Corporate IxisNexis nformation Pruofessionapdl ate · Instead of calculating potential birth-date ranges, and then figuring out how to create a search to reflect it, now just select

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Welcome to … LexisNexis® Corporate Information Professional Update!This complimentary, quarterly newsletter is designed just for information professionals in businesses of all kinds. LexisNexis Corporate Information Professional Update will come right to your inbox. Just open, click … and get details on nexis.com® (and some lexis.com®) products, LexisNexis educational opportunities for you and your customers—including Webinars, podcasts and more—and discover how your colleagues are using nexis.com to their organizations’ best advantages.

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FALL 2008 ISSUE

LexisNexis

updateCorporate Information ProfessionalThe newsletter specifically designed for corporate information professionals

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In the Fall 2008 IssueWhy Should Librarians Run the Universe? Ask the Editor!

Researching the New nexis.com® Public Records Interface: All the Bells and Whistles ExplainedGet a checklist of the newest search tips—and find answers to your questions about new sources, Terms & Connectors, search forms and much, much more, including:

• Why Did LexisNexis Change the Public Records Interface? Scott Livingston, LexisNexis Vice President of News, Business & Public Records Solutions, answers the question for Update readers.

• Form Searching and Terms & Connectors: What’s the Difference?

• Which Person Search Form Do I Use—and When?

LexisNexis® Publisher Will End Your Days as a Human Routing Machine And your organization will get more information in a more timely manner. With LexisNexis Publisher, you control the searching, document selection and destination—to e-mail, portal, Web site and more. Learn more.

Shields Up! LexisNexis Passwords Protect Against Data Theft. See How...What stands between you, your users and unauthorized nexis.com use? Stronger passwords offer a vital first line of defense. See how you can thwart a “brute-force attack” on your data.

The Litigious Past Finally Catches Up to Them … Find It With CourtLink® Single SearchCourt records don’t lie. And with CourtLink Single Search, one search lays out a person’s or company’s dealings with courts

across the nation. (And what some of the judges have to say on their dismissal orders will surprise you.) See how you tap in.

law.lexisnexis.com/infopro

by Barbara Byrd, Managing EditorLexisNexis Corporate Information Professional Update

What’s the best thing about attending a party with librarians? “You can select a topic—and I mean any topic—and you’ll find someone knowledgeable. That or you’ll get referred to an expert.”

That’s why Barbara Byrd thinks information professionals should rule the world. “They know the value of knowledge and learning. It’s their passion. And they can motivate others to share that passion.”

For more than a decade, Barbara has been the managing editor of LexisNexis® Information Professional Update for law librarians, reaching more than 6,000 readers a month with LexisNexis product news, user tips and details on LexisNexis librarian educational programs. And readers reply regularly, sitting for interviews or submitting articles on the LexisNexis resources they find most useful.

Now the same knowledge exchange is available to information professionals in business settings via LexisNexis Corporate Information Professional Update. “There are a million great ways to get the most from nexis.com®. I’ll share the ones from the nexis.com product specialists. And I look forward to sharing the ones from you.”

You can share your nexis.com tips—or just share your comments—to the managing editor at [email protected]

Why Should Librarians Run the Universe? Ask the Editor! Editor’s Column

“They know the value of knowledge and learning. It’s their passion. And they can motivate others to share that passion.”

-Barbara Byrd

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By now you’ve undoubtedly seen the new LexisNexis Public Records interface at the nexis.com PUBLIC RECORDS tab. So what has changed—and what does it mean for your research? The biggest news is that the new interface now includes new researching features and functionality—much of it built right in—that give you and your organization (even novice searchers) an opportunity to find and connect people, businesses and locations in ways never before possible.

Get details on more than 450 million unique individuals, 150 million unique businesses and 2,013 tax-assessor counties. Gain access to public records, private databases and regulated content, including sources not readily available from other providers or via the open Web.

Here’s a checklist of just some of the “really cool” new things you can accomplish while researching with the new LexisNexis Public Records Interface:

View a “sitemap” and links to all nexis.com public records resources.Select Public Records at nexis.com. Across the top of the screen, you’ll see tabs to take you to Public Records search forms. Click the All Searches tab. See every nexis.com Public Records resource at a glance—and link to any search form. Fast and easy. A great starting point.

See search results—even those outside your subscription.When you select Comprehensive Person, Business or Location searches, your reports include the We Also Found box, which shows the number of documents found in sources outside your subscription. Purchase the content—if you choose—without a subscription. Pricing information is only a click away.

