
be found on the web for free, thanks to the activities of bloggers who
either summarised the copyrighted content for their readers or
provided the full text of the material.

At a time when newspapers are facing declining ad revenues, the New
York Times' strategy appears to be ill thought out. TimesSelect
reduces the online exposure of the newspaper's top columnists, which
will surely serve to drive traffic away from the New York Times site
which will, in turn, concern the site's advertisers.

Newspapers in general need to adapt to meet the changing needs of
their audiences if they are to compete with other web-based news
services.

Further information on the strategies of both the Financial Times and
New York Times is available in VIP Eye, Nos. 43 and 45
<http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.


Plenty of acquisitions, alliances and partnerships
--------------------------------------------------

The final quarter of 2005 was marked by some important acquisitions,
alliances and partnerships, as companies sought to strengthen and
enhance their products, and underlying technology.

VeriSign acquired Moreover a few days after it purchased Weblogs.com.
The technology behind Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds and blogs
is beginning to prove its usefulness in areas outside the blogosphere.
VeriSign recognises that the ping, which is a mechanism used by
bloggers to alert their audiences that they have added new content, is
set to be a major force in changing web-based publishing models. By
migrating Weblogs.com's ping service to its scalable ping
infrastructure, VeriSign will be able to offer users of RSS feeds and
real-time content a more robust platform.

At the same time, the Moreover acquisition will enable VeriSign to
combine Moreover's content aggregation services with its global feed
management infrastructure, to offer a real-time content platform to
bloggers, publishers, enterprises and web portals.

Moreover aggregates over 12,000 online news sources and monitors
millions of blogs to provide real-time news and comments related to
business intelligence. A ping server takes pings from content sources,
blogs and the like, and these content aggregation services will
utilise VeriSign's ping server infrastructure to increase the
reliability and intelligence of its content distribution network.

Fuller details and analysis of the VeriSign acquisitions are published
in VIP Eye, No. 44 <http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.

An in-depth review of CI-Newsdesk, Moreover's current awareness
product, is published in the October 2005 issue of VIP
<http://www.vivavip.com/vip>.

Hemscott bought Corporate Fundamentals, a Boston-based financial data
company. The purchase is the third US data company to be acquired by
Hemscott in a little over 12 months. All three acquisitions provide
opportunities for Hemscott to improve its content and capitalise on
the proprietary software belonging to each of the three companies.

The main attraction of Corporate Fundamentals is that it has its own
proprietary technology that Hemscott will be able to utilise in
enhancing and extending its own company information and data services,
and which will provide a platform for future expansion of its data
assets. Hemscott will also use the technology to deliver customised
data collection to its clients.

The acquisition will enable Hemscott to make cost savings, as
Corporate Fundamentals' data collection operations are based in India
and Hemscott plans to extend the facility to its own needs.

Hemscott's other recent acquisitions include CoreData, a provider of
US and Canadian company financial data, and bigdough, a US provider of
information on fund managers, analysts and journalists.

Further information and analysis of the Hemscott acquisitions is
published in VIP Eye, No. 46 <http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.

Reuters bought EcoWin, a Swedish private company that specialises in
global macroeconomic data and analysis. The purchase is part of
Reuters's growth strategy, which includes a focus on high value
content to supplement the news, company information, research and
analysis currently supplied by Reuters.

The EcoWin economic database comprises 5 million economic and
financial time series, sourced from over 80 primary sources, covering
more than 100 countries. The data is a good fit for Reuters as its
clients need and use macroeconomic data.

Further information and analysis of the EcoWin purchase is published
in VIP Eye, No.43 <http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.

LexisNexis and The Wall Street Journal forged an alliance which both
companies claim will benefit the legal profession by providing it with
business news and legal research.

Under the terms of the agreement, LexisNexis will become the exclusive
distributor of law firms' subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal
Online. In return, The Wall Street Journal Online will enhance its
coverage of the legal sector by introducing a new page specifically
aimed at lawyers. Online Journal subscriptions, available through
LexisNexis, will also offer co-branding, cross-linking and access
to legal content on the Lexis.com service.

The new arrangement, which is known as The Wall Street Journal Online
in association with LexisNexis, is due to launch in January 2006.

Linking up with a major information provider is a shrewd move by The
Wall Street Journal and one that should result in an increased
subscriber base within the US legal community.

Further information and analysis on the LexisNexis/WSJ.com alliance is
published in VIP Eye, No. 46 <http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.

Other major acquisitions and partnerships that were announced in the
last quarter of 2005 include:

* Acquisition of IS.Teledata by Interactive data (please see VIP Eye,
  No.45 for further information)

* Acquisition of Millard Group by infoUSA, owner of OneSource (please
  see VIP Eye, No.45 for further information)

* Factiva partnership with Quilogy (please see VIP Eye, No. 45 for
  further information)


* Acquisition of Economy.com by Moody's (please see VIP Eye, No. 46
  for further information)

* Thomson  Financial partnership with Interfax Business Service
  (please see VIP Eye, No.46 for further information)


A slow quarter for new products
-------------------------------

Not many major new products were launched in the last quarter of 2005;
most product news related to enhancements made to existing services.
However, Euromonitor, Bureau van Dijk and IBM each launched major new
additions to their existing portfolio of products.

Euromonitor has built on its country research data to develop and
launch Country Insights, which provides analyses of political,
economic, social and demographic trends at the national, regional and
global levels. The new service combines articles, features and company
profiles, with graphs, charts and rankings. Country Insights provides
data for 205 countries. Currently, full data is available for 71
countries with the highest GDP.

