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Deals with the development of online mega-periodical databases. Similarities among mega-databases; Characteristics of the database. INSET: BIG can be beautiful.

Evaluates several library portals. Vendor portals; Commercial portals; Library developed portals; Strategy for making best use of library portals.

Features NorthStarNet (NSN), a public library consortium that serves the suburban regions of north and west of Chicago, Illinois. How the system works; Services offered by the online library; Benefits from NSN.

Focuses on the changes in libraries and how librarians responded to such changes. Role of information technology in libraries; Closure of libraries; Impact of the Internet on libraries.

Examines the information environment confronting The Dialog Corporation in the late 1990s. Reference to Knight-Ridder Information's purchase of Dialog from Lockheed in 1998; Information on the distinctive needs of information professionals; Difficulties and challenges Dialog faced which were made harder by unforgiving markets and the constrained resources of the company. INSET: The legacy of the Web.

Focuses on the demise of the NewsNet company. Details on the major renovation undertaken by the company in 1995; Speculation on the reasons for the demise; Background information on the company. INSETS: The human side;Paradigm shifts.

Presents the views of various persons concerning the advent of online information services. History and development of online information services.

Focuses on Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Network online service. Features; Applications; Product support; User benefits.

Deals with issues related to online searching. Background on the introduction of full text and relevance searching within the online information services industry; Concept of relevance searching; Impact of the development of Web services on commercial online during the early 1990s.

Presents information on QuestionPoint, a collaborative reference service developed by OCLC and the Library of Congress. Design goal for QuestionPoint; Operation of QuestionPoint; Effectiveness of QuestionPoint.

Evaluates the DialogPRO online service for knowledge professionals (KP) from Dialog. Advantages of DialogPRO over other KP-oriented services; Modules of DialogPRO; Effectiveness of its interface; Price ranges of the product.

Evaluates the Web site of the magazine 'Consumer Reports,' (CR) published by the Consumers Union. Background on the reputation of the magazine; Reasons behind the success of CR on the Web; Features of the site; Details on its Consumer WebWatch which extends its mission to the Web. INSET: Consumer WebWatch Guidelines, by Marydee Ojala.

Focuses on the business condition of Hoover's Inc. as of July 2002. Profits of the company in 1999; Business strategy of the company; Distinctive content of Hoover's Online; Kinds of premium content received by Hoover's subscription customers.

Presents information on corporate portals. Definition and classification of portals; Functions of corporate portals; Significance of corporate portals to electronic commerce.

Deals with several companies which threaten to replace traditional academic digital libraries. XanEdu; Questia; Ebrary.

Provides information on the principal comprehensive electronic book reference Web sites. eBookNet; eBookAd; eBook Connections.

Predicts the emergence of electronic (e)-books. Advantages of print books over e-books; Factors that will govern the adoption of e-books; Challenges faced by booksellers and libraries in the emergence of e-books.

Reveals the increase in the number of female Internet users in the United States. Other fastest growing groups of Web users; Women's Web usage patterns; Great trend to vertical interest vortals.

Focuses on the Mobile Web technology which lets users access the Internet by a cell phone. Mobile Web devices and services; Influence of cost factors on cell phone content and growth; Content of the Mobile Web; Predicted characteristics of Mobile Web.

Explores the relationship established between distance learning and online libraries. Information on distance learning; Its advantages; Threat posed by distance learning to conventional educational and training institutions; Efforts made by online libraries to serve distance learners.

Presents information on Web portals. Perceptions on Web portals; Features of a portal; Communications and communities; Personalization of a portal; Generations of portal players.

Reviews the database software LifeCenter from Information Access Company.

Presents information on the Law of Merging Models with focus on how this law has applied throughout the development of the professional online services. Identification of America Online as the only remaining successful consumer online service; Reasons why consumer services have failed; Reference to the Law's effects on consumer online. INSET: `Portal' services spring up.

Presents information as it relates to the DIALOG Select, an end-user venture. Description of its benefits; History of DIALOG; Information on its features.

Presents information on the map research and travel planner services online services MapQuest and Maps On Us.

Presents information on Microsoft Network (MSN) and its success on the Internet. Who MSN credits its success to; What are the prices quoted for the use of the Internet services.

Discusses the move of Microsoft Network (MSN) to the World Wide Web. Background information on consumer online; Significance of this move; Details on MSN; Impact of this on the future of consumer online.

