Newsletter No. 73
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Free Pint
"Helping 32,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
ISSN 1460-7239 19th October 2000 No.73
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from Caryn Wesner-Early
FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Geology On The Web"
By John Elliot
BOOKSHELF
"The E-Commerce Question And Answer Book"
Reviewed by Rachel Newcombe
FEATURE ARTICLE
"European Document Delivery Suppliers
and Resources On The World Wide Web"
By Anke Baumgartner
PORTAL, EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/191000.htm
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Is finding the information you need turning out to be a bit of a bind?
GET UNTANGLED at Online Information 2000 and find a wealth of
information sources for all industry sectors as well as solutions for
information management, retrieval and dissemination.
REGISTER TODAY for free, fast track entry into this essential event
http://www.online-information.co.uk/ol00/index.asp
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>>> ABOUT FREE PINT <<<
Free Pint is a community of business professionals who use the Web for
their work. Members receive this free newsletter every two weeks
packed with tips on finding quality and reliable business information
on the Internet. Signing up at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/> provides
free access to the substantial archive of articles, book reviews,
industry news and events, with answers to your research questions and
networking at the "Free Pint Bar" and "Student Bar". This newsletter
is best read when printed out and viewed in a Courier font.
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EDITORIAL
It's happened a third time. I've once again been asked whether I
consider myself to be contravening the Trade Descriptions Act by
calling my company "Free Pint" when in fact we supply no such liquid
refreshment. In an attempt to dispel disappointment, and stave off a
visit from our local trading standards authority, we're taking every
opportunity to meet with Free Pinters around the country (and around
the world next year) to furnish our members with a real free pint.
We're in Oxford next Thursday if you can join us for the evening, and
there's only 17 days to go before we jump into the Free Pint Bus and
head to Loughborough, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester and Aberystwyth
for the Roadshow. The first tipple is courtesy of Factiva and you can
find out more at <http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/roadshow.htm>. If
you'd like to help organise an event in your part of the world then do
get in touch.
Free pints were also flowing after my presentations this week at the
Association of UK Media Librarians conference in Leicester and the
Special Libraries Association's Global 2000 conference in Brighton.
Tired I may be, thirsty I am not. Seriously though, this is a very
exciting time for the information industry as technology, unification
and renaming of associations, and increased awareness of the
importance and value of 'information' present us with tremendous
opportunities to lead the revolution and set the standards.
Today's cosmopolitan issue of Free Pint aims once again to further
these opportunities with wide ranging topics, from Geology resources
to Document Delivery, eCommerce to Knowledge Management. If you'd like
to react to something herein then we invite you to join us at the Free
Pint Bar and to forward this issue to your colleagues and friends.
Finally, I would urge you to support newcomers to the information
industry by checking out the Student Bar which is already seeing
postings about work placements and project help for students on
information courses. Please note however that neither of our Bars
contain any real beverages and so we have once again fallen foul of
trade descriptions. Must dash, there's an official at the door.
Cheers
William
William Hann BSc MIInfSc
Founder and Managing Editor, Free Pint
e: william@freepint.co.uk
t: +44 (0)1784 455435
f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Free Pint is a trademark of Free Pint Limited
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
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Keeping abreast of latest technology trends can be a nightmare. As new
and emerging technologies appear weekly, how can you find out what
opportunities they may bring for your industry? More importantly, how
can you find out who is using key software, systems and communications
solutions? If you're in consultancy or research you need to source
accurate information. Why not check out http://www.vnunet.com for news
and reviews and http://www.datasite.co.uk for details of trends
emerging from 13,500 end-user sites in the UK and Eire.
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Sign up for the monthly update of rates,
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from Caryn Wesner-Early
* 10 Big Myths About Copyright - a good place to find out about
modern copyright practice.
<http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html>
* A Brief Intro to Copyright - (companion site to the above) gives
more of a primer. It links to US, Canadian, and Australian sites.
<http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html>
* When Works Pass Into the Public Domain - a useful table for quick
reference (US only). <http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm>
* European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation
Associations - provides the "European Copyright User Platform" to
cover European copyright issues. <http://www.eblida.org/ecup/>
* Thinking About Linking - an article about the legal issues of
Internet linking (mostly US).
<http://www.llrx.com/features/weblink1.htm>
Caryn Wesner-Early is a librarian, contracted to the US Patent and
Trademark Office Biotechnology and Chemical Library. Her hobbies are
reading and cats, and she maintains a personal Web page at
<http://321website.com/members/home/data/caryn/main_html.htm>.
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To submit your top five favourite tipples see the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/author.htm> or email <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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FACTIVA LAUNCHES INFOPRO ALLIANCE PORTAL
Take a look at our new portal to support information professionals
around the world. The Infopro Alliance Portal provides tools and
resources especially for the professional researcher, with links to
industry web sites, publications, white papers, case studies and
discussion through our link to the Free Pint Bar.
Bookmark http://www.factiva.com/infopro
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FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/191000.htm#bar
Free Pint Bar - http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar
[Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in
the address <http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar/read.php?i=XXXX>]
As the discussion of knowledge management (KM) rages on, which started
less that a month ago (5016), I came across other discussions and
articles on the subject while trawling through information industry
publications when researching my regular Pub Crawl (5307, 5413). And
the same discussion spilt over onto a thread about Free Pint's first
Pub Quiz (5252).
Rather than seeing Free Pint as a font of knowledge, we see it more as
a guide to the knowledge that can be gained using the Web. And in the
last couple of weeks we have reviewed or recommended resources on
airplanes (5223), ISSN and ISBN numbers (5222, 5416), mergers and
acquisitions (5230), books in print (5282), football statistics
(5317), the steel industry (5340), free ebooks (5380, 5442) and UK
post codes (5423).
Similarly, if you want to calculate or estimate anything (5199),
complain about anything (5257), find people's biographical details
(5351), plot sunrise and sunset times for the future anywhere on earth
(5393), gen up on financial and economic terms (5321) or on Nobel
laureates of the past ninety nine years (5398), we'll be happy to
recommend some resources.
And these repositories are rendered more accessible by techies and
Webmasters, who get all steamed up about DOS6 (5310), Web monitoring
tools (5327), hosting and data centre services (5427), search engines
for intranets (5200), paid-for search engine listings (5348), browser
control (5362), Web site passwords (5227), payment systems (5311),
document conversion (5396) and even Web site sponsorship (5265).
The constant search for knowledge is also assisted by some search
tools (5211, 5376), but perhaps not so much by others (5336). I have
never tested fee-based tools but if you have, why not let us know how
you got on (5240)?
Alas, some types of quantitative data have proved more recalcitrant.
Music album sales figures (5192), the top ten South American News
Sites (5204), the numbers of educational institutions in various
countries (5277) and information on free daily newspapers (5365) are
all sought. Do let us know if you can shed light on these areas.
It's easy to forget that ecommerce is a relative latecomer to the
online world, but there has been some interest shown at the Bar in
emarketplaces (5329), selling law firms (5368) and oil paintings
(5408), monitoring health ecommerce (5383), online customer service
(5409) and ecommerce optimization (5439). And if you're not already
au fait with all this ecommerce stuff, we've got just the site for you
(5287).
Work and trainingwise, we have had queries about information
professionals who wish to become analysts (5191), student careers
sites (5213), training organisations (5359), library work (5381),
freelance Internet research (5382) and KM skills (5392). There's also
an item about disability discrimination in recruitment, if you or
anyone you know has been the victim of that (5387).
Miscellaneous questions have been raised about court appeal dates
(5400), broadband (5314), sports (5341), infrastructure (5374), KM
discussion lists (5347), charging for multimedia materials in public
libraries (5358), collaborative work on the Internet (5361), grants
and tax incentives in the European Union (5436) and the UK power
supply market (5438).
It would be a tall order for any individual to supply all that, but
the combined knowledge of a large community of information people
should be well able for it.
Free Pint Student Bar - http://www.freepint.co.uk/student
[Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in
the address <http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/read.php?i=XXXX>]
On the Student Bar there have been items on subjects ranging from the
European Court of Justice (1038) to a new book service for students
(1040) and from comparisons of CD-ROM and online versions of
information resources (1041) to virtual 3D libraries (1042). And
students can join the venerable City Information Group at discounted
rates (1044).
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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Download your FREE 30-Day Trial of BullsEye Pro, the Ultimate Research
Assistant for Professionals. In the June 8th issue of Free Pint, Chris
Sherman describes how "BullsEye, a desktop based meta search engine
can also access many of the sites included in InvisibleWeb.com." With
fine-grained filters and up to the minute trackers, you will control
information rather than having it control you. Go to
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>>> PURCHASE DISCOUNTED BOOKS VIA THE FREE PINT BOOKSHELF <<<
As well as reading over 40 reviews of Internet strategy, searching
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/191000.htm#tips
"Geology On The Web"
By John Elliot
Geology, the study of the Earth, encompasses a huge amount of
knowledge and therefore any article like this will be heavily
influenced by the writer's field of interest. In my case this is
the mining industry, more particularly, mineral exploration and this
article is directed more to that aspect of geology and web sites
which I have found useful.
I sometimes have to access sites from places where connections are
slow and where downloading speed becomes important. I am usually
seeking text information and slow loading sites with lots of images
or PDF pages are a real turn-off. Banner ads which slow downloading
are also a nuisance but these can be very easily prevented from
loading with the use of WebWasher, a free utility from Siemens:
<http://www.webwasher.com/>.
Geological News
---------------
For recent general geological news there are several
good sites. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography is one such site;
it has a good list of links and also a list of discussion forums.
<http://geosciences.org/>
Geology at the MiningCo adopts a magazine style of format and has
many topical and interesting articles dealing with current geological
news. <http://geology.miningco.com/science/geology/>
Web Surfers Bi-Weekly Earth Science Review (WBESR), by Mike Garrison,
aims to keep track of recent geological web sites and review them.
The site loads quickly and has an excellent list of links.
<http://shell.rmi.net/~michaelg/index.html>.
General Geological Information
------------------------------
A selection of sites dealing with both
introductory and more specialised geological information:
Berkeley University's Geological Time Machine provides detailed
information on the changing face of the Earth through time.
<http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html>
A very interesting site dealing with geothermal energy and its uses
is produced by the World Bank which has been involved in a number of
such energy projects. Links are also provided to other World Bank
information:
<http://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/energy/geothermal/index.htm>
Earth Science Australia: <http://www.earthsci.org/esa/> This is one
of the best sites I have seen for geological information at the
general interest and school level and would absorb any curious child
up to about the age of 90. The list of links is international in
scope and very extensive.
Portals
-------
A selection of sites with good portals
The University of Leicester:
<http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/cti/info.html>
These links are more of an academic nature but there are also some
links to economic geology.
Belgeol: <http://users.skynet.be/Belgeol/> This site is run by Eric
Lemonne in Belgium and has an extensive list of world links.
WWW Links for Geologists:
<http://www.plym.ac.uk/services/help-advice/geol.htm> The extensive
links on this site tend more to academic interests.
Geoscience Books: <http://www.geosciencebooks.com/catalog.html> This
has a wide list of links to professional and government organisations
with a bias to North America. Also, not surprisingly, given the
name, it deals in out-of-print geological books but in my view a
better search site for that purpose, is Bookfinder:
<http://www.bookfinder.com/> The Bookfinder site is excellent for
locating all types of out-of-print books, and not just geological.
The Virtual Earth used to be run from Macquarie University, Sydney,
but has been closed for some months. A mirror site can still be
viewed at <http://www.geographie.uni-trier.de:8080/text/v_earth.htm>
Although the information has not been updated for some time there are
still very useful links with notes to assist in locating geological
information.
