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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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Tuesday, December 31, 2002
Business Research Source: HBS Working Knowledge "The Research File" from the Baker Library (@ the Harvard Business School) Each month the librarians at Baker prepare a fact and link-filled article on topics of interest to business researchers. The articles are available (no charge, full-text) in the HBS Working Knowledge newsletter. Here's a rundown of article titles from 2002: * December--"Baker Library Guide to Hedge Funds" * October--"Using the Statistical Abstract Online" * September--"Tools for Protecting Your Intellectual Property" * August--"Academic Research Meets the Real World" * June--"Doing Business With the Feds Online" * May--"Tips for Benchmarking Against Your Peers" Note: We often mention and many of you are aware that a plenty of useful material can't be found (for many reasons) via Google and other web engines. These articles illustrate this point. You will not find them indexed in Google and most of the other major engines (as of today).
Web Search Industry More Positive Comments About Yahoo, Google IPO? Last week, after the Yahoo/Inktomi acquisition was announced, I noted a couple of comments from Charlene Li from Forrester. used the words "inveitable", "ouster", and Google in the same sentence. Today, more positive comments about Yahoo and how it could pose a challenge for Google. This time the comments are from Whit Andrews at Gartner. He writes, "The addition of Inktomi will further enable Yahoo to increase its presence within the microcosm of Internet search advertising, where Google exercises an outsized influence. Gartner believes that Yahoo will use the integrated technology to offer richer advertising opportunities — more business-oriented than technically driven. (For example, Inktomi's business of allowing sites to set a "spiderable" section of their sites for a fee will likely appeal to Yahoo.)" If this materializes, will Google begin a paid-inclusion program in 2003? At about the same time the Gartner article appeared on the web, Rich Karlgaard of Forbes writes that a Google IPO in the first-quarter of '03 is "queued up". Google IPO "rumours" been around for the past few years, I'll believe it when the S-1 filing hits the EDGAR database. Stay tuned.
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Volunteering--United States--Statistics Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Report, New: "Volunteering in the United States" -- Crime--United States--Statistics Source: FBI Report, New: Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January - June 2002 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Insurance--United States--Statistics Source: National Center for Health Statistics Report, New: American Children With Health Insurance Coverage Summary||| Direct to Full-Text Monday, December 30, 2002
Web Search--AlltheWeb Limiting Syntax With AlltheWeb, Filetype: I've discovered and a FAST spokesperson has confirmed that the syntax, filetype: will work with ATW. In addition to html material AllTheWeb provides access to pdf (Adobe Acrobat), .doc (Microsoft Word), and .swf (Macromedia Flash) content. You can apply this limit directly from the search box by typing: filetype: pdf (Limiting to only Acrobat material) filetype: msword (Limiting to only Word documents) filetype: flash (Limiting to only Flash presentations) See Also: Limits Can Also Be Combined By Placing the Filetype Limits Inside Parentheses (filetype:msword filetype:pdf) See Also: The filetype: syntax also works with Google. However, to limit to Word documents use filetype:doc
Information Industry--Gale Primary Source Microfilm Cool Jobs: Meet Remmel Nunn, Traversing the Globe In Search of Content Mr. Nunn travels throughout the acquiring content for Primary Source Microfilm or as he puts it, "My job is to identify rare archival collections and then to negotiate for their exclusive distribution on microfilm and online." In this first essay for Gale's newsletter he talks about some of his experiences in Russia.
Information Access Upcoming Meeting: National Security and Scientific Openness "The National Academies and the Center for Strategic and International Studies will co-host a public meeting on Jan. 9 to bring together scientists and policy-makers to discuss whether current publication policies and practices in the life sciences could lead to the inadvertent disclosure of "sensitive" information to those who might misuse it. The goal of this meeting is to start a dialogue between the life sciences and national security communities that might eventually lead to the development of a common set of publication policies for journals in the life sciences...Participants will discuss current bioterrorist threats to the nation, and past and present methods of controlling access to scientific information in the United States" The meeting will take place here in D.C. If you can't attend, it will be webcast. See Also: Agenda of the 1/9/03 Meeting
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--United Kingdom--Statistics Source: Library & Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at Loughborough University Full-Text, Library and Information Statistics Tables for the United Kingdom, 2002 Sunday, December 29, 2002
Librarians Source: Vaughn Citizen (Canada) Meet the Ontario Librarian of the Year: Rosemary Bonanno The award is given by the Ontario Library Association. From the article: "This is the key time for librarianship. We are managers of information and, going into the information age of the 21st century, this is going to be our century," she [Bonanno] said. In 1994, when the Internet was new, many people thought there would be a decline in use of the library system, but Mrs. Bonanno disagreed. "We can find out how to get the information, the quickest route. How to make sure it's authentic information. We are actually the tour guides of the net," she said. "Librarians are trained to structure the search. We can sculpture that search question so it gets you the results you are looking for. There is a natural blend between the book and electronic products and that's what we are doing here."
Information Industry--Yahoo--Legal Issues Source: The Recorder Yahoo vs. NCR Over Patents From the article, "Yahoo Inc. is going into the ring to defend itself against patent infringement claims by NCR Corp. NCR -- a leading manufacturer of ATMs and formerly known as National Cash Register -- sent Yahoo a letter two months ago, claiming the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet portal infringed 10 of its computer patents and demanding a licensing fee. With millions of dollars potentially at stake, Yahoo filed suit against NCR in San Francisco federal court Dec. 13, seeking a court order that it is not infringing NCR's patents and that NCR's patents are invalid...The patents at issue in the Yahoo case cover "ordering and downloading resources from computerized repositories;" a "computer system for management of resources;" and a "mechanism for dependably managing Web synchronization and tracking operations among multiple browsers," among other claims." ...and While We're Discussing Intellecutual Property, a National Law Journal Review of the Biggest IP Cases of 2002
Audio Searching Source: InfoWorld "The Power of Voice" Back in August The ResourceShelf featured several articles about keyword searching of audio files. Today, another article on this interesting topic. From the article, "Fast-Talk Communications' revolutionary phonetic indexing and search technology brings the magic of full-text search to the formerly opaque realms of audio recordings and video soundtracks. If you consider the way in which Google has already become everyone's indispensable "outboard brain," and extrapolate that to all the voice data that exists -- and to the vast quantities that soon will exist -- it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Fast-Talk is one of the most disruptive technologies in the pipeline." Thanks to C.S. for the news tip. See Also: Direct to the Fast-Talk Web Site
Information Industry--IEEE Engineering Information New From IEEE, "Individual Researchers Gain Access to over 300,000 IEEE Technical Articles" From the announcement, "Individual researchers can now access the wealth of technical information published by the the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) during the past five years using the new IEEE Member Digital Library. This online service, which will be available in January, encompasses more than 300,000 technical articles from about 120 IEEE periodicals and 1,800 IEEE conference proceedings. The IEEE Member Digital Library allows subscribers to read up to 25 articles and papers per month from IEEE journals, magazines, transactions and conference proceedings...The IEEE Member Digital Library is billed monthly at US$35 to the member's personal credit card. All subscribers must be IEEE members." Saturday, December 28, 2002
Government Printing Office Source: AP "GPO Wins Budget Job" From the article, "For the first time since the initial budget was printed in 1921, the nation's public printer had to earn the job through competitive bidding. The Government Printing Office won with an offer of $387,000, the Office of Management and Budget announced this week, a sharp reduction from the more than $500,000 the GPO charged last year. Based on a comparable amount of work, the estimated savings are $118,370, the budget office said." Friday, December 27, 2002
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Campaign Finance--United States--Statistics Source: Federal Election Commission New, Party Fundraising 2002 Election Cycle (Hard and Soft Money) Also available are several Excel spreadsheets with statistics from 1992-2002. -- Climate Source: National Climatic Data Center New, Climate of 2002-Preliminary Annual Review -- Health Information Source: National Library of Medicine New, MEDLINEplus Compilation, "Breathing Problems"
