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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, January 31, 2003
Online Encyclopedias Source: TVC Alert Tyburski "On Target" With Her Comments About Wikipedia I couldn't say it any better so I won't! Genie hits the nail on the head wondering why so many people are enamored with this resource. Be very careful.
Information on the Internet Source: AP Survey: Internet More Important Than Ever Look here. A college student admits that the library is the place to go for "real information". From the article, "When you need real information you always go to the library. But (for) easier stuff, and you're too lazy to go to the library, you can find it from Google,"...said Yale University junior Ralph Byrd, 20. As we all know a VERY minute of information is digitized but I wonder if Ralph ever uses the many databases and electronic journals that are easily accessible from outside the Yale Library? This AP story focuses on a new telephone survey conducted at UCLA. Here are a few results: * "Only 53 percent of users believe most or all of what they read online, down from 58 percent a year earlier." A few other blurbs from the article: * "Alisha Richman, 20, of Houston, said she only trusts health information from doctors or hospitals and reports in science journals she reads online. Much of what's out there, she said, is often "kind of iffy." * "About 61 percent of Internet users find the Net "very" or "extremely" important as an information source, compared with 60 percent for books and 58 percent for newspapers — within the margin for error of plus or minus 3 percentage points." * "Nearly 30 percent of Americans do not use the Net, most commonly because they don't have a computer or one good enough. But nearly half the nonusers say they are likely to go online within a year." See Also: The Full-Text of the UCLA Report Will Be Available on Friday.
Digital Repositories DSpace Set for "Fine Tuning" Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education From the article, "Six major research universities announced this week that they are working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to fine-tune an MIT program for archiving scholarly works called DSpace, which has become wildly popular in academe in just a few months...MIT designed DSpace with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories to allow professors to store reports and other research documents in a searchable digital archive. Eventually, MIT officials hope, professors will be able find scholastic research as easily as college students search for MP3's of their favorite music." See Also: Much More About DSpace From the ResourceShelf (November, 2002) See Also: Direct to the DSpace Home Page
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Privacy--Canada Source: Privacy Commissioner of Canada 2001-2002 Annual Report to Parliament by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Labor--United States--Statistics Source: BLS New Statistics, Several Tables, 2001 Major Work Stoppages Also includes some historical data. -- Transportation--United States--Statistics Source: BTS New, Now Available in Print, Pocket Guide to Transportation, 2003 The news release has a few contact points (phone/fax/mail) where you can order free copies. A web version will be available in the next few weeks. -- Inventions--Lists & Rankings Source: Encyclopædia Britannica The Editors of EB Name Greatest Inventions of All Time Summary/Background ||| Complete List Thursday, January 30, 2003
Resource of the Week Instant Messaging: SmarterChild is Back With a New Beta SmarterChild is an instant messaging chatbot that might be of interest to you. It's important to remember that this implementation is only a BETA from a technology company called ActiveBuddy. Nevertheless, I don't think it will be difficult to vision how this type of technology could be used by a library or information center. Last year another version of SmarterChild was available but it went offline in July. So, How Can You Test and Use SmarterChild? It's simple! 1) Open Your AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) Client and IM: tobesmarterchild 2) Note: If you don't have access to AOL IM Software You Can Use AIM Express (a Java Based IM Client). You'll Still Need to Have an AIM Account. Don't Have an AIM Login? You Can Get One Here for Free. You Do NOT Need to Have an AOL Account. 3) If These Options Don't Work for You, You Can Demo the Technology Using a Web Based Interface. This Version Offers A Few Different Choice Than the AIM Beta Version. What Type of Content is Available With This Beta? * You Can Start Asking by Asking a Question. However, I Suggest Getting a Quick Overview by Asking SmarterChild, "What Can You Do?" * Content includes news, sports scores, dictionary, thesaurus, calculator, translations, and more! Here are a Few Questions I Asked SmarterChild * What is the Capital of Australia? * What is the Definition of Librarian? * Please Translate "we need to leave for the airport in an hour" Into French * Encyclopedia Tristan da Cuhna See Also: Direct to the SmarterChild Home Page (SMS, E-Mail, and WAP Versions Available) See Also: Direct to the ActiveBuddy Home Page
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Librarianship Source: Emerald FREE Full-Text Access of Library Review Through Sunday, February 2, 2003 You can browse/read/print the full-text of all content from Vol. 43.1 (1994) - Vol. 52.1 (2003) Note: Beginning on Monday, February 3rd, full-text access to Reference Reviews will be available for one week. This content will also be available at no charge. -- Business Resources Source: HBS Working Knowledge "Researching Corporate Governance on The Corporate Library" From the article, "The Corporate Library is the free-access portion of www.boardanalyst.com. While lacking the sophisticated screening tools and detailed reporting features of its subscription-based parent, The Corporate Library is still a useful and informative Web site covering all aspects of corporate governance."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Health Insurance Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Full-Text, A Consumer Guide to Handling Disputes with Your Employer or Private Health Plan -- Health Information Source: NLM MEDLINEplus: Seasonal Affective Disorder -- United Kingdom--History Source: Public Records Office/The National Archives Just Released, Government Records Relating to the Abdication in 1936 of King Edward VIII "They include Cabinet minutes, letters from the King, and papers about Mrs Simpson." A small selection of full-image documents are also included on the site. -- Criminal Justice--United States--Databases Source: National Criminal Justice Research Center New Search Functionality: NCJRS Abstracts Database "The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 170,000 criminal justice publications." You can now search this database using the National Criminal Justice Thesaurus. The thesaurus contains over 5,500 terms. See Also: Search the National Criminal Justice Thesaurus See Also: NCJRS Virtual Library This database contains over 7000 full-text documents.
Information Industry--Elsevier Elsevier Does eBook Deal With netLibrary Elsevier is launching an eBook program. From the announcement, "netLibrary will host Elsevier eBooks, which will be available to any institution with a netLibrary account. Titles will come initially from the Science and Technology division within Elsevier, covering high-demand subject areas such as Computer Science, Life Science, Economics, Business, and Management, Engineering, and Environmental Sciences."
