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Saturday, June 19, 2004
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Search Tools Search the Web, the News, and Your Computer with Blinkx The other day Searchblog ran an item about blinkx, a new web, news, and desktop search application (here's a screenshot) for Windows (Mac and Mozilla versions are coming soon), that ResourceShelf learned about a few weeks ago. I hope to chat with the company soon. Until then, a quick overview of the blinkx Beta release. Remember, desktop search is all the rage these days. Google has a project and Ask Jeeves just purchased Tukaroo. Hotbot/Lycos has already released a desktop app that isn't bad (and includes an RSS aggregator). Companies like X1 also offer desktop search tools. The Basics + Free to download and use. + Download is fast (about 4.5MB). Once installed, I did have problems disabling Blinx (via the system tray) and then trying to restart it. + The company stresses this is a "concept" search tool as opposed to a "keyword" search tool. We've heard rumors about where the technology comes from and will try to confirm. + Three types of content are searchable (local documents, news search, and web). + Local docuements can include your Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora mail files. A search queries all three content types simultaneously. Each has its own results window in the client. + All Search Types ++ Results change immediately as you add or remove terms. ++ Proximity searching with "" appears not to work. + Local/Desktop Search ++ Queries material on your hard drive. ++ Document title is provided, roll over the title and a snippet is available. ++ It would be useful if your search term(s) were shown in context. ++ I was not able to tell the indexer to not index specific folders or filetypes. If this feature is available (it should be), I was unable to find the location. ++ Click and document opens. + News Search ++ Queries Morevover database ++ Article titled provided ++ Cursor over the title and a snippet is provided and search term highlighted. It would be useful to be able to see the source of the article at this point. ++ Click and article opens in a new window + Web Search ++ Unable to determine which web database results are coming from. ++ Page title provided. ++ Cursor over the title and a snippet is provided, search term highlighted. ++ Click and page opens in a new window. blinkx also provides a small toolbar that "floats" near the top of a browser window. Three icons will activate when blinkx finds "related" local, news, and web content that it believes will be of interest to you as you browse various web pages. Simply click on a toolbar icon and a list of "related pages" appears. Click again and the page opens. After spending some time browsing the web and reviewing "related" links via blinkx, I found most of this "web" related content not very useful. When looking at news content, blinkx did an OK job saving some time and clicks finding related articles. However, it's far from ideal. All of this reminds me of Kenjin, a tool from Autonomy, that was available several years ago. IMHO (and I think many others) it did not work well. Kenjin is no longer available. + Another beta (blinkx Query) provides a web-based tool + Offers same search capabilies as client software (local documents, news search, web). + Search suggestions and refinements are offered in the left margin. Not bad. + Users can "refine" results by selecting one or more snippets and then clicking the "refine search" button + Offers a results visualization tool (java app). It's similar to what's available from anacubis, TouchGraph, and others. Bottom Line + An early Beta release so it's somewhat unfair to more than a few comments/suggestions. + In what might be the most important area, relevancy of results, blinkx needs work. I've seen worse but improvements are needed especially with web search. + I don't mind client software but others do and/or are unable to load in the workplace. Web version a good idea. + No keyword ads on result pages. Will they to appear. Where is the revenue for blinkx's going to come from? Will the client software move to a fee-based model? + Better documentation and an explanation of "concept" searching is needed. + You can learn more about the company leadership here. + As new search tools go, this is one to take a look at and keep an eye on. We will. More later.
Business--Search Engines Source: Clickz Business Search Engine Find.com Launches From the article: "Find.com, a search engine designed for business professionals, was launched in beta this week by partners FIND/SVP, Empire Media and TripleHop Technologies. The site delivers search results from three different types of sources. Results from business sites that charge for their content, such as Gallup and Frost & Sullivan, appear at the top of the search results pages. Users can then buy the content. Results from a list of 3,000 business sites appear in the free organic listings, along with results from a variety of search engines...Find.com also has implemented an innovative navigational scheme that's reminiscent of that used by clustering firm Vivisimo...Empire Media and FIND/SVP each own 47.5 percent of the business."
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Books Source: CILIP Updated Reference Book (For Sale): Know It All We don't spend much time talking reference books on ResourceShelf but every know and then it's good to mention one or two. Here's one for your ready-reference shelf. A new of edition of Know It All is now available. From the announcement, "Know It All, Find It Fast, the essential source guide for busy enquiry desks, has just come out in its second edition. Winner of the 'Best general reference work' prize in the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards, this book has already earned its place as the key guide to where to find the answers quickly. 'There is a queue, the phone is ringing, the photocopier has jammed and your enquirer is waiting for a response. You are stressed and you can feel the panic rising. Where do you go to find the information you need to answer the question promptly and accurately?' challenges Bob Duckett, one of the book's three authors. 'That's where our book can help.'" More info and ordering instructions. -- Public Libraries Source: MSNBC.com Librarians: Free CDs Too Much of a Good Thing "Public librarians aren't prone to looking gift horses in the mouth, but many have nevertheless been taken aback by the odd and in some cases overly generous allotments of free music CDs that have begun arriving in the last week as the result of the settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against major record companies."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Celebrities--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Recently Released, The Celebrity 100 (2004) "The most powerful celebrities in the world." Sort by: Rank Name Pay Web Hits* Press TV * See Also: We've mentioned (on several occasions) the many issues using "web hits" to determine popularity/importance. So have others. -- Consumer Issues Source: Public Interest Research Group Just Released, Mistakes Do Happen: A Look at Errors in Consumer Credit Reports From the Executive Summary: "The most valuable thing we have is our good name. The most common reflection of our reputation as a trustworthy consumer is our credit report. Unfortunately, the information contained in our credit reports, which are bought and sold daily to nearly anyone who requests and pays for them, does not always tell a true story." View the Full report [PDF] Friday, June 18, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Electronic Resources Source: CLIR New, Full Text Report, The Nonsubscription Side of Periodicals: Changes in Library Operations and Costs between Print and Electronic Formats Many academic and research libraries are in the midst of what may ultimately be a major transition for various parts of their collections-a shift from print to electronic format. Libraries that had long subscribed only to print versions of journals are, in increasing numbers, licensing electronic versions to replace the print. What effects will this transition have on library operations and on nonsubscription expenditures? To answer this question, the authors collected new data on staff activities and costs from 11 U.S. academic libraries. They then performed a life-cycle analysis to study the longer-term cost implications of the transition. -- Information Industry The May/June Issue of Research Information is Now Available Articles include: + Will learned societies signal the change? + New legal deposit laws [UK] include digital data + Profile: John Murphy CEO of Innovative Interfaces + Why librarians should switch on their radios "Why RFID is important for libraries" -- Open Access Source: Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO)/NAP Press Full Text, Open Access and the Public Domain in Digital Data and Information for Science: Proceedings of an International Symposium -- Freedom of Information--United Kingdom Source: The National Archives Implementation of the Freedom on Information Act in places of deposit for public records - Digitization Projects Source: Federal Computer Week Congress Views E-Mail "(T)he House Administration Committee is moving forward with a pilot test of a digital mail program that would scan letters sent via regular mail into computers and then send the images electronically to members of Congress." Letters are sent to a facility in Leesburg, VA, where they are scanned, The digital images are then sent electronically to congressional offices. A metadata system has been added so congressional staffers can sort letters by subject. In the pilot test, it takes roughly five business days "from the time a letter is mailed until staffers can access it digitally," although some users report mail arriving much later. See also: Tracking the Mail
Web Search--Yahoo And Another Yahoo Shortcut: Movie Showtimes (U.S.) Shortcuts are quite the rage at Yahoo these days. We reported on new ones several times in the past few months. Today, movie showtimes enter the shortcut list. Simply enter the "trigger" word "showtimes" and a location into the query box. For example: showtimes raleigh or showtimes anchorage. About a month ago we reported on a similar shortcut from Ask Jeeves. With Jeeves no trigger word is needed. Simply enter the movie title. You'll also find direct links to reviews and related info. See Also: A Complete List of Yahoo Shortcuts See Also: A List of Many Ask Jeeves Shortcuts
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Internet--Commerce--United States Consumer Issues Source: GAO Just Released, Internet Pharmacies: Some Pose Safety Risks for Consumers -- Space Exploration--United States Source: President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond Just Released, A Journey to Inspire, Innovate and Discover (PDF; 2.17 MB) From the press release: "The Commission, chaired by Edward C. 'Pete' Aldridge, Jr., supports the President's new vision for space and the report contains eight findings and fourteen recommendations on how to implement that vision. The Commission believes that this new space agenda will significantly help the nation protect its technological leadership, economic vitality, and physical, economic and military security. Three 'imperatives for success' were also identified: sustainability, affordability, and credibility." Report is 60 pages long. -- Detention Facilities Source: Human Rights First U.S. Holding Prisoners in More Than Two Dozen Secret Detention Facilities Worldwide From the Press Release: "A new report from Human Rights First (the new name of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) outlines the scope of the global network of U.S. detention facilities holding suspects in the "war on terror." The report lists more than two dozen facilities that have been reported by Human Rights First sources and the media; at least half of these operate in total secrecy." Full Text of the report [PDF] Thursday, June 17, 2004
Resources of the Week Two items for you this time. -- -- 1) Art History Source: Cartography Associates Visual Collections "The Visual Collections site from Cartography Associates contains dozens of digital image collections from Museums, Universities and private collections throughout the world. Our mission is to encourage the development of future collections and facilitate their worldwide distribution to both scholars and the general public." Offers more than 300,000 images from more than 30 unusual collections, including: + David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (Cartography Associates), which "focuses on 18th and 19th century North and South American cartographic materials." + Hampton Dunn Postcard Collection, from the University of South Florida (USF), which "contains scenes from early twentieth century Florida...displaying color images of street scenes, natural vistas, and Floridians at work and play." + Cornell University's Political Americana Collection, "comprised of Presidential promotional and commemorative items dating from 1789 to 1980." + Japanese Historical Maps Collection from East Asian Library at UC Berkeley, which contains, among other things, "a range of Japanese city maps dating back 300 years." + Charles Ringling Family Papers, which include items related to "the Ringling mansion, archives from the Ringling Brothers Circus, and biographical materials centered on the Charles Ringling family." From USF's Jane Bancroft Cook Library in Sarasota. + Hoover Institution Poster Collection, from Stanford University, which "includes political posters from around the world. Many thousands of posters date from World War I and World War II, though the posters cover the entire twentieth century." You can view these collections using either the Insight Browser System, which requires no download, or the Insight Java Client System, requiring a one-time download. Both systems offer similar functionality: searching, "zooming, viewing image data, panning and scrolling, and printing of the image and its data." All of the image databases are free except for Cartography Associates' own AMICO Collection, which contains 118,000 "works of art from the collections of the member museums of the Art Museum Image Consortium." Both individual and institutional subscriptions are offered. -- -- 2) Technical Reports Source: Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) DTIC Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET) DTIC's Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET) Service "provides access to citations to unclassified unlimited documents that have been entered into DTIC's Technical Reports Collection since December 1974, as well as the electronic full-text of many of these documents." There are actually two versions of STINET: + Public STINET, available free to the general public which, in addition to the above, provides access to: -- Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals -- Staff College Automated Military Periodical Index -- DoD Index to Specifications and Standards -- Research and Development Descriptive Summaries. + Private STINET, available to "the defense community" (including government employees and contractors), "provides DTIC registered users with a more complete version of DTIC's Technical Reports Collection than the Public STINET site. Among the features available...are citations to limited documents and an extensive full-text report collection. Private STINET also provides free access to two online database services that index thousands of international journals and conference proceedings." The most convenient access point to all of the STINET databases is the recently implemented STINET Multi-Search, which uses the same underlying technology from Deep Web Technologies as Science.gov (version 2.0), "gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies." On the main STINET Multi-Search page, you'll find all of the databases (presently 33) grouped according to information type -- DTIC database sources, military periodicals, Web sources, and other federal databases. If you prefer, you can click the Indexed by Source link and view the databases grouped according to the agencies which make them available. From either view, you may use checkboxes to select up to 10 databases to search simultaneously. Extensive help is available, as are brief descriptions of the databases. An "INFO" icon to the right of each database title on the multi-search page links to the appropriate description here. Those databases offering full-text are identified by a small "page" icon to the left of the database title. If you've never taken a look at this resource or haven't visited recently, you might be surprised by the variety of information accessible from here. Database providers include the departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Defense; DTIC itself; EPA; FDA; NASA; NIH; and USGS.
World--Statistics Source: CIA The 2004 Edition of the CIA World Factbook is Now Available This new edition "went live" yesterday afternoon. From the announcement, "The World Factbook 2004 contains six appendixes with reference information ranging from abbreviations and descriptions of international organizations and groups to cross-referenced lists of Country Data Codes. The 2004 edition includes 15 reference maps, which are available in both JPEG and PDF formats. Many country maps and flags have been updated to reflect changes and refinements over the past year...Three entries have been added to The World Factbook 2004. In the Communications category, an Internet hosts entry replaces Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In the Transportation category under Merchant Marine, subfields have been added for foreign-owned vessels and those registered in other countries. Revision of some individual country maps, first introduced in the 2001 edition, is continued in this update. "Rank Order" pages have been added for natural gas production, consumption, exports, imports and Internet hosts. The "Rank Order" pages enable Web site visitors to select and view data from among 39 data fields in the Geography, People, Economy, Communications, Transportation, and Military categories. Most of the information is rank-ordered from highest to lowest for all countries where data is available. Individual pages can be readily viewed, and instructions are provided for downloading and saving the data into a database or spreadsheet. It is also possible to download the report for offline viewing. Archived copies of the 2000-2003 CIA World Factbook are also available.
Professional Reading Shelf Information Retrieval Web Search More on CrossRef/Google Search Pilot Talk about a new and useful tool for info pros! On 6/3 we linked to Peter Jacso's review of the CrossRef/Google pilot. In the article he writes, "High-quality scholarly content from nine big-name publishers deserves much better treatment by Google, or rather by some other company that has demonstrated expertise in bringing the best out of millions of high-quality, consistently structured and tagged Web pages with excellent metadata." Today, Peter has made a resource available that allows you to COMPARE side-by-side the results from the native search engines of 5 scholarly publishers's and from Google's special index to scholarly archives. In an email to ResourceShelf Jacso writes, "We can talk our heart out about the dangers of relying exclusively on Google, it may not be as eye-opening as running a few test searches using side-by-side and looking at the results to see what Google misses even when its results may give the false impression by hit count that it found more than the native search engines which are available for anyone from anywhere offering many nice features which are not possible with Google." -- Ebooks Source: University of Illinois Law Review "Lending" institutions: the impact of the e-book on the American library system From the article: "The sharing of knowledge, specifically through the evolution of library systems, is an essential part of modern democracy and is governed in America by the First Amendment and by copyright law. In recent years, however, the circulation of e-books - text in electronic format read via specialized equipment and software - has created a potential challenge to traditional notions of copyright protection. In this note, the author analyzes the compatibility of the e-book with the American library system as it currently exists through empirical data on the use and expert opinion of e-books in public and academic libraries." -- Digital Preservation--Grants Source: National Science Foundation Digital Preservation Program Launches Research Grants Initiative From the Press Release: "The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress (NDIIPP) is partnering with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish the first research grants program to specifically address digital preservation. NSF will administer the program, which will fund cutting-edge research to support the long-term management of digital information. This effort is part of the Library's collaborative program to implement a national digital preservation strategy." -- Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: ZDNet UK Library trial puts Wi-Fi hot spots on the books From the article: "Every public library in the country could soon include a Wi-Fi hot spot, if a government trial is a success. The DTI has put its plan to roll out Wi-Fi hot spots to libraries across the UK into action. Speaking at the Mobile Enterprise conference in London's Earls Court on Wednesday, e-commerce minister Stephen Timms said a trial is now running at 10 libraries." Note: ResourceShelf Ran a Post About this Project in 12/03 -- E-rate Source: CNet Eroding E-rate From the article: "Most Americans probably don't realize that the 8.7 percent tax on their monthly phone bills for something called the Universal Service Fund has been used to line the pockets of some unscrupulous school officials and company executives. The money was intended to fund the government's E-rate program, which was designed to help schools and libraries in poor and rural areas get affordable telecommunications and Internet services through subsidized discounts. The program, which began in 1998 as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission and administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, a private, nonprofit organization better known as USAC."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Language Source: Modern Language Association New web site, MLA Language Map "(D)isplays the locations and numbers of speakers of the thirty languages most commonly spoken in the United States." (Site very slow; inaccessible Wednesday afternoon) See Also: Language Map Data Center Goes Public (AP, via MercuryNews.com) -- Engineers--United States--Statistics Source: NSF Just Released, Women, Minorities, & Persons with Disabilities 2004 -- Energy--Statistics Source: International Energy Agency IEA Statistics Home Page Data by region or country on coal, oil, natural gas, electricity, heat. See: Definitions and glossary See also: Renewables Database -- Health Insurance--United States--Statistics Documents in the News Source: Families USA Report Just Released, One in Three: Non-Elderly Americans without Health Insurance, 2002-2003 Summary ||| Full Text ||| Individual State Fact Sheets -- Children--United States--Statistics Source: Population Connection Just Released, Kid Friendly Cities From the site: "This is the ninth edition of Population Connection's report on children and cities. Its mission is to present the best available data on the social, economic, educational and physical environment in our cities--exactly where our children live, grow, learn and play." Major Cities Rankings Large Cities Rankings Honor Roll FAQ for the report Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Law: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Science in The Netherlands, 1999-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Oceanography
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Documents in the News Terrorism September 11th Staff Statements from Today's Hearing The title of today's session was "The 9/11 Plot." + Staff Statement No. 15: Overview of the Enemy + Staff Statement No. 16: Outline of the 9/11 Plot -- Phishing Identity Theft Source: U.S. Department of Treasury Just Released, Full Text Report, FBIIC and FSSCC Report on Preventing, Detecting, and Responding to Phishing Attacks Summary ||| Direct to Full Text -- Military--China Source: U.S. Department of Defense Just Released, Department of Defense Releases FY04 Report to Congress on PRC Military Power "The Department of Defense has released its annual report to congress on military power in the People's Republic of China. The report addresses the current and probable future course of military-technological developments of the People's Liberation Army, the tenets and probable development of Chinese grand strategy, security strategy, and military strategy." Direct to Full Text (PDF; 532 KB) -- SPAM Source: FTC Just Released, The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: National Do Not Email Registy: A Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress This report tells Congress that the FTC will NOT set up a do-not-email registry. From an IDG article, "A do-not-e-mail list would likely be used by spammers to send consumers more unwanted commercial e-mail, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said Tuesday. The FTC, in a report to Congress, instead advocated that ISPs (Internet service providers) continue to work on domain-level e-mail sender authentication, technologies that would require e-mail to come from the domain it says it's from." Report Summary ||| Direct to Full Text -- Information Technology--Employment--Lists & Rankings Source: Computerworld Best Places to Work in IT 2004 Includes numerous articles and a sortable list of winners (registration required). -- Wealth--World--Statistics Source: Capgemini and Merrill Lynch Just Released, 2004 World Wealth Report From the press release: "There were an estimated 7.7 million high-net-worth individuals in the world at the end of 2003, up 7.5% or a net 500,000 people compared with the previous year, according to the 2004 World Wealth Report.... The total global wealth of these high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) climbed 7.7% to $28.8 trillion, according to the survey. HNWIs are people with financial assets of at least U.S. $1 million, excluding home real estate." Direct to Full Text (PDF; 2.8MB)
Professional Reading Shelf Classification Source: Journal of Digital Information New, Full Text article, Managing Content with Automatic Document Classification From the abstract, "News articles and Web directories represent some of the most popular and commonly accessed content on the Web. Information designers normally define categories that model these knowledge domains (i.e. news topics or Web categories) and domain experts assign documents to these categories. The paper describes how machine learning and automatic document classification techniques can be used for managing large numbers of news articles, or Web page descriptions, lightening the load on domain experts." -- Digitometrics Source: ScieCom (via the The Open Citation Project) What is Digitometrics? From the article, "Digitometrics is bibliometrics for the online age. You combine the results from citation analysis with web logs, counting the number of times an article has been downloaded, to get an article's impact." -- Copyright Source: Lawrence Lessig, et. al. Kahle v. Ashcroft Submission Site "Kahle v. Ashcroft is a lawsuit that challenges changes to U.S. copyright law that have created a large class of 'orphan works.' ... Because the copyright system contains no mechanisms to create and maintain useful records of copyright ownership, people who would like to distribute or use these orphaned works...often are unable to clear rights. The copyright system thus denies public access to these orphan works.... To win the lawsuit, we need your help. We need more examples of people being burdened by these copyright-related barriers to the use of orphan works. You can help us if you have ever wanted to copy, distribute, perform, modify, sample, mash-up, or generally use an orphan work, but were prevented from doing so because: + The cost of trying to find the copyright holder was too high; or + You were unable to find the copyright holder; or + You were able to find the copyright holder and they refused to issue a license; or + You were able to find the copyright holder and you were issued a license, but you have a good story to tell about how difficult the process was." and while we're on the topic of copyright... "BBC to Open Content Floodgates" (via Wired News) "The BBC plans to open its vast archive of TV and radio programming to the Net this fall. Observers are excited about the liberal licensing terms: Users could download and remix all they want, turning the notion of copyright on its head." -- Information Seeking Behaviour Source: elearningeuropa.info Report, Adult Learners' Information Seeking Behaviours Using the Web Our friends at Pandia have an overview of this report. Worthy of your attention.
Briefly Web Browsers...New Release (Version 0.9) of Firefox Browser Now Available If you've never tried out Firefox (a free browser, no ads), take a look. Highly customizable, full of features. The entire download is just 4.7MB. -- Factiva Adds Three German-Language Newspapers to Collection They have added Die Welt, Hamburger Abendblatt, and Die Welt am Sonntag.
RSS/Syndication More RSS Feeds Note: ResourceShelf's newest contributing editor, Steven Cohen, is one of the leaders (Jenny Levine being another). We do our best to post major RSS news (as it relates to info pros) on ResourceShelf. If you're interested in a daily stream of RSS and XML syndication news and feeds, make sure to stop by Steven's personal site. OK, now two new items for you. + New Compilation From Gerry McKiernan: eFeeds Web Feeds from Electronic Journals "Web Feeds from Electronic Journals is a categorized registry of electronic journals that offer RSS/XML, Atom, or other Web feeds. Publisher-specific and vendor Web feeds are categorized in a separate category." Make sure you check out another new resource from Gerry. It's a compilation with examples of "library services that are delivered or provided through RSS/XML feeds." + Government Technology Offers RSS Newsfeeds and while we're mentioning RSS... One of our favorite people personally and professionally, Roddy MacLeod, has an article on the topic. It's in the latest issue of Free Pint. Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Web Search--Vivisimo More Specialized Search Tool Clustering Demos from Vivisimo ResourceShelf mentions happenings at Vivisimo on a regular basis. Yes, we like what they're doing as do many others. They call it "selective ignorance." Most of you already know that you can aggregate and cluster results from several general web engines with their publicly available metasearch search tool. We've also mentioned that you can use Vivisimo to cluster results from several specialized databases including: + PubMed (aka ClusterMed) + FirstGov + Scirus + ClinicalTrials.gov + eBay Today, news that you can now cluster results from three more specialized engines: + Cluster Results from the Slashdot Database Cluster on either titles or dates. + Open Source Software: ClusterSource "This demo allows you to search and cluster open source projects listed by the Open Source Developers' Network on SourceForge and Freshmeat, the world's largest repositories of open source programs and applications. Clustering is especially powerful here, grouping free software by type, language, environment and more to find the application you need quickly." See Also: Even More Vivisimo Demos
Professional Reading Shelf Federated Searching Source: Library Journal New Jersey State Library launches JerseyClicks From the article: "The New Jersey State Library has launched JerseyClicks, which allows libraries to search multiple databases simultaneously using a single interface. JerseyClicks can be used by anyone inside a library, but cardholders can access the service at home, 24/7. The state library says that JerseyClicks is superior to using Google because it provides "access to the complete and authoritative texts. These copyrighted resources are invisible to Google's eyes." -- Libraries Source: ARL Bimonthly Report Libraries Dealing with the Future Now An article by Joseph M. Brewer, Sheril J. Hook, Janice Simmons-Welburn, and Karen Williams of the University of Arizona Library -- Academic Libraries Source: Library Journal Ridiculous Comments from President of Drexel University From the article, "Drexel University faculty and students fired off angry responses to Drexel President Constantine Papadakis recently after the president made remarks suggesting that books were not an essential part of the Drexel library's future. According to the Triangle, the Drexel student newspaper, Papadakis told a university assembly that 'My understanding when I was first hired was that in three years I did not want any professor or graduate student to walk into the library to find a book, because this is a waste of your time unless you love books and are going to look at them.' He elaborated on his preference for electronic media rather than print, calling that 'the philosophy that we follow, right or wrong.'" See Also: You Can Read the Original Article from the Drexel Newspaper Here (page 2) See Also: Editorial About the Library See Also: An Op/Ed Column About the Library (via The Triangle) -- RFID Source: San Jose Mercury News Meet the the Father of RFID "The next time you wave a key card to unlock the door to your office building, think of Charles Walton. One of Silicon Valley's unsung inventors, Walton's patents on radio frequency identification, or RFID, spawned those electronic door keys." Interesting profile.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents U.S. Military--Court-Martial--United States Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists) New CRS Report, Military Courts-Martial: An Overview More New/Updated CRS Reports (via FAS) + Border Security: Inspections Practices, Policies, and Issues + Sensitive Security Information and Transportation Security: Issues and Congressional Options + Military Forces: What is the Appropriate Size for the United States? + Network Centric Warfare: Background and Oversight Issues for Congress Thanks to S.A. for his help. -- Iraq Source: The Brookings Institution Iraq Index "The Iraq Index is a statistical compilation of economic and security data. This resource will provide updated information on various criteria, including crime, telephone and water service, troop fatalities, unemployment, Iraqi security forces, oil production, and coalition troop strength." Updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. "Download a PDF (363 KB) version of all charts which includes complete source information." -- Health--Canada Source: Statistics Canada Released Today, (Highlights) Canadian Community Health Survey -- Nuclear Energy--China Source: Energy Information Agency Recently Updated: China's Nuclear Industry Includes: + Chinese Nuclear Industry Timeline + Interactive Map of Reactors Built or Under Construction -- Business Source: Harvard Business School Working Knowledge/HBS Baker Library Research Notebook: Studying World Trade "If you are a global player or thinking of becoming one, the World Trade Organization's annual report on international trade statistics is a vital tool." Provides an introduction to the WTO's International Trade Statistics 2003 report. See Also: Direct to International Trade Statistics 2003 See Also: Selected Tables from the Report in XLS Format -- Vocabulary--United States Source: Matthew Campbell and Prof. Greg Plumb, East Central University (OK) Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County Map created using statistics gathered by The Great Pop Vs. Soda Controversy project. People were asked, "What generic word do you use to describe carbonated soft drinks?" and instructed to input the zip codes of where they grew up and "learned the dialect of English" they now speak, thus allowing regional linguistic variations to be studied. -- Protected Areas--United States Source: U.S. Department of Commerce/NOAA and the U.S. Department of the Interior Marine Protected Areas of the United States: Virtual Library "The MPA Virtual Library is a searchable database covering electronic, print, and Internet resources, including publications (print and online), websites, photos, video, and projects. The resources cover the United States and territories as well as other countries around the world.... In collecting resources for the MPA Library, the term 'marine protected areas' is used very broadly to include areas such as marine reserves, no-take zones, marine parks, marine sanctuaries, national parks with marine components, national beaches and seashores, sensitive sea areas, ecological reserves, etc. In short, any area of the marine environment that has been afforded some sort of protection by regulation or legislation may be considered a marine protected area." -- Presidents of the United States--Fast Facts Source: InfoPlease.com Almanac Presidential Factfile From the site, "Find all the presidential info you need in our comprehensive collection of photographs, biographies, questions for our editors, quizzes, and trivia about the presidents of the United States." -- United States--Lists & Rankings Source: PR Newswire Farmers Insurance Ranks 25 Most Secure U.S. Places to Live From the news release, "According to Farmers Insurance Group's ranking of the Top 25 Most Secure U.S. Places to Live, the most secure location in the U.S. is the Provo-Orem, Utah area. The rankings, compiled by database experts at bestplaces.net, took into consideration crime statistics, risk of natural disasters and job loss numbers in 213 U.S. metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more."
