Argus Clearinghouse ( http://www.clearinghouse.net/) The Argus Clearinghouse is an excellent index-of-index; it contains a well-organized topical guides to various sites created by individuals who specialize on specific topics. Use when you need further depth into a subject.

Excite ( http://www.excite.com/) The strong features of Excite are: product reviews, Usenet news and classifieds, and current headlines (with over 300 news sources), along with a keyword and concept search engine. Results can be grouped by sites.

HotBot ( http://www.hotbot.com/) HotBot is an excellent feature-packed search service based on the Inktomi engine. Good for searching for people and allows field searching by URL, date, location and media type. HotBot has a database close to Alta Vista’s in page counts. This site and AltaVista are the best in deep searching.

InfoSeek ( http://www.infoseek.com/) Infoseek has indexed the full text of over 50 million pages. It is unique in automatically recognizing names, capitalized word phrases and word variants (e.g., man = men). Infoseek has advanced searching on fields, such as links, URL, and titles).

Inter-Links ( http://alabanza.com/kabacoff/Inter-Links/) Inter-Links is a directory offering “Internet navigator, resource locator, and tutorial.” This site is unique in that it is ”the product of a single individual, working without remuneration, after office hours, and as a public service.”

InterNIC WhoIs Search ( http://www.internic.net/) The InterNIC WhoIs Search is the best place to find information about domain names, especially COM and ORG top-levels.

Librarians' Index ( http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/) Hosted by the Digital Library SunSITE , one of the more thoughtful directories with an emphasis toward academics and research is created by Carole Leita. Recently retired from the Berkeley Public Library, she is devoting her time to teaching librarians about the Internet and supporting the InFoPeople project in Berkeley.

Lycos ( http://www.lycos.com/) Lycos supports the basic set of search operators along with searching for sounds and images.

Magellan ( http://www.mckinley.com/) Magellan maintains an extensive subject tree of 60,000 reviewed pages with a rating scheme, along with over 50 million pages that are unrated. They are owned by Excite.

Mining Company ( http://home.miningco.com/) The Mining Company specializes in well-constructed guides to specific subject areas and is a major challenger to Yahoo. Experts in a subject area (called guides) maintain several hundred annotated guides. It is nice to put a face to the subject organization, as shown in the following screen shot.

Northern Light ( http://www.nlsearch.com/) Northern Light is a new search service that combines web content with a special collection of articles from more than 1,800 magazines, journals, books and newspapers. Summaries from this special collection are free, but full-text retrieval is fee based. Northern Light used a ‘folder’ approach to refining queries, as shown in the section on “Refining Queries” in the Techniques chapter.

Open Text Pinstripe ( http://pinstripe.opentext.com/) Open Text Pinstripe is a website designed for business users. Below is the top-level categorization based upon a general industry classification.

Web Crawler ( http://webcrawler.com/) WebCrawler is a small database but has a good relevancy ranking. It is good for quick searches. Web Crawler is owned by Excite.

Mamma.Com ( http://www.mamma.com/) The ‘mother’ of all meta-searches and is fast. Mamma uses up to seven search engines at once, plus highly rated websites, lists of magazines (by category), and lots of newspapers (by location).

MetaCrawler ( http://www.metacrawler.com/) MetaCrawler allows you to search concurrently through multiple search crawlers, including itself, Lycos, Excite, AltaVista, and Yahoo.

MetaFind ( http://www.metafind.com/) Excellent! New service with broad coverage. Also known as Dogpile which is more descriptive of what you often get with these meta-searches.

SavvySearch ( http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/form) SavvySearch is an experimental search engine that sends your query in parallel to many search engines. The results are displayed in any of several languages. Note the excellent documentation. It is operated by the Computer Science Department at Colorado State University.

Data Warehouse Center ( http://pwp.starnetinc.com/larryg/) This is an excellent site for any web content about data warehousing. It is maintained by Larry Greenfield of LGI Systems and covers the topics of: end-user tools, infrastructure technology, tool vendors, publications, and service providers. Larry has been very diligent in maintaining very current information on this site!

