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ResourceShelf |
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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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Monday, December 31, 2001
New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (3 Items) - Federal Employees--Canada Source: Treasury Board of Canada Sources of Federal Employee Information 2001-2002 - Space--Images Source: Space.Com Coolest Space Science Images of 2001 - Films--United States--Lists & Rankings National Film Registry 2001 Selections See Also: National Film Registry Selections, 1989-2000 Sunday, December 30, 2001
Information Industry--Year in Review Source: Info Today NewsBreaks "2001 News in Review" Paula Hane, editor of Info Today's NewsBreaks and contributing editor of Information Today, provides an excellent review of the major info industry news stories of 2001. See Also: "2001 Looking Back, Looking Ahead" (Library Journal) Search Terms--Lists & Rankings Yahoo Most Popular Search Terms, Part 1, 2001 Yahoo Most Popular Search Terms, Part 2, 2001 AltaVista Europe, Top Search Terms, 2001 Saturday, December 29, 2001
Legal Research Academic Libraries Two Interesting Articles from the Law Librarians in the New Millenium Newsletter The Winter 2002 issue of this West Group newsletter for librarians has two articles that might be of interest. 1) "Class Discussion" (page 1) Dan Dabney, senior director of Legal Product Research and Development at West discusses legal classification. 2) "Starting From Scratch: Tips on Building a Modern Academic Library Collection" (page 6) Suggestions from Margaret Meaes Axtmann who helped build the collection at the University of St. Thomas law library. U.S. Government--Electronic Records Source: Federal Computer Week "Electronic Records Baffle Agencies" From the article, "A survey of more than 150 federal agencies and departments concludes that most agencies are still baffled by electronic records. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, most federal agencies create documents in electronic formats, but when preserving them as official records, print them on paper and put them into storage." See Also: The 12/19 posting contains a link to the full-text document discussed in this article. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (2 Items) Books--Lists & Rankings Source: Publishers Weekly All-Time Bestselling Children's Books "A listing of hardcovers that have sold 750,000 copies and paperbacks that have topped the one million copy mark over the years." The list currently contains 376 titles. -- Health--Economic Issues Source: WHO Full-Text Report--Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development Friday, December 28, 2001
Legal Information--Worldwide Legal Information--Hong Kong New Prototype and Demo Now Available: World Legal Information Institute (Prototype) and Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (Demo) From the WLII site, "This is a prototype system that is intended to demonstrate the viability and functionality of a cooperative approach between the existing LIIs (Legal Information Institutes). The system currently combined access to all AustLII, BAILII, CanLII, PacLII and HKLII data as well as data provided by WITS in South Africa." Academic Libraries Source: Business Week A Tip o' the Cap to Steven J. Bell of Philadelphia University A letter to the editor by Steven J. Bell, Director of the Library at Philadelphia University appears in the 12/31/01 (domestic ed.) of Business Week. From the letter, "Librarians are tech-savvy, human search engines who are highly skilled at finding information on the Internet or teaching students how to use electronic databases effectively. Students who subscribe [to services like Questia] are probably paying for something they can get at their academic library as part of their tuition." Bell was responding to a 12/10/01 article about Questia and other services. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (7 Items) - Business--Canada--Lists & Rankings Source: Report on Business Magazine 50 Best Companies to Work For In Canada -- Climate--Global--Annual Review Source: NCDC Climate of 2001 - Annual Review, Significant U.S. and Global Events See Also: Climate of 2001 - Annual Review, Preliminary Report -- Population--United States Source: U.S. Census Current U.S. Population Estimates "The nation has grown by 3.4 million people since April 1, 2000, increasing from 281.4 million counted in Census 2000 to 284.8 million as of July 1, 2001, according to estimates released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau." Summary ||| Direct to Population Estimates -- Internet Usage-United States Religion--United States Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Full-Text Report: CyberFaith: How Americans Pursue Religion Online -- Higher Education--Research--Statistics--United States Source: NSF Academic Research and Development Expenditures: [Early Release Tables] Fiscal Year 2000 -- Higher Education--Science--Statistics--United States Source: NSF Data Brief: "Growth Continued in 2000 in Graduate Enrollment in Science and Engineering Fields" -- Grants--National Science Foundation--Guides Source: National Science Foundation NSF FY 2002 Guide to Programs Thursday, December 27, 2001
Online Databases--Directory WebClarity Developing Database Registry The registry began development at the end of October. From the site, "Individuals looking to access various types of resources can use the Resource Registry to search for specific databases of interest. A variety of searching and browsing options are available allowing users to quickly identify databases relevant to their needs. The Registry will then provide links allowing users to connect to the database by one or more methods including Web, Telnet and Z39.50/ISO23950 access." "The Registry has been specifically designed to handle the complexities of describing Z39.50/ISO23950 resources. At the present time, the Registry contains several hundred entries describing these resources. It is currently comprised of Public and Academic library catalog databases from around the world." Information about registering your databases is also available. See Also: Read the Registry "White Paper" U.S. Government Publications--Commerce Business Daily Final Week: Commerce Business Daily To Cease Publication, Replaced With Database In case you missed the news last May, the CBD (where the U.S. Government publishes many procurement annoucements) will cease publication after the 1/4/2001 issue. From the annoucement, "... effective January 4, 2002, the Department of Commerce will cease publication of the CBD through the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). Agencies should recognize FedBizOpps as the official source for all procurement information and notices to be published under 41 U.S.C. 416(a)(2)(B) and the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(e) and (k)). Other notices that would be published, such as notices of subcontracting opportunities (15 U.S.C. 637(k)) will also be made available to FedBizOpps." See Also: Direct to the FederalBizOpps Database Professional Reading & Learning Shelf (2 Items) 1) "Next Generation Web Search: Setting Our Sites" by Professor Marti A. Hearst University of California, Berkeley, From IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Special issue on Next Generation Web Search, Luis Gravano (Ed.), September 2000. - 2) "Designing Information Architecture for Search" Also by Professor Hearst. These slides were used at a tutorial presented at the 2001, SIGIR (Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval, ACM) Conference. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (4 Items) -- State Policy Issues--Annual Report Source: E-Mail Stateline.Org Makes 2001 State Policy Highlights Report Available From the e-mail message, "State of the States 2001," a 58-page soft cover book, also includes profiles of the two governors elected in November and lots of other information. If you haven't already done so, reserve your free copy of this useful resource by emailing your name and POSTAL mailing address to managingeditor@stateline.org." -- Economics--Europe Source: Financial Times Special Section: "Countdown to E-Day" Key reference resources include Euro and Changeover FAQs, Eurozone Map, Euro Glossary, Euro Chronology and a Key 2002 Dates List. -- Census--United States Demographics--United States Source: U.S. Census Census Begins Roll-Out of Summary File 2 Data Today, D.C. and Vermont data becomes available. -- Sports--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The Sporting News The Sportings News Power 100 (Most Powerful People in Sports) 2000 list also available -- Popular Music--Lists & Rankings Source: Billboard Billboard Year-End Charts Numerous charts. Note: Abridged versions are available for non-subscribers. For example, the non-subscribers get the top 100 of the top 200 album chart. Tuesday, December 25, 2001
