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Resources and News for Information Professionals
ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Librarian Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com Editor and Compiler, The ResourceShelf Editor and Compiler, DocuTicker
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Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries Source: National Public Radio (Talk of the Nation) If a Library Is Bookless, What's In It? "What helps make the evolution of libraries so complicated are two related questions: What is the library's role -- and who should pay for it? The squeeze on county and municipal budgets prompts many to wonder if they will continue to pay for these institutions. Others insist that the public library plays a vital role as a community center and as an intellectual oasis, a place to reflect as well as a place to learn. But if it's to survive, it has to adapt. A range of approaches are meant to help design a library for the 21st century." Guests for this program: + Tom Frey, executive director, The DaVinci Institute + Jo Haight-Sarling, director, access and technology services at the Denver Public Library System + Charles Brown, director, Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, N.C. -- Keyword Searching Source: Journal of Electronic Publishing. KWIC and Dirty? Human Cognition and the Claims of Full-Text Searching "Over the last several years, full-text searching of large text corpora has placed an extraordinarily powerful tool in the hands of humanities students and scholars. Use of these corpora is now entering mainstream research and, not surprisingly, is affecting research methods and the nature and quality of research outcomes. To what extent does the availability of new and copious sources of full text--along with the tools to mine them--relieve mental economy, freeing individuals from committing to memory not only names and facts but complex thoughts? Are we finally proceeding from a traditional (and obsolete?) "just in case" paradigm to a long-overdue "just in time" model for learning and scholarship? Using evidence from the literary record and from current research in human cognition, the author points to certain disjunctions between the machine processes that enable full-text searching and the subtle cognitive processes that underlie human learning and reasoning. Like all powerful tools, full-text searching requires circumspect use--and in no way relieves humanists and other researchers of the need to read extensively and think deeply." -- Research Libraries Source: ARL, SPARC, CNI The February Issue of the ARL Bi-Monthly Newsletter is Now Online Articles include: + Managing Digital Assets in Higher Education: An Overview of Strategic Issues + Online Music Services and Academic Libraries + The Grokster Decision: The Basics & Key Talking Points + The Role of Fair Use in Libraries and Education -- Government Secrecy--United States Source: Federal Computer Week Decrying secrecy, citizen groups fight back "Public interest groups and federal officials agree on one thing: Because of homeland security concerns, information that was once readily available on public Web sites has steadily disappeared in recent years. But the agreement ends there. The points of contention are numerous: Is government secrecy online a concerted policy with political overtones or the result of decisions made on a case-by-case basis? Is the missing information a legitimate part of the public record or sensitive data best protected from prying eyes?"
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Images Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Two Updated Images Collections ++ Bain Collection About 42,000 photographs (all 39,744 negatives and a selection of 1,600 photographic prints). ca. 1900-1931 (bulk). Photos produced and gathered by George Grantham Bain for his news photo service, including portraits and worldwide news events, but with special emphasis on life in New York City. ++ Highsmith Archive About 2,500 negatives and transparencies. 1980-2005. Architecture and architectural renovation projects in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States, as well as political figures, and people in the U.S. -- Internet--United States--Statistics Source: Pew Internet & American Life New Report, Home Broadband Adoption in Rural America By John Horrigan and Katherine Murray. "Rural Americans are less likely to log on to the internet at home with high-speed internet connections than people living in other parts of the country. By the end of 2005, 24% of adult rural Americans went online at home with high-speed internet connections compared with 39% of adults in urban and suburban areas." -- Medicare--Statistics Source: Kaiser Family Foundation New Issue Brief, Tracking Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicare: Five Ways to Look at the New Enrollment Numbers "This new analysis, which assesses Medicare drug benefit enrollment statistics released Feb. 22 (PDF) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, examines five different approaches to understanding the Medicare drug coverage numbers." See Also: New, Progress Report II on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (PDF, via HHS.gov) See Also: Direct to Searchable Glossary of Medicare Terms (via Medicare.gov) -- Federal Judges--United States Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts New Online, Monthly Vacancy Lists Archived Back to 1981 Monthly lists of judgeship vacancies that existed in the federal courts dating back to 1981 are now available online.
Briefly + H.W. Wilson Congratulates the 2006 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award Winners -- + Dialog Launches New Knowledge-Sharing Tools on DataStarWeb
Search Briefs + Google Names Director of Israeli Research Office (via SearchMarketing.co.il) "Dr. Yoeli Mark, a senior manager at IBM development center in Haifa Israel, will be the head of Google's development center in Israel, also in Haifa." -- + Amazon's A9 Mystery (via Red Herring) From the article, "What's stopping Amazon from capitalizing on a system for pairing data on consumer buying habits with search engine-powered ads? No one inside Amazon would answer that question for Red Herring, and the best guess outside seems to be that A9 needs to generate much more traffic before the data is bountiful enough to be meaningful and the weird thing is it doesn't appear to be trying to generate it." Btw, as you know A9 made news when they launched their street-level imagery (aka "BlockView Images") for several cities in the U.S. However, I monitor the site daily for new additions and haven't seen any new cities added in many months. -- + Microsoft Begins Offering "Preview" of Street-Level Imagery (via TechCrunch) I just said (see above) that it has been a while since I saw any new street-level imagery from A9. Today, TechCrunch reports that Microsoft's Live Local service will begin offering street level imagery similar to what A9 is doing. Preview here. From Arrington's post, "The service will initially target San Francisco and Seattle only due to the massive number of images needed to make it work (rumors are 10 million+ images per city)." More about the new preview from MSN Search's WebLog. Microsoft Live Local also offers the cool "bird's eye" aerial (vs. satellite imagery) for several U.S. cities. Examples and more here. See Also: As I pointed out yesterday, Ask.com Now Offers Aerial Imagery (taken by a plane not satellite) for the U.S. and Canada Monday, February 27, 2006
So Long Mr. Jeeves, Ask.com is Here By Gary Price Editor, ResourceShelf.com Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com The big news today is that Ask Jeeves is relaunching their service with a new name and some new services. When I announced a few weeks ago that I had taken a new job at Ask Jeeves (aka Ask.com) as Director of Online Information Resources, I made it clear that ResourceShelf would remain an independent site. The RS and DocuTicker team have complete editorial freedom on our sites and I also have the same freedom to say what I like when I like during public presentations. My live presentations will not be Ask.com sales calls. Sure, we will talk about Ask.com if that's on the agenda but we will also discuss plenty of other sites, tools, and ideas. To be honest, without this freedom, taking the job at Ask.com would have not occurred. Let me add that Ask Jeeves management was 100% behind this job structure from the outset. I hope you've noticed that since my announcement about taking the job at Ask.com a few weeks ago, the stream of news and new resources on ResourceShelf has continued to be what you have come to expect from our site. That is, lots of material from variety of sources. Of course, when there is Ask Jeeves news, we will also report on it and today is one of those days. The remainder of this post will not only fill you in on "what's new" at Ask Jeeves (so long and adios to Mr. Jeeves) but I also hope it helps answer a question many of you have asked since I told you about my new job. Why did I choose to take the job in the first place? In this case this post is both a news story and at the same time a brief look at some of Ask's services. SO, WHAT'S The News? As of today, Ask Jeeves is now known as Ask.com. The butler logo and theme is gone. This is good news. Why? Ask Jeeves represented a less-than-useful search service. As I've said before, the Ask.com of 2006 is NOT the same thing as Ask Jeeves circa 1999. It's a greatly improved service and I hope to contribute my share (and with your help) to make it better. NOTE: Enjoy the Ask Jeeves retirement video here. (-: Frankly, if Ask.com was the same service it was, circa 1998 or 1999, I would not have accepted the job because back then the LAST search tool I would have recommended, used, or would have wanted to be a part of was Ask Jeeves. Hopefully, the new name will help people realize that Ask.com has done some impressive work during the past five years. However, a name is only a name and actions and capabilities speak louder than words. Bottom Line #1 -------------- The idea of pre-supposing questions and then mining the open web for answers HAS NOT BEEN a part of Ask.com since late 2001. Unfortunately, many people, including information professionals, have, up until now, not realized this point. Changes ------- The beginning of the Ask.com turnaround began in September 2001, with the acquisition of the Teoma search technology from Rutgers University. The Teoma relevancy/ranking algorithm is different than found elsewhere. Without getting into a long and technological discussion, I've added some additional links at the end of this post that can help give you a broad overview of what makes the Teoma technology (now incorporated into Ask.com) different. A few sentences are available here (in the "How it Works" Section). Of course, relevancy algorithms from all of the large web engines are constantly changing and being tweaked, but the readings I hope will provide you with some of the fundamental differences in concept. Btw, as of today, the actual Teoma.com site is no more. It now redirects to Ask.com. However, all of Teoma's power, features, and more, minus one, are now a part of Ask.com. Former users of Teoma (unfortunately, not many used it) will no longer see the "Resources Section" of subject-specific meta pages that Teoma made available. Hopefully, this feature (or something similar to it) is something that Ask.com can add in the future since many info pros found it useful but less than 1% of users took advantage of it. That's even mentioned in this blog post. Moving Forward -------------- Let's go back to 2001 (September to be precise) when Ask.com began on its multi-year drive to revamp the product. IMHO, they've done an impressive job and that was one of my biggest draws in joining their team. However, let me be clear, there is much more work to be done and, again, this is a key reason why I wanted to join them. One problem, from a marketing standpoint, is that many people, including librarians, educators, and the general public, have spent little time paying attention to what has been going on at Ask.com. Why? Old habits and beliefs die hard and, as I said earlier, many people still believe that Ask.com is the inferior product that it once was. That is no longer the case. In fact, it's a goal to directly involve our profession in making Ask.com even better. That's why your feedback/suggestions/comments are important. Bottom Line #2 ----------------- Info pros need to stay current on a variety of tools and services. That's one of the reasons we do our best in preparing ResourceShelf everyday. I realize that this is easier said than done, but knowing about alternatives and using the right tool at the right time is key to our mission. Perhaps it's time to begin looking more closely at a variety of tools and resources. I heard from many people thoughout 2005 who said that they appreciated ResourceShelf's continuing coverage of a wide variety of sites and search tools. I often think that search and library news + new reports + new sites/databases that we blog on RS and DocuTicker as a form of collection development in the web age. Let's take full advantage of the wide variety of resources (both free and fee-based) that we have available to us. New Features, Improved Services ---------------------------------- Before moving forward, the Ask.com of today is by no means a completed product. Far from it. If it was, why would I be taking the job? It is one of my goals to help make Ask.com even better by involving the education and library communities. That said, as of today, Ask.com is a worthy and improving alternative that all info pros, educators, and others should know about and make use of when needed. Today's name change is just that, a name change. However, as the butler says goodbye, I hope that the change will hopefully give plenty of notice to many of the new services and features that Ask.com has been building and improving upon in the past few years. Again, this is just the beginning and another reason I wanted to be part of the team and represent our community. Review: Ask.com February 2006 ----------------------- Let's get to some facts and things to look for. As you review the list, you'll see that a few of these tools started becoming available a few years ago. + The new Ask.com homepage (new today) is crisp, sleek, and light. If you had an issue with the way it once looked (too busy) that issue is now solved. + The Ask.com Toolbox (new today), located on the right side of the homepage, can help get you to speciality databases (like the dictionary, picture search, local search, etc.) quickly. It can even be minimized if you don't want to use it. You can even customize the order in which the links appear. The Toolbox utilizes AJAX technology. Btw, developers will be able to add direct links to other databases (how does a library catalog sound!) with the release of an API. Of course, Ask.com will also continue to develop new specialty tools as well. What databases would you suggest? + Beginning on April 20, 2003, Ask.com has been hard at work developing what they call "Smart Answers." As I've said many times, these are examples of search engines becoming "answer engines" for certain types of ready reference queries. It's only been in the past year or so that others have begin to really ramp up efforts in this area. Let's be clear, most of this is done autonomously and is NOT the same thing as what Ask Jeeves was doing in 1999. Some Examples ------------ ++ Holiday Dates ++ Award Winners ++ Fast Facts: The EU ++ Business: Market Cap ++ Geography Facts ++ Science ++ Placing images from the Ask.com pictures database on to web results pages +++ Building direct links and compilations to a variety of answers ++ Animals and Pets +++ Cities +++ Biographies +++ Recipes +++ Television shows +++ Sports +++ Definitions (you can even hear the word pronounced) Folks, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think the possibilities are endless and we hope to involve the library and education communities in helping to build more "Smart Answers" with material coming from reliable and trustworthy sources. All of these and other tools can help save the time of the searcher and keep them (in some cases) from "pogo sticking" around the web. As we all know, time is something everybody wants more of. Less clicks, more quality answers! + The new Ask.com Picture Search Database ++ Ask.com now crawls the web for images and uses its own relevancy algorithm. They are no longer purchasing a database of imagery from a third party. Its relevance and precision have earned it high marks. Improved Maps, Intro of Aerial Imagery, Improved Directions Today also brings the launch of a new and greatly enhanced Ask.com map and directions service (also using AJAX technology). You'll also find very detailed (you can "get in close" as they say) aerial and satellite imagery provided by GlobeXplorer. Imagery is available as of today for the U.S. and Canada. ALSO, SOME IMAGERY for locations in Western Europe are available. Here's the Lourve. The new Ask.com Map and Directions is full of features. One of my favorites is the chance to see both walking and/or driving directions and then animate your route by clicking the green "Play" button. You can also add in multiple stops. You can even recalculate directions by simply dragging the numbered location pointer to a new location. Btw, Maps24.com offers animated maps and directions for many parts of the world. + We all know that a searcher often needs help either narrowing or expanding their search. For a long time Ask.com (and Teoma) has offered the "Zoom" feature that lets the searcher see suggested clickable options to let them focus their search. They're listed in the right column. In some cases, even related names are extracted out of the result set and made easily searchable. Here's an example with a search for The Beatles. Also make sure to take note of the Smart Answer at the top of the page. + I Know Many Educators Use Ask Jeeves for Kids. The service is now known as Ask for Kids. What can we do to make it better? + Ask.com also offers cached pages for many of the pages in its database. They also provide the precise date and time that the page was cached. + Other features include "binoculars" that provide page previews before the searcher clicks on the live link (a potential time saver). + Ask was also one of the first large search providers to market (September 2004) with a service that allows you to save, annotate, organize, and share your content called My Jeeves. Think of it as a virtual briefcase and yes, you can tag and share your posts. One feature I use often is the ability to send and then share images from my cameraphone. As of today, the service is now known as "My Stuff." + The Acquisition of Bloglines and Other Projects Another key move by Ask in 2005. This is a highly loved service and lots of synergies exist between this web-based RSS aggregator and search tool. In fact, Ask is testing an improved feed search tool in Japan right now. Of course, synergies also exist using data from other IAC/InterActive properties like CitySearch, Expedia, and Ticketmaster. + International ResourceShelf has a large readership outside of the U.S. and Ask.com is growing the world. We want your feedback as well. Ask.com currently has sites in The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK with more to come. The new design and some of the Ask.com features are now visible on these sites. The Reduction of Ads --------------------- While others have been increasing the number of paid ads on a search results page, it has been announced that Ask.com is reducing the number of paid ads on results pages. Bottom Lines: What This Means ------------------------------ As I said earlier, by no stretch of the imagination is Ask.com a completed product. I want to help to make it better. We at Ask.com want to hear your ideas and thoughts on how to make the service work for you, your patrons, and your students. If I had to boil down what Ask.com has been doing for the past several years, it comes down to a few key points that to some degree sound a lot like a good info pro. + Alternatives In many cases the more choices the better. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Clusty and others are high quality, first rate products that we all use regularly. However, that doesn't mean that Ask.com can't also be one and isn't worthy of your attention and knowledge. A great reference collection is filled with many choices and options. A great reference librarian knows about many of them. + Save the Time of the Searcher Everybody wants and needs more time and the more quickly high quality results can be provided the better. Clicks mean time. To a large degree, this sounds like one of Ranganathan's five laws of library science, "Save the time of the reader." + Ease of Use, Usability Features like Zoom are easy to explain and use. For all of you, I hope my overview not only gives you a better idea of what Ask.com has been up to for 4 years, but also starts you brainstorming about what we can do better. That is one of my key roles at Ask.com--to represent the library and education communities. I also hope that it gives you some of the reasons why I'm excited to be joining the Ask.com team. Lots of work needs to be done in many areas and all of us can work together to continue improving the service. Teoma Search Technology Reading List ------------------------------------ Remember, the Teoma search technology is now incorporated into Ask.com. These selected readings might help you get a better understanding of what Teoma algorithm and technology is all about. + "In conversation with..." Jim Lanzone & Apostolos Gerasoulis of Ask Jeeves/Teoma (2005) Noted web search expert Mike Grehan chats with two Ask.com execs, Jim Lanzone & Apostolos Gerasoulis. + Teoma Technology (2002) Chris Sherman takes a look at what makes Teoma technology different. + A Longer Look by Mike Grehan into the Teoma Algorithm (16 pages; PDF) Teoma section begins on page 14. + For the Techies #1 (1999) Many of the concepts that underly Teoma come from IBM's Clever team. This search product was never publicly released. This paper explains and is one of my all-time favorite papers about web search. + For the Techies #2: DiscoWeb: Applying Link Analysis to Web Search (1999) This is the first published paper on what would become Teoma. One of its co-authors, Apostolos Gerasoulis, is now the Vice President of Research and Development at Ask.com. Btw, DiscoWeb stands for Discovery Web (not a dancing search engine).