Polson’s Industry Research Desk ( http://www.virtualpet.com/industry/howto/search.htm) Industry Research Desk is a family-run site by Gary Polson provides “tools for researching specific companies, industries, and manufacturing processes.” He has a good methodology for researching a company using web resources.

American Business Information ( http://salesleadsusa.com) Founded in 1972, American Business Information is a provider of business and consumer marketing information products and data processing services in the United States and Canada. American Business Information is a publicly held company with more than 1000 employees, and revenues exceeding 150 million per year. More than 1 million customers use ABI to generate sales leads, find new customers, develop direct mail and telemarketing campaigns, and conduct market research.

Amulet ( http://www.amulet.com) Amulet, Inc. uses IsoQuest NetOwl Extractor software to gather, filter, and package information from over 1,600 sources. Amlet is located in Acton, MA.

Corporate Technology Information Services ( http://www.corptech.com) Corporate Technology Information Services or CorpTech publishes high-quality data company information on 45,000+ US high-tech manufacturing, development and service firms. Both free and for-fee information. Demographics of industries by SIC. Emphasizing privately held companies. CorpTech is located at 12 Alfred St., Suite 200, Woburn, MA 01801, (800) 333-8036, or (781) 932-3100, Fax: (781) 932-6335, email: Sales@corptech.com

Dialog Information Services ( http://www.dialogweb.com) DialogWeb from Dialog Corporation offers the following services: Custom DIALOG® is designed to fit your company and simplify the search process. DIALOG® and DataStar (SM) give you access to more than 600 online databases. With KR BusinessBase you can acquire information on over 13 million public and private companies. The KR OnDisc (TM) collection includes nearly 80 files on CD-ROM, giving you direct local access to the information you want. KR ProBase (SM) is a Windows®-based product that allows easy access to the DataStar (SM) database collection. KR ScienceBase (SM) is a World Wide Web application that furnishes scientists with easy access to published literature. KR SourceOne (SM), one of the world's largest document suppliers, offers two kinds of service: KR SourceOne, full-service document delivery, and UnCover, self-service document delivery. The K-R Info Training and Seminars section keeps you aware of upcoming seminars and also gives you specific solutions to common problems. Check out the Quantum program that is “designed to help information specialists become InfoStars – proactive, visible, and adept at leading, managing and embracing change.” Dialog Information Services (which was part of Knight-Rider Information, Inc. ) has been acquired by M.A.I.D. for US$420 million, and the combined company was renamed to the Dialog Corporation.

Disclosure ( http://www.disclosure.com) Disclosure , a unit of Primark Corporation, is a provider of financial intelligence delivered via online and CD-ROM-based research tools. Databases include 5 million financial filings from SEC EDGAR, Canada, and WorldScope

Dow Jones Business Information Services ( http://www.bis.dowjones.com) Dow Jones Business Information Services is part of Dow Jones & Company, who publishes The Wall Street, Journal and its international editions, The Wall Street, Journal Interactive Edition, Barron's magazine and other periodicals, the Dow Jones Global Indexes, electronic information services and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Offers a custom clipping, tracking & alert service. The WSJ Interactive Edition has over 150,000 paid subscribers.

EBSCO Information Services ( http://www.ebsco.com) EBSCO Information Services provides integrated and cost-effective access to information through three related divisions: EBSCO Subscription Services, EBSCO Publishing, and EBSCOdoc. It provides one-stop online reference system with full-text access to 1,500 magazines, along with 30 proprietary databases.

EDGAR-Online ( http://www.edgar-online.com) EAGAR-Online provides subscribers with current SEC EDGAR data designed to use popular web browsers. EDGAR-Online is a private service of Cybernet Data Systems, Inc. of Norwalk, CT. EDGAR-Online partners with PC Quote, Big Charts, Hoover's Inc., News Alert, Zacks Investment Research, Wall Street Research Net, and Company Link.

Electric Library ( http://www.electriclibrary.com) Electric Library by Infonautics provides a complete general reference database consisting of full text from over 900 magazines, 150 newspapers, 2,000 books, encyclopedias, and 20,000 photos and maps. Infonautics also provides digital publishing services to customize information for a specific company.