Reference "The Convenience Catastrophe" Source: Library Journal Here are two passages from Roy Tennant's insightful, must read, column. Roy writes, "Anyone who has worked a reference desk has seen users pleased with a quick and mediocre answer when, with a bit more time and effort, they could get a better one. It's called 'satisficing.' It's human nature to seek that which is 'good enough' rather than the best. For many, it's a simple equation of effort vs. payback. At a 'good enough' point that can only be determined by a specific individual, it becomes too much trouble to reach the optimum for the perceived gain." He continues, "So how do we fight this tendency?" "We must provide more information online about what our print collections hold, so that potential users of our holdings can more easily discover the treasures they contain. Converting our card catalogs into digital form was merely the beginning. A title, an author, and a few subject headings are often inadequate to determine if a particular book will be useful or not. We need to work cooperatively to provide much more information about our books, particularly nonfiction works." Monitoring the News--BBC Monitoring Learn About: BBC Monitoring A bit of background about the folks in Caversham. This short article appears in a recent Factiva publication. See Also: BBC Monitoring Home Page See Also: BBC Monitoring Country Profiles (Free) See Also: BBC Monitoring Week Ahead Calendar (Free) New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (2 Items) -- Year in Review-2001 Source: InfoPlease.Com InfoPlease.Com's Year In Review 2001 Now Online • Fast Fact, one-stop shop features several lists including: • Major News Stories, Month By Month • Major Supreme Court Decisions • Deaths in 2001 • Disasters in 2001 • Earthquakes 2001 • Arts & Entertainment, Month By Month • Major Sports Stories, Month By Month • Much More -- Grammar--English Language Several Resources from AskOxford.Com Better Writing, Classic Errors and Helpful Hints Jargon Buster (Basic Grammar Terms Defined, Examples) -- Farm Subsidies--Databases--United States Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database, 1996-2000 From the site, " 1996, a federal judge agreed with a lawsuit brought by The Washington Post to allow public access to USDA subsidy payment records. That lawsuit made it possible for EWG to build the Farm Subsidy database by assembling computerized records of tens of millions of farm program checks written by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during calendar years 1996 through 2000. The Environmental Working Group obtained these records through a Freedom of Information Act request." See Also: More Background About the Database Monday, December 24, 2001
Real Estate Assessment--United States--Directories Real Estate Assessor Offices I've heard from several of you letting me know that the compilation of property assessor offices made available from the University of Virginia was no longer available at its old url. Good news, the resources is still online. Many of the sites linked on the page provide access to invisible web databases. Btw, the page is part of Portico, a wondeful collection of web-based reference tools. A must bookmark! Sunday, December 23, 2001
Reference Tools--Encyclopaedia Britannica Source: The Straits Times (Singapore) "Britannica Bites Back" From the article, "The world's oldest encyclopaedia stopped printing in 1999 and saw sales plummet. Now the 32-volume print set is back, but can it survive in the Information Age?" New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Forbes Platinum 400, 2002 "All 400 of these corporations show the strategy, stamina and growth to be standouts among their peers." Searchable, create customized lists. Saturday, December 22, 2001
Web Search--Images Source: RLG DigiNews Image Search FAQ Richard Entlich provides a solid overview of searching for images on the web. The article includes a brief review of image searching, details about many key search tools with several charts (perfect for training), and details on how image searching on the web works. The article also includes a study on how well these image retrieval tools work. Well done! New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources - Canada--History Source: National Library of Canada "Exploring Canada Virtually" From the site, "These two exciting new sites, which can be found www.nlc-bnc.ca/explorers and www.nlc-bnc.ca/explorers/kids are dedicated to the discovery and exploration of our great country. Their content is based primarily on the published accounts of a selection of explorers, including the Vikings, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and George Vancouver. Histories of the Northwest Passage, Acadia and the Arctic are all available at the click of a mouse." Friday, December 21, 2001
Online Information--LexisNexis Online Information--WhizBang LexisNexis and WhizBang Form A Strategic Alliance Some very exciting technology ready for utilization by LN. From the news release, "With this alliance, LexisNexis will employ WhizBang!'s Extraction Framework(tm) to deliver the most comprehensive, current information to users of the LexisNexis Advertising Red Books™ and Directory of Corporate Affiliations(tm) (DCA)." "WhizBang! Labs extraction technology integrates proprietary software products that automatically find, classify and extract information from a wide variety of unstructured sources including corporate intranets, extranets, web pages and document databases. WhizBang!'s Extraction Framework combs these sources for targeted information that coincides with content contained within the Red Books and Directory of Corporate Affiliations databases, extracts the relevant data and drives it to refresh specific records." WhizBang technology powers the FlipDog job database. See Also: "WhizBang! joins LexisNexis Project" (via Deseret News) See Also: Direct to WhizBang See Also: WhizBang White Papers (Explanation of Technology) New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) Energy--Statistics Source: EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2002 with Projections to 2020 See Also: Supplemental Tables To AEO 2002 See Also: Assumptions to the AEO 2002 -- Businesses--United States Source: U.S. Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses: 1999: All Industries Use pull-down menu (top-right) for detailed state data. -- Violence in the Workplace--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Violence in the Workplace, 1993-99 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Thursday, December 20, 2001
