| Author (Person) | Hudson, Grace |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Chadwyck-Healey Ltd |
| Series Title | Developments in European Information Issues |
| Publication Date | February 2000 |
| ISSN | 0264-7362 |
| Content Type | News |
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Lexis-Nexis and FT The Lexis-Nexis Group announced on 20 January 2000 that it has acquired, through its subsidiary Lexis-Nexis Europe, the Business Information Product division of the Financial Times Group. This includes FT Profile, FT Discovery and FT Newswatch. As a number of databases relevant to the EU are mounted on both hosts, it will be interesting to follow developments and see what changes this brings. Certainly the new combined service will offer access to a vast archive of material. OJ Online available on trial A new web version of the Ellis CD-ROM of the Official Journal, OJ CD, is now available for trial. This test version is based on the fourth quarter OJ CD 1999. Containing basically the same data as the CD-ROM, OJ Online is updated bi-weekly instead of four times a year for the CD-ROM version, so it is much more current. The search screen mirrors closely the CD-ROM interface and has virtually the same functionality. However the initial impression is one of greater clarity and simplicity. General search options are a simple search or detailed search, or restriction to a specific category from OJ L, OJ C, ECJ Case Law or Preparatory Acts. The search screen, as with the CD, offers free text searching, natural number, type, OJ reference and publication year. Details can be entered in one or more box. Customising the search form is straightforward as the search fields can be changed, as well as the default Boolean operators. Indexes can be consulted by clicking on the appropriate icon and typing the beginning of the term. This will bring up the relevant section of the index with checkboxes to select one or more terms which can be pasted in to the search strategy. Navigation is easy using the menu bars on all screens. You can move forward and back between the search screen, the summary list of hits, full records, next and previous records or next and previous summary pages. It is also possible to move directly to occurrences of the highlighted search terms within records. Records can be displayed in a range of formats by selection from a dropdown menu, and from the left-hand frame links to specific parts of the record can be made, eg to a particular article of a directive or the national implementing measures. Hyperlinks connect to related documents such as the legal base of a piece of legislation or amendments. Results can be sorted in ascending or descending date order and then by a number of other options such as title or source. Wild card and truncation facilities are included as well as proximity searching. Help screens give detailed explanations though some are rather confusing and may benefit from revision. To escape from Help, close the Help window and you will exit back to the search screen. OJ Online is to include pdf files for records from 1998 so it should be possible to display these in their original format. Unfortunately this feature does not work in the trial version, but it will be enabled for the commercial version. This will be valuable for documents which contain tables and graphics which otherwise would appear incomplete. The full text of the OJ C is included from 1999 and data from the OJ C E is there too. The text of proposed legislation includes the explanatory memoranda. Prices for the service are as follows: For further details or a free trial, contact: |
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| Subject Categories | Culture, Education and Research |
