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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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Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Web Search--Google Source: Wired News Lawsuit: Google Stole Orkut Code "A small social-networking software company has filed suit against Google, claiming that much of the source code behind orkut.com, the search engine's popular social service, was stolen by a former engineer. In its lawsuit, Affinity Engines, based in Palo Alto, California, said engineer Orkut Buyukkokten illegally took the code that he had written for the company -- which he co-founded -- with him when he joined Google. Affinity Engines also claimed that Buyukkokten promised Affinity Engines that he wouldn't develop a competing social-network service for Google. Affinity Engines, which filed the claim on May 25 in Santa Clara Superior Court, is seeking unspecified damages and royalties." See Also: Dates and other info via the court docket.
Desktop Search Source: New Scientist Apple Previews Desktop Search Technology This area is making news on what seems like a daily basis. From the article, "The 'most revolutionary' feature of Tiger, according to [Steve] Jobs, is a new search tool, known as Spotlight. This fits into the desktop task bar and promises to let users search through various types of data, including email messages, address book entries, text documents and images in a fraction of a second. Spotlight can scour through more than 100,000 files in less a second. It achieves this by using special classifying information known as "metadata", which is automatically tagged to documents to provide a simple description." The author mentions Google's rumored product (will it be available for the Mac?) and the MS Longhorn technology but fails to note existing players like X1 and the recent Ask Jeeves acquisition of Tukaroo. UPDATED 7/1: Sun Microsystems has licensed the Watson search technology for desktop search. (via News.com)
Iraq--Internet Source: AP (via FindLaw) Iraqi Sovereignty Won't Extend to the Web "More than 240 places have their own two-letter Internet country codes, from '.ac' for Ascension Island to '.zw' for Zimbabwe. There's even '.ps' for the Palestinian territories. But the domain assigned to Iraq, '.iq,' is stuck in a strange bureaucratic limbo - the company that had administered it is under U.S. criminal indictment - and could remain there for months. As a result, if Iraq's government, national institutions or regular Iraqis want a Web site, they need to use international domains, such as '.com,' '.org' or '.net', which are maintained in the United States."
Web Search Briefs + Adios to AllTheWeb's URL Investigator Sad news. It appears that AllTheWeb's useful URL Investigator feature is no more. After many of ATW's special search features were removed a couple of months ago, URL Investigator remained online. However, we've just noticed that it's no longer working. URL Investigator was first launched in March 2003. -- + UJIKO Launches German Language Interface Here's the ResourceShelf 5/04 overview of this search resource from KartOO. The company is also touting faster response times on all interfaces (French, English, German). -- + Gigablast Reaches Half-Billion Page Mark Matt Wells has really cranked up his crawler. Kudos Matt!
Professional Reading Shelf Students--Research Source: Library Journal Columbia Study: University Students Gravitate to Electronic Resources From the article: "For a while, librarians and others in the scholarly community have been saying that college students often try Google first and may miss more serious sources available via the library or its web site. Now some statistics back that up. The Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia (EPIC), as part of a longer project on electronic resources, recently released the results of its study of 1,223 undergraduate and graduate students around the country, specializing in the fields of political science, international affairs or earth/environmental science. The results, which made the front page of the June 21 New York Times, led EPIC to point out the need to train students on how to evaluate resources, as well as the need to provide better access to full-text digital sources." Read the Executive Summary Read the study [PPT] See Also Gary's views on the article that appeared in the New York Times -- Libraries--Filtering Source: Managing Information American Library Association To Launch USA Patriot Study From the article: "The American Library Association (ALA) announced during its 2004 Annual Conference in Orlando (June 24 to 30) that it is seeking funding to conduct this fall an in-depth, longitudinal study of Law Enforcement Access to Library Records and Technology. The study seeks to make clear the extent to which a variety of law enforcement tools are used to gather data on individuals through their interaction with public and academic libraries in the wake of the USA PATRIOT Act." -- Intellectual Property--Digital Rights Management Microsoft Research DRM Talk Transcript of speech given by Cory Doctorow to Microsoft's Research Group on why digital rights management systems "don't work...are bad for society...are bad for business...are bad for artists...are a bad business move for Microsoft".
Briefly + Thomson Gale Announces Single Platform For Online Resources + ScienceDirect collection reaches 6 million full-text articles
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Glossaries--Employment and Compensation Two from the Bureau of Labor Statistics + BLS Glossary Definitions of labor and employment terms as used in BLS research and publications. + Glossary of Compensation Terms (PDF; 200 KB) Employee compensation terms with brief definitions. -- Education--Statistics--United States Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003 Summary ||| Fast Facts -- Small Business--United Kingdom Source: House of Commons Library New Report, Small Firms: Red Tape -- Alcohol and Tobacco--Taxation Source: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau Complete Industry Circular Archive Now Available Online From the site: "Due to popular demand we have made available all the Industry Circulars issued by TTB, the former Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and their predecessor agencies since the Internal Revenue Service's former Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division issued the first circular in 1954." Note - All industry circulars are in PDF format -- Terrorism--Information Technology Source: Institute for Security Studies (Dartmouth College) Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic Terrorist Groups "Discussions between law enforcement, the private sector, and academia revealed that there is a lack of authoritative unclassified materials concerning the use of cyber technology by Islamic terrorist groups. To meet this need, the Technical Analysis Group at the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College has prepared a report detailing how cyber technologies are exploited by these hostile groups. There is clear, factual evidence that Islamic terrorist groups are using information technologies to facilitate propaganda, recruitment and training, fundraising, communications, and targeting operations." Full Report (PDF; 3.17 MB) Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Internet--Pornography Supreme Court Keeps Net Porn Law on Ice Source: CNET "A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday barred prosecutors from filing criminal cases under a federal law designed to restrict Internet pornography, concluding that enforcement could violate Americans' free-speech rights.... The majority opinion...written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, suggested that a trial may show that filtering software was a more effective way of preventing children from seeing inappropriate material than relying on criminal laws that can't reach overseas." He did acknowledge the limitations of Internet filters. "'Filtering software is not a perfect solution to the problem of children gaining access to harmful-to-minors materials,' Kennedy wrote. 'It may block some materials that are not harmful to minors and fail to catch some that are.'" Read the decision [PDF]
Web Search--Google Several Google Officers and Directors File Documents with the Securties and Exchange Commission Late Monday, several Google execs and board members filed Form 3 (Initial Statement Of Beneficial Ownership Of Securities)with the SEC. It contains the number of shares (preferred stock, common stock, stock options) that these officers and directors will receive. Some of this was included in the IPO filing but a bit more detail in Monday's filings: + Sergey Brin + Larry Page + Eric Schmidt + Arthur Levinson + Omid Kordestani + Michael Moritz + Shriram Kavitark Ram + John Doerr + David Drummond + John Hennessy + Jonathan Rosenberg + Wayne Rosing + Shona Brown and in other Google News... A Company Google is in a Legal Dispute With (Digital Envoy) Receives a Patent (via News.com)
