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Resources and News for Information Professionals
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Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Information Technology Source: Journal of Digital Information Full Text Paper, Employee Resistance to Information Technology Change in a Social Service Agency: A Membership Category Approach -- Audio Preservation Source: CLIR The Art and Science of Audio Preservation -- Technology Books--Book Reviews Source: LITA New Issues, TER: Technology Electronic Reviews -- Science Librarianship--Publications Source: ACRL, Science and Technology Section Now online: Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Fall 2004 -- Interlibrary Loan Now Available: Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of Interlending & Document Supply Articles include: + Unmediated is the message: enhancements to traditional interlibrary loan in a Canadian university (Vol 32, No.3) + Document access in the United States: revisited 1978-2004 (Vol 32, No.3) + An end user writes about accessing documents (Vol 32, No.3) + The future of interlending (Vol 32, No.2) + License to Deny? Publisher restrictions on document delivery from e-licensed journals (Vol 32, No.2) + Interlending and document supply: a review of recent literature (Vol 32, No.2) + Finding that document! Enhancing the discovery and locating of journals (Vol 32, No.1) + View Interlibrary lending and document supply: past, present and future (Vol 32, No.1)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Employers--Science--Surveys Source: Science Magazine Science Magazine's Top Employers Survey "The latest survey sponsored by Science's Office of Publishing and Member Services finds evidence of recovery in the biopharmaceutical sector. But top companies, in the view of the survey's respondents, remain largely unchanged." -- Economic Development Source: ELDIS Compilation: State of the World Reports 2004 From the site, "Want to know what's going on in the world? The big development institutions are very happy to tell you. Here's our selection from this year's crop of the big macro-economic 'State of the World' surveys and analysis." -- Families--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census New Report, "Stay-at-Home" Parents Top 5 Million, Census Bureau Reports Summary Full Text Report ( America?s Families and Living Arrangements: 2003)
Search Briefs + Australia's Ansearch to hatch competitor to Google + Autonomy Enters Desktop Search War + Video Search: Google, Yahoo, and MSN Includes many examples of companies currently offering video/audio search. Monday, November 29, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Information Quality on the Web Diploma Mills--Domain Names Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Don't Judge a College by Its Internet Address "Although '.edu' Internet addresses are supposed to be reserved for colleges with accreditation from agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education, hundreds of institutions that do not meet that requirement have the coveted Web addresses." -- Research Libraries Source: ARL Chart: Resources per Student in ARL Libraries, 1986-2003 -- RFID Source: KPIX More on the Use of RFID at San Francisco Public Library "A plan to put radio frequency identification (RFID) tags into San Francisco public library books has drawn sharp criticism on grounds ranging from privacy for library patrons to the health and safety of library workers...Other critics of the tags are concerned about the possible health risks to library staff from the radio frequencies emitted by the scanners. 'Library workers,' said Peter Warfield of the San Francisco Library Users Association, 'would be at risk potentially much more than members of the public because they would be operating this equipment all day long.'"
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Computers--United States--Statistics Internet Usage--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Detailed Tables: Computer and Internet Use in the United States: September 2001 -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES New Report, Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004 "This statistical report assembles a series of indicators that examine the extent to which males and females have access to the same educational opportunities, avail themselves equally of these opportunities, perform at similar levels throughout schooling, succeed at similar rates, and reap the same benefits from their educational experiences." -- Digital Content Industry Source: EContent Magazine 2004 EContent 100 "Welcome to the fourth annual EContent 100 - our list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry." Sunday, November 28, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Science--Databases Source: The Scientist All About TextPresso "Few research tasks are as time-consuming and tedious as scouring the scientific literature. The searcher might need only one nugget of information, yet it can take hours or days to slog through hundreds of papers before that one fact is found. Now, a new open-source tool called Textpresso (www.textpresso.org) can find a single fact just by typing in a quick search entry."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Medical Eponyms Source: Ole Daniel Enersen Who Named It? "Whonamedit.com is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms. It is our ambition to present a complete survey of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person. Eventually, this will include more than 15,000 eponyms and more than 6,000 persons." Search or browse. -- Commemerative Observances--United States Source: CRS (via FPC) Updated, Commemorative Observances: A Chronological List -- Rental Cars--Ratings Source: J.D. Power and Associates J.D. Power Rental Car Ratings From press release: "The study, now in its ninth year, measures customer satisfaction among business and leisure customers who rented a car at or near an airport. Overall satisfaction is based on performance in six areas. In order of importance, they are: pick-up process, rates/value, return process, rental car, reservation and shuttle bus/van. Enterprise receives high ratings from customers in all factors and leads the industry in the areas of pick-up process and shuttle bus/van. Hertz follows Enterprise in the rankings, receiving the highest ratings in reservations, rental car and return process.... Wait times to pick up rental cars have increased significantly over 2003. The study finds that 43 percent of all rental car customers had to wait an average of 19 minutes for a shuttle bus to pick up their rental car-up from 11 minutes in 2003." Saturday, November 27, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Big Lottery Fund National evaluation reveals impact of People's Network "A major new impact study undertaken by the Tavistock Institute and published by Big Lottery Fund shows how public libraries are being transformed and revitalised by the introduction of computers." Full Text Report: The People's Network: Evaluation Summary -- Libraries--United States E-Rate Source: AP Internet Aid to Schools, Libraries Flowing Again "he program that helps link schools and libraries to the Internet has resumed spending after a cash-flow crunch that delayed more than $400 million in projects. The E-Rate program has ended a four-month-long moratorium on new projects, federal officials said Tuesday, but it will take time to clear a backlog of more than 4,000 requests."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Consumer Credit--United States Source: Washington Post Free Access to Consumer Credit Reports Begins Next Week Here's background of what's free and what you'll have to pay for (most extras are still fee-based). Overview Article||| Charts and Tables -- Automobiles--Canada Source: Natural Resources Canada (via DocuTicker.com) Just Released, Automobiles--Canada Just Released, 2005 Fuel Consumption Guide -- Aerial Photographs--Canada--Databases Source: Natural Resources Canada The National Air Photo Library Has a New Look "The National Air Photo Library (NAPL) of Natural Resources Canada archives over six million aerial photographs covering all of Canada, some of which date back to the 1920s." Friday, November 26, 2004
Librarians New "Librarian" Web Domains Here's a new list (we're going to make this a regular feature) with most of the domain names (.com, .org, .net, info) registered in October and November that contain the word "librarian" in them. In many cases, these domains aren't active yet. Domains that are active (at the time of writing) are hyperlinked. If you're interested in learning about who registered the domain, simply run a WHOIS search. Have fun! + famouslibrarians.com + checkoutalibrarian.com + librarianoccupation.com + librarianforums.org + librarianforum.org + askmedlibrarian.com (and .org) ++ (Registered by UCHSC Denison Memorial Library) + librarianjokes.com + librarianforhire.com + movie-librarians.com + novel-librarians.com + librarianknits.com + e-librarians.com + highschoollibrarian.com + galacticlibrarian.com + eclecticlibrarian.com + personalresearchlibrarian.com ++ (Registered by Johns Hopkins University) + systemslibrarian.org (and .info) + travelinlibrarian.info + eliteratelibrarian.com + imagelibrarian.com + justintime-librarian.info + librarianslave.com + thecyberlibrarian.com + yourcyberlibrarian.com + yourlibrarianslave.com + filmlibrarian.com + librarianexchange.com + librariangifts.com + librarianindex.com + librariansex.com + librarianworld.com + nakedlibrarian.com
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Vehicle Safety--Photos--Database Source: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety AAA Foundation Photolibrary "These images may be published and distributed in any paper, electronic or other media for the sole purpose of promoting traffic safety and injury prevention issues. Users of these images may digitally manipulate or add other graphic elements to enhance the usability of the images for publishing only as such use relates to promoting traffic safety, injury prevention, and/or public health. Users of these images may not sell them, transfer or assign intellectual property rights to the images, and users must credit the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety as the source." Search by keyword or use dropdown menu to view photos by category -- from "Aggressive Driving" to "Work Zone." Submit online permission form for use.
Professional Reading Shelf Metasearch Source: NISO Results of NISO Metasearch Survey -- Research Libraries--United Kingdom Source: BL Research Libraries Network appoints top jobs "Dr Michael Jubb has been appointed as Director of the Research Libraries Network (RLN) based at the British Library, with Professor Robert Burgess taking up the role of Chair of the Advisory Board. With £3 million funding from a consortium of funders, the RLN will ensure 'joined up' information services for UK researchers. The RLN will bring together the UK 's four higher education funding bodies, the British Library, the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales and the eight members of Research Councils UK, to develop the UK 's first national framework aimed at addressing the information needs of researchers. The RLN will run initially for three years and start operating in February 2005. It will be led by an executive unit - based at the British Library - and take strategic guidance from the advisory board. More key executive unit and advisory board positions will be appointed in the near future." Thursday, November 25, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Mobile Access to Information--Education Source: JISC New Report, Mobile and PDA technologies and their future use in education "In recent years there has been a phenomenal growth in the number and technical sophistication of what can loosely be termed 'mobile devices' such as PDAs, mobile phones and media players. Increasingly these devices are also internet-enabled. This JISC report reviews the current state of the art, explores the potential uses within education and discusses some of the trends in technological development such as wireless networking, device convergence and 'always-on' connectivity." -- Institutional Repositories Source: SPARC Workshop: Institutional Repositories: The Next Stage Work Presentations and posters from the workshop are now available. The event took place last week in Washington D.C. Presentations include: + Scholarly Communication, Open Access, and Cost Saving: Are They Related? Keynote by Charles Phelps, University of Rochester. + Scientific Publications: Free for All? A Summary of Implications for Institutional Repositories + The Copyright Conundrum: How to Populate Your Repository and Stay Legal + DSpace at MIT - The Business Model Revisited + Open Access Policy: The View from Europe ++ Posters include: + Barriers to Adoption of an Institutional Repository: An Academic Library Case Study + Developing a Metadata Profile for Institutional Repositories in Canada
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Out of Print Books--Lists & Rankings BookFinder.com Unveils Top 10 Out-of-Print Books of 2004 See Also: Additional Bookfinder Rankings -- Labour--Australia Source: Dept. of Parliamentary Libraries, Australia Research Brief: Labour market dynamics
Briefly + Searching publications online (via SiliconValley.Com) Michael Bazeley takes a look at ebrary, a company we've mentioned MANY times on ResourceShelf. Btw, ebrary offers a couple useful free or low-cost services directly to consumers. This post from April has a couple of links. See Also: A June 2004 Interview with ebrary CEO, John Warnock The interview was published in Against the Grain. See Also: ebrary Library Center A collection of full text books for librarians. Access is free. Wednesday, November 24, 2004
U.S. Government--Legislative Information--Databases Source: The Library of Congress Preview a Redesigned Version of THOMAS A preview version is now available. From the web site, "The 109th Congress convenes at noon on January 4, 2005. In preparation for that, we have been working to improve the appearance and the usefulness of THOMAS, the Library of Congress' public legislative information system. We expect the updated site to be released on January 4, but in the meantime we invite you to preview the updated THOMAS." Thanks to Bob T. for the news tip.
Web Directories--Librarians' Index to the Internet IM the Librarians' Index to the Internet No doubt about it, the Librarians' Index to the Internet is one of several shining excellent examples of the great work info pros are doing to help organize the web. Earlier today, the LII's Director (and ResourceShelf friend) Karen Schneider, alerted us to a new service that this non-commercial web directory is making available. Have a question about the LII and how it's put together? Want to suggest a resource? Do you need help searching the LII? It's now possible to have an interactive chat with an LII staff member using either AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. To chat with the LII via either instant messenging program, simply send a message to: im4ii Note: The service is in beta as of today, so it might be a bit irregular in terms of accessibility. Of course, if you're pressed for time or don't want to do use IM, you can still email the LII team at: feedback@lii.org. Karen tells us that she constantly receives great input for LII folks.