Encyclopaedia Britannica ( http://www.eb.com) The goal of Encyclopaedia Britannica is to be “a leader in creating products that turn information into knowledge in the electronic age,” by working “to make knowledge more accessible, more enjoyable and, consequently, more popular.” Encyclopaedia Britannica focuses on its traditional strengths, such as arts, literature, history, geography and science. The company also plans to extend its editorial and organizational expertise into areas such as music, computers, medicine and sports; subjects that impact daily life and culture. They provides Britannica Online, Britannica CD-ROM, and the famous (and heavy) 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Fairfax RESEARCH (AgeSearch) ( http://www.theage.com.au/agesearch/) Fairfax RESEARCH provides AgeSearch as a fee-based newspaper research and information service with offices in Sydney and Melbourne, providing access to the editorial facilities of The Age and other resources of the John Fairfax Publishing group.

FreeEDGAR ( http://www.freeedgar.com) FreeEDGAR , a service of Partes Corporation, is a free online service to provide analysts the ability to pull EDGAR data directly into financial models by generating Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with the click of a button. With personalized "watch lists," FreeEDGAR can instantly notify users when companies submit new filings.

GaleNet ( http://galenet.gale.com/) GaleNet, part of International Thomson Publishing , offers information about biography, literature, business bibliography, associations, multicultural studies and all areas of educational curriculum. Beginning with the now-classic Encyclopedia of Associations, first published in 1954, Gale products have become essentials on the reference shelves of every major library worldwide. Founded in Detroit, by Frederick Gale Ruffner, the company has established a reputation for producing comprehensive, easy to use and accurate reference books.

Hoover’s, Inc. ( http://www.hoovers.com) Hoover's, Inc. is an Austin-based publisher of company information, covering more than 12,000 US and foreign companies, both public and private. Hoover’s distributes information through a variety of online media and on several Web sites (such as, Hoover's Online, IPO Central, Cyberstocks, and StockScreener). Hoover's Marketplace also publishes business reference books and software products, along with more than 60 other business titles. A sample of company profile on Yahoo is given below.

Infobase Publishers ( http://www.infobasepub.com) Infobase Publishers is a publisher of information for strategic planning and competitive intelligence in the defense, aerospace, and government markets.

Information Access Company ( http://www.informationaccess.com/) Information Access Company is a subscription-based service providing companies with access to business information databases. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Foster City, California, IAC was acquired by The Thomson Corporation in December, 1994, from Ziff Communications. One of their databases is Company Intelligence, which contains over 200,000 companies worldwide and emphasizes privately held firms. Client interface is via InSite Pro. IAC currently offers a free 14-day trial.

Information America ( http://www.infoam.com) Information America is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and was founded in 1982 by an attorney and computer consultant who saw the need for providing the legal market with computerized public records. Information America provides a large online databases with state-of-the-art document services to provide unparalleled information support to banks, financial services companies, corporations, law firms and government agencies across the nation. Our unique blend of public records, investigative services, courthouse documents, and UCC filing services are used to obtain background data about businesses, locate assets and people, retrieve official public records, and secure financial interests. It is now part of the Thomson Corporation. IA offers an impressive array of services including: Asset Locator, Bankruptcy Records, Business Finder, Corporate & Limited Partnership Records, County Records, Duns Business Records Plus, Executive Affiliation, Lawsuits, Litigation Prep, Name Availability & Reservation, People Finder, Professional Licenses, Real Property, Liens and Judgments.

Information Express ( http://www.express.com) Information Express offers the customized document delivery systems for corporate, academic, and medical libraries.

Information Handling Services ( http://www.ihs.com) Information Handling Services (IHS) is a publisher of technical info products, covering military, electronics, architecture, construction, aerospace, utilities, automotive, computers, petro-chemical, and telecommunications. HIS was founded in 1959.