Government Information Source: The Center for Public Integrity Foreign Lobbyist Database Could Vanish "Responding to a recent Freedom of Information request from the Center for Public Integrity , the Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration Unit said it was unable to copy its records electronically because their computer system was 'so fragile.' In a letter, the head of the unit's Freedom of Information office said that simply attempting to make an electronic copy of the database 'could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating.' The database details millions of dollars spent on lobbying activities by foreign governments, companies, and foundations. Those activities include everything from wining and dining lawmakers to broadcasting issue ads on American television and radio stations." (via A.T)
Professional Reading Shelf Government Information Source: State Library of North Carolina, Access to State Government Information Work Group Access to State Government Information: Extended Annotated Bibliography Extensive annotated bibliography of online articles and documents covering access/search, digital libraries, government information, libraries, metadata, and preservation. -- Libraries--Public Access Computers Source: Computers in Libraries An Overview of Public Access Computer Software Management Tools for Libraries "I'm about to describe a representative sample of software tools in several important categories. This article does not attempt to address all programs in all software management categories because there are too many products to do that. I'll discuss specific products from specific vendors, but won't recommend any. You should do further research and make a purchase decision appropriate to your environment. Most of the software discussed in this article is available for testing prior to purchase. Some of the programs are free." By Richard Wayne, systems groups manager, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. -- Archives--United Kingdom Redesigned Web Site Launched by National Archives -- Archives--United States National Archives To Permanently Preserve Military Service Records -- Freedom of Information Conference Announcement, Freedom of Information Conference June 15th-17th 2005, Burleigh Court, Loughborough University UK "An International Conference on the two concepts that are linked in the term 'Freedom of Information', providing an opportunity to explore the dimensions of the relationship between the two, and explore their significance for theory and practice in the field of information and communications." -- Public Libraries--Delaware Source: The News Journal Delaware Libraries Offer Unequal Services "Because of their separate histories, the different ways they are governed and resulting differences in finances, the nearly half a million patrons of the state's 34 public libraries receive uneven levels of services depending on where they live and which library they use."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Iraq--Reconstruction Source: U.S. GAO Just released: Rebuilding Iraq: Resource, Security, Governance, Essential Services, and Oversight Issues (PDF; 3.74 MB) -- Legal Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The American Lawyer Just Released, The American Lawyer 100 "Top-grossing law firms in 2003." Article/Methodology ||| Top 10 ||| Top 100 (registration required, free) -- Internet--Voice over IP Source: Pew Internet & American Life New Report, One Quarter of Online Americans Have Heard of VOIP Telephone Service; About One in Eight are Considering Getting it at Home "While telephone calling using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has attracted considerable attention in the business community and among policymakers, 27% of Internet users in the United States - or 17% of all Americans - have heard of the service." -- Higher Education--United States--Statistics Source: NSF New Info Brief, Graduate Enrollment in Science and Engineering Fields Reaches New Peak; First-Time Enrollment of Foreign Students Declines -- E-Commerce--Privacy Source: Harvard Business School The Presentation of Self in the Information Age (PDF; 120 KB) Working paper "...explores how buyers assert or accept digital identities, and how they evade digital identification and surveillance in their interactions with sellers." See also: Web Marketers Get Personal (NYT) -- Homeland Security--United States Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors Mayors Measure Interoperable Communication Between Cities, Regions, States and the Federal Government From the Press Release: "The United States Conference of Mayors Homeland Security Monitoring Center today released its June 2004 Interoperability Report, which measures the reliability and effectiveness of communications systems between local city agencies and federal, regional, state and other local entities in responding to disasters. While the survey findings include encouraging data, it also reveals several local challenges, including funding, to communication." View the Report -- Air Travel Mobissimo We're always looking for the "perfect" online search tool for air fares. Here's a new beta. More on this one later. From the FAQ: "We search across the largest supplier base of any travel search engine on the Web. Our coverage includes travel agents such as Orbitz and Travelocity, consolidators such as Airfare.com and Onetravel.com, airlines such as United, American, and JetBlue, and international suppliers such as Zuji and eBookers." -- United States--Statistics--Education Source: U.S. Census Bureau Just Released - Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003 [PDF] See Also - Attached Tables [PDF] Monday, June 28, 2004
Search Engines--MSN Source: CNET Microsoft prepares for search assault From the article: "Microsoft plans to kick off a series of improvements to its search capabilities starting in July as it looks to compete with heavyweights Google and Yahoo, Bill Gates said Monday. Microsoft's chairman told a media briefing here that the company had 'several milestones with its search site' on the way. In July, the format of the site will change--and so will the quality of what you get--and the way it'll look is dramatically improved, Gates said. 'It'll be later this year that we actually roll out what's entirely our own back-end driving the search.' A mundane search task that needs improvement, Gates said, is a query about whether a given flight is on time. 'Generic Web search today is actually terrible for that, but we should be able to look at your query and say, "Hey, that's a flight number" and give a response that's basically just a direct answer to the question, not a list of random Web sites.'" Note: While we eagerly wait to see what MS is up to in the web search space, the example from Mr. Gates about entering an airline name and flight number is hardly "milestone." Yahoo and Google (Yahoo's seems to work better) have offered this service for nearly six months. Ask Jeeves has also been doing some very interesting things with their SmartSearch technology. In many cases, a trigger word isn't needed and the result appears directly at the top of the results list. See Also: A bit more in this News.com article
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--Intellectual Freedom Source: Orlando Sentinel Librarians Weigh Liberties: We're Not Terror Police "A group of about 50 college librarians attending the American Library Association's annual convention met at the JW Marriott hotel in south Orange County on Sunday to figure out how to protect their patrons' privacy and still preserve national security." See also: Cognotes (daily updates from the ALA Annual Conference) -- Engineering Literature Source: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE Library Training and Support One-stop shopping for information on how to link to IEEE publications from your OPAC, journal e-mail alerts, graphics for library websites, promotional materials and tip sheets for users, shelf labels for IEEE collections, online training and classroom training schedules. -- Public Libraries--Overdues Source: USA Today Debt Collectors Go After Overdue Books "As public libraries face declining or static funding and rising costs for books, a growing number are turning to stronger tactics to track down overdue material. Ignore the traditional overdue notice, and you may hear from a debt-collection agency." -- Digital Archives--United Kingdom--British Library Source: ZDNet/UK British Library Plans to Archive Whole UK Web "The British Library is starting the first phase of a project that may eventually lead to it archiving all UK Web sites." Additional info in this announcement from the BL. -- Public Libraries--Popular Books Source: Christian Science Monitor Libraries Reveal Their Favorites "This month, Library Journal has devised a survey of what Americans might actually be reading. Their new 'bestsellers' list records the most borrowed and requested books at hundreds of public libraries - from a bookmobile in rural Washington State to branch libraries in New York City." See: Check It Out! The Most Popular Library Books in America (PDF; 32 KB) -- Libraries--Budgets Source: Association of Research Libraries Libraries Investing in the Future First--Some Practical Suggestions From the article: "This essay offers some practical suggestions for implementing transformative strategies for libraries, with a focus on using the materials budget as an investment fund. To ensure that mediocrity does not become an ever more apt description of our collections, and to meet the needs of present and future users, libraries must move transitioning and transformative options to the top of the priority list. These options look expensive only if judged against the marginal increases in our materials budget--if weighted more correctly, as an amount judged in the context of the total costs of research collections, they loom less large."