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Resources and News for Information Professionals
ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Librarian Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com Editor and Compiler, The ResourceShelf Editor and Compiler, DocuTicker
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Archives 06/01/1990 - 06/30/1990 03/01/2001 - 03/31/2001 04/01/2001 - 04/30/2001 05/01/2001 - 05/31/2001 06/01/2001 - 06/30/2001 07/01/2001 - 07/31/2001 08/01/2001 - 08/31/2001 09/01/2001 - 09/30/2001 10/01/2001 - 10/31/2001 11/01/2001 - 11/30/2001 12/01/2001 - 12/31/2001 01/01/2002 - 01/31/2002 02/01/2002 - 02/28/2002 03/01/2002 - 03/31/2002 04/01/2002 - 04/30/2002 05/01/2002 - 05/31/2002 06/01/2002 - 06/30/2002 07/01/2002 - 07/31/2002 08/01/2002 - 08/31/2002 09/01/2002 - 09/30/2002 10/01/2002 - 10/31/2002 11/01/2002 - 11/30/2002 12/01/2002 - 12/31/2002 01/01/2003 - 01/31/2003 02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003 03/01/2003 - 03/31/2003 04/01/2003 - 04/30/2003 05/01/2003 - 05/31/2003 06/01/2003 - 06/30/2003 07/01/2003 - 07/31/2003 08/01/2003 - 08/31/2003 09/01/2003 - 09/30/2003 10/01/2003 - 10/31/2003 11/01/2003 - 11/30/2003 12/01/2003 - 12/31/2003 01/01/2004 - 01/31/2004 02/01/2004 - 02/29/2004 03/01/2004 - 03/31/2004 04/01/2004 - 04/30/2004 05/01/2004 - 05/31/2004 06/01/2004 - 06/30/2004 07/01/2004 - 07/31/2004 08/01/2004 - 08/31/2004 09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004 10/01/2004 - 10/31/2004 11/01/2004 - 11/30/2004 12/01/2004 - 12/31/2004 01/01/2005 - 01/31/2005 02/01/2005 - 02/28/2005 03/01/2005 - 03/31/2005 04/01/2005 - 04/30/2005 05/01/2005 - 05/31/2005 06/01/2005 - 06/30/2005 07/01/2005 - 07/31/2005 08/01/2005 - 08/31/2005 09/01/2005 - 09/30/2005 10/01/2005 - 10/31/2005 11/01/2005 - 11/30/2005 12/01/2005 - 12/31/2005 01/01/2006 - 01/31/2006 02/01/2006 - 02/28/2006 03/01/2006 - 03/31/2006 04/01/2006 - 04/30/2006 05/01/2006 - 05/31/2006 06/01/2006 - 06/30/2006 Now Available Additional Web Reference Compilations direct search (Invisible Web Resources) Audio/Video Current Awareness Tools WWW Accessible Congressional Research Service Reports
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Thursday, May 31, 2001
Cool Database of the Day! Rail Travel--Europe--Database Invisible Web Die Bahn European Rail Timetable Database A very comprehensive database for most European rail travel. Plan a trip and/or view a current station schedule via the Arrival/Departures link. This database offers numerous features including a "graphics" tab that creates a simple map of the selected trains schedule. Online News Tools New Resource: NewsConnect A comprehensive collection of news resources (many languages, global coverage) compiled by the Toronto Public Library and sponsored by the Toronto Star. Keyword searchable. An additional collection of news research tools is also available. Thanks to G.L. for the tip. Competitive Intelligence--Handbook Competitive Intelligence Handbook The folks at Agriculture Canada have placed online a 30 page .pdf handbook about CI. This publication may be of value as a primer on setting up a CI program. It was prepared by Jonothon Calof a professor at the University of Ottawa.
Wealth----Rankings & Lists--United States Cities & Towns--Wealthiest--United States Source: Worth "America's Richest Towns: 2001" Investment Analysts--Rankings and Lists 2001 Fortune All-Stars Lists for U.S., European, and Asian analysts.
Info Industry--Hoovers Hoover's Now Offers Catalog of Fee-Based Research Reports From the news release, "Hoover's Information Marketplace includes a comprehensive collection of thousands of pay-per-view business research reports from multiple top-tier publishers. Hoover's Online users can now use the Marketplace to find research reports by industry sector (i.e., computer hardware, retail); topic of interest (online training, customer service); and report type (sales/marketing reports, financial reports)...Partners initially providing research reports for Hoover's Information Marketplace include Forrester Research, ICON Group International and Pyramid Research." Full-Text Document Shelf (6 Items) Health--AIDS 20 Years of AIDS Summary Info/Statistics/News Release ||| Current Edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Dedicated To AIDS (Several Article with Statistics) ||| "25 Notable HIV and AIDS Reports Published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" -- Lobbying--United States Influence Inc. 2000 Edition Source: Center for Responsive Politics From the site, "...the Center's third annual lobbying report, providing the first-ever year-to-year comparisons of lobbying spending on Capitol Hill." -- Education--Statistics The Condition of Education, 2001 Summary/News Release ||| Direct to Full-Text Document PACS (Political Action Committees)--Rankings & Lists--United States PACS (Political Action Committees) 2000 Election Cycle Statistics Links to numerous lists and spreadsheets from the Federal Election Commission. See Also: CRP PAC Database -- Crime--United States Uniform Crime Reports Crime Index Trends, 2000 Preliminary Figures Summary/News Release ||| Direct to Full-Text Document -- Geographic Mobility Geographical Mobility: March 1999 to March 2000 Why People Move: Exploring the March 2000 Current Population Survey Source: U.S. Census News Release and Highlights ||| Direct to Geo Mobility & Why People Move Reports
Research Funding Database--United Kingdom "Community of Science Partners with Newcastle University to Offer New World Class Research Funding Information Service" From the news release, "The new service, to be named COS-REFUND, will feature online access to both COS Funding Opportunities, the largest international research funding database on the Web, and REFUND, Newcastle’s research and grants web news service for UK universities."
Canadian Resource Shelf (2 Items) Economy Rural Canada in the Knowledge-Based Economy Source: Industry Canada "The report examines Rural Canada in areas important to the knowledge-based economy such as innovation, connectedness and a skilled and knowledgeable workforce." News Release and Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Military Annual Report of the Chief of the Defence Staff 2000-2001 Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Web Databases--Science "IBM Partners on Free Scientific Database" Source: News.Com From the article, "IBM and a Canadian biotech company announced Wednesday a joint, nonprofit venture creating a free online clearinghouse for scientific research aimed at capitalizing on genetic breakthroughs to speed drug development...Blueprint Worldwide said it plans to make the database a repository for research on protein interaction in humans and other organisms...Blueprint, which introduced the database at a news conference here, said it will pull the information from sources that include academic journals, government research and biotechnology companies willing to share their research." Direct to the Blueprint Worldwide Site Addtional Details via IBM News Release
Full-Text Document Shelf (4 Items) Privacy--Internet Source: GAO (GAO-01-424, April 27) Internet Privacy: Implementation of Federal Guidance for Agency Use of "Cookies." -- R&D--Statistics--United States 1999 Survey of Industrial Research and Development (Statistics) Source:NSF From the NSF site, "...presents statistics on levels and sources of industrial R&D support for manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries; highlights the funding of R&D from companies' own resources and from the Federal Government; and introduces the new North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) now being used for industry R&D statistics." -- Higher Education--Degrees--Statistics Source: NSF Science and Engineering Degrees: 1966-98 -- Energy--Statistics--United States Source: EIA State Energy Data Report, 1999
Moving Images U.K. Based Gateways New Web Resource: The Moving Image Gateway From the British Universities Film & Video Council. The site, "collects together websites that relate to moving images and sound and their use in higher and further education...Each site has been evaluated and described by the BUFVC's Information Service, which will be regularly checking and updating the database. Sites are highlighted which have video or audio streaming." The Gateway also includes links to 5 databases (Avance, Television Index, TRILT, Newsreels, RGO). Web Search Engines New Search Referral Stats Now Available Source: StatMarket From the article, "MSN has quietly risen to become one of the top referring search sites on the Web. Among U.S. surfers, MSN is now the second-ranked search site behind Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) with 15.90 percent of all search referrals."