Research Libraries Four People Awarded Honorary Degrees at Bodleian Library (Oxford University) Celebration From the announcement, "As part of the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Bodleian Library four distinguished men and women with close connections with the library world were awarded honorary degrees..." The degrees were awarded to: * James Billington, Librarian of Congress * Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library * Professor Sir Brian Follett, Chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Board * Paul LeClerc, Chief Executive Officer of the New York Public Library
Librarians Source: AP More on Librarian Shortages, Recruitment From the article, "Southington Public Library director Jay Johnston said he has had an increasingly difficult time hiring qualified librarians. "The bubble's going to pop in a few years," he told the Record-Journal of Meriden. "Librarians help people with everything from resumes to trigonometry to book recommendations, he [Johnston] said. "It's really about people," he said. "The public librarian is a consultant."..."There are other factors that play into the shortage, such as low salaries despite required advanced degrees. The average starting salary in 2001 was $36,818. Municipal librarians must hold a master's degree in library science, while school librarians now known as media specialists must have a master's degree in library science and teacher certification." Thursday, December 26, 2002
Internet Information Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project "Most Americans Expect to Find What They are Looking for Online in News, Health Care, Government Information, and Shopping" The Pew Internet Project issued a news release that's dated next week (12/29) with a few highlights from a research study about Internet usage. I'll post a link to the complete report titled, "Counting on the Internet" when it's made available. **UPDATE 12/29: The full-text of the report is now online.** -- Here are a few passages from the news release: --"New research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that most Internet users (80%) and many non-users (about 40%) expect that they will be able to find reliable information online when it comes to news, health care information, e-commerce, and government." --"A large share of Internet users now say that they will turn first to the Internet when they next need information about health care or government services." --"46% of Internet users say they will use the Net next time they have a medical inquiry, a figure statistically indistinguishable from the 47% of Internet users who say they will contact a medical professional." --"69% of all Americans, Internet users and non-users alike, expect to be able to find reliable, up-to-date news online; 85% of Internet users say this compared to 43% of non-users." --"At the same time, the high hopes for the online world are tempered when it comes to personal information. Only 31% of Americans expect to be able to find reliable information about someone online; 35% of Internet users say this and 25% of non-users say this." --- What do these highlights say about the library world and database industry? Do they demonstrate that we're getting the word out about authority issues or the services (databases, books, etc.) that we provide? I don't think so. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't want libraries and librarians to be rigid gatekeepers to information, that was and is a bad idea. But our role as a teacher and guide have never been more important. Are we meeting the challenge? In my mind these numbers illustrate what's becoming a regular discussion on The ResourceShelf, how well our profession markets itself, our skills, and the services we offer. In other words is the general public saying, why do I need a library or librarian if I'm using the Internet and getting something "reliable" when it comes to news, health, and other information? This survey, very likely to receive mainstream press attention, and similar reports force info pros to ponder many questions. Here are a few that I'm thinking about: 1) Are we doing enough (anything) to promote and market the services we offer? To differentiate web resources from the others we offer? Maybe the reason that most people turn to the free web is because they don't have an idea about what a library and fee-based resources can offer? Are they aware that in some cases these resources are available to them without having to leave their home or offices? Do they know that virtual reference is a service many libraries offer? What about simply picking up the telephone and calling the library? 2) Will the "powers that be", in this case the people who write the checks to online database vendors, begin to question why they're spending money on these materials when most people will first and perhaps only turn to the free web? Does the teacher have any idea that their students have "remote access" to many reputable databases via the local public library? Does the public, the business person, the student, believe that "it's all" on the web? What are we doing to demonstrate that it's not? 3) Where is the public with its ability to judge the quality of info on the Internet? Anyone with a Internet connected server, can place anything on it. Overall, this abililty to access data is a very good thing but problems do exist. What is the library world doing to teach the public how to judge and analyze the quality of this material? The recently published book by Anne Mintz and Genie Tyburski's web site are great places to start. The news release also points out that one of the causes for these numbers is that, "search tools have become more powerful so people can locate the information they want." This is a correct statement. However, what about the underlying data? Easier to find is one thing but what about the accuracy and authority of the material? 4) Has the library community done enough to market services and skills to those who haven't been in a library in many years? Sure, many libraries do a good job at reaching patrons who visit the building, but what about the others? 5) Will the student of 2003 who are used to finding something, anything "on the web" become even more difficult to reach? Will they care about what libraries can provide? What about the small business owner? The worker in a corporate setting? - Final Notes Remember, many people only look at the first few results. Do people use several resources, search tools? Do most people rely on a single search engine? Do info pros have the skills to demonstrate and teach multiple tools? Do they utilize non-commercial directories? Are they aware of web search engine limitations but able to select an alternative search tool or printed resource that might get the job done? See Also: An 11/18 ResourceShelf posting With Results of a Study About How People Use Search Engines Again, only numbers, but from my conversations with info pros they are fairly accurate. Wednesday, December 25, 2002
Information Industry--Yahoo Information Industry--Inktomi Source: News.Com More on the Yahoo Acquisition of Inktomi Paul Festa at News.Com provides analysis of the Yahoo! acquisition of Inktomi. -- Festa writes, "A primary question is whether Yahoo will be essentially shooting itself in the foot if it abandons Google's search technology, which the market in short order rewarded with the status of virtual standard-bearer." The market rewarded Google becuase it's very good technology but other very good technology deserves attention. A great deal of Google's success as a product and company is due to Google's superb marketing staff. It did a great deal for making it the "standard bearer". -- As many of us in the library world know very well, people want relevant answers (hopefully from an authoritative source), many searchers don't care where they come from, they'll take what they can get. For the last 18 months the general public and many info pro's have heard nothing but Google, Google, Google so that's where they go satisfied but unwilling (due in some respects to not knowing) anything else. Google is a high quality product and due a great deal of credit for making other web search tools better but other tools and resources are also very capable. -- Hopefully, 2003 will be about making choices, keeping current, and knowing the right tool for the info need. Nothing new here. It's precisely what info pros have always done by buiding a strong collection, knowing what's on the shelves, etc. I also hope 2003 will be the year librarians begin to remind the public that every answer is not found in Google, Jeeves, AlltheWeb, etc. but might be easily accessible through one of the many services, books, databases offered both by visiting the library in person or via remotely accessible services. -- Last week The ResourceShelf included a link to a Wired article titled, "Google vs. Evil". In the post I said that these are two words we haven't see near each other. Today's article by Paul Festa also contains comments from a tech industry analyst that we also haven't seen (ever?) since the "Google era" began. From the article, "Google faces its inevitable ouster," wrote Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li in a research note published Monday. "With 23 percent of households visiting Google at least once a week, Yahoo must eventually switch its search over to Inktomi to ensure that Google doesn't gain too much power. With Inktomi, Yahoo makes search a strategic asset." [MSN and AOL] "will consider purchases of their own, potentially going after FAST or AskJeeves/Teoma to strengthen their search."