Professional Reading Shelf Library Associations Source: Library Journal SLA Faces Budget Crunch, Global Online University Moves Ahead -- Research Libraries Source: RLG New Issue Available, RLG News -- Audio Preservation Source: CLIR The Art and Science of Audio Preservation
Web Search--Google Source: Peter Jacso Side-by-Side Native Search Engines vs Google Scholar Peter Jacso from the University of Hawaii and Peter's Digital Reference Shelf has let us know (thanks Peter!) of a new PolySearch module that he's developed to test Google Scholar. He writes, "This PolySearch engine shows side by side what results are retrieved by the special Google Scholar search engine versus the native search software from the archives of some publishers which let in the crawlers of Google Scholar as a special privilege for binge crawling." Like Google Scholar, Peter's new PolySearch module is still a beta. His full review will appear in early December on Digital Reference Shelf. His conclusions, so far? He writes, "Google indexed the full text of the digital archives fed to it directly by 29 scholarly publishers, and a number of preprint servers and digital facilitators' sites which host thousands of scholarly journals. Preliminary tests have shown that Google Scholar often retrieves far fewer unique items than the native search engines of the publishers. On the positive side, Google Scholar links to citing references if the document was cited by journals indexed in Google Scholar, and provides the immensely useful citedness score of the documents. When Google Scholar has more "hits" for a query, they often turn out to be duplicates and triplicates (not always displayed adjacently) with a separate hit for the TOC entry, the abstract, the PDF file and (if available) the HTML file. Although their URLs are slightly different, they take you to the same spot in the archive. These are redundant and confusing..." In June, Peter wrote this review of the Cross-Ref/Google project.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Government--Terrorism Source: CIA (via DocuTicker) Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 July Through 31 December 2003 "At the DCI's request, the DCI Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center (WINPAC) drafted this report and coordinated it throughout the Intelligence Community (IC). As directed by Section 721, subsection (c) of the Act, it is unclassified. As such, the report does not present the details of the IC's assessments of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional munitions programs that are available in other classified reports and briefings for the Congress." + Read the report [PDF] -- HIV/AIDS Source: World Health Organization Just Released, Report: AIDS Epidemic Update 2004 See Also: Number of women living with HIV increases in each region of the world -- Labour--Australia Source: Dept. of Parliamentary Libraries, Australia Research Brief: Labour market dynamics -- Hate Crimes--United States Source: FBI Just released: Hate Crime Statistics | 2003 "Each year's edition of Hate Crime Statistics presents data regarding incidents, offenses, victims, and offenders in reported crimes that were motivated in whole or in part by a bias against the victim's perceived race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability." (PDF file; very slow download afternoon of 11/24/04)
Creative Commons Search Engines Source: P2P Updated Version (Beta) of Creative Commons Search Engine Now Available We first mentioned the CC search engine (using the Nutch technology) in September. Also, access to the CC Search Engine is now included with the toolbar that ships with Firefox. From the news release, "The beta search engine indexes just under one million web pages, but Creative Commons says it expects to soon index the full five million pages currently carrying Creative Commons licenses." See Also: Direct to the CC Search Engine See Also: CC Search Overview Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Preservation Archives Source: BL 10 million pound programme to save the world's historical and cultural records "Representatives from the international historical, conservation and diplomatic worlds gathered today at the British Library to mark the launch of the Endangered Archives Programme - a £10 million joint initiative between the British Library and the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund to help save the world's endangered archives." -- Libraries--Canada Source: Canadian Library Association CLA Response to Library and Archives Canada Paper In response to Library and Archives Canada Paper entitled Directions for Library and Archives Canada -- Health Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Kable's Government Computing Health service opens e-library "A national library service, to be run by the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), is to provide the "knowledge" content for new systems such as the electronic patient record, it was announced on 17 November 2004." -- Information Retrieval Metadata Source: FCW EPA builds a better search A keyword search in the Environmental Protection Agency's Web pages used to yield a mishmash of results. Typing, say, "water quality" in the search engine might have returned links to high-level overviews of water quality issues or to documents that merely mentioned water quality. 'The relevancy ranking of our search engine couldn't really say, 'Here's a general thing about water quality that could get you started,' said Richard Huffine, program manager for the EPA's National Library Network. So EPA officials modified the search engine." -- Open Access Source: E-LIS Supporting and Enhancing Scholarship in the Digital Age : The Role of Open Access Institutional Repositories "This paper examines the emerging trend of university-based institutional repositories (IRs) designed to capture the scholarly output of an institution and to maximize the research impact of this output. The relationship of this trend to the open access movement is discussed and challenges and opportunities for using IRs to promote new modes of scholarship are provided."+ Read the paper [PDF]
Briefly + New Online Translation Tool: Welcome to the Babelplex + Paul Allen Invests in Eliyon Search Engine
Web Search--Google Source: The Harvard Crimson More Comments About Google Scholar The Harvard Crimson offers a look at Google Scholar today. A couple of comments: +"Cheryl M. LaGuardia, head of instructional services for Harvard College libraries, said that Scholar has the potential for success, but she sees some limitations. 'I don't think it will replace the resources available in the library,' LaGuardia said. 'It's still got a long way to go, but there's promise.'" ++ As we pointed out last week, we continue to find lots of material in Google Scholar that's not "scholarly." Be careful. +"LaGuardia said current library resources, like JSTOR (a subscription service to which University affiliates are granted access), give users access to a wide range of free articles that users of Google Search have to pay for." ++ LaGuardia is correct; we made a similar comment last week. Btw, I enjoyed seeing this quote from Google Scholar developer, Anurag Acharya, in Barbara Quint's article yesterday: "So many people do not know that they have access through institutional subscriptions." Yep. Once again, a clear example of why both library and database vendor marketing need to improve. People can't use what they don't know about. + We've read (even before the launch of Google Scholar) about fee-based database interfaces being difficult to use as compared to Google. In some cases, this might be accurate. However, databases from fee-based vendors have steadily improved in ease of use during the past few years -- a necessary thing, considering how much more end-user searching is being done these days. We've often wondered if people who diss these tools (for this reason) have used them in the past few years. Are they as easy to use as Google? No, in many cases, they're not. However, with a small (and we mean very small) amount of training, even a casual searcher will find that these potentially more powerful retrieval tools can save plenty of time and generate better results. Yes, a little learning can go a long. In many cases, the challenge is getting an audience. ++ We see a relationship here to the fact that many searchers do not want to use (or even look at) engines other than Google because they believe the interfaces are too complex. The last time we looked at Yahoo's streamlined interface or Teoma, we felt they were just as straightforward as Google. + "Professor of Psychology Marc D. Hauser said he briefly used Scholar and was encouraged by what he saw. 'It's an incredibly useful source because it takes into account a number of sources,' he said." ++ This quote reads like a wake-up call for federated/metasearch technologies WHERE the library and librarians can create a single user interface to a variety of sources (open web, deep web, fee-based, and locally created info). -- -- A couple of additional comments and clarifications about our Google Scholar post from last Thursday. Thanks for your interest. Also, we appreciate ResourceShelf's Steven Cohen for his assistance in getting all of this together. ++ In our post last week we could have been clearer about searching Google Scholar with the author: syntax. Steven writes, "While it is true that one can search the database by abbreviated author name (eg "Cohen S"), at this time there is only one syntax that Google Scholar has available -- the "author" syntax. The folks at Google recommend that you only use the last name of the author when using that syntax (eg. author:cohen), as using it another way will come up with sometimes poor (that is, erratic) results (e.g., author:cohen j)." + About Google Scholar crawling the full text from certain publisher sites -- here's what a Google spokesperson told us today: "...where we have permission to crawl a doc we will do so, but will only show an abstract." + Finally, Steven adds this comment: ++ GS needs to define "scholarly" better. For fun, I put my name into the database and the two links that relate to me were my book and a post to Library Juice made in 2001. Definitely not a scholarly post. More stringent rules should be in place before I would call it a scholarly engine. If anyone can put a PDF version of a paper they wrote in college online and GS picks it up as "scholarly," there is something wrong. Librarians do a much better job at collection development.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Congressional Research Service Reports New and Recently Updated Congressional Service Reports Source: CRS (via FAS, FPC, and NLE) + Al Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology + Guarding America: Security Guards and U.S. Critical Infrastructure Protection + Iraq's Trade with the World: Data and Analysis + Oil and Gas Exploration and Development on Public Lands -- Hate Crimes--United States--Statistics Source: FBI Hate Crime Statistics, 2003 Thanks to S.B. for the news tip. -- Crime--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Morgan Quitno Press New, America's Safest and Most Dangerous Cities The rankings are discussed in an AP story. -- Health--United States--Statistics Source: CDC New Fact Sheet, U.S. Cancer Statistics: 2001 Incidence and Mortality See Also: United States Cancer Statistics: 2001 Incidence and Mortality Report -- Elections--Canada--Statistics Source: Elections Canada Now Available, Official Voting Results For 2004 General Election Now Available On Web -- Privacy Source: Privacy International New Edition, Full-Text, Privacy & Human Rights 2004 Includes country-by-country reports. Monday, November 22, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf PubMed Source: NLM PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping Enhanced "PubMed optimizes searches using a process known as Automatic Term Mapping (ATM). ATM compares terms from the search query with lists of terms: MeSH (including UMLS mappings), journal titles, and author names. If a searcher's query includes an untagged term that maps to a MeSH term, the term will be searched as the MeSH term as well as a Text Word." -- Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Department for Culture, Media and Sport New Report, Report to Parliament on Public Library Matters "Public Library Matters is a DCMS report to parliament setting out an overview of the department's policy for public libraries in England and progress towards achieving the 'Framework for Future' strategic vision for libraries." -- Librarians--Careers Source: Library Journal Going Public "Corporate librarians are finding public libraries quite attractive. One convert tells why." Article by Kate Baker, former special librarian who is now a reference librarian at Piscataway Public Library, NJ.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Holocaust--Databases Yad Vashem Launches Online Database Of 3 Million Holocaust Victims' Names + Facts About The Database "Two-thirds of the names in the Database were obtained from the more than two million Pages of Testimony submitted to Yad Vashem over the past 50 years, nearly all of which have now been digitized. Other names have been gleaned from additional computerized lists, including deportation, camp and ghetto records. With a click, users can view and print Pages of Testimony, or a screen containing a victim's personal story, based on information from archival sources available in the Database. Each such 'mini-biography' further links to information about the particular victim, such as the places he/she lived and died, related historical events and more." See Also: Additional Background About the Database -- Older Americans--Health Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Merck Institute of Aging & Health The State of Aging and Health in America 2004 (PDF; 1.33 MB) From press release: "The new report, which also features input from the Gerontological Society of America, says that despite the proven health benefits of physical activity, one-third of older adults are not taking part in any leisure-time physical activities. Additionally, two-thirds of older adults are not eating the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. And nearly one-fifth of older adults are obese, which is defined as at least 30 pounds above recommended weight." -- Civil Rights--United States Source: TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse)/Syracuse University New Report, Civil Rights Enforcement By Bush Administration Lags
Search Briefs + Narrowing the Search (via News.com) Vivisimo's CEO, Raul Valdes-Perez shares his thoughts on clustering vs. personalization. Greg Linden from Findory, news and web with personalized results offers a response to the Valdes-Perez article. + An Exceptionally "EEVL" Search Resource (via SearchDay) Sunday, November 21, 2004
National Archives--United States--Databases Four New Resources Added to Access to Archival Databases Collection + Records of Awards and Decorations of Honor During the Vietnam Conflict, 10/1968 - 12/1972 The AWADS series contains information about 80,701 awards and decorations of honor processed by Headquarters, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and awarded to U.S. military officers, soldiers, and sailors, and to allied foreign military personnel. The records in this series are a subset of the U.S. awards and decorations received by personnel who served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnamese War. ++ + Files from the Defense Contract Action Data System (DCADS), 7/1/1975 - 9/30/2002 The DCADS records describe the logistics activities of contracts for goods and services between the private sector and the military services and agencies of the Department of Defense. Department of Defense (DD) Forms DD 350 and DD 1057 are the sources of the data. There is a record for each contract with information derived from DD Form 350, the Individual Contracting Action Report. We have recently added DCADS data for FY 2001 and 2002. ++ + Records About Wage Increases, 11/14/1971 - 4/30/1974 The Wage Case History File series contains data extracted from reports of wage increases and requests to increase wages from business establishments subject to wage controls. Each record corresponds to a report or request submitted by an establishment, and shows how the Cost of Living Council (CLC) categorized and responded to the submission. Each record contains the establishment's case number and address, the name of the company to which the establishment belonged, the number of employees affected by the report or request, and information about the wages and benefits paid and requested. ++ + Records of Corporate and Quarterly Financial Information on Thrift Institutions, 1984-1998 This Thrift Financial System series was created from financial reports (OTS Form 1313) filed by Savings and Loan Associations. The record types in AAD are B, C, D, and I1. Record types B, C, and D contain universe (corporate structure) information including business names and addresses. Financial data for 1984 -1988 and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters of 1989 are now accessible in AAD.
