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The cultural portals of libraries inform, educate and cultivate the thinking of society via the promotion of cultural heritage and by focusing on the regional specificities of European nations. Portals, as electronic information resources, generally contribute to the enrichment of the libraries' collections and their advantages consist of the constant availability, unlimited searching and updated information. The paper presents a thematic overview of Slovak and Czech cultural portals with a focus on the cultural heritage. The author analyses two portals (Ludovakultura.sk and Lidovakultura.cz) in greater detail, focusing on their aesthetic and content specifics, mission and institutional attachment, followed by a recommendations summary and conclusions for library and information practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features the installation of a new document imaging system by the Laguna Beach, California City Clerk Department to store paper and electronic records, in October 2004. Conversion of the clerk's existing digital files to a standard image format in March 2003; Features of the new system; Expected availability of the records online.

In the article, the author discusses the latest trends in the digital publishing industry as of December 2011. He cites the three trends that could dominate the sector, namely, mobility, ubiquity and touchability. The concept of conventional advertising is also being replaced by user-generated content (UGC), social sharing and social advertising.

This article presents various resources for school library media centers. Macromedia offers educators four multimedia student portfolio templates and a whitepaper on the use and benefits of student portfolios. A project to make available online all the Thomas Jefferson papers in the United States Library of Congress has been completed. TeachingBooks.net Web site has a new look and powerful features. "Surpass Copycat" is a cataloging software for downloading free MARC records with no annual database subscription needed. The "Columbia Granger's Poetry Database" is available via EBSCOhost. "History Database Center" from Facts on File is an interface that will automatically be made available to customers who subscribe to two or more Facts on File history databases.

Explores the evolution of library information science in the United States. Emergence of digital technologies; Conversion of paper records into digital data; Impact of digital information environments.

This article focuses on the publishing paradigm of the University of California (UC). As digital technologies evolved and campus budgets constricted, UC librarians, researchers and administrators began acknowledging three challenges that could not be ignored; the economics of publishing were changing rapidly, scholarly communication needed to innovate and sustaining comprehensive collections was becoming increasingly harder to do. UC representatives began conceptualizing a plan to harness the system's resources at a time when the budget was very bad and the possibilities of technology seamed endless. The mission of the California Digital Library is to provide a centralized framework to efficiently share materials held by UC, offer greater and easier access to digital content and join with researchers in developing new tools and innovations for scholarly communication. The eScholarship Repository, a project of the eScholarship initiative project, offers faculty a central location for depositing any research or scholarly output deemed appropriate by their participating UC research unit. The repository enables the rapid creation, management and dissemination of journals, peer-reviewed series, working papers and other forms of scholarship generated by UC researchers.

The article looks at the development of The Vietnam Project, which provides digital information resources. Texas Tech University (TTU), Lubbock, is ramping up The Vietnam Project (www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter) with several massive digitization initiatives that will make major resources far more accessible. Launched in 1989, the project consists of two units, The Vietnam Center and The Virtual Vietnam Archive, along with smaller subdivisions: The Oral History Project, The Vietnam Archive, and The Teachers' Resource Web. The project was the brainchild of TTU history professor and navy veteran Jim Reckner, now its director, and a group of local Vietnam veterans, who approached the Board of Regents, which embraced the project. After existing on paper for more than a decade, the project began incorporating a virtual archive in 2001 using a collection management system called STAR/ Museums from Cuadra Associates (www.cuadra.com). The project continually receives materials from veterans -- roughly 1500 total, including 465 in the last year alone.

Although the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online was not the Brooklyn Public Library's (BPL) first digital project, it has become a catalyst for change and future library initiatives. Like many local history collections nationwide, BPL's Brooklyn Collection was eager to digitize materials for improved access, especially the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. In 2001, the library received an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant to digitize the microfilm of the Eagle from 1841 to 1902. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, founded in 1841, was Brooklyn's newspaper of record. After the Eagle ceased publication in 1955, BPL received the paper's morgue and related files. Today, they are the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Collection, which also houses books, photographs from the Eagle and from other photographers, newspaper clipping files, and manuscripts, prints, and illustrations. June Gaddy, Brooklyn Collection's CLASP (Connecting Libraries and Schools Program) librarian, regularly delves into African American and neighborhood history as represented in the Eagle Online as she works with teachers and students on local history projects. Not only has the Eagle Online opened up research, but it has also generated discussions within the institution about the role of the public library in the digital world. INSET: Nuts & Bolts.

