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Saturday, January 31, 2004
Web Search--Gigablast Yet Another New Feature at Gigablast, "Giga Bits" Monday, ResourceShelf ran an item about Gigablast adding a direct link for every url in its database to The Wayback Machine. This week ends with another new feature at Gigablast. "Giga Bits" are terms, located in a box at the top of a results page, to assist in refining and focusing your search.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Law--United States--Directory Source: Eaton County (MI) Prosecuting Attorney Prosecuting Attorneys, District Attorneys, Attorneys General & US Attorneys on the Web Geographically organized directory includes 2,360 sites. Covers all U.S. states, federal, Canada, international (includes justice ministries, etc.). Also offers links to relevant professional organizations. -- U.S. Federal Government--Budget Source: Congressional Budget Office 1) Full Text, Paying for Iraq's Reconstruction 2) Full Text, The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2005 to 2014 Friday, January 30, 2004
Theses--Canada Source: Library and Archives Canada Brand New, Theses Canada Portal From the site, "Search the online catalogue for all the Canadian theses and dissertations in our collection and access for free the full-text electronic theses covering the period from 1998 to 2002." The portal has additional information for students and universities. To purchase a thesis that's not available digitally, you need to contact ProQuest. Basic and advanced search interfaces are available.
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Open Access Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education The Promise and Peril of 'Open Access' From the article, "If you wander through the stacks of university libraries, follow scientists into their research labs, or log on to vast stretches of scholarly cyberspace, you will find yourself on the battlefield of a war over scientific publishing. The good guys, in the eyes of many scientists and librarians, are the revolutionaries offering an alternative to the publishing status quo. They are creating online journals that charge no subscription fees. These agitators for change want to rescue librarians from the tyranny of prohibitively costly journals -- upwards of $20,000 per year -- and to empower researchers who, because of the expense, often have difficulty keeping up with new developments in their fields." The COHE has two additional articles dealing with access in the 1/30 issue. + "2 Routes to Open Access: Archives and Institutional Subscriptions" + "Publishers Fear Government Intervention" See Also: Transcript of an Online Colloquium with Peter Suber Peter is the editor of FOS News and a leader in the open access movement. He chatted with COHE readers on Thursday afternoon. -- The February 2004 Issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter is Online Always interesting and useful material from Roddy M., Catherine U., and Catherine F., from the Heriot-Watt University Library.
Enterprise Search & Web Search--Vivisimo Source: eWeek eWeek Praises Vivisimo's Clustering Technology If you're read ResourceShelf regularly, you know that Vivisimo's publicly available (and free) clustering/meta engine is a favorite. Today, eWeek gives their clustering technology for the enterprise (and what the public web site is based on) a glowing review. See Also: Vivisimo See Also: Search PubMed with Vivisimo See Also: Search FirstGov with Vivisimo
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Terrorism--Government Documents Source: National Security Archive The September 11th Sourcebooks "National Security Archives online readers on terrorism, intelligence, and the next war." The Taliban File (Vol. 7) was updated today. -- Avian Influenza Source: World Health Organization Resource Compilation: Avian influenza -- Health--United States--Statistics Source: CDC New Report, Health Care in America: Trends in Utilization Summary ||| Full Text -- U.S. States Congress Source: GPO Just Updated, Congressional Directory, 108th Congress The January 2004 Online Revision is now available. -- Financial Education Source: Federal Reserve of Chicago Financial Education Research Repository "A [searchable] collection of research articles, working papers, reports and other studies related to financial education." -- Business Source: Business 2.0 The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business: 2004 Edition "... fourth annual review of the most shameful, dishonest, and just plain stupid moments of the past year."
Industry Briefs (2 Items) Factiva Adds Several New Sources to Database -- New One-Stop Page for IEEE Publications Information Thursday, January 29, 2004
Resources of the Week Two entries this time around. 1) Hoaxes and Scams Purportal.Com Simple, useful, and a real time-saver! This page offers easy access to five searchable archives from well-known sources containing hoax, virus, and urban legend information. Here's a list of what you can search for at the Purportal.Com page: + Snopes Urban Legends Archives + About.com Urban Legends + CIAC Hoax Database + CERT Computer Security Database + Symantec (Real) Virus Encyclopedia -- -- 2) Health Information--Collection Development The Weekly MEDLINEPlus E-Mail Announcement List MEDLINEPlus from the National Library of Medicine is a top choice for authoritative health information. The MEDLINEPlus E-Mail Announcement List (weekly) will notify you of all new MEDLINEPlus resources (we mention some on ResourceShelf) including new "Health Topic" compilations. Each update also contains DIRECT LINKS to all of the underlying resources added to each health topic page during the previous week. This is a "must have" for anyone interested in web-based health material and/or building a local collection of this type of information. To subscribe, simply go to this page and select the MEDLINEPLUS-NEW box. If you would like to see what the updates look like, I've posted a couple of them here.
Web Browsers Source: eWeek Another IE Spoofing Hole Found From the article, "Security researchers are warning of another spoofing vulnerability in Internet Explorer, this time one that allows an attacker to mask the true file extension of malicious downloads. The file-extension spoof means that an attacker could lull a user into opening a malicious file from a Web site by making the file appear as a legitimate extension, such as a PDF or MPEG, researchers said on Wednesday." Update: Microsoft to Change IE Behavior to Block Spoofing Attacks (via eWeek) Update: IE Update Will Block Some URLs (via PC World)
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Chemistry: High-Impact Institutions, 1993-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Applied Mathematics
Professional Reading Shelf OpenURL Source: NISO OpenURL Standard Released for Review Abstract ||| Full Text ||| Interested Party Comments
Web Search--MSN MSN Search (U.S.) Runs Beta Test Here's a statement from Karen Redetzki, MSN Product Manager: "In order to increase relevancy, MSN Search is testing solutions on MSN Search to a small percentage of consumers in various markets worldwide. Tests serve as no indication as to the direction MSN will eventually take in the future but rather are research to determine the most useful consumer experience on MSN Search. Tests or changes in one country do not necessarily indicate what may or may not be tested or changed in the US or other markets. We determine the needs of customers in individual markets and make the best decision for that market based on both consumer and advertiser wants & needs." Here are a couple of things I noticed: + Sponsored links directly below search box + Popular Topics gone from beta version + Featured sites gone from beta version + Page titles larger point size in beta version + Beta only available with IE browser + After a couple of searches with the beta version, I was asked to complete a survey about my searching habits and the engines I use. Thanks to C.A. for the news tip. Examples 1) Search.msn.com ||| BETA.search.msn.com 2) Search.msn.com ||| BETA.search.msn.com
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) World Economic Forum Webcast Archive: Highlights and Speeches from the 2004 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland concluded on Tuesday. -- Advertising Super Bowl Television Commercials Online Commercials from Sunday's game will be available online late Sunday or early Monday. Ads from 2003 and 2002 remain available. -- Transportation--United States--Statistics Source: BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics Introduces the Transportation Services Index From the site, "The Transportation Services Index (TSI), created by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), measures the movement of freight and passengers. The index, which is seasonally adjusted, combines available data on freight ton miles, as well as passenger miles traveled, that have been weighted to yield a consistent monthly measure. The first release of the TSI will be in March 2004."
Industry Briefs (2 Items) Thomson Will Acquire CCBN (Corporate Communications Broadcast Network) Note: FullDisclosure.Com, CCBN's publicly available site, was a Resource of the Week in October. -- EBSCO's A-to-Z Database Now Includes Access Info For Nearly 1,000 Free Journals Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Libraries--United Kingdom Source: The Guardian Libraries embrace digital age From the article, "What if librarians could move in to find the answers to your problems? In one local authority, they have done the next best thing - they are available live through the library service's website. It's one of several lottery-funded library projects where the People's Network programme has used £100m of lottery money - channelled through the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) - to supply terminals to every UK library service. " The Resource Discovery Network (a ResourceShelf favorite) is mentioned in the article.
Web Search--Google Source: News.Com Whatever Happened To Google's WHOIS Lookup Shortcut? About three week's ago ResourceShelf posted news that Google was offering a shortcut to a WHOIS lookup service. The day after ResourceShelf wrote about it, the shortcut was gone. Today, News.Com's Stefanie Olson explains why. From the article, "The issue cropped up about two weeks ago, when Google quietly launched a service allowing visitors to look up data on domain name owners from public databases--collectively known as Whois--run by registrars worldwide. Although largely unpromoted, the service generated enough traffic to surpass Network Solutions' (NSI's) daily Whois use limits, which aim to stop spammers and other undesirables from harvesting information about its customers...The tussle highlights a growing problem for Google as it seeks to be all things to all people. The company's challenge is to offer visitors helpful new search services without alienating the Internet operators it relies on for advertising or partners that may have different priorities." See Also: If You Need WHOIS Information both CentralOps.net and WHOIS.Sc are excellent resources. and in other Google News... The Company Will Open an R&D Center in Switzerland Thanks to C.A. for the news tip. -- Google faces trademark suit over keyword ad (via News.Com)
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Library Federation British Library Joins Digital Library Federation
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Documents in the News--United Kingdom The Hutton Inquiry Full Text, Report of the Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David Kelly C.M.G. -- Awards 76th Academy Awards Nomination Announcement Press Kit Kit includes: + Master list of nominees + Biographies and photos of major award nominees + Nominations Fact Sheet + Nominees Sidebars (Interesting facts) -- Computer Security Source: GCN Department of Homeland Security Launches Cyber Alert Program From the article, "The Homeland Security Department this morning took the wraps off a National Cyber Alert System to advise the general public and computer technicians about systems security threats, such as the current MyDoom worm." See Also: U.S. CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) Home Page See Also: Official News Release and Info About Accessing Alerts E-Mail alert links on left side of page. See Also: CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) at Carnegie Mellon See Also: Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCirc) Includes a page of statistics. -- Education--Statistics--United States Source: NCES Projections of Education Statistics to 2013 - Now Web Enabled From the site, "Projections of Education Statistics to 2013 is the 32nd report in a series begun in 1964. This report provides revisions of projections shown in Projections of Education Statistics to 2012 and Projections of Education Statistics to 2011. It includes statistics on elementary and secondary schools and degree-granting institutions. Included are projections of enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures to the year 2013." -- Online Exhibits Isaac Asimov Online Exhibit "Isaac Asimov was one of the greatest science fiction writers of the twentieth-century. Many critics, scientists, and educators believe Asimov's greatest talent was for popularizing or, as he called it, "translating" science for the lay reader. This online display features visuals and descriptions of some of the over 600 books, games, audio recordings, videos, and wall charts included in the West Virginia University Libraries? Asimov Collection." (Via DrWeb's Domain) Thanks to SDK for the link.
News Search We Missed One: Topix.Net In a review of several new and upcoming web search tools last week, I failed to include Topix.Net. A beta version of this news resource is now available. The database includes content from 3100 sources organized into over 150,000 topics. Over 30,000 of these topics allow you to browse news by geographical location. Material is also searchable. Topix.Net is the creation of Rich Skrenta, one of the engineers that built the Open Directory software. Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Enterprise Search FAST Search and Transfer Launches Major New Product for Enterprise Market It's called ESP (Enterprise Search Platform) and according to the company offers a "360-degree view" of ALL content (structured and unstructured, any platform, Intranet or Web, 77 languages, 225 formats) across an enterprise. The product also offers dynamic categorization and is built on a "Search Derivative Applications (SDAs)" infrastructure allowing for easy customization. FAST's search technology powers several web-known web sites including FirstGov, Scirus, and CareerBuilder. See Also: FAST CEO Conference Presentation, Digital Libraries: What Should We Expect from Search Engines Slides from an August 2003 presentation by FAST CEO John Lervik. See Also: Fast accelerates enterprise search (via InfoWorld)
Web Search--Google Source: NY Times Audit Results Move Google a Step Closer to Offering John Markoff writes, "Google has cleared one of the last remaining hurdles in its closely watched effort to sell shares to the public, people close to the company said Monday, receiving a clean bill of health in a company-paid audit certifying its compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley law approved by Congress in 2002 in response to the wave of corporate scandals...Google has repeatedly declined to comment publicly about any aspect of its planned offering. If the registration is given the green light at a Google board meeting that could take place as early as this week, the public offering would most likely take place during the last week in April." See Also: Google Considers Diverse IPO Methods (via AP)
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) OCLC Research OCLC Research Announces Experimental xISBN Service From the announcement, "The experimental xISBN service supplies ISBNs associated with individual intellectual works represented in the OCLC WorldCat database. Give it an ISBN, and it returns a list of associated ISBNs. The ISBNs returned from the service can in turn be re-used in a query to a bibliographic database (e.g., via a FRBR Bookmarklet) to improve the chances of a user finding any/all instances of the work in a given database." See Also: OCLC hosts "info" URI registry -- Scholarly Materials Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education The Uncertain Fate of Scholarly Artifacts in a Digital Age From the article, "The raw materials of research -- novels, notes, artwork, letters -- are being produced on computers and saved on floppy disks and hard drives. Many scholars fear that these materials are in danger of ending up in the junk heap, trapped in obsolete computers. Others say the information age could be an age of plenty, an age when scholars reconceive their habits of research to cope with mountains of data, which then yield bold new discoveries. That future, however, will depend on digital-archiving strategies that are just now being planned. They have not yet been tested, or paid for."
Information Extraction Kofax Selected by In-Q-Tel to Advance Information Extraction Technology From the 1/13 announcement, "In-Q-Tel, a private venture group funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has signed a development and investment agreement with Kofax to advance technologies for "document exploitation," the analysis and use of documents to extract actionable information. Kofax, the world's largest information capture vendor, will combine its industry-leading Ascent information capture platform and Mohomine text classification product to support multi-language document exploitation activities conducted by national security and other government organizations, and state and local law enforcement."
Academic Libraries Association for Research Libraries Source: Library Journal Stanford University Leaves ARL From the article, "For many university libraries, getting into the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)-which includes 123 leading research libraries in North America--is a major goal. For Stanford University, however, the opposite appears to be true. ARL Executive Director Duane Webster confirmed that Stanford has left the ARL. "
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) The PATRIOT Act Source: Office of Inspector General, Department of Justice Full Text Report, Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act, January 2004 HTML Version ||| PDF Version -- Travel Source: Consumer Web Watch Full Text Report, Booking and Bidding Sight Unseen: A Consumer's Guide to Opaque Travel Web Sites Opaque travel sites include Hotwire and Priceline. See Also: A summary of the report from Consumer Reports Monday, January 26, 2004
Web Search--Gigablast Gigablast Adds Direct Links To The Wayback Machine If you think we mention the Gigablast on a regular basis, you're right. This general web engine is the work of sole proprietor Matt Wells who is constantly adding new search options while at the same time enlarging the database. Today, we can report that all urls retrieved via Gigablast now contain direct links to The Wayback Machine archive. These links are labeled as "older copies" and will automatically check if archived versions of the url exist. Gigablast also caches a copy of each page it crawls onto its own server. However, unlike The Wayback Machine, Gigablast's cached version is updated each time the page is recrawled. This new option can be a big time saver.
RSS Source: eWeek Yahoo Launches RSS Option for My Yahoo Users From the article, "Using the RSS Headlines beta, My Yahoo users can add RSS feeds either by searching for feeds through the service or by entering the URL of specific feeds, according to a Yahoo FAQ about the beta. User then can customize the appearance of the RSS feed headlines on their My Yahoo pages, such as by limiting the number of headlines that appear for each feed. When users click on a headline, they are taken to the full posting on the external site...Yahoo, in a statement, noted that as a beta, the RSS Headlines service is subject to change and is not generally available. The company did not say when it plans to fully launch RSS Headlines on My Yahoo." Actually, any My Yahoo user can go to http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss and add the RSS (beta) module. See Also: Yahoo RSS Beta FAQ
Information Industry--HighBeam.Com Alacritude Changes Name to HighBeam Research The Chicago-based company, owner of eLibrary, Encyclopedia.Com, and Researchville, has been rebranded and the name changed to HighBeam Research. From the article, "The properties combined already attract 4.5 million unique visitors a month who use the site to search for free, and they also have 40,000 subscribers paying about $20 per month, or $99 per year, to search archived articles and other paid-tier materials. ELibrary has 2,600 publications and access to 28 million documents dating as far back as 20 years." I wonder how many of those 40,000 paid subscribers know what they have access to for free by using their library? Many public, academic, or corporate libraries offer access to patrons without having to visit the library building. The MarketWatch.Com article makes no mention of this fact. By the way, via my public library, I have full access (free) to eLibrary from my home. -- UPDATE: I had the chance to chat with the author of the article this afternoon. She had no idea that some library resources are available to patrons without having to visit their local library building. No surprise. I'm happy to report that in her column on 1/27, she mentions the conversation and gives a plug to these services (last paragraph under the "Popular Trend" header). See Also: Alacritude Turns a HighBeam on Research
Industry Briefs (5 Items) Alan Paschal Leaves Thomson Gale (via Library Journal) -- LexisNexis Announces Campaign 2004 File -- Inxight Continues to Grow in 2003 -- Nstein Chosen by VNUeMedia -- Endeca and IBM's Online Store -- Thomson Delphion Enhances Searching and Analysis of European Patent Data
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries and Librarians The February 2004 Issue of Walt Crawford's Cites and Insights is Now Online
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) E-Mail Scams Source: Consumer Web Watch New report, "The Check's in the Mail" History and background about "419" or "Nigerian" fraud. The article also includes a section titled, "Why Nigeria?" -- Factiva Posts Media Visibility Index for Democratic Presidential Hopefuls (Week Ending 1/25/04) -- Government Secrecy--United States Source: Adrus Center for Public Policy Full Text, Freedom & Secrecy Conference Report Full Text, Freedom & Secrecy Conference Transcript From an Idaho Statesman article, "The report follows the policy discussion that took place last fall at a conference co-sponsored by the Andrus Center, the Frank Church Institute and The Idaho Statesman. The conference — “Freedom and Secrecy: Trading Liberty for Security?” — featured, among others, former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale, former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, Washington Post columnist David Broder and John Deutch, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency." Sunday, January 25, 2004
Electronic Records--United States National Archives--United States Source: FCW Electronic Records Funds Approved From the article, "Congress approved an additional $22 million in the fiscal 2004 budget for the National Archives and Records Administration's ambitious Electronic Records Archives program. NARA will get $316.3 million, a $47.5 million increase from last year. The new budget includes $35.9 million for the electronic archives project, in addition to $13.7 million for repairs and renovations and $10 million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The commission offers grants, training and research services to help preserve the nation's documentary resources." -- and speaking of electronic government records... (Updated 1/27) Clinton's Gift to Internet Age - Only 2 E-Mails (via Reuters)
Professional Reading Shelf National Archives--United States The Winter 2003 Issue of Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration is Now Online Web-Accessible articles include: + Found at the Presidential Libraries: Dr. Seuss, Air Force One, and the San Diego Chicken + Our Documents at Work in the Nation's Classrooms Includes links to several guidebooks for educators. Saturday, January 24, 2004
Stylometry Source: Science News Bookish Math: Statistical tests are unraveling knotty literary mysteries From the article, "Stylometry is now entering a golden era. In the past 15 years, researchers have developed an arsenal of mathematical tools, from statistical tests to artificial intelligence techniques, for use in determining authorship. They have started applying these tools to texts from a wide range of literary genres and time periods, including the Federalist Papers, Civil War letters, and Shakespeare's plays. 'We can now pretty accurately identify authorship—under the right conditions,' says John Burrows, an emeritus English professor of the University of Newcastle in Australia."
Professional Reading Shelf Privacy Source: ARL New SPEC Kit Released: Library Patron Privacy The complete kit is fee based. However, an executive summary is available at no charge. -- Freedom of Information Source: UNESCO Just Released, Freedom on Information: A Comparative Legal Survey "UNESCO has published a study of freedom of information laws that examines best practices in 10 countries. Written by ARTICLE 19 Law Programme Director Toby Mendel, 'Freedom on Information: A Comparative Legal Survey' analyses laws in Bulgaria, India, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States."
Government Secrecy Source: U.S. News and World Report Letters About U.S. Goverment Secrecy Published in U.S. News The letters are in response to a 12/22 article in the magazine titled, "Keeping Secrets." The first letter comes from Randall Jimerson, Vice President Society of American Archivists.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents United States Congress--Calendars House of Representatives + Clickable Calendar + House Schedule + Continuously Updated "Ticker" of Activities on the House Floor Senate + Tentative 2004 Legislative Schedule + Floor Schedule + Executive Calendar (Updated Each Day When in Session) ||| Description + Senate Calendar of Business (Updated Each Day When in Session) ||| Description Friday, January 23, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Academic Libraries New Weblog: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian Interesting reading from Gutman Library Director (Philadelphia University), Steven Bell. He tells ResourceShelf, "I'm trying not to give any library-oriented news - and I'm not replicating anything from the Chronicle - which so many folks already read - but there is so much more out there that academic librarians are missing." -- Scholarly Publishing Source: University of California Seminar Report, Challenge and Change: Scholarly Communication and the UC Community From the CDLINFO Newsletter, "The Office of Systemwide Library Planning sponsored two regional seminars in late fall 2003 to discuss scholarly communication issues and strategies for change. More than 60 participants hailing from all UC campuses and a wide-ranging set of disciplines (including the sciences and health sciences, humanities, and social sciences) attended. More than 20 key thematic issues were identified, and are posed as questions for UC action..."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Mergers and Acquistions--Statistics Source: Bureau van Dijk Full Text, M&A Synopsis From the document, "...a quarterly review of mergers and acquisitions, private equity and IPOs. The review is written by Ed Mountifield using ZEPHYR, the comprehensive M&A database which is published by Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BvD)." Numerous charts and rankings. 17 pages (pdf). Free. You can also find a few statistics on this web page. -- Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: Technology Review 10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change Your World From the article, "Technology Review unveils its annual selection of hot new technologies about to affect our lives in revolutionary ways—and profiles the innovators behind them." The Ten Technologies: Universal Translation Synthetic Biology Nanowires Bayesian Machine Learning T-Rays Distributed Storage RNA Interference Power Grid Control Microfluidic Optical Fibers Personal Genomics -- Goverment Information--United States Source: American Association of Law Librarians Full Text, State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information From the report, "The purpose of this study, generously funded by a grant from Aspen Legal Publishers, was to assess the level of permanent public access to electronic government information across all state governments. Members of the American Association of Law Libraries in each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico completed a comprehensive survey. The survey results reveal that no state is comprehensively addressing these challenges. Very few states have updated their statutes to explicitly incorporate electronic government information into their public access, Freedom of Information or depository laws." -- Computer Security Source: NIST Just Released, Full Text, Computer Security Incident Handling Guide From a GCN article, "The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published guidelines for responding to security breaches in government computer systems." -- NASA Source: NASA Ames Research Center NASA Computational Sciences Division: Publications Library of technical publications by NASA computational science researchers since 1999. Topics range from space- and aviation-specific (Mars Rovers: Past, Present and Future) to data/information management (Source Update Capture in Information Agents). Some reports are not available online but most are; extensive abstracts often available. Full text in PDF format. Thursday, January 22, 2004
Web Resources of the Week Four items for your ready-reference shelf. 1) Music--GRAMMY Awards--Searchable Database Source: NARAS GRAMMY SEARCH A searchable database of all GRAMMY winners (1956-Present). From the site, "...winners by name of the award recipient, by categories within a genre, by year, by title of work and/or by the artist performing the work. With the exception of the category field, which requires that you first select a genre, you may use as few or as many of the available search fields." Latin GRAMMY winners are in a separate database. The 2004 GRAMMY Awards will be held on February 8th. Here's a list of the nominees. -- 2) Area Code--North America Source: North American Numbering Plan Administration Database of North American Area Codes The North American Numbering Plan Administration manages the area code system. + Search or Browse Data + Printable Area Code Maps + Additional Resources -- 3) Population--Database--United Kingdom Source: National Statistics Neighbourhood Statistics Database + Search by Name or Postal Code + Browse Detailed Statistics by Subject + Browse by Area Name + Select Areas via Interactive Map (England and Wales Only) -- 4) Maps--United States Source: National Atlas of the United States Printable Maps of the United States Most maps can be downloaded as either pdf or gif files. + Reference Maps of the United States (including time zones) + Outline Maps of the United States + Congressional Districts - 108th Congress + Presidential Elections - 1789-2000 + Federal Lands and Indian Reservations
Information Industry--United States--Legislation Database Bill Passes Congressional Committee The legislation discussed in the article is often referred to as the "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act." From the article, "A congressional panel on Wednesday approved a proposal to curb database copying, ignoring the objections of technology companies that launched a last-minute lobbying campaign to kill the proposal. By a 16-7 vote, the House Judiciary committee approved an intellectual property bill that had been opposed by Amazon.com, AT&T, Comcast, Google, Yahoo and some Internet service provider associations. The proposal, backed by big database companies such as Reed Elsevier and Thomson, would extend to databases the same kind of protection that copyrighted works such as music, literature and movies currently enjoy. Its supporters say that such protection is necessary to stop rivals from extracting information from proprietary databases like Reed Elsevier's LexisNexis service instead of going through the far more expensive process of compiling it themselves. Wednesday's vote follows a 10-3 vote last October in a subcommittee...Now the measure likely will go to the House floor in preparation for a possible vote." See Also: Full Text of House Judiciary Announcement See Also: Database-protection bill advances in Congress (via Reuters) From the article, "The controversial measure must also clear the Energy and Commerce Committee before it can come up for a vote on the House floor, where its fate is uncertain. No similar bill has yet been introduced in the Senate...Lawmakers drafted a more narrowly focused version last year, and the committee narrowed it further to exempt universities and Internet providers from liability. 'What we have here is a watered-down, compromise version,' said North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble, a bill sponsor." -- See Also: Opposition to the Discussion Draft, "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act" (9/03) A letter signed by AALL, ALA, ARL, and SLA. See Also: Much More Background in Two ResourceShelf Posts from October, 2003 #1 ||| #2
Web Search Three Articles in The New York Times Three articles about search issues. 1) For a Fee, Wind Up Atop the Search Heap Bob Tedeschi writes about people buying their own name as a keyword ad. -- 2) Now Where Was I? New Ways to Revisit Web Sites Lisa Guernsey writes about new ways to keep track of your favorite web sites. A project mentioned in the article from the University of Washington was first noted on ResourceShelf last month. A link to the work of Microsoft's Susan Dumais, also mentioned in the article, was posted here in November. By the way, my favorite tool for saving web content continues to be SurfSaver. Not only can it save a page (in many cases better than a bookmark) but it also indexes and allows you to search the full text of the material. Scopeware is another tool I use. It allows you to quickly search numerous file types across your entire hard drive. -- 3) Engineering Google Results to Make a Political Point Tom McNichol writes about Google Bombing. The company maintains it's just a fad. In the section of the article discussing engines other than Google, the author fails to mention that Teoma's method for determining relevancy might make it less susceptible to bombing initiatives. Teoma's algorithm is also used by Ask Jeeves. See Also: More comments in this 1/6 post . See Also: Learn More About What Teoma's Algorithm in an Article About IBM's Clever (via Scientific American) Check out this "classic" article about web searching. Several of the ideas developed for IBM's Clever are being utilized by Teoma.