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--Special Collections Source: The Birmingham News Scrapbooks cover WWII until end "Archival business is picking up at the Birmingham Public Library as World War II-era letters and scrapbooks are donated by families cleaning out attics, basements and closets. In many cases, people whose parents lived through the war years have sought out libraries and museums as repositories for treasured family mementos. It's in hopes that a student researching World War II or someone writing a book will find an interesting quote or a piece of history in the letters." -- Academic Freedom Source: Organization of American Historians OAH Report on Academic Freedom "Five major areas of concern have emerged in reports that have been brought to the committee's attention to date." 1. "...government surveillance of faculty members, students, visiting scholars, and libraries" 2. "...foreign historians, students, and researchers are now subject to interminable review if they apply for entry to the U.S. or for renewal of green cards" 3. "...the last two presidential administrations have made historians' access to government documents increasingly difficult" 4. "...direct efforts by the federal administration and by foundations and web sites that support it to shape the content of teaching and research in directions favorable to its policies" 5. "...many K-12 teachers have been condemned by school boards, organized groups, and individual parents for the content of courses they teach, books they have assigned or recommended to students, and artwork or notices they have permitted students to post"
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Election Laws--Database Source: UCLA School of Law/Pew Charitable Trusts Campaign Disclosure Law Database "The Campaign Disclosure Law Database contains statutes and regulations in 105 categories from 50 states, the District of Columbia and the FEC. Users can choose to view some or all categories in a single state, or to compare individual categories across two or more states. The database is current as of June 30, 2004. The entire database is available for download upon request." Read press release about this database. -- Military Records U.S. Marine Corps--Vietnam Source: The Eureka Reporter Vietnam Files Provide Marines Access To Their Records "Thanks to Vietnam veteran David Prendergast, U.S. Marines who served in the Vietnam War can now access their records online. For years, Prendergast, a local attorney, has volunteered his spare time helping Vietnam veterans access their records so that they can establish their disability eligibility." See: The Vietnam Files -- Disease--Australia House of Commons Library, Australia New Report, Critical, but stable: Australia's capacity to respond to an infectious disease outbreak -- Heating Fuel--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Gas Most Popular Home Heating Fuel, Census Bureau Survey Shows -- Nursing--Professional Organizations--Directory Source: Nursing2004 (journal) Guide to Nursing Organizations Long list, with contact information (including URLs), of professional nursing associations in the United States and Canada. Saturday, November 20, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--Salinas, CA Source: SFGate.com Beleaguered Salinas plans to close its libraries: Officials slashing $8 million from annual city budget "The life-size statue of author John Steinbeck that stands in front of this city's main library wears an exasperated expression, and no wonder. This agricultural city of 150,000 is so broke that city officials plan to close all three of its libraries in January -- an act that surely would try the patience of its most famous literary son. It would also make Salinas the biggest city west of the Mississippi, and possibly in the United States, with no public library." -- Bibliographic Instruction--Native Americans Source: Sandy Hawes, Cannon Library, St. Leo University Resources for Library Instruction to Native American College Students "Here is an annotated bibliography of resources to help you understand the learning characteristics of Native American students in higher education and to do a better job of developing library instruction for this population." Download as Word document. (65 KB)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Employment--Cities Source: Milken Institute Best Performing Cities: Where America's Jobs Are Created and Sustained From the press release: "The Milken Institute Best Performing Cities index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas based upon their economic performance and their ability to create, as well as keep, the greatest number of jobs in the nation." + Read the report [PDF] + View the Index -- Thanksgiving--Food Costs Source: American Farm Bureau Federation AFBF: Thanksgiving Dinner Remains Affordable "In AFBF's annual informal survey of the price of basic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table, the average cost of this year's feast for 10 is $35.68, a 60-cent price decrease from last year's survey average of $36.28." -- Television--United States--Lists & Rankings Digital Video Recorders Source: TiVo TiVo Season Pass Hot 100 Friday, November 19, 2004
Resource Discovery Network New Specialized Search Tools for Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Even though large web search companies (Google, Yahoo, Jeeves) continue to develop new and innovative search services and gain a majority of the press, it DOES NOT MEAN that other organizations (large and small) aren't also doing great work developing new and useful search services (fee-based and free) and tools. In many cases, these tools are being built by info pros. Yesterday, just hours after the launch of Google Scholar, ResourceShelf learned of several new "specialized" or what some like to call "verticals" that might be of interest. UK-based librarian Roddy MacLeod, head of the "must see and use" EEVL (pronounced "evil") directory of high-quality mathematics, engineering, and computing resources alerted us to some new ejournal search tools. Cool! Oh, almost forgot, EEVL is a member of the Resource Discovery Network, a group of subject directories and gateways. Like we've said many times, RDN is an excellent illustration of the great work that info pros are doing. If you've never taken a look at what RDN offers, you should. Now with the intro out of the way (-:, let's talk about the new services. EEVL is now making availabe FOUR specialized databases that provide access to full-text ejournal material. Here's a rundown: + The Computing database searches the content of 60 freely available full-text ejournals in computing. + The math database searches the content of 28 freely available full-text ejournals in mathematics. + Engineering searches the content of 160 freely available full-text ejournals in engineering. + The last one searches the content of all 250 freely available full text ejournals in engineering, mathematics, and computing. If you would like to review a listing of the publications available, it's also available. Included in the mix are trade journals, house journals, and even some peer-reviewed journals. Finally, we can't mention Roddy MacLeod without pointing out that his work and dedication has been (and continues to be) an inspiration and motivator to the ResourceShelf and DocuTicker team. See Also: On a somewhat related note, don't foget that OAISTER is a wonderful, powerful, and free database containing scholarly material on the open web. Is some/all of this material in Yahoo and Google? The answer is yes. However, the native OAISTER interface offers many powerful search options not available from G and Y.
The Web View a Presentation By Tim Berners-Lee at MIT Just made available today is this archived webcast of the opening keynote at MIT's Emerging Technologies Conference (Sept 2004) by Tim Berners-Lee. At 3:47, Tim Berners-Lee begins. At 38:25, Q&A begins, with Bob Metcalfe, Founder, 3Com Corporation, and General Partner, Polaris Venture Partners, moderating. At 48:03 Metcalfe asks Berners-Lee, "What web browser do you use?"
Web Search--Google More on Google Scholar ResourceShelf is inviting a few "movers and shakers" in the library and online database worlds to share some thoughts about Google Scholar and what it means for our profession/industry. Look for them over the next few weeks. Comments will be announced on ResourceShelf and posted on ResourceShelfPLUS. We've just posted (on RSPLUS) a few comments by librarian and respected online research trainer, Rita Vine. Rita is the founder of Toronto-based, Search Portfolio.
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries Source: ARL New Spec Kit (Exec. Summary Only): SSP285 Library Services in Non-Library Spaces, November 2004 Full report is fee-based. The exec summary (free) runs 14 pages.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Education--Statistics Source: Institute of International Education (via DocuTicker.com) New International Education Statistics + International Students in the U.S. - [Data Tables] + American Students Studying Abroad - [Data Tables] + Country Fact Sheets "Country Fact Sheets contain historical information on the number of students coming to the United States from the respective countries, and U.S. students going to these countries."
Briefly + In-Q-Tel Partners with Convera to Expedite Development of Distributed Indexing Capability Note: In-Q-Tel is a private, independent enterprise funded by the CIA. -- Community of Science launches new version of COS Funding Opportunities Database Thursday, November 18, 2004
Resources of the Week Maps again this week, folks. Loyal ResourceShelf readers know how much we like geographic resources. World Maps and Geographic Information Source: United Nations United Nations Cartographic Section "The Cartographic Section is comprised of a small team of experienced mapping and GIS specialists. It is equipped to undertake a range of cartographic services related to the work of the Secretariat, including the preparation of small-scale illustrative, large-scale stand-alone maps and GIS products. To a lesser extent, the section provides advisory geographic/cartographic services on technical and research issues." What's in it for you? Plenty. On the left side of the page, a dropdown menu allows you to selected from more the 100 country and regional maps in PDF format. Directly below this, you'll find links to a handful of thematic maps. Interesting to compare: + The World in 1945 + The World Today (as of October 2004) On the right side of the page, another dropdown menu allows you to select from a variety of Peacekeeping Maps, showing current missions of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Items of interest on the lower part of the page include: + List of Territories (PDF; 128 KB): "Capital city, country code and country name of each member and non-member State is listed." + The Map Library: Actually part of the UN's Dag Hammarskjöld Library, which "houses over 80,000 maps, some 3,000 atlases, gazetteers, travel guides, cartographic and geographic reference works as well as digital cartographic products." Available online is a nice, growing collection of PDF maps of World Macro Regions and Components The map of Iraq, for example, is current as of January 2004 and provides enough detail that you can see the placenames you hear about in the news. A brief FAQ about this site notes that none of the maps is for sale. "Our principle is to share maps and data as much as we can. You can download, print and use our maps for non-profit purposes, free of charge. We ask that the map numbers be retained for reference purposes and that you give attribution to the source." -- -- Maps--Developing World Source: Canadian Geographic Enterprises and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) A Developing World The bad news is, you have to download something called Adobe SVG Viewer to access it. The good news is...it's worth it because it is very cool. Actually, there are two interactive world maps here: + The Developing World focuses on "international development produced in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). + Canada and the World, offers "interesting factoids on science and culture." The Developing World map allows you to click on a country, select a theme (human development, population, poverty and hunger, HIV/AIDS, education, environment from a dropdown menu) and compare that country with another that you choose from a second dropdown menu. Or you can choose geographic regions from other dropdown menus. A "More About This Country" link takes you to a page offering links to information about Canadian assistance activities in that country. Click on the map to zoom in, or use the controls provided. The Canada and the World map focuses on "Canada's global citizenship." Click on a country or choose a region or country/territory from the dropdown menus and another window opens, allowing you to read about Canada's scientific, technological and cultural contributions in that part of the world, as well as diplomacy and peacekeeping efforts. As you might expect, the maps are available in French as well as English. Print versions have been distributed to schools across Canada. Read all about the project in this press release.
Web Search--Google Big News: "Google Scholar" is Born By Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price The world of online "scholarly" research is changing today as Google introduces Google Scholar. This specialized new interface -- which will NOT be linked from Google's main search page -- will allow users to search a treasure chest of "scholarly material." As you've read here many times, Google is brilliant (that is, ingenious at marketing and trying new things), and this is yet another example of their savvy. This is something that some other large web engine(s) could have done years ago to help separate themselves from other players and also provide a useful service. No one did it. Now, others will likely play catch-up with Google. Basically, users of Google Scholar can, via a single search location, access content from "scholarly" materials found on the OPEN WEB that they've found in the Google crawl of the web. Btw, it might also be time to take another look at what has traditionally thought of as "scholarly" since some of the material in Google Scholar is not "scholarly" using a traditional definition. Some basic facts: + In a nutshell, Google has built an algorithm that makes a calculated guess at *what it thinks* is a scholarly content mined from the OPEN WEB, and then makes it accessible via the Google Scholar interface. + Precisely what makes something "scholarly" enough to be included in Google Scholar, Google will not say. And this is not an insignificant omission. Librarians, especially academic librarians, are *always* being asked to provide "scholarly" material, even if customers aren't quite sure what this means. Their instructor told them they needed articles from "scholarly journals," so this is precisely what they ask for at the library. As librarians, we may try to educate them about how "refereed publications" work, but let's face it. What most of these folks really want is to quickly download an appropriate article and beat feet out of the library. And if they think they can get what they need from Google, the odds are slim that they will bother with library resources at all. College students AND professors might not know that library databases exist, but they sure know Google. The database vendors don't always make it easy for us, either. For example, when searching Gale databases such as InfoTrac OneFile or Expanded Academic ASAP, you see a check box that you can fill in if you want to restrict your search to "refereed publications." How many of our customers know what a "refereed publication" is? Does any instructor ever ask his or her students to find articles from "refereed publications"? What's up with this? More facts: + Material accessible via Google Scholar can also found in the main Google index. + Google Scholar results pages *will not contain advertising* -- at least for now. + Some examples of material from major publishers who you'll find (we know Google has been working with many) -- Google will not provide us with a complete list, but look for content from ACM, IEEE, and yes, Open Worldcat material from OCLC. We also don't know precisely what is and is not available, date ranges, etc. * In many cases Google will be crawling and searching the full text of an article but users will either need to have a subscription to the database or pay for access to an individual article. A bit more from a Google spokesperson: "...where we have permission to crawl a doc we will do so but will only show an abstract." + VERY COOL! For many citations, you'll find a direct link to other articles in the Google Scholar database that cite the article you've selected. Yes, Google Scholar is a citation database too! This reminds me of two specialized databases that focus on specific types of scholarly content accessible on the open web that have been online for many years and remain EXCELLENT tools. 1) CiteSeer (focuses on computer science material, info tech content) 2) SmealSearch (focuses on business material) + Some material, let's say from Open Worldcat, isn't always scholarly in the way many people think of it. For example: ++ Here are many John Grisham books. ++ Although we're honored, we don't consider this blog to be a "scholarly" resource. ++ Academic librarians will be sad to learn that it's impossible to limit to only "peer-reviewed" material. + How big is the Google Scholar database? Google isn't saying. As Google makes this announcement and word spreads about a "scholarly search tool" -- ESPECIALLY in the academic community -- we think the use of specialty databases (the ones university libraries offer and spend $$$ for) will drop. It's worth watching to see if people begin paying for material located via Google Scholar that they can get *free* from a specialty database they may not know is available via their public or academic library. Might this be a golden opportunity for the library community to tell people -- look, we have access to this stuff and MUCH MUCH MORE? We have better ways to search it, and you might not even have to pay for it? Well, yeah...but if what we've seen in the past is any indication, this is not going to happen. Maybe this time it will be different. Bottom line: It's very difficult to compete with the Google marketing machine. In the meantime, we'll be extremely interested in the response to Google Scholar from fee-based database publishers. Some might ask, are specialized database tools still necessary? Info pros know they are but we sure haven't done a good job of explaining why. It will also be interesting to see if *any* of the press/chatter about Google Scholar makes even a small mention of specialized subscription databases, free access to these via libraries, and the fact that what Google is offering is merely the tip of the "scholarly" info iceberg. Is all of this yet another nail in the coffin for library resources and maybe librarians? Too early to tell, of course. Kudos to Google for doing so but the library community could (should?) have done something similar years ago. Why didn't we? When big announcements come from Google and web engines, we often get nervous and...sometimes upset with our profession. Not this time, however. It's just not worth it. This is BIG news and something that should have been around for years. It's going to be interesting what transpires moving forward. Finally, specialized databases are still valuable for many types of seaching, including searching for "scholarly material." Why? A few examples: + Limit to material published by date + Ability to view more than 1000 results. The Google cutoff of 1000 results is still in place with Google Scholar. Ten term query limit also applies. + Google is constantly crawling the web but we don't know how often the Google Scholar database is being refreshed with new content + Searching using a controlled vocabulary/subject searching + Ability to limit by publisher affiliation + You can limit by author with author: but you can only use a last name First names and initials are searchable when using author: but results are often erratic. + Proximity operators + Gobs and gobs of content, Google Scholar still doesn't have it all. Example: While you'llfind John Grisham books, you will NOT find material (both current and archived) from MANY newspapers, trade publications, and general interest periodicals. + I'm sure you can add many more examples of what's NOT there Again, it's one thing for the info pro to understand all of this, it's something else for the typical searcher. Stay tuned, this is going to be interesting. See Also: Google Plans New Service for Scientists and Scholars From the article, "While the great majority of recent scholarly papers and periodicals are indexed on the Web, many have not been easily accessible to the public." This is again an example of not understanding that libraries -- public, private, and, academic - - have offered access to databases with this content for many years and that they can be accessed without having to visit the library building.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Scientists--Lists & Rankings Source: Scientific American Scientific American 50 November 10, 2004 "Scientific American's list of outstanding technology leaders in the realms of business, research and policymaking." -- Threatened Species Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species From press release: "The world's biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, according to the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and a companion study of the data, the Global Species Assessment (GSA)." List is searchable. Includes bibliography, photo gallery, excellent collection of links to information about various species. -- Older Americans--United States--Statistics Source: Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics New Report, Older Americans 2004: Key Indicators of Well-Being A pdf version is also available. Report highlights here. Thanks to S.B. for the news tip.
