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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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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Web Search--Weblogs What's the Buzz? For Your Radar Screen: Blabble.com A new start-up joining the ranks of weblog tools, Blabble is aimed at the corporate market. According to an Internet Retailer article, the service will be fee-based when it officially launches in October. A beta is currently available free online. The article reads like Blabble will be something similar to what IBM is developing with WebFountain. Blabble defines what they're doing as "thought parsing." From the article, "Existing software products aggregate listings from blogs, but require the user seeking a view of overall trends or opinions as represented in blogs to read through all the blog listings to make that determination manually. [Company founder Matt] Rice says Blabble goes a step farther by incorporating natural language processing that parses blog listings returned in a search into parts of speech so as to extract from them words, phrases and constructions that indicate opinion. '50,000 people may write about a topic, but you don't have time to read 50,000 listings,' says Rice. 'And I probably don't care about one individual opinion; it's the aggregate that I care about.' Blabble doesn't crawl the web in response to a search, instead drawing from its own searchable database that aggregates content from what are currently more than 2 million blog authors. To fill and grow its database, it secures lists of blogs and also draws from companies that provide consumers with software and platforms for creating blogs. Blabble gets a direct feed from such companies so every change or addition to a posted blog is captured, which keeps its database current." See Also: Direct to Blabble.com Web Site See Also: Blabble.com Weblog See Also: Several weblog engines including Waypath, Technorati, and Daypop all have pages that rank popular blog topics and postings. and while we're on the subject of weblogs... Something New from Waypath, Topic Streams According to the web site, just out of the Waypath lab. "Topic Streams are topic-specific information feeds that aggregate weblog posts. Each Topic Stream is devoted to a specific topic. (The name kind of gives that away, no?) The Topic Streams are refreshed throughout the day, and pull fresh content from nearly 3 million weblogs."
Desktop Search Source: SearchDay Copernic Launches an Impressive and Free Desktop Search Tool Some person named Gary Price (-: has written an overview article about Copernic's new desktop search tool. If you run Windows and have never used a desktop search app, Copernic's new entry might be a good one to try.
Briefly + Vivisimo Technology Now Dynamically Clustering Results at BoardReader.com BoardReader.com is a specialized search tool that allows you to search discussion/message board material. Last week, Lycos unveiled a tool that also focuses on discussion board content.
Professional Reading Shelf OCLC OCLC Research Launches Searchable Repository "Built using OCLC services, the new repository contains descriptions of OCLC Research projects, activities and programs that were originally published by OCLC or in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. The metadata records may be harvested as an OAI file and are available for searching on the OCLC Research Web site. In addition, the records also are in WorldCat and are searchable in FirstSearch and search engines participating in OCLC's Open WorldCat Program. Links to full text are available wherever permitted by the copyright holder." An advanced search interface is also available. -- Information Retrieval Source: Transform Turn Search Into Find A look at self-service search. A sidebar titled, "Behind the Jargon: Five Approaches to Classification" is also available. Sad to report no mention of info professionals in the article. It's a shame since many of the skills we can provide are completely applicable to assisting an organization implementing this type of technology. Oh well, that's the way it goes. -- Science Journals Source: American Chemical Society CAS Science Spotlight From press release: "Recording how often a journal's contents are cited in scientific literature has long been the conventional way of measuring the importance of specific publications and even of the authors themselves. However, the widespread availability of electronic journals on the Web has enabled CAS to provide a new measurement - a tally of researchers' actual requests (Real-Time Document Requests) for full-text articles transmitted via CAS search services. The latest rankings are now available on the Web, free of charge, through CAS Science Spotlight...." Also available: Most Intriguing Documents (in the opinion of CAS scientists/analysts). -- National Archives--United Kingdom Source: KableNET.com Immigrant records go online From the article, "The National Archives is to put records of some of the UK's most famous immigrants online. Among the records of 55,000 naturalised British citizens is information on T. S. Eliot, Sir Henry Stanley and the founder of Marks and Spencer, Michael Marks." See Also: More in this Aug. 27th Post -- Public Libraries--United States Source: ALA All My CDs! Public Library Association President Clara N. Bohrer responds to national CD settlement, distribution to public libraries From the statement, "While library staff nationwide will work to catalog and circulate the CDs received that meet the needs of their local residents, we call on the music industry to send the educational CDs and best-selling music - not remainders that cannot be displayed in libraries - that our millions of library users want to find in their libraries." -- U.S. Census--Privacy U.S. Census Bureau Announces Policy Regarding Sensitive Data
Metadata Source: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Public Broadcasting Metadata Directory, based on Dublin Core, to be launched From the announcement, "The inaugural version of the Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary (PBcore), a standard way to describe all public broadcasting content based on Dublin Core metadata, is being finalized for the launch of version 1.0 in September 2004. The origins of the Dublin Core are firmly grounded in cross disciplinary discovery -- providing a core metadata set that others would find useful as a basis for interoperabity, and yet be able to extend to meet more elaborate requirements. PBCore is a great example of such real-world deployment by one the most prestigious news community in the United States." See Also: Direct to the Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary (PBcore) and while we're talking metadata, some news from the UK... UK Ratifies Commitment to Global Internet Standards "...the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the further and higher education funding bodies have signed a joint agreement with the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) enabling the UK to become formally involved in the standard's continued development. MLA and JISC are the UK's official representatives, presenting the views of all UK public sector institutions at an international level."
Web Search Briefs New, Search Engines 2 We're often asked if a directory of every general type search tool exists. The answer is no. However, Michael Wong has just released an impressive directory of over 12,500 search tools. If you enjoy browsing, exploring, and comparing this might just be the place to begin. Michael writes, "I've just launched Search Engines 2, a new directory that offers over 12,500 links to local, regional, national, and foreign internet search engines, web directories, pay per click search engines and meta search engines." Although this directory is large it just contains a fraction of the total search universe especially when it comes to specialized (verticals), fee-based, and site search tools. In other words, Michael has done a great job but just because it's not in the directory doesn't mean it's not out there.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Employment--United States--Lists and Rankings Source: AARP AARP Honors 35 Best Employers for Workers Over 50 From the article: "What do a dental benefits administrator, an office technologies and services firm, a financial services company and an auto manufacturer have in common? These diverse companies recruit and retain mature workers -- they treat them right -- and rank among the 35 employers from across the U.S. that have been named 2004 "AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50." + See also (Just Released) - Staying Ahead of the Curve 2004: Employer Best Practices for Mature Workers -- Health--United States--Statistics Prescription Drugs--United States--Statistics Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Updated, State Health Facts Online "The Kaiser Family Foundation's State Health Facts Online now includes the latest available data on prescription drug use and spending for all 50 states and the U.S. The new 2003 data include the number of retail prescriptions filled, retail prescriptions filled per capita, the average price of prescriptions, and total spending on retail prescriptions for each state. The percent change from 2002 to 2003 for these indicators is also included. The 2003 data, based on information provided by Verispan L.L.C, a health information company, are available by age group (seniors, adults, and children) and gender. Updated state data are also now available on smoking, obesity, and death rates for cancer, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, and firearms, based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data are broken down by gender and race/ethnicity for each topic. State Health Facts Online is a free resource that provides quick access to these topics and others, totaling nearly 400 indicators covering state-level and U.S. data on health, health care, and health policy." -- Law Firms--Lists & Rankings Source: American Lawyer Just Released, The American Lawyer A-List Ranking 2004 Background Article ||| Direct to List (Free, Registration Required)
Enterprise Search + The FBI Awards Large Contract to Convera for Enterprise Search Technology "Convera Corporation today announced the company has won a multi-million dollar contract to provide the FBI with an agency-wide search and discovery platform." See Also: Read More about Convera's RetrievalWare Monday, August 30, 2004
Web Search Source: NY Times Letter to the Editor in The Times: A Non-Profit Web Engine? Timothy E. Cook of Baton Rouge, LA, suggests a nonprofit general web engine in response to this opinion piece. Aside from the technical and collection development policy (targeting the crawler, keeping the database clean) issues that need to be addressed, an interesting idea. Actually, it's not a new idea. I know of many people (namely librarians) who have had similar ideas for a couple of years. Of course, many wonderful librarian- (and non-profit-) built general web directories exist like the LII, Infomine, AcademicInfo.net, and RDN. In fact, one of RDN's underlying sites, EEVL (Enhanced and Evaluated Virtual Library, engineering, computing and mathematics resources), offers a focused crawler that, "harvests information from web sites within the EEVL Internet Resource catalogue and allows the actual content of these sites to be searched (as a conventional search engine would do, but with greater subject focus)." A great idea and one that could help seed a non-profit general web engine with excellent resources.
Answer Engines Source: The Economist Answer Engine Research at Microsoft We've mentioned and linked to articles about "answer engines" numerous times on ResourceShelf. Some new stuff today. Here's an article about the "Ask MSR" research at Microsoft from the current issue of The Economist. From the article, "What is the next stage in the evolution of internet search engines? AltaVista demonstrated that indexing the entire world wide web was feasible. Google's success stems from its uncanny ability to sort useful web pages from dross. But the real prize will surely go to whomever can use the web to deliver a straight answer to a straight question. And Eric Brill, a researcher at Microsoft, intends that his firm will be the first to do that...Ask MSR is still a prototype, although Microsoft is trying to improve it and it may be launched commercially under the name AnswerBot." If you would like to read more, take a look at these papers from MS that have been linked on RS during the past year: + Automatic Question Answering: Beyond the Factoid A 2004 paper by Eric Brill and Radu Soricut. This paper is mentioned in the article. -- + "Web Question Answering: Is More Always Better?" A 2002 paper by Microsoft researchers. -- + "An Analysis of the AskMSR Question-Answering System" Another 2002 paper by Microsoft researchers. We should also mention that Ask Jeeves is doing some interesting and USEFUL work in this area with their Smart Search program. For example, a search for academy awards best actress 1962 provides an ANSWER (mined from the IMDB) not only provides links to answers BUT an actual answer (with a link to the source) at the top of the results list. Here's another example. -- See Also: A Recent RS post about Kozoru A Kansas City startup also doing work in this area. See Also: A May 2004 RS Post about LearnitAll Answer engine/knowledge extraction research at the University of Washington. -- See Also: ResourceShelfPLUS has a compilation of selected MS Search Technical Reports and Patents
Semantic Web Ontologies Source: JISC New, Full Text article, The role of ontologies in teaching and learning "Most information on the Web is written in natural language, designed for people to read and not for computers to understand. The Semantic Web proposes to maintain the decentralised and heterogeneous nature of the Web, but to enable the meaning of its resources to be expressed in a machine understandable way. Making the Semantic Web a reality involves adding machine processable meta-information to documents and creating 'ontologies' - structures around which knowledge bases can be built. Ontologies, and the increased functionality they imply, will bring new opportunities to e-learning and e-teaching. They will enable complex and dynamic learning requirements to be met automatically, and will assist learners in comprehending the domain and building their own concept map. In short, they promise to greatly improve understanding between teachers/learners and the Web."
Professional Reading Shelf Librarians LibrariansForBush In the past few weeks the group LibrariansAgainstBush.org has gotten some attention. We've just noticed that earlier this month LibrariansForBush.org was registered to a person in Massachusetts. The site is not live at this time. -- Digital Libraries Source: E-LIS From open access to open libraries: claims and visions for Open Academic Libraries (PDF; 148 KB) "This paper discusses the concept of the "Open Academic Library". The idea refers to a freely available metadata set about academic publications. The paper discusses emergence and sustainability of such libraries." -- Government Printing Office Source: FCW Collection of last resort From the article, "Government Printing Office officials have held preliminary discussions with librarians about creating a backup library to supplement federal depository library collections. GPO officials describe the new concept as a 'collection of last resort.' But officials at libraries that are part of GPO's Federal Depository Library Program have mixed views about the proposed collection. A period of public comment on the proposal began in the spring, and GPO officials have extended it to Sept. 7. GPO officials said they are only exploring the idea of a backup library and are looking for feedback. But they said new policies may be needed to guarantee free, permanent public access to the government's nearly 2.2 million titles. A collection of last resort would preserve those titles, both in tangible and electronic forms, in the event of an accident or a catastrophe." See Also: More in this 4/2004 RS Post -- Open Access Source: Library Journal NIH Open Access Recommendation Spurs Heated Debate -- Libraries and Librarians Source: Council on Library and Information Resources The September/October Edition of CLIR Issues is Now Online Articles includes: + Enabling New Scholarship Scholarly Communication Institute Highlights Collaboration and Technology + Charting a Course Comments from the New President of CLIR, Nancy Davenport -- Wikis Source: EDUCAUSE Review Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not "The needs met by 'wikis'--documents posted online for open editing by all--are simply not being satisfied by present IT strategies and tools."
Librarians New Publication, Your Help Requested! Patronized: a semi-annual publication about the lives and labor of librarians This new a semi-annual publication will focus on, "the lives and labor of librarians." According to a note on their Ibiblio-based web site, they're looking for columnists, editors, and friends. No other details are provided.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Aviation Security--United States Source: Office of the Inspector General, DHS Just Released, Evaluation of the Federal Air Marshal Service, August 2004 -- Bankruptcies--United States--Statistics Just Released, Bankruptcy Statistics "Bankruptcies filed in federal courts declined slightly in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2004, the first time since 2000 that bankruptcies have declined during that period." -- Medical Research--History Source: National Library of Medicine New, Annotated Bibliography, Resources on the History of Psychiatry from the History of Medicine of NLM -- Republican National Convention Coverage from the blogosphere via two excellent weblog/news search tools. + Politics.Feedster.com From the RSS search tool Feedster. + Election Watch From Technorati. Includes several charts and graphs. === === on a related note, something NEW from Yahoo News... Election Blog Roundup From the site, "Our goal is to aggregate a diverse selection of political blogs and let you sample a variety of opinions as election season heats up."
Business Research Current Awareness Source: Information Today NewsBreaks A New Scoop for Business Information Makes Its Debut Paula Hane offers up an overview of Scoop.com a new fee-based resource ($29.95/month) from NetContent. Content from open web and proprietary sources. Paula concludes, "In my admittedly limited testing of the service, the Scoop service seemed more like a beta release. Although it let me choose publication type and publications, it then didn't show me what I had chosen on the search page or in the results. And, the searches were not iterative -- I couldn't search within the results; instead, "refine search" dropped me back to the initial search box. The service could benefit from some user interface work and search refinements. It does offer both basic and advanced search options, including a handy "Search Builder" function that helps users create structured Boolean queries. Tabs offer easy access to specific functions, including company searches, alerts, and publishing. Another tab presents users with a Topic Library with subject categories so they can drill down to more specific topics to create a search or alert." Sunday, August 29, 2004
Weblogs and RSS Weblogs--Education Source: Educause Review Educational Blogging From the article: "The bell rings, and the halls of Institut St-Joseph in Quebec City echo the clatter of the fifth- and sixth-graders. Some take their chairs in the more traditional classroom on the lower floor. Others attend to their projects in the large, open activity room upstairs, pausing perhaps to study one of the chess games hanging on the wall before meeting in groups to plan the current project. A third group steps up a half flight of stairs into the small narrow room at the front of the building, one wall lined with pictures and plasticine models of imagined aliens, the other with a bank of Apple computers. This last group of students, eight or so at a time, fire up their browsers and log into their cyberportfolios, a publication space that Principal Mario Asselin calls a "virtual extension of the classroom." This virtual space is composed of three sets of weblogs, or blogs: a classroom Web space, where announcements are displayed and work of common interest is posted; a public, personal communication zone, where students post the results of their work or reflection; and a private personal space, reserved for students' thoughts and teacher guidance."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Documents in the News Executive Orders and Directives--United States Source: White House Executive Orders and Directives Last Friday, President Bush signed new Executive Orders designed to carry out some of the 9/11 Commission recommendations regarding improving US intelligence operations. They are: + Executive Order National Counterterrorism Center + Executive Order Strengthening the Sharing of Terrorism Information to Protect Americans + Executive Order Establishing the President's Board on Safeguarding Americans' Civil Liberties + Executive Order Strengthened Management of the Intelligence Community + Homeland Security Presidential Directive/Hspd-11 -- Comprehensive Terrorist-Related Screening Procedures -- Legal Services--Tutorials Source: AP Free Online Legal Service Launched From the article: "A nonprofit that helps the poor with legal services launched a free Web site Friday to help people navigate the state and federal courts in California. The Web site provides legal referrals in all 58 counties and general information on a variety of legal topics, ranging from domestic abuse to workplace discrimination. It has separate sections for issues specific to seniors, the disabled and American Indians. " + See also: publiclawlibrary.org , sponsored by The Council of California County Law Librarians. -- Internet Use--United States Source: Online Publishers Association Internet Activity Index "The Internet Activity Index (IAI) provides a new way of looking at consumer engagement online, dividing Internet usage into four distinct activities: content, communications, commerce and search. As the Internet has evolved, it has become increasingly clear that each of these areas has a distinctly different business model associated with it, leading to a natural and healthy segmentation of the marketplace. By tracking share of time spent on each activity, the Index provides a benchmark for charting the relative impact of changing market dynamics on these segments as the medium matures." See Also: Press Release
Professional Reading Shelf American Library Association Source: ALA Governing and Strategic Documents ALAhead to 2010 Overview of the planning process and the plan. -- Presidential Libraries--Woodrow Wilson Source: AP (via Newsday.com) Staunton library to become primary resource on Woodrow Wilson "The small western Virginia city of Staunton has always claimed Woodrow Wilson as a native son. Though the 28th president spent less than a year there as an infant, residents nevertheless celebrate his short time in their company with a museum next to Wilson's first home. Now museum officials hope to make Staunton the first place to go for history buffs. In the next few years, they'll build a $28.5 million library expected to house originals or copies of everything Wilson ever wrote." See Also: The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library -- Libraries Source: The Daily Breeze Cell phone use in library: $1,000 fine From the article: "Using a cellular telephone in a city library could cost incessant yakkers plenty -- up to $1,000. City leaders adopted an ordinance, which takes effect Sept. 15, that bans all cell phone use in libraries, including talking, text messaging and ringing tones of any kind." Saturday, August 28, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf The British Library Source: BL Now Available, The British Library 2003-2004 Annual Report From a summary article, "The British Library Annual Report 2003/2004, available online yesterday, shows how the national library underpins research strengths of UK businesses, universities and spin-outs -- generating an estimated £363m of value to the UK economy each year. Other statistical highlights of the 2003/2004 Annual Report include: + 53,483,537 international patents are held in the Library's collection -- the world's largest + 5,000 plus scientific, business and patent items were consulted in the reading rooms every day by inventors, entrepreneurs and other researchers + 2,477,535 printed books, journals, newspapers and patents entered the collections -- 571,901 sent by publishers under UK Legal Deposit legislation + £10 million is spent annually by the Library on acquiring new science, technology, medical and business material + 9,721,574 searches were made of the Library's web catalogue -- six and a half million of which were made by users in 184 countries around the world." -- Filtering Source: Corvallis Gazette-Times Library filters could block out ed sites From the article: "Shakespeare's plays, classic novels like 'Moby Dick' and a Web site about the NFL's Super Bowl are among the resources that may be blocked to children younger than 13 under a proposal to filter Internet searches at Multnomah County libraries. A proposal by library Director Molly Raphael would filter all Internet searches by children ages 12 and younger, unless parents or guardians want them to have unlimited access. Youths ages 13 to 16 could access any Web site."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Digital Imaging The Digital Learning Center "The KODAK Digital Learning Center (DLC) is your digital reference solution. The DLC was developed to educate people about the digital world and to help them succeed with digital imaging. The site was built on the basics of educational instruction and has been utilized by thousands of people to Take Pictures." This site includes a glossary of digital imaging terms as well as chapters on such subjects as images for the web, video conferencing, color and storage issues. Link and annotation via Infomine -- Earth Sciences--Web Resources Source: NOAA Central Library WINDandSEA: The Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Internet Locator "This locator was built in response to the many reference questions that are posed to the library and is meant to make Internet searching more efficient for the NOAA community, the academic community, other government agencies concerned with oceanic and atmospheric issues, and the general public. Presently WINDandSEA has over 1,000 selected links to science and policy sites organized by topic and alphabetically within topic. All of these sites have been reviewed and annotated by NOAA Central Library and NOAA Regional Libraries staff." -- Native Americans--Images Source: California State University, Long Beach American Historical Images on File: The Native American Experience This site contains "... Photographs, drawings, maps and short descriptions chronicling the experiences of the Native American population dating from the first migrations from Siberia (pre-1600) through recent experiences. This collection of historical photographs is provided with the permission of Facts on File, Inc., and is a comprehensive collection of images of Native American people. The collection is arranged chronologically from the prehistoric period and the Paleo-Indians to 1990 and the appointment of R. Richard West as director of the National Museum of the American Indian. The collection includes information and images which describe the lifeways of various tribes and include historical entries for particular Indian groups. Narrative is provided that provides the historical and cultural background describing the event, person, or subject presented. " Link and annotation via Infomine Friday, August 27, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Weblogs Source: RLG DigiNews Blog Today, Gone Tomorrow? Preservation of Weblogs From the article, "Weblogs seem to be growing in number and stature, but a lot of them seem pretty ephemeral. Are any special efforts being made to preserve their contents?" -- Internet Critical Information Skills Source: News.com Reservoir blogs: Fan fakes Tarantino diary Want to be a famous film director? No problem. Create a site and say you're that person. The web makes it easy. This is nothing all that new but it's a good article for your critical info skills teaching folder. -- e-Books Source: News.com Have e-books turned a page? From the article, "After more than a decade of false starts and empty promises, publishers may finally be starting to understand what consumers want from electronic books. Although revenues remain tiny, industry surveys show encouraging signs of growth in e-book sales over the past year. Publishing executives and analysts say the industry is finally coming to grips with the most significant issues that have stalled e-book adoption to date."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Health Information New Topic Page/Compilation from MEDLINEplus + MedlinePlus: Personal Medical Records Another excellent compilation of sites and resources. -- Hurricanes Source: NOAA/Hurricane Research Division Recently Expanded and Updated: Hurricanes (Frequently Asked Questions) -- Genealogy--United Kingdom--Databases Source: The National Archives Web gets even better for family history "Family history will become even easier to do from home thanks to a new project by The National Archives. Information on over 55,000 people who became naturalised British citizens between 1844 and 1930 is now available free in the Catalogue...The project will be completed in March 2005 when 7000 naturalisations from 1931 to 1935, already available at the public research rooms in Kew, will go online." -- Education--United States--Financial Support Source: National Center for Education Statistics Just Released, Federal Support for Education: Fiscal Years 1980 to 2003 "This report provides a comprehensive picture of total federal financial support for education from fiscal year 1980 through fiscal year 2003. A summary of dollar amounts spent on education programs in the U.S. Department of Education and other government agencies is provided." See: Full Report (PDF; 418 KB) -- Secrecy--U.S. Government Source: OpenGovernment.org Full Text Report, Secrecy Report Card: Quantitative Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government "...an initial effort to establish measurable benchmarks for evaluating the level of secrecy in government." Summary/News Release ||| Full Text