Library Briefs (2 Items) LoC [Library of Congress] Helps Rebuild Baghdad's Library (via The Hill) See Also: Full Text, Library of Congress Mission To Baghdad: Report on National Library and the House of Manuscripts -- Check it out: Libraries inside malls (via Seattle Post Intelligencer) A report from King County, Washington.
Professional Reading Shelf Scholarly Publishing Source: C&RL News Full Text, Electronic journal publication: A new library contribution to scholarly communication two years on From the article, "The University of Arizona (UA) Library is now in its third calendar year of publishing the Journal of Insect Science (JIS). It remains among the very few libraries currently producing a scholarly journal."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Consumer Issues--Lists & Rankings Source: FTC FTC Releases Top 10 Consumer Complaint Categories in 2003 Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Unstructured Data--Taxonomies Source: FCW Taxonomy Use Grows From the article, "Federal agencies are increasingly likely to use and understand taxonomies, the system of data classification that goes hand in hand with Extensible Markup Language (XML) in organizing data, according to industry experts." See Also: Agency taxonomies are a tall order, experts say (via GCN)
Search Engine Roundup In the past week several sites have mentioned new search tools. Join me in checking them out. Expect more about each resource in upcoming weeks. + Dipsie Coming in 2004, Beta available in the near future. + Eurekster Overview (via Search Engine Watch) ||| Direct to Eurekster (Beta) Social network searching, personalized results. + Meceoo Overview (via Pandia) ||| Direct to Meceoo (Beta) Metasearch, "...allows searchers to define their own 'exclusion list'. Hence they may ask the metasearch engine to exclude sites that includes specific terms in their domain name." + Metrobot (via Search Day) ||| Direct to Metrobot Local search. Graphic result pages (virtually browse a street).
Cool! Price's List of Lists Mentioned in Harvard Business School Newsletter Special thanks and plenty of credit to Special Issues for doing a wonderful job of keeping the LOL current and useful.
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Management: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 + Science in Scotland, 1998-2002 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Criminology & Penology
Data Mining Privacy Source: CIO You Are What You Watch Targeted advertising (ads tied to your search terms) is a popular topic these days. So is data mining. For these reasons I thought this article might be of interest to some of you. From the article, "Americans are rushing to purchase digital personal video recorders (the best-known brand is TiVo) so they can zap those pesky TV commercials right out of their lives. The sales of TiVos alone have soared 73 percent (over the same period last year) in the last three months, and the television industry has good reason to fear that TiVo spells the demise of an advertising gravy train that made commercial programming profitable for so many decades. Fortunately (or unfortunately as the case may be), a technological solution is already on the horizon. And with it come several privacy issues that attend much of the latest personal technology. I’m talking here about the development of new data mining software that can profile TV viewers and deliver targeted advertising to viewers via their beloved TiVos." See Also: Full-Text (fee-based) article, Using data mining to profile TV viewers This article is mentioned in the CIO story. See Also: MSA-Jovio A company doing work in profiling technology.
Industry Briefs InfoUSA Introduces Subscription Plan Offering Unlimited Access to Credit Reports $50 per month/per person.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Digitization Projects--Lithuania Parchments Digitization Project at Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Completed From the announcement, "Nearly ten percent of the more than 1,400 parchments preserved at the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius are now online and available thanks to a UNESCO project that was recently completed. The digital images of 121 parchments containing information of outstanding historical value cover the period from 1187 to 1500." See Also: Direct to the Parchments Digital Images Archive -- National Libraries--Malaysia Digitization Projects The National Library of Malaysia Launches the International Islamic Digital Library A bit of background in an Access article. The library is home to both bibliographic and full text material. -- Entrepreneurship--Canada Source: Ernst and Young Full Text, Survey of Canadian Entrepreneurs -- Weather--United States Source: NOAA Recently Released, Climate of 2003: 2003 in Historical Perspective -- Health Information Source: MEDLINEplus New Compilation, MEDLINEplus: Rural Health Concerns -- Election 2004 New Hampshire Primary Streaming Audio: New Hampshire Public Radio Coverage of Tuesday's primary election. The Exchange (airs at 9am EST) has featured interviews with several of the candidates. They are archived here. Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Web Search--Google You Might Be Missing Material: Backwards Link Searching (Link:) With Google If you who use Google to find what pages are linking to a specific web page (often referred to as a backward link or a reverse link), you might find the following news of interest. Google might NOT be showing you all of the pages that link to a specific url. I've seen several reports about this issue on search engine optimization sites. Today, I confirmed this as fact with a Google spokesperson. The search engine optimization sites mention that pages only with a certain PageRank are visible. I asked Google to explain the specific criteria used to determine which pages are visible with a link: search. Unfortunately, the spokesperson told me that the company would not publicly release this information. )-: I know it's not a good idea to assume. Nevertheless, most of the seo sites I've seen mention that lower-ranked sites (using Google's ranking methodology) are not visible with a link: search. The problem is that these sites might have useful data, especially when determining what pages link to a particular site. Example: + link:www.fincen.gov Using ATW, http://www.cftc.gov/cftc/cftcaml.htm is found to link to www.fincen.gov. It was confirmed by viewing the page. A Google search reveals that it has been crawled. However, this page is not revealed when running a link: search with Google. -- The easiest way to minimize any problems this issue could cause is to use more than one web engine. Of course, this is something we've been saying for a long time. At this point, my favorite engine for this type of searching is AllTheWeb. I use it either as my primary backward link engine or I'll run an ATW search at the same time I use Google. AllTheWeb also has another advantage. ATW allows you to refine your reverse link searches. Here's an example: + link:www.aiip.org + link:www.aiip.org With AllTheWeb you can utilize additional syntax in your query string. For example, what .edu pages link to www.aiip.org? The use of additional syntax with a Google backward link search is not available.
Librarians' Index to the Internet The Librarians' Index to the Internet Makes RSS Feed Available For Its "What's New This Week" Compilation The "What's New This Week" compilation is a one-stop list of all of the new entries added during the preceding week to the LII. The wonderfully written annotations are also included. You can also read "What's New" on the web or via e-mail. Essential reading no matter what format you choose! The page/feed/site is updated on Thursday. See Also: Direct link for LII RSS Feed See Also: LII RSS Tutorial See Also: More New This Week From the LII
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Education--Classification Schemes Source: NCES Just Released, The Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC) From the site, "The Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC) provides a general inventory of courses taught nationwide at the secondary school level (grades 9 through 12). The basic unit of instruction in the CSSC is the individual COURSE. Vocational, academic, and general courses are offered for credit and included in this listing." -- State of the Union Addresss--United States Source: Clerk's Office, United States House of Representatives State of the Union Fact Sheet -- Banking Industry--United States Source: FBI Just Released, Financial Institution Fraud And Failure Report (Fiscal Year 2003) 52 pages (pdf). -- Investment Industry--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, 2002 Service Annual Survey: Securities and Commodity Contracts Intermediation and Brokerage Services Summary ||| Direct to Full Text -- Space Exploration--United States Source: National Academy of Science Full Text Reports from the National Academy of Science About Space Exploration and Space Policy 1) Issues and Opportunities Regarding the U.S. Space Program: A Summary Report of a Workshop on National Space Policy (2004) 2) New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy (2003) 3) Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions (2001) 4) The Human Exploration of Space (1997) 5) Safe on Mars: Precursor Measurements Necessary to Support Human Operations on the Martian Surface (2002) -- Books--Online Exhibits Source: Lilly Library, Indiana University 4000 Years of Miniature Books "Miniature books, most of which are less than three inches tall and some of which are smaller than a penny, have delighted readers for centuries.... More than 900 of the library's 16,000 miniatures were on display in the Library's Main Gallery from June 18 to September 15, 2001. This online exhibition pictures a selection of the miniatures displayed in the exhibition and reproduces the narrative text of the exhibition labels."
Enterprise Information Briefs (4 Items) New, Fee-Based Service Offers SEC EDGAR Filings via an RSS Feed In addition to the information in the news release, you can view a sample feed and learn more here. -- EasyAsk Lands Contract With Warner Home Video -- Endeca Continues to Grow Its Customer Base Note: Endeca's technology powers the BookBrowser on the Barnes & Noble site. -- Virage to Participate in Video Analysis and Content Extraction Research Program Sponsored by the Advanced Research and Development Activity Learn more about the project here. Monday, January 19, 2004
Web Search--Yahoo Overture's Research Lab is Renamed, Hello to Yahoo Research! In August, ResourceShelf reported that Overture's Research Lab under the direction of Dr. Gary Flake had launched a web site. Today, the research lab was renamed Yahoo Research. Dr. Flake is still in charge. The YRL web site is full of interesting reading for those of you interested in the topic along with descriptions of major projects. Expect a ResourceShelf interview with Gary Flake in the next few weeks. See Also: Direct to the Yahoo Research Labs Home Page Content also available at: http://research.overture.com See Also: A Brief Interview with Gary Flake (via NewsFactor) and in other Yahoo News... Tweaks at Yahoo News Alerts The Virtual Chase on a few tweaks to Yahoo's alert service. Note: At the moment, Yahoo News Alerts are not available for all 7000 sources that Yahoo News Search provides access to. See Also: Early Beta Test: Changes and Tweaks at Yahoo News Search
Professional Reading Shelf (5 Items) Open Access A New Issue of "Open Access Now" Is Available -- Open Access Presentations from the SPARC/ACRL Forum The forum took place at the 2004 ALA Midwinter Meeting. Presentations available (PowerPoint slides): + Who Pays for Open Access by Helen Doyle, Public Library of Science + Publishing by the Academic Library by Henry Hagedorn + Using the Library Budget to Drive Change by Joseph Branin and while we're on the topic of scholarly publishing... Full Text, "Reed Elsevier Feels Resistance To Web Pricing" (via The Wall Street Journal) From the article, "Reed's ScienceDirect has been much-admired among big, old-line publishers for its innovative use of the Internet. But some university librarians are starting to rebel against Reed's dominance by dropping subscriptions to its journals; some academic researchers are supporting alternative online publishers of academic research. The disgruntled faction is the thin edge of a wedge that in coming years could widen cracks in Reed's vaunted online strategy." - See Also: Elsevier and NESLi2 conclude major new agreement to provide online science journals From the announcement, "The UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and Elsevier, part of the Reed Elsevier Group, today announced the conclusion of a new agreement as part of NESLi2, the national electronic journals initiative for the higher education and research communities in the United Kingdom." -- Information Industry Selected Feature Articles from Research Information + Out with print, in with the PC The world's biggest pharmaceutical company will not have a single, traditional library by the end of this year. Peter Rees examines the challenges in creating an international, company-wide "virtual library" + Science makes money for Europe's information companies David Mort, Director of IRN Research, provides a snapshot of recent trends amongst leading STM information companies in Europe. + Extended expectations need extended services The way scientific information was disseminated in print may hold lessons for the electronic age. Tom Wilkie examines the potential.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Factiva Posts Media Visibility Index for Democratic Presidential Hopefuls (Week Ending 1/18/04) -- Olympics--Web Resources Source: International Olympic Committee Direct Links: Official Web Sites of the Nine Cities in the Running for 2012 Olympics -- U.S. Department of Energy Source: US DOE Inspector General Full Text Report, Safeguards Over Sensitive Technology 25 pages (pdf).
Industry Briefs (2 Items) LexisNexis...LN Licenses Sageworks "ProfitCents Public" Technology, Converts the Financial Statement Numbers of Publicly Traded Firms into Plain Language Reports Learn more about Sageworks and view a sample ProfitCents Public report. -- xrefer...Now Available at British Library Sunday, January 18, 2004
Digital Archives--United Kingdom World War II--Images Source: AP Available Monday (1/19/04): Digital Archive of World War II Aerial Reconnaissance Photos From the article, "A huge British archive of World War II aerial reconnaissance photos, including pictures of the D-Day landings in Normandy, is to go on the Internet on Monday. Under the digitalization project announced Saturday, some 5 million Royal Air Force photos of Western Europe will be available to the public on the Web site www.evidenceincamera.co.uk, archivists said." -- UPDATE: War photos site hamstrung by demand From the article, "A Web site that claims to contain more than 5 million detailed aerial photos of major events during World War II was crippled by demand on its first day. " -- See Also: BBC Aerial Reconnaissance in World War Two Gallery The images in this gallery come from Aerial Reconnaissance Archives. The accompanying text was written by Allan Williams, head of the ARA.
Data Mining Privacy--United States Source: Reuters Report: Airline Gave Passenger Data to Government From the article, "Northwest Airlines provided information on millions of passengers for a secret U.S. government air security project after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, the Washington Post reported on its Web site on Saturday... JetBlue Airways in September said it violated its privacy policy by giving data on 1.1 million customers to a Defense Department contractor in an anti-terrorism project. Torch Concepts, of Huntsville, Alabama, a data-mining company, used the names, addresses and flight information Jet Blue provided to produce a study intended to help the government assess potential extremist threats." See Also: Additional Documents (via EPIC) See Also: Report from U.S. DOD Contractor (Torch Concepts): "Homeland Security Airline Passenger Risk Assessment" See Also: Data Mining and Aviation Security (NASA) See Also: Full Text of Washington Post Story Saturday, January 17, 2004
Web Search--Google Source: Reuters Report: Google Getting Into the E-Mail Ad Business Remember when their focus was strictly search? From the article, "Google Inc., which dominates the market for Web search, is developing a service that could dramatically extend the reach of its lucrative keyword-based advertising by linking such ads to e-mail, people familiar with the matter said on Friday... The Mountain View, California, company, which has recently made several e-mail related acquisitions, is working on a way to serve advertising to an e-mail at the moment it is opened, people close to the company said... In an e-mail response to questions from Reuters, spokesman David Krane said, 'Google has a number of projects in the works to test monetization in various scenarios.'... Google has for years said it would not turn its site into a full-service Internet portal like Yahoo or MSN. However, since it opened in 1998, Google has added portal-style discussion groups and is testing a comparison shopping site called Froogle, as well as a news site." - See Also: Google's Focus (via News.Com) Do you remember the following statement from Google spokesperson David Krane made in a August, 2001 News.Com article? Krane says, "But we've firmly established ourselves as the No. 1 search service on the Internet, and this can be attributed to our laser-like focus on a search-only business model." I think the laser has been refocused. See Also: Still No Word If Google We Be Sued Over It's Use of Linux (via FT.Com)
Open Access Publishing Several Library Organizations Send Letter Asking For NIH to support of Open Access Publishing ALA, SPARC, ARL, AAHL, ACRL, and MLA ask Elias Zerhouni, the Director of the National Institute of Health, to support open access publishing. From the letter, "It is our belief that a growing knowledge economy depends as much, if not more, on the knowledge distribution power of the system as on its knowledge production power. Hence, it is essential to provide cost-effective access to and dissemination of scientific information in support of research and its economic and social applications. But the subscription-based journal model currently prevalent no longer maximizes access to research material. Nor is it economically sustainable."
Public Libraries Source: The New York Times "Media Baron Fails to Honor Library Pledge" From the article, Conrad M. Black, the embattled media baron, has one more overdue bill: he has not made good on a $100,000 pledge to the New York Public Library. Lord Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, were co-chairmen of the Literary Lions benefit dinner on Nov. 3. At that time, he agreed to give the library $100,000, but he has not made the contribution. nstead, Lord Black asked his company, Hollinger International, to make the payment for him. The company refused, according to a person briefed on the situation."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Think Tanks Online Books Source: Rand Corporation Rand Bestsellers Provides links and access to the full of text (PDFs) of RAND's bestselling publications for the previous month. Publications may also be purchased in hard copy.
Presidential Libraries Source: Los Angeles Daily News (via azcentral.com) Nixon Library likely to get big influx of material "With the stroke of President Bush's pen, possibly as early as this month, archivists will begin the long and arduous task of preparing every last bit of Nixon materials - a cache that could fill 13 swimming pools - for shipment to the private Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif."
Archives--Music Source: Lawrence Journal World KU's jazz archive struggles to survive Learn about the Richard Wright Jazz Archive (over 20,000 recordings) at the University of Kansas. From the article, "Barring a last-minute donation from a jazz-loving Rockefeller, KU's Archive of Recorded Sound -- which also includes the James Seaver Opera Archive -- will be hibernating for a while. The $54,000 donated by KU alumni Paul and Maurine Adams in 1998 to keep the archive running is all but gone, having been spent on shelving, rice-paper lined polysleeves, listening equipment and archivists' salaries. Without money to pay a full-time staff member, the archive will be available only by appointment. All efforts to build an online database of its contents will be put on hold, leaving 95 percent of the collection's holdings uncatalogued..." See Also: Home Page of Richard Wright Jazz Archive Friday, January 16, 2004
Web Search Ay-Up: Another Source For Cached Web Pages Ay-Up is a crawler based web engine and web directory (ODP content) that I just learned about. I'm still giving it a look but one useful feature that I noticed the first time I searched was that Ay-Up caches web pages on the their server. Since crawlers from different engines visit pages at different times, it's often useful to have several sources for cached material. Here's a list of several other web engines that cache web pages. Ay-Up is a Canadian organization developing, "geo sync search and search personalization technology." The company defines geo search as, "using zip/post code, state and keywords." Tabs for geographic and news search are listed on the Ay-Up home page but haven't been activated. More about Ay-Up soon. See Also: A 3/2003 List of Sources for Cached Content See Also: The Web Page Information Viewer from FaganFinder Offers Quick Access to Several Sources of Cached Content See Also: Ay-Up's Help Page
Business Information FreeERISA Launches Premium Service (Fee-Based) From the announcement, "Fund Finder gives financial professionals an opportunity to locate those plans with assets invested in various mutual funds. As an example, one can locate retirement plans invested in Putnam's Stable Value Fund. Users can then sort the data by state or ZIP code to narrow their searches to their own geographical area. Information is based on Schedule D of the most recent publicly available form 5500's from the Department of Labor." A subscription to the Fund Finder database costs about $30 for 6 months or $49 for 12 months. Several other resources are planned for the premium service. FreeERISA's many free resources remain available. In fact, their EIN database has been exapanded from 1.3 to over 4.4 million entries. See Also: Direct to FreeErisa Home Page
Legal Information--United States Pilot Project Makes Federal Court Transcripts Available Online From the announcement, "Seven federal district courts are participating in a pilot program to make transcripts of courtroom proceedings available online. Those participating are the district courts for the Southern District of Alabama, District of Columbia, District of Kansas, District of Maine, Eastern District of Missouri, District of Nebraska, and the Eastern District of New York. In the District of Columbia, the district court currently has an exemption from the prohibition on remote public access to criminal case file information, and will be able to make transcripts of courtroom proceedings in criminal cases available electronically as part of the experiment."
Open Access Publishing Source: PLoS Biology (via SciDevNet) PLoS Science Launches Institutional Membership Program From the announcement, The Public Library of Science (PLoS), which was set up last year to pioneer the publication of 'open access' journals, has launched an institutional membership scheme to help scientists from underfunded disciplines and those in developing countries to publish their research in its journal PLoS Biology...Universities and other organisations that sign up to will now be able to purchase an institutional membership allowing their researchers to publish their research in the journal at reduced cost." See Also: Direct to the PLoS Instituional Membership Home Page --- and in other scholarly publishing news... Triangle Research Libraries Network Will Not Renew Contract With Elsevier (via The Daily Tar Heel) From the article, "The TRLN comprises Duke University, N.C. State University, and N.C. Central University in addition to UNC-CH. The contract provided all schools access to the online journals. However, Joe Hewitt, associate provost for libraries, said UNC-CH will continue to subscribe to Elsevier journals on an individual basis, even though they will cost more when not bought in bulk. 'We are trying to cancel enough (journals) so that our payments to Elsevier will be about the same as they were last year.' Hewitt said UNC-CH spends about $1.5 million per year to purchase journals from Elsevier." Thanks to P.S. for the news tip. See Also: Full Text of TRLN Memo And Announcement
Internet Access Source: International Federation of Library Associations and Institution Librarians' deep concern over Cuba's move to restrict Internet Access From the announcement, "Today, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and its Committee of Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (IFLA/FAIFE) expressed their deep concern about the continuing violations of the basic human right to freedom of access to information and freedom of expression in Cuba...With the new Internet bill (Resolution 180/2003) that came into effect on 10 January the Cuban government will gain further control over Internet use. Before the bill was passed the government already had taken measures to block various Internet sites and restrict general access to the Web."
Digitization Projects History--United States Source: American Memory Project/The Library of Congress Released Today, Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories From the site, "...the opportunity to listen to former slaves describe their lives. These interviews, conducted between 1932 and 1975, capture the recollections of twenty-three identifiable people born between 1823 and the early 1860s and known to have been former slaves. Several of the people interviewed were centenarians, the oldest being 130 at the time of the interview. The almost seven hours of recordings were made in nine Southern states and provide an important glimpse of what life was like for slaves and freedmen."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Computer Security--Web Resources New, Security, Privacy and Cryptology Collection Compiled by Pete Weiss and H. D. Knoble at Penn State University.