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries NYPL gets record $25 million grant "The New York Public Library has received its largest single gift ever--a grant of $25 million--which it will use for the acquisition and preservation of research materials, among other initiatives. In addition, the library announced expanded hours and named a new chairman." -- Biomed Central--Firefox Installing and using the BioMed Central Firefox search plugin "The BioMed Central search plugin for Firefox adds BioMed Central to the list of search engines that are available in the quick search box at the top right of every Firefox browser window. Installing the plugin takes only seconds...." Available for every platform supported by Firefox. -- Out-of-Print Books Source: BookFinder.com Top 10 out of print books of 2004 Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Newspapers--United States Source: AP Major U.S. Newspaper Digitizing Project Announced "The government promises anyone with a computer will have access within a few years to millions of pages from old newspapers, a slice of American history to be viewed now only by visiting local libraries, newspaper offices or the nation's capital. The first of what's expected to be 30 million digitized pages from papers published from 1836 through 1922 will be available in 2006. "Anyone who's interested --- teachers, students, historians, lawyers, politicians, even newspaper reporters -- will be able to go to their computer at home or at work and at a click of a mouse get immediate, unfiltered access to the greatest source of our history," said Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities." Learn more about the National Digital Newspaper Program. Note: It's worth mentioning that ProQuest has already digitized the complete archives of several major newspapers. Cold North Wind, Gale, and NewspaperARCHIVE.com.
Professional Reading Shelf Open Source Software--Libraries--Bibliography Source: Brenda Chawner, School of Information Management, University of Wellington, New Zealand Recently Updated, Open Source Software and Libraries Bibliography -- National Archives--United States Source: FCW National Archives opens high-tech vaults "A new permanent exhibit that turns old documents into interactive computer stations opened today at the National Archives and Records Administration's building in Washington, D.C...The 9,500-square-foot Public Vaults exhibit has more than 1,000 items, including about 25 computer workstations and 47 interactive screens. Visitors can navigate their own paths through behind-the-scenes historical stories using plasma screens, sound recordings, and video stations." -- Open Access Journals--Citation Analysis Source: Thomson Scientific Open Access Journals in the ISI Citation Databases: Analysis of Impact Factors and Citation Patterns (PDF; 1.17 MB) From press release: "The findings indicate that journals published under the Open Access (OSA) model continue to gain impact in the world of scholarly research. Despite ranking lower as a group than those published under traditional models, the growth in the number of OA journals is impressive, and some OA journals rank near the top of their respective fields. Rankings are based on the Journal Impact Factor, as published in the Journal Citation Reports® (JCR®). The Journal Impact Factor is the key performance metric for the ranking and comparison of journals."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--Pathfinders Source; British Library Now Available, Two New Researching Business Information Industry Guides + Renewable Energy Industry + Travel & Tourism Industry -- Professional Sports--Economics Source: Rodney Fort, PhD; Economics Department, Washington State University Rodney Fort's Sports Business Data and Bibliography Pages A wealth of statistical information on the business of professional baseball, basketball, football, and ice hockey, including attendance, income and expenses, player salaries, team valuations and sales prices, TV revenue, and much more. "Please note that collecting sports data is an inexact science. It is common for these files to be corrected and/or updated when new information is found." -- Economics--United States--Statistics Source: BEA New Report, Gross Domestic Product By Industry Data Show Information Technology Drove Economic Growth in the Late 1990's Tables are available as XLS files. -- Election 2004--United States Source: House of Commons Library, UK Just Released, 2004 US Presidential and Congressional election results An 82-page report. -- United States Government Source: LexisNexis Fast Facts, Cabinet Resignations Not as Prolific as Past Presidents Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Now Available: Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of Reference Services Review Articles include: + A university-wide, library-based chat service (Volume 32 Number 3) + Enabling the roving reference librarian: wireless access with tablet PCs (Volume 32 Number 3) + Assessing library instruction in the freshman seminar: a citation analysis study (Volume 32 Number 3) + Researching specific non-profit organizations: a selective bibliography (Volume 32 Number 3) + E-mail and chat reference: assessing patron satisfaction (Volume 32 Number 2) + Making tacit knowledge explicit: the Ready Reference Database as codified knowledge (Volume 32 Number 2) + PDA librarian (Volume 32 Number 1) + Bioterrorism alert: reference and literature support for the CDC Director's Emergency Operations Center (DEOC) and investigative field teams (Volume 32 Number 1) -- Digital Libraries The November, 2004 Issue of Digital Libraries Magazine is Now Online Articles include: + Archiving and Accessing Web Pages: The Goddard Library Web Capture Process + A Web Service Interface for Creating Concept Browsing Interfaces + Assessing the Durability of Formats in a Digital Preservation Environment -- RFID Source: The Guardian Shelf life "Using RFID tags to track library books could increase security and ease laborious stocktakes."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes New, America's Largest Private Companies (2004) -- Capital Punishment--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Just Released: Capital Punishment, 2003 -- Automobile Theft--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau New, Top Ten Metropolitan Statistical Areas with the Highest Vehicle Theft Rates Summary Metro Area Rankings -- Higher Education--United States--Database--Statistics Source: NCES Recently Updated, IPEDS (Postsecondary Data) Executive Peer Tool Compare schools. "The IPEDS Executive Peer Tool allows access to 2003-04 data presented in the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) IPEDS Data Feedback Report for all postsecondary institutions and a comparison group of institutions. In addition to presenting the data, a graphing component permits the creation of graphs for this data." Monday, November 15, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf OCLC Source: OCLC Updated Site and List, Top 1000 Titles in Worldcat "The new OCLC Top 1000 web site lists the works most widely held by libraries, with sublists, a readers' poll, sample cover art, "Find in a Library" links, comparisons to other lists, and a download file." -- Serials Source: Serials Review Serial conversations : an interview with four consultants
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Legal Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: National Law Journal Just Released, National Law Journal 250 (2004) Free registration required to view complete list. -- Air Travel Source: Consumers Union New Report, A Cross-Border Examination of 20 Travel Web Sites Selling International Airline Tickets in the United States and Six Western European Countries "When booking airfare from the U.S. to London, would Expedia and Travelocity's U.S.-based sites offer similar rates as their UK-based sister sites? This was just one of many issues -- including "fare-jumping" -- Consumer Reports WebWatch examined when collaborating with six other nations to test international travel Web sites." -- College Students--Degree Completion Source: National Center for Educational Statistics College Persistence on the Rise? Changes in 5-Year Degree Completion and Postsecondary Persistence Rates Between 1994 and 2000 "The study compares the degree completion and persistence rates between two cohorts?students who first enrolled in postsecondary education in academic year 1989-90 and their counterparts who first enrolled in 1995-96. The analysis focuses on the rates at which students in each cohort completed a degree within 5 years or were still enrolled at the end of 5 years. The study also examines changes in the students' demographic profile and other population characteristics." Full report (PDF; 438 KB)
Open Worldcat OCLC OCLC Launches Co-Branded Toolbar with Yahoo A new toolbar (an OCLC version of the Yahoo toolbar) is online that allows you to search Open Worldcat records via Yahoo. It needs work. A couple of quick comments. + Basically, the co-branded toolbar simply adds a pulldown menu option to run a site:worldcatlibraries.org {foo} search to Yahoo's toolbar. + If OCLC is trying to reach the masses with Open Worldcat, why isn't the library option available on the main toolbar, the one that's distributed via the Yahoo site? The library community would be very appreciative of the marketing assistance. + According to Barbara Quint's Info Today NewsBreak, the toolbar only works with IE. I know many members of the library community who are passionate users of Firefox, they'll be out of luck. It's also an MS XP/2000/98 ONLY product. A Mac version is NOT available. + If a library is going to take the time to market the Yahoo Toolbar, why not promote the use of the library's own OPAC and databases (many that contain content not available in Yahoo, Google, or any other web engine). Toolbars from ILS vendors and federated search companies are available and can search a library OPAC, fee-based databases, and open web engines. If you're interested in finding direct link(s) to the library catalogs (aka OPACS) you have access to from your local public or university library, Libdex maintains an excellent directory with direct links. Lib-Web-Cats is another excellent directory of library catalogs. Update: ResourceShelf reader Corey M. lets us know via email that you can use either the NeedleSearch, Copernic Toolbar, or the Google Deskbar (both using Google, but it could be modified to work w/Yahoo) to build a query that limits a keyword search to only Open Worldcat records. Only a small amount of url tweaking is needed. I've posted the tweak for NeedleSearch on ResourceShelfPLUS. NeedleSearch works with Firefox and Mozilla, Copernic Toolbar works with IE, and the Google Deskbar is browser independent (98/ME/2000/XP). Btw, earlier this year I wrote about NeedleSearch in SearchDay. It allows you to EASILY and QUICKLY map the search functionality of most web accessible databases to the toolbar. Very cool! Free, too!!! Libraries might want to create a collection of specialized databases with the NeedleSearch and/or Copernic toolbars and then distribute it to patrons. + People can't spell things wrong when searching Open Worldcat? (-: I noticed when running a site:worldcatlibraries.org search, Yahoo's spellcheck is not available. For example, you'll see a spelling suggestion given for this incorrect spelling of Seattle. However, the search: worldcatlibraies.org seatttle doesn't activate the spellcheck. + Like we mentioned about a week ago, limiting your search to only Worldcatlibraries.org still has problems. Run the search: site:worldcatlibraries.org history california trains ++ Results #5 is titled: Law, society, and the state : essays in modern legal history ++ Results #7 is titled: Mind games : American culture and the birth of psychotherapy I don't see what these book have to do with trains and California. + A search for Central Intelligence Agency returns approximently 4 times as many results as the search CIA. Shouldn't a keyword search return approximently the same number of results? This is what you'll see with RLG's RedLightGreen database of library books records from many libraries. RLG is another excellent and free database with library records. Several other "value added" features (like bibliography formatting) are also available from RedLightGreen. Another project worthy of your attention. + The dedupe function at Yahoo continues to cause problems UNLESS you use the new toolbar (hooray). Example: run the search, site:worldcatlibraries.org homeland security +Only one result is visible. The searcher needs to click again to turn off the dedupe option. + We reported a few weeks ago that OCLC plans to make all 52 million records available to Yahoo and Google. Two million items are now available. As the database grows in size, the typical searcher will find hundreds, if not thousands of records, when conducting any Open Worldcat search. What can Yahoo and Google do to help improve relevancy for Worldcatlibraries.org when the typical searcher only users two or three search terms? Sunday, November 14, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Grateful Dead--Archivist Source: Marin Independent Journal The life of the Dead's official tape archivist "David Lemieux HAS every Deadhead's dream job. The 34-year-old San Anselmo resident listens to Grateful Dead music all day, and gets paid for it. Lemieux is the archivist and curator of the Grateful Dead's priceless 'vault,' a trove that contains the long, strange musical legacy of one of the most important bands in American rock." -- Public Libraries -- Technology Training and Information Literacy Source: Pacific Bell/UCLA Initiative for 21st Century Literacies 21st Century Literacies: Training of Public Library Trainers (PDF; 518 KB) "Public libraries, more than any other setting, assist a vast and varied constituency. Although historically public librarians have not viewed themselves as educators, the current environment is demanding of them a role-shift from information mediators to true educators who must provide training and instruction if they are to meet user needs in the 21st century. As such, in March 2002 the Pacific Bell/UCLA Initiative developed a training manual and delivered workshops emphasizing 21st century literacies content as well as training principles for adult and young learners, including parents and children, teens, staff, Spanish speakers, and older adults, in a variety of contexts." (via DrWeb)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Canada--Wars--Archives Source: University of Manitoba: Archives and Special Collections The Canadian Wartime Experience: The Documentary Legacy of Canada at War "The differing roles played by Canadians during times of conflict, at home and abroad, are featured in this website. The website provides access to a portion of wartime-related textual records and photographs that have been selected from larger collections within the holdings of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections and digitized for research purposes." -- Military--Ethics--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Ethics and the Military New bibliography includes Internet resources, books, documents and periodicals. -- Commodities Trading--Glossary Source: Futures Magazine Trading Glossary "Here are some common terms you'll encounter in the trading business."