Government Contracts--United States--Databases Source: GCN GSA to offer some free access to federal contract data Free? It's free AFTER paying a one time $2500 fee. From the article, "The General Services Administration will provide the public with free access to some federal contract information through the Federal Procurement Data System Next Generation. Access to all of the raw contract data will be provided for a one-time $2,500 fee, GSA official David Drabkin said today. The new FPDS will be available to the public Oct. 1, according to GSA...The new database will provide users with up-to-date contracting information, according to GSA. In the past, the data has been three to nine months old by the time it was published, Drabkin said...Access to some data may be delayed up to 90 days for security reasons, Drabkin said. For example, if the Army bought equipment or supplies that would indicate an upcoming military operation, 'they wouldn't want folks around the world to know what they were doing,' he said." See Also: GSA News Release
Briefly + +SLA and New York Public Library Join Forces to Offer Free Research Service for Journalists at Republican National Convention Thursday, August 26, 2004
Resources of the Week Business Research Trip's Lists Vol. 2 Note: Trip Wyckoff is the proprietor of SpecialIssues.com, a database containing information about salary surveys, industry outlooks, overviews, buyers guides, who's who registers, etc., that can be found in more than 3,200 publications. He is also the current compiler of Price's Lists of Lists, a resource I started about six years ago. It offers direct links to company and industry rankings. The LOL is available for free. From time-to time Trip posts interesting compilations of useful resources to ResourceShelf. His first compilation was posted about four months ago and is available here. Buyers Guides By Trip Wykoff In this article, we take a look at the different types of buyers guides and the resources affiliated with them. Many magazines now have a buyers guide issue or products area on their websites. Buyers guides are advertising revenue-generating devices magazines use to do one or more of the following: 1) generate incremental income from their advertisers; or 2) reward advertisers; and/or 3) create a tool for identifying future advertisers and subscribers. Buyers guides can be very useful for identifying companies, especially large companies that play in many niche industries. They can also help researchers understand players in an industry, understand market share and identify niche players in industries. Let's take General Electric (GE), a large conglomerate, as an example. Below are listed nine different buyers guides; GE has a listing in each. + BioIT World (GE Biosciences) + Business Finance Magazine (GE Finance is listed.) + Door & Window Maker (See GE Plastics profile.) + Food & Drug Packaging (Look for GE Interlogix.) + Food Manufacturing (GE Silicones, GE Water Systems are among the divisions listed.) + Medical Dealer (GE is listed in the Manufacturers Directory; note how small the listing is, probably due to market share) + Plastics News (GE has a large presence, no less than 3 divisions and 2 subsidiaries.) + Security Management (GE Security has a listing; including regional distributors.) -- -- -- Trip's Cool Buyers Guides + DM News (guide to direct mail lists; can sort lists by NAICS code) + Quirk's Marketing Research Review (wonderful site for tips on researching markets)
Professional Reading Shelf Archives Source: The National Archives (UK) New Issue Available, Recordkeeping (Summer 2004) "Recordkeeping is a regular publication from The National Archives aimed at Archivists, Records Managers, and all those who care for archives and records. The magazine is published quarterly and will contain news from The National Archives and examples of best practice and case studies in archives and records management." -- Information Science Source: ASIST The August 2004 Issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is Now Online Articles include: + Analytic Myopia, Data Disintegration and Homeland Security by Lee Strickland + Emerging Content Requirements for New Products by Howard Williams -- PubMed Source: NLM Updated PubMed Tutorial Available NLM has also made three new "animated" tutorials available using Viewlet technology from Qarbon.com. + Search PubMed for an Author + Searching PubMed by Author and Subject + PubMed Simple Subject Search Example
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Terrorism Intelligence--United States Source: CRS (via FPC) Three New/Updated Congressional Service Reports: + Terrorism in Southeast Asia + Side-by-Side Comparison of Intelligence Community Reforms Proposed by 9/11 Commission, the Bush Administration, Senators Feinstein, Graham and Daschle, and Representatives Harman and Goss; and Current Statute (Memorandum) + Terrorism: Key Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and Recent Major Commissions and Inquiries and Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer A 53 page CRS report. Last updated in 2000. We are checking to see if a newer version exists. -- Health Insurance--Untited States--Statistics Poverty--Untited States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Released Today, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003 Summary and Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full Text -- Securities--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Securities Class Action Services/Institutional Shareholder Services The SCAS 50 (2003) "The SCAS 50 lists the top 50 plaintiffs' law firms ranked by the total dollar amount of final securities class action settlements occurring in 2003 in which the law firm served as lead or co-lead counsel." -- Drunk Driving--United States--Statistics Source: NHTSA Just Released, Drunk Driving Deaths 2003 Includes chart. -- Real Estate--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Most Overpriced Places 2004 Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Enterprise Search Federated Search Source: GCN Advanced search engines link many data sources So many search tools, so little time. Sounds like federated search technology is finding a home at several government agencies.
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Libraries New Interesting Reads from the Journal of Digital Information + MatDL: Integrating Digital Libraries into Scientific Practice "Digital repositories can be catalysts for new knowledge by providing information space and tools to facilitate the work of students, educators, or scientists. The NSF NSDL Materials Digital Library (MatDL) is adapting existing open source "tools", such as an image gallery and a version control system, to meet the needs of users within the materials science community." -- ++ Supporting Community Inquiry with Digital Resources "Today there are a number of fields that address the need to develop better means of employing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help communities achieve their goals. Digital infrastructure and repositories are widely created to support the activities of educational, workplace, and scientific communities, as well as virtual communities of interest that may center on topics as diverse as entertainment, crisis management, and health. However, the research and development of ICTs faces numerous challenges." -- Digital Preservation Source: National Library of Australia PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information) and Safekeeping An article by Marian Hanley, PADI Administrator, National Library of Australia, originally published in the High Energy Physics Libraries Webzine, Issue 9, February 2004. -- Encyclopedias Source: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) Librarian: Don't use Wikipedia as source A school librarian tells a tech columnist to be careful. + See Also: "One great source -- if you can trust it" (2004) Noted tech columnist Hiawatha Bray shares his thoughts. + Not Available "On the Web" Peter Jacso reviewed Wikipedia in the March/April, 2002 of Online To Wikepedia's credit they offer a response here. I hope Peter will write an updated review soon. -- National Archives--Japan Source: Asahi Weekly Editorial: Role of National Archives "The role of a national archive is to preserve important government documents and open them to the public. But the number of those documents offered to the National Archives of Japan has dramatically decreased in recent years. That is because government ministries and agencies have become unwilling to offer the documents under their control for public scrutiny." -- Libraries Source: Newsday Library fits any budget but its own From the editorial: "We don't have any additional data," Larra Clark, the association's spokeswoman, said last week. "But from what I've heard from around the country, many libraries are still reporting increases in circulation. That good news is complicated a bit by all the cuts in library funding." In other words, making an apples-to-apples comparison of the present and recent past is tricky. Even if more people continue to show up at libraries, tightened budgets have yielded reductions at many locales in library personnel and purchases of books, CDs, videos and other materials. Operating hours have been slashed."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Health--Statistics Source: March of Dimes New PeriStats Website Provides Easy Access To More Than 60,000 Graphs, Maps, And Tables On Perinatal Health From the announcement, "...a complete redesign of its popular PeriStats Web site, offering the most current and detailed maternal and infant health statistics available in the United States. Funding was provided by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health through a 2-year grant collaboration with the New York Academy of Medicine. The new PeriStats Web site offers state-specific perinatal data, including detailed data for the largest cities and counties in the United States, and is available free of charge..." See Also: Direct to PERISTATS Database -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES New Data Available, Education Finance Statistics School District Peer Tool "The NCES Education Finance Statistics Center has updated the Public School District Finance Peer Search with School Year 2000-2001 financial data (the latest available fiscal data from NCES.) The Public School District Finance Peer Search permits you to compare the finances of a school district with its peers. Peer districts are districts which share similarities among such characteristics as total students; student teacher ratio; percent children in poverty; district type; and locale code. Aside from an automatic standard peer search, users can search for school districts by distance from a zip code, or can select school districts they wish to compare a school district to. Advanced users can select groups of school districts by a particular characteristic, such as percent of children in poverty (in School Year 2000-2001)." -- Foundations--United States--Statistics Source: Foundation Center Just Released, 2004 Foundation Staffing and Reporting From an email message, "For the first time ever, the Foundation Center has released online statistics detailing foundation staffing and public reporting in the Grantmaker Stats area of "FC Stats." Staffing data document patterns for professional and support staff and include information on boards of trustees. Public reporting data document foundations' voluntary reporting patterns through the use of publications, annual reports, and Web sites. Information in both areas includes breakdowns by foundation type, region, asset range, and period of establishment. Data for 2004 are based on information from nearly 20,000 of the largest U.S. foundations." -- Iraq--Documents in the News Source: U.S. Army Just Released, The Investigation of Intelligence Activities at Abu Ghraib News Release ||| Full Text
Government Documents--United States Source: ALA Congress Asks Ashcroft to Explain Why He Wanted Libraries To Withdraw Docs From the ALA Washington Office, "On August 24, 2004, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-MI.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote Attorney General John D. Ashcroft asking him to explain the rationale for the request that GPO instruct federal depository librarians to withdraw and destroy five documents. The ALA Washington Office has been in communication with the congressional offices since the DOJ request. Senator Leahy and Rep. Conyers Jr. said 'Given the Administration's penchant for secrecy, we fear that this action was yet another attempt to erode the public's right to know.' The Senators' letter can be found online at: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/dojlibraryltr82404.pdf"
Citation Analysis Source: ISI + Science in Finland, 1999-2003 + Science in Belgium, 1999-2003 + U.S. Universities with High Concentrations in Communication, 1999-2003 + Chemical Engineering: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Library & Information Science: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Computer Science: High-Impact Institutions, 1994-2004
Surveys Share Your Opinions: Two Search Surveys 1) Sid Yadav Would Appreciate Your Opinion on the Future of Search Engines It takes very little time!!! 2) GuideStar UK Would Like Your Views The database (similar to GuideStar.org) is set to launch in April 2005. They would like your views about how you might use the search facility they plan on making available.
Briefly + Gates Foundation Presents Awards to Libraries in Denmark and China + CAS Extends Access to Additional Research from Early 20th Century (via Managinginformation.com) Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Internet2 Source: News.com Internet2: 2004 and beyond From the article, "More than 227 universities, libraries, public schools and research institutions are connected to Internet2. The network connects to more than 57 international high-capacity networks. It provides a test bed for new technologies such as IP version 6." See Also: Direct to the Internet2 Web Site
Professional Reading Shelf Academic Libraries Source: ARL New SPEC Kit from ARL: The Information Commons From the announcement, "Many college students want access in one area to all the different tools needed to write a research paper, assignment, thesis, or complete a class project. In response, libraries have started exploring partnerships with others in the campus community to develop services that combine computer access and research assistance. The result is the "Information Commons." This SPEC Kit looks at how this new service model fits into the existing framework of user assistance offered in academic and research libraries today. Additionally, it explores how the information commons is staffed and what training is needed to help staff members transition into this new service area." Full Text is fee-based but a free executive summary is available. -- Law Librarians Source: Columbus Business First Demand for librarians at law firms on the rise "Like many others, Schottenstein Zox & Dunn shrunk its collection of print material because of the increased availability of electronic legal information through password-protected services such as LexisNexis and Westlaw. But law librarians don't appear to be victims of the downsizing trend, even though it has become much easier for lawyers and paralegals to conduct their own research. 'If anything, my workload has increased a lot,' [Librarian Margaret] Toole said. So much information is now available that having someone who can sift through it and find the relevant information quickly is a definite advantage, she said." -- Online Research Source: Dayton Business Journal Know where to look when searching Web Ohio librarian Rachelle Ramsey reminds readers of this business weekly the people are out there to assist them in accessing online info. She writes, "Research conducted by the Delphi Group revealed that most business professionals spend more than two hours each day searching for information needed for their jobs. Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents agreed that finding information is a difficult process and that they often can't find the information they seek. Local business professionals can cut that time dramatically by using trained professionals -- such as librarians -- to assist them. As information professionals, reference librarians are trained to create effective search strategies to locate needed information in print or online." -- U.S. National Commission of Library and Information Science NCLIS Links Libraries and Emergency Preparedness, Recommends Libraries as a Trusted Information Network From the announcement, "The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) announced today that its program for promoting libraries as information providers for emergency preparedness is moving forward. 'NCLIS is working with libraries to encourage participation in emergency preparedness at the community level,' said Commission Chair Beth Fitzsimmons, of Ann Arbor, MI. 'Making this connection between libraries and the distribution of emergency preparedness information is part of the work that NCLIS has taken upon itself. The Commissioners have chosen three strategic goals, and this work grows directly out of our efforts to achieve these goals. We are going to appraise and assess America's libraries, we will strengthen the relevance of libraries and information services in the minds of American citizens, and we will promote research and development for improving library and information science. Encouraging the use of libraries as centers for emergency preparedness information fits right in, especially with our efforts to make libraries more relevant in American society.'
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Iraq--Documents in the News Source: Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations Full Text, Just Released, Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations -- Biography--Wales--Databases Source: The National Library of Wales New, Welsh Biography Online From a BBC article, "The Welsh Biography Online site highlights the great and the good who lived and died between the mid 4th century and 1970. The project has been developed by the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, mid Wales...The site's contents are taken from volumes of The Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Alwyn Owen, project leader, said: 'The original idea of transcribing The Dictionary of Welsh Biography into digital form came because of the constant enquiries library staff received from users. Several national librarians have served as editors and many members of staff have undertaken editorial and research work for the publication. It was natural for the National Library to take the relationship a step further and to make the online resource a live database.'" -- Plagiarism Source: Lou Bloomfield, Professor of Physics, University of Virginia The Plagiarism Resource Site "The goal of this web site is to help reduce the impact of plagiarism on education and educational institutions. At present, it distributes free software to detect plagiarism and provides links to other resources." See also: Intellectual Honesty in the Electronic Age (John Iliff and Judy Xiao, College of Staten Island Library, City University of New York) -- Children's Literature--Historical Collections Source: Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (State University System of Florida) Literature for Children "Literature for Children is a collection of the treasures of children's literature published largely in the United States and Great Britain from before 1850 to beyond 1950. At the core of this Collection are books from the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, housed in the Department of Special Collections and Area Studies at the University of Florida. Books from the Departments of Special Collections at the Florida Atlantic University, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida join volumes from the Baldwin Library to complete the Collection. The foundation for this Collection was a cataloging and preservation microfilming project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The NEH project included a digital color management strategy for the reproduction of illustrations as children saw them." -- Insurance Records--Slavery--United States Source: The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) Illinois Web site offers glimpse into slavery "The names of dozens of Charlestonians who owned slaves are now posted on an Illinois government Web site, along with the names and skills of the slaves whose lives they once insured. South Carolina historians say the release of the insurance company records could be valuable for genealogical research." -- Spam--Lists and Rankings Source: Sophos Sophos reveals latest "Dirty Dozen" spam producing countries The U.S. tops the list. -- U.S. Congress Source: House Committee on Ways and Means/GPO Now Available, Searchable, Green Book 2004 (Background Material and Data on Programs Within the Jurisdiction of the House Committee on Ways and Means) "The House Ways and Means Committee Green Book provides program descriptions and historical data on a wide variety of social and economic topics, including Social Security, employment, earnings, welfare, child support, health insurance, the elderly, families with children, poverty and taxation. It has become a standard reference work for those interested in the direction of social policy in the United States. It is compiled by the staff of the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives." -- Workplace Safety and Health--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The Memory Hole and OSHA Companies With Highest Levels Of Employee Injury and Illness From the OSHA web site, "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has identified and sent letters to almost 13,000 workplaces with the highest occupational injury and illness rates and is urging the employers to take action to remove hazards causing the high rates." See Also: Direct to List (available in several formats) See Also: Excellent Summary by Russ Kick
Health Research--Databases Source: USDA/NLA/NIH IBIDS: International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements Database Online With New Look and New Features From the announcement, "The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) at the National Agricultural Library are delighted to announce the "launch" of the new, improved, Web-accessible International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) Database today, Wednesday, August 18, 2004. The IBIDS database is available to the public free of charge through a Web interface ...It currently contains over 730,000 citations on the topic of dietary supplements. Citations are available from 1986 to the present and abstracts are included where permission has been granted from the publisher. So What's New with IBIDS? + A New Look: The Web site has been redesigned to include images and other new features. Available abstracts are visible in the search result sets and records are easy to discern from one another due to the creative use of background color. + Images: Images of botanicals and the chemical structures of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals will appear in conjunction with search set results when an image is available for the term entered or selected. + The Top Five: The five search terms entered most frequently by IBIDS users are tallied and made available at the click of a virtual button from the main page. + Additional Delivery Options: Receive selected records via email in plain text form or formatted for use in the Endnote program. + Query Terms Highlighted in Results: Result sets show the query terms highlighted in red text within the citations and abstracts." See Also: Direct to IBID's Home Page
Briefly + IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellows for 2005 Announced -- + The Organization of American States, ebrary and E-libro Join Forces to Facilitate Online Education and Information Sharing throughout the Americas Monday, August 23, 2004
Web Search FaganFinder Launches a New Resource: URLinfo Another great tool from Michael Fagan via his already VERY useful Fagan Finder search page. Michael pinged us today to inform us about his new URLinfo resource that makes finding info about a specific web page/site from a variety of sources just a click or two away. It's simple. At the top of the URLinfo page enter the url you want to learn more about. Then, simply click on any of the colored tabs to access data about the page/site. Tabs include: + General (WHOIS info and more) + Links (Backlink info from a variety of sources) + Similar (Find related page links from several sources including Google) + Cache (Direct links to a variety of databases caching links) + Search (Just like it sounds) + Blogs/Feeds (Info from Daypop, Syndic8, and other blog/rss tools) + Translate (A massive set of translation sources direct from the Fagan Finder Translation Wizard (another tool we really like). + Track (Track page changes using a variety of sources) + Develop (Validation tools and more!) + Misc (Traffic stats from Alexa and other sources) Also available is a resource that with just a few clicks will create customized bookmarklets to various parts of URLInfo. No coding needed. (-: It looks like Mr. Fagan has done it again and has built another useful tool. Michael also wanted me to let you know that feedback is welcome. You can contact him at: mfagan@gmail.com.