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Digital Libraries The January, 2004 Issue of Digital Libraries Magazine is Online Articles include: + Identifiers and Identification Systems: An Informational Look at Policies and Roles from a Library Perspective + Library Periodicals Expenses: Comparison of Non-Subscription Costs of Print and Electronic Formats on a Life-Cycle Basis + The Cost per Article Reading of Open Access Articles -- Digital Libraries Source: Digital Library Federation A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation Services From the summary, "This reports provides an overview of a diverse set of more than thirty digital library aggregation services, organizes them into functional clusters and then evaluates them more fully from the perspective of an informed user. Most of the services under review rely wholly or partially on the Protocol for Metadata Harvesting of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI-PMH), although some of them predate its inception and a few use predominantly Z39.50 protocols." Services evaluated in the report include: + Infomine + UIUC Digital Gateway to Cultural Heritage Materials + National Science Digital Library + RDN (Resource Discovery Network) -- Electronic Resources Study Will Help Explain How People Use Electronic Information Resources "Researchers at Ohio State University are part of a new study to find out how and why students and faculty members use electronic information sources to do research and solve problems. The $1 million project is a collaboration between Ohio State and the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). The project will be partially funded with a $480,543 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The remainder of the funding will come from Ohio State and OCLC." Thanks to Open Access News and LIS News for the link. -- Uniform Resource Indicator Source: NISO NISO-Sponsored INFO URI Scheme is Information Gateway to the Web From the announcement, "Working under the auspices of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), a joint task force of the publishing and library communities has developed and published a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme aimed at the identification of information assets. Information assets should be interpreted rather broadly to include, for example, documents and terms from classification schemes. The INFO URI scheme is a consistent and reliable way to represent and reference such standard identifiers as Dewey Decimal Classifications on the Web so that these identifiers can be "read" and understood by Web applications. Led by four NISO members and associates -- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Elsevier, and Manifest Solutions -- the initiative builds on earlier consultations with representatives from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)." Thursday, January 15, 2004
Web Resources of the Week Two entries this week. ------ Elections--United States Election 2004 Resource Compilation #3 ------ Iowa Caucus + Official Democratic Caucus Web Site ++ Caucus Quick Fact Sheet ++ 2004 Delegate Selection Plan ++ 2004 Caucus Locations + Caucus Guide (via Secretary of States Office) + Caucus History (PowerPoint Presentation) from Secretary of State + Iowa Democratic Party Page Home Page ++ Past Results from the Iowa Democratic Caucus ++ Background Guide ++ Caucus FAQ ------ ------ New Hampshire Presidential Primary + New Hampshire Political Library (site suggested by SOS office) ++ History of New Hampshire Primary ++ List of All Candidates Who Have Ever Run in the Primary + Sample Ballot (Democratic) ||| Sample Ballot (Republican) + Candidates for President ||| For Vice President + Historical Election Statistics + List of Voting Technology Being Used in New Hampshire + New Hampshire Democratic Party Home Page ------ ------ + ElectionLine.Org Interactive Map of the U.S.(Various Statistics) + "About Counties" (National Association of Counties) Directory and statistical information about all counties in the U.S. + New Report, Primary Education: Election Reform and the 2004 Presidential Race (ElectionLine.Org) Includes summaries for all States holding primaries. + Election Reform Legislation Database (National Council of State Legislatures) + List of Candidates Receiving Matching Funds from the Federal Election Commission + Congressional Research Service Report, Recently Updated, Campaign Finance + Big Men on Campus (Center for Responsive Politics) A report about colleges and universities being sources for campaign money. Latest Data on Health Coverage and Presidential Candidates' Proposals to Expand Coverage (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured) "...analysis of federal government data and a side-by-side summary of the Presidential candidates' proposals to expand health coverage." + Congressional Research Service Report, The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections + Debuts Today, The Campaign Desk "Critique and analysis of 2004 campaign coverage from Columbia Journalism Review" ------ See Also: ResourceShelf Election 2004 Compilation #2 See Also: ResourceShelf Election 2004 Compilation #1 -------- -------- -------- Science and Technology Source: Science, Technology and Business Division (Library of Congress) Science Tracer Bullets From the site, "Research guides that help you locate information on science and technology subjects. With brief introductions to the topics, lists of resources and strategies for finding more, they help you to stay on target." Both print and electronic resources are included in these guides. The Science, Technology and Business Division also compiles another set of subject-based guides titled, "Selected Internet Resources in Science and Technology."
News Searching--Yahoo Early Beta Test: Changes and Tweaks at Yahoo News Search + About 7000 sources (35 languages) being crawled + News database is now refreshed more frequently + Improved ranking algorithm + Merged results. No more results listed under two headings as in "News Results" and "Yahoo News Story Matches" + Additional limits and options on the advanced search page + One advanced option allows limiting by geographical location. For example, entering Colorado in the "location" box searches only newspapers published in Colorado (Denver, Boulder, etc.) that Yahoo News is crawling, + At the present time the beta is only available by using this url ||| Advanced Interface + Note the option on a results page (far right side of page) to compare results using the current Yahoo News database + Remember, this is a beta! Changes and odd behavior is very possible. + Yahoo News Search Beta "What's New" page and while we're on the Yahoo beat... A new option on the clutter and ad-free search.yahoo.com page allows you to customize which Yahoo databases (in addition to the main web database) appear as tabbed links on your browser. Eight database options are available.
Public Libraries Gates Foundation Announces $5.8 Million in Grants to 18 State Library Agencies From the announcement, "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced grants to 18 states to help public libraries continue to provide no-cost access to computers and the Internet for the public. The Staying Connected challenge grants, totaling $5.8 million, are going to state library agencies in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia."
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Government Information--United States Remarks by the Superintendent of Documents, Judith Russell, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting The major topics are: + The GPO Reorganization + Fact Gathering and Planning for the Future of GPO and the FDLP + A New Economic Model for the GPO Sales Program + Managing Legacy Federal Documents Collections --- Reference Reviews Péter's Digital Reference Shelf, January, 2004 Is Now Online This month Peter Jacso offers unfavorable reviews of e-psyche and PsycINFO. He writes, "Citation databases offer powerful alternatives to keyword and descriptor searching. For decades, the citation databases of ISI were the only game in town. A few years ago, two new databases entered this market. PsycINFO has potential, but its hasty implementation has disappointing consequences. The other contender, e-psyche, came in like a lion, but seems destined to leave as a lamb for the slaughter, and I feel no sympathy for it."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Human Rights--Asia and the Pacific Source: UNESCO New, Database on Human Rights Instruments in Asia and the Pacific -- Folk Music--United States Source: The American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress New Online, Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932 From the announcement, "The American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress has created an online presentation of its 1978 record album 'Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932,' edited by Neil V. Rosenberg and Debora G. Kodish. This online presentation commemorates the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Archive of Folk Culture in 1928 and the appointment of its first head, Robert W. Gordon." Audio from the album is streamed in the mp3 format. -- News Calendars Web Access to the Reuters Daybook The other day I noticed that MSNBC is providing access to several of the Reuters Daybook products. The Daybook offers schedule and contact information about upcoming events in the DC area and elsewhere. Additionally, you can often find schedule info for government leaders and political candidates. To Access: 1) Run a search on MSNBC for the term "daybook" 2) Click the word "published" at the top of the fourth column twice. Results should now be sorted with most current Reuters Daybook posting at the top of the list. 3) Remember, you can bookmark any web search url. This saves you keystrokes and time when you want to run a search. Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Web Search--Google Source: The Washington Post More on Google's Upcoming (We Think) IPO The article quotes Peter Norvig, Google's director of search quality, saying "Google is all about providing access to information, not being a venue for ads." The article continues, "Norvig said that although the company offers paid search results, they're always clearly marked and never get in the way of the objective results that remain the company's focus." And while we're on the Google beat, a couple of comments about this quote and other matters. A comment or two. 1) All of the major web engines are doing a good job of labeling paid content. The problem is that many people have no idea what the difference is between paid and non-paid content. 2) One problem that Google runs into is how much of their database is duplicate or near duplicate content, something that the traditional research database tries to avoid. Expect more on this soon (much more study is needed), but a few examples right now. + Hundreds of thousands, if not more, copies of the same page(s) from the Open Directory Project. Remember, anyone can take ODP data and make it their own. In fact, ODP data is also the basis of Google's own directory. By the way, another issue with ODP data is that it's not a requirement to update with corrections and changes (removing/updating outdated links). So, not only is there duplication, but also the chance to come across old, outdated content. + Hundreds of thousands, if not more, copies of the same record for books and other products from Amazon Associates and other online stores. Does the researcher really need the identical item or comparison search this many times? + Thousands, if not more, copies of the identical page from various merchants. For example, static pages from the identical Dealtime and Shopping.Com comparison shopping sites. The same is true for Discounttextbooks.net and AllDiscountBooks.Net. In this case, both sites redirect to the same page. + Various web sites cutting and pasting identical or nearly identical copy, often selling the same product. Here's another example of duplicate content. In this case, all of the urls are owned by the same company. One more example. Each page here contains the same material. + Static pages from metasearch and and pay-per-click engines that simply present lists of results. --- Although all of this material is not paid ad content (Google does not directly reap money from it), the pages often come from commercial entities and could be thought of as ads. These duplicates or near-duplicates crowd the database and might waste the time of the searcher. This is a fundamental difference between Google the "research tool" (in the traditional sense) and Google the marketing/advertising tool. Will Google crack down and remove all duplicate or near-duplicate pages? Of course not. It wouldn't be good business to remove content (how would they decide what to keep?), it could cause fewer ads to be viewed (many of them Google AdSense ads which they do earn money from), and let's not forget the massive public relations problems this would cause. Google has many user, advertiser, investor--and coming soon--shareholder groups to please. In some cases the wants and needs of each group might conflict. --- Final Comments + This might be yet another reason why using smaller and more specialized databases can be a good idea for the researcher, depending on what the researchers information needs are. In other words, bigger isn't always better. + It's also another reason to take full advantage of the advanced search syntax and learn how to formulate better queries with Google and all search tools. + As I've said in the past, measuring the popularity of something by the total number of hits with any web engine should be done with extreme caution. + The issues raised in this article are not only issues for Google users. I've prepared a page with the results from AlltheWeb, Teoma, and MSN Search. Don't forget that all of these numbers are estimates, but I needed something to compare the Google numbers (also estimates) with. --- See Also: "Challenges in Web Search Engines" This twelve-page paper was written by Dr. Monika Henzinger (Research Director, Google), Dr. Rajeev Motwani (Professor at Stanford) and Dr. Craig Silverstein (Director of Technology, Google). From the abstract, "...article presents a high-level discussion of some of the problems with information retrieval that are unique to web search engines. The goal is to raise awareness and stimulate research in these areas." Content quality, spam, cloaking, duplicate hosts, and vaguely structured data are some of the topics discussed. See Also: There's a Gaggle Chasing Google (Via Wired News)
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Virtual Reference Just Released, Online Proceedings from the 2003 Virtual Reference Desk Conference The conference was held in San Antonio in November. -- Metadata Presentations from The Canadian Metadata Forum The forum took place on Friday, September 19, 2003 and Saturday, September 20, 2003 at Library and Archives Canada. -- Copyright--United Kingdom Source: Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance/CILIP Full Text, Guidelines on the Changes to Copyright Law 18 pages (pdf). -- Digital Asset Management Source: CLIR Just Published: Business Planning for Cultural Heritage Institutions A new resource by Liz Bishoff and Nancy Allen. From the abstract, "A framework and resource guide to assist cultural heritage institutions with business planning for sustainability of digital asset management programs." Abstract ||| Direct to Full Text
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Space Exploration Source: The White House + Fact Sheet About Proposed New Plans for U.S. Space Program + Background and Additional Materials + Budget Chart (via NASA) -- African-Americans--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Fact Sheet, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and African-American History Month This just released page focuses on statistics about the African-American population. -- Health Insurance--United States Source: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Just Released, Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations Summary ||| Direct to Full Text -- Transportation--United Statistics--Statistics Source: BTS Full Text, Journey to Work Trends in the United States and its Major Metropolitan Areas, 1960 - 2000 -- Internet Resources Just Updated, Internet Mini-Guides Marcus Zillman has just updated his series of guides to web resources. Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Security Resources, Business Resources, Legal Resources, and Competitive Intelligence Resources are a few of the topics covered. These fee-based guides can be purchased online and downloaded immediately.
Briefly divine Case Update: 25 Cents on the Dollar Would Be "Good Result" and on a related note..."New Outrage Over Jenner & Block Work with divine" Both articles are via Library Journal.
ERIC Clearinghouses Source: Education Week Full Text, ERIC Clearinghouses Close; New System in Works (Registration Required) From the article, "With little fanfare, the 16 federally financed clearinghouses that have been the nerve centers for the nation's largest and oldest electronic education library closed last month...By the end of this month, they hope to name a contractor who will replace the old system with a more centralized one that operates like popular commercial Web-search engines such as Yahoo or Google." See Also: A ResourceShelf Compilation of Where Some ERIC Clearinghouse Material Can Now Be Accessed See Also: The Educator's Reference Desk is Now Online Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Open Source Information Databases--Research Projects Source: Digital Government Research Program/National Science Foundation Research Project: Software Scours News and Open Source Content to Forecast International Conflict Read about the work of Devika Subramanian and Richard Stoll at Rice University. From the story, "Digital Government researcher Devika Subramanian, professor of Computer Science at Rice University, is leading design of a computer program that predicts potential conflicts by analyzing the cumulative reporting in newspapers and wire services, in a process analogous to the work of a professional policy analyst. Her work enables the intelligence and diplomatic communities to make maximum use of non-classified print and Web-based information." See Also: Home Page of the "Events, Patterns, and Analysis: Forecasting International Conflict in the Twenty-First Century" Project
Professional Reading Shelf (5 Items) Corporate Libraries Source: Best Practices New, Report Highlights: Reducing Expenditures and Driving Costs Out of the Corporate Library Budget The full text of this report is fee-based. An 11 page (pdf) summary is available for free. -- Library Portals Federated Searching Source: JISC/University of Loughborough New, Library portals could lead to increase in resource usage From the announcement, "A recent case study on the implementation of the MetaLib library portal at the University of Loughborough has revealed a significant increase in network database usage once the portal was launched to users. Included were databases that could be cross-searched." See Also: Full Text, The Implementation of MetaLib and SFX at Loughborough University Library: A Case Study -- E-Books Source: Library Journal Full Text, Bundles of Books A review of several (fee-based) services that offer access to full text books online. Thanks to Steven B. for the news tip. See Also: The Online Books Page and the Digital Book Index Two excellent compilations of free online books. -- Controlled Vocabularies Metadata Source: Information Management Resource Center, Treasury Board of Canada Content Management Solution: Proof of Concept Taxonomy Project Slides from a presentation by Elsa Van Hulst to the "Knowledge Taxonomies" class at the McGill University Graduate School of Library and Information Studies in November 2003. From the blurb, "Discusses the Proof of Concept Taxonomy project under the Gateways and Clusters Content Management Solution initiative. Presents the project in context of the Government of Canada metadata strategy, states broad objectives of project, and defines benefits of having a common multi-cluster taxonomy." -- Newspaper Preservation Source: Science News Abstract Only: "News That's Fit to Print and Preserve" The full text is available to subscribers. However, the complete list of references, further readings, and sources is available to non-subscribers. Thanks to Garrett E. for the news tip.
Conference Announcement What Do Intelligent Enterprises Know: The 2004 Information Highways Conference & Showcase The event is scheduled to take place in Toronto, March 22-24, 2004. From an email message, "Learn how intelligent enterprises like IBM Canada, CanWest Global Communications, Microsoft Corporation, Treasury Board of Canada, CBC, Volvo Canada, CIBC and more harness the power of their data, content and knowledge in the critical areas of strategic planning, human capital development, technology and legal and regulatory compliance."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Employment--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 2004
Public Libraries--Illinois Source: Chicago Sun-Times Gov's book plan worries librarians From the article, "Gov. Blagojevich wants to put a book in every child's hands, but library officials say state budget cuts have been forcing them to reduce the number of books on their shelves. And they worry whether the $29 million Blagojevich wants to spend on his latest proposal -- giving every child under 5 a book a month -- will hurt libraries even more." Thanks to J.C. for the news tip. Monday, January 12, 2004
News Search MSNBC's Search Engine Offers New Options I've noticed some changes with the search tool for the MSNBC site. + Search box moved to left column + Ability to truncate search terms, use the * symbol. Your search must be at least four characters long (including the "*"). + Proximity operator now available, NEAR. Using it means that two terms must appear within eight words of each other. + Each column on a results page can now be sorted. For example, to see all results with their titles in alphabetical order, click the headline column header. + Option to "Copy Your Search Results." From the help page, "Once you've run the search that you want to save, click the Copy Your Search Result link. Then paste the URL wherever you want to save it: in an e-mail, in a document, etc. The next time you want to perform the same search, just click the URL again." MSNBC uses search technology from Microsoft. See Also: Direct to MSNBC Search Help Page
Web Search--Toolbars Source: News.Com Designs on desktop search The article makes no mention of the robust deskbar that Hotbot has been offering for many months.
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Leadership Source: CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources) Full Text, Reflecting on Leadership From the abstract, "As digital technology transforms the information landscape, libraries must chart their course in an increasingly fluid, complex environment. How is this new environment redefining leadership in the information professions? What are the personal qualities that produce effective information leaders? CLIR invited three leaders in librarianship to write personally and candidly about what they believe leadership is, how they developed an understanding of their own leadership styles, and how they apply that self-understanding to their daily responsibilities." -- Libraries Free (One Week Only), Full Text Access to the OCLC Systems & Services Journal Beginning today (1/12/04) the full text of OCLC Systems & Services will be available free via Emerald's Journal of the Week program. Full text access begins with Vol. 10 No. 1 (1993) and continues through Vol. 19. No. 4 (2003). The latest issue is devoted to XML and electronic journals.
Web Search--Google Google Releases More Shortcuts 1) Area code info Example: http://www.google.com/search?q=414 You'll get a map of where the area is located. I checked area code 847 (Chicago's northern suburbs) and got a map that showed portions of four states near Chicago. Not very useful. 2) Universal Product Codes (UPC) Example: http://www.google.com/search?q=073333531084 3) Vehicle ID (VIN) numbers 4) U.S. Postal Service tracking numbers 5) Flight Tracking Flights to and from the U.S. Note: Many services like those linked from Google exist and have existed for many years. Some of you might also want to take a look at this tracking service. I checked flights from several airlines with this new Google feature and got nothing. Airlines that I didn't find links for included Jet Blue, Southwest, AirTran, Midwest Express, Sun Country, Spirit, ATA, Lufthansa, Virgin, KLM, Aloha, and Hawaiian. It also appears that single digit and some four digit flight numbers do not work. It's surprising that Google didn't check this before releasing this shortcut and making the announcement. SearchDay reports that Yahoo has also added flight tracking shortcut. See Also: Smart Answers Shortcuts From Ask.Com
Industry Briefs Thomson Acquires BIOSIS Publishing Assets -- Elsevier Signs Deal With California Digital Library -- LexisNexis Names New Head of Corporate and Federal Markets
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Telecommunications--Online Resources Source: Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Research Notebook: Telecommunications A new addition to a series of research guides prepared by the Baker Library staff at the Harvard Business School. -- Patents--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: USPTO Just Released, Top 10 Organizations Receiving Most U.S. Patents (2003) -- Politics--Internet Usage Online News Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Just Released, Full-Text Report, Cable and Internet Loom Large in Fragmented Political News Universe: Perceptions of Partisan Bias Seen as Growing -- Especially by Democrats A summary is also available. Sunday, January 11, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Controlled Vocabularies Source: Library of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees The International Thesaurus of Refugee Terminology Browse or search 3,565 refugee-related terms in English, French and Spanish. A project of the Library of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Forced Migration Online. Thanks to ResourceShelf's SDK for the link and annotation. -- Motorcycles--United States--Laws Source: American Motorcyclist Association AMA Database of State Motorcycle Laws Choose a state from the dropdown menu and view a chart of laws from that state which pertain to the operation of motorcyles both on and off the road -- e.g., helmet requirements, noise levels, age restrictions, insurance requirements, etc. Saturday, January 10, 2004
Web Search--Gigablast Gigablast Keeps Growing Matt Wells, Gigablast's creator and sole proprietor, reports that the web search engine continues to grow in size (almost 250 million pages). A 'sped up' spider is also in place that should be able to add several million documents a day. You also might notice Gigablast's new slogan, "Information Acceleration." See Also: Gigablast's Search Syntax See Also: An Interview with Matt Wells (via SearchDay)
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Archives--Electronic Source: UNESCO International Council on Archives Submits Report on E-Records to UNESCO From the announcement, "Archives needs to be repositioned to manage electronic records and deal effectively with archival automation" states the International Council on Archives (ICA) in submitting the findings of a research work on e-records commissioned by UNESCO. The project came as a response to the challenges posed by e-records to the international archival community and to archives users...The manuscript of the ICA practical guide on managing, preservation and providing access to electronic records, titled Electronic Records: A Workbook for Archivists, was completed in December 2003 by the ICA Committee on Current Records in an Electronic Environment, a group of 34 specialists from over 25 countries. The lead editors are Andrew McDonald (UK), Kimberly Barata (UK) and Ivar Fonnes (Norway). Authors include Kevin Ashley (UK), Niklaus Bütikofer (Switzerland), Ivar Fonnes (Norway), Michael Millar (USA) and Michael Wettengel (Germany)...This manuscript will undergo final editing in January-February 2004 and will be published in print and online and distributed by ICA to its member archival institutions around the world." -- Library and Information Science Source: OCLC Research OCLC and ALISE announce 2004 Research Grant Award Recipients OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Science Research Grants Program awards for 2004: ++ Corinne Jorgensen, Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, Florida State University, for a study, “Developing A Thesaurus For Indexing Images Across Diverse Domains.” Since image and video collections encompass diverse domains and disciplines and exist in multiple formats, access to materials in these collections is often problematic, with little access to the visual content or interpretive aspects of items. Dr. Jorgensen proposes development of a visual indexing thesaurus based on theoretical considerations from basic research, and testing this thesaurus across a variety of domains and collections. ++ Feili Tu, Assistant Professor, and Nancy Zimmerman, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, for a study, “Consumer Health Information Services in American Public Libraries: An Assessment of Current Status and Educational Needs.” The purpose of this research is to help public libraries improve their health information services and develop appropriate service policies, and to help improve the education of health information professionals working in public libraries—which will improve the public’s access to information and services and help people make informed decisions regarding their health. ++ Elizabeth Yakel, Assistant Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan, for a study, “Academic Reference Librarians and Extending Access to Primary Sources.” Dr. Yakel’s study acknowledges the expanded role of academic reference librarians as gatekeepers of information concerning primary sources and poses two key research questions concerning accessibility: What is the role of system versus domain knowledge in searching for unpublished materials in bibliographic utilities and integrated library systems, and are the classic search strategies that break questions into concepts effective in searching MARC records for archives and manuscripts that are organized by provenance and have less precise subject analysis? Friday, January 09, 2004
Information Industry--IBM Source: IEEE Spectrum Full Text article, A Fountain of Knowledge More about IBM's WebFountain technology. From the article, "IBM’s breakthrough is called WebFountain—half a football field’s worth of rack-mounted processors, routers, and disk drives running a huge menagerie of programs. All this hardware and software is dedicated to one purpose: making sense of the churning ocean of information, opinion, and falsehood that roils the Internet every second of every day." In September, Factiva announced that it is working on a new service with IBM utilizing the WebFountain technology. Thanks to I.W. for the news tip. See Also: A Compilation of Articles About WebFountain (First Posted on ResourceShelf in August) See Also: On A Related Note, IBM Continues to Rack-Up Search Related Patents
Information Industry--OCLC Full Text, The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition From the document, "The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition report was produced for OCLC’s worldwide membership to examine the significant issues and trends impacting OCLC, libraries, museums, archives and other allied organizations, both now and in the future. The scan provides a high-level view of the information landscape, intended both to inform and stimulate discussion about future strategic directions." Intro and Flash Graphic of Several Stats Contained in the Report ||| Direct to Full Text
Web Search Engines Source: First Monday Full Text article, "Do Web search engines suppress controversy?" A new article by Susan Gerhart. From the abstract, "Web behavior depends upon three interlocking communities: (1) authors whose Web pages link to other pages; (2) search engines indexing and ranking those pages; and (3) information seekers whose queries and surfing reward authors and support search engines. Systematic suppression of controversial topics would indicate a flaw in the Web’s ideology of openness and informativeness. This paper explores search engines’ bias by asking: Is a specific well–known controversy revealed in a simple search? Experimental topics include: distance learning, Albert Einstein, St. John’s Wort, female astronauts, and Belize." See Also: Table of Contents from the January Issue of First Monday (Online Today)
Web Search Google Adds A New Shortcut: Whois Nothing major. You can now get a direct link to a WHOIS database by using the following shortcut syntax: whois cnn.com or whois abc.com.au. See Also: ResourceShelf published an overview of a great site from CentralOps.Net in October It offers numerous web-based Internet utilities including a very robust WHOIS tool called Domain Dossier. UPDATE (1/12/04) Since I posted this news and it was reported elsewhere Google has removed the shortcut. I'm trying to find out what happened.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Standards--Directory Standards From Industry, Government and Military Organizations "Below, listed by acronym, are major standards organizations that supply their own standards. Many offer their standards for free. Those that charge fees are marked with ($)." Via MacDill AFB Library, adapted from an information center resource at MITRE. Thanks to ResourceShelf Contributing Editor Shirl Kennedy for the link. -- Indigenous Nations--Webliography Source: C&RL News New, Indigenous nations: Sites of interest This webliography appears in the January 2004 issue of C&RL News. It was compiled by Gina Matesic, a librarian at the University of Guelph-Humber.