Information Quest ( http://www.informationquest.com) Information Quest is a Dawson company offering web-based information research, access, and retrieval service, timely email notices based on specific search criteria

Institute for Scientific Information ( http://www.ininet.com) Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) is the publisher of Current Contents and Science Citation Index and is offering a new service called CC Connect.

Investext Group ( http://www.investext.com) Investext Group provides general business analysis of companies, industries, products and geographic regions. They offer a large electronic collection of investment research, market intelligence and trade association information with more than a million research reports from the most sought-after sources around the globe. Investext Group is part of Thomson Corporation.

KnowX ( http://www.knowx.com) KnowX provides online public record information via a search tool. Searches are free, but you pay for accessing the full detailed record. The primary source databases are from Information America. KnowX has added two real-property databases, allowing users to uncover “non-purchase deeded transactions such as refinances, construction loans, second mortgages and equity loans.”

LEXIS-NEXIS ( http://www.lexis-nexis.com) The LEXIS-NEXIS services contain more than 18,300 sources. More than 9.5 million documents are added each week to the more than 1 billion documents online. Mead Data Central provides LEXIS and NEXIS, the world's leading full-text, online legal, news and business information services. Mead Data Central is a division of the Mead Corporation, leader in forest products and electronic publishing headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

M.A.I.D Profound ( http://www.profound.com) M.A.I.D Profound offers a comprehensive, online business intelligence service. Based in London, M.A.I.D. (Market Analysis and Information Database) hosts information from over 4,000 of the world's most important business publishers, such as The Associated Press, Disclosure, Dun & Bradstreet, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Extel, Frost & Sullivan and Standard & Poor's. The information is stored electronically according to a common set of business criteria (market sector, company, brand, publisher, title) using a proprietary indexing system called InfoSort, which places the information into logically connected categories. The result is a database which, while comprehensive, can be searched quickly and very precisely by clients to pinpoint the material exactly relevant to their needs. M.A.I.D. recently acquired Dialog Information Services from Knight-Ridder Information and combined their operations. The company is renamed to the Dialog Corporation.

Manning & Napier Information Services ( http://www.mnis.net) Manning & Napier Information Services (MNIS) is a pioneer in text data mining offering: DR-LINK intelligent online service accessing more than 1,200 publications, and MNIS Profiler is a real-time alerting service via protected web account or email. Free evaluation is available.

MicroPatent ( http://www.micropat.com) MicroPatent specializes in patents from US, EPO, and PCT. The U.S. patents date back to 1974 for a full-text report, costing $3 per patent.

Moody’s Financial Information Services ( http://www.moodys.com/fis) Moody’s Financial Information Services covers over 10,000 US corporations, 13,000+ non-US companies, and 10,000+ municipal entities, along with real-time SEC EDGAR fillings. Docutronics Information Services, a unit of Moody’s FIS, provides global anonymous information and competitive intelligence gathering.

NewsNet ( http://www.newsnet.com) NewsNet is a database of current full-text business and industry news from newsletters, newswires, and journals, and includes NewsFlash, a personal news clipping service.

PatentExplorer ( http://www.patentexplorer.com) PatentExplorer is

ProQuest Direct ( http://www.umi.com/) ProQuest Direct , a Bell & Howell Company, offers indexing and abstracts to over 5,000 periodicals, full-image coverage of nearly 1,400 periodicals, ASCII full-text of another 1,000 periodicals, and citations to 1.4 million dissertations.

Questel-Orbit Online Services ( http://www.questelorbit.com/) Questel-Orbit Online Services , part of the France Telecom Group, is an international online information company specializing in intellectual property services (patent, trademark, scientific, chemical, business and news information) with access to 250 databases in over 60 countries

SilverPlatter Information, Inc. ( http://www.silverplatter.com/) SilverPlatter Information, Inc. - Extensive collections of premium, knowledge-based electronic databases covering a broad range of disciplines. Uses a special web front-end tool called WebSPIRS, a common gateway interface (CGI) application which provides access to ERL-compliant databases through any forms-capable browser. The underlying technology to network with diverse databases is called Electronic Reference Library (ERL) technology.