Database of the Week Online Journals An Old Fave: jake (jointly administered knowledge environment) Do you need to know what full-text database a particular journal is located? If so, give jake a spin. From the site, "jake is a reference source which makes finding, managing, and linking online journals and journal articles easier for students, researchers, and librarians. jake does this by managing metadata about online resources with a database union list, title authority control, and linking tools, as well as making it easy to customize for a specific library's holdings." Currently the database holds contents info for 195 databases. Btw, you can also download the complete holdings of a particular database directly into MARC or delimited text formats. In fact, most of jake can be modified as it's freeware. Btw, for those of you who are jake regulars the new official url is: http://www.jake-db.org. Finally, you can find a beta of an alternative interface to jake from Simon Fraser University. Web Search--Google Google's Year-End Zeitgeist Now Available Lists and rankings of the most popular search terms and trends. See Also: Ask Jeeves list of the Most Popular Questions of 2001 Digital Archiving Source: RLG DigiNews "Collaboration Between RLG and OCLC With Digital Archiving Initiatives" Robin Dale from RLG and Meg Bellinger from OCLC discuss several cooperative initiatives. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (6 Items) -- Careers and Occupations--United States Source: BLS New Edition Online: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2003-03 -- Careers and Occupations--United States Source: BLS New Edition Online: Career Guide to Industries, 2002-03 -- Energy--United States--Directory Source: EIA Redesign, Energy Information Directory From the EIA site, "...a web only product that includes the latest information on Government and non-Government organizations that provide public energy information. Included are information centers, technology centers, State energy offices and numerous trade associations with a concise and up-to-date listing of energy contacts and resources." See Also: Key World Energy Statistics, 2001 ed. (Source: IEA) -- Poverty--United States Source: U.S. Census 1998 Povery Estimates, By County Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Report -- Business Journals--Impact Factor--Lists & Rankings Source ISI Journals Ranked by Impact: Business Top 10 for 2000, 1996-2000, 1981-2000. -- Social Sciences--Citation Rates--Lists and Rankings Source: ISI Social Sciences (General): World's Most-Cited Institutions, 1991-2001 Top 5 Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Web Search--Ask Jeeves Ask Jeeves Announces Most Popular Questions for 2001 What do the masses want to have answered? News Tools--NewsNow Google Adds Top News Headlines Find headlines for top stories, updated hourly, from over 100 open-web news sources. Categories include World, US, Business, Entertainment, Technology and Sports. Another excellent news compilation resource is NewsNow. This site compiles stories from many open-web sources in hundreds of different catagories. You can find a list of categories via the pull-down menus on the right side of the page. New content is addded every five minutes. Open windows will auto refresh. For a "virtual news ticker" check out the NewsNow Live Feed which places all headlines on a single page that updates automatically. NewsNow is also keyword searchable. Online Information--Hoover's Hoover's Adds New Search Functionality To Subscription Product From the annoucement, "The new search technology gives Hoover's Online users rapid, comprehensive results from Hoover's proprietary database, plus non-U.S. companies from Mergent, as well as company, subsidiary and branch locations covered by D&B. Hoover's new search technology also paves the way for future enhancements, including additional advanced search fields and capabilities...Hoover's new search technology allows Hoover's Online users to search for companies using a number of criteria, including company name, ticker symbol, keyword, and D&B D-U-N-S Number." Document Delivery "Article Economy" Outsell/Infotrieve Place $ Value on "Article Economy" A recently released survey from Outsell (commissioned by document delivery vendor Infotrieve) set the value of the "article economy" at 1.6 billion. From the news release, "The results of the survey of both corporate and academic librarians and end users show a growing demand for electronic delivery of journal articles using the Pay-Per-View model. Increases in print journal subscription prices, advances in online document delivery technology, and the growing sophistication of users and librarians account for this shift in emphasis toward document delivery, particularly electronic delivery...For the purposes of the study, Outsell defined the Article Economy as including published journal articles, self-published articles, papers from conference proceedings, and chapters from monographs and books. Document delivery was defined as including inter-library loan." Online Information--BioMed Central Scholarly Publishing Source: Managing Information "Biomed Central Adopts Processing Charge for Articles" From the article, "BioMed Central will introduce a processing charge for articles published in its online journals beginning on January 1 2002. The decision to introduce processing charges is apparently the result of a consultation process across the scientific community and with representatives of key funding bodies...BioMed Central believes that the payment of a small processing charge in return for immediate and permanent free access to published research will become a widely accepted and standard part of science funding policy. Preliminary discussions with funding bodies and research institutions suggest that payment of processing charges from research grants and infrastructure funding will be allowed. With this in mind, it has been decided that from January 1 2002 there will be a US$500 processing charge for any article accepted for publication in BMC journals." Update: More On This Topic from The Chronicle of Higher Education New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) -- ERIC (Education Resource Information Clearinghouse) ERIC Annual Report 2001 -- Government Records--United States Source: NARA Full-Text Report, Current Recordkeeping and Records Use Within the Federal Government See Also: Report Also Available in PDF -- E-Books Source: JISC/DNER Full-Text, "Shaping A Strategy for E-Books: An Issues Paper" This September, 2001 report was written by Hazel Woodward and Louise Edwards. Tuesday, December 18, 2001
New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) -- Scholarly Publishing Full-Text Article Source: ARL Bimonthly Report 218 (October, 2001) Beyond Core Journals and Licenses: The Paths to Reform Scientific Publishing by Jean-Claude Guédon, Université de Montréal -- Lawyers--United States--Directories and Databases Source: LLRX.Com "Finding Lawyers: Directories, Web Sites & State Bar Sources" A comprehensive webliography. Impressive! -- Forests--United States--Searchable Database Source: U.S. Forest Service U.S. Forest Service Image Database Monday, December 17, 2001
