New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2000), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 17 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2000.23917bab.002

New & Noteworthy

Information TodayAcquires Knowledge Asset Media and Its Businesses

Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has acquired Knowledge Asset Media (KAM), including KMWorld magazine, the KMWorld.com Web site, and the KMWorld Conference and Exposition and related assets from Bill Communications of New York. KAM's properties address the emerging information technology and business practices sector known as knowledge management (KM). The objective of KM is to help companies manage organizational knowledge and enterprise intelligence in order to improve business performance, innovation, and bottom-line results.

Based in Camden, Maine, KAM publishes the 90,000-circulation KMWorld, which serves senior business and information systems executives who are in the forefront of the knowledge management movement. KMWorld sponsors the annual KMWorld Conference and Exposition (September 13-15, 2000 in Santa Clara, California), which features current technology software; Internet systems; and business practices and processes driving knowledge management applications. KAM also manages the KMWorld.com Web site.

KAM founder Bruce Taylor will continue as editor and publisher.

Information Today, Inc. is the publisher of Information Today, a newspaper for users and producers of electronic information services, as well as other periodicals, books, directories, and online products for information users and professionals. ITI is also the organizer and sponsor of conferences for the library and information professional communities, including the National Online Meeting, Internet Librarian, Computers in Libraries, and Internet Librarian International (London).

According to Tom Hogan, Sr, president of ITI: "The technologies that support knowledge management initiatives have a lot in common with the products and services of the information industry." He noted the company's new opportunity to explore and promote the synergies that exist between the two communities.

Information Today, Inc: c/o Tom Hogan, 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8750. Tel: (609) 654-6266 or (800) 300-9868; Fax (609) 654-4309, thoganjr@infotoday.com, http://www.kmworld.com

OCLC and PICAFinalize Agreement

OCLC and Pica Foundation have signed an agreement to establish a jointly-owned organization to better serve the European library community. According to a recent release from OCLC, Pica Foundation, based in Leiden, The Netherlands, has established a new Dutch limited liability company (Pica B.V.) and has transferred all present activities to this new company. OCLC will participate in the new Pica company through a graduated acquisition of part of the stock that will begin at 35 percent and increase to 60 percent within 12 months.

The new relationship is seen as a "step towards the creation of an integrated European information infrastructure," said Cees Datema, chair, Pica Foundation.

According to Jay Jordan, OCLC president and CEO, the merger will complement the activities of the OCLC Europe, the Middle East and Africa office, which is located in Birmingham, UK.

Pica B.V. will continue development and support of its current products and services, including the further development and support of Pica's local library systems, the central library system for cataloging, interlibrary loan, and end-user services.

Pica will also continue its associated cooperation with European partners: the Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur in Montpellier, France; and in Germany, the Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund in Göttingen, the Hessischer Bibliotheksverbund in Frankfurt, and Die Deutsche Bibliothek, also in Frankfurt.

Pica B.V. provides cataloging, interlibrary loan, and local and end-user services to hundreds of libraries in The Netherlands, France, and Germany. OCLC serves over 36,000 libraries in 74 countries and territories.

Pica B.V. was originally founded in 1969 as Pica Foundation. It was a joint initiative of the Royal National Library and a number of university libraries, and was a cooperative, nonprofit organization for libraries and other information-providing institutions. Pica's central online database was established in 1978 to reduce library cataloging costs. Since then, Pica has extended its services with interlibrary loan, local library systems, and reference and end-user services. Pica B.V., established in October 1999, is continuing the business activities of Pica Foundation.

Pica Foundation: The Netherlands, http://www.pica.nl and http://www.pica.nl/en/

OCLCSoftware Helps Kentucky Launch Statewide Virtual Library

In November 1999, the Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual Library (KCVL) launched its comprehensive information resources and services using OCLC SiteSearch WebZ software as its front-end platform.

As the gateway to information resources housed either in Kentucky libraries or accessible through the Internet, the KCVL Web site http://www.kcvl.org offers, through one seamless interface, a wide range of information, including 16 OCLC FirstSearch service databases.

The online public access catalogs of the eight public universities and 28 community and technical colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) are accessible on the virtual library, along with the Z39.50-compliant OPACs of other Kentucky libraries.

The virtual library also includes a unique Kentuckiana collection; state and federal government information resources organized by subjects and annotated by librarians; an "anytime, anywhere" step-by-step tutorial to help students and citizens utilize the Web; and a Virtual Reference Desk, built as a gateway to nongovernmental Web resources that are of value to Kentuckians in general.

