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ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Gary Price Library & Internet Research Consulting gary@ resourceshelf.com Gary's Bio Shirl Kennedy, MLIS Contributing Editor Dan Giancaterino, MLIS Contributing Editor Steven Cohen, MLS Contributing Editor Looking For More Info? News? Search Help? News Tips?
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Monday, June 30, 2003
Web Search Source: Consumer Web Watch/Consumers Union Full-Text Report, False Oracles: Consumer Reaction to Learning the Truth About How Search Engines Work Here are the major findings of this study: 1. Most participants had little understanding of how search engines retrieve information from the Web or how they rank or prioritize links on a results page. 2. The majority of participants never clicked beyond the first page of search results as they had blind trust in search engines to present only the best or most accurate unbiased results on the first page. As a result, two-in-five links (or 41%) selected by our participants during the assigned search sessions were paid results. 3. Once enlightened about pay-for-placement, each participant expressed surprise about this search engine marketing practice. Some had negative, emotional reactions. 4. All participants said paid search links on search and navigation sites were often too difficult to recognize or find on many sites, and the disclosure information available was clearly written for the advertiser, not the consumer. Search engine sites that were perceived to be less transparent about these related disclosures lost credibility amongst this group of online consumers. -- A comment or two. Although the engines themselves have done a better job of labeling "paid" material, this report shows consumers need more. Perhaps this is an opportunity for the library community to do more in terms of education on how to best use "open web" search tools. This would also give us the opportunity to explain that we have the tools (databases, books) and the skills (most important) to offer the searcher material that is NOT accessible via any web engine in a very timely manner. More and more material is now being crawled but for many, as this report points out, it's only "visible" if it appears on the first page of results. Or, in info sci terms, the universe of material in the database is increasing without the proper tools to get the data out or by developing more sophisticated search strategies (increased recall/lowered precision) -- Also, while the second major finding is not a surprise (most people only look at the first results page) it is nevertheless alarming. One thing that might help is to increase the number of results reported on a results page. All engines allow you to customize the number of results returned (check the preferences page). By default, most engines return only 10 results. What's most interesting is not only do people look at a few results they're only searching with an average two search terms without the assistance of any controlled vocabulary.
Internet Filtering U.S. Supreme Court's CIPA Decision: The Editorials Since last Monday's U.S. Supreme Court Decision many newspapers have published editorials about the decision. What follows is a roundup with direct links to about 25 editorials. * Allentown Morning Call..."Library filters to block e-pornography; a common-sense approach to Internet" * Arizona Republic..."Filtering the Web" * Austin American-Statesman..."Web filters welcome, but kids will find holes" * Chicago Tribune..."Filtering Free Speech" * Christian Science Monitor..."Blocking Porn at Libraries" * [Denver] Rocky Mountain News..."Why is Congress bossing libraries?" * Des Moines Register..."Don't censor libraries" * Detroit Free Press..."Justices fail to side with free speech in two cases" * Eugene Register-Guard..."Unfiltered justice: Libraries told to block porn or give up grants" * Indianapolis Star..."Libraries' duty: Put clamps on porn sites" * Louisville Courier-Journal..."Library Filters" * Memphis Commercial Appeal..."Libraries, not Congress, should guide Net access" * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel..."Let librarians play nanny" * Minneapolis Star Tribune..."Internet filters / Affront to librarians, patrons" * Newsday..."Unnecessary Headache for Libraries" * New York Times..."Internet Filters and Free Speech" * Peoria Journal-Star...Trust local libraries to police Internet * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette..."Library privileges / The court lets Congress protect children on the Web" * Providence Journal..."Dictating to libraries" * Salt Lake City Tribune..."Unplugged" * San Antonio Express News..."Free speech blocked along with porn sites" * San Francisco Chronicle..."Why filters flop" * San Jose Mercury News..."Court unwisely endorses government censorship at libraries" * Springfield (MA.) Republican..."Court is kidding itself on Internet porn filters" * Tampa Tribune..."Filtering Smut In Public Libraries" * Wichita Eagle..."Smut Free" --- --- UPDATED 7/3/03 Libraries--Filtering Source: New York Times "Libraries Planning a Meeting on Filters" A short article in the NYT about the ALA organized meeting set for August 14th.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Documents in the News Emergency Responders--United States Source: Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders/Council on Foreign Relations Just Released, Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Documents in the News Bioterrorism Source: GAO Full-Text, Bioterrorism: Information Technology Strategy Could Strengthen Federal Agencies' Abilities to Respond to Public Health Emergencies. GAO-03-139 -- Information Technology--Lists and Rankings Source: VARBusiness 2003 VARBusiness 500 "...industry's top VARs, systems integrators and IT consultants as ranked by their annual sales." Includes exec profiles, and list of top distributors. -- Photojournalism--Webliography Source: C&RL News New, Photojournalism on the Web: A guide for practicing and student photojournalists -- Freedom of Information Act--United States Source: U.S. Congress, Committee on Government Reform Full-Text, Citizens Guide to Using the Freedom of Information Act Thanks to S.P. for the news tip. Note: The 2002 edition of this report is also available.
Dictionaries--Merriam Webster Source: AP Merriam-Webster Publishes New Collegiate Edition M-W's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) available tomorrow, From the article, Once a decade, Merriam-Webster updates its best-selling dictionaryincludes 10,000 new words and more than 100,000 new meanings and revisions among its 225,000 definitions." From the article, Some of the new words have been a longtime getting the widespread assimilation that merits a move from the unabridged dictionary to the Collegiate. The citation file on the Yiddish exclamation "oy," for example, dates back to the immigrant waves of the 1890s. Others have zoomed into the language with the speed of the Internet. The Web has spun the biggest influence on the American language in the past decade both with the new words it has spawned and the speed with which they have been adopted by the general public, said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster. Other additions include: * "headbanger" (defined as both a hard rock musician and a fan) * "dead presidents" (paper currency) * "McJob" (low paying and dead-end work) * "Frankenfood" (genetically engineered food) * "longneck" (beer served in a bottle with a long neck) See Also: An Overview of New Words from Merriam-Webster See Also: Wordsmiths get own 'funplex' in revised Merriam-Webster (via Washington Times)
Site Search FAST and Google Implementations 1) City of Chicago's Web Site Now Using FAST Search and Transfer Technology 2) State of Arkansas Portal Now Using Google
Professional Reading Shelf The June, 2003 Issue of ITAL: Information Technology and Libraries is Now Online Full-Text Articles Include: * "An Organizational Model for Instructional Support at a Community College" * "Building a New Infrastructure for Digital Media: Northwestern University Library" * "Improving Art History Education: Library and Faculty Partnerships in Instructional Technology Development" -- Research Libraries Source: ARL ARL Statistics 2001-02: Research Library Trends Sunday, June 29, 2003
Web Search--Google Source: The New York Times Is Google God? The real problem here is the ridiculous headline along with the folliowing statement, "Says Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider: "If I can operate Google, I can find anything. I think most of you who read ResourceShelf on a regular basis can guess how I'm going to answer this question. Google is not all-knowing. It's an information tool in a world where other hi-quality tools exist and need to be used. The issue in my mind is why are articles and comments similar to Mr. Cohen's all over the place? I don't think it's because of the technology. Yes, Google does great work but it's because of Google's excellent marketing and public relations team. They've made the masses think that they have it ALL and nothing else is needed to find any answer to any question. Now, that's what I call good marketing. Even more impressive is that they've done most by capitalizing on the value of viral marketing. Furthermore, it illustrates the lack of promotion by the information and library community to explain that it's not always as easy as typing 2.1 words into the Google search box. * Google is an excellent tool but others exist. Remember this sentence from a May issue of Forbes? "Even Google's engineers admit Fast and Teoma deliver results comparable to theirs." * For the professional searcher, AllTheWeb and AltaVista offer numerous search options not available with Google. * If Google is all-knowing are databases like ABI/INFORM, Biography Reference Center, and the full collection of Dialog databases obsolete and a waste of money. * Most importantly, all of the worlds (data, knowledge, information) is not accessible via Google or any web engine for that matter. Even if it was, how long would it take for the average searcher to find it, make judgments about it's quality, currency, etc? Other databases, both free and fee-based can produce authoritative results more more easily if your willing to "learn" them. Plus, they just might offer the data in a more usable form. Remember, anyone can place anything on the web and have it show up in the results list of Google and other engines. See Also: Walt Mossberg's List of Google Limitations
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Cross-Cultural Resources Source: U.S. Dept. of State New, Bibliography of Cross-Cultural Resources -- Diplomacy--Protocols Source: U.S. Dept. of State New, Bibliography of Protocol Resources -- Internet Filtering Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation Full-Text Report, "Internet Blocking in Schools" Announcement/Highlights ||| Direct to Full-Text
Professional Reading Shelf Semantic Web Source: DigiCult Full-Text, Towards a Semantic Web for Heritage Resources Numerous articles about how the semantic web will play a role with heritage resources. 43 pages .pdf. Articles include: * "Development of the Semantic Web Must Begin at the Grass Roots Level" * "Semantic Web should be based on Well-founded Ontologies" * "A Cultural Heritage Semantic Web Example & Primer" Saturday, June 28, 2003
Electronic Journals--Project Muse Project Muse Announces New Journals and Prices for 2004 Collection More than 10 new titles. ALSO from Project Muse, a new Journal Alert e-mail service. "...receive weekly announcements of new titles and new issues added to Muse. Subscribers can customize exactly what kind of journal alerts they want to receive, including selecting new issue alerts by individual titles, subject groups, or collections. The new issue alerts include direct links to tables of contents. Librarians and users can sign up, view or change their existing selections, or unsubscribe through the "Request Journals Alerts" link on the MUSE "Information" page."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Health Information Source: MEDLINEplus New Compilation: Ergonomics New Compilation: Weight Loss Surgery -- Telemarketing--United States Source: FTC New Web Site: DoNotCall.Gov Access the web site (and register, if desired) for the national "do not call" list. Friday, June 27, 2003
Professional Reading Shelf Source: National Library of Australia Gateways An Update: AskNow, Australia's National Collaborative Reference Service From the article, An initiative of the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL), AskNow! is a 12-month pilot to test the potential for collaboration, and to assess and evaluate the demand, for this type of service—in addition to exploring issues of staffing and sustainability. AskNow! uses 24/7 reference software provided by the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS) in the United States, hosted on their server. In the beginning, two ‘seats’ were licensed, allowing for two librarians to operate the service concurrently. AskNow! went live on 26 August 2002, with no marketing or promotion, and received 45 inquiries. Usage for the next four months was constant, at around 30–40 inquiries per day and around 700 per month. This allowed the service to be bedded down, and for staff to become familiar with a totally new way of delivering reference. User demographics and satisfaction with the service is assessed through an exit survey. The most popular age group in these early months was those aged between 35 and 49. It was pleasing to note that 41 per cent of users were living in regional areas.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Business--Canada--Lists and Rankings Source: Report on Business Released Today, The Top 1000 Companies in Canada, 2003 The new "Power Book" is now online. -- Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Entrepreneur & D&B Full-Text, Hot 100: The fastest-growing new entrepreneurial businesses in America (2003) This is the 9th annual ranking. -- Industrial Design--United States--Awards Source: Industrial Design Society of America New, 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Awards
Information Industry Briefs LexisNexis...LN Purchases Midwest Based Public Records Company Note: Last week ResourceShelf posted an article about Reed Elsevier's (LN's parent) desire to make acquisitions. -- ProQuest...Adds Data From From Snapshots International to ABI Databases -- Factiva...Conpany Adds New Content Including Agence France Press Material Thursday, June 26, 2003
Web Resource of the Week Business Research Full-Text Content from The Information Advisor #2, "Searching for Company Data" Several weeks ago, ResourceShelf brought you an article from Bob Berkman's Information Advisor newsletter. This week, ResourceShelf presents another full-text article from Bob's highly respected publication. The article is titled, "Searching for Company Data" and was first published in last month" Advisor. It features a review of key EDGAR document types and a handy chart of services providing access EDGAR material. Before you download the article here are two services not included in Bob's article. Both have been mentioned numerous times on ResourceShelf. 1) SECInfo.Com 2) EdgarIQ (Full-Text Access to EDGAR Docs) Both are mentioned in this ResourceShelf post. -- I would like to thank Bob for allowing The ResourceShelf to offer free access to this valuable content. If you have any questions, like to thank him for allowing us to reprint the material, or ask him a question about TIA, you can contact him at RBerkman@aol.com and/or visit TIA" home page to subscribe and/or learn more. Note: Bob Berkman is the author of the The Information Advisor's Guide to Evaluating Web Data, Sites and Sources. It's set for publication this fall. See Also: Access the Full-Text of ResourceShelf/Information Advisor #1 ("Digging for Data on Subsidiaries") ----- You Might Have Missed E-Mail Alerts An Impressive Compilation: Email Alerting Services of Major Publishers / Vendors This compilation is provided by the library at the City University of Hong Kong
Web Search--Google Google Releases Beta Version of Toolbar 2.0 This BETA (available for 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, IE 5.0+) of version 2.0 includes a pop-up blocker (no method to authorize potentially useful pop-ups for certain domains), AutoFill (complete a web form), and the chance to quickly post to your Blogger blog (no surprise here!) with a single click. Don't forget other useful toolbars are worthy of your attention. This week Hotbot launched a deskbar (see Tuesday's posts) and the Ask.Com toolbar offers several unique features.
Scholarly Publishing Source: The New York Times "Measure Calls for Wider Access to Federally Financed Research" From the article, A group challenging the power of established scientific journals says legislation will be introduced to make the results of all federally financed research available to the public. The group, the Public Library of Science, which includes scientists, doctors, researchers and their public supporters, plans to announce legislation on Thursday that would give taxpayers greater access to scientific data. See Also: Learn More About the Public Library of Science See Also: More About the Legislation PLoS is Proposing ||| Complete Press Kit About Proposals (3.6MB)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents State Rankings--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: U.S. Census Compilation of State Rankings (via U.S. Stat Abstract) Available on U.S. Census Site This handy compilation offers the lists in either html or Excel formats.
Professional Reading Shelf Publishing--Canada--Statistics Source: Statistics Canada Just Released, Book publishers and exclusive agents, 2000-2001 From the statistics brief, The book industry saw substantial growth in 2000/01, with increases in revenues, sales and the number of new titles issued. Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Information Architecture New Study, "Impatient web searchers measure web sites' appeal in seconds" From the story, Web users are picky and impatient, typically visiting only the first three results from a query, with one in five searchers spending 60 seconds or less on a linked Web document, according to Penn State researchers. “People make instantaneous judgments about whether to stay on a site, and if a site doesn't the give the right impression, users will bypass it," said Dr. Jim Jansen, assistant professor in Penn State’s Information Sciences and Technology (IST). "A page has to be well-designed, easy to load and relevant to a searcher's needs." Otherwise, by the time three minutes have elapsed, 40 percent of searchers will have moved on. While some may have found what they wanted, others may simply have given up and moved to a different site, said the faculty member in Penn State’s School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). Jansen's conclusions are based on research that he and co-author Amanda Spink, Penn State associate professor of IST, conducted in February 2001. The two researchers analyzed more than 450,000 Web queries submitted to AlltheWeb.com in a 24-hour period, reviewing users' actions in chronological order. The length of sessions, number of pages visited and relevance of results were studied. Thanks to P.W. for the news tip.
Relocation--United States--Specialized Databases NeighborhoodScout.Com This is a fee-based service but a free trial is available. From a Christian Science Monitor article, NeighborhoodScout.com, an online database created by geographer and demographics specialist Andrew Schiller, helps relocating retirees and others find the neighborhood that best fits their needs. Using data from the Census Bureau, the Federal Housing Authority, the Department of Education, the US Geological Survey, and the FBI, the database locates prime neighborhoods with a simple ZIP Code search or by housing costs, education, language, and other criteria selected by the user. The site is helpful for retirees looking for warm locales as well as those who wish to stay close to their long-time homes. See Also: Direct to the Neighborhood Scout Home Page
Language Resources--Canada Source: Canadian Heritage New Resource, Word Wizards: The Canadian Online Language Toolkit From the announcement. "Word Wizards will give Canadians access to a new Web site where they can quickly consult many language tools that can provide help in writing and editing in either of Canada's two official languages," said Minister Copps. "It's a vital tool for Canadians; it will stimulate the development and production of Canadian cultural content on the Internet."...Word Wizards will offer Canadian techno-linguistic tools, some for a fee, and many free of charge. See Also: Direct to the Word Wizards Web Site
Web Search--Vivisimo Vivisimo Gets Attention in Pittsburgh Newspaper A lengthy article about one of our favorite tools. Those of you who have read ResourceShelf for awhile, know that Vivisimo gets mentioned here on a regular basis. Thanks to S.P. for the news tip. See Also: Use Vivisimo's Clustering Technology with PubMed and FirstGov
Access to Information--European Union Source: StateWatch Full-Text Reports: Access to EU Documents From the Statewatch site, First Annual reports of the Council of the European Union (the 15 EU governments) and the European Commission on access to documents (under Regulation 1049/2001) have been produced: 1) Report from Commission (pdf) and 2) Report from the Council (pdf). The web page contains direct links to the reports as well as analysis.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) North Korea Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, House of Commons, Australia Full-Text Research Brief, Resolving the North Korea Nuclear Crisis -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Just Published, Full-Text: Digest of Education Statistics, 2002 See Also: 1999-2000 District Fiscal Data Released in Web Tools The 1999-2000 school district finance data was released in NCES web tools. The Education Finance Statistics Center's Finance Peer Search Tool has been updated with the new data. The District Locator allow the user to retrieve information on public districts from CCD's databases. Data include address information and basic information on students, staff, finance and 2000 Census data. Additionally, the Build a Table Tool enables users to create customized tables of CCD public school data for states, counties, MSA's, districts and schools using data from multiple years. -- Higher Education--United States--Statistics Source: NSF New Report Released, Characteristics of Recent Science and Engineering Graduates: 1999 -- Firearms--United States--Statistics Source: BJS New, Full-Text, Survey of State Procedures Related to Firearm Sales, Midyear 2002
Web Search--Microsoft Source: News.Com "Microsoft, Google may go head-to-head" More speculation as to what MS might be up to. As I noted last week, ResourceShelfPLUS has direct links to recent MS search related patents and technical papers.
Briefly Reminder: Information/Registration For the Dublin Core 2003 Conference is Available A metadata primer and a workshop on corporate metadata are included as pre-con workshops. -- The History Channel Donates Historical Footage of The World Trade Center Back to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to Help Rebuild the PA's Library Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Privacy Information Industry--LexisNexis LexisNexis, ChoicePoint Sued Over Reselling Personal Data From the article, Two class action lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Fla., allege that two of the nation's largest information brokers have invaded the privacy of millions of Florida motorists by obtaining sensitive personal data from the state and reselling it. The suits also accuse the state of Florida of failing to protect its residents from criminal invasions of privacy. They seek billions of dollars in damages. According to the complaints, filed late last month, ChoicePoint Inc., which has its data mining operations headquartered in Boca Raton, and Reed Elsevier, the parent of LexisNexis, have violated the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act. They have done so, according to the complaints, by obtaining for resale personal information from Florida state records without the "express consent" of licensed drivers and registered car owners. UPDATE (6/25): The Virtual Chase Has Details of Additional Law Suits Filed Against Accurint, Experian, R.L. Polk, and Reed Elsevier. See Also: More Info in this AP Story
Web Search--Hotbot Hotbot Now Offers A Search "Deskbar" This new tool has been adapted from "Dave's Quick Search Deskbar" and offers a number of shortcuts. For example, from the search window access the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, get a weather forecast, or find a synonym using Thesaurus.Com. You can find a list of other shortcuts here. Back in December, Hotbot was relaunched and currently offers the ability to simultaneously search 4 web databases (AllTheWeb, Google, Inktomi, and Teoma) simultaneously and then have results from each delivered in their native format. Unlike meta engines, result sets ARE NOT merged together. Take a look at our December 15, 2002 intro to the new Hotbot. Chris has more about the new Deskbar in Search Day.
Internet Filtering Source: AP Library Group Targets Secrecy of Filters From the article, Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, considers the moment "an opportunity for these companies to shed a little sunshine on what's going on." Filtering vendors have historically given few details about their criteria for blocking sites, saying the information is proprietary. See Also: "Many libraries will skip grants to avoid using Net filters") via San Jose Mercury News) See Also: Seth Finkelstein's Anticensorware Investigations
OCLC Something New (Fun?) from OCLC: Monitor the Latest Entries into WorldCat WorldCat is the largest bibliographic database in the World. This new "ticker" automatically refreshes itself every 8 seconds with a recent entry. See Also: Learn More About WorldCat
School Libraries--Canada Source: The Globe and Mail "The missing link" From the article, "Studies show that an old-fashioned educational tool -- the school library -- affects students' marks more than we think..."
Citation Analysis--Lists & Rankings Source: Institute for Scientific Information 1) Performing Arts: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 -- 2) Science in Spain, 1998-2002 -- 3) Journals Ranked by Impact: Political Science -- 4) Science in Italy, 1998-2002 -- 5) Communication: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1998-2002
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Information Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: Business Week The Info Tech 100, 2003 Also available as a pdf document. Monday, June 23, 2003
Internet Filtering--United States U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Children's Internet Protection Act From the article, By a 6-3 vote, the justices reversed a ruling by a special three-judge federal court panel in Philadelphia that the filtering requirement caused libraries to violate the First Amendment constitutional rights of their patrons. See Also: READ the Full-Text of the Supreme Court Majority and Dissenting Opinions See Also: The American Library Association Denounces the Decision See Also: Numerous Background Resources and Links (via CIPA) (Update) More From The New York Times and the AP
Web Search--Google NPR (National Public Radio) Airs Report About Google The segment aired on Weekend Edition with Scott Simon and discusses Google's popularity. It also focuses on how others like MSN and Yahoo are gunning for them (so what else is new). Sergey Brin and other "Google folk" are interviewed. Synopsis: 1) Brin on the Logo 2) Research in Determining the Language of Web Pages 3) Google Perks (Pool Tables, Food (yes, it is VERY good) 4) How a businessman in San Fran is Using Google to Find Technical Info For a Startup. (I wonder if he realizes that the San Fran Public Library offers free electronic remotely accessible databases (often with full-text articles) or has he contacted the business librarians at the SFPL who can also assist? What about browsing a directory like Infomine or LII for sites about starting a business?) 5) Privacy Issues: How Someone Found Something that They Did Want to Have Known via Google (Note: Don't Blame Google) 6) Brin: Google is how the world gets its Information (Note: Sergey, Other Material Exists beyond Google, How About Books? I Wonder how many at the Googleplex would rely on it for their next paper?) 7) Brin: "We value the user experience above all else." 8) Google's Text Ads are "Revolutionizing" Web Advertising. (No Mention of Overture and their purchase of two very powerful search engines AllTheWeb and AltaVista. Plus the folks building search tools at Overture Gary Flake, Jan Pedersen, and others are more that worthy of the challenge.) 9) Yahoo and MSN gunning for Google 10) Star Trek is What Web Searching Should Be, Lots of Problems Exist 11) Google will Continue to do what it does best, "improving peoples access to knowledge". --- Along with its technology (others also have good technology) a constant flow of this type of flattering media exposure is what made Google what it is today. Kudos to the marketing a public relations team! The report does mention MSN and Yahoo (at the moment Yahoo results come from the Google database) but nothing about what ATW, Teoma, and others have done either in the report or an "additional resources" web page. O.K., fine, we're used to this. I fully realize that time is a major issue when producing a radio report but the piece could have noted that useful information is available from other resources (both free and fee) and Google is not going to have all of it anytime soon. Additionally, even if Google has the material in its database, other resources can often get it in your hands more quickly and efficiently. Finally, what about the authority, currency, etc. challenges of "open web" content. Since Googling someone is "the thing to do" are people learning how to judge the credibility of what they find? Let's hope NPR will air another story on some of these issues. -- See Also: Direct to Audio (RealAudio)
OpenURL Source: NISO OpenURL Standard Trial Implementation Launched From the announcement, The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has released The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services standard (version 1.0) for a trial use period ending November 1, 2003. The OpenURL standard allows a user who has retrieved an information resource citation to obtain immediate access to the most "appropriate" copy of the full resource through the implementation of extended linking services. The selection of the best source for the full resource is based on the user's and the organization's preferences related to location, cost, contractual or license agreements in place with information suppliers, etc. - all done transparently to the user. The transparency is accomplished by storing context sensitive metadata with the "OpenURL" link from the source citation, and linking it to a "resolver" server where the preference information and links to the source material are stored.
Information Access--United States Source: FCW DOD IG [Department of Defense, Inspector General] Pulls Report off Web Site From the article, At the request of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the Defense Department inspector general's office recently pulled a report off its Web site to determine whether some information should be re-classified and not in the public domain. The page contains links to all 2003 DOD IG Audit Reports is not in the Google database (and other databases that cache pages) so a cached version of the page is not available.
Document Delivery Source: Information Today NewsBreaks Changes in Document Delivery at Infotrieve and The British Library Marydee Ojala writes, "Two major document delivery sources announced changes to their delivery systems during the Special Libraries Association annual conference—Infotrieve and the British Library. Not surprisingly, given the tight-knit world of document delivery, there are similarities in the announcements." See Also: CISTI to launch new desktop service (via E-Content Institute)
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Scholarly Publishing Source: ARL New, White Paper, Publishers Mergers: A Consumer-Based Approach to Antitrust Analysis -- Controlled Vocabularies--Health Source: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making Full-Text Article, "Classifying the precancers: a metadata approach" Link to full-text (pdf) is located on left side of page.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents United States Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts, The Fourth Of July Sunday, June 22, 2003
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Women--United States Source: The Library of Congress New, American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States From the site, "The site contains a slightly expanded and fully searchable version of the print publication American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2001). The guide has been redesigned for online use, with added illustrations and links to existing digitized material located throughout the Library of Congress Web site. These materials are supplemented by a small number of newly digitized items that provide a sample of the many relevant types of materials available in Library of Congress holdings (see Building the Digital Collection). The Research Guide also provides practical search tips, detailed collection summaries of the Library's voluminous multiformat holdings, and links to fuller catalog record descriptions and digitized material (see About the Guide for further information regarding the content and structure of the Research Guide portion of the site, as well as tips for using its search feature). In addition to the Research Guide, the gateway home page also provides information regarding preparing to do on-site research at the Library of Congress; tips on searching for women's history resources in the Library's catalogs; guidance on finding materials relating to women within the Library's American Memory collections; and helpful orientations to women's history sources in the Library's online exhibitions and audiovisual Web broadcasts of lectures, readings, and symposia.
Information Industry--Elsevier Derk Haank of Elsevier's STM Division Resigns Reed Elsevier Group plc today announced that Mr Derk Haank is to resign from Reed Elsevier with immediate effect. Mr Haank has been a director of Reed Elsevier and chief executive of the group’s science and medical division. Mr Haank plans, in early 2004, to take up the post of chief executive of Springer, the science and business publishing business acquired (subject to regulatory approval) by Cinven and Candover, the European buyout specialists.
Professional Reading Shelf Web Search An Analytical Comparison of Approaches to Personalizing PageRank Saturday, June 21, 2003
Awards--Searchable Databases Source: AMPAS It's A Wonderful Search for Oscar! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Reintroduces Academy Awards Database From the announcement, Search by nominee name; film title; song title; award category or year, alone or in combination. Results can be sorted, displayed and printed in multiple ways...The database had been unavailable while navigational and presentation difficulties in the previous search engine were corrected and improved. "The old database contained only the basic information about nominees and winners," said Academy Executive Administrator Ric Robertson. "So while all the data was correct, it was only searchable by keyword and had limited and often inadequate capabilities for sorting and displaying search results." This complete historical record of the Academy's 75-year-old Awards competition lists some 6,500 people, almost 600 companies and countries and nearly 13,600 nominees (because many of the 6,500 people appear multiple times). Over the years there have been more than 9,000 nominations in 4,000 films...Librarians Libby Wertin and Lucia Schultz were the principal architects of the database's features, with Information Systems Coordinator Vionette Sellars providing the technical coordination with Solus Development, which provided the actual programming. It took Wertin, assisted by Schultz, over two years to gather information from Academy Historian Patrick Stockstill's printed nominations resource books and create a completely restructured database. "Ours is the only site where Academy Awards data is guaranteed to be correct," Wertin said. That guarantee is not to be taken lightly, she added, "taking into account 75 years of changing award rules and the challenge of correctly reflecting the changes in the presentation of the data while still allowing it to be searched comprehensively.
Digital Libraries Source: University Business "Dewey Goes Digital" From the article, "...all over the country, researchers and university affiliates alike are beginning to understand the power and convenience of digital libraries. Once described as "fantasy" projects for library science professionals, digital libraries now are seen as critical to the long-term survival of data. Just like traditional libraries with physical shelves and tangible books, these electronic archives contain everything from text to data, audio, video, images, and--in the case of Indiana's archive--music. The difference, of course, lies in the medium: Everything in a digital library is, well, digital, meaning university affiliates can access data anytime from just about any place with a sophisticated computer and a secure Internet connection." Friday, June 20, 2003
Digitization Projects Newsreels Source: PC World UCLA Film/Television Archive and IBM Work To Digitize 27 Million Feet of Hearst Metrotone News Reel Content From the story, The preservation project's goal is to categorize, organize, and digitize more than 27 million feet of newsreel footage from the Hearst Metrotone News Collection. The archive's original newsreels--which disintegrate with age--will be preserved in an online repository, which can be accessed by the general public, historians, and scholars...The collection consists of newsreels for public viewing, unreleased stories, and outtakes shot from 1917 to 1971. The material spans global conflicts, technological and transportation advancements, medical breakthroughs, historic sporting events, and economic and political transformations such as the Great Depression and the New Deal. See Also: More About the Hearst Newsreel Collection See Also: Learn More About the UCLA Film and Television Archive See Also: New York Times Article About the UCLA Television Archive
Information Science--Citation Analysis Source: Institute for Scientific Information ISI Announces Highest Impact Journals of the Decade (in Selected Fields of Science) Background/Summary ||| Direct to Complete List (pdf)
Information Industry--Reed Elsevier Source: Reuters Reed Elsevier Wants to Acquire More Companies From the article, Anglo-Dutch publishing group Reed Elsevier said on Thursday it plans to step up its acquisition drive, using some of its 700 million euro ($814.9 million) annual free cashflow to fund any deals...Contrary to a report in the Dutch financial paper Het Financieele Dagblad, however, a Reed spokeswoman told Reuters it does not expect to use all of that money and has no plans to buy Dutch state publisher SDU. "We think we've been a little too modest in terms of our acquisitions, and we plan to be a little more aggressive in the next two years," she said. "We're focusing on medium-sized companies, not huge pieces that would form a new leg of the business."
Professional Reading Shelf Bookstores--United Kingdom Source: Library + Information Update Change in store? From the article, What impact are high-street book superstores having on the public library... -- National Libraries--Australia The June, 2003 Issue of National Library of Australia News Is Now Online Articles Include: * "Valuing Are Scientific Heritage" From the article, Work in cutting-edge areas such as medical science and environmental sustainability can only proceed from sound knowledge of what has gone before. This is what motivates the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, based at the University of Melbourne. It is interested in harnessing the Information Technology revolution, particularly digital technologies, to preserve and share our scientific heritage. "What we are trying to do on the Web is create cultural national parks, public spaces of intrinsic value that become part of our heritage," says the Centre’s Director, Gavan McCarthy. * "The Potentialities of Oral History: The "Seven Years On" Project"
The Library of Congress LC Appoints New Associate Librarian for Library Services Dr. Deanna Marcum's appointment becomes effective in August. From the announcement, In accepting this position, Marcum said: “This is a transformational period for all libraries, including the Library of Congress, as we adapt to the influences of digital technology. I am honored that the Library has placed its trust in me to assume this leadership role, and I am thrilled with the opportunity to help the Library at what promises to be a defining historical moment.” Marcum served as director of Public Service and Collection Management at the Library of Congress from 1993-95. In 1995, she was appointed president of the Council on Library Resources and president of the Commission on Preservation and Access. She oversaw the merger of these two organizations into the Council on Library and Information Resources in 1997 and has served as its president since that time. From 1989-92, she was dean of the School of Library and Information Science at The Catholic University of America and vice-president of the Council on Library Resources from 1981-89.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Aerospace--Lists Source: Aviation Week and Space Technology New List, The Top 100 Stars of Aerospace -- Travel Source: Consumer Reports Full-Text: Summer Vacation Guide You don't need a CR subscription to access full-text. -- Campaign Finance--United States Source: Federal Election Commission Full-Text Report and Lists: Congressional Candidate Spending 2001-2002 Page contains overview and direct links to numerous lists available in pdf and xls formats. -- State Courts--United States Source: BJS New, Full-Text Report, Felony Sentences in State Courts, 2000 Includes links to xls spreadsheets. See Also: New, State Court Sentencing of Convicted Felons -- Statistical tables -- Celebrities--Lists and Rankings Source: Forbes New, The Celebrity 100, 2003 Thursday, June 19, 2003
Resources of the Week 3 selections. --- Lobbyists--United States--Searchable Database 1) PoliticalMoneyLine’s Federal Lobbyist Directory PoliticalMoneyLine is a respected resource for campaign finance and related information. The site’s creators and chief database programmers, Kent Cooper and Tony Raymond, have built a large and growing assortment of both free and fee-based search tools. The Federal Lobbyist Directory (search or browse) contains data about, “Individuals or Entities That Lobby, Lobby On Behalf of Others, or Hire Lobbyists To Lobby For Them”. Currently, the database offers material for about 2500 lobbying organizations, 25,000 clients, and over 28,000 individual lobbyists. Searching “Microsoft” returns a list of current lobbyists, and links to images of original filings. A search for “Patton Boggs” returns a client list, links to political action committee data, a list of company lobbyists, and direct links to quickly access new registrations and former clients. The Federal Lobbyist Directory (available free) as well as other fee-based and PoliticalMoneyLine resources are "more that worth" of a place on your virtual reference shelf. See Also: PoliticalMoneyLine and BNA Also Offer Access to the Latest Lobbyist Registrations Browsing the filings is free. Keyword searching requires a subscription. See Also: New, Candidate & PAC & Party Disbursements Search -- You Might Have Missed Congressional Research Service 2) Another Frequently Updated Source for Congressional Research Service Reports I've said on several occasions, a single publicly available source offering access to CRS reports is not available. Plus, in many cases the reports you do find "on the web" are not very current. CRS spends a great deal of time updating material. A selection of reports compiled by the U.S. Embassy in Rome is one of a few sites that does a good job of making the most current version of reports (the ones it collects) available. Again, no single source offers access to all CRS reports. Other Sources That Add and Update CRS Reports on a Regular Basis: Reports from the Congressional Research Service (Gateway) Environmental Topics--CRS Reports International Relations--CRS Reports -- 3) History--Digital Collections Source: Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Jewish National and University Library. Historic Cities: Maps & Documents From the site, The site is intended to contain maps, literature, documents, books and other relevant material concerning the past, present and future of historic cities and to facilitate the location of similar content on the web.
The Internet Archive A New Feature (in Beta) from The Wayback Machine In Beta is a new feature that allows you to take any archived page that you access via The Wayback Machine* and quickly convert the html web page into a pdf file. Here's how to get it working. 1) You Must Use the Advanced Interface 2) Enter the URL you're looking for but before hitting the search button, select the "Convert to PDF" option. It's the last option listed on the page. 3) Example: A search for archived pages from http://www.ifla.org 4) Located next to each entry, on the results page, you'll see a button labeled "PDF". Select the desired page and click. Now, enter your e-mail address and click convert. In a matter of minutes, a pdf of the selected web page will be sent as an attachment direct to your e-mail. * The Wayback Machine, part of the Internet Archive, is a searchable archive of over 10 billion web pages back to 1996. See Also: DocMorph and MyMorph A free service from the National Library of Medicine that will convert many document types (it recognizes 50 formats) on your computer to a pdf document. Make sure to also take a look at a free desktop app called MyMorph. It makes converting docs even easier.
Web Search--MSN Source: News.Com "MSN search bot a glimpse of ambitions" MSN has been sending out database building web crawlers. What this precisely means (product launch? testing technology?) has yet to be determined. Those of you interested in what MS might be doing in web search arena will want to take a look at a few of the "search related" patents Microsoft has been awarded and recent technical papers on search topics. ResourceshelfPLUS has been compiling some of this material. * ResourceShelfPLUS--Recent Search Related Patents (Microsoft Patents at #5 & #12) * ResourceShelfPLUS--Microsoft Technical Papers and Search Related Patents: A Selected List
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Plagiarism--Webliography Source: ACRL News Full-Text, Plagiarism and cyber-plagiarism: A guide to selected resources on the Web Compiled by Patience Simmonds, a librarian at Penn St. University. -- Legislation--United States Source: Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. New Publications: 1) "An Overview of the Congressional Record and Its Predecessor Publications" - 2) "Sessions of Congress with Corresponding Debate Record Volume Numbers" (1789-2003) See Also: Legislative Source Book Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Web Search--Google Be Careful: Another Example of Using Google To Search for Popularity Using Google to measure the popularity of X (very popular with reporters) have been mentioned on ResourceShelf and in many other sources. Jonathan Dube's recent Poynter.Org article offers an excellent overview. The accuracy, validity, and meaning of utilizing Google (or any web engine) as a popularity measuring tool by simply searching the amount of hits the term/phrase returns is also questionable. However, this is not the focus of the post. So, why this posting? Well, it seems that when many people use this technique also don't understand how Google works and forget to place phrases in quotation marks. - Here is another example for your files from Sunday's St. Petersburg Times. From the article, "Online degree programs promoting virtual classrooms and specialized software are springing up all over the country; a search for "online college degrees" in the Google search engine recently returned more than 1-million results." Although it's written in quotes (meaning an exact phrase in search speak), the writer searched for online AND college AND degrees as THREE separate terms that can appear anywhere on a web page without having a relationship to one another. Google returns about 900,000 hits. However, searching "online college degrees" (what is being discussed in the article) as a PHRASE returns around 15,000 hits. -- Many other problems exist. Here are just a few of them. * First, Google's database is distributed on thousands of computers around the globe. Running the identical search at different times and from different locations will return different numbers. These numbers are just ESTIMATES. This was also pointed out by Dube in a follow-up story. * Second, what about plurals? Google doesn't offer truncation or nesting and the writer did not OR variations together. For example: "online college degree" OR "online college degrees" * Third, the lack of a controlled vocabulary causes all sorts of problems. What about synonyms like university, web-based, diploma. * Fourth, database lag time. If it's a new term, person in the news, etc. has the main database been refreshed (it might need several cycles) to reflect a trend. * Fifth, database coverage. Are certain words, terms, concepts, people more popular than others in the web world. * Sixth, spam. Web engines are getting much better at recognizing and eliminating it. Nevertheless, it still gets into the database. Page totals could be skewed by these types of web pages. -- See Also: Another Example: This time from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Search to find out popularity of the phrase, "unfunded accrued actuarial liability". Writer did not search as a phrase and got about 15,000 (a search today yields 19,000). Searched as a phrase the search returns around 250 results. **Thanks to S.B. for the news tip. **
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Health Insurance--United States Source: National Academies/Institute of Medicine New, Full-Text Report, Hidden Costs, Value Lost: Uninsurance in America From the site, "The report is the first-ever economic analysis of the costs of uninsurance for society overall." Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Report ||| Web Page With Additional Resources See Also: Searchable Compilation of Additional NAS Reports About Uninsurance -- Documents in the News Spam--Law Suits Full-Text Documents, Law Suits Microsoft Has Filed Against Alleged Spammers ||| Background Info -- Hispanic Population--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census New, Full-Text Report, The Hispanic Population of the United States Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Intelligence--United Kingdom Source: Intelligence and Security Committee Full-Text, Intelligence and security annual report Statewatch also offers an additional story about material deleted from the report. Direct to the report.
Quote of the Week From a News Release Announcing Emily Mobley's Retirement as Director of Purdue Univeristy Libraries: "During the last two decades, libraries in higher education have evolved to more interactive information centers... A university library is no longer a place where you simply read books or ponder great works. Long gone are the days of purchasing library materials and placing them on the shelves. The library is so much more complex today because of the use of electronic materials and an increase in group- and problem-based learning, as well as the need to understand copyright issues and information policy." --Emily Mobley, Dean of Libraries, Purdue University --Purdue News, 6/17/03
School Libraries Source: The Tribune (San Luis Obispo) Taking a Hit: School Libraries in California From the article, With the state slashing almost 90 percent in funding for school libraries, your children could soon find that reference books are no longer up to date or that an especially useful online database is no longer available...In 2001, the average copyright date of a school library book in California was 1987 -- compared to 1972 six years earlier...Paso Robles Unified School District is also struggling to find ways to continue essential subscription services, such as online research sites, newspapers and magazines, said Babette DeCou, the district's curriculum coordinator. No new books will be ordered next year...San Luis Obispo High School will probably eliminate its four "very well used" online databases next year or the year after, said librarian Jared Flaherty..."It'd be almost devastating to take that out of the students' hands," he said. It's especially ironic, he added, because two new computer labs are being installed in San Luis High this fall. "The public library would have to take up a lot of that slack," he said.
Government Publishing--United States The Superintendent of Documents Office is Set for a Reorganization From the announcement, The new organization is based on functional areas. In a series of meetings over several months, the staff identified the functions we currently perform or expect to perform in the near future and aggregated those functions into logical groupings. Deputy Superintendent of Documents TC Evans and I then developed an organization chart and took it back to the group which met several more times to refine the plan and make sure that key activities were identified and properly placed. The new organization was approved by the Public Printer and Deputy Public Printer last week and will be implemented gradually over the next few months.
Scholarly Publishing Source: The Scientist UC to launch open-access journals From the article, In a trend that could permanently alter the nature of scholarly publishing, several top research universities are setting up electronic superarchives to store and share their researchers' data. Some universities see these "institutional repositories" simply as a way to capture their intellectual output, but others aim to use their repositories as a means of launching open-access alternatives to conventional academic journals. This fall, the University of California (UC) plans to unveil just such an option for its researchers: the ability to create and run an open-access, peer-reviewed journal within the framework of its eScholarship Repository. The article includes numerous links and a short bibliography. See Also: Additional Info including News About a Publishing Project in the U.K. (via a ManagingInfo.Com)
Public Libraries Libraries for the Future Wins $1 Million Grant to Create EQUALACCESS Libraries in 10 States From the announcement, Libraries for the Future, a national nonprofit that champions the role of libraries in American life, has been awarded a three-year, $1.05 million challenge grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a network of EqualAccess Libraries in 10 states by 2005. EqualAccess Libraries is a new initiative designed to transform libraries into information and education centers, based on the needs of their communities.
Briefly Semantic Web... Another Look at the Semantic Web (The Independent) - H.W. Wilson...Now Available For The First Time On WilsonWeb: Bibliographic Index - Proquest...Company Acquires Publishing Rights to PERSI Database PERiodical Source Index (PERSI). PERSI, the largest subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals in the world, is created and maintained by the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (Learn More About PERSI) Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Web Search--AltaVista Good News: AltaVista Continues to Increase the Size of Its Multimedia Database It was just last week when ResourceShelf mentioned that AV's image database continues to improve. I use it all of the time and get very good results. Word today from Overture, the new owner of AV, that AV's Multimedia (images, audio, video) databases are now the largest on the open web. Bottom Line? AV has developed in a "player" in the multimedia open web search world. Here are a few highlights from AV's announcement: * The Multimedia Index (Image, Audio, and Video Content) Now Contains Over 550 Million Files. AV claims that this is 125 million files larger than their closest competitor. * The Image Index Now Contains Over 540 Million Images Including Premium Content from Corbis * NEW Image Refinement Feature, Allowing the Option to Limit by Image Size Is it really the largest? Since every company has a different method of determining size it's hard to tell. Perhaps, Search Engine Showdown will conduct a size test. However, claiming leadership is one thing but how useful the product is can be a completely different story. What is the best way to determine the value of a resource (free, fee, or print)? Learn about it, read what others have to say (if possible), explore its options, ask for a demo (if necessary) and then give it a try. ---- ---- The challenge for Overture (AltaVista's new owner) is to remind people, including info professionals, that their products are still around. In the 'Googlecentric' world of search, this is much easier said than done. However, it comes back to what we mention on a regular basis. Knowledge about and the ability to make choices variety of tools and search options is key for your research toolbox. It's also important to remind ourselves and end users that more that one product can get the job done. Let's hope that this is another demonstration of Overture's commitment to develop and improve AV and their other new search product, AllTheWeb. See Also: ResourceShelf from 2/12/03, AltaVista Announcements About Multimedia and News Search
Information Quality Source: Search Day "Who Cares About Information Quality?" When Mary Ellen Bates writes an article, it's a good idea to read it. In an article for Search Day, Mary Ellen asks, "Who cares about reliable, up-to-date information? For best results, you should ask yourself this very important question before beginning your search". The entire article is a must read. I agree 100% with Mary Ellen when she writes, "...the fastest way from question to answer is often not a search engine but an information tool -- a broad-based directory such as the Open Directory Project or Librarians' Index to the Internet, or even something as simple as searching a directory of trade and professional associations, such as the one maintained by the American Society of Association Executives. Those of you who read resources on a regular basis know that browsable and searchable directories (including the two mentioned above) are resources we mention on a very regular basis. Three other broad-based directories worthy of your attention are RDN, InfoMine, and AcademicInfo.Net. I think Mary Ellen's comments also illustrate the need for collection development and the "learning" of open web resources by information professionals. As Chris Sherman and I say in our book, a good researcher doesn't start looking for a persons phone number (a specialized info need) in an encyclopedia (general, broad-based resource). "Learning" resources also helps the info pro exploit what high quality free content remains on the web. This is necessary at all time but perhaps even more so in this time of severe budget problems. See Also: Read A Review I Wrote For Search Day About the Gateway to Associations See Also: The Virtual Chase's Excellent Compilation of Info Quality Resources
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Libraries The June Issue of D-Lib Magazine is Now Available Selected Titles: * Editorial: "Improving Access to STM Literature: The Need for Dialogue" by Bonita Wilson * "Google Meets eBay: What Academic Librarians Can Learn from Alternative Information Providers" by Anne R. Kenney, Nancy Y. McGovern, Ida T. Martinez, and Lance J. Heidig, Cornell University. Note: This article takes a look at Google Answers. * "DOI: A 2003 Progress Report" by Norman Paskin, International DOI Foundation * "Trends in Use of Electronic Journals in Higher Education in the UK - Views of Academic Staff and Students" by Karen Bonthron, University of Edinburgh; Christine Urquhart, Rhian Thomas, David Ellis, Jean Everitt, Ray Lonsdale, Elizabeth McDermott, Helen Morris, Rebecca Phillips, Siân Spink, and Alison Yeoman, University of Wales Aberystwyth; and Chris Armstrong and Roger Fenton, Information Automation Ltd. * "Understanding the International Audiences for Digital Cultural Content" by Paul Miller, UKOLN; David Dawson, Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries; and John Perkins, CIMI Consortium -- Non-Commercial Web Directories Resource Discovery Network Source: CILIP Update "Turning gateways into portals" From the article, "...reports on a project to transform the subject hubs of the RDN into portals, allowing users to conduct more powerful, seamless cross-searches in their disciplines with a single sign-on." See Also: If You've Never Visited and Used the Resource Discovery Network, You Should!
Web Access to Information Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tampa Tribune "Legal Recourse Sought Against Web Sites Encouraging Suicide" From the article, Information about how to commit suicide is available in books [and available at libraries]. The most famous one is the 1991 best-seller "Final Exit,'' published by a leader of the euthanasia movement. Now the Internet - and its far reach - is a player. What once was taboo or hard-to-find can be tracked down in an instant with a search engine. Type in the right words and hundreds of sites appear. Google has a directory [part of the Open Directory Project] for sites listing methods for suicide. Few cases of Internet-inspired suicides have been documented in the United States. But it is a troubling development for mental health experts, who see these Web sites as having a dangerous allure to someone thinking about suicide. So-called suicide sites have prompted alarm in other countries, such as Britain, where the government announced in March that it is investigating the feasibility of censoring sites that promote suicide. Note: I checked the OPAC's of a few public libraries in large U.S. (Atlanta-Fulton, Chicago, Dallas, L.A., New York) and Canadian (Toronto, Vancouver) cities and all of them own the book mentioned in the story.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Directories--Canada--Specialized Databases Digitization Projects Source: The Library And Archives of Canada New: Canadian Directories: Who was Where From the site, The National Library of Canada has one of the richest Canadian directory collections in the world. The collection includes Canadian national, provincial/territorial, county and city directories, primarily of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in paper, microform and electronic formats. In order to provide improved access to the wealth of information contained in the directories, the Library has undertaken a pilot project in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Historical Microreproductions (CIHM) to digitize fifteen pre-1901 volumes. These fifteen volumes can be consulted by selecting Search the database. -- Higher Education--Australia Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Australia Full-Text Issue Brief, How Far Have We Come? Gender Disparities in the Australian Higher Education System ||| PDF
News Competitive Intelligence WOW! NewsNow Passes 10,000 Source Mark It was only a month ago when we reported that this LARGE open-web news aggregator passed the 9000 source mark. If you've never visited NewsNow you should. This valuable free service is a demo of what NewsNow offers via their fee-based service. Although keyword searching is limited to a word or two, it's scope along with hundreds of topic pages (left side of page) makes it it's more than worthy of your time. All pages auto-refresh every 5 minutes. The Live Feed combines all sources into a virtual news ticker. This page also auto-refreshes.
Federal Communications Commission--United States FCC Improves Document Searching From the announcement, The FCC's new Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) query page has been reorganized and redesigned to make searching for FCC documents easier. A new feature linking errata to original documents has also been put into place. There are now two searches: "quick" and "advanced." See Also: Direct to FCC EDOC Search Interface
Enterprise Search FAST Acquires AV's Enterprise Search Product * In February, 2003 Overture purchased AltaVista from CMGI. * About one week later, Overture purchased FAST Search and Transfer's web search business (AllTheWeb) so it could focus on enterprise search. * Today, Overture sold the AltaVista Enterprise Search technology to FAST Search and Transfer for an undisclosed amount. From the announcement, This acquisition will not affect FAST’s product direction, as there are no plans to integrate the AltaVista enterprise search technology with FAST Data Search. As FAST continues the support and maintenance of current AltaVista enterprise search customers without interruption, it will encourage these customers to migrate to the FAST Data Search platform. See Also: More Consolidation in the Search Market (via Information Week) Monday, June 16, 2003
Web Search--Overture Source: AP Search engine pioneer Overture prepares for new chapter From the article, "Five or 10 years from now, we are going to look back at the current state of Web search and be embarrassed, like we are now when we look back at old technologies like Betamax VCRs and 8-track tapes,'' said Gary William Flake, Overture's chief science officer. The company plans to use the [AltaVista and AllTheWeb] sites as test labs for exploring new ways to probe the Internet, parlaying what it has learned from its commercial search engines to develop better algorithmic formulas. Note: ResourceShelf is currently conducting an interview with Dr. Flake. Stay tuned.
Digitization Projects--Canada Happy 25th Birthday to the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM) From the announcement, CIHM was established in 1978 to preserve and provide access to 350 years of Canada’s printed heritage, including books, periodicals and other documents. Over 90,000 rare and fragile early Canadian publications are now safely saved on microfilm and are available on microfiche; in addition, CIHM has digitized over 1.3 million pages of texts from early Canadian documents, which can be found on its Web site at www.canadiana.org. See Also: New, Children's literature, a feast of titles : Délices de la littérature enfantine: a catalog of its children's literature titles
United States--Statistics Source: BLS Updates: Metropolitan Area Designations based on Census 2000 From a handy BLS compilation page, On June 6, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced an update to metropolitan area definitions based on the new standards and the results of Census 2000. The list adds 49 new areas and revises definitions of existing Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Additionally, OMB designated and defined three new sets of statistical areas--565 Micropolitan Statistical Areas; 116 Combined Statistical Areas; and 29 Metropolitan Divisions in the largest MSAs. New England City and Town Areas also are defined. As part of this redefinition, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes for the pre-existing areas have been revised. This web page contains several links including the OMB Bulletin discussing the changes. The complete list (also from OMB) of MSA additions and changes. The new statistical areas are also included in this 141 page .pdf.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Crime--United States--Statistics Source: FBI New, Preliminary Uniform Crime Report, 2002 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Report -- Aviation Industry Source: Boeing Released Today, Full-Text, Current Market Outlook: World Demand for Commercial Airplanes -- Information Industry--United States Source: U.S. Census New, Full-Text Report, 2001 Service Annual Survey Information Sector Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Key Findings: * Revenues from online information services, led by Internet access services at $16 billion, increased 8 percent to $29 billion. * Publishing industry revenues remained unchanged between 2000 and 2001 at $233 billion; advertising revenue for newspapers was $33 billion. * Radio and television broadcasting revenues decreased 11 percent to $47 billion. Expenses were $39 billion. Sales of time by stations totaled $29 billion and network-time sales amounted to $14 billion. See Also: Television Broadcasting in Canada, 2002 (via StatCan.Ca) -- Federal Contracts--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Washington Technology Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors -- 2003 -- Media--Australia Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, House of Commons, Australia Issue Brief, Media Ownership Regulation in Australia -- Cities--Lists and Rankings Source: Mercer HR Consulting Highlights: World's Most Expensive City Summary ||| Listing of the Top 50 Most Expensive Cities Note: The complete report is a fee-based product.
Libraries Source: InfoToday NewsBreaks Special Libraries Association Keeps Its Name I'm glad that the "what should we call SLA" discussion is over. Special Libraries, no, all libraries have many other problems that need immediate attention. Last Monday, on a panel with Steve Abram, I said that I don't care what people call me, I just want them to call. Unfortunately, the word librarian has negative connotations for many people. The way to change this is by not just talking about what we can be do but by DEMONSTRATING our skills and abilities and making them relevant in an age where research means Google and browsing means Borders or Barnes and Noble. This is an example of actions speaking much more loudly than words. Sunday, June 15, 2003
State Libraries--Hawaii Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin Hawaii's State Librarian Says Goodbye From the article, After five sometimes tumultuous years, Virginia Lowell closes the book on her tenure as Hawaii's state librarian..."The library system must not be a political pawn," she said in an interview on Kamehameha Day, coincidentally the holiday on which she first arrived in Hawaii in 1998. But with Hawaii's statewide network, supported by what lawmakers appropriate year by year, that is exactly what it is. The article also includes a May, 2002 photo of Lowell giving a tour of the just completed Kapolei Library that she did not want to build. Why? It seems that legislators wanted a new building but did want to budget any money for resources, librarians, staff, or furniture. See Also: Additional Library News From...Ohio..."Library Woes" (via WTOL) A new library building opens in Bowling Green, Ohio but money is scarce for budgets for statff is tight and getting tighter.
Professional Reading Shelf Dictionaries Source: OED The June, 2003 Issue of Oxford English Dictionary News is Online Saturday, June 14, 2003
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Topics in the News--Bill Clinton--2002 Speeches Source: PoliticalMoneyLine.Com Complete List of President Clinton's 2002 Speeches Fees are also included. -- Online Maps David Rumsey Historical Map Collection Adds 811 Maps
Information Credibility--Health Source: Consumer Web Watch Transcript: Health Information Panel at "Building Trust on the Web" Conference From the site, What are the issues facing consumers in search of credible health information online? Have seals-of-approval had an impact on health Web sites? These topics, and others, were explored at Consumer WebWatch's summit on Web credibility. See Also: Web-trawling patients are a pain in the GPs (via Sydney Morning Herald) From the article, Doctors are noticing a growing number of patients quoting from websites, but Ms Bastian argues that they are more likely to irritate doctors and may be causing themselves, and others, more harm than good...Ms Bastian, of the Cochrane Collaboration's Consumer Network in Melbourne, says people who visit GPs with too much online information and misinformation are becoming disliked.
Government Printing--United States Source: GPO GPO To Close ALL Brick and Mortar Bookstores From the announcement, "...by September 30, 2003, the GPO will close all of its brick-and-mortar bookstore operations outside Washington, DC...."The GPO is remaking itself as an agency committed to using new technologies to meet the information demands of the 21st century," said Public Printer of the United States Bruce R. James. "In the past our bookstores provided a great service, but the business of Government information production and delivery is changing, and we are not only changing with it, we will help lead that change." Friday, June 13, 2003
Information Retrieval Vivisimo Awarded Almost $1 Million in NSF Grants to Develop Intelligence and Homeland Security Technology From the announcement, "With this grant we will enhance and modify our on-the-fly document clustering products to help intelligence analysts easily recognize patterns and identify trends from large amounts of unstructured data in many different languages," said Raul Valdes-Perez, President, Vivísimo. ResourceShelf continues as a big fan of Vivisimo's clustering technology for a long time. Its public demo at Vivisimo.Com is a very useful way to meta search with several engines The clustering and page "preview" feature adds extra value to the result set. Make sure to check out Vivisimo's advanced interface where you can cluster results from many specialty engines. You're also able to use the clustering technology to browse FirstGov search results. See Also: Learn How Vivisimo Clustering Works (Interesting!)
Library Technology Locating Library Materials With Wireless PDA System From a company announcement, Ekahau, Inc. today announced that it has enabled the first location-aware library navigation system deployed by the Oulu University Main Library, Finland. Wireless PDA based system called SmartLibrary helps users to find books and other material from the library collections. The help is provided in form of map-based guidance to the target bookshelf on a PDA. Ekahau Positioning Engine(tm) software is used by SmartLibrary system to pinpoint the accurate mobile client location.
Web Browsers Source: MacCentral Microsoft to Stop Developing Internet Explorer for the Mac From the article, Microsoft said it would continue to support Internet Explorer 5 for the Mac for the foreseeable future, but development of the browser has been discontinued. Any future updates to the browser will only contain maintenance or security fixes, no new features. In addition to Apple's Safari browser don't forget Opera is also available for the Mac.
Professional Reading Shelf Repositories Source: CLIR Full-Text Report, Developing Print Repositories: Models for Shared Preservation and Access
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Foreign Trade Source: BTS Full-Text Report, U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends (2003) -- Juveniles--United States--Statistics Source: NCJRS Full-Text Report, Juveniles in Court Thursday, June 12, 2003
Web Resources of the Week Three items this week! Specialized Databases--The DataWeb Meet the DataWeb The DataWeb is a collaboration between the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and is home to several online "data libraries". You'll find census data, economic data, health data, income and unemployment data, population data, labor data, cancer data, crime and transportation data, family dynamics, and vital statistics data. To access and use the DataWeb you can either download an app called DataFerret to your computer (preferred method) or use a Java based version of the 'Ferret. Once you access the data and build the data set you can easily paste the numbers into a spreadsheet, text document, or web page. A bit of a learning curve with the DataWeb but with a small amount of reading and practice you'll be up in running. The site also includes tutorials to assist you mining these microdata resources. Don't Forget: American Factfinder from U.S. Census is Another Interactive Tool for Census Material ----- 2) Legal Research--United States--Specialized Database Source: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice TPJL's Database for Public Interest Advocates From the site, "...2,000 lawyers' associations, law schools, online legal resources and public interest groups throughout the U.S. This database offers a selection of useful nonprofit resources and contacts for public interest advocates, but it is not intended to be comprehensive." See Also: The World Directory of Think Tanks (Web Version) -- 3) Digital Libraries--Canada Source: Library and Archives of Canada National Library of Canada Electronic Collection The Electronic Collection of the National Library of Canada (NLC) consists of Canadian books and periodicals published online. It includes more than 9,894 titles published by both the commercial publishing sector and the government publishing sector. The archived publications exist in various formats, including HTML, PDF, ASCII and others, i.e., the format in which they were produced.
Free Database Trials This Month Only: Ovid Offers a Free Trial of R&D Focus Database A great way to learn about various databases and search platforms is by taking advantage of free trial programs. This month Ovid is providing free access to R& D Focus. About the database, R&D focus, from IMS Health, offers essential up-to-date intelligence on drugs in development worldwide. It carefully tracks the development, efficacy, and status of pharmaceuticals from early clinical testing through to launch. R&D Focus reports on company and therapy area developments, latest phase changes, licensing status and opportunities, development history, and analysis of the potential for acquisitions and investment deals. R&D Focus offers scientific and commercial summaries, as well as the abstracts of significant scientific papers.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Business--New York City--Lists & Rankings Source: Newsday 1) New York City's Top Public Companies 2003 2) Long Island's Top 100 Public Companies 2003 -- Children--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Children's Living Arrangements and Characteristics: March 2002 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text ||| Direct to Data Tables -- Small Business--Statistics--United States A couple of items from the SBA. 1) New, Full-Text Report, Small Business Economic Indicators for 2002 Contains current data on small business activity (new firms, employment, income and terminations) by state, and serves as a quick reference guide. Tables listing indicators for about the last ten years by state are included. -- 2) New, The Small Business Administration Has Revamped Its Web Site New content including a link to another new SBA service, The E-Business Institute. What's the Institute all about? It's a, "virtual campus housing free training courses, workshops and knowledge resources designed to assist entrepreneurs and other students of enterprise." -- Documents in the News Chemical Weapons--Iraq Source: Defense Intelligence Agency Iraq's Chemical Warfare Program: Declassified Section The declassified section on Iraq's chemical warfare program from the September 2002 classified Defense Intelligence Agency study. -- Human Trafficking Source: U.S. Department of State Just Released, Full-Text Report, Trafficking in Persons Report (2003)
Industry Briefs Dialog...Records for Over 100 Top-Level Country Specific Domains Added to Domain Name Database (File 225) -- Ebrary..."Dynamic Contextual Linking Technology Integrated into PDF Documents for the First Time" -- Ovid...Company Introduces New Customized Medical Information Web Site Services -- British Library...Previews New Secure Delivery System Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Web Search--AOL AOL Introduces Image Search As you know a chunk of the AOL web database is "enhanced" with Google content. The AOL Image Database is also a "chunk" coming from Google (This has been confirmed by an AOL spokesperson). A search for "New York City" with AOL Images returns about 18,000 images. Google returns about 170,000 images (moderate filtering). See Also: In the Past Few Months AltaVista Has Increased the Size and Improved the Relevancy of Its Image Database
Public Libraries Source: San Antonio Express News Happy 100th Birthday to the San Antonio Public Library From the article, Today, librarians have to be detectives, educators, social workers, Internet filters and jacks of all trades...Sometimes inquiries send librarians on a wild goose chase, and other times, they know the answer right off the bat. But, "if you're a good reference librarian, you look up every question and you look in at least three sources to verify it," George said. And if he looks and looks and can't find the answer? "We always answer the questions," he said. "The answer may be that information is not available at this time."
Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Information Architecture Source: ASIST Now Available: Presentations from the ASIST IA Summit 2003 The Conference took place in Portland, OR on March 21-23. -- Digital Libraries New Edition of The Journal of Digital Information Available This is a special issue devoted to economic factors of digital libraries. Articles include: "Building a Business Plan for DSpace" "Counting the Costs of Digital Preservation: Is Repository Storage Affordable?" "Strategic Positioning Options for Scientific Libraries in Markets of Scientific and Technical Information - the Economic Impact of Digitization" "Emerging Tools for Evaluating Digital Library Services: Conceptual Adaptations of LibQUAL+ and CAPM" "Scholarly Associations and the Economic Viability of Open Access Publishing" -- Digital Libraries "Culturing a Pearl" Source: National Library of Australia Full-Text Paper, The National Library of Australia continues to seek new ways of providing value-added services to the nation using the power of digital libraries. In accordance with its Electronic Information Resources Strategies and Action Plan 2001-2003, a resource discovery service was prototyped to explore the provision of a new entry point for digital Australiana, of both the cultural heritage and scholarly research kind. The project sought to answer the question of where such a service might fit into the national information infrastructure which underpins scholarly endeavour. The project also provided an opportunity to explore the use of the Open Archive Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, which seeks to support interoperability through metadata sharing. The paper was written by Debbie Campbell.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Arts--United States--Funding Source: Foundation Center Highlights, Arts Funding IV: An Update on Foundation Trends -- Health Information Source: NLM New MedlinePLUS Compilation: Monkeypox Virus Infections -- Great Lakes--Atlas Source: Environment Canada/EPA New Edition Now Available, Great Lakes Atlas The third edition of the Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book consists of a revision and update of the original document produced by Environment Canada, United States Environmental Protection Agency. -- Online Maps Source: The Library of Congress New Addition to American Memory, Macau: A Selection of Cartographic Images -- Online Collections Source: Library of Congress Meeting of Frontiers Adds Collections from the United States, Russia and Germany From the announcement, The Meeting of Frontiers Web site (http://frontiers.loc.gov) of the Library of Congress has added collections from the Library of Congress; the State and University Library (SUB) of Lower Saxony in Göttingen, Germany; the National Library of Russia (NLR); and the Russian State Library (RSL). The Meeting of Frontiers site is a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West and the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East. With the latest additions, the site now includes more that 330,000 digital images that are available for use in schools and libraries and by the general public. Meeting of Frontiers is the world’s largest bilingual collaborative library site. -- Religious Freedom Source: USCIRF Full-Text Report, Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Web Search--Google Source: Business Week The Web, According to Google Yet another in the never-ending stream of Google articles. A few comments. * From the article, Google has grown so fast that even those who use it religiously have started to worry about the tendency of its huge audience to increasingly regard the site as comprehensive when in reality its compilation of information is anything but. Google has grown fast but I agree with the article that web searching is is not comprehensive. This is why it's important to realize it's not all in Google or ANY other web engine for that matter. Google's popularity has made it appear (to the masses) that it's all in one place. That's why ResourceShelf is constantly pointing out that traditional research tools STILL MATTER!. The open web is a resource. That's why it's also a good idea to use more than a single web engine. -- * Google and Regulation? Come on! It's about choices and other web engines of Google quality exist and continue to get better everyday. However, the public thinks nothing else is available. Perhaps the other engines (including ATW and Teoma) need to do a better job of marketing themselves. They have the technology. Researcher's should also create collections of specialty and targeted web databases. -- * PageRank All other web engines use what similar algorithms to PageRank. They call it link analysis. Also, web engines (including Google) look at many other things in determining the order of results. Teoma's method is worthy of note in how it differs from Google. See: "Even Google's engineers admit Fast and Teoma deliver results comparable to theirs."--Forbes, 5/2003 -- * Translation It can automatically translate Web pages in 35 languages into English Wrong. If you go to the Google translation page, you'll see they offer 12 translation options. AltaVista's BabelFish offers more. -- * Content Even more disturbing to some Web-search observers are the contextual nuances that can influence Google's results. For example, type in the search term "Ruby Ridge" -- referring to a 1992 shootout in Idaho in which the FBI killed an alleged white supremacist -- and Google returns thousands of pages with tons of information. But hardly any of the links at the top of the list provide balanced information on the issue. Rather, most of the top results present extreme views of the incident. That's why you need to be aware of open web searching's limitations. Anyone can place anything on the open web. -- * Key Quote "People perceive it as the one and only place they need to go for information," says James Rettig, head librarian of the University of Richmond's Boatwright Memorial Library, in Richmond, Va. "That's unfortunate, because people who use only search engines will miss things" -- such as books, which represent most of humankind's body of knowledge to date. Kudos Jim on your comments. Books still matter 1000% percent. As I said last week many people don't have any idea what is available to them both print and electronically. This is sad. Many libraries public, special, and academic libraries offer databases that contain material that's not found in Google or any other web engine. They're also available remotely (no need to go to the library) and in some cases available for free. Examples: Take a look at what the NY Public Library or Los Angeles Public Library offers at no charge. All you need is a library card. Contact your local or school library and see what they offer. Librarians are available to help you search and make decisions about what resources will be of value to you.
Dictionaries Source: AP 6000 Words And Phrases Added to Oxford English Dictionary From the article, The publishers said they have added almost 6,000 words and phrases that reflect 21st century life, including the frowner's favorite, Botox, passion-enhancing drug Viagra and sambuca, the aniseed liqueur served with a flaming coffee bean. Among the 187,000 definitions in the latest edition, published by Oxford University Press, there also is bevvy - British slang for a beer; head-case, referring to a person who exhibits irrational behavior; and bling-bling, a reference to elaborate jewelry and clothing and the appreciation of it. See Also: Fast Facts About the Oxford English Dictionary
School Libraries Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sad State for School Librarians in Wisconsin All types information professionals are having job issues these days. This article reviews the sad situation for school librarians in Wisconsin. Shirley Reis a librarian hits the mark when she notes that part of the blame must be placed on the librarians themselves. From the article, "Librarians historically have not been attuned to public relations, and I think that's our biggest downfall," she [Shirley Reis] said. "Because we sit in our little library cubicles and check in our books and don't tell people about the important work we do."
Digitization Projects Source: Scripps Howard News Service "Storing prehistoric culture digitally for generations to come" From the article, The only record of much local prehistoric American Indian architecture, culture and final resting places is found on aging black-and-white photographs kept at the University of Tennessee's McClung Museum. But archaeologists and librarians are working to store it digitally for generations to come. Thanks to a two-year $245,772 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the museum, along with counterpart museums at the University of Alabama and University of Kentucky, is creating a digital archive of photographs taken between 1934 and 1941 that document archaeological sites now covered by Tennessee Valley Authority lakes and dams. When the project is wrapped up, about 7,500 photographs - 2,500 from each institution - will be available both on CD and on the Internet.
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Electronic Publishing Archives The National Library of Medicine Defines Standard Content Model for Electronic Archiving and Publishing of Journal Articles From the announcement, Since the mid-1990s, scholarly journals have been striving to make their content available on the web for greater distribution, ease of searching and retrieval, or just to have a web presence. "These electronic files are created to meet the needs of the Internet-usually without much thought given to long-term archiving of the content," says Dr. David Lipman, Director of the Library's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). "Today we release two Document Type Definitions (DTDs) that will simplify journal publishing and increase the accuracy of the archiving and exchange of scholarly journal articles." -- Scholarly Publishing--Conference Announcement Source: Association for Research Libraries Scholarly Tribes and Tribulations: How Tradition and Technology Are Driving Disciplinary Change The conference is scheduled for October 17, 2003 in Washington D.C. -- Digital Preservation Source: RLG Conference Presentations Now Online, Selection and Collaboration in Digital Preservation The conference took place March 24-25 at the Library of Congress. -- Metadata Source: RLG Conference Presentations Now Online, Ready to Wear: Metadata Standards to Suit Your Project The conference took place on May 12-13, 2003.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Information Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: Computerworld Full-Text, 100 Best Places IT (2003) You'll need to complete a brief (very brief) registration to see the complete list and use the database. Criteria include: training budget per worker, IT employee turnover in 2002 and percentage of women and minority IT staff.
Information Professionals Ninety-one Percent of Librarians Say Shift from 'Information Gatherer' to 'Information Consultant' is Key to Success You can take a look at some of the results published in the news release. Note: This survey was sponsored by LexisNexis. Monday, June 09, 2003
Professional Reading Shelf THIS WEEK ONLY: Free Full-Text Access to Reference Services Review Free access begins today. Browse and read (full-text) 24 issues from Volume 25 (1997) Number 1 to Volume 31 Number 1 (2003).
Translation Software Source: Technology Review "Computers That Speak Your Language" From the article, Creating effective translation software requires solving many of the same problems that natural-language processing faces, and then some. Both systems must determine from context whether “light bulb,” for example, means a source of light or a less-than-heavy plant bulb. But while customer service software at, say, General Electric could be fairly sure of its interpretation, translation software might have to handle treatises on horticulture as well. Translation software must also contend with idioms whose figurative meaning has nothing to do with their literal meaning—and then find parallel idioms in a different language. It’s a problem that makes word-for-word translation impracticable.
Citation Analysis--Lists & Rankings Source: Institute for Scientific Information Communication: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 -- Psychology: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) U.S. Courts--Statistics Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Now Online, Judicial Facts and Figures From the site, "...a set of tables containing federal court caseload data primarily for the fiscal years 1988-2002.." -- Digitization Projects--Anatomy Source: National Library of Medicine New, Historical Anatomies on the Web From the site, "The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine has a rich collection of illustrated anatomical atlases dating from the fifteen to the twentieth centuries. Anatomies on the Web is designed to give a large number of high quality images from each of a number of important atlases in the Library’s collection." Sunday, June 08, 2003
Information Retrieval Source: ResourceShelfPLUS Compilation: Recently Awarded U.S. "Search Related" Patents/Recently Published Patent Applications I've put together a compilation of a selected list 19 of patents or patents apps awarded since April 15, 2003. Some of these patents were awarded to Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. Direct links to the actual patents are available. You'll find the compilation on the ResourceShelfPLUS site. Saturday, June 07, 2003
Quote of the Week Knowledge Management Source: IT Business.CA KM Expert: "The Addition of Someone with a Library Science Degree Was Crucial" Hooray, here's something many of us wish we read more often. In a report about a km conference in Toronto, Greg Turko, a KM project manager said the "addition of someone with a library science degree was crucial [to his KM development team]". Here are a couple of additional quotes: * "We have 800GB of data on shared drives, which is not a whole lot, but it is a lot if you're looking for something and you don't know what it's called," he said. "We were not short on information, but you just couldn't find it twice in a row if you needed it...The reason? Because if you couldn't find it, you didn't use it." * "Knowledge can only be shared, not conscripted," he said, noting that there was no sense in putting in a solution only to have people stay away in droves. "We want it to be a library, not a museum." Friday, June 06, 2003
Semantic Web Source: GCN Semantic Web wears new face As government agencies turn to Web services to link disparate applications, Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee says the Semantic Web will restructure the actual data content...Unlike Web services, the Semantic Web from the front end can integrate data that doesn't normally communicate, he said. For example, airline flight information from one Web program could be automatically inserted into another airline’s electronic calendar along with a corresponding map image from yet another airline...Rather than hide data behind a Web service, he said, Semantic Web developers should "consider putting it out there" with easy-to-understand, machine-readable descriptors written in Extensible Markup Language. The World Wide Web Consortium’s XML-based Resource Description Framework describes Web sites, data and their relationships. Agency programmers can use that metadata to build smarter search engines and directories, he said. “The Semantic Web lets you express your own concept, Berners-Lee said. See Also: Those of You Who Want an Intro to the Semantic Web, a Scientific American Article From 2001, Co-Authored by Berners-Lee, Will Be of Interest
Controlled Vocabularies Source: PsychInfo/American Psychological Association 137 Terms Added to the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms These new terms are applied to records entered into the database beginning June 2003. A complete list of the new terms is available on the PsychInfo web site. Thanks to Jill O. for the news tip.
Government Information--United States Source: GPO GPO and OMB Announce a New Compact for Government Printing From the announcement, Public Printer of the United States Bruce R. James and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. today jointly announced an innovative agreement that will free executive branch agencies to choose their own printers while saving taxpayer dollars. The agreement will also empower the GPO to maximize public access to federal information. Comments from incoming ALA President Carla Hayden are included in the announcement.
Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Information Science The June/July 2003 of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is Now Online Articles Include: * Records and Information Management Perspectives Part 1: Legislative and Legal Development * Information for Research in Developing Countries: Information Technology - Friend or Foe? * Shouting Fire on a Crowded Internet -- The May Issue of Peter's Digital Reference Shelf is Online This month Peter Jacso reviews: 1) The Blair Archive (Jayson Blair Material from The NY Times) 2) Encyclopaedia Britannica Almanac 2003 (Fee-Based Resource) -- New Web Page, The Middle East Librarians' Association Committee on Iraqi Libraries
Venture Capital--United States--Statistics Source: PriceWaterhouseCoopers Summary Report, Q1 2003 MoneyTree Report This is a 5 page report. See Also: Custom Search Q1 Data See Also: PWC Also Offers Free Access (Registration Required) to Investee and VC Firm Lists See Also: Historical Trend Data (1995-Q1 2003) is Also Available See Also: Q1 2003 New England MoneyTree Report
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Transportation--United States--Statistics Source: BTS National Transportation Statistics 2002 The report has been available since January but several statistical tables (noted in italics) are now available. -- Research & Development--United States--Statistics Source: National Science Foundation New Full-Text Report, Research and Development in Industry: 2000 This report provides a set of statistical tables and technical notes summarizing the results of data collection on the Survey of Industry R&D Expenditures: 2000. -- Legal Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Minority Law Journal The 2003 Diversity Report Card "...minority hiring at the nation's largest law firms" -- Intelligence--Canada Full-Text Report, Canadian Security Intelligence Service 2002 Public Report
Briefly World News Connection Now Available on Dialog Hello to file 985. A web-based interface is also available. Thursday, June 05, 2003
Resources of the Week Some very interesting reading for you this week as we take a step back and listen to and learn about the world of online information and info science from several industry pioneers. This is "must read" material for anyone interested in the topic. -- 1) Information Industry--History Source: Searcher Full-Text article, "Online Before the Internet: Early Pioneers Tell Their Stories" Yes, one of this week's selections is an article. It's educational and interesting reading. Susan Bjørner and Stephanie Adito learn about the early days of online info retrieval from two industry legends, Carlos Cuadra from Orbit and Roger Summit from Dialog. The article also contains a bibliography. See Also: Read Roger Summit's 1996 Miles Conrad Memorial Lecture (Thanks to Jill O. at NFAIS for the link) -- 2) Pioneers of Information Science Scrapbook Source: College of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina This resource provides profiles and first person recollections from many info science pioneers including Roger Summit, Fred Kilgour, Pauline Cochrane, Ev Brenner, Eugene Garfield, and F.W. Lancaster. See Also: Index of Information Science Pioneers (Bios Available) See Also: Chronology of Information Science and Technology Prepared by Robert V. Williams, Univ. of South Carolina, College of Library and Information Science. See Also: Pioneers of Information Science in North America (From ASIS) ---- You Might Have Missed Maps and Charts Source: NOAA Historical Map & Chart Collection From the site, The Office of Coast Survey's Historical Map & Chart Collection contains over 20,000 maps and charts from the late 1700s to present day. The Collection includes some of the nation's earliest nautical charts, hydrographic surveys, topographic surveys, geodetic surveys, city plans and Civil War battle maps. The Collection is a rich primary historical archive and a testament to the artistry of copper plate engraving technology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Historical Map & Chart Project scans each map or chart and offers the images free to the public via the Coast Survey web site. The collection is searchable by keyword, type, year, and region.
Personal Information Management Hard Drive Searching: A New Version of Scopeware is Available About a month ago I mentioned a personal search tool called Scopeware Vision that allows you to keyword search html web pages, many document file types (including Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat), Outlook e-mail boxes, and other material on your hard drive. I'm still planning to write a full review in the next few weeks. Nevertheless, I think the product is something that might be of value to many of you. So, I think it's worth mentioning again. I'm also making a second mention because on Tuesday an updated version of the product (many new features) became available. Advanced searcher's will be happy to know that truncation, Boolean, and meta tag searching are available. A free 30 day trial is offered. The personal product retails for $29.95 or a more robust version at $79.95. A free version (with adware) is also available. At this point I can say that Scopeware Vision is tool worthy of your attention. It can save you time and aggravation.