Libraries Source: AP New Uses for Old Things: Underground Nuclear Bunker Becomes Library, Storage Facility From the article, "Amherst's bunker will hold about 500,000 of the colleges' lesser-used books and journals. The 9.5 miles of underground shelves will be filled over the next decade with volumes packed according to size, not subject, and marked by bar codes retrievable by computers, Bridegam said. Most items will never leave the bunker, said David Spoolstra, who oversees the five-college section of the depository, housed in the area that once held room-sized battle computers. It's what research librarians call a "light archive" meaning the works will be available only on request. Only archive workers will have access to the stacks and in most cases will provide academic researchers with an electronic copy, Bridegam said."
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries and Librarians The January Issue of Walt Crawford's Cites and Insights is Now Online Btw, Cites & Insights has a new url, it's now at: http://cites.boisestate.edu/. Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Information Industry--divine Source: Outsell E-Briefs Outsell Ponders if divine's Faxon Unit is the Enron of the Info Industry Outsell, the well-known info industry consulting firm, published the following commentary about the divine/Faxon mess in a recent e-mail update to customers. David Curle has allowed the message to be reprinted on The ResourceShelf. --- divine's Faxon Unit: The Enron of Our Industry? Subscription agent Faxon, part of divine, Inc., has apparently shutdown certain operations and is preparing for some sort of reorganization. The company has not yet released an official statement*, but here's what we know so far: - Customers have been referred to a Chicago firm, Development Specialists, Inc., which consults in reorganization, bankruptcy, and turnaround management. DSI is making no statements but promises a clarification of the situation next week. (Note: Since This Message Was Sent, divine Has Released a Statement) - In the meantime, libraries are scrambling to figure out how their subscription needs will be filled for next year, with few options or alternatives. Customers have been told to find alternative vendors; meanwhile, many of them have placed orders for 2003 - and sent in advance payments - that have not been placed with publishers. - We know that Faxon has not paid a number of publishers for their 2002 subscriptions, nor are they receiving any orders for 2003 subscriptions. - Faxon's London, Ontario and Montreal offices have been closed and employees laid off. - This morning, EBSCO announced that it would be acquiring the European operations of RoweCom, Inc., part of Faxon/divine that serves Europe. In that announcement, EBSCO states that divine has announced its "intention to exit the content subscription business." We have been unable to obtain any such statement from divine. - Financial perspective: divine's cash was down to $30 million this June. In August, it received an equity investment of $61 million from Oak Investment Partners. One month later, the company reported total cash of $61 million - the equivalent of the Oak investment, but the $30 million of its own cash from June was gone. Current market valuation has the company worth $28 million, less than half of the Oak investment. This whole fiasco is sad and troubling, and it reminds us of the other business scandals of our day. The implications are many and distressing: - Lots of innocent people are going to be caught high and dry. Faxon customers will have a hard time scrambling to obtain services from the remaining industry players, EBSCO and Swets Blackwell, with no notice over the holiday season. - The Enron-like aspect of this: Where is the cash? This business has always been based on customers paying in advance for their subscriptions, while agents pay the publishers only at the end of a calendar year, and get by on the float in between. Now the big question is - where did all that cash go? It's on divine's balance sheet as deferred revenues, and the deferred payments have not gone to the publishers - so where has divine stashed it? Regardless of what happens with divine, we expect the practice of pre-payment will be gone for good after this episode. - The publishers who have been stiffed by divine are also in a good position to help ease Faxon customers through the crisis, by continuing to honor subscriptions until the mess is worked out. Once again, we see a lot of collateral damage caused by companies - and an entire industry - done in by ego and hubris. We're all for grand schemes and revolutionary visions in our industry, but they don't get anywhere without a healthy dose of financial reality. Let's hope that divine is the last of the failing dot.coms, and last of the Enrons, in our industry. Our hope is that a buyer for the Faxon unit will quickly emerge, one that will be able to restore services, and trust, to both buyers and publishers. (From Outsell E-Mail 12/20/02) UPDATE (1/6 & 1/9) Information Today Has Updated Their Story With News of An Ad-Hoc Creditor Group Being Formed See Also: Additional Stories on this Topic Can Be Found Under the 12/22/2002 Postings See Also: Full-Text of RoweCom Statement to Customers See Also: Chronology of divine Acquisition and Major Announcements (via Multex) See Also: "Libraries Left in the Lurch" (via Crain's Chicago Business) See Also: Direct to the Outsell Web Site Monday, December 23, 2002
Information Industry--Yahoo Information Industry--Inktomi Yahoo! Acquires Inktomi Yahoo pays $1.65/share (cash) for Inktomi. In early 2000, Inktomi was trading for over $230/share. From the announcement, "The addition of Inktomi's search platform adds both control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative search offerings for consumers and businesses." -Terry Semel, Yahoo CEO. A few weeks ago Inktomi sold it's enterprise search business to Verity. On the Yahoo! site, Google currently "powers" Yahoo's search functionality and "fall-through" catalog. In October, 2002 Yahoo renewed it's contract with Google to provide these services. However, the contact also also allows Yahoo! to use results from other providers. Let's see how long it takes for Inktomi content and functionality to begin to be visible at Yahoo. See Also: A Few Additional Details in this New York Times Article
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents Population--United States--Fast Facts Source: U.S. Census Fact Sheet/Table: New U.S. Total Population Estimates See Also: Direct to Population Estimates (by State) Neveda is America's fastest growing state. Also, "Of the 10 fastest-growing states since July 1, 2001, seven are in the West and three in the South." Much more on the site. -- Legal Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Corporate Counsel Updated List, Who Represents America's Biggest Companies? A list of who reps Fortune 250 companies. Sunday, December 22, 2002
Information Industry--divine Source: Information Today NewsBreaks divine Library Services Shuts Down, Customers Left in Limbo In a co-authored article Barbara Quint and Paula Hane write, "One of the nation’s largest subscription agents, divine Library Services, has apparently suffered financial failure. The Massachusetts-based subsidiary of divine, inc. is also referred to by many as RoweCom or Faxon, its former names. As divine began shutting down access to incoming orders, an official notice appeared on one access point (http://www.kstore.com) that echoed e-mail announcements sent to selected customers." The Info Today article offers suggestions for customers how to proceed and gives a bit of background on the company. Quint and Hane write, "Started in 1999, divine, inc. rapidly acquired a large number of software houses and services to assemble technologies and build a customer base–Northern Light, Open Market, Eprise, Synchrony Communications, etc. Acquired in November 2001, RoweCom, Inc. has been a wholly owned subsidiary of divine’s, operating under the name divine Library Services. RoweCom had acquired Faxon in 1999. The century-old Faxon had faced bankruptcy in 1998-99, but managed to work out relationships with librarians and publisher and recover by 2000. Repeated calls to divine headquarters in Chicago for comment on the situation were not returned. As we [Info Today] went to press, divine finally issued a press release announcing that it was reorganizing and streamlining the company into three “solutions areas” and that it intended “to divest the content subscription business delivered through its RoweCom, Inc. subsidiary and focus on digital content delivery.” At this time, divine's web search and pay-per-view article service Northern Light is still operational. See Also: The 7/2001 Announcement of divine's Acquisition of RoweCom See Also: Learn More About divine's Many Acquisitions over the Past Few Years Via Their News Release Archive (They Sure Were Busy) -- UPDATE (1/11/03) You Can Find Updated Material and Additional Resources Posted in The ResourceShelf in Early January -- UPDATE (12/23/02) Library Journal Asks, Is divine Going Bankrupt? Saturday, December 21, 2002
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents Topics in the News--Iraq Source: National Security Archive New, Electronic Briefing Book, Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction From the site, "The documents presented in this electronic briefing book include the major unclassified U.S. and British assessments of Iraqi WMD programs, the reports of the IAEA and UNSCOM covering the final period prior to the 1998 expulsions, the transcript of a key speech by President George W. Bush, a recently released statement on U.S. policy towards combating WMD, and documents from the 1980s and 1990s concerning various aspects of Iraqi WMD activities."