The Geological Society of Australia has quite a comprehensive list of
links to Australian and New Zealand government geological
organisations <http://www.gsa.org.au/>.
The Mining Industry
-------------------
The following are informative mineral industry
sites with good lists of links.
Infomine: <http://www.infomine.com/> Has a bias to North America. To
make full use of this site a paid subscription is required; this
varies from 15 US Dollars to 150 US Dollars per month.
Exploration Central hosted by David Stein, Queens University, Canada:
<http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4dms3/minex/> Loads quickly. Lots of
company information and links to metal commodity prices.
British Columbia & Yukon Chamber of Mines:
<http://www.bc-mining-house.com/> A good list of both North American
and international sites.
Australian Mining & Exploration posts industry news and has a very
extensive list of links to Australian exploration and mining
companies and companies servicing the Australian mining industry.
There is also a good list of links to overseas companies.
<http://www.reflections.com.au/MiningandExploration/index.html>.
YesResources is another Australian group which has good coverage of
mining industry news and wide coverage of links within the Australian
industry <http://www.yesresources.com/home.asp>.
Detailed mineral commodity prices, including precious metals, are to
be found on Bob Johnson's Goldsheet which also has good coverage of
international mining news: <http://goldsheet.simplenet.com/index.htm>.
Analysis of the trend of precious metal prices, but predominantly
gold, can be found at Steven Jon Kaplan's Gold Mining Outlook:
<http://www.goldminingoutlook.com/> This site, which is frequently
updated, examines in considerable detail the varying factors
influencing the price of gold. There are also a number of good links
to other sites concerned with precious metals and investing.
Reference
---------
Jim Martindale's Reference Desk is by no means restricted
to geology but is the most incredible source of out of the way
information. Convert ells to metres? Want the gestation period for
guinea pigs? Ferry timetables? Meaning of the Universe? It is
probably all here! Unfortunately there is at present no search
facility and you have to scroll through a large list of contents to
find the right category <http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/Ref.html>.
Climate & Sustainability
------------------------
The mining industry is frequently at the forefront of criticism in the
debates on climate change and sustainability and these issues are of
great interest to many geologists. The following sites offer
challenging views to current doomsayers.
John Daly's site on greenhouse warming and why it may be a non-event:
<http://www.vision.net.au/%7Edaly/>
Warwick Hughes presents evidence critical of much climate change data
and estimates of warming. <http://www.ozemail.com.au/~hughesw7/>
The Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) run by Fred
Singer examines many claims made by environmental groups and suggests
they do not stand up to analysis <http://www.sepp.org/>
John McCarthy of Stanford University offers a much more optimistic
view of sustainability, world population, and economic growth
<http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/>.
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John Elliot is a graduate of the universities of Auckland, New Zealand
and Macquarie, Sydney and is based in Bathurst, NSW, Australia from
where he works as a contract and consulting geologist in mineral
exploration, mainly in silver and gold, throughout Australia. As well
as researching exploration data he is active in both regional field
work and detailed drilling programmes. He now wonders if there was
life before the Internet! His email address is johnell@ozemail.com.au
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* "Geography and Mapping" links and articles in the Free Pint Portal
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>>> FREE PINT FACT <<<
The Knowledge Management debate on the Free Pint Bar has broken all
records, now being over six and a half thousand words long. With the
opening gambit being "Am I the only one who finds the term 'knowledge
management' more than a little Orwellian?" the discussion has now
matched the length of the last issue of Free Pint.
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar/read.php?i=5016
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
"The E-Commerce Question And Answer Book"
Reviewed by Rachel Newcombe
E-commerce is a huge concern for businesses, both for those already
online and for others considering the possibilities. There is a real
need for high quality, informative books on this topic, so does this
latest offering really fulfill its aim of providing answers to all the
crucial e-commerce questions?