Professional Reading Shelf Internet Library Science Source: Webology (via E-LIS) Application of Ranganathan's Laws to the Web By Alireza Noruzi. Abstract: "This paper analyzes the Web and raises a significant question: Does the Web save the time of the users?" This question is analyzed in the context of Five Laws of the Web. What do these laws mean? The laws are meant to be elemental, to convey a deep understanding and capture the essential meaning of the World Wide Web. These laws may seem simplistic, but in fact they express a simple, crystal-clear vision of what the Web ought to be. Moreover, we intend to echo the simplicity of Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science which inspired them." -- Collaborative Tagging Source: E-LIS Collaborative Tagging as a Knowledge Organisation and Resource Discovery Tool By George Macgregor and Emma McCulloch. Abstract: "The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the collaborative tagging phenomenon and explore some of the reasons for its emergence. The paper reviews the related literature and discusses some of the problems associated with, and the potential of, collaborative tagging approaches for knowledge organisation and general resource discovery."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Internet and the Web Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project New Survey, Surfing for Fun A new study from Pew researcher, Deborah Fallows. "More Americans are turning to the internet as a place to hang out. Nearly a third of internet users go online on a typical day for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time. Two-thirds of all internet users have tried surfing the Web just to pass the time, according to a survey we conducted in December 2005. Some 40 million people said they were surfing for fun on a typical day during the month. This number is up from 25 million people who were browsing for no particular reason in November 2004, the most recent time when this question was asked by the Pew Internet Project." -- Television--TiVo--Lists & Rankings Source: TiVo The TiVo Top 10 Moments of the 2006 Winter Olympics -- Information Technology--Health Source: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality New Web Site, AHRQ National Resource Center for Health Information Technology Sunday, February 26, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--Vandalism Source: Sandra Hart, SLIS, University of Alberta Vandalism in Libraries "Vandalism is a problem that affects libraries of all types. As custodians of library collections, it is part of librarians' responsibility to ensure they are adequately informed in order to prevent vandalism as much as possible and to be prepared in the inevitable event that vandalism occurs in their libraries. This paper will examine the problem of vandalism facing libraries. It will look at the classification of vandalism as it is thought that by understanding the categories of vandalism, prevention strategies may be better tailored to fit the problem at hand. The research on typical vandals will be explored. The different types of vandalism that occur in libraries will be discussed, with examples from the literature. Material that is a frequent target for vandalism, including sexual, religious and racist materials will be discussed. The costs of vandalism, both monetary and social, will be addressed. This paper will conclude with an examination of a host of prevention strategies." -- Government Printing Office (GPO)--Information Dissemination Source: Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Information Dissemination Policy Statement (PDF; 70 KB) "This policy establishes conditions under which postings via various electronic communication mechanisms are used to communicate administrative information and announcements to Federal depository library staff and others with an interest in GPO's information dissemination programs. Posts to electronic discussion lists on sensitive issues or those likely to generate press coverage must be cleared through the Office of Public Relations and/or the Office of Congressional Affairs. The Office of Public Relations should be informed of announcements for new services and products prior to their posting to electronic discussion lists."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Landmines--Map Source: International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) Global use of antipersonnel mines since May 2004 (PDF; 405 KB) "Confirmed Use or Compelling Evidence" See Also: Global production of antipersonnel mines 2005 (PDF; 516 KB) -- U.S. Department of State--Experts Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of Media Outreach Newsmakers Search "U.S. Department of State 'Newsmakers' provide insight, analysis, and expertise on foreign affairs, news and events. 'Newsmakers Search' provides a means for members of the media to match experts with upcoming media events." + Experts by Position + Experts by Issue + Experts by Name
Search Briefs Web Search--Google Source: News.com Google's Privacy Concerns Unfounded According to Newly Filed Brief From the article, "The Justice Department has denied requesting anything from Google that could threaten the privacy of the search engine's users, as the company recently contended. But by trying to block the government's efforts to review a week's worth of search terms, Google is holding up efforts to protect children from pornography, according to a brief filed Friday by the Justice Department." We've posted the full text of Friday's brief from the feds here. (PDF) See Also: Declaration in Support by Dr. Phillip Stark, UC Berkeley, Hired by U.S. Government to Do Statistical Analysis of Search Data See Also: Friend of the Court Brief Filed By Law Professors (Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society) See Also: Full Text to Google's Brief (and Related Filings) Saturday, February 25, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf International Affairs--Bibliographies Source: Air University Library Three New Bibliographies + Japan + Russia + Saudi Arabia -- Web Search--Google New Study: Google Scholar Does VERY WELL Compared to Thomson ISI citation index The UBC Google Scholar Blog points to a summary article/interview about a new study (full text here) that shows that Google Scholar does as well as ISI's Web of Science (WOS) in citation counts. Interesting and more good news for Google and perhaps not so good news for Thomson Scientific. A few random thoughts and things I'm thinking about after reading the article. ---- ---- + I'll let Dr. Peter Jacso speak for himself (he's a great writer, a comprehensive reviewer, and I'm honored to say a friend and mentor) but the summary says that Dr. Jacso's articles and reviews of Google Scholar, he's written three of them (1 2 3) might be biased (specifically the first one listed above) since he is on a Thomson advisory board***. That's weak. Its been my experience that Peter says it like it is and has the data to back it up. Btw, Dr. Jacso has been VERY positive about other autonomous citation indexing services like CiteSeer. + Second, the word "outperform" means many things. OK, in this study the citation counts were close but the searchability of material on WOS is much stronger. In other words, you can do more to precisely find what you need. True, Google Scholar does offer an advanced search page that, for example, allows you to limit by source. However, getting a source list from Google (something I've asked many times) is impossible. Also, WOS offers more usability (at least at this time) with your results (email, bib formatting, alerts, etc.). What about time to index inclusion? How long does it take for new material to find its way into WOS vs. Google Scholar. Perhaps someone is working on that study now. + Third, a point I made from day one of Google Scholar's public existence is that Google does not provide any type of definition of what they are and ARE NOT indexing. For example, while I'm honored that ResourceShelf is indexed in Google Scholar, I'll be the first to say that our blog is not a scholarly source in even the broadest definition of the term. Our articles and links for non-scholarly cites considered a citation? How does GS define a citation? Is a conference presentation considered a citation if on one of the slides it mentions an article or book? We don't know since we don't know their collection/crawling policy. So how can we compare? Btw, here Google Scholar shows 8 entries for our one blog. Also, Jacso points out that the "hit" totals found on Google Scholar are not very accurate. No surprise since it's been discussed many times and for many years that the page totals from Google's web database (and other large web engines) are inaccurate. That's why we've said many times not to use web search total size estimates to determine the popularity of something. + From the article, "Dr. Pauly also notes that Thomson ISI is 40 years old, while Google Scholar "is one and a half years old, and will improve." This might very well be the case, but how does Dr. Pauly know for sure? We still have not learned the business plan (if any) for Google Scholar. Forget business plan, what's the long-term plan for Google Scholar? Remember that the project itself began as a Google researcher's (Anurag Acharya, a great guy and very smart man) 20% time project. What happens if things/people change at Google? Will the Google of 2006 be the same Google in 2008? What business is Google (or any large general purpose web engine) in? I think most people would agree that Google (a bit more so that others) is in the advertising business, since 99%of their revenues come from ads. This is not a bad thing (unless you just don't like advertising) but thinking of Google in the same way we think of the business other info companies (Dialog/Thomson, LexisNexis, Factiva, etc.) is really not accurate. Btw, what would some in the education/academic community say if keyword and contextual advertising came to Google Scholar results pages? + A fast fact: Thomson just launched a new component product (part of Web of Knowledge) called Web Citation Index. It would be interesting to see how this new database and GS compare. Selection methods, usability, etc. I believe some of the technology to power this product uses technology that's also used by CiteSeer. Bottom Lines? One, as Dean points out, it's good to talk about these issues. Two, as I've said many many many times, it's all about the right tool/resource at the right time. Remember, librarians should like alternatives. Alternatives and choices (both free and fee) are good. See Also #1: Just for fun! Aviation is one of my (Gary's) interests. I was searching Google Scholar and found a citation written by someone with a last name (a word you can't say on tv in the U.S.) Is this true? Nope, parsing issues, a challenge for all database builders (not only Google). Nevertheless, what makes this a bit more surprising is that the data comes directly from a bibliographic database. Btw, the author's name is actually Peng Shi. I'm sure you can guess the letter Google added to his name. (-: *** See Also #2: Dr. Jacso has told ResourceShelf that he is not on an Advisory Board of ISI. He goes on to say, "I have been on the advisory committee of the JCR [Journal Citation Reports] some years ago...There is a big difference between Thomson ISI advisory board and ISI advisory group (for JCR) in terms of involvement in ISI matters."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Fortune Just Released, America's Most Admired Companies 2006 Sort the list numerous ways. Several articles. Direct to full list of 303 companies. Top 10 (Overall) 1. General Electric 2. FedEx 3. Southwest Airlines 4. Procter & Gamble 5. Starbucks 6. Johnson & Johnson 7. Berkshire Hathaway 8. Dell 9. Toyota Motor 10. Microsoft Most Admired in the Internet Services and Retailing Industry 1. Google 2. eBay 3. Yahoo 4. IAC/Interactive -- Earthquakes--California--Maps Source: USGS New Maps Identify Bay Area Liquefaction Risk "Two new maps give first responders, land use planners, decision makers and Bay Area residents a new and more detailed look at the risk of 'liquefaction' in the soils underlaying buildings and other important components of the Bay Area infrastructure, such as roads and pipelines." Summary ||| Direct to Maps
Search Briefs iTunes Launches a Personalized Music Recommendation Service Look for the "Just For You" section on the iTunes Music Store home page. Findory's Greg Linden has more including a reader comment (a rumor) that the service is powered by ChoiceStream. ChoiceStream also powers Yahoo Movie Recommendations, Yahoo Gift Finder, and their own MyBestBets. MBB offers personalized television recommendations. All three of these services are free. See Also: Since we're talking personalization and recommendation services, Findory has announced a few new features including + RSS Feed for Your Findory Favorites + More Favorites Listed on FF Page. Default moves from 10 to 20. + Findory Similar Articles (a first step towards clustering) Links and examples here. Friday, February 24, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Virtual Reference Source: OCLC Research Presentation: Seeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual Reference Transcripts PowerPoint:505K/34slides. A presentation by Lynn Silipigni Connaway at the OCLC Members Council Research and New Technologies Interest Group, 14 February 2006. -- Information Organization Source: OCLC Research New, Using Dewey Differently PowerPoint: 440K/15slides. A presentation by Diane Vizine-Goetz and Thom Hickey at the OCLC Members Council Research and New Technologies Interest Group, 13 February 2006.
Search News Web Search Weblog Search Source: Gilad Mishne New Academic Paper Offers a Review of Weblog Searching The paper will be presented at the 28th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR'06) 2006 in April. The paper is titled "A Study of Blog Search." It was written by Gilad Mishne and Maarten de Rijke from the University of Amsterdam. 13 pages; PDF. From the abstract, "We present an analysis of a large blog search engine query log, exploring a number of angles such as query intent, query topics, and user sessions. Our results show that blog searches have different intents than general web searches, suggesting that the primary targets of blog searchers are tracking references to named entities, and locating blogs by theme. In terms of interest areas, blog searchers are, on average, more engaged in technology, entertainment, and politics than web searchers, with a particular interest in current events. The user behavior observed is similar to that in general web search: short sessions with an interest in the first few results only." -- Web Search--Google Source: News Release Google and National Archives (U.S.) Announce Project to Digitize Historic Films Word today that the National Archives (NARA) and Google have announced a non-exclusive pilot project to digitize and bring historical film content from the National Archives to the web. The material will be available via Google Video and via a link at the National Archives site (though the content will be hosted by Google). Some material is already available at this special interface for National Archives content. From the news release, "The National Archives and Google are exploring the possibilities of expanding the online film collection and making the Archives' extensive textual holdings available via the Internet." We were unable to find any type of timeline for content additions or new programs. Content can be downloaded for offline viewing. A bit more info here. See Also: Google Makes Digitized Archive of Interviews with TV Legends Available Online (via SEW Blog) See Also: In November, Danny and Gary wrote about Google providing $3 million in seed money to The Library of Congress to build a World Digital Library. No word at this point on how things are proceeding. --- By No Stretch of the Imagination is this Project the Only Place to Find Both New and Historic Film on the Web Here are a few, just a few, places to find "historic" film and video content and some other "educational" material on the web from both government and non-government sources. Again, this list is FAR FROM comprehensive. Just a taste. (-: If people find this collection useful, I'll continue to build it out. + The Movie Picture Archive from the Internet Archive Take special note of the Prelinger Archives. What is it? "Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 48,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 4,000 titles on videotape and a smaller collection of film materials acquired subsequent to the Library of Congress transaction." + The Internet Archive is Also Home to the Universal Newsreels Archive 601 newsreels from 1929 to 1967. + Moving Images Collection (via Georgia Tech University) "A Window to the World's Moving Images." + Survivors of the Shoah Testimony Viewer Holocaust survivors tell their stories. Part of the Survivors of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. + Multimedia Content via the Library of Congress American Memory Project You'll find movies, sound recordings, and more. + Canada: The CBC Archives + Canada: Digitisation Projects from Library and Archives Canada including: ++ Virtual Silver Screen ++ Featuring Gratien Gelinas + Europe: A Collection of Historic Television Commercials via Blinkx. More than 5000 commercials have been digitised. + Germany: German newsreel archives (Wochenschau-Archiv) Via BUFVC annotation: "The Federal Film Archives, Berlin, are digitising the Deutsche Wocheschau newsreel collection of German newsreels from 1949 and making them freely available over the internet. Over 4,000 stories have been issued so far, for lowband (56K) or broadband (250K) connections, using Windows Media Player." + The National Archives of the UK Has a Collection of Digitized Content via BlinkxTV To access, select National Archives in the "information section" on the Blinkx search page. + UK: British Path Film Archive and Newsplayer.com ++ Newsplayer.com offers over 100 years of digitized film. ++ Material from British Pathe newsreel archive (1896-1970). Both services are free or available at a VERY low cost for individual use. The British Universities Newsreel Database (BUND) will also be of interest. Direct links to the Pathe database. + UK: Nation on Film From the BBC. + Selections from the The Newsfilm Library at the University of South Carolina + Surgery Videos (via the National Library of Medicine) + NASA Video Archive NASA Image Exchange (NIX) Limit your NIX search to movie or video. + NOAA: A Gallery of Historical Films Archived Lectures and Presentations + ResearchChannel.org Lectures and presentations from a consortium of many universities. + MIT World Archive + University of California, Berkeley + New, Institute of Politics Opens Up Video Archive to the Public + A Comprehensive List of Film and Video Archives Around the World Many have online digitization prjects.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Science and Engineering--United States--Statistics Source: National Science Foundation Just Released, Science and Engineering Indicators -- 2006 "The Science and Engineering Indicators, a biennial report series published by the National Science Board, is designed to provide a broad base of quantitative information about U.S. science, engineering, and technology for use by public and private policymakers. Because of the spread of scientific and technological capabilities around the world, this report presents a significant amount of material about these international capabilities and analyzes the U.S. position in this broader context." -- Educational Technology Source: New Media Consortium New, The 2006 Horizon Report "The NMC's Emerging Technologies Initiative focuses on expanding the boundaries of teaching, learning and creative expression by creatively applying new tools in new contexts. The Horizon Project, the centerpiece of this initiative, charts the landscape of emerging technologies and produces the NMC's annual Horizon Report. The 2006 Horizon Report is now available. The 2006 edition is a collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program. The 2006 Horizon Report, just as has been the case with previous editions of the report, highlights six technologies that the underlying research suggests will become very important to higher education over the next one to five years." 32 pages; PDF. -- Internet--Statistics Source: Parks Associates Just Released, Internet Finding Few Newcomers in 2006 "A new study from Parks Associates has found few new households willing to subscribe to Internet services, which will limit 2006 growth in overall Internet penetration to one percent, rising from 63% to 64% by year's end." More in this News.com article.