An in-depth review of Country Insights, together with a review of
Euromonitor's newly enhanced Global Markets Information Database
(GMID), is published in the November 2005 issue of VIP
<http://www.vivavip.com/vip>.

Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BvDEP) will soon be offering
MINT GLOBAL, which will provide end-user access to the ORBIS database
on the MINT platform. ORBIS provides data and news on more than 15
million companies worldwide. The MINT interface is simpler to use than
BvDEP's classic interface. VIP published a review of MINT UK in the
November 2004 issue. The review describes the product as having "an
attractive, simple interface which is very easy to navigate".

Still under development, MINT SPAIN will shortly join MINT GLOBAL and
MINT UK.

Further information on MINT GLOBAL is available in VIP Eye, No.46
<http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.

IBM, in co-operation with Factiva and Nstein Technologies, has
launched Public Image Monitoring, a new piece of software that enables
organisations to analyse commentary and information from consumer
generated content such as blogs, consumer review sites, newsgroups,
articles and news sites.

IBM says that Public Image Monitoring will be used by businesses to
better understand how they are viewed by customers, investors and
other stakeholders who have an impact on their brand reputation, by
enabling them to detect early trends and emerging problems.

Further information and analysis of IBM's Public Image Monitoring
product is published in VIP Eye, No.45 <http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.


Sector performing well but larger companies need to adapt
---------------------------------------------------------

In the UK, some of the larger business information vendors aren't
performing as well as their smaller competitors.

For the first time since the end of the 1990s, the UK business
information sector has posted double digit profit figures for the
latest financial year. A new survey by IRN Research* shows that after
strong performances in 2000 and 2001, UK sales have declined 2.9% in
the business information sector, year-on-year from 2002 to 2004.
However, the IRN report points out that when two of the leading
players - Reuters and Reed Elsevier - are excluded from the
calculation, combined sales of the remaining companies increased by
over 4%.

Average pre-tax profit margins for UK business information companies
more than doubled in 2004, reaching 10% compared to only 4.2% in the
previous year.

A separate IRN analysis of the interim results of European online
companies in 2005, points to a good year with all the major companies
registering double digit profit margins and sales growth of
approximately 7%.

A further report, published by Outsell**, on Search Aggregation and
Distribution Services (SADS) also singles out larger companies.
Outsell's survey includes search engines, aggregators/hosts,
subscription services providers and book distributors. As well as

including established players such as LexisNexis, Dialog, Google,
Yahoo!, etc., the survey also includes newer players such as Chinese
search engine SINA.

Outsell forecasts that SADS will continue to outperform the general
information industry's 9.8% growth rate, by growing 18% in 2005, and
achieving a 17% compound annual growth rate from the
2005 - 2008 period.

However, Outsell predicts that changing attitudes toward search mean
that users will shift to more targeted and effective means of
obtaining important information. It offers some important advice for
the larger companies. In order to survive, Outsell says that top SADS
companies will need to respond to new customer demands for proactive
personalised content delivery, RSS-powered self-aggregation,
specialised vertical search, and content integrated into users'
business applications.


* European Online Information Report is published by IRN in the spring
of each year. Further information is available from David Mort. email:
<dmort@irn-research.com>. web: <http://www.irn-research.com>.

** Search, Aggregation & Distribution Services Segment 2005 - Search
Revolution Fuels Information Industry Upheaval, is available from
Outsell. Tel. + 1 650 342 6060. email: <info@outsellinc.com>. web:
<http://www.outsellinc.com/>.

Further analysis of the results of both the IRN and Outsell Surveys is
available in VIP Eye, Nos 46 and 45 respectively
<http://www.vivavip.com/eye>.

> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Pam Foster is the Editor of VIP and VIP Eye <http://www.vivavip.com/>, 
and has been actively involved in the business information industry
as a writer and reviewer for nearly twenty years.

Pam previously played a major role in Headland Business Information
since its inception, as editor of its newsletters and directories.
More recently, she has acted as a consultant to several large
information companies.

She has an extensive network of contacts in the international business
information sector amongst producers and users. A qualified
information professional, Pam also has a social science degree.

Contact Pam Foster by email to <pam.foster@vivavip.com>.

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Related FreePint links:

* VIP and VIP Eye: Business information reviews and news analysis
  <http://www.vivaVIP.com/>
* 'Information and Libraries' articles in the FreePint Portal
  <http://www.freepint.com/go/p69>
* Post a message to the authors, Pam Foster, or suggest further
  resources at the FreePint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/190106.htm#feature>
* Access the entire archive of FreePint content
  <http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>

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                          FREEPINT GOLD

A look back at what FreePint covered at this time in previous years:

* FreePint No.175 27th January 2005. "Professional Networking Online"
  and "Business awards: a review of the UK market"
  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/270105.htm>

* FreePint No.152 22nd January 2004. "Choosing and Changing Your Web
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  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/220104.htm>

* FreePint No.129 23rd January 2003. "Deep Linking" and "The 8 A's of
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* FreePint No.104, 24th January 2002. "Winter Olympic Adventures
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* FreePint No.79, 18th January 2001. "Internet Resources for the
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  Bust?" <http://www.freepint.com/issues/180101.htm>
  
* FreePint No.54, 20th January 2000. "Search Engine Promotion" and
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* FreePint No.30, 21st January 1999. "Information quality on the
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  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/210199.htm>
  
* FreePint No.6, 22nd January 1998. "Diagnosing Web Problems"
  and "The Best Medical Information on the Web"
  <http://www.freepint.com/issues/220198.htm>

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