NEW DATABASES AVAILABLE
Dialog has announced a few new interesting
and useful databases:
TEME is a German database on
R & D innovations especially in engineering related fields - aerospace,
automobiles, energy, IT, mining, textiles, transport.
NewsRX produces about 20 Healthcare
newsletters in the US and their database is now available online
relating to business and consumer information about drugs, biotechnology
and health.
ADIS CLINICAL TRIALS INSIGHT presents
evaluations of key papers on drugs, adverse reactions and pharmacoeconomics.
AND NOT SO NEW
JORDAN'S DATABASE for British
company information is an excellent source for listed and unlisted company
data.
PERIODICALS ABSTRACTS - a US
database is fairly unique in that it covers both academic journals and
consumer magazines such as Rolling Stone, Better Homes & Gardens.
CREDIT REFERENCE INFORMATION
is also now available from Information Edge on Australian companies.
NEWSTEXT has revamped its search
engine and now has a much deeper archive of the Courier Mail and
other News Ltd publications than available through other services.
AND PRE 1975 HANDWRITTEN INDEXES
Information Edge is also privileged
to now own a microfiche version of a fantastic and rare index of
NSW newspapers covering the period from 1910 - 1975 - yes BEFORE the Internet
and before online!.
Although the handwritten card index
replicated on the microfilm is cryptic and occasionally the handwriting
is difficult to read, it provides unique coverage of Sydney newspapers
for the period.
In addition to very brief one line
abstracts, the page and column of articles is provided.
It will be a great resource for anyone
in public relations, advertising or other fields needing historical information
between 1910 and 1975 on topics such as:
-
Two-up gambling in Sydney
-
Celebrations in Martin Place in 1945
-
The history of the coal industry in NSW
-
That famous incident regarding Captain
de Groot on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
This now enables us to trace the best
newspaper coverage quickly using the handwritten index compiled over 65
years by dedicated indexers!
NSW PARLIAMENT ONLINE
The brilliant web site available from
the NSW Parliament enabling anyone to check on Hansard for instance since
1991. Is a huge leap forward from the old copperplate writing on
the microfiche index. www.parliament.nsw.gov.au
INTERNET TIPS
In February 2002, Alta Vista changed its search default
Boolean operator from OR to AND . This will result
in significant changes to search output.
For example, since February 2002, if you are looking
for information on MOTORCARS and you use these words in Alta Vista:
AUTOMOBILES CARS MOTORCARS
Alta Vista will only retrieve records that mention
all three words . Before February the default Boolean operator
was OR - so then you could throw a whole lot of similar terms into the
search box and Alta Vista would retrieve documents that mentioned at least
one of them.
WHO'S LINKING TO YOUR SITE?
Have you checked to see who is linking
to your website, with or without your permission? It's one way to
find out who is interested in what you are doing, Using some of the
usual search engines it is very easy:
In AltaVista (www.altavista.com)
in the search box enter link: followed by your URL
In Google (www.google.com)
in the Advanced page enter your URL and choose the "in links to the
page: in the "Occurrences" section.
In HotBot (www.hotbot.com)
in the "Look For" box choose "links to this URL" and enter your URL in
the search box.
SOME USEFUL SITES- STATISTICS
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has
released 2001 Census data for Australia, some of which is available free:
www.abs.gov.au
For a useful site for Canadian statistics
have a look at http://www.statcan.ca/
SOME USEFUL SITES- MEDICINE
The PubMed site for free access to Medline
is: http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
Our biomedical clients may find this
site of use on occasions also: http://www.tripdatabase.com
.
This is an "evidence based" healthcare
site that searches over 75 sites to produce nearly 30,000 links to journals,
textbooks and more.
LONDON AND LONGBEACH, LA
A recent brief trip to attend a Factiva
Information Professional Advisory Board meeting in London and the annual
conference of the Association of Independent Information Professionals
in Long Beach, LA was useful for identifying new sources and new contacts.
We have now located companies that
can:
-
Undertake work for us in Singapore
-
Undertake telephone research in the US
-
Locate documents in Washington
For further information please contact
our office.
GIVING SEARCH BRIEFS
Setting out what information is required
is an important part of the search process and can lower search costs and
improve search results by enabling the searcher to focus correctly on precisely
what is needed.
Here are a few tips (based on a real,
but old, request) to help ensure that the search results match what
is needed:-
-
One of the best ways to request information
is to set out what problem needs to be solved.
Our sales representatives have
reported marketplace rumours that Competitor A is losing money, but Competitor
A is also clearly spending money on upgrading plants and facilities. What
are the long term plans of Competitor A?
-
Specify the date ranges that are relevant.
Competitor A first arrived in the
Australian market 3-4 years ago when it acquired Company X.
-
Make sure you spell names as correctly
as possible.
-
Ensure the geographic boundaries are clear
- Competitor A is owned by a European conglomerate.
-
Provide data on what information is already
known.
-
What was the answer to these questions?
Although nothing had been published
in Australia about Competitor A's activities, a global search revealed
the Chairman of the European parent company had responded to angry shareholders
at an AGM in Europe. He had outlined plans to use the Australian
and NZ subsidiaries as beach-heads for the group's expansion
into Asia. Investment in upgrading and modernising the Australian facilities
had been undertaken in preparation for the Asian expansion.
TRAINING
For details of forthcoming training on
Creating the Future - on strategic positioning of libraries or Strategies
& Tactics for Super Searchers , please contact our Office. |