Search Patent Watch More Patents and Patent Apps for Microsoft and Yahoo Here are a few new patents and published apps since our last update. Microsoft Patent Applications + System and method for employing social networks for information discovery Filed: October 24, 2005 Abstract: "Systems and methods are provided that enable searches of social networks by acting as a "compass" that assists users in navigating the social network. Individual user participation is not required in response to queries from other users. The systems and methods offer navigational assistance or information as opposed to a traditional search which returns requested information, thus currently acceptable social mechanisms for arbitrating trust can be exploited. As a result, users do not make their personal information publicly searchable, while at the same time, they are protected from potential misrepresentations of facts." + Suggesting a discussion group based on indexing of the posts within that discussion group Filed: July 30, 2004 Abstract: "A system and corresponding methods for recommending a discussion group as an appropriate place to post a message are provided. In one embodiment, the system searches a plurality of existing posts to identify the posts that are similar to a subject of a user's message. The system identifies the discussion groups that contain the identified posts and selects one of the identified discussion groups to recommend as an appropriate discussion group to post the user's message." + Automatic categorization of query results Filed: August 13, 2004 Microsoft Patent + Method and system for creating an embedded search link document Awarded: February 21, 2006 Filed: June 23, 2000 Abstract: "A method and system for creating and using an embedded search link document. Embedded search link documents are search-enabled through the use of a wizard. The wizard initially prompts a user to open an HTML-formatted genesis document in an editing pane. Once the genesis document is loaded, the user may add and manipulate search links by customizing the relevant search parameters. The invention permits a user to tailor a search by selecting various search parameters describing the search objective. Once the search parameters are specified, the search engine finds documents meeting the search criteria from a catalog that was built by crawling World Wide Web sites. These documents are filtered for relevance and compiled into a results list. The documents comprising the results list are placed into one of a set of site catalogs, depending on which of the search criteria are embodied in the individual document. The results list is returned to the user, who may designate certain links as preferred links. These preferred links will be compressed and stored, and will always show up at the top of the search results list. Similarly, the search criteria are compressed and stored as a portion of the search link embedded within the genesis document. Once the user has created all desired search links, the genesis document is saved as an embedded search link document. Later users may initiate searches by accessing an embedded search link." Yahoo Patent Application + Method and system for providing a disposable email address
New Search Tools Shelf Kosmix Adds Two New Verticals: Travel and Politics Yes, we like to cover the "vertical" or specialty search and database space. That's nothing new. A few weeks ago, Kosmix, a specialty database that focuses on health information launched in beta. A couple of my health librarian pals are impressed with this new resource as a resource for consumer health info. It's definitely worth a look. In the past few days Kosmix has launched two more specialty databases, one that focuses on travel information (a great idea) and the other on political information. Both Kosmix Travel and Kosmix Politics are in alpha mode. A Few Minutes with Kosmix Health (Beta) + Databases consist of open web content. Not sure if it's a Kosmix crawl or they are purchasing access to a portion of a large web database. + Here's a Search for "Influenza," results page consist of: 10 results (no way at this point to increase) + Spelling corrections (is this what you mean) listed. + Categories are listed in left margin (can a result be listed in more than one category?). + Selecting "Explore Kosmix categories" allows you to see on a single page the top three results in each category, neat idea. + Each category includes the number of results available. Clusty, FirstGovSearch and other sites also offer this info. + Since this is a massive undertaking in the early stages, it was not difficult to find material incorrectly categorized. For example, the Influenza Web Site from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and this page from the CDC were found in the "Journals" category. You'll see that at the top of the results list is a direct link for the search in PubMed. Another example. In the "Fitness" category a speech by President Bush is listed. The speech talks about a flu pandemic. The word "fitness" is not mentioned in the speech. + All pages are cached locally. A timestamp when the material was cached is not provided. Since medical info is often time sensitive, this would be helpful. + Like many web engines, even the large ones, the page estimates are sometimes inaccurate. For example, 13 definitions are supposed to be included. When you go to the category only two are listed. When I click a link labeled, "To show you more relevant results, we omitted some extra results available. To see all results, you can perform this search with all results from all listed sites," I still only get two results. + I searched for a non-health topic "Chicago Cubs" and found a few health-related mentions (player injuries, etc.) in two categories. However, I also found lots of non-health-related content like information about Wrigleyville, the neighborhood in Chicago where the Cubs play. Finally, the blogs category was also full of non-health-related material. + No syntax or advanced interface available (at this point) + "Adult" material is also available if the right (non-technical) terms are entered. + Since this is a subject-focused database, some info about what sources they do and do not use would be useful (aka selection policy). Also, gloss for each category would be helpful. Are URLs/sites assigned to a specific category? What makes a blog ok for inclusion in the blog category. Overall, not a bad start. It needs work, but Kosmix is worthy of attention as a source for consumer health info. At this moment, more sophisticated searchers (in terms of content) might find the two sources listed below of greater value. We do think the travel search specialty database is a great idea. Let's see how that goes. ResourceShelf will be watching Kosmix closely. -- -- Other Tools that Cluster Health and Biomedical Information + ClusterMed from Vivisimo This service dynamically clusters (in real time) the first 100 results from a PubMed search. Note that because of the quality metadata associated with each entry, it's possible to cluster the results several different ways (abstract/title/MESH, author, etc.) Registering for ClusterMed (free for one month) offers the ability to cluster 500 results. The fee-based version of ClusterMed will cluster up to 5000 results. --- --- + BioMeta Cluster This service also from Vivisimo (free) runs a live meta/federated search across a wide variety of biomedical and news databases. Results are then dynamically clustered. Vivisimo's live page preview feature is also available (look for the preview link next to each result title). Users can select which databases they do or do not want included in the search. Addditional features include exporting results (various formats), e-mail results, alerts, and the ability to cluster more data. We plan to take a closer look at this service in the future. Thursday, February 23, 2006
Resource of the Week By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Although a 'bubble' in home prices for the nation as a whole does not appear likely, there do appear to be, at a minimum, signs of froth in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels. -- Alan Greenspan "Froth." I kinda miss Alan Greenspan already. At any rate, it would seem that not a day goes by that you don't read about or hear about the so-called "housing bubble," and whether/when it is likely to burst. Where I live, many high-end condominiums are going up -- and many units are being flipped multiple times by investors before the projects are even finished. I would seriously like to get rid of my house and buy a condo -- one son has aged out the door and the other is an increasingly scarce teenager. I really don't want the responsibility of a house any more, but the condo market around here scares me to death. It's like a game of musical chairs; nobody wants to be the one stuck with the wildly overpriced unit when the air goes out of the bubble. I feel kind of trapped...and I know I am not alone. So, this week, we're devoting some space to a few resources that will help you track the real estate situation where you live, where you might want to live and generally, across the country. Real Estate--United States + HousingTracker: Median Home Prices & Housing Inventory Data: "Real Estate market statistics (including median asking prices and home inventory numbers) for cities/metros across the United States.... "The numbers provided here are asking prices derived from MLS listings." Compiled weekly. Click on city name for detailed info, including archive, which shows trends. + Existing Home Sales -- Monthly Data for the U.S. and Regions: From the National Association of Realtors (NAR). You can get separate date for condos and single family homes. Some of the data here can be downloaded in Excel spreadsheet format. Also from NAR: -- Current NAR Forecast (PDF) also includes economic data. -- Field Guide to Real Estate Research Centers is a small jewel of a page that provides links to "(v)arious academic institutions and independent organizations around the U.S. have established research centers to study real estate-related issues and trends." Check for institutions in your neck of the woods, which may offer regional data. + Freddie Mac -- Economic and Housing Outlook is "a monthly perspective from the office of the chief economist." In case you were wondering, "Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress to increase the supply of funds that mortgage lenders, such as commercial banks, mortgage bankers, savings institutions and credit unions, can make available to homebuyers and multifamily investors." Find an FAQ here. Freddie Mac also offers a Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which provides average rates for 30-yr, 15-yr, 5/1-yr ARM and 1-yr ARM, as well as points/fees. + The Joint Center for Housing Studies (Harvard Design Center, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) offers a continually updated selection of links to articles and op-eds about the housing market. Find more of the same at the University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries, Business Library: The Housing Bubble + The National Association of Home Builders offers a variety of economic and housing data, including: -- Housing Market Index (HMI): "...a weighted, seasonally adjusted statistic derived from ratings for present single-family sales, single-family sales in the next six months and buyers traffic." -- Housing Opportunity Index (HOI): "...a measure of the percentage of homes sold in a given area that are affordable to families earning that area's median income during a specific quarter." -- Remodeling Market Index (RMI): "...based on a quarterly survey of professional remodelers, whose answers to a series of questions were assigned numerical values to calculate two separate indexes. The first index gauges current market conditions and is based on remodelers' reports of major and minor additions and alterations, plus maintenance work and repairs, on both owner- and renter-occupied dwellings. The second index gauges expectations for the near future and is based on remodelers' reports of their calls for bids, amount of work committed for the next three months, job backlogs, and appointments for proposals." __ The Boy in the Big Housing Bubble (L.A. area emphasis, but offers more generalized content as well.) + Bubble Meter ("A blog dedicated to the premise that there is a Housing Bubble in many locales in the USA. With a particular focus on the: When will it pop? Why will it pop? How will it pop? Where will it pop? Who is responsible for the bubble? Also the DC Metro Area bubble.") + HouseBubble.com (Lots of links to related weblogs and many real estate resources.) + Housing.com News, Analysis and Opinion + The Housing Bubble ("Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.") On a Related Note (from Gary) + New, Zillow.com (Aerial Imagery + Real Estate Data) + Hot: Real Estate Industry Uses of Satellite/Aerial Imagery (via SEW Blog) Numerous resources listed.
Professional Reading Shelf Information Industry--Factiva Factiva's Clare Hart Moves Up to New Position at Dow Jones; Deputy CEO Claude Green Named Interim CEO - National Libraries--Canada Source: Library and Archives Canada 3 New Resources from Library and Archives Canada + Web Archive of Election 2006 Web Sites A "harvest" of sites. -- + SOS! Canadian Disasters at Library and Archives Canada Provides access to the The Disaster Media Reports database. -- + Exhibit: Shipwreck Investigations at Library and Archives Canada -- Libraries--UK Source: LISU Digest of Statistics for Museums, Libraries and Archives The main purpose of these statistics is to give a broad overall perspective of the museums, libraries and archives scene in England. The Digest of Statistics is produced with the support of MLA and is available to download free online in PDF format. -- Medline Source: NLM MEDLINE Citation Counts by Year of Publication -- Digitisation Projects Source: JISC, NLM, Wellcome Trust Completion: 100 years of biosciences research captured in digital archive "The archive represents the entire back archive of the journal of the Biochemical Society which celebrates its centenary this year. Speaking at the event, Sir Philip thanked JISC and the Wellcome Trust for their funding which has not only paid for digitisation of the journal but will also ensure that the archive, hosted by PubMedCentral, will be openly available to all in perpetuity. Digitisation of the journal is part of a major collaborative programme of digitisation called the 'Medical journals backfiles digitisation project', a partnership between JISC, the Wellcome Trust and the US National Library of Medicine which will see the digitisation of nearly 1.7 million pages of complete backfiles from important and historically significant British and American medical journals." -- Public Libraries--Outsourcing Source: Jackson (TN) Sun Library checks out going private "The local public library is considering going private with its management. What such a proposed move would mean to current employees and library patrons is unclear. The Jackson-Madison County Library Board will offer bids this week for businesses to manage the daily operations. This is an effort to minimize the costs of running the library and hopefully offer additional services and hours, library board officers said." -- Grey Literature--Journals Open Access Source: The Grey Journal Upcoming Publication, Table-of-Contents: The Grey Journal 'Grey Matters for OAI' Spring 2006 will focus on "Grey Matters for OAI."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Philanthropy--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy New, America's Most-Generous Donors From the article, "America's most-generous donors contributed a total of $4.3-billion to charity last year, a sharp drop from 2004, when the top donors gave more than $10-billion, a new Chronicle survey has found. For the first time since 1998, no gifts of $1-billion or more were donated to charitable causes. The median amount the donors on the list gave in 2005, including pledges, was $32.5-million, meaning that half gave more and half gave less. In 2004, the median was $40.8-million. On this year's list of big donors, higher education received by far the largest share of gifts -- 44 -- than any other category, followed by 18 gifts to hospitals and medical centers. The Chronicle annually ranks the 60 donors who give the most money to charitable causes; for the 2005 list, 63 donors were included because of ties." -- Personal Wealth--China--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes New, Greater China's 40 Richest Direct to rankings. -- Terrorism Source: Council on Foreign Relations New, Profile: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi A new Background Q&A from the CFR. "A profile of the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man responsible for coordinating suicide bombings in Amman and Madrid, multiple attacks on Iraqi Shiites and Shiite mosques, and the highly-publicized beheading of American Nicholas Berg." More Profiles Here. Medicine Source: World Health Organization New Report: Combating Counterfeit Drugs: A Concept Paper for Effective International Cooperation Summary Full Text (PDF) -- Disasters--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: FEMA Major Disaster Declaration State Totals Clicking takes you to a detailed breakdown by state. -- International Business Source: GlobalEDGE, Michigan State University New Section, Faculty Development The Academy section invites a new sub-section, Faculty Development, to the site. This venue provides information regarding upcoming business conferences, meetings, and speakers from a variety of universities across the United States. Offered from the many Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBERs) across the country, the listed events are intended to enhance the professional and educational competence of today's business practitioners. Topics range from global interdependence to international study programs, which are designed to immerse the traveler in the business culture of world markets." See Also: The Thousands of Other Resources and Links GlobalEDGE Offers Special Note to the Country Insights Section -- United States--Oral Histories Source: Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina Southern Oral History Project "Founded in 1973, the Southern Oral History Program seeks to foster a critical yet democratic understanding of the South -- its history, culture, problems, and prospects. We have recorded more than 2,900 interviews with men and women from all walks of life...The site includes information about the project and its activities, and recordings of interviews collected by the project."
Web Search--Google Google Launches Web Page Creator (Beta) THEN Temporarily Shuts Down Registrations to Use It Well, here we go again. Google announces a new service and then within hours (about nine according to InsideGoogle) of annoucning it temporarily stops people from registering to use it. The new service is called Google Page Creator and allows users (who are registered) to create web pages and then host them (free) on the GooglePages.com domain. Remember, Google also owns the Blogger weblog creation service. Both Chris Sherman and Philipp Lenssen were able to use the service before registrations were closed (for the time being) and have excellent overviews. Chris notes that the new service might have Google going after the MySpace.com user market. Good point. It also might be about getting out of the box a bit more quickly than the new Microsoft Office Live (closed beta, see below) that offers free web hosting and page creation tools. However, only hours after the Google launch the sign-up page has a note (lower right corner) stating that new accounts are unavailable today but if you share your email with them, you'll be notified when you can register to try the service. If you enter your Gmail address (you'll need one) you find a page that reads: "Oops...Thank you for your interest in Google Page Creator! Google Page Creator has experienced extremely strong demand, and, as a result, we have temporarily limited the number of new signups as we increase capacity. In the meantime, please submit your email address and we will notify you as soon as we are ready to add new users. Thank you for your patience." Yes, it's a "beta" but Google has the knowledge to know that whatever they offer will be in heavy demand especially on the day it's announced. They also have the resources (capacity) to be ready for it (especially after learning from other launches). This is NOT the first time we've seen this with a Google product introduction. Registrations for Google Analytics and Google Earth were stopped for a period of time) because of high demand. Why are they unprepared? I have no idea but can only guess that limiting users keeps the buzz about the service going long after the first announcements are made. In other words, I would say it might be another example of good pr (and in this case getting buzz going before more people check the MS Live Windows service). But is it? How many introductions will take place before people just get frustrated (at Google) and lose interest (in the service) as they wait for an invite? Btw, an interesting thread in the Google Page Creator discussion about a person's Gmail address being used for page naming purposes. Many believe that this will be a new source for spammers. Other Services Web-based page creation (not the same as blog creation) and hosting services (not the same thing as the many weblog creation and hosting services) have been a part of the web since the early days. What's old is new again. Other examples include: + Microsoft Office Live Basics (Beta) Free basic site. Lots of tools including some traffic info. You'll need to register to be accepted into the beta. Included is a free unique domain name (you choose). Additional tools and services are now free (during beta) then will become fee based. + Yahoo GeoCities Both free and fee-based web page creation and hosting services. + Tripod/Lycos Both free and fee-based web page creation and hosting services. AngelFire offers the same services. + AOL Hometown Both "traditional" web pages and blogs. Free.
Search Briefs + Australia: CSIRO Spins Out Search Engine (via Sydney Morning Herald) "Search engine technology developed by the CSIRO has spawned a new spin-off company called Funnelback to help drive the expansion of its Panoptic system further into international territories." More about Panoptic here. -- + Indeed.com (A Metasearch Engine for Jobs) Now Available via New York Times and About.com "After searching the site's own job listings at jobs.nytimes.com, users can click 'Job Market Web Results' to return more jobs from thousands of websites, powered by Indeed." Clusty also offers access to Indeed.com (very useful). SimplyHired.com is another metasearch engine that scours numerous job databases and company sites for job listings. Both services offer excellent alerting tools. -- + A Profile of the Founder of Blog/RSS Search Engine Technorati, Dave Sifry (via The Guardian)
Briefly + More New Content Added to Answers.com Database This week Answers adds a Cancer Dictionary and Cancer Encyclopedia -- + Ask a question online, get an answer...sometimes (via News.com) We were VERY HAPPY to see that VRD's AskA+ Locator service got a mention in this article. -- + Canada: SAGE Publications and CSA sign agreement with Canadian Research Knowledge Network -- Fast tracks legal taxonomy (via IWR) "Enterprise search vendor looks to legal information specialist for improved searching terms."