Public Records--United States Source: The Recorder "Resolution Reached Over Access to Court Database" From the article, "Santa Clara County, Calif., Superior Court has agreed to hand over a copy of its electronic case management database in a settlement that could serve as a road map for courts struggling with opening computer records to the public. Court administrators have agreed to copy the court's civil case management database for the San Jose Mercury News, ending more than a year of litigation. The Mercury News sued the court, its CEO Kiri Torre and then-Presiding Judge Richard Turrone in federal court in October 2001 after the court refused to provide access to the database." Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Information Industry--divine Source: Chicago Tribune "Lawsuit: Divine Looted Company" From the article, "Creditors of a Divine Inc. subsidiary that filed for bankruptcy protection Monday say the Chicago-based company looted the unit, fraudulently transferring $73.7 million before abandoning the business...Company officials, the lawsuit contends, "formulated a plan to enrich Divine at the expense of RoweCom, its employees and its creditors." Updated: This Story is Incorrect. See The 2/3/03 Info Today Update
Research Library Group An Update on RLG's RedLightGreen Project From the article, What happens when you take a massive database of bibliographic descriptions and redesign it for the Web, not just as a resource for librarians, but as a tool for undergraduate students and the public at large? To put it another way: "How can we strip away the 'librariness' of the catalog so it looks more like what students expect?"..."
Online Books Streaming Audio More Search Day Articles Search Day has published two more articles that I wrote while guest editor of the publication. 1) "Listen to the World" A look at PublicRadioFan.Com 2) "What if Amazon Were Free?" An introduction to The Online Books Page
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Government Documents--United States Source: Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. Full-Text Article, "A Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations" A new guide by Rick McKinney. A html version is also available. See Also: The Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. Legislative Source Book -- Manufacturing--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census New, 2001 Annual Survey of Manufactures, Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text See Also: 2001 Annual Survey of Manufactures, Geographic Area Statistics Summary ||| Full-Text -- Business--United States Full-Text, Annual Capital Expenditures: 2001 Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Academic Libraries Source: The Daily Evergreen Students at Washington State University Discuss the Internet and the Library From a brief article in the WSU paper, In an age where people consider the Internet to be replacing libraries as a functional means of research, some students are not willing to rule out fact-finding that many would consider more tedious. “As slow as it may seem, the library gives you a very broad array of information to choose from,” said Jacob Schwecke, a sophomore wildlife ecology major. “And it is easy to use as long as you learn how to refine your search.”
Information Visualization Source: Federal Computer Week Learn About: MetaCarta "The key concept behind MetaCarta GTS is the integration of text search data with geography. Search results appear as points on a map instead of as a list of documents. Each point, in the form of a numbered rectangle, represents a document or a stack of documents related to that place." See Also: Direct to the MetaCarta Web Site See Also: "MetaCarta Tracks Documents Back to Their Source" (via The Washington Post 8/11/02)
Internet Filtering--Canada Source: Ottawa Citizen Comments on Internet Filtering at a Canadian Public Libraries From the article, "Restricting Internet access at Ottawa's public libraries would be the start of a "slippery slope" toward restricting intellectual freedom, says Don Butcher, executive director of the Canadian Library Association. Mr. Butcher said yesterday that librarians see unfettered access to information as fundamental to an open and democratic society. "It's not the library's role to filter beyond the provisions of the Criminal Code," said Mr. Butcher"..."At issue is unfiltered Internet use at Ottawa's public libraries. The Canadian Union of Public Employees recently filed complaints because its employees claim they're often forced to look at objectionable material after someone has been surfing pornographic Web sites. The complaint has sparked a debate about intellectual freedom. The library's board is loath to introduce mandatory filters, as it feels that's censorship." See Also: The Ottawa Citizen Weighs In With an Editorial
Digital Archiving--Conference Upcoming Seminar: Preserving Digital Content (and the Opportunities It Holds) for the Long Haul A one day conference/seminar scheduled for March 4, 2003 in Philadelphia. It's co-sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and the American Medical Publishers Association. From a blurb, "The program features presentations on three electronic journal archiving strategies - Elsevier's agreement with the Royal Library of the Netherlands, NLM's PubMed Central, and JSTOR from the perspectives of publishers who have chosen each strategy and the organizations that are maintaining the archives. The broader digital archiving landscape will also be covered, including initiatives of the Library of Congress, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Council of Library and Information Resources, the Mellon Foundation, and NLM's "Profiles in Science", which makes the papers of Nobel Prize-winning scientists accessible via the Web."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Business--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Now Available: Statistics of U.S. Businesses, 2000 Material is available in .xls format. Older data is also accessible on this web page.
Web Browsers Online Today: Official Launch of Opera 7.0 (for Windows) I've a big fan and longtime user of the Opera browser. This new release (I've been using the beta for the past few weeks) is the best yet. Download a copy and see for yourself. It's free! See Also: Additional Background via News.Com Monday, January 27, 2003
The Library of Congress Archival Projects--Audio Source: AP LC Opens Sound Registry From the article, "There's President Theodore Roosevelt denouncing corporate swindles. Robert Frost reading his poetry. Buffalo Bill Cody urging war with Spain over Cuba. They are joined by 2.5 million other voices — some famous, some not — and sounds — the huffing and puffing of a steam locomotive is one — preserved at the Library of Congress On Monday, Librarian of Congress James Billington was announcing the first 50 sounds to be entered in a National Recording Registry. It seeks to ensure even greater protection for some of the most notable songs, speeches and other utterances. The library is not the only government repository for sounds. The National Archives and Records Administration has tens of thousands of hours of Capitol Hill speeches, committee hearings and various other gatherings." See Also: List of the First Entries Into the National Recording Registry (via LC) Learn More: Direct to LC's SONIC Database
National Library of Medicine--Databases Source: NLM Technical Bulletin Coming Soon: Suggestion Feature For NLM's Entrez Journal Database From the article, "A new feature will be added to the Entrez Journals database that may make it easier to find journal records. In addition to displaying the journals retrieved by your search, this database also will suggest journals based on your search terms. These suggestions are produced using an algorithm that compares letter combinations in phrases." See Also: Direct to NLM Entrez Journal Database
State Libraries--Florida Source: Tallahassee Democrat Is the State Library of Florida About to Go on the Chopping Block? From the article, "Barratt Wilkins spent 26 years as the Florida State librarian before retiring earlier this month. He held a title that stretches back to 1925, and he supervised a library that was founded in 1845 when Florida became a state. So forgive him if he's less than thrilled that Gov. Jeb Bush proposes to eliminate the Florida State Library as part of the new state budget. "It's kind of a repudiation of everything I worked for and everything the previous state librarians had worked for," Wilkins said. "I'm baffled, upset and concerned. I think we had a credible product, agency and program. And I just don't see those things continuing." Bush and other state officials don't share Wilkins' alarm. But the governor's budget proposal for 2003-2004 clearly calls for changes in the Division of Library and Information Services. UPDATED 1/28 "Bush: Drop state library's funds" (via The Miami Herald) See Also: Direct to the State Library of Florida See Also: Brief Article in LJ
Topics in the News--U.N. Weapons Inspections Full-Text, An Update on Inspection Presented by Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix Full-Text, IAEA--Update Report For The Security Council Pursuant To Resolution 1441 (2002) Dated 1/27/2003 Full-Text, Statement by IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei Full-Text, Statement by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., John D. Negroponte See Also: Direct to Video of Security Council Meeting
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items on the Site) R&D--United States--Lists Source: NSF New List, Master Government List of 36 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers FY 2003 -- Pop Culture--United States Advertising Source: IFILM 2003 Super Bowl Television Ads View all of the ads that aired the Super Bowl. Ads can be viewed online using RealVideo or Microsoft Media Player. No charge for this service.