Reference Books Source: Ascribe Dedication and 27 Years of Research Result In New Reference Series From the newswire, In 1975 University of Vermont political science professor Garrison Nelson, then a member of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy's staff, began a research project on the importance of committee assignments to the careers of legislative leaders. His inquiries took him to the Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, where he learned that no history of legislative committee assignments in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives existed. When Nelson wondered aloud if such a compilation might be created, he got a straightforward answer. "The consensus was, no, this couldn't be done," Nelson says. "The information was buried in obscure resolutions deep in the archives. It would be virtually impossible, people said, to put together a membership history of each committee." Twenty-seven years and countless research hours later, Nelson, along with co-authors David T. Canon of the University of Wisconsin and Charles Stewart III of MIT, have proven the experts wrong with the publication of "Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789-1946," a weighty four-volume set that contains over 100,000 committee assignments and more than three million separate pieces of information. The four new volumes join a two-volume set Nelson published in 1993, "Committees of the U.S. Congress, 1947-1992." All six volumes are published by Congressional Quarterly Press. Friday, December 20, 2002
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents United States--History Source: The Library of Congress New, Online Presentation: "After the Day of Infamy: 'Man-on-the-Street' Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor." From the announcement, "Salesmen, janitors, cab drivers, housewives, students, soldiers and senators; young and old; men and women; long-time residents and recent immigrants to the United States-all are represented in a new online presentation of the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress titled "After the Day of Infamy: 'Man-on-the-Street' Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor." You can read more about the presentation here. -- Internet--United States--Statistics Internet--United Kingdom--Statistics 1) High-Speed Internet Use in the U.S. (Source: FCC) 2) Internet Connectivity in the U.K., 10/02 (Source: National Statistics Office)
Information Industry--FAST Search & Transfer FAST Search & Transfer Powering Ei (Elsevier Engineering Info) The FAST Data Search product is powering the search and retrieval portions of the Ei Village product. FAST also provides the AlltheWeb web search engine and its technology is used at FirstGov and Scirus.
Information Industry--ProQuest--Canada ProQuest Adds Canadian Titles from Rogers Publishing 64 titles, full-text, no embargo. Key titles include Maclean's, Canadian Business, MoneySense, Chatelaine (French and English editions), Today's Parent, L'Actualité, and many more. From the news release, "Current coverage -- including both indexing and full text for the titles -- will appear in such ProQuest® databases as ABI/INFORM® Global, ProQuest Research LibraryTM, and ProQuest 5000TM...In addition, the agreement grants ProQuest rights to digitize backfiles (through 1950) of Canadian Business and Maclean's to distribute as part of the companys Digital VaultTM retrospective, full-image databases."
Information Industry--Hemscott U.K.'s Hemscott Acquires Reed Business Info Title From the announcement, "In early-January, the company will purchase the 'Directory of Directors' from Reed Business Information for £343,000, funded out of its £7m cash pile. The Directory of Directors, which has been published annually for 135 years, collates data on key industry figures across 12,500 public and private sector companies, featuring around 38,000 directors. Hemscott intends to continue to publish the offline version, which reaps annual profits of around £60,000, adding its own information to the directory. Furthermore, it will integrate the directory's database into its online platform, adding its existing information on directors and related data to the online resource, which will provide details on some 60,000 directors." See Also: Direct to the Hemscott Home Page
Wire Services--Associated Press--Archives Source: Reuters AP Now Offering Fee-Based Archive on Yahoo From the article, "...the search engine on its Yahoo News site will be able to search the AP Archives going back to Jan. 1, 1998, and display a list of results. Articles listed in those results will cost $1.50 each to access. Yahoo said nearly 1 million AP stories were available in the Yahoo News archives." To access, use the Yahoo News search interface.
Web Search--Google Source: News.Com "Local" Version of Google Launches for Australia Launched earlier this week. Like other "local" versions of Google a search can be limited to the country code directly from the home page. Of course you can also achieve the same results by using the site: syntax or the domain limit box on the advanced search page from any version of Google. You can also limit by language or country using the pull-down box on the language tools page. See Also: "Google opens up in the land down under" (via News.Com) Thursday, December 19, 2002
Web Resources of the Week Fast Facts--Year-End Resources Here are a few resources that review the events of 2002. 1) Infoplease Year In Review, 2002 -- 2) CNN Year in Review, 2002 -- 3) BBC Year in Review, 2002 -- 4) Yahoo Year in Review, 2002 -- and a few calendar resources to inform you about events before they happen in 2003 * BBC Monitoring: The Week Ahead ** APTN (AP Television) Weekly Editorial News Planner Look for the link in the gray box, right side of page (url changes weekly) *** U.S. State Department: Public Diplomacy Calendar *** U.S. Political Futures (via ABC News "The Note") **** NewsAhead (Free Sample, Full-Database Fee-Based) ****** Upcoming Elections Around the World *******Space Calendar ******** Festivals.Com *********What'sonWhen.Com A great database for future events, festivals, etc. Global in scope. See Also: Two Fee-Based Services of Possible Interest * Kalends from Reuters ** Future News
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Scholarly Publishing Source: National Science Foundation Full-Text Info Brief, Scholars Debate the Implications of Information Technology for Scientific Journal Publishing From the site, InfoBrief reports key findings from a larger report on "The Implications of Information Technology for Scientific Journal Publishing [forthcoming]." -- Dictionaries Source: Oxford English Dictionary News The OED Comments: Web Search Engines and the Lexicographer From the article, "...with the arrival of the Internet, tens of thousands of scholarly texts and individual works of literature are available to us in a searchable form. However, bigger isn't necessarily better: we need to be discriminating. A search engine, such as Google, provides a scattergun approach, returning a vast set of results with no indication of the date or reliability of sources. We are therefore most interested in material that has been collected together in databases, where we are able to carry out sophisticated searches (by date, in proximity to other terms, etc.) and where we can rely on the provenance of the information we are viewing."