�Find new sources—cell phone numbers, Internet domains and more. • Alternate Phones shows you land lines and cell lines you won’t find in white pages. Also get the names of the phone companies providing the lines.

• Real Property Foreclosures covers loan defaults from 46 states. Some records go back as far as 1981.

• Internet Domains (historical information from 1985 – 2004) lets you search by Web site owner, administrator or Web address.

• Employment Locator shows you where your targets may have worked in the past—and how highly they were held in confidence.

• Sexual Offenders offers details from criminal justice agencies from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

And discover more coverage in existing resources. The new Public Records interface also brings expanded coverage of familiar sources too. Now find more jurisdictions for marriage and divorce records, deeds, mortgages, tax-assessor records, driver’s licenses, civil and criminal courts, professional licenses, etc.

New nexis.com® Public Records Interface: What Does it Mean to Your Research?

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Tap into searching power impossible to achieve with words and connectors. Two words … Search Forms. Great for novice searchers: just fill in the blanks. (Your technophobes may even try it.) Unfortunately the simple exterior masks another true advantage: search power. Now you can mine the data in new ways. For example, with the new LexisNexis Public Records search forms, you can: • Find people in neighboring towns—without knowing the town names. Many cities have bedroom communities. Find them with the Radius search built into the people finder search forms (even the sexual offender search form). Pinpoint people anywhere in the area—up to 100 miles radius from your search city. Just click Radius and choose a distance. (Default is 30 miles.)

• Know where they used to live? That’s enough to find their whereabouts now. Use Previous City and Previous State to find people—or to refine your search. These search criteria are on the Comprehensive Person and Locate a Person (Nationwide) search forms. Even use relatives’ names to find someone.

• “Guess-timate” age. Instead of calculating potential birth-date ranges, and then figuring out how to create a search to reflect it, now just select a minimum and maximum Age Range from the pull-down box on Comprehensive Person and Locate a Person (Nationwide) search forms. This is a great way to weed out irrelevant hits when you’re searching with common names. DOB? Yes, They are Still There. However, now for selected records, only the month and year of birth displays. You can still use a full birth date to search or to refine your search. This change was made by LexisNexis to meet its obligation to reduce the risk of potential misuse, abuse or breach. LexisNexis has been advised that any research service that does not follow this approach to service security ultimately is exposing its users to unnecessary risks.

• Look at property values, tax rates, sales prices or loan amounts in new ways. The Real Property search form gives you the option of pinpointing all this information—greater than, equal to or less than—for an entire street or an entire zip code. How many owners in that area own property valued at more than $3 million? Find out. Just click the Terms and Connectors button on the search form. �That’s right. You CAN add terms and connectors to some search forms. Many search forms available allow you to add search words and connectors—and segment searches. Not all, but many of the often-used search forms, offer a Terms & Connectors button. Click and add additional words and commands. Try it with the Real Property form, Bankruptcy Filings form, Corporate Filings form, Judgments & Liens form, Professional Licenses form and more.

Added bonus: When you add search terms and connectors, you can use any LexisNexis precision connector, i.e., AND, OR, W/n, PRE/n, AND NOT, W/SEG, NOT W/n There is a difference between Form Searching and Terms & Connector Searching that can affect your research.

But what about * and ! wild cards? Don’t worry … you have a variety of options. You can let nexis.com handle the last-name spelling. Is it “White,” “Whyte” or Wight?” Phonetic last-name searching is available automatically when you select Comprehensive Person, Locate a Person (Nationwide) and Statewide Person Search. Enter one spelling and get the alternatives. Just check the Find Similar-Sounding Last Names box.

Locate “Bill,” “William” and “Billie.” In Locate a Person (Nationwide) and Comprehensive Person searches, you can look for common nicknames. Or uncheck the Find nicknames of first names box. You can also add an Alias name on these search forms.

Use wild card !. On any search form that allows Terms & Connectors, you can add multiple name variations using ! and the OR connector.

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Execute additional searches—right from your results screen. Note your results list is hyperlinked. Just click to run additional searches right from your results. For example, check out a phone number. Run a location report—or find neighbors. Investigate a person or a company.

Navigate comprehensive reports easily; just look to the left side of the screen.With so many source types included in the Comprehensive Person, Business and Location reports, you need a fast, simple way to navigate it all. Just follow the left-hand navigation bar. (Even see how many results for each report category.) Click a link and go. The navigation bar stays in place so you never lose yours.