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Scholarly Publishing Source: ARL/SPARC Conference Presentations: And Then There Was One: Industry Consolidation in Journal Publishing and What It Means for Libraries Presentations given at the ALA Midwinter Conference. -- Copyright Source: ARL Conference Presentation: The Practical Realities of the New Copyright Laws: A Librarian's Perspective Presented by Duane Webster, ARL Executive Director at the Modern Language Association Conference, New York City (12/02) -- Research Libraries Source: ARL/SPARC/CNI "Collections & Access for the 21st-Century Scholar: Changing Roles of Research Libraries" -- Book Awards Source: American Library Association Award Announcements: Caldecott & Newberry Medals Notable Books for Adults BCALA Literary Awards Stonewall Award Winners Sunday, January 26, 2003
Information Industry--divine Information Industry--EBSCO Orginally Posted to ResourceShelf Saturday Afternoon "EBSCO to Acquire Operations of RoweCom WORLDWIDE" From the announcement, "The proposed transaction was also endorsed by the steering committee of the ad-hoc group of publishers and library customers of RoweCom. The committee, including the publisher members the American Institute of Physics, the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers, Elsevier, Oxford University Press and Wiley, will endeavor to expand the group of publishers supporting this transaction as they believe the contemplated agreement is a significant step forward for customers and publishers". Also from the news release: What does this mean for RoweCom customers and publishers if the transaction is completed? For customers of RoweCom's European operations, all orders placed with RoweCom will be fulfilled. The parties intend to execute definitive purchase documents within 10 days subject to French regulatory filings as required by French law. divine has agreed to provide working capital funding for RoweCom's European operations in the interim. Once the transaction receives French regulatory approval and the transaction closes, EBSCO will remit payment to publishers in full. Until that time, EBSCO is asking publishers to continue to fulfill subscriptions. EBSCO has already secured participation from the majority of the publishers and is optimistic the remaining publishers will agree, now that the situation appears to be clarified. For customers of RoweCom operations outside Europe (i.e., U.S., Canada, Australia, etc.), there are basically three situations: * For a customer who has paid RoweCom and RoweCom has forwarded this payment on to the publishers, the customer will receive journals from the publishers. For a customer who has not paid RoweCom, the customer will receive their journals once orders are confirmed to EBSCO. Upon confirmation, EBSCO will make the appropriate payment to publishers. * For a customer who has paid RoweCom and RoweCom has not forwarded this payment to the publishers, the customer will receive journals from publishers who participate in this transaction. See Also: MUCH MORE Via Paula Hane's Info Today News Break Article See Also: Open Letter From Rowecom Creditor Group (via ManagingInformation.Com) -- See Also: "Swets Blackwell Withdraws its Bid for divine’s RoweCom Business" See Also: "Extent and ramifications of Rowecom financial problems" (via Managing Information) See Also: The 12/20/02 Announcement the EBSCO See Also: Additional Resourceshelf Coverage of the divine Story
Professional Reading Shelf The Winter 2003 Issue of Library Journals "netconnect" is Online Articles include: "Is It Time To Get Blogging?" Btw, Blake Carver's article includes a mention of The ResourceShelf (Thanks Blake!) * "What Do Faculty Want?" * "Managing the Virtual Workplace" Saturday, January 25, 2003
Libraries and Librarians--United States Source: The White House "President Bush's 2004 Budget Recommends Record-Level Funding for Nation's Libraries and Museums" From the news release, "Laura Bush announced today that the President's Bush's 2004 budget will include a proposal for increased funding for the nation's libraries and museums. The President's 2004 proposed budget will be sent to Congress on February 3, 2003...Over the next 16 years, America's libraries are projected to lose 58 percent of their professional librarians. The President's budget proposal addresses this loss with a special focus on recruiting and training the next generation of librarians. Last year, the President's budget included $10 million for this initiative. This year, the budget requests $20 million for this initiative." See Also: Cut Budgets Mean Fewer Books (via AP)
News Briefs Information Industry--ProQuest Additional Details on the ProQuest Acquisition of bigchalk A new Info Today News Break by Barbara Quint. This acquisition was formally announced on 12/9/02. See Also: "ProQuest Expands OpenURL Linking Capabilities for Full-Text Access"
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Metadata The Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (Dec/Jan '03) is Now Online "Mining the Metadata Quarries" "New Metadata Standards for Digital Resources" "Metadata Generation: Processes, People and Tools" "Data Collection for Controlled Vocabulary Interoperability - Dublin Core Audience Element" "A Knowledge Network Constructed by Integrating Classification, Thesaurus, and Metadata in a Digital Library" "Spying and Secret Courts in America: New Rules and New Insights" -- Digital Archives Source: EDUCAUSE "Digital Archiving: What Is Involved" Friday, January 24, 2003
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) Intellectual Freedom--Lists & Rankings Source: American Library Association, Office of Intellectual Freedom "The Most Challenged Books of 2002" -- Department of Homeland Security New Web Site, Online Today, U.S. Department of Homeland Security -- Defense Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: U.S. Department of Defense Just Released, Top Defense Contractors 2002 -- Higher Education--United States--Databases Source: National Center for Education Statistics Updated Data, IPEDS Postsecondary Institution Peer Analysis System "The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Peer Analysis System is a tool designed to enable a user to easily compare data from a postsecondary institution of the user’s choice to a group of peer institutions, also selected by the user." -- Energy Industry Source: EIA New, Full-Text, Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers 2001
Information Industry--LexisNexis LexisNexis Names New Senior V.P. of Library and Enterprise Unit "...Wendy Beecham will join the company as Senior Vice President, Enterprise & Library. Prior to joining LN, Beecham worked for The Thomson Corporation in London, UK. Thursday, January 23, 2003
Web Resource of the Week Maps MSN Maps I'm pointing out MSN Maps this week because of how clear, clean, and crisp MSN Maps look on a monitor and when printed on paper. Overview maps are available for the entire World. Street level maps (accessed by entering as little as a city name) are available for Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, U.K. and U.S. Make sure to take a look at the largest maps available. To access them simply click the third box at the top of the map labeled "Map Size". Here are a few examples. Remember, you're able to zoom in and out for more or less detail. don't forget to expand the maps to the large size. Looking good! A Street Level Map ("Address In") Map for Portland Place in London, U.K. A "Place Name" Search and Map for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands A "Place Name" Search and Map for Dakar, Senegal Note: Place Names Can Be Cities, Museums, Airports, Train Stations, Rivers, etc. See the Help page for more details.