Information Industry--EBSCO Deal Complete, EBSCO Finalizes Acquisitions of RoweCom U.S.A., Australia and Canada From the annoucement, EBSCO Industries, Inc. confirmed on Wednesday, June 4, 2003, it definitively closed its acquisition of the U.S. operations of RoweCom, Inc. (RoweCom), which includes the operations of Dawson, Inc., Dawson Information Quest, Inc., The Faxon Company, Inc., Turner Subscription Agency, Inc., McGregor Subscription Service, Inc. and Corporate Subscription Services, Inc. The final two closing contingencies: (1) verification of publisher support representing at least 50 percent of the aggregate monetary amount prepaid to RoweCom by customers, which was not subsequently forwarded to publishers, and (2) successful closure by EBSCO of its acquisition of RoweCom's European operations, have been satisfied, paving the way for final closure of the deal. EBSCO is glad to report that the final tally of publisher support exceeded 70 percent. This is very good news for participating customers, as it will mean the majority of their expenditures for 2003 materials will be fulfilled by publishers. See Also: EBSCO's Acquisition for RoweCom Europe Also Complete
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Poverty--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Full-Text Report, Census 2000 Brief: Poverty 1999 -- Federal Spending--United States--Statistics Federal Aid--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Report Summary Full-Text Report, Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2002 Full-Text Report, Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2002 Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Image Searching Learn About: PiXlogic LLC Technology to be used by the CIA and others to "scour millions of digital photos or video clips for particular cars or street signs or even, some day, human faces." From the article, Many current visual-search products rely on photographers or editors to manually assign keywords, dates or categories to photographs or videos describing their content, such as "soccer game" or "President Bush." A few systems can study prominent colors in a picture to recognize that objects, for example, are mostly yellow or blue. On several occasions, ResourceShelf has included background and links to search technology that can find text embedded inside of images. Products from Cobion and Google (Catalogs) are in this category. See Also: Learn Even More from PixLogic.Com
Virtual Reference Tutor.Com Acquires LSSI's Virtual Reference Unit From the announcement, Included in the acquisition are LSSI Virtual Reference ToolKit, Web Reference Services and LSSI Integrated Reference Management System with RefTracker. LSSI's Arthur Brady has been named Vice President and General Manager of the new Tutor.com Reference Division. Steve Coffman will serve in an advisory role to Tutor.com as Vice President of Strategic Development. Thanks to Bernie S. for the news tip.
Information Industry--Ebrary Meet John Warnock, Ebrary CEO Source: San Jose Mercury News From the article, "The value of information," said Warnock, the son of Adobe co-founder John Warnock, "is when information can be shared and interacted with." See Also: A 5/14/03 Post About Ebrary Providing Free Access to Over 100 Full-Text Books About the Middle East See Also: Ebrary's New Fee-Based Service for Independent Researchers
Professional Reading Shelf Internet Resources The June Issue of Roddy McLeod's Internet Resources Newsletter is Now Online
Awards Information Industry--ProQuest Congrats to ProQuest's Steven Abram on Receiving SLA's John Cotton Dana Award A tip o' the hat to our friend and ResourceShelf reader Steve Abram on receiving this prestigious award from SLA. It's 1000% deserved. I am proud to stay that Steven has not only taught me a great deal about the profession but also is a role model on how to give a great presentation. At next week's SLA Annual Conference I'm thrilled and honored to be on a panel with Steve and another info industry legend, George Plosker.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Hezbollah Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia New, Full-Text Research Brief, Hezbollah in Profile -- Iraq Source: House of Commons Library, United Kingdom New, Full-Text Research Report, Iraq: Law of Occupation -- Chemical and Biological Weapons Source: Central Intelligence Agency New, Full-Text, Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects A summary of typical agents and CBRN devices available to terrorist groups.
Wi-Fi Wireless Internet Access Source: Jupiter Media A Searchable Database of Wi-Fi Hotspots For those of you who travel or just want to get out of your house and go online with your wi-fi enabled laptop, this database could be very useful. Coverage is global. The NY Times includes a couple of other lists/databases in this column. and while were on the topic of Wi-Fi..."Library Gets Unhooked" (via Austin Chronicle) The Austin Public Library is providing wi-fi access in the downtown area of the city. Tuesday, June 03, 2003
E-Books Source: USA Today "E-Books Get a Boost..." From the article, E-books are still alive and are getting a new sales pitch, judging from the weekend's BookExpo America, the annual booksellers' convention. Developers were still pushing the format, which lets you read a book on your computer or portable such as Palm or Pocket PC, though publishers didn't seem quite so excited. But they might be willing to come around if a development by software maker Adobe delivers on its promise to put the electronic book in front of millions of computer users and get them to at least think about giving one a try. Last week, the company updated its dominant — and free — Adobe Acrobat software, which allows Web surfers and other users to read documents on screen exactly as they would look in published form. The new program, Adobe Reader, includes an e-book icon at the top of the page and an online link to a store offering e-books." -- and speaking of e-books...E-Book Library is collaborating with leading international university and research libraries to develop an ebook lending platform. -- and even more..."E-Books Catch On, but Only for Hardcore Fans So Far" (via Reuters)
Another Public Library Funding Update Here are a few stories from the past 2 weeks about funding issues. Connecticut..."Libraries finding cost-cutting measures" (via Stamford Advocate) Connecticut..."Tighter Budgets Hurting Libraries" (via Hartford Courant) From the article, Just when they are needed most, Connecticut's public libraries are struggling with budget cuts while trying to keep bookshelves filled and services current.More patrons, whose household fortunes have withered in the soft investment and job markets, are popping into their local libraries to borrow a bestseller, or to job-search on the Internet. But due to lower municipal funding and spiraling costs, patrons in some communities may soon find their library doesn't have the newest hot read, or worse, their branch isn't open. -- California..."Libraries hit hard in the pocketbooks" (via Torrance Daily Breeze) From the article, With spending already squeezed by tight city and county budgets, libraries across California are bracing for a potential $30 million cut in state allocations that will just compound the misery. Librarians will not know how hard the state socks them until after Gov. Gray Davis signs the 2003-2004 budget. But it’s no mystery that libraries will be hit hard. --- North Carolina..."It's deja vu for library patrons in Cornelius" (via Charlotte Observer) -- Colorado (Denver)..."Library to cut hours" (via Rocky Mountain News)
Briefly Infotrieve...Signs Agreements With Six Biomed Publishers Factiva...Web API Enhanced For Web Site Developers
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Information--Canada Source: Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada Full-Text, Annual Report of the Information Commissioner (2002-2003) -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: National Center for Education Statistics Two Statistical Reports About U.S. Public Schools Now Available On Web 1) Public School Student, Staff, and Graduate Counts by State, School Year, 2001-02 2) Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year, 2001-02 -- Ocean Charts Source: NOAA New Service, Chart Update Web Site From the announcement, "The new NOAA Chart Update Web site provides access to chart updates that have been published in the United States Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners, National Imagery and Mapping Agency Notice to Mariners and Canadian Coast Guard Notice to Mariners. Chart updates include information on aids to navigation changes, hazards to navigation or other essential information for safe navigation such as water level depth conditions on maintained harbor channels, bridge and cable clearances and regulatory changes. This new site offers the user three options to access chart update data." -- Transportation--United States Source: U.S. Department of Transportation New URL, Online Digital Special Collections From the site, In an effort to preserve its materials and to provide easy access for DOT Library customers, the library has digitized numerous collections. The collections include: Civil Aeronautic Manuals Historical Aircraft Accident Reports (1934-1965) FAA and CAA Research Reports US Coast Guard Navigation and Inspection Circulars Historic CAB/DOT Orders Monday, June 02, 2003
Natural Language Technology Source: PC Magazine Learn About: Meaningful Machine's Natural Language Technology From the article, "A New York startup, Meaningful Machines, is banking on a new approach that works, in part, by associating phrases and parts of phrases with each other. "We like to say that our technology is for machine understanding, not just for machine translation," says Steve Klein, Chairman and CEO of Meaningful Machines..."We use a statistical model to evaluate phrases, and we've moved away from the historical natural language technologies, which have relied on rule-based approaches," says Klein. "What people have found out is that there are just too many exceptions to the rules for rule-based natural language to be very accurate. With increased processing and database power upon us, statistical and phrase-based approaches are more realistic than they were before."..."We're focusing on search applications where we're thinking less about the government as the user and more about Googles and Overtures and the like," Klein adds. "One particular application we're focusing on is for keyword searching where you use each of several keywords against each other. And we're also focused on translation applications between languages. Translation of documents in Arabic, in particular, has become a big issue. We think the field of machine understanding can move forward, after having been mired down for a while now." See Also: Learn More, Direct to Meaningful Machines Web Site
Professional Reading Shelf Information Industry--ProQuest A Q&A Interview with the President of ProQuest Paula Hane chats with ProQuest President, Ron Klausner. -- Online Databases Source: Library Journal Full-Text, "Predicting the Future of Databases" Dr. Carol Tenopir talks with industry reps about future trends. I'm happy to see that user education is listed. As I said last week, just because a library makes a database available doesn't mean people will use it.
Web Search--Google Court dismisses Google search-fixing case Glad to see that this groundless case was dismissed. From the article, A federal judge this week granted Google's motion to dismiss a suit that alleged the company manipulated search results in its powerful Web index. U.S. District Court Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange on Tuesday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction brought by SearchKing, a Web hosting and advertising network that claimed Google unfairly removed links to its site and those of its partners from the index, causing financial losses. The judge dismissed the case on the grounds that Google's formula for calculating the popularity of a Web page, or "PageRank," constitutes opinions protected by the First Amendment.
Web Sites NISO Debuts Best Practice Series with Link Checking Guidelines From the announcement, The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the issuance of Link Checking: Best Practices, the first in a series of best practice guidelines. Link checkers are software programs that are used to verify that the links embedded in web pages or electronic publications are still accurate. Although link checking is a recommended practice in maintaining websites, the process can potentially have negative performance impacts on the sites being checked. This is especially the case if the links provide dynamic results, since each link check is in essence a search against the provider's database. Link Checking identifies five best practices that will ensure that the process does not adversely affect checked websites or the organization conducting the link check. As an example, the guidelines point out that link checking can have financial implications; when a link check is run against content that is licensed on a transaction basis, the link check will count as a chargeable access. See Also: Direct to Full-Text Guidelines
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Documents in the News Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice New, Full-Text: The September 11 Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Attacks Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Al Qaeda Source: Congressional Research Service New, Full-Text, Al Qaeda after the Iraq Conflict -- Fathers--United States--Statistics Fast Facts, Father's Day 2003 Facts about U.S. dads. Sunday, June 01, 2003
Information Industry--divine Class Action Law Suit Filed Against divine Executives From the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, According to a Press Release dated 5/26/03, the Complaint alleges that defendants Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market between November 12, 2001, and February 18, 2003, thereby artificially inflating the price of Divine securities. The Stanford site has additional details. Note: The June, 2003 Issue of Chicago Magazine has an article about the divine bankruptcy. It's titled, "The Divine Tragedy". The article is not available on the magazine's web site but here is a blurb from the table of contents, "Four years ago, backed by well-heeled investors and pronouncing the death of companies like GE and Sears, “Flip” Filipowski looked like the dotcom savior Chicago had been waiting for. But now, having burned through $1 billion, his Divine Inc. is bankrupt—and Filipowski’s troubles may not be over." x |
