I was at Amazon this morning and was quite entranced to find that, according to Amazon’s non librarian catalogers, Bob Berkman’s “The Skeptical Business Searcher” was written by Reva Basch and Ran Hock’s “The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook” was written by Gary Price. In both cases, Amazon listed the person who wrote the introduction as the book author.

And this was supposed to be the example of the World’s Largest Library? Not til Amazon gets some authority control in place!

I’m off to SLA Winter meeting tomorrow, so will be blogging from Tampa.

Marydee Ojala

Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionalas

www.onlinemag.net

It’s the first anniversary for HighBeam and it’s done a deal with the New York Times to sponsor its Open House event all this week. The Times’ logo will appear on all the Anniversary Open House promotions on the HighBeam Research Engine. Plus, if you register for Basic membership, you get free and unlimited access to all the HighBeam articles and research tools. That’s the stuff that HighBeam normally charges $19.95 per month or $99.95 per year for. OK, so it’s not expensive to begin with, but free beats paying for the same thing any day of the week.

I’ve also noticed that HighBeam must have a really good search optimizer working for them, particularly where Yahoo is concerned. Seems like HighBeam results frequently show up in the top 10 when I do searches. Maybe it’s just the way I search.

Marydee Ojala

Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals

www.onlinemag.net

Some of the other articles in the January/February 2005 issue of ONLINE include a review of dtSearch by Ernest Perez and a survey of information sources for the metals and materials industry by Alcoa’s Earl Mounts. Greg Notess revisits past technologies, Kim Guenther gives some hints for choosing a search engine, George Plosker looks at taxonomies, and Mary Ellen Bates shines her Online Spotlight on A9.

Marydee Ojala

Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professional

www.onlinemag.net

Here it is, my very own blog! After participating in the three event blogs that Information Today has published so far, I’ve become more and more entranced with blogging technology and the possibilities inherent in blogs. So, thanks to the folks at Information Today, we’ve started this blog which is intended to be sort of an extension of the editorial mission of ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals. As a print publication, it simply can’t be as timely as a blog. In its defense, a print publication can provide in-depth articles and reviews and definitely has better graphics. Check out the cover of the January/February 2005 issue, which shows the “green road” to Open Access.

I’m excited about starting this blog and, although I can’t promise I’ll post every day, I will try to bring a unique perspective and voice that represents the online world and the information professionals who inhabit it.

Marydee Ojala

Editor, ONLINE

ONLINE:The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals