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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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Sunday, November 30, 2003
Internet Archive Internet Archive Gets DMCA Exemption To Help Archive Vintage Software From the announcement, In 2003 the Internet Archive, as part of research into vintage software archiving, discovered possible archiving issues involving the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. This could make it impossible to legally archive early computer software and games, even for accredited institutions wishing to store limited amounts of non-distributable, archival images...Following deliberation, the Copyright Office ruled in late October 2003 that four exemptions should be added to the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA, to be valid until the next Copyright Office rulemaking in 2006, including two that are related to the Internet Archive's original comments: # Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. # Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access.
Aviation--Real-Time Databases Source: PC Magazine How Real-Time Flight Information Databases Work When Chris and I wrote The Invisible Web we spent a few pages talking about real-time or near real-time databases. One of our favorites in this category is FlightTracker (via CheapTickets.Com). Yes, flight tracking info is available in many places including directly from the airlines but FlightTracker allows you to actually see the plane move every few seconds on a map. Other data includes air speed, compass direction, and altitude. In many cases flight info data is supplied by Boston-based RLM Software. This article from the current issue of PC Magazine explains how it all works. Don't forget that what's available for free is just the tip of the iceberg as compare to the data available via a subscription to the fee-based service. Btw, you can also get flight tracking info direct from RLM but imho, the FlightTracker implementation looks nicer.
Library Robots Source: Kyodo News (via Japan Today) "Robot can browse for books in library via Internet" From the article, A Japanese team of researchers has developed a robot that could help browse for books in a library by receiving instructions via the Internet, a team member said Friday. The robot, a wheeled vehicle measuring 50 by 45 centimeters with a digital camera, mechanical hand and arm, follows orders received through the Internet. Still in the experimental stage, it was developed as a way to help people who cannot go to a library, said Akihisa Oya, an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba. See Also: The Evelyn Wood of Digitized Book Scanners (via NY Times)
Libraries--India "Libraries should be more proactive" A good suggestion for libraries all over the world! From the article, Governor T N Chaturvedi on Thursday called for a national library movement to reach out to millions of people in the country...“Libraries have to become more proactive” since they are not just storehouses of knowledge but also propagators of knowledge," he said.
Professional Reading Shelf Scholarly Communication Source: Jekyll.comm: International Journal of Science Communication no. 6 Full Text, "Invisible Hand(s) Quality Assurance in the Age of Author Self-Archiving" A new paper by Gerry McKiernan a librarian and bibliographer at Iowa State University. See Also: Full Text, Peer review: is it crisis? by Mauro Scanu, Innovations in Science Communication, ISAS, Trieste, Italy Saturday, November 29, 2003
Education Resources Source: Education Week (Registration Required, Free) "Some AskERIC Services Shift To Syracuse University" A brief article about some of AskERIC's services moving to a new home at EduRef.Org on December 19th. From the article, To keep the service going, the Information Institute of Syracuse is moving the information collection to a new electronic home. Known as the Educators Reference Desk, the new site will give educators free access to most of the information they get now through AskERIC. One missing element, though, will be the customized question-and- answer service that has been ERIC's most-used feature. With the loss of federal support, the institute no longer has enough staff members to field individual queries. "We know we still have a lot of users who depend on resources such as the lesson plans," said R. David Lankes, the executive director of the institute, which helped develop AskERIC and has run it for 11 years. See Also: An Important Statement About the ERIC Database was Released this Week Beginning in January and until the new ERIC model for acquiring education literature is developed later in 2004, no new materials will be received and accepted for the database. However, the ERIC database will continue to grow, as thousands of documents selected by the ERIC clearinghouses throughout 2003 will be added. When the new model is ready later in 2004, the new ERIC contractor will communicate with publishers, education organizations, and other database contributors to add publications and materials released from January 2004 forward.
Professional Reading Shelf The December, 2003 Issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter is Online Always interesting and useful material from Roddy M., Catherine U., and Catherine F., from the Heriot-Watt University Library. -- Conferences Just Made Available, Presentations from the EDUCAUSE 2003 Conference Numerous presentations from the conference might be of interest. Here's a sample: + Copyright Policies: Past, Present, and Future (Video Presentation) + MIT OpenCourseWare: A New Model for Open Sharing (Video Presentation) + Looking for LTAs? Discover Low-Threshold Applications at the Campus Library Panelists include Steven Bell, Philadelphia University + Institutional Repositories: What Does Your Institution Need to Know? + Virtual Communities of Practice + Expansion of Web-Based Library Services in Large Research Libraries: A Penn State Case Study + Instant Messaging Interactive Agents: Responding to Student Queries "Naturally" + Comparison of the Cost and Use of University Electronic and Print Journal Collections Presentation not yet online. + Digital Library Collections: Creating More Than Pretty Pictures + The DSpace Federation: Reports from the New Frontier in Scholarly Communication Presentation not yet online. + Emerging Best Practices for Integrating Library Content and Services with Educational Technology Presentation not yet online. +++ See Also: Complete List of Presenters and Presentations Plenty o' good stuff.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Terrorism--Canada Source: Canadian Security Intelligence Service: Recently Updated, List of Entities as Determined by the Government of Canada Pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2001 Brief annotations about many of the groups are included on this list. -- Wages--United States--Statistics Source: BLS Just Released, 2002 Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates -- Astronomy SpaceWeather.com "Science news and information about the Sun-Earth environment."