Where do you search next? Get suggested sources for deeper research.When you review your search results in FULL, you may notice a Further Searches box. Find links to sources that could expand your research. Click a link and move directly to a suggested source’s search form. The $ lets you know if the source is outside your subscription.

Set Alerts on people and businesses! (Get just the facts you need.)After you review a Comprehensive Person or Comprehensive Business report, you can get updates on all—or only specific—parts of those report. Click the Save as Alert link. Select the sections you want to save for automatic update. Select an update frequency and request online or e-mail delivery.

And you can still Create Alerts from your search results screens in many available LexisNexis Public Records sources.

Print comprehensive reports—in a variety of useful formats.Comprehensive Person, Business and Location reports are long, for sure, but you can print* them—or any of your LexisNexis Public Records result documents—in text, Adobe® Acrobat® PDF, Microsoft® Word, WordPerfect®, HTML or RTF. Or download*. Even e-mail* your report!

* According to the terms of your LexisNexis agreement.

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Scott Livingston, LexisNexis Vice President of News, Business & Public Records Solutions, answers the question for Update readers:

“The answer is two part: First, the new LexisNexis Public Records platform was designed to address many of the shortcomings inherent in traditional public records research. Second, it offers researchers significant new tools and sources.”

“As users of public records, you know the format and structure of public records varies significantly by content type as well as by jurisdiction. To address these variations, information providers depended on researchers to understand the full diversity of these content structures and to use complex search strategies to navigate through that diversity.”

“However, at the same time, LexisNexis Customer Support and LexisNexis account teams reported a growing pattern when working with customers: a decreasing average word count in the public records search queries. In short, data diversity created an increased need for complex search logic, but more and more researchers were trying to rely on searches that were becoming less and less complex. The risk of incomplete or missed information was significant.”

“LexisNexis spent more than three years designing the new public records research platform specifically to address these challenges. By utilizing sophisticated entity-matching technologies, our new application accounts for the underlying diversity in the data structures. It can ‘see’ relationships between records and between entities.”

“It also provides new tools that were previously unavailable. Plus the new LexisNexis Public Records resource also expanded the number of jurisdictions available in our collection, and brought us new content types, including content we created through data mining our collection. Boolean searching, segments and wild cards continue to be available across a wide spectrum of our public record content.”

“Change for change sake is not always good. However, LexisNexis truly believes that change to tip the balance of accuracy and better research in favor of you, our customers, is a worthwhile goal. I encourage you to reach out to your LexisNexis Librarian Relations Consultant or LexisNexis account manager to discuss how our new public records platform is working for you.”

Why Did LexisNexis Change the Public Records Interface?

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Form Searching is relational searching. When you enter facts on the Search Form and click Search, the searching technology is looking for an entity—person, business, etc.—based on your facts. In addition to these facts, the searching technology is also matching known data on the entity, including data you’re not aware of yet. That broadens your search—very important when you’re trying to locate someone or something. Results are ranked by relevance.

For example, let’s say you’re looking at corporate filings. On the search form you enter these facts: Acme, 123 Long Street. Your search results show 10 documents. Documents 9 and 10 are records on ABCDoughnuts. No mention of Acme. Why? Behind the scenes, the search technology pinpointed Acme and its address. ABCDougnuts used to be at that address. That could be important to your search.

By contrast Terms & Connector searching is document searching. The search technology is looking for specific documents with specific word arrangements. If the document does not have that arrangement, the document will not be retrieved. This is precision searching, best used when you know exactly the type of document you need and its arrangement.

Form Searching and Terms & Connectors: What’s the Difference?

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There are three search forms for finding person information: Comprehensive Person search, Locate a Person (Nationwide) and Statewide Public Records Person search. What’s the difference? When do I use each?

• Statewide Public Records Person search—Use this resource when your research is limited to a specific state. You can search all available record types for a specific state. Retrieved source documents are displayed individually; no report compilation is provided. To ensure your Statewide Public Records Person search only pinpoints records from a specific state, select the state in the new Filing Jurisdiction box on the statewide Search Form. (This will remove records based on mailing address only.)

• Locate a Person (Nationwide) search—This resource includes all states’ locator sources, so use this resource to find someone, that is, their location and contact information. Source documents are displayed individually, e.g., you may find multiple documents of the same type. Also find Further Searches so you can see how you might expand your research.

• Comprehensive Person Report—“de-duplicates” source documents and lays out the information in an easy-to-read report covering all available content linked to that person. It includes nationwide locator information plus all other materials such as bankruptcy, liens, licenses, associates, relatives, driver’s license information, etc. Materials outside of your subscription are identified for potential purchase. Use this resource when you “need to know everything” about a person.