Reports on a ruling by the United States Supreme Court that allows the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to destroy electronic records once paper copies are created. Challenge against the destruction of electronic records by the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Historical Association (AHA); Claim that some records were destroyed without the creation of a printed copy.

The article provides information on several movie review Web sites. Roger Ebert's Web site, at www.rogerebert.com, offers an archive of reviews dating from 1967, along with reviews of Great Movies ranging from Birth of Nation (1915) to Fargo (1996). If you want to search an archive of more than 15,000 reviews, visit the Movie section of the online version of The New York Times, at movies.nytimes.com. The archive includes the reviews published in the paper since 1960 as well as selected reviews dating from 1913. For an overview of critical reaction from print and online critics, visit Rotten Tomatoes at www.rottentomatoes.com.

The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act or E-SIGN in the U.S. was adopted to make a transaction's electronic contract and signatures legally binding. E-SIGN gives legal teeth to contracts with electronic transaction records and signatures. An electronic signature, according to E-SIGN, is any electronic sound, symbol or process in a counteract or other record that a person uses as his or her signature. It can be as simple as the I Agree button on a Web form or as complex as a digitalized signature, fingerprint or retinal scan embedded into a document. Typically, the greater the perceived legal risks, the more complex the process for electronically signing a contract. The risk of a digital contract not standing up in court or being subject to fraud or abuse is real, especially for high-priced transactions. A multimillion dollar contract for exchanging raw materials, manufactured goods letters of credit, for instance, would be a prime target for litigation. Although E-SIGN makes paper and electronic contracts equivalent under the law, it also imposes an additional burden on electronic versions. Organizations must get the consent of their customers to opt in and use electronic records. INSET: When To E-SIGN.

The article reports the announcement of a partnership between ProQuest, a digital information provider for libraries, and JISC Collections, a supplier of online content. The joint venture has been started to provide access to parliamentary papers from the collection of the British House of Commons. Also reported is an increase in the literary content provided by another ProQuest service.

Reports that H. W. Wilson will replace the AMICO Library of images with the Art Museum Image Gallery database. Report that the images are rights cleared so that students can download them for papers and so that teachers can use the images for lectures; Statement that each image provides a description, with some featuring related multimedia.

Asks for information from readers and comments on electronic library issues. Reference to the University of Virginia Press's Dolley Madison Digital Edition and the digitized collection of George Washington's papers; Quotation of Linda May, vice president for marketing at the Greenwood Publishing Group; Review of two full-text collections by Sage Publications, including Management & Organization Studies and Urban Studies & Planning.

Reports that EBSCO Publishing is marketing SocINDEX and SocINDEX with Full Text. Statement that the index features more than 1.3 million records with subject headings from a sociology-specific thesaurus; Report that the full text edition includes full text for 241 core journals, 72 priority journals, 545 books and monographs, and 6,711 conference papers.

Presents news related to libraries as of November 15, 1991. Discussion of a forthcoming white paper on information access policies by the Association of Research Libraries; Details of the Kreimer v. Morristown court case regarding a homeless man's complaints about the patron rules of the Joint Free Public Library of Morristown and Morris Township, New Jersey; Reinstatement of prison library workers in Maryland; How the opening of access to a collection of master photographic negatives of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Huntington Library in California forced Israelis to ease access to four duplicate sets of the negatives held in other locations.

This article announces that Nature Publishing Group and the Allen Institute for Brain Science has launched the Neuroscience Gateway, a free online resource for neuroscience and genomics research. The Neuroscience Gateway, which was available in early May 2006, provides the latest papers, neuroscience news, and free access to highlights lights of key articles. It will also provide free access to highlighted primary research papers from journals in the Nature family as well as direct access to the Allen Brain Atlas, a freely available scientific resource developed by the Allen Institute.

