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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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Friday, February 28, 2003
Public Libraries--Filtering Source: The Oregonian Oregon: "Bill proposes library porn filters" From the article, "Libraries would be required to block inappropriate Internet sites from young patrons under a bill introduced in the Oregon Senate. Sen. Charles Starr, R-Hillsboro, said this week he introduced Senate Bill 656 because constituents expressed concern about children viewing online pornography at public libraries. "We're a lot more familiar with the Internet and what's out there than we were a year ago or five years ago," Starr said. "As this public knowledge and awareness increases, there are more concerns about what we're exposing our children to. Internet filters have been a hot issue for the past year in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Librarians from Multnomah County and Vancouver led two lawsuits challenging the federal Children's Internet Protection Act, or CIPA, which would pull federal money from libraries that don't filter access at all Internet terminals. A federal court in Philadelphia ruled in the librarians' favor last year, and the U.S. government appealed. The Supreme Court plans to hear arguments Wednesday. State governments aren't waiting to hear from the high court. Oregon probably will join other states debating bills that are somewhat similar to the protection act." See Also: Read the Full-Text of Oregon Senate Bill 656
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries Source: Council on Library and Information Resources The March/April Issue of CLIR Issues is Now Online Includes an excerpt from Deanna Marcum's paper, "Realizing the Potential of Digital Libraries"
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Wealth--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Now Available, The World's Richest People Rankings The 17th annual list is online. Searchable. Lists by region and a "power ranking" that "weighs political connections, business scope, media coverage, philanthropy and net worth". -- Digitization Projects--Canada Now Available: The Digitized Diaries of William Mackenzie King Last May we mentioned that a project was underway to digitize this material. Today, news from Cold North Wind that the project is complete. From the announcement, "The diaries, which King kept on a regular basis from 1893 while as a student at the University of Toronto until shortly before his death in 1950, provide an intimate glimpse into one of Canada's most unique and dominant political figures. The diaries are available on the National Archives website as part of a retrospective on King's life. The diaries are searchable by term or phrase as well as by date and page number. The diaries exist in three different forms—the original handwritten diary; a typed transcript and an abridged typed transcript. In total there are about 50,000 images." See Also: Direct to the The Diary Home Page (via National Archives of Canada) -- Health Information New MEDLINEplus Compilations * Child Mental Health * Cesarean Section Also Available: Directory of "Access to Electronic Health Information" Projects Funded by NLM in 2003 -- Updates from Two Very Useful Content Acquisition Resources are Available * Internet Resources Newsletter (March, 2003) * BUBL Link 5/15 (February, 2003) Thursday, February 27, 2003
Web Resources of the Week 1) Collapsing Results With Web Search Engines A couple of weeks ago, Bill Dedman, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who also compiles PowerReporting.Com reminded me about the presentation of results on just about all general web engines. Nothing new here but it's often forgotten by many searchers, including me. Before we get started I need to thank my friend and colleague, Greg Notess for some additional facts about site collapsing that were incorporated into the article. -- The Issue Do you realize that in many cases you are only seeing two results from any one web site when you do a web search? Why? Result page "clustering" or "collapsing" is done to help reduce visible duplicates but it could also cause you to miss useful material. -- Examples Let's do a Google search for "National Library of Canada" and "British Library". You'll notice that the third and fourth results come from the Library of Congress site (Loc.Gov). The second result from particular site is always intented. However, the Loc.Gov site has many more pages that might be of interest. Because of site collapsing/clustering Google only shows two results from any one web site. YOU MUST click the "see more results" link to view all of the hits from the LC.Gov site that contain your search terms. When you do, you'll find 139 more hits after Google creates and runs a site restricted search. To "turn off" the site collapsing feature with Google add &filter=0 to the end of a Google search URL. If results are less than 800 or so, you can go to the last page of the results and click on "repeat the search with the omitted results included" link. -- Other Engines * AllTheWeb also collapses results (default) but offers you the option to turn this function off. For AllTheWeb click, "Customize Preferences", Advanced Settings, and "Site Collapsing" from the home page. AlltheWeb will include clustered results later on in the results lists, unlike Google. In other words, pages that have been clustered will show up later in the relevance-ranked position, at least sometimes. However, many people only look at the first few, very few, results. * AltaVista and Teoma also collapse results. To turn the collapse function off with AV use the check box on the Advanced Search page. Teoma offers no option but does offer a "see more results from" link below the second hit. * By default, MSN Search shows all results but you can limit to only one result per site (with no link to view all material) by selecting the box on the Advanced Page. Bottom Line: Awareness of this issue and to use the "see more results" link to view all of the content from a specific web sites. ------ DON'T FORGET TO VISIT RESOURCESHELF's CURRENT POSTINGS ------ 2) AltaVista News, Searching Beyond Thirty Days I've mentioned on several occasions that news search from AltaVista continues to develop into a favorite. Have you noticed that the AV News now offers an option to limit by date or date range? Although, I don't recommend limiting by date for general web searching it can be very useful with news since every article has a specific publication date associated with it. One of the date limits at AV is "anytime". Another limit allows you to search by using a range of dates. What does Anytime mean? While many news engines contain only about 2-4 weeks of news AltaVista's archive goes back well beyond 30 days. This doesn't mean it's time start canceling your fee-based services. If older content is available, it's because the various news organizations are keeping the links active. AV checks the urls regularly to see if links are still "hot". In a time of declining budgets, we might as well maximize what free and low cost content is still available. More Specifics Andreas Hartmann from AV tells Resourceshelf, "The archive contains approximately 4 million URLs (of fully indexed articles from a variety of sources) which are older than 30 days. URLs are checked every 2-4 weeks for 404s or other issues." Content comes from several sources including a Moreover feed. Additionally, AV is now crawling selected news sites on their own. Finally, you can use all of AV's advanced syntax with news search. This includes the proximity operators NEAR and Within. Search Engine Showdown has a complete list of the AV syntax
Web Search Source: The Washington Post Cherchez The Search Advantage A couple of comments about Leslie Walker's article. She writes, "Another kind of search revenue also is growing fast. Called "paid inclusion," it allows advertisers to pay to make sure their Web pages are included in the automated programs that crawl the Web's links and index its pages. The Web has grown so big that search engines have difficulty scanning all of it. So most of them -- Google is the main exception -- let companies pay to ensure they are included in what is scanned. Sponsored results, by contrast, do more than ensure a listing, they guarantee greater visibility through higher placement in the results." - O.K. let's review. Paid inclusion has been around for a couple of years. Inktomi got the ball rolling in March of 2001. However, paid inclusion DOES NOT mean that content that is NOT PAID for isn't in the index. Most of the content in AllTheWeb, Teoma, MSN Search, and AltaVista is not paid inclusion. The companies that do pay are guaranteeing that the crawler indexes and reindexes the material quickly. In most cases, organizations pay for paid inclusion per url. In the past few months were seeing more and more rapid recrawling of all material paid inclusion or not by all of the engines. Is it where it needs to be, not at all. But it's getting better. Walker also makes "sponsored results" seem a bit decevious. This is not true. In this case, results are clearly labeled sponsored (the labeling is much better than in the past) and appear either at the top of the result listings or in the right-hand column. These sponsored listings do NOT influence the actual search results. Finally, the size of the web does continue to grow but this is not the only reason why material might not be indexed. Furthermore, even if it WERE in one place, how easy would it be to access ANY of it without the proper tools to get it out of the database and utilize the data. In other words, specialized engines designed around a specific data set will still be useful. The challenge (and it's a big one, is knowing what's available and being able to get to it quickly. Great information professionals have always understood the tools they had to work with. No different here.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) World Trade Center Source: Lower Manhattan Development Council Selected Design for the World Trade Center Site Includes slide presentation, background reports, and more. -- Philanthropy--United States--Statistics Source: Foundation Center New, Highlights: Foundation Giving Trends, 2001 -- Energy--Iraq Source: Energy Information Administration Update, The EIA Has Updated Their Iraq Country Analysis Brief Data,maps, and links about Iraq's energy sector. Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Public Libraries--United States Time for Another Library Budget Crisis Update Here are a few selected articles with recently published stories from around the country. Georgia "Libraries cinching belts during budget crunch" - Hawaii "Lawmakers fret over libraries" - Montana " Libraries across the state are taking a big hit" - New York "Pataki's budget plan a threat to libraries" "Libraries battle proposed funding cuts" New York City "Librarians Fight Cuts" - North Carolina "Budget woes may cause library cuts" - Oregon "Salem Public Library budget is on chopping block" - South Carolina "Budget cuts whittle library selections" -- Texas Reader J.F. writes to ResourceShelf about budget cuts in Texas, "These are very dark times for the academic and public libraries in Texas. Although we haven't heard (and won't for some time) about what the final impact the budget cuts will be on TexShare, the news so far is very bad. Just to give you one example: the already announced cuts in support for higher education in Texas means that the budget for the databases funded by the DCCCD libraries will be cut by 80%. Translated into dollar terms, our database budget has been reduced from $91,000 to $18,000. The clock has been turned back ten years. In the fall of 2003, the DCCCD libraries will offer fewer online databases than it did in 1993."
Public Libraries--United Kingdom Learn About: learndirect From the announcement, "The People's Network, the project to connect all public libraries to the internet, and learndirect, a scheme to provide learning online and information services, have jointly launched an information initiative for public libraries in England. The new facility available on the People's Network website enables all public libraries to introduce their users to learndirect and the many online learning opportunities it provides." See Also: Direct to the learndirect Web Site
State Library--Florida Source: Tallahassee Democrat A New Plan for The State Library of Florida From the article, "A deal announced Tuesday between Gov. Jeb Bush and Nova Southeastern University would give the private college Florida's $10 million State Library circulating collection - along with $5 million to move and maintain it. The announcement was a surprise to many State Library supporters, made just weeks after the state refused to come up with any funds to help Florida State University, a public institution a couple of blocks away, take over the collection. Nova is located in Fort Lauderdale."
