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Resources and News for Information Professionals
ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Librarian Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com Editor and Compiler, The ResourceShelf Editor and Compiler, DocuTicker
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Friday, May 31, 2002
CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) "Judges Toss Out Online Porn Law" MULTNOMAH COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA From the story, "Public libraries cannot be forced to use Internet filters designed to block pornography, three federal judges said Friday in overturning a new federal law. In a 195-page decision, the judges said the Children's Internet Protection Act went too far because the filters can also blocked access to sites that contain protected speech." See Also: Read the Full-Text of The Court Decision See Also: ALA Page With Additional Details and Resources Specialty Search--Beta A New Beta From Amazon.Com: Search and Browse Restaurant Menus Similar to Google Catalogs, this beta provides users with the ability to search (using optical character recognition) and browse a selection of restaurant menus in 6 cities, with more to come. The current cities available are: Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. Another useful and potentially "tasty" use of search technology. Bon Appetit! FirstGov Online This Monday (6/3): The FAST Search Powered/Crawled FirstGov.Gov Database Set To Debut We've been looking forward to this for some time. FAST Search is the owner and operator of AllTheWeb.Com. Web Search--Google Winner of the Google Programming Contest Announced A geographic search demo wins the $10,000 prize. From the announcement, "Daniel's project adds the ability to search for web pages within a particular geographic locale to traditional keyword searching...We selected Daniel's project because it combined an interesting and useful idea with a clean and robust implementation." Note: Similar services have already been developed and implemented. For example, GeoSearch from divine/Northern Light/Vicinity (interface available but not functioning, 5/31). Read a news release about GeoSearch. See Also: A Few Comments from the First Prize Winner (via News.Com) Online Industry--LexisNexis D&B Data Now Available via Nexis.Com From the announcement, "Until now, D&B information was accessible only on the LexisNexis Classic system." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) - National Archives--United States The New National Archives (U.S.) Web Site is Now Online NARA's two websites, http://www.nara.gov and http://www.archives.gov have been combined into a single site. The new site will be located at the Archives.Gov url. - Documents in the News Source: U.S. Department of Justice Full-Text, New, Attorney General Guidelines & AG Directives on Information Sharing Background: "Ashcroft Permits F.B.I. to Monitor Internet and Public Activities" (via NY Times) See Also: "FBI Agents Gain New Latitude in Libraries" (via LJ) -- Science and Technology Information Source: Department of Trade and Industry (U.K.) New Site, GlobalWatch Online Of special interest is the "Information" section. This section is a compilation of technology news (various sources) in several areas. It also contains a "news by country" (15 nations) section. Here you'll find reports from various British Embassies. See Also: Site review from Kable's Government Computing -- U.S. State Government--Statistics Source: U.S. Census State Government Spending, 2000 Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Data News Briefs Google Answers Adds Keyword Search Capabilities You can now search terms used in questions and answers. From what I've been told this database will NOT be updated with changed/updated facts, urls, etc. - Digital Reference "New Service Allows the Public to Pose Reference Questions Without Visiting the Library" (via The Chronicle of Higher Education) More about QuestionPoint. Thursday, May 30, 2002
Web Resources of the Week ROTW #1, News Alerts Still Available Without a Fee, Hoover's News Alert Service In this time of rapidly disappearing freebies, Hoover's continues to make available what I've found to be a useful news alert tool. The service delivers via e-mail, keyword alerts from a wide variety of general news sources. E-mail postings contain the headline along with a direct link to the story. Users are given the option to have the alerts appear immediately after the story is published or once/twice a day. I've noticed content from many sources including several news release wires, Financial Times, Associated Press (including a few regional U.S. feeds), Knight Ridder, South China Morning Post, The Telegraph, and Chicago Tribune. According to the site, material from over 600 sources is available. Setting up e-mail alerts is quite simple. 1) Head to the Primary News Alert Page and Register for a Hoover's Login and Password (Free) 2) Login and Select the Add Alerts Button 3) Begin Creating Your Alerts By Entering Keywords, Ticker Symbols, and/or Selecting Industry and Topic Categories 4) Select When You Want Your Alerts Delivered and in Which Format (Text or HTML) That's it! It's nice to know that the selection/edit pages have the option to easily toggle all alerts on or off. A very useful option if you don't want to return to an overflowing mailbox after a vacation. In fact, you're also given the option to turn the alert service off over the weekend. ROTW #2, Business Information--Directories Business 2.0 Web Guide I regularly suggest the importance of information professionals utlilizing non-commercial general knowledge web directories like the Librarians' Index to the Internet, InfoMine, and the Resource Discovery Network for quality resources which have been selected by other info pros. This week, the VAS&ND Resource of the Week is a directory of business related resources that's part of a major media conglomerate. However, in the case of this directory, we'll visit a focused "subject directory" that continues to strive for quality and authority over size and advertiser influence. Business 2.0, a monthly business publication from AOL Time Warner, is also the home to one of the web's most useful directories of high-quality business information and resources on the open web. The directory covers a broad range of material with over 50,000 web pages organized into about 13,000 categories. The directory does not accept, "any fees for review or inclusion" and is built (compiled, edited, maintained) by information professionals. Here are a Few (of many) Useful Sections Included in the Directory *The Companies A-Z section contains compilations for more than 400 of the "most-searched-for" companies. *People Section includes links to biographical information for many of the most well-know business execs. For example, the entry for David Filo, one of Yahoo's co-founders contains links to a Fortune profile and a direct link to his biography on the Yahoo site. Disney CEO Michael Eisner's section contains direct links to background pieces from the USA Today and The New York Times. *Industries Section is home to overview information for over 35 industries. *Company Information Section includes links to industry research & forecast, mergers and acquisitions, and press release information. *International Section contains resources accessible by country and/or type. The directory is also searchable. The following directions come from the Web Guide faq, "To search the Web Guide, enter a word, name, or phrase in the search box on any page of the Business 2.0 site. Relevant Web Guide categories appear at the top of the search results page. Click on a category to see the directory listings in that topic." Finally, not only is the Business 2.0 Web Directory a "must have" resource that should be within a click or two of your browser but it can also be a useful tool to use in building a local collection of quality web-based business information sources. Did You Know? The Business 2.0 site also provides access to a limited full-text archive of material from Fortune and Money. Look For The Option on the Search Box. Libraries Source: Library Journal "Americans Library in Paris Site of Conflict" From the article, "...the long-quiet library is the site of a heated dispute between the library’s trustees and a group of its members. The members fear that the library will be merged with the larger and adjacent American University, thus making it more difficult to fulfill its role as American culture center, research library, and family lending library." Web Search--Daypop Source: Editor & Publisher "Daypop Searches 7,500 News Sites, Blogs" Here are a couple of additional points not included in Charles Bowen's column. 1) In terms of news content, Daypop crawls 656 English Language and 399 non-English Language news sources. 2) Each page in the Daypop database is cached on a Daypop Server 3) Although no syntax is directly available, you can limit to words in the title, limit by language, and sort by either date or relevance. These options are located in the blue box found on every serp (search engine results page). As Bowen mentions, other options are available on the advanced interface page. 4) For RSS fans, Daypop also provides RSS formatted results 5) Daypop provides an frequently updated list of the Top 10 search terms. Digitization Projects--Canada--Newspapers Info Industry--Cold North Wind Cold North Wind to Digitize Archives of The Globe and Mail From the news release, "Cold North Wind Inc. and Bell Globemedia have agreed to publish the full-page, searchable images of the archives of The Globe and Mail on the Internet...Terms of the agreement were not released....The 1.4-million newspaper page archive represents one of the largest in Canada and covers critical periods of Canadian history." See Also: Learn More About and Demo Cold North Wind Technology See Also: "Globe and Mail Archives to be Digitized" (via GlobeTechnology.Com) Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Electronic Journals Source: Journal of the Medical Library Association Full-Text, "Print Versus Electronic Journals: A Preliminary Investigation into the Effect of Journal Format on Research Processes" (PDF Version) From Vol. 90. No. 2 (April, 2002) -- Library Websites Source: Journal of the Medical Library Association Full-Text, "Users' Information-Seeking Behavior on a Medical Library Website" (PDF Version) From Vol. 90. No. 2 (April, 2002) Note: Full-Text Access to the Journal of the Medical Library Association is Now Available Via PubMed Central. The Archive Begins With Vol. 90 No.1 See Also: The Predecessor to the Journal of the Medical Library Association, the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association is also Available. The Archive Begins With Vol. 88 No.1 Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Corporate Filings--United States Source: SEC New, Real-Time Access to SEC Filings via SEC.Gov "Previously, EDGAR filings did not appear on the SEC's web site for at least 24 hours." This keyword archive does not search the full-text. See Also: Direct to SEC EDGAR Databases See Also: Direct to "Ticker" of EDGAR Filings As They Are Released -- Business--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census County Business Patterns, 2000 Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text Reports PDF reports organized by State. Thanks to P.S. for the news tip. -- Country Reports--Fact Sheets Source: United States Department of State Updated Content: Country Background Notes Here's a list of Backgound Notes updated in May. Barbados Botswana Cameroon Fiji Germany Greece Guatemala Iceland Italy Swaziland Uzbekistan -- State Licensing Verification--Kansas Invisible Web New, Kansas Dental Board License Verification ||| Learn More Odds & Ends Business--Tracking Pirated Material Source: Business 2.0 "Hollywood's Bounty Hunters" A very interesting article. You'll learn about a company called Ranger Online. From the article, "Ranger won't divulge many details as to how its software works. But the basic idea is that it arms the program with relevant search criteria -- including, for example, the myriad aliases and formats used by distributors of DVD "rips," or titles -- and then uses the software to scan not just the commercial Web but also file servers, chat rooms, news groups, peer-to-peer networks, and even specific Web applications such as online auction software. When IOS detects what it thinks are digital infractions, it relays the details back to the client. The client then can begin firing off "cease and desist" e-mails to the Internet service providers of the accused." The Motion Picture Association of America, Microsoft, and the Recording Industry Association of America use this product. - Financial Service Industry--Tracking People Source: Washington Post "Financial Database To Screen Accounts" "Leading financial services firms here have formed a private database company that will compile information about criminals, terrorists and other suspicious people, for use in screening new customers and weeding out those who may pose a risk. The company, known as Regulatory DataCorp Int'l LLC , comes as financial services face strict new government mandates to make efforts to identify those who may want to use the U.S. financial system for illegal activity." - Libraries Source: AP via The Washington Post "Antiquity's Famed Library Begins a New Chapter" From the article, "The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, partly submerged in a pool of water, tries to live up to an ancient tradition. It stands where archaeologists believe the library of the Ptolemies stood some 1,700 years ago. After decades of research, more than a decade of planning and many delays, the new library is to officially open this year." Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Digitization in Libraries and Museums--United States Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services Survey Results Released: The Status of Technology and Digitization in the Nation's Museums and Libraries From the news release, "A federal report quantifies, for the first time, how computers, software, and information sharing technologies are changing the work of museums and libraries. The federal Institute of Museum and Library Services surveyed more than 700 professionals in libraries and museums of all types and sizes about their technology use and digitization activities." Announcement/Summary of Key Findings ||| Direct to Full-Text ||| Full-Text in PDF (74 pages) Web Search Source: PC World "The Straight Story on Search Engines" A thorough discussion of how to identify adverstising on the major search services. National Archives--United States Preview Today, Online This Friday: A New National Archives Web Site You can take a look at the redesign using this link. Also on Friday (5/31), NARA's two websites, http://www.nara.gov and http://www.archives.gov will MERGE into a single site. The new site will be located at the Archives.Gov url. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Human Rights--Amnesty International New Edition Available, Full-Text: Amnesty International Report 2002 The report contains summary information for 5 regions of the world and country reports for 152 nations. The report also contains a pdf chart with human rights treaty ratification information. See Also: The report is also available in Spanish, French, and Arabic. -- Parliament--Canada Source: Parliament Library New Web Site, Speakers of the Senate The site contains brief profiles of each Speaker. The profiles are also available as as 76 page .pdf file. Public Libraries Source: Editor & Publisher "Libraries Threaten Paid Online News Archives" Barbara Quint and I are quoted as Steve Outing alerts the newspaper community about public library database services. If nothing else, this will hopefully encourage a journalists or two to write a story about what public libraries offer patrons these days. Thanks to S.C. for alerting me to the fact that the story hit the E&P web site. Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)--United States Source: Federal Register A Request For Comments About CIPA is Published in the Federal Register (PDF Also Available) You have until August 27th to send your comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Thanks to M.Z. for the news tip. See Also: CPPA, COPA, CIPA: Which Is Which? (via ALA) Meta Search--Kartoo Kartoo: A Graphical Search Engine Much has been written this week about Kartoo since it was mentioned on Slashdot earlier this week. Although I'm not a fan of most meta search engines, including this one, it's still worth knowing about for it's graphical display ability. However, be aware of it's limitations (slow response, slow interface load time, poor documentation, not querying the complete Google database?). One meta engine that I've mentioned in the VAS&ND before is Vivisimo. This "document clustering" tool organizes results into folders "on the fly". The advanced interface is clear and easy to use and WELL documented. You can also use Vivisimo's clustering abilities "on top" of other engines like the LII and Yahoo News. Finally, those of you interested in graphical search tools/displays should also take a look at Antarti.Ca. The visual interface (demo) to PubMed is worth a look. Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Legal Information--Canada Online Industry--LexisNexis LexisNexis Butterworths in Final Negotiations To Purchase Quicklaw The deal will be finalized in the "very near future." Online Industry--OCLC E-Books Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education "NetLibrary's New Owners Hope Newer E-Books Will Be More Attractive to Academe" From the article, "One thing we have heard loud and clear is we need to improve the currency of our collection," Rich Rosy, the company's new leader, said last week during a briefing about the company's latest strategy. The briefing was broadcast to OCLC's members over the Internet." Also from the article, "Officials at netLibrary say they sell e-books to 7,300 libraries, about 3,000 of which are at colleges and universities. Some of those libraries joined on a trial basis, however, or have ordered only small numbers of e-books." See Also: Direct to netLibrary Information Industry--OneSource Business Browser from OneSource Adds Content from Several Providers The announcement mentions several new services including, "Non-profit organization information from GuideStar, expanded global and regional news from FT.com and Proquest, improved analyst reports from Investext and detailed public company information from Multex." Online Industry--CrossRef Source: InfoToday NewsBreaks "CrossRef Considering Full-Text Search Service" From Paula Hane's article, "CrossRef a publisher collaborative that’s operated by the Publishers International Linking Association, Inc. (PILA) and enables researchers to navigate online journals via Digital Object Identifier-based (DOI) citation links, is currently considering the implementation of a full-text search service. While discussions of such a service have been circulating since late last fall, CrossRef members have recently been officially informed that the CrossRef Search Project is under consideration and that a full proposal will be presented at the group’s annual meeting in September. If the new service is approved, it would be developed with separate financing and would not divert resources from the existing reference-linking service." See Also: Direct to CrossRef Enterprise Search New From FAST: Real-Time Information Retrieval For Internet and Enterprise Environments From the announcement, "The next-generation product suite [FAST Data Search 3.0] shatters the traditional notion of information retrieval by delivering a highly modular and scalable application suite combining real-time search functionality with a real-time filter/alert engine for dynamic information processing, advanced linguistics functionality, and flexible content access and integration options." Encyclopedias--Georgia Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Learn About: The New Georgia Encyclopedia From the article, "Headquartered in the University of Georgia's main library, the New Georgia Encyclopedia project has received a $175,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the first such award in the country for the production of an online encyclopedia. When it debuts in fall 2003 on the Internet, it will be free and available to people around the world." See Also: Learn More About the Encyclopedia Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Kablenet.Com "Whitehall Opens E-Library" From the article, "Government librarians are to provide a new information resource in the form of the Electronic Library for Government, it was announced on 28 May 2002. Over 20 library and information services will provide content for the site, that will be hosted by the Knowledge Network team in the Office of the e-Envoy." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) -- Campaign Fundraising--United States--Statistics Source: FEC New Statistics, "Congressional Fundraising Continues to Trail 2000 Levels" This news release contains links to numerous lists and rankings available in html and/or Excel formats. Also Online Today: FEC Annual Report 2001 -- Funding for the Arts--United States Source: The Foundation Center New, Full-Text, Research Brief: Arts Funding Update, 2002 From the brief, "...an overview of the growth...and distribution of foundation funding for the arts, culture, media, and humanities from 1996 to 2000..." -- Information Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: Upside Upside Hot 100 -- Corporate News--Canada Canadian News Release Service, CCNMatthews, Debuts New Web Site New Advanced News Search allows searching/browsing back six months. The "Media Folder" contains an extensive list of media organizations, publications, and broadcast outlets. See Also: Direct to the CCNMatthews Site -- Reading Habits--United Kingdom Source: Orange/Orange Prize for Fiction New, Full-Text Report: The Reading Habits of Individuals and Couples (U.K.) Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text (73 pages .pdf) From the summary, "The aim of the research commissioned by the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002, was not only to give an in-depth picture of national reading habits but for the first time to measure the proportion of time spent reading books in the context of total leisure reading time." Monday, May 27, 2002
Internet Filtering Source: Chicago Tribune Protests at the Chicago Public Library From the article, "More than 2,000 protesters outside the Harold Washington Library Sunday called for pornography-filtering software on Chicago library computers. Religious and civic leaders arranged the demonstration after Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey told them such software will not be installed because it won't effectively prevent access to all pornography." National Trust--United Kingdom Source: Managing Information "Description of Collections Available from the National Trust Website" From the article, "The National Trust has launched a new section on their website at http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk dedicated to providing online access to information about their holdings, which include buildings, collections, libraries and archives." See Also: Direct to the New Section of the National Trust Site Sunday, May 26, 2002
Academic Libraries--United States Source: Business First Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Accepts 124th Member Library The University of Louisville was recently awarded membership into ARL. See Also: Official Announcement from U of L Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) -- Executive Education--Lists & Rankings Source: Financial Times Executive Education Rankings, 2002 See Also: Direct to Complete Rankings (.pdf) -- Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Resource Full-Text Report, Consortium Purchase of Electronic Resources by Public Libraries in England Direct to the Full-Text Report See Also: Background About the Report -- History--Australia Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library New, Full-Text, E-Brief: A Matter of Public Importance: Votes for Women Saturday, May 25, 2002
Books--Databases Source: Contra Costa Times Learn About: Bookfinder.Com Simultaneously search mulitple book vendors. See Also: Direct to Bookfinder.Com See Also: ISBN.Nu (Another Excellent Book Finding Tool) Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Health--MEDLINEplus A Selection of New MEDLINEplus Compilations -MEDLINEplus: Throat Disorders -MEDLINEplus: Tick Bites -MEDLINEplus: Voice Disorders -MEDLINEplus: Wrist/Arm Injuries and Disorders -- National ID's--United States Source: National Academies/National Academy Press New, Full-Text Online, IDs -- Not That Easy: Questions About Nationwide Identity Systems Friday, May 24, 2002
Web Search-Metatags Source: News.Com "IRS Adjusting Site Pages to Curb Fraud" Comment: Interesting idea but simply adding metatags to a page will not automatically boost rankings. Most general web search engines use metatags along with numerous other variables to determine ranking. From the article, "The IRS publishes information on the Internet about suspect tax schemes and online scams. The agency is trying to make those pages more prominent in search results by using key words or metatags, code that is not visible to Web surfers, but helps search engines find relevant sites. Sample metatags the IRS is looking at include the terms "pay no tax" and "form 1040." Additional Comments About This Approach From Chris Sherman the Editor of Search Day: "Optimized meta keyword tags might, in a very small way, help rankings at MSN, but not likely at Google -- unless the IRS also launches a reciprocal link strategy that persuades webmasters around the world to link to IRS pages, rather than the ones that currently have high Page Rank -- unlikely!" Sherman adds, "On the other hand, the IRS site, because it is part of the US Treasury, already has significant Page Rank for *legitimate* tax information. So an overall SEO strategy may provide some benefit. It depends on the cleverness of the IRS optimizers, and the currency of the SEO information they're using. There's vastly more outdated/inaccurate SEO "information" on the web than good stuff, which tends to be closely guarded by the "best" SEO operators." Professional Reading Shelf Librarianship Source: Association of Research Libraries Full-Text, White Paper: Recruitment, Retention & Restructuring: Human Resources in Academic Libraries Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Terrorism--Chronologies Source: U.S. Department of State "Significant Terrorist Incidents, 1961-2001" "Treaties Relating to Terrorism" "The United States and the Coalition Against Terrorism, September-December 2001" Materials prepared by Office of the Historian -- Business--Canada--Lists & Rankings Source: PROFIT Now Online, PROFIT 100, 2002 "Canada's Fastest Growing Companies" See Also: The Next 100 (101-200) -- Business-Georgia--Lists & Rankings Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Now Online, The Georgia 100, 2002 "The 175 best-performing companies of 2001" - Surveillance--United States--Statistics Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts Full-Text, 2001 Wiretap Report News Briefs -"Maryland Libraries Using Online Training" via FCW.Com -"British Library to Discontinue Patent Express Service" via Managing Information Thursday, May 23, 2002