Web Search Excite Results No Longer from Excite's Own Database After a few weeks of continuing to provide its own results, it appears that Excite.Com is now serving results from Overture's paid-inclusion database (supplemented with Inktomi content). At the bottom the page is the option to try "Excite Metasearch" which provides Dopgpile results. The Excite directory now serves ODP (Open Directory Project) results. So, it looks as if the switchover has begun and time to say so long to the Excite crawled database. Results at other Excite sites may vary. See Also: "Excite.com Spared from Extinction" (via SearchDay) See Also: Excite UK to Shut Down Archives--Canada A New Project from the National Archives of Canada, "Accessible Archives" From the site, "The National Archives of Canada has embarked on a new project—Accessible Archives—which looks ahead to the services we will be offering in the near future. Our objective is to serve Canadians better by making the holdings of the National Archives more accessible to them." New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (4 Items) Information--Credibility Web Credibility Project @ Stanford From the site, Our goal is to understand what leads people to believe what they find on the Web. We hope this knowledge will enhance Web site design and promote future research on Web credibility." Makre sure to take a look at this paper/study, "What Makes A Web Site Credible?". It's available in full-text. Thanks to Tom Mighell, editor of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, for pointing this one out. See Also: Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet -- Crime--United States Source: FBI Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January to June, 2001 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Government Benefits--Canada New Web Site: Canada Benefits "The new Canada Benefits Web site provides Canadians with access to government-wide information about financial assistance and entitlements programs for individuals." -- International Migration Foreign Born Population--United States Source: U.S. Census New Full-Text Working Paper: Evaluating Components of International Migration: Estimates of the Foreign-Born Population by Migrant Status in 2000 Sunday, December 16, 2001
New Search Technology--Audio Search Source: Popular Mechanics "Audio Search Engine Helps Reconstruct Holocaust History" From the article, "Advances in the field of automatic video processing for search and retrieval helped Johns Hopkins University engineers develop this particular audio search engine. Based on speech recognition, the system will be used by the Shoah Foundation to make information in its archives of more than 51,000 video interviews more easily accessible..."We want to build a speech-recognition system that is good enough to recognize most of the words that a historian or educator might enter into the audio search engine," says Bill Byrne, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins." Photo Archives--Bettman Source: Business 2.0 If You Visit the Bettman Archive Make Sure To Wear A Coat! New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources Calendars-2002 Space Integrated NASA Launch Schedule "This is a launch forecast of anticipated dates for the NASA Space Shuttle and NASA payloads on expendable vehicles." See Also: NASA Space Calendar Saturday, December 15, 2001
Web Search--History Early Web Search Engine Announcements Today is the 6th anniversary of AltaVista announcing the beginning of a public beta for the new search engine. To mark the occasion I've located early or first announcements for several search tools. These posts were found via the just completed Google Usenet archive. Martijn Koster Annouces the Availability of Aliweb (11/30/93) An Early Mention of JumpStation by Jonathon Fletcher (2/27/94) First Mention of McBryan's World Wide Web Worm in the Usenet Archive is this Technical Query (3/14/94) Brian Pinkerton Announces the Availability of Webcrawler (6/11/94) Steve Kirsch Announces Free Demos Of the Infoseek Search Engine (7/18/94) Jerry Yang Alerts a Usenet group to the Yahoo Database (9/21/94) Carnegie Mellon University Center for Machine Translation Announces Lycos (8/14/94) UC Berkeley Announces Inktomi (9/26/95) Introduction of Excite (9/27/95) AltaVista Public Beta Press Release (12/15/95) and Tim Berners-Lee Introduces the World Wide Web (8/6/91) Web Search--Google Something New From Google, Searchable Catalogs Another day and something new from Google, at least it seems that way. So far Google news always seem to good news for the searcher. This time Google introduces a beta of Google Catalogs. Here you can keyword search and view (images) of pages from over 600 catalogs. The catalogs are from many well-known retailers. Google will be more than happy to include your companies catalog. According to the site, "Inclusion in Google Catalog Search is currently free for publishers. There is no obligation and nothing you need to do other than provide Google with copies of your catalogs." Related services for retailers are fee-based. Content can also be accessed via a directory with catalogs broken down into 11 top-level categories. An advanced interface allows you to limit to a catagory or to a specific catalog. This is one impressive and practical use of search technology. Thanks to search engine guru Avi Rappaport for alerting us to this new Google beta. Update: Learn More from Katie Dean's Wired News Article Friday, December 14, 2001
Web Search--FirstGov Source: Federal Computer Week FirstGov Asks For Opinions From the article, "The General Services Administration is turning to agency Webmasters for suggestions on how to improve the FirstGov governmentwide portal. Federal Webmasters received an e-mail request Dec. 13 to provide "suggestions and concerns with our search engine services" from the Office of FirstGov in GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy...The questions include how important it is for FirstGov to support document types other than HTML, Adobe Systems Inc.'s Portable Document Format and Microsoft Corp.'s Word, and how important it is to have access to reports on metrics, such as the frequency of search terms, frequency of access by link and average relevancy of selected links. Web Search--AltaVista A Few Comments From AltaVista This interview which is only attributed to "AltaVista UK" is a quick read. The question about AV's index being old does not seem to be answered. The rest of the interview focuses on using web search as a marketing tool and how AV hopes to start indexing "deep" web content. Like most things in the web search world only time will tell & actions speak louder than words. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (5 Items) -- Glossary--Multi-Language Internet Terms Source: Translation Bureau, Canada Panlatin Internet Glossary From the site, "The work is a multilingual lexicon which contains the terms most frequently encountered in relation to the Internet. A list of 300 terms in English was drawn up to serve as the common base list for the project. The other participants in the Glossary project contributed the appropriate equivalents in their own languages, namely French, Catalan, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian." --- Glossary--English-French / French-English E-Government Source: Translation Bureau, Canada Government On-Line (GOL) Glossary, 2nd edition From the site, "This revised and expanded publication contains 3,075 entries culled from a large number of bilingual documents about Government On-Line and its many components, including technology infrastructure, privacy and computer security, business processes, people issues, communications and information management. The second edition of the Government On-Line Glossary includes approximately 450 new entries, 350 of which were taken from an in-house glossary prepared by a team of information technology experts. The additional 100 new entries were extracted from Industry Canada GOL documents or were based on the suggestions received following publication of the first edition. The glossary features terminology from a variety of fields, including informatics, telecommunications and the Internet; it is designed for anyone translating or writing documents about e-government." -- Glossary--English-French / French-English Source: Translation Bureau, Canada Glossary of Terms Pertaining to Disabled Persons From the site, "The Glossary of Terms Pertaining to Disabled Persons contains some 1 800 entries. In this glossary the user will find not only a reflection of sociological change, but the names of programs, associations and organizations, as well as terms from such related fields as rehabilitation and technical aids." -- Biography--New Zealand Dictionary of News Zealand Biography From the site, "This website contains over 3,000 biographies of New Zealanders who have 'made their mark' on this country. It does not include people who are alive. This site (and the printed volumes) contains: the biographies of 3,049 people in 2,977 biographical essays & the biographies of 493 Maori people in 481 essays, translated into Maori from the English-language biographies." -- Leadership--Book Lists Source: For Managers (Harvard Business School Publishing) "Required Reading" This link takes you to an executive summary of a Harvard Business Review, December 2001 article by Barbara Kellerman. "...a list of works that form an exception to the general rule that leadership is inseparable from context. The titles on this list apply as much to leadership in business as they do to politics, as much to leadership in China as they do to the United States, as much to leadership in the twenty-first century as to leadership in the sixteenth. In a field of study that is almost obsessively particular, these books are universal." This executive summary contains the complete list. Thursday, December 13, 2001