Competitive Intelligence CI Overview Source: eCompany Now/Fortune Small Business From the article, "Using entirely legal means of intelligence gathering, companies can unearth a great deal about competitors and their plans. In fact, the information is there for the taking, awaiting only some energetic sleuths able to devote the substantial amount of time it takes to collect and analyze it." CI guru Leonard Fuld is quoted throughout the article. Thanks to S.K. for the tip. Information Technology--Rankings and Lists Red Herring 100 Includes a profile for each company. Many private companies are listed. Housing--Statistics--United States Census 2000 Census 2000 Housing Unit Counts From the site, "The Census 2000 Housing Unit Counts are available for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and for the American Indian Areas Alaska Native Areas and Hawaiian Home Lands."
Web Search--Northern Light Web Search Science NL Teams Up With Search4Science From the news release, "Northern Light Technology, Inc. (www.NorthernLight.com) and Search4Science (www.search4science.com) have teamed up to launch an enhanced online search service focused on the specific needs of scientists worldwide. The Search4Science's patent pending technology, Dynamic Search, now presents search results using Northern Light's patented classification technology, Custom Search Folders(TM)...Over the last few months, the initial scientific database of synonyms has grown from 50,000 to more than 235,000, all the result of user input during searching. Search4Science expects that this evolutionary process will continue and that the quality of the user experience will continue to improve as users suggest relevant synonyms and limiting words." Thanks to K.A. for the tip. Direct to Search4Science.Com Tuesday, May 29, 2001
Web Search Industry "Web Search Technology Companies Seek Stable Revenues in Corporate Sector" Source: Traffick Web search and portal expert Andrew Goodman with a complete review.
Information Industry--Dialog Dialog Introduces Quantum2 From the Dialog site, "The Quantum2 program provides tools, training materials, professional development seminars, white papers on knowledge management and other key topics, and networking opportunities to information professionals. These materials will be made available through the Quantum2 web site, a series of workshops, and ongoing communication to members." The Quantum program started in 1993. Direct to the Quantum2 FAQ.\ Full-Text Document Shelf Internet Commerce--Statistics Federal Government--United States Dot-gov Goes Retail Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project From a Reuters storyabout the report, "Even as Internet retailers ail amid the dot-com meltdown, the U.S. government is doing brisk business over the Web, racking up more than $3.6 billion in online sales last year, a study released on Sunday found. That tops the $2.8 billion in net sales reported last year by Amazon.com, the online retailing giant. While Treasury bills, notes, and bonds accounted for the vast majority of the government's online sales, federal Web sites hawking horses, homes, toothpaste, and much more have been popping up, suggesting the Internet is shaking up the way the government conducts business. A four-month investigation, conducted by the publication Federal Computer Week and funded by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found that the government operates or supports at least 164 sites that sell to the public." Direct to Full-Text of Report Monday, May 28, 2001
Scholarly Publishing "Science World in Revolt at Power of the Journal Owners" From the article, "More than 800 British researchers have joined 22,000 others from 161 countries in a campaign to boycott publishers of scientific journals who refuse to make research papers freely available on the internet after six months."..."Science depends on knowledge and technology being in the public domain," said Michael Ashburner, professor of biology at Cambridge University and one of the leading British signatories of the campaign, the Public Library of Science (PLS). "In that sense, science belongs to the people, and the fruits of science shouldn't be owned or even transferred by publishers for huge profits. The fruits of our research - which is, overwhelmingly, publicly paid for - should be made available as widely and as economically as possible." Source: The Guardian Sunday, May 27, 2001
Hello From Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada! I am spending a few days in this wonderful, clean, safe, and beautiful city! Tomorrow, back to one of the USA's great cities, Seattle! Legal--Court of Appeals New Engine: U.S. Court of Appeals Search Engine The Cornell Legal Information Institute has added a new search resource to provide "full text search of the decisions of any or all of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals." Thanks to T.M. and his ILRW newsletter for the tip. Travel--Europe New Resource: ViaMichelin Maps, driving directions, hotel and restaurant info plus additional tools via this new online service from the Michelin Guide.
Education--Statistics--Michigan New Database: Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services From Detroit News article on the new database, "Thousands of pieces of data on every Michigan school district -- including spending, graduation rates and test scores -- were available online Friday with the debut of a new school evaluation system. The system, developed by the Wall Street bond-rating firm Standard & Poor's, is the first of its kind in the country. It provides up to 1,500 items of data for each district, and summaries of each district's strengths and weaknesses." Saturday, May 26, 2001
Full-Text Document Shelf Motor Vehicle--Safety--Seat Belts 1998 - 2000 State Shoulder Belt Use Survey Results Source:NHTSA News Release/Oveview ||| Direct To Full-Text
Public Records--Florida "Florida Putting Records Online" Source: FCW From the article, "Following passage of legislation last year mandating the system, the Florida Association of Court Clerks & Comptroller has signed a five-year development deal with NIC to develop online access to official records such as marriage and death certificates, deeds, mortgages, liens and other property records." Thanks to GT for the news tip.
Research Libraries Group--Newsletters RLG (Research Library Group) Debuts New Newsletter: ShelfLife From the site, "A weekly executive news summary for information professionals worldwide that provides context for RLG's major initiatives and celebrates the power of knowledge to grow, to live, and to last." Thursday, May 24, 2001
Genealogical Research--Online SuperSearcher Diane Kovacs To Teach FREE Online Workshop: Beginners Genealogical Research on the Internet OhioNet is sponsoring the workshop. From the site, "In this Web-based hands-on workshop, students will learn the basics of genealogical research within the context of using the Internet for genealogical research." The sessions begin on June 18, 2001.
Senior Citizens--United States New Database/Web Service: BenefitsCheckUp Source: Civic.Com From the article, "The National Council on the Aging Inc. is expected to announce a Web-based service today — BenefitsCheckUp — that older Americans can use to find federal and state assistance programs to which they are entitled. Millions of people have not been receiving benefits to which they may be entitled simply because they don’t know about them. Information has been difficult and time-consuming to track down. BenefitsCheckUp is designed to collect the information into a single, searchable database." Wednesday, May 23, 2001
Digitization Projects More On the The Washington Post Project from UMI A few days ago (5/18/00) we mentioned this impressive project soon to get underway. Here are a few more details.