Web Search--Google A Couple of Google Briefs Web Search 1) Where in the World is Steve Lawrence? Yesterday, I mentioned that Gary Flake, formerly of NEC Research, was now chief scientist at Overture working to bring their newly acquired search technologies together. We can now confirm a former colleague, co-author, and another big name in information retrieval, Steve Lawrence, is working at another web search company, Google. -- 2) Be Careful If You Use Google as a Verb From the Detroit News, "When your search engine becomes ubiquitous -- and it has a cool name -- this is bound to happen: The American Dialect Society has voted the term "to google" as the most useful word of 2002. Naturally, in this age of lawyers, patents and nearly perpetual copyrights, the folks at Google -- the search engine -- have sent letters and orders directing that 'googling' -- the newly-minted verb -- is off limits." I wonder if Kleenex, Jello, or Xerox will come after me. (-: Actually, it's of sad that Google IS web search and research for many people but it once again reflects the poor marketing in the age of the Internet that traditional research (libraries and information vendors) have done. You can read the full-text of Google's letter here. See Also: Barbara Quint's 2002 Article, ""Google: (v.)..." . This article was published about one year ago. -- 3) Google Awarded Patent Awarded yesterday, "Ranking search results by reranking the results based on local inter-connectivity" The inventor listed on the patent is Krishna Bahrat. Mr. Bahrat is also the primary developer of Google News. Stanford University was assigned the U.S. Patent for PageRank.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Iraq Source: CIA Full-Text Report, Putting Noncombatants at Risk: Saddam's Use of "Human Shields" -- Patents--United States--Statistics Source: USPTO Top 10 Universities Receiving Most Patents in 2002 Thanks to S.C. for the news tip. -- Space Shuttle New Site, Columbia Accident Investigation Board Thanks to S.A. for the tip. -- Parliament--Canada Source: Library of Parliament New Site, Library of Parliament: Background Resources for Educators Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Information Industry--divine divine Files For Bankruptcy Protection Yes, it's true but not a big surprise. This time we can't say the best laid plans go to waste since no one really new what divine's plans were. Here's the press release, the SEC filing from EDGAR, and a bit more from the Chicago Tribune and Crain's Chicago Business. From the article, "GTCR [a Chicago area venture cap firm] principal Phil Canfield said today that his firm, whose founder Bruce Rauner has long-time ties to Divine’s CEO Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, has signed a letter of intent to buy substantially all of Divine’s assets for about $50 million."...The sale would need to be approved by the Bankruptcy Court. "The company was established to ride a wave that had passed,” said Chicago entrepreneur Josh Schneider. “As hard as everybody fought, it was too little too late. It’s like one person steering a paddle boat in a tidal wave.”
Web Search--AllTheWeb Another Week, Another Search Engine: AllTheWeb Acquired By Overture One week after Overture acquired AltaVista, the comany has announced another acquisition, this time AllTheWeb from FAST Search and Transfer. Overture, a pay-for-performance search company, will acquire FAST's Internet business unit for $70 million in cash, as well as performance-based cash incentive payments for up to $30 million over three years. From the announcement, "Under the terms of the agreement, Overture will acquire FAST's Internet business unit assets including FAST Web Search™, AlltheWeb.com™, and FAST PartnerSite™ products, related intellectual property rights, as well as data centers and equipment in Sacramento (USA) and London (UK). In addition, the FAST Internet business unit personnel will transfer to Overture." What Overture will do with the AllTheWeb database is to be determined. In just 14 days, we've seen the two of the best web engines, in terms of "search power" acquired by Overture. You can see a few examples of the power in last week's AV post. FAST will now focus and develop its Data Search product. It accounts for over 75% of FAST's current revenue. -- More details to follow. Only time will tell what this means for all of us. Speculation will once again run rampant but much, if not all of it, will be on what this means for web advertisers. -- Good News: Gary Flake was named by Overture to bring together the technologies of Overture, AltaVista, and AllTheWeb. This is good news for searchers. Why? Dr. Flake previously worked at NEC Research. Some of the most useful specialized web search tools including Research Index and metasearch tools called Inquirus and Inquirus2 were developed (all three remain online but direct links to Inquirus are not allowed) there. A few of Gary Flake's publications: "Using Web Structure for Classifying and Describing Web Pages", 2002 "Improving Category Specific Web Search by Learning Query Modifications", 2001 "Efficient Identification of Web Communities", 2000 "DEADLINER: Building a New Niche Search Engine", 2000 Self-Organization and Identification of Web Communities, 2002 Finally, it's also important to mention that AltaVista has another highly respected web search/info retrieval researcher/scientist/developer on its team, Jan Pedersen. -- A quick review of the web search world from a researcher's perspective: Google (its own database, its own technology), Teoma/Jeeves (its own database, its own technology), Inktomi (now part of Yahoo, operates MSN Search and an "Inktomi installation on Hotbot), AltaVista (now part of Overture, as of last week they told me the company would continue to operate as a separate entity). Search Wars 2003 are here. The more I think about it, all of this consolidation COULD good be a good thing for those of us who use the web as a research tool. Stay tuned and buckle up.
Library Associations IFLA Annual Conference Gets a New Name "The biggest annual international gathering of librarians, the IFLA [International Federation of Library Associations] Conference, is to be known in future as the "World Library and Information Congress". IFLA’s Governing Board decided on the new title last year. It was due to come into effect with the 2004 event to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, it has now been decided to adopt it this year- for the meeting due to take place in Berlin, Germany, 1-9 August 2003. The new title is designed to ensure that the event has a greater impact outside the profession and in the city in which it takes place." Monday, February 24, 2003
Online Searching NOTE: After You Read the Background Article, Visit This New Page from Daypop, Where You Can See Word Bursts From Weblogs. -- "Word scans indicate new ways of searching the Web" When Dr. John Kleinberg of Cornell Univesity talks/writes about searching, it's more than worth listening. In a recent presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Kleinberg discussed research on how "burstiness" might be a new tool for incorporation into relevancy measures. From the announcement, "[Kleinberg] devised a search algorithm that looks for "burstiness," measuring not just the number of times words appear, but the rate of increase in those numbers over time. Programs based on his algorithm can scan text that varies with time and flag the most "bursty" words. "The method is motivated by probability models used to analyze the behavior of communication networks, where burstiness occurs in the traffic due to congestion and hot spots," he explains...For searching the Web, Kleinberg suggests, such a technique could help zero in on what a searcher wants by recognizing the time context of such material as news stories. For instance, he says, a person searching for the word "sniper" today is likely to be looking for information about the recent attacks around the nation's capital -- but the same search nearly four decades ago might have come from someone interested in the Kennedy assassination." Dr. Kleinberg was a researcher on IBM's often discussed but never publicly released Clever project. Many of the underlying concepts from Clever are being utlilized by Teoma. See Also: "Word 'Bursts' Could Help Refine Web Searches" (via Scientific American 2.19.03) See Also: "Hypersearching the Web" (via Scientific American 6.1999) Co-authored by Kleinberg, this is one of the better papers on web search aimed at a non-technical audience I've read. Again, many of the concepts discussed re: Clever are being used at Teoma. See Also: "Clever New Way to Search?" (via Wired 11.27.98)
Databases--Australia Source: The Age The data drought" "Water is not the only resource that is drying up. In the midst of the drought, public access to information is also at risk as funding for some of Australia's most precious databases slows to a trickle."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Education--Demographics--United States Source: NCES Census 2000 Data Now Mapped to School District Boundaries "Census 2000 school district demographics are now available by school district boundaries. View demographic data about children and their living environment, by school district, from Census 2000 data from PL1-SF1 and SF3 data sets."
Web Search--Google Source: The NY Times More on the Google Purchase of Blogger A week after everyone else makes a comment or two, The NY Times gets in on the act. Like I said last week, Google (like any other weblog) can have near instant access to just about any weblog (if the owner of the blog want's to make it available) via a site like weblogs.com. Anytime a weblog publisher hits the publish button (like I do with ResourceShelf), it sends an update "ping" to weblogs.com. So, Google or any other engine can use weblogs.com as a tool to tell their crawlers when to recrawl and reindex a site. The NY Times article mentions that other weblog software is out there. Google would be making a mistake if they choose to only reindex Blogger content on an constant basis. Finally, the article makes no mention of Daypop, a search engine that's been indexing blog content for a couple of years. See Also: My Comments Re: Why Blogger & Google From 2.16.02 Sunday, February 23, 2003
State Libraries--Florida Source: Florida Today Florida: "Bush, librarians reach tentative deal" "The State Library, which might face dismantling to save money, could get a reprieve. Gov. Jeb Bush's administration planned to do away with it to save about $5.4 million a year by transferring much of the library possibly to a university. After protests from librarians and historians, the administration is now working on an agreement that would keep the archives, the library's historic collection and the state museum in state government hands." But former State Librarian Barratt Wilkins warned that this might only be a temporary agreement. He told about 65 professional librarians and historians at the Cocoa Civic Center on Wednesday that if the governor dismantles the State Library, it would affect every library in the state because federal and state funding flows through the state library.
Information Industry--H.W. Wilson "Libraries Get Free Open-URL Linking with the New WilsonWeb" From the announcement, "Easy-to-use and free with a subscription to the new WilsonWeb database service, WilsonLink provides extensive linking features with other online database vendors. Powered by Ex Libris’s SFX technology, WilsonLink allows researchers to click from citations on WilsonWeb databases to the full text of articles and related material from a multitude of sources, where the library subscribes to both WilsonWeb and the linked resource." Saturday, February 22, 2003
Public Libaries Source: The Seattle Times "Investing in libraries connects us to the future" In a guest column Bill Gates writes, "I am excited about what's happening in my hometown and in libraries across the country. But I worry about whether our society will support public libraries so they can sustain this critical community service. In my view, investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation's future. Library professionals recognized early on that they could help bridge the divide between those who have access to computers and those who do not. However, they could not do it without additional resources and the support of others, particularly in low-income communities." Some important comments from an influential person. However, not only do public libraries need to have the technology but they also need to have trained professionals with the skills to use it along with "traditional" library tools. Don't misunderstand me, having a place for ALL people to go and access the web and other services is essential BUT libraries must be more than places where the public goes to search Google or any other web only engine. Traditional collections are still a must. Simultaneously, libraries should learn to MAXIMIZE the usage of the quality free content that's available. In othe words, the time to take web collection development seriously is now. See Also: "It's the battle between Google and the library -- and Google just might be winning." (via LISNEWS.Com)
Information Retrieval Source: News.Com U.S military taps data-sleuthing tools From the article, "The U.S. government's drive to search computer networks and databases for clues about terrorist threats has boosted the business prospects of a software start-up spun out of Xerox Parc. Inxight Software, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has inked numerous contracts with the Department of Defense and its contractors as well as with Lawrence Livermore National Lab over the past year, said David Spenhoff, vice president of marketing at Inxight." Btw, Inxight Software is one of many companies doing this type of work. If you're interested in taking a look at one of Inxight's products stop by a set of demos for Inxight Star Trees, an information visualization tool. Useful too! You can browse Recipes.Com and the history of Space Flight from NASA Also, any individual, educational instituion, or non-commercial organzation can download software to create their own simple Star Trees.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Fortune Now Available, America's Most Admired Companies, 2003 Also available, a list of the Top 10 companies from 1983-2002. -- Space Shuttle Source: NASA STS-107 Investigation Reference Page Friday, February 21, 2003
Libraries Source: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) "Use library databases for reliable information" We always like to post mainstream press articles that promote the use of libraries. From the article, "The Internet is much more than Google, Yahoo or any other search engine/directory. The Internet also allows you to access information from databases that are closed off from search engines.Many libraries, both public and university, offer many of their databases to their patrons or students via the Internet. With a library card or student ID number and a password, you can get into many of the databases that you once had to go to the library to research. These databases include reputable reference sources and would be a much better alternative to the questionable results that you might get from a search engine."