Search Briefs + Two New Beta Releases from Lycos (via SearchDay) People Search is a rebranding of WhoWhere.com offering telephone and other data sources including direct links (labeled "professional profile") to the Eliyon.com database. Eliyon aggregates data from a variety of open web sources. Be careful, some of these profiles might contain old, outdated info (you mean every web page doesn't contain the most current data? (-;). -- The other beta, Discussion Search, aggregates results from THOUSANDS (Lycos would not provide an exact number) of online discussion boards including Yahoo Groups. I agree with Chris, this is a very good idea and something that is long overdue. Some search result pages also offer direct links to "related organizations" and web pages based on your search terms. For example, this search for "search engines" offers a direct link to the InfoPeople "Best Search Tools" page.
Web Search--Google View a Presentation By Google's CEO Eric Schmidt Eric Schmidt delivered this presentation (it runs about one hour) at UC Berkeley during the EECS Annual Research Symposium in February. You'll need MS Media Player to view. -- -- See Also: Seminar Presentation: Challenges in Running a Commercial Search Engine (3.5 MB; PDF) From the IR perspective, interesting! A presentation by Amit Singhal, Senior Research Scientist at Google. It was the keynote address at IBM's Second Search and Collaboration Seminar 2004 in Haifa.
Professional Reading Shelf Internet Filters--Public Libraries Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Porn filters expose flaws From the article, "When John Mihelcik clicked on GasBuddy.com, a Web site that tracks retail gasoline prices across the country, a message popped up on the Mt. Lebanon Public Library computer: "Access Denied -- the site you have chosen has been categorized as a sex site." ...In the seven weeks they have been mandatory, filters have disrupted hundreds of routine searches in public libraries, according to librarians and patrons. They say the filters have become a counterproductive hassle at best and, at worst, an impediment to the free flow of ideas, information and speech." See Also: Library will be checking in with public on Internet filters (via The Oregonian) "A Multnomah County proposal requires filters for those 12 and younger but not for users 13 to 16 unless parents say otherwise." -- Citation Analysis Source: In-Cites.com The Top 5 Library & Information Science: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 -- Scholarly Publishing Source: Houston Chronicle Lawsuit alleges fraud in sale of subscriptions From the article, "A federal judge has frozen the bank accounts of a Houston subscription company in a lawsuit involving multimillion-dollar fraud allegations and the arcane world of the $6 billion-per-year scientific publishing industry. "Some of the biggest companies in the international scientific publishing business are accusing Scholarly Publications Inc. of fraudulently purchasing individual subscriptions at low rates and reselling them at institutional rates that can be as much as 10 times higher. Bringing the lawsuit are the American Chemical Society, a nonprofit publisher; London-based Elsevier Inc.; Sage Publications Inc. of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; and three companies owned by New York-based John Wiley & Sons Inc." Thanks to Sherry A. for the news tip. -- Libraries--Use Source: Newsday Library fits any budget but its own From the editorial: "We don't have any additional data," Larra Clark, the association's spokeswoman, said last week. "But from what I've heard from around the country, many libraries are still reporting increases in circulation. That good news is complicated a bit by all the cuts in library funding." In other words, making an apples-to-apples comparison of the present and recent past is tricky. Even if more people continue to show up at libraries, tightened budgets have yielded reductions at many locales in library personnel and purchases of books, CDs, videos and other materials. Operating hours have been slashed." -- Libraries Source: Christian Science Monitor Something new to check out at the mall: library books. From the article: "Typically, people go to malls to shop and to socialize. They may meet a friend for a quick lunch and then hunt for a new outfit. But at two malls in the greater Seattle area, they can also pick up a copy of the latest bestseller, do a computer search for a new job, and listen to a Spanish- language CD - all for free. The freebies aren't some enormous give-away by the malls, but typical library services in a not-so-typical location."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Industrial Products--Specialized Databases Thomas Publishing Launches (Relaunches?) ThomasNet We're trying to figure out what, if anything, is new today. Thomas issued a similar sounding news release six months ago. From the announcement, "Thomas Industrial Network, Inc., a leading online provider of Internet sourcing and marketing solutions for industrial buyers and sellers, today announced the launch of its new Website, www.ThomasNet.com(TM). ThomasNet.com is a next generation industrial search engine that enables industrial buyers to find the exact products and companies they need quickly and easily, and connects sellers with qualified potential customers." Browse by category or keyword search (excellent search refinement options). Numerous customization options. -- Environment--Europe Source: European Environment Agency Recently Released/Full Text, Impacts of Europe's changing climate "The impacts of climate change on Europe's environment and society are shown in this report. Past trends in the climate, its current state and possible future changes are presented using 22 selected indicators." -- Criminal Justice--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Just Released, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2002 "The 30th edition of Sourcebook contains over 600 tables from over 100 sources." Print and CD-ROM versions are also available. -- Campaign Finance--United States Source: FEC Election 2004 + Receipts of Presidential Campaigns Through July 31, 2004 [ EXCEL ] [ PDF ] + Disbursements, Cash, and Debts of Presidential Campaigns Through July 31, 2004 [EXCEL ] [ PDF ]
Conferences Source: Searchblog The Web 2.0 Conference Wired magazine co-founder, Industry Standard editor, Searchblog proprietor, and our friend, John Battelle has announced some of the lineup for the Web 2.0 conference this October. The speaker list is nothing short of awesome. It includes Brewster Kahle, Jerry Yang, Lawrence Lessig, and Cory Doctorow. You can find the rest of the speaker list and comments from JB here. Sunday, August 22, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Rights Management Source: CNET News.com Publishing industry tackles digital rights "There's no Napster for books yet, but creators of text and images still have to deal with a lot of the same digital rights management issues perplexing the movie and music industries." -- Open Access Publishing Source: Biomed Central Who, What & Why? "A series of short guides to the players, stakeholders and technical terms relevant to Open Access publishing. 'Who, What & Why?' will help readers to become informed about the world of Open Access." See also: The devil you don't know: The unexpected future of Open Access publishing (First Monday) ++ Source: Yale University Science Libraries Open Access Journals: revenue beyond author charges "This page will attempt to outline the current pricing models that are being tested for supporting Open Access to electronic journals. My definition of open access is: freely available immediate access to published peer reviewed research articles. The untenable journal inflation situation is described on the Journal Cost Update web page. There are a number of elements that influence (or hinder) open access distribution of the scientific research literature: + copyright (intellectual property) restrictions, + for-profit activities, and + the underlying publish-or-perish pressure. The major concern of the community should be maintaining a revenue stream to support the peer review process." See also: Non-Exhaustive List of Resources About Open Access Publishing (Lehigh University) -- Librarians--Canadian--United States Source: Carol Dales, Reference Librarian, California State University, Dominguez Hills Canadian Librarians in America "This page is especially for all of those intrepid Canadian Librarians who have chosen to move temporarily to the United States under the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Some of us have been unable to find entry level jobs in our provinces, some have chosen to retire in the south and work part-time in the US, and some of us have simply decided that it was much more beneficial - to both our career paths and our bank accounts - to move south. Whatever our reasons, moving to a new country is never as easy as we think it will be. This site is designed to provide information to those considering the move, and to support those of us already down here!" Offers legal information, a list of U.S. libraries that have hired Canadian librarians, job-hunting advice, "tips for the newly arrived".
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Oil--Transportation Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration World Oil Transit Chokepoints "The following presents information on major world oil transit centers. Over 35 million barrels per day (bbl/d) pass through the relatively narrow shipping lanes and pipelines discussed below. These routes are known as chokepoints due to their potential for closure. Disruption of oil flows through any of these export routes could have a significant impact on world oil prices." See also: Straits, Passages and Chokepoints: A Maritime Geostrategy of Petroleum Distribution (PDF; 232 KB) -- Iraq--Pipelines--Security Source: Institute for the Analysis of Global Security Iraq Pipeline Watch Lists "(a)ttacks on Iraqi pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel," from June 2003 to the present. Offers a map showing pipelines and other information. -- Regulations--United States--Databases Source: GPO Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) From the site: "The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) is a prototype of a currently updated version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The e-CFR prototype is a demonstration project. It is not an official legal edition of the CFR. The e-CFR prototype is authorized and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the Government Printing Office (GPO). The OFR updates the material in the e-CFR on a frequent basis" Read more about the prototype -- Military Law--United States Source: National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force "The National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force assists those working on military law issues as well as military law counselors working directly with GIs. It trains and mentors counselors and beginning military law attorneys in all aspects of military law through training materials and direct communication. It updates changes in military law and policy." Available here: + Military counseling resources + Leaflets (about counseling, G.I. rights, free speech in the military, etc.) + Resources (on such things as obtaining a discharge, conscientious objection, immigration, military families, reservists, sexual harassment, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell") + Military law + Unconventional warfare (terrorism) research links Saturday, August 21, 2004
Web Search Source: News.com Moveon.org subscribers exposed: Is it Only Google? This article discusses how Googlebot crawled personal info of some Moveon.Org members. According to the article a Moveon.org server misconfiguration caused the problem and it has been fixed. We've said before the issue of keeping material out of commercial web engines is primarily an issue for the webmaster/site owner. However, I don't understand why Google is the only engine mentioned in the article since it's not just a Google issue. Yes, they're the number one engine BUT other crawlers can access the same data and often do. For example, I ran a couple of searches with Yahoo and turned up the same info described in the article. The article doesn't mention that the data might be accessible elsewhere. Here's a Yahoo search I tried. You'll find some of the material mentioned in the article beginning at result #5 and clicking some of these links and other versions of these pages might return even more personal info. Focusing only on Google is not only unfair but it can give webmasters a false sense of reality. Other engines and databases exist. Someone looking for this content would likely have the skills to find it elsewhere. Actually, this is not a Google or Yahoo or any other web engine problem. In other words it's not their fault unless you just don't like the idea of web engines in the first place. Webmasters and content owners need to be aware of the fact that many web crawlers are out there and having the skills to keep content out of these databases (if they don't want it there) rests on their shoulders. See Also: Inspired by Our Post and Comments (THANKS!) Eric Baillargeon offers his thoughts and a few screen captures.
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--Filtering Source: Arizona Republic Debate over library Internet From the article: "Several Ahwatukee and Chandler library visitors say they would support Phoenix officials' idea to use filters to restrict access to pornographic Web sites in order to protect children. Phoenix has filters, which are designed to weed out or block objectionable materials, installed on its public library computers. The library branches allow adults to turn off those filters if they so request. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon wants to change that and require that all computers in the city's public libraries, which include Ahwatukee's Ironwood Branch Library, keep their filters on."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Higher Education--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: U.S. News and World Report usnews.com: Education: America's Best Colleges 2005 Rankings Some content is available at no charge. New this year is the ability to search schools by major. Lists of schools by major are also new this year. -- Terrorism--Bibliographies New from Air University Library (AUL) Terrorism 2004 Extensive, updated bibliography includes coverage of terrorism history, terrorism organizations, financing terror, geographic areas affected, methods used (e.g., suicide bombers), roots of terror, state-sponsored terrorism, targets, current trends, lessons learned, homeland security, U.S. foreign policy, legal issues and rights. Comprises Internet sites, books, periodicals, audio-visual materials. Also includes links to a selection of related AUL bibliographies. Essential resource for anyone dealing with this topic. Friday, August 20, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Health Information--United States--Funding Source: NLM Forty Projects Funded to Improve Access to Electronic Health Information for the Public "The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce that 40 projects to improve access to electronic health information for the general public have been funded in 24 states. All projects will last up to eighteen months. Funding for the projects was provided through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine." -- Libraries Source: New York Times Making a Web Search Feel Like a Stroll in the Library A commercial/general web engine is not a library for many reasons. I'm sure you can list several. Here's one: Libraries -- in the physical sense -- and even many electronic resources/digital libraries (free and fee) are controlled and well organized. Web search engines do offer access to data (although making it available in a timely manner can be an issue), but the organization of that data is something that still needs a great deal of work in the world of general web engines like Google, Yahoo and others. Jeeves is doing good work with Smart Search, as is Vivisimo, with dynamic clustering. (More about clustering in a post yesterday). We can refrain from discussing all the information that's not accessible on the open web, all the information that hasn't been digitized (books still matter), info quality, and other ways commercial web search engines are not libraries. From the article: "A visit to the school library was once a necessity before writing term papers or reports. But nowadays, many students use the Internet as their library. However convenient it may be to search the Web from home or a dorm room, the Internet cannot replace many of the built-in benefits of the library, like browsing the stacks for related information that could add spark and depth to an essay or a report. But researchers are working on more flexible approaches to searching for digital information not only on the Web, but on one's own hard drive, where elusive details may be scattered through photos, e-mail and other files." See Also: Home Page of Dr. Marti Hearst and while we're on the topic... Law Libraries Source: Bangor Daily News Law library still relies on hard copy in time of Google From the article: "During that time, Bennett has decreased the number of books purchased to pay for online research services like Westlaw, a key site for topics in business law, criminal justice and paralegal studies and treatises that include analysis of recent decisions in specialty areas of the law such as education, trademark and patent, labor and real estate. Bennett said that while the number of attorneys using the library might have decreased over the years because of expanded online services, the public is using the library more often. Many people come to the law library after they fail to find what they need at their local public library." Public Libraries Source: LA Times New City Librarian Named in Los Angeles "Mayor James K. Hahn has tapped 30-year city librarian Fontayne Holmes to head the Los Angeles Public Library and its 71 branches, a system that serves a larger population than any library system in the country." -- Libraries--Italy Source: Reuters Italian library crack down From the article: " Italy's Senate library is getting tough on forgetful lawmakers demanding they return books on Adolf Hitler and other subjects that are up to 25 years overdue. In letters and calls to the absent-minded bibliophiles, including a former senate president, the library recently issued a gentle plea for the safe return of books on everything from French philosophy to Italian law. "With a letter or a phone call, we say: Attention. A certain period has passed, so please return them in a good will gesture to the library," a library official said, explaining the campaign to reclaim the literature.
National Archives--United Kingdom Source: Kable's Government Computing British history gets online gateway "Documents spanning 1,000 years will available electronically by 2007, under plans from the UK's national archiving organisation. The UK's National Archives has set a 2007 deadline to boost its online services and become a leading source of historical information on the internet, according to its latest annual report. 'In its first year, National Archives has created the first ever online archives of government websites and made over 3.5m documents available online,' Sarah Tyacke, National Archives chief executive, told Government Computing News on 20 August 2004." See Also: National Archives 2004 Annual Report The report is titled, A new gateway to British history. See Also: UK Government Web Archive In conjunction with The Internet Archive
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--Women--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Released Today, The World's 100 Most Powerful Women -- Small Business--United States--Statistics Source: SBA New, Full Text, The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President 2002-2003 "The annual reference source since 1982 that business owners, policymakers, and researchers have turned to when they need information on small business' performance in the economy." -- Refugees Asylum Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Australia Just Released, Refugees and asylum seekers: a guide to key resources and recent developments This guide is global in scope. -- Cellular Phone Service-- Consumer Guides Source: PCWorld.com Smart Talk "Time for a new cell phone, service plan...or both? Use this guide to pick the perfect ones for your needs and budget." -- Highways--United States--History Source: United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration Highway History Offers such things as "Origins and Construction of the Interstate System" and "Highway History" articles from the FHA's Public Roads magazine, as well as articles from other sources. Ever wondered about Blue Star Memorial Highways? Looking for a comprehensive list of Road Songs? Curious about The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System?
Briefly + Swetswise Launches Title Bank + Infotrieve and Wiley Sign Distribution Agreement + New Journal Agreement Between Oxford University Press and HighWire Press (via Managinginformation.com)
Information Visualization Source: Directions Magazine Product Review: Anacubis Desktop We've mentioned Anacubis and their interesting and useful (free too!) visualization demos a couple of times on ResourceShelf. Today, a Directions Magazine review of their fee-based Anacubis Desktop product. Thursday, August 19, 2004
Web Tools Clustering Word of a New Result Clustering App Called Topgist As web databases of all types grow larger, it's becoming more and more important that some sort of dynamic or other type of clustering be used to assist the user in finding the best possible result(s) quickly. Vivisimo continues to do excellent work in this area. In fact, just this week two people have mentioned to me that Vivisimo has become their first choice when it comes to general web searching. Vivisimo correctly points out in a white paper that the searcher needs help and needs "selective ignorance" to get to the good stuff. We agree. Vivi CEO Raul Valdes Perez was recently quoted in the NYT saying, "Companies such as ours are betting on new ways to organize information." Word today of a new site-clustering application (Free, IE only) that allows the searcher to cluster results from Google, Yahoo and MSN. It's called Topgist. It also allows you to customize results by creating a blocklist of sites you never want to see results from. As I said we just learned of Topgist so we haven't had much time to check it out. More later on this one.
Resources of the Week Two items this week. + 1) Natural Hazards--United States--Statistics Source: National Weather Service; Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services (NOAA) Natural Hazard Statistics "The U.S. Natural Hazard Statistics provide statistical information on fatalities, injuries and damages caused by weather related hazards. These statistics are compiled by the Office of Services and the National Climatic Data Center from information contained in Storm Data, a report comprising data from NWS forecast offices in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands." On the main page is a cheerfully colorful bar chart presenting -- yes -- 30 year average weather fatalities (1974-2003) and 10 year average weather fatalities (1994-2003), by cause. Note that heat is the leading weather-related cause of fatalities by far, so make sure you stay hydrated, etc. Navigation here is simple. A series of ten dropdown menus on the right side of the screen allow you to choose individual statistical reports. Available are: + U.S. summaries (by year, 1995-2003) + State summaries (by year, 1995-2003) + Reports (by year, 1995-2003) according to specific severe weather phenomena -- lightning, tornado, tropical cyclone, heat, flood, cold, winter storm, wind. All reports are in PDF format. A link below the dropdown menus takes you to a 64-Year List of Severe Weather Fatalities, covering the years 1940-2003. (PDF; 8 KB) ++ Also from NOAA + 2) Operational Significant Event Imagery While this site has a rather cryptic title, there is all manner of cool stuff here. "The Operational Significant Event Imagery team produces high-resolution, detailed imagery of significant environmental events which are visible in remotely-sensed data available at the NOAA Science Center in Suitland, Maryland." Browse the archive of diverse "Significant Event Imagery" visible in satellite data: + Current Events (includes Hurricane Charley and images of Iraq) + Dust Storms + Fires + Floods + Icebergs + Ocean + Severe Weather + Snow Cover + Storms + Tropical Cyclones, Hurricanes, & Typhoons + Unique Imagery (includes a nice picture of the Chesapeake Bay) + Volcanoes You can do a simple text search of the archive or use an interactive map viewer. And you can subscribe to the free Daily Operational Significant Event Imagery Report, which "contains a short descriptive narrative and a direct link to each OSEI product we create to document a specific event."
