Citation
Welch, J.M. (1999), "Fast Trackers Meet on the Information Superhighway at Online World 1998", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.1999.23916cac.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Fast Trackers Meet on the Information Superhighway at Online World 1998
Jeanie M. Welch
Introduction
The Online World 1998 conference was a three-day event that emphasized the Internet, intranets, and other online resources and services for information professionals and was heavily corporate- and vendor-driven. The Online World conference is produced by Online, Inc., the publishers of Online, Database, and Emedia Professional, three well-established journals in this field. Editors of these journals were active in the conference, and members of the Pemberton family, who publish these journals, were also present.
The "main events" of Online World were the opening session (with a keynote speaker and the presentation of awards for the best articles and columns in Online and Database), the annual industry announcements of new products, and a panel discussion of executives from leading vendors in the field. The Online World 1998 conference also featured a one-day program on intranet development and pre- and post-conference programs and seminars on technology and subject-related issues, led by veterans of the online business. The main conference was organized around the following tracks:
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practical searching;
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trends and technologies;
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resource;
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content reviews.
The "Main" Events
Keynote Speaker
Nancy Garman, editor of Online, opened the session. The keynote speaker was Brewster Kahle, president and co-founder of Alexa Internet. Mr Kahle invented WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) and is well-known as an innovator in information technology. He spoke on "Datamining the Internet for Quality." He compared the "ideal" library to the Internet in five areas:
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collection with selection;
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access that is easy;
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materials with organization;
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preservation of the valuable and rare; and
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aid to patrons.
With the exception of easy access, for the Internet such ideals are still in the future. Search engines cannot keep up with the Internet's explosive growth, and Web sites disappear. Alexa Internet was in the process of collecting all Web sites and donating them to the Library of Congress.
Industry Announcements
Online World features an annual "Industry Announcements" session where "Editors' Choice" selections are made of the best products of the year. Selected vendors made brief presentations of their products. This year the products were:
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Derwent/US Patent and Trademark Office Collaboration Derwent, the leading disseminator of patent information, now part of the Thomson Corporation, has signed a two-year agreement with the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to provide their patent examiners with access to the Derwent World Patents Index for a fixed price for unlimited use. Other patent offices have similar agreements with Derwent. This gives the PTO access to a worldwide patent database, translated into English. It is hoped that this will save the PTO time and money.
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Dialog Classic.com Dialog discussed DialogClassic on the Web, which promises faster response time, larger display and print limits, and high-speed downloading of patent and trademark images. DialogWeb 2.0 promises a "Guided Search" option that does not require command-language expertise, plus better subject classifications and other new features.
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Dow Jones Web Center Dow Jones Interactive is the new Web interface to Dow Jones databases, long-time mainstays for business researchers.
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EBSCO Online EBSCO Online provides access to citations and abstracts for 4,000 journals and full-text access to more than 2,000 journals. The database can be searched by article or by journal (including journal title, publisher, "content description," or ISSN). It was expected to be released in January 1999.
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Electronic Library Business Edition (Infonautics) This is a user-friendly business database that includes an index to business periodicals and other business information services.
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ISI Meta Maps This is a specialized service for individuals and organizations involved in the development of new drugs. It provides access to clinical data from literature in particular therapeutic areas.
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KnowledgeManager (Gale Group) The Gale Group includes Information Access Company, Gale Research, and Primary Source Media. KnowledgeManager provides research services for information technology professionals.
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LEXIS-NEXIS Universe LEXIS-NEXIS Universe is a comprehensive database of business, government, and legal information, including public records and credit reports.
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Tracker Pro (Enfish) Tracker Pro is file management software that organizes all types of electronic information (e.g. Web sites, e-mail, memos) into subjects or categories.
CEO Industry Panel
Marydee Ojala, editor of the journal Database, moderated a panel that featured executives from the following information providers:
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Dow Jones Interactive Publishing,
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Arnold Information Technologies,
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LEXIS-NEXIS,
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Information Access Company,
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Northern Light Technology,
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Dialog Corporation,
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WavePhore.