Shareware Folder RSS Tools RSS Captor (Beta) We haven't tried this program out, yet we plan too. Sounds very interesting! Description via BetaNews, "RSS Captor is an easy-to-use RSS client that allows you to receive and manage news feeds in a searchable database. The program keeps all messages of subscribed feeds in a database, so you can perform detailed searches for all current and past news items, and locate articles of interest. It can check your feeds automatically and notify you via sound when new items arrive." Shareware, free trial, PC only.
Two for the Road New, The Internet Archive Unveils Social Bookmarking Tool Brewster Kahle introduces a new IA feature that "allows people to explore the music movie and book collections on the Internet Archive using other patron's bookmarks." For example here are Brewster's bookmarks. -- + Google's Research Team Launches Its Own Blog (via SEW Blog and Google Blogoscoped) Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Access to Information--United States Source: Secrecy News Reclassification Program At National Archives Exposed "U.S. military and intelligence agencies have assigned personnel to review and reclassify declassified historical records at the National Archives where they have withdrawn thousands of records from public access." See Also: Declassification in Reverse: The Pentagon and the U.S. Intelligence Community's Secret Historical Document Reclassification Program (via National Security Archive) See Also: NARA finalizes rule on short-term e-records (via GCN) -- Library Databases--United Kingdom Source: Kable's Government News England's Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has launched a new service for access to reference material "Named Reference Online, it provides a channel to 26 electronic subscription based products, including directories, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, newspapers and business information. MLA said on 20 February 2006 that it had brokered deals with 14 separate suppliers for the service. Traditionally, public library managers have researched the details and negotiated the costs of online resources either individually or as small regional consortia." -- Digital Preservation--United Kingdon Source: DPC New Report, Mind the Gap: Assessing digital preservation needs in the UK (PDF) From the summary, "A 'state of the nation' report today reveals that less than 20% of UK organisations surveyed have a strategy in place to deal with the risk of loss or degradation to their digital resources - despite a very high level of awareness of the risks and potential economic penalties...The survey reveals that the loss of digital data is commonplace - it is seen as an inevitable hazard by some - with more than 70% of respondents saying data had been lost in their organisation. Awareness of the potential economic and cultural risks is high, with 87% recognising that corporate memory or key cultural material could be lost and some 60% saying that their organisation could lose out financially. In 52% of the organisations surveyed there was management commitment to digital preservation - but only 18% had a strategy in place." -- Digital Libraries Source: Corporation for National Research Initiatives The February Issue of D-Lib is Now Online Articles include: + A Research Library Based on the Historical Collections of the Internet Archive + Copyright Issues in Open Access Research Journals: The Authors Perspective + Observed Web Robot Behavior on Decaying Web Subsites + OSTI's E-print Network experiences rapid growth
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Employment--Surveys Source: Manpower New Report, Manpower Inc. Talent Shortage Survey Reveals 40% of Employers Worldwide Are Struggling to Find Qualified Job Candidates " The survey results, released today, revealed that 40 percent of employers worldwide are having difficulty filling positions due to the lack of suitable talent available in their markets. Employers having the most difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs are those in Mexico (78% reporting shortages), Canada (66%) and Japan (58%). The talent shortage appears to be least problematic in India, where only 13 percent of employers reported having difficulty filling positions. Direct to Full Text Report: Talent Shortage Survey (PDF). -- Genealogy Source: FamilySearch.org Guides Explain pre-1858 English Probate Jurisdictions "A complete collection of guides depicting pre-1858 English Probate Jurisdictions will be available online through FamilySearch. The probate records of England are among the best genealogical sources for direct evidence of relationships. They are also among the most neglected sources because of the many variations in jurisdictions which governed the probating of wills prior to 1858. The EJP guides provide a wealth of useful information." See Also: West Virginia records now online -- Travel Industry--United States--Cruise Source: North American Cruise Passengers Statistics + New, Summary Tables 2003 - 2005 (Excel) + New, Detail 2003 - 2005 (Excel) -- Congressional Research Service Source: OpenCRS and FPC A Selection of New/Updated CRS Reports + European Views and Policies Toward the Middle East + Post-War Iraq: A Table and Chronology of Foreign Contributions + U.S.-EU Cooperation Against Terrorism + Palestinian Elections + Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons + India: Chronology of Recent Events + Pakistan: Chronology of Recent Events
Search Briefs + Image Search and Copyright: Google and A9 May Stop Showing Perfect 10s (via InternetNews.com) "A federal judge has ruled that portions of Google's popular image search feature, which displays small thumbnail versions of images found on other Web sites, likely violate U.S. copyright law." The full text of the court ruling by Judge A. Howard Matz can be found here. (48pages; PDF). What this will mean for others who offer large algorithmically generated databases of images (regardless of type of material) culled the open web is TBD. Other players with large image databases include: + Yahoo + Ask Jeeves + PicSearch + MSN (uses PicSearch) + Ditto (uses PicSearch) + A9 Image Search (uses Google) -- + MSN executive to take leave Person in charge of MSN taking one year leave of absence. See Also: MSN Search Home Page Has a New Cleaner Look and Larger Search Box
Briefly + New Issue of Thomson Scientific e-newsletter Now Online Includes blurb about the launch of Web Citation Index. -- + GIDEON & EBSCO Publishing Partner to Offer Wider Access to the Global Infectious Disease & Epidemiology Network Decision Support System Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf National Science Digital Library Source: EurekaAlert Researchers to develop technology to extend benefits of National Science Digital Library "Virginia Tech and Villanova University researchers have received a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to extend the benefits of its free, online library by developing technology that will allow college students and professors to conduct flexible and customized information searches directly from course Web sites." If you've never visted and used the National Science Digital Library, you should. A great example of a specialty search tool. Make sure to keep current with the "What's New" page and RSS feeds. The NSDL is a must for educators! -- Academic Libraries Source: ACRL Registration Now Open for ACRL's First Completely Online Conference April 20-April 21. "Register now for 'Innovate and Motivate: Next Generation Libraries,' the first-ever Virtual Conference offered jointly by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and EDUCAUSE. The Joint Virtual Conference will be held completely online and will offer a forum for an energizing exchange of ideas focusing on technology and academic librarianship." -- Conferences--Canada Information Highways 2006, March 26-28, 2006, Toronto "Delivered over three days, with the first day devoted to industry-hosted workshops, the 17th annual Information Highways Conference program is organized around four key areas (Information Centers/Libraries, Government Departments, HR/Training & eLearning Departments and the Enterprise) where successful content solutions can have the greatest impact on productivity and profitability." Btw, one session at IH 2006 will focus on the use of wikis as a knowledge-sharing tool. -- Conferences--Europe 9 - 11 April 2006, EUSIDIC Annual Conference 2006, Innsbruck "Integration versus granularity of information resources: Interoperability and interconnectivity of services, systems, and media manifestations...The information industry needs to support its customers. That's because customers are under pressure to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. They would no longer pay for services and products which do not serve their purpose. The information industry has to build value through partnerships and customers are partners. Understanding customer needs is a key factor for success and means customer involvement from the beginning with the customers' fingerprints all over the product." -- Information Industry--Nexidia Source: News Release Nexidia and ActiveGroup partner to bring immediate, searchable audio results to qualitative research Nexidia is a company and technology we've been following since they were known as Fast-Talk. Their technology for creating searchable audio is different than what others offers. Cool stuff and a company to watch. What makes Nexidia different? Their technology breaks a spoken word down into phonetics (to be more precise, phonemes (the smallest unit of human speech) for faster and more precise indexing. Nexidia is well-known in the call center and enterprise search world and is now slowly but surely making a play into other areas of the multimedia search space. See Also: Nexidia Named Best Audio Search Technology at SpeechTEK West
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Women--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts About Women in the United States Women's History Month begins on March 1st. Facts include: + 149.1 million The number of females in the United States as of July 1, 2004. That exceeds the number of males (144.5 million). Males outnumbered females in every five-year-age group through the 35- to 39-age group. + 31% Percent of women ages 25 to 29 years who had attained a bachelor's degree or higher in 2004, which exceeded that of men in this age range (26 percent). Eighty-eight percent of women and 85 percent of men in this same age range had completed high school. + $950.6 billion Receipts for women-owned businesses in 2002, up 16 percent from 1997. -- Science--Information Dissemination Source: GCN New, Cutting Edge: NOAA builds AJAX-based data viewer "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory has released a browser-based application called the Dapper Data Viewer for viewing oceanographic and atmospheric data. -- Human Trafficking--Databases Source: National MultiCultural Institute Human Trafficking Search "Human Trafficking Search is a web portal provided by the National MultiCultural Institute "as a service to those individuals and organizations working to eliminate human trafficking." The site provides access to thousands of documents on the web produced by various entities and categorizes them into four topics: Human Trafficking, Child Labor, Bonded Labor, and Sex Slavery. Within each category, users have basic and advanced search options. The search features support Boolean searching, as well as phrase searches, truncation, and wildcards. Users may also limit by date, author, and document field. Synonyms may also be added, although many of these are automatically searched. Significant guidance is provided on the site as to how to use the search function. For human rights researchers, the portal provides convenient access to a vast array of web-published material. Thanks to Stuart B. and the Cornell Law School Library for the tip. See Also: Asia--Human Trafficking Source: Asia Foundation TIPinAsia.info A former ResourceShelf Resource of the Week. "TIPinAsia.info provides quick links to country-specific information on trafficking in persons in multiple languages, as well as anti-trafficking news and information about individual countries. -- Human Trafficking Source: National Criminal Justice Reference Service In the Spotlight: Trafficking in Persons Includes: + Facts & Figures + Legislation + Publications + Programs + Training & Technical Assistance + Grants & Funding + Related Resources -- Real Estate--United States--Databases Source: HousingTracker HousingTracker "HousingTracker is an attempt to gain a more realtime understanding of the national housing market. For the most part, all we have to rely on is the quarterly Realtor reports to get a sense of how the last quarter played out. HousingTracker data is compiled weekly from MLS listings which contains asking prices as opposed to the Realtor-reported sale prices. HousingTracker gives you the 25th percentile, 50th percentile, and 75th percentile asking price for the metro areas covered. Additionally, the number of homes for sale (Inventory) for the metro area is reported."
Search Briefs + Truveo Video Technology Coming to AOL Video Search Later This Week, New Content On the Way (via SEW Blog) See Also: USA Today Article Gary's Original Review (Very Positive) of AOL Video Search See Also: The SEW Blog Post Also Mentions That Video Will Be Delivered via AOL's Hi-Q Video Download Service. More About that Service Here. -- + MSN Search Home Page Has a New Cleaner Look and Larger Search Box Gone is the blue box and a larger search entry box. Much cleaner. Here's a cached copy of what the page looked link on 2/14 (via MSN). We've also noticed that other MSN Search sites like MSN Search UK and MSN France have undergone the makeover. More from the MSN Search Blog. -- + Google Opens Office in Israel (via SEW Blog) -- + Google Admits Desktop Security Risk -- + Original Content at Yahoo: Can Braun lift Yahoo's media group? (via News.com) Monday, February 20, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--Video Downloads Source: Rocky Mountain News Library will be first in nation to offer downloadable films, concert videos "Next month, the Denver Public Library system will become the first in the nation to allow people to download movies and concert videos from home with a click of their computer mouse. And it'll be free to anyone with a Denver library card and a speedy Internet connection.... In mid-March, members will be able to start downloading documentaries and IMAX movies, travel and concert films, do-it-yourself remodeling flicks and exercise videos." See Also: We First Blogged About Downloadable Video Coming to Libraries Last Summer Note from Gary: Folks, on-demand video is (if it's not already) the "next big thing." It's great to see libraries taking part. Now WE HAVE TO PROMOTE it. If there has ever been a time to promote the fact that the library of the 21st Century extends beyond the four walls of the building, this might be it. -- Information Industry--CrossRef New Free Service for CrossRef Member Publishers "CrossRef is very pleased to announce a new trial service for its member publishers. In partnership with Inera, CrossRef has deployed a custom version of Inera's eXtyles refXpress that parses unstructured, free-text references into granular and valid XML and returns any matching DOIs for those references. The Free-Text Query form is now available to members on a trial basis at http://www.crossref.org/freeTextQuery. The simple cut-and-paste form accepts references formatted in common bibliographic styles and returns the DOI for the article if one is found in CrossRef. One or more references may be pasted into the form on this page; each reference must begin on a new line." -- Federal Government Libraries--United States Source: FLICC (Federal Library and Information Center Committee) FLICC Names Libraries and Librarian of the Year Congrats to All Winners! + 2005 Federal Librarian of the Year: Leslie Campbell, Law Library program administrator at the National Judiciary Library Program for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. + Large Library/Information Center Category (with a staff of 11 or more federal and/or contract employees): The Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office + Small Library/Information Center Category (with a staff of 10 or fewer federal and/or contract employees): U.S. Army Military Intelligence Library in Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Congressional Research Service--History Source: The Memory Hole Minutes of the Legislative Reference Service, 1947-1953 "The Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress, has for decades produced thousands of fact-rich, unbiased, nontechnical reports to members of Congress regarding a variety of issues. The CRS itself does not distribute these reports to the public in any way. You can't order paper copies from the CRS, read them in the Library of Congress, or officially get them online (although copies of some reports are posted without CRS approval). Nor can you get an index of reports that they have produced in the past. CRS publishes a website only for members of Congress that contains some, but not all, of its recent reports and briefings.... Last year, researcher Michael Ravnitzky reviewed and obtained copies of selected minutes from staff meetings of the CRS's predecessor, the Legislative Reference Service, from 1947 to 1953. Interestingly, these meeting notes show the organization wrestling with the same problems over 50 years ago - distribution of the reports; avoidance of controversy; whether the reports should contain analysis and recommendations or simply state facts; whether reports should arrive at conclusions; etc." (via DocuTicker) -- Manufacturing Productivity--Statistics Source: BLS International Comparisons Of Manufacturing Productivity And Unit Labor Cost Trends, Revised Data For 2004 "Manufacturing labor productivity increased in 13 of 15 economies in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. increase of 5.2 percent was the sixth highest. Korea and Sweden had the largest productivity increases (12.1 and 9.8 percent respectively). The U.S. productivity increase is a revision from the preliminary estimate of 4.7 percent released in October 2005. Australia and Italy were the only two economies showing declines in manufacturing productivity in 2004."
Search Briefs Yahoo "Embeds" Cached Pages into Yahoo Korea Search Results Pages One of my favorite features that both Vivisimo and Clusty (look for the magnifying glass icon next to each result) have offered for years is an option allowing users to embed LIVE pages directly into a list of search results. Vivisimo/Clusty calls it page "preview." In other words, the user can click a link from the search results list and open a live version of the page embedded in a box. Then, when finished, close the box and move on to the next result. Wisenut also offers this feature (they call it sneek-a-peek). This feature has the potential to be not only a time saver but also help unsophisticated users from getting lost with too many windows or tabs opened. If my memory is correct, a Lycos site in Europe also offers this option. Yahoo Korea You don't have to have Korean fonts on your system to see this Yahoo Korea feature in action. Here's a search on Yahoo Korea for "Bill Murray." Next to each result note the arrow (pointing to the right) on the same line where the url is located. Click the link and a window with the CACHED version of the page will open in the results list. Btw, also note that Yahoo Korea web search results pages also include inline images, movie info, news links, and answers from a community question answering service, on a results page. Sunday, February 19, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--Internet Privacy Source: WTOP (Washington, D.C.) County Officials Apologize After Library Porn Incident "Montgomery County officials are apologizing Friday, after two local Homeland Security Department employees tried to prevent people from searching for pornography on the Internet in a public library last week. Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan tells WTOP the officers clearly broke county policy when they told one Little Falls Library visitor his choice of Internet site violated sexual harrassment laws. 'These security officers clearly overstepped their bounds,' Duncan says. 'They are not there to look at what people are doing in our libraries and other facilities. They are there to protect those facilities.'" See also: Policing Porn Is Not Part of Job Description (Washington Post) -- E-books Source: CNN E-textbook demand slow despite comfort with technology "Brown University junior Stuart Thompson jumped at the chance to save $30 and become a digital pioneer when his school bookstore offered a discounted, electronic version of an American history textbook. But after making the purchase, he noticed a few things amiss: He couldn't run a highlight marker over key points or jot notes in the margins, nor could he curl up with the tome without printing out the pages. He won't rule out another e-book, but he's not completely sold, either."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Pop Culture--Multimedia InterviewsRus.com Was one of your favorite celebs recently interviewed on U.S. television? This site (searchable) lets you download and view high-quality copies of many of those interviews from a variety of programs. The database is updated regularly. You'll need to register to download content but it's free and easy. At the moment, access to over 430 interviews are available. -- Abraham Lincoln--Historical Cartoons Source: HarpWeek (Harper's Weekly) Abraham Lincoln Cartoons "This collection of more than 400 Lincoln-related cartoons is derived from HarpWeeks Lincoln and the Civil War.com database of 49 Civil War era periodicals. The cartoons have been scanned at high resolution and come from 21 illustrated journals that varied in type and allegiance. They include the three prominent American weeklies of the period-Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Harper's Weekly, and New York Illustrated News; campaign newspapers such as The Rail Splitter, Campaign Plain Dealer, and Strong?s Campaign Pictorial; satirical publications such as The Comic Monthly, The Phunny Phellow, and Vanity Fair; and pro-Confederate journals published in the American South-Southern Illustrated News and Southern Punch?and in Britain-Fn and Punch. The vast majority of the cartoons include images of Lincoln, but a few only reference him textually. In all, Abraham Lincoln Cartoons.com spans the period from his presidential campaign in 1860 through the major events of the Civil War to his assassination in 1865."