Web Search--Google Source: BBC "Is Google too powerful?" We're starting to see a steady stream of negative press re:Google. Yesterday, I posted a an article along with a few others over the past month. Google isn't too powerful. The problem (I think it's a marketing issue) is that it seems the masses and some info professionals (not good) have forgotten or more likely don't realize that other quality web search engines exist. In fact, the best searchers will utilize more than one engine for many types of searches.
Academic Libraries--United States--Privacy The Arbiter (Boise State University) "Patriot Act prompts library to draft privacy policy" From the article, "Boise State librarian Timothy A. Brown said Albertsons Library is still drafting a policy on how to comply with potential requests for student information." Thanks to G.T. for the news tip.
Professional Reading Shelf Web Resources Source: RLG DigiNews "Risk Management for Web Resources: A Case Study on Southeast Asian Web Sites" From the article, "In recent years libraries and other cultural institutions have become increasingly concerned about the tendency for Web sites to lose content over time, especially those that are managed informally and without strong institutional backing. Cornell's Project Prism has been exploring ways to detect risks to Web resources as the first step toward developing a toolset for managing risks without necessarily requiring libraries to capture and archive the Web resources themselves. Thus, over the past year we have been monitoring Web sites and documenting changes in their status that may indicate short- and long-term risks to content." Thursday, February 20, 2003
Web Resources of the Week 1) Middle East--Maps Source: National Imagery and Mapping Agency Just Released, Unclassified Maps of Baghdad, Iraq, and the Middle East NIMA, a part of the U.S. military, is providing these "special reference graphics" available on the web (you'll need to download a free viewer and download the files). Beginning next week printed versions (fee) will be available via the USGS. See Also: Direct to the Download Page -- 2) Geography--Databases The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) Useful, educational for all. Even fun, if you're a geography geek. From the site, "The TGN is a structured vocabulary containing more than one million names and other information about places. The TGN includes all continents and nations of the modern political world, as well as historical places. It includes physical features and administrative entities, such as cities and nations. The emphasis in TGN is on places that are important for art and architecture." Note: This database will be valuable to many of you not only those of you who are researching art and architecture topics. This database can be value in many types of reference situations. I could go on about this database for a long time but the best way to learn about it is to use it. A review of the documentation and examples is also very useful. A few facts about the database: * Search by Name, Place Type, or Nation * The Hierarchy of Names is Also Browsable * Example Search: A One Word Simple Search For the Word Alice Alice ++136 Results Ranging from the Alice Arm (an Inhabited Place in British Columbia) to Alice Island (a Sand Bar in Alaska) to Alice Springs (an Inhabited Place) in Australia. +++ The Full Entry For Alice Springs Includes Coordinates, Historical Notes (e.g. settled in 1860 under the name Stuart) and it's Place in the Hierarchy (World, Oceania, Australia, Northern Territory...) ++++Each Entry Contains Specific Source Information
Web Search--Google Source: San Mateo County Times "Google falling victim to success" From the article, "In a quick, unscientific survey, several entrepreneurs in the Bay Area responded "Google" when asked which search engines they used. "I just got used to it," was the usual explanation. Analysts think newer products and some vulnerability in Google's organization might make room for other entrants." The article focuses on Teoma, a search tools we've liked for a long time.
Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Libraries Source: Resource (U.K.) Full-Text, Collaborating Between Libraries and Education: Supporting the Learner -- Collection Management Source: Resource (U.K.) Full-Text, Overview of Collections Information and Advice in the Museums, Archives and Library Domains Museums ||| Archives ||| Libraries -- USA Patriot Act Source: ALA Compilation, USA Patriot Act Resolutions of State Library Associations Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Updated 2.20.02 A quick update. Yesterday, Carole Leita (reference guru and founder of the LII) and I spent a portion of the day at AltaVista HQ. The visit was planned several weeks ago and after the news of Overture acquiring the company we were both expecting to here that the visit was cancelled. It wasn’t. Once we arrived at the company we were expecting to be welcomed have an “expedited tour” and meet a few sad/confused/upset employees along the way. Wrong again. In fact, quite the opposite was true. In fact, several AV execs sat Carole and I down for three hours, on what was a very busy day, and wanted our opinions and ideas about how to work more closely with the library world. With the caveat that things change quickly in the web search business, I don’t think we should count AV out as a very powereful web search engine (more below) out yet. ----- ---- Web Search--AltaVista Source: News.Com Overture Buys AltaVista Further consolidation in the web search world. It wasn't that long ago (in years, a very long time in web years) when AltaVista was THE engine. Then, a failed push to do it all by becoming a portal and a loss of focus on what AV did well, search web pages. AV's buyer Overture is a provider of pay-per-click results to many sites and search engines. What this means for the AltaVista.Com site is to be determined. Let's hope they continue to improve their database of crawled web pages. We've seen some major improvements in recent months. In the last few weeks I've also noticed a big improvement to AltaVista News and their image database. In terms of raw search power, the features that power searcher's love, AltaVista's technology remains the most powerful of all general web search engines. Examples? 1) Allows Truncation of Terms (Google No, AllTheWeb No) 2) Proximity Operator (Near and Within, Not Available With Google) 3) Nesting of Strategies (AllTheWeb Also Offers, Google Does Not Offer) 4) Ranking of Search Terms (Allows You to Tweak Relevancy Ranking, AlltheWeb Now Offers, Google Does Not Offer) From the News.Com article, "Overture plans to license the technology to its customers, which include Yahoo, MSN and AOL Europe. Overture also will use AltaVista.com to test new search services and marketing products for its advertisers. "We, as many observers know, have been looking at whether and how to add algorithmic search to our arsenal over the last year," said Ted Meisel, Overture president and CEO. "Algorithmic search is a highly engineered product...this was the right time and right product." "It was time to bring the technology in-house so we could provide a complete solution to partners," he said. See Also: Analysis from Search Day See Also: More from The New York Times See Also: Official Overture/AV News Release See Also: Compare Functionality of Engine Using Search Engine Showdown's Feature Chart
Libraries--Florida Source: Orlando Sentinel "Breakup of State Library May Be Near" From the article, "Despite mounting public opposition, including more than 7,000 petition signatures protesting a proposed breakup of the 150-year-old State Library, a deal is quietly being negotiated that could move much of the library's massive collection from the state capital to a private university in South Florida. Judith Ring, head of the State Library, has e-mailed her staff that she is "almost certain" a big chunk of the library's collections will be moving. And the president of Nova Southeastern University said Monday he is in the final review of an arrangement with state officials, who he said are moving with "some urgency."
Information Industry--divine Source: The Register divine, Bankruptcy? Maybe? So say's The Register after divine sends out this press release. No big shocker.
Enterprise Search--FAST Search and Transfer FAST Search Technology Now Being Utilized on Dell.Com Site The implementation is now online after the initial announcement last June. As many of you know FAST's search technology powers the AllTheWeb site. In fact, the ATW is powered by Dell servers.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Emergency Preparedness--United States Source: Department of Homeland Security New Web Site, Ready.Gov Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Serials and Newspapers--United Kingdom--Online Catalogs Source: Endinburgh Evening News Union Catalog of Serial and Newspaper Holdings in British Research Institutions Established From the article, "The first internet catalogue of all journals and newspapers held in British research institutions is being established by Edinburgh University. A four-year project is under way to provide an easier way for academics to find information held in libraries all over the UK...By bringing together databases from more than 200 libraries, the catalogue - to be called SUNCAT - will establish the largest resource of its kind in the UK." See Also: Learn More About SUNCAT
Libraries--Canada Get Sm@rt Library Portal Set for Ottawa Area Libraries From the announcement, "The Sm@rt Library Portal will provide teachers, students, researchers and other users with fast and seamless access to the rich resources of Ottawa's diverse library systems from one easy-to-use Web site. The portal is one of 13 projects under the SmartCapital initiative, which is managed by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation...This online service will allow the public to search the collections of all of Ottawa's public libraries and the National Library of Canada, as well as the libraries of the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and the National Research Council."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Intellectual Property--Lists and Rankings Source: WIPO Lists, International Patent Applications, 2002 You'll find lists of the Top 10 Countries and Top 10 Companies -- Philanthropy--Lists & Rankings Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy List: America's Biggest Donors -- Women--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts: Women's History Month A selection of facts about women in the U.S. March is Women's History Month here in the U.S. A bit of what you'll find: * $29,215-The median annual earnings of women age 15 and older who worked full time, year-round. * 84, The percentage of women age 25 and over with at least a high school diploma, slightly higher than the percentage for men * 61, Percentage of women, age 18 and over and citizens, who cast a ballot in the last presidential election. * 145.0 million, The number of females as of July 1, 2001. That exceeds the number of males, who numbered 139.8 million. -- Government--Canada Source: Full-Text, Budget 2003 Monday, February 17, 2003
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Reference Special Issue Devoted to Virtual Reference: February Issue of D-Lib Now Online Articles include: * "Digital Reference: An Overview" by Joanne Silverstein, Syracuse University * "Current State of Digital Reference in Primary and Secondary Education" by R. David Lankes, Syracuse University * "The Technological Challenges of Digital Reference: An Overview" by Jeffrey Penka, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. * "Question Negotiation and the Technological Environment" by Joseph Janes, University of Washington and Joanne Silverstein, Syracuse University * "Evaluation of Chat Reference Service Quality: Pilot Study" by Marilyn Domas White, Eileen Abels, and Neal Kaske, University of Maryland * "Visual Resource Reference: Collaboration Between Digital Museums and Digital Libraries" by Abby A. Goodrum, Syracuse University * A Positive Review of Anne Grodzins Lipow's The Virtual Reference Librarian's Handbook is Also Included
Information Retrieval Time for a Look at a Few "Just Issued" Info Retrieval Related Patents and "Just Filed" Patent Apps - 1) Web-based information retrieval Issued on 2/11/03 to Atomica, 6,519,631. Note: Try Atomica's Slingshot app. Free. Very useful. Some of you may remember when this product was called GuruNet. - 2) Search user interface with enhanced accessibility and ease-of-use features based on visual metaphors Issued on 2/04/03 to Philips Electronics, Patent 6,505,194 - 3) Inverse inference engine for high performance web search Issued on 1/21/03 to Mathsoft, Patent 6,510,406 - 4) System and method for dynamically associating keywords with domain-specific search engine queries Issued on 1/07/03 to IBM, Patent 6,516,312 - 5) Method and system to answer a natural-language question Issued on 12/24/02, Patent 6,498,921 - 6) User interface providing automatic organization and filtering of search criteria Issued on to 12/24/02 to Phillips Electronics, Patent 6,499,029 -- Patent Application Selective retrieval metasearch engine Filed on 11/7/02. Inventors: Eric Glover and Steve Lawrence. Note: Take a look at info about Inquirus, a metasearch engine developed by the inventors. - Patent Application Method and system for retrieving information using natural language queries Filed on 10/17/02.
Integrated Library Sytems Source: Computerworld Australia An Update on Koha, an Open Source Integrated Library System From the article, "Koha -- the world's first open source library system -- is free. It was originally developed by New Zealand firm Katipo Communications (www.katipo.co.nz) in 1999. Koha (pronounced "kaw ha", a Maori word meaning gift or donation) was subsequently released under the GNU General Public License and is today maintained by a team of volunteer developers from around the world." See Also: Direct to the Koha Web Site
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Transportation--Canada Source: The National Library of Canada Online Collection, Canada By Train "The National Library of Canada (NLC) preserves a unique collection of railway advertising dating from the 1880s to the 1950s. A large portion of the collection was compiled and donated to the NLC by Andrew Merrilees. The Merrilees material on this website is supplemented by selected material from the Library's general holdings. Also included are published audio and visual items from the NLC and the National Archives of Canada." The site also includes a lengthy bibliography and webliography. Sunday, February 16, 2003
Web Search--Hotbot New: Hotbot Adds "Advanced" Teoma Features When the "New" Hotbot debuted in December many of Teoma's advanced features and limits were not available. That's changed! For those of you who haven't tried the new Hotbot, it allows you to simultaneously search AlltheWeb, Google, Inktomi, and Teoma. Unlike metasearch tools, Hotbot does not merge results together. Take a look at the December 15, 2002 ResourceShelf for an overview. So What's New With Teoma via Hotbot? You can learn more and see examples here.! It's great to see Hotbot adding new features. Kudos!
Web Search--Google Google Makes an Acquisition: Blogger Blogger, the wonderful software that I use to publish ResourceShelf (hundreds of thousand also use it to publish on the web) was purchased on Thursday by Google. Blogger's parent company, Pyra, was developed in its founder's kitchen. As Dan Gillmor correctly observes, "Google is known best for its search capabilities, but the Pyra buyout isn't the company's first foray into creating or buying Internet content." What this means for Blogger users as well as Google is tbd. Ev Williams, the creator of Blogger, adds a few, very few, details on his blog. He writes, "This has been in the works for almost four months. Much of it, in excruciating uncertainly. But now I can talk about it! That doesn't mean I know much. For example, about the question: What happens now?" Thanks to C.S. for the news tip. -- Updated 2.18.03 A Few Comments About Google/Blogger/Bloogle? I've said on ResourceShelf and during presentations that the most important thing about weblogs is the software. Anyone with a keyboard and a server (actually you don't even need a server since Blogger also runs Blogspot) can publish on the web. The learning curve is almost non-existent. With Blogger, you're be up and running in a matter of minutes. No HTML coding, no software to load, is needed. Just type, press the publish button, and you're done. Want to see for yourself? Head to Blogger and try publishing a blog...It's free!...Acquiring Blogger and the team who developed/manage it to Google's Intranet/Enterprise/Search Services is a primary reason behind the acquisition. It's another service they can market and offer clients. It's something no other search company is offering. Pardon the overused term but it has plenty of synergy. Now you cannot only use Google to search your company's content you can also use it to quickly publish the content itself both inside and outside the company. Remember, when Google does something everyone notices...As far as allowing the public to use Blogger? Why not. They have the infrastructure plus more good publicity and name recognition for them. The question is do they need anymore?...I've seen speculation that it will allow to add more content to Google News. If this was the main reason behind the acquistion of Blogger, it makes little sense. Google's could add weblogs to their news database or their main database at any time. They didn't need to buy the company. The crawling and recrawling is not the issue. They already crawl many blogs on a daily basis, including this one. Heck, they could have purchased Daypop (Dan Chan deserves a few $$$). It makes even less sense since so many weblogs are published using other blogging software like Radio Userland and Movable Type. Bottom line: Google Wants the Software! Btw, Dan Chan the creator and sole proprietor of Daypop also offers a weblogging tool, we:blog. It's free. -- Here's the Full-Text of the Google's Announcement About the Purchase of Blogger: "Google recently acquired Pyra Labs, developers of Blogger -- a self-service weblog publishing tool used by more than one million people. We're thrilled about the many synergies and future opportunities between our two companies. Blogs are a global self-publishing phenomenon that connect Internet users with dynamic, diverse points of view while also enabling comment and participation. In the coming weeks, we will report additional details. Blogger users can expect to see no immediate changes to the service."
E-Mail Source: Fortune "The Perils of E-Mail" From the article, "It was supposed to make life easier. Now e-mail has become a prosecutor's No. 1 weapon and the surest way for companies to get sued. How e-mail became e-vidence mail--and why the solution is often worse than the problem...Sure, 2002 was the Year of Corporate Scandal. But really it wouldn't be fair to give all the credit to grasping, conniving executives and malevolent, sneaky bookkeepers. No, as those corporate honchos offer their plea bargains, they'll all be able to name an accomplice: e-mail." Saturday, February 15, 2003
The Library of Congress Library of Congress Announces Approval of Plan to Preserve America's Digital Heritage As we mentioned on Monday, an announcement was set for today at LC. From the announcement, "Today the Librarian of Congress announced that the Library of Congress has received approval from the U.S. Congress for its "Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)," which will enable the Library to launch the initial phase of building a national infrastructure for the collection and long-term preservation of digital content...Congressional approval of the "Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program" means the Library can move forward with developing the details of the plan and Congress will release funds for the next phase of NDIIPP. The NDIIPP legislation asks the Library to raise up to $75 million in private funds and in-kind contributions, which Congress will match dollar- for-dollar. See Also: Full-Text, Preserving Our Digital Heritage: Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (Part 1, Executive Summary) 74 pages .pdf See Also: Full-Text, Preserving Our Digital Heritage: Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (Part 2) "Offers important background and supplementary materials. These diverse Appendices illustrate the planning process and provide a rationale for the Plan's recommendations." Note: This is a 16.9MB pdf file. See Also: One Year Ago LC Brought Together Experts to Discuss the NDDIIP See Also: Much More Via the NDIIPP Home Page - See Also: "Library of Congress Aims to Preserve Intellectual Materials Existing in Digital Formats" (via The Chronicle of Higher Education) See Also: "Plan Approved To Save U.S. Digital History" (via The Washington Post) See Also: "A Cash Infusion for Digital Archives (via The NY Times 2.13.03)
Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: The Guardian A London Area Public Library Becomes an "Idea Store" From the article, "The first thing you see, close to where the old Victorian public library used to stand, is a cafe. It sells latte, five varieties of gateaux, and prominently advertises business lunches. The next thing you see - in the run-down east London district of Bow - is a "Surfing Space" for internet terminals, "Sight & Sound" stalls for DVDs, videos and CDs, and a sign pointing to the creche. Invisible round a corner, tucked away at the side and back, are learning laboratories and well-stocked shelves with books on them."..."The project - described as retail-inspired - is based on the conviction that "in our increasingly retail-focused and lifestyle-conscious world" commerce is now the ruling influence on the lives of younger people. This group, it is felt, is far more likely to borrow books or use educational services if the ambience reminds them of a superstore or, as with the colours and signs at Bow, the departure lounge at Gatwick airport."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Computer Security Source: The White House New, Full-Text, The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace (Final Report) New, Full-Text, National Strategy for Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets Friday, February 14, 2003
Scholarly Publishing Source: Open Society Institute/SPARC/Lund University Libraries Directory of Open Access Journals Established at Lund University From the announcement, "The Information Program of the Open Society Institute, along with SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and Lund University Libraries, Sweden, today announced the establishment of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ, http://www.doaj.org). The project will create a directory of open access journals and will be completed in late spring 2003..."The DOAJ will be implemented in two phases. During the first half, the Directory itself will be established. The second phase involves developing a comprehensive search system for article-level content. Phase two will begin in late spring 2003." See Also: From the site, "Why build a Directory of Open Access Journals?" See Also: Directory of Open Access Journals Home Page
Academic Libraries Source: The Daily Kent Stater "Library Adjust to Students' Changing Needs" An article from the student paper at Kent St. University. Here are a couple of quotes: 1) When there is a need for information, many students, such as Kristin Pratt, will simply say "'Google' it."...I go into the library maybe about twice a year," Pratt, a junior criminal justice major, said. To complete her research assignments for class, she stays in her room and uses the Internet search engine Google (www.google.com) and the University Library's Web site at www.library.kent.edu. 2) Caroline Radcliff, head of reference services, has been with the Kent State library for 13 years, and has seen the changes the Internet has brought. "More students came into the building [ten years ago]," she said, "but we have a strong and extensive Web presence. Students can connect and use the Web resources [from their personal computers]." 3) Some students, such as senior art education major Amanda Carey, still find materials in the library more useful than those found online. For her major, Carey said she must find "contemporary" materials not commonly found over the Internet, mostly from the periodical floor. She finds the available resources at Kent State's library to be superior to others. "Kent has the best library," Carey said. "I went one time to a library in Akron, and they said they send students to Kent to do research."
Library Funding--United States Source: ALA Washington Office Museum and Library Services Act Passes Full House Committee, Bill Has 102 Sponsors This is the full-text of a just received ALA e-mail. "On February 13, the full Education and the Workforce Committee voted to favorably report out H.R. 13, The Museum and Library Services Act of 2003. Many members of the full committee were present and the vote was unanimous in favor of the bill. Thanks to library supporters, particularly those in California, that contacted members to sign on to support the bill. This bill will go to the floor with 102 sponsors, a significant number that should aid in its speedy passage. The Senate bill, S. 238 now has 24 sponsors."