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Demographics--United States Source: U.S. Census Full-Text Report, Demographic Trends in the 20th Century From the publication announcement, "The report analyzes data gathered in 11 censuses stretching from 1900 to 2000. The subjects covered are from the Census 2000 short-form questionnaire. Titled Demographic Trends in the 20th Century and released during the bureau's 100th anniversary year, the report tracks trends in population, housing and household data for the nation, regions and states. "Our goal was to produce a publication that appeals to people interested in the demographic changes that shaped our nation in the 20th century and to those interested in the numbers underlying those trends," said Frank Hobbs, who co-authored the report with Nicole Stoops. "We hope it will serve as a valuable reference work for years to come." See Also: Summary of Report ||| Direct to Complete Report (240 Pages) -- Legal Industry--United States Source: National Law Journal Billing Rates Survey, 2002 -- Stories in the News--World Trade Center Site Source: Lower Manhattan Development Corporation New World Trade Center Site Design Concepts Includes slide shows, descriptions, and info on design teams. -- Health Information Source: NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) Full-Text Book, The NCBI Handbook Chapters on PubMed, the NCBI Bookshelf, the Entrez Search and Retrieval System, and other databases. Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Internet Resources 100th Issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter is Now Online If you're not taking a look at the this monthly newsletter, you're missing on a great web collection development resource. The IRN has not only informed me about hundreds of useful sites/tools over the first 100 issues but the work and commitment of IRN editor Roddy MacLeod continues to serve as a guide to me and the development of The ResourceShelf. Btw, Roddy was recently inducted into the Internet Librarian Hall of Fame. Congrats on all counts! See Also: R.M. is also the Manager of RDN's EEVL, an Essential Resource for Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing Materials.
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Web Sites Source: RLG DigiNews "In Search of Lost Pages: Stemming the Tide of Broken Links" This article was written by Richard Entlich from Cornell University Library (CUL) Research Program. -- Scholarly Publishing Source: The New York Times "New Premise in Science: Get the Word Out Quickly, Online" Thanks to S.J. for the news tip. See Also: Scientists Plan 2 Online Journals to Make Articles Available 'Freely and Universally' (via COHE) See Also: Direct to Public Library of Science -- Health Information on the Web--European Union "Commission Recommends Quality Criteria for Health Websites" From the announcement, "The European Commission has adopted a Communication setting out a core set of Quality Criteria for Health Related Websites. It outlines 6 quality criteria: transparency and honesty, authority, privacy and data protection, updating of information, accountability and accessibility. The Communication states the need to tailor these criteria according to particular audiences and describes the methods of implementing quality criteria including codes of conduct, self applied codes or quality labels, user guidance tools, filtering tools, and third party quality and accreditation systems." -- Government Publishing--United States Source: The Washington Post "E-Gov Law Sets Up Clash Over White House Outsourcing Plan" From the article, At issue is the White House's policy to allow private companies to bid for printing jobs, a move aimed at weakening the Government Printing Office's (GPO) longstanding near-monopoly on printing government documents...Library groups said that this centralized dissemination process may falter -- along with the reliable availability of government information online -- when agencies get the freedom to take their printing jobs to a field of private vendors. "This proposal is going to blow a huge hole in the distribution of government information, and limit the amount of information that's available to the public online," said Patrice McDermott, assistant director for government relations at the American Library Association..."We've been very supportive of effective e-government," said Mark Bohannon, senior vice president of public policy at SIIA, whose clients include Thomson Corp., and Reed Elsevier, which runs Lexis-Nexis. "We simply want to make sure that as the positive aspects of e-government are promoted that it not lead to competition by the government for services that can or should be provided by the private sector."
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Fortune "Blue-Ribbon Companies 2002" From the site, "From the Best Companies for Minorities to the Global Most Admired Companies, these companies appeared with the most frequency on FORTUNE's lists this year." You can view lists in rank order, by number of employees, and by State. -- Smallpox--United States Source: Department of Health and Human Services New Web Site, Smallpox.Gov Info about the vaccination program and disease. -- Automobile Safety--United States--Statistics Source: NCSA/NHTSA Full-Text Report, Alcohol Fatality Rates, by State -- Film--Lists & Rankings List, The Library of Congress Announces Latest Additions to the National Film Registry The 2002 list includes a personal fave, "This is Spinal Tap"! -- Presidents of the United States--Public Papers Source: GPO Now Available, The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton -- 2000-2001, Vol. III.
Web Search--AlltheWeb First Reported Here 11 Days Ago, AlltheWeb Now Providing Access to Microsoft Word Documents Official word today of something mentioned on The ResourceShelf 11 days ago, AtW is now crawling and offering searchable access to MS Word docs (.doc). The press release also mentions news of a few tweaks to the relevancy algorithm.
Image Searching Wireless Search--Google Sprint/Google Premiere First Wireless Image Search Tool in U.S. Marketplace Fast and furious innovation news from Google in the past week or so. New Google Lab "experiments and the intro of Froogle. Today, news of wireless image search capabilities for those of you with Sprint PCS Vision enabled phones. From the way the news release reads, the entire Google Image database is now accessible with this product.
Web Browsers Opera 7.0 BETA 2 (For Windows) Now Available New in Beta 2: * Fast Forward button * the Wand password manager * links panel * one-click skin install * powerful panel management * multiple user style sheets
Information Industry--ebrary Blackwells Introduces Full-Text Book Previews with ebrary Software A new way to preview materials...From the announcement, [Blackwells] Collection Manager purchasing system for libraries now includes a full-text preview feature powered by ebrary® (www.ebrary.com), a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval technology that serves publishers and libraries worldwide. Available today, the new technology helps publishers increase sales of print books to libraries by showcasing exact replicas of books, particularly pre-publication and frontlist titles. Additionally, it allows libraries to make more informed purchases by searching and browsing books in full-text before ordering, thus reducing the number of returns." Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Web Search--Google Source: Wired Google vs. Evil We haven't seen too much of this before. From the article, "Google has succeeded by adhering to one, pure principle: Do good by users. Now, for the first time in its history, Google is facing rifts between what's good for users and what's good for Google. And Sergey Brin is finding that purity just doesn't scale." More importantly this is the first major news article in quite some time that has very positive things to say about ANOTHER search engine, in this case, AllTheWeb. Reader's of this site will know how impressed we've been with AtW for the past year or so. As regularly said in this space, it's important for info pros and web researchers to be aware of a variety of resources, tools, and products. It's seems to me that over the past one to two years many people have (particularly end users) have started to rely on a single resource for everything. Re: Google. Google is a wonderful and important tool. It's also home to many innovative examples of search technology (e.g. Google Catalogs, Froogle) and some very smart and helpful people. Only time will tell what will become of Google. Evil? I think not. Regardless, Google has done/is doing MASSIVE amounts to move all web search forward. It's also a case study on how to succesfully market a new product and take it from a viral marketing phenom into a product and verb that has for many people become a synonym for web search. I also think Google has done much to illustrate to the info profession that how we market our products, services, and skills needs improvement. The question is, are we listening?
Info Industry--ProQuest MIT Sloan Management Review Returning to ABI/Inform From the annoucement, "Rod Gauvin, senior vice president of the ProQuest Division of ProQuest Information and Learning, added, "After a brief hiatus, the current full text of MIT Sloan Management Review (SMR) will again be available to ABI/INFORM users beginning November 1, 2004." In other ProQuest News...Proquest Acquires Microform Publisher The company has acquired Norman Ross Publishing. "Founded in 1972, Norman Ross Publishing publishes microfilm collections, books, and CD-ROM information products and distributes them worldwide."
Information Industry--Hoover's Information Industry--D&B Source: Information Today More on the D&B Purchase of Hoover's Paula Hane fills in many of the details about D&B's acquisition.
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology New, Full Text ERIC Digest: "Format Proliferation in Public Libraries" From the site, "... examines some of the costs and challenges presented by the proliferation in formats that libraries have to chose from and identifies some strategies for addressing those challenges." A pdf version is also available.