TextWise ( http://www.textwise.com/) TextWise is an R&D company based in the Computer Applications and Software Engineering Center at Syracuse University. TextWise specializes in the development of information retrieval technologies using Natural Language Processing. Dr. Elizabeth Liddy, Associate Professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, formed TextWise in 1993 to commercialize her natural language text retrieval technology. TextWise research is been funded by Manning and Napier Information Services (MNIS) and several U.S. Government research grants. The DR-LINK technology has been jointly developed by TextWise and Manning and Napier Information Services, based on original research conducted by Syracuse University under a DARPA TIPSTER research project.

Thomas Register ( http://www.thomasregister.com/) Thomas Register on the Internet is the world's largest online industrial buying source. Now, finding the product, service, or company you need is easier and faster than ever! The entire database of the acclaimed Thomas Register of American Manufacturers is available for your use online. Register today, and you will have access to our proprietary search engine which allows you to search the 155,000 companies in our database classified under more than 57,000 product and service headings. Plus, more than 3,100 online supplier catalogs give you 44,000 pages of detailed buying and specifying information.

Thomson & Thomson ( http://www.thomson-thomson.com/) Thomson & Thomson offers a trademark and copyright services, recently added TRADE-MASKSCAN for trademark images and designs.

MediaTrak ( http://www.pitchingtips.com/) MediaTrak is an online subscription database of information on journalists for PR professionals.

PaperChase ( http://www.paperchase.com/) PaperChase provides access to medical information in MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, HealthSTAR, CANCERLIT and CINAHL.

Pharmsearch ( http://www.pharmweb.net/pwmirror/search/) Pharmsearch holds access to a pharmaceutical patents databases from European Patent Office, British, French, German, United States, and WIPO patents accessible by full indexing or by Markush Structure within 6 to 14 weeks of publication. For more information, contact O'Hara Consulting, 215 12th St., S.E., Washington, DC 20003-1427, (202) 543-5120, fax (202) 544-7159, e-mail: mpc22@xtrn.org.

Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE ( http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/) Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE is a resource site where ”we build digital collections and services while providing information and support to others doing the same.” Excellent collection of information directories, especially to intellectual property rights and metadata by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).

CARL Corporation ( http://www.carl.org/) CARL Corporation was founded as the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries to market and support library management systems.

Digital library ( http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/)

International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) ( http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/II/metadata.htm)

Internet Archive ( http://www.archive.org/) As one of the more unusual web resources, Internet Archive is collecting and storing public materials from the Internet such as the World Wide Web. The Archive will provide historians, researchers, scholars, and others access to this vast collection of data (reaching ten terabytes), and ensure the longevity of this information.

Internet Public Library ( http://www.ipl.org/)

Library of Congress ( http://www.loc.gov/)

Microsoft Corporate Library ( http://library.microsoft.com/) The Microsoft Library Home Page is a public site that provides some current and in-depth links. The purpose is to provide “Microsoft employees an efficient means of accessing information relevant to their business concerns on the Internet.” As a public site, it constitutes a technical-savvy librarian’s view of web resources for a very high-tech company. Check out the section on Internet resources.

Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) ( http://www.oclc.org/) Online Computer Library Center or OCLC is a non-profit service and research organization with the goal of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing the costs of that access. OCLC supports WorldCat, the world’s largest bibliographic database containing over 36 million records representing 370 languages and growing by two million records per year. OCLC Research is involved in various projects, including the W3C Metadata Resource Description Framework (RDF) mentioned in the Standards chapter.

UCI Virtual Reference Collection ( http://www.lib.uci.edu)

MS NBC ( http://www.msnbc.com/)

USA Today ( http://www.usatoday.com/)

D-Lib Magazine ( http://www.dlib.org/) D-Lib Magazine is a monthly magazine on research about digital libraries, acting as a forum for researchers and developers of advanced digital libraries. It is coordinated by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives for the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative . Its objectives are: To stimulate the development of a common infrastructure for digital libraries and to coordinate research in those aspects that require consensus. To provide information exchange about all research and advanced development in digital libraries, particularly federally funded research within the High Performance Computing and Communications program. To encourage and assist the transfer of these research efforts into the creation of the national digital library system.

Fulltext Sources Online ( http://www.bibliodata.com/fso/fsodata.html) Fulltext Sources Online or FSO is published by BiblioData and covers over 7,000 online sources containing full-text content, such as: DIALOG, NEXIS, LEXIS, Westlaw, Dow Jones, NewsNet, DataTimes EyeQ, Ovid, STN, GBI, Genios, FT Profile, Data-Star, Info Globe, Infomart, QL, and Burrelle’s. Now available in electronic format.

Information Today ( http://www.infotoday.com/) Information Today, Inc. is the publisher of Information Today, along with several other periodicals (Searcher, Link-Up, IntraNet Professional, Information Science Abstracts, Computers Libraries, and Computer Abstracts), and conferences (National Online Meeting), and books (Finding Statistics Online, Naked in CyperSpace, The Online Deskbook, and Secrets of the Super Net Searchers). A valuable site for web farmers!

InterNIC News ( http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews) InterNIC News is a monthly publication on technical issues related to the Internet. The audience is webmasters and Internet service providers.

Association for Computing Machinery ( http://www.acm.org/) Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the oldest society for the Computer Science profession, ranking along side the IEEE Computer Society. The ACM is innovating the delivery of their publications by offering both hard-copy and electronic versions, along with the introduction of an extensive full-text ACM Digital Library. There are numerous special interest groups, such as, the SIG for Information Retrieval, SIG for the Management of Data, and the SIG for LINK. In addition, there are numerous conference and workshops on topics relevant to web farming.

Association for Information and Image Management ( http://www.aiim.org/) Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) focuses on the document management industry for over 50 years with over 9,000 individual members and 900 corporate members. AIIM has a large annual conference with trade show, local chapters, and international events.

Association of Independent Information Professionals ( http://www.aiip.org/) Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) is “an international association of owners of information businesses” providing information services as: “online database searching, market and industry surveys, document delivery, library services, general research services, public records research, thesaurus building, indexing and abstracting services, digital library development, competitive intelligence, and specialized research in specific subject areas. AIIP was founded in 1987 by Dr. Marilyn Levine, a professor at the University of Wisconsin. It now claims more than 800 members in 21 countries. AIIP holds an annual conference with vendor exhibits. The AIIP Code of Ethical Business Practice was impressive with an emphasis upon “honesty, competence, and confidentiality” – a model for web analyst position.

Association of Research Libraries ( http://www.arl.org/) Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has the mission to “shape and influence forces affecting the future of research libraries in the process of scholarly communication” and “promote equitable access and effective use of recorded knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community service”. Its membership consists of over 200 research libraries in North America.

Coalition for Networked Information ( http://www.cni.org/) Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) was formed in 1990 by ARL, CAUSE and EDUCOM to “advance scholarship and intellectual productivity by promoting the provision of information resources on existing and future telecommunications networks”. The executive director of CNI is Clifford Lynch, who has been very active in the tough issues of meta-data and digital identifiers.

European Information Researchers Network ( http://www.eirene.com/) European Information Researchers Network (EIRENE) is a professional association representing information brokers from the European Union, EFTA and Eastern European countries to promote contacts among themselves. Their goal is “to increase access to information and develop information brokerage as a commercial activity, whilst working towards raising the quality of service to clients.”

Information Professionals Institute ( http://www.ipn.net/ipi/) Information Professionals Institute (IPI) provides “products and services to help information brokers develop industry-specific skills and business savvy.” IPI was founded in 1992 by information broker pioneers, Sue Rugge, Helen Burwell, and Ruth Orenstein. IPI offers a set of interesting seminars, including: Information Broker's Seminar: How to Make Money as an Information Broker; Comparative Online Searching; Using Public Records for Informed Business Decisions; and Competitive Intelligence: Online and Internet Sources.

Internet Architecture Board ( http://www.iab.org/iab/) The standards are then considered by the Internet Engineering Steering Group , with appeal to the Internet Architecture Board, and promulgated by the Internet Society as international standards.