The good news is that Anita Rosen's book, dubbed as being "A Survival
Guide for Business Managers", offers a practical, clear and
commonsense approach to e-commerce. Using an effective question and
answer format she sets out to provide help, advice and, most
importantly, answers, to the key issues likely to be facing business
managers wishing to implement e-commerce.
The six chapters cover a range of key issues, from Identifying Your
Direction and E-Commerce Technology, to Hosting and Supporting, and a
very useful section on Marketing an E-Commerce Site. The book utilizes
a rigid structure but this is no way detrimental and serves as an
excellent vehicle for allowing readers to either skim over with ease,
or read in depth, the sections of their choice. Each question is
answered in two formats -- as brief bulleted points and lengthier
"Tell Me More" sections -- and is a method that certainly works well.
It is clear throughout that Rosen doesn't aim the book purely at
technical buffs. Basic questions are considered alongside those of a
more technical nature and a comprehensive glossary of terms is
included at the end. Despite that, it was still a surprise to find
that a book dealing with a complex online issue opened with a question
covering "What is the Internet?" -- surely anyone contemplating e-
commerce will have managed to work that out for themselves?
Whilst the book does provide a great set of answers to pertinent
questions, there's often a sense that it could go further and expand
in more depth on some topics. The generalized, all-inclusive approach
will certainly be of use to those just starting to consider
implementing e-commerce. However, it is unlikely to offer much more
than an occasional reference guide to business managers who already
have some knowledge of the subject; it also seems best aimed at
managers of small to medium-sized businesses.
Those wanting to learn more about the book will benefit from visiting
Rosen's website <http://www.anitarosen.com/ebookindex.html>. She
offers visitors the opportunity of browsing the contents of the book,
which includes a full list of all the questions covered, and a chance
to read the preface and first chapter.
Overall the book does manage to achieve what it sets out to do and
lives up to its title. If you're in need of a clear, succinct and
straightforward approach that actively encourages taking action and
helps de-mystify common worries, then "The E-commerce Question and
Answer Book" may be just what you've been looking for!
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Rachel Newcombe is a writer and researcher of non-fiction articles for
online and print media. She particularly enjoys the field of online
work and regularly contributes to a range of websites and ezines
including Handbag.com, Ycraze.com, Windowbox.com and Global Writers'
Ink. She also co-edits and writes for the monthly Side Salad e-
newsletter .
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Related Free Pint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/question.htm>
* Read about other Internet strategy books on the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/strategy.htm>
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814405258/freepint0c>
or Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814405258/freepint00>
* Details: ISBN 0814405258 published by Amacom written by Anita Rosen
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf>
To propose a business-Web-related book for review, send details
to <bookshelf@freepint.co.uk>.
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>>> MAJOR RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS ON INFORMATION COURSES <<<
The Free Pint Student Bar is THE place to get help with dissertations,
recruitment and to network with other students and new professionals.
There are also details of student discounts and work placements, with
useful links to associations and recruitment agencies.
http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/
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FEATURE ARTICLE
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/191000.htm#feature
"European Document Delivery Suppliers
and Resources On The World Wide Web"
By Anke Baumgartner
Introduction
------------
This article aims to point towards some of the key providers that are
currently utilised by our broker service in order to facilitate
document delivery to individual end-users within a multi-national
company. Document delivery in this context refers to journal articles,
journal issues, books, reports or conferences, and dissertations that
can either be purchased and/or requested on a loan basis. I have
included all kinds of Internet resources for obtaining material and
some are more subject-specific than others. More importantly, many of
the sites mentioned here do not offer an English version, and
therefore, require certain linguistic skills.
It is important to stress that the majority of end-users are located
on Continental Europe, hence this article concentrates primarily on
German, Swiss, Dutch, French and Spanish suppliers on the web. In
general, documents are located and purchased in the country where the
requestor lives, but of course the selection process is not always
quite so simple. This represents not only a more cost-effective
approach, but also ensures maximum speed of delivery as far as
hardcopy requests are concerned. We also notice that this method
allows us to gain credibility and confidence with our European
customers.
