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Resources and News for Information Professionals
ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Gary Price Library & Internet Research Consulting gary@ resourceshelf.com Gary's Bio Shirl Kennedy, MLIS Contributing Editor Dan Giancaterino, MLIS Contributing Editor Steven Cohen, MLS Contributing Editor Looking For More Info? News? Search Help? News Tips?
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Monday, April 30, 2001
New Resources From ERIC (4 Items) ERIC Digest--Library Funding (EDO-IR-2001-01) ---- Resources for Statistics and Data Related to Adult English Language Learners ---- ERIC Gets A New Logo See For Yourself. From the site, "The ERIC system has officially adopted a new logo which symbolizes the modernization and global accessibility of ERIC and incorporates the full name of the program as well as the acronym." Full-Text Document Shelf (4 Items) Criminal Justice--Wiretaps Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts 2000 Wiretap Report Summary and News Release also available. ---- Federal Aid to Universities--Science & Engineering--United States Federal Aid to Non-Profits--Science & Engineering--United States Source: NSF Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions: Fiscal Year 1999 ---- Earthquakes--United States Source: USGS "Earthquakes in and Near The Northeastern U.S., 1638-1998" (Map) Related Fact Sheet ||| Related News Release ---- Highway Safety Source: NHTSA "New NHTSA Study Confirms Reflective Tape On Big Trucks Reduces Crashes, Fatalities" Full-Text ||| News Release
Lists and Rankings (2 entries) Lawyers--United States Source: Forbes Highest Paid Lawyers (U.S.) (Free Registration Required) ---- CEOs--United States Source: Forbes Top CEO's: Corporate America's Most Powerful People (2001) See also: 278 CEOs Ranked by Value
Virtual Reference--Canada Collaborative Digital Reference Service Source: Ottawa Citizen "Canada Joins Global Online Answer Service" "What's more, millions of books and documents aren't available on the Internet at all. The goal of the project, known as the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS), is to network the organizations that have the best knowledge of their databases into one seamless system...So far, 76 partners, including the U.S. Library of Congress, Harvard University the Smithsonian and national libraries in Hong Kong and Australia are involved in a pilot test of the program, which started in November. If all goes as planned, a CDRS Web site, where the public can begin information searches, should roll out sometime next year in a greatly expanded form, with at least 600 participating organizations."
Virtual Reference--Bibliographies Digital Reference Resources Bibliography Updated Word that Joann Wasik has updated her useful bibliography. Holidays--Mother's Day--United States Fast Facts: Mothers Day 2001 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Tons O' Facts About Moms in the U.S.A. Maps--United States Maps--USGS The National Map: Final Report From the site, "Earlier this year, the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Associate Director for Geography chartered a study to determine how to “... put truly current information into the hands of our customers ... in a cost effective way”. Our vision is that by the year 2010, working with partners, we will provide the Nation with current, accurate, and nationally consistent basic spatial data, including digital data and derived topographic maps. The report from the study, The National Map, sketches an approach for achieving this vision." Saturday, April 28, 2001
Health/Health Related Documents and Resources A Few New Health Documents and Resources to Take a Look At * A New Page on Household Poisons from MEDLINEplus * New Series of Reports to Monitor Health of Older Americans * 1999 National Hospital Discharge Survey ||| Summary/News Release Friday, April 27, 2001
Search Engine News Greg Notess Posts New Search Size Studies Some essential reading from Greg. In terms of relative size Google ranks number one. Fast (AlltheWeb) places second and MSN Search (powered by Inktomi) in third.
U.K. Resource Shelf (4 Items) A selection of new docs and resources from various departments and organizations in the U.K. Government Enviroment Digest of Environmental Statistics The Environment in your Pocket 2000 Employment Employment Rates 1959 to 2000/1 (Available in Excel Format) Transportation London Underground: Comparison with New York Subway Canada Resource Shelf (1 Item) Canadian Government Senate Calendar 2001, 2002
Web Search--Google Usenet Archives Google Restores Usenet Archives Back to 1995 Tara Calishain's newsletter ResearchBuzz has the full story. Direct to Advanced Google Groups Interface
Web Searching--Invisible Web Future Search "Second sight" Source: The Guardian A brief overview of hidden web data. This article addresses only a few of the reasons why material is not accessible via general search tools.
The List and Rankings Drawer Broadcasting Industry--Television--United States Digital Television Stations In Operation Source: National Association of Broadcasters ---- Broadcasting Industry--Television--United States Top 25 Television Groups Source: Broadcasting and Cable Thanks R.H. ---- Chief Executive Officers--Rankings Business--Investing The 50 Best CEO's: 2001 Source: Worth From the article, "Our third annual selection of the business leaders with the foresight, judgement and competitive juice to make their investors happy." A profile of each person is provided. Also available, access to 2000 and 1999 lists.
Info Industry--Dialog Plenty o' news from Dialog on Thursday. Here is a quick review. Dialog Announces Strategies for 2001 -- Introduces New Products, Enhances Current Offerings From the release, Dialog is also launching its new theme -- "Information to Change the World" ---- Dialog Establishes New Team Focusing on Information Professional Market Development ---- Dialog Offers Full Collection of Investext Reports in pdf Format -- Largest Database of Company and Industry Research Now Available with Imagery ---- Dialog1 Released - New Product Facilitates User-Friendly Interaction ---- Dialog Launches New Version of Profound -- Dialog Offers Tailored News Collection and Delivery Through Intranews Thanks to GK for the news tip. Thursday, April 26, 2001
Full-Text Document Shelf (Two Items) Health--Developing Countries HIV--Developing Countries Trends and Patterns of HIV Infection in Selected Developing Countries Source: U.S. Census --- Electricity--United States Electricity Fact Sheets Source: EIA Consumer Fraud--International New Web Site: Econsumer.Gov From an IDG Article, "A new Web site was launched Tuesday to aid in the battle against online fraud. Called Econsumer.gov, the site unifies the efforts of thirteen countries, including the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Mexico, and will work to combat cross-border Internet fraud, according to a statement by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the organization leading the charge." Direct To the Econsumer.Gov Site Interesting Read, Listen Internet History Internet Pioneer Vint Cerf Keynotes NAB Luncheon NOTE: If you would like to view this speech or other keynotes at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference they are available on-demand . The Cerf speech took place at the Technology Luncheon, Apr 25 12:00p - 1:45p
Academic Publishing "Scientists threaten journal protest" Source: BBC Online From the story, "Scientists around the world are preparing to boycott scientific journals unless they make old research papers available for free."
Web Search--iLOR Sullivan Gives Kudos to the iLOR Search Tool, "Makes Google Even Better" From Danny's article, "iLOR is a new search service that takes the power and relevancy of Google's results and adds on some nifty features that many searchers may find useful."
Info Industry--World Book AOL and World Book Make A Deal From the article, "Under the agreement, for which terms were not disclosed, World Book will become the primary general reference resource for the Research & Learn Channels of AOL and CompuServe. Every entry from the encyclopedia's 22-volume print edition will be available on the services."
Web Search--Multimedia "Specialized Providers Zero In On Multimedia Content" Source: Interactive Week Companies Mentioned: SingingFish.Com StreamSearch Virage Taalee Web Searching Indexing--Meta Tags State of Arizona Using Meta Tags To Make Searching Easier From the article, "Arizona is testing an online indexing system to enhance the quality of Web searches for public information...Like flipping through a library’s card catalog, users search the bibliographic information of a tagged Web document in a GILS system rather than the full text of documents. Meta tags, which are essentially special HTML tags, are embedded within the documents and can include keywords, subject terms, descriptions, publication titles, authors, dates created and contact information...Susan Alden, a library consultant with the agency, said the state based its design architecture on Washington state’s GILS system. At least 20 other states have a GILS system."
