ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 1056 / C&RL News ■ November 2001 A n n V i l e s Fast Facts N a tio n w id e site licensing fo r o n lin e jou rn als in Canada Sixty-four Canadian universities participating in the National Site Licensing Project have negotiated a $30-million (U.S.) site licensing agreement for 650 scholarly journals and “numerous citation indexes.” Among the vendors participating in the agreement are Academic Press, American Chemical Society, American Math­ ematical Society, Institute for Scientific Information, Institute for Physics Pub­ lishing, Royal Society for Chemistry, and Springer-Verlag. (Janice Paskey, "C a n a d ia n U n ive rsitie s B and T o g e th e r in a G ia n t Jo u rn a l-L ice n sin g D e a l," C h ro n icle o f H ig h e r E d u ca tio n , Sept. 14, 2001. h ttp ://c h ro n ic le .c o rn /fre e /2 0 0 1 /0 9 /2 0 0 1 0 9 1 4 0 1 t.h tm , O ct. 2, 2001) .INFO dom ain n o w ava ilab le Registration for the .INFO Internet domain, the first new unrestricted TLD (top- level domain) on the Internet since .COM, opened to the general public on September 12 and already has more than 350,000 functional names on the Web. ("T h e .INFO R eg istry Has O p e n e d f o r R eal-Tim e Processing o f D o m a in N am es," A filia s . h ttp ://w w w .a filia s .in fo / , O ct. 1, 2001) W ireless access cam pusw ide a t th e University o f Tennessee As o f fall semester, University o f Tennessee students have wireless access to the Internet and university databases from anywhere on the Knoxville campus. One thousand radio transmitters inside and on the roofs of almost every building on campus transmit radio signals receivable on laptop computer Ethernet cards. (D un ca n M a n s fie ld , " U n iv e r s ity o f Tennessee S tu d e n ts Go W ire le s s ," T h e A sso cia ted Press S ta te & Local W ire , Sept. 16, 2001. LEXIS NEXIS A c a d e m ic U niverse. Sept. 21, 2001) E-governm ent im p ro vin g The Taubman Center for Public Policy’s comparative study o f 1,813 state and federal government Web sites in summer 2000 and 1,680 in summer 2001 finds some improvement in e-government, “the delivery o f government information and services online through the Internet or other digital means.” Among the improvements are increased access to publications (93 percent in 2001 com­ pared to 74 percent in 2000) and data bases (54 percent in 2001 and 42 percent in 2000), more sites with disability access (27 percent in 2001 and 15 percent in 2000), and more sites offering services executable online (25 percent in 2001 and 22 percent in 2000). (D a rre ll M . W e st, "S ta te a nd Federal E -G o v e rn m e n t in th e U n ite d States, 2 0 0 1 ," T a u b m a n C e n te r f o r Pu b lic P o licy a t B ro w n U n iv e rs ity , Sept. 2001. h ttp :/ /w w w .b r o w n .e d u /D e p a r tm e n ts /T a u b m a n _ C e n te r /p o lr e p o r ts / e g o v t0 1 u s .h tm l, O ct. 1, 2001) Profits slow d o w n fo r book publishers Profit margins increased for only seven o f the fifteen book publishers tracked by P u b l i s h e r s W e ek ly last year. The biggest gains were reported by education pub­ lishers; four of which posted profit margins of more than 15 percent. (Jim M illio t , "P u b lis h e rs ' P ro fits L agged in 2 0 0 0 ," P u b lish ers W eekly, Sept. 10, 2001: 10.) Tactile mouse provides desktop sense o f touch Logitech introduced the first “touch-feedback device for general-purpose com­ puting” last year. The iFeel mouse uses up and down m otion and vibrations to reproduce sensations, such as a “bump that occurs when the cursor crosses a hot link or menu choice.” (Steve D itla , "T o u ch y-F e e ly C o m p u tin g : A N e w M o use Picks U p G o o d V ib r a tio n s ," S c ie n tific A m e ric a n , A u g u s t, 2001. h ttp ://w w w .s c ia m .c o m /2 0 0 1 /0 8 0 1 is s u e /0 8 0 1 te c h n ic a lity .h tm l, O ct. 2, 2001) A n n Viles is c o o rd in a to r o f reference a n d in s tru c tio n a tA p p a la c h ia n State U niversity in Boone, N o rth Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu http://chronicle.corn/free/2001/09/2001091401t.htm http://www.afilias.info/ http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/polreports/ http://www.sciam.com/2001/0801issue/0801technicality.html mailto:vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu