Portal is more than a technical device for Internet navigation. After looking at the benefit bunding of service, and also unbundling problem raised in the 'Unbundling the Company' Written by John Hegel III and Marc Singer, this paper argues that the library portal will be a crucial strategic function for service deployment where customer relations are highly appreciated. Also this paper gives the library portal concept and its components to be implemented.

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The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) provides links to useful nuclear related information sources in Internet by the name of "INIS Web Service" and the Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) also provides links to useful energy related information sources in Internet by the name of"Energy Information Sources". This paper outlines these two services.

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It is to introduce Free Pint, the virtual community of information professionals in the world. Since started in November 1997 by William Hann, it has been evolving every single day, and the bi-weekly newsletter is now subscribed by 40,000 members. They have a bar, where all the members freely post their questions and comments, job listings, feature articles, book reviews, and more. The dynamic linkage between the newsletter and the web site as well as the collaboration of professional writers and professional searchers are the secrets of this success. Financing, another important aspect of operating this kind of service, is also discussed.

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To develop a portal site in a short term, our Application Service Provider (ASP) system is enable to provide several tools that are convenient for membership management, streaming, payment, site searching, contents management and many other functions. In this article, we introduced two cases creating a portal site for BtoC by using these tools provided by ASP.

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The origin of Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) development can be recognized as an evolution of knowledge management. There are some needs such that utilize many sources of information within a company. In this situation there is a need to unify isolated user interfaces by various systems architecture in a company. In other words, EIP by which the workplace was united with knowledge management will play an important role for corporate strategy. Under an Internet society, the example of EIP practical use have come out inevitably in a global competition.

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Portal sites are the gateway for information gathering on the Web. Portal sites of general information are typically represented by major search engines with various information services attached. Those sites are however designed for general interests, so not appropriate for in-depth searching on particular subjects. This article focuses on Vertical Portal Sites, or Vortals, which are specialized on each subject area. The subjects focused consist of General Information, Politics & Economics, Academic, Music, Images, and others. Useful sites are carefully selected domestically as well as internationally to introduce the readers.

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In developing improved library services within the higher educational institutions of the UK, various information services have been developed to provide increased digital information resources across the UK. These are based on the Follett Report which recommended improved methods for libraries and related provisions to the funding councils, higher education institutions and the JISC (Joint Information Standard Committee). This enables the cost effective exploitation of information systems and provides a high quality national network infrastructure for the UK higher and further education and research councils communities. This paper is a survey of managed environments for accessing electronic information resources within UK higher education. It includes a review of CHEST which negotiates for the supply of software, databases and other related IT products. The review also looks at the National Datacentres based at Bath University (BIDS), Manchester University (MIMAS) and Edinburgh University (EDINA). The paper also reviews the ATHENS authentification systems for access management.

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