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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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Sunday, March 31, 2002
Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents - Employment--United Kingdom--Lists & Rankings Source: The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For 2002 Guide to the "to the best employers in Britain." Events in the News--Middle East Various Reports from Legislative Research Organizations The following reports are available from the Congressional Research Service. To access these full-text reports (.pdf) head to this page from Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) or this page from Rep. Mark Green (R-WI). Then, select/click the appropriate category and scroll to the report. Here are a few selected new and/or recently updated reports. CRS Issue Briefs IB93087 Egypt-United States Relations IB93033 Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy IB85066 Israel: U.S. Foreign Assistance IB82008 Israeli-United States Relations IB93085 Jordan: U.S. Relations and Bilateral Issues IB89118 Lebanon IB93109 Libya IB91137 Middle East Peace Talks IB92052 Palestinians and Middle East Peace: Issues for the United States IB93113 Saudi Arabia: Current Issues and U.S. Relations IB92075 Syria: U.S. Relations and Bilateral Issues The following Research Papers are available (.pdf) from the House of Commons Library (U.K.) The Middle East Crisis: Camp David, the 'Al-Aqsa Intifada' and the Prospects for the Peace Process Published 1/2001 Developments in the Middle East Peace Process 1991-2000 Published 1/2001 The following Materials are available from the Parliamentary Library (Australia) Israel and the Palestinians: Endless Blood and Retribution? Published 3/2002, PDF Also Available Middle East Crisis: Losing Control? Published 12/2000, PDF Also Available Saturday, March 30, 2002
Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) -- Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Forbes 500, 2002 "...34th annual 500s directory is a report card on the 2001 financial performance of America's biggest corporations." -- Major League Baseball--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Current Major League Baseball Owners Player Costs by Team, 2001 -- Health New Additions: Medlineplus Webliographies Cloning Folic Acid Heart Diseases--Prevention Preventing Disease and Staying Healthy -- Police--United States--Statistics Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics Full-Text Document: Characteristics of Drivers Stopped by Police, 1999 Friday, March 29, 2002
Web Search--Teoma Source: ComputerWire "Teoma Ready For Relaunch, Wants to Be Google-Beater" This article discusses the upcoming "relaunch of Teoma". I've had an opportunity to see and demo the new product and continue to be impresses. I'll have more to say soon after the relaunch next week. Btw, when you have a spare moment make sure to read this article from a 1999 issue of Scientific American. It does an excellent job explaning several of the many of the concepts Teoma is utilizing. Economics--United Kingdom--Chronologies Business News--International--Chronologies Source: Biz/ed Chronolgy: The UK Economy - The Past Forty Years From the site, "...a brief summary of key economic events in each of the years from 1955 to 1979." See Also: This page of chronologies (keyword searchable) from Biz/Ed is another excellent source. The page is home to both U.K. and International business events. The 2002 chronology was updated last week. Thursday, March 28, 2002
Web Resource of the Week SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) Codes Database from D&B, 8 Digit Capability! A couple of weeks ago we noted a business directory from D&B. It's part of a fee-based service but using it to find phone numbers and addresses is free. In many cases this dbase also offers some value added info like top executive names and headquarter identification. This week, another high use database, D&B's SIC Search providing SIC Codes to the 8 digit level! It's searchable by either keywords or SIC code. Also available (free) to browse or download are tables of 4 digit SIC codes. The Internet Archive--Internet Filtering Source: Library Journal "Internet Filters Block Wayback Machine" From the article, The vast Wayback Machine, an ingenious service to Internet users, provides snapshots of past iterations of current web sites as well as sites that no longer exist. However, as activist Seth Finkelstein discovered, various Internet filter programs (or, as some call it, "censorware") block access to the archive." See Also: Direct to Seth Finkelstein's Investigation Web Search--Google Source: Newsbytes "Google Turns Away Robots From Its Front Door" Comment: This Newbytes article (linked above) contains information that is most likely old news for many of you. Webmasters and page creators have used the method described in this article to block spiders from crawling/indexing a site or a specific portion of a site for many years. We often refer to this content as the "opaque web", material that is technically crawlable, but for one or more reasons (ie. the webmaster decides to have it excluded by using the robots.txt protocol) is not accessible via a general-purpose search engine. Numerous other reasons exist to make material not accessible via a general purpose engine. Many of these illustrate the need to make use of specialized search services. More on this topic later. In some cases you can view the robots.txt file itself and find out what content is not being crawled by entering the web page address and then asking to see the file (http://www..com/robots.txt). Here are a few examples: Washington Post This robots.txt file includes a complete block to the spider for the Internet Archive. Environmental Protection Agency London School of Economics Material found in the images directory is not to be crawled. See Also: "Google's Unidexed URL's (via Search Engine Showdown) Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents New/Updated Reports from the Congressional Research Service It's time for another look at a selection of new and or updated reports from the CRS. To access these full-text reports(.pdf) head to this page from Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) or this page from Rep. Mark Green (R-WI). Then, select/click the appropriate category and scroll to the report. Here are a few selected new and/or recently updated reports. Issue Briefs IB93056 Bosnia: U.S. Military Operations (Updated 3/5/02) IB10045 Broadband Internet Access: Background and Issues (Updated 3/4/02) IB82008 Israeli-United States Relations (Updated 3/19/02) IB92052 Palestinians and Middle East Peace: Issues for the United States (Updated 3/19/02) IB92089 Russia (Updated 3/6/02) - Short Reports RS21120 Auditing and Its Regulators: Proposals for Reform after Enron (Updated 3/19/02) RS21136 Government Spending or Tax Reduction: Which Might Add More Stimulus to the Economy? (Updated 3/13/02) RS21142 Status of Trade Legislation in the 107th Congress (Updated 3/13/02) - Long Reports RL30329 Current Economic Conditions and Selected Forecasts (Updated 3/21/02) RL30052 Telephone Bills: Charges on Local Telephone Bills (Updated 3/13/02) See Also: A New Research Report from the Parliamentartary Library, House of Commons, Australia "Terrorism and The Law in Australia" "Terrorism and The Law in Australia: Supporting Materials" Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents E-Learning Source: Financial Times Full-Text, FT Survey: Understanding E-Learning One Year Ago in the VAS&ND Newspapers--Online Source: New York Times The New York Times Launches Site For College Students and Faculty "College Times" offers several features including a "Yahoo like" directory of news content and an e-mail alerting service. You will need to be a registered NYT user to access the full content. Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Hello from D.C. Professional Reading Shelf The March issue of Information Technology and Libraries is Available Online This is a special issue focusing on open source software. All articles are available full-text on the web. Here are the titles of the feature articles. "Open Source Software: A History" "Possibilities for Open Source Software in Libraries" "The Open Source ILS: Still Only a Distant Possibility" "MARC It Your Way: MARC.pm" "The EOR Toolkit: An Open Source Solution for RDF Metadata" "Open Source, Open Standards" Natural Language Processing--Experimental Projects Summarization Software Prototype Demo: NewsInEssence In early February we highlighted an article about NewsBlaster, an news summarization tool, using "open web" content. The software is being developed at Columbia University. Today, word of a similar project from the Computational Linguistics and Information Retrieval Department at the Unversity of Michigan. The service is described as a NewsInEssence "prototype system for finding and summarizing multiple news articles on the web." You can learn more about the components of the prototype by visiting this page. UPDATE (3/28): New York Times Story About NewsBlaster Web Search--Google Source: International Herald Tribune Interview With Chairman and CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Canadian Culture New Web Compilation: CultureCanada.GC.CA From the site, "...your window to the best Web sites about Canadian culture, heritage, sports and recreation." Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Hello from San Francisco, Calfornia! Digitization Projects--U.S. Department of Defense Source: Federal Computer Week "DOD Digitizes Documents" From the article, "As part of a new contract for declassification services, the Pentagon is creating an electronic catalog of newly available documents, making the historical record more accessible for future users."..."Exactly where the digital files reside and what they will be used for has yet to be determined, said Bob Storer, chief of the declassification historical research branch for Washington Headquarters Services, which serves OSD." News Brief Public Libraries--Internet Filtering Library Filtering Trial Gets Underway in Philly (Multnomah County Public Library v. United States) 1) Update via The Oregonian 2) Update via Wired News Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Energy--Global--Statistics Source: EIA New Edition: International Energy Outlook 2002 Highlights ||| Full-Text Document (pdf) - Aviation--United States--Statistics Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Statistics, 2001 Summary ||| Direct To Tables (also Available as Spreadsheets) - Business--Best Practices Source: GAO Executive Guide: Best Practices in Achieving Consistent, Accurate Physical Counts of Inventory and Related Property Monday, March 25, 2002
Machine-Translation--Internet Source: The Economist "Tongues of the Web" A brief history of machine translation along with comments on where mt is headed. See Also: SYSTRANet Free! A great set of machine translation tools for those of you who want/need to use mt. Over 35 language pairs available. Specialized, technical dictionaries for more precise translations are available. SYSTRAN powers the AltaVista BabelFish service. Online Information Industry--True Query Source: Information Today NewsBreaks "True Query Launches Service for IT Market" Paula Hane writes, "A newly formed company has taken on the task of providing information about technology products, markets, people, and companies to information technology (IT) knowledge workers. True Query, Inc. (http://www.truequery.net) has announced the availability of its namesake product, True Query, an online subscription service that provides the full text of articles from more than 60 technology publications produced by major IT publishers such as IDG, CMP Media, Cahners Business Information, and ZD Media." "Although True Query is designed to fill the void left when eShaman.com (the former ComputerSelectWeb) went under last fall, Carpenter said the service has been designed from scratch and that his company has no connection with the defunct Shaman Corp." Direct to True Query Web Tools--NoodleBib NoodleBib NoodleBib, one of my favorite web tools and part of the NoodleTools suite of servies, will be going to a fee-based model very soon. This is according to a note on the NoodleBib web site. The message includes this statement, "We have had to temporarily take NoodleBib offline, after our Web site host informed us on March 22nd that we are overloading their servers due to the amount of traffic that NoodleBib is now generating (over 41 GB per month). Within the next week, NoodleTools will begin monthly subscription access (subscription rates not yet finalized) to all tools on the site." For those of you who aren't familiar with NoodleBibs, this service allows you to build an MLA style bibliography by completing a series of web-based templates. When finished, the resulting bib can be easliy imported into a Word document. Good news, NoodleBib is developing an APA bibliography service. UPDATE: 3/27 New Info on NoodleBib Pricing Search Tools--Vivisimo Source: Info Today NewsBreaks "Vivísimo Clustering Chosen to Enhance Searching at Institute of Physics Publishing Site" From Barbara Quint's article, "The Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP; http://www.iop.org), a U.K.-based scholarly society publisher with a record of innovation in electronic publishing, has selected Vivísimo (http://vivisimo.com), a Pittsburgh-based advanced search engine company, to enhance its Electronic Journals service. Vivísimo runs a highly acclaimed Web metasearch engine, but it also markets its software to publishers and other data-hungry environments." Direct to the Vivisimo Web Search Demo Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Travel--Health Information Source: CDC Update, New Interactive Site: Health Information for International Travel (the "Yellow Book") From the site, "Health Information for International Travel (the "Yellow Book") is published every two years by CDC as a reference for those who advise international travelers of health risks. The Yellow Book is written primarily for health care providers, although others might find it useful. See Also: Direct to the "Yellow Book" See Also: Create/View Customized Versions of the Data See Also: Download the Full-Text of the Yellow Book (.pdf) Sunday, March 24, 2002
Professional Reading Shelf Source: Digital Library Federation "How and Why Are Libraries Changing?" A draft of a white paper by Denise Troll. Troll is a Distinguished Fellow at the DLF and the Assistant University Librarian, Library Information Technology, Carnegie Mellon. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Public Records--Real Estate--United States Compilation: NETRonline Public Record Directory (Real Estate) 1-2 click access to a national directory of assessor offices, state web sites, etc. If online info is not available for a specific county/parrish phone number and address is provided. This site also provides a link to a handy ready-reference database to determine the county/parrish location of a particular city/town. See Also: PORTICO (via Univeristy of Virginia) Saturday, March 23, 2002
Web Search--Google First Tweak of Google News Beta Google has made a welcome addition to their recently launched news engine. Results can now be sorted by relevance (default) or by date with the most recent articles appearing at the top of the results list. Time is determined by the time the article was crawled and then by date. The links to toggle this feature are located directly below the red bar on the right side of the page. Examples: 1) A search for the term Enron, sorted by relevance 2) A search for the term Enron, sorted by date And More News From the GooglePlex... Distributed Computing Web Search--Google Google Toolbar Source: ZD Net "Can Google's Toolbar Unlock Genes?" From the article, Google has begun an experiment that could turn its modest toolbar software into a supercomputer to tackle scientific problems such as untangling genetic codes." "The main motivations were to try to leverage Google's expertise with large computer systems and to try to give something back to science," said Susan Wojcicki, a Google product management director and the head of the Google Compute project.Google co-founder Sergey Brin initiated the project, Wojcicki said, and people started trying the software two weeks ago. An option on Google's toolbar lets the participants in the project download the necessary software to their computer. Google is considering offering the program to a larger audience, Wojcicki added." Note: The Google Toolbar is available to all Windows based IE users. However, the program described in the article is not available to the general public at this time. Stay tuned! Friday, March 22, 2002
