ONLINE INFORMATION '98

Patricia Layzell Ward, Library Link Convenor-in-Chief - UK

The conference got off to an excellent start with an impressive presentation by Thomas Yeoh of the National computer Board in Singapore who described the Intelligent Island. It was impressive for the way in which Singapore has been able to plan and implement services for government, business, and the community at large - but he made the point that this model probably only works in a city state in a densely populated island. No matter - it showed what can be achieved and sets a standard for other countries that have not yet planned effectively for the online age.

Knowledge management featured in many papers and we heard several versions of what KM is - dependent on the background of the person talking. Adam Brand of 3M spoke of tacit knowledge, the organisational culture, and sustaining innovation. He emphasised the need for senior management to make a commitment so that the company attracts and keeps the right people. He spoke of the need for people to be able to take chances, and was the first in the day to refer to Jesuitical people - those who forgive when something goes wrong, rather than expecting people to have to ask for permission to take action. Roger Williams of Cap Gemini also spoke of people capital, the balanced scorecard, and intellectual capital. Amin Rajan took the theme of how not to manage knowledge, and emphasised that IT should not be in the driving seat, rather it should be human resources. All of the keynote speakers were good and it is a pity that some of their papers are not in the proceedings. But, having made the point that not all papers are available, the proceedings are still a good investment at around �60 from Learned Information - see www.learned.co.uk. Anyone in the information and library field should look at it for the range of views it contains, and the examples of innovation and development. The programme had several tracks and sessions were held in the major European languages.

The exhibition was as good as ever. I suspect that many people who registered for the conference spent more time talking with exhibitors, than attending the conference sessions. There was much to see.

Libtech International has been acquired by Information Today Inc. who will run an international version of the Internet Librarian conference in London in March 1999 at Olympia. This follows the two highly successful conferences held in Monterey. Details: www.infotoday.com

Springer Electronic Media was demonstrating the LINK information service providing electronic journals and an increasing number of books - for licensing agreements and a tutorial see: http://link.springer.de

Techbooks of Fairfax, Virginia were offering technical expertise for delivering cost-effective printed, CD-ROM and online materials see: www.techbooks.com

ECO.POINT is an alliance of three leading online business information companies in Austria, Switzerland and Germany which offers a service which has no subscription fee, but pay as you use, accepting all credit cards. Details: www.ecopoint.com

If your interests are in the field of chemistry then ChemWeb will be of interest see: http://ChemWeb.com

The first statute law database to allow cross referencing between UK Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments can be found at www.justis.com

The Centre for Research In Employment and Technology in Europe (CREATE) is an independent research centre which offers detailed research reports on the future of work, organisation and society see: www.create-research.co.uk

The CRIF Group is offering business information services covering Europe and North and South America see: www.alidata.com

Dialog had a large stand and were demonstrating Version 2.0 of its Dialog@Site software and an enhancement named Infoserve see: www.dialog.com

Electronic publishing solutions are offered by Catalyst Electronic Publishing who sponsored the CD-ROM version of the conference proceedings and event guide - no website but email at [email protected]

Blackwell's demonstrated their one-stop ordering information service see their online bookshop at http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk

On the European Commission stand CORDIS was available which provides information about the EU's Community Research and Technological Development activities see www.cordis.lu

WilsonWeb was offering free 30-day password access to their Internet databases. Details: www.hwwilson.com

A neat service for the UK is COUNTYWeb which offers, to large and small businesses, advertising on its website at a very low cost. Their skills can also help to design effective sites see: www.countyweb.co.uk

Northern Light from Cambridge Mass. The developers of the world's first search engine were celebrating the P.C. Magazine Editors' Choice Award for search engines and providing a good demonstration of their products see: www.nlsearch.com Nice product, nice people.

The same comment can be made for iOra. iOra have produced a SoftCD which compares two versions of a publication, identifies which files are different, and the parts of the modified files are not present anywhere in the existing publication. It then generates an amendment file that contains a compressed versions of these changes - great for updating secondary services, marketing information etc. see www.iOra.com

Britannica was demonstrating the speed, depth and accuracy of searching Britannica Online see: www.britannica.co.uk

Finally if you want to link your website to over 7,000 titles in award-winning UMI databases you need to talk to ProQuest Direct at: www.umi.com

This is a very small selection of what was on offer. If you haven't attended the event, then consider it as a must for 1999. The exhibition and the product presentations were excellent - and it is no wonder that so many fly in to London to catch up on the latest developments. And thanks are due to the organiser's PR team and the exhibitors for providing information ahead of the event. It was much appreciated

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