Librarians Source: The New Zealand Herald Be Gone Librarian Stereotypes: "The secret life of tattooed and bellydancing librarians" In a wonderful column, Shelley Howell, a writer for The New Zealand Herald, helps inform the public that we're not all "stereotypical librarians." From the column, Librarians rock. That reputation they have involving buns, sensible shoes and shushing people is merely a cunning ruse, developed over centuries, to conceal their real lives as radicals, subversives and providers of extreme helpfulness. Combine librarians and the net, and in no time they will rule the world. Friday, November 28, 2003
Consumer Products--United States Feds Launch New Product Recall Site, Tracks Announcements From Six Agencies From a GCN article, The site, www.recalls.gov, provides not only the recalled household items listed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission but also data on recalled motor vehicles, recreational boats, food, medicines, cosmetics and pesticides...The home page features a series of tabs organized by product type. The pages linked to each tab contain links to lists of product recalls and to the home page of the agency responsible for regulating those products. The subpages also feature a link, marked with a red arrow, that tells consumers how to report problems to agencies. The regulatory agencies that are CPSC’s partners on the portal—the Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Food Safety Inspection Service and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—are responsible for updating their own recall lists, Fleming said.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) United Kingdom--Statistics Source: National Statistics Office Released Yesterday, Full Text, UK 2004 - The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland The definitive overview of the United Kingdom in text, tables, maps, charts and (in the hardcopy version) colour photographs. The latest edition includes chapters on government, international relations, defence; education and training, the labour market, social protection, health, crime and justice, religion, culture, communications and the media, sport, environment, housing, planning and regeneration, transport, sustainable development, the economy, public finance, international trade and investment, science, engineering and technology, agriculture, fishing and forestry, manufacturing and construction, energy and natural resources, and financial services. Information on England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is included throughout, and in separate introductory chapters. -- Wine--United States Source: The Wine Institute U.S. Wine Laws and Info Includes federal wine laws, the Federal Register sections that pertain to wine, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) regulations and forms, tax information for all states, California laws and laws from other states, including information on which states permit direct shipment of wine. Also includes contact information and links to the websites of all state Alcoholic Beverage Control Authorities. See Also: Who Ships Where See Also: American Vitacultural Areas
Briefly ProQuest...Cambridge Scientific Abstracts and Proquest Make Linking Deal BvD...New UK Company Data Added to DASH Database
Legal Research--United States Public Records--United States Coming Very Soon: Instant Registration to PACER Database From the announcement, Beginning January 5, 2004, free instant registration will be offered for Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER). Joining the nearly 300,000 registered users of PACER will be easier than ever. PACER allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index. It offers an inexpensive, fast and comprehensive case information system to any individual with a personal computer (PC) and Internet access. But until now, the process of registering and receiving a password has taken up to two weeks. See Also: Direct to the PACER Service Center See Also: What is PACER? Thursday, November 27, 2003
Quote of the Week Higher Education Source: Educause Review, vol. 38. no. 6 From the article, "Why IT Has Not Paid Off As We Hoped (Yet)" The real heroes of the digital revolution in higher education are librarians; they are the people who have seen the farthest, done the most, accepted the hardest challenges, and demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital information. In the process, they have turned their own field upside down and have revolutionized their own professional training. It is a testimony to their success that we take their achievement for granted.
Professional Reading Shelf Conference Announcements CFP: ECDL 2004 (European Digital Library Conference) ECDL 2004 (September 12-17 2004 at the University of Bath, UK) is the 8th in the series of European Digital Library Conferences. ECDL has become the major European Forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, organisational and social issues.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Canada Digital Library Projects Source: Library and Archives Canada Direction des archives de France Archives nationales du Québec Centre d’études acadiennes Just Released, New France, New Horizons: On French Soil in America From the announcement, The world’s most comprehensive research portal on source material from the French colonial period in America. Canada and France are the first two countries to possess this type of joint database on their common history, and the first to make it available in its entirety on the Web...New France, New Horizons: On French Soil in America is a vast documentary corpus, which consists of a virtual exhibition and an impressive database with 22,000 documents reproduced in more than 400,000 digitized images. It offers maps and plans, letters and reports, and other archival documents related to New France—fundamental period in Canada’s history. In addition, many documents that were previously inaccessible to the public may now be consulted online. -- Internet Access Documents in the News Source: Renesys Full Text, Impact of the 2003 Blackouts on Internet Communications (Preliminary Report, November 2003) ++ See Also: Full Text, Interim Report: Causes of the August 14th Blackout in the United States and Canada (Source: U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force) Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Web Search--Google Source: Fortune "Can Google Grow Up?" I think this quote from the article says it best, "Google is one of the best things to happen to the Net. So will its IPO, expected this spring, be a must-buy? A look inside reveals a talented company facing trouble." Perhaps an article like this one will alert the info profession to what ResourceShelf has been saying since we started, Google is wonderful but it's not the end all to be all. In other words, don't get bogged down in all of the hype and remember that other web resources and fee-based resources remain important and useful. One service that Google has brought about is making its competition better. This article focuses on the business aspect of Google but is still a must read. The problems that this article points out might also be the reason that many of us have noticed that Google results aren't as good as they once were. All sorts of odd things happen. This simple search for === Some key quotes from the article. + Google has grown arrogant, making some of its executives as frustrating to deal with in negotiations as AOL's cowboy salesmen during the bubble. It has grown so fast that employees and business partners are often confused about who does what. A rise of stock- and option-stoked greed is creating rifts within the company. Employees carp that Google is morphing in strange and nerve-racking ways. And talk swirls over the question of who's really in charge: CEO Schmidt or co-founders Brin and Page? + Brin and Page figured that more important was the relevance of a site and how many other web pages linked to it. While Brin and Page were the first ones to use link analysis in a publicly available web engine the concept was first developed by Jon Kleinberg and the team that worked on the CLEVER project for IBM. Link analysis has its foundation in citation analysis and the work of Eugene Garfield. Btw, all of the other major web engines use link analysis as part of their relevancy algorithms. Don't forget, it's not only link analysis that determines what you see on a results page. Many other factors are part of the algorithm. One final thought, one of the biggest challenges in using link analysis arises because some people try to beat the system. In other words, with traditional citation analysis the only way to get a citation was by someone referencing your work in their paper. For the most part it's closed system that includes peer review. However, because the "open web" is open and with many commercial interests (and others) having an all out desire to be at the top of results list link analysis can run into problems. A paper by Google's technology director and research director shed light on some of these and other problems that ALL web engines face. + Those close to Google say that the company has begun to more closely resemble a madhouse than any kind of serene dot-com dream. It's a tough place to work, and a tough place to do business with. + Brin and Page still keep a hand in all the hiring, from executives to administrative assistants. And to them, work experience counts far less than where you went to school, how you did on your SATs, and your grade-point average. "If you've been at Cisco for 20 years, they don't want you," says an employee. + He [Brin] points to Google News, where users can sign up to be e-mailed whenever a story appears that contains a word or phrase they're interested in. Yes, I know Google News Alerts are still in "beta" but to this point I've been less than impressed. Let's also not forget that while Google and other web engines have tremendous research and reference value (in the libary sense) they're not in the business of meeting all of the specific wants, needs, and desires of the information and library communities. Google is now a premiere marketing and advertising vehicle. Maximizing revenue from these services is what keeps the company (and other web engines) moving forward. This does not mean bad things for the searcher. It's just a reality to remember when using these tools. It's also points out that for many queries specialized or niche tools can be worthwhile and big timesavers. See Also: A quote from a May, 2003 Forbes article "Google will need to quell the hubris that is much in abundance at the jubilant company these days." This article also contains the following sentence, "Even Google's engineers admit Fast and Teoma deliver results comparable to theirs." See Also: Seth Finkelstein has published a new paper, "Google Bayesian Spam Filtering Problem?" From the abstract, This report describes a possible explanation for recent changes in Google search results, where long-time high-ranking sites have disappeared. It is hypothesized that the changes are a result of the implementation of a "Bayesian spam filtering" algorithm, which is producing unintended consequences.