Web Search--Gigablast Another Milestone: Gigablast's Index Soars Past 400 Million Pages The 400 million number was reached late Monday. Congrats and kudos to Giga's sole proprietor Matt Wells. Keep up the good work. It was just over a month ago that Matt told us that he was ready to slowly crank up his crawler. The database has grown 100 million pages in about five weeks. See Also: Learn About Matt Wells, Gigablast, and what it's like to be the sole proprietor of a web search engine company.
Web Mail--Yahoo Who Wants Storage Space? Yahoo Mail Now Offering 100MB of Free Storage Space Mail Wars 2004 continue. As expected, Yahoo has raised (as of today) the allotment of space for their FREE Yahoo Mail service from 4MB to 100MB. The company has also announced that for $19.95/year, you'll get 2GB of storage space. The fee-based service will also be free of graphical ads, include the ability to send and receive messages up to 10MB, as well as an option to archive your mail folders offline. It also offers an unlimited amount of "disposable" email addresses. Good idea. UPDATE: We've been asked if Yahoo Mail is searchable. The answer is yes, it is. Here's a screenshot of the advanced search interface. "Search Mail" is located next to the compose button.
Industry Briefs + ProQuest Makes an Acquistion: CultureGrams "CultureGrams is a widely used cultural reference product for education, government, and non-profit users. It is available in print and electronically via the World Wide Web. The product line was originally developed at Brigham Young University beginning in 1974." -- + FAST Unveils Enterprise Search Industry's First Search Derivative Application Focused On Market Intelligence "FAST Marketrac, an enterprise-wide software solution that gathers, analyzes, and communicates critical market intelligence from multiple, disparate sources throughout an enterprise and the Web." Monday, June 14, 2004
News Search--Rocket News Useful: Deduping With Rocket News Two months ago when we published an overview of the improved Rocket News web site we mentioned that a box on the advanced interface allows the searcher to remove duplicates from the result set. A very useful feature since so much duplicate material is common when searching with "open web" news engines. Rocket looks at urls, titles, and the text of the article to determine duplicates. This weekend we noticed that the duplicate removal feature is available (I think we missed it until today) at the top of each list of results (even if you don't use the advanced interface). Simply click to toggle the feature on/off. Compare the results with the duplicate removal on and off.
Search Engines Source: The Register Guard Be specific to utilize search engines: From the article: "My first tip is to concentrate on one search engine. When I started writing about technology, there were great differences between search engines. So I might use one for technical stuff and another to find a good restaurant in Phoenix. Now I mostly use Google - a search engine so popular it's become part of the language. You'll hear people say "I want to Google that'' nowadays. The advantage to sticking with a single search engine is that, over time, you can learn its quirks and ways. That will make your searching faster and more efficient." Reaction from ResourceShelf's Steven Cohen: While being specific is important, to use only one engine is to miss relevant information that is not in that database. There is more overlap in engines than many think (See Chris Sherman's article and Greg Notess's analysis), and subject-specific databases will uncover resources not readily found in the bigger engines. We should all be teaching our patrons not to use only one engine, but many. It all depends on the question at hand. Comment from ResourceShelf's Gary Price: S.C. is right on the money. I made similar comments about this issue last month, reacting to a "just published" study. People often tell me that "something is good enough" when searching. Does something better (more current, better source, etc.) exist? How much time and effort is it taking the searcher to find something "good enough" when a small amount of education (the librarian as educator) about other useful resources (many free) would produce a quality answer in a shorter amount of time? Where did the idea that one info tool could easily, quickly, and accurately answer each and every question come from? Why hasn't collection building of resources come into play the way librarians and individuals have always built collections and bookshelves? Oh yes, let's not forget that in some cases (not all), quality access to quality content still costs money.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Source: IronPort Systems, Inc. SenderBase "SenderBase is a free email reporting service designed to help email administrators research senders, identify legitimate email and block spam. SenderBase does not send email - we simply provide information about email senders. You are viewing a report on the top senders of email on the Internet based on data provided from over 28,000 organizations that receive email." Charts show "Top Senders by Domain: Last 24 hours" and "Top Senders by Address: Last 24 hours". -- Military Expenditure--Statistics Source: SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) Recently Updated, SIPRI Database on Military Expenditure Last week SIPRI released their 2004 Yearbook. They also updated this database with the most recent numbers available (2003). It contains info for more than 160 countries. -- Digital Images Source: Technology Review Visualizing Digital Image Sensors A useful animation that illustrates how this part of a digital camera works. Add this one to your "how things work" folder. Other "visualizations" are listed on the left side of the page. Good stuff! -- Population--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Released Today, Hispanic and Asian Americans Increasing Faster Than Overall Population Detailed tables are also available. -- Fathers--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts: Father's Day 2004 Facts about dads in the USA. -- First Aid Source: National Library of Medicine New MedlinePlus Compilation: Wounds -- Digitization Projects--Canada Maps--Canada Source: Archiva.Net (Canada) Released Today, Indian Reserves-Western Canada From the site, "This database provides item-level descriptions on approximately 1,500 maps and plans that relate to aboriginal reserves and settlements in western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut Territory). The maps described here are both published and unpublished, and are generally limited to single discrete (monographic) records. Approximately 1,200 items, now in the public domain, have been digitized." -- Online Displays Source: The Library of Congress New, Rare Pictographic Chinese Writings Available in Online Presentation From the article, "Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection,? a presentation of unique items from the Library of Congress? Asian Division, is now available on the Global Gateway Web site at http://international.loc.gov/intldl/naxihtml/. 'Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection' features ceremonial writings of the Naxi people of China's Yunnan Province. The Library's Naxi collection is the largest outside of China and is considered one of the finest in the world. The Naxi use a unique pictographic writing system that is similar to the ancient Egyptian and Mayan writing systems. It is the only living pictographic language in the world today. This online presentation features 185 manuscripts, a 392 -foot funerary scroll and an annotated catalog of the entire collection."
Libraries Source: AP Vatican library mixes ancient, new technology Sounds like RFID has come to the Vatican Library. From the article, "Officials have started implanting computer chips in the 1.6 million books in the Vatican's collection. The chips communicate via radio wave with hand-held monitors, so librarians can tell if a book is missing. 'That is no small thing, because a book that's out of place is as if the book is lost,' says Ambrogio Piazzoni, the library's deputy prefect. The technology has been around for a few years. But the Vatican believes its 'Pergamon' system, named for the ancient city in modern Turkey that housed one of the Old World's greatest libraries, marks the first time that the system has been applied to a library catalogue on a large scale. It's the latest advance for the Vatican Library, which was started by Pope Nicholas V in the 1450s with an initial 350 Latin manuscripts. By the time Nicholas died in 1455, the collection had swelled to about 1,500 codices and was the largest in Europe." See Also: Direct to the Vatican Library Web Site
Professional Reading Shelf National Libraries--Europe Gabriel (National Libraries of Europe Gateway) Publishes Results of User Survey From the site, "This survey was set up to get a better profile of the users of Gabriel and their future needs. The users of Gabriel are considered potential future users of The European Library. In total 560 people responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was set up in such a way that information would become available about both the users of the current Gabriel website and their ideas about the future European Library service." See Also: Learn More About The European Library Project See Also: Direct to Gabriel Home Page -- Access to Information Copyright Source: Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP) Full Text Report, The Information Commons ||| News Release A post on the Library Journal web site offers a summary, "...authored by former American Library Association President Nancy Kranich, warns that the rapid, continuing migration of information to digital formats is threatening the pillars of our democracy. The 58-page report, The Information Commons, warns that public access in the digital realm is increasingly threatened by restrictive technology, unbalanced changes to intellectual property and copyright law, industry consolidation, and onerous licensing terms. If such information trends are allowed to continue, the report argues, creativity, free speech, and vibrant political discourse will all suffer. 'Building the information commons is essential to the 21st century democracy but it is neither easy nor costless,' Kranich writes. 'But if the public's right to know is to be protected in today's world, citizens must have optimal opportunities to acquire and exchange information.'" A pdf version of the report is also available. Thanks to Open Access News for the news tip.
Library News Roundup + Virginia...Internet Filters Come to Some Libraries in Virginia (via The Virginian-Pilot) An in-depth look at the issue. An unscientific online poll is also part of the article package. As I post this item to ResourceShelf, more than 65% of respondents say that libraries should filter material. -- + New Hampshire...Libraries oppose Internet filters, turn down federal funds Sunday, June 13, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Science Source: National Museum of Science & Industry, UK New Web Resource: Ingenious From the site, "Ingenious is a new website that brings together images and viewpoints to create insights into science and culture. It weaves unusual and thought-provoking connections between people, innovations and ideas. Drawing on the resources of NMSI [National Museum of Science & Industry, UK], the site contains over 30,000 images which are used to illustrate over 30 different subjects, topics and debates...The key NMSI contributors to the site are the Science Museum, the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, the National Railway Museum, the Science & Society Picture Library and the Science Museum Library." -- Computer Security Source: Computer Security Institute New Report, Full Text, Security Specialists Report Cybercrime Losses Down for Third Straight Year "Highlights of the 2004 Computer Crime and Security Survey include the following: + Overall financial losses totaled from 494 survey respondents were $141,496,560. This is down significantly from 530 respondents reporting $201,797,340 last year. + In a shift from previous years, the most expensive computer crime was denial of service. Theft of intellectual property, the prior leading category, was the second most expensive last year. + Organizations are using metrics from economics to evaluate their security decisions. Fifty-five percent use Return on Investment (ROI), 28 percent use Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and 25 percent use Net Present Value (NPV). + The vast majority of organizations in the survey do not outsource computer security activities. Among those organizations that do outsource some computer security activities, the percentage of security activities outsourced is quite low." Full report available for download after free registration. (PDF; 1.81 MB) -- Information Technology--Salary Surveys Source: Infoworld 2004 InfoWorld Compensation Survey From the analysis: "The 2004 InfoWorld Compensation Survey of 1,092 IT professionals reveals that a majority expects IT spending in their enterprise will stabilize or increase in the coming year. Fewer executives plan hiring freezes or layoffs in the coming 12 months, a marked improvement over the penny-pinching that dominated IT thinking in the past two years." Direct to the entire report [PDF] -- Health--Statistics Source: World Health Information New, Full Text Report, The economic dimensions of interpersonal violence "Interpersonal violence is expensive. For instance, estimates of the cost of violence in the United States of America reach 3.3% of the gross domestic product. In England and Wales, the total costs from violence - including homicide, wounding and sexual assault - amount to an estimated $40.2 billion annually." Summary/Highlights ||| Direct to Full Text
New Local Database Roundup + Alberta: Liquor licensee list goes high-tech From the Press Release: "Trying to find a liquor store, bar, or BYOB (bring your own wine) location? It is just a click away now that the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) has launched a new searchable liquor licensee list on its website. Now all Albertans will have access to information regarding the province's 8,000 licensed establishments. This information was previously available in a 200-page summary primarily for agents, suppliers, and other business people involved in the liquor industry." -- + Missouri: Society plans to put historic records online (via Springfield News-Leader) From the article: "Long before Ellis Island opened in 1892, immigrants were pouring through St. Louis in the 19th century, leaving a trail of hopes for U.S. citizenship in naturalization papers that are still stored in the circuit court here. Volunteers are in the process of typing names, dates, country of origin and other information from the 93,203 cards, which soon will be available on the Genealogical Society's Web site, board member Ann Fleming said. The original record books are at the Circuit Court Clerk's office; they are available on microfilm at the city Circuit Court archives, Missouri State Archives, and St. Louis city and county public libraries."
Professional Reading Shelf + A Couple of Items Dealing With Privacy Issues Phone Directories--United States--Cell Phones 1) Cell Phone Directory In Works (via AP) Note: We first posted about this new directory on 6/1. -- Public Records--New York Source: 1010Wins 2) Bill Would Protect NY Voter Records From the article: "A proposed bill in the state Senate would prohibit the commercial use of voter registration files. Senators Hugh Farley and James Seward say giving access to the files could lead to identity theft, fraud or privacy invasion. The bill would allow local election boards to withhold all or part of the records if the disclosure could lead to invasion of privacy." Saturday, June 12, 2004
Weblogs A "Personalized" Weblog Reader Debuts: Blogory ResourceShelf has mentioned and linked to Findory, a "personalized" and "adaptive" (it learns from you) news resource (a couple thousand mainstream news sources) several times since its debut in March. Findory comes from Seattle's Greg Linden. You can read more about what Greg and Findory are up to in articles from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times. So why am I mentioning all of this today? Findory is out with a new beta today, its second service, called Blogory. The new service looks and operates in the same way as Findory does. As you click and read weblog postings, Blogory automatically takes a look at what you're reading (using numerous criteria) and then prepares "personalized" pages with articles that it believes you'll be interested in. You'll find a personalized "top stories" page along with pages for: + Tech + General + Politics + Library (cool!) + Science + Business + Personal + Education + Law + Religion Like Findory, registration is VERY fast and simple. No personal info is required. Just create a login and go! I think the casual weblog reader might find Blogory a great way to quickly identify useful postings. The "more serious" weblog reader can use Blogory as a tool to quickly identify weblogs they might not know about. The Blogory database is also searchable via a box on the left side of the page. Finally, a form is available to submit blogs for possible inclusion into the database.
Research Projects--Book Indexing Source: Technology Review Indexes Bolster eBook Search From the article, "Book indexes and tables of contents are useful, but of necessity general. Researchers from Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) have given ebooks a more comprehensive index and table of contents tool that combines keyword searching and concept searching. The system, dubbed ScentIndex, generates custom indexes and tables of contents organized according to a set of keywords that the user enters to describe the concepts she is interested in. The custom entries are drawn from the original manually-generated book index entries." Much more about ScentIndex in this paper: eBooks with Indexes that Reorganize Conceptually. The paper was presented at a conference in April 2004.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents High Tech Industry--News Source: Business Wire Tekrati Debuts "The Industry Analyst Reporter" From the Release: "krati Inc., a source for information about high tech industry analysts, today announced that it is offering a free news service called The Industry Analyst Reporter. The site consolidates and presents at a single location news and reports from over 325 technology analyst research firms worldwide. Operating under the theme, "Today's News on Tech Market Research," the site also offers a directory of firms, calendar of analyst events and tips on working with industry analysts. In addition, the Tekrati site features an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news service that automatically delivers late-breaking news to other news sites and to individuals' desktops."
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette Carnegie Library ending Web service for groups From the article, "Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has ceased operation of Three Rivers Free-Net, the public service started 10 years ago to give governments, community groups and public agencies a place on the Internet to locate their Web pages at no charge. Library spokeswoman Lane Cigna said technical problems and financial concerns factored into the decision to stop the service as of May 31."
Web Search--Google Source: The Australian Major Australian Publisher Switches From Google to Overture From the article, "Google's efforts in the Australian market have taken a body blow as News Interactive yesterday became the third major online publisher to sign a search marketing distribution agreement with Yahoo's subsidiary Overture...The News deal was Overture's most comprehensive to date, as Overture would also provide search functionality within NI websites and contextual advertisements alongside content services, which NI managing director Nic Jones said Google had been unable to offer in Australia. But there was general dissatisfaction with Google's service. 'The reality is they haven't committed that much resources and time to Australia because they've worried more about other areas,' he said. 'We've had six different account managers within Google in a very short space of time, and getting them to concentrate has been pretty tough.'" Friday, June 11, 2004
Web Search--MSN Source: VNUNet MSN Search claims to freeze out web spam Claims come easily. That said, if this new technology is effective, it will be a major step forward. From the article: "Microsoft is incorporating a new filtering technology into its forthcoming MSN Search technology, aiming to offer results clear of web spam. The company unveiled a research project at its Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View which uses statistical analysis to locate spam web pages." Also, here's a 2002 paper by Google's CTO and Director of Research that does a great job explaining the challenges that all web search engines face. The biggest challenge? Spam.
Web Search--AllTheWeb ATW Now Offering Search Term Refinements ResourceShelf's Steven Cohen has noticed that AllTheWeb is now providing search term refinement options at the top of search result pages. As you know, ATW and AltaVista are still online and act as "test beds" for Yahoo (they own both sites) to try out algorithm refinements and other features. Actually, while the refinement option is new to ATW, the feature has been available (and remains online) at AV for a couple of years. The technology was originally branded as AltaVista Prisma. Recently, ATW and AV lost some of their unique advanced search options and began to use the Yahoo database. See Also: AltaVista Introduces Prisma (from 7/2/02)
Professional Reading Shelf Dictionaries Source: OED News A Day in the Life of the Oxford English Dictionary Peter Gilliver, associate editor of the OED writes, "Most of the articles that have appeared in previous issues of OED News have focused on a single aspect of the work that goes into creating the Dictionary. In this issue I would like to offer something a little different: a snapshot of some of the things going on in all parts of the project on a single day. I picked Monday 19 April entirely at random, and asked my colleagues to write me something about what they had done that day; it could be a description of the whole day's work, or of a single piece of work which seemed worth picking out. What follows is only a selection of the contributions I received, and does not, indeed could not, cover anything like the full range of tasks being carried out on that day. There is no account, for example, of the activities of our researchers working in libraries around the world, or of the many external consultants who comment on entries in particular subject areas, or of the research being done in the OED archives, or even of the mundane but essential business of filing away the quotation slips which flow into and around the OED office every day. Nevertheless, I hope the picture that emerges proves an interesting one."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Health Research--Supplements Source: Ascribe Newswire New Database, MayoClinic.com Adds Dietary Supplements Search Tool From the press release, "MayoClinic.com has launched a new supplement information search tool. Useful information on 86 herbs, vitamins and other supplements is now easily accessible by going to MayoClinic.com and clicking on the http://www.mayoclinic.com/findinformation/druginformation/index.cfm 'Drugs and Supplements' tab. Search for a supplement by name or browse through the alphabetical index. New entries will be added periodically to provide information on 105 supplements by the end of the year. Each entry offers helpful information about the supplement's background, alternative names, uses, proven effectiveness, dosage and safety." -- Spam Source: The Spamhaus Project Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) "The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database collates information and evidence on known hard-line spam operations that have been terminated by a minimum of 3 consecutive Service Providers for serious spam offenses.... 90% of spam received by Internet users in North America and Europe can be traced via redirects, hosting locations of web sites, domains and aliases, to a hard-core group of around 200 known spam operations...." -- Internet Access--United States--Statistics Source: Federal Communications Commission Recently Released, Report on High-Speed Services for Internet Access (PDF; 872 KB) "High-speed connections to the Internet increased 20% during the second half of 2003 for a total of 28 million lines in service." -- Lawyers--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Corporate Board Member Magazine America's Best Corporate Lawyers 2004 "In Corporate Board Member's fourth annual survey, 2,152 directors picked the law firms they most admire, nationally and in 50 metropolitan areas. The 20 national leaders are ranked below". See Also - Leaders in 50 Metro Areas - "More than 2,000 directors of public corporations ranked law firms in 50 metropolitan areas around the U.S. as part of Corporate Board Member's fourth annual survey" See Also - Pick of the Hire Powers 2004 - "In a separate Corporate Board Member survey, corporate general counsels chose the firms they'd most want to represent their companies on national matters. Sixteen law firms made both lists, though often with different rankings." -- War Veterans Source: Federal Research Division, The Library of Congress New, Searchable Database, US-Russia Joint Commission Veteran Interview Database From the site, "The American Side of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs operates an interview program in all 15 states of the former Soviet Union and the East European states of the former Warsaw Pact. The program is designed to collect the testimony of former Soviet and Warsaw Pact veterans of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and World War II...Contained on this website are reports of interview with Korean War veterans from the former USSR and Eastern Europe." -- Laws--United Kingdom--Databases Source: ZdNet UK Public to get online access to UK law From the article: The Department for Constitutional Affairs is planning a new online database of UK primary and secondary legislation. An official of the DCA said on 9 June, 2004, that the launch is part of a change in which the department has become more "customer facing," rather than catering primarily for the judiciary. "Giving the public access to consolidated legislation is also a prime business objective, and it is planned to make an Internet-based service available during spring of next year." -- Terrorism--Statistics Source: U.S. Dept of State Errors in 2003 Edition of Patterns of Global Terrorism Report In April we included a link to the 2003 edition of the frequently cited Patterns of Global Terrorism Report published by the U.S. Department of State. Yesterday, both a State Dept. spokesperson and Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed that the report contains errors. From the statement, "While we are still checking data for accuracy and completeness, we can say that our preliminary results indicate that the figures for the number of attacks and casualties will be up sharply from what was published. As soon as we are in a position to, we will issue corrected numbers, a revised analysis, and revisions to the report."
Information Industry Update + Executive Changes at EBSCO: After Almost 34 Years As President and CEO, J.T. Stephens Will Retire in 2005 From the announcement, "After almost 34 years as president and chief executive officer (CEO) for EBSCO Industries, Inc., J.T. Stephens has announced that his term will conclude July 1, 2005. At that time, F. Dixon Brooke Jr., vice president and general manager of EBSCO Subscription Services, will become the third individual to serve as president in EBSCO's 60-year history. To prepare for that transition, Brooke will become EBSCO's chief operating officer beginning July 1, 2004. Brooke currently oversees EBSCO Subscription Services as well as EBSCO's General Services Group of business operations. When he assumes chief operating officer responsibilities, Brooke will also take up management of additional EBSCO operations. Stephens will continue directly managing several manufacturing operations, real estate development and central corporate services." In other EBSCO news, Allen Powell has been named vice president and division general manager, EBSCO Information Services, effective July 1, 2004. See Also: Full Text of J.T. Stephens Announcement See Also: Full Text of Allen Powell Announcement -- + New Version of ISI Web of Knowledge Offers Most Direct Route to Scholarly Discovery Thursday, June 10, 2004
Resource of the Week Higher Education--United States--Statistics Source: (via Econdata.net) HigherEdInfo.org This annotation comes courtesy of the VERY useful StatScan newsletter (free) from Econdata.net "June is a big month for college graduations, and in keeping with that theme, our site of the month highlights a brilliant collection of higher education statistics. HigherEdInfo.Org, assembled by the National Information Center for Higher Education Policymaking and Analysis, presents a diverse array of data on higher education on a state-by-state basis. You'll find information grouped into a series of topics including preparation, participation, affordability, student learning, completion, benefits, employment, and finance. These groupings offer related sets of data. For example, 'Preparation' includes a variety of measures of a state's K-12 system, dropout rates and test scores, while 'participation' shows data on the extent of college enrollment, the likelihood of enrolling in college immediately after high school, and flows of college students among states. Some of the most interesting data are estimates of the higher education pipeline--the flow of individuals through the educational system from K-12 through college completion. HigherEdInfo offers its estimates of the likelihood of a 9th grade student completing high school, enrolling in college, and completing a college program within 150 percent of the usual time required for a degree (i.e., completing a bachelors degree within six years of high school graduation). The site integrates data from a diverse array of sources and summarizes it (by default in a series of color-coded maps of state data). You also can graph the results or drill down to specific data. Where data for a number of different years are available, you're given the option of choosing a specific year. The site also contains links that examine the policy implications of the data and show the sources from which it is derived." See Also: Econdata.net Was a "Resource of the Week" in March 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Medical Libraries Library History Source: National Library of Medicine New, "Milestones in NLM History" Web Page Available "The Milestones in NLM History Web page offers a time line of important events in the Library's history, beginning with the Library's establishment in 1836, when it was known as the Library of the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army, and ending with the February 2000 launch of ClinicalTrials.gov." -- Newspapers--Digitisation Projects--United Kingdom Source: JISC Old News is Good News as Newspaper Archive is Planned for the Web From the announcement, "A new project, which will digitise in excess of one million pages of fully searchable texts and associated images from out-of-copyright 19th century newspapers from the British Library, has been announced by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) today. The vast majority of newspapers in the British Library collections remain in print form, and are only accessible to researchers who can visit the Newspaper Library in Colindale, North London. The website resource will provide an unparalleled and freely available resource for further and higher education, in the first instance. British Newspapers 1800 - 1900 is a £2m project, made possible through funding from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE). The overall digitisation programme is managed by the JISC, and represents a total investment of some £10m to be applied to delivering high quality content online, including sound, moving pictures, census data and still images for long-term use by the further and higher education communities in the UK. -- National Archives & Records Administration National Archives Inaugurates new On-Line Ordering Service "On June 7, ordering records at the National Archives and Records Administration became easier with a new online service. Family historians can now order copies of selected records from the National Archives online. Electronic versions of the forms used to order Federal pension application files, Census schedules, and Federal land entry files are now available through the new Order Online! system..." -- Digital Preservation Source: LC Library Of Congress Announces Joint Digital Preservation Project With Four Universities From the announcement, "The Library of Congress has entered into a joint digital preservation project with Old Dominion University, Department of Computer Science; The Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries; Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources; and Harvard University Library to explore strategies for the ingest and preservation of digital archives. The project is supported by Information Systems Support Inc. The Archive Ingest and Handling Test (AIHT), is designed to identify, document and disseminate working methods for preserving the nation's increasingly important digital cultural materials, as well as to identify areas that may require further research or development. The AIHT is part of an initiative, led by the Library of Congress, to build a network of preservation partners through the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)."
Weblogs A ResourceShelf Interview: Andreas Wacker from Blogsnow ResourceShelf's newest contributing editor, Steven Cohen, had the opportunity to chat with Andreas Wacker, the creator of Blogsnow. First, a bit about Blogsnow. Here's an excerpt from the site: "Blogsnow 'reads' blogs, depending on what's going on between 100 and 240 a minute. Out of this stream of information it extracts links and displays them in different views every 10 minutes." "In the top section you find the most current results. Those lists focus on emerging links. If a topic is widely discussed, but has been so for longer than the timeframe of the view, then it will be ignored. This keeps the view fresh. Come back in an hour and you will see." "In the second section you'll find a couple of views for different target sites. I was wondering which movies are being discussed in blogs. I was curious which ebay listings generate some hype. Those views are attempts to answer these questions. Depending on what they display they may have additional features. eBay listings expire, so I keep a cached version on my server. imdb, which I use as a reference for movies, displays a neat image, so blogsnow shows you that as well. Different to the 'now' section here all links ever found are being counted. I will add recent topic based views once these lists become to stale to be interesting." There is also a section for the most popular weblog links to the New York Times, CNN, stories from Snopes, and Wikipedia. The Interview RS: How does Blogsnow set itself apart from other blogging resources? AW: I use Blogdex and Technorati frequently. But I looked more often than there was something new to see. Blogsnow updates every ten minutes, and it focuses in on topics that are emerging: If it the ratio between recently added and existing links balances then it will ignore those 'old' links. Old is a matter of a days or hours here. Blogs are quickly reacting to events, and blogsnow goes along with this. When Tenet resigned last week, it was nice to see that blogsnow was about an hour faster than technorati in picking the links up. Blogs are a realtime environment. Blogsnow is trying hard not to add too much delay into it. I am certainly reinventing the wheel somewhat with blogsnow. But to me those wheels resembled more the shape of stop signs. Which is not saying that I got rid of all corners on my wheel. There are still lots of those left. RS: Blogsnow does what no other blog content aggregator does. It shows us the most popular links for a particular source/database? In non-technical terms, how does it work? AW: Those views are based on where people link to. Lets take the imdb as an example which is an amazing resource. Blogsnow simply notes which blog recently added a link to any of its pages. The internet is brimful with great sites that provide allot of valuable information. Those topic based views try to combine this with the authorship of millions of bloggers. The results vary as much as the contents do. RS: What is your criteria for picking resources to display results? AW: A content based view like imdb or google searches must reflect what is going on. Those top 50 lists should express what is a topic that people care about. And its results must be robust. Future trends should be equally well displayed. Since blogsnow is so new, the verdict on this still open. It might be that some views may disappear in the future, if they stop returning interesting results. Topic views are based on what I am curious about. blogsnow contains a set of raw data. When there is something in it on a given subject/target site, then I try to generate a topic view for it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The beauty is, that I play with this quickly. The data is already there, I just need to filter it right to get there. RS: I understand that you ping the most popular weblog change databases, such as weblogs.com and blo.gs. Do you only grab information from the blog posts or from the blogrolls (favorites links) as well? AW: Blogsnow only follows ping lists. This has also the advantage that blogsnow sees only blogs, that people like to make public. Allowing people to ping blogsnow directly is a topic that is high on my to do list. RS: How much work do you have to put into creating each list? How much is manual labor? AW: It really depends on the list. Some are easy, others take a bit more work. A couple of hours I would guess. To write the code is very manual labor, but then it just runs. Or, at least it should. Part II of Steven Cohen's interview with Andreas Wacker of Blogsnow is posted on ResourceShelfPLUS
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents United Kingdom Summer Olympics Source: House of Commons Library, UK New, Research Paper, Social Indicators "Paper summarises a wide range of social statistics. Subjects covered include crime and justice, defence, education, elections, health and population." An article with facts and figures about the Summer Olympic Games is included in the paper. 66 pages; PDF. -- Privacy--Australia Source: Parliamentary Library, Australia New Research Report, Where are you now? Location detection systems and personal privacy -- Employment--United States--Statistics Source: BLS New, Full Text, Occupational Projections and Training Data, 2004-05 Edition "This statistical and research supplement to the 2004-05 Occupational Outlook Handbook presents detailed, comprehensive statistics used in preparing the Handbook. It also discusses how the data are prepared and presents new research information that is valuable to training officials, education planners, vocational and employment counselors, jobseekers, and others interested in occupational information. This edition of the supplement is the 17th in a series dating back to 1971." -- Employment--United States--Statistics Source: Occupational Outlook Quarterly, BLS New, The 2002-12 job outlook in brief + Introduction to the "Brief" + "Brief" table + Index to the "Brief" + Beyond the "Brief" "This issue of the Quarterly features the latest employment projections and prospects for about 270 occupations, summarized in a table." -- United States--History Source: Architect of the Capitol Fact Sheet, Those Who Have Lain in State or in Honor in the Capitol Rotunda See Also: Other State Funeral Fact Sheets (via Military District of Washington) Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Web Search--Ask Jeeves Desktop Search Source: WSJ Ask Jeeves to Acquire Specialized Search Software Company (registration required) The desktop search war continues to heat up. The WSJ is reporting that Ask Jeeves will acquire San Jose-based Tukaroo. The company provides software that offers indexing and searching of the desktop. From the article, "Jim Lanzone, senior vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves, said the company plans desktop search functions in its products 'in the near- to mid-term. As search grows in importance in people's lives, our customers are looking for that same experience beyond the [Web] browser,' said Mr. Lanzone." The Tukaroo site is no longer online but I was able to find a cached copy of the company description. It includes the sentence, "Tukaroo [is a] new, ready-to-ship, software technology that does for the desktop what Google did for the Internet. Kudos to Kevin Delaney from the WSJ for mentioning that Terra Lycos/Hotbot already offers a desktop search tool. Here's a review of the Hotbot Desktop that I co-authored with Barbara Quint on 3/22/04. See Also: Official Announcement from Ask Jeeves
Specialized Search Tools Source: ResearchBuzz FindArticles.com Adds Advanced Search Syntax T.C. reports on some new advanced search features at FindArticles.com. Nice to see and having a source list is great but it would be even better if FindArticles also provided the specific range of dates for each publication. You'll notice that the advanced interface allows you to specify a publication date range from 1950-2005. I ran several simple searches and was unable to find any material in FindArticles prior to 1999. ResourceShelf once again encourages all of you to check with your local public or academic library (just give them a call and ask) and find out what FREE and REMOTELY ACCESSIBLE (no need to visit the library building, available 24x7x365) full-text databases are available by simply entering your library card number. Most of these resources contain much more content (thousands of publications, not just 500) and greater searchability (if needed). Heck, some of these resources also offer the full image of the article (pdf file). Finally, we think you'll find that many of these databases are as easy to search as what you'll find from a simple general web engine, no need to feel intimidated.
Open Source Information Information Industry--NTIS More Than 200 New Sources Added To World News Connection Online Service From Dialog & NTIS From the press release: "Dialog said today that news reports published and broadcast by more than 200 media sources from hard-to-monitor countries, translated into English, have been added to the World News Connection (WNC) service." Here's a complete source list.
Web Sites - Usability Source: The Age Seek but you won't always find From the article: "While the search-engine behemoths hone their offerings in a battle for control of the internet, the poor search facilities within websites are still one of the biggest problems with the web, according to a visiting usability expert. One in three attempts to find information online fails, and poor search results within websites are the primary culprit, says Jakob Nielsen, user experience expert and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group. "
Professional Reading Shelf Metadata Source: OCLC/NISO New, Full Text, Metadata as A Worldwide Library Effort A new paper by Stu Weibel/OCLC and Pat Harris/NISO. -- Public Records--Courts Source: New York Law Journal Papers Win Right To Inspect Court Dockets From the article: "The press and public have a qualified First Amendment right to inspect court docket sheets, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled yesterday. The circuit revived a case that had been brought by two Connecticut newspapers challenging Connecticut's state courts' decades-long practice of sealing files and, in some cases, refusing to acknowledge the cases even existed."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Domain Names Source: VeriSign Domain Name Industry Briefs "VeriSign Domain Name Industry Briefs provide meaningful, fact-based analyses on topics of interest to the Internet community. The quarterly briefs draw on a variety of statistical and analytical research, such as DNS intelligence, user studies and independent registrar surveys. Highlighting key performance indicators and growth opportunities, the purpose of each brief is to offer an in-depth look at the quarterly topics and provide a deeper understanding of evolving trends in the domain name market." Briefs available for most recent two quarters (PDFs). -- Intelligence--Dictionary Source: Fuld & Company, Inc. Fuld Intelligence Dictionary "The Fuld Intelligence Dictionary teaches you the 'language of intelligence'. It defines more than 100 key terms in the field of competitive intelligence. Wherever a term relates to another, you will find a hyperlink that will take you to other terms and concepts -- both on this and other web sites." -- Airports--Directory A-Z World Airports Online Browse by country. Basic contact info and web links (if available). -- Health Care--United States--Statistics Source: Center for Studying Health System Change New Report/Stats, Released Today, Health Care Spending Growth Slows in 2003 News Release ||| Abstract ||| Full Text (HTML & PDF) ||| Tables and Other Data -- Election 2004 Source: The Brookings Institution New Policy Brief, Full Text, Bush and Kerry: Questions About Governing Styles "After the elections, how will the next president govern? This policy brief outlines how best to ascertain that information before November." Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Public Records--United States Source: AP Baltimore to Delete Old E-Mail Messages From the article: "Trying to get out from under an avalanche of millions of e-mail messages, Baltimore will start automatically deleting any messages older than 90 days within the next month - a move that critics say could threaten future searches for public records." -- Content Management Systems Source: MediaSavvy Top Ten Free and Cheap Content Management Systems From the article, "My criteria are simple. A CMS needs to be able to create sites more complex than a simple blog. It needs to be easy to install and use. The software must be mature and apparently bug-free in daily operation. It should have a large community of users and developers. And it should cost less than $200 for a commercial license." and while we're on the topic of free software... The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities We've used several of these tools listed and can offer kudos. More on one of them, HTTrack, soon!
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Human Rights--Databases Source: HURIDOCS New Database, HURISEARCH "HURISEARCH is a HUman RIghts SEARCH engine. It aims to: + provide one point access to all human rights information published by human rights organisations worldwide, and particularly human rights NGOs + provide a searching tool with egalitarian and known ranking and indexing principles without regard to commercial agendas + provide a searching tool which is overseen by human rights people specifically to meet human rights needs + provide an easy to use multilingual human rights search engine [French and Spanish language interfaces available] HURISEARCH currently directly searches over 1300 human rights NGO sites in 58 languages." Search technology is provided by FAST. -- Transportation--Online Catalogs Source: Managing Information Transportation Libraries Catalog created from WorldCat From the article: "A new library catalogue, formed by bringing together resources from leading transportation libraries, offers a single, subject-focused group of records for finding information related to transportation. The Transportation Libraries Catalog was created from catalogue records and holdings information in WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive database of bibliographic information, contributed by 15 original participating transportation libraries with special collections that feature rare and often unique items. The customized union catalogue of bibliographic records is searchable through the OCLC FirstSearch service." Direct Link to Transcat -- Geographic Images--New Jersey--Databases New Database, New Jersey Image Warehouse From a Government Technology announcement, "The New Jersey Office of Information Technology recently unveiled the NJ Image Warehouse, a new Internet application that allows users to download statewide ortho photography. 'Ortho imagery combines the image characteristics of an aerial photograph with the geometric qualities of a map," said Bruce Harrison, state geographic information officer. 'We built the NJ Image Warehouse so that this essential statewide mapping resource could be available to anyone with Internet access.'" -- Geology--United States--Databases Source: USGS New, Shake This! USGS Releases Quaternary Fault Database for the Nation "A new USGS website (http://qfaults.cr.usgs.gov/) summarizes geologic, geomorphic, and geographic information on about 2000 Quaternary faults and fold-related faults in the U.S. This online database contains information on faults and associated folds in the United States that are believed to be sources of M>6 earthquakes during the Quaternary time period. The Quaternary period encompasses the past 1.6 million years, and is the period of geologic time that is most relevant to earthquake studies." -- Business-Research Guides New/Updated Research Guide Source: Baker Library, Harvard Business School Alphas and Betas
Industry Briefs Public Affairs--Databases PAIS Launches Online Archive Database The new database, one that we mentioned was coming back in August, went live yesterday on OCLC's FirstSearch service. Amy Ryan from PAIS tells us in an email message, "The PAIS Archive currently contains more than 350,000 records, originally published in the PAIS Bulletin, 1957 - 1976, now available for the first time in electronic format. The full file, including records for material published since 1915, will be available later this year and is projected to contain more than 700,000 records." You can learn more about the database in this FAQ. -- Merrill Lynch Resumes Distribution Of Delayed/Aftermarket Research; Signs Exclusive Agreement With Thomson Monday, June 07, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf RSS/Syndication New Resource, RSS: Rich Site Services and Libraries The hard-working and prolific Gerry McKiernan at Iowa State University has created yet another useful web resource. This new site "is a categorized registry of library services that are delivered or provided through RSS/XML feeds. For each entry within a category, a link is provided to an RSS (and/or XML) link for the item, or an information page that provides a subsequent link (or more)." Feel free to contact Gerry with your submissions. and speaking of RSS for libraries... ResourceShelf's S.C. has a few comments about new RSS stuff from Ingenta. Also, Ingenta is beta testing a new interface set to launch this summer.
Enterprise Search Update + IBM pushes into corporate search (via News.com) From the article, "Masala will introduce a text-based search engine, based on research from IBM's WebFountain project. The combination of the text search and the traditional database querying tools will allow businesses to pull searches from both "structured data sources" such as database records of transactions and unstructured information like file systems, [IBM's Nelson] Mattos said. IBM has been using the text-based search in its internal portal, which encompasses about 10,000 Web sites." + FAST Lands the Mercedes-Benz Development Division as a New Client for Their ESP Technology Ever since FAST sold off AlltheWeb and began focusing on the enterprise market the company has been on one heck of a roll.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Consumer Credit--United States Source: Federal Trade Commission All Americans Will Soon Have Be Able to Access FREE Copies of Their Credit Reports From the announcement, "The Federal Trade Commission has issued its final rule regarding free annual credit reports under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). FACTA, which was enacted on December 4, 2003, amends the FCRA and requires, among other things, that the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) [Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union] provide to consumers, upon request, a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months...Under the final rule, the nationwide CRAs [Experian, Trans-Union, Equifax] must establish a "centralized source" for accepting consumer requests for free credit reports (called annual file disclosures in the final rule). This centralized source must include a dedicated Internet Web site, a toll-free telephone number, and a postal address. Roll-out dates are included in the news release. -- Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Business Week Hot Growth Companies (The 100 best small companies) Complete List/Methodology (PDF) ||| Background Articles -- New/Updated Congressional Research Service Reports + Small-scale Terrorist Attacks Using Chemical and Biological Agents: An Assessment Framework and Preliminary Comparisons (via FAS) + Immigration-Related Detention: Current Legislative Issues (via FAS, FPC) + Gasoline Price Surge Revisited: Crude Oil and Refinery Issues (via FPC) -- Fine Art--Databases Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal We first mentioned this portal and database on ResourceShelf when it launched in September, 2003. The database has added more than 3000 items in the past six months. A bit more from a recent email update, "106 museums are now participating in the Portal project, and the number of objects registered stands at 12115. As a reminder, the inclusion of an object in the Portal does not necessarily mean that it has any gaps in its provenance. The Portal includes objects in US museum collections that might have been sold or transferred anywhere in Continental Europe during the Nazi era,1933-1945, regardless of the completeness or incompleteness of their provenance. As always, people seeking lost objects should repeat their searches in the Portal from time to time to check the latest listings. 18 additional museums have joined the Portal since our last update, and participating museums are still listing new objects nearly every week." -- Astronomy Transit Headquarters: Venus Crosses the Sun June 8 Source: Space.com "On June 8, Venus will cross in front of the Sun for the first time since 1882, and backyard skywatchers can see the spectacle. The best view will be from Europe, but parts of America and most of Asia and Africa can witness the historic passage, weather permitting." What, where, when it will happen, how to watch safely, live webcasts, history of transits, related links. See also: BBC: The Transit of Venus See also: NASA -- 2004 Transit of Venus (2004 Observer's Handbook) (slow/erratic link) -- U.S. Military Records U.S. History--World War II Source: National Archives and Records Administration Released Today, National Archives Makes World War II Enlistment Records Available Online From the announcement, "World War II enlistment records for over nine million Army soldiers are now available online, the National Archives and Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced today. The records are in the World War II Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File available through the Access to Archival Database (AAD) section on NARA's web site (www.archives.gov/aad). AAD is the first publicly accessible application developed under the auspices of NARA's Electronic Records Archives (ERA) Program." This news release explains how the material was converted. Sunday, June 06, 2004
Enterprise Search Source: Wall Street & Technology CIO Challenge: Search Engines From the article, "The Challenge: With digital data doubling each year and the number of available Web pages spiraling upward, helping investors find the information they seek online to make informed investment decisions is no easy task. It takes a blend of good navigation and powerful search tools."
Professional Reading Shelf Librarianship--Webliography Source: C&RL New, Web sites for a career in academic librarianship A new compilation prepared by Melissa Laning and Margo Smith from the University of Louisville Libraries. -- Librarianship Source: CILIP The June Issue of CILIP's Library + Information update is Now Online Articles Include: + Consider the evidence "Is evidence-based practice relevant to information work?" + Access formats revealed "A new web resource for visually-impaired people was launched last September. A union catalogue of materials in accessible formats and a database of suppliers combine to create a truly informative service..."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Labor--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Census Bureau, State Agencies Announce New Internet Statistics on Jobs Note: We first reported on this new service on March 3rd. Recently, the "official announcement" was made. The U.S. Census Bureau, in partnership with agencies in 29 states, announce a new service on its Web site providing up-to-date statistical information on the job climate in states and local areas. The new program, a resource for job-seekers and employers, is called Local Employment Dynamics (LED). The following quarterly work force indicators are now available on the Internet for 19 of the 29 states: + Total employment + Turnover + Net job flows + Average monthly earnings + Job creation + Average monthly earnings for new hires + New hires + Separations -- Business--United States Source: SBA New Federal Government Site, Business.gov This site was formerly known as the U.S. Business Advisor. The "relaunch" as Business.gov took place about two weeks ago. New look, organization, search options. From the announcement, "Business.gov provides information and links to: * Business Development: information on starting, managing, and marketing a business. * Financial Assistance: resources for capital and credit. * Taxes: federal and state tax resources, forms and assistance. * Laws and Regulations: Laws, regulations and other resources that affect business. * International Trade: information on export promotion, trade finance, and trade leads. * Workplace Issues: information on employee wellness, workplace safety, benefits, and the family-friendly workplace. * Buying and Selling: links for doing business with the government. * Federal forms: finding government forms businesses need to conduct business, expand and grow." Saturday, June 05, 2004
Digitisation Projects--United Kingdom Source: ManagingInformation.com TSO Electronic Archive Contract with War Graves Commission From the announcement, "TSO (The Stationery Office) has been awarded a £1.6 million contract by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to create an electronic archive of the historic records of those who lost their lives during World Wars I and II. The five-year initiative will ensure that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's irreplaceable collection of documents will be preserved for future generations. Established in 1917, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds over 3,500,000 individual documents relating to casualties that include Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and thousands of lesser known victims of the war, some as young as 14 years old."
Information Industry--ProQuest Coming in July: ProQuest Set to Introduce Another Round of Interface Enhancements From the announcement, "ProQuest Information and Learning will launch an updated version of ProQuest® online information service in July. The release will include ProQuest Smart Search, which gives users suggestions for enhanced searching, and several new email options for sending articles and marked lists...ProQuest Smart Search will analyze a user's search, then offer suggestions for related topics and publications at the top of the results screen. The same technology will enable users to browse topics in most ProQuest databases. Users will also be able to email multiple articles from ProQuest; email My Research Summary, a highly refined version of the marked list feature; and email formatted bibliographies with the new release"
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Public Libraries--United States--Databases Source: National Center for Education Statistics New Database, Search for Public Libraries "Search for information about public libraries throughout the United States through this new data tool. The types of information you can retrieve about a public library system include: identifying information, organizational characteristics, staff, income and expenditures, size of library collection, library services offered, and electronic measures. The data currently available is for Fiscal Year 2002." -- Business--Technical Reports and Working Papers Economics--Technical Reports and Working Papers Grey Literature Source: Business Reference Service, The Library of Congress New Compilation, Technical Reports and Working Papers in Business and Economics From the site, "To increase awareness of and access to valuable grey literature in business and economics, the Library of Congress provides online access both through its catalog and through these web pages to a growing number of working papers and technical reports in the social sciences placed online by institutions responsible for creating the reports." Many thanks to J.B. for the info. -- File Sharing--United States Copyright--United States Source: GAO Full Text Report, Released Today, File Sharing: Selected Universities Report Taking Action to Reduce Copyright Infringement Summary ||| Direct to Full Text -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Just Released, The Condition of Education 2004 "The Condition of Education 2004 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2004 print edition includes 38 indicators in six main areas and a special analysis on student financial aid in postsecondary education." Friday, June 04, 2004
Information Retrieval On ResourceShelfPLUS: A New Compilation of Recently Awarded Search-Related Patents & Patent Apps The May compilation of selected search-related patents and patent apps is now available on ResourceShelfPLUS. A few highlights: + Two new patents for Yahoo + Google has patent application published dealing with advertising + More patents and patent apps for IBM and Xerox + NEC Research gets a patent for the technology used at ResearchIndex and SmealSearch + Collaboration and personalization mentioned in several patents and patent apps + A couple of patent applications of interest to the SEO community and while we're on the subject of patents... + "Google, Yahoo face off in suit" (via SJ Mercury News)
Information Visualization--anacubis anacubis and Thomson Announce Alliance to "Visualize" Textbook Material From the announcement, "anacubis, a provider of visual research and analysis software that enables discovery and extraction of key intelligence from multiple information sources, today announced a strategic alliance agreement with Thomson South-Western, a part of The Thomson Corporation...Under the terms of the agreement, Thomson South-Western will incorporate the anacubis visualization technology into its re-ACT (Relational Education - Associating Concepts and Topics) learning system. The re-ACT system allows the student to RE-organize available tools and ACT on their learning needs, moving from a linear learning model where chapters are studied in order to a relational/associative learning model that focuses on concepts and how they relate to each other." The announcement also notes that technology will be first used for accounting and law content. See Also: Several Demos of the anacubis software are available. We really like the Hoover's demo. + Hoover's Company Search Visualization Demo (Cool and Useful!) + Google Visualization Demo + Open Patent Service Visualization Demo See Also: More Anacubis Info/Links from ResourceShelf (4/04)
Reference Shelf Specialized Databases Fagan Finder Launches New Section: Quotations and Proverbs Search The always interesting, creative and useful work of Michael Fagan continues with the release of a new section on his Fagan Finder tool box. Quotations and Proverbs Search allows you to search more than 50 web databases from a single interface. Fagan describes the site this way, "[An] attempt to collect the largest sources of quotations and related items (proverbs, sayings, maxims, amorphisms, slogans, clichés, etc.). Many of the websites included here also include things such as full text of speeches, author biographies, and quotes of the day. All search tools and links on this page have longer descriptions, which you can read by holding your mouse over their names." See Also: Direct to Fagan Finder Home Page See Also: Last August, ResourceShelf Introduced You to Fagan's Translation Wizard (A MUST See!)