Information Quality--Health "Study: Health Info on the Web Often Incomplete" Source: CNN From the article, "Health information on Internet sites can be hard to find and it's often incomplete, according to a panel of doctors who surveyed information on 25 Web sites..."Health information on the Internet is inefficient, incomplete and incomprehensible to many Americans," said Sam Karp, a spokesman for the California HealthCare Foundation, a private group that funded the study, which is being published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association." Direct to the Full-Text of the JAMA Article Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items) Automobile Safety Update: New Rollover Ratings Available from NHTSA Source: NHTSA -- Mobile Phones Research and Regulatory Efforts on Mobile Phone Health Issues. GAO-01-545 Source: GAO See also: CNN: "More Study on Cell Phone Health Effects Urged" ---- Computer Crime--Cyber Attacks Critical Infrastructure Protection: Significant Challenges in Developing National Capabilities. GAO-01-323 Source: GAO See Also: Computerworld: "NIPC Late on Cyberattack Alerts, Lacks Expertise" Tuesday, May 22, 2001
Digital Reference Collaborative Digital Reference Service "Libraries Offer Online Reference Services to One Another" Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education From the article, "A brainchild of the Library of Congress, the service was conceived by librarians as an intellectually richer alternative to a quick-hit Web search, according to Diane Nester Kresh, director of public-service collections there. "We want to be offering an alternative to AskJeeves," she says." Direct to the CDRS Site
Web Tools--Calendars Web Site Preparation Cool Resource: OCLC's NetFirst NetCalendar Here's one to share with colleagues. Is it a calendar? Is it a web directory? How about both? This wonderful FREE RESOURCE provides you with quality sites that offer information related to upcoming special events (birthdays, historical anniversaries, etc.) The weekly update gives you plenty of lead time since it highlights events about 3 months in the future. Each listing contains links to three web-based resources as well as a bit of background on the person, country, event, etc. Highlights from 5/14/01 Issue *Raoul Wallenberg: Birth Anniversary (8/5/1912) *Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima: Anniversary (8/6/1945) *Voting Rights Act of 1965 Signed: Anniversary (8/6/1965) *Nixon Resigns: Anniversary (8/9/1974) State Libraries--Washington Source: Civic.Com "Washington Workers Get E-Books" From the article, "Through a deal with netLibrary Inc., the Washington State Library (www.statelib.wa.gov) offers more than 600 titles, most of them technical books and manuals. The books reside on netLibrary servers, and state employees can "sign out" books one at a time through netLibrary’s system after they’ve set up an account as a registered user." Web Search--Google "Monika Henzinger: The Sage of Search" Source: TheStandard.Com "Not only are Henzinger and her team of 10 scientists dedicated to keeping the engine running smoothly, but also they're in charge of adding new features such as translation, dictionary links, maps and white pages. Henzinger's team is responsible for making Google run on wireless devices and, with voice recognition, on cell phones as well." Full-Text Document Shelf (5 Items) Individual Wealth--Worldwide "World Wealth Report 2001" Source: Merrill Lynch, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Direct to Full-Text Document -- Tax Rates Historical Effective Tax Rates (1979-1997) Source: Congressional Budget Office -- Minority-Owned Business Ownership--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census Asian and Pacific Islander-Owned Businesses Summary/News Release ||| Direct to Full-Text -- American Indian and Alaska Native-Owned Businesses Summary/News Release ||| Direct to Full-Text Document -- Energy--Maps--U.S. East North Central Energy Market Map Source: EIA From the site, "shows the geographic locations of key energy sites in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin as of the year 2000. Natural gas pipeline flow, the Chicago market center, electric power plants and transmission lines, oil ports, refineries, and other sites are included." Canada Resource Shelf (2 Items) Economic Update Canada Economic Update Source: Dept. of Finance ---- Rural Services Pocket Directory of Rural Programs and Services Source: Canadian Rural Partnership Public Libraries "Owning the Future: Looting the Library" Source: Technology Review From the article, "As we plunge into the digital realm, the nation's 16,000 public libraries are striving to uphold their tradition as protectors of public access to new books and articles. But publishers, in an increasingly bald, frontal assault on the library's mission, have something very different in mind: a pay-per-use model for information content that will largely shut libraries out." Monday, May 21, 2001
Library Jobs--Worldwide Need a Job? FreePint Launches Job Database Will Hann and the rest of the FreePint team have launched a new service FREE! where openings for "information-related" jobs from around the world can be located. If you have a position to fill, posting it to the database is also FREE. American Memory Project New Collections from American Memory Project at the Library of Congress The Emergence of Advertising in America From Duke University Library The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis From Northwestern University Library These resources are part of the Ameritech Collection. Public Records Research Tyburski Answers The Question: How To Find Vehicle Ownership With Only a License Plate Number GT also provides answers to numerous other questions via the "How To...Do It With Research" portion of The Virtual Chase. Web Resource Newsletters The Scout Report To Cease "Subject-Specific" Reports The GOOD NEWS is that The Scout Report will continue!!! From the site, "The Internet Scout Project is sad to announce that we will be discontinuing publication of our subject-specific reports as we have been unable to secure funding for them. The last issue of the Scout Report for Social Sciences & Humanities will be May 29, the last Scout Report for Business & Economics will be May 31, and the last issue of the Scout Report for Science & Engineering will be June 20. Thanks to TC for the tip. Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items) Software Piracy--Worldwide Lists and Rankings Source: Business Software Alliance Direct To Summary & List (Top 10 Countries by Piracy Rate) ||| Direct To Full-Text of Survey See Also: Related Story via The Register ---- UNESCO "UNESCO Books Now Free-Of-Charge Online" From the news release: "Digital versions of UNESCO publications are now free-of-charge available on UNESCO's website at http://upo.unesco.org/booksonline.asp. The titles, recently published also on paper under UNESCO's imprint, are in their electronic version (PDF) free for downloading for a period of time, so as to allow wider use and further dissemination of UNESCO material. UNESCO also offers access to e-books, which are solely-digital, specially conceived for online use, with no printed counterpart." Direct to Publication List ---- Higher Education--Finance ERIC Digest: "Why Do Students Borrow So Much? Recent National Trends in Student Loan Debt" Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education Info Industry--Dialog--United States Public Training Sessions in U.S. Now Free To Dialog Customers See Page 12 of the May Chronolog For Details. Weather--Hurricanes New Web Page: Hurricane Season 2001--Resources Source: NOAA This is also Hurricane Awareness Week here in the U.S. Web Search--WebTop WebTop CEO Is Out After Six Months From the Story, "WebTop CEO Andy Mitchell is out of a job after just six months, following a recent move by parent company Bright Station to absorb the WebTop search operations into SmartLogik, Bright Station’s knowledge management subsidiary." Sunday, May 20, 2001
www.blLists and Rankings Lobbying--United States Washington Power 25--Top Lobbying Groups Source: Fortune B2B--Statistics Internet--Business Various Statistics and Charts Source: Forbes (Best of the Web) Selected Topics: Alliance Heavyweights 20 Most Visited B2B Sites: Past and Present
CrossRef Digital Object Identifier--Reference Linking "CrossRef Turns One" From the article, "Since its inception, CrossRef has grown to include 70 leading journal publishers, both commercial and nonprofit, with over three million deposited records from 3,875 journals [4]. We are on track to add between 500,000 and one million new records per year. At present, the DOI Handle System resolves roughly 400,000 CrossRef DOI clicks per month. Hence, CrossRef has already transformed the experience of many scholars using electronic journals, by allowing them to go reliably from a citation in a given article to the full text of the cited material at another publisher's website. Source: D-Lib Direct to the CrossRef Site (Includes Examples) Digitization of Materials "Limitations and Pitfalls of Digitisation" Source: Conference Presentation by Colin Webb, National Library of Australia