There are numerous vendors on the web and the following list of
document suppliers is drawn from what we have developed over the last
two years of servicing our corporate clients. All suppliers have three
things in common. Firstly, they allow the requestor to purchase
online. Secondly, the ordering form accommodates a separate billing
and shipping address. Acting as a broker service, we instruct our
suppliers to deliver the document in the chosen format directly to the
end-user, while the bill is sent to ourselves. Although this might
appear to be a simple process, our past experiences have taught us
otherwise. To manage and control the flow of document supply across
European borders can indeed present a frustrating process! Thirdly,
the suppliers listed here continue to perform on a high quality
service level (rapid turnaround times, excellent customer service,
competitive pricing, etc.).
Purchasing articles and requesting inter-library loans
------------------------------------------------------
One of our favourite ordering systems on the web to fulfil requests
for clients located in Germany and/or for locating German language
material is the SUBITO system. The SUBITO document delivery system
allows the user to search the German Library Network which currently
consists of over 14 libraries and the number is growing. The system
itself contains 4 major databases. The ADI (Aufsatzdienst
International) searches for journal articles from 1992 onwards and
lists over 7 million articles. The ZDB (Zeitschriftendatenbank)
currently contains 990,202 journal titles and is updated on a regular
basis. A monograph database allows you to request inter-library loans
for books, conference proceedings and dissertations. Finally, the
forth database contains a full listing of addresses and phone numbers
of German libraries.
The great thing about SUBITO is that their prices are very cost-
effective even for commercial users such as ourselves. Journal
articles can be delivered in various formats: standard or express
mail, fax, e-mail format (PDF, TIFF, Postscript), FTP. Once a request
is made you will receive a confirmation e-mail that your order has
been accepted and a further e-mail once the item has been shipped (a
good performance measurement tool).
A further excellent German journal article supplier is JASON (Journal
Article Sent On Demand)
<http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/library/ordering>.
This is very much the equivalent of Uncover in the US and holds over
40,000 journal titles. This system is supported by JADE
<http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/databases/jade/jade.htm> where you can
search for individual journal articles.
For a more specific search for scientific information we consult WEBIS
(combining WEB and Library Information System)
<http://webis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/>.
WEBIS is a joint project of numerous scientific libraries throughout
Germany supported by the German Research Society. You can find all the
libraries that participate in the system and their individual special
subject collections. The special subject collections are structured
into subject oriented ones (e.g. Russian Language and Literature,
Economics, Physics) and regional collections (e.g. Africa South of the
Sahara). All in all there are 121 special subject collections which
can be found in more than 40 libraries all over Germany.
In The Netherlands, the DUT (Delft University of Technology Library)
is a main supplier
for Dutch material. DUT is the Dutch central library for technology,
engineering and related sciences. The library maintains an impressive
collection of documents: 11,200 current serial titles, 950,500
monographs and conference proceedings as well as 1,059,000 NTIS
reports. They can supply documents, either from their own collection
or any other Dutch collection providing it is available through the
Dutch national catalogue. If the document is available in Delft's own
collection they can supply it by E-mail (PDF), airmail or fax. Books,
reports and dissertations can be borrowed for a period of up to 4
weeks.
For locating further scientific material (especially biomedical)
written in Dutch a good source is the Nederlands Instituut voor
Wetenschappelijke Informatiediensten <http://www.niwi.knaw.nl>. You
can download their minicatalogue at
<http://www.niwi.knaw.nl/us/issn/minicat.htm>.
It offers an overview of the most important journals and their
holdings. Documents can be supplied via fax, standard or express mail.
An interesting aspect of NIWI is its electronic journal database
containing links to approximately 170 freely accessible, scientific
biomedical electronic journals on the web, most of them full-text. The
list is updated every month.