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Topics in the News--Iraq Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia Full-Text, Issue Brief: 'Disarming' Iraq under International Law A pdf version is also available. -- Capital Punishment--United Statistics Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics New, Full-Text Report: Capital Punishment 2001 Monday, December 16, 2002
Web Search--Hotbot New and IMPROVED Hotbot Search Tool Debuts on the Web After many of us had all but forgotten about Hotbot, the folks at Terra Lycos, Hotbot's owner, are out with a useful search tool that could be of value to many information professionals and end users. The new Hotbot allows you to search FOUR major search engines (AlltheWeb, Google, Inktomi, and Teoma) each with a unique database, simultaneously. This can be a major timesaver for end users and a tool for them to easily compare result sets from the most useful engines. Unlike meta search engines, Hotbot DOES NOT synthesize results into a single results list but rather allows the searcher to QUICKLY and EASILY toggle and move between results pages offered by each individual engine. I've had a chance to use the new Hotbot over the weekend and have found it highly useful and interesting. Here's a quick review of what I've noticed. Of course, be ready for changes. The web search world moves quickly. - Hotbot: The Home Page * Simple, Basic, and Quick Loading *Customizable Skins If you don't like the look of the default page, several skins, which you can also modify, are also available. -- Hotbot: Filter/Limit Preferences * On the Hotbot home page you'll also notice a link labeled "filter preferences". Clicking this link allows you to select limits (via boxes and pull-down menus) to add to the home page. For example, you can add language, word/phrase limits, domain/site, and more. **What's also useful and maybe even exciting about these filter/limits is they are smart and will alert you if they are NOT available. In other words, the boxes change depending on which engine your searching with. For example, Google doesn't offer a a region filter, so, when you select Google, the region filter reads, "This filter is not yet supported. Try your search using FAST or Inktomi." Very impressive. -- Caveats? Yes! Web search and search engines always has caveats. However, in the web search world a caveat one from early in the week might be different a few days later. So, be ready for changes. Here are a few caveats to be aware of as of today. *The filter/limit labeled "Page Content" only will tell you if those types of files are included somewhere on the page. It does not limit your search to only that/those formats. **Remember, the button labeled FAST is utilizing the AlltheWeb search engine. AtW is part of FAST Search Transfer. ***As we've told you many times, be careful with limiting by date. Here's a link to an article Genie Tyburski and I wrote for Search Day earlier in the year. ****Google via the Hotbot DOES NOT offer several features. These include the auto conversion from alternate formats (pdf, ppt, xls, etc) to HTML, the cache, dictionary definitions, address/telephone number, and maps. *****Teoma via Hotbot does not offer the very useful Resources section and refine feature. ******It's important to remind end users that most of these search tools offer several specialized "catalogs" of info in addition to the primary web database. If you ONLY rely on Hotbot you might be missing specialized tools (AlltheWeb News, Froogle, Google Groups, etc) that are not accessible from Hotbot. In fact, I wasn't able to find any mention of them. Here's an October, 2002 review of many of these resources from Searcher. ******See Also: Notess's Search Engine Showdown Has Several Addition Points to Be Aware Of. Btw, MSN Search (using the Inktomi Database) Looks and Feels a Great Deal Like the Old Hotbot. ---- Odds & Ends *For the syntax gurus out there, if you apply the syntax directly in the search box and it's available (be careful) seems to work correctly except with Teoma. For example, using filetype: with Google or site: with AlltheWeb produces the proper results. Teoma's recently added site: syntax does not work. **Many end users might not be aware of Inktomi. In fact, this is one (if not the first time) we've seen a search engine labeled Inktomi. Inktomi has been a search service purchased by various companies and labeled as their own. Until today, Inktomi was the underlying search engine and Hotbot and remains the database in use at MSN. -- Updated 12/17/02 I had a brief chat with a Inktomi spokesperson today and learned that Hotbot is utilizing several (but not all) of the features from Inktomi Web Search 9 which was released a few weeks ago. You should find .pdf content and the use of the new "smart summary" technology. What's a smart summary? From the Inktomi site, "Document summaries returned in search results are culled from algorithmic and editorial sources and selected based on user context and intent. Users receive abstracts that are more useful in understanding search results than simple computer-generated page summaries." The summary for www.stanford.edu was created using this technology. Also, expect a spell check tool from Inktomi in the month or so. -- ***The "Advanced Search" link will offer you whatever advanced limits are available for a specific engine. ---- Final Thoughts I'm very impressed with the new Hotbot. I think it's a great tool to show the end user (info pro as well) because it's easy to use, a timesaver, and perhaps most importantly, provides an easy method to view search results from several sources with little extra effort. Hopefully, Hotbot/Terra Lycos will continue to develop the product. Stay tuned.
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries The December Issue of D-Lib Magazine is Now Online Here are the titles of a few selected articles. * "A Framework for Digital Library Research: Broadening the Vision" by Dagobert Soergel, University of Maryland * "The Open Video Digital Library" by mGary Marchionini and Gary Geisler, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * "After Migration to an Electronic Journal Collection: Impact on Faculty and Doctoral Students" by Donald W. King, University of Pittsburgh and Carol Hansen Montgomery, Ph.D., Drexel University * "Who Is Reading On-line Education Journals? Why? And What Are They Reading" by Lawrence M. Rudner and Jennifer S. Gellmann, ERIC/University of Maryland, and Marie Miller-Whitehead, TVEE.ORG
National Libraries--United Kingdom The British Library and The Library of the London School of Economics Announce Co-Operative Agreement From the announcement, "Recognising the complementary nature of their collections, the Library at LSE and the BL will collaborate closely on collection development, preservation, and improving access for researchers. A pilot project has already audited the holdings of both libraries in the area of government publications from western European countries outside the UK." Sunday, December 15, 2002
Libraries Online Information Source: San Jose Mercury News "Radical Change in Libraries" From the article, "The shift in how information is collected and used brings opportunities and challenges to researchers and librarians." Also, "If people are helping themselves to this stuff online, I don't know if they are getting what they really are after, or whether they are willing to just take what's there,'' said Santa Clara University's [George] Carlson. He worries that online searchers aren't seeing the explanations and disclaimers that go with the spreadsheets of statistics, the kind of thing librarians point out to in-person patrons. And although an online search makes it easier to pinpoint information, it arrives on the screen shorn of the context it would have in a larger report or book. The better-targeted a query is, the less likely the searcher is to have the serendipitous experience of finding more than he was seeking. That's common with a book or paper document, where related information surrounds the data, said Lance Strate, an associate professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University and president of the Media Ecology Association."
Digitization Projects Patent Databases Source: The New York Times "Patent Your Heritage" From the article, "lobalization has made it easier for companies in wealthy countries to take advantage of poor countries by filing patents for crops, medicines and chemicals that traditional cultures have been cultivating and using for centuries. This year, the poor countries have figured out a way to fight back: they are creating digital libraries for their ancient cultural knowledge. India, probably the largest victim, is cataloging its traditional knowledge on a protected Web site and on DVD's it will send to patent examiners worldwide... In June, the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) unveiled a Web site with parts of the Indian digital library, as well as a database of patents based on traditional medicine granted in Beijing to Chinese inventors. WIPO is urging other countries to catalog their cultural and biological patrimony, and is asking patent examiners to search these databases when considering relevant applications." See Also: Direct to the WIPO Web Site Saturday, December 14, 2002
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Entrepreneurship Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education New, Full-Text ERIC Digests: 1) Don't Quit Your Day Job:" Moonlighting Entrepreneurs 2) Starting Up After 50 -- Nutrition--Webliography Source: Library Journal Full-Text, Web Watch: Nutrition Compiled and written by Vivienne Sales. Ms. Sales is a Reference Librarian at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ.