Professional Reading Shelf Library Technology Selected Articles from The December, 2002 Issue of Information Technology and Libraries is Now Available Online Articles include: "Analysis of Web-based Information Architecture in a University Library: Navigating for Known Items" "E2M: Automatic Generation of MARC-Formatted Metadata by Crawling E-Publications" "A Resource Description Device Used for More Efficient Library Services" -- Internet Filtering--United States Source: ALA Full-Text, ALA Brief Re: CIPA Filed 2.10.03...64 pages..."The American Library Association (ALA) yesterday filed its response to the U.S. Solicitor’s General brief on the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The Solicitor’s General has appealed the ALA’s unanimous decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to the U.S. Supreme Court, where arguments will be heard Wednesday, March 5." See Also: Summary/ALA News Release
Public Records Information Industry--KnowX KnowX Launches Executive Affiliations Search Tool KnowX, pay-per-view vendor, of public record information now has a database to information on corporate executives. Material comes from business directories and Secretary of State offices. KnowX is owned by ChoicePoint.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Topics in the News--Iraq Statements to the U.N Security Council (2/14/03) 1) Full-Text, Statement by Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix 2) Full-Text, IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei 3) Full-Text, Statement by Dominique de Villepin [France] 4) Full-Text, Statement by Colin Powell [U.S.] 4) Full-Text, Statement by Jack Straw [U.K.] -- See Also: Summaries of ALL Statements Made to U.N. Security Council (via U.N.) -- Terrorism--United States Source: The White House via CIA.Gov Full-Text, National Strategy for Combating Terrorism -- Newspapers--Australia--Directory Source: National Library of Australia Australian Newspapers Online From an announcement, "... a new and easy-to-use portal to Australian newspapers which includes metropolitan dailies, regional and suburban online newspapers, as well as those with only promotional sites...Australian Newspapers Online provides a variety of search options. Newspapers can be selected alphabetically by name, by town of publication, by state of publication or by clicking on a map of Australia for state newspapers. Value added features include a number of relevant links to meet users’ additional requirements for newspaper related material. Links include Ask Us, the various means of contacting reference staff; the National Library’s Newspaper catalogue; Worldwide Online Newspaper links; Media links; OzLife – Biography Index; our Document Delivery Service and a dialogue search box for Australian Journals Online. Newspapers from the Australian Periodical Publications 1840–1845 Cooperative Digitisation Project -- Transportation--United States--Statistics Source: BTS Now Available, Pocket Guide to Transportation 2003 Thursday, February 13, 2003
Resource of the Week E-Mail News Alerts News Alerts from Jane's Information Group Jane's is one of the most respected names for information about defense, military, intelligence and related topics. Although a large portion of content from Jane's is fee-based the company does offer a couple of free e-mail news alert services that contain links to either full-text stories or highlights from just published articles. Registering for Jane's News Briefs (weekly) and Jane's Defence Weekly Alerts (about 3 times a week) is simple. First, head to the registration page and complete the form. Then select the news briefs you want from the list, (Defense, Air Forces, Land Forces, Sea Forces, Transport, and Security). You can also select the "alerts" service. To unsubscribe simply return to the "My Alerts" page and remove the check mark from the reports you're no longer interested in receiving.
Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Scholarly Publishing Source: CRS via FAS Full-Text, Balancing Scientific Publication and National Security Concerns: Issues for Congress A recently published Congressional Research Service report. -- Legal Documents Source: National Law Journal "Court Documents: Will They Age Well?" From the article, "Given the appeal of replacing paper with pixels, legal professionals are looking for a way to alleviate concerns about antiquated technology and multiple jurisdictions with multiple platforms. The solution? Advisory committees are considering different formats for use in creating a solution to the law student's Night of the Living Floppies -- a national standard for electronically archived documents." -- Hypertext A New Issue of JoDI (Journal of Digital Information) is Now Online This issue is devoted to hypertext criticism. You can navigate via this page or using the links listed on the editorial page. From an announcement, "Rather than present a traditional collection of long papers, we decided to attempt to rethink what an issue of an academic journal might be. We invited submissions consisting of one or more brief nodes which we would then link together to create a hypertextual journal issue: an interconnected discussion of a topic rather than disconnected articles. We also invited contributions from both scholars and artists, to assist in bridging the gap that can appear between these groups. This diversity characterises the collection of essays presented here.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Chemistry--Databases Source: Charleston Adviser New, Free Access to Knovel Chemistry Databases for Colleges and Universities From the announcement, From the announcement, "knovel’s chemistry subject area now has 66 interactive cross-searchable books and databases with 285,000 data records, and is growing at a rate of over 3,500 new data records per month. Listed below are the new references available online at www.knovel.com. Institutions can register for free access to the four free "ChemEssentials" titles by going to www.knovel.com/freechem." Also available, a Cal State University review of the databases. Knovel was also awarded Best New Product of 2002 by the Charleston Advisor. Thanks to S.B. for the news tip. -- Literacy UNESCO Official Web Site, Today is the Launch of the United Nations World Literacy Decade A page containing literacy statistics is included. -- Criminal Enforcement--United States Source: Transactional Records Clearinghouse New Report, "Criminal Enforcement Against Terrorists and Spies in the Year After the 9/11 Attacks" Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Business Information--Specialized Search Tools Relaunch: CorpTech Web Site CorpTech, once a favorite site to find technology company profiles has unveiled a new CorpTech.Com web site. The database, which hasn't been available for direct access for a couple of years, contains profiles of over 50,000 U.S. "hi-tech related" companies. Areas include biotech, computer, defense, medical, and transportation. The site offers a variety of free, pay-per-view, and subscription content. CorpTech was acquired by OneSource Information in 1999. Quick Overview * Registering for a "Free Guest Membership" offers you several options. * Quick Search (no charge) allows you to search by company name or ticker symbol. * Capsule Profiles (no charge) contain address, telephone number, ceo name, very basic sales data, and corporate family data (very useful). * "Standard Profiles" (more data than capsule including more executive names) can be viewed online by "Guest Members" for free and purchased for $5.00. The content is delivered as a .pdf file. * "Extended Profiles" can be purchased online for $7.50. They are also available to subscribers. * Guest Membership also allows you to "Power Search" using about 20 criteria. Note: Only 5 results will be viewable online. More search options are available for subscribers. * Three subscription plans are available including one aimed at the public and university libraries. Mailing list services are also available. See Also: News Release from CorpTech/OneSource
Congressional Research Service "Senators Want CRS Info Online" Source: Federal Computer Week From the article, "Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today announced their plan to reintroduce legislation to make Congressional Research Service documents available to the public online." It continues, The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) echoed the desire to make CRS products public in a report released this week. The report found that CRS blocks public access with an elaborate firewall, which redirects inquiries to the Library of Congress' public Thomas site (thomas.loc.gov)." Those of you who read ResourceShelf on a regular basis know that SOME CRS material IS available on the web. By no means is this every CRS publication but a great collection is available on the U.S. House Web Site. The problem is that you cannot directly link to the pages and the reports are NOT indexed by the major search engines. These reports ARE accessible by heading to Representative Christoper Shays or Rep. Mark Green's web site Both of these pages have a direct link to the House.Gov server. Here are a few additional sites where you can access selected CRS content on the web. Understand that in some cases reports available from these sources have been updated since they were placed on these web sites. 1) Reports About Foreign Affairs and Related Issues (via the U.S. State Department Foreign Press Center) 2) Reports About Science and Environmental Issues (via National Library of the Enviroment) 3) Reports About Intelligence, Special Weapons, Military & National Security, and Civil Space (via FAS) See Also: Full-Text of Legislation (via Congressional Record) See Also: The Full-Text of the POGO Report The report DOES NOT MENTION the CRS Access Points via Rep.Chris Shays or Rep. Mark Green's Web Sites.
Internet Domains Source: AP More Schools Become Eligible for .EDU Domain Names From the article, "Beauty, theological and distance-learning schools will be among the educational institutions that will soon share online real estate with the likes of Princeton and Harvard. The Commerce Department approved the expansion of the ".edu" domain name on Tuesday to allow usage by schools such as the Connecticut Institute of Hair Design and the American Film Institute." See Also: Official Announcement from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Legislative Information--Canada New, Library of Parliament Introduces LEGISINFO From the site, "...an electronic research tool for finding information about bills currently before Parliament. Users of the Parliamentary Internet can now: track a bill through both the Senate and the House of Commons; review recorded votes; and read speeches, Legislative Summaries and related departmental information, all from one location. In addition, LEGISINFO provides links to related websites and reports, a reading list for most government bills, and links to political party press releases." Learn more via the LEGISINFO FAQ. -- International Relations Source: The Aspen Institute Full-Text, The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy The Rise of Netpolitik is the eleventh report of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology. You can find a list of participants on page 61 of the 72 page report. -- Business and Finance Source: The Corporate Library Chart, CEO/Chairman Splits in the S&P 500 See Also: The Corporate Library Directors Database -- Business and Finance Source: GAO Full-Text Report, Potential Terrorist Attacks: Additional Action Needed to Better Prepare Critical Financial Market Participants Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- U.S. Congress--Directories Source: GPO Now Available, Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 108th Congress
Professional Reading Shelf Presentations from the 11th Information Online Conference The conference took place in Sydney last month. A great list of presenters and presentations. Here's just a few a small sample of what you'll find:. "E-Journals – What Are You Really Getting?" by Dr. Carol Tenopir "The Challenges of Global Research in a Non Global Information Environment" by Mary Ellen Bates "Resource Discovery in the Knowledge Era" by Kathleen Lazzari "Demonstrating the Value of Libraries and Online Information Professionals" by Amelia Kassel "What Makes Libraries Relevant in the 21st Century?" by Roxanne Missingham "Education and the Informational Professional" by Sue Myburgh "The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See" by Chris Sherman
Web Search--AltaVista AltaVista Announcements About Multimedia and News Search A couple of quick announcements from AltaVista today. 1) AV's Larger Multimedia Index According to the announcement, AV now has over 240 million unique media files, including images, video clips, MP3 and other audio files. After some quick searches for images I do see an improvement. -- 2) News Search Enhancements We first reported on these about a month ago. You can now limit to a specific date range. Use the date pull-down box and select date range. You'll then be presented with two clickable calendars, where you can select dates. These are the type of calendar boxes often found on travel sites. Btw, if you want to directly enter the date range that also works. However, be careful, the date structure is dd/mm/yr. A new option is also available to limit your news search to only retrieve articles that contain images. I've noticed considerable improvement over the past couple of months in the quality of AV's News Search. Remember, you can utilize all of AV's advanced syntax including a proximity operator (NEAR) and truncation symbol (the * ) with the news database. Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Web Search--MSN Search Source: News.Com A New Beta from MSN Search From Stefanie Olson's article, "The Microsoft-owned division launched a test site for MSN Search on Tuesday that omits banner advertisements and a large navigation column for the MSN network, freeing up more room on the page to display query results. The new site also says that it can display results 65 percent faster than before." On the advanced search page you're now able to restrict/limit your search to content in one or all of the following formats (HTML, Powerpoint, Acrobat, Word, and Excel). For example, a search for "United Airlines" limited to only Powerpoint slides and Excel spreadsheets. MSN Search uses the Inktomi web database. See Also: Direct to the MSN Search Beta
Professional Reading Shelf Library Systems Source: NISO Full-Text, RFP Writer's Guide to Standards for Library Systems From the NISO site, "...a comprehensive overview of the technical standards that today's integrated library systems and services are built on. This Guide will help you correctly reference standards and evaluate compliance." 70 pages .pdf
Information Industry--Hoover's Source: Internet.Com "D&B Will Not Increase Bid For Hoover's" From the article, "Corporate data provider D&B said it would not improve its existing $7 per-share offer to acquire fellow business database company Hoover's (Quote, Company Info), leaving open the possibility that a rival investor group's $8 bid could prevail." See Also: "D&B Announces It Will Not Raise Its Offer for Hoover's" (via DNB.Com) See Also: Hoover's Announces Receipt Of Letter Regarding Possible Acquisition Of Shares (via Hoover's.Com
Health Information--MEDLINEplus Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary Now Available on MEDLINEplus From the announcement, "The Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary contains definitions for 60,000 words and phrases used by health- care professionals. Designed to be easy to read, it offers the right spellings of medical terms, a pronunciation guide, and biographies of individuals who have given their names to the language of medicine." See Also: Direct to the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary on MEDLINEplus
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Online Today, Full-Text, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2002 See Also: Highlights from the Abstract -- Labor--Canada--Statistics Source: Statistics Canada Full-Text, The Changing Profile of Canada's Labour Force Full-Text, Where Canadians Work and How They Get There -- Labor--United States Source: Monthly Labor Review Full-Text, Three Article's from the January '03 Issue "State labor legislation enacted in 2002" "Changes in workers’ compensation laws, 2002" "Changes in unemployment insurance legislation in 2002" -- Stories in the News--Academy Awards Source: AMPAS 75th Academy Awards® Press Kit This "kit" (86 pages) includes a 28 page Oscar timeline. You can also access the kit section by section. See Also: Nominations Press Kit -- Poetry--Databases Just in time for Valentine's Day...LionHeart A searchable collection (no charge) of love poems taken from Chadwyck-Healey's English, American and African-American Poetry databases. From the site, "The poems were selected by consulting anthologies of love poetry with further items being identified by conducting specific searches on key terms. Some major authors which appear in the main databases have been omitted for copyright purposes."