Lists & Rankings The List of Lists Continues to Grow I'm often asked whatever happened to Price's List of Lists? For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, a brief introduction. The LOL is a resource compilation I started about five years ago that aggregates business and other types of lists and rankings from around the web. The site remains online and growing because of the work of Trip Wyckoff from SpecialIssues.Com. Trip began hosting the List of Lists in September, 2002. Yesterday, Trip told me that the LOL currently contains links to over 1000 lists from over 350 publications. Allow me to once again thank SpecialIssues.Com for maintaining and building the resource. Price's List of List's is available at no charge. See Also: Direct to Special Issues What is Special Issues? Trip Wyckoff's online database of editorial calendars, special issues and content "mined" from trade and industrial magazine websites.
Education Resources--ERIC New Message Posted on ERIC Web Site Although the following message from the ERIC web site is for contributors, partners, and vendors, information professionals might also find it of interest. From the web site: In January 2004, the Department of Education will begin to implement a reengineering plan for ERIC. The new ERIC mission continues the core function of providing a centralized bibliographic database of journal articles and other published and unpublished education materials. It enhances the database by adding free full text and electronic links to commercial sources and by making it easy to use and up to date. Beginning in January and until the new ERIC model for acquiring education literature is developed later in 2004, no new materials will be received and accepted for the database. However, the ERIC database will continue to grow, as thousands of documents selected by the ERIC clearinghouses throughout 2003 will be added. When the new model is ready later in 2004, the new ERIC contractor will communicate with publishers, education organizations, and other database contributors to add publications and materials released from January 2004 forward. See Also: Changes Coming to ERIC on December 19, 2003/Good News for AskERIC
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Science in England, 1998-2002 + Communication: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002
Web Search--Google Source: Chilling Effects Weekly Compilation of Recent DMCA/Cease and Desist Requests Sent to Google Blogger Sends C&D Order to Blogspot User 2) Siam Handicrafts Complains to Google 3) Testing Technologies Testy Over Posting 4) Lecture Transcript Posted on Google Groups Three from last month that we did not post. Motion Picture Association of America Complains to Google A) MPAA to Google #3 ("Terminator 3") B) MPAA to Google #2 ("Finding Nemo") C) MPAA to Google #1 ("American Wedding")
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) AIDS--Statistics Source: UNAIDS Just Released, Full Text Report, AIDS Epidemic Update The report is available in English, French, Spanish, and Russian. -- World Hunger--Statistics Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Just Released, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003 See Also: Direct link to full text of report (PDF - 369kb) See Also: Link to flyer providing synopsis of report -- Privacy--United States--Statistics Source: BJS New, Compendium of State Security and Privacy Legislation: Overview 2002 -- Criminal Justice--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 2001 Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Source: Reuters "Scientists push for open access publishing" From the article, Just as the Internet transformed the way the public get information, the founders of the non-profit Public Library of Science (PLoS) want scientific research to be freely available to everyone. Instead of paying for access to scientific research locked in subscription-only databases controlled by leading scientific journals, they want open access to scientific literature. "We are hoping to drive a change in the business model across all of scientific publishing," Vivian Siegel, the executive director of the journal PLoS Biology, told Reuters...Not everyone is convinced. Opponents to open access say the current system works, so why change it. Scientific publishers also question whether the "author pays" model will erode the quality of the research or lead to conflict of interest, and whether journals could survive financially under a new system.
Web Search--Kartoo Information Visualization New Version of Kartoo Metasearch Engine Now Available I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been a big fan of Kartoo, a meta engine that visualizes results on a "cartographic" interface. However, I know many of you are regular users of this resource, so it's absolutely worthy of inclusion on ResourceShelf. With this announcement of three new services that focus on the personalization of results, I think it's time for me to take another look. According to the company the following features have just been released: + Personalization of results according to interests and previous searches + An innovative and intuitive information management system: the Kapitalyser (patent pending) + An easy to use monitoring system Thanks to I.S. for the news tip
Information Retrieval Source: News.Com More On What Microsoft is Up To From the article, The Redmond, Wash., software giant is experimenting with different search technologies that will, among other tasks, conduct Google-like searches on an individual's hard drive or categorize query results in different ways intended to make the data easier to digest...Implicit Query, an experimental application that was put together a few weeks ago, for example, retrieves links, music files, e-mails and other materials that relate to applications running in the foreground, according to the company. "We analyze whatever text you are working on and then pull out words that are important and query on those automatically," said Susan Dumais, a senior researcher in the Adaptive Systems and Interactive Group at Microsoft Research. "The idea is to retrieve a bunch of things without you explicitly searching for them." ...Microsoft's experiments differ from commercial search engines in that the universe of data searched consists of data found on an individual's hard drive. Although a smaller universe, it's a well-traveled one. Studies cited by the company suggest that up to 81 percent of Web pages accessed are repeat visits. Hence, the links someone wants to see are likely on his or her hard drive. Make sure to read the entire article. See Also: A July, 2003 ResourceShelfPLUS Post With Links to MS Search-Related Writing and Patents You'll also find a link to a presentation by Gordon Bell, developer of MyLifeBits. See Also: Direct to Microsoft Research Adaptive Technology Home Page Special attention to the "Information Access, Filtering, and Management" section.
Online Research Library Marketing Source: Mass High Tech "Think Google is the be-all and end-all of research? You’d better think again" George Plosker (someone who we've mentioned on ResourceShelf several times) and Christopher Kenneally from the CCC share a few thoughts in a technology industry weekly about how everyone's favorite search engine is good but not the perfect research tool. From the article, Serving as coach should be your reference librarian. Like premium content itself, the reference librarian is not a marketing or sales-oriented individual. He or she is typically oriented toward responding to questions. The article spends time talking about resources available to anyone with a library card. We love seeing this type of thing. The only point the article doesn't make (it's a small one) is that many of these premium databases are available to users without having to visit the library building. Kudos to George and Christopher for getting the story in the newspaper. See Also: Full-Text article, The Information Industry Revolution: Implications for Librarians (via Online) An article by George Plosker in the current issue of Online.