Professional Reading Shelf Library Software WEBLIS, an Integrated Library System based on CDS/ISIS, Available Free of Charge From UNESCO and ICIE "UNESCO intends to respond to a large demand from national and local libraries to help them in approaching and using library automation tools. WEBLIS is a Web based Library Integrated System based on CDS/ISIS. The system has been developed by the Institute for Computer and Information Engineering (ICIE), Poland, based on their experience in building library systems for international organizations such as FAO, IFAD and GTZ. WEBLIS runs through the WWW-ISIS engine, also developed by ICIE." -- Digital Imaging--Tutorial Source: Cornell University Library/Research Department Moving Theory Into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial "This tutorial offers base-level information on the use of digital imaging to convert and make accessible cultural heritage materials. It also introduces some concepts advocated by Cornell University Library, in particular the value of benchmarking requirements before undertaking a digital initiative. You will find here up-to-date technical information, formulas, and reality checks, designed to test your level of understanding." Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Available in Spanish, French, or as a PDF (3.86 MB). -- Librarians--Job Interviews Source: Indiana University Libraries--Bloomington Human Resources Interview Questions List of suggested interview questions for library job candidates covers: warm-up questions, work history, job performance, education, career goals, self-assessment, creativity, decisiveness, range of interests, motivation, work standards, leadership, oral presentation skills, written communication skills, flexibility, stress tolerance, stability and maturity, interest in self-development. -- OCLC OCLC Adds New Features To FirstSearch "On August 15, 2004, new enhancements were made to FirstSearch and the FirstSearch staff view providing a more personalized experience for patrons and further improved workflow for resource sharing staff."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Health Information New Topic Page/Compilation from MEDLINEplus + MedlinePlus: Understanding Medical Research Very USEFUL!!! -- Education--Canada--Lists & Rankings Source: Macleans Just Released, Canada's Best Schools "From academics to sports, we celebrate some of the top public high schools across the country." -- Fashion--Australia--Images Source: PictureAustralia New, Explore the history of Australian fashion with PictureAustralia's new Fashion trail From the site, "The trail covers different facets of Australian fashion, including images relating to casual and evening wear, wedding attire, sportswear, uniforms, cosmetics and jewellery, shoes, hairstyles and even portraits of influential Australian designers. Browse the Fashion trail to see how changes in society have both reflected and shaped fashion for Australian men, women and children throughout the decades." See Also: More Picture Trails -- NAFTA Source: CRS via NLE Updated, NAFTA: Related Environmental Issues and Initiatives -- United States Air Force--Bibliographies Source: Air University Library (AUL) Total Force Policy of the Air Force New bibliography from AUL covers Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Total Air Force. Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals, authority materials (Air Force Policy Directives, etc.) -- World Population--Statistics Source: Population Reference Bureau 2004 World Population Data Sheet "The 2004 World Population Data Sheet has the most up-to-date demographic data and estimates for all the countries and major regions of the world. The rundown provides a look at regional and national contrasts in age structure, population growth, life expectancy, income, and other determinants that mark today's deep demographic divisions." See: Complete data sheet (PDF; 371 KB) -- Energy--Forecasts Source: EIA New, Long-Term World Oil Supply Scenarios
News Search--Topix.net RSS Customized RSS Feeds from Topix.net We're not sure if this was pointed out before, but today we realized that Topix.net provides an RSS Feed for any keyword or phrase. For example, a search for "Paul Hamm" reveals search results and an RSS Feed. Don't forget that Topix has thousands of subject specific pages (and Feeds) as well as the ability to get results (and Feeds) by zip-code. Customized feeds are the future of RSS. Here are more examples of other services that provide customized content via RSS: + Yahoo News + Wired News + RSS Weather + Findory + Blogory + Feedster + Econtent Magazine + Daypop + Hubmed Thanks to ResourceShelf Contributing Editor and RSS Guru Steve Cohen for the story. Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf More ERIC News ERIC has announced a steering committee and content experts that will help guide the new ERIC system. The new ERIC database is set to debut on September 1st. See Also: New ERIC Database Will Use Technology from nStein See Also: More than 100,000 Full Text ERIC Documents Available Online October 1st -- Libraries--User Surveys Source: ARL LibQUAL+ Survey Collects Responses from 112,000 Users at 202 Libraries "The spring 2004 LibQUAL+ survey concluded on May 28 with more than 112,000 responses collected from users at 202 participating libraries. Designed to measure user perceptions of library service quality, the LibQUAL+ service is in its fifth year of operation at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). More than 500 libraries have used the LibQUAL+ assessment protocol, which started as a pilot project at 13 ARL member libraries. Participants this year included college and university libraries, community college libraries, health sciences libraries, law libraries, and hospital libraries. The survey is now available in six languages and has been implemented at libraries in North America, Europe, and Australia. Library users in 46 states and the District of Columbia have completed the survey, as well as users in six Canadian provinces." An executive summary is available. -- Electronic Information Source: Information Research Full Text article, Library usage patterns in the electronic information environment From the abstract, "This paper examines the methodology and results from Web-based surveys of more than 15,000 networked electronic services users in the United States between July 1998 and June 2003 at four academic health sciences libraries and two large main campus libraries serving a variety of disciplines. A statistically valid methodology for administering simultaneous Web-based and print-based surveys using the random moments sampling technique is discussed and implemented. Results from the Web-based surveys showed that at the four academic health sciences libraries, there were approximately four remote networked electronic services users for each in-house user." -- Citation Analysis Source: Information Research Full Text article, Web links as research indicators: analogues of citations? From the abstract, "s exploratory study investigates the extent to which Web links are analogues to the citations in traditional print literature. A classification of Web links is developed, using the nature of the source and target pages, and the reasons for linking. Links to a sample of research oriented Websites (universities, professional institutes, research institutes, electronic journals, and individual researchers) were classified. Overall, 20% of the Web links in the study could be regarded as research links analagous to citations." -- Access to Information--United States Source: ALA Washington Office ALA files comments on DHS Management Directive "Today ALA filed comments on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed management directive for 'compliance' with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The portion of the directive on disclosure of information is very expansive -- in its restrictions -- and appears to attempt to accomplish by directive what DHS has not been allowed to do by statute. We urge DHS to revise the Directive to comply with the law by limiting its nondisclosure provisions to information that nambiguously qualifies for withholding under one of the exemptions provided in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). -- Science and Technology Librarianship--Publications Source: Science & Technology Section, Association of Research Libraries The latest edition of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship is now online. Articles include: + Death of an Encyclopedia Salesman? The Fate of Science Reference Resources in the Digital Age + Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Forestry: A Bibliographic Essay + Science, Technology and Research Network (STARNET)
Engineering--Focused Search Tools To Each His Own Search Engine It's good to read that members of the IT journalism community are starting to realize the value of subject focused search tools. This article discusses GlobalSpec, an engineering resource, that includes several searchable databaes including a focused open web crawler. ResourceShelf first mentioned GlobalSpec in March. Paula Hane also covered the launch with an overview article about the site on InfoToday.com.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Small Business--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy Recently Released Small Business Laid Foundation For Job Gains "Conditions favorable for entrepreneurship in 2003 laid the foundation for the job gains of 2004, according to a new report issued today by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Small Business Economic Indicators for 2003 notes that 'important economic indicators advanced throughout the year' so that 'the outlook for future small business expansion was positive at the end of 2003.'" See: + Small Business Economic Indicators for 2003 (PDF; 360 KB) + Research Bulletin (PDF; 16 KB) + Data Tables (.xls) See Also: New article, Self-employment in the United States: an update (via Monthly Labor Review) Abstract ||| Full Text -- Business--Lists & Rankings Source: CIO Magazine Inside an Agile Transformation - Top 100 Agile Companies See Also: Complete List -- Prescription Drugs--New York--Databases Source: NYAG New Database, Search NY Drug Prescription Drug Prices From a Reuters article, "New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Tuesday said his office has created an interactive Web site to help New Yorkers comparison shop for prescription drugs, following a statewide survey showing widely varying prices at pharmacies. Spitzer said the Web Site, www.NYAGRx.org, is the first of its kind in the nation." Search by City/County name or Zip Code. UPDATE: The State of Maryland AG Has Offered a Prescription Price Database Since April. -- Teachers--United States--Statistics Source: National Center for Education Statistics New, Teacher Attrition and Mobility: Results from the Teacher Follow-up Survey, 2000-01 "The purpose of the Teacher Follow-up Survey is to provide information about teacher mobility and attrition. It is a one-year follow-up of a sample of teachers who were originally selected for the Teacher questionnaire of the Schools and Staffing Survey. The 2000-01 Teacher Follow-up Survey data in this report links responses from the 2000-01 school year to characteristics of these same teachers who participated in the 1999-2000 school year Schools and Staffing Survey." Full report (PDF; 380 KB) -- Cities--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes 60 Cheap Places To Live From the article: "In these 60 small towns, medium-sized cities and larger metro regions, you can live well and your dollar will go far. Of course, the 'live well' half our claim is shot through with subjectivity. It will be highly dependent on who you are, and what you want out of life. There are plenty of folks who will steadfastly refuse to suffer even one more day of subfreezing temperatures--period, end of story. Others may be bored to the point of madness by living in a small town. They crave big-city stimulation. Their hope is to find such a lifestyle devoid of Manhattan-like expenses and pressures. Our hope is that this special report will help you find the where of your happiness. Click on a type of community--Porch-Swing, Happy Hootervilles, IQ Campuses, Steroid Cities, Bohemian Bargains, or Telecommuting Heavens--for a short description and our ten picks in that category.
Web Search--Gigablast Gigablast Places "We're Hiring" Notice on Site Gigablast's sole proprietor Matt Wells has placed a "Gigablast Careers" page on his site. At the moment Gigablast is looking to hire engineers and a sales associate. Let's hope Matt is about to grow the business and make his already useful search tool even better.
Briefly Yahoo Launches an "Official" Search Blog (Hat tip to JB). Jeremy also offers a blog FAQ on his site. Tuesday, August 17, 2004
The Library of Congress Source: LOC New Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress to be Published in November From the Press Release: "The Library of Congress, together with Bernan Press, will publish this November "The Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress: For Congress, the Nation & the World," an authoritative one-volume reference work of newly written and researched essays, articles and statistical appendices. Edited by John Y. Cole and Jane Aikin, the encyclopedia describes the historical development of the collections, functions and services of the world's largest research institution from its origin in 1800 to 2004." Read the Table of Contents [PDF]
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--Marketing Source: Library Journal Target Your Brand "A slippery concept that's often confused and misused, a brand is the definition of your institution that exists in the mind of the customer, says Chris Pulleyn, chief executive officer of Buck & Pulleyn, a Rochester, NY--based agency specializing in brand strategy. Your library's brand is the space you've captured in the minds of customers--it's all the things that come to mind, all the expectations they have, when they hear the word library." -- Academic Libraries Source: Daily Lobo (University of New Mexico) Libraries can't keep up with new publications From the article, "[Librarian Mina] Grothey said although the librarians work hard to maintain the collection, the budget is too low and the portion for books is decreasing." -- Preservation--State Library--Pennsylvania Source: The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA) State Library seeks release of money to preserve fading history "A collection of rare books, including law books likely used to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is slowly deteriorating at the State Library in the Forum Building in Harrisburg. Some of the centuries-old books are brittle to the touch and are falling apart. They sit in a room where light, temperature and humidity changes and an outdated fire system are continual threats. The Legislature voted last year to set aside $6 million to build a vault in the library to help preserve the collection. But Gov. Ed Rendell hasn't appropriated the money from the capital budget for construction and other one-time projects." -- Collection Development Source: Northwest Herald Library finds case of porn From the article: "Should a library buy hard-core pornography that is repugnant to any reasonable person? Probably not. There are other places to obtain it. It is the gray area where arguments begin. The trustees' responsibility is to provide guidelines, and it is the librarian who carries out the policy. And the close calls should be given the benefit of the doubt in a country where the First Amendment is a most cherished principle in America."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Higher Education Source: The Princeton Review Just Released, 2005 Princeton Review Annual College Rankings Based on a survey of over 110,000 students at 357 top colleges. Included is the frequently metioned, "Top Party School" ranking. Summary ||| Direct to Rankings -- Educational Technology Source: EDUCAUSE Student Guide to Evaluating Information Technology on Campus "Wherever you go to school and whatever you choose as a major or future career, you'll be using computers and other information technologies. It makes sense to check out the technology environment at the schools you're considering along with other factors that will influence your choice." Also available as PDF -- Television Listings--United States TV Guide Online Improves Search Capabilities, Offers New Options + Improved search (sitewide search now available, categorized results) + Big Movie Guide ++ Lists EVERY movie on TV today and for the next 6 days ++ Sort movies by title, airtime, network, year and tvguide.com rating ++ Detailed descriptions of movie with full cast, photos, and credits + Big Sports Guide ++ Lists EVERY sporting event on TV tonight and for the next 6 days + Episode Guides and Program News Info for more than 700 shows is available. Might be useful for your virtual "ready reference" shelf. Registration (free) is required. -- Housing--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes + Most Expensive Homes of the North + Most Expensive Homes of the South + Most Expensive Homes of the Midwest + Most Expensive Homes of the West -- Teachers--United States--Statistics Source: National Center for Education Statistics Just Released, Who Teaches Reading in Public Elementary Schools? "This Issue Brief describes the qualifications of public school elementary-level reading teachers relative to general elementary teachers, in terms of their educational attainment, their educational preparation and certification in reading, and their educational preparation and certification in elementary education. Data are drawn from the 1999?2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS)." See: Who Teaches Reading in Public Elementary Schools? The Assignments and Educational Preparation of Reading Teachers (PDF; 72 KB) See: Standard Error Tables (PDF; 23 KB) -- United States--Georgia--Encyclopedias Source: Georgia Humanities Council, University of Georgia Press The New Georgia Encyclopedia "The New Georgia Encyclopedia provides an authoritative source of information about people, places, events, institutions, and many other topics relating to the state. On this site you will find articles and images on nearly every aspect of Georgia as well as convenient links to other Web sites related to the history, culture, and life of the state."
Public Libraries--United States Source: Americans for Libraries Council Nominate a Public Library for 50 Great Public Libraries Report From the web site, "Americans for Libraries Council is preparing to spotlight 50 Great Public Libraries -- one per state -- that convey the dynamic energy of the modern public library. We will publish our selections in a report for national distribution. If you know a library that serves its community in innovative and effective ways, and can stand as a national model, would you let us know? The library can be large or small; urban or rural; a branch or a system -- we hope to show the full range of possibility in imaginative library service." Complete this online survey to and your nomination.
Web Search--MSN MSN Ends Search Technology Preview After a six week run, MSN has ended (at least for now) its Search Technology Preview. The preview went live on July 1st. A note on the web site (available in 11 languages) reads: Thank you very much to all of those that tried our service and sent us feedback. We will make improvements based on the suggestions we received. Once we are ready, we will release another preview of our new algorithmic search engine. Thanks to the Search Engine Watch Forums for the link.
Briefly + ProQuest K-12 Products to Offer Standards-Based Searching -- + New Data Now Live On Burke's Peerage & Gentry (via EContent) Monday, August 16, 2004
The Internet Archive Web Pages from First Half of 2004 Now Available From The Wayback Machine We've been monitoring The Wayback Machine to see when archived content from the beginning of this year would begin to be accessible. Good news, late last week archived pages from 2004 (primarily the first six months of the year) are now in the database. Examples: + CNN + WhiteHouse.gov + The British Library
Professional Reading Shelf Open Access Scientific Publishing Source: Open Access Now/Biomed Central INTERVIEW: Ian Gibson "The long-awaited report from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee described the provision of scientific journals as "unsatisfactory" and called for a number of measures that will favour the transition to Open Access. Ian Gibson, who chaired the Committee, talked to Open Access Now about the Inquiry and its conclusions." -- Public Libraries--Filtering Source: Chicago Tribune Libraries wrestle with Net filtering From the article, "'I had to sit down with my daughter and tell her I don't want her to go to the library anymore because there are bad people there who are doing bad things,' library patron Wanda Glitz said at a recent meeting. The Internet debate is the latest twist on a question as old as libraries themselves: How much should librarians control what patrons view? Organizations such as the Chicago-based American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union oppose filtering Internet content in libraries, saying it runs afoul of patrons' 1st Amendment rights. 'Because material may be offensive to someone else doesn't mean that the adult doesn't have a right to access it,' said Judith Krug, executive director of the library association's Office of Intellectual Freedom." -- Digital Libraries Source: E-Lis RePEc and Socionet as partners in a changing digital library environment, 1997 to 2004 and beyond From the essay: "This paper examines the theoretical foundation and practical development of the RePEc and Socionet.ru digital libraries. RePEc is a UK-founded but internationally operating digital library for the economics discipline. Socionet is a Russia-based, but multi-disciplinary digital library for the wider social sciences. In 1997, Socionet copied the business model of RePEc and much of its technical infrastructure. As the Socionet library has matured, it has diverged from the RePEc model. Currently it emerges as a model and platform to build the Russian national level scientific and educational digital information space." Read the full-text [PDF] -- Academic Libraries Source: Miami Herald An old dog's new tricks Here we go again with another mention of "shhhhhh" in an article about libraries. I sure hope that the journalism community will stop doing. It's another stereotype that needs to end. From the article: "An encounter with anyone presumed to be so dignified, so erudite, so full of shhhhhh as to bear the title University Librarian ought to begin with a little discourse on the written word; you know, something about Liber dilectatio anime, books as the delight of the soul blahblahblah, and there will be some of that, sure. In the meantime, though, what we get is Bill Walker's agitated index finger sweeping across a diagram of the University of Miami's Otto G. Richter Library, a finger that -- 'Here, let me show you' -- thumps down hard on the parking lot that will disappear under a new faculty/graduate-student reading room, twirls above the new space allotted for Special Collections, then lightly taps out a new outdoor reading room and a new writing center where the tutors will be stationed and, finally, hovers over a corner of the breezeway, home of the new, um, Starbucks." -- Libraries Source: The Dispatch (Lexington, North Carolina) Program connects library resources A great article about the NCLive service in North Carolina. We're always happy to read mainstream press coverage of electronic library services. From the article, "Through its Web site, www.nclive.org, any resident with a library card and password can get free online access around the clock to information sources that otherwise would be restricted or available only by expensive subscriptions. 'NC LIVE is probably the best-kept secret in North Carolina for information resources,' observed Ralph Kaplan, a systems librarian based in Raleigh."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents War Records--United Kingdom--Databases New Database, New consular and armed forces birth, marriage and death indices From the announcement, "1837online.com is pleased to announce the launch of new overseas birth, marriage and death records on our website. If your ancestors were born overseas, or perhaps died whilst serving as an officer in the RAF during the second world war, or were even married abroad whilst resident within British lines during WW1, then you will find these records useful." See Also: Learn More in this BBC Story -- Health and Medicine--Internet Resources Source: BIOME New Edition Now Online, Internet Resources for Health and Medicine "The sources listed here range from organisational home pages to individual documents and are published by a range of sources including companies, academic institutions, charities and individuals." 16 pages; PDF. -- FBI--Statistics Source: Transactional Records Clearinghouse (Syracuse University) TRAC: FBI Website Update "Data show an overall reduction in FBI criminal enforcement actions since 9/11/2001. Terrorism, anti-terrorism or internal security matters are up sharply since FY 2001, but have been declining since the spring of 2003. Civil rights referrals and prosecutions have declined steeply. District-by-district FBI enforcement counts are updated through the end of FY 2003. See Latest Figures and District Enforcement." See Also: TRAC has also added more details to their Salary tool for Federal Prosecutors and the High Income Federal Employees tool. Both of these resources are fee-based. -- Radio/Television/Telecommuncations--United Kingdom Source: UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) Just Released, The Communications Market 2004 From report overview: "This is the first in a series of annual Communications Market reports by Ofcom. The main annual Communications Market publication, which from 2005 will be published in May, will be supplemented by quarterly updates, in October, January and August each year, providing the latest available data on each sector, including: + size, structure and financing; + availability, penetration and use of products; + consumer attitudes and behaviour. The report highlights developments during 2003 and the start of 2004 across the electronic communications sector in the UK, covering television, radio and telecoms." See: Full report (individual sections downloadable as PDFs) -- Digital Evidence Source: National Institute of Justice Full Text, Forensic Examination of Digital Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement "A new guide written by computer forensics experts under the direction of the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides step-by-step instructions to assist investigators in locating digital evidence so that it stands up to scrutiny once cases are tried." Sunday, August 15, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Digitization--Images Source: New York Times For Art History Scholars, Illumination Is a Click Away From the article: "[N]ow, a vast digital library of world art has gone online with its first 300,000 images. The project -- known as ARTstor and financed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation -- could eventually revolutionize the way art history is taught and studied. It is available for nonprofit institutions only." -- Librarians--Surveys Source: Library Journal Fixing the First Job From the article: "We are new librarians. In our first year, after coming up against bureaucratic brick walls and resistance to new ideas for libraries, we were almost convinced that the field of librarianship was virtually unchangeable. In our frustration, we wanted desperately to interact with other first-year librarians adjusting to their new careers. We decided to make a project of our plight and to solicit systematically opinions from other new librarians. We know now that librarianship is changing, and we are sure all librarians, new and experienced, need to understand and nurture that change. The reactions that follow derive from our small sampling of 124 new librarians who have been on the job for a year or less."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Bookmarklets Two New Bookmaklets Posted at SquareFree.com One bookmarklet makes translatation with Babelfish easier while the other one works with Google's translation feature. Btw, an excellent tool for online language translation is FaganFinder's Translation Wizard. -- Defence--Glossaries Source: Jane's Jane's Defence Glossary "Welcome to Jane's Defence Glossary. Our database contains over 20,000 defence-related acronyms and abbreviations." Search by term or acronym, or browse glossary alphabetically. Free registration required. -- Nanotechnology--Pathfinder Source: University of Alberta Libraries Library Resource Guide for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Sections: Finding Books; Selected Titles in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology; Finding Journal Articles - important databases; Key Journal Titles; General Engineering Handbooks; Handbooks and Manuals; Dictionaries and Encyclopedia; Other Books of Interest; Patents; Standards; Industry Directories and Catalogues, Business Information, Discussion Lists; Associations and Organizations; Selected Web Sites; Tutorials.