Web Research Subbing @ Search Day For the past week I've been the Guest Editor of Search Day while my friend, colleague, and co-author Chris Sherman is away. I know many of you read Search Day on a daily basis (a good thing to do) but for those of you who don't here are links to a few of my articles: -- No Charge: Public Libraries Provide Full-Text Access to Databases! -- The Value of Non-Commercial Web Directories -- Searching for Happenings Around the Globe -- The Gateway To Associations
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) U.S. Government--Rules & Regulations Source: GPO Web Portal Debut: Regulations.Gov "On this site, you can find, review, and submit comments on Federal documents that are open for comment and published in the Federal Register, the Government’s legal newspaper." Background in this article from The Washington Post and this post from the ResourceShelf on 12/11/02. -- Business--Europe--Directory Source: Cordis New, Business Incubators in Europe -- Presidential Libraries--John F. Kennedy "Kennedy Library Opens 15 More Hours of JFK Recordings" Details and RealAudio excerpts are available.
Online Information Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education On Academic Libraries, Google, Full-Text Databases and More Steven Bell, Director of the Paul J. Gutman Library at Philadelphia University and a reader of The ResourceShelf, answers a few questions about these and other topics in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education. A couple of additional comments that I would like to toss into the mix. Several of them have been mentioned here before: * Librarians and vendors need to do a much better job in marketing our skills and services. Vendors should use their marketing skills to assist libraries. The public needs to understand why the information and skills we offer can easily provide a better answer than just tossing a word or two into Google. At the same time, we can help them make better use of tools like AlltheWeb and Teoma. Bottom line? It's not all "on the web". * In terms of the academic world (at all levels), teachers, professors, and administators might also be unaware of what's available and how these resources differ compared to what they find with Google or any other web engine. No doubt about it, Google has marketed itself VERY well. * Computers and the Internet has made much more information available but getting to it still takes work and skill. The "which database do I choose" issue is a big stumbling block for even the most seasoned searcher. Web search engines are very important but they've convinced the masses that they're home to EVERY answer. We know they're not. * As I mentioned in yesterday's posting about xrefer, we need to think about the right source from the right tool at the right time. In other words, knowledge of a variety of sources and tools is essential. Information professionals have always done this by "learning" their collection. The education process is much more of a challenge because resources are dynamic and not always directly in front of us. Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Web Search--AllTheWeb AlltheWeb Offers A Powerful Reverse Link Search Running a link search (finding out who's linking to a specific page) is a useful service many web engines provide. It's a great way to find relationships between companies/organizations, discover new ideas, or additional sites. A problem with Google's reverse link search is that you're unable to use any additional terms in the query. For example, if you're trying to limit a search to identify pages only in the .edu domain that link to a specific page, the search will not work. However, extra terms and limits WILL work with AllTheWeb. The syntax for running a reverse link search with ATW is link: -- More Examples: --Pages on Servers Registered in the U.K. that Link to Libdex.Com AND ALSO Link to the National Library of Canada --Pages that Link to the Canadian Library Associations Home Page. These pages can only be on servers registered in Australia or New Zealand and cannot have the word "conference" in the title. --Pages Linking to the ALA Home Page from the .Org domain. These pages must also have the term information in the title but cannot have the term library in the title. Bottom Line: Makes an already powerful tool even more useful, especially with heavily linked pages. Also works at AltaVista.
Document Delivery Infotrieve Acquires Ariel from RLG They're busy at Infotrieve, two acquisitions in two days. Today, news that Infotrieve has acquired the Ariel document delivery software from RLG (Research Libraries Group). The price of the acquisition was not announced. "We are pleased to see Ariel move into the hands of Infotrieve," said James Michalko, RLG's president and CEO. "We are proud to have created the software and, working closely with our members around the world, to have developed it to this point. Now the product needs the added resources that a commercial vendor can provide. Infotrieve, with its focus on article delivery, is the ideal company to move Ariel forward." See Also: MUCH MORE via Marydee Ojala's Info Today News Break
Information Industry--xrefer xrefer, One of the Most Useful Ready Reference Tools on the Web Has a New "Showcase" Page For a couple of years, xrefer has provided content from over 40 high-quality reference titles at no charge. Don't worry, xrefer is still offering this full-text content from top-notch sources but the search page has moved. The page is now located in the "showcase section" of the site. If you haven't visited xrefer, it's well worth the trip. The company also offers xreferplus, a critically acclaimed fee-based service for libraries and other organizations. I've also spent some time using xreferplus and found it very usefu. I will continue to demo and report back. xreferplus offers content from over 100 sources. What do xrefer and xreferplus also offer? They're excellent examples of the value that specialized search resources offer. In a nutshell, these types of tools can get you to an answer in an expedited manner. This is instead of always starting a search at a general web engine or directory. Sure you might stumble onto a xrefer pave with Yahoo, Looksmart, or Teoma but how long would it take? Users and information professionals should have an awareness and a basic knowledge of these types of tools (what they offer) and the ability to get to them quickly. It's just like knowing what book(s) on your bookshelf contain a potential answer. However, with xrefer you get 40 books and xreferplus 100 titles. The right tool at the right time. See Also: The Full-Text of Péter Jacsó's 2001 Review of xrefer Note: Some of the content has changed since Péter wrote this review.
Web Search--Daypop Daypop Upgrade and Fast Facts Daypop, a specialized search tool focusing on news and weblog content, reports that they are now crawling over 10,500 weblogs. Here are A Few "Fast Facts" About Daypop Via an E-Mail with Dan Chan (Daypop's Founder and Sole Proprietor): 1) "Weblogs are initially set to be crawled every 12 hours. Depending on how often a weblog is updated, it may get crawled less often, or more often if it pings weblogs.com." 2) "There are 1000 news sources. The big sites get recrawled every three hours. The majority of the sites are crawled every 24 hours." 3) Odds and Ends -- "Appending &o=rss in a search URL? It outputs RSS so you can monitor with a news aggregator." --There's a Daypop Top 40 archive at http://www.daypop.com/top/archive/ . Similarly, the Daypop Top News archive is at http://www.daypop.com/news/archive/ --"Appending &sum=desc to a search URL brings up a description of the page, usually the first paragraph of a news article."
Legal Research Source: The Virtual Chase "Lexis, Westlaw ... or Google?" Genie offers several on target comments.
Music Search Source: Reuters "Song Search: A Real Humdinger" From the article, "Query by Humming," a type of melody-recognition software program on display at this week's Midem music conference in Cannes that identifies a song by title and composer based on a person humming a few bars into a microphone." Thanks to J.D. for the news tip. See Also: Learn About Another Product, Shazam (via IDG) "The service works like this: When you hear a song you like but can't identify, you simply dial a short code (2580 in the U.K.), hold your handset up to capture the music, wait 15 seconds while Shazam's patent-pending technology listens to the music and then receive an SMS (short messaging service) identifying the track and artist. Shazam refers to the identification process as "tagging."
Unstructured Information Management Architecture Source: News.Com IBM Aims to Get Smart About AI From the article, "The Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) is an XML-based data retrieval architecture under development at IBM. UIMA will greatly expand and enhance the retrieval techniques underlying databases, said Alfred Spector, vice president of services and software at IBM's Research division."
Librarians Source: Boston Herald Meet the Librarian: Radcliffe's Barbara Haber Tasty work! "The Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study houses 16,000 cookbooks, and its collection is growing all the time. Chefs and scholars - and the curious - know it as an invaluable resource for information on cooking, food and social history...What they may not know is that one person is largely responsible for the collection, and along with it, for helping to make culinary history an accepted academic discipline. Barbara Haber came to the Schlesinger right out of library school, 34 years ago; she retired at the end of last month, having changed the landscape of culinary, social and women's history." See Also: Take a Look at the "Guide to the Culinary Collection" at the Schlesinger Library
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Consumer Fraud--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Federal Trade Commission New List, Top 10 Consumer Complaint Categories in 2002 -- Health Information--United States Source: National Health Information Center New Edition, 2003 Federal Health Information Centers and Clearinghouses A .pdf version is also available. See Also, 2003 Toll-Free Numbers for Health Information ||| .PDF Version Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Web Search--Teoma Source: Search Day Teoma Unveils Version 2.0 Most of what makes up today's "official" launch has been covered on the ResourceShelf over the past few months. Nevertheless, take a look at the article that I co-authored with Danny Sullivan for a review (or an intro) to all of the new goodies from Teoma. As I've said on many occasions Teoma offers great possibilities for the web searcher. I'm thrilled to see that the product continues to develop into a useful resource. The Search Day article also contains links to a few articles that will offer you background about how Teoma works and what makes it different from other web search tools.
Web Search--AlltheWeb AlltheWeb Online With New Advanced Search Options and Tools We have several things to report from ATW today. 1) Boolean Ready! Hooray, ATW now recognizes Boolean! To use it, go to the Advanced Search page and select "Boolean Expression" from the pull-down menu located to the left of the search box. Here's the syntax (lower case only): and, or, and not. Nested searching also works. - 2) "Rank" a Search Term If you use the Boolean search option another term is available, "rank". Using rank at the end of a Boolean strategy gives another term a higher weighting in the result set. For example, florida and golf andnot "Arnold Palmer" rank LPGA. At this time you're only able to rank with a single term. Very similar to AltaVista's "Sorted By" capability. - 3) Language Options Below the search box you'll now notice two "radio" buttons. ATW now recognizes your IP and determines where you're located. You're offered two language limit options. The first "radio button" allows you to search all languages while the second button limits your search to the language or languages spoken in your country plus English. For example, a searcher from Germany would see "Search All Languages" or "Search German and English". Btw, language options can be changed by simply making choices from the customize preferences section. - 4) Long Overdue: An ATW Examples Page Learn about the entire array of ATW's advanced query syntax. Search syntax continues to be updated and made easier to use. For example, title: (terms in the title tag), link: (pages linking to a specific page), and url: (terms in the url) now work. - 5) AlltheWeb Bookmark Buttons And More Run an ATW search by highlighting a term(s) on any web page and clicking the button you've added to your toolbar.Tools are available for IE, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, and Apple's Sherlock. Look for the links under the "AlltheWeb Search Tools" heading.
Information Industry--Factiva Factiva Announces "Replacement" Service for divine's Special Collection Customers Details are spelled out in the press release. This "replacement" service is NOT for former users of Northern Light's pay-per-view document service but for enterprise customers only. It would be great to see Factiva begin to offer pay-per-view search services. Btw, two of Factiva's competitors, LexisNexis and Dialog do offer pay-per-document services where searching is free and you pay for documents as needed. These services are open to all searchers. Of course, many searchers will be able to access full-text content from their local public library without having to visit the library.
Searching Enterprise and Intranet Search Source: Information Week "Search On" Some of the issues with operating search services in an intranet and enterprise setting.The article focuses on the pro's and cons of the Google Search Appliance. After sharing positive examples of Google Appliance deployment at Bank One and Kaiser Permanente (they gave up on Verity), the author asks, "is giving them Google enough." He quotes an info architect from KPMG in the U.K. who says, "We want to move from connecting people to content, to connecting people to people," says Iain Simpson, U.K. information architect. "Had we not been thinking about two years from now, I could easily have been seduced by Google's capabilities." Products from iPhrase, Recommind, and Verity are also noted. Bottom Line? One stop searching for all users isn't as easy as it seems. Again, more opportunities for the well trained librarian and information professional. Questions. Are the people who make the purchasing decisions considering the knowledge and skills an info pro can offer? Or, do they think that it's as easy as turning on the product and forgetting about it? See Also: (UPDATED 1/22) "CareerBuilder Passes Up Google For Another Search Engine" [FAST Search & Transfer] See Also: Learn More About Enterprise and Intranet Search Products via SearchTools.Com
Information Industry--ebrary ebrary Launches New Database Collections for Libraries From the announcement, "database collections which combine over 20,000 books and other documents from more than 150 leading academic, trade and professional publishers. The company now offers a rich set of Aggregated Collections that span academic and general subject areas and Publisher Collections, which feature highly specialized content from individual academic and professional publishers." "ebrary’s Aggregated Collections now cover individual subject areas including Business & Economics, Computers, Technology & Engineering, Humanities, Life & Physical Sciences, and Social & Behavioral Sciences. The company also offers a strong collection of Spanish language titles and aggregated collections specifically for both academic and public libraries." In other ebrary news the company announced that they're launching a program where libraries can purchase individual e-books.