Resource of the Week Library Management Data Mining + Library Systems = Bibliomining Time again for something new, Bibliomining. In this case we're not talking about "mining" a web site for the most useful resources but rather utilizing some of the same concepts used in data mining to discover new knowledge. Dr. Scott Nicholson, an assistant professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, defines the term this way, "Bibliomining is the combination of data mining, bibliometrics, statistics, and reporting tools used to extract patterns of behavior-based artifacts from library systems." Dr. Nicholson has created a Bibliomining site, discussion list, brief overview of the Bibliomining process. Finally, a Bibliomining bibliography contains a link to the full-text of a "preprint" version of a soon to be published paper by Nicholson and Dr. Jefferey Stanton. The paper titled, "Gaining strategic advantage through Bibliomining: Data mining for management decisions in corporate, special, digital, and traditional libraries" can be dowloaded in Word format. According to the bibliography, this is the introduction of the term Bibliomining in print. Information Organization--Taxonomies Source: Government Computer News "Taxonomy Puts Electronic Content in its Place" From the article, "Taxonomy can matter as much in an e-government project as roof trusses do in a building. The word is familiar to biologists and library scientists, and it means the same thing in IT: a hierarchical framework for organizing data. Paperless government has brought the need for consistent, interoperable taxonomies to the forefront of IT. People use taxonomies on portals and search engines every day without realizing it, said Jan Herd, a business reference librarian in the Science, Technology and Business Division of the Library of Congress." Thanks to NFAIS for the tip. Professional Reading Shelf Document Retention--Legal Issues Source: Newsbytes "Companies Must Prepare For E-Discovery" A very interesting read. From the article, "Billions of these virtual documents are created each year, including e-mail and instant messaging transmissions. According to an October 2000 study by the University of California, Berkeley, 93 percent of all corporate documents are created electronically, and only about 70 percent ever make it to a printer. "Companies should delete what is not necessary for regulatory compliance. They need a systematic plan for deleting non-litigation-related documents," said Jonathan Redgrave, who is of counsel to the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) New/Updated Reports from the Congressional Research Service Another update with a selection of new and or updated reports from the CRS. To access these full-text reports (.pdf) head to this page from Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) or this page from Rep. Mark Green (R-WI). Then, select/click the appropriate category and scroll to the report. You can also use edit/find or cntrl-f and place the report number in the "find what" box. Issue Briefs IB10072 Endangered Species: Difficult Choices IB93017 Space Stations IB87050 Strategic Petroleum Reserve IB95112 Terrorism, the Future, and U.S. Foreign Policy - Short Reports RS21120 Auditing and Its Regulators: Proposals for Reform after Enron RS21115 Enron Bankruptcy and Employer Stock in Retirement Plans RS20037 "Junk E-mail": An Overview of Issues and Legislation Concerning Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail ("Spam") - Long Reports RL31389 Afghanistan: Challenges and Options for Reconstructing a Stable and Moderate State RL31355 Afghanistan's Path to Reconstruction: Obstacles, Challenges, and Issues for Congress RL30173 Executive and Independent Agency Publications: Where to Get Official Documents RL31364 Enron: A Select Chronology of Congressional, Corporate, and Government Activities RL31358 Human Cloning RL30938 Terrorism and the Military's Role in Domestic Crisis Management: Background and Issues for Congress - Information Quality Health Information on the Web Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Full-Text Report, "How Internet Users Decide What Information to Trust When They or Their Loved Ones are Sick" See Also: "Health Advice Abounds on the Net; Which Web Sites Can Be Trusted?" (via Wall Street Journal) - Schools--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census 2000 Annual Survey of Local Government Finances School Systems Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Database - Bankruptcy--United States--Statistics Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts Full-Text, Basic Bankruptcy Filings, 2001 News Briefs OCLC Provides Enhanced Access to netLibrary eBOOKS From Worldcat From the announcement, "The integration will allow you to quickly identify and access netLibrary eBooks from the WorldCat database. A netLibrary icon, which is now included in WorldCat brief and full record displays, clearly identifies eBooks that are included in the netLibrary collection." Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Web Portals Source: ARL "Seven ARL Libraries Launch Scholars Portal Project in Collaboration with Fretwell-Downing Inc." From the announcement, "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) announces the launch of the Scholars Portal Project, a collaboration between several ARL member libraries and Fretwell-Downing Inc. (FD). The initial libraries participating in the project are the University of Southern California, University of California - San Diego, Dartmouth College, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Iowa State University, and the University of Utah. Plans call for expanding the number of participating libraries over the course of the three-year project." "The initial focus of the Scholars Portal Project will use FD’s ZPORTAL and several related FD products as a base. The initial focus will be on deploying ZPORTAL to deliver cross-domain searching of licensed and openly available content in a range of subject fields and from multiple institutions. The portal will aggregate and integrate the results of the search, and support delivery of the content to the user." News Briefs --MarketResearch.Com Offers Alert Service You'll be alerted about once a week when new titles matching your criteria enter the database. --Factiva Debuts "Developer's Kit" "Web API Based on XML Technology." --Hoover's Launches Hoover's Pro Plus (Fee-Based Service) "Hoover's Pro Plus subscribers can now search Hoover's Online and download contact and company records." Web Search--Google Netscape's Google Goes Live Search results obtained from any Netscape Web Search box, including clicking the Search button on the Netscape browser, are now being powered by the Google database. This version of Google does not provide access to the Google Cache and the Similar Page features available from Google.Com. Results pages also include, when available, an option to run your search again with more specific terms. I've been unable to find any .pdf or other non-html material in this version. Result sets might also include links to material from other AOL Time Warner companies like CNN and Time. Finally, this implementation of Google is not querying the full Google database. In Other Netscape News: A Preview Release of Netscape 7.0 is Now Online Web Search--Google Source: Reuters "Google Faces Challenge Managing Success" From Andrea Orr's article, "But as Yahoo reviews its options for a new search partner when its existing deal expires this summer, Google is anything but the shoo-in. The Mountain View, California, company is without a doubt on the short list of search partners for Yahoo, yet some wonder if its popularity could work against it as Yahoo seeks a partner that is not also a formidable competitor." Digital Reference LC/OCLC QuestionPoint Service Set For June 3rd Release From the news release, "The QuestionPoint service, available at www.questionpoint.org, provides libraries with access to a growing collaborative network of reference librarians in the United States and around the world. Library patrons can submit questions at any time of the day or night through their library's Web site. The questions will be answered online by qualified library staff from the patron's own library or may be forwarded to a participating library around the world. The service is available to libraries by subscription. Web Portals--FirstGov Source: FCW Study: FirstGov Doing Much Better In the next few weeks FirstGov will be offering improved search functionality and a new database of crawled material powered by FAST Search and Transfer. FAST is the company that provides AllTheWeb. Internet Domains "GSA Proposes Rule to Make Dot-Gov Domain Available to Non-Federal Government Entities" From the news release, "The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) published a proposed rule in the May 16, 2002 Federal Register (Volume 67, Number 95) that would amend the Federal Management Regulation (FMR) and provide a new policy for the registration of dot-gov domain names. GSA registers Federal Internet addresses using the domain designation dot-gov (e.g.,www.gsa.gov). This proposed rule would enable state and local governments and federally recognized Indian tribes to provide service using the dot-gov domain. A prior rule, located in the Federal Property Management Regulation (FPMR), which expired on August 8, 2001, allowed for the registration of state and local governments under the dot-gov domain." For example, many of the State of California's pages are found in the .Gov domain. See Also: Read the Full-Text of the Proposed Rule Published in the FR And Speaking of Internet Domain Issues, "Industry, Government Want 'Whois' Fixes" (from The Washington Post) Problems with the WHOIS Registration Database Book Publishing--Statistics Source: R.R. Bowker "R.R. Bowker Releases U.S. Book Production Statistics, Showing Double-Digit Increase in 2001" A few "fast facts" about the book industry in 2001. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) U.S. Census--History Source: U.S. Census Full-Text Available Online, Measuring America: The Decennial Census from 1790-2000 From the news release, "...Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses from 1790 to 2000, contains images or descriptions of the questionnaires used in each census, along with the instructions given to census-takers on how to fill out the form. Also included is a synopsis of how each census was conducted and information about its historical significance." -- Federal Bureau of Investigation Full-Text, FBI Laboratory Annual Report for 2001 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text (.pdf) -- Astronomy--Pathfinders Source: Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship New, Astronomical Resources on the Internet Tuesday, May 21, 2002