Which Person Search Form Do I Use—and When?

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LexisNexis Publisher retrieves documents of interest from the LexisNexis information warehouse—that’s 20,000+ news and business sources or legal sources like case law—and lets you publish them to your organization’s Web site or intranet. These documents may be of general interest, about an organization, about one or more of your competitors, and other related content.

Here’s how it works: You control the information delivered to your users by creating the searches that retrieve needed documents. Then you can quickly review the documents found, determine which ones you want to use as links in e-mail or to your intranet portal or Web site. Finally you publish the links to these sites—even create newsletters or “reading rooms”—or allow the links to publish automatically.

What can LexisNexis Publisher do for your organization?• Ensure that the right people have the right information at the right time. Distribute LexisNexis content through external Web pages, intranets or via e-mail easily. You and your team are on top of key people, businesses, competitors, industry news and much more—even when traveling. (LexisNexis Publisher updates can be accessible via BlackBerry® wireless handheld devices.) There’s no better way to drive effective decision making.

• Let LexisNexis help you self-manage content and streamline distribution channels. You get more flexibility—and you stop being a human routing machine. Plus you’ll never have to worry about copyright issues. (They’re covered in your LexisNexis Publisher agreement.)

• Strengthen your competitive advantage by being the first to know critical business information.

• Keep viewers coming back to your Web site. Add targeted content, including daily current-awareness updates, on topics of interest and provide your customers with vital information that gives them a reason to return.

• “Build a bridge” to your audience by making your site the go-to source for insight and expertise.

And LexisNexis Publisher gives you the ability to:• Receive and distribute breaking news on high-profile persons, companies, events and more. Stay up-to-date on quickly changing events.

• Create “Reading Rooms” offering centralized access for content of interest.

• Develop electronic newsletters for specific departments or special audiences.

• Easily manage the information published on your company’s Web site or intranet. You can customize content to mimic the “look and feel” of the site. Add graphics such as logos and editor notes to boost the quality of your site.

• Use LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology™ terms and relevancy scores, segments and precision search commands—all your favorite precision search elements—to produce optimum searches.

• Ensure copyright compliance for disseminated content.

• Control updates by setting your own update schedule.

• Preview content before it is published.

• Build a content archive covering the last 180 days.

Stop Being a Human Routing Machine! LexisNexis® Publisher Gives You the Tools

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LexisNexis is committed to diligently protecting the security of its information as well as the privacy of consumers and customers. One of the simplest, yet most important ways LexisNexis fulfills that commitment is to create and enforce rigorous standards for customer passwords.

Stronger passwords offer a vital first line of defense against potentially unauthorized product access and other potentially fraudulent use of LexisNexis data and systems.

Why are rigorous standards for passwords so important? Put simply: stronger passwords are harder for “bad guys” to guess.

Stronger passwords and authentication systems help to protect against:

• Password cracking—the attempt to illicitly recover plain-text passwords from encrypted passwords • Brute-force attacks—the attempt to sign on to a restricted service by guessing the password when the ID is known.

LexisNexis understands that rigorous password rules and frequent password changes may be time-consuming. After all, you just want to get to work! But we need to protect you, our other customers, consumers, our business and our society in general from those “bad guys.”

LexisNexis password standards depend on the sensitivity of the data being accessed. The more sensitive the data being accessed, the more stringent the password standards.

These standards protect IDs and passwords from fraudulent use because:

• Longer passwords take more computing power to crack and are harder to guess.

• More complex passwords are also harder to crack or guess.

• Frequently changing the password means less opportunity for accidental exposure, password cracking, and ”phishing“ sites using IDs and passwords obtained in an unauthorized manner.

Get more information on LexisNexis Passwords at the LexisNexis Customer Support Center. Click Nexis® or LexisNexis at lexis.com. Under Technical Assistance, click Sign On/Passwords.

Shields Up! LexisNexis Passwords Protect Against Data Theft. See How …

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Your LexisNexis Passwords:

• Must be six to eight characters long (access to more restricted data may require longer passwords).

• Are case sensitive.

• Should be alphanumeric (recommended for all customers; required for most).

• Cannot include the account ID or other terms that would be easy to guess; like the first or last name on file for the ID holder.

• Cannot include spaces, although they can include some specific special characters.

• Are typically changed every 90 days or even more frequently depending on the sensitivity of the data.