Information Industry--divine Source: Library Journal "No Buyer Yet for RoweCom/Faxon; NY AG Gets $500K From divine" From the article, "No resolution yet has been reported from the meeting that took place last Tuesday and Wednesday that included representatives from RoweCom/Faxon, possible purchasers, the ad hoc Steering Committee of publishers and librarians formed to investigate the crisis, and the parent company, divine, Inc." See Also: Links to Additional Coverage of the divine/RoweCom Story
Information Industry--Infotrieve Scholarly Publishing Infotrieve Acquires Assets of TheScientificWorld From the announcement, "Launched in 2000, TSW pioneered a new business model for scientific publishing. The company built a multidisciplinary editorial structure that moved beyond the constraints of traditional paper-based journals. It created a unified online environment for peer-reviewed articles and proceedings that allowed one published paper to appear in multiple subject domains. Its scholarly articles were published on its network of Web sites and in its e-journal TheScientificWorldJOURNAL...Infotrieve said it will reactivate TSW's publishing program, its alerts service (called scienceTracker, enabling user-defined automatic alerts to be created and e-mailed when appropriate new research becomes available), and two of its database products: sciBASE (scientific, technical and medical research literature) and methodsBASE (methods and protocols literature in the life sciences)." (Updated 1/22) Other News... "In Coup, Editor Bolts Prestigious Journal For PLoS" via Library Journal
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Resource Full-Text Report, The People's Network: A Turning Point for Public Libraries: First Findings Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Population Estimates--United States Source: U.S. Census Updated, Population Estimates by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin "They are the first such estimates released by the Census Bureau since Census 2000." See Also: Additional Tables and Data Sets -- Population--Canada Source: Statistics Canada New, Full-Text, Canada's Ethnocultural Portrait: The Changing Mosaic, 2001 Census Monday, January 20, 2003
National Libaries--Canada Archives--Canada Canada: Help Name a New Institution From the announcement, "On October 2, 2002, the Minister of Canadian Heritage announced the creation of a new knowledge institution, bringing together the National Archives and the National Library of Canada. This new institution is designed to offer Canadians throughout the country greater access to the diverse experiences and voices of Canada. To describe this new entity, the name Library and Archives of Canada is currently being used. We are seeking your input on a new name for this innovative and forward-looking institution." More info and deadlines can be found in the announcement. See Also: "The Creation of the Library and Archives of Canada" from the ResourceShelf (10/3/02)
National Libraries--British Library Integrated Libary Systems British Library Signs Deal with ExLibris From the announcement, "The British Library and library software experts Ex-Libris have recently signed a contract to provide the UK national library with an integrated solution to many of its major information systems requirements. The Integrated Library System (ILS) will replace the Library's main existing systems for acquisition, cataloguing and catalogue access for both reading rooms and remote users. Based on Ex-Libris's ALEPH and MetaLib software, it will also support other services such as remote document requesting."
Information Industry--netLibrary/OCLC e-Books NetLibrary Now Offering Full-Text Content from More Than 50 Gale Reference Titles Titles include, Directory of American Scholars, Encyclopedia of Education, The Weather Almanac, and the Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Web Search--AltaVista Source: Search Engine Showdown New Truncation, Proximity Options with AltaVista Greg highlights a few new things you can do with the * symbol. AltaVista is the only general web engine that offers truncation.
Professional Reading Shelf Training Tools Update, PubMed®, NLM Gateway, and ClinicalTrials.gov Training Manuals Now Available From an announcement, "The January 2003 editions of the training manuals are now available for downloading from the NLM Web site. The workbooks were updated to reflect changes since August 2002..." Materials are available in pdf and doc formats. Finally, this note, "These workbooks are not copyrighted. Feel free to use any part of the workbooks - you may customize parts for training programs, demonstrations, or workshops you conduct."