Resource of the Week Information Technology--News TechNewsWorld.Com What's going on in the world of information technology? TechNewsWorld.Com, part of the Newsfactor News Network, compiles breaking technology news from numerous "open-web" tech news resources and places them onto a single page. Each page is updated with the latest content every five minutes. Material is also organized into various subjects including Computer Viruses, E-Commerce, Internet Piracy, Networking, and The Web. Selecting a link from a top-level page takes you to a summary of the article. Another click moves you directly to the full-text. The far-right side of the page provides a pull-down menu that sorts articles by country and time-posted. Material is also searchable via a box at the top of the page. Useful, informative, and a great time saver. Web Search--Google Google Groups and Stopword Searching Nothing major, just something I came across while searching the Google Groups database. On Nov. 29th we mentioned that a search of Google's web index would no longer force the searcher to place a + sign before each stopword. A simple example, "to be or not to be". However, this new feature does not work with the Google Groups (Usenet archive) database. You will need to place a + sign before each stopword. Web Search--WiseNut WiseNut Licensed By Lycos Japan To Power Portal One of the first licensing deals we've seen for Wisenut. According to the company this database of Japanese language content contains 78 million pages Might this signal that the primary Wisenut database is going to being updated very soon? We can only hope! Btw, AlltheWeb supplies the web page database to the Lycos.Com site. Encyclopedias--Encyclopaedia Britannica For Your "Don't Forget Print" Folder, EB Publishes Revised Print Edition From the annoucement, "Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. today announced that it has published a revised printing of its famous 32-volumeencyclopedia, the first revision of the printed set since 1998" "Despite the benefits of electronic publishing, books remain a remarkably efficient platform for the storage and retrieval of information," said Dale Hoiberg, senior vice president and editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. "But more than that, books are a treasure, a vital part of our civilization. To behold the encyclopedia on the shelf or browse through an open volume are pleasures no other medium can provide." New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (7 Items) -- SPECIAL UK/EUROPEAN EDITION Business--United Kingdom--Lists & Rankings Source: The Sunday Times Fast Track 100: The Fastest-Growing Companies in Britain, 2001 Free Registration Required To Access See Also, Fast Track 100, 2000 -- Electronic Commerce--European Union Source: EU EU Launches eLexPortal.Com From the site, "eLexPortal.com provides current information about variations in legislative and regulatory eCommerce matters across the EU for non-specialist entrepreneurs and business people, in particular for SMEs, by: presenting eCommerce information relating to legislation and policy in a user-friendly manner; explaining eCommerce policy in the EU; and providing user-tailored answers about eCommerce legislation and regulatory policy throughout the European Union." -- Charities--England and Wales Site Relaunch: Charities Commission for England and Wales Of Special Note: Database of Registered Charities -- Food Safety--United Kingdom Site Update: Food Standards Agency Places Revamped Site Online Also Available: E-Mail Alerts and Other Updates ----- Population--World Source: U.S. Census An Aging World: 2001 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text (.pdf) -- Information Technology Industry--Lists & Rankings Source: Intelligent Enterprise The Intelligent Enterprise Dozen (plus 48 Companies to Watch in 2002) "Our annual editors' choice of IT solution providers contributing the most to the development of intelligent enterprises." Each entry includes short profile of company. -- Information Technology Industry--Lists & Rankings Source: Business Week Update: The Info Tech 100 "...biggest, the fastest-growing, most profitable, or have the best returns" Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Congressional Research Service A Selection of Recently Updated Web Accessible CRS Reports Time for another short list of recently updated reports from CRS. These reports are available (full-text) on the web. Access to these and other reports are available from either the web site of Rep. Chris Shays OR Rep. Mark Green. Once on either of these pages, click and scroll to the appropriate report. All reports are pdf's. Most of these reports will not be found using a general purpose search engine and cannot be linked to directly. ---Listed in the Issue Briefs section: IB10072 Endangered Species: Difficult Choices (Updated 12/6) IB10012 Intelligence Issues for Congress (Updated 12/7) ---Listed in the Short Reports section RS20727 Energy Independence: Would It Free the United States From Oil Price Shocks? (Updated 11/17/01) RS21075 Terrorism Insurance in the Post September 11 Marketplace (Updated 12/7/01) ---Listed in the Long Reports section 98-45 Commemorative Observances: A Chronological List (Updated 11/8/01, Contains 2002 Info) RL30516 Mergers and Consolidation Between Banking and Financial Services Firms: Trends and Prospects (Updated 11/17/01) Web Search--Inktomi Inktomi Adds New Search Capabilities, Coming Soon: Hotbot Europe Inktomi, the search services company that supplies search "power" to many engines (MSN Search, Hotbot and portions of AOL Search) has added new technology to assist in identifying certain types of content. From the announcement, "Inktomi has incorporated new regional identification and blending technologies as well as enhanced language analysis into its Web search platform, providing geographic context to international search results." Web Search enhancements include: Regional Identification: By examining the link structure of the Web, Inktomi has gathered contextual clues that identify content of interest to users in a particular region, enabling portals to provide a more relevant search experience by allowing the distinction between content from countries that share a language but do not share cultural commonalities. Regional Blending: With regional blending, portals can now weight content of regional user interest more highly in the relevance calculation to provide more accurate results and a differentiated Web experience to users. Enhanced Language Analysis: Inktomi's Web search platform utilizes a native Unicode base to serve all languages, including Japanese and Chinese, out of a single database for enhanced relevance. Additionally, the search engine is now aware of the differences between the text in various languages for improved word breaking of queries. Of course, only time will tell if this new functionality in the Inktomi algorithm will prove beneficial to searchers. Remember, each engine uses Inktomi in a different manner. This