Librarians Source: The Dallas Morning News "New on shelves: Cool Librarians" (Free Registration Required) From the article, "Librarians would like you to know that Marian's days are numbered. Her place being taken by a new kind – or new kinds – of librarian." Thanks to S.H. for the news tip. See Also: "Bookhounds to Cybersleuths" (from The Roanoke Times via LISNEWS.Com) Web Search--Google Welcome to Google Labs A new site that's a "playground" for Google technologies in development. Have fun! The site now offers demos of the following concepts: 1) Google Glossary 2) Google Sets 3) Google by Phone 4) Google Keyboard Shortcuts Also: Word From Googleplex that a few enhancements to the Google Toolbar are also available. You can find them by going to "Toolbar Options" from the Toolbar pull-down menu. Then, look for the experimental features link. I needed to re-install the toolbar to access the experimental options or if you already have the toolbar, try this link. The 'Experimental Features" are: - Combined Search button: providing quick and easy access to all Google search services from one, compact button. - Browser control: suppresses pop-up windows that are triggered when users leave a web site. - Navigation: enabling users to quickly navigate between websites listed in a Google search results page, using intuitive Next and Previous buttons. Library Schools Digitization Projects Source: Library Journal "Columbia to Preserve Librarians' Library Online" From the article, "Columbia University Libraries has embarked on a project to preserve, rehouse, and enhance access to the collection of the School of Library Service, which closed in 1992. Over the next three years, say Columbia officials, catalog records for the school’s collection of more than 110,000 volumes will be converted to machine-readable form and made accessible in the Libraries’ online catalog, CLIO, as well as through the national bibliographic utilities, OCLC and RLIN." Internet Domains U.S. Houses Passes .Kids.US Domain Bill From the article, "The House of Representatives' today approved legislation designed to cordon off a safe online "playground" for young children." "No Web site with a kids.us address would be allowed to post hyperlinks to locations outside of the kids.us domain. The legislation also now prohibits chat and instant messaging features, except in cases where a site operator can guarantee the features adhere to kid-friendly standards developed for the domain." The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate. See Also: Read and Track the Legislation via THOMAS Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Terrorism Source: U.S. Department of State Full-Text, Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2001 The 2001 ed. of the report is now online. It's available in .pdf and html. See Also: Link to Additional Info and Past Editions -- Hurricane Season 2002 Source: NOAA National Hurricane Awareness Week 2002 Here are a few resources culled from the Hurricane Awareness Week web site. 1) New Interactive Web Resource: Historical Hurricane Tracks This new geographic information systems-(GIS) based tool allows you to query the entire Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone data record from 1851 to the present. 2) New Web Site: Hurricane History An information brief for over 20 storms from 1900-2001. Links to additional resources are provided. 3) New Report: NOAA: 2002 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook ||| News Release 4) The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale 5) Hurricane Tracking Chart (.pdf) 6) National Hurricane Center -- World Trade Center Source: FEMA New Full-Text Report: World Trade Center Building Performance Study (Executive Summary, Findings, & Recommendations) Executive Summary Observations, Findings, and Recommendations Full-Report -- Business--Ready Reference Shelf Source: Forbes A Couple of Tools For Your Business Shelf Layoff Tracker "A comprehensive listing of big-company layoffs since January 2001." Andersen Defection Directory "The definitive listing of clients lost by Arthur Andersen." -- Business--Massachusetts--Lists & Rankings Source: The Boston Globe The Globe 100, 2002 "The Top Massachusetts companies of 2001". Numerous lists and rankings. Main Page ||| Globe 100 Chart ||| View All of the Lists Professional Reading Shelf Several New Papers from the Journal of Digital Information are Now Online Here are the titles of the new papers: Hypermedia and the Semantic Web: A Research Enabling Dissemination of User-Specific Information in the Usenet Framework Digital Archive Network for Anthropology Federated Searching Interface Techniques for Heterogeneous OAI Repositories Designing the User-Interface for the Físchlár Digital Video Library -- The Spring, 2002 edition of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship is Now Online Here are the titles of a few of the articles: "Bridging the Two Cultures: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Electronic Resources" "AgEcon Search: Partners Build a Web Resource" Database Review, "PubMed: For More than Just Medicine This Is One of the World's Greatest Databases" Update Free to Fee The Financial Times Site Has Implemented a Fee-Based Model Some content including "the latest news" is still available at no charge. You can learn about subscription options here. Monday, May 20, 2002
Searching PDF on the Web Limits When Search PDF With Google and AllTheWeb Last week, we announced that AllTheWeb was now providing access to .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) material. Very exciting news. Today, super searcher and Search Engine Showdown proprietor, Greg Notess, makes a few crucial points about .pdf searching with Google and AllTheWeb. Notess points out: 1) AllTheWeb indexes and provides access to the full-text of .pdf files in it's database. 2) Google does not index and provide access to the full-text of .pdf files. According to Greg, "Google tends to stop indexing at about 120K." This means that if the material you're looking for (quote, fact, etc.) is past the 120K in a .pdf file, the point where they stop indexing, you'll most likely NOT be able to find it using Google. We've know for some time that Google stops indexing html/htm content at the 101K mark. Here's an example to give you an idea about .pdf document size. This .pdf, primarily text, from the Association of American Publishers is about 256K. When opened in Adobe Acrobat the document is about 55 pages. After finding the document in the Google database and "View as HTML" we see that only about 35 of of the 55 pages have been indexed by Google. Web Directories Source: Pandia "Alternative Academic Search Directories" Per and Susanne take a look at a few of their favorite, mine too, general knowledge web directories. They are the LII, Academic Info, Resource Discovery Network, and Infomine. Information Industry--BioMed Central Source: Information Today NewsBreaks "BioMed Central Strengthens Research Library Connection" From the article, " BioMed Central, the innovative commercial venture that offers open access to peer-reviewed biological and medical research, continues to expand its connections to research libraries. The Association of Research Libraries, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition and has named BioMed Central as a SPARC partner. BioMed Central has also expanded its connections to the National Institutes of Health (NIH; http://www.nih.gov). Besides its close ties to the National Library of Medicine (NLM), an NIH institute that archives, indexes, abstracts, and integrates BioMed Central content into its offerings, BioMed Central now has opened institutional membership to the NIH Library, which serves in-house NIH researchers." See Also: Direct to BioMed Central Web Search--Google Dilbert Visits the Google Home Page Dilbert and his team will work this week to design a new Google logo. Once completed, you'll be able to purchase a coffee mug with the new logo on it. See Also: Direct to an Archive of Dilbert's Art Work for Google Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) - Documents in the News--Terrorism Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General New, Full-Text: The Immigration and Naturalization Service's Contacts With Two September 11 Terrorists: A Review of the INS's Admissions of Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, its Processing of their Change of Status Applications, and its Efforts to Track Foreign Students in the United States Press Release PDF ||| HTML Exec Summary PDF ||| HTML Full-Text PDF (212 Pages) -- Homeland Security--United States New Web Site: FCC Homeland Security Council New Web Site: New Media Security and Reliability Council -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Web Version Now Available, Digest of Education Statistics, 2001 -- Weather--Worldwide Source: The Met Office (U.K.) New Web Site, Met Office Now Provides Access To Seasonal Forecasts -- Webliography--Religions Source: College & Research Libraries News "World Religions on the Web" This webliography was prepared by John Jaeger from Union University and appears in the June, 2002 issue of C&RL News. Sunday, May 19, 2002
Information Quality on the Web Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution "For Research, the Web is a Pipeline, Not an Authority" A tip of the hat to AJC writer Bill Husted for alerting the masses to what many of us in the information profession have been saying for a long time. This is a must have link for all of your web training toolkits. At the end of the article Husted even gives the library profession a bit of promotion. He writes, "Check with some old-fashioned professionals if the answer is in doubt. Reference librarians are great resources and should be used when it's important to be right." Information Industry--WhizBang! Labs Source: Salt Lake Tribune "WhizBang! to End Operations" WhizBang! Labs, a well-known data extraction company, will shut-down this week. WhizBang has strategic alliances with Dun & Bradstreet and LexisNexis. Flipdog, a web-based job search tool, now part of Monster.Com, was originally developed as a tool to demo WhizBang! technology. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Business--Houston, TX.--Lists & Rankings Source: Houston Chronicle Chronicle 100, 2002 "Leading Companies of Houston". Numerous lists and specialty rankings. Saturday, May 18, 2002
Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents - Documents in the News--Terrorism Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress Full-Text: The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism (1999) See Also: Bibliography of Future Trends in Terrorism (1998) See Also: Learn More About these Reportsm and the FRD See Also: "Prior Hints of September 11-type Attack" via CNN - Economy--United States Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Full-Text, Regional Economic Patterns in the United States, 1990-1999 Friday, May 17, 2002
Web Resource of the Week #1 Web Search--AllTheWeb The Wait is Over: AllTheWeb Begins Providing Access To PDF (Adobe Acrobat) Files The alternative title for this entry is, “Good Things Come To Those Who Wait”. After many months of wishing, hoping, and being told that access to .pdf was "coming soon" to AllTheWeb, the wait is over. A couple of days ago, a colleague noticed a .pdf file in an AllTheWeb results set. After running a few searches and chatting with ATW officials I can confirm that the rollout is underway. Right now .pdf results are included in all results sets when appropriate. No specific syntax that limits to document format is currently available. However, using the advanced interface and limiting to the “must include” term, .pdf, in the url is a way to do some limiting. For example: Here’s a search for the terms librarian AND database that was constructed using the advanced search page and filtering the term .pdf in the url. You can also limit by using the syntax, url.all:pdf For example: A search for the phrase “public television” limited to documents with .pdf in the url. In most cases, documents are labeled as .pdf next to the title line on the results page. More details about this and other ATW changes in the next 10 days or so. Kudos ATW! Thanks to R.H. for the help. Search Technology Source: KM World "Gazing into the crystal ball: Search Technology Gets Smarter and More Personal" From the article, "Search engines are also working to address an annoyance often stated by search users, particularly those in large corporations with numerous databases throughout the organization: Before they can perform a search, they have to know where the item is located. The common response is that if they knew in which database last year’s sales forecast was stored, they wouldn’t need a search engine. Many search engines are addressing that problem by searching across multiple databases as well as the Web to find the appropriate documents." Online Databases Source: Library Journal The Database Universe A comprehensive review of the current online database industry scene. The article also includes a table with names and links to major online database providers. Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: The Guardian "Readers Deserting 'Shabby' Libraries" From the article, "Readers are deserting libraries, depressed by their shabby decor, peculiar opening hours, and the impossibility of getting hold of a new bestseller. Instead they are turning to the sofas, cappuccinos and discount prices of the new generation of book shops." "The report from the audit commission published today shows that since 1992 visits to libraries have fallen by 17%. In the same period spending on books has fallen by a third, and 9% fewer libraries are open for 30 or more hours a week - although the national library budget has remained stable, at £770m a year." See Also: Read the Full-Text of the Report, Building Better Library Services: Learning from Audit, Inspection and Research" See Also: Library Stuff Material from The Times Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Library Filtering--United States Source:ALA CPPA, COPA, CIPA: Which Is Which? Thursday, May 16, 2002
Web Resource of the Week #2 Online Media--Directory A Great Directory of Online News Sources: Kidon Media-Link Based in the Netherlands, this is a comprehensive directory of online news media that contains listings for thousands of news organizations from around the world. Let's take a look at a few favorite features.