Search Briefs + New Site Allows Users to Say Goodbye to Mr. Jeeves Read a note from the butler about the upcoming site and service, help select a place for Mr. Jeeves to retire, send him a good luck note, and more. More here. See Also: Chris Sherman on the new AJ Image/Picture Database (1/26/06) See Also: More About AJ Image/Picture Search See Also: Ask Jeeves Opens European R&D Center; Several Interesting Live Demos and Papers by AJ R&D Center Leader Also Available Saturday, February 18, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Academic Libraries--Canada--Gay Culture Source: London Free Press Pride of place "The sign on the front desk reads 'Queeries.' The office has a giant window in the shape of a Q. Green walls and purple carpets greet students. The Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario has come out of the closet, with 200 people celebrating its opening yesterday on the main floor of Weldon Library after 10 years of being shuffled from place to place." -- EPA Libraries--Budget Source: American Library Association EPA Library Funds Cut 80% under Bush Budget "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's network of libraries stands to lose $2 million of its $2.5 million in funding under President Bush's proposed 2007 budget, which threatens to close the headquarters library and many regional facilities as well as shut down the libraries' electronic catalog."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Airlines--United States--Statistics Source: BTS New, Flight Delays, Mishandled Bags, Consumer Complaints Up in 2005 Over Previous Year Summary Full Text (PDF) "U.S. airlines experienced a higher rate of flight delays, more reports of mishandled baggage and a higher number of complaints about airline service in 2005 than in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Air Travel Consumer Report...the 20 airlines reporting on-time performance with DOT recorded an on-time arrival rate of 77.4 percent in 2005, down from the 78.1 percent mark of 2004. These carriers also recorded a rate of 6.04 reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers last year, up from 2004's rate of 4.91. The Department received 8,735 complaints from consumers about airline service last year, up 17.2 percent from 2004's total of 7,452 complaints." -- Winter Olympics--2006--Television Coverage--Statistics Internet Coverage--Web Streaming Source: IOC Global television and new media figures set records in Europe and around the globe "Coverage of the first five days of the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games dominated television ratings in Europe, especially in the host country Italy, with impressive audiences recorded in other key markets around the world...Internet streaming in European markets have already exceeded that of the Athens Games with 4.3 million live or on-demand streams served so far."
Search Briefs Recently Filed Documents in Motion to Compel Google to Supply Search Information The following documents (full text court filings) were made on 2/17/06. All documents are PDF files. + Google's Response to U.S. Government Filing, 25 pages Full text of U.S. government filings linked here. + Declaration of Marty Lev, 3 pages. Google's Director of Safety and Security at Google. + Declaration of Google's Matt Cutts, 15 pages. How search works. ++ Exhibit A All about a Greasemonkey Script +++ Exhibit B A Copy of a Post from John Battelle's Searchblog + Declaration of Ashok Ramani, Formerly the Commercial Litigation Counsel to Google, 3 pages ++ Exhibit A, 16 pages Dr. Stark's CV. +++ Exhibit B Copy of a Steven Levy article from Newsweek. ++++ Exhibit C Google's Privacy Policy. + Memorandum in Opposition of Motion to Compel Google to Turn over Search Info, 16 pages. Filed by ACLU. Friday, February 17, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Library of Congress Source: LC Library Of Congress To Offer Special Junior Fellows Summer Internships "The Library of Congress, home of the U.S. Copyright Office, is offering special 10-week summer internships to college students who will work full-time, starting on June 5 and ending on Aug. 11, to help locate and itemize uncataloged materials submitted to the office as part of the copyright registration process. The previous summer interns identified hundreds of literary, artistic, film and musical gems among the Library's copyright deposits. The application deadline is Monday, March 13. Applications will be accepted only online and should be sent to the 2006 Summer Intern Program Coordinating Committee at interns06@loc.gov. For details on how to apply, visit http://www.loc.gov/hr/jrfellows." -- Electronic Journals Source: ACRL ACRL endorses call for urgent action to preserve scholarly electronic journals "ACRL recognizes that the electronic environment poses significant challenges for long-term preservation of, and access to, information. Since most libraries do not actually own and store the content of the journals they license in electronic form, new models for preservation must be developed. Scholars may face serious loss of access to published research if libraries do not adopt effective electronic journal preservation strategies. ACRL encourages all academic libraries to take action to preserve their electronic journal collections."
Search Briefs + Search National Weather Service Web Site With Vivisimo and MSN Yes, cluster weather info and much more. (-: Think of it as a "slice of the complete FirstgovSearch database. This new option comes to the NWS site via the new and much improved search capabilities on FirstGovSerch.gov. Full overview of FirstGovSearch.gov here.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents in the News Human Rights Source: United Nations Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay Summary/Chronology ||| Direct to Full Text (54 pages; PDF) -- E-Commerce--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census New, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 4th Quarter 2005 PDF version also available. Thursday, February 16, 2006
Resource of the Week By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Short write-up of a fun resource this week. Your deputy editor had her broken finger reset yesterday, and typing is awkward once again. Also, jury duty beckons... Rock and Roll--Classic--Streaming Audio Source: Wolfgang's Vault Vault Radio "Bill Graham and his concert promotion company, Bill Graham Presents, produced more than 35,000 concerts all over the world. Graham taped thousands of these performances, and the tapes were acquired in 2003 by Wolfgang's Vault. (Brief biographical trivia: Bill Graham was born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin in 1931. He escaped Nazi Germany, grew up in a foster home in the Bronx and anglicized his name at the age of 18. Graham died in 1991. Read more at CNET's News.com.) You can now listen to selected tracks from these concerts via FM-quality, 128K digital radio stream, freely available on the website. Just click "PLAY NOW," and you're up and running. Bill Sagan, the entrepreneur who paid more than $5 million for the collection of tapes, would like to license and publish the material and make it available via CD/DVD. In the meantime, you can buy posters, vintage tickets, T-shirts, and other rock-and-roll memorabilia here. Tracks by "many of the greatest bands of the last 40 years" will be added to and removed from the Vault Radio playlist on a regular basis. A "Currently in Rotation" page shows you which artists and tracks are currently available. And this is the real thing: "The music you hear on Vault Radio has not been sweetened or polished. You'll be listening to what the band played that night -- nothing more, nothing less." -- See Also: A Few More Web Resources for the Music Fan + The Internet Archive: Live Music Archive Over 30,000 shows ready for download. Free! -- + AllMusic.com The best! Classical music, too! -- + Gracenote: The Music Info Database You've Used But Possibly Know Little About -- + Yahoo Releases Audio Search Engine -- + GoFish Adds Song Lyrics Search Option -- + The Search for Music Cool!!! -- + A Visual Search Engine for Music -- + Ask Jeeves Adds Multimedia Search Direct links to bios, pictures, downloads, and more.
Professional Reading Shelf Community and Junior College Libraries--Awards Source: ACRL Unique student orientation idea wins ACRL Community and Junior College Libraries Section Program Award Kudos on the creativity. Great idea! From the announcement, "The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is pleased to announce that Eva Lautermann, library director, Sherry Durren, information literacy librarian, and Lois Shelton, library technical assistant, of the Georgia Perimeter College Jim Cherry Learning Resources Center, have been chosen to receive the 2006 CJCLS/EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Program Achievement Award for their work on the CSI: Information Literacy orientation. Using the television series, CSI, as their inspiration, the librarians wrote a script and clues for the orientation program in order to help familiarize students with using the library." -- Health Information--United Kingdom Source: Kable's Government News Patient data venture begins "A new NHS information service has been made available which draws on a database containing details of every contact a patient has had with health care providers." Many services from the Dr. Foster service are fee based but they do offer a public site filled with several consumer-oriented services. -- Military Libraries--United States Source: FCW Homeland security library gets more searchable "The Naval Postgraduate School is enhancing search capabilities within its digital library of homeland security information by using software from Teragram, company officials said today." See Also: More About Teragram Technology in this SEW Blog Post -- Business Research--United States--EDGAR Source: GCN SEC holds pre-proposal conference for EDGAR contract -- Information Industry--ebrary eBooks Source: IWR ebrary bulks out its e-books range and makes subs more flexible "E-book provider Ebrary has extended its pricing models and added 8,000 new titles to its service." See Also: Did You Know that ebrary Also Offers a Service for Consumers Named Shop ebrary? It costs very little and offers access to over 20,000 full text titles. Read the full text online (no limit). Just pay a very small amount to copy or print a page.
Search Briefs + New, Answers.com Adds Access to Legal Biographies and Legal Definitions from West's Encyclopedia of American Law -- + Convera Signs First Commercial Clients for Excalibur Search Technology Deals with Vivisimo/Clusty, HighBeam, and CNET Networks. Bottom line? It looks like a new and large open web database will soon be accessible via one or more of these partners.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Photography--Dictionaries Source: askSam New, The Photography Dictionary Yet another free online searchable database (also available for offline work) from the askSam team. "Unique database of photography terms containing over 2,400 words and definitions. This dictionary contains a combination of many different photography dictionaries, glossaries, and other photography-related information. Search the dictionary by any word or phrase." -- Elections--United Kingdom Source: House of Commons Library New, Research Paper, Local and Mayoral Elections 2005 19 pages; PDF. -- Patents--United States--Fast Facts Source: USPTO United States Patent & Trademark Office Issues 7 Millionth Patent This announcement includes a bunch of "fast facts" about other "milestone" patents.
Enterprise Search Video: Interview with John Lervik, CEO of FAST Search & Transfer This interview (.WMV file) aired on CNBC Europe last month.
In the News Internet--China--Censorship Source: Various Coverage of the U.S. House Of Rep. Hearing: The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression? + Politicians lash out at tech firms over China (via News.com) Direct Links to Prepared Statements from Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Hearing (2/15/06) + Hearing Notice and Speaker List + The Honorable Christopher H. Smith + The Honorable James A. Leach + Mr. James Keith, U.S. Department of State + The Honorable David Gross + Mr. Michael Callahan, Yahoo + Mr. Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft + Mr. Elliot Schrage, Google + Mr. Mark Chandler, Cisco + Ms. Libby Liu, Radio Free Asia + Mr. Xiao Qiang, China Internet Project University of California-Berkeley + Ms. Lucie Morillon, Reporters Without Borders + Mr. Harry Wu, China Information Center + Ms. Sharon Hom, Human Rights in China -- Related News from February 14, 2006 + U.S. task force eyes Net censorship in China, elsewhere (via Reuters) + Transcript of State Department Briefing + See Also: Internet firms caught between Chinese rules and U.S. demands for free speech (via AP, Canada Press) -- See Also: + U.S. Internet Providers and the 'Great Firewall of China' + China's New Internet Restrictions Two "Background Q&A" briefs from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Multimedia Corner Lectures Source: MIT Innovation Everywhere--How the Acceleration of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology, robotics) Will Create a Flat and Equitable World Raymond Kurzweil talks at MIT. "His main points: technology evolves exponentially; the rate of technical progress itself is accelerating, so expect to 'see 20,000 years of progress in the 21st century, about 1000 times greater than the 20th century.' Before you can say, 'Hold your horses,' Kurzweil is off and running." Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Privacy--Libraries Source: Proceedings 68th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) (via E-LIS) Using Lessons from Health Care to Protect the Privacy of Library Users: Guidelines for the De-Identification of Library Data based on HIPAA From the abstract: "While libraries have employed policies to protect the data about use of their services, these policies are rarely specific or standardized. Since 1996, the U.S. healthcare system has been grappling with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which is designed to provide those handling personal health information with standardized, definitive instructions as to the protection of data. In this work, the authors briefly discuss the present situation of privacy policies about library use data, outline the HIPAA guidelines to understand parallels between the two, and finally propose methods to create a de-identified library data warehouse based on HIPAA for the protection of user privacy." -- Public Librarians--Weblogs Source: Hartford Courant (via Government Innovators Network, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) Government Innovators Network: Article: Blogs focus on books; Librarian reaching parents, children "Children's librarian Ginny Brouseau has joined the ranks of sports fans, courtroom watchers, and political hounds. She's a blogger. In December, Brouseau created two online blogs that help her communicate with parents and children -- preschool through high school age -- about library programs and new books." -- Web Search--Statistics Source: GovTech Online Searches Grow 55 Percent Year-Over-Year "Nielsen//NetRatings reported that the total number of searches in the U.S. conducted across approximately 60 search engines grew 55 percent year-over-year to nearly 5.1 billion searches in December 2005. There were 3.3 billion searches conducted via search engines in December 2004. While the number of searches conducted online swelled, the number of people connecting to the Internet rose a mere three percent to 207 million people in the U.S." Complete News Nielsen//NetRatings Release (PDF). -- Digital Repositories--United Kingdom Source: JISC New, Digital repositories programme launches wiki and mailing list " JISC's Digital repositories programme, a 4m pounds JISC programme to enhance the implementation and development of digital repositories in the UK, has recently launched a wiki called DigiRep, managed by the Programme's support team, writes Julie Allinson."
Scholarly Publishing--Citation Reports Source: ISI + UPDATED: Australia Country Rankings Ten-year country rankings for Australia among the 147 top-performing countries in all fields and all countries. + Computer Science & Engineering: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 2000-04 + South Korean Science, 2000-04 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Electrical & Electronic Engineering + Canadian Universities: Most Prolific in Economics, 2000-04 + What's the HOT Paper in Biology + What's the HOT Paper in Chemistry
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Hurricane Katrina Source: Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina A Failure of Initiative: The Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina Thanks to Karen S. for the news tip. (via DocuTicker.com) -- Poverty--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census The Effects of Government Taxes and Transfers on Income and Poverty: 2004 From the summary, "A U.S. Census Bureau report, The Effects of Government Taxes and Transfers on Income and Poverty: 2004, was released today. The report provides alternative national poverty rates that range from 8.3 percent, using a more comprehensive definition of income that includes the value of noncash benefits and excludes taxes, to 19.4 percent, using another definition of income that excludes all government payments and does not deduct taxes. The official U.S. poverty rate of 12.7 percent was announced last summer." -- Pacific Ocean--Maps Source: National Geographic Interactive Online Map, Pacific Ocean New from the NG Map Machine. -- Public Health Source: OECD Study projects growing pressure on public health spending over and above effects of aging society Highlights only. "Public spending on health and long-term care in OECD countries will double by 2050, if present trends continue, reaching an average level equivalent to nearly 13% of GDP compared with 6.7% today. Even if governments manage to contain rising costs, spending would still amount to the equivalent of around 10% of GDP by the middle of the century." Available: Key Findings (by Country, PDF) Table: Spending into health care and long-term care (PDF) -- Phishing Source: Anti-Phishing Working Group December Phishing Activity Trends Report (PDF)
Search Briefs + Apply For Jobs at Google Using New Online Application Now, when you find a job at Google you're interested in having, you can apply online using this new "online application." -- + An Interview with the CEO of Findory, Greg Linden (via Don Dodge) Findory is a personalized blog and news search engine. Worth a look!!! Gary interviewed Linden in 2004. -- + Filter By Authority is Added to Technorati Search (via SEW Blog) -- + BitTorrent Search Will Be Available in Upcoming Release of Opera Web Browser -- + For the Tech Geek: Recent Technical Lectures (aka "TechTalks") at the Googleplex (via Google Planet)
Mobile Search + 4INFO Mobile Comparison Shopping Search Now Powered by Shopping.com 4INFO continues to offer new and improved mobile search tools. Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Semantic Web Source: IEEE Intelligent Systems Full Text article, Knowledge Management and the Semantic Web: From Scenario to Technology -- Books Source: InfoToday Ad-Supported Free Books Arrive "Perhaps information really does want to be free. Citing the desire to create new revenue streams for authors, mega-publisher HarperCollins (http://www.harpercollins.com) has announced the first free Web-based, ad-supported, full-text business book. Go It Alone! The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own by Bruce Judson is now available on the author's Web site (http://www.BruceJudson.com), where an affiliate link to Amazon, not the publisher, can also be found. Not only can the book be read at the site, but it can also be searched. HarperCollins Publishers is calling the project a test of a new business model. Some self-published authors also offer ad-supported books online, but HarperCollins's move is the first by a major publisher." -- Information Industry--Elsevier--Reviews Source: Charleston Adviser Updated Review of Scopus Now Available From the review: "QUICK SUMMARY IN ONE SENTENCE: Scopus -- the Database we hope to love when it grows up."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Valentine's Day--United States Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts Relating To Valentine's Day in the United States Facts include: + 180 million Number of Valentine's Day cards exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research) + 1,271 Number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2003. These establishments employed 43,379 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments (with 146) followed by Pennsylvania (with 120). + $422 million The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2004 for all flower-producing businesses in 36 states with $100,000 or more in sales. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($304 million). See Also: NEW REPORT: Romance in America (PDF; via Pew Internet & American Life Project) "Most young singles in America do not describe themselves as actively looking for romantic partners. Even those who are seeking relationships are not dating frequently. About half (49%) had been on no more than one date in the previous three months." -- Video Industry--United States--Statistics Source: FCC New Report: 12th Annual Assessment of the Status of Competition in the Market for the Delivery of Video Programming Lots o' stats. "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today adopted its 12th Annual Assessment of the Status of Competition in the Market for the Delivery of Video Programming. Section 628(g) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, requires the Commission to report annually to Congress on the status of competition among multichannel video programming distributors ("MVPDs"), including cable operators, direct broadcast satellite ("DBS") providers, local exchange carriers ("LECs") now entering the field, and others." Direct to Full Text. See Also: FCC Media Bureau Report Finds Substantial Consumer Benefits in A La Carte Model of Delivering Video Programming -- Public Health--United Kingdom Source: Kable's Government Computing New Web Site: Online for health complaints "Named Please Ask, it is part of a wider campaign to encourage patients to ask questions and raise concerns about healthcare. It provides information and includes a facility -- the Patient and Public Reporting e-Form -- to report incidents, make complaints, and seek advice on patient safety issues" -- Agriculture--United States--Projections Source: USDA New, USDA Agricultural Baseline Projections to 2015 See Also: Agricultural Baseline Database See Also: Agricultural Baseline Projection Tables -- Writing--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Effective Writing Resources New bibliography (brief) includes Internet resources and books.