Scientific and technical French material can be located at the
Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique
<http://www.inist.fr>. Article@INIST allows you to search over
5 million bibliographical references (articles, monographs, reports,
congresses, theses). The database gets updated daily.
Just in case you ever need to locate that tricky Finnish business
document visit the Helsinki School of Economics Library - Center for
Economics and Business Information at
<http://helecon.hkkk.fi/library/>. The library delivers copies from
its own collections and acts as an intermediary for inter-library loan
requests. A further interesting feature is Helecon Online where you
can retrieve annual reports and www-links of Finnish companies.
Monographs: purchase orders
---------------------------
An excellent source for general international material is BOL
(Bertelsmann Online) - <http://www.bol.com> - BOL operates on a global
basis and is currently present in 14 countries. In particular, we use
the sites in Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, France and Spain.
Italy will be added soon and in March 2000 BOL entered a joint venture
with bokus.com, the leading online bookstore in Northern Europe
(Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland).
A vendor we use on a regular basis for Dutch and English publications
is Boeknet <http://www.boeknet.nl>. They offer more than 100,000
titles in the Dutch language including a variety of US publications.
There is a useful search option that helps locating Dutch publishers
(uitgeverij).
The majority of US publications are ordered from the American Book
Center in Amsterdam <http://www.abc.nl>. Although the price for
individual books might be a little higher than, say, on Amazon.com,
the total purchase cost is still more competitive as the shipping
charges are reduced significantly. Moreover, if the book is in stock
the delivery time can be as little as 2 days. Furthermore, ABC offers
a 10 percent card for regular customers.
Amazon.de <http://www.amazon.de> is our number one supplier in Germany
and Switzerland. It contains a searchable database of 40,0000 German
language titles, but also offers a good number of US publications.
Books are delivered to the recipient free of postage charges in
Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
In Switzerland our preferred vendors are Booknet CH
<http://www.luethy.ch> for both German and English general and
business publications. Lesen <http://www.lesen.ch> is also frequently
consulted. Several catalogues are available for English, German,
French and Italian material. No shipping charges within Switzerland!
For specialised computer science literature and software you will find
that Net-Point <http://www.mut.ch> is a valuable source. They also
offer currently 40 computer books on-line. Schulthess Juristische
Medien AG in Zurich <http://www.schulthess.com> will provide you
quickly with any kind of Swiss law publication or any other legal
information.
A good on-line shop for French publications is
<http://www.alapage.com>. Their database contains a large range of
items - mainly French - that can be delivered anywhere in the world.
You will also find a useful out-of print search function. Computer
science books can be found at Biblimedia <http://www.biblimedia.com/>.
If you're trying to find a Danish book and can not locate it via BOL,
try searching at <http://www.bogguide.dk/> (around 16,000 Danish
books).
In Spain, we tend to use the following online stores: Iberbook
<http://www.iberbook.com>. They will source any book or other type of
publication from Spain, Portugal and Latin America. A further source
for Spanish material is Submarino <http://www.submarino.com> (has
absolutely nothing to do with submarines) with mirror sites in Brazil,
Argentina and Mexico.
Finally, a good search engine for comparing prices, availability,
shipping time and delivery costs of books is DealTime at
<http://media.dealtime.com/books.html>. You have the option to search
for American, English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish books.
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Anke Baumgartner is employed by GCI Information Services, Inc. - a
subsidiary of Stanley Associates, Inc. based in the US. She set up and
currently manages a virtual business unit in the UK servicing
corporate clients in the chemical sector across Europe. Constantly
on the lookout for new suppliers and web-related resources, she
enjoys researching the Internet and testing new ordering systems. Anke
can be contacted at abaumgartner@btinternet.com
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Related Free Pint links:
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FREE PINT PORTAL
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal
Here's my regular look at developments on the Free Pint Web site ...
Our eCommerce system is working a treat as we near the launch of our
pay-per-view company information section. We're currently finishing
testing of the "security key" which you will be issued when you want
to purchase items and have top level encryption on the secure server.