Web Search--Olympics Jeeves Offers Smart Search Results for the 2004 Olympics Jeeves.com and Jeeves.co.uk is offering a couple of Smart Search shortcuts and result compilations with useful links for the Olympics. Building these ready reference shelves can save the searcher time and aggravation. A couple of examples: + At Ask.com Including the terms "2004" and "Olympics" in your query (ask.com) A Smart Search result box appears at the top of the results page with direct links to bios, TV listings, and more. + At Ask.co.uk Including the term "Olympics" in your search at Jeeves.co.uk offers a Smart Search box with direct links to schedules and pages for specific sports/events via BBC Online. See Also: Don't Forget to Take a Look at a ResourceShelf compilation of "fast fact" resources for the 2004 Olympics. See Also: Jeeves UK is Running a "Special Logo" on their Home Page During the Games See Also: Ask Jeeves Goes Local, Adds New Smart Search Features (via SEW) Learn more about Smart Search. Saturday, August 14, 2004
Web Search--Google Google Guys on Libraries You've likely heard that Larry Page and Sergey Brin from Google have an interview in the new issue of Playboy. It just so happens that the full text of the interview is online for free via an amended S-1 filing online today. I'm sure you read about it. It's full of history, opinion, and hype. I was scanning it a minute ago and found the following comments about libraries and librarians. This exchange begins while Brin and Page touch on info quality issues. PAGE: Which is a great thing about the Internet, because you can read information from many sources and decide. Libraries might have some of the information but probably not all-and not necessarily the most up-to-date. PLAYBOY: Librarians must hate Google. Will you put them out of business? BRIN: Actually, more and more librarians love Google. They use it. They do an excellent job helping people find answers on the Internet in addition to using their book collections. Finding information still requires skill. It's just that you can go much further now. Google is a tool for librarians just as it's a tool for anyone who wants to use it. Larry and Sergey -- a couple of comments from ResourceShelf : + To Mr. Page: Libraries are about more than out-of-date information. First, they employ librarians who use their skills to decide what to purchase, what to include in a web collection and what to eliminate. Collection development and the assessment of info quality are key skills in our profession. Yes, we realize that Google and your direct competitors don't manipulate search results for profit. However, it's been shown that outside influences can manipulate what the searcher finds on a result page. Second, libraries also provide access (in many cases for free and without requiring a visit to a physical library building) to proprietary databases and other electronic tools that contain VERY current info (sometimes MORE current than Google). Third, libraries (and databases other than Google) contain USEFUL information that's NOT in your database but is accessible over the Internet. Mr. Page, Google does NOT provide access to everything. In some cases, access to data -- and the ability to access that data in a timely and precise manner -- still costs money. You, yourself, mentioned this in a recent presentation. And keep in mind that "out-of-date" material (meaning old material?) can be VALUABLE to the researcher. Collecting, preserving and providing access to it is another part of our profession. + To Mr. Brin: Yes, many librarians do like and use Google and we appreciate your comment that finding and using information takes skill. You're correct! You're also correct about being able to go "further" now. That said, I hope you realize that librarians have been using online information, building products to facilitate access and digitizing material since long before Google. And the skills of librarians are provided free these days -- from the comfort of your home or office -- via virtual and telephone reference services. Your company charges for similar type of service. Do you remember the Forbes article from last year where engineers from your company 'admit' that some of your competitors' results are "comparable" to what you offer? Since that article was published, many of your competitors have gotten even better; many exciting specialized database tools have come online. I'm glad you're acknowledging that Google is just a tool. Librarians are all about making use of the right tool at the right time, and your company offers just one of many excellent products. In fact, many of these products (free and fee-based) provide access to material that cannot be found in the Google database -- ever, or in a timely manner. And they also offer ways to search for and manipulate material that Google does not -- often generating high quality results more rapidly. It's worth mentioning that one of your competitors (Yahoo) was able to add two million bibliographic records from OCLC's Worldcat in just a couple of days. Google has taken more than eight months to get the job done and if the page estimates are even close to accurate (are they?) Google still hasn't completed the job. Many librarians use Google's advanced search features. However, inconsistencies exist. ResourceShelf's Dan G. points out one of them here. Greg Notess from Search Engine Showdown points out a few more on this page. Finally, many database providers are more than willing to explain how their systems work. However, when I asked a Google official to explain how your autostemming operates, I was told that this info could not be released. Why? ++ Notes from SK: From years of direct experience working with all types of customers, librarians possess a collective body of wisdom about information-seeking behavior. And as part of our professional mandate, we feel an obligation to show people how to use all search tools more effectively, and that includes turning them into better Google searchers. For example -- as Gary has mentioned here numerous times -- we know that as far as many people are concerned, if the answer being sought does not appear in the first page of Google search results, it may as well not be there at all. Too many people will not click any further than the first results page. And the average Google searcher has no idea how to use the search engine's more advanced features; even something as seemingly simple as putting quotation marks around a phrase is not automatic behavior for most people. As a librarian, I've had many, many customers approach me with some variation of "I already looked in Google but I couldn't find anything there." And then I give Google a try and quickly unearth exactly what the person was looking for -- and I always take the time to show the customer how I got the results I did. Also, if I think someone would be better served by trying another search tool, or one of our subscription databases, I won't hesitate to explain why. And then there's the information quality issue. As librarians in general, we love the Internet. But there's stuff out there that, frankly, scares us to death. And I'm not talking about porn or other blatant swill. There is so much bad information on the Internet that just thinking about it gives us professional ulcers. We worry about customers getting bogus medical advice. We worry about students writing research papers based on screed being dispensed by fringe political groups or conspiracy theorists. We cringe when we think about someone making a business or investment decision predicated on data generated by some entity with an ulterior motive or hidden agenda. So it's important to understand that librarians also see information literacy as a critical part of our mandate. We not only want to turn our customers into better information searchers. We also seek to help them become wiser information consumers. There is, of course, plenty of high quality information on the Internet. But seeking it out goes way, way beyond typing keywords into the Google search box. It means learning to take a hard look at what actually appears on the results page. And moving beyond Google when it becomes obvious that other tools and sources are likely to be more productive.
Professional Reading Shelf Government Documents--United States Source: GPO GPO Extends Time to Comment on National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications: Initial Planning Statement From an email announcement: The comment period has been extended until September 7, 2004. Comments on this document may be sent to, Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents, jrussell@gpo.gov. The National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications: Initial Planning Statement, June 18, 2004 To fulfill its statutory mission under 44 U.S.C. Secs. 1710-1711, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) plans to develop a comprehensive and authoritative National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications. Synopsis GPO's is examining ways to improve the comprehensiveness of our cataloging and metadata programs, to enhance the usability of GPO's bibliographic products and services, to operate a standards-based national library quality program, to demonstrate GPO leadership in the bibliographic services arena, and to enhance the public's ability to identify and locate U.S. Government publications. WHAT IS THE NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS? The National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications (NB) will be a comprehensive catalog containing descriptions and locations of U.S. Government unclassified publications in all formats. It is GPO's goal to expand its cataloging initiatives to comply fully with statutory requirements, to increase the visibility and use of Government information products, and to develop a premier destination for information searchers. Functionally, the National Bibliography will be the principal application of the GPO's new Integrated Library System (ILS), Ex Libris' Aleph 500, when the ILS is implemented. The ILS' metasearch function will provide the capability to search across a distributed set of non-homogeneous metadata resources from other institutions and display a combined result set. The public face of the ILS will be GPO's Online Public Access Catalog. Initially GPO's core National Bibliography database will consist of GPO-produced bibliographic records representing titles cataloged from 1976 to the present. Once the ILS initial implementation is completed, projected for March 2004, GPO plans to expand the National Bibliography database by adding pre-1976 records, records created by cooperative cataloging partners and other institutions. -- Libraries Source: Architecture Week New article, Different Looks for Books A look at the architecture of several new library buildings. Thanks to T.G. for the link.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Wilderness--United States--Maps Source: Nationalatlas.gov New, National Wilderness Preservation System Map "The National Atlas is now offering a map showing areas that make up the National Wilderness Preservation System for the United States of America. It shows all designated Wilderness areas, and the color of each area depicts which of the four Federal agencies administers the Wilderness. The map is printed on the front side and the back side provides a table listing information about each Wilderness area." -- Electricity--United States Electricity--Canada Source: Canada-U.S. Power System Outage Task Force Just Released, The August 14th Blackout One Year Later: Actions Taken to Reduce Blackout Risk. Summary ||| Full Text -- Voting--United States--Online Exhibits Source: Smithsonian Institution New Exhibit Site, Vote: The Machinery of Democracy From the site, "This exhibition explores how ballots and voting systems have evolved over the years as a response to political, social, and technological change, transforming the ways in which Americans vote." -- Hurricanes--Internet Resources Source: Poynter Institute for Media Studies Links to the News: Hurricane Resources List of links compiled by David Shedden, Poynter's library director. Includes weather updates, media coverage, additional sources, and material from Poynter. Friday, August 13, 2004
Libraries--United Kingdom--Databases Archives--United Kingdom--Databases Source: Museums, Libraries and Archives Council Preview Release Now Available: Cornucopia Database (Version 3) Cornucopia is a national database of museum, library and archive collections. The official launch will be in the Fall. From an announcement, "Cornucopia is a fully searchable online database of some 6000 collections held by almost 2000 cultural heritage institutions. It allows those institutions to record and maintain collections descriptions and details in a unique shared national resource. Cornucopia means members of the public can browse, collect and compare information on different objects and collections held cross the country, using a fast, efficient system of categorisation and retrieval. They can save descriptions in a personalised collections repository and print, save or email information to friends and colleagues. A web services search option also allows concurrent search of Cornucopia with Cecilia (an innovative database of music collections) and Google, giving users as comprehensive insight as possible into the collections held across museums, libraries and archives. The collections in Cornucopia are structured using the RSLP Collections Description Schema. Records from a previous version of the site have been transferred into the new system and added to from various sources."
Professional Reading Shelf Health Information Public Libraries Source: NLM National Network of Libraries of Medicine Announces New Web Site From the announcement, "This web resource is intended to serve as a guide to encourage health information partnerships among public libraries, members of the NN/LM, and local health or community-based organizations. The site includes background information about consumer health as well as suggestions for providing health information services. There are also six Guides with extensive information for organizations that are interested in preparing health outreach projects in their local communities. -- Academic Libraries Source: CLIR Just Released, Full Text, Survey of the State of Audio Collections in Academic Libraries -- Digital Information Source: dg.o2004 Presentations and Papers from dg.o2004 (Digital Government Online 2004) Conference Are Now Available Online Here are a few papers/presentations that might be of interest. + Three Presentations from the Digital Archiving and Preservation Section + Relation browser++: An interface for exploring and searching large information collections (Student Session Section) + The FedStats Statistical Portal: Developing Access to City Information through MapStats (Speakers Section) + Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (LOCKSS) Government Documents (Posters Section) + Enabling Data Interoperability Through Metadata (Posters Section) + Constructing the InterPARES Thesaurus: A Vocabulary Tool for Diverse Research Communities (System Demos Section, Video) -- Scientific Publishing Open Access Source: The Economist Access all areas From the article, "For centuries, printed journals destined for university libraries have been the focus of this publishing activity. The winds of change, though, are sweeping through these quiet and dusty corridors. Because of the internet, cost and distance are no longer barriers to providing the results of research to more than just a restricted and privileged few. This is leading people to ask why those results are not, in fact, freely available to all."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents United States--Facts and Statistics Source: U.S. Census + Fast Facts: Fast Facts: Unmarried and Single Americans Week + Fast Facts: Labor Day 2004 -- Higher Education--United States--Facts and Statistics Source: American Council on Education ACE Online Information Center "A listing of resources from ACE offering information and data on a variety of higher education topics. Includes links, arranged by subject, to: + One-page fact sheets. + Downloadable graphs. + 'Facts in Brief' from the ACE newsletter Higher Education and National Affairs. + ACE monographs. + ACE issue briefs." Topics covered: Access and Enrollment, Demographics, Distance Learning, Educational Attainment, Faculty, Institutional Finance, Leadership, Graduate Education, International Education, Students Persistence, Return on Higher Education, Student Financing, Teacher Preparation. -- Higher Eduation--United States--Facts and Statistics Source: NSF Two New Reports + Federal Obligations for Research to Universities and Colleges by Agency and Detailed Field of Science and Engineering: Fiscal Years 1973-2003 "This is a set of statistical tables of Federal obligations for research to universities and colleges by agency and field of S&E for FYs 1973-2003." + More Than One-Fifth of All Individuals Employed in Science and Engineering Occupations Have Less Than a Bachelor's Degree Education A pdf version is also available.
Briefly Knovel...New Niche for E-Books (via Design News) UK...RDN (Resource Discovery Network) Names New Executive Director Thursday, August 12, 2004
Resources of the Week Fast Facts: Resources for the 2004 Olympic Games This week, we offer a small compilation of Olympics 2004 "fast fact" resources. Many of the links have been "deep mined" from official sites. We hope these links will save you a few clicks and/or assist you by providing resources you can add to your own collections. Interesting Olympic Facts (IOC) -- Biographical Info (IOC) Athletes Coaches Judges Searchable databases -- Australia Australian Team Members Canada Canadian Team Members (via CAC) Searchable database Great Britain GB Team Members (via BOA) U.S (via USOC) By Sport Word ||| Excel By State Word ||| Excel -- Dictionary Dictionary of Olympic Lexicon (via IOC) Searchable -- Doping Common Terms (via USADA) Prohibited Drug List (via WADA) IOC Anti-Doping Rules (via WADA) Athletes Guide (via WADA) -- Firsts 2004 Olympic Firsts (via IOC) -- Graphics Interactive Graphics (via Reuters) -- Medals Medal Table (via Reuters) -- Medal Winners Olympic Medal Winner Database (via IOC) Includes historical info (1896-2002); Searchable -- Media Center Mediainfo2004.gr Media services for the Olympic games -- Media Guides U.S (via U.S. Olympic Committee) -- Multimedia Multimedia Gallery (via IOC) Still images/video See Also: Olympic Photos (via Yahoo) -- Newspapers Official Olympic Village Newspaper -- Schedule Official Competition Schedule NOTE: Each listing includes World and Olympic Record info -- Symbols Symbols (via Infoplease) -- Timelines #1 via Infoplease From ancient Greece to the present day #2 via IOC #3 via USOC (Modern Olympics Nations, Athletes, Events) -- Venues Guide to Competition Venues --- Weather Reports for All Venues (Hellenic National Meteorological Service) --- --- Additional Resources + Archeology's Ancient Olympics Guide See Also: Events of the Ancient Olympics (via IOC) -- + Desktop Guide (via Reuters; PDF) -- + Greece: Threat of Terrorism and Security at the Olympics (CRS Report, updated 7/9/04; PDF, 44 KB) -- + International Association of Athletic Federations -- + Satellite Images of Selected Venues and Olympic Marathon Route -- + Sport Science Meets the Olympics -- See Also: Librarians' Index to the Internet Olympics Collection See Also: Greece: Maps, Pictures, and Facts (via National Geographic)
The Internet Archive Source: San Jose Mercury News Digitize and conquer The always interesting Brewster Kahle and The Internet Archive (home of The Wayback Machine) get some attention in the Merc. From the article, "Brewster's goal: Store everything. 'It is possible,' he proclaimed last week at a conference at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose. "It could be one of the greatest achievements of all time.''...The Web is growing at about 20 terabytes of compressed data a month, which is manageable, Kahle said. Sure, getting copyrighted material has its challenges, especially music and videos. But he's chipping away where he can. Driving Kahle is the conviction that the world's information is a common good. In that spirit, he also has asked Google to furnish him with a copy of its database, say with a six-month delay so Google's competitiveness doesn't suffer. Google has yet to grant his request. But Kahle hopes the company will come around, especially in light of its claim that it wants to have a positive impact on the world. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment." See Also: Keyword Search the Wayback Machine (9/2003)
Professional Reading Shelf Information Literacy Source: IFLA New, Guidelines for Information Literacy Assessment -- Document Delivery Source: Econtent Magazine Beyond PDF: Digital Delivery Develops From the article: "The PDF, Adobe's wildly popular electronic distribution format, has come a long way since its humble beginnings back in 1993. With more than a half billion Acrobat Readers worldwide, it has become the de facto standard for distributing documents on the Web. Its dual role of providing a way to preserve formatting and layout and making it easy to print documents has made it the format of choice. Yet it has its share of critics who complain that it's not the most effective digital distribution method. Among its most famous broadsides was Jakob Nielsen's June, 2001 Alert Box column in which he concluded that the PDF was great for printing out documents, but lousy for online reading. Others complain about Acrobat Reader's load time, especially on Web sites. In spite of these criticisms, the PDF has solidified its place as the leader in electronic document distribution." -- Online Communities--U.S. Government Source: Federal Computer Week Mr. Rogers' new neighborhood "Communities of practice were once considered a radical concept in government, but that is no longer the case. Now feds are warming up to the idea of sharing knowledge and using such communities as forums to make it happen. A community of practice is a place where a group of people, bound together by a common passion and interest, meet to ask questions, respond to others, and exchange ideas and information. Now advances in technology are making online communities of practice more commonplace." -- Interfaces Source: Computerworld User interfaces: The next generation "Keyboards and mice will face competition from motion-sensing, gesture recognition and haptic technologies." See Also: Keyboard and Mouse to Stay (via Computerworld)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Elections Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Australia New Online, Elections around the World "...provides links to websites of various countries that have national elections in 2004. Elections may be presidential or legislative. Information will be current for 6 months prior to and six months after the election date." It also includes links to several web-based election sites and related reports. -- Mail Drops--Database Source: FinAid.com Mail Drop Search Form "Many scholarship scams use a mail drop as a return address, disguising the box number as a suite number. A mail drop address alone should not be considered confirmation of a scam, because legitimate firms sometimes use such mail boxes. But the fact of a mail drop address, together with other warning signs, can be a useful indicator of an operation's questionable legitimacy. Use this form to search a database of more than 40,000 mailing, shipping, and packaging stores, US Post Offices and other mail drops. You must supply at least the city and state or the zip code." -- Handguns Source: BJS Recently Updated, Survey of State Procedures Related to Firearm Sales, Midyear 2003 -- Disability Rights--History Source: UC Berkeley News Website chronicles history of disability rights and independent living movement "Nearly 100 in-depth oral histories and a collection of unique archival materials documenting the disability rights and independent living movement are now available online through a new website hosted by the University of California, Berkeley. The Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) has just launched the site to make its collection of interviews with movement leaders, participants and observers, along with documents, photographs and audio and video clips, widely accessible." See: The Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Information Retrieval Web Search Source: The Johnson County Sun Learn About A New Search Startup: Kozoru and Search engine startup gets funds Source: Kansas City Star It's always exciting to read about new efforts in search. This one appears to go into the natural language/answer engine category. Remember, most of the big names in search today started small, very small. One of them will soon go public. Of course, bigger doesn't always mean better and numerous small and specialized search tools do a great job and offer exciting innovations. Kozoru is based in Overland Park, Kansas. Here are a few interesting sections from the JCS article: + "Kozoru's goal is to transcend the likes of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft by creating an entirely new platform that would allow language-based - not keyword-based - searches." + "[Company founder John] Flowers and his team believe today's search technology user is being sold on the idea of 'more is better' instead of 'correct is better.'" + "The fundamental paradox, as Flowers puts it, is that computers are really good with math but really bad with language. Flowers struggled with this dilemma through a stint working for Microsoft and while helping develop the Inquisite Web survey system and starting his first entrepreneurial effort, nCircle Network Security. + "After translating more than 980,000 words in the English language into codes of ones and zeroes, Kozoru's first objective will be to establish a knowledge base. To do this they will first turn to the most objective source for language information, the dictionary. After establishing that system, they will incorporate the most objective source for historical information, the encyclopedia." This might also be an opportunity for the info community to get involved with a search community in the very early stages. Thanks to SEW Forums for the link. See Also: Direct to the Kozoru Home Page
Virtual Reference Services OCLC and MCLS to combine QuestionPoint, 24/7 Reference services Big news in the world of virtual reference. OCLC's QuestionPoint and 24/7 Reference are joining forces. The deal was finalized yesterday. Some details from the announcement: + Both QuestionPoint and 24/7 Reference libraries will continue to receive service under terms of their current contracts. + The combined services will build on the unique benefits and features of each service-such as reference management and the Global Reference Network offered by QuestionPoint, and the cooperative reference coverage of 24/7 Reference. + Susan McGlamery, 24/7 Reference Project Director, and Carol Bonnefil, 24/7 Reference Client Support Specialist, will join OCLC Cooperative Initiatives. All 24/7 Reference staff will continue to work on the project. + An advisory committee, co-chaired by a QuestionPoint user and a 24/7 Reference user, is being formed to gather information and ideas from users of both services to help ensure a smooth transition. The committee's recommendations will help determine the features and functionality of the combined services.