Professional Reading Shelf Source: Journal of Electronic Publishing "The Indexing of Scholarly Journals: Tipping Point for Publishing Reform?" From the journal web site, "John Willinsky and Larry Wolfson say content management is more than just writing and publishing works electronically (or correcting errors as they arise). It involves making the work accessible. They propose a free on-line indexing service that would help guarantee that all content is easy to reach." This article is from the December, 2001 (Vol. 7 No. 2) issue. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Canadian Government Site Launch: Government of Canada News Room This new service culls news releases from various Government of Canada departments and agencies. The "today's news" page will automatically refresh every 5 minutes. Other sections of the site include, "News by Departments and Agencies" and Photographs. A search engine is also available. News Briefs "ACLU Takes Aim at Library Filtering Law" (via PC World) Case will be argued before a three-judge panel in Philadelphia beginning on Monday. The official case name is Multnomah County Public Library v. United States. See Also: Trial Schedule and Witness Bios See Also: Children's Internet Protection Act (via Multnomah County Public Library) See Also: Additional Resources via ACLU site Thursday, March 21, 2002
Web Resource of the Week ILLWeb Mary Hollerich of the Pritzker Law Library at Northwestern Univeristy in Chicago has compiled one "must have" resource. From document suppliers to ILL Codes and Guidelines this compilation has it all. Make sure to check out the lengthy list of web accessible verification tools. U.S. Government Information Source: Washington Times "Web Sites Told to Delete Data" From the article, "The White House yesterday ordered all federal agencies to scrub their Web sites of sensitive information on weapons of mass destruction and other data that might be useful to terrorists, The Washington Times has learned...Late yesterday afternoon, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card sent a memo to the heads of all agencies and executive departments ordering an "immediate re-examination" of all public documents. The officials were told to report their findings within 90 days to the Office of Homeland Security."You and your department or agency have an obligation to safeguard government records regarding weapons of mass destruction," Mr. Card wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. See Also: "White House Orders Agencies To Purge Data From Web Sites" (Source Washtech.Com) Web Search--Google First Amendment Issues Source: ZDNet UK "Cult Forces Google to Remove Critical Links" From the article, "The Church of Scientology is using the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act to remove links to a critical Web site from the Google search engine." "The move could have huge implications for other Web sites, particularly those that criticise large organisations. The Church of Scientology asked Google to remove the links under a controversial US law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)." UPDATE (3/22/02) "Google Restores Scientology Links" Web Search--Yahoo Yahoo Now Cataloging Selected PDF Material Yahoo is now adding direct links to selected .pdf files. PDF material can be found in the "web site" category either by searching or browsing the Yahoo directory. Entries are labeled as .pdf files. Yahoo is also labeling material returned as "web page matches", powered by Google, with an indicator as to filetype (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.). Thanks to our friend C.S. for the news tip. Information Retrieval--United States--Patents A Selection of Recently Awarded Search and Information Retrieval Patents by the USPTO Method and Apparatus for Retrieving Documents Based on Information Other than Document Content (Assignee: Inktomi, No. 6,360,215) Method and System for Suggesting Related Documents (Assignee: Fuji Xerox/Xerox, No. 6,356,922) Method for Interactively Creating an Information Database Including Preferred Information Elements, Such as Preferred-Authority, World Wide Web Pages (Assignee: IBM, No.6,356,899) Method and Device for Classification Using Iterative Information Retrieval Techniques (Assignee: Verizon Laboratories, No. 6,353,825) System and Method for Associating an Extensible Set of Data with Documents Downloaded by a Web Crawler (Assignee: AltaVista, No. 6,351,755) - Law Librarians Source: AALL Spectrum via Law.Com "How Goes the Law Librarian Job Market?" From the article, " The law librarian job market doesn't seem to be consistent with the rest of the legal profession. Contrary to the stream of recession-related attorney layoffs and pay cuts, job openings and higher salaries abound in academic, private and government law libraries." Info Industry News Briefs Compton's Encyclopedia Returns to Encyclopaedia Britannica EB Launches New Product for Schools and Libraries, Britannica Online School Edition ONE YEAR AGO in the VAS&ND Electronic Journals--Databases--Australia National Library of Australia Launches Australian Journals OnLine (AJOL) From the site, "AJOL is the National Library of Australia's database of Australian electronic journals, magazines, webzines, newsletters and e-mail fanzines. The database provides full details and access to over 1700 titles that include local and overseas works with Australian content, authorship and/or emphasis as well as entries for sites which advertise or promote Australian journals." Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Online Reference Tools--Oxford University Press OUP Begins Roll Out of Oxford Reference Online: The Core Collection (Fee-Based) First mentioned on the VAS&ND back in November, the OUP began releasing its new online reference database today. According to an article in Web User, the first release contains over 1.5 million entries from over 100 Oxford reference books. The article also says that by the end of the decade the database could contains over 130 million entries. All material is fully searchable. We will have more on this new product very soon. See Also: Browse the Complete Title List See Also: Take An Online Tour See Also: News Release Archiving Electronic Resources--United Kingdom "Publishers Support Voluntary Scheme to Save Electronic Publications for the Future" From a British Library news release, "Over 100 publishers have signed up to a voluntary scheme for the deposit of electronic publications, the British Library announced. More than 800 monographs and 850 journals (or over 13,000 separate issues) have been archived for the future as a result of the scheme.Set up in January 2000, the voluntary code of practice between the publishing industry and the six legal deposit libraries aims to ensure that electronic publications are preserved, and their content made accessible for the long-term. Since that date non-print publications in microform (eg microfilm) and offline electronic media (i.e. electronic publications issued on physically separate digital media, such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and magnetic disks) have been added to the national published archive." Scholarly Publishing Source: Free Pint "Evolution or Revolution: The Future of Scholarly Publishing" This article was written by Paul Harwood. He is Regional Director for Swets Blackwell and "responsible for the company's business in the UK and Ireland". Business Search (Yellow Pages)--United States Business Search (Yellow Pages)--Canada Switchboard.Com Announces Search Enhancements Improvements include: *Wildcard Searching Using the Asterisk *Find Keywords Anywhere In The Business Name *Sort By Business, Distance Switchboard.Com is powered by data from infoUSA.Com. Demo the new Switchboard.Com Engine Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) - 3 New Reports From the Eurostat "Statistics in Focus" Series Information Technology--European Union--Statistics Source: Eurostat Full-Text Report: Internet and Mobile Phone Usage in the EU: The Upward Trend Continues in 2001 8 pages .pdf, From the "Statistics in Focus" series. - R&D--European Union--Statistics Source Eurostat Full-Text Report: R&D Expenditure and Personnel in European Regions 1997-99 8 pages .pdf - Patents--European Union--Statistics Source: Eurostat Full-Text Report: Patent Activities in the EU: Towards High Tech Patenting 1990 to 2000 8 pages .pdf - - Hacking--Canada Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Full-Text Report (Now Available on Web): Hackers: A Canadian Police Perspective - Stories in the News--Arthur Andersen Accounting Industry--United States Source: Forbes "The Andersen Defection Directory" Clients lost since 1/1/2002. Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Digital Archive Projects--United Kingdom Source: The Guardian "British Library Begins Website Archive" From the article, Stephen Bury, the head of European and American collections at the [British] library, said there is a need for an objective, trusted archive that will still be around in 200 years. Mr Bury said that without the archive, important aspects of British culture will disappear as websites change. He sited an art project in which a London taxi became a roving canvas. The taxi has ceased to do its rounds, but the project is preserved - for now - at cabgallery.com. However future generations would lose access to the project if it is not archived." See Also: The Digital Preservation Coalition Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) - Employment Outlook--United States Source: Occupational Outlook Quarterly Full-Text Article, Table: "The 2000-10 Job Outlook in Brief" - European Culture Source: EU New Resource: European Culture Portal - Geographical Data--Canada Source: Statistics Canada Now Available: Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2001 Available on the web or for purchase. From the announcement, "The 2001 SGC is organized into two volumes. Volume I, The Classification, contains tables of SGC units with their names and codes, tables of related standard areas, an alphabetical index of place names, and lists of changes that have affected names and codes of municipalities since January 2, 1996. Volume II, Reference maps, shows the locations and boundaries of the geographical areas in the classification. These maps help clients relate statistical data to the corresponding geographical areas. Direct to Volume 1 ||| Direct to Volume 2 Monday, March 18, 2002
Professional Reading Shelf The March Issue of Digital Libraries is Now Online Public Access to Information Post 9/11 Environmental Information--United States Source: OMB Watch "Access to U.S. Government Information Post September 11th" This article mentions a recent change in availalibilty to Envirofacts, a comprehensive set of databases from the EPA. From the article, "In March 2002 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will no longer allow direct access to the Envirofacts databases. In an email to Direct Connect Users, EPA stated that "As part of our continuing efforts to respond to Homeland Security issues . . . starting April 1, 2002, Direct Connect access will no longer be available to the general public. Direct Connect access to Envirofacts will only be available to U.S. EPA employees, U.S. EPA Contractors, the Military, Federal Government, and State Agency employees." Limited and less flexible access to Envirofacts databases will continue to be available to the public via the Envirofacts website." This site also provides a comprehensive list of other changes to government databases since 9/11. Thanks to G.T. for the news tip. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) - Reference Tools--Dictionaries New: Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary Now Available Online (Fee-Based) An individual subscription costs $29.95 a year or $4.95 a month. Direct to the M-W Unabridged Dictionary See Also: Direct to the M-W Collegiate Dictionary/Thesaurus (Free) - Canada--Population Canadian Census 2001 Source: Statistics Canada Full-Text Report: "A Profile of the Canadian Population: Where We Live" This is the first data coming from the 2001 Census. - Digital Archives The September 11 Digital Archive From the site, "Funded by a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and organized by the American Social History Project at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, the Digital Archive will contribute to the on-going effort by historians and archivists to record and preserve the record of 9/11." See Also: September 11th Archive (via Internet Archive) See Also: Archive of Television Broadcasts from 9/11 (Streaming Video from 20 Broadcast Organizations From Around the World) - E-Commerce--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census New, Full-Text Report: 2000 E-Commerce Multi-Sector Report "Second official snapshot of e-commerce for key sectors of the economy." "The report also revises previously-released data for 1999." Text ||| Tables ||| Forms - Fast Fact File--Lists and Rankings Theft--Automobiles--United States New: Most Stolen Vehicles, 2001 National and state rankings are available as .pdf files. Sunday, March 17, 2002
Hello From London! I'm in the U.K. Attending the Internet Librarian International Conference Web Directories--Internet Public Library Happy 7th Anniversary to the Internet Public Library Birthday greetings to the IPL folks in Ann Arbor. We are looking forward to seeing the IPL's new look due this Summer. Direct to the Internet Public Library Web Search--Google Source: Newsweek "Faster Than The Rest" From the 3/25/02 issue. A profile of Google from a business perspective. Saturday, March 16, 2002
Periodical Databases "The Article Economy" Source: Library Journal Transcript: "An LJ Round Table with the Aggregators" From the article, "...as libraries and distributors of aggregated articles and journals have scaled up to meet user expectations, challenges and questions abound—for libraries, for publishers, and for patrons." "With these questions in mind, the editors of LJ invited a host of key players to a round table discussion of aggregated databases at the recent 2002 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans. Moderated by Yale University's Ann Okerson, the event marked the first time that three of the major "aggregators" (EBSCO, Gale, ProQuest) had sat down together to share their thoughts on the rapidly changing information landscape." Archiving Electronic Resources Source: Newsbytes New Zealand: Introduction of Legislation To Assure Deposit of Electronic Content In National Library From the news release, "New legislation will see web sites, CD-ROMs and other electronic publications forming a stronger part of the collections held in the National Library as a record of New Zealand’s heritage. Currently, New Zealand publishers are required to provide copies of books to the National Library. Under the National Library Bill introduced today, anyone publishing material electronically in New Zealand may be asked to provide a copy to the Library. The Bill allows for publishers' commercial interests to be protected. Also from the news release, "Increasingly, information is being published only electronically and for a short time, such as on Web sites," said Marian Hobbs, New Zealand's minister responsible for the National Library, in a statement Wednesday. This material is just as important as books in recording New Zealand's heritage." -Marian Hobbs, The Minister Responsible for the National Library. See Also: "New Zealand's National Library To Archive Web Sites" (via Newsbytes) Friday, March 15, 2002
Web Search--Google Google Releases "News Search" Beta Another week goes by and something new from Google. Today, a beta of a searchable Google News database. It can be accessed at http://news.google.com or via a box on the Advanced Search page. According to a company spokesman the database is refreshed with new content every hour and contains material from over 100 English-language sources including Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and Reuters. Each entry includes a time stamp of when the content was first crawled and links to related articles (if available). You can learn more about Google News Search via this faq. Syntax? It appears that the Google limit syntax works with the news database. Examples: intitle: terms in the headline intext: terms in the text of the article site:cnn.com We'll keep testing and at the same time be on the lookout for new content and functionality. See Also: AllTheWeb News Search (The database includes open web news content in several languages) Odds & Ends Due Online at the Beginning of April: A "Revised" Beta From Teoma - Freebies An Opportunity To Get A Free Engineering, Mathematics or Computer Book, Your Choice, From the EEVL and Several Major Publishers Thanks to EEVL Manager and Editor of the Internet Resources Newsletter , Roddy MacLeod, for the news. Thursday, March 14, 2002
Resource of the Week History--Canada Source: Micromedia ProQuest The Canadian Timeline The Canadian Timeline, a resoure provided by Micromedia ProQuest, was placed online in the past few days to help subscribers, "locate stories and news items in Canadian history when using Micromedia ProQuest resources." Neat idea! However, The Canadian Timeline is also being made available (NO CHARGE) for ALL web users. It serves as a handy web-based ready reference/fast facts tool. The timeline contains major events from the past 100 years and was compiled by members of the Micromedia editorial team. The site is browsable by year and subject. Categories include Business and Finance, Arts and Entertainment, Military Highlights, and Sports. It can also be searched by keyword. Wednesday, March 13, 2002