Professional Reading Shelf Books--United States--Statistics Source: Bowker U.S. Book Production Soars to 175,000 New Titles in 2003; Trade Up, University Presses Down From the news release, "R.R. Bowker [has released] statistics on U.S. book publishing compiled from its Books In Print® database. Based on preliminary figures, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output in 2003 increased a staggering 19% to 175,000 new titles and editions, the highest total ever recorded. According to Bowker, the number of new titles released by the largest trade houses increased a modest 2.4%, to 22,914, while total output for university presses declined 2.2%, to 12,003. Since 1994, new titles have increased 50.8%, for all U.S. publishers, 24.4% for the largest trade houses, and 14.4% for university presses." -- Librarians--Australia Source: ALIA Now Available, Salaries for Australian librarians and library technicians 2004 "New standards for fair payment of Australian librarians and library technicians have now been set. Check the latest ALIA salaries for Australian librarians and library technicians."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Child Welfare--United States--Statistics Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation Just Released, 2004 KIDS COUNT Data Book "Our 15th annual KIDS COUNT Data Book provides a state-by-state statistical portrait of the educational, health, and economic conditions of American children. This year's essay focuses on the increasing number of 'disconnected' youth without degrees or employment who face a tough transition to adulthood." The online database allows you to "generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles," or you can "download the entire data set as delimited text files." You can also order a free copy of the Data Book. -- Business--United States--Statistics Source: BEA New BEA Web Site Feature Makes It Easier To Get Big Picture Of U.S. Economy From the announcement, "The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced a new feature on its Web site called the "Enhanced Overview of the U.S. Economy." This new feature will provide a summary of the Nation's economy with easy-to-read highlights and graphs of major economic statistics, making them more accessible to even casual data users. The overview also includes news releases and articles that summarize gross domestic product, personal income, balance of payments, and other economic indicators. Using color-coding, the new format makes data tables more accessible than before and provides easier downloading and printing from the Web site." -- Business-Research Guides New/Updated Research Guide Source: Baker Library, Harvard Business School Operations & Supply Chain Management -- Cancer--United States--Statistics Source: National Cancer Institute Just Released, Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2001 From the press release: "The 'Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2001' finds overall observed cancer incidence rates dropped 0.5 percent per year from 1991 to 2001, while death rates from all cancers combined dropped 1.1 percent per year from 1993 to 2001. According to the report's authors, the new data reflect progress in prevention, early detection, and treatment; however, not all segments of the U.S. population have benefited equally from the advances." View full report online in the journal Cancer. (Note, this is via Wiley InterScience and takes awhile to load.) Questions and Answers about the report -- International Conflict International Crisis Group "The International Crisis Group (ICG) is an independent, non-profit, multinational organisation, with over 100 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict." Resources here include: + CrisisWatch -- "(A) 12-page monthly bulletin designed to provide busy readers in the policy community, media, business and interested general public with a succinct regular update on the state of play in all the most significant situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world." Searchable archive available. + Large collection of reports and briefings that are browsable by region or by date, or searchable by keyword. Sign up to receive free e-mail notification of new reports and briefings. + Articles, op-eds and transcripts of speeches by ICG researchers and officials. Thursday, June 03, 2004
Resource of the Week A ResourceShelf Interview: 20 Questions with Gary Flake, Head of Yahoo Research Labs An interview in the ROTW space this time around. Dr. Gary Flake, Principal Scientist & Head of Yahoo! Research Labs, was kind enough to answer 20 questions for this email interview. This is a "must read" for those of you interested in web search and online information retrieval. The interview is posted in two parts. Part I begins below. Part II of the interview is NOW AVAILABLE on ResourceShelfPLUS. ResourceShelf: Dr. Flake, can you tell ResourceShelf about your background in IR and web search? Gary Flake: Like a lot of people in this industry, my background is in machine learning. In the late 80s, I was working on what can now be best termed as "toy" problems relative to today's scales. In the early 90s, I started working on larger data mining problems (at first from the biomedical domain, and then later on in industrial processes). Things seemed to get much more interesting with more data, so it was natural for me to switch to the Web and IR because that was where some of the most interesting data could be found. RS: How many people do you have on your team at Yahoo Research? How do you decide on what new products or services to work on? What's a typical day like? GF: We have a couple dozen full-time members of Yahoo! Research Labs (YRL), and a significantly larger number when you consider the extended R&D family within Yahoo! that includes folks from the individual business units (BUs). While those two sets of researchers collaborate as often as possible, the focus of the full-time members of YRL is on areas that can impact the whole of the company, while the BU scientists focus more on problems specific to a BU. How we pick what activities to pursue is a long story (and partially a function of my own history within industrial R&D), so please tolerate the longish answer to this question. In general, YRL's mission is to produce reusable R&D results, explore areas that fall between the cracks (i.e., between BUs), and look for -- or perhaps produce -- R&D results that could disrupt the industry. Steering the activities of a group with this sort of mission requires that one take a very holistic view of R&D and see the value of diversity. By this, I mean we explicitly choose to do a lot of things in vastly different ways. We work on short, medium, and long term projects. We have activities initiated by a scientist or engineer, but we also have some efforts which are done in response to an executive goal. We work on fundamental algorithms (occasionally producing deep theoretical results), but also ground our efforts to business problems. We also work on individual products, infrastructure improvements, or even business strategy. The point of all this is that we mix it up. Done incorrectly, prioritizing all of these seemingly conflicting objectives could produce mediocrity. However, with the right blend, one often finds that there is a subtle interplay among these objectives that often yields something wonderful. My job is to keep the mix as interesting as possible, which requires that I look for what's missing. If activities within YRL are chaotic, I'll wear my dictator hat until things become less chaotic. If activities seem too focused or top-down, I'll encourage some short-term anarchy. That's the philosophical answer that ignores the content of R&D. If we consider the content of the work, then my own preference is to look for activities that are eminently reusable (i.e., applicable to multiple BUs, so that we get more bang for the buck). I also believe that all of our efforts have to be interesting on either a scientific, mathematical, engineering, product, or strategic yardstick. The very best activities will be significant along all of those dimensions. For example, machine learning and data mining are both off the chart because both have high value no matter how they are evaluated, and a single result may be applicable to multiple BUs. Typical day? I haven't had one of those in a long time. In a typical week, I'll make a trip or two, dissect code, brainstorm with product and business teams, indulge in some discussions with YRL members (which is like oxygen to me), read as much as possible, receive hundreds of emails (and write a few too), all while trying to balance and prioritize the team's efforts in a rational way. The balancing part is perhaps the most subtle and important. RS: What's wrong with web search today? GF: It's easier for me to point to what web search should be and then highlight the differences. If web search were perfect, then it would produce an answer to every query that would be as good -- or better -- than if the smartest people in the world had as much time, data, and contextual information (about the user) required to fulfill the query; and it would do all of this in a split second. In other words, the search engine would be an artificial intelligence (AI) so smart that if a correct answer could be found in theory with close to infinite resources, then it would find it. If a correct answer did not exist, then the search engine would give you the next best thing: an approximation, or perhaps even an explanation as to why your query has no perfect result. (And by the way, if we realized all of the above within my lifetime, I would consider myself lucky. That should give you an idea of what sort of time frame I am talking about.) Alternative interfaces, like cell phones, voice, and snazzy graphical results are all nice, but in the end they represent relatively easy technology problems when compared to the challenges involved in realizing our hypothetical search engine. What really matters is what is under the hood. Today, search engines have almost no understanding of words or language in any significant way. They exploit the statistical properties of words and links, but in no way is there anything going on akin to understanding. Search engines don't recognize user intent, can't distinguish goal-oriented search from browsing search, and are completely ignorant of the subtleties of how different concepts relate to one another. Moreover, they completely lack wisdom -- i.e., they are very poor at distinguishing between trivia and something profound. RS: Do you still see a need for targeted crawlers and focused databases? GF: Certainly. Different types of data have different notions of timeliness. Moreover, besides structured and unstructured data, there is a whole universe of data best characterized as semi-structured. As long as those two observations hold, niche tools will always fill a niche, to coin a tautology. I don't think a huge monolithic database will ever subsume all other databases. Instead, what we think of as a search engine will gradually evolve into a more subtle meta-search engine, blending its own data with other sources. RS: How can Yahoo Research Labs make search better? GF: Getting at the heart of user intent is very important to us and to the overall search team, with whom we work on a daily basis. I think this is how we will make the most impact in the short to medium term. I also think that current search engines have only scratched the surface on what can be done with link data. The commoditization of 64-bit hardware will also change the search engine landscape, and we intend to push on this front as well. Our long-term goal is to get as close as possible to what I described earlier as a perfect search engine. We are far, far from that goal. But that's okay, too, because we know some of the next key steps towards realizing the larger goal. RS: What's your feeling about trying to place structured data like a library catalog/bibliographic record or an indexed article into an unstructured database? Asked another way, what's the role of structured data in an unstructured web world? How can we bring both types of resources together and still allow users to take advantage of all of the additional access points that a structured database and its retrieval mechanism make available? GF: The beautiful thing about a relational database is that its structure tells you a lot about what is important. Database designers have been brilliant at optimizing databases (both the organization of the information as well as the algorithms) to best exploit this regularity. When you flatten out a database, those paths towards optimization often aren't available. A middle ground -- which is not perfect, but adds a lot of utility -- is to convert structured into a semi-structured form. Today, we treat documents as a big bag of words and index those words. In this semi-structured approach, we take structured information (say, the value of specific fields) and synthesize fake words that represent the fact that "document X has field Y with value Z.? Now, clearly I can't run a SQL query on this representation; but at least I can search for documents with specific field:value pairs. I'd like to tell you that we will be able to make an unstructured database as powerful as a structured database; but that simply is not the case. Nonetheless, the fusion of structured and unstructured data and approaches will add a lot of utility to the lives of most users. In parallel to the above, we have started on a different approach through the launch of our Content Acquisition Program, working with such partners as NPR and the Library of Congress, as well as with universities such as Northwestern, UCLA and University of Michigan -- all so we can bring their structured data to a larger audience. Gary Flake ANSWERS 14 more questions in Part II of the the interview. You can find it on ResourceShelfPLUS.
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Reviews Peter's Digital Reference Shelf, June 2004 is Now Online In his latest set of reviews, Dr Jacso look at: + The CrossRef Search Pilot with Google Strong comments about this project. He writes, "High-quality scholarly content from nine big-name publishers deserves much better treatment by Google, or rather by some other company that has demonstrated expertise in bringing the best out of millions of high-quality, consistently structured and tagged Web pages with excellent metadata." We posted comments about this service on 4/28. & + ResourceShelf Yes, this month Dr. J. reviews our web site. A big thank you to Peter for the VERY KIND words. -- Web Resources The June Issue of Roddy MacLeod's Internet Resources Newsletter is Now Available Eric Lease Morgan's DOAJI Search [Directory of Open Access Journals] is this month's "Nice Site." -- Scholarly Publishing Source: The Guardian Reed allows academics free web access From the article: "Reed Elsevier is allowing academics to put papers that have been accepted for publication in its print and online journals on to the internet, breaking with years of tradition and reigniting the debate over open access to academic thinking. Until now the world's largest academic publisher has been a staunch opponent of open access, saying it poses a threat to the quality of academic research. But it is now letting academics put a text version of their accepted articles on to their own websites, or sites operated by their institutions." -- Cybersecurity Source: IEEE Security & Privacy New, Exclusive Interview with Former U.S. Cybersecurity Czar Richard Clarke Available Online NOTE: This interview might be of special interest to those of you attending the ALA Annual Conference. Clarke will provide the keynote address at the ALA Opening General Session on June 26th. -- Science & Technology Librarianship The Spring 2004 issue of STS Signal , newsletter of the Science & Technology Section of ACRL, is now available. (PDF; 220 KB). -- SLA Annual Conference--Weblog Live From Nashville: Blogging SLA Source: Information Today "The Live from Nashville blog (http://www.infotodayblog.com) will cover as many aspects of the conference as the bloggers can handle. That would include association business meetings, conference sessions, the exhibit floor, and social events. Plus, we?ll have backup from some editors not in Nashville."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Housing--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Published, 2003 American Housing Survey (AHS) Highlights ||| Direct to Full Text -- Portals--Wales Source: News Wales New Welsh web portal From the article: "Seeking information and services relating to Wales has been made easier with the development of a revamped website- Wales on the Web: the All Wales Portal- the primary access point for Wales-related information and services on the web. The portal contains over 3500 quality websites that have been hand picked and validated by Wales on the Web staff, who are based at the National Library of Wales. It is fully bilingual online guide to high-quality, validated websites offering dependable information relating to Wales and all aspects of Welsh life." -- Web Tools The following item was discovered via the Infomine "What's New" Newsletter Data Conversion Online Iconv provides free file converters for instant online data conversion. This site allows the user to easily convert a variety of data. Sample conversions include: creating Palm Pilot document from text, XML documents, metric conversions, Excel to CSV, ASCII to EBCDIC, Unix to Dos, Dos to Unix, Mac to Unix, PDF to text, audio converters, as well as delimited text converters. The converted file is renamed by the user and can be saved in their preferred location. -- Health Source: World Health Organization Full Text Report, Just Released, Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study "The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is collaborative cross-national research supported by WHO/Europe. It is conducted by a multi-disciplinary network of researchers from 36 countries and regions in the WHO European Region and North America, and coordinated by the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. The number of countries involved is rising. The study seeks new insight into adolescents' health, health behaviour and lifestyles in the social context. It examines young people aged 11, 13 and 15 years."