• Cannot be common words, such as organizational names, LexisNexis, and so on.

• Cannot be vulgar or explicit words.


Court dockets and court-filed documents are high-powered research supplements that inform you far beyond the facts found in reported and unreported case decisions. Think of them as investigative tools perfect for compiling intelligence on key people, businesses, experts, etc.

Now you can search across 84-plus million dockets from the CourtLink document retrieval service—plus an additional three million court-filed documents requested by CourtLink subscribers—all in one search. Use any concept, issue or terms of interest. That’s CourtLink Single Search. (You won’t find a more comprehensive, easier method for searching dockets.)

And this resource is not just for law firms. You can help many other departments—and many business types—with valuable court records. See uses below.

Find the CourtLink Single Search box at the top of any CourtLink page once you log into CourtLink. Enter your search terms and go! You can add matter/customer codes and project notes.

Single Search results are displayed under two tabs: one for dockets and one for documents. Left-hand navigation allows you to zero in by criteria such as date filed, case status, case type, litigation area, state, and court system. Results can also be e-mailed and printed. Set up alerts to stay informed.

Ask your LexisNexis account executive for more details about CourtLink Single Search.

How can CourtLink Single Search address information needs in your business? Take a look! If your library serves:

Accounts Payable/Procurement • Conduct due diligence on potential business partners.

• Check bankruptcy filings, then set alerts on your vendors so that you are notified when one files bankruptcy—potentially saving thousands of dollars on payments.

• Find filings on business partners and set alerts.

Banking/Lending/Finance • Assess the litigation and bankruptcy history of potential new clients. Then get automatic alerts about any new civil, criminal, or bankruptcy filings involving people or companies of interest, including competitors.

• Stay on top of new activity in existing cases that may affect your business.

• Order court documents from ANY federal or state court nationwide, online or over the phone.

Open the Door to Litigation History with CourtLink Single Search

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General Counsel • Leverage CourtLink as a risk management tool by setting alerts on your company, your patents and their classes, and/or companies that you do business with, so that you can be more proactive against new litigation.

• Track ongoing cases of interest that may affect company policies.

• Benchmark potential attorney candidates by reviewing litigation experience. And benchmark outside counsel as you evaluate who should represent your corporation.

• Evaluate judges’ experience and rulings.

• Evaluate the opposing party’s litigation history.

• Find and evaluate expert witnesses.

Human Resources • Conduct quick and easy background checks on employees and applicants.

• Follow compliance trends within your industry, then set alerts on competitors, tailoring to specific natures of suits.

Insurance (Investigations) • Uncover potential fraud by reviewing the litigation history and witness appearances of claimants. • Discover any new cases involving people or companies who have been red-flagged.

• Find—then track—activity in cases of interest.

Litigation Support/Consulting • Identify and target key prospects effectively and efficiently—before your competition.

• Stay on top of new client activity and prospects cases to approach them at the most opportune moment.

• Research potential prospects and find opportunities to expand your relationship with current clients.

Media • Find news cases involving newsworthy persons or companies. Then track developments—up to three times daily.

• Verify lawsuit facts through court documents.

• Search for litigation history of story subjects.

Pharmaceutical/Technology/Patent • Uncover the litigation history of a particular patent. And be notified of new litigation involving patent or patent classes/sub-classes of interest.

• Receive automatic alerts of new litigation involving your competitors. • Stay on top of new activity in existing cases that may affect your company. • Stay up to date on industry trends and gain insight into the type and volume of litigation faced by competitors in comparison to your own litigation trends.

• Order documents from ANY federal or state court nationwide, online or over the phone.

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Retail • Ensure vendors are in good financial standing, and check litigation history of new vendors.

• Gain insight into the type and volume of litigation faced by your competitors in comparison to your own litigation trends.

• Conduct due diligence. Find court dockets that reveal corporate litigation activity involving existing or potential business alliances, alerting you to potential conflicts or risks.

• Set alerts and see new bankruptcy filings involving vendors or other parties of interest.

• Receive automatic alerts of all newly filed litigation involving your company or your competitors.

Sales and Marketing/Consulting Professionals • Prepare for meetings/negotiations by checking the litigation history of your prospects.

• Find and evaluate expert witnesses.

Structured Settlement/Funding Companies • Build your pipeline by identifying targeted new business opportunities.

• Boost your marketing efforts by locating more prospects through automatic alerts on any new litigation involving subject matter, law firms, or people/companies of interest.

• Receive automatic alerts of new litigation/filings involving your competitors to potentially buy out their deals.

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