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents Medicaid Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Full-Text, The Medicaid Resource Book Sunday, January 19, 2003
Digitization of Information Source: AP "Digital Memory Threatened as File Formats Evolve" Remember, digital doesn't guarantee that the material will always be accessible. From the article, "There's kind of a common misperception about digital lasting forever," said Howard Besser, director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University. "It comes out of the fact that a digital copy is a perfect copy." Consider the fate of the British Broadcasting Corp.'s computer-based collection of photographs, writings and other snapshots of life in 1986, the 900th anniversary of the written English survey, the Domesday Book. While scholars can still read the 1086 tome, the digital version needs customized software and hardware that are breaking down from old age, meaning records from just 17 years ago are rapidly vanishing." See Also: Direct to Howard Besser's Home Page (Links to Many Papers on This and Other Related Topics)
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Libraries Source: CLIR Full-Text, The Digital Library: A Biography 2nd edition now available. Full-Text is available in html and pdf. Saturday, January 18, 2003
Not A Good Week For E-Mail Alerts But They Still Exist I'm a big fan of e-mail alert services because material comes directly to your e-mail as it is published or at a specific time each day. In the past week news that two of the best "general news" services are either gone or will soon become fee-based. First, Northern Light's e-mail news alerts are no longer available. Second, Hoover's free e-mail alert service, a personal favorite, will become part of Hoover's Pro and Pro-Plus fee-based services on February 1st. - So, what's still available in terms of general news e-mail services? Here are just a few options. * Yahoo News Alerts Yahoo membership (free) is required. Content from all of Yahoo's news services. * CBS Marketwatch Marketwatch membership (free) is required. Content from major wire services. * Net2One Delivered around 5am Eastern Standard Time, these basic alerts provide direct links to articles from several thousand sources. Available for the U.S. and U.K. versions of the product. Look for the "Keyword Alert" box in the left column. They're also available for French language news. Overall, very basic but very useful. * News Tracker from The New York Times Registration is required. You're able to create three keyword alerts. You can also create 5 alerts if you head to the College section of the site. E-Mail Alerts From Specific Sites Thousands of these services exist. For example, those of you who monitor public companies, SECInfo.Com offers a free service that will inform you as soon SEC EDGAR or Canadian SEDAR filings are available for a specific company. Another alert service will e-mail you decisions in domain dispute cases shortly after the decisions are published. I'll do my best to feature more of these resources on The ResourceShelf in the future. Until then, these two excellent compilations from The Virtual Chase and PowerReporting.Com offer hundreds of choices. -- Other Ways to Stay Current Perhaps the most useful tools to stay current are services that inform you when changes have been made to SPECIFIC web pages, not only news sites. The tool I use is WebSite-Watcher. The software costs about $30/U.S. for a personal licensce or $99/U.S. for a business license. A free 30 day trial is available. If you don't like shareware or aren’t permitted to add it to your computer TrackEngine offers many of the same features. It's a subscription service. WatchThatPage.Com also offers an alert service and it's free (at least for the moment) but a bit more difficult to use. -- News By Topic, NewsNow Hundreds of topic-specific pages (newsfeeds) that update every five minutes with content from over 6,000 sources. You can find the topics listed in the pull-down menus on the left side of the page. Topics include Advertising, Digital TV, Iraq, and U.S. Business. Friday, January 17, 2003
Information Industry--divine Source: Chicago Tribune (Registration Required) "Divine unit suit: Libraries may lose $50 million" * "The divine story has hit the mainstream news media with this article from the Chicago Tribune. From the article, "Divine executives said Thursday that the subscription service collected money from at least 3,500 libraries but spent the cash on operating costs and debt payments at the subsidiary. There was not enough left to pay the publishers and Divine could not get a loan to keep the subscriptions coming, executives said." * "This is unconscionable, unethical and moving rapidly toward grand larceny," said Susan Davis, head of periodical acquisitions at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her e-mail, sent to a RoweCom sales representative last month, is part of a lawsuit filed against the company by the New York State attorney general's office. The university's library had paid RoweCom $1.3 million to subscribe to various periodicals. Asked where the money had gone, a spokesman for the attorney general's office replied, "We are trying to figure that out ourselves." See Also: You Can Find Links to Additional Coverage of the divine Story Here
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) African-Americans--Fast Facts Source: U.S. Census New, African-American History Month A new release with many statistics about the African-American population. -- Cost of Living--Lists & Rankings Source: EIU New, Rankings, Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (Most Expensive Cities)
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries and Librarians The February 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/. Thursday, January 16, 2003
Resource of the Week Business--United States--Chronologies U.S. Public Company Research: Access Chronologies of Recent "Key Developments" Here's a resource that could help when conducting research on a public company or story in the news. This data source (via the MSN Money site) allows you to enter in any U.S. ticker symbol and quickly access a chronology of recent company events including news coverage, product announcement and earning reports. The content in these reports comes from Multex. In my trials most of the chronologies go back somewhere between six months and one year. Finally, although MSN Monday offers data for non-U.S. companies, I was unable to find any content when accessing the "Key Developments" feature for these companies. Nevertheless, making sure would be a good idea. Examples: Reports for United Airlines, Yahoo, and Coca-Cola.
Health Information Library Schools Source: National Library of Medicine New "Localized" Version of MEDLINEplus Launches, Focuses on Info for North Carolina Residents This new resource (NC Health Info), built by librarians, offers local health Information for North Carolinians. It went live on Tuesday. The site was built by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Health Sciences Library and the UNC School of Information and Library Science. See Also: Direct to the NC Health Info Site See Also: Direct to MEDLINEplus
Web Search Source: Search Engine Showdown Notess Updates Search Engine Showdown Engine Size Estimates Greg provides new numbers for his Relative Size Showdown along with the related Change Over Time and Total Size Estimate.
National Science Digital Library Source: Minnesota Public Radio Listen (RealAudio) to an Interview with NSDL Director John Saylor This 2min 40sec interview aired on the Future Tense program from Minnesota Public Radio last week. See Also: Direct to the National Science Digital Library
Stories in the News--Copyright--United States Source: AP "Supremes Uphold Longer Copyrights" From the article, "The 7-2 ruling, while not unexpected, was a blow to Internet publishers and others who wanted to make old books available online and use the likenesses of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and other old creations without paying high royalties." See Also: "Supreme Court Upholds Copyright Extension" via American Lawyer Media See Also: Read the Full-Text of the Supreme Court Opinion (Eldred v. Ashcroft)
Professional Reading Shelf National Libraries--Canada Full-Text, National Library of Canada Performance Report
Information Industry Briefs H.W. Wilson: Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text Debuts -- Coming Soon: Version 2.0 of Gale's Business Resource Center Due Online By February 15th +++New Features: --Improved company searching - now includes options to search by product and/or brand --Search by industry --Improved article searching - now includes, subject guide, keyword and full-text search options. Additional limiters are available for peer-reviewed, full text and others. Browse journals now allows users to select up to 10 journals to search concurrently. --Advanced search allows users to search individual datasets by multiple index fields. --Improved search limiting within the News/Magazine tab --Topical links to articles from company profiles --Access to facsimile image PDF's within the News/Magazine tab ...and much more. +++New Content Market Share Reporter, Gale --World Market Share Reporter, Gale --First Call Earnings Estimates Snapshot, Thomson Financial --Encyclopedia of American Industries, Gale --Encyclopedia of Global Industries, Gale --Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries, Gale --Business Sections of over 70 newspapers Wednesday, January 15, 2003
Web Search--AltaVista Tweaks to AltaVista News Search They're small but useful. You can now limit to a specific date range. Use the date pull-down box and select date range. You're then presented with two clickable calendars, where you can select dates. These are the type of boxes often found on travel sites. Btw, if you want to directly enter the date range that also works. However, be careful! The date structure is dd/mm/yr. Also new is an option to limit your news search to only retrieve articles that contain images.
Libraries Intellectual Property PBS Program to Discuss Libraries, IP, and Related Topics Here's a synopsis via the AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) list, "Public libraries embody the American ideal that anybody can read, watch or listen to just about anything they want to. With publications and broadcasting delivered free by the Internet directly to homes, is the information revolution making libraries obsolete? As more people can access this content, the copyright owners -- in many cases large corporate publishing entities -- are looking for ways to charge fees. A growing chorus of lawyers, librarians, and educators fear the implications of losing free access to information for everyone. "Our information and communication infrastructure is so central to everything we do," says former American Library Association president Nancy Kranich. "But what's really underlying that is the free flow of ideas which is essential to democracy." On Friday, January 17, 2003, at 9 P.M., on PBS (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html , NOW with Bill Moyers takes a look into the digital future of intellectual property and the debate that has pitted private control against the public domain.