Internet Engineering Steering Group ( http://www.ietf.org/iesg.html) The standards are then considered by the Internet Engineering Steering Group.

Internet Engineering Task Force ( http://www.ietf.org/) The Internet Society is heavily involved with defining and setting Internet standards. These standards are developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Internet Society ( http://www.isoc.org/) The Internet Society is a “non-profit, non-governmental, international professional membership organization that brings diverse interests and factions together to hammer out reasonable solutions that generate progress and growth for the Internet. Its more than 100 organizational and 7,000 individual members from more than 150 countries represent a veritable who's who of the Internet community.” The Internet Society is located at 12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 210, Reston, VA 20191-3429 USA, Tel: +1 703 648 9888, Fax: +1 703 648 9887, isoc@isoc.org.

InterNIC ( http://ds.internic.net/ds/dspg1intdoc.html) The standards may be found at numerous sites distributed throughout the world, such as the InterNIC .

Library and Information Technology Association ( http://www.lita.org/) Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) is concerned with the impact of emerging technologies on library service and with the effect of automated technologies on people.” As stated in their strategy statement, LITA “provides educational opportunities for learning about information technologies, monitors new technologies with potential applications in information science, encourages and fosters research, promotes technical standards, and examines the effects of library systems and networks.”

RFC Editor ( http://www.isi.edu/rfc-editor/) The RFC Editor is responsible for preparing and organizing the standards in their final form.

Society for Competitive Information Professionals ( http://www.scip.org/) Society for Competitive Information Professionals (SCIP) fosters the professional of competitive intelligence gathering and analysis. Founded in 1986, SCIP has a membership in 44 countries with over 5,700 persons, 88% of whom are practitioners.

Research Review from Society for Insurance Research ( http://www.connectyou.com/sir/) Society for Insurance Research (SIR), a not-for-profit professional organization whose purpose is to stimulate research impacting the insurance industry and to advance the profession of insurance research. Research Review is a quarterly journal for professional research practitioners in the insurance and financial services industries.

American Booksellers ( http://www.bookweb.org/)

American Library Association ( http://www.ala.org/booklist/)

Barnes and Noble ( http://www.barnesandnoble.com/)

Jane’s Information Group ( http://www.janes.com/) For a hundred years, the legacy of Fred T. Jane lives in the variety information resources provided by his company. His first publication, Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships, was an instant success with ship’s captains who need to distinguish other ships quickly and accurately. Jane's vision is to be “the leading unclassified information supplier and integrator for military, government and related commercial organizations worldwide.” Information can be delivered via CD-ROM and Internal data feeds. Its coverage has grown beyond military to cover geopolitical, terrorism, and global technology topics.

IntelWeb from Jane’s Information Group ( http://www.awpi.com/IntelWeb/) Jane’s recently acquired IntelWeb which is the website for the Intelligence Watch Report.

Strategic Forecasting Intelligence Services from STRATFOR Systems, Inc. ( http://www.stratfor.com/) Strategic Forecasting Intelligence Services (SFIS) is part of STRATFOR Systems, Inc. SFIS provides corporate intelligence services to firms needing “industry-specific, technology-specific or country-specific intelligence” created by combining “collection expertise with systematic analytic practices.”

Directory on Investigative Services from Yahoo ( http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Information/Investigative_Services/) For current information, refer to the Yahoo directory (over 500 entries) on Investigative Services.

Columbia University ( http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/dsc/intell.html) An excellent overview and indices are available at Columbia University.

Consult Yahoo ( http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Finance_and_Investment/Corporate_Reports/SEC_EDGAR_Filings/) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

Disclosure ( http://www.disclosure.com/) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

EAGAR-Online ( http://www.edgar-online.com/) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

EDGAR ( http://www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm) EDGAR (the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system) performs automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies and others who are required by law to file forms with the SEC. As of January 1, 1998, the SEC will not accept any paper filing that is required to be filed electronically, unless there is a hardship exemption.