E-Mail Alert Services Two New E-Mail Alert Services from the U.S. Government One from the Department of Labor and the other from the IRS. + 1) Labor introduces e-mail subscription service (via GCN) " Visitors to the Web site can subscribe to receive regular updates on a number of topics including news releases, weekly unemployment claims reports, disability employment policies, labor law compliance and small business programs." You can learn more and subscribe here. + 2) IRS GuideWire From an email, "'This is an easy way for tax professionals to get copies of important guidance quickly and directly,' said IRS Chief Counsel Don Korb. 'This is a valuable resource tool for people who need time-sensitive guidance in advance of publication in the Internal Revenue Bulletin.'"
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Information Source: SAP INFO Digital Information Will Never Survive by Accident From the article, "Our society is becoming more and more dependent on digital information and communication technologies. Although, from a technical perspective, everyone can read a book from the 16th century, only few are able to access 15-year old data stored on diskette. In conversation with SAP INFO online, Neil Beagrie, British Library and Joint Information Systems Committee Partnership Manager at the British Library, explains the issue of whether and how the knowledge of the 21st century can be preserved as part of our cultural inheritance for future generations." Thanks to JISC for letting us know about the article. -- Copyright Source: CNET Congressional economists tackle copyright issues From the article: "The Congressional Budget Office released a new study on digital copyright issues Tuesday, outlining economic problems that Congress should keep in mind as it grapples with making new laws. While stopping short of specific legislative recommendations, the paper offers a set of principles for lawmakers that's largely focused on avoiding being tied too closely to past practices or to the interests of powerful companies or consumer groups." Read the study (full text) -- Censorship--Public Libraries Source: The Town Talk (Alexandria, LA) Woman may burn sexually explicit library book "Jessica Christy scanned the shelves of the library and found a book on urban legends. She took it home and found the first chapter was 'Crazy Little Thang Called Sex.' It vividly described sexual activities and fetishes. The book was not something Tina Woodruff of Simms wanted Jessica, her 14-year-old granddaughter, getting off a library shelf.... Despite her disgust for 'Urban Legends' by N.E. Genge, Woodruff has not filed a complaint with the Tioga branch library where Jessica checked out the book. Woodruff would rather pay for the book and burn it." -- Public Libraries--Vermont Source: Bennington Banner Libraries cope with literary decline "A 'national crisis' that extends itself to the most obvious of places - libraries. The American Library Association, an advocacy group for libraries and librarians, has found that 'at least 41 states are reporting negative impacts to their library budgets,' according to a press release about a recent study. The study has no specific information for Vermont. But the state has a unique funding structure that buffers it from bad times, according to David Clark, the president of the Vermont Library Association." -- Patents and Trademarks--United States Source: FCW USPTO awards data capture contract From the article: "Under the new contract, the company will convert scientific and technical information into searchable Extensible Markup Language and image databases. The data will include chemical structures, mathematical equations, DNA sequences and other meticulously detailed information." -- National Archives--United States Electronic Records Archive Source: Federal Times Vanishing records: The $500 million race to save digital data "'Much of the information of the late 20th century and 21st century will be lost if we don't do something about solving the problems of saving electronic information over time,' said Reynolds Cahoon, assistant archivist and chief information officer at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)." Article discusses the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) project, announced by NARA on August 3.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Internet Usage--United States Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Just Released Report, The Internet has an impact on Americans' everyday lives, but traditional offline habits still dominate Highlights Full Text Note: According to the study the number one activity online is accessing map and direction info. Marketwatch.com points out that, "the Pew analysis found that in a typical day, at least a fifth of Internet users will go online to search for answers." Moving forward where do librarians, fee-based tools, and books fit into all of this? It's worth mentioning that a FIND/SVP study recently reported that flawed online searches cost businesses $31 billion last year. -- Privacy--Internet--United States Source: CRS (via FPC) Recently Updated, Privacy: Overview and Pending Legislation -- Elections Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Australia New Report, The Philippines elections 2004: issues and implications -- United States Military--Zip Codes Source: Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) MPSA Zip Code Locator Locate military post offices worldwide. Search by city, zip code, or country code. -- Highway Safety--United States--Statistics Source: NHTSA Just Released, Highway Fatality Rate 2003 Summary Full Text
Briefly + Infotrieve Releases New Federated Search Solution for Integration Into Library Management Technology Platform + Books24x7 Launches EngineeringPro, an Online Collection of Unabridged, Searchable Titles from Leading Publishers + ".GOV" Registry Grows to Full-Fledged, Fee-for-Service Program
Web Tools--Content Managers A New Beta Version of AskSam's SurfSaver is Now Online SurfSaver (a longtime favorite), an easy-to-use tool (IE only) that allows you to keyword search saved web pages (strong search capability, wildcards, add your own keywords, etc.) has released a beta of the SurfSaver 6. You can try the beta for free. New features include: + Browsable folders + Quick search bar + New right-click shortcuts See Also: SearchDay with a Favorable Review of Another Tool, ContentSaver Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Instant Messaging UPDATE: A new beta version of AIM that fixes the security hole was released today. More about the beta in this Dow Jones story --- Source: Computerworld Be Careful: Serious Security Hole Found in AOL Instant Messenger "All known versions of AIM for Microsoft Windows are affected. Computer security companies are warning users of America Online Inc.'s AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) software that a serious security hole in the product could allow remote attackers to execute malicious code on computers that run the popular instant messaging software. AOL confirmed the existence of the software vulnerability in an AIM feature that allows users to post automatic replies, such as "I'm away" messages, to instant messages that they receive. The company is planning to release a test version of the AIM client later this week that will fix the hole, said Andrew Weinstein, an AOL spokesman."
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Scholarship Source: CNI, JISC Now Available, Presentations from 2004 JISC/CNI meeting: The future of scholarship in the digital age -- Copyright Source: ALA (via SNTReport.com) New Resource, ALA's Copyright Advisory Network (Beta) From the site, "Welcome to the Copyright Advisory Network, a service provided by the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). Are you a librarian with copyright problems? Ask them here, and get answers from our team of copyright experts!" Thanks to KMD for the news. See Also: A Bit More About the Project in this ALA/OITP Document (page 8) -- Presidential Libraries Source: AP (via MercuryNews.com) Presidential libraries compete for visitors in a theme-park world "Attendance at the libraries during the last five years has dropped from about 1.5 million to about 1.3 million visitors, a decline of about 13 percent. To become more competitive, some libraries are adding attractions and turning to more aggressive marketing tactics." -- Books--Conservation--Glossary Source: Preservation Department, Stanford University Libraries (Conservation OnLine) Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology "Although this dictionary is intended first and foremost for those actively involved in one or more aspects of the overall field of bookbinding and book conservation, including bookbinders, conservators of library and archival materials, and the like, it is perhaps no less intended for those working in related fields, such as bibliography and librarianship, where the many terms and expressions relating to the overall field may be less familiar and even more confusing." Full-text search available. -- Academic Libraries Alternative Press-Bibliography Source: Mount Allison University Libraries The Alternative Press and Academic Libraries: A Selected Bibliography A select list of web resources is also available. Thanks to J.C. for the tip -- Internet Filtering--Public Libraries Source: Daily Herald (Suburban Chicago) Panel says expand use of library Web filters "Every computer in the Des Plaines Public Library would be equipped with an Internet filter to block sexual images, under a plan approved Monday. At its third meeting in three weeks, the library's management committee unanimously approved a plan to install filters on its adult and staff computers for at least six months. Children's computers already have filters in the library...Most residents who filled the room Monday night applauded the committee's decision, but at least one woman in attendance spoke against the ruling, calling it an infringement on people's First Amendment rights."
Librarians Source: The Idaho Statesman Meet a worm-eating, stereotype-challenging, irrepressible librarian This just might be the headline of the year. From the article, "What's a hip, 30-something doing at the library? She's certainly not shushing kids." The article introduces us to Jillian Subach, a public librarian in Idaho. The article also discusses the librarian shortage. From the article, "'There's a huge misconception about librarianship,' says Erin Hasler, who works with Subach as the program specialist at the library. 'I don't know how many times I've gotten, "You just read all day." I wish.'"
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Philanthropy--United States--Statistics Source: Foundation Center Update, Just Released, Grantmaker Stats "The Foundation Center has just released the latest aggregate financial information on the nearly 65,000 active U.S. independent, corporate, community, and grantmaking operating foundations in the Grantmaker Stats area of "FC Stats." A free online statistical resource, FC Stats includes data by foundation region, state, selected metropolitan areas, and foundation type. Also included are listings of the largest foundations by giving and assets in each state. For the first time ever, FC Stats also includes aggregate financial information on family and "new health" foundations. Other enhancements include listings of the largest U.S. foundations overall and separately by grantmaker type for independent, corporate, community, family, and "new health" foundations." -- Non-Profits--Lists & Rankings Source: Non-Profit Times Just Released, The 2004 Non-Profit Times Power & Influence Top 50 -- FBI Source: FBI Just Released, Full Text, FBI Strategic Plan 2004-2009 -- Energy Source: International Atomic Energy Agency Just Released, IAEA Annual Report Science--Safety--Online Tutorials Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Knowing How to Practice Safe Science Covers: Centrifugation hazards, Chemical safety, Emergency response, Hazard communication, Glassware washing hazards, Laboratory chemical hoods, Mammalian cell culture hazards, Physical hazards, Working with human blood, Working with radioactive materials, X-ray diffraction hazards. See also: Laboratory Survival Manual (University of Virginia) -- Science--Biographies Source: American Chemical Society Great Sites on Six Great Chemists "Want to know why Ernest Rutherford's mug is on New Zealand's 100-dollar bill or why Avogadro's Law was ignored for half a century? Get your mouse finger ready. Listed below is a fairly random sample of some big name chemists and one or two websites that illuminates their fine careers." See also: Biographies of Famous Chemists (Nobel Foundation, via WWW Virtual Library) See also: Biographical Snapshots of Famous Women and Minority Chemists (Journal of Chemical Engineering)
Digital Repositories Source: DSpace/MIT DSpace Launches New E-Mail Discussion Groups We've learned via an e-mail message that DSpace ("a groundbreaking digital library system to capture, store, index, preserve, and redistribute the intellectual output of a university's research faculty in digital formats") has just announced several new discussion lists. From the email message (permission to repost was received from the sender): "As an outcome of the DSpace user group meeting last March, MIT was asked to set up some new DSpace listservs to provide a place for people from other institutions with common interests in specific uses of DSpace to congregate and collaborate, rather than using dspace-general for everything or watching DSpace-announce... The hope is that people will feel more comfortable discussing these issues if they know that their questions and comments are going out to a group who share their interests. These lists are now set up and open for business: + dspace-LOR (for Learning Object Repository) + dspace-datasets + dspace-ERM (for Electronic Records Management) + dspace-IR (for Institutional Respository + dspace-preservation (for Digital Preservation) + dspace-publishing (for Digital Publishing) + dspace-theses (for electronic theses) In another month or so we will eliminate the DSpace Announcements list (dspace-announce) in favor of dspace-general and these SIG lists." + See Also: An Introduction to DSpace + See Also: Bringing hidden treasures to light: illuminating DSpace A paper delivered at the Victorian Association for Library Automation 2004 Conference. + See Also: In DSpace, Ideas Are Forever (via the NY Times; 8/2003) See Also: DSpace: An Open Source Dynamic Digital Repository (via D-Lib; 1/2003)
Briefly + Thomson Gale Launch Science Reference Center + Factiva Named Official Provider to the 2004 Republican National Convention + LexisNexis Opens New Research Center and Backup Facility Monday, August 09, 2004
Web Search--Ask Jeeves Climate Info: Another Ask Jeeves Smart Search Shortcut The shortcuts keep coming from Ask. Enter the term "climate" before or after a city name at Ask Jeeves and a "Smart Search" box will appear at the top of the result list with "Seasonal Weather" info (average high, average low, etc.) for the the current month. A pull-down menu allows you to easily check info for other months. Thousands of locations are in the database. Examples: + Climate Chicago + Climate Toronto + Cimate Sydney + Manchester England climate See Also: More About Jeeves Smart Search
Professional Reading Shelf Electronic Journals Source: ARL A Snapshot in Time: ARL Libraries and Electronic Journal Resources "Mary Case reports on two recent surveys of ARL members' subscriptions to electronic journals. Findings include information on negotiating practices, involvement of other stakeholders on campus, and relation to print subscriptions." -- Online Industry--Factiva Source: Info Today Australian Publisher Fairfax Signs Exclusive with Factiva Marydee Ojala writes, "Come September, if you want to search the major Australian newspapers, your choices will be severely constrained. Publisher John Fairfax Holdings Limited has signed an exclusive deal with Factiva for electronic delivery of not only its newspapers but also its business and finance journal titles. The full list of titles appears below. According to the press release, as of Sept. 10, 2004, 'Factiva will be the only international vendor offering full-text content from all of Fairfax's metropolitan daily newspapers.'" -- Information Technology Source: IFLA New, Information Technology Section: 40 Years of Technology in Libraries: A Brief History of the IFLA Section on Information Technology, 1963/64 - 2003 -- Community Reading Programs--Statistics Source: Library Journal To Read a Mockingbird; Novel Leads "One Book" Lists "Who rules the one-book, one-community reading programs? Harper Lee, whose To Kill a Mockingbird has been chosen 25 times, according to statistics compiled by The Center for the Book of the Library of Congress. Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying was read by 19 communities, while Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was chosen 18 times." -- Information Retrieval Source: CNET Next-generation search tools to refine results From the article: "One of the surprises that has emerged from the Internet Archive, which is intended to become a repository of everything ever published, is that the body of public works can probably be corralled, said Brewster Kahle, founder of the organization. About 100 million different books have been published in history, Kahle said, citing estimates from professor Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon University. About 28 million sit in the Library of Congress. On average, a book can be condensed to a megabyte in Microsoft Word. Thus, the books in the Library of Congress could fit into a 28-terabyte storage system." -- Libraries and Librarians The August Issue of First Monday is Now Online Articles include: + The devil you don't know: The unexpected future of Open Access publishing From the abstract, "With the advent of the Internet and online publishing, the notion has arisen that access to the world's research publications could be made available to one and all for free, presumably by shifting the costs to other places in the value chain and disintermediating publishers, a circumstance called Open Access (OA) publishing. While there are many hopes embedded in this view (lower costs, wider access, etc.), it appears more likely that Open Access will come about not through a revolution in the world of legacy publishing, but through upstart media built with the innate characteristics of the Internet in mind. An unanticipated outcome of this situation will be that the overall cost of research publications will rise, though the costs will be borne by different players, primarily authors and their proxies."