Web Search--FirstGov.Gov "FirstGov to Add State Links" Source: FCW From the article, "FirstGov, the Internet portal that provides access to all federal government Web pages, plans to add links to most state Web pages beginning this week. To accommodate the addition, FirstGov will change in appearance somewhat and add a state field to its search engine, said Beverly Godwin, FirstGov’s content director. Including state Web pages will increase FirstGov’s Web page index from 31 million federal pages to more than 50 million federal and state pages..." Let's hope that the search capability and retrieval algorithm improve with the addition of these 19 million pages. Saturday, May 19, 2001
Web Search--Usenet Google: Posting Direct To Usenet Now Possible Source: The Register From the article, "As from yesterday, users have the ability to post to Usenet groups. Google requires posters to have a valid email address, so "andrew@no-spam-we're-British-dot-theregister-dot-co-dot-uk" won't cut it. Users are encouraged to employ an anonymous account instead, and helpfully provides a list." Direct to Google Groups (Usenet) Library Industry--Automation SIRSI Acquires DRA Source: LJ From the article, "The privately held SIRSI Holdings Corp. announced May 17 that it will buy Data Research Associates (DRA) for $11.00 per share in cash, or about $51.5 million. By acquiring DRA, SIRSI effectively doubles its customer base. The combined company would be the No. 2 vendor in the library automation industry, based on number of installed systems." Friday, May 18, 2001
Digital Library Projects--Directory A Great Directory of DL Projects and Resources Kudos and more kudos to the British Columbia Community Networks Association for compiling and maintaing the great directory. This resource contains listings to projects from around the world. Sites can be viewed by title, institution, and subject. Additionally, links to DL contruction tools and a DL bibliography are also available. Digitization Projects--Newspapers The Washington Post: Digitization of Historic Archive To Begin Soon Jennifer Belton the Manager of the Historic News Archives at The Post tells us the project will include material from 1877-1999. Bell and Howell Information Systems will do the digitizing with material "rolling out" over the next two years. Advertisements, obits as well as the full-text stories will be searchable and displayable. Web Resources--FreeERISA Trusts Invisible Web FreeERISA Adds New Database A recently received e-mail alerts us to a new database of Common or Collective Trusts info. From the e-mail, "The database provides summary information on plan sponsors who participate in Common or Collective Trusts managed by banks, trust companies and other investment entities. Click on Find Plan Data Now. Upon selecting a financial services company, you can view the plan name, date filed, and plan sponsor for available Common or Collective Trusts. You also can sort results by plan name, sponsor and date filed." The Web World Forrester Research: "The Death Of The Web Is Inevitable" From the news release, "The problem with today's Internet is that it's dumb, boring, and isolated," said George F. Colony, CEO and chairman of Forrester. "News, sports, and weather imparted on static Web pages offer essentially the same content presented on paper, which makes the online experience more like reading in a dusty library than participating in a new medium. Now that the novelty has faded, business executives and consumers are going back to reading newspapers and watching TV. Ultimately, the Net hasn't truly become a part of our real worlds. Forrester defines two new waves of innovation, the X Internet and the executable Net. Don't get me wrong things are and will continue to change. It's exciting. However, while it has plenty of problems with plenty of room for improvement, the web as we know it today, the research web, is still an amazing resource to access information. But, it's only one of many resources, it's not the answer. For many the finding, identifying, and accessing the "boring" or non-boring (see quote below) is the problem. As you know, much of the exciting and dynamic data already online cannot be easily if not entirely not accessed via the search interfaces most people use. More via this article from The Register
Information Industry--Encyclopaedia Britannica A Great Reference Tool, Why The Problems? Source: InternetContent.Net Thanks To GT for the tip. Electronic Journal Archives "Harvard University Library and Key Publishers Join Forces for Electronic Journal Archive" From the news release, "The Harvard University Library and three major publishers of scholarly journals --Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and the University of Chicago Press--have agreed to work together on a plan to develop an experimental archive for electronic journals. The preservation and the archiving of electronic journals--which are increasingly "born digital" and for which, in many cases, no paper copies exist--present unique, long-term challenges to librarians, publishers, and, ultimately, to the scholars and researchers who will seek to access to them over time. The new joint venture is sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which recently made a $145,000 grant to the Harvard University Library specifically for the planning of an electronic journal archive." Football Teams--NFL Financial Statements Rankings and Lists Revenues and Expenses of NFL Teams, Related Numbers A court case involving the Oakland Raiders has brought some previously unavailable material on the public record. In addition to the article from the LA Times, you can find a .pdf of NFL Team Financial Statements and a chart of team profits and various financial rankings. Thursday, May 17, 2001
Info Industry--Factiva Factiva Will License It's Taxonomy (Free for Factiva Customers) To Tag Internal/Intranet Documents Using a controlled vocab can help by improving search precision! From the release, "Factiva Intelligent Indexing offers nearly 1,500 Subject Codes to classify industries, geographic regions and news topics, which Factiva customers can license free of charge. Additionally, Factiva provides a comprehensive list of approximately 50,000 public and 250,000 private Company Codes, which are available for an annual fee. The Factiva Intelligent Indexing Company Codes are constantly maintained to reflect the changing landscape of mergers, acquisitions and newly formed companies."
Canadian Resource Shelf (4 Items) Enviroment--Overview "Tracking Key Environmental Issues" Source: Environment Canada From the update, "...an overview of the key environmental challenges facing Canada and the measures to address them." ---- Work Experience Programs--Searchable Database Work Experience Programs Source:Government of Candada ---- Aerospace/Defense Industry--Statistics 1999/2000 Aerospace and Defence Survey Source: Industry Canada ---- Election Results Poll-by-Poll Result Files, 1997 and 2000 General Elections Source: Elections Canada The link points to raw data files that can be imported into spreadsheet or database programs.
Nicholson Baker Watch Chat Transcript Here is the transcript of NB's session hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education Full-Text Document Shelf (4 Items) State Level Demographic Profiles from Census 2000 Now Online You'll want to bookmark this page as new profiles come online in the next few days. ---- Justice--Statistics--United States New/Updated Resources from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Drug and Crime Facts (Site Update) From the site, "...updated with information from 20 statistical publications issued since the last update in June 2000. This site summarizes U.S. statistics about drug-related crimes, law enforcement, courts, and corrections from BJS and non-BJS sources." -- Police--Statistics Local Police Departments, 1999 -- Sheriffs--Statistics Sheriffs' Offices, 1999 Legal Research--Tax--U.S. Docket Sheets For Most U.S. Tax Court Cases Since 1986 Coming Soon To The Web Source: AccountingWEB
Library Technology Update The New Issue of Biblio-Tech Review is Online Highlights: *Ex-Libris To Power Next Generation Melvyl *SIRSI Gets First Public Library in U.K. *New Endeavor Installations In Australia Public Libraries--Internet Filtering "Libraries Win Delay in Installing Internet Filters" Source: AP From the article, "Public libraries will have until July 2002 to certify that they have adopted Internet filtering technologies required by a new federal law, under terms of an agreement reached in federal court. The agreement came during a hearing on the twin lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Library Association challenging portions of the Children's Internet Protection Act."