Web Searching Internet Business--Lycos For A Fee, Surf By Phone This one should be worth testing. I wonder what type of research skills the "operators" will have? Will they evaluate where the info is coming from? Will they stop at the first answer? Is the principle of least effort and maximized profits going to come into play. Do they realize that every answer is NOT on the Internet? From the Business 2.O article, "Lycos 411, a human-powered subscription service, will hook busy users up via telephone to live "Internet assistants" who will surf the Web in search of answers to their questions. By calling the 1-800 number, members can also have one of the 50 operators manning the service send out emails. For questions that can't be answered immediately, the operators will do more comprehensive research, at a per-minute charge, and then either call back, fax, or email the results...After taking part in free trial, subscribers can either pay for the service on a per-call basis, or enroll in a payment plan that starts at $4.95 a month, and includes a $30 a month unlimited-calls option." According to the article, Lycos is partnering with phone search company iNetNow to power the service with professional web searchers. Future Tools Bots Companies To Watch--Active Buddy Access Info Using IM (Internet Messaging) Source: ZD News From the article, "...a "bot" created by New York company ActiveBuddy, which is developing technology that lets popular software for trading short text messages be used to grab information stored on Web sites and computer databases.Rather than visiting a Web site for stock market information, for example, a person could send an instant message with the text "IBM stock" and instantly receive a response with the current price of IBM shares...An early version of the technology is already quietly living inside AOL Time Warner, Microsoft and Yahoo chat networks, providing movie schedules, stock quotes, and news headlines. It also can search for dictionary terms or answer math questions." Wednesday, April 25, 2001
Full-Text Document Shelf (Three Items) Justice--Statistics--United States Compendium of Justice Statistics 1999 ---- Firearms--United States Survey of State Procedures Related to Firearms Sales, Midyear 2000 ---- Airports--United States Aviation Industry--United States Airport Capacity Benchmark Report 2001 From the site, "The FAA has developed capacity benchmarks for 31 of the nation's busiest airports to understand the relationship between airline demand and airport runway capacity and what we in the aviation community can do about it." Patents--United States U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Debuts New Homepage
Web Intelligence Tools--Company Sleuth Company Sleuth To Begin Charging For Access A month after merging with Tucows, Infonautics will soon begin charging for access to Company Sleuth, the popular web-based public company intelligence tool. From an e-mail message, "In order to continue providing you with the highest quality services, Company Sleuth will be introducing an annual subscription membership." The company promises many new reports and services including the ability to track up to 50 companies. The e-mail message did not say how much the new service will cost.
Info Industry--Questia "A solid future for Questia Media is still an online question mark" Source: Houston Chronicle Key graph, "The developer of an online service designed to help students write better research papers will be deep into a revamped marketing campaign designed to overcome a simple fact: After nearly three years, more than $110 million in spent venture capital and the building of a 300-person staff, the company still boasts fewer than 1,000 paying subscribers." Thanks to P.E. for the news tip and R.L. for the link.
Web Standards-UDDI UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Intergration) Directory Ready To Debut If you haven't read about this new standard, you will. Although it's slated (first deployment) to be used as a standard for a web based business directory, those of us in the info profession need to keep close track of it. From the IT World article, "The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry promises to make it easier for businesses to provide information about their products and services on the Web, as well as locate partners and customers. A number of registries that use differing protocols exist on the Web already, but Microsoft, IBM and Ariba said they want to promote a common, shared set of identifiers. Companies can submit information about their businesses to the registry free of charge, the vendors say." To learn more about UDDI, this "official page" is a good place to begin.
Search Engine News-Fast Search & Transfer Layoffs at Fast (Alltheweb.Com) Pandia reports that 30 to 40 employees were let go. Thomas Fussell, a member of the Fast Search & Transfer Board is under the gun for a quote to a Norwegian news site calling some of these employees "complete idiots". Fussell says that if the quote "passed my lips", I did not mean it."...Thanks to S.C. for the news tip. Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Maps--United States--Fee Based New U.S.A. Map From USGS Those of you with a need for a general purpose map of the U.S. may find this new map ($7) of use. It was produced the the United States Geological Survey.
Online Investing Tools--Calculators The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Introduces Margin Calculator From the Press Release, "...help[s] individual investors estimate their likelihood-based on their actual holdings-of getting a dreaded margin call in the next thirty days, three months, or year." Full-Text of Press Release
China-U.S. Relations International Relations New Web Site: U.S.-China Security Review Commission From the site, "...assigned task of analyzing the national security implications of trade and economic ties between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China."
United States House of Representatives Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives is Now Available Online The site is part of GPO Access.
Energy--United States Electricity Industry--Legislation--United States Source: EIA Electric Industry Federal Restructuring Legislation From the site, "This site presents the purpose and summary of all federal legislative proposals before the current Congress that deal directly and indirectly with the issue of restructuring the U. S. electric power industry." See Also: The EIA has also updated the USA Country Analysis Brief (Enegy Statistics and Overview)
Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items) New Economy--United States The Metropolitan New Economy Index From a Civic.Com article about the study, "The Metropolitan New Economy Index (available at www.neweconomyindex.org) ranked the country’s top 50 metropolitan regions with populations of 50,000 or more. The study was conducted jointly by the Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland." ---- Research & Development--United States Science and Engineering--United States Government Funding--United States Academic Institution Profiles From the site, "These Profiles present institution-level information about R&D expenditures, Federal science and engineering (S&E) obligations, and S&E graduate students and postdoctorates for individual doctorate-granting institutions and schools with S&E departments that grant master's degrees. Data derive from the following three annual surveys: the Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions; the Survey of Academic Research and Development Expenditures; and the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering." ---- Nursing--United States Patient Outcomes--United States Nurse Staffing and Patient Outcomes in Hospitals Source: Health Resources and Services Administration Executive Summary Also Available
Canada--Libraries National Library of Canada Site Redesigned Today, the NLC announced a redesign of its site. Monday, April 23, 2001
Patents--United States Lists and Rankings The Technology Review Patent Scorecard 2001 Source: MIT Technology Review The list ranks 150 of the world's top companies "according to the quality and quantity of their patents". Also of interest is the TR "5 Patents To Watch" article. The "Distributed Computing" patent from IBM is very interesting.
Future Search P2P Searching "OpenCola—Have Some Code and a Smile" Source: MIT Technology Review Learn about this distributed search technology and the soft drink used to promo the company.
Interesting Read "Search Technology Finds Its Way Into the Enterprise" Source: Computerworld The article discusses the importance of creating taxonomies. This is something info types have been doing for a LONG time.
E-Journals--Library Science New Peer Reviewed E-Journal: Transforming Traditional Libraries Volume One, Number One is online. From the site, "Transforming Traditional Libraries is a peer-reviewed e-journal covering aspects of the new library, including digital collections, electronic indices, OPACs, Internet research, bibliographic instruction, information literacy, and the task of integrating these and other new resources with the traditional services of the library."
Web Tools--Adobe Acrobat Version 5.0 of Adobe Acrobat is Now Online. Details and download instructions are available.
Video Search--CNN History--Video Search--CNN "CNN Video Archives to Become Digital Database" "Sony and I.B.M. plan to announce a new system today that will convert the 115,000 hours of videotape that CNN, a unit of AOL Time Warner, has collected the last 21 years, creating a computerized database that will make it easier to find, retrieve and distribute news clips." Thanks to GT for the update.