Science--Database Trials This Month Only: Ovid is Offering a Free "Test Drive" of Analytical Abstracts This month's resource: "Analytical Abstracts is the premier specialist database for the analytical scientist, providing access to new analytical methods abstracted from all major analytical journals. More than 100 international journals, standard methods and application notes are scanned for inclusion, with coverage focused exclusively on the most leading edge methods of analysis and detailed records, to keep you up to date with current applications."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Campaign Finance--United States--Statistics Source: FEC Political Party Fundraising Statistics Through June 2004 Several xls and pdf files are included. -- Water Quality--Beaches--United States Source: Natural Resources Defense Council New Report, Testing the Waters 2004: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches "NRDC's annual survey of water quality monitoring and public notification at U.S. beaches finds that there were 51 percent more beach closings and advisories in 2003 than in the previous year. Across the country, pollution caused more than 18,000 days of closings and advisories at ocean and Great Lakes beaches last year -- more than ever recorded in the survey's 14-year history. The 2004 survey is based on information reported for 2003." Read report by sections (mostly HTML); pages are available for individual states in PDF format. Or download entire report in PDF (1.5 MB). -- Weapons--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Nonlethal Weapons New bibliography includes Internet resources, books, documents and periodicals. -- Vietnam War--Historical Documents Source: National Security Archive The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later: Flawed Intelligence and the Decision for War in Vietnam "Forty years ago..., President Johnson and top U.S. officials chose to believe that North Vietnam had just attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, even though the highly classified signals intercepts they cited to each other actually described a naval clash two days earlier (a battle prompted by covert U.S. attacks on North Vietnam), according to the declassified intercepts, Johnson White House tapes, and related documents posted...by the National Security Archive at George Washington University." Includes: + Essay: 40th Anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident + Gulf of Tonkin Signals Intercepts (PDF; 336 KB) + LBJ Tapes on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Windows Media Audio format) + CIA Special National Intelligence Estimate on possible North Vietnamese responses to U.S. actions, May 1964 (PDF; 1.94 MB) + State Department - Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS): "U.S. Reaction To Events in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 1-10" -- Homeland Security--United States Source: DHS Inspector General Recently Release, Progress and Challenges in Securing the Nation's Cyberspace 36 pages; PDF
Web Search--Advertising--Google Source: San Francisco Chronicle Google's ad rules complex, controversial; documents reveal details about what popular search engine accepts, rejects "Details of Google's ad policy were disclosed in internal documents obtained by The Chronicle. Subsequent interviews with the company also revealed new information about its procedures. The specifics of Google's ad policy provides a rare look into the inner workings and complexities of creating advertising guidelines. In this case, the rules cover everything from mail order brides to escort services to political attacks." Sunday, August 08, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf E-mail--Information Architecture Source: Boxes and Arrows The Information Architecture of Email "As Gmail comes out of Beta, Google may find itself with a product that users are slow to adopt. People may find the subtle change in the email paradigm more dramatic than Google anticipated. Perhaps this speaks to the dangers of bad design: a bad product can just as easily become entrenched as rejected, such that when a better one comes along, users are reluctant to adopt it." -- Children's Literature--Nonfiction--Reviews Source: Booklist Nonfiction Series Roundup "Having trouble keeping up with the ever-expanding universe of series nonfiction for young readers? You've come to the right place.The on-line Series Roundup is the dynamic digital counterpart to Booklist's print coverage of nonfiction series. Streamline your selection process by browsing among series that have been evaluated and recommended by children's book specialists! Here you'll find reviews of series titles that we have recommended in the print magazine, starting with the April 15, 2004, issue, as well as those titles featured in our last four Series Spotlight issues. We?ll be continually updating the site with reviews of series nonfiction that appear in the magazine throughout the year, as well as series-related articles and Top 10 Lists."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Theses and Dissertations--Journalism and Mass Communications--Databases Source: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Journalism and Mass Communication Abstracts "Journalism & Mass Communications Abstracts, formerly Journalism Abstracts, includes abstracts of dissertations and theses accepted for graduate degrees. The abstracts were prepared by the student authors and represent research theses. The abstracts of creative projects done to complete the graduate degree are excluded.... The abstract database may be searched by author's name, institution, year, and subject for theses, dissertations or both. The keyword search is a mixture of key words taken from the abstracts and general terms assigned by the editor. For abstracts prior to 1998, individual editions should be examined. Each abstract entry includes the title, author name, degree, year degree was awarded, advisor, institution, assigned keywords, and an abstract. In most instances, the author's email is provided for additional contact." -- PDAs--Forensics Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) DRAFT NIST Special Publication 800-72, Guidelines on PDA Forensics (PDF; 487 KB) "This guide provides an in-depth look into Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and explains technologies used in PDAs and their impact on the procedures for forensic specialists. It covers the characteristics of three families of devices: Pocket PC, Palm OS, and Linux based PDAs and the relevance of various operating systems associated. This guide deals with situations encountered during the collection and examination of digital information present on PDAs for preserving valuable evidence as well as available tools for acquisition and examination." Saturday, August 07, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Children--Primary Documents--United Kingdom Source: The Children's Society Hidden Lives Revealed: A Virtual Archive - Children in Care 1881 - 1918 From the site: "Hidden Lives Revealed focuses on the period 1881-1918, and includes unique archive material about poor and disadvantaged children cared for by The Waifs and Strays' Society. The Society cared for children across England and Wales - in both the densest urban conurbations and some of the smallest rural villages. The Waifs and Strays' Society looked after about 22,500 children between its foundation in 1881 and the end of World War One. The Waifs and Strays' Society became the Church of England Children's Society in 1946 and is now known as The Children's Society. Our site features a range of archive material, most not previously accessible by the public, as well as articles and learning resources that help interpret these stories for a modern audience. No other Internet archive gives you the opportunity to browse through such unique material - a kind of resource which has the type of information not recorded elsewhere. This site features the full contents of around 150 case files of children in the care of the The Waifs and Strays' Society from Victorian and Edwardian times. Even though some of these cases are from over 100 years ago, they have been fully anonymised to prevent the children's identification. Each case is summarised, and linked to pages about the actual homes they lived in. Photographs from The Children's Society archives illustrate some of the grinding poverty of the time, and also show how children's lives were turned round when they entered the Society's care. Also featured on the site are the full browsable and searchable texts of various Society publications - these include the supporter magazines Our Waifs and Strays and Brothers and Sisters as well as the organisation's Annual Reports." -- English Language--Online Exhibition Source: Jonathan Harris of Flaming Toast Productions and the FABRICA studio of Italy WordCount "WordCount is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonality. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is. WordCount data currently comes from the British National Corpus®, a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent an accurate cross-section of current English usage. WordCount includes all words that occur at least twice in the BNC®. In the future, WordCount will be modified to track word usage within any desired text, website, and eventually the entire Internet." -- Profile--Jeff Bezos Source: Fast Company Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos "Amazon.com's founder is a study in contradictions -- analytical and intuitive, careful and audacious, playful and determined. What really makes this remarkable entrepreneur tick?"
Professional Reading Shelf Health Information--Credibility Source: The Commonwealth Fund Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Physician Directory Information on the Internet (PDF; 368 KB) From press release: "Online physician directories often have missing, incorrect, or outdated information, pointing to the need to create industry-wide standards for verification of data, and frequency of updates, says an expert National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) panel, whose recommendations are detailed in a new report from The Commonwealth Fund. Such standards would help improve online directories' value and usefulness for consumers." Some recommendations as to what should be included in directories: + Information such as gender, languages spoken, specialties, education, training, health plan and hospital affiliation + Performance measures such as any publicly available evidence-based measures of quality, including NCQA data, mortality rates, patient survey data + Patient access information -- e.g., location, whether doctor will accept new patients in all health plans (including Medicare and Medicaid), whether physician is accessible by e-mail, availability of same-day appointments + "The directory should specify how often information is updated, and whether frequency of updates varies by data element." + "Directories should specify which elements were verified, as well as the sources used for verification." + Disciplinary actions and malpractice history of physicians, with context -- e.g., "(C)onsumers should be told that some specialties have higher rates of malpractice claims than others." + "As many elements as possible should be searchable." + "Sources of information be specified, and whether the information is self-reported by the physician or an outside source." -- Online Exhibitions--Bookbinding Source: Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta Pierre Ouvrard Virtual Exhibit and Collection "This website is based on the Pierre Ouvrard Collection held at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta. The website showcases the work of the master bookbinder, Pierre Ouvrard. Pierre Ouvrard has designed bindings for the artistic works of many Canadian artists and writers. The collection itself has over two hundred items. This site, through the inclusion of the bindings M. Ouvrard designed for the Governor General's Awards, contains over three hundred examples of M. Ouvrard's work." -- Depository Libraries--United Nations Source: United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library List of United Nations Depository Libraries "The libraries contained in this list have been designated as official UN depositories by the United Nations Publications Board. Depositories may hold a partial deposit (comprising official records and printed publications) or a full deposit (comprising official records, printed publications and masthead documents).... Each entry contains the following information: - Name and mailing address of the depository; - Telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and Internet site; - Depository or parliamentary library code number; - Beginning date of deposit (month and year); and - Extent and lauguage(s) of the material deposited." Friday, August 06, 2004
News Searching New: Add Yahoo News Search Results to Your My Yahoo! Page Those of you who use Yahoo News and My Yahoo might be interested in learning about a new feature. + Run your search using the Yahoo News database. + Notice the button labeled "Add Yahoo! News Search Results to My Yahoo!" on the right side (below the blue bar) of all Yahoo News result pages. + Clicking this button will import the search string onto your My Yahoo! page (via RSS). Then, as new material enters the database, the latest results for the query will appear on your My Yahoo! page in the "RSS Headlines" section. The url cannot be transported to other RSS agggregators*. Btw, the RSS portion of my Yahoo is still a beta release. + *Note: - Yahoo News search results available via RSS can be placed in any aggregator by using Jeremy Zawodny's Yahoo! News Search RSS URL Generator. Remember that you can utilize any of the advanced search syntaxes available in Yahoo (i.e. Headline: or Location: with either service) + Rocket News a service that crawls about 11,000 sources offers a similar service where search urls are transportable to any RSS aggregator. and while we're on the Yahoo beat... I'm often asked where to search for news photos. One place to do this and have the ability to limit your search to ONLY this type of material is at Yahoo News. On the YN homepage you'll find a pull-down menu next to the search box. Enter your search terms and pull-down to "News Photos." That's it! Images come from Reuters, AP, and AFP.
Professional Reading Shelf National Libraries--Peru Source: AP (via Detroit News) Peru's National Library suffers for lack of funds "Delfina Gonzales carefully swings open the heavy steel door of a refrigerator-sized safe containing jewels from Peru?s past: dozens of irreplaceable antique books, many with their covers eaten away by moths or torn by years of use. These volumes are rarely brought out for display at Peru?s once-grand National Library, where the ravages of humidity, auto exhaust and decay are taking a heavy toll in one of the world?s most important repositories of papers from the Spanish colonial era. Librarians are hampered with an inadequate arsenal ? aging vacuum cleaners, a couple of household air purifiers, soft-bristle brushes. Gonzales, one of the library?s chief researchers, longs for specialized high-tech equipment and climate control systems to halt the collection?s deterioration." -- Collections--United Kingdom Source: IC Harrow Sherlock collection left to library From the article: "One of the world's greatest collections of memorabilia of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - including a hint of how his famous detective Sherlock Holmes got his name - will be granted a secure future after being bequeathed to a British library service." -- The Library of Congress Civil Rights--United States Source: AP Civil rights stories to be gathered on road, stored at Library of Congress From the article: "The Voices of Civil Rights tour traces the route of the 1960s Freedom Riders, blacks and whites who headed to the South in buses and cars to challenge segregation and help register blacks to vote, a mission that earned some of them mob beatings and worse. The aim is to create the world's largest archive of firsthand accounts of the civil rights movement. The stories will be posted on the project's Web site. -- Metadata Source:E-LIS Building quality assurance into metadata creation From the abstract: "This paper challenges some of the assumptions underlying the metadata creation process in the context of two communities of practice, based around learning repositories and open e-Print archives. The importance of quality assurance for metadata creation is discussed and evidence from the literature, from the practical experiences of repositories and archives, and from related research and practices within other communities is presented." Read the paper [PDF]
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Internet Source: CRS (via Pierce Law IP MALL) Internet: Status Report on Legislative Attempts to Protect Children from Unsuitable Material on the Web -- Consumers--United States--Survey Source: FTC Just Released, Consumer Fraud in the United States: An FTC Survey Summary ||| Full Text -- Public Transportation--United States--Databases Source: Center for Transportation Excellence State-By-State Searchable Database "Use our interactive U.S. map to view information by state, including initiative filing deadlines, media resources and local transit links." Or you can use the dropdown menu to select a state. Entries for each state include amount of federal transportation spending (based on 2002 Census), ballot measure information, organizational outreach/contact information and media information. See also: American Public Transportation Association: Gateway to Public Transportation Links -- Substance Abuse-United States-Statistics Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Just Released - 2002 State Estimates of Substance Use From the site: "This report presents State estimates for 20 measures of substance use or mental health problems based on the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)" -- Employment Forecasting--United States Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Projections and Training Data, 2004-05 Edition "This statistical and research supplement to the 2004-05 Occupational Outlook Handbook presents detailed, comprehensive statistics used in preparing the Handbook. It also discusses how the data are prepared and presents new research information that is valuable to training officials, education planners, vocational and employment counselors, jobseekers, and others interested in occupational information. This edition of the supplement is the 17th in a series dating back to 1971." Individual sections downloadable in PDF. -- Federal Employees--United States--Foreign Gifts Source: U.S. Department of State (via Federal Register) FR Doc 04-16971: Office of Protocol; Gifts to Federal Employees From Foreign Government Sources Reported to Employing Agencies in Calendar Year 2003; Notice "The Department of State submits the following comprehensive listing of the statements which, as required by law, Federal employees filed with their employing agencies during calendar year 2003 concerning gifts received from foreign government sources. The compilation includes reports of both tangible gifts and gifts of travel or travel expenses of more than minimal value, as defined by statute." Fascinating to browse. Many of these gifts are graciously accepted to avoid rudeness/embarassment and then sent to the National Archives or the GSA.
Legal Research--United States Source: Law Technology News The Secrets of Online Document Retrieval A new overview article by Paul Bush. From the article, "You're drafting a civil federal litigation document, and need help. Where to turn? Of course, there's case law, federal rules, local rules, and judges' preferences."
Industry Briefs ERIC New ERIC Database Will Use Technology from nStein The Canadian company has signed on as a subcontractor. More about the new ERIC dbase here. -- + ProQuest ABI/INFORM To Offer Scholar Universe Profiles Scholar Universe is a ContentScan product. -- + Reed Elsevier sees pick-up in sales growth (via Retuers) Thanks to Peter S. for the news tip. Thursday, August 05, 2004
Resources of the Week Two more for you this week. Public Policy--Databases Source: National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA) Policy Research Watch "Policy Research Watch is a web-based project that has grown out of NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks (NWDTT). The project's objective is to gather and provide access to comprehensive bibliographic information on the periodicals and occasional papers of selected public policy research institutes." Database contains "(s)elected English language periodicals and occasional papers published by think tanks." Entries contain bibliographic information and links to the actual paper, if available on the Internet. Search by keyword or browse by country, institute, or periodical. Coverage does not appear to be comprehensive -- in other words, not every paper from every institution is available here, and it's uncertain what criteria are used to select those that are included. Still, it's a decent starting place for research; if your search turns up a number of relevant papers from a single institution, it's probably worth browsing its website to look for more content. You'll probably want to bookmark this one under the same heading where you saved the link to PubHub, the Foundation Center's "Repository of Foundation-Sponsored Reports" -- one of our Resource of the Week picks last month. Note: ResourceShelf's new DocuTicker site (beta) is another good place to look for annotated links to reports from think tanks, nonprofits and government agencies worldwide. ++ Motion Pictures--Reviews--Search Engines Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE) Going to the movies is no longer an inexpensive evening's entertainment, as we all know. We do not like to lay down our hard-earned jack for a ticket, only to end up disappointed, offended, etc., by what we see on the big screen. And the same holds true, of course, for movie rentals. Yes, there are reviews in your local paper, but maybe the reviewer's tastes do not parallel yours. Well, you can always click around the Net and look at reviews from a number of sources -- or you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by using the MRQE to cull through reviews on more than 40,000 different titles. It's a deceptively simple-looking website, designed and programmed by Stewart M. Clamen, a developer and systems designer who has worked as a consultant for movie review site RottenTomatoes.com. According to Clamen's resume, MQRE's database is populated by a Perl application that cruises the web, "automatically extracting current information from targeted review sources." According to Clamen, "MRQE prides itself on promoting a diversity of opinion from around the (online) world - with sources ranging from mainstream media to independent individuals - in nine different languages." A simple keyword search box is available on the main page, as is a dropdown menu allowing you to view "precomputed lists of titles," such as upcoming releases in the U.S. and UK, top 10 at the U.S. box office, recently released video titles, picks from the American Film Institute's 100 Years series, festival award winners, and titles reviewed by such notables as Gene Siskel and Pauline Kael. You can see lists of the most popular titles searched for by users of the site over the past week, day, 12 hours and three hours, as well as the most reviewed films. Advanced search options include support for the Boolean AND, OR and ADJ. Results lists include direct links to full-text reviews online. According to the database statistics page, as of this past Tuesday, it contained "413461 articles of 40736 different titles, plus 51148 title aliases."
Professional Reading Shelf Web Search Seminar Presentation: Challenges in Running a Commercial Search Engine (3.5 MB; PDF) From the IR perspective, interesting! A presentation by Amit Singhal, Senior Research Scientist at Google. It was the keynote address at IBM's Second Search and Collaboration Seminar 2004 in Haifa. Thanks to the Search Engine Watch Forums for the link. -- Archives--Glossary Source: Society of American Archivists Comments Sought on A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology From the web site, "Public review and comment is invited for an exposure draft of A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology, ed. Richard Pearce-Moses. The glossary includes a searchable interface and is freely available to SAA members and non-members. Comments must be received before September 3, 2004 to be considered for the final draft." -- Libraries and Librarians Source: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) A New Issue of the IFLA Journal is Now Available Online (Vol. 30) (2004) No. 2 A special issue devoted to Latin America and the Caribbean issues. 91 pages; PDF. -- USA Patriot Act Source: Network World Fusion IT departments must cope with Patriot Act, university CIO says From the article: "Nearly three years after its enactment, the USA Patriot Act remains not just a political but also a technological issue on many college campuses. Unprepared or ill-prepared schools can find themselves facing network problems, service disruptions, and in the worse case FBI agents driving onto the campus with subpoenas to haul off PCs, servers, and computer log data." -- Open Access Source: UPI House acts on research access "Anger over limits on access to research results, due largely to high publication prices, has risen to the point a federal backlash is brewing. Congress is moving to force a shift to 'open access,' a form of free-to-consumer publishing, for scientific papers. The move angers commercial publishers, who see their livelihoods threatened, and scares scientific societies, who are afraid they will face revenue losses or new costs they cannot afford. Even librarians, who pushed for the move, are cautious, because they are concerned for the health of the scientific societies." See Also: For More Open Access News See Peter Suber's Excellent Site
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Elections--United Kingdom--Statistics Source: House of Commons Library, United Kingdom Recently Released, UK Election Statistics: 1918-2004 -- Fast Facts Source: The World Almanac New, The August Issue of The World Almanac E-Newsletter is Online Contains a chronology of February events, holidays, "This Day in History," and much more. See Also: Back issues and subscription info (free) -- Academia--United States--Almanacs Source: National Education Association (NEA) NEA 2004 Almanac of Higher Education "The Almanac, published annually, provides...current information on higher education employment conditions. The Almanac includes national salary data, and up-to-date information on faculty workload, the economic conditions in the states, the number of support personnel on the campuses and their levels of compensation, and trends in bargaining." Sections downloadable as individual PDFs. Includes 2002-2003 Faculty Salary Report (PDF; 380 KB). -- Population--United States Source: U.S. Census Just Released, The Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2003 Fast Facts ||| Full Text and Tables -- Health Insurance--United States Source: Center for Studying Health System Change New Report, Trends in U.S. Health Insurance Coverage, 2001-2003 "Against the backdrop of a sluggish economy and rapidly rising health insurance premiums, the proportion of Americans under age 65 covered by employer-sponsored insurance fell dramatically from 67 percent to 63 percent between 2001 and 2003. Although the decline in employer coverage could have spurred a large increase in the uninsured, the proportion of Americans without health insurance did not increase significantly, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) Community Tracking Study Household Survey. Expansion of public health insurance -- including Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) -- forestalled a significant increase in the uninsured, as the proportion of the under-65 population enrolled in public coverage increased from 9 percent to 12 percent." -- U.S. Postal Service Source: United States Postal Service New Report: The Household Diary Study From the site: "The Household Diary Study (HDS) is a multi-year research study funded by the United States Postal Service. The study surveys a representative sample of over 5,200 households each year (on a postal fiscal year basis) to provide a comprehensive and continuous description of the mail originating and destinating in American households." + Full Report [PDF] + Executive Summary [PDF] Wednesday, August 04, 2004
National Archives--United States Electronic Records Archive Source: GCN NARA chooses Harris, Lockheed To Design Electronic Records Archive From the article, "After five years of planning and research, the National Archives and Records Administration today took the next step in dealing with the flood of electronic records agencies produce each day. Archivist of the U.S. John Carlin announced the agency has chosen Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to design and test the Electronic Records Archive system that will be hardware- and software-independent and guarantee the authenticity of records forever. After evaluating the two systems for 12 months, NARA officials will choose one to store, maintain and make available all federal electronic records. Once NARA decides on the final design, the contract is estimated to be worth up to $500 million through 2011 when the ERA system is scheduled for completion, said Kenneth Thibodeau, director of the ERA program. The initial operating capability of the system is scheduled for 2007." See Also: Much More Including News Release and Webcast See Also: All About ERA See Also: Presentations About the Project (June 2004 ||| November 2003) See Also: Review the ERA RFP and Bidders List
Professional Reading Shelf Scholarly Publishing Open Access Source: LJ Publishers Visit NIH To Protest Free Access Initiative "While supporters of open access hailed a proposal by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to make all taxpayer-funded NIH research freely available within six months, more than 100 publishers yesterday visited the NIH offices to voice their strong opposition. Among their complaints: the NIH tucked the measure into an appropriations bill, which denied publishers, including society publishers, the opportunity to be heard on the issue...Mark Sobel, executive officer of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), who spoke at the NIH meeting, disputed Johnson's take. "It appears that the underlying factor behind this proposal is unsustainable subscription fees for libraries," Sobel said. "That's unfair to individual publishers."" -- Digital Libraries Source: E-LIS Sustainability for digital libraries From the abstract: "Economic sustainability is a pressing concern for many digital library projects. One key to achieving economic sustainability is to make the digital library an integral part of its parent organisation. This can be done by having a sound product, launched at the right stage, and valued by users. Influential champions for the digital library are also required and librarians must be prepared to network and cultivate useful contacts. Funding sources can include sponsorship, in-kind support, fee charging and the ultimate aim, integration." + Read the Full Paper [DOC Format] -- Digital Libraries Source: Digital Library Federation Registry of digitized books and serials From the site: "The DLF takes a growing interest in helping to define and facilitate the development of key "infrastructural services" that are required by digital libraries but beyond the capacity of any one of them to develop. This page introduces work being conducted by the DLF defining the need for and the requirements of a service that registers the existence of persistent digitally reformatted and born digital monograph and serial publications." See Also: Registry of Digital Masters Record Creation Guidelines -- Public Libraries--South Dakota Source: AP (via USA Today) In South Dakota, Teen Web Site May Be Restored "Gov. Mike Rounds told state Library Board members on Tuesday that they could quickly resurrect a Web site for teens if the Internet links are appropriate for young people. However, the governor said any restored links must first be cleared by state Education Secretary Rick Melmer. The State Library operates under the wing of the state Education Department." See Also: Rounds Urged Planned Parenthood Web Link Cut (7/12/04)
News Search--Rocket Info Rocket Info Acquired By Zeppelin Energy Inc. We can only hope that the gang in Ontario continues developing what many people (including me) think is a darn good publicly available good news search tool. Their desktop search app is also very useful. Rocket also plays in the enterprise search space. From the announcement, Zeppelin Energy Inc., a diversified US company with interests in software and other sectors, has acquired Rocket Technologies Inc., who under their "Rocketinfo" trademark and moniker, is a leading international developer of current news search, content and publishing solutions. Under the terms of the transaction, Rocketinfo will become a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of Zeppelin. Zeppelin will be changing their name to Rocketinfo Inc. to reflect their focus upon this major transaction."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Literacy--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Just Released, America's Most Literate Cities 2004 Summary ||| Full Text/Methodology -- Intelligence--United States Source: Congressional Research Service via FAS New Report, Proposals for Intelligence Reorganization, 1949-2004 -- Information Visualization Source: ResearchBuzz NewsisFree Releases News Mapping Tool Tara has the details. If you're interested in this sort of thing check out a post from March that includes a link to the SmartMoney Map of the Market. See Also: Cool! Visualize Hoover's Business Data -- Iraq Relaunch, Iraq Mission at the UN Not much there at the moment. -- Transportation--United Kingdom Trial Version, Official Launch Coming this Fall, TransportDirect "Journey" planning database. Real time road information. Mapping. You can learn more about TransporDirect's development in this article.