Privacy--Three Items Financial Records Source: Greeley (CO) Tribune Inmate accessed banking files "An inmate who accessed a computer system at the Weld County Jail downloaded bank account routing numbers and account numbers of nearly 1,000 county employees, the sheriff's office announced Wednesday." -- School Records Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune School district to pay $140,000 to boy who was teased by other kids "Brenda Neal said her son, who is now 15, was teased repeatedly by other students after his records, including data about his IQ, family circumstances and special-education information, were discovered on the playground at Floyd Olson Middle School two years ago." -- Public Records Source: Christian Science Monitor Privacy lost with the touch of a keystroke? "Personal info is easily accessed online - and privacy laws have yet to catch up." Saturday, November 13, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Scholarly Publishing--Ethics Source: Philip M. Davis, Life Sciences Librarian, Cornell University The Ethics of Republishing: A Case Study of Emerald/MCB University Press journals (Word document) "It is unethical to republish a journal article without citing the original source. Simple keyword searching of Emerald (formerly known as MCB University Press) online journals from the publisher's web site has identified 409 examples of articles from sixty-seven journals that were republished without such notification from 1989 through 2003. Many of these articles were published simultaneously in journals within the same or similar subject disciplines. Five examples of triple publication were identified. In several cases, neither the editor nor editorial board members had knowledge of this practice. This article will review the conditions of acceptable republishing plus document and provide examples of republication. It will discuss implications on the publication of record, and question whether this is a case of 'let the buyer beware'." (via STLQ) See also: + Appendix B "(list of Emerald/MCB UP duplication examples in alphabetical order)" + Appendix C "(list of examples by journal)" + PowerPoint presentation
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Data Loss--Lists & Rankings Source: Ontrack Data Recovery (via Business Wire) Ontrack Data Recovery Announces 2004 Top 10 List of Data Disasters; "Computer Rage," Human Error and Natural Disasters Are behind Top Worldwide Data Recovery Requests "Ontrack Data Recovery has unveiled its annual Top Ten list of the strangest and funniest computer mishaps. The global poll of Ontrack's experts uncovered the best examples of bizarre data disappearances taken from the thousands of recovery jobs Ontrack processed this year." -- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict--Bibliography Source: Air University Library al-Aqsa Intifada 2000 "The al-Aqsa Intifada is the wave of violence and political conflict that began in 2000 between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians have become known for their use of suicide bombings. The Israelis have started building the West Bank separation barrier." New bibliography includes Internet resources, books, periodicals, videos and a section of materials about the late Yassir Arafat. -- Animal Health Source: World Organization for Animal Health Terrestrial Animal Health Code "The aim of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code (hereafter referred to as the Terrestrial Code) is to assure the sanitary safety of international trade in terrestrial animals and their products. This is achieved through the detailing of health measures to be used by the veterinary authorities of importing and exporting countries to avoid the transfer of agents pathogenic for animals or humans, while avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers." Direct to code -- Nursing--Professional Organizations--Directory Source: Nursing2004 (journal) Guide to Nursing Organizations Long list, with contact information (including URLs), of professional nursing associations in the United States and Canada. Friday, November 12, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Rights Management--United Kingdom Digital Rights Management Systems Paper A paper published on the IPR-Helpdesk website provides a description of DRM technologies, a survey of the respective current legal framework within the European Union, and an analysis of the interests of the DRM stake holders and consumers. -- Library Schools Source: National Public Radio Black University Cuts Rare Library Program "In a cost-cutting move, Clark-Atlanta University plans to shut down its library sciences program. The program is one of only two in the nation at historically black colleges and universities, and since 1941 has graduated more black librarians than any other institution." See Also: ALA Statement (10/15/04) -- American Library Association Privacy--United States Source: ALA ALA Comments on Ashcroft Resignation -- Presidential Libraries Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Presidential Libraries Are Valuable Reflections of Their Eras "Presidential libraries, including the new Clinton library, scheduled to open in Little Rock, Ark., on November 18, are more museums than records and, at least initially, more closed records than public ones."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Digitization Projects--The British Library Source: BL New Additions to the Turning the Pages Web Site Two new additions to the very cool Turning the Pages web site from the British Library. + "Jane Austen's History of England is a charming work completed in 1791 when she was just 15 years old. The handwritten manuscript is illustrated by her older sister, Cassandra, with imaginative portraits of monarchs." + "The Golf Book is not a book about golf, but a beautifully illustrated Book of Hours made by Simon Bening in Bruges during the 1540s. It gets its name from one of the illustrations which pictures a very early game of golf." -- Fast Facts Source: The World Almanac New, The November Issue of The World Almanac E-Newsletter is Online Contains a chronology of November events, holidays, "This Day in History," and much more. -- Women in Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Wall Street Journal Top 50 Women to Watch "The ranks of women who are making their mark on the corporate front lines have swelled in recent years. See how these women got where they are -- and why they bear watching." -- Health--Communication Source: World Health Organization Just Released, World Report on Knowledge for Better Health The full text and summaries are available. "The Report focuses on bridging of the "know do" gap, the gulf between what we know and what we do in practice, between scientific potential and health realization."-- -- Earthquakes--Maps Source: USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) Earthquakes in 2004, Located by the NEIC World map with locations of earthquakes indicated. See also: Significant Earthquakes of the World for 2004 -- Science Publishing and Patents Source: Creative Commons Science Commons "Science Commons is a new project of Creative Commons and will launch on January 1, 2005. The mission of Science Commons is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others. Science Commons works within current copyright and patent law to promote legal and technical mechanisms that remove barriers to sharing." See: Copyright-sharing group delves into science (CNet)
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + Popularity Doesn't Always Equal Usefulness (or Importance) of a Search Tool Thursday, November 11, 2004
Resources of the Week Greetings, sports fans. This list started as a discussion between two librarians in a sports bar, about "cool places we would like to work." If we missed any sports-related libraries or collections on the Web that you know about, please let us know. Sports Libraries and Special Collections--Compendium Amateur Atheletic Foundation Sports Library: "The AAF library collection covers virtually all aspects of amateur and professional sport. It includes approximately 40,000 printed volumes, 6,000 microform volumes, 7,000 videos, 400 periodical titles, and 90,000 photo images comprise the collection. The library supplements these holdings by providing access to several commercial online database services and the World Wide Web. Olympic information is a particular strength of the collection." Selected resources: + OPAC + AAF publications search + Official Olympic Reports ("The AAF has obtained permission from the I.O.C. and all relevant National Olympic Committees to web publish all Official Olympic Reports through 2002. The project will be completed by the end of 2005.") -- Appalachian State University Libraries Stock Car Racing Collection: "The Stock Car Racing Collection contains all types of materials that document the sport, including books, racing magazines, clippings, photographs, programs, posters, audio- and videotapes, promotional materials, and more." Selected resources: + Stock Car Collection Resources + History of the Sport + Subject Guide to Stock Car Racing (research guide) -- Australian National Sport Information Center: "The National Sport Information Centre (NSIC) aims to contribute to the achievement of the Australian Sports Commission's objectives by enabling access to sports and related information and services. More than just a library, it is Australia 's premier information resource centre for sport and its related disciplines." Selected resources: + Library Collection + Full text archive + SportScan: "The SportScan database lists key articles, published since the mid-1980s, found in Australian and overseas sports journals held by the National Sport Information Centre (NSIC)." -- The C.C. Morris Cricket Library (Haverford College): "The C. Christopher Morris Cricket Library and Collection is the largest collection of cricket literature and memorabilia in the Western Hemisphere. The library includes over a thousand volumes and a very large collection of related printed and photographic materials and related items of Cricket history." Selected resources: + How to access holdings via TRIPOD library system of Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges. + Active Cricket + Cricket History -- Centre for Sports Science and History: "The Centre for Sports Science and History (CENSSAH) is a research collection situated in the Main Library at the University of Birmingham. It was established in 1993 as the result of the merger of two formerly separate collections of sports material, the National Centre for Athletics Literature and the Sports Documentation Centre, together with the incorporation of some 1,500 additional sports related items from the Library's general stock." Selected resources: + Collections (detailed description of holdings) + Useful Links -- International Swimming Hall of Fame Henning Library & Archive: "The Henning Library and Archive houses archival materials from over 150 aquatic and other sports related entities.... Current holdings, exceeding 31,000 discreet aquatic sports items, are available via computer/telecommunication networking to scholars, students, researchers, aquatic sports enthusiasts and the inquiring public." Selected resources: + Archive Holdings + Original scrapbooks from honorees and fans -- Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library: "The Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library, which is part of The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, contains an outstanding collection of British and foreign lawn tennis books, annuals, periodicals, programmes, newspaper cuttings, video cassettes etc., which is available to the public for study and research.In 1991, an extension to the Library was opened to accommodate the ever increasing volume of items and in 2000, this area was reorganised to full capacity. Items originate from nearly 90 countries. Facilities are available for photocopying and the screening of video cassettes." -- The London Life Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Centre: "The Hockey Resource Center, located adjacent the Hockey Hall of Fame Executive Offices, contains over 1.5 million photographic images, 26,000 publications, and 20,000 thematic hockey files." Selected resources: + Resource Centre Collection + Legends of Hockey (online photo gallery) + Links (Resource Sites/Organizations and International Ice Hockey Federation Member Sites) -- National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Giamatti Research Center: "The National Baseball Hall of Fame Library was founded in 1939 as a part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Its mission is to collect, organize, and preserve the complete history of our National Pastime as recorded in all media formats, for the use of baseball fans and researchers." Selected resources: + OPAC (ABNER Library Catalog) + Baseball History + Research lists compiled by library staff (history and statistics) -- National Basketball Hall of Fame Edward J. and Gena G. Hickox Library: "(T)he Hickox Library contains the most extensive collection of library and archival material related to basketball. It is the world's foremost facility devoted to the study and preservation of the game of basketball. The library is a public facility that serves hundreds of researchers and museum visitors on a yearly basis. Those who use the facility include Hall of Famers, players and their families, the media, radio and television journalists, officials of basketball teams and leagues, authors, journalists, students, academics and educators and other museum and library professionals. A full-time professional staff is available to assist patrons." Selected resources: + Treasures of the Hall of Fame Library -- National Ski Hall of Fame and Museum Roland Palmedo Memorial Library: "The Roland Palmedo Memorial Library, one of the largest research ski libraries in the United States is housed in the Hall of Fame and Museum. Roland Palmedo was a skisport builder and contributor for more than 50 years. He helped to organize the National Ski Patrol, the teacher certification program and various early ski teams and clubs. He also edited two skiing books and developed one of the most extensive ski libraries in America. Following his death in 1977, his family donated his library to the National Ski Hall of Fame and Museum where it has become the nucleus for the Roland Palmedo Memorial Library." -- The National Sporting Library: "The National Sporting Library, a research center for horse and field sports, is an incomparable collection of over 13,000 books, periodicals, photographs, films, and manuscripts housed in a magnificent 15,000 square-foot facility." Selected resources: + OPAC + Archives & Manuscripts + Links to related libraries, collections, museums, etc. -- Olympic Studies Centre Library: "The Library aims to offer the most complete possible collection of books on the Olympic Movment, the Games and the Olympic sports. The works also cover the scientific, medical, economic, legal and other aspects of sport in general." Selected resources: + OPAC + List of thematic bibliographies (PDFs) + Multimedia Gallery -- Paul W. Bryant Museum Library: "The Paul W. Bryant Museum Library contains the most extensive collection of archival, and published materials about The University Alabama sports in the world. This is a public facility and thousands of researchers, print media journalists, radio and television journalists, Museum visitors, callers and correspondents are served annually. " -- Sporting News Research Center: "The Sporting News Archives was established in 1986 as a part of The Sporting News Publishing Company. Its primary purpose is to support the staff of the company by providing accurate reference information in a timely manner and by collecting and maintaining materials relevant to the production of our weekly magazine and our other products." Selected resources: + Photo Indexes + Reference Collections -- United States Soccer History Library: "Welcome to the National Soccer Hall of Fame's United States Soccer History. Read about from why the Hall of Fame is located in Oneonta, NY to the history of the U.S. Open Cup to the history of every World Cup and Women's World Cup." Selected resources: + American Soccer History Timeline + History of the World Cup + World Soccer Origins -- United States Sports Academy Library: "The purpose of the USSA Library is to support the mission of the United States Sports Academy by ensuring that faculty and students have access to adequate learning resources and services needed to support its role as a sports-specific institution of graduate education. The library is available to all students both on and off campus." Selected resources: + Library Journal Holdings + Sports Information Internet Sites + Sports Related Resources by Subject -- Thanks to ResourceShelf's Shirl Kennedy for preparing this wonderful colllection.