This article focuses on the decision of the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF), a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the value and relevance of document communications worldwide, to develop an industry research library, offering research and white papers to interested parties. Apparently, an increasing number of digital libraries are emerging to fill very specific niches and offer visitors access to documents and materials that the public library has not been able to offer. According to Jeanne Mowlds, executive director of the EDSF, there were a number of factors that motivated the development of the EDSF Research Library in the fall of 2003. Such factors, according to Mowlds, included various individuals and organizations contacting EDSF for specific research needs, EDSF sponsoring the development of publications and white papers well received by the industry. In addition, Mowlds stated that there is quality public domain research available from vendors, consultants, and academic institutions but locating the research is allegedly difficult. Offerings cover digital color printing, industry definition and analysis, processes, productivity and profitability, and cross-media migration and integration, in addition to other industry-related subjects.

Announces that the Library of Congress has made its collection of Thomas Jefferson papers available online at the American Memory Web site. How the Jefferson papers include correspondence, memorandum, notes, and manuscript volumes; Consideration of how the local link resolver can link from the HLAS Online records to the Web resources.

This article reports on SocINDEX databases offered by EBSCO Publishing as of June 2005. SocINDEX and SocINDEX with Full Text are now available via EBSCOhost. SoclNDEX features more than 1.3 million records with subject headings from a 15,000-term sociology-specific thesaurus as welt as abstracts for more than 620 core journals dating back to 1895. It also provides priority coverage of more than 500 journals and selective coverage of more than 1,070 other journals. Indexing for books, conference papers, and other sources is included, as are searchable cited references. SoclNDEX with Full Text provides the same indexing and abstracts as Soc-lNDEX, as well as the full text of 72 priority journals and 241 core journals dating back to 1895. The database also includes the full text of 545 books and 6,711 conference papers.

ISI ResearchSoft announced the release of WriteNote, a Web-based research and writing tool designed for the undergraduate market. Sold as an annual, sitewide subscription to the institution, WriteNote is designed to help students conduct research and compose papers. WriteNote, which is customized for each campus, takes students to their library resources. There, users can search for relevant content and capture references into their personal library folders. They can also annotate and save Web pages for citing in their papers..

The article discusses various papers published in the July/August 2008 issues of "The CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research ONLINE and Searcher." In the article "Water Resources: Tracking Freshwater," Jackie Shane highlighted some of the best resources for gathering information on surface and groundwater. She noted that combined ground and surface water accounts for nearly 0.6 percent of Earth's water. Carol Ginsburg and William Noorlander discussed the issue of outsourcing in their article "Investigating Outsourcing and Offshoring Research." In "Researching the Americas' First Peoples: Sources and Searching Problems," Nancy Herther addressed the communication problems between Native Americans and European descendants.

The article reports on the publication of "Fire Service Features of Buildings and Fire Protection Systems," offered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The booklet is intended to increase the safety for building occupants and emergency responders. It is then announced that the booklet can be downloaded at the publications page of the OSHA Web site or by contacting them through the telephone number offered in the paper.

This article focuses on the things that online users hate about Web sites and the Internet. Sree Sreenivasan, a journalism professor at Columbia University, wrote a column titled Stuff I Hate, for PoynterOnline in 2005. He wrote a similar piece in 2003. In each, he asked readers to tell him what they hated online. Responses to his most recent article indicate that things haven't really improved. For example, there are still plenty of Web sites that don't include easy-to-find contact information. One person complained about going to a newspaper Web page and not being able to figure out where the paper is located. A medical writer said he was frustrated by Web stories without a date because he can't tell how fresh or how stale the information is. Other peeves included slow-loading home pages, often due to promiscuous use of music or graphics; pages that mess with a user's browser; Web sites that require downloading special software in order to access content; sites that present a seizure-inducing Flash introductory page; and links that start the download of unexpectedly large portable document format files without warning.