The panelists provided their views on such issues as future technologies, pricing products and services, and archiving information. It was an interesting experience to see the "heavy hitters" of the online information industry in one place at one time. The speakers tried to make the case for the innovations being implemented by their particular firms as the wave of the future without openly putting down their competitors on the same panel.
Conference Presentations
Reflecting the conference's corporate and vendor emphasis, the majority of the presenters were from the private sector. The various tracks are listed below.
Practical Searching
The conference track on practical searching featured nine sessions, including three presentations on Web search engines and one apiece on searching strategies, finding demographic and geographic data, evaluating Internet content, blending sources and services, finding information on people and companies, and Internet tools and resources. One presentation by Jesper Vissing Laursen, a consultant from Denmark, discussed the findings of a Search Engine Watch study http://www.searchenginewatch.com to compare the searching capabilities of five major search engines AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, and Lycos. By coincidence, a session entitled "Web Search Engines: How They Work, How to Use Them" featured presentations on searching strategies by experts from several search engine providers, including the five search engines analyzed by Mr Laursen of Search Engine Watch. This leads one to wonder what they may have thought of Mr Laursen's analysis of their products.
A session on "Demographic and Geographic Data Sources" featured a presentation by two academic librarians, Gary W. White and Peter Lineberger, on finding demographic data for business applications. They discussed using demographic data to target geographic markets and to target customers. They gave an overview of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their applications in business, dividing information into "raw data" (e.g. government census information), "repackaged data" (e.g. County and City Data Book), "commercial data" (e.g. the Environmental Systems Research Institute), and "spatial data" (maps). They concluded that the Web has increased the availability of data from both free and commercial sources.
The session on "Evaluating Net Content" included a presentation by two academic librarians, James Rettig and Cheryl LaGuardia, on their suggestions for criteria for reviewing Web sites. These criteria included parenting and provenance (the producer and/or owner of the Web site), authority (the producer's qualifications), content (relevance, depth, and Web site description), audience (understands and meets needs in an appropriate manner), creation and currency (frequency of updating), design (internal links and aesthetics), usability, and medium (integrated text, audio/video, and image features in a unique way not found elsewhere). Hal Kirkwood of Purdue University discussed "The State of Collaborative Evaluation." In the early years of the Internet individual librarians developed small collections of Web sites for their users. Later main-stream library publications such as Choice and C&RL News began publishing reviews of Web sites. Now there are large-scale projects such as Infomine that use volunteers to create indexes to Web sites.
The session on "Due Diligence: Backgrounding People and Companies" included a presentation by Larry Ross, president of Ross Financial Services, Inc., on "The Power of Online Strategies in Making Critical Business Decisions," in which he discussed using online searching to research companies before entering into any business relationships with them. He suggested using public records, industry publications, and commercial credit reports to find information about business practices, company holdings and control, and management personnel.
"Internet Tools & Resources" included a presentation by Robbie LaFleur of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, on "State Government and Legislative Information," in which she featured the legislative Web sites of several state legislatures. The Minnesota Legislative Reference Library has produced a meta-page of "Links to the World," a subject guide to Internet resources http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/links/links.htm. In the same session, Gary Price of George Washington University discussed "Current Awareness Using Internet Audio and Video" and the improving quality of audio and video on the Internet. He discussed two of the current providers, RealPlayer and NetShow, and the usage of audio and video on major news Web sites such as CNN. Such audio and video access via the Web provides for continuous updating of news, live conferences over the Internet, and archiving information.
Trends and Technology
The conference track on trends and technology featured presentations on natural language and searching, the future of government information, innovations in Internet technology, information-seeking behavior, and such filtering and intelligence agents. "Natural Language and Beyond" was moderated by Deb Wiley of Net Wave Consulting, who presented a paper on "Beyond Natural Language," which discussed the current state of searching (e.g. matching words, relevance ranking) and the promise of text visualization to link-related concepts. In her opinion various technologies will merge to relevance ranking, filtering, pattern recognition, and virtual reality.
