INFORMATION UPDATE "Helping Businesses Find the Facts" September, 2001 Number 25 A Monthly Publication of Shamel Information Services mailto:InfoUpdate@shamelinfo.com ============================================================ Welcome to INFORMATION UPDATE, the free monthly newsletter for business and healthcare professionals. For subscription information, refer to notes at the end of this newsletter. ============================================================ This month's edition is a little longer than usual. The first article "To Nerac or Not to Nerac" addresses a ques- tion I have been asked more than once, so I've decided to address it directly and in some detail. In "Web Browser News" you'll learn about an exciting alternative to using Internet Explorer or Netscape. ------------------------------------------------------------ IN THIS ISSUE ------------------------------------------------------------ => YOUR QUESTIONS - To Nerac or Not to Nerac => DO IT YOURSELF - Web Browser News => Notes, News and Announcements => Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information ------------------------------------------------------------ YOUR QUESTIONS - To Nerac or Not to Nerac ------------------------------------------------------------ Information Update readers have asked me whether or not they ought to subscribe to Nerac's services. Ultimately you, the client will decide. What we will do here is describe Nerac's services and compare those to other information service pro- viders. Nerac is an information aggregator which also offers research services. According to the http://nerac.com website, their searchers are scientists and engineers. Generally, a customer would contract with Nerac for a predetermined dollar amount per year. The minimum contract runs around $5000. Then the customer calls to request a search of its databases as needed or on a regular schedule. Nerac is not the only information aggregator. Others include The Dialog Corporation, Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis. These vendors contract with companies who gather information and make it available electronically. Organizations and individuals who need information establish accounts with these vendors. Pricing varies, but in the case of Dialog, for instance, users can negotiate a flat fee or pay-as-you-go based on actual usage. Let's take a closer look and compare Nerac to databases offered by The Dialog Corporation, focusing on the pharma- ceutical industry. Nerac Dialog Pharmaceutical Patents 5 9 Pharmaceutical R&D 3 13 Pharmaceutical Industry 7 27 Regulatory Information 1 9 Dialog offers its subscribers access to over 500 databases. The Nerac web site lists 128. Some databases missing from Nerac include such commonly used ones as Pharmaprojects, IMSworld R&D Focus, F-D-C Reports (which includes The Pink Sheet) and SciSearch. If the information isn't there, it doesn't matter who your searchers are. So, what are the alternatives to Nerac? One option is to hire an independent contractor. An independent information professional can provide indepth research from the broadest range of sources. For instance, Shamel Information Services offers online research service. We subscribe to over 600 databases through The Dialog Corporation and its companion, Datastar. We also search Factiva.com (formerly Dow Jones Interactive) and have access to the Lexis-Nexis databases. Factiva delivers access to nearly 8,000 sources, mostly in the area of business and news. Our online research skills are based in the fundamentals of information science complemented by subject area expertise and experience. With Shamel Information Services you receive a customized search with the results delivered in the format you require. We also offer filtering, analysis, verification, and execu- tive summaries. These services are not available through Nerac. We will work with you on a project by project basis, without requiring a long term, high cost contract. Before you sign on the dotted line, call Shamel Information Services at 800-330-9939 to discuss you information needs. -------------- Learn more about independent information professionals at the Association of Independent Information Professionals' website http://www.aiip.org ------------------------------------------------------------ DO IT YOURSELF - Web Browser News ------------------------------------------------------------ What's a web browser? A web browser is what we call the software used to navigate the Internet. Internet Explorer and Netscape are web browsers. AOL subscribers generally use the AOL software for web browsing. So what's the news? Well, the big news is Opera. http://www.opera.com Opera is a powerful and exciting browser alternative to the Microsoft and Netscape products. If you are an "early adopter" or if you follow Internet industry news pretty closely, then Opera is probably not news to you. It has been around since 1996. In December, 2000 Opera offered a free version for Windows. This dramatically increased Opera's user base, with more than 2 million users and about 20,000 registering every day. Personally, I am not an early adopter. I tend to go for the tried and true. So, I only recently downloaded the free version to my own computer. It's a relatively small pro- gram - 2.19MB without Java, 9.8MB with Java. By contrast, Netscape 6.1 requires 26MB, and Internet Explorer requires from 25MB to as much as 75MB of disk space. Opera for Windows is available in about 22 languages, includ- ing the four Celtic languages. It is also fast, and it can work on handheld devices such as Palms, screen phones, web pad and on Internet appliances. Opera offers a number of unique web browsing features. You can control your web page viewing using the mouse. The scroll button and the right click button become powerful Internet browsing tools. "With Opera you can view multiple documents at the same time. No need to open multiple copies of your browser, Opera's multiple window interface can handle any user's needs. . . Open multiple windows without running out of memory. Open documents in the background without destroying your search engine result listing." http://www.opera.com/windows/features.html Opera also allows easy web browsing with keyboard commands. If your eye hand coordination (the skill needed for efficient and effective mouse/cursor management) is anything like mine, keyboard commands can definitely save time. http://www.opera.com/support/windows/help/keyboard.htm#top Opera comes from Opera Software ASA, a privately held company in Oslo, Norway. If you decide to try it, you may just feel like a kid with a new toy. ------------------------------------------------------------ Notes, News, and Announcements ------------------------------------------------------------ Drug Safety & Surveillance 2001, October 17-19, 2001 Hilton & Towers Arlington http://www.iirusa.com/drugsafety/index.cfm/ Internet Librarian, November 6-8, 2001, Pasadena, CA http://www.infotoday.com/il2001/default.htm ============================================================= Information Update articles are now searchable on the web. Visit http://www.shamelinfo.com and click on "Newsletters." From that page you can enter your search terms to locate articles from past issues of Information Update. Give it a try and let us know what you think. The Shamel Information Services web site at http://shamelinfo.com contains Information Update archives. Just click on "Newsletters" and check for any issues you might have missed. -------------------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE -------------------------------------------------------------- Subscriptions to INFORMATION UPDATE are free. You may subscribe or unsubscribe by sending a message to: mailto:InfoUpdate@shamelinfo.com with SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Copyright 2001 Shamel Information Services Please feel free to forward this issue to colleagues, in its entirety. Other uses without permission may violate copyright. Online archives at http://www.shamelinfo.com/newsletter.htm =============================================================== Cynthia L. Shamel, editor Shamel Information Services Poway, California mailto:cshamel@shamelinfo.com Ms. Shamel is on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Information Professionals http://www.aiip.org, a Special Libraries Association, San Diego Chapter member and a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals http://www.scip.org Telephone: 858-673-4673 Toll Free: 800-330-9939