This article provides information on the Web portal, DocuTicker. In 2004, Gary Price planned to spin off a new Weblog from his popular ResourceShelf. This one would be devoted, purely and simply, to identifying new reports from government agencies, trade associations, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and other organizations that releases research studies, and position papers. Since then, DocuTicker has taken on a life of its own. DocuTicker is never lacking for sustenance. Substance, on the other hand, is a separate issue. Substance, like beauty, is definitely in the eye of the beholder. This can be heard from journalists who have gotten story ideas from things they have seen on DocuTicker. From people who latch onto an interesting item and wonder where they can find similar material. And also from folks who feel that there are too much liberal stuff or too much conservative stuff posted at the site. DocuTicker does not have an ideological slant. Basically, they post anything that someone might want to read because the topic is current, it contains potentially useful statistics, and a helpful bibliography is included. However, DocuTicker does not include commentary from its contributors Internet.

This article reviews the Learner's Library (LL) database produced by Knowledge Ventures Inc. It is a database of multidisciplinary, full-text journal articles intended primarily for college students. Social science has the largest number of titles, with approximately 80. Arts and humanities, science and current events each have about 50 and business has about 20. The database's search results are often thin and spotty, with the same few periodicals providing the bulk of the retrieval in a given search. It uses relevance searching and there is no field limiting or data searching. It is the only service that has only one search method. An LL search identifies the passage within the individual document that has the highest occurrence of search terms and it sorts results accordingly. The idea is that users do not have to read through a lengthy and difficult article. Users just cut the database's quote and paste it into their research paper. There are two major faults with the database's searching. First, searches are full of duplicates. Moreover, the documents provided lack original graphics such as tables, charts and illustrations. LL is a subscription service that is sold to individuals. The cost is $9.95/week, $24.95/month, $49.95/6 months and $74.95/year.

The article offers information on the State Papers Online, one of Gale/Cengage Learning's latest digital collections which brings a host of British primary documents to life from the Tudor and Stuart government and society from 1509 to 1714. When the four-part project is completed in 2011, users will have access to nearly 3 million pages of reports, letters, memos, and parliamentary drafts from the 16th through the early 18th centuries.

The article presents a weekly update on the exclusive content available on www.thelawyer.com in Great Britain. This includes blogs and commentary on the legal developments, reader's comments and the edition of The Lawyer Podcast. Moreover, the paper also presented several comments regarding Leeds United Football Club's arbitration with the Football League.

The article reports that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Digital Library, online database of the Society's journals, conference proceedings, and ASME Press E-Books, will officially open in January 2008. Beginning in January, ASME will begin adding 10 more years to the journal archive and will add content continuously in 10-year increments. The library will also eventually include more than 30,000 conference proceedings papers, both current and archival, and ASME Press E-Books dating back to 1999.

The article presents a list of media resources. They include the web article entitled "Creative Screen Spotting: Effective Mounting Solutions for Retail Digital Signage," by Dale Smith, the white paper entitled "Clocking, Jitter and the Digidesign 192 I/O Audio Interface," prepared by Gannon Kashiwa and the blog "AVC-I Compression Explained," professional audio/video industry blog.

The article reports features Cornell Dubilier's executed capacitor web site. The site has one-click access to 10 technical papers, three capacitor life-temperature calculators and a thermal modeling applet and one-click access to capacitor types of dielectric, application or type letters. It also has application and product selector guides.

The article announces that the online training courses of the National Fire Academy (NFA) has been moved to a new home on the Web. It has been declared that the online training and the 75-5a application form for the offered courses can be accessed through the U.S. Fire Administration Web site, which is presented in the paper. NFA superintendent Dr. Dennis Onieal also reminded the class participants regarding the deadline for filing the application.

The article reports that the Public Technology Institute has published a white paper that examines how geographic information systems (GIS) data and technology can be used more effectively in local governments. It includes examples of enterprise-based GIS operations in Kansas City, Missouri, Charlotte, North Carolina and Fort Worth, Texas.