Professional Reading Shelf Library of Congress Library History Source: American Memory/LC Freedom's Fortress: New American Memory Collection Looks at The Library of Congress Freedom?s Fortress: The Library of Congress, 1939-1953 tells the history of the Library of Congress during a particularly important period. From 1939 to 1953 the Library underwent a myriad of changes that established the institution as one of America?s foremost citadels of intellectual freedom...The 209 letters, memoranda, photographs, and Library of Congress publications presented here (1,176 images in all) are from the Library of Congress Archives as well as other relevant manuscript collections found in the Manuscript Division." -- American Library Association ALA's Copyright Advisory Network Web Site Hacked The page has been removed. Here's a screen capture of what it looked like. Thanks to Jessamyn W. for the news tip.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census (via DocuTicker) New on the U.S. Census Site, Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States - Colonial Times to 1970 + Part 1 + Part 2 -- Small Business--United States Source: U.S. Small Business Administration New Report, The Small Business Economy 2004 "The Small Business Economy 2004, which outlines the state of small business and its contributions to the economy. This latest in an annual series analyzes 2003 data. The comprehensive report examines the role small business plays in the economy. It focuses on economic trends and indicators, regulatory issues at the federal, state, and local levels, innovation and technology transfer, as well as federal government procurement and small business financing data." Research Bulletin ||| Full Text
Search Briefs Google Increases Total Page Count Hours before MSN launches its new engine and new web index as a beta, Google has announced a size increase (yet another brilliant marketing move) to their web index. Google's total page count goes from 4,285,199,774 to 8,058,044,651 web pages. I'm guessing that MSN launches with a number greater than the 4.2 billion. Remember -- these numbers are primarily for bragging rights and don't really mean a whole heck of a lot to the average searcher. Relevancy is what matters, and clued-in searchers realize that when a database increases in size, higher recall and reduced precision may well be the result. Don't forget to factor in -- when it comes to web search -- that the typical query is about 2.8 words in length, most searches don't use any advanced syntax, and there is no controlled vocabulary. Mainly, let's remember that bigger doesn't always mean better. In the past, Google has included urls it knows about but hasn't necessarily crawled in its page totals. Greg Notess explains here. We're still waiting to find out if this is still the case. Whatever the answer is, it will be interesting to see what Greg discovers next time he conducts a study. In case you're wondering, Yahoo don't publicly supply database size numbers. Ask Jeeves reports over 2.5 million fully indexed pages. Whatever the case, total page estimates shouldn't deter you from using any of these services. -- Microsoft Launches New Web Search Beta I have some comments and links on the SEW Blog. Also, overviews from Chris Sherman and Phil Bradley. Finally, MS has launched a search blog. Direct to MSN Search beta. Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Archives--Kentucky Source: Techlines Preserving Born Digital Archives in Kentucky "Like many states, Kentucky state government has a long history of archiving public records. The Public Records Division at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA) works with agencies to establish standards, procedures, and administrative regulations for recording, managing, preserving and reproducing government records, whatever their medium." See Also: Washington State Launches Digital Archive System (via Info Today) -- Special Collections Source: ARL New Spec Kit (Exec. Summary Only): Security in Special Collections Full report is fee-based. Direct to Executive Summary. -- Librarians Source: ALA Call for presentations for the first-ever Joint Conference of Librarians of Color "he Steering Committee of the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color 2006 (JCLC '06) invites quality proposals for presentations at its first-ever JCLC entitled, "Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories," to be held October 11-15, 2006, at the Adams Mark Hotel in Dallas...The Steering Committee of JCLC '06 includes representatives from the American Indian Library Association (AILA), the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking." -- Libraries--Statistics--Bibliography Source: Statistics and Evaluation Section/IFLA New, Case studies demonstrating use of statistics "The great majority of these works deal with individual libraries, and they have been grouped first, into type of library, second, into reverse chronological order. Only works published in the last twenty years have been included."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Congressional Research Service Source: CRS (via FPC and FAS) New/Updated Reports: + The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals + Nuclear Energy Policy + Iraq: U.S. Regime Change Efforts and Post-Saddam Governance -- Higher Education--Canada--Lists & Rankings Source: Macleans Just Released, University Rankings 2004 The package also includes Macleans first graduate survey. "More than 12,000 grads delivered a report card on their university experience." -- Higher Education--Canada--Statistics Source: Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation Just Released, The Price of Knowledge 2004: Access and Student Finance in Canada "The Price of Knowledge 2004: Access and Student Finance in Canada reveals that university enrolment has increased by more than 20% in the last five years alone, while the average tuition costs have climbed to $4,025 and the average national entering grade has reached 84%. For Canadians from low-income backgrounds, the fee increases and rising academic requirements make it even more difficult to overcome the existing academic, financial and informational barriers to a post-secondary education." -- Health--United Kingdom Source: British Medical Association (via DocuTicker.com) Just Released, The human cost of tobacco Foreward ||| Direct to Full Text
Briefly + ProQuest and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Partner to Bring Historical News Content to Web
Open Worldcat Subject Headings Now Hyperlinked in Open Worldcat Good news on the Open Worldcat front, especially for librarians and advanced searchers who use the service. When you arrive on an Open Worldcat item record via Google or Yahoo, the subject headings are now visible and hotlinked. Clicking on a subject heading link reruns the search in Google or Yahoo with that subject, limiting results only to Open Worldcat records. Now, let's hope OCLC and Clusty get together. If they do, subject access to Worldcat records would be improved. Btw, like we've said many times, don't forget that the total page estimates from web engines are very rough estimates. Here's an example: + Run the search: Distance education -- United States. site:worldcatlibraries.org + You'll likely see an estimate of about three hundred hits (in this case, Worldcat records). + When you get to item #190, Google's duplicate filter clicks in. + After clicking the "show all" link to turn the filter off, you'll see only 225 items. We also noticed, in some cases, that running a subject heading search doesn't always return material that includes the specific subject heading. Here's an example: Communication in management We found these items that didn't contain the subject heading: + Communication campaign management : a systems approach + Communication networks management This is likely occurring because a "subject heading" via Google or Yahoo search is basically a site-limited keyword search. You're not limiting your search to the actual subject field like you do in a traditional OPAC or even with RLG's web-based RedLightGreen.
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + More Press Attention About Mobile Search Another area info pros should be thinking about. Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Uniform Resource Names Source: FCW Let's Talk URN's (Uniform Resource Names) U.S. government information is supposed to be permanent, but Web links can break. Now, a federal group says Uniform Resource Names (URNs) can solve the problem. Officials at the Categorization of Government Information Working Group issued draft recommendations on interoperable standards for searchable identifiers and a proposed definition of government information. Draft recommendations on open and interoperable standards for the categorization of government information are set to begin a public comment period Nov. 9." -- Digital Archives--United Kingdom Source: University of edinburgh Official Opening of the Digital Curation Centre "The new Digital Curation Centre (DCC), based at the University of Edinburgh, will strive to ensure that the meaning of key electronic data is not lost in a world of rapidly changing technology." -- Academic Libraries Source: ManagingInformation.com Northumbria University Transforms Library Into 'One-Stop-Shop' "Northumbria University has transformed the basement area of its library in a one-stop-shop to cater for student learning needs in the 21st century. A massive facelift has resulted in the provision of new facilities including a relaxed space to study, discussion areas for group work, drop-in IT facilities, a wireless laptop loan service, shop and photocopying services and a wide range of refreshments." -- Librarians Source: Information Highways Librarians vs. technology Gary shares a few thoughts along with Rita Vine and Gwen Harris in the article. Note: I'm not a big fan of the headline. Librarians need to learn how to exploit available technology to best serve ourselves and our users. We also need to be doing much the same with info technology developers. I don't look at it as an adversarial situation -- one (librarians) versus the other (technology). Maybe our users see it this way (at least today), but here's where improving our marketing skills (both as a group and individually) can come into play and make a difference. Technology/web search, etc., offers our profession plenty of chances to use our teaching skills. It's all about learning to be relevant in the age of 24x7, "everyone is a searcher" technology.--GP It's something of a cliche, isn't it? The whole bit about technology taking over our jobs...making us...redundant. Among other things, it has led to periodic attempts to devalue the word "librarian"-- abandon it as something quaint...old-fashioned. We're all information professionals now, don't ya know. And I have a friend who works in a "Knowledge Management Center" -- a situation that has resulted in some of her engineering customers wandering the halls, wondering where the library went. Truth? There is a lot of value in the words "library" and "librarian." People trust us to help them find what they need and feel confident that we will not steer them wrong. Technology, for us, is just a tool -- a means to an end. We're not in competition with it. As a matter of fact, it's part of our job to show our customers how to make it work for them rather than allowing it to become an obstacle or a source of frustration. They will listen to us...because they trust us. But that means being proactive.--SDK
National Archives--United Kingdom Source: Kablenet Gateway to history "The National Archives is to start work on a 'gateway' offering online access to all historical records held in the UK. The project, known as Linking Arms, aims to promote access to archive material held locally, regionally and nationally by libraries, museums and in private collections. A range of material will be available as film clips, catalogue data, digital records and digitised images."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Computer Code--Searchable Database New Search Engine, Koders.com "Koders is a search engine for source code. It enables developers to easily search and browse source code in thousands of projects hosted at hundreds of open source repositories." More about Koders in this NewsForge article. -- Supercomputers--Lists & Rankings 24th Edition of TOP500 List of World?s Fastest Supercomputers Released -- Legal Industry--United States--Surveys Source: The American Lawyer Just Released, 2004 Summer Associates Survey -- Health--Genetics Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Surgeon General's Family History Initiative "Because family health history is such a powerful screening tool, the Surgeon General has created a new computerized tool to help make it fun and easy for anyone to create a sophisticated portrait of their family's health. This new tool, called 'My Family Health Portrait' can be downloaded for free and installed on your own computer. The tool will help you organize your family tree and help you identify common diseases that may run in your family. When you are finished, the tool will create and print out a graphical representation of your family's generations and the health disorders that may have moved from one generation to the next. That is a powerful tool for predicting any illnesses for which you should be checked." -- Consumer Electronics--United States Source: Consumer Reports Chart: Electronics: Which stores carry what brands Monday, November 08, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Global Warming Source: The Arctic Council Just Released, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) See Also: Study: Arctic warming at twice the global rate -- Philanthropy--United States--Statistics Source: The Foundation Center Just Released, International Grantmaking III (2004) Highlights only. "Examines changes in international and cross-border giving based on a sample of 1,000+ top-ranked foundations." -- Health Information New Topic Pages/Compilations from MEDLINEPlus Source: NLM + MedlinePlus: CT Scans + MedlinePlus: Cytomegalovirus Infections + MedlinePlus: MRI Scans + MedlinePlus: Nuclear Scans + MedlinePlus: Ultrasound + MedlinePlus: X-Rays -- Animal Medications--Database Source: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, College of Veterinary Medicine FDA Approved Animal Drug Products: Online Database System This is the searchable database behind the "Green Book" of FDA Approved Animal Drug Products. The Green Book itself (2004 version) is available online, where you can browse individual chapters in PDF or HTML format. The database offers numerous search options, such as Approved Animal Drug Products, Green Book Monthly Updates, applicable sections of the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register, and Patents.