Search Tools--Vivisimo Demo Vivisimo Clustering With Scientific Data In March, Information Today reported that The Institute of Physics Publishing had selected Vivisimo to provide clustering technology to search results from the IOPP's Electronic Journals database. The implementation is now online and ready for searching. If you want to demo Vivisimo's clustering of IOPP literature, head to this search interface and run a keyword search. After the result set appears, click the "Clustering By Vivisimo" button. Note: Access to full-text is only available to IOPP subscribers. See Also: Direct to the Vivisimo Home Page and Demos Web Search--Business--Google Source: Fortune "Looking For a Dot-Com Winner? Search No Further" From the article, "People thought Eric Schmidt was nuts when he went to Google. Not anymore." Access to Information Post 9/11--United States Source: USA Today "Post-9/11, Government Stingy with Information" From the article, "Hundreds of thousands of public documents have been removed from government Web sites. Other public information has been edited, and access to some materials has been made more difficult. Some government materials yanked from the Internet, such as EPA reports on the consequences of industrial accidents at chemical plants, may be viewed only in government reading rooms." Professional Reading Shelf World Wide Web Conference2002 Proceedings From the WWW2002 (11th WWW Conference) Available Online The conference was held last week in Honolulu. Lot's of interesting reading including papers on web search, link analysis, and the Semantic Web. Refereed Papers Track Alternate Paper Tracks Poster Sessions Did You Know? "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" by Sergey Brin and Larry Page was presented at this conference in 1998. The paper explains many of the concepts being used by Google - Invisible Web Source: The Australian "Breaking the Search Barrier" From the article, "An Australian student is developing a way of identifying internet pages usually hidden from generalised search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Jared Cope's final year project is likely to form the basis for a "meta-searcher" that will push out into the deep ocean of internet data." - Web Archives--The Wayback Machine Source: O'Reilly Network "Using the Wayback Machine to Move Forward" Derrick Story writes, "Listening to Brewster talk during his Tuesday afternoon session was both comforting and alarming. On one hand I was thankful to have someone of his caliber working diligently to preserve the content that comprised one of the most phenomenal leaps in communication that society has ever seen -- the Web. On the other hand I was wondering, what were we thinking? I can't believe that our culture is so short-sighted that we didn't have a mechanism in place to record and preserve our own history." -- Digital Libraries The May Issue of Digital Libraries is Now Online Here are the titles of the 4 main articles in the May issue. Much more material on the D-Lib site. "A Metadata Registry for the Semantic Web" "Meta-Design of a Community Digital Library" "Levels of Service for Digital Repositories" "Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights: A Digital Library Context" -- School Libraries Source: TechLearning "Not Your Parents' Library" From the article, "In the first of a two-part series, we examine how today's technologies have caused a major upheaval in traditional school libraries." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Business--Worldwide--Guides Source: Ernst & Young New Editions (Full-Text) Now Available Online: Doing Business in Canada Doing Business in Switzerland Doing Business in Taiwan See Also: Complete List of Doing Business In... Guides -- United States v. Microsoft Corporation Source: GPO Full-Text, Public Comments on the United States v. Microsoft Corporation Settlement Over 33,000 comments. Material can be browsed (various criteria) or keyword searched. -- Police Departments--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Police Departments in Large Cities, 1990-2000 Summary, Spreadsheets ||| Direct to Full-Text (.pdf) Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Digital Libraries Source: Library Journal "The Importance of Being Granular" This month Roy Tennant discusses metadata granularity. He writes, "Granularity refers to how finely you chop your metadata. For example, in the standard for encoding the full text of books using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) schema, a book author may be recorded as: Intellectual Property--Deep Linking Source: Wired News "Another Run to a Deep-Link Suit" Runner's World magazine (Rodale Press) has threatened LetsRun.com with a law suit for linking to a "printer-friendly" version (no ads) of an article from the Runner's World site. Declan McCullagh points out in this Wired.Com article, "No U.S. court has ever restricted deep-linking of the type at issue here, and most copyright specialists believe the practice does noWhere Do the Next "We" Come from? Recruiting, Retaining, and Developing Our Successors t violate intellectual property laws. If deep-linking could be legally restricted by publishers, it would roil the Internet industry and call into question the future of search engines like Google and directory services such as those operated by like Yahoo and Lycos...". Librarianship Academic Libraries Source: ARL Monthly Report 221 (April, 2002) "Where Do the Next "We" Come from? Recruiting, Retaining, and Developing Our Successors" Association of Research Libraries Director, Paula T. Kaufman, writes, "Recruiting librarians to work in research libraries has never been easy. Today, however, it seems to be harder than ever, just as it is in other sectors of librarianship. The recent news that President Bush has proposed $10 million to recruit and educate new library professionals has been met with much celebration throughout all types of libraries for, in addition to meeting the challenges of recruiting librarians to fill new positions, we face the daunting task of replacing unprecedented numbers of librarians who will retire over the next 20 years.where the librarians of the future are going to come from." Search Tools Source: Search Day It's Tool Time! Chris's newsletter features a guest column by Avi Rappoport that features several articles, web sites, and tools that will be of interest to many of you. Additionally, Avi's site, SearchTools.Com is a "must have" resource for those of you interested in developing intranet and enterprise search applications. Archives--Canada Digitization Projects--Canada Source: Cold North Wind Just Announced, Not Yet Available: Cold North Wind and National Archives of Canada Team to Digitize Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King From the annoucement, "The diaries, which King kept on a regular basis from 1893 while as a student at the University of Toronto until shortly before his death in 1950, provide an intimate glimpse into one of Canada's most unique and dominant political figures. The diaries will be available on the National Archives website as part of a retrospective on King's life. The diaries will be searchable by term or phrase as well as by date and page number. The diaries exist in three different forms—the original handwritten diary; a typed transcript and an abridged typed transcript. In total there are about 50,000 images." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Ready Reference Shelf Embassies--United States--Web Sites Source: U.S. Department of State Foreign Embassies in the U.S. -- Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: Technology Review The Technology Review100 From the article, "100 innovators under 35 whose work and ideas will change the world." The full-text of the article is available as a .pdf file. -- Automobile Theft--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Highway Data Loss Institute Most Frequent Automobile Theft Claims -- Agriculture--Canada--Statistics Source: Statistics Canada Full-Text, Census of Agriculture, 2001 -- Archives--Canada Source: National Archives of Canada New, Online Digitized Collection, "New France Online" Over 22,000 documents are available. From the announcement, "The National Archives of Canada, the Archives de France and the Canadian Embassy in France announce the online arrival of more than 22,000 digitized documents about the administration of New France. The documents come from the Colonies fonds (series C11A) held at the Centre des archives d'outre-mer in Aix-en-Provence, France. Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Information Industry "Online, Inc. Acquired by Information Today, Inc." From the ITI NewsBreak, "Information Today, Inc. announced today that it has acquired Online, Inc. (http://www.onlineinc.com) and its assets, including EContent and EMedia magazines and the Web Search University, Intranets, and Buying and Selling eContent conferences. Key Online, Inc. management and staff, including Nancy Garman, Adam and Andrew Pemberton, and about a dozen others, primarily in the editorial and graphics area, will join ITI and continue to operate from Online, Inc.’s Wilton, Connecticut base." In October of 2001, Information Today acquired Online magazine from Online Inc. See Also: Official News Release Grants--Databases--Fee-Based New From the Foundation Center: Foundation Grants to Individuals Online Individuals can subscribe to the database for $9.95/month. From the announcement, "offers access to the Center's exclusive database of close to 4,800 funding programs for individuals. Easy-to-use and updated quarterly to ensure accuracy, Foundation Grants to Individuals Online includes detailed descriptions of foundations and public charities that cover a wide range of funding needs, including support for education, such as scholarships, fellowships, and loans; arts and cultural projects; research and professional endeavors; and a wide range of special needs, such as general welfare." Virtual Reference New Web Site: Library of Congress/OCLC QuestionPoint Web Site Goes Live A new site with details about the service. This service was formerly known as the Collaborative Digital Reference Service. From the site, "QuestionPoint is a collaborative reference service the Library of Congress and OCLC worked together to develop, with input from participating members of the Global Reference Network (a group of libraries and institutions worldwide that are committed to digital reference.)" You can find more details and background via this sitre from the Library of Congress. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Information Technology Industry--Lists & Rankings Source: Red Herring The Red Herring100 The 50 Top Public and Non-Public Companies. See Also : RH100: Future Contenders -- Customer Resource Management--Web Resources divine Launches "Rival Eye" About Customer Resource Management Web sites, links to articles, etc. Other compilations are also available. These compilations were formally known as Northern Light's "Special Editions". -- Cancer--United States--Statistics Source: Several Organizations "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer 1973-1999, Featuring Implications of Age and Aging on the U.S. Cancer Burden" This link takes you to a summary, q&a page, and links to the charts appearing in the article. The full-text of the article is available in the May 15 issue of the journal Cancer (Vol. 94, No. 10: 2766-2792). See Also: Additional Info Available via Page from American Cancer Society See Also: "Scientists Make Important Change in Reporting Cancer Statistics" -- High School Students--United States--Statistics Source: BLS Enrollment and Work Activity of 2001 High School Graduates -- War on Terrorism Source: United States Department of Defense New Site: DefendAmerica.Gov From the annoucement, "The new site, found at DefendAmerica.gov, offers the latest news, photographs, transcripts and other information about the U.S.-led global effort against terrorism. As DefendAmerica's editor, David Jackson, put it: "If it has anything to do with the war, we're interested." Thanks to G.T. for the news tip. News Briefs (2 Items) Scholarly Publishing "SPARC to Support BioMed Central's Alternative Business Models for Online Journals" - Business Information--Fee-Based OneSource Expands Into Australia Monday, May 13, 2002