Professional Reading--Internet Collection Development The just released Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, an e-journal, has a series of articles on Internet Collection Development. These articles focus primarily on fee-based tools that are accessed using the Web as transport vehicle. It's also important that we begin to consider some of these and other collection development and acqusition concepts for materials that are available on the "open internet". In many cases if we can acquire, develop collections, and learn the resources these sites offer, like we have "traditionally" done (online, print, etc.) this material (often free) "on the web" will become even an even more useful resource to answer questions in a timely manner. I realize this is easier said than done but it's something that we should strive to do. At the same time we need to continue considering the specific resources a complete site can offer in addition to looking at a site as one specific entity. Many times some of the most useful material is buried deep within a site. Selected Articles for Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship(Spring 2001) Collection Development in the Internet Age: An Introduction by David Flaxbart, Editorial Board, Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship -- Selecting Electronic Publications: The Development of a Genre Statement by Lila A. Faulkner and Karla L. Hahn, University of Maryland -- Developing an Online Science Journal Collection: A Quick Tool for Assigning Priorities by Anne Christie and Laurel Kristick, Oregon State University -- E-Journal Bundling and Its Impact on Academic Libraries: Some Early Results by Jonathan Nabe, Brandeis University -- Aggregated Science: An Examination of Three Multi-Disciplinary Databases by J.B. Hill, Southeastern Louisiana University -- Managing Access to a Publisher Package: IEE, IEL, and Xplore by John Matylonek, Oregon State University and Denise Bennett, University of Florida -- Collection Management Strategies in a Digital Environment by Cecily Johns, University of California, Santa Barbara Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Humanities National Library of Canada Places Seven New Sites Online The resources are part of the NLC Digital Library Program. Highlights: For music enthusiasts, Sheet Music from Canada’s Past (www.nlc-bnc.ca/sheetmusic/) showcases Canadian printed music published between 1800 and 1920. A new phase of The Virtual Gramophone (www2.nlc-bnc.ca/gramophone) has added World War I-era recordings to this rich site documenting the first decades of Canadian recorded music. -- Images in the News: Canadian Illustrated News 1869-1883 (www.nlc-bnc.ca/cin) provides a searchable database of over 4000 images drawn from that magazine, illustrating the people, places and events that shaped Canada during that period. This collection of images is also included in ImagesCanada (imagescanada.ca), a new collaborative site hosted by the National Library that provides access to 65 000 Canadian images covering everything from cowboys to kayaks. -- Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill (www.nlc-bnc.ca/moodie-traill), developed in collaboration with the National Archives of Canada, documents the life and writings of these sisters, who were two of Canada’s most notable early literary figures. The site draws upon original materials from manuscript collections held by the National Archives and the National Library. -- Guardians of the North (www.nlc-bnc.ca/superheroes) bring popular culture to life as it explores the Canadian superhero in comic books published from 1940 to the present. -- First among Equals: The Prime Minister in Canadian Life and Politics (www.nlc-bnc.ca/primeministers) and its accompanying site adapted for a Grade 4-6 level audience (www.nlc-bnc.ca/primeministers/kids) focus on Canadian prime ministers. This site introduces the private lives and political careers of all Canadian prime ministers since Confederation, and is enhanced with online games and resources for teachers. -- Page by Page: Creating a Children’s Book (www.nlc-bnc.ca/pagebypage), one of a number of sites have been designed with younger users in mind, describes the production of a children’s book from concept, through sketches and draft narratives, to final proofs. Zoom Upstream, by Tim Wynne-Jones and Eric Beddows, is currently featured, and Ginette Anfousse’s École will be added soon. Business--E-Commerce--Retail--Statistics Retail E-Commerce Sales, 1st Quarter, 2001 Source: U.S. Census/ESA
Archival Issues The Paperless World Source: FCW "Facing the Pitfalls of Going Paperless" From the article, "For those who labor in the field of document preservation, dealing with electronic documents is fraught with difficulties. For example, there is the problem of the proliferation of formats, said [John] Brinkema, who is developing an electronic archive for the U.S. Courts. Besides multiple formats for documents, there are multiple versions of most formats, and a given format is not always compatible with the versions that came before or after it, he said."
A Few Notes About U.K. Resources (2 Items) Design--Searchable Database Image Databases Design Council Slide Collection From a recently received e-mail message, "The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) is delighted to announce that the Design Council Slide Collection is now searchable on-line via the VADS website. The Design Council Slide Collection contains nearly 3000 fully catalogued images covering a wide range of subjects including tableware, furniture, lighting, toys, domestic appliances, textiles, wallpapers, office equipment, engineering components and machinery. Other areas of design such as architecture, town planning, interior design, graphic design and corporate identity are also included. The addition of this resource to the collections already on-line means that VADS now provides more than 6000 images and records covering many areas of late 20th century design, for use in research, learning and teaching. The collection was digitised as part of the JISC Image Digitisation Initiative (JIDI)." ---- Legal Research More About the Resource Discovery Network Source: LLRX.com A couple of days ago we noted some excellent training resources from the RDN. This just published article from LLRX.com by Steven White discusses using the RDN as a tool for legal research. Tuesday, May 15, 2001
The Web World Internet Domains Registration Opens Soon for .Biz and .Info Domains From the press release, "Dot-info will be an unrestricted TLD [top-level domain], open to any business or person to register for any purpose. Dot-biz will be a restricted TLD open only for commercial or business purposes and .biz names are not intended for exclusively personal or non-commercial purposes."
Web Search--New Technologies P2P Invisible Web "FedStats Experimenting with P2P" Source: Civic.Com Learn about the work and controversy at FedStats.Net. From the article, "Fourteen principal agencies are involved in FedStats.net, which uses Extensible Markup Language and P2P technology, and the task force is a partner in nine grants from the NSF’s Digital Government program."
Full-Text Document Shelf (6 Items) Campaign Finance--United States Congressional Financial Activity for 2000 Political Party Fundraising 2000 Both news releases contain many links to tables in both HTML and spreadsheet formats. ---- Demographics--United States Profile of General Demographic Characteristics for the U.S.-2000 Source: U.S. Census Direct to Highlights and News Release||| Direct to Full-Text Document ---- Manufacturing--United States Source: BLS Productivity and Costs: Manufacturing: 1990-1999 ---- Energy--New York City "New York City's Summer 2001 Electricity Situation" Source: EIA This site is contains statistics, a history and overview the problem, and links to additional resources. ---- On a Related Note: Gasoline Prices--United States "Gasoline Prices: What is Happening?" Source: EIA A set of slides used at a recent presentation by EIA staff.
Kudos and Congratulations Libraries of the Future ALA/Information Today Library of the Future Award Winner Announced Congrats and kudos to the staff of the The Richland College Library in Dallas. From the news release, "The library's program, Richland College Library Accessibility Initiative, is a proactive, multidimensional information literacy training. The initiative was designed and deployed to ensure that students, faculty, staff, administrators and members of the community have an understanding of information technology." You can visit the Richland College Library web site here. Monday, May 14, 2001
Fee-Based Resources Trade Data--European Union New Resource: EuroTrade Online From the site, "STAT-USA announces the opening of its new subscription service, EuroTrade Online, a valuable, up-to-date source of trade data for the 15 member nations of the European Union. The new service is a direct complement to the USA Trade Online service." Science--Online Exhibits Materials from Nobel Winning Scientist, Marshall Nirenberg, Added to Profiles in Science Project From the news release, "The online Profiles in Science exhibit features correspondence, laboratory notes, unpublished manuscripts, photographs, and reflects the many research projects Dr. Nirenberg has undertaken during the more than 40 years he has been associated with the NIH. Visitors to the Marshall Nirenberg site can view, for example, the original notes that Nirenberg delivered at a historic Moscow conference in 1961. Visitors can also see photographs of Nirenberg during his work on the genetic code. The online collection, however, is only a small sampling of the full scope of the Marshall Nirenberg Papers, the vast bulk of which have yet to be fully processed."
Information Industry--LexisNexis Forget the Hyphen, LexisNexis Unifies Brands With New Name, Icon From the news release, "...Reed Elsevier’s legal division today announced the launch of LexisNexis™ as a masterbrand encompassing its worldwide legal operations and products. Effective immediately, LexisNexis represents the Reed Elsevier plc legal and information operations in 21 countries and all of its legal and information products marketed worldwide." The company will now consist of four core groups. Also, a new LN was announced (this is sure a busy period for new icons/logos) and is called the Knowledge Burst. You can get a look at it via this link.
Web Searching ProFusion Now Out of Beta We will have more to say about Profusion after we more time with it. From the press release, "Intelliseek™ today announced the public release of the Web's largest search site, ProFusion.com™ (http://www.profusion.com). The new ProFusion.com, which showcases Intelliseek's enterprise intelligence technology, provides direct access to 1,000+ targeted sources of information and searches through more than fifty times as much information as the average search engine." Direct to What's New With ProFusion Direct to ProFusion
Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items) Environment--Air Pollution The State of the Air 2001 This report contains plenty of charts and graphs as well as a clickable map of conditions by State. Source: American Lung Association -- Manufacturing--United States Manufacturers' Shipment Inventories and Orders: 1992-2000 Source: U.S. Census ---- Source:U.S. Census Economic Census--1997 Information Sector From the document, "The Information Sector (sector 51) of the 1997 Economic Census comprises establishements engaged in the following processes: (a) producing and distributing information and cultural products, (b) producing the means to transmit or distribute these products as well as data or communications, and, (c) processing data.