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Drugs--Statistics Source: United Nations/UNDOC New Report, Just Released, 2004 World Drug Report on a related note... The Federal Research Division at the Library of Congress has just placed online a 12/2003 report, Marijuana Availability in the United States and Its Territories -- Traffic Safety--United States Source: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety The Safety Impact of Vehicle-Related Road Debris (PDF; 1.93 MB) From press release: "According to new research released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, vehicle parts, cargo, or other material that has been unintentionally discharged from vehicles onto the roadway is estimated to cause over 25,000 crashes per year in North America resulting in approximately 80-90 fatalities.... A survey of road authorities in the U.S. and Canada on maintenance practices found the three most prevalent forms of VRRD include tire treads, garbage from waste haulers, and lumber and construction materials." See also: Fact Sheet || Slide Show -- Military Rank Insignia and Decorations A compilation of resources: + Why Is the Colonel Called "Kernal"? -- The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the United States Armed Forces (classic) + Understanding Military Rank + Insignia: The Way You Tell Who's Who in the Military + United States Military: Rank Insignia + United States Military: Ribbons and Awards + Rank Insignia of the World + Rank Maven: World Rank Insignia Links -- Languages--Washington, D.C. Source: The Brookings Institution Polyglot Washington: Language Needs and Abilities in the Nation's Capital "An analysis of language use and English-speaking ability in the Washington metropolitan area reveals that: Twenty-one percent of the Washington metropolitan region's population communicates in non-English languages at home, while in the District 17 percent of residents report speaking a language other than English at home. Regionwide, more than 100 languages are spoken." Full Report (PDF; 237 KB) -- Marriage--United States Source: National Marriage Project (Rutgers University) The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America 2004 "This year's feature essay, 'The Marrying Kind,' reviews the results of a national survey of young men 25 to 34, looking at the characteristics of the men who marry and those who don't. The report also includes updates of the social indicators of marriage, divorce, cohabitation, child wellbeing, and teen attitudes." Also available in PDF (400 KB). See also: Survey: Married men have more money, sex (Chicago Sun-Times) -- Business--Reading Lists Source: Knowledge@Emory Great Summer Reading Finds "With summer just beginning to heat up, there's plenty of time to relax and read a good book. Faculty members from Emory University and its Goizueta Business School, along with our savvy readers, offer up a list of books that are educational yet entertaining enough to take along on your next getaway."
Briefly + Associated Press and Convera Ink Search Deal + TLC Partners with Endeca Technologies, Inc. + ProQuest To Distribute NewspaperDirect Products ||| Announce Institutional Repository Product Sunday, June 27, 2004
Weekend Local Database Roundup Maine Launches Energy Information Web site Source: Gov Tech From the article: "Maine Gov. John E. Baldacci today launched the state's new energy information Web site. (www.Mainenergyinfo.com) The Web site is a convenient resource for all questions about energy, including how to save energy and money through conservation and efficiency, and how to shop for energy products. The new Web site is a project of Maine's nine member Energy Resources Council and InforME, the e-government Web portal for Maine." -- Hoosiers get free software online Source: CNET From the article: "Indiana this week launched a program to provide residents free access to a set of online office applications. SimIndiana software is designed to let residents use any computer to access personal files and software stored on a remote server. The applications include e-mail, file management, file and group sharing, and remote printing. Residents can also download tools for word processing, making spreadsheets, and managing calendars and contacts. The package is available at the state's official Web site. State agencies like the Indiana Public Library and the Department of Workforce Development will help people use the software from their public access terminals." and speaking of free software... The Best Free Software Source: PC Magazine From the article: "Though it may seem like their numbers are dwindling, Windows software developers who know the true meaning of free still exist. They produce a wide range of full-featured products--system utilities, office applications, image editors, security and privacy tools, and many other programs--that cost you no money, save you time, and in many cases perform their tasks more simply and efficiently than some bloated, commercial counterparts. These 70 tools represent some of the finest truly free, truly useful applications on the planet. And if that isn't enough, we've listed 24 Web sites where you can find more free stuff." Even more freeware in this post.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Securities and Exchange Commission Source: SEC SEC Staff to Publicly Release Comment Letters and Responses From the press release: "The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission today announced its position regarding the release of comment letters and filer responses relating to disclosure filings reviewed by the Division of Corporation Finance and the Division of Investment Management. In recent months, an increasing number of our comment letters and filer responses to them are being released publicly through the FOIA process, but only to those persons who make FOIA requests for them. We believe it is appropriate to expand the transparency of the comment process so that this information is available to a broader audience, free of charge. We intend to do this through the Commission's Public Dissemination Service and on our website at www.sec.gov (EDGAR data on the SEC Public Website). Public access to this correspondence will no longer require a FOIA request." -- Electric Programs--United States--Directories Source: USDA Rural Utilities Service Electric Program Borrower Directory Directory of Rural Utilities Service electric borrowers (e.g., cooperatives), with contact information and website links for each. Organized by state. -- Telemarketing--United States--Statistics Source: Federal Trade Commission National Do Not Call Registry Celebrates One-Year Anniversary "Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the National Do Not Call Registry launch, the Federal Trade Commission today released updated Do Not Call registration and complaint figures. As of June 18, 2004, consumers registered 62 million phone numbers and had reported just 428,000 possible violations. About 200 companies had more than 100 consumer complaints filed against them." See report, with graphics: Do Not Call Registry Complaints = 428,764 -- October 11, 2003 - June 18, 2004 (PDF; 44 KB) -- Public Companies--United States--Rankings Source: Fortune Magazine America's Fastest-Growing Small Public Companies From the Introduction: "Oil is out, tech is back, and health care dominates this year's list of America's fastest-growing small public companies." (As noted by Trip Wyckoff of Special Issues, this list actually emanates from Fortune Small Business.) See Also - The full list See Also - 25 Richest Executives Saturday, June 26, 2004
Education--Databases ERIC Posts More Info About Upcoming Services, More than 105,000 Full Text ERIC Documents Coming October 1st A bunch of new info on the ERIC.doe.gov site today. "The redesigned system opening to the public on September 1 will provide users with increased search capabilities utilizing simple, streamlined retrieval methods to access the existing ERIC bibliographic database (1966-2004). For example, users will be able to quickly refine search results through the use of the ERIC thesaurus, ERIC identifiers, or a list of electronically harvested concepts. In addition, popular search features such as 'show more documents like this one' and "save my searches" will also be available." "On October 1, 2004, ERIC will introduce, for the first time, free-of-charge full-text non-journal ERIC resources. These materials include more than 105,000 full-text documents authorized for electronic ERIC distribution during 1993 - July 2004, previously sold through E*Subscribe from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS, which also sells the ERIC microfiche, is scheduled to shut down operations on September 30, 2004." "In December, ERIC will add new bibliographic records and full-text journal and non-journal resources from 2004. Newly indexed materials that are not available free-of-charge will be made accessible through database links to commercial sources. ERIC will continue to add features and enhancements in 2005."
Professional Reading Shelf Health Research Source: National Library of Medicine International Agreement to Expand PubMed Central From the Press Release: "Additional medical journals, some dating back more than 125 years will be made freely available on the Internet. The Wellcome Trust, in partnership with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) are joining forces to digitize the complete backfiles of a number of important and historically significant medical journals. The digitized content will be made freely available on the Internet via PubMed Central and augment the content already available there." See Also: Medical Journals Backfiles Digitization Project
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Health Research Source: National Library of Medicine American Indian Health: A New National Library of Medicine Web Site From the Press Release: "The National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, announces a new Web site to address the health concerns of the 4 million Americans who claim American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry. The site, 'American Indian Health,' is at http://americanindianhealth.nlm.nih.gov. Because special populations have different health needs, the Library has created several specialized sites, for example, for Asian Americans, those living in the Arctic and far north, senior citizens, and Spanish-speaking Americans. (These are all available from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases.)" -- Web Search Source: ALA Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher "Tired of endless lists of Web search tools that give you no guidance as to which ones to use? Or that were last updated when Gophers were alive? I'm inviting you to look over my shoulder and use what I use every day for Web searching in an academic library. I keep up with this stuff so you don't have to!" By Pat Ensor -- updated and definitely worth a browse. -- Trademarks--United States Trademark Office Official Gazette Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office "(W)eekly publication of marks published for opposition & registration certificate." Available in PDF format. "The Official Gazette - Trademarks is being made available in electronic form for the most recent five issues. The electronic version of the Trademark Official Gazette does not contain Patent and Trademark Office Notices. Patent and Trademark Office Notices can be found at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/og/index.html." See also: Glossary -- "an alphabetized, hyperlinked glossary of terms used on the USPTO web site"
Citation Analysis Scholarly Publishing Source: ISI + Journals Ranked by Impact: Chemical Engineering + Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 See Also: Several Open Access Journals Get Impact Factors from ISI Friday, June 25, 2004
Web Search Source:Reuters California Man Indicted on Click Fraud Software Scheme " A California man was arraigned on Thursday on federal extortion and wire fraud charges arising from a software program he claimed could allow spammers to defraud Web search company Google Inc. of millions of dollars, federal prosecutors said." This article might also be of interest, India's Secret Army of Online Ad 'Clickers' (via The Times of India). From the article, "Here's how it works: online advertisers in developed markets agree to pay hosting website each time an ad is clicked. With performance-based deals becoming dominant on the Internet, intermediaries have sprung up to 'do the needful'. Why, type in 'earn rupees clicking ads' in Google — you get 25,000 results." See Also: Click Fraud: The Google Killer (via WebPro News)
Professional Reading Shelf Information Science Source: American Society for Information Science and Technolog The June/July Issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is Now Available Articles include: + Museum Informatics: Collections, People, Access, Use Becoming Digital + Beyond the Gallery Walls: Tools and Methods for Leading End-Users to Collection Information + The Evolving Roles of Information Professionals in Museums + Museum Information Professionals as Providers and Users of Online Resources -- Web Preservation--United States Source: Federal Computer Week A Crisis for Web Preservation "The Federal Depository Library Program has fallen behind in cataloging and preserving access to government documents published only on the Web. As a result, public access to those publications is spotty at best." See also: Crawling for Content -- URLS Source: Darwin Magazine The Legend of Lost Links "The many issues associated with reliable electronic access to mission critical information are numerous, but the problem of missing and changing URL addresses present a unique problem. It's been documented time and again throughout the various technology and information journals, but still has no apparent solution on the horizon." Thanks to Shelf Life for the link. -- Scholarly Publishing Source: Library Journal Elsevier Articles Can Be Posted On Personal/Institutional Sites From the article, "Reed Elsevier will allow authors who submit articles for publication in its STM journals to make the research freely available on their personal or institutional web sites. Papers can appear on such sites, in their final versions as accepted by the journal, before publication in Elsevier titles. However, authors are still prohibited from putting links to their articles from centralized databases. Said Arie Jongejan, CEO, science and technology, Elsevier, 'Several years ago, we supported the development of pre-print servers by deciding papers posted to such servers would not be viewed as 'prior submissions.' Furthermore, following Elsevier's publication of papers, we have not required the removal of pre-print versions from pre-print servers. But we have gone even further than that: for several years we have permitted authors to post their final version as accepted on secure, internal institutional networks. Today, we have taken an important step, which demonstrates our continued support for scholarly communications.'" -- Digital Rights Management--United Kingdom Source: JISC New Report: Digital Rights Management Study Interim Report, 10 June 2004
Search Engines--Legal Issues Web Search--Google Source: Chilling Effects A Selection of Cease and Desist Notices Recently Filed with Google + Game Site Wants Competitor Removed from Google's Listings + Travel Info Site Wants Alleged Infringer Delisted from Google + Bond Consultant Asks Google to Delist Competitor + Perfect 10 Wants Alleged Infringers Removed From Google
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents E-Learning Source: The Learning Alliance for Higher Education Thwarted Innovation: What Happened to e-learning and Why From the site: "A major new study from the University of Pennsylvania answers the question: "Why did the boom in e-learning go bust?" Read the report [PDF] -- RFID Source: National Retail Federation RFID Resource Center Links, news, and reports. -- Aviation Industry Airports Must Act Now to Meet Growing Demand for Air Travel Source: U.S. Department of Transportation From the Press Release: "U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta today released a new study predicting which airports and communities will need to expand their capacity by the year 2020. Speaking at a news conference in Atlanta, the Secretary said airports in growing cities like Las Vegas, Tucson, Albuquerque, Birmingham and Palm Beach will need to expand their ability to handle more air passengers over the next 16 years. He also listed dozens of projects underway to meet that growing demand for air travel, and urged more communities to get involved now in the push to add capacity." Read the Report Map: Airport and Metro Areas That Need Additional Capacity by 2013 Map: Airport and Metro Areas That Need Additional Capacity by 2020 -- Cancer--United States--Statistics Source: National Cancer Institute/CDC Just Released, Number of Cancer Survivors Growing From the Press Release: "There are 9.8 million cancer survivors in the United States, according to a new report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). A cancer survivor is defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the balance of his or her life. The findings are published in the June 25 issue of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 'Cancer Survivorship - United States, 1971 - 2001.'" Read the Report
Web Search--Yahoo Yahoo Adds Search Term Suggestions/Refinements Oops, we missed this one. Yahoo is now offering search term refinements on results pages. You'll find the suggestions labeled "Also try" the top of the page. Clicking these links will run a new search. More suggestions are often available by clicking the "more" and/or "show all" links. On 6/11 we mentioned that AllTheWeb is now offering search term suggestions.
