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From the Editor

The power and precision of ProQuest Dialog™ continues to grow. Thanks to your feedback in all phases of the search process, the enhancements in the latest release of ProQuest Dialog cover everything from streamlined Command Line search and de-duplication, to enhanced features for Alerts and RSS feeds, to post-processing.

At the same time, ProQuest Dialog migration for DataStar^® users nears completion. Migration for Dialog customers will start in 2012. Read about the What’s New on ProQuest Dialog training session, which highlights features from the new release, and a new Search Guide, complete with step-by-step Search Solutions.

This November/December combined issue of the Chronolog also brings you news about EMCare^®, the Featured File, updates on CLAIMS^® and INPADOC/Family and Legal Status patent databases and Ron’s column with more tips on prior art searching.

All of us at Dialog wish you happy holidays and best wishes for a healthy, prosperous 2012. We look forward to bringing you more exciting news from Dialog in the year to come!

 

ProQuest Dialog Updates

Latest release brings new advanced and command search features

Whether you prefer to use intuitive browsing tools or are an expert at crafting detailed Boolean queries, ProQuest Dialog meets your needs. Explore some of these new and enhanced features.

• New look and functionality to Command Line search. Look for streamlined features, such as a smaller, expandable search box, abbreviated search syntax, drop in multi-line searches to execute in one step, Look up terms, direct access to browse lists and more.
• Set searching. Proximity operators supported between sets; brief and detailed versions of search history in Recent searches.
• Advanced search. Ability to use search filters and look-up features on the main search page before going to results; set searching enabled.
• Alerts enhancements. Alerts tracker in table format for easy review, sorting by name and date created; 90-day storage; email Alerts with full-text links and improved editor.
• New de-duplication feature. Rank your database order for removing duplicates with Preference setting.
• Post-processing options. Generate custom formats and reports with fields you select.

The above features and more are all part of the latest release. Gather more details about the latest functionality of ProQuest Dialog — attend a training session, and see Dialog experts conduct live searches.

 

ProQuest Dialog earns AIIP's 2011 Technology Award

The Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) has named ProQuest Dialog, the search service specially designed for professional research, as the winner of the 12th Annual AIIP Technology Award. The AIIP Technology Award recognizes innovative products that enhance the working environment of the independent information professional. Said Tim Wahlberg, ProQuest Vice President and General Manager of Dialog, "It's tremendously rewarding for our new service to be recognized in this way by our core user community — information professionals. An honor like this is extremely motivational for our team, whose members are completely devoted to building a service information professionals can always count on."

 

It's easy on ProQuest Dialog

Cost-effective searching
In the legacy systems, DIALINDEX^® on Dialog or CROS on DataStar could be used to search across the entire content collection.  A search term would be used to retrieve a list of databases with the number of hits to be found in each. The searcher could then execute the searches in the targeted databases. This helped researchers identify the best content sources, saving both time and money.

ProQuest Dialog makes it even easier and more cost effective to target relevant content sources because users can search and then browse results with no connect time or DialUnit charges. Plus, consider these features:

Save Time:  use search terms with one click
In ProQuest Dialog, you can begin using search terms immediately from an industry group or across all available databases at the click of a button. The number of hits in each database is automatically displayed in the Narrow results by Database within the right pane of the results list.

Save Time:  refine results
You can see actual results immediately and refine or restrict results to specific databases using the Narrow results by Database among other options. Or, in the search field, use the targeting databases’ short cut command ‘FDB’ with the database name or id, e.g. s1 and FDB(ERIC) or FDB(10000150)

Save Money:  know where charges are incurred
Within transactional content in ProQuest Dialog, it is possible to distinguish between results where a charge will be incurred, against content that is included in a subscription plan. In the example below, Social SciSearch^® is a database included in a subscription, while results from Inspec^® indicate through the “Pricing” link that a cost will be incurred because it is available on a transactional basis.

Save Money:  preview for free
In ProQuest Dialog, you can also choose to preview results for free. The preview feature works particularly well with results that have either a citation/abstract available or listed subject terms that can be used to help analyze results.

 

November/December Highlights

Join us at London Online

Stop by and see Dialog and ProQuest at Online Information 2011 at the National Hall in Olympia, London, November 29 through December 1, 2011. Check out new features of ProQuest Dialog, greet new Dialog InfoStars and visit with old friends.

Mark your calendar to view Tim Wahlberg’s presentation “Building Targeted Professional Communities,” 14:00 – 15.30, Wednesday, November 30. And, be sure to join us at Booth 240 to celebrate an exciting year at Dialog from 15.30 – 16.30, Wednesday, November 30.

We look forward to welcoming you!

 

Quantum² is back and better than ever!

Designed to help information professionals expand their services and improve the flow of information within their organizations, Quantum² is an innovative skills development program provided free of charge by Dialog and ProQuest. As part of the program, a variety of hands-on training and resource materials are available to help you evolve professionally and gain support from your management.