According to Ling-yuh W. (Miko) Pattie, director, Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual Library, the KCVL is built on a long tradition of cooperation and collaboration among all types of libraries through the Kentucky Library Network (KLN), a resource-sharing membership organization established in 1985.

OCLC SiteSearch WebZ software enables libraries to integrate their electronic resources under one Web interface, provide flexible access to those resources, and build local databases.

OCLC: 6565 Frantz Rd, Dublin, OH 43017-3395. Tel: (614) 764-6000; Fax (614) 764-6096, http://www.oclc.org

TrendwatchReport Shows Printers' Use of Internet

A report released by TrendWatch in December provides its perspective on current and planned Internet use among US commercial printers and trade shops. According to the report, the most popular use of the Internet by commercial printers and service providers is "receiving customer jobs via e-mail," with two-thirds saying they currently provide this service. The new report, "Printers and the Internet ­ How the US Printing Industry Uses and Plans to Use the Internet: The TrendWatch Perspective," is available in a downloadable PDF Acrobat format at the trendwatch.com e-Store

"Printers are not regarded as early adopters of technology and, as our survey shows, many still are not significantly involved with the Internet," noted Jim Whittington, TrendWatch partner. "This situation is unfortunate since their customers will soon force many of them to participate more actively in Internet-related services. One of the real issues at play is how the Internet will cause fundamental change in the printers' roles in coming years ­ a role that will not always be centered on their presses."

According to the report ...

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  The second most popular application is "Having an FTP site where customers can download or upload work files" (40%, including 35% of printers), followed by "Purchasing computer software" (39%, including 36% of printers);

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  63% of the commercial printers reported that they are currently receiving customer jobs via email;

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  The least-adopted Internet application is "allowing customers to track their jobs" (overall 5%); 49% of service bureaux and 47% of quick printers said they won't offer this service ­ periodical printers appear to be the least resistant to the idea, with only 18% saying they won't do this;

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  Investment plans seem to be strongly linked to how involved plants are or how involved they plan to be with Internet applications. Internet-focused plants tend to be planning substantial investments in workflow, presses, and almost every category of capital goods.

"This is very revealing," said Joe Webb, TrendWatch partner. "The new dot-com companies are providing services that also integrate customer job tracking, and are solving many of the print buyers' critical issues with printers (i.e. not knowing where their jobs are in the overall production workflow). Once this capability is more widely known and understood by print buyers, printers who do not offer this capability may find themselves absent from their customers' preferred vendor lists."

Use of the Internet also seems to coincide with a print business's outlook. According to TrendWatch Printing #10, as a general rule, companies that are involved with Internet applications or plan to be involved in Internet applications are more likely to feel that they have good business conditions and have positive outlooks for the future. The opposite also seems to be true.

The printing industry can, and should, benefit using the Internet in many ways. They can start by getting involved in the following basic Internet applications:

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  Marketing ­ customer care, customer contact, prospecting, promotion;

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  Logistics ­ inventory management systems, finished product delivery;

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  Management ­ allowing customers to "see into" plants just like managers;

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  Geography-crashing ­ managers and customers don't have to be in the plant to know what's going on;

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  Time-shifting ­ time is the only non-renewable resource. People get information when they need it, when they want it, and the cost of customer service can be reduced (in terms of labor) while its value is greatly enhanced.

The report includes a summary of the "dot-com" companies now active in the printing industry. It also provides an estimated number of printing industry establishments affected by each of the Internet-related questions asked in the survey.

The price for the report is $1,250. It can be downloaded in PDF Acrobat format.

TrendWatch: c/o Jim Whittington, (415) 380-8561, (800) 283-8063, http://www.trendwatch.com

SilverplatterReleases WebSPIRS v.4.1

SilverPlatter's WebSPIRS v.4.1 is now in general release. It includes document delivery and interlibrary loan components, allowing users accessing SilverPlatter databases to order documents from the British Library Document Delivery Center or CISTI. Users can also send requests to the library's interlibrary loan department. These features may be optionally enabled by the system administrator.

WebSPIRS v.4.1 supports the Alerts feature, which allows for the creation of SDI profiles that registered users can sign up for, and offers a streamlined print process. It is available for the Solaris, SCO, AIX, NT, and Linux RedHat v.5.2 and v.6 platforms.

WebSPIRS is SilverPlatter's http gateway and search interface.

SilverPlatter: 100 River Ridge Dr., Norwood, MA 02062-5043; Tel: (781) 769-2599, Fax: (781) 769-8763; and Merlin House, 20 Belmont Terrace, Chiswick, London W4 5UG, UK; Tel: +44 (0) 208-585-6400, Fax: +44 (0) 208-585-6640, http://www.silverplatter.com