Web Search--Google Source: Search Engine Showdown Issues with the Google Cache Greg provides some warnings about and search tips for using the Google cache feature. Monday, February 10, 2003
Public Libraries--Canada Internet Filtering Source: The Globe and Mail "Librarians caught in the Net" More on Internet filtering issues at several public libraries in Canada. See Also: (Updated 2/11/03) "Calgary Libraries Develop Web Porn Strategy" (via CTV) See Also: Related Stories from the 1/28/02 ResourceShelf
Digital Information Source: Library of Congress This Friday: LC Presentation About National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program This Friday, Librarian of Congress James Billington will present the "Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program" (NDIIPP) at LC.
Scholarly Publishing Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education "Elsevier Announces New Procedures for Retracting Online Articles" From the article, "Elsevier Science announced new procedures last week for handling journal articles in its databases that are the product of plagiarism or other research misconduct. Librarians and scholars have complained that the Anglo-Dutch publisher was jeopardizing the integrity of scholarship by removing articles from its databases with little explanation..."Now that Elsevier has put forth this revised version, the challenge to the rest of the publishing/editorial community is to develop similar policies and to make them public," T. Scott Plutchak wrote Friday in an e-mail message to his colleagues. Mr. Plutchak is director of the health-sciences library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and editor of the Journal of the Medical Library Association." The precise changes are explained in the article.
Information Industry--divine More divine/Rowecom News 1) Open Letter to the Publisher and Library Community from the Steering Committee of the ad-hoc RoweCom Creditor Group (via Managing Information) - 2) "RoweCom Purchase Haunting Divine" (via Chicago Tribune) From the article, The mess not only has left a stain on a high-profile venture that was supposed to place Chicago on the high-tech map. It also reduces the odds of Divine's survival. Sources close to Divine say the company needs a cash infusion or a buyer, as well as favorable terms in settling RoweCom's claims. Divine says RoweCom's suit is "completely without merit" and that it would prevail if it were forced to litigate."
Academic Libraries Source: The Christian Science Monitor (via The Washington Times) "Libraries Stack up Web-World Changes" Compiling ResourceShelf I come across articles that are written for one newspaper and then used by other news organizations. Usually, you see the same story move from paper to paper for a few weeks after its initial publication. Today, The Washington Times ran a story about libraries that that was first published in The Christian Science Monitor 54 weeks ago (also posted on ResourceShelf). If you missed it a year ago, here it is again. The article discusses how academic libraries are in a state of flux.
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Department for Culture, Media, and Sport Full-Text Report, Framework for the Future: Libraries, Learning and Information in the Next Decade See Also: Summary/News Release ||| Article from The Independent -- Information Science Full-Text, The Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is Now Online Here are a few highlights from the Feb/March, 2003 issue. Conference Session Report: Openness, Privacy and National Security, Post 9/11 Articles: Breaking Developments in Domestic Intelligence IA, Therefore I Am -- Libraries and Librarians Full-Text, The March, 2003 Edition of Walt Crawford's Cites and Insights is Now Available -- Research Libraries Source: Association of Research Libraries Full-Text, Proceedings of 141st ARL Membership Meeting (2002) Now Available Presentation Include: The Harvard E-Journal Archiving Study by Dale Flecker, Harvard University Challenges of Building a Trusted Electronic Archive: A Proposed Organizational Approach Kevin Guthrie, JSTOR Strategies to Disturb the Educational Universe by Chuck Vest, President Massachusetts Institute of Technology DRM and Copyright: “Code” and the Public Interest at the Crossroads by Fred (Rick) W. Weingarten, Director, Office for Information Technology Policy American Library Association
Enterprise Search--FAST Search & Transfer FAST Technology Fully Implemented at CareerBuilder In October, 2002 ResourceShelf ran a news item that CareerBuilder would begin to use FAST Search and Transfer technology for it's resume and job postings database. Today, word that FAST is now fully implemented at CareerBuilder. FAST powers the AllTheWeb search engine.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Information Technology--Research Full-Text, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Plan, 2003 A background article from Computerworld is also available. The plan includes a section on the Total Information Awareness program. Sunday, February 09, 2003
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Venture Capital--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Tech's Top Venture Investors (registration required) -- Basketball--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes NBA Team Valuations, 2003 (registration required)
Professional Reading Shelf Subject Access to Information Metadata Source: OCLC Full-Text, "FAST: Development of Simplified Headings for Metadata" A paper by Rebecca Dean scheduled for presentation next week at a conference in Italy. See Also: Learn More About the FAST Project at OCLC See Also: Access Other Papers from this Conference Saturday, February 08, 2003
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Iraq Source: Congressional Research Service Full-Text, Iraq: Map Sources 5 pages Full-Text, Iraq: Potential U.S. Military Operations 14 pages --
Archives--Media Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer Learn About: A Broadcast Media Archive in Ohio From the article, The 20-by-37- foot room that holds the broadcast archives is filled with rows of metal shelves holding square cardboard boxes, videocassette boxes or round plastic canisters. In one 16 mm canister are 40 rolls, each between 30 seconds and one minute in length. A neat typewritten label says, "Man on street: What do you think of Nixon's energy speech?"..."The broadcast archives facility never advertises, but word of its existence has spread among historians and documentary filmmakers across the country. It has provided material to CNN, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," HBO and other media outlets. The two most-requested items are news footage of the Kent State University shootings and the Sam Sheppard murder trial..." See Also: Direct to the Northeast Ohio Broadcast Archives
Professional Reading Shelf Virtual Reference Electronic Proceedings, 2002 Virtual Reference Desk Seminar Friday, February 07, 2003
ERIC Source: Philadelphia Inquirer "For Teachers, ERIC Overcomes Google's Limits" This is great to see! The mainstream press devoting a few inches to research resources other than web engines. The article was written by Joyce Kasman Valenza a librarian and columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer provides a brief overview of ERIC's services and WHY someone would want to use them. David Lankes from AskERIC is quoted.
Search Engines--Health Information Search Engines and Health Information URAC and Consumer WebWatch, a nonprofit research project of Consumers Union with a mission to improve Web site credibility, are collaborating to develop strategies to improve consumer health-related Internet searches. Funded by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and with support from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the initiative will be the first in-depth examination of the role of search engines in improving access to quality health information. See Also: (Updated 2/11/03) "Net Data a Health Hazard" (via The Australian)
Public Libraries--United States Time for a Library Funding Cuts Update Let's hope these posts will soon become a thing of the past. Here are a few stories from around the country that were published in the past few days. Arizona State of Arizona Law Library Closes -- California (Updated 2/8) "Library Use Grows as Services Shrink" "Proposed State Budget Cuts Send Libraries Scrambling" -- Colorado "Library Loses with Cutbacks" -- Florida Scroll to the 1/31/03 Postings -- Iowa "Library Patrons Urge Council to Limit Cuts" --- Montana "Cuts to State Library hurt libraries across Montana" See Also: An Op/Ed Column by the President of the Montana Library Association -- New York "Economy Taking Toll on Libraries" -- Oregon "Libraries Keen on Bookkeeping" "Libraries Search for Expenses to Reduce" "Hillsboro Libraries Cutting Back Hours, More" -- Washington "Tax Defeats Will Affect Library Services" "An Unfathomable Move to Sink the State Library" -- Wisconsin "Doyle Says Shared Revenue Will Survive Another Year" From the article, "Earlier Tuesday, [Governor Jim] Doyle told the Wisconsin Library Association meeting that library systems won’t see all the funding state law entitles them in the next budget."
Knowledge Management Information Industry--AskMe Source: The Seattle Times Learn About: AskMe From the article, "AskMe's software helps identify the experts by pulling together information from human-resource databases or internal documents, such as case studies or user manuals employees had written."..."It wasn't long ago that AskMe was better known for its Web site. The free site — first XpertSite.com and then AskMe.com — had accumulated a large database, answering questions of all kinds. [Chief Executive Udai] Shekawat said it was clear by March 2000 that the future was to sell to large companies that needed the service, and so AskMe used the Web site as a prototype to learn what worked and what didn't. Last November, the company pulled the plug on AskMe.com even though 20,000 to 25,0000 people a day visited the site." See Also: Direct to the AskMe Web Site
Information Industry--Dialog Dialog Introduces Distance Learning Options for Library School Students and Faculty From the announcement, "Faculty and students in library science programs worldwide can now access distance learning modules at no cost http://training.dialog.com/gep/distance. Online sessions cover searching basics, database indexing and advanced business searching on Dialog."
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Archives Source: CLIR Full-Text Report, Copyright Issues Relevant to the Creation of a Digital Archive: A Preliminary Assessment Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Also available in pdf. -- The January, 2003 Edition of The Journal of the Medical Library Association is Now Online (Full-Text) Articles Include: "Impact factors: arbiter of excellence?" "Librarian supply and demand" “Mapping the Literature” useful for collection development" "Impact factor: a valid measure of journal quality?"