Our goal is to inspire you to increase your visibility and value, by sharing best practices, ideas and insights on how to do it. With Quantum² you can spark exponential productivity for yourself, your team and your organization!

Market yourself and your information center  
Need help marketing your library or information center? Join our free, one-hour webinar, Quantum²: Marketing Information Services, at 3:00 p.m., November 17, and discover the key business competencies and foundational skills necessary to develop your own marketing program.  

For more information and to register for this informative session, sign up for ProQuest’s online community, the Discover More Corps, then look for the webinar registration link on the home page.

* Note: to register for the Quantum² webinar, you must first join ProQuest's Discover More Corps site; a webinar registration link will then be available on the Discover More Corps home page for you to sign up for the webinar. 

 

Featured File November/December: EMCare

Databases that provide information about the ever-changing biomedical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries are key to understanding healthcare needs throughout the world. Elsevier, known for its focus on excellent scientific, biomedical and drug information, brings us such relevant databases like Embase^® and EMCare^® on ProQuest Dialog.

With coverage from 1995 to the present, EMCare is an ideal database for conducting nursing and allied healthcare information searches that answer fundamental and complex questions in the field of heathcare. In EMCare you can research neonatal care, occupational health, professional home nursing, coronary care, hospice care among other healthcare topics.

EMCare, which provides approximately two million records from the nursing, allied health and biomedical literature, draws its content from more than 2,700 currently published journals, 900 important ceased titles, trade publications and electronic-only titles. Of these1,200 titles are not contained in Embase, and relevant coverage from MEDLINE^® and about 67 percent of CINAHL^® journals (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) are included. One of the important aspects of this database is its international scope. The literature of North America and South America is the largest at 52 percent. Asia-Pacific represents about 6 percent and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa total 42 percent.

Use EMCare, along with other authoritative databases on ProQuest Dialog for your biomedical, healthcare and pharmaceutical search needs. Check the ProSheet for ProQuest Dialog or the Bluesheet when searching legacy Dialog. Review the overview to learn more about the database, and attend an online Webinar on November 17 and 21, discussing more uses and benefits of this comprehensive, authoritative nursing and allied health resource.

 

Validate: Intellectual Property Content Updates

Updating on CLAIMS databases

CLAIMS^®/U.S. Patents (Files 340, 341, 942) are now current and back on their regular twice-weekly updating schedule. Monthly updates were put on hold during the catch-up period but will resume shortly.

Users with Alerts in File 340 have received regular Alerts during the catch-up period at no charge. The twice-weekly Alert schedule was resumed with the Alerts for October 4, and these Alerts are charged at the rate listed in HELP RATES 340 or according to the terms of your Dialog contract.

CLAIMS^®/Current Patent and Legal Status (File 123) updating is still on hold, but the publisher expects to resume updating in the near future.

 

Changes to Japanese Patents on INPADOC

The European Patent Office (EPO) made various changes over the past year to the collection of Japanese patents in the INPADOC/Family and Legal Status (File 345) database. Such reprocessing changes generally go through the Dialog updating process without side effects. However, a series of recent format changes caused unanticipated problems with indexing and retrieval for some documents. These involved the conversion of Japanese patents with kind T (JP T) to kind A (JP A).

The JP T to JP A changes were originally provided by the EPO in two phases. Phase 1 was sent in week 201126 and affected Japanese patents from 2000 forward. Phase 2 was sent in week 201140 and covered Japanese patents prior to the year 2000. To correct the format issues, approximately 400,000 records were replaced in the special update UD=201126A. A second group of 200,000 records were replaced in the special update UD=201140A. The bulk of the affected records have now been restored. Users with Alerts in File 345 were sent Alert results for the two special updates at no charge. Also, as a result of the correction process, ongoing updates were delayed for a number of weeks. We expect to be fully caught up with updates by late-November.

The creation of Dialog’s version of INPADOC requires a significant amount of specialized processing to provide additional value, including:

• merging individual patents records into family records
• attaching  individual legal status records to the correct patents and families
• weekly updating of the database with new  and corrected records. 

 
As the volume of additions and changes made by the EPO continues to grow, our goal is to continue to provide these value-added features while maintaining the timeliness of updates. We look forward to continuing to serve your global patents needs.

 

Use chemical structure searching in Derwent Chemistry Resource to find patents

It is easy enough to search for patents containing words describing a subject of interest. However, what if the chemical patents do not describe the claimed composition by words?  What if the patent only has a chemical structure? Derwent Chemistry Resource to the rescue.

This database on Dialog offers images and indexing of the chemical structures in Derwent World Patents Index^® and Derwent Drug File, so you can find patents using just the chemical structure. Find out how to find these patents — on drugs or crop protection chemicals and similar compounds — by attending the seminar (December 8, 15) on searching for chemical structures in DWPI^SM using the Derwent Chemistry Resource.