WOW! Internet Training Materials RDN (Resource Discovery Network) Virtual Training Suite This important U.K. organization has made over 40 subject based tutorials available. How the site describes itself, "The Virtual Training Suite is a set of online tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information skills. The tutorials offer self-directed learning, take around an hour each to complete, and include quizzes and interactive exercises to lighten the learning experience."
Academic Libraries Electronic Books "Companies Find Academic Libraries a Key Target and a Tough Sell" Source: Chronicle of Higher Education From the article, "Want to get a rise out of your favorite librarian? Suggest that the college use some of its acquisitions budget to buy e-books from netLibrary. Or propose that the administration use library funds to buy students and faculty members subscriptions to Questia."
ERIC--Guides ERIC: User's Guide For Librarians A new User's Guide aimed at the librarian audience. From the site, "The ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education (ERIC/HE) has created a new Web page with links to ERIC information and resources of special interest to librarians. This page includes the ERIC system's policies and major rules for materials selection, indexing, and abstracting; ERIC/HE tutorials; a list of the journals indexed by ERIC/HE, along with their status as refereed or nonrefereed; and ERIC descriptors frequently used for indexing the higher education literature."
Future Search Learn All About grub.Org Is this a solution for the "time lag" that's part of all general web search engines? Only time will tell. Make sure to share this with your techie friends. Direct from the site, "grub.org is a company with a single purpose - to provide a radical solution to the problem of outdated links and incomplete searches provided by search engines today. grub.org's massive distributed network will build, and maintain in real-time, the most comprehensive index of the Internet ever compiled. The size of the grub.org database will exceed the size of any other index on the Internet today, and, at the same time, will be the most up-to-date...This database is accessed by search engine related companies via a XML feed - allowing them to target crawl sites that have recently changed and update them in their index on a continuous basis. In addition, Grub will provide update feeds to individuals, schools and other Open Source software projects as a complimentary service." See Also: Push Indexing from 360.Com Sunday, May 13, 2001
Business--Rankings S.F. Bay Area Top Companies The Chronicle 500-2001 is Now Available Several Lists and Charts. Profiles for Companies are Also Available. Professional Reading Online Databases via the Web "Playing Twenty Questions to Test Source: Searcher (May, 2001) Nicholas Tomaiuolo plays 20 Questions with FindArticles.Com, Contentville, Northern Light Special Collection, XanEdu, Ebsco Academic Search Elite, and Gale Group's InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP. Saturday, May 12, 2001
Business--Rankings The Forbes/Milken Institute Best Places for Business and Career-2001 Source: Forbes From the site, "...ranks 200 metros based on growth in jobs and earned income, plus a measure of activity in critical technologies that foster future growth." Some material requires registration (free). The web site contains a list of 94 smaller metro areas that is not available in the print version of the story. Election 2001--United Kingdom A Selection of Election Resources From Major U.K. Media Outlets BBC--Vote 2001 Financial Times--U.K. Election 2001 The Guardian--Election 2001 The Independent--Election 2001 The Scotsman--General Election 2001 The Telegraph--Election 2001 The Times--Election 2001 Friday, May 11, 2001
Census 2000 Free E-Mail Tutorial The Alaska Library Association is offering a free e-mail tutorial on the 2000 Census. From a recent e-mail posting, "Modeled after ALA's successful e-mail tutorial on copyright, this nine week, once-a-week tutorial will unravel many of the mysteries of Census 2000." The e-mail also highlights tutorial topics: *Learn all about the new 63 racial categories and how they might cause confusion at the reference desk! *Learn what questions/topics can be answered using Census data. *Navigate through the wide world of census Geography. *Discover when all of this great data is coming out -- some of our favorite reports won't be out till 2003! *See where and how to get Census information. It will be available on and offline, and from the State as well as Washington, DC. *Find where to get help when we've exhausted our own resources! This tutorial will be presented by Daniel Cornwall, Government Publications Librarian at the Alaska State Library, which is a coordinating agency of the Alaska Census & Geographic Information Network. Registration Information: There is NO COST to receive this information. If you would like to join the Documents Roundtable for this once-a-week Census tutorial, please send an e-mail to dan_cornwall@eed.state.ak.us before Monday, May 21st. The tutorial will start Tuesday, May 22nd.
Airports--Statistics--United States Airline Industry--Statistics--United States Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics Airport Activity Statistics of Certificated Air Carriers: Summary Tables From the site, "...presents summary data for all scheduled and nonscheduled service by large certificated U.S. air carriers for each airport served during the 12 months ending December 31, 1999." Energy Crisis--California Source: EIA "Subsequent Events--California's Energy Crisis" From the site, "The energy crisis in California has received national media coverage over the past year. Because the problems are complex and the crisis is ongoing, it may be difficult to keep up with the situation. This paper presents a summary of California's energy problems, and the activities taken by industry leaders to resolve the crisis."
International Business Research The STAT-USA/Internet Companion to International Business Free access for STAT-USA subscribers, available in print May 16th for non-subscribers. From the site, "The Companion provides instruction on how to use the information contained in our database for analytical purposes. It then goes one step further by providing exercises to help you transform this information into knowledge which you can use." The Nicholson Baker Scene The Chronicle of Higher Education With A New Q&A With NB & Participate in an Online Discussion with Baker on May 15th --- More NB: An Interview with the Atlantic Monthly Thursday, May 10, 2001
Database of the Day--Invisible Web Salary Data--U.S. and International SalaryExpert.Com Information provided by Baker, Thomsen Associates. Select job title (several hundred) and limit by zip code or state. Plenty of additional salary resources. An online International Version is also available. WOW, Even Better! Download the Full Version (free) that contains data for Over 32,000 Job Titles. Info for both U.S. and International locations. You can also download PDA and/or International Only versions. Web Based Research Tools--Questia Layoffs At Questia Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education Canada Resource Shelf (2 Items) Retail New Web Site: RetailInteractive.Ca From the site, "Retail Council of Canada and Industry Canada have partnered to develop and publish retailinteractive.ca, a pipeline to practical, hands-on business information, resources and tools designed especially for Canada's retailers. Used properly, this site can give retailers the competitive edge they need to run their operations more effectively and profitably." ---- Electricity Industry Canadian Electricity Trends and Issues Source: National Energy Board News Release and Summary ||| Full-Text Document Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items) Census Brief: The Hispanic Population Source: U.S. Census Full-Text of Document ||| News Release and Highlights ---- Housing--United States Source: U.S. Census American Housing Brief Our Homes, Our Neighborhoods ||| Out of Order Wednesday, May 09, 2001
Online Databases--Dialog Database Catalogs and Guides--Dialog Just Online From Dialog, Worldwide Database Catalog 2001 and Updated Dialog Pocket Guide Now Available
Education--Statistics Internet Usage--Statistics Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2000 From the site, "This Statistics in Brief presents data on Internet access in U.S. public schools from 1994 to 2000 by school characteristics. It provides trend analysis on the progress of public schools and classrooms in connecting to the Internet, the ratio of students to instructional computers and to instructional computers with Internet access, and the types of Internet connections used. It also provides, for the year 2000, information on student access to the Internet outside of regular school hours and on schools' acceptable-use policies." Climate--United States--Fast Facts Comparative Climatic Data - Review From the site, "he Climate Watch page this month highlights the NCDC product, "Comparative Climatic Data". The publication contains climate tables which allow users to compare and contrast monthly average conditions for over 270 cities in the U.S. Are you trying to find what the monthly average precipitation is for Fargo, N.D. ? Or How many days does the maximum temperature usually rise above 90 degrees in New Your City ? These and other questions can be answered using these tables which are accessible without charge."
From the Interesting Fact File Learn The History of the @ Symbol Source: The Industry Standard From the article, The man who first put the @ sign into the structure of e-mail addresses was Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer who in 1971 performed what he calls "a quick hack" and sent the first electronic message - to himself. Why did he pick the sign? "I scanned the keyboard for a sign that wouldn't appear on anyone's name, and couldn't therefore create any confusion."