Information Dissemination Collaboration Two stories for you. 1) Weblogs--Plogs Source: Clickz Amazon Testing "Plogs" From the Article: "First Amazon.com recommended products that it thought its customers would find interesting. Now it's taking advantage of the blogging phenomenon by topping its home page with a personalized "Plog," a blog-style feature that links to recommended products and provides relevant information. Your Amazon.com Plog is a diary of events that will enhance your shopping experience, helping you discover products that have just been released, track changes to your orders, and many other things," the company says on its site. "Just like a blog, your Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order. When we think we have something interesting or important to tell you, we'll post it to your Plog. The Plog feature is still in beta testing, according to Amazon's site." -- 2) Wikis Source: BusinessWeek Online Wikis' Winning Ways "Web sites that allow members to share info and collaborate are catching on fast. Here's a tour of key examples." Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Online Research Source: Factiva Full Text, White Paper, Just Updated, Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added Information Services "Considers the quality, availability and value of information on free Web sites, fee-based Web sites and value-added information services, such as Factiva." The paper (registration required) was written by online search expert and librarian Mary Ellen Bates. -- How About a Few Interviews? + The Internet Archive Source: OpenP2P.com Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive and People's Technology + Local Search Source: Web Pro News What Lies Ahead For Local Search Engine Technology From the article: "InfoSpace is best known for its search engine brands like Dogpile.com and Webcrawler.com, but the company is building a reputation for itself as a provider of local search results, while at the same time building useful applications for the mobile user. As part of Andy Beal's continuing look at 'the future of search technology', Andy had a chance to ask Arnaud Fischer, previously AltaVista product manager from 1999-2001 and currently leading search product planning for InfoSpace's Search & Directory division, some questions about how local search will develop in the future." -- Internet Filtering Source: Colorado State Library New, Colorado State Library's Filtering Clearinghouse From a Library Journal article, " The Colorado State Library has created the Colorado Filtering Clearinghouse, which aims to provide helpful resources for libraries wanting to learn more about filtering Internet content. The site contains reasons libraries may or may not want to filter, sections on filtering technologies, the costs of filters, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), and links to point-of-view resources in the filtering discussion."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Small Business--United States--List & Rankings Source: Entrepreneur Magazine New, Entrepreneur and D&B's 10th Annual Hot 100 "Which new businesses are on the fast track to success? The companies in Entrepreneur and D&B's 10th Annual Hot 100 listing are blazing their way to the top." -- Public Records--United States Source: California Voter Foundation Just Released, Full Text, "Voter Privacy in the Digital Age" Summary ||| Direct to Full Text "... a state-by-state study of voter registration data gathering and privacy practices, to call attention to voter privacy issues and to provide states with information and recommendations they can use as they implement the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA)." -- Education--United States Source: NCES New, Website on State Education Reforms Now Available "This website, which draws primarily on data collected by organizations other than NCES, serves as a general resource on State Education Reforms, describing major developments in state-level education policies. First based on the Overview and Inventory of State Education Reforms: 1990 to 2000, this site is updated periodically to incorporate new data. Currently, this site generally reflects information collected through 2002, and more recent data, before state implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Future updates to this site will reflect state implementation of that Act's requirements." -- Terrorism--Nonprofits Source(s): Independent Sector; InterAction; Council on Foundations; Day, Berry & Howard Foundation Handbook on Counter-Terrorism Measures: What U.S. Nonprofits and Grantmakers Need to Know (PDF; 660 KB) "A plain-language guide to Executive Order 13224, the Patriot Act, embargoes and sanctions, IRS rules, Treasury Department voluntary guidelines, and USAID requirements."
Military History--United Kingdom Source: The National Archives (United Kingdom) D-DAY Heroes Go Online From the announcement, "The names of up to 12,000 soldiers who were granted awards for gallantry in North West Europe between 5 and 6 June 1944 and 7 May 1945 will soon be searchable on The Catalogue. The names of nearly 600 soldiers and officers are now available on The National Archives catalogue, making it much easier for researchers to locate the recommendation they are looking for. The National Archives hope to complete the project by May 2005 in time for the anniversary of the end of the war. The records contain personal details and descriptions of many incredibly valiant acts, such as 19-year-old Private Thompson who, on his first duty, repeatedly fired at a sniper in order to let his comrades get through a gap. He stayed behind, and then managed to guide another soldier to safety, after the rest of his group had left."
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Switzerland Rankings for Switzerland among the 148 top-performing countries in all fields and all countries. + Iceland Rankings for Iceland among the 149 top-performing countries in all fields and all countries. + Science in Italy, 1999-2003 + Mechanical Engineering: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Sociology Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Information Industry--ProQuest Pay Per View Access: ProQuest And NYTimes.Com To Provide New York Times Archive Back To 1851 This database has been available via the NYTimes.com site for several months. ProQuest is now making the official announcement. Very cool! From the news release, "ProQuest Information and Learning and NYTimes.com [have] announced an agreement to offer directly to the consumer market a historical digital archive (full text) of The New York Times newspaper dating back to 1851, when The Times was first published. The Archive will be available on NYTimes.com, the Web site of The New York Times, on a pay-per-view basis." That's right, every page of every issue back to 1851 (including advertisements) is now searchable and viewable online. NOTE: Many libraries (especially academic) offer free access to the complete database. Make sure you're not paying for content that you already have access to for free. Search fields available at http://www.nytimes.com/1851archive allow you to search full-text, words in the headline, and/or author name. The full interface (available to subscribers of the product) offers many more searchable fields. See Also: Learn More About the ProQuest Historical Newspaper Collection
Reference--Phone Directories - Cell Phones Privacy--United States Source: The Rocky Mountain News Cell-phone directory stirs concern From the article: "For the first time, a national database of wireless telephone numbers is being compiled by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. The directory, expected to be generally available late this year, will contain about 75 percent of the nation's 175 million cell phone numbers. But will customers have the choice of keeping their names out of the new directory? The answer still has lots of static in it."
Web Search--Microsoft Answer Engines Source: eWeek MSN Investing In More Than Just Search From the article, "Overall, 'our view of the search market, based on consumer research, is that one out of every two search queries doesn't get an answer,' [Yusuf] Mehdi said. 'People go online looking for something. They don't get an answer. When they do get an answer they get a list of Web links, not necessarily the data they want. And the opportunity to solve that problem is something that we're going after directly and tackling.'"
Professional Reading Shelf National Libraries--Europe Source: ManagingInformation.com The European Library Team Appointed From the article, "The European Library (TEL) project was finished successfully on January 31, 2004. The key aim of TEL was to investigate the feasibility of establishing a new Pan-European service which would ultimately give access to the combined resources of the national libraries of Europe...The results of the project build the basis for The European Library Service which will be established under the aegis of the CENL by The European Library Office, hosted by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague. The day-to-day work will be done by a small team which is responsible for the management, the marketing, the implementation and maintenance of the website and the portal as well as for the technical support of the participants. The team members are appointed now and will start to transfer the project results into an operational service, including the parts of the current European national libraries' webservice Gabriel which are of public interest." See Also: The European Library Web Site -- Digitization Projects--New Zealand National Libraries--New Zealand National Library to capture New Zealand's digital heritage From the announcement, "$24 million funding from the latest budget will allow New Zealand to ward off 'digital amnesia', and protect New Zealand's documentary heritage." -- Scholarly Publishing Source: California Digital Library California Digital Library Develops Written Policy For Cataloging Open Access Journals -- Licensing BBC Creative Archive Licensing to Be Based on Creative Commons Source: Digital-Lifestyles.info "By applying a CC-type license to the content, the BBC will enable individuals in the UK to download released content to their computers, share it, edit it and create new content. Commercial reuse of the content will not be allowed." See Also: Announcing (and explaining) our new 2.0 licenses (Creative Commons weblog)
Free Database Trial This Month Only: Ovid Offers a Free Trial of FROSTI From the description, "FROSTI is the most comprehensive and up-to-date databases of published information in the fields of food science and technology. All aspects of food science and technology are covered, including food processing, ingredients technology, packaging and nutrition together with other subjects of interest to the food industry, such as environmental issues and biotechnology." See Also: Learn More About the FROSTI Database
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents The following item was discovered via the Infomine "What's New" Newsletter Science--Biography Eric Weisstein's World of Biography From the Infomine description, "Eric Weisstein's World of Biography provides very brief biographies for over 1,000 figures in science (or the history of science). It has categories (below) and is also keyword-searchable. Entries may include figures and links out to external resources." + Branch of science; + Gender/Minority status; + Historical periods (dating back BC); + Nationality; + Prize winners: mathematics or Nobel prize-winners; + Alphabetical index. -- Energy--Specialized Databases Jacso Updates PolySearch Energy Peter Jacso, who launched his PolySearch Energy "module" in March 2003, has just informed us that the service has been updated with several new sources. PolySearch Energy will now simultaneously run your search in a maximum of 20 specialized databases. "Modules" are also available for biogaphical and dictionary databases in English and Spanish. -- Canadian History Source: Confederation Center Art Gallery New, Telling Stories: Narratives of Nationhood From the Colophon: "The main purpose of Telling Stories is to address the growing need for the awareness of a diversity of aspects of Canadian history and culture, to increase visual and media literacy, as well as to encourage critical thinking and self-expression. Complementing 4000 works of art with 400 lesson plans generated by a team of educators, the program uses the Confederation Centre Art Gallery collection and works of art from gallery collections across Canada to explore the symbols and icons that are used in the art to tell stories about the geographical, historical, and cultural make-up of Canada. Presenting history and heritage to students and the public in an enriching, dynamic fashion, the project foregrounds the role art plays in a society and its potential in interpreting and responding to important ideas and issues." See Also - Additional Details in News Release. -- Contractors--U.S. Government Source: Project on Government Oversight Federal Contractor Misconduct Database "This database is not a legal document. Although some legal terminology is used, this database is only a compilation of instances of misconduct and alleged misconduct committed by government contractors. Sources used to compile this information came primarily from government documents, and in each case the source(s) is cited. This is a compilation of misconduct and alleged misconduct occurring between 1990 and 2002; alleged misconduct is cited prior to 1990 if the case is still pending." See also: Full Text Report: Federal Contractor Misconduct: Failures of the Suspension and Debarment System -- Online Journalism Source: 5th International Symposium on Online Journalism Symposium Research Papers Research papers presented at the symposium, held mid-April at the University of Texas, Austin. Sample titles (PDFs): + When the Audience is the Producer: The Art of the Collaborative Weblog + Wikipedia as Participatory Journalism: Reliable Sources? Metrics for evaluating collaborative media as a news resource + Examining the media agenda: How traditional and online media presented the 2000 and 2004 presidential primaries Also available: Presentations from panel discussions (PowerPoint), a photo slideshow (Flash) and materials from previous symposiums, back to 1999.
Web Search--Yahoo Yahoo Briefs And the Search Shortcuts Keep Coming at Yahoo! They're going wild with these things. Today, an official announcement containing news of a shortcut offering direct links to gas price info (U.S. Cities only). For example: + gas prices 60093 or gas prices Seattle offers links to GasBuddy.com and GasPriceWatch.com. Last Friday, we offered a list of other new search shortcuts. in other Yahoo News... Yahoo Japan Now Using Yahoo Database, No More Google Word that Yahoo Japan has stopped using the Google database as the provider of search results on this country site. Of course, this was expected. On a related note, Yahoo Japan is now using Overture as its sole provider of sponsored search results. Previously, results rotated between Overture and other services. x |