Rich List--World Rich List--United Kingdom The Sunday Times Rich List 2001 Several lists including Richest in World, U.K., Canada, and Australia Saturday, April 21, 2001
Census 2000--Search Tools Invisible Web Databases Search American Factfinder By Address for Census 2000 Data Grace York, Coordinator of the Documents Center at the University of Michigan, reports that you can now search Factfinder for Census 2000 info by place name or address. Access via a list or map is also available. Friday, April 20, 2001
Online Directories--Telephone Phone search site adds fees for heavy users Story lead, "Faced with falling ad revenue, online telephone directory service 555-1212.com Inc. is now charging monthly fees, starting at $9.95 for heavy users."
Full-Text Document Shelf U.S. Government--Aid to States U.S. Government--Funds Source: U.S. Census Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2000 Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2000 Summary and News Release Thursday, April 19, 2001
Energy--Outlook--International Source: EIA International Energy Outlook 2001 International energy projections through the year 2020 News Briefs--Canada Health Policy--Canada New Web Site: Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada ---- Virtual Libraries--Canada "Government of Canada funds Web-based library information in a virtual environment" The Web As A Business Intelligence Tool "The Rise of Web Intelligence: How rumors, leaks, and news online have transformed the Internet's impact on business." This article was written by Moreover CEO Nick Denton. Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Federal Justice Statistics--Criminal--United States Justice--Statistics--Databases--United States -- Two Items from the Federal Justice Statistics Center District Statistics, 1994 - 1998 A new feature. "Annual Federal criminal case processing statistics for 94 judicial districts in the United States." -- 1999 Federal Justice Statistics The data is now searchable via the database. Tuesday, April 17, 2001
U.S. Courts--State & Federal--Summary Tools InstaCase.Com Genie Tyburski of The Virtual Chase alerts us to an excellent current awareness tool for court opinions in 11 state and federal jurisdictions. Summaries and links are provided for free. A fee-based alert tool is also available. InstaCase.Com covers: US Supreme Court Third Circuit New Jersey Courts Pennsylvania Courts Virginia Courts Maryland Courts New York California Texas Vermont Delaware
Organ Donation--Statistics--United States Organ Donation--Database This is National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week in the U.S. Key Resources for this Important Topic: UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) UNOS Transplant Patient DataSource (Invisible Web Database with Statistics) Addtional UNOS Statistical Data From the Department of Health and Human Services 2000 Organ Donation Stats (Released Today) ||| OrganDonor.Gov Website
New From The Wall Street Journal The WSJ recently launched a free site aimed at the entrepreneurial audience. StartupJournal.Com
SLA Names European Special Librarian Of the Year Congrats and Kudos to Our Friend and Colleague Annabel Colley. Annabel works at the BBC in London.
Airline Industry--Financial Statistics--United States Air Traffic--Statistics--United States Air Traffic and Airline Financial Statistics: Updated with New Data Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics Updated Air Traffic and Airline Financial Statistics site with new data for domestic, international, and overall system passenger service; ton miles; and operating finances. Historical Data for 1954-1980 & 1981-2000 has also become available via the page.
Archives--Moving Images The Internet Moving Images Archive is Now Online From a recently received e-mail, "This noncommercial resource contains high-quality digitized versions of archival films available for free downloading and reuse. Never before available online, these "ephemeral" films document many aspects and events of 20th-century American culture and society, including media and media production, communication, technology, landscape, urban history, economics, political science, warfare, the New Deal, and many other areas. Most were originally released as advertising, educational, industrial, documentary, amateur or government films. At present, over 800 out of a planned total of 1001 titles are available, all from Prelinger Archives. All may be downloaded and reused for free, with no restrictions other than that the films cannot be resold or licensed by anyone in their entirety or as stock footage. Our intention is that these titles should circulate freely as "open-source" content. We encourage you to download this material for your own use and for the use of others. You may also wish to make videotape copies of these films for exhibition or reuse. We hope that easy access to these films will assist mediamakers, scholars, teachers, students, exhibitors and members of the general public in coming to terms with the complex and diverse audiovisual history of the 20th century. Further, we hope that easy access to a diverse collection of copyright- and restriction-free content will encourage more people to be moving image authors in their own right." Monday, April 16, 2001
Pulitzer Prizes--2001 Links to Pulitzer Prize 2001 Winning Material I have created a simple page with links direct (1 to 2 clicks) to the material that was awarded Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism.
Manufacturing--Statistics--United States "Keep Your Eye on the Factory Floor: Why Manufacturing Data are So Closely Watched" This Business Week article provides a good overview to manufacturing statistical data. The "Manufacturing Tip Sheets" table lists 4 reports and who compiles them. Direct to These Reports: Advance Report of Durable Goods Orders Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Purchasing Managers' Index
Agriculture--Images--United States History--Images--United States USDA Historical Photos From the Site, "Most of the photographs on display in this section were taken between 1937 and 1943 during the Farm Security Administration (FSA) era. The entire FSA collection of almost 300,000 pictures are housed at the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration. Included on these pages are other USDA photographs, some of which date back to the 1800s. Additional photos are planned to be added."
Full-Text Document Shelf (2 Items) Employment--Scientists--United States Employment--Engineers--United States Doubling Up: A Profile of U.S. Scientists and Engineers Who Hold Second Jobs (NSF 01-322) Source: National Science Foundation From the site, "This issue brief presents employment and demographic characteristics of the 11.5% of the employed 1997 U.S. scientific and engineering labor force that held second jobs. The SESTAT database is used to examine the relationship between principal jobs and second jobs by occupational group, as well as several factors related to the decision to hold a second job." ---- High School--Statistics--United States Higher Education--Statistics--United States Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates Several tables along with a full news release.
Health--Statistics--Database Health--Invisible Web Ambulatory Care Drug Database System From the site, "This query system allows you to search for drugs mentioned in the NAMCS and NHAMCS by entry name, by generic name, and by ingredients. It can provide information on drug characteristics including therapeutic class, composition status, prescription status, and control status. It will also give data on frequencies of drug mentions in 1999."
Database of the Day--Library Directory Database of the Day--Invisible Web Federal Depository Library Directory From the site, "The Federal Depository Library Directory is the official GPO directory that includes information on all Federal depository libraries, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, etc. It is updated on this website on the first Friday of each month. It is possible to search the file for information about individual libraries, the number of depository libraries in a congressional district, types of libraries, and item selections."