Librarians Source: Association of Research Libraries ARL Launches Resume Database for Library School Students From the site, The MLS Graduate Student Resume Database allows graduate students within 6 months of graduating from an MLS program, or within 6 months of completing a post-MLS residency or fellows program, to post their resume in one of the most visited online recruitment services in the academic and research library community. See Also: Direct to the Career Resources Database
Professional Reading Shelf Metadata 2003 Dublin Core Conference Summary (via Boxes and Arrows) You can also browse/search and view online many of the conference presentations and papers.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Legal Industry--United States--Lists and Rankings Source: National Law Journal Just Released, National Law Journal 250, 2003 This is The National Law Journal's 26th annual survey of the nation's largest law firms, covering the period Oct. 1, 2002, to Sept. 30, 2003. -- Consumer Complaints--United States--Lists and Rankings Source: National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and Consumer Federation of America Automobile Sales Complaints Top NACAA/CFA's Annual Consumer Complaint List "The twelfth annual consumer complaint survey...reveals that new and used car auto sales topped the list of consumer complaints filed with state and local consumer protection agencies last year. Internet and e-commerce complaints made the top ten list for the first time in 2002." Survey included input from 43 different consumer agencies, which handled more than 300,000 complaints in 2002. See Also: Full Text, Twelfth Annual NACAA/CFA Consumer Complaint Survey Report (11/24/03) -- Business--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses: 2001: All industries Reports for individual states are also available via pull-down menu (right-side of the page). -- Government--United Kingdom Source: House of Commons Library New Research Paper, An introduction to devolution in the UK
Briefly Canada...Funding for the Heritage Winnipeg Virtual Library Announced -- Proquest...Exclusive Distribution Deal for Oxford Analytica Archive...Company Signs Distribution Agreement with News International Monday, November 24, 2003
Cataloging The British Library Adds Over 2.5 Bibliographic Records to Amazon.co.uk Database From the announcement, Amazon.co.uk, the UK's leading online retailer, has today announced a unique alliance with the British Library. The British Library has made available its extensive bibliographic catalogue records to Amazon.co.uk for the first time, so that rare, antiquarian and pre-ISBN* books can be made easier to identify and to buy online. The British Library has added details of over 2.55 million unique bibliographic records to the Amazon.co.uk books catalogue, with 1.7 million of these dated before the 1970 introduction of ISBN. See Also: "British Library opens a new chapter in its history: helping Amazon storm the antiquarian book market" (via The Independent)
OCLC OCLC Settles Trademark Infringement Law Suit Against Library Hotel Remember this law suit story from a few months ago? It received plenty of press attention including an article in the New York Times. Under the settlement terms, The Library Hotel will receive permission from OCLC to use the Dewey Decimal Classification® trademarks in its hotel and in its marketing materials, with an acknowledgment that OCLC is the owner of the Dewey® trademarks. The Library Hotel will make a financial donation to a non-profit organization that promotes reading by children. See Also: ResourceShelf Post from 9/23/03 (Additional Background and Links)
Electronic Documents Two articles. -- 1) "On the Web, Research Work Proves Ephemeral" (via Washington Post) This article references the Colorado Health Sciences Center study that was posted to ResourceShelf a few weeks ago. The full-text of the article is accessible by visiting the lead author's web page and then clicking the full text link next to the article titled, "Going, going, gone: lost Internet references." Brewster Kahle from the Internet Archive is quoted. -- 2) Explosion of e-documents raises record-storage issues (via Boston Business Journal)
Information Services Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Just Released Study, Consumption of Information Goods and Services in the United States From the news release, Computers and the Internet are encroaching on the TV and the landline telephone as important information and communication tools for a growing number of tech-loving Americans, especially those in their twenties. A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that as people surround themselves with the latest technological gadgets and services, the landline telephone plays a less prominent role in their communication routines and the television recedes in importance as an information appliance. According to the report, almost 70% of the U.S. population is not part of the elite group. I was unable to find any mention of libraries or librarians in the document. This report sorts Americans into eight categories: The Tech Elite + Young Tech Elite + Older Wired Baby Boomers + Wired Generation Xers + Wired Senior Men Lower-tech Groups + Young Marrieds + Low-Tech Older Baby Boomers + Unwired Young Baby Boomers + Low-Tech Elderly I think many of us in the library community often forget that some of our colleagues and many users might not be as technically literate as others in the profession and community are. Some of us who are a bit more "into the technology" also shouldn't forget that it's just a tool not the solution. Perhaps the greatest resource a librarian should be sharing with his or her users is not a database or printed resource but their skills as both an educator and navigator. Of course, a disparity of knowledge in the library profession is also a major issue.
Web Search--Looksmart Looksmart "Relaunches" FindArticles Although the news release makes it sound like it's all new, it's not. For the most part it's what you've come to expect at LookSmart's FindArticles service that has been available for several years. I guess the most striking thing is that the FindArticles interface is now part of a new tabbed Looksmart interface. Additionally, ads appear in the right column and according to a company spokesperson, FindArticles is utilizing the WiseNut search technology that the company acquired in March, 2002. According to the news release, you can find full text access to material from about 700 sources. This is an increase. However, precisely what's new cannot be determined. According to copy of the home page cached on October 1st, 350 sources were available. A year ago, an article by Greg Notess mentioned that 500 sources were available. Advanced search features are limited. One option allows you to limit by a few publication categories. All and all, FindArticles is a useful resource if you're aware of its limitations and/or don't have access to anything more powerful. Perhaps the best way to get to know it is by browsing the title list. It will be interesting to see if this gets any media attention while library services including free databases continue to receive little if any notice. Btw, the FindArticles.Com url still works. Thanks to S.C. for the news tip.