Search Briefs + Finding Articles Online (via SearchDay) When Mary Ellen writes, we read (and so should you). See Also: Finding Answers Beyond Web Search An article Gary wrote for BetaNews in 2005 that lists more sources to find full text articles (for free and from any web computer). -- + Yahoo Backs Internet Rights (via Red Herring) See Also: Tech companies brace for showdown over China (via News.com) -- + Google Desktop Boycott Urged -- + Google beta ditches gmail.com
Briefly + Factiva: List of New Sources Added in 2005 -- + AASL recognizes five new school library media specialist programs -- + SLA 2006 Online Conference Planner Available
Mobile Search + FAST Search & Transfer, Telenor and Opera Announce Mobile Partnership "Fast Search & Transfer, Telenor R&D and Opera Software ASA are collaborating to bring best-in-breed technology and end-user expertise to mobile portals. The three companies are developing a complete system for delivering relevant location-based information, including localized content, news feeds, maps and traveling information directly to end-users' mobile phones." -- + Europe: Google and Vodaphone Announce Partnership Vodaphone will use Google as default search partner on Vodaphone Live. Monday, February 13, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Copyright--United States--Orphan Works Source: U.S. Copyright Office New Report, Orphan Works "The Copyright Office has completed its study of problems related to "orphan works," copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. As requested by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Office submitted its Report on Orphan Works to the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31, 2006...During 2005, the Copyright Office studied issues raised by "orphan works," copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. Concerns had been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating such works in new creative efforts, or from making such works available to the public." The Copyright Office also offers news about "orphan works" via this RSS feed. -- Digital Information Libraries Source: Ariadne The February 2006 Issue of Ariadne is Available Happy 10th Anniversary to Ariadne!!! Articles include: + What Users Want: An Academic 'Hybrid' Library Perspective + Google Challenges for Academic Libraries + Research Libraries Engage the Digital World: A US-UK Comparative Examination of Recent History and Future Prospects + Excuse Me -- Some Digital Preservation Fallacies? + The (Digital) Library Environment: Ten Years After
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Internet Usage--Statistics Source: Computer Industry Almanac Worldwide Internet Users Top 1 Billion in 2005 "The worldwide number of Internet users surpassed 1 billion in 2005 -- up from only 45M in 1995 and 420M in 2000. The 2 billion Internet users milestone is expected in 2011. Much of current and future Internet user growth is coming from populous countries such as China, India, Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia. In the next decade many Internet users will be supplementing PC Internet usage with Smartphone and mobile device Internet usage." -- Wealth--Australia--Lists & Rankings Wealth--New Zealand--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Australia's & New Zealand's Richest Direct to complete list (sorted by rank). -- Research Reports Source: Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia + New, Issue Brief: Identity Cards + Election 2006: Canada changes government [PDF 99KB] -- Baseball Uniforms--History Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame National Baseball Hall of Fame - Dressed to the Nines "The first official baseball uniform, adopted in 1849 by the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York City, was a simple outfit consisting of a white flannel shirt, blue wool pants, and a straw hat. Fast-forward over 150 years later, and you'll find the modern-day major leaguer wearing brilliantly colored double-knit uniforms made of synthetic blend fabrics. What happened along the way? What styles came and went (and came again)? Which changes to the uniform were successful and which experiments fell flat? How has the baseball uniform become an integral part of our national pastime?" -- U.S. Congress--Maps Source: NationalAtlas.gov Printable Maps: Congressional Districts -- 109th Congress Printable Map: North America General Reference Map All maps are available as PDF files. -- U.S. Department of Justice Source: USDOJ New, FY2007 Budget and Performance Summary Most data available in XLS format.
Search Briefs + AOL Introduces Beta Test Of Chinese Language AOL.COM Portal For United States Market Public libraries serving the Chinese communities will want to know about this new service. Direct to the new portal at http://aol.com/chinese -- + "Search and Win": New Contest with MSN Search (via BetaNews) Over $1 million in prizes. Sunday, February 12, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Library Technology--Podcasts Source: PALINET (Iliff) PALINET Podcast: Technology Conversations "PALINET's Technology Conversations podcast series features interviews with leaders in library technology. Lasting approximately 20 minutes and designed for portable listening devices or the desktop computer, each program is a brief take on a different hot tech topic. These sessions are also distributed via RSS. Possibly on your next commute, or while digging in your brown bag lunch, listen to library innovators discussing their cutting edge technology projects!" -- OPACS Source: SearchTools.com NCSU Adds Faceted Navigation to Library Catalog Powered by Endeca.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text African-American History and Culture--Web Guide Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill News Services Reliable Web sites on black culture, history, identified in new UNC guide "Learning about black culture and history on the World Wide Web is now easier, thanks to a new online guide from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. Studying black poets of the Appalachian region? Interested in the black inhabitants of Canada, Cuba, or the Caribbean? Wondering how many African-Americans have been U.S. senators? It's all there, at http://www.lib.unc.edu/stone/webguide/. Raquel Cogell, librarian for UNC's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History Library, developed the guide to bring quality resources to the attention of students, teachers, librarians, and researchers. It is now the largest such site that she can identify." -- Business--Communications Source: Watson Wyatt New Study: 2005/2006 Communication ROI Study, Effective Communication: A Leading Indicator of Financial Performance "By their own admission, few multinationals are doing a good job when it comes to communicating with their employees and business units around the world, according to research by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a global human capital consulting firm." Summary ||| Direct to Full Text (Fee-Based) Thanks to SB at IWS for the news tip. Saturday, February 11, 2006
Metadata Source: Associated Press (via FindLaw) Stronger efforts being made against embarrassing document "metadata" "When the New England Journal of Medicine used a word-processing function to reveal that Merck & Co. had deleted study data about Vioxx and heart attacks, the pharmaceutical giant joined a long line of organizations bitten by information lurking in electronic files. It's happened to no less than the White House, the Pentagon, the British prime minister's office and the United Nations. Each time, making minor electronic adjustments to documents aired juicy details not meant for public disclosure -- such as the true author of a file or sensitive data hacked from a final draft."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Searching for Music on Satellite Radio OR What's the Name of that Tune? As satellite radio continues to gain new listeners in the U.S. and now Canada, I've been asked if any databases exist that allow you to check online what songs are currently being played (real time) and to also check what has been played in the past. Good news, two databases are available. They can be useful in helping find and identify the song you heard on the drive home but also can allow you to see which channel(s) air the artist(s) and song(s) you like to listen to. Here's quick peek at what's available for XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. XM XMFan.com A portion of this site offers a constantly updating list (refreshes every minute) of the songs airing on XM. Each entry is in the form of a hypertext link that, when clicked, will show you other channels, songs, and times that artist or song has been played. Songs and artists can be searched. Results can be sorted by artist, title, channel, and time. Here's a search results page for Coldplay sorted by time. Btw, other XM programs (news, talk, comedy, etc.) are also listed and searchable. Sirius SiriusBackstage.com Again, a real time list of what's playing on each Sirius channel. This list can be also be looked at as a grid. You can also customize which stations are visible and the order they are seen. These pages constantly refresh themselves. In the basic (aka "classic") view, you'll notice that each artist/group and song title has a question mark listed next to it. Clicking this link will run a search for more info about that song or artist on AllMusic.com. Very useful!!! SiriusBackstage offers two search modes. Simple search allows you to enter an artist or song title. You can also limit your results and only see the last time the song was played. Advanced search offers numerous limiting options including searching by time, channel, category, etc. Here's the results page for Coldplay. This database contains info back to Oct 1, 2005. The % serves as a wildcard when searching for a title or artist. With services like Pandora (a fave of mine) adding massive amounts of quality metadata for tens of thousands of songs, I wonder if Pandora plans to license this data to companies like XM and/or Sirius for both internal use (playlist building) as well as allowing users to get more info about a song and find related songs, artists by using the metadata. Happy Listening!!! * Some of the "Canadian only" channels on XM Canada and Sirius Canada are not listed in these databases. More Resources Sirius subscribers can find up-to-the minute schedules via DogStarRadio. Orbitcast overview article here. XM subscribers can access schedule info via this RSS feed via BeyondXM.com. Thanks to Ryan S. for the info tip. Friday, February 10, 2006
ResourceShelf Special The 2006 Winter Olympics--Resources and Databases Here are a few "fact filled" resources that you might have missed in getting ready for the XX Winter Olympics. + Official Winter Sports Lexicon Database (Common Vocabulary of Sports) Official terms in English, French, and Italian. Torino 2006 + Torino Press Kit Fact sheets about all aspects of games including opening ceremonies and Olympics from A to Z (50 pages; PDF) + Program of the 2006 Winter Olympics (PDF) ++ Official Schedule (PDF) Scoreboard + Individual Sites for All Sports + Map of Olympic Locations (PDF) ++ Photos of Venues + Fast Facts About the Torino Games + Official Winter Olympics News Releases + Torino Photo Gallery + Torino Photo Gallery (IOC) + The Selection of Torino + International Sports Calendar + International Olympic Committee Media Gallery (Images, Audio, Video) Olympic and World Records Lists for all events. Olympics History--Databases + Medal Winners Database (Historical Database, Searchable) ++ Profiles on Olympic Atheletes (Historical, Searchable) Satellite Imagery Google Increases Resolution of Torino in Google Earth and Local (via SEW Blog) Interactive Event Guides Cool! E-Mail and SMS (Text Message Alerts, USA Only) Australia + Australian Olympic Committee + Athlete Bios + Image Gallery + News Center Canada + Canadian Olympic Committee + Canadian Olympic Team Media Resources including Team List and Handbook, and Historical Info United Kingdom + British Olympic Committee + Team GB Schedule (Excel) + News Releases U.S. + US Olympic Team Rosters and Bios + USOC News Releases Fast Facts (via Infoplease.org) + Olympics Timeline + International Sports Federations + All-Time Standings + Most Gold Medals + Additional Resources (Bios, Trivia, Games, etc.) + Where are They Now? (via Forbes.com) Profiles of past Olympic greats.
Professional Reading Shelf Source: Campus Technology Next-Gen Libraries From the article: "Looking for what's next in digital library initiatives? As digital repositories continue to evolve, keep your eye on these projects." Projects and companies mentioned include: + Projects at Goshen College, Earlham College, and Manchester College in Indiana + "Digital Well" at the University of Washington + University of Virginia Projects (Example: Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive) + University of Michigan Projects (Example: "Making of America") + Digital Library eXtension Service (DLXS) + D-Space at MIT + Storage Resource Broker (SRB) Built at the University of San Diego + Backstage Library Works
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Real Estate--Databases Source: Zillow.com Just Launched: Zillow.com = Residential Property Info + Aerial Imagery and Much More We will take a closer look at this service in the future. Plenty to digest. Find comparable home sales (search by address or browse using a map) info, detailed info about a specific property (sq. footage, year built, etc.) and then mash the data up with aerial imagery provided by GlobeXplorer. Lots and lots of data!!! This page explains the many services available including their proprietary Zestimate (estimated value of home). Info for about 60 million homes in the U.S. More details in this news release. Another service that lists property for sale and also comparable home values is HomePages.com. A third is Domania.com. See Also: A New Service Named HomePages Combines Real Estate Listings, Local Data, and Aerial Imagery See Also: Hot: Real Estate Industry Uses of Satellite/Aerial Imagery
Search Patent Watch In the past couple of weeks both Yahoo and Microsoft have received a couple search related patents and have also had several search related patent applications published. I've listed the titles below. You'll find more info along with the full text of the abstracts posted on ResourceShelfPLUS. Note that several of the MS patents or apps deal with recommendation tools, tagging, rating community threads, and the presentation of results. Yahoo Patent Applications + Targeted advertisements using time-dependent key search terms + Search systems and methods using in-line contextual queries + Automated solicited message detection Patents Awarded to Microsoft + User intention modeling for web navigation + Auto playlist generator Microsoft Patent Applications + Method and system for adaptive categorical presentation of search results + Life moment tagging and storage + Categorizing, voting, and rating community threads + Query-based snippet clustering for search result grouping + You'll find more info along with the full text of the abstracts posted on ResourceShelfPLUS.