Digital Information--Opinion A Must Read! "Assault on Paper, or Assault on Librarians? Barbara Quint Takes On Nicholson Baker" Source: InfoToday Newsbreaks ---- "Can Digital Media Match The Longevity Of Plain Old Print?" Source: SF Gate Information Industry "Lexis-Nexis and West Battle Online" Source: AmLaw Tech
Economic Data--Fee Based New Data Section Launches on Economy.com! Now you can get the data you need, in the format you want, for a price you can pay, when it will help you most - now! You can now access over 30,000,000 economic and financial time series on a pay-per-download basis at the research store on Economy.com. Previously only available by annual subscription, our full historical databases are now available by individual time series. Complemented by the free data available at FreeLunch.com, our new data section includes U.S. national, state, regional, county, metropolitan area, and zip code data, as well as international coverage for Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia. Sources include the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve, OECD, UNIDO, EuroStat, and the U.S Bureau of Census. The depth and breadth of data available make the Economy.com database one of the largest, publicly available economic databases on the web. See Also: Economagic.Com Monday, May 07, 2001
Information Visualization The Brain Alpha Test Seeks Participants Sign-Up to Become an Alpha Test Partcipant on the New PersonalBrain Software. Learn More About TheBrain Listen to an Interview With the CEO Information Visualization More On WebMap Source: MIT Technology Review From the article, "Web browsers have changed little since the first versions of Mosaic came out of the University of Illinois, way back in 1993. To put a visual face on the job, a company called WebMap Technologies has developed a new way of browsing that provides a sense of location on the Web." Companies Mentioned: WebMap Inxight Software Thinkmap TheBrain Microsoft Task Gallery project
New Reading Material SearchDay Newsletter Congrats and kudos to our friend, colleague, and co-author, Chris Sherman, on the launch of his new newsletter. You can subscribe (free) for daily e-mail delivery or read the newsletter on the SearchDay website.
Web Search: Business "Jeeves Hitches a Ride" Source: The Industry Standard "Like other troubled companies struggling to reinvent themselves, search engine Ask Jeeves now imagines itself a technology provider to corporate America." Full-Text Document Shelf (2 Items) Transportation--Traffic--United States Traffic--Statistics 2001 Urban Mobility Report From the site which includes several summaries and other materials. "The mobility provided by the nation's transportation system is the subject of discussion everyday. The 2001 Urban Mobility Report provides data on the performance of some elements of the transportation system in 68 urban areas..." Direct to "Mobility in Your City" Internal Revenue Service IRS Telephone Assistance: Quality of Service Mixed in the 2000 Filing Season and Below IRS' Long-Term Goal Source: GAO
Material From ERIC 2 Items of Interest Counseling and Student Services "Virtual Library Reading Room" From the site, "The ERIC Clearinghouse for Counseling and Student Services has updated the design and user interface of its Virtual Library. The Virtual Library is an online collection of full-text materials about career development, cybercounseling, substance abuse, student achievement, school violence, juvenile boot camps, conflict resolution, cultural diversity, depression and suicide, bullying in schools, and youth gangs." ---- American With Disabilities Act An Overview of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504: Update 2001 An ERIC Digest gets an update.
Digitization of Archives National Archives "Primary Sources of the Nations' History Online" From the article, "Although more and more National Archives worldwide are connected to the Internet, at least through e-mail and in some cases through institutional websites, the publication of archival content is less frequent. UNESCO is now examining the feasibility of an international programme for helping Member States to make key documents of their history, which are usually kept by National Archives, online available." Saturday, May 05, 2001
Useful Web Compilations Weather Information WXUSA & Weatherhub Select a location via the map or pull down menu and then choose the desired location. Here you will find both a "Detailed Forecast" and "Weather Links" to numerous local weather tools from authoritative sources. WXUSA covers the USA (1500 Cities) while Weatherhub contains links to locations from around the world.
Environment--Ozone New Web Site: NOAA Debuts Ozone Info Web Resource Take Special Note of the "Data" Section of the site. Direct to the Page Friday, May 04, 2001
Future Search Tools "Speedier, Smarter, More Selective Searches" Source: e.biz (Business Week) This article is focuses on the e-commerce end of things but still proves interesting and informative. Mentions: JoeAnt.Com (A Soon To Launch Directory) Purple Yogi Ankiro Interesting Reading A Series of Articles From IT-Director.Com "From Taxonomy to the Semantic Web" "Taxonomy: Creating Knowledge from Chaos" "The Missing Links-The Navigation Alternatives" From the article, "The story so far is that search engines, although useful in many circumstances are imperfect: a) They do not map the whole web b) A good percentage of the links they present you with are out of date, or broken or not useful because the search words you used didn’t get you wanted. c) Some skew from placement by advertising. Lost in Cyberspace Australian Resource Shelf (1 Item) Venture Capital Venture Capital Survey From the site, "Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has undertaken its first-ever survey of venture capital activity, with the encouragement and assistance of Department of Industry, Science and Resources and other Commonwealth agencies." Thursday, May 03, 2001
The Packaging of Information XanEdu to Package Online Resources With Wiley Textbooks An interesting synergy. Set to offer coursepacks supplements to economics and business texts. Additionally, from the news release, "Instructors and students will be able to seamlessly link from a text problem or case to a very recent discussion of a company's earnings or an announcement of a new product release through the Wiley website via XanEdu's search engine..." XanEdu is a division of Bell and Howell. One thing that comes to mind, how much of the info on XanEdu is already available to students (no need to purchase the textbook), and faculty using databases already available via the university library?
You May Have Missed News Alerts--American City Business Journals Search Watch from Bizjournals.Com Though far from perfect, the price is right (free) and the service may help you catch a company mention or interesting story from 40 local business newspapers. Results are delivered on Monday via e-mail. 1) Register (Free) 2) Construct Your Search Watch Query 3) No Boolean Allowed. But + and - signs are accepted. Select the Markets You Want Watched. 4) Remember, This Service Notifys You of Material Posted to the Website, Not the Full-Text of the Printed Editions. Professional Reading "Smashing the Silos: Towards Convergence in Information Management and Resource Discovery" by: Warwick Cathro Assistant Director-General, Information Technology, National Library of Australia From the paper, "To meet the needs of our users, we must address the issue of convergence. At its basic level, convergence is about providing users with the power to search across categories of information resource that have traditionally been separated." Health Infomation--Consumer CBS Healthwatch Upgrades Search Engine The site, produced by Medscape, has added "Smart Search" that permits limiting by age, publication date, level of complexity, age and gender. Additionally, search terms be searched (direct links at the bottom of result set) in MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, drug lookup, or medical dictionary. Direct To Smart Search Direct To News Release Online Information--Fee Based Climate--United States--Maps New U.S. Climate Maps Database from NCDC From the What's New page, "NCDC's Climate Maps Of The United States web system (CLIMAPS) provides online access to over 760 climate maps of the Contiguous United States. These full color maps are available for climatic elements such as temperature, precipitation, snow, wind, pressure, etc., chosen to portray the climate of the contiguous US. The period of record of the data for most of the maps is 1961-1990. Most of the maps can be ordered in a high resolution Adobe PDF format, or as ESRI Shape Files." The cost of a .pdf map is $1.00 Air Travel Information--United States FAA Air Traffic Info Goes Wireless, Increased Number of Airports Available From the press release, "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is providing a new service effective immediately that informs the public of aviation delays using wireless devices. Travelers equipped with pagers, cell phones, or PDAs, can subscribe and obtain real-time airport status information via e-mail...he new wireless service is intended for users without access to a computer. Users can register for the free "Aviation Information System," at the FAA's web site titled: www.fly.faa.gov...In anticipation of the spring/summer weather season, the FAA on April 16 increased the number of airports on the site from 39 to 298. Users can zoom in to regions to see information affecting their local airport. Color codes reflect the type and severity of delay. A text-only version of the information is also available."