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Special Libraries Association SLA Publishes New Mission and Vision Statements From the announcement, The SLA Board of Directors recently adopted new Vision, Mission, and Values statements. The statements are based on the values that shape and inspire SLA's operations and clearly articulate its purpose and desired state of the organization and are at the hub of the Association's strategic branding initiatives. "The vision and mission statements bring a new perspective and focus to the way the Association will be operated in the future," remarked SLA Executive Director Janice R. Lachance. "Having these securely in place, we have taken a bold step forward, positioning ourselves as a leading organization of global information professionals who are interested in advancing their careers." -- American Society for Information Science and Technology ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2004: Call For Papers The conference is titled, "Managing and Enhancing Information: Cultures and Conflicts" and will take place November 13 - 18, 2004 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items) Research and Development--Lists & Rankings Source: Technology Review The 2003 Corporate R&D Scorecard "The R&D spending of over 300 top technology companies." The complete scorecard is available in xls format. -- CRS Reports -- Intellectual Property, Cyberlaw, Electronic Commerce Source: Franklin Pierce Law Center More CRS Reports: Intellectual Property, Cyberlaw, Electronic Commerce "The Franklin Pierce Law Center IP Mall is pleased to offer the full text of intellectual property, cyberlaw and electronic commerce publications of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the 741-person, $68 million-per-year "think tank" that works exclusively for Members and committees of the United States Congress." Reports are available from the years 1993 to the present, in PDF format. Browse by year. Note: CRS reports are updated frequently, pay close attention to dates. See Also: A List of other CRS sources can be accessed at the bottom of this post. -- U.S. Budget--Glossary Source: OMB Watch New, Glossary of Important Budget Terms -- United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census New Material from American Community Survey Available on FactFinder 1) More Tables from ACS Now Available ||| Complete List of Tables 2) Also New From Census, Housing in the U.S., 2000 Highlights/Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text -- Juveniles--United States--Statistics Source: NCJRS Just Released, Juvenile Court Statistics 1999 -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: NCES Released today, Projections of Education Statistics to 2013 This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment, earned degrees conferred, and current-fund expenditures of degree-granting institutions. Sunday, November 23, 2003
Search Engines First Draft of the Search Engine Meeting Conference Program Now Available The 2004 Search Engine Meeting will take place in The Hague, The Netherlands, 19-20 April 2004. Companies offering presentations include: + Ask Jeeves + Feedster + LTU Technologies + Verity + Endeca + Turbo 10
Librarians Source: Florida Times-Union Professional Librarians Needed in Jacksonville, Florida From the article, Staffing a new Main Library twice the size of the one it will replace, plus finding employees for six new and 12 renovated libraries in Jacksonville, is chore enough. Add to that there's a shortage of librarians nationally and it's obvious Diane Moser has her hands full. The human resources manager for the Jacksonville Public Library has to find 135 new employees to help staff libraries where construction is set to finish in the next year. Library records show 52 of those positions are for professional librarians, which means at least a master's degree is required.
Professional Reading Shelf Controlled Vocabularies--MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) Source: NLM What's New for 2004 MeSH
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents Philanthropy--Lists & Rankings Source: Business Week Philanthropy 2003 "At No. 1 on our list, William H. Gates III and his wife, Melinda, are the reigning royalty of a new class of self-made superphilanthropists. Along with Michael and Susan Dell, PeopleSoft co-founder David Duffield and his wife, Cheryl, and eBay's first president, Jeffrey S. Skoll, they're schooling society in the ways of conspicuous donation." Bill and Melinda Gates gave away $23 billion -- half of their net worth. Thanks to ResourceShelf Contributing Editor Shirl Kennedy for the link. See Also: The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists (chart) See Also: Methodology See Also Gates tops generosity list (Reuters, via CNN/Money) Saturday, November 22, 2003
Digital Divide--Lists & Rankings Source: International Telecommunications Union Recently Released, Full Text, ITU Digital Access Index: World’s First Global ICT Ranking The first global index to rank Information and Communication Technology (ICT) access has turned up some surprises. Slovenia ties France; and the Republic of Korea, usually not among the top ten in international ICT rankings, comes in fourth. Apart from Canada, ranked 10th, the top ten economies are exclusively Asian and European. The Digital Access Index (DAI) distinguishes itself from other indices by including a number of new variables, such as education and affordability. It also covers a total of 178 economies, which makes it the first truly global ICT ranking. See Also: The rankings have received coverage on News.Com
Scholarly Publishing Serial Costs Source: Yale Daily News "Technology poses problems for journals" From the article, Technology has revolutionized the way many researchers access the latest information in their fields. But the transition has not alleviated all the problems that plague print journals, and has even presented some new ones, Yale faculty members said...Associate University Librarian Ann Okerson said the University's journal subscription costs, particularly in the areas of science and technology, rise about nine percent annually -- a pace that library budget increases cannot match. "Ten years ago -- everyone believed that electronic [journals] would be really cheap," Okerson said. "I think there's a fair amount of disillusionment or disappointment that moving to electronic has not brought down costs or prices." Okerson estimated that Yale spent $6.5 million on serials, or publications for which the University must pay every year, in the 2001-2002 academic year, the last year for which the information is available. She said approximately $3.6 million of that sum went toward journals related to science, technology and medicine. See Also: "Cornell, Harvard Plan to Cancel Elsevier Titles" (via Information Today)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items) Entrepreneurship Source: Harvard University New, Harvard Business School Launches Video Archive, Interviews with Entrepreneurs View interviews with leading entrepreneurs who are also HBS alums. Printed transcripts of the interviews are included on the web site. -- Legal Research Source: Legal Information Institute (Cornell Univ.) Legal Information Institute Adds New "Law About" Guide: Energy Law See Also: Other Legal Information Institute "Law About" Compilations Friday, November 21, 2003
News Searching--Rocketnews Great News! Rocketnews Will Soon Offer New Search Features I not only mention Rocketnews regularly on ResourceShelf and in training sessions but I also use it and the Rocket News Desktop on a "many times a day" basis. Rocketnews currently provides searchable access to about 10,000 sources. I find Rocket especially strong in business and trade publications. Now, to the good news. ResourceShelf has learned that the Rocketnews web site (available at no charge) will soon be enhanced (in the next two weeks) with several new features. Enhancements include: + Users will be able to specify that they want results with keywords in the article title only, the article title and excerpt only, or the full article. + Using new parametric controls, users will be able to specify the location of the publisher (continent), and a type of news source (newspaper, trade journal, newswire etc.). This means, for example, that you will be able to search for news on Cisco from North American trade journals or from European newspapers. + Truncation/Stemming will be available. + Rocket News will increase the age of articles that can be searched on Rocketnews, moving from a 5-day archive to a 3 to 6 month archive. + Users will be able to rate and refine their search results. This will be similar to what's already available with the fee-based Rocket Desktop. Rocket's neural net technology makes it possible to enhance the accuracy of your search results by rating articles that are (or are not) relevant to your research interests. + Improved relevancy ranking Look for these enhancements to "go live" in the next two weeks.