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Space Shuttle Source: Congressional Research Service Full-Text, NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia: Quick Facts and Issues for Congress 6 pages -- Online Maps 831 Maps to the Collection The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection -- Environment--United States Source: CDC Full-Text Report, Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals -- Philanthropy--Bibliography Source: The Foundation Center Philanthropy's Response to September 11: A Resource List -- Economics--United States Source: Council of Economic Advisers Now Available, 2003 Economic Report of the President -- Valentine's Day--Fast Facts Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts: Valentine's Day Statistics relating to the holiday. Included in the report: * 2.3, million Number of marriages that take place in the United States annually * 24,197, The number of florists nationwide * $418 million, Value of U.S. imports of chocolate from Canada, the leading country of origin for such imports, during a recent 10-month period. Similarly, Canada was the leading foreign source of nonchocolate candy in the United States ($232 million worth in shipments). Thursday, February 06, 2003
Web Resources of the Week Three resources this week! A new fee-based insider trading database (U.S.), a new Canadian history and census database, and finally a great compilation with direct links to hundreds of property assessor databases for all 50 states. -- Insider Trading--United States--Databases (Fee-Based) A New Database for Insider Trading Data: InsiderScoop! At the end of November ResourceShelf featured a lengthy overview about EdgarIQ, a searchable database offering full-text searching of SEC EDGAR filings. Even better, the database is available at no charge. If you missed the post, you can click here to access it. Today, news of a new product from the company behind EdgarIQ, let's say hello to InsiderScoop! This new fee-based database provides searchable access to insider trading info (soon available in real time) from documents filed with the SEC. Here's a brief overview: * Same-day updates of Top 10 buys and sells (based on transaction amount) * Historical data for the past year searchable by company, ticker or insider name * Links to original SEC filings * Downloads of data to Excel format * Analytical Charts (more on the way, now two types are available (each updated on a weekly basis), bar charts comparing total buy-sell transactions and line charts showing these buy-sell ratios in relation to percent changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Data * At the moment data comes from Table 1 (non-derivative securities) of Form 4s (statements of changes to beneficial ownership of securities) filed electronically. The company is planning to add non-electronic filings soon. This is why some companies are not available. By August of this year all companies will be required to file electronically. InsiderScoop database content begins in Q1 of 2002. According to a company spokesperson no decision has been made about adding older filings. The Cost On February 17th two pricing plans will be available: 1) Same Day Access is $20/month or $120/year 2) Real-Time Access will cost $95/month or $600/year. The real-time service will also offer e-mail alerts. Searching Searching is very easy. Simply enter a name (it's probably best to enter only a surname and then browse for the correct entry), ticker symbol, or company name (again a partial name works best). Result Pages Fields include date, insider name and relationship, number of shares, price, transaction amount, shares held, a link to the full filing, and transaction date. Free Trial? You can demo the complete InsiderScoop for a week. Also, older Top 10 Transaction Charts are available at no charge. -- -- History--Canada--Databases Source: Library and Archives of Canada Searchable Database, Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906 This database became available about 2 weeks ago. "The digitized images within this database are copies of the original microfilm records held by the National Archives of Canada." -- -- Public Records--United States--Directories Public Records Online: NETR Real Estate Research and Information This straightforward compilation contains direct links to all county assessor offices (and often searchable databases with property data). for the U.S. You'll also find telephone numbers of these offices along with links to the Official State Home Page, UCC data, and environmental resources.
The Library of Congress Source: The Hill Interview: James Billington, Librarian of Congress From the interview, "“It is a big challenge, but it is all a part of getting the Library of Congress not only out to the people, but archiving material so that it will be a repository and will be on a shared basis on other repositories,” Billington, 73, said in an interview in his spacious top floor office with its panoramic view of the Capitol."..."Congress will always remain our first priority,” said Billington, whose aides noted that the library’s Congressional Research Service completed more than 711,000 research assignments for Congress in the fiscal year that ended Oct. 1, 2001...Billington voices a sense of urgency because of the inherently ephemeral nature of the Internet. He notes that the average website has an online lifetime of only about 44 days. “The stuff that survives tends to be the least valuable: video games, particularly violent video games, pornography, adolescent chatter from chat rooms, even among adults,” he noted. “What vanishes is important scientific data sets, important other information, that is published only in digital form. We are in the process of consulting with large numbers of people. … This is a shared distributed responsibility because it is such an enormous form,” he explained.
Professional Reading Shelf Final Report: OCLC Library Training & Education Market Needs Assessment Study From the summary, "In September 2002, OCLC Online Computer Library Center contracted with Outsell, Inc. to survey libraries about the training and education needs of library workers. The survey was designed to define the needs of libraries for training and education, and to discern how OCLC might help serve those needs through provision of online training offerings. The study: * Identified a benchmark for library spending on training. * Identified a benchmark for the amount of training library workers receive. * Helped to define the kinds of training libraries need and where those needs are not being met. * Indicated the trends in web-based training in libraries. * Provided direction on where to focus efforts in the development of web-based training. You'll need to register (free) to access the complete report. -- Legal Deposit--United Kingdom Archiving of Digital Content Source: The British Library Coming in March, Bill to Extend Legal Deposit to Non-Print Materials From the news release, "Chris Mole MP is set to introduce a Private Members Bill in March which will change the current legislation relating to legal deposit - now nearly 100 years old. The Bill will ensure electronic or e-publications and other non-print materials are saved as part of the published archive."..."Since 1911 the six legal deposit libraries have been able to collect copies of all printed material published in the UK. However, an increasing volume of important material is now only published in electronic formats. These fall outside the scope of the 1911 Act and are therefore not comprehensively collected. The most recent study forecasts a massive increase in online publications, including a near quadrupling (from 52,000 to 193,000) in the number of electronic journal issues published in the UK between 2002 and 2005." Says Chris Mole: 'We need legislation now to ensure that a substantial and vital part of the nation's published heritage is not lost. We must ensure that the 21st century is not written about in future centuries as a new Dark Age where significant data and records are missing because certain formats were not collected and saved for posterity." See Also: "British Library Backs Plan to Collect Electronic Publications" (via AP)
Information Industry--divine Official Purchase Agreement Signed by EBSCO for RoweCom Operations in France, the U.K., and Spain From the announcement, "EBSCO Industries, Inc. has signed the formal purchase agreements to proceed with the acquisition of its RoweCom, Inc. subsidiary's subscription management businesses in France, the United Kingdom and Spain, subject to regulatory approval in France... Upon approval of the French anti-trust authorities, EBSCO Industries will facilitate payment to RoweCom's European publishers to ensure RoweCom's European customers will receive all 2003 subscriptions, including any that may have been interrupted during the acquisition process. RoweCom's European operation accounted for approximately half the total business of RoweCom worldwide." See Also: Update on EBSCO's Acquisition of RoweCom's Non-European Assets Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Information Monitoring Nexcerpt, a New Web Based Monitoring Service Launches From the way it reads and the reputation of it's founder (remember Javelink? egosurf?), Nexcerpt, a new fee-based service to monitor news (open web sources) and publish news alerts on whatever your topic(s) of interest appears very promising. The more I read about it the bigger my smile gets. I've signed up for a free demo (you can too!) and will report back very soon. Btw, kudos to Nexcerpt for putting together such a strong "guided" introduction to the service. Btw, Gary Stock, Nexcerpt's CEO is also the founder of the Googlewhack craze.
Information Quality Source: Reuters Another Story About Fake CNN Content on the Web On Monday we had a link to a story about the Fake CNN News Generator being taken offline. However, that news generator being taken offline didn't put at end to the problems, no big surprise. According to this Reuters story, a fake CNN story made the rounds on Monday about Microsoft purchasing the video game operations of Vivendi.
Library Research "Bringing Students Back from Web to Scholarly Sources" This press release from Cornell University discusses a new article published in Portal. From the news release, "In this world of instant Internet information, the use of scholarly documents in writing term papers at U.S. colleges and universities has plummeted and the use of undependable Web resources has soared. Despite this grab-the-information-and-go attitude, there is good news from the stacks. A Cornell University library sciences study shows that when instructors set minimal bibliographic guidelines for doing research, the number of citations of scholarly materials used returns to levels of the pre-Internet world. Online scholarly resources can range from the Congressional Record to academic research reports." This study illustrates the power of the web to "go to the source" while at the same time shows that if faculty and students understand the differences in types of content, other resources (electronic and print) will still be utilized. The question is, does the faculty have a solid knowledge of what resources (beyond web engines) are available to students? (Updated 2/6/03) More in an Article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Iraq United Nations Security Council Full-Text: Remarks Made by Sec. of State Colin Powell to the United Nations Security Council This version contains hyperlinks to several of the reports Powell mentions in his presentation. You can also access the PowerPoint Presentation. Full-Text, Remarks by Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed A. Aldouri See Also: Full-Text Transcript, Saddam Hussein Interview on Channel 4 (U.K.) -- Iraq Source: Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia Full-Text Report, 'Operation Bastille': Forces and Likely Tasks for Australia's Contribution to the War in Iraq -- Research Resources--Australia New URL, Guide to Internet Information Resources for Australian Journalists A new url for Belinda Weaver's compilation. This site is valuable to all researchers. -- Education--Glossary Source: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Discovered via AskERIC A Lexicon of Learning: What Educators Mean When They Say . . . -- Law--United States Two New Reports and a Database from the Transactional Records Clearinghouse 1) Federal Judges: Measuring Their Sentencing Patterns 2) Federal Prosecutors: Wide Variation Found in Handling of Criminal Referrals for Prosecution See Also: TRAC Express (Searchable Database) "...a unique way to examine the year-by-year work product of individual assistant United States attorneys. Criminal covers virtually all such matters referred to federal prosecutors which were disposed of during the selected year. Civil covers civil and bankruptcy matters where the U.S. is a party -- including suits the government brings as well as suits brought against the government."
Public Records--New York City Source: New York Law Journal "NYC Ordered to Release Sept. 11 Records" From the article, A Manhattan judge on Tuesday ordered New York City to release hundreds of written and audio records that recount the fire department's response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Supreme Court Justice Richard F. Braun, ruling in an Article 78 proceeding brought by The New York Times, said the city had failed to articulate sufficient reasons for shielding most of the records it wished to keep secret from the public."