Online Information Source: Library Journal "Disappearing Databases" Dr. Carol Tenopir writes, "Just before midnight, September 30, 2002, 19 databases disappeared without a trace from the Dialog online system. The reason? CSA (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts) and Dialog had failed to reach a renewal agreement. On October 1, Dialog searchers received a message "file does not exist" when they entered a CSA file number... This is just the latest case in a disturbing trend of disappearing databases." Friday, December 13, 2002
Congressional Research Service New/Updated Reports from the Congressional Research Service It's time for our look at a small selection of new and/or updated fll-text 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). Once you're on either of these web pages, select the type of reports (Issue Briefs, Short Reports, Long Reports) you want to view, click, and scroll to the report. I've also included the date that reports were last updated. The compilation pages and the reports linked from them cannot be directly linked to and cannot be found in general web search engines. - Issue Briefs IB98018 China-U.S. Relations (Updated 11/21/02) IB96038 U.S. International Trade: Data and Forecasts (11/27/02) IB10106 Insurance Regulation and Competition: Background and Issues (10/21/02) IB93033 Iran: Current Developments and U.S. Policy (11/26/02) IB93113 Saudi Arabia: Current Issues and U.S. Relations (11/21/02) IB91141 North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program (11/27/02) - Short Reports 97-508 Country-of-Origin Labeling for Foods (10/11/02) RS20936 Immigration: A Guide to Internet Sources (11/18/02) RS21325 Iraq: Divergent Views on Military Action (10/16/02) RS21336 Iraq: The Turkish Factor (10/31/02) RS20037 "Junk E-mail": An Overview of Issues and Legislation Concerning Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail ("Spam") (10/23/02) RS21270 Counterterrorism Research and Development: Funding, Priority-setting, and Coordination (12/9/02) RS21311 U.S. Use of Preemptive Military Force (9/18/02) 98-53 Salaries of Federal Officials: A Fact Sheet (11/1/02) - Long Reports RL31512 Visa Issuances: Policy, Issues, and Legislation (11/14/02) RL31555 China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues (12/4/02) RL31547 Critical Infrastructure Information Disclosure and Homeland Security (8/31/02) RL31151 Aviation Security Technologies and Procedures: Screening Passengers and Baggage (10/26/02)
Web Search Another New Beta From Google: Product Information from Froogle Could a December pass without something new coming from Google? Not this year. It's nearing mid-month and we now know about another new beta. -- Quick Review About a year ago Google launched Google Catalogs. It's still online and (in beta) utilizes ocr (optical character recognition) to keyword search the full-images of over 5000 retail catalogs (U.S. only). This is one of the first uses of ocr technology by a web search company in a public product. -- New For 2002 This year Google is launching Froogle. It debuted yesterday. -- What's a Froogle? From the news release, "Froogle was developed in response to feedback from Google users requesting an easier way to find product information." From the site, "As Google's spidering software crawls the Internet, it automatically identifies webpages that offer products for sale. These are the pages Froogle searches when you enter the name of an item you want to find. Froogle also includes product information submitted electronically by merchants. Froogle's search results are automatically generated by our ranking software. Google does not accept payment for inclusion of products in our search results. Nor do we offer to place a merchant site higher in the results if they are an advertiser or offer to pay for that placement." -- Froogle Fast Facts 1) An Advanced Search Interface is Available. Here you can limit by price range, product category, and where your keywords appear (product desciption, and/or product name). 2) Each Search Results Page Also Contains Limiting Options 3) Froogle Can Be Browsed by Category 4) Only Supporting U.S. Merchants and English Language at This Time 5) Merchants Can Choose to Supply a "Data Feed" of Current Product Info for Inclusion into Froogle. No charge to do this (at this time). 6) A Image of the Product Appears Next To Each Entry 7) Material in the Froogle Database is Built Using Data Identified in Google's Web Crawl. In essence, they've created a crawler/spider able to recognize product and price information. 7) Froogle Gives the Company Another Location to Place Advertising (Sponsored Links). For example, a search for socks not only shows material from the Froogle database But Also Shows Sponsored Links from Companies who "Purchase" the Term(s). -- Finally Search geeks out there will no doubt realize that Froogle is also the debut of what appears to be some rather sophisticated and "smart" web crawling technology. Business, marketing, and CI types will find immediate value with the wide scope of material covered in the database. You can imagine the many places (personalization, alerts, display, etc.) Google can go with this product. It also once again illustrates the usefulness of "specialty search tools" whether or not they're from Google or any other web search provider. Instead of search through "everything" a narrower, focused universe of materials can often greatly improve precision and you time. The challege is knowing where to start and which tool to choose. More later after we have some time use and compare with similar online search tools like PriceGrabber.Com. -- See Also: More from Search Day See Also: Even More via the Froogle FAQ See Also: The ResourceShelf Post About the Debut of Google Catalogs from 12/15/01 Thursday, December 12, 2002
Web Resources of the Week Library Automation A Treasure Chest of Useful Resources from Library Technology Guides Library Technology Guide is home to several "must have" tools will be of value to many information professionals. It's also one of the most impressive resources I've seen in the past year aimed at the info pro audience. The site and its many tools were created and are maintained consultant, librarian, writer and frequent conference speaker, Marshall Breeding. Marshall is also the Library Technology Officer for the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University. Here's a brief (very brief) overview of what you'll find on the LTG home page. - 1) A Daily "Feed" of Library Automation News - 2) The LTG Bibliography (Searchable) "The LTG bibliographic database offers citations to articles, books, book chapters, websites, and other resources in the literature of library automation. Many full-text articles are included when copyright restrictions allow." You can search the bibliography from the main page or via or via a more robust interface. - 3) lib-web-cats "A directory of thousands of libraries worldwide, featuring links to Web pages and online catalogs. Profiles for each library include library type, current and previous library automation systems, address, collection size, and other details." A full search interface is also available. You can limit by library type, city, state, and country. - 4) Library Automation Companies Another searchable database. "This database of library companies provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive listing of companies that develop and market library automation systems. To be included in this resource, the company must offer a fully integrated library system, not just a single module other library-related services." The full search interface allows you to search active or defunct companies and by product name. You can also limit by country. Each entry contains directory information including address, telephone, and key executives. - 5) News Release Archive Search news releases from, "all the major companies involved in library automation. This resource includes the full text of over 1,500 press announcements from 1991 to present." -- Finally, LTG is looking for volunteers. A note on the site reads, "Keeping Library Technology Guides updated regularly is a large task. Volunteers are needed to keep our resources current. Your help is greatly appreciated." Kudos to Marshall for creating and maintaining such a useful and informative set of resources. Oh yes, all of these databases are available at no charge.
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Gasoline Prices--United States Source: American Automobile Association Daily Fuel Gauge Report Updated daily with average gasoline prices for hundreds of metropolitan areas in the U.S. Statewide averages are also provided. -- Health Information--United States--Calendars Source: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion /U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Health Observances, 2003 -- Holiday Season--United States--Fast Facts Source: U.S. Census New, Fact Sheet, The Holiday Season Here's a small sample of what the you'll find: * The number of shopping centers and shopping malls in America. * The number of Americans who reported that they alpine-ski more than once a year. * One place in U.S. is named Christmas.