Web Search News Web Search--Yahoo--Alerts Yahoo Alerts Now Offers Personalized Movie Recommendations Yahoo Alerts has added (might be late to the party on this one) a new weekly "e-mail only" alert that sends personalized movie picks based on what you've selected/clicked at Yahoo Movies. The movie recommendation service went live last March and is powered by ChoiceStream. Yahoo also offers a personalized Shopping Gift Finder also powered by ChoiceStream. More personalized recommendation tools? Several are listed here including: + MyBestBets (TV) + MovieLens + Findory (News and Blogs) More about Findory in this interview with its founder and CEO, Greg Linden. Thursday, February 09, 2006
SOME NEWS FROM GARY This week some news from the life of Gary Price. I have a new full time job. The good news is that ResourceShelf and DocuTicker are not going away. In fact, Will Hann, Shirl Kennedy and I hope to make both sites even better and more useful. Please allow me to explain. Beginning in the next couple of weeks after some time to get organized and hopefully a bit of r&r I will become the Director of Online Information Resources for Ask Jeeves. I've been asked (no pun intended) to do several things including: 1) Outreach to the library and education communities ++ This means a lot of things including doing what I've been doing (training, conference presentations, etc.). ++ Working closely with leaders of both communities to make Ask Jeeves a product that librarians and educators can count on. ++ A conduit (a person on the "inside" if you prefer) for these communities and from companies who serve these markets to share their ideas and services. What can we do better? How can we improve and meet your needs? We're here to listen. Perhaps a service that librarians would find useful is already out there and we can work to bring the two sides together. It would be exciting to leverage what librarians and libraries already offer and make them more readily accessible to the public on AJ. More about all of this in coming weeks. 2) Product Development ++ Work with the Ask Jeeves product development team on new services or enhancements to current ones. ++ Be a voice for the library and education communities when these products are developed. For example, can AJ do more to leverage what libraries are already doing into their services? ++ Develop new "Smart Answers" and find the best sources to provide these answers ResourceShelf and DocuTicker Both of these services remain in the complete control (100%) of Will Hann (WillCo) and myself. Because of you we've created a growing community of librarians, educators, independent researchers, journalists, and others. Thank you. We want to make both sites better with both library news, search briefs, and new resources. I must also thank our Deputy Editor, Shirl Kennedy, for all of her hard work. We could not produce what we deliver without her. She's the best. That goes for the rest of the ResourceShelf team. In the near future we would like to recruit some new contributors for both sites. Btw, ResourceShelf will begin its fifth year next month. Thanks again!!! Independent Voice Both On and Off the Page I can assure you that both my comments, along with what's posted on ResourceShelf and DocuTicker, will remain independent of Ask Jeeves. In other words we are free to post what we like and say how we feel just like other well-known bloggers who work in the search industry. If this independent voice wouldn't have been allowed, I feel safe in saying that I would not have accepted the job. When I speak on library issues, deliver a presentation on new resources, post on ResourceShelf/DocuTicker, I can promise that they will not be an Ask Jeeves sales calls. As I've said for a long time, for info pros it's all about choices, options, alternatives, and the right tool or tools at the right time. Ask Jeeves is one of many tools that information professionals should know about. Will my presentations or our posts on ResourceShelf also highlight what Ask Jeeves is up to? Sure. Why? Well, they've been doing some cool things over the past four years. When I demo them at presentations, I often here oohs and aahs and comments like, "I had no idea." Unfortunately, many people have preconceived notions (for good reason) of what AJ is all about. In other words, the Ask Jeeves of 2006 is not the Ask Jeeves of 1999. Those of you who heard me speak back in 1998 or 1999 know that AJ was the last general web engine I would want to talk about. That's changed. In fact, if this wasn't the case, I would not be taking this job. Final Thoughts and Thanks First, to my two colleagues from Search Engine Watch, Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman. I'm grateful for all of your support, help, and the knowledge you've shared with me. It has been an honor to work with and learn from both of you. It's something extra special when you can work with friends. Second, to the ResourceShelf team including Will, Shirl, Laura, Dale, and Dan. Thanks! The best is yet to come. Third, to several mentors, role models, and friends, including BQ, Marydee, Nancy G., Jane Dysart, Judy Field, Carole Leita, Genie Tyburski, Tara Calishain, Mary Ellen Bates, George Plosker, Karen Schneider, Barbara Semonche, Roddy MacLeod, Peter Jacso, Steve Abrahm, Jenny Levine, Steven Cohen, Rebecca Jones, Tom Holt, and all of my pals on Newslib and several other lists including LM_Net. Without your support, knowledge, and friendship today's new venture would not be possible. Thanks for everything. Btw, this list of thanks could go on much longer but I'm being told to leave the stage. (-: That's all for now. More in the days and weeks to come. Once again, thanks for your support. Postscript: Ask Jeeves Has a News Release on My Job and Role
Resource of the Week By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Gray or grey literature has long been considered the proverbial needle in the haystack. It is commonly defined as any documentary material that is not commercially published and is typically composed of technical reports, working papers, business documents, and conference proceedings. The greatest challenges involved with these items are the process of identification, since there is limited indexing, and acquisition, since availability is usually marred with uncertainty. Added to this is the absence of editorial control, raising questions about authenticity and reliability. Yet despite these considerations, gray literature is continually referenced in scholarly articles and dissertations and therefore remains an issue that academic librarians must contend with. Since I'm always on the lookout for unusual items to post on DocuTicker, gray lit repositories are an ongoing source of joy. When I stumble across one that is particularly fruitful, I try to keep an eye on it one way or another, so I'll know when new content has been added. In the above-referenced article, Matthews provides a great introduction to the world of gray lit, with annotated links to articles, directories, discussion lists and miscellaneous resources, including a few of the biggies such as: + DTIC's Public STINET (Scientific and Technical Information Network) + GrayLIT Network, from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information + The University of Maryland's Virtual Technical Reports Center, basically a large alphabetical list of links to institutions that make "full-text reports, or searchable extended abstracts of their technical reports" available on the Web + Corporate technical report servers, such as those from HP Labs, IBM and Microsoft + ZDNet's White Paper Directory, offering IT-oriented content + Networked Computer Science Technical Reference Library + The New York Academy of Medicine's bimontly Gray Literature Report provides pointers to new content in the field of public health. The world of gray lit is not limited to hard science and technology content. You read about the Social Science Research Network in this very space last November. Other fishing holes include: + Working Papers of Political Science, which maintains links to academic political science department working paper sites (and provides a search engine) + RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), which offers content from 53 different countries + Education-line, "a freely accessible database of the full text of conference papers, working papers and electronic literature which supports educational research, policy and practice," from the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds (UK) + The various Electronic Theses and Dissertation collections that comprise the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations + A particular favorite of mine: the Faculty Research Working Paper Series at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government You may or may not know that the field of library and information science has its own preprint archive. "E-LIS is an open access archive for scientific or technical documents, published or unpublished, on Librarianship, Information Science and Technology, and related areas." As of Tuesday evening this week, the repository contained 3,266 fully searchable full-text documents; submissions come from researchers all over the world. Some noteworthy recent additions: + Repeat Visits to Vivisimo.com: Implications for Successive Web Searching + Affective and Cognitive Information Behavior: Interaction Effects in Internet Use + Google Scholar : The New Generation of Citation Indexes + Virtual Reference for Video Collections: System Infrastructure, User Interface and Pilot User Study You can sign up to receive e-mail alerts when new content is added to E-LIS; there is also an RSS feed.
Professional Reading Shelf Literacy--Databases Source: Information Literacy Section/IFLA New, International Information Literacy Resources Directory "The Information Literacy Section has created this database to record information literacy materials from different parts of the world, on behalf of UNESCO." -- Library Catalogues--United Kingdom RSS Source: JISC TOCRoSS: New JISC project will feed tables of contents into library catalogues Yes, RSS!!! A new JISC project is developing an RSS news feed service that will automatically feed publisher and e-journal information into library catalogues. Led by the publisher Emerald, and supported by library supplier Talis, the project will finish in July 2006. The University of Derby is working as the test bed and evaluation partner. The open source software developed by the TOCRoSS project will be freely available to further and higher education establishments, publishers, and library management systems developers. With TOCRoSS in place, e-journal table of content data will be fed automatically into library catalogues without the need for cataloguing, classification or data entry. This will improve the accuracy of records, save time for library staff and deliver a more integrated service to library users." More info here. -- Academic Libraries--United Kingdom Source: IWR Oxford libraries 'may lose up to 200 jobs' "Oxford University is planning to reduce staffing costs in its libraries by up to 2m Pounds, which could result in the loss of up to 200 jobs.The curators of Oxford University libraries have proposed that over a five-year period, staffing costs be reduced by up to £2m, 'with savings made through re-deployment, staff turnover and voluntary severance.'" -- Public Libraries--Iowa--Internet Filtering Source: ALA Iowa Bill Ties Funding to Filtering Pornography A bill introduced January 30 in the Iowa Senate would withhold state funding to public libraries unless they 'eliminate access to pornography on the public library's computer equipment.' If enacted, Senate File 2108 would also require state-funded public libraries to prohibit patrons younger than 17 from borrowing R-rated films." -- National Library of Medicine--Budget Source: NLM National Library of Medicine Appropriations, 2007 Congressional Justification 17 pages; PDF.
Search Briefs + Yahoo: MyWeb 2.0 Update -- + Google Desktop Gets New Features (via SearchDay) -- + Feedster Gets a New Look (via SEW Blog) -- + Udi Manber Leaves A9 to Join Google
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Ready Reference--Answers.com Source: Answers.com Answers.com Adds New Ready Reference Content to Database Answers.com continues to add new content from a wide variety of sources to their database. Cool! Several new sources have been added this month. They include: + Pop Artists via AMG Pop Artist Bios (e.g. Stevie Wonder, Tori Amos, Pearl Jam...) AMG stands for All Music Guidem a wonderful reference tool and a favorite resource of mine. Look for bios and discographies. AMG also contains info about classical music. + Fast Facts - Interesting trivia (e.g. Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley...) + Western Birds - Source: Peterson Field guide to Western birds (e.g. bar-tailed godwit, yellow-headed parrot, ringed-turtle dove...) + Rocks and Minerals - Source: Peterson Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (e.g. gold, opal, sulfur...) + Botanical Glossary: - Source: Glossary for Taylor's Guide to Annuals (e.g. lateral bud, two-lipped, ray flower...) In the past year Answers.com has also introduced initiatives to work with the education and library communities. For example, they offer a poster with citation help and another poster aimed at high school journalists. See Also: Answers.com's New "Find As You Type" Feature -- Population--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, We the People: American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States A portrait of the American Indian and Alaska native population in the United States, providing data on the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native Village Statistical Areas (ANVSAs) and areas outside reservations, and ANVSAs at the national level. It is part of a special report series that presents data collected from Census 2000 on demographic, social, and economic characteristics. -- Interstate Highways--United States--History Source: Federal Highway Administration New, Interstate 50th Anniversary Web site Useful FAQ as well as a bibliography. -- U.S. Courts--United States--Statistics Source: BJS New, Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2002 "This Bureau of Justice Statistics report presents data collected from a representative sample of felony cases filed in the nation's 75 largest counties during May 2002. Data collected include current arrest charges, demographic characteristics, prior arrests and convictions, criminal justice status at arrest, type of pretrial release or detention, bail amount, court appearance record, adjudication outcome, and sentence received if convicted."
Briefly + RUSA appoints new editor of RUSQ -- + Inderscience and Swets Partner to Offer Full-Text Access via SwetsWise Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Multimedia Corner Streaming Webcast: The Six Webs, 10 Years On "Bill Joy reflects on the six webs--defined as far, near, here, weird, B2B, and D2D--as an ongoing organizing principle for thinking about the internet." Event took place on September 29, 2005. Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Former Chief Scientist, Sun Microsystems -- [Quote from the Presentation] "In 1994, we put a wireless network over the city of Aspen....It was a strange experience then, at a point when no one had seen the internet or web, to walk into a bar, open a notebook computer and be surfing the web."
Professional Reading Shelf National Archives and Records Administration--Budget Budget Request: $338 Million in FY 2007 for the National Archives and Records Administration "President George W. Bush sent to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year 2007 budget for the Federal Government. The request calls for $338,054,000 for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), an increase of $12,519,000 over the FY 2006 appropriations of $325,535,000...The Electronic Records Archives (ERA) program, a key NARA strategic goal aimed at providing a means to preserve and make accessible electronic records far into the future, is funded in the FY 2007 request at $45,455,000, which is $7,920,000 over the FY 2006 appropriated level." See Also: President Submits FY 2007 Budget -- But Is It Dead on Arrival? (via SAA) -- Open Access Source: SPARC/Peter Suber Now Online: SPARC Open Access Newsletter (Number #94) For daily coverage of the Open Access scene visit Peter's blog. -- Wikipedia Source: Lowell (MA) Sun Rewriting history under the dome "The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on a Web site that bills itself as the 'world's largest encyclopedia,' The Sun has learned. The Meehan alterations on Wikipedia.com represent just two of more than 1,000 changes made by congressional staffers at the U.S. House of Representatives in the past six month. Wikipedia is a global reference that relies on its Internet users to add credible information to entries on millions of topics." -- RSS Feeds Source: NCIC New, Introducing Feeds from FirstGov.gov and the Federal Citizen Information Center "Stay on top of important government news and information with the News and Features RSS feeds. We'll update these feeds when we update news and featured content." -- Classification Source: OCLC/Forest Press The Dewey Decimal Classification debuts in German
Search Briefs + The Wayback Machine Announces Larger Archive -- + President of University of Michigan Talks Google Book Search
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Information Technology--Security Source: NIST New, Guidelines for Media Sanitization (PDF) "NIST's Computer Security Division has completed the initial public draft of Special Publication 800-88, Guidelines for Media Sanitization. This guide is intended to assist organizations and system owners in making practical sanitization decisions based on the level of sensitivity of their information. It does not, and cannot, specifically address all known types of media however; the described draft sanitization decision process can be applied universally to all forms of media and categorizations of information. NIST invites public comments on the draft guideline until 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 31, 2006. Written comments on Special Publication 800-88 may be sent to Chief, Computer Security Division, Information Technology Laboratory, Attn: Comments on Draft Special Publication 800-88, NIST, 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 8930, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8930. Comments also may be submitted electronically to media-sanitize@nist.gov" -- Information Technology--Security Source: Computerworld Quick Study: What's a Rootkit? "A rootkit is a set of software tools used by an intruder or illegal hacker to break into a computer and obtain root privileges in order to perform unauthorized functions, hide traces of its existence and exploit its systemwide access." -- Energy Industry--Statistics Source: EIA New, Advance Tables from Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers 2004 "Today the Energy Information Administration released advance copies of the tables that will appear as Appendix B in Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers 2004. The tables consist of financial and operating statistics of the major U.S. energy companies that report to the Financial Reporting System (FRS). The full Performance Profiles report will be available towards the end of February." -- Lawsuits in the News Source: FindLaw Court Filings: iPod Alleged Hearing Loss Class Action Lawsuit: John Kiel Patterson, et al. v. Apple Computer, Inc. -- Marriage--United Kingdom--Fast Facts Source: National Statistics Office UK marriages rise for 3rd year running
Briefly + LexisNexis Launches LexisNexis Toolbar For Legal Practitioners + FAST Unveils World's Most Intelligent Enterprise Search Platform -- FAST Esp 5
Briefly + RUSA appoints new editor of RUSQ -- + Inderscience and Swets Partner to Offer Full-Text Access via SwetsWise Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Books Source: CORDIS Research books its place in the library of the future "In the digital age, cultural institutions face new technical and organisational challenges. They must improve and sometimes radically change how they acquire, store, and preserve their collections as well as how they provide access to users. European research is helping them rise to the challenge." Thanks to S.B. for the news tip. -- Online--Legal Issues Source: First Monday The February Issue of First Monday is Now Online Articles include: + The Great Debate -- Law in the Virtual World + The Life of the Law Online -- State Libraries Source: GovTech.net South Dakota State Library Seeks Citizen Input "The South Dakota State Library is seeking input from South Dakota citizens regarding how technology will impact their use of information in the next 5 to 10 years. Nine focus group discussions will be held across the state to gather this information. The focus groups also will discuss what role they expect local libraries and the State Library to play in the delivery of information." -- Sherlock Holmes Source: Stanford University Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University "Over 12 weeks from January through April 2006, Stanford will be republishing, free of charge, two early Holmes stories, 'A Scandal in Bohemia' and 'The Speckled Band'; the nine-part novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles; and the famous 'last' encounter between Holmes and Moriarty, 'The Final Problem.' If you would like to receive paper facsimiles of the original magazine releases, you may sign up on our website. If you would prefer to download the facsimile as a pdf from the website, each installment will be available on successive Fridays under the Sherlock Holmes Adventures link above."
Search Briefs + France's Exalead Continues Growing, Database Passes 4 Billion Page Mark If you've never checked out Exalead it's more than worth a look. + Google: Chat a Natural Fit with Email + Ask Jeeves Opens European R&D Center; Several Interesting Live Demos and Papers by AJ R&D Center Leader Also Available
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Earthquakes--Notification Source: USGS Site Redesign USGS Website and Earthquake Notification Service Simplify Ways to Get Information You Need "The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has unveiled a new design of its earthquake website and a new Earthquake Notification Service (ENS). The redesigned website and ENS will help get earthquake information out to the public in a more timely fashion. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program website, http://earthquake.usgs.gov, is the primary method by which earthquake information is communicated to the public, while the ENS sends out earthquake alerts to subscribers via email. With the new system, users have more options in deciding which alerts they receive...The USGS earthquake website receives over one million hits every day. Information about the latest earthquakes occurring around the world is posted within two minutes for U.S. earthquakes and within 30 minutes for earthquakes outside the U.S." Note: Earthquake alerts are also available in near real-time via PubSub and delivered via RSS or the PubSub Sidebar. -- Home Schooling--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Just Released, Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 "This report uses the Parent and Family Involvement Survey of the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) to estimate the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the United States in 2003 and to describe the characteristics of these students and their families. In 2003, 31 percent of homeschooled children had parents who cited concern about the environment of other schools, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure, as the most important reason for homeschooling, 30 percent had parents who said the most important reason was to provide religious or moral instruction, and 16 percent of homeschooled students had parents who said dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools was the most important reason." -- R&D--United States--Statistics Source: National Science Foundation Just Released, US R&D Continues to Rebound in 2004 (NSF 06-306) Data from four National Science Foundation R&D surveys show 2003 R&D expenditures grew to $291.9 billion, after declining in 2002 for the first time since 1953. Growth is projected to continue in 2004. The business sector, which performed 70% of U.S. R&D in 2004, is largely responsible for the decline and subsequent recovery. Projected 2004 R&D expenditures by sector and character of work are presented, along with long-term trends by performer and funding sector. -- Saudi Arabia--Bibliiography Source: Air University Library Saudi Arabia New bibliography includes Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals, videos. -- Health--Web Resources Source: MedlinePlus New Topical Compilations from MedlinePLUS + Triglycerides + Testicular Disorders + Gas + Indigestion -- Cool Web Tools Source: PC World Freebies That Save Time and Clicks Monday, February 06, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--Funding--United States Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services President's Budget Requests $262,240,000 for Institute of Museum and Library Services -- Government Printing Office (GPO) Source: Federal Computer Week Mission: Impossible Printing in the Digital Age "The traditionally paper-based Government Printing Office is working to come up with ways to remain viable in today's Digital Age. GPO recently issued a request for proposals for the Future Digital System, which agency officials hope will take GPO into the 21st century. We at Federal Computer Week also try to keep up with the times. We know our readers lead busy lives and like to get their information in many formats, not only print or online articles. Therefore, in addition to providing you with an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at GPO in print, we also give you the chance to actually look inside the agency through our slideshow. Or you can listen to Public Printer Bruce James and other agency officials discuss their plans for modernizing GPO by clicking on the audio links below. You can also download them to your computer or mp3 player. For more insight, check out FCW Executive Editor Christopher J. Dorobek's blog post or read the Q&A." -- Public Libraries--Literacy Source: Sacramento Bee Another view: Libraries must target illiteracy "We at the California State Library know if we meet only the literacy needs of college students, we risk widening our country's already troubling socioeconomic divide." Susan Hildreth, California State Librarian, responds to an earlier editorial discussing the National Literacy Study, in which the newspaper recommended focusing "on improving the literacy of those who will graduate from high school, college, or postgraduate institutions." -- Scholarly Information--Search Source: High Energy Physics Libraries Webzine Google Scholar Versus Metasearch Systems "Google Scholar is becoming the object of greater attention from libraries, patrons, and publishers, regardless of librarian approval. Depending on Google's plans, Google Scholar may turn into a core resource for researchers. Perhaps the library community should encourage patrons to use this search engine when appropriate and keep a watchful eye on the quality of the results. Google's attentiveness to the library community, as evidenced by the rapid implementation of the OpenURL standard in Google Scholar, indicates that this service might well be evolving in the right direction. Nevertheless, it is not likely to replace metasearch systems in the short term. A locally controlled and branded system that enables librarians to offer accurate, up-to-date, subject-specific research data and to customize relevant services renders metasearch systems highly valuable to the scholarly community."