Professional Reading Shelf Resource Sharing Source: RLG Conference Presentations: Sharing the Wealth Slide presentations from an October, 2002 conference. From the site, "This event was developed to explore possible options for sharing treasured items from special collections and better serving scholars. In addition to "traditional" interlibrary lending operations and extending the successful SHARES model, these include the most current document transmission technology, digitizing on demand, and protocols to protect unique materials while ensuring their widest possible use." Tuesday, February 04, 2003
Semantic Web Berners-Lee With a Semantic Web Update From the article, "Current Web technology is uniquely suited for displaying documents, whether scientific papers or online catalog pages, according to Mr. Berners-Lee. But for all of its versatility, the Web has limited utility for researchers who want to share science and engineering data stored in databases, he said. Identifying and using data hidden inside complex databases is a tricky problem. But Mr. Berners-Lee believes that solving it could accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, especially in areas of interdisciplinary research that draw data from disciplines other than the researcher's primary areas of expertise." This quote comes from a presentation at the National Science Foundation. See Also: The January 28, 2003 Semantic Web Presentation by Tim Berners-Lee Presentation to the Software and Information Industry Association See Also: "A Portal for the Semantic Web" (via Search Day)
Web Portals--MyWay Search Engine Additions at Web Portal MyWay.Com MyWay.Com, a web portal (free email, directory, news, etc) that launched in October (no ads, pop-ups) has added several search engines to its list of resources. MyWay.Com users now have the option to change the default engine from Google (it's still available) to AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, AlltheWeb, or Looksmart. Additionally, you can quickly check results from these engines using tabs at the top of every search results page. Another new feature is the option to access several of each engines "specialty catalogs". Here's what's available: * Google (Web, Images, Directory) * AltaVista (Images, Video, Audio) * AlltheWeb (News, Images, Video, MP3 Files, FTP files) See Also: Original ResourceShelf Overview of MyWay.Com (10/29/02)
Database Searching Source: News.Com "IBM to unveil new Xperanto software" From the article, "Based on a research project called Xperanto, IBM's DB2 Information Integrator is designed to fetch information from many data sources all at once, from sales records to documents stored in e-mail servers. The company plans to begin a test program for the software, which is built on top of IBM's DB2 database, in the first half of this year." See Also: More Information Direct from IBM
Information Industry--ProQuest "Electric Library Canada Joins Micromedia ProQuest" "ProQuest Information and Learning announced that Electric Library Canada--a Canadian-based service that provides a subscription-based online research tool for users of all ages--will be represented by Micromedia ProQuest, the ProQuest Information and Learning's Canadian division...Electric Library Canada operations will be fully integrated into Micromedia ProQuest operations." See Also: Direct to Electric Library Canada
Digitization Projects Learn About: Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative From the announcement, "Supported by a three-year grant from the Luce Foundation, the ATLA/ATS [American Theological Library Association] Cooperative Digital Resources Initiative (CDRI) is developing a freely available, web-searchable, central repository of digital resources contributed by participating ATLA member libraries. Phase One of the Initiative focused on visual materials, including digital images of woodcuts, photographs, slides, papyri, coins, maps, and manuscripts. It is expected that these materials will be available on-line by May 2003." Thanks to Jill for the news tip. See Also: Direct to the American Theological Library Association Home Page
Online Databases--FactFinder Source: U.S. Census American FactFinder Database Gets Upgrade Included in the upgrade are new download options (including RTF), save and load queries, and custom tables. See Also: Direct to American FactFinder
National Archives--United States Source: U.S. Newswire Comments By Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin About Proposed 2004 NARA Budget From the announcement, "Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin said today, "I am pleased that President George W. Bush has proposed a Fiscal Year 2004 budget of $304,563,000, that would enable the National Archives to continue building the Electronic Records Archives and to make progress on other key initiatives in our Strategic Plan."
Professional Reading Shelf The February Edition of Péter's Digital Reference Shelf is Now Available This month Péter Jacsó reviews Gale's Consulta (fee-based) Spanish language reference project. From the review, "Consulta offers an unprecedented breadth of Spanish-language reference with a collection of about 100 encyclopedias, dictionaries, yearbooks — and then some." See Also: "Consulta Spanish-Language Collection Launched by Gale" (via Info Today)
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) -- Small Business--United States--Statistics Source: SBA New, Small Business Economic Indicators for 2001 See Also: Excel Tables for Report See Also: Older Reports (1995-2000) -- Airline Industry--United States--Statistics Source: BTS Full-Text, Air Travel Consumer Report (Feb '03) This issue contains 2002 year-end statistics for flight delays, mishandled baggage, flight cancellations, and bumping. A summary is available here. -- Aboriginality--Australia Source: Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia Full-Text Issue Brief, Defining Aboriginality in Australia
Libraries Source: San Francisco Chronicle "Privacy and Security: A Librarian's Dilemma" An editorial in the S.F. Chronicle, "Librarians have always confronted the question of how far to go in protecting a patron's privacy. Since Sept. 11, the issue has become far more acute. "How do we make sure we protect the privacy of our patrons, so people don't come into the library with the notion that the federal government is looking over your shoulder?" said Mary Minow, a law professor at San Jose State University and a national expert on library law." Monday, February 03, 2003
Information Industry--divine Source: Information Today News Breaks "RoweCom Files for Bankruptcy, then Sues divine for Fraud" Paula Hane writes, "In a bizarre twist to the continuing saga of the disappearing subscription money, RoweCom, the beleaguered subsidiary of divine, inc. filed for bankruptcy on Mon. Jan. 27 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Massachusetts, Eastern Division. That same day, RoweCom filed a 14-count lawsuit in the same court against its parent company, alleging that divine had made “fraudulent transfers” of over $73.7 million of RoweCom funds and had looted the company." See Also: Full-Text of RoweCom Court Filing See Also: "Divine intervention gone bad" (via Chicago Sun-Times)
Information Industry--Dialog Source: Information Today News Breaks "Dialog Makes Changes to Pricing Strategy, Again" Mary Ellen Bates writes, "During the week of Jan. 27, 2003, Dialog subscribers received a letter from Cynthia Murphy, senior vice president for strategic marketing at Dialog, describing pricing changes, effective February 1. Most of the changes in the Dialog service are simply increases in existing fees."
Libraries Source: Education Week "Basement No Bargain For Agency Library" From the article, "The National Library of Education, at its conception, was slated to be a vast resource for the public, researchers, and the Department of Education, a refuge where visitors could browse shelves of historical journals, delve into rare education collections, and access material from across the country through a high-tech virtual library. But since the library's official creation in 1994, some of those lofty visions have remained elusive. A limited budget and technical problems have hindered progress. Many people who work just floors above its below-street-level site at the Education Department's Washington headquarters don't even know it's there." See Also: Learn More About the National Library of Education
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Reference Source: Emerald FREE Full-Text Access to Reference Reviews Through Sunday, February 9, 2003 -- Repositories Source: SPARC New, Full-Text, SPARC Institutional Repository Checklist & Resource Guide
Information Quality Source: Wired "Fake CNN Website Taken Offline" For those of you who teach web and critical information skills, here's another article for your file. From the article, "A website that published fake news stories from CNN has been taken offline after receiving a threatening legal letter from the cable network alleging copyright and trademark infringement. The Fake CNN News Generator was online only a week, but generated a lot of controversy after ersatz news stories were picked up by local outlets and reported as real."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) NASA Source: Congressional Research Service Full-Text Report, Space Launch Vehicles: Government Activities, Commercial Competition, and Satellite Exports (IB93062) The author of this CRS Issue Brief was interviewed on 60 Minutes last night about the Columbia tragedy. Although you can find older versions of this report on other web sites, this version (available via the U.S. House Web Site) was updated last Thursday. You cannot link directly to this report. To access: 1) Go to http://www.house.gov/shays/resources/leginfo/crs.htm 2) Click the "CRS Issues Brief" Link 3) Scroll Down the Page to the Report See Also: Selected GAO Reports Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2003) Space Shuttle Safety: Update on NASA's Progress in Revitalizing the Shuttle Workforce and Making Safety Upgrades (2001) Space Shuttle: Human Capital and Safety Upgrade Challenges Require Continued Attention (2000) -- United States Government--Budget Source: GPO Full-Text, Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2004 Includes access to historical budget database and spreadsheet files. Sunday, February 02, 2003
Professional Reading Shelf Content-Sensitive Linking Source: Searcher "Linking Services Unleashed" "Jill Grogg and Christine Ferguson highlight four services that offer content- sensitive linking through the OpenURL framework: SFX, LinkFinderPlus,1Cate, and Journal Finder." -- Libraries Source: College & Research Libraries News Full-Text Article, "Removing the Barriers to Research: An Introduction to Open Access for Librarians" By Peter Suber See Also: FOS News
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Terrorism Source: World Health Organization New, Full-Text Report, Terrorist Threats to Food: Guidance for Establishing and Strengthening Prevention and Response Systems Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Saturday, February 01, 2003
Web Search--Google Source: Slate Google A Monopoly (Google-Opoly)? No Way! Search King, a search optimization firm is suing Google. I completely agree with the author of this article that the lawsuit is a joke and waste of time. The article goes on to mention a few published discussions about how Google might be a sorta/kinda monopoly and in need of regulation. It's not a monopoly and not in need of regulation. Yes, it's the leader and yes it's a good product but other excellent and rapidly improving web search engines are out there. Actually, even if Google is your engine of choice you would still be doing yourself a favor by using or at least keeping current with what's going on with other engines. As I've said on many occasions, Google is not only a strong search resource but their marketing team is at the top of the list. Trying to market other search tools these days is a massive challenge and along with the "creature of habit" factor, this is where I think the monopoly ideas comes from. For many people, Google EQUALS web search and for others it also is equal to all of the information in the World. As Barbara Quint points out, Google has become a verb. I recently saw a business magazine (from a well known publisher) calling it "all knowing". This magazine's rankings of companies were determined in part by how many times the companies name appeared in Google. By the way, this marketing issue is also a CHALLENGE for traditional information vendors who might not consider general web engines. In many cases they're also in competition with Google. Not for the eyes of the information professional but for usage by the end user. Why do I need to go to a (insert vendor name here) database when can get "something" from Google? I've heard this is a concern in all types of libraries and schools. When you think about all of the data/information in "traditional" electronic databases, toss in pages on the web but not in the Google index, and then add something as low tech as books, the Google's monopoly is non-existent. For the advertiser, sure you want your ad to reach as many people as possible but don't blame Google for being successful. -- (Update, 2/2/03) From the Boston Globe, "How the Internet search engine Google is changing what we can find out about one another - and raising questions about whether we should". What if Google disappeared today? Would all of this information become unavailable to the masses? The answer is now. True, the Google Groups archive would be gone but in terms of open web content, it would still be available elsewhere. I think this article does a disservice by making it seem that getting your material out of the Google database will then make it unavailable to the public. Wrong. You'll still need to contact AllTheWeb, Teoma, Inktomi, AltaVista, Gigablast and many others.
Professional Reading Shelf Web Search--Usability Source: Communications of the ACM Full-Text, "Finding the Flow in Web Site Search" This paper asks, "What constitutes a good interface for search?" It was published in September, 2002 and written by Marti Hearst, Ame Elliott, Jennifer English, Rashmi Sinha, Kirsten Swearingen, and Ka-Ping Yee. x |