Highlights consumer online service offered by CompuServe Incorporated called, WOW!. Low price of the service: Performance of the service; Occurrence of errors and gaps within consumer online services; Information on WOW's configuration requirements.

Features AT&T's Business Network online information service, developed by AT&T New Media Services. Competition of the service; AT&T's Interchange Online Network publishing platform; Content for business research and practice; Pricing.

Forecasts that 1996 will be a period of upheavals and competition in the online service industry. Domination of consumer online by two profound trends; Entry of Microsoft, AT&T and MCI in the consumer online market; Microsoft Network and the coattails of Windows 95; Suite of services announced by AT&T; Concern of small consumer online companies.

Reviews America Online (AOL), an online service which provides information on United States politics, government, elections, legislation and political parties. Features of AOL; Congressional Quarterly as AOL's principal supplier of political information; White House Forum as AOL's main source for executive branch activities.

Discusses the partnership between Dun & Bradstreet Corp. and Prodigy Services Co. to create D&B Solutions software. D&B Solutions as a version of Dun's Market Identifiers; Accessing D&B Solutions; Pricing advantage from Prodigy; Other producers of information technology.

Features the Bettmann Archive Forum, an online sampler of the Bettmann Archive of human history available on the CompuServ system. History of the Bettmann Archives; Images available on the forum; CompuServ's pricing plans for forum subscribers.

Discusses some trends in the use of electronic books. Advantage of a collection of electronic books used as references; Access of such books through institutions such as libraries; Growth of the trend of subscription pricing for the books.

Deals with the methods of getting full-text content from electronic publishers. Discussion of subject and citation access; Use of CrossRef to solve the technical and business obstacles to accessing scientific, technical and medical publishers.

Focuses on the World Wide Web as a mass medium, with open and expanding access without regard for gender, age, ethnic, income or geographic differences. Factors that made the Web important during life's critical turning points; Library-relevant data from CyberAtlas and the Pew Project that prove the importance of the World Wide Web.

Discusses the implementation of Web aggregation at online search service ingenta. Background on the founding and growth of ingenta; Overview of information resources of ingenta; Description of ingenta's search functionality; Bases of the pricing for ingenta's services.

Examines the services of the Scout Report and Traffick.com Web sites. Sections featured on the Scout Report site; Content of the Traffick.com portal; Details on the Topica Email Publisher provided by Topica.com.

Focuses on the plan of online information services to impose fees on Internet users. Reason for the information pricing of the Internet; Information on the pay models implemented on the Internet; Benefits and disadvantages of information pricing.

Describes several Web-oriented knowledge-worker products announced by Dialog. Pricing plan of the Dialog Portals; Information on the PowerPortal; Details on the WebTop Web search engine.

Characterizes the vortal or vertical Web portal evolution pushed by the Internet. Internet variations; Components of a vortal.

Features the GetNetWise (GNW) Web site which fights Internet dangers. Background on the Internet regulations passed by the United States Congress; Safety products of GNW; Usefulness of the departments of GNW.

Describes the CompuServe 2000 online service. Key enhancements; Pricing plans; Partnerships of CompuServe 2000.

Provides information on NetZero, a free Internet service provider in the United States. Details on the launching of NetZero in 1998; Internet access format of NetZero; How to access NetZero; Problems of NetZero.

Focuses on Internet radio. Formats of radio programs available in the Internet; Alternative flavor of the Web-only radio stations; Findings of a survey of Internet users who listened to Internet radio; Argument on the licensing of music for Web distribution and the downloading of music files.

Reports on companies in Web measurement. How Media Metrix started; Controversy on measuring Web use in the workplace; Significance of the Nielsen-NetRatings deal.

Provides information on Web personalization. Goal behind personalization; Methods of personalization; Information on personalization in traditional online searching.

Opinion. Discusses freemail on the Internet. Attraction of freemail services; Background information on freemail; Definition of freemail.

Opinion. Focuses on an individual's views regarding proposed effects of the aquisition of the Compuserve company by the America Online company on the structure and existence of Compuserve. Reasons why this might not happen; Concerns arising out of the situation; How the acquisition deal was completed; Other companies involved in the deal.

Reports that the company CDB Infotek, has taken public access to public information a step further with its COMPUTRACE service on CompuServe. Impact of the Internet on CompuServe's subscribership; Information on COMPUTRACE's three databases.