Citation Indexing Research Updates on ISI's "What's New in Research" Site Several lists and rankings available for free from the Institute for Scientific Information. This is just some of the informative and interesting info available on this site. A Few Examples of Recently Added Lists: Science in Japan, 1997-2001 Literary Studies: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1996-2000 Environment/Ecology: High-Impact Institutions, 1991-2001 Science in France, 1997-2001 25 Most-Cited Journals Economics & Business: Most-Cited Authors, 1991-2001 Professional Reading Shelf - Web Search Bias In Web Search Engines Source: SearchDay Chris Sherman discusses "Assessing Bias in Search Engines" an article that recently appeared in Information Processing & Management. You can read the complete article, no charge, by visiting the Elsevier web site. See Also: Another paper, "Shaping the Web: Why the Politics of Search Engines Matters" written by Lucas Introna of the London School of Economics and Helen Nissenbaum of Princeton University is also worthy of your attention. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) - Digital Reference--Bibliography Sloan's "Digital Reference Services Bibliography" Receives Major Update A must have resource! Thanks to Bernie Sloan from the University of Illinois for making it available. - Manufacturing--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Full-Text Report: 2000 Annual Survey of Manufactures, Geographic Area Statistics "California Leads the Nation in Manufacturing Jobs" Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text - Canadian House of Commons Source: Elections Canada New Web Site: Federal Representation 2004 Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Web Search--WiseNut WiseNut Acquired By LookSmart LookSmart paid $9.25 million in stock for the search company. The press release does not mention if the Wisenut engine will remain as a stand-alone service. From the news release, "As we integrate WiseNut's search technology over the next few quarters, LookSmart will be able to offer our portal and ISP partners a full service solution that includes a scalable billion document index infrastructure, next generation search relevance and strong listings revenue," said Evan Thornley, chairman and CEO of LookSmart. "By acquiring WiseNut, LookSmart becomes the first company to have both high quality scalable search technology and strong listings revenue generation." See Also: "LookSmart to Buy WiseNut" (via Internet.Com) Direct to the WiseNut engine Reference Tools--Historical Encyclopedias Browse and Read the Full-Text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th Edition) This project, funded by it's creator's company, PageWise, is providing users with free access to a fully scanned version of the 11th ed. of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Byron Reese, CEO of PageWise writes, " We OCR'ed a scan of the 1911. We wrote tons of custom code to do as good a job as possible. We are systemically going through and hand-editing each entry. In spite of having full time people devoted to it, it will take years to finish." Caveat: Be careful when quoting from this site! Currently the encyclopedia contain a small amount of advertising. Reese has also informed that he has the blessings of EB management. More about the this project in the next few weeks. Note: Why Encyclopedia Britannica and not Encyclopaedia Britannica? According to Reese the "encyclopedia" spelling is used 96 times more than encyclopaedia on various search engines. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) - Campaign Finance--United States Source: Federal Election Commission Congressional Campaign Fundraising Statistics 2001-2002 Numerous lists and tables available in html format. Some material is available in html and Excel formats. A Few Examples: 2001-2002 Top 50 Senate Campaigns by Receipts 2001-2002 Senate Campaign Debts 2001-2002 Top 50 House Campaigns by Contributions from Individuals 2001-2002 Top 50 House Incumbent Campaigns by Debts Owed 2001-2002 Top 50 House Challenger Campaigns by Disbursements 2001-2002 Top 50 House Open Seat Campaigns by Cash on Hand Labor--United States--Statistics Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics " Working in the 21st Century" From the site, "...a set of charts and related information about subjects ranging from education levels to retirement plans." All charts are also available as .pdf files with the actual numbers also available as a .txt (ascii) file. Nicely done BLS! - Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Update: Quick Tables and Figures Browsable and searchable access to education statistics. NCES reports the addition of hundreds of new tables. Some library statistics are available. United States Government--Information Technology E-Government--United States Source: GAO Full-Text Report, Information Resources Management: Comprehensive Strategic Plan Needed to Address Mounting Challenges GAO-02-292 41 pages .pdf See Also: "GAO Urges Unified E-Gov Plan" (via Federal Computer Week) Monday, March 11, 2002
Library Literature This Week Only: Free, Full-Text Access to Reference Services Review This week only the Emerald service is providing free, full-text access to the last 5 years of RSR. Specifically, you can find material from Vol. 25 No.1 (1997) through Vol. 30 No. 1 (2002). Happy Reading! See Also: Every week Emerald provides free access fo 2 journals. Here's a list of upcoming titles. Web Search--Statistics Must Read: Notess Posts Web Search Statistics Librarian and Search Guru, Greg Notess, has posted updated statistics to his site. What You'll Find: 1) Web Database Relative Size Surprising? WiseNut finishes in 2nd place. 2) Total Database Size 3) Database Size Changes Over Time Greg has also posted new pages that discuss Google's "Database Components" and indentifying and understanding Google's "Unindexed"content. News Alerts--New York Times New York Times Keyword News Alerts Via E-Mail We were informed by to the NewsTracker service by G.T. late last week. You will need to be registered with the NYT to access and set-up the alerts. Alerts can be sent immediately as the news breaks or at regularly scheduled times including a weekly news digest. Users are limited to 3 alerts. However, if you head to the College Times section of the paper you can develop 5 more alerts. You'll be asked for your school affiliation or simply select "other". Btw, make sure to take a look at the College Times "Articles by Subject" directory. It's a useful browsing tool for NY Times content. Some of the full-text articles found in "Subject Directory" are still accessible for free long after the 2 week free limit found on most NYT material has expired. Librarians UCLA Writer Sends An Apology To LISNews.Com Sony Bari, the writer of the column of a recent UCLA Daily Bruin column that blasts librarians and library science, has sent an apology to LISNews.Com. At the moment the LISNews.Com site is down. With the permission of Blake Carver, LISNEWS publisher, I'm posting the apology/explanation here. UPDATE (3/13/02): Letters to the Editor Appear in the UCLA Daily Bruin The Semantic Web Source: Business Week "The Next Web" "The ultimate goal: to turn the Web into a gigantic brain. Every computer connected to the Internet would have access to all the knowledge that humankind has accumulated in science, business, and the arts since we began painting the walls of caves 30,000 years ago." See Also: Table, "What Is the Semantic Web?" Sunday, March 10, 2002
Web Search--Google Save a Click: Stock Info via Google As many of you already know Google provides access to stock market quotes and related information by simply typing in the companies ticker symbol. However, the results page also includes other hits on the ticker symbol. So, a search on IBM brings a link for a quote to the top of the page and then lists other IBM hits. However, if you type, stocks:ibm you'll be taken directly to the company information master page where you'll find tabs to several sources. Ready Reference Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts The March Edition of The World Almanac E-Newsletter is Now Available Web Search-Google Google Launches Microsoft "Specialty Search" Engine Much like the Apple Macintosh and Linux specialty search sites, Google has recently launched a database that is focused on Microsoft and Microsoft related content. Saturday, March 09, 2002