Federal Web Locator ( http://www.law.vill.edu/fed-agency/) Based on the organization of the U.S. Government Manual, the Federal Web Locator is a one-stop shopping into all U.S. Government information. It is supported by the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy.

FreeEDGAR ( http://www.freeedgar.com/) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

Investor Guide ( http://www.investorguide.com/EDGAR.htm) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

IPO Central ( http://www.ipocentral.com/) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

THOMAS from Library of Congress ( http://thomas.loc.gov/) To make legislative information about the U.S. Congress freely available, the Library of Congress brought the THOMAS website online in January 1995. Its home page is one of the best designs for compacted information access. Moreover, most content is updated daily, complemented with an excellent search engine. There are links to numerous other government sites, along with historical documents from 1774. There is even an explanation of the legislative process for those who forgotten their U.S. Government from high school. The THOMAS databases cover: Congressional House and Senate floor activities and actions; bill summaries and full text (in both plain text and PDF); roll call votes; public laws since 1973; full text of the Congressional Record and Index; House and Senate Committee reports. This is definitely a highlight of information dissemination by the U.S. government.

Loyola College ( http://www.loyola.edu/dept/politics/intel.html) An excellent overview and indices are available at Loyola College.

Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics (ORES) ( http://www.ssa.gov/statistics/ores_home.html) Supplying information to add realism to the debates, the Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics (ORES) provides statistical data and analyses of the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. In quarterly, annual and one-time publications (usually in Adobe Acrobat PDF format), ORES makes available the majority of its publications and tables.

Security and Exchange Commission ( http://www.sec.gov/) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a independent and nonpartisan regulatory agency that monitors and regulates any public exchange of security. The objective is to protect investors in securities markets that operate fairly and to ensure that investors have access to disclosure of all information concerning publicly traded securities.

Smart Edgar ( http://dbc.smart-edgar.com/) Reports directly from EDGAR is difficult to understand and are several days old. The following fee-based service provides easy-of-use enhancements, along with customized alerts.

Social Security Administration ( http://www.ssa.gov/) The U.S. Social Security Administration manages a large domestic government program to providing economic protection for Americans of all ages, especially with retirement benefits. Because of a large portion of persons are living to older ages, the program is under pressure for reforms.

U.S. Bureau of the Census ( http://www.census.gov/) The U.S. Bureau of the Census is the official source of social, demographic, and economic information for the U.S. and the world in some areas. This is a large site that requires time to explore, but the effort is well worth it. Spend time in the CenStats and CenStore areas. The CenStats is a subscription service with access to: County Business Patterns, USA Counties, Annual Survey of Manufacturers, ZIP Business Patterns, Census Tract/Street Index, Building Permits, International Trade Data, Occupation by Sex, Race & Hispanic Origins, and Consolidated Federal Funds Report. Also try the Java version of the “population clock”.

PACER - Public Access to Court Electronic Records from U.S. Federal Courts ( http://www.uscourts.gov/PubAccess.html) PACER is the public access to the records of the U.S. Federal Courts, which started in 1990. The service is not via the Internet but by direct dial into the district U.S. Court. Usually there is a $.60 per minute access fee to retrieve case information and court dockets.

U.S. Intelligence Community ( http://www.odci.gov/ic/) There are over 14 agencies within the U.S. Government that deal with intelligence in various forms. The more visible agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), have excellent (unclassified) resources; however, a corporate web farming may be more interested in non-DoD agencies, such as FBI and Justice

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ( http://www.uspto.gov/) The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is a non-commercial federal entity whose role have not changed for over 200 years to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries. The PTO does so by issuing patents and trademark registrations. Registered trademarks enable the providers of goods and services to build reputations based on consumer expectations and to win share in the marketplace. The PTO's operations are fully funded by its customers through fees paid for its product and services.

GAO Directory from Washington Post ( http://wp4.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/edguide/gao.htm.) For current information, refer to the appropriate Yahoo directories on the US Government and to an exhaustive list from the General Accounting Office of about 4,500 web sites within the federal government. The Washington Post offers a version with hyperlinks.