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Libraries Issue # 34 of Ariadne is Now Online Here are the titles of a few of the articles: Sharing history of science and medicine gateway metadata using OAI-PMH Exposing information resources for e-learning Exploring Charging Models for Digital Cultural Heritage EEVL: Search Me! Planet SOSIG - Social Science Case Studies -- Digital Libraries The January, 2003 Issue of D-Lib Magazine is Now Online Articles: On Making and Identifying a "Copy" MOAC: A Report on Integrating Museum and Archive Access in the Online Archive of California DSpace: An Open Source Dynamic Digital Repository iVia Open Source Dynamic Digital Repository Open Archives Activities and Experiences in Europe: An Overview by the Open Archives Forum -- Digital Reference Source: Library Journal "Revisiting Digital Reference" Roy Tennant writes, "Digital reference is in its infancy. We are still gaining important experience and learning a great deal with each new experiment. LJ's "round table" on digital reference (LJ 10/1/02, p. 46–50) made clear that this area of the profession is in great ferment and creativity while also being in a very early stage of implementation." -- Librarians Source: Library Journal Library Journal Names Librarian of the Year Congrats to Raymond Santiago of the Miami-Dade, Public Library System See Also: Check out the Miami-Dade PLS Web Page
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Reference Shelf--Calendars InfoPlease Adds Perpetual Calendar Tool You can find any day/date from 1753 forward. -- Government--United States Source: U.S. Census New, Full-Text, 2002 Census of Governments Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Business--United States Source: U.S. Census New, Annual Surveys of Various Industries ++ Full-Text, 2001 Service Annual Survey Information Sector Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text ++ Full-Text, 2001 Service Annual Survey - Securities and Commodity Contracts Intermediation and Brokerage Services Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text ++ Full-Text, 2001 Service Annual Survey - Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text ++ Full-Text, 2001 Service Annual Survey Truck Transportation, Couriers and Messengers, and Warehousing and Storage, Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Web Search--Google Source: Business Week Another "Problems for Google" Article A set of articles (from various publications) appear to be focusing on problems for the mighty Google. Like we've said for a long time, Google is wonderful but other quality products are also available for all types of searching either on the Internet or an organizations intranet. Included in Alex Salkever's article is following, "While it remains the leader in producing quality search results, a host of other search engines, including WiseNut, Teoma, and FAST, produce searches that are almost as good -- and in certain categories maybe even a bit better, according to users. These upstarts are already putting pressure on Google's business as a third-party search-results supplier, a business that brought in approximately one-third of its revenues in 2002." Again, you know my feelings about FAST and Teoma. I remained unimpressed with WiseNut. See Also: Additional Articles in the "Problems For Google" Series... # 1 ||| #2 ||| #3
Web Search--Teoma Teoma Launches Beta, Advanced Search Page Now Available More good things from Teoma, an advanced search interface! Don't be surprised if you see some tweaks and experience a few performance issues before the official announcement early next week. Remember, be careful if you choose to limit by date with Teoma or any web engine. UPDATE (1/16): A New "Preferences" Option is Also Available. You Can Change the Number of Results Presented on a Page And Choose to Have Results Opened in Separate Window. See Also: You Can Also Choose To Use Advanced Syntax with Teoma
Information Industry--EBSCO EBSCO Does Deal With NewspaperArchive.Com, Will Market Database To Libraries From the announcement, "NewspaperArchive.com has just signed a 5-year deal with EBSCO Publishing to market its online archive to 30,000 libraries worldwide...NewspaperArchive.com is the world's first, largest and busiest online archive of historic newspapers. NewspaperArchive.com's database contains over 5.5 million pages fully searchable, representing over 400 cities and towns." See Also: Direct to the NewspaperArchive.Com Web Site
Information Industry--Elsevier Information Industry--FAST Search FAST Search & Transfer Extends Relationship with Elsevier The companies announce, "...a strategic, multi-faceted agreement between the companies to further deploy and license FAST Data SearchT within existing and new subsidiaries of Elsevier. FAST Data Search, which offers companies the only fully scalable real-time search platform for both enterprise and Internet environments, will be deployed across a range of Elsevier properties, including Elsevier.com. The terms of this contract also includes a five-year, enterprise OEM licensing and software agreement for the deployment of FAST Data Search, as well as a Professional Services agreement, where FAST will provide full-time technical assistance to Elsevier in customizing the FAST Data Search platform to maximize information management solutions. FAST Data Search already powers the search and retrieval capabilities of Elsevier's award winning Scirus.com site, the most comprehensive science-specific search engine on the Internet. Additionally FAST powers the EngineeringVillage2 platform for Elsevier Engineering Information, Inc. (Ei), a leader in providing online information to the engineering community."
British Library--Bibliographies--New Products New From the BL and K.G. Saur: English Language Bibliography in Two Electronic Formats Quick and easy access to the most comprehensive catalogue [over 12 million entries] of English Language book and serial titles ever published is now a reality, following a unique collaboration between the British Library and publisher K.G. Saur. For the first time the English language Bibliography 1945 to the Present plus the Complete British Library General Catalogue of Printed books (BLC) to 1975 is collected into a single database and can be accessed on DVD and online. The following databases are combined: * The British National Bibliography (BNB) with 2 million records * British Library Document Supply Centre Monographs (DSC Monographs), with 665,000 records at present. * British Library's Science Reference and Information Service Current Catalogue (SRIS) and the Humanities and Social Sciences Current Catalogue (H&SS), with a total of 1.5 million records - updated weekly * The Library of Congress English Books since 1968 and English Serials since 1978 with 2.9 million book titles and over 577,000 serials records.
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Resources--Reviews The January Edition of Peter's Digital Reference Shelf is Now Available This month Péter Jacsó reviews the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms and The Official Charts (U.K. Pop Music)
Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) E-Rate Documents in the News Source: Center for Public Integrity Full-Text, "Phone Fund for Schools, Libraries Riddled with Fraud" You can also go directly to the FCC Inspector General report. See Also: Background Article ||| Article via Wired News ||| Article from Library Journal |