Online Research Tools "E-Libraries Hoping to Profit From Term Paper Blues" From the article, "With the development of electronic books, or e-books, still stymied by numerous roadblocks, a number of Internet companies are now starting to take a similar but different route. These firms are building digital collections of books, or e-libraries. But rather than offering fiction and other general works that users pay to download and read on pricey e-book devices, e-libraries are primarily collecting academic texts that readers can search and view via the Web on any PC." See Also: "ebrary Announces Strategic Content Agreement With Yale University Press"
Monday Morning News Briefs Info Industry--Lexis-Nexis Salon.Com Content Added to L-N News Files ---- Info Industry--Bloomberg All About Bloomberg and Michael Bloomberg in this Business Week cover story Sunday, April 15, 2001
Book Reviews--Nicholson Baker's 'Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper' From the New York Times Reviewed by David Gates -- From the Washington Post Reviewed by Michael Dirda From the 2nd Paragraph: "Not that libraries aren't also the greatest cultural institutions of all time: They are -- just as librarians are unsung heroes and saints." -- See Also: "The Collector" an Interview with Nicholson Baker (New York Times, 4/15/01) Saturday, April 14, 2001
Business--CEO's--Lecture Series Streaming Media Content Captain's Of Industry Lecture Series "A series of talks [12 lectures] at the 92nd Street Y in New York sponsored by Business Week and moderated by Stephen Shepard, Business Week's editor-in-chief." All lectures can be viewed via Real Player. Participants: Jeff Bezos--Founder & CEO of Amazon.com Michael Dell--CEO of Dell Computer Meg Whitman--CEO of eBay Larry Ellison--CEO of Oracle Gerald Levin--Chairman & CEO of Time Warner Carly Fiorina--President & CEO of Hewlett Packard Tim Koogle--Chairman, CEO & President of Yahoo! Mel Karmazin--CEO, Board member and largest shareholder of CBS Michael Bloomberg--Founder, Principal Owner, and CEO of Bloomberg LP Edgar Bronfman Jr.--President and CEO of Seagram Co. Steve Case--Chairman and CEO of America Online Inc. John F. Welch Jr.--Chairman and CEO of General Electric Co. Information Quality--Health Medical Information--Internet Access New Term of the Day: 'Cyberchondria' Source: BBC Online "Doctors are being faced with a brand new condition - "cyberchondria" or "internet print out syndrome". Patients are now using the internet to find out more about their illnesses, but often mis-diagnose symptoms or stumble across quack cures." Telephone Directories--White Pages--United States WhitePages.Com "Enhances" Searchability The usefulness and quality of each online phone directory varies greatly. WhitePages.Com obtains data from Acxiom. What's New? Highlights from the announcement: Enhanced Look-Up by Name Search -- The new enhanced look-up by name search allows users to find contact information even if they do not know the correct or full spelling of the name of the individual they are looking for. Enhanced Reverse Look-Up Search -- The reverse look-up feature allows a user to obtain an address and name by either inputting an entire phone number or by simply inputting the first or last few digits. With the new enhanced reverse look-up search capabilities, searches can be narrowed down to apply to a certain area code and/or state, in order to avoid unnecessary and unwanted listings. Look-up by Address -- WhitePages.com is proud to announce that it is one of the first major online residential listings publishers to offer users the ability to find a name and/or phone number by allowing the user to input address`information only. Further, users can now search by street number range, which will provide contact information for residences located on a particular street or area. Read The Complete Press Release. Friday, April 13, 2001
Business--Rankings--United States The 2001 ed. of the Fortune 500 is Now Online (Link to Complete Package) Direct to the Fortune 500 List
Information Quality Evaluation--Resource Compilation "Evaluating The Quality of Information on the Internet" Genie Tyburski's compiles this "must have" resource complete with checklists, webliographies, and evaluation tips. Professional Organizations--Special Libraries Association SLA Names New Executive Director: Roberta Shaffer Ms. Shaffer comes to SLA from the University of Texas where she was Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Automotive Safety--Safety Rankings Web Site Update "New Rollover Ratings and New Crash Test Results Available on NHTSA's World Wide Web Site" (Summary) "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) latest rollover resistance ratings and crash test results for 2001 model year vehicles are now available on the agency's World Wide Web site: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov." Direct to NHTSA Crash Test Page
Full-Text Document Shelf (4 Items) Children--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census "The 'Nuclear Family' Rebounds" (Summary) Direct to Full-Text Document: Living Arrangements of Children 16 page .pdf file ---- Energy Industry--United States Electricity Deregulation--Fact Sheets--United States Electricity Restructuring Fact Sheets Source: EIA See Also: Status of State Electric Utility Deregulation Activity ---- Transportation--United States Airports--Rural--United States Rural Airports List: 2001 Update Lists available in HTML, Excel, or CSV formats. ---- Updated Data Business--Transportation--United States Motor Carrier Financial and Operating Statistics: Updated 1999 Data Updated quarterly reports of the revenues, earnings, and ridership of Class I bus companies for 1999. Investing--Database--Invisible Web Brokerages--Performance--Database Marketperform.Com From a News.Com article, "Marketperform.com tracked the stock recommendations made by the top 48 brokerages back to February 1999. This period includes a boom year, during which the Nasdaq doubled, and a bear market when it collapsed, losing more than 60 percent of its value.Each time a brokerage issues a stock recommendation, Marketperform records the price of the stock on that date. The service then reports how much money you would have made after buying each stock. Marketperform computes the average profit if you would have sold each stock one month, three months, or six months later--or whenever the broker lowered the stock's recommendation." Free registration required.
Ellis Island Records--Database Genealogy--United States "Ellis Island Records Go Online" Source: Newsbytes From the article, "The immigration records of more than 17 million Americans who entered the country through Ellis Island, N.Y. will go online for the first time next Tuesday, Apr. 17." Thursday, April 12, 2001
Information Technology--Layoffs Invisible Web--Databases The layoffs and closings continue in the IT world. A reminder of three databases from The Standard that will help you monitor and research the situation. Search via several criteria including company name, reason, and date. Layoff Tracker ||| Ex-Exec Tracker ||| Flop Tracker
Pulitzer Prizes--Webcast Journalism--Awards Live, Only on the Web, the 2001 Pulitzer Prizes Edited from a recently received e-mail. A reminder that freedomforum.org, the Internet website of the Freedom Forum, presents, for the third straight year, exclusive live coverage of the 2001 Pulitzer Prizes. Our live webcast begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, Monday April 16th. The program, which will orginate from the Newseum in Arlington, Virginia, will feature live reports from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where the awards are administered, and where they will be announced on Monday. We will also feature live phone interviews with winners, in some cases, as they are celebrating the awards with their newsroom staffs. This is the third year that the Freedom Forum has been given exclusive rights to broadcast over the web live from Columbia's "World Room" immediately after the announcement of the awards. There is no other radio or television coverage of this event available. To listen to the program, go to http://www.freedomforum.org and click on "View Today's News". In the upper right hand corner of the following page, look for the Pulitzer webcast graphic, which should take you to the webcast. The Pulitzer program will be available for continuous "looped" repeat listening, for approximately 24 hours, beginning at 430 pm Eastern time on Monday the 16th.
Licensing Database--Arkansas Counselor or Marriage and Family Therapist License Verification Database Source: The Arkansas State Board of Examiners in Counseling
Full-Text Document Shelf (2 Items) Transportation--Canada History--Canada Immigration-Canada Source: Citizen and Immigration Canada The Role of Transportation in Canadian Immigration 1900-2000 -- Privacy--United States Statistical Information--United States Source: GAO Record Linkage and Privacy: Issues in Creating New Federal Research and Statistical Information A 172 page .pdf file. Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Internet Domains U.S. Government To Give Control of .EDU Domain To EDUCAUSE From the story, "The US government today announced plans to cede control over the .edu Internet domain to the not-for-profit higher education organization Educause." Additional details via EDUCAUSE News Release
Full-Text Document Shelf Copyright--United States--Tasini Case U.S. Supreme Court Places New York Times Co. v. Tasini Oral Argument Transcript Online It's a 43 page .pdf file.