Web Search--Google Google's Flight Tracking Shortcut Just a brief note on something that I will admit is relatively minor. However, it also illustrates a lack of follow-through on Google's part to solve a simple problem. In January, Google launched a new shortcut allowing the searcher to enter an airline name and flight number into the search box and receive a direct link to one of two flight-tracking services. For example: United 121. The January post mentioned the fact that the shortcut did NOT work for several airlines, including two major carriers in Google's home state of California. Google was made aware of the problem (both via ResourceShelf and in an email I sent to a company spokesperson). I also mentioned it in a phone conversation I had with a software engineer. All of these people told me that they were aware of the situation and it would be fixed soon. Almost six months later the problem still exists. Google's air tracking shortcut still does not work for: + Southwest Airlines + Jet Blue + Air Tran + ATA + Spirit + Aloha Airlines + Many international carriers See Also: Yahoo also Offers a Flight-Tracking Shortcut The shortcut DOES work for most of the airlines mentioned above. Thursday, June 24, 2004
Resources of the Week Two items. 1) Refugees--Searchable Database RefWorld Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) RefWorld is the content-rich nucleus of the recently updated UNHCR website. Available here is a collection of databases "containing Country of Origin Information (COI) and Legal Information (which) have been compiled by UNHCR and consist of carefully selected reports and documents." Select a country from the convenient drop-down menu to access all documents pertaining to that country on a single page, along with a picture of the flag and a few basic facts related to population, geography, languages spoken, etc. Choosing Iraq, for example, produces a comprehensive collection of links to full-text country reports (e.g., from Amnesty International, the U.S. Department of State, UK Home Office, etc.), events timelines, think tank papers and research briefs, as well as legal documents such as UN Resolutions, statutes and an interim constitution. Essentially, this is the online version of UNHRC's Refworld 2004 CD-ROM collection, which "has been referred to as a 'refugee encyclopedia' as it contains documents ranging from background country reports to legal position papers and guidelines." See Also: UNHCR Library & Visitors' Centre -- 2) Philosophy--Encyclopedias Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Source: Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University "The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is intended to serve as an authoritative reference work suitable for use by professionals and students in the field of philosophy, as well as by all others interested in authoritative discussions on philosophical topics." Founded in 1995, it currently offers "more than 500 entries in 35 subject areas, including philosophy of science, aesthetics, history of ideas, feminism, ethics (theoretical and applied), social and political philosophy, and logic," according to a press release from SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). This week SPARC stepped up to the plate to generate some financial support for this resource. Edward Zalta, its principal editor -- a research scholar at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information -- said in the press release that he expects the encyclopedia -- which is accessed roughly 300,000 times a week -- to grow to more than 700 entries by 2006. Browse the encyclopedia via an alphabetical abridged table of contents or do a simple keyword search from the same page. An extensive unabridged table of contents is also available. A few advanced search options, such as case sensitivity and partial match, are offered. A What's New page alerts you to the most recent three months' entries, or you can browse all of the entries chronologically, according to when they were published. According to the encyclopedia's Editorial Information page: "Contributions to the Encyclopedia are normally solicited by invitation from a member of the Board of Editors. However, qualified potential contributors may send a proposal to write on an Encyclopedia topic, along with a curriculum vitae, to an appropriate member of the Editorial Board."
E-Mail E-Mail/Storage Wars Continue With Announcements from Ask Jeeves and Microsoft No slowdown of news from this sector. + Ask Jeeves lets us know that their My Way (www.myway.com), Excite, and iWon portals will now provide 150MB of storage space. Excite Gold (their fee-based mail service. 19.99/year) will now offer 2GB of space. Jeeves acquired these sites when the company acquired Interactive Search Holdings in May. I have a few free e-mail accounts with My Way and have found that the service works well. Registration couldn't be easier. The new service will be available beginning in September. Ask Jeeves will also recycle more than 1 million email addresses to make them available to new users. + Microsoft has announced that their Hotmail service will offer 250MB of storage space for free. Its paid service ($19.95/year) will offer 2GB of storage space. + Yahoo! announced last week that they will provide 100MB for free. Their paid service ($19.95/year) will offer 2GB along with several other services. See Also: Lycos Europe Launches 1GB Email Service (5/23/2004)
Web Search--Eurekster Source: The Guardian Eurekster Mentioned in Newspaper Article I haven't found Eurekster to be of real value. Of course, that's just my opinion. Perhaps it's time to take another look. From the article, "Grant Ryan, Eurekster's chief executive, calls most search engines "all knowledge and no management" because everyone who searches gets the same results. That's only useful if everyone is looking for the same thing. Eurekster helps users pick people they expect to look for similar results."