Information Quality on the Web--Health Source: British Medical Journal (Volume 324, Issue 7337) Several Articles Examine the Quality of Health Info Available on the Web All of the article are available in full-text in both html and .pdf. 1) "Examination of instruments used to rate quality of health information on the internet: chronicle of a voyage with an unclear destination" - 2) "How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests, and in-depth interviews" - 3) "Breast cancer on the world wide web: cross sectional survey of quality of information and popularity of websites" - 4) "Accuracy of information on apparently credible websites: survey of five common health topics" - 5) "Follow up of quality of public oriented health information on the world wide web: systematic re-evaluation" See Also: In addition to these papers, several editorials and education/debate pieces are also available. Digitization Projects--United States History Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education Learn About: The Documenting the American South Project at the Univ. of North Carolina Libraries From the article, "Drawing from the libraries at Chapel Hill and several other universities in North Carolina, the compilers of the project, called Documenting the American South, have now posted 1,000 documents depicting slavery, literature, education, and religion in the South through the words of the people who experienced them." Direct to the Documenting the American South Project Friday, March 08, 2002
Web Search--FirstGov Source: WashTech FirstGov Search Contract Awarded to AT&T, FAST Search and Transfer Technology To Be Utilized The new engine is set to debut April 1st. I can't wait to give it a whirl. From the article, "The General Services Administration today awarded AT&T Government Markets of Washington a contract to replace FirstGov's search engine. AT&T will use search technology from Fast Search and Transfer Inc. of Foster City, Calif., to replace the Inktomi Inc. engine...GSA said use of Fast Search and Transfer's engine will expand the number of sites FirstGov will be able to search beyond the 51 million federal and state sites currently indexed and will let users search Portable Document Format documents and databases." The contract is for one year, with 4 one year options, and is valued at $2 million per year. See Also: "FirstGov pick Stirs Controversy" (via Federal Computer Week) See Also: FAST Technology Powers the Impressive AllTheWeb Search Engine See Also: AllTheWeb News Search See Also: Official Announcement from FirstGov UPDATE 3/17/01 "AT&T Business Services to Provide a Norwegian Tour Guide for FirstGov.Gov" (via Information Today NewsBreaks) Hazards--United States--Database Source: FEMA New FEMA Database Hazardmaps.Net Debuts on the Web From the site, "Hazardmaps.net is the official website of FEMA's Multi-Hazard Mapping Initiative (MMI). Hazardmaps.net is a public on-line, interactive mapping resource for multi-hazard planning and management efforts. It is developed and maintained by FEMA..." "The two main components of Hazardmaps.net are: The WebGIS Atlas: an interactive mapping resource, and The Data Clearinghouse: an extensive data archive that allows free uploading and downloading of data." Thursday, March 07, 2002
Database of the Week Business Directories--United States Source: Dun & Bradstreet It's Free: A Wonderful Phone/Address Directory From D&B Not only is this a great tool but it's also an example of what you can find if your always on the lookout for buried treasure. This site itself is part of a service for small business owners, suppliers, etc. to find contact information and then purchase credit info, business leads, and other reports from D&B. However, the business directory, which is free to use is a comprehenive dbase that's full of useful data. You'll not only find basic phone number/address info but many entries include business owner/executive names, links to company or other related web sites, number of employees, and headquarters identification. Selecting the advanced interface allows you to search by name/address, telephone number, type of business, or D-U-N-S© Number. Note: If you use the advanced interface to search by name/address you must limit your search to a particular state. However, using the primary interface (inside the yellow box) you can conduct a nationwide name/address search. Web Search--Privacy Issues Source: Newsbytes "Netscape Navigator Browser Snoops On Web Searches" From the article, "According to a network traffic analysis performed by Newsbytes, Netscape is capturing Navigator 6 users' search terms, along with their Internet protocol (IP) address, the date Navigator was installed and a unique identification number. Anytime a Navigator user performs a search by typing terms into the browser's URL bar and pressing the adjacent Search button, or by using the Search tab on the browser's My Sidebar feature, the user data is sent to a server at info.netscape.com using a uniform resource locator (URL) forwarding system. While search sites such as Google log data about visitors, Netscape is in a unique position to compile a meta-database of search information, according to Marc Maiffret, "chief hacking officer" for Eeye Digital Security." Digitization Projects--Maps GIS "This Is a Real Quest for Maps" Source: Wired News From the article, "When David Rumsey decided to take his private collection of 19th and 20th century maps public, even the world's largest library couldn't handle the load. So, rather than donate his vast collection of 150,000 maps to the Library of Congress, Rumsey decided to put it online...The result is an extraordinary online compilation of more than 6,500 high-resolution digital images from one of the largest private collections in the United States...This week, Rumsey will introduce 18 historic maps of Boston. He will later include other major U.S. cities, states, countries and continents. He hopes to have 500 historical maps in GIS by the end of the year...He is currently doing a collaborative project with the Library of Congress to fuse the two map collections online. MapLibraries.com, which currently holds about 250 images, will eventually include more than 10,000 images." Direct to the David Rumsey GIS Collection Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Identity Theft Source: GAO Full-Text Report, Identity Theft: Incidence and Cost Appear to Be Growing, GAO-02-363 - Science and Engineering--United States--Statistics Higher Education--United States--Statistics Source: NSF Full-Text Report, Science and Engineering Research Facilities: 2001 From the site, "The 2001 survey consisted of only two questions: the amount of science and engineering (S&E) research space existing at U.S. colleges, universities and nonprofit biomedical research institutions and the adequacy of this research space to meet current program commitments. Wednesday, March 06, 2002
Reference Tools--Reviews The March Edition of Péter's Digital Reference Shelf is Now Available This month Péter Jacsó reviews the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia and McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Information Organization Web Organization "Researchers Discover Internets Self-Organizing Properties" From the announcement, "Despite the Internet's decentralized and seemingly unorganized nature, scientists at the NEC Research Institute have discovered that the Web is in fact naturally self-organizing. This discovery led the scientists to develop an algorithm that may change the way that companies segment and target specific online audiences...The scientists' research shows that the Internet's structure of "clickable" links within web pages allows for identification of communities based on specific topics of interest. These communities are considered to be natural, in that independently authored pages collectively organize them. This research is particularly significant given the fact that no central authority or process governs the formation and structure of web pages and links...Once affirming the Internet's self-organizing properties, Dr. Gary W. Flake and Dr. Steve Lawrence, research scientists at the NEC Research Institute, teamed with Dr. C. Lee Giles, a professor at Penn State University and Dr. Frans M. Coetzee, chief technical officer of GenuOne, to develop the community algorithm. This algorithm enables businesses and individuals to zero in on specific information by focusing on communities of web pages that are related to one-another...For example, an individual wishing to study the latest scientific findings on breast cancer research is able to locate medical literature, treatments and new developments without wading through the pages of irrelevant material that a normal Internet search on the subject might produce. This is possible because NEC's algorithm utilizes link information to generate its results, rather than specific text that may appear on countless web pages." UPDATE: "Search Engine Makes Social Calls" (via Nature) UPDATE: Further Explanation and Examples Thanks to J.F. for the update info. See Also: "Efficient Identification of Web Communities (2000)'' See Also: Dr. Lawrence and Dr.Giles are the co-founders of ResearchIndex, a search tool for computer science and information technology literature on the web. Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries (Resource) Site Update: "Resource Launches New People's Network Website" From the new site, "The People's Network is a project to connect all public libraries to the Internet, as part of the Government's commitment to give everyone in the UK the opportunity to get online." Direct to The Peoples Network Website Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Information Policy Source: Re:Source/The Library Association Full-Text: Report on Developments World-Wide on National Information Policy - Energy--Canada Source: Energy Information Administration (United States) Update: Canada Country Analysis Brief Provides overview of Candian energy issues and statistics. -- Documents in the News Source: GPO Full-Text, "Final Report of the Independent Counsel In Re: Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association Regarding Monica Lewinsky and Others" 237 pages .pdf - Health--Statistics--United States Source: National Center for Health Statistics New Listserv: State Health Statistics by Sex and Race/Ethnicity This list from NCHS will notify you of, "notices throughout the year of updates to existing tables, new releases, and other relevant information." U.S. Census Happy 100th Birthday to the U.S. Census Bureau! Tuesday, March 05, 2002
Business-Company Filings EDGAR SEDAR Source: Information Today Newslink Monthly Spotlight Learn More About: "SEC Info Is Back Online" (scroll down to the Newslink Monthly Spotlight) Paula Hane chats with Fran Finnegan, founder and sole propriertor of SECInfo.Com about this great service. SECINFO.Com also provides a free real-time free of Canadian SEDAR documents. Paula was verry kind to include a few comments that I shared with her about accessing SEC filings which are not available via EDGAR but available (selected content) free via MSN Money Central. A special thanks to Bill Spence for making this article available online so soon after publication. See Also: Btw, the Newslink Monthly Spotlight is available via e-mail at now charge. Each month it contains an original article written by Information Today editor Paula Hane. You can learn more about this and other ITI newsletters here. You can browse older Monthly Spotlight's here. Information Industry--Hoover's People Search Hoover's Adds Additional Search Power To "Advanced" People Search Something new for Hoover's subscribers. From the announcement, "The Hoover's Advanced People Search allows customizable searches by more than 20 different criteria, including job function, job title keyword, age, salary, location and company...For example, subscribers can use the tool to quickly locate general managers who earn more than $100,000, are between 45 and 65 years of age, and who work for California-based public companies that trade on the Nasdaq. Hoover's Advanced People Search also allows searches for people with specific job responsibilities, regardless of the differences in titles from one company to another." See Also: Advanced People Search Example Web Browsing Information Organization Source: WashTech.Com "Browse3D, a More Visual Way to Surf the Web" From the artcile, "[David] Shuping's company, Browse3D Corp., sells software that allows users to see Internet pages they left and ones they can link to, in addition to the main page they are viewing." "The browser works by logging a history of the Internet pages that were viewed last and attaching small pictures of each on the right of the main screen. Users can pull up any of the sites they were previously viewing by clicking on the thumbnail picture. To the left of the screen, the browser displays snapshots of any Internet sites that may be featured as links on the current page.The software also allows users to store copies of Web pages on their hard drives, either as stagnant images or active sites that change as the page is updated. Shuping said this feature allows users to better organize their research or quickly access a group of favorite sites." Thanks to G.G. for the news alert. Direct to the Browse3D Web Site (Free Trial Available) Information Quality Source: LLRX.Com "Getting It Right: Verifying Sources on the Net" LLRX.Com founder and editor Sabrina Pacifici with a useful guide about web resource evaluation. From the article, "This guide provides strategies and tools to assist you in the task of evaluating website content. Determinations about quality, value and reliability are certainly subject to the discretion of the reader, and can be based on personal or professional perspective. When considering whether to use a site with confidence, consider that the criteria for evaluating web site content has similarities to the methodology used for print publications, including newspapers, magazines and newsletters. However, choosing to rely on content published on Web sites does require an extra level of due diligence on the part of the reader. " See Also: I.Q.: Information Quality via The Virtual Chase Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Human Rights Source: U.S. Department of State New Edition Available: "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" - Philanthropy--Post 9/11 Giving Source: The Foundation Center New Research Report: "Giving in the Aftermath of 9/11: Foundations and Corporations Respond" Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text See Also: Expanded Lists of Top 9/11 Foundation and Corporate Funders - Digitization Projects Arkansas--History--Images Source: Arkansas History Commission Digital Archive of Historical Images from Arkansas Now Available From the announcement, "We have an amazing history, and it's nice to now be able to share it online," said Lynn Ewbank, photo archivist at the Arkansas History Commission. "Whether you are in Little Rock, in one of the four corners of the state, or at the other end of the world, you can access Arkansas visuals for the first time without having to come down to our office." "The online digitization process started in 1999, after the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council provided a $255,000 grant to the Arkansas History Commission. With the new online archive system, users can search the online database of more than 13,000 images, view selections, and even purchase a high-resolution version for $12.50." Direct to the Arkansas History Commission Photo Archive Monday, March 04, 2002
Digitization Projects Library of Congress Source: Wired News "Scholars Who Dig-itize Gutenberg" From the article, "A project is currently underway at the Library of Congress to digitize its copy of the Gutenberg Bible. The library has partnered with Octavo to photograph, scan and digitize every binding, endsheet and page of the three-volume Bible." See Also: Additional Resources and Examples via Octavo site News Services On the Web Online Information--Dow Jones Yahoo News Adds Small Amount of Dow Jones Content Located in the Yahoo News-Business section is a very small feed of content from Dow Jones (DJ Newswires and Wall Street Journal Online). You can also find a limited feed of Dow Jones Newswires material on the Yahoo Asia portal. See Also: Top Stories from the Wall Street Journal are published each day on the MSNBC site. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) - Area Studies Source: Canadian International Development Agency Country Profiles (CIDA-INC) Pay particular attention to the Gender Profiles available for many countries. They contain many charts and tables with direct links to original sources. - Asians--United States Population--United States Source: U.S. Census Full-Text Report: The Asian Population: 2000 Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text - Education--United States--Statistics Source: National Center for Education Statistics New Edition Now Available: The Digest of Education Statistics, 2001 - Digitization Projects--Abraham Lincoln Source: Library of Congress Final Release: Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress From the annoucement, "This final release of the Papers includes 20,000 documents, comprising 61,000 digital images and annotated transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents.The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress contain items dating from 1833 through 1916. Most of the approximately 20,000 items in this release are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. Internet Usage--United States Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project New Study Available: Getting Serious Online From the site, "As Americans gain experience, they use the Web more at work, write emails with more significant content, perform more online transactions, and pursue more serious activities." Available in HTML and .pdf - Nuclear Facilities--Russia Military--Russia Source: CIA Full-Text Report: Annual Report to Congress on the Safety and Security of Russian Nuclear Facilities and Military Forces Sunday, March 03, 2002