Must Read! Web--The Future Tim Berners-Lee & Others Explain the Semantic Web Source: Scientific American Key Passage, "The Semantic Web will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users. Such an agent coming to the clinic's Web page will know not just that the page has keywords such as "treatment, medicine, physical, therapy" (as might be encoded today) but also that Dr. Hartman works at this clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and that the script takes a date range in yyyy-mm-dd format and returns appointment times...The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation. The first steps in weaving the Semantic Web into the structure of the existing Web are already under way. In the near future, these developments will usher in significant new functionality as machines become much better able to process and "understand" the data that they merely display at present." Environment--Toxic Releases--United States Environment--Databases--Invisible Web 1999 Toxic Release Data Now Online "Today the Environmental Protection Agency is releasing the 1999 Toxics Release Inventory data, providing the public with the latest data on releases of chemicals in their communities. Access to the data is available via several sources including the TRS Explorer. Art-American Online Teaching Tool--National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.) Exploring Themes in American Art From the site, "Learn about themes in American Art through these illustrated essays on abstraction, the figure, historical subjects, landscape painting, marine painting, portraiture, narrative art, scenes from everyday life, still life, and topographical views. Adapted from the interactive videodisc American Art from the National Gallery of Art, one of the Gallery's free-loan educational programs, this feature also includes artist biographies, a glossary, and bibliographic references." News Briefs National Archives Administration--United States NARA Wants To Spend $20 Million on Electronic Record Archive in 2002 Story Lead, "The National Archives and Records Administration wants to spend $20 million on its electronic records archive in 2002, more than 20 times the amount budgeted for this year. The money is included in the Archives’ budget request sent to Congress April 9." ---- Web Search--Search Engine Showdown Greg Notess Updates His Inktomi Review, Selects A New Fave Inktomi Engine ---- State Web Sites--Delaware Deleware Revamps Main State Portal ---- National Library of Canada "National Library of Canada’s Database Enhanced by 450 000 Records from the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec" ---- Online Books Source: News.Com "Borders hands online operations to Amazon" Tuesday, April 10, 2001
Search Engine Frustration Net Rage/Web Rage Continues According To New Study Last summer, Chris Sherman reported on a study commissioned by WebTop (a U.K. based search engine) that alerted us to "Web Rage". Today, Newsfactor reports on what appears to be a updated version of the WebTop survey. We learn from the article that the problem continues and is now called "Net Rage". Summary: *Survey Conducted in the U.K. *Volume of Info on the Net Causes Stress *Users Do Appreciate the Amount of Info Available On the Web *Search Engines Quantity and Quality are Confusing To Users Key Quote #1, "They [search engines] may produce thousands of results, but often these are full of links to useless information, advertising banners and promotional garbage, and not to the information the person is looking for," said the study's writer, Edward Kerr. "As a result, people are often forced to give up the search and look elsewhere." Key Quote #2, "The study found that 36 percent of UK Net users spend more than two hours online searching for accurate information, and that it takes an average of 12 minutes before a user becomes frustrated with an unproductive search." Executive Compensation--Rankings--United States Business Week's Executive Pay Special Report Now Online Several lists and charts are also available, see "related items". Direct to: Executive Compensation Scoreboard (.pdf) Web Browsers--Opera Let's Go to the Opera, New Version for Windows (5.10) is Now Available I love Opera. The new version, available today, has several new features and claims to be faster than ever. Never tried Opera? It's worth the download and some testing. Current Events--United States Weather--Flooding--United States Flooding in Dakotas and Minnesota NOAA/National Weather Service with a background article and webliography of key resources to monitor the situation. Web Search-Google More Kind Words For Google From the ZDNET article, "Behind you! Is Google sneaking up on Yahoo?": "Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has become the search destination of choice for the technology-savvy and many others. The site also has earned the plaudits of search mavens, partly for its single-minded focus on search technology and its abstinence from the kind of information, communication and commercial extras that characterize Yahoo and other portals." Related News: Google To Power Yahoo! Everywhere
Full-Text Document Shelf Demographics--United States Education--Statistics--United States Source: U.S Census What's It Worth? Field of Training and Economic Status (P70-72) Tables Only and Documentation ------ ------ U.S./China Relations International Relations Congressional Research Service Materials The Federation Of American Scientists have made several Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports available dealing with U.S./China relations. Here are links to a few of them. IB98018: China-U.S. Relations (updated March 1, 2001) 19 page .pdf IB91121: China-U.S. Trade Issues (updated March 5, 2001) 17 page .pdf IB98034: Taiwan: Recent Developments and US Policy Choices (updated March 15, 2001) 18 page .pdf China's Economic Conditions (updated March 12, 2001) 18 page .pdf Additional CRS Material via FAS ------ ------ E-Government New Study on E-Government From Accenture From the article: The U.S. government took third place behind the governments of Canada and Singapore in a broad-ranging Accenture study of electronic-government services around the world. Consultants at Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting of Chicago, carried out the study in January by pretending to be local citizens and businesses conducting Internet transactions with 22 governments. They tested 165 types of transactions such as defense, education, human services, postal, public safety and transportation." Direct to Full-Text of Report 19 page .pdf File Direct To Accenture News Release
Preprints The PrePrint Network from the U.S. Department of Energy Continues to Expand An e-mail announcing an expanded and improved PrePrint network appeared on several lists yesterday. The expanded PPN site has: * Over 4,000 sites (over 16-fold increase from the 250 sites when PPN was launched * Links to more than 700 professional societies * Personalized Alert Service * Some foreign language sites (with sufficient English content) From the email, "The PrePRINT Network facilitates searching of preprints by linking to preprint servers wherever they exist on the Web. Searches can be aimed at a single source or a selected set of preprint sites. It pulses the search engines of the selected preprint sites, compiles the results, and returns them to the users. For those sites which do not operate their own search engines, an indexed search of the HTML pages may be performed."
Canada--Environment--Database Canada--Pollution--Database From a Globe and Mail article, "In an attempt to turn up the heat on polluters, environmentalists have set up an Internet service that allows Canadians to type in their postal codes and receive a listing of the toxic compounds released near their homes and the companies responsible for the pollutants...Although Environment Canada makes this information available, its Web site is more difficult to use than the new one, and lacks some of its interactive features...Users of the new service, after they type in their postal code, can receive a listing titled "Who is polluting your community?" followed by a ranking of companies. The service also lists the type of pollutants being released." Direct to Pollutionwatch database.
Reference--Reviews New Reviews from Peter Jacso Peter's Digital Reference Shelf is updated with reviews of The Canadian Encyclopedia Online and adflip. Monday, April 09, 2001
Budget--United States-- FY 2002 Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2002 "The FY 2002 Budget was transmitted to Congress on April 9, 2001 and covers the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2001." Training Tools--Databases--ERIC New ERIC "Quick Instructions" Resource The ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education releases a new guide to advanced searching with the web version of ERIC.
Information Visualization Tools Stock Exchange Data--NASDAQ NASDAQ 100 Heatmap From the site, "Adopted from professional trading floors, Heatmaps allow you to spot significant price changes as they occur. Each colored rectangle represents an individual company in the Nasdaq-100. The cell color changes as prices change, so you can easily see market trends and opportunities." Learn more about Heatmaps from NeoVision. Archives--Canada Canada Post and National Archives Announce "Virtual" Postal Archive From the release, "Over the next three years, the National Archives will work closely with Canada Post to create the Virtual Canadian Postal Archives. Designed for national and international users, the site will provide access to the philatelic library, documents and other archival material, as well as 15,000 images displaying the entire National Archives stamp collection and related documents." Web Search & Portal News Briefs NBC Abandons NBCi We will have to wait and see what this means for those of you who use NBCi. From the article, "NBC followed in Walt Disney's footsteps on Monday as it abandoned its expensive efforts to maintain a full-fledged online portal and ended its experiment with a separate class of internet tracking stock." --- Google Lands Another Site Search Account: IDG.net IDG.net is an excellent one-stop shop to material from numerous publications including Computerworld, PC World, and The Industry Standard. Full-Text of News Release Sunday, April 08, 2001
Internal Revenue Service--Statistics New IRS Statistics Released from TRAC From an e-mail update: "The latest edition of TRAC's IRS site has just gone up with an important new finding -- analysis of IRS data indicates that many of the agency's techniques for persuading individuals and business to pay their taxes are faltering. Key computer matching programs are down, audits have dropped, collection activities are down, criminal and civil enforcement is way down." TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) is located at Syracuse University. Information Technology--Asia--List Information Technology--People Asia's 25 Movers and Shakers 2001 Source: ZDNet Asia A new list from Ziff-Davis Asia.
