Introducing AlertsManager for DataStar

Publish, track and manage access to DataStar Alerts with the just-released AlertsManager tool. The information manager ("Alerts Publisher") in your organization can more effectively control your Alerts spend and distribution, while end users can easily subscribe to available Alerts with the click of a button—and they don't need their own DataStar account to do it!

Product features include:

• The ability to publish or post Alerts so end users can subscriber on their own without assistance
• Subscriber e-mail addresses are added or removed automatically to or from the Alert
• Copyright royalities (ERA*) are automatically applied based on the number of subscribers to each Alert; Alerts in databases that do not offer redistribution rights cannot be published
• Alert Publishers are notified of Alerts that have expired
• Alert Publishers can check on who has subscribed to which Alert, and find out how many Alerts each end user is receiving
• Subscribers do not need to be users of DataStar services; subscribers register with their e-mail and access rights are triggered by the e-mail address and its domain

To become a publisher, the client must first register online and create an account with AlertsManager at http://alertsmanager.dialog.com. AlertsManager is a fee-based service.

International Monetary Fund Librarian Wins
Free Dialog Usage

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Librarian Jane Keneshea recently won US$500 in free usage on Dialog for her library. The prize was part of a random drawing held for anyone who subscribed to one or more of Dialog’s new topical e-newsletters between November 15, 2005, and December 31, 2005.

“This is a nice surprise for the new year,” said Jane. “I have been a fan of Dialog since around 1978, when I attended my first training class.”

Dialog appreciates everyone who signed up for the e-newsletters and entered for a chance to win US$500 in free usage on Dialog. By signing up for the e-newsletters, you are guaranteed to be better informed about Dialog's products and content collection.

Dialog launched its new topic e-newsletters in August 2005 to address the communities-of-interest of its customers, including What's New on Dialog, What's New on DataStar, Aerospace & Defense News, Competitive Intelligence News, Engineering & High Tech News, Pharma/ BioTech News, Patents News and Trademarks News.

Dialog TradStat Adds New Countries

Four new countries have been added to Dialog TradStat, bringing the total number of countries directly covered to 40.

Those eastern European countries are: Estonia. Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Watch for more countries to be added to Dialog TradStat in March. Together with the data for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic that have recently been added, the 10 new European Union members are now on Dialog TradStat.

Thesaurus Mapping Extended to Additional DataStar Files

Thesaurus Mapping has been added to eight more DataStar databases, bringing the total number of databases with this feature to 34. The additional databases for which thesaurus mapping is now available are ABI/INFORM® (INFO), Adis R&D Insight (ADRD), EMBASE® Alert (EMBA), Gale Group PROMT® (PTSP), IMS R&D Focus Drug Updates (IPUR), Incidence and Prevalence Database (IAPV), PASCAL (PASC) and Pharmaprojects (PHAR).

Enhancement to PrivateStar (PRIV)

You can now load multiple external documents at a time into your PrivateStar (PRIV) database, making it easier to load large numbers of documents. Documents must be in a specific XML format. Previously, only one document could be added at a time. Contact the Knowledge Center for more information on this enhancement, or for more about PrivateStar.

Easier Document Import from DataStar to ResearchSoft

Users of ResearchSoft applications will find it easier to extract documents from saved search results downloaded from DastaStarClassic on the Web (www.datastarclassic.com). The document separator has been changed to work seamlessly with the current ResearchSoft data import tool.

New Nursing Database, EMCare, on DataStar

EMCare (EMCA), a new bibliographic database produced by Elsevier and covering the topics of nursing and allied health, has been added to DataStar. EMCare provides cover-to-cover indexing of more than 2,700 international sources, providing timely access to information about scientific advancements that lead to more cost-effective and higher quality healthcare. The file also supports the practice of evidence-based treatment in a wide variety of settings.

The file is updated weekly, and contains a 10-year backfile (1995 to date). Nearly 250,000 new records will be added each year. The nearly 2 million records are indexed with EMTREE, Elsevier's Life Science Thesaurus which has been expanded with close to 1,500 nursing terms in addition to existing allied health terms.

Inspec® Reloaded and Enhanced With Interactive Thesaurus

Inspec® (INZZ,INSP) on DataStar has been reloaded and now includes an integrated thesaurus that can be accessed through the interactive thesaurus functionality or in its own file, IVOC. The thesaurus contains approximately 9,000 terms and is specifically tailored to help retrieval in Inspec's main areas of coverage in physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computers and computing, information technology, production, manufacturing and mechanical engineering.

In addition, some major functionality changes have been introduced that allow for more effective display of data supplied by Inspec. Also affected is the order in which paragraphs are displayed and how the information is displayed within them. Some paragraphs have been renamed and in some cases removed. For more information, see BASE–DataStar Database Guides (BASE).

Changes to MEDLINE® and Pharm-line

Pharm-line (LINE) began updating from January 2006. Produced by the U.K. National Medicines Information Centres, it covers pharmacy practice and the clinical use of drugs. It is a good complement to International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPAB), which has a U.S. perspective on similar issues. Records go back to 1978, with approximately 11,000 records added every year from over 100 key journals in the field.

MEDLINE® (MEDL, MEZZ) on DataStar has been reloaded. The file resumed updating in mid-December2005, and the full 2006 reload is now available. This is the earliest the reload of MEDLINE has been completed on DataStar.

MEDLINE is reloaded every year because the National Library of Medicine (NLM) re-indexes relevant documents from the whole database with changed medical terms. For 2006, 993 new Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were added, 188 headings were replaced with more up-to-date terminology and 50 headings were deleted.

Additional information can be found on the NLM Web site.