Web Search--Patents A Sample of A Few Recently Issued Patents Of Interest to the Information Industry === "Automatic user interest profile generation from structured document access information" #6,385,619 Asignee: IBM Issue Date: 5/7/02 From the abstract, "A system generates user interest profiles by monitoring and analyzing a user's access to a variety of hierarchical levels within a set of structured documents, e.g., documents available at a web site. Each information document has parts associated with it and the documents are classified into categories using a known taxonomy. The user interest profiles are automatically generated based on the type of content viewed by the user." - "Seamless integration of internet resources" #6,381,599 Asignee: America Online Issue Date: 4/30/02 From the abstract, "A mechanism for seamlessly searching and accessing information available through the Internet and other resources is disclosed. The present invention maintains a database of file objects available from numerous sources. The present invention updates the database periodically to ensure the accuracy and completeness of it. The present invention also may access and retrieve data from numerous sources when prompted by a single and simple command initiated by the user." -- "Display of media previews" #6,370,543 Asignee: Magnifi, Inc. Issue Date: 4/9/02 From the abstract, "A method and apparatus for searching for multimedia files in a distributed database and for displaying results of the search based on the context and content of the multimedia files." - "Method of clustering electronic documents in response to a search query"# 6,363,379 Asignee: AT&T Issue Date: 3/26/02 From the abstract, A method of presenting clusters of documents in response to a search query where the documents within a cluster are determined to be related to one another." - "Method and apparatus for retrieving documents based on information other than document content" #6,360,215 Assignee: Inktomi Corporation Issue Date: 3/19/02 From the abstract, " method and apparatus are provided for retrieving documents from a collection of documents based on information other than the contents of a desired document. The collection of documents, which may be a hypertext system or documents available via the World Wide Web, is indexed." Information Visualization National Library of Medicine Source: Information Today NewsBreaks "NLM Is Testing Visual Interface from Antarcti.ca" From Paula Hane's article, "Antarcti.ca Systems, Inc. (http://antarcti.ca), a Canadian developer of data-visualization technology, has announced that the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Specialized Information Services (SIS; http://sis.nlm.nih.gov) division is funding and testing a prototype interface for its DIRLINE (Directory of Information Resources Online) database. The project will use Antarcti.ca’s Visual Net (VN) software, which is a customizable tool that relies on visual-mapping techniques to enable users to navigate and browse across multiple databases and in multiple formats." See Also: Direct to Antarti.ca DIRLINE Demo See Also: Direct to Antarti.ca PubMed Demo Web Search--Google Source: Smart Business "Killer App" John Dvorak shares a few thoughts about Google Catalogs. He begins the column by stating, "Once in a while I'll play with the other search engines to see what they are doing new, and invariably the result is nothing." I disagree with Dvorak on this point. The current services and development work at Teoma, AllTheWeb, Vivisimo, Gigablast and others should not be dismissed . In case you missed it, Google Catalogs is now searching over 3,000 catalogs. Web Search Source: USA Today "Thrill of Hunt Lures Google Competitors" Teoma and AllTheWeb are featured. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Information Technology--Australia--Statistics Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library Full-Text, Research Brief, Household Broadband Access in Australia 2 pages .pdf. HTML version also available. - Drugs--Canada Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Full-Text, Drug Situation in Canada, 2001 -- Special Education--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Department of Education Full-Text, Twenty-third Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Summary/Highlights ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Motor Vehicles--Economics--United States--Statistics Source: NHTSA Full-Text Report, The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Sunday, May 12, 2002
Web Search Source: Search Engine Showdown Search Engine Overlap and Unique Hits Statistics Updated on Search Engine Showdown After more that two years without an update, Greg has new overlap and unique hit reports on the Showdown site. According to the site, "These reports show how much overlap there is between the search engines and which search engines found Web pages that none of the others found." - Web Navigation Source: Newsbytes And Another One Bites The Dust: RealNames Is Going Out of Business From the Newsbytes article, "RealNames Corp., one of the firms that pioneered the keyword approach to Internet addressing, will go out of business Monday, and as a result thousands of Internet keywords will go dark before the end of June, according to a source familiar with the situation." "Triggering the shutdown was a decision by Microsoft Corp., which allows keywords to resolve in its popular Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser, not to renew its exclusive contract with RealNames, the source said." See Also: Direct to the RealNames Web Site (Update 5/13): "RealNames calls it quits, blames Microsoft" (via Computerworld) Web Search--Google Source: Washington Post "What Does Google Say About You?" A paragraph or two about how Google and other engines work would have been helpful in this article. Also, alerting folks to the existence of other search engines should have been included. It seems many people have forgotten that web search does not always equal Google. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Business--European Union Source: European Commission Three New Reports About Small and Medium Size Buisnesses in the EU 1) Full-Text, SMEs [Small and Medium Enterprises] in Europe "...gives basic statistics on European SMEs (employment characteristics, size, productivity, key SME sectors, etc)" 2) Full-Text, Highlights from the 2001 Survey of European SMEs "...presents the findings of a 2001 business survey of nearly 8000 enterprises throughout Europe." 3) Full-Text, Regional Clusters in Europe "... looks at 34 business clusters across Europe, half in the science-based industries, and the rest in "traditional" ones. It characterises them in a variety of innovative ways and discusses policies supporting developments of enterprise clusters at national and EU levels." See Also: A Page With Summary and "Fast Fact" Info For the Three Reports -- Higher Education--United Kingdom Source: The Times Full-Text Available Online, Good University Guide 2003 Includes all league tables. -- Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes/Milken Institute Updated List Now Available, Forbes/Milken List of Best Places for Business and Careers-2002 Numerous lists and interactive tools. From the list, "Forbes/Milken list of Best Places for Business and Careers ranks 200 metropolitan areas based on the latest government data for employment and wage growth over one- and five-year periods. Analysts at the Milken Institute also search for critical shifts within the vast technology sector, weighting one- and five-year changes in gross tech output, technology as a percentage of the total metro economy and the diversity within tech industries." Saturday, May 11, 2002
Information Visualization Source: Online The Hype Over Hyperbolic Browsers From Maryellen Mott Allen's article, "Retrieving information has become much easier over the past 2 decades, facilitated by increasing numbers of electronic databases and by search engines that provide users with the kind of flexibility unimaginable in the days before online indices and catalogs. And yet, along with the accolades come numerous complaints about the very same technologies that have made the information industry such a quickly growing field. The typical diatribe includes a litany of complaints including unfriendly interfaces, the absence of intuitive search structures, and the requirement that users learn special languages or conventions in order to interact effectively with the online systems." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Advertising--United States--Profiles Ready Reference Shelf Source: Mediaweek Top 50 Market Profiles Each brief profile contains info on ad spending by media, local evening news ratings, and newspaper circulation information. Friday, May 10, 2002
U.S. Patent Office--Digitization Projects Source: Newsbytes "Patent Office Battles Paper Tiger" From the article, "Fresh from its transition to an electronic filing system, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is embarking upon a controversial plan to dispose of an estimated 135 million documents - literally tons of paper - chronicling more than 200 years of innovation. In a vast research library in Crystal City, Arlington, the PTO maintains countless stacks of patents and trademarks - roughly 27 million in all - some from inventions and ideas dating back as far as 1790. Now that the agency has scanned the papers into its publicly searchable electronic database, it's looking for a new curator for the aging records." Internet Answer Services--AskEarth.Com Source: San Diego Union-Tribune Another New Answer Service: AskEarth.Com This concept seems to be coming back in vogue. First, Google Answers, then the retooling of Yahoo's service, and know news of AskEarth.Com. The service is along lines the same lines as Google Answers. From the article, "He [Ask Earth Founder, Christoper Cole] said he and a partner started working on AskEarth two or three years ago, but launched the site only in recent months. The service cost more than $1 million to develop, and is making money every day, Cole said. He envisions that the site could provide a side income for people who have accumulated vast amounts of knowledge, such as reference librarians." I'm looking forward to asking Mr. Cole if his company considered the many free services public libraries (remote dbase access, VRD's, etc.) offer in the ASKEarth.Com marketing plan. See Also: My Comments About Google Answers See Also: Direct to the AskEarth.Com Site Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Maps--United States Source: FEMA HazardMaps.Gov After resolving a few technical issues, HazardMaps.Gov, a site we initially informed you about several months ago, is back online. From the site, "HazardMaps.gov is a web-based collection of natural hazards, and supporting, data. The site is comprised of two main components: The WebGIS Atlas and The Hazards Data Exchange." The service has numerous interactive options to create customized maps. -- Business--Worldwide--Lists & Rankings Source: Financial Times 2002 Edition Now Online, FT 500 "The world's largest companies." Several lists are available. The Global 500 list is available as a pdf file. -- Intellectual Property--United States Source: GAO Full-Text, Testimony, "Intellectual Property: Industry and Agency Concerns over Intellectual Property Rights" Several charts and graphps. The testimony was given be a GAO official to the Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy, House Committee on Government Reform. Thursday, May 09, 2002
Web Resources of the Week News and Current Affairs Streaming Media—United States Searchable Broadcast Transcripts--United States Here are only a few examples of streaming audio/video sites that might prove valuable for both content and as examples of streaming media focusing on news and current affairs. I'm planning on presenting a similar sample of Non-U.S. Resources next month. Part 1: Streaming Media The FeedRoom View local television news content from several U.S. cities. A national site is available or go direct to local Feed Room sites. Btw, each FeedRoom offers a search tool. It's located to the right of the viewing screen and provides the opportunity to keyword search the short annotations written about each news clip. Material is available for a "few weeks" after airing. It's also very easy to e-mail a direct url of a clip. Local FeedRooms Bay Area, CA Birmingham, AL Chicago, IL (NBC 5) Chicago, IL (WGN) Columbus, OH Dallas, TX Denver, CO Hartford, CT Las Vegas, NV Los Angeles, CA (KNBC) Los Angeles, CA (KTLA) Miami, FL Milwaukee, WI New York, NY (WNBC) New York, NY (WPIX, WB11) Philadelphia, PA Providence, RI Raleigh-Durham, NC San Diego, CA Seattle, WA - National Public Radio Archive Keyword search abstracts, limit by date/program and then listen to individual segments or entire programs online. Material for most NPR news programs back to 1996. Abstracts and links in this database are only accessible via the NPR site. - NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS) Video Keyword search actual spoken words from the broadcast then view online. Uses Virage technology. Material back to early 2000. - Speechbot Demo project from HP/Compaq. Keyword search transcripts compiled using voice recognition technology from over 14,000 hours of radio programming. Listen online using RealAudio. -- Part 2: Searchable Broadcast Transcripts--Fee Based Services Monitoring Services I'll share more about these services in the future. Until then, take a few minutes to look at these fee-based services which utilize the closed-captioning, speech recognition, and other technologies. Most of these services also offer monitoring/alert services that can report in real-time or near real-time when a person, company, or anything else is mentioned on a broadcast. - TVEyes Limited demo version available for free. Also available, RadioEars. - Medialink NewsIQ - Shadow TV Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Science--Biographies Free Access During Beta-Test: BioMed Central Science Archive, Scientists Telling Stories From the site, "Science archive is a new service from BioMed Central where scientists tell stories about their lives in science . During the beta-test you can watch and listen to Sydney Brenner and John Maynard Smith talk about their lives in science. See Also: Learn More via an Article From Managing Information - Ready Reference Shelf Counties and Cities--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Full-Text, Online Today: County and City Data Book: 2000 Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text Text of book consists of numerous pdf files. - Citation Indexing--Lists and Rankings Source: Institute for Scientific Information Science in the United States, 1997-2001 Electrical & Electronic Engineering: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1997-2000 - Multimedia Searching--Audio FindSounds.Com A few words about FindSounds.Com in today's New York Times is worth mentioning since we are multimedia "heavy" today. From the article, "The site is well designed and deploys some impressive technology. For instance, each search result offers the visitor the opportunity to click on "Find sounds like this one." The search engine then uses a form of artificial intelligence to retrieve audio files that sound most like the given sample — not just sounds that are labeled with a similar keyword." Professional Reading Shelf Preservation of Digital Materials Source: RLG Full-Text Report, Trusted Digital Repositories: Attributes and Responsibilities Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text 70 pages .pdf News Briefs SEC Rules Amended: Foreign Company and Foreign Government Docs Must Be Filed Via EDGAR Details about 1/2 way down the page. Wednesday, May 08, 2002