Full-Text Document Shelf Elections--United Kingdom Reference--United Kingdom Source: House of Commons Library UK Election Statistics 1945-2000 Related Docs: By Elections Since the 1997 General Election 23 pages General Election Results: 1 May 1997 92 pages Saturday, April 07, 2001
Business--Databases (Fee-Based)--Training Materials Business--Databases (Fee-Based)--Help Documentation Georgetown's Business Intelligence Center Debuts "Help Sheets for Databases" Compilation Kudos to Jennifer Boettcher and the BIC staff for taking the time to compile this worthwhile resource. It is an "international effort to highlight excellence in support materials for unique business sources." Currently material is available for 12 databases. If you wish to contribute, please contact Jennifer at: boettcher@gunet.georgetown.edu Web Debate--Electronic Access Publishing "Future e-access to the primary literature" Sponsored by Science From the site, "The topic of this Nature forum -- the impact of the Web on the publishing of the results of original research -- has, since the emergence of the Internet, filled volumes in the reports of conference proceedings and reams of individual articles...The main aim of this forum is to bring some of the substance of this Brownian motion of Internet issues to a broader grassroots audience and debate the implications for the future dissemination of scientific information."
Databases--Crime--Pennsylvania Databases--Invisible Web Pennsylvania State Police Place New Crime Reports Database Online From the release, "The public now can view the Pennsylvania crime statistics online as soon as police enter the data," Col. Evanko said. "This new system -- the first of its kind in the country -- enables police departments throughout the Commonwealth to file their crime information electronically." Direct to Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Reports Database Friday, April 06, 2001
Info Industry--Moreover Specialty Web Search Web Search Info Source: Information Today Moreover's Co-Founder and CEO Speaks Paula Hane interviews Moreover co-founder and CEO Nick Denton. Moreover is an excellent web service and search tool to find news content from over 1800 sources. It's important to remember that general web search tools (Google, AltaVista, Excite, etc.) are not very good at making current news content accessible. Why? A number of reasons including time-lag. Time Lag? Search spiders and crawlers return to sites on an irregular basis and then make the refreshed database available often weeks after the content was published. For example: If you search the Google cache for the CNN.Com homepage you are searching on a page/site that was last crawled on February 28, 2001, 37 days ago. Again, this is one of many reasons that using a specialty or Invisible Web search tool is a good idea for news and current events. Info Industry--SilverPlatter Info Industry--Wolters Kluwer Wolter Kluwer Acquires SilverPlatter From the release, "Wolters Kluwer today announced it will acquire SilverPlatter Information (Boston, United States). SilverPlatter, with annual sales of approximately USD 70 million, is a provider of medical and scientific databases and related software. The company will be combined with Ovid Technologies..." Link to SilverPlatter Announcement
Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items) Energy--Gasoline--Forecast--U.S. Driving--U.S. Source: Energy Information Agency Summer 2001 Motor Gasoline Outlook 22 page .pdf file Education--Statistics--United States HISTORICAL School Enrollment Reports Selected material back to 1962. Manufacturing--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census Annual Survey of Manufactures: Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries--Geographic Area Statistics State-level data, 1997-1999. Summary/News Release Thanks to PS for the Update.
Weather--Facts--United States Weather--Economic Impacts--United States Web Site: Extreme Weather Sourcebook 2001 From the site: "Economic and Other Societal Impacts Related to Hurricanes, Floods, Tornadoes, Lightning, and Other U.S. Weather Phenomena." Site Sponsors: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). New/Updated Sites Briefs Canada--Travel Canada--National Parks Parks Canada Vacation Planners --- World Bank World Bank Publications (Fee-Based Materials), New Web Site -- Web Search Business Will AltaVista Be Put Up For Sale? Source: Industry Standard Europe -- Web Filtering--United States First Amendment Issues "Web Filters At Schools, Libraries By July 2002 - FCC" Source: Newsbytes
Professional Reading Shelf Online Information--Preservation "Digital Preservation: Paradox & Promise" Richard Wiggins with a thorough a well written article from the Spring isssue of LJ netconnect supplement. The article includes a list of the causes of "digital death". Very useful ---- Resource Naming and Identification "Pesistence is A Virtue" Key Quote: "The success of an open distributed information system based on the www depends in the long-term on the consistency and reliability of the links which are made between documents and the links which are made in the catalogues, indexes and resource listings which provide discovery services for web based resources. These links must remain static over time." The National Library of Australia placed this paper online earlier this week. It was written by Diana Dack and presented at the Information Online 2001 Conference held in Sydney, Australia, 16-18 January 2001. Thursday, April 05, 2001
Canadian Resources Round-Up *** Health Advisories--Canada Source: Health Canada New Website: Advisories for Health Professionals *** Full-Text Document Shelf Intelligence Community--Canada Source: Government Of Canada The Canadian Security and Intelligence Community: Helping Keep Canada and Canadians Safe and Secure A 29 page .pdf file.
Web Reference Tools Info Industry--U.K. XRefer to Launch a Fee-Based Professional Version Article highlights, "XRefer.com, the self-styled Web reference search engine, is planning a professional version of its service for libraries in the academic, public and corporate sectors...The service, [Daryl] Rayner said, will probably costs under 1,000 pounds ($1,500) and, based on feedback from libraries, will be available as a networked product for use in library terminal situations..."There aren't that many products out there in this area," she said, citing the example of the Oxford English Dictionary, and adding that by hosting the service on the XRefer.com servers, the library service will offer up-to-date information to multiple terminals on a controlled basis." Never visited XRefer? The site is home to many authoritative and free to use reference tools. Direct to XRefer See Also: Read an Interview with XRefer Marketing Director Daryl Rayner.
Archives--United Kingdom Archives--Web Directories New Online Service: London Archives on the Wider World From the news release, "A new online service, London Archives on the Wider World, will help researchers and students locate the sources of this kind of information via the internet...London Archives on the Wider World is part of a nationwide programme entitled Access to Archives (A2A) led by the Public Record Office, the Historical Manuscripts Commission and the British Library. It will consist of over 15,000 catalogue pages on archival gems and will be available via A2A's database. This will provide a one-stop shop by making archive catalogues available centrally and in a searchable format." Direct to "Access 2 Archives" Database New Resource Government Spending--United States How Does The Federal Government Spend Money in Each Congressional District? From the article, "The Center for National Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization, is creating an Internet site that will show in detail how the federal government spends money in the nation’s congressional districts. The Center for National Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization, is creating an Internet site that will show in detail how the federal government spends money in the nation’s congressional districts...Through a project called "What Government Does" (www.solfopro.com/CNP), the center plans to offer a detailed look at federal spending in each congressional district. So far, analysis on federal spending in three states — Ohio, Michigan and Illinois — has been completed. Direct to "What Government Does" resource. Business--Women--United States--Lists Source: Forbes America's Top Businesswomen Forbes introduces a new list. Full-Text Document Shelf Business--Women Owned--United States Women--Statistics--United States Women Owned Businesses (1997 Economic Census) "The 1997 Economic Census defines women-owned businesses as privately held firms in which women own 51 percent or more of the firm. In the 1992 survey, businesses were counted as women-owned if women owned 50 percent or more of the firm; this included publicly held firms based on assumptions about the gender of the majority of their stockholders, as well as firms which were jointly owned by women and their spouses." Direct to Full-Text and Other Economic Census Data Document Placed Online 4/4/01 Used Book Resources--Online Bibliofind to be Completely United with Amazon.Com From the article, "in a letter to customers this week, Bibliofind said it would unite with Amazon through Amazon's Marketplace and zShops operations beginning May 7."