Following my announcement about our new bulk mail system which sends
out this newsletter and the Bar Digests, a number of readers have
asked us to host their lists and handle distribution of their email
newsletters. I am delighted to offer this service since current list
hosts seem to be letting clients down in various ways (e.g. bad
customer service, expense and unreliability of servers). We know
because we've been there too.
Plans for the Roadshow continue apace and we are already adding dates
to those at the beginning of November when we're visiting
Loughborough, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester and Aberystwyth. You'll
have seen from my Editorial that we're meeting in Oxford next Thursday
evening, and I have had numerous requests for the Roadshow to come to
Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany and Israel. Discussions
about an international Roadshow are going well and it seems likely
that we'll be leaving these shores early next year. For full details
of the Roadshow, and to sign up for an event, visit
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/roadshow.htm>.
You might not have come across the Press and Awards page at
<http://www.freepint.co.uk/press.htm> but we do post details of press
coverage for Free Pint. For instance, we've been covered in this
month's Internet magazine where they say "If you're involved in Web
research then you really can't afford to miss this site". The Press
page also contains stock press release photos if you're a journalist
and can help us with some publicity. It seems that we're finally being
reviewed as a destination site ourselves, rather than the press just
using us to find other sites to review.
William Hann, Managing Editor <william@freepint.co.uk>
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The Free Pint Portal gives you access to the full range of Free Pint
content by industry and country as well as a large number of
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Want to quickly send your colleagues and friends a brief and courteous
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/events
You might just catch the second day of the eRetailing 2000 conference
if you are quick, and close to London, UK. But there's plenty of time
to get to London for the Annual SCIP European Conference and Exhibit.
Close by, in Oxford, Free Pinters will be gathering to hear William
Hann on the 26th of this month bringing us up to date on the latest
developments at Free Pint and enjoying a real free pint from Factiva.
This will be the first leg of the Free Pint Roadshow which will then
be visiting Lougborough, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester and
Aberystwyth in early November.
A bit further away, in Sweden, big names will be getting together for
the Internet Marketing Strategy Conference and exhibition. And way
over Stateside, the WebNet 2000 World Conference takes place in San
Antonio, Texas. Finally, in Oregon, the LITA National Forum meets in
Portland to thrash out the Human aspects of Technology.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
Full details of these and many other forthcoming conferences and
exhibitions in the online-information and Internet industries can be
found on the Free Pint Events page <http://www.freepint.co.uk/events>.
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FREE PINT GOLD
The Tips article this time last year was about music sites on the Web.
Sites for players, learners, listeners, promoters and bands are
plentiful on the Web. The Feature dealt with the pros and cons of
digital subscriber lines.
* Free Pint No.48, 21st October 1999 "Notes on the Net: A trawl around
the Music Sites" and "Unblocking the Web: digital technology and the
telephone line" <http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/211099.htm>.
Selecting and optimising your modem was the subject of the Tips
article this time two years ago. The Feature article lists the best
consumer health sites along with details of what you can expect to
find in each.
* Free Pint No.24, 15th October 1998 "How to select and optimise your
PC Internet modem" and "A guide to Consumer Health Information on
the 'Net" <http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/151098.htm>.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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Rex Cooke, Editor <rex@freepint.co.uk>
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Many thanks for reading this edition of Free Pint, and if you've
enjoyed it then I invite you now to tell someone else about the
newsletter. It's our third birthday next time and so we'll be laying
on the jelly and ice cream, virtually of course.
See you in two weeks!
William Hann, Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk
(c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2000
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CONTACT INFORMATION
William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Founder and Managing Editor
e: william@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
Rex Cooke FIInfSc FRSA, Editor
e: rex@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1342 316027 f: +44 (0)1342 316027
Simon Collery BA, Content Developer
e: simon@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1865 434143 f: +44 (0)1784 455436
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About this Newsletter
- Publication Date: 18th October 2000
- Plain text
- Link: https://www.jinfo.com/go/newsletter/73
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