Librarians Privacy Issues Source: The New York Times "Librarians Receive Advice on Law and Reader Privacy" From the article, " Concerned about how federal access to their records would undermine readers' privacy, thousands of librarians gathered today around the country to hear televised advice about how to respond to government requests under last year's antiterrorism law. Although some of the librarians calling in from among the 250 sites in a national teleconference suggested defiance of the 2001 USA Patriot Act, all the speakers said proper federal requests for data should be dutifully complied with, but only when a proper court order was served and not just because an F.B.I. agent asked for information." See Also: You Can Read the Agenda for the Teleconference via this ARL Web Page Wednesday, December 11, 2002
E-Government--United States Source: GCN New Web Resource, Coming Next Week, Online Rule-Making to Debut The Office of Management and Budget and the Environmental Protection Agency plan to launch the first iteration of the Online Rulemaking e-government project on Dec. 18. The portal, at www.regulations.gov, will let citizens and businesses find and comment on proposed federal regulations. An OMB official said the portal will be fully functional by then, but OMB will launch it formally at a ceremony early next month."
Professional Reading Shelf ERIC Source: Access ERIC Full-Text, ERIC Annual Report 2002 (Word Document) From the site, "Summarizing Recent Accomplishments of the Educational Resources Information Center. This annual report describes the developments in the database of educational literature, the growing variety of ERIC web-based products and user services, and the distinctive focus of each of the ERIC clearinghouses and system support components."
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Documents in the News--Events of September 11, 2001 Source: U.S. Congress Full-Text Report, Findings of the Final Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Joint Inquiry into the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 See Also: Full-Text Report, Recommendations of the Committee -- Documents in the News--Internet Filtering Health Information on the Web Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Full-Text Report, See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information From the report summary, "With a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging mandatory filters in libraries, the Foundation conducted a comprehensive study that indicates Internet filters most frequently used by schools and libraries can effectively block pornography without significantly impeding access to online health information - but only if they aren’t set at their most restrictive levels. As filters are set at higher levels they block access to a substantial amount of health information, with only a minimal increase in blocked pornographic content." See Also: "Web Filters Block Some Health Sites, Study Says" (via Reuters) See Also: "Internet Filters Block Health Information, Study Finds" (via The NY Times) From the article, "...opponents of filtering requirements said the study showed the clumsiness of the technology." "Filters are just fine for parents to use at home," said Judith F. Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association. "They are not appropriate for institutions that might be the only place where kids can get this information. "The importance of the First Amendment is that it provides us with the ability to govern ourselves, because it guarantees that you have the right to access information. The filters undercut that ability." -- Demographic Data--United States--Interactive Tools Source: Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research/State University of New York at Albany Census 2000--Data About U.S. Metropolitan Areas From an Economy.Com description, "The resource is home to, "a wealth of information, particularly on issues related to segregation and the status of minorities. You'll find data for the entire population, for children, for specific groups, like the Hispanic population, Asians, and school segregation. It also has particularly interesting data showing how home ownership varies from one racial/ethnic group to another, for metropolitan regions, and for the central city and the suburbs. The center also has computed dissimilarity indices and exposure indices for metropolitan areas that indicate the degrees of segregation and isolation of particular racial and ethnic groups." Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Scholarly Communication Source: Association of Research Libraries ARL Places Material About "Open Access" on the Web The site contains links to numerous resources. From the site, "In early 2002, an ARL task force recommended that ARL’s long-term goal in the area of intellectual property be to promote “open access to quality information in support of learning and scholarship.” As part of this effort, ARL is working to develop and disseminate information about open access and how the current trends in intellectual property and copyright issues impact higher education and academic research."
Web Search--Google New "Experiments" Debut at Google Labs The folks at the Googleplex have placed two new "experimental" tools on the web today. As many of you already know, Google Labs features, "ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time." The Labs site debuted in May of 2002. What have the Google Lab technicians come up with this time? 1) Google Viewer A tool to browse search results. From the site, "The Google Viewer displays the pages found as a result of your Google search as a continuous scrolling slide show. You can view your search results without using your keyboard or mouse and you can adjust the speed with which the images move across your screen. Each image of a page's contents is accompanied by a short "snippet" describing that page." Btw, if you've never seen the "Preview" feature at Vivisimo, make sure to check it out. Clicking the "Preview" link (it's to the right of the page title on the results list) opens a "live" version of the search page that's embedded in the list of search results. - 2) Google WebQuotes From the site, "Google WebQuotes annotates the results of your Google search with comments from other websites. This offers a convenient way to get a third party's opinion about each of the returns for your search, providing you with more information about that site's credibility and reputation." Make sure you use this one and tell others who utilize it that critical information skills must be at full alert. Remember to pay close attention to the url where the quote is coming from. See Also: Other Google Lab "Experiments" including Google Glossary (another tool where usage means critical info skills are at full alert).
Library Schools Source: Library Journal Proposed: A Reorganization of Library Schools From the article, "At the annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) last month in Philadelphia, the leaders of library schools were urged to reorganize as schools in the broader discipline of "information" under which information technology, computing, library science, and even media and communications would be subsumed. Roughly half of the ALA-accredited library and information science education programs were represented at the hastily called meeting aimed at forming a new council of deans and directors."
2002- Year-End--Lists & Rankings It's the time of the year for a slew of year-end rankings to be released. I'll do my best to feature a few of them on the ResourceShelf. Books Source: Barnes & Noble.Com 1) "What's America Reading", The Bestsellers of 2002 Numerous "specialized" lists are available. -- Web Search--Ask.Com Source: Ask.Com 2) Ask Jeeves, Top Searches for 2002 Several categories including news, music, and vacations. -- 3) Web Search--Google Source: Google Google Zeitgeist 2002 Google's year-end list of the most popular searches is also available. You can also compare with the 2001 list. -- See Also: Lycos Top 100, 2002 See Also: Yahoo Buzz Year in Review
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Population--Canada Language--Canada Source: Statistics Canada 1) Full-Text Report, Profile of languages in Canada: English, French and many others 2) Full-Text Report, Profile of the Canadian population by mobility status: A nation on the move -- Afghanistan Source: Department of Parliament Library, Parliament of Australia Full-Text Issue Brief, "Afghanistan: a Year After" -- United States Congress--Directory Source: GPO Now Online, The October 2002 Online Revision of the 107th Congressional Directory -- Information Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: InfoWorld InfoWorld's 25 Most Influential CTOs 2002 Allan McLaughlin from LexisNexis and Mike Sayers from Reuters made the list.
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Libraries Presentations: Personalisation and Digital Libraries Seminar The seminar took place in the U.K. on 10/18. You can view the slide presentations online. Titles of the presentations include: * "A personalised perspective on personalisation" by Georgia Koutrika, Department of Informatics, University of Athens * "Portals, Portals, everywhere...Why the Interface-to-Everything is not an Interface-for-Everyone" by John Paschoud, Angel Project Manager, London School of Economics * "An architecture for personalisation of subject gateways, based on web services" by Monica Bonett, Software Developer, UKOLN * "Web-based personal digital libraries" Mariella Di Giacomo, Librarian, Los Alamos National Laboratory Monday, December 09, 2002
Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project’s Full-Text Report, Email at Work See Also: A Summary of the Findings See Also: |