Information Industry Notes ProQuest Makes Several Announcements 1) Company Becomes an Internet2 Collaboration Site 2) ProQuest Extends Agreement with Dow Jones 3) 20th Century Drama Database Debuts 4) Film Indexes Online Launches -- ALA Will Use the ebrary Platform to Deliver American Libraries Online ebrary provides an online collection of more than 35,000 full text books (fee-based). They also continue to offer a free collection of 100 titles of books about the Middle East. Thursday, January 08, 2004
Resources of the Week Two items for you this week. -------- 1) Newspaper Archives Full Text article, Leading World Newspapers Online This is another authorized reprint from Bob Berkman's Information Advisor newsletter. It features a bit of background about newspaper archives along with a very handy chart containing info on accessing content from four major newspapers via the web or via several online services. Once again, I would like to thank Bob for allowing ResourceShelf to reprint material from his newsletter. newsletter. Here are links to the three Information Advisor articles we reprinted in 2003: * "Knock, Knock! Whois There...To Help Researchers" * "Searching for Company Data" * "Digging for Data on Subsidiaries" ------ ------ 2) Selected Holiday Break Postings Here's a list of a ten selected items posted on ResourceShelf during the holiday break. They're in no particular order. ---- + Compilation: Recently Awarded Search-Related Patents and Patent Applications, December 2003 - + Total Information Awareness Program Privacy--United States Source: Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense Full Text Report, Total Information Awareness Program - + Public Libraries Source: Denver Post Library books play second fiddle to videos, CDs - + Legislative Information--United States Source: GCN Six Senators Call for Library of Congress to Upgrade THOMAS - + Web Design Source: Jakob Nielson's Alertbox Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 - + Government Information--United States Source: AP U.S. Blurs High-Tech White House Images - + The Educator's Reference Desk is Now Online I've also compiled a list of where some ERIC Clearinghouse material can now be accessed. - + The Patriot Act Source: American Libraries Survey Shows No Illinois Libraries Contacted by FBI - + Is Google good for you? (via BBC News) An article by a UK journalism professor. - + A ResourceShelf Compilation of Year-End Lists
The Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine Receives an Update Brewster Kahle, librarian and founder of The Internet Archive, informs ResourceShelf that an update is complete and The Wayback Machine now contains material through June 2003. Due to the IA's arrangement with Alexa Internet, there has always been a six month embargo getting content into the database. Brewster also let us know that The Internet Archive's other projects are going very well. First, they've hired S. Sriram as Director of Books for the IA's Million Book Project. Second, the Living Music Archive continues to grow with new members and content. It now is home to more than 8,000 live performances from artists around the globe. All performances can be easily downloaded and enjoyed free of charge (for non-commercial use).
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Copyright Source: Access Full Text, Copyright and the internet: myth and reality A new article by Paul Pedley. Paul is also the compiler of the KeepingLegal weblog. -- Open Access Source: BMJ (British Medical Journal) Full Text Editorial, Open access publishing takes off From the editorial, "The main driver for this switch has been unsustainable developments in the publishing industry. Over recent years, journal prices have increased far faster than the underlying rate of inflation (figure). As their budgets have failed to keep up, cash strapped librarians have cut back on subscriptions. To compensate for lost profits, publishers have increased their prices even further—a death spiral that few traditional publishers seem ready to escape." See Also: Open Access in 2003 (via Open Access News) See Also: An Economic Analysis of Scientific Research Publishing (via The Wellcome Trust) Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Public Libraries Source: San Jose Mercury News Consortium envisions the library of the future From the article, "There is a revolutionary plan for the Glenn Seaborg Learning Consortium at the new Lafayette Library and Learning Center. Twelve Bay Area educational and cultural institutions are collaborating in the project, named for Lafayette's own Nobel laureate. Scheduled to open in 2006, the 25,000-square-foot library will replace the city's 40-year-old, 6,700-square-foot facility. The library learning center will shelve more than 90,000 volumes and offer 36 public computer workstations...In size and scope, the project is the first of its kind in the country, said Diantha Schull of the New York-based Libraries for the Future. The national advocacy organization is a division of Americans for Libraries Council. 'We believe that libraries today are more important than they have ever been. They are gateways to digital information, formal and informal education centers,' Schull said."
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Information Visualization Source: The Serials Librarian Full Text article: New Age Navigation: Innovative Information Interfaces for Electronic Journals -- Text Retrieval Thom Hickey From OCLC on Text Retrieval in 2004 Tom is the Chief Scientist at OCLC. He has been nice enough to contribute a brief article with his views about what to look for in text retrieval this year.
Information Industry Notes (2 Items) Full Text Books Online Information Industry--Oxford University Press Oxford University Press Launches Oxford Scholarship Online Although Oxford Scholarship Online has been available for a few weeks (we first mentioned it on 12/16), the service will officially launch at next week's ALA Midwinter Conference. Oxford Scholarship Online offers the full text content from over 700 Oxford University Press titles covering philosophy, religion, economics and finance, and political science. Searching and the ability to view abstracts is free. However, you'll need a subscription (free trial available) to view the full text. A listing of all 700 titles is available here. The advanced search interface (only offered to paid subscribers) allows fielded searching by author, title, keywords, abstract (each book chapter has a unique abstract and keywords), and ISBN. Full text searching is also available. You can also limit your search to a range of dates, and/or subject keywords. Results can be sorted by author, title, publication date, or relevance. Result pages include citation information, the ability to easily browse other chapters of the book, and the ability to highlight text and search the selected terms (cross reference). All 700 titles can also be browsed by author, title, and subject. I hope to do a full review of OSO in the near future. -- Information Industry--Dialog Comtex Announces Long-Term Agreement with Dialog
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Quotations--Science Source: The Library of Congress, Science Reference Services Compilation: Sources for Quotations in the Sciences -- Astronomy Source: Virtual Museum of Canada New Online Exhibit: Cosmic Quest From the announcement, "This exhibit, produced in collaboration with many Canadian and international partners, presents a wealth of information on stars, as well as on various Aboriginal legends and interpretations of the stars...The exhibit contains educational content on astronomy and promises to be a useful resource for both teachers and students interested in discovering this science during the school year. It explores how the solar system works and the influence the stars have had on various cultures throughout the ages. Part of it also highlights artwork inspired by the stars...A new technology tool will enable cellular telephone users with Internet access to identify constellations in the sky by following directions based on their actual position relative to the stars." Direct to the Cosmic Quest home page. -- Digital Collections--United States Source: The Library of Congress New Collection: The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress From the site, "The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress present a selection of ten plays written by Hurston (1891-1960), author, anthropologist, and folklorist. Deposited in the United States Copyright Office between 1925 and 1944, most of the plays remained unpublished and unproduced until they were rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997." -- Newspapers and Magazines Opinion-Pages "Web pages you can search from this site are newspaper and magazine editorials and columnists: either the most current editorials and columns or the main opinion/commentary page that links to those articles." Direct to Search Form How This Site Works -- News--Lists & Rankings Most Read Stories on BBC News in 2003
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Education: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 + Top Paper with the word "INTERNET" in its title + Psychiatry: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 + South Korean Science, 1998-2002 + Neurosciences & Behavior: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Marine & Freshwater Biology + Mathematics: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1998-2002 + Science in Austria, 1998-2002 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Astronomy & Astrophysics Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Web Search--Yahoo Source: Wall Street Journal Yahoo to Drop Google as Search Results Supplier With all of the search technology that Yahoo acquired in 2003 (Inktomi, AllTheWeb, and AltaVista), the move away from Google results is NO surprise. An exact date when the switch will happen has not been announced but the WSJ article says it will happen in the "next few months." A major question remains as to what Yahoo will do with the AltaVista and AllTheWeb sites. Stay tuned. Key Points from the Article: + "Yahoo wants to combine personalization and customization features to extend the usefulness of searches. " + "We're not going to beat the competition by being the competition," says Jeff Weiner, the company's senior vice president in charge of its search and marketplace services. "We're going to beat the competition by being Yahoo." See Also: Yahoo to Drop Google as Main Search Engine, Report Says (via Reuters) See Also: Yahoo's CEO Comments About His Company (via News.Com)
Web Search--Google Google Hires Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to Manage IPO From the article, "Google Inc. hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to arrange its initial public offering, a sale that may raise as much as $4 billion, a banker involved in the transaction said... Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will lead a group of underwriters that includes Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and WR Hambrecht + Co., two bankers in the sale said. They spoke on the condition they not be named. Mountain View, California-based Google may sell a stake of about one-third in the IPO, giving the company a market value of about $12 billion, the bankers said. The company will probably register the shares for sale with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month and sell them by April, they said." Thanks to Pandia for the news tip. and in other Google News.... Danny Sullivan Shares A Few Comments About Google Bombing (via SearchEngineWatch.Com) As an addendum to Sullivan's article I'll mention that AltaVista, Gigablast, AllTheWeb, don't have the George Bush bio as the number one result for the search miserable failure. Also, AOL Search (enhanced by Google) does not have the WhiteHouse.Gov bio in the one spot. A WhiteHouse.Gov bio of Jimmy Carter is the second result. Pages about the Google Bomb are mentioned in the first and third results. The number one result via AOL Search and the number three result at Google.Com is MichaelMoore.Com. Finally, a search of each word separately (miserable and failure ) also returns the Google Bomb as the first result.
Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Libraries Full Text, Winter 2004 Issue of Threshold "Threshold: Exploring the Future of Education features articles focused on the theme of Libraries, Learning, and the Future, produced in partnership with the American Library Association (ALA) and its division, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL)." Articles Include: + Libraries and Student Achievement + On Libraries, Learning, and Loving Both + The Future of Libraries "Six essays by visionary thinkers on how libraries, librarians, and library patrons will adapt to changing times." + Ethics in a Digital Age + Serving the Demands of Democracy "Exploring the critical role of libraries in ensuring the full civic participation of a diverse American population." + Building Forward A look at the Cerritos, CA Public Library + A Nation of Learners A new article by Robert Martin, Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services -- Open Access Source: SPARC/ARL/ARCL Updated: "Create Change" Brochure From the announcement, "SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have published the second print edition of the popular Create Change brochure. The new brochure’s colorful design, larger format and revised text present up-to-date statistics on the stresses facing scholarly communication and offers options for action by scholars. It reflects the gathering momentum of the open access movement and recommends ways that faculty action can bring about constructive change." -- Media Literacy Source: Technology Review Full Text article, "Media Literacy Goes to School" A new article by Henry Jenkins. "We've wired our classrooms. Now what? Media Literacy education is needed, kindergarten through college. The question is what kind."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Privacy--United States Source: Dept. of Homeland Security Full Text, US VISIT Privacy Impact Assessment See Also: An Executive Summary is Also Available ||| Additional Resources -- History--United States Digital Collections--United States Source: Library of Congress New Web Resource: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories in New Library of Congress Audio Presentation From the announcement, "The Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center will soon make available audio recordings of nearly two dozen former slaves who were interviewed between 1932 and 1975. 'Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories' will be available on the American Memory collections Web site on Jan. 16, 2004..." -- History--Canada Source: Library and Archives Canada Recently Released, Canadian Mail Order Catalogues From the announcement, "The site displays digitized pages and images of Library and Archives’ collection of English and French catalogues, including Eaton’s, Simpson’s, Christie Grant, Dupuis Frères, Goodwin’s, Nerlich and P.T. Legaré. The catalogues, which date from the 1880s to the 1970s, are available in a searchable database, where users can search for a particular item in all the catalogues at once, or limit their search to one specific catalogue." -- Election 2004 Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts, The 2004 Presidential Election Another helpful set of interesting and useful stats from the U.S. Census. -- Taxes--United States Source: IRS New Web Site, IRS Introduces 1040 Central for 2004 Tax Season From a GCN article, "The IRS debuted 1040 Central yesterday at IRS.gov to make finding tax information and forms easier for taxpayers. 1040 Central pulls together step-by-step information for taxpayers and arranges it by what’s new this year and how to prepare personal tax files as well as offers links to filing online, checking on a refund and searching for assistance." See Also: Official Announcement and List of Services -- Recycling--United States--Directory Source: National Recycling Coalition State Electronics Recycling Programs and Policies "Below are links to state environmental protection agencies, and where the information is available, direct links are provided to existing policy and programs on electronics recycling. Also included are links to government entities and other organizations within each state with electronics recycling information and initiatives."
Information Industry Notes (2 Items) IEEE IEEE Xplore Search Engine Upgraded IEEE Xplore is now using the Verity K2 Enterprise search technology. You can find a list of enhancements and changes here. -- Newspapers NewspaperDirect Launches New Service For Libraries From the announcement, "NewspaperDirect (www.newspaperdirect.com), a technology company specializing in the digital delivery of same-day editions of newspapers [full text, full image] from around the world, will be launching a digital newspaper service for libraries...This service enables libraries to provide their patrons with same-day editions of out-of-state and international newspapers. The company's technology provides the flexibility to print on industry standard laser printers or view replicas online in a web browser. NewspaperDirect's catalog of titles includes more than 185 newspapers from around the world. Publishers send files electronically to the company daily, and NewspaperDirect optimizes them for laser printing and online viewing. Titles available on the system include: Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, La Stampa, Le Monde, Folha De S. Paulo, and Yomiuri Shimbun." The Vancouver Public Library has been testing NewspaperDirect since December of 2002. Monday, January 05, 2004
Information Industry Notes Humanities--Database Trials Source: OVID This Month Only, Free Access to the MLA International Bibliography (via OVID) Another free trial via Ovid's Resource of the Month program. From the description, "This comprehensive database includes citations from over 3,000 journals and series published worldwide, as well as monographs, working papers and conference proceedings. There is no geographical limitation to coverage; the Bibliography represents all national literatures. Ovid's editions include the MLA Directory of Periodicals with its information for scholars seeking to publish and the MLA Thesaurus with related terms facilitates precise searching of authors, literary works, genres, and viewpoints." Database coverage begins in 1963.
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Libraries--Journals Free Full-Text Access (One Week Only) to New Library World Free access is available via Emerald's Journal of the Week program. Full-Text access begins with Vol. 95 (1994) and runs through Vol. 104 (2003). The latest issue is devoted to "the role and development of the information professional." -- Dublin Core Source: DCMI Updated, Expressing Dublin Core in HTML/XHTML meta and link elements
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Baby Names--United Kingdom--Lists & Rankings Source: National Statistics Office Just Released, Top 50 Boys' and Girls' Names in England and Wales in 2003 -- Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes America's Best Big Companies //America's Best Managed Companies -- Economics--United States--Calendar Source: BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis: News Release Dates in 2004 Also available as a pdf file. -- Music Downloads Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project New Report, Full Text, Sharp decline in music file swapping: Data memo from PIP and comScore Media Metrix -- Health Information Source: MEDLINEplus New Compilation, MEDLINEplus: Hearing Problems in Children
Election 2004 Factiva Posts December 2003 Media Visibility Index for Democratic Presidential Hopefuls From the announcement, "From November 2003 through the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, the Factiva Media Visibility Index will track the number of monthly media mentions garnered by each of the candidates competing to be the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2004 Presidential election. Compiled by Factiva® a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, the Factiva Media Visibility Index enables the media to see an accurate snapshot of the subject being covered. The search method weeds out the extraneous press mentions that are not timely or are irrelevant to the searched subject. The Factiva Media Visibility Index specifically searches the most influential news and business newspapers and magazines in the United States." A graph comparing the number of media mentions for November and December is included.
Information Industry Notes Full-Text Books Online Information Industry--ebary ebary Passes the 35,000 Title Mark The company also announced: + They are now offering content from D&B (International Business Reports) and Harris InfoSource (Manufacturing Reports). + The release of a new of a new product (5100 titles) for the public library market. Sunday, January 04, 2004
American Library Association ALA Web site will feature short URLs From the announcement, "Major enhancements to the American Library Association Web site will be introduced during the week of January 19. For ALA members, the most noticeable improvement will be shorter URLs, allowing for easier reference to the site in print and online publications." The announcement also provides an example that "illustrates the extent of the improvement." Currently, the URL for the Library Bill of Rights appears as follows: http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/Intellectual_Freedom3/ Statements_and_Policies/Intellectual_Freedom2/Library_Bill_of_Rights.htm [161 characters] After the change is implemented, the URL will be: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/statementsif/librarybillrights.htm [76 characters] From the announcement, "The Web site is one of our most important communications vehicles, and we should take every opportunity to maximize its usefulness," said ALA President Carla Hayden. "Thanks to the members and staff that have continued to work out the ‘kinks.’" The introduction of shorter urls comes nine months after ALA introduced new content management software. It would be interesting to find out what caused the problem in the first place. Was anyone paying attention to the usefulness of one of the organizations' "most important communication vehicles?" Of course we could also ask, why did it take nine months to fix the problem? Finally, from the announcement, "Additional changes to be rolled out in January include a new 'Cite This Page' feature, which will provide easy standardized citations on all ALA pages, and streamlined sidebar navigation for the sections of the site devoted to ALA Offices and Round Tables." See Also: Jacsó on the New ALA Site: "AW, Look What They’ve Done to Our Links, Ma" (First Linked on ResoureShelf 4/17/03)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Space Exploration Source: NASA Direct Links to Images Sent Back to Earth from Mars Exploration Rover (Spirit) + Image Archive (by date) + Press Release Images + Raw Images See Also: Selected List of Other Mars Exploration Rover Materials -- Reference Shelf Source: St. Petersburg Times The Know-How of Knotting "It doesn't matter if you are an angler, sailor or powerboater. Sooner or later, you will have to depend on a good, strong knot. Knot knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. Select from the categories below for a few of the tried and true." Interactive tutorial shows you how to tie general knots, sailing knots, boating knots and fishing knots. Thanks to SDK for the link and annotation. See Also: Knots on the Web A resource put together by Open Access News editor, Peter Suber. -- Historic Buildings--United States--Preservation Source: National Park Service Full Text, Technical Preservation Services for Historic Buildings: The Good Guides "TPS has now placed many of its popular classics, together with new interactive 'web classes,' on one site so you can access them more easily. The Good Guides is devoted to all aspects of caring for historic buildings -- from choosing an appropriate treatment to actually 'doing' the work in a way that meets historic preservation standards. And we've been expanding it to meet your needs!" Saturday, January 03, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Freedom of Information--Worldwide Government Information Source: FreedomInfo.Org/National Security Archive Full Text Report, Freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World See Also: Map: "Access to Information Laws Around the World," as of 9/2003 -- Philanthropy--Lists & Rankings Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy + Biggest Grants Announced In 2003 + Biggest Gifts And Pledges Announced By Individuals In 2003 See Also: You Can Find Links to Lists From 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 in this Article -- Living Conditions--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Money Now Online, Best Places To Live (2004) Search on a variety of criteria ( housing costs, weather, etc.) for over 1200 locations. See Also: Best Places to Retire (2004) Friday, January 02, 2004
Reference Books Source: San Francisco Chronicle "FBI alert puts almanac editor on defensive" Comments from Kevin Seabrooke, a senior editor of The World Almanac and Book of Facts, regarding the FBI warning that received press attention on Monday. See Also: Direct to Monday's ResourceShelf Postings Re: FBI and Almanacs
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Electronic Resources Peter Jacso's 2003 Cheers and Jeers List Dr. Jacso has placed the 2003 edition of his annual list online. An abridged version of this article is published in the current issue of Information Today. -- Open Access Source: SPARC Open Access Newsletter Open Access in 2003 Peter Suber reviews the major events of 2003. In addition to editing the newsletter, Suber is also the editor of the highly informative Open Access News weblog that is updated several times a day. -- Electronic Resources Source: Computers in Libraries Full Text, The Many Facets of Managing Electronic Resources A new article by Marshall Breeding. -- Electronic Databases Source: Searcher Full Text, An Article About the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act Carol Ebbinghouse writes, "Here they go again. First of all, I want to thank those of you who made calls, wrote, or faxed letters to your elected representatives and then called all your friends and urged them to action. So far, the efforts to protect facts from commercialization have been largely successful, and — surprise! — somehow database producers have managed to survive! Keep up the good work — because the next volley has arrived." See Also: Much More in this ResourceShelf Posting from October -- Conferencing Source: Online Full Text, Web Conferencing for Libraries: "Can You Hear Me Now?" Ernest Perez writes, "Can futuristic capabilities such as Web videoconferencing, remote video broadcasting, virtual tech support, or small and large group meetings via the Internet have a place in our organizations? Maybe we could add virtual reference session patron interaction, remote assistance and training with online database and searching problems, 'co-browsing' with patrons to demonstrate and observe use of Web information services, and formal training sessions for multiple users. That would be great. This is no longer a science fiction scenario. The ideas are neither outlandish, difficult, nor prohibitively expensive."
Government Documents--United Kingdom New Year Releases 2004 - Public Records of 1973 "This year's new releases include documents on Northern Ireland, a statue to commemorate Sir Winston Churchill and a ministerial scandal." Thursday, January 01, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Space Exploration Source: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Selected Resources: Mars Exploration Rover Materials NASA's Spirit rover is scheduled to land on Mars at 04:35 Jan. 4, 2004, Universal Time (8:35 p.m. Jan. 3, Pacific Standard Time.) Opportunity, another rover, is set to land on Jan. 24, 2004. + Landing Press Kit Full of facts about Mars and the mission. + Mission Fact Sheet + Rover Landing Site Details + Mission Timeline + Mars Rover FAQ (via Space.Com) + Press Releases + Material About the Instruments on the Rover See Also: Live Coverage on NASA TV ||| Web Access to NASA TV See Also: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission Home Page See Also: Coverage from Space.Com
Spam Source: AOL Top 10 Spam Subject Lines 2003 See Also: Spam Trends of 2003 From the report, "In 2003, Brightmail saw spam surpass legitimate email – growing to more than 56% of all Internet email, up from just 40% a year ago." The report also lists the most popular spam mail subject lines
Web Search--Google Just Released, Top Google Searches of 2003 See Also: Top Yahoo Searches 2003 See Also: Top Lycos Searches 2003
Briefly + Tim Berners-Lee Gets Knighted (via BBC News) + Vin Cerf Comments on the Future of the Internet (via BBC News) x |