The session on "Filtering and Intelligent Agents" featured Rosanne Macek and Karen Draper of the high-tech firm Bay Networks, who discussed filtering to create a current awareness service that sends relevant news to company personnel. They discussed the factors to consider in creating an internal current awareness service, including which sources to use, handling sensitive information within a company, handling daily news summaries, targeting specific audiences within a company, tracking hard-to-define topics, and getting feedback from company personnel. Linda Moquet of Seton Identification Products discussed "Tracking the Web," in which she advocated the use of Netmind Mind-it http://minder.netmind.com; to create monitoring profiles for gathering news and business intelligence. She discussed setting up profiles, getting e-mail updates, and keeping track of monitoring content.
Resource Management
The conference track on resource management included presentations on Web-based training, teaching searchers, Web site management and maintenance, the Web on campus, the role of information professionals in meeting organizational training and information needs, electronic journals, distributing information to end users, the pricing of information services, and libraries as profit centers. "Web-Based Training: Planning, Developing, Managing" featured "how-we-do-it-good" presentations by three speakers from the corporate sector Kevin Stanek of Thomson Consulting, Ann Lee of Dow Jones Interactive, and Barbara Eames of Arthur Andersen LLP. Eames discussed the rationale for using the Web for training, Arthur Andersen's worldwide training delivery intranet via KnowledgeSpace, and when to use Web-based training or instructor-led training.
The session on "Web Maintenance and Management" featured three Webmasters and their experiences in Web site development. Joyce Adams of Experian discussed "Tips and Tools for Maintaining Your Web Site" and highlighted various software programs such as HTML editors, design software and page layout, and Java applets. Janet McCabe of Tech Data Corporation presented "Building, Growing and Maintaining Your Web Site," a "what-I-learned-the-hard-way" list of ten lessons for a team-managed Web site. The ten lessons are as follows:
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Define roles and responsibilities up front.
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Establish relationships with content submitters and client groups.
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Define standards and procedures.
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Track content.
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Provide content submitters with usage reporting.
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Design with an eye for growth.
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Keep graphics and animation to a minimum.
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Incorporate user feedback.
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Educate about the Web's role.
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Prepare for growth.
Darlene Fichter of Northern Lights Internet Solutions discussed the use of log files to detect errors and to track usage and the various free tools that check Web sites to validate links and check for spelling errors and load time.
"Putting the Web to Work on Campus" featured three academic librarians. Jeanie M. Welch of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte discussed "So What If You Have a Web Site?" She suggested formalizing the integration of Web sites into departmental management and within individual positions, means of evaluation of departmental and individual Web sites, and core technical competencies for public service personnel. Scott Mellendorf of Saginaw Valley State University presented "Beyond the Home Page," a study of the content of 150 academic libraries as to the inclusion of Internet resources, Web catalogs, library instruction, bulletin boards, electronic reference service, and library newsletters on their Web sites. Sue Ann Butwell of SUNY Geneseo presented "Evaluation First," an account of her efforts to overcome the reluctance of teaching faculty to allow students to use the Web for research and the Web training courses that her library offers.
"The Value Proposition: Roles for Information Professionals" featured George Plosker of Information Access Corporation (now part of the Gale Group) discussing "De-Mystifying the Value Proposition," how libraries and information centers can add value to their organizations by determining their organizations' needs, designing products to meet those needs, and showing measurable benefits. He also discussed the changing roles of librarians as access engineers, informed advisors, gurus of copyright, system interface designers, coaches and trainers, and buffers between end users and vendors. Gwendolyn N. Weaver of the American Council on Education presented "Becoming Part of the Solution," which highlighted the information technology skills shortage and how librarians have these skills, especially in Web-related issues such as content organization, indexing, determining information value, and guidance in finding information.
"Electronic Journals: Issues and Access" featured a presentation by Kimberly Allen of MCI Communications Corporation on the "Impact of Electronic Subscriptions." She discussed the reasons MCI went to electronic subscriptions, how it has saved money with these contracts, and how their library services are now organized. She also discussed the ins and outs of negotiating with vendors and the skills needed to organize such services, and their impact on customers. Frances Knudson of the Los Alamos National Laboratory presented "Integrating Electronic Journals into the Library Customer's World." Through an electronic journals team, they are attempting to create a "library without walls." She showed examples of electronic journal entries in their online catalog and a separate electronic journals Web page.