means that each Inktomi search partner not only has its own "chunk" or "flavor" of the entire Inktomi database but the ranking/relevancy algorithms are also different for each search partner. Greg Notess's Inktomi choices are Hotbot and MSN Search. MORE News: Coming VERY Soon, The Debut of Hotbot Europe! Stay Tuned! Natural Language Searching--iPhrase Learn More About iPhrase and Natural Language Searching On Monday we mentioned a new natural language search feature using Yahoo Finance. The nlp technology is from iPhrase. Yesterday, iPhrase CEO Noam Ben-Ozer appeared on CNNfn. You can watch the interview online using Real Player or Windows Media Player. Information Quality Source: News.Com First Time, Health Web Sites Awarded Accreditation From the article, "Millions of Americans going to the Internet for health information got a little more guidance with the independent certification on Wednesday of 13 health-related Web sites. The American Accreditation HealthCare Commission, which certifies managed care organizations and other health care companies, said it was reviewing dozens of other sites as well. "The newly accredited sites are some of the nation's largest and busiest health sites, including WebMD, WellMed, InteliHealth, the Health Insurance Association of America, Healthwise and Healthyroads," said the commission, an independent and nonprofit group. You can find the complete list of accredited sites and 15 others that are "in-process" via the AAHC site. See Also: The Virtual Chase Section on Evaluating Web Info Quality Online Industry--LexisNexis LN Does Deal With Knight Ridder Bottom line: More content for LN. From the annoucement, "Through the relationship, Knight Ridder Digital is syndicating its content available to LexisNexis users; and LexisNexis is powering access to on-point information to 17 Knight Ridder newspapers in 28 markets.Twenty-eight full-text daily Knight Ridder publications from top media markets throughout the country now will be available to LexisNexis customers, many same-day or and within a day of publication, powered by Knight Ridder Digital. The offering includes major metropolitan papers such as The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, the Detroit Free Press, The Charlotte Observer, the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, MN., and The San Jose Mercury News." Thanks to GT for the news tip. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (5 Items) -- Public Utilities--Electric--United States Source: EIA Financial Statistics of Major U.S. Publicly Owned Electric Utilities 541 pages .pdf, includes several lists and rankings -- Health--United States--2002 Events Source: NHIC 2002 National Health Observances Also available in .pdf Also searchable by date via HealthFinder.Gov -- Womens Health--United States--2002 Events Source: NWHIC Calendar of Women's Health Events -- Federal Holidays--United States--2002 Events Source: Office of Personnel Management Federal Holidays Dates available through 2006 -- Scholarly Publishing Updated: Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography Version 40 of Charles Bailey's bib contains over 1500 entries. Tuesday, December 11, 2001
Web Search--Google Google Announces Web Document Index Increase, Google Groups Out of Beta, More Quite a busy day for Google. Here's a review. 1) Google Increases Total Number of Documents Available Number now totals over 3 billion documents. This number includes not only includes 2 million web pages (html, pdf, and other formats, 25% of these docs are non-English language web pages) but also Usenet (Google Groups) postings and images (over 330 million). 2) Google Groups Now Out of Beta Search Usenet postings back 20 years. May, 1981 to be precise. 3) News Searching With Google Result sets will now include links, if available, to relevant news stories from selected web based news sources. Example: A search on "George Bush" returns two articles as of 12/11/01. I would not rely on Google as your primary news search tool. 4) Labeling of Recently Recrawled Content For example, notice the "hit" for our blog. The url line now mentions the date the page was last refreshed in the Google database. Btw, Google does an impressive job of recrawling content however, do not assume that the search engine finds all New content from the site. Example, even though Google is recrawling the CNN site several times a week, do not assume they have found all new content. In this type of situation consider using a "site" search tool. ----See Also: Chris Sherman has more on all of this Google news in his Search Day newsletter. ----See Also: Perspective on Engine Size Numbers from Pandia ----See Also: Wired News on Usenet group access via Google Intranets Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox Newsletter 10 Best Intranet Designs of 2001 Nielsen provides a Top 10 list and a few overall trends. More is available in a fee-based report. Libraries Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education It's An Academic Library and a Public Library From the article, "Over the weekend, Nova Southeastern University celebrated the opening of a five-story, 325,000-square-foot library with an unusual genesis: Half of the building's $45-million construction cost was covered by Broward County, Fla., the county in which the university is located. The building will operate both as an academic facility and as a public library." Music--United Kingdom Searchable Databases--United Kingdom Cecille, A U.K. Music Resource Database Set, for November 2002 Debut From the news release, "The website will be a one-stop-shop for information and will provide a profile of collections at institutional and collection-within collection level, detailing the scope and scale of materials held, access policies and contact details." New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (4 Items) -- Scientific Conferences--Databases Invisible Web worldmeet Search for info on scientific meetings and conferences from around the world. Impressive! -- Full-Text Report Info Quality Internet Filtering Source: Kaiser Foundation "Generation Rx.com: How Young People Use the Internet for Health Information" This report also contains info on the use of filtering software. See Also: Newsbytes Article About the Report -- Budget--Canada Source: Department of Finance Canada Budget 2001 -- Capital Punishment--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Capital Punishment 2001 Summary ||| Full-Text (.pdf) 16 pages .pdf Monday, December 10, 2001
Natural Language Search Tools--iPhrase iPhrase Technology Now Available via Yahoo Finance From the news release, "For example, an investment analyst doing securities research could ask Yahoo! Finance for the "current market cap, p/e ratio and cash for Microsoft, Sun and Cisco," and would be presented with a custom table that captures and returns that exact information in one step. The iPhrase solution also provides definitions for dozens of financial terms; direct navigation to current market information, such as most active stocks, upgrades/downgrades and earnings calendars; and direct access to quotes, charts, SEC filings and other company-specific information for publicly traded stocks." See Also: Direct to Yahoo Finance Search Using iPhrase See Also: "Natural Search Tools Gain Context" (From InternetWeek) See Also: Review of iPhrase Technology Being Used on the Schwab.Com Site Update: See 12/12 postings for link to iPhrase CEO interview Taxonomies Source: Transform "Taxonomies Put Content in Context" This overview article includes two useful sidebars: 1)The ABC's of Taxonomy & Classification and 2)Taxonomy & Classification Glossary. Information Needs in Higher Education "Outsell Study of Academic Information Users Commissioned by Digital Library Federation" From the announcement, "Outsell, Inc., the leading information content industry research and advisory firm, today announced the launch of a landmark study of the information