Internet Archive Source: Business Week "A Library as Big as the World" From the article, "Brewster Kahle has the technology to assemble the ultimate archive of human knowledge. What's stopping him? Restrictive copyright laws." See Also: Greg Notess's article (via Online), "The Wayback Machine: The Web's Archive". It includes several ESSENTIAL searching tips to get the most out of The Wayback Machine's. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) - Business--Lists & Rankings Personal Wealth--Lists and Rankings Source: Forbes 2002 Forbes Billionaires List Several "specialty lists" and related articles are available at this url or direct to the complete list of 497 people. - Real Estate--United States--Lists and Rankings Source: Forbes The Most Expensive Homes In America 2002 - Voter Registration Election 2000 Source: U.S. Census Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000 Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text 16 pages .pdf - Manufacturing--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census 2000 Annual Survey of Manufactures, Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text 215 pages .pdf - Manufacturing--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census 2000 Annual Survey of Manufactures, Product Shipments Summary ||| Direct to Full Text 128 pages .pdf - Labor--United States--Statistics Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Updated Annual Statistics: State and Regional Unemployment, 2001 Annual Averages Web Search--Google Source: S.F. Chronicle "Google Programmer Creates Internet Buzz with Cutesy Logos" Saturday, March 02, 2002
We're Back Home in D.C. Canada--Heritage Information Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) Will Debut Revamped Site on May 1st From the announcement, "Celebrating 30 years of innovation in the use of information technologies, the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) is dedicating its new Web site to the development of skills for the creation and management of digital content. The revamped CHIN site, to be launched on May 1st, will maintain its current address, www.chin.gc.ca...The new CHIN Web site will feature sections dedicated to Creating and Managing Digital Content, Intellectual Property, Collections Management, and more. Current training tools, online publications, directories and databases, all designed to meet the needs of both small and large institutions, will continue to be nurtured. Information on topics such as careers, funding and conferences will also remain accessible and up-to-date." Online History--CAB International Source: Online "History Lesson: CAB International" Marydee Ojala continues her series about the history of major online services and databases. From the article, "In many ways, the story of the development of CABI is emblematic of the entire history of the online information industry. Data from scientists in the field were published in learned society journals. In turn, synopses of these articles fed the abstract journals designed to help scientists keep up-to-date with research in their field. When the production of these journals was computerized, the resulting electronic versions of the journals became databases. Search companies developed to provide common access languages to these databases. More recently, database-producing companies have looked to the Web both as a distribution channel for their established information and for innovative ways to repurpose that data." Web Search--Paid Placement Source: PC World Are Search Results For Sale? If you're not up-to-speed on the current issues this article provides a good overview. Enterprise Search--AltaVista Source: InfoWorld New Enterprise Search Software Due From AltaVista Next Week From the article, "AltaVista Enterprise Search 2.0 attempts to boost workplace productivity by unlocking information buried within complex applications, according to Phil Rugani, executive vice president of the AltaVista Software division, in Palo Alto, Calif. "Individual workers can't access information in the enterprise because of the complexity with the applications themselves. Workers have to know how to use each application to get information from it," he said. "We are circumventing the application to go after the data to give workers access to information they need." U.S. Government Documents Source: LJ "Librarian Questions Nuclear Plant Info" From the article, "Are a few librarians overreacting with their concern about Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) information available on microfiche, or has the federal government lagged in offering guidance? See Also: "Librarian Calls for Screening Public Access to Nuclear Documents" (via The Chronicle of Higher Education) Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) - Afghanistan Source: UNESCO New Web Site: UNESCO and Afghanistan From the annoucement, "...UNESCO launched a website on its Afghanistan Assistance Programme. Aid to media and to libraries and archives in Afghanistan are but two of the five action areas featured on the site." - U.S. History--Online Exhibit Arts--United States Source: National Archives New Online Exhibit: A New Deal for the Arts "Government-sponsored art projects provided work for unemployed artists during the 1930's." - E-Commerce--Conference Source: United Nations Global E-Commerce 2002 (scroll to first entry on page) View online (Real Video) all presentations from this conference which took place last week in New York. From the site, "...intensive executive level presentations, and expert panels. Speakers will detail the latest developments on E-commerce, E-government, Security, Cyber/Bio Security, Network Assurance, and Disaster Management Applications." You can also view the complete speaker list and conference agenda here. - Identity Fraud Source: LexisNexis "Identity Fraud: Searching For A Solution" This white paper was presented at the U.N. conference which is listed directly above this post. Friday, March 01, 2002
Good Day from 26 Degrees North Latitude/88 West Longitude We're Heading To New Orleans Aboard Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas Online Information--Dialog Dialog Launches New "NewsRoom" Product Update 3/4: Just posted on the Information Today site: Online editor, Marydee Ojala, offers up a complete overview of the new Dialog "NewsRoom" Product. Web Search--FirstGov Portals--FirstGov Source: GovExec.Com Redesigned FirstGov Debuts On the Web See Also: Official News Release Web Search--Google Souce: VNUNet Are You A GoogleWhack Fanatic? It's Time To Try Google Bombing! Communication Tools--AOL Instant Messenger AOL AIM Express If you want/need to use AIM to communicate but are unable or simply don't like downloading client software, AIM Express might be just what you need. Accessing this page and selecting "Start" will open a Java based AIM client. After you login to the system your "buddy list" will appear. Btw, if you're not an AOL user and still want to use AIM you can by setting up a free AIM account. See Also: Don't have someone to chat with? Send a "hello" message to "SmarterChild". This is agent software that you can query with questions and have answers instant messaged back to you. Basic reference tools, news, weather, and more. These links can provide you with more info about SmarterChild and it's "parent", ActiveBuddy. I bet this technology has some use in the virtual reference world. x |