Web Search--Tools Current Awareness Tools Adios to EgoSurf, EoMonitor, Javelink and Daily Diffs We were awaiting official confirmation. Details via this Wired News story.
Databases of the Day--Invisible Web Sports--Major League Baseball Historical PLAYER Statistics: Major League Baseball (1871 to the Present) Historical TEAM Statistics: Major League Baseball (1871 to the Present) Historical LEADERS Statistics: Major League Baseball (1871 to the Present) Wow! Need a baseball player or team stat? Then check out these Invisible Web databases direct from Major League Baseball. Give yourself some time to learn and explore these resources. Btw, know a baseball fan? Make a friend and alert them to these tools.
Web Search Future Search "New Rules for Net Searches: Location, Location, Location" Source: NY Times "In SRI's proposed .geo system, the world would be carved into "cells," each represented by a local Internet server or servers, called georegistries. These cells would vary in size, depending on how much information was available for a particular geographic area. Manhattan, for example, would have hundreds of small cells, while a less populated area like Nebraska would have a few cells." Additional Details via this SRI International Press Release. Web Reference--Online Encyclopedias United States--Encyclopedias The National Endowment for the Humanities Begins Grants to Create on Online Encyclopedia An encylopedia for each of the 50 States, D.C., and all 5 U.S. Territories. From the release, "NEH's online state encyclopedia initiative will have a tremendous educational and economic impact in each state," [William] Ferris [NEH Chairman] said. "With an online encyclopedia as a portal, each state's cultural heritage will become eadily accessible not only in America but throughout the world. The encyclopedias will raise awareness of the importance of geographical roots and foster pride of place." Wednesday, April 04, 2001
Info Industry--H.W. Wilson Wilson Selects Blueflame to Design and Develop WilsonWeb Databases Key from News Release, "The enhanced WilsonWeb, available later this year, includes greater system stability, improved support for full text searches, and a more capable, faster search engine, all of which will be particularly valuable to power end users and librarian searchers." We look forward to seeing the changes later this year. Direct to Blueflame Inc. site.
Full-Text Document Shelf Child Abuse--Statistics--U.S. Child Neglect--Statistics--U.S. Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Child Abuse and Neglect: 1999 120 page .pdf file. Online Exhibition--U.S. History American Originals: Materials from the Traveling Exhibit From the National Archives. Documents Include: *Voting Record of the Constitutional Convention, 1787 *The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 *John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961 Online Exhibition--U.S. History Online Exhibition--Maps--U.S. Online Exhibition--19th Century Performing Arts Two New Virtual Exhibits from the NY Public Library: Heading West & Touring West From the site, "Heading West: Mapping the Territory reveals the evolution on paper from an imagined West to a mapped West, seemingly defined yet still a fiction of sorts." From the site, "Touring West: 19th-century Performing Artists on the Overland Trails: This online exhibition celebrates the creators, promoters, and performers of professional theater, music, and dance who toured the American continent." Details and background via this AP story.
Higher Education "MIT To Post Most Course Materials On The Web" Source: Newsbytes Story lead, "In a step which it said challenges the privatization of knowledge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced plans to make the materials for nearly all its courses freely available on the Web over the next 10 years." Additional Coverage from the NY Times.
Knowledge Management Source: Darwin "When Bad Things Happen To Good Ideas" From the article, "Knowledge management is a solid concept that fell in with the wrong company. Software companies, to be precise."
Web Tools--Updates Quickbrowse & EQuill Two useful webtools with just announced new features/updates. Both tools are free to use. 1) Quickbrowse Combine your favorite web pages into a single scroll page. Save time! 2) E-Quill Description, "EQuill Visual Markup allows you to mark up, highlight, edit, and post notes to documents directly through the Web browser." Small download (404k). Web Search--Music (Beta) Invisible Web Something To Try Cool? You be the Judge MSN Launches A "Sounds Like" Music Search Tool (Beta) This is the technology Microsoft acquired with the purchase of MondoMusic.Com Learn more via this article from Infoworld. From the article, "Microsoft touted the "sounds-like" search technology of MSN Music in its announcement. A computer program and MSN musicologists, dubbed "groovers," power this feature, which is intended to let the users "easily discover new music." Tuesday, April 03, 2001
New Database--Science Web Search--Science Focused Crawler--Science Elsevier Science Officially Launches Scirus.Com Highlights: *Utilizes "Fast" Search and Transfer technology (Alltheweb.Com) *Claims to search over 60 million science related pages including .pdf and postscript material. *Crawls fee-based (controlled access material). From the press release, "In addition to scientific information that is freely available on the Web, Scirus will cover Elsevier Science's leading information resources: ScienceDirect, BioMedNet and Chemweb. Elsevier Science is currently in final negotiations with other scientific publishing companies to make their proprietary databases searchable through Scirus." Direct to Scirus.Com Info Industry--BioOne Science Information--Fee-Based BioOne Launches Subsciption Service on the WWW From an e-mail message, "BioOne has licensed the content of 40 highly cited, peer-reviewed journals..The titles in BioOne are published by scientific societies and other nonprofit organizations and most have until now been available only in print...Nonsubscribers can view the tables of contents and abstracts of participating journals." A list of current issues is available. Electronic Information--Bibliography The "Subject Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information" April Update is Now Online. Marian Dworaczek's important and useful bibliography is a must bookmark. Marian's description of his resource, "The page-specific "Subject Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information" and the accompanying "Electronic Sources of Information: A Bibliography" (listing all indexed items) deal with all aspects of electronic publishing and include print and non-print materials, periodical articles, monographs and individual chapters in collected works. This edition includes 1,366 titles. Both the Index and the Bibliography are continuously updated." Instructions and examples are also available. Marian is a acquisitions librarian at the University of Saskatchewan.
Web Portals--Business Business.Com Version 2.0 Launched Highlights include: Enhanced search, personalization via mybusiness.com, updated industry pages, redesigned company pages, and content from the Financial Times. Later this month an "enhanced news" resource is set to debut. "...Enhanced News provides information on specific categories and subcategories from 500 top-notch sources, covering more than 20,000 companies, 1,000 industries and 500 business people as well as top business headlines selected by the Business.com editorial team." Direct to Business.Com Thanks GT!
New Database--Invisible Web Agriculture--Imports/Exports--United States U.S. Trade Internet System From the news release, "Exporters now have unlimited access to the most up-to-date trade data on U.S. exports and imports of agricultural, fishery, and forestry products. The U.S. Trade Internet System, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, incorporates the latest export and import data supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau.This new service allows users the flexibility to customize their data searches and save their search criteria for repeated use. Data can be selected by harmonized code or selected commodity groupings on either a value or volume basis. Users will also be able to track trade trends since the database will include exports and imports going back to 1989."