Focuses on the launch of a database devoted to the environmental, health and safety implications of nanomaterials by the International Council of Nanotechnology. Collaborators of the project; Services and information provided by the site; Overview of the research papers accumulated by the organization.

This section presents news and product briefs concerning the U.S. electronic information services industry, as of October 2004. Interwoven Inc., an enterprise content management company, has announced the acquisition of the assets of Software Intelligence Inc., a provider of records management (RM) systems. Software Intelligence's RM product will be renamed Interwoven Records Manager, and is designed to enable companies to manage paper documents, electronic documents, and electronic mail under a single unified records system. On the other hand, Sonic Solutions and Roxio have announced that Sonic will acquire the consumer software division of Roxio for a total purchase cost of $80 million. Under the terms of the transaction, Roxio will receive $70 million in cash as well as shares of Sonic common stock valued at $10 million. Sonic expects the acquisition to provide them with a recognized set of consumer software brands, access to distribution channels, product marketing expertise, and relationships with retail outlets. Roxio plans to focus its business on the digital music market and will change its corporate name to Napster and trade under the ticker NAPS on NASDAQ, assuming the completion of the transaction.

This article features the Issues and Controversies On File database for high school research. How often have you tried to help students do the necessary research for an assignment only to find articles that were far above their reading comprehension level? This was the challenge that led Edward Spruell, high school librarian in Roanoke, Virginia, to Issues and Controversies On File. Here he discovered a comprehensive database that provides extensive background and history on common high school research paper topics. The database also explains the opposing sides of all the issues covered. Spruell explains, Issues & Controversies packages an issue into easy-to-understand overviews and summaries . . . interspersed with thoughtful, specific writing that looks at the complexities of an issue, allowing students who use the opposing views to go from the general to the specific. From each core article, Issues & Controversies links students to a wealth of handpicked background information from across the Reference Suite@FACTS.com databases. Students can access sidebars, survey articles, news coverage, key speeches and primary documents, newspaper editorials, biographies, almanac and encyclopedia information, and more. Intuitive menus help. Spruell adds, Issues: Pro and Con takes current hot topics like terrorism and clarifies them into concise, succinct rhetorical packages that follow a logical arrangement.

This article offers news briefs concerning electronic resources management in the U.S., as of June 2004. Thomson Corp. has acquired Newport Strategies Inc., a provider of competitive intelligence for the pharmaceutical company. Dialog, a Thomson Corp. business and provider of online-based information services and integrated information solutions, has announced a new version of its Dialog Profound subscription service, which offers a collection of market research reports contributed by research firms covering different industries and companies. Google has collaborated with several universities from various countries in an effort to provide a way to search the institutions' collections of scholarly papers. In-Q-Telm, a private not-for-profit venture group funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, and Basis Technology, a provider of software solutions for multilingual text mining and information retrieval applications, have signed a strategic investment and development agreement. SealedMedia Inc. has announced version 3.2 of its document and email security solution for enterprises. According to Thomson ISI, a business of the Thomson Corp., journals published in the new Open Access model are beginning to register impact in the field of scholarly research.

Notes the policy of Elsevier Science regarding permanent archiving of electronic journals. Plans to maintain electronic journals through ScienceDirect perpetually and ensure redundancy and the ability to re-create the files should disaster strike; The need for a secure electronic archive during the transition from paper to electronic; Other details.

This article focuses on the growth of local online media in the U.S. as of June 1997. Aimed squarely at the everyday consumer, local online media are out to prove that they are every bit as convenient and easy to use as picking up a local paper or turning on the evening news. Advertising Age estimates local sites will spend at least $50 million to market themselves between now and yearend--and that does not include all the free advertising newspapers, TV stations and radio stations will run selling their online properties. The key issue all these properties face is relevance. Broadcasting the evening news is one thing; extending that franchise to the Web is quite a different challenge.

Discusses the availability of Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) documents through the OCLC ILL subsystem. Information on how users can order Eric microfiche and paper documents; Other document delivery services available through OCLC such as The Genuine Article provided by The Institute for Scientific Information; Time it takes for most orders to reach the customer.