Web Search--Vivisimo Source: New Scientist Vivisimo's CEO Quoted in New Scientist Raul Valdes-Perez, Vivisimo's CEO, is quoted extensively in a just published article. In one section of the article he says, "Taking a step towards further customisation, beyond what Google has done, is a good thing," says Raul Valdes-Perez, president of Vivisimo, a software company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that specialises in clustering technologies. He says that the engineering of search and rank algorithms "has gone about as far as it can go". Now the way to improve the user experience is to work on the next layer of algorithms that determine the presentation of the "search and rank" results.
Professional Reading Shelf Archivists Source: Historical Manuscripts Commission, UK "What do Historians want from Archivists? (and vice-versa)" A report from a The Gerald Aylmer Seminar 2003 held in October.
United States Government--Declassified Documents--CIA Source: CIA CIA Releases Five Million Pages of Historical Records From the news release, "In fiscal year 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency released more than five million pages of declassified records to the public at the National Archives (NARA) facility in College Park, MD. Included are 1.5 million pages released on 30 September 2003 in the form of digital images in a full-text searchable database called CREST (CIA REcords Search Tool)." See Also: Learn a bit more about CREST (CIA REcords Search Tool).
Legal Research Zimmerman's Research Guide Now Available (Free) Via LexisNexis Hats off to LN for offering free access to this important and useful tool. If you've never visited, it's well worth your time. Congrats to Andrew Zimmerman for the new sponsorship and kudos for creating and maintaining such a great resource. See Also: Direct to Zimmerman's Research Guide
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Geographic Information--Canada Source: Natural Resources Canada New, Geobase A new one-stop portal providing, "access to quality and unique geospatial data at no cost and with unrestricted use." -- Privacy--European Union Source: European Union EU Data Protection Guides Individual country guides are available. They answer the question, "What are your rights as a citizen?" Thanks to P.W. for resource tip. See Also: EU Data Protection Web Site See Also: "Data Protection for Websites and Intranets" A new article by Paul Pedley. -- Documents in the News Wages--United States--Statistics Source: GAO Just Released, Full Text, Women's Earnings: Work Patterns Partially Explain Differences Between Men's and Women's Earnings This report has received press attention from numerous media organizations. -- Entrepreneurship--Australia Source: Ernst and Young Just Released, Full Text, Entrepreneurs' Barometer 2003-2004
Web Search--Google Source: Knowledge@Wharton 1) "What Is Google Worth?" -- 2) "Google as a Public Utility? No Results in This Search for Monopoly" CATO is correct on this one and it's something we've said on ResourceShelf many times, regulating Google as a public utility is a very silly idea. See Also: Brief Comments from ResourceShelf (April, 2003) about regulating Google Thursday, November 20, 2003
Web Resources of the Week (3 Items) A couple of databases and an updated list for you this week. -- 1) Population Source: United Nations Population Division World Population Prospects: The 2002 Revision From the site, Official UN estimates (1950-2000) and projections (2000-2050) for every country in the world, including estimates and projections of 28 demographic indicators, including birth rates, deaths rates, infant mortality rates and life expectancy. Make sure to note that along with basic data interface, the online database also contains detailed data and country profiles. The links are located on the left side of the page. Report highlights and tables are also available as pdf files. -- -- -- 2) Environment--United States Source: Environmental Protection Agency New, EPA Science Inventory Database Launched for Public Use From the site, The EPA Science Inventory is a searchable Agency-wide catalog of science activities and scientific and technical work products (risk assessments, technical studies and guidance, and research). At the present time the database contains over 4,000 entries. Along with bibliographic and contact information, some records have direct links to the full text of the material. An announcement mentions that this database has been used internally for many years at EPA but it wasn't until earlier this week that it was made available to the public. See Also: EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Database Has Been Available for One Year Over 1 million searches in the first year. Direct to the database. -- -- -- 3) Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Inc. The 2003 Inc. 500 is Now Available Online The list ranks "America's fastest-growing private companies." Resources on the site include the 2003 list in rank order, a searchable database of all lists back to 1982, a six-page report with numerous statistics from the 2003 rankings, and a geographic breakdown of the 2003 list.
Business Research--Specialized Search Tools New Search Engine Debuts Focusing on Investor-Related Information From Public Companies Around the World This new engine is called The Scannery and comes from a South African company. The Scannery allows the searcher to limit his or her search to the full text of investor-related web pages from 11,000 public companies. The database is global in scope. Numerous search options are available including the ability to limit by index (SP 500, Global 1000, Euro 400, etc.) country, and/or industry. Boolean connectors along with a proximity operator (w/# of terms) are also available. Wildcards, stemming, natural language, fuzzy match, and synonym searching also add to the database's potential usefulness. The Scannery indexes html, pdf, ppt, doc, and other format types. Complete documentation is available here. According to this article, TimbukOne founder and developer Jos Pols says the difference between The Scannery and other search engines is that where other search engines reference every Web site that has a match, The Scannery focuses solely on investor-specific targets broken down by country and industry sector....The most powerful feature is that the user can consolidate all search results by company Web site, and even find all hits within all documents on any specific Web site, he says. Pols says all public companies have been included. In bigger countries like the US, the top 1, 500 companies have been included, while in a smaller market like Japan, the top 500 companies are searched. Again, this is a new product and I noticed several issues with odd and inconsistent results being returned but this is not uncommon with new and even some old search tools. Bottom Line? With its many features and by focusing on one type of web content, The Scannery has the potential to be a very useful resource. Let's watch it closely. See Also: "Investor search engine launched" (via ITWeb)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items) Health Information Four New Topic Pages/Compilations from MEDLINEplus * MEDLINEplus: Teen Mental Health * MEDLINEplus: Blood and Blood Disorders * MEDLINEplus: Pulmonary Hypertension * MEDLINEplus: Heel Injuries and Disorders -- Education--Webliography Source: ISTL Full-Text, "Mathematics Education Resources on the Internet" -- Employment--United States--Statistics Source: BLS Just Released, Occupational Employment and Wages, 2002 -- Business--United Kingdom Updated Site, Business Link This new gateway contains " objective information and support" for business owners or those considering starting a business. The site also contains a link to the 100-page, No-Nonsense Guide to Rules and Regulations.