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries and Librarians Source: IFLA Now Available, Full Text, Libraries @ the heart: of the Information Society Proceedings of the IFLA Pre-World Summit Conference, Geneva 3-4 November 2003. 130 pages; PDF. -- Information Industry--Europe Source: Managing Information European Online Information Market Grows 14% "A new report published by IRN Research, a leading information consultancy, values the European online information market at 2,799m pounds in 2003 showing growth of 14%." -- Reference Source: ALA/Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) -- Management and Operation User Services Section (MOUSS) Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Providers (final draft; MS Word; 92 KB) "The face of Reference Services has changed significantly since the original RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance were first published in 1996.... The original Guidelines dealt primarily with face-to-face interactions between Reference staff and library users. Even at the time, however, the world of Reference was moving beyond the traditional Reference Desk. Email and online chat services have since become popular with both patrons and library staff.... With this in mind, the original format has been rearranged to reflect the changes in our profession." -- Digital Preservation--Australia Source: National Library of Australia Collecting and Managing Web Resources for Long-Term Access : Web Harvesting and Guidelines to Support Preservation "A paper outlining the National Library of Australia's recent contributions to the advancement of understanding of international Web archiving issues, which is to be presented at the 70th IFLA Conference in August 2004. The NLA's work on web harvesting and the preservation of digital materials as part of its ICABS responsibilities are detailed, together with its involvement in the International Internet Preservation Consortium's (IIPC) Deep Web Working Group." Thanks to PADI for the link and annotation. -- Digitial Preservation--United Kingdom Source: JISC The National Archives (UK) Wins FirstDigital Preservation Award -- Special Collections Source: Library Journal + NYPL Receives Archive of Broadway Musical Greats + Cornell Gains Historic Native American Collection -- RSS/Syndication New Resource, RSS: Rich Site Services: General Bibliography Yet another wonderful new RSS resource from Gerry McKiernan at Iowa State. We recently featured two other new RSS resources that Gerry has created. Thanks to Library Stuff for the news tip.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Population--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Fastest Growing Cities in the United States + Summary Lists: + Top 10 fastest-growing large cities PDF ||| XLS + Population Estimates for the 25 Largest U.S. Cities based on July 1, 2003 Population Estimates PDF ||| XLS + Population Estimates for the 25 U.S. Cities with the Largest Numerical Increase from April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2003 PDF ||| XLS -- Health--Children Source: World Health Organization Just Released, Full Text, Inheriting the world: The atlas of children's health and the environment "Full-colour maps and graphics clearly demonstrate the threats that children face everywhere, and underscore the impact of poverty on children's health." -- Legal Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The American Lawyer Just Released, Diversity Scorecard 2004 Lists include: + The Most Diverse Firms + The Partnership Gap + Top Firms: African Americans + Top Firms: Asian Americans + Top Firms: Hispanic Americans -- Sudan Source: House of Commons Library New Full Text Research Paper, Sudan: conflict in Darfur 27 pages; PDF
Briefly + xrefer Adds More Content to Their Database, New Material from Gale and Merriam-Webster "xrefer will add a number of best-selling dictionaries and encyclopedias from Merriam-Webster. Thomson Gale will contribute several titles from such subject areas as law, music and criminal justice." Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Unstructured Data Source: Computerworld Text mining tools take on unstructured data Here's a great quote from the article, "'We are drowning in information but are starving for knowledge,' says Mani Shabrang, technical leader in research and development at Dow Chemical Co.'s business intelligence (BI) center in Midland, Mich. 'Information is only useful when it can be located and synthesized into knowledge.'" Companies mentioned: + Clear Forest + SAS Institute + SPSS + Megaputer Intelligence + Inxight*** Thanks to Unstruct.org and Intelligence-Center.com for the link. *** Both Highwire Publishing (in the browse section of their website) and the National Science Digital Library (a brand new visual "browse" option, cool!) use Inxight's Star Tree technology on their public web sites. LexisNexis also offers a Star Tree that allows you to visually browse their Directory of Online Sources See Also: What's coming for the Internet: Evolution (via GCN) This article reports on comments from Internet founding father, Vin Cerf. From the article, "The Internet will become a more transactional environment, with transactions taking place between companies and across industry segments, not just between customers and retail businesses. And search engines will continue to become more important as their ability to handle unstructured data improves."
eBooks--Lists & Rankings Source: OverDrive Top 10 eBooks Library Patrons Are Reading From the announcement: The "Most Borrowed eBooks" statistics are from checkout information of tens of thousands of titles for the first half of 2004. 1) Dude, Where's My Country? -- Michael Moore 2) The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People -- David Niven 3) The Low-Carb Comfort Food Cookbook -- Michael R. Eades, et al 4) The Big Bad Wolf -- James Patterson 5) How Would You Move Mount Fuji: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- William Poundstone 6) 3rd Degree -- James Patterson 7) The Lovely Bones -- Alice Sebold 8) 101 Best Tech Resumes -- Jay Block 9) Left Behind - Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins 10) 1984 -- George Orwell
Search Engines--Yahoo! Source: CNN Yahoo! launches 'Yisou' search portal "Yahoo! Inc. launched a Chinese-language search portal on Monday, following Google's lead in maneuvering for a stronger foothold in one of the world's biggest Internet markets. The introduction of Yahoo!'s new Web site, http://www.yisou.com, follows Google's acquisition last week of a minority stake in Baidu.com Inc., China's biggest independent Internet search engine and one of Google's strongest rivals here."
Professional Reading Shelf Academic Libraries--United States Source: Daily Illini (University of Illinois) University holds epicenter for Slavic research From the article, "On the second floor of the main library lies one of the University's inconspicuous treasures - the Slavic and East European Library - but an attraction for 150 scholars participating in this year's Summer Research Lab on Russia and East Europe...Lynda Park, the assistant director of the Russian and East European Center, said the Slavic and East European collection, ranked as the third largest in the United States outside the Library of Congress and Harvard, contains 'such a unique collection that it attracts scholars from all over the world.' 'Our library is much easier to use (than the Library of Congress and Harvard library),' she said. The Slavic Reference Service assists scholars and institutions with their research endeavors in a variety of ways, such as recommending sources for research and locating research material from the University collection or other libraries in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe." -- PATRIOT Act Source: ACLU PATRIOT Act/Section 215 New Documents (obtained via FOIA Request) From an ALA news release, "Just-released Federal Bureau of Investigation documents indicate that the FBI sought to use Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act less than one month after Attorney General John Ashcroft told American Library Association (ALA) President Carla Hayden and the American public that this power had never been used. The records, turned over to the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) and other First Amendment organizations, do not indicate how many times the FBI has invoked Section 215 since October 2003." -- Search Tools--Open Source Source: SearchTools.com New Overview: DataparkSearch Search guru Avi Rappaport has added an overview of this free open source search engine to her wonderful SearchTools.com site. and speaking of DataParkSearch... ResearchBuzz Offers an Overiew of a News Search Tool using this Technology -- Directories--Telephone--United States Source: AP, via FindLaw Westerners Shun Listed Phone Numbers "Slightly more than a third of Americans nationwide have unlisted home numbers, but in California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington, about half the people choose not be listed in phone directories." Map shows percentage of unlisted phone numbers for each state.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Iraq--Documents in the News Source: The Washington Post & Findlaw The Washington Post Makes Available Full Text Copies of Bush Administration Documents Released Yesterday "The following is a summary of White House, Pentagon and Justice Department documents about interrogation policies. The documents were released by the Bush administration on June 22." -- Online Freedom Internet Under Surveillance : Roundup for 2004 Source: Reporters Without Borders From the Press Release: "Reporters Without Borders has published its annual report on the state of online freedom in more than 60 countries - The Internet Under Surveillance." Read the Full Report -- Air Cargo Industry--Statistics Source: BTS New Report, Freight Shipments in America Announcement/Industry Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full Text -- Fires--United States--Statistics Source: FEMA New Report, Nightclub Fires in 2000 "The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued a special report today, part of its Topical Fire Research Series, examining the incidence of nightclub fires in the U.S. and the characteristics that may make these relatively rare fires so potentially deadly." Summary ||| Direct to Full Text See Also: Other Reports in this Series -- Congress--United States Source: Congressional Research Service Black Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2004 -- Same-Sex Marriage--United States Source: Congressional Budget Office Just Released, Full Text: The Potential Budgetary Impact of Recognizing Same-Sex Marriages See Also: Background/Comment in this Article (via GFN) -- Language Source: National Taxpayers Union Foundation New, Policy Paper, The Orwellian Language of Big Government From the paper: "A word or phrase is "Orwellian" when it is impenetrably obtuse or even oxymoronic. Objective truth is eroded by the endless blowing of windy rhetoric. Reality is then constructed to suit the needs of the moment...Listed below are examples of Orwellian words and phrases that proliferate in virtually every policy area of our deliberately dumbed-down democracy." -- Olympics Source: Librarians' Index to the Internet New, LII Theme Collection: The Olympic Games See Also: We just linked to several new satellite images of venues.