"The End-User Conundrum" featured Leslie Wood of Hagler Bailly Inc., discussing "Distributed Resources in a Growing Environment," her experiences with a three-month trial of Lexis-Nexis in a distributed environment and showing how the librarian's role changed from the gatekeeper to the coach as clients became more independent in their searching.
"Turning Libraries into Profit Centers" featured Britt Mueller of Development Dimensions International, who discussed "The Process of Becoming a Profit Center." He enumerated the steps in familiarizing clients with the library, finding partners, defining and marketing services, the skills needed to succeed, staffing, and benefits and drawbacks. Lisa LoVullo of The Baltimore Sun discussed "Mining the Newspaper for Profit," an account of the library evolving into an "information store" that sells products and services and generates revenue.
Content Review
The conference track on content review featured subject experts discussing new electronic products in the following areas:
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Biomedical, Pharmaceutical, and Healthcare,
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Science and Technology,
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Business,
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Competitive Intelligence,
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Government Information,
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International Information,
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News and Current Events,
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Patents.
Susan Klopper of Arthur Andersen LLP presented the business content review. She discussed the evolving searching environment, useful business and company metasites, international metasites, comprehensive metasites, analysts' reports from Goldman Sachs, the Internet Sleuth search engine, and print sources and e-mail newsletters of interest to searchers. She also discussed training issues and the competencies needed for effective searching.
Helene Kassler of Fuld & Company presented the competitive analysis content review. She enumerated the steps in conducting competitive research and the capabilities of various vendors, search engines, and Web-monitoring products.
Greg Notess of Montana State University discussed government information, starting off with the Independent Counsel's Report as an example of government information made readily available in a variety of Internet venues, contrasting it with a Department of Defense memorandum to review Web information in light of national security issues. He discussed Web sites to find government information, government reference books, free bibliographic databases, full-text sources, the GPO (Government Publications Office) Access Web site, gateway Web sites, and Web sites to locate individual government publications.
Trudy Katz of MasterCard discussed international information, including the following sources:
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World Reporter (regional news provided by a collaboration between Dow Jones Interactive, Dialog, and Financial Times Electronic Publishing)
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Hoover's Online http://www.hoovers.com
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Dialog (Global News Plus and World Reporter Update)
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Financial Times (Asia Intelligence Wire and China Intelligence Wire)
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Dow Jones Interactive
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Reuters
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Lexis-Nexis
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CEO Express http://www.ceoexpress.com/
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International Subject Indexes and Search Engines.
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CAROL (British and Asian company annual reports)
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Latin American Newsletters http://www.latinnews.com
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LANIC (University of Texas) (information on Latin America) http://lanic.utexas.edu/
Intranet Development
A special one-day conference track on intranets featured presentations on the present and future of intranets, delivering internal and external information to desktops, the intranet at Dow Chemical, and the team approach to intranet development. All of the presenters were from the private sector. Mary Corcoran of Outsell, Inc. discussed "Intranets: Where They Are and Where They're Headed." She discussed the current intranet environment, the role of librarians in intranet development through a survey of Special Libraries Association members, and implications for the future. Joyce Adams of Experian discussed "Taking the Leap" as corporate librarians evolve into Web site managers, the evolution of Web site management teams, and the skills needed to succeed. Robert A. Schless presented "Integrating External and Internal Knowledge Using Lotus Notes." He discussed the use of Lotus Notes in managing knowledge in his organization, the types of information handled through Lotus Notes, and the software and hardware needed to run the system within his own firm.
Roundtable Discussions
Throughout the conference there were informal discussions of managing intranet content, copyright practices on the Web, moving traditional databases to the Web, electronic reference, information overload, end-user products, and dealing with DialUnits, Dialog's new pricing structure.
Conclusions
As might be expected from an Internet-centered conference, Online World 1998 was high tech and heavily wired. PowerPoint presentations were the standard for conference presenters and a special room was set aside so that presenters could test their presentations before their sessions. Many of these presentations were loaded on the Online World Web site http://www.onlineinc.com/olworld/, creating a "virtual conference" available for anyone to access. In addition, all sessions were audiotaped, and the tapes were available the next day.
Jeanie M. Welch is business librarian at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina. jmwelch@email.uncc.edu.