Legal Resources--United States--Databases FindLaw To Provide Free Access to Experience Records of Attorneys and Law Firms: Thomson Legal Record "FindLaw today announced the launch of the Thomson Legal Record, a first-of-its-kind resource designed to help in-house corporate attorneys make more informed decisions when hiring outside counsel. The Thomson Legal Record enables users to research and verify an attorney's real-world litigation experience by combining a high-level view of an attorneys litigation history drawn from Westlaw with an attorney's West Legal Directory profile and published articles on FindLaw.com...the Thomson Legal Record introduces an entirely new dynamic - the ability to search for experience on specific legal matters, in specific courts and before specific judges." See Also: Access Thomson Legal Record Info
Citation Analysis Source: ISI + Science in Australia, 1999-2003 + Denmark "Rankings for Denmark among the 148 top-performing countries in all fields and all countries." + Science in Spain, 1999-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Business, Finance + Dentistry/Oral Surgery & Medicine: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Archaeology: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 and... Physics--Citation Statistics Source: S.Redner (Center for BioDynamics, Center for Polymer Studies, and Department of Physics, Boston University) Citation Statistics From More Than a Century of Physical Review "We study the statistics of citations from all Physical Review journals for the 110-year period 1893 until 2003. In addition to characterizing the citation distribution and identifying publications with the highest citation impact, we investigate how citations evolve with time. There is a positive correlation between the number of citations to a paper and the average age of citations. Citations from a publication have an exponentially decaying age distribution; that is, old papers tend to not get cited." Of particular interest herein: A top-100 list based on citation impact ranking.
Desktop Search X1 Releases New Version of Its Desktop Search Tool I've tried an older version of x1 and was impressed. I'm looking forward to testng the new release. From the article, "X1 Technologies updated its desktop search application Tuesday with support for more complex queries and broader indexing of file attachments." Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Dictionaries Source: News.com Webster's uploads MP3 to dictionary From the article, " The newly updated Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary includes not only "MP3," but also "MPEG," the acronym from which MP3 files sprang, and several other tech-related words and phrases, including 'digital subscriber line' and 'information technology' itself." See Also: A Sampling of New Words Added to the 2004 Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition
Health Research Information Credibility Source: Reuters Web Sites Promote Unproven Cancer Therapies-Expert For your "be careful what you find on the web" folder. From the article, "Internet Web sites are recommending unproven complementary medicines for cancer that could interfere with conventional treatments and be dangerous or deadly, a leading expert said on Monday. Professor Edzard Ernst analyzed 32 Web sites and found many recommended treatments not supported by scientific evidence."
Professional Reading Shelf Thomson Corporation Source: Philadelphia Business Journal Thomson Scientific Aims Higher "Toronto-based Thomson Corp. has added to its subsidiary with six acquisitions since 2002 and, last month, agreed on a seventh -- Information Holdings Inc. of Stamford, Conn., which it plans to buy for $441 million.... The six companies Thomson bought include two that provide information for the pharmaceutical industry, two that provide patent information, one that serves engineers and a nonprofit, Philadelphia-based Biosys, which runs a life sciences database." Profile of Thomson Scientific. -- Reference Reviews Peter Jacso's Digital Reference Shelf, August 2004 is Now Online This month Dr. Jacso reviews: + CultureGrams "CultureGrams' World Edition provides some refreshing cultural profiles of more than 180 countries--with some surprising omissions. It is bundled with a so-so Kids Edition (which is still better than FactMonster) and a States Edition that provides appropriate profiles, but they are not the counterparts of the original country culturegrams on the U.S. state levels." + Web of Science Citation Indexes "Extended coverage and powerful new software features grace Web of Science version 7, which was launched (on the also revamped Web of Knowledge ver. 3 platform) in July 2004. The improvements to the user interface will make others green with envy." -- Metadata Source: DCMI Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Publishes Bylaws "These By-laws define all roles, responsibilities, and procedures involved in the governance of DCMI and, as such, serve as a basic description of the organization and its functioning." -- Archives--Audio--Kennedy Assassination Source: AP (via CNN.com) Archivists Try to Save JFK Assassination Recording "Archivists are trying to preserve and copy the only known sound recording of the gunshots that killed President John F. Kennedy -- a recording that has fueled conspiracy theories. The recording, made by a police motorcycle radio, is now too fragile to be played and has never been authentically copied, officials said. Researchers at the National Archives in Washington hope optical scanning will help." -- RFID Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Talking Tags From the article: "Some college libraries have replaced the bar codes on their books with high-tech tags that can silently transmit information, a change that might escape the notice of most patrons. But privacy advocates hope you take a closer look." -- Public Libraries--WiFi Source: WNDU-TV (South Bend, IN) Wi-Fi hits the air at library "You can't see it, but the Internet is in the air at the St. Joseph County Library. It's called Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity.... You don't have to own a computer or even know how to use one to use the new service. Center Township, Francis, North Liberty and Lakeville branches all have laptops you can check out for use anywhere in the library. All you need is a driver's license, and of course a library card." See: http://sjcpl.lib.in.us/services/wifi/wifi.html
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Law Firms--United States--List & Rankings Source: Vault.com Just Released, Top 100 Law Prestige rankings "Vault surveyed in excess of 14,000 associates at more than 100 major law firms across the country and asked them to rank 150 firms in terms of how prestigious it would be to work for them." -- Australia Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Australia Three New Research Briefs from the Parliamentary Library, Australia + Minority government for Canada 2004 + The 1974 joint sitting of Parliament: thirty years on + The Attorney-General's power to proscribe terrorist organisations -- TOXNET--New Features Source: National Library of Medicine TOXNET's "Search All Databases" Now Includes Links to Three Additional Databases "The TOXNET 'Search All Databases' function now includes results from the Household Products Database (HPD), Haz-Map, and TOXMAP.... Please note that the number of records found from a TOXNET 'Search All Databases' query may differ slightly from the results retrieved from searching the individual databases. This is due to variations in search formats required by different databases." -- Emergency Responders--Mobile Databases Source: National Library of Medicine Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER) "WISER is a system designed to assist first responders in hazardous material incidents. WISER provides a wide range of information on hazardous substances, including substance identification support, physical characteristics, human health information, and containment and suppression advice. The operational version of WISER for Palm OS is now available for download." Download WISER. See: Tutorial -- Music--Digitization Projects UNESCO Project for Digitizing Recordings of Traditional Chinese Music Concluded From the article, "The famous and unique field recordings of traditional Chinese music held by the Music Research Institute (MRI) of the Chinese Academy of Arts are now easily accessible for researchers thanks to a UNESCO-funded project that was recently concluded. Some of the sound recordings are already available online." -- Homeschooling--United States--Statistics Source: National Center for Educational Statistics 1.1 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2003 "This brief uses data from the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program to estimate the number of homeschooled students in the United States in 2003 and to discuss the reasons parents decide to homeschool their children. The brief also shows that the number of homeschoolers, and the proportion of the student population they represent, has increased since 1999." Download PDF (65 KB) -- Computer Viruses--Lists and Rankings Source: Sophos New, Top ten viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in July 2004 "...Largest number of new viruses recorded since December 2001."
Patents--United States Source: USPTO New Database: Internet Access to Patent Application Files Now Available From the announcement, "For the first time, anyone with Internet access anywhere in the world can use USPTO's Web site to track the status of a public patent application as it moves from publication to final disposition, and review documents in the official application file, including all decisions made by patent examiners and their reasons for making them. The system, known as Public PAIR (patent application and information retrieval), offers the public an advanced electronic portal to PDF viewing, downloading, and printing an array of information and documents for approximately 500,000 patent applications not covered by confidentiality laws. As new applications become eligible for publication 18 months after they are filed, they will be added to the database. It is expected that about 300,000 application files will be added annually." Search by patent number, application number, or publication number. See Also: Direct Link to the Public PAIR Database
Local Search Source: Search Day New Local Search Offering from Yahoo Chris Sherman with a look at a new beta that Yahoo is making available today (U.S. only). The company has also made something VERY similar available in Australia. - Also, Ask Jeeves has announced that they are partnering with CitySearch to provide local business listings and related info (reviews, ratings, etc.) directly into web search results (where appropriate) using their Smart Search technology. Also, Jeeves announced that searching a city name (more than 4000 available) will return a Smart Search box containing direct links to a variety of info sources about that location.
Briefly + Ovid Goes to the Summer Olympics + LexisNexis...Growing List of Prisons Installing Legal Research Kiosks for Inmates Monday, August 02, 2004
News Search--Topix.net Topix.net Goes Live With New Look and Features Topix.net, one of the MOST useful news aggregators and search tools on the open web has gone live with a new look and several new features. Here's what you'll find: + Topix.net is now crawling more than 7000 sources (primarily but not exclusively U.S. publications) and offering more than 150,000 "topically based" pages. A breakdown: + 30,000 US cities and towns, 5,500 public company and industry verticals, 48,000 celebrities and musicians, 500 sports teams and personalities and many more. + An RSS feed is available for each one of these "topically based" pages. + Improved relevancy using Topix.net's own NewsRank algorithm. Prominence (of the event), timeliness (of the story), and magnitude (prominence of the story in its topic area and overall) all play into relevancy. An article's NewsRank score is visible next to the snippet. + New layout and color scheme (easy to use, easy on the eyes) + E-Mail Alerts for all 150,000 pages are now available. When you're on a topical page simply click the "email alert" link in the left column and register with an email address. Results are delivered either daily or weekly (it would be great if a "when published" option was also available). + On the right side of the Topix.net home page you'll now see a "Live Feed" box. This is an "up to the second" list of what Topix is crawling and adding to the database. + If you visit a topical or local Topix.net page and then return to the home page, the topical/local pages you've visited will "flyout" as you move up and down the top-level category list (below the search box). + Topix.net local pages (a page for each Zip Code in the U.S.) now contain direct links to more local info (aerial images, tv listings, movie times, etc.) + Don't forget, the entire Topix.net database remains completely searchable (a couple of pieces of search syntax are available). Topix.net has become one of my primary tools to browse and search news. Kudos to Rich Skrenta and his team on improving their product. See Also: Topix.net launched with its first version in March 2003. Here's an interview we did with Topix.net CEO Rich Skrenta. See Also: More About the New Stuff and the Challenges of Developing the Product on the Topix.net Blog
Government Documents--United States Source: ALAWON UPDATE: Dept. of Justice Rescinds Order to Withdraw Publications The following from Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents, via an ALA newsletter: As you know, on July 22, 2004, a notice was posted to FDLP-L advising depository libraries that the Department of Justice had requested the withdrawal of five publications that were intended for internal use only. In response to the Government Printing Office's further inquiry into this matter, the Department of Justice has requested that I advise depository libraries to disregard the previous instructions to withdraw these publications. In making this request, the Department of Justice said, although these materials were "intended only for the internal training use of Department of Justice personnel and, as such, were inappropriately distributed to depository libraries through an administrative oversight," the Department has determined that these materials are "not sufficiently sensitive to require removal from the depository library system." Since 1995, GPO has issued recall letters for 20 publications at the request of the publishing agencies. Seven of these publications were recalled because they were for official use or internal use only, as occurred in this instance. Both GPO and the Department of Justice regret any inconvenience resulting from the initial request for withdrawal. See Also: ALA Comments on the Decision See Also: ResourceShelf posted two items about this story on 7/31 and 7/24.
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--New Zealand Source: Dominion Post Turn on the PC for trip to library We always like to see when library resources get mainstream press attention. From the article: "Libraries across New Zealand have begun offering a mass of New Zealand and international publications online. The deal for access to material from 16,000 publications was struck in January with multinational content aggregation firms Ebsco and Gale. A plan to make the content available to all New Zealanders through the National Library website has been given lower priority compared with making them available through the 170-odd other libraries which make up the buying consortium." -- State Libraries Source: The Journal News State library expands service "The New York State Library now will issue its library card to any New York resident 18 years and older -- a privilege that had been reserved for state employees, members of the state's bar and medical associations, legislators and officially appointed local historians...Under the expanded service, anyone with a state library card can walk into the Albany building and take out materials, and can log onto the state's own research databases from home, school, or the office for everything from children's encyclopedias to medical health information to four years' worth of New York Times articles, free of charge." -- Academic Libraries Sound Archives Source: Lawrence Journal World Library help, grant to keep precious collection in tune From the article, "Assistance will allow KU Archive of Recorded Sound to be cataloged, made more accessible to students and public." At the beginning of 2004 we ran this post that talked about financial problems the KU Archive of Recorded Sound was having. -- Academic Libraries Music Libraries Source: Oakland Tribune UC Berkeley gets new music library "$14 million, high-tech facility has more than 50,000 sound and video recordings." -- Translation Source: Technology Review Less Lost in Translation "Non-native English speakers attempting to express themselves in the global language of business and science get a software assist from Microsoft's Beijing lab."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Afghanistan Source: Foreign Affairs Select Committee, House of Commons, UK New Report, Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism Full Text (HTML) Full Text (PDF) Volume II: Oral and written evidence -- Australia Source: National Library of Australia South Seas: Voyaging and Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Pacific "An online reference guide to Captain James Cook's momentous first Pacific voyage of discovery (1768-1771). Contains historical images, rare maps and much more." -- Grandparents--United States Source: U.S. Census New, Fast Facts, Grandparents Day 2004: Sept. 12 A compilation of stats about grandma and grandpa. -- Juvenile Crime--United States--Statistics Source: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. DOJ Victims of Violent Juvenile Crime "About one in five nonfatal violent victimizations involves a juvenile offender, acting either alone or with others -- adult or juvenile. Most victims of juvenile violence are juveniles, including 95% of the victims of sexual assaults. Nearly all victims of juvenile violence know the offender. The authors of this Bulletin draw on these and other key findings derived from data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to develop a statistical profile of juvenile crime." Sunday, August 01, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Film Studies--Databases Source: Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive CineFiles "CineFiles is a database of reviews, press kits, festival and showcase program notes, newspaper articles, and other documents from the PFA Library's collection. The collection contains documents from a broad range of sources covering world cinema, past and present. CineFiles currently includes materials on the films of nearly 100 directors whose works have been featured in PFA's exhibition program. Materials on additional directors' works are added regularly. The database also contains retrospective indexing of film titles beginning with 'A"' and of files describing Soviet silent films from PFA's collection. Brief authority records, including title, director, country, and year, are also currently available for over 25,000 films. When retrospective indexing is complete, the CineFiles database will hold over 200,000 documents. New titles and document images are added daily." -- Postal Crime--Handbooks Source: United States Postal Service A Law Enforcement Guide to Postal Crimes "This guide is designed to help federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies understand how the Postal Inspection Service can assist in your investigations. It also provides information on postal crimes for which a Postal Inspector should be notified." Among other things, contains interesting postal crime statistics and contact information for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Divisions. Dated June 2004. -- Nuclear Weapons Facilities--Remediation Source: Resources for the Future Cleaning Up the Nuclear Weapons Complex: Internet Resources "There are a broad variety of organizations that research and monitor the cleanup of the sites in the nuclear weapons complex. With funding from The John Merck Fund, Resources for the Future's (RFF) Center for Risk Management has created this Web page to provide interested researchers and others a fast way to locate research, policy analysis, and information about environmental issues at the nation's former nuclear weapons production sites. The site includes approximately 100 links to about 50 organizations."
Professional Reading Shelf National Archives Source: Library Journal At Hearings, Senator Wants Reason For Archivist's Removal "Historian Allen Weinstein sailed through a July 22 hearing in the Senate on his controversial nomination to be the ninth Archivist of the United States. However, signaling a potential political battle over what was designed to be a nonpolitical position, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) revealed that a recent exchange of letters suggests that John Carlin's announced resignation was not voluntary." -- Hank Asher -- Genius Interrupted Source: Florida Trend Profile of Hank Asher, creator of AutoTrack, Seisint and MATRIX. Interesting dude, to put it mildly. (Free registration required.) -- Presidential Libraries--Abraham Lincoln Source: State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Ready or Not Looking ahead to the opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in September and the associated museum in 2005, Springfield, IL, scrambles to get ready for an estimated 300,000 additional tourists per year. -- Libraries--Litigation Source: North County Times Judge Orders Man to Cover City's Legal Fees in Library Cat Case "A disabled man has been ordered to pay nearly $30,000 in attorneys' fees incurred by the city of Escondido defending a lawsuit stemming from the attack nearly four years ago on his assistance dog by a cat living in the city library...."
Briefly + "Date Retrieved" Info Returns to Google Cache You can now see the exact time the Google crawler visited the page. The Gigablast cache also provides this information. Thanks to SEW Forums for the news tip. |