Access to Information--United States Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC Restores Various Documents Removed From Web Site For Security Review From the announcement, "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has restored various documents that were temporarily removed from its web site Oct. 25 for an additional security review. These documents are related to a possible application for a high-level waste repository. The remainder of the restoration will proceed in a phased manner, based on priorities and feasibility, with large portions of the information expected to be restored in the next several weeks."
Database Trials Dictionaries Free Trial, One Week Only: Merriam-Webster Unabridged "Enjoy access to online versions of our Unabridged Dictionary, a wide selection of additional Merriam-Webster references, premium word games, and other special features. All week. All free." The "always free" Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary does NOT offer access to the complete unabridged dictionary. From the M-W site, "The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is based on the print version of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. The online dictionary includes the main A-Z listing of the Collegiate Dictionary, as well as the Abbreviations, Foreign Words and Phrases, Biographical Names, and Geographical Names sections of that book."
Briefly + Reed Elsevier buys into UK biotech firm + Michigan Public Libraries Team Up to Provide Patrons with Digital Books
Professional Reading Shelf Electronic Journals Source: vnunet.com Springer to establish online archive of scientific journals "Springer is set to double the size of its SpringerLink online database by establishing an Online Journals Archive - an expansion made possible by the completion of the merger of Springer-Verlag and Kluwer Academic Publishers in July. The Online Journals Archive (OJA) will allow access to all the merged operation's English-language scientific articles published before 1997, including long-established journals that go back to first issues published in the 19th century. Currently, SpringerLink offers access to around 500 journals, but after the full OJA is available that is expected to increase to around 1,250 journals, incorporating 1.5m articles." -- Information Access Now Available: Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of Aslib Proceedings: new information perspectives Access is provided via Emerald's Journal of the Week program. Articles include: + Information disparity: research and measurement challenges in an interconnected world + E-security issues and policy development in an information-sharing and networked environment + Demonstrating a multi-faceted magpie approach to researching searchable digital text + Research into young people's information-seeking: perspectives and methods + The Alternative Library + Is there a correlation between investment in an academic library and a higher education institution's ratings in the Research Assessment Exercise? + Information-seeking research in schools: opportunities and pitfalls -- Open Access Source: Open Access News UK government response to OA report Full coverage via Peter Suber's OAN. See Also: Direct to the Full Text of the Report, Responses to the Committee's Tenth Report, Session 2003-04, Scientific Publications: Free for all? -- Academic Libraries--Student Athletes Source: LibraryInstruction.Com Introducing First-Year Student-Athletes to the Library: The Michigan State University Experience "Student-athletes, like other special populations on campus, have unique needs that make them different from other students. One area that student-athletes need help in is in accessing and learning how to use the library system on their campus. Issues such as heavy practice and travel schedules make it difficult for student-athletes to make effective use of library resources. Further, many in higher education are biased in their dealings with student-athletes and are reluctant to give the special population assistance even if other special populations on campus are receiving similar assistance. This all conspires to make the first year even more difficult for student-athletes. Librarians at Michigan State University have worked with Student-Athlete Support Services to design a program to help student-athletes make better use of the resources in the library system." Sunday, November 07, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf World Wide Web Source: EDUCAUSE Quarterly Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space "Rather than limit people to the e-portfolio model, why not develop a model providing a personal Web space for everyone, for their lifetimes and beyond?" A PDF version is also available. -- Content Management--Security Federated Security: The Shibboleth Approach "Shibboleth open-source software extends Web-based applications and identity management to provide secure access to Web-based resources." A PDF version is also available. -- National Archives--United Kingdom Source: The National Archives List, Recently Released Documents (October 2004) "This month's new releases include files on the 1926 General Strike, efforts to quell Sinn Fein activities in England during the 1920s and files detailing the murder of British POWs in Europe." See Also: Churchill and Edward VIII's First World War service records to be posted on the internet (via The Telegraph) "The internet database, which has been established by the National Archives in Kew, is the first comprehensive roll of those who served in the Army and the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War. Records of those who served in the Royal Navy are not included, but may be in the future. The database, which has taken 18 months to compile, will be a boost for researchers, historians and family genealogists who have previously found it difficult to trace even the most basic of military details." More info in this news release.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Wealth--China--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes New, China's Richest 200 (2004) -- e-Government--Canada Source: Government of Canada New, Annual Report, Government On-Line 2003 -- Information Industry--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, 2002 Economic Census, Information, Industry Series, Directory and Mailing List Publishers: 2002 Saturday, November 06, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Collections Source: NISO 2nd Edition Now Available, Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections -- Academic Librarians Source: Library Journal Just Another Field? "To transform humanists with Ph.D.'s into academic librarians is the purpose of an initiative recently launched by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The equivalent of an apprenticeship, the program involves postdoctoral work in an academic library in lieu of earning a master's degree from a library and information studies (LIS) program accredited by the American Library Association (ALA). Unfortunately, these apprenticeships are likely to undermine further the academic librarian's already unstable place within higher education."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Science and Technology Resources--Awards Source: Scientific American Science & Technology Web Awards 2004 "Every year it gets more difficult to separate Web wheat from chaff and pick a handful of sites out of billions to receive the Scientific American.com Science and Technology Web Awards. The Web is no longer just a tool for finding the occasional fact or trivium--it's a necessity, an integral part of our daily lives, and the sheer amount of information available can be overwhelming. But somehow, once again, we have winnowed the best sites from the rest. We think you'll agree that the 50 science and technology sites listed here are indeed worthy of high praise." -- Public Toilets--Australia--Database Source: Australian Government, Department of Health and Aging National Public Toilet Map "The National Public Toilet Map shows the location of more than 14,000 public and private toilet facilities across Australia. Details of toilet facilities can also be found along major travel routes and for shorter journeys as well. Useful information is provided about each toilet, such as location, opening hours, availability of baby change rooms, accessibility for people with disabilities and the details of other nearby toilets." Unique resource allows you to browse or search for public toilets near a given address, or use a trip planner to "to identify toilet stops for a journey." If you register at the site, you can save your favorite public toilets or journeys. An FAQ is available, as is extensive help. The site maintainers are updating the information in the database and hope to have it all completed by February 2005. -- Sir Ernest Shackleton Source: Scott Polar Research Institute Virtual Shackleton "This new section of the website responds to the tremendous popular interest in the life and expeditions of the Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Virtual Shackleton allows you to view a selection of our archive and museum treasures and aims to provide a scholarly resource as well as an introduction to the Institute's wealth of historical documents and artefacts." All catalogued articles, listed chronologically Friday, November 05, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Interlibrary Loan Source: Educause Quarterly A Consortial Approach to Interlibrary Loan "Ontario universities rebuilt their interlibrary loan framework and service." A PDF version is also available. -- Librarians--Awards xrefer Announces Online Reference Research Award Winner Recipient to Present Findings at Upcoming Conferences -- Libraries Source: CLIR Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Board Elects New Officers -- Public Libraries Source: The New York Times Library Science, Home Depot Style "On a sunny Saturday this fall, patrons were lined up four deep at a public library branch in Berkeley, Calif. But they weren't there to check out best-sellers or a stack of videos."
Infoglut Source: itWorldCanada Preparing for the Infoglut "The word mentat was invented by novelist Frank Herbert in his science-fiction classic Dune. In the fictional world of Dune, computers are outlawed and human mentats analyze data, spot patterns and make decisions. In our world, computer mentats will do the same."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Health Sciences Life Sciences Non-Commerical Web Directories New, BIOME Hot Topics "Subject experts within the BIOME team will choose an area of interest or a current topic and provide links to key sites in our database for that theme. BIOME "Hot Topics" are useful for those seeking inspiration for project work, possible ideas for essay themes, or simply as a quick route into subjects of interest. Topics covered so far include dyslexia, chocolate and breast cancer." See Also: BIOME -- State Government--United States Source: Council of State Governments New Resources from the Council of State Government + Table, Post Election Makeup of State Legislatures + Map, Post-Election Statehouse Control -- Transportation--United States--Statistics Source: BTS BTS Releases More State Transportation Profiles New: + Colorado Transportation Profile + Arkansas Transportation Profile + Alabama Transportation Profile + Virginia Transportation Profile + Ohio Transportation Profile See Also: Previously Released STP -- Education--United States--Statistics Dropout Rates in the United States: 2001 "This report is the latest in a series of NCES reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates in 2001, and includes time series data on high school dropout and completion rates for the period 1972 through 2001." -- Computers--Macintosh Source: National Security Agency Unclassified Report, Full Text, How to Securely Install and Use Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X Version 10.3.x Operating System (Panther) From a GCN article, "The National Security Agency has posted a 109-page document on its Web site telling agencies how to securely install and use Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X Version 10.3.x operating system, code-named Panther." -- Charities--Canada--Statistics Source: Statistics Canada Charitable donors 2003 -- Celebrities--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Top-Earning Dead Celebrities 2004 Thursday, November 04, 2004
Resources of the Week Two completely different specialty databases for you to explore this week: 1) Libraries--History--Database Source: Princeton University ALB1876: Database of American Libraries before 1876 This tightly focused resource is a database of "institutional and commercial libraries that existed in what is now the continental United States from the time of first settlement through 1875," including searchable records on almost 10,000 libraries. This database originated from boxes of punched cards that sat in the office of their compiler, Haynes McMullen, a professor emeritus of library science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. McMullen started collecting the data when he discovered a document -- Public Libraries in the United States of America: Their History, Condition, and Management. Special Report. Part 1 -- published by the U.S. GPO in 1876. Although this 1,222 page report offered information on libraries existing in the year 1876, there was no data on libraries before that time. According to a press release, "McMullen examined more than 580 sources over a forty-year period in order to fill the gap. He presented an overview of his work in American Libraries before 1876 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000)." The database is keyword searchable; what's cool is that .gif files of McMullen's original cards (e.g., U.S. Navy Yard library, Pensacola, FL, 1875) are available by clicking on icons that appear in search results. You can also browse the images. Users who have corrections or additional information for any of the institutions here may click on an icon that displays an input form. If you know about a library that isn't in the database, you can add information about it. There are a plethora of other searching options, from finding libraries by name, state, or type (more than 80, including such unique choices as Asylum Library, Hotel Reading Room, Ladies, and Temperance libraries; terms are derived from McMullen's book), date range, size of collection, and more. For detailed information, see: + Sources of Data + Database Statistics "The Davies Project is an ongoing project at Princeton aimed at increasing knowledge of the history of the collections in university libraries in general and their rare book collections in particular." If this interests you, you may also want to take a look at The Gerould Statistics: 1907/08-1961/62 -- "An historical compilation of data from academic libraries in the United States and Canada". -- -- 2) Biographies--Database Source: Authors: R.F. Holznagel and Paul Hehn Who2? We love specialty databases at ResourceShelf, since they are usually a much better alternative for specific types of information than a general web engine. This nicely designed site wants to be "the Web's most direct guide to facts about famous people." It's very easy to use, the writing is elegant and witty, and it is updated all the time. The premise is simple: "For each famous figure, Who2 gives you the hard facts you're most likely looking for: birth and death dates, famous works, notorious trivia. Then -- in case that's not enough -- we sift the Web and pick out the four best sites for additional detail. If you're looking for Albert Einstein, that means physics sites. If you're searching for Molly Sims, that probably means swimsuit photos. (If you want swimsuit photos of Albert Einstein, you may be out of luck.)" Who's behind this site? + Fritz Holznagel, former editor in chief of the Internet review site Point (way back in 1995) and the originator of -- among other things -- the Lycos 50 + Paul Hehn, one of Point's original writers, who also wrote a weekly TV column for Lycos and reviewed sites for the defunct publication, Yahoo! Internet Life. "Classic authors, movie stars, famous frauds, kings and queens, mythical gods, cartoon dogs: anyone famous is fair game for Who2. Some of the personalities may be frivolous, but our information never is: you can count on the facts you find on Who2. We do our best to feature only links which are equally dependable." AskJeeves apparently is a believer, since it offers many links to Who2? See Also: Who2 Now Offers Mobile Search Option
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Reviews Peter's Digital Reference Shelf, Nov. 2004 is Now Online In his latest set of reviews, Dr. Jacso look at: + National Priorities Project Database "This database proves that small can be beautiful by putting bombastic numbers about the most vexing domestic issues into context, and presenting them in a tangible and comprehensible format." + SportDiscus "The public relations materials for SportDiscus conjure up an image of an all-muscle, all-good-cholesterol database that has been on a rigorous diet and a vigorous workout program by nutrition and fitness experts. The reality is that it has a lot of flab and bad cholesterol due to duplication and inaccurately and inconsistently described records." -- Open Access Source: Open Access Now Harvesting the benefits of Open Access "Fytton Rowland recently led a study that recommended a 'harvesting model' for Open Access provision in the UK. He talked to Open Access Now about different models of Open Access archiving." -- Library of Congress Source: AP Librarian of Congress Visits Tehran
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Higher Education--Lists & Rankings Source: The Scientist The Best Places to Work in Academia, 2004 "There are more work-related factors that unite scientists than divide them, according to The Scientist's 2004 survey on the Best Places to Work in Academia. Across the world, scientists are surprisingly uniform in their needs. Adequate laboratory and research facilities for themselves and their coworkers topped the list in just about every country. A desire for good working relationships with peers also holds a high place in the ranking." Overview ||| U.S. Rankings ||| Canadian Rankings -- Iraq--Business Iraqi Business Center "Iraqi Business Center provides information of various companies (foreign and domestic) that operate in Iraq, and how to do business in Iraq (registration, etc). Sections on Kirkuk, Baghdad, Basrah, and Nineveh also provide business news, events, and sponsorship opportunities." Thanks to GlobalEDGE for the tip and annotation. -- High School Dropout Rates--United States Source: National Center for Education Statistics Dropout Rates in the United States: 2001 "This report is the latest in a series of National Center for Education Statistics reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates in 2001, and includes time series data on high school dropout and completion rates for the period 1972 through 2001. In addition to extending time series data reported in earlier years, the report examines the characteristics of high school dropouts and high school completers in 2001. It shows that while progress was made during the 1970s and 1980s in reducing high school dropout rates and increasing high school completion rates, these rates have since stagnated." Executive Summary ||| Full Report (PDF; 2344 KB)
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + New Interface for Ask Jeeves Local + Two New Ways to Search Froogle Via SMS + Happy Graduation to the Google Deskbar, Googleviewer.com Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Science Libraries Source: ARL Presentation: Virtual Observatory, Cyber-Science, and the Rebirth of Libraries A presentation by George Djorgovski, Caltech, at the ARL/CNI Forum on E-Research and CI. -- Science Librarianship--Publications Source: American Chemical Society The November 2004 issue of LiveWire, ACS's newsletter for librarians, is online. -- Digital Archives Source: IWAW04 Now Available: Papers from the 4th International Web Archiving Workshop (IWAW04) Some papers available now, full proceedings soon.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Election Law--United States + The E-Book on Election Law (Moritz School of Law, Ohio St. University) + Current Litigation Documents See Also: Election Law @ Moritz + Election Law: An Overview (Legal Information Institute) + Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA): an overview (Legal Information Institute) + State Election Laws & Administration Issues (via National Association of Secretaries of State) + Paper Chase Breaking News and Documents (via Univ. of Pittsburgh) + Election 2004-Online Media Guide (Ohio Sect. of State) -- Congressional Research Service Source: CRS (via FAS) Two New/Recently Updated Reports + Cloning: A Select Chronology, 1997-2003 + Stem Cell Research + Copyright Law: Digital Rights Management Legislation (via Pierce Law's IP Mall) -- Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Top 500 Diversity Owned Businesses In the United States -- Computer Security Source: Sophos Top ten viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in October 2004 -- Science--Online Resources Source: MultiMedia and Schools Free and Fee-Based Online Science Resources for the K-12 Community An annotated webliography by Robert J. Lackie and Robert J. Congleton. -- Emerging Markets Source: MSU-CIBER/globalEDGE 2004 Market Potential Indicators "The Market Potential Indicators is a yearly study conducted by MSU-CIBER comparing the marketability of 24 emerging markets, as identified by The Economist. The study assists companies that wish to internationalize in their identification of global marketing opportunities. Eight dimensions (including Market Size, Economic Freedom, and Country Risk) are chosen to represent the market potential of a country. These elements are given weights, thus contributing to the overall market potential index."