Search Briefs + Searching Television News (via SearchDay) Gary looks at several services including a new freebie from TVEyes. Cool!
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Ready Reference Desk Fast Facts Source: The World Almanac New, The February 2006 Issue of The World Almanac E-Newsletter is Online Contains a chronology of January events and holidays, "This Day in History," and much more. See Also: Back issues and subscription info (free) -- Trial of Saddam Hussein Source: Law Library of Congress New, Trial of Saddam Hussein "This website is intended to provide the viewer with essential information related to the relevant trials. It will also set out a selection of reference materials that will further explain important aspects of the trials. In making this selection, the Law Library of Congress does not endorse or attest to the authenticity of any such referenced materials or information. In addition to viewers in general, the following of the development of the trial of Saddam Hussein, which started in October 2005, may be of special interest to legal scholars of international criminal law and the seekers of universal justice." -- Population--United States--Historical Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Working Paper No. 81, Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850 to 2000 PDF version also available. -- Budget--United States--FY 2007 Source: OMB, White House Just Released, Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2007 See Also: + Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2007 (PDF) -- + Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2007 (PDF) -- + Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2007-Appendix Sunday, February 05, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Web Resources The February 2006 Issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter is Now Online More goodies from Roddy MacLeod and crew.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text World War II--Maps Source: Library of Congress New From Library of Congress-American Memory Project: Digitized World War II Situation Maps From the web site: "A new online presentation from the Library, World War II Military Situation Maps, documents troop positions from June 6, 1944, to July 26, 1945. The presentation is available at and is one of more than 135 thematic presentations in the American Memory Web site. Starting with the D-Day Invasion, the maps give daily details on the military campaigns in Western Europe, showing the progress of the Allied Forces as they push toward Germany. Some of the sheets are accompanied by a declassified "G-3 Report" giving detailed information on troop positions for the period March 3 through July 26, 1945. These maps and reports were used by the commanders of the United States forces in their evaluation of the campaigns and for planning future strategies. The collection consists of 416 printed maps and 115 reports, the originals of which reside in the Library of Congress's Geography and Map Division...Researchers browsing through the maps can easily follow the Western Allies' progress in Europe through the movements of the unit symbols and the frontline. Even the casual browser's eye can identify significant battles by the concentrations of unit symbols on the maps...Users can zoom in on these digitized maps and view details not easily seen with the naked eye." -- Federal Employees--Demographics Source: Office of Personnel Management 2004 Demographic Profile of the Federal Workforce "This publication presents statistical tables and narrative on race and national origin (RNO), gender, disability status, veterans status, age, and years of service characteristics of the Federal civilian non-postal workforce in the Executive Branch of Government. The data are displayed by agency, major pay plans, general schedule, and related grades and occupations. Data sources, coverage, definitions of terms, and highlights of this survey are presented in the narrative." (via DocuTicker) Saturday, February 04, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Music Search Source: BetaNews Pandora Sees the DNA in Digital Music If you've never checked out Pandora.com, it's more than worth a look. An illustration of what good metadata can do. From the article: "Enter the Music Genome Project, a six-year initiative undertaken by Pandora Media. A team of thirty musical analysts makes up the core of this effort, and they have listened to hundreds of thousands of songs from over 15,000 artists, individually analyzing each on some 400 distinct musical attributes."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Advertising--Super Bowl Source: USA Today List of Ads Scheduled to Run During Super Bowl XL -- Firefighter Safety--Databases Source: U.S. Fire Administration, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System "The National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System is a voluntary, confidential, non-punitive and secure reporting system with the goal of improving fire fighter safety. By collecting and analyzing information on near-miss events, improvements can be made in command, education, operations and training. Submitted reports will be viewed by fire service professionals. Identifying descriptions are removed to protect your identity. The report is then posted on this website for other fire fighters to use as a learning tool." Click "search reports" on the top navigation bar to get to the search form. Friday, February 03, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Music Search Source: SEW Blog Gracenote: The Music Info Database You've Used But Possibly Know Little About -- Search Behavior User Interfaces Source: Univ of Maryland The Evolution of the International Children's Digital Library Searching and Browsing Interface
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Population--Projections--United Kingdom Source: National Statistics Offc National Projections: UK population to rise by 7m by 2031 -- Labor Unions Source: Monthly Labor Review, BLS Union membership statistics in 24 countries 12 Pages; PDF. -- Country Studies Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress Updated Report, Country Profile: Turkey (PDF) -- Transportation--United States--Statistics Source: BTS New, State Transportation Statistics (STS) 2005 "This report presents a statistical profile of transportation in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This is the third annual edition of the State Transportation Statistics, and a companion document to the National Transportation Statistics (NTS), which is updated quarterly on the BTS website." A picture of the states' infrastructure, freight movement and passenger travel, safety, vehicles, economy and finance, and energy and the environment is presented in tables covering the 50 states and the District of Columbia." -- Forensic Science Source: DOJ, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Communications Site Redesign: DNA.gov: New Look, New Features "Here, on the redesigned Web site, find online training, and resources tailored to policymakers and lawmakers, forensic scientists, researchers, and victim advocates. Other new features include services that are available to forensic laboratories under the President's Initiative, Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology, and case studies on how criminals were caught and innocent people were exonerated."
Search Briefs + Useful Search Tools: What's a Rollyo? How About A PubSub? Rollyo allows the user to create a domain specific search engine with just a few clicks. Cool!!! PubSub delivers news in real-time. Make sure to check out the PubSub Sidebar. -- + Oops, Specs for Dell Computers Found in Google Cache Remember that Google isn't the only database to cache pages. -- + Personal Search Vertical ZoomInfo Awarded U.S. Patent
Armed Forces--United States Source: U.S. Department of Defense. Documents in the News Quadrennial Defense Review Report "This 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review is submitted in the fifth year of this long war. The QDR is part of the continuum of transformation in the Defense Department. Its purpose is to help shape the process of change to provide the United States with strong, sound and effective warfighting capabilities in the decades ahead." Full Report (PDF; 2.11 MB) Thursday, February 02, 2006
Resources of the Week By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Science and Technology--Communications In my academic career, I went out of my way to avoid courses in the hard sciences. This was not a case of "Girls are not good at science." This was a case of "I'm going to be a writer. I don't need science courses." But as I've gotten older, the allure of science journalism has become apparent. I enjoy reading science and technology magazines, and turn first to the science articles in any mainstream publication. Research news intrigues me; I pore over press releases from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NOAA...and I've been reading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report since it was available only in dead.tree version. Recently, I've become enamored of academic research magazines; many are available online, the websites are often very attractive, and you can read about cutting edge stuff right from the horse's mouth, so to speak, in "user-friendly" language. You can find links to a lot of these publications through the University Research Magazine Association website: + Member list with contacts and links + Member magazines with links Communicating science and technology information so it will be both interesting and understandable is a specialized skill. Particularly if you are a science or technology librarian, you may be called upon to do this -- in print to meet academic publishing requirements, online to update your library's blog or website, or maybe in "real time," in front of your peers at a professional conference. So browse through these links when you have a spare few minutes and bookmark the ones that look like they'll be particularly useful both to you -- or maybe your customers. Other Related Resources: + Communicating Science News: A Guide for Public Information Officers, Scientists and Physicians -- via the National Association of Science Writers + Editing University Research Magazines: A View from the Top (PDF; 64 KB) -- By Judith McIntosh White, in the May/June 2003 issue of Science Editor, flagship publication of the Council of Science Editors. + Going Public: An Introduction to Communicating Science, Engineering and Technology (PDF; 220 KB) -- From the UK Office of Science and Technology + Code of Practice: Guidelines on Science and Health Communication -- "Prepared by the Social Issues Research Centre in partnership with the Royal Institution" (UK) + Improving Public Understanding: Guidelines For Communicating Emerging Science on Nutrition, Food Safety, and Health -- From the International Food Information Council + Instructions to Authors in the Health Sciences -- "These pages provide links to Web sites which provide instructions to authors for over 3,500 journals in the health and life sciences. All links are to 'primary sources' - that is, to publishers and organizations with editorial responsibilities for the titles." From Mulford Library, Medical University of Ohio + Practical Advice for Science Communicators -- From the Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine Public Relations Association (UK) + Toolkit for New Medical Writers -- From the Delaware Valley Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Reviews The February 2006 Edition of Peter's Digital Reference Shelf Is Now Online This month Dr. Peter Jacso reviews: PsycARTICLES Direct "PsycARTICLES Direct is a direct information service from the American Psychological Association (APA) offering free bibliographic citations and abstracts, as well as full-text searching, from 55 journals published by APA and its partners. Overall, it is a very good deal for users who are not affiliated with a library that subscribes to one of the many implementations of PsycARTICLES by the largest online services that cater to academic and special libraries, but not to pay-as-you-go individual users." & Visual Thesaurus (and Dictionary) Online Edition "There are many good, free thesauri on the Web, but this one is also hip enough that high school students may be tempted to use it. The visual representation of relationships among words, the smart use of typography and the choice of customization options make this language tool cool, stylish, sophisticated and suave - especially for the under-40 set." -- Academic Libraries Source: University of California Libraries Bibliographic Services Task Force Rethinking How We Provide Bibliographic Services for the University of California (PDF; 400 KB) "On the Library front, our bibliographic systems have not kept pace with this changing environment. The continuing proliferation of formats, tools, services, and technologies has upended how we arrange, retrieve, and present our holdings. Our users expect simplicity and immediate reward and Amazon, Google, and iTunes are the standards against which we are judged. Our current systems pale beside them." -- Libraries--Image Source: Informed Librarian Online Reading the Tea Leaves A guest column by library marketing guru, Chris Olson. "If the name of an information service includes the word 'library,' it evokes the perception of 'books' regardless of its location -- law firm, health care center, government agency, company or otherwise. That's the beauty and curse of branding. A brand can be a great asset when it represents desirable features and evokes thoughts and memories which are intended by the brand owner. A brand can be a curse when people think of the brand differently from what is intended." Says Chris Olson, "Anyone who can change their brand name or drop the word 'library' from it, should consider doing so if they want to be perceived as offering something other than books." -- National Libraries--Australia--Web Sites Source: NLA Update MusicAustralia's success story MusicAustralia has become a runaway success, with a staggering 7.1 million page views recorded up to the end of December 2005 since its launch as a full production service in March 2005. See for yourself at www.musicaustralia.org where you will find over 153 000 resources, more than 11,000 of which are available online. -- Public Libraries--United States Source: LJ Best Small Library in America Announced "From a field of over 50 nominations nationwide, the Milanof-Schock Library in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, has been selected by Library Journal for the annual Best Small Library in America Award."
Search Briefs + Oops, Specs for Dell Computers Found in Google Cache -- + Personal Search Engine ZoomInfo Awarded U.S. Patent -- + Searching for a Sense of Place
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Politics--Multimedia Archive Source: Berkman Center at Harvard University New, Institute of Politics Opens Up Video Archive to the Public Wow!!! "The Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government today announced that video footage of nearly thirty years of public addresses and panel discussions held in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum is now available on the IOP's website. The IOP, which manages the Forum venue, has created the new online video archive featuring hundreds of speeches given by some of the world's most prominent political speakers from 1978 to the present. The archive also offers visitors use of a search engine to fully explore its contents -- making the expansive library's material easy to access and use." -- Cities--Economics--Statistics Source: EIU New Edition, Worldwide cost of living survey Highlights Only. "After 14 years at the top Tokyo has been overtaken by Oslo as the world's costliest city in the latest findings from the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide cost of living survey. Elsewhere an improving economic outlook has pushed Brazilian cities up the ranking and Asian cities make up many of the cheapest destinations." -- Internet Usage--Statistics Source: Clickz, Nielsen//NetRatings Active Home Web Use by Country, December 2005 -- Cybersquatting--Statistics Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) WIPO Responds to Significant Cybersquatting Activity in 2005 "The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) saw a 20% increase in the number of cybersquatting (abusive registration of trademarks as domain names) cases filed in 2005 as compared to 2004. In 2005, a total of 1,456 cybersquatting cases were filed with WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center. This increase represents the highest number of cybersquatting cases handled by the WIPO Center since 2001." -- DoD Contractors--Lists & Rankings Source: Department of Defense Personnel and Procurement, Statistical Information Analysis Division 100 Companies Receiving The Largest Dollar Volume Of Prime Contract Awards - Fiscal Year 2005 "This report presents summary data on the 100 companies, and their subsidiaries, receiving the largest dollar volume of Department of Defense (DoD) prime contract awards during fiscal year (FY) 2005. Table 1 lists the 100 companies in alphabetical order and gives their associated rank. Table 2 identifies the parent companies in rank order, with their subsidiaries, and gives the total net value of awards for both the parent company and its subsidiaries. In many cases, the parent company receives no awards itself, but appears on the list because of its subsidiaries. Table 2 also shows what percentage of the total awards each company's awards represent. Table 3 lists the top 100 companies DoD-wide in rank order and breaks the totals into three categories of procurement: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E); Other Services and Construction; and Supplies and Equipment. Table 4 lists the top 50 companies for each of the Reporting Components in rank order, and by category of procurement." (via DocuTicker)
Briefly + SPARC Europe Announces Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications -- + New Round of Enhancements for WilsonWeb -- + FAST Search and Transfer Teams Up with LexisNexis to Deliver an Advanced Enterprise Search and Retrieval Solution
Finally, From the "Things Change" Department After 154 Years Western Union Sends Final Telegram From the AP: "The telegram section of the company's web site says, "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage." Stop. Here's what the telegram info web page looked like on 1/18/2006. See Also: Western Union History Timeline Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Open Access--Germany Source: DFG.de Strong support for open access in Germany Researchers in Germany are overwhelmingly in favour of greater promotion of open access by their funding body, according to a study commissioned by The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German Research Foundation -- Academic Libraries--Orientation Source: Williams College Williams College Libraries' Orientation Breaks All the Stereotypes "Bring mystery, adventure, and fun to the search for information: this describes how the Williams College Libraries introduce students to library resources and services. 'I think what is most important is that we try to do things in the library that are a little different than what you might think of as stereotypical," says Lori DuBois, reference and instruction librarian. "We try to break that stereotype whenever we can.'" -- Information Industry Source: Media Post Information Industry in 2005 "Outsell also reported Tuesday that overall information industry revenues rose 7.7 percent to an estimated $285 billion, with Google and Yahoo combined accounting for about 5 percent of the total. "Google and Yahoo are the primary drivers of information industry growth and are taking market share, dramatically changing the information industry landscape and disrupting market share leadership of established publishers and information providers along the way," stated the report." -- Google Library Project Source: ALA The Google Library Project: The Copyright Debate See Also: The Google Book Search Project: Is Online Indexing a Fair Use Under Copyright Law? (via Congressional Research Service) -- Games Boolean Logic Source: ACM Queue Anything Su Doku, I Can Do Better "The new puzzle craze from Japan is sweeping the world, and testing our Boolean logic."
Search Briefs + Yahoo to Offer Video Archive of Super Bowl TV Commercials -- + Google Releases Q4 2005 Earnings -- + Google Toolbar Version 4 Now Available
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Women in Business Source: Small Business Administration New Web Site, My Biz for Women "A new online tool from the Small Business Administration will help women entrepreneurs find business-related information and assistance. SBA announced the launch of My Biz for Women Jan. 25, a Web portal designed to help women who want to start businesses." More in this FCW article. -- Climate--Statistics Source: NOAA NOAA Reports 2005 Global Temperature Similar To 1998 Record Warm Year "Scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., today said the 2005 global temperature was statistically indistinguishable from the standing record set in 1998." Direct to Climate of 2005 -- in Historical Perspective. -- Business Schools--Lists and Rankings Source: Financial Times 2006 Global MBA Rankings "Whether you are looking for a full-time MBA or a two-week course to improve your management skills, the Financial Times rankings list the best management programmes available. The tables are available in interactive and pdf formats." + Direct to interactive rankings + Direct to PDF rankings (PDF; 108 KB) -- West Africa--Bibliography Source: Air University Library West Africa Bibliography of books, documents, journals and Internet resources. Includes the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote D'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.
Scholarly Publishing--Citation Reports Source: ISI + The Most-Cited Institutions in Physics, 1995-2005 + Canadian Universities: Most Prolific in Economics, 2000-04 + Science in India, 2000-04 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Electrical & Electronic Engineering + Hot Paper in Medicine + Hot Paper in Biology |