A New ResourceShelf Beta As I've mentioned on several occasions asking Shirl, Dan, and Steven to become part of ResourceShelf was one good (if I may say so) idea. Their contributions are superb. We have so much more content coming into the mix. We've heard from many of you that one of your favorite features on ResourceShelf is the daily list of new full text reports found in the "Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents" section. If we added each and every new report we come across, the ResourceShelf site would become an incredibly long document each day. As you know, new documents are just one portion of the ResourceShelf site. So, we're going to experiment with a new "spillover" site. It's called DocuTicker. After new reports from governments, think tanks, and other groups are selected for linking on the main ResourceShelf, we'll post additional content on DocuTicker. We hope you'll stop by and take a look. Oh yes, how could I forget, Docuticker is a Beta and will undergo many changes as we move forward. Shirl, Dan, Steven and I hope you find it useful. Our XML feed is at: http://www.resourceshelf.com/docuticker/feed/atom.xml
Briefly + ebrary Opens Up Access to APIs -- + Ontario Government Now Using FAST Search and Transfer ESP Technology -- + News from Verity and Recommind Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Online Research Source: eMarketer Flawed Online Searches Cost Businesses $31 Billion Last Year Like we mention on a regular basis, it's all about having knowledge about and access to the best research tool (online/print/free/fee-based) at the right time. It's also about having the skills to exploit these resources (and building a good query) at a more than "two words and click" level. This is especially true with consumer web engines. If you're going to be a "web engine only" searcher (aka Googleaholic) it's important to learn how to take full advantage of what it and other general engines can do. Teaching these skills is yet another role for the info pro. From the announcement, "According to a survey released by FIND/SVP, 84% of business executives feel that Web searches -- using the generally consumer-centric search engines now available --take longer than they should due to poor results. It is estimated that the loss of productive time using search engines to conduct online research cost businesses $31 billion last year." See Also: Full Text, White Paper from Factiva, Just Updated, Free, Fee-Based and Value-Added Information Services "Considers the quality, availability and value of information on free Web sites, fee-based Web sites and value-added information services, such as Factiva." The paper (registration required) was written by online search expert and librarian Mary Ellen Bates.
Information Industry--BioMed Central Biomed Central Launches PeoplesArchive Fee-based service but for the moment access is free. "PeoplesArchive is a new video archive of the great thinkers and creators of our time. Subscriptions are available for individuals and institutions via the website." A bit more from the site, "PeoplesArchive is dedicated to collecting for posterity the stories of the great thinkers and creators of our time. Biologists or filmmakers, physicists or craftsmen, the people whose stories you see on this site are leaders of their field, whose work has influenced and changed our world." You'll need to have QuickTime 6 on your system." More on this one in the future.
Research Tools Mac Users: Gurunet Releases Client for OS X Gurunet, the useful and inexpensive ready-reference tool now has a client for Mac users. From the announcement, "Due to popular demand, we've released our first product for the Mac! GuruNet for Mac OS X allows you to 'activate' any word on your screen (select and hold Command+Option+G) to get instant facts on any word on your screen. (Requires OS X 10.2 and higher, and Safari must be installed)." See Also: More About Gurunet in this March 2004 Post See Also: Gurunet Files for IPO
Professional Reading Shelf American Library Association ALA Offices Hit By Internet Virus Not good news. "On Friday, June 18th, ALA's Chicago office was hit by the Korgo.L virus. The virus flooded our network connections and rendered the network useless." -- Digital Object Identifiers Source: Information Economics Journal Full Text article, Digital Object Identifiers From a summary, "The June issue of Butler Group's 'Information Economics Journal' contains an article written by Robin Wilson, Director of Digital Identifier and Metadata Services at TSO [UK]. Headlined 'DOI: a bar code for digital information', Robin explains how this new method of classifying digital information will change the way people use the Net. He points out that the widespread use of the Internet has lead to an insatiable demand for globally held information. In this environment, Internet communities are struggling to overcome difficulties in locating and connecting information." -- Search Engines Source: Penn St. Live Web searchers don't tune in with radio buttons "Web searchers could more easily zero in on relevant images, audio clips and video files if consumers made use of radio buttons, a technology literally at their fingertips, a Penn State researcher has reported. 'This is a technology innovation that simplifies and improves multimedia searching, but our research shows that very few people use it,' said Jim Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. 'Consumers just haven't caught on.'" -- U.S. Constitution Source: First Amendment Center / Freedom Forum First Amendment Library "This online library aspires to become the nation's preeminent clearinghouse for information concerning the five freedoms - speech, press, assembly, petition and religion - guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution. To that end, a vast array of judicial, legislative, historical, analytical, journalistic, editorial and other materials have been collected, organized and presented, free of charge, to all users of the First Amendment Center's Web site." All material searchable. -- Digital Divide Source: Digital Media Europe UN launches new intiative to bridge digital divide
Congressional Research Service Source: CRS via Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Univ. of Maryland Two New Topical Archives of Congressional Research Service Reports Now Available "The Thurgood Marshall Law Library of the University of Maryland School of Law is proud to announce the availability of two free topical archives of Congressional Research Service reports on the web." Great stuff. One caveat, CRS reports are constantly updated, the copies available here might not be the most current. + Health Law & Policy + Terrorism & Homeland Security More than 150 reports are available in these collections. See Also: View the Complete Collection of CRS Materials Available via the TMLL.