Citation Indexing + Art & Architecture: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Education & Educational Research + The Most-Cited Institutions in Chemistry, 1994-2004 + Rankings for Hungary Among the 144 top-performing countries in all fields and all countries.
Information Industry--Elsevier Two Elsevier Items + Elsevier Officially Launches Scopus We posted a review and an overview from Peter Jacso and Jill O'Neill on ResourceShelf in September. See Also: Direct to Scopus Web Site + And in other Reed-Elsevier News: The UK's Daily Mail reports that publisher and database provider, Reed Elsevier "has called a truce" with Google. I wonder if Google knows that they were feuding? Reeds's CEO, Patrick Crisp, says both companies need to work together. "'For the last year or two we have had a lot of discussion over whether Google is an ally or a competitor,' he said. 'But there is a logic to working with Google in one or two areas. Google brings its size and we bring our content.'" Fine, toss some of your content into a large database and people might buy it. A sale is sale. It's good business. In most cases, the searcher will only find the abstract and then have to pay for the full text (unless they already have free access). Many publishers are working with Google to add their material. Where these records fall on a search results page is another issue. They MIGHT turn up if the searcher knows the exact title of an article, but generalized subject searching is something else entirely. Every web page can't land within the first 10-20 results. However, Reed's databases (and other specialized search tools, free and fee) not only offer content unavailable (to this point) elsewhere, but they also provide: + Access points to material not available from general web engines. + Advanced search features that some users find useful and are willing to pay for. + A way for searchers to save time and aggravation by using a smaller, more focused database instead of one of the ever-expanding general web databases. But people can't use what they don't know about, which is basically a marketing issue for Reed and others. Also, it's a significant challenge to change the habits of the searcher. That said, demonstrating how a more focused database can save time is a perfect way to begin. Factiva's CEO, Clare Hart, said in June, "Our customers recognize the value in the comprehensive service they're getting and the time that they are saving. Time is one of the most important assets to business people." Hart also mentions that info quality counts. She's right. Tuesday, November 02, 2004
A Few Reference Resources for Election Day 2004 ++ List of Election Day Poll Hours by State -- + Presidential Poll Results (via PollingReport.com) How accurate or inaccurate will they be. -- ++ Direct Links to Election Information for 50 States and the District of Columbia (via National Association of State Election Directors) Some states will offer results throughout the evening. If you can't find what you need on these pages, try going directly to the Sec. of State homepage. ResearchBuzz also offers a compilation. -- ++ Interactive Maps and Stats (Electionline.org) + Population 1990 All + Population 2000 All + Voting Age Population + Number of Precincts + Number of Registered Voters + Voting System Used -- ++ Fast Facts: Presidential Election 2004 Stats include: + 217.8 million Number of voting-age U.S. residents. + 60%, Percentage of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the November 2000 election. + 72%, The percentage of citizens ages 65 to 74 who voted in the 2000 presidential election. -- ++ Congresional Research Service: Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer ++ CRS Report, The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections ++ CRS Report, Election of the President and Vice President by Congress: Contingent Election ++ Fast Facts: How A Presidential Election Tie Might Be Broken (via LexisNexis) -- ++ Election Statistics Source: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives "Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories. These documents, out of print for many years, have been collected and scanned in a format to make them once again available to researchers and students." -- ++ Printable Maps: Presidential Elections 1789-2000 Source: National Atlas of the United States -- ++ Info About the Electoral College Including historical stats. --- Up to the Minute News ++ NewsNow's Election 2004 Page Page will auto-refresh every five minutes aggragating material from over 17,500 sources. ++ 2004 Presidential Election News (via Topix.net)
Professional Reading Shelf Librarians Source: San Jose Mercury News Librarian Ask "Ethical" Question A librarian asks "On Ethics" columnist Randy Cohen about taking money for "after hours" research assistance. This article is also available here. -- American Library Association Source: ALA Additions and Tests on the ALA Web Site You'll read about two new tools on the ALA site. Also, ALA is allowing users to help test several "site" search tools through November 12th. You can try them at: http://search.ala.org/ -- Libraries and Librarians A New Issue (No. 41) of Ariadne is Now Online Articles Include: + ISBN-13: New Number on the Block + Improving Communications within JISC through News Aggregation + How the Use of Standards Is Transforming Australian Digital Libraries -- Privacy--Canada Source: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, British Columbia Privacy and the USA Patriot Act: Implications for British Columbia Public Sector Outsourcing From the press release: "Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis today released his office's advisory report on the privacy implications of the USA Patriot Act." + Read the report ||| Report Summary
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Law--Lists & Rankings Source: The American Lawyer The 2004 Global 100 You'll need to register (free) to view the full list. -- Software Industry--United States Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Economic Census, Information, Industry Series, Software Publishers: 2002 -- Infectious Diseases--United States Source: General Accountability Office (via DocuTicker) New Report, Emerging Infectious Diseases: Review of State and Federal Disease Surveillance Efforts Highlights ||| Full Report
Web Search Briefs (via the SEW Blog) + New Look and Services at Findory Cool! + A9 Toolbar Now Available for Firefox + Searching for Moblog Images
Database Trials Agriculture During the Month of November, Ovid is Offering Free Access to Agricola and Agris AGRICOLA is always available on the web (free) but this month you can test out Ovid's version/interface. + AGRICOLA Learn more about AGRICOLA. + AGRIS "AGRIS provides worldwide bibliographic coverage of agricultural science and technology literature. Assembled by the AGRIS Co-ordinating Centre, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations." Learn more about the AGRIS database. Monday, November 01, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Open WorldCat Source: Searcher Open WorldCat Pilot: A User's Perspective A new article by Nancy O'Neill from the Santa Monica Public Library. Note: Since the article was written, OCLC has made Open Worldcat permanent. Steven and Gary posted several comments here. -- Digital Archives--Television Television Archives Source: News Release The Preserving Public Television Project Receives Support from The Library of Congress Two stories about preserving public television content. 1) New Public Television Partnership Receives Major Program Preservation Award from the Library of Congress "Thirteen/WNET New York, has been awarded close to $3 million by the Library of Congress for Preserving Digital Public Television, a new three-year planning project that will set the groundwork for preserving digital television programming. Joining Thirteen as partners on the project are public broadcaster WGBH Boston, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and New York University. All four institutions will work together to plan standards, procedures and facilities which will lead to creating a long term preservation archive for public television programming produced in digital formats." 2) The Chicago Tribune has a story about Chicago's public television station (WTTW), announcing a plan to digitize (make searchable) and license "decades" of content. More in this news release. -- Collection Development Source: Emerald This Week Only: Free Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of Collection Building Articles include: + Chemical information in the electronic era (Vol. 23 No. 4) + View Collaborative collection building of electronic resources: a business faculty/librarian partnership (Vol. 23 No. 4) + From Picture Collection to Picture Collection Online (Vol. 23 No. 3) + Linking preservation metadata and collection management policies (Vol. 23 No. 2) + User preferences in formats of print and electronic journals (Vol. 23 No. 2) + Collecting comic books for an academic library (Vol. 23 No. 2) -- Presidential Libraries--William Jefferson Clinton Source: Newsweek Clinton: Ready for His Close-Up "Visitors to the Clinton Presidential Library, which opens Nov. 18 in Little Rock, Ark., won't have to search in some far corner to learn about the 42nd president's impeachment. Instead, it will be dealt with openly in a ground-floor exhibit. 'We encouraged him to lay it out exactly as it happened,' says chief archivist David Alsobrook, who has spent the past four years organizing the 80 million pages of documents, e-mails and assorted tchotchkes from world leaders that Clinton amassed during his presidency--more than any other chief executive." -- Academic Libraries Source: AP Floods Destroy Documents at Hawaii Library "Heavy rain sent water as much as 8 feet deep rushing through the University of Hawaii's main research library, destroying irreplaceable documents and books, toppling doors and walls, and forcing a few students to break a window to escape." See Also:More Info and Updates via Univ. of Hawaii Library School Home Page A digital archive of disaster images is also online.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--Webliography Source: Ira Chinoy, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland Resources on the Internet for Business Journalists From a Business Investigative Reporting Workshop last month in Atlanta by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Lots of links here, divided into a long list of categories. Good stuff. -- U.S. Military--Troop Deployments--Database Source: The Heritage Foundation Global U.S. Troop Deployment, 1950-2003 "The proposed global redeployment of U.S. troops coupled with the open question of how long U.S. forces will stay in Iraq highlight the need for objective data on force deployments, objectives, and results. Surprisingly, no comprehensive time series data on U.S. troop deployments by year and country seem to exist in a single dataset. This report remedies that need by introducing a comprehensive troop deployment dataset for 1950-2003." Direct to dataset -- Higher Education--United States--History PhD Programs Source: American Historical Association History Doctoral Programs in the United States, 2004 "As part of its review of history doctoral programs, the Committee on Graduate Education lamented the lack of information for potential applicants to history doctoral programs. The Committee, in the report published and adopted by the AHA, made recommendations in eighteen topical areas. From their recommendations we have developed this website of 'vital statistics' on virtually all history Ph.D. programs in the United States, and additional information on applying to doctoral programs." See also: The Education of Historians for the 21st Century -- Northeast Asia/United States--Bibliography Source: Air University Library + United States and Northeast Asia Includes: Internet resources, books, periodicals, documents |