Canadian Resource Shelf (1 Item) Election Results Poll-By-Poll Voting Results Now Available On-Line "From the release, "The Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, announced today that the report Thirty-seventh General Election 2000: Official Voting Results is now posted on Elections Canada’s Web site, www.elections.ca." Direct to the Results Page. Full-Text Document Shelf (5 Items) Electronic Records--Clinton Administration Source: GAO Electronic Records: Clinton Administration's Management of Executive Office of the President E-Mail ---- New Full-Text Reports from the National Intelligence Council Global Growing Migration and It's Implications for the US (Adobe PDF version 2.12MB) -- The Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015 -- E-Commerce at the Grass Roots: Implications of a "Wired" Citizenry in Developing Nations -- Foreign Legal and Regulatory Landscape: Its Effect Upon the Development and Growth of E-Commerce Digitization Tools Rare Materials "Out of Print, But Into Digital" From the article, "Ten years later, he [John Wanock, co-founder of Adobe] founded Octavo, a company that uses digital technology to capture images of rare books, manuscripts and other materials on CD-ROMs." Wednesday, May 02, 2001
Reference Books--The Dictionary of American Regional English "Dictionary Tracks American Language" Source: Associated Press A story about an important reference tool. From the article, "For more than 30 years the staff of DARE (as the dictionary is referred to here) has been tracking speech throughout the United States. From questionnaires answered in rural homes to words and phrases spotted in famous novels, DARE documents the ways Americans express themselves." Btw, the DARE web site includes additional information and a quiz.
Web Search--AltaVista AltaVista Changes Librarian, Super Searcher, and proprietor of Search Engine Showdown, Greg Notess, has posted news of a few changes at AltaVista. *Adios to Raging Search *Changes with the AV Advanced Search Form, Power Search, and Result Listings
Interesting Stuff Future Search The WWW10 Conference kicked off today in Hong Kong. Here are just a couple of the papers (Web accessible at this time) being presented on the Refereed Papers Track. They could be of interest to you techie types or those interested in new search technology and experiments. "Scaling Question Answering to the Web" (Cody Kwok, Oren Etzioni, Daniel S. Weld) "Learning Search Engine Specific Query Transformations for Question Answering" (Eugene Agichtein, Steve Lawrence and Luis Gravano)
Web Standards UDDI The Much Talked About UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) Database Goes Live You can learn more about UDDI or go directly to the Microsoft or IBM search interfaces. Web Standards XML "Web Consortium Adopts Specification for XML Definitions" Source: Computerworld From the article, "The new specification defines how application programmers should describe data types and documents based on XML technology, which can put identifying tags on any piece of content on the Web. Potential corporate uses include business-to-business transactions, such as the exchange of purchase orders and invoices, that involve multiple systems...Amit Singal, a senior research scientist at Web search engine developer Google Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., said the new schema should help to rein in the multiple ways of defining XML content and make the definitions used by companies more consistent. "It's going to make all kinds of data interchange possible that's not possible today, Singal said." More Details via The Industry Standard
Business--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census 1999 County Business Patterns Data Available Today News Release And Summary ||| Direct to County Business Patterns Note: The Summary also provides a few handy lists. 1) Employee Gains for the United States and the Five Counties with the Largest Employee Gains From 1998 to 1999 2) Gains in the Number of Employer Business Establishments for the United States and the Five Top Counties for the Period 1998 to 1999 3) Gains for the United States and the Five Counties with the Largest Gains in Annual Payrolls, from 1998 to 1999 4) Selected Data for 50 Counties Having Highest Nonfarm Employment: 1999 5) Selected Data by States: 1999
Transportation--United States Searchable Databases--Invisible Web The Bureau of Transportation Statistics Launches Beta of Inter-Modal Transportation Data Base
Web Navigation--Mapping "Boston-Based Tech Company Pushes Web Mapping to Make the Net More Navigable" Source: Boston Globe Companies Mentioned: WebMap Technologies Canadian Resource Shelf (3 Items) Fast Facts Source: Statistics Canada Canada At A Glance ---- Health Source: Statistics Canada How Healthy are Canadians? Full-Text Available Online ---- Agriculture New Web Site: Fish and Seafood Online From the site, "...Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s site for Canadian fish and seafood market information." Tuesday, May 01, 2001
Cool Tools Save Web Pages, Organize, Share, and Access From Any Web Browser I've been a big fan of IHarvest for some time. With one or two clicks you can save entire web pages, graphics, or specific text from any web page. Well, it looks as if they are not allowing new user sign-ups. However, don't feel left out, try a similar service (also free) called SaveThis.Com. Many of the same services. The major difference, SaveThis.Com does not allow you to search your folders.
E-Government--Legislation Bill Introduced: E-Gov Act of 2001 Noteworthy: From News Release #1, "The Electronic Government Act of 2001 expands online access to judicial information, establishes an online national library, and promotes research into how information technologies can be used to improve preparation for and response to natural disasters. The bill requires regulatory agencies to follow in the footsteps of the Department of Transportation, which has placed its docketing system entirely on-line, so that anyone can easily find the rule-making that interests them, review comments, or file comments of their own from a home computer." ---- From the outline: Information technology offers the prospect of an online national library as a reality in the not-too-distant future. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has already received funding to begin work on the math, science, engineering, and technology education portion of this library, and will be working with the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to provide online public access to an ever-growing database of photos, historical documents, and other information. The Library of Congress is separately pursuing its own initiative. The bill would: *Instruct the NSF, Smithsonian, the National Park Service, the Library of Congress and other federal government entities to work with private, non-profit, and other organizations to create an Online National Library *Direct that the Online National Library provide public access to a continually expanding database of educational resource materials provide that the Library be functionally integrated, so that a user may access the library’s resources without regard to the boundaries of the contributing institution $10 million would be authorized for FY’ 2002. ---- Outline of Bill ||| Full-Text of Bill (.pdf) News Release #1 ||| News Release #2
News Briefs (3 Items) Intelliseek Unveils Enterprise Tools From the release, "Intelliseek Enterprise Search Server (ESS) provides a unified search interface to thousands of information sources and databases across the corporate Intranet, Extranet, subscription sources and the Internet...Intelliseek Corporate Intelligence Service (CIS), is a comprehensive, real-time, online monitoring service allowing corporations to get timely insights into consumer discussions and media coverage about their products or services, potentially damaging rumors and competitor activities." ---- Moreover, Factiva & Hoover's Announce "Web Parts" For Microsoft' s SharePoint Portal Server and Digital Dashboard Moreover News ||| Hoover's News ||| Factiva News ---- Search Engines "The Death of A Search Engine" Source: ABC News More on the loss of InFind.Com Virtual Library Projects "Connecticut Opens Virtual Library" Source: Civic.Com From the article, "Full-text information and databases in the Connecticut Digital Library (www.iconn.org), which officially opened April 9, are available to remote users at home and to on-site users in all state public libraries; libraries in museums, historical societies and hospitals; public and private schools; colleges and universities; and government agencies...Michigan-based Gale Group Inc., which provides electronic reference databases, is the content provider."
International Development New Web Site from the World Bank: International Development Goals Make special note of the Data Section. Corporate Filings--EDGAR Invisible Web--EDGAR A New? EDGAR Database To Look At, SECInfo.Com Free Registration, Internal Hyperlinks, Numerous Sorts, Worth a Look. Canada Resource Shelf (1 Item) Environment--Wild Species Wild Species in Canada From the site, "The Wild Species in Canada report provides this overview of the status of Canada's species. It brings the results of Provincial, Territorial, and Federal monitoring efforts onto a single platform for the first time." |