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Terrorism--Statistics Source: U.S. Dept of State New, Corrections to 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism Report Released "A review of the 2003 edition of "Patterns of Global Terrorism" determined that the data in the report was incomplete and in some cases incorrect. The corrected Year in Review, Appendix A, and Appendix G have now been posted. Numbers in the text, specifically numbers of killed and wounded, will be revised to reflect to corrected Appendices." See Also: Bad data forces changes in terrorism report (via FCW) -- Business--Lists & Rankings Source: Nelson Now Available, World's Best Money Managers (Q1 2004) Registration (free) is required to access. -- Bankruptcy--United States--Statistics Source: American Bankruptcy Institute Just Released, Personal Bankruptcy Filings Doubled In Last Decade As Consumer Debt Reached Record Levels From the Press Release: "There was one bankruptcy filed for every 73 U.S. households during calendar year 2003, up 49 percent from the 144 U.S. households per bankruptcy filing in 1993, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Personal bankruptcies peaked in 2003, when a record 1,625,208 cases were filed, nearly double the 812,898 filings in 1993." Households Per Filing Rank - Chart Influence of total consumer debt on bankruptcy filings - Chart [PDF] -- Military--United States Source: The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military/Univ. of California Santa Barbara Just Released, New Data Reveal Extensive Talent Loss Under Don't Ask, Don't Tell From the Press Release: "In the wake of last week's Senate vote authorizing the Army to add 20,000 new soldiers, newly available data provide fresh details about many of the 9,682 service members discharged for homosexuality under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy." Access the data -- Advertising Source: Arbitron, Inc Just Released, Airport Advertising Reaches Upscale Consumers According to New Arbitron Study From the Press Release: "Airport advertising is a highly effective medium for reaching upscale Americans, according to a new study by Arbitron Inc. According to The Arbitron Airport Advertising Study: Exploring an Undiscovered Upscale Medium, the reach of airports is significant, with 92 million Americans having flown in the past year. Eighteen percent of this group, or 17 million people, are Frequent Flyers who are affluent, well-educated and sophisticated consumers who take four or more flights per year and account for nearly 60 percent of all airport advertising impressions." Read the Report [PDF]
Web Search--Google Source: AP Merrill Lynch Backs Out of Google IPO From the article, "Merrill Lynch & Co., the nation's largest retail brokerage, dropped out of the list of underwriters taking part in the upcoming $2.7 billion initial public offering of Google Inc., mostly out of concern that the fees it would generate wouldn't be worth it." More from Stefanie Olson on News.com.
Briefly + ProQuest Expands Collection of McClatchy Newspapers + Thomson Gale and xrefer Form Strategic Partnership Monday, June 21, 2004
Web Search--Ask Jeeves Source: Search Engine Watch New Smart Search and Page Preview Features at Jeeves You can learn more about the changes in an article that GP has written for SearchDay. See Also: ResourceShelf Has a List of More Smart Search Shortcuts
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries Source: The New York Times Old Search Engine, the Library, Tries to Fit Into a Google World I chatted for some time with the writer of this article but didn't make the final cut. Oh well, that's the way it goes. A few comments: + From the article, "We can't pretend people will go back to walking into a library and talking to a reference librarian," said Kate Wittenberg, director of the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia University." I agree, but simply adding material to a general-purpose web database doesn't mean people will find what they're looking for. Why not also work to promote other REMOTELY ACCESSIBLE resources? Why can't our community work together to show people that the REACH of the library and LIBRARIAN extends beyond the four walls of the building. + The article gives the impression that "online information retrieval" began with web search engines. What a joke! It's been around for almost 40 years, and librarians have been users and developers of these tools since day one. Web engines didn't invent the idea. Don't take my word for it; here's a wonderful seven-part series of interviews from Searcher magazine with several online pioneers. More in this compilation of materials. + Several well-known librarian types have asked me where the profession was in 1998, 1999, 2000? Why weren't we out there from the beginning -- leading the charge by teaching, training, explaining as web search began to skyrocket? This is a great question. We know we're still relevant, but do the masses? What have we done to show them? + The presence of content in a general web database and finding that content in a timely manner are two totally separate things. + Here we go again with another headline about how libraries are search engines. One of the people quoted in the article, Dr. Joseph Janes, recently wrote an article in AL about how librarians ARE NOT search engines. ResourceShelf agreed with Dr. Janes' comments and argued that libraries are also not search engines. In an email message, Joe agreed with our comment. + For a recent presentation, I prepared this page. It contains search strategies that people used to query various general web engines and they ended up clicking on ResourceShelf. You'll see lots of wasted time, bad search strategies, and clicking to a page (this one) that has nothing to do with what they appeared to have been looking for. Sure, ResourceShelf contained all of the search terms on a single page, but just because all of the terms were there doesn't mean the page has anything to do with the query. I wonder if sometimes returning no results would be better than returning something of no value? I think these examples also illustrate the potential power of clustering and other mechanisms that would bring more "subject-like" access to web materials. Clustering would help with what Vivisimo calls "selective ignorance." + Just what business are Google and Yahoo in? Are they in business to meet the specific needs of the info and library communities? Please don't misunderstand -- they're good corporate citizens and do great work, but they have many constituencies to please. They also have to make money for their shareholders. + What is the library community doing to make people better searchers? Increasing database size increases recall and reduces precision. From the article, "We'll see the current generation we accuse of doing research in their pajamas develop highly sophisticated searching strategies to find high quality information on the Web," Dr. Smith said. "It's this transition period we're in, when not all high-quality information is available on the Web. That's what we lament." Perhaps only time will tell. But what about TODAY and the high-quality information that IS available electronically without requiring a visit the library? Who is telling the public and the academic community what is already available digitally and how best to use it? Are we helping people save time accessing it? Should companies like ProQuest, Factiva, and LexisNexis just pack it in and simply dump all of their content into Google and Yahoo? Nope, I still believe that the need for specialized databases, both free and fee, will grow. + To be honest, I see a day when digital material (of course, as Dr. Janes points out, it's not all going to be digitized) will be searched with meta/federated search technologies. The user will pick from a variety of databases (just as we currently buy and select books), and have the technology search them, remove duplicate materials and merge the results into a set with links to the full text. This, coupled with improving personalization, will make for a powerful tool. + For certain types of "ready reference queries," search tools will become more "answer engines" than search engines. The library community should be working with companies like Google, Jeeves and Yahoo to help build these products. + The definition of the deep web/invisible web are a bit "off" in the article. Some of what was once invisible is now being crawled, including static web pages served from databases. Of course, massive amounts of deep/invisible material still exisit. However, someone once said to me after a presentation that the invisible/deep web is everything not on the first page of results. And you know what? That person is correct. A very perceptive comment. Finally, I'll share a few interesting comments from well-known tech writer Walt Mossberg, in a review of an "answer engine," Gurunet, about 15 months ago. Although his comments are specifically about Google, the limitations he's talking about apply to most general web engines. Mossberg writes: + "But as brilliant as Google is, this process has several limitations. First of all, in most cases Google doesn't actually provide you an answer, just a list |