Libraries and Museums--United States Transcript, "Blurring the Boundaries: Collaborating to Serve a Nation of Learners" The transcript of a speech given last Saturday by Robert S. Martin, Ph.D., Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, at the OCLC Research Library Director's Conference in Dublin, Ohio. Martin discusses the work the IMLS is doing to "build cooperation between museums and libraries." On a Related Note: The May Issue of First Monday contains papers presented at the Third Annual Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World. The conference was sponsored by the IMLS. Web Domains Source: WashTech.Com Here Comes .pro From the article, "Lawyers, physicians and accountants soon will be able to register Web addresses in a worldwide Internet domain reserved exclusively for certified professionals, but they will have to pay nearly 10 times the cost of ordinary domain names." "RegistryPro will sell .pro addresses only to Internet users who can prove that they are certified physicians, lawyers or accountants. The company will rely on an automated verification system and human legwork to ensure that registrants are who they say they are..." Too bad something like this isn't available for information professionals. See Also: Learn More Via the RegistryPro Web Site Online Industry--LexisNexis LN Adds New Ethnic and Regional News Sources LN adds Ethnic Newsline and Regional Newsline database to Academic Universe and Nexis.Com. From the news release, "Ethnic Newsline contains articles selected from the ethnic and minority press in America, representing the viewpoints of African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos, Chicanos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and European Americans." "Regional Newsline includes articles on news, stories and events of local and regional interest within the United States. The collection spans the country and includes such publications as Bennington Banner (VT), Connecticut Post, Fairbanks Daily News Miner (AK), Las Cruces Sun News (NM), Opelika-Auburn News (AL), The Oakland Tribune (CA) and Pasadena Star-News (CA), San Antonio Current (TX), The News Virginian (VA), Weekly Planet Tampa (FL) and Winston-Salem Journal (NC). Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Mergers and Acquisitions--United Kingdom Source: National Statistics Office Mergers and Acquisitions Involving U.K. Companies (1st Q. 2002) 11 pages .pdf - Demographics--United States Source: U.S. Census Census Begins Roll-Out of Demographic Profiles From the Census site, "A profile includes four tables that provide various demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics for the states, counties, minor civil divisions in selected states, places, metropolitan areas, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, Hawaiian home lands and congressional districts. It includes 100-percent and sample data from the decennial censuses." Now Available: Mississippi, Nevada, and Washington are available. Next week: Illinois, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin - Gambling--Australia--Statistics Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library Full-Text Research Report, Gambling: An Australian Tradition on the Up! 19 pages .pdf. HTML version also available. Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Web Search--AllTheWeb Cleaner, Easier To Read Interface/Search Result Pages Debut at AllTheWeb.Com A new color scheme and layout makes for a much 'cleaner' design. Tabs provide rapid access to 6 databases (Web Pages, News, Pictures, Videos, MP3 Files, and FTP Files). You can also use the tabs to move between "advanced interfaces". A web search results page includes, "Fast Topics" (results organized into folders), and "Narrow Your Search" (suggested terms/phrases to help focus a broad search). Links to materials from the other 5 ATW databases might also appear on the results page. AllTheWeb's Jami Alexrod tells us, "This design is the first phase in a broader redesign of ATW. We are currently conducting usability studies on various designs and learning about which features are used and not used." She also let's us know that other new features that, "highlight FAST's search technology" are on the way. A formal relaunch for "sometime" this summer is being planned. It's great to see ATW continuing to develop this useful search tool. More details as they become available. See Also: Search Engine Showdown For More Info About The Redesign and News About FAST Search & Transfer's (AllTheWeb's Parent Company) It's First Quarterly Net Profit. (Update 5/8 10:00PM EDST) Although Google hasn't gotten back to me with a comment about the problem, they seem to have corrected the following filter issue. Web Search--Google From the Filtering Doesn't Always Work File I was testing the Google "SafeSearch" feature recently and noticed an entry point into material that appears to bypass the filter. After setting the SafeSearch to "strict filtering", I ran a search on the term "adult". The "web pages" appeared to have the filtering in place but a click on the "directory" tab provided me with a link to the "mature content" category in the Google/Open Web Directory. Clicking on this link provides full acess to the directory. After just a few more minutes of testing I found many other single term searches that produced the same link. sex video tapes adult dvd thumbnail searching image galleries gallery brunettes older Magazines--Lists & Rankings Source: Library Journal Best New Magazines of 2001 Michael Colford, LJ's magazine columnist, makes his picks. A link to each magazines web site is provided. Online Industry--Hoover's Fee-Based Databases Hoover's Expands Biographies And Advanced Search Tool On Hoover's Online New services for Hoover's subscribers. Additional Executive Biographical Content "Hoover's Online has expanded its executive biographies to include age, salary, bonus and company address, in addition to biography, name and title. The biographies also now include a listing of other company affiliations - all companies in Hoover's database with which an executive is associated. Certain biographies also contain a new work history section, which details any archived title and salary information." New Search Criteria (Advanced Interface) These include stock exchange, assets, auditors and ZIP code range. The entire Hoover's database is now searchable using more than 25 different criteria. Federal Courts--United States Public Access To Information Source: Washington Post "Eleven Federal Courts To Permit Web Access To Criminal Records" From the article, "In an unprecedented move, the federal judiciary's policymaking body said today it would allow limited public access to criminal court records on the Internet." See Also: News Release (via Administrative Office of U.S. Courts) Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Information Technology--Employment--Lists & Rankings Source: Computerworld Best Places to Work in Information Technology, 2002 (U.S. and Worldwide) The top 100 employers in the U.S. and worldwide are listed. -- Energy--Worldwide--Statistics Now Available, Full-Text: International Energy Annual 2000 "This report is EIA's annual historical data summary for world energy production, consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Country-level data are provided for 1991-2000 and, in many cases, for 1980-2000." -- Science and Engineering--United States--Statistics Source: NSF Full-Text Report, Science and Engineering State Profiles: 1999-2000 (NSF 02-318) Available as an html or .pdf file. From the NSF site, "The data included here represent an electronic version of the database titled "Science and Engineering State Profiles." Published annually, this report provides state-specific data obtained from numerous surveys of NSF/SRS and other Federal Government agencies. The report for 1999-2000 includes a data source page and a set of 52 one-page science and engineering (S&E) Profiles (including ones for D.C and Puerto Rico)" -- Intellectual Property--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: IP Worldwide Top IP Firms in 2001 See Also: Summary Article Professional Reading Shelf The May Edition of Péter's Digital Reference Shelf is Now Online This month Péter Jacsó takes a look at Oxford Reference Online and a weblog called The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk. :) Wow! We would like to thank Dr. Jacsó for the many positive comments he makes about this publication. Monday, May 06, 2002
Web Search--AltaVista AV Increases Size of Multimedia Index Accoding to the news release the index of multimedia (images, audio, video) material is over 70% larger than previous versions. AV also announced that, "it has linked the multimedia index to its collection of breaking news images, ensuring that more than 800 news photos, maps, charts and diagrams from top newswires and authoritative editorial sites are included every day." AltaVista's news content is powered by a feed from Moreover. In other news, AV has recently increased the dictionary and improved the functionality of it's spell-check database. An AV search with the typo for "Geoge W. Bush" will return a corrected version and link asking, Did you mean: "george w bush". U.S. Government Databases GPO (Government Printing Office) Source: The Washington Post "Government Printing Office May Lose Its Exclusivity" From the article, "A Civil War-era agency would lose its government printing monopoly under a Bush administration requirement for competitive bids on some $500 million in yearly contracts." Update (5/7/02): Read the Full-Text of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) Memo mentioned in the Article U.S. Government--Web Accessible Information Major Changes On Tap for the Government Information Sharing Project One of the original and most useful sources of U.S. Government material on the web, the Government Information Sharing Project at Oregon State University, is set to undergo some major changes. A message on the GISP site says, "In 2002, government information is much more widely available on the Internet than it was in 1995. Federal agencies have developed their own web sites and online databases for distributing information. Much of the data we originally put online is now available elsewhere. In addition, the server that houses the Govinfo site is aging, and has indeed already surpassed its life expectancy." Databases That Will Continue To Be Maintained USA Counties 1997 Census of Agriculture U.S. Imports/Exports History 1992 Economic Census Note: A Redesigned GISP Site Will Be Available in Early July Databases That Will Be Discontinued (Links To Other Sources Will Be Provided) 1990 Census of Population and Housing Regional Economic Information System Consolidated Federal Fund Reports Direct to the Government Info Sharing Project Web Search--Google Source: The Guardian "How Google Got it So Right" From the article, "The success of Google, the internet search engine, has come about through the old fashioned form of viral marketing: word of mouth." Online Industry--Thomson Thomson Launches New Product Aimed At Investment Banking Industry From the news release, "Through a single web portal, Thomson Analytics provides access to a complete spectrum of financial data from the world's most trusted sources, with functionality to execute powerful screening, compare peers and industries, and integrate data directly within Microsoft(R) Excel." " With this initial release, Thomson Analytics includes access to key content sets from Thomson Financial including Datastream's daily international equity and index pricing for more than 63,000 equities and 12,000 indices representing over 50 established and emerging markets, and delayed price quotes from 130 exchanges worldwide via ILX Systems." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Business--S.F. Bay Area--Lists & Rankings Source: San Francisco Chronicle Updated, The Chronicle 200, 2002 Numerous lists. Searchable. -- Information Technology--U.S. Federal Government--Lists & Rankings 9th Annual Washington Technology Top 100 "Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors in IT." Included in the package is the Top 100 list, profiles of the top 20 companies, and a link to the 2001 list. -- Advertising--Lists & Rankings Source: BtoB BtoB Power Media50, 2002 From the article, "a comprehensive look at the top advertising venues as ranked by media buyers, industry analysts, and BtoB editors and reporters." "The Power Media 50 list contains detailed information on the top properties across seven major media categories: newspapers, business publications, Internet sites, out-of-office properties, IT magazines, vertical industry titles, and TV and radio programs." -- Digital Collections--United States Source: American Memory Project @ The Library of Congress Two New Collections From the American Memory Project 1) Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting "Approximately 500 interview excerpts and approximately 3800 photographs. The four-month study of occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey, was conducted in 1994. Paterson is considered to be the cradle of the Industrial Revolution in America. 2) Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry From an LC list posting, "The collection is a selection of more than 400 items from the Emile Berliner Papers and 108 Berliner sound recordings from the Library of Congress's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Berliner (1851-1929), an immigrant and a largely self-educated man, was responsible for the development of the microphone, the flat recording disc and the gramophone player." -- Digital Collections--Canada Source: National Library of Canada New Online Exhibit, Guardians of the North: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art Move over Spiderman! Say hello to Johnny Canuck, Northern Lights and Fleur de Lys. From the site, "Created by comics scholar and archivist John Bell, in cooperation with the National Library’s Digital Library Task Force, the Guardians of the North Web site is based on an exhibition, originally mounted in 1992, that presented a history of Canada’s superheroes. The Web site offers a revised version of the original exhibition narrative and features digital images of the items that were displayed. The site includes a digitized version of John Bell’s book Protectors of the North, to which new material has been added, including detailed profiles of Canada’s main national superheroes and brief biographies of their creators." Sunday, May 05, 2002
Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Digital Libraries--Collections Source: Digital Library Federation Digital Collections, Searchable Database A search/browse database of "publicly accessible collections" from DLF members. Records and links to over 370 projects are available. Professional Reading Shelf Knowledge Organization "Functions of a thesaurus / classification / ontological knowledge base" Written in 1997 by Dr. Dagobert Soergel, a well-known and highly respected information scientist, this reading provides an excellent overview on why knowledge of the topic is important. From the abstract, "This reading gives a fairly complete list of functions that should convince anybody of the importance of studying classification. It starts with an overview and then gives details for each major functional area." Numerous examples are also provided. Saturday, May 04, 2002
Legal Research Source: Law Office Technology Review Tracking Federal Cases With PACER From the article, "Although both Lexis Nexis and West Group offer products to access federal dockets, the United States Judiciary offers its own alternative, PACER. According to its Web site, "Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index." Digital Libraries--Conferences The Program for the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, 2002 Is Now Available The conference is scheduled to take place in Portland, Oregon, July 14-18. Here's just a small sample of the presentations, papers, and speakers that caught my eye during a quick scan of the program. I plan on coming back to this post and providing links to papers, demo's, and presenter homepages. Stay tuned! Note: Conference Organizers are Looking For Student Volunteers. Keynotes Jessica Litman, Professor of Law, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI Daniel Greenstein, Director, Digital Library Federation, Washington, DC Papers To Be Presented "Using Librarian Techniques in Automatic Text Summarization for Information Retrieval" "Structuring Keyword-Based Queries for Web Databases" "Integration of Simultaneous Searching and Reference Linking across Bibliographic Resources on the Web" "Detecting Events with Date and Place Information in Unstructured Text" "Collaborative Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries" "A Methodology and System for Preserving Digital Data" Demonstrations FACET: A Faceted Thesaurus Retrieval System Never Having to Say You're Sorry: An Integrated, WWW-Based Software Solution For Providing Comprehensive Access to Journal Literature DSpace Video Retrieval with Multiple Image Search Poster Sessions Search Facilities for Internet Relay Chat Content-Based Filtering and Personalization Using Structured Metadata Automatic Removal of Advertising from Web-Page Display To View The Complete Conference Program, Visit this Link Friday, May 03, 2002
Libraries--Associations Source: LJ "Ex-SLA Head Shaffer: Group Faces "Identity Crisis" From the brief article on the LJ site, "She [Shaffer] said she found the association split in support of change: "There are many who believe in the status quo." She attributed SLA's difficulty in completing a project with a branding consultant--new names, tag lines, and logos--to the organization's inability to define its future." She said her rapid exit was a "selfish decision," noting that she left when it became apparent she could not achieve her goals." According to the web site the 5/15 issue of the magazine will contain more SLA coverage. Libraries--United States--Associations Source: American Library Association 2002 ALA Election Results Are Now Available 2002 ALA Council and Presidential Results 2002 ALA Division and Roundtable Election Results Carla Hayden elected ALA President for 2003-04 Web Search--Yahoo Web Search--Google Source: News.Com The Future of Yahoo's Relationship With Google The Google/Yahoo contract is set to expire in June. Google provides "web page" results provided on Yahoo results page. According to the article, Inktomi is in talks with Yahoo to win back the contract. Inktomi lost the contract to Google in June of 2000. Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Taxes--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census 2001 Annual Survey of State Tax Collections Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Report - Petroleum Industry--Chronology Source: EIA Petroleum Chronology of Events 1970 - 2000 From the site, "Describes important forces affecting the U.S. petroleum industry during the past 30 years." Thursday, May 02, 2002
ssWeb Resource of the Week Electronic Journals--Database Electronic Journal Miner What might be an old fave to some will be a great new resource for others. With that in mind, say hello to the Electronic Journal Miner. The EJM contains information on over 7200 e-journals. From the site FAQ, "Electronic serials may be defined very broadly as any journal, magazine, e'zine, webzine, newsletter or type of electronic serial publication which is available over the Internet. Within this broad definition, the titles can be electronically accessed using different technologies such as the World Wide Web (WWW), gopher, ftp, telnet, email or listserv...This site primarly includes ejournal sites as they are offered by the publisher. In general this site excludes ejournals that are embedded within aggregators (such as Northern Light, EBSCO, Bell & Howell ProQuest, Information Access Company and others)." "The Electronic Journal Miner only lists ejournals and other online serials that are available from publishers or directly from their producer." Each entry includes basic info (start date, ISSN, contact info, etc.) along with subject access via LCSH. A final point, many of the journals in this database do not provide free, full-text "on the web". Public Libraries OCLC Awarded $9 Million Dollar Grant From Gates Foundation To Build Computing Portal for Public Libraries, Others From the announcement, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today awarded the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) a three-year, $9 million grant to build a Web-based, public access computing portal for public libraries and other organizations that provide open access to information. The new portal will build on the foundation’s five-year-old U.S. Library Program, which is providing computers with Internet access to more than 10,000 libraries across the United States." Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Patents--United States--Statistics Source: USPTO "USPTO Releases 2001 Patent Statistics" - Scholarly Publishing Citation Indexing Source: ISI High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1997-2001 Science in Australia, 1997-2001 Communication: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1997-2001 -- Web Search--United Kingdom Source: BBC "BBC Launches New Internet Search Engine" From the article, "The BBC has launched a new internet search engine after research showed the majority of UK web users were dissatisfied with current search options." Direct to BBCi Web Search Note: The BBCi Search Engine is querying a "chunk" of the Google database. Most of the Google limiting syntax works with this version of the Google database (site:, intitle:, inurl:, link:, related: ). PDF and other non-html formats don't seem to be available. Cached pages are also not available. Using certain terms in a query will return a page with the following statement, "This search may produce some results that could be considered offensive" and zero results are returned. A suggestion to try another search engine is given. Update (5/3/02): "BBC angers rivals by launching online search engine (via The Guardian)" -- Documents in the News Internet--Children Source: National Research Council Full-Text Report:Youth, Pornography, and the Internet See Also: Related Materials, News Release, Audio of Public Briefing Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items) Bibliographies Source: Wall Street Journal (Read the Full-Text) "Bibliography Mess: Web Muddles The Fineries of Scholarly Citations" From the article, "Computers have made research so easy. Search engines lead to Web sites where hyperlinks point the way to vast databases where keywords pull up pages where 3-D graphics and color animation leap from the text and authors leave their e-mail addresses to promote online discussions. It just seemed logical that something else was going to get more complicated. Now it's clear what that is: the fine print at the end of a book or scholarly article -- the bibliography. "All the rules we've spent years developing are out the window," sighs Karen Patrias, a librarian and bibliographer at the National Library of Medicine, or NLM, in Bethesda, Md. -- Web Searching--Financial Issues Source: Searcher "Free to Fee" From the site, Barbie Keiser examines the reasons why some search engine producers have stopped offering services at no cost, looking at Web site economics, advertising, pay level logistics, and how some services have reached a happy medium between free and fee. -- Web Search Source: Online "Dead Search Engines" Greg Notess writes, "And like so many aspects of the Internet, the death of a search engine is no simple matter. It can come in a variety of styles. Indeed, most of the original search engine URLs remain, and with some kind of a search box on the page. Many of our organizations continue to maintain Web pages with links to search engines. Which ones should we still link to and which have really died? It helps to understand how search engines die and which are left standing." See Also: Search Engine Showdown's List of Dead and Dying Search Engines News Briefs Online Databases Gale Adds The New Yorker and Scientific American To Periodical Databases Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Professional Reading Shelf Online Databases Source: Library Journal "Online Databases- Sorting Through Online Systems" An article by online database expert Carol Tenopir. She writes, "Librarians often ask if there's a simple way to keep online systems straight in order to help users and conduct efficient searches. Although there is danger in oversimplifying the complexities and contrasts among the hundreds of online systems and databases to which libraries provide access, all but full-time online searchers should practice a simple coping mechanism. First recognize the similarities rather than the differences (today's commercial online services are more alike than not) and then focus on the few important differences that make each system stand out." I think many librarians can relate to having so many databases, each with different content, interfaces, and search syntax, that trying to assist end users can be especially challenging. Not only do end users want to know which database(s), including web search engines, to choose for content but how to search them. It's a shame that a great deal of the "power" these tools offer, both end users and professionals, doesn't get fully utilized. One product that I've seen, MuseGlobal, is developing an impressive tool that broadcasts a search to proprietary (fee-based) and open web databases and then be able to fuse all of the results together into one result set. MuseGlobal works with most databases and online services and is not Z39.50 dependent. Because of this, MuseGlobal can harness the full power each database/online service has to offer. -- Controlled Vocabularies Source: National Library of Canada Updated, Thesauri and Controlled Vocabularies Bibliography Updated, Definitions of Key Terms in the Field of Controlled Vocabularies -- Freedom of Access To Information Source: IFLA "Freedom of Access to Information, the Internet and Libraries and Information Services" A manifesto from the International Federation of Library Associations Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Scholarly Publishing Source: SPARC New, Full-Text: "Gaining Independence: A Manual for Planning the Launch of a Nonprofit Electronic Publishing Venture" -- Information Technology--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Yahoo Internet Life America's Most Wired Cities, 2002 -- Canada--Economy Source: Government of Canada New Web Site: "Canadian Economy Online" A new "one-stop" shop. -- Canada--History Site Redesign: Canadian Heritage Information Network -- Air Quality--United States Source: American Lung Association The American Lung Association® State of the Air 2002 Report Full-Text Report, New Edition Highlights ||| Direct to Full-Text News Briefs Portions of the Financial Times Site, Archive (FT.Com) Moving To Fee-Based Model Another freebie bites the dust. From the site, "Users will be able to read all the latest news and most comment and analysis on FT.com free of charge. However, users will be asked to pay a subscription fee to read some of the site's most valuable content. Subscription-only features will include the full Lex column; top columnists such as Martin Wolf, Peter Martin and Lucy Kellaway; web pages devoted to specific industries; and all articles more than seven days old." "The new FT.com subscription service will have two levels. The first will give access to the full editorial offering, including new services such as Lex comments written and published online during the day and the opportunity to read and print important pages of the newspaper. Subscription to this level will cost £75, $110 or E120 a year. The second level will also offer two new research tools: a database on 18,000 listed companies across 55 countries and an archive of articles from more than 500 media sources going back five years. This will cost £200, $300 or E320. Newspaper subscribers can subscribe to FT.com for two-thirds of the standard prices. Introductory discounts will also be offered." - Infotrieve Completes Technology Upgrade, New Product Set To Debut at SLA Conference -- Web Search--Google "Google And AOL Announce Strategic Alliance" From the announcement, "Under the agreement, Google's search technology will begin powering the search areas of AOL, CompuServe, AOL.COM and Netscape this summer." See Also: "Google Lands Pact With AOL, Strengthening IPO Prospects" (via The Wall Street Journal) -- Deep Linking Source: Wired Dallas Morning News Demands Site To Cease Linking Direct To Individual Articles |