Web Search--Google Online Translation--Google Google Introduces Translation Tool (BETA) From the site, "Using machine translation technology, Google now enables English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. This feature is currently available for pages published in Italian, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese." Access is via a link next to each result eligible for translation. Additionally, titles and summaries can be translated by checking the proper box on the preferences page. Web Search--Northern Light Need to Consult with An Expert in Science, Engineering, Technology? News Release highlights, "Sopheon and Northern Light have formed a strategic alliance designed to provide access to Sopheon's Intota scientific and technical expert network through Northern Light's Web search engine. Experts in specific areas of science, technology, engineering and industry are available to answer questions through confidential telephone or e-mail consultation, and to provide extended consultation on projects. Service costs can be paid via credit card directly online. Once on the site, a user can do additional searches to locate expertise, or browse by any of 33,000 subject areas in science and technology. Upon selecting an expert, the user is shown a complete description of the expertise offered and can ask a question or post a project for the expert's review." Direct to Sopehon/NL Search Interface. Info Industry--Factiva Enterprise Information Tools XML Factiva Launches Filtered XML Feed From the release, "Factiva Select is a filtered XML content feed that allows customers to readily integrate Factiva's global content into any number of end-user applications or computing environments. In addition, customers can co-mingle up to 90 days of Factiva content with third-party and internal content to build a searchable, universally indexed content collection making work practices more efficient."
Future Search P2P Search--Infrasearch Learn More about Infrasearch Recently, this p2p search technology was acquired by Sun. Web Search--Business--Inktomi Layoffs at Inktomi From the story, "In announcing the 25 percent reduction in its work force, Foster City-based Inktomi warned its business during the just-completed quarter eroded much faster than management anticipated...In response to diminishing demand, Inktomi said it will prune its 1,050-employee payroll through layoffs and attrition in the next 90 days. The company, which has been among the Internet's most prominent advertisers, also is trimming its marketing budget." Web Portals--Yahoo Yahoo Launches Premium Content, Real-Time Market Info Highlights, "Consumers can now have real-time market information streamed live to their desktops with the new Yahoo! Finance MarketTracker...The real-time information will also be available to subscribers throughout the Yahoo! network. The real-time package is available for $9.95 a month..." Read a VERY unfavorable of this new Yahoo service from Forbes. Monday, April 02, 2001
Education--Directory The Education Resource Organizations Directory has been updated. Source: U.S. Department of Education This searchable directory now contains over 4,000 entries.
SIC/NAICS Codes--Size Standards--Tables SIC Codes and Their Size Standards Matched to Their Corresponding NAICS Codes and their Size Standards Source: SBA From the site, "From here you can find your NAICS code and its size standard, if you know your SIC code. Because a single file with this information would be much to large, we have broken it down into the 11 Divisions of the SIC system. We have, for informational purposes only, included the SIC codes for Public Administration, although there were no size standards for them."
Full-Text Document Shelf Electronic Dissemination of Information--U.S. Government Electronic Dissemination of Government Publications GAO-01-428 New 86 page report from the Government Accounting Office (GAO). Population--United States--U.S. Census Population Change and Distribution: 1990-2000 Summary Press Release See Also: Population Center of United States Press Release Airlines--Quality--United States Airline Quality Report 2001 From the press release, "Delta Airlines is the top airline in a study ranking 10 major U.S. airlines. The results of the national Airline Quality Rating (AQR) study were announced at a news conference today (April 2) in Washington, D.C. The rating is conducted annually by the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University (WSU) and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNOmaha) Aviation Institute. The AQR, as an industry standard, provides consumers and industry watchers with a means to compare quality among airlines using objective performance-based data. It is a cooperative research project funded as part of faculty research activities at WSU and UNOmaha." Press Release ||| Full-Text of Report ||| Summary Report 1996-2000 Airline Quality Ratings See Also: Airlines--On-Time Statistics--United States Airline On-Time Statistics: NEW VERSION From the FAA, "Find information on flight delays, cancellations and diversions for the nation's major airlines and the airports they serve since 1997."
Higher Education--Graduate Schools--United States Higher Education--Graduate Schools--Rankings U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools 2002 Now Online
Web Directories--International Business Thunderbird Global Gateway The American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) has completely overhauled and improved their "Global Gateway" of international business links. From a recent e-mail, "Global Gateway, is a dynamic, database-driven guide to global business. Global Gateway indexes nearly three thousand web links useful to the international business researcher. The database may be browsed by category, or searched by keyword or phrase. Kudos to W.E. and the rest of the Thunderbird staff.
Online Access--Biosciences "Should all research papers in the biosciences be placed in one, free-access, web library? Yes, say 12,000 scientists" Source: New Scientist From the article, "The proposed archive, called "PubMed Central", was set up by Harold Varmus when he was director of the US National Institutes of Health. Major journals which already deposit their papers there include the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the British Medical Journal." Industry News--Hoover's--Enterprise Tools Moreover Content to be Added to Hoover's Intelligence Monitor Additional Info about Hoover's Intelligence Monitor
The Virtual Acquisition Shelf & News Desk March 2001 Archives Now Available You can find a complete set of March TVAS&ND postings via the Archives link located in the left column (gray box). Have fun and browse away!
Non-Profits--Foundations--United States--Statistics Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates "Foundation Center Announces Estimates for 2000 Foundation Giving" Press Release ||| Full-Text of Report Preservation Projects--New Zealand Digitization Projects--New Zealand "Preservation Resources to Digitize National Library of New Zealand 19th Century Newspaper Collection" From the release, ""This newspaper digitizing project is one of our library's first steps toward a long-term strategy of digitizing selected material to make it accessible for New Zealanders as well as users in other parts of the world," said Christopher Blake, the chief executive of the National Library of New Zealand. "We selected Preservation Resources for this project because they demonstrated throughout our project's vendor-selection processes that they were able to meet all the specific needs of the library in terms of time, quality, cost and experience." Sunday, April 01, 2001
Web Searching--Semantic Analysis "Can Computers Understand the Meaning of Words? Maybe, in the New World of Latent Semantic Analysis" From the Globe and Mail, "Anyone who has tried to find information on databases knows this hair-pulling frustration: Computers cannot overcome what programmers call "the problem of synonymy." If we could only teach them to understand the content of words, to comprehend synonyms, we could revolutionize the way individuals and businesses sort information. But how? A firm in Boulder, Colo., called Knowledge Analysis Technologies thinks it may have cracked this nut. Its whole approach is to avoid keywords entirely--and try to teach computers how to read texts as a whole." Companies Mentioned: Knowledge Analysis Technologies
Web Search--AltaVista Langauge Translation AltaVista's Babel Fish Translation Service Now Offers Translation for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Languages From the News Release:"Babel Fish's ability to translate Chinese, Japanese and Korean comes at a time when Internet use in the Asia and Pacific region is experiencing tremendous growth while Internet use among Asian Americans is increasing as well. According to IDC research, devices to access the Web in the Asia and Pacific region reached 40 million in 1999 and are projected to increase to 163 million by 2003. Forrester Research estimates that 64 percent of Asian Americans are online." Direct To Babel Fish
Sports--Baseball--Team Values--Lists Source: Forbes Major League Baseball Team Values "Most Ballplayer For The Money" Additional Lists and Rankings
Legal--Research Centers--Directory The Jurist Legal Education Network with a very handy and helpful list of legal research centers. From the directory page: "Research Center pages generally provide subject-specific news, conference information and/or links to relevant online resources. These listings are by subject category, and are limited to law school Centers with a substantial online presence." x |