needs and preferences of higher education students and faculty. The first of its size and scope, the multi-institution study will compare the information-seeking behaviors of more than 3,200 students and faculty across seven academic disciplines in liberal arts colleges and research/doctoral universities. The Outsell study, which takes a comprehensive look at the total information environment within academic institutions, was commissioned by the Digital Library Federation (DLF). DLF funding for this project was obtained from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The study's objective is to provide much needed insight into how academics currently use information, and develop baseline and trend data that will inform all levels of planning, development, and deployment for universities, libraries, and content providers," said Outsell Vice President Leigh Watson Healy." See Also: Direct to Digital Library Federation Online Books--Ebrary Ebrary Licenses More Content, Penguin Classics Library From the news release, "-- ebrary(TM) ( www.ebrary.com), a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval services, today announced that Penguin Classics will distribute its library of literary masterpieces to new online markets via ebrary's software, ebrarian(TM). For the first time, libraries, consumers, and other institutions will have online access to Penguin Classics titles ranging from Aristotle to Mark Twain." See Also: Direct to Ebrary Homepage See Also: Search and Browse Ebrary content via The Learning Network News Briefs Getting Your Listing To Number One Source: NYT Although this weblog focuses on the web as a research/reference tool, this NYT article provides a solid overview to the world of search engine placement and optimization. See Also: Google Opens Advertising Office in Germany Web History Source: ZD Net News "Q&A: Meet the Real Web Pioneer" From the article, "This country's [USA] actual Web pioneer, by contrast, had smaller things on his mind when he launched the first Web server and Web page on U.S. soil. Much smaller, in fact: electrons. It was at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) that particle physicist Paul Kunz wrote and posted the first American Web page 10 years ago today." Also, from the Q&A, Q. What interested you? A. The first Web browser was more than just a browser--it had the ability to do a search on a remote machine. That's the key to the Web--the ability to do searches. He did a search on the mainframe IBM computer and the help system gave back pointers as to where to find documents you might be searching for. That gave me the idea: If he could do searches, then I could do that too. I had a database online at SLAC that needed an interface to the Internet. That database is called SPIRES. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) National Occupational Classification for Statistics--Canada Source: Statistics Canada Now available online. From the site, "Statistics Canada's revised occupational classification for 2001 is called the National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2001 (NOC-S 2001) to distinguish it from the National Occupational Classification (NOC) put out by Human Resources Development Canada. (The two classifications differ only in the aggregation structure of the classification). Both provide a complete listing of all the categories under which Canadian jobs are classified and their descriptions." -- Database Searching--ERIC December ERIC Update Now Available Searching with controlled vocabulary, lesson plans, new resources. -- Social Security--United States Full-Text Source: Congressional Budget Office Social Security: A Primer Sunday, December 09, 2001
U.S. Government Information--FirstGov Source: Federal Computer Week "FirstGov to Undergo Overhaul" From the article, "A top priority is making the site look better. "Conduct graphical improvements, improve current look and feel," according to the GSA notice. Develop "a graphical image that is on a par with, for example, the California state portal site." Let's hope search functionality and relevancy also improves! Info Industry--Dialog Dialog Introduces Quantum2 Program to Europe From the news release, "The Dialog Corporation, a Thomson business and a leading international provider of online-based information services, today announced plans for the European roll-out of its Quantum2 development program for information professionals. The program, which builds on and enhances a highly successful Dialog program first introduced in 1993, provides training and tools to enhance professional development, with a special focus on strategies to develop leadership skills and demonstrate the value of professional information services within organisations." Saturday, December 08, 2001
U.S. Government Web Sites--Department of the Interior Source: Washington Post Entire Department of Interior Site Taken Offline Interior Dept. Still Down (Wired News) From the article, "Responding to a court order, the Interior Department has cut itself off from the Internet, crippling the ability of Interior employees to communicate by e-mail and blocking access to information gathered by the department that is routinely used by other agencies and the public. The shutdown occurred Thursday afternoon on the order of U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who is presiding over a long-running lawsuit alleging decades of mismanagement by the federal government in the handling of trust funds for American Indians." Update: As of 12/13 @ Midnight EST http://www.doi.gov and http://www.ngs.gov were not back online. See Also: "Access to Information is Declining after Sept. 11" (from Orlando Sentinel) National Libraries--Canada National Library of Canada Performance Report 2001 National Library of Canada Performance Report 2000 New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) Government--Canada--Lists Source: Library of Parliament Sitting Days of the House of Commons by Calendar Year-1968 to Date Sitting Days of the Senate by Calendar Year-1960 to Date Sitting Days of the Provincial and Territorial Legislatures by Calendar Year-1987 to Date -- R&D--Funding--United States Full-Text Source: NSF Research and Development Funding and Performance by Nonprofit Organizations: Fiscal Years 1996 and 1997 -- Public Transportation--United Kingdom--Statistics Full-Text Source: Department Transport, Local Government and the Regions A Bulletin of Public Transport Statistics: 2001 Edition Regional Transport Statistics: 2001 Edition Friday, December 07, 2001
National Archives--United States Speech: "State of the Archives" Delivered by John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States December 5, 2001 New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) Elections--U.S. Congressional--Primaries, 2002 Source: FEC 2002 U.S. Congressional Primary Election Dates (By State and By Date) -- Energy--United States Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers, 2000 Source: EIA These are advance tables. -- Documents in the News Source: U.S. Department of Justice Al Qaeda Training Manual "...manual was located by the Manchester (England) Metropolitan Police during a search of an Al Qaeda member's home. The manual was found in a computer file described as "the military series" related to the "Declaration of Jihad." The manual was translated into English and was introduced earlier this year at the embassy bombing trial in New York. The Department is only providing the following selected text from the manual because it does not want to aid in educating terrorists or encourage further acts of terrorism." Thursday, December 06, 2001