Web Search--Google A Few Google Search Tips A couple of weeks ago I put together a list of a few Google search tips for a email list I post on. Our friend and colleague, Genie Tyburski, of The Virtual Chase was kind enough to reprint the list on her site. "njoy!
Public Libraries Source: Philadelphia Weekly "Shhh! People are trying to compute" Another very sad article about how some people view the future of libraries and librarians. More of the "why do we need them" type of article. Thanks to LISNews.Com for the item.
Library Statistics Factsheets and Reports from the US and UK Two items. 1) United States...ALA Releases "Internet Use in Libraries" Factsheet 2) United Kingdom...Now Online: 2003 Annual Statistics Sampler: Library and Information Statistics Tables Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Information Retrieval Web Search Compilation: Recently Awarded Search Related Patents and Patent Applications, November, 2003 I've compiled the November list of just awarded or published search patents from the USPTO. This list is not comprehensive. Companies awarded patents include AOL, IBM, and Verizon. Companies with just published patent apps include Overture, Intelliseek, and Mitsubishi.
Information Industry--Institute for Scientific Information ISI Announces a Major Web of Science Initiative, Bibliographic Data Back to 1900 Research geeks should love this newst. It will be interesting to see how material from 1944-1900 influenced later writing. From the announcement, Thomson ISI announced the Century of Science, an initiative to provide the research community with access to the world’s most influential scientific research throughout the 20th century. Currently, Web of Science coverage extends to 1945. The Century of Science initiative will expand the Web of Science to include bibliographic data from the highest impact scientific literature published between 1944-1900, adding nearly 850,000 articles from approximately 200 journals. The journals have been carefully selected by the Thomson ISI editorial team based on such criteria as citation patterns, geographic origin, and meaningful balance across scientific disciplines.
Web Search--Gigablast Gigablast Adds Spellchecker Matt Wells, Gigablast's sole proprietor, continues to develop his web search engine into a very useful tool. Kudos Matt! If you haven't noticed Gigablast's index increases in size daily and now has indexed over 210 million pages. Boolean and other advanced search functions are available including access to MS Office files and Adobe Acrobat documents. Like Google and a few other web engines, Gigablast also caches web pages. See Also: Direct to Gigablast See Also: Gigablast Now Supports Generic Meta Tags See Also: Gigablast Supporting the Use of Geo Sensitive Meta Tags See Also: An Interview With Matt Wells, Gigablast Founder and Sole Proprietor (via SearchDay)
Health Information--United Kingdom Digital Libraries Source: Kable's Government Computing "Busy at the NHS e-library" A new digital resource, aimed at providing NHS staff with key healthcare documents, is growing in popularity according to the latest figures...The number of people visiting the NHS's online library, set up to help staff make decisions about healthcare, has increased by a third, according to new figures released on 17 November 2003....The e-library is primarily geared towards providing healthcare professionals with the information they need to do their job, but patients and the public can also access the same information as their doctors and carers. See Also: Direct to the National Electric Library for Health
Web Search--AOL Multimedia Searching Thomson Sells Singingfish to AOL One large company sells to another large company. Singingfish is a publicly available (and free) "focused" engine for streaming media content. Are specialized search tools the next type of resources to come into play? Financial terms were not released. If you've never used Singingfish, it's worthy of your attention. See Also: Direct to Singingfish Database See Also: Reuters Coverage See Also: Along with the Singingfish Acquisition, More Changes at AOL Search (via SearchDay)
Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items) Libraries Source: Council on Library and Information Resource New Report, Libraries Designed for Learning From the abstract, [Scott] Bennett conducted an extensive study of the motivations and planning methods for library renovation and construction projects undertaken between 1992 and 2001. His study entailed a Web-based survey of more than 380 institutions, and phone interviews with 31 library directors and chief academic officers. He concludes that while most of the projects are serving users well, they have rarely been informed by a systematic assessment of how students learn and faculty teach. -- ARL November Report on the Scholars Portal Project -- Libraries and Librarians The December Issue of Walt Crawford's Cites & Insights is Now Online -- Libraries and Librarians Source: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (UK) Selected Articles from the December Issue of CILIP's Library + Information Update Are Now Online Articles available online include: + "Implementing the FOI Act: Are we ready" by Duncan Simpson + "Next generation management" by Simon Tanner + "Raising e-awareness in health" by Alison Turner, Nick Rosen and Fran Wilkie network for NHS staff. New Publication: CILIP has announced that they will begin publishing Library and Information Gazette beginning in January, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Open Access Scholarly Publishing New Issue of Open Access Now Online Also available as a pdf file. Along with open access new this issue contains and interview with Beverlee French, Director for Shared Digital Collections at the California Digital Library. In other open access movement news, two more consortia have signed-on with BioMed Central.