 

A Proximal and a Distal Tip
by Ron Kaminecki, MS, CPL, JD, director, IP segment, U.S. patent attorney

The four most hated words in all of childhood
I recall arguing once with an individual who claimed to know all the answers though he could never back them up with facts. His only proof was the tried and true saying that every parent has used to settle arguments among children: “Because I said so.”

We argued about, of all things, who won a sports game the night before. He adamantly refused to listen to anyone else because he claimed he knew who won the game, and I disagreed just as vociferously. 

How do you resolve a disagreement between two people who both know the answer and the answers conflict?  Easy, verify with an outside source, because the two “authorities” are not in sync. Anything said that is unsupported is just an opinion; a fact is needed to verify the opinion is correct. This sports argument was settled easily enough because one of the authorities was actually at the game. And I had the ticket stubs to back me up.

Sometimes asking a third party about a patent search can be useful even if the person you ask only gives you an opinion; this at least provides a starting point to find a fact to back up the opinion solicited (or unsolicited as some people have an opinion on everything!). After all, an examiner gives applicants an opinion, though such are usually backed up with citations and case law all wrapped up in an envelope and suitable for framing. So, if someone tells you a particular technology is known because she read it in a popular magazine or a published application or such, you can use this as a starting point. Then, implement the technique called “pearl growing” to find the background facts to support the answer. In this technique, you start with the information given (the pearl), and you use it to get more search terms like a classification code, an inventor name, an assignee, a subject term, acronym, citation, etc. Better yet, you are now on a hunt to either vet the person’s opinion or discredit it.

I’ll be here all week with two shows on the weekend; make sure you tip the waiters
We all have probably worked with someone who knew all the answers, or at least claimed to know all the answers (which forces me to bring this up: Question:  How many patent attorneys does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: None, they just have to claim they can do so.)

Any person’s questionable opinion can be broken into three possibilities:

• The answer really is a fact, and you need to find some proof;
• You can find the answer yourself outside of the opinion and then loop back to check if the opinion corresponds with the answer found; or
• You can find a publication that has accumulated the information already.

Besides pearl growing for the first entry, you can spend a lot of time using various techniques for searching patents for the second entry (Check the archive of this column at our Web site for more strategies). For non-patent prior art, you can also look up all of the company data for a parent company and its subsidiaries in Dun & Bradstreet, or you can just check a company listing in American Business Directory (File 531) where someone has already compiled the information and you can cite the publicly available business information. After all, you don’t want to be that person who only has unsubstantiated opinions! For general non-patent prior art, consider anything with a bibliography, especially a review article on the subject of the invention.

Finding a patent publication that has already assembled these facts may sound difficult. But, if you do a general search and find a few interesting patents, stop searching and check the search report usually found in the A1 or A3 documents in the patent family. You may find insight in the search report already done by an examiner. Also, consider cited patents, both forward and backward, of patents that are similar to the invention in question. If you come across a highly-cited patent, consider looking at it to see what it says, but more importantly, check its forward and backward citations. If you think about it, these citations are linked to the target patent because someone else probably already did a patent search!

If you are really serious, a copy of the file wrapper can illustrate the examiner’s thinking and the applicant’s replies, but only order one if you find a good patent and are willing to pay for the file history.
Looking for a compendium of assembled facts could save you from a lot of chasing around as someone may have already assembled the documents. 

US 8,000,000 issued recently; why focus on a patent halfway there?
U.S. Patent 4,000,000 covers a rotary machine that grinds asphalt into smaller pieces so they can be recycled into roadbed. Checking the backward citations shows they all deal with other machines that break big pieces of asphalt into smaller ones because that was the focus of the applicant’s search. This can be a goldmine of very early patents. Also, looking at the forward citations finds many similar recycling machines, but also one that uses a similar machine for breaking up large pieces of frozen food into smaller ones.

What asphalt-grinder engineer would ever think of putting food into a machine used for roadbed? The answer is very few (or very hungry ones), and such patents would usually only be found in forward citations. In the same way, what search strategy on asphalt-grinders would ever yield a machine used for processing food? The answer again is very few, but forward citations can definitely show that someone else’s search found the target patent. Who cares how they found or even knew the answer? In fact, you can use the results of their search and not only do you not have to thank them, you don’t even have to put up with their use of that trite saying all kids love to hate.

 

Learn about ProQuest

ebrary and ProQuest Newsstand add content

• In October, ebrary added more than 2,800 e-books spanning all industries from AMACOM, Bentham Science Publishers, Elsevier Science, Kogan Page, Rowman & Littlefield, and other leading publishers, growing our catalog to more than 261,300 titles for purchase. Many titles are also available under our Patron Driven Acquisition model for “just in time” access!
• ProQuest Newsstand products now have some great new content:
  • 26 new titles from Al Bawaba, boosting content in Middle East Newsstand by 15%
  • 24 new Asian titles from HT Media
• The Telegraph Magazine and Stella, both part of the Daily Telegraph

Both the Al Bawaba and HT Media titles are available in ProQuest Newsstand, as well as regional bundles. Telegraph Magazine and Stella are now included in UK Newsstand.