Online Databases--xrefer xrefer Launches xrefer Plus, A New Fee-Based Service for Libraries Yesterday, xrefer, the well-known and critically acclaimed database of free reference content officially launched a new fee-based service for libraries. The service is fully searchable and browsable. xrefer Plus contains material from over 100 sources published by over 20 well-known reference publishers. xrefer Plus is offering a free one month trial. You can sign-up (free) via this link. More on this new product later. See Also: Official xrefer Press Release See Also: Direct to xrefer Plus Web Search Tools LITA Web Search Toolkit Updated LITA, (Library and Technology Association, a division of ALA), has just updated it's impressive web search toolkit. A section of news search tools is now part of the compilation. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources Small Business--United States Business and the Law Source: GCN SBA Launches BusinessLaw.Gov From the article, "The Small Business Administration today launched a new Web site to help small businesses comply with laws and regulations.The site, at www.BusinessLaw.gov, covers topics such as choosing a business structure, hiring a lawyer, developing e-commerce and handling exports, SBA officials said." Direct to BusinessLaw.Gov Thanks to GT for the news tip. Wednesday, December 05, 2001
Use of Online Information Outsell Releases First-Ever Study of Information Habits of European Sales & Marketing Professionals From the news release, "Study reveals free information sources on open web preferred for daily decision-making; fee-based services still maintain competitive edge for business-critical decisions." Life Online--Future Source: PC World A Few Products Under Development At Microsoft Research In this article mentions of Mindnet ""A huge natural language database automatically created from dictionaries," in development at MSR. The dictionary information helps links words by their relationships. It is a much more sophisticated sibling of the grammar checking technology in Microsoft Word. Ask MSR:"a natural language, automated question answering site that is used internally for fun more than work. It researches questions across the Internet. "It's a very early stage of the technology," Rashid says. "We get about 50 percent of the answers right." For now, he says, that technology is best suited to help answer the very specific, expensive questions at the end of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? rather than the common-sense queries in the early rounds. Computers are apparently still learning common sense." New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items) -- Computer Software--Ready Reference Filext, A Comprehensive Lists of File Extensions -- Charities--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Worth 100 Best Charties (guide for those people who expect a good return) -- Small Business--United States Source: Entrepreneur State-By-State Guide to Doing Business -- Service Industry--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census 2000 Service Industry Annual Survey From the site, "...report covering professional, scientific and technical services. This sector includes legal services (except notaries); accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services; architectural, engineering and related services; management, scientific and technical consulting services; scientific research and development services; advertising and related services; and other professional, scientific and technical services." See Also: "Securities and Commodities Underwriters, Dealers and Brokers Report Revenues of $251 Billion" Women in the Workplace--United States Source: U.S. Census Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns, 1961-1995 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Tuesday, December 04, 2001
Info Industry--netLibrary Source: The Daily Camera (Boulder CO.) "NetLibrary Sale Plans Move Forward " From the article, "Struggling Boulder firm netLibrary's sale through bankruptcy court took two major strides forward Monday when a judge approved a loan to keep the firm going and granted its sales procedure. The approved motions are important to netLibrary. Its chief executive testified Monday to the urgency of a quick sale. Robert Kaufman, netLibrary's president and CEO, stressed that the proposed $10 million sale to OCLC Online Computer Library Center is urgent. He said the sale, which netLibrary hopes will close on Jan. 15, will boost netLibrary's sales, which have dropped significantly since it went up for sale and filed for Chapter 11 protection." Thanks to B.S. for the news tip. Scholarly Journals Source: EContent "Behind the Firewall - Electronic Access to Scientific Journals: Problems, Problems" From Martin White's article, "...in the mid-1990s, a number of publishers started to look at the possibilities of publishing electronic versions of scientific journals, in particular Elsevier, Academic Press, and the Institute of Physics Publishing. Since all the journals were now compiled electronically, creating a database of the text of the journals was a fairly straightforward process. Of course, it would require investment, and so the electronic journals would cost more than the print versions. And that is where the problems started." Web Search--Ask George State of Washington Source: Government E-Business Ask George Answers Local Queries From the article, "Washington state, which earlier this year launched a plain-English search engine for its state portal, has expanded the service to scan information related to 200 cities and 39 counties." News Brief LexisNexis Adds Resources To "Scholastic Universe" Product Now, content from over 150 newspapers available. Previously, 60 papers were included. New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items) -- Legal Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The National Law Journal The National Law Journal 250(Largest Law Firms) -- Labor Market--United States--Projections Source: BLS 2000-2010 Employment Projections See Also: Occupational Outlook Quartely Winter 2001-2002 Issue Monday, December 03, 2001
Citation Indexing--England--Lists & Rankings Source: ISI Science in England, 1996-2000 From the list, "England's world share of science and social science papers over a recent five-year period, expressed as a percentage of papers in each of 22 fields in the ISI database. Also, England's relative citation impact compared to the world average in each field, in percentage terms. These data pertain to England alone and do not include Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland." Other Lists from ISI Top 10 Journals (Impact Factors) In Economics Top 10 Journals (Impact Factors) In Geology Top 10 Journals (Impact Factors) In Sociology New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources Digital Reference Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology New ERIC Digest: Trends and Issues in Digital Reference Services PDF version also available -- Prime Ministers--Canada Source: National Library of Canada New Resource: First Among Equals: The Prime Minister in Canadian Life and Politics From the announcement, "Developed in partnership with the National Archives of Canada and the Digital Library of Canada Task Force, First Among Equals has two versions: one for a general audience and a children’s site tailored for younger users. The main First Among Equals site is unique in that it not only provides core information about our prime ministers, but it also offers details about their private lives, their role as leader of a political party and leader of our country. It also illustrates the historical and social period during which they lived." Sunday, December 02, 2001
Web-Based Reference Tools--Reviews New: Peter Jacso's Digital Reference Shelf Reviews, December Now Online Peter looks at xrefer and the The Top 10 of Everything 2002 Sampler published by Dorling Kinderly. See Also: Direct to xrefer Saturday, December 01, 2001
New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items) Research Grants--National Science Foundation Source: NSF Grant Proposal Guide, NSF 02-2 Effective January 1, 2002, .pdf Not Yet Available Reference--Writing Full-Text Online The Economist Style Guide |