Scholarly Publishing Open Access Source: Outsell e-Briefs "PR Wars Heat Up in Open-Access Publishing" Outsell writes, "We've been predicting that the conflict between academic publishers and open-access publishing models will be to scholarly publishing what the Napster and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) conflicts have been to music."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items) World Trade Center Memorial Source: Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Images/Background Info About Word Trade Center Memorial Finalists Eight finalists were announced today. -- Employment--United States--Statistics Source: American Electronics Association Report Highlights, Cyberstates 2003 "This report provides you with new 2002 national and state data on high-tech employment, exports, and venture capital investments. Cyberstates 2003 also includes the latest data on wages, establishments, payroll, and research and development expenditures...." In 2002, U.S. high-tech lost roughly 540,000 jobs; total high tech employment dropped from 6.5 million to 6.0 million. Most lost jobs were in electronics manufacturing. California, Texas, New York, Florida and Massachusetts have the most high tech jobs. Press Release State Specific Press Releases Full report available for $190 ($95 fpr AeA members) -- Seat Belts--United States--Statistics Source: NHTSA Seat Belt Usage Rates by State Summary ||| List See Also: New National Safety Council Report, Lives Lost by States’ Failure to Implement Primary Safety Belt Laws (MS Word) -- Space--Image Database Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Planetary Photojournal "The Planetary Photojournal is your interface to the Planetary Image Archive (PIA) contained within the Planetary Data System Imaging Node. As images are added to the PIA, the Photojournal will aid you in finding your desired image from this database by using a number of search mechanisms. In addition to the photographic images you may have seen in magazines or television broadcasts, the actual data used to create these images are also available." Images available free for public use. Commercial users should download an image release form to fill out and mail to Caltech. -- Digital Libraries Source: Cornell Institute for Digital Collections The Fantastic in Art and Fiction "Sponsored by Cornell University's Institute for Digital Collections (CIDC) this image-bank provides a visual resource for the study of the Fantastic or of the supernatural in fiction and in art." Contains more than 300 images organized into categories: Angels & Demons, Dance Macabre, Weird Science, Beastiary, The Marvelous, The Grotesque, Possession & Insanity, Fantastic Space, and Freaks, Monsters & Prodigies. Images are "from works spanning a period from medieval manuscripts and printed incunabulae, to the early twentieth century." Browse, search by image or search by book. Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Web Search--MSN Source: News.Com MSN Launches "Experimental" News Search Engine + Interfaces and content available in English, French , Spanish, and Italian. + Content via a feed from Moreover of about 4000 sources (about the same as Google). Moreover also provides feeds to Yahoo News and many other sites. + Browsable sections generated automatically + Keyword search is available + Personalization, "showing you news from sources you've chosen in the past, or suggesting stories based on your previous interests" is available for Microsoft Passport users. This is something that Google does not offer. + If you're interested in searching a database of about 10,000 news sources, take a look at RocketNews.Com. Finally, NewsNow, aggregates and builds browsable subject pages (hundreds of choices) from over 14,000 sources. See Also: Additional Info About MS Newsbot via News.Com
Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items) Information Literacy Source: ManagingInformation.Com ACRL Unveils Redesigned Information Literacy Site From the article, The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) in America has launched its redesigned Information Literacy Web site www.acrl.org/infolit. The new user-friendly site is a resource for information literacy and important ACRL initiatives. The site includes: ACRL's Institute for Information Literacy, which showcases ACRL's Best Practices and Immersion programs; a toolkit for the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, links to bibliographies, examples of information literacy in action and research and advocacy resources from the ACRL Instruction Section. -- Digital Libraries The November, 2003 Issue of Digital Libraries Magazine is Online Articles include: + "New Ways of Sharing and Using Authority Information: The Leaf Project" + "The DiVA Project - Development of an Electronic Publishing System" + In Brief: A Digital Library of Library and Information Science
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items) Freedom of Information Act--United States Source: National Security Archive New, Full-Text Report, The Ten Oldest Pending FOIA Requests From the report, The oldest Freedom of Information requests that are still pending in the U.S. government date back to the late 1980s, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to the Freedom of Information Act Audit released today by George Washington University's National Security Archive. -- Health--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: United Health Foundation Just Released, United Health Foundation State Health Rankings 2003 From the report, America's Health: State Health Rankings 2003 Edition is produced by the United Health Foundation in partnership with the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Partnership for Prevention. This is the 14th in a series of comprehensive, state-by-state analyses of health status in our nation. The report documents the successes that have been realized through the hard work of health workers and by communities throughout the country, and also lays out the challenges that continue to face our communities. It is our hope that individuals, families, community leaders, employers and public officials will use this report as a foundation for targeted efforts to improve their own health and that of their communities. Achieving and maintaining health is an essential priority for our nation and, as such, it is worthy of the best efforts of all of us. -- Library of Congress LC Makes New Online Collection Available: The Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands This new resource is part of LC's Global Gateway project to build digital libraries with national libraries from around the world. From today's announcement, Developed by the Library of Congress in cooperation with the National Library of the Netherlands, this is the first stage of an ongoing project, The Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands, being produced under a cooperative agreement signed by the two institutions earlier this year...The Atlantic World is available in both English and Dutch, and is intended for use in schools and libraries and by the general public in both countries and around the world. It includes more than 70 items totaling some 11,737 images from the collections of the Library of Congress, the National Library of the Netherlands, and six other Dutch institutions that are cooperating with the National Library on the project: the Netherlands National Archives, the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam, the Plantage Library of the University of Amsterdam, and the National Maritime Museum.
Government Printing Office--United States Source: FCW The GPO Names New CIO From the article, Schweickhardt moves into the CIO slot from his former position as GPO's information resources management policy manager. As CIO, he will oversee the agency's developing infrastructure for the government's future digital information products and services.
Academic Libraries Source: The Pantagraph "Russian professor studying libraries" From the article, Anatoly Shabelskiy has been roaming Bloomington-Normal's [IL] libraries, but he's not as interested in what they have on the shelves as how those materials are arranged. Shabelskiy, an instructor at Vladimir Medical College in Vladimir, Russia, is visiting Bloomington-Normal to learn how American libraries systematize, organize, and classify information. He'll return to Russia, and use what he's learned to design a library at the college..."I'm very impressed by the people in the libraries here," Shabelskiy said. "Everybody wants to help you. In Russia, you ask for help and they just say, 'Go to the catalog!'"
Web Search--Overture Source: News.Com Overture Decides to Stop Selling Ads to Unlicensed Pharmacies From the article, Overture Services has stopped selling search-related advertising to unlicensed online pharmacies, in response to concern about illegal drug sales over the Internet. Overture, the commercial search subsidiary of Yahoo, said Tuesday that it filtered the last of its advertisements related to online pharmacies or pharmaceutical drug sales on Monday, and it notified advertisers over the weekend that it would cease selling the ads. Google is still deciding how to handle pharmacy-related advertising. From the article, Google's policy is to accept ads only from pharmacies that require customers to provide appropriate evidence of authorization, such as a doctor's prescription or consultation, before fulfilling orders. But the company has allowed advertisements for unlicensed pharmacies. See Also: National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites This is a searchable database. U.S. only.
Web Search--Microsoft Source: AP "Microsoft zeros in on Internet searching" Articles about what MS is up to are getting to be as frequent as press mentions about Google. From the article, Microsoft has its eyes set beyond mapping the World Wide Web. It is developing search-related technologies to do everything from sorting through digital photos to combing through items scattered on your desktop computers. The goal is to answer an information age-old problem -- how do you find what you're looking for? -- in a time when electronic information is becoming ever more dense. "If you have to struggle through looking for things in hundreds of different places, it's just going to be intolerable," said Susan Dumais, a Microsoft senior researcher who is developing a tool for rapidly finding material that users have seen -- regardless of whether it was an e-mail, Web site or document. Also, from the article, "And the more information there is out there, the more difficult it becomes to find rel |
